USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 40
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Colonel Colt had all the attributes of the born leader. He was an excellent judge of char- acter, and, though a stern disciplinarian, by fairness, kindness and generosity bound to himself with hooks of stcel his assistants and employees. Those who knew him best loved him most. The Church of the Good Shepherd, a beautiful edifice built by Mrs. Colt within the enclosure of the dyke, is one of inany memorials consecrated by affection to his memory. She has managed the affairs of the great estate with a wisdom that has preserved its integrity, with a benevolence that through organized charity and private channels lias carried comfort to many homes, and with a profusion of refined hospitality that has imparted a richer coloring to the social development of the city. It can be truly said of her that the influence conferred by large wealth and exceptional talents has been uniformly exerted to promote the happiness and welfare of others.
But one child, Caldwell Hart Colt, survived the period of infancy. Born Nov. 24, 1858, lie was educated largely under the direction of private tutors, though he attended for a time
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St. Paul's Preparatory School at Concord, N. H., and the Sheffield Scientific School at New Haven. He early manifested great fondness for the sea, becoming an accomplished sailor. In 1881, he bought the "Dauntless." In her he cruised in many waters and took part in several famous races. Brave, generous and zealous in efforts to build up the yachting interests of America, he was beloved by a wide circle of friends. At the time of his death in Florida, Jan. 21, 1894, he was vice-commodore of the New York Yacht Club and commodore of the Larchmont Club. Extracts from the resolutions adopted at the annual meeting of the last named club, show the high esteem in which he was held by his associates :
It is no exaggeration to say that Caldwell H. Colt was the typical yachtsman of his day, and that no man in this country or abroad has earned a higher place in the annals of the sport to which we are devoted. He had carried his flag with credit to himself, and honor to his country in many seas. He was the master of his own vessel, and never feared to face danger, never hesitated to embark in a race.
On the placid waters of Long Island Sound, amid the turbulent waves of mid-Atlantic, and in foreign seas he was equally at home, and was ever a thorough seaman, a gallant yachtsman, and a true sportsman. He never declined a contest because success seemed doubtful, and he never stooped to take an unfair advantage of an adver- sary. In the private relations of life his loss will be felt and deplored by many men in many countries. He had travelled widely ; and wherever he had gone, he had never failed to win devoted and admiring friends. Always courteous, always generous, always mindful of the comfort and pleasure of others, it is not strange that he earned and kept the affectionate regard of all with whom he came into contact. It can be truly said of him that to know him was to love him, and that, the longer and better he was known, the more he was beloved.
The Larchmont Yacht Club honored itself when he was elected Commodore, and to him is due no small part of its present prosperity. We have lost a friend, but his memory will not grow dim, and his example will survive to remind us constantly what a thorough yachtsman ought to be.
HEFFIELD, JOSEPH EARL, of New Haven, was born in Southport, Conn., June 19, 1793. He passed on to his reward Feb. 16, 1882, having by nine years exceeded the biblical limit of fourscore.
His father and grandfather were extensive ship owners, and took an active part in the War of the Revolution, in an arined vessel which was commissioned by Congress but was equipped and sailed by themselves. Mabel (Thorp) Sheffield, his mother, was the daughter of Walter Thorp, also of Southport, a shipmaster and owner, who was engaged in West India trade. The business of both the Sheffields and Captain Thorp was almost destroyed by the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon.
