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 34
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I am sir, your most obedient servant, CHARLES LLE, Major General.
To Colonel Waterbury, Stamford.
Early in March we find Col. Waterbury with his regiment. recruited, and ready to march from Stamford. He preceded them himself to New York, to prepare for the coming action. The colonel finds at Kingsbridge a deputation of citizens, earnestly pleading with him not to enter the city, as the enemy had sworn to fire it, if revolutionary troops should be found in it. But the Connectient men had enlisted for the fight, and under their leader they were not inclined to cede any part of the domain to the rule of King George's troops : and we ac- accordingly find him quartered in the upper part of the city.
On the sixth of March he is still in the city and is ordered to send down from the upper barracks, Wm. Lounsbury and others confined there for spiking our guns beyond King's Bridge. They were sent down, according to orders and on be- ing tried and found guilty were remanded to the same confine- ment.
We next find him at the head of his regiment, a thousand strong, leaving Harlaem the third Tuesday of July, 1775, for Albany. August 28th, he embarks from Ticonderago for Isle aux Noix, fourteen miles below St. John, toward which the army were now moving. The object of the campaign was the permanent occupancy of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, they having just been taken from the British, who had held posses- sion of both forts since the memorable campaign of 1759.
On his return from his northern expedition in January, 1776, Col. Waterbury was ordered by President Hancock to raise five or six hundred men and go over to Long Island to capture tories who had refused to vote for deputies to the convention
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to be held in New York. It appears that when he had gathered his quota of men his orders were countermanded. A letter of the colonel is preserved in the American Archives to President Hancock, dated New York, Sept. 15, 1775, asking for indem- nity for his expenses for the preparations then made. Though he seems not to have pursued the tories on the Island, he had done very efficient service among their sympathizers in West- chester county. Great complaint was made of his severity towards that class of traitors. He seems to have shown them no mercy. One of the reasons given by citizens in this vicinity for going over to the enemy was the excessive rigor of Colonel Waterbury. So Elisha Davis, of Greenwich, testifies for him- self, when he made a plea for the restoration of his estate. In February, 1776, Colonel Samuel Drake, of Westchester, made, an appeal for thirty guns, two pair of hoisters, nine entlasses, and three pistols, which the officious colonel had taken from suspected citizens within his jurisdiction, by orders from General Lee. The following testimony regarding the colonel bears date March 2, 1776, and shows us how jealous he was of every hin. drance to the progress of the Revolution : " Jos. Cheeseman, of New York, testifies that this day being on board a boat in Peck's Slip, he heard Col. Waterbury say that he had for some time thought that things would not go well unless the city of New York was crushed down, and that it must be done by their people before things would go well." (Am. Archives, vol. v.)
That this sensitiveness to the toryism of the day did not dis- qualify the colonel for his military position, the following order shows :
CAMBRIDOE, March 15, 1776.
SIR :- You are to proceed with the regiment under your command to Nor- wich, in Connecticut. His excellency expects you will preserve good order and discipline upon your march. . The general, depending upon your zeal, experience and good conduct, is satisfied that on your part no vigilance will be wanting.
Col. D. Waterbury, jun.
HORATIO GATES, Adjutant General.
The following correspondence exhibits still further the esti- mate in which Colonel Waterbury's services at this period were held :
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LENANON April 29, 1776.
Sin :- David Waterbury. jun., of Stamford, Esquire, Col. of a regiment from this colony in the northern department the last year, and at the taking of St. Johns and Montreal, and lately in the service at New York with major general Lee ; at all times behaved with bravery and honor. When you have a vacancy in the army answerable to his rank, I do heartily com- mend him to your kind notice and regard.
I am with great esteem and regard, sir, your obd. humble servant, To his Excelleney Gen. Washington. JONA. TRUMBULL.
NEW YORK, May 13, 1776.
SIR :- Gov. Trumbull has been pleased to mention you to me as a proper person to succeed to the command of a regiment lately General Arnold's. If you incline to engage in the service again, I shall be obliged to you for signifying as much, in order that I may lay the matter before congress for their approval.
I am, sir, with great respect, your most obd. servant, To Colonel David Waterbury, of Stamford. GEO. WASHINGTON.
