USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > Reports and papers. Fairfield County Historical Society, Bridgeport, Conn. 1882-1896-97 > Part 38
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Sinee the death of Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Frank Booth and his son Fred. C., a faithful elerk and business manager, have suc- ceeded to the entire business. After the removal of the Rail Road Depot from its former location below State street to its present loeality, business also moved up, and the Hopkins brothers bought out the firm of Ives & Willnot on Wall street. Alfred located there, while his brother L. M., soon after
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secured the store No. 352 Main street, and they conducted each a separate business in similar lines.
Mr. Hopkins interested himself in securing the location of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company in Bridge- port and became a stockholder in the company. He was a wide awake plumber and easily made friends with the mana- gers as also with the employees who shared in the great pros- perity of the business. Shops and dwellings with all the latest improvements were multiplied and A. Hopkins was the plumber who, it was thought could put them in, in the best manner. In 1869-70 the north section of Wheeler building was erected and Mr. Hopkins purchased the site No. 454-456 Main street and erected the building in connection and in harmony with the other buildings of the same block. This was fitted up on several floors most elaborately, and stocked with a complete assortment of stoves, gas fixtures and House- furnishing goods, probably the largest and most complete in the State. As matters turned this became a burden and a moth in subsequent years. He gave special attention to steam heating of large structures as churches and school houses, and his work gave great satisfaction in economy, ef- feetiveness and ventilation.
In the midst of his activities, without premonition death came very suddenly to Mr. Hopkins, April 25, 1894. He was invited by a friend to join him in attendance upon the auction sale of the George Hotel at Black Rock on the afternoon of the above date. Upon arriving the two gentlemen entered the hotel and Mr. Hopkins had just passed into the hall when he fell to the floor. In a moment his friend was at his side but found him unconscious. Death was instantaneous and was due to rheumatism of the heart. Mr. Hopkins was genial and popular as a man, and in business circles, a prominent member of the Master Plumbers Association. Kind and affectionate in his family-kind also to his employees and in his charities liberal alnost to a fault. He became a member of this Society in 1892 and gave many evidences of his appreciation and interest.
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NATHANIEL WHEELER.
Nathaniel Wheeler, son of David and Sarah (DeForest) Wheeler, was born at Watertown, Connecticut, September 7, 1820.
His father being a carriage manufacturer, the son learned the same trade. When he was twenty-one years of age he took the proprietorship and management of a manufactory of carriages and also of light articles of hardware. By applying machinery in place of hand labor in the production of his wares, he reduced the price of some of them to less than one thirtieth of their former cost. Thus early in life he displayed the practical ability which marked his whole career.
Mr. Wheeler became interested in the earliest invention of Allen B. Wilson, whose patents of 1851, 1852, and 1834, cov- ered the essential elements of the first rotary-hook, lock- stitch sewing machines as well as of a certain form of "feed'' which has been almost universally adopted in sewing machines of all systems. The inventive genius of Wilson was assisted, supplemented and guided by Mr. Wheeler who really or_ ganized Wilson's devices into a practical, working mechanism.
In the year 1852 Mr. Wheeler formed with others a co. partnership under the firm name of Wheeler, Wilson & Co., and under the general management of Mr. Wheeler, for the purpose of manufacturing sewing machines conformably with the Wilson patents. This eopartnership was succeeded by the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, organized in October 1853, and subsequently (June 1864) specially ebar- tered by the Legislature of the state of Connecticut. Mr. Wheeler filled the office of president of that corporation con- tinnously from 1855 to the end of his life.
Not only did Mr. Wheeler substantially found the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, but he made its business a success by personally demonstrating the practical value of its machines for use both in the household and in the factory -away baek in the times when the introduction of labor. saving machinery was regarded by many as an outrage upon laboring people : when it was predicted that the success of sewing machines would be the ruin of seamstresses.
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Mr. Wheeler's services to his Company and his part in de- veloping the art with which it is occupied, were not contined to executive and purely practical functions. His inventive ability was of prime importance and benefit. Many radical improvements in the Company's machines were dne to ex- periments instituted and directed by him, to the consequent inventions of others put into practical shape by him and es- pecially to original inventions of his own. In fact, the pro- gress heretofore made in the art of sewing by machinery hus been due to Mr. Wheeler personally in a greater degree than to any other one man. In recognition of his services in the foundation and development of that art and industry, he was decorated. at the World's Exposition of Vienna in 1873, with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Francis Joseph, and at the Exposition Universalle, Paris, 1899, he received the Cross of the Legion of Honor of France.
