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 96
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David Well's regiment, in which his brother Samtiel Allen, Jr., was lieutenant.
HON. HEMAN ALLEN, M. C., removed to Grand Isle, Vermont, in March. 1795; admitted to the bar in 1803; practiced law in Milton, Vermont ; twelve years in the legislature from Milton; removed to Burlington, Vermont in 1825; chosen to Congress in 1832, and served four terms; from 1813 a trustee of the Univer- sity of Vermont. Hemenway's Vermont Gazetteer, No. VI, Chittenden County, August, 1863, contains an in- teresting sketch of him. He married Sarah Prentis, whose ancestry was as follows :
VALENTINE PRENTIS (1), came to this land with Eliot in 1631 from Nazing, Essex county, England ; joined church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1632; freeman, 1632; died about 1633.
JOHN PRENTIS (II), removed from Roxbury to New London, Connecticut ; commander of trading ves- sels New London and John and Hester, the latter named after himself and wife; "Townes Attorney," 1667; deputy to general court, 1668. His son, John, Jr. was captain of the fort at New London; and his grandson, John Prentis, third, commanded the colony war sloop Defence at the siege of Louisburg.
CAPTAIN STEPHEN PRENTIS (III), of New Lon- don, Connecticut, captain of the Fourth Company, or train band, of New London; selectman; deputy to general court, 1728, 1720, 1730; one of the two over- seers of the Indians at Niantick; married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rogers. Captain Stephen Prentis's brother, Jonathan Prentis, was a prosperous merchant and seaman; deputy to general court; member of gov- ernor's council, overseer of the Niantick Indians, part owner of the brigantine Prosperous; a justice of the peace ; and an officer of the first and oldest ecclesiasti- cal society of New London.
CAPTAIN JOSEPH PRENTIS (IV), captain Fifth Com- pany, or train band, of New London; married Mercy Gilbert, granddaughter of Earl Gilbert, a Scotch peer.
DR. JONATHAN PRENTIS (V), removed to St. Al- bans, Vermont ; married Margaret Daniels, of Groton, Connecticut, whose mother, Grace (Edgcumbe) Dan- iels, was granddaughter of Lord Edgecumbe, of Plym- onth. England. It was while on a visit to the Edge- cumbes. of Mount Edgecumbe, in Cornwall, England, that Captain John Prentis, of the sloop Defence, passed away.
SARAH PRENTIS (VI), married Heman Allen.
The development of a bronchial affection led to Mr. Converse's resignation of his pastorate in the spring of 1844, to become the head of the Burlington Female Seminary, of which he was the principal for some twenty-five years. It was the first advanced school for young women in that locality, and for many years was a large and efficient institution, drawing pupils from nearly every state in the Union, and from the Canadas. A memoir of him, written by his eldest daugh- ter, mentions the deep attachment felt for him by all his pupils, his great influence over them for good, and his broad methods of instruction,
The following was the descent of Elizabeth Rogers, who married Captain Stephen Prentis :
JAMES ROGERS (I), of Stratford, Milford and New London, Connecticut; commisioner, 1660; deputy to general court, 1665; assistant to general court, 1678, 1679, 1680; united with Mr. Prudden's church in 1645: "He acquired property and influence, and was much employed in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, and his landed possessions were very extensive."
JOHN ROGERS (II), of New London, Connecticut, founder of religious sect called "Rogerenes" or "Roger- ene Quakers," and sometimes "Rogerene Baptists." For an account of the religious persecutions which he suf- fered and apparently courted, see chapter XIV of Miss Caulkin's History of New London. He married Eliza- beth. daughter of Matthew Griswold, of Lyme. Wind- sor and Saybrook, Connecticut. Matthew Griswold came from Kenilworth, England, was lieutenant 1667, deputy to general court, 1667, 1668, 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684; and commissioner, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684. 1685, 1686, and1687. He married Anna, daughter of Henry Wolcott, of Windsor. Con- necticut. Henry Wolcott was a member of the general assembly and the house of magistrates .- "probably, after the pastor, the most distinguished man in Windsor," and the progenitor of the Wolcott family of New Eng- land, which has included so many prominent descend- ants.
(Hermann Mann's Historical Annals of Dedham. The Hammatt Papers No. I, treating of the early inhabitants of Ipswich. Massachusetts.
