History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 12

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317


USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 12


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The education of young Hovey was acquired mainly in the common and select schools of the neighbor- hood in which he was reared, and under the super- vision of a private tutor. On the 4th of July, 1836, he commenced the study of law in the office of the Hon. Chauncey F. Cleveland, in his native town, and was admitted to the bar of Windham County in De- cember, 1838. While pursuing his legal studies he also performed the duties of clerk of the Court of Probate for the district of Hampton. In the spring of 1839 he opened an office in the town of Windham, and practiced law in that and the neighboring towns and in the courts of Windham and Tolland Counties two years. He then came to Norwich, where he has ever since resided. From the spring of 1841 till the fall of 1849 he was associated in business with Gen. Cleveland, under the firm-title of Cleveland & Hovey, and practiced in the county of Windham as well as the county of New London. When the bankrupt act of 1841 went into operation he was appointed by the District Court of the United States for the district of Connecticut general assignee in bankruptcy for New London County, and performed the duties of that ap- pointment until the act was repealed, during which time he settled about one hundred and sixty bankrupt estates. In 1842 and 1843 he was executive secretary under Governor Cleveland. At the municipal elec- tion of the city of Norwich in June, 1849, and at three successive annual elections thereafter, he was chosen, without opposition, to the office of senior al- derman of the city, and served in that capacity and, ex officio, as one of the judges of the City Court from the date of his first election until June, 1853. The Uncas Bank was organized at Norwich in 1852, and upon its organization and while it remained a State institution he was its president. When it became a national institution he was also elected to the same


office, and annually thereafter was re-elected until 1873, when he declined another election. In 1850, and annually thereafter till 1854, he received from the General Assembly the appointment of judge of the County Court for New London County, and discharged the duties of the office to the acceptance of the bar and the public during that period.


In 1851-52 he also discharged the duties of judge of the County Court for Windham County about six months, owing to the sickness and death of the Hon. George S. Catlin, the regularly appointed judge for that county. While holding that office he disposed of a large amount of business and heard and decided a great number of important cases; and although many of his rulings and judgments were removed to the Superior Court and Supreme Court of Errors and reviewed by those tribunals, but one of them was ad- judged to be erroneous. After leaving the County Court bench he resumed the practice of his profes- sion, and pursued it actively until Nov. 13, 1876, the last four years as a partner of John M. Thayer, Esq., a young gentleman who studied law in his office and was admitted to the bar in September, 1871. In 1859 he represented the town of Norwich in the General Assembly of the State, receiving a majority of all the votes cast at the election, although the political party which nominated him and of which he was a member was largely in the minority in the town. In 1870 he was chosen by a large majority mayor of the city of Norwich for the term of one year, and while serving in that office prepared a revision of the city charter, with numerous important amendments, which re- ceived the approval of the court, of Common Coun- cil, and the electors of the city, as well as the favor- able consideration of the General Assembly. In 1876 he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court, and still retains its incumbency. As judge of that court he has been called upon by the chief justice to sit upon the Supreme Court of Errors on several occasions, and in some important cases heard upon those occasions he prepared and delivered the opin- ions of the court. Those opinions appear in the 44th, 45th, 46th, and 47th Volumes of Connecticut Reports. Besides the official positions already mentioned, Judge Hovey has been a trustee of the Norwich Saving So- ciety for about thirty years, and of the Chelsea Savings- Bank of Norwich ever since its organization in 1858. He has also been a director of the latter institution for many years, and was its attorney until he took the oath of office as judge of the Superior Court.


On the 24th of December, 1844, he was united in marriage with Lavinia J. Barber, of Simsbury. One | son, Albert Cleveland Hovey, was born of that union, but died at the age of twenty-eight years, on the 16th of October, 1873.


JOHN TURVILL ADAMS was born Sept. 29, 1805, in Demerara, South America. In 1810 his parents came to Norwich, Conn., bringing him with them, and there has passed the greater part of his life. Very soon after


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graduating he engaged in mercantile pursuits in the city of New York, but they not proving to his taste, he soon abandoned them and studied law. He remained in the profession till 1850, when he ceased the practice and has never resumed it. His life has been somewhat of a roving one, he having resided not only in Con- necticut, but in Michigan, New York, and Pennsyl- vania, beside ; visiting South America, the West India Islands, England, Ireland, and the Continent, remain- ing in one instance nearly a year abroad.


