USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 51
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in the general assembly - 1857, 1858, 1862, 1869, and 1870. He also had the honor of being defeated for the state senate. He is a Protestant, but no bigot; joined the Odd Fellows in 1843; is a Patron of Husbandry, and an uncompromising enemy of rum. He cast his first presidential vote for Wm. H. Harrison in 1840, and his last for his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, in 1888.
GEN. THOMAS L. WATSON, BRIDGEPORT: Banker and Broker.
Thomas L. Watson was born at Bridgeport, Dec. 13, 1847. He was educated in his native city and at the Military Institute at New Milford, with a view to West Point, but owing to a temporary physical injury this design was abandoned. The Connec- ticut Guardsman in a recent issue gives an admirable sketch of Gen- eral Watson, which states that " his business career began as a clerk in the Farmers' Bank of Bridge- port; from there he went to the City National Bank, T. L. WATSON. and left there to become a partner in the private banking and brokerage business, with the late Daniel Hatch. The firm began Nov. 1, 1866, as Hatch & Watson, and has been continued since the death of Mr. Hatch by General Watson, as T. L. Watson & Co. General Watson extended his busi- ness to New York city in 1879, and became head of the firm of Watson & Gibson, which firm is in successful operation. General Watson has held many positions of responsibility and trust, both in Bridgeport and New York. Since the completion of the Boston & New York Air Line Railroad he has been a director and secretary of the company. The General has for several years been vice-presi- dent and a director in the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange of New York, and chairman of its finance committee. He accepted the position of paymaster on the staff of Colonel R. B. Fair- child of the Fourth Regiment, C. N. G., and was commissioned with the rank of first lieutenant, May 28, 1877. He was promoted aid-de-camp to General S. R. Smith, commanding the Connecti- cut National Guard, with rank of captain, July 6, 1878. He was promoted brigade-quartermaster, with rank of major, Jan. 30, 1879, and while occu- pying this position was elected colonel of the Fourth Regiment, C. N. G., and commissioned April 23, 1884. General Watson was tendered the position of adjutant-general of Connecticut by Gov-
ernor Lounsbury, but declined the honor, preferring his earnest work of maintaining the high standard of excellence in his regiment. In politics he is a republican, and has declined nominations to public office on several occasions. He is a member of the Union League and other leading clubs of New York and Bridgeport. He lives most of the year in a handsome residence at Black Rock, and, although part of his business connections are in New York, he is thoroughly identified with Con- necticut interests. He was senior colonel of the brigade when, on March 1, 1890, he was appointed brigadier-general commanding the Connecticut National Guard, by Governor Bulkeley, and or- dered to assume command, which position he has since filled, bringing to its duties that same earnest attention to all the details which has characterized his nearly fourteen years of service in the Guard. He has always at heart the interests of his com- mand, and is constantly working to build up and promote its advancement. The press of Connecti- cut, during and after the last encampment at Niantic, pronounced it to be as fine a camp as the state had ever held."
General Watson was married May 4, 1874, to Miss Alice Cheever Lyon, daughter of Hanford Lyon of Bridgeport, and his family includes two children, one son and one daughter. His religious connections are as a member and vestryman in St. John's Episcopal church of Bridgeport.
CALEB HOPKINS, ELLINGTON : A Retired Builder and Public Official.
Mr. Hopkins was the youngest of eight children, born in Springfield, Mass., on the ground where the Church of the Unity now stands, July 9, 1813. He was educated at the district school and High school of Springfield, until he was seventeen years of age, when he learned the trade of a joiner and builder, working for Colo- nel Ithamar Goodman of that city, a noted builder. Mr. Hopkins built the first house in Brightwood, Springfield, in 1834. In September of that year he married Miss D. H. CALEB HOPKINS. Holton of Ellington, who died July 31, 1877. She was a great-great-grand-
daughter of Governor Roger Wolcott. He re- moved to Manchester in 1835, and to Ellington in 1837, since which time he has resided there. He has held various town offices, constable, school committee, justice of the peace; was postmaster for
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twelve years, judge of Ellington probate district, including Ellington and Vernon, for twelve con- secutive years, and has been station agent on the Connecticut Central & Western road for five years. At his advanced age he does but little, occasionally writing a will or a deed, and doing light work at his trade of a joiner. He is a repub- Iican. He has had three children, but all have died.
