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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Graduates of Yale College
Annals of the College History
VOL. V.
June, 1792 — September, 1805
FRANKLIN BOWDITCH DEXTER, Litt.D.
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
I9II
\
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COPYRIGHT, I9II BY
HENRY HOLT & CO.
LD
DS" V.S"
THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE A TAYLOR PRESS, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
TO
ADDISON VAN NAME
LIBRARIAN EMERITUS OF YALE UNIVERSITY
MASTER, COLLEAGUE, FRIEND
WHOSE BREADTH OF SCHOLARSHIP AND FIDELITY TO DUTY
HAVE BEEN A GUIDE AND AN INSPIRATION
FOR MORE THAN FORTY YEARS
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
WITH SINCERE REGARD
Subsiciva quaedam tempora incurrunt, quae ego perire non patior.
Cicero, De Legihus, I, 3, 9.
Difficile est proprie communia dicere.
Horace, Ars poet., 128.
Read no history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.
Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, pt. i, ch. 23.
PREFACE
Circumstances have delayed the preparation of the present volume ; but the compiler now hopes to follow it within the ensuing year by another, continuing the record through the Class of 1815.
With that date the work will be terminated ; and with that volume a statistical summary of the entire field covered may be expected.
Yale University Library, June, 191 1.
CONTENTS
Preface .... Annals, 1792
Sketches, Class of 1792 . Annals, 1792-93
Sketches, Class of 1793 . Annals, 1793-94
Sketches, Class of 1794 . Annals, 1794-95
Sketches, Class of 1795 . Annals, 1795-96
Sketches, Class of 1796 . Annals, 1796-97
Sketches, Class of 1797 . Annals, 1797-98
Sketches, Class of 1798 . Annals, 1798-99
Sketches, Class of 1799 . Annals, 1799-1800 .
Sketches, Class of 1800 . Annals, 1800-01
Sketches, Class of 1801 . Annals, 1801-02
Sketches, Class of 1802 . Annals, 1802-03
Sketches, Class of 1803 . Annals, 1803-04
Sketches, Class of 1804 . Annals, 1804-05
Sketches, Class of 1805 . Appendix
Additions and Corrections Index
V
I 2
52 53 96 98 129 132 176 177 237 238 316 318 342 344 38s 386 427 428 466 467 554 555 623 624
73:i
734 810 810 811
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
AND
ANNALS OF YALE COLLEGE
Annals, 1792
The newly organized government of the College, con- sequent upon the Act of the General Assembly in May, 1792, came fully into operation with the meeting of the Corporation at Commencement on September ii. Deli- cate questions of precedence in the order of procession to the public exercises had to be settled ; but the most impor- tant action taken was with reference to the new building to be built from the funds supplied by the State, the esti- mated cost of which was £2,500.
Ebenezer Gay, of the Class of 1787, resigned the tutor- ship at Commencement, and his place was filled by the election of Jonathan W. Edwards, of the Class of 1789.
Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1792
*De-Lucena Backus *I794
*Guilielmus Botsford, A.M. 1796, Prov. 'Nov.
Brunsv. Cur. Supr. Jurid. Princ. *i864
* Jonathan Bush ^ *i839 *Asa Chapman, A.M. 181 7, Reip. Conn. Cur. Supr.
Jurid. *i825
*Carolus Chauncey, A.M., LL.D. 1827 *i849
*Timotheus Mather Cooley, A.M., S.T.D. Hamilt.
1831 *i859
*Enochus Ely, A.M. *i8i8
*Jacobus Christie Esten, LL.D. 1825, Ins. Bermud.
Cur. Supr. Jurid. Princ. - *i838
*Guilielmus Hart *i835
* Jesse Hedges *i826 *Amos Hoyt *I793 *Bela Hubbard *i84i *Henricus Hubbard - *I794 *David Bryan Ingersoll *i838 "^ I saacus Jones, A.M. *i85o *PhiHppus Doddridge Keteltas, A.M. 1801 *i845 *Nathanael King ^1848 *Samuel Lathrop, A.M. 1796, e Congr. *i846
* Samuel Andreas Law, A.M. et Columb. 1797 et
Neo-Caes. 1797 *i845
*Johannes McCrackan, A.M. 1796 *i833
*Guilielmus Marchant, A.M., Reip. Ins. Rhod. Cur.
Supr. Jurid. *^^57
*Samuel Mather, A.M. 1797 , *i854
*Donaldus Grant Mitchell *I798
*Guilielmus Perkins *i820
* Johannes Radcliff *i852
Biographical Sketches, i/p2
|
* Samuel Rudd |
*i823 |
|
*Thomas Savage, A.M. |
*l8l2 |
|
*Ledyard Seymour |
♦1848 |
|
^Johannes Sherman |
♦1828 |
|
*Rogerus Minott Sherman, A.M., LL.D. |
1829, |
|
Tutor, Reip. Conn. Cur. Supr. Jurid. |
*i844 |
|
*Asa Spalding |
*I794 |
|
*Ephraimus Strong |
*i86o |
|
*Eli Whitney, A.M. |
*i825 |
|
*Solomon Williams, A.M. |
*i8io |
In the preparation of the following sketches great assist- ance has been due to a manuscript history of his class com- piled by Dr. Cooley and deposited in the Yale Library.
DeLucena Backus was born in Windham, Connecticut, on July 30, 1773, being the youngest son of Major Eben- ezer and Mary (Edwards) Backus, and grandson of John and Sibyl (Whiting) Backus, of Windham. One of his sisters married Samuel Cogswell (Yale 1777), and another married Joseph Kirkland (Yale 1790). DeLucena Ben- jamin (Yale 1788) was his first cousin; and their peculiar christian name was taken from that of a Spanish friend of their grandfather Backus.
While in College he led his class in scholarship, though he suffered much from asthma.
Soon after graduation he went to Virginia for the ben- efit of his health, and while there was for some months engaged in teaching.
In the spring of 1793 he sailed for the south of France, and in his stay there for about a year entirely regained his health.
On his return voyage from Marseilles the vessel sprung a leak, and was obliged to put into port at one of the West India islands where yellow fever was raging. He caught
4 Yale College
the fever, and died, after an illness of a very few days, at the age of twenty-one.
The stroke was overwhelming- to his relatives, who had formed high expectations from his brilliant mind and exemplary morals. He was unmarried. A portrait is preserved in the family.
AUTHORITIES.
Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, Windham, 62. 470. Weaver, Genealogy of Ancient
William Botsford, the second child and only son of the Hon. Amos Botsford (Yale 1763), was born in New Haven on April 29, 1773. His father, with his family, went out of New Haven with the British in July, 1779, and in October, 1782, settled in Annapolis, Nova Scotia. The son was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Elizur Good- rich of Durham, Connecticut, — his education at Yale being defrayed from the payment of debts due to his father in Connecticut, as authorized by the General Assembly.
Immediately after taking his degree he returned to his father's house in the Province of New Brunswick, and began to read law, — for a part of the time in the office of the Hon. Jonathan Bliss (Harvard 1763), then Attorney- General.
He was admitted to the bar in 1795, and settled in prac- tice in St. John. In 1803 he was appointed Judge of the Vice- Admiralty Court, over which he presided until 1807; when, at the request of his father, he resigned that office, and removed to the family homestead at West Cock, in Sackville, Westmoreland County.
On his father's death in 18 12 he succeeded to the repre- sentation of the County, and was Speaker of the Assembly from 181 7 to 1823, when he was promoted by royal authority to the Executive and Legislative Council. In 181 7 he was also appointed Solicitor-General, and held that office until elevated to the Supreme Court Bench in 1823.
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 5
In 1831 (in conjunction with one of his fellow- judges) he tendered a resignation of his seat in the Council, from an apprehension that it might be thought incompatible with his judicial duties ; but the offer was declined.
In the autumn of 1845, i^ consequence of advanced age and a slight impairment of hearing, Judge Botsford resigned his seat on the bench, with universal testimonies of respect.
He spent the rest of his life on his patrimonial estate in Westmoreland County, where he died on May 8, 1864, aged 91 years, being the last survivor of his class.
During his whole career he had labored unselfishly for the public interest. In his latter years he was especially devoted to the advancement of agriculture, and his own estate furnished a model for imitation. He was a devout and consistent member of the Church of England; of noble personal presence, and most genial and winning man- ners.
On January 21, 1802, he married Sarah Lowell, second daughter of the Hon. William and Sarah (LeBaron) Hazen, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and St. John, and widow of Thomas Murray (who died in 1797). She died on May 4, 1850, in her 75th year. Their children were eight sons and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Chandler Family, 2d ed., 477-78. Stockwell, LeBaron Descendants, 116.
Jonathan Bush was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, on February 20, 1769, being the son of Samuel Bush of that town, who was a native of Westfield, Massachusetts. His mother was a Steele, of (West) Hartford, Connecti- cut. He entered College in May of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied medicine, probably with his eldest brother, Dr. Samuel Bush, who was for some years
6 Yale College
a practicing physician in Sheffield, but later removed to New Orleans.
After completing his course of study in 1795 he went to Loudoun County, in northern Virginia, where he was engaged for five or six years in practice.
At the urgent request of his brother-in-law, George Webster, a bookseller in Albany, New York (of the firm of Webster & Skinner), he removed to Albany in 1800 or 1 80 1, and thence to Schenectady, where he remained for only a single year.
In 1803, strong inducements being held out to him, he removed to Lowville, a new and flourishing settlement in Lewis County, in the northern part of the State. Here he was successful, and was extensively employed, — so con- stantly that his health became seriously impaired, and he was finally obliged to relinquish practice.
About 1824 he retired to a small farm some two miles from the village, where he died on June 14, 1839, in his 71st year.
He married in 1805 Miss Charlotte Peck, then resident in Lowville, who was a native of Bristol, Rhode Island, and the daughter of an emigrant from England. Their children were six sons and two daughters. The two eldest sons became clergymen.
Dr. Bush had a speculative turn of mind, and while liv- ing in Virginia imbibed skeptical sentiments. He was a great admirer of the philosophical views of Dr. Erasmus Darwin.
Asa Chapman was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, on September 2, 1770, the third son of Phineas and Mary (Hillier) Chapman, and grandson of Deacon Caleb and Thankful (Lord) Chapman, of Saybrook. He was fitted for College by his pastor, the Rev. Frederick W. Hotch- kiss (Yale 1778).
He stood well in College, and after graduation taught for a year in an Academy in North Salem, Westchester
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 7
County, New York, and for a second year in the Academy in Norwalk, Connecticut. He also continued to teach after he was settled in his profession.
He studied law with the Hon. Tapping- Reeve in Litch- field, Connecticut, was admitted to the bar in 1795, and settled in practice in Newtown, in Fairfield County. He represented that town in the General Assembly in six ses- sions between 1801 and 181 5, and in 18 17 he was elected to the Governor's Council. He was an Episcopalian in faith, and thus fell naturally into the ranks of the party dominant in the State at that date.
In 1808 he was elected a Judge of the Superior Court, and held that office until his death.
For many years he had instructed students in law ; and in the autumn of 1824 he removed from Newtown to New Haven, where he opened a Law School, but was very quickly obliged to relinquish it, from declining health.
His disease was consumption, and after two journeys in search of health, he died in New Haven on September 25, 1825, at the age of 55.
He was married, at Newtown, on September 2, 1798, to Mary ("Polly"), eldest daughter of Dr. Bennett and Sarah (Beers) Perry, by whom he had three sons and one daugh- ter. The eldest son was a distinguished lawyer in Hart- ford and a Member of Congress.
Mrs. Chapman died in Brooklyn, New York, at the resi- dence of one of her sons, on March 24, 1850, in her 70th year.
Judge Chapman had eminent legal ability and made a very acceptable and popular judge. Many of his manu- script letters addressed to Judge David Daggett are pre- served in the Yale Library, and bear evidence to his genial temper and vein of humor.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman Family, 196, 208-09. Hist, of Litchfield County, 1881, 27. Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 667.
8 Yale College
Charles Chauncey was born in New Haven on the 17th day of August, 1777, being the eldest son of Judge Charles Chauncey, LL.D., of New Haven, and grandson of Elihu and Mary (Griswold) Chauncey, of Durham. His mother was Abigail, daughter of Thomas Darling ( Yale 1 740 ) , of New Haven. He was prepared for College at the Hopkins Grammar School under Jared Mansfield (Yale 1777), and was admitted to Yale in 1787, at the age of ten years, but was kept back for a year longer, owing to his youth. As it was, his graduation at the early age of fifteen was almost unprecedented. His two broth- ers were graduated here, in 1796 and 1806 respectively.
In 1793 he began the study of law in his father's office, and in 1795 he offered himself for examination for admis- sion to the bar. His examination was successful, but his admission was perforce deferred until he had reached the legal age, in 1798.
He then, on the advice of Chief Justice Ellsworth, removed to Philadelphia, and attended in an office for some months, to become acquainted with the local law and prac- tice; after which he entered (in January, 1799) on the profession to which he devoted the energies of his life, and in which he rose to the highest rank.
His practice was confined almost wholly to the city of Philadelphia. He was originally in sympathy with the Federal party, but never consented to hold civil or judicial office, except in two instances: — he was in early life for one or two years a member of the Common Council of the city ; and he allowed himself to be chosen a delegate to the Convention for revising the State Constitution in 1837 and 1838, in the hope of preserving the former tenure of the judicial office.
At the age of seventy he retired (as far as possible) from professional service, and his death followed, suddenly and painlessly, from congestion of the brain, at his country
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 9
residence in Burlington, New Jersey, on August 30, 1849, aged 72 years.
He married on September 26, 1808, Hannah, third daughter of the Hon. John Chester (Yale 1766), of Weth- ersfield, Connecticut, who died in Philadelphia, after a short illness, on February 6, 182 1, in her 40th year. Their children were three sons and three daughters. Two sons died in infancy, and the eldest son (Yale 1828) and one daughter after arriving at full age.
Mr. Chauncey was, by universal testimony, a most suc- cessful advocate, as well as a sound, well-read, judicious and upright lawyer. He was conspicuous through life in all relations for his integrity, his unaffected benevolence, and his perpetual serenity of temper.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by this College in 1827.
A discourse delivered a few weeks after his death, by the Rev. Dr. Henry A. Boardman (Yale 1829), was after- wards published, under the title : —
The importance of religion to the legal profession: with some remarks on the character of the late Charles Chauncey, Esq.
The author dwells especially on the integrity and benevolence of Mr. Chauncey, and on his great respect for the Sabbath.
The remarks to the bar of Philadelphia on the occasion of Mr. Chauncey's death by the Hon. Horace Binney (Har- vard 1797) were also printed, and bear the most ample testimony to his ability and worth.
He published:
An Oration, delivered before the Society of the * B K; at their Anniversary Meeting, in the city of New Haven, on the evening preceding Commencement, Anno Domini 1797. New Haven, [1798] 8°, pp. 34. [B. Ath. Y. C.
The subject is the advancement of the race in scientific, political and moral improvement. He delivered an anniversary Phi Beta
lo Yale College
Kappa oration in New Haven in December, 1796, the subject being Eastern literature, but it does not appear to have been printed.
AUTHORITIES.
Fowler, Chauncey Memorials, 115- torical Society's Papers, i, 132-33. 46. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, Simpson, Eminent Philadelphians, xxii, 340. New Haven Colony His- 197-202.
Timothy Mather Cooley was born in Granville, Mas- sachusetts, on the 13th of March, 1772, being the sixth child and second son of Captain William Cooley, a pros- perous farmer, shoemaker and tanner of that town, and grandson of Daniel Cooley, one of the first settlers of Granville. His mother was Sarah, elder daughter of Timothy and Sarah (Marshall) Mather, of Windsor, Con- necticut, and niece of Dr. Samuel Mather (Yale 1726). His feeble health in childhood, preventing an active life, led to his receiving a College education. His preparation was conducted by the Rev. Noah Atwater (Yale 1774), of Westfield. He united with the church at his home the February before he entered College.
At graduation he delivered an oration in Hebrew; and for the next year he resided in New Haven on the Berkeley Scholarship, at the same time teaching school, and during the following year he taught in Litchfield, Connecticut.
In 1794 he was invited by the Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Fitch (Yale 1777), who had been his Tutor in College, to the ojffice of Instructor in Williams College, but declined it. He then pursued theological studies with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, Connecticut, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Associa- tion of Ministers on May 26, 1795.
On the first Sabbath in June he preached in his native place, and then for sixteen Sabbaths in Salisbury, Con- necticut. He afterwards returned to East Granville and preached for seven Sabbaths, and received calls for settle- ment from both places. In accordance with the humility which was his lifelong characteristic, he chose the smaller
Biographical Sketches, 1792 n
place, with smaller salary ($300), and was ordained and installed in East Granville on February 3, 1796, — the ser- mon being preached by Dr. Backus. His father was one of the deacons in the church.
The place was most uninviting from its recent spiritual history, but his labors were rewarded by widespread relig- ious interest in 1798, and by subsequent recurrences on nine separate occasions of similar experiences.
He bestowed special attention on the children of his flock during his entire ministry. Soon after his settlement he opened a classical school in his own house, and continued it during most of his life. More than eight hundred youth thus enjoyed the benefit of his personal tuition, and he also superintended the studies of several young men preparing for the ministry. For fifty-seven years, from 1802 to 1859, h^ was an active and influential member of the Board of Trustees of the Westfield Academy; and from 1812 until his death he held the same relation to Williams Col- lege. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hamilton College in 1831.
Dr. Cooley continued in the full discharge of the office of the ministry until 1854, when he was released from pulpit duty, but not from the pastoral relation. He retained his activity until a fortnight before his death, from acute bronchitis, in East Granville, on December 14, 1859, in his 88th year. The sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague (Yale 1815), was afterwards published. At the time of his death he was the oldest Congregational pastor in the country.
He married on May 14, 1796, Content, only child of Isaac and Ruth (Robinson) Chapman, and half-sister of the Hon. Isaac Chapman Bates (Yale 1802). She died on April 28, i860, aged 84, having been insane for years.
Their children were five sons and five daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Williams College in 1816, and the fourth son was graduated from the Pittsfield Medical School in 1827.
12 Yale College
Dr. Spragne said of him, in his Funeral Sermon :
Dr. Cooley's character, as a man, was a fine compound of intelli- gence and wisdom, of benevolence, modesty, and dignity. His mind was rather dehberate and sure, than rapid, in its movements; dis- tinguished more by clear perception, and sound judgment, and correct taste, than by any very striking or briUiant qualities. He always formed a calm and sober estimate of things, and hence he very rarely took steps that he had occasion to retrace. He was not only well read in his profession, but was an excellent general scholar, and in the classics particularly his knowledge was uncommonly accurate and thorough. With the Hebrew language he was so familiar that he was accustomed to use his Hebrew Bible in the family devotions. . . If I were to speak of him peculiarly as a Christian man, I should say that the grace that always struck me as most prominent in his character was humility.
An engraving from his portrait, painted in 1845, ^'^^ prefixed to his Half Century Sermon. Another portrait, painted about 1796, is reproduced in the pamphlet describ- ing the Granville Jubilee of 1895.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Ps. cxxvi, 3] delivered in the East Society in Granville, January 5, 1800. Hartford, 1800. 8°, pp. 16. [F. C.
On the history of Granville.
2. God's Presence with his People. — A Sermon [from Ex. xxxiii, 15], delivered at the East Meeting-house in Granville, May ist, 1805 : on the occasion of organizing a church to settle in the town of Gran- ville, State of Ohio. Hartford, 1805. 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
3. The Universal Spread of the Gospel, a Sermon [from Rev. xiv, 6] , preached at Northampton, before the Hampshire Missionary Society; at their Annual Meeting, August 25, 1808. Northampton, 1808. 8°, pp. 40.
[A.C.A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S.
The Annual Report of the Society occupies one half of the pamphlet.
4. A Funeral Sermon [from Ps. cxvi, 15], delivered at Loudon, January 24, 1810, at the interment of Mr. Abner Ames D'Wolf, a member of Williams College, who died at Williamstown, January 20th. Hartford, 1810. 8°, pp. 16.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Loudon is now the town of Otis, in Berkshire County.
Biographical Sketches, iyp2 13
5. Parents and their children meeting at the day of judgment. — The substance of A Sermon [from 2 Sam. xii, 23], delivered in Granville, (Mass.) Lord's-Day, May 20, 1810, at the funeral of Nancy Tinker, who died in the triumphs of christian hope, May i8th, aged 13 years. Hartford, 1811. i2mo, 11 pp. [C. H. S.
6. A Funeral Sermon [from Job x, 22], delivered at Southwick, October 6, 181 1, on the occasion of the death of Homer Moore, Esquire. Hartford, 1812. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Second Edition. 1815. 8°, pp. 15. [B. Publ.
Mr. Moore was graduated at Yale in 1806.
7. The primitive ministers of Christ. — A Sermon [from Hebr. xiii, 17], delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Elisha Cook, . . in East Hartford. . . Hartford, 1814. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
8. A Sermon [from John iii, 30], delivered in Springfield, before the Bible Society, and the Foreign Mission Society, in the County of Hampden, at their Annual Meeting, August 27, 1817. Spring- field, 1817. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
9. A Sermon [from Job i, 21] delivered at Granville at the Funeral of Mr. Curtiss P. Baker, . . member of the Middle class in the Theological Seminary in Andover ; who died Aug. 15, 1824. . . Hartford, 1824. 8°, pp. 19. [A. C. A. Br. Mus. Y. C.
ID. A Sermon [from Acts xvii, 30], addressed to the Bible class and Sabbath School, in Granville, Lord's Day, Oct. 24, 1824: on occasion of the death of Louisa Maria Cooley, . . aged fourteen years. Springfield, 1824. 12°, pp. 15. [Harv. Y. C.
11. Memoir of Mary West, a Sabbath Scholar, who died at Granville, Mass., May 19, 1829, in the thirteenth year of her age. Fourth edition. (Copyrighted 1837.) Boston (Mass. Sabbath School Society). 12°, pp. 54. [A. C. A.
12. Sketches of the Life and Character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, A.M., for many years pastor of a church in Rutland, Vt., and late in Granville, New- York. . . New- York, 1837. 12°, pp. 345.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. N. Y. State Libr. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
14 Yale College
Mr. Haynies was a mulatto, brought up in Dr. Cooky's native town, of remarkable ability.
13. Historical Discourse, published in: — ^The Granville Jubilee, celebrated at Granville, Mass., August 27 and 28, 1845. Springfield,
1845. 16°. [Y. C. The Jubilee was held in commemoration of the fiftieth year since
Dr. Cooley preached his first sermon in Granville.
14. Permanent Ministry. — A Half Century Sermon [from 2 Cor. vii, 3], preached at Granville, Mass., February 8th, 1846. Hartford,
1846. 8°, pp. 16 + pi.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C.
He also contributed many articles to periodicals, of which may be specified : —
An account of a work of divine grace, in a revival of religion in the East Society of Granville (Mass.) in the years 1798 and 1799, in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine for January, 1802, pp. 270- 73 ; reprinted in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's New England Revivals, Boston, 1846, pp. 1 1 2-2 1.
To the Rev. Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit he con- tributed brief notices of Dr. James Dana (vol. i, pp. 570-71), Presi- dent Jonathan Edwards (pp. 659-60), Professor Samuel Wales (pp. 712-13), and Lemuel Haynes (vol 2, pp. 181-87).
One useful service which he performed was the compilation of the Memoirs of most of his College classmates, which he presented in manuscript to the Yale Library in 1850, and which has been of material assistance in the present labor.
The Library has also the manuscript of his Valedictory Oration delivered before the Brothers in Unity in June, 1792.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman Family, 45, 53, 363-65. Pastors in Hampden County, 45.
Congregational Quarterly, ii, 272-79. Sprague, Sermon at the Funeral of
Durfee, Biographical Annals of Wil- Dr. Cooley. Pres. Stiles, Literary
liams, 42-43. Mather Genealogy. Diary, iii, 449, 474. 141, 196. Sketches of Churches and
Enoch Ely^ the second son and child of Josiah Ely, a farmer of North Lyme, Connecticut, was born in North Lyme on February 10, 1769. His mother was Phebe,
Biographical Sketches, 1792 15
youngest daughter of John and Patience (Griswold) Den- ison of Lyme.
He was prepared for College by his uncle, the Rev. Rich- ard Ely (Yale 1754), then pastor of the Congregational Church in the present village of Centerbrook.
After graduating he taught a select school, limited to twenty-five pupils, for some three or four years in New York City; it was regarded as the best school in the city, and yielded him about $1000 annually.
Later, he studied law in Catskill, New York, and having been admitted to the bar in Albany in 1808, he settled in Catskill as a practitioner, but soon returned to New York City, where he practiced for several years and also engaged in the wholesale grocery business, in the firm of McGregor & Ely. He was commissioned as Captain in the militia in 1809.
He married in New York City, on August 4, 1796, Keziah Durkee, widow of Dr. Elisha Camp (Yale 1776), of Catskill. A daughter by her first husband had married Judge Sacket, the original settler in Sacket Harbor, on Lake Ontario; and in 1813 Mr. Ely removed to that place, where he gave himself wholly to the law. He made a profession of religion in 1814, and was influential in form- ing the First Presbyterian Church of Sacket Harbor, in which he was a ruling elder.
His health had been generally feeble; and after a long and painful illness, caused by an internal cancer, he died with resignation in Sacket Harbor, on June 25, 1818, in his 50th year. Mrs. Ely died in Sacket Harbor on March 23, 1834, in her 72d year.
Their children were two sons (who died in infancy) and a daughter.
AUTHORITIES. Ely Ancestry, 108, 199. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 200; ii, 1029-30.
James Christie Esten was born in Bermuda (or in Montreal, Canada) in 1772. His father, John Esten, was
i6 Yale College
a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, but was graduated at the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1755, and spent most of his life in Bermuda, where he was at one time Attorney-General.
The son entered the Senior Class at Yale in September, 1 79 1, and graduated with honor.
He then studied law in the School of the Hon. Tap- ping Reeve in Litchfield, Connecticut, and afterwards in London.
About 1800 he married Esther Strangeway, daughter of John Grove Palmer, Esq., of London.
He settled in practice in Bermuda, and after holding the offices of Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and Judge Advocate, he received about 1804 the appointment of Chief Justice of the Bermuda Islands, which he retained until his retirement on a pension in 1836.
In the latter years of his life his mind was for a time affected.
He died at the residence of his elder son in Toronto, Canada, where he had lately arrived from England, on August 9, 1838, aged 66 years, from disease induced by excessive exertion in his professional duties and by resi- dence in a hot climate.
Judge Esten sustained a very high character as a man, a magistrate, and a christian. He was distinguished by uncommon courtesy of manners and the polished eloquence of the old school ; by singular purity of life, and unbend- ing integrity.
His children were two sons, of whom the elder was edu- cated in London, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1830, and was a Judge of the Court of Chancery in Canada for fifteen years. The younger son was a Major in the Canadian army.
Judge Esten received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale in 1825.
He was for many years President of the Bermuda Bible Society. He published several pamphlets on the condition
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 17
of the blacks of Bermuda, and on the system of the Colonial government.
AUTHORITIES. Gentleman's Magazine, N. S., x, 566. N. H. Daily Herald, Aug. 31, 1838.
William Hart was baptized (by the name of Billy) in New Britain, Connecticut, on March 16, 1772. He was the youngest child of Thomas Hart, a farmer and shoe- maker of New Britain, and grandson of Deacon EHjah and Abigail (Goodrich) Hart. His mother was Mehita- bel, an elder sister of Jonathan Bird (Yale 1768). In 1784, at the unusually early age of 12, he joined the Con- gregational Church in New Britain under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Smalley, by whom he was prepared for College.
After graduation he taught a high school in Middletown, Connecticut, for a season, and then went into a partnership in mercantile business with his brother, Abijah Hart (hon- orary M.A. Yale 1795), in New York City. After a little while he went to England on the firm's affairs. In process of time they failed in business, in consequence of the French spoliations, and he found himself in debt to a widow for his board. He married in London in 1798 her daugh- ter, Hannah Bridge Campe, who was seven years his senior, and they soon after came to America, settling in Middletown, where he resumed the business of teaching.
He was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Asso- ciation of Ministers, on June 3, i8cx), but owing to feeble health preached but little.
His wife's conduct was such as to destroy his comfort and (in a measure) his usefulness. She died in Hartford, from fever, on April 30, 181 7, aged 52 years, leaving two daughters and a son.
Mr. Hart then took charge of a select school in Madison, Connecticut, and in October, 18 18, married Mrs. Joanna Hand, the eldest sister of the Hon. Return J. Meigs (Yale
i8 Yale College
1785), and widow of Janna Hand, of Madison, who died in August, 1794.
He lived with her in her own house very happily; but her children and friends had opposed the marriage bitterly and on her death, on June 20, 1825, in her 59th year, turned him out of his home.
He was chosen a deacon of the church in Madison in April, 1824, but resigned in September, 1825.
His later years were spent in teaching in New York State, at first in Durham, in Greene County, and later in Tioga County, in Owego and in Candor (where his son kept a store).
He was chosen a deacon in the church in Candor, and in that office rendered himself very useful. He died in that village on August 2, 1836, in his 65th year.
Portraits of himself and of his second wife, painted in 1818, are in the possession of the New Haven Colony His- torical Society.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, Hart Family, 398, 444; Steiner, Hist, of Guilford, 360. New Britain Genealogy, 163, 200-01.
Jesse Hedges was born in Southampton, Long Island, on September 16, 1771, — the third son of Deacon David Hedges, a prominent and wealthy farmer of Sagg, a ham- let in Southampton, and grandson of Daniel Hedges. His mother was Charity, eldest child of Lemuel and Eunice Howell.
He was prepared for College at Clinton Academy in his native town, and entered at the beginning of the Sopho- more year.
He did not study a profession. His occupation was that of a druggist, in connection with mercantile concerns and manufactures. He was an active, exemplary, and worthy citizen of Sag Harbor, a village in his native town, and took an intelligent interest in all public concerns.
Biographical Sketches, iyg2 19
He had a vigorous constitution, and enjoyed firm health until a short time before his death. He died of dropsy, after a distressing illness, in Sag Harbor, on May 29, 1826, in his 55th year.
He married Naomi, eldest daughter of Deacon Recom- pence and Naomi (Burnham) Sherrill, of East Hampton, who was drowned with her youngest son, a boy of 14, by the sinking of a packet-boat in Long Island Sound, while on her way from Southold to New York City. She was born on August 14, 1769.
Their children were three sons and a daughter.
AUTHORITIES Hedges, Hist, of East Hampton, 295, 334.
Amos Hoyt was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on November 30, 1762, the eldest child of Peter and Sarah (Hait) Hait, of Stamford, and grandson of David and Hannah (Hait) Hait, or Hoyt. He labored on the farm with his father until he arrived at man's estate, after which he engaged in school-teaching; and finally was prepared for College under the instruction of his pastor, the Rev. John Avery (Yale 1777).
He was the oldest member of his Class, and distin- guished for cheerfulness, of unblemished moral character, and respectable as a scholar.
He was also the first to die. Immediately on graduation he took charge of a school in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and at the same time pursued the study of law with Judge Jonathan Brace (Yale 1779). He was ready to take up his profession when he died there of a fever on September 30, 1793, in his 31st year. His remains were brought to Stamford the succeeding winter for interment. He was regarded as a young man of great promise.
AUTHORITIES.
Hoyt Genealogy, 400. Huntington, Hist, of Stamford, 395.
20 Yale College
Bela Hubbard, second son and fourth child of the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard (Yale 1758), of New Haven, was born on December 18, 1773, and was baptized by his father on February 5, 1774.
He followed the profession of the law, and soon settled in Assumption Parish, in the southern part of Louisiana, where he filled the offices of Parish and County Judge for many years with uncommon acceptance.
He died at his residence in Assumption Parish on August 30, 1 84 1, in his 68th year.
AUTHORITIES. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, v, 235.
Henry Hubbard, son of Levi and Anna (Gold) Hub- bard, of New Haven, and first cousin of his classmate Bela Hubbard, was born in 1774. Two brothers were grad- uated here, in 1785 and 1796 respectively.
Soon after graduation he entered the store of Elijah Austin, a merchant in New Haven. In June, 1794, Mr, Austin and he were engaged in opening a chest of clothes from the West Indies, and contracted yellow fever. Mr. Hubbard went to the adjoining town of Derby, where he died early on the morning of June 21, and Mr. Austin died in New York on June 23. Both were brought to New Haven for burial, and the fever raged here alarmingly for four months.
authorities.
N. H. Colony Hist. Society's Papers, iii, 540; vi, 226.
David Bryan Ingersoll, second son of David Ingersoll (Yale 1763), of Milford, Connecticut, was born in Milford on August 16, 1771, and was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Wales two days later. His father died in his infancy.
Biographical Sketches, //p^ 21
After completing his Collegiate course he entered the Litchfield (Connecticut) Law School under the Hon. Tapping Reeve. On his admission to the bar he began practice in his native town, where he spent the rest of his days.
Soon after entering on his profession he invested largely in Georgia lands with disastrous consequences, and became heavily burdened with debt. As one result of his circum- stances, he plunged into dissipation, and for many years led a reckless life of drunkenness and profanity.
In the latter part of the year 1820 a reformation over- took him, with dramatic suddenness; and thenceforth he lived an upright, religious life.
In December, 1820, he re-opened his law-office, and by his familiarity with legal principles, his practical good sense, and accurate business habits, he secured a moder- ate share of practice and a respectable standing in his profession.
He died in Milford in 1838, aged 6y years.
He married in Milford on May 14, 1799, Martha (Patty), daughter of Daniel and Ann (Green) Mallery, of Milford. She was born on April 26, 1778, and survived her husband.
AUTHORITIES. Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, v, 14. Treat Family, 251.
Isaac Jones, the eldest son of Isaac Jones (Yale 1757), was born in New Haven on February 18, 1775. His instructors in the studies preparatory to College were the Rev. Walter King (Yale 1782), the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), and Colonel Jared Mansfield (Yale 1777); and so rapid was his proficiency that he was admitted to the Freshman Class in 1787, although on account of his
32
Yale College
youth his entrance was deferred until 1788, in his 14th year.
He resided in New Haven after graduation, and held for one year (1793-94) the Berkeley Scholarship, after- wards pursuing theological studies under the Rev. Drs. Edwards and Dana, and being licensed to preach by the West Association of Ministers on October 18, 1796. On the expiration of his license in 1800, the Association declined to renew it, on account of reports of unbecoming behavior.
From January, 1802, until April, 1803, he was Rector of Washington Academy, in Wilkes County, Georgia ; and about the close of his term he received a license to preach from the Hopewell Presbytery,
He then returned to New Haven, and after strong oppo- sition, was ordained and installed on June 6, 1804, ^s Col- league Pastor of the Congregational Church in Bethany, a parish in Woodbridge, in his native county. The senior pastor died in a few weeks, and Mr. Jones continued in charge of the parish for over two years, amid growing opposition.
He was arraigned before the Association in October, 1806, but evaded a trial, and seceded with a part of his congregation, establishing a so-called Independent Church.
For this action he was deposed from the ministry by the Consociation; and two years later, on December 11, 1808. he withdrew from his position and from the Congrega- tional denomination, on the ground of theological and political differences. A large portion of his people fol- lowed him into the Episcopal Church.
He now returned to New Haven, and after a period of study was ordained Deacon on September 24, 18 10, in New York City, by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore.
After officiating for a short time in Stamford, Connecti- cut, he began in January, 181 1, a service as Assistant Minister in St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, Connecticut, where he remained until February, 1826. He was
Biographical Sketches, ijgs 23
advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Hobart, in Colden- ham, New York, on June 29, 1813.
From 1827 to 183 1 he was employed as instructor in a select school in Litchfield. In April, 183 1, he was invited to the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Huntington, Con- necticut, where he continued for five or six years. In December, 1837, he became Rector of Union Church, in Hitchcocksville, Barkhamsted, Connecticut, but resigned on April i, 1839; and from May, 1840, to March, 1842, he was Rector of Christ Church, Bethany.
For the rest of his life he resided in Litchfield, per- forming occasional services in the church there (especially in connection with the outlying parish of Milton) and else- where. For the latter part of the time he was Chaplain to the County Prison. He died in Litchfield on March i, 1850, aged 75 years.
On October 17, 1804, he was married by the Rev. Dr. James Dana to Tabitha, daughter of Captain Hezekiah Thomas, of Bethany, who died in Litchfield on October 9, 1852, in her 65th year.
A son and a daughter survived him.
He published : —
1. The Gospel only to be preached by Ministers: — A Sermon [from I Cor. ii, 2], delivered on Sunday, June 10, 1804, before the Church and Society of Bethany, in Woodbridge, of New-Haven County : being the first Sabbath after Ordination. . . New-Haven, 1804. 8°, pp. 22. [Br. Mus. Y. C.
2. The Vineyard destroyed: — A Sermon [from Jer. xii. lo-ii], preached at Bethany, the nth December, 1808, on the Lord's Day; being a Farewell Discourse . , New-Haven, 1809. 8°, pp. 22.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. N. V. Piibl. Libr.
3. The Mandate of God, for Israel's Advancement : A Sermon [from Ex. xiv, 15], delivered in Trinity Church, Milton, and St. Michael's, Litchfield, Nov. 5, 1845 ; being one hundred years since the formation of the Episcopal Church in the Town of Litchfield, Conn. Litchfield, 1846. 8°, pp. 62.
[A. A. S. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. L. I. Hist. Soc. M. H. S. N. Y. Hist, Soc. U. T. S. Y. C.
24 Yale College
With a valuable historical appendix, in which is included a funeral discourse by the author, on the death of the Rev. Benjamin Birge, 1820.
AUTHORITIES.
Beardsley, Hist, of the Episcopal Woodruff, Genealogical Register of Church in Conn., ii, 58, 369. Pres. Litchfield, 116. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 449.
Philip Doddridge Keteltas, the next to the youngest of eleven children of the Rev. Abraham Keteltas (Yale 1752), was born in Jamaica, Long Island, on December y, 1771.
Immediately after graduation he began the study of medicine with Dr. Nicholas Romeyn, of New York City; and after a thorough preparation he established himself in 1795 in practice in New Rochelle, New York.
On May 7, 1796, he was married by the Rev. Theodosius Bartow, to Lavinia Gedney, of New Rochelle, and he then removed to the City of New York, where he practiced physic for more than forty years with distinguished success.
By his first wife he had two daughters and one son who grew to maturity ; and by a second wife, Mary W. Allen, a son and a daughter. His elder son entered the Class of 1822 at Yale, but withdrew after two years and was grad- uated at Union College in the corresponding class; he was admitted to an honorary degree here in 1870.
During the summer of 1844 the health of Dr. Keteltas rapidly declined, and he lingered in great debility until his death, at his home in New York, in christian hope, on February 16, 1845, ^^ ^is 74th year.
Nathaniel King was born on December 26, 1767, in Amenia, Duchess County, New York, the only son of Lieu- tenant Samuel King, an extensive farmer of Amenia, and grandson of Hezekiah King (who removed early in life
Biographical Sketches, 1792 25
from Boston, Massachusetts, to Bolton, Connecticut) and Sarah King. His mother, Rebekah Thompson, was the daughter of Amos and Sarah ( AlHng) Thompson, of New Haven.
His father died in 1784, and he was subsequently fitted for College, in part by his uncle, the Rev. Amos Thompson (Princeton College 1760), pastor of the Congregational Church in North Canaan, Connecticut, and in part in the Academy at Sharon, Connecticut, under John Thompson Peters (Yale 1789). He entered in December, 1791.
After graduation he studied law in the office of Ambrose Spencer (Harvard 1783), of Hudson, New York, and with Jacob R. VanRensselaer (Yale 1786), of Claverack, New York, and Moss Kent, younger brother of Chancellor Kent.
Being admitted to practice, he settled in February, 1797, in the village of Hamilton, now in Madison County, New York, where he remained until his death, on July 28, 1848, in his 8ist year.
He maintained the reputation of an honest lawyer, whose controlling desire was to give furtherance to justice.
He was three times a member of the New York State Assembly (in 1798-1800, and 1802) ; and was a Brigadier- General of the Militia from 1807 to 181 1.
General King first married, on December 15, 1803, Ottilia Mayer, of Hamilton, who bore him four sons, two of whom died in infancy, and three daughters.
After her death he married, on September 19, 181 6, Mary Bates, of Paris, New York, who had one son.
He married thirdly, on November 22 , 18 18, Mrs. Eliza- beth Tefft, of Hamilton, by whom he had two sons and one daughter.
Three of the sons entered their father's profession.
Samuel Lathrop, the sixth son and child of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754), of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was born on May i, 1772. He was pre-
26 Yale College
pared for College by his father, and ranked among the first in his Class in scholarship.
He remained in New Haven as a graduate student for two years, serving at the same time as College Butler.
He then returned home and took a thorough course of legal study, chiefly with Judge John Hooker (Yale 1782), of Springfield. On being admitted to the bar he began practice about 1796 in his native town; and on November 4, 1797, he married Mary, sister of his class- mate, McCrackan.
He soon attained eminence in his profession, and was early called into public life by being chosen a member of the Senate of his native State in 1808. He was re-elected in 1809, 1810, and again from 1814 to 1818; and then for four successive sessions, from December, 18 19, to March, 1827, he represented his District in the Congress of the United States.
In 1824 he was the candidate of the Federalists for the office of Governor of Massachusetts, against Governor Eustis, who was re-elected, receiving 38,000 votes to 34,000 for Mr. Lathrop. Governor Eustis died before the next election, but Mr. Lathrop declined a renomination.
During the latter part of his Congressional service he suffered from a severe attack of illness, Avhich gave a shock to his constitution from which he never fully recovered. He was able, however, to serve again in the State Senate from 1828 to 1830, and was President of that body in 1829 and 1830, or until he retired from public life. He was, however, the anti-Masonic candidate for Governor in 1831 and 1832.
After this he gave some slight attention to his profes- sion, but it was not long before his infirmities became so serious that he was obliged to decline everything that required severe effort. During the last five or six years of his life he never left home, unless for a few hours, and for a considerable time previous to his death was so infirm as to be an object of incessant solicitude.
Bio<^raphical Sketches, 1/92 27
After one week of acute suffering and partial uncon- sciousness, he died in West Springfield, on July 11, 1846, in his 75th year.
His widow died on November 22, 1853, in her 76th year. Their children were seven daughters and five sons, — of whom five daughters and three sons survived their parents. One son was graduated here in 1829, and two daughters were married to the Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague (Yale 1815), one to Dr. Henry Bronson (M.D. Yale 1827), and one to the Rev. Dr. Artemas A. Wood (Amherst College
1831).
Mr. Lathrop's mental powers were solid rather than brilliant, and his judgment and reasoning faculty were specially developed. To impressive dignity and uniform courtesy of manner he united great prudence and integrity. He was for many years a professor of religion, and to the last manifested a deep interest in its prosperity. In his later years, when forbidden by his infirmities to attend church, the hours of Sunday were largely occupied in read- ing the manuscript sermons of his venerable father.
His only publication, so far as known, was :
An Oration on the Death of Samuel Wales, Jun'r. a member of Yale-College, (son of the Rev. Samuel Wales, D.D. Professor of Divinity in Said College,) who Died November 20th, 1790, aetat. 17. New-Haven, 1791. 16°, pp. 21. [F. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Bates, Address in New Court Mass. Hist. Society's Proceedings,
House, 48-49. Dwight, Dwight Gen- xi, 57. N. Y. Observer, Aug. i,
ealogy, ii, 773, 782; Strong Geneal- 1846. Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary,
ogy, ii, 1 132. Huntington, Lathrop iii, 413, 475. Family Memoir, 121-22, 185-87.
Samuel Andrew Law was born in Cheshire, Connecti- cut, in November, and baptized on December 29, 1771, being the eldest child of William Law, and grandson of Jahleel and Anne (Baldwin) Law, of Cheshire. The
28 Yale College
Rev. Andrew Law, a well-known writer on psalmody, was his uncle. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Jason and Abigail (Atwater) Hotchkiss, of Cheshire.
One sister married the Rev. Stephen Dodd (honorary M.A. Yale 1845), ^^<i another married Abraham Bishop (Yale 1778). A brother was graduated here in 1803.
After leaving College he studied the profession of law with Judge Simeon Baldwin (Yale 1781), of New Haven, and at the Law School of Judge Reeve in Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1795. He then returned to his native place, and opened a school of a high order, which after satisfactory progress was merged in 1796 in the Episcopal Academy then begun in Cheshire.
In 1797 he received an ad eundem degree of Master of Arts from Columbia College, and also from Princeton.
About this date he went to Franklin, Delaware County, New York, as agent and part owner of the land in that township. He settled in 1797 in the portion of Franklin, which was included in the town of Meredith, incorporated in 1800, and there spent a long and useful life. He influenced a large immigration of New England- ers, thus giving to Meredith many of the characteristics of a New-England community.
He was for many years postmaster of the village, and also engaged extensively in the pursuit of agriculture, owning several of the finest farms in that vicinity.
His excellent judgment, in connection with his legal attainments, led to his appointment as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, the duties of which ofiice he performed for a number of years to the satisfaction of his fellow- citizens.
He died in Meredith on January 28, 1845, ^^ his 74th year, after a long and distressing illness.
He married Sarah, eldest daughter of Colonel William and Lois (Mansfield) Lyon, of New Haven, and widow of Eli C. Sherman, of Hartford (to whom she was mar- ried in December, 1795, and who died in September, 1799).
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 29
She died in Meredith on March 10, 1840, in her 65th year.
Two of their four sons were graduates of Yale, in the Classes of 1838 and 1841, respectively.
Judge Law became in mature life a professor of religion, and was a liberal and influential member of the Congre- gational Church at Meredith Square. He was a man of courteous and dignified address, affable in social life and abounding in anecdote.
AUTHORITIES.
Beardsley, Address on the soth N. Y. Gazetteer, 256. Mansfield Gen- Anniversary of the Episcopal Acad- ealogy, 51. Munsell, Hist, of Dela- emy of Conn., 37. Gould, Hist, of ware County, 249, 252. Tuttle Delaware County, 363-64. Hough, Family, 653.
John McCrackan was born in New Haven on Feb- ruary 7, 1775, the son of William McCrackan, a native of Glenluce, Wigtownshire, Scotland, and of Sarah Miles, of Wallingford, Connecticut.
He settled in Hartford, Connecticut, as a merchant, and on June 21, 1801, was married to Rebecca, daughter of Doctor Lemuel Hopkins, the Hartford poet, who had died two months earlier.
Mrs. McCrackan died in Hartford on November 14, 1803, aged 21 years, leaving an only son; and her husband removed in 1811-12 to New York City. He entered largely into the importation of burr-millstones and bolting- cloths, and was very successful in business, accumulating a handsome fortune.
Though his residence continued in New York until his death, he spent several years on the continent of Europe. An early New Haven friend found him in Naples, in December, 1832, declining rapidly with pulmonary con- sumption. They traveled together through Italy and the south of France, and within a few days after Mr. McCrackan reached Paris, he died there, on July 12, 1833,
30 Yale College
in his 59th year, and was buried in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise.
He was a gentleman of much humor, great intelligence, and warmly beloved. His religious views were those of the Liberal Unitarians.
His son succeeded to his business.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Quarterly, v, 522.
William Marchant, a son of the Hon. Henry Mar- chant (College of Philadelphia 1762), of Newport, United States Judge of the District Court of Rhode Island, was baptized by Dr. Ezra Stiles on December 18, 1774. His mother was Rebecca Cooke, of Newport.
He joined the Sophomore Class in November, 1789, and though among the younger part of the Class won distinc- tion as a speaker and writer. On taking his second degree, in 1795, he delivered an Oration on Commerce.
He settled in Newport, and was early elected a member of the State Senate. From 1808 to 1810 he was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Rhode Island, and was afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
In his later years he removed to South Kingston, in his native State, where he died on January 21, 1857, in his 84th year.
He married, on December 25, 1797, in Newport, Sally, daughter of Captain William Shaw, who died at South Kingston, in January, 1803, at the age of 26.
He was afterwards twice married, his third wife being a sister of his second; and had in all fourteen children, of whom only three survived him.
AUTHORITIES. R. I. Vital Record, xii, 22 ; xiv, 80. Pres. Stiles, Diary, i, 502 ; iii, 370.
Biographical Sketches, ijgs 31
Samuel Mather, the third of eleven children of Samuel Mather, of Lyme, Connecticut, and grandson of Richard and Deborah (Ely) Mather, of Lyme, was born on Jan- uary 4, 1 77 1. His mother was Lois, daughter of Deacon Thomas and Susannah (Lynde) Griswold, of Lyme, and niece of the first Governor Griswold. One sister married Dr. William Lord (Yale 1784), and another married Dr. Thomas Miner (Yale 1796).
At the age of 15 he was placed in the family of the Rev. Richard Ely (Yale 1754), of Centerbrook, by whom he was prepared for College.
On graduation he entered his father's store as a clerk, and the next spring became a partner in business with his elder brother Thomas, in Albany, New York. Here, in the midst of their earliest successes, a disastrous fire destroyed (in August, 1797) all their property; but they resumed business the following spring, and pursued it for four or five years with increasing prosperity.
The firm was then dissolved, and after spending two years in travel, principally in the western country, our graduate settled in Troy, New York, in mercantile business.
In 1807, he married Katharine, third daughter of Cap- tain Abraham and Maria (Peoples) Livingston, of Still- water, New York.
He resided in Troy for twelve years, and the war with England having very much impaired his business, he removed to Middletown, Connecticut, in the summer of 181 5, with the principal object of educating his children.
He was then for two or three years engaged in the ship- ping trade ; but not meeting with sufficient encouragement he retired from active business and devoted himself to the supervision of his family.
His children were six daughters (two of whom died early) and three sons. The eldest son was graduated at Wesleyan University in 1835. The eldest daughter mar- ried Major-General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, a hero of the
32 Yale College
Mexican and Civil wars ; and the fourth daughter married her first cousin, Thomas G. Mather (Yale 1826)'.
Mr. Mather died in Middletown on April 6, 1854, in his 84th year. His widow died on February i, 1855, in her 68th year.
He was one of the wealthiest citizens of Middletown, and of excellent, exemplary character.
AUTHORITIES. Holgate, American Genealogy, i86. Mather Family (1890), 163, 229-30.
Donald Grant Mitchell^ the eldest son of Chief Jus- tice Stephen Mix Mitchell (Yale 1763), of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on April 5, 1773, and was baptized on May 8, 1774, with the name of his maternal grandfather.
His early preparation for College was acquired in the school kept by the Rev. Timothy Dwight in Greenfield, Connecticut, and in 1787 he returned home, where he studied in the grammar school under the tuition of Azel Backus, who was just graduated from Yale.
During the latter part of his Junior year in College, and the first part of his Senior year, he attended kctures in Judge Reeve's Law School at Litchfield, Connecticut ; and after receiving his degree at New Haven, he resumed his studies in Litchfield, but found them uncongenial.
At this time our troubles with France led Congress to pass a resolution to raise a body of troops which were to be employed as exigencies might demand. In August, 1794, Mr. Mitchell was offered and accepted the commission of Captain of Artillery in this corps, and recruited in Ver- mont a body of men for a Captain's command.
With the other newly appointed officers he then repaired to the School opened by the Government at West Point, for instruction in the rudiments of military tactics. Colonel Rochefontaine, a Frenchman who was in command at the post, soon quarrelled with the subordinate officers, the
Biographical Sketches, 1/92 33
result of which was the dispersal of the School. Captain Mitchell was ordered to Detroit, and after a period of service there under General James Wilkinson, was ordered to return to Philadelphia, where he arrived, probably in July, 1798.
He was then appointed to the command of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, below Philadelphia. His duties obliged him to have frequent intercourse with the shipping on the river, and in this way he became exposed to yellow fever.
He was taken ill at his boarding-house in Philadelphia, and died there on August 6, 1798, in his 26th year. At the time of his death he was about to be appointed aide-de- camp to General Knox.
He was never married, but his name was given to a nephew, who added to it fresh lustre ; the latter owned an interesting miniature of his uncle, who was by tradition an unusually handsome young man.
AUTHORITIES.
Salisbury, Family-Histories and of Wethersfield, ii, 507. Genealogies, i, 179-80. Stiles, Hist.
William Perkins was born in Chaplin, then part of Mansfield, Connecticut, on February 22, 1770, being the eldest son of Deacon Isaac Perkins, an emigrant from England, and of Tamasine, daughter of Deacon Benjamin Chaplin, from whom the town received its name, and sister of Benjamin Chaplin, Junior (Yale 1778). While an infant his father's family removed to the adjoining town- ship of Ashford, where the subject of this notice resided until his death.
In 1793 he began his professional studies under the instruction of the Hon. Zephaniah Swift (Yale 1778), of W^indham, and in 1795 he was admitted to the bar of Windham County. He became known as a powerful, though not a graceful pleader, with a profound knowledge of the law, and a clear, mathematical style of reasoning. 3
34 5^o/^ College
He attended regularly the courts in Windham and Tol- land counties, and his business was so extensive that he was with his family but four or five months in a year.
He was a Federalist in politics, and represented the town in the General Assembly during two sessions, in 1812-13. He was also a member of the Governor's Council for the two years (1816-17) before his party lost control of the State. In 18 18 he was a delegate to the Convention for forming the new Constitution. In 1817 he was appointed State's Attorney for Windham County, and held the office until his death.
His constitution was feeble and for years he was not free from a cough. In the fall of 1819, while on his way to Windham, his carriage was overturned and he received a severe contusion in his side, besides the dislocation of several bones in his foot. By neglecting proper care in these circumstances he fell into a decline, and died on Jan- uary 20, 1820, at the age of fifty. He had been a consis- tent and devoted member of the Congregational Church in Ashf ord for seven years before his death.
He married, on February 12, 1795, Mary, second daugh- ter of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Lee (Yale 1766), of Lisbon, Connecticut, by whom he had eight sons and three daugh- ters, of whom all but one son survived him.
The second son was a Sophomore at Yale at the time of his father's death, but left College in a few months. The fourth son was graduated here in 1828.
Mr. Perkins was careless and easy-going in the conduct of his affairs, and accumulated no property. One of his professional maxims was, never to undertake a lawsuit for one neighbor against another until he had made every effort to bring about a settlement by a personal interview between the parties.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vi, Genealogies, iii, 32-33. 91. Salisbury, Family-Histories and
Biographical Sketches, 1792 35
John Radcliff, of Dutch descent, was born in Rhine- beck, Duchess County, New York, in January, 1772, and was baptized on the 7th of the following June. He was the third son of General William Radcliff of Rhinebeck, and grandson of Joachem and Hellitje (Hogeboom) Rad- cliff. His mother was Sarah Kip, also of Rhinebeck.
His eldest brother (Jacob) was graduated at Princeton in 1783, and his next brother (William) at the same Col- lege in 1784; while the remaining brother (Peter) was graduated at Yale in 1793.
He was prepared for College at the Academy in Sharon, Connecticut, under the instruction of Elisha Sterling (Yale 1787), while he lived in the family of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith (Yale 1751), one of whose daughters was the wife of his brother Jacob. (It was probably a conse- quence of this marriage that the younger Radcliffs were diverted from Princeton to Yale. ) He entered College in May of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he engaged in an extensive mercantile business in New York City, which was broken up by the War of 181 2, when he returned to Rhinebeck, where the rest of his life was spent.
In 18 13 he was appointed by the Governor and Council High Sheriff of Duchess County, — the highest and most lucrative office in the county, which by legal limitation he could hold but four years. He had always been a Fed- eralist, and was induced to accept this appointment to reconcile some party divisions then existing among local politicians.
He married, on October 25, 1798, his second cousin, Jane, daughter of General David and Cornelia (Heer- mance) Van Ness, of Rhinebeck, who died on September 26, 1844, in her 67th year. Of their ten children two died in infancy, and four sons and four daughters grew to maturity.
$6 Yale College
He died in Rhinebeck in June, 1852, in his 81 st year. One son and three daughters survived him.
AUTHORITIES. E. M. Smith, Hist, of Rhinebeck, 207. Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 340, 406.
Samuel Rudd, the only surviving son of Jonathan and TaHtha (Ormsby) Rudd, of Norwich West Farms, now Frankhn, Connecticut, and grandson of Jonathan and Joanna (Gregory) Rudd, of Frankhn, was born in Frank- hn on November 3, 1772. His father died of the small- pox in the year of his birth. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Nott (Yale 1780), and entered College in February of the Freshman year.
By election of his Class he pronounced a funeral Ora- tion, in December, 1790, on two deceased classmates, John Tilden and Timothy Larrabee.
He intended on leaving College, to study theology, but on account of ill health abandoned the plan and took up school-teaching in New York City, where he married Cor- nelia H. Soule.
His wife died in New York, after bearing him one son, who died early, and one daughter, who survived him.
His health was never firm, and he was often feeble for long periods. He taught for a time at Norwich Landing, Connecticut, and afterwards in the central part of the town, — his mother keeping house for him.
He taught in Boonville, Oneida County, New York, in 1822, and then opened, early in January, 1823, a grammar school in the adjoining town of Leyden, Lewis County, where he died nine weeks later in great peace, on March 13, in his 51st year.
His talents were respectable, and solid rather than bril- liant. As a teacher he was acceptable. He united with the Dutch Reformed Church in New York City, and sus- tained a character of unblemished piety.
Biographical Sketches, iyg2 37
Thomas Savage, son of Thomas Savage, of Charleston, South CaroHna, who died in 1786, was born in Charleston on August 23, 1776. His mother, Mary Elliott, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Butler) Elliott, of Charleston, died in 1787. He entered in May of the Sophomore year, and was the youngest member of the Class at graduation.
He studied law with Judge Tapping Reeve, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in Savannah, Georgia, but never practiced, — his time being devoted to literary and agricultural pursuits.
Having ample wealth he settled on a plantation in Bryan County, a few miles south of Savannah, and mar- ried in 1 8 10 Mary, eldest daughter of the Hon. John Wallace, British Consul at Savannah.
Mr. Savage died in Bryan County, on October 12, 18 12, in his 37th year, leaving one son and one daughter. The former died in infancy, and the latter married George Jones (Yale 1829).
The newspaper notice of his death describes him as "an accomplished gentleman, and finished scholar, of great dignity of deportment,. . . more devoted to books than society."
AUTHORITIES.
G. Jones, MS. letter, July 26, 1847. ing Ledger, Oct. 20, 1812. Pres. The Republican, and Savannah Even- Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 394-95.
Ledyard Seymour was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on August 2, 1 77 1, being the youngest son of Colonel Thomas Seymour (Yale 1755), and deriving his christian name from his mother, Mary, a sister of Colonel William Ledyard, who was massacred at Fort Griswold in 1781. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Elizur Good- rich, of Durham, Connecticut.
Soon after graduation he was married to Amanda, the youngest child of Dr. John and Amanda (Russell) Red- field, of Guilford, Connecticut ;. and immediately went into
jS Yale College
mercantile business in the city of New York under the patronage of some of his maternal relatives. His wife died in New York of the smallpox, on January 24, 1795, in her 20th year, leaving one child, who died in infancy.
After prosecuting his business for a short time, he found himself unsuccessful and relinquished it, probably in 1796. In 1800 he went to Havana, and resided there for three years.
After his return, he made a short stay in Boston, and then settled in his native city, where he resided for the rest of his life.
On September 13, 1807, he married Widow Hannah (Thomas) Berkenhead, of East Haddam, Connecticut, by whom he had ten children, of whom only two, a daughter and a son, survived him.
He died in Hartford on March 8, 1848, in his 77th year. His widow died there on March 8, 187 1.
AUTHORITIES.
Parker, Hist, of Second Church, 28, 62. Miss M. K. Talcott, MS. Hartford, 364. Redfield Genealogy, Letter, Jan., 1910.
John Sherman was born in New Haven on June 30, 1772. His father was John Sherman, the eldest son of the Hon. Roger Sherman by his first wife, Elizabeth Hartwell, and his mother was Rebecca Austin, a sister of the eccentric Rev. David Austin (Yale 1779). One sister married the Rev. Erastus Ripley (Yale 1795), and another married the Rev. Ira Hart (Yale 1797) ; two brothers were graduated here, in 1802 and 1803 respectively.
After graduation he began the study of theology wuth his uncle, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and completed it under the direction of President Dwight, in New Haven, where he was licensed to preach by the West Association of ministers, on October 18, 1796.
After preaching as a candidate for several months in the First (Congregational) Church in Mansfield, Tolland
Biographical Sketches, iyQ2 39
County, Connecticut, he accepted a unanimous call to the pastorate there, and was ordained and installed on Novem- ber 15, 1797.
His early labors met with much favor. Divisions in the congregation were healed, and about five months after his settlement a revival of religion took place, which resulted in the admission of nearly one hundred to the church.
At the outset he had been earnest for the stricter sort of orthodoxy; but he soon began to be in doubt about the Trinity and allied doctrines, and within three years after his settlement it became evident that he had become a Uni- tarian (or, at least, an Arian) and desired to reconstruct the church covenant in that sense.
He seems to have made no concealment of his views, and his hold upon his people was so strong that a majority of both church and congregation desired his continuance in the pastorate. Under his influence, a Presbyterian form of government was adopted in February, 1803, and the jurisdiction of the County Association and Consocia- tion was thus set at naught. The Association suspended ministerial relations with him in October, 1804. The aggrieved minority of the church continued to agitate for the discipline of the pastor; and during the summer of 1805 he visited some relatives residing in Oldenbarneveld, later Trenton, now Barneveld, in Oneida County, New York, and received an invitation to settle in that place.
In September, 1805, he published a volume under the title *'One God in one Person only; and Jesus Christ a Being distinct from God. .", being the first formal and elaborate defence of Unitarianism that had ever appeared in New England; and shortly after, the majority of the church decided to call a council to advise as to his dismis- sion. This council, of which the Rev. Henry Channing (Yale 1781) was moderator, met on October 23, and two days later agreed that it was expedient that the pastoral relation be dissolved, owing to the difficulties and embar- rassments which existed.
40 Yale College
This result was unwelcome to the friends of Mr. Sher- man (though not to himself), and on December 19 they gave him a call to resettle, which he wisely declined. Dur- ing his pastorate 105 members had been added to the church.
Mr. Sherman immediately removed to Oldenbarneveld, and on March 9, 1806, he was installed there over the first Unitarian church in the State of New York, called the Reformed Christian Church in Oneida County, and consist- ing of fourteen members.
This connection continued only until March, 1810, when he resigned on account of inadequate support, in view of his large and growing family.
He subsequently established an academy in the same neighborhood, which soon acquired great popularity, and occupied nearly all his attention for many years.
In 1822 he caused a hotel to be built at Trenton Falls, for the entertainment of visitors, in which he resided as host after 1823.
He died in this house on August 2, 1828, in his 57th year, and was buried by his special request on the grounds of his hotel.
He married, on February 13, 1798, Abigail, or Abby, daughter of Jacob and Abigail (Thomas) Perkins, of Nor- wich, Connecticut, who died on December 8, i860, in her 87th year, at Trenton Falls.
Their children were four sons, two of whom died in infancy, and five daughters, one of whom married the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Bouton (Yale 1821).
Mr. Sherman was a man of superior talents; but like his brothers inherited from his mother a nervous tempera- ment, with some tendency towards unstable reason.
He published :
I. One God in one Person only : and Jesus Christ a being distinct from God, dependent upon him for his existence, and his various powers ; maintained and defended. Worcester, 1805. 8°, pp. 200. [A. A. S. B. Ath. Brit. Mus. U. T. S.
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 41
A reply was published in 1806 by the Rev. Daniel Dow (Yale 1793).
2. A View of Ecclesiastical Proceedings in the County of Wind- ham, Connecticut, in which the Original Association of that County and a few Members of the First Church in Mansfield were con- cerned; containing public documents, letters, &c. relative to the subject. To which are annexed the Result of Council, and Addresses to the Society, the Church, the youth of Mansfield and others. Utica, 1806. 8°, pp. no. [B. Ath. B. Publ. Y. C.
3. A Vision respecting the fate of the Rev. John Sherman's last publication, or his "View of Ecclesiastical Proceedings," &c. &c. Offered to the Public as a Spur to the Lovers of Truth and long established Doctrines to defend the Religion of our Fathers against the daring Attempt of modern Innovators in Church and State. . . Worcester, 1806. 8°, pp. 14. [A. A. S. B. Ath. M. H. S.
Anonymous. A pretended vision of an assembly of editors and reviewers of the Panoptist at Boston, in consultation over Mr. Sher- man's View.
4. Trenton Falls. 1822. 12°, pp. 6. [U. S. Anonymous.
5. The Philosophy of Language illustrated; an entirely new system of Grammar . . Trenton-Falls, 1826. 12°, pp. 324.
[B. Publ. Y. C. Dedicated to the Hon. Phifip Hone, of New York City.
6. A Description of Trenton Falls, Oneida County, New- York. Utica, 1827. 12°, pp. 18. [Y. C.
Also, in several later editions. Repubhshed in 185 1 (New York, 12°, pp. 91+9 pl-) with additional matter by N. P. Willis (Yale 1827), who pays a high tribute to Mr. Sherman and his public spirit.
AUTHORITIES.
Belsham, Memoirs of the Rev. T. Discourse in Mansfield, 31-35. Per-
Lindsey, 2d ed., 192-204. Contribu- kins Family, pt. 3, 43. Sprague,
tions to the Ecclesiastical Hist, of Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, viii, 326-
Conn., 41&-19. Glidden, Centennial 30. Pres. Stiles, Lit. Diary, iii, 332.
Roger Minott Sherman was born in Woburn, Massa- chusetts, on May 22, 1773. He was the youngest of six children of the Rev. Josiah Sherman (Princeton College
43 Yale College
1754), of that town, who was a brother of the distin- gxiished Roger Sherman; and his mother was Martha, daughter of the Hon. James and EHzabeth (Merrick) Minott, of Concord, Massachusetts. His eldest sister married the Rev. Justus Mitchell (Yale 1776). In his infancy his father removed to Milford, and thence to Goshen, Connecticut; in the summer of 1789 he accepted a call to the church in Woodbridge, Connecticut, but died about a month after his son entered College, at the opening of the Sophomore year.
By this event the son was thrown upon his own resources, except so far as his uncle, for whom he was named, assisted him. Through his Sophomore year he boarded at his uncle's house ; and for the later years of his College course he supported himself by teaching in New Haven.
After graduation he began the study of law in Windsor, under the direction of the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, and at the same time taught an academy. After about two years he removed to Litchfield, where he continued his studies with the Hon. Tapping Reeve, while teaching a common school.
In February, 1795, he was elected a Tutor in College, and on March 12 began his duties, succeeding James Gould, of the Class of 1791, in the instruction of the Sophomore Class, and at the same time continuing the study of law with the Hon. Simeon Baldwin (Yale 1781). He united with the church in Yale College by profession of his faith on May i, 1796, and ever after made the advancement of the interests of religion a prime object.
He was admitted to the bar in New Haven early in 1796, and in May of that year resigned the tutorship and settled in the profession of the law in Norwalk, Connecticut.
On December 13, 1796, he married EHzabeth (or Betsy), daughter of Dr. and Colonel William Gould, formerly of Branford, but at that time of New Haven, and sister of Dr. Orchard Gould (Yale 1783) and of Judge James Gould (Yale 1791).
Biographical Sketches, 17^2 43
His eminence in his profession was early acknowledged, and his influence exerted in other relations. He repre- sented the town in the General Assembly in the two ses- sions of 1798.
In 1807 he removed to Fairfield, in the same county, where the principal courts were at that time held, and where he resided until his death.
He continued at the bar for forty-three years, and his business as an advocate was very extensive.
It is believed that he argued more causes than any other lawyer who practiced in Connecticut during the first half of the nineteenth century. He did comparatively little ofiice-business, but devoted his time to the trial of causes in court, and he also for more than twenty-five years attended the Legislature as an advocate in cases pending before that body. He was deeply interested in the admin- istration of justice as provided for by legislative enactment, and many of the statutes of the State in the department of municipal law during his active life were drawn up and their passage procured by him.
In 1814 he was elected to the Governor's Council, and continued in that office until May, 18 18, when the consti- tution of the State was altered. During this time he declined a nomination to the United States Congress. In 1 8 14 he was appointed a delegate to the Hartford Conven- tion, in the proceedings of which he took an active part. He had been actively interested also in the steps prelim- inary to the call of the Convention, and was the author of the Report to the Connecticut Legislature, of the Com- mittee which had recommended the appointment of delegates.
After the death of President D wight in 18 17 he was considered by some as a candidate for the presidency of Yale.
In 1829 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by the Corporation of Yale College. He was a representative of Fairfield in the General Assem- bly in 1825 and 1838.
44 5^0^^ College
In May, 1839, he was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court and of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, but resigned in May, 1842, on account of ill health. His legal knowledge, his thoroughness and independence, and his inflexible integrity contributed to make his tenure of this office highly successful.
During the last years of his life he suffered from acute disease, and consequently lived in retirement, though his intellectual powers remained unimpaired.
In December, 1844, he was seized with more severe illness, and declined rapidly until his death, in Fairfield, on December 30, in his 72d year. The discourse preached at his funeral by his pastor, the Rev. Lyman H. Atwater (Yale 1831), was afterwards published. Judge Sherman had been elected a deacon in the church in Fairfield in 1810, but resigned before his death.
His widow died in Fairfield, after years of feeble health, on August 3, 1848, in her 75th year.
Their only children were twin sons, both of extraordi- nary promise, whose health failed early.
Mrs. Sherman's will, made in pursuance of her hus- band's, bequeathed their homestead (which was, when built, the finest house in town), with an endowment fund, to the First Ecclesiastical Society of Fairfield. Among other public bequests was one of $4,000 to Yale College. The value of the entire estate was over $71,000.
There is no doubt that Mr. Sherman's rank as a lawyer was among the very first in the country, — to be compared with that of Jeremiah Mason and Daniel Webster.
He published :
1. Letter to the Hon. Elisha Phelps, Controller of Public Accounts, Hartford, Conn,, dated Fairfield, March 22, 1832. i sheet. [Y. C.
On the banking system of the State.
2. Letters to the Honourable Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. New-York, 1837. 8°, pp. 24.
[F. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1792 45
Anonymous. Recommending the establishment of a national bank.
His opinions as Judge are included in the Connecticut Reports (vols. 13 and 14). He uniformly declined all invitations for the delivery of public addresses.
His correspondence and other private papers are depos- ited in the rooms of the County Historical Society in Fairfield.
A copy of his portrait, painted by Jocelyn in 1840, belongs to the College, — the original still hanging in his mansion in Fairfield.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vii, lections of a lifetime, ii, 25-29, 47.
27. Beers, Biographical Sketch of Goodwin, Foote Family, 185, 309.
R. M. Sherman. Boutell, Life of Hall, Hist, of Norwalk, 239. Hurd,
Roger Sherman, 253-57. Child, An Hist, of Fairfield County, 326-27.
old New England town, 195-213; New Englander, iv, 1-19. Pres.
An old New England church, 100, Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 555, 559. 108, 125-26, 158. Goodrich, Recol-
AsA Spalding was a son of Dr. John Spalding, a native of Canterbury, Connecticut, who removed to New Haven about 1780.
He became dissipated after graduation, and was reputed to be a confirmed gambler.
He died in Charleston, South Carolina, while on his way home from a point further South, on October 13, 1794, aged 21 years.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, Nov. 26, 1794
Ephraim Strong was born in Southbury, then part of Woodbury, Connecticut, on December 20, 1771, the only son of Ebenezer Strong, a farmer of Southbury, and
46 Yale College
grandson of Ebenezer and Mary (Smith) Strong. His mother was Patience, daughter of Ephraim and Rebecca (Lee) Hinman, of Southbury.
After graduation he studied law, and on June 6, 1798, married Clarissa, daughter of Josiah and Anna (Wells) Hale, of Glastonbury, Connecticut.
On account of poor health he abandoned his profession, and in 1800 or 180 1 settled in Greensboro, in northern Ver- mont, in mercantile business combined with agriculture. He had a useful career there as postmaster, justice of the peace, etc., and during a special revival of religion in 1806 he came into the membership of the church.
The war of 181 2 broke up his business plans, so that in 1 8 14 he removed to Silver Lake, in Northeastern Pennsyl- vania, where he cleared a farm. In 1819 he removed to the northwestwards for a similar duty to Waverly, in the present township of Barton, Tioga County, New York; and thence in 1825 to Ogden, near Rochester.
Finally, in 1836, he settled in Hudson, Ohio, the seat of Western Reserve College, where he continued to live until his death, on January 25, i860, aged 88 years.
His wife died on April 12, 1854, in her 78th year.
They had seven sons (the youngest of whom died in infancy) and two daughters. One son, who became a clergyman, was graduated at Williams College in 1833. The younger daughter was the principal of a flourishing Female Seminary in Hudson. Of his entire family, only three sons survived him.
Mr. Strong was a man of vigorous intellect and ardent piety ; he was prominent as a radical abolitionist.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, 501-02. Perkins, Early times on the vii, no. Dwight, Strong Family, i, Susquehanna, 169-70.
Biographical Sketches, 1792 47
Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1765, the eldest child of Eli Whitney, a prosperous farmer, of Westboro, and grandson of Nathaniel and Mary (Child) Whitney. His mother was Elizabeth, eldest child of Benjamin and Martha (Miles) Fay, of Westboro.
As a boy he manifested unusual mechanical genius and a thirst for learning. His step-mother, however, opposed his wish for a liberal education, so that it was not until his twenty-third year that he was able to leave home, hav- ing laid up some money by the avails of manual labor and by teaching a village school.
He then spent some months with the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich, of Durham, Connecticut, in preparation for College, and was admitted to the Freshman Class on April 30, 1789.
He finished his education with little expense to his father, and was looking forwards to the law as his profession. But the way was not clear, owing to his pecuniary necessi- ties, and he accepted an offer to go to Georgia as a private tutor, with the expectation of prosecuting legal studies at the same time.
He sailed for Savannah on the same vessel with the widow and family of General Nathanael Greene, and spent a few weeks on Mrs. Greene's plantation at Mulberry Grove, about twenty-five miles from Savannah, before pro- ceeding to fulfil his engagement.
While there his attention was called to the need of some device for separating the cotton staple, of the upland green-seed variety, from its seeds, and he almost at once hit upon a plan for such a machine. Meantime he had learned that his promised employment as teacher was not to be as lucrative as he had expected, and he concluded to relinquish his school and devote himself to perfecting his invention. Before the close of the year 1792 he had con- structed an imperfect model of such a machine ; and by the following April he had completed, under great difficulties, a
48 Yale College
specimen cotton-gin, — the machine which was destined to revolutionize the problem of slave-labor at the South.
On the 27th of May he formed a partnership for the manufacture of cotton-gins with Phineas Miller (Yale 1785), a planter living near Mrs. Greene, who became her second husband in 1796.
Mr. Whitney then returned to the northwards, to apply for a patent and to superintend the manufacture of the machines ; but was pursued by calamities. Almost at the outset the model left in Georgia was stolen, and a variety of copies with slight changes were put upon the market. Further, his own illness, the difficulty of procuring funds, and a serious loss by fire combined to embarrass his move- ments. A patent was issued on March 4, 1794, but almost interminable lawsuits ensued, arising from the numerous infringements on the patent-rights. In 1801 the South- Carolina legislature purchased the right of using the machine in that State; and in 1802 North Carolina did likewise. No small portion, however, of the money thus obtained was absorbed in carrying on law-suits in Georgia ; and no decision on the merits of the inventor's claim was given until thirteen years of his patent term had expired. In 1812 he made application to Congress to renew the patent ; but owing to opposition from those who had been most benefited he was unsuccessful.
But these harassing experiences brought out most finely the strength and nobility of his character.
Despairing of any adequate return from the invention which had so absorbed his energies, he turned in 1798 to a new interest, from which he might reasonably hope for a successful result.
In June of this year he obtained a contract for the manu- facture of muskets for the United States army. To this end he purchased a tract of ground (now called Whitney- ville) on Mill River, at the foot of East Rock and within two miles of the New Haven Green. Here he established an armory, and labored with great diligence to fulfil his
Biographical Sketches, iy^2 49
contract. Heavy expenses were incurred in providing the plant, and unforeseen difficulties in securing skilled labor; but the result was highly creditable to Mr. Whitney's prudence and genius.
Other contracts followed and the business had become prosperous before Mr. Whitney's death. He introduced the principle of the division of labor as never before, and did much to inaugurate the industrial development of the new century.
In September, 1822, he was attacked with enlargement of the prostate gland, and after successive periods of intense suffering he died at his house in New Haven on January 8, 1825, in his 60th year.
He married, on January 6, 1817, Henrietta Frances, the youngest child of the Hon. Pierpont Edwards (Princeton Coll. 1768) and Frances (Ogden) Edwards, of New Haven. Their children were three daughters (one of whom died in infancy) and one son, who was graduated at Princeton in 1841.
Mrs. Whitney died in New Haven on April 16, 1870, in her 84th year, being the last surviving grandchild of President Edwards.
A portrait of Mr. Whitney, painted by S. F. B. Morse about 1822, belongs to the College ; and another in the pos- session of his family has been often engraved.
In 1823 he presented $500 to the College, on condition that the interest should be expended in purchasing for the Library books relative to practical mechanics and mechan- ical and physical science generally.
In his person he was considerably above the ordinary size, of a dignified carriage, and of an open, manly and agreeable countenance.
The only separate publication from his pen which has been noticed is the following :
An Oration on the death of Mr. Robert Grant, a member of the Senior Class, in Yale-College, Connecticut : who died on the fourth of April, 1792, aetat. xxiii. New-Haven. 8°, pp. 15. \Y. C.
A
so Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Historical Review, iii, 90- and N. Y., ii, 286-90. McMaster,
127. Bankers' Magazine, Aug. 1848, iii, 73-88. Blake, Hist, of Hamden 1 1 1-39, 281-309. DeBow's Review xxxix, 434-38. Deforest & Bates Hist, of Westborough, 355, 434-35 B. W. Dwight, Dwight Family, ii 1043. T. Dwight, Travels in N. E
Hist, of the people of the U. S., ii, 161-63. N. H. Hist. Society Papers, v, 109-31. Olmsted, Memoir of E. Whitney. Pierce, Whitney Geneal- ogy, 134, 254-56. Pres. Stiles, Lit- erary Diary, iii, 353, 467, 516-17, 560. Westborough Vital Records, 106.
Solomon Williams was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, on January 6, 1772. He was the oldest child of the Hon. William Williams (Harvard College 1751), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a nephew of the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Williams (Yale 1743). His mother was Mary, second daughter of Governor Jonathan Trumbull (Harvard 1727). His only brother was graduated here in 1795.
His natural abilities were of a high order and of very early development, so that he passed a creditable exam- ination for admission to Yale when only ten years of age ; but his entrance was postponed for six years. While in College his health suffered from too close application. • After graduation he returned to his native town, and filled for some years a useful place in the community. He represented the town in four sessions of the General Assembly in 1799-1803, and had the prospect of a prom- ising career in civil life. His preference, however, was for the ministry, and he finally began his preparation for that profession ; but his health continued to be exceedingly deli- cate, and he was forced to relinquish his hopes.
He then decided that the best way open to him to serve the cause of religion was through the circulation of good literature; and in 1807 he removed to New York City, where he opened a Classical and Theological Bookstore, which came to be a favorite resort of the evangelical public and promised to be a means of extensive usefulness. He united with the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church, and was chosen one of its ruling elders.
Biographical Sketches, i/p2 51
He died in New York, from typhus fever, on October 5, 1810, in his 39th year.
He married in 1806 Harriet, third daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Stillman) Burr, of Hartford, Connecticut, who survived him with two sons and one daughter. The latter married the Rev. Dr. Elisha L. Cleaveland (Bowdoin College 1829).
AUTHORITIES.
Christian's Magazine, iv, 52-54. Burr Family, 2d ed., 253-54. Wil- Hine, Early Lebanon, 98. Todd, Hams Family, 180.
5* Vale College
Annals, 1792-93
The most interesting event of the year was the laying of the cornerstone of a new College building. It had been agreed, at a special meeting in October, 1792, that the building should be placed at right angles and to the north- wards -of the present Connecticut Hall ; and in shape should resemble the original College, narrow and long, with only one room in depth; but the abundant public criticism of this plan led to a reconsideration in January, and the adoption of a plan substantially the same as that of Con- necticut Hall, on a site in line with that building nearer Chapel Street. The cornerstone of South College was accordingly laid on April 15 with due ceremony.
The Hon. Roger Sherman was present on this occasion in his official capacity as Mayor of the city ; his death, on the 23d of the following July, in his 73d year, removed the most distinguished citizen of New Haven, at whose funeral the students and tutors of the College led the procession.
At Commencement in 1793, a distressing situation of long standing was relieved by the removal of the Rev. Dr. Wales from the Professorship of Divinity. He had suf- fered for ten years, with increasing frequency, from epilep- tic fits; and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754), of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was now offered the vacant chair.
At the same time Amos Bassett, of the Class of 1784, resigned the tutorship, and James Gould, of the Class of 1 79 1, was elected as his successor.
Biographical Sketches, J/pj 53
Sketches, Class of 1793
|
*Jeremias Atwater, A.M., S.T.D. Coll. Dickins. |
|
|
1810 et Univ. Penns. 1811 et Univ. Car. Bor. |
|
|
1813, Tutor, Coll. Mediob. et Coll. Dickins. |
|
|
Praeses |
*i858 |
|
*Asa Bacon |
*i857 |
|
*Burrage Beach, A.M. |
*i844 |
|
*Hemanus Berry |
*i8o5 |
|
*Hezekias Woodbridge Bissell |
*l802 |
|
* Samuel Curtiss Blackman |
*i858 |
|
*David Sherman Boardman, A.M. |
*i864 |
|
*Hezekias Brainerd |
*i795 |
|
*Eliab Brewer, A.M. Guilielm. 1798 |
*i8o4 |
|
*Pardon Brown |
♦1846 |
|
*Perlee Brush |
*i86o |
|
*Guilielmus Pitt Cleaveland |
*i845 |
|
*Crescentius Cooke |
*i8i4 |
|
*Benjamin Doolittle |
=^1849 |
|
"^Daniel Dozv, S.T.D. Guil. 1840, Soc. |
*i849 |
|
*Robertus Fairchild, Socius ex off. |
*i835 |
|
*Deodatus Johnson Griswold |
*i85o |
|
*Joab Griswold |
*i8i4 |
|
*Johannes Lee |
*i8i4 |
|
*He2ekias May |
*i843 |
|
*Michael Olco'tt |
♦1829 |
|
*Amos Pardee |
*i849 |
|
"^Petrus Manigault Parker |
♦1802 |
|
*David Phelps |
*i85i |
|
^Amasa Porter, A.M. |
*i856 |
|
*David Putnam |
*i856 |
|
*Petrus Guilielmus RadcHff, A.M. 1799 |
♦1840 |
|
*Josephiis Russell, A.M. |
*i86i |
54 Yale College
*Winthrop Saltonstall, M.D. Columb. 1796 *i8o2
* Johannes Sargearit *iS2g
"^Samuel Shepard, A.M. 1798, S.T.D. Cone. 1819 *i846
"^Ichabod Lord Skinner, A.M. *i852
*Georgius Washington Stanley, A.M. ^1854
*Grosvenor Tarbell, A.M. 1806 et Harv. 1810 *i822
*Isaacus Miles Wales *i825
"^Josephus Washburn, A.M. *i8o5
"^Ezra Witter *i833
Jeremiah Atwater, the second and eldest surviving child of Jeremiah Atwater, a New Haven merchant, and grandson of John and Hannah (Thompson) Atwater, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was born in New Haven on Decem- ber 2y, 1773, and was prepared for College by Eli BuUard (Yale 1787). His mother was Lois Hurd, of Killing- worth, Connecticut. A younger brother was graduated here in 1805.
