USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 3 > Part 11
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Dr. Holmes was graduated from Bowdoin Col- lege in 1875. ranking third in his class, and being rated as one of the most able men in college. He devoted a great part of his time to literature, and educated himself to such a degree that he was able
to repeat long quotations from Greek and Latin authors, and from famous authors in other tongues. After leaving college he spent one year in Calais with Dr. C. E. Swan, who had been a partner of his father. Young Holmes was so well fitted for the study of medicine that he entered the second- year class of the Harvard Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1879. From 1878 to 1880 he was connected with the Boston City Hos- pital, for six months as "medical externe," and for one year as "surgical interne" and house surgeon. He was one of the leading men in his class at the Harvard Medical School, and was graduated with distinguished honors, securing coveted prizes and displaying ability far beyond his years. He came to Waterbury in March, 1880, and in November of the same year formed a partnership with Dr. Gideon L. Platt, whose daughter he subsequently married. Dr. Holmes at once assumed a high place in the com- munity, at first having much to do with the prac- tice of Dr. Platt, but gradually acquiring a large clientele of his own, and becoming one of the lead- ing physicians of Waterbury.
The Doctor's interest in literature did not be- come absorbed in his professional work, as the fol- lowing little anecdote will show: He had secured a valuable copy of a work by Lucian. a celebrated Greek satirist and humorist who flourished about 120 to 200 A. D. He was an ardent Greek and Latin scholar, reading the latter language as easily as English, and as his beloved Lucian was printed with alternate pages of Latin and Greek, he used to cover the Latin pages with a paper, in order that he would study it out for himself in the Greek rather than have recourse to the easier Latin. Once, when reading this Lucian, he came across a passage so ambiguous in form that he felt he was unable to translate it satisfactorily. He consulted a local scholar, who was obliged to admit his inability to help him, but referred him to a prominent Greek instructor at Yale. Dr. Holmes wrote to the latter, and received a reply stating that the passage re- ferred to was rendered obscure by a typographical error, and at the same time giving the correct read- ing, which was identical with that of the Doctor's, before he had sought assistance. His elation at the explanation may be easily imagined. Later the same Yale instructor made inquiries concerning his cor- respondent to find whether he was a young man in search of an instructorship, and was very much astonished to find that he was a very busy physi- cian, who found his recreation in the study of dead languages. Intellectually he was one of the ablest of men. and in addition to his phenomenal memory he possessed to a remarkable degree the ability to grasp instantly and to solve accurately difficult prob- lens. To these qualities was added a wealth of im- aginative power which would have enabled him, had he devoted himself to literature. to have created a name which would have been known wherever the English language is read.
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Walter H. Holmes
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
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On April 6, 1881, Dr. Holmes was married to Medora Caroline, only daughter of the late Dr. Gideon L. Platt, of Waterbury, who survives him. Dr. Holmes' health began to fail in 1892, and in 1894 he was compelled to give up his practice. He died Nov. 27. 1898. a sacrifice to his profession, his death resulting from blood poisoning by inoculation through a pricked finger during an operation on a patient. Dr. Holmes' charities were many and un- obtrusive. He freely gave his services and very often substantial offerings to the poor, and many a Waterbury family can testify as to his goodness in this respect. It is related of him that he kept in his office a supply of just the things that poor people might need in time of illness. He knew in such cases that every penny counted, and he often loaned the necessities of the needy. Occasionally his faith . in human nature was rudely shocked, and. at such times his distress was acute. He was honest to a fault, and expected others to be. While in college he was a member of the D. K. E. Greek Letter Societv. He was a member of the Waterbury Club, and of various medical societies. On philosophical and theological subjects he was an independent thinker, but throughout all intellectual vicissitudes remained faithful to the Unitarian faith-the faith of his childhood.
