USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Volume II > Part 29
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Bronson, in his History (page 430), speaks of him as follows :
The present manufacturing interests of Waterbury are perhaps more indebted to Lamson Scovill than to any other man. He was bold, energetic and sagacious. So soon as he got strength of his own, he was ready to lend assistance to others. Many enterprises have been carried forward to a successful result by his kindly aid. Not only his relations but his friends in the largest sense shared in his pros- perity. His own generous impulses he did not hesitate to follow even when indul- gence was expensive. He was a large hearted man, with social, kindly feelings. Few men have been equally respected or more beloved. He was a member and a liberal benefactor of St. John's church. He and his brother William endowed the Scovill professorship in Trinity College.
* Although there was not a gread deal of business going on in Waterbury in the early years of this century, there were " heaps of fun." The youths who afterwards matured into the sober and substantial manufacturers to whom is due the present prosperity of the city, were men of mettle, and relieved the tedium of a monotonous life by escapades of an intensely practical nature. J. M. L. Scovill was a leading spirit among these mercurial young folks, and many a mirthful enterprise was conducted under his direction. In his old age he loved to recall some of these achievements, especially what may be called the " bear story." A traveling showman, whose zoological repertory included a muscular and savage specimen of the bear family, had taken up his quarters for the night at a place distant two or three miles from the village, the animals being safely bestowed in a barn. Scovill and a companion resolved to capture Bruin and bring him to Waterbury. In the dead of night they entered the barn and ascertained that the bear was reposing in a stall. By some means they succeeded in attaching two ropes to the animal, one to a fore leg and the other to a hind leg. Each of the young men grasped one of the ropes, and, having loosened the chain which confined the bear to the stall, made him understand that he was at liberty to depart. He took the hint instantly, and plunging backward, nearly upset the rear guard. At last they got him out of doors. As soon as he found himself in the open air he made a dash at the youth who held the forward rope, but the rear guard promptly hauled taut and checked the advance. Baffled in his forward movement he endeavored to turn upon his foe in the rear, but now the advance guard brought him up. Through several hours this little drama was performed (or rather rehearsed, as there was no audience), its incidents being varied by an occasional dash of the bear into a field adjoining the road. The young men were almost exhausted by the struggle, and would have let the bear go, if they dared; but their salvation was in holding on. At last, just before day-break, they reached the village and, opening the door of a drug store, established their captive in possession. The astonishment of the man of pills, next morning, can better be imagined than described .- Reminiscences, by Horace Hotchkiss.
ympScoville
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THE SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY
He made a home for his mother and his unmarried and widowed sisters, which was his home when he was in town; and then, when one after another had left, and he had to some extent given up active business, on October 9, 1849, he married Mrs. Sarah A. Morton, daughter of W. H. Merriman, of Watertown. He left three chil- dren : James Mitchell Lampson, Jr., born September 3, 1850, died at the age of eight; Sarah A., born February 15, 1852, married
RESIDENCE OF H. W. SCOVILL ; PREVIOUSLY OCCUPIED BY J. M. L. SCOVILL .*
Joseph T. Whittlesey, of New Haven, and died December 15, 1877; Henry William, born November 11, 1853, married Ellen Whittaker, daughter of T. R. Hyde, of Westerly, R. I.
WILLIAM HENRY SCOVILL, the second son of James Scovil, Esq., was born July 27, 1796, and died at Charleston, S. C., whither he had gone for his health, March 27, 1854. He was educated at the schools of the town and at the Cheshire academy. At the age of seventeen he became clerk for Mr. Peck in New Haven, and three years later his employer established him in Waterbury with a stock of goods. After about two years this experiment was abandoned and he became a clerk for his uncle William K. Lamson, who about
* The trees here pictured are among the oldest now standing in Waterbury.
6
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
that time removed from Waterbury to Berwick, Penn. Two years later he established business for himself at Turner's Cross Roads, Halifax county, N. C., where he remained a few years, doing a suc- cessful business. In 1827, while on a visit home, he decided to pur- chase a half interest in the firm of Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill, which required some nine or ten thousand dollars. The firm then became J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill, and so remained until 1850, when a corporation was formed.
