USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 35
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On May 9, 1898, Mr. and Mrs. Gray celebrated their golden wedding and on June 24, 1899, after a short illness, Mr. Gray died.
Reb. John humphrey Barbour, D. D.
R EV. JOHN HUMPHREY BARBOUR, long a useful member of the Episcopal clergy of Connecticut, and a teacher of theology, was born May 29, 1854, in Torrington, son of Judge Henry Stiles and Pamela Jane (Bartholomew) Bar- bour, and died April 29, 1900, at Middletown. He prepared for college, was admitted to Amherst in 1869, but soon after determined to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church, and withdrew from Amherst before the close of his academic year. Immediately thereafter he entered Trinity College, Hartford, and was con- firmed by Bishop Williams on Trinity Sunday, 1870. In college he gained distinction and was graduated in 1873 with special honors in chemistry, natural science and mathematics. In the autumn of the same year he entered Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown, and was ordained deacon by Bishop Williams, May 31, 1876, at the annual ordination of the school, along with thirteen others. Very soon he became assistant minister at Trinity Church, Hartford, with charge of Grace Chapel at Parkville. This was nearly two years before he had attained the canonical age for ordination to the priesthood. On September 18, 1878, he was ordained priest in Trinity Church. Rev. Samuel Hart, his superior at Berkeley Divinity School, said of him :
During the thirteen years of his ministry at Parkville he was indefatigable in his labors among the people of his charge, devoting himself to his work as pastor and min- ister, and at the same time he did not fail to continue his studies in the many depart- ments of learning to which his mind was drawn and participate in those which had to do with the understanding of Holy Scripture. To an especially clear discernment and apprehension of truth was added a ready facility in its statement and in commending it to the minds of others; and he greatly enjoyed the opportunity for study which came to him from living in the neighborhood of his alma mater. During the academic year 1878-79, he filled a temporary appointment as tutor in mathematics; and having been from the time of his return to Hartford the assistant librarian of the college, with prac- tically full charge, he was given the title of librarian in 1882. It fell to his lot to rearrange the books in the library on their removal to the place provided for them in the new college buildings, and to prepare a card catalogue on modern principles of classi- fication ; and this was done with unstinted labor and great enthusiasm. Very few per- sons will ever know, except from the testimony of those who are familiar with all the details of this work, how great is the debt which the college owes to Dr. Barbour for the labor which he bestowed upon the library ; and it was a real compensation to him that he saw it grow in number of volumes and in usefulness. While in Hartford he prepared a brief but excellent manual of instructions for confirmation, and also wrote, or rather compiled, "The Beginnings of the Historic Episcopate," a collection of passages from the New Testament, and from Christian authors before the year 250, bearing on the history of the ministry of the church, to which were appended tables and a diagram prepared in his characteristically clear and ingenious manner.
In 1889, a vacancy having occurred in the professorship of the literature and inter- pretation of the New Testament in the Berkeley Divinity School, Mr. Barbour was called to that chair. He brought to his new duties a well furnished mind, trained in one direction by pastoral work, and in another by academic associations, quick to under- stand and patient to learn and it was not necessary for him to go back to resume his studies from the time of his ordination, for he had kept remarkably well in touch with the progress of scholarship during those years. He was also appointed librarian of the Divinity School, and it was a part of his duty there, as at the college, to take charge of a library on its removal to a new building, with the special pleasure which came from
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planning for the arranging of the building itself. But it was the study and teaching of the New Testament to which he devoted himself with unfailing interest for eleven years, not neglecting what might be called the external and more especially scholastic side of the work; and never forgetting that one cannot learn the spirit without the study of the letter, but seeking above all for the spiritual meaning, and taking his students in their three years' course through the whole of the New Testament, either in Greek or in English. He contributed at times to periodicals, his most valuable writing of this kind being an investigation of the composition of the Apocalypse, and the latest an article on the study of the New Testament, published in the "Churchman" of April 21 (of the year 1900) ; and he wrote valuable papers on various subjects for clerical meet- ings and gatherings of scholars. He was for several years before his death one of the examining chaplains of the diocese, and at its last commencement his alma mater con- ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. It may also be noted here that he served for some time as secretary of the alumni of the college, and that of late years he had been secretary of the alumni of the Divinity School.