WM. PHIPPS BLAKE, NEW HAVEN : Mining Engineer.
William P. Blake, whose residence is at Mill Rock, in the city of New Haven, was born in New York city, June 1, 1826. He is a direct descendant from William and Agnes Blake, who sailed from Ply- mouth, England, and ar- rived in Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. He was among the first students in the department of phi- losophy and the arts of Yale College, and was graduated there Ph.B .- Bachelor of Philosophy - in 1852, in the same class with the present profes- sors, Brewer and Brush, and in 1861 received the W. P. BLAKE. honorary degree of M.A. from Dartmouth College. While devoting his time largely to purely scientific pursuits, and to the organization and administra- tion of great international exhibitions, Mr. Blake has followed the occupation of mining engineer and adviser with respect to the value and the working of mining properties, in which capacity he has visited repeatedly nearly all of the great mining centers of the United States, particularly the gold and silver regions of California, Nevada, Montana, and Arizona, and has reported upon the chief gold and silver mines. In 1851 and 1852 he was mineral- ogist and chemist of the New Jersey Zinc Company. In 1853 he projected the mineral department of the New York International Exhibition and resigned to accept an appointment as mineralogist and geologist of the United States Pacific Railway surveys in California, and made extensive reports upon the geology of California and other portions of the West. In 1857 he made an exploration in Texas and New Mexico; and was also editor of the Min- ing Magazine; in 1860 and 1861 he visited the silver mines of the Comstock Lode and introduced the Blake crusher in the gold mills of California and silver mills of Nevada. In 1862 was appointed mining engineer to the government of Japan, and with his associate, Mr. Raphael Pumpelly, organ- ized the first school of science in Japan and gave
lectures on geology and mining. From there he went to China and went up the Yangtse to the interior of China and returned to America by way of the Aleutian Islands and Sitka; accompanying a Russian government expedition up the Stickcen River, where he found and described several glaciers, before undescribed. Reaching San Fran- cisco in the summer of 1863, he engaged actively in examinations of critical questions of structure upon the Comstock Lode and explored many of the prin- cipal mines then in full work. In 1865 he was ap- pointed professor of geology and mining in the department of science of the college of California, by the organization of which the congressional grant of land to the agricultural and mechanical art college was secured to that institution, after- wards the University of California. He resigned in 1867 to go as commissioner from California to the Paris exposition of 1867, and on his return was appointed by Secretary Seward editor of the reports of the United States commissioners, which were published by the government in six octavo volumes, to which Mr. Blake was a large contribu- tor. At the close of this work he was selected by the state department as the geologist of the Santo Domingo commission, and headed an expedition across the island of Santo Domingo. He next devoted his energies to the promotion of the great International Expedition of 1876, commencing in 1871 as commissioner alternate of Connecticut and continuing in this work as commissioner and as secretary of the Connecticut board until 1878 when he went as United States commissioner from Con- nceticut to the Paris Exposition of 1878, where he served on the international jury of awards, was secretary of the scientific commissioners, and made several reports, among them one upon the exhibits from the state of Connecticut, a list of awards, etc. At this exposition he received from the French government the cross of the Legion of Honor of France in recognition of his services to the mining industry and to great expositions.
Mr. Blake has been a frequent contributor to the pages of the American Journal of Science and to the "Proceedings of the American Institute of Mining Engineers." He was editor of, and chief contributor to, the " History of the Town of Ham- den, Conn.," published after the centennary of the incorporation of the town. He is a member and correspondent of many learned societies in America and Europe. As chairman of the committee on classification of the exhibition in 1876 he became familiar with this important department of exhibi- tions, and was recently called by the Columbian commission to assist in the preparation of the classification for the Columbian exposition at Chicago.
Mr. Blake was married, in 1855, to Miss Charlotte
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Haven Lord Hayes, daughter of Hon. Wm. A. Hayes of South Berwick, Maine, and has four sons and one daughter. He is still active as a mining engineer and mine expert after forty years of ser- vice, and has great familiarity with the mineral re- sources of the United States, having, before the advent of the railroad, traveled thousands of miles in the saddle and by stage coach, and since then has crossed the continent frequently, and is per- haps more generally and extensively known west than east of the Rocky Mountains.
