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 48
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His brother wrote of him in 1870 :* "Silas B. Terry has been steadily engaged in clock making for the last forty-three years. Few men living have been regularly in the business for so long a time. He made brass clocks from the commencement in the most costly way, and with steel pinions." It was during the winter of 1854-55 that he completed one of his chief inventions, the "gravity escapement " regulator. About 1876 gravity escapement clocks were imported from England, and were also manufactured by the Seth Thomas Clock company; and the invention was considered very important, as making the pendulum clock a perfect time- keeper. But Mr. Terry's invention anticipated by a good many years the English "three legged " gravity escapement, and has secured more valuable results. Mr. Terry made only one clock in which his gravity escapement was introduced, and four years after it was set up in Waterbury it required the use of observatory instruments to discover that any variation had taken place.t
On November 7, 1832, Mr. Terry married Maria W., daughter of Mark Upson, of Wolcott. She died July 3, 1863, and on July 30, 1866, he married Lydia Ann, daughter of Seth Wiard and widow of Norman Smith of Plymouth. His children-all by the first wife-are as follows : (1) Caroline Maria, wife of Edward S. Beach of Terryville ; (2) Silas Burnham, born November 2, 1837, married Harriet McKee, daughter of Warren Goodwin, who died July 30,
* Henry Terry's "History of Clock Making," p. 14 of the edition of 1885.
+ This clock is now in the possession of Mr. Terry's son, Cornelius, of Worcester, Mass. For a fuller account of the invention, see Henry Terry's obituary notice, referred to above.
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1888, leaving a son, Silas Burnham ; (3) Solon Mark, born January 30, 1842, graduated at Hamilton College, 1864, married Myretta Josephine, daughter of Edwin Birge; (4) Cornelius Elam, born March 15, 1844, married Jane Elizabeth, daughter of Norman Smith; (5) Simeon Gunn, born October 22, 1846, married Harriet A., daughter of Charles I. Tremaine.
Mr. Terry died May 20, 1876.
HENRY TERRY, son of Eli and Eunice (Warner) Terry, was born in Plymouth, November 12, 1801. It has already been mentioned that he was received by his father into the firm of Eli Terry & Sons in 1823. He did not continue, however, in the clock business, but engaged in the manufacture of woollen cloths at Terry's Bridge, in Thomaston. Having retired from business, he removed to Water- bury in 1871, and died here January 7, 1877. Chauncey Jerome said of him in 1860, with his usual naiveté and frankness," "I think he is sorry that he did not continue making clocks. He is a man of great intelligence, and understands the principles of a right tariff as well as any man in Connecticut." But this was only one of many subjects to which he gave considerable study. He was greatly interested in ecclesiastical matters, and was always an independent thinker.
On October 16, 1823, he married Emily, daughter of Ransom Blakeslee, who survived him, and died August 30, 1880. During their residence in Waterbury they celebrated their "golden wed- ding," and the occasion brought together a large concourse of friends. Of their eight children, three died in childhood. Their eldest daughter, Adeline, became the wife of Egbert Bartlett of Ansonia; the second, Julia, became the wife of the Rev. Charles Harding, a missionary to India, and died at Sholapur, February II, 1867. Their son Henry Kingsbury is in business in Richmond, Va., and their youngest son, Dwight Harrington, is a broker in Bridgeport.
ANDREW ANDERSON.
Andrew Anderson was born at Paisley, Scotland, June 9, 1807. On reaching manhood he went into business for himself as a merchant. He came to America in 1833, and on October 13, 1834, he entered the employ of Benedict & Burnham. He soon rose to the position of foreman in the factory of that firm, and continued with them until 1864. He then retired to a farm in Cheshire for two years, but in 1867 re-entered the service of the Benedict & Burnham Man- ufacturing company as their Philadelphia agent, and held this posi- tion until his death, which occurred October 9, 1874.
* Jerome's "History of the American Clock Business," p. 67.
