USA > Vermont > Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol I > Part 27
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The father of Edward Hungerford was born to a lot of self-denial and earnest effort, under which he achieved unusual success as one of the leading manufacturers and business men in Litch- field county. In middle life he conducted a, for that time, large woolen mill. and in later years be- came the sole owner of the first brass and brass- rolling mill established in America,-the pioneer of the vast industries of that character which now line the course of the Naugatuck river in his na- tive state. Hc was a man of marked public spirit, strict integrity, and firm religious convictions. who always advocated higher ideals of character and conduct.
The mother of Edward Hungerford, Char- lotie Austin, was born March 2, 1800, in Tor- rington, Connecticut, of which township Wol- cottville was a manufacturing and trading center. Her father was Nathaniel Austin, a farmer in moderate circumstances, and her mother was a Mills and near relative of Samuel J. Mills. of Torrington, famous as the prime mover and lead- ing spirit in the formation of the great foreign missionary enterprise in this coun- try, with which his name will be for- ever associated. Nathaniel Austin moved in middle life to Ohio, and was one of the founders of Austinburg in that state, which took its name from the Austin family. He left several daughters in their native town, and among these daughters Charlotte, who was married to John Hungerford, on the 5th of June, 1820.
She led a life of great activity in the com- munity and the church, and was one of the lead- ing spirits who gave to the place its moral char- acter and its enterprise. A woman or rare beauty. keen intellect and deep religious sense, she reared a large family of children, and died March I. 1894, lacking but a few hours of the age of
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ninety-four years. She retained to the last all her faculties and her interest in the affairs of church and state, which she often expressed with earnest voice and flashing eyes.
The Hungerford name has not been without honor. The Hartford county bar remembers with pride its distinguished lawyer, William Hungerford, a brother of the subject of this first half of the last century; and acknowledged now to be one of its foremost men is Frank L. Hungerford, a younger brother of the subject of this sketch ; while another brother, U. T. Hunger- ford, is a recognized leader among the larger dealers in copper and brass wares in New York city, a business to which he was introduced by his father. A branch of this family in Water- town, New York, is of high standing in wealth and influence.
Edward Hungerford, rcared in his native vil- lage of Wolcottville, experienced the disadvan- tages and some of the advantages of being the son of the leading manufacturer of the place. The ambition of his mother and her religious con- victions early devoted him to the Christian min- istry,-but ill health, during a portion of his col- lege course at Yale, diverted him from that pur- pose, and immediately after his graduation from Yale in 1851, he entered on a course of chemical study in the laboratory of that college under the direction of Professor Norton. Here he became acquainted with George J. Brush, his junior in years, but a more advanced student in that de- partment, who afterwards became distinguished . as professor and head of the Sheffield Scientific School. Through him Mr. Hungerford received an invitation to become student and assistant with himself to Professor Benjamin Silliman, the younger, in the Medical School of Louisville, Kentucky.
After a year of study under this direction, Mr. Hungerford went to the German University of Goettingen in Hanover, where he spent three years pursuing studies preparatory to making geology his specialty. Leaving Goettingen in the autumn of 1855, he went to Berlin, where he pur- sucd preparatory studies in paleontology. In the spring of 1856 he journeyed through Ven- ice, Milan, Genoa and Rome to Naples, where he spent most of the time allowed him in Italy, study- ing the volcanic formations around that center.
He returned to his home in Connecticut in the summer of 1856, in time to see his father be- fore his death. In the autumn of that year Mr. Hungerford was invited by Professor J. D. Whit- ney to act as his assistant in the state geological survey of Iowa, in which work he continued until the close of the summer campaign of 1857. This work led him through large sections of Iowa, at a time when one might ride for days over vast stretches of wild prairie, with only an occasional new settlement. The work of such a preliminary survey is necessarily rapid, and tests both the accuracy and acumen of the observer, but our young student had the satisfaction of being told by his superior, after the work had ben carefully reviewed, that the conclusions embodied in his report had been confirmed in every particular.
