USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 60
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Careful search has not brought to light the report of that committee.
Upon a careful review of the life of Gen. David Humphreys it is impossible not to award him the character of a most unselfish, patriotic and high-minded man. He was one of Derby's noblemen, of whom she has had a large number, who lived for his fellow-man, having, in the language of the inscrip- tion on his monument, "enriched his native land with the true golden fleece." A scholar, poet, historian, statesman, patriot, and philanthropist, his name is held in high esteem, and will be for generations yet to come.
His literary works have been collected into one volume of 430 pages, octavo, and are very pleasant reading.
MAJOR ELIJAH HUMPHREYS,
Son of Rev. Daniel Humphreys, was town clerk of Derby many years and seems to have been a man of great candor and reli- ability in the community. He served as a major in the Revolu- tionary war, three horses being shot under him. He married the daughter of Rev. Dr. Mansfield the Episcopal minister, in 1774, just at the beginning of the troubles with the English government.
There is a tradition in the family that when Dr. Mansfield attempted to go within the British lines on Long Island, in the war, he was captured by his son-in-law ; and that he was after- wards allowed to preach with a guard in the pulpit to prevent him from preaching against the American cause ; and that John Humphreys, the brother of Elijah, fearing the soldiers might be rough or disrespectful to the Doctor, solicited and obtained the privilege of being the guard instead of the soldiers, and under this arrangement quiet and good feeling was restored.
This tradition looks very much like the events of that day. No intimation is given that Elijah Humphreys was not per- fectly kind and respectful to the Doctor, but that as an officer he felt under the necessity to detain him. The Doctor, how-
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ever, did go to Long Island for a time, but returned and preached as above described.
Of Elijah Humphreys, his brother made the following record on the town clerk's book :
"He died July 2, 1785, on his way to the West Indies and was buried on the Isle of Martinico, in the 40th year of his age.
Pr. JOHN HUMPHREYS."
ELIJAH HUMPHREYS, JUN.,
Son of Elijah and Anna (Mansfield) Humphreys, was born in 1779, in the midst of Revolutionary times, and became a very successful merchant and honored young man in New York city, and died young. The following is from the " Old Merchants of New York City," Vol. I. 197 :
" I must say something about Elijah Humphreys. He was origi- nally from Connecticut, as I have said. So was Stephen Whitney, who was born in the same town of old Derby as was John Lewis, and they used to go to school together. In 1803 Elijah Humphreys formed a partnership with Archibald Whitney at No. 22 Burling Slip. They did a large grocery business Among their customers were Joseph D. Beers of Newtown and John P. Marshall of Woodbury, Conn.
" I omitted to mention that Elijah Humphreys had been brought up by Theophilus Brower, the great grocer of his day, at No. 5 Burling Slip. Brower started after the war and in 1789 was doing a large busi- ness. Elijah was with him from 1795 to 1803 At that time the accounts of grocers were kept in pounds, shillings and pence, and I have before me some of the accounts of Mr. Brower made out in the neat business handwriting of Elijah Humphreys. At this period, and as late as 1805, his cousin David Humphreys [son of John] was a clerk with Oliver Wolcott, then doing a large business in the city, and president of one of the banks, and who was afterwards governor of Connecticut.
" Elijah Humphreys was partner with A. Whitney for many years, or until the war of 1814. He afterwards continued alone and became quite rich. He was a bachelor and boarded at Washington Hall when it was kept by McIntyre. There a very romantic matter occurred. He had boarded there several years and was worth $60.000, a great sum in those days. He was a director in the Fulton bank. Prosper- ity in business could not save him from a severe attack of bilious fever. He came near dying ; probably would have died but for the careful nursing of the sister of Mrs. McIntyre. She nursed him as tenderly as
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if he had been her brother and saved his life. After he recovered Mr. Humphreys felt grateful and offered the young girl his hand in mar- riage. He was accepted, and shortly after they went to housekeeping in very handsome style at No 4 Murray street, near Broadway. He was out of business some time ; had a good income and would have had for life, but he began to reflect that he was married, that he should probably have a large family, and that he should want more. So he decided to go into business again. The Erie canal had been opened, which was in his favor. Still he had been out of business three years and was out of the traces. He had to pick up a new set of customers, and these he soon found in the West. They came to New York as greedy as sharks. Mr. Humphreys sold heavily. There could be but one result-he stopped payment. . .. Every one was surprised and every one was sorry."
