USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 30
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BUELL, Abel,
Pioneer Typefounder.
Abel Buell was born at Killingworth, Connecticut, about 1750. He was a man of ability and many resources, and while little is known of his life, there is record mention found of him as an engraver, jeweler, goldsmith, undertaker, military bugler, teacher of singing and choir leader before he adopted the business of print- ing and typefounding. His expert knowl- edge of engraving led him into the penal offense of altering a colonial note, for which he served a term, of imprisonment. A special act of the Legislature, in return for many honorable services rendered the State, restored to him his civil rights. In 1769, without any other aid than his own ingenuity and some little knowledge de- rived from books, he began the manufac- ture of type, and in the course of a few years completed several fonts of long primer. One John Baine, who came to the United States after the Revolution, has claimed the honor of being the first typefounder in America, but the "Mas- sachusetts Gazette" established Buell's right to that honor beyond a peradven- ture. Under date of September 4, 1769 (some years prior to Baine's advent), that
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journal says : "We learn that Abel Buell, of Killingworth, in Connecticut, has made himself master of the art of founding types for printing."
Buell was very eccentric and restless, and was continually getting into trouble. He published a weekly newspaper en- titled "The Devil's Club, or Iron Cane," in which he advocated the doctrine of eternal progression and endless develop- ment. The publication of these views gave great offence to the Puritans, and Buell was condemned to six months' con- finement in Symsbury mines, being re- leased at the end of his term only on con- dition that he publicly renounce his heresy, and that he agree to carry an iron cane on Sabbath days in token of the sin- cerity of his repentance. So subdued did he become, to all outward appearances, that he was known as "the meek man with the iron cane." Disguised as a Kick- apoo Indian, he was one of the "Boston Tea Party," and at the battle of Lexing- ton he heated to a white heat the point of his iron cane and with it discharged the first cannon fired in the Revolution, and he was wounded in the knee at the battle of Bunker Hill. He became a govern- ment coiner after the Revolution, and de- vised new instruments for conducting the work. Subsequently he visited England for the purpose of studying the machines used in the manufacture of cotton cloth, and upon his return to America he estab- lished at New Haven a cotton factory, which was one of the first erected in the United States. He died at New Haven, Connecticut, about 1825.
TRUMBULL, John, Lawyer, Author.
Although a lawyer by profession, and from which he gained his livelihood, his fame rests upon the poorly recompensed
labors of his pen. He was born at West- bury (now Waterbury), Connecticut, April 24, 1750, where his father was a Congregational minister. He was the fifth of this distinguished name in Amer- ica, and a cousin of Benjamin and Jona- than Trumbull, both distinguished in the annals of the country. His mother, a highly cultured woman, who was in close sympathy with her son, encouraged him in his studies. He was a delicate child, but precocious and fond of books. His father superintended his early training. He began Latin at five, and passed the entrance examinations for Yale College at the phenomenal age of seven, but nec- essarily postponed his college course for six years more, and was graduated in 1767. Timothy Dwight was his class- mate, and joined him in writing sundry essays, in the style of "The Spectator," for the New Haven and Boston news- papers. The two friends became tutors together in the college in 1771, at which time Trumbull satirized the educational methods of the time in his earliest poem, "The Progress of Dullness," the first part of which appeared in 1772, the second and third in 1773.
