USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 33
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Hannibal Alden, son of Hannibal and Sarah Frances (Isham) Alden, was born May 1, 1867, in Hideville, town of Staf- ford, Connecticut, and when only four years of age was left an orphan. He re- ceived his education in the schools of his native town and at the Rochester Busi- ness University, at Rochester, New York. His youth was spent partly in the town of Bloomfield, Connecticut, and in Tolland, that State, during which years he lived with his uncle, Henry Isham, and his Grandmother Isham. Soon after that time, Chester Scripture was appointed his guardian, and he made his home with him.
Mr. Alden returned to Stafford after completing his schooling, and entered the employ of E. A. Buck & Company, whole- sale dealers in oil. Having a desire to travel, Mr. Alden decided to go West and secured employment with the Santa Fé Railroad, remaining for two years. He was located at different times in South Dakota, and Topeka, Kansas, and has a
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true knowledge of the West in its un- developed state.
His wanderlust satisfied, Mr. Alden came East and was identified with the Central Woolen Company for a decade, holding the office of assistant treasurer. On New Year's Day, 1900, he became associated with the Warren Woolen Com- pany as secretary and treasurer, which position he still holds. He is also a director of that corporation, is a director of the Stafford Spring Savings Bank ; and secretary and treasurer of the Stafford Water Company.
Mr. Alden is a Republican in politics, and although anxious to assist in any way he can, he is not a seeker for public of- fice. He served as a member of the board of assessors.
Fraternally, he is a member of Ionic Lodge, No. 110, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Orient Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, holding the office of sec- retary ; St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar, of Willimantic; Sphinx Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Hartford.
Mr. Alden married, November 29, 1888, Helen Dodson, daughter of Charles H. and Lucy (Moore) Dodson, of Geneva, Illinois. They are the parents of three daughters: Frances Helen, born Septem- ber II, 1889; Lucy Moore, November 5, 1892; Ruth Isham, May 19, 1897. The family are regular attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church of Stafford Springs, of which church Mr. Alden is a member of the official board.
BADMINGTON, Leslie E., Manufacturer.
America seemed to attract strongly the young boys and men of England, Scot- land and Ireland as a country affording great opportunities in the textile business ; accordingly Edward Francis Badming-
ton, of Gloucestershire, England, came to this country when a small child, locating in Rockville with his mother, and because of the lack of financial resources was obliged to enter the mill at an early age as bobbin boy in the old Florence mill. After being employed in this capacity about a year, circumstances permitted him to return to school for an additional year's education. At the conclusion of this year he returned to the woolen busi- ness and was employed in various depart- ments of different mills.
His recreation and idol was music. He was exceptionally talented, and from the time he was eighteen to twenty-one years of age, much of his time was spent in the study and perfection of this talent. He was a pianist and organist of ability and had as many as forty to fifty pupils. The First Congregational Church of Rockville secured his services as organist, where he served a successful term of many years. He next assumed charge of the music at the Methodist Episcopal church in North Manchester, becoming choir master for both churches, and the musical programs rendered at these churches attracted much favorable comment. About 1895 he be- came very deaf. This was an exceedingly sad affliction for one so appreciative of, and talented in music. A successful musical career was brought to an un- timely end by this misfortune.
In spite of his deafness he was able to continue an active and successful career in the woolen business. About 1880 he became associated with the American Mills, as assistant bookkeeper, and con- tinued in the employ of this corporation as long as he lived.
He was a member of the Masonic Lodge at Rockville; Washington Com- mandery. No. 1, Knights Templar, of Hartford; Sphinx Temple of Hartford; and a member of the Independent Order
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of Odd Fellows of Rockville. 1le mar- ried Alice Josephine Webb, of New York City. They had three children: Gladys Hawkins, a well known soprano singer who is a soloist in the Union Congrega- tional Church, Rockville, and has also ap- peared on the concert stage; Leslie E .; and Rodney Webb, who is also in the em- ploy of the American Mills. Mr. Bad- mington and his family are members of the St. John's Episcopal Church.
Leslie E. Badmington was born in Rockville, February 17, 1890. He ob- tained his education in the grammar and high schools of Rockville. Upon conclud- ing his high school course he spent three years in acquiring a practical knowledge of the manufacturing end of the woolen business. He then entered the designing departments and thoroughly mastered this branch of the business. In acknowl- edgment of his success in this line he was made assistant designer and two years later designer of the mill. After holding these positions for two years he received further promotion which made him as- sistant superintendent, and upon his fa- ther's death on June 13, 1918, he suc- ceeded his father as superintendent of the mill.
