USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 20
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William Parkinson Greene, son of Gar- diner Greene, was late of Norwich. In Miss Caulkins' "History of Norwich" (1866) appears the following notice of Mr. Greene, who was mayor of the city in 1842: "Mr. Greene was a native of Boston, but an inhabitant of Norwich for more than forty years. He was the sec- ond son of Gardiner and Elizabeth (Hub- bard) Greene, and born September 7, 1795. He graduated at Harvard College in 1814, and afterward studied law, but his health not being equal to the require- ments of the legal profession, he removed in 1824 to Norwich, and engaged at once in business, as a partner and agent of the Thames Manufacturing Company, which had invested a large capital in the pur- chase of mill privileges at the Falls. In this city he soon acquired and retained during life the esteem and respect of the community. He was an energetic and large-hearted man; literary in his tastes, but with profound sagacity in financial and business concerns. These qualities were united with a pure life and an entire absence of ostentation. As a beautiful result of his unobtrusive life and liberal disposition, he seemed to have no ene- mies. Slander never made him its mark, and his name was never mentioned with disrespect. He was never possessed of robust health, and therefore seldom able to give his personal services in aid of public measures, but all charitable and noble undertakings having for their ob- ject the welfare of man and the honor of God were sure of his liberal aid and cor- dial sympathy. In 1825 he was chosen the president of the Thames Bank, and
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held the office for sixteen years. With this exception, and that of the single year in which he was mayor of the city, he steadfastly declined, on account of his health, all appointments to public office. He died June 18, 1864, aged sixty-eight. Seldom had the death of a citizen excited in the place so deep an interest and such profound regret. It was a loss that was felt in the circles of business and of pub- lic improvement; in the departments of education and philanthropy."
Mr. Greene was one of the incorpora- tors of the Norwich Free Academy in 1854. He was the second president of the board of trustees of that institution, serv- ing from 1857 until his death in 1864. His wife, in 1859, gave to the academy a house and grounds for the use of the principal. At various times the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Greene to the academy amounted to $40,000. After Mr. Greene's removal to Norwich in the early twenties, he was wholly identified with the place, and by his enterprise and liberal and en- lightened course as a citizen, contributed largely to its prosperity. He was one of the founders of the Thames Manufactur- ing Company in 1823. The company pur- chased the mill of the Quinebaug Com- pany, which in 1826 built a mill on the Shetucket river for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, before it went into operation. The Thames Company likewise purchased the mill at Bozrah- ville, and in its best days had the three large mills in successful operation. Two new companies were formed and went into operation between 1838 and 1842, under the auspices of Mr. Greene-the Shetucket Company and the Norwich Falls Company. The later company pur- chased the mill at the Falls, which had formerly belonged to the Thames Com- pany. These companies were established by Mr. Greene chiefly upon his own credit, and were kept, while he lived,
under his management and direction ; each mill had 1,500 spindles in operation.
Mr. Greene was the prime mover and the largest subscriber to the stock of the Water Power Company, incorporated in 1828 "for building a dam and canal in order to bring the waters of the She- tucket river into manufacturing use." He had previously purchased land on the Quinebaug above the union with the She- tucket and on the latter river from Sa- chem's Plain downward, nearly three miles in extent on either side of the river, in Norwich and Preston. The Shetucket dam was built, a canal dug, and a village was laid out by this company, and prop- erly named Greeneville in honor of Wil- liam P. Greene, who had been the active promoter of the enterprise. On July 14, 1819, Mr. Greene married Elizabeth Au- gusta Borland, of Boston.
DUTTON, Henry,
Jurist, Governor.
Henry Dutton, LL. D., was born in Plymouth, Connecticut, February 12, 1796. His grandfather was a captain in the Revolutionary army.
