USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 18
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Thomas Atwood Kirkham, successful business man of Bridgeport, whose an- cestral line goes back to the original Kirkham, who came from England early in the seventeenth century and trans- planted the family tree to the beautiful Connecticut Valley-in that region local- ized by the city of Hartford and the towns of Newington and Wethersfield-is pres- ident and treasurer of the Berkshire Fertilizer Company of Bridgeport, which business he founded thirty years ago, and has other varied and important business interests, being a director of a num- ber of corporations in Bridgeport and elsewhere. His interest in the com- plex life of the city of Bridgeport, while not politically active, is keen and intelligent, and his civic duty is per- formed with that fidelity which ranks him among the substantial citizens of the community. He is a member of the Brooklawn Country Club, and for twenty- eight years a member of the old Seaside Club.
The first Kirkham, for the purposes of this review, was:
(I) Thomas (1) Kirkham, who came from England to Wethersfield, Connecti- cut, in 1640, or earlier. He was tax- gatherer in 1648-9. He died in 1677 or earlier.
(II) Thomas (2) Kirkham, son of Thomas (1) Kirkham, married, March 24, 1684, Jane Butler. He was appointed town shepherd March 21, 1689, and at one time was constable.
(III) Henry (1) Kirkham, son of Thomas (2), married, December 21, 1719, Martha, daughter of Samuel Burr of Hart- ford. She died June 2, 1759. He fought in the French and Indian wars.
(IV) Henry (2) Kirkham, son of Henry (1), was born August 30, 1728. He mar- ried Eunice Butler, October 31, 1757 (or
'59). He was in General Gates' Northern Army in the Revolution, and was present at Burgoyne's surrender. He died of camp fever at Saratoga, New York.
(V) John Kirkham, son of Henry (2) Kirkham and his wife Eunice, was born November 5, 1760. He enlisted in the army of the War of the Revolution at the age of sixteen years as a musician- he was a fifer-and served till the close of the war. He was wounded (tradition has it that he was shot while in a tree fifing to his comrades in arms) at the bat- tle of Monmouth, New Jersey. When he was given his honorable discharge from the service he walked from Newburgh, New York, to his home in Newington, Connecticut, though lame from the ef- fects of his wound, which never healed until the week before his death, June 8, 1815. He married, June 28, 1785, Jen- nette, daughter of Captain Jonathan Stod- dard, a Revolutionary officer. She was born August 29, 1767; died June 8, 1818.
(VI) William Kirkham, son of John and Jennette (Stoddard) Kirkham, was born March 29, 1788, at Newington ; died in 1868 at Newington at the age of eighty years. In 1815 he married Sophia, daugh- ter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Cook) Lef- fingwell and a descendant of Thomas Lef- fingwell, one of the founders of Norwich, Connecticut. She died November 14, 1880, at the age of eighty-four years. At New- ington Center is the beautiful Mill Pond, a natural lake, fed by a brook of spring water from Cedar Mountain and teeming with trout and other fish. This body of water owes its existence to a wonderful ledge of rock which extends across the lower end of the pond, with a perpen- dicular outward face, giving a fall of more than twenty feet. The top of the ledge is of uniform width and is wide enough to be used as a driveway. It is a natural
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dam, and is so adapted for that purpose that, one seeing it for the first time, would think it had been designed and built by man. There is but one other freak of nature similar to this in the country. In- dians, before they were crowded out by the white man, lived on the banks of this pond, and hunted and fished there for a livelihood. This pond with the ledge and the meadow under it came into the pos- session of William Kirkham by the death of his father in 1815. That same year he married and built a new home on the street at the east end of the "ledge" on the bank of the pond. This house recently burned after standing more than one hun- dred years. There was a big water-wheel that gave power for running the mill, which was used for making cloth and also cider, cider vinegar and cider brandy. This was William Kirkham's home for the major part of twenty-five years. But the inclinations of Mr. Kirkham were more toward the vocation of a teacher than a business life, and for about thirty years he taught school at Hartford and in other places in Connecticut and in Springfield, Massachusetts. After teach- ing in Springfield a number of years, mak- ing his home while there with his brother John, he moved his family to Springfield, about 1835, and they all lived there for several years. The moving was done in the winter, the household goods being transported by ox-sled for thirty-two miles, and Mrs. Kirkham and the children by horse and sleigh. Because Mr. Kirk- ham was teaching in Springfield, the bur- den of moving, closing the house, dispos- ing of a small but varied assortment of livestock, fell upon his wife. Her's was the self-sacrificing life of the unapplauded heroine.