We thus add another successful career to the industrial life of Rockville.
Mr. Badmington was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Rockville, and of St. John's Episcopal Church. He married Majorie J., daughter of S. C. Cummings of Rockville, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. They have one daughter, Barbara.
BARNUM, Phineas Taylor,
Showman, Man of Great Enterprise.
The name which heads this narrative is famous the world over, as that of an author and manager of amusements on a
gigantic scale, but it is also to be honored for real usefulness as a citizen. Ile was born in Bethel, Connecticut, July 5, 1810, and died at his summer home in Bridge- port, in the same State, April 7, 1891.
The founder of the Barnum family in America, Thomas Barnum, of English birth and ancestry, came about 1673. and was among the first eight settlers of Dan- bury, who bought their lands from the Indians. Next in line were : Thomas (2), his son Ephraim, and his son, Captain Ephraim, who served in the Revolution ; Philo, son of the latter-named, married for his second wife, Irene Taylor, of Bethel, daughter of Phineas and Molly (Sherwood) Taylor, and they were the parents of the immediate subject of this narrative.
The early life of Phineas Taylor Bar- num was crowded with vicissitudes, and it was years before he "found" himself. He was in turn a farm worker, clerk in various stores at home and in Brooklyn and New York City ; conducted a lottery, auctioned books, "ran" a newspaper, was a traveling salesman, managed a boarding house, and a grocery store. At the age of twenty-five he entered the "show" business as the exhibitor of Joyce Heth, who was advertised as the nurse of George Wash- ington, 161 (!) years old. His success in this venture decided his vocation, and he or- ganized a circus company which toured to the Mississippi river and down to New Orleans. After six years in the amuse- ment business, he came to New York City and bought the American Museum, and began a series of undertakings which earned for him the respectful considera- tion of his countrymen and the personal acquaintance of foreign celebrities. In 1842 he began the exploitation of the noted dwarf, General Tom Thumb, whom he exhibited in England, France and Bel- gium, winning a golden harvest. Later he built at Bridgeport, Connecticut, his
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beautiful residence, "Iristan," an oriental structure, entertaining a thousand guests at its opening. Next followed his engage- ment of "the Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind, who gave ninety-three concerts un- der his direction, to the delight of all hearers and to the great pecuniary profit of both singer and manager. He was at the same time continuing his museum, and organized his "Great Asiatic Caravan, Museum and Menagerie," which he fitted out at an expense of $100,000 (an im- mense sum in that day), and which he continued for four years.
In 1851 Mr. Barnum bought a large portion of the Noble estate at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and financed a clock com- pany; its failure exhausted his fortune, which he at once set out to replace. He now again toured Europe, with General Tom Thumb and another midget, Cor- nelia Howard. During this time, in Scot- land, England and Wales, he also devoted himself to the lecture field, his subject being "The Art of Making Money." In 1860 he built a new house in Bridgeport, which he called "Lindencroft," in honor of Jenny Lind, and from then on he was a principal upbuilder and developer of the city. In 1861-62 he procured for his New York Museum two dwarfs, Commodore Nutt and Lavinia Warren, both of whom became as famous as Tom Thumb. In 1865 the museum burned down, entailing a great loss ; he at once replaced it, and it also met a like fate, these disasters and the burning of his Bridgeport home en- tailing a loss of about a million dollars. In 1867 he sold "Lindencroft," at Bridge- port, and built his "Waldermere" home, abutting on Seaside Park, he giving to the latter city, as an extension to the latter, thirty-seven acres of land. In 1889 he built "Marina," which was thereafter the family residence.
When upwards of sixty years of age,
Mr. Barnum accomplished his master- work, the organization of "Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth." A hundred railroad cars were required for its trans- poration, and its tents seated 25,000 peo- ple. The venture was profitable from the first and the enterprise is yet continued, through Mr. Barnum's wise provisions, under the management of capable men, many of whom came to their vocation un- der his leadership.
Mr. Barnum's exactness in what came to be his profession was supplemented with a remarkable versatility. He was a model citizen, and Bridgeport during his forty- five years' residence benefited largely from his bounty and judicious public- spirit. As mayor, he inaugurated many improvements, laying out streets, plant- ing hundreds of trees, building blocks of houses, many of which he sold to me- chanics on the installment plan, and aid- ing parks, boulevards and public institu- tions. He gave nearly $100,000 to Tufts College for the establishment of the Bar- num Museum of Natural History, and a large lot to the Fairfield County Histori- cal Society, the Bridgeport Scientific Soci- ety and the Medical Society, besides an appropriate building thereon. In 1881 he presented to Bethel, his native town, a beautiful bronze fountain, made in Ger- many, and at its dedication he delivered an unimitable address, abounding with in- cidents of his youth. As a member of the General Assembly, for two terms, several years apart, he made an enviable record. Originally a Democrat, he allied himself with the Republican party at its organi- zation, and never departed from its faith.
