USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 6
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Dr. Timothy huggins Bishop
O F the great professions-arms, law and medicine-that illus- trious trio which has for centuries given to the world some of its noblest leaders and benefactors, that of medicine is certainly the most gracious. Its votaries, unlike those of arms and the law, wage war not with any portion of man- kind, but with the enemies of the human race at large, and in their hour of triumph they hear none but friendly voices. The warrior comes from the battlefield bearing the palm of the victor, hear- ing at the same time the shouts and plaudits of his triumphant followers and the groans and defiance of the vanquished; the laurels won in intellectual controversy crown the brow of the advocate, while the mingled voices of applause and execration resound through the forum; but the physician's conquest is the subjugation of disease, his pæans are sung by those whom he has redeemed from suffering and possibly from death, and when his weapons fail to cope with an adversary whom he can never wholly vanquish, his sym- pathy alleviates the pang he cannot avert. In the foremost ranks of these helpers of humanity stood the late Dr. Timothy Huggins Bishop, of national reputation as a physician and surgeon.
The name of Bishop is a noted one in professional lines for a number of generations, and is of ancient English origin. Just how the title of a sacred office of the Catholic church came to be used for a surname is lost in the obscurity of ancient history. It is suggested that it must have been a per- sonal name, or a nickname, of some progenitor, just as major and deacon are sometimes given. Bishop was in common use in England as a surname many centuries ago, and no less than eleven hundred immigrants came from there to Massachusetts prior to 1650 with their families. A number of branches of the English Bishop family bear coats-of-arms, and have had titles and dignities of various sorts.
Dr. Timothy Huggins Bishop was born in New Haven, Connecticut, March 8, 1837, and died, in that city, December 25, 1906. He was a son of Dr. E. Huggins Bishop and Hannah Maria (Lewis) Bishop, both born in Southington, Connecticut. Seth Lewis, father of Hannah Maria (Lewis) Bishop, was on the staff of General Washington and was one of the first members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Dr. E. Huggins Bishop was a dis- tinguished physician and philanthropist, and not only transmitted to his son his own remarkable professional abilities, but fostered them by the most liberal training, and the inestimable advantage of personal advice and guidance during the years when his son was making for himself the honor- able position and widespread reputation which he later attained.
Dr. Timothy Huggins Bishop received his preparatory education in the schools of his native city, and then matriculated at Yale, being graduated from the medical department of this institution after he had enlisted for service in the Civil War. He served throughout the war, gaining much valuable experience, and earning great commendation for his bravery as well
Timothy H. Dishop
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as for his skill. For some time he was connected with the hospital at Alex- andria, near Washington, District of Columbia, and then with the Soldiers' Hospital of New Haven, serving at this last named hospital as long as his services were needed after the close of the war. He never entirely severed his connection with this hospital, serving for many years as secretary, giving his time and advice without any thought of remuneration, and was one of the principal factors in making it the magnificent institution it has become at the present day. Later he engaged in general practice in association with his father, continuing to make a specialty of surgery, however, but retired from practice some years prior to his death. He was a member of the Order of the Cincinnati, of the Society of Colonial Wars, and a life member of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, in the work of which he was greatly interested, especially that part of it relating to genealogy and patriotic affairs. He was a member of the Connecticut Medical Society, in which he filled the office of secretary. In political matters he gave his allegiance to the Republican party, although he never cared to hold public office, and he was a devout attendant at the services of the Episcopal church.
