USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 19
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BETTS, Thaddeus,
Lawyer, National Legislator.
Thaddeus Betts was born in Norwalk, Fairfield county, Connecticut, February 4, 1789, son of Judge William Maltby and Lucretia (Gregory ) Betts. His father was a soldier in the Revolution, postmas- ter, judge of probate, and member of the Legislature. He was descended from Thomas Betts, who came from England in 1639, settling at Guilford, Connecticut.
After acquiring a practical elementary education in the schools of his native town, he entered Yale College, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1807. He then took up the study of law, was admitted to the bar, entered upon practice at Norwalk, and won great distinction in his profession. He came to prominence in political life, and was a staunch adherent of the Whig party. He was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives of Connecticut from 1815 to 1828, and in the latter year was elected to the State Senate, in which body he served until 1831. In the following year he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, and served as such until the close of the year 1834. He was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat March 4, 1839. He wielded a powerful influence among his associates in that body during his brief term of service, his death occur- ring shortly after the expiration of his first year, in Washington City, April 7, 1840. His standing was feelingly referred
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to by Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, at the funeral obsequies in the State House of Connecticut. He said: "Mr. Betts was distinguished for acuteness of intellect, vigor of understanding, and the sound- ness and probity of his life. He was early brought in contact with the most eminent men that ever adorned the bar of New England. It is sufficient to say that he sustained and distinguished himself among such men as Daggett, Sherman, Smith and Sherwood." Like all his fam- ily, he took a deep interest in religious matters, and for years was a leading member of the Congregational church in Norwalk. He was highly honored and esteemed by all who knew him, for his many excellent traits of personal char- acter.
Mr. Betts married Antoinette Cannon, daughter of John Cannon, Jr., of a family of French descent.
KNIGHT, Jonathan, Physician and Surgeon.
Jonathan Knight was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, September 4, 1789, died in New Haven, Connecticut, August 25, 1864. He was a son of Jonathan and Anne (Fitch) Knight, the former named a surgeon in the Revolutionary army, and a practicing physician in Norwalk for nearly half a century. Jonathan Knight, Jr., attended the schools of his native town, supplementing the knowledge thus obtained by a course at Yale College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1808, and of Master of Arts in 1811. He taught school in Norwalk and New London, Connecticut, from 1808 to 1810, then re- turned to Yale College and tutored dur- ing the years 1810-11, while pursuing pre- liminary medical studies. He attended medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania from 1811 to 1813, and was
a pupil of Dr. Rush, having been chosen by the Medical Society of Connecticut and Corporation of Yale College to be associated in the work of commencing and carrying on a system of medical in- struction with Dr. Nathan Smith, Dr. Eli Ives and Professor Silliman. He was licensed to practice medicine by the Con- necticut Medical Society in August, 1813, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Yale College in 1818. He occupied the chair of anatomy and physi- ology at the Yale Medical School from 1813 to 1838, and after the death of Dr. Thomas Hubbard, he was professor of surgery from 1838 to 1864, retiring in the latter named year as professor emeritus. Dr. Knight was only twenty-four years of age when he delivered his first course of lectures, and even after taking the chair of surgery he annually delivered a course of lectures on his subjects to the senior academical class. He also lectured on obstetrics at Yale College from 1820 to 1829, and was a prominent lecturer on surgery. He was president of the Ameri- can Medical Society, 1853-54, and was a director and president of the board of the General Hospital of Connecticut. He was influential in establishing the Knight Military Hospital at New Haven, Con- necticut, in 1862, which was named in his honor, and which, during the last year of the Civil War, sheltered hundreds of wounded soldiers. After the death of Dr. Hubbard, Dr. Knight was unquestion- ably the leading surgeon in the State of Connecticut. He was the first surgeon to cure aneurisms by compression (1848).
GOODRICH, Chauncey A., Clergyman, Lexicographer.
Chauncey Allen Goodrich, D. D., was born in New Haven, Connecticut, Octo- ber 23, 1790, the second son of the Hon. Elizur Goodrich, LL. D. (Yale, 1779),
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and Anne Willard (Allen) Goodrich. He was a descendant in the sixth generation from Ensign William Goodrich, settler at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1634. His grandfather was the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich (Yale, 1752), for many years a Fellow of the Yale Corporation, a narra- tive of whose life appears in this work.
