USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 26
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In this place it may be recorded that Almon Gillette had a sister, Pamelia, next in age to himself. She married Apollos Griffin, of Granby. Her son, own cousin to Minerva Gillette, was Major General Charles Griffin, also in the sixth genera- tion from George Hayes. General Griffin
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took the swords at the surrender of the army of North Virginia at Appomattox.
The ancestor of Elizabeth Hayes, in maternal lines, was John Griffin, an early settler of Granby. In the Turkey Hill region in Windsor, in 1647, he married Anna Bancroft, of Windsor. Their daugh- ter, Mary Griffin, married Samuel Wil- son, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Steb- bins) Wilson, of Hartford. Their daugh- ter, Elizabeth Wilson, married Lieuten- ant William Wilcoxson, of Simsbury. Their daughter, Elizabeth Wilcoxson, married Samuel Hayes, as above men- tioned. The name Elizabeth was carried through many generations and still exists in later descendants in Texas. The latest is Elizabeth Dow, aged seventeen years, daughter of Elizabeth Dolan, great-grand- daughter of Almon Gillette. The father of Elizabeth Stebbins was called Deacon Stebbins, and his wife was said to be closely related to Rev. Hooker, if not his sister.
(The Hubbard Ancestry of Almon Gillette).
Penelope Gillette, wife of Benoni Gil- lette, was the daughter of Aaron Hub- bard, of Naubuck, then called Eastbury, in Glastonbury. Who Aaron Hibbard was, has not been found. He was called sergeant in the Lexington Alarm list. He was long active in the schools of East- bury. He died suddenly of smallpox. His will, in the East Windsor Probate Records, establishes known facts. He was associated with Captain Eliazur Hub- bard, and was probably a brother. In his will he bequeaths property to his daughters, Penelope Gillette, wife of Be- noni Gillette, and to Prudence, wife of Thomas Blish, probably of Manchester. The Blish genealogy is faulty in calling Prudence the daughter of Eliazur Hub- bard. After the death of Aaron Hubbard,
his widow married John Hudson, of Tor- rington, and in the will of her father she is classed as Mrs. Hudson, much to the mystification of genealogists. But these facts as given are proven. According to baptismal records, Penelope was born in 1769. She was a very strong character and gave much of her force to her descend- ants, also giving very black hair and lively characters to the families' females. It was said that in the youth of Dr. Wil- liams' mother, that when she came along the school friends called her "Aunt Nelly" after her grandmother, Penelope.
The maternal lines of the ancestors of Penelope (Hubbard) Gillette are as fol- lows :
Dr. William Pynchon, of Salem and later of Springfield, Massachusetts, was a strong character. He was counsellor and treasurer of the Massachusetts Colony. He was the founder of Springfield, where his statue now stands. With his son, Captain John Pynchon, and his son-in- law, Captain Elizur Holyoke, he built up the Connecticut valley from Suffield to Holyoke. William Pynchon had a daugh- ter, Mari, who married Captain Elizur Holyoke, son of Edward Holyoke, founder of Holyoke, and from whom Holyoke mountain is named. Their daughter, Hannah Holyoke, married Colonel Sam- uel Talcott, of Hartford, who was prom- inent in the Connecticut Colony. John Talcott, of Hartford, father of Samuel Talcott, was one of the most prominent men in Hartford for many years. He married Dorothy Mott. The son of Sam- uel and Hannah (Holyoke) Talcott, Cap- tain Nathaniel Talcott, married Elizabeth Pitkin, of Hartford. Abigail Talcott, daughter of Nathaniel Talcott, married Thomas Hollister, of Glastonbury. It is written of Mrs. Abigail (Talcott) Hol- lister that she had great medical skill and
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was in constant demand. She lived to be over ninety years old. Dorothy Hollister, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Hollis- ter, married Aaron Hubbard. The Hol- lister family were as prominent as the Talcotts. John (1) Hollister married Jo- anna Treat, whose brother became gov- ernor of Connecticut. His son married Sarah Goodrich; their son, Thomas Hol- lister, married Dorothy Hill, daughter of Joseph Hill, of Glastonbury. Their son, Thomas Hollister, married Abigail Tal- cott, mentioned above, and their daugh- ter married Aaron Hubbard, as mentioned above.
