History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 56

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 56


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Of all the noble hearts beating for the honor of our flag and volunteering for its defense from New Lon- don we would gladly speak, but that would be im- possible. We mention but a few of the officers who gallantly fell at the post of duty.


Lieut. William W. Perkins was one of the earliest and most ardent volunteers from New London. After establishing an enviable reputation for bravery and gallant conduct during several severely fought battles, he fell at Kinston, N. C., at the head of his company, cheering his soldiers on to victory.2 His brother, Lieut. Benjamin R. Perkins, was among the first to volunteer in the service. He served with gallantry during the entire war; was engaged in more than thirty battles. After the close of hostilities he was transferred to the regular army, and died some years since at one of the military stations of Arizona.


Capt. Edw. L. Porter was a young man of more than ordinary ability and great promise. He was killed at the battle of Winchester while gallantly leading


] " DEPARTURE OF VOLUNTEERS .- The third company of New London volunteers departed for Hartford to join their regiment on the 29th ult. They were escorted by the City Guards to the depot, where before leaving they were drawn up in line near the flag-staff to listen to addresses. Speeches were made by Messrs. Edward Prentis, A. C. Lippitt, Thomas Fitch, and Rev. Mr. Guiscard, of the Second Baptist Church. Rev. Mr. Grant, of the Huntington Street Baptist Church, closed the exercises with prayer. There was a large gathering of people in the neighbor- hood of the depot to see the volunteers off, notwithstanding the unfavor- able condition of the weather. This company consists of a fine-looking hody of young men, who will doubtless give a good account of themselves should occasion offer. They were enthusiastically cheered by the hun- drede who witnessed their departure. God bless them and speed them on to the rescue of our country's flag from ignominy and shame !"- Family Repository for June, 1861.


2 The New London Star said of him, "It is seldom that we are called upon to mourn a firmer patriot, a braver soldier, or a truer or more genial friend than Lieut. Perkins. He sprang to arms with alacrity at the first call of his country, and established an enviable reputation in five hotly-contested battles, in the last of which he fell where a soldier would choose to fall, leading the advance, and expired amid the rattling volleys of his regiment and the loud cheers of victory."


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his men in a charge against the superior forces of the enemy. A fatal bullet pierced his temples and he fell, sealing with his blood his devotion to his govern- ment. He was a graduate of Yale, a young man of fine literary taste and attainments. He had adopted the practice of law with a flattering promise of dis- tinction in his profession. No nobler or purer heart ever animated a brave soldier. Surgeon Holbrook said of him, " At my suggestion he went to the hos- pital three days before the battle, being very feeble. I visited him the day previous and found him still very weak, and was surprised to find him at the head of his company. An officer informed me that he seemed possessed of superhuman energy in the battle, and gallantly led his men in the charge, when he was struck by a bullet in the forehead and died almost instantly. He left a bright record of honorable man- liness. Dignified and gentlemanly, always prompt in the conscientious discharge of his duty, he attested by his death the sincerity of his patriotism, and sealed with his blood his love of liberty."


Lieut. Joseph Strickland was another of New Lon- don's martyr-heroes. He was devotedly a brave and patriotic soldier. He had assisted greatly in recruit- ing Company I, of which he became first lieutenant. Col. Sprague, of the Port Hudson charge, who knew him well and could attest to his noble courage, said ยท of him, "Of the many gallant officers that there fell there was none more fearless or deeply mourned than Lieut. Strickland." He fell at Port Hudson while gallantly charging the enemy.


Capt. Horace F. Quinn, after three years of faithful service, was killed at the battle of Deep Run. He had served as a private through the three months' campaign. On the organization of the Tenth he joined it as first lieutenant of Company H, under Capt. Leggett. " Although young in years," said Col. Greeley, "he was a veteran soldier; twenty years of age at his death, he had seen more than three years of active service. No more brave or daring officer ever led a company than Capt. Quinn."