Mill Rock, a rugged and picturesque spur of East Rock, was chosen as a place of residence by Mr. Blake in 1871, who made it accessible by well- graded roads and built the first house upon its summit before East Rock was thought of as a pub- lic park. « The site affords most extensive and delightful views of New Haven harbor, Long Island sound, and the surrounding country.
D. W. PLUMB, HUNTINGTON: A Retired Manu- facturer.
David W. Plumb of Shelton, in the town of Huntington, has served half a dozen sessions in the general assembly, being a member of the house fifty-three years ago. It is just half a century since he represented the old Fifth district in the state senate. He resided in Derby until 1868, and during the five sessions which he served in the house he represented that town. Hewas first elected in 1838, and in 1841 was honored with a seat in the senate. The subsequent D. W. PLUMB. years in the house were 1852, 1860, 1862, and 1864. His colleagues during the latter year included John M. Douglas of Middletown; Seth Thomas, founder of the great clock industry at Thomaston; Ira G. Briggs of Voluntown; the lieutenant-gover- nor, David Gallup of Plainfield; Colonel Dwight Morris of Bridgeport; O. H. Platt, the present United States senator; the late O. H. Perry of Fairfield; John F. Trumbull of Stonington, who was a leading abolitionist in his day; Roger Welles of the patent department in Washington; cx- Speaker Charles H. Briscoe of Enfield; the late President George H. Watrous of the Consolidated road; the late David B. Booth of Danbury; Sen- ator Homer Twitchell of Naugatuck; and Presi- dent Samuel E. Elmore of the Connecticut River Banking Company of Hartford, who was then the representative in the house from South Windsor.
Mr. Plumb has been one of the leading manufac- turers in the Naugatuck Valley. He started in the woolen manufacturing business in Birmingham in 1836, removing to Ansonia in 1848. This plant was sold to the Slade Manufacturing Company in 1865. Mr. Plumb then removed to the new village of Shelton, establishing his home there in 1868. Of recent years he has not actively participated in manufacturing interests, though he still remains a stockholder in a number of corporations. He has been engaged from its commencement in aiding the development of the Ousatonic Water Company. He is a director in the National Bank, the Ousa- tonic Water Company, the Shelton Water Company, and several local manufacturing companies. He is at present interested in the development of River View Park in Shelton, and has been one of the commissioners in charge of the work since its in- ception. Mr. Plumb was born in Trumbull, Octo- ber 13, 1808, and remained on a farm during his minority. He received a common school and acad- emic education, preparing him for the successful business and public career which he afterwards pursued. He has been married twice. His first wife, Miss Clarissa Allen, was united with him in wedlock in 1841, and died in 1865. His second wife, who is still living, was Louise Wakelee, the mar- riage occurring in 1875. There are no children. Mr. Plumb has been a man of large influence in his community, and much of the manufacturing success of that locality is due to his enterprise and foresight. He is held in high esteem in Shelton, where he has resided for the past twenty-three years.
E. J. HOUGH, WALLINGFORD: Farmer.
Elijah J. Hough was born in Wallingford, July 28, 1829, and was educated in the common schools. He is a farmer by avocation, and is at present largely interested also in peach growing. He was a member of the board of selectmen for three years, being elected for the first time in October, 1887. He has also served on the board of relief for three years. Mr. Hough is a member of the Wallingford Grange, and has been its treasurer since the date of organization in May, E. J. HOUGH. 1885. His wife, who was Ruth Blakeslee prior to marriage, is still living. There are also two daughters and one son. Mr. Hough is a democrat, and connected with the Bap- tist church.
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
THOMAS SEDGWICK STEELE, HARTFORD : Artist and Author.
Thomas Sedgwick Steele was born in Hartford, Conn., June II, 1845. He was a descendant of John Steel (spelled in old times with only two e's), one of the founders of Hartford, who came to this country in 1638, and who was afterwards town clerk of Farmington. Mr. Steele's father, Deacon Thomas Steele, was one of the committee who called Dr. Horace Bush- nell to the old North church (afterwards Park church), of which he was deacon some twenty-six years. Mr. Steele was educated at the public T. S. STEELE. High school while T. W. T. Curtis and Samuel M. Capron were principals; entered the jewelry busi- ness and was partner with his father in 1866, the style of the firm being T. Steele & Son, which busi- ness was continued fifty-two years.
