USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 3 > Part 50
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(IV) Peter (2) Robinson, son of Peter (1) and Experience (Manter) Robinson, was born in 1698. He married, June 20, 1725, Ruth Fuller, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Thacher) Fuller, of Mans- field, Connecticut. His home was in Windham, Scotland Society, Connecticut, where he died March 22, 1785, aged eighty-eight years.
(V) Jacob Robinson, son of Peter (2) and Ruth (Fuller) Robinson, was born August 14, 1734, and died in 1800. He married, November 4, 1756, Anna Tracy, born April 1, 1733.
(VI) Vine Robinson, son of Jacob and Anna (Tracy) Robinson, was born July 25, 1767, and died January 18, 1843 ; he married Dorcas Chapman, daughter of Elijah and Sarah (Steele) Chapman, of Tolland, Connecticut.
(VII) Francis Robinson, son of Vine and Dorcas (Chapman) Robinson, was born August 19, 1814. He was a gradu- ate of Yale University, class of 1837, and after completing his college course went to Mobile, Alabama, where he taught school until the outbreak of hos- tilities in the Civil War. He then re- turned north and became associated with Simeon Draper, cotton agent of the port of New York. At the close of the war he became the senior partner in the firm of Robinson & Hayden, coal dealers, a
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firm which to the present day maintains in Europe and on the American continent. its prestige in the business world. Mr. Robinson achieved a large degree of prominence in the business world. He married, May 8, 1839, Anne LeTourette De Groot, a member of a prominent New Jersey family of Dutch origin. Francis Robinson died September 23, 1885, and his wife on January 6, 1890.
(VIII) Frank Tracy Robinson, son of Francis and Anne LeTourette (De Groot) Robinson, was born August II, 1847. He received his education at the old Newport Naval Academy, and served in the Union army during the Civil War, doing blockade duty. He held the rank of lieutenant. After the war he became associated in business with his father in New York City. He eventually suc- ceeded Mr. Robinson, Sr., as a member of the firm of Robinson & Hayden, and as a director of the Maryland Coal Company. He was a noted yachtsman, and the owner of several water craft well known in the waters around New York. Frank Tracy Robinson married, February 20, 1873, Ida May Frost, daughter of Charles Leonard and Caroline Augusta (Bailey) Frost. He died October 31, 1898.
(IX) Colonel Charles Leonard Frost Robinson, son of Frank Tracy and Ida May (Frost) Robinson, was born July 9, 1874, in the town of Sayville, Long Island. He was prepared for college at the Halsey School of New York City, and matriculated at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, where he was graduated with the class of 1895. Im- mediately after completing his education he became associated with the firm of Robinson & Hayden, of which his father was senior partner, and until the year 1898, when his father died, continued actively engaged in business life. In 1898, however, he retired from business, and for several years travelled extensively
Visiting practically every city of import- ance in Europe, he studied the art of its great art centres, the traditions and his- tory of its medieval strongholds, with the devotion of the student and connoisseur, giving a period of several years of his life solely to the pursuit of culture and the study of those great subjects in which he was keenly interested.
Returning to the United States and to his home in Newport, Rhode Island, he again took up his business career. He took an active interest in political and public life in Newport, and served fre- quently as a delegate to conventions, and on the board of fire commissioners. He also served in the Newport Artillery Company, in which he rose to the rank of colonel. He was interested in the naval training station at Newport, and with Ed- ward J. Berwind presented to the station a silver cup in the drill competition held in 1914. Shortly after returning to busi- ness life, Mr. Robinson became connected with the Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufac- turing Company of Hartford, Connecti- cut. He was a man of considerable busi- ness talent, an able executive, of con- structive and progressive policies, and in 1909 he was elected to the office of vice- president of the vast concern. A year later he became its president, which office he held until the time of his death. He was a figure of prominence in the world of finance and industry, and a controlling factor in several of the largest organiza- tions of the country. Colonel Robinson was a director of the Travellers Insur- ance Company, The Rhode Island Trust Company, the Fidelity Trust Company, the Phoenix National Bank, the Connecti- cut Trust & Safe Deposit Company, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, the Shore Line Electric Railroad Company, the American Hardware Corporation of
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New Britain, and the Standard Wrench Company of Providence. He was active in the Masonic order in Connecticut, and was a member of Washington Command- ery, Knights Templar, of Hartford; the Connecticut Consistory, and Sphinx Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was a member and vestryman of the Church of the Good Shepherd of Hart- ford, and with his family worshipped there for many years.