On Maunday Thursday, April 12, Dr. Barbour celebrated Holy Communion in the chapel of the Divinity School, attended two later services, and met his classes as usual. Returning home he was obliged to cease work, and was unable again to leave his room.
Dr. Barbour married Annie Gray, daughter of the late John S. Gray, of Hartford, and their surviving children are: I. Ellen Gray, married Dr. Walter Ashley Glines, of Porto Rico, and they have one child, Virginia S. 2. Dr. Henry Gray Barbour, pharmacologist at Yale Medical School; he mar- ried Lilla Chittenden, and they have two children, Henry C. and Dorothy Gray. 3. Rev. Paul Humphrey Barbour, married Mary W. Bailey, who died in September, 1914; they had one child, Paul Humphrey.
Dr. Hart delivered a memorial sermon at Grace Chapel, Parkville, May 13, 1900, in which were included the following words :
He read and studied diligently and methodically, so that he knew what intelligent people were thinking about; he kept himself well informed in many matters of science, and knew a great deal about God's works in nature and of the ways in which in which men studied them and wrote about them; and for these reasons his mind was always fresh and his thoughts were quick and ready. But with all and above all he studied God's Holy Word, the Old Testament and the New ; not merely reading day by day the lessons as they were appointed in the Prayer Book, with special readings on Sundays of the chapters and parts of chapters which are not in the daily lessons, but making a careful study of one book of the Bible after another, in the language in which it was written, and thus, as he had been charged to do when he was ordained, "by daily reading and weighing the Scriptures, he waxed riper and stronger in his ministry," and he instructed you, his people, out of the Scriptures, the word of truth. His preaching seemed plain and simple, but it was for the very reason that he took pains with it; and he was care- ful always to explain what was meant by the text or passage about which he was preach- ing, so that there were not many congregations who could have learned from their clergyman more than you had the opportunity of learning. What he wrote out, he wrote out carefully and clearly ; and for his unwritten sermons he took pains to have an outline just as carefully and clearly prepared, and he knew precisely what he wanted to say and why he wanted to say it. That word of truth of which St. James speaks in the text was the life of his soul, or rather a means by which he took ever firmer hold on the Lord Jesus Christ as the life of his soul ; and God made him in this way to be a kind of first- fruits, quick in his apprehension, patient in his study, ready in his expression, helpful in his commendation of sacred truth; no doubt benefiting himself in this way, but most certainly benefiting those who heard him; and first-fruits representing and blessing those who were in it brought to God. * * *
And we know that the life has not ended. We cannot tell what that well-furnished mind and well-disciplined soul is learning in Paradise; but we do know that it is still "increasing and going forwards in the knowledge and faith of God and the Son of God by the Holy Spirit." We cannot tell for what ministry in the kingdom, the world of resurrection he shall be found specially meet in the great and unending day of God, but we are sure that they who are true teachers shall then have a brightness, not for their own glory but to lead others to greater visions of truth, and that they who instruct many for righteousness shall shine as the stars, with unfading and beneficent brightness, for- ever and ever.
Edwin hopkins Arnold
F EW, IF ANY, residents of Hartford, Connecticut, were more widely or favorably known than the late Edwin Hopkins Arnold, president of the Trout Brook Ice & Feed Company. He was a man of amiable disposition, and sustained an irre- proachable reputation for reliability as well as enterprise. He possessed the courtesy and gentlemanly qualities of the old school, and the circle of his friends was almost co-exten- sive with the circle of his acquaintances. Closely connected with the business life of the city for many years, he was honored and esteemed wherever he was known, while his memory is cherished by those with whom he came in close contact. Of engaging personal appearance, he was the soul of kind- liness and geniality, while deference and attention to the opinions of others were of his marked characteristics. His family is an ancient one, and he traced his descent in a direct line to Elder William Brewster.