He has been twice married, viz .: in 1826, to Miss Hannah Phelps Huntington, who died in 1838, leav- ing a son and daughter; and in 1839, to Mrs. Eliza- beth Dwight, who died in 1865. By her he had no children.


He has lost his children. His son died unmarried. His daughter married Mr. James E. Learned, and left three sons and a daughter. They are living.


The events of his public life are :


He was elected judge of probate in 1835, but held the office only a short time, resigning it to remove to Michigan. He was a representative of Norwich in the Legislature, either in the Senate or House, during the whole of the civil war,-i.e., from 1860 to 1865.


His health has been almost uniformly good. He attends the Episcopal Church, and is not very orthodox.


S. T. HOLBROOK was born in Roxbury, Mass., Sept. 7, 1822. He removed to Hartford in 1838, and studied music with William R. Babcock, and in 1844 com- menced playing the organ at the Second Congrega- tional Church in New London. In 1846 removed to Norwich, and pursued the profession of a music-teacher for a number of years. In 1854 he entered the law- office of Jeremiah Halsey, of Norwich, and after a due course of study was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he was elected judge of the Norwich Probate District, and held the office twelve years. In 1869 he declined to accept a renomination, vacated the office at the end of his twelfth year, and turned his attention solely to the practice of the law. In 1873, as a col- league of the Hon. John T. Wait, he represented the town of Norwich in the Legislature, and was elected by that body judge of the Court of Common Pleas for New London County for one year. In 1876 he again was a member of the Legislature from Norwich. In 1878 the Norwich Probate District again elected him judge of the Probate Court, which office he still holds.


GEORGE PRATT was born in East Weymouth, Mass., Oct. 12, 1832. He received such early education as the public schools of his native town afforded, with such as was derived from diligent and continuous reading. He prepared for college at the Providence Conference Seminary, R. I., and in 1851 entered Wes- leyan University at Middletown. He left that insti- tution in his freshman year, and entered Yale Col- lege in 1853, and subsequently graduated. He studied law with Hon. John T. Wait, and was admitted to the bar in 1859, and in the following year opened an


office in Norwich. He rose rapidly in the profession, and at the time of his death was engaged in most of the causes of importance in Eastern Connecticut. He was devoted to his profession. To a disciplined mind and a comprehensive legal knowledge he added sound judgment, practical tact, and clear discrimination. As an advocate he was earnest, direct, and forcible, and his arguments were always listened to with great at- tention by the court. He was a public-spirited citi- zen, and was several times elected to the Legislature,- once from Salem, where he resided a few years pre- vious to his settling in Norwich, and three times from Norwich. He married Sarah V., daughter of the Hon. Daniel Whittlesey, of Salem. Mr. Pratt died June 4, 1875.


HON. GEORGE WILLARD GODDARD is a son of Maj. Hezekiah Goddard,-paymaster-general of the troops summoned for the defense of New London in the war of 1812 with Great Britain,-and Eunice Rathbone. Hezekiah Goddard was the son of Daniel Goddard, of Shrewsbury, Mass., and Mary Willard, of Grafton, Mass. Daniel Goddard was a lineal de- scendant of William Goddard, who was a son of Sir Edward, of Wiltshire, England, the genealogy of whose family dates back to the time of William the Con- queror. The said William was originally a member of the Royal Company of Grocers in London, and came to this country in 1665. Mary Willard was a lineal descendant of Maj. Simon Willard, who came from England in 1634, and died in Charlestown, Mass., 1676. John Rathbone, of Stonington, was the father of Eunice Rathbone ; he removed to New York City the latter part of the eighteenth century and became a merchant. When in 1812 the government called for subscriptions for its aid in the war with Great Britain, he and his son, John Rathbone, Jr., headed the list of the wealthy and eminent merchants of New York. The mother of Eunice Rathbone was Eunice, daughter of Thomas Wells and Sarah Thomp- son, of Hopkinton City, R. I. The children of Heze- kiah Goddard and Eunice Rathbone were Eunice Rathbone, John Calvin, James Edward, Juliette Rathbone, George Willard, and Sarah Wells, of whom James Edward and George Willard are the only survivors, the latter of whom is the subject of this sketch. He was born in New London, Conn., on the 3d day of July, 1824; attended the schools of New London and Norwich ; was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1845; studied law with Walker & Bristol in New London, then at the Law- School of Yale College, and finished his studies with Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, of Norwich, Conn .; commenced practice of law in 1848, at New London, as partner with Louis Bristol, son of Judge Bristol, of New Haven ; was for several years one of the ex- amining committee of the bar of New London County. In 1848 he was chosen town agent. In 1855 he was appointed clerk of the Court of Probate for district of New London. In 1856 he was elected