Colonel Robinson found rare enjoy- ment and relaxation in the world of sport, and he was an enthusiastic yachtsman of international reputation. He had cruised in waters all over the globe, and in 1903 published a narrative of his experiences entitled, "Thirty Thousand Miles in the Wanderer." He was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Thames Yacht Club of England, the Imperial Yacht Club of Germany, and the Royal Yacht Club of Belgium. From 1900 to 1903 he was a member of the America's cup committee, a well known figure in sporting circles, and a keen amateur of the great out-of-doors. He watched and aided with keen interest the development of the crews of Yale University, many of whom were his guests on his yachts. A few months prior to his death he donated a new headquarters for the Yale crew, and at different times made other gifts to them, among which was a racing shell. He spent several months of each year cruising in the waters of the Atlantic, and was fond of fishing off the coast of Florida and Cuba. A well known figure in social and club life, he belonged to the following organizations: The Farming- ton Country Club, the Dauntless Club of Essex, the Hartford Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the Army and Navy Club, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., and the Knickerbocker, Union and Brook clubs of New York City.
Colonel Robinson was a man of vigorous intellectual endowment, and his inter- ests in life were many and varied. His literary tastes sincere, and highly devel- oped, as is evidenced by the unusually fine library which he collected from all quarters of the globe. He had a deep interest in American history and tradi- tions, and a portion of his library was devoted exclusively to collection of manu- scripts and rare data of this type. F. B. Gay, of the Watkinson Library, of Hart- ford, an eminent authority on books, said of him: "Many of the people who knew the late Colonel C. L. F. Robinson as a famous yachtsman, or as actively con- nected with numerous business enter- prises and companies, or as an enter- taining and lavish host, will be sur- prised to learn that there was another and very different side to his likings and activities. In his beautiful house on Prespect avenue he had gathered probably the finest private library in Connecticut. Beginning with the books 'that every gentleman of taste must have,' in later years he had left the field of French illustrated works, editions de luxe, etc., and gone very extensively into that much rarer field for the true col- lector-early Americana. And what a pleasure he took, apparently, showing the treasures partially hidden behind those library doors. Sitting in a large easy chair, surrounded with early American pictures and prints, with that cast and wonderful view from his library windows, stretching away to Mt. Tom on the north and the Bolton Hills on the eastern limit, with the nearer Talcott range on the west, the colonel would show a volume, or a hundred volumes that would make the true book lover gasp in astonishment. Manuscripts of the highest rarity relating to American history ; books in magnifi- cent bindings, on the same subject ; speci-
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mens of the great painters and historic periods of the art preservative-and then what the man knew about them! The sweet, fine, appreciative way he handled them, gloated over their immaculate con- dition and bibliopegic splendors; their 'points' of historic, literary or pictorial interest. Oh! he was an amateur on that side well worth knowing."
Colonel Charles L. F. Robinson mar- ried, June 30, 1896, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Beach, a daughter of Cyprian Nichols Beach, of Hartford, Connecticut. Mrs. Robinson survives her husband, and re- sides in Hartford. She is a woman of culture and attainment, and is active in social life in Hartford, and Newport, Rhode Island. Colonel and Mrs. Robin- son were the parents of the following children : 1. Caldwell Colt, born April 17, 1897. 2. Elizabeth Alden, born Novem- ber 30, 1900. 3. Hettie Hart, twin of Elizabeth Alden, died December 1, 1900. 4. Francis, born May 19, 1903.
Colonel Robinson died on board his yacht, the "Savarona" on Wednesday, July 5, 1916, at Woods Hole, Massachu- setts. His death came as a shock and grief to a host of personal friends, and the business and financial world of New Eng- land. A man's man, of magnetic person- ality, the broad human understanding and sympathy which endears itself to men in every walk of life, and a sense of honor which recalled the days of chivalry, he had formed friendships and attachments among men of all types and in all condi- tions of life. He had aided scores of men in the struggle upward toward success, and possessed the faculty of putting him- self on a footing of equality with the lowly and with those high in the walks of life. He had met and knew personally His Majesty, the present emperor of Ger- many, and had several of his photographs bearing his autographs. Samuel Hart, D.
