History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 173

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 173

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that time to the present has been in some highly responsible position connected therewith. His first capacity was assistant engineer, in which he was two years. In November, 1837, the road was completed to Stonington, and Mr. Mathews was chosen chief engineer and road-master. During the year 1840 he was for most of the time assistant engineer on the Boston and Albany Railroad, retaining, however, his positions on the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad. From 1840 to 1848 he was acting superin- tendent and master of transportation on same road. In 1848 he was appointed general superintendent, holding that position until his resignation, Nov. 15, 1878, on account of ill health. He was at that time the oldest railroad superintendent of New England. He was immediately appointed chief engineer, and still holds that position. All the engineering done on the road since its opening in 1837 has been done by Mr. Mathews, and the freedom his road has en- joyed from accident is one tribute to the honest effi- cacy of his labor. The following expression of the board of directors of his road is an appropriate testi- mony to his worth from those who in an official char- acter knew him more thoroughly than any others could do :

"In accepting the resignation of Superintendent Mathews, the board of directors of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad Com- pany desire to place upon the minutes of their proceedings a formal ex- pression of their regard iu losing the services of Mr. Mathews as super- intendent, of their regard for him personally, and of their high appre- ciation of the value of his continuous connection with the affairs of the company as engineer and superintendent for over forty years, and there- fore

" Resolved, that although, because of the condition of his health no longer permitting him to attend to its active duties, we are constrained to accept Mr. Mathews' resignation, we do so with much regret, both on account of the cause which compels it and because his withdrawal from the position he has occupied from the infancy of the company will deprive us of a superintendent who combined with his ability and con- scientions attention to duty a knowledge of everything relating to the structure of the road and the growth and management of our business, which it will be almost impossible to find in another.

" Resolved, That Mr. Mathews' present salary, -, be continued to him as chief engineer of the company.

" Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, properly engrossed, be sent to Mr. Mathews by the secretary.

"Signed, J. P. WILLIAMS, Secretary. "NEW YORK, October 31, 1878."

The success of the road is due in a large measure to the watchful interest of Mr. Mathews, and his in- telligent supervision of the affairs of the concern has satisfactorily met the most exacting demands of his employers.

Mr. Mathews married, March 15, 1836, Eliza A., daughter of Garius Smith, of Marlboro', Mass. Her birthplace was Medbury, Mass. They moved to Stonington, Conn., in 1837. Their children are Charles Andrew (now of Providence, R. I.), William Alexander (a postal clerk in the New York and Boston postal service, residing at New London), and George Whistler, of Stonington. In politics Mr. Mathews has always been identified with the Whig and Repub- lican parties, but has not held any civil office. He is

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a member of the Episcopal Church, and was at one time vestryman of Calvary Church, Stonington.

For nearly half a century Mr. Mathews has been a resident of Stonington, and from the high positions he has held he has been among the observed of all observers, yet he is found to-day, as then, the same conscientious, vigilant, honest man, a warm and faith- fitl friend, a genial, social companion, and an efficient and capable hokler of important trusts. He has the satisfaction of knowing that although his life has been an open book, none stand higher than he in the estimation of the community where he has been so long resident, and also that his children occupy a high position in the regards of a large circle of the best people of the country, and are worthily and honorably discharging their several duties in life.

This article, from Hon. E. H. Hazard, in the Provi- dence (R. I.) Journal of May 14, 1873, is not out of place here :

"STONINGTON RAILROAD.

"I often think how little the present generation appreciates its mode of travel and transportation. I saw the first steamboat that ever passed Point Judith, as she slowly steamed around it, and Dr. Weeden, of West- erly, and his brother George, of Shannock, will tell you with what in- terest they watched for her coming while delving on the farm at the Backside. We had the Newport Mercury once a week, and it was ru- mored that such a thing was to be. I soon after went on board of her, and a queer-looking tub she was. My father, who was a practicing phy- sician, came twice a year to Providence to buy medicines, and his boys had their turns to come with him. My turn came in 1822. It took a portion of three days to make the journey. Leaving Sonth Kingston after an early breakfast, we dined at Updike's, in Greenwich, and ar- rived at old Nick Gardner's, near the Merchants' Bank, at early evening; the next day we did the business, and the third day journeyed home. I can leave the same place now at five o'clock in the morning, and reach Montreal at nine the same evening.

