USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 48
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TERRY, Alfred Howe,
Soldier.
General Alfred Howe Terry was born in Hartford, Connecticut, November 10, 1827, and died in New Haven, Connecti- cut, December 16, 1890. He attended the schools of New Haven, and Yale Law School, and began the practice of law in Hartford in 1849. He served from 1854 to 1860 as clerk of the Superior and Su- preme Courts of Connecticut.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he took the field at once with the Second Regiment of State Militia, of which he had been in command for seven years, enlisting in the call for three months' troops. He was appointed colonel of the Second Regiment Connecticut Volunteers and took part in the battle of Bull Run. Returning to Connecticut, he organized the Seventh Regiment Connecticut Vol- unteers, of which he was commissioned colonel, and served in the capture of Port Royal, South Carolina, and the siege of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, having charge of the fort after its surrender. He was pro- moted to brigadier-general, United States Volunteers, April 25, 1862, and partici- pated in the demonstration up the Stono river, July 8, 1863. He landed his force of thirty-eight hundred men on James Island during the operations against Charleston, South Carolina, and com- manded the troops on Morris Island dur- ing the bombardment of Forts Wagner and Sumter. He was given command of the Department of the South, and com- manded the First Division, Tenth Army Corps, Army of the James, in the Virginia campaign of 1864; was brevetted major- general, United States Volunteers, Au- gust 20, 1864; commanded the Tenth Army Corps, October-December, 1864, and the First Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps, in the battles of Chester Station, Drewry's Bluff, Fussell's Mills,
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الجديد
A. B. Rice
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Deep Bottom, and the siege at Peters- burg. He cooperated with the fleet under Admiral David D. Porter in a second attack on Fort Fisher, his force compris- ing the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Army Corps, white and colored troops. Major-General Terry arrived off Beau- fort, January 8, 1865, and on January 13 the fleet engaged the fort, keeping up a continuous bombardment. On January 15, a combined assault of soldiers and sailors was agreed upon and a bombard- ment from the fleet took place at 9 a. m., which was the most severe in the history of naval warfare to that time. The heavy guns of Fort Wagner were silenced, and the assaulting column of sailors and ma- rines was landed, and charged up the beach under a sharp fire from the Con- federate rifles. The charge was stopped when at the very foot of the fort, the Confederate fire proving too heavy, as the sailors were armed only with cut- lass and pistol, and a retreat was made with a loss of about three hundred killed and wounded. Meanwhile Major-General Terry had intrenched against a force of the enemy threatening him from, the direc- tion of Wilmington. Simultaneously with the attack of the navy, the attack of the troops on the western extremity of the fort was made, and the parapet gained. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued, and after a most gallant defence the Confederate force fell back, disorganized and defeated, surrendering to General Terry more than two thousand men and officers, besides quantities of ammunition, artillery and ordnance.
General Terry was promoted to briga- dier-general, United States Army, and major-general, United States Volunteers. He commanded the Tenth Army Corps under General William T. Sherman in North Carolina; was breveted major- general, United States Army, March 13,
1865, for his services at the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina; command- ed the Department of Dakota, and two columns in the movement against the hos- tile Sioux Indians in Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. He established a supply camp at the mouth of Powder river, June 9, 1876, and detached the Seventh Cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel George A. Cus- ter to the Upper Rosebud, a tributary of the Big Horn river, where the entire com- mand was to assemble on an appointed day. Colonel Custer started June 22, and on arriving at the Little Big Horn he sent Major Reno with three companies into the valley of the stream, while he at- tempted to cross about five miles lower down. Major Reno was completely over- whelmed by the Indians, and was forced to recross, where he made a stand, and on June 27, 1876, General Terry's com- mand arrived and the Indians withdrew. Colonel Custer's command was entirely wiped out in the valley, and General Terry immediately started in pursuit of the Indians, who surrendered in October, 1876. He subsequently commanded the Department of the South and the military Division of the Missouri, with headquar- ters in Chicago. He was a member of the board of officers appointed to examine the evidence in the Fitz-John Porter case, April 12, 1878. He retired from the army in April, 1888.
