History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 177

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 177

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neighbor and friend. The partnership continued until July, 1880, when Mr. Babcock sold his half-in- terest to Mr. Cottrell and retired from the firm.

He has one child, a daughter, Hannah A. He is a Seventh-day Baptist. In politics a Republican. Is a strong believer in and an active worker for prohibi- tion. A man of strong physique and resolute nature, he has been a man of one work,-his business. Public- spirited, energetic, and wide awake, Mr. Babcock is to-day a good representative of the clear-headed, active, successful business men of Stonington.

Stephen Babcock, whose likeness is given here- with, was born in Westerly, R. I., Feb. 27, 1772. He was the fifth son of Christopher, of Westerly, and Mehitable Chalker Babcock, of Saybrook, Conn. His great-grandfather, Daniel, was the son of James Bab- cock, the first white male child born in Westerly, R. I. In his early life he followed the sea for a period, and at one time he read medicine with a physician in Westerly, but gave up the study and became a farmer, teaching school during the winters, and taking charge of a farm at Watch Hill for the owner during the summer months.

His father, with the rest of the family, seven in all, emigrated to New York State, but Stephen remained in New England.

In March, 1801, he married Phebe Burtch, who was born and reared in Stonington, Conn. For a few years after his marriage he rented and improved a farm in Hopkinton, R. I., but on March 4, 1806, he removed with his family-wife and two young chil- dren-to Stonington, Conn., a distance of about ten miles, he and his wife riding upon one horse, with a saddle and pillion, carrying the youngest child before them, while the elder child, Phebe, not quite four years old, rode the entire distance upon a pillion be- hind a friend who drove the second horse. In less than three weeks a third child was born. These three-Phebe, Stephen, and Elias-were their only children who attained to maturity.

From 1806 Mr. Babcock remained a citizen of Stonington during the rest of his life. He was a man of strict integrity, and held a high place in the re- gards of his compeers. In politics he was a Democrat, and always exercised his privileges as a citizen, but attended strictly to his private business, through which he acquired a comfortable competency. His daughter Phebe married Oliver Babcock, of Hopkin- ton, and removed to Rhode Island. His eldest son, Stephen, settled in Simsbury, Conn., where he died in 1856, at the age of fifty-one years, leaving a widow and four children. Elias, the younger son, remained with his father until his death, then sold the farm and removed to Stonington Borough, where he be- came a merchant. He died in March, 1881, aged seventy-five years, leaving a widow and two children, a son and daughter. Both the children are married and settled in Stonington. Mr. Babcock died March 23, 1852, aged eighty years.

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

Trustum Dickins was born on Block Island about 1775. He was a seafaring man. He married Martha Wilcox, and had five sons and five daughters,-Syl- vester, llezekiah, Amos, Trustum, Henry, Martha, Margaret, Susan, Abby, and Hannah. When a young man he removed to Stonington and settled on the Paweatuck River, opposite Lotteryville, where he purchased a tract of land and followed farming in the latter part of his life. He was of a very social nature, of an even temperament, much attached to his fam- ily. He had good health until his death at a very advanced age.

Trustum Dickins, Jr., was born in Stonington, Conn., on the place above spoken of, Nov. 14, 1793. His childhood till he was fourteen years old was passed on the farm. At that age he accompanied his father, who was sailing in the coasting trade and fishing in the Straits of Belle Isle, and when but a young man took command of the sloop "Julia Ann," in the coasting trade. He followed the sea until he was about sixty years of age, and then settled on the place now occupied by his son, Capt. James R. Dickins, on the Pawcatuck River. The remainder of his life was passed in that beautiful location, and here he died, at the hale old age of seventy-six years, April 5, 1870. He married Hannah, daughter of James and Esther (Burdick) Ross, of Westerly, R. I. Their children were Martha (Mrs. Oliver Babcock), James R., Sally F. (Mrs. Nathan Barber), Charles W. (died young), Mary Esther (Mrs. Elias Watrous), Lois B. (Mrs. Hoxie Noyes), Samuel L. (married Margaret, dangh- ter of William T. and Amanda R. Pendleton). In personal characteristics he resembled his father,- quiet, unassuming, and genial. He was a thorough seaman and an able navigator. He was attached to a gunboat for the defense of Stonington when that village was attacked by the British, but was not called into action. In politics he was formerly an " Old- Line" Whig, afterwards a Republican from 1856.