Chauncey Allen Goodrich completed his education at Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1810, receiving his Master's degree in course. He served his alma mater as tutor, 1812-14, and afterwards studied theology. The bur- dens of pastoral work, however, which he undertook in connection with the Con- gregational church at Middletown, Con- necticut, proved too exacting for his health, and in 1817 he accepted the chair of rhetoric and English literature at Yale College, and the connection thus formed continued without interruption through- out his life, a period of forty-three years. He held the professorship of rhetoric and literature until 1839, and thereafter that of the pastoral charge, receiving the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity from Brown University in 1835. Dr. Goodrich was elected president of Williams College in 1820, but declined the office, preferring to remain in New Haven, where he was en- gaged in literary work in addition to his academic duties. He established and con- ducted for a good many years the "Chris- tian Quarterly Spectator," published sev- eral text books on Greek, and contributed extensively to periodical literature. His most extensive work, however, was in the field of lexicography, in the revision and abridgment of the "American Diction- ary" of his father-in-law, Noah Webster. This edition, in the preparation of which Dr. Goodrich labored a number of years with the assistance of Benjamin Silliman, Davison Olmstead and others, was pub- lished in 1847. He brought out the Uni- versal edition in 1856, and a supplement
in 1859, and at the time of his death was engaged on a radical revision of the dic- tionary, which was later issued under the supervision of Dr. Noah Porter in 1864.
Dr. Goodrich married, October 1, 1816, Julia Frances, daughter of Noah Web- ster, by whom he had four children. He died in New Haven, Connecticut, Febru- ary 25, 1860.
ROATH, Asa,
Veteran of War of 1812.
This name is one of the oldest in the town of Norwich, Connecticut, and those bearing it have ever held place among the respected citizens of the community. Robert Roath, a native of England, was the first of the name to settle in Norwich, and he received a grant of a large tract of land from the original town proprie- tors. His son, John Roath, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in November, 1669, and his farm was at the Little Fort. His son, Stephen Roath, was born in Nor- wich, Connecticut, July 30, 1710, and he died in 1808. His son, Eleazer Roath, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, February 20, 1754, and died in 1835, leaving a large and valuable estate. He married, March 26, 1777, Hannah Killam and they were the parents of Colonel Asa Roath, of whom further.
Colonel Asa Roath, son of Eleazer Roath, was born March 3, 1790, died March II, 1846. He received a sound education for the times, proving an apt scholar, learning quickly and retaining his knowledge. Being intellectually in- clined, he became very accomplished, and turned his acquirements to good use. During the earlier years of his manhood he was engaged as a teacher, and met with excellent success in that profession, giving instruction in the higher branches, especially mathematics, in which he was exceedingly proficient. He was a very
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fine penman, the master of an art much appreciated in those days. Following his experience as a teacher, he took up sur- veying, doing a great deal of work in that line in Norwich and vicinity, and he served many years as county surveyor. Other offices of public trust were also tendered him, and he became one of the leading and influential citizens of his day, active in every movement for the welfare and future good of the town. He served many years as probate judge for the Nor- wich district. He was colonel of the Third Regiment of State Militia, and was at the defense of New London during the War of 1812. In religious connection he was an active member of Trinity Epis- copal Church, and he and the late Colonel George L. Perkins, who lived to pass the century mark, were mainly instrumental in the organization of the first Sunday school in Norwich. Fraternally Colonel Roath was a Free Mason. He was a staunch Democrat in politics. In person he presented a striking figure. He was nearly six feet tall, and in his prime weighed about two hundred and ninety pounds, and he had a most commanding presence, especially in his military uni- form. He was possessed of immense physical strength, and had a powerful voice, which he used to good advantage in his military service. He was quite a singer, having a bass voice.
Colonel Roath married Elizabeth Allyn, of North Groton (now Ledyard), Con- necticut, where she was born July 2, 1799, daughter of General Stephen Billings Al- lyn. She died May 20, 1859, aged sixty years.
HALLECK, Fitz-Greene, Poet, Author.
