USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 64
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REV. JOHN D. SMITH
Was born in Derby, February 12, 1804, being the son of Shel- don Smith, who was an industrious farmer but unable to give his son more than a common school education. John D. kept school winters and studied what time he could command, with Rev. Stephen Jewett, with whom after obtaining a good knowl- edge of the classics he pursued his theological studies, and was ordained deacon, July 7, 1833, at Hartford, and advanced to the priesthood September 22, 1834, by Bishop Brownell. He took charge of Union church, now Trinity, at Humphreysville at Easter, 1834, and was its rector nearly until his death, Septem- ber 4, 1849, aged forty-five years.
Mr. Smith was an original thinker and one of the active labor- ing ministers of his day. His salary for a while was inadequate to his support, and he was obliged to unite other pursuits with his ministerial labors. He was poor-master for some time and also kept a book-store.
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HORACE M. SHEPARD
Was the first lawyer who located in Humphreysville, then a part of Derby. He was from Newtown and son of Col. Timothy Shepard, a prominent lawyer of the Fairfield county bar. He remained but a short period after Alfred Blackman located at that place.
SHELDON SMITH.
There were two Sheldon Smiths who lived at the Neck, neigh- bors, relatives by marriage, farmers, who have recently died. They were both conspicuous in town matters. Sheldon the sen- ior was many years selectman, and represented the town in the Legislature, and was instrumental in building the first Metho- dist church in Birmingham. He was the father of thirteen children including the late Rev. John D. Smith of the Episcopal church. He died in 1867, aged eighty-six years, after a well- spent, useful and Christian life.
Sheldon the junior was for twenty years selectman and town agent of Derby, and perhaps no officer of the town was more watchful of its interests than he. Of an inquiring and logical mind, well-read in the statutes, it may be said that few lawyers in the state were better posted on the pauper laws than he, and in consequence of this he was often consulted by selectmen of adjoining towns. Both these Smiths were highly influential, and their ancestors were interested in the early agricultural interests of the town. He died October 10, 1866, aged sixty- nine years.
BRADFORD STEELE,
Son of Capt. Bradford Steele, enlisted July 10, 1777, at the age of sixteen under Captain Cortis, regiment of Colonel Enos, and was at first stationed at Horseneck but soon after ordered to join a branch of the Continental army under the command of Major Humphreys. They marched to Peekskill and there joined the army and marched to Westchester, about two thousand strong, having two pieces of artillery. At the battle of Fort Independ- ence Steele, with Lieutenant Pritchard and others, was taken prisoner. One of their number becoming deranged under his sufferings, the British soldiers beat him with their muskets, then tied him on a horse, took him to King's bridge and threw him
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over, leaving him with his head and shoulders buried in the mud. At night Steele and thirteen companions were placed in a small tent guarded by Hessian soldiers, and if any one pressed out the tent-cloth he was sure to feel the prick of the bayonet. Next day they were taken to the Sugar House, where most of the prisoners had nothing to eat for three or four days. They were then allowed four ounces each of wormy sea-biscuit and four ounces of Irish pork daily.
About the first of December they were put on board a ship in the North river. After fifteen days the small-pox broke out, and Steele and twenty-five others were taken to the hospital where they had so little care that only four of the number sur- vived. Steele saw one man with his feet so frozen that after a time they dropped off at the ankles. One day while he was im- prisoned in the Sugar House a well-known tory came along and was allowed by the guard to pass in, when the prisoners seizing him, dragged him to the pump and gave him a thorough drench- ing ; he was then allowed to run, the prisoners saying good-by with a shower of brick. On the 8th of August, 1778, the few surviving prisoners received tidings that they were to be ex- changed. Said Steele: " On the next day we were all called out and paraded in the prison yard. To behold such a com- pany of living skeletons one might almost imagine that the prophecy concerning the dry bones had been fulfilled in us." On August 16th, they were landed at Elizabethtown Point and were marched to the meeting-house, where the exchange was made. Steele and three others who were too much reduced by their sufferings to be capable of any further military service were discharged and returned home. After some months he recovered his health, and was for many years a highly respected citizen of Humphreysville, and deacon of the Congregational church. He died December 24, 1841, aged eighty years.25
MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS,
A native of Humphreysville, was the daughter of John Winter- botham, a partner in the manufacturing company inaugurated by General David Humphreys. In 1831 she married Edward Stephens, a young merchant of Portland, Maine, in which city
25 History of Seymour.
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they settled. Mr. Stephens was a native of Plymouth, Mass., where his ancestor, Edward Stephens, settled among the earlier pilgrims. During six generations the eldest son had been bap- tized Edward without an initial, and that name has gone down to Mrs. Stephens's only son, Edward, who is the eighth of those who have so inherited it.