James R. Dickins was born Feb. 29, 1821, on the place where he now resides. Had education at com- mon schools until he was sixteen, when he went on the sea with his father in coasting trade, and to New York, and at nineteen took command of a packet, the sloop "China," running from Westerly to New York City, and for thirty years continued to run as captain in that service, and was very successful finan- cially. When about forty-five years old he retired, and since has nominally been a farmer. He is inde- pendent in politics, but generally votes the Republi- can ticket. He married, Jan. 25, 1860, Phalla M., daughter of Thomas and Mary (Scholfield) Hinckley, of Stonington. Of their three children, two survive, Martha Aun and Hannah Francis.

Mrs. Dickins' mother came from England when six years old, and is now in fair health, physical and mental, in her ninety-fifth year. Her brother, James Scholfield, now lives in Montville, aged ninety-six years, and is now reading Cæsar.

Mr. Diekins is a man of fine social and neighborly qualities, is considered a shrewd and careful business man, has been a director of the Pawcatuck National Bank for several years, and is one of the substantial farmers of this part of the town.

George W. Noyes, eldest child of Thomas and Mary Noyes, was born in Stonington, Conn., Jan. 15, 1800. He married, in 1845, Miss Martha Babcock Noyes, and died March 6, 1849, leaving his wife and one child, a daughter.

A descendant of an old family, his line of ancestry reaches back to the first days of our country.

In 1634, Rev. James Noyes and his younger brother, Nicholas, sons of Rev. William Noyes, came to New England from Wiltshire, England, and settled at Newbury, Mass. Rev. James Noyes (second son of first) came to Stonington about 1670, and to this branch of the family the subject of this sketch be- longed.

The records show a long line of professional men, especially clergymen, who were stanch supporters of civil and religious liberty, Col. Joseph Noyes (grand- father of George), with three of his sons, having served his country in the war of the Revolution.

With such an ancestry it was not strange that Mr. Noyes should have inherited a strong love of right and freedom, and an equally strong hatred of wrong and oppression. He grew to manhood under the care of one of the best and sweetest of mothers, to whom he was always the most loyal and affectionate of sons.

Though possessing literary tastes which were well cultivated, he chose a business life rather than a pro- fession, and established himself in Salem, Conn., about 1828. After two or three years, at the advice and wish of his father, to whom he was strongly attached, he returned to Stonington, and continued his business as a merchant at Pawcatuck, in the eastern part of the town. At the time of his death he had nearly com- pleted his arrangements to enter permanently the manufacturing business.

In the political affairs of the nation he was greatly interested, warmly espousing the anti-slavery cause. In 1844 he was the first and only voter in his town of the Abolition ticket. The next year he was joined by Mr. William Bryant, and after two or three years another gentleman joined them.

At that time the excitement upon slavery ran high, and those who avowed themselves friends of the negro had to withstand much opposition. Lecturers were traversing the country, making earnest appeals for the oppressed African, and to such Mr. Noyes always gave the most liberal hospitality and active sympathy.

The growing evils of the slave system and the dread retribution which its continuance was sure to bring the nation were fully impressed on his mind. His fine sense of right and justice recoiled with horror from the national crime, and he made every effort in his power to assist its overthrow.

Trustum Dickens

Joseph Moyes

THOMAS HINCKLEY.

723

STONINGTON.

Another thing to which Mr. Noyes had a most sincere hatred was intemperance. In an old journal, continued through many years, frequent reference is made to the subject, in which he expresses himself as firmly opposed to the granting of licenses for the selling of intoxicating liquors.

He served his town officially in various ways, al- ways with stern integrity and faithfulness.

His life was just at its prime when, contracting a slight cold, an attack of membranous croup followed, and after two days' illness he died, having but just passed his forty-ninth birthday.

Joseph Noyes .- The subject of this sketch was born Feb. 25, 1793, and was reared to farm-life with his parents, enjoying the advantages of public-school education. During his early manhood he taught school in the winter, and engaged in farming the rest of the year. He married Grace B. Denison, of Ston- ington, Nov. 19, 1818, and together they started on life's journey, following agricultural pursuits. They became the parents of eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, only three of whom are now living, two sons, and one daughter, who is the wife of Richard A. Wheeler. With an interesting family of children around them, they gave to farm-life the added charm of intelligent, social intercourse at home and in society.