In his reply to this proposal of Gen. Washington, the colonel complains that he had not hitherto received the promotion which was his dne, and while he asked no further commission, he pledges his readiness to volunteer his services at any moment when they may be needed.
The general assembly in their session of June, 1776, appointed Col. Waterbury a brigadier general "in the battalions of mil- itia now to be raised to reinforce the continental army in Canada."
On the 5th of July, at the head of the first division of the continental forces, he reached New York, sharing the command of that division with General Wadsworth. With all possible dispatch the men are hurried to the scene of the opening campaign on Lake George.
The general himself reports from Skeensborough, July the 15th, where he is forwarding troops to Ticonderoga, as fast as they can come up.
Under date of July 18th, he again writes to Washington as follows :
"DEAR SIR : I received your favor of the 16th, and your honor may rest assured that I shall execute the orders as far as lies in my powor I would
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inform your honor there are no troops arrived yet. I have had intelligence of their being on the march to this place, and I hope they will soon arrive. I have a small party now clearing out Wood Creek and a small party build- ing a place proper to keep a guard on the hill east of the mill ; and the rest are employed in getting timber for the carpenters and mills, and on guard. I have not men sufficient to begin the fortifications on the west side of the mill. Your honor will see by the returns that there are but few men here ; but what there are I shall endeavor to keep well employed ; and as soon as others come in, I shall do the same by them. I have picked up all the axes, and the blacksmiths have overhauled them. I shall stund in great need of tools on the arrival of troops.
Sir, I shall with pleasure receive your onlers as you see cause to send them, and hope I shall be able to put them into execution agreeably to your honor's expectation. DAVID WATERBURY, jr."
From this time, until early in September, he remained here in command, exercising the utmost dispatch in drilling and transmitting recruits. His labors must have been very great, as his letters and special dispatches of that period evince. A large number of these letters are preserved in the American Archives; and it is not saying too much of them to claim that they show the general to have been an earnest patriot and a faithful servant of the people in that day of their great strug- gle. The only one of these letters which our space will allow us to use is that of August 31st. It discloses both the humani- ty and the fidelity of the general. It was addressed to his superior offleer, General Gates,
Sin :- Col. Woodbridge and his major have been detained in this neigh- borhood fourteen days, in consequence' of having been inoculated and not bringing certificates that they were properly cleansed ; and they grow un- casy that they are kept back. I shall be glad to know if your honor intends I shall let them go forward to Ticonderoga, If not I shall be glad to have some instructions how to act concerning them.
I am, dear general, your honor's most obd. humble servant,
DAVID WATERBURY, Jr.
That the general was held in high (steem among the highest officers in the army is abundantly attested, by the army cor- respondence of that day. Under date of Ang. 7, 1776, General Schuyler thus writes to him from German Flats :
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"I thank you for your attention, and the information you gave. MIy long stay here very much distresses me. It is however a great alleviation of my anxiety that you are at Skeensborough, and I am confident you will expedite the work as much as possible. I am, dear general, sincerely your most obedient humble servant, PHILIP SCHUYLER."
Under date of Ang. 18, 1776, General Gates, then in com- mand of the northern army, thus commends and endorses Gen- oral Waterbury : " As he is an able seaman and a brave officer, I intend that he shall join General Arnold with the rest of the squadron, the instant they can be armed and equipped. As General Arnold and he are upon the best terms, I am satisfied no dispute about command or want of confidence in each other will retard the public service."
And, again, Aug. 20th, General Schuyler thus writes to Gen- eral Gates: "I am extremely happy that General Waterbury is to join General Arnold. I know him to be a good man as well as a good officer."
General Waterbury was appointed, Sept. 2nd, second officer in the fleet nnder General Arnold, then in Lake Champlain ; and on the eighth, he started for Ticonderoga to take this new command. On the second of the following month he sailed from Ticonderoga with two galleys to join the fleet.
+ On the fourteenth, a letter from Sir Guy Carleton to Lord Germain introduces General Waterbury to us as a prisoner. IIe ends his account of their victory with this exultation : " We have taken Mr. Waterbury, the second in command, one of their brigadier generals."