D., D. C. L., dean of the Berkeley Divin- ity School, and president of the Connec- ticut Historical Society, said of Colonel Robinson : "The vigor of his nature, and of his plans for life and the earnestness with which he was carrying them out, added to the strength of body which had endured the test of a serious accident, seemed to foreshow a continuance of the success to which he had, while still com- paratively a young man, attained. As president of a great manufacturing com- pany, he had carried it even beyond the prosperity of its early years, and had proved its adaptability to new opportuni- ties ; as a citizen, he was taking an im- portant place in the responsibilities of the community in which he lived ; and he was making his beautiful new home a treasure house of carefully chosen works of liter- ature and art, bearing on the departments of history and on the progress of the handiwork in which he found special de- light. His business relations, as well as his happy marriage to one who carried on the memories of his beneficent person- ality, destined him to an important place in the life of Hartford; and that place he was filling to the benefit of the city, and, we cannot but believe, to the furtherance of his own best desires."
WHITE, Edward Luther,
Successful Business Man.
Pride of ancestry is surely one of the most justifiable weaknesses of humanity. To be able to trace an uninterrupted and long line of vigorous ancestors, who, through each generation have been notable enough to have their deeds re- corded and lives remembered, and who have left as heritages to their descend- ants honorable names and inherited vir- tues, is an intense and lasting satisfaction to those so favored, and the members of
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the White family herein recorded are among the chosen few.
(I) Robert White, the first known an- cestor of the line of the family traced in this review, was a native of England, a yeoman of Messing, County Essex, Eng- land, and settled at Shelford, where he spent the remainder of his days, his re- mains interred in the cemetery there. June 17, 1617. He married, at Shelford, June 24, 1585, Bridget Algar, baptized March II, 1562, daughter of William Algar, the elder. Children, all baptized at Shel- ford : Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Marie, Bridget, Anna, Nathaniel, John, of whom further ; Daniel.
(II) Elder John White, son of Robert and Bridget (Algar) White, was born in England, and died in Hartford, Connecti- cut, between the dates December 17, 1683, and January 23, 1684, the date of his will and the date of the inventory of his estate respectively. He came to this country with Elder William Goodwin in the ship "Lyon," arriving at Boston, Massachu- setts, September 16, 1632, and settled at Cambridge, his home lot on Cow-Yard Row, the site now occupied by Gore Hall of Harvard University. He was admitted a freeman March 4, 1633; a townsman, 1635; and in that year sold his property there and removed to Hartford, Connecti- cut, with the Hooker company, his place of residence being on the east side of what is now Governor street. He served as selectman in 1642, 1646, 1651, 1656; was granted land in Middletown in 1653, but did not settle there; in 1659 was among the founders of the town of Had- ley, Massachusetts, and held numerous offices there, and in 1670 he returned to Hartford, Connecticut, and became an elder of the South Church. He married, in England, December 26, 1622, Mary Levit, who bore him the following named children : Mary, Nathaniel, of whom fur- ther ; John, Daniel, Sarah, Jacob.
(III) Nathaniel White, son of Elder John and Mary (Levit) White, was born in England about 1629, and was brought to this country by his parents in early childhood. In 1650 he settled in Middle- town, where he was one of the prominent men of the town ; was deputy to the Gen- eral Court in 1659, was elected to that office eighty-five times, his last term be- ing in 1710; he was appointed a magis- trate and commissioner in 1669 ; he served as captain of the train band : was promi- nent in the organization of the church in 1668; took an active interest in educa- tional affairs, and in his will, made Au- gust 16, 1711, he gave one-fourth of his share in the common land to the "schools already agreed upon in the town of Middletown, forever." On January 6, 1702, when Cromwell's first schoolhouse was opened, it was named "The Nathaniel White Public School." Mr. White mar- ried (first) Elizabeth -, born about 1625, died 1690. He married (second) Martha (Coit) Mould, born about 1644, died April 14, 1730, daughter of John and Mary (Jenners) Coit, and widow of Hugh Mould. Children of first wife: Nathaniel, born July 7, 1652; Elizabeth, March 7, 1655 ; John, April 9, 1657 ; Mary, April 7, 1659; Daniel, February 23, 1662; Jacob, of whom further; Joseph, February 20, 1667.
(IV) Jacob White, son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth White, was born at Middle- town, Connecticut, May 10, 1665, and con- tinued to reside in his native town. He married (first) February 4, 1692, Deborah Shepard, born 1670, died February 8, 1721. He married (second) December 16, 1729, Rebecca (Willett) Ranney, widow of Thomas Ranney. He had ten children, among whom were: Deborah, born Feb- ruary 26, 1694; Hannah, March 28, 1699; Thomas, August 14, 1701 ; Joel, October 20, 1710; John, of whom further.