While engaged as a tutor in college, Trumbull studied law, and was admitted to the bar ; he gained further legal knowl- edge and some political experience in the office of John Adams, in Boston. Here he imbibed early ideas of American inde- pendence, and recorded his impressions in an "Elegy on the Times," printed in 1774, a poem in which he advocated the port bill, and non-consumption of foreign luxuries, and set forth the strength of the country and its future glory, contrasted with the final downfall of England. He practiced his profession in New Haven from November, 1774, until his marriage in 1776, then at his native place, and from 1781 at Hartford, but was princi-
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pally concerned with literary work. The poem of "McFingal," the work upon which his lasting fame rests, had been undertaken at the instigation of some leading members of the First Congress. He aimed "to express in a poetical man- ner a general account of the American contest, with a particular description of the characters and manners of the time, interspersed with anecdotes which no his- tory could probably record, and with as much impartiality as possible, satirize the follies and extravagances of my country- men, as well as their enemies." It was modeled upon "Hudibras," but it was so thoroughly American that it ceased to be regarded as an imitation, and was recognized as an original product of the times. The humor is exquisite, and re- fined by the truthful force and occasion- ally elevated treatment of the subject. "McFingal," of which the first and second cantos were written in 1775, was com- pleted and published in 1782, and gained wide popularity as a satire on the foes of freedom. It was pirated over thirty times, and circulated in cheap forms by newsmongers and hawkers. Dwight thought it superior to "Hudibras," and John Adams ventured the prediction that it would live as long. It appeared again in 1826, and again in 1864, with notes by B. G. Lossing. One or two of its epi- grams have been attributed to Butler, of "Hudibras" fame. Trumbull was now the "most conspicuous literary character" of his day. With Lemuel Barlow, David Humphrey and Joel Hopkins there was formed a literary quartet which produced a series of newspaper essays, political and satirical, called "The Anarchiad," a col- lection of satirical poems, leveled at the political disruption preceding the estab- lishment of the Federal constitution. The writers gave out a story of early emi- gration by a body of Britons and Welsh,
whose descendants still existed in the interior of the continent, and that in dig- ging among the ruins of one of their an- cient fortifications an old heroic poem in the English language had been discov- ered. This was the "Anarchiad," and the essays were supposed to be extracts from it. His poetical works, collected in two volumes, and published by subscription (Hartford, 1820), were a dead loss to the publisher, S. G. Goodrich, who paid one thousand dollars for the copyright, but who considered the sum a contribution to the diffusion of American literature.
Trumbull served as State's Attorney for Hartford county from 1789 to 1795, and was elected a member of the Legis- lature in 1792 and 1800. He was judge of the Connecticut Superior Court from 1801 to 1819; and of the Court of Errors, 1808-1819. Yale College, of which he was for some time treasurer, gave him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1818. His daughter had married W. Wood- bridge, of Michigan, afterward judge, Governor and Senator, and resided in De- troit, where Judge Trumbull joined her in 1825. His health gradually declined, and he died there, May 10, 1831.
CHAUNCEY, Isaac,
Naval Officer.
Commodore Isaac Chauncey was born at Black Rock, Fairfield county, Connec- ticut, February 20, 1772. As a boy he began a seafaring life in the merchant service, advanced rapidly, and was placed in command of a vessel before his nine- teenth year, and made several successful voyages to the West Indies in the employ of John Jacob Astor.
At the age of twenty-six he was ap- pointed a lieutenant in the newly organ- ized United States Navy, and served with distinction under Commodores Truxtun
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and Preble. Early in 1802 he was ap- pointed acting captain of the frigate "Chesapeake," and was attached to the squadron sent against Tripoli under com- mand of Commodore Richard V. Morris. He distinguished himself for skill and bravery in a severe engagement with a flotilla of Tripolitan gunboats, and se- verely handled both them and a troop of cavalry on shore. Commodore Morris was adjudged by a court of inquiry not to have "discovered due diligence and activity in annoying the enemy," and was dismissed from the service, while Chaun- cey was publicly thanked by Congress, and was also voted a sword, which, how- ever, he never received. He was pro- moted to master, May 23, 1804, and to captain, April 24, 1806. About this time he was placed in command of the New York navy yard, where he remained until the opening of the War of 1812, when he was commissioned commander-in-chief of the navy on all the lakes except Cham- plain. With the aid of Henry Eckford, an eminent shipbuilder, he at once began building a squadron for Lake Ontario at Sackett's Harbor. The work progressed with remarkable rapidity, and on Novem- ber 8, scarcely ten weeks from the date of his appointment, Chauncey had a fleet of seven armed schooners in active service. His first movement was upon Kingston, and resulted in the defeat of the enemy and the blockading of the harbor. Al- though his entire fleet mounted only forty guns and carried only four hundred and thirty men, he greatly harassed the Brit- ish forces of nearly double his strength, disabled their flagship, the "Royal George," and captured three merchant vessels. Continuing operations in con- junction with the land forces under Gen- erals Zebulon M. Pike and Jacob Brown, he soon had the entire Ontario region under American control. In the mean-
while he had delegated Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott to superintend the construc- tion of vessels on Lake Erie. This officer began the campaign there by the capture of the British ships, "Caledonia" and "De- troit," which were afterward effective under American colors. In a short time Chauncey had added to his fleet the frigate "Mohawk," forty-two guns, and the corvette "Madison," twenty-four, cap- turing York (now Toronto) in April, 1813, Fort George on May 27, and hold- ing the enemy from the entire Niagara frontier. At the battle of York, in the midst of a simultaneous attack of seven- teen hundred troops and a continual shower of grapeshot from Chauncey's fleet, the British blew up a magazine near the lake shore, killing forty of their own men and fifty-two of the Americans, in- cluding the brave Pike himself. In the meantime the British had constructed a powerful fleet on Lake Ontario, under command of Sir James Yeo, which al- though for some time used to blockade Sackett's Harbor, could not be brought to action. Finally on September 27, 1813, the Americans made an assault which re- sulted in a complete rout, and additional honors to their redoubtable commander. Only a heavy gale prevented the complete destruction of the British fleet, which later, during August and September, 1814, was kept in a state of blockade for over six weeks. On October 5, 1813, Chaun- cey captured five of the enemy's ships and part of a regiment of soldiers.