Maj .- Gen. Joseph A. Mower was born in Vermont, and by trade a mechanic. He had served gallantly in the Mexican war and was settled in New London. Having been commissioned by President Pierce as second lieutenant in the regular army, he re-entered the service, and at the time of the outbreak of the war was in Texas under Twiggs. He patriotically resisted the order to surrender his men to the rebels, and made his way with them to the North. He was in the opening battle of the war in Kentucky and Tennessee, and prominent in the capture of Island No. 10, and active at the capture of Corinth. He was appointed brigadier-general, and was with Gen. A. J. Smith in the Red River expedition, and fought and flanked the enemy, resulting in the capture of Chattanooga and Atlanta.1


1 "Few officers in the service," says a late writer, " have distinguished themselves like Mower, for while there may be some who possess more


The brave Robert Leggett may be regarded as one of the gallant spirits of New London, although not a native of the town. He was one of the most ener- getic promoters of the Union cause in the place, and never flagged for a moment in his patriotic efforts. He was one of the earliest and most active volunteers in the struggle, and brave almost to a fault. He re- ceived a gold medal for gallant service as sergeant, was promoted to the office of major, succeeded by that of lieutenant-colonel, lost his leg at Wagner, and afterwards fought bravely in numerous battles, and was finally compelled to resign his commission from disability ; was one of the heroes of the war, and his gallantry was highly extolled by all who knew him. His honored remains peacefully rest beneath the ever- greens of our cemetery, and his commissions, sword, and belt have been appropriately placed in the rooms of the Historical Society.


Capt. George H. Brown was another brave soldier. He was severely wounded at Deep Run, but survived, and afterwards was killed at the head of his company before Petersburg. He left an honorable record for bravery in the service.


As in the Revolution and the war of 1812, so in the war against the government and the banner of our country New London gallantly bore her part in our naval affairs during its continuance. In many of the conflicts that reddened our Southern waters with the blood of the noble defenders of the Union the brave sons of New London largely shared. The Rodgers family of this town, one of whom has previously been referred to, particularly might be named as conspicu- ous. "The paternal grandfather was Col. Rodgers, who commanded the famous Maryland line during the Revolution, and was frequently mentioned in Washington's dispatches for gallantry. His eldest son was Commodore John Rodgers, who fired the first gun in the war of 1812, and was long the senior officer of our infant navy. Another son was Commodore George W. Rodgers, who for special gallantry during the war of 1812 received a sword of honor from his native State, and a medal and a vote of thanks from Congress. Commodore John Rodgers had two sons, one of whom, John Rodgers, also became commodore, and led the attack on Port Royal and Fort Sumter during the Rebellion ; and another, Col. Robert Rod- gers, served through the late war, and was twice wounded at the head of the Third Maryland In- fantry. Two other grandsons of Commodore John Rodgers were Capt. Raymond Rodgers, who was fleet- captain during Dupont's attack on Charleston, and Capt. George W. Rodgers, who was killed while com- manding the monitor "Catskill" in the attack on Fort Wagner. In the family are also Lieut .- Com- manding Frederick Rodgers, Master's Mate Joseph Rodgers, Midshipman R. P. Rodgers, and Lieut. Alex-


military genius, none are more absolutely indifferent to personal danger than he." He was a favorite of Gen. Sherman, and had few enemies. He died in the regular service at New Orleans in 1869.


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


ander P. Rodgers, who fell in the forlorn hope at the storming of Chapultepec, who was a nephew of Col. Rodgers. One of the three illustrious Commodore Perrys married into the family, and there is probably not another name in America that will compare with that of Perry or Rodgers for the fame won on land and sea in defense of the republic."1


To the late Richard H. Chappell, of New London, was committed the charge of the novel expedient of closing temporarily the ports of Charleston and Sa- vannah, from whom principally the enemy's swift blockade-running cruisers sallied forth and plied their nefarious trade of attacking, plundering, and destroy- ing any merchant vessels that might come in their way. The first order was for twenty-five vessels of from two hundred to four hundred tons cach. Before these were loaded twenty more were ordered, making a fleet of forty-five sail, to be dispatched at once. These were purchased, and the first fleet of twenty- five sailed for their respective ports Nov. 21, 1861, while the second fleet of twenty followed on the 11th of December. Thirteen of these went from New Lon- don, the commodore for the cruise being the veteran Capt. John P. Rice," well known as a competent ship- master. One or two of the fleet put back from acci- dent, but nearly all were delivered to the naval com- manders off Charleston and Savannah. A majority were used as at first designed, and, with their masts cut away, were for a time ugly customers for the keel of a blockade-runner to encounter as she tried to dodge in or out on a dark night. Some were used by the Navy Department as store-vessels in various places, others constituted the foundation for tempo- rary wharves at Port Royal or in the inlets where our navy was employed; not one, it is believed, "lived" to return. Mr. Chappell's account of dis- bursements was accepted by the government and set- tled at once, and he was thanked for the promptness, integrity, and efficiency he had displayed.


