USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v.2 > Part 5
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ELMORE, Samuel Edward, Financier, Man of Enterprisc.
In July, 1913, Mr. Elmore terminated by retirement an active business connec- tion with the insurance and banking in- stitutions of Hartford that had existed for more than half a century. Thirty-eight of those years he had been president of the Connecticut River Banking Company, and at the time of his retirement enjoyed the distinction of being the oldest banker in Hartford. Now an octogenarian in
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years, and a veteran among veterans, he is still active in mind and body and re- views a long career of unusually varied activity, during which he has achieved an abundant measure of success, and through his worthy deeds has added additional lustre to one of the oldest and most re- spected of New England family names. No citizen of Hartford has been more widely known and none more highly esteemed. Public-spirited and progres- sive, he has well served his city and his State by personal achievement and by aiding and abetting those movements and enterprises that promised to conserve the public good. A man of intellectual tastes and deeply interested in family history, he spent the less busy hours of several years in compiling and writing a history and genealogy of the Elmer-Elmore fam- ily. From that work the facts relating to the generations preceding his own are taken.
Spelled in various ways the name El- more is handed down from an early period in English history, the name first appear- ing in Domesday Book which dates back to the year 1086, and in which it frequently appears as "Elmer habet," describing cer- tain lands partitioned by "William the Conqueror" among his followers.
The American spelling is Elmore or Elmer, and was brought to this country by Edward Elmer, born about 1604, at Quinton (near Northampton), England, who came in the ship "Lion," arriving at Boston, September 16, 1632. He came to Hartford with Rev. Thomas Hooker's company in 1636, was an original pro- prietor, owning the lot on the east side of Main street adjoining that of Captain John Talcott, on the north. In 1654 he became one of the first settlers of North- ampton, Massachusetts; was a member of the first board of magistrates in 1656; was witness to an Indian deed in 1658 that conveyed to Major Pynchon's com-
pany the land which constitutes the site of Hadley, and in 1660 returned to Hart- ford. He purchased an additional tract of five hundred and fifty acres on the east side of the "great river" in what is now South Windsor, cultivated it with the aid of his sons and there fell a victim to the wrath of the Indians during King Philip's war in June, 1676. He married his wife Mary in 1644 or 1645. His estate was large for that early day, one thousand and twenty-one pounds, fourteen shillings and three pence being the appraised value of his personal property in Hartford, and had thirteen hundred acres of land at Podunk valued at three hundred and six- ty-nine pounds.
His eldest son, John Elmer, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, settled on the South Windsor lands and there died, Sep- tember 21, 17II. He married Rosamond Ginnuarie.
Their son, Joseph Elmer, born 1678, died at Windsor, Connecticut June 4, 1758. He married, April 4, 1700, Jane Adkins, of Hartford, who died December 8, 1766.
Their son, Samuel Elmer, born Decem- ber 12, 1705, was one of the first settlers of the "Long Hill" district in South Windsor, where he died August 24, 1761. He married Susannah Gilman.
Their son, Samuel Elmer, born Novem- ber 18, 1755, died June 8, 1834. He served during five campaigns in the Revolution- ary War. He married (first) Sarah Loomis.
Their youngest child, Harvey Elmore (who adopted that form of spelling the name in his branch of the family), born December 26, 1799, died March 26, 1873. He married, April 19, 1830, Clarissa Burnham, born October 23, 1798, died January I, 1871, daughter of Zenas and Thankful Burnham, who bore him a son, Samuel Edward Elmore. Harvey El- more was an instructor of youth, princi-
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pal for several years of East Hartford Academy, then the largest school in that section. He was a member of the General Assembly in 1842 and in 1844, captain of an independent rifle company attached to the Twenty-fifth Regiment Connecticut Militia, 1836-38. He was a man of ster- ling moral worth, splendid mentality, holding the perfect confidence and high esteem of his fellow men.
Samuel Edward Elmore, of the seventh American generation, was born at South Windsor, Connecticut, November 3, 1833. After finishing grammar school courses lie prepared for college at Hinsdale Acad- emy and Williston Seminary at East Hampton, Massachusetts, then entered Williams College, whence he was gradu- ated Bachelor of Arts, class of 1857. He was associated with James A. Garfield, later President of the United States, in the editorship of the Williams Quarterly, a college journal. Mr. Elmore was presi- dent of the Lyceum of Natural History and other literary societies, and was the captain of a college scientific expedition to Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas. After graduation from Williams, Mr. El- more served as assistant principal at Sedg- wick Institute, Great Barrington, Massa- chusetts, and later was principal of the Academy at Stowe, Vermont. During this period of his life he studied law, but never practiced.