Though among the youngest in his Class, he was dis- tinguished in scholarship, and won the rank of Berkeley Scholar, which entitled him to reside as a graduate for three years on that foundation.
He also received in 1794 and 1795 the Premiums estab- lished by Noah Webster (Yale 1778) for the best essay, — his subjects being respectively. The true dignity of Genius, and A view of the origin of the Heathen Mythology, and its influence on the moral and intellectual powers.
He entered on a tutorship at Yale in 1795, when Dr. Dwight assumed the Presidency, and studied theology with him, winning his high regard.
He was licensed to preach by the New Haven Eastern Association of Ministers on May 29, 1798, and early in 1799 resigned his office as tutor, to accept the place of Principal of the Addison County Grammar School, in Middlebury, Vermont. President Dwight had visited Mid- dlebury in 1798, when plans were being formed for the opening of this school, and by his advice its future
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ 55
development into a College was undertaken; and with this in view Mr. Atwater was, on Dr. Dwight's recom- mendation, secured as Principal. From December, 1799, to 1802 he supplied the Congregational Church in Middle- bury.
A charter incorporating Middlebury College was granted by the legislature in November, 1800, and Mr. Atwater was by the same act made President, and retained that office until August, 1809, when he resigned to accept the presidency of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsyl- vania, to which he had been elected on June 29.
His experience in academic discipline was emphasized by those who favored his appointment, and a great improvement in this respect was claimed for his adminis- tration.
Shortly before leaving Vermont, on June 14, he was ordained to the work of the ministry, at New Haven, in that State, on the occasion of a pastor being installed there.
The interference of the trustees in the internal manage- ment of Dickinson College led to his resignation in Sep- tember, 18 1 5, when he returned to his native city, to reside permanently. During his later years he was intently inter- ested in political affairs, and much absorbed in the accumu- lation of property.
Pie died in New Haven, after two years' suffering from partial paralysis, on July 29, 1858, in his 85th year.
He married, on February 7, 1802, Clarissa, daughter of the Rev. Eleazar Storrs (Yale 1762), of Sandisfield, Berk- shire County, Massachusetts, who died in New Haven on February 8, 1834, in her 58th year.
He then married, on December 2, 1834, Susan, third daughter of Amos and Betsey (Woodward) Morris, of East Haven, Connecticut. She first married Willet Brad- ley of New Haven, who died in 181 1, and next married Eli Barnes, of Fair Haven, who died in 1827. She died in New Haven on February 17, 1854, in her 70th year.
56 Yale College
By his first marriage he had one daughter, who married the Rev. OHver B. Butterfield (honorary M.A. Yale 1845), and four sons, two of whom died early. The elder sur- viving son was graduated at Yale in 1827, and the younger in 1834.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Dickinson College in 18 10, as well as by the University of Pennsylvania in 181 1 and the University of North Carolina in 1813.
The house on College Street in which Dr. Atwater spent his later life was removed in 1905 to furnish the site for the second Vanderbilt-Scientific Hall; and a part of his adjoining estate, given to the Sheffield Scientific School by his youngest son, was used for the erection of Byers Hall.
An engraving from his portrait in advanced life is pre- fixed to the Record of the Centennial Anniversary of Mid- dlebury College in 1900.
He published :
I. A Sermon [from i Peter ii, 16], preached . . on the day of the Anniversary Election, October 14, 1802. Middlebury, 1802. 8°, pp. 39- [B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. Y. C.
'2. An Inaugural Address delivered at the PubHc Commencement of Dickinson College, September 27th, 1809 . . Carlisle, 1809. 8°, pp. 19. [B. Ath. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Quarterly Register, ix, 122- ii, 283. Morris Family of E. Haven,
23, 222-23. Atwater History, 150, 36-39- Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary,
203-04. Himes, Sketch of Dickinson iii, 494. College, 50-51. Historical Magazine,
Asa Bacon, son of Captain Asa Bacon, a somewhat opu- lent farmer of Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut, and grandson of Lieutenant John and Ruth (Spalding) Bacon, of Canterbury, was born in Canterbury on February 8, 1 77 1. His mother was Abigail, daughter of Joshua and Amy (Blodgett) Whitney, of Plainfield, Connecticut, and niece of the Rev. Dr. Josiah Whitney (Yale 1752). His
Biographical Sketches, 1793 57
two brothers were graduated at Yale, in 1796 and 1806, respectively; and his eldest sister married his classmate Cleaveland.
After graduation he studied law for about six months in his native town with General Moses Cleaveland (Yale 1777), and then joined the Litchfield Law School.
After his admission to the bar in September, 1795, he went to Leesburg, Virginia, where he pursued his profes- sion for nearly three years with fair success. He then returned to Canterbury on a visit and found such excellent prospects of business there, that he opened an office, meet- ing early with distinguished success. He was a member of the General Assembly at the October session in 1800.
He had begun to have some reputation as an instructor for students of law, when in 1803 he removed to Litchfield, and formed a partnership with the Hon. John Allen (hon- orary M.A. Yale 1791), who died in 1812.
In 1806 he was the candidate of the Federalists for Congress, but failed of an election. He continued, how- ever, to be a candidate at every election until the political revolution in 18 18.
He stood for miany years at the head of his profession in Litchfield County, at a time when the bar of that county embraced a number of unusually brilliant lawyers. He had untiring industry, with the advantage of a fine per- sonal appearance and of genial, social manners, and if not a fluent, was always an interesting and often a witty speaker. He was always well dressed, and was the last member of the county bar to discard the fashion of pow- dered hair and a queue.
In 1 83 1 he was chosen President of the Phoenix Bank of Litchfield, and after that was never again seen profes- sionally in court ; repeated attacks of illness of a threaten- ing nature at about that date admonished him of the danger of much public speaking.
In October, 1851, when over eighty, he removed to New Haven, that he might enjoy in. his last years the compan-
58 Yale College
ionship of some of his old friends in this city. He had already spent the two preceding winters here, with great satisfaction.
He was deeply interested in the College, and his gifts to the institution in his closing years and by will amounted to ten thousand dollars.
He died, in New Haven, after two days' illness, on Feb- ruary 5, 1857, at the age of 86 years.
He married, in East Haddam, Connecticut, on March 16, 1807, Lucretia, eldest child of General Epaphroditus and Lucretia (Hubbard) Champion, of East Haddam, a lady of marked individuality and attractive characteristics. She died in New Haven, in the family of her granddaugh- ter, on January 19, 1882, aged nearly 99 years.
Their children were three sons, all of whom died in early manhood, and three daughters who died in infancy. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1833, and the young- est in 1838.
An engraving from his portrait is given in Kilbourn's Bench and Bar of Litchfield County.
He published:
An Oration delivered at Canterbury, June 27, 1799, before Moriah Lodge, on the celebration of the festival of St. John the Baptist.
In the Windham Herald, August i and 8, 1799. On the evils of the French Revolution, and in condemnation of the Anti-Federalists for favoring it.
AUTHORITIES.
The Adviser, i, i6o. Kilbourn, bridge, Champion Genealogy, 287,
Litchfield County Bench and Bar, 300-03. fFoodrM#, Genealogical Reg-
61-63, 87-88. Lamed, Hist, of Wind- ister of Litchfield, 9-10. ham County, ii, 306, 308. Trow-
BuRRAGE Beach,, the only son of Deacon Samuel Beach (Yale 1757), of Cheshire, Connecticut, by his second wife, Esther Cook, was born in Cheshire in 1773, and was bap- tized on September 26 by his pastor, the Rev. John Foot
Biographical Sketches, i/ps 59
(Yale 1765), who afterwards prepared him for College. His christian name was the family name of his maternal grandmother.
He became an attorney-at-law in his native town, and for some time before his death had been the oldest member of the New Haven County bar. He was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church, and often a delegate to the diocesan and general conventions.
He died in Cheshire, on December 28, 1844, in his 72d year, and is buried in the cemetery adjoining St. Peter's Church.
He married, on June 12, 1800, Julia, eldest daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Bowden (Columbia College 1772) and his wife, Mary (Jervis) Bowden.
Their children were seven daughters, of whom one died in infancy. The second daughter married the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Turner, a professor in the General Theological Seminary.
Mrs. Beach died in Cheshire, after long feebleness, on July 31, 1824, in her 49th year.
'Squire Beach, as he was commonly called, though some- what irascible in temper, was highly respected as a lawyer and as a public-spirited citizen. He had besides large agricultural interests, and was engrossed during much of his career by various other occupations. He was from an early date, for example, the treasurer of the Cheshire Turnpike Company, and also treasurer of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, of which his father-in-law was the principal from 1796 to 1802.
The amount of his estate at his death was about $15,000.
AUTHORITIES.
Joseph P. Beach, MS. Letter, Nov. 1825, iv, 6-10. 2Sf 1907. Churchman's Magazine,
Hem AN Berry, son of Nathaniel and Hannah (Cassell) Berry, of Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut, was born
6o Yale College
in Kent on January 31, 1770, and was fitted for College by his pastor, the Rev. Joel Bordwell (Yale 1756).
He studied law, and settled in the town of Grand Isle, on the island of the same name in Lake Champlain, belong- ing to Vermont. There he died on August 20, 1805, in his 36th year.
Hezekiah Woodbridge Bissell, a son of Colonel Hezekiah Bissell (Yale 1762), of Windham, Connecticut, was born in Windham, on November 29, 1772. About the middle of his College course, his father returned to his native parish, in Bloomfield, Hartford County.
After graduation the son studied medicine. He obtained a commission as Surgeon, with the rank of First Lieuten- ant, in the artillery and engineer corps of the United States Army, on February 16, 1801.
He died in Hartford, Connecticut, after a long illness, at the house of the Rev. Abel Flint (Yale 1785), his brother-in-law, on the loth of November, 1802, aged 30 years. His will disposed of his estate to his mother and sister.
AUTHORITIES.
American Mercury, Nov. i8, 1802. Woodbridge Record, 36. Conn. Quarterly, v, 520. Mitchell^
Samuel Curtiss Blackman was born on March 22, 1768, in that part of Stratford, Fairfield County, Connect- icut, which became the town of Huntington, and was pre- pared for College by the Rev. Elisha Rexford (Yale 1763), of Huntington.
After graduation he studied law, and established himself in Newtown, in the same county, where he continued in practice until a very few years prior to his death.
He represented the town in three sessions of the General Assembly between 1803 and 1810, and held the office of
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ 6i
Judge of Probate of the Newtown district for nearly twenty years, from its organization in 1820 until he became constitutionally disqualified by age.
He was an exemplary christian magistrate, and during his whole life the patron and active friend of education.
He died in Newtown on November 17, 1858, in his 91st year.
He married Sarah, daughter of Zalmon and Jerusha Tousey, of Newtown, who died on December 6, 1835, in her 59th year. A son was graduated at Yale in 1828.
David Sherman Boardman was born in New Milford, Connecticut, on December 8, 1768, the youngest child of Captain Sherman and Sarah (Bostwick) Boardman, of that town. A brother had been graduated here in 1781.
When about seventeen he began the study of Latin with his uncle by marriage, the Rev. Daniel Farrand, of (South) Canaan, Connecticut; but a serious failure of his eyesight led to a return to his father's farm.
In January, 1 791, he took up Latin again with his pastor, the Rev. Stanley Griswold (Yale 1786), with a view to entering directly on the legal profession. In pursuance of this plan he began in May a short course of classical and scientific study with Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1779), of New Haven, who after a brief trial of his powers advised him to fit himself for advanced standing in College. Accord- ingly by Mr. Goodrich's instruction he was prepared to enter the Junior Class at Yale in May, 1792.
Having studied law with Judge Reeve in Litchfield, he was admitted to the Litchfield County bar in March, 1795.
In 1796 President D wight proflfered him a nomination to a Tutorship, but he declined the offer ; and after visits to other localities in New York and Vermont he decided to open an office in his native town, where he maintained through a long life a high professional reputation.
62 Yale College
He was made Judge of Probate for the district of New Milford in 1805, and held the place by successive annual appointments for sixteen years. He was eight times a member of the General Assembly between 18 12 and 1829.
In May, 1831, he was appointed Chief Judge of the County Court, and was reappointed annually until 1836, when he was displaced for political reasons. His party sympathies were with the Federalists and Whigs.
During the latter part of his life he devoted much time to historical and literary enquiries, often writing for the press, and continuing to maintain an acquaintance with Greek and Latin writers. Specimens of his papers are: a review of J. C. Hamilton's History of the United States, in the New Englander for November, 1858; a review of Parton's Life of Burr, in the American Quarterly Church Review for January, 1859; Reminiscences of Colonel Seth Warner, in the Historical Magazine for July, i860; and brief notices in Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit of Daniel Farrand (vol. i, pp. 490-92), and Gideon Bostwick (vol. 5, pp. 274-76).
He published separately :
Sketches of the early lights of the Litchfield Bar. Litchfield, i860. 8°, pp. 39. [Y.C.
He died in New Milford, on December 2, 1864, having nearly completed his 96th year, and having been for some months the oldest living graduate of Yale.
He married, on May 18, 1806, Charlotte, the only sur- viving daughter of Colonel Nathaniel and Ann (North- rop) Taylor, of New Milford, and sister of the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor (Yale 1807). She died on July 22, 1846, in her 65th year. Their children were five sons and two daughters, the majority of whom died in infancy.
Judge Boardman was universally respected and beloved for his high integrity and his genial flow of kind feeling. He was a finished legal scholar, of bland and courteous manners, but his disposition was too retiring and his voice too feeble for effective appearance before a jury.
Biographical Sketches, lyp^ 63
AUTHORITIES.
Hinman, Conn. Puritan Settlers, Fifty Years at the Litchfield County
270-71. Hurd, Hist, of Litchfield Bar, 11. Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary,
County, 29. Orcutt, Hist, of N. Mil- iii, 451. ford, 572-77, 656-57, 775. Sedgwick,
Hezekiah Brainerd^ the eldest child and only son of Dr. Hezekiah Brainerd (Yale 1763), of Haddam, Con- necticut, was born in Haddam on August 11, 1773, and was fitted for College by his pastor, the Rev. Eleazar May (Yale 1752).
After leaving College he began the study of law in the Litchfield Law School, but returned to his father's house in Haddam, stricken with pulmonary consumption, which closed his life on June 20, 1795, in his 22d year. On the morning of the day of his death he drove out, and died sitting in his chair after his return. He is credited with a most amiable and promising character. His death was the first in the ranks of the Class.
authorities.
L. A. Brainard, Brainerd-Brainard Brainerd Genealogy, 241-42. Salis- Genealogy, vii, 81. Conn. Gazette bury. Family Histories and Genealo- (New London), July 9, 1795. Field, gies, ii, 347.
Eliab Brewer^ the second son of Colonel Josiah and Mary (Hall) Brewer, of (South) Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, which is now Monterey, was born on January 9, 1770.
He married soon after graduation Theodosia, the young- est child of his pastor, the Rev. Adonijah Bidwell (Yale 1740), and began the study of law with his brother-in-law, Barnabas Bidwell (Yale 1785), in Stockbridge, in the same county.
In 1796 or 7 he settled in the adjoining town of Lenox, where he engaged in the practice of his profession, and
^4 Yale College
was also for some time postmaster. He received a Mas- ter's degree from Williams College in 1798. He suffered from indulgence in the convivial habits of the time, and died in Lenox, of a lingering consumption, on April 6, 1804, in his 35th year.
His widow was left with five young sons and a daughter dependant on her exertions. She taught school for some time in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; and died on April 5, 1841, in her 75th year.
The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1823, the second in 1 82 1, and the third in 1824. The second (the only one of these to marry) was the father of Justice Brewer (Yale 1856).
AUTHORITIES.
Bidwell Genealogy, 88-89. Field, ingham Vital Records, 13, 15. Hist, of Berkshire County, 343. Tyr-
Pardon Brown was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, on January 25, 1772. He was probably a son of Abraham and Abigail Brown, of that town, and his eldest sister was the wife of the Rev. Adoniram Judson (Yale 1775), who prepared him for College.
He settled in Hartford, Connecticut, as a merchant, at least as early as 1802; but retired in middle life to the neighboring village of (South) Glastonbury, where he died on May 11, 1846, in his 75th year.
He was married in Glastonbury, on September 13, 1802, by the Rev. William Lockwood, to Sally, elder daughter of Colonel Howell and Mary (Plummer) Woodbridge, of Glastonbury. She died on August 24, 18 18, aged 34 years.
Their children were two sons and three daughters, all of whom married and left descendants.
AUTHORITIES. Woodbridge Record, 86-87.
Biographical Sketches, i/pj 65
Perlee Brush was born in that part of Amenia, Duchess County, New York, which is now called Smith- field, in 1769. He was a son of Lemuel Brush, a farmer of Smithfield, and grandson of Reuben Brush, from Long Island. His mother was Mary, daughter of Edmond Perlee, of Smithfield, of French extraction, an officer of the Revolution and subsequently a Major-General of the New- York militia, and his wife Zada Perlee.
He entered College in June of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he taught school in Ohio, and was sufficiently a scholar to prepare several young men for College. He was thus engaged about the year 1810; but somewhat later he purchased a farm in Coitsville, Mahon- ing County, in the northeastern part of the State, where he resided until the failure of his powers. He was never married, but lived with a tenant on his farm. About 1856 he removed about five miles to the northwards, to Hub- bard, in Trumbull County. A little later, perhaps in 1858, his mind failed so completely that a guardian of his person and property was appointed by the Courts. He died in Warren, in Trumbull County, on August 4, i860, aged 90 years.
In his younger years he was eccentric, and his peculiari- ties eventually took the form of a monomania for accumu- lating and hoarding trifling and worthless articles.
AUTHORITIES.
/. P. Kirtland, MS, letter, May, P. H. Smith, Hist, of Duchess County, 1856. Reed, Hist, of Amenia, 83, 104. 125.
William Pitt Cleaveland, a son of Colonel Aaron Cleaveland, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and brother of Moses Cleaveland (Yale 1777), was born in Canterbury on December 18, 1770.
He studied law after graduation with his brother Moses, in Canterbury, and began practice there. Later, about 1800, he moved to the adjoining town of Brooklyn, and 5
66 Yale College
thence after a few months to New London, where he became a prominent citizen.
From 1825 to 1835 he was president of the Union Bank of New London ; and from 1829 to 1832 he held the office of Chief Judge of the County Court by annual appointment of the Legislature. He served as a deacon in the First (Congregational) Church from 1830 until his death.
He died in New London on January 3, 1845, i^ his 75th year.
He married on February 2, 1796, in Canterbury, Mary, the eldest sister of his classmate, Bacon, who died in New London on January 27, 1 801, in her 25th year.
He next married, on January 15, 1806, Abby, eldest daughter of Guy and Hannah (Dolbeare) Richards, of New London, and a sister of Guy Richards (Yale 1807). She died in New London on January 10, 1824, aged 48 years; and he married, in New York City, in April, 1825, her next younger sister, Sophia, who died in New London on February 11, 1861, in her 80th year.
By his first marriage he had one son (Yale 1816), besides a daughter who died in infancy. By his second rnarriage he had five daughters, besides two sons who died in infancy ; one daughter married the Rev. Flavel Bascom (Yale 1828).
AUTHORITIES.
Blake, Early Hist, of ist Church, alogy, i, 175, 382-83. Lamed, Hist, of N. London, 284-85. Caulkins, Hist. Windham County, ii, 263, 306. Morse, of N. London, 671. Cleveland Gene- Richards Family, 99, 102.
Increase Cooke^ a son of Aaron Cooke, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was born in Cheshire, then part of Walling- ford, on March 15, 177 1. A brother, Oliver D. Cooke, was graduated here in 1786.
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1752), of Durham.
After graduation he was engaged in the book business with his brother in Hartford. In 1802 he removed to
i
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ 67
New Haven as the head of the bookselHng and pubHshing firm of Increase Cooke & Co., and continued in this busi- ness until his early death. His partner was John Babcock, and their store was at first located on Chapel Street, between Church and Temple; in 1810 they removed to a new brick building on Church Street (still standing), oppo- site the present Post office.
Among the more important books which the firm issued' were the first edition of Noah Webster's Dictionary, in 1806, and Cicero's Select Orations, by Duncan, in 181 1.
After a long period of ill health, Mr. Cooke died in New Haven, on April 3, 1814, in his 44th year. He was probably never married.
A New Haven newspaper after his death describes him as "an eminent bookseller, and a man whose character will long live in the esteem of those who knew him. By his industry and perseverance in business he had acquired a handsome competency . . He was a friend of order and good morals, and zealous for the diffusion of useful and religious information, particularly among the young."
In the language of the inscription over his grave, he was "social in his disposition, honest in his dealings, cor- rect in his principles, virtuous in his habits; active in the support of civil, religious and charitable institutions and particularly in the diffusion of religious knowledge, he lived respected and died greatly lamented."
He published:
The American Orator ; or, Elegant Extracts in Prose and Poetry ; comprehending a diversity of Oratorical Specimens, of the Elo- quence of Popular Assemblies, of the Bar, of the Pulpit, &c. Principally intended for the use of Schools and Academies. To which are prefixed a Dissertation on Oratorical Delivery and the Outlines of Gesture. Hartford, 1814. 12°, pp. 408.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, April 5 and 12, 1814. Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 683.
68 , Yale College
Benjamin Doolittle, elder son of Captain Benjamin and Lydia (Ives) Doolittle, of Cheshire, then a parish of Wallingford, Connecticut, and grandson of Caleb and Tamar (Thompson) Doolittle, of Cheshire, was born in that parish on February lo, 1771, and was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. John Foot (Yale 1765). His mother was probably a daughter of Joel Ives, of Cheshire. Jotham Ives Doolittle (Yale 1795) was a first cousin.
After graduation he studied law, and about 1798 emi- grated to northeastern Pennsylvania. In 1799 he bought a farm of six hundred acres in what is now New Milford, in Susquehanna County, and about a year later he married Fanny, daughter of Ichabod Ward, a native of Roxbury Parish, in Woodbury, Connecticut, whose family had removed to Pennsylvania soon after Mr. Doolittle went there.
In 1825 the Cleveland & Wellsville turnpike extending through Streetsboro, in Portage County, about twenty-five miles southeast of Cleveland, brought settlers to this rich farming section. Among the early arrivals was Mr. Doolittle, who removed to the township in the fall of 1825. He made a clearing and built a double log-house, in which he lived for many years, in the midst of woods so dense and high that one could not see anything, except when he looked to the sky. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1827, at the organization of the town, and was respected as a prominent, honest, and useful man.
His wife died on April 28, 1847, ^t the age of 65 ; and he died at the home of his eldest daughter, in Elyria, Ohio, on September 22, 1849, i^ his 79th year.
They had six sons and three daughters, besides one child who died in infancy.
AUTHORITIES.
Doolittle Family, 206, 320-21. Geo. Family Genealogy, I43- H. Ely, MS. Letter, Jan., 1910. Ward
Biographical Sketches, 1793 * 69
Daniel Dow^ a son of Daniel Dow, of Ashford, Wind- ham County, Connecticut, and brother of Hendrick Dow (Yale 1784), was born in Ashford on February 19, 1772. His father died three months later, but his mother gave him all the advantages in her power.
He entered College at the close of Freshman year, and joined the College Church on profession of faith at the end of Junior year. He delivered a Poem in praise of Poets at graduation.
Having exhausted his patrimony by his education, he then turned to the teaching of psalmody for two years as a means of support, and meantime pursued theological studies, partly under the direction of the Rev. Dr. EHzur Goodrich, of Durham, Connecticut, and partly under that of his own pastor, the Rev. Enoch Pond (Brown Univ.
^777)'
He was licensed to preach by the Windham County Association of Ministers in May, 1795. In the latter part of the summer he began to preach in the Congregational Church in Thompson, in the same county, over which he was ordained pastor on April 20, 1796, the installation sermon being preached by Mr. Pond.
He had already married, on August 20, 1795, Hannah, daughter of Deacon Jesse Bolles, of Woodstock, in the same county.
He was settled upon a salary of three hundred dollars, which was increased four years later to four hundred dol- lars, after he had asked a dismission on account of inade- quate support. He contrived, by strict economy, to main- tain his family upon this sum till the war of 181 2, when, finding himself five hundred dollars in debt, he again asked for a dismission ; and on this occasion the people increased his salary to five hundred dollars, at which point it remained; but it was not until 1846 that he had saved enough to pay off his previous debt.
7© • Yale College
His sermons were delivered without notes, but were always carefully planned, and expressed in clear, forcible language, and in an unostentatiously earnest manner.
With a strongly-marked character, great natural ability, and clear convictions of duty, he made a strong impression on the community, especially as a terror to evil-doers.
He was elected a Fellow of the Corporation of Yale Col- lege in September, 1824, and held office until his death. He was one of the principal founders of the Theological Insti- tute of Connecticut at East Windsor Hill in 1833, and con- tinued until his death to be an ardent supporter of the older school of theology as represented by that body. In the spring of 1834 he was appointed as a member of the Yale Corporation to attend the examination of the Yale Divinity School; and in making his report to the Corporation in September he took occasion to object to some of the doc- trines taught in the School.
In 1840 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Williams College.
With declining years he softened in some degree, while his physical and mental vigor remained unabated. He continued in the full exercise of his active and laborious ministry to the last, dying suddenly at home, just after returning from preaching a funeral sermon, on July 19, 1849, i" his 78th year.
His epitaph describes him as "a faithful preacher, a wise and prudent pastor, an exemplary citizen, respected and beloved by all."
A copy of his portrait is given in Miss Larned's History of Windham County.
Mrs. Dow died on September 8, 1853, aged yy years. They had nine children, of whom only two daughters and one son survived their parents.
He pubHshed:
I. Familiar Letters to the Rev. John Sherman, once Pastor of a Church in Mansfield: in particular reference to his late Anti- Trinitarian Treatise. Hartford, 1806. 8°, pp. 51.
[A, A. S. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, //pj 7x
This was replied to by F. A. VanderKemp, anonymously, in 1806, under the title, A Wreath for Rev. Daniel Dow.
The same. Second edition. Worcester, 1806. 8°, pp. 51.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. The Pedobaptist catechism, or a schedule of the most important questions and answers, together with Scripture proofs relative to the subject and mode of Baptism. Worcester, 1807. 8", pp. 38.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. C. H. S. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The same. Andover, 1815. 12°. [B. Ath. Br. Mus.
3. A Dissertation, on the Sinaitic and Abrahamic Covenants; shewing the former to be only temporary; the latter everlasting. Hartford, 181 1. 8°, pp. 75.
[A. A. S. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Like the preceding number, directed against the Baptists.
4. Ministers of the Gospel should take heed. — A Sermon [from Col. iv, 17], delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Stephen Crosby, Colleague Pastor with Rev. Joseph Pope, over the Church of Christ in Spencer, June 9, 1819. Leicester, 1819. 8°, pp. 32.
[Br. Mus. Brown Univ. C. H. S. Harv.
5. The duty of praying for all that are in authority, illustrated. — A Sermon [from I Tim. ii, 1-2] preached . . at the General Election, May 4, 1825. Hartford, 1825. 8°, pp. 18.
[Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
6. Free inquiry recommended on the subject of Freemasonry; a Sermon [from Isa. xxi, 12], preached at Woodstock, Sept. 11, 1829 . . . Norwich, 1829. 12°, pp. 20.
[A.A.S. B.Publ. M.H.S. Y.C.
7. A Discourse delivered in Chepachet, R. L, December 5, 1830. Before the Glocester Temperance Association. Providence, 1831. 12°, pp. 24.
8. New Haven Theology, alias Taylorism, alias Neology ; in its own language, with Notes appended. Thompson, 1834. 8°, pp. 56.
[Br. Mus. C.H.S. U.S. U.T.S. Y.C.
9. A Reminiscence of past events. — A semi-centennial Sermon [from Ps. cxliii, 5], preached in Thompson, (Conn.,) April 22, 1846. With an Appendix. New Haven, 1846. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. A. S. C. H. S. Y. C.
7? Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Dunning, Hist. Discourse in Thomp- T. Robbins, Diary, i, 1003. Sprague, son, 25-27. Lamed, Hist, of Wind- Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 369- ham County, ii, 350-51, 442-43, 536. 72. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 471.
Robert Fairchild^ the only child of John Fairchild (Yale 1773), of Durham, Connecticut, was born on Jan- uary 19, 1775. His father died in his infancy, and his mother returned to Fairfield, Connecticut, her native place. He entered College in May of the Freshman year.
After graduation he studied law and settled in Strat- ford, Connecticut, where he married on February 9, 1796, Esther, daughter of John and Dorothy (Birdseye) Brooks.
He represented Stratford in the Lower House of the General Assembly in 1802-06, 1822-23, 1829, and 1832, and in 183 1 was a member of the Upper House, and ex officio a Fellow of the College Corporation. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Connecticut in 1818.
. He was appointed Marshal of Connecticut by President Madison in 1809, and was reappointed by President Mon- roe, serving until 1821.
On the political revolution in Connecticut in 18 18 he was appointed Chief Judge of the Fairfield County Court, and retained the office until 1826.
He died very suddenly in Stratford on July 11, 1835, aged 6o>4 years. His wife died on December 19, 1819, in her 44th year. Their children were seven sons and six daughters.
authorities.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, v, cutf. Hist, of Stratford, i, 217-18; 102. Columbian Register, July 18, ii, 1165, 1201. Ward Family Gene- 1835. Jessup Genealogy, 106-07. Or- alogy, 74, 126.
Biographical Sketches, i/ps 73
DioDATE Johnson Griswold, the eldest child of Dea- con John Griswold, of Lyme, Connecticut, and grandson of Governor Matthew and Ursula (Wolcott) Griswold, of Lyme, was born in Lyme on December i6, 1773. His mother was Sarah, eldest daughter of the Rev. Stephen Johnson (Yale 1743) and Elizabeth (Diodate) Johnson, of Lyme, and his eldest sister was the wife of Richard McCurdy (Yale 1787). He was a first cousin of his classmate Brainerd, and with him was prepared for Col- lege by the Rev. Mr. May, of Haddam.
He married Sally, daughter of the late Deacon Benja- min Colt, of Lyme, and Hadley, Massachusetts, and sister of Peter Colt (Yale 1764).
Of a gay and pleasure-loving nature, and remarkable personal attractions, he contracted as early as his College days convivial habits, and indulged in irregularities of life, from which he never recovered.
His wife found his society uncongenial and returned to her friends, dying in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, about 1857. She had no children.
After his property was dissipated by his excesses, his brothers took care of him. Finally he had to be taken to the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford, Connecticut, where he died on March 17, 1850, in his 77th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Loomis Female Geneal., i, 150. Salisbury, Family Histories, ii, nS- Magazine of Amer. Hist, xi, 331. 17. Walworth, Hyde Geneal., i, 885.
JoAB Griswold, son of Giles Griswold, of Goshen, Con- necticut, and grandson of Zaccheus and Eunice (Stanley) Griswold, of Windsor and Goshen, was born in Goshen on June 29, 1769.
His mother was Mary Stanley, of Farmington, Con- necticut.
74 Yale College
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Hezekiah Gold (Yale 1751), of Cornwall, Connecticut.
After graduation he studied law and emigrated to Her- kimer, New York, where he spent the rest of his life. He was largely engrossed in agriculture, and in politics was a leading Federalist. His devotion to his party was rewarded by his appointment to the office of County Clerk in March, 1798, which he held for six years, or until a transfer of power to the opposing party.
He died in Herkimer on August 20, 1814, in his 46th year.
By his wife, Nancy Myers, of Herkimer, he had five sons and one daughter.
AUTHORITIES.
Benton, Hist, of Herkimer County, Goshen, 456-57. Warren, Stanley 316-17. Hardin, Hist, of Herkimer Families, 77. County, 219. Hibbard, Hist, of
John Lee, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Lee (Yale 1766), of Hanover Society, in Norwich, now Lis- bon, Connecticut, was born on February 21, 1773, and entered College in May of the Freshman year.
He settled as a lawyer in Cambridge, Washington County, on the eastern border of New York State, and died on July 29, 18 14, in his 42d year.
He married, on September 30, 1798, Mary Griffin, of his native parish, by whom he had two daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vi, 91. Salisbury, Family Histories, iii, 33.
Hezekiah May, the youngest in a family of ten chil- dren of the Rev. Eleazar May (Yale 1752), of Haddam, Connecticut, was born in Haddam on December 26, 1773, and was prepared for College by his father.
Biographical Sketches, //pj 75
He at first studied law, and entered upon practice; but finally turned to the ministry, and pursued his preparatory studies with the Rev. Dr. John Smalley, of Berlin, Con- necticut.
He had been preaching in Maine when he was called, in April, 1803, to the Second (Congregational) Church in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he was ordained pas- tor on June 22, 1803, — the sermon preached on the occa- sion by the Rev. Dr. Jedidiah Morse (Yale 1783) being afterwards published.
He found this settlement uncongenial, on account of the church's adhesion to the halfway covenant, and he accordingly presented his resignation.
He was dismissed on January 27, 1808, and then labored for some years as a missionary in the northern wilds of Maine. He received a commission from the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians in North America in 181 1.
Thence he removed to Western New York, where he preached in Oswego, Corning, and elsewhere, in connec- tion with the Presbyterian Church.
His active ministry closed soon after 1820, and he retired to Franklin, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He died suddenly, of a bilious colic, at his residence in Tion- esta village in that vicinity, on July 4, 1843, ^^ his 70th year.
He married, about 1802, Margaret White, by whom he had four daughters and four sons. These children were all of notable stature, — one son being six feet five inches in height.
Mr. May is reported to have been somewhat remarkable as a linguist, having some acquaintance with French, Ger- man, and Spanish, besides Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
He published:
I. A Thanksgiving Sermon [from Eph. v, 20], preached at Bath, in the District of Maine, November 25, 1802. Portland, 1802. 8°, pp. 28. [Harv. N. Y. Publ. Libr.
Containing curious slurs on President Jeflferson.
76 Yale College
2. The Excellency of the Gospel Ministry illustrated. — A Sermon [from I Tim. iii, i], delivered in Braintree, at the Installation of / the Rev. Sylvester Sage, Nov. 4, 1807. Boston, 1808. 8°, pp. 28.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. N. Y. H. S. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-20.
3. An Oration, delivered before the Right Worshipful Master, Wardens, and Brethren of the Rising Virtue Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, at Bangor, on the festival of St. John the Bap- tist, June 24, 5808. Augusta, 1808. 8°, pp. 16. [B. Ath.
The author writes as a Mason.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Quart. Register, vii, 251, 258. May Families, 85, 93. Essex Inst. Hist. Collections, xxii, 92.
Michael Olcott^ son of Captain Samuel Olcott, of Hartford, Connecticut, and grandson of Jonathan and Sarah ( Colly er) Olcott, of Hartford, was born on Jan- uary 12, 1775. He was the only son of Captain Olcott's second wife, Mary, sister of James Church (Yale 1756), and widow of John Caldwell, of Hartford. He was pre- pared for College by the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich, of Durham.
After graduation he returned to his native place, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, being for part of the time associated with his half-brother. Major John Cald- well, in the shipping business.
He was Major of the Governor's Horse Guards in 1810-11, and Quartermaster-General of the State Militia (with the rank of Colonel) from 18 18 until his death.
He was one of the representatives of Hartford in five sessions of the General Assembly between 1815 and 1819, and commanded throughout his career the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens.
He died in Hartford on May 11, 1829, aged 53 years. He was never married, and a sister was the executrix of his will. His estate was inventoried at about $6,300.
Biographical Sketches, //pj 77
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Courant, May 19, 1829. Conn, cott Family, 84. Trumbull, Memorial Journal, May 26, 1829. Goodwin, 01- Hist, of Hartford County, i, 193, 658.
I
Amos Pardee, the youngest child of Stephen Pardee, of East Haven, Connecticut, and grandson of Stephen and Mary (Howe) Pardee, of East Haven, was born in 1770. His mother was Mabel, fourth daughter of John and Mary (Forbes) Russell, of East Haven. His father died the year before he entered College. The family were received into the Episcopal Church in 1779.
He studied theology after graduation, and was ordained Deacon by Bishop Bass of Massachusetts in 1798, and Priest by Bishop Jarvis of Connecticut in Middletown, on January 20, 1799. He then officiated for a few years as a missionary in Pawlet and Wells, Vermont, and from February, 1802, to his resignation in September, 18 18, he was rector of St. Luke's Church, Lanesborough, Berk- shire County, Massachusetts. He then removed into the diocese of New York. After nearly twenty-five years of faithful labor as a missionary in the central and northern parts of the State, he was finally obliged to retire on account of old age and infirmity. His closing years were spent with his daughters, one of whom resided in Caldwell, on Lake George, and the other in Lanesborough. He died in Caldwell, on December 2, 1849, ^" ^'^^ ^oth year, and was buried in Lanesborough.
Mr. Pardee was reserved and dignified in manner, amiable in disposition, and exemplary in life and conver- sation.
A son was graduated at Union College in 1825, and became an Episcopal clergyman.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Church Review, iii, I58> 512. Rev. J. Hooper, MS. Letter, Dodd, E. Haven Register, 71, 141. December, 1910. Holland, Hist, of Western Mass., ii.
7* Yale College
Peter Manigault Parker was born in Charleston, South CaroHna, on February 19, 1774, and entered Col- lege at the opening of the Junior year. He was a son of John and Mary (Daniel) Parker, of Charleston, and grandson of John and Jane Parker.
Having devoted himself to the ministry, he pursued his studies after graduation in New York City, under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Moore, after- wards Bishop of New York, and was ordained Deacon by Bishop Provoost of that diocese in 1795.
On returning to his native State he proceeded at the beginning of April, 1796, to take charge of St. John's Church, at Berkeley, about thirty miles north of Charles- ton.
He resigned this cure in 1802, to take up the office of Assistant Minister of St. Philip's Church, Charleston. In the spring of this year he went to New York, and there, on June 2, received Priest's orders from Bishop Moore.
He returned immediately to Charleston, but died there, of a bilious fever, on July 23, in his 29th year.
AUTHORITIES.
T. W. Bacot, MS. Letter, January, 220, 273. Sprague, Annals of the 1910. Dalcho, Hist, of the Prot. Amer. Pulpit, v, 426-27. Pres. Stiles, Episc. Church in S. Carolina, 207, Literary Diary, iii, 424.
David Phelps, youngest son of Captain Roger and Abigail (Filer) Phelps, of Hebron, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Anna (Hosford) Phelps, of Hebron, was born in Hebron on December 26, 1768, and entered College in May of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law for one year in Sharon, Connecticut, and subsequently in Poughkeepsie, New York.
About 1796 he settled in Colchester, Delaware County, New York, and in that county (with the exception of a single year) he spent the remainder of his long life.
Biographical Sketches, //pj 79
He died in Hancock, Delaware County, on October 20, 185 1, in his 83d year.
He married, on January 9, 1795, Jerusha Hosford, of Hebron, who died in Colchester in 1801. In 1803 he mar- ried Sarah Hosford, a sister of his former wife.
He had by his first marriage one son, who died young; and by his second marriage four daughters and a son.
AUTHORITIES. N. Y. Evangelist, Oct. 30, 1851. Phelps Family, i, 229, 400.
Amasa Porter^ the eldest child of Gaylord and Miriam (Brown) Porter, of Hebron, Connecticut, and grandson of Daniel and Diana (Dunham) Porter, of Hebron, was born in Hebron on May 12, 1771, and entered College in June of the Freshman year.
After graduation he studied theology, in part with the Rev. Thomas Brockway (Yale 1768), of the parish adjoin- ing his native place, which is now the town of Columbia.
In 1796 he began preaching in the Congregational Church of Derby, Connecticut, as a candidate for settle- ment, and in due time a call was given him, which he declined on account of the terms offered. A subsequent call was accepted, and he was ordained on June 21, 1797. He was beloved by his people, but in 1804 his health failed, and after protracted illness he was dismissed at his own request, on March 20, 1805.
He then engaged in mercantile business in Derby until 1816, and after that date until about 1828 in New Haven, where he continued to reside (on the northeast corner of Temple and Crown streets) until his death, on April 19, 1856, aged nearly 85.
During his later years he enjoyed good health and the full use of his faculties. He was always mindful of his early professional career, and improved his opportunities
8o Yale College
of giving religious counsel. He was a deacon in the North Church from 1834 to his resignation in 1842.
He married in 1798 Sarah (or Sally), only daughter of Deacon Henry and Sarah (Woodward) Bliss, of Colum- bia, who died in New Haven, on April 13, i860, aged 89 years.
Their children were two sons (graduates of Yale in 1 82 1 and 1822, respectively) and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, Porter Genealogy, i, 400; cutt, Hist, of Derby, 637-38. Antasa ii, 571-72. Bliss Genealogy, 94. Or- G. Porter, MS. Letter, May, 1856.
David Putnam was born on February 24, 1769, in that part of Pomf ret, Connecticut, which was later included in the township of Brooklyn, the fourth child of Colonel Israel Putnam, Junior, and Sarah (Waldo) Putnam, and grandson of General Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame, and Hannah (Pope) Putnam.
. His father removed to Belpre, in southeastern Ohio, in 1795, and the son, after studying law and teaching in the Muskingum (Ohio) Academy, settled in 1798 in the same vicinity, at Marietta, where he practiced his profession until his retirement, about 1825.
He died in Harmar, a suburb of Marietta, after years of severe physical infirmity, on March 31, 1856, aged 87 years.
He married, on September 6 (or 16), 1798, Elizabeth (or Betsey), daughter of Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Plainfield, Connecticut; three of her brothers were graduates of Yale, in 1791, 1794, and 1803, respectively. She died on May 18, 1866, in her 88th year.
Their children were eight sons and three daughters.
Two sons entered the Class of 1826 at Yale, of whom only one finished the course.
Biographical Sketches, ijg^ 8i
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, ii, Putnam Family, i, i8o, 301. Perkins Family, iii, 31, 60-61.
Peter William Radcliff, a brother of John Radcliff, of the previous class, was born in Rhinebeck, New York, on June 28, 1774, and entered College in June of the Fresh- man year.
On graduation he began the study of law with his eldest brother, Jacob (Princeton 1783), in Poughkeepsie, New York, and on his admission to the bar in 1797 settled in the practice of his profession in that place.
On October i, 1800, he married Elizabeth Huntington, the eldest child of Major John Davenport (Yale 1770), of Stamford, Connecticut; and in 1802 he removed to the city of New York, where he soon attained to professional distinction.
He was a member of the General Assembly of the State for the session from January to June, 1812, and was then chosen to the State Senate, where he served from Novem- ber, 18 12, to April, 1816; he was also a member of the Council of Appointment in 1813 and 18 14. Although elected by the party vehemently opposed to the war with Great Britain, he advocated patriotically every measure calculated to bring it to a successful issue.
In 1825 he removed his residence to Brooklyn, and for three years from February, 1827, he held the office of First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Kings County. He kept his office in New York, and after his retirement from the bench continued to labor in his profession until his death, which took place in Brooklyn, on December i, 1840, aged 665^ years. His widow died in Brooklyn on May 28, 1850, in her 70th year. They had no children.
Judge Radcliff had a very extensive and important prac- tice, and ranked among the ablest members of the New York bar. As a private citizen he was universally
6
82 Yale College
esteemed for his pure character and enlightened public spirit.
AUTHORITIES.
Davenport Family, 2d ed., 247. son, Hist, of Long Island, 2d ed., ii, Historical Magazine, vii, 340-41. 540-41. N. Y. Geneal. Record, v, 78. Thomp-
JosEPH Russell^ the youngest son of the Rev. Noadiah Russell (Yale 1750), of Thompson, then a parish of Killingly, Connecticut, was born in Thompson in 1775, and was baptized by his father on April 30 of that year.
He studied theology after graduation, probably with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, Connecticut, and was licensed to preach by the Windham Association of Minis- ters in May, 1795.
In December, 1795, he was called, on an annual salary of $433, to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Princeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and having accepted the call he was ordained there on March 16, 1796, — the sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Backus.
In 1 80 1 he applied to the town for a dismission, being "convinced, from several years' experience, that applica- tion to study is injurious to" him. His relations with his people had been altogether peaceable and friendly, but they exhibited some uneasiness at this application ; finally his wishes were acceded to, and he was regularly dismissed towards the end of September.
He then engaged in mercantile business in Troy, New York, where he was influential and much respected.
When he was about 70 he retired from business and removed with his wife to Milford, Connecticut. The lat- ter part of his life was spent in Ellington, Connecticut, where he died on January 8, 1861, in his 86th year.
He married, probably in December, 1797, Mary (or Polly), daughter of Deacon John and Mary (Lockwood)
Biographical Sketches, J/pj 83
Raynolds, of Enfield, Connecticut, who was born on July 30, ^773-
They had several children.
AUTHORITIES.
Allen, Hist, of Enfield, ii, 1635. sell. Hist, of Princeton, 51-54. Princeton Vital Records, 132. Rus-
WiNTHROP Saltonstall, the youngest child of Win- throp Saltonstall (Yale 1756), of New London, Connect- icut, was born in New London on February 10, 1775, and was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Henry Channing (Yale 1781).
After graduation he studied medicine at Columbia Col- lege, New York, and received the degree of M.D. in 1796.
He afterwards visited Bengal for further medical infor- mation and experience; and later went to Port of Spain, the capital of the Island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, where he began practice as a physician and surgeon. After practicing for some years by himself, he formed a partnership with a Dr. Clark.
He died there, after a short and painful illness, from yellow fever, on June 20 (or 2y), 1802, in his 28th year. He was unmarried.
He published:
An Inaugural Dissertation on the chemical and medical history of Septon, Azote, or Nitrogene ; and its combinations with the Matter of Heat and the Principle of Acidity. — Submitted to the public examination of the Faculty of Physic . . of Columbia College . . . : for the Degree of Doctor of Physic on the third day of May, 1796. New-York, 1796. 8°, pp. 68.
[Harv. U. S. Surg.-General's Office.
AUTHORITIES. Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 926. Saltonstall Ancestry, 36, 39, 241-42.
84 Yale College
John Sargeant was born in Mansfield, Connecticut, on October 5, 1770, the sixth son and eighth child of Samuel Sargeant, and grandson of Jacob and Mindwell (Root) Sargeant, of Mansfield. His mother was Hannah, daugh- ter of Daniel Baldwin, of Mansfield.
After graduation he read law, at first with David Dag- gett in New Haven, and later with Jabez Clark, of Wind- ham, Connecticut, where he was admitted to the bar in August, 1795.
By 1797 he settled in practice in Windsor, Connecticut, where he continued until his death, on January 28, 1829, in his 59th year.
He served as deacon in the First Church in Windsor.
He married, on June 25 (or 26), 1799, Fanny, third daughter of General Roger Newberry, of Windsor, and sister of Roger Newberry (Yale 1799), who died in Windsor on December 12, 1851, in her 77th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Dimock, Mansfield Records, 154. 387, 452; ii, 521, 676. Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., i,
Samuel Shepard^ the youngest child of Daniel Shep- ard, and grandson of John and Sarah (Clark) Shepard, of Chatham, Connecticut, was born in that part of Chat- ham which is now Portland, on November 19, 1772. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Savage) Cornwall, of Chatham. He began teaching a district school in his native place at the age of fourteen. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Enoch Hunting- ton, of Middletown, and entered in May of the Freshman year. At Yale he had a distinguished career for schol- arship, and delivered the Salutatory Oration at graduation.
He then studied theology under the direction of his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Cyprian Strong, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association in June, 1794.
Biographical Sketches, //pj 85
Having preached for short periods in Milford and Derby, Connecticut, he accepted in October, 1794, an invi- tation to preach as a candidate in the Congregational Church in Lenox, Massachusetts, then a comparatively new and small settlement. In due time he received a unanimous call to the pastorate, which he accepted with great reluctance, and he was ordained there on April 30, 1795. The sermon preached on the occasion by Dr. Strong was afterwards published.
His ministry, which continued to the end of his life, was throughout attended with an unusual degree of suc- cess. He found the church extremely small (12 male members) and feeble, but a series of extensive revivals of religion brought large numbers into the membership.
He was a member of the Corporation of Middlebury College, Vermont, from 1806 to 1813; and of the Corpo- ration of Williams College from 1808 to his death. He also held the appointment of Vice President of Williams College Corporation from 1834. He received the honor- ary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Union College in 1819.
Decision and firmness, love of order and punctuality, were among his leading characteristics. He preached with great animation, and his loud, mellow, and flexible voice was capable of filling the largest audience-room without effort. In theology he was a disciple of Edwards. He was a model pastor, of deep personal piety, and of cheerful, sunny temperament.
He enjoyed vigorous health, and was abundant in labors, down to the last year of his life. He then suffered severely from an attack of angina pectoris, and though recovering sufficiently to undertake his accustomed duties, he was conscious of an impending change. His disease returned upon him about the first of December, 1845, ^^^ after an illness of great distress he died at his home in Lenox, on January 5, 1846, in his 74th year. The sermon preached at his funeral by his intimate friend, the Rev.
86 Yale College
Dr. John Todd (Yale 1822), of Pittsfield, was afterwards published. A photograph from his portrait is given in Mallary's Lenox.
He married on May 10, 1795, Lucy, daughter of Nicho- las and Theodosia Ames, of Chatham, who died on Novem- ber 15, 1837, aged 63 years.
In 1839 he married Mrs. Olive S. Taft, of Williamstown, Massachusetts, who survived him.
By his first wife he had one son and two daughters. The son was graduated at Williams College in 1821, and followed his father's profession.
Dr. Shepard is not to be confused with another Dr. Samuel Shepard, born 1739, died 181 5, a Baptist minister of New Hampshire, who issued various publications at Exeter from 1793 to 1806.
He published:
1. An account of a work of divine grace, in a revival of religion, in the town of Lenox, State of Massachusetts, in the year 1799. In the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, volume 2, pp. 136-42, October 1801 ; republished in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's New England Revivals, 1846, pp. 149-59.
2. A Sermon [from Isaiah xxxviii, i], preached at Lenox, Jan- uary 23, 1803 ; at the funeral of Mrs. Hannah Egleston, consort of Azariah Egleston, Esquire. Stockbridge, 1803. 4°, pp. 21.
[U. T. S.
3. A Sermon [from Matth. xiv, 30], delivered at Lenox (Massa- chusetts) February 20th, 1806; being the day of the Execution of Ephraim Wheeler, pursuant to his sentence, for a rape committed on his daughter, Betsy Wheeler. Stockbridge, 1806. 8°, pp. 16.
[C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The same. 2d edition. Stockbridge, 1806. 8°, pp. 24.
4. A Sermon [from I Chron. xxix, 12], preached ... on the Anniversary Election, May 28, 1806. Boston, 1806. 8°, pp. 31.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
5. A History of the Town of Lenox. In A History of the County of Berkshire. Pittsfield, 1829. 12°, pp. 336-43.
6. All things earthly, changing and transitory. A Sermon [from I Cor. vii, 31] preached in Lenox, Mass., April 30, 1845, ^t
Biographical Sketches, //pj 87
the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination . . . Lenox, 1845. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. U. T. S.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, iv, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 364- 103. John Todd's Life, 333-34- Mai- 66. F. F. Starr, MS. Letter, Decem- lary, Lenox, 38-40, 338. Sprague, ber, 1910.
IcHABOD Lord Skinner, the eldest child of Deacon David Skinner, of that part of Colchester, Connecticut, afterwards included in Marlborough, and grandson of Deacon Aaron and Eunice (Taintor) Skinner, of Colches- ter, was born in Colchester on September 2, 1767. His mother was Sarah, fourth daughter of Ichabod and Patience (Bulkley) Lord, of Colchester. He worked upon the farm in the summers, and kept school in the winters, until he came of age, and then determined to prepare for the Sophomore Class, which he entered in February, 1791 ; he was however absent for a good part of the ensuing year.
After graduation he studied theology under the direc- tion of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, of New Haven, and having accepted a call to be a colleague with the Rev. Nathan Strong (Yale 1742) in the pastorate of the Con- gregational Church in North Coventry, Connecticut, he was ordained and installed in that office on October 23, 1794. The sermon on that occasion by Nathan Strong, Junior (Yale 1769), was afterwards published.
The senior pastor died a year later, and Mr. Skinner continued only until October 10, 1798, when he took a dis- mission. A rumor has been handed down that he resigned his office on account of having been betrayed into a hasty exhibition of temper which he conceived to be inconsistent with the clerical character. He was regarded as having respectable talents and a winning address.
88 Yale College
For a short time he continued to preach occasionally, but he soon undertook the study of law, and on his admis- sion to the bar he began practice in Colchester (about 1804).
He was chosen a deacon in the First Church in Colches- ter in May, 1805.
About 1808 or 9 he removed to Hartford, Connecticut, where he erected a fine residence, and continued to practice law until 18 16. He was also somewhat extensively engaged in real-estate transactions, and became a success- ful contractor for various large public works. He built the Windsor Locks canal, and was the chief contractor on the Hartford and New London turnpike.
From Hartford he removed to Washington, District of Columbia, where he had large dealings in landed property. He was connected also with the Government work on the National Road near Wheeling. He resumed about 1823 some ministerial duties in connection with the Presbyte- rian Church, and continued to be enrolled as a minister in that body until his death.
In 1825-26 he was living in Independence, Ohio. . About 1840 his residence changed from Washington to Frostburg, Western Maryland, and a few months before the end he went to the house of a married daughter in Brooklyn, New York, where he died, very suddenly, while present at a service in church, on January 29, 1852, in his 85th year.
He married on November 19, 1794, Hannah, daughter of the Hon. Joseph Spencer, of Millington Parish, in East Haddam, and sister of Jared Spencer (Yale 1784).
After her death he married, on May 19, 1825, Nancy M., daughter of Stephen and Deborah Gates (Smith) Big- elow, of Colchester, who died in 1826, leaving a son.
He published:
I. A Discourse [from Ps. c, 4] on Music; delivered February, 1796, at a Singing Lecture, in North Bolton. Hartford, 1796. 8°, pp. 18. [C. H. S. JVatkinson Lihr. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, lypj 89
2. A farewel Discourse [from Gal. i, 11-12], delivered at North- Coventry, November 11, 1798. Hartford, 1799. 8°, pp. 16.
[C. H. S. Y. C. The style is simple and dignified, without allusion to any causes for the author's retirement.
3. An Address, delivered before the Missionary Society of the City of Washington, auxiliary to the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. September, 1826. Washington, 1826. 8°, pp. 20. [B. Ath. Y. C.
4. A Key to the Gospels: being a Compendious Exposition of the principal things contained in them, intended for Sunday-School Teachers, Bible Classes, and Families. Washington, 1831. 12°, pp. 276, 4. [U. S. Y. C.
He also edited the following periodical :
The American Journal of Improvements in the Useful Arts, and Mirror of the Patent Office of the United States. Published quar- terly. Washington, 1828. Volume i. 8°.
[A.A.S. B.Ath. B.Publ. U.S.
AUTHORITIES.
Bigelow Genealogy, 252. Calhoun, Old Chimney Stacks of E. Haddam,
Hist. Address in North Coventry, 26. 124. Russell, "Up Neck" in 1825,
Loomis Female Geneal., i, 121. Marl- 51-53. Sprague, Annals of the'Amer.
borough, Conn., Centennial, 57. Niles, Pulpit, ii, 37.
George Washington Stanley was the only child of Oliver Stanley (Yale 1768), of Wallingford, Connecticut, by his first wife, Sarah Chauncey. He was born on June 25, 1775, while General Washington was on his way to Cambridge, to take command of the provincial army ; and thus was the earliest Yale graduate to receive Washing- ton's name in baptism. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Hezekiah Gold (Yale 1751), of Cornwall.
He settled in his native town as a lawyer, and like his father attained local distinction.
When the father declined, in May, 1809, a re-election as Judge of the Wallingford Probate District, the son succeeded to the office, which he continued to hold for nine years.
90 Yale College
In 1 8 19 he moved to Middletown, Connecticut, and from 1820 to 1827 was State's Attorney for Middlesex County.
About 1837 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he died on September 5, 1854, in his 80th year. In Ohio, as in Connecticut, he sustained the reputation of a learned, discreet, and faithful counsellor.
Judge Stanley married Clarissa Nichols, of Newtown, Connecticut, by whom he had one son and one daughter, both of whom survived him.
In his early years he was an ardent Federalist, and a favorite spokesman of his party.
He published:
1. An Oration, delivered at Wallingford, August 8th, 1805. In commemoration of the Independence of the United States. . . New-Haven, 1805. 22 pp. 8°.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. N. F. H. S. Y. C.
2. An Oration, delivered at Wallingford, April 4, 1814; in Celebration of the late glorious events in Europe . . . New-Haven,
1814. 31 pp. 8°. [B. Ath. Y. C.
3. An Oration, delivered February 22d, 181 5, at the Anniver- sary Celebration of the Birth-day of George Washington, by the Washington Benevolent Society, established at Wallingford. — By Geforge W. Stanley, Esq., President of the Society. . New-Haven,
1815. 29 pp. 8°. [Y.C.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 429, Middletown, 206. Warren, Stanley 902. Field, Centennial Address at Families, 76, 124.
Grosvenor Tarbell^ the eldest child of Lieutenant John Tarbell, Junior, and Huldah (Lee) Tarbell, of Stur- bridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and grandson of John and Esther (Grosvenor) Tarbell, of Woodstock, Connecticut, and Sturbridge, was born in Sturbridge on February 3, 1768.
After graduation he studied medicine in Boston, and in 1796 settled in the practice of his profession in Lincoln, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Biographical Sketches, j/p^ 91
He also served the community as town-clerk from 1799 to 1803.
He was eminently skilful and successful in his profes- sion, an excellent town-officer, and an enterprising and useful citizen. He received an ad eundem Master's degree from Harvard College in 18 10.
He died in Lincoln, universally lamented, on March 19, 1822, in his 55th year.
He married, on August 25, 1801, Thankful, second daughter of the Hon. Samuel and Susanna (Pierce) Hoar, of Lincoln, and sister of the Hon. Samuel Hoar (Harvard 1802). She died on February 7, 1861, in her 85th year. Their children were five daughters and two sons.
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 299. 172. Shatiuck, Hist, of Concord,
Hurd, Hist, of Middlesex County, ii, 312-13. Sturbridge Vital Records,
631. Lincoln Vital Records, 47, 137. 126. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, Ixi,
Isaac Miles Wales, the eldest son of the Rev. Samuel Wales (Yale 1767), was born in Milford, Connecticut, in 1775, and bore the name of his maternal grandfather. When he was seven years old his father removed from the pastorate of the First Church in Milford to the office of Professor of Divinity in Yale College ; and the son was prepared for admission to the Freshman Class at the Hop- kins Grammar School by Jared Mansfield (Yale 1777).
His father died a few months after his graduation and he then undertook the study of law with David Daggett (Yale 1783), and on admission to the bar began practice in New Haven.
He married, on November 18, 1799, Lois, daughter of John and Lois (Ray) Heaton, of New Haven.
After some years of rather undistinguished practice he removed to Oxford in the same county, about 18 10, and
92 Yale College
thence about four years later to Milford, his mother's native place, as well as his own.
His wife died in Oxford in April, 1813, at the age of 30; and he was next married, by the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, on May 14, 181 5, to Julia Smith, of Milford.
From Milford he went to Hancock County, Georgia, where the rest of his life was spent. He practiced law at Sparta, the present county-seat, and edited a paper in Mount Zion, about seven miles from Sparta.
He died in Mount Zion, probably in the month of Octo- ber, 1825, at the age of 50 years.
He is believed to have left several daughters, but no sons.
AUTHORITIES. Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, i, 25. Conn. Journal, Nov. 15, 1825.
Joseph Washburn, the son of Joseph and Ruth Washburn, of Middletown, Connecticut, was born in Mid- dletown on May 13, 1766, and baptized five days later. His mother was the youngest daughter of Daniel and Dor- othy (Hale) Wetmore, of Middletown.
He did not enter College until May of the Freshman year, when he was 24 years old. His preparation was conducted by his pastor, the Rev. Enoch Huntington (Yale 1759). He had already taught school in the vicinity. He was admitted to the College Church on profession of faith at the close of the Junior year. At graduation he was the oldest member of the Class.
He then studied for the ministry with Mr. Huntington, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Asso- ciation of Ministers in June, 1794.
Four months later he began to supply the vacant church in Farmington, Connecticut, and gave such satisfaction that on May 7, 1795, he was ordained and installed as pastor.
Biographical Sketches, i/pj 9^
He loved his work and was successful in it, great addi- tions being made to the church during his ministry. But his course was suddenly arrested by pulmonary consump- tion, brought on, as was supposed, by his incessant labors.
In October, 1805, he left home with his wife to spend the winter in a southern climate. While on their passage by water from Norfolk, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina, they encountered very tempestuous weather, which probably hastened his dissolution. He died serenely and peacefully on the morning of December 25, in his 40th year, and was buried at sea.
He published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, vol. I, 1801, pp. 378-86, 420-31:
Letters on the Revival of Religion in Farmington; republished in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's New England Revivals, 1846, pp. 160-78.
After his death a volume was published for the benefit of his destitute family, with the following title :
Sermons on practical subjects. — To which is added, a Sermon of the Rev. Asahel Hooker, delivered at Farmington, on the occasion of Mr. Washburn's death. Hartford, 1807. 12°, pp. 376.
[Andover Theol. Sent. Harv. Y. C.
Twenty-three of the author's sermons are included; and at the end is a very interesting list of subscribers, in which one suggestive feature is that over four hundred and fifty copies were taken in the city of Charleston, where large public sympathy had been aroused on account of Mrs. Washburn's afflicted condition. In Connecticut over nine hundred copies were taken.
He married, on August 18, 1795, Sarah, youngest daughter of Deacon Timothy and Jemima (Johnson) Boardman, of Middletown, by whom he had two daughters and two sons. One daughter married the Rev. Dr. Horatio N. Brinsmade (Yale 1822).
Mrs. Washburn next married, on August 2^, 181 2, Deacon Elijah Porter, of Farmington, who died in 1845 i and she died in New York City on July 2, 1847, in her 78th year, at the home of her only surviving son by her first marriage.
94 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vi, town, 220-21. Porter, Hist. Dis-
115. Boardman Geneal., 286, 358-59- course at Farmington, 79-80. F. F.
Conn. Evangelical Magazine, vi, 321. Starr, MS. Letter, Apr., 1910. Pres.
Field, Centennial Address at Middle- Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 471.
Ezra Witter entered College in May of the Freshman year, being then in his 22d year. He was the eldest child of Deacon Asa Witter, of Hanover Ecclesiastical Society, in the present township of Sprague, Connecticut, and grandson of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Brown) Witter, of Preston, Connecticut. His mother was Joanna, eldest child of Captain Ezra and Sarah (Denison) Kinne, of Preston. He had united with the church in Hanover Parish before coming to College.
He studied theology after graduation, and on January 21, 1796, married Eunice, the eldest daughter of his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Lee (Yale 1766), and sister of his classmate.
On August 16, 1797, he was ordained pastor of the Con- gregational Church in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, where he continued until May 31, 1814. He was a man of learn- ing, but aroused unfavorable criticism by paying too much attention to his farm, which led to his dismission. He also during these years received many pupils, some of whom he fitted for College, and others studied for the ministry under his direction.
In 181 5 he removed to Western New York, where he engaged in teaching ; and thence for a continuation of the same employment to Winchester, in Southern Tennessee, where he died on October 31, 1833, at the age of 65.
He had five children.
He published :
I. Resignation to the afflictive dispensations of Divine Provi- dence, recommended in a Discourse [from Job i, 21], delivered in Wilbraham, May 12, 1799. Occasioned by the death of six persons
Biographical Sketches, 179s 95
who were drowned in that place, April 29, 1799. Springfield, 1799. 8°, pp. II.
And
Gratitude and Obedience to the Preserver of Men, from a Signal Deliverance; and Warning from the Awful and Untimely- Fate of others; recommended and enforced in a Discourse [from Matt, xxiv, 41], delivered in Wilbraham, May 12, 1799. Occa- sioned by the death of six persons who were drowned in that place, April 29, 1799. Springfield, 1799. 8°, pp. 12.
[A. A. S. A. C. A.
These sermons are appended to one delivered at the funeral ten days earlier (in Mr. Witter 's absence) by the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769).
2. Two Sermons [from Matt, xii, 25] on the Party Spirit and Divided State of the Country, Civil and Religious. Delivered at Wilbraham, April 9, 1801, on the Anniversary Fast, in Massachu- setts. Springfield. 8°, pp. 15, 28.
[C. H. S. N. Hampshire Hist. Soc. U. T. S.
3. A Discourse [from Lam. v, 16] delivered in Wilbraham, November 17, 1805, occasioned by the murder of Marcus Lyon. Springfield. 8°, pp. 16. [C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. A Sermon [from Isa. Ixii, 6-7], preached at the ordination of the Rev. Alfred Ely, . . in Monson, December 17th, 1806. Spring- field. 8°, pp. 20. [A.A.S. Brozvn Univ. C. H. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Allen, Allen and Witter Geneal., Stcbbins, Hist. Address at WilbVa- 225-26. Bailey J Early Conn. Mar- ham, 140-41. riages, vi, 91. Hampden Pulpit, no.
9^ Yale College
Annals, 1793-94
At the preceding Commencement (September, 1793), as has been mentioned, the office of Professor of Divinity was offered to the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754) ; but he promptly declined it, and no further attempt in that direction was made at present. In the meantime, the former incumbent, the Rev. Dr. Wales, died in New Haven on February 18, and was buried with full academic cere- monies three days later.
James Gould (Yale 1791), who had just been elected to the tutorship, assumed office at the beginning of the Col- lege year; and in March his classmate, Josiah Stebbins, took the place of the retiring Senior Tutor, Calvin Chapin (Yale 1788). The third Tutor, Jonathan W. Edwards (Yale 1789), resigned at Commencement, when Noah Linsly (Yale 1791) was elected to the vacancy.
The College year was much broken by sickness. The prevalence of scarlatina led to the dismissal of the students at the end of March, and on their reassembling on the first of June, it was to be almost immediately alarmed by a more serious epidemic of yellow fever, which devastated New Haven from June to September, and which closed the College a fortnight before the usual date. There was no death in the College community.
The new buiWing, which had been begun in April, 1793, was completed in July, 1794, and was formally named Union Hall, in commemoration of the union effected between the College and the State, whereby funds were secured for its erection; but in common parlance it was
Annals, i';gs~94
97
known as South College, until its demolition in 1893, on the erection of Vanderhilt Hall.
In July, 1794, Talleyrand, the celebrated French poli- tician and wit, spent two days in New Haven and visited the College with interest. President Stiles's Diary pre- serves a record of his visit.
9* Vale College
Sketches, Class of 1794
* Johannes Punderson Austin, A.M. *i834 *Ezekiel Bacon, e Congr. ^1870 *Elija Bates *i850 *Timotheus Burt, 1795 *i8ii Vehu Clark, A.M. *i839 *Daniel Dunbar, A.M. Guil. 1798 *i84i *Josias Dwight *i855
* Johannes Elliott, A.M., Rerumpubl. Foed. Sen. *i827 *Elias White Hale *i832 *Benjamin Heyward *I796 *Dan Huntington, A.M., et Guilielm. 1798, Tutor *i864 *Aaron Kinne, A.M. 1798 *i8i5 *Isaacus Lewis, A.M., S.T.D. Delawar. 1844 *i854 *Zecharias Lewis, A.M., Tutor *i840 *Stephanus Mix Mitchell *i820 *Herveius Mulford *i847 *Benjamin Douglas Perkins, A.M. • *i8io *Samuel Andreas Peters *i854 *01iverus Leicester Phelps, A.M. *i8i3 *Daniel Putnam Tyler *I798 *Thomas Scott Williams, LL.D. 1834, e Congr.,
Reip. Conn. Cur. Supr. Jurid. Princ. *i86i "^Andreas Yates, A.M. et Cone. 1798, S.T.D. Mediob. 18 14, in Coll. Cone. Lingg. Graec. et
Lat. etiam Log. et Philos. Moral. Prof. *i844
John Punderson Austin^ a son of Deacon . David Austin, of New Haven, and a brother of the Rev. David Austin (Yale 1779), was born on June 28, 1774. His middle name commemorated the brilliant half-brother of
Biographical Sketches, 1794 99
his father, Punderson Austin (Yale 1762), who died the year before his birth. A sister married his classmate Yates.
He settled in New Haven in business, and on Septem- ber 10, 1797, married in Green Farms, Fairfield, now part of Westport, Connecticut, Susannah, daughter of Dr. David and Martha (Tennent) Rogers, of Greenfield Hill. Husband and wife joined the United Church in New Haven on profession of faith in October, 1803, and took letters of dismission in August, 1806, on their removal to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In October, 1807, he was elected Deacon in the Con- gregational Church of Bridgeport, and retained that office until his removal from the town in 18 13. He also attained the rank of Major in the State militia during his residence there.
In 1816 he was engaged in the soap-boiling business in Norwich, Connecticut, and was received by letter in Sep- tember of that year into the First Congregational Church in that place.
Later he removed to Texas, in connection with the emi- gration promoted by his kinsmen, Moses and Stephen F. Austin.
He died in Brazoria, about fifty miles west of Galveston, on June 24, 1834, at the age of 60 years, and his remains were brought to New Haven for burial.
His widow died on August 24, 1870, at the age of 92 years.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, iii, N. Y. Geneal. Record, xvi, 163. Tut- 166. Dodd, E. Haven Register, 103. tie Family, 626.
EzEKiEL Bacon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 1st of September, 1776, the only son of the Rev. John Bacon (Princeton College 1765), and an own cousin of Asa Bacon (Yale 1793). His father had been dismissed
loo Yale College
from the ministry of the Old South Church in Boston on doctrinal grounds in February, 1775, and had then estab- lished himself in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, as a farmer. His wife was Elizabeth, widow of his predecessor in office, the Rev. Alexander Gumming, and eldest daughter of Ezekiel Goldthwait, a prominent citizen of Boston, and Elizabeth (Lewis) Goldthwait. The family were on a visit in Boston, when the birth of this child occurred. He entered College in May of the Freshman year. At grad- uation he delivered a poem on the origin and effects of War.
After graduation he began the study of law with Judge Tapping Reeve, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and continued it with the Hon. Nathan Dane (Harvard 1778), of Bev- erly, Massachusetts. In January, 1798, he was admitted to the bar in Boston.
He settled in practice in Williamstown, Berkshire County, in 1798, and on October 6, 1799, married Abigail, daughter of Dr. Reuben Smith (Yale 1757), of Litchfield. The acquaintance dated from his attendance on the Litch- field Law School, but his suit was long frowned on by the lady's father, who was as ardent a Federalist as Mr. Bacon and his father were Anti-Federalists.
From July, 1803, to April, 1807, when he removed to Pittsfield, in the same county, he was postmaster of Wil- liamstown.
He was a member of the State legislature in 1806 and 7 ; and a member of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress from 1807 to 1813, — serving on the Committee of Ways and Means, and for the year 1812-13 being its chairman. In Congress he was indus- trious and influential, and became conspicuous in 1809 by his independent advocacy of the repeal of the embargo, in opposition to Jefferson.
In 1813 he was appointed to the office of Chief justice of the new Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the West- ern District of Massachusetts; but almost immediately
I
Biographical Sketches, 1794 101
after was made Comptroller of the TJnited States Treasury by President Madison. This office, owing to ill health, he resigned in 181 5, and removing into the State of New York, he settled in Utica in 18 16.
His first interest in his new home was in merchandise, as a partner (until 1822) in the firm of Alexander Sey- mour & Co. In 1 8 18 he was admitted as counsellor-at- law, and from that year until 1820 he served as an associate Judge of the County Court of Common Pleas. In 18 19 he was a member of the legislature, and in 1821 a member of the Convention for revising the State Constitution.
In 1822 he was nominated for Congress in opposition to the Hon. Henry R. Storrs (Yale 1804), but was defeated by a majority of less than a hundred votes. On the rise of the Whigs he identified himself with them, but when the Free-Soil movement arose in 1848, his sympathies with the oppressed led him to take sides with that party.
After 1825 he lived in retirement, during much of the time sufifering from protracted ill-health and manifold infirmities. Through long years of mental wretchedness he was either unable or indisposed to go abroad, and was weighed down by the deepest depression. At intervals, however, he was equal to intellectual exertion, and he was for considerable periods a regular contributor to the Oneida Whig and the Utica Daily Gazette.
His wife died in 1862, at the age of 83.
He died in Utica on October 18, 1870, having entered on his 95th year, and having been for six years, since the death of the Rev. Daniel Waldo (Yale 1788), the oldest living graduate of the College.
His children were three sons and two daughters; of whom two sons and one daughter survived him. The sec- ond son was graduated at Hamilton College in 1822, and had a distinguished career as a lawyer and judge.
One of the strongest friendships of Mr. Bacon's life was with Joseph Story, who was a fellow-member of Con- gress and in sympathy with his political views; Mr.
102 Yale College
Bacon is believed to have been the chief instrument in securing Justice Story's nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States.
In early and middle life his religious opinions were a good deal unsettled, but in his old age he became a profess- ing christian.
He published:
1. An Oration, delivered at Williamstown, on the 4th of July, 1799 . . Bennington, 1799. 12°, pp. 32.
[B. Ath. C. H. S. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. The strong anti-federalist doctrine of this Oration was so unpal- atable to the Williams College students that a copy was publicly burnt in condemnation.
2. Speech . . In the House of Representatives, at Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1802. In Committee of the whole, on the bill . . entitled "An Act to repeal certain acts respecting the organ- ization of the Courts of the United States." 8°, pp. 8.
[N. Y. H. S.
3. An Oration delivered at Pittsfield, on the thirty-first anni- versary of American Independence, July 4th, 1807. Pittsfield, 1807. 8°, pp. 24. [B.Ath. C.H.S. M.H.S.
4. " An Address, delivered before the Republican Citizens of Berkshire, assembled at Pittsfield, to celebrate the thirty-fourth anni- versary of American Independence, July 4th, 1810. Pittsfield, 1810. 8°, pp. 24. [B. Ath. M. H. S. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc.
5. Memorial of the Sureties of Thompson J. Skinner, late Treas- urer of the Commonwealth, together with a view of their case, and the grounds on which they claim to be exonerated from their liability for his Defalcation. Pittsfield. [1811?] 8°, pp. 32.
[Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. Mr. Bacon, as the leading lawyer among the four bondsmen of Mr. Skinner, published this argument, which was sufficiently con- vincing to become the basis of a compromise by which part of the pecuniary liability was remitted; after all, however, most of the property which he had by this time accumulated was sacrificed.
6. Report of the Committee appointed to Inquire into the Con- duct of General Wilkinson. — February 26, 181 1 ... Washington, 181 1. 8°, pp. 582 + 5 tables. [B.Ath. Harv.
I
Biographical Sketches, 17^4 103
In House Reports of the nth Congress of the U. S., 3d Session. Attributed to Mr. Bacon as the Chairman of the Committee.
7. JEgri Somnia. Recreations of a Sick Room. Utica, 1842. 16°, pp. 45. [B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv.
Some copies include additional matter, dated 1843, making 73 pages. The same. [2d edition.] New-York, 1843. 12°, pp. 107.
[Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
Some copies of the later edition also include 16 additional pages, dated 1844. The contents are all in verse, and the volume is ded- icated to Justice Story.
8. Recollections of Fifty Years since... — A Lecture delivered before the Young Men's Association of the City of Utica, February 2, 1843. Utica, 1843. 8°, pp. 43.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
An interesting, discursive talk, including a few reminiscences of his College days.
9. A Lecture delivered before the Young Men's Association of the City of Utica, December 15, 1843. — Subject. — "Notice of Some distinguished American Public Characters and Writers of the past and present century, — James Madison, Albert Gallatin, Joseph Story, and John Pierpont." Utica, 1844. 8°, pp. 48.
\B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
10. Vacant Hours. A Sequel to "Recreations of a Sick Room." Utica, 1845. 12°, pp. 61. [B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv.
Many of his letters to Justice Story are printed in Story's Life by his son. Odes of his composition were sung at the Alumni Meet- ings of Yale College at Commencement in 1844 and 1846.
AUTHORITIES.
H. Adams, Hist, of U. S., iv, 432- morial Biographies, vi, 399-401.
34, 436-38, 450, 463. Bagg, Pioneers Perry, Williamstown and Williams
of Utica, 393-97. Goldthwaite Gen- College, 177, 298-300, 323-24. Smith,
ealogy, 138-39. Mass. Hist. Society's Hist, of Pittsfield, ii, 85-87, 124-25.
Proceedings, xix, 16^-70. N. E. Hist. Story, Life of J. Story, i, 187, 199-
and Geneal. Register, xxvi, 204-06. 200. N. E. Historic-Geneal. Society's Me-
Elijah Bates, the eldest child of Captain Nathaniel and Hannah Bates, of (East) Granville, Massachusetts, and grandson of John and Edith Bates, of Durham, Con-
X04 Yale College
necticut, was born in Granville on July 27, 1770. His mother was a daughter of Jonathan and Abigail (White) Church. Isaac C. Bates (Yale 1802) was a first cousin.
He studied law with Judge Tapping Reeve in Litchfield, Connecticut, and also in the office of Joseph Lyman (Yale 1783), of Westfield.
He established himself in practice in Westfield, which adjoins his native town, but from the first indulged a passion for agricultural pursuits, which interfered seriously with his professional success.
He was one of the foremost in the enterprise of opening a good highway from Westfield to Albany, and did much of the work in his vicinity at his own expense.
As a citizen he was public spirited and enterprising ; one of the kindest of neighbors and most honest of men.
He was a member of the State Senate for one or more sessions.
For many years he limited his professional labors mainly to the winter months, devoting the summer to his favorite out-of-door pursuits; and in 1825, when his elder son began law studies, he made his retirement final.
He died in Westfield on February 4, 1850, in his 80th year.
He married, on June 15, 1800, Mary (or Polly), eldest daughter of Dr. Israel Ashley (Yale 1767), of Westfield, who died on July 10, 1845, aged 75 years.
Their children were two sons and one daughter, all of whom survived their parents. The elder son was grad- uated at Yale in 1825.
AUTHORITIES.
Booth Family, 9. Dwight Family, Biogr. Record, ii, 134, 137. Trow- ii, 1073-74. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. bridge, Ashley Genealogy, 92. West- Register, V, loi. N. Y. Geneal. and field Jubilee, 169, 203-05.
Timothy Burt^ elder son of Deacon Gideon Burt, of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and grandson of Moses and Hannah (Warriner) Burt, of Wilbraham, was born on
Biographical Sketches, 1794 105
March 1 1, 1773. His mother was Eunice, eldest daughter of Thomas and Eunice (Stebbins) Merrick, of Wilbra- ham. He had united with the church at his home before coming to New Haven.
He was absent from College, to teach school, during the latter part of Senior year; and did not receive his degree until 1795.
He subsequently studied law, and entered on a promis- ing social and professional career in Canandaigua, New York, which was checked by his early death there, in 181 1, at the age of 38.
AUTHORITIES. Burnham, Burt Genealogy, 66. Stebbins, Hist. Address at Wilbraham, 269.
Jehu Clark^ the oldest member of the graduating class, entered College from Washington, Litchfield County, Con- necticut, having been born there on November 8, 1767, the son of Ebenezer and Hannah Clark. His mother was the youngest child of Joseph and Abigail (Wood) Tenney, of Norwich, Connecticut. A brother was graduated here in 1806.
After graduation he studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the Litchfield South Association of Ministers in 1796.
In October, 1799, he was settled as pastor of the Con- gregational Church in Newtown, Connecticut, where he continued until August, 18 16. He was next installed by the Consociation of the Western District of New Haven County over the Second Congregational or Plymouth Church in Mil ford, Connecticut, on December 10, 18 17. Great difficulties arose under his ministry, which threat- ened to divide the Society. He was requested to resign, but declined, apparently on account of his unsettled pecuniary claims. The Consociation was called in, in February, 1827, and by their eflforts his retirement was effected.
io6 Yale College
His later years were spent in New York City, where he died on March 22, 1839, in his 72d year.
He married Mary Fleming, by whom he had four sons and one daughter. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1821.
AUTHORITIES. Mrs. G. E. Hine, MS. Letter, Febr., 1910.
Daniel Dunbar, the eldest child of Aaron Dunbar, of Plymouth, then part of Watertown, Connecticut, was born on March 28, 1774. His mother was Mary Potter, of the adjoining parish of Plymouth, four of whose brothers were graduated here, in 1765, 1767, 1772, and 1780, respectively. One of his own brothers was graduated in 1800.
He served as tutor in Williams College for the two years next after graduation; and received a Master's degree there in 1798.
He afterwards studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and entered on practice in Berlin, Hartford County, Con- necticut, in 1804, where he continued, highly esteemed for his integrity and kindness, until his death, in Hartford, on December 11, 1841, in his 68th year.
He married Catharine, fourth daughter of the Rev. Samuel Goodrich (Yale 1783), of Ridgefield, Connecticut, who died in Berlin, after long years of infirmity, on Octo- ber 15, 1873, in her 8ist year. Their children were three sons and one daughter.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Memorials, i68, 351-52. Appendix, 46. Fowler, Chauncey
JosiAH D WIGHT, the eldest child of Deacon and Colonel Elijah Dwight, a country merchant of Belchertown, Mas- sachusetts, and grandson of Captain Nathaniel and Han-
Biographical Sketches, 1794 107
nail (Lyman) Dwight, of Belchertown, was born on August 15, 1775. His mother was Diana, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Leonard) Hinsdale, of Greenfield, Massachusetts. His eldest sister married Hezekiah W. Strong (Yale 1800).
After graduation he studied medicine, and in 1799 he settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where for over fifty years he enjoyed a large practice, greatly respected and beloved, alike for his personal qualities and his pro- fessional skill. For the last five years of his life he was confined to his house by blindness.
He died in Portsmouth on May 25, 1855, in his Both year.
Dr. Dwight married Susan Thompson, daughter of Colonel Thompson, an Englishman, and had one son and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Doolittle, Hist. Sketch of Congre- Dwight Family, i, 483-84. gational Church in Belchertown, 261.
John Elliott, the second child and eldest son of Col- onel John Elliott, of Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia, and grandson of Captain John and Elizabeth Elliott, who removed to Sunbury from Colleton County, South Caro- lina, was born on October 24, 1773, and was baptized in the Midway Congregational Church on the 8th of the follow- ing December. He came to Yale through the encourage- ment of his pastor, the Rev. Abiel Holmes (Yale 1783), and entered in January of the Freshman year.
After graduation he returned immediately to Sunbury, and was there married to Esther, daughter of Dr. James and Esther (Dean, Splatt) Dunwody, of Liberty County, on October i, 1795. She died in 181 5, and he next mar- ried, on January 6, 18 18, Martha, youngest daughter of General Daniel and Susannah (Oswald) Stewart, of Sunbury.
io8 Yale College
He had six daughters and two sons by his first wife, and by his second wife three sons and two daughters.