REV. JOHN JAMES
Began to preach in Derby in the latter part of 1693, and in the beginning of 1694 the town gave him a call to settle, which he seems to have accepted soon after, and continued to labor with much devotedness both in teaching and preaching until 1706, when his health had so failed that he was unable to supply the pulpit all the time, and was dismissed at his own request. Of his labors some account is given in the early part of chapter four. Mr. James is said to have graduated at Harvard. He preached at Haddam as early as 1683. President Stiles says : " He came from England ; was devoted to books, and died at Wethersfield, August 10, 1729, having there lived in private some years." It is supposed that this is the man Rev. Mr. Mix, minister at Wethersfield, called "a very good man with a very ungraceful delivery." (Savage II. 536.)
ISAAC JENNINGS, M. D.,
Was born in Fairfield, Conn., November 7, 1788, and died of pneumonia March 13, 1874, at his residence in Oberlin, Ohio, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was favorably known in Derby more than a quarter of a century.
He entered the office of Eli Ives, M. D., of New Haven in 1809, and pursued his studies with him until he fitted himself to sustain the examination then required before the state com- mittee of examination, there being then no medical college.
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The exhibition of his medical knowledge was such as to entirely satisfy the committee, and he was licensed to practice medi- cine, and in 1828 Yale College conferred on him the degree of M. D. Soon after beginning his professional studies he gave attention to Latin and Greek, and exhibited an extraordinary aptitude for these studies, and a remarkable memory for text books. At one interview he recited to his instructor (Rev. Mr. Humphrey, afterwards president of Amherst College) large portions of the Latin grammar, showing that he had in like manner mastered the whole of it; and in the same way his memory retained much that he read. He used to quote at times the whole of the Westminster Catechism, question and answer.
After receiving his license he procured him a horse and equipments, including the saddle-bags well filled, and located in Trumbull, Conn., and commenced the practice of his profession. After a year or more Dr. Pearl Crafts of Derby, being in a lingering consumption, invited him to locate here to take his practice, which he did in 1820. He soon secured an extensive although not a very lucrative practice, and for a series of years enjoyed the confidence of such distinguished physicians as Doct. Ives, Doct. Hubbard and the learned Doct. Knight.
Being a strong temperance man he regarded alcohol, in all its forms, an enemy to the living principle in the human system, and with alcohol he classed drugs and medicines. This fact, with other considerations, led him after a time to adopt the theory of the remedial powers of nature as more curative in diseased action than pills or powders.
Discarding medicine, he continued to practice disguisedly, giving his patients nothing but bread pills and colored water, as he and his friends claimed, with more success than on the old plan. Too honest to humbug the people, and not wishing to keep his light under a bushel, he after a little time gave bold publicity to his views and tried to enforce the doctrine of no medicine, or the let alone principle of curing curable disease in all its phases. This narrowed down his practice to about four hundred dollars a year, a sum inadequate to the support of his family, and in 1837 he sold his office fixtures and library to the then young Doctor Beardsley, and bade adieu to a profession
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which he always honored and respected until the day of his death. Many worthy and influential people in Derby endeav- ored to prevail on him, by liberal subscriptions of money, to remain in town, as he had made great sacrifices in his pecuniary interests for the good of his fellow men, but the effort failed, and in 1839 he left for Oberlin, Ohio, where he married his second wife and lived until the time of his death, highly esteemed and beloved as a citizen and Christian.
The last twenty-five years of his life he devoted principally to writing, some of the time to lecturing ; and in furthering and maintaining his views he has published three books, entitled respectively "Medical Reform," "Philosophy of Human Life,". " The Tree of Life ;" and a fourth work was ready for the press at his decease, "Orthopathy,"-right action, disease simply a negation of health,-which fully embodied and illustrated his theory and system.
He had nine children by his first marriage, three of whom are still living ; the eldest, a graduate of Yale College, is a Con- gregational minister in Bennington, Vt .; another was a business man in Cleveland, at the head of the Ohio agency of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York ; besides a daugh- ter, who is now a most worthy and self sacrificing missionary in Asiatic Turkey. Two of his deceased children, a son and a daughter, were graduates of Oberlin College, Ohio.
