USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The history of Waterbury, Connecticut; the original township embracing present Watertown and Plymouth, and parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. With an appendix of biography, genealogy and statistics > Part 41
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At the time of Mr. Hopkins' death, the following notice of him was published in a New Haven newspaper :
Died in the city of New Haven, Conn., on Friday, March 27, 1801, of angina pectoris, Joseph Hopkins, Esq., senior assistant judge of the County Court for the County of New Haven, in the 72d year of his age. He had attended the Court during the session until the Tuesday before his death, when, complaining of ill health, he left the bench. On Saturday, the corpse was conveyed to Waterbury, attended by some of his family and other connections, accompanied a part of the way by a rspectable procession composed of the judges of the Court, the clergy, the gentlemen of the bar, the sheriff and other officers of the Court and citizens of New Haven. The procession stopped in front of the court-house, and a prayer well adapted to the occasion was made by the Rev. President Dwight, in the presence of a large collection of the inhabitants, sympathizing in the loss of a man endeared to them by a long course of public service. Possess- ing a sound mind and honest heart, he faithfully discharged to general acceptance, the duties of a deacon in the church of the first society of Waterbury, a justice of the peace, a representative in the Legislature, a judge of Probates of the District of Waterbury, and of assistant judge of the County Court for about 30 years .- From early life, he adorned his course in an exemplary manner with the profession and practice of Christianity.
JESSE HOPKINS
Was the third son of Joseph Hopkins, and was born May 20, 1766. IIe learned his father's trade, and in his youth showed a versatility of
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talent beyond his years. " At the age of seventeen, on the visit of Gen- erals Washington and La Fayette, at the residence of his father, La Fayette was so pleased with the youth that he made him his aid during a series of military operations in that quarter. His youth prevented him from enlisting in the army, and his love of country from accepting the invitation of La Fayette to visit France."*
He says of himself, in a volume published in 1828, entitled Patriot's Manual, on Revolutionary topics : "I was in childhood at the com- mencement of the Revolutionary war, and at its close had just arrived at that age which entitled me to shoulder my musket-an age alive to all the interesting events of the day. Being a son of a Revolutionary patriot who was a member of the State Legislature, I had an opportuni- ty of acquiring considerable political information, for many years, as well as inhaling that spirit of patriotism which was characteristic of the times."
Mr. Hopkins set up his trade in Waterbury, using his father's shop. He made silver plated shoe buckles and other articles. About 1791, he erected for himself the house owned and occupied by the late Bennet Bronson. In Dec. 1794, he married Betsey, the daughter of Nathaniel Goodwin of Hartford, by whom he had two children, Betsey and Sally Goodwin. His wife died Feb. 4, 1799. Business, somehow, went not very prosperously with him. He left Waterbury, and spent five years in the West Indies, engaged in speculation. After his return, "he mar- ried his cousin, (a granddaughter of Samuel Hopkins, D. D., the cele- brated divine of Newport, R. I.,) who is still living in Vermont."- [Hough, 1854.]
In 1805, Mr. Hopkins was appointed the agent of William Henderson of New York, the owner of a large tract of land in the western part of Jefferson County, N. Y. He removed thither and opened a land office. When the town of Henderson was organized in 1806, he was elected supervisor, and held the office till 1810. In 1813, he became County judge. He engaged largely in speculation, being sometimes fortunate and sometimes the contrary. " He erected a fine seat at the head of the bay, commanding a prospect of unrivaled beauty." At length he became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and in 1822, was re-
* Hough's History of Jefferson County, N. Y. The notice from which this extract is taken states that Hopkins " received a liberal education." I believe he did not graduate at any col- lege ; though he doubtless received a better education than most of the other town boys. At seventeen years of age, however, he was not too young to enlist into the army ; but the war had then (1783) closed. Nor is it understood what military operations were carried on in or about Waterbury, at any time during the war. Washington and La Fayette, it is believed, were never in Waterbury together.
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moved from his agency by Henderson, and his improvements taken to apply on his liabilities. Ilis great energy of character sustained him through all his reverses, and he died at Henderson, in the seventy-first year of his age.