RICE, Frederick Benjamin,
Enterprising Citizen.
Frederick Benjamin Rice, in whose death on April 22, 1905, the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, lost one of the most prominent and public-spirited of its citizens, was by origin and every associ- ation a New Englander, although his birth occurred in the middle west.
He was descended on both sides of the
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house from old and highly respected Con- necticut families, whose honorable rec- ords it was his privilege to sustain and even add to. The earliest paternal ances- tor who can be positively traced was Isaac Rice, who took a creditable and ac- tive part in the American Revolution, but it seems reasonably certain that the fam- ily named before that period was Royce, which would prolong the line much fur- ther. On the maternal side Mr. Rice was able to trace his descent back through the well known Bronson family to Richard Bronson who lived in England and died as early as 1478. Mr. Rice's parents, who were Archibald Elijah and Susan (Bron- son) Rice, were natives of Waterbury, and had passed their youth in that place, but moved to Hudson, Ohio, where Fred- erick Benjamin Rice was born, September 30, 1843. His parents, however, did not prolong their stay in Ohio for a great period after his birth, but returned to Waterbury while he was a mere child, so that all his youthful associations were with the home of his ancestors. It was there that he was educated, in the local public schools, and it was there that he spent practically his whole life, the only exceptions being short absences such as that in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he took a course in Eastman's Business College, and his stay in the South with the Union army during the Civil War.
Upon the return from the former, Mr. Rice began his business career by taking a position as clerk in the employ of the L. D. Smith Company, a Waterbury con- cern in which his father was a stock- holder. He later accepted a better posi- tion, although also clerical, with the Apothecaries Hall Company, a large com- pany doing a wholesale and retail drug business. It was while thus employed that the Civil War broke out, and in 1862 he enlisted in the Union army. He served
for a period of thirteen months, most of which time his regiment was in Louisiana in the command of General Banks. He was a corporal in Company A, Twenty- third Regiment, Connecticut National Guard. In the month of August, 1863, he received his honorable discharge and returning to Waterbury, resumed his con- nection with the Apothecaries Hall Com- pany, in the capacity of secretary. Mr. Rice's next business connection was with the Waterbury Lumber and Coal Com- pany, in which he took the position of secretary, resigning his similar office with the Apothecaries Hall Company for the purpose. He remained with the lumber concern during a period of several years, and in the meantime his father, who was interested in the lumber and coal busi- ness, secured a controlling interest in the company, the elder Mr. Rice and his son finally selling out their interests to a New Britain syndicate. It was while an officer in the Waterbury Lumber and Coal Com- pany that Mr. Rice had his attention di- rected to that line of business which he finally followed with so much success. The rapid growth and development of Waterbury were raising the prices of real estate throughout the neighborhood to higher and higher levels, and this fact could not fail to be apparent to a man of Mr. Rice's perspicacity, nor the correlated fact of the great opportunity offered to investment by this property. He at once engaged in real estate operations and the building business on a very large scale, and his exertions were a very important factor in the development of the city. He particularly directed his attention to the development of new tracts of property in the region of the city, and was able to foretell the direction of the latter with such accuracy that he never made a seri- ous mistake in his operations. These grew to great proportions and included
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several large areas of land, of which that known as the "Glebe Land" was typ- ical. In the case of the "Glebe Land," Mr. Rice selected a tract of what had pre- viously been agricultural land, although agricultural land of an extremely un- generous and difficult character. It was situated to the northwest of the city, and Mr. Rice believed that properly handled, it might be turned into an attractive resi- dence section. Accordingly he spared neither effort nor expense, and in the first place he had removed a solid bed of rock some thirty-four feet in height which surrounded the whole property, an opera- tion which cost him twenty-five thousand dollars. The event amply justified him, however, as he had at his disposal sixty- five building lots situated on three streets, upon which he erected residences of a high type. At present the "Glebe Land" forms the flourishing northwest section of the city of Waterbury. During the carrying out of this and many other simi- lar operations, Mr. Rice continued his building business, with an equal degree of success. From the time of his entrance upon this line until his death, he built in all seven hundred and twenty-four build- ings, including all types from dwellings costing as little as eighteen hundred dol- lars, to great business blocks costing one hundred thousand. Among the largest and most prominent of these were the Concordia Hall, the Grand Army of the Republic building, and a number of large apartment houses. In the "Elton," one of the largest and handsomest hotels in New England, he was deeply interested. In the case of the last named structure it was erected by a company known as the Waterbury Hotel Corporation, of which Mr. Rice was president. Mr. Rice him- self gave the whole operation his most careful supervision, to which fact is at- tributable in large measure the perfection
of its fittings and appurtenances, but he was not destined to witness its comple- tion, his death intervening shortly before. During the latter years of his life Mr. Rice assumed a position of great impor- tance in the Waterbury business world, and exercised a great power in financial circles in that part of the State. He be- came president of a number of large or- ganizations, besides the Waterbury Hotel Corporation, notably the Apothecaries Hall Company, in which he had been clerk and secretary years before, and the F. B. Rice Company, a corporation or- ganized by himself for the more efficient carrying on of his own great business. Besides this he was a director of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Water- bury.
