History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 74

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532

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In the same cemetery, with unmarked graves, rest Harvey Ford and Mr. Read, colored.

In the North Cornwall cemetery we find the names of

Lieut. William H. Coggswell, died Sept. 22, 1864, aged 25 years, 2 months, and 23 days. Ile enlisted as private in the Fifth Regiment C. V., June 22, 1861, and was promoted in the Second Connecticut Artillery for gallant services, Sept. 11, 1862. He was in the battles of Peaked Mountain, Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Cold Ilarbor, and Opequan, and died from wounds received in last battle.

Crawford H. Nodine, son of Robert G. and Clara Hart Nodine, died of wounds received at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Sept. 3, 1862, aged 21.

Capt. Amos T. Allen, Co. C, Eleveatlı Regiment C. V., enly brother of Susan Brewster, died of wounds received at the battle of Cold Har- her, July 6, 1864, aged 25 years. He was engaged in the following battles: Winchester, May 25, 1862; Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9, 1862; Fredericksburg, Dec. 12 to 15, 1862; Suffolk, April 24, 1863; near Snffolk, May 3, 1863 ; Swift's Creek, May 9, 1864; Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864.

Charles McCormick, born Sept. 15, 1836; died Sept. 17, 1865, from disease contracted in the service. Ile was a member of Co. I, Fifthi Regi- ment C. V., and in the battles of Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, and orderly-sergeant of his con- pany, under Gen. Sherman, in all battles from Chattanooga to the surrender of the rebels under Johnson.

William Green, died March 29, 1874, aged 46; bern in Sheffield, Eng- land.

Myron Hubbell, died at Alexandria, Va., Nov. 24, 1862, aged 38.

Edward Barnum, a native of Cornwall, though he enlisted elsewhere, died in 1875.

Edgar Elias, enlisted in the Eighth N. Y. Regiment, and served through the war. Ile died in Cornwall in 1875.

Soldiers buried in the cemetery al Cornwall.

Rev. Jacob Eaton, chaplain of Seventh Regiment C. V. I., died at Wilmington, N. C., March 20, 1865, aged 32 years; a volunteer in the war ef 1861. A noble Christian patriot.

George W. Pendleton, a member of Co. C, First Connecticut Artillery; died while in the service of his country, at Washington, D. C., Sept. 11, 1862, aged 22 years.

Corp. Henry L. Vail, died at Winchester, Va., Nov. 3, 1864, by a rebel bullet through the neck and shoulder, aged 23.

John Hawver, died Aug. 1, 1868, aged 30.

Philo F. Cole, died Jan. 4, 1863, aged 27.

William R., son of Rufus and Mary S. Payne, died Feb. 20, 1865, aged 33.

William B. North, born June 25, 1835, died March 18, 1866.

Thomas Sherman returned at the close of the war with the Second Con- necticut Artillery, and died in 1866.

Zina D. Ilotchkiss, a member of Co. G, Second Connecticut Artillery, died in 1875.

The remains of five are buried in the cemetery in the southwest part of the town.

Albert Robinson, sergeant of Co. G, Second Connecticut H. A., died at Baltimore, Md., March 26, 1865, aged 33 years.

George Page, killed at the battle of Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864, nged 25. A member of Co. G, Second Connecticut H. A.

Lewis Sawyer, died at the city of Washington, Aug. 24, 1864, aged 24 years. A member of Co. G, Second Connecticut H. A.

Horace Sickman, a member of Co. G, Second Conn. H. A., died in Wash- ington, July 19, 1864, aged 29 years.

Hlermen E. Bonney, died at Philadelphia, June 28, 1864, aged 28 years. A member of Second Connecticut H. A.

I am indebted to H. P. Milford, of Cornwall Bridge, for the names of Cornwall soldiers in Company G, Nineteenth Connecticut Volunteers, afterwards Sec- ond Connecticut Heavy Artillery, with some incidents of their history. Mr. Milford went as corporal, en- tering camp at Litchfield, Aug. 21, 1862, and was quartermaster-sergeant at the time of his discharge, July 7, 1865.