Mr. Steele very early developed a taste for draw- ing and painting, and at odd hours, in and out of business, was plying the pencil or brush; in fact, at one time he almost ruined his eyes in trying to paint by gas light. His paintings have been well received by the public, and the compliment of hav- ing "hung on the line " at the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1877, was one of the re- sults. In 1880 and 1882 Mr. Steele published two books on the woods of northern Maine, entitled "Canoe and Camera," and " Paddle and. Portage," and compiled a map for their illustration, the result of his many explorations of those wilds. In 1887 he closed out the jewelry business and gave his en- tire time to the long-desired profession of painting. In 1890 he was honored by election to the Boston Art Club, and had his celebrated trout painting, entitled " Net Results," etched by a Boston pub- lishing company. He has also been invited to ex- hibit his work before the Union League Club of New York city.
Mr. Steele has been twice married; first in 1868 to Miss Annie Eliza Smith, daughter of Captain Joseph E. Smith of Stonington; she died about six years after, leaving no children. His second mnar- riage was October 26, 1876, to Miss Sarah Cole Goff, daughter of the late Hon. Darius Goff, a dis- tinguished citizen and extensive manufacturer of Pawtucket, R. I. There is one child by the second marriage, Annie Lee Steele, born August 21, 1877. Mr. Steele is a member of the Park Congregational church at Hartford; was once superintendent, and for seventeen years a teacher in its Sunday-school.
JAMES HUNTINGTON, WOODBURY: Attorney- at-Law.
Judge Huntington was born at South Coventry, June 4, 1833. He graduated from the State and National Law School of Poughkeepsie, in August, 1857, and was at the same time admitted to the bar of New York. Having determined to practice in Connecticut, he entered the law office of Waldo & Hyde of Tolland, read law under their direction for a year, and was ad- mitted to the bar of Tol- land county at the April term of the superior court in 1859. He immediately thereafter located in Woodbury, where he has JAMES HUNTINGTON. remained in active practice to the present time, be- ing now professionally associated with Arthur D. Warner, in the firm of Huntington & Warner. He was elected judge of probate for Woodbury dis- trict in 1861, and continuously held that office for thirty years. He has held the appointment of states attorney for Litchfield county since June, 1874, and is also president of the Litchfield County Bar Association. In politics Judge Huntington is a democrat, and as such represented Woodbury in the legislature of 1874 and 1875, and was state sen- ator from the old Sixteenth district in 1877 and 1878.
NATHANIEL C. BARKER, LEBANON: Mer- chant.
Mr. Barker was born in Middletown, R. I., August 31, 1838, attended the common sehools, and graduated at Lebanon academy. He has been honored by his fellow- citizens by being chosen town clerk and treasurer for five years, and in 1886 was elected as a repub- lican representative from that town to the lower house of the legislature. He is also a justice of the peace. He is prominently connected with the Baptist church, with the Masonic fraternity, and the Ancient Order of United Work- men. He is engaged in N. C. BARKER. mercantile pursuits, being at the head of the house of N. C. Barker & Co. in the village of Lebanon. His wife was Maria F. Sweet, and they have three children.
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HON. EPHRAIM H. HYDE, STAFFORD: Ex- Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut.
The name of the Hon. Ephraim H. Hyde of Staf- ford is familiar to the people of this state as that of a leading politician, an agricultural scientist, and a thoughtful student of social economy. In every of these capacities he is no less widely than favor- ably known, and his many years are crowned with many honors. He was born at Stafford, on the first day of June, 1812. He married Han- nah Converse Young Sept. 27, 1836. Six chil- dren were born to them, three of whom died in in- fancy, another at the age of four years; the other E. H. HYDE. two, Ellen E., wife of Ernest Cady, of the Pratt & Cady Company, and E. H. Hyde, Jr., of the firm of Hyde & Joslyn, are now living at Hartford. His wife died Feb. 26, 1862, and, on Oct. 19, 1869, he married Miss Mary S. Williams of Hartford, who now survives.