After returning to Connecticut from Vermont he became active in political affairs, and in the trying times that fol- lowed, he gave strong evidence of the mental and moral stamina of his nature. He held decided opinions and possessed the courage to make them effective. He was a member of the General Assembly of his State in 1860 and again in 1864, and from 1860 until 1865 was chief clerk in the office of the State Treasurer. In that capacity he was responsible for obtaining all the money required for fitting out
and sending to the front the Connecticut regiments. He held the entire confidence of Governor Buckingham, and was his often accredited agent to visit General Washington as financial representative of the State of Connecticut ; to receive from the United States government large sums to reimburse the State for moneys ex- pended in behalf of the government to pay soldiers' bounties to reënlist soldiers whose first term of service had expired, and to succor Connecticut soldiers wound- ed at the battles of Sharpsburg and Antie- tam. His experience in the State Treas- urer's office was of great value to him in the business he was later to pursue and was an experience in large financial opera- tions which gave him confidence in his own ability as a financier, as well as one that impressed others in a like manner.
In 1864 he promoted and organized the Continental Life Insurance Company that was chartered that year. He was the first secretary of the company, later its presi- dent. The company began business with assets of $150,000, and during the ten years of Mr. Elmore's management the assets increased to $2,500,000. He sev- ered his connection with the company in 1874, and in 1875 became president of the Connecticut River Banking Company, a . position he held until July, 1913. He was one of the organizers of the J. R. Mont- gomery Company, and its first treasurer, a position he held until the summer of 1915. He was president of the East Had- dam Electric Light Company, managed that corporation for many years and was a director in many other important com- panies. Although practically retired from business he is yet a director of the Hart- ford County Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany, of the J. R. Montgomery Company, and of the C. Cowles Company of New Haven, conducts a tobacco plantation on the old homestead farm and is interested in orange culture in Florida.
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He is a member of the Hartford Scien- tific Society, Connecticut Historical Soci- ety, Sons of the American Revolution, The Vermont Veterans, president of Williams College Alumni Association of Connecti- cut, and a member of the Hartford Club, The Chamber of Commerce, etc. In re- ligious faith he is a Congregationalist be- longing to Park (later Immanuel) Church, his religion the kind that finds expression in the daily walk of its possessor.
Mr. Elmore married, November 1, 1864, Mary Amelia Burnham, born December 31, 1837, died May 28, 1878. Children : Frank Harvey, of Providence, Rhode Island, born November 16, 1866; Samuel Dean, of Boston, Massachusetts, born De- cember 23, 1868; Charles Burnham, born May 17, 1871 ; Henry Dennis, born April II, 1875.
BROWN, Robert Kingsbury, Man of Enterprise.
Three generations of this branch of the Brown family of Connecticut have con- tributed to the commercial glory and civic greatness of Waterbury, Colonel and Dea- con James Brown, his son, Hon. William Brown, and his son, Robert Kingsbury Brown. Prior to the settlement in Water- bury, two generations, Stephen (1) and Stephen (2) Brown, grandfather and father of Colonel and Deacon James Brown, had resided in Windsor, Connec- ticut. Stephen (1) Brown was a son of Captain Francis Brown, of Wallingford, Connecticut, son of Samuel Brown, an original subscriber to the compact for the settlement of Wallingford, and died there November 6, 1691. Samuel Brown was a son of Francis Brown, the founder of this branch of the Brown family in America.
Francis Brown came with the fifty men reported as passengers on the ship "Hec- tor and Consort," who arrived at Boston, June 26, 1637. In September of that year
he came to Connecticut with the Eaton and Davenport colony, which settled New Haven, and was one of the seven men left there to pass the winter of 1637-38, the remainder of the party returning to Bos- ton to return with their families the fol- lowing spring. In the division of land, Francis Brown was one of the "Seven" who "dwelt on the bank side" (East Water street fronting the harbor). He was a tailor by trade, and for a time oper- ated the ferry at Red Rock over the "East" river. He married in England Mary Edwards, who died December 7, 1669. He died in East Haven in 1668. From Francis Brown sprang a numerous and very influential Connecticut family.