On returning cast in the midsummer of 1857, Mr. Hungerford was invited to the professorship of natural sciences in the University of Vermont, and entered on his labors here in the following autumn. His scientific instruction was continued in the university until August, 1861, when the finances of the institution became embarrassed on account of the Civil war, which had drawn a large number of its students to the battlefields of the country. Some curtailment of expenses became necessary, and, August 7th of that year, the cor- poration "voted that the professorship of chem- istry and geology be discontinued at the close of the present half year, and that Professor Hun- gerford's services be then discontinued, by reason of financial embarrassments."
In December of the same year the corporation passed the following resolution, on the motion of Dr. Wocester, one of its leading members : "Resolved that in discontinuing the professorship of chemistry and geology, and the service of its incumbent, the corporation would be considered as acting under constraint of pecuniary neces- sity, and with great regret, and that they appre- ciate the fidelity and ability with which Mr. Hun- gerford has discharged the duties of his profes- sorship.
"Resolved that the secretary be requested to furnish Professor Hungerford a copy of the above resolutions."
At the expiration of the half year Mr. Hun- gerford closed his duties in the university, Jan- uary I, 1862, after a term of service of a little
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over four years. In the meantime, September I, 1859, he had married Miss Maria A. Buell, of Burlington, and one daughter had been born to them. The burdens of the Civil war were bear- ing heavily upon the colleges of the country, and Mr. Hungerford purchased and retired to what was then known as the Reed Place, on Winooski Park, in Colchester, an idyllic place of orchards, grassy slopes and terraces, with the cataracts of Winooski river rushing through gorges cut in the limestone cliffs. Here he spent several years, purchasing in the mean- time the larger so called Penniman farm, to the old Colonial house of which he removed his family. This house was burned in December, 1902.
After the close of the war, and while the old love for study was returning, Mr. Hungerford found himself in vigorous health, with a family growing up around him. He had interested himself in religous work in the state, and was drifting towards the Christian ministry, to which his early training had predisposed him. At the same time there lingered with him the fascina- tion of scientific pursuits. A decision between the two courses was forced upon him by approaches made to him by Marietta College, Ohio, and also suggestions in behalf of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, with the result that he finally decided definitely to enter the Christian ministry.
In the winter of 1871-2 he was called to the pastorate of Center church in Meriden, Con- necticut, where he labored with the usual varied successes during a period of eight years, when he returned to his home in Burlington, and after a stay of three years, responded in the autumn of 1883, to a call from the Congregational church in Adams, Massachusetts, where he remained somewhat over three years, until January, 1887.
Returning to Burlington in the spring of 1887, he has resided here, with an occasional prolonged absence, until the present time, engaging, as at other periods, when free to do so, in varied liter- ary pursuits.
In his earlier days in Burlington, in aid of the Medical College, in which he was active, he issued for sale, at a fair, a little work of fancy, "Migration of the Fairies," which would hardly be counted worthy of mention here, save that a
dispute has arisen over its authorship, in conse- quence of a statement, made by Miss Hemen- way, to the effect that Mrs. De Witt Clarke wrote it. Miss Hemenway's mistake doubtless arose from the fact that Mrs. Clarke wrote a little poem for the book, which was her only contribu- tion to it. The underlying fact of this fancy was the introduction into this country of the German fairy literature.
During quite a portion of Mr. Hungerford's pastorate in Meriden, a local paper published his weekly sermons, and he wrote a historical vol- ume of over seventy pages entitled "Centennial Sermons," on the one hundreth anniversary of the founding of Center church.
Aside from a few contributions to natural sci- ence, some articles published in literary maga- zines have attracted their share of public atten- tion. The chief articles so published are "Budd- hism and Christianity," in The New Englander, 1874; "The Rise of Arabian Learning," Atlantic Monthly, 1886; "Intellectual Mission of the Sar- acens," Atlantic . Monthly, 1886; "Spiritual Preaching for Our Times," Century Magasine, 1886; "The Arabian Brothers of Purity," And- over Review, 1889; "Prayers, Subjective and Ob- jective," Andover Review, 1890, and same article, Congregational Review, London England ; "Our Summer Migration, A Social Study," Century Magasine, 1891.