In 1856 the works of the Whecler & Wilson Manufacturing Company were moved from Watertown to Bridgeport, and at that time Mr. Wheeler became a resident of this city. His life was one of intense activity. Aside from managing the affairs of the great corporation with which his name is in- separably connected, he was an inventor of important methods of wood-finishing, of refrigeration, and of ventilating public buildings and railway ears. He was director of the Willi- mantie Linen Company, the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company. the Bridgeport Horse Railroad Company, the City National Bank of Bridgeport. the Fairfield Rubber Company, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company.
He was direeting Commissioner in the laying out and com- pletion of our Seaside Park, of which he was one of the chief donors ; also one of the Commissioners for building the State Capitol at Hartford, where was won the great distinction of having constructed a first-class public building free from jobs and within the prescribed limits of cost.
Mr. Wheeler became a member of the Historical Society, April 10, 1885. The Society was born and was housed under his hospitable roof ( Wheeler's Building) nearly twelve years up to January 18933, when it was removed to its present home
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in the Barnum Institute. He was much interested in the work of the Society, especially family history and genealogy, tracing his own lineage among the numerous and honorable descendants of Moses Wheeler who came from County of Kent, England, and was in New Haven as early as 1641, and in Stratford in 1648.
He was repeatedly called by choice of the people to take part in the legislation of the State of Connecticut and in the administration of important public affairs. Besides filling lower offices, he was for a number of years a Senator of the state ; but he declined more and higher honors than he ever consented to accept.
No resident of Bridgeport was more generally known or held in higher esteem than Nathaniel Wheeler. All knew him as an upright citizen, an enterprising and energetic man of affairs, an honest politician, a worker for the public good, and a man of munificent liberality. His courtesy as a gentle- man, his steadfastness as a friend, his geniality as a com- panion and his generosity in dispensing private charity won the admiration of his more intimate acquaintances.
In the Summer of 1893, he was attacked by a disease which made steady progress and eaused his death at his residence in this eity on the last day of that year.
MARK RUSSELL LEAVENWORTH.
The late Mark Russell Leavenworth was born in Bridge- water, Conn., in 1846. He learned the stove and plumbing business in the neighboring town of New Milford, serving a five year's apprenticeship. In 1869 he came to Bridgeport, and the following year started in business for himself, locating in Burke's block on the East side. A few years later he re- moved the business to 531-3 Main street, where he continued until the date of his death, Nov. 1st, 1894.
He was married in 1872 to Mary, the only daughter of William H. Perry, who survives him.
Mr. Leavenworth joined the Historical Society, Sept. 9, 1887, taking an active and enthusiastic interest in the Society's
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work. He was particularly interested in, and made an ex- haustive study of the gencalogical records of many of Fair- field County's prominent citizens. In pursuing the study he accumulated a large number of rare and valuable books. He was also the possessor of several costly (and now hard to get) volumes of Revolutionary History. In the early history of _ Our country, and especially of the two wars with Great Britain, he was unusually well informed, and took great pleasure in visiting historic places of interest. He was an ardent follower of the Masonic craft, making a close study of the history of the order. His valuable Masonic books are to be presented to St. John's Lodge on the completion of the Temple in this city. He had reached the 32d degree, and had he lived another year would have been Grand Master of the State. Mr. Leavenworth was possessed of a cheerful disposi- tion, and ever ready to be helpful to any in need of help. His name will be held in affectionate remembrance by all who knew him.
OLIVER BURR JENNINGS.
Son of Captain Abraham Gold Jennings and Anna Burr. was born at Fairfield. Conn .. June 3rd, 1825. He went to California in 1849, and soon became one of the prominent merchants of the Pacific Coast. He retired from active busi- ness in 1865, and returning to Fairfield, made that his sum- mer home.
Mr. Jennings was a man of genial, social qualities, and though possessed of great wealth, was very unostentatious. He was a member of a commission appointed by Governor . Bulkley in 1885 for restoring the winter quarters of the right . wing of the Continental Army of 1778-9, in the town of Redding, Conn. He died in the early part of 1893, leaving a widow, two sons and three daughters.
JAMES M. BAILEY.