·


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


a member of the House of Representatives of the State of Connecticut, and was appointed chairman of the Committee on New Towns and Probate Districts. In 1859, his eyesight failing, he substantially retired from practice ; was judge of probate from July 4, 1864, to July 4, 1867 ; was annually chosen judge of Police and City Court from 1862 to 1865. In 1871 was elected alderman of the city of New London, and was appointed chairman of the Committee on Streets. He was mar- ried on the 22d of January, 1880, to Mary A. Thomas, daughter of the late Jesse B. Thomas, of Chicago, judge of the Superior Court of Illinois. He now re- sides on the Vauxhall farm, in the town of Waterford, near New London, his post-office address still being New London, Conn.


WILLIAM H. POTTER1 was born at Potter Hill, R. I., Aug. 26, 1816. He was the seventh in descent from Vincent Potter, one of the judges who condemned Charles I. of England to death, and the family his- tory has always been full of incidents connected with or consequent upon that event. Large estates on the banks of the Tyne were forfeited, long and perhaps still in litigation, but completely lost to the family.


George Potter was the first to settle on the banks of the Pawcatuck, where is now the village of Potter Hill.


Joseph, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, succeeded to the business as merchant and mill-owner, building the first cotton-mill in that re- gion, and engaging also in some commercial adven- tures in vessels he helped to build and fit for sea.


Col. Henry Potter, the father of William H., was adjutant of the Third Rhode Island Regiment during the war, and held a battalion in readiness to aid the men who fought the battle of Stonington in 1814. He afterwards became colonel of the regiment, and was so skilled in military tactics as to be selected to teach a military school at his home during the latter period of the war, using an unoccupied story of his father's factory for the evolutions of his men. He removed to Waterford, Conn., in 1820, and died at Mystic River, in his son's home, in the autumn of 1864, aged seventy-four. He had enjoyed many of the offices of the town of Waterford,-selectman, justice of the peace, school visitor, and representative in the Legislature. He was a man of abilities, and proved competent for every trust committed to him; was honest and prompt in his business relations, conscien- tious and religious in his life, and has left the legacy of a good name to his posterity.


William H. Potter, his only son, was educated in the common schools of Waterford, and at Dr. Ulysses Dow's grammar school in New London, going thence to Bacon Academy, Colchester, in 1833, graduating as valedictorian of the academy, and from it entering Yale College in 1836. His health and eyesight fail- ing, he was obliged to give up close study, which pre-


vented his graduation in regular course, but he re- ceived the then rare gift from his Alma Mater of the honorary A.M.


He became a teacher soon after leaving college, first teaching in a district school in Waterford, then a select school at Newbury Vale, and in 1840 he be- came principal of the Mystic River graded school, and there married his wife, the daughter of Deacon Elisha Rathbun, a most estimable lady, loved by all who knew her, a faithful wife and mother, and a charming companion, one of six sisters, all of whom married and have raised up families and still reside in that beautiful village in the immediate neighbor- hood of each other, and of a brother. By her he has two daughters, both married, one the wife of S. S. Thresher, Esq., of Norwich, and the other of Horace W. Fish, of the firm of C. Potter, Jr., & Co., of New York, manufacturers of the celebrated Potter Printing Press.


