USA > Connecticut > Evening post annual, Biographical sketches [with portraits] of the state officers, representatives in Congress, governor's staff, and senators and members of the General assembly of the state of Connecticut, 1885 > Part 3
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News, a creditable but short-lived journalistic en- terprise. In the spring of 1861 he was elected Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives, Professor Cyrus Northrop being Clerk, and Hon. Augustus Brandegee Speaker. It was during this eventful spring that the war of the Rebellion broke out, and as soon as his official duties were completed-in Angust, 1861-Mr. Chamberlain enlisted in Company A, Seventh C. V .; the com- pany raised by General Hawley upon his return from the three months' service. On the filling of the regiment Hawley became lieutenant- colonel, and Chamberlain was made second lieutenant. He was with his command during the brilliant siege and capture of Fort Pulaski, and in July, 1862, was promoted to the captainey of the company. After another year's arduous service on the South Carolina coast and in
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Florida, Captain Chamberlain was selected to command the right of the picked battalion of the Seventh, which, under the gallant Colonel Dan Rodman, made that brave but deadly assault on Fort Wagner in July, 1863. He was one of the handful of men who scaled the rebel parapet and were captured inside the fort, having advanced so far that escape was impossible. For the next year and a half and until March 1, 1865, he was in rebel prisons, in Charleston, Columbia, and Charlotte. At one time, in company with Major Henry W. Camp of Hartford, he escaped from the prison in Columbia. For several days they lived in woods, swamps, and negro cabins during the day, and traveled northeast at night, until they had nearly reached the Union lines, when they were recaptured and subjected to consider- able harsh treatment. (The story is told by Rev. H. Clay Trumbull in "Knightly Soldier," the biography of Major Camp.) Finally he was paroled, and rejoined his regiment just in time to witness the final collapse of the Rebellion. Then Captain Chamberlain resigned, and, almost be- fore lre reached his home, the good people of New Britain elected him to the Legislature. From 1866 to 1868 he was in company with Major Kinney of Hartford, raising cotton on the St.
Johns river, Florida, an occupation which en- larged his experience at the expense of his bank account. He returned North in 1868, stopping on the way as a delegate from Florida to the Republican National Convention. Here he was placed on the committee on permanent organiza- tion, where his vote made General Hawley pres- ident of the convention which first nominated General Grant.
Since 1868 Mr. Chamberlain has made his home in New Britain, where he was married a dozen years since, and has a lovely family of seven children. For several years he was Assistant Pension Agent for the State under Colonel Rodman, holding the office until the dis- trict was merged with that of Massachusetts. During most of the time since 1868 he has been judge of the New Britain City Court, having been appointed when the court was established, and his tenure of office being undisturbed except during the rare intervals when the Democrats have controlled the Legislature. For the past five years by successive re-elections he has been judge of probate for the Berlin District. At the last Republican National Convention at Chicago he represented the First District.
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HON. LUZERNE I. MUNSON.
COMPTROLLER.
LUZERNE I. MUNSON was born in Wallingford (Northford Society), in March, 1837. He re- ceived a common school education, and also attended for two years the Durham Academy. In 1854, at the age of 17, he came to Waterbury and engaged as a boy in the service of the Apothecaries' Hall Company, where he remained until 1861, when he went as book-keeper and shipping clerk with the City Manufacturing Company, since merged with the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company, occupying the position for a year and a half. In 1862 he moved to Meriden to take the offices of Secretary and Treasurer of Julius Pratt & Co., and later was Secretary and Treasurer of Pratt, Read & Co., when the three firms, of which that firm was constituted, were consolidated. In 1863, at the age of 26, he returned to Waterbury and re- 3
entered, as Secretary and Treasurer, the estab- lishment where he had previously been employed as a boy, the Apothecaries' Hall Company, of which he has since been the active manager. Aside from his large political acquaintance. Mr. Munson is widely and popularly known throughout the State as one of the original mem- bers of the Connecticut Pharmaceutical Associa- tion, for several years the Chairman of its Executive Committee, and for one year its Pres- ident. He is also a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Mr. Munson's polit ical record is that of a party leader and worker. rather than as that of an office-holder. He has served five years as a member of the Board of Fire Commissioners, and one year as Assessor. He is at present a member of the Board of Sewer Commissioners. Twice he has been the candi-
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date of his party for Mayor of the city of Water- bury, and came very near an election in a city largely Democratic. He has been for ten years a member of the Republican State Committee, and declined further service at the late State Convention. He was a delegate to the late Republican National Convention, and was chosen Assistant Secretary from this State.
