History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 91

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 91


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John W. Stedman was born in Enfield, Conn., April 14, 1820, whence, in his infancy, the family re- moved to Hartford. When twelve years old, having lost his father by death, he left school to earn his own livelihood, and at the age of thirteen entered the printing-office of P. Canfield, and when, four years later, the office was consolidated with that of Case, Tiffany & Burnham, went with them, and remained till August, 1844. That year he removed to Norwich, having purchased the office of The Norwich Aurora, and here for thirty years he remained in the printing and publishing business, a longer time than any other person was ever engaged in the same business in the county


Coming equipped with an experience of eleven years with the best masters of the printing art in the State, with habits of continuous and untiring dili- gence, and a mind already well stored with the knowl- edge and culture to be derived from books,-having been an assiduous reader, and to-day the owner of one of the finest private libraries in the State,-it is not surprising that the old organ of the Democracy of Eastern Connecticut should at once have given signs of rejuvenescence, that its business interests should


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have revived, its credit been restored, and the young editor, with a character for personal rectitude and business integrity established, should have accept- ably placed himself at the head of the party in this section, prepared for the carnest and sometimes heated political campaigns that were to ensue. Con- temporaneous with The Aurora at this time was the venerable Federal and Whig organ, The Courier, then published by the Hon. John Dunham, and on these two weeklies the community round about depended chiefly for their knowledge of what was going on abroad, as well as for their local intelligence, until the abundance of dailies and the rush of newspapers changed all that.


Here then was seen "a man diligent in his busi- ness," trustworthy, of courteous manners, fit to stand before the highest, repeating in himself the lesson ever present to the self-respecting man of every walk of life. The first public recognition of his sterling qualities was his appointment in 1850, by Governor Seymour, as a bank commissioner of the State. In 1852 he was elected to the same office by the General Assembly. This was rapidly followed by other public distinctions. In 1852 he was a member of the Balti- more convention that nominated Gen. Pierce for the Presidency. In 1853 he was appointed postmaster of the city of Norwich, and reappointed to the same office in 1857 without opposition. His local popu- larity was further shown by his being for many years a member of the Board of Education of the city, and its president, and also for several years a member of the Common Council of the city. In 1873 he was ap- pointed by the Legislature a member of a special com- mission to investigate and report upon the savings- banks of the State, a duty well performed, the report pointing out essential reforms to be made by some of those institutions, while the sound condition of the savings-banks, as a class, was established to the sat- isfaction of the community. His last important ap- pointment from the State was that of insurance com- missioner in 1874, to which office he was reappointed in 1877. The rigid investigations to which the affairs of a few of those institutions were subjected by this faithful officer, his legal complications with and final triumph over a corrupt New Haven coterie in regard to The American Life and Trust Company of that city, and the measures adopted during his adminis- tration (for he was in constant intercourse with the Legislature during its sessions) for the better manage- ment and security of the vast life and fire insurance interests committed to his charge, in its relations to the State and individuals, are matters of fresh re- membrance. Before the expiration of his last term as insurance commissioner Mr. Stedman was elected treasurer of the State Savings-Bank of Hartford, which necessitated his removal from Norwich to Hartford, where, among the friends of his early days, he expects to live to the end.


We have but a word to add. There are things


culogistic that had better be said after a man's death, but we must proceed to the close. The proverb has it that " a man that hath friends must show himself friendly ;" or, what seems to the writer an equally proper rendering, one to have friends must show him- self friendly. In either sense the truth here suggested is eminently applicable to the subject of this sketch. He is peculiarly a friendly man, in heart and manner. His advice and aid were constantly being sought and freely given to the anxious and necessitous while at resident of Norwich, and their blessings go with him now he has left them. He secretly delivered the poor in their distress, was a shield to the weak, and a lib- cral contributor to every call of benevolence. All this in accord with a noble nature, the dictates of the religion he believed in, and the teachings of the hu- mane and eminent order of which he is a distin- guished member.


