USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stamford > History of Stamford, Connecticut : from its settlement in 1641, to the present time, including Darien, which was one of its parishes until 1820 > Part 33
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En M.QuinTano
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still later as the sole proprietor of those extensive works, Mr. Quintard laid the foundation of the great business prosperity which has placed him among the leading men of the city. During the recent war he was largely employed in furnishing engines for the war ships needed in the United States Navy, and rendered timely and important aid to the Union eause. Since the war he has retired from the iron business, and is now president of one of the southern lines of steamship transporta- tion. He is also connected with various other business boards in the city. His summer residence is in Rye. He has two children.
QUINTARD, CHARLES TODD, brother to the above, was born in Stamford, Dec. 22, 1824. He graduated M. D. at the University of New York in 1846, having been a student of Dr. Valentine Mott. After spending a few months in the Bellevue Hospital, and as physician to the New York City Dispensary, he removed to Georgia. Here he soon won reputation in his profession and as a medical writer, and in 1851, he was called to the chair of physiology and anatomy in the Memphis Medical College.
Devoting himself, meanwhile, also, to theological studies, under the direction of Bishop Otey of Tennessee, in 1855 he was ad- mitted to orders. At once, he entered on the rectorship of Cal- vary church, Memphis, from which he went, in 1858, to the church of the Advent, Nashville. Under his successful ministry of four years, this church advanced from thirty-six to about three hundred communicants. His progress in his new profes- sion of theology was rapid, as in that of medicine, and in 1866 he received his doctorate in Divinity, and was chosen Bishop of Tennessee, to which office he was consecrated by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, in Philadelphia.
QUINTARD, EDWARD A., brother to Geo. W. and Charles T., above, is also a native of Stamford, where he was born in 1826. Ile went to New York as clerk to the Scranton Coal Com- pany. Since then he has been largely engaged in the coal busi-
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ness, making for himself a good name and an eminent place, among the leading firms in his branch of business. He is ex- tensively engaged also in mining coal. For a number of years he has spent his summers in Stamford, and in 1867, he built on Clark's Hill, a fine family residence of stone, one of the most imposing as well as costly of our many elegant Stamford homes. He married for his first wife, Matilda Gil- lespie, of New York city, who died leaving two children. He married for his second wife, Mary, daughter of cap- tain William Skiddy, of Stamford, by whom he has two children.
REED, ELIJAH, son of Jesse and Mercy (Weed) Reed, was born in Stamford, Middlesex parish, in 1778. In his thirty-sixth year he became a christian, and devoted himself with singular earnestness, to the duties of the christian life. He was chosen deacon of the church in Darien ; and from that time he felt himself to be a servant of the Lord. There was no call which the church could make upon him to which he did not respond. In season and out of season, he embraced opportunities, or cre- ated them, for doing good. The Bible was his daily compan- ion ; and from its treasury, he never failed to draw timely instructions for all classes whom he met. No man practiced a more rigid self denial than he, that he might do good. None cultivated all the graces of the spirit more than he. None evinced a deeper interest in the welfare of Zion, or in the spirit- ual condition of impenitent men than he. And no one had more faith in the divinely appointed means for the recovery and salvation of men.
This good man died Nov. 16, 1851, when, and as he would have wished to die, on the morning of the Lord's Day, with all the peace and joyful hope which that day had been wont to bring him. Mr. Reed was only the fifth generation removed from the John Reed whom we have enrolled as the pioneer of the family in the town. The line of the ascent will be John, Thomas, and Thomas, the second son of John, as above.
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RICHARDS, JAMES, D. D., was born Oct. 29, 1767, in New Canaan parish, a short distance east of the old line between Stamford and Norwalk. While still a boy, he came to Stam- ford village and engaged himself as an appren tiee to the eabi- net making trade. He proved a faithful apprentice, yet found time in his leisure moments for reading and study ; and at length formned and executed the purpose of fitting himself for college. While in Stamford he became a teacher in one of our village sehools. He was also the subject of a re vival of religion, and united with the Congregational church here, Sept. 17, 1786. In 1739 he entered Yale college, and received, in 1794, the honorary degree of A. M. He studied theology with Dr. Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the Fairfield West As- sociation in 1793. The same year he was settled in Morristown, N. J., as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church there. He soon gave proofs of that strong good sense and efficiency in all that he attempted, which at length gave him the enviable repu- tation which he won and retained. From Morristown he was called to Newark in June 1809, to succeed that prince among our pulpit orators, Dr. E. D. Griffin, who had then accepted his professorship at An dover. Here Mr. Richards became very eminent in his profession, both as preaeher and pastor. In 1823 he was called to the chair of Christian Theology in the Auburn Theological Seminary. He died in Auburn, N. Y., Aug. 2, 1848.
