USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 31
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Charles Morris entered upon his duties July 1, 1799, thus entering upon what was destined to be one of the most brilliant and honorable careers in the history of the American navy. He was assigned to the "Congress" in 1799, under Captain J.
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Sever. He saw his first actual war serv- ice in Commodore Preble's squadron, on board the "Constitution," during the war with Tripoli (1801-05). He was one of the midshipmen who volunteered in the perilous undertaking to destroy the cap- tured "Philadelphia" in the harbor of Tripoli, and when Decatur slowly drifted into the harbor on the "Intrepid," dis- guised as a merchantman, on the night of February 16, 1804, young Morris was the first to reach the deck of the "Phila- delphia." On the night of August 5, 1804, while in a boat guarding the harbor of Tripoli, he suddenly found himself in the presence of a strange vessel which proved to be a French privateer. With- out waiting to learn her force, he boarded her and carried her by surprise. He was promoted lieutenant in 1807. In the War of 1812 he was first lieutenant on the "Constitution" under Captain Isaac Hull. In Hull's famous escape from the British squadron under Captain Brooke, it was Morris who suggested the feasibility of kedging as a means of escape. Says his autobiography : "With our minds excited to the utmost to devise means for escape, I happened to recollect that, when obliged by the timidity of my old commander to warp the "President" in and out of har- bors, where others depended on sails, our practice had enabled us to give her a speed of nearly three miles an hour." Accordingly, all available rope was spliced into a line nearly a mile long, one end of which being attached to a kedge or small anchor, was carried ahead of the "Con- stitution" the full length of the rope, and then dropped into the water. The men of the vessel seized the other end, and by hauling slowly soon had the "Constitu- tion" under way. In all probability the Yankee ingenuity of Lieutenant Morris in applying this means of escape saved the "Constitution" from certain capture.
He took part in the famous conflict be- tween the "Constitution" and the "Guer- rière," August 19, 1812, and in the hottest of the battle, as the two ships approached, he personally assisted in lashing them to- gether. At that moment he was shot through the body by one of the enemy's sharpshooters, and fell near the quarter- deck, badly stunned, but regained con- sciousness in a few minutes and returned to his post.
The records of the Navy Department mention in detail the brilliant services of "this distinguished officer," to use its own phrasing, and in March, 1813, he was pro- moted to captain. In 1814, the corvette "Adams," which was blockaded in the Potomac river, was altered to a sloop-of- war, twenty-six guns, and Morris was given command. On the night of Janu- ary 18, 1814, during a snowstorm, he ran the blockade and put to sea. On March 25 he captured the Indiaman "Wood- bridge," but two British frigates hove in sight and he was obliged to abandon his prize. During a cruise of seven months, Morris captured ten merchantmen, carry- ing in all one hundred and sixty-one guns. While returning to America his vessel ran ashore in a fog, and after floating off at high tide he was pursued by a British squadron, and was finally followed into the Penobscot river, in Maine, and his ship, the "Adams," was destroyed near Hampden. Morris, however, with his officers and crew, escaped to the shore, and, breaking up into small parties, finally reached New York. Morris had no other important command during the remain- der of the war. In 1816-17 he was in com- mand of the United States squadron in the Gulf of Mexico, and in 1819-20, in Brazilian waters. Late in 1825 he com- manded the frigate "Brandywine," which conveyed General Lafayette to France, and meantime (1823-27) was a member of
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the Board of Navy Commissioners, a dig- nity again held by him during 1832-41. He had command of the Mediterranean squadron three years (1841-44), and then, practically retiring from sea duty, became director of the United States Naval Acad- emy, at Annapolis, Maryland. In the last five years of his life he was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography.
Commodore Morris was reputed the best informed officer in the navy, and his opinions on all subjects, both practical and executive, were highly valued by the department. Secretary of the Navy Dob- bin, in making to the navy announcement of the death of Commodore Morris, said : "Rarely, indeed. has a nation to mourn the loss of so distinguished, so useful, so good a citizen. His name is associ- ated with the most brilliant achieve- ments which have illustrated the Ameri- can navy."
