USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 58
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In 1873, an effort had been made to enlarge the library of the Yale Law School, and Governor English gave $10,000 to the University to buy books, and increase the privi- leges and facilities of the law students, of whom his son, Henry, was one. He superin- tended the designs and execution of the Soldiers' monument, on the summit of East Rock, and successfully carried through all the business connected with the management of the enterprise. Naturally the erection of this beautiful inemorial on so striking a site, turned
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the attention of the New Haven people to the importance of securing an casy approach to the heights which make so noble a background to the scaside city, and offer such advantages for a simmer pleasure ground. One picturesque drive was provided by the city, another by Mr. Henry Farnam, and in 1885, Governor English gave $23,000 to com- plete a third road, and it did much to set off the advantages which New Haven possesses.
Mr. English married, Jan. 25, 1837, Miss Caroline Angusta Fowler of New Haven, who bore him three sons and a daughter, of whom the youngest, Henry F. English, alone survives, and who has since his father's death managed the large cstate. Mrs. Englishi died Oct. 23, 1874, aged sixty-two years. On Oct. 7, 1885, Mr. English married Miss Anna R. Morris of New York city, who survives him. She was the daughter of Lucius S. and Letitia C. Morris, and was the descendant of one of the oldest of New Haven families, the Morrises of Morris Cove.
ARRISON, LYNDE, a distinguished member of the New Haven bar, late speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and member of the state Senate, and sucessively judge of the City Court of New Haven, and of the Court of Common Pleas of New Haven County, was born in the city of New Haven, Conn., Dec. 15, 1837.
Judge Harrison's ancestors on both sides may be traced back to the earliest settlers of New England. Among them were Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of Windsor, his son Henry, who was one of the nineteen persons to whom King Charles II. granted the charter of Connecticut, and Gov. Roger Wolcott, colonial governor in 1754, who had commanded the Connecticut militia at the siege of Louisburg. Justice Simon Lynde of Boston, and his son, Judge Nathaniel Lynde, who was one of the first settlers of Saybrook, the Rev. John Davenport, first pastor of the church in New Haven, Thomas Lord, one of the first settlers of Hartford, Deputy-Gov. Francis Willoughby of Massachusetts, the Rev. Abram Pierson, first pastor of the church in Branford, and the Rev. John Hart, first pastor of the church at East Guilford, now Madison, were also among his ancestors. Thomas Harrison, who was born in England, one of the first settlers of Branford, and who represented that town in the Assembly at Hartford in 1676, was the first of his name in the colony, and the common ancestor of nearly all the Harrisons in Connecticut who resided there in the days before the Revolution. His parents, James and Charlotte Lynde Harrison, natives and life-long residents of New Haven, were people of standing and means, and being them- selves possessed of more than ordinary learning, they gave their children the best educational advantages.
As a boy, the subject of this sketch, who was the eldest son, attended the Lancasterian and the Hopkins Grammar schools in New Haven, and, upon finishing his studies there, took a thorough course in the higher branches at Russell's Collegiate and Commercial Insti- tute, in the same city. His inclinations, even thus early, were for a professional career, and as he seemed to possess a natural taste for the study of law, he was encouraged by his parents to prepare himself for admission to the bar. After a brief period of preparatory reading, he entered Yale College Law School, where he pursued the full course of study, and was graduated in 1860, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Being fully admitted to the bar, he entered upon the practice of law in New Haven in 1863, and since then has maintained his law office in his native city. During the sessions of 1862-1863, he served as clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and, in 1864, was clerk of the state
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Senate. In the discharge of the duties of both these positions, he exhibited remarkable intelligence and tact, his work showing a clearness of conception and thoroughness of execution which indicated that he possessed unusual readiness in grasping the details of public business. In 1865, the Republicans in his district nominated him for the state Senate, and he was elected to that body by a flattering vote. In the following year he was honored by a renomination, and was reelected by a larger vote than he received at first. He distinguished himself in the Senate by his logical and earnest support of a number of the most important measures brought up for action during his two terms, one of the chief being that for the construction of the Shore Line Railroad bridge across the Con- necticut River, at Saybrook.