Till the age of fourteen, young Sheffield faithfully attended the village school, except that meanwhile he showed the adventurous spirit of the family by going twice to Carolina as a cabin boy. In 1807, at the age of fourteen, he was taken as a clerk to Newbern, N. C., by Mr. Stephen Fowler, and in the year following was transferred to the drug- store in the same town of his brother-in-law, the late Dr. Webb, continuing there till the spring of 1812, when, as he was on a visit to his parents, war was declared against Great Britain. At the age of twenty, he was solicited to act as supercargo of a vessel bound for North Carolina, which should run the British blockade at Sandy Hook, and provide itself with a return cargo of pitch and other naval stores then bringing a high price in New York. Being successful in both enterprises he was made a partner in the house before he was 21; commencing his almost uniformly successful and always sagacious career. In two years he showed his self-reliance and sagacity, when finding his house at the close of the war in possession of a large stock of goods' bought at war prices and under heavy liabilities, he sold them at low rates and as rapidly as possible, "contrary to the judgment but not to the consent of his partners," and rapidly converted the returns into naval stores which still
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continued high at New York; "much to the joy of his associates and surprise of his more timid and tardy neighbors who had not believed in the rapid decline of goods, and had looked on these bold operations with 110 little misgiving and astonishment."
In 1816, priccs having fallen in North Carolina to a ruinous point, and his firm having still on hand a large stock of goods, he set off on horseback upon a solitary journey of exploration of a thousand miles, much of it through the then Indian territory. His desti- nation was the new settlements in Alabama to which cmigrants were then rapidly flow- ing. After visiting several infant towns, lie fixed upon Mobile as his future home, then containing 1,000 inhabitants, and ordered at once his entire stock of goods, worth some $50,000, to be shipped to this port. They did not arrive until the spring of 1817, when, pursuing the policy already adopted, he sold them very rapidly at low prices, investing the proceeds in cotton and peltries, in what was almost the first cargo that was sent directly from Mobile to New York. In view of what was regarded by many as the unfortunate location of Mobile as a sea-port, Mr. Sheffield in connection with several enterprising inerchants undertook to locate and build up another port on the other side of the bay. The enterprise proved unsuccessful, and after five years of hard labor he returned to Mobile in 1822, 110 better in liis fortunes thian when he began. Here he remained, prosecuting a very extensive and lucrative business, till the spring of 1835, when he removed from Mobile to New Haven at the age of forty-two. His reasons for this course were his abhorrence of slavery, and a desire to "give such education to my children as will fit them for a rational and religious course in this life, and prepare them for a better."
This removal did not terminate his business relations with Mobile. For some nine years afterwards he regularly spent his winters in that city for the purpose of buying and shipping cotton, and was brought into still closer connection and higher reputation with the merchants and capitalists of New York.
The next most important event of his life, so far as his subsequent history is concerned, was the purchase of the majority of the stock of the so-called Farmington Canal, the legal title of which was the New Haven & Northampton Company. The most of this stock had fallen very largely into the hands of Mr. Sheffield at a low price, and for several years it yielded a moderate profit to Mr. Sheffield and Mr. Henry Farnam, its principal owners, the latter gentleman having been connected with it as an engineer from the beginning of its construction. Later on they began the construction of a railway along the line of the canal, but complications arose which were exceedingly adverse to its success, and were exceed- ingly vexatious to Mr. Sheffield. Both the gentlemen decided to transfer their energies and activities to another and distant field, not, however, without leaving upon Mr. Shef- field a series of burdensome and expensive responsibilities for the remaining thirty years of his life in extending and completing the canal railway.
The purchase and operation of this canal led to an intimate and unbroken friendship with Mr. Farnam in which both found the greatest satisfaction. This friendship grew out of the most intimate business relations in which each admirably supplemented the other, and to the perfect confidence and united strength which attended this union should be ascribed the inception and the early completion of some of the most important enterprises of the present generation. The management of this canal naturally brought Mr. Sheffield into intimate connection with the capitalists and merchants of New Haven, and into active zeal for the promotion of its interests by other public works. Few people know how prominent and influential was Mr. Sheffield in the first conception and actual construction of the rail- way to New York. It was largely through his efforts that the subscriptions were secured and the work begun.
