USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 1 > Part 50
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again elected to the house from New Haven and served with great efficiency on the judiciary committee, being also chairman of the committee on the consti- tutional convention. In this position he reported a bill for the calling of such a convention, which aroused a good deal of public feeling in regard to it, and the house voted the bill down. In 1878 he was a strong compromise candidate for United States Senator, but did not receive the nomination. In 1883 he was nomi- nated and elected from New Haven to the House of Representatives of Connec- ticut, and was at once elected speaker, in which position he added greatly to his reputation and his popularity, presiding over the house with strict impartiality and entire fidelity to the interests of the entire commonwealth. During his gubernator- ial term (1885-87), a bureau of labor statistics was created, and provision was made for the compulsory education of children between the ages of eight and sixteen, unless otherwise instructed. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Yale University in 1885.
Governor Harrison was married to a daughter of Judge T. B. Osborne, a pro- fessor in the Yale Law School. He died in New Haven, October 29, 1901.
WILMOT, Samuel Russell, Manufacturer.
The Wilmot family descended from old and honored English stock, and was closely allied with the English nobility, one of the ancestors of the family being Sir John Eardly Wilmot. Dr. Samuel Wilmot, the immigrant ancestor of the line herein followed, was a surgeon in the British army, and also served as surgeon to the king; he came to America during the Revolutionary War, being taken pris- oner at the battle of Bunker Hill. His
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son, Dr. Robert Wilmot, was born at Exeter, England ; was a graduate of Eton College, England, and a physician and surgeon by profession; made an impor- tant discovery of the functions of the brain, and published a book on the brain ; came to America in 1837, and settled on a farm in Indiana : was the father of Sam- uel Russell Wilmot, of this review.
Samuel Russell Wilmot, son of Dr. Robert Wilmot, was born in England, July 28, 1829, died in Bridgeport, Con- necticut, February 4, 1897. He came to this country with his parents, residing during his youth on his father's farm. He attended the local schools, but was largely self-educated. He was by nature a vigor- ous, manly, self-reliant character, and being possessed of great inventive ability became a skillful machinist and manu- facturer. His trend of mind was essen- tially mechanical and inventive, and dur- ing his life he obtained about one hun- dred patents for his inventions from the United States government, many of which were patented in England and other foreign countries. His first conspicuous invention was a portable steam sawing machine for felling forest trees and saw- ing them into lumber in an incredibly short space of time. It was known as the Wilmot Steam Saw, and it added greatly to the wealth of the country by making available timber that was formerly inac- cessible to the water-power mills or water courses. Nathaniel Wheeler and Mr. Hough, of Watertown, were interested in the manufacture and development of this invention. The machines were easily moved from one location to another. At the outset they were manufactured by Fairbanks & Company, of Brooklyn, New York, of which concern Mr. Wilmot was a member, having surrendered his patents for the transfer of their estimated value in the capital stock of the company. Later
on disaster came to the company, and the entire thing, with the patents, passed into the hands of parties in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mr. Wilmot thereby meeting with a crushing reverse in his early busi- ness career. This experience came in 1856, but had little effect upon his in- domitable will, as he soon turned his at- tention to other lines and his inventive genius was never at rest. A prominent business at this time was the manufac- ture of hoop skirts out of whalebone, but the material soon became too scarce to meet the requirements of the business, and Mr. Wilmot conceived the idea of substituting steel spring metal for whale- bone, which proved so successful that he derived a large and profitable income from it, the result of which gave him the financial basis for the more extensive business enterprise that followed. It was in 1859 that he started a brass business in Brooklyn, New York, soon after taking with him a younger brother. Daniel W. Kissam became his bookkeeper, and later on he put a small amount of money into the venture, with the privilege of with- drawing it in a year if he so desired. But the prosperity of the business warranted a larger plant, and in 1865 they removed to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and organ- ized the Bridgeport Brass Company. All the plans for the new plant and provision for its prospective possibilities were ar- ranged for and drawn by Mr. Wilmot's own brain and hand. He was president of the company for many years, Mr. Kis- sam being secretary.