Mr. Barnum was a facile, but a sparing writer. In 1876 he wrote "The Adven- tures of Lion Jack," a work of fiction, founded upon facts, and dedicated to the boys of America. His "Autobiography" is without example, abounding in stories
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of humor and practical jokes, of all of which he was very fond. Few books in this country enjoyed a larger sale, per- haps none ; nor do we know of one which has left deeper impressions. lle was a lover of all humankind, and his personal example was salutary. During the greater part of his long life he was a total ab- stainer from all intoxicants; he lost no opportunity of teaching the value of "teetotalism," as it was then called, and his example and utterances were power- ful aids to the temperance movement that was just beginning when his influence was coming to be felt. In the latter dec- ades of his life he abandoned the use of tobacco.
Mr. Barnum married (first) at Bethel, Connecticut, Charlotte, daughter of Ben- jamin Wright and Hannah (Sturges) Hal- lett ; (second) Nancy Fish, of Southport, Lancashire, England. His first wife bore him several children.
HALL, Stephen Stocking, Manufacturer.
The Hall family is one of ancient line- age, and in industrial lines many mem- bers of the family have added luster to their name and to themselves by virtue of their success in those lines. Stephen Stocking Hall was born in Portland, Con- necticut, January 18, 1864, a son of Jesse (2) and Clara E. (Stewart) Hall.
(I) John Hall, the immigrant of the family, was born in County Kent, Eng- land, in 1584, and died in Middletown, Connecticut, May 26, 1673. He came to Boston in 1633, and settled first at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, whence he re- moved to Duxbury, that State, and was there a member of the church of Rev. John Eliot. He had been admitted a free- man in Boston in 1635. He was a resi- dent of Hartford previous to 1639, which
year he brought his family to that town. John Hall followed the occupation of car- penter, and was a prominent man in the affairs of the community, the holder of several offices. The Christian name of his wife was Esther, and they were the par- ents of Samuel, of further mention.
(II) Samuel Hall, son of John Hall, was born in England, about 1626, and died in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1690. He was a freeman of the latter town in 1654. Like his father, he was also a car- penter, a large holder of lands, and also engaged in agricultural pursuits. He married, in 1662, Elizabeth, a daughter of Thomas Cook and his wife, Elizabeth Cook, of Guilford, Connecticut. They were the parents of Samuel, of further mention.
(III) Samuel (2) Hall, son of Samuel (1) and Elizabeth (Cook) Hall, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, February 3, 1664, and died in East Middletown, March 6, 1740. He was a farmer and deacon of the church. He married Sarah, daughter of Barnabas and Sarah (White) Hinsdale, of Hatfield. They were the parents of John, of further mention.
(IV) John (2) Hall, son of Samuel (2) and Sarah (Hinsdale) Hall, was born Au- gust 19, 1699, and died January 3, 1767, in Portland. He lived in Portland, where he was a farmer. He married, July 19, 1722, Mary, daughter of John and Mary Ranney. They were the parents of John, of further mention.
(V) John (3) Hall, son of John (2) and Mary (Ranney) Hall, was born June 1, 1723, in Portland, Connecticut, where he died in 1754. He married, March 7, 1745, Abigail Shepard. He was a farmer. They were the parents of Joel, of further men- tion.
(VI) Joel Hall, son of John (3) and Abigail (Shepard) Hall, was born in East Middletown, Connecticut, April 5,
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1753, and died May 25, 1818. He married, May 29, 1774, Hannah, daughter of George and Hannah Ranney, of Chatham, Con- necticut. They were the parents of Jesse, of further mention.
(VII) Jesse Hall, son of Joel and Han- nah (Ranney) Hall, was born in Chatham, Connecticut, June 28, 1787. He married there, June 4, 1808, Harriet Cheney, who was born July 31, 1787, and died May 24, 1827, daughter of Captain Daniel and Julia (Cornwall) Cheney. They were the parents of Joel, of further mention.
(VIII) Joel (2) Hall, son of Jesse and Harriet (Cheney) Hall, was born in Cromwell, Connecticut, March 15, 1814, and died January 19, 1850. He married, December 12, 1836, Eliza Ann Stocking, born April 15, 1811, daughter of David Stocking. They were the parents of Jesse, of further mention.