At the close of the war, Commodore Chauncey resumed command of the New York navy yard, but was soon after as- signed to the command of the Mediter- ranean squadron, consisting of the flag- ship "Washington," seventy-four guns, three sloops-of-war, one brig and one schooner. His actions in this post were fearless and decisive, jealously guarding
Conn-1-14
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the dignity of his government on all occa- sions. In the latter part of 1815, with William Shaler, United States Consul- General at Algiers, he succeeded in nego- tiating a treaty with that power which served to effectually and finally check the depredations upon American shipping. He returned home in 1818, and in 1820 was appointed Navy Commissioner, with headquarters in Washington. He con- tinued in this office until 1824, and then resumed his old post in the New York navy yard, and held it continuously for nine years. From 1833 until his death he was again on the Board of Navy Com- missioners. Commodore Chauncey en- joyed the well deserved reputation of being one of the bravest, most energetic and skillful officers in the service. His remains were interred in the Congres- sional Cemetery, Washington, where a monument was erected to his memory. He died in Washington, January 27, 1840.
JEROME, Chauncey, Manufacturer.
Chauncey Jerome was born at Plym- outh, Connecticut, June 10, 1793, the son of a blacksmith and nailmaker, who also was a farmer. The boy worked on the farm until he was ten years old, excepting three months in the winter, when he at- tended a district school. In his eleventh year he began work in his father's shop, and when the latter died, young Chaun- cey hired out to a neighboring farmer, with whom he remained until he was fourteen, poorly cared for and over- worked. Having reached the apprentice age, in accordance with the New Eng- land custom, he was bound out to a car- penter until he was twenty-one, during which time he was to give his entire labor for board and clothes. His industry and perseverance made him an excellent car-
penter in a short time, and though con- stantly at work, walking frequently many miles to the job, and having only two holidays in the year-the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day-his lot was pleas- ant, due to his living with a family which treated him kindly.
Before he had left his father's home, his childish imagination had been excited by the mysterious work of a neighbor-Eli Terry, the famous wooden clockmaker. During the winter months it was Terry's custom to cut out with a saw and jack- knife the works for twenty-five clocks, which he sold during the following sum- mer, the village carpenter making the tall cases under his direction. Every one who could afford it, supplied himself with one, but they were expensive in those days, the case often costing fifteen dollars and the works twenty-five dollars. Chauncey Jerome decided that he would be a clock- maker, and when he was eighteen years old, in consideration of furnishing his own clothes, his master released him for four months in the winter. which time he improved by learning clockmaking at Waterbury, Connecticut. His ideas of business and of the world in general, and New York in particular, were greatly en- larged during a trip to New Jersey, in company with two Yankee clock ped- dlers, in order to make the cases for their clockworks. As soon as his apprentice- ship was ended he began to make clocks, putting the works together, and installing them in mahogany cases. His first order was from the South, and for twelve clocks at twelve dollars each, and these he de- livered himself, involving a journey very considerable for those days. With the money thus secured he continued his manufacturing business, which expanded rapidly. Meantime he made many im- provements, the most important of which was the use of brass instead of wood for
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the works, and making possible the trans- portation of his clocks to any distance without injury. He then introduced the use of machinery in clockmaking, and ex- perimented until he could make a good brass clock for two dollars, and a fairly good one for half that amount. In his early days the people about him thought it impossible for him to make two hun- dred clocks for a delivery, but he lived to turn out of his factory in New Haven six hundred a day, and his annual manu- facture reached the immense number of two hundred thousand. He retired from active business a very rich man, but lost his fortune through the mismanagement of his partners. Though feeling his mis- fortunes acutely, with characteristic en- ergy, at the age of seventy years he began life over again as a superintendent in a Chicago clock factory. The integrity which he had displayed through a long life, and the courage with which he en- dured the destruction of his great busi- ness, won him the esteem and respect of all who knew him.