Dr. Jennings was a thinker and, in more senses than one, a genuine reformer, but perhaps he attempted too much. When he dropped the use of medicine fifty years ago, he at the same time gave up unreservedly the use of alcoholic stimulants, also tobacco, tea, coffee, spices of every variety, and meats of all kinds, living on the plainest vegetable diet up to the hour of his last sickness. His longevity, considering that he belonged to a consumptive family, must be taken as evidence that there is some truth in his position on diet.
Dr. Jennings had noble traits of character. His uprightness and integrity commanded universal respect.
In his religion he was a Congregationalist, being a deacon in Derby and in Oberlin, unflinching and unyielding in his Chris- tian principles ; and from early life was an ornament and exam- ple of the faith he professed.
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This sketch cannot more appropriately be concluded than by quoting the closing stanza of the most beautiful elegy in our language :
" No farther seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode; (There they alike in trembling hope repose) The bosom of his father and his God."
REV. ISAAC JENNINGS,
Son of Isaac Jennings, M. D., was born in Trumbull, Conn., July 24, 1816, and attended the common schools and academy of Derby. He graduated at Yale College in 1837, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1842 ; was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Akron, Ohio, in 1843 ; became pastor of the First Church in Stamford, Conn., in 1847, and the pastor of the First Church of Christ in Bennington, Vt., in 1853, where he still remains, having nearly completed the twenty-seventh year of his pastorate in that place. While in Akron he secured the passage in the Ohio Legislature of the " Akron School Law " and the founding of the Akron graded schools.17 In 1859 he visited Europe. In 1869 he published " Memorials of a Century."18 He has published several ad- dresses, discourses and sermons. He is secretary of the board of directors of the Bennington Battle Monument Association, and president of the Bennington County Society School Union.
His son, Isaac Jennings, jun., A. M., is the successful princi- pal and teacher of the Classical High School of Waterbury, Conn.
MRS. CATHARINE (JENNINGS) PARSONS,
Daughter of Isaac Jennings, M. D., was graduated at Oberlin College and became the wife of the Rev. Justin W. Parsons. They went as missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M., first to Salonica in European Turkey, thence to Smyrna, thence where they are now, at the head of the missionary work, including a prosperous boarding and day school for girls, in the Nicomedia mission field, having their residence in Batchejuk, Turkey in Asia. One of her daughters, Miss Sella C. Parsons, is assistant missionary
17See 28th Annual School Report, Akron, Ohio.
18 Bennington History, 408.
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teacher. Another daughter, Mrs. Louisa S. Whiting, is a mis- sionary of the Presbyterian Board, near Shanghai in China.
THE REV. STEPHEN JEWETT
Succeeded the venerable Dr. Mansfield in the rectorship of St. James's church. He was born in Lanesboro, Mass., August 18, 1783. His parents were originally Congregationalists, but at the time of Stephen's birth his father withdrew from that communion for want of belief in all the doctrines of Calvinism and connected himself with the Episcopal church. In a great measure self-taught in the rudiments of an English education, he assisted his father in his humble occupation until his failing health at the early age of twenty-three years influenced him to seek other and lighter pursuits. He studied the classics with the Rev. Mr. Pardee, an Episcopal minister of Lanesboro; keep- ing school winters and studying summers, and at length found his way to the Episcopal academy at Cheshire, which institu- tion was then in its zenith of prosperity, serving the church in the double capacity of a college and theological seminary. Mr. Jewett by occasional school keeping, economy and the lib- erality of friends, completed his education, incurring a debt of only $150, which he discharged in the first year of his ministry.
" Ordained deacon by Bishop Jarvis in Trinity church, New Haven, September 5, 1811, he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Hobart, October 5, 1813. He removed to Hampton, New York, and with filial affection received into his house and under his own care and protection his parents, both then aged and infirm. Though his cure was large enough to demand his entire attention, yet, in the then scar- city of Episcopal clergymen, he was a missionary for all the region from Fort Edward on the south to Plattsburgh on the north. He has been heard to say that children have been brought one hundred miles to him for baptism, and he himself has traveled forty miles or more to attend a funeral. This was not in the days of railroads but of slow stage or private conveyance. A faithful ministry, running through a period of ten years in the same place. left its abiding marks in the form of a house of worship in Hampton commenced by all denominations with the understanding that it should belong to the body that should finish it. This house was through his zeal and influence properly com- pleted and quietly surrendered to the Episcopalians.""