The following-named men were residents of Corn- wall at the time of their enlistment :

Edward F. Gold, captain; John M. Gregory, lientenant, lost an arm at the battle of Cedar Creek; Gad M. Smith became captain ; Henry S. Dean, wounded at Cold Harbor; Henry P. Milford, Joseph Payne, killed at Cold Harbor; Myren Hubbell, died of sickness; Albert L. Benedict, Frederick Butler, Franklin B. Bierce, Jerome Chipman, Nelson Clark, Phile Cole, died ; Josinh B. Corban, Patrick Delaney, Edward Hawver, wounded at Cedar Creek; Nelson T. Jennings, George L. Jones, David Kimball, Sydney Lapham, John Lapham, Elijah C. Mallory, Ralph J. Miner, Henry Peck, killed at Winches- ter; George W. Page, killed nt Cedar Creek ; Lucien G. Rouse, died; Charles R. Swift, Lewis Sawyer, died; Thomas Sherman, Charles H. Smith, Elisha Soule, killed at Cedar Creek ; Patrick Troy, died from wounds received at Winchester : Allen Williama, died ; Horace Wil- liams, brother to the above ; Robert Bard.

The following joined the company from Cornwall as recruits :

Herman E. Bonney, died; Albert II. Bailey, George W. Baldwin, John Hawver, wounded at Cold Harbor; John Christie, Hubert D. Hux- ley. Zinah D. Hotchkiss, Dwight A. IFotchkiss, father and son ; Timothy Leonard, Paschal P. North, died; Nathan Payne, W. S. Palmer, Frederick J. Pierce, Swift B. Smith, John Tulley, William White, died ; James H. Van Buren,-this was a boy in the drum corps ; he was wounded in the leg at Winchester, had the limb am- putated twice, and died of the wound.

J.J. Gold

311

CORNWALL.

Assistant Adjt .- Gen. Simeon J. Fox has kindly fur- nished me the names of recruits from the town of Cornwall from and after July 1, 1863. Those pre- viously named have been stricken from this list.

FIRST ARTILLERY.

John Swift, Isaac Doughty.

SECOND ARTILLERY.

Newton W. Coggswell, John 11. Taylor, Orville Slover, Horace Sick- mund, William A. Slover, Norman Mausfield, Lorenzo Moseley, Frederick Saxe, Lockwood Waldron, John R. Thompson, George Burton, Henry M. Marshall, Sylvester Graves, Charles C. Bosworth, Patrick Ryan, James Adanıs.

FIRST CAVALRY.

Michael R. Oates, James McLane, Edward Suter, James Carey, John Brady, John McCabe, James Flood, William H. Benton, George B. Clark, William Rogers, Frederick Beam, James Kelly, John Boyd, John Kelly.

FIFTH INFANTRY.

Charles McCormick, Tracy A. Bristol, William H. McMurtry, Adamı Coons.

SEVENTHI INFANTRY.

Hiram F. Hawver. . EIGIITII INFANTRY.

Charles Dixon, John Williams, Peter Smith, Henry Root, Bennett Smith, llenry C. Smith, William Patri, Hiram Allen, William Murphy, Nelson Hart, Charles E. Dihble.

Wm. C. Wilson.

NINTH INFANTRY.

TENTH INFANTRY.

John Martin, Andrew Hall.

ELEVENTH INFANTRY.

Thomas Quinlan, Frederick Krellmer, Francis Ginnetty, Gustave Krall, James Artit, Joseph Morean, Charles Marian, l'ierro A. Guy.

THIRTEENTHI INFANTRY.

Eugene Davidson, John McGowan, Goorge Roraback, Ilenry S. Wright, Ira A. Davidson, Charles Richmond, Sylvester Titus, James HI. Rorn- back.

FOURTEENTHI INFAFTRY.

John Buckley, John McGarrick.

17th Regt., James Mills, James McDermott ; 20th Regt., L. T. Drum- mond, Charles J. Brent ; 29th Regt., John Watson, l'eter Howard, lleury Johnson, George 11. Green, and John Lepyon. Navy, Charles Dailey. Substitute, John Mahone.