HV Helton
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JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES, PAST AND PRESENT.
During his residence in Waterbury, Mr. Anderson was actively connected with the management of the public schools, and soon after the incorporation of the city was a member of the common council.
On December 27, 1835, he married Philena Jones. On the death of his sister and her husband, in Scotland, he brought their children (Andrew Anderson Paul, his brother and his two sisters) to America, and made them members of his family. He has been described by one who was thoroughly acquainted with him, as "a self-made man of unquestioned integrity and large benevolence, greatly respected by all who knew him."
MERRITT NICHOLS.
Merritt Nichols, son of Joseph and Lucy (Farrel) Nichols, was born March 5, 1811. He established an iron foundry near where the Smith & Griggs factory now is at Hopeville. He was one of the originators and a stockholder of the Farrel Foundry, also a large owner of real estate. He married, April 25, 1837, Elizabeth Andrews of Bristol, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He died June 10, 1868.
HOBART V. WELTON.
Hobart Victory Welton, the eldest son of the Rev. Joseph Davis and Eunice (Tomlinson) Welton, was born in Woodbury, October 26, 18II. When he was three years old the family removed to Easton, and five years later to Waterbury. His maternal grand- father, Victory Tomlinson, was one of the wealthiest men in this part of the state.
In Easton the Rev. Joseph D. Welton's health failed, and he was obliged to give up preaching. Mr. Tomlinson then bought the Zara Warden place (where Mr. Welton lived and died), built a house upon it, and established his daughter and her family there. The Rev. Mr. Welton lived only a few years after this, and died when his son Hobart was just entering his fourteenth year. Thenceforth the care of a large farm and of two younger brothers and a sister devolved chiefly on him, and he met the necessities of the case with a judgment and energy that won admiration from those who knew him. He had acquired the rudiments of a good education in the academy at Easton and under his father's train- ing afterward, and he did not abandon study, but attended school during the winter months as opportunity offered, even after reach- ing man's estate. He mastered land surveying, which he occasion- ally practiced throughout his life, and acquired some knowledge of Latin. The Latin pun on his own name, Puteus dolium, which he
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carved in granite on one of the minor buildings of his farm, is a reminiscence of this study.
For sixty years in this community the name of Hobart V. Wel- ton stood for intelligence, uprightness and sound judgment. For twenty-five years he served as superintendent of public highways. His charge for services was from five to ten dollars a year, and the expenditure of the town on the roads about $800 on the aver- age. The annual out- lay is now (1895) about $16,000. In 1848, he
CARVINGS IN WOOD AND STONE, BY H. V. WELTON, AT THE WELTON FARM, ON THE WOLCOTT ROAD.
built the first bridge with a stone arch in the town, and in 1863 the first iron bridge in the state was at his suggestion erected at the West Main street crossing of the Naugatuck. He was for many years one of the selectmen, and was a representative in the legis- lature in 1852 and 1853. He was a devoted member and a liberal supporter of St. John's church, and until within a few weeks of his death was seldom absent from its services.
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JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES, PAST AND PRESENT.
He was one of the founders and early directors of the Water- bury Brass company, and was employed by the mill-owners on the Mad river to construct a system of reservoirs, a task which occu- pied his time for a number of years. He had the instincts of an engineer, and some skill in the use of instruments, and this, with his practical knowledge, especially fitted him for this work. With a very pardonable pride he used to allude to the fact that the cor- porations which employed him declined to audit his accounts for doing this work, although a good many thousand dollars had passed through his hands.
Mr. Welton had much skill in mechanical work and the tastes of an artist. As a boy he executed some remarkable wood work with a penknife; chains and temples with balls inside, in the man- ner of Chinese carving. He was fond of carving both in wood and in stone, and the gate-way to his house and the stone work of his farm buildings, with their quaint and ingenious emblems deftly carved in wood and stone, have for many years attracted the attention of passers-by. In reply to inquiries made of him he once said: "If I were to write my own biography, to please myself only, it would be somewhat as follows: With an inborn taste for sculpture, but obliged from early youth to earn my own living, I have been of some service to society in my day and generation. Had I not been placed under such limitations, I might have been nothing more than a third-rate artist."