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest. In the nice ear of nature which song is the best?
William Kirkham was a member of the Congregational Church and prominent in church circles. He had an excellent tenor voice, and had been taught music by his father. He was a fifer in the Governor's Footguard for many years. In 1840 he sold the Mill Pond property and bought a farm on the main street of Newington Center which still is held by his descend- ants. Of the children borne him by his wife Sophia, seven grew to maturity.
(VII) John Stoddard Kirkham, son of William and Sophia (Leffingwell) Kirk- ham, was born April 6, 1826, at Newing- ton; died February 8, 1918. His educa- tion was acquired at the old Newington Academy and in schools of Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a "Forty-niner" and a member of the com- pany organized and headed by Major Horace Goodwin of Hartford that made that historic trip in a schooner, owned and fitted out by the company, around Cape Horn to California in the quest of gold. The journey "around the Horn" occupied six months, the first port of call being Rio de Janeiro. Arriving at San Fran- cisco, the ship was abandoned and John Stoddard Kirkham, in a company com- posed of six friends, went into the moun- tains, where they were very successful in their search for gold. They later engaged
in the ambitious venture of damming and turning from its course the Sacramento River. They succeeded in their undertak- ing, only-on the night the job was fin- ished-to have the dam swept away by a freshet that roared down from the moun- tains in a resistless torrent. Youth, a good constitution and powerful physique have their limitations, and as a result of working in the ice-cold water from the melting snow of the mountains, John Stoddard Kirkham was stricken with pneumonia, and this attack was followed
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by chronic dysentery. His life was des- paired of, and his body wasted almost to a skeleton. He started for home. He got passage on a sailing ship bound for Cen- tral America, where he landed and spent some time recuperating his health and waiting for an opportunity to cross to the Atlantic side of the isthmus. The day he landed he bought a coarse grass sack holding a bushel of sweet oranges for ten cents, including the sack. He told of hav- ing sucked one hundred oranges that first day, and declared that almost immedi- ately he was cured of the chronic com- plaint that had refused to respond to medicine. That grass sack was taken home and preserved for many years. Mr. Kirkham crossed the isthmus by way of ox-carts and Lake Nicaragua. The ox- carts were made with wooden axles, the wheels were solid sections sawed from large round logs. A native ran alongside, pulling large green leaves from the road- side and thrusting them into the axles to take the place of grease and to alleviate the screaming of the wheels. The route followed was strewn with the machinery and tools that had been left by Commo- dore Vanderbilt when he abandoned his attempt to construct the Nicaraguan ca- nal. John Stoddard Kirkham arrived at his old home early in 1851, and entered with a will the vocation of farming on his father's property, and on a farm adjoining, which he bought. He also followed in his father's footsteps by teaching school for a number of winters. The farm still is in the possession of the Kirkham fam- ily. In 1870 Mr. Kirkham played a prom- inent part in bringing about the incorpo- ration of Newington as a separate town. He was an ardent member of the Demo- cratic party and a leader in municipal affairs in his locality. He was the first town clerk of Newington, and filled that
office for many years. He was also chair- man of the school board and acting school visitor. He was a member of the General Assembly in 1877 and served his district in the State Senate in 1887. He was a candidate for lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Governor Luzon B. Morris at the time when the rule was in effect that required a majority over all to elect a candidate for State office. He received a plurality, but the election was thrown in- to the Legislature, and the minority can- didates were declared elected. Mr. Kirk- ham was a member of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture for many years. He was a charter member and for many years secretary of the State Dairy- men's Association. He was a charter member of the Newington Grange, Pa- trons of Husbandry. He was a deacon and for many years treasurer of the New- ington Congregational Church and super- intendent of the Sunday School. He mar- ried, December 1, 1859, Harriet P. At- wood, born May 17, 1827, died December 1, 1882, daughter of Josiah and Prudence (Kellogg) Atwood, of the Atwood fam- ily, whose members were pioneer settlers of Hartford and Newington. Their chil- dren : I. Frances H., married Henry Laurens Kellogg, of Newington, both de- ceased. 2. Thomas Atwood. 3. John H., who is a prominent attorney of New Brit- ain, Connecticut. 4. Mary Atwood (de- ceased), married Roderick Whittlesey Hine of Lebanon, Connecticut, a gradu- ate of Yale College, and who for many years has been superintendent of schools at Dedham, Massachusetts.