CHAPTER XVIII. NEW LONDON-(Continued). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.


Hon. Henry P. Haven .- Henry Philemon Haven3 was born in Norwich Town, Conn., Feb. 11, 1815. The house stands a quarter of a mile from the First Congregational church, which was organized in 1660. In his veins ran the blood of a Puritan ancestry. His father, Philemon Haven, was the grandson of the minister at Wrentham, Mass. Large, portly, hand- some, affable, and generous, he was the plain progen- itor of one side of the character of his remarkable son. Mrs. Fanny Manwaring (Caulkins) Haven,


Henry's mother, impressed herself no less unmistak- ably on the other side. Left a widow for the second time in 1819, the woman of forty-three moulded the boy of four in her own likeness. From her he drew energy, industry, purity, intelligence, inventiveness, domesticity, patriotism, and piety. Under her wing Henry learned how to work. She led him to the font, taught him to sew, kept him indoors after dark, cherished his affection for his little sister. The boy was encouraged to study. He founded a juvenile anti-swearing society. On his brother Robert's leav- ing home at fifteen, Henry, then eight years old, was ready to keep the garden, already planted. Habits of early rising and unvarying truthfulness became fixed. His teachers at public and select school saw in him a determination to do his best. In rain and shine he was a punctual attendant on the Sunday-school. Thus the course of the boy's Norwich life glided ou fifteen bright years in a frugal home, and every ripple of it beat with his father's sweetness and his mother's force.


In 1830, Mrs. Haven moved to New London. The immediate canse was the appointment of her daugh- ter, Miss Frances Manwaring Caulkins, to be princi- pal of the female academy in that city. Henry at first bemoaned the change. Talking with Robert, who had now ended his Stonington life, he said he didn't know anybody and was homesick. When the boat took the elder brother off he looked back and saw Henry sitting on the wharf crying! Would he have wept could he have known that he was to fit his own vessels from that very wharf as a man? He must soon have brushed away his tears at least. Maj. Thomas W. Williams was a prominent and philanthropic merchant in New London. Why not apply to him for a place? Without consulting even his mother, he rings the bell and asks if Maj. Williams wants a boy. "No, no; I don't want any boy," is the gruff answer. He turns to go. His face pleads for him. "Stop! What is your name? Where do you live? Come to the office to-morrow and see if you can find anything to do," is the beginning of his bril- liant life in a great whaling-house known all over the world. Ninety dollars was to be his wages the first year. For about one dollar and seventy-five cents a week, or thirty cents a day, Henry made himself so useful he could not be spared. In less than three years, on the book-keeper's resignation, the lad of eighteen applied for the place. " You are too young." "Try me." And the stout-hearted youth did boy's and book-keeper's work together, staying at the store till two A.M. on one occasion and returning at four A.M., till the yearly balance-sheet in January was drawn more easily than ever before. Such ardor and fidelity won. Book-keeper at eighteen, he became confidential clerk at twenty-one, with a salary of five hundred dollars. His Christian employer does not trust him less because he chooses Christian young men for his comrades, and adds to his method,


1 Military and Civil Illstory of Connecticut, p. 814.


? Since deceased.


3 Bly Rev. J. P. Taylor.


C


Very sincerely Henry- Haven


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thoroughness, and probity a public confession of Christ in the Second Congregational Church in June, 1835.