H. S. Sheldon's History of Suffield. Massachusetts. George Sheldon's History of Deerfield, Massachu- setts.
Sketch of Hon. Heman Allen. M. C .. in August, 1863, Chittenden county number of Hemmenway's Ver- mont Gazetteer. Colonial Records and Revolutionary War Records in office of secretary of the common- wealth of Massachusetts.
Colonial Records in office of Adjutant General of Connecticut.
Miss Caulkin's History of New London.
C. J. F. Binney's History and Genealogy of the Prentice or Prentiss Family in New England.
History of Windsor, Connecticut.
Memorial of Henry Wolcott.
History of the Kimball Family in America, etc .. by Leonard Allison Morrison, A. M., and Stephen Paschall Sharples, S. B.).
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which, for that period, were advanced, and great- ly tended to stimulate their best efforts toward intellectual development. He was a man of fine presence and distinguished by an unusual court- esy and case of manner.
During a portion of this time when he was in charge of the seminary he was also pastor of the Congregational churches of the neighboring towns of Colchester and Winooski, the former from 1850 to 1855, and the latter from 1855 to 1861; and he subsequently supplied the pulpit of the West Milton church for several years.
During this period he was also for several years superintendent of public schools in Bur- lington, and his advocacy of a higher grade of scholarship in the public schools, and improved school buildings, contributed to considerable im- provement in that service.
Having seen much of the workings of slav- ery during his residence in Virginia, and being thoroughly interested in the welfare of the col- ored race, he early took strong interest in the American Colonization Society, and in the Re- public of Liberia, as affording a solution of the great southern problem. He was the active sec- rotary of the Vermont Colonization Society for over twenty-five years ; and, during the latter part of his life, for a number of years, until incapacitatd by physical infirmity and advancing years, he was the agent of the American Colon- ization Society for Vermont. New Hampshire, Maine and northern New York, speaking in many pulpits, raising funds and devoting him- self to the work of the Society with characteristic earnestness and success.
Since his death in Burlington, on October 3, 1880, a large new public school building has been named after him, the "Converse School," and one of the new streets of Burlington has been named "Converse Place" in memory of him.
CHILDREN OF REV. JOHN KENDRICK AND SARAH (ALLEN) CONVERSE.
1
LIZZIE S. CONVERSE (VII), born in Burling- ton, Vermont, February 26, 1835; died at Rose- mont, Pennsylvania, May 15, 1891 ; unmarried; member of the Congregational church at Bur- lington : after graduation from the Burlington
Female Seminary she devoted some years to edu- cational work, teaching in a seminary in Vir- ginia, and in her father's school ; founded a schol- arship in the University of Vermont called the "Lizzie S. Converse Scholarship," and wrote a memoir of her father, published by J. B. Lippin- cott & Company, Philadelphia, in 1881.
JULIA ALLEN CONVERSE (VII), born in Bur- lington September 30, 1837, educated in her father's school ; unmarried ; with her sister Helen she resides in the old homestead in Burlington which has been occupied by the family for some fifty years, and which is the central of the three buildings built by Bishop Hopkins for a boys' school, and subsequently used as one of the build- ings of the Burlington Female Seminary.
HELEN CHRISTINE CONVERSE (VII), born in Burlington July 7, 1839, educated in her father's school ; unmarried.
WILLIAM KENDRICK CONVERSE (VII), born in Burlington January 3, 1842; died April 27, 1844.
JOHN HEMAN CONVERSE (VII), born in Bur- lington December 2, 18.40 ; married, July 9, 1873, Elizabeth Perkins Thompson.
CHARLES ALLEN CONVERSE (VII), born in Burlington May 17, 1847.
FRANK KENDRICK CONVERSE (VII), born in Burlington November 4, 1849; married Abbie Adelia Conner.
IDA FLAVIA FREDERICA CONVERSE (VII), born in Burlington August 24, 1851 ; married Dr. George Foster Simpson.
JOHN HEMAN CONVERSE (VII). (Rev. John Kendrick (VI), Joel (V), Thomas (IV), Samuel (III), Sergeant Samuel (II), Deacon Edward (I).
Sketch of JOHN HEMAN CONVERSE, from the "Ariel" of 1893, published by the students of the University of Vermont.
