Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 5, Part 4

Author:
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 736


USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 5 > Part 4


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Their eldest son was Jonathan Camp, born February 20, 1768. He married, May 19, 1792, Hannah Bouton, born May


16, 1765, daughter of Esaias and Phebe (Byxbee) Bouton. Esaias Bouton, born November 28, 1730, died May 27, 1821, was a son of Zachin Bouton. His wife, Phebe (Byxbee) Bouton, born 1734, died March 15, 1810, and was buried at Belden's Point, Norwalk.


Their eldest son, Jonathan Camp, was born September 15, 1801, died April 14, 1880, and was buried in Union Cemetery, Norwalk. He married, January 1I, 1826, Mary Lannon Newkirk, born February 15, 1808, died December 4, 1896, and was buried beside her husband. She was a daughter of Garret Harson Newkirk, born 1788, died February I, 1831, grand- daughter of John Newkirk, who died Jan- uary 14, 1818.


Jonathan Camp, second son of Jonathan and Mary L. (Newkirk) Camp, was born January 22, 1838, in Norwalk, died April 16, 1874, and was buried in Union Cemetery of that town. He mar- ried, April 5, 1865, Frances Jane Wood, born January 1, 1842, daughter of Uriah Wood, born October 25, 1822, married, November 24, 1839, Eliza Jane Gorham, born January 25, 1821, died November 16, 1855, and was interred beside her hus- band in Union Cemetery. Frances J. Wood was descended from Daniel Wood, born 1752, in Danbury, Connecticut, died September 21, 1829, married Wealthee Munrow, born 1760, died July 10, 1818. Their son, Noah Wood, born February 24, 1780, died August 22, 1846, married Deborah Platt, born December 10, 1778, died April 27, 1855, daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Wilson) Platt. They were the parents of Joseph Platt Wood, born July 18, 1797, died March 5, 1883, mar- ried, March 7, 1821, Clarissa Pickett, born March 28, 1799, died August 17, 1873, and was buried in Union Cemetery, Nor- walk. She was a granddaughter of John and Mercy (Platt) Pickett, and daughter


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of John and Mary (Bates) Platt. Jona- than and Frances J. (Wood) Camp were the parents of two children : Kate Elaine, born January 18, 1866, and Jonathan, mentioned below. The elder is the wife of Robert F. Way, of Norwalk, Connec- ticut, and they have a son, Donald Forbes Way.


Jonathan Camp, son of Jonathan and Frances J. (Wood) Camp, was born Jan- uary 10, 1874, during a temporary resi- dence of his parents in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was three months old when the family removed to Norwalk, Connec- ticut, and there he attended the public schools. When fourteen years of age he went to Hartford, where his sister was residing, and there attended the high school. His father having died when he was an infant, he was early placed upon his own resources, and while still a youth entered the employ of C. G. Perkins, pro- prietor of the Perkins Electric Switch Manufacturing Company. His industry and dilligent attention won him rapid promotion, and for several years he rep- resented the company as a salesman, and went to England in its interest. In 1900 he founded the Franklin Electric Manufacturing Company, was made treasurer and general manager, and con- tinued in that capacity until 1915, when he was made president and general manager. This establishment produces incandescent lamps of every type, and its product is used in all sections of the United States. The business has pros- pered, largely through the business ca- pacity and industry of its founder. Mr. Camp is identified with the social life of his home city, is a member of the Hart- ford Club, Hartford Golf Club, Country Club of Farmington, Dauntless Club of Essex, and Sachem's Head Yacht Club. With his wife he is affiliated with Trinity Episcopal Church of Hartford, and his in-


fluence is ever cast on the side of morali- ty and good progress.


He married, April 29, 1896, Susan Mor- rell, born May 2, 1869, in Hartford, daughter of Daniel and Cornelia J. (Silver ) Morrell, descended from Thomas Morrell, a native of England, who died at Newtown, New York, about 1704. His wife, Hannah, surname unknown, accom- panied him from England.