Mrs. Stephens's opportunities for education having been good and well improved before her marriage, she continued for two years after that event to devote herself to study and such other duties as presented themselves. From her childhood she had been accustomed to write poetry, short sketches, and all sorts of literary ventures, only two of which were published, secretly, in newspapers, making only a confidant of her father.
In 1834 she wrote her first complete story -- " The Trades- man's daughter," and a complete poem, the "Polish Boy." These productions were published in the first number of the " Portland Magazine," which her husband published and she edited. This magazine was a success ; but two years of con- stant writing caused her health to fail, and the severe climate threatened a fatal disease of the lungs. The doctors advised a milder climate, and while hesitating over the difficulties of the case she received a proposition from William W. Trowdon, pub- lisher of the "New York Lady's Companion," to accept the editorship of that work. This offer was accepted, the " Portland Magazine " sold, and in the autumn 'of 1837 she with her hus- band removed to New York, where she became the sole editor of the " Companion," which doubled its circulation during the next year, and continued to increase rapidly until 1842, when she accepted a proposal from George R. Graham, proprietor of " Graham's Magazine," and became associate editor of that work with Mr. Graham and Edgar A. Poe.
When she had been connected with that periodical about two years she added to its duties a co-editorship with Charles J. Peterson of the magazine known so broadly to this day as " Peterson's Magazine ;" with which she has been associated continuously during thirty-seven years, making forty six years in which she has been an editor of some magazine, and written for one or more every month of the time, in one unbroken cur- rent of literary labor.
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To this she added during two years, a magazine published by her husband, and the editorship of " The Brother Jonathan," a weekly journal, also published by him, and contributions to various other publications.
In 1855, Bunce and Brothers of New York, published her first novel, " Fashion and Famine," which had an immense sale, and since then she has published through T. B. Peterson and Brother of Philadelphia, a library edition of twenty-four novels, which added to a " History of the War for the Union," and one or two other books not novels, make twenty-seven published books. To these may be added fifteen published serials, not yet in book form, poems that will make a volume, all of which will complete from forty-four to forty-six works.
During the last twenty years she has commenced a novel in " Peterson's Magazine " on the first of January and completed it on the first of December.
Her residence during all these years has been in the city of New York. Her husband died after a brief illness in 1862, leav- ing her with two children, a son and a daughter, with the mem- ory of thirty-one years of tranquil, happy married life.
In 1850 she went to Europe in company with Colonel George W. Pratt and his sister, Miss Julia Pratt of Prattsville, N. Y., now Mrs. Colen M. Ingersoll of New Haven. She remained abroad in company with these friends nearly two years, visiting all the countries of Europe except Sweden, Denmark and Nor- way, not hurriedly, but in a way that gave time to obtain a clear knowledge of all the places visited.
As illustrative of the attention rendered to such travelers it may be stated that in all these countries Mrs. Stephens and her friends were received with great consideration by persons high in rank and the world of letters. Dickens, Thackeray, Shirley, Brooks and others, leading authors, called upon them immedi- ately upon their arrival in London. The Earl of Carlisle gave them a state dinner, where they were introduced to some of the first personages of the land, and an evening reception in which many leading authors mingled. Samuel Rogers the banker-poet gave them one of his celebrated breakfast parties every week during the month they staid in London; inviting new members of social and literary standing to meet them each time. Al-
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though ninety years of age, he volunteered his escort and car- riage to take them on a visit to Joanna Baillie, who lived a short distance in the country, and on taking leave of the ladies gave each of them autograph volumes of his poems.