At the close of his second term he withdrew from politics for a time, and, devoting him- self wholly to professional work, succeeded in a few years in building up quite a large practice, establishing a solid reputation as a lawer. In 1871, the state legislature chose him to the office of judge of the City Court of New Haven. He remained upon the bench of the City Court until 1874, when he resigned in order to enter the state House of Representa- tives as a delegate of the town of Guilford, in which place he has had a summer home for more than twenty years. His residence there, upon the waters of the Sound, known as "Bay- hurst," is one of the inost beautiful natural locations on the New England coast. He con- tinued to represent Guilford until the close of 1877, serving during the last terin as speaker of the House. In July, 1877, he was chosen judge of the Court of Common Pleas of New Haven County, and at the expiration of the terin, four years later, was again chosen to the state House of Representatives. He remained in the legislature until 1882, and during that time served as chairman of the judiciary committee, and was the acknowledged leader of his party on the floor of the House.
For several years past he has devoted himself to his profession, and especially as counsel for several railroad and other corporations. Judge Harrison's political affiliations until 1891 were with the Republican party, the great principles of which he upheld with vigor, ability and eloquence. He served for a number of years upon the Republican State Central Committee, was its chairman in 1875-76, and again from 1884 to 1886, and was also a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1876 and 1880. He did not agree with the high tariff principles which became the principal issues of the Republican party after 1888, nor with the position of the Republicans of Connecticut upon several state issues in 1891. Therefore, he voted in 1892 for Grover Cleveland, and the Democratic state ticket, and joined the Democratic party.
Possessed of a wide and varied knowledge of men, gleaned through long experience at the bar, on the bench and in the legislative chamber, Judge Harrison is a valuable addition to any deliberative body. In party councils, state as well as national, his expressed opinions upon all public questions are received with the high respect to which they are entitled ; and in more than one crisis in affairs they have been followed with signal benefit. In the legislature, his influence has been equally potent, and its effects have been felt with excellent result in every part of the state. Well informed, earnest and conscientious, he never fails to impress his colleagues when he advocates a cause or a measure, and his opposition to a bill has generally proved a serious obstacle to its passage. A marked illustration of his power in swaying the opinions of his legislative associates was afforded during the session of 1877. A bill, grauting to married women equal rights with men in the ownership and disposition of property (which had been defeated on three former occasions), was brought up in the House. Judge Harrison regarded it as a wise and just measure, and fearing that it would again fail, he quitted the speaker's chair, and going upon the floor advocated it with so much logic and eloquence, that it was passed.
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It is doubtful if there is a man in Connecticut who takes decper interest in public questions, or who has exerted greater weight upon the fundamental law of the state. Of the twenty-seven amendments to the state constitution, at least eleven are due to his intelligent initiative and able support. He was the anthor of the amendment changing the time of the state elections from the spring to the fall; of that forbidding the representation of new towns in the General Assembly, unless the new and parent town shall each have at least two thousand five hundred inhabitants; of that preventing any county or municipality from incurring debt in aid of any railway corporation, and from subscribing to the capital stock of such corporation ; and of that forbidding any extra compensation or increase of salary for any public officer to take effect during the term of an existing incumbent. He also drafted the biennial session amendment of 1884; the present state election law of 1877, and the well-known " specific appropriation bill," by virtue of which specific estimates minst be inade for every appropriation, and through which many thousand dollars are annually saved to the state.
Watchful at all times of the people's interests, he has on several occasions taken decided steps to thwart the projects of speculators, who have endeavored to profit by the ignorance or apathy of the public. His successful opposition as counsel for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, to the various schemes for building "straw" railways for speculative purposes throughout the state, is in itself sufficient to entitle him to public gratitude. Upright and honorable in all transactions, both public and private, an open foe to knavery, whatever its gnise, and wholly indifferent to hostile criticism when serving the public weal, Judge Harrison is held in high respect even by his enemies. In private life he is known as a man of scholarly attainments and warm social instincts; a true friend, and a sincere Christian.