The following dispatches also show him to be a prisoner of war, yet show in what esteem he is held by his superior in command.
SARATOGA, Oct. 18, 1776.
SIR :- General Waterbury, who is prisoner on his parole, is on his way trom Albany to Connecticut. I have advised him to go directly from Al- bany to you. He is capable of ¡giving you that information you requested in your last favour to me. He is not only a brave and good officer, but a candid and honest man, uninfluenced by any unbecoming prejudices. He will also acquaint you with our affairs at Ticonderoga.
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I am, most respectfully, sir, your obedient and very bumble servant, To the Hon. Jona. Trumbull.
PH. SCHUYLER.
Oct. 23, 1776.
General Waterbury has entreated me to recommend him to congress to bs exchanged for General M3Donald, or any other officer. I wish it to be accomplish ed. PH. SCHUYLER.
To John Hancock.
A lengthy letter from General Waterbury, dated Stamford, Oct. 24, 1779, and addressed to President Hancock, giving his account of his capture, is preserved in the American Archives.
The general was soon exchanged. I do not find that he was afterwards in any special engagement, though he was contin- ued in command.
He returned to his native town, where he was held in honor by his townsmen. He served the town as selectman, and as representative in the state legislature. His residence was on the west side of our harbor. where his business was that of a farmer.
He died June 29, 1801, and was buried in the old burying lot, on the west side of Mill River. His widow, Mary, died Nov. 7, 1810, aged 77 years. They left one son, William, who was a man considerably in public business of the town, known as William Waterbury 4th. He left, also, one daughter, Mary, who died single, at twenty-six years of age.
WATERBURY, CHARLES, son of Jonathan B. and Betsey (Weed) Waterbury, was born here, in November 1819. He learned the saddler's trade in Bridgeport, but on the opening of the New York and New Haven Railroad, he engaged in the service of the railroad as baggage master. He afterwards served as bag- gage master, conductor and assistant superintendent on the Naugatuck road, until he was appointed, in 1843, its superin- tendent, which office he held until his death in 1868. Few meu in these offices, have commended themselves more fully to the traveling public than he has always done. Modest and retiring in disposition, he was nevertheless a prompt and most efficient business man. The Waterbury dust-excluding veutilator, which
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a few years ago added so much to the comfort of passengers over his road, during the summer months, was his invention, and from the sale of the patent he realized a handsome sum. Mr. Waterbury was also an earnest christian man, and has been for years connected with the second Congregational church in Bridgeport. ITis funeral, which was attended in Bridgeport, on Sunday Sept. 6, 1868, was a marked tribute to his private and public worth. Ile married Cordelia Lockwood, of Green- wIch, who survives him. They had no children.
CHARLES WEBB was the son of Charles and Mary Smith Webb, and was born here, Feb. 13, 1724. Ile became early prominent in civil and military affairs, as the town records abundantly show. In 1757 he was chosen selectman for the first time, and was afterwards re-elected nineteen times. In 1758 he was chosen for the first time to represent the town in the state legislature, and was re-elected to the same office twenty-three times. At this date he had become so promi- nent as to be entitled by vote to the third pew in the meeting house. Ile was also a military man, having attained, in 1760, the rank of captain. On the opening of the revolutionary war, he was at once looked to as one of the leaders of the town in opposition to the demands of the crown. We find him in the state legislature, and at home, speaking for the war; and when at length the war had been declared, we find him entrusted with posts of weighty responsibility, both in eivil and military life.
In May, 1775, he was sent by the Continental Congress on a tour of military investigation to Ticonderoga, of which he made a satisfactory report on the 8th of June following. In July of this year the legislature commissioned him colonel, and he is put in command of a regiment of the state militia, and is stationed at Greenwich. In September he is ordered to New Haven, and in Oct. 23, he writes from his camp, Winter Hill, that he has now prepared his command for any service to which General Washington may call them,
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He was in the battle of White Plains, Oct. 28, where he won for himself the reputation of an excellent and bold officer. The following certificate from the colonel is preserved in the American Archives.
HARTFORD, June 16, 1777.