At Venice they were entertained by the Duchess de Berry, mother of the Count de Chambord, and in Trieste by Don Carlos and his family. They attended the royal balls at Naples, were invited to those of Madrid, and received kindly attentions from several members of the imperial family in St. Petersburg. In Rome they were, presented to the Pope, who afterwards sent Mrs. Stephens, by her friend Bishop Hughes, a prayer-book con- taining his autograph and blessing.
They met Thiers in France, Humboldt in Berlin, and in the various countries they visited were so fortunate in their oppor- tunities that their travels were almost like a romance.
Although residing in New York since 1837 Mrs. Stephens has spent many of her winters in Washington, where she has been personally acquainted with every president since Van Buren, and with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Calhoun, Bu- chanan, Filmore, and, in most instances, their wives and fami- ilies were among her friends.
Mrs. Stephens's published works are as follows : Married in Haste, The Old Homestead, Wives and Widows, A Noble Woman, The Soldier's Orphans, Silent Struggles, Worstin's Rest, The Rejected Wife, Bertha's 'Engagement, Fashion and Famine, Bellehood in Bondage, The Wife's Secret, Ruby Gray's Strategy, Doubly False, Mabel's Mistake, Lord Hope's Choice, The Old Countess, The Gold Brick, Curse of Gold, Palaces and Prisons, Mary Derwent, The Reigning Belle, The Heiress, Phound Frost's Experiences, The History of the War for the Union, 2 vols.
ABIRAM STODDARD, M. D.,
Was born in Watertown, January 27, 1777, and was an industri- ous boy with peculiar characteristics, and after his preparatory studies entered Yale College and was graduated in 1800. He attended medical lectures in company with Doct. Eli Ives of New Haven, at the Medical University of Philadelphia, where he received his degree of M. D. He was also the private pupil of the eminent Doct. Rush. When attending lectures he often
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rode from Watertown to Philadelphia and returned on horse- back.
On the death of Doct. Samuel Sanford, the first physician of Chusetown, Doct. Stoddard located at that place, in 1804. He soon succeeded to a large and lucrative practice and became an Esculapian oracle among the people. He was a bold practi- tioner in the methods of his day,-the lancet, calomel and jalap
ABIRAM STODDARD, M. D.
being his king remedies. Full of eccentricities, yet having the confidence of his patients, he could do and say what would be ruinous to other physicians. So he was often peculiar in his prescriptions. One day he was sent for to see an hysterical woman in Watertown. All the noted doctors had tried in vain to cure her. After a thorough examination he said to the hus-
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band, " Have you any raccoons in this vicinity ?" "Plenty of them, Doctor," was the reply. " Well, tell the boys to kill four or five, skin them and make a jacket of them, and skin to skin let her wear it two weeks, and in the meantime you may amuse her with the music of a fiddle,-no medicine-then come down and let me know how she is getting along." This was some- thing new, but at the end of two weeks the jacket had become very unpleasant to the olfactories. The disconsolate husband sent the boy to report. Meeting the doctor he said, " Mother is no better." "Did you make the jacket ?" "Yes." "Has she worn it ?" "Yes." "And is no better ?" " None." "Did you cut the tails off ?" "Yes." "There it is ; I didn't tell you to do that ; the whole curative virtue was in the tails."
He was odd among his fellow physicians and delighted, seem- ingly, in an opposite opinion. On a certain occasion Doctor A. Beardsley had a patient in whom the community had a deep interest in the recovery. This patient was not a particular fa- vorite of Doctor Stoddard. Partly by appointment and partly by accident, a consultation was held. Doctor Charles Hooker, the eminent Doctor Knight, and the then young Doctor P. A. Jewett from New Haven, Doctor Joseph Tomlinson of Hunt- ington, Doctor E. Middlebrook of Trumbull, Doctor Stoddard and the attending physician, were present. After the examina- tion of the patient, the medical advisers retired to the council- room. Doctor Hooker, who had seen much of the case, stated that his "diagnosis was that the disease was chronic pleurites, with copious effusion of serum water,-at least seven pints in the left cavity of the thorax." Doctor Stoddard, then the oldest of the council, standing in one corner of the room leaning upon his staff, replied, "Not a d-n drop." The doctors looked a little confused. Doctor Knight expressed his views, that he was not in the habit of measuring water in the living body, but the amount must be considerable. "Not a d-n drop." Doctor Jewett said he was sure there was " a large collection of water in the chest." "Not a d-n drop." Doctor Mid- dlebrook said that he " agreed with the physicians, and unless the accumulation of water could be removed the patient must die." "Not a d-n drop ; I disagree with you all," replied Doctor Stoddard. "Then what is the matter ?" was the in-
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quiry. "Let us have your views." "Nothing but sap run down from his head into his chest, and he will get well." This closed the council, and that worthy patient is still living.