In 1838, at the age of twenty-three, Mr. Haven be- came a partner where eight years before he had begun a boy. Maj. Williams' subsequent service in Con- gress withdrew his own name from the firm. In 1846 the name ceased to be Haven & Smith and became Williams & Haven, and then Williams, Haven & Co. For nearly forty years the subject of this sketch showed here the qualities of a rare man of affairs. The clerks in his office might think him des- potic, but he knew that obedience was the secret of order. Customers might call him hard in bargain- ing, but he had it for a principle to save that which was least in trade. Acquaintances were sometimes offended at his curt manner when interrupted in his correspondence, but it was the concentration of a strong mind in one channel which wrought out his dispatch. His vast business was pigeon-holed in his brain. Now he was inventive, sending out the first steam-whaler, and from one such voyage, with an outfit of forty thousand dollars, secured after fifteen months a cargo of oil and bone valued at one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. Then he was enter- prising, establishing a colony of Kanakas at the guano islands in the West Pacific, and opening Eu- ropean as well as American markets, till seventy thousand tons had been shipped. Yet again he was singularly alert and sagacious. In midwinter, the moment the telegram came that Alaska was ceded, he hurried his able and trusty partner, Mr. R. H. Chapell, with an experienced and valued captain, Ebenezer Morgan, to Honolulu, pushing on and out to St. Paul's Island to raise the first American flag and ship forty-five thousand seal-skins to England. In one part of the world he manifested great caution and thoroughness, as in the charts he had drawn of Kerguelen's Land, which enabled the government ex- pedition to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. In another part of the world he displayed great breadth and liberality, as in the standing orders to his whaling captains to take up and set down the Arctic explorers at any point desired by them, and to supply them freely with any stores they needed.


In all the departments of his world-wide ventures Mr. Haven was the master not the slave of business. He had a keen insight into men, and moulded many a captain and sailor for great explorations. He could unbend from the most perplexing negotiations for a chat with a pastor. He could bear losses smilingly. He could scatter gains munificently. With a physique more robust in mid-life than the promise of youth, and a passion for system and toil, he carried others' burdens without chafing. He was a bank director aud president who looked at the books. He was an administrator of estates requiring exceptional ability. He was president of the New London Northern Rail- road Company when a less clear-headed and strong-


willed executive might have wrecked it. The young men he trained for mercantile life admired his ease no less than his energy. His executor tells the writer that in all the questions arising since his death never has the paper, or letter, or note been wanting to make everything clear. In him were blended precision and grasp, a poised judgment and a boundless energy seen only in the merchant princes of mankind. The metropolitan bankers and merchants were amazed to find so large a man in so small a town. He had a philosophy of business which was as deep as its lines were wide, its methods swift, and its spirit just.


Feb. 23, 1840, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Haven married Miss Elizabeth Lucas Douglas, of Waterford. Already his mother, after several years' absence in Norwich, had returned to New London, and beneath her roof the young couple began their married life. The 30th of April, 1842, Elizabeth, his youngest sister, and the school-girl friend of his wife at Mount Holy- oke, died of consumption. That year of sorrow saw also its own joy. Before it ended Mr. Haven was living in his own home, where wife and mother and ' his two half-sisters, the Misses Caulkins, had each their own niche. Here four children were born to him. Here for eighteen years Mr. Richard H. Cha- pell, afterwards his partner, came and went like a son. No one ever forgot that charmed circle. Punctuality and geniality reigned supreme. The broad face beamed as the verses were recited by each member round the breakfast-table. The hearty laugh rang out at the clerical or denominational sparring in the drawing-room. He brought sunshine with his en- trance, with flowers for his mother, with books for his sister, with a picnic for the little folks, with a drive for his beloved wife. The winning tones of his voice made him a delightful talker on a wide range of topics. Thus he refreshed his sympathetic nature after toil at a fountain of love. Men were drawn to him by his patient and tender affectionateness, his provision for intellectual life, his reverence for age, his fellowship with youth irradiating and sanctifying his home. Shadows fell there. The death of his mother, 1854, of his accomplished and lamented half- sister in 1869, of his eldest son, Thomas, in 1870, in the morning glow of manly and mercantile partner- ship, of his incomparable wife, fading like the leaf in 1874, spite of care and tears, and, scarcely outside his door, of his partners, senior and junior, and his son-in-law, mellowed with a sunset hue the light they could not quench.