Near the close of the last century Joel and Elizabeth Converse removed from Connecticut to Lyme, New Hampshire, where they purchased a "bleak, hillside farm," and where was born in 1801, the youngest of nine children, John Ken- drick Converse. "My parents were not poor," he writes in his diary, "but had not the means to portion comfortably a large family of children ; therefore it was the custom of my father to give then a small sum, and with this let them go out into the world and seek to make their fortune in
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whatever pursuit they might choose. This sum, never over two hundred dollars, was lessened by half in case they left the parental roof before they were of age. Accordingly, I had my choice, and I chose to leave the farm during my minor- ity. I received a small portion from my father, and the sum realized from a small flock of sheep, loaned out at fair interest, brought me in fifty dollars more. These sheep were the product of one sheep given me in my infancy. Thus circum- stanced, I was to commence the journey of life." He spent three years in Dartmouth College, took his fourth year and his degree in Hampton-Sid- ney College, Virginia, pursued his theological course in Princeton Theological Seminary, and shortly after was settled as pastor of the Congre- gational church in Burlington. In 1834 he was married to the daughter of Heman Allen, of the well known and honored Vermont family of Al- lens. Of these parents was born in Burlington, December 2, 1840, John Heman Converse, the subject of the present sketch. He was fitted for college at the Burlington Union high school, en- tered the University of Vermont in 1857, and was graduated in 1861.
The class of 1861 was one of the famous classes of the University, containing among its well known names those of Drs. B. S. Bigelow, W. T. Carpenter, Lund and Wood, in the medical profession ; Butler, Elliott and Leavens in the ministry ; Henry Ballard in law ; Kenney of the navy ; Mammond of typewriter fame; Bates, George Carpenter, Converse and Norton in busi- ness ; Lucius Bigelow of the press; Deming in literature ; and the lamented Charles Work, in whose early death the University lost one of the most gifted scholars and most promising men it has ever numbered among its graduates. In this remarkable class Converse stood among the fore- most in general scholarship, and was recognized both by his instructors and his classmates as hav- ing that combination of intellectual and moral force which wins the prizes of life.
After graduating Mr. Converse was for three years connected with the editorial department of The Burlington Daily and Weekly Times, a jour- nal which after a brilliant career of ten years. under the Bigelows, George and Lucius, Con- verse and Lamb (1856), was absorbed into the Free Press and Times. Removing to Chicago in 1864, he entered the service of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, in which posi- tion he continued until January, 1866, when he removed to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where, until 1870, he was in the employ of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company. During this time, 1865 to 1870, the general superintendent of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad was Edward H. Williams, of the well known Williams family of Woodstock, Ver- mont. Mr. Williams having become in 1870 one of the proprietors of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, secured for Mr. Con- verse a desirable position in the establishment. In April, 1873, Mr. Converse was admitted to the firm of Burnham, Perry, Williams & Co., of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which position he holds at the present time.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works may be fit- tingly characterized as one of the few colossal manufacturing establishments of the world, rank- ing as such with the Krupp Iron Works in Ger- many, the ship-building establishments on the Clyde and at Barrow-in-Furness, and the Carne- gie Iron and Steel Works at Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania. Matthias W. Baldwin, starting in life as a jeweler, subsequently a manufacturer of tools for calico printing and of stationary engines, be- came interested in the steam locomotive, then first coming into use in America, and in 1832 designed and constructed the first successful American locomotive, which was named "Old Ironsides," and was advertised to "depart from Philadelphia, daily, when the weather is fair, with a train of passenger cars." Combining in a remarkable degree inventive genius and executive ability, Mr. Baldwin built up an establishment which at his death. in 1866, had reached a pro- duction of one hundred and eighteen locomotives per annum. The firm which succeeded to the management has carried the capacity of the works to the enormous figure of one thousand locomotives per annum, or more than three for every working day in the year, giving employ- ment to over five thousand men. This product embraces from a third to a half of the entire manufacture of locomotives in America. No other establishment in America or Europe reaches one-half this output. The market for this im- mense product is almost the whole civilized world, the firm having almost a monopoly of the export business in locomotives to Mexico, South America, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Australia, the Sandwich Islands, Japan and South Africa. The department entrusted to Mr. Converse is the general business management as apart from the mechanical, and, great and various as must be the demands of the position, he meets them with the apparent ease which betokens a complete mas- tery of the conditions of success.
