History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 90

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 90


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The death of Mrs. Backus is registered with the Bingham family.


Mrs. Anne Backus, mother of Thomas Bingham, Sr., died in May, 1670.


STEPHEN BACKUS .- The rights and privileges of William Backus, Sr., were transferred so soon after the settlement to his son Stephen that the latter is


accounted the original proprietor. The house-lot was entered in his name, as to a first purchaser. It lay upon the pent highway by the Yantic, between the town green and the allotment of Thomas Bliss, bounded by the Bliss homestead on the east and Hammer Brook on the west, and descended by gift or purchase to the Leffingwells, who were connected by marriage. Thomas Leffingwell married Mary Backus, who left eight children, and Lucy Backus, daughter of Samuel Backus, married Benajah Bushnell, 1764, and had born seven children ; from them descended the Leffingwells. Of this home-lot of Stephen Backus, the house now occupied by Benjamin Huntington, late deceased, and the stores and buildings nearly to the brook called Hammer Brook, from the tradition that Stephen Backus had a hammer and shop carried by water.


Stephen Backus was married in December, 1666, to Sarah Spencer. After a residence of over thirty years in Norwich, he removed with his family, about the year 1692, to Canterbury, and there died, 1695. His sons, Stephen and Timothy, are counted among the early settlers of that town, from whence have sprung Deacon Timothy Backus, Dr. Sylvanus Backus, Lieu- tenant-Governor Thomas Backus, and many others.


William Backus, Jr., the second William Backus, married Elizabeth, daughter of Lieut. William Pratt, of Saybrook. She was born Feb. 1, 1641. .


William Backus (2) is found on record with the successive titles of sergeant, ensign, and licutenant.


William Backus (3), son of the above, sold his accumulations in Norwich to his father in 1692 and removed to "the nameless new town lying about ten miles northwest of Norwich."


His brother John emigrated to the same place, afterwards named Windham, and both are recorded among the early proprietors of that town. The pres- ent Windham Green was part of the original home- lot of William Backus.


Joseph and Nathaniel, the youngest sons of Wil- liam Backus (2), remained in Norwich. Joseph mar- ried Elizabeth Huntington, and Nathaniel married Elizabeth Tracy, daughters of the proprietors Simon Huntington and John Tracy. Joseph and Simon Backus, the first two graduates of Yale College of the name, were sons of Joseph. The former graduated in 1768, and some eight or ten years later was styled by his contemporaries Lawyer Backus of Norwich. It was a saying the Backuses always settled, if possible, near a stream of water or near some pond ; they made use of the power for some mechanical service.


Elizabeth Backus, daughter of Capt. Samuel Backus, and granddaughter of Joseph Backus, married Jabez Huntington, Esq., Jan. 20, 1742.2 Their children were Jedediah Huntington, born July, 1743; Andrew Huntington, born June, 1745, father of the late Ch. P. Huntington.


1 Contributed by William W. Backus.


2 She died July 1, and Mr. Huntington Oct. 5, 1786.


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


Jedediah, a general and a distinguished officer in the American army during the Revolution, afterwards treasurer of the State of Connecticut and collector of the customs for the port of New London, succeeding Elijah Backus, Jr.


A large number of the Backus family have acquired distinction in the various walks of life. Elijah Backus, grandson of Joseph, whose iron-works at Yantic were so serviceable to the country in the Revolutionary war, was a grandson of Joseph. He married Lucy Griswold, of Lyme. His three sons and his son-in-law, Dudley Woodbridge, were among the first emigrants to the banks of the Ohio. James Backus, the young- est son, as agent of the Ohio Company, made the first surveys of Marietta, and is said to have built the first regular house in the town at the point of the junction of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, afterwards owned and occupied by his brother-in-law, Judge Dudley Woodbridge, it being the first house in Ohio, at that time Northwest Territory. He afterwards returned to Norwich, and died there at the family residence, Sept. 29, 1816. The second Elijah Backus, an older brother of James, and the oldest son of Elijah Backus, Esq., graduated at Yale College in 1777, and for several years held the office of collector of customs in New London, being succeeded by Gen. Jedediah Hunting- ton. His first wife was Lucretia, daughter of Russell Hubbard, who died in New London, 1787.