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His new enterprises in the West, however, were inspiring and full of hope, and their splendid and most honorable success was most gratifying to his ambition. They were also largely remunerative. The first of these undertakings was the connection with Chicago of one of the great western lines by the construction of the last one hundred miles that had long been delayed. This was easily accomplished by the credit of Mr. Sheffield and the energy of his associate, and the day after Chicago was connected for the first time by rail with New York, the price of real estate was doubled in the great city of the lakes. The next inovement was still bolder in its proposal and more successful in its achieve- ment. It was another movement towards the Pacific by the construction of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. This was finished in five-eighths of the time contracted for, and with scarcely the least friction or delay, by reason of the confidence which was felt in the financial ability and honesty, and the skill and energy, of the two contractors. At its completion, in 1854, 1,000 guests were invited by Messrs. Sheffield and Farnam to a holiday excursion, which was one of the most memorable and instructive that was ever celebrated in the country. The next move westward was the bridging of the Mississippi. Other and important interests arrested this enterprise, and serious legal difficulties were interposed which were finally set aside by the highest tribunal of the nation. This being accomplished, the work of moving farther westward was, after some hesitation, finally left by both to other hands. In all these movements and the transactions incident to then, Mr. Sheffield made large additions to his estate, although he was till nearly the end of his life vexed and burdened by the inany calls which were made upon him to save and make sure his first railway investment. It was most gratifying to him and his friends to find that this enterprise, which had been so long a drain upon his estate, and a constant trial to his patience, by an unexpected event a few months before his death, had at last made good the confidence, the pledges and assurances which he had embarked in it.
From the principles which he had early adopted for the direction of his business life, Mr. Sheffield never deviated, and he held them if possible with greater warmth and tenacity at the end than at the beginning. They were a part of his manhood, the expression of his living self, the application of sound ethical and practical principles. They will always hold good in the acquisition and protection of property, in the ambitions and competitions of exchange, in the hopes of enterprise, in the projects that build cities and people deserts, that tunnel mountains and open highways for nations. From the earliest days of trade and commerce down to the present, there have been merchants and bankers who were not only princely in their state and splendor but also princely in their honor and truth; not only princely in the reach of their plans and aims, but princely in their methods of fulfilling them. There have also been merchants and bankers who have been the mneanest and most cruel of their kind. To which of these classes Mr. Sheffield belonged, it need not be said. Whatever else might be said of him, it was always true that as a man of business his sense of honor was as quick as the blush of a maiden, and hence it was that whenever he gave his word, no matter how largely or speedily any credit was needed, credit and money were always at his command. He abhorred from the bottom of his soul sharp practices of every sort; he was never content to fulfill his word or bond merely to the letter if he could by any means evade its spirit. He was not honorable simply from the traditions of his guild, but he was honorable from the convictions of his conscience and the sentiments of his heart.
Thus far Mr. Sheffield has been followed in the transactions of business and the accumulation of wealth. It is but natural that he should be followed in the use of his property and the exercise of benevolence. The most conspicuous and widely known of his benefactions were made to the Scientific School which will always be known by his name.