On October 28, 1834, he married Mary Adeline, daughter of Luther A. Richards of Westminster, Vt. The family were of Water- bury origin, and Mr. Welton and his wife attended school together at the old stone academy, the winter before their marriage. Mrs. Welton was a woman of much loveliness, both of person and char- acter. Their children are Edwin D., Sarah Cornelia, wife of D. W. Pierpont; Harriet Adeline, the first wife of George B. Lamb (see page 415), and Hobart L.
Mr. Welton died April 16, 1895 .*
C. S. NORTHROP.
Caleb Smith Northrop was born in Milford, June 7, 1819. In his boyhood he went to New Haven to learn the trade of cabinct maker, and a large part of his life was spent with Bowditch & Son, predecessors of the Bowditch & Prudden company.
He came to Waterbury in January, 1868, as the representative of the firm of E. B. Bowditch & Co., opened a large furniture establish- ment on Bank street, and remained in the business until 1887
* Mr. Welton's younger brother Joseph, a sketch of whose life is given on pp 31, 32, died May 1, 1894.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
After his retirement he travelled quite extensively in the west and south, but suffered seriously from ill health.
On May 25, 1842, he married Mary Jeffreys of New Haven. She died May 7, 1873, leaving three children: Susan A., wife of George W. Tucker; Ida M., wife of Abel R. Woodward, and Otis Smith, who, on August 17, 1881, married Sarah Eleanor, daughter of Lemuel M. Canfield, of South Britain.
On October 20, 1874, Mr. Northrop married Mrs. Julia A. Hop- kins, who survives him. He died August 10, 1894.
DOUGLAS F. MALTBY.
Douglas Fowler Maltby, son of Julius and Melinda (Fowler) Maltby, was born in Northford in the town of North Branford, May 7, 1820. His father was a farmer. In 1836 he went to Bacon Acad - emy in Colchester, to study for college. In 1840 he entered Yale, but left it in 1842 on account of ill health. During the winter of 1842-43, he was an assistant teacher in the Waterbury academy. On June 19, 1844, he married Rebecca Taintor, daughter of Judge Ben- net Bronson. Mrs. Maltby died August 8, 1845. In 1846 he entered the employ of the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing company, of which his father-in-law was one of the founders. Mr. Maltby became a stockholder in the company, and was soon elected a direc- tor. In 1855 he was treasurer and manager of the Waterbury But- ton company. In 1861 he was president and treasurer of Maltby, Morton & Co. (see page 438).
In 1865 the works of Maltby, Morton & Co. were nearly destroyed by fire. The Scovill Manufacturing company purchased the prop- erty and business which remained, increasing their capital stock, and Mr. Maltby became a stockholder and director in that concern. In 1873, in partnership with Eli Curtiss of Watertown and L. J. Atwood, he commenced business in New York city under the firm name of Maltby, Curtiss & Co., Mr. Maltby being the financial man- ager and manufacturer in Waterbury and Mr. Curtiss's son, B. D. F. Curtiss, who soon purchased his father's interest, the business man- ager in New York. In 1885, Mr. Curtiss being out of health, the firm was dissolved and a new company formed under the firm name of Maltby, Henley & Co. Since 1886, Mr. Maltby has spent most of his time in New York. He is president and treasurer of the Maltby, Stevens & Curtiss company, a joint-stock concern in Wallingford, manufacturers of German silver flat and hollow ware.
