USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 28
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Library Exchange Agent for Connecticut State Publications ;
Exchange Agent for the Connecticut Ge- ological and Natural History Survey Publications ;
Custodian of Portraits of Governors ;
Custodian of State Library and Supreme Court Building ;
Depository of Historical and Genealogical Gifts to the State.
Among these gifts are the following :
a. Sherman W. Adams Collection of Of- ficial Rolls and Lists Relating to the French and Indian War ;
b. Dorence Atwater Collection of Manu- scripts relating to Andersonville ;
c. William F. J. Boardman Collection of Books and Manuscripts Relating to Genealogy ;
d. Brandegee Collection of Portraits of Chief Justices of the United States ; e. Stephen Dodd Collection of Manu- scripts Relating to the Early History of East Haven ;
f. Enfield Shaker Collection ;
g. Sylvester Gilbert Collection of Papers Relating to the American Revolution ;
h. Charles Hammond and H. M. Lawson Collections of Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Town of Union ;
i. Col. Edwin D. Judd Collection of Civil War Military Rolls and Papers ;
j. Dwight C. Kilbourn Collection of Books, Pamphlets and Manuscripts Relating to Connecticut and New England ;
k. Ellen D. Larned Collection of Books and Manuscripts Relating to New England ;
Including Table on Which Emanci- pation Proclamation was Signed.
m. Deacon Lewis M. Norton Collection
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of Manuscripts Relating to the Town of Goshen ;
n. Orville H. Platt Collection Relating to Finance. Indians, and Insular Affairs ;
o. Capt. John Pratt Collection of Military Papers, 1778-1824 ;
p. Major E. V. Preston Collection of Civil War Military Rolls and Papers ;
q. Col. Daniel Putnam Letters ;
r. Governor Trumbull Manuscripts ;
s. Gideon and Thaddeus Welles Collec- tion of American Newspapers from 1820 to 1840, approximately ;
t. Charles T. Wells Collection of Books Relating to New England ;
1. Robert C. Winthrop Collection of Man- uscripts Relating to Early Connecti- cut ;
v. Samuel Wyllys Collection of Manu- scripts Relating to Witchcraft and Other Crimes in Early Connecticut.
Mr. Godard has been active in State and National organizations interested in the several lines of activities connected with the Connecticut State Library. Among these may be mentioned the National As- sociation of State Libraries, and the American Association of Law Libraries, of which he has been president ; the Amer- ican Library Association, and Amer- ican Historical Association, in both of which he is serving on important com- mittees. Among the more important committees with which he is connected should be mentioned the Joint Commit- tee of Law and State Librarians upon a National Legislative Reference Service, of which he has been chairman since 1909, the Public Affairs Information Service, the Law Library Journal, the Index to Legal Periodicals, and the Committee on Public Documents and Public Archives.
Mr. Godard is an active member of the Connecticut Historical Society ; vice-pres- ident from Connecticut of the New Eng- land Historic-Genealogical Society, Bos- ton; fellow of the American Library In- stitute; historian of the Connecticut So-
ciety of Founders and Patriots of Amer- ica; member of the Wesleyan University Alumni Council; editor of the Connecti- cut State Records; trustee of the Wil- braham Academy. He is also in charge of the Connecticut State Military Census, and custodian of the Connecticut State Library and the Supreme Court building. As a member of the Center Congrega- tional Church, the University Club, City Club, Twentieth Century Club, and sev- eral Masonic bodies, he is vitally inter- ested in their work.
On June 23, 1897, Mr. Godard mar- ried Kate Estelle Dewey, daughter of Watson and Ellen Bebe Dewey. They have three children : George Dewey, born August 8, 1899, a senior in the Hartford Public High School; Paul Beach, born February 17, 1901, a junior in Wilbraham Academy ; Mary Katharine, born October 3, 1903, who is a senior in the Northwest Grammar School.
SPIER, E. Wilfred,
Prominent in Jewelry Trade.
The Spier family have long been estab- lished in Dusseldorf, Germany, Colonel Isaac Spier coming from there with his family. He resided in Dover, New Hamp- shire, and late in life became engaged in photography.