After retirement from active connec- tion with the Bridgeport Brass Company, Mr. Wilmot spent several years in ex- perimenting with details for larger schemes, meanwhile patenting various small inventions that brought him many thousands of dollars. He concentrated his thoughts upon a new caloric engine
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with a system of tubing suggested by the intestinal principles of the human body, and while constructing a large model of it there came a necessity for steel of dif- ferent quality than he could buy, and a need for tubing with a seam so perfect that it must be invisible. From this grew a large business and the postponement of his larger scheme. After six years of hard work and much expenditure of money, he had completed a cold rolling mill for steel, all the details being done under his personal supervision and ac- cording to original ideas of his own. In 1884 he organized the Wilmot & Hobbs Manufacturing Company, formerly known as the firm of Wilmot, Hobbs & Com- pany, which business was established in 1877 by Mr. Wilmot ; in 1894 Mr. Hobbs sold out his entire interest. The list of this firm's entire products is a long one. Bessemer, open hearth, and the celebrated "Swedoh" steel billets, bands, sheets and strips for pressed, stamped and drawn work, anti-rust, copperized, and nickel- plated oilers, lamps, engineers' and steam- boat sets, bicycle tubing and nickel-plated stove edge and ring trimmings, may be mentioned among them.
For a number of years these works were conducted on the departmental plan, and the hot rolling department was de- serving of special mention. This was ad- vantageously located on a branch track of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. Here, each year, the company received its raw materials, thousands of tons of domestic and foreign billets, these to be cut by enormous shears to the de- sired size and weight, heated in large gas furnaces capable of turning out one hun- dred tons per day, passed to and fro through the hot rolling mill train, oper- ated by engines of some fifteen hundred horse-power, and thus turned into bands and plates. A portion of the annealing
and pickling of hot rolled steel was con- ducted at the hot rolling department, or lower mill, situated at the corner of How- ard and Wordin avenues, and a portion at the main works at Railroad and Hancock avenues. On the night of February 4, 1895, the cold rolling mills were burned to the ground, destroying machinery, and the patterns and drawings therefor that had been the work of years to accumulate. Shortly afterward a substantial fireproof structure was erected in the place of the old, with greatly increased facilities for handling the extensive business. At the time of Mr. Wilmot's death he had in de- velopment several mechanical ideas which were designed to add to the already com- pletely appointed plant, the perfecting of which devolved upon his son, Frank A. Wilmot, who was his successor as presi- dent of the Wilmot & Hobbs Manufac- turing Company.
For many years Mr. Wilmot was a member of the First Congregational Church of Bridgeport, being one of its deacons for twelve years. He recognized the need of religious privileges in the neighborhood where he resided, and pur- chased a property on East Main street, near Stratford avenue, on which he erect- ed a church building and parsonage. A society was formed called the Berean Church, which steadily grew and was a blessing to many people. Mr. Wilmot was the first president of the Christian Alliance, of which Rev. A. B. Simpson, of New York City, was the moving spirit, and to this cause Mr. Wilmot gave lib- erally. His private charities were numer- ous, and the substantial aid he was wont to give to young inventors by his quick insight into the value or uselessness of their inventions brought men from far and near to seek his counsel. In politics he was a staunch Republican, but never sought nor held public office.
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Mr. Wilmot married, in 1855, Sarah M., born September 20, 1838, at Sharon, Con- necticut, daughter of Ebenezer Guern- sey, of Watertown, Connecticut, whose ancestors settled in Connecticut in 1663. Children : 1. Florence E., born September 5, 1859, at Watertown, married Willis F. Hobbs, of Providence, Rhode Island; child, Clifford R. Hobbs. 2. Jendall, died aged six months. 3. Effie May, born at Watertown, died aged three years. 4. Frank Ashley. 5. Ethelyn M., married Percy L. Bryning.
ELIOT, Samuel,
Educator.
Samuel Eliot was born in Boston, Mas- sachusetts, December 22, 1821, son of William Howard and Margaret (Brad- ford) Eliot, grandson of Samuel and Catherine (Atkins) Eliot and of Alden and Margaret (Stevenson) Bradford, and a direct descendant from Andrew Eliot, born at East Coker, England, 1627, who joined the First Church of Beverly, Mas- sachusetts, in 1670, and of Governor Wil- liam Bradford, of Massachusetts Bay Colony. His grandfather, Samuel Eliot, was founder of the Eliot professorship of Greek literature in Harvard University.