GRISWOLD, Alexander V., Episcopal Prelate.
Alexander V. Griswold, first Protestant Episcopal bishop of the eastern diocese of the United States, and twelfth in succes- sion in the American episcopate, was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, April 22, 1766. It was claimed for him that at the age of three years he could read fluently. His precocity was regarded as phenome- nal; but the Revolutionary War interven- ing, also the fact that he married at the age of nineteen, prevented him from going to college. He was obliged to work on his father's farm, but managed to study law and was admitted to the bar. On the first visit of Bishop Seabury
(at that time the only Episcopal bishop in the country) to the town where young Griswold lived, he was received into the church by confirmation.
The practice of the law not proving to his liking, Griswold determined to study for the ministry, entered upon his pre- paratory course in 1794, and during the prosecution of his studies officiated in neighboring towns as a lay reader. He received deacon's orders on June 3, 1795, from Bishop Seabury, and on October I following was ordained a presbyter. Dur- ing the following ten years he had charge of three parishes-Plymouth, Harwinton and Litchfield, in all of which he had served as lay reader before his ordination. His parishes were not financially strong, and he not only labored at the usual em- ployment on the farm, but taught school in the winters. In 1804 he accepted the rectorship of St. Michael's Church, in Bristol, Rhode Island, and filled the posi- tion for the following six years. He was then called to the rectorship of the church in Litchfield, the scene of earlier labors, when in 1810, at the comparatively early age of forty-four years, he was elected to the episcopate for the eastern diocese, comprising the territory embraced by the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- mont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. His modesty prevented an immediate answer, but his friends urged his accept- ance, and he at length yielded, and he was consecrated as bishop in Trinity Church, New York City, May 29, 18II. In 1810 Brown University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and he received the same from Princeton Col- lege in 1811, and from Harvard College in 1812.
Bishop Griswold did not immediately leave his parochial work, but remained at Bristol in charge of his parish until 1830,
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a period of eighteen years, when he re- moved to Salem, Massachusetts, and be- came rector of St. Peter's Church. His episcopal duties increasing, he resigned his parish work in 1835, and thencefor- ward devoted himself exclusively to the requirements of the higher office. In 1838, having reached his seventy-second year, and feeling the infirmities incident to advancing age, he suggested to the convention of that year the need of an assistant. An eminent presbyter was elected, but preëmptorily declined. Four years passed, and on December 29, 1842, Rev. Manton Eastburn, of New York, was chosen. He accepted the position, and his consecration to the bishopric was the last ordaining act of the venerable diocesan. The services were held in Trin- ity Church, Boston, December 29, 1842. In the order of the succession in seniority of the bishops of the Episcopal church, Bishop Seabury, the first bishop, had pre- sided from November 14, 1784, the date of his consecration, until his death, Feb- ruary 25, 1796. His successor was Bishop White, and on his death, July 17, 1836, Bishop Griswold became the presiding bishop in the Episcopal church in the United States. He labored assiduously to the last. In later years his health be- came greatly impaired, but he refused to yield, and by sheer will power continued his duties. On February 15, 1843, a few weeks after the services which had given him a coadjutor, he went to confer with Bishop Eastburn, when, as he was enter- ing the door, he fell on the threshold and suddenly expired of heart disease.
Bishop Griswold published : "Dis- courses on the Most Important Doc- trines and Duties of the Christian Re- ligion" (1830) ; "The Reformation and the Apostolic Office" (1843), and "Re- marks on Social Prayer Meetings" (1858). He died February 15, 1843.
KINGSLEY, James L.,
Educator, Author.