In the year 1889, was published, by Hough- ton, Mifflin & Company, his "American Book of Church Services," a volume of over four hun- dred pages, which involved extended examina- tion of the liturgies of the Christian church, and was received with generous appreciation by the religious press and the Christian public. His latest contribution to the subject of public wor- ship is contained in a little volume under the title, " The Common Order of Morning Wor- ship."
MRS. MARIA BUELL HUNGERFORD.
Maria Buell Hungerford, wife of Edward Hungerford, was the daughter of Frederick Buell, born in Litchfield. Connecticut, June 21, 1792, and of Eliza Whelply Hickok Buell, born. Bur- lington, Vermont, April 8, 1801. She was born in Burlington, Vermont, October 12. 1827, in
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the house where she and her husband still live, and which came to her from the estate of her father. The place originally extended along Wil- lard street to within about two hundred feet of College street. She gave from it to the Third Congregational church and society, the site of its present parsonage. Buell street and Hungerford Terrace have been lately carried through it. The place, thus and by subsequent sales reduced to about four acres, was laid out into lawns, walks and driveways, after the death of her mother in 1875. The pine grove still standing upon it is part of the original forest. The house was built by her grandfather, Colonel Ozias Buell, for his son Frederick, on the occasion of the son's mar- riage to Eliza Whelply Hickok, daughter of Sam- uel Hickok, which marriage took place August 16, 1820. The building was begun in .1818, and finished soon after the marriage.
Frederick Buell, father of Maria Buell and son of Ozias Buell, who was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, April 8, 1769, and of Abigail Cot- ten, was a merchant in company with his father Ozias, occupying a store on a part of the prop- erty of the father and at the corner of Pearl and Union streets. He died in July, 1835. leaving a son, Mortimer Catlin, who died at Brattleboro, Vermont, July 27, 1851 ; and the daughter Ma- ria, who was reared under the care of her mother and the fondness of her grandfather.
Eliza Whelply Hickok Buell, the mother of Mrs. Hungerford, was the daughter of Samuel Hickok, who was born at Sheffield, Massachu- setts, September 4, 1774, and of Hannah Col- lard, born at Barnstable, Devonshire, England, October I, 1777. A woman of quiet tastes, of wide reading and strong religious tendencies, she spent her life, with rare and brief interruptions, in Burlington, where she was universally es- tecmed for her high character. benevolence, and activity in religious and charitable enterprises. In liberality she joined hands with her brother, Henry P. Hickok, often subscribing an equal amount with him for objects in which they were interested. With him she was one of the found- ers of College Street church, and an equal donor in the erection of its place of worship.
In her girlhood Maria Buell belonged to a narrow circle of intimates, which included names
still well known and treasured in Burlington. She was sent for higher education to the celebrated Miss Dutton's school in New Haven, Connec- ticut, and when her uncle by marriage and the celebrated scholar the honorable George P. Marsh was elected to represent his district in the national Congress, she accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Marsh to Washington, and was a member of their household. When later Mr. Marsh became United States minister to Turkey, she was in- vited to be one of the ministerial household in Constantinople, and was thus brought in contact with the diplomatic circle of that capital. With Mr. and Mrs. Marsh she traveled up the Nile in a dakabeah as far as the second cataract, under conditions which gave her peculiar opportuni- ties to meet and observe the people. She also made with them the journey by camel through the desert to Mt. Sinai and Palestine.
It was under the incumbency of Mr. Marsh that the famous Kossuth incident occurred, and the breaking out of the Crimean war. When Mr. Marsh was sent to Greece to settle with that gov- ernment the mixed questions which arose over the missionary Dr. King, she spent the time with Mr. Marsh's family in Athens, and subsequently traveled with them through Sicily and Italy. These opportunities for travel under the most fa- vorable conditions, and for contact with scholars and statesmen, as well as with the people of these countries, had a special educational value for Miss Bueil in literature, art and social life. On her return from Europe she traveled with her uncle, Mr. James W. Hickok, and the then cele- brated railroad king, William B. Ogden, through the northwest into Wisconsin, then in the begin- ning of its development. Since her marriage she has indulged strong domestic tastes, and devoted herself to her husband and children, encouraging their literary tendencies and their ambitions for usefulness.