(IX) Jesse (2) Hall, son of Joel (2) and Eliza Ann (Stocking) Hall. was born in 1840, and lived at Portland, where he married Clara E. Stewart, daughter of Henry Stewart. They were the parents of two sons: I. Stephen Stocking, of fur- ther mention. 2. Joel Stewart, born April 29, 1866, in Portland, Connecticut ; promi- nent in business circles in Portland, and associated with various town industries ; member of Warren Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, the Republican party, and clerk of Trinity Church Parish of Port- land.
(X) Stephen Stocking Hall, son of Jesse (2) and Clara E. (Stewart) Hall, was born in Portland, Connecticut, Janu- ary 18, 1864. He was educated at the Sea- bury Institute of Saybrook, Connecticut, where his family were living in 1870. They removed again to Portland in 1880, and he attended the high school at Mid- dletown. In 1881 he entered the employ of T. R. Pickering & Company, of Port- land, Connecticut, as a clerk. Through
his industry and attention to the details of his business, Mr. Hall rose rapidly, until in 1888 he was elected secretary, upon the organization of the firm as The Pickering Governor Company, and is now, 1919, treasurer of the company. He has continued in the association with this firm to the present time, and is well known among business men of the vicin- ity. Mr. Hall was a director of the City Savings Bank of Middletown, and now holds the office of trustee with that insti- tution, and is a director of the Freestone Savings Bank, of Portland. A Republican in political principle, he takes an active interest in municipal affairs, although not a seeker for office. He is a member of the Hartford Club, the Hartford Automobile Club, the Lincoln Farm Association, the National Geographical Society of Wash- ington, D. C., the American Society of Me- chanical Engineers, and Warren Lodge, No. 51, Free and Accepted Masons.
Mr. Hall was married, September 5, 1888, to Marie Ella Pascall, a daughter of Richard Henry Pascall, born October 13, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Hall are attendants at the Protestant Episcopal church, of Portland, of which he is a vestryman.
WHITNEY, William Hiram, Man of Large Affairs.
Arms-Azure, a cross chequy, or and sable.
Crest-A bull's head coupled sable, armed ar- gent, the points gules.
Motto-Magnomimeter crucem sustine.
For Whitney as a surname, one must go back to the ancient parish of Whitney on the western border of Herefordshire, near the boundary between England and Wales.
From Henry Whitney, the American ancestor, the record shows twenty-one generations direct to Sir Daldwinus de Whitney, and from him five generations
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to Exrog, Earl of Eygas and Ergom, whose son, Sir Piedge Exrog, lived in liis castle at Coedmore, in Cardiganshire, and was ".\ Knight of Ye Round Table" in King Arthur's time.
William Hiram Whitney, of Enfield, Connecticut, of the eighth American gen- eration, and born in Connecticut, thus traces his ancestry to Henry Whitney, of this ancient English family. Line of de- scent is thus traced: Henry, the founder ; John, his son; Nathan, his son; Uriah, his son : Samuel Platt, his son; William Lewis, his son; William Hiram (1), his son ; William Hiram (2), of Enfield, Con- necticut.
(I) The founder of the Whitney fam- ily in New England, Henry Whitney, was born in England about 1620. The first record of him is October 6, 1649, when with two others he bought three-quarters of William Salmon's land at Hashamomi- nock in Southold, Long Island, New York. Subsequently, we find him a resi- dent of Huntington, Long Island, when on August 17, 1658, he bought "three whole necks of Meshepeaks land for the use of the whole towne of Huntington." As late as January 25, 1661, the Hunting- ton records show him the purchaser of a home lot in Jamaica, Long Island. Then on July 24, 1665, he appears in the records of Norwalk, Connecticut, agreeing with the town to "make, build, and erect a goode and sufficient grounde corne mill." He is named in "A true and perfect list of all the Freeman appertaining unto the plantation of Norwalk. Taken this elev- enth day of October, 1669, and to be pre- sented unto the honorable court assem- bled."
The exact date of his death is unknown, though it is believed to have been in the fall of 1673. Nothing is known definitely of his two wives, but the second was doubtless a widow, name Ketcham-
probably the same who survived him. His will of June 5, 1672, revoked all for- mer wills and bequeathed to "My beloved wife and son John." His personal estate, inventoried at two hundred and fifty-five pounds, was taken November 8, 1673.