Mr. Potter spent four years teaching in Mississippi, in 1851-55, as principal of the Brandon Academy, where he was regarded as highly successful in his calling. Returning to Connecticut at the end of his four years South, he resumed teaching as principal of the graded school at Mystic River. In 1865, just before the death of President Lincoln, he was appointed by him United States assistant assessor of internal rev- enue, which office he continued to hold until 1869, when he resigned it to become a member of the lower branch of the Legislature. In 1872 he was senator from the Seventh Senatorial District, and in that year, as chairman of the Committee on Education, he had a large share in moulding tlre entire educational code of the State, revising every law pertaining to colleges, academies, common and normal schools. He was said also to be one of the few legislators that was generally at his post, and who kept his own time, refusing any pay for all the time he was absent, in accordance with the intent of the law, as his father, Col. Potter, had scrupulously done before him while a member of the Lower House. The officers who made out the deben- ture bill of the Legislature were not pleased to have one member so particular, making them, as they said, more trouble than all the others, for he would not take nor receipt for his pay till the deduction was made and the bill exactly corresponded with the time he was actually present. It is a small matter, no doubt, but it serves as an illustration of his exactness in all his business relations, and he took great pride in it. In 1872 he was elected by the Legislature a member of the State Board of Education and trustee of the State Normal School, and in 1876 he was re-elected to the same offices, although a large majority of both Houses of the Legislature of that year were of oppo- site politics. His election to these important and responsible positions was not regarded by him as merely complimentary, nor were their duties light, for he made it a point to be present at all the meetings of the board, and bore a part in the discussions and in solv-


1 Contributed by S. S. Thresher, Esq.


Ifm. H. Potter.


thomas m. waller .


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ing practical questions which were constantly coming before it, and he was uniformly present at the Normal School commencements. A practical teacher was needed among the eminent men constituting the board, and his long experience in that position and as school visitor qualified him in an eminent de- gree to supply that need, and made his suggestions of great value to his associates. Dr. Northrop, the excellent secretary of the board, also bore witness to Mr. Potter's faithfulness and usefulness during the eight years of his service as a member. He was elected judge of probate for the district of Groton in 1876, in which office he still continues by repeated re-elections, being also notary public and justice of the peace. He has also held the office of first select- man of the town of Groton.


In politics he was originally a Whig, casting his first vote for Governor W. W. Ellsworth, and at the same time voting for Maj. Thomas W. Williams, of New London, for member of Congress, both of whom were triumphantly elected. At that time in order to be made a freeman it was necessary to be the owner of real estate. He continued to be a member of the Whig party until its final dissolution. He has been a member of the Republican party ever since its organ- ization, and has supported its tickets even when he did not approve of the nominations; but it ought in fairness to be said of him that he has never been so blindly partisan that he could see no good in any one of opposite politics, and the writer, who differs with him politically, freely pays this tribute to his manliness in this regard. So much for secular mat- ters.


Judge Potter professed Christ in 1831, and has been a consistent member of the church since that time, and for more than a third of a century has been deacon in the Union Baptist Church of Mystic River and a teacher in its Sunday-school. He was for twenty years clerk of the Stonington Union Associa- tion, and is now its corresponding secretary. For many years he was statistical secretary of the Baptist State Convention and one of the board of managers, and he is still in the latter office, though unable always to be present. He was also for several years a trustee of the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suf- field, and at one time one of the examining board. He took an active part in the centennial celebration of the massacre on Groton Heights, Sept. 6, 1781.


Judge Potter is still an active business man, being an insurance agent, real estate agent, etc., as well as attending to the business of the Probate Court.


It is perhaps too soon to speak of the character of a man before he has passed away, but certainly the friends of the subject of this sketch have no reason to blush for the character and conduct of the judge in any capacity in which he has been called to act. He takes a generous view of his contemporaries, and hence his favorite motto, "Aut bonum aut nil," which he has framed and conspicuously hung in his office as a


hint to all having occasion to call upon business or socially. In the cause of temperance, of religion, of education and general benevolence he has maintained a position which is certainly marked, and of which his friends may well be proud, and both he and his wife have long been noted for their generous hospi- tality. He has written several historical sketches of churches and communities, some acceptable biograph- ical notes, and some respectable verses that have been printed, and he has been a reporter or correspondent for various papers during the whole period of his life since he attained the age of manhood. Another qual- ification he possesses in a high degree, and that is that of a peace-maker. Many disputes have been brought to a happy settlement and disaffection among brethren removed by his counsel, and being well informed in the principles of the common law, with a mind quick to discern the equities of a case, his opinions have been sought and often prevailed to prevent litigation, and perhaps in this character he is best known.