His early years were passed upon a farm, and it was with difficulty that he prepared himself for a collegiate course. He was able, however, to enter Yale College as a junior in 1816, and was graduated with honors in the class of 1818. Supporting himself by teaching in Fairfield, Connec- ticut, and by two years of service as tutor at Yale College while studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1824, and established himself in practice at New- town. He was twice elected to represent that town in the Legislature, and re- mained there fourteen years, then remov- ing to Bridgeport, where he attained emi- nence at the bar, was again sent to the Legislature, and became State's attorney. In 1847 he became Kent Professor of
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Law at Yale College, and took up his resi- dence in New Haven, where he remained for the remainder of his life. Professor Dutton was called upon to perform high public service in addition to his academic duties, being elected to the State Senate in 1849, and again to the lower house of the Legislature, and serving on the commis- sions to revise and recompile the statutes of the State. In 1854 he was elected Governor of Connecticut, thus becoming e.r-officio a fellow of the Yale corporation during the term of his office, and in the same year received the degree of Doctor of Laws from that university. He was also a judge of the Superior Court, and was appointed to the Supreme Bench in 1861, retaining that seat until retired by reason of reaching the age limit of sev- enty years.
In his long connection with public affairs, as legislator, judge and executive, Governor Dutton displayed a liberal and progressive spirit, and left his mark upon the statutory and judicial system of Con- necticut. Among the reforms brought about largely through his efforts are the passage of the law allowing parties to a suit to testify in civil cases, the transfer of all divorce cases to the Superior Court, and acts securing more effectively the rights of married women. After leaving the bench, Judge Dutton continued in private practice until failing health for- bade, and retained his professorship at Yale until his death, April 12, 1869.
TOUCEY, Isaac, Cabinet Official.
Isaac Toucey was born in Newtown, Connecticut, November 5, 1796. He was descended from the Rev. Thomas Toucey, the first Congregational minister in New- town, and many members of the family in the generations following were liber- ally educated and held prominent positions in the section.
Isaac Toucey received a liberal educa- tion, and studied law in Newtown with Judge Chapman. He was admitted to the bar in 1818, and practiced his profes- sion in Hartford. He early became a Democratic political leader, and was elected State Attorney for the county in 1821, serving for four years. He was a representative from the First Connecti- cut District in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses (1825-39), and was defeated for reelection in 1838 by Joseph Trumbull, the Whig candidate. He served as State Attorney for Hart- ford county, 1842-44. In 1845 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate against Roger S. Baldwin for Governor ; and in 1846 was defeated for the same office by popular vote, but was elected by the Legislature ; and he was again de- feated for the governorship in 1847 by Clark Bissell. In 1848 he was appointed to the cabinet of President Polk as at- torney-general, to succeed Nathan Clif- ford, of Maine. Later he was sent as United States commissioner to Mexico, and held the position from June 21, 1848, until the close of President Polk's admin- istration, March 3, 1849. He was a mem- ber of the State Senate in 1850, and a representative in the lower house of the State Legislature in 1852. He was elected United States Senator as successor to Roger S. Baldwin and took his seat May 14, 1852, completing the term March 3, 1857. He was Secretary of the Navy in President Buchanan's cabinet for the full term of Buchanan's administration, ex- piring March 3, 1861. His official con- duct as Secretary of the Navy during the trying times incident to the outbreak of the Civil War has been severely and gen- erally criticised by the Republicans and War Democrats; but his political and personal friends claimed that he was gov- erned entirely by his judgment as to his constitutional line of duty, and the policy
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of the administration of which he was a member. He was a trustee of Trinity College, Hartford, 1830-1869, and receiv- ed from that institution the honorary de- gree of LL. D. in 1846. He also estab- lished two scholarships in the college and left to the institution a large share of his estate. He died in Hartford, Connecti- cut, July 30, 1869.
WARREN, Alanson,
Prominent Manufacturer.