In the course of his remarks in the payment of the last sad rites to his friend and parishioner, Dr. Anderson said :
Dr. Holmes was a man worth knowing. a man whose friendship was well worth cultivating. To those who met him casually, or in the range of his practice as a physician. he may not have seemed so. but he was an exceptional man. His commanding stature represented a man tower- ing above the average in regard to mental characteristics and moral qualities. A man who is large physically chal- lenges the admiration of the best people. provided he is large in other ways. and all who knew Dr. Holmes recognized this quality of largeness in him. Here was a man of broad and rich nature. through whom the bounty .of God and the world flowed easily for nourishment and comfort. He was especially interesting to us as a man .of intelleet! In these days the successful pursuit of a profession necessitates almost exclusive devotion to pro- fessional routine. and this involves a narrowing process- so that the average lawyer is simply a lawyer. the elergy- man. simply a elergyman, and the physician. simply a physician. To be a thorough-going and busy practitioner and at the same time a broad and rounded and cultured man is by no means easy. It indicates early training on a broad basis; it indicates dominating tastes larger than the limits of a profession : it indicates fullness of manhood. It indicated all this in Dr. Holmes. There is nothing to suggest that he was not in love with the profession of medicine; but he seemed to view that profession in its relations to seience as a whole, yes, and in its relations to scholarship as a whole. He certainly possessed a scientifie cast of mind, but he was not in the least con- seious of that conflict between science and letters of which some have had so much to say. If he had the mind of a scientist, he had the tastes of a scholar. And so. for a few bright years, we had before us (not very common in this busy community) the spectacle of a man who combined in himself the utilitarian and the scholarly qualities, and showed us that it is possible, even yet. to do one's daily work well and earn an honest living, and at the same time be loyal to the intellectual and artistic
ideals of earlier days. In thinking of Dr. Holmes I find that the mental qualities merge into the spiritual, that his tastes were closely allied to virtues. In attempting an estimate of him, it would be more difficult than in most cases to confine one's self to any one department of his life. I shrink from processes of analysis on such occasions as this-even as I shrink from being analyzed myself- but I do wish to say a word concerning these deeper and more ecntral qualities of our friend's nature. I wish to say that he seemed to me a very genuine and sincere person, that he was exceptionally free from affectation and pretence, that his honesty was not simply commercial, but spiritual. It is not always that a man impresses you with being precisely what he seems to be; but that was true of him. This was not, however. the result of any blunt frankness on his part, such as some men take pride in: it was the product, rather, of a certain transparency of nature, the entire absence of duplicity. The impression of sincerity was not secured by the sacrifice of geniality and sweetness; his kindliness, on the contrary, was a constant and pervasive quality.
I have seldom met with a layman more ready to talk upon religious themes than he was, and his outspoken sincerity did not allow a moment's doubt in regard to the position he occupied. He came to us representing a type of Christian belief which is not common in Connecticut, and when, in an early interview, he told me that he was a Unitarian, he evidently feared that he might grieve me. But he could not think of holding anything back, and we were at once on terms of mutual consideration and amity. He was proud of his faith, as all Unitarians are. and could not hide his contempt for "obscure dogmas." but his attitude was not by any means merely critical ; it was receptive and friendly. His was a deeply religious nature. and whatever nourished his deeper life he welcomed, no matter from what source it came, or in what form it was offered him.
After speaking at length in regard to the Doc- tor's last illness, that tragedy of death in life, Dr. Anderson adds :
To those who were called to look on. whether day by day or at intervals. it must seem a mysterious thing that this noble man-this man of sweetness and charity- should have been led down, as he was, into a "valley of the shadow of death" more dreadful than Bunyan ever saw in vision, and held captive there so many years in fierce conflicts with spirits of evil: and it must seem all the more mysterious when we consider that his life-long training had been such as to leave no place in his normal mental processes for any thought of evil spirits. but rather to bring him face to face with divine benevolence. Let us think of him as swiftly emerging. on that tempestuous Sunday, from all the gloom and discord of these inex- plicable years, into the calmness and peace and felicity of those eleet souls who "after life's fitful fever" sleep well, and then awake with God.
At the close of his remarks Dr. Anderson re- peated Edwin Arnold's beautiful poem, "After Death," a favorite of Dr. Holmes':
He who died at Azan sends This to comfort faithful friends :
Faithful friends! It lies I know, Pale and white as cold as snow. And ye say, "Abdallah's dead!" Weeping at my feet and head.
I can see your falling tears. I can hear your cries and prayers,
Yet I smile and whisper this : "I am not that thing you kiss : Cease your tears and let it lic ; It was mine; it is not I."