Dr. Bishop married, at Guilford, Connecticut, June 1, 1864, Jane Maria Bennett, born in New Haven, Connecticut, a daughter of the Rev. Lorenzo Thompson Bennett, D. D., and Maria (Smith) Bennett, the former a native of Saratoga county, New York, the latter born in Connecticut. Children: I. Dr. Louis Bennett Bishop, born June 5, 1865; was graduated from Yale University in the class of 1886, and from the Medical School of this Univer- sity in 1889; he is engaged in the practice of his profession in New Haven; he is a great admirer of the taxidermist's art, and has one of the finest collec- tions of stuffed birds in America; he married, July 16, 1910, Leona Bayliss, of Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York, and they have one child, Her- bert B., born August 20, 1912. 2. Herbert Morton, born July 9, 1868; was graduated from Yale University in the class of 1890, and from Yale Law School in 1892; he is engaged in the real estate business in New York City, was a member of the famous New Haven Grays, and is a member of the Quinnipack Club of New Haven; he married, October 15, 1913, Marion C. Voos, of New York. 3. May Lillian, born May 31, 1873; married, September 10, 1907, John Walcott Thompson, an attorney of Salt Lake City, a son of General J. Milton Thompson, United States army, now retired; they live in Salt Lake City, Utah; children: Walcott Bishop, born December 8, 1908; Margaret Hildegarde, September 10, 1910; Dorothy Jane, June 3, 1912. Mrs. Timothy Huggins Bishop lives in a fine home at No. 215 Church street, New Haven.
Dr. Bishop was a man of great sagacity, quick perceptions, sound judg- ment, noble impulses and remarkable force. Of unblemished reputation, he commanded the respect and confidence of the entire community. He devoted his life to a noble calling and was crowned with its choicest rewards. The true physician, in the exercise of his beneficent calling, heeds neither nation- ality nor distinction of class. Alike to him are the prince and the pauper, and into both the palace and the hovel he comes as a messenger of hope and healing. The acquisition was nothing to him save as a means of giving a
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material form and practical force to his projects for the uplifting of human- ity. Many there are in the ranks of this illustrious profession, to the honor of human nature be it said, to whom the above description would apply, but the voice, not of his home city alone, nor even of his native State, but of the Nation, would declare that of none could it be said with greater truthfulness than of Dr. Bishop.
Andrew W. Philips
Andrew Wheeler Phillips, Ph. D.
A NDREW WHEELER PHILLIPS, Ph. D., for fifteen years Dean of the Yale Graduate School, a noted mathematician, died at his home, 409 Humphrey street, New Haven, Con- necticut, January 20, 1915. Professor Phillips was son of Dennison and Wealthy Browning (Wheeler) Phillips, and was born March 14, 1844, in the town of Griswold, New London county, Connecticut. The Phillips family was very early in Norwich, and for several generations in Griswold, and Professor Phillips was descended from fine old New England stock. He had the best kind of home training, under a father and mother thrifty, intelligent, and devoutly religious. His early years were spent on his father's farm. When quite young he was inspired with an ambition to become a teacher,-a not unnatural ambition, in view of his unusual talents in that direction. Begin- ning when a lad of sixteen, he taught four years in the public schools of Eastern Connecticut, and at the same time continued his study of the higher branches, especially of mathematics, both privately and at a select school kept during three summer vacations in Jewett City. From 1864 to 1875 he was instructor in mathematics at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Con- necticut. Pursuing advanced studies in mathematics under Professor Hubert A. Newton, he obtained in 1873 the degree of Bachelor of Philoso- phy, which was followed in 1877, after graduate courses in mathematics, physics, and the political and social sciences, by the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In 1875 Trinity College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
Professor Phillips was called to Yale in 1876 as tutor in mathematics, was promoted to be Assistant Professor in 1881, and Professor in 1891. Four years later he became Dean of the Graduate School, these promotions coming to him in deserved recognition of his unusual ability as a teacher and administrator. He was for many years Secretary of both branches of the College Faculty, and was Secretary of the Bicentennial Committee, which raised nearly two million dollars for the erection of the Bicentennial buildings known as Woolsey, Memorial and University Halls. Probably no member of the Faculty was more widely known among Yale alumni. After thirty-five years on the Yale Faculty, he retired from active service in 19II. His career as a teacher and administrative officer extended over a full half- century. He gained the education that fitted him so well for his work at Yale mostly by private study. He was never a pupil in a high school, and never an undergraduate student in a college.
Professor Phillips was greatly interested in preparatory schools. In 1883 he was chosen Trustee of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at Cheshire, and three years later was made a Trustee of the Hopkins Gram- mar School in New Haven. When the Hotchkiss School at Lakeville was established in 1891, he was placed on the first Board of Trustees and later became President of the Board.
