USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 19
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it continuously by reelection until January, 1889, extending over a period of twenty-five years and six months, and then retired from the office on account of constitutional limitation, having arrived at the age of seventy years. He was formerly a whig, and has been identified with the republican party since its formation, but never allowed him- self to be swerved from the right by love of party. He is not connected with any church or religious society, but is a regular attendant at the Congrega- tional church in his town. He is a member of the masonic fraternity, and a staunch supporter of its principles and tenets. He is now spending his days quietly at his pleasant home in his native village and attending to the various calls upon him for ad- vice in legal and business affairs.
COL. SELAH G. BLAKEMAN, HUNTINGTON : Farmer.
Colonel Blakeman is a native of the town of Stratford in this state, where he was born May 23, 1841. He attended the district school in that town, and later the high school in Milford. He enlisted as a private in the Seven- teenth regiment, Connec- ticut volunteer infantry, July 29, 1862, and was in every engagement, and on every march that the command took part in as a regiment, until he was discharged as a sergeant at the close of the war. In 1866 he married and S. G. BLAKEMAN. bought a farm in Hunt- ington, where he now re- sides. He has been first selectman of the town, has held the office of deputy sheriff for three years, and other minor offices in the town. In 1879 he was elected to represent the town in the legislature. He served as aid-de-camp on Governor Lounsbury's staff in 1887-8 with the rank of colonel. He is a past post commander of Kellogg Post, G. A. R .; was a delegate to the national encampment, G. A. R., held at Denver, Col., in 1883; was an aid-de- camp on Commander-in-Chief Burdette's staff, in 1886, at the encampment at San Francisco, Califor- nia, and on Commander-in-Chief Alger's staff, in 1890, at the encampment in Boston. He has served between four and five years as foreman of the Echo hose and hook and ladder company of Shelton. He is a prominent member of the I. O. O. F., and has the reputation of being one of the best drill masters in the order. His business is farming, but for the past few years he has spent most of his time in building roads and grading. In politics he has always been a strong republican.
JOHN E. HIGGINS, HARTFORD: City and Town Clerk and Registrar.
John E. Higgins has held the position of city clerk in the state capital since 1874, with the excep- tion of one year, and the office of town clerk and registrar of births, mar- riages, and deaths without interval during the same period. His career in these offices has been one of marked success and satisfaction. While Mr. Higgins is a pronounced democrat in politics, his course as a public official has been so characterized by devotion to the inter- ests of the community, without regard to partisan J. E. HIGGINS. lines, that men of all par- ties politically have given him an enthusiastic support at the polls, ensuring his retention in office, no mat- ter how popular a competitor might be in the field against him. The plan of placing his name on both tickets has prevailed for a number of years. Of course, it is impossible to consider majorities under such circumstances. A gentleman whose public career attracts all classes of citizens to his support, irrespective of political affiliations, de- serves the heartiest of commendations. It would be a mistake, however, to presume that City Clerk Higgins owes his success simply to good fellowship and affable manners. While he possesses these traits beyond even most public favorites, his recep- tion of the popular suffrage has depended, in the main, on the character and value of his services. There is not a town clerk's office in the state that is more intelligently conducted than the Hartford office. The systematic classification of town rec- ords, the order and precision with which the work of the office is managed, and the uniform courtesy with which the public has been treated have made the office the model one in Connecticut. This is not saying a word beyond what the place merits. As city clerk, Mr. Higgins is ex officio clerk of the board of aldermen in Hartford. It is in this capac- ity that much of his best public work has been ac- complished. The journal of the board, which is prepared and printed under the city clerk's hand, is far superior as an official production to the jour- nals of the state legislature. The Year Book, which is also arranged and edited by Mr. Higgins, is sought for far and wide by the municipal govern- ments. Great improvements have been made in both the town and city clerkships during Mr. Hig- gins's incumbency of these offices. The subject of this sketch was born in New London, June 19, 1844, and received a public school education. At
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the outbreak of the war he was a teacher in the Portland public schools. This position was resigned for the military service of that period. Mr. Hig- gins became a member of the Third United States Artillery, and was in the army for three years. He is a prominent member of Robert O. Tyler Post of the Grand Army in Hartford, and has taken an active part in the noted veteran assem- blages and demonstrations that have occurred in this city since the war. He is also a member of Green Cross Council, Knights of Columbus, and of the Hartford Lodge of Elks. City Clerk Higgins is a member of the Roman Catholic church in this city, being connected at present with the cathedral parish; but for twenty-five years he was a member and attendant at St. Peter's. The wife of Mr. Higgins, who is held in the most thorough esteem in the community, was Miss Adella E. Collins prior to marriage. There are no children in the family. Mr. Higgins removed to Hartford from New London after the war, and was employed for eight years at the Colt works. He was first elected city clerk in 1874, and from that time until now he has been an occupant of public office and position.