Alvin H. Hart, sergt. Co. 1, 5th Regt. ; pro. to 2d lient. Nov. 1, 1864. Horace N. Ilart, enl. În Co. I, 8th Regt., Sept. 21, 1861 ; mnet. out 1865. John MIlls, sul. at the same time with the above, and died in the wer- vice.

Henry Fieldsen, kliled.

Edwin L. Nickerson, 15th Regt. Thomas A. Smith, James Wilson, and Charles Fairchild.

Charles D. Blinn weot into the service as captain, and returned as colonel.

Lieut. Nettleton died at New Orleans.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

THEODORE S. GOLD.

The Gold family was among the earliest settling in Connecticut. Maj. Nathan Gold came from St. Eil- mondsburg, England, during the reign of Charles I., and was a land-holder in Fairfield in 1649, and in 1653 the purchaser of sixteen separate pieces of land

in that town. He was one of the nineteen petitioners for the charter of Connecticut, granted by Charles II. in 1662, " which petition was signed by no gentleman unless he had sustained a high reputation in England before he came to this country." His only son, Nathan Gold, Jr., succeeded him as member of the Council, and held the office of lieutenant-governor for fifteen years.

Nathan Gold, Jr., married Hannah, daughter of Lieutenant-Governor John Taleott, one of the above- mentioned petitioners. From this union came a numerous family. One son, Rev. Hezekiah Gold, of Stratford (Harvard, 1719), had a large family, mostly daughters, who have had many descendants prominent in the State. One son, Rev. Hezekiah Gold, of Corn- wall (Yale, 1751), came to Cornwall as pastor of the Congregational Church in 1755. He was a farmer as well as minister, and, using his education to good pur- pose, he was called "the best farmer in his parish." His first wife was Sarah, sister of Hon. Theodore Sedgwick. They had four sons,-Thomas (Yale, 1778), a lawyer of Pittsfield, Mass. (a granddaughter was the wife of Henry W. Longfellow); Benjamin, a large farmer in Cornwall, whose descendants were so numerous that, at the death of his wife, they numbered over one hun- dred.

Benjamin Gold was for many years a deacon in the First Congregational Church in Cornwall, and held many offices of trust in the town. Two of his sons, Stephen J. and Job Swift, were successful inventors. Five of his grandsons served in the war of the Re- bellion, viz .:

Edward F. Gold, of Cornwall, son of Benjamin F., captain Company (, Second Connecticut Heavy Ar- tillery.

Henry Martyn Gok, son of 11. Sedgwick, was killed early in the war.

Frank Boudinot, son of Harriet Gold, captain New York Mounted Rifles, died in consequence of his horse falling on him; a bold, dashing officer, much beloved by his men.

Theodore Freelinghuysen Vaill, son of Rev. Herman Vaill and Flora Gold, adjutant Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery, wounded near the close of the war; died of typhoid fever; author of the history of the regiment, and editor of the Winsted Herald. Joseph II. Vaill, his brother, present editor of the Winsted Herald, was an officer in the Eighth Connecticut.

Thomas Ruggles (Yale, 1786), an eminent lawyer of Whitesboro', N. Y. He was prominent in politics, and member of Congress from New York for about twenty years. He had several children, who sustained the good record of the family ; Hezekiah, the youngest son, was a farmer. He married Rachel Wadsworth, granddaughter of James Douglas, one of the original proprietors and first settlers of Cornwall. This branch of the Douglas family has given many honored names to the county. He received by his wife n farm, of the original Douglas land, on "Cream Hill," where they

312

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

settled, to which he added by purchase. ITis grand- son, T. S. Gold, now owns and occupies his estate.

