USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Redding > The history of Redding, Connecticut : from its first settlement to the present time > Part 19
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
"We will build it all up anew," he declared, and it was done. Most of the labor of rehabilitation fell on him. One intimately associated with him describes him as often walking the floor all night during this period, studying how to meet the responsibility thrust upon him. He was ably seconded in the struggle by his loyal and faithful wife. Gradually the sun broke through the clouds. Creditors were considerate and notes were extended. The factories were rebuilt in a much more modern and substantial manner, and in a few years the business showed a healthful recovery and was on a much more satisfactory basis.
But Mr. Gilbert was something more than a successful business man. He was a religious man in the best sense. Philanthropy-love of his kind-was innate. He took great interest in his employes, encouraging them to own their homes. On his initiative the company put into effect a rule placing a premium on temperance, and provided model tenements which are leased to employes at a rental of $3.00 and $4.00 a month. Life's farm at Branchville, where the children of the New York tene- ments are given a fresh air outing during the summer months, was donat- ed by him. To it he gave large sums during his life and remembered it handsomely in his will. Said Life, in an editorial notice of his death, "The children have lost a benefactor and Life mourns a faithful friend." He was firm in his friendships, generous and hospitable.
Progressiveness was a marked trait in his character. Until his de- cease he had as strong an interest in any improvement designed to aid his business as when in the prime of life. Said a friend, an eminent lawyer of judicial mind, "Mr. Gilbert and Dr. Seward were the only old men I ever met who lived for the future rather than in the past." In later life he took great interest in agriculture, and created, near George- town, a model farm of three hundred and fifty acres on which various experiments designed to benefit the industry were carried on. An orch- ard of young apple trees on it he caused to be grafted. "But, Mr. Gil- bert," urged a friend, "Why do you do it? You will never live to eat any of the fruit." "No," he replied, "I shall not, but others will." This farm Mr. Gilbert left to Storrs Agricultural College with sixty thousand dollars, on condition that it should be used as an agricultural experiment station.
170
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Mr, Gilbert died possessed of an estate valued at half a million dol- lars, over one-half of which was donated to various worthy institutions.
WILLIAM H. GILDER.
Of the many earnest, self-sacrificing men who served the Methodist. church in Redding none perhaps are more worthy of lasting remem- brance than William H. Gilder, who was here in 1859-60 the year before the great war. Of that war a little later Mr. Gilder was one of the un- laureled heroes. At its beginning he was commissioned chaplain of the 40th New York Volunteers, and accompanied his regiment to the front, where he soon won recognition as an earnest and faithful chaplain. In April, 1864, when Hancock's Division-to which his regiment was at- tached-lay at Brandy's Station, Va., smallpox broke out among the men. Tent hospitals, to which the infected were removed, were hastily im- provised. There was a dearth of nurses to serve therein, all fearing the dreaded scourge. The patients suffered in consequence and many died who might with careful nursing have recovered. Unable to bear the sight of so much unrelieved suffering Mr. Gilder volunteered as a nurse, although he had never had the disease, and entering on his task himself died with the malady on April 13, 1864. He was given a military funeral, at which the whole of Hancock's Division turned out to do him honor. To him his gifted son, Richard Watson Gilder, thus refers in his poem, "Pro Patria":
Comrades ! To-day a tear-wet garland I would bring, But one song let me sing, For one sole hero of my heart and desolate home : Come with me, comrades, come !
Bring your glad flowers, your flags, for this one humble grave; For soldiers, he was brave!
Though fell not he before the cannon's thunderous breath, Yet noble was his death.
True soldier of his country and the sacred cross, He counted gain not loss ; Perils and nameless horrors of the embattled field While he had help to yield.
But not where mid wild cheers the awful battle broke, A hell of fire and smoke, He to heroic death went forth with soul elate, Harder his lonely fate.
RESIDENCE OF FRANK DUNELL,
Redding Ridge.
8
8
8
1
171
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Searching where most was needed, worst of all endured, Sufferers he found immured,
Tented apart because of fatal, foul disease --- Balm brought he unto these.
Celestial balm, the spirit's holy ministry He brought, and only he,
Where men who blanched not at the battle's shell and shot, Trembled and entered not.
Yet life to him was oh, most dear-home, children, wife- But, dearer still than life,
Duty-that passion of the soul which from the sod Alone lifts man to God.
The pest house entering fearless-stricken, he fearless fell, Knowing that all was well;
The high, mysterious Power whereof mankind has dreams, To him not distant seemed.