Dr. Hough says of Mr. Ilopkins, that he " often wrote poetry with much taste and fluency, several pieces of which still exist; but although meritorious, he never allowed them to go beyond the sacred precincts of the family circle." He published the book already referred to-the Patriot's Manual-and, in 1823, a pamphlet relating to his difficulties with Henderson. He complained of bad usage .*
DR. LEMUEL HOPKINS
Was a son of Stephen and Dorothy (Talmadge) Hopkins, and was born in that part of Waterbury which is now Naugatuck, June 19, 1750. He was the fourth in descent from John Hopkins, the miller. He studied medicine with Dr. Jared Potter of Wallingford, and afterwards with Dr. Seth Bird of Litchfield. He commenced practicing medicine in Litchfield, about 1776 ; but about 1784, (it is said,) removed to Hart- ford, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Dr. Hopkins was one of the most distinguished physicians of this State, and had an extensive private and consultation practice. He had a wide reputation in chronic diseases, and particularly in pulmonary consumption. He possessed great originality of genius, and a happy fa- cility of investigating obscure maladies, and finding out their seats and causes. IIe had the greatest confidence in himself, and rarely failed to secure it in others. Having a just sense of the influence of the mind on the body, he encouraged hope and administered consolation, whilst life remained. He was eccentric in his ways, and ugly and uncouth in his appearance, and these things sometimes contributed to his success. On a pleasant summer's day, he was called, a perfect stranger, to visit a child, ill of scarlet fever. He entered the house in his usual abrupt manner, and found the sick room hot, the key hole and cracks stopped, and the little sufferer loaded with bed clothes. He rolled his big, staring eyes about the room, and without uttering a word, took the child in his arms, and walked quiekly out of the house. The household and neigh- borhood followed with broom sticks. He kept them off, however, seated himself in a refreshing shade, ordered wine to be brought, and
* I am much indebted, in this notice, to Dr. Hough's History of Jefferson County. In that work, however, there are many errors relating to Hopkins, and I may have copied some of them.
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soon restored the child. In another case, he visited a female in the crisis of a fever, whom her friends supposed to be near her end. The father said, " My daughter is dying, had I not better send for the min- ister ?" " No!" replied the doctor, "but you may call an undertaker and have her measured for a coffin." The father, indignant at the harsh- ness of the reply, remonstrated in severe language. The doctor explained, " My meaning is, you may as well send for the one as the other. If your daughter is allowed to be quiet, she will certainly recover; but if you disturb her, as you propose, she will, in my opinion, surely die." The suggestion was followed, and the patient recovered .*
Whenever he [Dr. Hopkins] became much interested in a case, his attentions were unceasing ; denying all other calls he would devote his days and nights, often for many days in succession, to the case, and not unfrequently administer every dose of medicine with his own hand. In one case, about a critical period, he was suspicious that the medicines might require variation. He could not sleep, got up in the night, rode four miles to his patient, felt his pulse and skin, made signs for him to put out his tongue, and being satisfied that all was right, left the house without speaking to the patient or nurse .- [Thacher's Amer- ican Biography.]
Dr. Hopkins was indefatigable in literary and scientific pursuits. When engaged on a subject which greatly interested him, he became abstracted and sometimes forgot to go to bed. His wife occasionally found him in the morning sitting in the precise position in which she had left him the evening before. His memory was peculiarly retentive ; and s > familiar was he with the great English poets, that he would often entertain his friends by repeating the more valuable portions of their writings. Milton and Pope were favorite authors.
Dr. Hopkins was well known as one of a circle of distinguished lit- erary characters and poets, who, out of the State, were called the " Hartford wits." He was associated with Trumbull and Barlow in the composition of the " Arnachiad," a satirical poem, designed to show the precarious condition of the State under the old confederation. He was afterwards concerned in the production of the " Echo," and " The Politi- cal Green House." The last was first published in pamphlet form ; the other papers in the gazettes of the day, in Hartford and New Haven. The more celebrated of the poems known to be exclusively Hopkins' are the Hypocrite's Hope, and an Elegy on the Victim of a Cancer Quack. After Trumbull, he was the most eminent satirist of his day. He pub- lished nothing with his name.