SKELDING, DEA. THOMAS, was son of James and Mary Skelding, and was born in Stamford, Feb. 6, 1773. The year after his marriage he removed to Troy, N. Y., where he soon attained eminence among the enterprising men of that flourishing city. He was equally eminent in business and re- ligion. Brought up a Congregationalist, after his conversion, he united with the Baptist church in Troy in 1806, and proved himself one of the most faithful and devoted of christians. IIe was chosen deacon of this church in 1812; and when, in 1822, he removed to New York, he was at onee called to the same of- fice in the South Baptist Church of that city, then just organ-
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ized. Here he labored with a growing zeal until his work on earth was done. On the second Sabbath of December, 1830, while enjoying the usual services of the sanctuary, he was struck with a sudden paralysis which almost deprived him of motion and speech. He was taken home, where he languished many weeks, but partially recovering the use of his limbs and of his voice. In July of the next year he visited his friends and kindred in his native town ; and while here, surrounded with the grateful reminiscences of his early days, in the family of his brother James, he peacefully and in joyous hope closed his earthly career Aug. 1, 1831. His obituary in the Baptist Re- pository, gives us a very pleasant impression of the cheerful and beneficent piety of this good man : " In wealth he was an example to the rich," and when deprived of his earthly pos- sessions, his cheerful trust in God still " taught the poor to be humble, submissive and thankful."
Surrn, REV. DANIEL, was the son of Peter and Mary Smith of New Canaan, where he was born Aug. 3, 1764.
He graduated at Yale in 1791, and the same year united with the Congregational church in Sharon. After studying theology with the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Sharon, whose youngest daughter he married, he was licensed to preach, Oct. 2, 1792, by the Litchfield North Association, and ordained pastor of the First Congregational church in Stamford, June 13, 1793. Here he labored in word and doctrine with very great acceptance down to a very advanced age. He was a man, who is remem- bered still by many of the citizens of Stamford, both in the denomination to which he belonged, and in others, as one of unusual good sense and wisdom. Few pastors ever endeared themselves more to their people than he. His hold on his peo- ple was fully and most promptly shown, when in 1839, after a ministry of forty-seven years, he recounted his labors, acknowl- edged his growing infirmities, and asked to be relieved from a portion of his cares. Their reply is found in the following reso- Ition :
"That we recognize in our pastor a diligent servant of Christ, one who,
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for the long time he has ministered to us in holy things, has ever exhibited a happy union of prudence with zeal; and one who, in all his intercourse with ns and his ministrations to us has eultivated those feelings which most endear a pastor to his flock. And we earnestly entreat our God that he may long be spared to watch over us, to instruct us and to pray for us."
In addition to the labors of preacher and pastor, Mr. Smith conducted a private school in his own house for many years : and many of the youth of the town recall with affectionate in- terest the days of their pleasant pupilage under his kindly care.
Hle married for his first wife Mary Smith, as above, July 9. 1793, by whom he had two children, Julia Ann, born April 5. 1794, aud Thomas Mather, born March 7, 1796 ..
He married again June 14, 1801, Catherine, daughter of David Webb, of Stamford. Their children were David Webb, born April 11, 1802, lived single and died in Stamford ; Mary Eliza- beth, born Oct. 28, 1804, and married Fitch Rodgers, of Stam- ford, and still survives to occupy the house which her father left ; James Augustus, born Ang. 1, 1807; Edward William, born Sept. 2, 1813, who graduated at Yale in 1835, and studied law ; and John Cotton, born April 6, 1811, graduated at Yale in 1835, and was studying medicine when he died.