Doctor Stoddard had a wide reputation and was deemed a skillful practitioner. He was rough, and peculiarly eccentric in his manners ; was strong-minded, and in his way quite influ- ential. He accumulated a handsome fortune from his practice, and departed this life December 23, 1855, aged 79 years.
THOMAS STODDARD, M. D.,
Son of Doctor Abiram Stoddard, M. D., was graduated at Yale Medical School, and after several years' practice since 1836, re- tired to farming and has nearly given up his profession.
LEMAN STONE
Was born in Litchfield, Conn., in 1751, where he was engaged as a farmer some years. He sold his possession there about 1785 and came to Derby soon after, where he engaged as a merchant. At that time and during the Revolution the Land- ing was the centre of mercantile operations, and during its days of prosperity, from about 1790, no man is referred to more than Leman Stone as an enterprising business man. With great energy and expense to himself he pursued different pub- lic enterprises with a view to the general good of the commu- nity, especially the building of a store-house and wharf, and the New Haven turnpike; but the turn which the drift of trade took was against his financial plans, whereupon he turned his attention to the raising of garden seeds with Benjamin Hodge, a cooper by trade, as his assistant, which resulted more to his benefit than mercantile trading had done. He was a conscien- tious, upright, public spirited man; sacrificed much for the early prosperity of the town, and no man was more highly re- spected than he as a Christian gentleman. He died May 10, 1847, aged ninety-six years, and the place where his remains lie in the old Episcopal church-yard had no headstone until within a few years since, when some grateful friends erected a suitable slab to his memory.
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DOCT. NOAH STONE
Was a physician in active practice in Oxford many years ; held many offices of trust : judge of probate, justice of the peace, town clerk and treasurer; and was a respected and honored citizen.
His daughter Martha Stone was a well educated lady and married Rev. Stephen Hubbell, a Congregational minister, October 30, 1832, and became the authoress of a book called "Shady Side" which had a sale of forty thousand copies, and was said to have had a greater influence to increase the salaries of ministers throughout New England, and to have awakened a more just consideration for ministers' families, than any one thing that had transpired. She afterwards wrote other works, and her manuscripts were in great demand by publishers.
Mrs. Hubbell's health gradually declined and her useful career was brought to a close at life's high noon, at the age of two score and two years.
JOHN W. STORRS
Was born in Woodbridge, February 9, 1824. His father, John Rogers Storrs, was a lineal descendant of the original Pilgrims, and his mother, Sarah A. Clark, was a granddaughter of Parson Woodbridge, one of the original founders of the town of Woodbridge, and from whom it took its name. - His early education was obtained in the village schools of that day. In 1833 he settled in Humphreysville, where later he engaged in business, and also held the appointment of postmaster for four years. He removed to Birmingham in 1857, and subsequently engaged in the photograph business which he continued several years. He has held the office of justice of the peace for ten years, and the principal trial justice at Birmingham, and has gained for himself the reputation of being "just as well as merciful." He has always been a vigorous advocate of temper- ance and all other moral movements ; has been connected with the press at various times as correspondent, and as a writer of verse he has gained quite a reputation, his writings hav- ing always taught the largest and broadest charity. It would be gratifying if he would put his poems into book form, for as such they would be a credit to himself and the community.
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The following verses are gleaned from his many poetic effu- sions :
" What shall you say of me ? This, if you can, That he loved like a child, and he lived like a man. That, with head that was bended, he reverent stood In the presence of all that he knew to be good ; That he strove as he might with pen and with tongue, To cherish the right, and to banish the wrong ; That the world was to him as he went on his way, As the bud to the flower ; as the dawn to the day That he knew was to come. E'en, say if you can, That he labored and prayed for the crowning of man As king of himself; that the God that he knew Was the God of the many as well as the few- The Father of all. Write, then, if you must, Of the errors that came with the clay and the dust ; But add-as you may perhaps-to the verse, For his having lived in it, the world was no worse."