Harvey Arnold, his father, was born in East Hampton, Connecticut, July 29, 1795, and died in West Hartford, Connecticut, February 18, 1847. He was an enterprising and energetic man, and removed to Hartford some time in the forties. There he purchased a large tract of land which extended from what is now Prospect avenue to Whiting street, and from Farmington avenue to Park street. His business enterprises were varied and extensive in their scope. He married Betsey Sears, who died in 1850, and they had children, all now deceased: Merrick; Prescott ; Edwin Hopkins, whose name heads this sketch; Lavinia, who married Oliver Shelton.
Edwin Hopkins Arnold was born in East Hampton, Connecticut, No- vember 27, 1830, and died at his beautiful home in West Hartford, Connec- ticut, October 14, 1905. His educational training was commenced in his native town and completed at the West Hartford Academy, from which he was graduated. He was about fourteen years of age at the time the family removed to Hartford, where they resided on the land above mentioned. Upon the death of the father, the estate was divided among the children, and Mr. Arnold added considerably to his share. He did a great deal to improve and develop that section of the city, and in recognition of this fact Arnold- dale Road in West Hartford received its name. Subsequently he sold his farm and purchased ten acres on Farmington avenue, on which the fine family residence, No. 892, is still located. He cultivated this plot of ground as a "gentleman farmer," finding in this his chief form of recreation. In association with his son, Frederick Wadsworth Arnold, he organized the Trout Brook Ice & Feed Company, a corporation of which he was chosen president, and remained the efficient incumbent of this office until death put an end to his activities. In matters connected with politics he was a staunch Republican, and while he gave his support to this party, he was never de- sirous of holding public office. Devoted to his wife and children, he sought and found his pleasures in the home circle, which was the gathering place of
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a large circle of friends, the home being noted for its openhanded hospi- tality.
Mr. Arnold married (first) Augusta Flagg, a daughter of George and Mary (Goodman) Flagg, of West Hartford; Mrs. Arnold died in West Hartford in 1858. Mr. Arnold married (second) May 22, 1861, Harriet Mait- land Wadsworth, born in Hartford, May 25, 1841, daughter of Oliver and Rosa Anna (Isham) Wadsworth, both born in Hartford, where he was en- gaged in the saddlery and trunk business. He was a direct descendant of Joseph Wadsworth, who hid the charter in the now famous "Charter Oak." Children by the first marriage: Charles Edwin, who lives in the family resi- dence on Farmington avenue; Mary Elizabeth, married Charles S. Mills, of Westfield, Massachusetts, and has a daughter, Edith Arnold, who married F. S. Smith, of Beverly, Massachusetts, and has children, Peter and Eliza- beth; Ada Mess, secretary of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, also lives in the family home on Farmington avenue. The children of the second marriage are: Frederick Wadsworth, who succeeded his father as president of the Trout Brook Ice & Feed Company ; Grace, who married L. C. Daniels, and has children, Ruth and Mildred; and , who married L. A. Sheldon, of West Hartford.
Mrs. Arnold comes of a family distinguished in the history of Connec- ticut. She remembers, how, as a child, her father playfully placed her in the hollow of the old "Charter Oak," and there told her the story of the tree, and the part it and her ancestor, Joseph Wadsworth, had played in the history of the State. She has contributed much valuable data concerning the correct story of the "Oak," made famous by her illustrious ancestor. Her essay on this subject was favorably commented upon by many of our local historical writers.
The name Wadsworth is derived, it is supposed, from Wood's Court, or court in the woods, the inference being that some ancestor of the present family held court in a wood-hence, literally, Woodscourt; in German, Waldes-hoff; in Anglo-Saxon, Waldes-weorth. The name is quite common in England, especially in the Yorkshire district, where it now seems probable the early ancestors of the American family hailed from.
/ Mortende
Jared Whitfield Pardee, M. D.
A MONG THE CONSPICUOUS figures of Hartford county, Connecticut, during a generation that is past, and well de- serving remembrance in our own and future times, should be numbered that of Dr. Jared Whitfield Pardee, of Bristol, a man famous in his day alike for his professional skill, an un- usually keen intellect, which often found its expression in a somewhat caustic wit, and his staunch churchmanship which he defended with all the vigor of a strong personality and powerful convictions. He was a member of a family very well known in that region and which had resided in New England from the earliest Colonial times, the immigrant ancestors being George and Martha Pardee. George Pardee was by origin a Huguenot, but it seems probable that he came to the American colonies with an English family which settled in Morris Cove, Connecticut, in the year 1653. The parents of Dr. Jared W. Pardee were Leavitt and Eliz- abeth (Hemingway) Pardee, old and respected residents of Bristol during Revolutionary times. To this venerable couple were born four children: Sally, Jared Whitfield, the subject of this sketch; Amy, and Leavitt, Jr.