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'Tis a tent which I am quitting, 'Tis a garment no more fitting, 'Tis a cage from which at last. Like a hawk my soul has passed. Love the inmate, not the room : The wearer, not the garb; the plume Of the falcon, not the bars Which kept him from the splendid stars.
Loving friends! be wise and dry Straightway every weeping eye ; What ye lift upon the bier Is not worth a wistful tear. 'Tis an empty seashell. one Out of which the pearl is gone. The shell is broken. it lies there:
The pearl, the all, the soul is here. 'Tis an earthen jar whose lid Allah sealed, the while it hid That treasure of His treasury. A mind which loved him; let it lie !
Let the shard be earth's once more, Since the gold shines in His store !
Farewell friends, yet not farewell, Where I am ye too shall dwell. I am gone before your face A heart-beat's time, a gray ant's pace. When ye come where I have stepped Ye will marvel why ye wept; Ye will know, by true love taught, That here is all, and there is naught.
Weep awhile, if ye are fain- Sunshine still must follow rain ! Only, not at death, for death (Now I see) is that first breath Which our souls draw when we enter Life that is of all life center.
Know ye Allah's love is law, Viewed from Allah's throne above. Be ye firm of trust, and come Faithful onward to your home!
He who died at Azan gave This to those who made his grave.
LEVI ODELL CHITTENDEN traces his an- cestry from William Chittenden, who came from England to New England in 1639, thence in the same year to Guilford, Conn. He was born in Kent, England, and married Joanna, daughter of Dr. Edmund Shaeffer, of Cranbrook, in Kent. A man of ability, he filled many important offices in the Colony.
Thomas Chittenden, son of William, was born in England, married Joanna Jordan, daughter of John Jordan, of Guilford, and died in 1683.
William Chittenden, son of Thomas, was mar- ried twice. He died in 1738.
William Chittenden, son of William, born in 1706, married (first) Rachel White, of Middle- town, and (second), Sarah Stevens. He died in 1786.
Jared Chittenden, son of William, born in 1734. married (first) Deborah Stone, of Guilford, and (second) Elizabeth Ward. daughter of Samuel Dudley, of Guilford. He lived in North Guilford,
and died there in 1824. His children were all born to his first marriage.
Deacon Levi Chittenden, son of Jared, born May 21, 1762, married Hannah Johnson, of Wall- ingford. They resided in North Guilford, where he died Nov. 11, 1835, at the age of seventy-three, his wife surviving ten years.
Jared Chauncey Chittenden, son of Deacon Levi. born Aug. 27. 1799, in 1825 married Rowena Barnes, of North Haven, born Nov. 27, 1806. They had six children. Mr. Chittenden resided in North Guilford, and died April 13, 1854, aged fifty-four. He engaged in cabinetmaking all his life, and was considered one of the most capable workmen in his locality. In politics he was a Whig. He was known as an honest and upright man, and although he died in the prime of life had exerted much in- fluence for good in his neighborhood, and was sin- cerely lamented.
Levi Odell Chittenden, son of Jared Chauncey, was born Sept. 28. 1844. and was but nine years of age when left to face the world deprived of a father's protection. His school days ended when he was ten years old, for at that time he endeavored to provide for himself by working on a farm, and then obtained a situation as clerk in the store of E. M. Fuld, in North Haven, where he remained until he was seventeen. In July, 1862, he came to Guilford and enlisted in Company I, 14th Regiment, under Col. Morris and Capt. I. R. Bronson, and served in the 2d Army Corps until March, 1863. participating in many engagements during that time. The exposure and deprivations of army life brought on troubles which caused his discharge for disability, after a serious illness in hospital at Har- per's Ferry and later at Frederick City, Md. Fol- lowing his return from the war, where he had done his duty as a soldier bravely, Mr. Chittenden en- tered the employ of R. S. Chittenden, of East River. as clerk in his store, and remained until 1877. Com- ing back to Guilford he entered a shop, and re- mained in that position for the succeeding ten years. He then took up the trade of carpenter and joiner, in which he became skillful, and for several years. he was considered one of the most reliable men in his line in the neighborhood. His work in this line was put aside when he entered the real estate office of William Sewarts. Later he accepted a po- sition on the Consolidated Railroad, as brakeman on passenger trains on the Shore Line, and con- tinued thus until 1890, when he accepted a position as engineer in the Spencer foundry, where for the past eleven years he has filled with efficiency this position of responsibility. His natural bent has been in this direction, and in such work ability like his is almost indispensable.