* See a biographical sketch in Thacher's American Medical Biography, prepared by Drs. Thomas Miner and Samuel B. Woodward.
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In person, Dr. Hopkins was tall, lean, stooping. His features were large, his eyes light, with a strongly marked countenance and uncom- monly long limbs. In youth, he was muscular and athletic. When a volunteer in the army of the Revolution, a party of officers were at- tempting to fire a " king's arm " held in one hand with the arm extend- ed at full length. What others could not do, Hopkins, to the aston- ishment of all, accomplished with ease.
Dr. Hopkins received from Yale College the honorary degree of A. M. in 1784. He was one of the founders of the Connecticut Medical Soci- ety, and while he lived, took an active part in its proceedings. He died, in the midst of his usefulness, April 14, 1801.
SAMUEL MILES HOPKINS, LL. D.
The subject of this memoir, the son of Samuel and Molly (Miles) Hopkins, and a descendant in the fifth generation of John Hopkins, was born at Salem, in Waterbury, on the 9th May, 1772. At his death, which occurred in the village of Geneva, New York, in Oct. 1837, he left behind him an autobiography in manuscript, from which it will be most convenient to draw an account of his early years and recollections.
The house in which I was born [he writes] stood about a quarter or half a mile south of the principal dwelling on the Hopkins farm, and was occupied by my father as it had been by his father and perhaps grandfather before him. I mention it on account of a tradition, which I imperfectly remember, to this ef- fect. My grandfather's oldest brother, John, was to have removed to some far distant place, (Stockbridge, I suspect ;) but going there he found danger from the Indians, and so returned and lived in this house, the one my grandfather did or was to occupy. This great uncle John, I remember. I have therefore seen a man who in effect was driven back by fear of Indians to within fourteen miles of New Haven. In 1826, I visited the old Hopkins place-no change except the slow workings of time upon wooden buildings a century old. But the grape vine was gone, and the huge apple and pear trees were rotting down with age. I remem- ber a scene, which must have happened at the house where I was born, in the spring of 1774, when I was twenty-three months old ; memory now presents to my view that house ; the door yard and the stone foundation and embankment as they were ; and when more than fifty years after I saw the same place, I found the pic- ture entirely faithful. I well remember hearing my grandfather, in the fall of 1774 read much in the papers about "Ty," for so the name of Ticonderoga was written for brevity, and I remember feeling a sentiment of feverish dislike at the frequent repetition of the senseless sound. From that time my recollections furnish a good many pictures of men and things pertaining to Revolutionary times. Hence my frequent remark that perhaps the period of my life embraces up to this time the most interesting period of sixty years in civil history that has yet occurred.
I remember something of the young men hurrying off to meet Burgoyne; and
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the deep and anxious solicitude with which my father and his neighbors would talk of public affairs. I remember my father being absent with the militia who marched in defense of New York, in 1776, when I was a few months more than four years old. I very well remember the rejoicings at the capture of Cornwallis. I have seen General Washington ; been a little acquainted with the elder Adams, and with Jay, Schuyler, Clinton and Pickering; have been a good deal ac- quainted with Charles Coatesworth Pinkney and John Marshall ; and have been conversant in business of the bar with that very extraordinary man, Aaron Burr, and that very admirable and wonderful man, Alexander Hamilton. If then we add, that the entire history of the Federal constitution, and the entire revolutions of Europe from 1789 come within my fresh recollections, you will admit that we must look forward and not backward for a more important period in temporal affairs.
After spending several years with the family of his uncle, Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, attending the free Grammar School, and reading medicine, Mr. Hopkins, in 1787, entered the Sophomore class in Yale College.