The children of Edward and Maria B. Hun- gerford are: Caroline Marsh, born October II, 1860, married Silas R. Mills, now head of the vo- cal department in the music school of Smith Col- lege, Northampton, Massachusetts. Charlotte Eliza, born May 18, 1863, married William Zant- zinger, of New York city, a lawyer. Frederic Buell, born December 2, 1864, married Mary Post, of New Britain, Connecticut, in which place
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he is practicing law. Katharine Emma, born August 23, 1869, married John F. Herman, mer- chant of Boone, Iowa. Frank Edward, born November 15, 1870, died at Meriden, Connec- ticut, December 19, 1875.
GERTRUDE C. HUBBELL.
Among the old and honored families of Ben- nington, Vermont, is numbered the Hubbell family, who trace their ancestry back to "Hubba the Dane," A. D). 867. The surnanie Hubbell is of Danish origin, taken from Hubba's Hill, sit- uated near Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The progenitor of the family in Amer- ica was Richard Hubbell, a son of Francis. He was born in Plymouth, England, in 1627, and came to the new world about 1645, settling in the New Haven colony. On the 7th of March, 1647, he took the oath of fidelity to the govern- ment, which oath has always been faithfully kept, patriotism and loyal love of country hav- ing been marked characteristics among his numerous descendants. In 1650 he married Elizabeth Meigs, a daughter of John Meigs, and they became the parents of a large family of children, including James Hubbell, who was born in Fairfield, Fairfield county, Connecticut, in 1673. He married Patience Smith and made his home in what is now called Easton, Connec- ticut, where he died in October, 1777, at the ex- treme old age of one hundred and four years.
Elnathan Hubbell, a son of James, was born in Stratford, Fairfield county, Connecti- cut, September 22, 1717, and married Mehita- ble Sherwood. He removed to Bennington, Vermont, soon after the settlement of the town, and his name appeared on a petition to the king, among those of other inhabitants, in 1766. He was one of the ten rescuers of Remember Baker, who was captured by Monro and his party in the interests of the New York land claimants. He was a mem- ber of the first Congregational church of Ben- nington, which was the first church built in the state. He died at this place in 1788 and was buried in the family lot in the old historic ceme- tery, where his wife was also laid to rest.
Aaron Hubbell, a son of Elnathan, was born
in Stratford, Connecticut, September 14, 1757, and accompanied his parents on their removal to this state. He was twenty years of age at the time of the battle of Bennington, in which he bore an active part, being a member of Captain Samuel Robinson's company of militia, and he afterward became lieutenant of the company. After the successful assault on Baum's redoubt, he was placed as one of the guards set over the prisoners captured in the action, numbering over six hundred, who were marched to the Bennington
E. D. HUBBELL.
meeting-house. Many who were wounded died and were buried in the cemetery near the meeting- house. Lieutenant Hubbell held the office of jus- tice of the peace for many years, and was greatly
10
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respected for his integrity and good judgment. Hle was deacon of the old First Congregational church. He was twice married, his first wife being Sarah, daughter of Captain Elijah and Eunice ( Brush ) Dewey, and to them were born five children, one son and four danghters. Ilis second wife bore the maiden name of Lucinda Moody. She was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, Jannary 18, 1770, and retained vivid recollections of seeing General Washington, when as com- mander-in-chief of the American army he passed through Farmington on one occasion ; she mar- ried Aaron Hubbell, March 11, 1798, and became the mother of one son and four daughters. The eight daughters of this family were remarkable for their intellectual gifts and earnest Christian principles. They were all married in the same room of the old homestead. Aaron Hubbell died on the 26th of December, 1844, and his wife Lucinda passed away October 3, 1864, when nearly ninety-five years of age, yet she retained al her faculties to the last. Her memory of early days was keen and her narratives were replete with interest.