Henry Bill .- Few of the sons of New London County have made a more lasting impress upon its material and moral interests than the subject of this notice. -


IIe was born in that part of the old town of Gro- ton now Ledyard, on the 18th of May, 1824, the second-born of the large family of Gurdon and Lucy Bill. At the carly age of fifteen he entered the office of the New London Gazette as an apprentice, but soon afterwards returned to his native town, and the fol- lowing winter engaged as a teacher in the Broadbrook district in Preston. In order to qualify himself for the profession of teacher he afterwards entered the academy in Plainfield, then one of the most cele- brated schools in the country. From this time till the age of twenty he taught in the schools of Plainfield and Groton in the winter and helped his father on his farm in summer, interspersing his occupations with a brief period of trade in New London. At the age of twenty he purchased of his father his remaining year of minority, and soon after entered upon a business which was destined to occupy the remainder of his active life, and in the prosecution of which he achieved all the objects of his highest ambition. A near kins- man, the Hon. James A. Bill, of Lyme, was then en- gaged in book publishing in the city of Philadelphia. Into his service he entered, and for three years he traveled for him through the Western States. At the end of that time, in the fall of 1847, he returned to his native county and engaged in book publishing on his own account, locating in the city of Norwich. He was encouraged to do this by the elder Harper Bros., of New York, who instinctively saw the ma- terial for success there was in him, and who gave him unlimited credit and remained his warmest friends during their lives. Here for more than twenty-five years he pursued his profession of a book publisher with ceaseless energy and with uniform success. Re- warded with the possession of an ample fortune, and failing in health, he then formed his large business into a joint-stock corporation, which still flourishes


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under the title of the Henry Bill Publishing Com- pany, and personally retired, as the world expresses it, from active life. But in temperaments like his there is no period of a man's life more active than that which succeeds a retirement from that occupation by which he is best known among men.


A list of the works which he has published and dis- tributed by hundreds of thousands all over the United States by agents would include Stephens' Travels in Yucatan, Maunder's History of the World, Murray's Encyclopædia of All Nations, Kitto's Bible Histories, and Abbott's History of the Civil War.


Among the many works which have distinguished . his life may be mentioned his founding of Laurel Hill, now one of the most thrifty and beautiful of the suburbs of the city of Norwich,-the reclaiming of this rugged hillside and meadow was emphatically his work; the establishment of the Bill Library in his native town of Ledyard, a work purely for the benefit of the people of the town, and which, in con- nection with his gift of a parsonage, has cost him at least twelve thousand dollars ; and the donation of a public park on Laurel Hill to the city of Norwich, valued at eight thousand dollars. He has been deeply interested in the education of many colored young men in the Southern States since the war, one of whom is now a professor in the Richmond University in Virginia, and one an editor of a paper in Georgia.


In early life Mr. Bill's political affiliations were with the Democratic party, as his father's were before him, and as a Democrat he represented the Norwich district in the State Senate in 1853, receiving in the election a large portion of the votes of his opponents; but in the split in that party in 1856 he cast his lot with the anti-slavery sentiment, and has been from its formation an active and uncompromising member of the Republican party. During the civil war he was greatly relied upon by Connecticut's war Gov- ernor, Buckingham, and was his devoted friend. His time and means were always at the service of the State. Mr. Bill from early life has been a member of the Congregational Church, and since his residence in Norwich has been connected with the Broadway Society. He was married on the 10th of February, 1847, to Miss Julia O. Chapman, of Groton. Seven children have been born to them, of whom two daugh- ters and a son are living.


Mr. Bill has always had great faith in the future of his adopted city. His investments have been almost wholly there in real estate. In its care and manage- ment he finds ample occupation, without that anxiety for its safety which those have whose fortunes are at the mercy of others. In this, as in all the leading traits of his life, his example is a valued and safe guide, and when the roll of the sons of New London County who have made themselves an honored name is called his will be found among the first.


Gurdon Chapman was born in North Stonington in 1792. He went to Norwich in early life and en-


gaged in trade, which subsequently developed into a large grain business, which he prosecuted during the remainder of his life with great financial success. He died in 1864, aged seventy-two years.


