USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. II > Part 61
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
Court. In 1787 he was elected to the convention which framed the Fed- cral Constitution, and was afterward a member of the State convention which ratified that Constitution. Chosen one of the first senators of the United States from Connecticut, he continued in the Senate from 1789 to 1796, when he was nominated by Washington chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as the successor of Jay. Hav- ing a peculiar style of condensed statement, logical and argumentative in his mode of illustration, and following a most lucid train of analyti- cal reasoning, he presided over that court with great distinction. His opinions, given in clear and felicitous language, were marked by sound legal and ethical principles. In 1799 he was appointed by President Adams envoy extraordinary to Paris ; and with his associates, Davie and
IION. OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
(FROM A PORTRAIT IN " THE MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY," BY PERMISSION. )
GOV. WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH.
THIE ELLSWORTH HOMESTEAD.
529
WINDSOR.
Murray, he successfully negotiated a treaty with France. Having ac- complished this, his health being seriously impaired, he visited Eng- land, where he sought to avail himself of the benefit of its mineral waters. In 1800, while in England, he resigned the office of chief jus- tice. After returning home to his native State, he was once more elected a member of the council. In 1807 he was chosen chief justice of the State, but on account of his health was obliged to decline the office. He continued to be a member of the council, however, until the close of his life. He died in Windsor, Nov. 26, 1807, aged sixty-five years, " greatly regretted, as in his life he had been admired for his extraordinary endowments, his accomplishments as an advocate, his integrity as a judge, his patriotism as a legislator and ambassador, and his exemplariness as a Christian."
John Milton Niles,1 an editor, author, politician, and statesman of eminent ability and long and varied public service, was born on the 20th of August, 1787, in that part of Windsor called Poquonnock. Though not enjoying the privilege of collegiate advantages, he pur- sued a course of systematic and laborious study, so that few men of his time were more conversant with history, better understood the science of government, or had more deeply investigated the political and civil institutions of our own and other countries. In 1817 he established the "Hartford Times," and for several years was the exclusive editor of that journal. In 1821 he was appointed an as- sociate judge of the county court, which office he held for eight years. In 1826 he represented Hartford in the General Assembly. Appointed postmaster at Hartford in 1829, he resigned on receiving from Governor Edwards the executive appointment of senator in Congress, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Nathan Smith ; and the appoint- ment being afterward confirmed by the legislature, he was United States senator from Connecticut until March, 1839. He was the Demo- cratic candidate for governor in 1839, and again in 1840. In the latter year he was appointed postmaster-general by Mr. Van Buren, and retired with that President in 1841. In 1842 he was re-elected to the Senate of the United States, and held the office until 1849, when he relinquished official life. At the age of sixty-eight he projected the establishment of a new daily paper and the organization of a distinct Re- publican party, and established the "Hartford Press" in February, 1856. He died on the 31st of the following May, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Ile spent the years 1851-1852 abroad, in visiting the various coun- tries of Europe. He acquired by industry and economy a handsome estate, and besides numerous legacies to individuals, he bequeathed $20,000 in trust to the city of Hartford as a charity fund, one half the income of which was to be devoted to the purchase of fuel for poor people, the other half to be added to the principal until it should amount to $40,000, and then the entire income to be devoted to the purchase of fuel as aforesaid. The fund amounts to $40,000, and is held in trust by the city of Hartford.
William Wolcott Ellsworth, for many years judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Connecticut, was the third son of Oliver Ellsworth, second chief justice of the United States. He was born Nov. 10, 1791,
