USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 53
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Thayer, Reuben W., private company E, July 22, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran, Decem- ber 21, 1863, mustered out July 19, 1865.
·Phol, William, private company E, August 15, 1863. Mustered out July 19, 1865, Alexandria, Va.
Holeren, James, private company F, July 22, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran, December 21, 1863. Mustered out July 19, 1865.
Roberson, Joseph, private company F, August 15, 1863. Died October 19, 1864, Atlanta, Ga.
Tennyson, James, private company G, July 22, 1861. Deserted December. 10, 1862.
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Sixth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Bodge, George E., private company F, September 7, 1861. Killed at Morris Island, S. C., July 18, 1863.
Seventh Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Andrews, John, private company D, November 4, 1864. Mustered out July 20, 1865, Goldsboro, N. C.
Chatfield, Frederick N., private company E, September 7, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran December 22, 1863, mustered out July 20, 1865.
Chatfield, George A., private company E, September 7, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran, December 22, 1863, mustered out July 20, 1865.
Phelps, Edward D., private company F, September 9, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran, December 22, 1863, mustered out July 20, 1865.
Riggs, John H., private company F, September 9, 1861, Re-enlisted veteran, January 2, 1864, mustered out July 20 1865.
Eighth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
English, Alton H., private company E, September 25, 1861, Wounded, discharged, enlisted United States Army October 25, 1862,
Ninth Regiment Infantry, C. V;
Jones, Thomas, private company D, January 1865, Mustered out August 3, 1865, Hilton Head, S. C.
Tenth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Collins, Abraham, private company A, October 29, 1861, Discharged, disability, February 22, 1863.
French, Hobart, private company A, September 21, 1861. Discharged, disability, December 21, 1861,
Lounsbury, Henry W., private company A, October 2, 1861. Died August 15, 1862, Newbern, N. C.
Thayer, William A., private company A, October 2, 1861, Transferred to signal corps September 26, 1863.
Smith, Henry, private company B, December 7, 1864. Mustered out August 25, 1865, Richmond, Va,
Tenth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Beers, Henry B,, private company K, October 5, 1861. Discharged, disability, February 22, 1863;
French, Harpin R,, private company K, October 14, 1861, Discharged October 7, 1864, term expired, Mahony, John, private company K, November 5, 1864. Shot for desertion March 10, 1865, before Richmond.
Eleventh Regiment Infantry, C. V;
William H. Bray, corporal company G, December 1, 1861, Discharged, disability, November 29, 1862,
Burns, James W., private company G, December 1, 1864. Deserted Feb. 28, 1865.
Twelfth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Bradley, Henry T., private company A, December 19, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran January I, 1864, deserted June 20, 1865.
519
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Chadwick, Thomas, private company F, November 25, 1861. Re-enlisted veteran January 1, 1864, mustered out August 12, 1865.
Kine, Francis, private company F, January 6, 1865. Forwarded October 20, 1864, not taken on the rolls.
Wilson, William, private company F, January 6, 1865. Mustered out August 2, 1865, Hilton Head.
Fifteenth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Long, James, private company A, June 31, 1865. Transferred to seventh C. V., mustered out July 20, 1865, Goldsboro, N. C.
Brown, William, private company B, March 3, 1864. Transferred to seventh C. V., mustered out July 14, 1865, Hartford, Conn.
Emmons, Berry D., private company I, February 9, 1865. Transferred to seventh C. V., mustered out July 20, 1865.
Higgins, Jeremiah, private company I, September 23, 1864. Mustered out June 27, 1865, Newbern, N. C.
Burns, John, private company I, January 10, 1865. Missing March 8, 1865.
Corkran, Edward, private company I, January 5, 1864. Missing March 8, 1865, Kinston, N. C.
McGahie, William, private company I, January 5, 1865. Deserted March 7, 1865, Kinston, N. C.
Twentieth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Philo B. Buckingham, major, August 29, 1862. Promoted lieutenant colonel, mus- tered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Bassett, Noyes E,, private company G, March 7, 1864. Transferred to fifth C. V., mustered out July 19, 1865.
Wilbur W. Smith, first lieutenant company H, August 5, 1862. Promoted captain January 28, 1863, mustered out June 13, 1865.
George W. Homan, sergeant company H, August 6, 1862. Promoted second lieu- tenant June 6, 1865, mustered out June 13, 1865.
George S. Wyant, sergeant company H, August 7, 1862. Died Dec. 15, 1862.