Fitz-Greene Halleck was born in Guil- ford, Connecticut, July 8, 1790, son of Israel and Mary (Eliot) Halleck, and a
direct descendant from Peter Halleck, who landed in New Haven colony in 1640, and with other English families crossed the sound to Long Island and settled in Southold; and also a descendant of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. His father was a native of Dutchess county, New York, and during the American Revolution was a Royalist, and served in the British army under Colonel Tarleton.
Fitz-Greene Halleck received a com- mon school training, and became a clerk and bookkeeper in the store of Andrew Eliot, in Guilford, in his fifteenth year, making his home with his employer and remaining until he came of age. It was during this time that his first poem ap- peared in print, in a New Haven news- paper. He was a clerk and bookkeeper in the banking house of Jacob Barker, in New York City, 1811-31. In 1812 he formed a business partnership with a relative of Mr. Barker as Halleck & Bar- ker, which was shortlived by reason of conditions incident to the war with Great Britain. In 1819 he formed a literary partnership with Joseph Rodman Drake, and the arrangement resulted in the "Croaker" papers, quaint, satirical chroni- cles of New York life, published anony- mously in the New York "Evening Post," Drake writing under the name "Croaker," and Halleck under that of "Croaker, Jr." It was during the latter part of this year that he wrote "Fanny," an amusing satire, that received unqualified praise from John Randolph, of Virginia, and which he en- larged by fifty stanzas and republished in 1821. He visited Europe in 1822, and in 1827 published anonymously a collection of his poems which included "Burns" and "Alnwick Castle," and the famous lyric "Marco Bozzaris," familiar to every schoolboy of that day. He was a clerk for John Jacob Astor, 1832-49; was a trustee of the Astor library, and received from the millionaire at his death an annu-
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ity of forty pounds per annum, supple- mented by a gift of $10,000 from his son, William B. Astor, upon which he retired and lived with a maiden sister in the mansion of the Shelley estate at Guilford, Connecticut, and while there he wrote "Connecticut," "Lines to Lewis Gaylord Clark," and "Young America." He visit- ed New York City, which had been his residence for nearly fifty years, for the last time, in October, 1867. His memory is perpetuated by his poems ; by a monu- ment over his grave in Alderbrook Ceme- tery, Guilford, Connecticut, erected by Bryant, Longfellow, Sumner, Whittier and numerous other friends, the first pub- lic monument raised to an American poet ; by a full-length bronze statue, the first set up in the New World to a poet, erected in Central Park, New York City, and unveiled in May, 1877, by President Hayes, his cabinet, the general of the army and the leading literary men of the nation ; and by protraits painted by Jar- vis, Morse, Inman, Waldo, Elliott and Hicks. His published works, from which he received during his lifetime $17,500, include : "Fanny" (1819, new ed., 1821) ; "Alnwick Castle, With Other Poems" (1827; 2d ed., 1836; 3d ed., 1845) ; "Fanny and Other Poems" (1839) ; "The Poetical Works of Fitz-Greene Halleck Now First Collected" (8 vols., 1847) ; "The Croakers" (1860); "Young America, A Poem" (1865); and "The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck" (1869). He died at Guilford, Connecticut, November 19, 1867.
WHEATON, Nathaniel Sheldon, President of Trinity College.
Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton, educator, was born in Washington, Connecticut, August 20, 1792, died in Marbledale, Con- necticut, March 18, 1862. He was gradu- ated from Yale, A. B., 1814; A. M., 1817; removed to Maryland, in 1814, where he
studied theology, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Kemp, of Mary- land, continuing a resident there until 1818, in which year he was chosen rector of Christ Church, Hartford, Connecticut.