As a business man Mr. Munson exhibits in- dustry, honesty, and ability, and has achieved a substantial success. As a political leader he pos- sesses similar qualities, with corresponding re- sults. The openness of his political methods and the frankness of his manners make him popular alike with supporters and opponents, and he has escaped, in a large degree, thie per- sonal bitterness and hostility which political
activity often entails. Engaged for many years in such activity in Waterbury, in State, Con- gressional, and local contests of great warmth and closeness, the integrity and fairness of his methods have never been questioned, and his old political enemies rejoice with his friends in the honor of an election which he has earned by his services and justifies by his abilities. His busi ness training and experience qualify him thor- oughly for the duties which he will be, as Comp- troller of the State, called upon to perform. He is active and prominent in all public affairs relating to the community in which he lives, and we may reasonably look for exceptional thor- oughness and efficiency in the more exalted and wider field of public service in which he has now been placed.
O. M. GEN. AR
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P. M. GEN. HENRY C. DW
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ADJ'T GEN. STEPHEN R. SM
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SURG. GEN. HENRY
COM. GEN. FREDERICK BARTON.
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GEN. STEPHEN R. SMITH,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL.
The subject of this sketch is now forty-eight years of age, having been born in the village of Whitneyville, a suburb of New Haven, Conn., August 28, 1836. His father was a gunmaker by occupation, and was in the employ of the Whitney Arms Company for many years prior to his death, which occurred at the age of forty- seven, in December, 1855. The mother was a daughter of Captain Stephen Richards, a noted sea-captain residing in West Haven, Conn., who followed the sea in command of large vessels early and late in life.
Both the father and mother were highly respected in the city of New Haven, where they made their residence upon their marriage in 1831.
In early boyhood the son was placed under the instruction of the late Amos Smith, a famous teacher of boys in New Haven in his day, where he rapidly acquired a fair education. He devel- oped very early not only a disposition but an eagerness for work, and after school hours earned considerable money by carrying papers; at one time carrying three routes daily, besides feeding the press and doing up the morning mail. It is in the memory of many New Haven people that the boy manifested thus early in life, and in a marked degree, the alertness, quickness of per- ception, and promptness in action which have always characterized him as a man.
· At the age of fourteen he entered mercantile life as book-keeper in a large dry goods store in New Haven, which he surrendered at the end of a year to accept a more important business engagement, relinquishing this in turn when called to a clerkship in the New Haven Savings Bank. In the three years' service in this institu- tion he rose to the position of head clerk.
He rendered important assistance in 1855 in the organization of the Tradesman's Bank of New Haven, and in February, 1856, accepted the position of teller of the City Bank of New Haven, where he remained until engaging in business on his own account in February, 1864.
Commencing the coal business in a small way, he succeeded by energy and industry in building up one of the largest wholesale and retail coal concerns in New England. The handsome com- petence thus accumulated was partially swept away by financial reverses, and in 1880 he relin-
quished his own business to become the manager of the New York house of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This position he left in 1883 to connect himself with the flourish- ing banking-houses of Watson & Gibson in New York, and T. L. Watson & Co. of Bridgeport. Conn., in the management of the latter of which he is at present actively engaged.
General Smith has always shown a marked taste for military life, and an equally conspic- nous ability for the performance of the varied duties pertaining to it. He first joined the New Haven Grays in February, 1858, and served in the several grades of Private, Corporal, and Ser- geant, as also Treasurer of the company until October 7, 1863, when he was appointed Adju- tant of the Second Regiment by Col. S. W. Kel- logg. He was reappointed to this position by Col. S. E. Merwin on the accession of Gen. Kel- logg to the command of the brigade, and served as Adjutant until June 4, 1868, when, upon the retirement of Col. Merwin, he became Major of the regiment.
On August 16, 1869, he became Lieutenant- Colonel, and August 9, 1871, was promoted to the Coloneley of the Second Regiment, which position he held until after the Fall encampment at Niantic in 1874, when he resigned with the full intention of retiring permanently from mili- tary life.