He became prominent in public affairs^ and from 1819 to 1825 was a member of the United States Senate.
He died in Sunbury on August 9, 1827, in his 54th year.
His widow married in 1832 Major James S. Bulloch, and by him was the grandmother of President Roosevelt. Major Bulloch's first wife was a daughter of Senator Elliott by his first marriage.
He published:
An Oration, on the death of Mr. Thomas Lewis, Principal of Sunbury Academy, who died on the 3d of March; delivered (by particular request) in Sunbury Meeting-House, on the 3d of April, 1804. Savannah. [1804,] 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
The same. Reprinted at New Haven, Ct., 1855. 8°, pp. 16.
[Y. C.
]\Ir. Lewis was a graduate of Yale in 1798, and Mr. Elliott was one of the Commissioners (or Trustees) of the Academy.
An engraving from Senator Elliott's portrait is given in Stacy's History of Midway Church.
AUTHORITIES.
Bulloch, Memoirs of the Bulloch 16-18. Midway Church Records, i, family, 15-17; Hist, of the Stewart, 79, 83, 91, 115, 150. Stacy, Hist, of Elliott and Dunwody Families, 5, 11, Midway Church, 96-97, 283.
Elias White Hale, the fourth son of Gideon and Mary Hale, of Glastonbury, Connecticut, was born in Glastonbury on April ii, 1775. His mother was the third daughter of Ebenezer and Ann (Hollister) White, of Middletown Upper Houses, now Cromwell, Connecticut.
He became a lawyer, and settled in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, where he died on February 3, 1832, in his 57th year.
He married, on February 26, 18 10, Jane Mulhallan..
AUTHORITIES. Glastonbury Centennial, 214. Kellogg, Memorials of John White, 56.
Biographical Sketches, J/P4 109
Benjamin Heyward, only son of Colonel Daniel Hey- ward, a wealthy planter of Charleston, South Carolina, by his third wife, Elizabeth Simons, and grandson of Captain Thomas and Margaret (Wright) Heyward, was born in November, 1776. His father died in 1777, and his mother in 1788. An older half-brother, Thomas Heyward, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and married a sister of Thomas Savage (Yale 1792), which may have led to the younger Heyward's coming to Yale.
After graduation he returned to South Carolina, but a few months later began the study of law in the Litchfield (Connecticut) Law School, where he remained for one year.
On Commencement Day, September 14, 1796, he died in New Haven by a pistol-shot from his own hand. His prospects were bright, and no reason was generally known for his rash act. His was the first death in the Class.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, Sept. 21, 1796. Hey- bins. Diary, i, 19. Pres. Stiles, Liter- ward Genealogical Chart T. Rob- ary Diary, iii, 394-95.
Dan Huntington was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, on October 11, 1774, being the eighth and youngest child of Captain William Huntington, of Lebanon, and nephew of Samuel Huntington (Yale 1743) and Eliphalet Hunt- ington (Yale 1759). His mother was Bethia, eldest child of Dan and Susanna (Carey) Throop, of Bristol, Rhode Island, and Lebanon. A sister married the Rev. Dr. WiUiam Lyman (Yale 1784). He was prepared for Col- lege by Master Nathan Tisdale (Harvard 1749), of Lebanon.
Towards the close of the Senior year he taught school for a term in Suffield, Connecticut, and while there united with the Congregational Church on profession of his faith.
no Yale College
At graduation he accepted an invitation to a tutorship in WilHams College for two years, where he boarded with President Ebenezer Fitch (Yale 1777) and at the same time studied theology. In the summer of 1796, before leaving Williamstown, he was Hcensed to preach by the Berkshire Association of Congregational Ministers.
He w^as a tutor at Yale for the next two years, 1796-98, and meantime continued his theological studies under President Dwight.
At the Commencement in 1797 he delivered a Master's Oration on the Political Advantages of Sabbatical Insti- tutions.
Quite early in his tutorship he preached in the Congre- gational Church in Litchfield, Connecticut, with such sat- isfaction to the people that they continued to hear him as they had opportunity, and finally called him to settle as colleague with their aged pastor, the Rev. Judah Cham- pion (Yale 1751). He was ordained and installed there on October 17, 1798, on a salary of four hundred dollars. The ordination sermon by the Rev. Dr. James Dana, of New Haven, was subsequently published.
On January i, 1801, he married Elizabeth Whiting, only daughter of 'Squire Charles and Elizabeth (Porter) Phelps, of Hadley, Massachusetts. Mr. Huntington's revered friend. President Dwight, had visited Hadley a few years before, and had been much impressed by Miss Phelps's charms of person and of character; he spoke of her, accordingly, with approbation to his favorite pupil, who soon had an opportunity of preaching in Hadley and of beginning an acquaintance which resulted in marriage.
In politics Mr. Huntington was a decided Federalist, though not a violent partisan, but nevertheless he became involved in more than one political controversy.
The expenses of a rapidly growing family compelled him, to the great regret of his parish, to take a dismission from Litchfield in January, 1809; and he was shortly after a candidate for the pastorate in Hadley, as colleague to the
Biographical Sketches, 1794 zii
Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins (Yale 1749), but failed through jealousy of the Phelps family influence. In the following August he was installed over the First Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut, on a salary of eight hundred dollars. The sermon preached at his installation by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman (Yale 1767) was after- wards published.
To make sure of a livelihood he also opened his house for a boarding-school, which was liberally patronized; but he still found that his income did not meet his expenses, and his health not being good, he again asked for a dis- mission, which was granted in February, 1816.
In the meantime by her father's death (in 1814) Mrs. Huntington had come into possession of the ample home- stead in Hadley, with a farm of considerable extent; and it seemed wise to remove thither on leaving Middletown.
For several years after his removal Mr. Huntington had charge of the Hopkins Academy in Hadley (with a salary of five hundred dollars), while he also continued to preach as he had opportunity.
From the time of his licensure, his views had been tinged with liberalism; and soon after his retirement from the pastorate he avowed himself a Unitarian in doctrine, though it is hardly necessary to say that to those who knew his daily life, no change in his christian character was ever observable. During his last years he returned with satisfaction to the worship and communion of the orthodox churches.
His wife died on April 8, 1847, i^ ^^^ 68th year; and he continued in a tranquil old age in Hadley until October 31, 1864, when he had just entered on his 91st year.
His children were seven sons and four daughters. Three sons were educated at Harvard (one dying just before graduation), and the youngest at Amherst. The last named became the preacher to Harvard University, and subsequently the revered and beloved Episcopal Bishop of Central New York.
112 Yale College
He published :
1. A Discourse [from John xii, 8] delivered at the request of the Female Charitable Society, in the new church in Middletown; December 26th, 1809. Middletown, 1810. 8°, pp. 19.
[B. Ath. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from Matt, xi, 12] preached in Wethersfield, Lord's Day, March 25th, 1810. Middletown, 1810. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Ath. U. T. S. y. C.
3. The love of Jerusalem, the prosperity of a people. — A Sermon [from Ps. cxxii, 6], preached at the Anniversary Election, Hartford, May 12, 1814. Hartford, 1814. 8°, pp. 40.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. An Address dehvered in Granby (Mass.), May 31, 1820. Springfield, 1820. 12°. [Br. Mus.
5. An intolerant Spirit, hostile to the interests of Society. — A Sermon [from Acts xviii, 14-15], delivered ... on the Anniversary Election, May 29, 1822. Boston, 1822. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
With a bearing on religious controversies.
6. Memories, Counsels, and Reflections. By an Octogenary. Addressed to his children and descendants, and printed for their use. Cambridge, 1857. 8°, pp. iv, 119. [B.Publ. Harv. Y.C.
Comprising an autobiography and other reminiscences.
Several other occasional appearances in print may be mentioned: such as a letter to the Rev. Stanley Griswold (Yale 1786), of New Milford, in reference to Mr. Griswold's supposed heterodoxy, pub- lished in a pamphlet called Church and State, in 1802; an account of a revival in Litchfield in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine for April, 1808; and the charge at his youngest son's ordination, in 1842.
AUTHORITIES.
Centennial Proceedings of Litch- moir and Letters of Frederic D.
field County Consociations, 72, 141. Huntington, passim. Judd, Hist, of
D. Huntington, Memories, etc., pas- Hadley, 2d ed., 327, 338-39, 460; pt.
sim. E. B. Huntingt on, "HvmimgXon 2, no. Phelps Family, i, 295, 5og-io.
Family Memoir, 183-85, 268-71. Me- T. Rohhins, Diary, i, 67.
Biographical Sketches, iyp4 113
Aaron Kinne, eldest son of the Rev. Aaron Kinne (Yale 1765), of Groton, Connecticut, was born in Groton on April 28, 1773.
He became a merchant in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and died there in the latter part of April, 1815, aged 42 years.
Amelia Kinne (probably his widow) administered his very small estate.
Isaac Lewis, Junior, a son of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765), of Wilton Parish, in Norwalk, Connecticut, was born in Wilton on January i, 1773. His twin brother was a classmate, and another brother was graduated in 1802. In 1786 Dr. Lewis removed from the Congrega- tional Church in Wilton to the Second Congregational Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. While in College Isaac Lewis, Junior, became a christian.
On graduation he received the appointment of College Butler, and while a resident graduate he began with Pres- ident Stiles the study of theology, which he continued under President Dwight. He was admitted to the College Church on profession of his faith in March, 1795.
He was licensed to preach by the Fairfield West Asso- ciation of Ministers on October 12, 1796, and received ordination by that body on May 30, 1798. He had pre- viously (on April 18) been called to the Presbyterian Church in Newburgh, New York; and he served that church as pastor-elect until September, 1799, when he finally declined their call and removed. The peculiar state of that congregation prevented the Presbytery from ordaining him, and also made it inexpedient for him to settle there permanently.
On October 4, 1798, he was married by his father to Catharine, daughter of Isaac Evertson, of Pleasant Valley, Duchess County, New York.
In June, 1800, he assisted in organizing the First Pres- byterian Church in Cooperstown, in central New York,
114 yale College
over which he was installed on October i in the same year, being the first regularly settled clergyman in that town. During his pastorate fifty-three members were added to the church on profession of faith.
Near the close of the year 1805 he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Goshen, Orange County, New York, where he was installed on January i, 1806. His removal from Cooperstown was partly due to his wife's ill-health.
He resigned his charge in Goshen in June of 1812; and while traveling with his wife for her health happened to stop for a night in Bristol, Rhode Island. Learning that there was a special interest in religion in the town, he was induced to remain and promote the revival. His engage- ment as an assistant to the pastor for six months followed, with gratifying results; but he declined an invitation to settle as colleague-pastor.
From 1814 to 1818 he officiated as stated supply in the small Presbyterian congregations of New Rochelle, West- chester County, and West Farms, now included in New York City. In December, 18 14, he declined a call to suc- ceed his classmate Yates in the Congregational Church in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Late in 18 18 he was called to succeed his father in Greenwich, and was installed there on December i, the day of his father's dismission.
In 1823 a powerful revival occurred, which added largely to the numbers and strength of the church. After an uncommonly successful ministry, witnessed by one hun- dred and forty-one additions to membership, he was dis- missed in April, 1828.
The church which he had formerly served in Bristol being now without a pastor, he was called with hearty unanimity to that office, and was installed there on Novem- ber 12, 1828. Here also his ministry was distinguished by another season of spiritual revival, resulting in large accessions to the membership of the church. He remained
Biographical Sketches, 1/^4 115
in office until a failure of his voice and continued feeble health compelled him to retire, much to the regret of his people, on September 28, 1831.
The rest of his life was spent in the family of a daughter in the city of New York. He continued to preach occa- sionally, until within a few weeks of his death.
He died in New York on September 23, 1854, in his 82d year.
His children were five daughters and two sons ; the eld- est daughter married Dr. Harvey P. Peet (Yale 1822).
He was a man of excellent talents, of elevated christian character, and of extensive usefulness. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Delaware College in 1844.
In their earlier life he and his twin brother resembled each other so closely that it was difficult for even intimate friends to know them apart.
He published:
1. A Sermon [from Ps. cxxvi, 6], delivered in Sherburne, Feb- ruary 29th, 1804, at the Ordination of the Rev. Joshua Knight. Cooperstown, 1804. 8°, 26 pp. [Brown Univ. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Discourse [from Ps. c, 4], delivered in the Congregational Church, at Bristol, on the Public Thanksgiving, November 26, A. D. 1812. Warren, 1812. 8°, 18 pp. [B. Ath. C. H. S. Y. C.
3. A Discourse [from Col. ii, 9], on the Divinity of Jesus Christ: delivered, in the Congregational Church, at Bristol, R. I., on Wed- nesday evening, Dec. 16, 1812. Warren, 1812. 8°, 35 pp.
[C. H. S. Y. C.
4. Address at the Fourth Anniversary of the Fairfield County Bible Society. 1824.
5. A Sermon [from Micah vi, 8] addressed to the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, at the annual Election, in Hartford, May 2, 1827. Hartford, 1827. 8°, 21 pp. [C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
He also printed a Sermon on the Union of Believers with Christ, in volume i of The National Preacher, for March, 1827 (pp. 153- 60).
ii6 ^ Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Harlow, Hist, of Hudson Presby- bins, Diary, i, 609, 615. Ruttenber
tery, 45. Lane, Manual of the ist and Clark, Hist, of Orange County,
Church, Bristol, 13S-40, I47-S3- 534- Shepard, Two Discourses in
Lewisiana, iv, 164; v, 51. Livermore, Bristol, 21-23. Sprague, Annals of
Hist, of Cooperstown, 50. isoth An- the Amer. Pulpit, i, 666-67. Pres.
niversary of the 2d Congregational Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 560. Church of Greenwich, 36. T. Rob-
Zechariah Lewis, the twin brother of the preceding graduate, was born in Wilton, Connecticut, on January i,
1773.
He studied theology after graduation in Philadelphia, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green (Prince- ton 1784), and was during the same time a private tutor in General Washington's family.
With his twin brother, he was licensed to preach by the Fairfield West Association in October, 1796. During the preceding month he had been elected to a tutorship at Yale ; and he now entered on his duties, and held the office for three years. At the Commencement in 1797 he delivered a Master's Oration on the Consequences of a Division of the American Republic. At this time his health was very delicate, so that he was unable to preach; and he devoted himself for several years to ineffectual efforts to recover strength for the duties of the ministry.
Having at length become convinced that he must turn to a secular life, he became in 1803 editor and publisher of the New-York Spectator and the Commercial Advertiser, and so continued until about 1820. He was for some years from January i, 1809, an elder in what is now the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.
From 1 8 14 to 1820 he was also Corresponding Secretary of the New York Religious Tract Society (out of which grew, a few years later, the American Tract Society), and prepared its annual reports. Having resigned that office, in February, 1820, he was elected in the following May,
Biographical Sketches, i^P4 117
Secretary for Domestic Correspondence of the United Foreign Missionary Society, one chief object of which was to civihze and christianize the American Indians, and this office he held for five years. In this capacity in July, 1820, he began the publication of the American Missionary Reg- ister, a monthly magazine, of which he had the editorial charge until 1825.
His later years were devoted to charitable labors.
He died at his residence in Brooklyn, New York, on November 14, 1840, in his 68th year.
He married Sophia Nitchie, and had four daughters and three sons. Two sons were graduated at Yale College, in 1828 and 1831 respectively, and became Presbyterian clergymen. The youngest son was graduated at Columbia in 1843, ^^^ ^t the Yale Law School in 1845, but after- wards entered the Episcopal ministry.
He published :
1. An Oration, on the apparent, and the real political situation of the United States, pronounced before the Connecticut Society of Cincinnati, assembled, at New Haven, for the celebration of Amer- ican Independence, July the 4th, 1799. New-Haven, 1799. 8°,
27 PP-
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. H. S.
N. Y. Publ. Libr. U. T. S. Y. C.
An earnest arraignment of France and of French sympathizers.
2. Remarks on a subterranean wall in North Carolina. 1800.
3. Reply to Dr. [James] Woodhouse's Strictures on the "Remarks." 1802.
4. Letter to a Member of Congress, in relation to Indian Civili- zation.— By the Domestic Secretary of the Uilited Foreign Mis- sionary Society. New York, 1822. 8°, pp. 15. {B. Publ.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, iv, v, 4, 50-51 ; vi, 99. Sprague, Annals 95. Lane, Manual of ist Church in of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 666-67. Bristol, 150-51. Lewisiana, iv, 164;
ii8 Yale College
Stephen Mix Mitchell, Junior, the second son of Judge Stephen M. Mitchell (Yale 1763), of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on July 28, 1775, and was baptized on the 3d of the following December.
He won the Berkeley Scholarship in his Senior year, but is not known to have fulfilled the conditions by residence as a graduate.
He studied law at the Litchfield Law School, and settled in the practice of his profession in Burlington, Vermont.
He died in Burlington on May 25, 1820, in his 45th year.
He married Sophia Coit, who died on September 20, 1822. Two children survived their parents, — one son being born in Wethersfield the month after his father's death.
AUTHORITIES.
Salisbury, Family Histories and Stiles,, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 507- Genealogies, i, 180. Pres. Ezra Stiles, 08. Literary Diary, iii, 405, 524. H. R.
Hervey Mulford, the second child and elder son of Barnabas Mulford, of New Haven, and grandson of Bar- nabas and Hannah (Petty) Mulford, of Branford, Con- necticut, was born in New Haven on July 7, 1777. His mother was Mehitable, daughter of Timothy and Mary (Punchard) Gorham, of New Haven. He was the young- est in his Class at graduation.
He became a merchant in his native city, and carried on quite an extensive business in New York and New Haven. He met with heavy losses in his early career from the French depredations on American commerce, from the effects of which his fortunes never fully recovered. In consequence of this experience he interested himself con- spicuously in the matter of French spoliation claims, and was instrumental in urging Congressional action thereon.
He died in New Haven on February 16, 1847, i^^ his 70th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1794 119
He was married, in New Haven, on March 29, 1797, by the Rev. Dr. Dana, to Nancy, fourth daughter of Captain Abraham and Amy (Hemingway) Bradley, of New Haven. An older sister of hers married Heaton Huggins (Yale 1784). Mrs. Mulford died in New Haven on August 19, 1 84 1, in her 63d year.
Mr. Mulford was married secondly, by the Rev. Dr. Bacon, on October 22, 1845, to his cousin, Mrs. Hannah Beach (Mulford) Barker, widow of Giles Barker, of Bran- ford, who died in New Haven on September 14, 1862, aged 83 years.
His children, by his first marriage, were nine daughters and three sons. One daughter married Charles Robinson (Yale 1821).
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey. Early Conn, Marriages, i, xxxiv, 178-80. Tuttle Family, 287- 24. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 88,
Benjamin Douglas Perkins, third son of Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Plainfield, Connecticut, and a brother of John D. Perkins, of the Class of 1791, was born in Plainfield on June 24, 1774.
About 1795 1^^ went to London, England, to introduce the "metallic tractors" which his father had invented, and was successful in exciting a strong interest in their favor. He established the "Perkins Institution," for the treat- ment of disease by tractoration, at which wonderful cures were said to have been effected. During his stay in Lon- don he became a Quaker.
On returning to America in the fall of 1803, with a handsome property, he entered into partnership in New York City with Isaac Collins, in the book-publishing and bookselling business, and the enterprise proved highly suc- cessful.
Soon after his return he married Mary, daughter of John Murray, Junior, of New York, and a niece of Lindley
I20 Yale College
Murray, the grammarian, — she being, like all her family, a Quaker.
He died in New York on October 13, 1810, in his 37th year. His wife survived him with their two children.
While residing in London he collected a valuable mineral cabinet, of about two thousand specimens, which was pur- chased by Yale College in 1807 for one thousand dollars.
He was actively interested in many forms of charitable work in New York, and sustained a worthy and honorable character. In particular, he was largely instrumental in the establishment of the New York Free School Society, and was a member of the Abolition Society, one of the Governors of the New York Hospital, and a very useful member of the New York Historical Society. He had also a growing literary reputation. The only publications traced to his authorship are four anonymous articles in the Monthly Anthology, 1809-10, as follows:
Webster's Grammar, volume 7, pp. 366-71 ;
Webster's Grammar, Dictionary, &c., &c., volume 8, pp. 80-89, 147-55, 219-27.
These articles, savagely critical of Noah Webster (Yale 1778), are signed "Steady Habits."
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Herald, Oct. 23, 1810. Felt, Ordination of J. Harvey, 22. Perkins
Memorials of W. S. Shaw, 274, 323- Family, pt. 3, 31, 59. Thacher, Amer.
24. Fisher, Life of Silliman, i, 220- Med. Biography, i, 425. 21. W. Lyman, Sermon at the
Samuel Andrew Peters, a son of Jonathan Peters, of Hebron, Tolland County, Connecticut, and a brother of John T. Peters (Yale 1789), was born in Hebron on Jan- uary 30, 1770, and was named for his uncle (Yale 1757). He entered College at the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law in his native place, and on his admission to the bar settled in the adjoining town of Colchester, in New London County, where he continued until his death.
Biographical Sketches, iyp4 121
He represented the town in the General Assembly twelve years between 1807 and 1842, and was a Judge of the County Court from 1836 to 1839.
He died in Colchester on December 19, 1854, aged nearly 85 years.
He married Orrel Wyles, of Colchester, on January 17, 1799, and had twin sons (one of whom died early) and one daughter.
Mrs. Peters died on May 20, 1835, in her 59th year.
AUTHORITIES. Peters, Hist, of Hugh Peters, 115.
Oliver Leicester Phelps, only son of the Hon. Oliver Phelps, of Granville, Massachusetts, was born in Granville on September 22, 1775. His mother was Mary, daughter of Zachariah and Sarah (Steele) Seymour, of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1788 his father took part in the acqui- sition of a large tract of land in Western New York, after- wards known as the "Phelps and Gorham Purchase." He was thenceforth largely engrossed in developing and disposing of this tract, and ultimately, in 1802, removed to Canandaigua. At the time his son entered College the family had returned to Suffield, Connecticut, where Mr. Phelps had lived before settling in Granville.
The son married, in New Haven, on June 23, 1795, Eliz- abeth (or Betsey), daughter of William Sherman (Yale 1770). Her mother, Sarah Law, had separated early from her husband, and was now living in Paris with a second husband, Mark Leavenworth (Yale 1771); and the newly married couple soon went abroad to visit Mrs. Leavenworth.
They returned in the summer of 1797, and settled in Suffield, where he found employment as a merchant and farmer. In 1808 he removed to Canandaigua, New York,
122 Yale College
where he died on May ii, 1813, in his 38th year. His widow died on the 9th of the following October, in her 39th year.
They had five sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity except the younger daughter.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vii, Turner, Hist, of Phelps and Gor- 26. Phelps Family, ii, 1323, 1358-59. ham's Purchase, 150-51.
Daniel Putnam Tyler, son of Captain Daniel Tyler (Harvard College 1771), of Brooklyn Parish, in Pomfret, Connecticut, and grandson of Daniel and Mehitable (Shurtlefif) Tyler, of Brooklyn, was born in Brooklyn on March i, 1776. His mother was Mehitable, daughter of General Israel Putnam and Hannah (Pope) Putnam, of Brooklyn. One of his brothers was graduated here in 1808. David Putnam (Yale 1793) was a first cousin.
He settled in Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York, but died there of fever in 1798, at the age of 22.
authorities.
Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, ii, 262.
Thomas Scott Williams, the tenth child and fourth son of Sheriff Ezekiel Williams, of Wethersfield, Con- necticut, was born in Wethersfield on June 26, 1777. His baptismal name was derived from that of the father of the wife of his great-uncle, Rector Williams. Three of his brothers were graduated at Yale, in 1781, 1785, and 1796, respectively.
Having graduated at the early age of seventeen, he delayed his preparation for a profession until March, 1797, when he entered Judge Reeve's Law School in Litchfield. In the summer of 1798 he removed to the office of the Hon.
Biographical Sketches, 1/^4 123
Zephaniah Swift (1778), in Windham; and after further study there was admitted to the bar in Windham County in February, 1799, and began practice in Mansfield, in Tolland County.
In December, 1803, he removed to Hartford, which was his home for the rest of his life. He represented Hart- ford in the General Assembly in the October sessions of 181 3, 1815, and 18 1 6 (in the last two sessions being Clerk of the House), and was then sent to Congress for one term, from March, 1817, to March, 1819.
He was then returned again to the Connecticut Legis- lature for the May session in 18 19, and for the years 1825, and 1827 to 1829.
In May, 1829, he was appointed an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and in 1834 Chief Justice, which latter office he filled with great acceptance until his resignation in May, 1847, j^st before he attained the age of seventy, when by the statute he was no longer eligible.
He was also Mayor of the City of Hartford from March, 1831, until April, 1835. In August, 1834, he received from Yale College the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
He united with the First Church in Hartford, on pro- fession of faith, in the summer of 1834, and served that church as deacon from 1836 until his death. He was also a teacher in the Sabbath-school from 1834 to 1861.
After his retirement from public office, he served from May, 1848, until his death as President of the American Tract Society of New York, and gave it his best powers. He was also deeply interested in many other forms of benevolent enterprise, and by his last will left many lega- cies to such objects. He was from 1840 to his death President of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and for a few years Vice-President of the Con- necticut Retreat for the Insane.
He was repeatedly a generous benefactor of the College during his life, and by his last will gave the institution a legacy of five thousand dollars.
124 Yale College
He died in Hartford, after a very brief illness, from pneumonia, on December 15, 1861, aged 843/2 years. A memorial sermon by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes, was afterwards published.
Judge Williams married, on January 7, 1812, DeHa, youngest daughter of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, who died of pneumonia, on June 25, 1840, in her 52d year. A sermon on her death by Rev. Dr. Hawes is in print.
He next married, on November i, 1842, Martha Man- waring, eldest child of Elisha and Rebecca S. (Manwar- ing) Coit, of New York City. She died in Boston, on April 22, 1867, i^ ^^^ 73^ year.
There were no children by either marriage.
An excellent engraving, representing him in old age, is prefixed to a memorial volume published shortly after his death by the American Tract Society, and is reproduced in the Memorial History of Hartford County.
He was highly esteemed as a lawyer, and even more highly as a judge, where his methodical habits, his practi- cal common sense, and his eminent uprightness and impar- tiality had full expression. The singular purity and excellence of his public and private life were marked char- acteristics.
His publications, aside from his judicial opinions, were few. The following may be specified :
1. Chief Justice Williams on the Maine Law. Its Expediency and Constitutionality. Report of a Committee on the subject of a Law, for the suppression of Intemperance. (Signed by a Committee of three, Judge WilHams being Chairman.) Hartford. [185-.] 8°, 4 pp. [A. C. A. Y. C.
2. The Tract Society and Slavery. — Speeches of Chief Justice Williams [and others] . . : delivered in the Center Church, Hart- ford, Conn., at the Anniversary of the Hartford Branch of the American Tract Society. January 9th, 1859. Hartford, 1859. 8°, 26 pp. [B. Publ. Harv. Y. C.
Two editions were published.
Biographical Sketches, i/p4 125
Judge Williams' Speech occupies pages 5 to 12, being a defence of the course of the Society.
His address at the Anniversary of the Tract Society in 1852 is republished in the Memorial volume issued by that Society after his death.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman, Coit Family, 126, 214. of Ezekiel Williams, 36, 82-83. Wal- Congregational Quarterly, xvii, 1-19. worth, Hyde Geneal., ii, 1112-13. McLean, Ancestors and Descendants Williams Family, 173-75.
Andrew Yates was born in Schenectady, New York, on January 17, 1773, the seventh child and third son of Colonel Christopher Yates, and grandson of Joseph and Eva (Fonda) Yates, of Schenectady. His mother was Jannetje, eldest daughter of Captain Andries and Eliza- beth (Wemple) Bratt, of Schenectady. He was in feeble health from early childhood. Before entering College he had united with the Reformed Dutch Church, and his College course was undertaken with a view to the ministry.
Immediately, therefore, after graduation, he began the study of theology under the direction of the Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston (Yale 1762), of New York City.
He was licensed to preach in 1797, and about the same time was elected to the professorship of Latin and Greek in Union College, at Schenectady.
He discharged the duties of this office with fidelity, until his acceptance of a unanimous call to the office of colleague to the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Williams (Yale 1743), pastor of the Congregational Church in East Hartford, Connect- icut, where he was ordained and installed on December 23, 1 801. The ordination sermon by the Rev. Dr. James Dana, of New Haven, was afterwards published.
The senior pastor died in June, 1803, and Mr. Yates continued his ministry for thirteen years. With indomita- ble energy and hopefulness and an exalted idea of the duties of his office he devoted himself to the needs of the
126 Yale College
parish, and was rewarded by the steady growth of the church.
In the last years of his settlement he was solicited to take under his care a number of candidates for the min- istry, and he did not shrink from this added labor. He had already with difficulty been dissuaded in the latter part of 1809 from accepting another call ; but now a serious trouble with his voice intervened, in addition to his strength being otherwise overtaxed. Accordingly he was dismissed by the Hartford North Consociation on August 23, 1814, to accept an invitation to resume the business of instruction in Union College, where he served as Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic for the next eleven years. His theological students followed him from East Hartford, and he combined this work with his other teaching. Moreover he embraced with alacrity every opportunity of preaching which was afforded. He took also a deep interest in mis- sionary operations, especially among the American Indians. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Middlebury College in 1814.
In 1825 he was induced by his youngest brother, the Hon, John B. Yates (Union College 1802), of Chittenango Village, in the town of Sullivan, in Madison County, to remove to that village and conduct a high-school of supe- rior grade established by his brother's munificence and called the Polytechny, of which he was the principal for seven years. In 1832 Judge Yates felt no longer able to carry the heavy expense of the school, which had been very popular, and it was therefore closed.
While at Chittenango Dr. Yates established a Reformed Protestant Dutch Church there, and ministered to that con- gregation, with a colleague pastor after 1831.
In 1836 he returned to Schenectady, without definite occupation; but for the remaining eight years of life he devoted himself with abundant fervor to the needs of feeble churches in that vicinity. After a long succession
Biographical Sketches, 1794 127
of useful labors of this character, continued until the Sun- day before the end, when he was already stricken with mortal illness, he died in Day, Saratoga County, on Octo- ber 13, 1844, in his 72d year.
He married, in New Haven, on October 8, 1797, Mary, youngest sister of his classmate Austin, who died of con- sumption in East Hartford, on October 31, 1806, in her 31st year. The sermon delivered at her funeral by the Rev. Abel Flint, of Hartford, was afterwards printed.
Their children were three sons, of whom the second and third were graduates of Union College, in 182 1 and 1822, respectively; the eldest died in early childhood.
His second wife, Hannah A. Hooper, survived him, dying on October 22, 1859, at the age of 76.
Her children were three sons and two daughters. The eldest child was graduated at Union College in 1833.
He published:
1. The Blessedness of Dying in the Lord. — A Sermon [from Rev. xiv, 13], delivered at Hartford, January 23, 1810, at the funeral of Mrs. Amelia Flint, consort of the Rev. Abel Flint. . Hartford, 1810. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Lihr. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. Charity the Evidence of Piety. — A Sermon [from James i, 27], delivered in the North Presbyterian Church, in Hartford, on Lord's Day evening, September 13th, 1812, at the request of the Female Beneficent Society. Hartford, 1812. 8°, pp. 14.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. The Effectual Preacher. — A Sermon [from John vii, 46], delivered in the First Reformed Dutch Church in the City of Albany at the Installation of the Rev. John Ludlow, A.M., August 6, 1823 . . Schenectady, 1823. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. U. T. S.
4. God's blessing on his institutions. — A Discourse [from Haggai ii, 19], delivered at the Dedication of the Reformed Dutch Church in Chittenango, on the 15th of January, A. D. 1829. — With an Appendix, containing a summary view of the principles and eccle- siastical polity of this section of the Christian Church. Utica, 1829. 8°, pp. 24. [U.T.S.
128
Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, i, 24. W. H. Campbell, Funeral Dis- course, occasioned by the death of Dr. Yates. Goodwin, E. Hartford, 139-40. Hammond, Hist, of Mad- ison County, N. Y., 675. Pearson,
Genealogies of the first settlers of Schenectady, 300-02. T. Robbins, Diary, i, 41S, 423, 535, 542, 580, 588, 598-600, 604. Trumbull, Memorial Hist, of Hartford County, ii, 92-93.
Annals, 1794-^5 129
Annals, 1794-95
At a Special Meeting of the Corporation, held on Octo- ber 8, Mr. Josiah Meigs, of the Class of 1778, formerly Tutor, and for a short time (in 1787) Lecturer in Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, who had recently returned from a residence in Bermuda, was elected Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (in succession to Professor Strong, who had been forced to resign in 1781) for one year, with an intimation that he might expect an annual reappointment. He accepted the offer, and was formally inducted into office on December 4.
The opening of the fall term was delayed for three weeks by the continued prevalence of yellow fever in the city.
Noah Linsly, of the Class of 1791, who had been elected to a tutorship at the preceding Commencement, entered on the duties of his office in November, but held the position for only a single year.
His classmate Gould, the Senior Tutor, resigned his place in March, 1795, and was succeeded by Roger Minott Sherman, of the Class of 1792.
President Stiles was now 67 years old; but though in usually good health he gave the impression of much greater age and of having passed the fruitful period of his career. The spring term at College closed on Wednesday, May 6, 1795, and two days later the President was taken ill with a bilious fever, which terminated in his death on Tuesday evening, May 12.
On the same day a meeting of the Corporation, by adjournment from the previous October, was held in Hart- ford, but no important action was taken.
I30 Yale College
The death of Dr. Stiles marked the close of an era in Yale policy and life. He was intensely conservative in regard to all academic interests, and devoted to the main- tenance of ancient traditions. In these respects he left no successor, and the spirit of the age demanded and obtained an altogether new outlook with the change of dynasty.
The Corporation met again, after an interval of six weeks, and satisfied public expectation by the election as President with great unanimity (on June 25) of the Rev. Dr. Timothy D wight (Yale 1769), pastor of the church in Greenfield Hill, Connecticut.* Dr. Dwight was now forty-three years of age, in vigorous health, and univer- sally admired as a preacher and as a man by both laity and clergy.
He accepted his election in August, and was inaugurated on Tuesday, September 8, the day before the Annual Com- mencement. A brief account of the exercises of these two days, by a young Harvard graduate, John Pierce, is printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for June, 1886 (pp. 45-47). The President removed his family to New Haven in December.
In connection with Dr. Dwight's election another attempt was made to fill the vacant Professorship of Divin- ity, which was now offered to the Rev. David Parsons (Harvard Coll. 1771), of Amherst, Massachusetts. On his declinature the post was offered at Commencement to the Rev. John Gemmil, a brilliant young preacher from Pennsylvania, who had just declined a call to the White Haven congregation in New Haven.
A significant index of the changes expected to accom- pany President Dwight's election is seen in a striking paper preserved in the College archives, which was drawn up and signed by Professor Meigs and the three tutors in
* Some opposition was manifested beforehand to Dr. Dwight's election, on the ground of his theology. An interesting reference to his toleration of the half-way covenant may be seen in a letter from him to his friend, the Hon. Jonathan Ingersoll (Yale 1766), dated the day before his election. See Beardsley's History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, ii, 212.
Annals, 1794-^5
131
the latter part of August, 1795, recording a vigorous pro- test against the proposed omission from the College laws of the fagging system, i. e., of the duty of the Freshmen to go on errands for the higher classes, and the general super- vision of Freshmen by the Seniors. The protest was effectual, and the threatened regulations were retained for nine years longer.
i$a Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1795
*Johannes Adams, A.M., LL.D., 1854 *i863
*Rufus Adams, A.M. *i840
*Michael Baldwin *i8io
*Josephus Belden *i826
*01iverus Bliss *i824
*01iverus Bray, A.M. et Bowd. 1806 *i823
*Samuel Scudder Brush *i8oi
* Alexander Collins *i8i5
* Samuel Cook *i838 "^Jeremias Day, A.M. et Guilielm., LL.D. Mediob.
1817, S.T.D. Cone. 1818 et Harv. 1831, Tutor,
Math, et Philos. Nat. Prof., Praeses, Socius *i867
*Jotham Ives Doolittle • *i799
* Jonathan Gardiner *i833 "^Nathanael Holley, A.M. 1819 ■ *i86i *Thomas Howell *i844 *Elija Hubbard *i846 *Ebenezer Grant Marsh, A.M., Ling. Hebr. Prae-
ceptor. Tutor *i8o3
*Gualterus Mitchell *i849
*Elija Munger *i823
"^Nathan Perkins, AM. *i842
"^Samuel Merrick Phelps, iSsi, AM. iSsi *i84i
*Robertus Porter, A.M. *i847
*Guilielmus Reynolds *i8i9
"^Erastus Ripley, A.M. *i843
*Jared Scranton *i853
*01iverus Sherman *i820 "^David Smith, A.M., S.T.D. Hamilt. 1830, Socius *i862
Biographical Sketches, 1795 133
♦Matthias Burnet Tallmadge, A.M. Brun., Rerum-
publ. Foed. Cur. in Jurisdict. Nov. Ebor. Jurid. *i8i9
*Stephanus Thacher, A.M. 1829 *i859
*Georgius Tod, A.M., Reip. Ohion. Cur. Supr. Jurid. *i84i
*Thomas Tracy *i8o6
*Stephanus Twining, A.M., Dispens. *i832
*Elisaeus Gregson Whiting *I797
*Guilielmus Trumbull Williams, A.M. *i839
John Adams was born in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut, on the i8th of September, 1772. He was the eldest of ten children of Captain John Adams, a farmer of Canterbury and an officer of the Revolution, and grandson of Captain John and Abigail (Cleveland, Brown) Adams, also of Canterbury. His mother was Mary, daughter of Deacon Joshua and Jemima (Daven- port) Parker, of Needham, Massachusetts. A brother was graduated at Yale in 1804. He was prepared for College at the Academy in the adjoining town of Plain- field, under the instruction of Daniel Chapman, of the Class of 1789. When he took his degree at Commence- ment, he delivered a Dissertation on the Benefits of Theat- rical Establishments.
In the fall of 1795 he began a private school in the northern part of his native town, where he exhibited such uncommon aptitude in instruction and management as to draw a large number of pupils. In 1796 he took charge, with an increase of salary, of one of the district schools in the town, which he continued to teach with rare success until the spring of 1801.
Meantime he was married, on May 8, 1798, to Eliza- beth, the only surviving daughter of Gamaliel and Judith (Perkins) Ripley, of Scotland Society, in Windham, and niece of the Rev. David Ripley (Yale 1749) and the Rev. Hezekiah Ripley (Yale 1763).
134 Yale College
From the spring of 1801 to the fall of 1803 he was Master of Plainfield Academy, instructing about two hun- dred pupils with pronounced success.
His reputation as a teacher led in 1803 to his being selected to be the Preceptor of Bacon Academy, recently established in Colchester, in New London County. The appointment was a distinct promotion, and was entered on with many misgivings ; but the seven years which he spent there must be reckoned among the most successful of his life. He united with the First Congregational Church, on profession of his faith, in 1805, and was chosen to the office of Deacon in that church in April, 1808.
Early in 18 10 his pleasant and useful work in Colches- ter was brought to a sudden termination, by a difference of opinion with the trustees in regard to a case of discipline. Convinced that in such a matter he must have an abso- lutely free hand, Mr. Adams immediately resigned, and declined to reconsider his determination.
Very soon after this the Trustees of Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts, offered him the headship of that institution, with a salary of nine hundred dollars and a house. This flattering invitation was accepted, and in June, 18 10, the great work of his life was begun..
An interregnum in the office of Principal had reduced the number of pupils to twenty-three; but by 1817 they increased to one hundred, and they remained at or near this figure for the rest of his term of service.
In this position of eminence he more than fulfilled all just expectations, upholding a high standard of scholar- ship and exercising a strong moral and religious influence over his pupils. He also served as a deacon in the church.
In the fall of 1832, when he was sixty years old — an age after which, he had been heard to say, no man ought to teach — he learned that some of the newer members of the Board of Trustees wished to place a younger man at the head of the Academy. Mortified though he was at the discovery, he obeyed the intimation unhesitatingly,
Biographical Sketches, lyp^ 135
presented his resignation at the next meeting of the Trus- tees, on November 22, and terminated work at the close of the Fall term four days later.
His wife, after two years of failing health and much suffering, died in Andover on February 23, 1829, at the age of 53; and he married, on August 30, 1831, Mabel, widow of Dr. Eli (or Ely) Burritt (Williams College 1800), of Troy, New York, and daughter of Deacon Eben- ezer Stratton, of Williamstown, Massachusetts. An appreciative sketch of the first Mrs. Adams, by Professor Moses Stuart, was printed at Andover in 1829.
By the vote of the Academy Trustees he had the free use of the house he had occupied until August, 1833; but he broke up housekeeping in the spring of that year, and went out to search for employment.
In Elbridge, Onondaga County, New York, he found a wealthy gentleman, the father of a former pupil, who offered to build an Academy for his use, and otherwise assist him. He went to Elbridge, accordingly, in Septem- ber, 1833, and for about three years the Academy pros- pered under his direction. He then resigned, to the earnest regret of the Trustees, his reason being that his two youngest daughters who were his assistants, pre- ferred not to teach in a school for both sexes.
A visit to relatives in Ohio and Illinois determined him to remove to the West, and in October, 1836, he left Elbridge with his family. They spent the winter in Jer- seyville, in western Illinois, where he opened a school, and also in the want of a minister conducted church services.
In May, 1837, he removed about forty miles to the northward, to Jacksonville, to take charge of a female academy. Here for five happy years the seminary pros- pered beyond expectation. Meantime, however, one of the daughters who had hitherto assisted him married; and on attaining the age of seventy he felt constrained to retire permanently from the teacher's work.
136 Yale College
Soon after this he was invited to become the agent of the American Sunday School Union for the State of IIH- nois. The offer appealed to him as a congenial one, and was accepted with alacrity; and for twelve years, with a salary of four hundred dollars, he performed this service. He was known and loved, by children and adults alike, as "Father Adams" over a wide area, and was an instrument of good to many communities. He also served as Elder in the Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville for twenty-five years.
He voluntarily resigned his commission in 1854, from a conscientious fear that he might be occupying the place of a younger and more active man; and spent the rem- nant of his life in retirement.
His wife died on July 17, 1856, at the age of yy, and he made his home thereafter with one of his married daughters, in Jacksonville. Investments which he made in government lands on his arrival in Illinois now yielded him a sufficient income; and his physical faculties remained unimpaired to the end. For the last year or two he was mainly confined to the house.
He died in Jacksonville on April 24, 1863, in his 91st year. The discourse preached at his funeral by his pas- tor, the Rev. Livingston M. Glover, was afterwards pub- lished. The epitaph placed over his grave describes him in words chosen by himself, as "A lover of children, a teacher of youth, a sinner saved by grace." Blest with an equable disposition, he was uniformly serene and peace- ful, and loved to describe himself in his latter years as "happy and contented."
In 1854 Yale College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. A very satisfactory portrait, painted the same year, was given to PhilHps Academy.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his poem. The School Boy, read at the centennial celebration of the Academy in 1878, thus recalls him:
Biographical Sketches, 7795 137
Grave is the Master's look ; his forehead wears
Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares ;
Uneasy lie the heads of all that rule,
His most of all whose kingdom is a school.
Supreme he sits ; before the awful frown
That bends his brows the boldest eye goes down ;
Not more submissive Israel heard and saw
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law.
By his first marriage he had six daughters and five sons, — of whom all grew to maturity except the oldest and youngest sons, who died in infancy. The other sons were graduated at Yale, in the classes of 1821, 1825, and 1827, respectively, — the youngest being an eminent pastor in New York City.
The eldest daughter married the Rev. Daniel Hemen- way (Middlebury College 1815). The second daughter married the Rev. George Cowles, a classmate of her eldest brother, and was lost by shipwreck with her husband. The third daughter married the Rev. John Q. A. Edgell (Univ. of Vermont 1827) ; and the fourth daughter mar- ried the Rev. Albert M. Egerton (Dartmouth 1829).
He published :
The Testimony of a Veteran to the value of the labours of Sun- day-School Missionaries. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union. [1854?] 12°, pp. 12. [B. Publ.
He also prepared, late in life, at the request of friends, a little book of rules and maxims entitled
A Treatise on the Proper Training of Children ; but this remains in manuscript.
In 1900 a felicitous biographical sketch, called The Story of John Adams, a New England Schoolmaster, was published by his grand- daughter, Mrs. John Crosby Brown, which presents a luminous picture of his long and useful life.
AUTHORITIES.
Adams History, 322, 331-32. and Geneal. Register, xlviii, 193-95'
[Brown,] Story of John Adams. Ripley Family Genealogy, 14. Rob'
Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, bins, Old Andover Days, 41-42, iio-
ii. 305-07, 323-25. N. England Hist. 13.
138 Yale College
RuFUS Adams, the only son of Nathan Adams, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Sam- uel and Abigail (Adams) Adams, of Canterbury, was born in Canterbury, on May 6, 1774, and was prepared for College at the Plainfield Academy with his classmate, John Adams. His mother was Phebe, eldest daughter of Jabez and Mehitable (Tracy) Ensworth, of Canterbury.
He settled as a lawyer in his native town, and was thir- teen times sent as a representative to the General Court between 1805 and 1827.
He died in Canterbury on December 21, 1840, aged 66 years.
He was married, in Springfield, Massachusetts, on November 26, 1807, to Joanna Byers, of Springfield, who died on January 27, i860, in her 79th year.
Their children were five daughters and two sons. One daughter and one son died in infancy. One daughter married WilHam Kinne (Yale 1848).
AUTHORITIES.
Adams Historj^, 124, 162.
Michael Baldwin, the second son of Michael Bald- win, of New Haven, by his second wife, Theodora, daugh- ter of Josiah and Ruth (White, French) Wolcott, of Say- brook, Connecticut, was born in 1777. An older brother of the same name died in September, 1776. Two half- brothers, Dudley and Abraham Baldwin, were graduated here in 1777 and 1772 respectively, and an own brother in 1797. He was prepared for College by Dr. Timothy Dwight at Greenfield Hill.
He studied law after graduation and migrated to Southern Ohio, settling in Chillicothe, then the seat of government for the Territory, and being admitted to practice in 1799.
Biographical Sketches, iyp3 139
By his energy and brilliant gifts he rapidly sprang into notice; and but for his fondness for drink he could have attained the highest prizes of his profession.
He was an influential member of the Constitutional Convention of the State, in November, 1802, and Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1803 and 1804.
Under President Adams he was appointed United States Marshal for the District of Ohio, but was dismissed from office by President Jefferson ; his consequent temper towards Jefferson is evidenced by the fact that Aaron Burr desired him for one of his counsel in 1807.
Ruined by dissipation, and by dissolute excesses, he lost most of his practice after the year 1807, and died in Chillicothe, after a short but severe illness, on March 9, 1810, at the age of 33.
He married, in April, 1808, Catharine (Kitty) Bradeen, of Chillicothe, who married a second time, when not less than seventy years of age, Adam Stewart, of Adams County, Ohio.
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin Genealogy, i, 421. Conn. 195, 508-10. Safford, Blennerhassett
Journal, March 29, 1810. Dwight, Papers, 487. W. H. Smith, St.Clair
Strong Family, i, 761. Evans and Papers, ii, 552-53. 555-58. Wolcott
Stivers, Hist, of Adams County, O., Memorial, 420.
Joseph Belden^ the youngest son of Simeon Belden (Yale 1762), of Wether sfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on December 29, 1776. He did not enter the Class until after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he settled in his native town as a drug- gist, and later was a general book-agent and made the business profitable.
He married Hannah, daughter of John and Mary (Lockwood) Raynolds, of Enfield, Connecticut, on March 8, 18 14, she being about three years his junior.
They had no children.
I40 Yale College
He died in Wethersfield on August 7, 1826, in his 50th year.
His wife survived him. His estate was less than $2,000.
AUTHORITIES.
Allen, Hist, of Enfield, ii, 1523, field, ii, 84. Tillotson. Wethersfield 1643, 1792. Stiles, Hist, of Wethers- Inscriptions, 18.
Oliver Bliss^ the seventh child and eldest son of Oliver Bliss, of (North) Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and grand- son of Abel and Jemima (Chapin) Bliss, of Wilbraham, was born on November ii, 1773. His mother was Cath- arine, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Bliss) Brewer, of Wilbraham. Three of his sisters were married to Yale graduates, viz., Joel Hayes (1773), Henry Ely (1778), and Richard Ely (1785).
He studied law after graduation, and emigrated to Northern Virginia. He settled in practice in Millwood, Clarke County, where he died, unmarried, on September 19, 1824, in his 51st year.
AUTHORITIES. Bliss Genealogy, 79. Stehhins, Wilbraham Centennial, 269, 296.
Oliver Bray, the fourth son of the Rev. Thomas W. Bray (Yale 1765), of North Guilford, Connecticut, was born in North Guilford on April 2, 1776, and was pre- pared for College by his father.
After graduation he taught school for a time in New Marlborough, Massachusetts, and then studied law — for a part of the time at least in the office of the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), of New Haven.
After his admission to the bar in Connecticut in 1802, he spent several months in Northern Vermont, prepara- tory to his settling, in the early summer of 1803, in Port-
Biographical Sketches, 1795 141
land, Maine, where he practiced his profession with indif- ferent success. He received an ad eundem Master's degree from Bowdoin College in 1806.
He died in Portland, on December 26, 1823, in his 48th year.
AUTHORITIES. Willis, Law and Lawyers of Maine, 491.
Samuel Scudder Brush was a native of Huntington, Long Island. He did not enter the Class until after the opening of Freshman year.
He delivered the Latin Salutatory Oration at gradua- tion, and immediately after entered on mercantile business in New York City, in partnership with a relative, Jesse Brush. He made at least one voyage to Europe.
His health failed after a few months, and he returned to his native town, where he died in 1801.
Alexander Collins, the eldest son and second child of General Augustus and Mary Collins, of North Guil- ford, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Daniel and Lois (Cornwall) Collins, of North Guilford, was born in Guilford on September 4, 1774. His mother was the eldest daughter of Deacon Simeon and Submit (Scranton) Chittenden, of North Guilford.
He studied law after graduation with the Hon. Stephen T. Hosmer (Yale 1782), of Middletown, Connecticut, and settled in practice in that town. He represented Middle- town in the State Legislature in October, 18 14.
He died early, while on a journey, after a very brief illness, from inflammation of the bowels, in Brattleboro, Vermont, on September 14, 181 5, at the age of 41; and is buried there.
He married, in Middletown, on September 2, 1801, Eliz- abeth, daughter of Samuel and Sara (Blair) Watkinson,
142 Yale College
a native of West Lavenham, Suffolk, England, who emi- grated with her parents to Middletown in 1795; and who when left a widow removed with her children (five sons and three daughters) to Hartford, where her brothers were established in business. She died in Hartford on February 5, 1828, at the age of 53.
The two eldest sons of Mr. Collins founded the exten- sive manufactures at Collinsville, Connecticut. One daughter married the Rev. Dr. Horatio N. Brinsmade (Yale 1822).
AUTHORITIES. Field, Centennial Address at Mid- Letter, Jan., 1910. Talcott, Chitten- dletown, 206. B. C. Steiner, MS. den Family, 43.
Samuel Cook, the eldest child of Philip Cook, of Goshen, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and Richmond, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and grandson of Dan- iel and Elizabeth (Pond) Cook, of Wallingford and Goshen, was born in Richmond on March 4, 1776. His mother was Thankful, daughter of Timothy and Hannah (Wadhams) Tuttle, of Goshen. He was prepared for College by Dr. Hugo Burghardt (Yale 1787), of Rich- mond.
He studied law after graduation in Hudson, New York, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. His father removed in 1808 a short distance west of Richmond to Nassau, in Rensselaer County, New York, where the son first began practice, removing perhaps about 18 12 to Ballston Spa, in Saratoga County, where he became a very successful law- yer and accumulated a large fortune.
He died in Ballston on April 20, 1838, aged 62 years.
He married on February 20, 1803, Fanny Fuller, of Sandisfield, in his native county. She died in Ballston Spa on May 15, 18 15, at the age of 31.
He next married, on June 13, 1821, his first cousin, Har- riet, eldest daughter of Moses and Lydia (Thompson)
Biographical Sketches, 1795 143
Cook, of Goshen, who died on April 15, 1828, aged 34 years.
His children were two sons, one by each marriage, both of whom filled prominent positions in life.
AUTHORITIES. American Ancestry, i, 16. Davis, bard, Hist, of Goshen, 451-52. Tuttle Hist, of Wallingford, 688, 704. Hib- Family, 528.
Jeremiah Day was born on August 3, 1773, in the parish of New Preston, then included in the township of New Milford, but since 1779 in Washington, Connecticut. He was the eldest child of the Rev. Jeremiah Day (Yale 1756) by his third wife, Abigail (Noble, Osborn). His preparation for College was begun at home under David Hale (Yale 1785), and was continued in Waterbury under John Kingsbury (Yale 1786). He entered College in 1789 ; but was obliged on account of a pulmonary difficulty to break off his course in May, 1791. After teaching school for part of the time in the vicinity of his home, he returned to College in the fall of 1793. In the meanwhile he had united with his father's church on the profession of his faith. At his graduation he delivered an Oration on Female Education.
Such was the confidence that he had inspired, that he then succeeded Dr. D wight (who had just assumed the presidency of Yale) in the charge of the flourishing acadr emy which he had conducted at Greenfield Hill, Connecti- cut. There he remained for nearly a year, and for the next two years he served (with some hesitation, on account of feeble health and depression of spirits) as tutor in Williams College.
On taking his Master's degree, in 1798, he delivered an Oration on Modern liberality of Sentiment.
He then filled a like position at Yale for nearly three years, during which time he continued his study of theol-
144 yale College
ogy, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association of Ministers on June 3, i8(X).
In July, 1801, after over-exertion in preaching he was attacked with a slight hemorrhage, and his physician expressed a fear that tuberculous consumption might set in. A favorable opportunity presented itself the next month for his visiting Bermuda, where he remained until April, 1802. In the meantime he was appointed by the Yale Corporation in September Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
On his return from Bermuda he retired to his father's house, firmly persuaded that he was a confirmed invalid. But he grew better, under the exercise oi great care, and finally in the early summer of 1803 came to New Haven and began to discharge a part of the duties of his pro- fessorship.
By degrees he was able to take his due share of labor, and to fill his place with efficiency and success. His chief appearance before the public was in connection with the issue of a series of mathematical text-books.
After fourteen years of this quiet and happy life. Pres- ident Dwight was removed by death in January, 1817. It was known to Professor Day himself and to others that Dr. Dwight had fixed upon him as his successor; and after another choice had been made and declined, the Cor- poration on April 22 offered the Presidency to Professor Day. After due deliberation, and solely from a sense of duty, he signified his acceptance ; and he was inaugurated, as well as ordained to the ministry, on July 23. The ordination sermon, by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765), was afterwards printed.
For three years he continued at the head of the depart- ment of mathematics and natural philosophy, and read lectures on the latter subject. After 1820 he confined him- self to mental and moral philosophy, which was by tradition associated with the presidency; and was engrossed with the other cares inseparable from that office. He preached
Biographical Sketches, i/p3 145
occasionally, though seldom in the College Chapel. He sustained with honor those relations to public and espe- cially to religious interests outside, to which a man in his position was naturally called.
He continued in his office during twenty-nine years, and for the greater part of this time his health, though always delicate, was equal to the discharge of his duties. In 1835 he was earnestly solicited to remove to Andover, Massachusetts, as President of the Theological Seminary, but declined the offer. In 1836 he was attacked with angina pectoris, and other attacks followed from time to time. About 1841 or 1842 he thought seriously of resign- ing, but was dissuaded by the representations of some of the Faculty; and finally in October, 1846, at the age of y^, he carried out his purpose, and retired to private life. He was at once elected a member of the College Corpora- tion (another member resigning to secure this end), and served until his voluntary retirement, in July, 1867.
Except for deafness, he retained his powers to the end, and his intellect seemed as vigorous as ever until the last few months of his life. He died at his home in New Haven from old age, on August 22, 1867, having just entered on his 95th year, and being the last survivor of his College Class.
The Address delivered at his funeral by President Wool- sey was subsequently printed ; and is an admirable tribute to his character and life.
A post-mortem examination showed the presence of a large number of calculi of considerable size in the bladder, which must have caused intense pain, of which, however, he had (characteristically) never spoken. The same examination showed the scars upon both lungs which testified to the cure, more than sixty years before, of advanced tubercular consumption.
On January 14, 1805, he was married by President D wight to Martha ("Patty"), fourth daughter of the Hon. Roger Sherman, of New Haven, by his second wife, 10
146 Yale College
Rebecca Prescott, who died April 4, 1806, in her 27th year.
He was next married, by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong, on September 24, 181 1, to Olivia, third daughter of Major Daniel and Olive (Tinker) Jones, of Hartford, Connect- icut, one of whose sisters had previously married a brother of the President; her half-brother, the Rev. Henry Jones, was graduated here in 1820.
Mrs. Day died on January 11, 1850, of typhus fever, after ten days' illness, in her 64th year.
By his first marriage Dr. Day had one son (Yale 1826), who survived him; and by his second marriage, besides several children who died early, three daughters, all of whom he survived. The eldest daughter, a girl of bril- liant intellect, died at the age of twenty-one ; the second daughter married Professor Thomas A. Thacher (Yale 1835) 5 ^^^ the youngest married the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher (Illinois College 1843). His later years were spent in the family of his son-in-law. Professor Thacher.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Middlebury College in 181 7, and that of Doctor of Divinity by Union College in 18 18 and by Harvard Uni- versity in 1 83 1.
The University owns a portrait of President Day by S. F. B. Morse, painted in 1823, and a bust by Chauncey B. Ives, executed in 1847. -^^ engraving from this portrait was published in volume 4 of the Yale Literary Magazine (November, 1838), with a brief biographical sketch, contributed by Professor Kingsley.
He published:
I. An Introduction to Algebra, being the first part of a Course of Mathematics, adapted to the method of instruction in the Ameri- can Colleges. New-Haven, 1814. 8°, pp. 8 -f- 296, 2 pi.
[Harv. Y. C.
The series, as projected, was to contain seven parts ; but owing to the change in the author's duties, he issued only four parts. Many later editions were issued, notably one revised with the aid of Pro- fessor A. D. Stanley in 1852.
Biographical Sl^etches, jyp^ 147
2. A Treatise of Plane Trigonometry. To which is prefixed, a summary view of the nature and use of Logarithms. Being the second part of a Course of Mathematics. . New-Haven, 1815. 8°, pp. iv, 126, ix, 3 pi. [Harv. Y. C.
3. A practical application of the principles of Geometry to the Mensuration of Superficies and Solids. Being the third part of a Course of Mathematics... New-Haven, 1816. 8°, pp. iv, 96, 2 pi. [Harv. Y. C.
Although this part was clearly copyrighted in March, 1816, two copies of the edition now in the Yale Library and that in the Har- vard Library are dated in the title-page, 181 1.
4. The mathematical principles of Navigation and Surveying, with the mensuration of heights and distances. Being the fourth part of a Course of Mathematics. . New-Haven, 1817. 8°, pp. iv, 108, xi, 3 pi. [Harv. Y. C.
5. A Sermon [from Nehem. vi, 3], delivered in Boston, Sept. 17, 1823, before the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at their fourteenth annual meeting. . . Boston, 1823. 8°, pp. 23. [A. A. S. B. Publ. M. H. S. Y. C.
6. The Christian Preacher's Commission. — A Sermon [from Ez. xxxiii, 7], delivered before the General Association of Connecticut, at Saybrook, June 22, 1831. New Haven, 1831. 8°, pp. 20.
[Harv. Y. C.
7. Declaring the whole counsel of God. — A Sermon [from Acts XX, 2y] , delivered at the ordination of the Rev. Leverett Griggs, . . in North-Haven ; October 30th, 1833 . . . New-Haven, 1833. 8°, pp. 18. [Y. C.
8. An Inquiry respecting the self-determining Power of the Will; or contingent volition. New Haven, 1838. 12°, pp. 200 + pi.
[Y. C.
The same. New Haven, 1849. 12°, pp. 190 -f pi. [Y. C.
This work grew out of the review of Cousin's Psychology, pub- lished by him in the Quarterly Christian Spectator in 1835 ; it had also a bearing on the doctrines of the so-called New-Haven Theol- ogy, which President Day desired to moderate.
9. An Examination of President Edwards's Inquiry on the Free- dom of the Will. New Haven, 1841. 12°, pp. xii, 340.
[B. Publ. Y. C. The object of the author is merely to present a resume or abstract of Edwards's work.
148 Yale College
10, The inaugurating Address, at the inauguration of his suc- cessor, President Woolsey, 1846. In the Discourses and Addresses on that occasion, pp. 57-72.
Of his contributions to various periodicals, the following speci- mens may be noticed : —
In Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume I, part i. New-Haven, 1810:
A Statement of the Quantity of Rain which falls on different Days of the Moon, pp. 125-27.
A View of the Theories which have been proposed, to explain the explain the Origin of Meteoric Stones, pp. 163-74.
In part 3 of the same volume, 1813 :
Observations on the Comet of 1811, pp. 341-52;
Calculation of the Longitude of Yale-College, from the Solar Echpse of September 17th, 181 1. By J. Day and James L. Kings- ley, pp. 353-61.
In the Quarterly Christian Spectator, volume 2, 1830 :
Review of Payne's Elements of Mental and Moral Science, pp.
In the same, volume 7, 1835 :
Cousin's Psychology, pp. 89-127 ; and, Cultivation of the Reason- ing Powers, pp. 322-30.
In the American National Preacher, volume 13, 1839:
Sermon, from Jude v, 3, Contending for the faith, pp. 1-16.
In the American Biblical Repository, 2d series, volume 9, 1843 :
Benevolence and Selfishness, pp. 1-33.
In the American Journal of Science and Arts, 2d series, volume 10, 1850:
On the relation of the Laws of Mechanics to Perpetual Motion, pp. 174-84.
In the New Englander, volume 11, 1853:
Doctrine of the Higher Law, pp. 1 61-71.
In the same, volume 14, 1856:
Analysis of Conscience, pp. 243-50.
President Day's character was remarkable for har- mony and calm steadiness. His intellectual powers were clear and well balanced, without being either brilliant or versatile, and his life showed the most consistent exarnple of christian purity and grace.
Biographical Sketches, ijg^ 149
AUTHORITIES.
Barnard's Amer. Journal of Edu- Observations upon the case of Presi-
cation, xvi, 126. Boltwood, Noble dent Day, in Proceedings of the Conn.
Genealogy, 65, 102-04. Bond, Hist. Medical Society, 2d series, iii, 145-53.
of Watertown, 313, 431. Day Gene- Prescott Memorial, 91. Robbins. Old
alogy, 20, 28-29. Dwight, Memories Andover Days, 100. Royall, Sketches,
of Yale Life and Men, 18-20, 39-53- 388-89. Woolsey, Address at Pres.
Fisher, Life of Silliman, i, 75-76, 114, Day's Funeral, in New Englander,
1 17-18, 204-05; ii, 106-08. Hubbard, xxvi, 692-724.
JoTHAM Ives Doolittle was born in Cheshire, in Wal- lingford, Connecticut, on December 6, 1773, being a son of Amos Doolittle, of Cheshire, and grandson of Caleb and Tamar (Thompson) Doolittle. His mother was Abigail, daughter of Jotham and Abigail (Burroughs) Ives, of Wallingford. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. John Foot.
Soon after leaving College he engaged in mercantile busi- ness in Troy, New York, where he purchased land and built a store. His title to the land, however, proving to be defective, he sold out his interests there and went to South Carolina, where he taught school.
Having accumulated a respectable sum of money, he purchased a variety of goods for the Havana market, intending to exchange them there for fruit for the New York market, and eventually to re-establish himself in Troy. But on his way he was taken ill and died in Savannah, on April 14, 1799, in his 26th year. A tomb- stone to his memory is standing in the Cheshire cemetery. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Doolittle Family, 204 W. T. Peters, MS. Letter, May 20, 1853.
Jonathan Gardiner, the second son and child of John and Joanna (Conkling) Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island, New York, and grandson of John Gardiner (Yale 1736), fifth proprietor of the island, was bom on Gardiner's
150 Yale College
Island on August 13, 1773. His father removed about 1792, to Eaton's (or Gardiner's) Neck, in the township of Huntington, Long Island, where the graduate thenceforth resided.
His only occupation was the cultivation of his farm, and he enjoyed the reputation of being genial and hospitable and fond of literature.
He died in Huntington on March 7, 1833, in his 60th year.
He first married Sally, daughter of John and Phebe Gelston, of New York City, who died on September 10, 1803, soon after the birth of her first child. He next married, on May i, 181 3, Mrs. Fanny (Rysam) Peck, widow of a Dr. Peck.
She died on April 12, 1849, ^S^^ S7 years.
By his first marriage he had one son, and by his second marriage four daughters and two sons.
AUTHORITIES. Lion Gardiner and his descendants, 130, 146-47.
Nathaniel Holley, the only son of the Rev. Israel and Phebe Holly, of Suffield, Connecticut, and grandson of Israel and Sarah (Cross) Holly, of Stamford, was born in Sufiield on April 15, 1771. His father had no college training, but was ordained as the pastor of a Separate congregation in Suffield in 1763. In 1784 he became pas- tor of the Salmon Brook Congregational Society in the township of Granby, and went from there to North Corn- wall, in the summer of 1794. The son entered College at the opening of the Junior year.
After leaving College he began the study of divinity with the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Sharon ; but found him- self not satisfied with the standard theology of the New England churches. For many succeeding years he pur- sued private study in these subjects, but did not find rest
Biographical Sketches, 1795 151
until he became acquainted with the writings of Sweden- borg, whose doctrines he finally embraced. Want of health, also, for many years clouded all his prospects.
In time he removed to New York City, and he was mar- ried there by the Rev. Archibald Maclay, on the 17th of April, 1814, to Miss EHzabeth Wilson of the same city. He found occupation for some years there as a teacher.
From New York he went to Virginia about 1820, and while residing in Abingdon, he was ordained in Baltimore, on October 2y, 1822, a minister of the New Church, to fill the pulpit in Abingdon.
He visited Cincinnati in 1824 and formed the acquaint- ance of adherents of the New Church in that city, with the result that he removed thither with his family in 1825, and found occupation as a teacher.
He was at one time Corresponding Secretary of the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers, which was formed in 183 1 in that city.
In 1847-48 he edited The Herald of Truth, a monthly periodical supporting the views of the Swedenborgians.
After some six or seven years of feebleness he died in Storrs Township, near Cincinnati, on October 4, 1861, in his 91st year.
His wife died before him, also their five sons; their three daughters survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Miss Ann M. E. Holley, MS. Letter, April, 1856.
Thomas Howell,, son of Thomas Howell, of New Haven, and grandson of Deacon Thomas and Mary (White) Howell, was born in New Haven in 1775, though not baptized until July 26, 1778. His mother was Sally, daughter of Ezekiel and Rebekah (Russell) Hayes, of New Haven, and he was prepared for College by Jared Mans- field, then Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School.
152 Yale College
In the locally famous sealing voyage of the ship "Nep- tune," from the port of New Haven to the Pacific Ocean and China, during the years 1796-99, he was concerned as Captain's Clerk.
Through the rest of his life he resided in New Haven, as a retired gentleman. He was. never married.
He died in New Haven on August 29, 1844, aged 69 years. He bequeathed a small legacy to the College in his last will.
The inscription on his tombstone commemorates him as "a kind and useful neighbor, an affectionate and beloved relative, an honest and good man."
Elijah Hubbard^ the only son of Elijah and Hannah Hubbard, of Middletown, Connecticut, and grandson of Robert and Elizabeth (Sill) Hubbard, of Middletown, was born on July 30, 1777. His mother was the youngest child of Lieutenant John and Elizabeth (Foster) Kent, of Mid- dletown. A half-brother was graduated here in 1819.
He studied law with Judge Reeve, of Litchfield, and set- tled in practice in New London, until recalled to Middle- town by business affairs on his father's death in 1808.
The rest of his life was spent in Middletown, where he became one of the most prominent and influential citizens, and accumulated a considerable fortune. He was a man of very polished manners, but a reserved disposition.
He was made President of the Middletown Bank in 1824, and held the office until his death. He was also repeatedly mayor of the city.
He was stricken with apoplexy in November, 1846, while in the Bank; and after lingering for a fortnight died on December 4, in his 70th year.
He married, on October 26, 18 10, Lydia, youngest daughter of Samuel and Lois (Griswold) Mather, of Lyme, Connecticut, — his sister having previously married her eldest brother.
Biographical Sketches, lyp^ 153
Their children were three sons and a daughter. The eldest son was graduated at Middlebury College in 1832.
Mrs. Hubbard died in Middletown on March 5, 1850, in her 60th year.
AUTHORITIES. Briggs, Kent Genealogy, 274. Field, 206. Walworth, Hyde Family, ii, 825, Centennial Address at Middletown, 904.
Ebenezer Grant Marsh, the eldest child of the Rev. Dr. John Marsh (Harvard College 1761), of Weth- ersfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Deacon David and Mary (Moody) Marsh, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, was born in Wethersfield on February 2, and baptized by his father on February 9, 1777. His mother was Anne (or "Nancy"), daughter of Colonel Ebenezer Grant (Yale 1726), of South Windsor, Connecticut. A brother was graduated here in 1804.
In College, though one of the youngest, he was one of the best scholars in his Class ; and at graduation delivered a Hebrew oration (the manuscript of which is preserved in the Yale Library), and won in examination the Berkeley scholarship. He remained, accordingly, in New Haven as a graduate student.
He devoted himself to the learned languages, and spe- cialized in Hebrew, becoming so proficient that in 1798 he was appointed Instructor in Hebrew in the College, on the slender foundation provided by Dr. Salter. There had been no regular instructor in this department since the death of President Stiles in 1795. He began to give instruction in Hebrew to both graduates and undergrad- uates in November, 1798.
In conjunction with this office he entered on a tutorship in November, 1799; and while still continuing in both offices was elected in September, 1802, Professor of Lan- guages and Ecclesiastical History, to enter on the appoint- ment whenever the College could provide a salary for his
154 Yale College
support. This condition was not, however, fulfilled in his lifetime.
He also studied theology, with a view to ordination, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on January 14, 1801. His sermons delivered in the next two years gave general satisfaction.
With the brightest prospects, he was found in March, 1803, to be a victim of cancer; and after about four months of acute illness he died at his father's house in Wether sfield, on November 16, in his 27th year. He was unmarried.
A sermon preached in Wethersfield, on the first Sabbath after his death, by the Rev. Dr. James Dana, of New Haven, in whose family he had resided, was afterwards published; as was also a sermon by President Dwight, preached on the same day in Dr. Dana's church in New Haven, and an Oration pronounced in the College Chapel two months later by one of his intimate friends and asso- ciates in the tutorship, Bancroft Fowler (Yale 1796).
Dr. Dwight bears testimony that "he was possessed of superior talents, uncommon literary acquisitions, amiable and polished manners, unblemished morals, and unques- tioned piety." His death was mourned as a great calamity to the College. In recognition of his attainments, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in September, 1803.
He published:
1. An Oration, delivered before the $ B K Society, at their Anniversary Meeting, in New-Haven, on the fifth of December, A. D. 1797. Hartford, 1798. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C. The subject is, the origin and nature of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages.
2. An Oration, on the Truth of the Mosaic History of the Creation; delivered at New-Haven, on the Public Commencement, September, A. D. 1798. Hartford, 1798. 8°, pp. 59.
[A.A.S. B.Ath. Br. Mus. M.H.S. Y.C.
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ 155
A very elaborate and learned presentation of the subject, delivered as a Master's Oration.
3. An Oration, delivered at Wethersfield, February 22, 1800 ; on the Death of General George Washington . . . Hartford, 1800. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
4. A Supplement to the fourth part of Dr. Priestley's Lectures on History; exhibiting a series of American Historians from the first discovery of the country to the present time : delivered to one of the divisions of the Sophomore Class in Yale College, June 22, 1801. — By their Tutor. New Haven, 1801. 8°, pp. 14.
[B. Ath. Y. C.
He also printed, probably in some periodical, an abridgment of the Abbe Barruel's History of Jacobinism.
AUTHORITIES. Alden, Amer. Epitaphs, iv, 152-54. i, 623. Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, Conn. Journal, Dec. i, 1803. Mass. ii, 497; Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., Hist. Society's Collections, ix, 108-11. ii, 312. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit,
Walter Mitchell, the third son of the Hon. Stephen Mix Mitchell (Yale 1763), of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on October 7, 1777, and was baptized on the 19th of the same month. One of his brothers was graduated here in the preceding Class.
He adopted the profession of the law, and practiced with fair success for many years in Hartford. He was also from 1838 to 1840 Judge of the Hartford County Court.
Judge Mitchell is remembered as a delightful companion, and a great wit. He was never married. A copy of his portrait is in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society.
He died, after protracted infirmity, in Hartford on July 29, 1849, i^ his 72d year.
AUTHORITIES. Salisbury, Family Histories and Wethersfield, ii, 507- Genealogies, i, 180. Stiles, Hist, of
iS6 Yale College
Elijah Hunger, the fifth in a family of eight children of Joseph and Naomi Hunger, was born in that part of (South) Brimfield, which is now Wales, Hampden County, Hassachusetts, on Hay 4, 1767. His mother was a daughter of Anthony and Holly (Houlton) Needham, of Wales. The family removed about 1783 to Ludlow in the same county, and this son was prepared for College by the Rev. Joel Hayes (Yale 1773), of South Hadley.
During the year after graduation he taught school in New Concord, in Chatham township, Columbia County, New York. Subsequently he with others of his family removed to Paris, in Oneida County, New York, and eventually he settled as a merchant in Sacket Harbor, Jef- ferson County, where he died on Hay 29, 1823, aged 56 years.
He married, perhaps about 1806, Lydia (Quackenbos?), by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
A few months after his death his widow removed to Flat Rock, Wayne County, Hichigan.
AUTHORITIES. /. B. Hunger, MS. Letter, Febr., 1910.
Nathan Perkins, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins (Princeton College 1770), of West Hart- ford, Connecticut, and a nephew of Enoch Perkins (Yale 1781), was born in Hartford on August 26, 1777. His mother was Catharine, daughter of the Rev. Timothy Pit- kin (Yale 1747), of Farmington.
After graduation he studied law, but eventually settled on a farm in West Hartford, at the same time serving as a county magistrate.
In an earnest revival which visited the town in 1807 he became a christian, and subsequently studied theology with his father, being licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association on February 7, 18 10.
Biographical Sketches, 1795 157
In July, 1 8 10, he was called to the pastorate of the Sec- ond (or East) Congregational Church in Amherst, Massa- chusetts, on a salary of $500.
Having accepted this call, he was ordained there on October 10, and the sermon preached by his father on the occasion was afterwards published.
In this office he continued, with the complete confidence and esteem of his people, until his death in Amherst, from croup, after twenty-four hours' illness, on March 28, 1842, in his 65th year.
His church had increased, during his ministry, from 83 to 360 members.
President Humphrey, of Amherst College, in his funeral sermon represents him as "a man of highly respectable talents, good common sense, and uncommon prudence" ; as "a solemn, persuasive, and affectionate preacher," "an excellent pastor," "deeply interested in the cause of popu- lar education," as well as "in all the benevolent enterprises of the day"; and "a pattern of punctuality in all his engagements." The tombstone erected in his memory describes him as "a sound and evangelical preacher, an active pastor, a peace-maker, known and beloved in the churches."
He married, on September 7, 1798, Mabel, daughter of Colonel Timothy and Abigail (Skinner) Seymour, of West Hartford, who died in Amherst on September 22, 1835, in her 60th year.
He subsequently married a Mrs. Lyman.
He had by his first marriage two daughters and a son. The elder daughter married the Hon. George Grinnell (Dartmouth Coll. 1808), and the younger married the Rev. Robert B. Campfield (Princeton Coll. 1824).
He published :
I. A Funeral Sermon [from Phil, i, 21], delivered in Amherst, Sept. 12, 181 5, at the Interment of Doctor Seth Coleman . . New- Haven, 1817. 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
This discourse is also printed in the Memoirs of Dr. Coleman (Yale 1765), published at the same time and place.
158 Yale College
2. A Discourse [from Luke iii, 7-15] , delivered August 12, 1818 ; at the Ordination of Reverend Eli Moody, at Weybridge, Vermont. Middlebury, 1818. 8°, pp. 23. [Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Y. C.
3. A Discourse [from Isaiah Ixii, 6-y], delivered November 24, 1819, at the Ordination of the Rev, Rufus William Bailey, to the pastoral care of the South Congregational Church in Norwich, Vermont. Woodstock, 1820. 8°, pp. 31. [A. C. A. Harv.
The sermon occupies pages 1-2 1.
AUTHORITIES. Bridgman, Northampton Epitaphs, Family, pt. 3, 38, 76. T. Robbins, i6g. Carpenter and Morehouse, Hist. Diary, i, 426. Sprague, Annals of the of Amherst, 115, 209-10. Colton, The American Pulpit, ii, 2-3. Old Meeting House, 81-82. Perkins
Samuel Merrick Phelps, the only child of Samuel and Lucy (Kent) Phelps, of Suffield, Connecticut, and a nephew of Seth Phelps (Yale 1760), was born in Suffield on July 19, 1770. His mother was probably the youngest daughter of Dudley and Ruth (Woodbridge) Kent, of Suffield.
He entered College in May of the Freshman year, when nearly 22 years old, being then a resident of Springfield, Massachusetts; and left the Class in the spring of the Junior year, but was admitted to his degree in 183 1.
After leaving College he studied theology, and supplied the Presbyterian Church in North Salem, Westchester County, New York, for a year or more about 1801 ; he there married Eliza Wallace, a native of that town.
In the summer of 1804 he began preaching to the Pres- byterian Church in Parsippany, Morris County, New Jer- sey, and was unanimously called to the pastorate there on September 17. He was soon after installed over that church, and continued as pastor until the summer of 181 5. Pie had previously (in January, 18 14) asked for a dismis- sion, having learned of some dissatisfaction at his attitude in regard to political questions; but the great preponder-
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ 159
ance of sentiment in the parish in his favor led him to withdraw for the time his request.
On Februar/ 2, 18 17, he was called to settle over the Congregational Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut, only- six miles distant from his former field of service in North Salem. On his acceptance of the call the Fairfield West Consociation was convened to install him on March 20; but that body, because of a proviso that the relation might be terminated at six months' notice, declined to act, and he was finally installed in June by members of the Westches- ter (N. Y.) Presbytery.
After a pastorate of twelve and a half years he was dismissed by the Presbytery on December 31, 1829.
In 1835, when he published two volumes, he had recently retired from the active work of the ministry, and was liv- ing in his old parish of Parsippany.
He died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, from lung fever, on December 26, 1841, aged 71^ years.
His children were two daughters and a son. The latter was graduated from the New York University in 1848, and became a clergyman. Mrs. Phelps died at his house, in Lee Centre, Illinois, on May 29, 1857, in her 77th year.
He published :
1. Sermons on Christian Doctrines, Experience, and Practice. New- York, 1835. 12°, pp. 310. [V. C.
A prefatory notice, dated at Parsippany, March 21, 1835, explains the author's motives in printing the volume. He was then without stated employment. There are twenty-seven sermons in the collection.
2. The Triumphs of Divine Grace, a Poem. . — To which are added. Promiscuous Pieces, by Harriette E. Phelps. New-York, 1835. 12°, pp. 132. [Y. C.
The poem is in blank verse. The last few pages contain poems by the author's younger daughter.
AUTHORITIES. C. C. Parker, Historical Sermons ily, i, 186, 308. Pres. Stiles, Literary in Parsippany, 16-17. Phelps Fam- Diary, iii, 451.
i6o Yale College
Robert Porter^ a son of Deacon Noah Porter, of Farmington, Connecticut, and a brother of* Edward Porter (Yale 1786), was born in Farmington on October 6, 1773, and was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, Connecticut, and was licensed to preach for a term of four years by the Tolland Associa- tion of ministers on October 3, 1797.
After several years of service as a home missionary, chiefly in Northern New York, in the feeble settlements along the Black River, he became, in September, 1801, the Principal of the Hamilton (N. Y.) Oneida Academy, in Clinton, out of which Hamilton College later grew. While thus engaged, he continued to supply vacant congre- gations in the vicinity, his license to preach being renewed in October, 1801.
He gave up his place in the Academy (in which he was a great favorite with the pupils) in 1805 to head a colony about to settle in that part of Bath, in Steuben County, which is now Prattsburgh, where the rest of his useful life wats spent.
He died in Prattsburgh, on August 26, 1847, ^&^^ nearly 74 years.
He married on November 28, 1799, Roxana, younger daughter of Captain Timothy and Mary (Langdon) Root, of Farmington. She was born on August 10, 1774.
Their children were two daughters and four sons.
AUTHORITIES. Gridley, Hist, of Kirkland, 124. 1862, 67-68, 179. T. Robbins, Diary, Memorial Book of Hamilton College, i, 161-62. Root Genealogy, 381.
William [Saxby] Reynolds was born in St. John's Colleton Parish, South Carolina, on January 28, 1776. After graduation he made an extended European trip.
Biographical Sketches, i/p^ i6i
He married Sarah Saxby Adams on June 15, 1803, and spent his life as a planter on Wadmalaw Island, St. John's Colleton, some forty miles southwest of Charleston.
He died on April 15, 1819, in his 44th year.
AUTHORITIES. B. A. Reynolds, MS. Letters, Sept., 1875.
Erastus Ripley was born in Windham, Connecticut, on June 17, 1770, the youngest of six sons of Joshua Ripley, and grandson of Joshua and Mary (Backus) Ripley, of Windham. His mother was Elizabeth Lathrop, a sister of the Rev. Elijah Lathrop (Yale 1749). He was pre- pared for College by Samuel Perkins (Yale 1785), of Windham.
He studied theology in New Haven, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on May 28, 1797.
On May 8, 1798, he was married in New Haven, by President Dwight, to Elizabeth, a granddaughter of Roger Sherman, and sister of the Rev. John Sherman (Yale 1792).
On March 26, 1800, he was ordained and installed by the Eastern Consociation in Fairfield County as pastor of the Congregational Church in Brookfield. Dissatisfaction soon arose in the congregation, and the Consociation dis- solved the existing relation on November 6, 1801.
He was next installed over the First Congregational Church in Meriden, on February 9, 1803, and remained there until February 27, 1822. Though one hundred members were added to the church during his ministry, he was not acceptable to the parish as a whole, and large num- bers of the congregation joined themselves to other denom- inations. The dissatisfaction led to a withholding of his salary, and he was thus forced to ask a dismission.
i62 Yale College
On leaving Meriden he supplied for a time the church in East Granby.
His next charge was in Goshen Parish, in Lebanon, where he was installed on September 24, 1823. He was dismissed from there on February 16, 1832.
He then served as stated supply of the Congregational Church in Montville, a neighboring town, from June, 1832, to June, 1838 ; after which he returned to Meriden, where he died on November 17, 1843, i^ his 74th year.
His wife died in Montville, on November 3, 1834, in her 57th year. They had no children.
He published in 1829 a sermon on the Evil and Cure of Intemperance.