On July 2, 1827, Mr. Scovill married, at Black Lake, near Ogdens- burg, N. Y., Eunice Ruth Davies, daughter of the Hon. Thomas J. Davies. Mrs. Scovill died November 25, 1839. Dr. Bronson says of her: " She was a woman of many virtues, of an uncommon intelli- gence and great force of character." Two daughters, Mrs. F. J. Kingsbury and Mrs. William E. Curtis, still survive. On March 22, 1841, Mr. Scovill married Rebecca, daughter of the Hon. Nathan Smith of New Haven. She died a few months after her husband, August 4, 1854, leaving one son, William H. Scovill, who resides in Hudson, N. Y.
The two brothers, J. M. L. and W. H. Scovill, were so intimately associated in the minds of the public that it is hard to consider them apart. They were very different in character, but they con- stituted one of those fortunate combinations in which one supple- ments another. While William Scovill was a man of much energy and very decided action, it was his intellectual power, his sagacity, foresight, financial ability and sound judgment that did so much for the prosperity of the firm. He was the planner, the organizer, the builder, the man at home, while his brother represented the business abroad. Each in his department was supreme and each had unbounded confidence in the other. William Scovill possessed a quiet dignity of manner which was sometimes mistaken for cold- ness; but he was a very generous man, with a warm heart, although in action much less impulsive than his brother. With him the reflective faculties were predominant. He was in every way a very superior man.
His public and private charities were bountiful, and his sym- pathies were ever ready and practical. He took great pride in his native town and was a leader in plans for its growth and adorn- ment. He was a devoted member of the Episcopal church, and a warden of St. John's parish for many years. To his foresight, good judgment and generosity we owe our public Green, and there was hardly a public or semi-public improvement from 1830 to 1850 in which he was not foremost and did not make up some deficit at the end. Bronson says: "He was emphatically a public benefactor
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THE SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
and his loss was a public calamity. Throughout the state he was known as a liberal patron of the church and its institutions, and in all the most sacred relations of life he was faithful, affectionate and true" (History, page 432).
EDWARD SCOVILL, third son of James and Alathea (Lamson) Scovil, was born in Waterbury, December 31, 1798. He was educated in the schools of the town, and when a young man pur- chased a farm on Town Plot, which he conducted for several years. The greater part of his life was spent in the service of his brothers, J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill, and of the Scovill Manufacturing com- pany, of which he was a stockholder. "He was an active man in religious and benevolent work, a prominent member of the First church; a man of strong convictions, positively held and fearlessly expressed."
Mr. Scovill married, August 21, 1823, Harriet, daughter of Eli Clark. Their children are: Stella Maria, born June 11, 1824, married in 1842 to Lemuel Sanford Davies; James Clark, born Sep- tember 4, 1826, married in 1850 Marcia Smith, died in 1887; Thomas Lamson, born April 26, 1830, married on November 21, 1860, Mary Elizabeth Ely, by whom he has had two children, Mary Isabel (married December 9, 1886, to John E. Wayland), and Edward Ely; Julia Lyman, born January 16, 1835, married to Theodore L. Snyder.
Mr. Scovill died April 3, 1866.
CAPTAIN JOHN BUCKINGHAM AND SON.
John Buckingham was born in Watertown, October 17, 1786, and was for many years one of the leading men of that section of the town. He raised a company of men in Watertown, and held the commission of captain during the war of 1812. While in the service he was stationed at New London and New Haven. At the close of the war he was commissioned colonel in the state militia, but soon resigned the position. For a number of years, in connec- tion with the brothers Scovill, he conducted a manufacturing business at Oakville, where he resided. He was a resolute man, lithe, active and afraid of nothing. On one occasion, when he was between sixty and seventy, driving home from Waterbury with his little granddaughter in the wagon, a man of powerful frame, over six feet high and crazy with drink, drove out of his way and deliber- ately locked wheels with him, and then ordered him to back out. Setting his little granddaughter on the ground and telling her, as she related the story, to "buckle for the fence," he caught the bully by the collar and threw him clear over a five-rail fence, where he rolled down a sharp declivity into the meadow below. Tying the
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
man's loose horse, he replaced his granddaughter in the wagon and drove on, before the discomfited bully had got himself back into the road.