So, nobly died this unknown hero of the war ; And heroes near and far,
Sleep now in graves like his, unfound in song or story -- But theirs is more than glory.
PROF. FRANK F. ABBOTT.
Frank Frost Abbott, the son of Thaddeus Marvin and Mary Jane- Abbott, was born in Redding Centre at the homestead, where his father and grandfather lived before him, and which he now occupies as a sum- mer home, on March 27, 1860. He received his education in the district school of Redding, in Albany, in Yale University, from which he was graduated as salutatorian of the class of 1882, and in the University of Berlin. In 1891 he was made Doctor of Philosophy by Yale Univer- sity, in which institution he had been an instructor for several years. In the autumn of the year mentioned he accompanied President Harper to Chicago to assist in the organization of the newly founded University of Chicago, being the first member of the faculty chosen in that institution. He is now Professor of Latin there. In his department he has special- ized in palæography, epigraphy, and Roman history, and in view of this fact was made American Professor in the School of Classical Studies in Rome in 1901-2. Most of his published work has been in one or another of the fields above mentioned. It consists of the Selected Letters of
I72
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Cicero, a treatise on Roman Political Institutions, a History of Rome, The Toledo Manuscript of the Germania of Tacitus, scientific articles in the American Journal of Philology, the Archiv für lateinische Lexiko- graphie, the Classical Review, and Classical Philology, and more popular papers on Roman literary history in the Yale Review, the New England Magazine, the Nation, and other periodicals. He is one of the editors of Classical Philology, a quarterly journal devoted to research in classical antiquity.
PROF. MYRON R. SANFORD.
Prof. Myron R. Sanford, born in Redding and attended Redding In- stitute until he entered business with his father. In Wesleyan Univer- sity, 1876-80. In charge of the Classical Department of Wyoming Sem- inary, Kingston, Penn., from 1880 to 1886. Assistant Professor of Latin, Haverford College, 1886-7. Professor of Latin, Haverford Col- lege, 1887-90. Dean of the College and Professor of Latin, 1890-93. Travel and study in the summer of 1892, in Germany and Italy. 1893-4, student in Classical Philology in the University of Leipsic; 1894, student of Archaeology in Rome. Professor of the Latin Language and Litera- ture in Middlebury College, 1894-1906. Author of "Temporibus Hominis Arpinatis"; contributor to magazines, etc.
PROF. AARON L. TREADWELL.
Prof. Aaron L. Treadwell was born in Redding, December 23, 1866. Educated in the public schools and in Miss Abbie Sanford's private school at Redding Centre, and prepared for college at Staples Academy, Easton, Conn. Graduated with B. A. at Wesleyan University, Middle- town, in 1888; Assistant in Natural History at Wesleyan, 1888-91 ; M. A., ibid, 1890; Professor of Biology and Geology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 1891-1900; Fellow, University of Chicago, 1892-96 and 1897-8; Ph. D., University of Chicago, 1899; Prof. of Biology, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 1900, which position he now holds. Mem- ber of the staff of instructors of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Wood's Holl, Mass., since 1898. Has published many zoological articles in scientific journals.
DAVID S. FAIRCHILD.
Dean of the Medical College of Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, is of good old Redding stock, being the son of Eli, the son of David, the son of John, who was the son of Abraham Fairchild, who came to Red- ding in 1746 from Norwalk. The latter's son John, born in 1764, was a soldier of the Revolution, and it is said of Abraham that he had at one time six sons in that historic struggle.
-
HILLBROOK, RESIDENCE OF EDWARD DEACON, Redding Centre.