The Adams lines of Minerva Gillette Williams are as follows :
George Adams, early in Braintree, Mas- sachusetts, married a daughter of Con- rad Streetholt in London. One of his sons, Daniel Adams, came probably with two brothers to Windsor early in 1660. Mrs. Almon Gillette, who was born of this family in 1790, and died in 1860, often told the writer in his youth that President John Adams was her cousin. Daniel Adams married, in Windsor, in 1667, Mary Phelps, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Griswold) Phelps, of Windsor. Her mother, Sarah (Griswold) Phelps, was a daughter of Edward Griswold, of Windsor. Samuel Phelps died young, and his widow married Nathaniel Pinney when Mary Phelps was eleven years of age. She was probably called Mary Pin- ney after her stepfather, but the wills of her mother show her parentage. Mrs. Almon Gillette always claimed that her ancestress was Mary Phelps. Joseph Adams, son of Daniel Adams, married Mary Case, daughter of William Case. Her mother was Elizabeth (Holcomb) Case, of Simsbury. Matthew Adams, son of Joseph Adams, married Susannah Eno, daughter of Lieutenant William and
Mary (North) Eno, of Simsbury. Abel Adams, son of Matthew and Susannah (Eno) Adams, married Rosene Cossette, of Granby. Abel Adams was a Revolu- tionary soldier. His family were all tal- ented. His daughter, Lurana Lura, mar- ried Almon Gillette, of Granby, as men- tioned above. A sister of Lurana Adams married a Smith, and their son, Colonel Ashbel Smith, M. D., was called the Franklin of the South (Yale Alumni Jour- nal). He was a lawyer and doctor, and plenipotentiary from the Republic of Texas to France and England. He founded the medical college in Texas, and was a colonel in the Civil War. It is mostly on his old estate near Goose Creek where the celebrated Goose Creek oil wells are found. His cousin, Henry Flavel Gillette, son of his Aunt Lurana, and uncle of Dr. Williams, of this sketch, was one of the pioneers of Texas and long time educator. He conducted the Bayland Orphan Home with his own funds for the years of reconstruction. President Anson Jones chose him for his secretary of state in Texas Republic, but Mr. Gillette would not give up his edu- cational vocation. He had thirteen chil- dren and has many descendants in Texas.
John Case, of Simsbury, married Sarah Spencer. He was one of the founders of Simsbury. Sarah Spencer was the only daughter of William and Agnes Spencer. After the death of William Spencer, Mrs. Agnes Spencer married William Edwards, of Hartford, and she became the ances- tress of Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr. Elizabeth Holcomb, wife of Wil- liam Case, was the daughter of Joshua Holcomb. Her mother was Ruth (Sher- wood) Holcomb. Joshua Holcomb was the son of Thomas Holcomb, the original immigrant ancestor in Hartford, from
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whom so many Holcombs descend. He married Elizabeth
James Eno, the immigrant ancestor, married, in 1648, Hannah Bidwell (Bed- wel). They had three children from whom all the Eno and Enos families de- scend. James (2) Eno married Abigail Bissell, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Holcomb) Bissell. They had ten chil- dren, the tenth of whom was Lieutenant William Eno, who married Mary North, as mentioned above. Mary North was the daughter of John North. Her mother was Hannah (Newell) North, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Olmstead) New- ell, of Hartford. Thomas North, father of John North, was the first settler of Avon, and a soldier in the Indian wars. The ancestry of Rosene Cossette, wife of Abel Adams, is as follows :
Rene Cossette was born in Paris, France, on Place Vendôme. His parents had land at Three Rivers, Canada. He came to look the property over, and then took a voyage down the St. Lawrence to Boston, Providence, and New Haven, where fate overtook him in the guise of Ruth Porter, a young girl of about seven- teen years of age. She refused to go to France, so he came back about 1716 and married her. He built a house in Granby. He became a Protestant, and was the an- cestor of early Episcopal clergymen. He is mentioned in the Lexington list, and one of his sons was a captain in the Rev- olution. His son, Rene (2) Cossette, married Phoebe Hillier (or Hyllier), daughter of James Hillier, of Windsor. Her mother was Joanna (Hayes) Hillier, daughter of George Hayes, of Granby. His family consisted of eight children, of whom Rosene, the youngest, married Abel Adams. Their daughter, Lurana, married Almon Gillette. One of the de- scendants of Rene (2) Cossette became
very wealthy in the South and built the North Granby Cossette Library as a me- morial to his ancestors.
Ruth Porter was not found by the au- thors of the Cossette Genealogy. She was the daughter of Richard Porter, who was born in Farmington, and moved to Waterbury and later to New Haven. The mother of Ruth Porter is not known. Richard Porter was the son of Daniel Porter, who was one of the earliest physi- cians of the colony and hired by the col- ony to treat cases. He was paid by a land grant which included part of Waterbury. His wives are not known by name, and it is not known which of them was Rich- ard's mother.