(VIII) Thomas Atwood Kirkham, son of John Stoddard and Harriet Prudence (Atwood) Kirkham, was born March 7, 1862, at Newington, Connecticut. He was educated in the public schools of his na- tive town and at the New Britain High
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School, whence he was graduated in the class of 1880. He became identified with Bridgeport in a business way in 1882, al- though he made his home in Newington until 1895, when he took up his residence in Bridgeport. As a boy his ambition was to be a farmer, and one would have to look far to find a more attractive farm than the one he was born on. For a dozen years he managed his father's farm, his father being interested in the latter part of his life in other pursuits. This love of the soil has never left him, and in spite of a busy life, he has always found some time for farming. Going from school back to the farm, it was a natural sequence that drew him into the fertilizer business. From 1882 to 1895 he acted as traveling salesman for the National Fer- tilizer Company of Bridgeport. In 1895 he formed a partnersip with John A. Barri, who was one of the incorporators and treasurer of the National Fertilizer Company, under the name of the Berk- shire Mills Company, for the purpose of manufacturing fertilizers and dealing in grain and coal. They rebuilt the old Berkshire Mill at North Bridgeport and operated it until 1890, when the partner- ship was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Barri retaining the coal and grain, and Mr. Kirkham the fertilizer business. Mr. Kirkham then conducted the fertilizer business individually under the name of Berkshire Fertilizer Company. In 1900 Mr. Kirkham bought water-front property on Harbor Street, on Cedar Creek, Black Rock Harbor. He erected a plant, built a dock, and thought he had room for fu- ture expansion ; but the business grew so rapidly that soon he was cramped for space, and in 1910 he bought of the Hep- penstall Forge Company the plant of the old Bridgeport Forge Company at the foot of Howard Avenue, on the east, or
water side of the street. This present location with railroad sidings and five hundred and forty feet of water-front pro- vides ample facilities for taking care of the larger business of to-day, which has continued to grow uninterruptedly. The company also has built and operates a castor oil plant for the manufacture of castor oil. The castor meal, which is a by-product, is used as a fertilizer. The business was incorporated in 1913 with Thomas A. Kirkham as president and treasurer, which offices he still fills. Mr. Kirkham is a member of the United Con- gregational Church of Bridgeport.
Mr. Kirkham married, May 23, 1906, Fanny Leffingwell Brown, daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Kirkham) Brown of New Britain, Connecticut.
MANWARING, Hon. Moses Warren, Senator, City Treasurer, Business Man.
The sudden death of Moses Warren Manwaring on January 23, 1925, took from Bridgeport a citizen widely known and respected in business and political circles for his active and unwearied con- cern in civic matters and his high unself- ishness and personal integrity. He repre- sented the best type of citizen, and his passing was felt not only by his friends as a personal loss, but by many who scarcely knew him as a loss to the city which he had served for years in many capacities.
He was born in East Lyme, Connecti- cut, August 18, 1845, of Allen W. and Lydia (Warren) Manwaring. On his mother's side he was descended from Richard Warren, one of the first arrivals in the "Mayflower," from Moses Warren, captain in the Revolutionary Army ; and from Moses Warren, son of the preceding, who aided Moses Cleveland in making a
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survey of "New Connecticut," later Ohio. It was this Moses Warren who provided its name for Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, and for whom the city of Warren, Ohio, was named.
Moses W. Manwaring was educated in the public schools at East Lyme and New London. He learned the carpenter's trade in East Lyme, and came to Bridgeport in 1869 to engage with the late Andrew Morehouse in the building business. Their firm built many of the houses on the East Side, in the section which was developed by P. T. Barnum and General Noble. Later Moses Manwaring entered the em- ploy of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, and had charge of erecting many of its present buildings. In 1891 he bought out the Curtis Brothers' plumb- ing and heating business, and erected the brick block on East Main Street now owned by the Bridgeport Arion Singing Society. In 1911 he was chief organizer of the American Bank and Trust Com- pany, of which he was the first president. He retired from business in 1919, selling out to Horace J. Wellington.
He held many political offices. In the mayoralty of P. T. Barnum he was a Councilman, and was later for several terms Alderman from the old Fifth Ward. In 1906-1910 he was chairman of the Con- gress Street Bridge Commission, and had the distinction of returning to the city unspent a considerable part of the appro- priation. He represented the Twenty- third District in the Connecticut Senate, 1909-1910. For six years, 1913-1919, he was treasurer of the city. Besides polit- ical offices he was president of both local and State organizations of the Master Plumbers' Association and the Business Men's Association. He was an organizer and for some years treasurer of the Bridgeport Protective Association.