On February 26, 1851, he married Mary Ann, daughter of James P. and Rebecca (Harrison) Somers, and they have had the following children : Edward Somers; Katherine Louise; Benjamin ; Julius, who married Harriet Jewet Fowler; Susan Bronson, who is
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WITHRY OR WAERRBUNT
After los retit current be travelled qilite extensively in the west and with This suffered Seriously from it health.
og May 25, 1842, he married Muy Jeffreys of New Haven. She diod May 7, 1875, Umfing ihre Children: Susan A., wife of George W. Fucker, Ida M., wife if Abel R. Woodward, and Otis Smith, who, 00 August 17 rady, moz .] Sarah Eleanor, daughter of Lemuel M Calheld, of South Bello
Ou October 20. 8L Mr Northrop married Mrs. Julia A. Hop- kins, who sergives hun He died August 10, 1894.
Dunglas Fowler Ma, ou. af Ini and Melinda (Fowler) Maltby, was bore i d lo the use of North Branford, May 7 520 HIS In rajo de went to Bacon Acad - . college. Lo sópyhs entered Yale, wof ill health. During the winter of www teacher in the Waterbury academy. On June ro x ** ** * Rebecca Taintor, daughter of Julge Ben- net Bron ivo Mn Mitby died August 8, 1845 In chão he entered
the employ of tin Wwelict & Burnham Manufacturing company, of which bis father in law was one of the founders. Mr. Maltby became a Lockhobler io lie company, and was soon elected a direc- Tor, In this be war ressuret and manager of the Waterbury But- To imdi Da wae president and treasurer of Maltby
Jo ts wr wie Malkas. Morton & Co. were nearly destroyed Bylin Thesun Man Notering company purchased the prop erle api To ***** *** * warned, increasing their capital stock, Adn Jir Maltigtous Mockbuilder and director in that concern. Jo (ya. in partnership wub El Curtiss of Watertown and L. J. Atwood, fre 1000016:0Rxog mess in New York city under the Arm Mr, Maltby being the financial man- Boer and sourforcanervo Waresbury and Mr. Curtiss's son, B. D. F. father's interest, the business man- agger in Ses Tir in vale Mr Curtiss being out of health, the ny formed under the firm name GE Muntlig: For ELS Sons . My. Maltby has spent most of his time in Ses Til Ille prenn wr and treasurer of the Maltby, Stevens & Clots gaby, a star dock concern in Wallingford, manufacturers il forman silver din and sollow ware.
Du Februar Mary Ann, daughter of James P. and Rebec Viriamkiss and they Have had the following children . Edward s money Eatboelme Louise ; Benjamin ; Julius, who married planet waros Ponter: Susan Bronson, who is
Douglas J. Healthy
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JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES, PAST AND PRESENT.
married to Archer Jerome Smith (see page 377); Henry Ellsworth, who married Alice White; Cornelia Benedict, and Irving Hall.
Mr. Maltby's ancestors came from good Puritan stock and were held in high esteem in his native town. His father and both grand- fathers were deacons, and Mr. Maltby is senior deacon, in age and in service, in the Second Congregational church, of which he was one of the founders. He has always been connected with the Sunday school, either as a scholar, a teacher or superintendent. He was active in the reorganization of the Young Men's Christian associa- tion in 1883, and was one of its first presidents. The city is in- debted to him for opening Hillside avenue. When Waterbury was only a good-sized village Mr. Maltby purchased a large tract of land lying to the north (at that time woodland and pasture), and held it as one block until the village became a city, when he opened this broad, handsome avenue. This section has become one of the most attractive in the city, because of its elegant resi- dences and its grounds beautified by native trees.
S. E. HARRISON.
Stephen Edwin Harrison, the only child of Garry and Catherine (Snow) Harrison (page 23), was born in Talmadge, Summit county, O., April 8, 1822. He came to Waterbury when a child, and passed his boyhood and early manhood in the family of his grandfather, Lemuel Harrison (page 22). He attended the district school until the opening of the Waterbury academy, where he completed his schooling under George W. Cooke and Seth Fuller.