It would seem that a man who has had such
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heavy business responsibilities to carry would have no time for other cares, certainly no time to give to exacting public trusts. But this is not the case with Mr. Converse. He is a director of the board of city trusts of Philadelphia, in which capacity he is one of the trustees of Girard Col- lege. He is also director of the Philadelphia Saving Fund, the Philadelphia National Bank, the Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He is also a trustee of the Presbyterian Hospital of Philadelphia, and the secretary of the board. And Mr. Converse is not a man to content him- self with a mere nominal position on these im- portant boards. The writer of this sketch, hav- ing occasion to visit the Presbyterian Hospital in company with Mr. Converse, found that he keeps himself in constant communication with every de- partment of the hospital management, and there is no reason to think that his duties in connection with the other boards above mentioned are at- tended to less faithfully. His many contribu- tions to public objects have been most liberal. One of the principal buildings of the Presbyterian Hospital he erected entirely at his own expense. His benefactions to churches, charities and vari- ous educational and civic institutions are con- stant, generous, and indicative of a large and wise sympathy with all the progressive humanitarian and religious movements of our day.
In his private life Mr. Converse has gathered around him in a quiet and modest way the luxur- ies which are congenial to a man of culture. His lovely home at Rosemont, one of the most beauti- ful of the suburbs of Philadelphia, is also the home of art, music, literature and genial society, and is presided over by an amiable and accom- plished wife, who is in full sympathy with Mr. Converse's tastes and aims. It is not quite so difficult to conceive how a man can carry so mani- fold and serious business cares with such serene and sunny ease, after one has seen what relaxa- tions and refreshments are available to a man of intellectual resources, of social gifts and of do- mestic tastes.
It is well known to the alumni of the Uni- versity that Mr. Converse is a devoted son and liberal benefactor of his alma mater. Being a trustee of the University and intimately acquaint- ed with its needs, he has known how to make his benefactions as wise as they have been liberal. Besides endowing a scholarship, and making fre- quent contributions to meet special needs, he has recently founded the "Converse Prize" for proficiency in public debate. In order to increase
the attractions of positions on the faculty, he has, in conection with his partner, Dr. Williams, built and given to the University for the use of profes- sors three houses, which, for architectural beauty and for convenience and elegance in their ap- pointments, may rank with the most atractive modern houses. Having the feeling which Mr. Billings so strongly held, that an institution hav- ing such an incomparable site should make much of the element of "material impressiveness," Mr. Converse has taken great interest in the improve- ment of the building and grounds of the Uni- versity. In co-operation with his friend and partner, who shares both Mr. Converse's liberal spirit and his interest in the University, he pro- poses to erect during the coming season, a domi- tory building, which will be planned on the same liberal scale and with the same regard to attractiveness and service as all Mr. Converse's buildings, and probably in addition thereto an- other building, the details of which have not been decided on, but which will quite likely be a build- ing containing laboratories and lecture rooms for the chemical and physical departments. Should the architectural conditions be feasible, it is in- tended to provide gymnasium facilities in connec- tion with one or other of these buildings. It is a part of Mr. Converse's plan to develop the capabilities of the grounds' east of the present college buildings, and to have future structures arranged in the form of a quadrangle about the present campus, a plan which will at once com- mend itself to the artistic sense of every one fa- miliar with the landscape.
At a time when there is so much public dis- cussion respecting the worth of a liberal educa- tion to the man of affairs, and respecting the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of wealth, it is gratifying to the alumni of the Uni- versity to be able to point to one of their num- ber who exemplifies, as well as any man of his generation, at once the value of trained intellect in extensive business affairs, and fidelity in the administration of that wealth of which, under Providence, he has become the trustee.
In addition to the foregoing sketch from the "Ariel," it may be of interest to add that even as early as his school-days, and while in college, Mr. Converse manifested great interest in rail- roads, telegraphy and similar things practical. One who was then a visitor to the family, now, after many years, chiefly recalls the remarkable celerity with which he was wont to start and run
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THE STATE OF VERMONT.
to fires when a small boy : yet, even at that early age his mind was oeeupied with deeper matters of utility unusual in childhood ; for his principal toy was a miniature locomotive, which he made of wood ; during his sehooldays he printed a small newspaper, and learned to telegraph, and was the first "sound" operator in Vermont ; and during his college course he became proficient in stenography, which at that time was a rarity. He largely paid the expenses of his college course by vacation work as telegraph operator, railroad elerk, teaeher, or reporter,-at one time telegraph operator at Troy, New York; at another time reporter in the Vermont legislature : again freight clerk at Waterbury, Vermont; or teacher of a public school at Winooski.