The Pardee coat-of-arms is thus described : Or, a chevron azure between three stars of sixteen points of the second.
Dr. Jared Whitfield Pardee was born on January 1, 1792, in Morris Cove, Connecticut, and there gained his education at the local schools, and also attended Yale College, from which he was graduated. He was a man of very decided character and at an early age decided upon medicine as his choice of careers. In accordance with this determination, he attended the Yale Medical School at New Haven, where he bore himself with distinction and from which he graduated in the last year of the presidency of the famous Timothy Dwight. He established himself in practice in Bristol and very shortly made a reputation for himself as a clever diagnostician and a pro- found student of his subject, to say nothing of his equal fame as something of an original genius. During a period of upwards of fifty years he con- tinued to practice his profession in that neighborhood and came to be one of the best known figures thereabouts, his reputation, indeed, spreading be- yond the limits of his own community. He was a very ardent Democrat in political belief and became a valuable ally of that party in Hartford county, from the vigor of his espousal of its principles and policies. The same vigor which characterized his political opinions, and which by his enemies was regarded as approachng violence, also marked his other beliefs which he supported, one and all, with all the weapons of a keen wit and emphatic utter- ance. As has already been remarked, he was a very ardent churchman, of the Episcopalian persuasion, a cause which he never failed to defend by every appropriate means.
In January, 1817, Dr. Pardee was united in marriage with Ruth Norton Upson, of Bristol, Connecticut, where she was born January 2, 1795, a daughter of Asa and Ruth (Norton) Upson, of Berlin, Connecticut. She
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Jared Whitfield Daroce
died August 13, 1874, having borne her husband seven children, as follows: Czarina Elizabeth, who became Mrs. Asa Russell, of Great Barrington; Dwight Whitfield Pardee, the eminent Connecticut jurist, of whom a sketch follows in this work; Milette, died in infancy ; Sarah, died young; Cora, died in 1906; child, died in infancy ; and Sarah N., now a resident of Hartford.
The death of Dr. Pardee on January 6, 1867, brought to an end a career in every respect most successful, for in spite of the strength of his convic- tions and his mode of pressing them, of which his opponents complained, he was essentially one of the best hearted men in the world and however great his foes, politically or religiously, he seldom had to bear any personal ani- mosity, never, indeed, from such frank and open characters as his own. For this reason his success may be said to have been well rounded and complete, for this is true of the men who make friends, but not of those who make enemies, be their formal achievements what they may. Dr. Pardee, then, was a man who made friends and was accordingly successful in the best sense of the term, a man who stood for something definite in the com- munity, one of those figures that everyone knows better than he does the mayor or the judge, one who, as Chesterton tells us, is too large an individual to fit into any official pigeon hole and consequently remains in private life where his service to his fellows can remain more distinctively his own.
