USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Torrington > History of Torrington, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1737, with biographies and genealogies > Part 42
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He came, he touched the cords, 'tis done ! The chain is snapt; the vessel leaves the shore.
420
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
WILLIAM BATTELL
Came from Woodbury about 1784, and settled as a merchant at Torringford, where he lived and died. His business career was one of honor and success until 1808, when he sold his store to his sons Joseph and William, and gave his attention to farming and a quiet independent life until his death, Feb. 29, 1832. As illustrative of the careful manner in which he commenced his business transactions at Torringford, it is said that Dr. Woodward went to his store to buy a skillet and Mr. Battell would not trust him, and that the doctor in later life, frequently laughed about it, as quite a joke.
Mr. Battell became extensively and favorably known throughout the county and the state and in his store did a large business for many years, being in competition with Doctor Hodges' store on the west side of the town, and being nearer Hartford had quite the ad- vantage over the west side. He was entrusted largely in public of- fices and the business responsibilities of the town, and in all was not only regarded as competent but of superior judgment and executive ability ; a kind of dignity and honor being still coupled with his name as a citizen that marks him with pre-eminence among the citi- zens of the town and also of the county. This store was the chief place of resort and public gathering for the news until about 1810, when Nathaniel Smith's store took the lead. .
In those times it was deemed wise and entertaining to amuse com- pany by jokes, and by taking advantage of sayings and doings of in- dividuals to create merriment, and in this Father Mills was not far behind the chief of all of them. Having occasion, as every body did in those days, to go to the store for some rum he took a teakettle instead of a bottle, in which to carry it home. Mr. Battell said, " why did you bring a teakettle ?" said Father Mills, "I did not know but that it might want boiling down a little." Such a suggestion is thought to have more pertinency at the present day than when Mr. Battell kept store ; but it is also believed that the more water to-day, the less the poison.
For further account of Mr. Battell's store, see page seventy five.
JOSEPH BATTELL,
Son of William and Sarah (Buckingham) Battell, was born in Mil- ford, July 21, 1774. The family removed soon after to Woodbury and thence to Torringford, where he was engaged in his father's store
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BIOGRAPHIES.
except the time devoted to schooling. In 1792, at the age of eighteen years, he went to Norfolk, Ct., and commenced business as a mer- chant, for himself, where he continued forty-six years, being very successful, and becoming extensively and honorably known at the south and west, as well as at home. He was one of the earliest and most liberal donors to the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and to the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, of which he was a director. He was a trustee of Middlebury college, and received the honorary title of Master of Arts from that institution. He often re- presented Norfolk in the legislature.
He married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Ammi R. Robbins, first pastor of the church in Norfolk. The first year of their married life, they adopted as a son, her nephew William Lawrence, who married Caroline A. Rockwell of Colebrook, and resided at North- ampton, Mass., where he died Feb. 22, 1867, aged 65 years. They subsequently had nine children : Joseph, Philip, Sarah, Irene, Urania, Anna, Robbins, John, Ellen. He died Nov. 30, 1841, aged 67. She died Sept. 23, 1854, aged 75 years. Their son Joseph was graduated at Middlebury college in 1823, Philip at the same institution in 1826, and Robbins at Yale in 1839. Their daughter Sarah married Rev. Joseph Eldridge, D.D., who was ordained pastor of the church in Norfolk, April 25, 1832, which office he held until his decease in 1875. Irene married Rev. William A. Larned, who was ordained pastor of the church in Millbury, Mass., in May, 1834, and dis- missed in October, 1835 ; was associated with Rev. N. S. S. Beeman, D.D., and Rev. E. A. Kirk, in teaching in a theological institution at Troy, N. Y., three years, and was professor of rhetoric and English literature in Yale college from the autumn of 1839 until his decease in February, 1862. Urania married Hon. James Hum- phrey, who began the practice of law in Louisville, Ky., in 1836 ; re- moved to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1838, and followed his profession in New York city nearly thirty years in the eminent law firm of Butler, Barney and Humphrey ; was sent to the legislature, and was elected to congress in 1858 and 1864, and died while a member of congress in June, 1866. Ellen married Rev. Azariah Eldridge, D.D., pastor of the North Congregational church in New Bedford, Mass., from 1847 to 1856 ; pastor of Fort street Presbyterian church, Detroit, Mich., from 1858 to 1865, and preacher at the American chapel at Paris, France, from 1866 to 1868.