Mr. Rice did not confine his activities to the conduct of his personal business or the management of the various great financial interests confided to him, oner- ous as the duties involved in their suc- cessful management would seem to most men. He was an active participant in almost all the departments of the commu- nity's life. He was greatly interested in politics, both local and general, and played a conspicuous part in the manage- ment of the city's affairs. His promi- nence and general popularity made him particularly available as a candidate, and he was elected successively to the offices of tax assessor, which he held for five terms, and councilman for three terms, and besides these elective offices he also served at different times upon the com- mittees on the water supply, finance and a number of other municipal boards.
Mr. Rice's broad sympathies were such as to interest him vitally in many char- itable and semi-charitable movements, and in this field also, he gave most gen- erously of his time and energies. Three institutions were of particular interest to
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him, the Waterbury Hospital, the Water- bury Industrial School, and the Girls' Friendly League, all of which he served as a member of their governing boards. He was a member of the First Congre- gational Church of Waterbury, and took an active part in the work of the parish, materially aiding in the support of the many philanthropies connected therewith. He was a man in whom business decision and judgment were nicely balanced with a generosity of nature and broadness of hu- man interest which made him a particular- ly valuable member of the community and caused his loss to be mourned. not only by his immediate family and friends, but by his fellow citizens generally.
Mr. Rice was married, May 23, 1866, to Miss Helen Mccullough Mintie, a daugh- ter of Alexander and Helen (Kenyon) Mintie. To Mr. and Mrs. Rice were born two children, Helen Susan and Archibald Ernest, of whom the former died in early childhood, and the latter, together with his mother, survives Mr. Rice.
GOODWIN, Daniel Raynes, Educator, Clergyman.
Rev. Daniel Raynes Goodwin was born in North Berwick, Maine, April 12, 181I, son of Samuel and Anna (Gerrish) Good- win. He was prepared for college at Ber- wick and Limerick academies, and was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1832, with the first honors of his class. After teaching at Hallowell Academy for the year 1832-33, and studying a year at An- dover Theological Seminary, he was ap- pointed tutor in modern languages and librarian at Bowdoin, and on being ad- vanced to the chair of modern languages to succeed Professor Henry W. Longfel- low, he continued his studies in Europe, principally at Paris and Heidelberg. In 1835 he returned to his chair at Bowdoin,
and was made librarian of the college library in 1838, filling both positions until 1853. While filling that chair he com- pleted his theological course, and was ordained a deacon in the Protestant Epis- copal church, July 13, 1847, and a priest, September 10, 1848.