They were the parents of Jonathan Morrell, born about 1670, in Newtown, died about 1726. The family name of his wife Judith is not known. Six of their children were baptized at Newtown, August 1, 1710, by the Rector of Grace Church, Jamaica, Long Island.


Their fifth son, Daniel Morrell, born, probably in 1710, at Newtown, lived at Albany, New York. He married, March 3, 1734, Alida Doxie, daughter of Samuel and Lysbeth (Bas) Doxie, of Long Is- land, born 1710. The Doxie family is an old one on Long Island, descended from Thomas Doxsey, who purchased a plan- tation lot at Gravesend, Long Island, Oc- tober 19, 1650. Four of Daniel Morrell's children were baptized at the First Dutch Reformed Church in Albany.


The second son, Samuel Morrell, was baptized December II, 1748, in Albany, and lived in that city, where he was ap- pointed chimney viewer, November 3, 1786. On March 21 of that year his bill of fourteen pounds and four shillings was ordered paid by the City Council, indicat- ing that he had been in the city service. The census of 1790 shows that he was liv- ing at Watervliet, a suburb of Albany. He married, March 14, 1772, Rachel Garde- nier, of Albany, a descendant of Jacob Janse, a carpenter, who came from Cam- pen, in Holland, 1637, lived at New Am- sterdam until about 1666, when he remov- ed to Beaverwyck, now Albany. He is said to have been a skilled gardener, hence


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the origin of the surname. At one time he has known as Jacob Janse Flodder, under which name he was granted a large tract, covering a part of the present city of Hudson, New York, the title to which continued in litigation until early in the nineteenth century.


The second son of Samuel and Rachel (Gardenier ) Morrell was Daniel Morrell, born February II, 1775, in Albany, where he lived until 1814, when he removed to a farm some six miles from Canajoharie, New York. About 1830 he removed to the village of Canajoharie, and there en- gaged in the grocery business, in com- pany with his son, Daniel. His farm- house and his residence in the village are still in good preservation. In 1834 he was elected to represent his district in Montgomery county in the New York Legislature. He was in the military ser- vice in the War of 1812, in the commis- sary department, stationed perhaps at Ticonderoga. He died December 22, 1842, at Canajoharie. He married Claartje Groesbeck, born March 12, 1770, in Al- bany, died June 17, 1838, descended from Nicholas Jacobse Groesbeck, a carpenter, who came from Rotterdam, Holland, in 1662, born about 1626. He purchased a house lot on the west side of Pearl street in Albany, the second, north of Maiden Lane, when about seventy-two years old. The third child of Nicholas Groesbeck was William Charles Groes- beck, born about 1660, who married Ger- terny Schuyler, and was the father of David Groesbeck, born 1692, died 1763. He married, November 8, 1724, Maria Vander Pool, who died in 1757. Their fifth son was John D. Groesbeck, born 1741, who married Betty Van Arnum, of Albany, and they were the parents of Claartje Groesbeck, wife of Daniel Mor- rell.


The second son of Daniel Morrell was


John D. Morrell, born December 14, 1800, in Albany, and was a dry goods merchant at No. 80 State street in that city, in 1852, with residence at No. 13 Park street. He died September 9, 1872, in his seventy- second year. He married Mary Burns, daughter of Peter and Sarah Ann (Mc- Dougall) Burns, of Montreal, Canada.


