USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 68
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 68
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Upon graduating from the university, he went to the study of law in a lawyer's office in Central Iowa. But in the new country malarial fever was prevalent, and he was soon prostrated by it. He returned to Meriden, when he had sufficiently recovered, and pursued the study of law in the office of D. R. Wright. He was admitted to the bar in 1858. In 1860 he was elected on the republican ticket to the state legislature, to represent his own town, and in that legislature served on the judiciary committee. At the close of 1860 he removed to Chi- cago. But malarial fever again obliged him to return to New Eng- land. Upon recovery he went to New York, and for three years prac- ticed law in partnership with Wesley Gleason. under the firm name of Gleason & Coe.
But repeated attacks of illness of a malarial type, his system having become saturated with the malarial poison, compelled him to abandon
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indoor occupation, and hence at this period he came again to the old homestead and engaged in fruit culture and farming.
In the year 1867 he again represented Meriden in the state legisla- ture. At this session he was made chairman of the finance committee, the committee on contested elections, and by request of parties in in- terest of the committee, to adjust the court house contest between Danbury and Bridgeport. He was also made chairman of the special committee appointed in that year to examine the accounts of the state treasurer, the other members being Henry Keeney, Alfred E. Burr and Robert Buell, all of Hartford.
At that legislature the city charter of Meriden was granted, and by unanimous nomination of the citizens of Meriden of both parties, Mr. Coe was appointed the first judge of the city court. This office he resigned in 1869, to engage in the fertilizer business with the Bradley Fertilizer Company, of Boston. He assumed charge of the Southern department of the business, making Charleston, S. C., his headquarters. He remained sixteen years actively engaged in that business. He was also one of the parties to found the Cleveland Dryer Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, manufacturers of fertilizers.
Mr. Coe several years ago relinquished all active interest in manu- facturing fertilizers, and has since resided upon the homestead farm, employing from 15 to 20 farm hands. It has been his ambition to apply the teachings of science in agriculture to every department of farm work, and for this purpose, as well as for the wider duties of society and citizenship, he has made himself a thorough student and practitioner of the findings of scholarship and experiment. Many of the best books of science, of travel, of scholarly investigation, and also the best periodical literature, are found in his library and on his tables. He is much interested in education, especially in the common schools, for the sake especially of those whose only school advantages are had in them. He is a frequent contributor to the press of the day, writing articles on agricultural and educational topics, and dis- cussing economic and scientific questions. Occasionally he appears on the lecture platform. In politics he was a republican, but since the tariff question has been the chief party issue, he has held an in- dependent position; believing in the teachings of economic and moral science, he is a free trader. He maintains a wide circle of acquaint- ance with the best minds, and has many friends among the best in- formed of the people. The choice gift of a ready memory makes him an interesting conversationalist, and both from books and from society his mind is stored with many-sided knowledge.
The Coe residence is one of the largest and most imposing in the suburbs of Meriden. It is built on rising ground, and is therefore conspicuous from its location, as well as its proportions. And many portions of the farm are visible from its windows. It is built of brown- stone, quarried and faced on the farm, and the inside finish is of but-
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ternut and other woods, also the product of the farm. In this home an hour spent with Mr. Coe is made very enjoyable by the courtesies of the occasion and by the intelligent drift of the conversation.
LEVI E. COE was born in Middlefield, Middlesex county, Conn., June 6th, 1828. Five years later than this date a little boy might have been noticed trudging along the highway and across the fields from his father's house to the district school of Middlefield, more than a mile distant. And only a few years later a "forte" for the last of the three " R's" of old-time designation was noticed in him. He took to mathematics as to a natural element, and while yet a mere boy would tackle and master problems in arithmetic which were far be- yond his years. If the solution should elude his easy grasp, he would pursue it with intense eagerness, nor rest in his search until the shy fugitive was fully within his grasp. From the common arithmetic he advanced quickly to algebra and geometry.
This mathematical boy was Levi Elmore Coe, the fourth child and third son of Levi and Sarah Ward Coe, of Middlefield. Levi E. is the eighth generation of the Coe family in this country. The name has an honorable place in history, so early as the persecutions of Queen Mary of England, in 1555. Then Roger Coe, of Milford, Suffolkshire, suffered martyrdom ; and Fox, the great historian of the martyrs of that period, gives a full account of the trial.