During his life he was a marked character in the public affairs of the city. Overcoming the obstacles presented by a lack of early education, so common among the country boys of his day, by dint of study and close observation, aided by strong, native, com- mon sense and a remarkably retentive memory, he qualified himself for a leader among his fellow-men and for the high positions of trust which they con- ferred upon him. For many years he was a member in turn of both branches of the city government, and from 1843 to 1845 was mayor of the city. He was also frequently called to responsible positions in the affairs of the town. He was a clear thinker, a forci- ble and fluent public speaker, and in all his public and private relations was highly respected and es- teemed for his integrity, the kindness of his heart, and the soundness of his judgment as an adviser.


William C. Gilman was a native of Exeter, N. H., and was first initiated into mercantile pursuits in Bos- ton, but nearly thirty years of the most active and energetic portion of his life were spent in Norwich.


As a man of business he was acute in perceiving capabilities and ardent in the presentation of them to others, always prompt and persevering in promoting plans and pursuits calculated to develop the resources or advance the moral and religious interests of the community.


The period of Mr. Gilman's residence in Norwich was marked not only by the stimulus given to manu- factures at the Falls and on the Shetucket, and the in- crease of business in general, but by fresh interest in the cause of temperance, improvements in churches, and the establishment of Sabbath-schools. All these undertakings were deeply indebted not only to his forecast, but to his advocacy and personal service.


Mr. Gilman was also a man of taste and research, one who delighted in collecting memorials of the past, exploring the antiquities of the country, and commem- orating the old heroic red men of the land.


The failure of the large manufacturing companies with which he had been connected led the way to his removal from Norwich about the year 1845. The later years of his life were spent in New York, where he died, June 6, 1863. His remains were brought to Norwich for interment. He was mayor of Norwich in 1839.


John Breed was a son of the second mayor of the city. For more than half a century he has been known as a prominent merchant of Norwich, engaged chiefly in the hardware line, but often entering into other de- partments of business. The sign of "John Breed & Co.," representing the partnership of John Breed and his brother Simeon, was first displayed upon the store in Water Street, where his father and grandfather had transacted business, the day that war was declared


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


against Great Britain, June 19, 1812. Mr. Breed entered into several subsequent partnerships, but whether the firm was Trumbull & Breed, John & James Breed, or Breed, Prentice & Co., the old sign of John Breed & Co. has been displayed, in conjunc- tion with its successor, for more than fifty-three years, until it is regarded as one of the antiquities of the place.


Mr. Breed had himself become so identified with the city that he seemed a part of it,-always present at its public meetings, always interested in the pass- ing discussion, and always firm and downright in his positions. He was a man of strong peculiarities and of impulsive character, with great originality and in- dependence, carrying much of the vivacity of youth into the decline of life. Tall, with white locks, and wearing a white hat, every child knew him, and no face or form was more familiar to the inhabitants at large.


His name is commemorated in Breed Hall, which was erected by him with the design of furnishing a convenient hall for lectures, concerts, and other large assemblies, and thus supplying a desideratum which the interests of the city required. This building was completed in February, 1860. Mr. Breed died sud- denly, Dec. 3, 1865, in his seventy-fifth year.


Lydia Huntley Sigourney was born at Norwich, Sept. 1, 1791, and died at Hartford, June 10, 1865. The writings of this lady, beginning with her first volume of " Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse," pub- lished in 1815, have been for fifty years quietly dif- fusing an influence in favor of the true, the good, and the beautiful in literature, morals, and religion. To the young especially they have been of incalculable benefit. The large number of Mrs. Sigourney's works, their high moral tone, and the good they have accom- plished have gained for her a name and reputation that will long endure.


William P. Greene was a native of Boston, but an inhabitant of Norwich for more than forty years. He was the second son of Gardiner and Elizabeth (Hub- bard) Greene, and born Sept. 7, 1795. He graduated at Harvard College in 1814, and afterwards studied law, but his health not being equal to the require- ments of the legal profession, he removed in 1824 to Norwich, and engaged at once in business as a part- ner and agent of the Thames Manufacturing Com- pany, which had invested a large capital in the pur- chase of mill privileges at the Falls.