Their eldest son was Daniel Morrell, born July 3, 1836, in Canajoharie, who exemplified in remarkable degree the traits and characteristics of his ancestors. Research has indicated that the name came originally from France, the family living for some time in Holland, remov- ing thence to England. At the time of Daniel Morrell's birth his father owned and operated boats on the Erie canal, and while the son was young, the family re- moved to Albany, later to New York City. His education was supplied by the public schools, and he prepared for col- lege, but was prevented from taking the course by the destruction of his father's property by a great conflagration, which swept away nearly all the canal vessels in the Albany Basin. In 1853 the son entered the employ of the brokerage firm of David Groesbeck & Company, on Broad street, New York City. Subse- quently he was made a partner in the firm, and about 1860 became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, contin- uing in this connection nearly thirty years. In 1876 he became interested in the Spencer Repeating Rifle designed by Christopher M. Spencer, severed his con- nection with the firm of Groesbeck & Company, and removed to Hartford, where he was interested, with Mr. Spencer and others, in the organization of the Hartford Machine Screw Com- pany. This establishment revolutionized the processes by which machine screws, nuts, rivets and nearly all lathed turned parts are produced. In 1906 Mr. Morrell


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retired from active business, though still financially interested in various enter- prises. He married, June 25, 1862, Cor- nelia Josephine Silver, of New York City, and their golden wedding was celebrated at their home in Hartford, in 1912. Cor- nelia Josephine Silver was born March 18, 1840, in Richmond, Province of Que- bec, Canada, and died November 20, 1914, in Hartford, daughter of Abraham Per- kins and Lydia Bailey (Burgess) Silver. Abraham P. Silver was a grandson of James Silver, a surgeon in the Con- tinental Revolutionary Army, who served at the battle of Bunker Hill. During that battle he seized the gun of a wound- ed man and fought in the ranks. After independence was secured, he settled at Nottingham, New Hampshire, resumed the practice of medicine, and some years later removed to Canada. Susan Morrell, daughter of Daniel and Cornelia J. (Silver) Morrell, was born May 2, 1869, and became the wife of Jonathan Camp, as above noted.


CRARY, David, M. D., Physician, Public Official.


Since 1838, when Dr. David Crary came to Hartford, after two years medi- cal practice in Vermont, Hartford has not been without a Dr. David Crary in the active practice of medicine. When Dr. David Crary, Sr., laid down the bur- den of a large practice in 1885, his mantle fell upon Dr. David Crary, Jr., who had been associated in practice with his father since 1869.


The elder Dr. Crary was in active prac- tice for half a century, and during that period was attending physician in more than three thousand maternity cases. He is credited with the first operation in tracheotomy performed in Hartford, that operation saving the life of a child suffer-


ing with membranous croup, and at the verge of suffocation. He was the assist- ant physician at the operation of a re- moval of a tumor from a woman, where nitrous oxide was used for the first time in the city.


The professional life of the son has now extended over a period of nearly equal length and his practice has been equally important. While contempo- raries, they were also partners, but since 1885, the year of the senior doctor's re- tirement, until the present year, 1917, Dr. Crary, Jr., has practiced alone. The en- tire period covered by the two men as medical practitioners to now is seventy- nine years, 1838 to 1917.


Dr. David Crary, Jr., is of the seventh generation of the family founded i in America by Peter Crary, who settled at New London, Connecticut, as early as 1663, residing on the Groton side of the river. He married, in 1677, Christobel, daughter of John Gallup, and left male issue at his death in 1708.


Robert Crary, the son of Peter Crary, the founder, was born in New London, in 1690, and died in 1750. His wife was Elizabeth, whose maiden name has not been ascertained.


Christopher Crary, son of Robert and Elizabeth Crary, was born in 1713, and died in 1790. He married Elizabeth Rob- bins, born in 1719, and died in 1796.


Ezra Crary, son of Christopher Crary and Elizabeth (Robbins) Crary, was born in 1737, and died in 1828. He married, in 1756, Dorothy Ramsdell, who was born in 1741.


Elias Crary, son of Ezra and Dorothy (Ramsdell) Crary, was born in 1764, and died in 1847. His life was largely spent on the farm in Vermont. The even tenor of his life was disturbed, however, by that period which witnessed the Birth of a Nation. In those events, he bore an


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active part-serving as a soldier in the Revolutionary Army, and bearing a citi- zen's part when the appeal to arms had proved successful. He was a member of the Baptist church, and a Democrat in politics. He married, in 1782, Elizabeth Palmer, and they were the parents of nine children.