RUFUS B. SAGE, CROMWELL: Farmer.
Rufus B. Sage, the son of Deacon Rufus Sage, was born March 17, 1817, in that part of Middle- town since known as the town of Cromwell. The youngest of a family of seven children, he was left fatherless at the age of nine and thrown upon his own resources to make his unaided way in the world; hence his boyhood was a scene of struggling toil, quite unfavorable to educational attainments. However, by his energy in making use of the com- mon school and academy at winter terms, he was enabled to lay the founda- R. B. SAGE. tion for after efforts in the slow progress of self- tuition. He thus became the student of opportun- ity, impelled by a strong desire to learn. This induced young Sage to choose the occupation of printer, and he became initiated to the mysteries of that art at a newspaper office in the city of Middle- town. In the fall of 1836 he went to Washington county, Ohio, serving as school teacher for a term and then laboring as compositor upon the Marietta Gazette. A favorable opening presenting itself at Parkersburg, W. Va., he engaged in the capacity of foreman upon the only paper published in that
place. While there, in the spring of 1838, he em- barked in an enterprise which took him southward with a cargo of ice. This transaction resulted in a money loss, but proved rich in experience and observation, for that which he then saw and heard in Louisiana and Mississippi transformed him into the future unrelenting foe of the slave institution. Upon his return north he accepted a situation at Circleville, O., where he became well known as a writer, speaker, and participator in public affairs. His stay here was signalized by the organization of a debating club, through his influence, which became very popular, and his connection with the press also brought him in contact with the most prominent citizens of the country. His next en- gagement was at Columbus, late in 1839, a busy compositor upon the Ohio State Bulletin, carefully improving any leisure at his disposal in attendance at the state library or upon the legislative sessions. Early in 1840 commenced the ever memorable political struggle, known as the " log cabin cam- paign," in support of Gen. W. H. Harrison for the presidency. With this Mr. Sage was identified and bore a conspicuous part from the very first. A weekly campaign paper, and later on a daily, was edited and published by him, that did most effect- ive service in bringing about the grand result of electing the whig national ticket by an overwhelm- ing majority. One incident among the many that are noteworthy, wherein Mr. Sage performed the part of detective, is worthy of special mention. The democratic leaders, in their desperation, sought to stem the popular current by setting adrift an ingenious forgery, purporting to come from the whig state central committee, Alfred Kelly, chair- man, which unexposed would have proved very damaging to the whig interest. Mr. Sage, by his shrewdness, most thoroughly penetrated the secret, exposing the infamous act and those concerned in it, thus springing upon their own necks the noose they had so cunningly looped for others. The day following Gen. Harrison was in Columbus, and meeting our detective said, extending his hand, "Well, Mr. Sage, you outgeneraled their generals this time !. I congratulate you." The turmoil of party strife being closed, publie attention began to be directed to other things. The great west, from Missouri to the Pacific ocean, then so little known, became a theme of much interest. Sharing largely in that interest, and incited by a strong de- sire to know more of the vast region beyond the Missouri frontier, Mr. Sage set about organizing a party of enterprising young men to visit and ex- plore those countries. His efforts were successful, so far as talk was concerned; but at starting, May I, IS41, only five came to tinie, and only one besides himself reached Independence, Mo., at which point that one also left him. Undaunted by the
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gloomy outlook, after a delay of several weeks, Mr. Sage joined a party of Indian traders and pushed his onward way toward the setting sun. Now began a series of adventures, explorations, and ex- tensive travels, among Indians and wild beasts, alone or with such company as chance presented, for an interval of three years, the details of which the reader can find in a book entitled " Scenes in the Rocky Mountains," etc., by Rufus B. Sage, Carey & Hart publishers, Philadelphia, Pa., 1846. In July, 1844, he returned to Columbus, O., and immediately issued a campaign weekly in support of Henry Clay for U. S. president, protesting with all earnestness against the annexation of Texas and the consequent extension of the slave power. The result was a grand triumph in Ohio, which however was neutralized in New York by the abolition vote, cast for Burney, thus giving the national election to James K. Polk, and setting in train the tremen- dous evils that followed. Mr. Sage next appeared in the editorial chair of the Chillicothe, O., Gazette, with which paper he severed his connection in 1845, and returned to visit his old home