E. Wilfred Spier, son of Colonel Isaac Spier, was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, January 20, 1856, and when young was brought to the United States by his par- ents. He was educated in the public schools of Dover, New Hampshire, fin- ishing at Phillips Exeter Academy, Ex- eter, New Hampshire. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship to the wholesale jewelry business, becoming thoroughly familiar with that calling. He began his connection with the jewelry
198
Alysses Hayden Brockmay
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
business when about twenty-one years of age, and has spent the years since in- tervening in the same line of activity. He is now located at No. 1261 Broadway, New York, a jewelry jobber, specializing in novelties, but handling jewelry of all kinds. His firm, Lippman, Spier & Hahn, ranks with the leading jewelry houses of New York City, Mr. Spier being one of the best informed men in his particular line of business. He is a Republican in his political faith, and a member of the Episcopal church in Thompson, Connec- ticut.
Mr. Spier married, in New York City, Jessie Alma Ironside, born May 25, 1856, in Sheffield, England, daughter of Isaac and Martha (Beecher) Ironside, both her parents also born in Sheffield. The Beecher family has been traced in Eng- land to John and Sarah (Richards) Beecher, (1760) and has long been one of the leading families of that section of England. Mr. and Mrs. Spier are the par- ents of two sons: Francis Atkinson, born March 19, 1880; Reginald Ironside, born March 10, 1887.
BROCKWAY, Ulysses Hayden, Business Man, Public Official.
Arms-Gules a fleur-de-lis argent, on a chief of the second (argent), a lion passant guardant of the first gules. Two bars wavy, each charged with three pales wavy, gules.
Crest-An escallop or.
The Register General of Great Britain (1891) states that the name Brockway is unknown in Scotland and Ireland, and uncommon in England and Wales. It is thought to have been derived from the Old English name Brock. In compiling the genealogy of the Brockway family in America it was ascertained that all of the name in America prior to 1850 were de- scendants of Wolston Brockway, who
emigrated to Connecticut in the middle part of the seventeenth century.
Wolston Brockway, immigrant ances- tor of the Brockway family, was born in England, about 1638, and came to Amer- ica early in life. He settled in the Con- necticut Colony, at Lyme, which has since been the principal seat of the Brock- ways, and from which center branches have spread over the entire country. Wolston Brockway purchased much prop- erty in Lyme, and this with slight changes is still in the hands of lineal de- scendants. The family is one of the most prominent in the vicinity of Lyme among many who boast historic lineage. The progenitor married, at Lyme, Connecti- cut, Hannah Bridges, daughter of Wil- liam Bridges. She died February 6, 1687.
Ulysses Hayden Brockway, deceased, was a member of this distinguished old family. He was born in Hamburg, in the town of Lyme, Connecticut, July 19, 1851, the son of Jedediah and Elizabeth (Lord) Brockway. He received his early education in the public schools of the town. When he was but slightly over ten years old the Civil War broke out. Too young to go to war, he became a drum- mer boy for the recruits which were drilled at Lyme. The stirring events of the conflict inculcated in him a spirit of adventure and an ambition which school and drudgery of farm life could not sat- isfy, and at the age of sixteen years he left Lyme, and came to Hartford, which city remained his home throughout his life. He became thoroughly identified with its business, political, social and fra- ternal life.
Mr. Brockway secured his first employ- ment in the tailoring business, in which he himself later became an employer. He entered the oldest tailoring establishment
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in the city of Hartford, that founded in 1824 by Robert Buell, and at the time owned by Franklin Clark. He rapidly became one of the most valued employees in the establishment, and on the retire- ment of Franklin Clark, in 1878, Mr. Brockway, in partnership with J. H. W. Wenk, continued the business under the firm name of Wenk & Brockway. After a period of eight years of successful bus- iness, Mr. Brockway became sole owner, and from that time until his death con- ducted it under the name of U. H. Brock- way & Company. The business was in every way a success, and under the man- agement of Mr. Brockway became one of the most important commercial enter- prises of its kind in Hartford.
As the leading figure in a large indus- try in the city of Hartford, Mr. Brock- way was well known by the people. He was universally admired and respected for the honesty of his business dealings. He was deeply interested in the political af- fairs of the city, through motives of a purely disinterested nature. He was in no way an office seeker. However, he was admirably fitted for public service by reason of his keen business perception, his strict integrity, and he was often sought for official posts. In 1883 he was elected to the City Council from the old First Ward, and in 1884-85 was returned to office by a large majority. In 1886 he was elected alderman from the First Ward, and served in that capacity for four terms. In 1896 Mr. Brockway was appointed by Mayor Stiles B. Preston a member of the water commission, on which he served for six consecutive years. He was greatly interested in the cause of education, and because of his interest in the work of furthering educational oppor- tunities in the city of Hartford he was elected a member of the committee of
the Second North School District, on which he served for a number of years, rendering services of a very valuable nature. He was especially interested in the Henry Barnard School of the Second North School District and did much to better conditions there. Mr. Brockway was a member of the Farmington Avenue Congregational Church, and during the long period of his membership devoted much of his time to its work, and gave liberally, but without ostentation, to its philanthropies.
