USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 5 > Part 23
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land, for a time, or at least sailed from that port about 1635, while there is rea- son for belief that he came over in 1631 or 1632 in the "Lyon," if he was not of the original Pyncheon Company. He was a contemporary with Pynchon in the set- tlement of Roxbury, Massachusetts. He followed him to Springfield, and was known as "Pynchon's right-hand man" and one of the "founders of Springfield," was made a freeman, June 2, 1641, and elected to town office in 1642, was a dis- tinguished man in church and State, was deacon of the Springfield church, elected in 1649, and employed to conduct services part of the time in 1656-57, when there was no minister in town. He was ap- pointed commissioner to determine small causes, October 10, 1652, and his commis- sion was indefinitely extended in 1654. His wife Cicely died February 8, 1682-83; he died November 11, 1675. His daugh- ter, Catherine, was an ancestor of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and ex-President William Howard Taft is a descendant of his son, Josiah. The first of his children born in this country was Japhet Chapin, born August 15, 1642, and resided at the upper end of Chicopee street in what is now the town of Chicopee. From his father he received a deed, April 16, 1673, of the greater part of the land between the Chicopee river and Williamsett brook. For some time he lived in Milford, Con- necticut, and was there in 1669, when he received from Captain John Pynchon a deed of land in Chicopee on which he built a house. In 1665, during King Philip's War, he was a volunteer and par- ticipated in the fight at Turner's Falls, May 18, 1676. The general court granted land to his son Thomas in consideration of this service. Like his father, Japhet Chapin was a man of great piety, the bul- wark of Puritan faith. He was feelingly referred to by his pastor because of these
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facts. He married, July 22, 1664, Abilinah Cooley, born in 1643, and died November 17, 1710, daughter of Samuel and Ann (Prudden) Cooley, of Milford. Their eldest child, Samuel Chapin, was born July 4, 1665, resided near his father on the west side of Chicopee street at the upper end and had lands on the west side of he river, which he tilled. One evening, while returning from this labor, he was fired upon by Indians in ambush on the river bank, but was not dangerously wounded. He died October 19, 1729. He married, December 24, 1690, Hannah Sheldon, born June 29, 1670, in North- ampton, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Woodford) Sheldon, the latter a daugh- ter of Thomas Woodford, of Hartford and Northampton, and his wife, Mary (Brott) Woodford. Thomas Woodford sailed March 7, 1632, from London, set- tled in Roxbury in that year. In 1656 he removed to Northampton, and died there June 6, 1667. Isaac Sheldon was in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1640. Sam- uel Chapin, eldest son of Samuel and Hannah Chapin, was born May 22, 1699, and died in 1779 in Ludlow, Massachu- setts, at the home of his son. He mar- ried, in 1722-23, Anna, daughter of Jere- miah and Mary Horton. Their eldest child, Gad Chapin, was born August II, 1726, had wife Abigail, and late in life removed to Cooperstown, New York. Their fourth son, Dan Chapin, born June 16, 1768, was undoubtedly the father of Daniel Chapin, born about 1790. He mar- ried, April 16, 1818, Lucy Orchard, who was born November 15, 1791, and they were the parents of Olive Wright Chapin, born in 1834, and who became the wife of John Atchison, as previously noted.
For a few years Mr. and Mrs. Atchison resided in Brooklyn, New York, but they later returned to Hartford, where the major part of their lives was spent and
where Mrs. Atchison died on January 2, 1916. To Mr. and Mrs. Atchison, Sr., the following children were born: I. Annie L., born December 8, 1857, and died No- vomber 12, 1916. 2. William, born May 26, 1861, and died December 10, 1863. 3. Frank Stone, born March 1I, 1866, at Brooklyn, New York, and now a resident of New York City. 4. Frederick Hart, with whose career we are here especially concerned. 5. Everett Bonner, born Oc- tober 24, 1873, at Hartford, married, August 1, 1901, Theresa Loughman, by whom he has had one son, Frederick Everett. born April 10, 1903. 6. John Lewis, born January 25. 1876, and now resides in New York City.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Decem- ber 8, 1869, Frederick Hart Atchison spent only the first three years of his life in his native city. In 1872, his parents returned to Hartford and it was with that city that his earliest associations were formed and there that he received his education. For this purpose he attended the public schools of that city, but aban- doned his schooling when fourteen years of age, and in 1883 entered the employ of Thomas A. Honnis, who was engaged in the oyster and clam business in Hartford. He was also the proprietor of the Honnis Oyster House Company, situated at Nos. 24 to 30 State street, and which is the oldest exclusive oyster house in the United States, it having been there since about 1845. He gradually came to have more and more control of the manage- ment of this concern, and on March 30, 1914, he, with his present partners, Mr. Thomas E. O'Neil and Mr. William W. Hastings, purchased the business from Edwin Tolhurst, who had succeeded Mr. Honnis as owner in 1900. From that time to the present the concern has continued its gratifying development which has been continued uninterruptedly for sev-
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enty years, so that it is now one of the largest of its kind in the region. It sells both at wholesale and retail, and some idea of the magnitude of its operations may be gained from the fact that it han- dles over two tons of crackers per month. Four automobiles are employed and a large number of hands are required to deal with the various aspects of the busi- ness. On January 1, 1918, it was incor- porated for fifty thousand dollars and the officers of the company are Frederick H. Atchison, president, William W. Hast- ings, vice-president, and Thomas E. O'Neil, secretary and treasurer.