Dr. Samuel Wadsworth (William, 1814), only son of Hezekiah Gold, practiced medicine for twenty-five years in New York State and Goshen, Conn., return- ing to his farm in Cornwall in 1842. In 1845 he, in connection with his son, Theodore S. Gold, established the "Cream Hill Agricultural School." This was successfully conducted for twenty-four years. He was State senator in 1847 and 1859, and Presidential elector in 1857. Dr. Gold was a thorough student of medicine and a successful practitioner. He was a frequent contributor to the medical and other jour- nals of the day. As an educator, he applied to good advantage his professional knowledge and ripe ex- perience. As a farmer, he early recognized the necessity of clearing his fields of rocks for successful agriculture, and in 1823 was the first to attack the great bowlders that crowded Cornwall farms. The horse-rake and mowing-machine (in 1857) were first used in Cornwall on his "Cream Hill" farm. This was an impossibility in the original condition of the fields.

He was persistent in his efforts to promote the social, morał, and educational interests of the com- munity, and lived to see many of his favorite projects realized. Improved roads and substantial school- houses remain as material monuments to his energy and public spirit. He died Sept. 10, 1869, aged seventy-five years.

Theodore Sedgwick, only son of Samuel W. and Phebe (Cleveland) Gold, was born at Madison, N. Y., March 2, 1818. He prepared for college at Goshen Academy, where his father then resided : was gradu- ated from Yale in 1838, and spent three years after graduation as teacher of Goshen and Waterbury Academies, and as student of medicine, botany, and mineralogy at New Haven.

In 1845 the " Cream Hill Agricultural School" was established, and was successfully conducted, until closed in 1866, by Dr. Gold and Theodore. To a family school the household department is of the utmost importance, and a reference to this school would be incomplete without a passing tribute to the memory of Mrs. S. W. and Mrs. T. S. Gold, who by their kind interest for the comfort and welfare of the pupils and their self-sacrificing labors secured the affection of those in their charge,-a remembrance never to be effaced.

On Mr. Gold's farm of about four hundred acres it is probable that more has been done in clearing land from rocks, and in building heavy stone walls, than on any other farm in the State during the occupancy of one person. His favorite work has been the ad- vancement of the general agricultural interests of Connecticut. In 1842 he, with others, formed the "Farmers' Club of West Cornwall." He has been its secretary from the first. He originated the move- ment in 1850 which resulted in the formation, in 1852,

of the " Connecticut State Agricultural Society," and from its organization has held some official position connected therewith. In 1866, at the establishment of the "Connecticut Board of Agriculture," he was chosen its secretary, which position he yet holds. He is also one of the trustees of the " Connecticut Agricul- tural Experiment Station," established in 1877. He was one of the editors of The Homestead, an agri- cultural paper published at Hartford from 1855 to 1861. Mr. Gold has held the office of deacon in the Second Congregational Church of Cornwall since 1872.

In public and private life Mr. Gold has shown untiring energy and ability. By public lectures, newspaper articles, and personal efforts he has kept at work in his favorite department. During the past fifty years the progress of agriculture has been most gratifying, and it is sufficient honor to any man to have been a participator and an efficient aid in this progress. Mr. Gold's "Cream Hill" farm shows this progress as much as any part of the State. The clear- ing and drainage of fields, the planting and care of orchards, the buildings, and, lastly, the roads and roadsides, all tell of industry, intelligent, patient, untiring.

In 1864, Mr. Gold, with the other corporators, pro- cured from the General Assembly a charter for the "Connecticut Soldiers' Orphans' Home." This was located at Mansfield, and hundreds of orphan and destitute children shared its privileges. During the maintenance of the "Home," until 1877, Mr. Gold was its secretary. In 1878, Mr. Gold published a " History of Cornwall," an 8vo of 339 pages. He married, in 1843, Caroline E. Lockwood, of Bridge- port, who died in 1857, by whom he had five dangh- ters. Of these three are now living,-Eleanor Douglas (Mrs. Charles H. Hubbard, of Hartford City, Ind.), Rebecca Cleveland (Mrs. Samuel M. Cornell, of Guil- ford, Conn.), and Caroline Simons. He married for his second wife Mrs. Emma Tracy (Baldwin), also a descendant of the aforementioned John Talcott. Their children are Alice Tracy, Martha Wadsworth, Charles Lockwood, and James Douglas.