From the Coe family, so distinguished for religious conviction as to have a martyr record, descended the first Coe emigrant to this new world. In 1634, April 10th, in the ship "Francis," John Cutting, mas- ter, Robert Coe, born in Suffolkshire, England, in 1596, and Anna, his wife, born in 1591, with their three sons, sailed from Ipswich. The Massachusetts colony had been founded only six years, and in June, 1634, the ship "Francis" gave up her load to increase the col- ony. Robert Coe settled in Watertown, near Boston, and in Septem- ber of that year was made a freeman of the colony.
But stress of circumstance soon made a wider dispersion of the Massachusetts freemen desirable, and the council granted permission to certain citizens to remove their residence, and found new centers of population along the Connecticut. Families from Watertown, New- town and Dorchester took their march westward, and the Watertown people, among whom was Robert Coe, settled in Wethersfield. But Robert did not remain there long. In 1640 he and a fellow-townsman purchased for themselves and about twenty other planters Rippo- wams, now Stamford, of the New Haven colony, for £33, and com- menced a settlement there. Three years later a new court was established for the new settlement, and Robert Coe was made assist- ant judge.
The three sons of Robert Coe bore respectively the names of John. Robert and Benjamin, and in the line of descent from the second son, Robert, there were in successive generations, John, of Stratford, Conn.,
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who married Mary Hawley; Joseph, David, Eli, Levi and Levi Elmore.
Joseph, representing the fourth generation in this line of descent, married Abigail Robinson and settled in Durham, Conn .; and one of his sons, David Coe, who married Hannah, daughter of Nathan Camp, of Durham, took up his residence in Middlefield, on the spot where since, his son Eli (Squire Coe) built the house in which he afterward lived and died. His wife was Rachel Miller.
Colonel Levi Coe, son of Eli and father of Levi Elmore, was born July 11th, 1788, and married Sarah Ward, a descendant of the Wards and Millers, who were among the early settlers of Middletown, Conn. He won his title of colonel by his efficiency in the state militia. His farm was located in the western part of Middlefield, and his pride in farming and stock raising was equaled only by his pride as a militia man. He took an active interest in all town and church affairs, and bore an enviable reputation in the community. In politics he was a whig until the republican party succeeded to its fame, and with that party he continued until he died.
The two older sons of Colonel Levi Coe, Benjamin W. and Alvin B., were men of sound judgment, whose word had all the binding force of a written obligation upon their consciences. They both represented their town in the Connecticut legislature, and held other important offices. The sister, Aurelia, married Ichabod Miller, of Middlefield.
The subject of this sketch, Levi E., having in his boyhood days formed a fancy for fine stock, continued his interest in agricultural pursuits, and connected himself with the Farmers' Club, the Poultry Association, and was secretary of the Meriden Agricultural Society, and secretary and treasurer of the Connecticut State Agricultural So- ciety. Like most New England farmers' boys, he has been mainly dependent upon his own resources.
When Levi E. became old enough to work on the farm, his sum- mers were spent in farm work, and in the winter he went to school. No days were so stormy as to prevent him from being promptly pres- ent at school. Indeed, he regarded the stormy days as the most val- uable of all days in school life, for then only a few would be in attendance, and the teacher would devote all the time to the few. In this keen appreciation of advantages lay some of the secret of his success in study and in life. The mathematical turn of mind, which was a gift of nature to him, enabled him to appreciate and estimate values, and was developed into a commercial habit for the sake of gain. In boyhood he frequently exchanged a boy's pocket possessions for those of other boys. His father fostered it still more in the gift of sheep, upon the profits of which he was to trade, and then also as a producer of values he picked up walnuts under his grandmother's trees, placing the proceeds in the savings bank, little thinking that in
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after years he would fill the chief offices of a great banking institution for the savings of the people.
His education was continued in academies in Middletown and Durham and Meriden. At eighteen years of age he began teaching school in Middlefield, Conn., boarding around, building his own fires and sweeping the school room, at a stipend of twelve dollars a month. But he soon rose to a wider field and a larger income. He followed teaching in Middlefield and Meriden for seven years, till 1853.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1851 he married Sophia Fidelia Hall, daughter of Harley and Martha Cone Hall, of Middlefield. Harley Hall was the son of Comfort, who was the son of Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph, who was the son of Thomas, who was the son of John, born in England in 1605. This ancestor, John Hall, came to Boston in 1633, and was one of the original proprietors of Wallingford, Conn., in 1669.