(11) John Whitney, son of Henry Whitney, was of legal age before January 20, 1665, and so was probably born be- fore his father went to Southold. He fol- lowed his father's business of milling in Norwalk, and became owner of the mill there, giving it to his eldest son, John, and later selling him the grist mill and land. Three days before the death of John Whitney, he reconveyed the mill to his father, who sold it to his son Joseph on May 20, 1713. John Whitney is believed to have died in Norwalk in 1720, as an administrator of his estate was appointed October 11 of that year. His widow was a member of the First Congregational Church of Norwalk in 1725, and was liv- ing as late as April 3, 1741. John Whit- ney married Elizabeth, daughter of Rich- ard Smith, March 17, 1674, they being the parents of : John, Joseph, Henry, Eliza- beth, Richard, Samuel, Anna, Eleanor, Nathan, Sarah, and Josiah.
Thus through the oldest son John, and his son Nathaniel, his son, Nathaniel (2), his son, Nathaniel (3), was descended Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, born December 8, 1765, in Westboro, Massachusetts, died January 8, 1825, in New Haven, Connecticut.
Eli Whitney made nails by hand during the Revolutionary War, and by his skill as an artisan, and by teaching, he later paid his expenses at Yale College. On graduation in 1792, he went to Savannah, Georgia, as a tutor, living at the home of General Nathanael Green's widow, while completing his law studies. It was Mrs. Greene who suggested to him the need for a machine for separating the green
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seed from cotton. It was necessary for him to even draw the iron himself, but he completed the cotton gin toward the end of 1792, a monument to inventive genius and perseverance. Fulton went on record as saying that Arkwright, Whitney and Watts were the three men who achieved the most for mankind in their time. Eli Whitney married Henri- etta Frances Edwards, born in 1786, daughter of Hon. Pierpont Edwards, of New Haven. Five children were born to them : Frances Edwards, married Charles L. Chaplain; Elizabeth Fay; Eli; Benja- min, and Josiah.
(III) Nathan Whitney, son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Whitney, was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, and mar- ried, in 1715, a woman whose Christian name was Sarah. They settled at Ridge- field on a piece of land conveyed to Na- than Whitney on February 5, 1718, by Joseph Keeler, Henry Whitney, and Mat- thew St. John "for and in consideration of the brotherly love and fraternal affec- tion we have and do bear towards our well beloved brother, Nathan Whitney of ye town of Ridgefield aforsed." On De- cember 9, 1728, at Ridgefield, he took the freeman's oath, and both were living as late as 1739. Nathan and Sarah Whitney were the parents of: Mary, Eliasaph, Eliakim, Sarah, Nathan (died young), Nathan, Seth, Josiah, Jeremiah, Uriah, Aun.
(IV) Uriah Whitney, son of Nathan and Sarah Whitney, was born in Ridge- field, Connecticut, November 12, 1737. On January 6, 1773, he bought a farm and dwelling house in Simsbury, Connecticut, and was then called of Farmington, Con- necticut, but Farmington records only show the first record, April 28, 1728, when he bought land in Northington parish, now Avon, at a place called "the old farm," which he sold January 29, 1781.
The farm in Simsbury contained sixty acres and "was within the first ledge of the West Mountain." Uriah Whitney married (first) Sarah Platt, of whom nothing further is known. He married (second) in February, 1775, Marth (Hart) Owen, daughter of Samuel and Eliza- beth (Thompson) Hart, and widow of Daniel Owen. About 1795 Uriah Whit- ney and his family moved to East Granville, Massachusetts, where both died, he in June, 1816, she March 5, 1819. Both were buried in East Granville Old Cemetery. Tradition says he was a sailor and a soldier of the Revolution, captured by the British at White Plains, also being counted as the seventh son, he was often asked to touch for the "King's evil." He had three sons and a daughter by wife, Marth (Hart) Owen : Samuel Platt, Lucy, Seth, Thaddeus.
(V) Samuel Platt Whitney, son of Uriah and Marth (Hart-Owen) Whitney, was born at Simsbury, Connecticut, No- vember 8, 1775, and died in Montville, Ohio, December 15, 1871, aged ninety-six years, one month, seven days. He was three days too young to vote at the presi- dential election of 1796, but voted at each succeeding election until his death. In 1795 he moved with his father to East Granville, Massachusetts, and married Lois Buttles, on March II, 1799, at her father's house in East Granville. Lois Whitney was born at Granby, Connecti- cut, March 18, 1772, daughter of Jonathan and Lois (Viets) Buttles. Until 1834 they lived in East Granville, and then set- tled in Montville, Ohio, where they cele- brated their diamond wedding (seventy- five years) at the home of their son, John Viets Whitney, on March 11, 1870, where Mrs. Whitney still lived in 1874, aged ninety-two years. At the diamond wed- ding, their descendants were reported to number twelve children, of whom nine
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