Descended from an ancestry of educated and pro- fessional men (though never forsaking the soil, and never forsaking rural pursuits), Mr. Gold in choosing agriculture for a profession has yielded to his inher- ited tastes, and has only kept apace with the times, which now demands for the successful prosecution of agriculture a knowledge more varied and as exact as is required by the so-called "learned professions." When agriculture asserts its demand for educated men, then we shall have an education for the farm equal in breadth to that of any other calling, and then will end the cry, "Why do the boys leave the farm ?"

Punctuality in every engagement, persistent indus- try, and honest purpose to do good work, and to do it well, are leading characteristics of Mr. Gold, and have

Doughty, Photographer, Winsted, Conn.

Geo. Le. Harrison

RESIDENCE OF GEO. C. HARRISON, CORNWALL CONN.

313

CORNWALL.

led to the overcoming of many obstacles, and to a reasonable degree of success in the many duties con- nected with the industrial and moral advancement of the community in which he has been engaged.

THE HARRISON FAMILY.

The family of Harrisons were among the early set- tłers of the town of Cornwall, Conn., and their de- scendants are scattered all over the United States, from Maine to California. We quote the following from T. S. Gold's " History of Cornwall," Conn. :

" The Harrisons in the Hollow are the descendants of two brothers, Daniel and Noah Harrison, who removed into the towa from Brenford, in 1763. Daniel lived on the hill, where the Nettletone have since lived, and he was the father of Daniel, Jr., Joel, and Luther Harrison. Ile died when I was very young, and his was the first burial I ever wit- Dessed. Noah Harrison, the younger brother of Daniel, I remember very well. He was the father of Hemian Harrison, deceased, and of Ed- mund Harrison, still living at a very advanced age .* The old house which Nosh Harrison occupied is still standing, and it looks as it did sixty years ago.t Mr. Harrison and his son Heman occupied the farmi on which their descendants now reside. The father, Noah, was distin- guished for his skill in subduing, taming, and breaking to the yoke wild young cattle. Noah Harrison lived to u good old age. His suo Heman, whom I have mentioned, was distinguished for his quiet, industrious, thrifty habite, and seemed to be a timid, bashful man, very seldom speak- ing when he was in company, and we seldom seen abroad. He died at a comparatively early age.

" Daniel Harrison, the son of Deniel Ilarrison, of whom I have spoken, was a man of marked and positive character, which would make him a leading man in any circle in which he moved. He seemed to have been literally bora to command, and his right to that precedence was always acknowledged by his neighbors.

" Those beering the name have been, with scarcely an exception, free- holders und heads of families, thus becoming closely identified with the prosperity of the community where they have resided, building up happy homes, the secure foundation of the nation. They have been law- abiding citizens, and such has been their regard for law and the righte of others that it is doubted if there has ever been one of tho name in this town, or their descendants, indicted for crime. All of those now residing in Cornwall of the namo (except Myron Harrison, in the Hol- low, who is grandson of Daniel, 2d) are descended from Nonh Harrison, who came to Cornwall from Branford in 1763, in company with Nonh and Edward Rogers, Ilis first purchase of land was a fifty-acre lot, upon which ho built the house now standing near the present residonco of Luman Harrison, where he lived and died in 1823, aged eighty-six. Ile was a man of great resolution, and a great teamster with oxen. It is said that ' the crack of his whip could be heard at a mile's distance.' During the Revolution a troop of dragoon horses were wintered on hle farın, and from the aman in charge Mr. Harrison and others learned to braid those whip-lashes for which the neighborhood was so famous.

" Nouh Harrison married Hannah, sister of Noah and Edward Rogers, and had children,-Edmund, born May I, 1768; Heman and Luman ; and by a second marriage, Hannah, married Ellas Ilart, and Amanda, amrrlod Oliver Barnham Hart.