Mrs. Sophia Hall Coe was born April 6th, 1829. Levi E. purchased the Doctor Woodruff property on Broad street, Meriden, in 1852, and built a house there, and in the fall of 1853 Mr. and Mrs. Coe moved into their new home. Two sons have been born into their family, but both of them died young.
When Mr. Coe was yet only 25 or 26 years of age, he was entrusted with the settlement of estates. So wisely were they managed that thus early he acquired a marked reputation for handling such trusts. During all of the succeeding years he has been one of the ablest and most exact appraisers of property in Meriden. He has been an ex- tensive dealer in real estate, buying and selling for himself and not on commissions for another. He has owned property on more than fifty of the streets of Meriden.
In July of 1854 he was chosen treasurer of the Meriden Savings Bank, and he has been connected with the bank ever since, either as treasurer, director or president. At the first the assets of the bank were only $25,000, but he has seen them increase in amount until now they are more than two and one half millions. He is now its president, and it is a fact worthy of mention that the bank has never lost so much as a dollar by loans on personal, collateral or real estate security under his supervision.
His political affiliations have been republican. He has served on the state central committee, and has been constantly sought out by his political confrères for counsel and leadership. In 1867 he was appointed clerk of the city court of Meriden, having already been trial justice for a number of years; and in the years 1871-2, by appoint- ment of the general assembly, he was judge of the city court. In 1877 he was again elected judge, and by successive reappointments has held the office until the present time. Of other positions of trust which he has held may be named. town clerk, judge of probate, water commissioner, treasurer of Meriden Park Company, director
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of Meriden National Bank, member of State Board of Agriculture, and trustee for town site entries in Oklahoma City. He is one of the incorporators of the Curtis Home and of the Meriden Hospital, and is identified with several manufacturing and social organizations of the city of Meriden. He is also a past master of Meridian Lodge. F. & A. M., eminent commander of St. Elmo Commandery, K. T., and representative of the Grand Commandery of South Dakota, near the Grand Commandery of Connecticut.
As a boy he was very fond of in-door amusements as well as out. door recreations. He has made a study of checkers, chess and whist. In the first and last of these he is an expert. He has the opinion that whist is the " king of all games," when played by four persons skilled in the science of the game.
By precept and example, Judge Coe has been a steady witness in favor of the sterling virtues or graces of economy, punctuality, tem- perance, cheerfulness, regularity of habits, contentment and conscien- tious discharge of duty. He is firm in his convictions upon all mat- ters, whether religious, moral, social or political. He is frank and outspoken in his opinions, whether or not they accord with those of his associates, and yet he is kindly tolerant of the views of others. He is conservative and independent in his actions, so that he is not always a follower of popular fashions and reform notions which mag- nify one virtue at the expense of others. Of the many cases which have come before his court during the seventeen years of his judge- ship, he has never been charged with giving a decision to favor one or punish another on any ground of favoritism or prejudice.
Judge Coe was brought up a Congregationalist and Mrs. Coe a Methodist, but after removing to Meriden they both became Episco- palians. He has been a liberal contributor to St. Andrew's church, of which he has been for many years a vestryman.
LEMUEL JOHNSON CURTIS was born in Meriden, Conn., January 15th, 1814, and died January 10th, 1888. There is an old book in the Curtis home, on Curtis street, Meriden-a book now prized above every other in that home, not only for its heavenly wisdom, but its tender and long-continued associations. It was a present to Lemuel J. Curtis when himself and wife began their married life in Walling- ford, hardly a year after their marriage. The tenderness and sacred- ness of the memories living now about that old Bible spring chiefly out of two facts : First, it was the gift of his father to him in 1836; and, second, out of that old Bible Mr. Curtis read for family worship morning and evening, until the day of death came, when, in place of the usual Scripture lesson, his granddaughter, Mrs. Robert S. Morris, of Hamilton, Ontario, played and sang a sweet Christian hymn. That old book says, " The good-man is not at home, he is gone a long jour- ney." But though "gone a long journey," and never to return again, Mr. Curtis lives in Meriden, in the grateful esteem and love of its people.