Dr. David Crary, son of Elias and Eli- zabeth (Palmer) Crary, was born in Wal- lingford, Vermont, April 18, 1806, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, April 16, 1894. After studying in the district and high school, he taught school for a time, also read medicine under the instruction of his brother-in-law, Dr. John Fox, an eminent practitioner of that early day. In 1834 he was awarded his degree, M. D., by the Medical College of Castleton, Vermont. For two years he practiced his profession at Dorset, Vermont. In 1838 he located in Hartford, where he pursued a most honorable and successful career as physician and citizen. His fifty years of medical practice was broken between the years 1861 and 1867 by a complete rest at his old home in Walling- ford, Vermont. These were years princi- pally spent in recreation and ornithologi- cal pursuits. His collection of birds at one time was probably the largest private collection in the State; many of the specimens being exceedingly rare. He resumed practice in Hartford in 1867, and continued until 1885. For many years he served on the medical staff of the Hart- ford Hospital; he was a member of the County and State Medical societies ; surgeon of the Hartford Light Guard under Governor Seymour. He represent- ed the First Ward of Hartford in Council for nine years, was vice-president of the Board of School Visitors, and took a deep interest in public affairs. He was a Democrat in politics, and in religious faith an Adventist. His life was full,


earnest and devoted-the good he did long surviving him. For many years he was president of the Hartford Fox Club, and in social life was very popular.


Dr. Crary married (first) January 14, 1836, Susan Harris, born at Brattleboro, Vermont, February 8, 1811, and died at Hartford, Connecticut, November 2, 1849. He married (second) in Glastonbury, Connecticut, March 12, 1851, Martha Tryon, who died December 11, 1893.


Dr. David Crary, son of Dr. David and Susan (Harris) Crary, was born at Hart- ford, Connecticut, April 26, 1842. After his completion of the public schools in Hartford, he spent four years as a drug clerk, three of which were in Rutland, Vermont, and one in Hartford. He studied medicine under the direction of his honored father, and after courses at the Yale Medical School was awarded his degree, M. D., in the class of 1869. Immediately after his graduation, he was admitted to partnership association by his father and together they practiced for sixteen years until 1885, the senior Dr. Crary retiring to a well earned rest. Dr. Crary, the younger, has continued in ac- tive practice alone from the date of sepa- ration from his father and has worthily upheld the honor of the Crary name as a skillful, reliable and honorable physician. His practice, general in character, has al- ways been a large one, and from 1875 until 1910 its burden was largely in- creased by his office of physician to the County Jail, which he resigned in July of the latter year, after an uninterrupted service of thirty-five years. He is a mem- ber of the American Medical Association, Connecticut State Medical Society, Hart- ford County and Hartford City Medical societies. In politics he is an Indepen- dent. Dr. Crary is fond of travel and in the year 1900, toured through Europe, his intinerary covering England and the


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continent quite thouroughly ; he devoted some time to the World's exposition held that year in Paris. Since 1900 he has made several extensive tours in southern Europe and Egypt, and spent several win- ters in the West Indies. He is a mem- ber of the Yale Alumni Association, and has many interests, social and literary, as well as professional.


Dr. Crary married (first) May 18, 1881, at Hartford, Etta Juliette Martin, born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, January 9, 1853, the daughter of Joseph Henry and Julia (Woodhouse) Martin, the former an official of the city, and prominent in the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. Mrs. Crary's death occurred October 13, 1904. Dr. Crary married (second) Mrs. Flora W. MacCallan, in Grace Church, New York, August 8, 1914.


PUTNAM, William Hutchinson, Investment Broker.


