History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I, Part 69

Author: Rockey, J. L. (John L.)
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: N. Y. : W. W. Preston
Number of Pages: 966

USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 69
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 69

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After graduating, Doctor Davis attended a course of lectures at the University of Maryland, and another at the Harvard Medical School. In 1865 he succeeded his father in business, and soon built up a large and lucrative practice. In 1872 he went abroad for travel and study, remaining some eight months, visiting nearly all the countries in Europe. More recently he crossed this continent by way of Arizona and New Mexico, sailed up the coast a thousand miles, and returned by way of Puget Sound and the northern states. In 1870, Doctor Davis published a history of Wallingford and Meriden, a work of a thousand pages, and very complete in the genealogies of old Wallingford and Meriden families. He has also written " The Voice as a Musical In- strument," published by Oliver Ditson & Co., and which has had a very large sale; a work "On the Classification and Education of the Feeble- Minded, Imbecile and Idiotic," which has become authority on the subject. For four years Doctor Davis edited the " Index to Periodi- cal Literature," for the American News Company, and also edited the first volume of the "Boston Medical Register." He has contributed largely to the medical and scientific press; many of his articles on the education of feeble-minded children were translated in the Spanish language and published in El Repertorio Medico. For over thirty years Doctor Davis has been a diligent student of Oriental languages and

Chan. H.S. Davis

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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.

literature. He has acquired considerable knowledge of Hebrew, Ar- abic, Assyrian and Egyptian, besides being a good French scholar. For four years he has edited Biblia, a journal devoted to Oriental Archæology, and the organ in this country of the Egypt and Palestine Exploration Funds. This journal is the organ of Egyptologists in this country, and has quite a large circulation in Europe. Doctor Davis was one of the founders of the Meriden Scientific Association, has always been director of its section of Archæology and Ethnology, from the first its recording and corresponding secretary, a position which is no sinecure, as the association exchanges its transactions with over four hundred American and foreign societies. Doctor Davis has been a member of the school board some twenty years, was acting school visitor five years and was chairman of its board six years, and has been a member of the high school committee nine years, and was for some time chairman of the committee. He is also secretary of the board of trustees of the State Reform school. While never greatly interested in politics, he has filled most of the offices in the gift of his townsmen. He was sent to the legislature in 1873, the first demo- cratic representative that Meriden had sent in twenty years. At this session he served as chairman of the committee on education. In 1885 he served as clerk on the same committee, and in 1886 he served on committees on insurance and constitutional amendment. In 1885 he was nominated as judge of probate for the Meriden district, but declined

In 1886 he received the nomination for state senator for the Sixth senatorial district, but was defeated by 32 votes, although in Meriden he ran 200 ahead of the opposing candidate. In 1886 he was elected mayor of the city by a large majority, was reelected in 1887, and declined the nomination in 1888. Doctor Davis is a member of St. Elmo Commandery of Knights Templars, is a 32d degree Mason, and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine; an Odd Fellow, member of the Knights of Pythias, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Forest- ers, and some dozen other benevolent and protective orders. He is also a member of the Societé d' Anthropologie of Paris, the Society of Biblical Archæology of London, the Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain, the International Congress of Orientalists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Ethnological Society, honorary member of the Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Wiscon- sin, Buffalo, Chicago and Minnesota Historical Societies, one of the honorary secretaries for the United States of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and is a member of a number of other medical, literary and scientific societies. Doctor Davis is at present engaged with a well known Egyptologist in preparing for publication a work entitled " Egypt and its Monuments, Illustrative and Descriptive," to contain over one thousand photogravures. Doctor Davis' professional work occupies his time from twelve to fourteen hours a day. All of his other work is simply a relaxation from the laborious duties of a busy physician.

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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.