Mr. Haven seldom spoke of his own meagre school advantages, but he did everything that poor children might have better ones. From 1856 till the day of his death he was the chairman of the New London Board of Visitors. In that capacity he at once secured new text-books and more stringent rules for attendance than were known in the former unconsolidated schools. He founded evening schools for those who could not be present at the day schools. He had sole


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


charge of the examination of teachers. If an appli- cant was not punctual at the appointed hour, no ex- cuse could induce him to rob another of the ensuing hour fixed in his diary. What was his recreation ? " Visiting schools" says his executor, to whom I have referred. A more regular and conscientious visitor there could not be. His mathematical questions stimu- lated the minds of the pupils. His genial stories swayed their manners in the direction of courtesy. What many parents neglect-plain lessons on boyish purity -he attended to with individual scholars in private. At declamation and graduation exercises he was wont to mark each participant. To his rigor at examina- tion he added sympathy for teachers in their work. He honored their calling as a noble onc, and they learned to honor it after him. It was his custom to welcome them as a body under his hospitable roof, to meet his colleagues in the city and on the State Board of Education once a year. There the faculty of the State Normal School, of which he was from the first a most efficient trustee and friend, and other distin- guished educators were brought in elevating and de- lightful contact with the teachers of the public schools. With representatives of that State Board he cheerfully and repeatedly canvassed the State on behalf of pop- ular education. His love of historic lore made him thus founder of the New London County Historical Society. His broad and ardent interests in national culture lifted him to the presidency of the American College and Education Society, 1875, as the successor of Hon. William A. Buckingham. Nay, secretly, he had been an education society himself. He loved to aid worthy young men from the forge or farm to the university, and thence to the Baptist, Methodist, Epis- copal, or Congregational teaching of the Book of Books. Of these over sixty are known. They were equipped with the best mental and moral furnishing by this born educator,-an educator who as a very little child had visits from a maiden Massachusetts aunt, who used to pray over him and dedicate him to the ministry as they retired to their common chamber. It is gratifying to think how in this respect his com- manding public influence is to be perpetuated in the Haven Memorial Library, opposite to the home of Maj. Williams, his first employer, and C. A. Williams, the honored son of the same. There the children of all classes and races, who cordially and respectfully saluted him on the streets, will have access to volumes such as his ample brain craved, and motives to useful- ness such as his noble life preached.


Already the public spirit of the man has come out to the reader of the foregoing lines. In town-meeting you were also sure to find him defending his darling schools against narrow-minded tax-payers. Some of these addresses were models of persuasiveness in statement and in appeal. The Street came determined to reduce appropriations; they went, having voted them. In 1852 Mr. Haven was elected mayor. Says one of his Council, "He was easy and affable in pre-


siding, prompt and efficient in executing plans for the common weal." The same year he went to the Gen- eral Assembly as representative, acquiring the knowl- edge and experience which enabled him later to secure the school law already mentioned. When, under his successor in the mayoralty, Hon. J. N. Harris, the war of the Rebellion broke out, Mr. Haven was among the foremost with voice and purse. His mother was born in 1776. She had been carried out of town when Benedict Arnold, the traitor, burnt it, and had never forgotten how the British bayonets glittered in the September sun. From her Mr. Haven learned loyalty, and in his conversations with his Sunday-school class and his contributions for raising regiments and the Christian Commission did all that in him lay to secure men and means for preserving the nation's life. Thanks to his public spirit, vessels loaded with stones were bought and sunk in Charleston Harbor. In 1872 he was Presidential elector for Connecticut of Gen. U. S. Grant, the embodiment of that victorious strug- gle with secession. The ensuing year the Republican party named him over Hon. H. B. Harrison, of New Haven, its candidate for Governor. Local pride and disaffection in New Haven defeated him for this high office, which his commercial and educational experi- ence, his practical wisdom and great executive force, his winning address and eloquence so peculiarly fitted him to fill. The defeat was a bitter blow. But to the day of his death Mr. Haven remained none the less a broad, active, patriotic citizen, serving the commu- nity and commonwealth without stint and without spot. "He was able to do the work of four men ; he tried to do the work of seven," was said of him by his pastor, the late Rev. O. E. Daggett, D.D., at the obsequies of the wise, upright, humane, incor- ruptible, indefatigable toiler for country and for God. What he said of the dead Governor Buckingham, the friend he had seconded and inspirited in the dark days of the war, might then well have been said of himself, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel."




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