He was a man of great sincerity and of unquestioned orthodoxy; but without a pleasing personality, and desti- tute of tact. His preaching is said to have been dry, meta- physical, and utterly lacking in animation. He was very large in person and of a commanding appearance.
AUTHORITIES. Davis, Hist, of Wallingf ord, 230- 61. Pierce, Hist. Discourse at Brook- 31. Gillespie, Century of Meriden, field, 15. Ripley Genealogy, 13. T. 154. Lathrop Family Memoir, 91. Robbins. Diary, i, iii, 896. Perkins, Hist. Sketches of Meriden,
Jared Scranton^ the second son of Jared and Lucretia (Russell) Scranton, of (North) Guilford, Connecticut, and grandson of Ebenezer and Ann Scranton, of North Guilford, was born on May i6, 1771. His mother was probably a daughter of Solomon Russell, of North Guil- ford. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Thomas W. Bray (Yale 1765), of North Guilford. The family belonged to the Episcopal Church.
He settled in his native parish as a farmer, and married in 1795 Rachel, youngest daughter of Asher and Elizabeth (Norton) Fowler, of North Madison, an adjoining parish,
Biographical Sketches, 17Q5 163
who was also an Episcopalian. She was born on Decem- ber 4, 1770.
He died in North Guilford on March 15, 1853, in his 82d year.
His children were six sons and three daughters.
AUTHORITIES. N. England Hist and Geneal. Reg- morial, 22, 32. ister, liii, 315. Scranton Family Me-
Oliver Sherman,, the second son of the Hon. Roger Sherman, of New Haven, by his second wife, Rebecca Prescott, and a brother of Roger Sherman (Yale 1787), was born in New Haven on January 19, 1777, and was prepared for College by his brother-in-law, Simeon Bald- win (Yale 1781).
Before 1810 he entered into mercantile business in Bos- ton; but about 18 1 7 removed to Cuba, and died in Havana, probably in the early summer of 1820, in his 44th year. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 431. Boutell, Life of Roger Sherman, v, 349.
David Smith^ the eldest child of Captain Ebenezer and Sarah Smith, of that part of Norwich, Connecticut, which is now Bozrah, was born on December 13, 1767. His mother was a sister of the Hon. Silas Deane (Yale 1758). One of his sisters married the Rev. Pitkin Cowles (Yale 1800).
In the summer of 1770 the family removed to New Marl- borough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts; and Captain Smith served with distinction throughout the Revolution. During the last few months of the war this son served under his father's command.
1 64 Yale College
His youth and early manhood were spent upon a farm; but the intention of sending him to College was frustrated by the losses due to the state of the country. In the autumn of 1788 he married Betsey Marsh, of Canaan, Connecticut, a woman of unusual intelligence, amiability, and loveliness. She died on August 11, 1789, leaving an infant son.
He then took a school in the neighborhood of his home, and under the influence of new religious convictions he resolved in September, 1790, when nearly twenty-three years old, to prepare for College. In April, 1791, he gave up his school, and by close study with his minister, the Rev. Jacob Catlin (Yale 1784), fitted himself for admission to the Sophomore Class in September, 1792.
While a member of College he was obliged to earn money for his support, and he spent the first term of the Senior year in teaching in Sheffield, Massachusetts.
For the year after graduation he taught in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and thus paid all his outstanding debts, — at the same time also reading theology in his spare moments.
In June, 1796, he devoted his whole time to the study of theology with the Rev. Ephraim Judson (Yale 1763), of Sheffield, and was licensed to preach in October by the Berkshire County Association of Ministers.
Besides supplying various pulpits for shorter periods, he preached for the next two winters in Poultney, Vermont, and received a call to settle there.
In February, 1799, he began preaching in Durham, Con- necticut; and after having declined a call to Waterbury (where he had spent the earher part of the winter), he was called to Durham, and was ordained and installed there on August 15. The ordination sermon by Mr. Jud- son was afterwards printed.
He was diligent and laborious in his pastoral work, and six special seasons of revival visited the parish in the course of his ministry, during which time two hundred and
Biographical Sketches, 7795 165
forty-five persons were added to the church. His salary, after various changes, was fixed in 1816 at $550; but in 1824 he reHnquished $50 in compHance with a request of the Society. In 1827 he was requested to reHnquish another $50, but decHned. The request was renewed a year later, and he yielded to the demand; but dissatisfac- tion continued, and he felt obliged to apply for a dismis- sion, which was voted by a council on January 11, 1832.
His residence continued in Durham, and he engaged in ministerial labor there and elsewhere as opportunity oflfered. After about twenty years his health became infirm, but he continued to preach more or less every year, up to October, 1861. The following winter he spent with his elder daughter in Fair Haven, Connecticut, where he died on March 5, 1862, in his 95th year. His mind con- tinued serene and active to the end. The sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Abraham C. Baldwin (Bowdoin College 1827), one of his successors in the Durham pas- torate, was afterwards published, with the addition of a memorial sketch of Dr. Smith by his younger surviving son. The burial was in Durham.
He was elected a Fellow of Yale College in September, 1 82 1, and retained that office until July, 1861, when he resigned on account of increasing deafness. He had been remarkable for punctual attendance during this long period of service.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Hamilton College in 1830.
In the early part of his ministry he received many young men into his family and fitted them for College. For two or three years he taught in the Durham Academy.
On October 23, 1799, he was married in New Haven by President Dwight to Catharine, only daughter of his pred- ecessor in office, the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1752), who died in Durham on July 31, 1845, ^^ ^^^ 7°^^ year. Their children were two daughters and four sons, — of whom the three younger sons died before him. Dr.
1 66 Yale College
Smith's son by his first marriage was graduated at Yale in 1811, and the eldest son by his second marriage in 1822. His eldest daughter was the wife of the Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth (Yale 18 10).
Dr. Smith showed more than common ability and unstinted activity in his ministerial service; and it is greatly to his credit that the opposition which he encoun- tered did not embitter his temper or lessen his love for his parish. His theological opinions were thoroughly Calvinistic.
He was an hereditary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, and greatly enjoyed his service as Chaplain at their annual meetings during his last years.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Ps. xxxix, 5] preached in Middlefield, at the Funeral of Mr. David Lyman, of Woodford, Vermont, March 21, 1811. .. Middletown, 1811. 8°, pp. 15. [Br. Mus. Y.C.
2. The disposition and duty of a faithful minister illustrated in a Sermon [from Rom. x, i] : delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Timothy Tuttle,. .in Groton, August 14, 181 1. New-London, 181 1. 8°, pp. 15. [Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
3. • A Sermon [from Ps. xxii, i] delivered at Middlefield at the Funeral of Col. David Lyman, who died Feb. 28th, 18x5. . . Mid- dletown, 1816. 8°, pp. 13. [Y. C.
The subject was the father of the subject of the sermon published five years before.
4. A Sermon [from Isaiah Ivii, 2], delivered at Durham, April 4, 1819, occasioned by the death of Deacon John Tibbals. . Middle- town, 1819. 8°, pp. 15. [Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
5. A Sermon [from Job xiv, 5], delivered at Durham, Feb. 24th, 1822, at the Funeral of Mr. Isaac Prentiss, of Boston, and Mr. John T. Palmer, from Europe; who were drowned, in consequence of the fall of a bridge, while the stage-coach was passing over it. Middletown, 1822. 8°, pp. 16. [Br. Mus. Y. C.
6. The Duties of a Minister and People: illustrated in a Ser- mon [from Hebr. x, 24], delivered at Danbury, Jan. 31, 1838, at the installation of Rev. Rollin S. Stone. New Haven, 1838. 8°, pp. 18. [C. H. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1795 167
He also published, in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine for April, 1807 (vol. 7, pp. 391-96), an account of the Revival of Religion in Durham in 1803 (republished in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's Nezv England Revivals, 1846, pp. 300-08) ; and in the same magazine for March, 1809 (2d series, vol. 2, pp. 104-07), a similar account for 1808. .
He also assisted in preparing for the press the Compendium of the System of Divine Truth by his instructor, the Rev. Dr. Catlin (Hart- ford, 1818).
A pamphlet by Cephas Brown, of Durham, was printed in 1819, entitled :
Animadversions on a Sermon preached by the Rev, David Smith . . Or, Calvinism Refuted, and Universal Salvation vindicated and established.
The Sermon referred to does not seem to have been printed.
The Yale Library owns a large collection of Dr. Smith's manu- scripts, mainly sermons.
AUTHORITIES. Bugbee, Memorials of the Mass. Fowler, Chauncey Memorials, 156, Society of the Cincinnati, 451-52. 169-71 ; Hist, of Durham, 63-78. Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1290.
Matthias Burnet Tallmadge was born on March i, 1774, in that part of Washington, Duchess County, New York, which was incorporated as the town of Stanford in 1793. He was a son of Colonel James Tallmadge, an officer of the Revolution, who was a son of James and Martha (Roberts) Tallmadge, of Sharon, Connecticut, and a nephew of the Rev. Benjamin Tallmadge (Yale 1747). His mother was Ann, daughter of David Suther- land, of Stanford. General James Tallmadge (Brown Univ. 1798) was a brother, and a sister married the Rev. Dr. Stephen Gano, of Providence. The family were mem- bers of the Baptist denomination. He was admitted to the College at the opening of the Junior year.
After graduation he studied law with the Hon. Ambrose Spencer, of Hudson, New York, and then began the prac- tice of his profession in Herkimer, in the same State.
1 68 Yale College
He had already married Elizabeth, third daughter of Governor George and Cornelia (Tappan) Clinton (born July lo, 1780), of Kingston, in Ulster County, and his career was shaped in accordance with the political ambi- tions of his father-in-law. He was, of course, what was then called a Republican.
He was a member of the State Senate from January, 1803, to April, 1805 ; and was in June, 1805, although quite without reputation as a lawyer, appointed by Jefferson United States Judge for the District of New York, and removed to New York City.
Late in life he united with the Baptist Church, and was active in the enterprises of that denomination.
In the fall of 18 19, being in very feeble health, he left New York City during the prevalence of the yellow fever, and took refuge at his father's house, in Poughkeepsie, where he died, very suddenly, on October 7, in his 46th year.
Three sons survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Benton, Hist, of Herkimer County, 179. Thompson, Hist, of L. I., 2d ed., 261-62. N. Y. Geneal. Record, xiii, ii, 461.
Stephen Thacher, son of Rodolphus Thacher, of Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of Peter and Abigail (Hibbard) Thacher, of Lebanon, was born in that town on January 9, 1774. Having lost his mother in his infancy, and his father at the age of fourteen, he was prepared for College by his uncle, the Hon. Josiah Thacher, of Gorham, Maine. He was admitted to the College Church on profession of his faith at the close of his Fresh- man year.
After graduation he taught in Springfield, Massachu- setts, while studying theology with the Rev. Bezaleel How- ard (Harvard Coll. 1781). After some further expe-
Biographical Sketches, 77P5 169
rience in teaching in Suffield and elsewhere in the vicinity, he spent a year (1798-99) in preaching and teaching in Beverly, Massachusetts, and then for about two years was similarly engaged in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
His health now failed, and he felt obliged to abandon both teaching and preaching.
In 1803 he settled in Kennebunk, Maine, in trade, and in 1804 he married Harriet, daughter of Colonel Esaias and Lydia (Ingraham) Preble, of York, Maine, and sister of the Hon. William P. Preble (Harvard Coll. 1806),— a lady of superior education and fine qualities.
Being an ardent supporter of President Jefferson he was appointed in 1807 by Governor Sullivan of Massachusetts Judge of Probate for York County. In 1810 Postmaster- General Granger appointed him postmaster of Kennebunk ; and this office he retained in connection with his judgeship, until his removal from the town in 18 18.
He was then appointed by President Monroe to the diffi- cult and responsible post of Collector of the Port of Passa- maquoddy, and remained in office for three terms, of four years each, with his residence in Lubec.
His wife died in 1849, ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ illness, and in 1856 he went to live in Rockland, Maine, with two of his sons.
His powers both of mind and body were remarkably vigorous to the end. He kept up his fondness for study, especially of the classics, to his last days.
He died in Rockland on February 19, 1859, in his 86th year.
He published:
An Oration, pronounced at Kennebunk, District of Maine, on the Anniversary of American Independence, July 4, 1803. Boston, 1803. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. U. T. S. This includes panegyrics on Jefferson and Gallatin.
AUTHORITIES. Maine Hist. Society's Collections, vi, 35&-S9-
17° Yale College
George Tod^ a son of David Tod, an emigrant from Perthshire, Scotland, and grandson of Peter and Isabelle (Law) Tod, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, on Decem- ber II, 1773. His mother was Rachel, elder daughter of Lieutenant Elijah and Jemima (Kellogg) Kent, of Suffield.
A brother was Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania.
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Nathan Per- kins, of West Hartford.
After graduation he taught for a short time in New Haven, studied law with Judge Reeve in Litchfield, and on being admitted to the bar practiced his profession for a few years in New Haven.
He married, in New Haven, on September 18, 1797, Sarah (or Sally), daughter of Ralph Isaacs (Yale 1761), of Branford, who was then living with her sister, the wife of Judge Jonathan Ingersoll (Yale 1766), of New Haven.
Catching the prevalent Western fever, he migrated in the early part of 1800 to the Western Reserve in Ohio, settling in Youngstown. In August, 1800, at the first term of the Court of Common Pleas, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Trumbull County; and he also served for his first year as secretary to Governor St. Clair of the Northwestern Territory.
His early experience in the courts gave him prominence as a lawyer ; and in 1801 he sent for his family to join him.
In 1804 he was elected as a Republican to represent Trumbull County in the State Senate. In April, 1806, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State (to fill a vacancy). In December, 1808, an unsuccessful attempt was made to impeach him by the House of Repre- sentatives on account of an unpopular decision. The ensuing political excitement induced the next legislature, in February, 18 10, to drop him from his position. This action aroused his fellow-citizens to return him in the fall
Biographical Sketches, 7795 171
of 18 10 to the State Senate, where he remained for four years.
He had taken great pride in the efficient organization of the Ohio miHtia, in which he attained the rank of Colonel; and when the war of 1812 was declared, Presi- dent Madison tendered him a commission as Major in the regular army, which he accepted. He displayed marked bravery and coolness at the defense of Sacket's Harbor and Fort Meigs in May, 1813; and in March, 1814, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Seven- teenth regiment of infantry.
When peace was declared he resigned his commission and returned to the practice of law. In February, 1816, the legislature appointed him Presiding Judge of the Third Judicial District, which then comprised a large part of the counties of the Reserve, and renewed the appointment for a second term seven years later. When this term expired, in January, 1830, he again resumed law practice and the cultivation of his farm.
In 1836 he consented to accept an election to the office with which he had begun his public career, that of prose- cuting attorney of Trumbull County, and served for one term.
In 18 1 6 he had purchased a farm in the vicinity of Youngstown, known as Brier Hill ; and there, in the orig- inal log-house, he died on April 11, 1841, in his 68th year.
His wife survived him with five of their seven children, and died at Brier Hill on September 29, 1847, ^^ her 70th year.
One son had a distinguished career in public life, and was War Governor of Ohio. George Tod Ford (Yale 1865) is a grandson.
The historian of the Western Reserve, who knew him well, thus characterizes him : —
Judge Tod was a gentleman whom nature had endowed with rich and rare gifts. She gave him a graceful figure, an eloquent tongue,
172 Yale College
and the spirit of a true manhood. In his style of manners he was one of the most accomplished men of his times. He was always cheerful, cordial, and overflowing with pleasantries. He ranked high at the bar as a brilHant lawyer, in the legislature as a wise statesman, and on the bench as an able, upright, and discriminating judge. Among the people and in the society of his friends he was always a favorite.
A Republican in politics, he was always moderate in his views, and eminently fair-minded.
One of his letters to President Madison is printed in the St. Clair Papers, vol. 2, pp. 584-85.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vii, ii, 200-02. Jacob B. Perkins, MS
27. Biographical Encyclopaedia of Letter, Febr., 1910. W. H. Smith,
Ohio (1876), 583. Biographical Cy- The St. Clair Papers, ii. 581-85- Wil-
clopaedia of Ohio (1884), ii, 394- Hams, Hist, of Trumbull and Mahon-
95. Magazine of Western History, ing Counties, i, 209-10.
Thomas Tracy^ the second son of Lieutenant Joshua Tracy, of that part of Norwich which is now Franklin, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Margaret (Hyde) Tracy, of Franklin, was born on May 23, 1774. His mother was Naomi, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Abbe) Bingham, of Windham, Connecticut. His father died of small-pox in his infancy. He was admitted to Yale from Dartmouth College at the opening of the Junior year.
He attained the rank of Major in the militia of his native State.
He died in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 29, 1806, in his 33d year.
He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Abbey, Tracy Genealogy, 6i. Tracy Hyde Genealogy, i, 107. Genealogy (1898), 59. Walworth,
Biographical Sketches, 1795 173
Stephen Twining, the oldest child of Deacon Thomas Twining, of Orleans, Massachusetts, and grandson of Wil- liam and Apphia (Lewis) Twining, of Orleans, was born in that town on September 28, 1767. His mother was Anna, daughter of Isaac Cole. The family removed to that part of Granville, Massachusetts, which is now Tol- land, and he was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Aaron J. Bogue (Yale 1774).
During the year after graduation he remained in New Haven as the Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School ; and then went to Litchfield to complete under Judge Reeve the law studies which he had already begun.
He was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1797, and settled in New Haven, where he continued in active prac- tice for upwards of twenty years. He also served the city from 1799 to 1803 as Collector of Taxes, from 181 5 to 18 19 as City Attorney, and in 18 16 and 18 17 as Alder- man.
As early as 1803 he had begun to be employed in work pertaining to the Yale Treasurer's office, and in 1819 he accepted the office of Steward of the College, which he held for the rest of his life. One special duty was the care of the College commons ; but he also acted as Assistant Treas- urer, and during the frequent and prolonged absences of Mr. Hillhouse the entire business of the Treasurer's office was in Mr. Twining's hands.
He was chosen a Deacon in the First Church in 1809, and served until his death.
He died very suddenly, from ossification of the heart, while opening his mail at the Post Office, on December 18, 1832, in his 66th year.
He married, in Litchfield, on October 2, 1800, Almira, daughter of Alexander and Abigail (Goodman) Catlin, of Litchfield, and sister of Lynde Catlin (Yale 1786). She died in New Haven from consumption, after a lingering illness, on May 30, 1846, in her 69th year.
174 Yale College
Their children were two sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to old age. The sons were graduated at Yale, in 1820 and 1825, respectively. Of the two daughters who married, one was the wife of the Rev. Seagrove W. Magill (Yale 1837), and the other of Professor James Hadley (Yale 1842).
Deacon Twining was universally respected, as a pillar of the church, a valued member of society, and an efficient College officer. His early pastor, Moses Stuart, in a notice of Jeremiah Evarts, wrote : —
He and another excellent man, the late Deacon S. Twining, were my right-hand men, on whom I could always lean, and in whom I felt that I could repose unreserved confidence. In this respect I was never disappointed.
AUTHORITIES. Hinman, Puritan Settlers, 871. ruff, Geneal. Register of Litchfield, Tracy, Life of J. Evarts, 49. Twin- 52. ing Family, 2d ed., 39, 74-75. Wood-
Elisha Gregson Whiting^ the eldest child of John Whiting, Junior (Yale 1774), and Sarah (Woodbridge) Whiting, of Woodbridge, Connecticut, was probably born early in 1779, and was baptized on June 3 of that year. He lost his father in 1782.
He died in Milford, Connecticut, after a short and dis- tressing illness, on May 21, 1797, in his 19th year, being the first of the Class to be removed by death.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, May 31, 1797.
William Trumbull Williams was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, on March 2, 1777. He was the younger son of the Hon. William and Mary (Trumbull) Williams, of Lebanon, and a brother of Solomon Williams (Yale 1792).
Biographical Sketches, 1795 175
He was prepared for College by Elijah Waterman (Yale 1791).
He studied law after graduation, and settled in his native town, which he represented in eleven different years, between 1800 and 1824, in the State Legislature.
He married his first cousin, Sarah, eldest child of David and Sarah (Backus) Trumbull, of Lebanon, who died in October, 1839, at the age of 60.
He died in Lebanon, on December 16, 1839, in his 63d year.
He was the last representative in his native place of the two distinguished families to which his parents belonged. He was noted for the kindness of his disposition, the amen- ity of his manners, and the extent of his historical knowl- edge. He had made a specialty of gathering material for the history of his mother's family. In 18 18 he was elected a Corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Courant, Dec. 21, 1839. of Ezekiel Williams, 27. Williams Hine, Early Lebanon, 98, lOl, 1 17-18. Family, 180. McLean, Ancestors and descendants
ij6 Yale College
Annals, 1795-96
The Professorship of Divinity remained vacant through this year, Mr. Gemmil having promptly decHned the offer made him. At Commencement in 1796 another attempt was made to fill the position by the appointment of the Rev. Charles Backus, of Somers, a classmate of President Dwight. This, however, was also to prove unsuccessful.
Jeremiah Atwater, of the Class of 1793, succeeded James Gould, of 1791, in the office of Tutor, at the opening of the year.
In May, 1796, President Dwight appeared before the General Assembly of the State in support of a petition for the further grant to the College of one half of the funds granted in 1792, which had at that time by special pro- vision been reserved to the State. The petition was suc- cessful, though very extensively unpopular ; and the bitter feeling aroused in this connection undoubtedly helped to prevent later gifts from the same source. The sum now granted, but not wholly realized until 1800, yielded ulti- mately $20,CXK), — the same as the amount granted in 1792. One permanent provision by which this action was accom- panied was the requirement that an account of receipts and expenditures be rendered annually by the College to the Assembly.
In August, 1796, owing to the energy and foresight of the President, large additions were made to the landed estate of the College, the northern half of the College square in particular being mostly acquired at this time.
Biographical Sketches, iyg6 177
Sketches, Class of 1796
♦Thomas Wells Allis . *i848
*Johannes Bacon *i846
*Archibaldus Bassett *i859
*Hezekias Belden *i849
"^Jonathan Belden, A.M. et Dartm. 1801 *i844
*Timotheus Bishop *i873
*Carolus Bostwick *i852 *Jacobus Cantey
*Elihu Chauncey, A.M. 1806 *i847 *Henricus Davis, A.M. et Guilielm., S.T.D. Cone.
1810, Tutor, in Coll. Cone. Ling. Grace. Prof.,
Coll. Mediob. et Coll. Hamilt. Praeses *i852
*Carolus Denison, A.M. et Guilielm., Tutor *i825
*David Edmond, A.M. Mediob. 181 1 *i824
*Thaddaeus Fairbanks *i8i5 "^Bancroft Fowler, A.M. et Guil. i8cxD et Mediob.
1805, Tutor, in Acad. Theol. Bangor. Litt. Sacr.
Prof. *i856
*Edvardus Herrick {post obit.) *I796
* Johannes Hooker *i8i5 *Ruggles Hubbard *i8i7
* Johannes Humphreys, A.M. *i826 ""Guilielmus Henricus Jones *i86i "^Salmon King, A.M. 1801 *^^39
* Johannes Hart Lynde *i8i7 *Thomas Miner, M.D. 1819, Soc. Med. Conn.
Praeses *i84i
*Josephus Parker *i8io
*Guilielmus Prince *i8i7
*Levi Robbins, 1846, A.M. 1846 *i866
tji Yale College
^Thomas Rohhins, et Guilielm. 1796, A.M. et Guil.,
S.T.D. Harv. 1838 *i856
*Isaacus Seelye, A.M. 1809 1833 ♦Benjamin Silliman, A.M., M.D. Bowd. 1818, LL.D. Mediob. 1826, SS. Geol. Lond. et Gall, et Acad. Nat. S., Tutor, Chem. et Mineral, et Geol.
Prof. *i864
*Gold Selleck Silliman, A.M. *i868
*Elisaeus Stearns *i85o
*Asahel Hooker Strong *i8i8
♦Fanning Tracy, A.M. *i857
♦Johannes Har veins Tucker *i868
"^Samuel Porter Williams, A.M. *i826
Thomas Wells Allis was born in Whately, formerly a part of Hatfield, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1772, being a son of Captain Lucius Allis, of Whately, and grandson of the Rev. Samuel Allis (Harvard 1724) and Hannah (Sheldon) Allis, of Somers, Connecticut. His mother was Mary, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Hawks) Wells, of Deer field, Massachusetts. His residence while in College was in Conway, an adjacent town to Whately.
He taught school for a year or two in New Milford, Connecticut, but finally settled in Poughkeepsie, Duchess County, New York, as a lawyer, and during his career there was successful and highly esteemed. In middle life, however, he removed to Onondaga county, and the rest of his life was spent in Skaneateles as a teacher.
He died in Skaneateles about the last of June, 1848, in his 76th year.
He married Sally Allen, and had three children.
An only son survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Crafts, Hist, of Whately, 358. T. Rohbins, Diary, i) 821, 837, 907, 937.
Biographical Sketches, 1796 179
John Bacon, the second child of Captain Asa Bacon, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and a brother of the Hon. Asa Bacon (Yale 1793), was born in Canterbury on November 24, 1774, and spent the most of his life on his farm in that town.
He was for much of the time an invalid, and followed no profession. In his last years he found a home with a married niece in Canterbury, at whose house he died on January 15, 1846, in his 72d year.
He never married.
Archibald Bassett, the son of Benjamin Bassett, of Derby, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Samuel and Deborah (Bennett) Bassett, of Derby, was born in Derby on March 21, 1772. His mother was Mary (or Molly), daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah (Scovil) Hinman, of Southbury. A brother was graduated in 1807. He deliv- ered the Latin Oration at graduation.
He then studied theology with President Dwight, united with the College Church in January, 1798, and was licensed to preach by the Eastern Association of New Haven County, on May 29, 1798.
In the spring of 1801 he was called to settle as pastor of the Congregational Church in Winchester, Connecticut, on a salary of one hundred pounds, or $333.33. Having accepted this call, he was ordained and installed there on the 20th of May.
In his dealings with men, and his management of secu- lar matters, he was so indiscreet as to create difficulties, in consequence of which some manifestations of discontent on the part of the Church and Society began to appear at the close of the year 1805. Early in 1806 Mr. Bassett was requested to join in the call of a council with reference to his dismission. Further steps were taken in April, which resulted in another council to give advice. The next step was the bringing of a complaint before the Litchfield County Consociation, charging Mr. Bassett with being too
i8o Yale College
worldly-minded and eager after money. The Consocia- tion met in Winchester on August 26, and after hearing the evidence declared him the next day to be not guilty on these charges, but censured him for want of Christian prudence and dismissed him from his pastorate.
He continued his residence in Winchester for a year longer ; but was on such terms with his former flock that he did not attend their church services.
After some months he was appointed by the Connecticut Missionary Society to perform mission work in New York State. In the autumn of 1807 he removed his family to Walton, Delaware County, New York, where he had been invited to preach in the Congregational Church as stated supply in the previous May. He soon after received a formal call, and was duly installed as the first pastor of that church early in 1808. An extensive revival had already been enjoyed, which had resulted in the addition of about seventy-five persons to the church.
The pastoral relation was dissolved in 181 1, but he con- tinued his residence in Walton, and supplied vacant churches in that region until age and infirmity compelled his retirement. After 1828 he was connected with the Presbyterian denomination and by reason of his active mind and energetic will took a leading part in the business of his Presbytery. As a preacher he was systematic and positive; a theologian after the type of Edwards and Dwight ; and a reformer of the strictest sort, earnest and radical.
He died in Walton, of old age, on April 29, 1859, in his 88th year. Although of slender constitution, by special care and evenness of temperament he had kept an unusual degree of health.
He married, on May i, 1804, Kezia, daughter of Deacon Job and Eunice (Cowles) Curtiss, of Torringford, in Tor- rington, Connecticut, who died on January 19, 1868. They had seven children, one of whom was graduated at Wil- liams College in 1834, and entered the ministry. Two daughters married ministers.
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 i8i
AUTHORITIES.
Boyd, Hist, of Winchester, 224, T. Robbins, Diary, i, 135, 138, 294,
233-34. 539-40. [Moore,] Torring- 298, 303, 316, 337-38. Wilson, Pres-
ford Centennial, 1870, 70. Munsell, byterian Historical Almanac for
Hist, of Delaware County, N. Y., 327, 1861, 155. 337. Orcutt, Hist, of Derby, 527, 697.
Hezekiah Belden, the youngest of twelve children of the Rev. Joshua Belden (Yale 1743), of Newington, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and the only son by his second v^^ife (Honor, daughter of Hezekiah Goodrich), v^as born on February 17, 1778, and was baptized by his father five days later.
At first after graduation he took up the study of law in the Litchfield Law School ; but was never admitted to the bar, and appears to have remained in Newington until 1805, when he began business in New Haven as a crockery merchant. After a time he migrated to South Carolina, but returned here, and was married, on December 28, 18 1 8, by the Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, to Harriet Halsted, the eldest child of Underbill and Mary (Halsted) Lyon, of Rye, New York. She had been a resident of New Haven for several years. One of her sisters afterwards married the Rev. Isaac Parsons (Yale 1811), and another married David N. Lord (Yale 1817). She died of consumption in New Haven on March 21, 1823, in her 36th year.
In the meantime his business had proved unsuccessful, and in 1824 he removed to Richmond, Virginia, and in partnership with a Mr. Porter established a line of stages for the transportation of the mails to the Ohio river.
He was engaged there in this and other business until 1842; but before that date the derangement of the cur- rency resulting from President Jackson's war upon the United States Bank had broken up his stage-line, and he now returned to his native village for the rest of his days. He filled for some of the time the office of town-clerk.
1 82 Yale College
He died there on March 22, 1849, '^^ ^^^ 72d year, and was buried by the side of his wife in New Haven.
Their two children, a son and a daughter, survived him.
He left some manuscript collections for the early history of Wethersfield, which are preserved in the library of the Connecticut Historical Society at Hartford.
AUTHORITIES.
Baird, Hist, of Rye, 424-25. Mil- 752; ii, 83, 86. Welles, Annals of ler, Lyon Memorial, iii, 94, 139. Newington, 96. Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, i, 68,
Jonathan Belden_, the eldest son of David Belden, of Rocky Hill parish, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Jonathan and Martha (James) Bel- den, of Wethersfield, was baptized on October i, 1775. His mother was Hepzibah Goodrich, of Rocky Hill, a sister of the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1752).
He was a second cousin of the graduate last noticed. His father dying when he was ten years old, he was received into the family of his first cousin, Deacon Jona- than Belden Balch, of West Hartford, who gave him an education.
After graduation he studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association of Ministers on October i, 1799.
He preached the following winter in Winthrop, Maine, and in May, 1800, was unanimously called by the small Congregational Church there to the pastorate. He was ordained and installed on August 27, 1800, and took a dis- mission on account of impaired health on September 10, 1805. About forty-three persons were added to the church under his ministry.
He was next installed over the Congregational Church in Bristol, Maine, on July 26, 1807, but had only limited
Biographical Sketches, i^pd 183
success, and retired informally about 18 15, the war with Great Britain having been the excuse for much irregu- larity in the payment of his salary.
He was not again regularly settled, but his later years were spent in home missionary labors in the vicinity of Hallowell and Augusta, Maine, and he died in the latter place in January, 1844, in his 69th year.
His abilities as a preacher were very moderate.
He was first married, by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, on September 16, 1801, to Sarah (or Sally), daughter of his cousin, Jonathan B. Balch, and Hopeful (Hurlbut) Balch, of West Hartford. She died in Bristol on October 5, 1807, after a short but painful illness, in her 28th year. Their two sons and one daughter all died young.
He next married, in 1809, Sarah, eldest daughter of Zina and Sarah (Goodwin) Hyde, of Lebanon, Connect- icut, who died in Bristol on March 25, 1812, aged 37 years. Her children were one son and one daughter, — of whom the latter died in infancy.
AUTHORITIES.
Johnston, Hist, of Bristol and of Winthrop, 122-23, 233. Wal- Bremen, 392-93. Stiles, Hist, of worth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 75, 278-79. Wethersfield, ii, 84. Thurston, Hist.
Timothy Bishop^ the eldest child of Daniel Bishop, of New Haven, and a grandson of Stephen and Esther (Meigs) Bishop, of New Haven, was born in New Haven on October 29, 1777. His mother was Louisa, eldest child of John Hotchkiss (Yale 1748), of New Haven.
He taught school in Glastonbury for one or two years after graduation.
His later life was spent in his native city, where he was was engaged in business for many years, and retained the high respect of his fellow-citizens. As an indication of the principle which regulated his life, it may be related that in the earlier part of his career he was engaged in
184 Yale College
the West-India trade; but withdrew from this enterprise from a conscientious conviction that the importation of rum (then a chief part of that trade) was morally wrong.
He died in New Haven on March 6, 1873, ^^ ^lis 96th year. Since October, 1870, he had been the oldest surviv- ing graduate of Yale, and for some five years the only living member of his class.
He married on April 3, 1800, Louisa, daughter of Wil- liam and Theodosia (Pierpont) Walter, of New Haven, and younger sister of Joel Walter (Yale 1800). She died on May 3, just one month later, in the inoculation hospital in Derby, before she had reached her twentieth birthday.
He was next married, on January 9, 1803, by President Dwight to Esther, second daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Dickerman) Huggins, of New Haven, who died on Feb- ruary 23, 1845, i^ her 68th year.
. He married thirdly, on December 16, 1846, Elizabeth, daughter of Elias and Jerusha (Fitch) Beers, of New Haven, and widow of Stephen Huggins, of New Haven, who was a brother of the second Mrs. Bishop. She died on November 12, 1854, in her 65th year.
By his second marriage he had two daughters and two sons. The latter were graduated at Yale, in the Classes of 1826 and 1830 respectively. The elder daugh- ter married Enos B. M. Hughes (Middlebury College
1817).
AUTHORITIES. Dickerman Family, 470, 472-74. Tuttle Family, 20, 165-66.
Charles Bostwick^ the younger son of Benjamin Bost- wick, of Brookfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Robert and Sarah (Stevens) Bostwick, of New Milford, was born on November 12, 1775. His mother was Esther, daughter of Daniel and Hannah (Hitchcock) Bostwick, of New Milford, and a second cousin of her husband. He entered College at the beginning of the Sophomore year.
Biographical Sketches, iyg6 185
After graduation he studied law with Judge Tapping Reeve, of Litchfield, and entered on the practice of his pro- fession in Bridgeport; but abandoned it in 1810 to take up a commercial career in New York City.
In 1836 he retired to his former residence in Bridgeport, and in 1840 was elected Mayor of that city, and chief Judge of the City Court.
He died in Bridgeport on March i, 1852, in his 77th year.
He married in Bridgeport, on May 3, 1809, Catharine, eldest child of William and Jemima (Tomlinson, Darrow) Peet, of Bridgeport, and sister of Edward W. Peet (Yale 1823), who died in Bridgeport on November 19, 1863, in her 78th year. Their children were four daughters and three sons ; one daughter died in infancy.
Mr. Bostwick was esteemed for purity and simplicity of character and for a devout Christian life.
AUTHORITIES.
Bostwick Genealogy, 182, 263-64. 951, 1265. Fres. Stiles, Literary Hintnan, Genealogy of the Puritans, Diary, iii, 531. 300. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii,
James Cantey, Junior, son of James and Margaret (Anderson) Cantey, of Liberty County, Georgia, was baptized in the Midway Congregational Church in that county on March 24, 1776. He entered the Class at the opening of the Sophomore year.
His residence while in College was in Newport in the same county.
He returned home after graduation and died young, his name being first starred in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in the fall of 1802.
AUTHORITIES. Midway Church Records, 76, 116.
i86 Yde College
Elihu Chauncey^ the second son and child of the Hon. Charles and Abigail (Darling) Chauncey, of New Haven, and a brother of Charles Chauncey (Yale 1792) and of Nathaniel Chauncey (Yale 1806), was born in New Haven on January 15, 1779.
On graduation he followed his elder brother to Phila- delphia, where he was admitted to the bar in April, 1800, and rose steadily to distinction. Those who knew him best were of opinion that he would have attained the high- est rank in the profession, had he not turned aside to enter the political field. In May, 1802, he joined Enos Bronson (Yale 1798) in the editorship of the influential Federalist organ. The Gazette of the United States; and on retiring from this position in 1805, he devoted himself to financial pursuits, and achieved brilliant success in the inception and completion of several important works of public improvement. After having been for many years a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania, he was elected to a more active part in its executive administration. He was a leader in the construction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and invested upwards of $100,000 in the enterprise. He was also one of the largest original subscribers to the West Chester Railroad. He was for many years a working man in the City Councils of Phil- adelphia, and rarely, during a long period, was any large loan negotiated by his State or by the general government without his aid.
His private character was marked by far-reaching sagacity, solid judgment, and a profound reverence for truth.
He retired from all public duties a few years before his death, which occurred in Philadelphia on April 8, 1847, i^ his 69th year.
He married Henrietta, daughter of John Teackle, of Accomac County, Virginia, who bore him three daughters, and died in Philadelphia on March 2, 1832.
Biographical Sketches, iy<)6 187
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1288. Hist. Society's Papers, i, 132-33.
Fisher, Life of Silliman, i, 54, 98; ii, Scharf and Westcott, Hist of Phila-
82. Fowler, Chauncey Memorials, delphia, iii, 1969. 115, 146-51. New Haven Colony
Henry Davis, a son of John and Mary (Conkling) Davis, of East Hampton, Long Island, was born in East Hampton on September 15, 1771. His paternal grand- father was an immigrant from Kidderminster, England.
His father, a farmer and shoemaker, removed to Ston- ington, Connecticut, in 1772, but returned to East Hamp- ton in 1784. Clinton Academy had then been recently incorporated there, and young Davis was for some time a member of it. Later, he taught school in various places, and mainly prepared himself for College, which he entered at the opening of the Sophomore year. He had already t united with the Presbyterian Church in East Hampton, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buell (Yale
1741).
He graduated with an excellent record for scholarship, and delivered at Commencement an oration against thea- tres, and also a funeral oration on the death of his class- mate Herrick.
He had already engaged to teach in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, but accepted a few weeks later an appoint- ment as tutor in Williams College, which he held for a year. He then pursued theological studies under the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus in Somers, Connecticut, and on the 7th of the following August was licensed to preach by the Tolland County Association of Ministers.
At the ensuing Commencement he was appointed Tutor in Yale, and he held that office for nearly five years.
At Commencement in 1801 he was offered the appoint- ment of Professor of Divinity; and was requested, if he was unwilling to enter at once upon the office, to continue in the tutorship while making the requisite preparation.
1 88 Yale College
Immediately after this, he married, on September 22, Han- nah Phoenix, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Treadwell (Princeton Coll. 1764), of Plattsburg, New York, and previously of Smithtown, Long Island. But before he had qualified himself for the duties of the professorship, his health became so feeble (as the result of over-application) that he was unable to preach. He resigned the tutorship in March, 1803, and suffered a slight hemorrhage from the lungs in April; and in 1805 he definitely declined the chair of Divinity. He remained, however, in New Haven until in September, 1806, he was called to the professorship of Greek in Union College; and as he had now suffered from ill-health for four years and was unequal to preach- ing, he accepted the chair at Union, which he held for upwards of three years.
In August, 1809, he was offered the presidency of Mid- dlebury College, in Middlebury, Vermont, in succession to the Rev. Jeremiah Atwater (Yale 1793). He accepted this invitation from a conviction of duty, at a pecuniary sacrifice, and began his work in December. He was first ordained to the ministry and then inducted into the presi- dency on February 21, 18 10, — the sermon preached on this occasion by the Rev. Alexander Proudfit, of Salem, New York, being afterwards published.
In 1810 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Union College.
In July, 18 14, the professorship which he had formerly held in Union College was again offered to him, but was declined.
On the 2 1 St of January, 181 7, he was elected President of Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York, as successor to the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus (Yale 1787) ; and before he had had time to answer this call, he was elected (on Feb- ruary 11) to a similar office in Yale College, on the death of President Dwight. After mature deliberation he thought it his duty to decline both invitations, out of regard to the situation at Middlebury.
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 189
But early in July, being led to suppose that his resigna- tion might lead to an absorption of the University of Ver- mont (at Burlington) in Middlebury College, and having become alarmed at the recurrence of consumptive tenden- cies which had long threatened him, as well as discouraged at his financial situation, he intimated to a member of the Corporation of Hamilton College that he would accept a renewal of their former invitation.
Accordingly, on July 21, he was unanimously re-elected to the Presidency there ; but in the meantime the situation at Middlebury was so far changed, that he would have remained there, had he been re.leased from his implied obli- gations to Hamilton College. Being unable to effect this he removed' to Clinton and entered on his new duties the last of October.
He soon found himself involved in controversy, resulting mainly from the unwillingness of a majority of the Trus- tees to commit the regulation of the internal affairs of the College to the Faculty, — a system of things to which Dr. Davis had been hitherto accustomed, and which his con- servative temper regarded as preeminently essential to success.
The number of students at the time of his induction was a little over fifty, and double this number were in attend- ance from 1821 to 1826; but in consequence of the oppo- sition developed, the College was reduced in membership, in about fourteen months, from ninety to nine. For about the same length of time Dr. Davis was left without the aid of any Professors for the work of instruction.
Another element in the Board of Trustees which was bent on driving him from his post, was composed of Presbyterian ministers of the vicinity who were in favor of what were then called "new measures" for producing religious revivals, with which he was not at all in sym- pathy.
In 1829 several new Trustees were elected, who used their influence to strengthen Dr. Davis's position, and the
ipo Yale College
situation was so much improved that he was able to retire with dignity. His letter of resignation was dated in August, 1832, and took effect in April, 1833. He con- tinued in the Board of Trustees until 1847.
His residence remained in Clinton, where he was greatly respected by the whole community. His health grew very infirm, so that his death was continually feared, and one or two winters were passed at the South. For several of the last years of his life he was confined chiefly to his house by an affection of the lungs, and after prolonged suffering he died in Clinton, on March 8, 1852, in his 8ist year. The sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Simeon North (Yale 1825), his successor in the Presi- dency, was afterwards published.
His wife survived him.
One son (who died before him) was graduated at Wil- liams College in 1824, and another at Hamilton College in 1831.
One daughter married the Rev. Ebenezer D. Maltbie (Hamilton Coll. 1824).
He was a trustee of Auburn Theological Seminary from its foundation in 1820 to i8'^4, and President of the Board until 1824.
Dr. Davis was tall and very slender in person, with a clear and sonorous voice and manners of great urbanity and dignity. He was an able preacher, an accurate scholar, and a firm disciplinarian.
He published:
1. An Inaugural Oration, delivered Feb. 21, 18 10, by H. Davis, President of Middlebury College. Boston, 1810. 8°, pp. 36.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol Sem. B. Ath. B. PubL Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from Matt, xvi, 26], delivered to the candidates for the Baccalaureate in Middlebury College, August 12, 1810. Middlebury, 1810. 8°, pp. 32.
[Br. Mus. M. H. S. N. Y. PubL Libr. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, ijg6 191
3. The Life of Mr. Edward Herrick. (Anonymous.) In the Ad-Viser; or Vermont Evangelical Magazine, volume 5, pp. 161-67, June, 1813.
4. A Sermon [from Rom. xiii, 4], delivered on the day of General Election, at Montpelier, October 12, 181 5, before the Hon- orable Legislature of Vermont. Montpelier, 181 5. 8°, pp. 40.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
5. A Sermon (from Ps. cxix, 96], delivered before the Ameri- can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at their seventh annual meeting, which was held at Hartford, Sept. 18, 19, and 20, 1816. Boston, 1816. 8°, pp. 36.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Ath. Bowdoin Coll. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
Dr. Davis was one of the founders of the Board.
6. An Address, delivered at Commencement, August 27, 1828, to the Candidates for the Bachelor's Degree, in Hamilton College. Utica, 1829. 8°, pp. 17. [A. C. A. N. Y. State Lihr. U. T. S.
7. A Narrative of the embarrassments and decline of Hamilton College. 1833. 8°, pp. iv, vii, 152.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
This detailed autobiographical statement was mainly printed in 1830, but withheld from completion until the date of the author's retirement.
8. A Farewell Address to the Students of Hamilton College. Delivered at the Public Exhibition of the Jun. Class, April 17, 1833. — Published by request. New- York, 1833. 8°, pp. 20.
[N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
He was one of the editors of The Adviser; or Vermont Evan- gelical Magazine, a monthly periodical published at Middlebury in 1809-16.
In 1848 he furnished the Rev. Dr. Sprague with a brief notice of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buell, which was printed in volume 4 (1858) of the Annals of the American Pulpit, pp. 108-11.
192 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Memorial volume of the 31, 74-78, 186-87, 216. T. Robbins,
A. B. C. F. M., 109-10. P. Jones, Diary, i, 12, 19, 29, 63. Sprague,
Annals of Oneida County, 198-200. Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iv.
Memorial of the semi-centennial 224-29. celebration of Hamilton College, 30-
Charles Denison^ the third son and child of Zina Denison, of New Haven, and grandson of John Denison, of East Haven, was born in New Haven on February 23, 1778. His mother was Martha, youngest daughter of Stephen and Martha (Thompson) Austin, of East Haven. Two nephews were graduates at Yale, in 1824 and 1826, respectively. At the age of twelve he lost his father.
He served as Tutor in Williams College for two years, 1797-99, and then for two years at Yale.
Resigning this office in October, 1801, he pursued the study of law in New Haven under Judge Charles Chaun- cey, and was admitted to the bar here in March, 1802.
His talents and application soon gave him an assured position at the bar. He was City Attorney from 1803 to 1807, served as Alderman from 1806 to 181 5, and was Clerk of the United States District Court from October, 1803, to 1806. The esteem in which he was held secured his continuous employment as one of the representatives of / the town in the State Legislature from October, 1809, to May, 181 7, when an increasing weakness of the lungs obliged him to withdraw. He had been one of the Clerks of the Assembly for eight sessions, and Speaker during the last four sessions of his service.
He subsequently declined a nomination to Congress in 18 16, and was again elected to the Legislature in 1820.
He died at the residence which he had built in 1815, on the west side of Temple Street, between Wall and Grove streets, in New Haven, from pulmonary disease, after a final illness of a very few days, on June 25, 1825, in his 48th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1/96 193
He was married in New Haven, by the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard, on May 4, 1806, to Hannah, daughter of Edmund French, a sea-captain of New Haven, who was born in Yarmouth, England, and his wife, Hannah.
She died in New Haven, very suddenly, on March 17, 1807, in her 29th year; and he was next married on December 23, 18 10, by Dr. Hubbard, to Mary, the eldest child of Dr. Thomas R. and Rebecca (Tomlinson) Pyn- chon, of Guilford, who died on November 9, 1869, i^ her 86th year.
His children, by his second wife, were two daughters, besides a son who died in infancy.
His early death was regarded as a severe public loss; and the monument erected in his memory mourns with justice that "a superior and cultivated intellect, eminent professional attainments, distinguished public and private usefulness, the affectionate devotion of friends, the confi- dence and favor of the community won by unyielding integrity, and by the exercise of the Christian virtues, could not save this lamented man from the grave."
From childhood he was a devout, but not a bigoted mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, and shortly before his death he incurred the disapproval of some of his stricter fellow- churchmen by acting as chairman of a public meeting held in New Haven for the purpose of forming an auxiliary to the American Bible Society.
He was an affectionate friend of his classmate. Profes- sor Silliman, and also of President Day. A number of his letters are quoted in Professor Silliman's Life; and others to President Day and to Chief Justice David Dag- gett are preserved in manuscript in the Yale Library.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, June 28, 1825. 212. Miss S. R. Pynchon, MS. Let- Denison descendants, 340-41. Fisher, ter, March, 1910. Tuttle Family, Life of B. Silliman, i, 52, 114, 119, 626.
13
194 Yal^ College
David Edmond, son of Robert and Rachel (Hurd) Edmond, was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, on May 15, 1778. His mother was probably a daughter of John and Silence (Warner) Hurd, of Woodbury, Connecticut, where the father had formerly lived. A half-brother was grad- uated here in 1777. He did not enter the Class until after the opening of Senior year.
He taught for a year or two after graduation in an Academy in Burlington, New Jersey. Later, he studied law with his half-brother, and in 1801 settled for the prac- tice of his profession in Vergennes, Vermont, where he became one of the leading citizens and left a brilliant repu- tation for eloquence. He was admitted to the bar of Chit- tenden County in February, 1802 ; and received a Master's degree from Middlebury College in 181 1.
He was State's Attorney for 1808-1809, 1813-14, and again from 1819 until his death ; also a representative from Vergennes in the General Assembly for 1808, 1809, 1813, 18 14, and 1 82 1. In 181 3 he was a member of the Council of Censors, and in 1814 a delegate in the Constitutional Convention of the State.
He was a prominent member of the First Congrega- tional Church, and appears to have been influential in the call of John Hough (Yale 1802) to the pastorate in 1807. He served as clerk of the Church from 1812 to 1819, and was also clerk of the Ecclesiastical Society, and by tradition was always called upon to read a sermon when a minister was not present.
He was mayor of the city at the time of Monroe's tour in 181 7, and the felicitous speech with which he welcomed the President is still remembered. He was a natural ora- tor, with striking qualifications as an advocate and jury lawyer.
He died in Vergennes on March 27, 1824, in his 46th year.
He first married Sarah Booth, who died soon after bear- ing two children, both of whom died in infancy. He was
Biographical Sketches, 1^96 195
next married in New Haven, Connecticut, on October 22, 1804, to Harriet Lavergne, daughter of Captain Jean and Mary (Whiting) DuCasse, she being then of New Haven. Her father came to America with Lafayette, and died in her infancy. She died on June 26, 1839, at the age of 59. Eight of her children survived their father.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 543. Addison County, Vt, 149-51. Wil- Rev. Dr. R. R. Davies, MS. Letter, bur, Early Hist, of Vermont, iv, Sept. 3, 1908. H. P. Smith, Hist, of 372-73.
Thaddeus Fairbanks,, the youngest son of Ebenezer and EHzabeth Fairbanks, of Sherborn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and grandson of Captain Eleazer and Martha (Bullard) Fairbanks, of Sherborn, was born on March 13, 1773. His mother was the eldest daughter of Henry and Rachel (Leland) Death, or Dearth, of Sher- born. One of his nephews was the well-known inventor of the platform-scale.
In 1873 the family removed to Brimfield, in Hampden County, where the father became a deacon in the Congre- gational Church. The son entered Yale at the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he pursued the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. David Parsons, of Amherst; and from 1798 to 1800 served as English preceptor in the Leicester Acad- emy. He was "a popular and successful teacher, though of somewhat gay and fashionable manners."
He was licensed to preach by the Brookfield Association of Ministers on September 24, 1800, and preached for a few years (as in Canterbury, Connecticut), but without settlement.
Later, he studied medicine, and practiced that profession for some time in what is now Southbridge, and in Brim- field. His latest residence was in Monson, adjoining Brim- field, where he died on December 21, 18 15, in his 43d year.
196 Yale College
He married Pamelia, eldest child of Abel and Bathsheba (Thompson) Burt, of Brimfield, born on October i, 1780, by whom he had two daughters and one son ; Artemas W. Gates-Fairbanks, a grandson, was graduated at Yale in 1863.
After Mr. Fairbanks's death, his widow, while living in the adjoining town of Monson, married in May, 1820, James Johnson, of Sturbridge.
AUTHORITIES.
Brimfield Historical Celebration, Hist. Society's Collections, ist series,
386, 398. Burnham, Henry Burt's ix, 133. Morse, Geneal. Register of
Descendants, 146-47. Fairbanks Gen- Sherborn, etc., 85. Sturbridge Vital
ealogy, 92, 172-73. Lamed, Hist, of Records, 193. Washburn, Hist, of
Windham County, ii, 314. Mass. Leicester Academy, 146.
Bancroft Fowler^ the eldest son and second child of Stephen and Rhoda (Welles) Fowler, and grandson of Stephen and Rhoda (Bancroft) Fowler, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was born in Pittsfield on September 12, 1775. Royal Fowler (Yale 1806) was a brother, as also Edward Fowler (Williams Coll. 1804).
He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the last communion before graduation; and in 1797 transferred his connection to the First Church in Pittsfield.
He studied law for two and a half years in Northamp- ton ; and was then invited to a tutorship in Williams Col- lege, which he held for the Academical year 1799- 1800. He then began the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. Nathanael Emmons (Yale 1767), of Franklin, Massachu- setts; but at the close of the year 1800 he was recalled to Yale, where he occupied the tutorial office until Commence- ment, 1804.
On June i, 1802, he was licensed to preach by the Hart- ford North Association of Ministers.
During the summer vacations after his licensure he preached extensively; and among other places was heard
Biographical Sketches, i/p6 197
in Windsor, Vermont. After retiring from the tutorial office, he was invited to revisit Windsor ; and after a suffi- cient experience of his gifts he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in that town on May 22, 1805. The sermon on that occasion was preached by the Rev. Dr. Asa Burton (Dartmouth Coll. 1777), of Thetford, Vermont.
He was dismissed from this pastorate in 1819, to accept a call to the Professorship of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine, where he remained for only six years.
He then resided for three years in Pittsfield, and in 1828 took charge of the Female Seminary in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. He left West Brookfield to accept a call to Northfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, where he was installed as pastor of the Second Congregational Church on April 21, 1831. The sermon at his installment was preached by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Snell (Dartmouth Coll. 1795), of North Brookfield.
After a ministry of five years he was dismissed from Northfield on July 20, 1836.
He then took charge of Goodale Academy in the adjoin- ing town of Bernardston, and was installed as pastor of the Congregational Church in that town on the 21st of the fol- lowing December, — the sermon being preached by the Rev. Roger C. Hatch (Yale 1815), of Warwick, in the same county. The academy had been founded (in 1833) with the intention that the pastor of the church should act as preceptor ; but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory.
On December 31, 1838, he was dismissed from this charge, and on the 20th of the following November he was settled as pastor of the feeble First Congregational Church in Greenfield, a small town in Southern New Hampshire. The sermon at his installation was preached by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Robinson, of Stoddard, New Hampshire. His influence there was beneficial in composing serious dissen- sions in the community.
198 Yale College
He was dismissed from this field on April 22, 1845, ^^^ retired to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where his closing days were spent, and where he died on April 5, 1856, in his 81st year.
He married about 1807 Lucretia, daughter of General Zebina and Martha (Wait) Curtis, of Windsor, who died in Bernardston, on October 12, 1837, aged 49 years.
He married secondly, on October 19, 1843, Lucy, daugh- ter of Colonel Jotham and Mary (Taylor) Bush, of Boylston, Massachusetts, and widow of Augustine Hol- comb, of Sterlino;-, Massachusetts, a nephew and adopted son of the Rev. Reuben Holcomb (Yale 1774), who died in May, 1837. Mrs. Fowler died in Stockbridge on Octo- ber 3, 1854, in her 6ist year.
By his first marriage he had four sons and three daugh- ters.
His only publications, so far as known, were the follow- ing:
1. An Oration on the death of Mr. Ebenezer Grant Marsh, Senior Tutor . . in Yale College . . ; pronounced in the College Chapel on the loth of January, 1804. Hartford, 1804. 8°, pp. 13.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C.
2. A Discourse delivered at Windsor, Vt., on the fourth of July, 181 1. Windsor, 181 1.
He was one of the editors of The Adviser; or Vermont Evan- gelical Magazine, a monthly periodical published in Middlebury, 1809-16.
He printed in the Adviser, volume 2, pp. 313-20, October, 1810, an article entitled, Revivals of Religion in Windsor, relating par- ticularly to the religious interest in February to May, 18 10.
Mr. Fowler had a decidedly superior mind and a fine classical taste, excelling in helles lettres. He was a devout Christian, and his sermons were well written, but his man- ners in the pulpit were not easy, and therefore as a preacher he was undervalued.
Biographical Sketches, iy^6 199
AUTHORITIES.
Boylston, Mass., Vital Records, 19, Churches, 177. N. Y. Geneal. Rec-
61. Emmons, Works (1861), i, 224. ord, ii, 133. Packard, Churches and
A. Fowler's Descendants, 13. Kel- Ministers in Franklin County, Mass.,
logg, Hist, of Bernardston, 163-64, 49, 291. 233. Lawrence, New Hampshire
Edward Herrick, the second son and child of Micaiah and Martha Herrick, of Southampton, Long Island, and grandson of James and Abigail Herrick, of Southampton, was born on January 28, 1773. His father died in his early childhood. He united with the College Church by letter from the Southampton Church at the opening of his Sophomore year, when he entered Yale. Claudius Her- rick (Yale 1798) was his second cousin.
He was present, on July 21 of his Senior year, at the presentation of his Class for degrees, and then went home for the usual vacation ; but died there of a nervous, putrid fever, on August 31, in his 24th year. His name was sub- sequently enrolled with his Class.
He was eminent for scholarship, and was expecting to enter the ministry ; and Dr. Lyman Beecher, a member of the succeeding Class, used to relate an instance of his outspoken Christian influence in his own conversion.
An appreciative sketch of his life, and especially of his religious character, was contributed to the Adviser; or Ver- mont Evangelical Magazine, volume 5, pp. 161-67, June, 181 3, and reprinted in the Panoplist. From internal evi- dence it was written by his classmate and roommate Davis ; and it was perhaps based on the Oration delivered by him in the College Chapel in memory of his friend, on the morn- ing after Commencement, 1796.
AUTHORITIES.
L. Beecher, Autobiography, ii, 510. Southampton, 2d ed., 124-25, 296. Rev. Dr. Henry Davis, MS. Letter, Panoplist, ix, 198-99. Pres. Stiles, October, 1849. Howell, Hist, of Literary Diary, iii, 509.
200 Yale College
John Hooker, eldest surviving son of Colonel Noadiah and Rebecca Hooker, of Farmington, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Joseph and Sarah (Lewis) Hooker, was born in Farmington on June 21, 1774. His mother was Rebecca, daughter of Major Josiah and Mabel (Bel- den) Griswold, of Wether sfield. A brother was grad- uated here in 1805.
After graduation he taught in Stratford, Connecticut, for a year, and then studied law and in 1802 was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Farmington.
In 1803 he went to Columbia, South Carolina, as tutor in the family of General Wade Hampton ; and after a year or two, having been admitted to the bar, entered into prac- tice there, in partnership with John Henry Egan.
In about four years he removed to Yorkville, about sev- enty miles to the northwards, where he remained for three years. He then, through the influence of General Hamp- ton and other friends, returned to Columbia, where he prac- ticed his profession successfully until his early death, on July 28, 181 5, at the age of 41.
He married, on October 8, 1808, Mary Ann, eldest daughter of Gershom and Mary Chapman, of Columbia, by whom he had no children.
She next married, in 18 18, Dr. George W. Glenn (South Carolina Coll. 1806), of Newberry District, South Caro- lina, and died on December 15, 1872, in her 84th year.
From the inscription on his tomb, composed by Chan- cellor DeSaussure, may be quoted : —
Possessed of an acute, logical mind, and a sound judgment, guided by the purest integrity, he became a very prominent member of the bar of South Carolina. The public respected him for his virtues; the Court esteemed him for his talents and learning; his brethren loved him for his amenity and kindness. In private life, his unassuming deportment, his active benevolence, and the purity of his affections, endeared him to a large circle of friends.
He was elected a trustee of the South Carolina College in 1813.
4
Biographical Sketches, ijg6 201
AUTHORITIES.
Hooker Descendants, 64. O'Neall, Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 398, Bench and Bar of S. C, ii, 247-49. 435-36.
RuGGLES Hubbard, a son of Levi and Anna (Gold) Hubbard, of Guilford and New Haven, and a brother of William G. Hubbard (Yale 1785) and Henry Hubbard (Yale 1792), was baptized by the Rev. Bela Hubbard, in Guilford, on January 24, 1779.
He became a lawyer and settled in Troy, New York. He was an ardent and unscrupulous partisan of Jefferson, and received from him a commission as Postmaster of Troy, which he held until about 18 12. For seven years from March, 1806, he also served as County Clerk of Rensselaer County.
He was a member of the State Senate during four ses- sions, from January, 1812, to April, 1815, and held a com- mission as Captain of a brigade of artillery in the war with Great Britain.
In 18 1 5 he secured an appointment as one of the Sher- iffs of New York City, and held that office until his death, in (November?) 181 7, at the age of 39 years. Letters of administration were taken out by his widow, Catharine Hubbard, on December 2.
He married in October, 18.11, Catharine, daughter of the Hon. Thomas and Elizabeth (Graham) Storm, of New York City.
AUTHORITIES. Woodworth, Reminiscences of Troy, 2d ed., 43, 52, 53.
John Humphreys, the eldest child of John and Rachel (Durand) Humphreys, of Derby, Connecticut, and a nephew of Daniel Humphreys (Yale 1757) and of Gen- eral David Humphreys (Yale 1771), was born in Derby on February 11, 1774. He entered College at the opening of Sophomore year.
202 Yale College
His life was spent in that part of his native town which is now Seymour, where he maintained a distinguished posi- tion of dignity and usefulness. He served as Deputy to the General Assembly of the State in seven years between 1815 and his death, being too ill to take his seat after the election preceding that event. He was also an associate Judge of the New Haven County Court for the last six years of his life.
He had an interest in the mills operated by his uncle, General Humphreys.
He died in Seymour on June 29, 1826, in his 53d year.
He married, in 1803, Sarah (or Sally), eldest child of Sheldon and Lois (Nichols) Curtiss, of Derby, and sister of Sheldon C. Curtiss (Yale 1807), by whom he had two sons and two daughters, all of whom survived him. Mrs. Humphreys died at the home of her elder daughter, in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 10, 1861, in her 79th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, July 4, 1826. Hum- Hist, of Derby, 715, 736. phreys Family, 147, 196-202. Orcutt,
William Henry Jones was born in New Haven, on November 3, 1778, being a son of Isaac Jones (Yale 1757) and Sybil (Benjamin) Jones, and a brother of the Rev. Isaac Jones (Yale 1792), Timothy Jones (Yale 1804), and Algernon S. Jones (Yale 1807).
After graduation he studied law, but did not enter on practice. The wife of Professor Josiah Meigs (Yale 1778) was his mother's sister; and when Professor Meigs went to Athens, Georgia, in February, 1801, to take charge of the University just established, young Jones accompan- ied him, and for ^ year or two was engaged in teaching there.
After his return to New Haven he married in 1809 Sarah Russell, daughter of Colonel Edward and Rachel (Kirtland) Barker, of Wallingford.
Biographical Sketches, lygd 203
On May 3, 18 14, he was appointed Postmaster of New Haven, and he continued to hold that responsible office until removed by President Tyler, in January, 1842, after a longer term of service than any other Postmaster in New Haven.
He also served the city as alderman in 1822, 1824-27, and 1830; and as a member of the Common Council in 1823 and 1828.
He was the first lessee of the Tontine Hotel, about 1825, and also landlord of the Pavilion Hotel while that was a famous resort, especially for southerners.
His wife died in New Haven, on November i, 1857, in her 70th year ; and about a year later he removed to Hart- ford to live with his second daughter, the wife of Thomas G. Talcott (Yale 1838).
He died in Hartford on November 2y, 1861, at the age of 83, and was buried in New Haven. .
Mr. Jones was highly respected, and a prominent mem- ber of the Episcopal Church. He was very courteous in his manners, and retained his vigor and cheerfulness to the last.
AUTHORITIES. Atwater, Hist, of the City of New Haven, 378.
Salmon King,, the third of four children of Colonel Gideon and Charity King, of Bolton, Connecticut, and grandson of Jonathan and Mary (French) King, of North- ampton, Massachusetts, was born in that part of Bolton which is now Vernon on October 4, 1771. His mother was a daughter of Ephraim and Jane (Haskins) Tucker, of Bolton.
He read theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769) of Somers, Connecticut, and was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers on April 10, 1798.
204 Yale College
In the following winter he supplied for some time the Congregational Church in Gilead Society in Hebron, in the vicinity of his birthplace, and in March, 1799, he received a call to settle there, which he thought it best to decline.
On September 25, 1800, he was called to, and on November 5, 1800, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Orford Society of East Hartford, Connecticut, which is the present township of Manchester. The ordination sermon was preached by Dr. Backus. The church then consisted of only twenty- eight members, but shortly afterwards over forty were added to that number as the result of a revival of religion. After a bitter controversy he was dismissed from this charge on October 25, 1808, but continued to reside in Manchester. He spent the ensuing winter in Vermont, laboring under the direction of the Connecticut Missionary Society.
On July II, 1810, he was installed as pastor of the Con- gregational Church in Greensboro, Orleans County, Ver- mont,— the sermon on that occasion being preached by the Rev. Leonard Worcester.
He was obliged to take a dismission on January 25, 1814, for want of competent support.
He then went to Warren, a sparsely settled community in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he gathered a church of eight members in connection with the Presbyterian body, with which his ministry was continued for twenty- five years, until his death there, on April 15, 1839, aged 67^ years.
He first married, on February 18, 1801, Mary Adams, eldest daughter of Samuel Isham, of Marlborough, Con- necticut, who died in East Hartford, after ten days' illness, from a fever after child-birth, on January i, 1807, in her 31st year, leaving two children.
He next married, on November 19, 1807, Mary (or Polly), the youngest child of John and Abigail (Butler)
Biographical Sketches, i/p6 205
Ames, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, who died in Warren, on September 15, 1821, in her 426. year.
His third wife, Mrs. Eunice Talmadge, of Albany, New York, survived him for six years.
He had two sons and five daughters, all of whom lived to mature years.
Mr. King is described as a plain, primitive man, some- what eccentric, but distinguished for piety and worth, and particularly remarkable for his prompt performance of every duty.
He published:
1. Two Sermons, preached to the church and people of Orford, a Society of East-Hartford. — One Sermon [from I Cor. ii, 2] preached the Sabbath after his Ordination, and the other [from II Cor. xiii, 11] the Sabbath after his Dismission. Together with the Proceedings of the Council, with an Appendix, containing the Memoirs of Mrs. King, late Consort of the Rev. Salmon King, written by another hand. Hartford, 1810. 8°, pp. 76. [Y. C.
2. A Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Hannah Parker, wife of Ralph Parker, of Glover, Vermont.
AUTHORITIES.
Bolton and Vernon Vital Records, 77, 402, 426. Stiles, Hist, of Wethers-
II. Conn. Courant, Jan. 7, 1807. field, ii, 30. Vermont Chronicle, Jan.
Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gaz- 29, 1861. P. H. White, Hist, of the
etteer, iii, 215. looth Anniversary Congregational Churches in Orleans
of the 1st Church in Manchester, County, Vt., 36. IS-17. r. Robbins, Diary, i, 55, 73,
John Hart Lynde, the second son of William Lynde (Yale 1760), of Saybrook, Connecticut, and Rebecca (Hart) Lynde, was baptized (by the name of Hart) in Saybrook on April 19, 1778. His father died in 1787, and in 1790 his mother married Timothy Jones (Yale 1757), of New Haven, which then became his home.
He was the Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School for one year after graduation, and then studied law in New Haven and began practice here in the year 1800. In 1801
2o6 Yale College
he was appointed Clerk of the Probate Court, and in 1805 Clerk of the County and Superior Courts, which offices he filled to the satisfaction of the bar until his early death, in New Haven, from typhus fever, after an illness of about three weeks, on December 17, 18 17, in his 40th year.
He built in 1806 for his residence and office the house on the southwestern corner of Temple and Wall streets, now the parsonage of the Center Church. He was an active Federalist in politics, and an ardent Freemason. He was noted for physical beauty, and had a most generous and amiable disposition.
He married in New Haven, in November, 1800, Eliza- beth (or Betsey) Deall, daughter of John and Jane (Deall) Nicoll, of New Haven, by whom he had one son and four daughters; William A. Reynolds (Yale Coll. 1852) and H. Lynde Harrison (Yale Law School i860) were grand- sons.
Mrs. Lynde next married, on January 3, 1819, Abraham Bishop (Yale 1778), and died in New Haven on October 10, 1863, ^^ her 83d year.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, Hart Family, 403. Ai~ Family, 53. Salisbury, Family His- water. Hist, of the City of New tories and Genealogies, i, 410. Haven, 244. Chapman, Trowbridge
Thomas Miner was born in Westfield Parish in Middle- town, Connecticut, on October 15, 1777, being the eldest child of the Rev. Thomas Miner (Yale 1769), a country clergyman with a small salary. His early training was principally gained at home, though for about two years he attended an excellent common school kept by Joseph Wash- burn (Yale 1793). His classical studies began under his father, and were continued (in the spring of 1792) under the Rev. Dr. Cyprian Strong (Yale 1763), of the adjoining town of Chatham.
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 207
Within a month after graduation he went to Goshen, in Orange County, New York, to take charge of an Academy. After remaining in that county for three years, during which his constitution was much impaired by two periods of intermittent fever, he returned home in December, 1799.
In the course of the next year he entered as a law student in the office of Judge Stephen T. Hosmer (Yale 1782), in Middletown; but within a few weeks he had a serious attack of rheumatism, which disabled him during 1801. In the autumn of that year, however, he took charge of an Academy in Berlin, Connecticut, which he retained with signal success for about two years, till again interrupted by loss of health ; two of his pupils of whom he was espe- cially proud were Mrs. Emma Willard and Professor Ethan A. Andrews.
He was fond of teaching, but was forced to abandon it by conditions of health; and in 1804 he began the study of medicine with Dr. John Osborn, of Middletown, and continued reading under his direction for about two years and a half. The winter of 1806 and 1807 he spent with Dr. Smith Clark (Yale 1786) of Haddam, visiting his patients with him and observing his practice.
He then began practice in his native parish; but in August, 1808, after invitations from several gentlemen in Lyme, Connecticut, he settled in that town. While there he married, on May 8, 18 10, Phebe, second daughter of Samuel and Lois (Griswold) Mather, of Lyme, who died on the 5th of the following February, in her 39th year; her infant child died also.
In May, 1814, he returned to Middletown, and was occu- pied with professional business beyond his strength, until January, 1819, when he was seized with an affection of the lungs and heart, which suddenly ended his active career, and left him a confirmed valetudinarian at the age of forty- one. For several years he practiced somewhat in consulta- tion; but he occupied himself mainly with reading and composition.
?o8 Yale College
In the winter of 1840-41 he suffered extremely from the trouble with his heart, and early in March he went to Worcester, Massachusetts, to take the advice of his valued friend. Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, and if no relief could be had, to die there. Dropsical symptoms soon developed, pneumonia set in, and death followed on April 23, in his 64th year. An account of- his last illness and of a post- mortem examination is given in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for 1841.
By his will his library and manuscripts were given to his friend Dr. WilHam Tully (Yale 1806). His landed property was bequeathed to the religious society of which his father had been pastor.
Dr. Miner was one of the most learned physicians of his time in New England, — not only in professional attain- ments, but in foreign languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), theology and philosophy. In his life he exemplified the Christian character. On the recom- mendation of the Connecticut Medical Society, the honor- ary degree of M.D. was conferred on him by Yale in 181 9.
For twenty years he was one of the Examiners of the Yale Medical School. He was one of the most active of the founders of the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford, in 1822.
In 1832 he was elected Vice-President of the Medical Society of Connecticut, and after holding that office for two years he was promoted to the Presidency, which he held until his declinature to be again a candidate, in 1837.
A portrait of Dr. Miner, which was painted about 1835, is owned by Yale College.
He published :
I. Essays on Fevers, and other medical subjects. Middletown, 1823. 8°, pp. 484.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Library Surgeon-General' s Office. Y. C.
By Dr. Miner and Dr. William Tully, jointly; Part I, by Dr. Miner, occupies 287 pages. His Essays are devoted to an expo- sition and vindication of a method of treatment, original with
Biographical Sketches, jyp6 209
himself, by slow and moderate purging with calomel. While acknowledged to be most valuable and interesting, they were the occasion of sharp controversy. Some of these essays were believed to have been furnished by Dr. Tully.
2. An Examination of the Strictures in the New-England Journal [of Medicine and Surgery] for October, 1823, and in the North- American Review for October, 1823, on Essays on Fevers, &c. Middletown, 1823. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. Library Surg.-General's Office. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
This also is the joint production of Drs. Miner and Tully. The article in the North-American Review was written by Gamaliel Bradford.
3. Typhus syncopalis, sinking typhus, or the spotted-fever of New-England, as it appeared in the epidemic of 1823, in Middle- town, Connecticut. Middletown, 1825. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Library Surg.-General's Office. Y. C.
4. An Address to the Annual Convention of the Medical Society of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, May 10, 1837. By Thomas Miner, M.D., President of the Society. .New Haven, 1837. 8°, pp. 12.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. Library Surg.-General's Office. Y. C.
5. The Annual Address to the Candidates for Degrees and Licenses, in the Medical Institution of Yale College, February 26, 1839 • • New Haven, 1838. 8°, pp. 20.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Library Surg.-General's Office. Y. C.
He published many fugitive medical essays, mostly without his name, in various periodicals, — mainly in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and the United States Medical and Surgical Jour- nal; and he translated many articles from the French for the American Medical Recorder, and a few from French and German for the American Journal of Science.
In the Quarterly Christian Spectator, vol. 2 (March, 1830), pp. 70-85, he published the following: —
Review on the Varioloid and Small Pox; and on the moral effects of prevalent Malignant Diseases.
An Autobiography, written in 1837, appeared in the New Eng- lander, vol. 2 (January, 1844), pp. 19-25. An earlier draft (1826) of the same document is in the Yale Library in manuscript. 14
aro Yale College
In the American Quarterly Register, volume ii (February, 1839), pp. 279-84, he published: History of the Connecticut Medical Society.
AUTHORITIES.
Barnard's American Journal of Field, Brainerd Genealogy, 236-40;
Education, vi, 128-29. Boston Med. Centennial Address at Middletown,
and Surg. Journal, xxiv, 194-95, 200-03. Mather Genealogy (1890),
207HD8. Brainerd-Brainard Geneal- 163. 5". W. Williams, Amer. Medical
ogy (1908), vii, 78-80. Conn. Med. Biography, 387-401. Society's Proceedings, 1892, 564.
Joseph Parker came to College from Hebron, Con- necticut, but he does not seem to have been a native of that town.
Upon graduation he went to Stockbridge, Massachu- setts, probably as a teacher, but left Stockbridge for Canada in the following February.
He finally went South, and is said to have died in Charleston, South Carolina, in the year 1810.
AUTHORITIES. T. Robbins, Diary, i, 20, 29.
William Prince, the eldest child of William and Mary Prince, of Montville, then a parish of New London, Con- necticut, and grandson of William and Mary (Holland) Prince, of Montville, was born on May 6, 1776. His mother was the eldest sister of James Hillhouse (Yale 1773) and William Hillhouse (Yale 1777). He at first entered College with the Class of 1795, but left at the end of the second term.
Not long after his graduation his father's family removed to Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, about fifty miles northwest of Augusta.
He was occupied, for a time after graduation, as a school-teacher in Weston, Connecticut; and subsequently,
Biographical Sketches, 17^6 an
in a similar way in Washington, Georgia, where he died in 18 1 7, at the age of 41 years. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, ii, 936.
Levi Robbins, the third in a family of ten children of Captain Wait and Hannah Robbins, of Rocky Hill, then a parish in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and grandson of 'Squire John and Martha (Williams) Robbins, of Rocky Hill, was born on March i, 1775. His mother was a sis- ter of the Rev. Robert Robbins (Yale 1760), and a second cousin of her husband's father. A younger brother was graduated here in 18 10.
He was absent from College in the latter part of the course, and was not enrolled with the Class until 1846.
After leaving Yale he is said to have studied law, but never practiced. On account of a failure of health he became a farmer in his native parish. He was a man of few words and retiring disposition, but highly respected for his strict integrity and moral worth. He was for many years clerk of the School Board, and treasurer of the Ecclesiastical Society.
He enjoyed good health until extreme old age, and died in Rocky Hill on February 15, 1866, aged nearly 91 years.
His wife, Amelia, whom he married in 1801, died in Rocky Hill on February 17, 1863, in her 89th year. They had two children, one of whom (a daughter) survived them.
AUTHORITIES.
Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, tions, 259, 261. 558. Tillotson, Wethersfield Inscrip-
Thomas Robbins, the ninth child and second surviving son of the Rev. Ammi R. Robbins (Yale 1760), of Norfolk, Connecticut, was born in Norfolk on August 11, 1777, and
212 Yale College
was baptized on December 21 by his father, who also in due time prepared him for College.
While he was an undergraduate, Williams College was organized; and his father, having been made a trustee, and desiring to show his practical interest in the new insti- tution, made an arrangement by which his son spent his Senior year in Williamstown and received the Bachelor's degree in course from both Yale and Williams in Septem- ber, 1796.
During the following winter he taught in Sheffield, Massachusetts, — at the same time beginning the study of theology with the pastor, the Rev. Ephraim Judson (Yale 1763). In the summer and autumn of 1797 he continued his theological studies with the Rev. Dr. Stephen West (Yale 1755), of Stockbridge. In the following winter he taught in Torringf ord, Connecticut, studying there also with the pastor, the Rev. Samuel J. Mills (Yale 1764).
After three months' further study with Dr. West, he was licensed to preach, on September 25, 1798, by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers.
He preached for four months (December, 1798- April, 1799) in Marlborough, Connecticut; and then (June- August) made a long horseback journey through the new towns of Vermont, preaching as he went.
Through the year 1800 he taught an academy in Dan- bury, Connecticut, at the same time supplying pulpits in the neighborhood. After an interval of miscellaneous preaching he then took another long missionary journey (September, 1801-August, 1802), mainly through the new settlements in New York.
In January, 1803, he declined a call to settle in the min- istry in Becket, Massachusetts.
In May, 1803, the trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut appointed him as a missionary to the new set- tlements on the Western Reserve in Ohio; and he was ordained for this work at Norfolk by the North Consocia- tion of Litchfield County on June 20. The sermon
Biographical Sketches, i^p6 a 13
preached on this occasion by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong (Yale 1769) was afterwards pubHshed.
In August he declined a call to settle in Haddam, Con- necticut, and the same month he left home for Ohio, where he spent two and a half years in active, self-denying ser- vice. He returned to his father's house in July, 1806, seriously broken in health by exposure and hardship, so that it was some time before he was fit to resume regular ministerial labor. In November, 1807, he declined a call to the Congregational Church in Winchester.
In May, 1808, he declined a call to settle in Simsbury, and during the next month he began to preach statedly in the South parish of East Windsor, now South Windsor, where he was formally installed on May 3, 1809, — the sermon being preached by his father.
In August, 1827, on account of the reduced condition of the Society he considered it his duty to ask a dismission, which was formally granted by a council on September 27.
For over two years he preached in various localities in Connecticut, without settling; until late in December, 1829, when he began to supply the Congregational Church in Stratford, to the pastorate of which he was called in January, 1830. He was installed there on February 3, the sermon being preached by one of his younger brothers, Francis LeB. Robbins (Williams Coll. 1808). The con- gregation proved to be not wholly united, and when Mr. Robbins found that some opposition to himself had devel- oped, he requested a dismission, which was voted by the Fairfield East Consociation on September 15, 1831.
He went immediately to visit his uncle, the Rev. Lazarus LeBaron (Yale 1768), pastor of the Congregational Church in Mattapoisett parish, in Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts ; and on account of Mr. LeBaron's age and infirmities, he was invited to supply the pulpit. He assented to the request, and was installed as colleague pastor, on October 17, 1832. His uncle died in 1836, in his 90th year ; and Mr. Robbins continued as sole pastor.
2X4 Yde College
As early as his settlement at East Windsor he had begun to accumulate rare books and pamphlets, especially in the field of New England history ; and this collection was now known to be so valuable that its future destination was an object of great interest.
It was doubtless with reference to this library that Har- vard University conferred on the humble village pastor the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1838. But Dr. Robbins's personal interests were bound up with his native State ; and the encouragement of near relatives led finally, in June, 1844, to the suggestion of an arrangement by which the coveted library should be placed in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society, in Hartford, and its col- lector fill the ofiice of Librarian of the Society, at an annual salary of three hundred dollars. Accordingly Dr. Robbins was dismissed from his pastorate on August 6, at the age of 67; and before the end of September was installed in his new office, with his familiar books about him. In June, 1846, the library was absolutely transferred to the Society, and an annuity for life, of six hundred dollars, settled on Dr. Robbins.
He fulfilled his new duties with satisfaction for ten yeai*s, but early in 1854 the infirmities of age began to press him so severely that he was obliged to retire. The next two years were spent among his kindred in his native county. He died, at the house of a daughter of his oldest brother, in Colebrook, on September 13, 1856, having recently entered his eightieth year. By his will about four thousand dollars of his estate was left to the Historical Society for the care and increase of his collection.
He was never married.
Besides his activity and usefulness as a minister, Dr. Robbins was deeply interested in the education of children, and labored much to this end in the various communities of his residence. He was one of the original members of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, at its organi- zation in 1837, and continued in that office until his removal
Biographical Sketches, i/p6 ai5
from the State. He was a member of the Corporation of WilHams College from 1842 to 1853. During his later years he was much interested in supplying the dates of decease of graduates for the Yale Triennial Catalogue. He declined an election to the Corporation of Washington, now Trinity College, in 1826.
He was rather below the middle height, but of dignified carriage and of punctilious neatness in dress. He retained to the last the use of knee-breeches and top-boots. The Historical Society owns two portraits of him, — one painted by Reuben Moulthrop in 1801, and one (often reproduced) painted by Jared B. Flagg in 1845.
A memorial sketch of Dr. Robbins, by the Rev. Dr. Increase N. Tarbox, appeared in the third volume of the Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic- Genealogical Society, and was also published separately (1884, pp. 23).
An address delivered before the Historical Society in 1906, in commemoration of the semi-centennial anniver- sary of his death, by the Rev. Dr. W. DeLoss Love, was afterwards published.
He published :
1. An Oration, occasioned by the death of General George Washington, delivered at Danbury, on a day appointed to com- memorate that melancholy event, January ii, 1800. To which is added a Sketch of his Life. Danbury, 1800. 8°, pp. 16.
[C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. In several editions.
2. A Century Sermon [from Gen. i, 14], delivered at Danbury January I. A. D. 1801. .In which is exhibited a brief View of the most remarkable Events of the eighteenth century; with a Sketch of the History of the Town of Danbury. Danbury. .8°, pp. 24.
[B. Publ. Y. C.
The same. [2d edition.] Danbury, 1828. 12°, pp. 22, i.
The same. 3d edition, with an Appendix .. Danbury, 1846. 8°, PP- 32.
Reprinted in J. M. Bailey's History of Danbury, New York, 1896, pp. 24-38.
2i6 Yale College
3. A Sermon [from Matthew xxiv, 14] delivered at the Ordina- tion of the Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, to the Pastoral care of the First Church and Society in Marietta, State of Ohio, Jan. 8th, 1806. Marietta. 8°, pp. 18. [Harv. U. T. S.
Samuel P. Robbins was an intimate first cousin of the author.
4. A Sermon [from II Chron. xv, i, 2], preached at East- Windsor, at the National Fast, .. January 12, 1815. Middletown, 1815. 8°, pp. 21.
[A.A.S. A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. Libr. U. T. S. Y. C.
5. An Historical View of the First Planters of New-England. Hartford, 181 5. 16°, pp. 300.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. S.
The above was re-issued at Hartford in 1843, with new title page, as follows: —
The same. Together with the causes which led the Puritans to separate from the Church of England. Containing also, Biograph- ical Sketches of several of the most eminent of the New England Fathers. Hartford, 1843. 12°, pp. 300. [A. C. A.