William Hutchinson Putnam is a citi- zen of Hartford, Connecticut, and is ac- tive in the various public affairs of this city. The name Putnam is of very ancient English origin and occurs often in Eng- lish affairs since the time of Edward I. The name may be derived from the word "putte," a well, in Flemish or Low Dutch, having the same meaning as "putt" in Danish, a well. The final syllable, ham, is one of the old forms for house, or hamlet, and takes its rise from the same root as home or the Scotch hame. The entire word therefore means the home or house with a well or spring. The Amer- ican family first came to Old Salem, now Danvers, Massachusetts.


John Putnam, the immigrant ancestor of William H. Putnam, of this sketch was born about 1580, was baptized at Win- grave, Bucks, England, January 17, 1581. He was a son of Nicholas and Margaret


(Goodspeed) Putnam, who were married at Wingrave, January 30, 1577. John Putnam lived with his parents at the town of Stewkeley, England, until his father's death, when he took possession of his inheritance, the English estate of Aston Abbots, where he resided until his removal to the American colony. He lived in Aston Abbots as late as May, 1627, the date of baptism of his youngest son John. Although the first record of him in New England is of the date of 1641, when his wife was admitted to the church at Salem, it is the family tradition that he arrived in that settlement as early as 1634. John Putnam was a farmer, and according to the standards of that time very well off. There are deeds on record which show that he wrote an excellent hand. He was admitted to the church in 1647, six years after his wife, and in the same year was made a freeman. His death, according to a family story, was very sudden and took place on the night of December 30, 1662, at the age of eighty years. He was, it seems, perfectly well and to all appearances in good health at supper that night, yet died before going to sleep. He married Priscilla ", the surname of this lady being unknown, although it is variously stated to be Gould and Deacon. His marriage occurred prior to 1612, but the exact date is lost.


Their son, Thomas Putnam, was also a native of England and was baptized at Aston Abbots, March 7, 1614-15. He came to America with his parents, and in 1640 was recorded as living in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was made a freeman there two years later, and in 1643 was one of the seven selectmen of the town. On April 3, 1643, he was admitted to the Salem church, and the town of Salem granted him fifty-five acres of land. This grant seems to have dated from 1640, at the time when he was living in Lynn.


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From 1645 to 1648 he was a member of a committee appointed by the General Court "to end small causes under twenty shillings." On September II, 1648, he was elected a grand juryman in Salem, and was chosen constable of the same town, October 10, 1655. This office in those days carried great authority with it and covered the entire local adminis- tration of affairs. Thomas Putnam was a very prominent man in the town in al- most all departments of its affairs and served on numerous committees there, as well as being the first parish clerk of the town. On October 8, 1662, he was ap- pointed lieutenant in the local troop of horse. A tax list on record at that time shows Mr. Putnam's name at its head. His (second) marriage was Mary Veren which increased his wealth by put- ting him in possession of considerable properties in Jamaica and the Barbadoes. His house, which is now known as the General Israel Putnam house, in Domus, is still standing, and it was there that his death occurred in Salem village, May 5, 1686. He was twice married, the second time to Mary, widow of Nathaniel Veren, September 14, 1666, and his wife died March 16 or 17, 1694-95.


Their son, Joseph Putnam, was born at Salem village, September 14, 1669, three years to a day after the marriage of his parents. The memory of this gentle- men will always live because of his cour- ageous opposition to witchcraft. It re- quired courage in those days to denounce witchcraft as he did and the proceedings which were taken by his extremely bigoted fellow citizens, and it is stated that Mr. Putnam always kept his best horse saddled so that at a moment's notice he might escape from the town. He must have been a man of unusually broad mind for that day, since he was able to resist a superstition which ingulfed


such men as Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewall. So great was the danger involv- ed in opposing the witchcraft proceedings of those days, that it is said that if it had not been for Mr. Putnam's good con- nections it is very likely that he would have suffered severe consequences. He was the father of General Israel Putnam, and was well worthy of the relation that he bore to that splendid man. His death occurred in Salem village in 1724-25. He married, April 21, 1690, Elizabeth, a daughter of Israel and Elizabeth (Hathorne) Porter, of Salem village, where she was born October 7, 1673, and died in the year 1746.