Stephen (2) Brown, of the fifth genera- tion in America, son of Stephen (1) Brown, son of Captain Francis Brown, son of Samuel Brown, son of Francis Brown, "the founder," was a Revolution- ary soldier marching on the "Alarm" at Lexington with the company commanded by Captain Nathaniel Wayden, Jr.
James Brown, son of Stephen (2) Brown, was a blacksmith, and at the age of twenty-two located in Waterbury, Con- necticut, where he was noted for industry, sobriety and honesty. He was one of the original partners in the third rolling mill erected in Waterbury in 1830, afterward known as the Brown & Elton Company. Believing idleness a sin, he continued in business long after securing a compe- tence, nor did he alter his plain, frugal manner of life. He was a member of the Waterbury Militia Company and finally became colonel of his regiment. In 1818 he was chosen deacon of the First Con- gregational Church, and also belonged to the Masonic order. He married, June 22, 1801, Lavinia, daughter of Levi Wolcott, of Wolcott, Connecticut. Colonel Brown died July 24, 1848, aged seventy-two. His wife died October 6, 1848. His four sons, all of whom became eminent in Water-
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bury business and professional life, were : Philo; William, of further mention; Au- gustus ; and Dr. James Brown.
William Brown, second son of Colonel and Deacon James Brown, was born June 16, 1804, died March 3, 1881. His busi- ness career was one of honor and promi- nence, culminating in the corporation of Brown & Brothers, composed of William, Philo, Augustus and James Brown. For fifteen years William Brown was associ- ated with his brothers in brass manufac- turing, then in 1856 retired to the man- agement of his private estate and to the administration of public and private trusts. His public service was important. He represented his district in the State Legislature as Assemblyman and Sena- tor, holding the latter office at the time of his death. He gave his time and tal- ents to the public service to a greater ex- tent than any other citizen of his genera- tion, serving Waterbury as selectman and filling many other city and town offices. For many years he was consulted freely by public officers, who valued his sound judgment, good sense and ripe experi- ence. The State Senate took official action when his death was announced and the State press, regardless of party, paid touching tribute to his long and valued public service and to his private worth. He was a Democrat in his political allegi- ance and a tower of strength to his party.
Senator William Brown married (first) December 17. 1828, Susannah, daughter of Judge John Kingsbury, who died May 28, 1841, leaving three children : Marcia Bronson, who died at the age of nineteen ; Robert Kingsbury, of further mention ; Eliza Jane, who married Guernsey S. Par- sons, banker and probate judge. Senator Brown married (second) March 25, 1844, Rachel Vienna, daughter of Asa Fenn, of Middlebury, Connecticut, who survived him with one son, Frederick James.
Robert Kingsbury Brown, only son of Conn-2-3
Senator William Brown, and his first wife, Susannah (Kingsbury) Brown, was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, Decem- ber 6, 1833, and died November 21, 1916, aged eighty-two years, eleven months, sixteen days. He was educated in the public schools of Waterbury and East Litchfield, finishing at Williston Semi- nary, Easthampton, Massachusetts. At the age of eighteen he entered the employ of Brown & Brothers, brass founders, and in association with his father and uncles passed the seventeen succeeding years. He became financially interested in the corporation after coming of legal age, and during his active connection filled vari- ous positions of responsibility and trust, including management of the manufactur- ing department. At the age of thirty-five he retired from active connection with Brown & Brothers to devote himself to the care of his own private estate and business. He was for a time engaged in banking as head of the private banking house, Brown & Parsons, but his princi- pal business was in real estate. He had the greatest faith in the future of Water- bury and greatly increased his fortune by judicious investment in city property, holding for a long time more city real estate than any other man. He was the heaviest individual taxpayer in Water- bury. His late home, at the corner of West Main and Meadow streets, stands on land originally known as "the lot at the West End," owned by the First Church, and used as the site for the min- ister's house, the land then extending through to Grand street, so that the burial place was at the foot of the minister's gar- den, part of the old Grand Street Ceme- tery being a continuation of the house lot. He owned two of the old hotel buildings of the city, one formerly known as the Arcade, this hotel being originally con- ducted by his father and uncle, and first known as "Brown's Hotel," the other still