These sketches originally appeared in twenty numbers of the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, 2d series, vols. 4-6, 1811-1813.
6. A Funeral Sermon [from Rev. ii, 10] preached at Enfield, at the. interment of the Rev. Nehemiah Prudden ; who died Septem- ber 7, 1815.. . Hartford, 1816. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
7. A Sermon [from Matthew vi, 10], preached at Orford, at the funeral of Mrs. Esther Hills Cook, wife of the Rev. Elisha B. Cook. . ; who died Dec. 25, 1816. . Hartford, 1817. 8°, pp. 19.
, [Br. Mus. Y. C.
8. A Series of Sermons on the Divinity of Christ: preached in East-Windsor, Dec. 1819, and Jan. 1820. Hartford, 1820. 12°, pp. 172.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. N. Y. Puhl. Libr. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Containing ten sermons.
9. Ecclesiastical Government. — A Sermon [from Ps. cxxii, 3-5], preached at Winchendon, (Mas.) Oct. 18, 1820, at the Installation of the Rev. Eber L. Clark. Worcester, 1820. 8°, pp. 32.
[A.A.S. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. C. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. Libr. U. T. S.
Biographical Sketches, ij^6 217
Mr. Clark had formerly been a ministerial neighbor of the author. The sermon occupies pp. 1-26 of the pamphlet.
10. An Address delivered before a number of Military Com- panies, assembled at Hartford, to celebrate our National Independ- ence, July 4, 1822. — By Thomas Robbins, Chaplain of the First Regiment of Infantry, of Connecticut Militia. Hartford, 1822, 8°, pp. 16. \A.A.S. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr.
In this Address the formation of a State Historical Society, to be located in Hartford, is suggested.
11. A Funeral Sermon [from Eccl. ix, i] on the Death of the Rev. Elisha B. Cook, who was drowned at Manchester, July 11, 1823. Hartford, 1823. 8°, pp. 23.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus.
12. All Religions and Religious Ceremonies: in two parts: Part I. Christianity — Mahometanism, and Judaism... Part II. A View of the History — Religion — Manners and Customs of the Hindoos. By William Ward. Together with the religion and ceremonies of other Pagan Nations. Hartford, 1823. 2 parts in I volume. 12°, pp. 208, 29, iv, 180 -|- plates. [B. Publ. Harv.
Anonymous.
The same, with title : — A View of all Religions ; and the Religious Ceremonies of all nations at the present day. In four parts . . . Including an abridgement of "The Idolatry of the Hindoos.. By William Ward". . — Compiled and Selected from the best Authori- ties, by Thomas Robbins. — Second Edition. Hartford, 1824. 12°, pp. 248, 191 + 15 pi. [B. Publ. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
13. The dying believer committing his soul to Christ. — A Ser- mon [from Ps. xxxi, 5] on the death of Mrs. Cynthia Fairchild, wife of the Rev. Joy H. Fairchild, who died at East-Hartford, February 22, 1824. Hartford, 1824. 8°, pp. 16.
[N. Y. Publ. Libr. Y. C.
14. The design and tendency of Christianity to diminish the miseries and increase the happiness of mankind. — An Address delivered at the Retreat for the Insane, in Hartford, at the Dedica- tion of that Institution.., April i, 1824. Hartford, 1824. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
15. A Sermon [from I Cor. i, 18], preached at Manchester, at the Installation of the Reverend Enoch Burt, July i, 1824. — To which is added an Appendix; containing the Minutes of the Gen-
2i8 Yale College
eral Consociation, holden at Guilford, November 1741, by order of the General Assembly, supposed to have been lost. Hartford, 1825. 8°, pp. 22. [Br. Mus. C. H. S.
The most of this Sermon was also delivered at Windsor at the ordination of Leonard Bacon and Erastus Maltby as Evangelists, on September 24, 1824.
16. A Sermon [from John ix, 4], on the death of the Rev. Abel Flint, D.D., who died at Hartford, March 7th, 1825.. Preached at his Funeral. Hartford, 1825. 8°, pp. 23.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
17. A Discourse [from I John, v, 7] on the Doctrine of the Trinity, in three Sermons, delivered at Mattapoisett, Rochester, in October, and at New-Bedford, November 22, 1835. New-Bedford, 1836. 12°, pp. 70. [A. C. A. N. Y. Publ. Libr. Y. C.
18. A Sermon [from II Kings, ii, 12] preached at Mattapoisett- Village, Rochester, at the Funeral of the Rev. Lemuel LeBaron, who died Nov. 26, 1836. . New-Bedford, 1837. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C.
19. An Address, delivered before the Society of Alumni of Williams College, at their twenty-second anniversary, August 16, 1843. Boston, 1843. 8°, pp. 51.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Largely historical.
Among other works which he edited, the following should be mentioned : —
Elements of General History, ancient and modern... — By Alex. Eraser Tytler. — The History continued from the close of the Seventh Century to the General Peace of Europe in 181 5. — By Thomas Robbins. New- York, 18 19. 12°, pp. 448 + map.
Magnalia Christi Americana; or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England. .. By Cotton Mather. Hartford, 1820. 2 vols. 8°. Republished, with the editor's name, in 1853.
After his death the following appeared: —
Diary of Thomas Robbins, D.D. 1796-1854. . — Edited and anno- tated by Increase N. Tarbox. Boston, 1887. 2 vols. 8°, pp. vii, 1052-)- pi.; 1131+pl.
This minute record is of the utmost service as a portrayal of the author's outer and inner history, and is enriched by copious anno- tations of variable value.
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 319
Dr. Robbins contributed in 1847-52 several interesting articles, which were printed in 1857 in Dr. Sprague's Annals of the Ameri- can Pulpit: — volume i, pp. 367-70, on Philemon and Ammi Ruhamah Robbins; pp. 408-11, on Dr. Bellamy; pp. 468-69, on Nathanael Taylor ; p. 503, on Cotton Mather Smith ; pp. 574-75, on Dr. Chandler Robbins ; volume 2, p. 9, on Dr. David McClure ; pp. 37-38, on Dr. Nathan Strong.
He also contributed a valuable Historical Sketch of Election Sermons to the Rev. Chauncey Lee's Election Sermon, Hartford, 1813, pp. 53-56.
AUTHORITIES.
C C. Baldwin, Diary, 336-37. Bar- Genealogical Society's Memorial Bi-
nard's Amer. Journal of Education, ographies, iii, 77-90. Norfolk Church
iii, 279-83. Boyd, Annals of Win- Records, 2'^- Stockwell, Descendants
Chester, Conn., 236. N. E. Historic- of Francis LeBaron, 32.
Isaac Seelye was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1780, but did not enter College until the Senior year.
In 1797 he emigrated to Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York, and is said to have been for a time the Prin- cipal of the Academy there.
He studied law, and after his admission to the bar in February, 1807, remained in Cherry Valley, and became one of the leading lawyers in Central New York. In legal knowledge he was the superior of any of his compeers. He early amassed a handsome fortune from his extensive practice, and during his later years confined himself mainly to office business.
He died in Cherry Valley on March 15, 1833, in his 54th year.
In 1804 he was married in Suffield, Connecticut, by the Rev. Ebenezer Gay, to Julia Leonard, of Feeding Hills parish, in West Springfield, Massachusetts; by whom he had a son who died in early life, and two daughters who left descendants.
Mrs. Seelye made her home after her husband's death with her younger daughter in Cherry Valley, but died while
220 Yale College
on a visit to her elder daughter, in Penn Yan, New York, on September 20, 1850.
AUTHORITIES.
Mrs. Wm. S. Little, MS. letters, Valley, 59, 84, 93-94, no, 140, 145. Oct., 1908. Sawyer, Hist, of Cherry
Benjamin Silliman, the youngest child of General Gold Selleck Silliman (Yale 1752) and Mary (Fish, Noyes) Silliman, was born in North Stratford, now Trum- bull, Connecticut, on the 8th of August, 1779. At that date his father was a prisoner in the hands of the British forces, and his mother with her little children had retreated from the family home in Fairfield to a temporary asylum, seven miles inland. His father died when he was eleven years old, and he was prepared for College under the tuition of his pastor, the Rev. Andrew Eliot (Harvard 1762). He entered Yale with his elder brother in 1792, and was the youngest member of his Class save one.
For more than a year after graduation, he was needed on the paternal farm, which had been allowed to run down.
He then taught a private Grammar School in Wethers- field, for part of the year 1798, but in October he was again in New Haven in the law office of Simeon Baldwin (Yale 1781). At Commencement in 1799 he delivered a Poem on Columbia.
He then entered on a College tutorship, but continued his law studies (in the office of the Hon. Charles Chaun- cey), and was admitted to the bar in March, 1802.
In the meantime, in July, 1801, while he was considering a proposal to establish himself in Georgia, he was approached by President Dwight with the suggestion of an appointment to a Professorship likely to be soon created. The suggestion was favorably received, and on the expira- tion of his tutorship, in September, 1802, he was elected Professor of Chemistry and Natural History; and although he was then without pretensions to a knowledge
Biographical Sketches, 1796 221
of the subjects which he was expected to teach, the result showed that Dr. Dwight was justified in his action.
Professor Silliman spent the next two winters in Phila- delphia, where he attended lectures by Dr. James Wood- house, Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, and others, and lived on terms of special intimacy with Robert Hare, the inventor of the compound blowpipe.
His first lectures as Professor were addressed to the Senior Class in April, 1804; and in April, 1805, he sailed for Europe, to purchase books and apparatus for the Col- lege and incidentally to improve himself in his department. He was successful in both objects, and at his return, in May, 1806, he applied himself with new vigor to his duties.
In May, 1808, he began his first course of popular lec- tures on chemistry to a mixed audience, — an experiment which his ready and impressive elocution and his attractive presence made very successful, and which led to a long series of similar labors.
On September 17, 1809, he was married, in Lebanon, Connecticut, by the Rev. Zebulon Ely (Yale 1779), to Harriet, second daughter of the late Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the younger (Harvard 1759), and Eunice (Backus) Trumbull; and the next month they settled in his home for the rest of his life, the first house built on Hillhouse Avenue.
In 1813, with the opening of the Medical School, he assumed new duties as Professor of Chemistry and Phar- macy in that Department; and in 1818 a still larger respon- sibility was undertaken in the establishment, at great pecuniary risk, of a quarterly magazine. The American Journal of Science and Arts, which constitutes his strong- est claim to the gratitude of scientific men in this country.
In 1825 he performed a great service for the College in securing a public subscription of twenty thousand dollars for the purchase of the Gibbs Cabinet of minerals. In a similar spirit at a later period his exertions procured for the College the historical paintings of Colonel John Trum-
222 Yale College
bull (an uncle of Mrs. Silliman) and the gallery in which they were long deposited.
In 1834 he entered on a new field of employment, the delivery outside of New Haven of courses of popular lectures on geology and chemistry, which proved to be of great public interest, and occupied much of his time for the next eleven years.
His wife died in New Haven, of consumption, after a long and distressing illness, on January 18, 1850, in her 67th year.
Professor Silliman had already, in August, 1849, expressed to the Corporation his desire to resign his pro- fessorship a year later, on account of age; but in April, 1850, he acceded to a request to withdraw his resignation for the present.
He made a second visit to Europe, from March to Sep- tember, 185 1, and was the recipient of many gratifying attentions from leading scientific men.
After his return, he was married, in Woodstock, Con- necticut, on September 17, 185 1, to Sarah Isabella, third daughter of John McClellan (Yale 1785), of Woodstock, and widow of Isaac Webb (Yale 1822), who died in 1842. Her mother was a first cousin of Professor Silliman's first wife.
In September, 1852, he notified the President that he should lay down his office at the next Commencement ; and in accordance with this intimation he ceased active work in June, 1853, — remaining, however, as Professor Emer- itus in both the Academical and Medical Faculties.
The remaining years were spent in quiet retirement, until his sudden but painless death in New Haven, after a slight illness of about a week, on the morning of Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1864, in his 86th year.
His widow died in New Haven on April 23, 1875, aged 68 years.
By his first marriage he had five daughters and four sons; of these the eldest, third, and fourth sons and the
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 223
third daughter died in infancy. Of the surviving daugh- ters the eldest was the wife of John B. Church (Yale 1829), the second of Professor Oliver P. Hubbard (Yale 1828), the third of Professor James D. Dana (Yale 1833), and the youngest of the Rev. Dr. Edward W. Oilman (Yale 1843) > t^^ son was graduated at Yale in 1837, and succeeded his father in the instruction in Chemistry in the Academical Department and in his professorship in the Medical School.
The discourse delivered at Professor Silliman's funeral by President Woolsey was afterwards published; and in 1866 an elaborate Life, prepared chiefly from his own man- uscript reminiscences, diaries, and voluminous correspond- ence, by Professor George P. Fisher, appeared in two volumes.
A portrait of Professor Silliman, painted in middle life by Nathaniel Jocelyn, now hangs in the Yale Medical School; and another portrait painted in 1845 t>y Matthew R. Wilson, is also in possession of the University. A marble bust executed in i860 by Chauncey B. Ives is placed in the Library; and a bronze statue, heroic size, modeled in 1884 by Professor John F. Weir, stands in front of the Sloane Physical Laboratory. The memorial addresses on the occasion of the unveiling of this statue were published in 1885. An excellent portrait by Daniel Huntington is in possession of the family.
He was a member of several of the principal scientific Academies or Societies of Europe and America. He was one of the original associates of the National Academy of Sciences (1863), and an Honorary Member of the Smith- sonian Institution (1849).
As an instructor in natural science he wielded large influence. His personal character was founded on sterling integrity and a childlike Christian faith, adorned with exquisite courtesy and dignity.
His relationship, through his wife, to Colonel Trumbull, the artist, led to the founding of the Trumbull Gallery of
224 Yale College
paintings at Yale, and so, indirectly, to the instituting of the Yale School of the Fine Arts. He published :
1. An Oration, delivered at Hartford on the 6th of July, A. D. 1802, before the Society of the Cincinnati, for the State of Con- necticut, assembled to celebrate the Anniversary of American Inde- pendence. Hartford, 1802. 8°, pp. 34.
[B. Ath. C. H. S. M. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
The subject is, "The theories of modern philosophy in religion, government and morals, contrasted with the practical system of New-England." Godwin's Political Justice is the special object of criticism, and the views of the Federalists are strongly supported.
2. A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland, and of two passages over the Atlantic, in the years 1805 and 1806. New- York, 1810. 2 vols. 8°, pp. 347; 372.
[B. Ath. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d edition. Boston, 1812. 2 vols. 12°, pp. 336; 359. Somewhat abridged.
[Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
The same; with considerable additions. .3d edition. New- Haven, 1820. 3 vols. 12°, pp. 311; 309; 312.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Harv. Y. C.
This work was primarily a Journal sent to his brother and class- mate ; and having circulated extensively among the author's friends, was now published at the pecuniary risk of Mr. Daniel Wadsworth, of Hartford, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Silliman. The work was highly successful.
3. A Sketch of the Life and Character of President Dwight, delivered as an Eulogium, in New-Haven, February 12th, 1817, before the academic body, of Yale-College, composed of the Senatus Academicus, Faculty and Students. New-Haven, 1817. 8°, pp. 47.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
4. Remarks, made on a short tour, between Hartford and
Quebec, in the autumn of 1819: by the Author of a Journal of
Travels in England, Holland and Scotland. New-Haven, 1820.
12°, pp. 407 + 10 pi.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. U. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, i/p6 a9$
The same. 26. edition, with corrections and additions. New Haven, 1824. 12°, pp. 443 -f- 10 pi.
[Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. S.
5. An Introductory Lecture, delivered in the Laboratory of Yale College, October, 1828. New Haven, 1828. 8°, pp. 48.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Y. C.
6. Outline of the Course of Geological Lectures, given in Yale College. New Haven, 1829. 8°, pp. 128.
[Harv. U. S. Y. C. Published as an appendix to the first American edition of Bake- well's Introduction to Geology.
7. Elements of Chemistry, in the order of Lectures given in Yale College. New Haven, 1830-31. 2 vols. 8°, pp. xii, 518; viii, 696, 48, 12.
[Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Harv. Y. C.
8. Some of the causes of National Anxiety. An Address, deliv- ered in the Centre Church in New-Haven, July 4, 1832. 8°, pp. 27.
[Harv. Y. C. On the subject of Our domestic slavery.
9. Consistency of the Discoveries of Modern Geology, with the sacred history of the creation and the deluge; being a Supple- ment to the second American .. edition of Bake well's Geology. New Haven, 1833. 8°, pp. 80. [C. H. S. Y. C.
This was re-published in London in 1837.
10. Manual on the Cultivation of the Sugar Cane, and the Fabri- cation and Refinement of Sugar. — Prepared under the direction of the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, in compliance with a Resolution of the House of Representatives of Jan. 25, 1830. City of Wash- ington, 1833. 8°, pp. 122 + 4 pi.
[Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
11. Report of the Board of Examiners, appointed by the Connecticut River Steam Boat Company, to inquire into the causes of the Explosion of the Steam Boat New England, which occurred at Essex, October 9th, 1833. . New Haven, 1833. 8°, pp. 24.
[Y. C. Professor Silliman signs this Report as the Chairman of a Board of five members.
12. [Report.] To the President and Directors of the Richmond [Virginia] Mining Company. 1836. 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
15
2 26 Yale College
13. Report on the Gold Mine in Culpeper County, [Virginia] — September i6th, 1836. 8°, pp. 12. [Y. C.
14. Report of an examination of the Gold Districts of the Vir- ginia and New-England Mining Company. 1836. 8°, pp. 8.
[Y.C.
15. [Report.] To the President and Directors of the Walton [Virginia] Mining Company. 1836. 8°, pp. 20. [Y.C.
16. Extracts from a Report made to the Maryland Mining Com- pany. ., on the Estate of said Company, in the County of Allegany, Maryland. New York, 1838. 8°, pp. 27. [Harv. U. S.
In connection with his son.
17. Extracts from a Report made to the New York and Mary- land Coal and Iron Company, on the Estate of said Company, in the County of Allegany, State of Maryland. London, 1838. 8°, pp. 58. [U. S.
Also, an enlarged edition of the above. London, 1839. 8°, pp. 80.
18. Remarks introductory to the first American edition of Dr. Mantell's Wonders of Geology. New Haven, 1839. ^°> PP- 3i-
[Y. C.
19. Suggestions relative to the Philosophy of Geology, as deduced from the facts, and to the consistency of both the facts and theory of this science with Sacred History. New Haven, 1839. 8°, pp. 119. [B. Publ. Y. C.
An appendix to the Third American edition of Bakewell's Geology.
20. Address delivered before the Association of American Geol- ogists and Naturalists, at their meeting held in Boston, April 25- 30, 1842. New Haven, 1842. 8°, pp. 36.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C. Republished from the American Journal of Science and Arts.
The same. New York, 1842. 8°, pp. 40.
21. An Address delivered before the Association of the Alumni of Yale College, in New Haven, August 17, 1842. New Haven, 1842. 8°, pp. 44. [Br. Mus. Y. C.
Valuable for its sketch of College history.
22. Report of the cause of the Explosion at the fire in Broad Street, New York, on the 19th July, 1845; in reply to Queries, proposed by a Committee of the Corporation. New York, 1845. 8°, pp. 29. [B.Publ. Y.C.
Biographical Sketches, i/p6
227
23. A Visit to Europe in 185 1. New- York, 1853. 2 vols. 8°, pp. viii, 418 + 3 pl- i viii, 468 + pi.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
To the American Journal of Science and Arts, with which his name was connected for forty-seven years, and of which he was an active editor for twenty-eight years, he contributed constantly and largely ; and many of his articles were also published separately. Of these no attempt has been made to give an enumeration; but a few other occasional publications may be noticed. Such as: —
Sketch of the Mineralogy of the Town of New-Haven (pp. 83- 96) ; and {by Professors Silliman and Kingsley) An Account of the Meteor which burst over Weston in Connecticut, in December 1807. .with a chemical analysis of the stones (pp. 141-61): in Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. I, New Haven, 1810.
He was also editor of several English text-books, such as : —
Elements of Experimental Chemistry, by William Henry. Boston, 1814. 2 vols.
and
An Introduction to Geology, by Robert Bakewell. New Haven, 1829, 1833, and 1839.
He contributed three brief sketches to Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit: — volume i, pp. 363-66, on Joseph Fish; pp. 586-89, on Dr. Benjamin Trumbull; volume 4, pp. 18-21, on Dr. John Mitchell Mason.
A portion of his manuscript diary is owned by the University Library, as well as other autobiographical manuscripts. •
Amer. Academy of Sciences, Proceedings, vi, 509-14- Dwight, Memories of Yale life, 114- 26. IV. L. Kingsley, Yale College, i, 210-23. National Academy, Biogr.
AUTHORITIES. Arts and Memoirs, 1, 99-112,
N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xix, 178-79. N. E. Historic-Geneal. Society's Memorial Biographies, vi, 62-65. Royall, Sketches, 389.
Gold Selleck Silliman, the elder brother of the pre- ceding graduate, was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, on October 26, 1777.
2 28 Yale College
After graduation he taught in a private family in Charleston, South Carolina, and in 1799 returned to New Haven to complete his law studies.
In 1 80 1 he settled in Newport, Rhode Island, in the prac- tice of his profession, in which he continued with credit and success until the peace of 181 5, when he removed to New York City, and entered on a business life.
His residence was at first in New York City, and after- wards (from about 1824) in Brooklyn. For two years (1826-27) he edited The Times, a daily paper in New York.
On retiring from active pursuits at an advanced age, he received in 1849 the appointment of Postmaster of the city of Brooklyn, which he retained for four years.
His mental powers, with his affections and sensibilities, were preserved with unusual vigor until the last.
He died in Brooklyn on June 3, 1868, in his 91st year.
Mr. Silliman, like his brother, was distinguished for the striking elegance and courtesy of his manners. His dispo- sition was generous and unselfish, and his daily life an illustration of his sincere and humble Christian character.
He married on September 17, 1801, Hepsa, the eldest child of the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Hunting- ton, Connecticut, who died in Brooklyn, on January 22, 1864, ill her 86th year.
One of their sons was graduated here in 1824, and was a large benefactor of the institution. Another son, though not a graduate, was also a large benefactor by founding the Silliman Fellowship. Silliman Blagden (Yale 1869) was a grandson.
Elisha Stearns^ son of Dr. John and Elizabeth (Wills) Stearns, of Tolland, Connecticut, and Wilbraham, Massa- chusetts, was born in Wilbraham on July 12, 1776. An elder brother was graduated here in 1789. After his father's early death, the family returned to Tolland.
Biographical Sketches, 1796 a*9
He had spent one term of his Senior year in a lawyer's office in Tolland; and from his graduation until May, 1797, he studied with Judge David Daggett in New Haven, teaching three young children of the judge in part pay for board and instruction. The next year he continued his law studies in Tolland, and in 1798 began practice there.
Soon after this he was attacked with consumptive symp- toms, and for four or five years struggled with ill health. But he recovered a fair measure of strength and continued in legal practice in Tolland until his death there, on Octo- ber 27, 1850, in his 75th year. He was a learned lawyer, and although by no means a fluent and popular advocate, his professional business for a long time was extensive and successful. Above all he was an honest man and consis- tent Christian.
He represented the town in the General Assembly of the State in seven different years between 1812 and 1839, and was State Senator in 1840. He was also Judge of the County Court during the years 1839-41, Judge of Probate in 1 84 1 and 1842, and for many years President of the Tolland Bank.
He was chosen a Deacon in the Congregational Church in June, 1826, and resigned the office in February, 1849.
On November 4, 1800, he married Celinda, the eldest child of John and Elizabeth (Dimock) Baker, of Tolland, who was born on April 22, 1780.
They had one son and three daughters. Two daughters married in succession the Rev. Dr. Leverett Griggs (Yale 1829).
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 567-68. November, 1852. Waldo, Early hist Hon. John H. Brockway, MS. Letter, of Tolland, 80.
AsAHEL Hooker Strong, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Cyprian Strong (Yale 1763), of that part of Chatham which is now Portland, Connecticut, and grandson of Cap-
230 Yale College
tain Asahel and Ruth (Hooker) Strong, was born in Chatham on November 8, 1776.
He studied law after graduation with Sylvester Gilbert (Dartmouth Coll. 1775), of Hebron, and became a lawyer of distinction in the village of Middle Haddam, in the township of Chatham. He was greatly esteemed for his good sense, his clear and discriminating knowledge of law, and his fair and able pleas.
He represented the town in three sessions of the General Assembly in 1813-14.
He died in Middle Haddam on January 7, 18 18, in his 42d year.
He married on March 2, 1805, Nancy, daughter of Nich- olas and Theodosia Ames, of Chatham, who died on Sep- tember 27, 1853, in her 73d year.
Their children were, one daughter who never married, and one son who left issue.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Genealogy, i, 298, Middletown, 280. 302. Field, Centennial Address at
Fanning Tracy, son of Phineas and Zeruiah Tracy, was born in Canterbury, Connecticut, on July 31, 1773. His mother was the eldest child of Parker and Freelove (Fanning) Adams, of Canterbury.
He spent his life in Connecticut, and was mainly occupied in teaching and in farming.
On September 26, 1802, being then in Canterbury, he married Lucy, daughter of William and Phyllis (Ens- worth) Adams, of Lisbon, Connecticut, who died on March 12, 1817, at the age of 38 years.
He lived for some years in Scotland, then part of the town of Windham. Late in life he removed to New Britain, where one of his sons, a machinist of remarkable inventive genius, was living.
Biographical Sketches, i^p6 »si
He died in New Britain on October 31, 1857, in his 85th year.
John Harvey Tucker was born in Bermuda on March 17, 1777, the eldest son of the Hon. Colonel James and Anne Tucker, of Bermuda. He entered College at the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he went to London and spent five years (from May, 1797) in legal study, being admitted to the bar by the Honorable Society of the Middle Temple on July 2, 1802.
He married in London, on August i, 1803, Mary, young- est daughter of the late William Browne (Harvard Coll. 1755), formerly Governor of Bermuda, and a loyalist emi- grant from Salem, Massachusetts.
From 1804 to 1807 he practiced his profession in Jamaica, and from 1807 to 18 13 in Nova Scotia. He then returned to Bermuda, and practiced there until his retire- ment from the bar in 1827.
The rest of his life was spent in seclusion, and he died at his seat in Somerville, Bermuda, on July 20, 1868, in his 92d year. His mental faculties were preserved till near the end of his long life.
His wife died many years before him.
Their children were four daughters and two sons (one of whom died in infancy). The younger son and the youngest daughter survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Miss Louisa B. Tucker, MS. letter, July 13, 1869.
Samuel Porter Williams, the eleventh and youngest child of Ezekiel Williams, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on February 22, 1779. Three of his brothers had preceded him at Yale, in the Classes of 1 78 1, 1785, and 1794. His grandfather, the Rev. Dr.
232 Yale College
Solomon Williams, of Lebanon, married Mary, daughter of Samuel Porter, of Hadley, Massachusetts, for whom this great-grandson was named.
Graduating at 17^^, he had then no disposition to enter on another course of study, but after a year of teaching school engaged in mercantile business in Hartford.
On November 7, 1801, he was married at Salisbury, Connecticut, by the Rev. Joseph W. Grossman, to Mary Hanford, daughter of Major John Webb, of Salisbury, a beautiful and accomplished woman.
In March, 1803, he united with the church, and turned his attention to the study of theology. He pursued his studies at first in New Haven, under the direction of Pres- ident Dwight; and afterwards in Springfield, Massachu- setts, with the Rev. Dr. Bezaleel Howard (Harvard GoU. 1781), the husband of his sister Prudence.
He was licensed to preach at West Springfield on April 10, 1805, and soon received an invitation to settle as a col- league with Dr. Howard, whose health had recently failed. He was also invited in November 1806, with great unanim- ity to a settlement in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and to Mansfield, Gonnecticut, where the Rev. John Sherman (Ykle 1792) had been dismissed in October, 1805, after having become a Unitarian.
Mr. Williams decided it to be his duty, on account of the peculiar conditions existing there, to accept the call to Mansfield, and was ordained and installed on January i, 1807, the sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. David Parsons (Harvard Goll. 1771), the husband of his sister Harriet.
A minority of his church had embraced Mr. Sherman's sentiments, but consented to the settlement of Mr. W^illiams under the pledge that they should not be excluded from membership. Such was the condition of the community that for two years he refrained from touching on disputed points in his sermons. He then took up with great earnest- ness the doctrine of the person and work of Ghrist; but
Biographical Sketches, lypd 233
in so doing re-opened the old wounds, and originated diffi- culties which finally ended in his dismission.
Other reasons conduced to this end, and his salary had become inadequate to the support of his growing family; so that his resignation took effect on September 7, 181 7.
He had already received several invitations to other parishes, but he preferred to accept a temporary engage- ment as assistant to his first cousin, the Rev. Solomon Wil- liams (Yale 1770), of Northampton, where he labored with peculiar success for two years.
In December, 1820, he was invited to Newburyport, Massachusetts, to preach in the "Old South" First Pres- byterian Church, then vacant. Here he produced at once a powerful impression, and was unanimously invited to the pastorate. He accepted the call, and was installed on February 8, 1821.
During the few years of this ministry he labored with much acceptance and success. But disease, in the form of dyspepsia, had been for some time making inroads on his naturally vigorous constitution; and during the last year of his life he was so much enfeebled by painful illness as to be fit for little eft'ort. His last sermon was preached on Thanksgiving Day in the last week of November, 1826, on the value of life; he died on the 23d of the following month, in the 48th year of his age.
His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Leonard Withington (Yale 1814), of Newburyport.
Mr. Williams was a favorite, though rather ornate preacher, with an especially melodious voice, and effective use of emphasis ; and a man of great energy, decision, and independence. His talents and personal piety were unquestioned, and his influence always for the right. An engraving from his portrait is prefixed to the volume of his posthumous sermons.
His wife died in Mansfield on September 13, 1815, leav- ing five sons and one daughter ; one other son had died in infancy.
9$4 Yale College
He next married, on November 21, 18 17, Sarah Pier- pont Tyler, the eldest child of Captain Daniel Tyler (Har- vard Coll. 1771), and Sarah (Edwards, Chaplin) Tyler, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. One of her half-brothers, Jona- than Edwards Chaplin, was graduated at Yale in 1808.
She died on November 7, 1857, in her 67th year. They had four sons and two daughters; of whom one son and one daughter died in infancy.
The second son of Mr. Williams was a member of the Class of 1826 at Yale, and the youngest son by the same marriage received the degree of M.D. here in 1840.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from I Tim. iv, 12] preached before the Eastern Consociation of Fairfield County, and the First Church and Society in Danbury, at the Installation of the Rev. William Andrews, June 30, 1813. Danbury, 1813. 8°, pp. 23.
[Br. Mus. Brown Univ. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Mr. Andrews had previously been settled in Windham, adjoining Mansfield.
2. An Enquiry into the state of the churches, &c. — A Sermon [from Acts xv, 36], preached in several congregations by appoint- ment of the Consociation of Windham County. . . Hartford, 1816. 8°, pp. 31.
- [B. Ath. B. Publ. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. The good minister. A Discourse [from Isa. Ixi, 1-2], in three parts, preached in the First Presbyterian Church in Newbury- port, in consequence of the Installation of the Author. Newbury- port, 1821. 8°, pp. 59.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. Libr. Y. C. On the character of Jesus Christ as a minister of the gospel.
4. Apostolic Magnanimity. — A Sermon [from II Cor. xii, 14], preached at the Presbyterian Church in Salem, at the Ordination of the Rev. William Williams, July 5, 1821. Newburyport, 1821. 8°, pp. 24.
[B. Publ. Brown Univ. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Libr. Y. C. William Williams (Yale 1816) was a nephew of the preacher.
5. A Sermon [from Luke ix, 58] preached to the First Congre- gational Church and Society in Exeter, on the day of the Annual
Biographical Sketches, iyp6 235
Thanksgiving in New-Hampshire, Nov. 29, 1821. Newburyport. 8°, pp. 18. [Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
6. Plea for the orphan, deUvered on the Anniversary of the Female Charitable Society, of Newburyport, May 21, 1822. [New- buryport, 1822.] 8°, pp. 31.
[B. Puhl. N. Y. Puhl. Libr. U. T. S.
7. An Address delivered and published at the request of the Young Men's Auxiliary Education Society of Newburyport, Sept. 1822. Newburyport. 8°, pp. 20. [Br. Mus. U. S. Y. C.
8. Walking in God's Name. — A Sermon [from Micah iv, 5], preached before the Education Society of the Young Men of Boston, on their fifth Anniversary, January 25, 1824. Newburyport, 1824. 8°, PP- 39- [B- Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
9. Messiah's Question. — A Sermon [from Matthew xxii, 42], preparatory to the Communion. [Newburyport.] 1824. 8°, pp. 24.
[B. Publ. C. H. S.
10. The Faithful Minister's Monument. — ^A Sermon [from Hebr. xiii, 7], preached at the Funeral of the Rev. John Giles, Senior Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church and Society in Newbury- port, October i, 1824. Newburyport, 1824. 8°, pp. 20.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
11. Duties of congregations to their pastors. — A Sermon [from Gal. vi, 6-7] preached before the Second Presbyterian Society in Newburyport, at the Installation of the Rev. Daniel Dana, D.D. May 24, 1826. Salem, 1826. 8°, pp. 24.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Y. C.
12. Historical Account of the First Presbyterian Church and Society in Newburyport, Massachusetts, addressed [from Deut. xxxii, 7] to the Congregation, worshipping in Federal Street, July 9, 1826. Saratoga Springs, 1826. 8°, pp. 68.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. Y. C.
After his death was published : —
Sermons on various subjects, chiefly practical. Together with a Sketch of the author's life and character. Salem, 1827. 8°, pp XX, 306 + pi.
[Andover Theol. Sent. B. Publ. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Libr U. T. S. Y. C. Containing twenty sermons. The memoir was written by Mr. Withington.
a$6 Yale College
Another posthumous pubUcation was a Sermon, from John iv, 13-14, on The Source of Happiness, in The American Evangelist, volume I, pp. 65-92, Boston, December, 1827.
AUTHORITIES.
Coffin, Hist, of Newbury, 385. Lean, Ancestors and descendants of
Congregational Quarterly, iii, 333. Ezekiel Williams, 36, 84-91. Shel-
Dimock, Mansfield Records, 194, 348, don. Hist, of Deerfield, ii, 782.
404-05. Edwards Genealogy, 22, 31- Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit,
32. Glidden, Centennial Discourse at iv, 370-73- Stearns, Hist. Discourse
Mansfield, 35-36. Hovey, The Old in Newburyport, 44-45- Williams
South of Newburyport, 48-50. Mc- Family, 173, 17S-76.
AnticUs, iyp6-g/
a37
Annals, 1796-97
At the opening of the College year Dan Huntington and Zechariah Lewis, of the Class of 1794, succeeded in the tutorship to the places left vacant by Josiah Stebbins (1791) and Roger M. Sherman (1792).
The Rev. Dr. Charles Backus having declined the elec- tion at the preceding Commencement to the Professorship of Divinity, the same pro tempore arrangement as before was continued with President Dwight.
During this year the old brick College, later known as South Middle College and now as Connecticut Hall, was thoroughly repaired, and the gambrel roof replaced by an entirely new fourth story, which has recently been removed in the process of restoration.
At the beginning of this year a broad-sheet catalogue of the names and residences of the students in College was published for the first time, though lists of single classes had frequently been printed.
238 Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1797
*Josias Bishop Andrews, AM. 1802, M.D. Coll.
Med. et Chir. Nov. Ebor. 1816 *i853
*David Atwater *i8o5
*Henricus Baldwin, LL.D. 1830 et Jeflf. 1843, ^
Congr., Rerumpubl. Foed. Cur. Supr. Jurid. *i844
*Lyman Beecher, A.M. 1809, S.T.D. Mediob. 1818,
in Acad. Theol. Lan. S. T. Prof, et ejusd. Praeses *i863 *Guilielmus Benedict *i8i9
*Josephus Billings *i850
*Ezra Bradley *i853
"^ Israel Br ainerd *i854
*Deodatus Brockway, A.M., Socius *i849
*Bennet Bronson *i85o
*Rufus Bunnell *i826
*Elisaeus Chapman *i8oi
*Asahel Clarke *i865
"^ Sylvester Dana, A.M. Dartm. 1801 ' *i849
*Thomas Day, A.M. et Guilielm., LL.D. 1847, Reip.
Conn. Seer. *i855
*Warren Dutton, A.M. et Guilielm., Tutor *i857
"^Timotheus Field, A.M. 1805 *i845
*Guilielmus Lambert Foot, A.M. *i849
*Samuel Augustus Foot, A.M., LL.D. 1834, e
Congr., Rerumpubl. Foed. Sen., Reip. Conn.
Gubern., Socius ex officio *i846
*Carolus Goodrich *i8yi
*Georgius Griffin, LL.D. Columb. 1837 *i86o
*Ira Hart, AM. *i829
*Homerus Hine *i856
*Jira I sham *i842
Biographical Sketches, //p/
239
*Ezra Ives
WethelJudd, A.M., S.T.D. Trin. 1831, Coll. S.-Joh.
Terr. Mar. Praeses *Asa Lyman, A.M. *Sylvester Maxwell Vacobus Murdoch, A.M., S.T.D. Harv. 1819, in
Univ. Viridim. Lingg. et in Acad. Theol. Andov.
Hist. Eccl. Prof. ''^Johannes Niles *Guilielmus Page, A.M. 1822 *Horatius Seymour, A.M. et Mediob. 181 1, LL.D.
1847, Rerump. Foed. Sen. *Theodorus Sill *Richardus Smith
*Sethus Perkins Staples, A.M. 1801 *Theodorus Strong *Ephraimus Treadwell Woodruff, A.M.
*i8i8
*i858 *i836 ♦1858
*i856
*l8l2
*i85o
*i857 *i836 =^1859 *i86i
*i855 *i859
JosiAH Bishop Andrews was born in Southington, Connecticut, on March 17, 1775, the only son in a family of ten children of Josiah and Rebecca Andrews, of South- ington, and grandson of Jonathan and Susannah (Rich- ards) Andrews, of the same village. His mother was a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Perkins) Bishop, of New Haven. He was a first cousin of EHsha D. Andrews (Yale 1803).
He was brought up on his father's farm, and was pre- pared for College by his pastor, the Rev. William Robin- son (Yale 1773). He entered College in June, 1794, and just before graduation he joined the College Church on profession of his faith. He studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Abel Flint (Yale 1785), of Hartford, and also pri- vately while teaching in Tolland County; and was licensed to preach on June 5, 1799, by the Tolland Association of Ministers.
\i
240 Yale College
In the latter half of the year 1800 he performed a mission among the new settlements in Pennsylvania and western New York, under the authority of the Missionary Society of Connecticut.
The following year he preached with much acceptance in various parishes in Connecticut, and especially in the pres- ent township of Killingworth, then the parish of North Killingworth. He began to preach there in March, 1801, and the Society gave him a call to settle as pastor on May 18. He deferred an answer until the following winter, and finally, on March 22, 1802, accepted the call, with an annual salary of $400. The church and society were, how- ever, in an unhappy state of division, and a remonstrance (though not a personal one) against his settlement was presented to the council called for his ordination. After mature deliberation the council proceeded to ordain and install him, on April 21, the sermon being preached by Dr. Flint.
A revival of religion had recently begun in the parish, which continued for about two years, producing an acces- sion to the church of more than ninety members. He was at that time an animated and popular preacher, and an advocate of "high Calvinism." Some took offence at the doctrines preached, and hence opposition arose. Finally, in June, 1808, the existing difficulties were reported to the Middlesex Association of Ministers, of which he was a member, and a committee was appointed to visit the parish and endeavor to effect a reconciliation. The committee performed their task, and were able to report that they found nothing prejudicial to the moral character of Mr. Andrews, or to his continuance in his place, and hoped that some mutual concessions had restored harmony.
This hope was delusive; and in October, 18 10, com- plaints involving his Christian and ministerial character were brought before the Association by a member of his church. He was charged with domineering and revenge- ful behavior, with unscriptural preaching, and with impru-
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 241
dence in his relations with the housekeeper in his family. The Consociation found these charges not proven, except in regard to domineering conduct; and advised his con- tinuance in office. But after six months' further trial a dismission was voted him, in good standing, on April 16, 181 1. One hundred and forty- three persons had been admitted to the church during his pastorate.
He then removed to New York City, where he opened a school in what is now Franklin Street, and also a pioneer Sunday-school in the same quarter. In 18 12, his school being largely increased, he gave it the name of "The Scientific Institution," where he fitted a class every year for college.
He also connected himself with the Presbytery of New York, and for some time suppHed a church in Hempstead, Long Island, besides preaching occasionally in th6 city.
He studied medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving the degree of M.D. in March, 1816.
In October, 18 18, he withdrew from the Presbytery of New York and joined the Presbytery of Jersey; and on June 16, 1819, he was installed as pastor of the Presby- terian Church at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the sermon being preached by the Rev. Samuel H. Cox.
Difficulties soon arose, dividing the congregation, of which the majority seems to have adhered to him ; but the bitterness of the opposing party was such that at his request the Presbytery voted on December 20, 1822, to dismiss him from his charge.
He continued to reside in Perth Amboy, and his sup- porters endeavored in 1823 to have him employed as a stated supply in his old society, but the Presbytery refused consent. Against this ruling he appealed to the Synod, unsuccessfully.
Later he was accused of fomenting dissension and pre- venting union in the Perth Amboy Church, particularly by holding meetings at the hours of divine service. He was placed on trial before the Presbytery in August, 1825,
i6
242 Yale College
and during his trial was considered to have manifested both a want of candor and a spirit of unfairness and insub- ordination, and was in consequence suspended from the ministry. He appealed in 1826 to the Synod and to the General Assembly, but his appeals were denied; and on June 26, 1827, in view of his contumacy in still claiming the right to continue to preach, he was deposed by vote of the Presbytery from the office of the ministry.
His father died in October, 1828, and in 1829 he removed to his native place, settled on the family estate which had fallen to him, and offered himself for practice as a physician.
He also occasionally read prayers for the small Episcopal Society of Southington, and applied to the Standing Com- mittee of the diocese for admission to holy orders ; but that society was honeycombed with Universalism, and as he admitted to the Committee that he disbelieved the eternity of future punishments, they refused to receive him.
In 1836 he represented Southington in the State legisla- ture, and in 1837 he again removed to the city of New York, where he practiced medicine and occasionally preached as a supply.
He died in New York on April 26, 1853, in his 79th year.
He married on August 17, 1801, in Wintonbury parish, now Bloomfield, Connecticut, Mary, daughter of Colonel Hezekiah Bissell, of that parish, and a sister of the wife of his theological instructor. Dr. Flint. They had five children, of whom two died in infancy. Two sons and a daughter grew to maturity, but the elder son left home clandestinely, on coming of age, and is supposed to have perished at sea; the younger son received an honorary degree of M.D. at Rutgers College in 1820.
Mrs. Andrews was bereft of her reason while residing in Killingworth* from which state she never recovered. She died in New York City on December 24, 1848, in her 74th year.
Biographical Sketches, //p/
243
Dr. Andrews was a man of great energy and perse- verance. An engraved portrait is given in the Andrews Memorial and in the Sketches of Southington.
He published, in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, vol. 4, pp. 419-21, and vol. 5, pp. 31-37 (May and July, 1804) :
A Narrative of a work of divine grace in Killingworth, second society, which began in the year 1801 ; republished in the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler's New England Revivals, 1846, pp. 282-300.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews Memorial, 154, 263-65. Rev. S. Parry, MS. letter, Dec 8,
Middlesex Association and Consocia- 1908. Timlow, Sketches of Southing-
tion, MS. Records. Miller, Hist, ton, 193-94. vii-ix. Discourse at Killingworth, 21-23.
David Atwater was born in New Haven in 1777, and was the younger surviving son of Dr. David and Eunice (Thompson) Atwater, of New Haven, and a grandson of Moses and Mary (Hotchkiss) Atwater, of Wallingford. The father was a well-known apothecary, who was killed in a skirmish with the British at Compo Hill, in Westport, Connecticut, in April, 1777. The mother married two years later Dr. John Goodrich (Yale 1778), of New Haven.
The son removed to Ohio after graduation, and is said to have died in 1805, aged 28 years. His name is marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue issued in the fall of that year.
AUTHORITIES. Atwater Hist, and Genealogy, 125.
Henry Baldwin^ the youngest son of Michael Baldwin, of New Haven, was born here on January 14, 1780. An own brother (Michael Baldwin) had been graduated at Yale in 1792; besides half-brothers in 1772 and 1777.
244 ^^^^ College
Soon after graduation he went to Litchfield, and attended the law lectures of Judge Reeve, and of his former tutor, James Gould (Yale 1791). Here his mental powers, hitherto imperfectly developed, gave abundant promise of eminence.
After about two years' study he went to Philadelphia, where he remained for some months, pursuing professional studies with the Hon. Alexander J. Dallas. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on March 6, 1798, and under the influence of the example of his brother Michael started for the West, but was led to stop in Pittsburgh, and was admitted to the bar there on April 30, 1801.
Here he showed himself an unpolished, but powerful and acute advocate, and attained more than ordinary success as a jury lawyer. He rode the circuit over all the counties west of the Allegheny River, and his practice extended into Ohio. He grew so much in favor with the people that he was elected in 1816 as a Democratic Representative in Con- gress and was twice re-elected, but resigned in 1822. He occupied a conspicuous position at Washington, and as chairman of the Committee on domestic manufactures was an able advocate for protection and the draughtsman of the' tariff of 1820.
Meantime his private fortune suffered in the business stringency of the period, — a venture in iron manufacture in which he had embarked, on Bear Creek in Butler County, having failed, so that he was sadly straitened.
From Congress he returned to the practice of his pro- fession in Pittsburgh. His law library was accounted one of the finest in the West, and he was employed in all the important cases in his vicinity.
In the heated Presidential campaign of 1828, he was an earnest and active supporter of Jackson, and had some expectation of being made Secretary of the Treasury. In this he was disappointed ; but when a vacancy was created on the Supreme Court bench by the death of Justice Bush- rod Washington, in November, 1829, the place was offered
Biographical Sketches, //p/
245
to ]\Ir. Baldwin, who was commissioned on January 6, 1830.
To the labors of this office he gave himself for the remaining fourteen years of his life; and his strong rea- soning powers, retentive memory, and profound and varied knowledge gave eminent distinction to his work.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by this College in 1830, and again by Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1843.
He soon attracted attention by challenging the views of the Constitution held by Chief Justice Marshall and Justice Story — his own view being that the Constitution was the grant of the people of the several States, and not of the people of the United States in the aggregate.
After the death of Marshall he published in another form the dissenting opinions in which he had expressed these views.
Apart from these theories his judgments were marked by extraordinary grasp and vigor of mind. His greatest opinion is considered to have been that delivered in 1833, in the case of McGill vs. Brown, involving the doctrine of bequests for pious and charitable uses to unincorporated societies.
A few years before his death he removed from Pitts- burgh to Meadville, Pennsylvania.
During the last four years of his life the violence of his naturally ungovernable temper, aggravated by excessive smoking, and other dissipated habits, increased to such a degree that doubts (which had originated as early as 1832) began to be expressed about his sanity, but no attempt was made to remove him from the bench. He died at his hotel in Philadelphia, after a week's prostration from paralysis, on April 21, 1844, in his 65th year. His circumstances were so reduced that a subscription among his friends was required for his burial.
He was married, in May, 1802, by the Rev. David Hig- gins, to Marana, daughter of Nathaniel Norton, of Bloom-
246 Yale College
field, Ontario County, New York, whom he had met as a schoolgirl at Litchfield, and who died in Pittsburgh on August 25, 1803, in her 20th year, leaving an infant son, who left descendants.
He was next married, on June 11, 1805, at Meadville, by the Rev. Joseph Stockton, to Sally, daughter of Major Andrew and Sally (Brown) Ellicott, of Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, who survived him, with an adopted daughter.
Justice Baldwin's portrait is given in the Baldwin Genealogy and in Carson's History of the Supreme Court; and is copied in volume 15 of the Green Bag.
He published separately:
1. Anniversary Address delivered before the American Institute of the City of New-York, .. October 9, 1834.. New- York, 1834. 8°, pp. 24. [M. H. S. Y. C.
In praise of the American system of protection to industry.
2. A General View of the Origin and Nature of the Constitution and Government of the United States, deduced from the political history and condition of the Colonies and States, and their Public Acts in Congresses and Conventions, from 1774 to 1788. Together with their Exposition by the Supreme Court of the United States, and Rules of construction in relation to such Provisions of the Con- stitution as impose Restraints on the powers of the States. Phila- delphia, 1837. 8°, pp. vi, 197. [B. Publ. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
The volume includes four of his Opinions, in cases before the Supreme Court, with introduction. The author's name does not appear on the title-page, but is given in the text.
Many of his opinions appear in the Reports of the Supreme Court.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, viii, 174, 482. County, O., 313, 341-42. Mass. Hist.
Baldwin Genealogy, i, 421, 431; iii, Society's Proceedings, 2d series, xiv,
1087-89. D. P. Brown, The Forum, 354. Pennsylvania Magazine of
ii, 76-90. Carson, Hist, of the Hist., xiii, 23-29. Royall, Pennsyl-
Supreme Court, i, 279-81. Day, Hist, vania, ii, 69-70. /. Story, Life and
Collections of Pa., 86-87. Green Bag, Letters, ii, 34-3S. 273-74. XV, 133, 136. Hist, of Delaware
Biographical Sketches, lygy 247
Lyman Beecher was born in New Haven on September 12, 1775, the son of David Beecher, a blacksmith, and grandson of Nathaniel and Sarah (Sperry) Beecher, also of New Haven. He was the only child of his father's third wife, Esther, daughter of John and Hope (Hawley) Lyman, of that part of Middletown, Connecticut, which is now Cromwell. She died of consumption two days after her son's birth, and the child was brought up by her eldest sister, Catharine, the childless wife of Lot Benton, a farmer of North Guilford.
He was prepared for Yale with the North Guilford minister, the Rev. Thomas W. Bray (Yale 1765), and lived at his father's house during his College course.
After graduation he pursued theological studies for about nine months under the instruction of President Dwight, and united with the College Church in April, 1798. He was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Asso- ciation of Ministers, at Naugatuck, on October 23, 1798.
In December of the same year he began preaching on probation in the small Presbyterian Church in East Hamp- ton, Long Island, in succession to Dr. Samuel Buell (Yale 1741), who died in July, 1798.
He accepted a call to settle there, with a salary of $300, on July 5, 1799, and was ordained and installed on Septem- ber 5. In the following winter there was a revival of religious interest in the congregation, and as a result of this and similar revivals during his ministry there nearly three hundred persons were added to the church.
On September 19, 1799, he was married in Guilford, by Mr. Bray, to Roxana, second daughter of Eli and Roxana (Ward) Foote, a woman of unusual charm and brilliancy.
With a rapidly increasing family he soon found it impos- sible to live on his salary (now increased to $400), and about the close of the year 1809 he determined to seek a dismission, which was accordingly granted by the Presby- tery on April 18, 18 10.
248 Yale College
He had already been invited, upon a salary of $800, to the pastorate of the First Congregational Church in Litchfield, Connecticut, a community famous at that time for intellectual activity, and he was installed there by the Litchfield Consociation, with a sermon by President D wight, on May 30, 1810. In this congenial atmosphere, in intimacy with such parishioners as the venerable Judge Tapping Reeve and his wife, and in sympathetic relations with the neighboring clergy, he spent nearly sixteen labo- rious but happy years.
At a very early date a revival of religion was manifested, and he was incessantly called into service to aid in similar conditions elsewhere in the vicinity. He was intensely interested also in agitations for the reformation of morals, and a stalwart champion in their behalf.
While in Litchfield he was a prominent factor in the establishment of the Connecticut Domestic Missionary Society, the Litchfield County Foreign Mission Society, the Connecticut Education Society, the American Bible Society, and the Christian Spectator and Connecticut Observer.
Mrs. Beecher died in Litchfield, of quick consumption, on September 24, 1816, aged 41 years; and he was next mar- ried, in Portland, Maine, early in November, 1817, by the Rev. Dr. Edward Payson, to Harriet, daughter of Dr. Aaron and Paulina (King) Porter, of Portland, whose acquaintance he had made during a visit to Boston, in Sep- tember, to preach at the ordination of Sereno E. Dwight as pastor of Park Street Church.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury College in 1818.
His second son entered Yale in 18 18, and Dr. Beecher soon found that his income was not sufficient to provide for the public education of his children. After a few more years of ineffectual struggle he had just determined that he must ask a dismission, when he received, in January, 1826, a call to the newly organized Hanover Congrega- tional Church in Boston.
Biographical Sketches, i/py 249
He accepted the call, and was installed there on March 22, the sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey (Yale 1805).
He was now in the full tide of his powers, and came to Boston to find orthodoxy despised and persecuted, and Unitarianism in confident possession of the field. All his endeavors were devoted to the intensely interesting combat, and he was easily the strongest representative in the community of the ancient faith. He was almost constantly employed in the promotion of revivals of religion, in which his experience gave him unusual success.
He was also largely instrumental in the establishment of the Spirit of the Pilgrims in 1828 as a controversial maga- zine, which performed successfully its work.
In February, 1830, the house of worship in Hanover Street was destroyed by fire; and although Dr. Beecher was provided with other opportunities for preaching steadily while a new church was built, he naturally felt somewhat unsettled, and as early as July, 1830, began to think seriously of emigrating to Cincinnati, as the center from which the new West could be influenced. In October he was elected President and Professor of Theology in Lane Seminary, a Presbyterian institution just established in the suburbs of Cincinnati ; but by the advice of friends he declined the invitation.
A year later the call was renewed; and was accepted on the understanding that his acceptance secured pledged endowments of sixty thousand dollars to the seminary, and with a strong conviction of the importance of an educated ministry at the West.
His removal to Cincinnati was deferred until November, 1832, and he was inducted into ofiice as Professor on December 26. In the spring of 1833 he was installed as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, — an office which it had been designed from the first that he should fill.
The division between the Old and the New School in the Presbyterian body was now gaining prominence ; and
as®' Yale College
Dr. Beecher's theology subjected him from the first to suspicion and attack. He was brought to trial before the Presbytery in June, 1835, and before the Synod on appeal in October, 1835 ; but after the case had been appealed to the General Assembly in May, 1836, it was withdrawn by the prosecutor with general consent.
Mrs. Beecher's health had been gradually failing for several years, and her death from consumption occurred in Cincinnati, on July 7, 1835.
Dr. Beecher was next married, in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, by the Rev. Hubbard Winslow, on October 7, 1836, to Mrs. Lydia (Beals) Jackson, of Boston, the widow of Captain Joseph Jackson.
The financial panic of 1837 prevented the payment of a portion of the endowments of the Seminary, and Dr. Beecher's circumstances were in consequence much strait- ened for a few years. He was able, however, in the sum- mer of 1846 to make a brief visit to England, where he was heard with appreciation.
In 1843 he resigned his pastoral relation to the Second Church, but still continued to preach as occasion offered. In the summer of 1850, as the finances of the Seminary were now re-established, and he had reached the age of 75, he resigned his professorship, but was requested to retain for life the title of President and Professor emeritus. Though still vigorous in body, there had been for some time a perceptible failure in his powers of expression.
In May, 1851, he returned to the East, and spent the summer at the house of his son-in-law, Professor Stowe, in Brunswick, Maine, engaged in beginning the revision of his works for publication.
In the fall of 185 1 he returned to Boston, and for several years continued to preach occasionally; but as time wore on, his command of language decreased and his mind was enfeebled, though his bodily powers were still vigorous. His wife died in February, 1856.
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 251
In the winter of 1856-57 he removed to Brooklyn, New York, and after a period of gradual failure he died there on January 10, 1863, in his 88th year. By his special request he was buried in New Haven, by the side of his life-long friend, the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor (Yale 1807).
The sermon delivered at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon was afterwards published; as was also a commemorative discourse pronounced at Lane Seminary by Professor D. Howe Allen.
By his first wife he had four daughters (of whom one died in infancy) and five sons. The eldest daughter was engaged to Professor Alexander M. Fisher (Yale 1813), of Yale College, at the time of his loss at sea in 1822, and never married. The second daughter married Thomas C. Perkins (Yale 1818) ; and the youngest daughter mar- ried Professor Calvin E. Stowe (Bowdoin Coll. 1824), and became distinguished as an authoress. The eldest son was educated as a merchant, but received an honorary Master's degree here in 1833. The second and third sons were graduated at Yale in 1 822 and 1 828, respectively. The fourth son was graduated at Amherst College in 1834, and proved to be the most brilliant and most distinguished of the family. The youngest son was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1834. All the sons entered the ministry.
By his second marriage he had one daughter and three sons. The daughter married John Hooker (Yale 1837). The eldest son died in infancy, and the others both became ministers, — one being graduated at Illinois College in 1843, and the other at Dartmouth College in 1848.
Dr. Beecher's remarkable power in his generation was primarily due to his brilliant intellect, his intense sympathy with the gospel, and his lovable personal character. He was, wrote his son-in-law. Professor Stowe, *'a man always most thoroughly in earnest, of strong powers of observation, a marvelous fertility and felicity of illustra- tion, and living every moment under the impression that
252 Yale College
he had a great work to do for God and man, which must be done at once." He published:
1. The Practicability of suppressing vice, by means of Societies instituted for that purpose. — A Sermon [from Eccl. iv, 9, 12], deliv- ered before the Moral Society, in East-Hampton, (Long Island.) September 21, 1803. New-London, 1804. 8°, 28 pp.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from Joel, i, 3], containing a general history of the town of East-Hampton, (L. I.) from its first settlement to the present time. Delivered at East-Hampton, January i, 1806. Sag- Harbor, 1806. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. The remedy for Duelling. — A Sermon [from Isa. lix, 14-15], delivered before the Presbytery of Long-Island, at the opening of their session, at Aquebogue, April 16, 1806. 1806. 8°.
The same. Re-published by subscription.. New-York, 1809. 8°, pp. 48.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Boston. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. Harv. M. H. S.
The remedy proposed (with the Burr-Hamilton duel in mind) was a refusal to vote for any duelist.
4. A Sermon [from Col. iii, 2], occasioned by the lamented death of Mrs. Frances M. Sands, of New-Shoreham, formerly an inhabitant of East-Hampton, (L. I.), .. delivered at East-Hamp- ton October 12th, 1806. Sag-Harbor, 1806. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. Y. C.
5. The Government of God desirable. — A Sermon [from Matth. vi, 10] delivered at Newark, during the session of the Synod of New- York and New- Jersey, October, 1808. New- York, 1809. 8°, pp. 26. [B. Ath. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. New- York, 1809. 8°, pp. 24.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
Five or six more separate editions were published. The discourse was originally preached in connection with a striking revival of religion in his own parish.
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 253
6. A reformation of morals practicable and indispensable. — A Sermon [from Ez. xxxiii, 10] delivered at New-Haven on the evening of October 27, 1812. New-Haven, 1813. 8°, pp. 38.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Andover, 1814. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. Y. C.
A re- working of No. i, above; and a forerunner of the temper- ance reformation.
7. A Sermon [from Ps. cxi, 10] delivered in the North Presby- terian Church in Hartford, May 20, 181 3, on the evening subsequent to the formation of the "Connecticut Society for the promotion of good morals." Hartford, 1813. 8°, pp. 21.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. C. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C.
8. An Address of the Charitable Society for the education of indigent pious young men, for the ministry of the Gospel. [New Haven, 1814?] 12°, pp. 28. [A. C. A. B. Puhl. Y. C.
The same, reprinted, with slight variations, under the title, On the importance of assisting young men of piety and talents in obtaining an Education for the Gospel Ministry. N. Y. [1815?] 12°, pp. 20. [Y.C.
The same. Andover, 181 5. 12°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Harv. M. H. S.
9. A Sermon [from Isa. Ixi, 4], delivered at Woolcot (Con.) Sept. 21, 1814, at the Installation of the Rev. John Keyes . . Andover, 181 5. 8°, pp. 34.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C. On the building up of waste places; the sermon led to the institution of the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut.
10. The Bible a code of Laws; a Sermon [from Ps. xix, 7-10], delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, Sept. 3, 181 7, at the ordi- nation of Mr. Sereno Edwards Dwight, as pastor of that church; and of Messrs Elisha P. Swift, Allen Graves, John Nichols, Levi Parsons, and Daniel Buttrick, as Missionaries to the Heathen. Andover, 1818. 8°, pp. 51.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Andover, 1827. 8°, pp. 43.
[B. Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. T. S.
254 Yale College
11. A Sermon [from Ps. xcvii, 1-2] delivered at the funeral of Henry Obookiah, a native of Owhyee, and a member of the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, February 18, 1818. New-Haven, 1818. 12°, pp. 34.
[A.A.S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Y. C. Appended to Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, by Edwin W. Dwight.
The same. Elizabeth-Town, 1819. 12°, pp. 32.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Published as the former edition.
12. The design, rights, and duties of local churches. A Sermon [from I Tim. iii, 14-15] delivered at the installation of the Rev. Elias Cornelius as Associate Pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Salem, July 21, 1819. Andover, 1819. 8°, pp. 54.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Mr. Cornelius had studied theology with the author.
13. The means of national prosperity. — ^A Sermon [from Eccl. V, 9], delivered at Litchfield, on the day of the Anniversary Thanks- giving, December 2, 1819. Hartford, 1820. 8°, pp. 25.
[C. H. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. New- York, 1820. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
14. The Faith once delivered to the Saints. — A Sermon [from Jude 3], delivered at Worcester, Mass. Oct. 15, 1823, at the Ordina- tion, of the Rev. Loammi Ives Hoadly, to the pastoral office over the Calvinist Church and Society in that place. Boston, 1823. 8°, pp. 48.
\A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Boston, 1824. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
A notable assault on Unitarianism, in requiring a defence of its principles.
15. Reply to the Review of Dr. Beecher's Sermon, (delivered at Worcester, Massachusetts,) [by James Walker] which appeared in the Christian Examiner for January, 1824. — By tJie Author of the Sermon. — From the Christian Spectator for February and March, 1825. 8°, pp. 59.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, lyp/ 255
16. A Sermon [from Rev. xxi, 5], addressed to the Legislature of Connecticut, at New-Haven, on the day of the Anniversary Election, May 3d, 1826. New-Haven, 1826. 8°, pp. 22.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. See, also, No. 23, below.
17. A Sermon [from Acts xiii, 26], preached at the Funeral of the Hon. Tapping Reeve. . ; who died December thirteen, eighteen hundred and twenty-three . . with explanatory notes. Litchfield,
1827. 8°, pp. 20. [Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
18. The Rights of the Congregational Churches of Massachu- setts.— The Result of an Ecclesiastical Council, convened at Groton, Massachusetts, July 17, 1826. Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 63.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 47.
[B. Publ. Harv. Y. C. Anonymous.
19. Six Sermons on the nature, occasions, signs, evils, and remedy of Intemperance. Boston, 1827. 12°, pp. 107.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Boston, 1827. 12°, pp. 107. [Y. C.
Numerous later editions. The sermons were originally preached in Litchfield.
20. Resources of the adversary and means of their destruc- tion.— A Sermon [from Isa. xlix, 24-25, liii, 12, Luke xi, 21-22, Rev. xi, 15, xix, 5-6] preached October 12, 1827, before the Ameri- can Board of Missions, at New- York. Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 35. •
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
21. Letter to Mr. Beman, Boston, Dec. 15, 1827. 22 pp. In
Letters of the Rev. Dr. Beecher and Rev. Mr. Nettleton, on the "New Measures" in conducting revivals of religion. . . New- York,
1828. 8°.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. Y. C.
22. To the Congregational Ministers and Churches of Con- necticut.— Copy of a letter, to the Editor of the Christian Spectator, Boston, December i8th, 1827. 8°, pp. 4.
[C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
256 Yale College
On the same subject as the last named. This was a private letter, surreptitiously published.
23. The Memory of our Fathers. — A Sermon [from Rev. xxi, 5] delivered at Plymouth, on the twenty-second of December, 1827. Boston, 1828. 8°, pp. 39.
[A. C. a: B. Ath. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U, T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Boston, 1828. 8°.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
This discourse is rewritten from No. 16, above, as is acknowl- edged in a prefatory note.
24. Sermons delivered on various occasions. Boston, 1828. 8°, pp. 367. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
This volume contains only Nos. 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 20, and 23 of the above list.
Another edition was printed at lilew York in 1842 from the same plates.
25. The Gospel according to Paul. — A Sermon [from Gal. i, 8] delivered Sept. 17, 1828, at the Installation of the Rev. Bennet Tyler, D.D., as Pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Portland, Maine. Boston, 1829. 8°, pp. 48.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ U. T. S.
26. A Sermon [from I Thess. v, 21] against the doctrine of Universalism, delivered in the New Calvinistic Meeting-House in Dorchester, Mass., March 7, 1830. Boston. 12°. [Br. Mus.
27. Dependence and Free Agency. — A Sermon [from John xv, 5] delivered in the Chapel of the Theological Seminary, Andover, July 16, 1832. Boston, 1832. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
28. A Plea for the West. Cincinnati, 1832. i8mo, pp. 172.
The same. 2d ed. Cincinnati, 1835. 12°, pp. 190.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 3d ed. Cincinnati, 1836. 12°. [Br. Mus.
An enlargement of a Sermon from Isa. Ixvi, 8.
29. A comparison of the apostolic age with the present, in respect to facilities for conducting missionary operations. [Boston, 1833.] 12°, pp. 8. [U.T.S. Y.C.
Missionary Paper No. 5 of the American Board.
Biographical Sketches, i/py 257
30. Something has been done, during the last forty years. [Bos- ton, 1833.] 12°, pp. 8. [U. T. S. Y. C.
Missionary Paper, No. 11.
31. Instructions for Young Qiristians. Cincinnati and Boston,
1834. 16°, pp. 86. [A. C. A.
32. An Address, delivered at the tenth anniversary celebration of the Union Literary Society of Miami University, September 29,
1835. Cincinnati, 1835. 8°, pp. 44. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C. The subject is, the design of Collegiate institutions, and the
appropriate means of its accomplishment.
The same. Second edition. With title, A Plea for Colleges. Cincinnati and New York, 1836. 12°, pp. 95.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus, U. T. S.
33. Lectures on Scepticism, delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, and in the Second Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. Cin- cinnati, 1835. 12°, pp. 160.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Six lectures, delivered in Boston in 1831, and in Cincinnati in 1833. The volume passed to a third edition in the same year.
34. Views in Theology. Published by request of the Synod of Cincinnati. Cincinnati and New York, 1836. 12°, pp. 240.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d ed. Cincinnati, 1836. 12°, pp. 240.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
35. A Guide to Piety: or. Directions to Persons just com- mencing a religious life. Worcester, 1843. 16°, pp. 64.
[A. C. A.
36. Works. Boston, 1852-53. 3 volumes. 12°.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
Volume I : Lectures on Political Atheism and kindred subjects; together with Six Lectures on Intemperance. Volume 2 : Sermons, delivered on various occasions [No. 24, above]. Volume 3: Views of Theology; as developed in three Sermons, and on his Trials before the Presbytery and Synod of Cincinnati, June, 1835. With Remarks on the Princeton Review.
After his death was published :
Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D., edited by Charles Beecher. New York, 1864. 2 volumes. 8°. 17
258 Yale College
These very interesting volumes are in part in the words of Dr. Beecher, but more usually in the words of others. They contain engravings from three portraits; at the ages of 28, 58, and over 80, respectively.
Dr. Beecher also contributed largely to the Christian Spectator, the Spirit of the Pilgrims, and other periodical literature.
Eight of his sermons appeared in the National Preacher: three in volume 2, 1827 ; three in volume 3, 1829 ; one in volume 20, 1846 ; one in volume 33, 1859.
AUTHORITIES.
Coleman, Lyman Genealogy, 204. Family, 13-15. Ward Family Gene- Congregational Quarterly, vi, 221-35. alogy, 205. Winsor, Memorial Hist. Foote Genealogy, 83. 155. Hayward, of Boston, iii, 408-09. Woodruff, Lyman Beecher. Hughes, Beecher Litchfield Genealogical Register, 26.
William Benedict was born in Redding, Connecticut, on February 24, 1778, being the eldest son of Thaddeus Benedict (Yale 1773), a distinguished lawyer of that town, who died in 1799.
Soon after he was graduated, he began the study of law, under the instruction of Judge Reeve, at his celebrated law- school in Litchfield, where he continued for a year or more. He then went to Bridgeport, where he finished his prepar- atory studies and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield County,
He succeeded to some of his father's business and for a time had a fair practice, and fairer prospects. He was a young man of strict integrity and popular manners, but became the victim of bad influences and spent his later years in miserable poverty, a hypochondriac and misan- thropist.
He died in Bridgeport on August 26, 18 19, aged 41^ years. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Benedict Genealogy, 302.
Biographical Sketches, lygy
259
Joseph Billings, son of Silas and Miriam Billings, was born on March 5, 1776, in Hatfield, Massachusetts, on the farm which his ancestors had occupied for a hundred years. His mother was a daughter of Moses and Anna (Smith) Dickinson, of Hatfield.
Not being robust enough for farm work, he began in the fall of 1792 his preparation for College with his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman.
At graduation he was obliged by feeble health to decline an invitation to teach a high school for young ladies in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; but in the following spring, his health being somewhat improved, he became the principal of an academy at New Salem, Massachusetts, in which office he continued for one year.
Being now convinced that, owing to an impediment in his speech, he could never become a public speaker, he entered on mercantile life in Hatfield in 1799. That employment he relinquished in 1804, at the solicitation of a childless uncle who needed his care.
The rest of his life was spent quietly in Hatfield, where he died, in consequence of injuries received by being thrown from his wagon, on May 2}^, 1850, in his 75th year.
In younger life he filled the office of Town Clerk for sev- eral years. He became a member of the Congregational Church in Hatfield in 18 13, and was appointed a Deacon in 18 1 7.
He was married in December, 1808, to Mary, daughter of Captain Elijah Smith, of Hatfield, who though an invalid from her youth survived to old age. Their only child died at birth.
Ezra Bradley, a younger brother of Joel Bradley (Yale 1789), was born at Mount Carmel, in New Haven, now in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1776. Their father was an Episcopalian and their mother a Congregationalist, which may account for the religious affiliations of the sons.
a6o YcUe College
After graduation Ezra Bradley studied theology, and was admitted to deacon's orders in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Jar vis at Cheshire, on September 30, 1798. These orders were conferred with the expectation that he would take a charge in the Massachusetts diocese, and accordingly he officiated in Great Barrington for a few years; but by 1801 he had fallen under suspicion, and in 1804 he was degraded from the ministry by Bishop Jarvis on the unanimous request of the clergy of the Connecticut diocese in Convocation.
He then went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he spent about three years in the study and practice of law. He led rather a free life there, and on becoming involved in some difficulties in connection with a duel, he returned to his native place.
He had inherited from his father (who died in 1801) a gristmill, and for a short time he carried on the milling business ; and then, selling his mill, he bought a farm and became an agriculturist. He married about 1807 Julia, only child of Captain Ailing and Rebecca (Dickerman) Ives, of Mount Carmel.
About 18 10 he sold his property in Hamden, and removed to West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he purchased a farm of about three hundred acres in a retired part of the town, and had a successful career.
He died in West Springfield on November 11, 1853, aged yy years. His widow died on July i, 1859, ^^ the age of 72. Their children were three daughters and two sons, all of whom survived their father.
AUTHORITIES.
Beardsley, Hist, of the Episcopal Records, 56, 62. Dickerman Ances-
Church in Conn., ii, 11, 30. Conn. try, 465, 582. T. Robbins, D'mry, i,
Diocesan Convention Journal, 1882, 439. Tuttle Family, 271. 160, Conn. Diocesan Convocation
Biographical Sketches, i/py 261
Israel Brainerd, the third son in a family of fourteen children of Major and Deacon Ezra Brainerd, a farmer of Haddam, Connecticut, and grandson of Lieutenant Josiah and Hannah (Spencer) Brainerd, of Haddam, was born in Middle Haddam on September 14, 1772. His mother was Jerusha, sixth daughter of Lieutenant David and Dorothy (Brainerd) Smith, of Haddam, and a second cousin of her husband.
After a boyhood of manual labor, he began at the age of seventeen to teach school in winter; and at twenty he began the study of Latin with the Rev. Thomas W. Bray, of North Guilford.
On leaving College he taught at first the waning Acad- emy established on Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, Connect- icut, by President Dwight, and next a large district school in the same town. He was then called to be the first principal of a new Academy established in Albany.
In the spring of 1799 he began the study of theology in the family of the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, Connecticut, and having made a profession of religion there, he was licensed to preach on October i by the Tol- land Association of Ministers.
After supplying other parishes he received an almost unanimous call, about the ist of May, 1800, with a salary of £120, from the First Church in Guilford, Connecticut; and having accepted the call he was ordained and installed as pastor on June 11, the sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. James Dana, of New Haven. He was, however, a rigid Calvinist, and opposed to the half-way covenant; and after a short time the members of the Society found his preaching so unacceptable, that they took steps to bring about his dismission. After some months' wrangling he was dismissed by a council on June 11, 1806. He had admitted eighty-six members to the church.
He then supplied the Congregational Church in Derby,
«6a Yale College
Connecticut, for a few months, and in September removed to Verona, Oneida County, New York, under a commission of the Connecticut Missionary Society. During the fol- lowing winter he made a long missionary tour in the western counties of New York and adjacent parts of Penn- sylvania ; but on September 24, 1807, he was installed as pastor of the feeble Congregational Church in Verona, with liberty to travel as a missionary part of the time for four years. Here he remained for twenty-nine years, a laborious and successful minister of the gospel. He wit- nessed four revivals of religion in his own congregation, in one of which (1818) over one hundred members were added to the church.
In July, 1836, he resigned his pastoral charge, and after two years mainly spent in missionary service among desti- tute churches of the vicinity, he preached for three years at Oneida Castle, a village in the township of Verona.
He then retired from regular ministerial labor to a farm in Verona, or rather in the adjacent township of Vernon, where he passed some years, preaching occasionally, and writing frequently for the religious journals of Western New York. Later he removed to the house of his eldest daughter, in Kirtland, near Vernon ; and he died in Syra- cuse, New York, at the house of his youngest daughter, the wife of the Rev. George W. Thomson (Hamilton Coll. 1833), on September 5, 1854, at the age of 82.
He married, on December 30, 1800, Mary (or Polly), eldest child of Asa and Polly (Hine) Huntington, of Woodbridge, Connecticut, who died in January, 1866, aged 85 years.
Of their eleven children, two sons and four daughters lived to maturity.
He published :
Two Sermons [from Acts xxvii, 31, and Deut. xxix, 29, respec- tively] on the Doctrines of Grace, the Free Agency of Man, and the use of means. Utica, 1812, 36 pp., 8°. [B. Ath. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 263
AUTHORITIES.
Brainerd-Brainard Genealogy, 1908, Annals of Oneida County, 685.
V. 2, pt. 4, 53, 6&-70. Field, Brajnerd Steiner, Hist, of Guilford and Madi-
Genealogy, 141, 157-60. Huntington son, 282-85, 291. Family Memoir, 203. P. Jones,
DiODATE Brockway was born on December 29, 1776, in Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Connecticut, being the second and eldest surviving son of the Rev. Thomas Brock- way (Yale 1768), for thirty-five years the minister of that parish.
He was prepared for College at the Classical School in Columbia; and during the first six months after gradua- tion he taught in East Haddam. He then began the study of theology under the direction of the Rev. Elijah Parsons (Yale 1768), the East Haddam minister; and completed his studies under his own father. He united with the church in his native parish in 1798.
He was licensed to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers on October 3, 1798, and after a few weeks began preaching in Ellington, Connecticut, and was ordained and installed there over the Congregational Church of fifty-nine members, on September 19, 1799, with a salary of £110. The house being small and dilapidated, the exercises were held in the open air, his father preaching the sermon.
A new meetinghouse was soon begun, and in July, 1804, he had a remarkable escape from instant death in a fall of sixty-five feet from the belfry to the ground-floor of the unfinished house; one of his thighs was broken, a severe wound was made in his head by a nail, and he was taken up for dead. He was lamed for life, and his general health was distinctly impaired.
In 18 1 3 he felt obliged to offer his resignation, because his salary would not support him. As he was greatly beloved, his salary was raised, but four years later, on account of the pressure of hard times, he relinquished a
«64 Yde College
part of it. In 1829 the condition of his health required him either to resign or to have a colleague. The latter alternative was accepted, and he continued in the pastorate until his death, having a succession of colleagues from November, 1830, and during the last five years of his life performing no duties. After over twenty years of great suffering he died in Ellington on January 27, 1849, in his 73d year.
He was elected a member of the Corporation of the Col- lege in September, 1827, and held that office until his death.
He married on October 29, 1799, Miranda, daughter of Deacon John Hall, of Ellington, and sister of John Hall (Yale 1802), who died in Ellington, after long feebleness, on March 21, 1824, aged 43 years. They had three sons and four daughters; of whom only two sons survived their father. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1820.
He published :
1. A Funeral Discourse [from II Cor. xiii, 11], delivered at the meeting-house in Ellington, July 3, A.D. 1803, on the Sabbath after the interment of Deacon Gurdon Ellsworth. . Hartford, 1804. pp. 22, 8°. [B. Puhl. C. H. S. Y. C.
2. . A Sermon [from Gen. xxviii, 17] delivered in Ellington, June 25th, 1806, at the Dedication of the new Meeting house, in that place. Hartford, 1807. pp. 24, 8°.
[B. Puhl C. H. S. Y. C.
3. A Missionary Sermon [from II Cor. viii, 9], delivered in the North Presbyterian Meeting house, in Hartford, on the evening of May 19, 1812, at the request of the Trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. Hartford, 1812. pp. 15, 8°.
[B. Ath. C. H. S. Y. C.
4. A Sermon [from Zech. iv, 6], preached at Hartford, before the Honorable General Assembly, of the State of Connecticut, on the Anniversary Election, May 11, 1815. Hartford, 1815. pp. 29, 8°. [B. Ath. Br. Mus. B. Puhl. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
5. A Sermon [from Eccl. i, 4] preached in Ellington, January 6th, the first Sabbath in the year 1828. Hartford, 1828. pp. 28, 8°.
[C. H. S. Y. C. A touching address on the swift changes of life.
Biographical Sketches, lypy a65
AUTHORITIES.
/. Brace, Half -Century Discourse, Conn. Quarterly (1898), iv, 192-93- 72. Brockway Genealogy, 8, 11-12. Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 520.
Bennet Bronson was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on November 14, 1775, being the youngest son of Deacon Stephen Bronson, a thrifty farmer of Waterbury, and grandson of Deacon Thomas and Susanna (Southmayd) Bronson. His mother was Sarah, eldest daughter of Caleb and Susanna (Todd) Humaston, of Waterbury. A sister married John Kingsbury (Yale 1786).
From an early period his father had intended that he should go to College ; but the death of his two elder broth- ers made him so necessary for farm labor that it was not until 1790 that he was sent to Cheshire, to study with the Rev. John Foot, in whose family he resided. After six months he returned, and alternately labored on the farm and studied, until May, 1793, when he went back to Mr. Foot's to complete his preparation.
The first year after graduation he spent in teaching school and working his father's farm. In September, 1798, he engaged in a school at Derby Landing; but before the end of the first quarter he received the appointment of First Lieutenant in the provisional army of the United States. He finished the quarter, and entered on the recruiting service in May, 1799. His regiment was quar- tered at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, for the ensuing winter, and disbanded by an act of Congress in June, i8cx).
He had by this time determined on a profession, and the next week after his return he began the study of law under the Hon. Noah B. Benedict, of Woodbury. In April, 1802, he was admitted to the bar in Litchfield County, and the next summer opened an office in his native town.
In May, 1809, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and was re-appointed annually until 18 18, when the polit-
266 Yale College
ical revolution in Connecticut dismissed all Federalists from office. In May, 1827, he was again designated for that position, and held it for three years, after which he refused to serve. In May, 181 2, he was made one of the assistant Judges of the New Haven County Court, but after two years declined a reappointment. In May, 1824, he became Chief Justice of the same Court, and held that office for six years, or until a change of power in political parties occasioned his removal. Once only, in May, 1829, he rep- resented the town in the Legislature.
In the spring of 18 14 he became interested, for the first time, in the manufacturing business (clocks) ; and in the spring of 1823 he became a limited partner in a company for the manufacture of brass and gilt buttons, which proved very prosperous.
When the Waterbury Bank was organized, in 1848, Judge Bronson was one of its most influential friends, and the stock was taken up with the understanding that he was to be its chief officer. He subscribed largely himself, and served as president until his death.
In 1835, at the age of sixty, he relinquished the practice of law, and thenceforth devoted the most of his time to the management of his farm and other domestic concerns. From an early period of life he had been an extensive land owner, and a successful cultivator of the soil.
As a lawyer he was sound and discriminating, but not brilliant, nor ready as a speaker. On the bench he was thoroughly competent, upright, and able. As a man he was respected wherever he was known for his prudence, good judgment, and admirable common sense. He was an ancient Puritan in his reverence for truth and justice, for simplicity of life and piety. In politics he was an unflinch- ing Federalist. He united with the Congregational Church in 1833, was chosen a deacon in 1838, held the office for six years, and then resigned.
He had a good constitution, and with few exceptions enjoyed uninterrupted health. In September, 1850, he
Biographical Sketches, lygi ^67
was taken slightly ill, at first with a boil on the knee. This was followed by erysipelatous inflammation. His fine physical powers gradually gave way, and he died at his home in Waterbury, on December 11, 1850, in his 76th year.
He married, on May 11, 1801, Anne, younger daughter of Richard and Annis (Hurd) Smith, of Roxbury, Con- necticut, and sister of Judge Nathaniel Smith (hon. M.A. Yale 1795) and Senator Nathan Smith (hon. M.A. Yale 1808), who died on March 4, 1819, from consumption.
On May 6, 1820, he married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Deacon Benjamin and Rebecca (Taintor) Maltby, of Northford parish, in Branford, Connecticut, who died on June 12, 1840, at the age of 56.
He married, thirdly, on May 27, 1841, his second cousin, Nancy, youngest daughter of Jacob and Rhoda (Humis- ton) Daggett, of New Haven, and niece of Captain Henry Daggett (Yale 1771), who survived him and died in New Haven on August 14, 1867, in her 84th year.
By his first wife he had four sons and three daughters, and by his second wife two daughters. All of these reached maturity, except one daughter, who died in infancy. The eldest son died of consumption in his 21st year. The other sons were graduated at Yale, and the eldest (M.D. 1827) became a Professor in the Medical Department and a large benefactor of the University.
An engraving from his portrait is given in Anderson's History of Waterbury.
He took a great interest in local history, and began early to collect material for the history of Waterbury, but never proceeded to publication.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, A7^77- Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, Appendix, 24, 28, 75 ; iii, 597, 797-98. J, 677. Doggett-Daggett Family, 142. Bronson, Hist, of Waterbury, 379-84, Maltby Genealogy, 19-21.