The first of this name in England was William de Warrenne, a nobleman, who rendered distinguished services in the conquest of England by William the Con- queror and was created Earl of Surrey. An ancient genealogy of the family traces the lineage of this William de Warrenne back to the year 900 A. D., the year in which his Scandinavian forbears are said to have settled in Normandy. The War- rens of America have won distinction both as civilians and soldiers. Their rec- ord in the struggle for national independ- ence is an exceedingly honorable one, and the valiant services of General Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill, are too well known to need further comment. Richard Warren, the American progeni- tor, born in England, came to New Eng- land from Greenwich, England, in the historic "Mayflower" company which founded Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620, and was one of the nineteen signers of the famous compact who survived the first winter. The register at the end of Bradford's folio manuscript gives him the honorable prefix of Mr. He was men- tioned by a contemporary as "grave Rich- ard Warren, a man of integrity, justice and uprightness, of piety and serious re- ligion ;" and also "as a useful instrument during the short time he lived, bearing a deep share in the difficulties and troubles
of the plantation." He received land grants in common with his associates and one of these grants was at Warren's Cove. He was one of the influential members of the company and as such was selected with nine others to cruise along the coast from Cape Cod Harbor, in a shallop, for the purpose of deciding on a place of set- tlement. His death occurred at Plymouth in 1628. His son, Nathaniel Warren, was born in Plymouth in 1624, died in 1667. As he was among the first children born in the colony he received a special grant of land. He became a large real estate owner and was a man of prominence, serving as selectman, highway surveyor, representative to the General Court and also in the local militia. His son, Rich- ard (2) Warren, was born in Plymouth in 1646, died in Middleboro, Massachu- setts, January 23, 1697. He settled in Middleboro shortly after the close of King Philip's War. His son, John Warren, was born in Middleboro in 1690, died in that town in 1768. He was residing at Scituate in 1711, and returned to Middle- boro about 1737. His son, James War- ren, was born in Scituate, December 4, 1714. He settled in Connecticut, going first to Woodbridge and subsequently re- moving to New Haven. His son, Edward Warren, was born in Woodbridge. Sep- tember 18, 1761. He went from Wood- bridge to Watertown, Litchfield county, Connecticut, and resided there the re- mainder of his life. He was accidentally drowned in the Naugatuck river, Decem- ber 10, 1814. At the age of eighteen years he entered the Continental army for serv- ice in the Revolutionary War, and was almost immediately called into action, ac- companying General Anthony Wayne on the silent march through the mountain passes to Stony Point, New York, and participating in the capture of the fortress on the morning of July 16, 1779. Accord-
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ing to his own account of this daring enterprise his company was the first to reach the works in the gallant charge of the American forces, which proved a com- plete surprise to the British, and he was the third man to enter the fort. After his death his widow received a pension from the federal government. Edward War- ren owned and occupied a farm located about three and one-half miles from Watertown Centre, and long known as the Warren place. The residence was built in the most substantial manner and is still in a good state of preservation. Edward Warren married Mary Steele, born in 1764, died February 24, 1849. Her parents were Captain Bradford and Mary (Perkins) Steele, and she was a descend- ant in the sixth generation of George Steele (1) through James (2), John (3), Ebenezer (4) and Captain Bradford (5).
Their son, Alanson Warren, born in Watertown, May 16, 1796, when sixteen years old began to serve an apprentice- ship at the hatter's trade with Joel P. Richards in Watertown, and upon attain- ing his majority he became sole proprietor of the establishment, inaugurating his business career with a capital of six hun- dred dollars and employing from ten to twenty journeymen and apprentices. This enterprise he carried on for a number of years in connection with farming, but he was eventually obliged to place his agri- cultural interests in the hands of his sons, in order to devote his entire time and energies to his business affairs. In 1838 Mr. Warren entered into partnership with William H. Merriman and the latter's son, C. H. Merriman, merchants, and the two concerns became united under the firm name of Merriman & Warren, but three years later Mr. Warren found it ad- visable to withdraw, and he resumed busi- ness alone. About this time he engaged in the manufacture of cloth and fur goods