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standing, known as "The Tontine." In fact, Mr. Brown, through purchase from the original heirs, his sister, Mrs. Eliza J. Parsons, and his half-brother, Fred- erick J. Brown, acquired all the original holdings of his father, including not only the property on the corner of East Main street and Exchange place, but the one hundred acre farm on the Watertown road, known as "Brown's Farm." He also owned the house just east of his late home. It is worthy of note that the de- velopment of the farm of Mr. Brown was very rapid and extensive, and it is now the site of large manufacturing plants and factories, Mr. Brown having given the ground, some seven acres, for the first factory site. There are now located there: The Waterbury Rolling Mills, Waterbury Tool Company, National Com- pany, Metal Specialty Company, Eastern Brass and Ingot Company and The A. H. Wells Manufacturing Company. Mr. Brown inherited the thrift and energy of his grandfather, Colonel James Brown, and while averse to personally holding public office, was, like his honored father, deeply interested in public affairs. From early youth he was saving and frugal, practicing extreme self-denial to effect his first savings. One of his first investments was the purchase of stock in the Citizens' Bank of Waterbury, two hundred dollars being the investment, but it accomplished his object, the privilege of attending the business meetings of the bank. While Mr. Brown reaped substantial reward through his faith in the growth and de- velopment of his city, no man of all those who have had a share in its upbuilding worked harder or contributed more to Waterbury's development than Robert K. Brown.
The character of his public service was educational, public office not attracting him, although when a young man of thirty he sat in Waterbury Common
Council. He was deeply interested in questions of municipal administration and frequently appeared as an expert upon such subjects before the legislative com- mittees. He used his pen, however, and frequently published and circulated his printed views. He also did some writ- ing of cipher matter, and had a fine taste for poetry, in which latter he delved as a pastime. His knowledge of history was wide and as a student of political economy he read and studied the principles of gov- ernment and law under which we live, the following extracts from his writings showing the trend of his thought. "Upon the love and esteem of the government depends the strength of the government, and when the laws are considered just, every man becomes an executor." "The average American has but a vague idea of the constitution and the laws govern- ing the free American people. Blinded by her growth and prosperity, trusting in the people to rule, and meekly following our political leaders, it has never seemed to occur to us that this thing would not cease content with the present." Though originally a member of the First Church, he was for many years prior to his death an attendant upon the services of St. John's Church, of which his wife was an active member, and interested in its affairs. In politics he was a Democrat, and he was in all things independent and positive on his opinions and in his expres- sion of them.
Mr. Brown married, January 22, 1856, Elizabeth Nichols, daughter of Stiles M. Middlebrook, of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
At the time of his death Mr. Brown was an octogenarian whose years had been en- tirely spent in the city of his birth, that same city in which his honored father was born, lived and died. Mr. Brown was not only an authority on local history, a land- mark and a connecting bond between the long ago and the present, but he was in
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himself an important part of that history. The part Robert K. Brown played in the development of his community, and its material and moral upbuilding was one of the important factors in that development. Add his part to the life work of his father, Senator William Brown, and to that of the life work of other descendants of Colo- nel James Brown, and the history of Waterbury from the coming of Colonel James, the "village blacksmith" of 1798, until the present is largely written.
ANDERSON, Henry Gray, M. D., Physician, Surgeon, Hospital Official.
Son of a Presbyterian minister and grandson of a physician, Dr. Anderson in- herited professional instincts, and in his choice of a profession reverted to that of his maternal grandfather, Dr. Henry Gray, whose name he bears. While he has specialized in surgery, his prac- tice in Waterbury for the past twenty years has been general in character and the position he has attained as one of the leading men of his profession has been won by increasing devotion to its de- mands. He is highly regarded in his adopted city as a physician and surgeon of rare skill and as a citizen of honorable, upright life. He is a descendant of the Anderson family of Aberdeenshire, Scot- land, a seafaring family, Dr. Anderson's branch later settling in the North of Ire- land near Londonderry. From thence came William and Margaret Anderson, settling at Port Hope, province of On- tario, Canada.