MARCUS ULBRICHT
AT WARR N J
ARDEE:
١ ٠٠٨٢م
Dwight Whitfield Pardee
JUSTICE DWIGHT WHITFIELD PARDEE, late of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, was one of a comparatively few men who have carried down into our own day the high and splendid traditions of the Connecticut bar, established in times gone by through the brilliant achievements of some of the most eminent barristers in the history of our country. He was the second of the seven children of Dr. Jared Whitfield and Ruth Norton (Upson) Pardee, of Bristol, Hartford county, Connecticut, where he was himself born February 11, 1822. His father was a man of very remarkable powers who was well known throughout the county, and it was from him that his son inherited some measure of his ability, although in general character they were different enough. Dr. Pardee was a man of means and gave to Dwight W. the best of educations, sending him at first to the Waterbury Academy to prepare for a college career. The lad was unusually precocious in his studies, and was but fourteen years of age when, having graduated from this institution, he entered Trinity College, Hart- ford. At Trinity College he further distinuished himself and graduated therefrom with honors with the class of 1840. He also had the advantage of private tutors, and there were but few who could boast of a wider famil- iarity with the knowledge of the schools then he. It had been decided that he should follow the profession of law, by this time, and he accordingly took up the study of this subject with his usual ardor and success under several masters. Among these should be mentioned the Hon. Isaac Toucy, later Attorney-General of the United States, under whose preceptorship the young man studied and with whom he was afterwards in partnership for a time. He also took the course in the Yale Law School at New Haven, from which he graduated. Being admitted to the bar the same year he was taken into the partnership already noticed by Mr. Toucy, who had formed a very high opinion of the young man's powers, and was soon embarked on the practice of his profession in Hartford, a city which ever afterwards remained his home. His fame as a successful attorney grew rapidly and he was soon a recognized leader of the county bar and some of the most important litiga- tion of the period was intrusted to his able hands. Like his father before him, the rising young lawyer was a strong adherent to the principles of the Democratic party, and it is the greater tribute to his powers that, in a period when these principles were coming more and more into popular disfavor, his political career should have been so successful.
It was in the year 1857 that he first made his appearance in a con- spicuous role in this realm, being then elected to the Connecticut State Senate, and serving with great effectiveness during the next two years. It was a time of extremely bitter partisan feeling, the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the war. The influence of Judge Pardee was exerted in company with that of Richard D. Hubbard and Charles H. Northam, who represented Hartford in the State House of Representatives,
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Dwight Whitfield Pardee
and of other Democrats of the same calibre, to prevent hostilities, but in vain. The next step in his political career was that which made him justice of the Superior Court in Hartford county on the retirement of Justices Waldo and Seymour from that body, and thereafter his activities are even more closely identified with the bench than with the bar. This election was made in 1863 and he continued in the office for ten years, and in 1873 was elected associate justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. The term of office in this the highest court of the State is eight years and Justice Pardee served for two of these, finally retiring on account of ill health at the end of the second and in his sixty-eighth year. He had in the meantime made for himself a reputation second to none as a wise judge and capable lawyer, a reputation that will live long in the memory of his fellow judges and attor- neys and of the community generally. In the year 1878 Justice Pardee received an honor that he valued highly in the shape of the honorary degree of LL. D. from his old alma mater, Trinity College.
Justice Pardee was married in June, 1847, to Henrietta Porter, of Hart- ford, a daughter of Solomon Porter, of that city, of which he was a very promi- nent citizen. Two children were born of this union who died in early child- hood and the death of Mrs. Pardee occurred not long after in 1863. Justice Pardee never remarried, making his home with three sisters at No. 62 Capitol avenue, Hartford, where death finally claimed him October 6, 1893. The funeral, which was a very impressive one, was held from St. John's Episcopal Church in the city, of which Justice Pardee had been a devoted member for many years and of which at the time of his death he was senior warden. It was attended by many eminent men, who represented the important interests with which he had been connected in life. The judges of the Connecticut Supreme Court attended and the president and faculty of Trinity College as well as many of the most prominent figures in the State and county bar. The honorary pallbearers were Justice Elisha Carpenter, of the Supreme Court ; Justice Nethaniel Shipman, of the United States Circuit Court ; ex-Justice Dwight Loomis, of the Supreme Court ; President George Williamson and ex-President Thomas R. Pynchon, of Trinity College; Hon. Henry C. Robinson; George W. Wooley, junior warden of St. John's Church; James A. Smith and Dr. W. A. M. Wainright, vestrymen of the church; and President George F. Hills, of the State Bank in Hartford.
But no adequate impression of the life and achievements of Justice Pardee can be given by a bare record of the principal events of his career. Though these indeed indicate the powers necessary to win a notable success, yet they give but a bald outline of the man himself whose attractions won him the friendship of a whole community and whose sterling virtues per- formed the still greater feat of retaining it. To give a picture in any degree adequate of him as a man, it will be necessary to turn to the expressions of admiration and sorrow which flowed from the lips and pens of the men who knew him personally at the time of his death and which form a tribute to his memory of which any man might well be proud. Among these the resolu- tions of St. John's Church are conspicuous as well as typical, and read as follows:
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