He married, December II, 1872, Em- meline Louise Comstock, daughter of the Hon. John Jay Comstock of East Lyme. They had two daughters, one of whom, May Louise, died in infancy, and the other, Elizabeth Wheeler Manwaring, is a member of the faculty of Wellesley College.
WARNER, Donald Judson, Secretary of State.
One of the oldest of English surnames, the name of Warner is found in the Domesday Book, and there have been two suppositions to the derivation of this name, one being that it was derived from Warriner, the keeper of a warren, and other antiquarians claim the following derivation : "It appears that near the boundary of Wales, in the southwest sec- tion of England, there dwelt a race of people who were engaged in agricultural pursuits. To protect themselves from the surrounding savage tribes, these peo- ple were forced to appoint from among themselves the most athletic and discreet men, who might go out into the surround- ing country and warn people of the ap- proach of the enemy. Hence the name Warner, and this explanation of the origin and significance of the name corresponds with the derivation from the old high German Warjan, meaning to defend, as given by Zeuss. It seems likely that the name is derived from the ancient German and like all historic names was spelled in a variety of ways. In the seventh century we find the old form, Warin, Guarin, Warne, and Wern, and at a later date, Warrerner, Warner and Werner, the lat- ter also being common English forms of the name. The arms of the Warner fam- ily are :
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Arms-Or, a bend engrailed between six roses, gules.
Motto-Non nobis tantum nati.
These were emblazoned on their shields and are also found carved in several parts of the ceiling of the South Isle of the Church of Great Waltham, England. Burke gives the significance of the motto as "we are not born for ourselves alone."
(I) Andrew Warner, the immigrant an- cestor, was born in England about 1600, a son of John Warner of Hatfield, Glouces- ter, England, and came from there to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1630 or 1633, becoming a proprietor of Cam- bridge in that year. He was admitted a freeman May 14, 1634, and in 1635 was living in Cambridge on the northerly side of Eliot Street, and also owned several other lots in Cambridge. In December, 1636, he sold his property and removed to Hartford, Connecticut, thence remov- ing to Hadley, Massachusetts, about 1659, of which town he was one of the first set- tlers, and where he died December 18, 1684.
(II) Lieutenant Daniel Warner, son of Andrew Warner, was born about 1640. He went in 1659 with his father to Had- ley, and settled in that part of the town afterwards called Hatfield, where he died April 30, 1692. He was a farmer and owner of much land.
(III) John Warner, son of Lieutenant Daniel Warner, was born in Hatfield in April, 1677. He married, in 1716, Me- hitable Richardson, and settled in East Haddam, Connecticut, where he died in March, 1750. His wife died March IO, 1776, and both are buried about three miles southeast of Chapman's Ferry.
(IV) Rev. Noadiah Warner, son of John Warner, was born in East Haddam, January 12, 1728-29, and died at Newton, Connecticut, February 2, 1794. In 1759, he graduated from Yale Divinity School
and was installed pastor of the church at Danbury, Connecticut, in 1762, later serv- ing at Hoosac and Trumbull. In 1781, he bought a farm at Newton, his church having been taken over to store rebel pro- visions in, and retired to his farm. Rev. Mr. Warner married Elizabeth De Forest, September 17, 1761, and she died in Sep-
tember, 1812. She was of Huguenot de- scent from Jesse De Forest, born in 1575, who removed from France to Holland in 1615, and was one of the leaders of the Huguenot Colony that settled in New York in 1623. Mrs. Warner was also de- scended from John Peet, who came from Duffield, England, to Stratford in 1635.
(V) Harvey De Forest Warner, son of Rev. Noadiah Warner, was born in Dan- bury, August 1, 1769, and died at Salis- bury, Connecticut, March 30, 1859. He engaged in farming and also was the owner of an iron ore mine. He married (first) December 10, 1796, Elizabeth Clark born September 4, 1778, daughter of Na- thaniel Carey and Sarah Clark of Salis- bury, and grand-daughter of Gamaliel and Elizabeth (Carey) Clark of Milford. Mrs. Warner died June 2, 1821.