after an absence of ten years. In this quiet retreat he pre- pared his book of travels, which had a successful run through several editions. And at this point came a change of long-cherished plans. An aged invalid mother required of him the care he could not find heart to deny. Yielding to her wishes, he married and set himself faithfully to solve the puz- zling question so often discussed, " Will farming pay ?" Mr. Sage says it will. Satisfied with home comforts and busied with home interests, he has kept aloof from public office, having never held one, either town, state, or national. His estimate of merit does not count any one the more worthy because of popular favor, office, money, fine cloth- ing, or proud display. He remarks that it is not often the richest ore crops out upon the surface, neither is the mere place-seeker the best deserving of popular confidence. At the age of fourteen, Mr. Sage joined the Congregational church in Crom- well, and amid all the vicissitudes of his eventful life he has been more or less active in support of religion and good morals. His name was upon the pledge-roll of the first temperance society of Con- necticut, and he has been a prohibitionist from the first genesis of the idea, ever prompt to strike in its favor whenever such blow would tell, but " not as one who beateth the air." Uniformly a studious and laborious man, he is now over seventy-four years old, hale and robust, with good prospect for several years to come. He seldom drinks coffee, tea never, has been a lifelong abstainer from spirituous drinks of all kinds, nor has he used tobacco in any form. In brief, the grand result is, he has never been laid by from sickness for a single day during his whole life.
HON. SAMUEL FESSENDEN, STAMFORD: At- torney-at-Law.
The Hon. Samuel Fessenden. one of the ablest and foremost leaders of the republican party in Connecticut, was born in Rockland, Me., April 12, 1847, and prepared for college at Lewiston Acad- emy. At the age of 16, however, he sacrificed his college pursuits for the army, and enlisted as a private in the Seventh Maine Battery. Decem- ber 14, 1864, he was ap- pointed to a second lieu- tenancy in the Second United States Infantry by President Lincoln, the promotion being recom- mended by GeneralGrant. SAMUEL FESSENDEN. One week afterwards he was advanced to the rank of captain in that command. But having been recommended for promotion in the artillery ser- vice, he declined the captaincy in the Second regu- lars, and January 15, 1865, was commissioned second lieutentant in the First Maine Battery. At that time he was less than 18 years of age. He was appointed on the staff of Major-General A. P. Howe May 1, 1865, and remained in that position until the conclusion of the war. He participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, and won honorable recognition from his superiors. At the time when under normal circumstances he would have been a brilliant student at college, he was serving with the heroism of a veteran in the field. Returning from the war, he entered the Harvard Law School, where he completed his legal course. March 4, 1869, he was admitted to the Fairfield county bar in this state, and has since resided in Stamford. In 1874, when he was but 26 years of age, he was elected a member of the general assembly from Stamford, and was appointed on the judiciary com- mittee. He made one of the ablest speeches of the session on the parallel railroad project, carrying the house by the eloquence and force of his presen- tation of the case. In 1876 he was one of the dele- gates from Connecticut in the national republican convention at Cincinnati, which nominated Presi- dent Hayes. In 1879 he was re-elected to the gen- eral assembly, and was the foremost republican in that body. The nomination of the Hon. O. H. Platt for the United States senatorship was due mainly to the leadership displayed by Mr. Fessen- den. In 1884 Mr. Fessenden was elected secretary of the national republican committee, and mani- fested in that capacity executive training of the highest order. He is still a member of the national
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committee and a member of the exceutive com- mittce, and one of its most trusted advisers. For fifteen years he has been a prominent figure in republican conventions in this state, being the recognized leader by the delegates. His eminent qualities as a lawyer led to his appointment as state's attorney in Fairfield county, a position which he has held with marked success for a number of years. Mr, Fessenden prepares his cases with great thoroughness, and in the courts where he appears his knowledge of law and eloquence in addressing courts and juries makes him a formidable opponent. He was one of the found- ers aud original members of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, and the universal favorite with veterans of the war throughout the state. His personal traits have endeared him to thousands of men in the country, who know of no honor too important to be conferred upon him. His future is full of promise and inspiration, whether considered from a professional or political point of view.