Samuel A. Beach, sergeant company H, August 8, 1862. Discharged, disability, September 9, 1862, Washington, D. C.
Charles B. Holland, corporal company H, August 5, 1862. Transferred to invalid corps, mustered out August 4, 1865.
Ichabod E. Alling, corporal company H, August 20, 1862. 1865, Washington, D. C.
Mustered out June 13,
John W. French, musician company H, August 20, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Booth, Henry T., private company H, August 6, 1862. Died January 4, 1863, Washington, D. C.
Botsford, Henry L., private company H, August 5, 1862. Discharged, disability, February 21, 1863, Stafford Court House.
Benham, Bennett, private company H, August 9, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Bliss, Howard, private company H, August 20, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Bronson, Royal L., private company H, August 25, 1862. Died May 4, 1863, wounds received Chancellorsville, Va.
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HISTORY OF DERBY.
Davis, Zerah B., private company H, August 6, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Davis, Charles E., private company H, August 7, 1862. Wounded May 3, 1863, discharged, disability, June 17, 1865.
French, Charles, private company H, August 5, 1862. Wounded July 20, 1864, mustered out June 13, 1865.
Hendryx, James W., private company H, August 6, 1862. Killed May 3, 1863, Chancellorsville, Va. .
Lounsbury, Albert W., private company H, August 9, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
O'Brien, George, private company H, August 20, 1862. Killed May 3, 1863, Chan- cellorsville, Va.
Rose, Henry, private company H, August 8, 1862. Wounded March 19, 1865, mustered out June 23, 1865.
Ryan, John, private company H, August 20, 1862. Wounded May 3, 1863, dis- charged, disability, June 31, 1865.
Smith, Charles W., private company H, August 20, 1862. Mustered out June 13, 1865, Washington, D. C.
Still, Jacob L., private company H, August 20, 1862. Wounded July 3, 1863, trans- ferred to invalid corps March 15, 1864.
White, James, private company H, August 6, 1862. Killed July 20, 1864, Peach Tree Creek, Ga.
Bassett, Samuel, private company H, August 16, 1862. Transferred to fifth C. V., mustered out July 19, 1865.
Short, Sylvester, private company F, September 8, 1862. Honorably discharged August 31, 1863.
Twenty-seventh Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Crummey, Dennis, private company I, September 9, 1862. Discharged, disability, February 12, 1863.
Ryan, Patrick, private company I, Oct. 9, 1862. Honorably discharged July 27, 1863.
Twenty-ninth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Becket, Henry, private company E, January 4, 1865. Mustered out October 24, 1865, Brownsville, Texas.
Henry Alexander, private company F, February 24, 1864, Mustered out October 24, 1865, Brownsville, Texas.
Green, George, private company G, December 28, 1863. Killed October 27, 1864, Richmond, Va.
Green, John H., private company G, Dec. 28, 1863. Mustered out October 24, 1865. Chapman, Howard, private company G, January 4, 1865. Mustered out October 24, 1865, Brownsville, Texas.
Domingo, Charles, private company H, March 2, 1864. Killed September 3, 1864, Petersburg, Va.
Walker, Aaron, private company H, December 28, 1863. Mustered out Oct. 24, 1865.
Thirtieth Regiment Infantry, C. V.
Nichols, William, private company A, Feb. 22, 1864. Mustered out Nov. 7, 1865. William Rives, corporal company F, Feb. 22, 1864. Mustered out Nov. 7, 1865. De Ville, Robert, private company F, Feb. 22, 1864. Mustered out Nov. 7, 1865.
BIOGRAPHIES.
66
raven by Samuel Sartan
Jos. amoldo
BIOGRAPHIES.
JOSEPH ARNOLD
Was born at Hadham, Middlesex county, Conn., September 16, 1811. He descended from Joseph Arnold and Daniel Brainard, two of the original twenty-eight who settled the town of Haddam.
Joseph, the subject of this sketch, was son of Jared and Susan (Brainard) Arnold ; received his education at the common and high schools of his native town ; made a sea voyage with his father when only fourteen years of age ; was placed as clerk in a country store when fifteen, and at nineteen opened a dry goods store in Middletown in company with the old firm of Pease and Hayden. The next year he bought out the other partners ; took another partner, and added the clothing business under the name of Arnold and Buckingham. Their business was highly prosperous until 1838, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Arnold remaining at the old store and Mr. Buck- ingham going to Portland, Me.
Finding himself threatened with serious pulmonary difficulty, in 1844 Mr. Arnold sold his business at Middletown and spent the next four winters in the West Indies, the Southern states and New York city.