Mr. Noyes was a man of upright dealings with his fellow-men ; intelligent, courteous, and honest, he shared largely the confidence of the public, and was elected to various town offices. He was chosen repre- sentative of his native town to the Legislature for the years 1847-48 ; discharged the duties thereof faith- fully and well, honoring himself thereby as well as his constituents. Paternally and maternally Mr. Noyes descended from some of the best families of New England. Paternally from the Rev. James Noyes, the first settled minister of Stonington, whose father, the Rev. James Noyes, was educated at Brazen Nose College, in the University of Oxford, England, and entered the ministry, and for his disinclination to adopt all of Queen Elizabeth's forms was driven to Holland, but subsequently returned to England, and married Sarah, eldest daughter of Mr. Joseph Brown, of Southampton, in 1634, and in March of that year embarked with his brother Nicholas in the ship "Mary and John," of London, for Boston. After his arrival in this country he settled in Newbury, Mass., where his son, our Rev. James, was born, March 11, 1640. His father, William Noyes, was a clergyman, and was instituted rector in the diocese of Salisbury, England, in 1602, which position he re- signed in favor of his brother, Nathan Noyes, in 1620, and was then appointed attorney-general to the king of England.

Maternally from the Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Boston, one of the most distinguished divines of New England, by his third wife, Margaret Borodel, sister of Ann Borodel Denison, of Stonington, from whom

Mr. Noyes descended maternally and paternally. Mr. Noyes died June 12, 1872.

Thomas Hinckley .- In the review of Mr. Hinck- ley's life, which invites our thought, we are carried back to the last century, to the year 1787, the full period embraced by the history of our national Con- stitution. In that generation of long ago he was born and educated, among a peculiar, tried, and worthy people; among plain, frugal, solid, toiling, patriotic farmers, a people quite different from the society of the present times.

Our country had just emerged from the long and exhausting Revolutionary struggle. A national com- merce had not yet sprung up. Manufactures were very few, and all in their infancy. Our people were chiefly agriculturists, and compelled to exercise the utmost economy. Most of them were dependent upon home productions, both in respect to their wardrobes and their tables. The principal capital of those days consisted in the virtues and personal energies of the people. How different in almost all respects the con- ditions and habits of the present day !

In recalling Mr. Hinckley's life, and in estimating his character and influence, there are several points to be noticed. To appreciate his labors and the legacy he has left to his family and the town we must give these points their proper weight.

1. He was of a good family. By this I mean he was of good blood, and inherited a sound constitu- tion, and withal inherited those biases, inclinations, and tastes which are transmissible in blood. It is said in common parlance that "blood will tell ;" so it will, and this is a matter worthy of remembrance. Not without reason, farmers think much of good stock and breed. It were well if a like law of selec- tion gained credence and observance in all human families. In some families there seem to be inherent weaknesses, follies, and vices. In others there are in- herited excellencies and virtues, both of body and of mind. The law of inheritance is a potent one, and often reaches to the third and fourth generation. The good or evil in us lives after us, virtues and vices linger in family veins. "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." In Mr. Hinckley's physical constitution, that stood the wear of eighty- nine years, and in his natural temperament and his habits of thought and conduct we have no insignifi- cant eulogy on his parents and the Puritan stock from which he sprung; and his inherited qualities and tastes were also happily evinced in his wise se- lection of a consort, who survives. him in her ninety- fifth year.

2. He had a sound education. For his times, his culture was broad in extent and excellent in char- acter. In his boyhood our country knew very little of newspapers, magazines, libraries, academies, and colleges; it knew chiefly country school-houses and thinking men and women. Mr. Hinckley, from the famed Connecticut common school and such books

724

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

as were accessible, and the society of educators and public men, secured a mental training and a measure of knowledge superior to that of most of his cotem- poraries, so that he became a famous school-teacher in his day. His proficiency in what were then the higher branches of mathematics qualified him to act largely as a practical surveyor in the township, and many are the metes and bounds of farms and high- ways and lots of land that now testify to his ability and skill, and he continued to thus serve his fellow- townsmen until within a few years of his death. Could we to-day call np the multitude of his old pupils from the old school-houses, we could confi- dently rely upon their verdict as to his virtues as a man and his success as an instructor. The name of Master Hinckley is still pronounced with the greatest respeet. Some light may be thrown upon the general trade and correspondence of this region of country during his early manhood by the fact that he was the agent of the government for twenty years in transporting the weekly mail between New London and Westerly, and that he carried the mail matter in saddle-bags on horseback. His term of office speaks for his fidelity.