JOHN CHAPIN BRINSMADE, WASHINGTON.
John Chapin Brinsmade, principal of the Gun- nery School, was born in Springfield, Mass., April 24, 1852. His father, William B. Brinsmade (Yale IS40) was for a long time superintendent of the Connecticut River Rail- road. His mother is the daughter of the late Colonel Harvey Chapin, a descendant in the sixth generation of Deacon Samuel Chapin, who set- tled in Springfield in 1642. On his father's side he is descended from Rev. Daniel Brinsmade (Yale, 1745), who came to Wash- J. C. BRINSMADE. ington (then a part of Woodbury) in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and was for some time the minister of the Judea Congregational Society. His son, Daniel N. Brinsmade (Yale, 1772), was a member of the state convention for the ratification of the constitu- tion of the United States.
The subject of this sketch attended private schools in Springfield and the Gunnery in Wash- ington, and graduated at Harvard University in the class of 1874. In the fall of that year he be- came assistant teacher at the Gunnery. In Octo- ber, 1876, he was married to Mary Gold Gunn (his cousin), daughter of F. W. Gunn, principal of the school. Since Mr. Gunn's death in ISSI he has been principal of the Gunnery. He has five children, three sons and two daughters.
HENRY GILDERSLEEVE, PORTLAND: Ship- builder.
Henry Gildersleeve was born in Portland, in that part of the town now known as Gildersleeve, on the 7th of April, 1817; was educated at the district school, and at the age of seventeen commenced in his father's yard to learn the business of shipbuild- ing. Hc soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the details of the business, and at the age of twenty- five he was taken into partnership with his father under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Son, which firm, up to the pres- ent time, have built 142 HENRY GILDERSLEEVE. vessels of all classes, both sail and steam. In December, 1872, he associated himself with the house of Bentley, Gildersleeve & Co., shipping and commission merchants on South street, New York. He retained his connection with the Gildersleeve ship-building firm, and at the end of ten years he retired from the New York firm, resigning in favor of his son, Sylvester, who con- tinued the business in connection with his brother Oliver, under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Co. Henry Gildersleeve, since retiring from his New York business, has devoted his whole time and attention to the ship-building and other interests with which he is connected in his native town.
On the 29th of March, 1839, he married Nancy, daughter of Samuel Buckingham of Milford, by whom he had one child, Philip, born February 1, 1842. His first wife died on the 14th of March, IS42, and on the 25th of May, IS43, he married Emily F., daughter of Oliver Northam of Marl- borough, by whom he had seven children: Oliver. born March 6, 1844; Emily Shepard, born Septem- ber S, IS46; Mary Smith, born March 8, 1848, died October IS, IS51; Anna Sophia, born February 26, 1850, died August 27, 1854; Sylvester, born Novem- ber 24, 1852; Louisa Rebecca, born May 9, 1857; and Henry, born September 4, 1858. The death of the second wife of Henry Gildersleeve occurred on the 11th of November, 1873; and on the 12th of June, 1875, he married Amelia, daughter of Colonel Orren Warner of East Haddam, by whom he had one child, Orren Warner, born November 26, ISTS.
