USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
Leonard, then fifteen years old, the eldest of seven children, left to be the mainstay of the family, was not unlike his father in character. He had the same holy "enthusiasmn of humanity," the same high hope of what the world was to become, the same faith in God that there was nothing wrong but could be set right, and that he could help to set it right. Deciding to enter the ministry, he pursued a full course of theological studies, was regularly ordained and found his lifework preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., was a divine of the highest reputation, both at home and abroad, as a philosophic theologian and a masterly preacher. He was pastor of the First Church of New Haven from 1825 to 1866, when he was inade pastor emeritus, and remained such until his death in 1881. A concise estimate of his character and a clear statement of the value of his labors is well told on the tablet which the Ecclesiastical Society connected with the church placed on the south wall of its house of worship : "By the grace of God, Leonard Bacon, a servant of Jesus Christ, and of all inen for His sake, here preached the Gospel for fifty-seven years. Fearing God and having no fear besides, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, friend of liberty and law, helper of Christian missions, teacher of teachers, promoter of every good work, he blessed the city and nation by ceaseless labors and a holy life, and departed peacefully into rest Dec. 24, 1881, leaving the world better for his having lived in it."
At an early stage in the battle against slavery, Dr. Bacon espoused the cause of freedom, and his pen continued to be active both against slavery and they who, in destroying the cancer, would have destroyed the body which it imperilled, till slavery was abolished by President Lincoln's proclamation of freedom. Lincoln once said to Rev. Joseph P. Thompson that he " received his first convictions of the enormity of slavery from the writings of Dr. Bacon." He married Lucy, daughter of Ebenezer Johnson of Johnstown, N. Y., and in their family of nine children, Francis was the fourth.
The early education of young Bacon was received in select schools at New Haven, which was followed by a course of study at home under a private tutor. Thence he was sent to the Phillips Academy of Andover, Mass. Electing the profession of medicine as the one best adapted to his tastes, he entered the office of the celebrated Dr. Ives of New Haven, and in due course matriculated at the medical department of Yale University in 1849, from which
.
112
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
he was graduated as M. D. in 1853. Active practice began in Galveston, Texas, where he remained about five years, part of which time he was in charge of the Galveston City Hospital. Being of northern birth, Dr. Bacon had 110 sympathy with the peculiar political sentiments of thic people among whom he dwelt. A comparatively short space of time brought with it botlı medical reputation and pecuniary success. But the teachings of the father had been instilled into the son, the bright prospects for worldly advancement were laid aside for the sake of principle, and in 1859 he removed to his northern home.
In the Civil War, which broke out after his return from the South, and the advent of which he had foreseen for some years, he promptly and patriotically arrayed himself on the side of constitutional law and order. In April, 1861, he entered the military service of the United States, in his native town, as assistant-surgeon of the Second Connecticut Volunteers, which was a three months' regiment, and which took part in the first disastrous engagement at Bull Run. Dr. Bacon was present with his command on that occasion. After the expiration of its terin of enlistment, he was commissioned as surgeon of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, and held that position until July, 1862, doing field duty most of the time, and being present with his regiment at its debarkation on Hilton Head, where it was the first to land on the hostile shore, and the first to wave the flag of Connecticut - after the stars and stripes - " above the traitorous soil of South Carolina."
At this time Gen. T. W. Sherman, who was in command of the expedition, issued a proclamation intended to conciliate the people of South Carolina and induce them to return to their allegiance to the United States. It proved a most deplorable mistake, but Dr. Bacon's share in the transaction was greatly to his credit. Speaking of the affair, Mr. G. W. Smalley, correspondent of the New York Tribune, said: "The mission was considered both important and direct, and some time was spent in the selection of an envoy. General Sherman finally entrusted it to Dr. Francis Bacon, surgeon of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, and detailed Lieutenant Wagner of his staff to accompany him. A circular letter was prepared by General Sherman worded as follows: 'Dr. Bacon and Lieutenant Wagner are sent under a flag of truce to convey to any citizens of South Carolina they may meet with the earnest wishes of the undersigned that all loyal citizens should return peaceably to their homes and protect their property from the ravages that the negro popu- lation are now committing. All loyal and peaceable citizens shall be protected in their persons and property and receive the benefit of all constitutional enactinents in their behalf. T. W. Sherman, Brigadier General Comdg. Port Royal, S. C., Nov. 13, 1861.'