1 See the Hon. Gideon Welles's Communication to Stiles's History, pp. 725-727. VOL. II. - 34.
530
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
at Windsor, where he received his early education. In 1806 he entered Yale College, and graduated in 1810. Having chosen the law as his profession, he began his legal studies at the celebrated law school at Litchfield, under the guidance of Judges Reeve and Gould, and contin- ued them in Hartford, in the office of his brother-in-law, the late Chief Justice Williams. He was admitted to the bar in 1813, and the same year he married Emily, eldest daughter of Noah Webster, the great lexicographer. Establishing himself in Hartford, he proceeded to mas- ter his profession with great painstaking. It was his enstom to write on blank pages of interleaved copies of elementary works all the new decisions in the American and English courts, and thus he kept himself informed of the exact state of the law on every point that might arise. He had a large and widely extended practice. In 1827 he was sent to Congress, where he continued five years, and then resigned in order to pursue his profession. During his whole career in Congress he was on the judiciary committee, and took an active part in preparing measures to carry into effect Jackson's proclamation against the nullification of South Carolina. He was one of the congressional committee to inves- tigate the affairs of the United States Bank at Philadelphia, - a famous investigation in its day. He was a firm advocate of a moderate protec- tive policy, and to him more than to any one else is due the just exten- sion of the law of the copyright. His ablest speeches in the House were upon the judiciary, the tariff, the pension laws, and the removal of the Cherokee Indians. Returning to his home in 1834, he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1838 he was elected governor of the State, and held this office four successive years. Twice during his governorship he was offered an election to the United States Senate, but refused to be a candidate. He continued at the bar until 1847, when the legislature elected him a judge of the Superior Court and Supreme Court of Errors. He remained on the bench until his office expired by limitation of law when he reached the age of seventy years. Returning to the well-earned rest of private life, his interest in public affairs was unabated, and during the progress of the war the cause of the Union had no more earnest and determined supporter. An early professor of Christ, a member of the old Centre Church of Hartford, and from 1821 until his death a deacon, he took an active part in charitable, religious, and missionary enterprises. Rufus Choate, in a speech, alluded to him as a man of " hereditary capacity, purity, learn- ing, and love of the law ; " and added : " If the land of the Shermans and Griswolds and Daggetts and Williamses, rich as she is in learning and virtue, has a sounder lawyer, a more upright magistrate, or an honester man in her public service, I know not his name." He died at his residence in the city of Hartford, on the 15th of January, 1868, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.1
General William Seward Pierson was the eldest son of Dr. William Seward Pierson, and the fifth in direct descent from the Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first President of Yale College, whose father (also the Rev. Abraham Pierson) came to New England in 1640, and was pastor of the church at Southampton, Long Island, and afterward at Newark, New Jersey. General Pierson was born March 28, 1815, in Durham, where his father was resident physician. The death of Dr. Chaffee,
1 See Connecticut Reports, 1867-1868, vol. xxxiv., Appendix.
531
WINDSOR.
Windsor's old physician, occasioned the removal of Dr. Pierson in 1818 to this town (then esteemed one of the best fields of medical practice in the State). General Pierson received his early education and train- ing for college in the schools of the town and the academies of Ellington and Guilford, and entered Yale College with the class of 1836, gradu- ating with his class in regular
course. After
teaching a few
0
months, he read law during 1837 and 1838 with Governor Ellsworth and at the Yale Law School, and in November of the latter year was admitted to the Hartford bar. In the following year he entered upon the practice of law at the New York bar, in partnership with Frederick E. Mather, Esq. A complete break-down of health, after a short period of service, compelled his retirement from active professional labors, for which he seemed eminently fitted by possession of a clear head, good powers of application, and a remarkable gift of persuasive speech ; and he never resumed them. The revival of business and rapid development of the Western and Southwestern States a few years later, brought him into connection with various railroad and other business enterprises in that region ; and for convenience in attending to these interests he established his residence in the city of Sandusky, Ohio. He was chosen mayor of the city in April, 1861, and in that capacity, as also by his personal influence, contributed largely to the support of the Government in its struggle with rebellion. When the Government selected Johnson's Island, in Sandusky Bay, as a post for Confederate officers prisoners of war, a special corps, known as the Hoffman Battalion, was organized of citizens of Sandusky to guard the post, and General Pierson was appointed its commander, with the rank of Major of Volunteers. He continued in command of the post until January, 1864. He was made lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and at the close of the war was breveted brigadier-general in recognition of his services. Shortly after his resignation of his command he returned to the family homestead in Windsor, which had come into his possession on the death of his mother in the preceding year; and the rest of his life was passed here in nl- eventful but very active attention to a wide range of business, both personal and in positions of trust as president, director, or adviser in varions banking, manufacturing, insurance, and similar corporations. He died suddenly on the 18th of April, 1879, at Keene, New Hamp- shire, whither he had been called by the death of a relative.