173
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Dr. Fairchild was born in Fairfield, Vt., whither his father removed about 1844. He attended the academies of Franklin and Barre, Vt., after which he studied medicine for a time with Dr. J. O. Cramton of Fairfield, then attended medical lectures at the University of Michigan, during the years 1866, 1867 and 1868. Following his graduation at Al- bany, N. Y., December, 1868, he located in High Forest, Minn., where for three years he was engaged in a general practice. He located in Ames, Iowa, in 1872. In 1877 he was appointed physician to the Iowa Agricultural College, and in 1879 was elected professor of physiology and comparative anatomy, which position he held until 1893, when he resigned to accept the position of surgeon for the Chicago & Northwest- ern R. R., covering all the lines of that system in the state. He had served. as local surgeon for this road in 1884, and through his satisfactory per- formance of the work was promoted two years later to district surgeon; in 1897 he was appointed special examining surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway system; in 1882 he was elected professor of histology and pathology in the Iowa College of Physicians and Sur- geons, Des Moines, and in 1885 was transferred to the chair of pathology and diseases of the nervous system; in 1886 he was given the chair of theory and practice, after which time no change was made until his elec- tion to the deanship. For two years previous to the incorporation of the college as a part of Drake University he served as its president. The doctor was engaged in general practice for some sixteen years, but for the past eleven years has devoted himself almost exclusively to consulta- tion, giving particular attention to surgery and nervous diseases. He has contributed numerous articles to the medical journals, and his papers have attracted wide attention in the various medical societies. He has always taken a great interest in medical organizations. In 1873 he issued a call to the profession of Story County to meet for the purpose of form- ing a county medical society, and, at the organization, was elected its president. In 1874 he assisted materially in organizing the Central Dis- trict Medical Society, and in 1886 was made its president. He became a member of the Iowa State Medical Society in 1874, was elected second vice-president in 1886, first vice-president in 1894, and president in 1895. He is active in the work of the Western Surgical and Gynecological As- sociation, and fills the position of president ; is prominent in the Ameri- can Medical Association, the National Association of Railway Surgeons, and the American Academy of Railway Surgeons. He was a delegate to the International Medical Congress in 1876; assisted in organizing the Iowa Academy of Sciences, and was chairman of the committee appoint- ed by the State Medical Society to prepare a history of medicine in Iowa. Dr. Fairchild was elected Dean of the Medical Department of Drake University in 1903, which position he has since held.
I74
HISTORY OF REDDING.
RICHARD HILL LYON.
Richard Hill Lyon, a leading citizen and veteran newspaper worker of South Bend, Ind., is a native of Redding. He was born on the old Hill-Lyon estate, a short distance south of the village, December 20, 1848. His parents were Capt. Eli, 2d, and Louise Winton Lyon, and he is therefore connected with several of the old and influential fami- lies of Fairfield county, including those of Hill, Hull, Beach, Hawley, Sanford, Read, Beardsley, Winton, Seeley, and others. In 1856 he went with his parents to Ypsilanti, Michigan, where the family remained for four years on the farm of Samuel B. Read, a former resident of Red- ding. There Richard attended the common schools and also the State Normal. In 1860 another move was made to the western part of Michi- gan in Van Buren county, where Capt. Lyon settled on a new farm. There the lad experienced all the hardships as well as the charms of life in the wilderness. There he became an apprentice in the village printing office at Decatur, and finished his trade in Chicago. In 1874 he located in South Bend, Ind., entering the mechanical department of the South Bend Daily Tribune, then a new enterprise in the field of Indiana journal- ism. For over 30 years he was connected with that institution, rising by his own merits from the printer's case to the editorial chair. He relinquished the latter position late in the year 1905, owing to failing health, but is still a member of the staff of the Tribune as special writer, and his contributions in the editorial column, as well as those of a legen- dary, historcial and reminiscential character, are highly interesting. He is the author of many works of local history, the most pretentious of which is an illustrated work, "La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph," which he wrote in conjunction with Charles H. Bartlett, and which gives a thrilling account of the adventures of the great French explorer in the vicinity of South Bend in 1679. He was the first white man to set foot on the soil of Indiana. Mr. Lyon is a vigorous as well as an orig- inal writer, and his efforts, covering a variety of subjects, are eagerly read and widely copied by the press. He is a popular member of society, a talented vocalist, and has given much attention to the advancement of the cause of music in South Bend and in the state. He has composed much creditable music of the sacred order. With his estimable wife, known for her charitable and church work and social activities, Mr. Lyon lives in an attractive residential part of the city, where he has a picturesque home on a high terrace, modeled after the quaint old Hill homestead in North End, and the place is known as Redding Ridge.
-
-
RESIDENCE OF L. O. PECK. Sunset Hill.
175
HISTORY OF REDDING.
ALBERT B. HILL.
Albert Banks Hill was born at Redding, Conn., May 28th, 1847. Al- bert Banks Hill and Arthur Bradley Hill were twins; and the youngest of seven children of Bradley Hill and Betsey (Banks) Hill.
Bradley Hill's mother was the niece of Joel Barlow, LL. D., poet, author and diplomat ; who was born in Redding, Conn., in 1754, and died in Poland in 1812. Albert Banks Hill was the son of Bradley Hill of Redding, Conn., who was the son of William Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who was the son of Moses Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who was the son of Joseph Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who was the son of William Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who was the son of William Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who was the son of William Hill of Fairfield, Conn., who came over from England in 1632, twelve years after the Mayflower, and finally settled in Fairfield, Conn. It is recorded that "he was a man of note among the colonists."