"Armed with this letter, Dr. Bacon and Lieutenant Wagner started November 14, about nine in the morning, on the United States gunboat 'Seneca,' for Beaufort, and on their arrival capturing a couple of rather indifferent mules and hoisting a large white flag, rode inland." The story of their adventures was ludicrous in the extreme in places and slightly exciting in others, but a lack of space prevents its being inserted here. Mr. Smalley closes with this paragraph : "There is some reason to hope that General Sherman himself is aware that his proclamation was a piece of folly, viewed military-wise, or politically, and he is too good a soldier to let a known blunder pass uncorrected. Certain it is that throughout his army, there are not two opinions concerning the policy of the general commanding. Officers of every rank, and inen of every regiment, disapprove and regret it. I have not heard one expression in its favor, nor even an apology for its issue. This being the case, and the account I have given of the flag of truce having some ludicrous features, it is only right to say that Dr. Bacon discharged the unpleasant duty imposed upon him with the utmost faithfulness, courage and address."
N
Massachusetts Publishing Co. Everett. Mass.
II3
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
He was also on duty with his regiment on Tybee Island, at the siege and capture of Fort Pulaski, Ga. In July, 1862, he was commissioned surgeon of the United States Volunteers, with the rank of inajor, and became surgeon-in-chief of Gen. Silas Casey's division. He remained on duty in that position at Washington, D. C., until May, 1863, when he was transferred to New Orleans, in which city he organized the St. Louis General Hospital, of which he remained in charge about a year. During part of his period of service at New Orleans, Dr. Bacon filled the office of medical inspector of the Department of the Gulf in a most acceptable and efficient manner, and was also for some time the acting medical director.
In August, 1864, he resigned his position in the United States Army, in order to accept the office of professor of surgery in the School of Medicine connected with Yale College ; which office he retained until June, 1877. Simultaneously with the assumption of professional functions, he commenced the practice of medicine in New Haven, and has since pursued it with marked ability and success. His specialty is that of surgery, in which his operations have gained such fame for skilfulness that his services are frequently called into requisition in different sections of Connecticut and the adjoining states. He ranks among the first half dozen leading physicians of the state, and in his own chosen line is practically at the head. Gifted with a steady hand and rare judgment, Dr. Bacon has gained his present high position by close study, and the success he has attained is fully deserved. He is an occasional contributor to the medical journals, but confines him- self mainly to surgical topics.
It was but natural that he should be called upon to fill official stations in the various societies and corporations with which he is connected. For nearly thirty years he has been a director in the Connecticut State Hospital, and his counsel is greatly valued. He was president of the State Medical Society in 1887 and 1888, and was president of the New Haven Medical Society for the space of three years, and rendered good service while in that position. Dr. Bacon was one of the organizers of the American Public Health Association, and worked efficiently in that society for several years. He is a prominent member of the American Medical Association, is one of the medical visitors of the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford, and has been a member of the Board of Pardons since its organization in 1883.
Francis Bacon was married June 7, 1866, to Miss G. M. Woolsey, daughter of Charles W. Woolsey of New York.
ENNIS, RODNEY, of Hartford, one of the founders, and secretary during its entire existence to date, of the Travelers' Insurance Company, was born in Topsfield, Mass., Jan. 14, 1826. His strain of blood, which goes back to the early settlers of New England, has been notable for a persistent union of com- bative with strongly religious tendencies; to aspire to the good and to fight for the good, according to Cromwell's advice, has been the instinct of each generation. The first emigrant ancestor, Thomas, was a soldier in King Philip's War; his grandson, a graduate of Harvard, was army chaplain and surgeon for twelve years, 1737-49, in the middle French wars, then a pastor and teacher in New Hampshire and Massachusetts; his grandson, Rev. Rodney Gove Dennis, graduate of Bowdoin and Andover, was a clergyman in Topsfield, and then in Somers, Conn., -a man of lofty feeling and unbending character;
II4
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and the son of the latter was Rodney Dennis, whose life has been no less devoted to the service of righteousness and moral aspiration than his clerical progenitors, and no less full of militant manliness than his soldier ones.