He was married, February 4, 1815, to Harriet, daughter of William Bowen, of Providence, Rhode Island, and had nine children. He died in Washington, D. C., January 27, 1856.
REDFIELD, William C., Scientist, Meteorologist.
William C. Redfield was born at Mid- dletown, Connecticut, March 25, 1789, both his paternal and maternal ancestors being of English stock. His father dying when he was thirteen years of age, the youth was apprenticed to a mechanic at Upper Middletown (Cromwell), as his mother had not the means to support him after his father's death. The suc- ceeding years were years of hard work, offering almost no opportunities for read- ing or study. However, such opportuni- ties for obtaining knowledge as came to him, he seized upon with ardor. A de- bating society, with a small library be-
longing to it, was formed when he had almost arrived at his majority, and to this he owed much of the foundation for his future studies. He also found a friend in Dr. William Tulley, who lent him books and was a sympathetic adviser. Before he had reached the end of his ap- prenticeship, Redfield made a tramping excursion to Ohio to visit his mother, who had remarried. He took a northern route through New York in going west, and a southern route through Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, in returning again to the east. He then began his in- dependent life work as a mechanic and trader in a small way; and was very active in all affairs connected with the educational and religious interests of the community in which he lived.
An accident determined his future and led him into the field of science. On Sep- tember 3, 1821, a most violent storm oc- curred in New England. Shortly after- ward, Redfield passed over the devastated region, and noticed that the trees that had fallen in his own neighborhood lay with their tops towards the northwest ; while further inland, towards the Massa- chusetts line, they lay with their tops towards the southeast. He also found that at the same time, while the wind at one place was blowing violently from the southeast, at a distance of less than sev- enty miles it was blowing from the north- west. In comparing the directions from which the wind came, and the time when the storm reached various points, the idea suddenly came to him that this storm must have been a progressive whirlwind. He confided this idea to his son, and probably others; but as he then knew nothing about meteorology as a science, there was no publication of the discovery until ten years later, when he wrote out his views for "Silliman's Journal." From 1831 to 1857 Redfield published a great
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many papers and investigations on storms in this same journal and other periodicals. He studied not only American storms, but also those occurring elsewhere, and particularly upon the ocean. His views, which may be briefly designated as "the rotary theory of storms," were received with great respect even in Europe. How- ever, there were objectors, the most prom- inent being Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, and the controversy that arose between the two was one of the most spirited in the annals of American science. Redfield was also much interested in and wrote upon geographical and geological mat- ters. He demonstrated that the New Jer- sey sandstones, and the fossils of the Connecticut river valley, were of the lower jurassic period, and gave them the name of the Newark group. In all he published about sixty papers, some of them being of considerable length. Be- sides this scientific work, Redfield also achieved great success as a naval engi- neer. Removing in 1827 to New York, he there devised the plan of safety barges for passenger transportation, to minimize the danger to human life from boiler ex- plosions; and he also applied the same idea to the construction of two boats for freight, in which one tug can convey a number of barges. In a pamphlet, pub- lished in 1829, he outlined the plan for a system of railroads connecting the Hud- son with the Mississippi river, the route being substantially that covered by the New York & Erie railroad, and predicted the great networth of railways that now traverse the country. He was also the first to advocate the construction of a rail- road from New York to Albany, along the Hudson river. He was the pioneer of street railways in cities, and he applied to the common council of New York for leave to build one along Canal street. He surveyed the proposed route of the Har-
lem railroad, and was active in securing its charter, and was also a prime mover in the construction of the Hartford & New Haven railroad. In matters con- nected with steam navigation, there was probably no one whose advice was more eagerly sought, and he continually sug- gested improvements in methods and means. His life, as a whole, furnishes one of the best examples of an American self-made man. He died in New York City, February 12, 1857.
BARTHOLOMEW, Edward S.,
Sculptor.