He worked for some time in the chasing department of the Bene- dict & Burnham button factory, and afterwards had charge of the power presses and stationary engine of the Waterbury Button company. For several years, in partnership with Samuel A. Castle (page 208), he carried on the harness and trunk business on Exchange place (at the stand now occupied by J. G. Cutler & Co.). He was active in the formation of a fire company organized in 1839 (see page 113), and was also an enthusiastic promoter of the early musical societies of Waterbury, and a member of Newton Hine's brass band.
On October 11, 1847, he married Catharine, daughter of James P. and Rebecca (Harrison) Somers. They have two children: George Lemuel, born March 8, 1852, and Mary Maltby, wife of the Rev. Frederick S. Goodrich (for whom see elsewhere).
ELWOOD IVINS.
Elwood Ivins, son of David and Ann L. Ivins, was born in Bur- lington County, N. J., October 22, 1823. He was educated at Fox
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Chase, Penn., and became a manufacturer of metallic wares. He came to Waterbury in 1851, and while here had a factory where were manufactured pins, buttons, hair curlers, etc. At this time he invented what is known as the Ivins patent hair crimper. Largely upon the basis of this invention, patented May 3, 1859, he amassed a fortune. About the same time he removed to Phila- delphia, where he continued in business as a manufacturer. During the war he was largely occupied in making ornaments for soldiers' uniforms.
Mr. Ivins's first wife was Sarah Ann Davis; their children were: Annie Davis and David Davis, both deceased. He afterward mar- ried Mary Ann, daughter of Thomas Eggleston, by whom he had the following children: Mary Maud, married to Lewis D. Ziegler; Laura Elizabeth, deceased; Elwood, who married Emma Degg, and Maggie Pauline, married to Eugene Snively.
Mr. Ivins died in Philadelphia, April 16, 1876.
A. B. SIMONS.
Andrew Bayley Simons, son of Harvey and Diantha (Bayley) Simons, was born in Goshen, April 2, 1832. When he was one year old the family removed to Sandisfield, Mass., and he received his early education in the schools of that town. At the age of seventeen he went to Winsted to learn the carpenter's trade. He afterwards worked in Torrington, Thomaston and other places in the Naugatuck valley. He settled in Waterbury about 1855, and became one of the prominent builders of the town. In the spring of 1865 he purchased of George L. Carrington the Gabriel Post farm, a quarter of a mile south of the city limits, and established his family there. After an absence of two years in Titusville, Penn., he returned to Waterbury, and began making extensive improve- ments upon the Post property, thus originating what has come to be known as Simonsville. He laid out Middle street and erected on it seventeen dwelling houses, erected sixteen houses on Chapel street, eighteen on Charles street, George street and Simons avenue, a large block on Market street, and six tenements and a store on South Main street, besides the building containing the Althea Spring bottling works .*
Charles and George streets in Simonsville, must be distinguished from the Charles and George streets mentioned in the list of street names, pp. 81 and 83. Simons avenue and Market street are also omitted from that list; also Wooding avenue. The origin of the name Simons avenue-as of Simonsville-is obvious. Market street was so named by Mr. Simons because of a meat market situated on it. Wooding avenue was so called because Theodore Wooding lived on it, and owned most of the land on one side of it. Charles and George streets were apparently named from Mr. Simons' son and son-in-law. It may be added that Glen street, in this vicinity (p. 83), was named by Davis Baldwin, from the fact of its passing over a small ravine, and that Simons street in the Brooklyn district (p. 87) was so named because A. B. Simons "erected every building on the street."
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JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES, PAST AND PRESENT.
Mr. Simons was connected with the fire department for fourteen years, and was for three years foreman of Phoenix Fire company, No I.
On June 5, 1853, he married Julia Ann Taylor of Willimantic. Their children are Ida Juliette (Mrs. George E. Shea), and Charles Harvey, who married Laura Hungerford.