He afterwards married Hannah Richards, daughter of Guy Richards, and removed with his family to Ma- rietta, Ohio. He died in Kaskaskia, whither he went as receiver in the United States land department. He owned and operated the first printing-press west of the mountains, and printed a newspaper called the Northwest News-Letter. The second printing-press was owned and run in Cincinnati the next year. He was a lawyer by profession, and a man of large attain- ments, and left a large estate to his two children, Thomas and Lucretia, their mother being Hubbard.


His daughter Lucretia, born at New London in 1787, married Nathaniel Pope, of Illinois, delegate in Congress from Illinois in 1816, and judge of the United States District Court. Maj .- Gen. John Pop'e, United States army, is their son, born March 12, 1823. His mother, Mrs. Lucretia Pope, in remembrance of the place of her father's nativity and of her own early associations, came from her Western home to attend the bi-centennial jubilee at Norwich in September, 1859, and carried from the old home of her father a chest of papers and other articles relative to her father, Elijah Backus, Jr.


Among the descendants of William Backus who were natives of Norwich the following clergymen are of note :


1. Simon Backus, son of Joseph, born at Norwich, Feb. 11, 1701, graduated at Yale College in 1724, and was ordained pastor of the church at Newington in 1727. He attended the expedition to Cape Breton as chaplain of the Connecticut troops, and died while on


duty at that place in May, 1746. His wife was a sis- ter of President Edwards, of the New Jersey College.


2. Rev. Simon Backus, son of the above, was pastor in Granby, Mass., and died in 1828, aged eighty-seven.


3. Rev. Charles Backus, D.D., of Somers, Conn. He had a high reputation as an acute and able the- ologian, and prepared many young men for the sa- cred office. Dr. Dwight said of him, "I have not known a wiser man."


4. Rev. Azel Backus, D.D., born Oct. 13, 1765, was a nephew of Rev. Charles Backus, of Somers. His father died when he was a youth and left him a farm, which, he said, " I wisely exchanged for an education in college." He settled in Bethel, Conn., as the suc- cessor of Dr. Bellamy, but in 1812 was chosen the first president of Hamilton College.


5. Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M., of Middleborough, Mass., was born at Norwich, within the limits of the old town plot, Jan. 9, 1724, and died Nov. 20, 1806. Our account of the family in which the childhood and youth of Isaac Backus were spent may be fitly closed from an imperfect sketch of his life, written by him- self when more than eighty years old: "My mother sprang from the family of Mr. Winslow, who came over to Plymouth in 1620, and my father from one of the first planters in Norwich, Conn., in 1660. Both my father and mother and their parents were mem- bers of the first church in Norwich, and trained up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I was born there and was well educated in the Christian religion, and also in the principles of civil liberty."


Isaac Backus traveled thousands of miles, when traveling was more difficult than at the present time, in New England, the Middle States, and in the South, preaching the gospel and advocating the principles of civil and religious liberty. He was a most pro- lific writer. The Backus Historical Society of Massa- chusetts, the Rev. Frederick Denison, and the Rev. Alvah Hovey, D.D., compiled a memoir of the life and times of Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M., in 1858. No one in the country did more service.


Tradition says the Backuses came from Norwich, county of Norfolk, England, and in deference to the ancestor, who was the oldest man of the party from Saybrook, and the first Englishman who died in Nor- wich, the matter of the name of the new town was sub- mitted to him, who called it Norwich after his native place. The emigration of the Backuses has been con- stant, some to New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and elsewhere; a great exodus about 1781. From Windham County the emigration has not been so extensive.


James Backus, the youngest of the sons of Elijah, returned from the Northwest Territory at the earnest request of his father, and remained, greatly against his wishes, to help and assist his father, who was pos- sessed of a large estate, and had been the most suc- cessful mechanic in this vicinity. His son James


In Dr. Backus,


Chauncey Ho. Bushnell.


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NORWICH.


was a man of great ability, both physically and men- tally. He commenced and carried on a large busi- ness. The grist-mill, which was the first erection on the premises, and supposed to have been built by Joseph or his son Samuel, was the cause of their re- moval from the home-lot nearer the Landing, and by grants of land from the town for that express purpose, followed by the erection of the iron-works. The grist-mill was supposed to have been the second one, the first being built at the falls of the Yantic by the Lathrops. The grist-mill was for the accommodation of the farmers, who raised their bread by the sweat of the brow ; no labor-saving machine in that day.


The iron-works was of a more varied and expensive character, supposed to have been commenced by Samuel Backus, but enlarged by his son Elijah, and was of great service both before and after the war. They made a variety of work, from a horseshoe to great anchors for the privateers and merchantmen.