" I hereby certify that in the action at the White Plains, on rhe 28th of October, 1776, the regiment then under my command, in obedience to my orders unslung and laid down their packs to engage the enemy ; and the enemy overpowering and gaining the ground, said packs and the baggage of the regimeut fell inte the hands of the enemy without the default of the losses and by the merit of the chance of war.
CHAS. WEBB, Col. 19 Regt.
Considerable loss of clothing and arins was sustained by the regiment under my command in the action and retreat on Long Island in August list, none of which, so far as came to my knowledge, appeared to happen thro any neglect or disobedience of orders of the loosers ; also on York Is - land Sept. 15, 1776, said regiment were ordered by Gen. Scott to unsling their packs to engage the enemy, which we did accordingly, and the enemy advanced ; and precipitate retreat being ordered, said packs fell into their hands and without any neglect or cowardice of the owners, so far as I could judge.
Hartford, June 2, 1777."
He was also at the battle of White Marsh, December 1777, where his regiment received the attack of the Hessian force. The struggle was very spirited, and his regiment lost eighty- four killed on the field and a large number wounded.
As an officer, Colonel Webb was marked for his promptness and efficiency. He was a strict disciplinarian. Thoroughly in sympathy with the revolutionary movement himself, he could accept nothing less than a whole-hearted earnestness in all who were engaged in its support. He tolerated no patriotism which suspicion could touch.
He married here, July 16, 1747, Mary Holly. Their children were, Charles, born Dec. 30, 1750 ; Sarah, born May 2, 1753; Hannah, born May 28, 1756; Samuel, born March 7, 1760; and Isaac, born July 28, 1766.
The son Charles was with his father in the revolutionary army, and was killed on a gun boat in the Sound but a short
54
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
distance from Stamford harbor. He had married here, Feb. 15, 1772, Elizabeth Smith, and had a daughter, Betsey, born Oct. 16, 1772.
WEED, CHARLES A., son of Smith and Mary (Youngs) Weed, was born in Stamford, May 13, 1826. He had been liv- ing in Richmond about nine years, when the southern rebellion opened, and had about fifteen thousand dollars invested in his business. As he would not renounce his allegiance to the govern- ment of the United States, the local authorities took possession of his property and gave him a few hours to leave the city with his family. He accepted the terms and removed bis family again to Stamford, preferring even poverty, if it must be so, to treason.
When at length in the progress of our Union arinies, Gen. Butler had taken possession of New Orleans and the surround- ing country, Mr. Weed was at liberty to avail himself of the advantages offered to loyal citizens. He had been despoiled by the rebellion of his entire property, and the chance was now offered to him to wrest from the rebellion many times his loss.
He found on reaching New Orleans, in July, 1862, the large plantations of the neighborhood covered with crops, which the fugitive planters had sown, now neglected and in danger of being utterly lost. Under governmental protection he went to the work of gathering in the erops. He hired the negroes who had been abandoned by their masters, giving to the govern- ment one half of the products secured, and abundantly indem- nifying himself for the loses he had sustained in Richmond.
Since then he has been engaged in business in New Orleans, where he has had an extensive commission house under the firm of C. A. Weed & Co. His enterprise is also shown in other ways. He found the old New Orleans Crescent in a bankrupt condition, purchased it, and substituting for it the New Orleans Times, has built up the largest and one of the most successful newspaper enterprises of the South, He was also the original mover of the First National Bank of the city,
Calleed
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and the largest stockholder in it. He was offered the presi- dency of it, but refused. He, also, projected the New Orleans Fire Insurance Company, which has also grown to be an insti- tution of great local value.
Mr. Weed is now erecting a family residence on Noro ton hill, one of the most commanding sites in his native town, which is to be for the present, the summer, and which he intends to make the permanent residence of his family. He married in 1826, Abigail S. Lounsbury, daughter of Samuel Lounsbury, and has four children, three sons and one daughter.
WEED, EDWARD, son of Philo and Abigail - Weed, was born in the north part of the town, July 17, 1807. In 1817 his parents removed to the town of Denmark, New York, where from the frontier condition of that neighborhood, but few priv- ilges could be enjoyed.