Lg Curtis
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Mr. Curtis, during his young manhood, remained at home with his parents, the old residence being only a few rods from the new house where his last days were spent. Nothing particularly note- worthy happened in his life until his marriage occurred, with Miss Bedotha P. Button. Then began to appear the systematic, prudent and thrifty course of life which ended only in a rounded fullness and perfectness represented by the splendid charity known as "The Curtis Home."
Lemuel J. Curtis was a gentle-natured, conservative, industrious, frugal, honest, religious man. All these qualities were blended in quite equal but large proportions, so that each one was notably con- spicuous. In all business relations and obligations he was exact to a cent, and prompt as the ever recurring sun. Although in the later years of his life he had abundant means for a showy style, he yet maintained much of his early simplicity of tastes, and moved about in business and social circles in entirely unostentatious manner. Noth- ing was more beautiful in him than his sensitive regard to other people's feelings. He would not hurt them, and the greatest hurt to his own feelings would be the hurt of another, if it were supposed he had been the author of it. He earnestly strove so to shape his own conduct and life as to give no offense whatever to any one in anything. And this blameless living grew, no doubt, in part from his deep love for the welfare of other people. In illustration of neigh- borly love, it is noteworthy that he aided in founding nearly all of the principal industries of Meriden. His chief aim in all these busi- ness ventures was not money-making, though the accumulation of wealth for an object which lay near his heart may have held the second place. His chief aim was to help other people to help them- - selves, and he knew of no way of doing this better than to cooperate with other capitalists in the founding of new industries or in the en- largement of those already established. He also cherished a generous pride in the growth of his native city.
Mr. Curtis regarded himself noticeably as not the selfish possessor of his wealth, but as the steward holding funds in trust, and he was under obligations to administer those funds in the ablest, wisest manner, to make those he might help both better and happier.
Bedotha Button Curtis was well chosen to be his companion. There was likeness of early training, likeness of tastes and harmony of opinions. For many years she kept the home in order with her own hands, and in times of great business activity did not shrink from giving to the manufactured goods of the husband those finishing touches which make them attractive to the purchaser. She was born June 9th, 1810, and though now more than 81 years of age and con- fined to the rolling chair in which she moves about the house, she yet delights in the skilful work of the needle. The rooms of her large residence being thrown open, she can go from part to part of the
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house; and, as she may choose, pop corn at the open grate of the fire, or entertain callers to the number of thirty-two per day, as she did on a late birthday.
Within a year after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis moved to Wallingford, Mr. Curtis engaging in business with Mr. Elton, under the style of Curtis & Elton. But they soon returned to Meriden again, and Mr. Curtis entered into partnership with I. C. Lewis, and began the manufacture of Britannia ware. This partnership con- tinued with his life-long friend, Mr. Lewis, only a few years, and was dissolved that he might enter upon business for himself alone, or in company with his brother, Edwin Curtis. He built a new shop on the street bearing his family name and opposite his boyhood home. Again this partnership was dissolved, and on May 10th, 1852, he en- tered into company with W. W. Lyman for the manufacture of hol- low ware. Then, in December, 1852, the Meriden Britannia Company was formed, and Mr. Curtis was one of the founders. Here the ground-work of his large fortune was laid, and he became able to carry out the secret purpose of his heart, to establish a great charity for "orphan and destitute children and aged women."
Mr. Curtis sprang from a religious family. His father, Elisha Curtis, was a churchman from conviction, and held the office of senior warden of St. Andrew's parish of Meriden. His brother, Edwin, fol- lowed the father in the office, and gave proof of his attachment to the church in a legacy of $30,000. Lemuel J. succeeded his brother Edwin as senior warden, and held the office as long as he lived. The inter- ests of the church lay always very near his heart, and in his death the parish of St. Andrews lost a great and beloved friend, whose memory loses none of its preciousness as the years go by, and those who knew him personally live.
The golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Curtis was observed on the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, Christmas eve, 1885. No formal invitations had been issued, but instead a general invitation, sent out through the daily paper, that all who cared to come would be welcome. And the house was filled with guests who came in esteem and love to celebrate the event. Some friends who were present at their marriage fifty years before were present that evening, as Mr. and Mrs. I. C. Lewis and Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Lyman.