Mr. Brockway married, on November 17, 1880, Harriet Elizabeth Norton, daughter of Seth Porter and Elizabeth Esther (Wilcox) Norton, members of the old Norton family of Collinsville, Con- necticut. (See Norton VI). Mrs. Brock- way survives her husband and resides at No. 136 Sigourney street, Hartford, Con- necticut. They were the parents of the following children: I. Elizabeth Norton, born February 12, 1882, died November 9, 1907 ; she was a graduate of Hartford High School in the class of 1899; a grad- uate of Smith College, in 1902; secretary of the Second North School ; member of the Smith College Club, and of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 2. Ulysses Hayden, Jr., was born July 19, 1890; in January, 1907, he entered Yale University, and was graduated from that institution in 1911, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts ; during his freshman year at Yale he was a member of the Apollo Glee Club, retaining his menber- ship for three years; for a like period he sang in the college choir; he is a mem- ber of the Delta Kappa Upsilon frater- nity, the University Club, the Hartford Golf Club, and numerous other societies ; after his graduation from Yale Univer- sity, Mr. Brockway entered the employ of the Travellers' Insurance Company of
200
1-t 11
Brockway
M
ORTON
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Hartford and was connected with the ac- tuary department until his enlistment in the United States army in October, 1917; he was called for active service on Octo- ber 15, 1917, and shortly afterward com- missioned second lieutenant in the ad- jutant-general's department ; he has since been promoted to the rank of captain.
Mr. Brockway's death meant to Hart- ford not only the loss of a valuable pub- lic official, but a true friend. Expressions of grief at his death were wide-spread, and from the various resolutions passed by official bodies and articles inserted in the public press a discriminating choice is difficult. The following resolution passed by the Second North School Dis- trict, at its meeting on July 9, 1914, will perhaps give an adequate conception of what he meant in Hartford as a public officer and a friend of the people :
The Second North School District recognizes in the death of Mr. Ulysses H. Brockway, for twenty-two years a member of the District Com- mittee, the loss of a devoted servant of the inter- ests of the District. A warm friend of the teach- ers and pupils, he was an example of upright, con- sistent and unobtrusive citizenship, which has been of distinct value to the youth of the district and community. During his long term of service for the district he was a faithful conservator of its best interests, and a wise counselor and a self- sacrificing official. His loss will be keenly felt by his associates upon the committee, by the teachers of the school and by his many friends in the district and in the community which he has well served by his quiet, unassuming, but effective life.
Signed by FRANK R. KELLOGG, JAMES P. BERRY, SOLOMON MALLEY, District Committee.
(The Norton Line).
The following is a description of the coat-of-arms of the Norton family, quar- tering St. Loe, Russell, De la Riviere, etc., etc. :
Arms-Quarterly of eleven. In chief: 1. Ar- gent, on a bend sable, between two lions rampant of the second, three escallops of the field. 2. Ar- gent, vair azure. 3. Argent, a bend engrailed sable between two mullets counterchanged, all within a bordure engrailed of the second. 4. Argent, bordure sable, charged with ten bezants, martlet of the second.
In Fess-1. Sable, a chevron ermine between three pheons argent. 2. Argent, a bend sable, three annulets of the field. 3. Sable, hree goats passant argent. 4. Ermine, a cross ngrailed gules.
In Base-1. Argent, manche gules. 2. Gules, saltire or between four leopards' faces argent. 3. Azure two bars dansette or.
Crest-On a torse of the colors, a greyhound couped or, collared per fess gules between two barrulets of the second.
Mantle-Sable and argent, the first veined or.