SMITH, THOMAS MATHER, oldest son of Rev. Daniel, (see pre- ceding sketch,) was born in Stamford, March 7, 1796. He graduated at Yale College in 1816 ; and after spending a year with his unele, Hon. John Cotton Smith, he entered the theo- logieal seminary, where he graduated in theology in 1820. In 1822 he was ordained to the work of the ministry, and settled over the Third Congregation church, in Portland, Maine. Ile, also, was settled as Congregational pastor at Fall River, Mass .; at Catskill, N. Y .; and at New Bedford, Mass. While here, his views of church polity changing, he embraced the Episco- pal theory, and was ordained deacon, by Bishop Smith, of Kentucky ; and the next year, priest, by Bishop Eastman, of Massachusetts. In 1845, he was appointed Milnor Professor of Systematie Divinity at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. In 1850 he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, by
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Bowdoin College. He remained at his post in Kenyon College until t863,-discharging its duties, which were often very exact. ing,-having embraced at times those of president of the institu- tion, with great acceptance and success. On his resignation, in 1863, he was honored as Emeritus Professor.
The following testimony is borne to his character by his classmate, Rev. Dr. W. C. Fowler, of Durham, Conn. He says, .. What struck me was his fine social nature. Perhaps the reason of this was, that his mother and my mother were first cousins, through their grandfather, Rev. William Worthington. He always met me as a cousin, frank, confiding, affectionate. The movements of his mind were easy and natural, not requiring any special excitement to bring them into play. His emotional nature was healthy and easily stirred, but also controlled, so far as I saw, by the proprieties of time and place. He was always a good schol- 'ar, with the power of being a better one. In short, I think he showed, while in college, in perceptible embryo, the same mental characteristics, which in subsequent life were so finely developed and matured."
Mr. Smith married, Sept. 26, 1822, Mary G. eldest danghter of Rev. Dr. Leonard Woods, of Andover, Mass. They had six children, three of whom died in infancy. Ilis son, John Cotton Smith, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1847; studied theol- ogy at the seminary of which his father was a professor, and is now a popular preacher of the Episcopal denomination in New York city. He, also, has been honored with a doctorate of divinity.
SMITH, JAMES W., oklest son of Philander and Clarissa (Holly) Smith, was born on Longridge, July 8, 1810. Ile fitted for college under the late Hawley Olmstead, Esq., of Wilton, having the work of the ministry in view. His physician think- ing his health would never allow him to be a preacher, dissuad- ed him from the attempt, and he devoted himself to the study of medicine, graduating at the New York Medical College; and was commissioned by the American Board as physician to their Sandwich Island mission in 1842. While engaged in the work of his profession as missionary physician, he was also called to the office of lay preaeher ; and such was the urgency of the calls upon him, that he was, in 1954, ordained as pastor of the church
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in Koloa, on the island of Kanai. Here we soon find him in full charge of the missionary work at his station, and gathering around him and training faithful native helpers.
We next find him so strongly endeared to his people, that they are ready to propose supporting him, themselves. Accord- ingly we find him, in 1851, asking a release from the service of the Board, and since that date he has been supported by the people whom he was appointed to lift up out of the degradation of heathenism. During his residence on the island he has filled several important offices, and in them all has commended him- self to the people.
He married Millicent Knapp, of North Greenwich, a sister of the two excellent christian ministers, Revs. Horton, and Jared D. Knapp. They have had nine children, of whom seven are still living; William Owen, Jared Knapp, Alfred Holly, Emma, Lottie, Melina and Juliett.
SMITH, TRUMAN, a native of Roxbury, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1815, and entered the legal profession, in which he became one of our most eminent jurists and advocates. Entering upon public civil life, he became as representative and senator from Connecticut in the United States Congress,-one of our ablest statesmen. In 1853 he removed to Stamford, where he has since then resided. His first wife was Maria Cook, of Litch- field, who died April 20, 1849, leaving one daughter, Jenny P. now Mrs. George A. Hoyt, of Stamford. His second wife was Mary A. Dickenson, by whom he has had six children.
On the organization of the Court of Claims, to decide eases arising under the various acts growing out the rebellion, Mr. Smith was appointed one of the judges, holding the offlee until the court terminated. No generation of Connecticut jur- ists or statesmen has furnished us an example of more diligent and successful working, or of more uncompromising loyalty to the welfare of the people.