Besides his business activities, Mr. Atchison has always taken a prominent part in the general life of the community, and has always maintained a keen inter- est in public affairs. He belongs to a number of important organizations among which should be mentioned the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and the Saengerbund of Hartford. Mr. Atchison is one of the best type of New England business men, whose reputation for integrity and prob- ity in all of his transactions is unim- peachable. Of great energy and ready recourse in every emergency, his great enterprise continues to grow uninterrupt- edly during his career. He is extremely public-spirited and always keeps the inter- ests of the city in mind and constantly aims at serving them. He has won not only the respect and admiration of his fellow-citizens, but their affection as well, and there are very few who can claim so large a circle of friends or such devotion on the part of those who make it up.
On November 1I, 1917, Mr. Atchison was married to Rose W. House, of West Hartford, Connecticut.
YERGASON, Edgar Smith, Decorator and Furnisher.
Edgar S. Yergason, one of the most widely known and successful of interior
decorators, and who bore the distinction of having decorated many of the wealthi- est homes in the country, including the . first House of the Land, was born Sep- tember 10, 1840, in the town of Wind- ham, Connecticut, son of Christopher Yergason, born at Norwich, Connecticut, and served as lieutenant in State Militia, and Charlotte Ann (Smith) Yergason, born in Windham, Connecticut, descend- ant of Elder and Love Brewster.
Edgar S. Yergason was educated in the schools of his native town, and grad- uated from the Pine Grove Seminary in South Windham. Upon completing his education he removed to Hartford, Con- necticut, to accept a position as clerk with the firm of Talcott & Post, dry goods merchants. He remained with the firmn until the outbreak of the Civil War, at which time he volunteered his services and served as a private in Company B, Twenty-second Connecticut Volunteers. At the end of his term of service he resumed connection with the same firm, continuing until 1881, in which year it was dissolved, and Mr. Yergason became associated with the junior partner in the formation of the firm of William H. Post & Company. The excellent quality and high order of the work of this firm soon gained prominence and they were com- missioned with many important contracts. The entire department of decorating was under the personal supervision of Mr. Yergason, and his superior taste and executive ability in that line was no small factor in the firm's success. He attained wide prominence in work done at the White House under Presidents Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley, and at the State Capital at Albany and other noted places. Probably Mr. Yergason's work at the White House under Presi- dent Harrison's administration attracted more attention than did his work for pri- vate persons in Washington and other parts of the East. Mr. Yergason obtained
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his first chance to do work at the White House through one of his customers, Sec- retary of the Treasury William Wind- ham, who was a close friend of the Pres- ident's family. Mr. Yergason decorated the apartment of Captain George E. Lemon, of Washington, owner of the "Washington National Tribune," a paper devoted to the interests of veterans of the Civil War. Mrs. Harrison and the wives of four members of the cabinet visited the apartment to see the recently completed work and were so delighted with it that Mr. Yergason received an invitation the next day to visit the White House with a view to suggesting changes in the Blue Room. His suggestions were well re- ceived and he was commissioned to do considerable work, not only in the noted Blue Room, but also in other parts of the building. He installed the first electric lighting system ever used in the build- ing. During the years 1890 and 1892, he was frequently called to the White House by President Harrison or his wife to sug- gest desired improvements in the decorat- ing of certain parts of the building.