Mr. Hill attended the common schools of Redding and prepared him- self for college with the aid of one term at private school. In 1866 he entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale and graduated as Ph. B. with the Class of 1869. In 1870-1871, he was instructor in Mechanics and Surveying, Yale, S. S. S., and received degree of C. E. In 1871 he entered the City Engineer's Department, New Haven, Conn., and was put in charge of the party on Survey of the City of New Haven. In 1872 he was made Assistant Engineer in charge of sewer construction; and from 1883 to 1892 was City Engineer of New Haven. Since 1892 he has been in private practice as Civil and Consulting Engineer, with office at New Haven, Conn.
Mr. Hill has held the following offices: 1883-1892, City Engineer, New Haven, Conn .; 1892, Director American Society Civil Engineers ; 1905, President Connecticut Society Civil Engineers. He is a member of the following societies and clubs: Graduates Club, New Haven, Conn .; Chamber of Commerce, New Haven, Conn .; Connecticut Aca- demy of Arts and Sciences, Connecticut Society Civil Engineers, Ameri- can Society Civil Engineers, New England Water Works Association, Finance Committee, Organized Charities Association of New Haven, Conn.
Some of the Engineering Works designed by Mr. Hill and executed under his direction as Engineer, were: The swing bridge over Norwalk River at South Norwalk; the steel arch bridges over Mill River, New Haven; over Lake Whitney, Hamden; over Lieutenant River, Lyme. The suspension bridge over Lake Whitney, 270 feet span, for New Haven Country Club. The stone arch bridges, East Rock Park. Rein- forced Concrete arches, in Cheshire, Hamden, Waterbury, and over
I76
HISTORY OF REDDING.
Ash Creek, Bridgeport. Electric Railway bridges on various lines radi- ating from New Haven. Park drives: The East Rock, West Rock, and Beacon Hill Park Drives, New Haven Public Park system. Portions of the New Haven sewerage system; sewerage systems for Danbury, and for Shelton, Conn .; disposal works for Litchfield, Conn .; Outfall system, Greenwich, Conn. Electric Railways: Norwalk to South Norwalk; South Norwalk to Roton Point; Norwalk to Winnipauk; New Haven to Bridgeport; Bridgeport to Fairfield and Southport; New Haven to Derby; New Haven to Cheshire; Cheshire to Waterbury; Cheshire to Milldale; New Haven to Wallingford; New Haven to East Haven; Palmer to Ludlow, Mass. Water Works: As Consulting Engineer to The New Haven Water Company, the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, and the Greenwich Water Company; the design of the recent reservoir dams of these corporations. The Saltonstall tunnel of The New Haven Water Company, one-third of a mile long under the Saltonstall Ridge. The construction of the Filtration Plant of The New Haven Water Com- pany.
ISAAC NEWTON BARTRAM.
Isaac Newton Bartram was born in Redding, March 25, 1838. Son of Isaac Hamilton Bartram and grandson of Isaac Bartram, an artificer of the Revolution, enlisting from Redding and serving through the war. His mother was Lydia Platt, daughter of Isaac Platt, who also served through the Revolution as an artificer from Redding.
Mr. Bartram has held many public offices in Sharon, Conn., where he settled in 1865. Representative from Sharon in the General Assem- bly in 1868, '72, '76, '86, '87, '91, and in the State Senate from the 19th District in 1889-90. He was appointed Commissioner of Putnam Camp in 1887 by Governor Lounsbury, and was re-appointed by Governor Bulkley and by Governor Morris, holding the office eight years. While a representative in 1887, Mr. Bartram introduced the resolution for re- storing Putnam's old winter quarters. He married Miss Helen Dorothy Winan of Sharon. Their children were, two boys, who died in infancy, Phebe M., who married Charles Rockman Pancoast and resides in Phila- delphia, and Blanche W., who married Henry R. Moore, who died in 1905.
THEODORE C. SHERWOOD.
Theodore C. Sherwood, son of Moses and Elizabeth Taylor Sher- wood, was born in Redding, Connecticut, January 3rd, 1860. Educated in the common schools of Foundry District No. 10 and at Redding In- stitute. Began business life at the age of sixteen with Sanford & White- head, general merchants at Redding Ridge, and remained in their employ
Photo by H. J. Kennel.