The saw-mill was built by James Backus, who in later days built and ran two carding machines for carding wool for the farmers, hatters, and others, about 1812. James Backus built a merchant's store, and also manufactured potash and pearlash ; also a large provision-store for the purpose of packing beef and pork, and kept salt. James Backus carried on the whole, together with a large farm.


During the life of Elijah, Mr. Joseph Otis was con- nected by the firm of Backus & Otis, Mr. Otis being a worker of iron (his son afterwards founded the Otis Library, and it is believed was born at the house built by his father in Yantic). This connection of Backus & Otis was not of long duration.


James Backus bought all the interest of his brothers and sisters, and owned and conducted the whole. The iron manufacture began to change its complexion and assume new and more varied shapes. Bar iron, instead of being hammered out, was rolled out; nails, instead of being hammered out, were cut out; and so of all the former practices, new and quicker and cheaper practices supplied the market and vastly extended its use. Finally the manufacture of iron in the old way ceased, and the site gave place to other enterprises. The store did a large business for many years until James Backus died, in 1816.


William W. Backus, the son of James Backus and Dorothy Church Chandler, of Woodstock, was the sixth of a family of seven children, and at the time of his father's death was but thirteen years of age.


His whole life has been spent in Norwich, except part of a year passed in Marietta, Ohio, in the mer- cantile establishments of his kinsman, Dudley Wood- bridge, Jr., the judge, his father, being then alive, 1819.


From ill health he was necessitated to return to Nor- wich. Since 1819 he has resided in Norwich, at the home of his ancestors, completing seven generations. His time has been spent mainly in farm operations, causing the old farm, with large additions, to bud and


blossom, raising large crops of Indian corn (in some instances more than one hundred bushels of shelled cor per acre), rye, potatoes, grass, turnips, keeping a large stock, annually fattening about one hundred, and buying and selling many more. Supposed to have owned a greater number of horned cattle than any one owner in New London County during a period of fifty years or more. His losses have been heavy, amounting to fifty thousand dollars. Some gains and some losses all the time. An eager student, worked days, studied nights after going to bed, by candle- light, sometimes to the small hours, or as long as fatigue would permit; still follows the habit as far as possible.


Chauncey Knight Bushnell, son of Adonijah Bush- nell and Hannah Tracy, was born in Lisbon on the 25th day of February, 1805. He has a younger brother, Lyndes E. Bushnell, now living in the town of Stur- bridge, Mass. Chauncey worked on his father's farm summers, attending a small district school for about four months winters, taught by some inexperienced youngster at six to eight dollars per month and board, until he was eighteen, when he commenced teaching the same school with twenty-one scholars at six dol- lars per month. Continued teaching winters in Lis- bon and Norwich, working on the farm summers, until March, 1828, when he went to New York and taught through the summer at Brooklyn, L. I. Contracting the ague and fever, returned and commenced teaching again in Lisbon.


On the 5th day of July, 1829, united with the Rev. Levi Nelson's Congregational Church, and on the 29th of September entered the "Oneida Institute," at Whitesboro', Oneida Co., N. Y. On leaving the In- stitute taught again in Norwich and New York, and on the 23d day of April, 1832, was married to Mary Eliza Fuller, born July 13, 1809, only daughter of Luther Fuller, Esq., of Lisbon.


Settled in Norwich, continuing his school on Nor- wich Green till the decease of his wife on the 26th of December, 1833.


Their daughter, Mary Witter, born the 23d of July, 1833, died Aug. 30, 1854. He continued teaching public and private schools until he went West, and the 1st of June, 1836, entered the office of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, in Cincinnati, as the publish- ing agent of the Philanthropist, edited by the Hon. James G. Birney and Dr. Gamaliel Bailey. Remained there through the mobs, saw the destruction of the press and the re-establishment of another, then went, on the last of November, 1837, to Alton, Ill., and heard the funeral sermon of the murdered Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy ; thence to Knox County, and taught the first school in Galesburg. He returned to Norwich, and was married on the 29th of March, 1840, to Mary Abby Post, born 31st of March, 1818, daughter of Elisha Post, of Bozrah, and again settled down at Norwich Town.


On the 29th of April, 1841, engaged as teacher in


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


the Norwich Town High School. His father died the 19th of June, 1843, aged sixty-five. He continued teaching until the death of his mother, the 17th of February, 1848, aged sixty-eight.