STEVENS, EDWIN, was the son of deacon David and Stevens, of Ponus street, in what is now New Canaan. He was
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born July 4, 1802, and graduated at Yale with honor in 1828. He was also tutor in Yale in 1831 and '2. In 1831, he was licensed as preacher by the New Haven East Association, and became a christian missionary. He commenced this service as chaplain to our seamen in the East, and for three years had his home in Canton, laboring in season and out of season for the temporal good of this long neglected elass. In 1838, he was transferred from the support of the Seaman's Friend Society, to that of the American Board of Foreign Missions. He started in March of this year, with those apostolic missionaries, Rev. Messrs. Gutzlaff and Medhurst, on a tour up the coast from Canton. They ascended the Min, four days journey, without opposition, but on the fifth day their course was arrested by hostile demonstrations from the natives. They were fired upon, and two of their company, which numbered eighteen souls, were wounded, and the attempt to proceed further was post- poned. The time had not yet come for that populous territory to be opened to the intercourse of foreigners, and they, the teachers of a new religion. They succeeded in retreating down the Min, and eoasting along the shore; and, stopping where allowed, they distributed books and held such conferences with the natives as might promote their work. In Shantung, alone, in two days, they succeeded in distributing 1,000 volumes of religious works, and wherever they could come in contact with the people, not over-persuaded by the presence of suspicious officials, they found a readiness to entertain their message and receive their books.
But the government were soon on the guard, and the move- ments of the missionary party were effectually arrested. Their voyage was the first ever made by missionaries along that coast for the purpose of evangelizing those teeming millions, without first coneiliating them by the gift or sale of opium. On the temporary interruption of their labors, Mr. Stevens applied himself with very great snecess to the mastery of the Mandarin. the national language of China.
In December, 1836, he started on board the Ilimmaleh, to
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visit several of the islands in the Indian archipelago, to examine the spiritual condition of the people and distribute among them such books as he might be able to induce them to take. In the proseention of this pioneer missionary work, he touched at Sin- gapore on the 15th of the month. The fever of that climate suddenly seized him, and terminated his life, Jan. 5, 1837.
IIis co-laborers in the field where he so prematurely fell, agree in testifying to his great worth. His loss was deeply felt by them. They had proved his great excellence. His scholarship and his deep-toned piety were alike needed, and they felt that the loss of them was irreparable. Their testimony of him is :
" He possessed a mature judgment and remarkable decision of character, a holy intrepidity in facing dangers that came in the path of duty. From his conversion, the Bible was bis constant companion. 'Christ, our rock, was pre-eminently his theme. Accuracy characterized him as a Chinese student. His knowledge of the Bible and critical study of it, marked him out as an invaluable assistant in the future revisions of the Scriptures into Chinese; and to this his own attention seemed to be turned."
TODD, AMBROSE SEYMOUR, D. D., son of Rev. Ambrose and Lavinia Todd, was born in Huntington, Conn., Dec. 6, 1798.
He was ordained deacon in the Episcopal church, July 15, 1820, and priest, June 30, 1823, by Bishop Brownell, and insti- tuted rector of St. John's church, Stamford. For nearly forty years he remained in charge of the St. John's parish. With more than ordinary ability in the pulpit, he showed great tact and wisdom in his pastoral oversight of his charge. Few men have secured more universal esteem. Few pastors have won so much regard and confidence, at the same time, from both their own and other denominations. His death occurred here June 22, 1861.
The following extract from the funeral address, delivered by Bishop Williams, is a fitting testimonial to his ministerial fidel- ity and success :
"This ministry, with its trials and its cheer, our brother exercised faith- fully through more than twice a score of years, and-what is specially remarkable in these days of change-for almost the entire period in a single cure. And he was permitted to live to sce great fruits spring from th s .
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long-continued and faithful labors. What was the one cure, thirty-eight years ago, forms to-day five parishes, with seven churches and chapels duly consecrated, served-till he himself was removed-by seven clergy- men.