Edward Sheffield Bartholomew was born at Colchester, Connecticut, in 1822. As a boy at school he was accustomed to amuse himself making drawings with chalk, and found his greatest pleasure in looking at pictures, thus developing a love for art and a desire to follow it that made it doubly distasteful for him when he was apprenticed by his friends to learn the trade of bookbinding. From this he turned in disgust, and through the per- suasion of his friends was induced after- wards to take up the study of dentistry, resulting in his entering upon a practice which he abandoned after four years as uncongenial to him as his favorite occu- pation. The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, which he happened to read, en- couraged him thus to run counter to the wishes of those whose ambition it was to make a successful business man of him, and his artistic longings were encouraged and shared by his favorite companion, Frederick Church.
Going to New York, he spent a year studying in the life school of the Art Academy, after which he returned to Hartford, and from 1845 to 1848 held the position of curator of the Wadsworth Gallery. During these years he continued
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his studies with the facilities his position afforded, copying carefully the Raphael cartoons, in particular. He discovered, however, when he began to work in oils, that he was color blind, and consequently changing the direction of his efforts, he made about 1847 his first essays in sculp- ture. After completing a bust of "Flora," he was preparing, with the assistance of various patrons, to go to Italy, in order to prosecute his studies, but on the eve of his departure he was taken with small- pox, which left him lame for life and gen- erally enfeebled in health. When he was convalescent, he took passage on an Italian vessel, but the hardships of life on board so enfeebled him that he was obliged to land on the coast of France. When at last he reached Rome, he did not lose a week before setting to work at modeling a group, taking for his subject "Blind Homer led by His Daughter." The greatest of all his works is his "Eve Repentant," which was purchased by Mr. Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia. It was greatly admired in Europe as well as in America, and while working on it he wrote, in a letter of March, 1855: "Every- where I go I hear of the 'Eve;' it im- presses every one with its originality, and so far has been well received by all the foreign artists." Among his other works are a monument to Charles Carroll; fig- ures and busts entitled : "Calypso," "Sap- pho," "Eve," "Campagna Shepherd Boy," "Infant Pan and Wizards," "Genius of Painting," "Genius of Music," "Belisarius at the Porta Pincio," "Hagar and Ish- mael," "Ruth," "Naomi," "Or," "Youth and Old Age," "Ganymede and the Infant Jupiter," "Genevieve," "The Evening "Star," "Homer," and a statue of Wash- ington, full length.
Bartholomew made two visits to Amer- ica, once to superintend the erection of his monument to Carroll, and the second
time paying a visit to his home in Hart- ford, where the now famous sculptor was received with honors and applause that made up for his early struggles against opposition and obscurity. He was still young when his physical constitution, worn by his many difficulties and by the lingering effects of disease, gave way, and he died in Naples, Italy, May 2, 1858. A number of his works are preserved in the Wadsworth gallery at Hartford.
TAYLOR, Nathaniel W.,
Clergyman, Author.
Rev. Nathaniel William Taylor was born June 23, 1786, at New Milford, Con- necticut, where his father was pastor for fifty-two years. After graduating from Yale College in 1807, he lived for some years with Dr. Dwight, acting as his sec- retary and reading divinity under his directions. As pastor of the First Church of New Haven, 1812-22, he gained great reputation as a preacher, and actively favored revivals. Dr. Bacon described his sermons as "solid and massive, full of linked and twisted logic, yet giving out at every point sharp flashes of electric fire." From November, 1822, he was Dwight professor of didactic theology at Yale College. He was the father and chief apostle of "the New Haven theol- ogy," which was the liberalism of his time and communion-a modified Calvin- ism, developed from Edwards, harmon- izing the "exercise scheme" of Buxton, and insisting on the freedom, of the will. These views as set forth in the "Christian Spectator" (1819-39), in his class lectures, and especially in an address to the clergy in 1828, were strenuously opposed by Bennet Tyler, Leonard Woods, and others. Despite these contradictions, Dr. Taylor was perhaps the leading and most influential divine of his day in New Eng-
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land, though his modesty, which had de- layed his entrance to the ministry, also prevented him from publishing. He re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Union College in 1823. He died at New Haven, March 10, 1858.
His works, edited in 1858-59, by his son-in-law, Dr. Noah Porter, include "Practical Sermons;" "Lectures on the Moral Government of God," two volumes, and "Essays and Lectures." A memorial by Drs. Baker, Fisher and Dutton was printed in 1858, and Kingsley's "Yale Col- lege" (1878) contains a sketch of him by Professor B. N. Martin.