He was one of ten children, six daughters and four sons; the three other sons died in the prime of a youth of extraordinary promise, though from diseases implying no constitutional weakness, but four of the sisters are still living. Two of the brothers obtained a liberal education, largely through the help of this one; he had one term in a high school, but like so many capable boys from the swarming families of old New England, saw no more school after the age of fourteen, becoming the stay of the household and farm. At sixteen he came to Hartford, in the employ of the late Gurdon Fox at his grocery on Central Row, and for five years did a man's work at a boy's pay, delivering goods by hand, or barrow, or team, grooming horses, and whatever else was required. On coming of age in 1847, he chose to set up for himself in spite of liberal offers to remain, and in partnership with A. C. Ives, as Dennis & Ives, established a grocery business on South Main street. He was the first in Hartford to introduce the inodern "specialties," such as canned and bottled goods, which have entirely transformed the old grocery trade. The business flourished well, but in 1849, Mr. Ives was attacked with bleeding from the lungs, went away for his health, and never returned to work. Mr. Dennis carried it on alone till the winter of 1850-51, when he sprained his knee so severely as to disable him for several months. On resuming his management, he found the business to be so disorganized that re-making it was too great a struggle, and discontinuing it, he went into the employ in Augusta, Ga., of the great firm of Hand, Williams & Wilcox. (The head of this firm was a Connecticut man, the well-known Daniel Hand, who was driven out for loyalty at the outbreak of secession, received after the war his full share of the property-over a million-from the lofty honor of his southern and secession partner, Mr. Williams, and has lately given a million to the American Missionary Society.) After two years' stay, he came north to Albany, where he remained two years longer, and was married in the latter of the two years, 1855; in that year he returned to Hartford and took a position in the Phoenix Bank, which he held till 1864, on the starting of business by the Travelers.
Mr. Dennis's known ability and integrity-the latter standing especially high from his having straitened himself for years to discharge obligations not legally his, and which 110 one but himself considered even moral ones-made it natural to solicit his services and the weight of his name to establish the new enterprise. He embarked his fortunes in it, and devoted his life to it, straining every faculty of mind and body to insure its success ; and here the reward of early discipline, self-sacrifice, and the resource developed by business training with no one to rely on but himself, became manifest. He was the last man in the world to have any small pride of place, and his unashamed labor and economy of management were prime factors in the company's permanence. For some time he was himself the entire force of employees, sole cashier, clerk and office boy, and for many years he worked double the hours of any clerk, doing detail work early and late, often into the small hours of the morning when others were asleep. His severe labor broke down his health at last, and rendered him for a short time unfit for office business, but after a short and successful business trip to California he at once resumed his desk.
Through the company's first months of comparative neglect and public incredulity, its short burst of unshared prosperity, its succeeding years of fierce competition and slow mastery and sole survival, its later ones of unapproached eminence, and its still later ones when, though it remains greatest and grows greater, the field is once more thick with rivals-he has remained its watchiful guardian and laborious servant, his first care and thought, its success
II5
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
and its good repute; anxious that it should prosper as the just reward of doing equity, and in order to retain the power of doing equity, but still inore anxious that it should do equity. To him there is no difference between the inoral obligations of a man and a corporation, and any seeming success of either is an apple of Sodom if not earned by honest service and based on the immutable laws of God.