3. He was a man of good personal habits. He adopted and maintained through life good rules of thought and good principles of conduct. He was sober, cahn, upright, moral, consistent, and faithful. He governed himself wisely. And Solomon tells us that " he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." Good self-government is one of the highest achievements of man.

Mr. Hinckley governed himself by the soundest and best of rules, as his long life and his success in life fully testify. In this respect he was like a prince, as compared with many around him that bowed to their own vices and became only disgraces in the commu- nity.

Nor was he devoid of public spirit. He was a faithful citizen, holding, first and last, important posi- tions of trust and responsibility in the township. As a counselor, as a conservator of the public peace, as an arbitrator, as a defender of the laws of the land, he held no inferior rank. In the war of 1812 he buckled on his cartridge-box and shouldered his gun and marched manfully to the front as a true patriot. Nor did he return with any stain upon his shield. He was wise enough not to be a lover of party political offices, but he was a lover of the interests of his fellow-men and of his country.

4. He was a man of unwearied industry. He obeyed the ancient law of our race,-by the sweat of his brow he gained his bread, and hence his bread was always sweet, and he knew how to estimate it. He was trained to work when a boy; he never became too proud to work, even when he had acquired wealth ; he worked till within a few days of his death. Through eighty long years he was a worker, a producer, and not a mere consumer. He continually added to

the wholesome wealth of the community, and of the town and of the country. And he taught his chil- dren to walk in the same steps. His house and farm were like the honey-bees' hive,-with the hum there was honey-making; and there was wax for retaining the honey when made.

Pursuing the oldest and most honorable calling among men for sixty-six years on the same farm, it is no wonder that he acquired a competence as well as a good name. He was a reliable director in the Paw- catuck Bank (now national) from its organization until quite recently, when he was succeeded in the directorship by one of his sons. He was a very con- servative and wise director, inasmuch as he had been schooled in carefulness, and was also a large stock- holder.

5. He was a true economist. He was educated in an economical family and in economical times, so that thoughtfulness and prudence were ingrained in his life. He accepted the golden rules of duty and thrift found in the Bible and in the writings of Dr. Franklin. To be convinced of his wisdom and care you had only to look on his fields and meadows, his walls and buildings, his barns and stalls, his stacks and cribs. And that he was felicitously seconded and supported in his forethought and skill by his loving consort you had only to look in and around his home. The dwellers here never lived on the earnings of others.

6. He was an honest man. He was always so in principle, and always so in practice. This is no small praise considering the world we live in and the times upon which we have fallen. Pope was orthodox when he wrote the line,-

" An honest man is the noblest work of God."

7. He held the old-school principles. I mean such doctrines as were established and current in the period of his early manhood; for men rarely change their views and habits after they pass the boundary of middle life. Socially, he was an old-fashioned, plain, unpretending, incorruptible Connecticut farmer. Politically, he was of the Jeffersonian school, and re- mained true to those old Jeffersonian and Jacksonian ideas. If political parties in his day changed their principles, and even their names, he changed not. His political consistency was like the ecclesiastical persistency of the famous and patriotic Mother Bai- ley, of Groton, Conn., who, when the new meeting- house was built on Groton Bank, not having faith in the novel steeple-crowned edifice, with its modern improvements, obtaining the key to the old square, weather-beaten house, and every Sabbath walked out to the lonely, deserted building, unlocked the door, entered her pew, and in thought and heart recalled the holy services of the days of ' auld lang syne.' Re- ligiously Mr. Hinckley held to the Bible, and rested his hopes on the New Testament as he understood it. His theological views were best expressed by his life ; his words were few, but his deeds were many.

O. M Stillman

725

STONINGTON.

He is gathered to his fathers. All his early asso- ciates-Vincents, Browns, Davises, Stateses, Bab- cocks, Gardners, Noyeses, Randalls, Chesebroughs- passed on before him. He now rests from his labors, and his works do follow him. Very tender and sa- cred are the memories that now (1881) throng to the heart of his widow, to the hearts of his sons and daughters, and to the hearts of his grandchildren.

Family Records .- Thomas Hinckley was born in Stonington, Conn., Dec. 6, 1787 ; Mary Scholfield was born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, England, Feb. 3, 1787 ; Thomas Hinckley and Mary Scholfield were married Dec. 9, 1810. Mary Ann Hinckley was born Oct. 9, 1811; Thomas S. Hinckley was born Dec. 22, 1813; John S. Hinckley was born June 30, 1816 ; Charles H. Hinckley was born May 23, 1818; Han- nah M. Hinckley was born Oct. 21, 1820; Phalla M. Hinckley was born Dec. 5, 1822; William R. Hinck- ley was born May 8, 1826; Joseph H. Hinckley was born July 29, 1830. Joseph H. Hinckley died April 3, 1833; Thomas S. Hinckley died Nov. 30, 1853, aged forty years; Thomas Hinckley died Dec. 11, 1876, aged eighty-nine years.