He became interested in the establish- ment of a second college in Connecticut, and was one of the original board of trustees of Washington (Trinity) Col- lege, Hartford, in 1823, in which year he was sent to England to procure books and philosophical apparatus for that in- stitution, and he retained his membership in the board until 1858. While abroad, he made a study of architecture, and on his return to his native land prepared the plan for the new Christ Church at Hart- ford. The earnest interest he exhibited in the founding of the college was recog- nized by his election, in 1831, to the presi- dency of the same, to succeed Bishop Brownell. The college campus was laid out under his direction, and planted with elm trees; the endowment of two profes- sorships was secured; the general funds were increased, and Dr. Wheaton gave liberally from his own purse. He re- signed as president of the college in 1837 and became rector of Christ Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, remaining in that ca- pacity until 1844, showing great devotion and courage by attending to his duties during the scourge of yellow fever. After resigning his rectorship, he retired from active work, and again visited Europe, and upon his return he resided for a time in Hartford, removing, on account of feeble health, to Washington, Connecti- cut, where he spent the remainder of his days, serving, as occasion demanded, dif- ferent parishes in that and neighboring towns. He bequeathed to Trinity Col- lege his valuable library, and a sum of money to form the nucleus of a chapel fund. The present edifice of Trinity Church was built after plans obtained in England by Dr. Wheaton, and a me-
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morial window in the chancel commemo- rates his labors in behalf of religion and education. The honorary degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Waterville Col- lege in 1832 and by Yale in 1833. His journal of foreign travels was published in 1830, and he is also the author of: "Remarks on Washington College" and a "Discourse on the Epistle to Philemon."
BALDWIN, Roger S., Governor, Statesman.
Roger Sherman Baldwin was born at New Haven, Connecticut, January 4, 1793. He was a son of Judge Simeon Baldwin, of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecti- cut, and Rebecca (Sherman) Baldwin, daughter of Hon. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the committee of five by which it was framed.
He graduated from Yale College in 18II; studied law under his father and at the Litchfield Law School ; was admitted to the bar at Litchfield in 1814, and entered upon practice at New Haven, continuing it there until his death, February 19, 1863. He rose to distinction in his profession, and as a citizen was distinguished for ability and broad mindedness. When it was proposed to establish a school for colored children in New Haven there was strenuous objection. At a town meeting called to consider the expediency of pro- hibiting it, Mr. Baldwin took the unpopu- lar side as leader of the few who advo- cated the right of the teacher to teach whom and where she pleased. In 1839 a ship load of native Africans, in the Span- ish schooner "Amistad," was brought into New London harbor by a govern- ment cutter. The negroes had been taken to Cuba in a slaver, and while in transit, under the charge of a purchaser between two of the ports of the island, had cap- tured the schooner and brought it to the
United States. The Spanish government demanded their surrender, and Mr. Bald- win became their counsel. A long litiga- tion ensued in the United States courts, resulting at last in a decision which secured their liberation under a decision of the Supreme Court. In that court John Quincy Adams was associated with Mr. Baldwin, but the latter had the main re- sponsibility of the cause. This profes- sional triumph, secured in a field of law where there were few precedents, secured Mr. Baldwin at once a national reputa- tion. Mr. Baldwin served in both houses of the State Legislature (1837-1841), and as a Whig was elected Governor in 1844, and reelected the next year. While he was Governor a bill was passed requiring the Washington Bridge Company, which had built a bridge across the Housatonic river many years before on a plan ap- proved by the General Assembly, to in- sert a new draw of greater width. The charter authorized it to perpetually main- tain the structure as erected under its provisions, and to charge tolls to those who traveled over it. The bill took away these rights without providing for any compensation. Governor Baldwin vetoed it in a message which was a clear and convincig statement of the inviolability of charter contracts and the importance of preserving the public faith in every particular. The bill was passed over his veto, but the Supreme Court on quo war- ranto proceedings, decided without a dis- senting voice that it was void, as an at- tempt to impair the obligation of a con- tract in violation of the constitution of the United States.