" Edmund Harrison, as a pupil of Oliver Burohom, developed a taste for mathematical studiee, and became a farmer of more than ordinary In- tolllgence. Ile raled his familly well, both by precept and example; was lemperale in all things; a strict observer of the Sabbath, and of un- blemished moral character, and in public and private Hle bore the title of an honest man. One of his maxims was, ' What Is worthy of thy ro- mark remember, and forget the rest.' His grandson, George C. Harri- son, enjoyed much of the society of his grandfather in his later years, and gives many reminiscences of him. In his eighty-seventh year ho

received injuries from a fall which rendered him comparatively helpless for the remaining eleven years; yet he was always cheerful, and by reading and conversation kept well informed in the knowledge of pass- ing events, even to the close of life, Jan. 4, 1867, aged ninety-eight years, eight months, and four days. His memory held out to the last, sad his apt quotations of poetry, from book and of local origio, enlivened his conversation.

" He married Ruth Hopkins, of Warren, and had the following chil- drea, viz. : Rufus, Noah, Myron, Chandler, Lucretia, Joho R., Hannah, and William H."

JOHN R. HARRISON.

A word in memory of John R. Harrison, who died at Cornwall on the 31st day of August, 1880, in the seventy-third year of his age.

The subject of this sketch was born in Cornwall, Conn., on the 23d day of September, 1807. He was the fifth son of Edmund Harrison, who died Jan. 4, 1867, at the advanced age of ninety-eight years, and grandson of Noah Harrison, who came to this town from Branford, Conn., iu the year 1763, and who lived to the ripe age of eighty-six years.

His early educational advantages were limited, his only opportunities of instruction being those afforded by the common district school of the period. Reared in a large family, whose parents were in moderate cir- cumstances, he early learned to labor, and formed the habits of industry and economy.

Endowed by nature in a marked degree, he pos- sessed a spirit replete with energetic action, and a vigorous physical manhood of prepossessing appear- ance. At the age of nineteen years he entered the world's grand arena of conflict, to do and win in life's great contest, with no other resources but the strength of his arm and the power of his brain. With willing hands, ready to be employed in any honorable occu- pation, for six years he labored, the winter seasons being devoted to teaching and mental improvement.

In March, 1833, he married Miss Eleanor Bradford, of Cornwall, and had the following children : Geo. C., born May 19, 1840; Catharine, born Ang. 1, 1843, married Wm. HI. H. Hewett, and resides in New Haven; Wilbur F., born Aug. 22, 1845; and John B., born Nov. 4, 1848, and resides in Ohio. In the succeeding October he entered into the mercantile business at Cornwall Centre, that being at that time the location of the Cornwall post-office, and the only one in the town, excepting one very near the Goshen town line in Cornwall Hollow (there are now six post-offices in Cornwall). Ile soon became closely identified with the business and interests of the town, and for a period of more than forty years has taken an active part in its councils, meriting the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, being often called by them to offices of responsibility and to the enre of important trusts, both of a private and public nature, having served the town for seventeen years as select- man, thrice as a representative in the General Assem- bly, fifteen years as treasurer of the town deposit fund, about thirty years as justice of the peace, and ns judge of probate for the district of Cornwall six years.

* Mr. Edmund Harrison died in 1866, aged ninety-eight years and four months .- T. S. G.

t The browa house, still standing, but unoccupied, near the residence of Lumian Harrison. It la the oldest house In town .- T. S. G.

314

HISTORY OF LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

As an earnest Christian and member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Cornwall, he nobly honored his profession. He took a very active part in the erection of the present church in 1839, and was the last survivor of the building committee or- ganized for that purpose. In his faithful Christian life, by precept and example, he has been a pillar in the church of his choice all those years, and, like a mother bereft of her children, a bereaved church to- day mourns over its loss.

In a full age, after a long and useful life, he came down to his grave " like a shock of corn fully ripe," not a cloud or a fear dimming his vision, as, sur- rounded by his children and grandchildren, who will long remember his words of parting counsel, he closed his eyes to earth and passed to the unseen world.

The funeral obsequies were attended by a large con- course of relatives and friends on the 2d of September, 1880, at the First Methodist Episcopal church, and on that calm September afternoon, by loving hands, his remains were interred in the quiet, beautiful ceme- tery at Cornwall, where also rest the ashes of his fathers of two preceding generations.

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History of Litchfield county, Connecticut, Part 74

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1532

Author: J.W. Lewis & Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1532