During the three years he had commanded the Second Regiment he had brought it, by discreet and untiring work and energy, to a high state of discipline and drill, had taken the regiment on several occasions beyond the State limits, and won distinction and honor, not only for his own immediate command, but for the entire National Guard of the State.
Appreciation of this service was most emphati- cally shown when, after an absence from the regiment for one year, he was well-nigh com- pelled to again accept the command, and was re-commissioned Colonel of the Second Reginrent January 13, 1876. Strong as was his love for the Second Regiment, he was only persuaded to a second time accept its coloneley on being assured that not only every commissioned officer. but every enlisted man in the regiment-about seven hundred in all-had voted in favor of his recall, making the expression in his favor abso- lutely unanimous.
He continued in command of the Second Regi-
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ment until July 8, 1878, when he was called to the command of the brigade by Governor Rich- ard D. Hubbard. This promotion was so richly merited, and so well-deserved a compliment to General Smith in recognition of his long and faithful service in the Connecticut National Guard, that it was received with perfect satisfac- tion by all parties, military and civil, in the State.
General Smith continued in command of the brigade with universal acceptance until Jan. 8, 1885, when he was appointed Adjutant-General by Gov. Harrison, which position he now holds.
From his first connection with the National Guard of Connecticut to the present time, Gen- eral Smith's popularity has never waned. As a disciplinarian who can hold men to the strictest possible performance of duty, and yet retain not only their respect, but their hearty good-will. He has, in every position he has held, more than sustained a reputation already exceptionally high ; while his long service in the Guard with his heart in the work has rendered him thoroughly familiar with all its details, from the most important to the most minute.
The very excellent condition of the National Guard at the present time is unquestionably due, in a large degree, to the military and administra- tive ability of General Smith; and his appoint- ment to his present position, at the head of the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, is universally accepted as a well-merited recognition of past services and personal fitness for the position.
In civil life General Smith has been an active worker in almost every enterprise affecting for good the interests of the city of New Haven. He served for seven years as Secretary of the Board of Engineers of the old volunteer Fire Department; has served his ward one year as Councilnan, and subsequently for nearly three years as Alderman. He is a veteran Mason, and is connected with the Knights of Honor and various other societies. While never a seeker for political preferment, General Smith is in politics a Republican.
GEN. ARTHUR L. GOODRICH,
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL,
Was born in Hartford, May 16, 1849, and received a thorough public school education, including a two years' course at the Hartford
High School. He learned the druggists' pro- fession with the old firm of Lee, Sisson & Co., remaining with the company for eight years. For the past fourteen years he has been con- nected with the business department of the Hartford Courant, and has manifested superior executive ability in the management of his work. His business qualifications have been proved very satisfactorily during the two months that he has occupied the office of Quartermaster-Gen- eral, and his administration promises to give the most complete satisfaction. The office is one of very great importance, considering the large amount of State property under its control and supervision. General Goodrich. will faithfully guard the State's interests. He has been a member of the Connecticut National Guard since 1866, and has been active and influential in promoting its interests. He enlisted in the Hartford City Guard in April, 1866, and served through all the non-commissioned grades in the company, and also as Color-Sergeant and Ser- geant-Major in the First Regiment. November 21, 1876, he was appointed Adjutant of the regi- ment by Colonel P. W. Hudson, and was re-ap- pointed under Colonel Heman A. Tyler. He was promoted to the rank of Major in the First Regiment June 26, 1878, and to the Lieutenant- Colonelcy of the command November 20, 1884. December 2, 1882, he resigned as Major of the First, but was unanimously reelected, the officers and men of the regiment desiring universally his retention in office. He was with the First dur-" ing the Yorktown and Charleston visits in 1881, and has always been with it at the regular encampments at Niantic. His time, influence, and services have been given with the utmost enthusiasm to the National Guard, that having been for years the organization in the success of which he has felt the deepest interest. General Goodrich possesses very enjoyable social and personal qualities, and is honored and esteemed by all who come into contact with him.