In this city he soon acquired, and retained during life, the esteem and respect of the community. He was an energetic and a large-hearted man, literary in his tastes, but with profound sagacity in financial and business concerns. These qualities were united with a pure life and an entire absence of ostentation. As a beautiful result of his unobtrusive life and liberal disposition, he seemed to have no enemies. Slander never made him its mark, and his name was never mentioned with disrespect.


He was never possessed of robust health, and there- fore seldom able to give his personal services in aid of public measures, but all charitable and noble under- takings, having for their object the welfare of man and the honor of God, were sure of his liberal aid and cordial sympathy.


In 1825 he was chosen the first president of the Thames Bank, and held the office for sixteen years. With this exception, and that of the single year in which he was mayor of the city, he steadfastly de- clined, on account of his health, all appointments to public office.


He died June 18, 1864, aged sixty-eight. Seldom has the death of a citizen of Norwich excited in the place so deep an interest and such profound regret. It was a loss that was felt in the circles of business and of public improvement, and in the departments of education and philanthropy.


CHAPTER XXIX.


BOZRAH.


Geographical-Topographical-The First Settlements-New Concord- Name of the Town-Organization of the Town-First Town-Meeting- Officers Elected-Ecclesiastical History-Congregational Church, Boz- rah-Congregational Church, Bozrahville-Congregational Church, Fitchville-Baptist Church, Leflingwelltown-Villages-Fitchville- Bozrahville-Manufactures, etc .- List of Representatives from 1786 to 1882-Military Record.


THE town of Bozrah lies northwest of the centre of the county, and is bounded as follows : on the north by Franklin, on the east by Franklin and Norwich, on the south by Montville, and on the west by Salem and Lebanon. The surface of the town is diversified by hill and valley, and the soil is generally fertile. It is watered by the Yantic River and Gardner's Brook, the former of which affords an excellent water- power.


The settlement of the town commenced soon after that of the present town of Norwich, and among the pioneers are mentioned the names of Waterman, Hough, Fox, and Crocker.


Bozrah was formerly known as New Concord, and was a portion of Norwich until 1786, and its early history will be found in detail in that of the mother- town. "It is not easy," says the late Miss Caulkins, " to determine why this quiet rural township should have been made the namesake of the haughty, woe- denounced, and desolate city of Edom,-a name in singular contrast with its ancient peaceful and friendly cognomen of New Concord. The Syrian Bozralı lay in the open plain, but this was eminently a woodland district amid the hills. The current story that the name originated in a jocose but irreverent application of Isaiah Ixiii. 1, to the agent of the society, who, when he appeared in the town-meeting to plead for the separation, was conspicuous for his parti-colored


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garments, cannot be seriously admitted. A pleasantry might have been thus perpetrated, but not a pro- fanity."


Organization of the Town .- The committee ap- pointed to manage the separation of the town in 1786 consisted of Benjamin Thorp, Nehemiah Waterman, Esq., Asa Woodworth, and Jabez Hough. The town was first represented in the Legislature by Capt. Isaac Huntington.


The First Town-Meeting was held in the meeting- house, June 20, 1786, with Benjamin Throop moder- ator, when the following officers were elected : Select- men, Benjamin Throop, Nehemiah Waterman, and Asa Woodworth ; Town Clerk, Ebenezer Backus; Treasurer, Capt. Isaac Huntington; Constable and Collector, Ebenezer Backus ; Surveyors of Highways, Simeon Abell, William Cardwell, Ezekiel Crocker, Eli- phalet Baldwin, Lemuel Gardner, Libbeus Lathrop, Samuel Leffingwell.


Among other town officers chosen were Marshall Huckley, Uriah Lathrop, Thomas Huntington, Elijah Huntington, Simeon Gager, Jabez Hough, Richard Downer, John Looner, and John Waterman.


Ecclesiastical History .- As early as 1715 permis- sion was given the inhabitants of this town (then a portion of Norwich) to form a parish, but being unable to support a minister they were not regularly organized until eighteen years afterwards, when they took the name of New Concord and were released from all obligation to support the ministry of the First Society, on condition of maintaining a gospel minister at least six months in the year.