19Commemorative sermon by Rev. E. E. Beardsley.
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Mr. Jewett was called to the rectorship of St. James's church of Derby, December 9, 1821, and for thirteen years divided his labors between this church and Union (now Trinity) parish of Humphreysville " on a salary of $500 a year and his fire-wood," as shown in the records.
Dr. Mansfield was then rector and the Rev. Calvin White his assistant, but the latter's perversion to Romanism caused divisions among the people, and Mr. Jewett upon his advent into Derby found he had not only " a flock to feed, but a. fold to defend." Old prejudices against the church, her doctrines and her liturgy, for certain causes, coupled with the defection of Mr. White, freshened anew the seeds of discord and rendered it all the more necessary for him to be vigilant, cautious, godly and firm.
In addition to his pulpit and parochial duties he kept a private school in which he fitted for college or the theological semi- nary several young men, among whom may be mentioned Abel Nichols, John D. Smith, Oliver Hopson, Isaac Smith, Edward Hardyear, Sheldon Clarke and Caleb S. Ives, all of whom became ministers in the Episcopal church. Mr. Jewett also had great influence in the way of encouragement to other young men to enter the ministry, one of whom was Rev. S. Davis. From Mr. Jewett's ministry in Derby up to the present time not a single young man has been induced to enter the Episco- pal ministry in this town (with the exception of Charles H. Proctor) during the long period of forty-seven years. This speaks well for the record of Mr. Jewett.
Coming into possession of unexpected wealth Mr. Jewett relinquished his salary in Derby for the last two years of his rectorship. In 1834 he removed to New Haven, and here and there for some years performed valuable ministerial services, commensurate with his failing health. The most important were those rendered to the feeble parishes of West Haven, Westville and Fair Haven, where his services were gratuitous, and he thus contributed largely to their revival and prosperity; and to this day the fruit of his labors, broken by repeated attacks of illness, are duly appreciated. He was some months an assist- ant in Trinity church, New Haven. His hospitality was note- worthy; under his roof his brethren always found acceptable
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rest and refreshments. In his life-time he gave what he could to promote the objects of humanity, learning and religion. A quarter of a century before his death he founded a scholarship in Trinity College, Hartford, the largest individual gift up to that time that the institution had ever received. The contri- bution of $2,000 to St. Thomas parish, New Haven, while in its infancy, it is due to him and his family to say, was a strong incentive to others to abound "more and more" in good works for the glory of God and the benefit of His church. Feeble in the beginning, with only a handful of worshipers, this parish (St. Thomas) under thirty-one years' ministration of one clergy- man, the present rector, Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D. D., L. L. D., has grown to be among the strong and substantial churches in the diocese.
Mr. Jewett was gathered to his fathers August 25, 1861, and the following Sunday Rev. Mr. Brainard, then rector of St. James's church, Birmingham, announced his death to his congre- gation, and immediately after divine service a meeting was held by the rector, wardens and vestrymen of the parish, at which the following resolution, among others in relation to Mr. Jewett, was unanimously passed :
" Resolved, That we remember with gratitude the fact that for the space of thirteen years Rev. Stephen Jewett, whose public and private character, adorned as it was with rare and excellent virtues, went in and out among us as the zealous and faithful parish minister, active in every good work, rendering most efficient services to the church in this vicinity in the days of her comparative feebleness, contributing largely by God's blessing to the present position of strength and prosperity which it now enjoys."
Thus the name of this man of God, like his patriarchial pre- decessor's, is still held in pleasing and grateful remembrance. Many are now living who testify warmly to his self-sacrificing devotion, his unswerving fidelity and Christian zeal in building up and strengthening the walls of Zion in the ancient parish of St. James's church, Derby.