(VI) Donald Judson Warner, son of Harvey De Forest Warner, was born in Salisbury, September 15, 1819, and died there March 31, 1904. In 1842, he was admitted to the Litchfield County Bar and engaged in practice in Salisbury. He was judge of the District Court and of the Court of Common Pleas for eight years and several times served as representa- tive. He was appointed quarter-master- general by Governor Buckingham but never qualified to this office. On Novem- ber 16, 1847, he married Lois Camp Tick- nor Ball, born in Salisbury, March 27, 1829, died January 13, 1880, daughter of Robert and Sophia Buckingham (Tick- nor) Ball, a descendant of Rev. Robert Ball, a clergyman from the north of Ire-
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land; she was adopted by an uncle, Ben- ajah Ticknor, fleet surgeon in the navy under Commodore Decatur.
(VII) Donald Ticknor Warner, eldest son of Donald J. and Lois Warner, was born in Salisbury, December 15, 1850, and was educated in the district schools of that town and the Salisbury Academy. In the class of 1872, he entered Trinity College at Hartford, but owing to ill health was unable to complete his course. He took up the study of law under the able perceptorship of his father and was admitted to the bar in 1873. He practiced his profession in association with his father until the latter was appointed judge, and in 1890 Mr. Warner formed a partnership with Howard Fitch Landon under the firm name of Warner & Lan- don. From June, 1896, to March, 1917, he was State's Attorney for Litchfield County, being appointed Judge of the Superior Court in the latter year. From 1885 to 1917, Judge Warner was also Judge of the Probate Court; is President of the Litchfield County Bar Association, and from November, 1874, to 1885, served as postmaster. He is a Republican in politics and served the interests of that party in the State Senate in 1895 and 1897, being chairman of the Judiciary Commit- tee both sessions. He is treasurer of the Salisbury Cutlery Company ; president of the Lakeville Water Company, and holds the same office with the Lakeville Gas Company ; director of the National Iron Bank of Falls Village, Connecticut. Judge Warner attends St. John's Episcopal Church of Salisbury, and is also one of the financial agents of the parish.
He married, October 4, 1884, Harriet E. Wells, born November 14, 1857, daugh- ter of Philip and Elizabeth (Harrison) Wells, and their children were: Donald Judson, born July 24, 1885, of extended
mention below; Elizabeth Harrison, born November 27, 1886, wife of Irving Kent Fulton of Salisbury ; Lois Caroline, born June 30, 1888; Mary Virginia, February 5, 1891; Philip Wells, November 2, 1893; Jeanette De Forest, born December 3, 1896.
(VIII) Donald Judson Warner, eldest son of Judge Donald T. and Harriet (Wells) Warner, was born in Salisbury where he attended the public schools and was also under private tutors. He at- tended the Hotchkiss School where he prepared for Yale College and graduated from that institution in 1906; two years later he graduated from the Yale Law School and was admitted to the bar at Winsted the same year. He engaged in practice in Salisbury, the third genera- tion of his family in succession to follow `this profession in that town, and in 1908 was elected Justice of the Peace on the Democratic ticket and still holds this office. He was Secretary of the State of Connecticut in 1921-1923, and has long been an active member of the town com- mittee.
Fraternally, he is a member of Mont- gomery Lodge, No. 13, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; the Hartford Club; the Graduates Club of New Haven; the Sons of the American Revolution ; and the Connecticut Historical Society.
Mr. Warner married Lois Church Sco- ville of Salisbury and they attend the Episcopal Church there, of which Mr. Warner is a member of the Vestry and assistant clerk of the parish.
BURNHAM, William Edward, Business Executive.
Place names were first adopted by the French in the twelfth century, and were taken from the estates of those who used
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them. The custom of using surnames was introduced into England at the time of the Norman Conquest, and, as in France, the first names used were place names. The name Burnham was first assumed in England shortly after the Conquest, and is Anglo-Saxon in deriva- tion. Walter de Veutre, first bearer of the name, came to England in the army of William the Conqueror, in the train of his cousin, Earl Warren, who was the son- in-law of the Conqueror. At the institu- tion of the feudal system of land tenure under the Norman regime, Walter de Veutre was made Lord of several Saxon villages, among which was the village of Burnham, where he took up his residence and became known as de Burnham. Burn- ham is derived from Beorn or Burn, old Anglo-Saxon meaning a bear. According to Ferguson the patronymic signifies "chief, hero, man." In Anglo-Saxon the name is Beornham, Byrbham, etc., and is at present variously spelled Burnham, Bernham, Berham, and Barnham. The family is one of the most ancient and hon- orable in England, and is entitled to bear arms by royal patent.
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