SETH J. HALL, a descendant of John Hall, who was born in Eng- land in 1605, and who died in Wallingford, Conn., in 1676, was born in Middletown, Westfield Society, September 4th, 1829. He was edu- cated in public and private schools. At an early age he began teach- ing, and for nine years was a successful teacher. Until he was twenty years old he worked on a farm during the summer vacations, and then he came to Meriden and entered the hardware and crockery store of H. W. Curtis, as bookkeeper and salesman, where he remained until 1861. He then started in the flour, grain and feed business, and five years later he formed a partnership with Isaac C. and Jared Lewis, under the firm name of I. C. Lewis & Co., which continued for about two years and a half, when the partnership was dissolved, and since then Mr. Hall has conducted the business himself. adding coal a few years since. By strict attention to business and honest dealing with every one. Mr. Hall has become one of the largest and most suc- cessful dealers in Meriden, and his reputation in business circles is of the highest.

While he has never sought office, he has never refused when re- quested by his fellow-townsmen to serve them. He has been a mem- ber of the city council, selectman four years, chairman of the board of relief two terms, justice of the peace several years, treasurer and trus- tee of Meriden City Hospital, treasurer and trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, also serving on the building committee and board of managers. Mr. Hall served as one of the directors of the Middlesex County Bank several years, when he resigned. He has been with the Meriden City Savings Bank since its organiza- tion, serving as director and loaning committee. Mr. Hall has been identified with church and educational matters, serving in various capacities. He is one of the trustees of the State Reform School. In 1890 he was elected senator for the Sixth senatorial district by a large majority.

Mr. Hall married Lois, daughter of Silas and Esther (Buel) Blakes- lee, of Wallingford, and has four children.

GEORGE E. HOWE was born in Livonia, Livingston county, N. Y., May 31st, 1825. At the age of 14 years his parents removed to Ohio, where he received an academic education at the Western Reserve Seminary. He commenced teaching in the common schools at an early age. Soon his teaching and executive ability were recognized, and he was chosen principal of the Painesville Academy, and still later was made superintendent of the public or Union schools of Painesville. This position he held six years.

In the year 1859 a superintendent was needed for the Ohio Reform School, located at Lancaster, and Ohio's honored governor, Salmon P. Chase, saw in Mr. Howe the qualifications for the responsible position, appointed him to it, and the state senate confirmed the appointment. Mr. Howe has always cherished reverence and fondness for the mem-

If Hall

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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.

ory of his great friend ; first of all because of the great virtues and ability of Governor Chase, and then for the unfailing and hearty co- operation the governor rendered in the application of the " family system " to reformatories.

This is an important date, for in this appointment a new era in the management of reformatory institutions in all the land was ushered in. The change is indicated by the difference in signification of the terms "prison system " and " family system." Hitherto the reform schools of the country were mere prisons, where the medieval meth- ods of discipline were in vogue. They were harsh and brute-like, as though animal force could yield a harvest of virtue. As late as 1872, when Mr. Howe visited the prisons of London, as at Cold Bath Fields, where 1,600 prisoners were confined, he found the tread-wheel and the whipping block to be the sine qua non of penal and reformatory dis- cipline. Or, if not these relics of barbarism, the exhausting labor of the " Red Hill " Reformatory was resorted to, where 300 boys were made to cultivate 300 acres of land with the spade and hoe, no plows being used. But under Mr. Howe's administration of 20 years at Lancaster, the family system was substituted for the prison systein. The discipline of the institution at once became comparatively easy, the morale was elevated, and so efficiently did the new system work, that the institution soon became the pride of the state as a reform- atory for boys of vicious habits or stubborn, incorrigible natures. So often the evil bent of the boy's nature is due to the imbruted conditions in which he has been brought up, that these cannot be changed, nor can he be reformed in them, only as he is taken out of them, and put under a government resembling that of the best Christian families. Then will the better side of the boy's nature be developed. Mr. Howe has the satisfaction of seeing the far-reaching results of the family system in reformatories. If the first ten boys received into the Lancaster Reformatory be taken as illustrations of those far- reaching results, it may be observed that one went through college with honors, two became prominent lawyers, and the others made good citizens.