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HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
MRS. ANN S. BATTELL LOOMIS,
Daughter of William and Sarah (Buckingham) Battell of Torringford, married Rev. Harvey Loomis in 1811. She died, July 27, 1861, aged 78 years ; the same age of her sister Mrs. McEwan. See biography of Mr. Loomis.
REV. JAMES BEACH
Was born in Winchester June 10, 1780, but when one year old his parents removed to Torrington where he was brought up. He was the son of John and Mercy (Bassett) Beach of Torrington. His years of childhood were spent on the old homestead of his grandfather, Capt. Abel Beach, near Torrington church. He united with the church September 1, 1799, at the same time with Rev. Timothy P. Gillett and the Rev. Luther Hart, having entered into the experimental part of religious life that year during the revival under Mr. Gillett. His exercises of mind, during several days previous to his obtaining hope of acceptance through Jesus, the Savior, were very great and of great discouragement. He walked the fields in meditation ; read his Bible with much earnestness, sought the counsels of those in whom he had confidence as Christians, and for a time seemed in great doubt as to any intentions of good in the Divine Being, towards him. But light came and the day was one of decided joy and hope ; and from that day he was very decided in his religious convictions, and very earnest and continuous in his efforts to make known the hope of the gospel. He graduated at Williams college ; studied theology under Rev. Asahel P. Hooker of Goshen, 1804-5 ; and after a brief can- didacy was called to and ordained pastor of the First Congregational church of Winsted, Conn., on a salary of three hundred and fifty dollars a year, with an advance of funds to purchase a dwelling, repayable in yearly installments.
He was sound, dignified, and conservative ; faithful in his paro- chial duties ; especially in his pastoral visits and his supervision of the schools. The faithfulness of his ministry was attested by re- peated revivals and the exemplary lives of most of the converts. He was dismissed from his pastorate at his own request, January 26 1842, but continued his residence in Winsted until his death on the Ioth day of June, 1850, at the age of seventy years.
His character and standing in the ministry are happily portrayed in the following sketch by Rev. Dr. Eldredge of Norfolk, an adjoining parish.
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BIOGRAPHIES.
" Rev. Mr. Beach had been settled in the ministry at Winsted many years when I came to reside at Norfolk. I immediately formed his acquaintance, and soon came to look on him with filial affection and confidence, feelings that I continued to entertain towards him to the end of his life.
Mr. Beach was endowed with strong intellectual powers. His bias was more towards the practical than the merely speculative. This tendency, combined with a calm temperament, fitted him to be a wise counselor, and a most useful member of our ecclesiastical association.
His disposition was social and genial. He was a pleasant man to meet. He had a considerate regard for his ministerial brethren, in respect to their feelings and reputations ; rejoiced in their successes and their usefulness. I never saw him out of temper, never heard him utter a harsh or censorious remark. He never thrust himself forward, but was more disposed to stand back and make room for others.
I heard him preach but a few times. His sermons were full of truth clearly and plainly expressed. In their delivery he was earnest but never impassioned, perhaps more of emotion would have improved them. His prayers in public, especially those on special occasions, such as ordinations, and the like, were very remarkable for their case, their felicitous adaptation in all respects to the circumstances of the case, and the happy introduction of spiritual quotations ; and at the same time remarkable for their exemption from everything of the nature of effort at display, and for their simple tone and humble earnestness.
My recollections of Father Beach, as I used to call him, are very dear to me. I loved him in life, and lamented him in death, and feel that I owe it to his kindness and his encouragement and advice in no small degree, that I have so long remained where I am."I
He married, October 28, 1806, Hannah Clarissa Baldwin, born in Goshen, Conn., March 10, 1784, daughter of Isaac and Lucy (Lewis) Baldwin. They had three daughters. His widow survived him two years and died May 7, 1852.