Among the private mansions that Mr. Yergason furnished in Washington was that of John A. Logan, United States senator from Illinois. This mansion was leased by William Jennings Bryan when he became Secretary of State at the start of the Wilson administration. The house is one of the most elegantly furnished mansions in Washington to-day and many of the draperies and carpets in it are the ones Mr. Yergason put there in 1892. Mr. Yergason was acquainted with many of the most prominent men of the United States between 1890 and 1900. Among his friends have been Thomas A. Edison, the inventor; Richard J. Gattling, who perfected the first gun which bears his name; General Horace Porter, who was a member of General Grant's staff in the
Civil War; James G. Blaine, Thomas Platt, General W. T. Sherman, General Philip H. Sheridan, General E. W. Whit- aker, General Joseph R. Hawley, Cap- tain George E. Lemon, Admiral George Dewey, Actor Joseph Jefferson, Artist Albert Bierstadt, and other noted men.
For over a quarter of a century Mr. Yergason was collecting valuable relics with the result that his collection is one of the rarest and most unusual of its kind. The range of the items comprising it is extremely wide, and the great men and events which they recall increase their value. To mention all of this wonderful collection would take up considerable space, but perhaps the most valuable are the two flags which were used to drape the box in Ford's Theatre at Washing- ton where President Abraham Lincoln was murdered on the night of April 14, 1865, as he was watching a performance of the "American Cousin" with Mrs. Lin- coln. One of the flags in which Booth's spur caught as he jumped out from Lin- coln's box, located on the second floor of the theatre, is of silk and is torn in half. The other half is in a glass box in the hall of the treasury building in Washing- ton. He received a vote of thanks from the Joint Assembly of the Legislature, June 13, 1899, for the gift of a war relic, the body of a tree containing five cannon balls from the battlefield of Chickamauga and placed in the Capitol at Hartford.
Mr. Yergason was a member of the So- ciety of Sons of the American Revolution, being a descendant of Elder and Love Brewster; member of Robert O. Tyler Post, Grand Army of the Republic ; mem- ber of Army and Navy Club of Connecti- cut; of Amaranth Dramatic Club of Brooklyn, New York; of Aldine Mer- chants Club, New York; of Republican Club of New York; of Amen Corner Re- publican Headquarters, New York State,
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Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York; honor- ary member of Company K, First Regi- ment, Connecticut State Militia ; member of Company B, Twenty-second Regiment Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1862 and 1863 ; honorary member of Old Guard, Washington, D. C., July, 1890. He was the first one of five young men who orig- inated the Wide Awake Torch Light Marching Campaign Club for the elec- tion of W. A. Buckingham, Governor, February 25, 1860. The enthusiasm cre- ated extended all over the State, resulted in his election, and in the fall clubs were formed in all the northern States, creating great enthusiasm in the campaign and election of Abraham Lincoln, President. He served as colonel on staff at the inauguration of Presidents Mckinley and Roosevelt, March 4, 1897, and also of Roosevelt and Fairbanks at Washington, D. C., March 4, 1901.
Mr. Yergason married Emeline B. Moseley, daughter of D. B. Moseley, of Hartford, and they were the parents of two daughters, and a son, Robert M., who is a physician with the rank of captain in the United States Army, of the World War.
PECK, Austin Lemuel,
Business Man.
Since 1887 a resident of Hartford and prominent in the business life of his adopted city, Mr. Peck, as treasurer of the Andrews & Peck Company, is also well and favorably known throughout the State as an able business man, especially prominent in the lumber trade. He is a son of Zalmon S. Peck, of Newton, Con- necticut, and a descendant of Joseph Peck, of Milford, Connecticut, the Amer- ican ancestor of his branch of the Peck family.
Joseph Peck, first of New Haven, set-
tled in Milford, about 1649, becoming a member of the church there in 1652. He died in 1700-01. From Joseph Peck the line of descent is through his son, Joseph (2) Peck, of Milford; his son, Ephraim Peck, of Newtown ; his son, Henry Peck, of Newtown, a soldier of the Revolution, who died in 1812; his son, Ezekiel Peck, a soldier of the War of 1812, whose tomb- stone and those of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, are standing in perfect condition in the family burial plot in Newtown Cemetery; his son, Zalmon S. Peck, of Newtown; his son, Austin L. Peck, of further mention.