" After the business of the day was over, my father said to his neigh- bor, John B. Dockray the elder, 'Let us go down and see this fire-ship,' and I followed on like ' parrus Iulus non passibus acquis.' She was lying on the east side, a long way above Fox Point, at what I have since ascer- tained to be Bishop's wharf. She was the ' Connecticut,' commanded by Capt. Elihu Bunker, an old shipmaster from Nantucket, who had been running her between New Haven and New York before he came here. Many of our older citizens will remember Capt. Bunker. The ' Con- necticut' was about three hundred and fifty tons burthen, and had an engine of from fifty to sixty horse-power. It took, her from sixteen to eighteen hours to go to New York. She left the wharf in Providence at twelve o'clock noon, and arrived at Hell Gate the next morning. Onr much-respected fellow-citizen, Capt. William Comstock, whom every- body in Providence knows, took command of the old 'Fulton' in Janu- ary, 1824, and continued on the Sound for sixteen years, during which time he superintended the building of and commanded the 'Boston,' 'Massachusetts,' and ' Rhode Island.' He had previously commanded a sailing-packet for seventeen years between Providence and New York.

" The steamers afterwards landed for many years at Fox Point, where the eastern passengers were taken in stage-coaches to Boston, and so on to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. I have seen twenty coach- loads leave there at a time. When Congress and the Supreme Court ad- journed, I always went down from college to see Mr. Webster, Judge Story, and the other great men of the nation. Joel Blaisdell, whom many of my readers must remember, was as intimately connected with the line of coaches as were Capt. Bunker and Capt. Comstock with the steambeats. Ile was an excellent business man, and liked a good time. Ile was drowned in Dutch Island Harbor while on a fishing excursion, some five and twenty years ago.

" After the Providence and Boston Railroad was built the steamers landed at India Point. Prior to 1822 most of the travel between Boston, Providence, and New York was by sailing-packets from Providence. The Boston passengers came in coaches to Providence, and took the packets, engaging their passages in advance. The packets were fitted up to accommodate about twenty passengers, but eight or ten was con-

sidered a good freight; and the time occupied was from twenty hours to a week according to the weather. Some went inland, through Hartford and Plainfield. The New London turnpike was built, I think, in 1820, and was considered a great improvement. It was a popular line to New London, where they took steamer. I have seen the coaches many a time in my youth drawn up in front of the tavern in Hopkinton City kept by Joseph Spicer, father of our Alderman Spicer. Such was the mode of travel from Eastern New England to New York up to the fall of 1837, when the Stonington Railroad was opened.

" The people of Rhode Island cannot overestimate the advantages which they have derived from the Stonington Railroad. It has done more than all other public improvements for the advancement of the interests and development of the resources of the State, and we are in- debted for its construction almost wholly to those two good men and public-spirited citizens, the late IIon. Nathan F. Dixon, of Westerly, and Sammel F. Denison, Esq., of Stonington. They conceived the pro- ject, and having rich relations and friends in New York, were enabled to carry it into execution. The charter was applied for, I think, in 1832. The late Ilon. Elisha R. Potter said in the General Assembly, ' Give them the charter, but they can never build the road.' IIe did not live to see it completed. lle died in 1836. It was built in 1835, 1836, and 1837. The engineers were Gen. William Gibbs McNeal and his brother-in-law, Maj. Whistler, two graduates of West Point, and first-rate engineers of the old school. Maj. Whistler went from this road to Russia, where he was employed by the Czar to construct the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow. There is no more thoroughly and well-built railroad in the United States, although it was among the very earliest constructed. No expense was spared in any department. All its bridges and causeways, built nearly forty years ago, stand to-day as firm as when they were put up, master-pieces of masonry. Look at the one in the village of East Greenwich, which forms the passage from the town to the wharves, so situated that it is open to the inspection of everybody. Not one stone in abntment or arch has moved a line in all this period, and this one is a fair sample of all the rest.