What, then, is the family system ? Reference is given to a paper prepared by Mr. Howe and read by invitation before the National Conference of Charities and Correction, at Cleveland, Ohio, June 30th, 1880, and published in the 29th annual report of the board of trustees of the Connecticut State Reform School at Meriden, Conn. In brief, the family system is what the name signifies. It is the creation of a pure, fine, well-ordered Christian family life for boys who have never been under such family government; and for this purpose there is the external form, and the internal spirit and management. The ex- ternal form consists in the classification of boys according to age and temperament, and the placing of them in well built cottages, which are free from the suggestions of a prison. These cottages are fur-

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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.

nished like a well ordered home, and are presided over by a Christian gentleman and lady, who, as husband and wife, hold the relation of father and mother toward the youth of the household. Each family is made distinct in its management, but is united with every other, under one central head, " every family having its own school room, dining room, dormitory and play ground," while yet there is one con- gregate department where all assemble, presided over in person by the superintendent of the institution.

The government of the institution, and of each family, is made parental, administered in the spirit of love and confidence. Kindness, honor and mutual trust are made the underlying forces of govern- ment. Physical coercion is used only in extreme and incorrigible cases, and this, when used, is tempered by the humanizing spirit and genius of the best Christian family life.

This system has now so commended itself to the regard of the civil authorities in many states, who have jurisdiction over criminal and truant youths, that it has spread from Lancaster into other states. Indiana was one of the first to follow Ohio, and then the system spread to New Jersey, to Connecticut, to the District of Columbia, to Penn- sylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Mr. Howe had much to do with the establishment of the system in all these states, being appealed to for counsel in the construction of buildings and in the general management. He has furnished plans for the adoption of the system in many states, and has been sought out by committees from states so far away even as Oregon and California.

While holding this position at Lancaster, Ohio, Mr. Howe was in- vited, in 1870, to describe the system before the National Prison Re- form Congress in Cincinnati, and received the hearty approval of the congress, since the system, when once outlined, commends itself to the enlightened judgment of thinking men. In 1872 he attended the International Prison Congress in London, England, and was granted by common consent of the congress, three sessions of twenty minutes each, to speak of the family system applied to reformatories for youth, of its workings, and its results. Hearty applause was given, indicative of the strong and general sympathy awakened for the system. Mr. Howe prolonged his journey in the Old World, visiting the principal cities and noted places of the continent, and notably the celebrated reformatory near Hamburg, the Rauhe Haus, at Horn, Germany, founded by Doctor Wichern, and the military school at Mettray, France. The family system now so prevalent in this country is essen- tially that of Doctor Wichern of Germany. Mr. Howe was the first to give it naturalization and thrift in this country. While in Europe he had conferences with Doctor Wicken, also with Colonel DeMetz, founders of the colony at Mettray, France.

In the year 1878 Mr. Howe was formally invited by the board of trustees of the Connecticut State Reform School, located at Meriden,

JEO. E. HinEn

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Conn., to take charge of that institution. He accepted the invitation, and on the 23d day of April assumed the responsibilities of superin- tendent, with the understanding that the family system should take the place of the old regime. Improvement first appeared in the better dining room and the better food provided for the boys. The follow- ing winter the legislature granted an appropriation for the erection of a cottage and a chapel, seating 500 boys. This was the beginning of · a new era for the school. About two years later two more cottages were built, and later still two more were added, making five cottages in all. The cottages were built to the right and to the left of the congregate department, and each cottage accommodates about fifty boys.

So popular has the reform school of Meriden become that not only are appropriations from the legislature easily obtained, but judges throughout the state, when having criminal or truant boys to sen- tence, do not hesitate to send them to the reform school of Meriden, where the genial, elevating family system of government develops whatever of virtue and manliness is possible in a wayward boy.

Since the 14th of March, 1847, Mr. Howe has had the cooperation and counsel of his excellent wife, for on that date he was married to Frances Milliken, who has been the equal partner of his plans and his successes. To them have been born three sons and a daughter : G. Worth, bookkeeper of the reform school; Frank M., principal of Elm- wood school for boys, Milford, Conn .; Charles C., superintendent of mica mines, at Bristol, N. H .; and Mrs. Clara F. Warner, Coldwater, Mich.

Mr. Howe is one of the foremost citizens of Meriden, taking con- siderable interest in the general growth and welfare of the city; and the people of Meriden appreciate his residence among them, for they consider that his administration of the reforin school has made it a great honor to the town and state.