John Anderson, son of William and Margaret Anderson, was born at Port Hope, Canada, in 1826, died in Cambridge, New York, in 1903. When a lad his par- ents moved to Argyle, Washington coun- ty, New York, where his youth and early life was spent. He prepared in the public schools, then entered Union College (now
University), Schenectady, New York, whence he was graduated in the class of 1853. Later he prepared for the minis- try at the General Theological Seminary, New York City, and was ordained a min- ister of the Presbyterian church. For a season he taught in Washington Acad- emy, Cambridge, New York, but after his marriage he went west, locating at Oswego, Indiana, where their son, Henry Gray An- derson, was born. Rev. John Anderson remained in Oswego eight years, 1860-68. then accepted a call from the United Pres- byterian church of Martin, Michigan, re- maining pastor of that church until 1877. In 1877 he became pastor of the North Presbyterian Church, Kalamazoo, Michi- gan, continuing the spiritual head of that church until 1885, when failing health compelled him to retire from the minis- try. He then returned to Cambridge, New York, his wife's girlhood home, and there the family resided in the old Gray homestead. Rev. John Anderson married in Cambridge, New York, Mary Bullions Gray, born in Cambridge in 1835, daugh- ter of Dr. Henry and Janet (Bullions) Gray, the Gray and Bullions families coming from Scotland and North Eng- land. Dr. Gray was a descendant, also the progenitor, of a line of professional men, many of them physicians, and was himself an eminent member of the medi- cal profession.
Henry Gray Anderson, son of the Rev. John and Mary Bullions (Gray) Ander- son, was born in Oswego, Indiana, No- vember 22, 1865. At the age of three years, his parents moved to Martin, Michigan, where his education began and continued until 1877, then was advanced in the schools of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He completed classical study at Vermont Academy, whence he was graduated in 1886. He chose medicine as his life work, his maternal ancestors for several generations transmitting to him a prefer-
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ence from that profession. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, pur- sued an extended course of study and re- ceived his degree of M. D. with the gradu- ating class of 1889. After a term of serv- ice as interne at Chambers Street Hos- pital, the New York Cancer Hospital, and the Woman's Hospital, New York, of which he was later assistant surgeon, he established in private surgical practice in New York, continuing until 1897. In that year he located in Waterbury, Connecti- cut, where he has since been continuously in medical and surgical practice. In ad- dition to a large private practice, he is surgeon and attending gynecologist to Waterbury Hospital and is frequently called in consultation. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Fel- low of the American Medical Association, member of the State Medical Society, New Haven County Medical Society, Waterbury Medical Association, the Greater New York Medical Society, the Union League of New Haven, the Water- bury Club and the First Congregational Church of Waterbury. In politics he is a Republican. From 1883 to 1886, while a student at Vermont Academy, he served in the First Regiment, Vermont National Guard.
Dr. Anderson married, at Saxton's River, Vermont, October 4, 1892, Char- lotte May Alexander, daughter of John F. and Mary (Perry) Alexander. Chil- dren : Harry Gray, born in New York City, April 5, 1895; Hannah Perry. born in Waterbury, Connecticut, October 22, 1899.
(The Gray-Grey Line).
Most genealogists derive this ancient and noble family from Fulbert, Chamber- lain to Robert, Duke of Normandy, who held by his gift the castle of Croy in Picardy from which the name is assumed to have been borrowed. There is, how-
ever, no evidence for this for the pedigree is only traced to Henry de Grey to whom Richard Coeur de Lion gave the manor of Thurrock in Essex, which manor was subsequently known as Grey's Thurrock. From D'Ainsy it appears that the family came from Grai or Gray, a village near Caen. There were Grays in the train of William the Conqueror. In England the name is usually Grey, in Scotland Gray. They intermarried with royalty, some- times to their sorrow as in the case of Lady Jane Grey. The Gray family in America is numerous, widespread, and of many diverse branches. They were among the Pilgrims of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, were early settlers in Virginia, as well as other Southern States. From 1620 to 1720 at least twenty different families of Grays emigrated to this country and made their homes in the New World. Of the later emigrations there were several, notably that of the Matthew Gray family which settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1718, from which sprang Dr. Joseph Gray, Dr. Henry Gray and Dr. Henry C. Gray, ancestors of Dr. Henry Gray Anderson, of Waterbury, Connecticut.
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