" Gen. William Gibbs McNeal was in many respects a very remarkable and extraordinary man. He was in his prime when he built the Ston- ington Railroad, and a more elegant gentleman in person, manners, and address it would be hard to find in this country or in England. He was at this period consulting engineer for many other railroads and public works, and his aggregate yearly salaries amounted to more than that of the President of the United States, and he had with him a most reliable and invaluable assistant, who helped build the road, and has been its Nestor ever since. He is to-day its superintendent.

"A. S. Mathews came here in 1835 from Maryland, where he was born, to join McNeal in the building of this road. He had been his assistant engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad previously. The people of Rhode Island and the whole traveling public can never know the debt of obligation and gratitude they owe this faithful public ser- vant for the preservation of life and limb for the last thirty-six years over this great thoroughfare,-as perfect master of his business, from the building and equipping of the road down to the minutest duties of a brakeman, as was Napoleon of the art of war. By nature cold, phleg- matic, incapable of excitement, firm as a rock, and strictly conscientious, his whole active life, by night and by day, in sunshine and storm, in health, and, I may add, in sickness too, has been given to the security of the lives of the traveling public. I am not writing an obituary now, and know the truth of what I affirm.

"On the first week of November, 1837, the General Assembly held its October session at Kingston, under the old charter. George Rivers and myself were elected clerks of the House. All the members from the north part of the State came to Kingston in their private carriages. I was a student at the time with Mr. Updike, and well remember stand- ing beside him in his office-door and listening to his comments upon the different members as they drove past. I shall never forget with what discriminating praise he directed my attention to James F. Simmons.

"On Saturday, when the General Assembly adjourned, the railroad commenced running for the first time, and I came up to Providence with George Rivers on it. I would he were here now! From that time to the present day I have rode over it almost weekly, and in the summer- time daily. Therefore it is that I claim to know something about the Stonington Railroad, and I challenge contradiction when I affirm that no other road in this country, for this long period of time, or anything like it, has been managed with any more regard for the safety of human life than has the Stonington Railroad."

Deacon Oliver Burrows Grant was born in that part of Stonington now included in North Stoning-

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ton, Oct. 13, 1804, and was the second of four chil- dren, himself and three sisters. His parents were engaged in farming, and were rearing their children to farm-life. But before the son had reached nine years his father died, leaving his family dependent upon the exertions of the son and his mother, who labored together for the family up to his manhood, hiring and successfully improving farms in Lisbon and North Stonington, and by good judgment and wise economy they accumulated a competence.

Fortunately for the son, in childhood and in manhood he was blest with a noble mother of the New England type, whose interest in and affection for him knew no bounds, and well did he requite her devotion by the tenderest ministrations of thoughtful, attentive, loving care, until the sunset signal summoned her away at the age of seventy-eight years. Nothing that he could do was ever left undone that would promote the comfort and happiness of his mother and sisters. Their early bereavement and struggles bound them to each other with bands of steel, broken only by the fell destroyer.

Deacon Grant successfully followed farming until 1839, when he sold out and removed to Stonington Borough, and engaged in the grocery business, which he followed successfully for eleven years. Selling out in 1850, with the design of engaging in business in New York, he was about to remove to the city, when his friends induced him to forego his plans and accept a place in the management of the Stonington Savings-Bank, of which he had been made a corpora- tor by the provisions of the charter.

The bank was organized in 1850, and he was elected one of the directors, and its secretary and treasurer, which offices he held with unquestioned integrity and ability until 1876, when, in honor of the character he had established in the community, he was unani- mously elected president of the bank, which position he has held by successive annual elections until the present time.

For twenty-five years he has been a director in the Ocean and First National Bank of Stonington.

When Capt. Charles P. Williams' failing health induced him to retire from the vice-presidency of this bank, in view of the fidelity and financial ability of Deacon Grant he was elected vice-president thereof, which position he now holds.

In early life Deacon Grant became interested in the subject of religion, and united with the Baptist Church in Preston City, which relation was severed and taken up in the Baptist Church in Stonington Borough when he commenced business here.

Twenty-eight years ago he was chosen deacon of this church, holding that position continuously to the present time, becoming an honored father of the church.

He has held various town offices very acceptably, and was elected representative to the General Assem- bly from Stonington in the year 1845.