THOMAS M. WALLER .- There are few, even of the intimate friends of Thomas M. Waller, who know of the eventfnl boyhood which paved the way to one of the most successful and brilliant careers in the later annals of New London County. Mr. Waller is of Irish extraction. Born in New York nearly forty- three years ago, the death of his mother, Mary Arm- strong, of his only and younger brother William, and of his father, Thomas Christopher Armstrong, events which followed each other in the order named, left him, before he had scarcely reached nine years of age, alone in the great city. After this he drifted out into the world, as so many boys had done before hin. The faculty of making and retaining friends, which has been his to such a marked extent in later life, had begun to develop even then ; and when he was thrown upon his own resources he found some one willing to advance him the moderate capital necessary to start him as a newsboy. For some months he cried papers in the lower parts of the city, finding his best cus- tomers in the Tammany Hall of those days, and more than one night, while he was following this life, he pillowed his head on the steps of the old Tribune building. Then he took to sea-life for a time, serving on several fishing-vessels as cabin-boy and cook's mate, among them the "Mount Vernon," of New London, on which he was about to ship to California during the excitement of '49, when the late Robert K. Waller, of that city, became interested in' and adopted him. The name which he now bears was then assumed. The elder Mr. Waller and his wife treated the boy as their own, gave him a good home, the best of care, and the educational advantages that were afforded by the public schools of New London. The kindness they bestowed upon him was always appreciated, and in their declining years he was able in some degree to return it. Before his mother's death he had attended a public school in New York for several years, so that he was well grounded in the


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


three r's, and his progress in the New London schools was rapid. He graduated at the Bartlett High School in the same class with the late Edgar A. Hewitt, who afterwards became known as a most brilliant writer on insurance topics, and Samuel H. Davis, with whom, after his admission to the bar, he formed a partnership. He even then gave promise of the ora- torical powers he has since developed, carrying off the first prize for declamation when his class graduated.


Mr. Waller was admitted to the bar in April, 1861, and soon after enlisted as a private in Company E, Second Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. He was elected fourth sergeant of the company, and went with it to the front, but was honorably discharged from the service before the expiration of his term of enlistment on account of a painful difficulty of the eyes, from which he has suffered to some extent ever since. Returning to New London, he entered upon the practice of his profession, and from the very beginning met with gratifying success. During the past ten years he has occupied a leading position at the bar of this county, and enjoyed a large and lucra- tive practice. As an advocate he has had few equals in this State, and his reputation in this respect has frequently led to his employment in important jury cases in other counties. Since 1875 he has held, by appointment of the judges of the Supreme and Su- perior Courts, the position of attorney for the State for New London County. He has proved a most successful public prosecutor, and his administration has been popular alike with his associates at the bar and with the public. He has been called upon to conduct one of the most important criminal cases that ever occupied the attention of a Connecticut court, -- that of the State vs. Kate Cobb, who was accused of the murder of her husband,-and to assist in another equally important, and even more notori- ous,-that of the State vs. Rev. Herbert H. Hayden, charged with the murder of Mary Stannard. The Cobb case was managed with marked ability, and re- sulted in the conviction of the accused of murder in the second degree. Mr. Waller was assigned by the judges of the Supreme Court to assist in the conduct of the Hayden case, the attorney for the State for New Haven County being disqualified. The assign- ment of itself was a proof of the confidence reposed by the judges of the highest court in his ability and good judgment as a public prosecutor. During this trial Mr. Waller added to the esteem in which he was already held by many of his professional asso- ciates, especially by the readiness and ability which he displayed in arguing the numerous interlocutory questions which arose as to the admission of evidence, some of which were of the greatest importance.




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