PLINY ADAMS JEWETT, M. D.,
The son of Rev. Stephen Jewett, was born June 4, 1816, and spent his early years in Derby where he attended the village
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school, and after being fitted, entered Trinity College, Hartford, from which he was graduated in 1837, and then entering Yale Medical School received the degree of M. D. from that college in 1839. He has been one of the most prominent physicians and surgeons in the state, and held the chair of professor of obstetrics in Yale for ten years. He has been intimately con- nected with the State Hospital since its organization, and is a life director and consulting physician and surgeon in that insti- tution. At the commencement of the Rebellion he offered his services to the government to take command of the Govern- ment Hospital at New York, known as the Knight General Hospital, where he remained in charge until the close of the war in 1865. He has been an active and influential member of the State Medical Society for many years, having held all the offices within the gift of that society, and is an honorary member of the New York State Medical Society. Although Dr. Jewett's professional life has been spent in New Haven he still consid- ers himself a Derby boy, and has lost none of his love for the home of his childhood.
THOMAS B. JEWETT, M. D.,
Son of Pliny A. Jewett, M. D., and grandson of the Rev. Stephen Jewett, was born at New Haven, January 9, 1850. His early education was pursued at the rectory school, Hamden, Conn., and the Collegiate and Commercial Institute of New Haven. He fitted for college at the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven. He studied medicine with his father and Dr. Ambrose Beardsley of Birmingham, graduated from the medical depart- ment of Yale in January, 1879, and immediately located himself at Birmingham with Dr. Ambrose Beardsley. He has been very specially engaged in some cases of surgery of public in- terest and notoriety in the state.
COL. EBENEZER JOHNSON
Is supposed to have been the son of Peter Johnson of Fairfield, and was born about the time his father settled in Fairfield, 1649. He came to Derby, a single man, about 1668, and married Eliza- beth, daughter of Edward Wooster, in 1671, and made his home
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not long after on the south-east part of Sentinel Hill as it was then called ; the place being now on the turnpike east of Derby Narrows, and still known as the old Johnson place. He very soon became a leading man in all the interests and enterprises of the plantation and town, developing marvelous activity and energy, and a generosity of character that won the confidence and esteem of the whole community, and a large circle of asso- ciated officers both military and civil throughout the state. He seemed to believe in everybody, and feared nothing. He was once censured by the General Court for administering the oath to certain persons without requiring a record of those persons of the necessary legal qualifications in order to receive the oath. This was like the man. He knew those persons to possess the necessary qualifications as his neighbors, and thereupon admin- istered the oath, not doubting but that all others knew the same, and would accept the fact without further question.
The location of his farm indicates the native good judgment and discrimination of the man; the land being of the best quality, and its position being warm for early seed in the spring. He was such a worker that he accepted several pieces of land from the town, which were scarcely regarded as worth fencing, and soon made them most productive and valuable.
He was early introduced to military position, which secured some little money, and thereby he had large advantage over most of his neighbors ; for a little silver in the hand in those days was equal to a large capital stock in the best manufactur- ing enterprises of the present day. In 1685 he was chosen lieutenant, and Abel Gunn, his neighbor, ensign of the first com- pany organized in Derby, and in 1689 he was commissioned by the General Court to the office of captain in a volunteer com- pany, raised to aid England to oppose the French in the twenty- four years' war that followed. In this war he went on two expeditions to Albany and one to New York, besides others against the Indians of his own state, and to protect the sea- coast. He was also appointed as one of the commissioners, or. governor's council, several years during the war, and as such seems to have been depended upon as much as any one in the state. He was appointed sergeant-major of New Haven county militia in 1704, and in 1709 the General Assembly made the
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following record : "Upon consideration of the age and long service of Major Ebenezer Johnson, sergeant-major of the regi- ment of militia in the county of New Haven, this assembly have thought meet to excuse, and do now hereby excuse and release him from any further labor in that post." But his retirement did not last long, for the French war continuing, an expedition was organized in 1710 to go to St. Johns, or Port Royal, in that region, and Major Johnson was commissioned colonel of the regiment on that expedition. After this Colonel Johnson was more respected and honored than before, which was scarcely necessary, for in 1701 the town clerk wrote : "The worshipful Major Johnson," and in after years repeated this appellation several times, denoting the highest honor.
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