Paternally, Deacon Grant descends from Deacon Mathew Grant, who came to this country in 1630, settled first at Dorchester, Mass., removed to Wind- sor, Conn., in 1636, where he became a prominent man, and after a long life of usefulness died Dec. 16, 1681, being the ancestor of Gen. U. S. Grant.

Maternally, Deacon Grant is connected with some of our best Stonington families, viz. : Stanton, Deni- son, Palmer, Miner, Wheeler, Burrows, and Gallup.

Elder Elihu Chesebrough was born March 26, 1769. His first wife was Lydia Chesebrough, to whom he was married March 20, 1791. His second wife was Mary Fish, to whom he was married Oct. 10, 1843.

He was ordained at Stonington, Conn., March 31, 1810, and held the pastorate of the First Baptist Church there for twenty years.

Elder Chesebrough by genealogy and birth belonged to the Congregational order, and up to his conversion recognized that relation. He had, however, under the preaching of Murray and Elnahan Winchester, em- braced the theory of universal salvation, but was ill at ease and soon shaken from his security. His con- version was of the New Light type, strongly marked by the searching power of the law of God in the con- science, by a withering sense of guilt, and by the brooding horrors of a great darkness shutting out the hope of pardon and heaven. But when deliverance came it came with corresponding light and joy and peace. This experience was the inspiration of his ministry. He immediately began to tell how great things God had done for him.

His education was simply such as the common school of that period afforded. He had neither rapidity of thought, readiness of speech, or smooth- ness of utterance, and yet when his soul was stirred with the love of Christ he would preach with an unc- tion and power that made sinners tremble and saints rejoice.

He died April 29, 1868, aged ninety-nine years eleven months and three days,

Rev. Ira Hart was born in Farmington, Bristol So- ciety, Hartford Co., Conn., Sept. 18, 1771. His occu- pation was that of a farmer, but in 1791 he began his preparatory studies for college, under the instruction of his pastor, Rev. Giles H. Cowles, and entered Yale College as sophomore in 1794. He graduated in 1797, and continued his theological studies, which he had commenced while an undergraduate, under the direc- tion of Rev. Timothy Dwight, LL.D., president of the college and pastor of the College Church. He united with that church in 1795, and ever regarded its pastor with reverence and filial affection. In 1798 he was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association, and immediately began his labors as a candidate for settlement at Middlebury, a society of Waterbury, New Haven Co., Conn. In November, 1798, he was ordained pastor of the church and society in that place. When Middlebury Society was consti- tuted a town, in 1807, he delivered an address to the

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freemen on the new relations they had assumed, and their duties in consequence thereof, which was well adapted to the occasion and called forth much com- mendation. Twice during his pastorate he was sent by the Connecticut Missionary Society to labor in the destitute settlements of Northern New York. Here he did much good in breaking up ground and form- ing nuelei of churches, thus facilitating the labors of succeeding missionaries. The church during his ab- sence was supplied by the neighboring ministers. Three revivals of religion occurred during his ministry here, and there were many accessions to the church. A particular account of the first of these revivals was published in Vol. III. of the " Connecticut Evangelical Magazine," and was written by the pastor.

Mr. Hart received the small annual salary of four hundred dollars, which he was obliged to supplement, partly by teaching a public school, but chiefly by fit- ting young men for college or business. Some of his pupils in after-life filled distinguished positions. One of them was Hon. Garrick Mallory, LL.D .; judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; another was Rev. Bennett Tyler, D.D., president of Dartmouth College, at Hanover, N. H.