This concludes the multiple ancestors of Dr. Williams, and from this complete ancestry issues the character, such as it is, of a primitive Yankee, who like his ancestral Adams kin says "Give me liber- ty or give me death."
PIERCE, John William,
Textile Manufacturer.
When young John W. Pierce, now su- perintendent and general manager of the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company's works at Thompsonville, Connecticut, be- gan his connection with carpet manufac- ture in his English home, he was a lowly beginner, and he has, by hard work, faith- fulness and natural ability, won his way to important position in that industry, having attained a high reputation as an expert in the manufacture of Axminster, Wilton and Brussels carpets and rugs. He is a son of Samuel Pierce, who was the only son of John Pierce, a farmer of Kidderminster, England. Samuel Pierce was born in Kidderminster, where he be- came an inspector and exciseman in the English civil service. The family were
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members of the Church of England. Sam- uel Pierce married Annie Jordan, born in Kidderminster, England, where their son, John William Pierce, of this review, was born and spent his youth.
John William Pierce was born in Kid- derminster, a parliamentary and munici- pal borough of Worcestershire, England, July 20, 1877. He was educated in the public schools, finishing at Waverly, Eng- land, whence he was graduated, class of 1893. Kidderminster is noted for its man- ufacture of carpets, and when John Pierce was seeking an occupation in life, oppor- tunity afforded in the form of a place as bobbin boy in the carpet mills operated by the Brinton Company, Ltd., of Kidder- minster. This was but the opening wedge, and from bobbin boy he advanced step by step through the various grades of promotion until he was rated a master of the carpet manufacturing business and was made superintendent. He was en- gaged in the manufacture of the grades known as Axminster, Wilton and Brus- sels, in Kidderminster, until 1898, when he was sent to Peterboro, Province of Ontario, Canada, a town with such abun- dant water power that it had attracted, among many others, the attention of the Brinton Company, Ltd., of Kidderminster. They erected a carpet mill there under Mr. Pierce's direction, and when finished and placed in commission, he became its superintendent and general manager. From Peterboro he came to the United States, in 1913, locating in Lowell, Mas- sachusetts, where he was superintendent of the Bigelow Carpet Mills until 1916. He was then transferred to the Bigelow- Hartford Carpet Company's works at Thompsonville, Connecticut, as general superintendent, his present position. The combined works of the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company are the largest in the
world, and are located at Lowell and Clin- ton, Massachusetts, and Thompsonville, Connecticut. The Thompsonville mill is the largest single mill of its kind. These mills are the spinners of worsteds and woolens, and the weavers of Wiltons, Brussels, Axminster and Tapestry car- pets, and the finer grades of blankets and duck. Mr. Pierce is a member of the Masonic order, affiliated with William North Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Lowell, Massachusetts ; a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and a member of the Enfield Golf Club.
Mr. Pierce married, in Kidderminster, England, August 1, 1902, Lillie Edith Ed- wards, daughter of Thomas and Martha (Jolley) Edwards, of Kidderminster. They are the parents of two sons: Cyril, born in Kidderminster, England, August 6, 1906; and John, born in Thompson- ville, Connecticut, October 4, 1916.
DUER, Denning,
Man of Large Affairs.
Arms-Ermine, a bend gules. Crest-A dove and olive branch argent. Motto-Esse et vider.
The Duer family has been prominent in the judicial, naval and military history of the Middle Atlantic States since the year 1768, when the immigrant ancestor, Col- onel William Duer, came to America from England.
(I) Colonel William Duer was born in England, March 18, 1747, the son of John and Frances (Frye) Duer. After having served under Lord Clive in India, Colonel Duer returned to England, and shortly afterwards departed for the colonies in America. He purchased land on the Hudson river, where he established him- self, and became one of the Indian Com- missioners just before the outbreak of
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the American Revolution. He was also commissary for New York, and a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety previous to the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country. When war came, however, he joined the col- onists and entered the army, in which he held the rank of colonel. He died May 17. 1799.
Colonel Duer married Catherine Alex- ander, daughter of Major-General Wil- liam and Sarah (Livingston) Alexander. Major-General Alexander was a member of the King's Council for the Colony of New York and New Jersey before the Revolution, after which he became a major-general in the American army. The wedding was performed at Basking- ridge, New Jersey, the home of the bride. General George Washington gave the bride away, and the ceremony was per- formed by his own chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Armstrong. Colonel Duer was a brother- in-law of the Hon. George Rose, the friend and correspondent of Pope, and whose eldest son, Lord Strathnairne, was one of the heroes of the Crimean War. The children of Colonel Duer and Cath- erine Alexander were: 1. William Alex- ander Duer, one of the first midshipmen of the United States Navy. He left the sea at an early age and studied law. He assisted Edward Livingston in the fram- ing of the famous State Constitution, known as the Louisiana Code, and since that time used as the frame and standard for the constitution of each State entering the Union. He was appointed judge of the Third Circuit Court of New York, and in 1830 was elected to the presidency of Columbia College of New York. 2. John Duer, judge and eminent jurist ; his books are even now recognized and used as text books on the laws of New York State. 3. Francis Duer. 4. Sarah Hen-
rietta. 5. Catherine Alexander. 6. Maria Theodora. 7. Henrietta Elizabeth. 8. Alexander.