His health being restored he accepted a position in the American Exchange Bank, New York city, but a few months after, being elected cashier of the Meriden Bank at Meriden, Conn., he removed to that place in 1849. In 1853 he was elected cashier of the Manufacturers' Bank of Birmingham, which was reorganized in 1865 as the Birmingham National Bank. This office he accepted, and from that day to this has retained it with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the company and community.
In 1841 he married an estimable lady, Mary L., daughter of the Hon. Noah A. Phelps. She died in 1851.
Mr. Arnold may be classed among the self-made men. Be-
524
HISTORY OF DERBY.
ing little aided by his primary education, but possessing an active, vigorous mind, which he has well stored with useful knowledge by reading, he has, by his own exertions, worked out thus far his successful career in life. In addition to his present responsible position in the bank he has occupied oth- ers, such as treasurer of school district, borough and town, and for a long time has been president of the Derby Savings Bank, the people having never found in him confidence misplaced. In his habits he is a model for imitation. Strictly temperate in all things, although physically infirm, he has been his own physi- cian, discarding generally all drug medication. For twenty-six years he has scarcely been absent a day from his post of duty in the bank. Independent in his principles, circumspect in his daily walk, liberal without ostentation, faithful to his word in financial dealings with all persons, he has won for himself a most enviable reputation.
HENRY ATWATER
Was born in New Haven in 1819. He received more than an ordinary education, and in 1846 came to Birmingham and bought one-third of the interest of Abraham and William Haw- kins in the spring and axle business. In the following year a joint stock company was formed, called the Birmingham Iron and Steel Works, and the present extensive buildings were in part then erected. Mr. Atwater continued an active and ener- getic member of the company until the day of his death, January 22, 1862, at the age of forty-three years. For sixteen years Mr. Atwater was among the most enterprising manufac- turers, and had the merit of being very public spirited. He never did things by halves.
He was warden of the borough two years ; was postmaster under President Pierce, Senator of the state in 1850, besides filling other offices. Social and of gentlemanly address, having considerable public influence, Mr. Atwater was a popular citi- zen, and his death was deeply lamented.
SCOTT R. BAKER, M. D.,
Was born in Derby, October 2, 1834, and obtained his early education at the public school ; later he studied medicine with
Engraved by Samuel Sartaz
16 Bartholomew
525
BIOGRAPHIES.
Doct. Ambrose Beardsley of Birmingham, and, entering the medical department at Yale in 1876, he received his degree January, 1879, and located at Ansonia where he promises to secure a good practice.
LEWIS BARNES, M. D.,
Was born in Southington, Conn., June 26, 1826. He prepared for college at home and was graduated at Yale in 1847; and afterwards taught school at Bristol, Conn., and Brooklyn, N. Y. He took a course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, and received his degree from the Buffalo University in 1863. He came to Oxford in 1856, and has been in active practice in his profession since that time ; has held the office of town treasurer two years, and since 1868 has been town clerk and registrar ; has been school visitor since 1857, and Judge of Probate since 1872. He married Caroline Saltonstall of Meriden, Conn., in 1853.
J. H. BARTHOLOMEW
Was born in Farmington, Conn., April 18, 1814. The life of his father, Jonathan Bartholomew, sometimes called " Uncle Jonathan," may be summed up in one line from Gray's Elegy, " The short and simple annals of the poor." The subject of this sketch had only a limited district school education, and at the early age of fifteen he was employed by Isaac Dobson to assist in making the double reflecting tin baker, then in great demand, little thinking that this was laying the foundation for his subsequent successful life. The baker soon went out of use, but Mr. Bartholomew had obtained a pretty good practical knowledge of the tinner's trade, but being out of business he engaged one year as clerk in a store in Plainville. In 1834 he married Polly H. Root, the eldest of thirteen children For a short time he was employed in various kinds of work until he engaged in the making of sheet-iron cow-bells at five cents an hour ; the days having fifteen or sixteen hours in those times, so that, Old Time coming in to help out the matter, his receipts were seventy-five and eighty cents a day. Such was the be- ginning not only of one but of many men in Connecticut who are now transacting business on the basis of millions a year.
526
HISTORY OF DERBY.