Samuel Eliot was graduated from Har- vard College in 1839; was in a Boston counting room, 1839-40, and in Europe for travel and study, 1841-44. He then engaged in missionary work as an edu- cator of vagrant children and young working men in Boston, where he organ- ized a charity school. He went to Trin- ity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1856, as Brownell professor of history and political science, and was elected presi- dent of the institution, serving from De- cember 18, 1860, to January 29, 1864. He was afterward lecturer on constitutional law and political science, 1864-74; was
university lecturer at Harvard, 1870-73 ; head master of the girls' high school, Bos- ton, 1872-76; superintendent of Boston public schools, 1878-80; president of the American Social Science Association, 1868-72 ; an overseer of Harvard, 1866-72 ; a member of the Boston school commit- tee, 1885-88; a fellow of the American Academy of Sciences; member of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; presi- dent of the Boston Athenaeum, of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, and a trustee of various charitable institutions. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard College in 1842, and from Trinity in 1857, and that of Doctor of Laws from Columbia in 1863 and from Harvard in 1880. His published works include: "Passages from the History of Liberty :" Part I, "The Ancient Romans" (1853) ; and Part II, "The Early Chris- tians" (1853). Part III, "The Papal Ages." Part IV, "The Monarchial Ages," and Part V, "The American Republic," though carefully planned, were never executed. He also published : "Manual of United States History, 1492-1872" (1856, rev., 1873) ; "Poetry for Children" (1879); "Stories from the Arabian Nights" (1879) ; "Selections from Ameri- can Authors" (1879) ; "Life and Times of Savonarola ;" and "Translations from the Spanish of Zorilla."
In 1853 he married Emily Marshall, a daughter of William Foster Otis, of Bos- ton, and granddaughter of Harrison Gray Otis. Mr. Eliot died at Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, September 14, 1898.
EATON, William Wallace,
United States Senator.
William Wallace Eaton was born in Tolland, Tolland county, Connecticut, October 11, 1816, son of Hon. Luther Eaton. He was educated in the schools
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of his native town, supplemented by pri- vate instruction. On attaining years of manhood he engaged in mercantile pur- suits at Columbia, South Carolina, and thus continued for four years, at the ex- piration of which time he returned to his native town, studied law in the office of Judge Waldo, and was admitted to the Tolland county bar in 1837. He estab- lished a law business in Tolland, in which he was highly successful.
Between the years 1847 and 1874 he was was elected nine times to the Legis- lature of Connecticut, serving in 1853 and 1873 as speaker of the House, and in 1850 as a member of the Senate. He was a judge of the Hartford City Court, city recorder for four years, and clerk of the courts for many years. He was elected to the United States Senate as successor to William A. Buckingham for the term beginning March 4, 1875, and on the death of Senator Buckingham, February 3, 1875, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, thus serving in the Senate from February, 1875, to March 3, 1881. In the Senate he opposed the appointment of an electoral commission to determine the presidential contest of 1876-77 ; was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs; favored a tariff commission, and introduced a bill to effect its appointment. He also intro- duced a bill giving the citizens of this country authority to purchase vessels abroad for use in foreign service, but his measure being strongly opposed by the domestic shipbuilders it was defeated. He was a representative in the Forty-eighth Congress, 1883-85, having been elected as a Democrat in a strongly Republican dis- trict. At the close of his term of service in 1885, Mr. Eaton retired from active political life, though his counsel was often sought in the weightier matters of public polity.
He was married, at Somers, Connecti-
cut, in 1841, to Eliza M., daughter of Cap- tain William and Betsey Wood, and had one son, William L. Eaton, a lawyer of Hartford. Senator Eaton died in Hart- ford, Connecticut, September 21, 1898.
WILLIAMS, John,
Clergyman, Author.
Right Rev. John Williams, fourth bishop of Connecticut, and 54th in suc- cession in the American episcopate, was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, August 30, 1817. He attended Harvard College, 1831-33; was graduated from Washing- ton (now Trinity) College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1835; studied theology under Dr. Samuel Jarvis, and was admit- ted to the diaconate, and advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Thomas C. Brow- nell, in 1838. He was a tutor at Wash- ington College, and assistant at Christ Church, Middletown, Connecticut, 1837- 40, and rector of St. George's Church, Schenectady, New York, 1840-48, being prominent among the proposed succes- sors to Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, of New York, in 1845. He was president of Trin- ity College, and Professor of History and Literature, 1848-53. He was elected as- sistant bishop of Connecticut, and was consecrated October 29, 1851, by Bishops Brownell, Hopkins and De Lancy, as- sisted by Bishops Eastburn, Henshaw, Chase and George Burgess. He was vice- chancellor of Trinity College, 1853-65; chancellor, 1865-99, and lecturer on his- tory there, 1853-92.