(II) William Alexander Duer, LL .. D., son of Colonel William and Catherine (Alexander) Duer, was born September 8, 1780, and died May 30, 1858. He mar- ried, September 11, 1806, Hannah Maria Denning, daughter of William and Amy (Hawxhurst) Denning. She died July 17, 1862. Their children were: I. Hen- rietta, born 1808; died September 18, 1824. 2. Frances Maria, born December 24. 1809; married April 7, 1836, Henry Sheaf Hoyt. 3. Catherine Theodora, born December 24, 1811 ; died June 3, 1877. 4. William Denning, mentioned below. 5. Eleanor Jones, born February 6, 1814; married, May 17, 1838, George Templar Wilson ; died November 11, 1892. 6. Ed- ward A., born 1815; died in 1831. 7. Sarah Henderson, born January 28, 1817; died August 5, 1856. 8. Lieutenant-Com- mander John King, born December 26, 1818; died June 14, 1859; married, Sep- tember 21, 1841, George Anna Huyler. 9. Elizabeth Denning, born July 25, 1821; married May 8, 1845, Archibald Gracie King ; died March 21, 1897. 10. Charlotte Lucretia, born May 28, 1828; died Janu- ary 8, 1832.
(HI) William Denning Duer, son of William Alexander and Hannah Maria (Denning) Duer, was born December 6, 1812. He married, May 8, 1837, Caroline King, daughter of James Gore King. Their children were: 1. Sarah Gracie. 2. Edward Alexander; married, April 26, 1870, Anna Van Buren, daughter of John Van Buren. 3. James G. K., married, June 2, 1864, Elizabeth, daughter of Or- lando Meads. 4. Lieutenant Commander Rufus King Duer, United States Navy, died at sea, June 28, 1869. 5. Amy Hawx- hurst. 6. William Alexander, married,
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May 24, 1877, Ellin Travers, daughter of William Travers. 7. Denning Duer (2), mentioned below.
(IV) Denning Duer, son of William Denning and Caroline (King) Duer, was born September 15, 1850, in Weehawken, New Jersey. He received his early educa- tion in the public schools of Wehawken, and after completing the course of study offered there, he embarked on a business career as a stock broker in New York City. He was a man with keen business talent, and succeeded admirably in this venture in which he remained for several years. In addition to his business abil- ity, he was also a thinker, student, and born diplomat. His recognized ability and genius in this line was instrumental in securing him an appointment from President Arthur in 1881 as Consul at Lisbon, Portugal. He rendered valuable services in this important position, and his worth was recognized to such an extent that he was retained in the consular serv- ice by the succeeding administration, that of President Cleveland. During this ad- ministration he was United States Consul at Antwerp, Holland, and was later iden- tified in an official capacity with the con- sulate in London.
To travel and live abroad among for- eign peoples is an education than which there is none more broadening, and com- plete. Contact daily with customs differ- ing in their essentials from those to which one has been accustomed, is bound to effect in the mind of a man a deep under- standing and sympathy with human nature, a sort of divine tolerance. These qualities Mr. Duer had in abundance, and in consequence possessed friends all over the world. Upon quitting the diplomatic service he returned to America and set- tled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he resided for the remainder of his life.
After his retirement from official life, Mr. Duer did not again actively enter the bus- iness world, though he still continued and did until the end of his life take a keen and active interest in almost every phase of life in the city of New Haven. The same qualities which had made him a successful man and a more successful consul, made his advice sought by some of the most influential men of the city, whose friend he was.
On February 12, 1874, Mr. Duer mar- ried Louise Suydam, of Babylon, Long Island, New York, a daughter of Henry L. and Phoebe (Higbie) Suydam. Her mother died when Mrs. Duer was five years of age, and she made her home thereafter with her aunt and uncle, Ferd- inand and Caroline (Whitney) Suydam, of New York. (See Suydam ).