Not long after he was married-both himself and wife were very young (she, I think, seventeen) and full of life-there was a
John Buckingham
sleigh ride of the young people of the neighborhood to Captain Judd's tavern in Waterbury. All had good horses, and as they neared the place it became apparent that there was some strife as to who should get there first. The old tavern came out flush with
Om Buckingham
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THE SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
the street, an open platform which had probably once been a piazza running along the front; just at the southwest corner was a pile of split wood thrown loosely together and well covered with snow. This Captain Buckingham knew, and just as they passed Willow street, saying to his wife, "Now hang tight, Betsy," he sheered from the road and drove straight over the wood-pile on to the veranda, and she was out and into the house first of all. This story she used to relate, when past eighty, with great delight.
In 1851 he removed to Waterbury and identified himself with the business interests of the town. For more than twenty-five years he was connected with his brothers-in-law, J. M. L. and W. H. Scovill, under the firm name of Scovills & Buckingham, and when in 1850 the firm was merged into the Scovill Manufacturing company, he still retained his interest as a stockholder. He repre- sented both Watertown and Waterbury in the General Assembly, and in 1838 was a member of the state senate for the Sixteenth district.
He married Betsy, the daughter of James and Alathea (Lamson) Scovil, and died May 3, 1867.
SCOVILL MERRILL BUCKINGHAM, only son of John and Betsy (Scovill) Buckingham, was born in Watertown August 10, 1811, and died in Waterbury April 27, 1889. He was educated in the schools of his native town and with Deacon Simeon Hart at Farm- ington. Soon after leaving school he entered the store of his uncles J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill. He was an active young man, full of animal spirits, very fond of a good horse and a good gun, as was his father before him. He must have been a fair marksman, for the vane of the Congregational church, which stood where the Welton drinking fountain is now, had a hole through the star end of it made by a shot fired by him from the steps of the store in which he was a clerk, which stood near the southeast corner of H. W. Scovill's house. A few years later he entered the manu- facturing department of the firm, having charge at first of the button factory, and becoming in 1839 a partner in that branch of the business. This was before the days of railroads, and getting to New York in time to transact any business the same day involved a start for New Haven at three or four o'clock in the morning to catch the morning boat. Mr. Buckingham was always ready for such undertakings and seemed to enjoy them.
When in 1850 the Scovill Manufacturing company was formed, the elder Scovills retired from the more active work and the responsibility of the business devolved largely on him. He
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
always retained his connection with the Scovill Manufacturing company, but after about 1868 was not in the active management.
He was thoroughly progressive, very friendly to new enter- prises and ready to aid them by money and advice. In this way he materially assisted in building up the town. He was president and director in a great number of business corporations, and until he began to feel the weight of years was always ready to lend a help- ing hand. He held various public offices and represented the town in the legislature of 1845.
Years and cares sobered his spirit, and he became the grave, sedate, scrupulously neat and refined person familiar to the elder ones of the present generation. He could never endure dirt or dis- order. All his appointments, his place, the factories in his charge, the roads leading to them, must be in good condition. He liked to have a share in keeping them so himself, and one of the most familiar sights to his neighbors during a period of fifty years was Mr. Buckingham with a broom in his hand, pointing out things which needed attention.
For nearly forty years he held the office of warden of St. John's church, and until very near the end of his life was seldom absent from Sunday or week-day services. He was a liberal contributor and an energetic participant in all the affairs of the parish. He owned a fine grass farm a few miles west of town, and after he ceased from active business this afforded him much pleasant occu- pation, especially during the summer, when he frequently spent the whole day working with the men.
He married, May 18, 1835, Charlotte, daughter of Aaron Benedict. She died January 9, 1887. Their whole married life of over fifty years was spent in their house on West Main street, which was built by Mr. Buckingham at the time of his marriage. He left one child, John A. Buckingham, now of Watertown.
SAMUEL W. HALL.
Samuel William Southmayd Hall, third son of Captain Moses Hall, was born July 5, 1814. When about sixteen years of age, he entered the employment of J. M. L. & W. H. Scovill as a clerk in their store, and after a few years took the entire charge of it. He remained in this relation to the firm till 1852, when the store as a separate business was discontinued. At the organization of the Scovill Manufacturing company, he became a stockholder and was elected a director. In 1852 he became manager of the Manhan Woollen company, but soon retired from that position, and in partnership with John W. Smith established an insurance agency,
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
always rejoined his connection with the Scovill Manufacturing company, but after about 1868 was not in the active management.