GEN. HENRY C. DWIGHT,
PAYMASTER-GENERAL,
WAS born at Northampton, Mass., January 19, 1841. His father, Henry A. Dwight, was for a number of years at the head of an educational institute at Norfolk, Va., and General Dwight
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was there with him during 1853 and 1854. Re- turning north, he engaged early in life in the dry goods trade at Northampton, and was living there at the outbreak of the war. He enlisted in the three months' service, but the Northamp- ton quota being filled, he was not able to go to the front with the first troops from the State. He again enlisted in September, 1861, and was instrumental in organizing Company A of the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment. Sep- tember 20, 1861, he was appointed Sergeant- Major of the command, and was with it through the Burnside Expedition in North Carolina. In December, 1861, he was appointed Second Lieu- tenant of Company H, and April 1, 1862, he was promoted to the First Lieutenancy of Company A. In August of that year he received his Cap- tain's commission. Mr. W. P. Derby, in his admirable history of the Twenty-seventh Massa- chusetts, speaks in the highest terms of Captain Dwight. "Fortunately for Company A," he says, "there was one in the regiment, by birth and association allied with them, who was a nat- ural leader, of courage and ability, and to him the command fell." Captain Dwight's advance- ment was won through earnest and valiant ser- vices at the front. He remained with his regi- ment in North Carolina until the fall of 1863, when he was assigned to provost duty at Norfolk, where he had passed a couple of years - 1853 and 1854 - as a student under his father's direc- tion and tutorship. He remained there until the spring of 1864, when he accompanied his regiment in the James River campaign under General Butler. March 1, 1864, he was ap- pointed recruiting officer of the Twenty-seventh, and under his leadership 143 members re-enlisted. " The appointment of Captain Dwight for this important work," says Mr. Derby in his history of the regiment, " was a recognition not only of his ability, but of his high standing with the rank and file. He was regarded by them as a man of unusual probity and honor, and his remarkable success in re-enlisting was due to this confidence." He served with the Twenty- seventh until May 16, 1864, when, under special order from headquarters, Eighteenth Army Corps, he was assigned to staff service as Assistant-Com- missary of Subsistence, and remained with the Second Division of the Corps until the close of his term of service, September 28, 1864. Throughout his army career of three years,
" Captain Dwight's intelligent, courageous, patri- otic service," says Mr. Derby, " with his genial, self-forgetful spirit, inspired universal confidence and regard." Hle is still one of the regiment's most popular representatives, and is president of the regimental association.
General Dwight removed from Northampton to Hartford in January, 1865, and has since resided here. He engaged in business with Ę. N. Kellogg & Co., wool dealers, and afterwards with Austin Dunham & Sons. In 1879, with Drayton Ilillyer of this city, he organized the firm of H. C. Dwight & Co., at present Dwight. Skinner & Co., conducting an extensive wool trade throughout the West, South-west, and New England. General Dwight has served in the Court of Common Council from the Fourth Ward, three years as Councilman and four as Alderman. He is now serving his second term as member of the Board of Street Commissioners. He was one of the charter members of Robert O. Tyler Post, G. A. R., of this city, and was com- mander of the Union Veteran Battalion on Battle- Flag Day, and also on Buckingham Day. As an old soldier and citizen he enjoys the fullest confidence of the public, and is a man whom all share in honoring.
GEN. FREDERICK BARTON,
COMMISSARY-GENERAL ..
Was born at Collinsville, Conn., July 21. 1841. Removed to Springfield, Mass., when about two years old. Was educated in the public schools. also at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and also at Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Mass. Joined the Springfield City Guard in 1858, and was an active member of the company when the war broke out. Was selected in May. 1861, by Governor Andrew, to raise a company for the Tenth Mass. Infantry, for three years, and was commissioned Captain of Company E of that regiment. Mustered into the service of the United States at Hampden Park. Springfield. Mass., June 21, 1861. Went with his regiment to Washington, D. C., sailing from Boston July 25th. Remained with his company until Decem- ber 1861, when he was ordered to report to Brig- adier General Fred Lander, in Western Virginia. as aide-de-camp. JJoined his staff at Paw Paw. W. Va., and remained until General Lander's
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death in February, 1862. General Shields having been placed in command of Lander's old Division, Captain Barton was retired at his own request, and was ordered to join his company at Hamp- ton, Va. Commanded his company in all the battles of Mcclellan's peninsular campaign about Richmond, commanding his regiment as Senior Captain during the battle of Malvern Hill, though not yet of age, and was very favorably com- mended by General D. N. Couch for his bravery in that action. Remained in command of his regiment after the arrival of the army at Har- rison's Landing until he was ordered home on sick leave, and when sufficiently recovered was assigned to the recruiting service at Boston. Was designated by Governor Andrew to assist in recruiting the Second Regiment Cavalry, of which regiment he was promised one of the majorities, but in the meantime was returned, and ordered to join his regiment at Falmouth, Va. He at once reported for duty, and was as- signed to Company I. Participated in the charge and capture of Mary's Heights in rear of Fred- ericksburg, and, later in the day, in the battle of " Salem Church," where he was slightly wounded. During the march into Maryland, he was ordered to report to Brigadier-General H. L. Eustis as Adjutant-General, Second Regiment, Third Di- vision, Sixth Corps, which was commanded by the gallant Sedgwick. Was wounded at the bat- tle of Gettysburg, and still carries the ball in his leg. Remained in the same position until after the battle of Chantilly, where he was captured by Mosely, while on duty. Was then taken to Libby Prison at Richmond, where he was confined until February 29, 1864. After he was exchanged, he was ordered to assume his old position as Adju- tant-General on the staff of Brigadier-General Edwards, who had succeeded General Eustis.