He was married on May 2, 1867, to Miss Sara Plant, daughter of Samuel O. Plant, an esteemed citizen of Branford. Mrs. Harrison died on March 10, 1879, leaving three children who are now living, William Lynde, Paul Wolcott, and Sara Gertrude Plant Harrison. On the 30tli of September, 1886, he married Miss Harriet S. White of Waterbury, the only daughter of Luther C. White, a well known manufacturer of that city, and they have one daughter, Katharine White Harrison, born Aug. 3, 1892.
OBLE, WILLIAM HENRY, brevet brigadier-general U. S. V., late colonel of the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers, one of the oldest members of the Fair- field County bar, and prominently identified for more than half a century with the city of Bridgeport, the charter of which he was instrumental in securing, was born at Newtown, Conn., Aug. 18, 1813. He died Jan. 19, 1894.
Through both father and mother he traces his ancestry to the founders of New England. On the paternal side he is a descendant of Thomas Noble of Westfield, Mass., one of the earliest English settlers of that colony; and also, in a later generation, from John Noble, the pioneer of New Milford, Conn. Seven generations of his family lie side by side in the old burial ground in the southern part of New Milford. On the inaternal line he descends from the Sanfords of Newtown, who were among thie pioneer settlers in Connecticut. His mother, whose maiden name was Charlotte Sanford, was a daughter of John Sanford, Esq., an influential citizen of Newtown, and it was upon the homestead of the latter that that General Noble was born. His father, the Rev. Birdsey Glover Noble, who died in
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1850, was educated at Yale College, graduating in the class of 1810, and after studying theology at the general seminary of the Episcopal church in New York city, was admitted to orders. At the time of his son's birth and for fifteen years thereafter he was rector of Christ church, Middletown. Later in life he established private academies at Bridgeport, and at Brooklyn, N. Y., over which he presided until his death. He was a man of piety and learning, and excited a wide-spread influence for good both as a clergyman and a teacher.
The subject of this sketch was educated primarily at a celebrated military school in Middletown, the principal of which, Capt. Alden Partridge, an officer of the regular ariny, had been superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Under this accomplished officer and teacher he received, in addition to other instruction, a thorough military training, which made a permanent impression upon him, physically and mentally, and qualified him in after years for the high command to which he was called by the executive of his native state. One of his first essays under arms, made when he was but twelve years of age, was in the great parade held in New York city in 1826, to commemorate the seini- centennial of American Independence, on which occasion he marched, musket on shoulder, in the ranks with his school-fellows. At the age of fifteen years he entered Trinity (then Wash- ington) College, Hartford, where he remained during the freshman year. He then entered the sophomore class at Yale College, where he finished the classical course, and was graduated with honors in 1832. After devoting a year or two to post graduate studies he accepted, in 1834, the position of teacher of the French and Spanish languages in his father's school at Bridge- port. Two years later he decided upon the law as a profession, and after a thorough course of study in the office and under the direction of the late Judge Joseph Wood of Bridgeport, an esteemned friend of his father, he was, in 1836, admitted to the bar of Fairfield County, and began practice at Bridgeport.