"In this immediate parish, the humble edifice that iu the beginning more than served its needs, has given place to this in which we meet to- day; and this has been once enlarged itself, and there is added to it now another house of God. Thirty-six years ago, the number of those who gath. ered to the Lord's table, in all the cure, was ninety; to-day, the roll com- prises the names of near five hundred.
These are some tangible and visible results, whose testimony comes be. fore us to-day, and whose witness is laid up on high. But, brethren, how much more is there which is not written, which cannot be written here- which man's eye can never see, of which man's lip can never speak, and which, after all, is the true and living history of this, as of every other faith- ful pastorship! The unwritten story of the spiritual lives of the genera- tion of this people that has passed away; the sermons preached; the baptisms and eucharists administered; the young trained and led on to confirmation; the sick visited and prepared for death; sinners pointed and brought to the blood of Jesus; the pastoral counsels, the priestly labors, the ministrations to the poor and the afflicted, the public service, and the work from house to house-what a history do all these make up-what a testimony do they bear !"
Nor is the following testimony, from the excellent discourse preached on the Sunday following his death, by his assistant and successor, Rev. Walter Mitchell, less beautiful or illustrative of the character and influence of the man :
"Thirty-eight years are this day completed since he knett before the same altar where, thirty-six years before that, his father had knelt, to re- ceive, at the hands of Bishop Seabury, the commission to preach and to baptize. Thirty-eight years are this day fulfilled, during which his life has been all your own. Its story is better known to you than to me ; for what I have but heard, you-at least many of you-have seen and felt. Yet I may allude to facta, long since occurred, which may have passed from your memories. At the time of his eoming, the town of New Caanan was within the same charge, and for one or two years it was his constaut custom to mount his horse, at the close of the second service here, and to ride over roads far less easy of travel than at present, to repeat his ministrations at that distant station. In addition to this, his cure extended over what is now Darien on the east and Greenwich on the west. And that was then no nominal labor. As I have gone with him upon his more distant visitings,
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there would scarcely be a house at which had he not at some time held ser- vices. For every funeral, almost every occasion at which believers were called together, was then held to be a fit time aud place for the pastoral voice to he heard. Through the whole extent of this and the neighboring townships-a territory as wide as the See of many a primitive bishop-there is hardly a place not associated with his labors.
During the period of his ministry, he preached more than four thousand five hundred times, exclusive of extempore addresses and funeral discour- ses ; performed over four hundred funerat services ; baptized over five hun- dred infants and more than one hundred adults, and presented for con- firmation three hundred and twenty-six persons. He also fulfilled the duties of Trustee of the General Theological Seminary and of the Berk- ley Divinity School, at Middletown, of this diocese, and represented the diocese as a deiegate to the eventful General Assembly of 1311. The de- gree of Doctor of Divinity was the same year conferred on him by Colum- bia College. He was the first to propose aud to organize the county meetings of the clergy of Fairfield county, and to his efficient aid and counsel, they owed, for many years their success.
WATERBURY, DAVID, Jr., son of John and Susanna Water- bury was born in Stamford, Feb. 12, 1722. ITis prominence as one of the military actors in our revolutionary struggle will justify the space which our sketch of him must occupy in our town history. We probably had several citizens engaged with the patriots in that memorable contest, who in many respects were his superiors ; but he attained, and, as we are increasingly convinced, not without merit, a rank in the service higher than any of them.
That he had already seen service in the French and Indian War has been elsewhere shown. That he was ready at the opening of the revolutionary struggle to enter heartily into the service of the patriot cause, is most abundantly evinced by the responsible military offices he accepted and honored. Our first introduction to him as a military officer in the revolutionary war, we have through the following letter from Gen. Lee :
NEW HAVEN, Jan'ry ye 16th, 1775.
SIR :- It is with the greatest concern that I am informed you have re- ceived orders to disband the men whom you had engaged. The important news from Canada renders it necessary that they should without loss of time be re-assembled. I must request therefore that you will immediately
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call'em together. I will myself answer for the measure to the Continental Congress. I entreat and conjure you therefore that they may be re-enlisted and equipped for service with all possible expedition. As to the arrange- ment of your officers you shall receive instructions before the men can be assembled. For God's sake lose no time. Every thing, perhaps the fate of America depends upon your expedition.
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