SPENCER, Hon. Elihu, Lawyer, Legislator.
Hon. Elihu Spencer, whose death pro- duced a profound impression, had won by his gifted mind and unblemished charac- ter an enviable distinction among his fel- low citizens. To those who knew him intimately his early departure had a touching and impressive significance. He was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, February 26, 1820, son of Elihu Spencer, who was a son of the Hon. Isaac Spencer, for many years treasurer of the State of Connecticut, and grandson of General Joseph Spencer, of East Had- dam, who was a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary army.
The elder Elihu Spencer was a lawyer by profession, and a man of strong mind and spotless integrity. He died of pul- monary disease at Warren, a few months before the birth of his only son, the sub- ject of this article. The latter was thus in one sense an orphan from his birth; but, although never enjoying the aid and counsel of a father, he was by no means an orphan in that desolate sense in which we so often use that term to designate children who are bereft of all those de-
lightful and blessed experiences which spring from parental love, protection and nurture. It was his good fortune to en- joy almost uninterruptedly through life the society of his mother, who in her maidenhood was Sarah Sage, daughter of Abner and Ruth (Ellsworth) Sage. Ab- ner Sage was one of the prominent men of Portland (then Chatham) in his day. Sarah (Sage) Spencer possessed superior endowments and rare excellencies of char- acter, and by her unwearied assiduity and her scrupulous care for his education, both moral and intellectual, she contrib- uted powerfully to unfold and develop that character in her son which won re- spect wherever he was known. Soon after the birth of her son, Mrs. Spencer re- turned to Connecticut, her native State, and after a few years settled in Middle- town.
Elihu Spencer entered Wesleyan Uni- versity when he was but fourteen years of age, and graduated in 1838, after com- pleting the usual course of study, with the reputation of a good scholar, and with the dawn of a brilliant future apparently opening upon him. He afterward spent one year in Rochester, New York, read- ing law in the office of Orlando Hastings, and residing with the family of Judge Selden. He subsequently entered the office of Judge Storrs ; and after complet- ing the usual course of legal studies, was admitted to the bar of Middlesex county, Connecticut, when he was twenty-one. He soon acquired a high reputation as a lawyer, and was retained in important causes, and became one of the eminent men in his profession. For several years he held the office of clerk of the courts for Middlesex county. This position brought him into intimate relations with the judges of all the courts, and in a very remarkable degree he enjoyed their con- fidence as a lawyer and as a man. He
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served as town clerk, and judge of pro- bate, and several times represented Mid- dletown in the State Legislature, filling these places with usefulness and distinc- tion, discharging their duties with that thoroughness and scrupulousness which distinguished all his labors. In 1855 he was a prominent member of the House, where he used his influence in favor of the new judiciary bill, and would un- doubtedly have been appointed one of the Superior Court judges provided for in the bill had not his already failing health warned him that the severe duties and sedentary habits incident to a seat on the bench would accelerate his decline. Mr. Spencer's brilliant legal attainments gave him such a position at this session as re- quired untiring labor, which exhausted his strength in investigation and debate. It was while thus engaged that an insidi- ous disease which had long been tamper- ing with his constitution, struck the fatal blow and marked him for the grave. Had he been permitted to live he would doubt- less have enjoyed positions of eminence in the State.
In his early life Mr. Spencer was an ad- herent of Democratic principles, but he separated from the Democratic party and was chosen a presidential elector in 1856 on the Fremont ticket, and he was nomi- nated in 1857 by the Republican party for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, but de- clined. For the last two or three years preceding his death he withdrew from practice, and spent the remainder of his days in comparative seclusion, solacing his hours in the society of his gifted mother and in the companionship of books, of which he was an extensive and discriminating reader. His final depar- ture, although it was long expected, fell with the weight of a sudden calamity on his friends and on the community in which he lived.