GEN. ALLEN G. BRADY,
Son of James W. and Mary S. Brady of Middlesex county, Mass., was born February 13, 1822. He was engaged a time in a cotton mill in East Haddam, and came to Wolcottville in 1845, to superin- tend the work in the cotton mill, then just erected on the site of the first woolen mill. He directed in the making, fitting and putting in of the looms and machinery of this mill, and getting it started in the manufacture of cotton cloth. He then went to Litchfield station, and succeeded in starting a mill there of the same kind, which be- came the Mattatuck Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Brady was engaged in the manufacturing business in connec- tion with this mill in Wolcottville much of the time fifteen years, as
I Over forty years as pastor.
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HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
agent, superintendent, contractor and owner, and then became largely engaged in the manufacture of shirts, drawers and collars, in Wol- cottville, with a branch manufactory in Georgetown, Ct., and a large store at 55 Murray street New York city, under the firm of A. G. Brady & Co.
He was also engaged with Ostrum and Welton in the papier mache business where the cap shop now stands, and afterwards pur- chased that entire business, continuing the manufacture of ornamen- tal pocket knife handles, table knives, porte monnaies, and such like articles.
When the war broke out he accepted for three months the com- mission, of lieut. col. of the third regiment of Conn. volunteers, from Gov. Buckingham, and took charge of the regiment May 9, 1861. He was in the army of the Potomac during that time, received an honorable discharge and returned home.
He then, with head quarters at Stamford, organized company B, seventeenth regiment, and was appointed captain of the company and major of regiment the same month.
The regiment went to Baltimore and stayed a time, then joined the eleventh army corps and was in the battles of Chancellorville and Gettysburg, in the first of which, the colonel was killed and the next officer wounded and the command devolving upon Major Brady, he held this position during the battles, and was wounded July second at Gettysburg. After the battle of Chancellorville Mrs. Brady re- ceived the following telegram.
" Mrs. A. G. Brady, Wolcottville. Major - well-Monday last ; bore himself most gallantly in fight. Wm. H. Noble Col. 17th Reg't C. V."
Being wounded so as to be disabled he had leave of absence thirty days and came home, after which he was ordered to the officers' hospital at Annapolis, Md., where he received appointment as major of the 20th U. S. Veteran reserved corps ; was afterwards ordered to the command of his regiment, head quarters at Baltimore, where he continued some months; was then ordered with his regiment to Point Lookout, Md., where soon after he was made provost marshal general of St. Mary's district where he had command of the camp over a year, remaining there until the last prisoner of war was re- leased after the close of the war in 1865. He was breveted major general, and remained in the regular army until 1867, since which time he has been engaged mostly in mercantile business.
Thespy yours Charlie
北京
425
BIOGRAPHIES.
ADELBERT M. CALKINS, M.D.,
Was born February 16, 1846, in Green River, Columbia connty, N. Y., and was the son of Stephen E. Calkins, who was a practic- ing physician about ten years in Winsted, then came to Wolcottville in 1861 ; practicing here until 1864, when he removed to Vineland, and thence to Athens, Green county, N. Y., where he still resides. His wife Loisa died in Wolcottville and he married Jane Birge of Torringford.
The son, Adelbert M., studied medicine with his father some time and then attended the Hanaman Medical college, Philadelphia, where he was graduated. He enlisted as a private and was mustered into the service in 1862; was wounded in the battle, and after partially recovering was transferred to the veteran reserve corps, and promoted to assistant surgeon in the hospital, in which relation he continued until the close of the war. In consequence of his wound he is a pensioner. After the war, he practiced medicine in New York city something more than five years, and then came to Wolcottville in 1873, where he has continued his practice to the present time.
He married Barbaretta Smith in October, 1871, a native, and re- sident of New York city.
ISRAEL COE,
Son of Abijah and Sibyl (Baldwin) Coe, was born in Goshen, De- cember 14, 1794. At the age of thirteen, by an accidental discharge of a gun, he lost his right arm. He received his education in the common schools with two years additional in the Winsted academy under the instruction of Curtiss Warner, a most excellent teacher. After this he taught school two seasons.