Mr. Bartholomew next engaged in making brass kettles for Mr. Israel Coe of Wolcottville, Conn., and by his steady busi- ness habits, after four years' employment, was made superin- tendent of all the various manufacturing interests of the Coe Company, the most important of which was the making of brass kettles by what was called the "battery process." When this business began to be profitable a new method of making these kettles was introduced into the country and the business was engaged in by different companies. At this time Anson G. Phelps, then a large stockowner in the Wolcottville Company, was induced to start the business on a larger scale, and decided on Ansonia as the place of location, and he secured Mr. Bar- tholomew as the general agent of his company. Several man- ufacturing establishments were built in Ansonia under his supervision, viz., the "Battery and Rolling Mills," and the large " Brass and Copper Mills." Besides these, from time to time, numerous other branches were added, all of which proved suc- cessful except the "Battery Kettle " business, which was sup- planted by the new process.
These various branches of industry which have added so much to the wealth of Ansonia, as well as to the stockholders, are largely under obligation to the efforts of Mr. Bartholomew ; and, an idea of the estimate placed upon his services may be gained from the fact that a large yearly salary was paid him for more than a quarter of a century.
In 1869 Phelps, Dodge and Company merged all their exten- sive manufacturing interests in Ansonia with their real estate into one company under the name and firm of the "Ansonia Brass and Copper Company and the Ansonia Land and Water Power." At the first meeting of the joint companies Mr. Bar- tholomew was chosen a director and made general superintend- ent, which office he held up to 1876, when he resigned in consequence of ill health. His advent into Derby, in 1848, found Ansonia almost a barren, sandy plain, with only two factories and a very few dwelling houses. Among the first enterprises started was a good common school, in which he took an active part and was instrumental in doing away with the old rate bill system and establishing the method of support by taxing prop- erty only, which incensed the mind of Anson G. Phelps, this
527
BIOGRAPHIES.
being the first school in the town to adopt the method, but the excitement soon subsided.
He took a lively interest in the formation of the Congrega- tional Society of Ansonia, and in building both its churches, the first having been accidentally burned. He led the church choir over twenty years, and was chairman of the society's committee about the same length of time. He was a stock- holder, director and president of no less than six important moneyed institutions of the town, and served, so far as can be learned, to the acceptance of the parties interested.
Mr. Bartholomew was the first to propose the extension of the New Haven and Derby railroad, from its junction with the Naugatuck road, to Birmingham and Ansonia, and secured its completion by most persistent efforts ; the result being a great reduction of freights and public convenience.
He is a man of positive character, and being a republican in politics was elected to represent the town in the Legislature of 1869, receiving votes from both parties. He was a vigorous supporter of the war for the Union, contributing liberally of his means.
Thus the poor boy of Farmington became an active, useful pioneer in a variety of successful enterprises in the town, and his name will long be held in grateful remembrance, especially by the people of Ansonia. His example is worthy of imita- tion.
REV. ARCHIBALD BASSETT
Was born in Derby, March 21, 1772 ; graduated at Yale Col- lege in 1796; ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Winchester, Conn., May 20, 1801, and dismissed August, 1806. He was pastor at Wilton, Delaware county, N. Y., from 1807 to 1810, and resided in that place, preaching in that region and helping his brethren in revivals as opportunity afforded, until his death, April 29, 1859, aged eighty-seven years. He was the son of Benjamin Bassett.
He married Eliza, daughter of Dea. Job and Eunice (Cowles) Curtiss of Torringford, in the town of Torrington, Conn. She died January 19, 1868.
528
HISTORY OF DERBY.
ROYAL M. BASSETT
Was born in Derby November 22, 1828. His education was obtained in the district school, except one year in the academic school of Stiles and French in New Haven and two years at Haddam Academy. His father was one of the leading men of Derby and a pioneer in the business enterprises of Birming- ham ; first a merchant and then a manufacturer. He held many official positions with honor, but after the purchase of the Col- burns Iron Foundry in 1850, he devoted all his energies to his business until the day of his decease, which occurred June 26, 1864, in his sixtieth year. On the decease of his father, Royal M., with his brother Theodore, managed the Iron Foundry with much success, giving steady employment to about 125 opera- tives for sixteen years, making it a valuable establishment to Birmingham.
Royal M. Bassett has been engaged in various manufacturing. enterprises, railroads, and real estate operations, during a quar- ter of a century, and is a director in three railroad companies at the present time and president of the Utah Northern rail- road. He has been warden of the borough two years, and an active and efficient committee-man of the Birmingham school district for eleven years, besides filling several other local posi- tions, which places him among the public spirited men of the village and town. In all which he has proved himself a thor- ough business and upright man. Social, affable and liberal, and willing to forward any needed work for the public good, he stands among the popular and influential citizens of the town. He represented the fifth senatorial district in the Legislature, in 1876.