Participated in all the battles of General Grant's famous campaign about Richmond and Peters- burg, until the expiration of his time of service, when he was mustered out at Springfield, June 21, 1864, and honorably discharged. Was breveted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel by the President, for gallant and meritorious service during the war, particularly. at Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg. IIe entered the employ of the Adams Express Company in December, 1868, in New York, was shortly transferred to Boston, and later, in 1871, was again transferred to Hart- ford, Conn .; again, in 1879, was transferred to New Haven, and promoted to agent of the com- pany, which position he now holds.
GEN. HENRY P. GEIB,
SURGEON-GENERAL,
Of Stamford, was born in Newark, N. J., in 1847. At the age of seventeen, while preparing for college, the invasion of Pennsylvania by the rebel General Lee's army determined him to en- list, and he joined the Second Regiment of New Jersey volunteers, as a private, serving until he was discharged on account of illness. He after- wards studied medicine in the office of Professor James R. Wood of New York, and graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1869. He was two years in the West as surgeon, with Major-General J. W. Powell's exploring expedi- tion. He represented the town of Stamford in the Legislature in 1883, serving as Chairman of the Insurance Committee on the part of the House. Dr. Geib has been a resident physician of Stam- ford for ten years, and has acquired a lucrative practice.
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COL. WILLIAM C. MOWRY.
COL. WILLIAM E. HYDE.
COL, TRACY B. WARREN.
COL. CHARLES H. R. NOTT.
LIEUT. COL. BERNARD F. BLAKESLEE
COL. GEORGE M. WHITE.
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COL. WILLIAM E. HYDE,
Aide-de-Camp, resides · at Danielsonville, where he is engaged in the practice of dentistry. He is married but has no children. He was born at Brooklyn, Conn., in 1843 and was educated in the common schools and at West Killingly Academy, until the age of fifteen, when, finding himself one of a large family with small fortune, and possessed of a desire to see the world, he went to sea, after- wards doing service in the Navy during the war of the Rebellion, where he was attached to the United States Steamer Mohican, and later was in the employ of the United States, at Springfield, Mass. Soon after the war closed he adopted the profession of a dentist, and has established a fine practice in Windham county. He has been a student all his life and in 1877 graduated from the Law School of the Boston University, but has never taken up the law as a business.
He represented Killingly in the House of 1879 and held numerous local offices, including that of Judge of Probate for four years.
He did good service on the stump for Blaine in the late campaign, speaking both as a free lance and under the direction of the State Central Committee.
COL. WILLIAM C. MOWRY,
Aide-de-Camp, was born at Norwich in this State, June 26, 1850. His elementary education was received at the public schools of his native city. Graduating at the Norwich Free Academy, he prepared for a course of instruction in the Sheffield Scientific School, but was prevented from entering that institution by a trouble of his eyes which threatened permanent loss of sight. Afterwards recovering the use of them, he entered the works of the Mowry Axle and Machine Company for the purpose of obtaining a practical knowledge of this business. Remaining in the mechanical department two years, he was promoted to the business department of the same company, which place he retained until 1876. About this time a new enterprise was organized in Norwich, for the manufacture of the "Page Steam Heater," for furnishing artificial heat to residences and public buildings. Col. Mowry became interested
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