(V) John (2) White, son of Jacob and
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Deborah (Shepard) White, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, October 19, 1712, and died in the same town, Febru- ary 9, 1801. He inherited the homestead. He married, October 31, 1736, Elizabeth, born in Wethersfield, December 22, 1713, died November 17, 1800, daughter of Samuel and Mehitable (Cadwell) Board- man. Among their children were: Jacob, of whom further ; Sarah, born January 16, 1743.
(VI) Jacob (2) White, son of John (2) and Elizabeth (Boardman) White, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, No- vember 7, 1737, and resided there throughout his entire lifetime. He served during the Revolution as a lieutenant on a privateer. He married, November 25, 1760, Lucy, born July 16, 1741, died Au- gust 20, 1812, daughter of Captain Joseph Savage. Children: John, of whom fur- ther; Jacob, baptized April 7, 1771; Thomas, June 10, 1773; Lemuel, Decem- ber 30, 1776.
(VII) John (3) White, son of Jacob (2) and Lucy (Savage) White, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, 1766, was a sea captain by profession, and was drowned at sea, March 19, 1799. He mar- ried, March 31, 1789, Ruth Ranney, who died December 25, 1862, at the advanced age of ninety-two years and ten months, having lived a widow for sixty-three years. Children: John, born June 26, 1790 ; Jacob, of whom further ; Alma, July 18, 1797; Luther, January II, 1799.
(VIII) Jacob (3) White, son of John (3) and Ruth (Ranney) White, was born in Upper Houses. Connecticut, April 27, 1792. He learned the trade of tanner, and in 1819 removed to Sandisfield, Mas- sachusetts, where he conducted an exten- sive tannery for twelve years, at the ex- piration of which time he returned to Upper Houses and became the owner of the famous Ranney house built for James
Ranney by his father, Ebenezer Ranney, on the north quarter of the old Ranney homestead, and resided thereon during the remainder of his days. He married, November 22, 1815, Susan, born March 28, 1796, at Upper Houses, daughter of Captain William and Abigail (Eells) Sage, the latter named a daughter of John Eells and widow of William White. Their children were: William Sage, born July 22, 1816; Henry S., February 12, 1818; Luther Chapin, December 25, 1821 ; Harriet M., October 3, 1825; Jacob Wat- son, of whom further ; Abigail Eells, Oc- tober 23, 1831 ; Orrin Sage, August 10, 1834; Jane Augusta, December 27, 1837. Jacob (3) White died January 13, 1849, and his widow married (second) James Goodrich, and died at Cromwell, Febru- ary 2, 1869.
(IX) Jacob Watson White, son of Jacob (3) and Susan (Sage) White, was born at Sandisfield, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 19, 1827. He resided for a number of years in Cromwell, Connecticut, from whence he removed to Waterbury, same State, in 1850, and there established the White & Wells Company, one of the lead- ing industries of that town, in the man- agement of which he was highly success- ful. He took a keen interest in municipal affairs, and was one of the original mem- bers of the Second Congregational Church of Waterbury, of which his first wife was also a member. He married (first) at Hartford, Connecticut, September 19, 1850, Anna Eliza Welles, born in Hart- ford, May 7, 1828, daughter of Chauncey and Hannah (King) Welles, and a lineal descendant of Governor Thomas Welles, of Connecticut. She died April 29, 1862. He married (second) September 10, 1863, in Waterbury, Connecticut, Nancy Maria (Welles) Moses, widow of Richard Moses, also a lineal descendant of Gov- ernor Thomas Welles. She died April
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20, 1895, having survived her husband many years, his death occurring in Waterbury, July 5, 1865. Children of first wife: Chauncey Welles, born May 12, 1852, died December 11, 1852; Ed- ward Luther, of whom further; Chaun- cey Howard, born March 24, 1856, died in 1901 in Waterbury; educated at Williston Seminary, and was vice- president of White & Wells Com- pany ; married, May, 1901, Jennie Bullon Gates ; Anna Sophia, born September 20, 1858, a teacher in St. Margaret's School, Waterbury ; Mary Welles, born May 2, 1861, a graduate of St. Margaret's School, class of 1880, member of Melicent Porter Chapter, Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution, a resident of Waterbury. (X) Edward Luther White, son of Jacob Watson and Anna Eliza (Welles) White, was born in Waterbury, Connec- ticut, December 12, 1853. He prepared for Yale at Williston Seminary, and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in the class of 1875. He entered the employ of the White & Wells Company, and in due course of time was appointed manager of their business in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in 1886, upon the death of Captain Welles, he re- turned to Waterbury and became man- ager of the business in its various depart- ments, a position which he held until Jan- uary, 1892, when he was appointed secre- tary of the Waterbury Watch Company, but did not serve long in that capacity, as his death occurred August 5, 1893, and he was succeeded by Arthur O. Jennings, who was filling the position of general manager. He was a member of Delta Psi. Yale chapter ; Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Free and Accepted Masons; Knights Templar, and was an attendant of St. John's Episcopal Church in Water- bury, of which his widow is a member. He was a man of honor and integrity, con-