General Pierson was identified with the history of Windsor, not more in his own person than as the representative of his father, Dr. Pierson, whose professional life here of more than forty years ranks him second to none for skill and snecess as a physician. And in these two lives Windsor adds to the record of names that adorn her history, another name fit to stand on the roll with the best of her sons born on the soil.
Nathaniel Hayden, son of Levi Hayden, was born in Windsor, at " Hayden's," Nov. 28, 1805. He was of the seventh generation from William Hayden the "first settler." He was the third child and oldest son of a family of eleven children. His boyhood was spent on
532
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the farm. At the age of sixteen he entered a country store, and at nineteen he entered the service of James Eyland & Co., of Charleston, South Carolina. Here his fidelity and ability secured him the confi- dence of his employers, and at Mr. Eyland's death he became the sole surviving partner, and continued the business until 1843, when he re- tired, leaving two of his brothers to succeed him. After remaining two or three years at the homestead he entered business again, this time in New York City. Then in 1858 he was made president of the Chatham
GRACE (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH, WITH PARSONAGE.
Bank, and held the position fifteen years, when he retired to his native place, where he died, Feb 23, 1875. He was well read in the political history of his country, and actively opposed nullification when it was proposed in South Carolina, and prophesied ill from the compromise legislation of the time. As a banker in New York during the war he urged the fullest response to the Government's call for funds.
James Chaffee Loomis, the oldest son of James and Abigail Chaffee Loomis, was born in Windsor, April 19, 1807, and died Sept. 16, 1877. He graduated at Yale College in 1828. He married Eliza C. Mitchell. of New Haven, in 1833. She died in March, 1840, and in 1844 he married Mary B. Sherman, who now survives him. He resided in Bridgeport, where he was a lawyer of large practice, and president of the bar of Fairfield County. He was State senator in 1837, and at the time of his death was a member of the State Board of Education. He was an carnest and impressive debater, taking active part in the cause of good government and just administration of the law. Of three
Nathaniel Hayden
533
WINDSOR.
children, two died in childhood. His second son, James Sherman Loomis, died in October, 1867, in the twenty-first year of his age. He was a member of the Senior class at Yale College, and was a young man of rare promise, beloved by all who knew him, and lamented by a large circle of friends.
1
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH ON MAIN STREET. BUILT IN 1794.
534
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
CHURCHES OF WINDSOR.
BY THE REV. GOWEN C. WILSON,
Pastor of the First Congregational Church.
THE First Congregational Church of Windsor celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary March 30, 1880. Its beginning therefore antedates the birth of the colony of Connecticut by nearly two years. It was organized in Plymouth, England, after the mem- bers of the colony had gathered at that port, ready to embark upon the " Mary and John," which good ship sailed two weeks before the remain- der of Governor Winthrop's fleet. These " West-country people," as the Governor calls them, were mostly from the parts about Dorchester where the Rev. John White, the father, or one chief promoter, of the enterprise preached ; and doubtless it was through his influence, if not in part to avail themselves of his presence and aid, that they deter- mined, unlike the other companies, to embody themselves in church state before crossing the ocean rather than afterward. An account of the proceedings is given by Roger Clap in his memoirs. He was one of the company, but not of the church at its organization. He says : -
" These godly people resolved to live together, and therefore, as they had made choice of those two reverend servants of God, Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Maverick, to be their ministers, so they kept a solemn day of fasting in the new hospital in Plymouth, in England, spending it in preaching and praying, where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White, of Dorchester in Dorsetshire, was present, and preached unto us in the fore part of the day, and in the after part of the day, as the people did solemnly make choice of and call these godly ministers to be their officers, so also the Rev. Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick did accept thereof, and expressed the same."
From this beginning the church has gone on until to-day without suspension or reorganization, worshipping together for two months on shipboard while crossing the Atlantic, then for five years or more in Dorchester, Mass., and now two hundred and forty-eight years in this place. New members joined them soon after their arrival in this country, one of whom, and perhaps the earliest, was Mr. Clap, who was then twenty-one years of age. He says : " After God had brought me into this country he was pleased to give me room in the hearts of his servants, so that I was admitted into the church-fellowship at the first beginning in Dorchester in the year 1630."