James Luce Kingsley was born in Scot- land, Windham county, Connecticut, Au- gust 28, 1778, eldest child of Jonathan Kingsley, a well-to-do farmer, and a de- scendant of John Kingsley, an English- man and a Puritan, who was an original settler of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and one of the founders of its first church.
His parents had a strong appreciation of culture, and, as he was precocious and even in early childhood preferred books to play, he was sent to school as soon as possible. After receiving special instruc- tion at Plainfield and Windham, and finally under Rev. Lewis Weld, of Hamp- ton, in 1795 he entered Williams College. In May, 1797, he was transferred to Yale College, from which he graduated in 1799. He then spent a year at Wethers- field, Connecticut, as principal of a select school. In October, 1801, he became a tutor in Yale, and in 1805 was appointed professor of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages and of ecclesiastical history, being the first professor of any language in the college, instruction in that depart- ment having been previously given by the tutors, aided by the president. In addi- tion, and until about 1812, he performed a tutor's service in taking a division of a class and carrying it through the pre- scribed course up to the senior year. In 1831 a separate professorship of Greek was established, Theodore D. Woolsey taking the chair, and in 1835 instruction in Hebrew was transferred to the Theo- logical Seminary; but for several years he continued to instruct in Hebrew and history, though his only proper depart- ment was the Latin language and litera- ture.
For nineteen years he filled the office of librarian, and in 1845, at his own expense,
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went to Europe to purchase books for the collège library. In 1851 Professor Kings- ley resigned, but became professor emeri- tus. "No man," said Professor Thacher, "had been more concerned in the internal progress of the college, step by step, from the comparatively low degree at which he found it, to the height at which he left it." The "Iliad" and the "Graeca Monora" and "Majora" were introduced as text- books by him, the last named being first used in this country at Yale; he broad- ened also the list of Latin authors studied, and he was the first person who in Yale ever heard a class recite fluxions. In every branch of learning pursued in the college, chemistry excepted, he was a master. "In variety of acquirements," said Professor Woolsey, in an address at Professor Kingsley's funeral, "he has rarely been equaled by American scholars. In the Hebrew and Greek languages his attainments were highly respectable. In Latin he had that rare maturity that his criticisms and his elegant selection of words in Latin composition alike showed him to be a master. I doubt if any Amer- ican scholar has ever surpassed him in Latin style." On another occasion Pro- fessor Thacher said: "As a writer of English, Professor Kingsley enjoyed a high reputation. * Few writers have equaled him in the faultlessness of his classical diction or the finish of his periods; you are reminded of the quiet charm of the pen of Addison."
Besides many contributions, often anon- ymous, to the "North American Review," "Christian Spectator," "New Englander," "Biblical Repository," "American Journal of Science," and other periodicals, he was the author of a "Eulogy on Professor Fisher" (1822) ; a "History of Yale Col- lege," printed in the "American Quar- terly Register" (1835) ; "Life of President Stiles," in "Sparks' American Biography,"
and a discourse on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of New Haven (1838). He superintended the publication of the "Triennial Catalogue" for fifty years, and wrote the necrologies of the graduates for a number of years. He also prepared editions of Tacitus and Cicero for the press for the use of the students. He was married at Norwich, Connecticut, September 23, 1811, to Lydia, daughter of Daniel Coit, who bore him three sons and a daughter. She, with two sons and the daughter, survived him. Pro- fessor Kingsley died at New Haven, Con- necticut, August 31, 1852.
MORRIS, Charles,
Naval Officer.
Commodore Charles Morris was born at Woodstock, Connecticut, July 26, 1784. His father, at the age of sixteen, had en- listed in the Continental army in Rhode Island, under General Lafayette; after- ward shipped on board a privateer ; was made prisoner and confined in the prison hulks in New York. After the war, the elder Morris acquired a half interest in a merchant vessel, which he commanded for many years in the South African trade. Finally he and his crew were cap- tured by pirates and held as prisoners for two years, when they escaped to an Eng- lish cruiser in the Orinoco river. On Feb- ruary 4, 1799, he was appointed purser in the navy, and assigned to the "Baltimore," then lying at Norfolk, Virginia, and while so engaged procured for his son an ap- pointment as acting midshipman on his own ship.
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