in connection with his hat business, and these productions sold readily to country merchants in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, to whom they were trans- ported in a large two-horse wagon espe- cially constructed for this purpose. In 1843 he admitted to partnership his son, Truman A., and R. S. Beers, thus organ- izing the firm of Warren & Beers, and having placed the business upon a firm foundation he withdrew in 1847 for the purpose of giving more attention to an- other business enterprise, in which he had embarked. In 1843 he became associated with his son-in-law, George P. Woodruff, in the production of buckles, buttons, slides and metal trimmings for hats and caps, and in 1848 they consolidated with Nathaniel Wheeler, who had been their competitor in the same line of goods, and the firm became Warren, Wheeler & Woodruff. Suspender buckles were added to their list of products and their business developed so rapidly that in 1849 it was found necessary to improve their facilities for production. They ac- cordingly purchased the water power site formerly owned by the Leverett, Condee satinet factory in Watertown, and were thus enabled to expand their business into much larger proportions. At this period the idea of applying machinery to the domestic art of sewing was agitating the minds and stimulating the energies of mechanical experts, and among the inven- tors who succeeded in producing a prac- tical machine for this purpose was Allen Benjamin Wilson, then a cabinetmaker of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1850 the Warren Company entered into a contract to construct some two thousand of the Wilson first patent shuttle machines, and these were followed in 1852 by an im- provement based upon an entirely differ- ent principle, known as the rotary hook machine. Steps were immediately taken
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for placing the new machine upon the market, and a company was formed con- sisting of Alanson Warren, Nathaniel Wheeler, George P. Woodruff and A. B. Wilson, and known as Wheeler, Wilson & Company. From this parent organiza- tion was subsequently developed the famous Wheeler & Wilson Manufactur- ing Company, with Alanson Warren as president, George P. Woodruff, secretary and treasurer, and Nathaniel Wheeler as general manager. The capital of this con- cern, which consisted mainly of real estate, machinery and patents, valued at about sixty thousand dollars, was after- ward increased to one hundred and sixty thousand by the sale of stock, and it ulti- mately reached one million dollars. Mr. Warren having resigned the presidency in 1855, he was succeeded by Mr. Wheeler, and in the following year the factory was removed to Bridgeport. It is, at the pres- ent day, both interesting and surprising to observe how utterly unable were the promoters of the Wheeler & Wilson Com- pany to properly estimate its future mag- nitude. Mr. Warren once stated that he expected to witness the production of twenty-five machines per day. He never even dreamed that the daily capacity would reach six hundred, which was actually the case.
Mr. Warren's business career was an exceedingly busy one, and embraced many different enterprises. He was presi- dent of the Warren & Newton Manufac- turing Company, a concern established in 1846 for the production of suspenders and afterward absorbed by the American Sus-
pender Company of Waterbury ; was also president of the Phoenix Company, an- other industrial company, and was con- nected with the American Knife Com- pany, Plymouth; the Waterbury Brass Company ; Oakville Pin Company ; Union Leather Company ; the Beers & Woodruff
Company, manufacturers of shirts and linen goods, and was one of the incorpor- ators of Evergreen Cemetery, Watertown. In politics he was a Whig and in 1841 he served in the General Assembly. For many years he was senior warden of Christ Church (Episcopal), and contrib- uted liberally to the fund raised for the erection of the new church edifice com- pleted in 1855. His death occurred in Watertown, October 20, 1858.
Mr. Warren married, December 25, 1818, Sarah M., daughter of Caleb and Ruth Hickox, of Watertown. She died April 20, 1866. Their children were: Belinda M., Truman A., David Hard, Sarah, Charles A., Henry, Mary, Alanson.
RIPLEY, George Burbank, Eminent Jurist.
The Ripley family trace their descent through various lines to the earliest set- tlers in this country, notably in a direct line to Governor William Bradford, of "Mayflower" fame. William Ripley, im- migrant ancestor, came from England in 1638 and settled in Hingham, Massachu- setts, where he died July 20, 1656. His son, John Ripley, was born in England, died in 1684; married Elizabeth Hobart. Their son, Joshua Ripley, was born May 9, 1658, died May 18, 1739; he removed from Hingham, Massachusetts, to Nor- wich, Connecticut, and later to Wind- ham, same State; he married Hannah Bradford. Their son, Joshua (2) Ripley, was born May 13, 1688, died November 18, 1773 ; he married Mary Backus. Their son, Ebenezer Ripley, was born June 22, 1729, died at Windham, June 1I, 18II ; he married Mehetabel Burbank. Their son, Major Dwight Ripley, was born Au- gust 7, 1764, died in Norwich, Connecti- cut, November 18, 1835; he was engaged for almost half a century in Norwich as
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a merchant and druggist; he married Eliza Coit, who died July 30, 1846, and they were the parents of Hon. George Burbank Ripley, of this review.