I passed three years [he says] at New Haven ; ardent, intensely studious, fac- tious, infidel, opinionated; loving my friends devotedly, and beloved by them. I scarcely doubted but I was to accomplish some great thing upon the earth. By the diligent improvement of time I laid in a stock of knowledge upon many sub- jects, particularly history, for the study of which I have had no other opportunity. The spirit of Yale College was at that time a spirit of literary ambition and of in- fidelity. I was not in good favor with the Faculty, and took no pains to con- ciliate their good will. But they gave me one of the three English orations, which were then reputed the highest appointments. I refused to attend at commence- ment ; and they refused me my degree; and the degree of Doctor of Laws, con- ferred when my second son entered Yale College, was the first and only one I ever received. Having resolved on the profession of the law, I entered, in the fall of 1791, the office of Judge (then Mr.) Reeve in Litchfield. His law school contain- ed more than twenty pupils and was already celebrated throughout the union. He was altogether an admirable man, of a purity, sincerity and guilelessness of heart, such as I have seen in few men in this world. His daily lectures were most happy, from his admirable faculty of carrying always on a view of the history and reason of every principle. I have no doubt but his lectures are yet felt and long will be, in their happy influence upon the juridical department of our country's pub- lic economy. At a subsequent time he became a most devoted Christian.
After only eighteen months' study, Mr. Hopkins was unexpectedly, and in violation of a general rule, offered an examination for admission to the bar. In April of the same year, (1793,) he removed to Pough- keepsie, N. Y., and put himself under the tuition of two young lawyers of excellent reputation, well known subsequently as Chancellor Kent, and Judge Radcliff of Brooklyn; with both of whom he maintained an uninterrupted friendship of forty years. In three weeks of intense ap- plication, he acquired such a knowledge of the practice of the New York. courts, then reputed a mystery demanding three years clerkship, as to
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pass a successful examination. His license was dated May 9th, 1793, the day he was twenty-one years old. Col. Burr, who aimed to attach to himself young men of talent and energy, made the motion for his admission, and subsequently presented him a library of choice law books, saying he "might settle it in his will, if he chose." Mr. Hopkins, however, insisted on paying him the full value of the books.
He began business as a lawyer in the young village of Oxford, Che- nango Co., where he drew his first law draft " on the head of a barrel, under a roof made of poles, and in the rain, which was partly kept from spattering the paper by a broad-brimmed hat."
In 1794, he removed to New York City, on the invitation of James Watson, Esq., who entered into an extensive and liberal arrangement with him for the survey and sale abroad of Virginia lands. In the pros- ecution of this scheme, Mr. Hopkins visited England and the continent of Europe during the years 1796 and '97.
I had obtained [he says] upwards of 300,000 acres, such as I thought I could safely and honorably recommend. American lands had become disgraced by the operations of Robert Morris and others, and I finally failed of my object. But I lingered in Europe with the assent of Mr. Watson, partly with the distant hope of better success, but more to seize that opportunity of enlarging my knowledge of men and things. Besides my business, my object was to see and learn all I could. I attended Parliament, and heard Pitt, Fox and Sheridan ; the House of Lords, and saw Loughborough on the woolsack; the King's Bench, and saw Lord Ken- yon, Ashurst, Gross and Lawrence ; the Common Pleas, and saw Buller and heard him give an opinion, and no man in England gained my admiration more than he. Once or twice I was on the point of concluding a great operation. The Bank of England stopped paying specie. Then came the mutiny at the Nore, the reverses of the Duke of York in Flanders and the success of the French. Many capitalists thought of seeking some safe investments in America, but did not love very plainly to avow it ; and on the whole, the firmness of the British nation under ac- cumulated difficulties inspired me with great respect for the national character.
The summer and autumn of 1797 he spent in Paris, attending the lectures of Fourcroy and Charles, and studying the French character and objects of curiosity in art and science. He witnessed the coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor, and the reception of Bonaparte on his return from his Italian campaign, and observed to Joel Barlow, his fellow lodger, that he was satisfied the French never could maintain self-government. His account of the manner in which the elections were conducted, by or- dering bodies of troops into all the large towns and placing opposition candidates under arrest, would serve as a very accurate description of the freedom of elections under Louis Napoleon.
Returning from abroad, Mr. Hopkins engaged in the practice of law
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in the city of New York, where in the year 1800 he married Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Moses Rogers, Esq., who still (1857) survives.
In 1810, in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. B. W. Rogers of New York, Mr. Hopkins purchased two tracts of land on the Genesee River, and engaged on a large scale in the business of farming. Though conducted with great energy and skill, the enterprise, from the over- throw of credit and the disappearance of currency following the war, turned out unfortunately.