One of his earliest efforts of a public character was in connection with the movement to raise Bridgeport to the rank of a city, and he was instrumental in securing the charter which conferred municipal privileges. He was also instrumental int securing the charter for the Housatonic Railroad Company, and when this corporation was organized becainie its secretary, and held that office for many years. After serving several years as clerk of the courts of Fairfield County he was, in 1846, appointed state's attorney for that county. Nominated for Congress by the Democrats in 1850, he carried Fairfield County by a heavy majority, but failed of election owing to the great preponderance of the opposition vote in Litchfield County, which was then included in the same congressional district. For upwards of ten years he was actively engaged in local improvements at East Bridgeport, and believing that its interests and also those of the city proper would be greatly advanced by closer union, he bore a consid- erable share of the expense of building and repairing all the bridges which connect the two places. Purchasing the old Bridgeport bridge, he rebuilt the 'entire structure at his own expense, making it more modern and commodious, and erected a covered footway across it, quite a novelty at that time. In 1851, he built at his own expense, the first railroad foot- bridge between the two sections. In 1852, in conjunction with the late P. T. Barnum, he dedicated Washington park to public use, and added one hundred acres of streets and building lots to Bridgeport. A year later he procured the charter of the Bridgeport Water Company, acting as attorney for Nathaniel Greene and his associates, who carried out the undertaking. The passage of the act incorporating the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, under the charter of which the city of Bridgeport obtains its present water supply, was effected through his instrumentality in 1857. In both these corporations he was named a commissioner, and as such sanctioned the issue of bonds by which the necessary capital was procured for their operations.
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In 1860, General Noble gave his cordial support to the platform adopted by the Douglas branch of the Democratic party at the convention held in Charleston, April 23, and Baltimore, June 18. When the spirit of secession manifested itself, he was among the most outspoken in its denunciation, and as a loyal supporter of the federal authorities lie took an active and distinguished part in organizing the Union party in his native state. He labored earnestly in securing the election of Governor Buckingham and vigorously advocated and supported the effective war measures inaugurated and successfully carried out under his administration. Not content with his civil labors, he resolved to enter the army for active work in the field, and was at once tendered the colonelcy of the Seventeenth Connecticut regiment by Governor Buckingham, which he accepted, receiving his commission July 22, 1862. His recruiting operations were conducted with a degree of vigor and success which was truly remarkable, even for that patriotic epoch. Within thirty days from beginning his task he reported one thousand men ready for duty. His regiment was mustered into the service of the United States August 28, and left the state for the seat of war September 3 following. After doing duty for a few weeks at Fort Marshall, defences of Baltimore, the regiment was sent to Fort Kearney, a defence of Washington, where it remained until November 5, when it was ordered to join Sigel's Eleventh Corps at Gainesville, Va. As a part of this force it served in the reserve sent to support General Burnside at Fredericksburg.
After General Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac, Colonel Noble's regiment was in Howard's Eleventh corps, which, at the battle of Chancellorsville, formed the extreme right wing of the Union line. In this battle the Seventeenth Connecticut gave a brilliant account of itself. Colonel Noble, while gallantly leading his inen into action, was severely wounded in two places and had his horse shot under him. Unhorsed, with his left leg torn and disabled by the fragment of a shell, and bleeding profusely from a wound in his left arm, the main artery of which had been severed by a rifle ball, it was almost a miracle that he escaped death. His life blood ebbing from his wounds he was carried fainting from the field. Fortunately the wounded artery became clogged, and to this circuinstance he owed his preservation. As soon as he was able to use his injured limbs he returned to his post of duty and was in time to participate in the decisive conflict at Gettysburg, in which he had the honor to command the brigade which was advanced into the town to drive out the enemy's sharpshooters during the battles of July 2d and 3d, stationed at the foot of Cemetery Hill. After the repulse of the army of Northern Virginia, under Lee, Colonel Noble was ordered with his regiment to Folly and Morris Islands, S. C., sieges of Wagner and Sumter, and after the fall of Wagner and the battle of Ohuistee, to Florida, and upon his arrival there was again entrusted, by General Gordon, with the command of a brigade and given charge of the military district comprising the whole of the state east of the St. John's river, his headquarters being at St. Augustine.
As acting brigadier-general he commanded brigades of troops in several important raids, and also on various expeditions under Generals Birney, Gordon, Hatch and others. On Christmas eve, 1864, while crossing to St. Augustine from Jacksonville, after attending a court-martial, he was taken prisoner by rebel guerillas, and notwithstanding that every effort was made to rescue him, he was carried off by his captors to Tallahassee. A brief term of imprisonment at Macon, Ga., followed, and about the middle of February, 1865, he was sent to Andersonville and confined in the officer's quarters. He underwent, for two months, the horrors of this vile den, and was finally released when the general exchange of prisoners was effected about the middle of April.