Hon. George Burbank Ripley, son of Major Dwight and Eliza (Coit) Ripley, was born in Norwich, March 13, 1801, died in that town, July 9, 1858. He was graduated from Yale College with the class of 1822, which contained a number of other distinguished members, studied law under the preceptorship of Judge Swift, at Windham, Connecticut, until the latter's death, when he continued his studies in the office of Judge Staples in New Haven. He was admitted to the bar in 1824, and for a time was engaged in the practice of his profession (with a very satisfactory amount of success). His love of nature and an outdoor life ap- pealed to him too strongly, however, to be resisted, and he turned his attention to farming, in which he was also successful. His intellectual attainments were of an unusually high order, and his ability as a conversationalist won him many friends and admirers. He was not permitted to live a life of retirement, as he was elected to a number of public offices by his fel- low townsmen, who felt their interests could be in no safer hands. He served as judge of the probate court for the Nor- wich district for a number of years be- tween 1850 and his death. Judge Ripley married, October 19, 1825, Hannah Gardi- ner Lathrop, born March 9, 1806, died September 17, 1897, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Bill) Lathrop. She was a woman strikingly beautiful in person and character. One of their sons, Wil- liam Lathrop, born April 30, 1827, died at Saugatuck, Michigan, April 8, 1878; he was engaged in mercantile business in Michigan, and during the Civil War was in the commissary department and held the rank of major in a Michigan regi- ment ; he married, 1854, Jerusha Gilchrist.
BUSHNELL, Horace,
Theologian.
Horace Bushnell was born in New Preston, Litchfield county, Connecticut, April 14, 1802. In boyhood he worked on his father's farm and in a fulling and carding mill. When he was nineteen years old he first began to devote himself to study, and he was graduated from Yale College with honor in 1827. He then taught school in Norwich, Connec- ticut, and afterward engaged as literary editor of the New York "Journal of Com- merce." He returned to Yale College in 1829 to take a course in law. and accepted a tutorship in the college.
In 1831, when about to be admitted to the bar, a religious revival in the college led him to enter the Yale Divinity School, and upon completing his course and ob- taining his license, he was unanimously chosen as pastor of the North Congrega- tional Church at Hartford, in May, 1833. In 1839 he delivered an address on "Revelation," before the Society of In- quiry, at Andover Theological Seminary, and his views on the doctrine of the Trin- ity awakened suspicions as to his ortho- doxy, as they again did in 1849, upon the publication of his "God in Christ," and he was called before a committee ap- pointed by the Hartford Central Associ- ation, of which he was a member, to an- swer to a charge of heresy. Among his accusers were the leading theological au- thorities, but they did not agree as to what the heresy was. Dr. Bushnell made a spirited defence, and the committee re- ported through its chairman, Dr. Noah Porter, that "though there were, in the views presented, variations from the his- toric formulas of faith, the errors were not fundamental." This report was ac- cepted with but three dissenting votes, and although the Central Association was again appealed to in 1850 and also in
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1852, it refused to render any further judgment in the case, and the agitation gradually subsided. His defence, "Christ in Theology," was published after the trial. For twenty-six years he remained at Hartford, his only pastorate, and when in 1859 ill health compelled him to resign, the great sorrow manifested by his par- ishioners bore eloquent testimony to the strong hold he had upon their hearts. Dr. Bushnell, outside of his church, fostered every influence which tended to the im- provement of the minds, habits, manners and principles, as well as the surround- ings of the people. He advocated setting aside the land surrounding the State House in Hartford for a public park, and his aggressive persistence overcame the opposition, afterward the park being named in his honor, "Bushnell Park." His principal works are: "Christian Na- ture" (1847) ; "God in Christ" (1849) ; "Christ in Theology" (1851); "Nature and the Supernatural" (1858) ; "Sermons for the New Life" (1858) ; "Character of Jesus" (1861) ; "Work and Play," a col- lection of addresses (1864) ; "The Vicari- ous Sacrifice" (1865) ; "Moral Uses of Dark Things" (1868) ; "Woman Suffrage, the Reform Against Nature" (1869) ; "Sermons on Living Subjects" (1872) ; and "Forgiveness and Law" (1874). He received the degree of D. D. from Wes- leyan University in 1842, and from Har- vard in 1852, and Yale gave him the de- gree of LL. D. in 1871.
He married, September 13, 1833, Mary Apthorp, of New Haven, Connecticut. He died at Hartford, Connecticut, Febru- ary 17, 1876; and a mural tablet was erected to his memory in the church in which he had so long served. His daugh- ter, Mary Bushnell Cheney, published "Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell" (1880).
WELLES, Gideon,
Civil War Secretary of Navy.
Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of President Lincoln, was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, July I, 1802, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, February II, 1873. He was a son of Samuel and Ann (Hale) Welles, and was descended from Thomas Welles, a native of England, who was one of the original settlers of Connecticut, treasurer of the colony, commissioner and governor.
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