268 Yale College
RuFUS Bunnell, the third in a family of ten children of Deacon Israel Bunnel, of Cheshire, then part of Wal- lingford, Connecticut, and grandson of Ebenezer and Lydia (Clark) Bunnel, of Cheshire, was born on March 19, 1777. His mother was Jerusha, only child of Captain Benjamin and Azubah (Hildridge) Dowd, of Middletown.
After graduation he began the study of medicine; but soon after the year 1800 was persuaded by his former fellow-townsman, Samuel A. Law (Yale 1792), to settle in Meredith, in Delaware County, New York, where he engaged in business.
On March 4, 1804, he married Diantha, second daughter of Abner and Elizabeth (Root) Fitch, of Coventry, Con- necticut. Her father had died in 1797, and Mrs. Fitch then married Captain John Mills, of Cherry Valley, New York, after whose speedy death she settled in Delhi, an adjoining town to Meredith.
In 1806 Mr. Bunnell removed to Delhi, and there, and in the town next above it, Kortright, in addition to his pre- vious business, engaged in the manufacture of pot and pearl ashes, and in lumbering on the Delaware River for the- market of Philadelphia, in partnership with his wife's second brother, Dr. Thomas Fitch.
In 18 10 the partners removed to Philadelphia, and opened a lumber yard, which they managed with profit until the spring of 1812. Business being then seriously impaired by the state of the country, the partnership was dissolved.
At the close of the war, in 181 5, Mr. Bunnell removed to New York City and entered into partnership with Joseph D. Beers, in the money-exchange and brokerage business. This business they extended to the principal places in the South, connecting with it the factorage of cotton, and also dealing in that article on their own account.
In 1823 he took personal charge of the branch office in Charleston, South Carolina, and continued there until the
Biographical Sketches, ijgy 269
spring of 1825, when he sailed for England, in the hope of benefiting his health, which was generally delicate and was then more impaired than usual.
Before sailing he had risked a large amount on the probable advance of price in cotton, and on finding in England that prices had fallen greatly, the impending loss so affected him in his feeble state of health that he became insane. His wife brought him home immediately, but he did not rally, and he died suddenly, from an attack of chol- era morbus, in a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June II, 1826, in his 50th year.
His widow, "a lady of much intellectual vivacity and charm, removed about 1833 from New York to Bridgeport, where she died on June 16, 1858, in her 8ist year.
Their children were four sons, — of whom the eldest died in infancy. The third son was graduated at Yale in 1826.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 665. 17. \StHes^ Stranahan family gene- Dwight, Strong Family, i, 312, 316- alogy, 72, 77-79-
Elisha Chapman was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, on December 3, 1777, being the eighth in a family of twelve children of Captain Elisha and Huldah (Lord) Chapman, and a nephew of the Rev. Hezekiah Chapman (Yale 1766). He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he spent some time in school-keep- ing,— in his native district, in Colchester, Connecticut, and perhaps elsewhere.
His leisure hours during this period were employed in the study of medicine; and he afterwards went to Hart- ford, where he completed his course of study with Dr. Mason F. Cogswell (Yale 1780), in the early part of 1801.
He then went to New London, and advertised for prac- tice. Not meeting with immediate encouragement, he
270 Yale College
made a voyage to Demerara, in British Guiana, with the design of establishing himself there as a physician, — at the same time acting as agent for the sale of various medicines.
After residing in Demerara about three months he took the fever of the country, and died on December 30, 1801, at the age of 24, being the first of the Class to be removed by death.
He was unmarried.
AUTHORITIES. Chapman Family, 197.
AsAHEL Clarke^ the third and eldest surviving son of Asahel Clarke, a farmer of Lebanon Crank, now Columbia, Connecticut, and grandson of Joseph and Rebecca (Hunt- ington) Clarke, of Lebanon, was born on July 25, 1776. His mother was Eleanor, fourth daughter of Lieutenant Caleb and Phebe (Lyman) Strong, of Northampton, Mas- sachusetts, and sister of Governor Caleb Strong (Har- vard 1764). The Rev. WiUiam B. Clarke (Yale 1849) was a nephew.
He labored on his. father's farm until he was sixteen, after which his preparation for College was conducted under Ebenezer Dutton (Yale 1787), of Lebanon.
On leaving College he pursued, with some interruptions, the study of law, under the direction of Judge Sylvester Gilbert (Dartmouth Coll. 1775), of Hebron; was admitted to the bar in 1800; and began practice (after a brief inter- val of residence in Coventry, Connecticut) in his native village.
His professional career was a successful one, and he had represented the town four times in the State legisla- ture, when in June, 181 5, all his prospects were shattered by a severe accident. His skull was fractured by the fall of a cart-tongue on his head, and this was followed by
Biographical Sketches, lypy *7*
months of suffering and debility. He gradually resumed the care of his affairs, but his faculties, both of mind and body, were much weakened. He resumed for a time the practice of his profession, but the effort was too painful, and he was finally persuaded to relinquish it.
He then turned his entire attention to agriculture, and was so occupied until his removal in his old age, in 1855, to the residence of his son, in Peoria, Illinois, where he died on October 14, 1865, in his 90th year.
He married, on September 6, 1804, Abigail, fourth daughter of Colonel Noadiah Hooker, of Farmington, Connecticut, and sister of John Hooker (Yale 1796), a lady of great excellence, who died in Columbia on Septem- ber 9, 1839, in her 60th year. She bore him six daughters and two sons, — all of whom grew to maturity, except the elder son, who died in infancy.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1194-95. Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 435. Hooker Descendants, 64, 139. Stiles,
Sylvester Dana was born in Ashford, Connecticut, on October 14, 1769, being the seventh child of Anderson and Susanna (Huntington) Dana, of Ashford, and a brother of Daniel Dana (Yale 1782). When he was three years old, the family removed into the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, where the father was killed by the Indians in the Wyoming massacre, in July, 1778. With his mother and six other children, this son made the weary and sor- rowful journey back to Ashford, and until he was seven- teen he labored on various farms in that vicinity, as he could find opportunity. In April, 1786, with his next older brother, he went to Wilkes-Barre, to cultivate the land belonging to his father's estate. The family pros- pered, so that he was able finally to return to Connecticut, and complete his preparation for College with the Rev.
274 Yale College
him in Latin and Greek; and he afterwards spent some months under the tuition of Barzillai Slosson (Yale 1781), of Sharon. In 1793 he entered an academy in New Mil- ford, from which he passed into College in the spring of
1794-
During his first year after graduation he attended the
law lectures of Judge Reeve in Litchfield; and then took
his brother's place as Tutor in Williams College for a year,
during which time he also read law under the direction
of the Hon. Daniel Dewey (honorary M.A. Yale 1792).
In September, 1799, he went to Hartford, where he read law for about three months with Theodore D wight (hon- orary M.A. Yale 1798), a younger brother of President Dwight, and was admitted to the bar in December.
He immediately entered on the practice of law in Hart- ford, where he resided for the rest of his life.
In June, 1805, he began to attend the sessions of the Supreme Court of the State, for the purpose of taking notes and reporting the decisions of that body; and he so attended until provision was made by law for the appoint- ment of a Reporter, when he was appointed to that office in June, 1814, and held it until his retirement in 1853.
In October, 1809, he was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut to act as Secretary of State, in the disability of Secretary Wyllys; and in 1810 he was elected to that office by the people, and held it by annual re-election for twenty-five years, or until May, 1835.
In May, 181 5, he was appointed Associate Judge of the Hartford County Court, and annually afterwards (one year excepted) until May, 1825, when he was made Chief Judge, in which office he continued until June, 1833.
In March, 1818, as one of the two senior aldermen of the city, he became one of the Judges of the City Court, continuing as such by annual election until March, 183 1.
In addition to his abundant official labors he was actively interested in a great number of the educational, philan- thropic, and religious institutions of the city and State.
Biographical Sketches, lygj «7S
In 1847 Yale College conferred on him the honorary- degree of Doctor of Laws.
After premonitory symptoms, extending over nearly a year, he had, in October, 1854, a slight stroke of paralysis, and he died in Hartford from a second attack, on March I, 1855, in his 78th year.
A good portrait of him, painted in his old age, belongs to the Connecticut Historical Society, of which he was one of the founders and President.
As an accurate and learned lawyer he had few superiors ; and still fewer as a reporter.
He married, on March 18, 1813, Sarah, fourth daughter of Wheeler and Sibyl (Tracy) Coit, he being a merchant of that part of Preston which is now Griswold. She died on July 21, 1865, in her 79th year. Their children were six daughters and two sons, one of whom died in infancy. The elder son was graduated at Yale in 1837. The eldest daughter married Governor Alexander H. Holley, of Connecticut; the second married Professor Nathan P. Seymour (Yale 1834) ; the third married the Rev. Samuel J. Andrews (Williams Coll. 1839) 5 ^^^ ^^ fourth married John P. Putnam, a classmate of her brother.
He published:
1. The Suicide. A Dialogue exhibited on the Stage at the Public Commencement of Yale-College, Sept. 13th, M.DCC. XCVII. Litchfield. 8°, pp. 20. {Y.C.
Anonymous. In blank verse.
2. An Oration, on Party Spirit, pronounced before the Connect- icut Society of Cincinnati, convened at Hartford, for the Celebra- tion of American Independence, on the 4th of July, 1798. Litchfield. 8°, pp. 28. [C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
A highly rhetorical effort, in favor of the Federalists.
3. A historical Discourse, delivered before the Connecticut Historical Society, and the Citizens of Hartford, on the Evening of the 26th day of December, 1843. Hartford, 1844. 8°, pp. 36.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
274 Yde College
him in Latin and Greek; and he afterwards spent some months under the tuition of Barzillai Slosson (Yale 1781), of Sharon. In 1793 he entered an academy in New Mil- ford, from which he passed into College in the spring of
1794-
During his first year after graduation he attended the
law lectures of Judge Reeve in Litchfield; and then took
his brother's place as Tutor in Williams College for a year,
during which time he also read law under the direction
of the Hon. Daniel Dewey (honorary M.A. Yale 1792).
In September, 1799, he went to Hartford, where he read law for about three months with Theodore D wight (hon- orary M.A. Yale 1798), a younger brother of President Dwight, and was admitted to the bar in December.
He immediately entered on the practice of law in Hart- ford, where he resided for the rest of his life.
In June, 1805, he began to attend the sessions of the Supreme Court of the State, for the purpose of taking notes and reporting the decisions of that body; and he so attended until provision was made by law for the appoint- ment of a Reporter, when he was appointed to that ofiice in June, 1814, and held it until his retirement in 1853.
In October, 1809, he was appointed by the General Assembly of Connecticut to act as Secretary of State, in the disability of Secretary Wyllys; and in 1810 he was elected to that ofiice by the people, and held it by annual re-election for twenty-five years, or until May, 1835.
In May, 181 5, he was appointed Associate Judge of the Hartford County Court, and annually afterwards (one year excepted) until May, 1825, when he was made Chief Judge, in which office he continued until June, 1833.
In March, 1818, as one of the two senior aldermen of the city, he became one of the Judges of the City Court, continuing as such by annual election until March, 1831.
In addition to his abundant official labors he was actively interested in a great number of the educational, philan- thropic, and religious institutions of the city and State.
Biographical Sketches, lygj 275
In 1847 Yale College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
After premonitory symptoms, extending over nearly a year, he had, in October, 1854, a slight stroke of paralysis, and he died in Hartford from a second attack, on March I, 1855, in his 78th year.
A good portrait of him, painted in his old age, belongs to the Connecticut Historical Society, of which he was one of the founders and President.
As an accurate and learned lawyer he had few superiors ; and still fewer as a reporter.
He married, on March 18, 181 3, Sarah, fourth daughter of Wheeler and Sibyl (Tracy) Coit, he being a merchant of that part of Preston which is now Griswold. She died on July 21, 1865, in her 79th year. Their children were six daughters and two sons, one of whom died in infancy. The elder son was graduated at Yale in 1837. The eldest daughter married Governor Alexander H. Holley, of Connecticut; the second married Professor Nathan P. Seymour (Yale 1834) ; the third married the Rev. Samuel J. Andrews (Williams Coll. 1839) 5 ^^<i the fourth married John P. Putnam, a classmate of her brother.
He published:
1. The Suicide. A Dialogue exhibited on the Stage at the Public Commencement of Yale-College, Sept. 13th, M.DCC. XCVII. Litchfield. 8°, pp. 20. [F. C.
Anonymous. In blank verse.
2. An Oration, on Party Spirit, pronounced before the Connect- icut Society of Cincinnati, convened at Hartford, for the Celebra- tion of American Independence, on the 4th of July, 1798. Litchfield. 8°, pp. 28. [C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
A highly rhetorical effort, in favor of the Federalists.
3. A historical Discourse, delivered before the Connecticut Historical Society, and the Citizens of Hartford, on the Evening of the 26th day of December, 1843. Hartford, 1844. 8°, pp. 36.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
a 76 Yale College
He also, in conjunction with his classmate Murdock, published in 1848 the Memoirs of the Class of 1797, which have been invaluable in the preparation of the present sketches.
The great work of his life was that begun in the volume entitled : Reports of Cases, argued and determined in the Supreme Court
of Errors, of the State of Connecticut, in the years 1802, 1803, and
1804. Vol. I. Hartford, 1806. 8°, pp. vii, 339. Two series of twenty-six volumes were published, — the last in
1853 ; and several pamphlets, containing extracts from the prefatory
or appended historical matter, were separately issued.
Another work of somewhat similar character was the second vol- ume of A Digested Index to the reported Decisions of the several Courts of Law in the United States, New York, 1816, 8°, pp. 651 ; in continuation of volume one by John Anthon (1813).
He also published A Digest of the Reported Cases, decided by the Supreme Court of Errors of the State of Connecticut, from 1786 to 1838. Hartford, 1840. 8°, pp. xi, 507.
[t/. S. Yale Law School.
He also edited three collections of the Public Statute Laws of the State: — the first in 1808, in conjunction with John Treadwell and Enoch Perkins (pp. xiv, 118, 696) ; the second in 1821, in con- junction with Zephaniah Swift and Lemuel Whitman (pp. xvi, 512) ; and the third in 1824, in conjunction with Seth P. Beers and Lemuel Whitman (pp. xii, 502),
He also edited several English works on law, in which he intro- duced notices of American decisions, with other improvements. Among these were: —
Bosanquet and Puller's Reports, 5 vols., Hartford, 1810-11. Coke's Commentary upon Littleton, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1812. Ord's Essay on the Law of Usury, Hartford, 1809.
He furnished Dr. Sprague in 1849 with a sketch of his father, which was published in the Annals of the American Pulpit, volume I, pp. 688-93 (1857).
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman, Coit Genealogy, 65, 130. Society's Memorial Biographies, ii, Day Genealogical Register, 2d ed., 20, 335-39. Putnam, Chronicles of the 29. N. E. Historic Genealogical Day family, passim.
i
Biographical Sketches, ijgj 277
Warren Button, a son of Deacon Ebenezer Dutton, of East Haddam, Connecticut, and brother of Ebenezer Dut- ton (Yale 1787), was born in East Haddam in May, 1774. The family removed to Lebanon, in 1787, and his prepara- tion for College was begim under the instruction of the Rev. Dr. William Lyman (Yale 1784), of Millington Parish, in East Haddam, but was chiefly gained under his brother Ebenezer, who taught school in Connecticut for some years. He delivered a poem at his graduation.
He then began the study of divinity in New Haven under President D wight; but in January, 1798, he accepted the appointment of Tutor in Williams College, and continued in that office till September, 1800, when he was transferred to a tutorship at Yale. At Commencement in that year he delivered a Master's Oration on the Present State of Literature in the United States.
He had already acquired a considerable reputation as a writer, and within three months after his return to New Haven he was selected to be the editor of a political news- paper in Boston under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. Jedidiah Morse and other leading men of the ultra Federalist School. The paper, previously known as The Massa- chusetts Mercury, appeared for the first time on January I, 1 80 1, with the title of The Mercury and New England Palladium, and he conducted it with much ability for about two years.
In 1803, having completed his law studies in the office of John Lowell (Harvard Coll. 1786), an eminent coun- selor in Boston, he was admitted to the bar and entered on the practice of his profession in that city. Very soon afterwards Mr. Lowell retired and went to Europe for his health, leaving much business in Mr. Dutton's hands. This at once gave him a large share of professional employ- ment, and he became extensively known as a lawyer.
On June 3, 1806, he was married by the Rev. Charles Lowell, a brother of the bride, to Elizabeth Cutts, the sec-
278 Yale College
ond daughter of Judge John Lowell (Harvard Coll. 1760), of Boston, by his second wife, Rebecca Russell Tyng, and the sister of his best friend.
In 181 1, and again in 1820, he represented the town of Boston in the State legislature, and in the latter year was a member of the Convention for revising the State Con- stitution. In 1 82 1 he was a member of the Massachusetts Senate.
In 1825, his health being somewhat impaired, he visited Europe ; and from the time of his return, after an absence of about fifteen months, he engaged only occasionally in the practice of his profession, — for the last time before the Supreme Court at Washington in 1837.
The later years of his life were spent in Brighton, a suburb of Boston, where he died on March 3, 1857, i'^ ^^^ 83d year. His widow died there on January 8, 1864, in her 8ist year.
Their children were three sons, all of whom attained to manhood; the second (who changed his name to Russell on the inheritance of certain property) was graduated at Harvard in 1829, and the youngest in 1831.
He published:
1. The present state of literature; a Poem, delivered in New- Haven, at the Public Commencement of Yale-College, September 10, 1800. Hartford, 1800. 8°, pp. 16.
[A.A.S. B.Ath. B.Puhl. C.H.S. Harv. M.H.S. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Piibl. U. T. S. Y. C. Unusually sprightly and clever. A passage is given to the ridicule of Abraham Bishop's Oration on poUtical delusion.
2. An Oration, pronounced July 4, 1805, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in commemoration of American Independence. [Boston, 1805.] 8°, pp. 16.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Y. C. In part devoted to criticism of Jefferson's administration.
3. An Address deHvered to the Members of the Bar of Suffolk, at their Annual Meeting, in September, 1819. Boston, 1819. 8°, pp. 18.
Biographical Sketches, ijgj 279
\A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. S. On the rank and importance of the law as a profession, with reflections on its advancement.
He delivered the anniversary Phi Beta Kappa Oration at New Haven in December, i8cx), but it was not published.
AUTHORITIES.
Boston Record Commissioners' ii, 160-66. Lowell Genealogy, 64. Reports, xxx, 243. Buckingham, Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 549. Specimens of newspaper literature.
Timothy Field, the fourth child and elder son of Cap- tain Timothy Field, of East Guilford, now Madison, Con- necticut, and grandson of David and Abigail (Tyler, Stone) Field, of Madison, was born on September 28, 1775. His mother was Anna, daughter of David and Anna (Tall- man) Dudley, of North Madison. His younger brother was graduated at Yale in 1802. His College career was a distinguished one, and the oration which he delivered at graduation on Theoretical Philosophy, won great applause.
He studied theology with President Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the Eastern Association of New Haven County on May 28, 1799.
On President Dwight's recommendation he was imme- diately invited to Canandaigua, New York, then a small town, where a Congregational (afterwards Presbyterian) Church of eighteen members had recently been organized. On February 27, 1800, he was ordained and installed as their pastor ; but the field proved a discouraging one, and he took a dismission in June, 1805.
He had married, on January 3, 1801, Wealthy, daughter of Josiah and Ann (Crampton) Bishop, of Madison, and now removed his family to his old home, and started on a search for re-employment.
He was finally called on November 18, 1806, and installed on January 30, 1807, as pastor of the West (Congrega-
28o Yale College
tional) Church of fifty-six members in Westminster, in southeastern Vermont. The sermon on that occasion was preached by Professor Roswell Shurtleff, of Dartmouth College.
His active pastorate closed with the year 1834, though he was not formally dismissed until the installation of his successor on March 31, 1835. His ministry here was emi- nently useful. Though the parish was not large, he received into the church 375 persons, on profession of their faith. In 1830 he was a member of the Convention for altering the Constitution of the State.
After his dismission he continued to live in the parish, and occasionally supplied the pulpit and taught in the Sabbath-school.
In the latter part of the year 1843 ^^ was attacked with a disease of the brain, and was removed to the Insane Hospital in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he died on Feb- ruary 22, 1844, in his 69th year.
He was a man of much more than average ability and scholarship, and gifted with the power of biting sarcasm.
His wife died in Westminster, of the spotted fever, on April 17, 1814, aged 41 years. By her he had seven children, of whom only two sons and one daughter lived to grow up.
He next married, on January i, 1815, Mrs. Susanna Lusk, a daughter of Timothy and Anne (Ashley) Pom- eroy, of Northampton, Massachusetts, by whom he had three sons, all of whom grew to maturity. Mrs. Field died on January 10, 1864, in her 87th year.
He published:
1. A Sermon [from Hebr. vii, 6], delivered at Westminster, September 15, 1816. 8°, pp. 20. [J7. T. S.
On the promises and blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.
2. Two Sermons [from I Cor. x, 17; I Thess. iii, 8], delivered at Westminster, November 7, 1824, on the Sabbath when ninety-three persons were admitted into the Communion of the Church. Bellows Falls, 1825. 8°, pp. 31. [U. T. S.
Biographical Sketches, lypy 281
3. A Sermon [from Ps. cxiii, 5], preached November 12, A. D. 1829, in Westminster, West Parish, Vermont, at the Dedication of a new meeting-house. Brattleboro, 1830. 8°, pp. 15.
■ [U. T. S. Y. C.
^AUTHORITIES.
Congregational Quarterly, xi, 51- Hist. Gazetteer, v, 643-44. Hotch- 52. H. M. Field, Field Family kin, Hist, of Western N. Y., 33. Record, 10-12. Hemenway, Vermont Pierce, Field Genealogy, i, 277, 421-23.
' Samuel Augustus Foot, the third son and seventh child of the Rev. John Foot (Yale 1765), of Cheshire, Con- necticut, was born in Cheshire on November 8, 1780, and was thus the youngest among those graduated in this Class. His eldest brother had been graduated in 1790, and another brother was a classmate. He entered College in June of the Freshman year.
For a few months after taking his degree he studied law with Daniel N. Brinsmade (Yale 1772), of Washing- ton, Connecticut, and then entered the Law School of Judge Reeve in Litchfield. But his health, which had always been delicate, soon broke down, so that he was obliged to relinquish his design of practicing law, and turned his attention to more active occupations.
In March, 1803, ^e married Eudocia, eldest daughter of General Andrew and Elizabeth Mary Ann ( Atwater) Hull, of Cheshire, and about the same time settled in New Haven as a West-India trader. His business was broken up by the war of 1812, and this with the declining health of his father led him to return in 1813 to Cheshire, where he devoted himself to his farm.
He now had leisure and opportunity to share in the party politics of the day, and before long became known as a zealous and active partisan in the ranks of the Anti- Federalists.
In the sessions of the General Assembly in 18 17 and 18 18, when his party gained the ascendency in the State, he was a representative from Cheshire, and a leading mem-
aSa Yale College
ber of the House. In April, 182 1, he was at the same elec- tion chosen a State Senator and a Representative; and with a wise regard to his popularity and future prospects, he declined the higher station and accepted the lower. In the two succeeding years he again represented the town in the Legislature, and during this service he was elected a Representative in Congress for the term of two years.
Immediately after the expiration of this term, he again, in May, 1825, represented his native town in the General Assembly, and was Speaker of the House. In 1826 he filled the same offices; and during the session he was appointed a Senator in Congress for the full term of six years, beginning in March, 1827. The latter part of this term was rendered memorable by his introduction of the resolution that the sale of the public lands be suspended, which occasioned the great debate between Hayne and Webster. He was defeated as a candidate for re-election, but in April, 1833, was elected a Representative in Con- gress for two years from the 4th of March in that year.
In 1834 the Connecticut Whigs who were in opposition to Jackson's administration nominated Mr. Foot for the governorship. He obtained a plurality of the votes cast, and • the election was thereby thrown into the General Assembly, which gave it to him.
He accordingly resigned his seat in Congress, to serve as Governor, and was again the Whig candidate for the same office the next year, but was defeated.
After this he retired from public service, except for his candidacy as a presidential elector on the Clay and Fre- linghuysen ticket in 1844.
He died at his residence in Cheshire, after an illness of some months, on September 15, 1846, in his 66th year. His widow died at the house of her eldest son, in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 12, 1849, ^t the age of 66, and her body was brought to Cheshire for interment.
Their children were six sons, of whom three died in early life. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1823,
Biographical Sketches, 1797 283
and the second reached high distinction as an Admiral in the United States Navy.
Governor Foot, while a strong party man, retained the respect of all for his high character and attractive social qualities. The College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1834.
His portrait is reproduced in Norton's Governors of Connecticut, and another in The Green Bag, volume 3.
From a similarity of name his career is sometimes con- fused with that of his third cousin, Samuel Alfred Foot (Union College 181 1), a distinguished lawyer and judge of New York City and Geneva, New York.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 745- 556. Norton, Governors of Conn.,
46, 818. Foote Family (1907), 75, 175-80. Royall, Letters from Ala-
188, 533-34. Goodwin, Foote Family, bama, 176. Ward Family Genealogy,
210, 245-46, 325-26. Green Bag, iii, 147, 234.
William Lambert Foot, the next elder brother of the preceding graduate, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, on October 10, 1778. After a period of early ill-health, he began the study of Latin with his father at the age of twelve, and joined the Freshman Class in the spring of
1794. At graduation he was undecided as to a profession, and
for a year he remained at home without employment. He
then concluded to study medicine, and put himself under
the instruction of his first cousin, Dr. William B. Hall
(Yale 1786), of Middletown.
In 1799 he was licensed and began practice in his native
town in connection with the husband of his sister Lucinda,
Dr. Thomas T. Cornwall. After two or three years, his
health failing, he engaged in mercantile business for about
five years. Then, having recovered his health, he resumed
practice, and continued to respond to professional calls
until disabled by rheumatism and old age.
a84 Yale College
He was a member of the State Legislature in 1839, J^dge of Probate for the district of Cheshire for four years (1835-38), Town Clerk and Treasurer for six years, and also held other town offices.
He died in Cheshire on August 7, 1849, i^ ^is 71st year.
On March 18, 1801, he married Mary, daughter of Cap- tain Dan Scovill, of Saybrook.
Their children were three sons and three daughters, all of whom survived their father. The eldest son followed his father's profession.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 745. Goodwin, Foote Family, 210, 245. Foote Family (1907), 75, 187-88.
Charles Goodrich was born in Pittsfield, Massachu- setts, on April 2, 1778, being the eldest son of Judge Charles Goodrich, of Pittsfield, by his second wife, Han- nah, daughter of Samuel Ward, and grandson of Colonel David and Prudence (Churchill) Goodrich, of Wethers- field, Connecticut. His father was a half-brother of the father of the Rev. EHzur Goodrich (Yale 1752). He was prepared for College at the Williamstown Academy, before its incorporation as Williams College. He joined the church in Yale College at the end of his Senior year.
On Sunday, September 17, four days after graduation, he married Amelia, daughter of Isaac Jones (Yale 1757), of New Haven, by his third wife, Sybil Benjamin, Mr. Jones's second wife having been Mr. Goodrich's (much older) half-sister.
He now returned to Pittsfield, and took the oversight of his father's farm. About the year 1803 he lost for a time his religious faith, and on recovering it felt impelled to enter the ministry.
Accordingly he began theological studies with the Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde (Dartmouth College 1788), of Lee, Mas- sachusetts; but was not able to leave his aged father for
Biographical Sketches, ly^j 285
a parish. In 1809 he was chosen a deacon in the new Union Church, and retained this office until he entered the ministry. He also held for fourteen years a commission as Justice of the Peace, being active in the counsels of the Federalist party.
His father having died in November, 1816, in his 97th year, he was licensed to preach in 1822, and in June, 1824, was ordained as an evangelist bv the Berkshire Association of ministers.
For a few months he supplied the pulpit in Great Har- rington; and then, by appointment of the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society, he preached to two small destitute churches in Berkshire County for five or six months.
He likewise fulfilled missions in Herkimer County, and in Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York ; and for a time supplied the congregations of West Stockbridge and South Hadley, in Massachusetts.
In the spring and summer of 1827 he was preaching in Worcester and Millbury, Massachusetts, and received about eighty members to those churches under his minis- trations.
In the fall of 1830 he sold his patrimony in Pittsfield, and in 1 83 1 removed to Havana, in the present township of Montour, Schuyler County, New York, where three of his children had previously settled. After purchasing an * estate there, he preached as a stated supply to several con- gregations in the vicinity for about ten years, until disabled by a severe illness.
In 1852 he removed to the house of one of his daughters in Penn Yan, New York, where he died on June 16, 1871, in his 94th year, being the last survivor of his Class.
He had five sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to maturity except the eldest son. The second son was graduated at the Berkshire Medical College in 1826.
AUTHORITIES. Goodrich Family, 49, 81.
,tflB6 Yale College
George Griffin was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, on January 14, 1778, being the third son of George Griffin, and a brother of Edward Dorr Griffin, of the Class of 1790. He was prepared for College in the short space of eight months, under the instruction of the Rev. Frederick W. Hotchkiss (Yale 1778), of Saybrook, and he entered Col- lege after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he began the study of law with Noah B. Benedict (Yale 1788), of Woodbury, and six months later he removed to the Law School at Litchfield.
He was admitted to the bar in December, 1799, and in the summer of 1800 settled in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he pursued his profession for more than six years. The immediate cause of his leaving there was a practical joke which was perpetrated on him in his being elected high constable of the borough.
Late in the fall of 1806 he removed to New York City, and from that date for fifty-two years, or until prevented by old age and its infirmities, he proceeded steadily in the active exercise of his profession, from which he derived both fame and fortune.
Late in life his mind turned strongly to theological studies and to the enjoyment of general literature.
As a lawyer he combined in an eminent degree moving eloquence and a thorough knowledge of his profession. He was also distinguished as an adviser in chambers, and rarely gifted in the power of settling controversies and arranging complicated details with laborious con- scientiousness.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Columbia College in 1837.
He died at his residence in New York, on May 6, i860, in his 83d year, from softening of the brain, ending in paralysis.
While residing in Wilkes-Barre he married, on July 3, 1801, Lydia, daughter of Colonel Zebulon Butler, a dis-
Biographical Sketches, i/py 287
tinguished officer of the Revolution, and Phebe (Haight) Butler, who died on May i, 1864.
Their children were four sons and four daughters ; two of the latter died in infancy.
The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1822, and fol- lowed his father's profession, but died before him. The second son was graduated at Columbia College in 1823, and entered the ministry, but died after a brief and brilliant career. The third and fourth sons were educated at Wil- liams College during their uncle's presidency.
He published :
1. The Sufferings of Christ. By a Layman. New- York, 1845. 12°, pp. 328. ' [A. C. A. Y. C.
The same, Second edition, revised and enlarged. New York, 1846. 12°, pp. 372. [U.T.S. Y.C.
An anonymous treatise, on the thesis that Christ suffered in his divine, as well as his human nature. The work was replied to, by the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler (Yale 1804).
2. The Gospel its own Advocate. New York, 1850. 12°, pp. 352.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. On the internal evidences of Christianity.
Besides the above, a number of his professional arguments found their way into print, as well as some of his addresses at meetings of philanthropic societies.
AUTHORITIES.
Historical Magazine, iv, 187-88. worth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 163, 196; Kulp, Families of the Wyoming Val- ii, 1002-03. ley, i, 334-35; JiJ, 1063-72. Wal-
Ira Hart was born in Bristol, then part of Farmington, Connecticut, on September 18, 1771, being the eldest child of Jonathan and Mary (Coe) Hart, of Farmington, and grandson of Thomas and Hannah (Coe) Hart, of Farmington.
He entered College in June of the Freshman year, and about the same time his father removed to Paris, in what
288 Yale College
is now Oneida County, New York. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in March of his Sophomore year. His College course was pursued under great discouragements on account of pecuniary embarrass- ment.
After graduation he studied theology at New Haven, under the instruction of President Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association of Ministers on June 5, 1798. He also held the Berkeley Scholarship during this year.
A Congregational Church had been organized in 1796 in Middlebury Society in Waterbury, Connecticut; and on November 7, 1798, Mr. Hart was ordained and installed as pastor. The people, however, soon became very gen- erally alienated from him on account of his severity in church-discipline, and a fierce and long continued struggle was only terminated by his dismissal on April 5, 1809. During his pastorate the community had enjoyed three seasons of religious revival, in which many were added to the Church.
During the summer of 1809 he supplied the pulpit in North Stonington, Connecticut, and in the fall he received a unanimous call to the pastorate of the First Congrega- tional Church, where he Vvas installed on December 6. Here he spent the remnant of his days, enjoying the respect and confidence of his own people and of his brethren in the ministry. After twenty years of constant service, he received a severe contusion in the side, about the middle of September, 1829, by a fall from his chaise. He lan- guished, in partial confinement to the house, until October 29, when he died suddenly, in his chair, at the age of 58.
He was married in New Haven by President Dwight, on December 3, 1798, to Maria, sister of the Rev. John Sherman (Yale 1792), who died in Stonington on Septem- ber 21, 1857, aged 83 years.
They had three sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity, except the second son, who died in his
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 289
Sophomore year at Yale, while a member of the Class of 1821.
He was earnest and popular as a preacher, and dis- tinguished for tenderness and sympathy in his pastoral labors.
He printed, in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine for August and September, 1802 (vol. 3, pp. 64-69, 102-09) :
A Narrative of a revival of religion in Middlebury in the years 1799 and 1800.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Ecclesiastical Hist of Conn., 421.
Appendix, 61. Andrews, Hart Fam- Religious Intelligencer, xiv, 460-61.
ily, 388, 421-23. Bronson, Hist, of Pres. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 560. Waterbury, 278. Contributions to the
Homer Hine was born in New Milford, Connecticut, on July 25, 1776, the second son in a family of ten children of Captain Noble Hine, a farmer, and Patience (Hubbell) Hine, and grandson of James and Margaret (Noble) Hine, of New Milford. A sister married the Rev. Charles A. Boardman (honorary M.A. Yale 1819). His father died just before the opening of his Senior year.
His early education was partly in the school of the Rev. Truman Marsh (Yale 1786), the Episcopal minister of New Milford, and partly at the hands of Mr. Marsh's classmate, the Congregational pastor of the town, the Rev. Stanley Griswold.
The first year after graduation he spent very pleasantly in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, as preceptor of an acad- emy. The next year was spent in the study of law, under the direction of Philo Ruggles (honorary M.A. Yale 1800), of New Milford; and during the year 1800 he attended the law school at Litchfield.
He was admitted to the bar in Litchfield in the spring of 1801, and in June of the same year emigrated to Canfield, in Mahoning County, Ohio, where he began practice. 19
290 Yale College
In 1806 he removed to Youngstown, in the same county, where he continued in the practice of law with good suc- cess until his retirement at the age of sixty-three. After his retirement he occupied himself in agriculture. He died in Youngstown on July 19, 1856, at the age of 80.
Between 1804 and 1825 he was four times a representa- tive of his county in the State Legislature. He was also the first postmaster upon the Western Reserve.
On October 5, 1807, he married Mary, daughter of Abraham and Mary (Ayres) Skinner, of Painesville, Ohio, who had removed from East Hartford, Connecticut, in 1805. They had eight children, of whom two sons died in infancy, and two daughters and four sons grew to maturity.
Mrs. Hine died on December 18, 1882, in her 94th year.
He published:
An Oration on the Death of Jabez Backus, a Member of the Freshman Class in Yale-College,, .who died March 14th, A. D. 1794, aged 17. Pronounced in Yale-College Chapel, July 21st, 1794. New-Haven. 8°, pp. 14. [B. Publ. M. H. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Boltwood, Noble Genealogy, 53. Hist, of New Milford, 716. Pres. Hine Genealogy, 37, 79-82. Orcutt, Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 527.
JiRAH IsHAM was bom in Westchester Society, in Col- chester, Connecticut, on May i, 1778, and was thus the youngest but one in the Class. His father was Captain John Isham, 2d, of Colchester, son of Joseph and Susanna Isham, of the same town; and his mother Eunice, fourth daughter of Thomas and Anna (Bingham) Baldwin of Bozrah.
After graduation he studied law for one year under the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), of New Haven, and then transferred himself to the care of the Hon. Jere- miah G. Brainard (Yale 1779), of New London, where he expected to settle for life.
Biographical Sketches, z/p/ 291
He was admitted to the bar in 1800, and continued in full practice in New London until his death there, on October 6, 1842, in his 65th year.
He was much respected as a man; and as a laborious student, an able and devoted adviser, a fluent and grateful speaker, his numerous clients trusted and honored him.
He held for nine years before his death the office of State's attorney for New London County; was elected Mayor of the city in 1837, but resigned in 1838; was Clerk of the Probate District of New London from 1830 to 1838, and Judge of the same Court for the last two years of his life.
During the war of 18 12, as one of the brigadier- generals of the State militia, he commanded for a time the troops stationed at New London and its vicinity, and commanded respect for his ability and courage.
He was married in New Haven by the Rev. Dr. James Dana, on August 29, 1799, to Lucretia, daughter of the late Dr. Leverett Hubbard (Yale 1744), who died soon in New London, at the age of 23.
He next married Sarah, eldest daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Tabor) Starr, of New London.
His third wife, whom he married about June i, 1823, was Elizabeth C, daughter of Major John P. Trott, of New London, who survived him, dying on July 23, 1844.
By his first wife he had one daughter, by his second wife four daughters, and by his third wife three daughters and five sons. All but one of his children survived him.
An engraving from his portrait is given in Hurd's History of New London County.
He published:
An Oration, commemorative of the illustrious Gen. Washington : delivered on the 226. of February, 1800, at the meeting-house in the West Society in Colchester, at the particular request of the inhabi- tants. New-London, 1800. 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
Now one of the rarest of the Washington orations.
igi Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, iii, New London County, 43. Starr 25. Caulkins, Hist, of New London, Family, 88. 620, 633, 662, 671. Hurd, Hist, of
Ezra Ives was born in Hamden, Connecticut, then part of New Haven, on March 18, 1776, the second son and fifth child of Ezra and Mabel Ives, of Hamden. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
Shortly after graduation he went South, probably to teach, and on his return, in about two years' time, began the study of medicine in Hartford with Dr. Mason F. Cogswell (Yale 1780).
He obtained his medical license, probably in 1801, and then went to the neighborhood of St. Helena's Island, South Carolina, midway between Charleston and Savan- nah. He resided in the village of Pocotaligo, in Prince William's parish, Beaufort district, and practiced over a wide neighborhood; and this continued until his death there in the early summer of 18 18, in his 43d year.
He is one of the heirs named in his father's will, which was- dated in 181 3; but the father outlived this son, and the distribution of his estate shows that Dr. Ives left no issue.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, August 25, 1818.
Bethel Judd was born in Watertown, then part of Waterbury, Connecticut, in May, 1776, being a son of Noah Judd, of Watertown, and grandson of Lieutenant John and Mercy (Bronson) Judd. His mother was Rebekah, second daughter of Jonathan and Rachel (Hickox) Prindle, of Waterbury. A younger brother received an honorary degree at Yale in 1820. He entered College in June of the Freshman year.
Biographical Sketches, lypy 293
His family attended the Episcopal Church, and on grad- uation he prepared himself for orders. He was ordained Deacon by Bishop Jarvis, of Connecticut, at Cheshire, on September 30, 1798, and for a couple of years (1799 to August, 1801 ) had charge of St. Paul's Church in Wood- bury, and^ of the adjoining parish of Roxbury. He was called thence to Hudson, New York, and became in 1802 Rector of Christ Church in that place, where he was advanced to the priesthood.
In 1806 or 1807 he supplied the small parish of Claver- ack, near Hudson.
In 1807 he was chosen Principal of St. John's College, Annapolis, and Rector of St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arun- del County, Maryland. The College was in a very low condition, and he left Annapolis in 181 1.
At the close of September in that year he was invited to become Rector of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Connect- icut, and in June, 181 3, he was elected one of the Standing Committee of the diocese. His resignation of this rector- ship was accepted on September 27, 1813. He resumed the position, however, in 18 14, and served until the sum- mer of'i8i6, when he became Rector of St. John's Church, Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was active and influential in the reorganization of the diocese, and was spoken of as a candidate for the Bishopric. Meantime he spent the summers with his family in Norwalk, and in 1818 he undertook a mission of two months among the destitute parishes of the eastern part of Connecticut, as an agent of the Christian Knowledge Society. In the course of his tour he came to New London for a Sunday, with the result that he received a call, on September 14, to the rectorship of St. James's Church in that city, which he accepted, and retained the charge for fourteen years. The smallness of his salary, however, compelled him to resort to the teach- ing of an academy for young women as an additional means of support.
When the vacancy in the Connecticut Episcopate was under consideration, in 1818-19, his name was brought
894 Yole College
forwards, especially by some of the most influential of the laity in New Haven, as being better fitted, on the whole, for the office than any presbyter in the diocese ; but, while his piety was unquestioned, and his views of the principles of the church were sound, he was not sufficiently popular with his brethren to command any general support.
He was elected a Trustee of Washington, now Trinity, College in 1830, and in 183 1 received from the same insti- tution the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In July, 1832, Dr. Judd was chosen by the Diocesan Convention Principal of the Episcopal Academy at Chesh- ire, and he at once removed thither, being Rector of the parish as well as head of the school. His services had ceased to be acceptable to a majority of the members of the parish at New London ; and he brought no vigor or pros- perity to the Cheshire institution.
Not meeting with the success that he anticipated, he resigned his office of Principal in October, 1835, having removed his residence some months previously to Norwalk.
He preached for a time in the neighboring parish of Wilton, but about 1837 removed to Ithaca, New York.
In 1843 ^^ l^ft Ithaca, and accepted a call from* Christ Church parish at Sacket's Harbor, in Jefferson County, where he was greatly prospered in his ministry for about three years.
In 1846 he removed to Avon Springs, Livingston County, on account of the health of his only surviving daughter, and had charge of the church there for about a year.
In the latter part of 1847 ^^ went to St. Augustine, Florida, with his daughter ; and though he had previously received an appointment as a missionary, yet on his arrival the vestry there elected him to the rectorship.
In the spring of 1848 he was obliged by his own illness to return to the North, and settled in Rochester, New York, and performed missionary labor for a short time.
His last years were spent partly in New York State, and partly with a son in Wilmington, Delaware, where he
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 295
died, after an illness of about three weeks, on April 8, 1858, at the age of 82. He retained his physical and men- tal vigor in a remarkable degree, and had preached within a month of his death. His body was brought to New London for burial.
He married, about the first of May, 1803, Margaret, daughter of 'Squire William Heron, of Redding, Connect- icut, and a sister of Maurice Heron (Yale 1806). She was a very accomplished woman, and died of consumption, in New London, on January 30, 1828, aged 50 years.
Of their seven children two died in infancy; of the three remaining sons the eldest was graduated at Brown University in 1824, and had entered the ministry before his early death. The youngest son was graduated at West Point in 1839.
He published:
1. A Sermon [from Gal. iv, 18], delivered at the Anniversary of the Episcopal Academy, Cheshire, Connecticut, Oct. 7, 1812. New- Haven, 1812. 8°, pp. 15. [Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
A plea for the promotion and diffusion of religious knowledge, by fostering the Academy.
2. Presbyterian Ordination doubtful. A Letter in two parts. . . Being a Reply to Plain Reasons for relying on Presbyterian Ordina- tion.. By Z. A. [= Rev. Luther Hart, Yale 1807]. 1819. 12°, pp.44, 30. [Y.C.
3. Baptism not Regeneration. A Sermon [from Deut. xxx, 6], preached in St. James' Church, New-London, Connecticut. New- London, 1820. 8°, pp. 20. [B. Publ. Y. C.
An exposition of the doctrine of the Articles and Liturgy in respect to baptism.
He also edited the following volume, by William Paley : — Moral Philosophy. Abridged and adapted to the Constitution,
Laws [etc.] . . of the United States. New- York, 1828. 12°, pp.
180. [B. Publ.
AUTHORITIES.
Beardsley, Hist, of the Episcopal Church, New London, 92-94- SeU
Church in Conn., ii, 96, 182-83, 201. leek, Address at Centenary of St.
Branson, Hist, of Waterbury, 512. Paul's Church, Norwalk, 13-iS.
Descendants of Thomas Judd, 42, 47. S Prague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit,
Hallam, Annals of St. James's v, 602.
296 Yale College
Asa Lyman, a younger brother of the Rev. Dr. William Lyman (Yale 1784), was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, on February 24, 1777.
After graduation he remained in New Haven, serving as College Butler, and studying divinity with President Dwight. He was licensed to preach by the Windham Association of Ministers in May, 1799, and after preach- ing elsewhere in the vicinity of New Haven, accepted a call (given June 23, 1800), with a salary of $4CX), to the Congregational Church of 87 members in Mount Carmel Society, in Hamden, where he was ordained on Septem- ber 9, 1800, — his brother preaching the sermon, which was afterwards published.
He was married on the 23d of the following December, to Mary, second daughter of Lieutenant Aaron and Esther (Trowbridge) Benedict, of Middlebury, an elder sister of Amos Benedict (Yale 1800).
His ministerial career had opened with much promise, but ill health obliged him to take a dismission from his parish in April, 1803, and to resort to teaching for a live- lihood. Twenty-six members had been added to the church under his ministry.
As his health returned he resumed preaching, and in 1805, while supplying the pulpit of the North Congrega- tional Church in Bath, Maine, he received a call to settle there. He accepted, and was installed on January i, 1806, but resigned in consequence of ill health on February 4, 1808, terminating his service on March 9.
He was again settled, in Windham, Maine, on Novem- ber 30, 1809, but on account of another failure of health laid down his office on June i, 1810.
He was then occupied for a short time in Portland, Maine, as a bookseller and publisher on a small scale, but without much success.
During the rest of his life his chief employment was teaching, in various localities.
Biographical Sketches, ij^y 297
In 1820 he conducted a boarding-school in Jamaica, Long Island.
In 1825 he supplied a short time the Presbyterian Church in Chatham, New Jersey.
In 1828 he removed to New York City, and for a time edited The Youth's Journal.
Early in 183 1 he removed to Buffalo, and after teaching there took charge of a boarding-school in Skaneateles, in Onondaga County.
About 1834 he removed to Clinton, in Oneida County, for the purpose of educating his sons in Hamilton College ; and he died there, on January 20, 1836, at the age of 59, having struggled all his life against the inroads of pulmon- ary disease.
His widow died in November, 1865, aged 88^ years.
They had three sons, of whom the eldest died in infancy, and five daughters, the second of whom married the Rev. Ebenezer Mead (Yale 1823). The second son was graduated at Hamilton College in 1837, entered the Episcopal ministry, and became Bishop of the diocese of North Carolina. The youngest son was graduated at Columbia College in 1840, and after entering the Epis- copal ministry became a priest in the Roman Catholic Church.
AUTHORITIES.
Benedict Genealogy, 374. Coleman, Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 509.
Lyman Family, 168, 175-76. Reed, Thayer, Centennial Discourse at
Hist, of Bath, 482. T. L. Smith, Mount Carmel, 11. Hist, of Windham, Me., 59-60. Pres.
Sylvester Maxwell, the youngest son of Colonel Hugh Maxwell, a native of Ireland, whose family removed to America in his childhood, was born in Heath, then a part of Charlemont, Franklin County, Massachusetts, on April 16, 1775. His mother was Bridget, second daugh- ter of William and Phoebe Munroe, of Lexington, Massa-
298 Yale College
chusetts. The Rev. Dr. Joshua Leavitt (Yale 18 14) was his nephew.
The town of Heath was newly settled, upon the moun- tains, and his early advantages were very small. At the age of seventeen his father resolved to give him a College education, and placed him under the teaching of his pastor, the Rev. Joseph Strong (Yale 1784) ; and his preparation was completed under that eminent instructor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman (Yale 1767), of Hatfield.
After graduation he spent a year in teaching the county academy in Burke County, Georgia. He then studied law in the office of the Hon. Samuel Hinckley (Yale 1781), of Northampton, Massachusetts, and on being admitted to the bar in 1801 established himself in the practice of law in Charlemont, where he resided until the close of his life, universally beloved and honored. His modesty, and perhaps his integrity and good sense, led him to be dis- tinguished rather as a counsellor than as an advocate at the bar. For many years the chief direction of the public affairs of the town lay in his hands, and he was repeatedly elected to both branches of the State Legislature.
He united with the Congregational Church in Charle- mont in 1824, and served as Superintendent of the Sunday School for about twenty years, and as Deacon for a briefer period. He was a man of rare purity and probity, dis- tinguished for his regard for justice and truth, as well as by his services as a peacemaker in composing neighborly strifes. He was no less remarkable for his sincerity in religion, his firm maintenance of gospel doctrine as he received it, and a love for all Christians regardless of names and peculiarities.
He died in Charlemont on December 21, 1858, in his 84th year.
On December 25, 1806, he married Tirzah, daughter of Deacon Lemuel and Abigail (White) Taylor, of the adjoining town of Buckland, by whom he had ten children, six of whom survived their parents, — the last dying in
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 299
1909. The youngest son died by accident while a member of the Sophomore Class in Williams College. Professor Charles U. Clark (Yale 1897) is a great-grandson.
Mrs. Maxwell died on September 17, 1857, aged 73 years. ■
AUTHORITIES.
C. U. Clark, MS. Letter, April, July, i860.
1910. Joshua Leavitt, MS. Letter,
James Murdock was born on February 16, 1776, in Westbrook, then part of Saybrook, Connecticut, the only son of Abraham Murdock; who was a brother of three Yale graduates, — Peter (1755), Jonathan (1766), and James (1774). Abraham Murdock died in 1777, and his widow — Hannah, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Spencer) Lay, of Westbrook — married in 1780 Seth Smith, of East Lyme, by whom she had a son who was graduated here in 1802.
James Murdock was prepared for College by his uncle, the Rev. Jonathan Murdock, of Bozrah. He joined the College Church on profession of faith in November, 1794. At graduation he delivered the Latin Oration, on the Importance of comparing and classing our Ideas. He then became Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven; and on relinquishing that office in March, 1799, he began the study of theology under President Dwight. He was also during the last two of these years a Scholar on the Berkeley foundation.
In the autumn of 1799, he joined his classmate Niles for one year in the charge of the academy which afterwards developed into Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York.
In September, 1800, he resumed his theological studies under the Rev. Asahel S. Norton (Yale 1790), of Clinton, and was licensed to preach in January, 1801, by the Oneida (Congregational) Association of Ministers. He returned to New Haven in April, and after briefer experiences else-
300 Yde College
where, was invited to preach, in the fall of 1801, as a can- didate for settlement in Princeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts. He received a unanimous call to settle there in March, 1802, and was ordained on June 23, on a salary of $366.
He possessed the unlimited confidence and esteem of his people, though for some years his ministry seemed com- paratively unfruitful; but in 1810 it was attended by a revival of religious interest, in which about fifty persons were added to the church. During his pastorate he was a close student, and made large acquisitions, especially in biblical and Oriental literature.
On October 11, 1815, he was dismissed from the pastorate, on being elected to the Professorship of the Greek and Latin languages in the University of Vermont, at Burlington. While filling that chair, he was also obliged to act as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
In 18 18 he was elected to the Professorship of languages in Dartmouth College, but declined.
In the spring of 18 19 he returned to Massachusetts, on accepting with some reluctance, after great urgency, an appointment as Brown Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Seminary at Andover. In the autumn of that year Harvard Univer- sity conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Difficulties soon arose between him and the other Pro- fessors, respecting his course of duties in the Seminary, and he offered his resignation in the fall of 1820. It was not, however, accepted, but the difficulties continued and at last issued in 1828 in his dismission from the institution.
In 1829 he removed to New Haven, where he resided for the rest of his life, very much retired, and devoted to pri- vate studies, especially in ecclesiastical history.
In the autumn of 1855 he went to Columbus, Mississippi, to spend the winter with his only surviving son, but about
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 301
the time of his intended return was attacked with disease, and died on August 10, 1856, aged 80^ years. He is buried in New Haven.
He was married in New Haven by the Rev. John Gem- mil, the second week in October, 1799, to Rebekah Lydia, youngest daughter of Jeremiah Atwater, the College Steward, and sister of Jeremiah M. Atwater (Yale 1785). She died in New Haven on December 27, 1832, in her 55th year.
They had ten children, six of whom died in infancy or early childhood; of the others, two sons and two daugh- ters, the elder son died at the age of 19. The elder daugh- ter married the Rev. Edward R. Tyler (Yale 1825), and the younger married the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel S. Richardson (Yale 1834).
An interesting sketch of his life, by the Rev. Dr. Rich- ardson, was printed in the Church Review for January, 1857, and afterwards separately.
Dr. Murdock was a thorough and painstaking scholar, with a well-balanced mind and accurate memory, great readiness in making his learning available, and untiring powers of acquisition.
He published:
1. A Sermon [from II Cor. v, 20], delivered at the Installation of the Rev. William Bascom, to the pastoral care of the Church of Christ in Leominster, May 10, 1815. Leicester, 1815. 8°, pp. 35.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-26.
2. Nature of the Atonement. — A Discourse [from Rom. iii, 25- 26] delivered Aug. 17, 1823, in the Chapel of the Theological Sem- inary, Andover. Andover, 1823. 8°, pp. 48.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. On coming unworthily to the Lord's Supper — A Sermon [from I Cor. xi, 29], delivered in the South Parish of Andover, October 28, 1827. Andover, 1827. 8°, pp. 22.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
302 Yale College
4. Sketches of Modern Philosophy, especially among the Ger- mans. Hartford, 1842. 16°, pp. 202.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. Y. C.
The same. Second edition, from the same type, with title : Mod- ern Philosophy. Hartford, 1844. 16°, pp. 202. [U.T.S. Y.C.
Also reprinted in Scotland.
His great work, however, was not in the line of independent composition; he also published:
5. Elements of Dogmatic History. — By William Muenscher. — Translated from the second edition of the original German. New- Haven, 1830. 12°, pp. 203. [Y. C.
6. Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, ancient and modern . . By J. L. von Mosheim. A new and literal translation, from the original Latin, with copious additional notes . . New Haven, 1832. 3 volumes. 8°. [Y. C.
A second revised and stereotyped edition appeared in 1839. A pirated edition was printed in England.
7. Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity during the first three hundred and twenty-five years from the Christian Era. . . By J. L. von Mosheim. Volume I. translated from the original Latin, by R. S. Vidal; Vol. H. translated, and both vol- umes edited, by J. Murdock. New- York, 1851. 2 vols. 8°.
[F. C.
8. The New Testament . . A literal translation from the Syriac Peshito .Version. New York, 1851. 8°, pp. ix, 515.
[B. Publ. Y. C.
In his 70th year he resumed his early study of Syriac for the purpose of completing this very satisfactory translation.
He assisted his son-in-law, the Rev. E. R. Tyler, in the prepara- tion of the following: —
The Congregational Catechism, containing a general survey of the organization, government, and discipline of Christian Churches. New Haven, 1844. 12°, pp. 137. [Y. C.
He also contributed to the Panoplist, the New Englander, the Church Review, and other periodicals; and was associated with his classmate Day in the preparation of Memoirs of their College Class.
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 303
AUTHORITIES.
Atwater Genealogy (1901), I37. of Princeton, 54-57. Spring, Per-
183-84. Memorial Book of Hamilton sonal Reminiscences, i, 324. Pres.
College, 1862, 67, 177-78. Memorial Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 529, 548.
of the semi-centennial celebration at Todd, Life of John Todd, lOO. Andover, 108, 215-22. Russell, Hist.
John Niles was born in Westchester Society in Col- chester, Connecticut, on December 31, 1775, the eldest child of Nathan Niles, of Colchester, and his wife, Dorcas Beckwith, of Lyme, and a grandson of Nathan and Mary Niles, of Westchester. He united with the College Church near the end of his Junior year.
For the first year after graduation he filled the office of College Butler. Meantime he had pursued the study of theology under Dr. Backus and President Dwight, and he was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Asso- ciation of Ministers on October 23, 1798.
He had already declined one offer of a settlement in the ministry in Connecticut, when, near the close of the year 1798, he took charge of Hamilton Oneida Academy, now Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York, as the first Pre- ceptor of that institution.
He discharged the duties of that station with great faithfulness and ability for about three years, during which he also preached occasionally in the vicinity. Find- ing his health impaired by his labors, he then returned to Connecticut, and was partially occupied in preaching until the autumn of 1803, when he settled on a farm in the new township of Prattsburg, in Steuben County, Western New York.
In about eight months from the time of his arrival, a church of fourteen members was gathered there; and he preached for a considerable time alternately in Pratts- burg and in Bath, the county seat.
In June, 1806, he was ordained, without pastoral charge, by the Ontario Association of Congregational Ministers;
304 Yale College
and on July 6, 1808, he was installed by a committee of the same body as pastor of the church in Bath. He accord- ingly removed thither, and gave himself thenceforth wholly to this duty. The church altered its form of gov- ernment from Congregational to Presbyterian in Sep- tember, 181 1.
He died in Bath, on September 13, 1812, after three weeks' illness, from fever, in his 37th year.
He married on May 13, 1799, Hannah, younger daugh- ter of Deacon George Elliot, of Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut, and sister of Achilles H. Elliot (Yale 1802). She died on October 9, 1819, in her 43d year.
Their children were two sons and three daughters. One son and two daughters lived to maturity; the two youngest children died in infancy.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Early Conn. Marriages, vi, County, 370. Memorial Book, Ham-
73. Eliot Genealogy, 2d ed., 77-78. ilton College, 1862, 67, 177-78. Wal-
Gridley, Hist, of Kirtland, N. Y., worth, Hyde Genealogy, ii, 843. 123. Hakes, Landmarks of Steuben
William Page was born in Charlestown, New Hamp- shire, on September 2, 1779, the son of Dr. William and Chloe Page, of Charlestown, and grandson of John and Hannah (Robbins) Page, of New Fairfield, Connecticut. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Todd (Yale 1734), of Plymouth, Connecticut.
He was prepared for College by Levi Hedge (Harvard 1792), and was one of the youngest members of his Class. After graduation he taught for a short time in the Charles- town Academy, until his father's impaired health and embarrassed affairs required his atttention.
In 1798 Dr. Page removed to Bellows Falls, Vermont, and his son aided him for one or two years as assistant engineer in the construction of a canal at that place.
Biographical Sketches, lyg'j 305
As soon as he was at liberty he entered on the study of law at Burlington, Vermont, under the direction of Judge Daniel Far rand (Yale 1781).
On being admitted to the bar, in March, 1806, he went immediately to Rutland, Vermont, and was there actively and prosperously engaged in his profession until March, 1825, when he was appointed cashier of the Bank of Rut- land, the duties of which position occupied him for the rest of his active career.
In October, 1803, he was appointed Secretary to the Governor and Council of Vermont, and was annually reappointed to that office (with the exception of one year) until 1809. From 1813 he held the office of Justice of the Peace.
In April, 1829, he was chosen a Deacon of the Congre- gational Church in Rutland.
He died in Rutland on February 14, 1850, in his 71st year, leaving the reputation of a most excellent citizen and exemplary man.
He married, on May 17, 1807, Mary, daughter of Colonel Boardman, of Bennington, Vermont, who died on April 10, 1810, at the age of 25. He next married, on October 18, 181 3, Cynthia Amanda Hickok, of Lansing- burg, New York, a sister of Norman Hickok (Yale 1803), who died in 1866, at the age of 74.
By his first marriage he had one daughter and one son ; and by his second marriage five daughters and six sons. All his children reached maturity, and all survived him, except one daughter and one son. One son was graduated at Middlebury College in 1840, and at the Yale Medical School in 1843 5 ^"^ another son was Governor of the State of Vermont from 1867 to 1869. A daughter married the Rev. Aaron G. Pease (Univ. of Vt. 1837).
AUTHORITIES. SaundersoH, Hist, of Charlestown, 498, 704.
20
jod Yale College
Horatio Seymour was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on May 31, 1778, the third son and fourth child of Major Moses Seymour, of Litchfield, and grandson of Moses and Rachel (Goodwin) Seymour, of West Hartford. His mother was Molly, youngest child of Colonel Ebenezer and Deborah (Buel) Marsh, of Litchfield. His only sister married the Rev. Truman Marsh (Yale 1786). Origen S. Seymour (Yale 1824), John F. Seymour (Yale 1835), and Governor Horatio Seymour of New York were nephews.
He was prepared for College at New Milford, Con- necticut, by his brother-in-law, Mr. Marsh.
For the first year after graduation he was an assistant in the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Connecticut. The next year he spent at home, attending the Law School of Judge Reeve.
In October, 1799, he went to Middlebury, Vermont, and continued his professional studies in the office of the Hon. Daniel Chipman. In the spring of 1800 he was admitted to the bar and began business in Middlebury. While not seeking to extend his practice to other counties, it is said that no other lawyer in Addison County ever had so exten- sive a business as his came to be. This result was owing to his talents, which were of a superior order, to his thor- ough knowledge of the law, and even more to his great popularity as a man.
In December, 1800, he was appointed postmaster of Middlebury, and continued in the office for nine years. When the Vermont State Bank was established in 1806, he was chosen one of its first directors, and he held that office until the branch at Middlebury was closed. In 1809 he was elected a member of the Council, or Upper House, in the State Legislature, and was annually re-elected for the five following years. He served as State's Attorney for Addison County from 1810 to 1813, and again from 1815 to 1819.
Biographical Sketches, ly^J 307
In October, 1820, the Legislature appointed him a Sen- ator in Congress for six years from March 4, 1821 ; and at the expiration of that term he was re-elected for a second.
In 1833 he resumed his law practice, and continued it until forced to retire by the infirmities of age. In Octo- ber, 1847, the Legislature appointed him Judge of Probate for the district of Addison, and he retained this office until 1855.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation, in 1847, the Yale Corporation conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
He was a member of the Corporation of Middlebury College from 18 10 to 1855. He united with the Episco- pal Society in Middlebury at its first organization, and was for many years Senior Warden of the parish.
During the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, he was in the main an adherent of their policy. He subse- quently supported President Adams, and the Whigs; but was always more swayed by principle than by party ties. In 1836 he was the Whig candidate for Governor of Ver- mont, but was defeated. His constitutional diffidence prevented his voice from being often heard in the Senate. No man had fewer enemies, or more attached friends.
After some years of slow and rather premature decline, he died at his residence in Middlebury on November 21, 1857, aged 79>^ years.
He married in the spring of 1800 Lucy, daughter of Jonah Case, of Addison, Vermont, who died on October 19, 1838.
Their children were four sons and two daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Middlebury College in 1820, and the third in 1832. The younger daughter married Philip Battell (Middlebury College 1826). Philip Battell Stewart (Yale 1886) is a great-grandson.
A portrait of Mr. Seymour is given in Swift's History of Middlebury.
3o8 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1038. Royall, Letters from Alabama, 177.
Hetnenway, Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, Swift, Hist, of Middlebury, 254-58.
i. 54. 59- Kilhourne, Biographical Woodruff, Genealogical Register of
Hist, of Litchfield County, 303-06. Litchfield, 193.
Theodore Sill, the younger son of Dr. Elisha Sill (Yale 1754), of Goshen, Litchfield County, Connecticut, was born in Goshen on January 3, 1777.
Soon after graduation he entered Judge Reeve's Law School in Litchfield, where he continued for about a year. He then went to Whitesboro, Oneida County, New York, to continue his studies in the office of his brother-in-law, Thomas R. Gold (Yale 1786), a practitioner of distinction.
0n his admission to the bar in 1800, he was taken into partnership with Mr. Gold, and for many years they did a very large law business, the junior partner himself sus- taining a high rank at the bar of the County and State, both as an able advocate and an eloquent speaker.
He was appointed County Treasurer in 1802, and was continued in that office until 1810. He served as a mem- ber of the State Assembly during four sessions, in 18 14-15 and 1826-27. In politics he was originally a. Federalist, and after the disintegration of that party, a supporter of DeWitt Clinton. He was active in the State militia, and reached the rank of Brigadier-General in 182 1.
He was of good height, stately figure, courtly manners, and dignified bearing. Besides his ability as a lawyer and persuasive jury advocate, and as a successful politician, he was also largely interested in the manufacturing interests of Oneida County.
In the latter part of his life he fell into intemperate habits and lost control of his business. He died at his home in Whitesboro on March 27, 1836, in his 60th year.
He married on September 10, 18 10, Eliza, eldest daugh- ter of Dr. J. Milton Mann (Brown University 1787), of Hudson, New York, whose widow had settled in Whites-
Biographical Sketches, i^Q^ 309
boro in 1806. Mrs. Sill died at her residence in Rome, New York, on April 29, 1849.
Their children were four sons and five daughters; of whom three sons and two daughters died in early child- hood. The second and fourth daughters were successively married to the Rev. Gurdon Huntington (Hamilton Col- lege 1838).
AUTHORITIES.
Bacon, Early Bar of Oneida, 16-17. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 168; Oneida Hist. Society's Transactions, ii, 822-23. ii, 100-02, 122. Sill Genealogy, 78-80.
Richard Smith, the eldest child of Dr. Phineas Smith, of Sharon, Connecticut, and grandson of Dan and Keziah (Devotion) Smith, of Suffield, was born in Sharon on Jan- uary 17, 1779. His mother was Abigail Lay, of Sharon.
His preparation for College was completed under Bar- zillai Slosson (Yale 1791), and he entered College at the opening of the Sophomore year with the Class which was graduated in 1796; but the death of his father in June, 1794, detained him from College for over a year, and so postponed his graduation.
From New Haven he returned to Sharon, and after the settlement of his father's estate he entered on the study of law in the office of his father's first cousin, John Cotton Smith (Yale 1783), and was admitted to the bar at Litch- field in March, 1801.
He thought at first of settling in Vermont, but aban- doned the plan, on account of the long probation required there; and in August, 1801, he repaired to Canandaigua, New York, and was admitted to the bar of Ontario County. On the erection of Genesee County, with Batavia for its capital, he took up his residence there (in 1804), and remained there for the rest of his life.
He was not greatly interested in his profession, but was a useful and highly respected citizen. He held the office
510 Yale College
of County Surrogate from 1805 to 181 1, and served as Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for between thirty and forty years consecutively.
His health continued firm until about 1849, after which a succession of slight paralytic attacks weakened him. In the summer of 1859 his mind began to give way, and he died, of apoplexy, at his home in Batavia, on December 31, 1859, aged 81 years.
He married in 1816 Mrs. Almira (Landon) Babcock, of Connecticut birth, who died in 1833.
He next married, in June, 1 841, at Batavia, Mrs. Mercy B. (Higgins) Kingsbury, a native of Haddam, Connect- icut, who survived him.
By his first marriage he had five daughters, all of whom grew to maturity.
AUTHORITIES.
Doolittle, Sketch of Congregational styne, Sharon Births, Marriages, and Church, Belchertown, 272. Van Al- Deaths, 117.
Seth Perkins Staples^ the third son and child of the Rev. John Staples (Princeton Coll. 1765), pastor of the Congregational Church in Westminster Society, Canter- bury, Connecticut, was born in Canterbury on August 31, 1776. His mother was Susanna, sister of Enoch Perkins (Yale 1781). Two brothers were graduated here.
In the spring of 1793 he began his preparation for Col- lege with the Rev. EHsha Atkins (Yale 1773), of North Killingly, now Putnam, and he entered College in June of the Freshman year.
Upon graduation he immediately began the study of law in the office of the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), of New Haven, and two years later, in September, 1799, was admitted to the bar at Litchfield.
He then opened an office in New Haven, and went into full practice. In 1800 Isaac Beers, the New Haven book- seller, imported for him a very complete law library, one
Biographical Sketches, ly^y 3^'
of the best at that time in New England. This Hbrary induced law students to esteem it a high privilege to study in his office, and he soon found himself the head of a flourishing private law-school.
After carrying this on alone for several years, he called to his aid in 1820 the Hon. Samuel J. Hitchcock (Yale 1809), and made him a partner both in his office and School. The School thus begun was formally recognized by the Yale Corporation in 1846 as the Law Department of the College.
In 1824 Mr. Staples removed to New York City, where he soon acquired an extensive practice, especially in the United States courts. He continued to be fully devoted to his profession until about 1856.
He died in New York on November 6, 1861, in his 86th year, and was brought to New Haven for burial.
He was married in New Haven, on November 25, 1799, to Catharine, only daughter of the Rev. Professor Sam- uel Wales (Yale 1767), of Yale College, by whom he had three sons and three daughters, all of whom grew to adult life. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1827. A daughter married Sutherland Douglas (Yale 1822), and subsequently the Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith.
Mrs. Staples died in New York, after many years of delicate health, on February 15, 1856, in her 77th year.
Mr. Staples represented the town of New Haven in the State Legislature during five sessions in 1814-16, but after that date withdrew altogether from political life.
Theodore Strong, the eldest child of Governor Caleb Strong (Harvard 1764), of Northampton, Massachusetts, and grandson of Lieutenant Caleb and Phebe (Lyman) Strong of Northampton, was born in that town on January 13, 1779. His mother was Sarah, second daughter of the Rev. John Hooker (Yale 1751), of Northampton. Two brothers were graduated at Harvard, in 1803 and 1810
312 Yale College
respectively. He entered College at the beginning of the third term of Freshman year.
After leaving College he returned to his native town, where he passed through a course of legal studies under his father's instruction; but having little fondness for the details of business, and possessing sufficient property for his support, he did not engage in the active duties of the profession.
He continued to reside in Northampton until about 1843, when he removed to Coal Grove, a suburb of Ironton, on the southern border of Ohio, where he owned a large tract of land adjoining the Ohio River, on which were valuable beds of iron and coal.
He died at Coal Grove on February 12, 1855, aged y6 years.
He was married in Boston on June 3, 1806, by the Rev. William Emerson, to Martha (or Patty) Allen, of Lynn, Massachusetts, a niece and adopted daughter of Jeremiah Allen, of Boston.
Their children were one son and four daughters (three of whom died before their father). The eldest and sur- viving daughter married the Rev. Dr. Augustus C. Thomp- son (honorary M.A. Yale 1841).
AUTHORITIES.
Boston Record Commissioners' Re- ily, ii, 1188-89. port, XXX, 222. Dwight, Strong Fam-
Ephraim Treadwell Woodruff^ the youngest of nine children of Timothy and Lucy (Treadwell) Woodruff, of Farmington, Connecticut, was born in Farmington on October 17, 1777. At the age of four he lost his mother, and at the age of ten his father. He was left as a legacy to his eldest brother (Yale 1784), who was settled in 1789 in Stonington, Connecticut, and this brother prepared him for College, as his father had intended.
Biographical Sketches, //p/ 3^3
On graduation he taught an academy in Stonington for one year, and subsequently for six months in Farmington. He then began the study of theology under the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and on June 3, 1800, was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers.
After preaching elsewhere, he was called in December,
1800, on a salary of £120, to the Congregational Church of one hundred and one members in North Coventry, Con- necticut, where he was ordained and installed on April 8,
1801. The sermon preached by his brother on the occa- sion was afterwards published.
Under his ministry of sixteen and one-half years, the community enjoyed three special seasons of revival, during which nearly one hundred and forty members were added to the church. Besides his faithful ministerial labors, Mr. Woodruff taught a private school for both sexes in his own house, for nearly the whole time of his residence in Coventry.
In 18 1 5 he found his health failing from excess of labor, and proposed to take a dismission, but his people would not consent. Two years later the state of his health com- pelled his resignation (on October 21, 181 7). After a few months he accepted a commission from the Missionary Society of Connecticut to labor on the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio; but on his way thither he was invited to take charge of the academy at Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York, with a salary of nine hundred dollars a year and liberty to supply pulpits as he had opporunity.
He accepted this offer, and finding his health consider- ably improved at the end of a year, proceeded on his mission.
He arrived in Ohio in April, 1819, and fixed his residence in Wayne, Ashtabula County, where he remained until his death. For twenty years he preached either as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Wayne, or as a missionary, and with much success. In Wayne, two revivals under his
314 Yale College
ministry added about one hundred and fifty members to that church.
At length, in 1839, difficulty in his vocal organs and the failure of both sight and hearing obliged him to relinquish preaching.
He continued to reside on his little farm of twenty acres, and for some years acted as agent of the Connecticut Bible Society.
He died in Wayne, on November 26, 1859, in his 83d year.
He married on October 7, 1801, Sally, daughter of Jona- than and Sarah (Bartlett) Alden, of Lebanon, Connect- icut, her widowed mother being then the wife of his eldest brother. She died in Hartford, Ohio, on January 27, 1830, aged 50, and some two years later he married Susan, daughter of Nathaniel and Martha Porter, of East Wind- sor, Connecticut, and granddaughter of the Rev. Samuel Tudor (Yale 1728), who survived him.
His children, by his first marriage, were five daughters and three sons. The eldest son was graduated at Hamil- ton College in 1831, and became a minister.
He published :
1. 'The Sovereignty of God. A funeral sermon [from Isa. Ixiv, 8] occasioned by the death of three little boys, who were drowned by their mother, at Kinsman, Ohio. Warren, 1820. 8°.
[Br. Mus.
2. A Sermon [from Deut. xxviii, 27], delivered before the Eccle- siastical Society in Williamsfield and Wayne, Ashtabula County, Ohio; on the 4th of July, 1826. . . Warren, O., 1826. 8°, pp. 15.
[C. H. S. Watkinson Libr.
3. A Sermon [from I. Tim. iv, 12, 16], delivered at the Ordina- tion of his son, the Rev. Jonathan A. Woodruff, A.M., to the pastoral care of the United Congregations of Unionville and Centre- ville, Madison, Geauga County, O., June 25, 1834. Painesville, 1834. 8°, pp. 14. [C. H. S. Y. C.
After his retirement he spent about three years in the composition of a hundred short sermons for the use of
Biographical Sketches, i/p/ 3*5
feeble churches without a minister; but lacked the means to publish them.
His family had in contemplation, after his death, the preparation of a biography, but this does not seem to have been accomplished.
AUTHORITIES.
Calhoun, Hist Address in North erary Diary, iii, 508-10. H. R. Stiles, Coventry, 26-29. Dimock, Coventry Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii, 623. Records, 170. Pres. Ezra Stiles, Lit-
3i6 Yale College
Annals, 1797-98
The death of the Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1752), of Durham, in November, 1797, caused the first vacancy in the Corporation since President Dwight's induction; which was filled at the ensuing Commencement by the election of the Rev. Dr. James Dana (Harvard 1753), pastor of the First Church in New Haven.
At Commencement in 1798 Dan Huntington, of the Class of 1794, resigned the tutorship; and on account of the unusual size of the class then entering, it was neces- sary to call in in his stead two tutors — ^Jeremiah Day, of the Class of 1795; and Henry Davis, of the Class of 1796. At the same time Ebenezer Grant Marsh, of the Class of 1795, was appointed Instructor in Hebrew; and a vote was passed, to the effect that a Professorship of Chemistry and Natural History be instituted, as soon as the funds should warrant it.
At this Commencement some excitement was caused by a public attack on the Phi Beta Kappa Society, on account of its secrecy. No result of permanence fol- lowed, though the prospects of some of the members were temporarily embarrassed by charges of sympathy with jacobinism and illuminism.
At the Commencement in 1798 a committee was appointed to proceed with the erection of a new dwelling- house for the President, the old President's House being in a state of great decay.
An anonymous pamphlet was issued early in 1798, entitled An Appeal to the candid, upon the present state of Religion and Politics in Connecticut (16°, pp. 23), which was mainly a diatribe against the College and its
Annals, 1797-98 3^7
President. The chief criticism was against the lack of freedom shown to Episcopal students. The author was John Cosins Ogden (Princeton 1770, and ad eundem M.A. Yale 1782), an Episcopalian clergyman, of unbalanced mind, who had formerly lived in New Haven, and was a son-in-law of General Wooster (Yale 1738) and brother- in-law of the Hon. Pierpont Edwards, an uncle of Presi- dent Dwight.
3i8 Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1798
*Johannes Akins
*Plinius Arms *i859
*Henricus Harramond Bacot, A.M." *i833
*Amos Baldwin, A.M. *i839 *Guilielmus Bristol, Soc. ex off., Reip. Conn. Cur.
Supr. et Rerump. Foed. in Jurisd. Conn. Jurid. *i836
*Enos Bronson, A.M. ^1823
* Jacobus Burnet, A.M. *i8o6 *Guilielmus Powell Farrand, A.M. Neo-Caes. 1802 *i839 *Daniel Fuller *i849 "^Claudius Herrick, A.M. *i83i *Horatius Hickok, in Coll. Trin. Agric. et Oecon.
Polit. Prof. *i845
*Ebenezer Learned, A.M. *i858
*Thomas Lewis, A.M. 1803 *i8o4
"^Daniel Parker, A.M. et Guil. 1806 *i834
* Jonathan Remington *i85i "^David Bradford Ripley *i839 *Theodorus Sedgwick *i839 *Carolus Shepherd *i82i *David Brinsmade Wilcoxson, A.M. *i8oi *Josephus Williams, A.M. 1861 *i865 *David Young *i829
John Akins came to College from Washington town- ship, in Duchess County, New York.
He did not enter College until after the beginning of the Sophomore year.
He is believed to have settled in Poughkeepsie, in his native county.
Biographical Sketches, 1798 319
His name is first marked deceased in the Triennial Cat- alogue of Graduates printed in 181 1. He must not, how- ever, be identified (as has been attempted) with another John Akin, or Akins, who died in Pawling, Duchess County, in November, 1810, leaving several married children.
Pliny Arms, the eldest son of Deacon Jonathan Arms, a blacksmith and trader of Deerfield, by his second wife, Eunice, third daughter of Deacon Aaron and Eunice (Dwight) Lyman, of Belchertown, Massachusetts, and grandson of William and Rebecca (Nash) Arms, of Deer- field, was born in that town on February 17, 1778.
He settled in Deerfield as a lawyer, and was prominently useful there in many public relations. He received a com- mission as Justice of the Peace in 1814, and as Justice of the Peace and Quorum in 1845.
He died in Deerfield on February 2, 1859, aged 81 years.
He married on June 19, 18 10, Thankful, third daughter of Colonel Thomas W. and Thankful (Field) Dickinson, of Deerfield, who was about four years his junior.
They had six sons (of whom four died early) and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Coleman, Lyman Family, 447. Hist, of Deerfield, ii, 853 ; Genealogy, Dwight Family, ii, 569. Sheldon, 34, 39, 147.
Henry Harramond Bacot, who was born in Charles- ton, South Carolina, in April, 1780, was the youngest son of Peter Bacot, of Charleston, and grandson of Pierre (or Peter) and Marie (Peronneau) Bacot. His great-grand- parents, Pierre and Jaquine Bacot, emigrated to the neigh- borhood of Charleston from Tours, France, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His mother was Eliz- abeth, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Muncreef)
320 Yale College
Harramond, of Charleston. His eldest brother was appointed postmaster of Charleston by President Wash- ington in 1794, and held that office for over forty years. He entered Yale after the opening of the Freshman year. He practiced law in his native city, also holding mili- tary rank as Colonel, and was universally respected and esteemed for his solid and amiable qualities. His health failed comparatively early, and after frequent visits to Europe for its restoration, he finally returned in December,
1832, from a visit to a branch of his family in France, and after a gradual decline died in Charleston, on October 13,
1833, aged 53^ years. He was unmarried.
A great-nephew and namesake. Dr. Henry Harramond Bacot, was graduated here in 1837.
AUTHORITIES. T. W. Bacot, MS. letters, 1909.
Amos Baldwin, the only child of Alsop Baldwin, of Watertown, then part of Waterbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Deacon Theophilus and Dorothy Baldwin, of Amity Parish in New Haven, now Woodbridge, was born on March 26, 1775. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Amos Sherman, of Woodbridge. He entered Yale after the opening of the Freshman year.
He spent some years as a trader in Wolcott and in Cheshire, Connecticut; but ultimately returned to his paternal farm in Watertown, where he died in the middle or latter part of June, 1839, in his 64th year. (His will is dated on June 10.)
He represented Watertown in the State Legislature in 1818.
He married Sally Law, of Cheshire, who survived him. Their only child was a son.
AUTHORITIES. Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i. Append., ii. Baldwin Geneal., i, 115, 141-42.
Biographical Sketches, iyp8 3a i
William Bristol, the youngest son of Judge Simeon Bristol (Yale 1760), of Hamden, then part of New Haven, was born on June 2, 1779.
He studied law in the office of the Hon. David Daggett, and was admitted to the bar in New Haven County in November, 1800. In 1800-02 his father built for him the handsome house on Elm Street, after the pattern of the adjacent mansion of Judge Daggett, which was torn down in 1908 to make room for the new Public Library.
He was Speaker of the House of Representatives of Connecticut in 1817. He represented New Haven in the Convention held in Hartford in 1818 which formed the present State constitution.
In 18 1 8 and 18 19 he was a member of the State Senate, and (ex-officio) of the Corporation of the College.
In 1819, at the comparatively early age of forty, he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court and Supreme Court of Errors, which office he held until his resignation in 1826, having in that year been appointed Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Connecticut, in which latter office he continued until his death.
He was elected an alderman of the city in 18 18, 1821, and 1826, and Mayor in June, 1827, holding the office for one year. In 1825 he was nominated by his political friends as candidate for Governor, but declined, preferring the quietude of the judicial station to the excitements attending a political canvass.
In 1830 he was joined with Judge Samuel Church (Yale 1803) in the report of a new and revised criminal code for the State.
He died suddenly, after a period of infirmity, in New Haven, on Monday evening, March 7, 1836, in his 57th year.
Judge Bristol was a man of superior mental powers, which he cultivated with untiring industry. His learning, 21
32 2 Yale College
ability, and integrity, united with a courteous urbanity, elicited the admiration of his professional brethren and won the confidence of the community. "As a judge he was the favorite of everyone, judges, jurors, witnesses, and counsel, all bore willing testimony to the ability and imparti- ality with which his official duty was invariably performed. Towards the younger members of the profession he was particularly kind, attentive, and encouraging; and no young man practicing before him could feel the slightest apprehension that the merits of his case would be over- looked in the decision, no matter how diffident he might be in presenting his views, or however powerful and experienced might be the counsel opposed to him. Such was the confidence placed in the decisions of Judge Bristol, that controversies involving large sums and intricate ques- tions, were frequently referred to him by the parties, and were quietly disposed of in a short time in his office, which would otherwise have required months or years of expen- sive litigation." He lived universally respected, and his death was deeply lamented.
He was married, in New Haven, on January 6, 1805, by the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard, to Sarah (or Sally) Edwards, of New Haven, who died on December 24, 1866, aged 86 years. Three sons were graduates of Yale, in 1825, 1827, and 1835, and a daughter married John Murdoch (Yale
1834). His only separate publication, over his own name, was
the following:
An Address, intended to have been delivered (in substance) at the late Town Meeting, in New-Haven; in Reply to the reasons urged for requesting His Excellency the Governor to convene the General Assembly, to take into consideration the alarming situation of Public Affairs; but prevented from being delivered by causes herein explained. Together with a Short Account of that Extra- ordinary Meeting, By William Bristoll, Esq. New-Haven, 1809. 8°, pp. 19. [M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
In defence of the Embargo. The Address seems to have been hooted down by the opposition.
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 3*3
He delivered the Fourth of July Oration in New Haven in 1800, but it does not seem to have been printed.
AUTHORITIES.