James Montgomery Bailey, the "Danbury News Man," the pioneer of American newspaper humor, was born in Albany,
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N. Y., September 25th, 1841. When two years old, his father having been accidently killed; his mother married again a gentleman of Rome, N. Y. Young Bailey's boyhood was thus ยท passed partly in both those cities and he attended school in both places. After a brief experience in a grocery store and a lawyer's office, the family removed to Danbury, Conn. in 1860, where he ever afterwards continued to make his home. In 1862 he enlisted in the Danbury company of the Seven- teenth Regiment, and his literary instinet early manifested itself in a series of letters to local papers.
He was made a prisoner at the battle of Gettysburg and was for some months detained at Belle Isle. When the war was over young Bailey associated himself with a comrade whose acquaintance he had made in the army, who had learned the printers trade, and together, with the aid of friends they purchased the Danbury Times, a demoeratie pa- per of small eirenlation-snecess followed the venture and after acquiring the Jeffersonian, a republican rival sheet, the two plants were united and in March 1870. the new paper ealled THE DANBURY NEWS was established.
Ambitious and energetic, the young editor gave full scope to his talents, and the originality of his hummerous sketches soon began to attract the attention of his contemporaries. From an insignificant circulation, his paper leaped forward with marvelous strides, until it reached some forty thousand eopies each week. His wit was clean and free from coarse- ness. None were injured, but all were the better for the pure fun and spontaneous humor which efferveseed in his writings.
When his fame was at the highest, Mr. Bailey was urgently solicited to remove to New York, but he was wise enough to recognise the fact that it is easier to make a repu ' tation than to sustain one, and all such propositions were firmly declined. In due time numerous imitators sprang up on all sides, and searce any newspaper of any pretension but had its humorist. But Mr. Bailey was a stranger to envy and exhibited no jealousy of his rivals. He believed that honors were theting and settled down to realize his ambition to own and conduct a live newspaper that should be a faith.
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ful chronicle of the events of his town. During the years when The Danbury News was one of the best known papers published, Mr. Baileys income was not less than $40,000 a year.
In 1873 MIr. Bailey took a trip to California, and a year later he visited Great Britain and France. His first book was published in 1873 entitled "Life in Danbury." This was followed by "The Danbury Newsmans Almanae" in 1874, and "They all do it" in 1878, "Mr. Phillips Goneness." and "The Danbury Boom in 1880.
In 1878 he commenced to deliver lectures under the auspi- ces of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, and was as successful a lecturer, as he had proved a journalist.
Mr. Bailey married October 4th, 1866, Miss Catherine W. Stewart, and three children were born to them, but none . lived beyond infancy, his wife survives him.
Mr. Bailey was a democrat and a member of the Baptist church, in which he was ever a faithful and zealous worker, he was interested in the Sunday school and was for many years a teacher.
He is described as tall of stature, dignified of bearing, straight as an arrow, with the figure of an athlete. His feat- ures were IFindsome and bore an expression of geniality, ten- derness and sympathy. He was noted for his philanthropy and unstinted generosity, and notwithstanding his profitable business died comparatively poor: his invariable rule being never to turn away empty handed any one in distress or need.
He was an enthusiast is all matters pertaining to the well- fare of his town, and took a deep interest in all movements for the public good. He died lamented by all classes and conditions who had known him personally or by his writings Sunday morning, March 30, 1894, and was interred in Woos- ter cemetery, Wednesday afternoon following.
He was an aide-de-camp on the staff of the national com- mander, Union Veteran Legion : vice-president of the State board of trade ; president of the Danbury board of trade : pres- ident of the Danbury Relief society, and a life member of the Connecticut Humane society. He also belonged to the Society
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of Americau Authors, Connecticut Army and Navy club. Union Ex-Prisoners of War, Knights Templar, Mystic Shrine, Con- neeticut Historical society. Fairfield County Historical society. Connecticut Press association, Authors Guild, and Seventeenth Regiment Veterans' association. He was one of the founders of the Danbury Hospital and was its first president.
FREDERICK S. WILDMAN.
Frederick Seymour Wildman was born in Danbury Janu- ary 20, 1805. He was the son of Hon. Zalmon and Mary Dibble Wildman. Both the Wildman and Dibble families were among the earliest settlers of Danbury, and he (Mr. Wildman) was pardonably proud of his ancestry. He attended the pub- lie schools of his native village, and later the academy at Greenfield Hill and took high rank among the pupils.