Having lost two little sons in infancy, on the 10th of March, 1846, adopted Geerge Lovice Gardner (Bushnell), born on the 14th of July, 1843, youngest son of his wife's sister, who died on the 14th of Feb- ruary.


George L. G. graduated at the Norwich Free Acad- emy the 19th day of July, 1862, taking the Perkins' Greek medal and two diplomas. After serving as book-keeper and cashier four years for Richardson, Boynton & Co., of New York, and clerk of the South Congregational Church in Brooklyn, he came home and died with the consumption, Nov. 15, 1868.


Since 1848, Mr. Bushnell has practiced surveying and civil engineering, making deeds, wills, and vari- ous legal documents, teaching several terms at inter- vals till 1858, when he gave up the profession, having taught about thirty years. Having united with the Central Baptist Church in 1851, he served the society as collector for twenty years, also filling various minor offices in town and State, as justice of the peace and notary public, etc., to the present time (1881). He is in his seventy-seventh year.


He has always been a true Republican, never cast- ing a vote for Democracy, slavery, or rum, and never seeking or desiring office of any kind.


Capt. William Smith, son of John Smith and Hannah Brown, was born in Norwich, April 3, 1797. John Smith came from England when a boy, and came to Norwich and engaged in the manufacture of ropes, in which business he continued till his death at the age of fifty-five.


He married Hannah Brown, a native of this county, and had the following children, viz .: William, the subject of this sketch, James, and Mary, who married Augustus Jillson, a native of Norwich. He was noted as the great pin manufacturer, of the firm of Slocum & Jillson.


William Smith received a common-school educa- tion. At an early age in 1813 he began to learn the manufacture of cotton, and more especially to spin, of one John Gray, with whom he remained two years. When he had served his apprenticeship he com- menced working by the day, and thus continued till 1828, when he became assistant manager for the "Thames Manufacturing Company," in which posi- tion he remained six years. In the fall of 1835 he went to Bozrah, and continued in the employ of the same company a short time, but that company failing Mr. Smithi at once entered into partnership with Messrs. James Bowman and William Colgate, of New York, in the manufacture of cotton goods. He was the superintendent and general manager of the manu- facturing till 1880.


He lias owned a small farm near Bozrahville, but lived in the village.


Mr. Smith was always much interested in mili- tary affairs. He has held all the different positions from private to captain of light artillery. A per- sonal friend and very prominent man says of him that he made one of the best officers in the regiment, and took pride in parades.


In politics he was a Whig till the Republican party was organized in 1856, since which time he has been a stanch Republican.


He has been selectman and magistrate in Bozrah several terms, and was a member of the Legislature in 1871, serving on the committee for new towns.


He has been twice married, first to Rebecca Sterry, daughter of John Sterry, the first Baptist minister in Norwich, and Rebecca Bromley, his wife, and to them were born Rebecca S., died at sixteen in 1833; Eliza A., married Parris Walker; William H., living at Mystic Bridge; George S., residing at New Hartford, Conn. ; Harriet W., married Samuel Wells Haughton, of Bozrah ; Daniel W. (deceased) ; and C. Louise, married William H. Fitch, of Bozrahı.


Mrs. Smith was a member of the Congregational Church, a faithful wife and devoted mother ; died May 25, 1870. Capt. Smith married his second wife, Har- riet L. Palmer, widow of Richard Palmer, and daugh- ter of Harvey Lathrop, of Lebanon, May 1, 1873. Mrs. Smith has two children by her first husband, viz .: Hattie L., who married a Charles R. Butts, and Minnie, unmarried.


About 1826, Capt. Smith united with the Congre- gational Church in Norwich, and has been a worthy member of the same for more than fifty-five years. His wife is also a member.


He has always taken deep interest in Sunday-school work, and for more than thirty-five years was super- intendent at Bozrahville, and seldom was away save on a visit to different parts of the country.


He has ever been a faithful and constant attendant on all the prayer and social meetings of the church, and in all ways has tried to advance the cause of Christ.


He has been and is now (1881) a strong temperance man. He is now in his eighty-fifth year, hale and hearty for one so aged. He has been a good father and husband, a true patriot and citizen.