Tle was thom igthly progressive, very friendly to new enter- pries and ready to aid them by money and advice. In this way he matophilly ad in building up the town. He was president and director in a great number of business corporations, and until he began to Gel the weight of years was always ready to fend a help- ing ho He held various public offices and represented the town In the legislature of 1845.
Years and cares sobered his spirit, and he became the grave, sedate, serupulously neat and refipad borsos familiar to the elder ones of the pround cegeration, UMsever endure dirt or dis- order. AB hal bis y torna in his charge, the prade lady He liked to
lien! . Whoseif sul aus of the most fanrun sighis by his neighbors quring a period ou sing yours was Mi Buckingham with a broom in bje band, puoiling ont things which =0
church, and until very near the end of his b& ou des alsont from Sunday or week-day services. He was a liberal contributor and an energetic participant in all the affairs of the parish. He owned a fine grass farm a few miles west of town, and after he ceased from adire busines this afforded him much pleasant occu- pation, especially during the summer, when he frequently spent the whole hộ working with the min
Mor M. 1833, Charlotte, daughter of Aaron Benedict. W ] Tanmary & TEM. Their whole somspeed life of over fifty years was apeut in their hous op Was Mum street, which was built by Mr. Boekinghem of the place of this marriage. He left one child. John A Buckingham Door of Watertown.
SAMUEL W. MAR
Samw! William Southmayd Hall, third won of Captain Moses Heii was born July 5, 1814. When about wieteen years of age, he entered the employment of J. M. L & W. II. Souvill as a clerk in their store, and after a few years took the entire charge of it. He remained in this relation to the firm till 1852, when the store as a separate business was discontinued, At the organization of the Scovill Mammacturing company, he became a stockholder and was clected a director, In 1852 he became manager of the Manhan Woollen company, but soon retired from that position, and in partnership with John W. Smith established an insurance agency,
Etiket & Albert Rosenthal Phila 1880
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THE SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
and did a large and prosperous business. In 1855, on the resigna- tion of Abram Ives, he was made president of the Citizens' bank. In 1861 he was elected president and became executive manager of the Scovill Manufacturing company. He was a thoroughly able and successful business man, but was compelled, in 1868, on account of failing health, to resign the presidency of the bank and of the company, and was not afterwards engaged in active business. After his health began to fail, he spent the summer of each year in travelling for pleasure, and became widely known throughout the country. He was a communicant and a vestryman of St. John's church.
He married, October 10, 1836, Nancy Maria, daughter of Edmund Austin (see Vol. I, Ap. p. 10). Mrs. Hall died February 8, 1868, and Mr. Hall survived her until March 5, 1877. The Rev Dr. Rowland, in his address at the dedication of the Hall Memorial chapel, said of him: " He accumulated a handsome fortune, which he used with liberality during his life, and he gave by his will a larger amount of money than any other man has yet given in this town for charitable purposes and public uses." Among his bequests were several for promoting the work of the Protestant Episcopal church in mission fields, and besides these the following for important objects in his native city:
(1) The sum of $5,000 to aid "in the erection of a monument to the memory of the soldiers from the town of Waterbury, who died in the service of their country in the late war of the rebellion."* (2) The sum of $20,000 (in addition to $5,000 for the care of his lot and monument) to be expended in the erection of a chapel at Riverside cemetery " for the use of funerals and for funeral services," to be known as the Hall Memorial chapel, in memory of his "dearly beloved wife, whose remains rest in said cemetery." (3) Sums amounting to $28,000 for various uses connected with St. John's parish. (4) The sum of $15,000 for a new church in Waterbury, also a memorial of his wife.