He was president of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, from July 27, 1853, to June 27, 1860, and professor of ethics and metaphysics there, 1858-60, and pro- vost and professor of intellectual and moral philosophy in the University of Pennsylvania, 1860-68. During his presi- dency of Trinity College he raised the standard of requirements in the institu- tion and improved its discipline. During his tenure of office of provost he strength- ened the spirit of instruction in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and brought about an air of discipline from the lack of which the university was suffering, and during his administration, for the first time since the early days of prosperity, the university took rank with similar in- stitutions in the United States. The auxiliary Department of Medicine was added in 1865 through the liberality of Dr. George B. Wood, who provided for its permanence during his lifetime, and its endowment after his death. He was con- nected with the Protestant Episcopal Di- vinity School in Philadelphia as professor of Apologetics, 1862-65 ; of systematic di- vinity, 1865-68; as dean, 1868-84, and again as professor of systematic divinity, 1884-90. For twenty-five years he was a delegate to every general convention of his church in the United States, and there was scarcely a controversy pertaining to the religious life of his time, in which he did not take a prominent and vigorous part. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1861, and was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the
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American Oriental Society, and was the first president of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Bow- doin College in 1853, and that of Doctor of Laws from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1868.
Dr. Goodwin published ninety-six re- views, pamphlets, speeches, tracts and treatises which cover a wide range of subjects, and in the domain of ethics, theology, ecclesiastical controversy, the higher metaphysics and philology, he was a vigorous and forcible writer. Among his works were the "Notes on the Revi- sion of the New Testament Version" (1883) and "Christian Eschatology" (1885). Dr. Goodwin married, January 2, 1838, Mary Randall, daughter of Sam- uel and Hannah Merrick. Dr. Goodwin died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1890.
BIGELOW, Hobart B., Legislator, Governor.
Hobart B. Bigelow, thirty-second Gov- ernor of Connecticut, was born in North Haven, New Haven county, Connecticut, May 16, 1834, and died October 12, 1891. He was a son of Levi L. and Belinda (Pierpont) Bigelow, his father a descend- ant of Massachusetts stock, one of a fam- ily that has been prominent from early times, and his mother was a descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, second minister of New Haven and one of the founders of Yale College.
Hobart B. Bigelow attended the dis- trict school and a local academy until he was seventeen years of age, in South Egremont, Massachusetts, whither his father removed when he was ten years of age. He then removed to Guilford, Con- necticut, where he was apprenticed to the machinist's trade, but completed his ap- prenticeship in the employ of the New
Haven Manufacturing Company, of which his uncle, Asahel Pierpont, was manager. He then became foreman of a machine shop, and in 1861 acquired an interest in the business, and later acquired the foundry connected with the establish- ment, and conducted the business under the name of the Bigelow Manufacturing Company. A department for the manu- facture of boilers was added, and in 1870, owing to the increase of business, they were compelled to remove to a site where buildings could be erected as required. In 1883 a corporation was organized under a special charter from the Legisla- ture, and took the name of the Bigelow Company, with plant in New Haven, and it became one of the most important foundry, boiler and machine works in Connecticut.
Mr. Bigelow filled successively the offices of common councilman in 1863-64, alderman in 1864-65, supervisor in 1871- 74, fire commissioner in 1874-76, member of the General Assembly in 1875, and mayor of New Haven in 1879-81. He was elected Governor on November 2, 1880, and took his seat January 5, 1881. While serving as mayor he rendered important service in creating a system of parks and the planning of harbor improvements, and during his service as Governor he con- ducted himself with "quiet dignity, thor- ough impartiality, and great good sense." For several years he was a director of the Merchants' National Bank, and in 1882 was elected its president.
He was married in New Haven, May 6, 1857, to Eleanor, daughter of Philo and Eleanor (Swift) Lewis, who bore him two sons.
BEARDSLEY, Eben Edwards,
Clergyman.