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These benefactions began the year after the successful completion of the Rock Island Rail- way, in 1855, and continue 1 till his death, with an unremitting flow for a period of twenty- seven years. His attention had previously been favorably directed to thic college by the per- sonal interest and sympathy in his carly railway operations by two or three members of its faculty, at a time when personal sympathy was especially grateful. After the marriage of his daughter in 1854, to Prof. John A. Porter, the professor of Analytical and Agricul- tural Chemistry, 1852-1864, in the then infant and struggling "Department of Philosophy and the Arts," he had made his first donation to this department of some five thousand dollars. This was just before he went abroad in 1856, for an absence of two years or inore. Professor Porter was a broad-minded and sanguine scholar, of varied knowledge and culture in both literature and science, who was well fitted to inspire a man like Mr. Sheffield with interest in the prosperity and plans of the then infant institution .. It was a time when the so-called New Education was beginning to be talked of, and when varied projects were devised and discussed for promoting an education which should be at once inore teclinically scientific, and more positively 'practical than had been provided in the colleges. To meet these wants in a tentative way one section of the department already spoken of was organized, and its friends soon became convinced that for its successful development it needed a separate building and apparatus, as also a fund for the endow- ment of professorships. All these were in part provided for by Mr. Sheffield about the time of his return from Europe in 1858. The old Medical College was purchased for $16,500, then enlarged and re-fitted at an expense of $35,000, and completed as Sheffield Hall in time for the opening of the school in September, 1860. In October, of the same year, Mr. Sheffield, perceiving that an additional endowment was essential to its success, added $40,000, making according to his statements an expenditure of $101,557.92 .-
In 1865-66, after the state grant of $135,000, he again enlarged Sheffield Hall at an expense of $46,739.38, and added a library fund of $10,000. Later through his influence Mrs. Higgin gave £5,000 to endow a professorship, and at her death added a legacy of £1,000 for the same purpose. In 1870-71, he gave the land and contracted for the erection of North Sheffield Hall at a cost of $115,360. Other large gifts are not named, which included liberal contributions for specific objects, and frequent additions to its income. All these gifts inay be estimated as something over $450,000. By his will he directed that his handsome residence and the grounds attached should eventually become its property, and that the school which bears his name should share equally with each of his children in the final distribution of his large estate. All these gifts may be safely estimated as considerably imore than $1,000,000. It is worthy of notice that whenever anything was contributed to the school by others, Mr. Sheffield was inspired to add a liberal gift of his own. The gift of the state fund induced him to enlarge Sheffield Hall and to add to its apparatus and library. The efforts for endowment in 1869-71, which were responded to to the extent of some $90,000, including the gift of Mrs. Higgin, led him to add some $76,000 to the endowment previously given by himself.
It also deserves to be noted that the relations of Mr. Sheffield to the trustees and officers of the college and scientific school have uniformly been most pleasant and friendly. Every one of his gifts was inspired by an intelligent and unshaken confidence in the theory of the school and in the wisdom of its managers. It is inost noteworthy that he never manifested the desire or made the effort to direct its policy or interfere with its administration. When elected a ine111ber of the corporation of the college by the votes of the graduates, he took his seat at a single session in acknowledgment of the compliment, but forthwith resigned his place. He never attended the commencement of the college or the anniversary of the scientific
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 253
school. Whenever any enlargement of its resources was needed he was glad to be informed, but he was content to understand the reasons for the opinions of those in whom he confided, without attempting to alter them or advancing a theory of his own. It was enough for him to confide in the judgment of inen whom he believed to be honest, and knew they were competent. In these respects he was a inodel worthy of imitation, and presented a striking contrast to many patrons of schools of learning and institutions of beneficence. While in some relations he manifested a sensitive distrust of men, he was slow to withdraw his confidence from those whom he had learned to trust. In respect of intelligent, cheerful, abundant, untiring, and modest liberality to institutions of learning, Mr. Sheffield was an example to the men of wealth in all this land. His liberality of this description has been surpassed by few in respect to the amount of his gifts. Here and there indeed one has given larger sums with the express purpose of founding an institution which should be called after his name. Mr. Sheffield began his benefactions with no such intentions or expectations, but from a personal conviction of the value and promise of a tentative school which was then regarded only as an offshoot of a great university. It grew in his esteem and confidence as he witnessed its well- earned success by honorable methods, on a basis of honest work. It also grew in his affections, and before he knew it, it was adopted as his child. His opportunity was a rare one indeed; but it is perhaps more rare that such an opportunity finds a man sagacious enough to under- stand and improve it.
Mr. Sheffield did not limit his public benefactions to the scientific school. He was for many years a trustee of Trinity College and warmly interested in its prosperity, and gave to it, from time to time, donations amounting in all to $16,800. The Berkeley Divinity School of Middletown, also had his warm and active sympathy, which was manifested by liberal gifts from time to time, to meet its pressing wants, amounting in all to $75,000, and by a generous legacy at his death of $100,000.