His position on the Burlington Daily and Weekly Times was that of business manager, but such was his versatility that he was able to render efficient service in any branch of the work, either as editor, reporter, printer, telegrapher or man- ager.
4
The "Ariel" sketch should have added that his service on the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- road was in the office of Dr. Williams, who was then superintendent of the Galena division. Af- ter Dr. Williams removed to Altoona, Pennsyl- vania, to take the general superintendency of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Mr. Converse continued in the Chicago & Northwestern Railway ser- vice in Chicago under Division Superintendent John C. Gault (Dr. Williams' successor), until his (Mr. Converse's) entrance into the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona, under Dr. Williams, in 1866.
In addition to his interests mentioned in the "Ariel," he was, during the war with Spain, greatly interested in the work of the National Relief Commission. of which he is president. That association did a great work in distributing medieines and supplies to the soldiers and other- wise caring for them. During that war he was also president of the Pennsylvania Sanitary Com- mission, which was referred to as follows, in the annual message, in January, 1899, of the gov- ernor of Pennsylvania :
"On April 28, 1898, the Executive appointed the Pennsylvania Sanitary Commission, with Mr.
John H. Converse as president, and Hon. Robert E. Pattison as secretary. The organization was soon after expanded into the National Relief Commission, with Dr. M. S. French as general secretary, and continued throughout the war to render valuable aid, not only to the Pennsylvania oragnizations, but to the entire army. The peo- ple of the state responded with liberal contribu- tions of money and supplies, and the agents of the commission accompanied our troops wherever they went. The work of this eommission cannot be too highly commended.
"Upon the breaking out of fever in military camps the hospitals of the state volunteered to furnish, free of charge, quarters and medical attendanee for all siek brought to them. The Pennsylvania Sanitary Commission provided hospital trains, and a large number of stricken soldiers were brought from the camps and ten- derly cared for in the several hospitals. Indeed. a number of our hospitals, at their own expense. provided trains well equipped with cots, physi- cians, nurses and medicines, and brought the sol- diers back to Pennsylvania from their southern hospitals. After the establishment of Camp Meade, near Harrisburg, where 20,000 troops were encamped, hospital trains made, for a time, almost daily visits to the camp to convey the fever patients to one or the other of the hospitals. There could not have been a finer example of patriotism. These efforts were not limited to our Pennsylvania troops, but every soldier, no mat- ter from what state, who needed medical treat- ment received it from generous and sympathetic hands."
Mr. Converse is one of the directors of the Pensylvania & Northwestern Railroad, and inci- dentally has been interested in banking : and. in addition to the financial institutions mentioned in the "Ariel." with which he is connected, he is a director in the Philadelphia Trust. Safe Deposit and Insurance Company. The banks and trust companies of which he is a director are some of the largest and strongest in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Saving Fund, a beneficial institu- tion, has deposits to the extent of over fifty mil- lion dollars. and over one hundred and seventy- five thousand separate accounts.
From 1896 to 1898 he was the president of the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia, which is not only a social club. but has been an organiza-
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THE STATE OF VERMONT.
tion of much weight and influence as regards public questions of national finance and political economy.
During the time of the free silver agitation he did good work as the president of the Sound Money League of Pennsylvania. He is treas- urer of the Christian League of Philadelphia, of which the object is to compel the enforcement of the laws against vice and immorality; and is first vice-chairman of the Philadelphia Commit- tee for the Czar's International Peace Conference, Hon. George F. Edmunds being chairman.
He is interested also in art. He is one of the advisory committee of the Art Association of the Union League of Philadelphia, and it was largely through his agency and means that Ridgeway Knight's "Le Soir" was procured for the walls of that club house. To the collection of paint- ings in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, of which he is a director, he presented the large canvas, "The Hailing of the Ferry," by Ridgeway Knight. The Converse Medal was founded by him in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as a prize for high achievement by American painters and sculptors. He is presi- dent of the Fairmount Park Art Association, which has done so much to beautify Fairmount Park with sculpture of the highest order. The exercises over which he presided, in connec- tion with the presentation of the statue of Gar- field in Fairmount Park by that association in 1896, were the occasion of a distinguished as- semblage. As president of the Fairmount Park Art Association. Mr. Converse also presided at the ceremonies of the unveiling of the Grant statue in Fairmount Park, April 27, 1899, which was illustrated and thus described in "Harper's Weekly" of May 6, 1899 :
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