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Professor Phillips was joint author of several mathematical works, including "Transcendental Curves" with Professor Newton, "Graphic Alge- bra" and "The Orbit of Swift's Comet" with Professor William Beebe, "The Elements of Geometry" with Professor Irving Fisher, and "Trigonometry and Tables" with Dr. Wendell M. Strong. For a period of thirteen years he edited the "Connecticut Almanac," and various papers on higher mathe- matics and astronomy were contributed by him to scientific and educational journals. He was a member of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, of the American Mathematical Society, and of the Con- necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and acted in political movements with the Republicans.
In announcing the death of Professor Phillips at the College chapel service on the twenty-first, the chaplain, a former pupil, after paying a just tribute to the deceased, read the Parable of the Good Samaritan, saying that this character in the parable most nearly represented Professor Phillips' life.
On the morning of January 22 the following editorial appeared in a New Haven paper :
To residents of this city and to many generations of Yale men, the unexpected death of Professor Andrew Wheeler Phillips in this city on Wednesday night was a very real loss. During his long and notable connection with the University, whose welfare and best interests it was his proud delight to serve, he was to the men of Yale "Andy" Phil- lips. Many New Haveners not identified with the University also knew him as well and as favorably as "Andy" Phillips. The career of the man who, in an unlooked-for manner, has at the allotted time of threescore years and ten ceased from his interesting and valuable labors, is too well known to call for any extended comment here. The whole- some product of the New England soil, Andrew Phillips was early aware of that rare summons, a call to devote his talents and the potentialities of a great heart to the high calling of education. His course of teaching in the public schools of eastern Connecticut ; his subsequent establishment of a place of high regard among the students, alumni and friends of the Cheshire Academy, where he began to teach mathematics in 1864 and con- tinued for more than a decade; his teaching career at Yale, where from the year 1877 until a few years ago he was successively tutor, assistant professor, and professor of mathematics; and his notable record in the administrative office of Dean of the Yale Graduate School from 1895 to his retirement from the active service of the University in 19II-all revealed the natural teacher. Possessed to an uncommon degree of the essen- tial and unquenchable spirit of youth, he understood boys and young men. It was this fine feeling from the human wants of the men who under his tutelage wandered through the mazes of calculus (which he, if any one, could render intelligible) and the other mysteries of higher mathematics, that made him "Andy" and not "Professor" Phillips. That was a rare compliment, and it pleased the man's very human vanity and gave him a store of the choicest memories, which were ever ready for recital. It might be consid- ered in the nature of a paradox that the author of mathematical text-books, and the occasional designer of wall paper by ingeniously plotted mathematical curves, should have possessed a distinct literary gift with a happy knack of turning a phrase, but such was the case. Here again the genial good nature of the man came to the surface, and the numerous recipients of letters of felicitation or consolation, done in graceful verse or striking prose, had "Andy" Phillips to thank for a happier outlook on life. A young old man-if to have reached the age of seventy and still be a boy at heart is to be old-he bore his years gracefully. The friends of "Andy" Phillips were not ready to let him go, so much good cheer and positive helpfulness were still to be radiated. He will be missed.
Professor Phillips was married (first) April 23, 1867, to Maria Scoville Clarke, who died February 22, 1896; (second) June 27, 1912, to Mrs. Agnes DuBois Northrop (born Hitchcock) of Waterbury, Connecticut, who sur- vived him.
A. S. Wonline
nathaniel Eugene Wordin, M. D.
T HE RANKS of the medical profession in New England have presented us with many illustrious names which have mer- ited the respect and honor of their fellow citizens for many brilliant achievements, but of none who more justly deserved this meed of praise than that of Dr. Nathaniel Eugene Wordin, for many years a leader of his profession in Con- necticut and one of the foremost citizens of the city of Bridgeport in that State. His death, which occurred on May 10, 1915, was profoundly mourned among a host of personal friends and one of the largest clienteles in that part of the country. He was sprung of a splendid old Con- necticut family which had been identified with Bridgeport since its earliest beginnings, having come there it seems probable from Stratford, Connec- ticut, as early as 1772. Captain William Wordin, presumably the son of Thomas and Dorcas (Cooke) Wordin, of the latter city, was the person in whom the removal to Bridgeport was made, he being the purchaser of land where now is located the corner of State and Park avenues. This property remained the homestead of the Wordin family for many years, the ancestors of the present generation being most of them born there.