The history of the Norton family be- gins with the Norman Conquest, when on September 29, 1066, the Seigneur de Nor- ville crossed the Channel to England in the army of William the Conqueror, a constable under the Norman French re- gime. The name Norville, from which the English form Norton is derived, is of French origin and signifies "north vil- lage." After the residence of the family in England the English form Norton, meaning also north village or town, was adopted. It is supposed that the Seigneur de Norville was the common ancestor of all families of the name in England, Ire- land and America. Up to the year 1650 there were thirteen immigrants of the name in America, of whom authentic record exists. That branch of the family of which the late Seth Porter Norton, of Hartford, Connecticut, was a member, was descended from John Norton, who was in the Connecticut Colony as early as 1646. Since the time of founding the family has been one of the most promi- nent of New England houses of historic lineage, and has furnished sons who have
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
served with distinction in the various de- partments of our national life.
(I) John Norton, immigrant ancestor, was born in England, probably at Lon- don, in 1622, the third son of Richard and Ellen (Rowley) Norton. The date of his emigration to America is not known. His name is first mentioned on the records of the colony at Branford, on July 7, 1646. He was a landed proprietor there. In 1659 John Norton removed from Bran- ford to Hartford, and on September 29th of that year he made a purchase of sev- eral pieces of land and "housing." He was made a freeman at Hartford, May 21, 1660. John Norton was interested in the establishment of a colony at Tunxis, which later became Farmington, and was one of the proprietors of the town. He joined the church at Farmington in Oc- tober, 1661. He was one of the largest land owners there, a man of considerable wealth according to the standards of the period. All of his extensive holdings in Farmington and the vicinity descended to his heirs. He married (first) Dorothy , who died in Branford, January 24, 1652. His second wife, Elizabeth, died November 6, 1657. He married (third) Elizabeth Clark, who died November 8, 1702. He died in Farmington, November 5, 1709.
(II) John (2) Norton, son of John (1) and Dorothy Norton, was born in Bran- ford, May 24, 1651, and died in Farming- ton, Connecticut, April 25, 1725. He was a man of considerable prominence in the early colony, and was deputy to the Gen- eral Court from Farmington in 1680, 1681, 1682. He married, in Farmington, Ruth Moore, daughter of Isaac and Ruth (Stanley) Moore; she and their son, Thomas, were administrators of John Norton's estate.
(III) Thomas Norton, son of John (2)
and Ruth (Moore) Norton, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, on July 1, 1697, and died there in 1760. He was the owner of a great amount of property in the vicinity of Farmington, and was one of the original proprietors of Salisbury, Connecticut. In the division of public lands, in April, 1739, he drew lot No. 24. In 1748 he purchased much land from Thomas Lamb. Thomas Norton mar- ried (first) on November 17, 1724, Eliz- abeth Mclan, of Stratford, who died in Farmington in 1736; he married (sec- ond) in 1739, Widow Rachel Pomeroy ; married (third) September II, 1753, Eliz- abeth Deming.
(IV) Colonel Ichabod Norton, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Mclan) Norton, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, in 1736, and later in life became one of the most distinguished members of the Nor- ton family. He is a notable figure in the Revolutionary annals of the State of Con- necticut, having served as a colonel in the Continental forces and rendered most val- uable services to the country. Colonel Ichabod Norton married Ruth Strong, who also gained distinction for bravery during the war.
(V) George Norton, son of Colonel Ichabod and Ruth (Strong) Norton, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, in No- vember, 1782, and during the early part of his life lived in Farmington, where he became a prosperous farmer and leading citizen. In 1800 he removed to Granby and later to Avon, where he died on May II, 1833. He married Eliza Frisbie, a member of one of the old families of Farmington.
(VI) Seth Porter Norton, son of George and Eliza (Frisbie) Norton, was born on May 16, 1823, at Avon, Connec- ticut, where he resided during his child- hood. He received his early education in
202
eth Horter Norton
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
the public schools of the nearby town, Collinsville, a manufacturing town which offered the best educational opportunities to be found in the neighborhood. How- ever, as is found to be a common occur- rence in the lives of successful men of the last generations, he left school at an early age, and went into the largest of the man- ufacturing plants in the town, the Col- lins Company, makers of plows, axes, and other agricultural implements. His first employment in the company was of an unimportant nature. He was a man not only of keen business foresight and clear perception, but possessed also an infinite capacity for details. He mastered every phase of the business in the various positions which he held with the firm, and was gradually advanced as he be- came of greater value to the company. He eventually became superintendent of the Collins Company, a position which involved a very large and try- ing responsibility. Mr. Norton's energy was given unreservedly to his work, and throughout the years of his connection with the Collins Company he was re- garded as a man of the strictest integrity and reliability in business dealings. His fairness and justice were proverbial. As a consequence men trusted him and his friends were legion.