In 1847, Governor Baldwin was elected to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy occasioned by death, and served until 185.1. failing of a reëlection by reason of a tem- porary coalition of the Democrats and Abolitionists. In the Senate he opposed the Compromise bill of 1850, maintaining
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that the fugitive slave laws then in force exceeded the requirements of the national constitution. His addresses in the Senate were always forcible and effective. One which attracted much attention at the time was an off-hand reply to Senator Mason, of Virginia, who, in urging a bill to discharge the warrants for land scrip issued by his State for bounties offered during the Revolutionary War, drew an unfavorable contrast between the sur- render by Virginia of all title to her western lands, and the reservation of millions of acres by Connecticut. Sen- ator Baldwin replied that Connecticut, small as she was in territory and popula- tion, had more troops in the field during the Revolution than the great State of Virginia, and her citizens, instead of holding back waiting for bounties, had taken the field before the Continental Congress had met in 1775, and under Ethan Allen had captured Ticonderoga almost before the bloodshed at Lexing- ton had grown cold. In 1860, Governor Baldwin was a Republican presidential elector-at-large, and in 1861 he was a member of the National Peace Conven- tion at Washington, where he advocated the convocation of a national convention of delegates from all the States to revise the constitution of the United States as the best way of averting civil war. At the time of his death, two years later, he was still in active practice at the bar, in which he had been long a leader. Yale and Trinity had each given him the de- gree of LL. D. In an obituary notice in the Connecticut reports, written by Gov- ernor Harrison, it is said of him :
In any form, anywhere -in the Supreme Court at Washington, or in Westminster Hall. or at any other bar, where our system of juris- prudence is understood and practiced-Governor Baldwin would have been regarded, not merely as a skillful practitioner, but as a man entitled to rank among the great lawyers of his day. He
possessed a comprehensive and thorough ac- quaintance with the science of his profession. He was master of its learning. He understood it in its great doctrines and in its details. In short, he had that legal scholarship, that legal acumen, that legal knowledge, which no intellect but a high one can attain at all, and which even a great intellect cannot fully acquire without long, thorough and conscientious labor.
Governor Baldwin was married, in 1820, to Emily, daughter of Enoch Per- kins, of Hartford; they had nine children. Governor Baldwin died at New Haven, February 19, 1863.
STORRS, William Lucius, Jurist and Chief Justice.
William Lucius Storrs, jurist, repre- sentative, and Chief Justice of Connecti- cut, was born at Middletown, Middlesex county, Connecticut, March 25, 1795, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, June 25, 1861.
He was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1814, receiving at that time the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and three years later the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by the same in- stitution. He studied law at Whitestone, New York, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1817, but soon returned to his native city to practice, acquiring a large and remunerative practice. He was elected a representative to the Connecti- cut State Legislature, 1827-29, and also in 1834, being speaker of the house the last term. He was a Whig representa- tive from Connecticut in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses, 1829-33, and in the Twenty-sixth Congress, until June, 1840, when he resigned to accept the appointment of judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, serving up to 1856, and he was Chief Justice of that court from 1856 until his death, a period of six years. He was also Professor of Law at
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Wesleyan University, Middletown, Con- necticut, 1841-46, and at Yale College, 1846-47, and the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Western Reserve University in 1846. His legal decisions, which are considered remarkably able, are published in the "Connecticut Re- ports."
GREENE, William Parkinson, Prominent Manufacturer.
John Greene, pioneer ancestor of Wil- liam P. Greene, was a resident of Salis- bury, County Wilts, England, and sailed from Southampton, England, in the ship "James" to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1635, bringing with him his family. He was a resident of Salem, Massachusetts, for a short time, and in 1637 removed to Providence, Rhode Island, and was one of the twelve persons to whom Roger Williams deeded land bought of the In- dians in 1638. He was one of the twelve original members of the First Baptist Church. He was commissioner from 1654 to 1657, and was made a freeman in 1655. His son, Thomas Greene, born June 4, 1628, died June 5, 1717. He was made a freeman in 1655, and served as commissioner, deputy and assistant. His son, Nathaniel Greene, was born April 10, 1679, and died in Boston, Massachu- setts, where he was engaged in mercan- tile pursuits. His son, Benjamin Greene, was a prominent merchant of Boston, Massachusetts, in which city he spent the greater part of his active life. His son, Gardiner Greene, was the merchant prince of Boston, and one of the foremost men of New England of his time, both in business and social life. He resided in Demerara for many years after 1774, and laid there the foundation of a large for- tune. He married (first) in 1775, Ann Reading, who died in 1786. He married (second) in 1788, Elizabeth Hubbard,
who died in 1797. He married (third) in July, 1800, while in London, Elizabeth Clark, daughter of Copley, the painter, and soon took up his permanent resi- dence in Boston, and died there Decem- ber 19, 1832. He was the father of Wil- liam Parkinson Greene, of whom further.
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