THOMAS C. MORTON.
Thomas Campbell Morton, son of Thomas Campbell and Sarah Ann (Merriman) Morton (afterwards Mrs. J. M. L. Scovill), was born in Watertown, April 4, 1833. He was educated at Everest's military academy, Hamden. He became a manufacturer in Water- bury and owned a controlling interest in the stock of the F. M. Perkins Manufacturing company, makers of pearl buttons (see page 437).
On June 10, 1858, Mr. Morton married Jennie, the adopted daughter of Nelson Hall. Of their five children, three died in infancy. Besides these there are twin daughters: Alice, the wife of Henry S. Chase (see page 311), and Annie, the wife of Lieuten- ant-Colonel Lucien F. Burpee (for whom see the chapter on the legal profession).
Mr. Morton died February 13, 1876.
JOHN DUTTON.
John Dutton, son of Daniel Dutton, was born in Watertown, April 10, 1833. His father's great-grandfather, Thomas Dutton, of Wallingford, was employed in Waterbury from April to July, 1729, in the erection of the second house of worship of the First church. The eldest son of this Wallingford builder removed in 1757 to that part of Waterbury which is now Watertown, and became a noted carpenter, wood carver and church builder. He was captain of a company of militia that served in the defense of New York in 1776, but "the title which he most affected, and by which he was generally known among his neighbors, was Deacon Thomas Dutton." Deacon Dutton's son Thomas was also a builder, and was the father of the Rev. Matthew Rice Dutton, who was for some years a professor in Yale college, and of Governor Henry Dutton, who was at the time of his death, a judge of the supreme court of the state. Daniel Dutton was the third son of Thomas, and John Dutton was the youngest, but one, of Daniel's eleven children.
John Dutton remained at the family homestead in Watertown until he was twenty years old, when he removed to Waterbury to
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
work at the trade in which so many of his ancestors had become prominent. In the address delivered at his funeral (published in the Waterbury American, December 2, 1874) the pastor of the First church spoke of his business life as follows:
By his fidelity, skill and good taste, combined with unfailing integrity, he attained to a prominent position in the community. For several years, and until the day of his death, he was one of the busiest men in a busy city, being at times almost overwhelmed with work and with the cares which work brings with it. The extent of his business is indicated in part by the largeness of the company of work- men assembled here to-day, while the quality of his work may be known by any one who chooses to examine the three most important buildings erected in our city during the past seven years-the City hall, St. John's church and our own.
In the same address his most marked personal characteristics were said to have been " sterling honesty, unswerving fidelity and un- pretentiousness." "He was a man who evidenced his religion, not only by reverence for the church and the Sabbath, but by an upright, benevolent and useful life."
On September 11, 1861, Mr. Dutton married Henrietta M., daughter of Henry Tuthill of Utica, N. Y. Mrs Dutton survived her husband fourteen years, and died July 22, 1888, leaving three daughters: Frances Eliot; Mary Henrietta, who on October 25, 1894, was married to Jay Preston Barnes; and Harriet Joy.
Mr. Dutton died November 28, 1874.
HENRY W. FRENCH.
Henry Watson French, son of Arasmus and Lydia (Norton) French, was born in Chicopee, Mass., July 23, 1837. . His father was the inventor of the knitting machines used by the American Hosiery company (page 444), which are said to have been the first stocking machines upon which stockings were brought into proper shape and completed.
Young French went with his parents from Chicopee to New York, and attended the public schools of that city until he was twelve years old. He afterward engaged with his father in the manufacture of ammunition, but after meeting with several acci- dents by which he nearly lost his life, he abandoned the business and took a position as a clerk in a store in New Bedford, Mass. He removed to Waterbury in 1854, and became a machinist. He worked for Blake & Johnson until 1866, then with the Waterbury Button company as a tool maker for two years, and then took charge of the cloth button business of Merritt Lane, a position which he held until 1876. After an absence of two years in
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