From his early manhood he was very active in business and financial eireles. His judgment in such matters was nnexcep- tional, and was much sought. He was at once keen, acute, sympathetic and serupulously just. His memory was 10. markably retentive, and his mind was a veritable store house of local information pertaining to Old Danbury. Naturally he was interested in the Fairfield County Historical society, and became a member in 1853. He was prominent in local affairs and was called upon to administer many estates. He participated in the organization of the Danbury Savings Bank, and was its first president, which position he retained to the day of his death. The same is true of his connection with the Danbury Fire Insurance Company.
He was a democrat in polities, and held many honorable positions within the gift of his party. He was modest and unassuming, invariably courteous, a thorough gentleman of the old school, and hospitable almost to a fault. Respected and beloved. he lived to a good old age, and died in full pos- session of his faculties, peacefully and painlessly October 16, 1893, thus closing a noble life.
DEDORTG
-AND-
PAPE ERS.
Rairfield Coan'y
Historical Society.
BRIDGEPORT, COUN.
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1896-180-
FAIRFIELD COUNTY
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
HIS
0
DEUS ET PATRIA
FAI
SOCIETY.
CONNECTICUT
1897.
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STANDARD PRINT BRIDGEPORT, . CONN
78625
>Contentsk
Officers of the Fairfield County Hist. Soc'y, 1897-98, VII
Lincoln Anniversary,- IX
Abraham Lincoln in Bridgeport. 1860,
Historical Address by Curtis Thompson, Esq . XIII XXI
Annual Meeting, Fifteenth Anniversary, F. C. H. S.
Election of Officers, XXIII
Report of Treasurer. - XXIV
Statements of Receipts and Disbursements. - XXVI
Carter Comstock Fund. -
- XXVII
Report of Curator. - XXVII Church Registers in Society's Library, - - XXIX Swan Library, - - XXIX
Report of Recording Secretary, -
XXX
- Report of Corresponding Secretary. -
XXXI
Lecture Course, prospectus Season, 1897-98. -
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XXXII
Index to Principal Contents of the Publications of the Society, 1882-1897, -
XXXIII
Donors and Donations to the Library and Museum, April 1895 to Nov. 1897. XXXV
Wyoming or Connecticut's East India Co, by Henry T. Blake, Esq .. New Haven. First paper. Chapter I. -
II, -
6. Il1. 22
IV. -
29
Second paper, V,
39
VI, 46
VII, 53
VII, 62
Names and Dates, from the Old Burying Ground in Greens Farms,
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Index to the above, 99
Inscriptions. Osborn. Gregory Burying Ground, Weston, 103 " Det." Burying Ground, Weston, 105
In Memoriam, R. B. Lacey, 106 -
4. Rev. J. A. Buckingham, - 107
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ta;
THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
Holds its Meetings and sustains its Library and Museum in the
BARNUM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY,
Main Street, Bridgeport, Conn.
IT IS OWNER OF ONE-HALF OF THIS PROPERTY BY THE GIFT OF THE LATE P. T. BARNUM.
". Its By-Laws provide for regular Monthly Meetings of the members.
It publishes every second year, a volume of valuable and interesting historical matter with its regular reports.
It gives a course of Historical Lectures during the winter months, delivered by some of the best talent in the country.
Its annual dues are three dollars for residents of Bridge- port and vicinity, and two dollars for non resident members.
.
OFFICERS
OF THE
FAIRFIELD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
Elected April 20th, 1897.
PRESIDENT, CURTIS THOMPSON.
VICE-PRESIDENTS,
GEORGE C. WALDO, OLIVER G. JENNINGS, ALEXANDER HAWLEY.
TREEASURER AND CURATOR, EDWARD DEACON.
RECORDING SECRETARY, HOWARD N. WAKEMAN.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,
JAMES R. BURROUGHS.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, THE OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY, The President er officio Chairman.
1897-98.
-
LINCOLN
ANNIVERSARY
-AND-
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
-- BY-
CURTIS THOMPSON, ESQ.,
MARCH 10th, 1896.
LINCOLN ANNIVERSARY.
The 36th anniversary of Lincoln's visit to Bridgeport was celebrated by the Society, March 10, 1896. The Lecture Room was appropriately decorated with flags and on the platform were placed portraits of Lincoln, the chair in which he sat while stopping at the house of Mr. Frederick Wood, and other historic reminders of the great President. The Wheeler & Wilson Band, which discoursed music on that oc- casion and one of whose members. Mr. Charles Kiefer, is still living and actively engaged with the band. participated in the exercises.