On Jan. 20, 1870, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Chittenden to Jeannette E. Hull, daughter of William A. and Mary ( Parmelee ) Hull, of Guil- ford. She died in 1888. On March 12, 1890, our subject contracted a second marriage, with Miss
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COMMEMORATIU'E BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Elizabeth Burr, who was born in Haddam, a daughter of Edward and Elizabeth ( Ladd) Burr, natives of Haddam, and both of old and prominent families of Middlesex county. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chittenden. Their home is the abode of hospitality and sociability. Mrs. Chittenden is a lady of many accomplishments and high culture, and is highly esteemed in Guilford. Mr. Chittenden is a member of the G. A. R., and past commander of the post in Guilford. and has held all the offices in that organization. In politics he is a Republican. He is assessor of the town and a member of the board of relief, and has taken an important part in all public undertakings. Both he and his wife are members of the Congregational Church. Mr. Chittenden owns much valuable prop- erty here, and the finest bowling alley in Guilford belongs to him.
As a soldier our subject won the respect and esteem of his comrades, as an employe of his em- ployers, and as a public official of his fellow citi- zens, and in every relation of life he has done well his part. Thrown upon his own resources at so tender an age, his success in life only emphasizes what honesty, persistent effort and courage will ac- complish.
WILLIAM J. FRANCIS (deceased) was born Oct. 11, 1832, a son of William and Emily ( Blakes- lee) Francis, and attended the schools in Walling- ford, his native town. Growing up on the old homestead, he remained at home until 1866, when he went to Meriden and entered the office of the Adams Express Co. At Meriden he was also em- ployed by the Britannia Co., and he remained in that city until 1875, in which year he came back to North Farms, Wallingford, settling on the farm where his father was born, adjoining the family homestead on which he was reared. There he spent the remainder of his industrious and honorable life. making many substantial improvements on the place, and, investing over $9,000 in bringing the farm up to modern ideas, soon had one of the most attractive country homes in the town. A general farmer and dairyman, he was a successful mana- ger and a good business man. Simple and unosten- tatious in his habits, he was devoted to his home and upright in his life. He was a member of the Grange, and much interested in everything that pertained to the progress of farming, and was an enterprising and thoughtful citizen. Mr. Francis died on his farm Dec. 4, 1895, and was buried in the Wallingford cemetery. He was a half brother of John Hall Francis.
LYMAN H. FRANCIS, son of William J., was born Feb. 1. 1S65, on the same farm as his father. In due time he attended the local district school. In 1884 he was graduated from the Yale Business Col- lege, and began his life work by assisting his fa- ther on the farm. A little later he went on the road as a traveling salesman for the Reed Fertil-
izer Co., of New York, and after his father's death he took charge of the family homestead, which con- sists of 110 acres. He has devoted the land very largely to market gardening, making many improve- ments to fit the changed line of work. In August, IS98, a great loss betell him in the destruction by fire of six farm buildings and a large crop of hay. Since that time he has built a fine barn, adapted to his business.
Mr. Francis was married, in Glastonbury, Conn., April 11, 1894, to Miss Lucy A. Talcott, a daugh- ter of George and Lucy Ann Talcott, who are both deceased. They have had two children, Walter Ly- man and Mildred Lucy. Mr. Francis belongs to Compass Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and with his wife belongs to the Grange; he was instrumental in the organization of the Grange at Kensington. In re- ligion Mrs. Francis is an Episcopalian, and he is not connected with any church, though a man of strong feeling and deep convictions as to the right and the true in daily living. A more complete his- tory of the Francis family appears in connection with the sketch of John Francis, elsewhere.
GEORGE T. BUSHNELL (deceased). The family of Bushnell, whose name is well known throughout the State of Connecticut, is of English descent, and a majority of the members of the branch to which Mr. George T. Bushnell belonged have been agriculturists. Both his parents were born and both lived and died in Saybrook, where he himself was born March 4, 1815.