Aside from this crowning business place, he has had a life as a inan and citizen which has been full of still richer honors and compensations, though less visible to the great world, and inany of them forever invisible and unknown to any but himself and the separate actors one by one. Public place he has never sought; he has felt that he could not give the time and labor needed to discharge its duties properly, and he would not discharge thein otherwise. Nor has lie ever coveted the ostensible headship even of the associations for good works and public welfare, of which he has been a wheel-horse and fountain of ready service; all that he could give or do as an officer, he would equally do as a private member, and he preferred to leave the name to others, and he has held such places because the societies wished it for their own credit and public advantage, not because he wished it for his own laurels.
A list of his directorships, trusteeships, and guardianships would create surprise from its number and variety, yet even that would not furnish a living impression of his real place in public estee111. Hardly any business venture has been started that seemed likely to benefit the city but he has invested in it, with small reference to personal profit, not from visionary cloudiness of judgment, but with a wish to share the duty of citizens in running some risk for public service. In purely business directorships, those of the Hartford Trust Company, the Overinan Wheel Company, the Farmington Power Company, the Hartford Electric Light Company, the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, and the Hartford City Gas Light Company may be mentioned, but his energies have been fully as much given to charitable and humane work.
For forty years no enterprise, small or great, has been undertaken in Hartford for the amelioration of humanity, in which he has not been foremost with purse and time, and, hardest of all, sacrifice of the shrinking from doing distasteful things, with everything, indeed, but the most plentiful of things in such enterprises-tongue and vanity. In connection with "Father" Hawley, he founded in 1842, the Morgan Street Mission School, the first attempt in Connecticut at organized care for and visitation of the poorest classes in the cities, and the rescue, protection and instruction of their children; it was the parent or forerunner of all the systematic public charities of the state. The incoming of a large foreign element first made this a pressing need. While in Augusta, Ga., he founded a similar institution there, and after his return to Hartford he was for twelve years superintendent and teacher of the Morgan Street School, and for some years taught an evening school twice a week. He is now president of the Hartford Charitable Society, the oldest of its kind in the state. He was one of the corporators of the Connecticut Humane Society, and has been its president from the first, as well as (what would not follow) a principal director and active laborer, quick to anger against any inhumanity either to man or beast, or the neglect of decent duties to children or wives. The hundreds of neglected or abused children it has rescued from ruin, from criminality or proletarianism, and set on the road to reputable lives, are its sufficient monu- ment, and it has been equally active in saving animals from the cruelties perpetrated by the brutal, the niggardly, or the thoughtless.
Mr. Dennis is also vice-president of the American Humane Society, and the American Anti-Vivisection Society, and of the Hartford Young Men's Christian Association, chairman of the board of managers of the famned Insane Retreat, a trustee of the Connecticut Industrial School for Girls, a trustee of the Society for Savings, which has as much of disinterested
116
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
public spirit as of business in its conduct, chairman of the finance committee of the Connecticut Bible Society, and director of the Tract Society and the American Missionary Society. He was president of the University Extension Society till relieved at his carnest wish. Of his trusteeships of private estates of widows and orphans, his guardianships, and his private benefactions, not alone in money, but in the far scarcer and more valuable gifts of judicious management and chances for self-help, it is the misfortune of a printed notice that it cannot tell. They make up thic total of a record which is as good a possession for the owner as for its beneficiaries, and there could be no higher expression.
Mr. Dennis's domestic life has been one of rare happiness and harmony of taste and char- acter. His wife was Miss Clarissa Strong of this city, from an old New England family which has not belicd its namc. Her only brother, William Strong, recently died in Kenosha, Wis., of which city he was at one time mayor. One sister was the wife of Gustavus F. Davis, president of the City Bank of Hartford, and vice-president of the Travelers; another, of Charles P. Welles of Hartford; another, of Hiram W. Warner, a successful New York merchant (both dead) ; the last sister recently died in Kenosha, Wis., the widow of Judge Josiah Bond of that city, who was a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, and a classmate of Hon. Dwight Pardee. She died in 1888, an irreparable loss of a high-minded, loving, and sympathetic companion. They had five children, two sons and three daughters. One son died early; the other, Rodney Strong Dennis, is an expert accountant in New York, in the fırın of Trenholm, Teele & Dennis; one daughter is the wife of Ralph W. Cutler, president of the Hartford Trust Company ; the second, the wife of Thomas Little, Esq., of Philadelphia ; the youngest is unmarried and resides with her father.