Zalmon S. Peck, son of Ezekiel and Betsey (Briscoe) Peck, was born at New- town, Connecticut, May 22, 1812, died 1904, having reached the extreme age of ninety-two years. During his active years he was one of the prominent public men of his community, serving during the Civil War as enrolling and drafting offi- cer, and for twenty-six years was post- master of Newtown, first appointed dur- ing President Lincoln's first term. These were years of continuous service with the exception of two years (1867-69) under the Johnson administration, when he was out of office. Time dealt lightly with him, and even when nearly a nona- genarian he was remarkably well pre- served, an active and interesting conver- sationalist. He married, in 1833, Polly J. Lum, who died in 1898. Their children were: Sarah A., deceased; Henry S., died August, 1913, in Waterbury, Con- necticut; Austin L., of further mention ; Mary F., widow of Colonel R. S. Chevis, of Zenith, Georgia.
Austin L. Peck was born in Newtown, Connecticut, June 3, 1844, now treasurer of the Andrews & Peck Company, Hart- ford, Connecticut. He was educated in the public schools and Newtown Academy, leaving the Academy walls to enlist in
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the Union army, August 25, 1862. He first entered the service as a private in Company C, Twenty-third Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, recruited in Fairfield and New Haven counties dur- ing the months of August and September, 1862. He was mustered into the United States service with his regiment at Camp Terry, New Haven, Connecticut, Novem- ber 14, 1862; C. E. L. Homes, colonel of the regiment; David H. Miller, major ; Charles W. Worden, lieutenant-colonel ; Julius Sanford, captain of Company C. The Twenty-third left Connecticut, No- vember 17, 1862, and joined General Banks at Camp Buckingham, Long Island, serving under the command of General Franz Sigel. The regiment's first service was in the Department of the Gulf, in the defense of New Orleans, and from December, 1862, was a part of the Second Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, and from June, 1863, was stationed at Post of Brashear, District of LaFouche, Defenses of New Orleans, and Department of the Gulf. Until taken prisoner at Bayou Boueff, Louisiana, June 23, 1863, the experi- ences of the regiment were those of Mr. Peck, his army record being honorable and meritorious. He was rated a cor- poral, November 14, 1862, and after his capture was paroled on July 3, and mus- tered out of the service with honorable discharge, August 31, 1863.
With the ending of his military career, his active business life began, and now, a half century later, he reviews a busi- ness career of success and prosperity most gratifying. In January, 1864, he became a clerk in the general store of Benedict, Merriman & Company, at Wa- terbury, Connecticut, and after an experi- ence of one year, entered the employ of the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Rail- road as freight clerk at Hartford, soon
afterward being promoted agent in charge of the Waterbury Station. Early in 1869 he became a partner with Chester Cur- tis in the lumber business, but a year later they dissolved, Mr. Peck continuing the business alone on Meadow street until 1887, when he moved to Hartford, where he has since resided. He continued his lumber business in Waterbury until 1898, then reorganized it as the Brass City Lumber Company, retaining a controlling interest and serving the corporation as president. Prior to the organization of that company, he formed the Big Rapids Door and Blind Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut : located the mills of the company at Big Rapids, Mich- igan; was the largest stockholder and treasurer of the company, which con- tinued in active successful operation until its plant was totally destroyed by fire, June 14, 1900.
Mr. Peck organized the Capital City Lumber Company of Hartford, was its first president, but later sold his interest in that company and retired from its management. Since then he has been an active member of the Andrews & Peck Company, is its treasurer, and deeply interested in its successful operation. The company manufactures doors, sash and blinds, in fact, all the usual mill plan- ing mill output. This company was formed in 1885, Horace Andrews, a sales- man in Mr. Peck's employ, at Waterbury, becoming a partner and later becoming its manager. Andrews & Peck continued successfully as a firm until 1905, when the business was incorporated with Mr. Peck as its treasurer. There have been no blank periods in Mr. Peck's life, from the time he entered the army, a lad of eighteen. He has labored with body and brain and that he has achieved fortune and prominence is not as a result of for- tuitous circumstances, but of intelligent,
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well directed, persistent effort, along sound business lines. He is a member of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce, the Hartford Yacht Club and Hartford Auto- mobile Club, in all of which he is inter- ested and active.