EMILY J. LEONARD .*- Of the women of Connecticut none, perhaps, deserve wider recognition and honor for their intellectual attainments and their moral worth, than the late Miss Emily J. Leonard, who died in 1884. The daughter of Jonathan Leonard, Jr., and Eliza E. Hodges, she was born in the family homestead in the town of Meriden, August 21st, 1837, and was a direct descendant of James Leonard, of Taun- ton, Mass., who came from England to America early in 1600.

At ten years of age she entered the Young Ladies' Collegiate In- stitute, at New Haven, and at twelve had won prizes for excellence in algebra, trigonometry, Latin, Greek and English composition. Sub- sequently she attended a boarding school at Middletown, and spent some time at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Between the years 1856 and 1861 she taught in Boonesboro and Lyons, Iowa, and at Greenville and Meriden, Conn .; becoming, on September 1st of the * By Miss Georgia Louise Leonard.

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latter year, assistant principal of the high school at Medford, Mass. Professor Cummings, the principal, considered her the most finished lady scholar he ever had teaching under him. While studying French with Professor Bocher, of Harvard, she undertook with him the prep- aration of the American edition of Otto's French Grammar, of which the success has been so great, and herself accomplished the larger share of the labor required. The period spent at Medford embraced the eventful years of the civil war, when Miss Leonard's ardent pat- . riotismn found expression in the offer of her services as a hospital nurse, which, however, were not then needed. Finding Medford in- jurious to her health, she resigned her position in 1866, and became preceptress at Oneida Seminary, Oneida, N. Y., remaining there until July, 1867, when she accepted a better opening in the high school at Worcester, Mass., where her proficiency in French was especially commended. Desiring a school of her own, she took advantage of a favorable opportunity at Winetka, near Chicago, and left Worcester in February, 1870. Three years later she returned east, and became teacher of French and German at Maplewood Institute, Pittsfield, Mass., and in the autumn of 1874 started a private classical school in Meriden.

Interested in the Harvard examinations for women, she passed the "preliminary" examination, and in 1877, in the course of her study, took up the subject of political economy, and, by request, prepared a paper thereon, for presentation before the Woman's Congress, to be held in Cleveland in the fall. This paper, " What is Money ?" met with such wide endorsement that it became the turning point in her life and work, and led to the abandonment of teaching and the devo- tion of her talents to the broader field of literary effort. While pre- paring for the higher of the Harvard examinations-afterward passed with credit-she was fascinated by the wealth of information and charming style of a History of Political Economy in Europe, by Jer- ome Adolphe Blanqui, a professor in the College of France, and shortly thereafter began its translation into English. This work, completed in 1880, was enriched with copious notes and references of her own, and elicited the highest encomiums from many competent critics. It has been eagerly sought for libraries, and is now used as a text book in various schools and colleges. The skill and fidelity with which this difficult task had been performed attracted the attention of John J. Lalor, of Chicago, who was preparing a Cyclopedia of Political Economy, and in 1881 he engaged Miss Leonard to translate for his volumes, and later to edit them, and annotate the articles by English economists.

Of Miss Leonard's lectures and essays there were: " Political Econ- omy," "The Function of Issuing Notes: Considered with Reference to the National Banks," which commanded much attention; "Blue Laws," "Church and State in Connecticut," " Labor Not the Cause of

Emily J. Verward

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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY.

Value," etc., etc. Other papers, including the " Definition of Botani- cal Terms," " Pollen and the Means by which it is Distributed," "Cir- cumnutation," "Stomata and Their Functions," " Dimorphic and Tri- morphic Heterostyled Plants," " Nutrition of Plants," and " Myths and Myth-Makers," were given before the Meriden Scientific Association, of which she was one of the chief organizers and promoters. While director of its botanical department, she prepared a " Catalogue of the Phenogamous and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants Found Grow- ing in Meriden," and at the time of her death had collected, analyzed, pressed and mounted 749 distinct species.

Miss Leonard's active mind and philanthropic heart were keenly alive to the leading questions of the day, and her pen touched them nearly all in a variety of articles, long and short. In no cause did she feel a deeper interest than in that of woman's advancement; and, as a member both of the National and American Woman Suffrage Asso- ciations, she was one of the most earnest and efficient advocates of the political enfranchisement of her sex. She was also a prominent worker in the Association for the Advancement of Women.