AMBROSE BEARDSLEY, M. D.1
Doct. Ambrose Beardsley, whose portrait is the first in this book, was born in Monroe, Conn., October 23, 1811. It is often said " the child is father to the man," the which if true, the young Ambrose must have been one of those kind of boys who accord- ing to the Sunday-school books ought to have " died early," but fortunately for mankind did not. His first appearance in pub- lic was in the rôle of a district school teacher, beginning at the
I. This sketch was written by him whose initials are at the end of it.
ar
Royal No Sappetic
529
BIOGRAPHIES.
age of sixteen years ; continuing four years in his own and adjoining towns, during which time he pursued assiduously his own studies under the instruction of Doct. Stephen Middle- brook of Monroe, and later under Doct. Charles Gorham of Redding, and finally graduating with honor at Pittsfield, Mass., Medical College in 1834. After a residence of a year and a half at Newtown, Conn., Doct. Beardsley came to Birmingham, then in its early infancy, where for forty-four years-nearly half a century-he has led an honorable, upright, and eminently useful Christian life ; often officiating at St James's Episcopal Church-of which parish he has been a life-long member-in the occasional absence of a pastor, as "lay reader." If Ben Adhem's name led all the rest, according to Leigh Hunt, because "he loved his fellow men," then surely must the name of this kind, self-sacrificing physician be found very near the head of the column of Derby's adopted sons. In hundreds of families in this and adjoining towns, the name of Ambrose Beardsley is cherished almost as a household god ; where his genial face and pleasant story, has often done the work of exorcising the demon of disease-real or imaginary-for which the harmless pill gets all the credit.
Possessed of a clear ringing voice, great fluency of speech and a happy gift of oratory, upon all public occasions Doct. Beardsley has been "the speaker of the day " and conspicuously the figure- head and leader in all enterprises which had for an object the welfare of nation or of individuals. Before the writer is now lying an ancient looking document which bears the following statement : "The foregoing oration was delivered by A. Beards- ley, to the citizens of Derby on occasion of commemorating the anniversary of our American Independence, July 4, 1839." As a sample of the principles then held by the orator a quotation is important : "Sacred to the heart of every true American should be the day we have here assembled to commemo- rate. We have met to join in congratulations over an event so abundantly propitious to this country, and so marked in its influ- ence upon the world that as patriots and loyal citizens we could not have met on this occasion with other feelings than those of gratitude, and an ardent love and desire to preserve in remem- brance the birthday of our National Independence ; coupled
67
530
HISTORY OF DERBY.
with a determination to throw off for a moment our more com- mon attachments ; to mingle our hearts more completely in the ardor of freedom; to manifest our zeal for the preservation of our dear bought liberties ; and to join in the celebration of the day in a way calculated not only to awaken in our minds antici- pations of the noblest destiny, but to call up those master spirits of the past who offered their all- upon the altar of Liberty." Farther along we read as follows : "The founders of this republic have not set in motion a machine which will continue to run uniform without the constant care and vigilance of posterity. The history of the past speaks to us in tones of thunder the fact that one of the strongest and most sacred of the obligations imposed upon us by our fathers is the maintenance and perpetuity of the bond of the Union. I repeat it with emphasis, Union between the states. The Mos- lem Turk sleeps soundly in his chains, not even seeming to dream of their weight. The slave surrenders himself tamely to his master, but the hatred of party dissensions and political animosities should never lead to a calculation on the value of the Union. 'One Europe' says an eloquent patriot 'is enough for the whole world,' and if Americans would not hear the shrieks of Liberty, if they would not see this fair Republic 'rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal blood,' let them be forever deterred from indulging even a passing thought upon the dangerous doctrine of disunion." This be it remem- bered was the utterance of our " Fourth of July orator " forty- one years ago. In the light of the terrible events of a quarter of a century later, it is seen that had the mouth of a prophet of the Lord even been commissioned to speak an inspired warning it could have hardly been more pertinent and forcible.
The oration, which is full of the various topics uppermost in those comparatively early days of the Republic, closes with the following peroration : "Let us, fellow citizens, at all times and in all places prove ourselves the undeviating friends of our country, by sustaining its wise government, promoting sound doctrine, advancing wholesome morality and pure religion." But scarcely a quarter of a century had passed when we find this watchman on our national walls sending his own first born to the field in defense of these very liberties imperiled by intes-
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