OCKWOOD, FREDERICK ST. JOHN, of Norwalk, president of the Fairfield County National Bank and of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad, was born in the city where he now resides Aug. 23, 1825.
Lockwood is an old English name dating back to the fourteenth century, and it has been borne by honorable men who have gained reputation for themselves both in war and civil affairs. It is uncertain to which branch of the family Robert Lockwood belonged, but it is known that he came from England about 1630 and settled in Watertown, Mass. In 1646, he removed to Norwalk, Fairfield County, Conn., where he died in 1658. His son Ephraim married Mercy Sention (now written St. John), and of his children the family line comes down through Eliphalet. He was a deacon in the church and was sent to the General Assembly one term. His son Peter was also a deacon and was a representative to the Assembly six times. In the fifth generation there caine a second Eliphalet on the genealogical tree, and lie was the first military man of the family, being a member in the First Company of Col. Charles Webb's Seventh Connecticut Regiment in the Revolutionary War, and later was an assistant commissary of issues. He represented Norwalk seven times in the General Assembly. Col. Buckingham St. John Lockwood, sixth in descent from the original emigrant, married Polly Esther, daughter of William and Mary Esther (Belden) St. Jolin, and of their six children the subject of this sketch was the youngest.
After passing through the public schools of his native town, young Lockwood was fitted for college at the grammar school in New Haven, where he had for fellow scholars Timothy Dwight, now president of Yale College, and Augustus Brandegee, who has since
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. II7
attained marked fame as a lawyer. Having a muscular frame and a lively disposition, Mr. Lockwood took an active interest in the athletic sports of the day ; especially in boating matters. The history of Yale College says of his efforts in this direction: "In August, 1845, Fred. St. John Lockwood of Norwalk was captain of the 'Augusta,' an eight- oared, 38-foot boat, bought for $170 by the '49 Club,' clincher built, of red cedar, with boxwood ribs, copper fastened. She could beat any boat in the bay." This boat, with another brought from Boston by Peter Parker, was the real beginning of what has since become the " Yale Navy." Although the boat was far more heavily constructed than the racing shells of to-day, the time they made has rarely been beaten by the crack crews of this generation. The students of the present year have cause to thank Mr. Lockwood for his zeal in aquatic sports. He was graduated in 1849, and received his degree of A. M. in 1852.
On the death of his father in 1850, Mr. Lockwood took charge of the ancestral acres and became a tiller of the soil for several years. For a short time he studied law under the direction of Judge Butler, but the intricacies of Blackstone were not to his taste and he soon gave up his legal researches. Becoming financially interested in the Union Manu- facturing Company, producers of felt cloths, he assumed a share of the management. Dur- ing the war period and for a number of years afterward liberal dividends were declared. Mr. Lockwood was a director in the Norwalk Mills in the earlier stages of its history, and though they manufactured a fine grade of cassimeres, evil times came to the company and he was made trustee in bankruptcy and re-organized the company under the title of the " Norwalk Mills Company," since which time the company has done a successful business.
From 1859 to 1862, Mr. Lockwood served as bank commissioner, being appointed to the office by Governor Buckingham. He represented the town of Norwalk in the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1865, and was reelected the following year. At this time he presented a bill calling for the uniformning of the Connecticut militia according to a given standard. The bill was stoutly opposed by those who could not see advantages to be derived, but it was passed triumphantly, and he was made a member of the committee to arrange the style and procure uniforms. He was again a member of the Legislature from Norwalk in 1872, and this year he served as chairman of the finance committee. Important matters affecting the handling of money came before them. The old usury laws were abolished and the rates of interest were equitably fixed; and all this class of legisla- tion was beneficially influenced by Mr. Lockwood's experience and financial ability.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.