0. M. Stillman .- The first American ancestor of Orsemus M. Stillman was George Stillman, who came from England about 1695, settling with his wife, Re- becca (Smith), first in Hadley, Mass., and in 1704 or 1705 in Wethersfield, Conn. He was born in 1654, married in 1685, and died in 1728, aged seventy-four. He had twelve children. His son, George(2), born 1686, married Deborah Crandall in 1710, was an able physician and a large land-owner. He was an earnest Christian, a Seventli-day Baptist, the first of his name holding that day. He had six children. His son Elisha, born in 1722, married, first, Hannah Rogers, and second, Mary Davis, Jan. 3, 1759, by whom he had nine children. He had a long life of usefulness, and died in 1796. Ethan was the sixth of the nine children, and was born Dec. 27, 1768. He was a gun- smith and machinist. He had large government con- tracts for guns during the war of 1812, by which he lost heavily. He was a loyal, peaceable, and useful citizen, and a prominent member of the Seventh-day Baptist Church. He married Polly Lewis, Mehitable Tefft, and Anna Darrow. He had eight children by his first wife, and three by the second. He died July 4, 1845, much respected and full of years.

Orsemus M. Stillman, so long and intimately con- nected with the interests of Stonington and Westerly, was son of Ethan and Polly (Lewis) Stillman, and was born in Farmington, Conn., Nov. 4, 1801. He learned the trade of machinist with Jacob D. Bab- cock at Cornwall, N. Y. Soon after attaining his majority he went to Unadilla Forks, Otsego Co., N. Y., whither his parents had removed from Bur- lington, Conn., and was employed for a time with Mr. Babcock in fitting up a cotton-factory. Afterwards he had a shop at Leonardsville, N. Y. In 1825 he and Asher M. Babcock, now a resident of Westerly,

R. I., were employed in a machine-shop near San- quoit, Oneida Co., N. Y., and while there Mr. Still- inan invented the well-known self-adjusting "temple," which has done so much to facilitate power-weaving. Having secured letters patent from the United States Patent Office for his invention in 1827, he came to Westerly and began the manufacture of temples in the shop of Deacon William Stillman, where was af- terwards erected the woolen-mill of the Stillman Manufacturing Company. After this Mr. Stillman bought the small factory of Joseph Scofield, on the west side of the Pawcatuck River, at the place now known as "Stillmanville." There he continued the manufacture of temples, and after his invention of the drop-box loom, he also began to manufacture plaid linseys. For about forty years he carried on manufacturing on the same site, extending his works from time to time, until he had a model woolen-mill, giving employment to many people, and turning out some of the very finest woolen goods. Mr. Stillman always took great interest in mechanical inventions and improvements, for several of which he himself obtained patents. Among them were the temple, plaid-weaving loom, steam-engines, hot-air engines, gasometer, etc. We give in connection the following impartial and correct statement by one of Mr. Still- man's townsmen (John E. Weeden), who knew him intimately for more than forty years :

" For more than half a century Mr. Stillman filled a conspicuous posi- tion in the social and religious life of Westerly, and by the exercise of his extraordinary inventive genins and patient labor did more to origi- nate and build up its mechanical and manufacturing business than any one of its many enterprising citizens. His first important invention was the self-adjusting temple, which made a very great improvement in the weaving of cloth. He started a machine-shop, and for several years continued the manufacture of these convenient and useful articles. He then invented the drop-box loom to weave plaids, which at once revolu- tionized that business and made it for years the chief industry of West- erly. One firm alone made about two million yards of plaid linseys a year with these looms. Mr. Stillman engaged largely and successfully also in the making of these goods. Ile was a genius, a mechanic, and a man of sense, attributes very rarely combined in one individual, and is distinguished from most inventors by his ability to make a practical application of his inventions. He was not ambitious, had no desire for notoriety, did not appreciate the importance and value of his own in- ventions. They seemed to be the natural suggestions of his mind for the removal of obstacles in the way of his business. They were much more conspicuous in their effects on the growth and prosperity of West. erly than from any individual display which he made of them or from them.

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 177

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