In 1813, when seventeen years of age, he went into the employ of the Torrington Cotton factory under the agency of Job Sheldon, remaining there as clerk until the company failed. After this the factory was conducted by Wadhams and Thompson, and Mr. Coe was agent for them until they failed.
He married Nancy, daughter of Lyman Wetmore in September, 1817, and between this time and 1820, became somewhat promi- nent in the town, serving it as constable and collector. In 1821, he removed to Waterbury, purchased a hotel and kept it until 1826, when he sold the same, and engaged in the employ of the late Aaron Benedict as an agent for the sale of gilt buttons, and afterwards be-
54
426
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
came a partner in the business under the name of Benedict and Coe. In 1834, he sold his interest to Gurdon W. Burnham thus opening to him the door to become a millionaire.
While in Waterbury he served as constable and collector two or three years, and represented the town in the legislature in 1824, and 1825, being the youngest member in that body in 1824.
In 1834, he removed to Wolcottville, and purchased the Wilson's mill property and other lands about it and built the first brass mill, on the site of the present one, in the name of Israel Coe, under the copartnership law of the state, Anson G. Phelps and John Hunger- ford and Mr. Coe being the three equal partners in the business.
In 1844, he sold his interest to Anson G. Phelps and removed to Detroit and engaged in the banking and lumber business in that city until 1853, when he removed to New York, and went into business, in 1856, with a partner who robbed him of all he had, which was nearly as bad as the losing of his arm.
He removed to Bloomfield, N. J., in 1867, where he still resides.
In Wolcottville he established the manufacture of brass kettle battery, the first of the kind in this country, which, probably, would have been a great success but for the invention of machinery for spining kettles instead of the old process.
In 1843, he represented the fifteenth district in the state senate.
In 1874, after he was eighty years of age, he was elected by both parties, a justice of the peace for five years, and was also appointed by the legislature of New Jersey, commissioner of deeds for five years.
Mr. Coe, being nearly eighty-three years of age possesses his faculties of body and mind to a remarkable degree ; can write a very neat, plain hand that would do honor to a person fifty years of age and in the possession of both hands, but as he writes with his left hand, at such an age, it is very noticeable. He is quite familiar with Torrington history for the last seventy years, and thereby has aided the author of this book to straighten some tangles which otherwise would have appeared unseemly and dissatisfactory.
LYMAN W. COE,
Son of Israel and Nancy Wetmore Coe, was born January 20, 1820, at Torrington hollow ; received a common school education, and at- tended the High school at Waterbury, Morris academy, and the school of W. W. Andrews of South Cornwall. He began as clerk in Waterbury where he remained until the spring of 1834, when he
425
HISTORY Of TORRINGTON
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427
BIOGRAPHIES.
came to Wolcottville and engaged in the store of Wadhams, Coe and company for two years, then went to Terryville into the store of Lewis McKee and company, merchants, and the first Cabinet Lock manufacturers in the country ; was with them three years in all, being at home and connected with the manufacturing at the brass mill one year. He left there in the spring of 1841, and .was ap- pointed secretary of the Wolcottville Brass Company which office he retained until the summer of 1845, when he resigned. He then took charge of a brass wire mill at Cotton hollow which then be- longed to the Waterbury Brass Company, and in the spring of 1846, removed with his family to Waterbury and was appointed secretary and treasurer of the Waterbury Brass Company and the business at Cotton hollow was removed to Waterbury. He was connected with this brass company from its formation in 1845, to May, 1863, and during that time was its general financial and business manager.
In the spring of 1863, he resigned at Waterbury and bought all the stock of the Wolcottville Brass Company and removed his family to this place ; formed a new company under the name of the Coe Brass Company with a capital of $100,000. This company has been quite successful and ranks among the first in the brass business in the amount of its productions and extent of its manufacturing ability ; having four steam engines of an aggregate capacity of four hundred horse power and a water power of two hundred horse, but which is not always reliable for that amount, and a capital of $325,000.