The spring of 1884 was full of activity, until her fatal illness began on June 14th. For a month she lingered, full of longing to continue her labors, and when, on July 16th, she died of enlargement of the heart, there was left but the memory of one of those rare natures which make the world wiser and better for their having lived in it. The funeral services, which were very simple, were conducted at her mother's house, by the Reverend Doctor Chapin, pastor of the Univer- salist church, and president of the Meriden Scientific Association, assisted by Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, who made a most appropri- ate and feeling address. Commendatory resolutions were passed by the Scientific Association, which held, on September 8th, a special memorial meeting, when addresses, recalling the thoroughness, amount and value of her work, together with her womanly qualities, were presented by its different members.

In Miss Leonard's untimely death there was lost to the world a strong, earnest, active and useful life. Gifted beyond most women, she yet sank herself in the one desire to add to the welfare and hap- piness of others. An indefatigable worker, slie had accomplished herself in many directions, and was not only a thorough classical scholar, but spoke French and German fluently, read Italian and Spanish, was one of the most expert botanists in the country, could perform upon several musical instruments, and sing, draw and paint.

Painstaking and careful to the smallest particular, much of the great value of her labor was due to this precision of method. Con- scientiousness was the governing principle of her life, and a love of truth, inherited from her Quaker ancestors, forced her outside the beaten paths into those broader fields of investigation, where philos- ophy and science subordinated the ideal to the practical, the abstract

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to the concrete and demonstrable. She could not accept tradition for reason ; authority for fact. The works of Mill, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer and others, gave her insight into inaterial causes, and so pre- sented and emphasized the theory of evolution as to leave it, in her opinion, without successful refutation. For her the world of matter and motion-the concrete universe-became the sensible and the real, and life but their necessary expression; hence she grew away from churches and dogmas, and ceased to concern herself with that which could not be proved by physical methods and the formulas of science. While never denying a future existence, she thought we had no data upon which to base belief. Right life, she considered the truest, noblest incentive to human effort. Happy in doing good, she toiled for principle, as few labor for fame. Braving the censure of the world in defense of what she thought right, she courageously avowed her opinions, no matter how unpopular, and yielded her con- victions only when shown their falsity or error. Her mind, singularly open and ingenuous, had no bias to prevent a just judgment of per- sons, of theories, or of arguments. She possessed a breadth of com- prehension, an intellectual vigor, and a mental grasp rarely equalled. Modest and unassuming, with wide culture, an amiable and buoyant disposition, refined and gentle manners, and a heart stirred to deep and generous sympathies and lofty aspirations, she united all the essentials of an exalted womanhood. Looking for no reward save the approval of her own conscience, forgetful of self, the self she created has outlived her personality in the hearts of those she inspired to greater ends and aims. Enshrined in their memory she lingers

"Like the sweet presence of a good diffused."

As a torch in the night her noble example shines yet in the world of ideas and of deeds, to stimulate other minds to the same high pur- pose, the same untiring zeal, the same mighty effort for the simple good of humankind.

SAXTON BAILEY LITTLE is a descendant of the seventh generation from Thomas Little, who came from Devonshire, England, to Ply- mouth, Mass., in 1630. He was a man of influence and a lawyer. A copy of the family coat of arms is still preserved at the old home- stead in Marshfield, Mass. His ancestral mother was Ann Warren, whose father, Richard Warren, came in the " Mayflower." His wife and five daughters came in the "Fortune" in 1623. They were married in Plymouth in 1633. In 1650 Thomas Little removed to Littletown, now called Sea View, in East Marshfield, Mass. He "took up" several hundred acres of land, bordering on the ocean, and his descendants still occupy the old homestead. Their children were: Thomas, Samuel, Ephraim, Isaac, Hannah, Mercy, Ruth and Patience. He died March 12th, 1671.

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History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume I, Part 69

Author: Rockey, J. L. (John L.) Publication date: 1892 Publisher: N. Y. : W. W. Preston Number of Pages: 966

Author: Rockey, J. L. (John L.)
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: N. Y. : W. W. Preston
Number of Pages: 966