STEPHEN N. SUMMERS,
A native of Trumbull, Conn., and one of the first settlers in Birmingham, began the journey of life with no equipments ex- cept his head and hands. When only fifteen years of age he hired to a farmer for $6.00 per month, and at the end of seven months took the farmer's note for $40.00. He then earned $12.00 and used them for expenses during the winter while at- tending school. The next spring he hired to another farmer for $ 10.00 per month, which in time amounted to $70.00, $60.00 of which he placed at interest, and then, having $100.00 at inter- est, he claims to have been "the richest day of his life."
Soon after he went to Bridgeport and learned his trade, keep- ing his $100.00 at interest until he was twenty-one. At the age of twenty-three he came to Derby with a capital of about $400.00, and after being here six or eight months a kind farmer from Huntington advised him to build such buildings as he needed, and offered to lend him the amount of money he might desire in so doing, which offer was accepted, and a dwelling, warehouse and shop were erected in the autumn of 1835, into which he removed from Derby Narrows in the spring of 1836. His dwelling-house was the sixth put up in Birmingham.
When these buildings were completed he had drawn on the farmer Perry for $700 00, for which he offered security on the property, but this Mr. Perry declined, saying, he preferred
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ecurity in a man rather than a house. This act of friendliness s spoken of by Mr. Summers with great appreciation, and the principle of security advocated by farmer Perry commends tself to all classes of persons.
Mr. Summers was married in the autumn of 1835, but his vife remained at her father's house in Fairfield until the spring f 1836, when he brought her to the new home in Birmingham.
STEPHEN N. SUMMERS.
For several Sabbaths his new warehouse was used for the preaching of the gospel and Sunday-school purposes.
His habits have been uniform and strictly temperate, not having been confined to his house more than forty-four days during forty-four years. He has never bought a dollar's worth of ardent spirits, never smoked a cigar, and never had a law- suit since he came into the town. There is only one man who has resided in Birmingham as many successive years as him- 83
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self. He was here in time to help select the site for the M. E. church, where it now stands, to which he has given a liberal support up to the present time. Strict honesty, economy, indus- try and temperance always bring a good and honorable harvest.
REV. ZEPHANIAH SWIFT,
Son of Chipman Swift, Esq., was born in Wilmington, Ver- mont, in 1771 ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1798 ; studied theology with Rev. Job Swift, D. D., of Bennington, Vermont, and was installed in Roxbury, Connecticut, where he con- tinued in successful pastoral labor until 1812, when he was dismissed. He was settled in Derby November 17, 1813, find- ing the church in a scattered and discouraged state. His pas- torate was long and successful. His cheerful spirit of labor stimulated an interest throughout the parish in religious things, and the people began to talk about the doctrines and teachings of the gospel instead of their fears and difficulties in the world. The result was revivals of religious interests in the community, which continued to be joyful features of his ministry. He de- voted himself with untiring energy to the labor consequent upon the office he had accepted, with, apparently, but one pur- pose, that whatever else occurred his duty must be done. It was not so much what he might acquire as what he might do for the good of the people, and therefore instead of complain- ing at the greatness of the work, he was always seeking and planning more work, and this almost to the close of his life. There are peculiarities in regard to the salaries of other minis- ters, but that concerning Mr. Swift's was that it seems to have been whatever the people felt able to make it, varying much according to times and circumstances. He sometimes relin- quished a large part of it, at others he would take notes from the society's committee and extend the time for payment, and thus favor the people for whose cause he labored. In the year Mr. Swift was settled, a plan was adopted to secure a fund for the society, to aid in sustaining a minister among them, to which he gave his cordial efforts. He was not only interested in his own parish, but in the progress of the churches throughout the county, and his labors to promote revivals and the prosperity of the churches were unceasing and of acknowledged benefit.
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Of him the late Rev. Charles Nichols wrote in 1876 :
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