RESIDENCE OF GOYN ADDISON TALMAGE. Glen Neighborhood.
Photo by Prof. John H. Niemeyer. LIVING ROOM-NORTH SIDE. Showing chimney one hundred and fifty years old.
-
Photo by Prof. John H. Niemeyer. LIVING ROOM-EAST SIDE.
177
HISTORY OF REDDING.
for one and a half years, after which he was a school teacher for three terms in Newtown, Conn., and his native town. Was graduated at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in February, 1879, and remained on the farm teaching school until April, 1880, when he broke the home ties, so strong in all rural New England communities, and started west. Until August, 1881, he wandered through the states of Michigan, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa, without becoming permanently settled. Having satisfied his Yankee curiosity in looking over the Great West, and his small capital run down to a single fifty-cent piece and fifteen hundred miles from home, on August 8th, 1881, he secured employment as station clerk on the Burlington Railroad at Pacif- ic Junction, twenty miles south of Council Bluffs, Iowa, their key to the great Trans-Missouri Territory, then at the high tide of its immigration. The bridge between Pacific Junction, Iowa, and Plattsmouth, Nebr., was the only one at that time across the Missouri River north of Kansas City, except the Union Pacific Bridge between Council Bluffs and Omaha. At this place he remained until October, 1888, having succeeded in mak- ing himself a pretty good railroad man, it is to be presumed, as he was soon rewarded with promotion.
In October, 1888, he was offered the Superintendency of the Des Moines & Kansas City Railroad at Des Moines, Iowa, which he accepted and held until January, 1896, when being offered the position of Assist- ant Gen'1 Manager of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf R. R. (now the K. C. S.), then under construction from Kansas City, Mo., to Sabine Pass, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, he accepted and held the position until April, 1897, when he was made General Manager in charge of con- struction of its allied lines north of Kansas City. January Ist, 1898, af- ter nearly seventeen years of pretty constant and strenuous railroading, Mr. Sherwood concluded "to go off the track," as he expressed it, and resigned his position to go into business for himself, which he did, asso- ciating himself with two others in a partnership for the purpose of whole- sale dealing in lumber under the name of the Crescent Lumber Com- pany. Starting it new, the three have succeeded in building up a large and prosperous business.
Mr. Sherwood was married, October 23rd, 1894, at Eddyville, Iowa, to Miss Mary Williams, still living. They have two sons, Theodore, Jr., born May 15th, 1896, and John, born February 8th, 1898.
In a letter to the author Mr. Sherwood adds :
"As to my success, I feel I have succeeded, although in these days what constitutes success is a much mooted question-money being the standard largely used. If success is having a happy family and being happy with them, succeeding in accomplishing the things that one starts out to do at various times in life, being in a position to educate one's
178
HISTORY OF REDDING.
children, living without the pinch for necessities staring one in the face, having a comfortable home with good health and in good fellowship with all the world, is success, I am pleased to say I have been a success. New England people transplanted do well most anywhere, if trans- planting is not done too late or too early. There is to my mind a right time, 18 to 25 years of age being best. But any New England young man who has but little money, no acquaintance and no influence, who starts out 1,500 miles from home, or contemplates doing so, should make up his mind that he has a man's work before him, and work that de- mands about sixteen hours per day of constant attention. The idea of a good time laid aside for quite a season, temperate in his habits and his word to be depended upon absolutely at all times. In my struggle, many a time the panorama of the rocky hillsides of old Redding appeared to me in my homesickness, and during such times those old hillsides look- ed pretty good to me. But the old Puritan idea of having started out once to do what you believed right and not quit until it was accomplish- ed, sustained me, and I persevered. And while I shall always think of and keep in mind my birthplace, I must confess that I am glad I trans- planted myself when I did."
DUDLEY SANFORD GREGORY.
Dudley Sanford Gregory, Mayor of Jersey City, N. J., and quite prominent in the affairs of that city for many years, was a native of Red- ding, a descendant of the Sanford and other prominent families.
Attorney General Bates of Missouri, was of Redding ancestry.
In the several professions Redding has been well represented. Dr. Asahel Fitch, the first physician who settled in the town, is remembered in Fairfield County as a worthy man, and one of its most respectable practitioners of medicine. He was among the principal pioneers in the formation of the County Society, but died soon after its organization. His death occurred in 1792, or about that period. I understand that he was the grandfather of Professor Knight, of Yale College.
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.