In 1854 the Berkeley Divinity School was founded at Middletown, Connecti- cut, and he was dean of the institution and principal instructor in doctrinal the- ology, history of the reformation and prayer book, 1854-99. On the death of Bishop Brownell, in 1865, he succeeded to the diocese of Connecticut as its fourth
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bishop. He was appointed first lecturer on the Bishop Paddock foundation, at the General Theological Seminary, New York City, in 1881, and delivered the first series of Bedell lectures at Gambier College, Ohio, the same year. In 1887, on the death of Bishop Horatio Potter, he be- came senior bishop of the American church; on the death of the bishop of British Guiana, senior bishop of the en- tire Anglican communion in America ; and on the death of Bishop Southgate, in 1894, senior bishop of the episcopate, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the ac- knowledged head. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Union in 1847; by Trinity in 1849; Columbia in 1851 ; and Yale in 1883, and that of Doctor of Laws by Hobart in 1870.
He edited, with additional notes, an American edition of Bishop Harold Browne's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles (1864) ; and is the author of "An- cient Hymns of the Holy Church" (1845) ; "Thoughts on the Gospel Miracles" (1848); Paddock Lectures on "The Eng- lish Reformation" (1881) ; Bedell Lec- tures on "The World's Witness to Jesus Christ" (1882) ; "Historical Sermons in the Seabury Centenary" (1885) ; "Studies on the Book of Acts" (1888). He died in Hartford, Connecticut, February 7, 1899.
PIERCE, Moses, Man of Great Enterprise.
Moses Pierce was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, then known as North Provi- dence, July 3, 1808, eldest of the eight chil- dren-five boys and three girls-of Benja- min B. and Susan (Walker) Pierce, the former a native of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and a tanner by trade, but later in life a cotton manufacturer.
Moses Pierce received his education in
the district schools of his native State and at the age of twelve years began work as a chore boy in a factory store, at the wages of seventy-five cents per week. At the age of fourteen years he became the bookkeeper, and from that time until he was twenty he was engaged in that and other capacities in the cotton mill busi- ness, thereby gaining a thorough knowl- edge of cotton manufacturing. In 1828 he located in Willimantic, Connecticut, and as superintendent took charge of a small cotton mill, one of the first in that now thriving manufacturing center. The bleaching business had begun to attract attention, and at the solicitation of men of capital Mr. Pierce became the junior member of an enterprising firm, and built, started and superintended mills in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
In October, 1839, on the invitation of the late Jedediah Leavens, Mr. Pierce came to Norwich to consider the outlook for the bleaching business. The follow- ing May, having concluded his other en- gagements, he secured a lease of water from the Water Power Company, and the ground was broken for the first mill on the site of what was, until recent years, the Norwich Bleaching & Calendering Company. On September 10, 1840, the machinery started, and the history of that great company was begun. From 1840 to 1888 Mr. Pierce was the real head of, first, the company, and, afterward, the corpora- tion. In 1863 Mr. Pierce, with about twenty others, chiefly of Norwich, united to form the Occum Company, to acquire lands and flowage rights which should enable them to control the Shetucket river from the tail race of the Baltic mill to the upper end of the Greenville Pond. Three years later Taftville began its ca- reer. Associated with Mr. Pierce in this enterprise were E. P. and Cyrus Taft, of Providence, and James L. Arnold, of
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Plainfield. A charter was obtained from the Legislature, though violently opposed because of the large amount of money involved, permitting a capital of $1,500,- 000. The stock was marketed, and when the company was organized Mr. Pierce became a director, holding this place until 1887, when, by a sale of certain stock, the management passed into other hands.
Among other ventures in which Mr. Pierce played a conspicuous part was the Ashland Cotton Company at Jewett City, of which he was president for thirty-five years. Another was the Aspinook Com- pany of the same village. From 1873 the water power at Jewett City, easily made serviceable by a dam across the Quine- baug, was a pet project of Mr. Pierce. Twenty years later he saw his dream realized by the erection of a printing, bleaching and calendering plant on the plateau south of the falls, and of this com- pany he was president up to the time of his death. In all the various concerns with which Mr. Pierce was prominently connected, about two thousand persons are constantly employed, and the annual payroll cannot be less than a million dol- lars.