Taylor P. Bushnell, his father, was a farmer, as well as a tanner and shoemaker. He served with courage and gallantry during the War of 1812, and prior to the formation of the Republican party was a stanch Whig in politics. From 1856 until his death however, he acted with the party of Fremont and Lincoln. He married Fannie Bull, a daugh- ter of John Bull, a prosperous and highly respected farmer of Saybrook, and at once settled upon a farm in the same town. Three children were born of this union-Frederick, Electa A., and George T. The first born son, Frederick, has reached the ad- vanced age of eighty-eight years, and after a life of hard work spent in farming, has ceased active labor to pass the remainder of his years in well- earned, richly-merited rest. Electa A., the only daughter, married Asa H. Rose, a joiner of Say- brook, and died in 1897. Both Taylor P. Bushnell and his wife were devout and consistent members of the Presbyterian Church.
George T. Bushnell passed his youth very much as did other Connecticut farmers' sons in the first third of the nineteenth century. Work upon the farm alternated with attendance at the district school, and so the years passed until he reached the age of eighteen. He then learned the trade of a turner and wood carver, and in 1836-being then twenty-one years old-removed from Saybrook to Derby. That city was his home for sixty-four
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
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years, and during his long and useful life after reaching his majority, he carried on his business as a turner, and added thereto that of a dealer in real estate. He accumulated a handsome competence and retired from business, devoting himself to the loaning and investment of his capital. Though long passed the limit of three-score years and ten, which was allotted to man by the Psalmist "through reason of strength," he was hale and well preserved up to the time of his death, Sept. 14. 1900. Like his father, he was a Whig in early life and later a Republican. After 1838 he was actively and prom- inently identified with the growth and work of the Congregational Church in Derby. He held various offices in the First Church of that city, and was a deacon for more than a quarter of a century. In recognition of his long and faithful service in that capacity, no less than in acknowledgment of his self-sacrificing labor in and liberal contributions to the cause of Evangelical religion, he was made ar honorary member of the Board of Deacons, a dis- tinction all the more valuable because so rarely con- ferred. Deacon Bushnell attributed his long life and the fact that his mental faculties remained 1in- impaired, to his regular, abstemious mode of life. He always championed the cause of temperance in the highest and most comprehensive sense of that term, and he himself was a living illustration of the soundness of his plea. The closing years of his life were passed in that serene peace befitting an octo- genarian who looked back upon the past without regret and forward to the future without fear.
In 1838 Deacon Bushnell was married to Mary. daughter of Truman Gilbert, of Derby. The wife of his youth remained by his side to the last, to com- fort, to cheer and to sustain. Hand-in-hand they had descended the western slope of life's hill, with pleasant memories and unfaltering faith. One child blessed their union : George F .. who is engaged in the real estate business in Bridgeport.
CHANCY W. JUDD, now retired, is almost a. life-long resident of Waterbury, where he was born June 27. 1824. of good old Connecticut stock, and he is a highly respected citizen.
Stephen Judd, grandfather of our subject, was born in Wallingford, Conn., and died in Waterbury, in 1820. He served in the Revolutionary army, and was wounded in the knee. William R., his son and the father of our subject, was born in Waterbury, May 9, 1802. and died Dec. 30, 1875. He learned the trade of shoemaker, but never fol- lowed it, preferring that of stone mason, which very nearly was his life vocation. On Dec. 2. 1821. he married Anna Brown, who was born in Waterbury. Aug. 8. 1801. a daughter of Curtis Brown, a farmer of Waterbury. She died in New Haven, Conn .. Feb. 24, 1878, the mother of two children : Chaney W. and. Miss Henrietta, the latter of whom was born Dec. 12, 1832, in New York State, and is making her home with her brother in Waterbury.
The father was first a Whig, later a Republican, and in religious faith he and his wife were Baptists.
Chancy W. Judd, our subject, was two years old when his parents removed to Montgomery county, N. Y., and was twelve when he returned with them to Waterbury, and consequently received his edu- cation in both cities. At the age of fifteen he com- menced work in the Scovill Rolling Mills, Water - bury, learning the trade of brass roller, and was employed there the greater part of the time for the long period of forty-seven years, or until 1885, since when he has lived retired. He has lived on Hill street for four or five years more than half a century, and has not married. In polities he is a Republican, and for four years he served his city on the police force. He and his sister attend the services of the Con- gregational Church.
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