At the usual age he commenced learning a trade ; but on his conversion, in his eighteenth year, longing to do all in his power to win others to the Saviour, he left his trade and began studying in the hope of beeoming a preacher. In two years he had fitted himself to teach, and engaged for the winter of 1826-7 in a school in Boonville, N. Y. During this time he was very actively engaged in christian labors, and showed a zeal and skill which promised much future usefulness. The next summer he entered the Oneida Institute, then just estab- lished on the manual labor plan, where he remained four years. He spent also three years in Lane Seminary from its opening in 1832, when he showed himself an honest christian scholar.
Among the questions discussed at the literary society of the students, that of anti-slavery forced itself upon their attention. It elieited the intensest interest, and became so engrossing as to excite the fears of the trustees of the seminary; and they soon prohibited its further discussion. Several of the students, of whom Mr. Weed was one, left the seminary, and spent some time in the careful study of the interdieted subject, and became henceforth zealous and effective champions of the slave.
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
He was licensed to preach by the Chilicothe Presbytery in November, 1835, and entered upon this work with a zeal al- most apostolic. He soon engaged in lecturing npon anti-slavery, and was employed by the Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society. In this field of labor he was unwearied, through evil report as well as good, counting not his own life dear unto him, if by its sac- rifice he might help the oppressed. He labored on, amid op- position and ridicule and persecution, until the spring of 1838, when he was invited to the pastorate of the free Presbyterian Church of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Here he labored with great acceptance until the year 1842, when he accepted a call to Pat- erson, N. J. While connected with this church he labored ex- tensively as a revivalist in many other churches, and was greatly blessed. In January, 1842, he was, greatly to the sor- row of his church and people in Paterson, dismissed, that he might take charge of the free Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, N. Y. He returned to his former charge in Paterson, after an absence of fifteen months, was installed and continued to labor among them until his health failed in the spring of 1849, and he was obliged to ask for a dismission. Hoping to recover his strength, he accepted a kind invitation from captain Knight, of the ship New World to take the ocean trip with him on his next voyage to Liverpool. While in England he made many warm friends who ministered to his comfort and supplied all his earthly wants. But no care from them and no solicitude of the dearer ones he had left behind, could arrest the progress of his disease. It was decided by his physicians that he could not long live, and he resolved to return and die among his friends at home. He reached home Dec. 22, 1850, and lived until Jan. 20, 1851. On the 23rd he was buried in Paterson amid the tears of an affectionate family and an endeared people. He had been greatly beloved for his great excellence of character, and the mourning was now most heart-felt, because his great usefulness had so soon ended.
Mr. Weed married for his first wife, Nov. 5. 1836, Phebe Mathews of Mexicoville, N. Y. She died Dec. 12, 1843. He
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married for his second wife, Sept. 9, 1844, a Miss Porter, of Whitestown, who survived him. He had four children, to whom allusion is made in his memoir; Benjamin, Josephine, Edward and Albert.
WEED, ENos, was one of the most erratic characters that Stamford has produced. He was the son of Enos. He was a man of considerable originality, thinking independently of books, and practicing, in everything, with no special regard to the rules or usages of customary practice. He went into med- icine, and became somewhat noted as a medical adviser and practitioner, but, in his own way. Ile went into letters, and constructed a spelling book with many novelties, both in the alphabet employed and in the orthography.
He went also into religion and theology. Following no school or sect, he struck out for himself, and became a preacher, whom, though the orthodox could not wholly endorse, they could not utterly condemn. It may be due his memory to note the fact that with all his eccentricity, he was counted worthy, in 1790, of being appointed leader of the first Methodist class established in Stamford ; and that he was an authorized local preacher in that denomination.
A single specimen of his genius and spirit is here inserted, taken from an old paper to which he sometimes contributed, and probably nothing which the historian could write, would so effectually set this unique son of the town so exactly before the reader as this autobiographie waif:
My name is Enos Weed, and junior too, Which is something more, It shows that Weeds have grown before. Long as you see this in the paper, From place to place I mean to caper, And pick up all the cash I can, Conforming to my present plan,
How large the " pile" was, which his capers gathered, history does not show.
WEED, NATHANIEL, son of Hezekiah and Rebecca (Knapp) Weed, was born in Stamford, Oct. 1, 1785. He is a descend-
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