Though organized as a Puritan church, and not a Separatist, with a minister of the Established Church in England favoring and assisting the enterprise, yet, like the other churches in the Massachusetts Colony, they seem to have been practical Separatists in this country from the first. They retained no connection with the mother church. They had left England, says Milton, " to escape the fury of the bishops ;"
535
CHURCHES OF WINDSOR.
and once here, they came to a better understanding with the church at Plymouth, and fraternized with them, as Salem had done before. Brad- ford, in his " History of Massachusetts," says : " Rev. Mr. Warham, of the church in Dorchester, expressed a desire to one of Plymouth Church in 1630, to be on friendly terms with that church and people ; and he declared himself satisfied with their ecclesiastical government and proceedings."
The names of the original members of the church are not all known. Of the one hundred and forty who came together to Dorchester, the larger part were doubtless members of the church, since their coming was MORROW Grand xrants declared to be "through
their fear of God and zeal for a godly worship." Thirty-seven years after its formation a list was made by Matthew Grant, Recorder, of Homal foord those " members who were so in Dor- chester and came up [to Windsor] with Mr. Warham and are still of us." But those then living, and members still of Mr. Warham's church, were but a small part of the original company. Of the living, some had removed from town, and a considerable fac- tion had withdrawn under the lead of the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge. The names given by Mr. Grant are Henry Wolcott, William Phelps, John If att Stylex Moore, William Gaylord, John Witchfield, Thomas Ford, Humphrey Pinne, Walter Filer, Matthew Grant, Thomas Dibble, Sr., Nathan Gillet, George Phillips, Jonathan Gillet, Sr., Richard Vore, George Phelps ; also William Phelps's wife, Richard Vore's wife, Jonathan Gillet's Thomas Dollale smir wife, Lientenant Walter Filer's wife, Thomas Dibble's wife, and George Phelps's wife, - twenty-one in all.
It is added in a note that David Wilton had gone from this church to Northampton to help to further a church there, and died that year, - 1677. At this date Captain John Mason, Roger Ludlow, William Hayden, and many others prominent in the early history of the colony had removed from the town, and were connected with churches else- where. Mr. John Branker was dead, as were many others who can be identified as members of the church by their having been freemen in Massachusetts.
Of the Rev. John Warham and the Rev. John Maverick, the pastor and teacher, little is known previous to their joining the company at Plymouth, England, in 1630. Both were ordained ministers in the English Church, - Mr. Warham at Exeter, in Devon, and Mr. Maverick at a place some forty miles distant. Roger Clap, when a lad, lived about three miles from Exeter, and went often into the city on the Lord's Day, where, as he says, " were many famous preachers of the word of
536
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
God; " but he adds, " I took such a liking to the Rev. Mr. John Warham, that I did desire to live near him, so I removed into the city." Mr. Warham was doubtless descended from the same stock with William Warham, D.D. and LL.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1532. The archbishop had a brother John, whose grandson also bore that name. A branch of this family settled in Dorset, where for several generations the name John Warham is met with until 1647, when one of that name sold an estate in that shire. There can be little doubt that he belonged to this family ; but the names of his parents, the year and place of his birth, where he was educated, with all else connected with his life previous to coming to this country, are now unknown. He was a young man, however, at that time, while Mr. Maverick was somewhat advanced in years.