Kilbourn, Litchfield County Bench March 8 and 9, 1836. Storer's Amer. and Bar, 77. N. H. City Year Book, Hist Magazine, 158. 1863, 97-98. N. H. Daily Herald,
Enos Bronson, the eldest child of Eli Bronson, of Waterbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Isaac and Eunice (Richards) Bronson, of Waterbury, was born in that town on March 31, 1774. His mother was Mehetabel, eldest daughter of Captain Enos and Hannah (Moss) Atwater, of Wallingford.
After leaving College he began the study of law; but by the summer of 1799 had gone to Philadelphia, where he taught for a time in the Episcopal Academy.
There he conceived the idea of conducting a Federalist newspaper, and after a full correspondence with President D wight on the subject, he undertook in March, 1801, the publication of The Gazette of the United States, and Daily Advertiser, which he edited with great ability until his death. He was an earnest opponent of the Democratic party, and the Gazette exercised a powerful influence throughout the country.
Mr. Bronson wrote with great vigor and directness, in a pure, lucid, and simple style. He was a master of irony, sarcasm, and invective, and his printing-office was repeat- edly threatened with vengeance for his outspokenness.
As the head of the business-firm which published the Gazette, he supervised and issued editions of Roscoe's Lorenzo de Medici (1803) ^^d Leo X (1805-06), with the purpose of assisting to cultivate a taste for literature and history.
He died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1823, at the age of 49.
324 Yale College
He was married in Philadelphia, on December 4, 1804, by the Rev. Dr. Robert Blackwell, to Mary, daughter of the Rt. Rev. William and Mary (Harrison) White, of Phila- delphia, by whom he had five daughters and two sons. One son became an Episcopal clergyman, and one daughter married Professor Henry Reed (Univ. of Pa. 1825).
Mrs. Bronson died in Philadelphia, on November 17, 1826, in her 50th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, iii, (1827), v, 37^77- Clark, Inscrip-
957. 999- Atwater Genealogy, 2d ed., tions in Christ Church, Philadelphia,
121. Bronson, Hist, of Waterbury, 16. 384-87, 472. Churchman's Magazine
James Burnet, the only son of the Rev. Dr. Matthias Burnet (Princeton 1769) by his first wife, Ann Combs, of Jamaica, Long Island, was born on January 15, 1779, in Jamaica, where his father was pastor of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1785 the father removed to the Congregational Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, and in the same year received the degree of Master of Arts at Yale. The son did not enter College until after the opening of the Sopho- more year. At graduation he delivered the Valedictory Oration.
He won the Berkeley Scholarship at graduation, but did not remain in residence.
On graduation he became the principal of the new Staples Academy in Easton, then part of Weston, in his native county, and later a lawyer in Norwalk, and was considered a young man of talent, but more gay in conduct than became his parentage. He also while at the bar prepared some boys for College.
He died in Norwalk on December 4, 1806, about five months after his father, in his 28th year.
AUTHORITIES. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 94-95.
i
Biographical Sketches, i/p8 325
William Powell Farrand, a son of Jonathan Farrand, of Milford, and of Judea Society in Woodbury, now the town of Washington, Connecticut, by his second wife, Rebecca Powell, of Washington, was born in 1777. ' A half-sister married Daniel N. Brinsmade (Yale 1772).
He received a Master's degree from Princeton College in 1802.
As early as 1804 he was established as a bookseller in Philadelphia, where he continued until his death on Novem- ber 30, 1839, in his 63d year.
He edited in 1807-08 a monthly magazine, called The Evangelical Intelligencer, published under the patronage of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.
AUTHORITIES. Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 544.
Daniel Fuller, the younger son of Dr. Jonathan and Sibyl (Meacham) Fuller, of Mansfield, Connecticut, was born in Mansfield on March 16, 1778. His brother was graduated here in 1783.
He resided at College for one or two years after grad- uation on the Berkeley Scholarship.
He was for many years a teacher in Schenectady, New York, where he died on January 3, 1849, i^ ^^^ 7ist year. In a notice of his death in the Connecticut Courant he is characterized as *'a man of the most extensive learning."
authorities.
Conn. Courant, Jan. 15, 1849. Ditnock, Mansfield Records, 84.
Claudius Herrick, the eldest son of Deacon Henry and Jerusha (Foster) Herrick, of Southampton, Long Island, and grandson of Nathan and Eunice Herrick, of South- ampton, was born in that town on February 24, 1775. He
326 Yale College
was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buell (Yale 1741), of East Hampton, but did not enter until after the opening of the Sophomore year. At graduation he delivered the Latin Salutatory Oration.
He taught for a year or two in the Academy in Green- field, Massachusetts, and then studied theology, probably with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769) of Somers, Connecticut. He was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers on June 2, 1801.
On March 3, 1802, he was settled as pastor of the Con- gregational Church at Woodbridge, in the suburbs of New Haven, but on account of failing health he was dismissed in September, 1806.
Early in 1807 he removed to New Haven, leasing from the College what was called the Greenough house, on the corner now occupied by the Battell Chapel, and in Septem- ber, 1808, began a highly successful school for young ladies, which he maintained until his death, and which from the beginning of 181 1 was conducted in his resi- dence. The school was distinguished for a high tone of moral and religious sentiment.
Besides this congenial labor, though ceasing entirely from formal ministerial duty, he devoted much of his time to unofficial pastoral service among the sick and afflicted. Few men in this community have so consistently spent themselves in doing good.
• He struggled continually with serious ill health, and died on May 26, 183 1, in his 57th year, after two weeks' illness from typhus fever, contracted while visiting a patient.
He was married by President D wight, on March 17, 1802, to Hannah, elder surviving daughter of John and Sarah (Beers) Pierrepont, of New Haven, who died here on July 10, 1859, i^ ^^^ ^3^ year.
Their children were three sons, and a daughter who died in infancy. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1822, and the second son in 1824. The youngest son entered on
Biographical Sketches, ijgS 327
a business career, but spent the last twenty years of his life in the service of the College as its Librarian and Treasurer.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, March 18, 25, 1802. Southampton, 2d ed., 295. Marvin,
B. W. Dwight, Dwight Family, ii, 150th Anniversary Sermon at Wood-
1064. T. Dzvight, Statist. Account of bridge, 20, Religious Intelligencer,
N. Haven, 53. Herrick Genealogy, xvi, 15. 2d ed., 338-42. Howell, Hist, of
Horatio Hickok, of Lansingburg, Rensselaer County, New York, was born in February, 1778. He entered the Class from Williams College after the opening of the Sophomore year. He was probably a son of Ezra Hickok, an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Lansing- burg.
He studied law after graduation, and was admitted to practice in Rensselaer County in February, 1806. On December 2, 1802, he was married by the Rev. Jonas Coe, of the Presbyterian Church in Troy and Lansingburg, to Jane, daughter of Tertullus Dickinson, of New York City and Lansingburg, — one of whose sisters married in 18 11 Professor Thomas Church Brownell, of Union College, who became in 1819 Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Connecticut.
At the opening of Washington, now Trinity College, in Hartford, of which Bishop Brownell was President, Mr. Hickok (by this time a widower) was made Professor of Agriculture and Political Economy, but held the chair for only two years (1824-26). He was not, however, an Episcopalian, and it is still remembered that the Bishop was criticized for the appointment of his brother-in-law to a professorship, — and that of Agriculture.
He returned about 1829 to Schaghticoke, in his native county, as a practitioner of law, and as late as January, 1834, was still residing there and active in founding the County Agricultural Society.
328 Yale College
In the meantime his only surviving child had married Isaac E. Crary (Washington Coll. 1827), who removed to Michigan Territory in 1831, and became an eminent cit- izen of that State, the founder of its Public School system, and its first Member of Congress.
Judge Hickok (as he was subsequently called), then called "of Albany," located lands in Calhoun County, Michigan, in the summer of 1835; and in April, 1836, he is on record as having removed to Marshall in that county, and residing there in the family of his daughter.
Mrs. Crary died in 1839, and subsequently her father lived on his farm, about three miles north of the present city of Marshall.
He is remembered as an accomplished and agreeable gentleman of the old school, dignified and scholarly, an enthusiast in agriculture, the possessor of a large library, and spending most of his time among his books.
He died in Marshall on September 16, 1845, ^^ his 68th year.
The, inventory of his estate shows that he owned at the time of his death about two thousand acres of land in Michigan, worth about $6,000, and about $1,200 in per- sonal estate. His will provided for a brother and nephews, and specified that any residue be used for the endowment of a library for the township of Marshall ; but no residuary fund remained.
The marble shaft erected by his son-in-law, which marks his grave in Oakgrove Cemetery in Marshall, bears witness to the dominant interests of both his earlier and later life by emblems of scholarship and agriculture.
AUTHORITIES. Hon. J. C. Patterson, MS. Letters, 1910.
Ebenezer Learned,, the eldest son and the fourth of seven children of Amasa Learned (Yale 1772) and Grace (Hallam) Learned, was born in that part of Killingly
Biographical Sketches, 1798 329
which is now Putnam, Connecticut, on March 27, 1780. In his infancy his parents removed to New London. Dur- ing his College course his father became involved in disas- trous land speculations, resulting in the loss of his fortune ; and at graduation the son delivered an oration "on the Advantages of Poverty," of which he was at the time making trial, as he had been compelled to interrupt his studies to aid in the family support.
He soon took charge of the Union School in New Lon- don, where he taught for three years. Having studied law, he settled in practice, at first in the neighboring town of Groton, but afterwards in New London.
After practicing his profession for twenty years or more, he accepted the position of cashier of the Union Bank of New London, and continued in that office until his retirement from active life. In 1839 he served as Bank Commissioner of the State, but declined all other solicitations to accept public office. His knowledge of business and his integrity of character made him highly prized as a counselor, and he was not infrequently employed in the settlement of estates and like duties. In February, 1840, he was chosen a deacon of the First Con- gregational Church, and he was always ready to aid in any benevolent work. He accumulated a handsome fortune, and enjoyed in a remarkable degree the respect and con- fidence of the whole community.
He was six feet in height, and of corresponding size, of swarthy complexion, with a countenance rather severe at first appearance, but warmed with a quiet humor and tender feeling. He retained to the time of his last brief illness his powers of mind, and to a large degree those of his body; and died in New London on September 11, 1858, in his 79th year.
He married on October 10, 1808, Charlotte, daughter of Bela and Betsey (Billings) Peck, of Norwich, Connecticut, who died on March 8, 18 19.
330 Yale College
By her he had two daughters (one of whom died in infancy) and two sons. The elder daughter married the Rev. Dr. Robert McEwen (Yale 1827). The sons were graduated at Yale, in 1831 and 1834, respectively.
He was next married, by the Rev. Dr. Abel McEwen, on March 28, 1820, to his first cousin, Lydia, eldest daugh- ter of the Hon. Joshua Coit (Harvard 1776) and Ann Boradil (Hallam) Coit, of New London, who died on March 19, 1877, in her 90th year.
Their only child was graduated at Yale in 1841.
AUTHORITIES.
Blake, Hist, of ist Church, New 13. Learned Genealogy, 2d ed., 113, London, i, 285-86. Coit Family, 112- 222-26.
Thomas Lewis^ the eldest child of Samuel Smith Lewis, a farmer of limited means, of Salem Society in Waterbury, now Naugatuck, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Amy (Smith) Lewis, was born on April 13 (or 14), 1777. His mother was Abigail, eldest child of Matthew and Abi- gail (Thomas) Baldwin, of Milford and Woodbridge.
He studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, Connecticut, and after being licensed to preach declined two invitations to settle in Connecticut parishes. While still living at home, he assisted young men in their preparation for college.
In 1810 he was on the eve of accepting a call to a third parish, Marlborough Society, in Hartford County, when he was attacked with severe hemorrhage of the lungs. President Dwight was able to recommend him shortly after to be Principal of the Academy in Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia. He arrived in Georgia in December, and at the beginning of April was enough improved to begin a brief but highly successful service as teacher.
The labor which he took upon himself for the benefit of his pupils, together with exposure incurred in assiduously
Biographical Sketches, 1^98 331
visiting the sick of the neighborhood, and too great zeal in occasionally venturing to preach, proved too exhaustive, but he persevered at his post until 1804, and after a few weeks of extreme feebleness he died in Sunbury on March 3, 1804, in his 27th year. He was unmarried.
An Oration on his death, by John Elliott (Yale 1794), was delivered in Sunbury Meeting-House, a month later, and was afterwards published ; as was also a Funeral Ser- mon, by the Rev. Holland Weeks, pastor of the First Church in Waterbury, delivered in his native parish on April 30.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Waterbury, 519. Lewisiana, iii, 6. Appendix, 85. Branson, Hist, of Marlborough, Conn., Centennial, 19.
Daniel Parker^ the elder son of Amasa Parker, a sol- dier of the Revolution, of Judea Society, now Washington, Connecticut, and grandson of Thomas and Abigail (But- ton) Parker, of Wallingford and Washington, was born in Washington on June 22, 1774. His mother was Deidamia, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Parmelee, of Litchfield. His brother Amasa was graduated here in 1808. He entered College with the Class of 1797, but left before the end of Freshman year, and joined the next Class in Sopho- more year.
He studied theology, and in November, 1801, began preaching in the new and small parish known as Ellsworth Society, in Sharon, Connecticut. Here a Congregational Church of twenty-eight members was formed under his preaching, and he was urged to take the pastorate, on an annual salary of £85. He accepted the call with serious misgivings, on account of insufficient support, and was ordained and installed by the North Consociation of Litchfield County on May 26, 1802. In 1806 he received an ad eundem Master's degree from Williams College.
332 Yale College
In 1807, to eke out his scanty resources, he undertook, with the general approval of his parish and the neighbor- ing clergy, the conduct of a boarding-school for both sexes ; and was successful in the enterprise, far beyond his expec- tations. He also with the same object embarked in various business concerns, not unnaturally somewhat to the hazard of his reputation as a minister.
In May, 181 2, he asked for a dismissal from the pasto- rate, for the reason that his school was necessary for the support of his family and more and more absorbed his time and energies. After six months' delay the Church and Society reluctantly agreed, and on November 19, he was dismissed by the Consociation, but not without a reproof for entangling himself in other avocations, and a threat of refusing to recommend him for resettlement, unless he should sever his various business connections.
For nearly five months after this he continued to supply gratuitously his old pulpit.
The financial situation during the war with Great Britain affected Mr. Parker like many others disastrously, so that in December, 1814, he was forced into bankruptcy, which gave color to the cruel allegation subsequently of some of his ministerial neighbors that by continuing to be involved in business he had deserved the further interfer- ence of the Consociation.
In March, 1816, he closed his school, having accepted an invitation to take charge of an Academy in Greenville, Greene County, New York, and to supply a vacant Presby- terian church in Cairo, nine miles distant.
He began his new duties in May, 18 16, but in August, 18 1 7, was summoned to Connecticut by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers for trial on new charges of lack of integrity in the conduct of his affairs ; and in his neces- sary absence was suspended from the ministerial functions derived from that quarter.
Before 1819 he removed to Hudson, and thence to Kings- ton, New York. ^
Biographical Sketches, iyp8 333
The last seven or eight years of his Hfe were spent in New York City, where he found employment as a teacher, and is also said to have been preaching at the outbreak of the cholera in 1834. He was urged to leave the city until the alarm was over, but declined, saying it was his duty to remain and care for his parishioners, whatever might be the consequences. He died at his post on September 26, in his 61 St year, and is supposed to have been buried in the vicinity of his last labors, in the grounds of St. John's Church on Broadway.
He was married, by the Rev. Uriel Gridley, in March, 1799, to Anna, daughter of Colonel Thomas Fenn, a dis- tinguished Revolutionary veteran, and Abi ( Welton) Fenn, of Watertown, Connecticut. She was a woman of remark- able energy, with a firm but sweet character and high attainments.
She died in Delhi, New York, on September 16, 1870, in her 91st year.
Their children were two sons and four daughters. The elder son, the Hon. Amasa Junius Parker, LL.D., was graduated at Union College in 1825, and attained high rank at the bar and on the bench of the State of New York ; his name is worthily perpetuated by a son (Union Coll. 1863) and two grandsons (Yale 1891 and 1892).
Mr. Parker was over six feet in height, powerfully made, and of great strength ; a fearless advocate of the truth as he saw it, and of unwearied tenacity of spirit. He was always especially interested in schools and in educational matters in general.
He is said to have become interested in his later years in the doctrines of Swedenborg.
He published :
I. A Funeral Sermon [from Ps. cxix, 75], delivered in Sharon, Ellsworth Society, at the interment of Mrs. Dolly Chaffee, consort of Mr. Joel Chaffee, who departed this life, September 18, 1810, aged 49. Hartford, 181 1. 8°, pp. 16. [N. Y. H. S.
On Christian submission.
334 Yale College
2. A Discourse [from Ps. cxxxiii, i], delivered at Canaan, March 23, 181 5, at the Installation of Meridian Chapter. . Hart- ford, 1815. 8°, pp. 25. [B. Ath. Y. C.
The fact that Mr. Parker was a prominent Mason was among the reasons for his prosecution by his fellow-ministers. This is a thoroughly Gospel sermon in its tone.
3. A Discourse [from Ps. cv, 5] delivered before the members of the Literary School in Sharon, Ellsworth Society, at the close of the Summer Term, September 6, 1815. . . Hartford, 1816. 8°, pp. 24. [B. Ath.
On the subject of the recent remarkable revivals of religion, including that in his School, in which nearly thirty persons became Christians.
4. A New Year's Discourse before the Literary Institute in Greenville, Greene County, N. Y. Catskill, 1817. 8°.
5. Proscription Delineated; or a Development of Facts apper- taining to the Arbitrary and Oppressive Proceedings of the North Association of Litchfield County, in relation to the Author. Hud- son, 1819. 12°, pp. 290.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. N. Y. State Libr. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
This arraignment of his enemies, and defence of himself, is writ- ten in a remarkably vigorous and convincing style; and, while he does not carry the reader entirely with him in judging the motives and conduct of his fellow-ministers, he appears to vindicate success- fully his own honesty. The preface is dated at Hudson in January, 1819.
The book was replied to by the Rev. Joseph Harvey (Yale 1808), of Goshen.
6. A Complete Refutation of the Reply of Mr. Joseph Harvey to Proscription Delineated. New-York, 1820. 12°, pp. 144.
[A^. Y. H. S. N. Y. State Libr. Philad. Libr. Co.
7. Parker's Improved Arithmetic. [Also,] A Practical System of Bookkeeping. New- York, 1833. 16°, pp. 252. [U. S.
AUTHORITIES.
American Ancestry, i, 59-60. L. ^Mowg/t, Ellsworth, 13-18. Hon.Atnasa Beecher, Autobiography, i, 454. Good- J. Parker, MS. Letters, Febr., 1910.
Biographical Sketches, i^p8 335
Jonathan Remington, the only child of Lieutenant Nathaniel Remington, of Suffield, Connecticut, and grand- son of Captain Jonathan and Thankful (Warner) Rem- ington, of Suffield, was born on November 12, 1777. His mother was Rachel, second daughter of Ebenezer and Abi- gail (Palmer) Noble, of Suffield.
He was a farmer in that part of West Springfield, Mas- sachusetts, which is now Agawam (adjoining his native town), and died either in Agawam or Suffield, on August 18, 185 1, in his 74th year.
He married in West Springfield, on December 22, 1814, Mary Leonard, who died on October 27, 1849, aged 67 years.
They had one daughter and one son, and possibly other children.
AUTHORITIES. Bolfwood, Noble Genealogy, 195. Dewey, Remington Genealogy, 7.
David Bradford Ripley, the only surviving son of the Rev. David Ripley (Yale 1749), of Abington Parish in Pomfret, Connecticut, was born in Abington on February II, 1777. His father died when he was in his ninth year.
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers on June 2, 1801.
In 1803 he supplied the vacant pulpit in the Congrega- tional Society in Lisbon, Connecticut ; and on December 9 was invited by the Church to settle, but the call was not concurred in by the Society. On September 19, 1804, he was ordained and installed over the Congregational Church in Marlborough, Connecticut, to which his classmate Lewis had formerly been called.
He retained this pastorate with credit until March, 1827, and during the next year supplied the pulpit in his native parish. He then removed to Virgil, Cortland County,
336 Yale College
New York, where he supplied various churches in the vicinity until about 1837, under the patronage of the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society. Later he settled in Northern Illinois, preaching in various destitute places. From 1832 he identified himself with the Presbyterian denomination.
He died in Endor, Will County, Illinois, on September i, or 4, 1839, in his 63d year.
He married, in 1807, Betsey Payson, by whom he had six daughters (of whom one died in infancy) and one son. One daughter married the Rev. Luman C. Gilbert (West- ern Reserve College, 1838).
AUTHORITIES.
Bishop, Hist. Sketch of Lisbon, 24. Centennial, 19. Ripley Family Gene- Contributions to Eccl. Hist, of Conn., alogy, 14, 16-17. 336, 342, 416, 419-20. Marlborough
Theodore Sedgwick^ eldest son of the Hon. Theodore Sedgwick (Yale 1765), was born in Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in December, 1780. In his infancy his father removed to the village of Stockbridge in the same county. He entered the Class after the open- ing of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law under his father's direc- tion, and in 1801 began practice in Albany, New York, in partnership with the Hon. Harmanus Bleecker. He with- drew from this connection and from all active practice, in the summer of 1821, on account of impaired health, and returned to Stockbridge, where he resided until his death. As a lawyer, enjoying an extensive practice, he maintained a high standing, and was effective both as a forensic and a popular speaker.
After his retirement he enjoyed the pursuit of literature, and interested himself greatly in agricultural affairs, being twice elected President of the County Agricultural
Biographical Sketches, 17Q8 337
Society. He represented the town in the General Court in 1824, 1825, and 1827, and was for a series of years the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Gover- nor, and for Congress.
After years of agitation of the project, he introduced into the Legislature in 1827 a bill for the construction of a railroad from Boston to Albany, which had generally been derided as a chimerical scheme.
He was a man of great nobleness of character, an earnest advocate of free-trade and temperance, and an opponent of slavery.
His death, on November 7, 1839, in Pittsfield, in his 59th year, was the result of a stroke of apoplexy, at the close of an address to the Democratic citizens of Pittsfield.
He married, on November 28, 1808, Susan Anne Living- ston, daughter of Matthew R. and Catharine (Livingston) Ripley, who wrote various tales for children and several larger works of fiction. She died in Stockbridge on Jan- uary 20, 1867, in her 79th year.
They had one son (Columbia College 1829), who became a distinguished lawyer in New York City, and one daughter.
He published :
1. Hints for the People; with some thoughts on the Presidential Election ... By Rusticus. [New York, 1823.] 8°, pp. 32.
[Harv.
2. An Address, delivered before the Berkshire Association for the promotion of Agriculture and Manufactures, at Pittsfield, Octo- ber 2, 1823 . . . Pittsfield, 1823. 8°, pp. 32.
[A.A.S. A.C.A. B.Ath. The Address occupies only pp. 1-18.
3. Hints to my Countrymen. By an American. New- York, 1826. 12°, pp. vii, 216. [B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C.
An anonymous, sprightly commentary, in the form of letters, on the manners and customs of New England, and miscellaneous subjects.
4. Brief Remarks on the Rail Roads, proposed in Massachusetts. By Berkshire. Stockbridge, 1828. 8°, pp. 23.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ.
22
33^ Yale College
5. An Address, delivered before the Berkshire Agricultural Society, October 7, 1830. Pittsfield, 1830. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. On public and private economy.
6. The Practicability of the Abolition of Slavery. A Lecture delivered at the Lyceum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, February 1 83 1. New York, 1831. 8°, pp. 48.
7. Public and Private Economy. New- York, 1836-39. 3 v. 12°.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
Volumes 2 and 3 have as a sub-title : Illustrated by Observations made in England in the year 1836.
Volume I is concerned with the theory of Public, i.e., Political Economy; and the other volumes contain mainly comments on conditions in England. The third volume appeared posthumously.
He was engaged at the time of his death on a work on the general subject of Party.
An engraving from a portrait painted after his death is given in the Democratic Review, vol. xi.
AUTHORITIES.
Appletons' Cyclopedia of Amer. 57, 59, 76, 112, 124-25, 152, 189, 275.
Biography, v, 451. Democratic Re- Dwight Family, ii, 738, 743-44. N. Y.
view, vii, 129-44; xi, 86-89. Dewey, Geneal. Record, xxxii, 107. Southern
Life and Letters of C. M. Sedgwick, Lit. Messenger, vi, 52-53.
Charles Shepherd^ third son of Levi Shepherd, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and grandson of James and Sarah (Hopkins) Shepherd, or Shepard, of Hartford, was born in Northampton on April 11, 1780. His mother was Mary, daughter of General Seth Pomeroy, of Northamp- ton, and sister of the Rev. Seth Pomeroy (Yale 1753) and of Dr. Medad Pomeroy (Yale 1757). His eldest sister had married Dr. ^neas Monson, Junior (Yale 1780), of New Haven, shortly before he entered Yale from Williams College, at the opening of Junior year.
His father, commonly called Dr. Shepherd, kept a drug store (which later was expanded into a country store for dry-goods and groceries), and died in 1805.
Biographical Sketches, ijgS 339
The son studied law, but eventually joined his father and brothers in carrying on in Northampton a factory for mak- ing duck, or canvas, and rope. They lived on Round Hill, and are remembered as gay and festive gentlemen in their day, inclined to the liberal side in politics.
He died late in February, 182 1, in his 41st year.
His v^ife, Mrs. Elizabeth Shepherd, joined the First Church of Northampton in 18 19. She survived her hus- band, with two daughters (minors).
AUTHORITIES. 5". Clark, Antiquities of Northampton, 344. Dwight Family, ii, 881.
David Brinsmade Wilcoxson, the youngest of nine children, and only son of David Wilcoxson (Yale 1744) and Israelia Wilcoxson, of that part of Stratford, Connect- icut, which is now Huntington, and grandson of John and Deborah (Brinsmade) Wilcoxson, of Stratford, was born in that town on February 7, 1776. His father died the year before he entered College. His mother was the youngest child of Thomas and Sarah (Jeanes) Salmon, of Stratford.
One relic is preserved which illustrates his tastes as an undergraduate, — an engraved Song on Vacation, by Dan- iel Tillotson (a non-graduate classmate), dated Yale Col- lege, January i, 1796, and set to music by David B. Wilcockson.
His health after graduation was very infirm, and he seemed to be doomed to an early death from a lingering disease.
On November 19, 1 801, as he was returning from Derby to his home, on an unruly horse, while crossing the Housa- tonic over Leavenworth's Bridge, which was notoriously unsafe, he is supposed to have been thrown by a start of his horse into the river, where his body was found the
34^ Yale College ■
next day. No one saw the accident, but the horse was found standing on the bridge.
He was unmarried, in the 26th year of his age.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, Nov. 25, 1801. C. 1276, 1347. Wilcox, Descendants of Denison, MS. Letter to J. Day, Nov., W. Wilcoxson, etc., lo. 1801. Orcutt, Hist. o£ Stratford, ii.
Joseph Williams, the eldest child of General Joseph Williams, of Norwich, Connecticut, and grandson of Joseph and Eunice (Wheeler) Williams, of Norwich, was born there on March 29, 1779. His mother was Abigail, the oldest child of Captain William and Sarah (Lathrop) Coit, of Norwich.
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, at his academy on Greenfield Hill, and entered Yale in January of the Freshman year.
His law studies after graduation, with Simeon Baldwin (Yale 1781), of New Haven, were interrupted by his father's sudden death, in October, 1800, which caused his return home, and threw on him the care of a dependent household.
His long life was most usefully spent in Norwich, where he held a great variety of public offices and was universally esteemed as a wise counselor and an industrious, upright citizen.
In 1803 he entered on a long term of service as Secre- tary and Treasurer of the Norwich Fire Insurance Society. For over forty years he was Cashier of the Merchants Bank. For forty years he held a commission as Justice of the Peace, and for twenty-two years he was in the City Government as alderman. He represented Norwich in three sessions of the Legislature in 1813-14, and was for a series of years State Agent for the Mohegan Indians. He was one of the projectors and at the time of his death the President of the Norwich Savings Society.
Biographical Sketches, iyp8 341
In July, 1864, he injured himself severely by a fall, and was thenceforwards confined to his room, suffering intensely.
He died in Norwich on November 28, 1865, in his 87th year, being at that time the oldest native male resident of Norwich, and the last survivor of his College class.
He was fond of society, gentle and courteous in his man- ners, and an earnest, consistent Christian.
He married, on February 19, 181 5, Rebecca, youngest daughter of John and Mehitable (Tyler) Coit, of Norwich, who was a first cousin of his mother, and the widow of her cousin, Daniel T. Coit, of what is now Griswold, Connect- icut, who died in January, 1808, leaving one son (Yale 1825).
She died on June 17, 1841, in her 59th year. Their chil- dren were three sons, who died in early life, and two daugh- ers, who lived to old age, unmarried.
AUTHORITIES.
Caulkins, Hist, of Norwich, 2d ed., 135. N. E. Hist and Geneal. Regis- 547, 633. Chapman, Coit Family, 124, ter, Ixii, 190. Williams Family, 324.
David Young was probably a son of David Young, of Windham and Lebanon, Connecticut. He was born in 1774, and Lebanon was his residence while at College.
On graduation he remained at College for a year, in the office of College Butler.
He settled in Windham as a lawyer, and maintained a good standing in his profession. He was a Representative in the State Legislature at the two sessions of 18 15.
He died in Windham in August, 1829, at the age of 55.
He married Freelove, fourth daughter of Shubael Abbe (Yale 1764), of Windham, who was ten years his junior. A son who bore his father's name was distinguished in public life.
AUTHORITIES.
Trowbridge, Champion Genealogj% ham, 22. 355. Weaver, Hist, of Ancient Wind-
34* Yale College
Annals, 1798-99
Early in 1799 Tutor Jeremiah Atwater (Yale 1793) withdrew from office, and his duty was assumed by Eben- ezer Grant Marsh (Yale 1795), recently appointed Instruc- tor in Hebrew. At the ensuing Commencement, Tutor Zechariah Lewis (Yale 1794) also resigned; and two new tutors entered upon office, — Charles Denison and Benja- min Silliman, of the Class of 1796, — the unusual size of the Freshman Class making an extra officer necessary.
At this Commencement the Committee on the new President's House were authorized to finish the exterior in wood (instead of brick, as previously ordered).
At this date also a Committee was appointed to approach the General Assembly for a grant of money towards the building of a new College for students' rooms, — a project which was realized by the erection of North Middle Col- lege in 1801-03. With a view to this end steps were authorized to be taken for the immediate acquisition of two small parcels of land, on the College Street side of what is now the College Square, — one belonging to the town, on which stood the almshouse, and the other belong- ing to the county and the site of the jail.
Among the acts of the Corporation at the same meeting, as showing the progress of the College and the city in luxury, it now became for the first time necessary to pro- hibit students from boarding at taverns in New Haven.
The orations exhibited at Commencement this year, as also the year previous, were considered by the Anti-Feder- alists to be exceedingly offensive on the score of partisan politics, for which President Dwight was held responsible.
Annals, 1798-99 343
An anonymous publication, at Richmond, Virginia, in 1799, entitled "A Short History of Late Ecclesiastical Oppressions in New-England and Vermont, by a Citizen," is noticeable for an attack (pp. 18-19) on President Dwight, particularly for his opposition to clerical dress, forms of prayer, and rites and ceremonies in general.
344 Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1799
*Benjamin Burritt *i827
"^Esekiel Jones Chapman, A.M. *i866
*Petrus DeWitt *i85i
*Joel Doolittle, A.M. Mediob., Reip. Viridim. Cur.
Supr. Jurid. *i84i
"^Benjamin Woolsey Dwight, A.M. *i850
*Edmundus Dwight *i849
Vacobus Eells, A.M. Hamilt. 1819 *i856
"^Andreas Eliot, A.M., Socius *i829
*01iverus Ellsworth, A.M., Tutor *i8o5
*Alanson Hamlin, A.M. 1804 *i839
*Guilielmus Soranzo Hasell, A.M. *i8i5
*Thomas Hill Hubbard, A.M. 1807, e Congr. *i857
*Eli Ives, A.M., M.D. Soc. Med. Conn. 181 1, Mat.
Med. et Botan. etiam Med. Theor. et Prax. etiam
Mat. Med. et Therap. Prof., Soc. Med. Rerump.
Foed. Praeses *i86i
* Jacobus Luce Kingsley, A.M., LL.D. Mediob.
183 1, Tutor, Biblioth., Hist. Eccl. et Lingg.
Hebr. et Graec. et Lat. Prof. *i852
*Carolus McEwen *i836
*01iverus Mather, A.M. *i820
*Henricus Meigs, A.M. et Univ. Georg. 1804, e
Congr. *i86i
*Rogerus Newberry, A.M. 1807 *i837
*Jeremias Osborn *i826
*Matthaeus Perkins, A.M. Guil. 1803 *i8o8
*Sidneius Piatt *i8o7
*Godfredus Scarborough *i867
*Elias Shipman, A.M. 1807 *i833
Biographical Sketches, lypp 345
* Moses Stuart, A.M., Tutor, in Acad. Theol.
Andov. Litt. Sacr. Prof. *i852
*Thaddaeus Burr Wakeman *i848
♦Johannes Winn *i820
Benjamin Burritt, son of Captain and Deacon Abel Burritt, of New Haven, was born on April 24, 1778, and baptized two days later. His mother was Eunice, fourth daughter of Stephen and Martha (Thompson) Austin, of New Haven. Abel Burritt Jacocks (Yale 1841) was a nephew.
He spent his life in his native place, but ruined himself by dissipation.
He died in the New Haven Almshouse on April 24, 1827, his 49th birthday.
EzEKiEL Jones Chapman, the eldest of the ten children of Deacon William and Caroline (Jones) Chapman, of Saybrook, Connecticut, and grandson of Benjamin Chap- man, of Saybrook, was born in that town on August 13, 1781.
During his College course he was hopefully converted to Christ, and was admitted to the College Church.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers on Octo- ber 6, 1801. On the 28th of the same month he was ordained by the same Association as an evangelist, at Hebron, at the request of the Connecticut Missionary Society, who sent him in November to the Western Reserve of Ohio, to labor as a fellow-missionary with the Rev. Joseph Badger (Yale 1785).
He left this field in April, 1803, for similar labor in New York State, and in 1804 settled in Ontario County, where he preached for over twenty years, viz.: in
346 Yale College
Charleston, now Lima, for about eight years (though not regularly installed there until January 12, 1809) ; in Bris- tol for six years (installed October 13, 1814, dismissed March 30, 1820) ; and in Livonia for seven years; besides briefer engagements elsewhere. In 1827 he removed to Oneida Lake, in Madison County, where he resided until his death. When no longer able to preach, on account of feeble health, he engaged in the service of the Presbyterian Board of Publication as a colporteur.
His labors in the different places of his ministry were attended with gratifying success.
He died in Oneida Lake, on August i, 1866, aged 85 years.
He married, on April 18, 1804, Palmyra Adams, of Brookfield, Madison County, New York, who died in Livonia, on July 31, 1826. He was next married, on April 2, 1828, to Tryphena, second daughter of Dr. John and Abigail (Moseley) Clark, of Windsor, Connecticut, and Lebanon, Madison County, New York, who died on May I, 1867, aged 81 years.
By his first marriage he had three sons and two daugh- ters, and by his second marriage one daughter, — all of whom .lived to maturity.
He published :
Critical and Explanatory Notes, on many passages in the New Testament, which to common readers are hard to be understood. Also, an Illustration of the genuine beauty and force of several other passages. Canandaigua, 1819. 8°, pp. 208.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C. '
The same. Second edition. Utica, 1831. 12°, pp. 308. [F. C.
A third edition was also issued.
A fresh and suggestive work, with constant references to the import of the original Greek.
AUTHORITIES.
C. H. Chapman, MS. Letter, March, Western N. Y., 563, 568-69, 578. T. 1868. F. W. Chapman, Chapman Rohbins, Diary, i, 204. Tuttle Fam- Family, 93, 123. Hotchkin, Hist, of ily, 360.
Biographical Sketches, //pp 347
Peter DeWitt, the eldest son of John DeWitt, a prom- inent citizen of Clinton, Duchess County, New York, and grandson of Petrus and Rachel (Radcliff) DeWitt, of Hyde Park, in the same county, was born in Poughkeep- sie, on April 19, 1780. His mother was Catharine, daugh- ter of Dirck and Helen (Weaver) VanVliet, of Clinton. In 1795 he was sent to school in Sharon, Connecticut, but in March, 1796, entered the Academy in Kingston, New York, in preparation for College, where he joined the Junior Class in the summer of 1797.
After graduation he studied law with his kinsman, Peter Radcliff (Yale 1793), of Poughkeepsie ; and with him removed in 1802 to the city of New York, where he was admitted to practice on May 14, 1803.
He immediately opened an office by himself, and for more than thirty years stood among the foremost of the New York bar as an equity lawyer and conveyancer. He devoted himself with singular industry to his professional duties, and was distinguished for his simplicity of charac- ter, his amiability and cheerfulness, his sound judgment, and undeviating integrity.
He continued to attend to business until a few weeks before his death, which occurred at his residence, 11 St. Mark's Place, in the City of New York, on May 8, 185 1, in his 72d year.
On June 15, 1807, he married Janet, daughter of George and Janet (Duncan) Gk)sman, of New York City, who died at the country residence of her sons, in Bronxville, New York, on January 17, 1883, in her 94th year.
He was the father of ten sons and three daughters, of whom all but one son and one daughter survived him. The eldest son entered Yale in 1823, but on account of ill health did not graduate. Three other sons succeeded their father in the practice of the law.
Mr. DeWitt was a Jeffersonian Democrat in politics, and took a keen interest in the triumphs of democratic princi- ples, but made it a rule not to accept public office.
348 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
G. G. DeWitt, MS. Letters, March, xxi, i86. 1910. N. Y. Geneal. and Biog. Record,
Joel Doolittle, the third son and fifth child of Titus DooHttle, a farmer of that part of Westfield which is now Russell, Massachusetts, and grandson of John and Han- nah (Royce) DooHttle, of Wallingford, Connecticut, was born in Russell in April, 1774. His mother was Mary, daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Esther (Matthews) Lewis, of Wallingford. He entered at the opening of the Junior year from Williams College. A brother was graduated here in 1804.
He began the study of law after graduation, but in the autumn of 1800 went to Middlebury, Vermont, to accept a position as tutor in Middlebury College at its opening. He held this position for one year ; and then, having been admitted to the bar, entered on the lifelong practice of his profession in that town.
He was extensively employed as a counselor and advo- cate until 181 7, when he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, which office he filled by annual election for seven years (1817-22, 1824). He was also a member of the State Council for three years (1815-17), and a Representative in the Legislature in 1824. In 1834 he was chosen a member of the Council of Censors, of which body he was made President. He was also several times an unsuccessful candidate for the governorship of the State.
In 1819 he was elected a member of the Corporation of Middlebury College, and so continued until his death. After leaving the bench he again engaged in practice, as health permitted. He was studious as a lawyer, and faith- ful in the discharge of his duty to his clients, as well as in the discharge of all public trusts. At the organization of an Episcopal Church in Middlebury, in 18 10, he became a
BiographiccU Sketches, lyp^ 349
communicant, and continued through Hfe an exemplary and devoted member of that body.
He died in Middlebury on March 9, 1841, at the age of 67. An engraving from a portrait is given in Swift's History of Middlebury, and in the Doolittle Family.
He married about 18 10 Sarah Porter, daughter of Ephraim and Sarah (Porter) Fitch, of Pawlet, Rutland County, Vermont, who removed after his death to the home of her sons in Painesville, Ohio. She died in Montville, Ohio, on November 20, 1875, aged 85 years.
Their children were four sons and three daughters, of whom all but one daughter survived their father.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 736, Doolittle Family, 229, 356-58. STvift, 739. M. Doolittle, Sketch of Belcher- Hist, of Middlebury, 278-79. Tuttle town Church, 276. W. F. Doolittle, Family, 218.
Benjamin Woolsey Dwight, the second son of Timo- thy D wight (Yale 1769), was born in Northampton, Mas- sachusetts, on February 10, 1780, and was named for his maternal grandfather (Yale 1744). In his infancy his father removed to Greenfield Hill, where he prepared this son for College, which he entered in the Sophomore year, after President Dwight's accession to the presidency.
He won the Berkeley Scholarship at graduation, and resided at the College on that foundation for one or two years. He then pursued a course of medical study in Philadelphia, under Drs. Benjamin Rush and Philip S. Physick; and having declined the offer of a tutorship at Yale, entered on practice in Catskill, New York, in July, 1803. He found himself, however, reluctantly compelled, in March, 1805, to abandon his profession on account of the state of his health.
He then returned to New Haven, and after serving for a short time as his father's private secretary and amanuen-
35© y^^le College
sis, engaged in the crockery business in partnership with Hezekiah Belden (Yale 1796). He soon removed to New York City and went into the hardware trade as a member of the firm of Dwight, Palmer & Co.
Their prosperous business was broken up by the war of 18 1 2, and from i8i3toi8i6he was again in New Haven, being married in South Hadley on May 7, 181 5, to Sophia Woodbridge, eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Strong (Yale 1784), of Heath, Massachusetts, who had been adopted in her youth by her uncle, Colonel Benjamin R. Woodbridge, of South Hadley. She had finished her edu- cation at the Rev. Claudius Herrick's school in New Haven, and during that time (1812-14) was an inmate of President Dwight's family.
Early in 18 17 he went again to Catskill to live, and was for fourteen years a hardware merchant of high reputa- tion. He was at first to a large degree a direct importer from England for a wide circle of out-of-town customers ; but in later years this branch of his business fell off entirely, from the competition of New York City trade. He was for many years an elder in the Catskill Presby- terian Church and active in giving Bible-class instruction on the Sabbath and conducting other religious exercises.
In April, 183 1, he removed to Clinton, in Oneida County, to enjoy the life of a gentleman-farmer on a farm of eighty acres. Early in J 832 he was appointed Treasurer of Hamilton College, in Clinton, and in that position, for the rest of his life, had great satisfaction in establishing on a secure basis the finances of that institution.
He died in Clinton on May 18, 1850, in his 71st year, of pleurisy, terminating after a very few days' illness in con- gestion of the brain.
His wife's health had been poor since her marriage, and was much more impaired after his death. She died in Clinton, on December 3, 1861, at the age of 69.
Their children were three sons and three daughters, all of whom survived their parents. The eldest son was
Biographical Sketches, lypp 351
graduated at Hamilton College in 1835, and had a fruitful career as teacher and author. The second son (Hamilton Coll. 1840) was the distinguished Professor of Law in Columbia College. Two daughters married in succession Elliott Anthony (Hamilton Coll. 1850).
He published, in volume i of the Memoirs of the Con- necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences :
A Dissertation on the Chronic Debility of the Stomach, New Haven, 181 1. 8°, pp. 219-31 1.
This is also said to have been republished in London. The sub- ject was one of acute interest to the writer, who was a victim through his adult life of dyspepsia in its most aggravated form.
AUTHORITIES.
B. W. Dwight, Dwight Family, i, Life of B. W. Dwight; Strong Fam- 171, 175-80; N. Y. Geneal. and Biog. ily, i, 365-69. Record, iv, 152; Reminiscences of
Edmund Dwight, fourth son and seventh child of Jon- athan Dwight, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and grand- son of Captain Edmund and Elizabeth (Scutt) Dwight, of Boston, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, was born in Spring- field on November 28, 1780. He was a third cousin of President Dwight. His mother was Margaret, third daughter of Dr. Israel Ashley (Yale 1730), of Westfield. A younger brother was graduated here in 1801.
After graduation he read law with the Hon. Fisher Ames, of Dedham ; and subsequently spent two years in a visit to England and the continent of Europe.
Returning in 1804, he engaged immediately in exten- sive commercial business with his father and brothers in Springfield.
His aflfairs led him frequently to Boston, where he formed the acquaintance of Mary Harrison, daughter of Samuel Eliot, an eminent and successful merchant, and Catharine (Atkins) Eliot, whom he married on April 19, 1809. She was an aunt of President Eliot, of Harvard.
352 Yale College
In 1816 he removed to Boston, and soon afterwards formed a partnership there with James K. Mills, which continued until his death. The firm early became inter- ested in the manufacturing enterprises on a large scale which were just then obtaining a foothold in New Eng- land. The mills and manufacturing establishments pro- moted by his special efforts were located on the Connecticut River above Springfield, at Chicopee and Holyoke, and the great prosperity of those towns dates from his initial enterprise. He became ultimately one of the wealthiest citizens of Boston.
He took an early and active share in the construction of the Western Railroad, from Worcester to Albany, being an influential member of the Board of Directors for most of the time from its organization in 1836 until his death, and for one year (1843-44) its President.
Another direction in which he employed his energies to a large extent for the later years of his life was the improvement of the common-school system of Massachu- setts. He was the main instrument in the creation of the State Board of Education in 1837, of which he was one of the original members, and through his liberal contributions (amounting to about twenty-five thousand dollars) the policy inaugurated by the Board was assured of an efficient and successful trial.
He was for several years in early life a member of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, from Spring- field, and later both a representative and a Senator from Boston. In 1848 he was Presidential Elector at large. He was one of the founders of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, in 181 2.
An experience of almost uninterrupted health during his later years, was followed by his death, in Boston, after a short but severe illness from pleurisy, on April i, 1849, in his 69th year.
An engraving from a portrait is given in the Dwight Family and in the American Journal of Education.
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 353
Mrs. Dwight died in Boston, from consumption, after many years of ill health and great suffering, on October 12, 1846, in her 59th year.
Their children were four sons and six daughters. Only the youngest son (Harvard 1844) and five daughters sur- vived their parents ; of the latter, the second married Dr. Samuel Parkman (Harvard 1834), the third married Judge John Wells (Williams Coll. 1838), the fourth mar- ried the Hon. Edward Turner Boyd Twistleton, of London, and the fifth married James E. Cabot (Harvard 1840).
AUTHORITIES.
Barnard's Amer. Journal of Edu- field, 162-63. Dwight Family, ii, 865, cation, iv, 5-22. Chapin, Old Spring- 894-99.
James Eells^ the only surviving son of the Rev. James Eells (Yale 1763), of Eastbury, now Buckingham, Con- necticut, was born in April, 1778.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and was Hcensed to preach by the Tolland County Association of Ministers on June i, 1802.
He was called in April, 1804, to the pastorate of a small church (at first Congregational, afterwards Presbyterian) at Hampton Village, in the township of Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, where he was ordained on July II, and labored with success until compelled by failing health to take a dismission on February 10, 1825. He received a Master's degree from Hamilton College in 18 19.
He was then employed for seven or eight years as Gen- eral Agent of the Western Education Society. About 1830 he removed his residence to Ohio, and remained there for nearly twenty years, supplying vacant churches as he was able.
He then returned to New York, and for a few years resided in Auburn. 23
354 ^^'^ College
He was killed by a passing train while standing on the railroad track at Grafton, Lorain County, Ohio, on May 3, 1856, aged 78 years.
A son was graduated at Hamilton College in 1827 and entered his father's profession, but died early.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapin, Glastenbury Centennial, 91. 738. N. Y. Evangelist, May 22, 1856. P. Jones, Annals of Oneida County,
Andrew Eliot, the only son of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Eliot (Harvard 1762), of Fairfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Andrew and Ruth (Symonds) Eliot, of Bos- ton, was born in Fairfield on August 15, 1780, and was bap- tized by his father five days later. His mother was Mary, daughter of the Hon. Joseph Pynchon (Harvard 1726) and Mary (Colton, Cheney) Pynchon, of Boston. One of his sisters married the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Hewit (Yale 1808).
He remained at College for a year after graduation, filling the office of College Butler, and later pursued the study of theology, being licensed to preach by the Fairfield West Association of Ministers on May 31, 1803. His father died in October, 1805.
His only pastorate was in New Milford, in Litchfield County, where he was ordained over the Congregational Church of seventy-three members of February 24, 1808. The sermon on this occasion, by the Rev. Samuel Fisher (Williams Coll. 1799), of Wilton, was afterwards pub- lished.
The parish had been long vacant, after the retirement of the Rev. Stanley Griswold (Yale 1786), and it was several years before the injurious efifects of Mr. Griswold's conduct were outlived and prosperity restored.
Mr. Eliot's influence and arduous labors as a pastor were highly salutary, and he was much beloved. During his ministry 339 persons were admitted to the church.
Biographical Sketches, lypp 355
He died in New Milford on May 9, 1829, in his 49th year.
He was chosen a Fellow of Yale College in September, 18 1 8, and served until his death.
He married on September 19, 1820, Sophia, daughter of Captain John and Elizabeth Wasson, of Fairfield, who died on November 17, 1822, in her 33d year. Their only child, a daughter, survived them.
He published :
A Sermon [from I Tim. ii, 1-2], preached on the day of the General Election, at Hartf ord, . . May 5th, 1819. Hartford, 1819. 8°, pp. 20. [U.T.S. Y.C.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, May 19, 1829. Or- i, 781. Schenck, Hist, of Fairfield, ii,
cutt, Hist of N. Milford, 468-71, 693, 449, 506. Sprague, Annals of the
851. Perry, Old Burying Ground of Amer. Pulpit, i, 421. Fairfield, 34, 191. T. Robbins, Diary,
Oliver Ellsworth, Junior, the third child and eldest surviving son of Chief -Justice Oliver Ellsworth (Prince- ton 1766), of Windsor, Connecticut, and grandson of Cap- tain David and Jemima (Leavitt) Ellsworth, of Windsor, was born in Windsor on April 27, 1781. His mother was Abigail, youngest daughter of William Wolcott (Yale 1734), of Windsor. One brother was graduated here in 1801, and two in 1810. His three sisters married respec- tively Ezekiel Williams (Yale 1785), Thomas S. Williams (Yale 1794), and Joseph Wood (Yale 1801). At gradua- tion he delivered an Oration on a National University.
In the November following he sailed for Europe as the private secretary to his father, who went as the head of President Adams's mission for the conclusion of a new treaty with France; large extracts from his diary are given in Brown's Life of the Chief- Justice.
He returned home a year later, and soon after settled in New Haven as a resident graduate. For the College year 1801-02 he served as Tutor; but over-diligence in
356 Yale College
study, with naturally frail health, compelled his resig- nation.
He visited the West Indies for relief, but the climate failed to benefit him, and his death ensued from consump- tion, in New London, Connecticut, on July 4, 1805, in his 25th year. He was unmarried. The ranks of the Class had not before been broken by death.
AUTHORITIES.
Brown, Life of O. Ellsworth, pas- Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., 219. sim. Conn. Journal, July 11, 1805.
Alanson Hamlin was born in 1778, in Sharon, Con- necticut, the eighth of twenty-two children of Captain Nathaniel Hamlin, of Sharon, and grandson of Thomas and Ruth (Gibbs) Hamlin, of Wareham, Massachusetts, His mother was Lucy Foster, of Sharon. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Sophomore year.
At his graduation he delivered the Valedictory Oration.
He became a lawyer, and settled at first in Danbury. In October, 18 12, he was one of the Representatives in the General Assembly. He was treasurer of the borough in 1822. In 1826 he removed to Bridgeport, and in 1838 he was Mayor of the city. His residence was on the East side of Main Street, North of Bank Street.
In 1832 he delivered a poem on Slavery (eulogistic of the Colonization Society) before the. Phi Beta Kappa Society in New Haven, but it was never published.
He died in Bridgeport, on November 18, 1839, aged 61 years, leaving little or no property.
He married on April 6, 1808, Mary Warner, who was admitted to the First Church in Bridgeport in 1833, and survived him, without children.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, Hamlin Family, 144, 245. ter, March, 1910. Coleman, Lyman Bailey, Hist, of Danbury, 123, 138, Genealogy, 369. 1ST. Hon. M. B. Beardsley, MS. Let-
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 357
William Soranzo Hasell was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 15, 1780, the second son of Parker Quince; and of Susannah, youngest daughter of James and Sarah (Wright) Hasell. Before coming to College he had taken his mother's maiden name as his sur- name.
He delivered at graduation Alfred, a Historical Poem.
He settled after graduation in North Carolina, as the editor and proprietor of the Wilmington Gazette; and died in Wilmington, on October 6, 18 15, aged 35 years.
The notices of his death emphasize his amiable character and the severe loss sustained by the community.
He married Eliza Gardentart, who afterwards married the Rev. Dr. Plumer.
He had no children.
AUTHORITIES. Charleston Mercury, Oct. 17, 1815. S. C. Hist, and Geneal. Magazine, iv, 52.
Thomas Hill Hubbard^ fourth son of the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard (Yale 1758), of New Haven, was born here on December 5, 1781.
He studied law after graduation with the Hon. John Woodworth (Yale 1788), in Troy, New York, and then entered on the successful practice of his profession in Ham- ilton, in the same State, where he continued until 1824. On the organization of Madison County in 1806 he was appointed to the office of Surrogate, which he held until 18 1 6, when he was made Prosecuting Attorney for the district, including that county. He held this office until 1 82 1. He was elected a Representative in Congress for the 15th session (1817-19) and the 17th session (1821-
23)-
With his removal to Utica in 1824 the more active portion of his professional career closed. In June of
358 Yale College
that year the Court of Chancery for the Utica district was estabHshed and he was appointed Clerk. He held the office but a short time, and then became Clerk of the Supreme Court. In 1837 he retired from all pub- lic employments, and thenceforwards devoted himself to domestic life and the management of his ample fortune. He served, however, as a Presidential Elector at the elec- tion of Polk in 1844 and of Pierce in 1852, as he had already done for Madison in 1812.
He died in Utica on May 21, 1857, in his 76th year.
As an advocate he was esteemed as both able and effec- tive. As a friend and neighbor he was greatly respected for his uniform kindness and gentleness and his open- hearted liberality.
He married, on June 12, 18 12, Phebe, second daughter of Micah and Content (Guernsey) Hubbard, of Middletown, Connecticut, who survived him.
Their children were six sons and five daughters. The second and third sons were graduates, in 1834 and 1836 respectively, of Hamilton College, of which Mr. Hubbard was a Trustee from 1817 to 1827.
AUTHORITIES.
Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, 571-72. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, ii, 826- Hough, Amer. Biographical Notes, 28. Ward Family Genealogy, 81, 135. 214. Hubbard History, 314, 328.
Eli Ives^ the third son and fourth child of Dr. Levi Ives, a highly respectable physician of large practice in New Haven, was born here on February 7, 1779, and was baptized two weeks later. His mother was Lydia, daugh- ter of Deacon Abraham and Elizabeth (Bradley) Augur, of New Haven. A brother was graduated at Yale in 1791.
In April, 1799, before taking his first degree, he was appointed Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, but held the office only until June, 1800. Mean- time he had begun the study of medicine, in part with his
Biographical Sketches, lypp 359
father, but mainly with Dr. Eneas Munson (Yale 1753) ; and subsequently he visited Philadelphia for the benefit of further courses under Dr. Benjamin Rush and Dr. Caspar Wistar.
Early in 1802, although offered a tutorship in College by President Dwight, he began practice in New Haven, — for a few months with his father, and then by himself. Three years later he attended another course of lectures in the School at Philadelphia.
On September 17, 1805, he married Maria, daughter of Deacon Nathan and Mary (Phelps) Beers, of New Haven; and about 1814 he built a house for himself on the North- east corner of Temple and Wall streets, in which he died, and which is still standing, though much altered.
Devoting himself to his profession with singleness of purpose and tireless energy, he soon obtained a large and lucrative practice.
In 1806 he was elected one of the Fellows of the State Medical Society, and was re-elected for eight succeeding years. He was also the Secretary in 1810-12, a member of the Examining Committee for New Haven County from 1805 to 18 1 2, and Vice President in 1824-27. The hon- orary degree of M.D. was conferred on him by the Society in October, 181 1.
In the proceedings of the Convention of the Society and the College, from 1807 to 18 10, which resulted in the estab- lishment of the Yale Medical Department, Dr. Ives bore an influential part. He seems, indeed, to have been at the head of the movement, so far as the Medical Society was concerned, as were President Dwight and Professor Silli- man on the part of the College.
When the Medical School was begun, in 18 13, Dr. Ives was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Botany, in association with the venerable Dr. Munson, from whom, however, no instruction was expected.
Dr. Ives's knowledge of the indigenous Materia Medica was greater than that of any of his contemporaries; and
360 Yale College
his study of Botany was one of the chief interests of his life. He imported a valuable botanical library, and the extensive grounds of the School building (now Sheffield Hall) were partly converted by him, at his own expense, into a botanical garden for the benefit of his classes, which was for a time of great interest.
He was a much valued member of the Horticultural and Pomological Societies of New Haven, and the President of each. In the raising of fruits, and particularly of pears (five varieties of which bore his name), grapes, and straw- berries, he had more than the usual success.
He was a member of the Convention which framed the first United States Pharmacopoeia in 1820, and President of the succeeding Convention in 1830.
In 1829 he was transferred to the chair of Theory and Practice in the Medical School, which he held until 1852. As a practitioner he was wonderfully shrewd and able, and his instruction was correspondingly suggestive and efficient. In 1852 he again took the chair of Materia Medica, but a year later, on account of protracted ill health, was made Professor Emeritus.
In i860 the American Medical Association held its annual meeting in New Haven, and the preeminence of Dr. Ives was recognized by his being given the office of President.
He died in New Haven, on October 8, 1861, in his 83d year. His widow died on March 14, 1864, in her 82d year.
Two of their sons became noted physicians in New Haven, — N. Beers Ives (Yale 1825) and Levi Ives (Yale Medical School 1838) ; a third son died while preparing for the same profession. One daughter married Dr. Henry A. Tomlinson (Yale 1828), and another died in infancy.
Dr. Ives was tall and spare in person, unceremonious and unpretending in manner, and plain in dress. As a physi- cian he was remarkable for insight, for fertility of resources, and for great care in watching his patients.
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 361
He made a profession of religion in 1808, and ever after lived a humble, consistent Christian life.
The address delivered at his funeral by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Dutton, was printed in the New Englander, and republished separately. Another very discriminating biographical notice by his pupil and colleague. Dr. Henry Bronson, was printed in the Proceedings of the Connect- icut Medical Society for 1867, and afterwards published separately.
A portrait of Dr. Ives by Jocelyn, painted in 1827, belongs to the University, and is reproduced in Kingsley's Yale College. An engraving, representing him a few years before his death, is given in Dr. Bronson's Biograph- ical Notice.
He published separately only two articles :
1, An Oration, on Chemistry and Botany; delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at New Haven, Dec. 9, 1802. New Haven, 1803. 8°, pp. 16. [F. C.
Mainly devoted to the new science of chemistry.
2. Extracts from an Address delivered before the New Haven Horticultural Society, at their annual meeting in October, 1837. [New Haven.] 8°, pp. 16. [B. Publ. Y. C.
In the first number of the Communications of the Connecticut Medical Society, published in 18 10, he printed three short papers : An unsuccessful case of Hydrophobia, pp. 56-60 ; A case of Uterine Polypus, pp. 70-74. Case of retro verted Uterus [anonymous], pp. 78-80.
In 181 1 he contributed an Account of vegetable productions, found in New-Haven, to President Dwight's Statistical Account of the City of New Haven; a much more extended catalogue, "the joint production of Drs. Eli Ives, William TuUy, and Melines C. Leavenworth," was appended to Baldwin's Annals of Yale College, pp. 264-302, 1 83 1.
Dr. Ives contributed six papers to the American Journal of Science: —
In volume i, 1818-19: —
Observations on a species of Limosella, recently discovered in the United States, pp. 74-76;
362 Yale College
Description of a new series of Asclepias, p. 252 ;
On the Comparative Quantity of Nutritious Matter which may be obtained from an Acre of Land when cultivated with Potatoes or Wheat, pp. 297-98 ;
Description of a New Species of Gnaphalium, pp. 380-81.
In volume 3, 1821 : —
On Spring Pasture, pp. 355-56.
In volume 21, 1832: —
Chloric ether [= chloroform], pp. 406-07.
In 1848 he published in the Northern Literary Messenger, of New Haven, several valuable papers entitled, Historical Sketches of the Medical Society of New Haven County; by a Member. These were re-published with additions in the New Haven Journal and Courier for October, 1852.
The Yale Library has several manuscript reports by students of Dr. Ives's medical lectures.
AUTHORITIES.
Atwater, Hist, of City of New at the Funeral of E. Ives. Kingsley,
Haven, 274-75, 287. Augur Geneal- Yale College, ii, 69-72. New Haven
ogy. 65. Bronson, Biographical Colony Hist. Society Papers, i, 141 ;
Notice of E. Ives. Button, Address ii, 255-56, 306.
James Luce Kingsley, the eldest child of Deacon Jonathan Kingsley, of Scotland Parish in Windham, Con- necticut, and grandson of Salmon and Lydia (Burgess) Kingsley, of Scotland, was born in Scotland on August 28, 1778. His mother was Zillah, daughter of Benajah and Deborah (Perkins) Gary, and widow of James Luce, Jun- ior, of Scotland. In his childhood he was much in the house of John Whiting (Yale 1726), of Scotland, whose second wife was the mother of James Luce, Junior, for whom he was named. His mother was a first cousin of Enoch Perkins (Yale 1781).
At the early age of ten he was sent, on account of his promise, to the Plainfield Academy; but his preparation for College was completed under the Rev. Ludovicus Weld (Harvard 1789), of Hampton. In 1795 he was admitted
Biographical Sketches, lypQ 363
to Williams College, but did not return thither after the Freshman year. Then came an interval of feeble health ; and in May, 1797, he joined the Sophomore Class at Yale. At graduation he delivered an Oration on the Origin of Alphabetical Characters. The next year he spent in Wethersfield, as the teacher of a select school ; and during the following year he remained at home, partly occupied with private pupils.
In the fall of 180 1 he was appointed Tutor in the College and entered on the duties of that office, which he discharged with singular success for four years, or until his election in September, 1805, as Professor of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, and of Ecclesiastical History; with which was combined for nineteen years the duties of Libra- rian. He continued, however, for seven years longer, or until a year after his marriage, to do the work of a Tutor, carrying one division of the students in all the branches pursued by them, from the beginning of the course to the end of the Junior year.
In the autumn of 181 2, on ceasing to give regular instruction outside the field of his professorship, he employed his leisure in preparing a course of lectures on language, and another on history, for delivery in Senior year.
From 1 81 2 to 1831 his main duties were in connection with Latin and Greek; though he also offered instruction to such students as chose to study Hebrew, and gave with more or less regularity lectures on history. In 183 1 a Professor of Greek was appointed, and thenceforwards Professor Kingsley considered the Latin language and literature his only proper department, although he did not cease for a few years longer to instruct in Hebrew and history.
In August, 185 1, he resigned his office, and was appointed Professor Emeritus. He volunteered for the ensuing year to take charge of an optional class ; but soon after that year closed, he died in New Haven, after a
364 Yale College
few days' illness, from dysentery, on August 31, 1852, having just entered on his 75th year.
During the half-century of his active connection with the College, he was never absent for any length of time, except when in 1845 he volunteered to go to Europe, at his own expense, for the purchase of books for the Library, and was absent about eight months.
He was married on September 23, 181 1, to Lydia, eldest daughter of Daniel Lathrop and Elizabeth (Bill) Coit, of Norwich, who died in New Haven on December 2, 1 86 1, in her 83d year. One of her sisters married Pelatiah Perit (Yale 1802), and a brother was graduated here in 1819.
Their eldest son (Yale 1832) died in early manhood; and they were survived by two sons (Yale 1834 and 1843, respectively), and by a daughter, the wife of Henry T. Blake (Yale 1848).
His portrait, painted by Nathaniel Jocelyn in 1828, is in the University collections ; an engraving from a likeness taken late in life has been often published, as in the Con- gregational Quarterly for April, 1863, and in his son's book, Yale College.
Professor Kingsley's life and character are admirably described in the Commemorative Discourse by his col- league. Professor Thacher, to which is prefixed the Address at his funeral by President Woolsey. He was an excellent Latin scholar, and gifted with a special power of elegant composition in that language, as well as in English. The accurate knowledge of History, particularly of American history, and that of his native State and of the College, was equally his province; and if any of his generation among the graduates deserved the title of a "universal scholar," it was he.
He was no less distinguished for his critical acumen and the keenness of his wit, as well as for the transparent sin- cerity and Christian poise of his character.
He published :
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 365
1. Remarks on the present situation of Yale College; for the consideration of its friends and patrons. [New Haven, 1817.] 8°, pp. 16. [B. Publ. Y. C.
The same. [Revised edition. New Haven, January, 1823.] 8°, pp. 16. [A. A. S. Y. C.
The first edition was prepared after the death of President Dwight, in aid of an attempt to gain funds; as a partial result of this appeal, North College was erected in 1821.
The second edition accomplished the erection of a new chapel in 1824.
Both were anonymous.
2. An Eulogy on Alexander Metcalf Fisher, A.M., Profes- sor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, in Yale College, who perished in the wreck of the Albion, April 22nd, 1822. Delivered in the College Chapel, June 26, 1822. New-Haven, 1822. 8°,
PP- 23.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ Y. C.
3. Reports on the Course of Instruction in Yale College; by a Committee of the Corporation and the Academical Faculty. New Haven, 1828. 8°, pp. 56. , [Y.C.
The subject of these reports was the retention or omission of Greek and Latin in the College course; and part 2 of the Report by the Faculty (pp. 30-49) was the work of Professor Kingsley. A clear and strong defence of classical study, it was accepted as settling that question at Yale College for the rest of the century.
4. A Sketch of the History of Yale College, in Connecticut. [Boston, 1836.] 8°, pp. 48. [Y. C.
A reprint of two articles in volume 8 of the American Quarterly Register, for April, 1835, and August, 1836 (pp. 13-40, 201-18). Brief as is this Sketch, it is of the highest value.
5. A Historical Discourse, delivered by request before the Citi- zens of New Haven, April 25, 1838, the two hundredth Anniversary of the first settlement of the Town and Colony. New Haven, 1838. 8°, pp. 115.
[B. Publ C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
This is the most elaborate of the author's publications, and still ranks as a prime authority.
366 Yale College
6. Life of Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College. In volume 6 of the 2d Series of Sparks's Library of American Biography. Boston, 1845. 16°, pp. ii, 79.
Professor Kingsley edited the following Latin texts for the use of students, — all published without his name : —
Extracts for Translation. Used by the Students of Yale College. New Haven, 1830. 12°, pp. 72. [F. C.
Excerpta Latina in usum linguae Latinae Studiosorum. Novi- Portus, 1836. 12°, pp. iv, 80. [Y. C.
A different selection from the former.
Cicero de Oratore. 3 editions. Novi-Portus, 1832-39. 12°.
Tacitus [History, Germania, Agricola, etc.] Philadelphia, 1844. 12°, pp. 329.
His most notable productions were his anonymous contributions to periodicals, several of which made a remarkable sensation. Among these may be specified: —
From the North American Reviezv: —
Connecticut School Fund, volume 16, pp. 379-96, April, 1823;
Webster's Dictionary, volume 28, pp. 433-80, April, 1829;
Popular Eloquence of the Romans, volume 30, pp. 259-74, Jan- uary, 1830;
Modern Latin, volume 43, pp. 28-52; volume 44, pp. 270-72, July, 1836-January, 1837;
Latin Lexicography, volume 45, pp. 336-60, October, 1837 ;
Blue Laws of the Old States, volume 48, pp. 501-14, April, 1839;
Otis's Translation of the Tusculan Questions, volume 49, pp. 488-90, October, 1839.
From the Christian Spectator, volume 7, pp. 425-29, August, 1825, Winer's Greek Grammar of the New Testament.
From the Quarterly Christian Spectator:
Review of Dwight's Travels in the North of Germany, volume I, pp. 631-74, December, 1829;
Review of Quincy's Centennial Address to the Citizens of Boston, and Francis's Historical Sketch of Watertown, volume 2, pp. 676- 93, December, 1830.
From the New Englander:
Early History of Connecticut, volume i, pp. 224-30, April, 1843; Review of Frost's Pictorial History of the United States, pp. 600-02;
Gurdon Saltonstall, Governor of Connecticut, volume 2, pp. 495- 503, October, 1844;
BiographiccU Sketches, lypp 367
Chronology. Review of Jarvis, volume 5, pp. 215-30, 531-46; volume 6, pp. 378-92, April, October, 1847, ^^^ July, 1848;
Eliot's History of Harvard College, volume 7, pp. 140-43, Feb- ruary, 1849; Bishop Chase's "Notable Corruption, or Review of 'The Motto' of Jubilee College," etc., pp. 470-76, August, 1849;
Review of the Report to the Corporation of Brown University, on changes in the system of Collegiate Education, volume 8, pp. 470-72, August, 1850.
Also in the Monthly Anthology, volume 8, Boston, 1810, Review of Peters' History of Connecticut ;
in the Analectic Magazine, volume 9, Philadelphia, 1817, Sketch of President Dwight ;
in the United States Literary Gazette, volume 4, Boston, 1826, Review of Williston's Tacitus;
in the American Monthly Review, volume 3, Boston, 1833, Review of Stuart's Select Classics ;
in the American Journal of Science, volume 30, New Haven, 1836, Remarks on Prof. Stuart's examination of Gen. I;
in the American Biblical Repository, 2d series, volumes 6, 7, New York, 1841-42, Review of Quincy's History of Harvard University.
At the time of his resignation of his professorship, he was requested by the Corporation of the College to prepare an extended documentary history of the institution, with whose history, written and unwritten, he was so well acquainted. It is understood that he had determined to comply with this request, but his death prevented even the beginning of the task.
AUTHORITIES.
Bill Family, 181. Chapman, Coit Society's Memorial Biographies, i,
Family, 109-10. College Courant, 396-409; Yale College, i, 224-28.
July 24, 1869. Congregational Quar- Lamed, Hist, of Windham County,
terly, v, 117-30. Dwight, Memories ii, 233, 322. Thacher, Discourse com-
of Yale Life and Men, 126-39. W. L. memorative of Prof. Kingsley. Kingsley, N. E. Historic-Genealogical
Charles McEwen, the only son of Abijah McEwen, of Stratford, Connecticut, by his second wif^, Jerusha, eldest child of Abraham and Rebecca (Gold) Tomlinson, of Stratford, and grandson of Timothy and Abigail
368 Yale College
(Hurd) McCune, of Stratford, was born in that town on September 22, 1779.
He became a lawyer in his native place, but about 1818 removed to New York City, where he died on January 6, 1836, in his 57th year.
He was buried in Stratford.
AUTHORITIES. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1245; Tomlinson Family, 46.
Oliver Mather, the eldest child of Colonel Oliver Mather, of Windsor, Connecticut, and a nephew of Dr. Charles Mather (Yale 1763) and the Rev. Allyn Mather (Yale 1771), was born in Windsor on January 13, 1779. His mother was Jemima, sister of Chief- Justice Oliver Ellsworth, and he was thus a first cousin of his classmate Ellsworth. A brother was graduated here in 1810.
He died in Windsor on March 11, 1820, in his 42d year. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Mather Genealogy (1890), 145. Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d «d., ii, 486.
Henry Meigs, the eldest child of Professor Josiah Meigs (Yale 1778), was born in New Haven on October 28, 1782.
After graduation he studied law, and settled in practice in New York City. In 1807 he was appointed one of the city magistrates, and he continued in that office for several years. Though exempt from military duty, he volun- teered in the war of 18 12, and served for city defence, with the rank of Adjutant, in the regiment commanded by Col- onel Marinus Willett, through the war. In 1818 he was a member of the State Assembly.
Biographical Sketches, i^pp 369
From 1 8 19 to 1821 he was a representative in Congress. In that body he advocated vigorously the Missouri Com- promise, and introduced a proposition for applying the proceeds of the sale of the public lands to the emancipation of the slaves and their colonization in Africa.
In 1832-33 he was President of the Board of Aldermen of New York, and at that time advocated strongly the introduction of the Croton water on a grand scale.
He was also Judge of one of the city courts, and after- wards Clerk of the Court of General Sessions.
In 1845 h^ ^^s elected Recording Secretary of the American Institute; and this position, in connection with the Secretaryship of the Farmers' Club, he retained until his death. The printed Transactions of the Institute bear witness to his great industry and his attachment to the cause of agriculture.
He died in New York City, at his son's house, after six months' confinement, on May 20, 1861, in his 79th year.
A copy of his portrait is included in the Meigs Gene- alogy.
He married on February 19, 1806, Julia, daughter of Stephen Austin, of Philadelphia.
She died in New York, on May 10, 1841, in her 58th year.
Two daughters and three sons survived their parents; a daughter and a son died in infancy.
He published many papers in the Transactions of the American Institute ; of these his Addresses at the Annual Fairs, and perhaps others, were printed separately.
He also published:
Speech on the restriction of slavery in Missouri. Delivered in the House of Representatives, . . January 25, 1820. [Washington, 1820.] 12°, pp. 8. [U. S.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, iv, 518. Ameri- Meigs Genealogy, 1901, 39, 55-56. can Ancestry, ix, 102. American In- 227-30. stitute, Transactions for 1861, 15-18. 24
$jo Yale College
Roger Newberry, Third, the sixth child and eldest sur- viving son of General Roger Newberry, of Windsor, Con- necticut, and grandson of Captain Roger Newberry (Yale 1726), was born in Windsor on October 7, 1779. His mother was Eunice, daughter of John and Eunice (Colton) Ely, of Springfield, Massachusetts.
He pursued the study of law after his graduation, and practiced in Windsor until about 1807; but eventually became hopelessly insane, and after many years spent in retirement died on September 10, 1837, in his 58th year.
He was never married.
AUTHORITIES.
Mrs. K. B. Drake, MS. Letter, Descendants, 36. Stiles, Hist of November, 1910. Nathaniel Ely's Windsor, 2d ed., i, 452; ii, 521.
Jeremiah Osborn, the eldest child of Captain Jeremiah Osborn, of East Hampton, Long Island, and grandson of Jeremiah and Mercy (Baker) Osborn, of East Hampton, was born on September 17, 1776. His mother was Mary, daughter of John and Phebe (Miller) Parsons.
He settled immediately after graduation in Troy, New York, and soon entered on the practice of law, for a time in partnership with John Wood worth (Yale 1788). In March, 1803, he was appointed Surrogate of Rensselaer County, and he held that office for nearly three years.
Owing to some misdoing he absconded, and all that can be gathered of his later career is that he died in Littleton, Halifax County, North Carolina, near the close of the year 1826, aged 50 years.
By his wife. Miss Peck, he had one son, born about 1807, who lived to maturity.
AUTHORITIES.
D. Hedges, MS. Letter, Oct. 25, Hampton, 320. Weise, Hist, of Troy, 1847. H. P. Hedges, Hist, of East 56, 81.
Biographical Sketches, lypg 371
Matthew Perkins, third son and child of Ephraim Perkins, a farmer, of what is now ChapHn, Connecticut, and of Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and nephew of Enoch Perkins (Yale 1781), was born in Becket on March 15, 1777. His mother was Mary, sister of Benjamin Chaplin, Junior (Yale 1778). He did not enter College until after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He studied law, and settled in practice in Lisbon, St. Lawrence County, New York. He prospered in his pro- fession, and held the office of Surrogate of the County from March, 1802, until his death. He also engaged in farm- ing. He received a Master's degree from Williams Col- lege in 1803.
He died in Lisbon on September 11, 1808, in his 30th year.
He married, about 1800, Mary, daughter of Benjamin Tibbits, of Troy. Their children were one son, who died in early manhood, and two daughters, who lived to marry.
AUTHORITIES. Becket Vital Records, 27. Perkins Family of Ipswich, pt 3, 37, 73.
Sidney Platt, son of Jeremiah Piatt, a wealthy mer- chant of New York and New Haven, and his wife, Mary Ann Piatt, and grandson of Dr. Zophar and Rebecca (Wood) Piatt, of Huntington, Long Island, was born in New Haven on April 19, 1781. Samuel Piatt Broome (Yale 1786) was a first cousin.
After graduation he was employed for a short time as a clerk in the New York Custom House.
He died in New Haven on June 21, 1807, in his 27th year.
37* Yale College
Godfrey Scarborough, the son of Samuel Scarbor- ough, of that part of Pomfret which is now Brooklyn, Connecticut, was born on December 22, 1778. His mother was Mary, daughter of Ichabod and Margery (Aldrich) Amidon, of Mendon, Massachusetts.
After graduation he studied law, and settled about 1808 in the practice of his profession in that part of East Wind- sor which is now South Windsor, Connecticut ; at the same time he kept an office in the neighboring town of Suffield.
He became embarrassed financially, and absconded in the spring of 1826, leaving a wife and young children, who for many years knew nothing of his history.
On leaving Connecticut he went to Wheeling, Virginia ; and thence to Paris, Kentucky, where he taught school. About 1847 ^^ removed to Iowa, and died in Kossuth, Des Moines County, on May 15, 1867, i^ his 89th year. He had outlived the rest of his College Class.
Two daughters survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Rev. J. A. Reed, MS. Letter, Aug. 24, 1867. T. Robbins, Diary, ii, 14.
Elias Shipman, the eldest son of Elias Shipman, a mer- chant of Milford and New Haven, Connecticut, was born in New Haven in 1778. His mother was Esther, daughter of Dr. EHsha Whiting (Yale 1747), of Milford.
He studied medicine, and began practice in Guilford, whence in 1806 he removed to New Haven, where he con- tinued for about twelve years longer to attend to his profession.
He died in New Haven, unmarried, on May 11, 1833, aged 54 years.
AUTHORITIES. Chapman, Trowbridge Family, 39. N. H. County Med. Assoc, Hist, etc., 82.
Biographical Sketches, lypp 373
Moses Stuart, third child and only son of Isaac Stuart, a farmer of Wilton Parish in Norwalk, Connecticut, and grandson of Robert and Experience Stuart, of Wilton, was born on March 26,^1780. His mother was Olive, daughter of Thaddeus and Abigail Morehouse.
In his fifteenth year he was sent to an academy in Nor- walk, where his preceptor urged him to prepare for Col- lege. Later he was placed under the instruction of Roger Minott Sherman (Yale 1792), then a young lawyer in Nor- walk, and from his hands entered the Sophomore Class at Yale in May, 1797. At graduation he delivered the Salutatory Oration.
During the next year he taught an academy in what is now Easton (then called North Fairfield) ; and during a part of the following year he was the principal of a high school in Danbury. Here he began the study of law ; but he soon gave up his school and devoted himself entirely to the preparation for the bar in Newtown. He was admitted to practice at Danbury in the autumn of 1802; but a few weeks earlier he had delivered the Master's Ora- tion at the College, on Credulity, with great applause, and had been elected Tutor.
He entered on the duties of the tutorship in November, and filled that office for two years with marked success as a stimulating teacher. During the earlier part of his time he was a student of law in the office of Seth P. Staples (Yale 1797) ; but he soon became interested for the first time in personal religion, and began preparation for the ministry under President Dwight.
He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Asso- ciation on February i, 1804; and after the completion of his College work he journeyed for his health in Vermont, where he preached for several Sabbaths in Middlebury, and was invited to settle as pastor of the Congregational Church.
374 Ycile College
Having declined this call, he returned to New Haven, where he supplied during the ensuing winter for some weeks the pulpit of the First Church in the illness of the pastor, the Rev. Dr. James Dana (Harvard 1753). The members of that church and society soon made a movement to obtain Dr. Dana's consent to the settlement of Mr. Stuart as his colleague; but the old man was opposed to all new men and measures, and the result was his own dis- mission in December, 1805.
Mr. Stuart was then chosen pastor with only five dissent- ing votes, and was ordained and installed on March 5, 1806.
Shortly after he was married to Abigail Clark, of Dan- bury, a sister of Adam S. Clarke (Yale 1788).
His pastorate lasted only until January, 1810, but during these three years and ten months two hundred persons were admitted to the church, of whom only twenty-eight were received by letter. His energy and enthusiasm were well- nigh irresistible, and his popularity as a preacher extended far beyond the bounds of his own congregation.
In the summer of 1809 Dr. Eliphalet Pearson (Harvard 1773), who had been the first Professor of Sacred Litera- ture in the new Theological Seminary at Andover, Massa- chusetts, resigned his office ; and the vacant place was soon after offered to Mr. Stuart. His brilliant general schol- arship, and his earnestness and effectiveness as a teacher, marked him out for success in this new field, though com- paratively ignorant of the subjects which it embraced. On his part, he saw that the revival of Biblical learning was one of the great necessities of the church, and with char- acteristic ardor he threw himself into the work.
On February 28, 18 10, he was inaugurated as Professor, and such was his diligence that, amid the unwonted cares and labors of his new office, he was able to print, only three years later, the first Hebrew grammar in the English lan- guage. With equal promptness he acquired the command of the German language, and began to make its treasures available for the use of his pupils. For the next forty
Biographical Sketches, lypp 375
years his pen was extraordinarily prolific, and his power in arousing and directing the mind of the clergy who came under his influence unparalleled.
In the summer of 1848 he resigned his Professorship, in consequence of the infirmities of advancing age. At the end of November, 185 1, while still in the full tide of literary labor, a bone in his wrist was fractured by a fall in the street, and the resulting pain and confinement rendered him unable to withstand a severe cold, passing into typhoid fever, which after several days terminated his life on January 4, 1852, in his y2d year.
His widow died in Andover on September 4, 1855, aged 72 years.
Their children were four sons and five daughters. One son died early, and the others were graduates of Yale in 1828, 1 83 1, and 1833, respectively. Two of the daughters were in succession the wives of Professor Austin Phelps (Univ. of Pa. 1837) ; one married Professor R. D. C. Rob- bins (Middlebury Coll. 1835); ^^^ another married the Rev. George N. Anthony (Brown Univ. 1850).
He declined the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, which was tendered him by Harvard University in 1823.
His deep, sonorous voice, with a commanding and impassioned manner, gave him rare power as a pulpit ora- tor; but his chief field of influence lay in the classroom, where his enthusiasm and zeal in biblical criticism and interpretation introduced a new era in theological study. At the same time it is only fair to say that his fervor and industry were not balanced by exact scholarship.
A portrait of Professor Stuart is reproduced in the last General Catalogue (1908) of Andover Seminary.
He published :
I. A Sermon [from I Cor. iii, 6], preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Thomas Punderson, October 26th, A. D. 1809, to the pastoral care of the Church and Society of Union Parish, Pittsfield. Pittsfield, 1809. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Brown. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
376 Yale College
2. A Sermon [ from John x, 27, 28] , preached before the Admin- istration of the Lord's Supper to the First Congregational Church, in New Haven, January 14, A. D. 1810. New-Haven, 1810. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. A Farewel Sermon [from Rom. x, i], preached at New- Haven, January 28, 1810. [New Haven] 1810. 8°, pp. 22.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. PubHshed in connection with the foregoing.
4. A Hebrew Grammar without the points . . . Andover, 1813. 8°, pp. 124.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Set up in part by his own hands.
5. A Sermon [from Deut. xv, 11], delivered by request of the Female Charitable Society in Salem, at their Anniversary the first Wednesday in August, A. D. 1815. Andover, 1815. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-22.
6. A Sermon [from Gal. vi, 9, 10] preached in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Nov. 5, 1818, at the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. Pliny Fisk, Levi Spaulding, Miron Winslow, and Henry Wood- ward, as Missionaries to the unevangelized nations. Andover, 1819. 8°, pp. 44.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-30.