In the political world Mr. Pierce was from 1831 a strict advocate of temperance principles, giving of his time and money to further the cause. He was an Abo- litionist until the close of the war, and afterward voted with the Republican party. In 1854 he represented his district in the State Legislature. Although posi- tive in his own opinions he was tolerant toward the views of others. While resid- ing at Fall River, in 1834, Mr. Pierce united with the Congregational church, for many years was a member of the church at Norwich town, and remained connected with that denomination for the remainder of his days, later transferring his membership to the Park Church, in Norwich.
Mr. Pierce's charities were legion. From the beginning of his career he gave in pro- portion to his means. In 1878 he gave to the United Workers the large house at Norwich Town, now known as the Rock Nook Children's Home. One of the build- ings connected with the training school for Negroes and Indians at Hampton, Vir- ginia, made famous by its founder, Gen- eral Armstrong, costing way up into the thousands, was built with Mr. Pierce's money. His practical consideration has assisted many an object whose end was the good of humanity. Until a few years before his death his constitution was ro- bust, a fact which he attributed to his temperance in all things. He was able to ride out up to within ten days of his death. Mr. Pierce was a very methodical man, and possessed of a great deal of energy, his native energy being far su- perior to his strength in his old age, and he was always in danger of over-taxing himself. He loved to be doing something, and always did as much as his strength would allow. He retained every faculty until the last.
Wholly without any solicitation on his part Mr. Pierce was called to many public positions. In Fall River, at the age of twenty-two, he was captain of a fire com- pany of eighty-six men. In 1858 he was elected director of the Norwich & Worces- cester Railroad. He was president of the Norwich & New York Steamboat Com- pany for eleven years, and was for years a member of the board of directors of the Second National Bank and the Chelsea Savings Bank. In the forties he was vice- president of an Association of Inventors, holding their meetings in the Franklin In- stitute, Philadelphia. He was trustee of the Hampton School, which he often vis- ited. At the time of his death he was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of New York; a fellow of the Ameri- can Geographical Society in New York,
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and of a library association in Boston ; and a member of the Cotton Manufac- turers' Association and of the Home Mar- ket Club of that city.
Mr. Pierce had traveled extensively, crossing the Atlantic eight times for busi- ness and rest. His faith in the future of his own country made him venture much, and amply was he repaid. In his business affairs he was ever found honest and progressive, faithful to duty, and consider- ate of his employees. His life, showing what one man can accomplish by industry, honesty and perseverance, suggests possi- bilities and gives courage to those aspir- ing youths who are obliged to hew their own way. In this age when the worker- the doer-is the man most honored, the career of Moses Pierce cannot fail to give a lofty conception of right and purposeful living. He died in Norwich, August 18, 1900. His remains rest in Yantic ceme- tery at Norwich.
COOKE, Lorrin Alanson, Legislator, Governor.
Lorrin A. Cooke, former Governor of Connecticut, was a lineal descendant of Solomon Cooke, an active participant in the Revolutionary War, whose son, Lewis Cooke, was a captain in the Massachu- setts State militia, married Abigail Rhoades, who was a descendant of Re- solved White, of "Mayflower" fame, and their son, Levi Cooke, married Amelia Todd, a descendant of Christopher Todd, who emigrated from England to New England, and settled in New Haven, Con- necticut, about 1640. Levi and Amelia (Todd) Cooke were the parents of Gov- ernor Lorrin A. Cooke.
Lorrin A. Cooke was born at New Marl- boro, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, April 6, 1831, and died August 12, 1902. He attended the common schools of his
native town and an academy in Norfolk, Connecticut. He began his active career by teaching, in which capacity he served several years in various schools, and then turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits in the town of Colebrook, Connec- ticut, which he represented in the Legis- lature. He removed to Riverton, Con- necticut, in 1869, and for the following two decades was manager of the Eagle Scythe Company, which prospered under his excellent management. He was chosen a member of the State Senate in 1882, was again elected the following year, was chairman for three years of the committee on education, and in 1884 was president pro tem. of the Senate. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1885, served in that office for two years, and in 1895 was again elected, and in the following year he was elected Governor, and received a majority of forty-four thousand votes, the largest ever polled in the State by a Re- publican candidate for the office. The War with Spain took place during his administration, and notwithstanding the extra expenses of the State during that period, the treasury was in a better con- dition than for many years, owing to the economic conditions existing. Governor Cooke was a member of the Congrega- tional church and of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
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