Their ministry with the church began on shipboard, where, Mr. Clap says, " We had Preaching and Expounding of the word of God every day for ten weeks together by our ministers." At Dorchester a small thatched meeting-house was built, where they worshipped for a few years previous to their final removal to Connecticut. This removal was in the early spring of 1636 ; for in April of that year a council was called in Dorchester to organize a new church, " the church which was planted in that place having removed with Mr Warham to Connecticut." Such is the testimony of a contemporary writer, whom the Rev. Increase Mather indorses as trustworthy and personally acquainted with the facts. Mr. Maverick had died in Boston the pre- vious winter ; and Mr. Warham, left alone, led his flock through the wilderness, preaching and praying no doubt by the way, as when at first they crossed the sea. When here, their first place of worship must have been some rude and temporary shelter such as they could supply until their families were housed and the Pequots were subdued. Their first permanent house for public worship was built in 1639. This same year, also, "Mr. Huit and divers others came up from the Bay to settle." Mr. Ephraim Huit, who had recently left England, was minis- ter in Wroxhall, Warwickshire, and only the year before had suffered persecution there for his nonconformity. After reaching Windsor he preached the next day, -- as we learn from the shorthand notes of Mr. Henry Wolcott, -from 1 Cor. xii., latter part of 31st verse : " And yet show I unto you a more excellent way." That more ex- cellent way was doubtless the one which he had found in the broad liberty of this land, beyond the reach of the Bishop of Worcester. He was ordained teacher of the church and colleague of Mr. Warham, Dec. 10, 1639.
The new meeting-house, which was built that year, was located on the green not far from the centre of the present triangle on the north of the Farmington River. It faced the east upon the main road, which passed down to the ferry near where the road now leads to the mead- ows. In this house pastor and teacher labored together for five years, until Mr. Huit was removed by death.
He seems to have won a high place in the affections of his people. His epitaph, which may still be read in the old cemetery behind the church, witnesses strongly to his worth. The inscription, " Heere Lyeth Ephraim Hvit, sometimes Teacher to ye Church of Windsor, who died Sept. 4, 1644," is followed by this quaint specimen of heroic verse : -
537
CHURCHES OF WINDSOR.
" Who when hee lived wee drew ovr vitall breath Who when hee dyed his dying was ovr death Who was ye Stay of State, ye Churches Staff Alas the times forbids an Epitaph."
Whether this last sentence is added merely for the rhyme, or has some reference to the times through which they were passing, -just after the battle of Marston Moor, -when the star of Cromwell was in the ascendant, or whether it was only meant to say that time was lacking for a complete epitaph, can only be guessed at present.
After Mr. Huit's death, Mr. Warham labored on alone until 1668. There is no complete record of the officers of the church at this time, the earlier church-books being lost. Mr. William Rockwell and William Gaylord were deacons very early, if not from Dearon willy am gallon the first, and Mr. John Moore from Jan. 11, 1652; and Mr. John Witchfield, Mr. John Branker, the " schoolmaster," and Mr. William Hosford were ruling elders. These are mentioned by Mr. Henry Wolcott, in his shorthand manuscript, as delivering sometimes the
Nath Chauncey " weekly lecture." But as time went on, Mr. Warham, becoming " ancient," needed a colleague ; and Mr. Nathaniel Chauncey, the son of the Rev. Charles Chauncey, then President of Harvard College, was recommended to the church by no less men than the Rev. John Wilson, of Boston, and the Rev. Richard Mather, of Dorchester, as a man of " learning, studious diligence, hope- ful piety and grace, and peaceable demeanor." But his election de- pended on the votes of the town, and for some reason strong opposition was made to his settlement. An appeal was made at length to the General Court, which body then had a sort of episcopal jurisdiction over the churches, and it was ordered, Oct. 10, 1667 : -
" That the Town of Windsor meet . .. at the meeting-house by sun an hour high in the morning, and all the freemen and householders within the limits of said Town and Massaco [now Simsbury] . . . bring in their votes to Mr. Henry Wolcott. ... And Mr. Wolcott is desired to take the account of it and make the report thereof to the General Assembly. And this Court doth hereby require and command all and every of the inhabitants of Windsor that during this meeting they forbear all discourse and agitation of any matter as may provoke or disturb the spirits of each other, and at the issue of the work that they repair to their several occasions, as they will answer the contrary."
This order will give some idea of the excited state of feeling which existed. Mr. Wolcott returned eighty-six votes for Mr. Chauncey and fifty-two against him ; and in a subsequent order the church received permission to settle him. The disaffected party protested, however, and petitioned the Court for privilege to provide them an able Ben's woodbridge orthodox minister, and worship apart ; which they were at length permitted to do, and the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge was settled over them, preaching at the town-house for some years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.