Mr. Gildersleeve has been identified with many public enterprises outside of his ship-building inter- ests. He was for a number of years a director in the New York & Hartford Steamboat Company. and president of the Middletown Ferry Company, and is now president of the Middlesex Quarry Com- pany, also president of the First National Bank of
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Portland, and trustee and one of the original in- corporators of the Freestone Savings Bank, also a director of the Middlesex Mutual Assurance Com- pany of Middletown. He has been for many years an active member and liberal supporter of the Trinity Episcopal church at Portland, was a large contributor to the funds for the erection of their elegant new church edifice, and a member of the building committee. In 1860, as the nominee of the democratic party, he represented Portland in the state legislature, and sustained every measure for the vigorous prosecution of the war.
JOHN SAMUEL GRAVES, NEW HAVEN.
Mr. Graves was born in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, September 2, 1807. He was educated at the district school. Books were few, but the Bible and catechism were thoroughly taught. Gov- ernor Peters of colonial times, after whom he was named, took especial in- terest in his education and welfare. His mother was a Peters, the family being at that time one of the largest and most respect- able in the state. At fourteen years of age he left home and served four J. S. GRAVES. years as a clerk with Jo- seph Goodspeed of East Haddam. At the age of eighteen he was taken to Hartford to begin the study of medicine. His
health failed him, and he went to New Haven, his present residence, intending to lead a mercantile life. From 1828 to 1830 he conducted a brokerage business, after which he undertook the dry goods trade, in which he became highly successful. Be- sides having the largest store in the state he car- ried on a heavy southern trade until 1847, when he sold out to Wilcox & Crampton, having in view the starting of a gas company. He married, in July, 1837, Polly Merwin, the daughter of Dr. Philo Mer- win of Brookfield, in this state. Eight children live to mourn a lovely and devoted mother. His elevation to many official stations of responsibility and trust shows him to have been a man of great ability and honor, as well as of broad and progres- sive views. He has held the offices of notary pub- lic, justice of the peace, city councilman, and of vestryman in Trinity Episcopal Church. He was the prime mover and founder of the New Haven Gas Light Company, holding the offices of vice- president, secretary, and treasurer, and variously in active official service for twenty-three years. He still continues in the company of which he has been
a member for forty-three years. Politically he is a Jeffersonian democrat, and although he was nomi- nated as a candidate of that party for mayor, he declined the honor, preferring a quiet life outside of all political entanglements.
JAMES WALKER BEARDSLEY, STRATFORD: A Retired Farmer and Stock Dealer.
Mr. Beardsley is a son of Elisha H. Beardsley, and has been a farmer all his life. He is a native of the town of Monroe, where he was born May 8, 1820, and where his father pursued the same occupa- tion. He is descended in regular line from William Beardsley, one of the first settlers of Stratford; and on his mother's side, through a distinguished ancestry, from Robert Walker, one of the found- ers of the Old South Church of Boston in 1669. Mr. Beardsley was edu- J. W. BEARDSLEY. cated at the common schools and at the pre- paratory institute of Samuel B. Beardsley. As be- fore stated, his life has been spent entirely on the farm, and he long ago became the holder of much landed property, including a large and valuable stock farm in the state of Illinois. His residence has been in Monroe and in Bridgeport, to both of which localities he has contributed much in the way of material adornment and of personal in- fluence. In 1878 he gave to the city of Bridgeport one hundred acres of land for a public park, on condition that the city should expend a certain comparatively small amount of money yearly, for a number of years, in its care and management. At first the city doubted the propriety of accepting the gift on the conditions which the donor im- posed, but it was finally accepted, and the condi- tions have been fulfilled. This park is now re- garded as one of the great features of the city. For the original property Mr. Beardsley had been offered $20,000; it would be worth for city lots to- day hundreds of thousands. It cannot be doubted that he takes great satisfaction in seeing the im- provements which the city is making from year to year in " Beardsley Park," many of which were of his own suggesting. He bestows yearly upon it much time, attention, and money, and his efforts in its behalf are highly appreciated by the citizens of Bridgeport, as is the original magnificent gift.
Mr. Beardsley's fine residence was originally the homestead of James Walker, Jr., which descended to the former through his mother, Betsey (Walker),
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