Mr. Coe married Eliza Seymour Nov. 3, 1841, and has three children, all living and married. His business has required him to make several tours in Europe, of three or four months time, so that he has become familiar with that kind of journeying sufficiently to publish a book of ocean guide as well as railway.
He was elected to the legislature in the lower house in 1845, from Torrington and in 1858, from Waterbury and to the senate from the fifth district in 1862, and in the fifteenth district in 1876, and has been elected in 1877, for two years from the fifteenth district. He is one of the most prominent and reliable men in all public enter- prises and interests of the town.
REV. LUCIUS CURTISS,
Son of Dea. Elizur and Amanda (Steele) Curtiss, was graduated at Andover and New Haven ; was licensed by Andover Association in Mass., in 1845; was ordained pastor of the first church in
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428
HISTORY OF TORRINGTON.
Woodbury, July 6, 1846, and dismissed, June 6, 1854 ; was pastor at Colchester, twelve years, to 1868 ; then preached a time in Ripon, Wisconsin, from which place he removed to Hartford, Ct.
ARVID DAYTON,
Son of Jonah and Polly (Flint) Dayton, was born in 1814, in Daytonville, in Torrington, where he has resided to the present time.
From his earliest years he was a great lover of music ; his mother was noted as having a marvelous ability to remember the poetry of songs and to sing them. When young he was very successful in making music by various instruments, and it was very much by his exertion that the first band was organized in Wolcottville.
Mr. Dayton began to build pipe organs in 1840, but soon after turned his attention to reed instruments, in the making of which he has been engaged ever since ; and he is really the inventor of a large proportion of the improvements that have been made on this kind of instrument in this country.
In order to understand what these improvements are, and how they effect the spirit of music in the country, and how much these improvements have advanced the science of music, it will be both advantageous and interesting to look over a brief epitome of the
HISTORY OF THE ORGAN.
The Pandean pipe, composed of hollow reeds of different lengths, and so arranged that all could be blown at once, seems to have been the basis from which, by successive discoveries in a period of three thousand years, has been perfected the magnificent instrument which alone renders the highest measure of harmony possible. The pro- gress made, however, was for many centuries very slow. The Pandean pipes were first blown by human breath, then by some kind of bellows, next by a reservoir of air condensed by means of the pressure of water, perhaps, for so we interpret the hydraulicon of Ctesibius, in the third century before Christ. The number of pipes was increased and they were made of brass instead of reed. It was not, probably, till after the commencement of the Christian era that keys were added on which the performers beat, and thus opening the valves, admitted the air into the pipes.
The earliest record we have of the use of the organ as an instru- ment of church music is in the seventh century, when Pope Vitalian
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BIOGRAPHIES.
is said to have introduced some of them into the churches of the west of Europe.
In 755, the Greek emperor, Constantine Copronymus, sent one as a present to King Pepin. In the latter part of the ninth century, organs had become quite common in England, most of the cathedral churches having them. In 951 Elfeg, bishop of Winchester, pro- cured one for his cathedral, which exceeded in size any in England, or probably any on the continent. But large and cumbrous as this was, it was a very imperfect instrument. Its compass, though equal in this respect to any then in Europe, or to any built for two hundred years later, did not exceed twelve or fifteen notes. Its keys were broad and large, and the player smote them with his fists. It was not till the twelfth century that half notes were introduced by some of the Venetian organ builders ; and soon after the first attempt was made to introduce a system of concord, in such a way that each key in the proper compass on being struck called forth not only its own note, but by connection with other pipes also, its fifth and eighth above.
In 1143, the steam organ, or calliope, seems to have been antici- pated, for William of Malmesbury records that a new musical in- strument had been invented in which a wind " forced out by the violence of boiling water, passing through brass pipes, sends forth musical tones."
It was not till 1470 that pedals or foot keys were attached to the organ, and its power thus increased one-third. This was the inven- tion of a German named Bernhard. Other improvements were added in great numbers in the 15th century, and the organ, though clumsier and ruder than now, began to assume much of its present appearance.
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