To Mr. and Mrs. Duer two children were born. I. Caroline Suydam, married George Xavier McLanahan, of Washing- ton, D. C., and is the mother of four chil- dren: Duer, Helen, Louise Suydam and George. 2. Louise, born in 1882, died in November, 1890. Mrs. Louise (Suydam) Duer survives her husband, and resides in New Haven, Connecticut. She is a member of the Colonial Dames and the Connecticut Society. A niece of Mr. Duer is the wife of the well known sur- geon, Dr. Joseph Blake, of the American Hospital in Paris.
SUYDAM FAMILY,
Ancestral History.
Suydam Arms-Argent, a chevron azure be- tween in chief two crescents gules, and in base a mullet of the last.
Crest-A swan in water among reeds proper. Motto-De tyd vliegt.
The Suydam family is one of very great antiquity, dating in the Netherlands from
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the beginning of the eleventh century, when members of the family held exten- sive landed estates in Holland. Research has as yet failed to establish a connection between the American family of the name and the ancient Dutch house. Riker in his "Annals of Newtown, New York," in an extensive article devoted to the Suy- dam family, states that they owe their name to a custom in vogue among the Dutch founders of families, of assuming the title of the place in Europe whence they had emigrated to America. The first ancestor of the Suydams in America was Heyndrycke Rycke or Rychen. Early Dutch colonial records inform us that he was "from Suydam," but unless either Schiedam or Saardam be intended, which is perhaps to be questioned, doubt must be raised as to the locality. From the ear- liest years of the New Amsterdam colony, members of the family have rendered dis- tinguished services to America during lier several wars, and have established a rep- utation for stern integrity, honesty, hos- pitality and respectability. The family has held a place of importance socially among the old Knickerbocker families of New York, and has intermarried since the time of its founding with the foremost families of the State.
(I) Hendrick Rycken, immigrant an- cestor and founder of the Suydam family, emigrated from Holland to America in 1663, settling on the outskirts of the city of New Amsterdam, at what was then called Smith's Fly, where he purchased a house and land on the shore of the East river, in 1678. He was a blacksmith, and pursued his trade in that locality until forced to move by the continued annoy- ance and danger of the snakes which in- fested the low land in that section. This property, which he subsequently sold to Dirck Van der Cliff (after whom Cliff
street, New York, took its name), was bounded by the East river, Shoemaker's land, and Maiden Lane. Hendrick Rycken had been in New York fourteen years before he purchased this property, and this transaction seems to have been the beginning of a successful career for him. hu his monograph on Hendrick Rycken, the Rev. J. Howard Suydam, D. D., says :
We may imagine this house as that of a farmer, since it was located at a distance from the built- up portion of the city. If so, it was a wooden structure, long, having a low ceiling, and a roof reach ing very near to the ground. Near by there was a garden of flowers, containing many col- ored tulips, which at this particular period were producing a strange mania in Holland. There was also a garden of vegetables, for which the Dutch were ever famous. The milk for the fam- ily came from the cows which flourished on the sweet clover in that pasture field; and the table was never without the schnapps, or the tankard of beer. On the site of Hendrick Rycken's farm was fought the battle of Golden Hill, on Janu- ary 18, 1770, which marked the first bloodshed in the American Revolution. It is usually stated by historians that the first blood was shed at Lexington, but such it not the fact. In 1678-79 he removed to Flatbush, where in April, 1679, he united with the church, with his wife Ida (Jacobs) Rycken. Rycken was one of the twenty-six patentees of the town of Flatbush, under the patent granted by Lieutenant-Governor Dongan, in 1685. He later acquired a large es- tate in Flatbush and other places, and assumed a place of prominence in the life and affairs of that locality. The family ranked high among the proud old Dutch families of the day.
Hendrick Rycken died in 1701. In his will he enjoins upon his wife a careful at- tention to the religious education of their children. Issue. 1. Jacob. 2. Hendrick. 3. Ryck, mentioned below. 4. Ida. 5. Gertrude. 6. Jane.
It is a curious though well established fact that, about the year 1710, the sons of Hendrick Rycken adopted the surname of Suydam, and from these three are de-
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scended all the Suydams of America, whose lineage is traced to early colonial days.
(II) Ryck Rycken or Suydam, young- est son of Hendrick and Ida (Jacobs) Rycken, was born in 1675, probably in New Amsterdam. He removed to Flat- bush, and resided there, a figure of prom- inence in the early affairs of the settle- ment, until his death. From 1711 until his demise he acted repeatedly as super- visor of the town, and was also for a con- siderable period a judge. Ryck Suydam married twice. He died in 1741. His children were: I. Hendrick. 2. John, mentioned below. 3. Ryck, usually called Richard, who established a branch of the family in Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey. 4. Ida. 5. Anna. 6. Ger- trude. 7. Jane. 8. Christiana. 9. Mary.
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