Seth Porter Norton achieved a success in the business world which was entirely the result of his own efforts, and through that fact appealed as a friend and advisor to the vast army of men who owe their success to unremitting labor and indom- itable purposes, rather than to brilliant and exceptional strokes of genius. He was deeply interested in politics and held various public offices. Mr. Norton repre- sented Collinsville in the Connecticut State Legislature for several terms.
Seth Porter Norton was a gentleman of
the old school and a true Christian, whose Christianity extended beyond the nar- row bounds of one religious denomina- tion. Though he was a lifelong member of the Congregational church, he was in strong sympathy with every religious faith, tolerant enough to see and adopt the good in each. As is usual with the man who has dealt with and managed all manner of men, broad tolerance and a sympathy with humanity were character- istic of Mr. Norton throughout life. He knew and understood, which was the secret of his attraction for men, and the reason for his numerous friends. Mr. Norton died at the age of forty-four years, a man well loved, honored and revered.
Mr. Norton married (first) Aurelia Humason, of New Britain, Connecticut, on December 23, 1845. She died Septem- ber 2, 1849. He married (second) on January 1, 1851, Elizabeth Esther Wil- cox, daughter of Averit and Sally (Tul- ler) Wilcox, and a member of an old and highly respected family of Simsbury. (See Wilcox VIII). The child of the first marriage was Mary, deceased. Chil- dren of the second marriage: 1. Charles Everett, deceased. 2. Harriet Elizabeth, married, November 17, 1880, Ulysses H. Brockway, of Hartford. 3. William Av- erit, deceased. 4. George Wilcox, en- gaged in business in Philadelphia. 5. Charles Robinson, deceased.
(The Wilcox Line).
Arms-Ermine a chief chequy, or and gules. Crest-On a mount, a dove proper.
The Wilcox family is of Saxon origin and was seated at Bury St. Edmunds, County Suffolk, England, before the Nor- man Conquest. Sir John Dugdale, in the visitation of the County of Suffolk, men- tioned fifteen generations of this family prior to the year 1600. This traces the
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
lineage back to the year 1200, when the surname came into use as an inherited family name. Wilcox, variously spelled, dates back to an early period of English history. One "Wilcox or Wilcott" is re- corded as furnishing three men at arms at the battle of Agincourt. Another of the name is on record as court physician to King Charles. The family is one of honor and renown in old England, several of its branches bearing arms. In Amer- ica the name is found in the very begin- nings of our Colonial history. The Wil- coxes were at Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1610, and at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, as early as 1636.
The derivation of the surname is inter- esting. It is of that large class of Eng- lish surnames which had their source in nicknames and sobriquets. It is a com- pound of Will, meaning literally "the son of William," and the suffix cock, a term of familiarity generally applied in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to one of a sharp or forward nature. The sobriquet was of such a character that it adhered to its bearer throughout life, and was transmitted to succeeding gen- erations. Thus we have the surnames, Wilcox, Jeffcock, Hancock, etc.
The family in America has figured prominently in New England life and af- fairs since the middle of the seventeenth century. William Wilcox, immigrant an- cestor and progenitor of the family herein under consideration, was the first of the name to establish himself in New Eng- land. His descendants are found largely in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Oth- ers of the name followed him and became the founders of flourishing and influential families.
(I) William Wilcox, the founder, was born in the year 1601, at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, and came to this
country in 1636, a passenger in the ship "Planter," bringing with him a certificate of conformity to the doctrines of the Church of England, signed by the min- ister of St. Albans. He was thirty-four years old at the time of his arrival. He settled in Massachusetts, where he was admitted a freeman, December 7, 1636. William Wilcox was a linen weaver by trade. He removed, in 1639, to Stratford, Connecticut, where he subsequently rose to prominence in public affairs. In 1647 he was deputy to the General Court at Hartford. He died in 1652, aged fifty-one years. His wife, Margaret Wilcox, was born in England, in 1611, and accom- panied him to America. They were the parents of several children, among them Samuel, mentioned below.
(II) Samuel Wilcox, son of William and Margaret Wilcox, was born about 1636. He accompanied his parents to Stratford, but on attaining his majority married and settled in Windsor, Connec- ticut, where he was prominent in local affairs until his death. His home was in that part of Windsor, which is now Sims- bury, where he had a grant of land. Sam- uel Wilcox was sergeant of the Windsor military company. He married Hannah -; they were the parents of three children of actual record, but there were doubtless others.
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