Mr. Peck married, February 20, 1867, Susan M. Root, daughter of Horatio Root, of Hartford. Mr. and Mrs. Peck are the parents of three sons: I. Edward A., of Rocky Hill, Connecticut; married Cora Hall; six children : Helen Josephine, married Justus Churchhill, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and has a daughter, Justina Hall Churchhill; Wallace Hall; Fred- erick Hall, now a member of Three Hun- dred and First Machine Gun Battalion, at Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts ; Susan Elizabeth; Edna, and Marguerite Peck. 2. Harry H., married (first) Alice Grow, of Chicago, and their children are : Harold Windsor, now a member of Three Hundred and Third Machine Gun Bat- talion, Company B, Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts; Everett Lawrence, and Alice W. Peck. He married (second) Ethel Bliss, of Middletown, Connecticut, by whom he has three children: Edna, Henry and Charles. 3. Theodore, born March 15, 1875, in Waterbury, Connecti- cut, is now a resident of New Haven, Con- necticut ; he was educated in the gram- mar and high schools of Hartford, and in 1896 entered his father's employ; later he went to Africa in the employ of the Royal Gold Mining Company, remaining some time, when returning to Hartford, he married Dell Tracy and has one daughter, Margarie.
WEEKS, William H., Remarkable Educator.
The name of Weeks in some of its vari- ous forms is of great antiquity in Eng- land and is borne by families between some of whom there is no connection.
The early immigrants to this country bearing the name appear to have been mainly if not entirely from the south of England and were probably from its gen- try and yeomanry, of Norman origin. They were generally men of enterprise, some being also men of culture and of means, who at once assumed positions of honor and influence.
A worthy descendant of this honorable family, William H. Weeks, was born No- vember 1, 1829, in Yorktown, Westches- ter county, New York, the son of Jere- miah and Charlotte (Coovert) Weeks. He was a descendant of Francis Weeks, who came from England in 1635 and settled at Salem, Massachusetts. He removed the following year to Provi- dence, Rhode Island, where he formed one of the band of sympathizers of Roger Williams. He held the office of secretary of the Colony, and removed a second time, in 1640, to New York, where he became a joint proprietor of Oyster Bay in 1650. He died prior to 1687. His wife's name was Elizabeth Luther.
Daniel Weeks, their grandson, was born December 3, 1735, and died at Ship Harbor, Nova Scotia, December 29, 1852, at the great age of one hundred and seven- teen years. He was a Loyalist, and was obliged to remove to Ship Harbor for that reason. He was the father of twenty-one children, of whom the second son was David Weeks, who lived at Oyster Bay, and was the father of Henry Weeks, who resided at different times at White Plains, New York City, Cortland and Yorktown. He died June 5, 1859, aged one hundred and one years. His wife was Sarah Higgins, of White Plains, Westchester county, New York. They were the par- ents of Jeremiah Weeks, born March 25, 1795, and died January 1, 1880. He was a deacon of the Yorktown Baptist Church for sixty-one years, a remarkable record. He married a widow, Mrs. Char-
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lotte Coovert, and they were the parents of the following children: Mary, born August 17, 1827; William H., of further mention ; Sarah E., born 1832; Catherine M., born July 27, 1835.
William H. Weeks was so unfortunate as to be stricken deaf and dumb in his fifth year while suffering from scarlet fever. Every attempt was made by lov- ing parents to restore his hearing, but to no avail. In his early childhood he gave evidence of a desire to acquire knowledge, and although he continued to attend school with his sister after his affliction, he made little progress. His father was a man of superior education and was determined that his son should receive the best in the way of an educa- tion. Accordingly, he took him to the Fanwood School for the Deaf, which was located on Fiftieth street, New York City, and the boy was enrolled there as a student at the age of twelve years under the preceptorship of Dr. Harvey P. Peet. The rapid progress which he made was such that he was chosen from the class to demonstrate the new method of train- ing before the Legislature of New York State in 1848. He graduated from the school in New York and was employed there in 1850 as a teacher, which posi- tion he held for fifteen years. In 1865 Mr. Weeks removed to Hartford, Con- necticut, and became a teacher in the American School for the Deaf in that city and was there in that capacity until his retirement in June, 1913. He was more than sixty years of age before he took up the science of lip reading, and eighty- three years of age when he retired from the Hartford School. Altogether his services in instructing in the two schools aggregated sixty-four years. He could very clearly remember the night of No- vember 17, 1835, at which time the Hal- ley Comet appeared in the northern sky. He recalled the great fear which the spec-
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