scientious and faithful in the discharge of every obligation, and his example is well worthy of emulation. He married, January, 1877, Laura Virginia Ogden, born in New York City, November 26, 1851, daughter of Judge James Law- rence Ogden, of Jersey City, New Jer- sey. She survives her husband and resides in Waterbury. She is a mem- ber of the Waterbury Womans Club. Children: I. Ogden Watson, born Sep- tember 10, 1877; graduate of Yale Uni- versity, class of 1901; connected with the New Haven "Register ;" member of the Graduates Club, New Haven. 2. Howard Sage, born April 10, 1880; grad- uate of Yale University, class of 1902; connected with the Homer D. Bronson Company, Beacon Falls; member of the Alpha Delta Phi, Yale chapter. 3. Lucien Shepard, born July 10, 1883, died Febru- ary 5, 1884. 4. Edward Luther, of whom further.
(XI) Edward Luther (2) White, son of Edward Luther (I) and Laura Virginia (Ogden) White, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, April 9, 1886. He removed with his parents from Bridgeport to Waterbury, in 1892, when but six years of age, and the greater part of his youth- ful associations are with the latter named city. He attended the public schools of Waterbury, graduating from the gram- mar grade in 1899, then entered the Taft School at Watertown, where he prepared for college, and in 1905 matriculated at Yale University and there took the academic course, establishing for himself an excellent record for scholarship. He graduated with the class of 1909, and in the following year secured a position with Holmes & Bull, of Waterbury, remaining with this firm until 1911. During the years 1912-13 he was engaged on his own account with a brokerage business, in which he was highly successful, but in the
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latter year he accepted an excellent offer with the Waterbury Clock Company, in the employ of which he remained until the autumn of 1914, when he formed his present association with the Ralph N. Blakeslee Company, which is engaged in general teaming, storage, blocksmithing, wagon-making and repairing, and wagon and automobile painting, and conducts a large business in these several lines. Mr. White became the president and treasurer of the concern and holds those offices at the present time (1916). Under his cap- able management the business of the com- pany is rapidly increasing and it requires no gift of prophecy to foretell a brilliant future for him.
In addition to his business activities, Mr. White takes a prominent part in many departments of the life of his home city. He is a conspicuous figure in the social and fraternal circles thereof, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Country Club of Waterbury. He is also a very prominent Mason, holding membership in the lodge, chapter, council, commandery and shrine, attaining the thirty-second degree in that ancient order. For six years he was affili- ated with the State Militia, enlisting first in the Naval Division of New Haven and later in Company H, of the Second Regi- ment, Connecticut National Guard. To Mr. White is due the honor of having started the Boy Scout movement in Waterbury, where it has grown to be a very important factor in the training of the city's youth. He is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Waterbury.
Mr. White married in Springfield, Mas- sachusetts, March 24, 1913, Phoebe Ger- maine Farrell, a native of Bridgeport, daughter of Christopher Farrell, of that city. Mr. and Mrs. White are the parents of one son, Edward Luther (3rd), born November 25, 1913.
LINES, Henry Wales,
Building Contractor, Public Servant, Public-spirited Citizen,
Mr. Lines traces his descent from a multitude of sturdy old New England ancestors, and has exemplified in his over- coming of obstacles and his remarkable career qualities inherited from such an- cestors. He is a descendant of Elder Wil- liam Brewster, of the Mayflower Colony ; Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of the Con- necticut Colony ; John Hopkins, of Hart- ford ; Captain Nathaniel White, one of the first settlers of Middletown; John Coit, an original settler of New London ; Hon. Benjamin Fenn, of Milford, deputy gov- ernor of Connecticut ; Rev. Timothy Ste- phens, first Congregational minister in Glastonbury, Connecticut; and Captain Samuel Newton, who commanded a com- pany in King Philip's War. Several of his forebears were active and efficient in the Revolutionary War.
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