Attendance at the district school in his native town, and about six weeks of study at the academy in Monson, Mass., comprised his entire school edu- cation. His boyhood was passed in the manner common to the boys of that time; work on the farm, accompanied by general service in an old-time hotel connected with the farm and known as the half-way stage station between Worcester and Hartford, and about four months as a stage driver between Stafford and Sturbridge, filled up the years between school and the commencement of his active business life. He took an efficient and active interest in the Universalist Society of Staf- ford, serving therein as sexton, organist, and leader of the choir for fifteen years. Entering a country store as a clerk in his eighteenth year, he became proprietor of the same in his twenty-first year, and from that time on he has been closely identified with the business interests of the town. He was interested in a blast furnace business for about eight years; in his twenty-ninth year he was the chief promoter of a cotton mill at Stafford Springs; he was for many years interested in the business of manufacturing satinets, as one of the firm of Con- verse & Hyde; and he has been actively engaged in many other industrial enterprises. His energies have been devoted principally, however, to pro- moting the agricultural interests of the state and to breeding blooded stock.
About the year 1842, having become the owner of two or three large farms, all of which he retained
until within a few years, and most of which he still owns, he commenced the careful breeding of stock from imported and native cattle, and thus entered upon a course that was to make his name familiar as a household word to the leading agriculturists throughout the country. He began with Devons, and afterwards experimented with Ayrshires, Dur- hams, and Jerseys; but believing the Devons to be the best adapted to this part of the country, he applied himself to the scientific selection and breed- ing of that class, and as a result he greatly im- proved the stock and produced herds of rare beauty and excellence, the winners of many a sweepstake medal and prize. He will be known in the years to come as the pathfinder for Devons in this country. Animals from his herds have gone to all parts of the country, and it can be said with truth that the improvement of the stock in his native state is owing in a large measure to his care and wisdom as a breeder of pure-blooded Devons.
He early became concerned in the general agri- cultural interests of the state, and has been an act- ive and zealous participant in all movements for their protection and advancement. Fully compre- hending the needs of the farmers, and also the necessity of arousing them to a realization of the benefits to be derived by the adoption of more in- telligent and scientific methods of farming, he zealously devoted the best years of his life to the interests of agriculture, giving his time, money, and talents without stint, and bringing to the ser- vice an indomitable will and energy that prosecuted its aims with a patient industry that was untiring. It was largely owing to his influence and enterprise that the Tolland County Agricultural Society was organized in 1852. He was its president from its organization to 1860, and again from 1864 to 1868; and Hyde Park at Rockville was thus named in his honor, and in recognition of his services to the society. He was president of the Connecticut State Agricultural Society from 1858 to 1881, vice- president of the New England Agricultural Society from its beginning, vice-president of the State Board of Agriculture from its organization in 1866 to 1882; and was chosen again in 1890, and is now vice-president; chairman of the commissioners on diseases of domestic animals for thirty years, which office he still holds; president of the American Breeders' Association from 1865 until it resolved itself into sections for each breed; president of the Connecticut Valley Agricultural Association, com- prising Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, and Vermont; corporator of the Connecticut Stock Breeders' Association; vice-president of the Dairyman's Association; chairman of the com- mittee to publish the first volume of the American Herd Book; president of the Tolland County East Agricultural Society, from its organization in 1870
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to 1876; and one of the trustees and vice-president of the Storrs School,a position which he still re- tains. He had long been in favor of a school in which the science of agriculture should be taught, and was one of the first two persons who consulted the Storrs brothers in regard to the project of es- tablishing the school at Mansfield. The scheme met his approval; and that the plan was finally adopted, and that the school has been able to main- tain itself against the numerous attacks that have been made upon it by friends and foes alike, is largely owing to his indefatigable efforts and ear- nest support. At a meeting of the trustees in 1889 he was chosen one of the building committee to erect the beautiful and commodious structures which have been completed at about the estimated cost of $50,000.
His labors to secure 'reform in the management of prisons and houses of correction have been ex- tensive and persistent. He is one of the founders and directors of the Prisoners' Friend Association, and a director, also, of the Industrial School for Girls; and has been more or less active in the direc- tion of the state board of education, especially in 1867, 1868, and 1869.
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