William Beardsley, the immigrant an- cestor, was born in England in 1605, died
Conn-1-22
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at the age of fifty-six years; came to America in 1635, located in Hartford, 1638, and in the following spring removed to Stratford, of which he was one of the first settlers; was deputy to the General Court seven years. His son, Joseph Beardsley, was born in 1634; exchanged his property in Stratford for property in Brookhaven, Long Island, but later he re- turned to Stratford and died there in 1712. He married Abigail Dayton. Their son, Thomas Beardsley, married Sarah Dem- ing, and died in 1773. Their son, Israel Beardsley, was born December 3, 1708, died in Newtown, Connecticut, in 1791, whither he removed before 1761 ; he mar- ried Elizabeth Blagge. Their son, Elisha Beardsley, born August 17, 1735, died in Monroe, April 6, 1824; he married Mehet- able Hurd. Their son, Elihu Beardsley, was born in May, 1777, died February 29, 1844; he married (first) Priscilla Silli- man, of Monroe, Connecticut, (second) Ruth Edwards, and they were the parents of the Rev. Eben Edwards Beardsley, of this review.
Rev. Eben Edwards Beardsley, D. D., LL. D., son of Elihu Beardsley, was born at what is now the town of Monroe, Fair- field county, Connecticut, formerly the town of New Stratford, January 8, 1808.
His boyhood was spent largely on his father's farm and in the district schools. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the Staples Academy at Weston, where he began his classical studies. While a stu- dent he taught a few seasons in the dis- trict schools of the vicinity. He went to the Episcopal Academy at Norwalk to prepare for college under Rev. Reuben Sherwood, then rector of St. Paul's Church at Norwalk, when Rev. Allen L. Morgan was head master of the academy. He entered Trinity College in 1828, and took the academic course of four years. He was especially fond of literature, and
he took a place of honor at graduation. About the same time he received pay for a magazine story that had been accepted, and this money, he often said, seemed the best to him of any that he ever earned or received. He taught school for one year in Hartford, and for two years was a tutor in Trinity College, pursuing at the same time the study of theology by himself, with what help he could get from the col- lege curriculum. He was ordained dea- con by Bishop Brownell, August 11, 1835, and immediately placed in charge of St. Peter's Church at Cheshire, Connecticut. In 1838 he was called to the position of principal of the Academy at Cheshire, and he continued also as rector of the church there. Under his management the school prospered. He was anxious to have a new church built, and offered to give his services without salary, if the undertak- ing were accomplished within a given time. The church was built. Soon after- ward he resigned as rector to give his un- divided attention to the school; but in 1844 the parish again had need of him, and he relinquished the academy for the church, and became rector once more. He continued his good work in this field of labor from 1835 to 1848. He then came to New Haven, as the first rector of the Third Parish, St. Thomas' Church. This church was organized by men of modest means, and had a small beginning. At first services were held in the chapel of the First Ecclesiastical Society, begin- ning April 20, 1848. The increase in num- bers came sooner than expected, and preparations were soon made for building a church. A lot was bought on Elm street, and a brick chapel, seating about three hundred, was erected in the sum- mer of 1848. On this site a handsome new church was erected a few years later, and consecrated April 19, 1855. Great difficulties had to be overcome by the
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rector and his parishioners; but the church continued to grow, and now St. Thomas' is unsurpassed in richness, con- venience and beauty by any church in the city. He continued in the same parish until his death in December, 1891, a faithful, gifted and popular pastor and preacher.
Dr. Beardsley was a trustee of Trinity College from 1851 until his death, a period of forty years, and his wisdom and zeal were of great service to this institution. He opposed the removal of the college from the center of the city to the suburbs. He did not approve of the building up of Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown about the person of Bishop Williams. He was trustee of the Diocesan School at Cheshire for a long time, and was always alive to its well being and never absent from its anniversaries ; he had doubtless the largest sense of responsibility for the institution of any of the trustees. He re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College in 1854, and it was well earned, though unsought and unex- pected. He was in July, 1851, orator at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the found- ing of the college. In 1859 he was elected to the standing committee of the diocese, the bishop's council, and served the re- mainder of his life in this office. He de- clined other calls from parishes that sought him as rector, and year by year grew in influence and reputation. All kinds of offices came to him unsought, be- cause of the good judgment and wisdom, the strong and manly character he pos- sessed. The sixth decade of his life was devoted largely to the preparation and publication of historical works. He was throughout life a student of history, and especially fond of local and church his- tory, and especially fond of local and church history of his native State. He often wrote historical sermons and lec-
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