On the maternal side, also, Dr. Wordin was descended from a fine New England house, the Leavenworths, founded here by Thomas Leavenworth, who came to this country shortly after the restoration of Charles II. and sometime prior to the year 1664, when his name first appears on the records of Woodbury, Connecticut. Dr. Wordin's parents were well known resi- dents of Bridgeport, his father being a successful merchant there and con- ducting a large business in drugs.
Dr. Nathaniel Eugene Wordin was born May 26, 1844, on the old Wordin Homestead in Bridgeport, and, with the exception of a compara- tively short time during his youth has always identified himself and his activities with that place. The first sixteen years of his life were passed there and during this time he laid the foundation of his unusually liberal education at the excellent local public schools. When he had attained the age of sixteen years he was sent South to Petersburg, Virginia, to attend there a school conducted by an uncle, the Rev. Mr. Leavenworth, a Presbyterian clergyman. This was in the year 1860, and the following year the Civil War broke out. Young Mr. Wordin was involved in a number of exciting adventures and only just managed to get back to the North, taking passage on the steamer "Northern Star," the last to run the Confederate blockade from Richmond. A year later, feeling the great wave of patriotism that then swept the country, he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Regiment Connec- ticut Volunteers, though he was but eighteen years of age. His quickness and coolness were soon remarked by his officers and he was detailed as secre- tary and orderly to Colonel Chatfield in command of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment, a post that he held for some time when he was sent South to join
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his regiment, as an orderly and secretary, and later was clerk at headquar- ters, all during the war. He remained with the regiment until it was mus- tered out in 1865. During the latter part of the great struggle, the Sixth Connecticut Regiment formed a part of the Tenth Army Corps and saw active service in the extreme southeast during the campaign in that quarter which culminated in the march to Richmond and the close of hostilities. He was one of those who entered Richmond with the victorious Federal army and it was his hand that drew up the order of General Shepley putting the city under martial law. He had the distinction also of drawing up many of General Grant's orders at the time concerning the disposition of troops, etc.
This long suspension of his normal life having at length ended, the young man returned to the North and there resumed the studies that had been so rudely interrupted. He had already determined upon medicine as a career and now began courses looking in that direction. He first prepared himself for college by attending the Golden Hill Institute at Bridgeport, and it was while studying there that he first met the young lady who was afterwards to be his wife. The young man was by taste and character a student and he devoted himself to many literary subjects, not necessary in the pursuit of his professional work, but merely because of his fondness for such subjects. After graduation from the Golden Hill Institute, he matricu- lated at Yale University, where he continued his brilliant career as a student. He was a prominent member of his class and took an active part in the life of the student body of which he was a popular member. He was a member of the Linonia, Kappa Sigma Epsilon and Alpha Delta Phi fraternities. He graduated with many honors with the class of 1870. He next turned his attention more particularly to his professional work and attended the Yale Medical School for one year and then for two years attended the Jefferson Medical School at Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1873. Return- ing to his native city, Bridgeport, he at once began the practice of his pro- fession there and was from the outset highly successful. He established his home and office at No. 174 Fairfield avenue, Bridgeport, and there made his headquarters during the twenty-nine years that he remained in practice until his death. This practice was a very large one for his fame was not confined to the city where he dwelt, or even to the State, but spread abroad through- out New England and he was soon regarded as one of the leaders of his pro- fession in that part of the world. He was a man who was never content to rest on the achievements of the past nor to content himself with anything less than the latest knowledge of his subject, so that he ever kept well abreast of the times, and this was the easier to him as his taste was for study and research. In the year 1879 he took a special course in post-graduate work at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in diseases of the eye, and thereafter specialized to a certain extent in this complaint. His original intention had been, on taking up this study, to remove to Aintal in central Turkey and there take up the practice of his specialty, but this idea was finally aban- doned and he remained at home. He did not give up his general practice, and, indeed, rather increased it than otherwise, but he took as much time as possible for his special work.