But the good life was drawing on to its close, and sensing the coming of the end years before it came, Mr. Curtis began to carry out his cherished purpose of charity to the orphan and the aged woman. He first whispered his purpose to his pastor, Reverend Giles Deshon, rector of St. Andrew's, and sought counsel of him. At a meeting of the vestry at the rectory, and before the project of " The Curtis Home " had been made public, Doctor Deshon began the announce- ment in these words : "I shall never forget ; God has put it into the heart of a dear brother to do something for the unfortunate." And
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then the rector unfolded the proposition of providing a home for aged women and orphan children, and said: "The would-be benefactor" (without mentioning his name) "desired the vestry to take charge of the matter."
Mr. Curtis built " The Curtis Home," which crowns the brow of the elevated parcel of land he had set apart for the purpose in the southern edge of the city of Meriden. It "commands a view of beau- tifully diversified country to the south and west. The building is built of brick, with stone and terra-cotta trimmings, is heated with steam, is furnished with all the modern improvements and can accom- modate about sixty inmates." " The Curtis Home " was incorporated March 19th, 1885, and put in charge of "a body politic," consisting of the " rector, wardens and vestrymen of St. Andrew's parish of Meri- den." Mr. Curtis' modesty in the matter was so pronounced that when the time came for securing an act of incorporation from the Connecticut legislature, it was only after urgent solicitation that he consented to have his name used in the corporate title of the institu- tion. And with the corporate body is associated a board of managers, composed of representatives from the different Christian churches of the city of Meriden. His daughter, Miss Celia J. Curtis, was very fit- tingly elected president of the board.
This wide representation is evidence of the tolerant spirit of the generous founder. The corporate trust was put into the hands of churchmen like the donor himself, for who could know better his spirit and will, and who could carry out more effectively the condi- tions of the trust than they? At the same time all the Christian churches were called in to manage the great charity, as evincing that the heart of the donor embraced all the needy "orphan and destitute children and aged women " in its benevolent love.
The Curtis Home very soon filled up with those for whom it was erected; and while he lived Mr. Curtis gave a generous daily support to it, and in his will, made in 1876, he provided generously, not only for its maintenance at its present size, but for enlargement and growth.
In the founding of this splendid charity, Mr. Curtis had the hearty approval of his wife. In his will he made a variety of legacies pro- viding abundantly for his nearest kin, donating various sums to cer- tain good objects, and then bestowing his residnary estate, of more than $400,000, upon the poor, who, the old Bible, which he had so long cherished, declared, should be always present in society. And now his memory is reaping the blessing which that old book pro- nounced: " Blessed is he that considereth the poor."
To Mr. and Mrs. Curtis were born two children : Celia J. Curtis, the loving companion of her mother, and Mrs. Adelaid A. Parker, who died March 13th, 1869. A granddaughter, Mrs. Robert S. Morris, daughter of Mrs. Parker, lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
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The life and labors and charity of Mr. Curtis are a perpetual benediction to Meriden.
CHARLES HENRY STANLEY DAVIS, M. D., Ph. D., was born in Goshen, Conn., March 2d, 1840. He is the seventh in direct descent from Dolor Davis, who came from Kent, England, in 1634, and was one of the first settlers of Barnstable, Mass. Doctor Davis' father was a physician who practiced his profession in Litchfield and Plymouth, and came to Meriden in 1849. Doctor Davis received his education in the public schools, and was prepared for college under private tutors, but owing to the breaking out of the civil war he gave up the idea of entering college and went to New York, and with Charles H. Thomas, a well known Oriental scholar, opened a book store, dealing principally in philological works. In a back room of this book store the Ameri- can Philological Society was organized, with Reverend Doctor Nathan Brown, who translated the Bible into Assamese, and was afterward engaged in translating the Bible into Japanese, as president, and Doctor Davis as corresponding secretary. Doctor Davis soon sold out his interest in the book store and began the study of medicine, under Doctor William T. Baker, and entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical School. After a course at Bellevue he entered the medical department of the New York University, and when he graduated received not only his diploma, but a certificate of honor signed by Doctors Valen- tine Mott, John W. Draper and the rest of the faculty, in testimony of having passed one of the best examinations, and having pursued a fuller course of study than is usually followed by medical students.
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