The northern part of the present town, that part which lies in the bend of the Yantic, was included in the West Farms Parish, and the bounds between the two societies were to be the river, the brook that runs out of it, the Cranberry Pond, the Cranberry Pond Brook, the Great Swamp, the Dark Swamp, and the Miry Swamp.


The church was organized, and Rev. Benjamin Throop ordained the first pastor, Jan. 3, 1739. Mr. Throop was a native of Lebanon and a graduate of Yale. He died Sept. 16, 1785, after an efficient pas- torate of forty-six years, aged seventy-four.


The second minister of the church was Rev. Jona- than Murdock, a native of Westbrook, and previously settled at Rye, N. Y. He was installed at Bozrah, Oct. 12, 1786, and died Jan. 16, 1813, aged sixty- eight.


John Bates Murdock, a son of this excellent clergy- man, graduated at Yale College in 1808, but after- wards entered the army, and served during the war of 1812-15, at the close of which he had the rank of brevet major. He died soon after the conclusion of peace, unmarried.


Rev. Dr. James Murdock, of New Haven, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, and the translator of the Syriac Testament into English, was a nephew of. the Bozrah minister.


The third minister of Bozrah, Rev. David Austin, was installed May 9, 1815. The old meeting-house where Throop and Murdock preached was then stand- ing, but that same year a new house of worship was completed.1 Mr. Austin's dedication sermon was published.


"Rev. David Austin," says Miss Caulkins, " was a native of New Haven, born in 1760, and fitted by an accomplished education and foreign travel to become an ornament to society, as well as by ardent piety and a lively and florid eloquence to be useful in the min- istry. He married Lydia, daughter of Dr. Joshua Lathrop, of Norwich, and settled as pastor of the church in Elizabethtown in 1788. The kindness of his heart and the suavity of his manner endeared him to all who knew him, while his zeal in the perform- ance of his duties and his popular pulpit talents made him successful in his office and extensively known as a preacher. It is to him that Governor Livingston alludes in the following lines of his poem on Philosophic Solitude :


"' Dear A ***** too should grace my rural seat, Forever welcome to the green retreat ; Heaven for the cause of righteousness designed Ilis florid genius and capacious mind. Oft have I seen him 'mid the adoring throng, Celestial truths devolving from his tongue ; Oft o'er the listening andience seen him stand, Divinely speak and graceful wave his hand.'


"Mr. Austin was naturally eccentric, and had al- ways something erratic and extravagant in his man- ner of thinking, speaking, and acting. Unhappily, his mind was led to investigate too deeply for its strength the prophecies; his ardent imagination be- came inflamed, his benevolent heart dilated to over- flowing, and his mental powers became partially deranged. He now appeared as a champion of the Second Advent doctrine, and held that the coming of Clirist to commence his personal reign on earth would be on the fourthi Sabbath of May, 1796. On the morning of that day he was in a state of great agi- tation, and one or two reports of distant thunder excited him almost to frenzy. But the day passed over as usual, yet the disappointment did not cure the delusion of Mr. Austin's mind. He took the vow of a Nazarite, and went round the country announcing the near approach of Christ's coming, and calling upon the Jews to assemble and make preparations to return to their own land.


" In 1797 he was removed by the Presbytery from his pastoral relation at the church at Elizabethtown. He then went to New Haven, where he erected sev- eral large houses and a wharf for the use of the Jews, whom he invited to assemble there and embark for the Holy Land. Having at last, in this and other plans, expended an ample fortune, he was for a while


1 The old church stood where is now the house of Rev. N. S. Hunt. The second was built about eight rods distant. The present church, which is the third sacred edifice of the parish, owes its erection chiefly to the liberal aid afforded by the late Col. Asa Fitch and his family.


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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


imprisoned for debt, and after being released from confinement gradually became calm and sane upon all points except the prophecies. He had no chil- dren, and his wife had long before taken refuge in her father's house in Norwich. He also returned to this home after all his wanderings, like the dove to the ark, and the balance of his mind being in a great measure restored, he began again to preach with ac- ceptance in various churches in Connecticut. After his installation in Bozrah he performed all the duties of a pastor, faithfully prclaiming the gospel of sal- vation for a period of fifteen years. He died in Nor- wich, Feb. 5, 1831."




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