OMNIA CUM DEO
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nathaniel Eugene Wordin
Besides his private practice Dr. Wordin was associated professionally with a number of hospitals and other institutions where his services were invaluable. He was on the staff of the Bridgeport Hospital, one of the managers of the Fairfield County Temporary Home, and physician to the Bridgeport Protestant Orphan Asylum for forty years. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Bulkeley to be a member of the State Board of Health, an office which he held so effectively that he was continued in it for nine years. Besides these posts involving the direct use of his professional knowledge, he also held others in connection with the profession but of a more general kind. He belonged to many medical clubs and organizations and his unusually energetic nature rendered him active in all. He belonged to the Bridgeport Medical Society and was secretary two years and presi- dent three years. He was a member of the Fairfield County Medical Society, and of the State Society, and for seventeen years was secretary of the same and its president for one year. During his incumbency he was very active in publishing the reports of the society, compiling and editing the same with infinite care and labor. In the year 1892, on the occasion of the one hun- dredth anniversary of the organization he brought out a "Centennial Vol- ume" consisting of over one thousand pages, entirely the work of his hands. He was also a member of the National American Association, the American Public Health Association and a charter member of the American Academy of Medicine.
The activities of some men must often surprise their fellows because of their variety and number and the endless store of energy necessary for taking part in them all. Such was remarkably the case with Dr. Wordin who, besides the many professional and semi-professional demands already cited, was active in a number of other departments of the community's life. He was conspicuous socially and was an honored member of many of the most prominent clubs. In memory of his early soldier days, he belonged to Elias Howe Post, No. 3, Grand Army of the Republic, and besides this he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the United Order of the Golden Cross, the Contemporary Club, the Sea Side Club, and in con- nection with his literary pursuits, of the Fairfield County Historical Society. In the matter of religion he was affiliated with the First Congregational Church of Bridgeport, holding the post of deacon therein for a considerable period, and making himself active in Christian Endeavor work as well as in the Young Men's Christian Association.
It has already been stated that during his attendance upon his courses in the Golden Hill Institute while a young man, Dr. Wordin had met the young lady who was afterwards to become his wife. This was Eliza Wood- ruff Barnes, a daughter of Dr. Julius Steele Barnes, a graduate of Yale Col- lege and Yale Medical School, and a practicing physician of Southington, Connecticut. The friendship which the two young people formed at that time soon ripened into love, and was kept up by correspondence during the young man's absence at college and medical school. Some years later Miss Barnes went to Wilmington, Delaware, where she was offered a position as school teacher, and there Dr. Wordin also went and married her, Christmas CONN-4
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Day, 1879. To them was born one daughter, Laura Barnes, now deceased. Mrs. Wordin, who survives her husband, is related to many of the promi- nent Connecticut families and is herself a conspicuous figure in the society of the city.
Dr. Wordin's fondness for literary pursuits has been cited above and it was characteristic of his active nature that he should have followed them indefatigably. Receiving a most liberal educaton in the arts and sciences in his youth, of which he availed himself to the utmost, he continued to follow up these, to him, delightful matters during the remainder of his life, and justly bore the reputation of great culture and profound learning. As was very natural, his own professional studies occupied the first place in his interest and he spared no pains to perfect himself in these. He was also very fond of travel and these two tastes he more than once combined in trips that he took for pleasure and profit. In 1899, for instance, he travelled to the Pacific coast, and three years later he went to Mexico where he spent a year. He also spent much time in original writing, and many of his papers on medical subjects were read before the American Association and other societies of which he was a member. As a man he was universally respected and loved, and the sorrow caused by his death was not confined to any com- munity or class but extended to all who were acquainted with him even the most casually. Illustrative of the tone of the tributes paid his memory after that sad event the "Bridgeport Telegram" may be quoted, which in the course of a long obituary notice said :
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