Their son, Major-General Israel Put- nam, was born January 7, 1717-18, at Salem village, in the old house built by his grandfather, Thomas Putnam. The following description of General Israel Putnam was written by his distinguished grandson, General, Judge, Judah Dana : "In his person, for height about the middle size, very erect, thick-set, mus- cular and firm in every part. His coun- tenance was open, strong, and animated ; the features of his face large, well pro- portioned to each other and to his whole frame ; his teeth fair and sound till death. His organs and senses were all exactly fitted for a warrior; he heard quick- ly, saw to an immense distance, and though he sometimes stammered in con- versation, his voice was remarkably heavy, strong and commanding. Though facetious and dispassionate in private, when animated in the heat of battle his countenance was fierce and terrible, and his voice like thunder. His whole manner was admirably adapted to inspire his soldiers with courage and confidence, and his enemies with terror. The faculties of his mind were not in- ferior to those of his body ; his penetra- tion was acute; decision rapid, yet re-


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markably correct; and the more desper- ate the situation, the more collected and undaunted. With the courage of a lion, he had a heart that melted at the sight of distress ; he could never witness suffering in any human being without becoming a sufferer himself. Martial music aroused him to the highest pitch, whole solemn sacred music sent him into tears. In his disposition he was open and generous almost to a fault, and in his social rela- tions he was never excelled.


General Israel Putnam was educated in the schools of the rural district where he was born and the opportunities in those days were decidedly meagre. He re- mained in the home of his parents until he had attained young manhood and then, shortly after his marriage, he re- moved to Brooklyn, then part of the town of Pomfret, Connecticut, where he bought a tract of land of about five hun- dred acres in the district known as Mort- lake Manor. In 1741 he became the sole owner of this land and built a large house there. His district was incorporated in the year 1786 as the town of Brooklyn, and it was largely through the influence of General Putnam that the superb shade trees which line its streets were planted. General Putnam's military career began with the French and Indian War, where he was a captain in Colonel Lyman's regiment. He fought at Fort Edward and Lake George in 1755. He received his commission of major in 1757 at Fort Edward, and the following year occurred the celebrated episode concerning his capture by the Indians and his narrow escape from death. He was, it will be remembered, actually tied to a tree and a fire lighted about him, when he was saved by the intervention of a chief of the tribe, whom he had treated kindly on the previous occasion of the chief's cap- ture. His final escape however, was ef-


fected through General Peter Schuyler, whose influence with the Indians was such that they set him free. General Putnam christened his youngest son after General Schuyler in gratitude for this rescue. In 1759 Israel Putnam was made a lieutenant-colonel and served at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in the ex- pedition directed against Montreal in 1759-60 under the command of General Amherst. He later commanded a regi- ment in the West Indies, and in 1764 was again in the United States where he marched to Detroit with a Connecticut regiment against the Indians. In the same year he returned to a more private mode of existence and lived for a time on his farm and also kept a tavern in his spacious dwelling house. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached him, he was working in his fields, but left immediately to start for Cambridge. He was appointed brigadier-general, June 9, 1776, and was later raised to the rank of major-general. He was the officer in command at the battle of Bunker Hill, and was given command by General Washington of the center at Cambridge. Later his command was sent to New York and still later to Philadelphia. In 1778 he was again at West Point where he took an active part in the campaign of the following year. He also superin- tended the defences constructed at West Point, but during the winter of 1779 suf- fered a stroke of paralysis which ended his military career. He lived to see the birth of the new nation, but was never able to return to active service in the army. His death occurred October 29, 1790, and he was buried with military and Masonic honors. He married (first) July 19, 1739, Hannah, a daughter of Joseph and Mehitable (Putnam) Pope, of Danvers. She died September 6, 1765. Through- out his entire life, Israel Putnam per-




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