One of the most delightful dreams of my fancy, [he observes,] in going to the West, was to have my parents near me, so that we might live in each other's society, and some in turn might close the eyes of the others. It was otherwise ordered; and I already began to see the clouds of disappointment gathering around my establishment. I cleared land, fenced fields and multiplied my sheep. I built a house, a village, and mills and farm buildings. From the river, my operations extended back to the pine woods, near three miles. But I made these improvements at the enormous war prices of labor and produce; and when in turn I had the wheat of one hundred acres to sell, it would not command, in cash, twenty-five cents per bushel, for any quantity, great or small. The wool of fifteen hundred sheep sold proportionally low, or nearly so. Of these sheep, a select flock of three hundred, full merinos, were bred with more care, I presume, than any other man had ever used. Losses came upon losses like the beating of hail; but the greatest was that money disappeared from the country, and property ceased to have any but a very low exchangeable value. When afterwards I came to sell my Moscow estate, at a loss of $50,000 compared with its late saleable value, I deemed the sale rather a fortunate escape.
Mr. Hopkins removed to the city of Albany, and resumed the prac- tice of law. His studies had led him to pay particular attention to the subject of crime and punishment; and in 1826, he was appointed by the Legislature commissioner, with two associates, to arrange and super- intend the whole penitentiary system of the State. IIe engaged in this work with characteristic enthusiasm. He corresponded, traveled, experimented with great pains in relation to prison diet and rations, en- lightened public opinion by a series of essays, recommended the Auburn or silent system of penal labor, and with his fellow commissioners built and governed the State's prison at Sing Sing. The subject of prison dis- cipline continued greatly to interest, and more or less to occupy him, dur- ing the remainder of his life. He withdrew entirely from legal practice, removed to the village of Geneva, and spent his last years, enjoying an ample competence, in literary pursuits, horticulture, the society of friends and religious and philanthropic labors. He died a triumphant Christian death, October 8th, 1837.
At different times of his life, Mr. Hopkins represented his fellow citi.
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zens in the state and national Legislatures, and presided as one of the judges of the western district of the State of New York. He left behind him at his death an unfinished work on jury trials, and another nearly complete consisting of aphorisms in ontology, exhibiting the application of demonstrative reasoning to moral truths.
Some of the above details may perhaps be more minute than the inte- rest of the subject will justify to ordinary readers. But supposing the object of these memoirs to be to furnish in a limited compass a distinct impres- sion of the men described, it was judged this would be best effected in the present instance by leaving him in part to speak for himself. The autobiography from which the brief extracts of this sketch are taken was by the writer merely designed for the instruction of his children ; but it is believed the use here made of it will involve no breach of confidence.
Mr. Hopkins, though admirable as a converser and the delight of the social circle, was not distinguished as a public speaker, either at the bar or in the senate. In politics, he had no success, and indeed almost no ambition. He had a generous kind of instinct which always made him a member of the losing party. He was a Federalist ; a Clay man; an Anti-Mason ; a Whig; a zealous advocate of Temperance ; a coloniza- tionalist and a hater of slavery. For near the last twenty years of his life, he was a member of the Presbyterian church, and a living, exem- plary Christian. He was generous minded and careless of his own in- terests to a fault ; naturally impulsive, but thoroughly self-disciplined ; full of warm sympathies and a model of refined courtesy in social life. Few men have had more attached friends or left a larger circle of genu- ine mourners.
In person, Mr. Hopkins was about six feet in height, and perfectly formed for strength and activity. He was a rapid walker, a bold rider and was fond of a good horse. He retained possession of all his physical and mental activity up to the seizure of the attack which terminated his life. His biography contains little or nothing of attractive incident or public interest. It is the life of a man of fine powers, who was never highly successful in the pursuit of either fame, honors or wealth ; but who was unspeakably happy in this, that the discipline of life chastened his spirit, and brought him through many trials to the experience of a peace that passeth understanding and a hope full of immortality.
DR. AMBROSE IVES.
He was the son of Abijah, and the grandson of Abraham Ives ; was born in Wallingford, Dec. 30, 1786, and died in Waterbury, Jan. 31,
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