Mr. Spencer was an ardent and con- sistent friend of temperance, but chose to enforce his principles by a quiet and uni- form example rather than by vehement assertion. Although never formally con- nected with any denominative church order, his life afforded a brilliant example of that true charity and benevolence which are peculiar to the Christian character. Possessed of high intellectual qualities, extensive information, superior social ex- cellencies and a heart pure and generous, he was beloved by all denominations of Christians, for all were embraced in the abundant charity and kindness of his own heart. That he was gifted with extra- ordinary powers no one who knew him well could doubt. His mind was acute, critical and vigorous, pursuing whatever subject he took up, with a clear vision and steady step, to the very limit of investi- gation. He was comparatively destitute of imagination, and consequently never gave color and splendor to his diction. He rarely indulged in figurative expres- sion, and never sought to captivate the fancy, and thus carry the judgment of a jury by specious analogies or brilliant illustrations, but his fluent thought flamed forth in lucid and copious language. His manner was courteous and unpretending, as his argument was severe and logical. His good taste always preserved the pur- ity of his style, and his gentle heart would have shrunk from the least display of vio- lence. He cherished an honorable ambi- tion for that distinction in the profession of which he was a member which is founded upon solid merit, and had his physical constitution been as robust as his mind he would soon have been regarded as one of its brightest ornaments. His culture was not confined to the law, but he was familiar with the best depart- ments of literature, always delighting in those works which belong to a high range
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of thought. He carried into his literary and philosophical reading the same clear and exacting judgment which guided him in his legal investigations, and that judg- ment was never confused by poetical con- ceits, nor bewildered by eloquent decla- mation. His power to abstract ideas was very great, sometimes leading him, to in- sist, too rigidly, on their practical appli- cation, while the very abundance of his mental resources, by which he was able to fortify his own ideas, together with his capacity for philosophical speculation, too often led him to underrate the value and force of great authorities. Principle was more cogent than precedent, and he was occasionally impatient to break up and relay foundations, and adapt them to the support of superstructures which his rea- son could more fully .approve. He never worshipped at the fallen shrine of an- tiquity, nor indulged in poetical reveries among moss-covered stones, or "ivy- mantled ruins." With him Time could never make error venerable, nor conse- crate a wrong. But his moral character surpassed, in beauty and symmetry, his intellect. He was kind-hearted, gentle and affectionate, always careful not to wound the sensinilities of any one. To his seniors at the bar he was respectful, and to his juniors he was courteous, ever ready to aid them by his enlightened council. Just to others, he rarely failed to acknowledge merit wherever it existed. No jealous feeling ever darkened his countenance, or shot a pang through his heart. Owing to his feeble health, he never had the opportunity of displaying his abilities on an extended and conspicu- ous stage, yet he did not repine, but dili- gently employed his talents within the narrow compass allowed by his physical strength, and the thoroughness and finish of all his productions attest his scrupu- lous fidelity, and the just sense he enter-
tained of the dignity and responsibility of his profession. Though without the ostentatious generosity which often se- cures ephemeral applause, he was equally destitute of that intense selfishness which, like a cankerworm, consumes the bloom and verdure of life. Upon all subjects Elihu Spencer entertained very decided opinions, but never intruded his views upon others. Frank, independent and un- equivocal in the expression of what he thought just and true, he was never dog- matical, over-confident, or intolerant of the opinions of others. He was upright and honorable in his professional conduct, ever addressing the reason and under- standing of the court and jury, and, dis- daining to appeal to personal or party prejudices, he rested his causes upon their own independent merits. He was singu- larly modest and unobtrusive, never crowding himself on the notice of others, nor securing position by art and manage- ment.
Like all who occupy a tenement of flesh, Mr. Spencer had imperfections. These he acknowledged with the deepest humility, and constantly strove to im- prove his character. He was cut off in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness. He struggled against the stern but certain progress of his malady, the termination of which was accom- panied with much suffering. His wish, however, was justified in having his con- sciousness continue to the last, when, with an expression or resignation, his spirit quietly passed away. His business transactions were carefully arranged, and he spoke freely of his approaching disso- lution, begging those around him, not to encourage an expectation of his recovery. For every attention he was considerate and grateful. Of his cousin, Miss Emily A. Selden, who from infancy had been as a sister, and was a constant and devoted
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