The President. R. B. Lacey, after outlining the purpose of the meeting and extending a welcome to all, presented Mr. Curtis Thompson, as the gentleman with whom originated the idea of the celebration, to preside over its exercises. The carefully prepared and interesting paper which follows, upon Lincoln and his visit, written by Mr. Thompson, was read to the meeting. Those members now living of the quar- tette who sang on that occasion. Mr. John S. Atkinson and Mr. Charles E. Willnot, assisted by J. Howard Rus- sell and Edward E. Lyman, rendered some patriotic selec- tions which had been sung at that meeting in 1860. Mr. Henry R. Parrott, who was instrumental in getting Lin- coln to visit Bridgeport, told the audience of his visit to New Haven as a representative of the "wide awakes." and the building of the wigwam near the Post Office. Major L N. Middlebrook, who was the commander of the Lincoln Escort, gave an account of the duties of his company in marching from the house of Mr. Wood to Washington Hall and to the railroad station.
Emory F. Strong, Esq .. one of the Vice-Presidents at that memorable meeting. related to the audience his impressions of Lincoln. of his awkward appearance at first and then how he held his hearers. D. F. Hollister, who was Collector of Iu-
the XII
ternal Revenue for this District during Lincoln's administra- tion, told how he sat in the audience listening to Lincoln and the impression made' on him, and the close attention given the speaker by the audience was never forgotten. Capt. S. C. Kingman, who was present at the meeting, made some re- marks in a similar vein. Friend W. Smith, Esq., told a num- ber of anecdotes of Lincoln and at the conclusion of his re- marks presented to the society the commission issued by Lin. coln appointing him Postmaster of Bridgeport. Dr. George L. Porter. who. although not in Bridgeport at the time of Lineoln's visit, knew Lincoln and told some interesting facts about Lineoln's times and his last days on earth and exhibit- ed a letter written by Lincoln to Grant, March 24, 1864. Others were present who attended the meeting in 1860.
The singing of America by the quartette and audience ac- companied by the band closed one of the most successful and interesting meetings the society has held.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AT BRIDGEPORT, CONN., MARCH 10, 1860.
AX HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY
MR. CURTIS THOMPSON.
On North Avenue. in this City, is still pointed out a house at which George Washington is reported to have stopped.
The incidents of Washington's stay at that house have never been collected or substantiated, and yet at one time that could easily have been done.
Abraham Lincoln visited our City on March 10, 1860, and fortunately we are now able to gather some of the incidents of that visit.
I had the honor to suggest to the Historical Society the propriety of commemorating Lincoln's visit by holding a meeting on the 36th anniversary of that event; an event, I may say, the importance of which we now but faintly grasp ; but our descendants will note and take pride in the fact that both Washington and Lincoln once trod our streets, and min- gled with our people. Of course, in 36 years, many persons who could have furnished data, have died, but many are liv- ing, who remember his unique personality and his remark- able speech. It seems proper to make a brief reference to the situation and circumstances which brought him to Bridge- port at that time.
It was about a year before the war, and political feelings and passions were wrought up to the highest pitch by the vi- tal issues of the day. One can hardly realize to-day how intense the divisions then were in politics. business interests, churches and families.
Lincoln had just passed his 51st year, and he was in the prime of life. In his debates with Senator Douglass, he had achieved a National reputation. In May, 1859, while he was at the state convention of Illinois, as an onlooker, two old fence rails were brought in bearing the inscrip- tion, "Abraham Lincoln, the rail candidate for the Presi-
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deney in 1860." It was received with loud manifesta- tions of approval. From that date he was recognized as a Presidential possibility, and when, in the fall of 1859, he vis- ited Kansas and Ohio, he spoke always with great acceptance to vast throngs of enthusiastic people. These marks of ap- preciation, which he received in the West, did not escape the careful observation of the astute politicians of the East, where as yet he was personally almost unknown. In October, 1859, Lincoln accepted an invitation to speak in Henry Ward Beech- er's church, but it was finally arranged that the speech should be delivered at the Cooper Institute in New York, on February 27, 1860. He took time to carefully prepare himself and then made what is considered by many, as the best and most elab orate speech of his life. William Cullen Bryant presided, and said in introducing Lincoln; "It is a grateful office that I perform in introducing to you an eminent citizen of the West, hitherto known to you only by reputation." The large audience, notable for its intelligence, cultivation and high character, was captivated.
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