Rev. Alvan Bond, D.D.1-Rev. Dr. Bond was born in Sutton, Mass., April 27, 1793. He was educated at Brown University, graduating in 1815. He studied theology at Andover, Mass., and remained there nearly a year beyond the completion of the regular course. Nov. 19, 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Congre- gational Church in Sturbridge, Mass. After about ten years of labor in that pastorate he became Professor of Sacred Literature in the theological seminary at Bangor, Maine. He found the climate of that region too severe for his health, and in 1835 he came to Nor- wich and entered upon the pastorate of the Second


1 Contributed by Rev. Wm. S. Palmer.


Hy Smith 3


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1.


1


371


NORWICH.


Congregational Church of that city. He was installed in May, Rev. Dr. Howe, of Hartford, preaching the sermon. He found this church, then the only Con- gregational Church of the city, rejoicing in the rich fruitage of two preceding pastorates, that of Mr. Mitchell for seventeen years, and that of Mr. Dick- inson for thirty months. The resident membership numbered about three hundred and twenty-five. There were three hundred and sixty names on the roll, and only about one hundred and thirty families, including some six hundred persons in all belonging to the parish. More than fifty per cent. of the entire number were professing Christians. There was little room for enlargement. It was the chief work of the new pastor to "keep the measure full." This he soon found a very unsatisfactory work. Numbers were added from year to year, but they came mainly by letter. After seven years of such toil ninety-eight of the most active members, including such as the late Governor William A. Buckingham, went out to form the Broadway Church. Room was thus made for indefinite expansion. The pastor, then in the midst of his years, girded himself for his great life- work. He summoned his people to most earnest en- deavor. The gloom which forty vacant pews spread over the assembly was quickly dispelled. The people , caught their pastor's enthusiasm, and "had a mind to work." At the very next sale of pews every slip was taken. For twenty-eight years Dr. Bond supplied the pulpit an average of fifty Sabbaths a year. Only in a single instance in all that time was he absent from a communion service. His work was not only con- stant, it was eminently successful. He kept his church in the vanguard of efficient workers for the worthiest ends. They were generous contributors to the various benevolent enterprises of the day. Numbers of them gave liberally to found the Norwich Free Academy. One of the office-bearers of his church, by his advice, founded the Otis Library, the only public library in the city. Dr. Bond was tireless in his endeavors to improve the public schools of the place. To his per- sistent efforts, in connection with Dr. Gulliver, the pastor of the Broadway Church, the present genera- tion of Norwich are deeply indebted for an excellent system of public instruction.


He was outspoken upon the great questions of pub- lic interest so multiplied during the period of his pas- torate. The cause of temperance and the interests of the oppressed, in whatever way, found in him an earn- est advocate ; yet so singularly judicious was he in all his utterances, both public and private, that he rarely provoked animosity, and uniformly promoted peace.


At the breaking out of the civil war, and in all that terrible struggle, his church, stimulated by his lead- ership and his example, was in the very forefront of the conflict. She was behind none in giving her sym- pathy, her service, or her sons. Her silver and gold she poured out like water. Towards a single contri- bution in aid of Norwich soldiers no less than twelve


of his people gave freely from two hundred to a thou- sand dollars apiece.


At the first great "war-meeting" in Breed Hall, that Saturday evening before the memorable " Battle Sunday," his voice was heard invoking the name of Jehovah, and inciting the people to trust in an Al- mighty Helper. That wonderful Sunday which fol- lowed, while the women of the city made garments for the company to depart on the morrow, he preached to the men of his congregation upon "The over- whelming catastrophe and the need of girding the loins for intensest endeavor." His sermon was boldly prophetic. Upon invitation, received during the in- termission, it was repeated that afternoon at the Broadway Church, in exchange with its pastor. A full year before that time, during the popular excite- ment about the fugitive slave Burns, Dr. Bond had fired the patriotism of his people by a sermon in which he pictured "The spirit of Liberty spiked to the pavement by the bayonets of government troops."


Dec. 28, 1864, at his own urgent request, he was dismissed from the pastorate he had so long and so faithfully held. For nearly ten years afterwards he preached in various pulpits, and at intervals in that of the Second church. The last time his voice was heard in public he bore part with the present pastor at a communion service of that church, and uttered words of fervent appeal which will long linger in the memory of those who were so fortunate as to hear them.


John W. Stedman .- One of the men worthy of being honored in his generation, well known through- out the State, and especially familiar to the people of Eastern Connecticut, forms the subject of this brief sketch.




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