After a pastorate of ten and a half years,. Mr. Hart . was dismissed by a Council, April, 1809, and received from it high testimonials to his ministerial character and ability. He immediately proceeded to labor among some of the many churches in Eastern Con- necticut which were destitute of a stated ministry. He went first to North Stonington, where the church had been destitute since the death of its last pastor, Rev. Joseph Fish, a period of twenty-eight years. Here he labored successfully for four months, and, at the urgent request of the church and society, would have become their pastor had they been able to give him an adequate salary. He finally accepted a call from the church and society in Stonington, and was installed in December, 1809, as their pastor. Here he labored for twenty years, in season and out of season, instant and prompt to act where duty called him. He was truly a Barnabas, a son of consolation to the sick and afflicted. In these pastoral ministrations but few equaled, none surpassed him. In attending funerals and performing marriage ceremonies he was fre- quently called upon to officiate in the adjacent towns, and especially in North Stonington, his first field of labor. When his brethren in the ministry called for his advice and assistance in circumstances of diffi- culty they were cheerfully given, and often with good effect. He devoted much time to building up the waste places, and was instrumental in the settlement of ministers in Groton, North Stonington, and West Kingston, R. I. During the war of 1812 he was chaplain of the Eighth Regiment of Connecticut Militia, Col. William Randall commanding, perform- ing the duties of his office acceptably to both officers and soldiers. When Commodore Hardy attacked Stonington Borough, Aug. 10, 1814, and allowed the

non-combatants one hour to leave their homes, there was much crying and lamentation among the women and children, the greater part of whom took up their temporary abode at and near the residence of Mrs. Jo- seph Phelps, one mile distant. Mr. Hart spoke words of comfort to these mourners, held meetings for prayer with them, and succeeded in some measure in allaying their fears.

As his salary, from the pressure of the times, had been much diminished, he was obliged, as at Middle- bury, to eke out a support by teaching. He was pre- ceptor of Stonington Academy for about nine years, during which time he had many young gentlemen and ladies as his pupils from Stonington and the ad- joining towns. Besides these, he had a few young men to prepare for college under his direction. As a preacher he was earnest and popular; his mind was active and ready, no exigency finding him unprepared with thoughts and language adapted to the occasion. Many of his extempore efforts were as good as his best-prepared discourses.

He married, December, 1798, Miss Maria Sherman, of New Haven, Conn., a daughter of Mr. John Sher- man, merchant in that city, and granddaughter of Hon. Roger Sherman, of Revolutionary fame. They had five children, the sole survivor of whom is the eldest.1 His second son, Charles Theodore Hart, died Oct. 13, 1819, while a member of the sophomore class, Yale College. He was a pious youth of great promise. The health of Mr. Hart, which, through his very arduous and exhausting labors, had been gradually failing for some years, at length completely broke down, and he passed from earth Oct. 29, 1829, aged fifty-eight years. "The memory of the just is blessed."

Capt. Nathaniel Brown Palmer was born in Ston- ington, Conn., Aug. 7, 1799. On both his father's and his mother's side he came from a distinguished ances- try, the one being a descendant in direct line of Wal- ter Palmer, one of the original settlers of Stonington, and the other of Capt. George Denison, a man of emi- nence and wealth in the earlier colonial period. At the time of his birth his family was one of much con- sequence in the town. His grandfather's only brother fell at the battle of Groton Heights, in Fort Gris- wold, in 1781. His own father was a lawyer and a merchant, and a man of ability. On his mother's side his connections were numerous and influential. Under these circumstances, as the eldest son, the choice of the gentler professions of civil life lay open to him. But born and bred as he was on the shore of the ocean, and in constant association with the bold and adventurous seamen of that day, its mysterious charm possessed him, and decided his remarkable career.

When only fourteen years of age he shipped on a coasting vessel, and what is called in common phrase his education (which had been limited to the common

1 David S. Hart, M.D., A.M., writer of this memoir.

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schools of the town) was ended so far as books go. He continued in the coasting trade, along the New England coast from Maine to New York, till he was eighteen, when he was made second mate of the brig " Herselia," bound to Cape Horn for seals.

It was a period of great competition in these fish- eries. Stonington, New London, New Bedford, and Nantucket were rival ports, and the skill and daring of a race of pre-eminently daring and skillful men were constantly called upon and pitted against each other in their pursuit. It was, too, a period of ro- mance and mystery. Little was known of the seas south of Cape Horn, and a sealing voyage was also a voyage of discovery. In all the ports mentioned there were rumors of mythical islands east of the Horn called the Auroras; the air was filled with sailors' stories of Southern wonders; and although little was actually known, hardly any tale of those marvelous seas, where nature seemed to have ex- pended its forces in currents and storms, was too in- credible for belief.

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 173

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

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