The purposes contemplated in these bequests were duly carried out. His plans having been artistically embodied in granite and bronze, the resulting structures are among the noblest of which Waterbury can boast. The soldiers' monument was dedicated October 23, 1884, and the Hall Memorial chapel June 11, 1885. The results of the last mentioned bequest are seen in the organization of Trinity parish, in May, 1877, and in its handsome church on Prospect street. A tablet on the walls of the Memorial chapel at the cemetery gate declares that "for the uprightness of his life and
* The first public suggestion of a soldiers' monument in Waterbury was made in the Waterbury American, of November 26, 1870; but the clause containing this bequest is found in a copy of Mr. Hall's will drawn up in September of that year.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
for his liberal provision for many good works, his name is held in grateful remembrance."*
THE HON. F. J. KINGSBURY.
Frederick John Kingsbury is the only son of Charles Deni- son and Eliza (Leavenworth) Kingsbury, and was born in Water- bury, January 1, 1823. He was educated in the schools of the town, and also spent a year and a half, partly in study, with his maternal uncle, the Rev. Abner J. Leavenworth, in Virginia. He completed his preparation for college with the Rev. Seth Fuller, at that time principal of the Waterbury Academy, and graduated at Yale Col- lege in the class of 1846. He studied law in the Yale Law school under Judge Storrs and Isaac H. Townsend, and with the Hon. Charles G. Loring of Boston and the Hon. Thomas C. Perkins of Hartford. He was admitted to the Boston bar in 1848.
Mr Kingsbury opened an office in Waterbury in 1849, but in 1853 he abandoned the law for the banking business, in which and in manufactures and other business enterprises he has been since engaged.
In 1850 he represented the town in the legislature. Having his attention directed to savings banks, and believing that a savings bank would be a benefit to the people of Waterbury he obtained a charter for one. He was appointed its treasurer, and has success- fully administered its affairs since that time. In 1853, in connec- tion with. Abram Ives, he established the Citizens' bank, of which he has been president for many years. (See pages 177, 178.) He was a member also of the legislatures of 1858 and 1865, in both of which he was chairman of the committee on banks. In 1865 he was a member of the committee on a revision of the statutes of Connecticut.
In January, 1858, he was made a director of the Scovill Man- ufacturing company. He was secretary of that company from March, 1862, to January, 1864, and treasurer from March, 1862, to January, 1866. In 1868 he succeeded S. W. Hall as president, and has held that office ever since. He is secretary of the Detroit and Lake Superior Copper company, organized in 1867. He was for a number of years a director of the New York and New England railroad, and is a director of the Naugatuck railroad.
Mr. Kingsbury has been treasurer of the Bronson Library fund since its reception by the city in 1868; he is a member of the Board
* For additional references to Mr. and Mrs. Hall see " History of the Soldiers' Monument in Waterbury, Conn.," p. 7 and note: also "Book of the Riverside Cemetery," pp. 10-12, and especially the Rev. Dr. Rowland's address, pp. 47-52 of the same volume. A list of his public bequests was given in the Waterbury American, March 14, 1877.
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THE SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
of Agents of the library, and chairman of the Book committee. He has been treasurer of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Con- necticut since 1879. In 1881 he was elected a member of the Cor- poration of Yale College, and was re-elected in 1887, and again in 1893. At the time of his second re-election, the Waterbury American (June 29, 1893) spoke of him as follows:
Of 1600 votes he received all but about 200. His re-election was so generally regarded as desirable that the other nominee, a distinguished editor of Worcester, Mass., made no contest and practically conceded Mr. Kingsbury's election from the start. The qualities of fitness whose recognition explains this gratifying unanimity comprise locality, zeal for the college interests, intelligent appreciation of college needs and practical business judgment in the administration of college affairs. Mr. Kingsbury's election is advantageous to the University and gratifying to this community, which has so large a representation and so deep an interest in it.
RESIDENCE OF F. J. KINGSBURY.
At the centennial celebration of Williams College, October 10, 1893, he received the degree of LL. D. He was elected president of the American Social Science association in 1893, and again in 1894. 19
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
He is a member of the American Antiquarian society, the American Historical association, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New Haven County Historical society, the Society of the Colonial Wars, and the University and Century clubs. As all this would indicate, he is fond of historical and literary pursuits, and of late years he has given much attention to sociological ques- tions. He has a strong taste for genealogical inquiries, and a remarkable memory for minute events and family relationships; so that he is a recognized authority in matters of local history. (Men- tion of his literary contributions will be found elsewhere.) What the present writer said of him in 1881 may with propriety be repeated here:
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