Colonel Noble's able, faithful and heroic services attracted the attention of all his superior officers, and elicited their warmest commendation. General Grant personally recommended
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 365
him for promotion, and in June, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general. Returning to his regiment after his release he continued with it until July 19, 1865, when he was mustered out of service with his command at Hilton Head, S. C. After that time he devoted himself to the duties of civil life, principally in the arena of legal effort, but giving his attention largely to matters of public inoment and to the advancement of the city with which he was so long and prominently identified. There were few inen in Connecticut who were inore highly esteemed for their solid virtues than General Noble, and it is doubtful if even the city of Bridgeport numbered among its citizens a truer friend, a worthier patriot or a more honorable gentleman. General Noble's interest in his comrades of the Civil War epochi suffered no abate- inent with the lapse of years. He took an active part in the various works in which they engaged, charitable, historical and otherwise, and was a prime favorite with all who wore the "blue." As chairman of the executive committee of his regiment he received the fine monument erected at Gettysburg in honor and memory of the Connecticut soldiers who fell on that memorable battlefield, and in turn passed it over to the care of the Gettysburg Memorial Association. He afterward discharged the same duty at the dedication of the second monument of his regiment at the north front of Gettysburg, Cemetery Hill.
General Noble was married in 1839, to Miss Harriet Jones Brooks, daughter of Benjamin Brooks, Esq., of Bridgeport, a descendant of Colonial Governors William Bradford of Massa- chusetts, and Theophilus Eaton and William Leete of Connecticut.
OUNSBURY, PHINEAS CHAPMAN, governor of the state in 1887 and 1888, and for some years past president of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank in the city of New York, is a resident of the town of Ridgefield, where he was born on the tenth day of January, 1841. His parents were of sturdy New England stock and true representatives of the best type of New England life. His father was a farmer and is still living, a inan venerable in years and greatly respected in the community where he resides.
The subject of this sketch spent his early years upon the farm, one of the best of all schools for the development of health, good sense, and habits of industry. He was not content with this, however, but devoted himself as opportunities offered to the acquirement of a thorough intellectual training. In the schools of his native state he signalized himself by his proficiency, particularly in mathematics, declamation and debate. He obtained also in addition to what is known as an English education some knowledge of the ancient classics. At the close of his academic life he entered upon his business career. He began to be widely known as a business man, with the formation of the firm of Lounsbury Brothers, the business of which firin, the manufacture of shoes, was first located in New Haven. This enterprise prospered greatly and was removed after a few years to South Norwalk, where under the style of Lounsbury, Matthewson & Co., the facilities were increased and the business largely extended. By energy and honorable dealing the firm won for itself a lead- ing place among the manufacturers of the state, and for its members, fortune and excellent reputation as broad-minded and progressive business inen. Widely known and respected for his sound views on monetary affairs, Mr. Lounsbury had already sat for a number of years as a member of the board of directors of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank of the city of New York, when in 1885, he was unanimously elected its president. This institution, which was organized in 1829, with a capital of a million dollars, is one of great solidity,
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and its presiding officer, who has shaped its poliey and successfully directed its affairs for so many years, is accorded a distinguished place among the leading financiers of the metrop- olis. Although he lias large interests in New York, hc is still more largely interested in the manufacturing industries of his native state where he lias, from the outset, resided in the town where he was born. In 1862, lie polled his first vote, casting it, as he has unvaryingly donc ever since, in favor of the principles and candidates of the Republican party. Hc was among those who enlisted early at the breaking out of the war between the North and South. He served as a private soldier in the Seventeenth Regiment of Connecti- cut Volunteers. After several months at the front he was honorably diseharged on aeeount of serious illness. He was subsequently recommended for a pension. This just and pleasing recognition of his service he had however no need nor disposition to receive, and aceordingly it was not aeeepted.
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