Nor did Mr. Sheffield limit his benefactions to institutions of higher education. The earliest object of any distinguished liberality after he became a resident in New Haven was the parish school of Trinity church. He found this school, in 1854, in a straightened con- dition, and at the instance of a few well-known ladies of the parish, he gave $5,000 as a fund for the support of a teacher, and a second $5,000 after his return from Europe in 1858. About this time the necessity for a Parish Home was pressed upon his attention by the same ladies. As the result of this solicitation, and of his own deliberate and serious thoughts, he provided for the excellent and interesting suite of buildings on George street, which include a parish school-house, an old ladies' home, and a chapel, with accommodations for a minister at large, at a cost of some $160,000, all of which were given in trust to the parish of Trinity church, and solemnly consecrated on the 24th of July, 1869.
Mr. Sheffield was a man of superior intellect, and this superiority was manifested in the acuteness, penetration and forecast of his judgment, and by the skill and success with which he made his business life to become an efficient school of training to his plastic mind. He delighted in the use of the pen, and he made the practice of writing a business and delight. Had he given himself greater leisure and opportunity for the culture of literature, for which he had a decided taste, he might have become an accomplished writer, as he certainly could not but be an able critic. Clear statement, acute analysis, exhaustive argument, decisive con- futation, orderly method, felicitous diction and elevated sentiment, are all conspicuous in many a business letter and report. Mr. Sheffield set the highest value upon these qualifications, and upon the value of a liberal education to develop and inature them, and for this reason he supported schools of learning with such lavish liberality. He may in some respects have builded more wisely than he knew, but it was altogether in harmony with his judgment that
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the school which bears his name, early became more than a school of special skill and limited research, and was lifted up into a college of liberal culture, which aims as specifically to discipline the intellect and character as it does to impart teclinical knowledge and skill.
It was impossible that a man of suchi largeness of views, and of so wide an acquaintance with commercial and public affairs, should not be a man of decided political opinions and ardent political sympathics. Like many of his fellow-merchants at the South, especially in tliose early times, he was known as a man of Northern principles during the many years in which the questions which divided the people of the Sontli were those of nullification and state riglits on the one side, and Unionism and federal authority on the other. He cast liis first vote with great energy, at Newbern, N. C., in 1814, for what was then called the Federal ticket. Party spirit was at fever heat, and Mr. Sheffield was brought into critical relations with dangerons men, one of whom made a deadly assault upon his person. The event was reported through the country and made no little sensation. Subsequently, at Mobile, during the exciting times of nullification, from 1830 to 1835, he was again very thoroughly aroused by the preparations and threats of an active resistance to the collection of certain duties on cotton bagging at Charleston and Mobile, and was prominent as a member and promoter of a quasi military organization of some sixty or seventy Northern residents for the purpose of defending the United States authorities against violence.
These excitements were scarcely over, when by his removal to the North he encountered the rising waves of a movement of a very different character-the anti-slavery movement which in varying forms and varying fortunes finally led to the memorable Civil War, in which American slavery perished forever. With the anti-slavery movement as such in any of its phases and organizations, Mr. Sheffield never sympathized, much as he had learned to dread and abhor slavery. He withdrew in silent grief and disdain from all political parties when he gave his last vote at any election for Bell and Everett. The war was to him an event in which he had no complacency in any of its aspects except in its assertion of the sovereignty of the Union. In any other relation he could not look upon it with the least satisfaction. But he made this position no excuse for the neglect of his social dutics, and continued in the active discharge of his accustomed neighborly duties and in the administration of public and private charities. He contributed liberally to alleviate the hardships and sufferings of the soldiers in the field and the hospital. The fact deserves notice that many of his most liberal contributions were made after the war broke out, when he was inore than seventy years old. When the war was well over, and the many ugly questions which peace brought with itself were in some sort settled, he more than acquiesced in the extinction of slavery, though he never forgot to sympathize with the personal sufferings and hopes of his old acquaintances at the South. At the same time he fell back with more than accustomed loyalty upon his recollections of Clay and Webster, and the school of patriots and orators which they represented.
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