Elijah Dewey Hubbell, son of Aaron and Sarah (Dewey) Hubbell, was born on the 8th of May. 1790, and spent his entire life in Ben- nington. In early manhood he was united in marriage to Miss Laura Squier, a daughter of Hon. Truman Squier, and to them were born five children, two sons and three daughters, the former being Elijah Dewey and Philip Tichener, neither of whom married. Elijah D. died when thirty-one years of age and Philip T. departed this life in December, 1901, aged sixty-nine years. After a useful and well spent life the father died February 3, 1864, honored and re- spected by all who knew him. Of a social dis- position, he made hosts of warm friends, and he was highly esteemed by all who knew him, as a man of unblemished character and strict integ- rity. He was honored for many years with the office of first selectman in the town and with other important trusts, was twice elected to the state legislature, and his official duties were always most capably and satisfactorily per- formed. His daughter, Gertrude C., the only sur- vivor of the family, is still living at the old home- stead in Bennington Center, where she was born, the house having been built by her father in 1820.
GEORGE E. CROWELL.
George Emerson Crowell, editor and one of the founders of the well known periodical "The Household," originally and for a quarter of a century published in Brattleboro, Vermont, but now in New York City, possesses to a rare de- gree those qualities of mind, shrewd business insight and great literary tact, which are bound to win success for him in any publication he may undertake. When he, in company with Mr. Millikin, in 1868, started this journal, the outlook was anything but encouraging,-barely capital enough to issue the first number and just thirteen paid-up subscriptions, but from that extremely modest beginning it increased until its circulation numbered eighty thousand, including patrons in every state and territory in the Union and with thousands in foreign lands. It was Mr. Crowell alone who accomplished this great work, having after the first six months been the sole manager of the monthly. His unwavering courage and other sterling traits of character, undoubted pro- moters of his remarkable success, he has most assuredly inherited from his good English an- cestors. He belongs to that numerous family which is traditionally descended from Oliver Cromwell, and it is a well established fact that when the descendants of that great leader of the commonwealth left England they decided to drop the "m" from the name, thus changing it to Crowell. Of this particular line one of the first to appear in this country did valiant service in the Colonial wars; another, Cheney Emerson, an uncle of Nathaniel Crowell, served as a soldier in the Revolution and subsequently located in Illinois. Nathaniel Crowell, the father of our subject, was a man of influence in his community. He resided for some time in Concord, New Hampshire, and later in the town of Hopkinton. Having in his youth learned the cabinet-maker's trade, he later followed that occupation for many years, and being an exceptionally skillful work- man, his services were greatly in demand both in Concord and Hopkinton. During his young manhood he married Ester Stone Day, and they had three children, the eldest of whom, a son, died in infancy, and the second in order of birth is the subject of this review. The daughter of the family, Mary Rebecca, resided on a farm
CroLlanowell
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in Fairlee, Vermont, and was the wife of Charles N. Wise, by whom she had four children, Charles M., Harriet E., Annie E., and Carrie M.
George Emerson Crowell was born in Massa- chusetts, at Manchester, on the 29th day of Sep- tember, 1834, and was but two years old when he was taken by his parents to Concord, New Hampshire, while a short time afterward the family removed to a farm in Hopkinton, where he spent the greater part of his youth. In the district schools of the neighborhood he received his education, developing those quick perceptive powers and a taste for good literature which pre-eminently distinguished him in later years. At the early age of thirteen he left school and took up the active duties of life, working on the farm during the summer months and in a shoemaker's shop in the winters. He did not, however, abandon his interest in intellectual pur- suits, but joining the Philomathic Club, an organization in his town patterned after the old Spectator Club which flourished in the days of Addison, he spent his spare moments in the preparation of work which had not a little to do with the development of his literary powers. He was still living on the farm at the opening of the Civil war, when, in response to the Presi- dent's call for troops, he enlisted for nine months' service in the Sixteenth Infantry, Regi- ment of New Hampshire. Going with his company to the Gulf, he did valiant fighting in the Louisiana campaign. About this time, after the death of his father, he inherited the home farm and with it, unfortunately, a heavy mortgage. It was to remove this incumbrance that, after returning from the war, he decided to embark upon a literary career. Conscious of his ability, he came to Brattleboro in 1866 and readily secured a position on the editorial staff of the Vermont Record and Farmer, published by Daniel L. Millikin. With courage and determi- nation he went to work, and on a salary of fifteen dollars a week was enabled to place in the bank fifty dollars a month toward paying off the mortgage. After two years' successful experience on this journal he received a propo- sition from his publisher to assist in the start- ing of a new periodical, which should be entirely devoted to household matters, and after due con-
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