7. Letters to the Rev. William E. Channing, containing Remarks on his Sermon, recently preached and published at Baltimore. Andover, 1819. 8°, pp. 167.
[A. A. S. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S.
Y. C. The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1819. 8°, pp. 180.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 3d Edition. Andover, 1819. 12°, pp. 156.
[A. A. S. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
Also, later editions, including four or five printed in Great Britain. Replied to by Professor Andrews Norton. This defence of the doctrine of the Trinity was, as the author elsewhere says, distinctly the fruit of his studies in German theology, for which he had been much the object of suspicion.
Biographical Sketches, i/pp 377
8. A Hebrew Grammar with a copious Syntax and Praxis. [With the points.] Andover, 1821. 8°, pp. xii, 386.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y.C.
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1823. 8°, pp. 406, 20, ii. [A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S.
Y.C.
The same. 3d Edition, with title A Grammar of the Hebrew Language. Andover, 1828. 8°, pp. 240.
[Andover Theol. Sent. Br. Mus. Brown. U. T. S. Y. C. Later editions include one published at Oxford by Dr. Pusey.
9. A Sermon [from Prov. iii, 6] occasioned by the completion of the New College Edifice for the use of the Theological Semin- ary at Andover, and delivered Sept. 13, 1821. Andover, 1821. 8°, pp. 46.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. Letters on the Eternal Generation of the Son of God, addressed to the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D. Andover, 1822. 8°, pp. iii, 166.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
11. Two Discourses [from Isa. liii, 5, 6] on the Atonement. Andover, 1824. 8°, pp. 54.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Y. C. The same 2d Edition. Andover, 1828. 8°, pp. 46. [B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ.
U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, later editions.
12. A Sermon [from Matt, xviii, 20] preached at the Dedication of the Church in Hanover Street, Boston, March i, 1826. Andover, 1826. 8°, pp. 35.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
13. A Sermon [from H Cor. iii, 17] delivered before His Excel- lency Levi Lincoln Esq. Governor [etc.] . . of Massachusetts, May 30, 1827 — being the day of General Election. Boston, 1827. 8°, pp.42.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. N, Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
378 Yale College
14. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Andover, 1827-28. 2 vols. 8°, pp. X, 290; 388.
[A.C.A. Andover Theol. Sent. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1833. 8°, pp. 618.
[B. Publ. Brown. U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, later editions; that of i860 revised by his son-in-law, Pro- fessor Robbins.
15. An Examination of the Strictures upon the American Edu- cation Society, in a late number of the Biblical Repertory; orig- inally published in that work. Andover, 1829. 8°, pp. 48.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
16. A Hebrew Chrestomathy designed as the first volume of a Course of Hebrew Study. Andover, 1829. 8°, pp. 243.
[Andover Theol. Sem. B. Publ. Brown. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. .
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1832. 8°, pp. 231.
[Andover Theol. Sem. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, an English edition, edited by Dr. Pusey.
The same. Volume 2, No. i, with title: Course of Hebrew Study adapted to the use of beginners. Andover, 1830. 8°, pp. 204. [A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
17. A brief Sketch of the life and character of Mrs. Elizabeth Adams. Andover, 1829. 8°, pp. 23.
[A.C.A. B.Publ. Br. Mus. C.H.S. U.T.S. Y.C. Mrs. Adams was the wife of John Adams (Yale 1795).
18. A Letter to William E. Channing D.D. on the subject of Religious Liberty. Boston, 1830. 8°, pp. 52.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv.
The same. 2d ed. Boston, 1830. 8°, pp. 52.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, later editions.
Replied to by the Rev. Bernard Whitman.
19. Exegetical Essays on several words relating to Future Pun- ishment. Andover, 1830. 12°, pp. 156.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
\
Biographical Sketches, //pp 379
20. Essay on the Prize-Question, whether the use of distilled liquors, or traffic in them, is compatible, at the present time, with making a profession of Christianity? New- York, [etc. Andover], 1830. 8°, pp. 70.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
Also, re-published in London, by Dr. J. Pye Smith. The Essay answers the questions raised in the negative; but allows the use of wine, provided there is no excess.
21. Sermon [from Rom. xi, 25-31] at the Ordination of the Rev. William G. Schauffler, Missionary to the Jews. Preached at Park Street Church, Boston, on the evening of November 14, 1831. Andover, 1831. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Brown. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. [Second Edition.] Andover, 183 1. 8°, pp. 36.
[A.A.S. B. Publ. Y. C.
The same. [Third Edition.] Boston, 1845. 8°, pp. 35.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C.
22. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, with a Trans- lation and various Excursus. Andover, 1832. 8°, pp. 576.
[B. Publ. Brown. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1835. 8°, pp. 684.
[N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, later editions: that of 1859 by his son-in-law, Professor Robbins.
23. Is the Mode of Christian Baptism prescribed in the New Tes- tament? From the Bib. Repository, vol. III. Andover, 1833. 8°, pp. 106. [A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
24. A Grammar of the New Testament Dialect. Andover, 1834. 8S pp. 256.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1841. 8°, pp. 312.
[Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
25. What is the most appropriate Age for entering on the Active Duties of the Sacred Office? [Published by the American Educa- tion Society. Boston, 1839.] 12°, pp. 15.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
380 Yale College
26. Hints on the Interpretation of Prophecy. Andover, 1842. 12°, pp. 146.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d Edition. Andover, 1842. 12°, pp. 194.
[B.Publ. Y.C.
27. Mr. Webster's Andover Address and his PoHtical Course while Secretary of State. — The PubHshers have no authority to designate the authorship of the following pages ; but from various circumstances, they infer the probability, that they were written by Prof. Stuart, of Andover. Essex County, 1844. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. This defence of Mr. Webster's course was subsequently acknowl- edged by Professor Stuart.
28. A Commentary on the Apocalypse. Andover, 1845. 2 vols. 8°, pp. 504; 504, [A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
29. Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon. Andover, 1845. 12°, pp. iv, 452.
[A.C.A. B.Ath. B.Publ. Br.Mus. Harv. U.S. U.T.S.
Y.C. Other editions were published in Great Britain, — one by Samuel Davidson, and one by Peter Lorimer.
30. Christ a sympathizing Saviour. — A Sermon [from Hebr. V, 8] preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Abby Woods, wife of the Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., Andover, Mass., Feb. 24, 1846. Andover, 1846. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
31. Miscellanies consisting of I. Letters to Dr. Channing on the Trinity ; II. Two Sermons on the Atonement ; III. Sacramental Ser- mon on the Lamb of God ; IV. Dedication Sermon — Real Christian- ity; V. Letter to Dr. Channing on Religious Liberty; VI. Supple- mentary Notes and Postscripts of new additional matter. Andover, 1846. 12°, pp. xi, 369.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. Republications, except the third item, which is a Sermon, preached in Andover in 1846, from John i, 29.
32. Letter to the Editor of the North American Review, on Hebrew Grammar. Andover, 1847. 12°, pp. 41.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, lypp 381
In reply to criticisms on his edition of Roediger's revision of Gesenius.
33. Scriptural View of the Wine-Question, in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Nott, President of Union College. New- York, 1848. 8°, pp. 64. [A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Written in May, 1847, and printed in February, 1848. The letter gives the result of a critical investigation, undertaken at Dr. Nott's request, of the Scriptures, in respect to the subject of Wines, and concludes that unfermented wine is the only wine commended.
34. A Commentary on the Book of Daniel. Boston, 1850. 8°, pp. viii, 496. [A. C. A. B. PubL Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
35. Conscience and the Constitution, with remarks on the recent speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster in the Senate of the United States on the subject of Slavery. Boston, 1850. 8°, pp. 119.
[A.C.A. B. Ath. B. PubL Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
A defence of Mr. Webster's course in respect to slavery ; it pro- voked several replies, e. g., by the Rev. George W. Perkins (Yale 1824), the Rev. Rufus W. Clark (Yale 1838), and the Hon. William Jay (Yale 1807).
36. A Commentary on Ecclesiastes. New York, 1851. 12°, pp.300. [B.Ath. B.Publ. U.T.S. Y.C.
2)7- Letter [on the Maine Liquor Law, addressed to the Editor of the Temperance Journal]. In Letters [as above]. New- York, 1851. 8°, pp. 3-7. [Harv. Y. C.
38. A Commentary on the Book of Proverbs. New York, 1852. 12°, pp. 432.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y.C.
He also published many valuable works as editor or translator. As, for example: —
A Harmony in Greek of the Gospels, with Notes, . . by W. New- come. Andover, 1814. 8°.
Dissertations on the importance and best method of studying the Original Languages of the Bible, by Jahn and others. . . Andover, 1821. 8°.
Elements of interpretation, by J. A. Ernesti. Andover, 1822, 12°.
Greek Grammar of the New Testament, by G. B. Winer. Andover, 1825. 8°.
382 Yale College
Passages cited from the Old Testament by the writers of the New Testament compared with the original Hebrew and the Septuagint Version. Arranged by the Junior Class in the Theological Sem- inary, Andover. Andover, 1827. 4°.
Practical Rules for Greek Accents and Quantity. From the Ger- man of Buttmann and Passow. Andover, 1829. 12°.
Cicero on the Immortality of the Soul. With Notes. Andover, 1833. 12°.
This was made the subject of a severe criticism by Professor James L. Kingsley. [See above, p. S^7-]
On the Discrepancies between the Sabellian and Athanasian methods of representing the Doctrine of a Trinity in the Godhead. By F. D. E. Schleiermacher. Andover, 1835. 8°.
Introduction to the New Testament. By J. L. Hug. Translated by D. Fosdick, Jr. With Notes. Andover, 1836. 8°.
Hebrew Grammar, by F. H. W. Gesenius, as revised by E. Rod- iger. Translated, with additions, and a chrestomathy. Andover, 1846. 8°.
He also contributed largely to periodicals ; it may be sufficient to mention the Panoplist, the Christian Spectator, the Spirit of the Pilgrims, the American Quarterly Register (5 articles, 1828-33), the North American Review (2 articles, 1838-51), the Quarterly Review of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (2 articles, 1851), the Biblical Repository, of which he was an editor (over 30 articles, 1831-42), and the Bibliotheca Sacra (11 articles, 1849-52).
An article in the Christian Review, vol. 6, pp. 446-71 (1841), on the Study of the German Language, has a distinct autobiograph- ical value.
He furnished Dr. Sprague in 185 1 a brief sketch of Dr. Matthias Burnet, which was printed in the Annals of the American Pulpit, volume 2, pp. 94-96 (1857).
AUTHORITIES.
W. Adams, Discourse on M. Stuart. Stuart. Robbins, Old Andover Days,
Bailey, Hist Sketches of Andover, 21-22, 32-33, 3^-40, 130-31, 163-89.
571. Connecticut Magazine, xi, iii- Selleck, Norwalk, 324. Sprague, An-
24. Hall, Hist, of Norwalk, 291. nals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 475-81.
Olmstead, Wilton Parish, 40-42. Spring, Personal Reminiscences, i,
Park. Discourse at Funeral of M. 324. John Todd, Life, 99-100.
Biographical Sketches, lygg 383
Thaddeus Burr Wakeman, the third child and eldest surviving son of Thaddeus and Esther Wakeman, of Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Catharine (Gilbert) Wakeman, of Greenfield Hill, was born on September 13, 1778. His mother was a sister of Philip Burr Bradley (Yale 1758). He did not enter College until after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He became a lawyer in his native town, removing about 1 8 16 to New York City. In 18 10-15 he was interested in the investment of capital in various business schemes in Utica, New York.
In 1820 he was much interested in the organization of a "National Institute for promoting the Industry of the United States," in favor of protection. In 1833 he became the Corresponding Secretary of the American Institute (of which he had been one of the projectors), and the duties of that position, performed with indefatigable energy, occu- pied him for the rest of his life.
He died in New York on November 7, 1848, in his 71st year. He was never married.
An engraving from his portrait is given in the Wakeman Genealogy.
AUTHORITIES.
Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, 291. Ward Family Genealogy, 113. Wakeman Genealogy, 187, 226.
John Winn, the second son and child of Peter and Mary (Farley) Winn, of Midway, Liberty County, Georgia, and grandson of John and Sarah Winn, of Midway, was born on December 4, 1779, and baptized on January 6, 1780.
For a time after graduation he taught in Midway. He settled there as a lawyer, and held the rank of Major in the militia.
384 Yale College
He married, on May 7, 1806, Eliza, younger daughter of James and Elizabeth (Quarterman) Wilson, of Midway, who was eleven years his junior, and by whom he had five sons and two daughters. Three of the sons, who became Presbyterian clergymen, were graduated at College, — one at Amherst College in 1834, one at Franklin College in 1838, and one at the University of Georgia in 1841. The elder daughter married the Rev. Samuel J. Cassels (Univ. of Ga. 1838).
Major Winn died in August, 1820, in his 41st year.
AUTHORITIES. Midway Church Records, 82, 93, 117, 152. Stacy, Hist, of Midway Ch., 77, 266.
Annals, i^pp-i8oo 385
Annals, 1 799-1 800
At the opening of the year Warren Button, of the Class of 1797, was added to the corps of Tutors, this enlargement of the teaching force being made necessary by another unusually large Freshman Class.
In the latter part of 1799 another bitter pamphlet by the Rev. John Cosins Ogden, reflecting on President Dwight as a political partisan, appeared, without indication of the author or the place of printing. The title was : Friendly Remarks to the people of Connecticut, upon their College and Schools (12°, pp. 42).
In October, 1799, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, which has always been in intimate connection with the College, obtained its charter from the Legislature.
35
586 Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1800
|
*Thomas Adams, A.M. |
*i8o6 |
|
*Saulus Alvord |
*i842 |
|
"^Shuhael Bartlett, A.M. |
*i854 |
|
*Amos Benedict |
*i8i6 |
|
*Jesse Smith Bradley |
*i833 |
|
^Daniel Bishop Brown |
*l822 |
|
*Abija Carrington, Socius ex officio |
*i85i |
|
*Harveius Chase |
*i857 |
|
"^Pitkin Cowles, A.M. |
*i833 |
|
*Asaphus Dunbar |
*i8i4 |
|
*David Ely, A.M. 1804 |
*i857 |
|
*Hezekias Flagg |
*l82I |
|
*Jacobus Gilbert |
*i8i8 |
|
*Thomas Peabody Grosvenor, e Congr. |
*i8i7 |
|
^Enochus Hanford, in Coll. Car. Austr. Lingg. Prof |
.*i8i7 |
|
*Moses Hatch, A.M. |
*l820 |
|
*Josephus Rowland, A.M. 1804 |
*i827 |
|
^Samuel Gray Huntington, A.M. |
*i854 |
|
*Samuel Jones |
*i862 |
|
^Philander Judson |
*i8o6 |
|
*Aegidius Crouch Kellogg |
*i86i |
|
*Hugo Knox |
*i858 |
|
^Prentice Law |
*i8ii |
|
*Elisaeus Phelps, Socius ex off., e Congr. |
*i847 |
|
*Ludovicus St. John |
*l82I |
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*Elisaeus Sheldon, M.D. Coll. Med. et Chirurg. |
|
|
Nov. Ebor. 1818 |
*i832 |
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*Henricus Smith |
*i8i3 |
*Johannes Stevens
*Abiram Stoddard *i855
Biographical Sketches, 1800 387
|
♦Thomas Barnard Strong |
*i863 |
|
♦Erastus Swift |
'1843 |
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*Aegidius Wade |
|
|
♦Joel Walter, A.M. |
*i832 |
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♦Lemuel Whitman, e Congr. |
*i84i |
|
♦Chauncaeus Whittelsey, A.M. |
•1834 |
|
^Thomas Williams, A.M. Brun. 1814 |
•1876 |
Thomas Adams, the eldest son of Cornelius Adams, a farmer and deacon in the Separate Church, in Canterbury, Connecticut, and a first cousin of John Adams (Yale 1795), was born on March 21, 1775. His mother was Esther, the youngest child of Deacon Thomas and Anna (Seaver) Stedman, of Hampton, Connecticut.
Three of his brothers were graduated here, in 1801,
1803, and 1806, respectively. He entered College during the Freshman year, and delivered the Salutatory Oration on receiving his degree.
He studied theology in Hartford (probably with the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong), and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association of Ministers on February 7,
1804. In the mean time he had been offered, in March, 1803, a tutorship in the College, but declined it.
In October, 1804, he was elected Principal of the Academy in Kingston, Ulster County, New York, with an annual salary of $700. While still retaining that office to the great satisfaction of the community, he died in King- ston, after a long and severe illness, on October 28, 1806, in his 32d year. He was unmarried.
AUTHORITIES.
Henry and John Adams Family 12, 1806. Schoonmaker, Hist, of History, 324. Conn. Courant, Nov. Kingston, 361, 363.
Saul Alvord, the second and eldest surviving child of Captain Saul Alvord, a tavern-keeper of Bolton, Tolland County, Connecticut, and grandchild of Saul and Martha
388 Yale College
(Churchill) Alvord, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Bolton, was born in Bolton on May 27, 1781. His mother was Eleanor, third daughter of Captain Martin and Mary (Boardman) Kellogg, of Newington Parish in Wethers- field. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he studied law, and in 1803 he was admitted to the Tolland County bar. He then engaged in the practice of his profession in his native town, where he also held many important offices. He represented Bolton in seven sessions of the Legislature, between 1808 and 18 1 7, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818.
He was also for three years (1838-41) an associate Judge of the County Court.
With a high regard for integrity, and faithfulness to every trust, he commanded the respect and confidence of all.
On October 31, 1842, he was thrown from his wagon, and died the same day in Bolton, in his 62d year.
He married on November 11, 1806, Phebe, daughter of Major John Hutchinson and Phebe (Hubbell) Buell, of Hebron. She died in Bolton on February 24, 1857, in her 70th year. Their children were six sons (of whom one died in infancy) and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Alvord Genealogy, io6, 181-82. in the New World, i, 193. Welles, Bolton Vital Records, 4, 80. Kelloggs Buell Family, 120.
Shubael Bartlett, the second child and eldest son of Deacon John Bartlett, a shoemaker, of Exeter Parish in Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of Ichabod and Desire (Otis) Bartlett, was born in Lebanon on April 2, 1778. His mother was Desire, youngest daughter of Lieutenant Thomas and Susannah (Clark) Loomis, of Lebanon. A brother was graduated here in 1807.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 389
He united with the church in June, 1794, and was then prepared for College, with a view of entering the ministry, by his pastor, the Rev. Zebulon Ely (Yale 1779). His means for the collegiate course were mainly provided by his own exertions. In the latter part of his course he acted as an amanuensis for President Dwight.
After graduation he taught for a while in the New Haven Hopkins Grammar School, and meantime studied theology, with President Dwight. He served as College Butler for the year 1801-02, and in September, 1802, was licensed to preach.
In January, 1803, he received an invitation from the North Congregational Church and Society in East Wind- sor, Connecticut, to preach there as a candidate. In the meantime, during a visit in Hartford, he had formed the acquaintance of Miss Fanny Leffingwell, the eldest child and only daughter of John and Lois (Allen) Leffingwell of that city, to whom he was married by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong on January 19, 1803.
In August he went to East Windsor and supplied the pulpit for several months. Towards the close of the year he was formally called to the pastorate, while he was in negotiation with other societies. On President Dwight's advice he decided to accept the invitation to East Wind- sor, and was ordained and installed there on February 15, 1804; the sermon on that occasion by his early pastor, the Rev. Mr. Ely, was afterwards published. The church then had fifty-six members ; and during the fifty years of his ministry five hundred and twenty-four were added to this number.
In October, 1848, the Rev. Samuel J. Andrews (Wil- liams Coll. 1839) was settled as colleague pastor with Mr. Bartlett. The senior pastor, however, continued to assist in the work of the office until December, 1853, when a severe attack of influenza prostrated him. He died at his home in East Windsor, on June 6, 1854, in his 77th year.
His widow died on August 28, 1864, in her 86th year.
39° Ycti^ College
Their children were seven sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to maturity. Three sons were graduated at Yale, two in 1828 and one in 1833. One daughter mar- ried the Rev. Samuel R. Brown (Yale 1832).
Mr. Bartlett was a man of unaffected piety, and a bless- ing to the community.
His only publication was :
A Sermon [from II Tim. iv, 7-8] preached on Lord's Day, Sep- tember 21, 1817: in the Meeting-house in the Second Society in East-Windsor, at the Funeral of Mrs. Lydia Potwine, widow of Rev. Thomas Potwine. Hartford, 1818. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. Y. C.
Mrs. Potwine was the widow of Mr. Bartlett's predecessor in the East Windsor pulpit.
The sermon which he had prepared for the fiftieth anniversary of his pastoral charge, from Hebrews xiii, 7, 17, but which he was never able to deliver, was printed (pp. 97-136), with a Sketch of his Life, in a History of the First Ecclesiastical Society in East Windsor (Hartford, 1857).
AUTHORITIES.
LefBngwell Record, 74, 103. Loomis Hist, of the Ecclesiastical Society in
Genealogy, Female branches, ii, 690. E. Windsor, passim. Sprague, An-
N. E. Hist-Geneal. Society's Memo- nals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 192.
rial Biographies, ii, 187-96, T. Roh- Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii,
bins, Diary, i, 201, 387, 459. [Roe,] 65.
Amos Benedict^ the elder surviving son of Lieutenant Aaron and Esther Benedict, of Middlebury Parish, in Waterbury, Connecticut, and nephew of Amos Benedict (Yale 1774), was born in Middlebury on July 6, 1780. His mother was a daughter of John and Mary (Comstock) Trowbridge, of Wilton Parish, in Norwalk. An elder sister married the Rev. Asa Lyman (Yale 1797).
He studied law at the Litchfield Law School, under Judge Tapping Reeve, and was admitted to the bar on August 20, 1806. In 1807 he removed to Watertown, Jef- ferson County, New York, and entered on an active pro- fessional life, soon attaining the first rank. From Feb-
Biographical Sketches, 1800 391
ruary, 1810, to February, 181 1, and again from March, 1813, to March, 1815, he was District Attorney for the counties of Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence.
His promising career was interrupted in 1816, when, being on a visit to friends in Litchfield, he was taken ill from a carbuncle on the back, and died after a week's con- finement on February 25, in his 36th year. He was buried in Litchfield, and left the memory of an able lawyer, an honest man, and a true Christian.
He married in 1807 Anne, eldest daughter of Captain James and Anne (Peck) Stone, of Litchfield, who died at her home in Watertown in 1826, in her 41st year.
Their children, all of whom survived them, were two daughters and a son. The latter was a non-graduate member of the Class of 1832 at Yale, and received an hon- orary Master's degree here in 1858.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, ferson County, 420. Payne, Litchfield
Appendix, 18. Benedict Genealogy, and Morris Inscriptions, 57. Wood-
374, 382-83. Branson, Hist, of Water- ruff, Geneal. Register of Litchfield,
bury, 370, 465. Hough, Hist, of Jef- 215.
Jesse Smith Bradley, the youngest child of Colonel Philip Burr Bradley (Yale 1758), was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, on August 2y, 1782. Wakeman of the pre- ceding Class was his first cousin.
His scholarship in Greek and Latin while in College was distinguished.
He studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and settled in practice in his native town.
He represented the town in the Legislature in seven years between 1807 and 1829, and was also an associate Judge of the Fairfield County Court at the time of his death.
He retained his love for study; he read and translated from the Greek Testament at family prayers, and wrote
392 Yale College
acceptable verse for home reading. The portion of his Hbrary which is still preserved in the family contains a selection of English and French classics. He had great individuality of character, and notable charm of manner.
He died in Ridgefield on May 24, 1833, in his 51st year.
He married on December 3, 1805, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Amos Baker, of Ridgefield, by whom he had sev- eral sons. A grandson was graduated at Yale in 1872.
AUTHORITIES.
Hon. Wm. Harrison Bradley, MS. Fairfield, i, 357. Ward Family Gen- Letter, March, 1910. Dwight, Strong ealogy, 65, 114. Family, i, 130. Schenck, Hist, of
Daniel Bishop Brown,, the eldest child of Daniel Brown, of Hebron, Connecticut, was born on October i8, 1780. His mother was Anna, youngest child of Captain Ichabod and Martha (Tillotson) Phelps, of Hebron, and a sister of the wife of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull (Yale 1759). A brother was graduated in 1808. He spent the first two years of his College life at Williams College, but after removing to Yale his career was so dis- tinguished that he delivered the Valedictory Oration at graduation.
He settled in 1804 in the practice of law in Batavia, Genesee County, New York, where he left the reputation of being one of the most brilliant advocates who have ever practiced in that county. He was, however, somewhat intemperate in habits and erratic in disposition, and conse- quently never won for himself the place which he might otherwise have gained. He held the office of District Attorney for the County from 18 18 to 182 1.
He died in Batavia, unmarried, on July 7, 1822, in his 42d year, leaving an estate inventoried at about $10,000.
AUTHORITIES. Phelps Family, i, 237. Hon. E. A. Washburn, MS. Letter, March, 1910.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 393
Abijah Carrington, son of Dr. Elias Carrington, of Milford, Connecticut, was born in Milford on November 22, 1778, and was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Wales on November 29. His father died just before his grad- uation.
A brother was graduated here in 1786.
He studied theology with the Rev. Dr. John Smalley (Yale 1756), of New Britain, and united with the church there, April 11, 1802, on profession of his faith, prepara- tory to being licensed to preach.
He began preaching, but found that public speaking affected his lungs unfavorably, so that he was obliged to abandon his intention.
For the remainder of his life he was a merchant in Milford, where he was universally honored and esteemed.
He was a representative in the Legislature for nine years between 1825 and 1837, and a member of the State Senate in 1836 and 1839. ^Y virtue of his seniority in the Senate he was ex officio a Fellow of Yale College for the year 1839-40. He also served from 1838 to 1842 as Judge of Probate for the Milford District.
These and other important offices he filled with ability and integrity.
He died very suddenly, from disease of the heart, in Milford, on March 15, 185 1, in his 73d year.
He was three times married : first, by the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, on October 8, 18 15, to Amanda, eldest daughter of Jared and Keziah (Royce) Tyler, of Wallingford, and widow of Captain William Davidson, of Milford, by whom he had two children; she died on March 9, 1819, aged 39 years; secondly to Ann Austin, of Milford, by whom he had two children ; and thirdly to Sarah Gunn, of Milford, who survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Andrews, New Britain, 230. Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 926-27.
394 Yale College
Harvey Chase, youngest son and thirteenth child of Moses Chase, of Cornish, SuUivan County, New Hamp- shire, and grandson of Daniel and Sarah (March) Chase, was born in Cornish on November 13, 1778. His mother was Hannah, daughter of Jonas Brown.
After graduation he studied in the Litchfield Law School. He then returned to his native town, where he spent his life in active practice. He is represented as a man of very moderate talents, and was mainly employed in business matters of routine, such as the collection of claims, settlement of estates, etc.
He died in poverty in Cornish on February 18, 1857, in his 79th year. He married Eunice, fourth daughter of John Winchester and Hannah (Pope, Putnam) Dana, of Pomfret, Vermont, who died on January 8, 1823, in her 40th year.
Their children were two sons (one of whom died in infancy) and two daughters; of whom only the younger daughter survived him.
AUTHORITIES.
Bell, Bench and Bar of N. Hamp- Letters, October, 1910. Dana Memo- shire, 255-56. D. T. Chase, MS. Let- randa, 32. ter, March, 1862. W. H. Child, MS.
Pitkin Cowles, third son of Captain Ashbel Cowles, of Southington, Connecticut, and grandson of Josiah and Jemima (Dickinson) Cowles, of Southington, was born on April 7, 1777. His mother was Rhoda, elder daughter of Deacon Jared and Rhoda (Judd) Lee, of Southington. He was prepared for College by his father's half-brother, the Rev. Whitfield Cowles (Yale 1788), of East Granby, Connecticut. During his Senior year he delivered in his native town an Oration commemorative of Washington, which received general commendation. He had entered College with the intention of becoming a lawyer, but a
Biographical Sketches, 1800 395
change of religious views in his Senior year, and his father's strong preference, led him to take at least a par- tial course of theological study.
He began this study with the Rev. Dr. John Smalley (Yale 1756), of New Britain, and joined the church there in April, 1802, preparatory to his license to preach by the Hartford South Association of Ministers. Subsequently he pursued further studies under the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers.
On August 29, 1805, he was ordained and installed over the small Congregational Church (of only eleven male members) in North (now East) Canaan, Connecticut. As a result of his labors the community was blessed with several revivals of religion, in one of which one hundred members were added to the church. During the War of 18 1 2 he served as Chaplain of a brigade at New London.
He was an affectionate pastor and an instructive and impressive preacher; but after more than a quarter of a century of self-denying service, contentions sprang up in the church and divided the people. He endured the strain as long as he could, but at length applied for a dismission, feeling that he could not continue amid such dissensions. Broken down in health and spirits, he left his parish in the autumn of 1832, and a dismission was secured in the fol- lowing January.
While visiting his son at College he was seized with alarming symptoms, and after a removal to his old home in Southington he died, in the room in which he was born, on February 8, in his 56th year. He was buried among his former people.
He married, on May 25, 1808, Fanny Smith, of New Marlboro, Massachusetts, a sister of the Rev. Dr. David Smith (Yale 1795), who survived him for many years.
Their children were four daughters and three sons. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1836, and the second (a hero of the Civil War) was a member of the Class of 1839. The eldest daughter married Albert A.
39^ Yale College
Wright, M.D. (Yale 1830), and the youngest married the Rev. Elisha Whittlesey (Williams Coll. 1846).
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, New Britain, 230-31. County Consociations, 1 16-17. Tim- Hist. of Litchfield County, 273. Pro- low. Hist, of Southington, 490-93, ceedings of Centennial of Litchfield Ixvii, Ixix, cliv.
Asaph Dunbar, of Plymouth, then included in Water- town, Connecticut, the third son of Aaron Dunbar, was born on September i, 1780. A brother was graduated here in 1794.
He became a lawyer in Plymouth, and also practiced in New Haven, but returned to the place of his birth.
He died in Plymouth on June 20, 18 14, in his 34th year.
He married in November, 1805, Polly, second daughter of Dr. Levi Ives, of New Haven, and sister of Dr. Eli Ives (Yale 1799).
She died in New Haven, on June 13, 1855, at the age of 73. An unmarried daughter survived her.
authorities.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Society Papers, ii, 306. Appendix 46. N. H. Colony Hist.
David Ely_, the eldest son and second child of the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Huntington, then part of Stratford, Connecticut, was born on September 5, 1780.
He graduated with the intention of studying for the ministry, and began his preparation in New Haven, where he united with the College Church in July, 1802; but a failure of eyesight changed his plans, and he finally settled on a mercantile life in New York City, where he was in business, not very successfully, for about sixteen years.
In the meantime he married, in March, 181 1, Priscilla, one of the daughters of the Hon. Jonathan Sturges (Yale
Biographical Sketches, 1800 397
1759), of Fairfield, Connecticut, and his family for many years resided there. Mrs. Ely died in Fairfield, suddenly, on January 21, 1826, in her 43d year.
After terminating his business life in the city, he was for some years from 1831 engaged in managing a farm near Manlius, in Onondaga County, New York; but about 1839 or 1840 settled in Rochester, where he resided until his sudden death, on September 8, 1857, aged 87 years.
He was married, secondly, by the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, in New Haven, on April 14, 1846, to Miss Eunice M. Seeley, of New Haven. The marriage was not happy, and she soon left him. She died in New Haven early in 1868.
His children, by his first wife, were four sons and three daughters. One son was graduated from the Yale Med- ical School in 1834; and two from the Academical Depart- ment in 1843, ^^^ o^^ i^ 1845.
AUTHORITIES.
Ely Ancestry, 115, 212. Orcutt, Old Burying Ground of Fairfield. Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1197. Perry, 95-96.
Hezekiah Flagg was baptized in East Hartford, then part of Hartford, Connecticut, on July 5, 1778, being a son of Dr. Samuel and Martha Flagg, and a grandson of Sam- uel and Sarah Flagg. His mother was the youngest daughter of Lieutenant Timothy and Abigail (Olcott) Bigelow, of Hartford.
He practiced law in East Hartford and Hartford from 1804 to 1809; and then removed to New York State.
He died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 182 1, aged 43 years.
AUTHORITIES. Trumbull, Hist, of Hartford County, i, 126.
39^ Yale College
James Gilbert, the youngest child and only son of Deacon James and Eunice (Nichols) Gilbert, of New Haven, and grandson of David and Experience (Perkins) Gilbert, was born on October 25, 1779. A sister married Hendrick Dow (Yale 1784).
During his last year in College he began the study of medicine, giving most of his time to Chemistry and Botany. In the winters of 1801 and 1802 he attended the Medical School in Philadelphia, hearing lectures by Drs. Rush, Wistar, etc. Here over-application impaired his health, and he abandoned the plan of further study.
Soon after he accepted a suggestion to settle in Southold, Long Island, where he practiced with acknowledged repu- tation for a little over two years. In 1805 he left Southold to attend a course of medical lectures in New York, at the close of which he declined offers to establish himself there, from an aversion to city life.
He then returned to New Haven to practice, and soon gained a remarkable degree of success. He was not, how- ever, popular among his older fellow-physicians, perhaps on account of over-abundant self-assertion and energy; and as early as 18 10 he withdrew from membership in the County Medical Association.
He married on September 7, 1808, Grace Mix, of New Haven, who died on September 6, 18 13, in her 28th year.
He had long wished to visit Europe, and in the spring of 18 14 sailed from New York for Paris. The ensuing win- ter he spent in London, where unremitting study broke down his health; but the sea-voyage on his return, after a year's absence, restored him to full vigor.
In May, 1816, he married JuHana, daughter of Samuel and Damaris (Atwater) Tyler, of Wallingford.
His increasing practice and the zeal with which he devoted himself to it undermined his originally vigorous constitution, and early in August, 18 17, he was seized with catarrhal fever, which reduced him greatly. In the
Biographical Sketches, 1800 399
autumn symptoms of phthisis (from which he had suf- fered in London) re-appeared, and on December 26, he sailed from New Haven for Charleston, South Carolina, where he arrived on January 8, 1818. Having derived no benefit there, he sailed for Havana, but died when five days out from Charleston, on February 11, in his 39th year.
By his first wife he had two sons (one of whom died in infancy) and one daughter.
His widow next married, on October 23, 1820, Dr. Joseph Palmer, Junior, of Ashford, Connecticut. Imme- diately on her arrival in Ashford she was seized with a fever, which raged without intermission until her death there on February 14, 1821.
Dr. Gilbert was a remarkably gifted physician and sur- geon, and if he had lived would in all probability have acquired a national reputation.
His private life was admirable, and he was respected as a sincere Christian.
AUTHORITIES.
Columbian Register, March 14, 1818. 383-88. N. Y. Geneal. and Biogr.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 926. Record, xlii, 46. Thacher, Amer.
Conn. Courant, February 27, 1821. Med. Biography, 247-49. N. H. Colony Hist. Society Papers, ii,
Thomas Peabody Grosvenor, the seventh in a family of fourteen children of Captain Seth and Abigail (Keyes) Grosvenor, of Pomfret, Connecticut, and grandson of 'Squire John and Hannah (Dresser) Grosvenor, of Pom- fret, was born on December 20, 1778. He spent the first two years of his course at Williams College.
On graduation he began the study of law with Elisha Williams, then of Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, who had married one of his sisters. On his admis- sion to the bar, in the fall of 1803, he settled in Catskill, Greene County; but in 1807 he removed to Hudson, in Columbia County, where he formed a partnership with Thomas Bay in July of that year.
40p Yale College
He soon became active in politics as an ardent Federal- ist, and was elected to the State Assembly in 1809 after a campaign of much bitterness. He was twice re-elected, thus serving from January, 1810, to June, 1812. He served also as District Attorney for Columbia and Rensse- laer Counties from April, 181 o, to February, 181 1.
Colonel Robert LeRoy Livingston having resigned as a member of the Twelfth Congress, Mr. Grosvenor was elected in the fall of 181 1 to fill the vacancy, and was con- tinued in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses.
In the meantime he was married by Bishop Kemp in March, 181 5, to Mary Jane, only daughter of the late Chancellor Alexander C. and Rebecca (Howard) Hanson, of Baltimore. She was a woman of unusual ability and rare excellence of person and intellect.
After his marriage he began to practice law in Balti- more, where his talents and character soon brought him distinction.
Mrs. Grosvenor died, after a painful illness, from pul- monary disease, at the house of her brother Charles, on Elk Ridge, near Baltimore, on December 4, 181 5, at the age of 24. Her loss was keenly felt by her husband, and his strong constitution was speedily undermined.
In the winter of 1816-17 he was seized with an enlarge- ment of the heart, which ended his life, at Waterloo, the family seat of the Hansons, about ten miles from Balti- more, on April 24, 1817, in his 39th year. His body was taken to Hudson for burial, by the side of his wife. A nephew who bore his name settled in Fredonia, New York.
In Congress he was a prominent member of the party in opposition to the government, and was distinguished for a manly eloquence and a quick discernment, which ren- dered him an able debater and a formidable opponent.
He published :
I. An Oration, delivered in Christ-Church, Hudson, on the 4th of July, 1808. [With explanatory Notes, &c.] [Hudson 1808.] 8°, pp. 30.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 401
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc.
N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Strongly Federalist.
2. With John C. Calhoun (Yale 1804) :— Speeches in the House of Representatives of the United States, upon Mr. Webster's Resolution. 1813. 8°.
[Harv. N. Y. H. S.
After his death was printed :
A Sketch of the Life, last sickness and death of Mrs. Mary Jane Grosvenor. Left among the papers of the late Hon. Thomas P. Grosvenor. Baltimore, 181 7. 16°, pp. 82. [U. S. Y. C.
An appendix (pp. 75-82) contains a sketch of Mr. Grosvenor. The volume was edited by Edward J. Coale.
The same. Second edition. Baltimore, 1817. 12°, pp. 82.
[B. Publ. Harv. Y. C. The same. Third edition. Baltimore, 1818. 12°, pp. 82.
[Y. C. Another edition, with notes and additional (unrelated) matter, was published at Baltimore in 1838.
AUTHORITIES.
Mrs. S. L. Crissey, MS. Letter, County, 144. Raymond, Biographical Apr., 1910. Hanson, Old Kent, 128. Sketches of Columbia County, 39-41. Miller, Great Lawyers of Columbia F. J. Shepard, MS. Letter, Apr., 1910.
Enoch Hanford, the second son of Stephen and Phebe Hanford, of Norwalk, Connecticut, and grandson of Phineas and Hannah (Comstock) Hanford, of Norwalk, was born in Norwalk on January 10, 1777. His mother was a daughter of Elijah and Phebe (Smith) Fitch of Norwalk. He did not enter the Class until after the open- ing of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law with Roger M. Sher- man (Yale 1792) in Norwalk, and went to Fayetteville, North Carolina, to begin practice. He there became acquainted with Colonel William and Mary (Devonald) DeWitt, of Society Hill, South Carolina, who engaged him to come into their family as a tutor for their son. In the 26
402 Yale College
course of his first year's employment, he married Colonel DeWitt's daughter Margaret; and in 1804 he conducted St. David's Academy, at Society Hill.
On April 29, 1804, he was elected Professor of Lan- guages in the South Carolina College, just established at Columbia; and with President Maxcy he opened the Col- lege on January 10, 1805. He regarded teaching, how- ever, as a temporary employment, and having resigned his chair on November 28, 1806, was admitted to the bar of Greenville County in April, 1807.
He settled in Greenville, where he had a successful career. His legal attainments were good, and his argu- ments sound, but his manner of speaking was slow and hesitating.
He was just making arrangements to return to his native State, to pass his later years, when he died in Greenville, on September 9, 18 17, in his 41st year.
His children were two daughters and one son, who died when young.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, Sept. 23, 1817. Hist, of the S. C. College, 18, 21, 25, Gregg, Hist, of the Old Cheraws, 97. 26. O'Neall, Bench and Bar of S. C, Hall, Hist, of Norwalk, 296. Laborde, ii, 317-18.
Moses Hatch, son of Nathaniel Hatch, and grandson of Barnabas and Phebe (Cushman) Hatch, was born in Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1780. His mother was Mary, daughter of Moses Cass, a farmer, of that part of Kent which is now Warren. At graduation he delivered a poem, entitled, The Deserted House.
He studied law after graduation, in part with the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), of New Haven, and in part at the Litchfield Law School ; and was admitted to the bar of Litchfield County in the fall of 1802. On taking his Master's degree at Yale in 1803, he delivered a poem, entitled, Notes on the Times.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 403
He settled at first in his native town, but soon removed to Danbury, in Fairfield County, where he became a prom- inent member of the bar.
He was cut short in what promised to be a brilliant career by the early failure of his health; and he died in Kent, when on his return from Saratoga, which he had visited in the hope of recuperation, in September, 1820, at the age of 40. He was buried in Kent.
He married Hannah Swift, of Amenia, Duchess County, New York, who survived him for many years ; three sons and seven daughters also survived him.
'Squire Hatch was not only a successful jury lawyer, but famous in his neighborhood as a wit and story-teller.
AUTHORITIES.
Bailey, Hist, of Danbury, 131-32, a lifetime, i, 321-Z7- Miss Mary B. 146, 362. Goodrich, Recollections of Hatch, MS. Letters, June, 1910.
Joseph Howland,, the eldest son and fourth child of Joseph Howland, the head of an extensive mercantile and shipping business in Norwich, Connecticut, and grandson of Nathaniel and Abigail (Burt, Lane) Howland, of Bos- ton, was born at Norwich Landing on December 23, 1780. His mother was Lydia, daughter of Captain Ephraim and Lydia (Huntington) Bill, of Norwich. A first cousin, Joshua Coit, was graduated here in 18 19.
On leaving College he joined his father in business in Norwich, from which the family removed in the summer of 1802 to Philipse Manor, or Philipsburg, now Yonkers, New York. The firm of Joseph Howland & Co., however, and that of Bernard Castaing & Joseph Howland, Jr., of Bordeaux, France, both proved unsuccessful, and in 181 1 he became insolvent.
Later he went into business with the Drake Brothers in Matanzas, Cuba, as agent of Howland & Aspinwall, and there he became engaged to a Miss Fellows.
404 Yale College
His marriage was impending when he visited New York, but hearing of the illness of one of his brothers who resided in Flushing he went there at once, and was himself prostrated. He died a few days later, on September 5, 1827, in his 47th year.
Miss Fellows subsequently married one of his nephews, Henry A. Coit.
Mr. Howland is remembered as a handsome and culti- vated man, of refinement and delicacy of mind and man- ners, and a great favorite.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, Sept. ii, 1827. 47, 153-54- Howlands in America. Howland Family Records, 121, 146- 356.
Samuel Gray Huntington^ the youngest son of the Rev. Enoch Huntington (Yale 1759) of Middletown, Con- necticut, was born in Middletown on May 21, 1782, and was named for his maternal grandfather. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Sophomore year. In his Senior year he won the Berkeley Scholar- ship upon examination, but did not long (if at all) reside on that foundation.
He studied law with his brother (Yale 1785) in Middle- town, and on his admission to practice in 1803 settled in East Haddam.
Three years later, when he had already attained a repu- table standing among the younger members of the bar of the State, he removed to Waterford, in Saratoga County, New York, where he soon rose to eminence as a lawyer.
In 1825 he removed to Troy, where for many years his professional business was among the largest and most lucrative. His counsel was particularly sought in causes relating to real estate.
Under the administration of Governor DeWitt Clinton he was appointed in 1827 to the office of Judge of the
Biographical Sketches, 1800 405
County Court of Common Pleas, and discharged its duties with great abiHty and impartiality.
He died in Troy, after an illness of a few days, on July 5, 1854, in his 73d year.
He married, on November 26, 1809, Mary, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Sage) Johnston, of Middletown, by whom he had one daughter, who survived him.
He next married, on June 23, 1825, Mrs. Janette C. Cheever, who died on November 14, 1856.
AUTHORITIES.
Field, Centennial Address at Mid- Memoir, 176-77, 260. F. F. Starr, dletown, 221. Huntington Family MS. Letter, Apr., 1910.
Samuel Jones, the third in a family of ten children of Samuel and Lydia (Tarbox) Jones, of Hebron, Connect- icut, and a descendant of Samuel Jones, of Saybrook, Con- necticut, was born in Hebron on December 22, 1778. He labored on his father's farm in his youth, and was prepared for College chiefly by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Amos Bas- sett (Yale 1784). He entered Yale'at the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law in the office of the Hon. Sylvester Gilbert (Dartmouth Coll. 1775), of Hebron, and was admitted to the bar of Tolland County in September, 1803.
He practiced law in connection with Judge Gilbert till the next summer, when he removed to Glastonbury. Thence he went in 1808 to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he resided in the practice of his profession till the spring of 1845.
In the spring of 1843 he was appointed one of a Board of Commissioners on the part of Massachusetts to act with a similar board on the part of Maine to set off land to the settlers, as provided by the Ashburton Treaty, in that por- tion of the disputed territory of which the United States
4o6 Yale College
claimed jurisdiction. This duty occupied him for two summers.
From 1845 to 1849 ^^ ^^^ ^^ Inspector of Customs of the port of Boston; and for two years after that he had a law office in that city.
He then returned to Stockbridge, where he was engaged in his profession until he relinquished it in 1853. From that time he resided with his children, and chiefly with his son, Ralph K. Jones, M.D. (Harvard 1847), of Tisbury, Massachusetts, until September, 1857, and after that of Bangor, Maine. He died in Bangor on October 29, 1862, in his 84th year, and is buried in Stockbridge. He retained the vigor of his body and mind in a remarkable degree until within a few months of his death.
He married Abby Maria, youngest daughter of Judge Samuel Gilbert (Yale 1759), of Hebron, who died in Stockbridge on September 13, 1830, at the age of 37, leav- ing seven children, five of whom survived their father. One daughter married Samuel Fowler (Yale 1839).
He was a thoroughly sound lawyer, but never filled the place for which his talents and acquirements gave early promise. This was due in part to his modesty, and in part to the depression and anxiety resulting from his wife's death, and to his loss about the same time of a large por- tion of his property by the failure of banks and by his being security for others.
In early life he acted with the Federal party in politics, and afterwards with the Whigs, until he became dissatis- fied with their course of opposition to Jackson's adminis- tration. He then voted with the Democrats until t-he repeal of the Missouri Compromise, after which he joined the Republicans. On several occasions he represented Stockbridge in the General Court of Massachusetts. He served as a Presidential Elector in 1832.
He was very kind in his feelings and impulses, of strict integrity, and in the highest sense of the word a gentle- man. He was a member of the Congregational Church in Stockbridge.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 407
He published :
A Treatise on the Right of Suffrage . . . Boston, 1842. 12°, pp. 274. [B. Ath. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES. Dr. R. K. Jones, MS. Letter, Nov., 1864.
Philander Judson was a resident of New Haven dur- ing his College course.
He is said to have settled in Richmond, Virginia; and to have died (but probably not in Richmond) in 1806.
Giles Crouch Kellogg, the son of Dr. Giles Crouch Kellogg (Harvard 1751) of Hadley, Massachusetts, by his housekeeper, Mary Catlin, and grandson of Ezekiel and Elizabeth (Partridge) Kellogg, of Hadley, was born in that town on August 12, 1781. His father died in 1793, but in his will acknowledged this son and provided for his education.
After graduation he studied law with Jonathan E. Por- ter (Harvard 1786) in Hadley, and on his admission to the bar opened an office in his native place, where he spent the remainder of his days.
He might have been a profound lawyer, and eminent at the bar ; but his distrust of himself as a public speaker, a characteristic love of peace, and his fondness for general reading, all contributed to prevent any effort on his part to command success as an advocate.
His neighbors loved to honor him by conferring upon him responsible offices. He was Town-clerk and Treas- urer from 1806 to 1834, and for thirteen years Register of deeds for Hampshire County. He was for ten years, between 1809 and 1853, Representative in the General Court, and a member of the State Constitutional Conven- tion in 1853. In politics he was originally a Federalist, and later a Republican.
4o8 Yale College
In the war of 1812 he served as an adjutant in one of the Massachusetts regiments. For several years he was an assistant teacher in the Hopkins Academy of Hadley, and sustained the duties of the office with credit. In man- ner and in spirit he was a poHshed gentleman of the old school.
He died in Hadley, after a short and severe illness, on June 19, 1 86 1, in his Both year.
In January, 181 5, he married Martha Hunt, daughter of Noadiah and Martha (Hunt) Warner, of Hadley, who died on October 30, 1870, aged 86 years. They had four sons and four daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Judd, Hist, of Hadley, 2d ed., pt in the New World, ii, 1787. Rev. Dr. i, 445-46, 452 ; pt. 2, 87, 148. Kelloggs John Woodhridge, MS. Letter, 1861.
Hugh Knox, the youngest child of the Rev. Dr. Hugh Knox (Princeton 1754), a native of Ireland, who was long settled over a Presbyterian Church in the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies, was born on that island .on December 19, 1781. The wife of Dr. Knox was the youngest daughter of Governor Simmons, of the Dutch West Indies.
He lost his mother at the age of six, and his father three years later ; but shortly before this last bereavement he was sent to the care of the Rev. Dr. Matthias Burnet (Princeton 1769), of Norwalk, Connecticut, by whom he was prepared for College. He did not enter until after the opening of the Freshman year.
When he graduated he began the study of law with Roger Minott Sherman (Yale 1792) in Fairfield, but abandoned it on account of his health.
He then formed a business connection with Samuel Can- non, of Norwalk, whose eldest daughter, Henrietta, by his wife Sarah Belden, he married early in 1803.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 409
Mrs. Knox died in 1812, at the age of 28; and he next married, in 1818, Martha, daughter of Stephen and Mar- garet (Pynchon) Keeler, of Norwalk, born July, 1783.
In 1840 he removed to Troy, New York, and died there on August 8, 1858, in his 77th year.
His children (by his first wife) were two sons, of whom the younger died in infancy.
His strong religious feeling and great taste for reading were prominent traits of his character.
AUTHORITIES. Hall, Hist of Norwalk, 248, 286. Selleck, Norwalk, 246-47, 411.
Prentice Law, the seventh son of Judge Richard Law (Yale 1 751), of New London, Connecticut, was born on April 15, 1779.
He was esteemed as a young man of talents and promise. He at first studied law and settled in North Carolina, but on July I, 1808, received the commission of Captain in the 3d Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, which he held at his death.
He died at Washington, the capital of Mississippi Terri- tory (near Natchez), on May 11, 1811, aged 32 years.
AUTHORITIES.
Binney, Prentice Family, 2d ed., Notes, 11 1. Starr, The Repository, 284. Gardner, Dictionary of U. S. iii, 219. Army, 272. T. P. Hall, Genealogical
Elisha Phelps, the fourth son of General Noah Phelps, of Simsbury, Connecticut, was born in Simsbury on November 16, 1779. A brother was graduated here in
1783.
He studied law in the Litchfield Law School, was admitted to the Hartford County bar in 1803, and set- tled in practice in his native town.
4to Yale College
He early became politically prominent as a Democrat, and represented Simsbury in the Legislature in ten ses- sions between 1807 and 1835. He served as Clerk of the House in May, 18 18, and as Speaker in 1821 and 1829. He was a member of Congress from 1819 to 182 1, and again from 1825 to 1829. He served for three terms, 1822-24, in the State Senate, and was ex officio a member of the Yale Corporation from 1823 to 1825. He was elected State Comptroller for the four years, 1830-34, and a commissioner to revise and codify the State laws in 1835.
He died in Simsbury on April 6, 1847, ^^ his 68th year.
He married, in 1818, Lucy, daughter of John Smith, of Middletown, who died two weeks after her husband, on April 19, 1847, i^ ^^^ 55th year.
They left one son and two daughters, besides two sons who died in infancy. The son (Trinity Coll. 1832) served in Congress for nearly twenty years, and was Governor of Missouri for six years. Henry C. Eno (Yale i860), John C. Eno (Yale 1869), and William P. Eno (Yale 1882) are grandchildren.
AUTHORITIES.
Phelps Family, i, 206, 352-53. i, 127; ii, 361. Trumbull, Hist, of Hartford County,
Lewis St. John, the youngest child of Timothy St. John, of Kent, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Eunice (Hayes) St. John, of Norwalk, was born in Kent on Sep- tember 17, 1782. His mother was Anna, daughter of Aaron and Jemima (Hall) Barnum, of Kent.
He spent his life in his native town. He was the first Clerk of the Episcopal parish which was organized in Kent in 1808.
He died in Kent on April 9, 1821, in his 39th year.
He married on November 10, 1805, Mary Hopson Swift, who survived him, with a young family.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 4«»
AUTHORITIES. Alexander, Saint John Genealogy, 120, Atwater, Hist, of Kent, 68.
Elisha Sheldon, the eldest child of Samuel Sheldon, who kept a country store in Litchfield, Connecticut, and a grandson of Colonel Elisha Sheldon (Yale 1730), was born in Litchfield on July 15, 1782. His mother was Eliz- abeth, eldest daughter of Isaac Baldwin (Yale 1735), a third cousin of her husband. He did not enter the Class until after the opening of the Junior year.
He studied medicine after graduation with Dr. Daniel Sheldon, of Litchfield, and on August i, 1802, married Ann, third daughter of John and Mabel (Beers) Beach, of Newtown, Connecticut.
He at first proposed to practice in some one of the Western States, and set out for that purpose; but was recalled to Litchfield by the earnest entreaties of his father, who could not be content to be separated from him. Besides his practice, in 181 1 or 1812 he assisted his father in establishing a factory for the manufacture of cotton yarns and cloth, one of the first started in Connecticut. It was hardly, however, in successful operation when the close of the war brought in the competition of the cheaper British goods, and it had to be abandoned.
About that time he removed to Sheldon, in Northern Vermont, to improve a large tract of land which his father had purchased. But tiring of this uncongenial labor, he resolved to resume his profession, and in 181 7 proceeded to New York City, where he received the degree of M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1818.
He then returned to practice in Sheldon, but in 1822 removed to Troy, New York, where he soon secured an extensive practice and a large circle of influential friends. He died in Troy, on December 14, 1832, in his 51st year. Mrs. Sheldon died in New Haven, on January 21, 1844, in her 6 1st year.
412 Yale College
They left two daughters, the elder of whom was the wife of the Hon. Henry E. Peck (Yale 1823), of New Haven.
Dr. Sheldon was a critical student, a man of refined tastes and of pure, practical piety. As a physician he was assiduous, conscientious, and eminently successful. His manners were gentle and unobtrusive, his conversation instructive and entertaining; and he gained the sincere affection and confidence of patients.
AUTHORITIES.
John Beach and Descendants, 203, Letter, March, 1858. Walworth, Hyde 211-12. Hon. Henry E. Peck, MS. Family, ii, 850-51.
Henry (commonly called Harry) Smith, the eldest child of Judge Noah Smith (Yale 1778), of Bennington, Vermont, was born in Bennington on May 2, 1783. He spent the first three years of the College Course in Wil- liams College.
He studied law after graduation, and settled in Benning- ton ; but on account of intemperate habits did little in the way of practice.
He enlisted in the army in the War of 1812, and died in Burlington, Vermont, on April 23, 18 13, at the age of 30.
He married Phebe Henderson, a native of Bennington, on April 24, 1803, and left three sons: — the eldest was graduated at Middlebury College in 1827, and became President of Marietta College and Professor in Lane Theological Seminary; the second was graduated at Mid- dlebury in 1 83 1, and became a Professor in Marshall and Middlebury Colleges ; the third died in youth.
The widow became Principal of an Academy in Middle- bury, and next married Joel H. Linsley (Middlebury Col- lege 1811), then a lawyer in Middlebury. He subse- quently became a clergyman, a pastor in Hartford and Boston, President of Marietta College, and finally a pastor
Biographical Sketches, 1800 4^3
in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she died on January 20, 1858, at the age of 74.
AUTHORITIES.
Gilman, Bibliography of Vermont, Smith, D.D., LL.D., 4-6. Stiles, 254. Rev. C. H. Hubbard, MS.ljtXitr, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 634-35. Nov., 1866. Memorial of Rev. Henry
John Stevens, son of John and Margaret (McCartey) Stevens, of Newport, Liberty County, Georgia, was born on December 13, 1777.
He returned to his native place after graduation, and on February 2, 1804, married Amarintha Munroe, of that vicinity.
The date of his death has not been obtained, but his name was first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates published in the summer of 1835.
AUTHORITIES. Midway Church Records, 81, 92.
Abiram Stoddard, the eldest son of Samson and Susan- nah Stoddard, of Watertown, then part of Waterbury, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Mary (Atwood) Stoddard, of Watertown, was born on January 27, 1777. His mother was the second daughter of John and Susannah (Richards) Nettleton, of Watertown. A half-brother was graduated here in 1804.
He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.^ in Philadelphia, under Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1803 he settled in Seymour, then called Chusetown, in the old town of Derby, Connecticut, succeeding to the large and lucra- tive practice of Dr. Samuel Sanford, who had just died.
He soon came to have a wide reputation and was esteemed as a skilful practitioner, though rough and pecul- iarly eccentric in manner. He was a man of great energy
414 yale College
and endurance, and accumulated a handsome fortune from his practice.
He held various offices of public trust in Derby, and in October, 1816, represented Oxford (formerly part of Derby) in the State Legislature.
He died in Seymour on November 23, 1855, ^^ his 79th year.
Engravings from his portrait are given in the History of Derby, the History of Seymour, and the Stoddard Gene- alogy.
He married Eunice Clark about 1804, who died on August 23, 1855, aged 69 years.
Their children were three daughters (of whom the eldest died in early youth) and four sons. The eldest son was graduated at Yale College in 1831, the second at the Yale Medical School in 1836, and the youngest at the Yale Law School in 1844.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, of Seymour, 130, 168-69; Vital Sta- Appendix, 132. Orcutt, Hist, of tistics of Seymour, i, 40, 69. Stod- Derby, 455, 651-54, 766. Sharpe, Hist. dard Family, 1865, 34, 53-55.
Thomas Barnard Strong, the only son of Joseph Strong, a farmer of New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and grandson of the Rev. Thomas Strong (Yale 1740), was born on September 4, 1780. His mother was Xenia, daughter of John and Beulah (Stearns) Jack- son, of Tyringham, in the same county.
In his 7th year his father died, and a year later his mother married the Rev. Jacob Catlin (Yale 1784), of New Marlborough. Later, the boy was adopted by his childless uncle, Ashbel Strong, a lawyer of Pittsfield, with whom after graduation he studied law. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Junior year.
He was admitted to the bar in 1804; but, although his talents might have given him success, neither necessity
Biographical Sketches, 1800 4<$
nor taste led in this direction, and after a few years he abandoned his profession for a life of literary leisure and the care of his property. He also gave much attention to agricultural and horticultural pursuits, in the latter exhib- iting much taste and industry.
He was an agreeable and effective public speaker, and was influential for some years in political affairs. In 1827-29 and 1832 he was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, and in 1833 and 1834 a member of the State Senate.
He had a ready and inexhaustible flow of wit, and at times exhibited a fine literary taste and eloquence of expression.
He united with the Congregational Church in Pittsfield in 182 1.
He died in Pittsfield on May 24, 1863, in his 83d year.
He married on August 28, 181 3, Lucinda, daughter of Aaron and Eleanor (Morton) Dickinson, and widow of Luke Tuttle, of Pittsfield. She died on March 23, 1856, in her 70th year.
They had no children, but adopted a daughter.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1255. 1863. /. E. A. Smith, Hist of Pitts- Hon. Julius Rockwell, MS. Letter, field, ii, 405.
Erastus Swift, the tenth child of General Heman and of Mary (Skiff) Swift, of Kent and Cornwall, Connect- icut, was born in Cornwall on January 6, and baptized on May 6, 1781. He spent the first two years of the course in Williams College.
He spent his life on a farm in his native town, where he died on Marcli 11, 1843, i^ his 62d year.
He married, perhaps about 1805, Sarah (Sally) Lewis, of Goshen, who died in Cornwall on April 6, 1858, aged yy years. She was probably a daughter of Nehemiah and
41 6 Yale College
Esther (Lyman) Lewis, of Goshen; one of their sons married a sister of Mr. Swift.
Their children were four daughters, all of whom lived to mature age, — two of them being married.
AUTHORITIES. Miss M. J. Whitney, MS. Letter, April, 1910.
Giles Wade came to College from the Island of St. Martin, in the West Indies.
His name is marked as deceased in the Triennial Cat- alogue of Graduates issued in September, 1802.
Joel Walter, son of William and Theodosia Walter, of New Haven, and grandson of William and Patience (Clark) Walter, of North Haven, was born on May 28, 1778. His mother was a daughter of Samuel and Eliza- beth (Frost) Pierpont, of North Haven. A sister mar- ried Timothy Bishop (Yale 1796).
He was engaged in the printing and publishing business in New Haven, for part of the time in partnership with Oliver Steele. He printed some College publications in 1803, as did Walter & Steele in 1811-12.
He and all his family were communicants in the Episco- pal Church.
He died in Hamden on January 17, 1832, in his 54th year, and was buried in New Haven. His estate was insolvent.
He married on October 28, 1804, Sarah, only daughter of Colonel William and Hannah (Bronson) Leavenworth, of Waterbury, Connecticut, and granddaughter of the Rev. Mark Leavenworth (Yale 1737). She died at the home of one of her daughters, at Barnwell Court House, South Carolina, on February 6, i860, in her 76th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 417
They had six daughters and six sons. Four daughters and two sons died in infancy. The second son was grad- uated at Trinity College in 1828.
AUTHORITIES. Leavenworth Genealogy, 97, 154-55. Tuttle Family, 20, 29.
Lemuel Whitman, the fourth child and eldest son of Solomon Whitman, of Farmington, Connecticut, and grandson of Judge Solomon and Susanna (Cole) Whit- man, of Farmington, was born in Farmington on June 8, 1780. His mother was Mary, daughter of Abel and Ruth (Gridley) Thomson, of Farmington.
After graduation he taught in a young ladies' seminary in Bermuda, vmtil summoned home by his father's sudden death, at the close of the year 1801.
Some months later, having decided upon the law as his profession, he entered the Litchfield Law School.
After finishing the course at Litchfield he returned to his native town, where he devoted himself assiduously to the duties of a village lawyer. He was fond of society, and his attractiveness of person with his culture made him a general favorite.
He took an active interest in politics, and was in sym- pathy with the Democrats; so that in 1818, when that party came into power in Connecticut, he was at once made an assistant Judge of the Superior Court. In 18 19- 21 he was an Associate Judge of the Hartford County Court, and from 1821 to 1823 Chief Judge. In 182 1 he was one of a committee of three to prepare a revision of the Statutes of the State. In 1822 he was a member of the State Senate.
In 1823 he was elected as a Representative in Congress, and served for one term.
He then resumed his practice, but gradually withdrew from society. In 1831 and 1832 he represented the town in the Legislature. 27
4i8 Yale College
His health began to fail in middle life, and successive pecuniary misfortunes drew him more and more into seclusion.
He died in Farmington, in twenty-four hours after an attack of apoplexy, on November 13, 1841, in his 62d year.
He married, on July 5, 1820, Emily, daughter of Elisha and Delight (Griswold) Case, of Canton, Connecticut, then in her 21st year, who long survived him.
Their children were three sons and three daughters, all of whom also survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Farnam, Whitman Family, 514-23.
Chauncey Whittelsey, the youngest child of Chaun- cey Whittelsey (Yale 1764), of Middletown, Connect- icut, was born in Middletown on January 18, 1783. He remained in New Haven as a Berkeley Scholar after graduation, at the same time reading law with the Hon. Charles Chauncey.
On his admission to the bar in November, 1804, he began practice in Middletown, where he had a successful career until 18 19. In the meantime he was prominent in the War of 18 12, and attained the rank of Brigadier-Gen- eral in the militia. He represented Middletown in the State Legislature in October, 18 16.
In 18 19, he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and after about four years spent there in the practice of his profes- sion, went to New Orleans, where he formed a partner- ship with Alfred Hennen (Yale 1806).
In 1827, his health having become seriously impaired, he returned to Middletown, and lived in retirement. He became much worse in the fall of 1829, and for the rest of his life was an almost helpless invalid.
He died in Middletown on December 24, 1834, aged nearly 52 years.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 419
He married, on April 14, 18 18, Sarah Lathrop, daugh- ter of Dr. Ebenezer and Maria (Ward) Tracy, of Middle- town, who died on September i, 189 1, aged 99 years.
They had four sons and two daughters. The eldest son was graduated here in 1838, and the third son at Wes- leyan University in 1843. The youngest daughter mar- ried Lyman D. Norris (Yale 1845).
AUTHORITIES.
Field, Centennial Address at Mid- ily, 434-35. Whittlesey Genealogy, dietown, 207-08, 211-12. Tuttle Fam- 85, 146-48.
Thomas Williams, son of Joseph Williams, of Abing- ton Parish in Pomfret, Connecticut, and grandson of Dea- con William and Sarah (Stevens) Williams, of Pomfret, was born in Pomfret on November 5, 1779. His mother was Lucy, eldest daughter of Deacon Nathan and Keziah (Branch) Witter, of Brooklyn, then part of Pomfret. He began his preparation for College in the spring of 1793 with his pastor, the Rev. Walter Lyon (Dartmouth Coll. 1777), and in the fall of 1795 entered the Freshman Class of Williams College. He left Williams on account of ill health, in March, 1798, and joined the Junior Class here in November.
In May, 1800, before taking his degree, he became the teacher of a school in Beverly, Massachusetts; and in the winter of 1801-02 he was for one term the first preceptor of the Academy at Woodstock, Connecticut. In the next autumn and winter he had a very successful school in Nor- wich, and in the spring of 1803 opened a school in Boston for colored pupils.
While thus engaged he was licensed to preach, on May 17, 1803, by the Windham County Association of Minis- ters, that he might officiate as Chaplain of the Almshouse in Boston, in connection with his other duties.
42 o Yale College
Late in 1803 he relinquished his school, and went for some weeks on a mission in New York State for the Con- necticut Missionary Society.
Upon his return, after spending six weeks as a student of theology with the Rev. Dr. Nathanael Emmons (Yale 1767), of Franklin, Massachusetts, he was ordained as a minister at large, on May 16, 1804, in Killingly, Con- necticut.
From June, 1804, to January, 1805, and again during the autumn of 1805, he traveled as a missionary in New York State.
After other brief engagements, in January, 1807, with- out formal installation, he began preaching in the Pacific Congregational Church (then in very feeble condition), of Providence, Rhode Island, where he remained until April, 1 816, when he withdrew on account of the opposi- tion of one parishioner.
On May 20, 1812, he married Ruth, eldest daughter of Isaac and Ruth (Jewett) Hale, of Newbury, Massachu- setts.
On November 6, 18 16, he was installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Foxboro, Massachusetts, — the installation sermon by the Rev. Dr. Emmons being after- wards printed. After continuing there about four years, he left Foxboro and began to preach again to his former charge in Providence, where he remained from July, 182 1, to August, 1823. His formal dismission from the church in Foxboro took place in -November, 1821.
On the first Sabbath in December, 1823, he began to preach for the First Parish in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and was installed there on September 29, 1824, Dr. Emmons preaching the sermon. From this church he was dismissed by mutual consent, without the intervention of a council, on December 11, 1827. At the same time a number of the members of the church took a dismission for the purpose of forming a new church, which was organ- ized at Hebronville, in the southern part of the town, on
Biographical Sketches, 1800 421
December 25. Of this church he served as pastor, with- out formal installation, until April, 1830.
He then returned to Providence, where he was most use- fully employed in preaching, much of the time to the col- ored people in the city, and in missionary service through the State, until the close of the year 1834.
In May, 1835, he removed to Harrington, Rhode Island, and began his regular ministrations to the Congregational Church in that place, which he had frequently supplied during several previous months. In March, 1838, he closed this engagement, and in the following autumn returned to Providence.
After this he formed no further regular engagement with any church, either as pastor or as stated supply; though he still continued to preach as opportunity offered. His field of labor for the next thirty years extended over the State of Rhode Island and through wide portions of the adjoining States; and he was eminently useful and happy in his self-sacrificing work. In the spring of 1839 he removed to Hartford, Connecticut, and a year later to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and thence in September, 1843, back once more to Providence, where he continued until his death.
He preached for the last time in 1872, when in his 93d year ; and died of old age in Providence, on September 29, 1876, aged nearly 97 yfears. Since March, 1873, ^^ ^^^ been the last living graduate of the eighteenth century.
His wife died in Providence on March 7, 1867, at the age of 79.
They had four sons and three daughters, of whom three sons survived their parents. One son was graduated here in 1842, and became a clergyman.
Mr. Williams deserves to be long remembered as a self- sacrificing laborer in unpromising portions of his Master's vineyard, who was very useful in his chosen field. He was a pungent preacher and a strict follower of the old paths in theology. With an intellect of remarkable bril-
42 2 Yale College
liancy, he was through Hfe trembling on the verge of a species of insanity, as mental excitement or even long- continued concentrated thought would unbalance him. Professor Park, in his Memoir of Emmons, says of him :
I have heard him preach discourses which for originality of argu- ment; richness and saliency of imagination; exuberance of feeling; energy, boldness, fervor of style; vehement, forceful, and com- manding elocution, have been seldom surpassed. His bright thoughts, apt words, spirited and solemn tones, have been some- times overpowering. His fertility of anecdote, his sprightliness of wit, his previous intimacy with Dr. Nathan Strong and other old divines, his deep sympathy with Edwardean doctrines, and his varied intelligence, made him a favorite at the Franklin parsonage. He was selected by Dr. Emmons, twenty-five years before the Doctor's death, to preach his funeral sermon.
He published :
1. Sermons on important subjects. Hartford, 1810. 12°, pp.
231.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C. Contains ten sermons.
2. A Discourse [from Isa. ii, 4], occasioned by the Proclamation of Peace between Great Britain and the United States of America. Preached on Lord's Day, 26th of February, 181 5 . . . Providence, 1815. 8°, pp. 23.
[A. A. S. B. Puhl. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S.
Y.C.
The same, with title: A Discourse; on the evils and the end of War. Providence, 1862. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. Harv.
3. A Discourse [from I Thess. v, 13], at the Ordination of the Rev. Emerson Paine, to the Pastoral office in the First Church of Christ in Middleborough, Mass. oft the 14th of February, 1816. Providence, 1816. 8°, pp. 23.
[B. Puhl. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. A Discourse [from I Sam. xii, 24], for the Month of April, A. D. 1816. Providence, 1816. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. Y. C.
On the mercies of the United States.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 423
5. A Discourse [from Ps. cxlvii, i], at a public meeting of the Singers in the North Parish in Wrentham, 13th May, 181 7. Ded- ham, 1817. 8°, pp. 22. [A. C. A. U. T. S.
6. The Greatest Sermon, that ever was preached [from I Kings, xviii, 43]. By Demens Egomet. New-England, 1822. 8°, pp. 12.
[Y. C. The same. 2d edition. New-England, 1825. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. Y. C. An anonymous satire on the liberal and sectarian theologians of the day.
7. A Sermon [from Isa. xli, 14], at the Dedication of the Meeting-House, in Foxborough; January i, 1823. Providence, 1823. 8°, pp. 32. [A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
8. An Explicit Avowal of Nothingarianism, in a Sermon [from Job xxxii, 10], Fourth of March, 1823. By Demens Egomet. Printed and Published, Nowhere, by Nobody. 8°, pp. 10.
[A. C. A. Y. C. Another anonymous satire on the supposed heretical opinions of the day.
9. Sermons, in a series of volumes. Vol. I. Providence, 1823. 12°, pp. 204. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S.
Containing seven sermons, not elsewhere published.
The same. Volume 2. Providence, 1832. 12°, pp. 352.
[A. C. A. Harv. Y. C. Contains twelve sermons, and two charges.
10. An Address before the Attleborough Agricultural Society, 4th July, 1825. Providence, 1825. 12°, pp. 22. [B. Publ.
On the causes of our national prosperity.
11. A Sermon [from I Thess. iv, 18], delivered at the Funeral of Mrs. Chloe Read, wife of Joel Read, Esq. of Attleborough, who died 3d March, 1826, aged 68 years. Pawtucket, 1827. 8°, pp. 25.
[A. A. S. A. C. A.
12. Fifty-five Reasons for not being a Baptist. — By Timothy. — Printed in New-England by Titus, 1830. 12°, pp. 12.
[A. C. A. U. T. S.
13. The Cottage Bible, and Family Expositor; containing the Old and New Testaments, with practical expositions and explanatory notes . . Edited by Rev. William Patten. Hartford, 1834. 2 vol- umes in 4. Large 8°. [A. C. A. B. Publ.
424 Yale College
14. A Sermon [from Ez. xxxvi, 11], on the conclusion of the second century from the Settlement of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Providence, 1837. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. Brown. Ha/rv. M. H. S. Y. C.
15. The Domestic Chaplain. Hartford, 1839. 12°, pp. 156.
[A. C. A. Brown. Harv. Y. C. Containing twenty-four brief discourses, founded on events in Jewish history as recorded in the Pentateuch.
16. The Mercy of God. — A Centurial Sermon [from Luke iv, 28], on the Revival of Religion A. D. 1740 .. Hartford, 1840.
8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. Brown. C. H. S. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
17. The official character of Rev. Nathanael Emmons, D.D. ; taught and shown, in a Sermon [from Eccl. xxi, 9] on his life and death. Boston, 1840. 8°, pp. 80.
[B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Rhode-Island Edition. Providence, 1841. 8°, pp. 56.
[U. T. S. Y. C.
Also, later editions.
Mr. Williams was an ardent admirer of Dr. Emmons, and regarded this Sermon as one of his chief literary efforts; it was read to Dr. Emmons during his life, and approved by him.
18. Good Tidings of Great Joy: or the Doctrine of Universal Salvation, clearly stated, incontestibly proved, and faithfully applied, in a Sermon [from Luke ii, 12], preached and published by a Doctor of the Sect. 12°, pp. 12. [Harv. Y. C.
Anonymous.
19. Jehovah; or Uni-Trini-tarianism : a Sermon. Providence, 1847. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. Y. C.
20. A Sermon [from Matt, xxviii, 18-20] on the relative and practical importance of Trinitarianism. Providence, 1847. 8°, pp. 32. [A. C. A. M. H. S. Y. C.
The same ; revised edition, with title : A Discourse on theological and evangelical Orthodoxy. Boston, 1850. 8°, pp. 39.
[A. C. A. Y. C.
21. A Discourse [from Rev. xii, 7], on the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. Providence, 1849. 8°, pp. 48.
[A. C. A. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1800 425
22. A Discourse on the Life and Death of Oliver Shaw. Bos- ton, 1851. 16°, pp. 39. [A. C. A.
Shaw was an accomplished blind musician.
23. A Discourse [from Ex. iv, 24] on Ordinances of Divine Appointment. Providence, 1855. 8°, pp. 28.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
24. Considerations on Slavery in the United States. Providence, 1856. 12°, pp. 24. {B. Publ. Y. C.
25. A Discourse [from Isa. vi. i] on the Conduct of God, in the death of great men; occasioned by the Death of Daniel Web- ster. Providence, 1858. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C. Dated, November 28, 1852.
26. A Sermon [from John vi, 60], on the Salvation of Sinners. Providence, 1858. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
27. A Sermon [from Hebr. xi, 25] on the Choice of Moses. Providence, 1858. 8°, pp. 20. [B. Publ. Y. C.
28. A Sermon [from Isa. Ixviii, 17] on the Perfection of God in the Imperfection of his People. [With cover-title. Human and
. Divine Agency in the Existence of Moral Evil.] Providence, 1858. 8°, pp. 18. [A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
29. The Catechism of Westminster Assembly, the Standard of New England Theology; and the Doctrinal Foundation of the Andoverian Seminary. Providence, 1858. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
30. A Scriptural Testimony on the Punishment of Sinners. Providence, 1859. 12°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. B. Publ.
31. Providence Preacher: a Series of Sermons fend other Instructions, in Monthly Numbers. Providence, March, 1859 — February, i860. Volume i. 8°, pp. 312.
[A.C.A. B.Publ. Y.C. Mainly of his own composition.
32. Scriptural Instructions. . . . Providence, January, — March, 1861. Volume I, Nos. 1-3. 12°, pp. 16; 15; 16. And Volume 2, No. I, January, 1862, 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. B. Publ.
Vol. I, No. I, is a reprint of No. 30, above; No. 2, an Exposition of Rom. ix, 14-25 ; No. 3, Fall of Babylon.
426 Yale College
He also wrote largely for the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, for the Panoplist, and other periodicals. Many of his sermons have hymns of his own composition appended.
He edited three volumes of Sermons by Dr. Emmons (1823-26).
AUTHORITIES.
Allen and Witter Genealogies, 219. of Emmons, 259-60. Staples, Annals Caulkins, Hist, of Norwich, 544-45. of Providence, 457-60. Rev. N. W. Hale Genealogy, 306. Park, Memoir Williams, MS. Letter, Apr., 1877.
Annals, iSoa-oi 427
Annals, 1 800-01
The General Assembly having authorized the use of a portion of the grant made in 1792-96, the Corporation voted in November, 1800, to proceed with the erection of two new buildings, — one for a Library and recitation- rooms (subsequently known as the Lyceum), and the other for a dormitory (subsequently called North Middle Col- lege). Both buildings were apparently begun in 1801.
The Rev. Nathanael Taylor (Yale 1745), of New Mil- ford, died in December, 1800; and his place in the Corpo- ration was filled at the ensuing Commencement by the elec- tion of the Rev. Noah Benedict (Princeton 1757), of Woodbury. At the same meeting the Senior Fellow, the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Williams (Yale 1743), of East Hart- ford, resigned, and was succeeded by the Rev. John Marsh (Harvard 1761), of Wether sfield.
The Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Josiah Meigs (Yale 1778), resigned his office in December, 1800, and at Commencement Tutor Jeremiah Day (Yale 1795) was appointed to the vacant chair.
Tutor Warren Dutton (Yale 1797) also resigned his office at the close of the year 1800, and Tutor Charles Denison (Yale 1796) at the close of the academic year. Bancroft Fowler (Yale 1796) succeeded Mr. Dutton in January, 1801 ; and two new tutors from the Class of 1799, James L. Kingsley and Oliver Ellsworth, Junior, were appointed to the office at Commencement.
At the same date another attempt was made to fill the Professorship of Divinity by the offer of the position to Henry Davis (Yale 1796) ; and a new Professorship of Law was founded, to which Elizur Goodrich (Yale 1779) was appointed.
428 ' Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1801
*Stedman Adams, A.M. 1809 *i8ii
*Ralsaman C. Austin *i840
*Roswell Bailey *i850
*Isaacus Baldwin *i844
*Samuel Sacket Baldwin ^1854
*Henricus Bates *i840
*Thomas Kimberly Brace, A.M. *i86o
*Erastus Fitch Brown *i8o7
*Elija Clark *i830
*Noyes Darling, A.M., Tutor, Socius ex officio *i846 *Josias Guilielmus Dunscomb
"^Henricus Dwight, AM. iSii *i857
*Martinus Ellsworth *i857
*Georgius Fitch, A.M. ^1824
*Asahel Hathaway, A.M. *i82g
*Alcis Evelinus Heart *i8o5 *Petrus Hitchcock, A.M., LL.D. Mariett. 1845 et
Res. Occ. 1849, ^ Congr., Reip. Ohion. Cur. Supr.
Jurid. Princ. *i853
*Georgius Hoadly, A.M., Tutor *i857
* Samuel Holbrook ^1849 *Guilielmus Law *i8i8 "^Henricus Lord, A.M. *i834 *Matthaeus Minor, A.M. *i839 *Russell Jehu Minor, A.M. ■ *i854 *Henricus W. Nichols
*Thomas Jackson Oakley, LL.D. Cone. 1853, ^ Congr., Reip. Nov. Ebor. Reb. Judic. Praefect.,
Urb. Nov. Ebor. Cur. Super. Jurid. Princ. *i857
* Johannes Webster Perit *i845
Biographical Sketches, 1801 429
''Royal Phelps, A.M. *i83i
♦Azarias Scofield, A.M. *i853
*Fredericus Scofield, A.M. *i840
*Jared Scofield, A.M. *i84i
*Henricus Stanley, A.M. 1808 *i820
*Truman Starr *i848
* Jacobus Stedman, A.M., Tutor *i856
*Zalmon Storrs *i867 *Josephus Trumbull, LL.D. 1849, ^ Congr., Reip.
Conn. Gubernator, Socius ex officio *i86i
*Guilielmus VanDeursen, A.M. 1810 *i833 *Johannes Wales, A.M., Reip. Del. Seer., Rerump.
Foed. Sen. *i863
♦Josephus Wood *i856
Stedman Adams,, the third son of Cornelius and Esther (Stedman) Adams, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and a brother of Thomas Adams, of the last Class, and of Cor- nelius (1803) and Daniel (1806), was born in Canterbury on September 25, 1778. He was also a first cousin of his classmate Stedman. He entered the Class after the open- ing of the Junior year.
He studied law, and after his admission to the bar settled in Hartford, where he practiced until 1809.
He died in London, England, on May 23, 181 1, in his 33d year.
He married Frances Paine, and had two daughters and two sons, born in Canterbury from 1804 to 1808.
AUTHORITIES. Henry and John Adams Family Hist., 324, 334.
Ralsaman (called Ralsa) C. Austin^ a son of Judge Aaron Austm (honorary M.A. Yale 1805), of New Hart- ford, Connecticut, and grandson of Aaron Austin, of Suf-
43© ycil^ College
field and Torringf ord, was born in New Hartford about the year 1784. His mother was Esther, eldest child of Abra- ham and Sarah (Marsh) Kellogg, of New Hartford. A sister married the Hon. Uriel Holmes (Yale 1784). His peculiar (but not unique) Christian' name was apparently an abbreviation of Camaralzaman, the name of the Prince in a story of the Arabian Nights. He entered .Williams College in 1796, and after the close of Freshman year there delayed for another year his resumption of studies here.
After graduation he studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and in 1808 was admitted to the bar of Litchfield County, where he practiced for three or four years. He then removed to Carmel, then in Duchess County, New York; and after the erection of Putnam County he held the office of County Surrogate from April, 18 13, to Feb- ruary, 1815.
At a subsequent date he removed to Peekskill, in West- chester County; but his success in life was not equal to the early expectations formed respecting him. He was a man of ability, and but for intemperate habits would have acquired a first-class practice.
He was of prepossessing appearance and refined man- ners, and an agreeable public speaker.
In the last months of his life he was a clerk in, the Gen- eral Land office in Washington ; and while thus employed he died, in Georgetown, on September 19, 1840.
He married a Miss Diven, who survived him with sev- eral children.
AUTHORITIES.
Daily Globe, Washington, Sept. 21, World, i, 212. Kilhourn, Litchfield 1840. Hinman, Early Puritan Set- County Bench and Bar, 222. Scharf, tiers, 84. Kelloggs in the New Hist, of Westchester County, i, 542.
RoswELL Bailey was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1778.
He spent his life in his native town, where he kept a country store.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 4js
He died in Lebanon on April 14, 1850, aged 72 years.
He married, in March, 1803, Anna L., eldest child of Jabez Loomis and Elizabeth (Wales) White, of Bolton, Connecticut. She died on April 20, 1858, in her 75th year. They had one son and one daughter.
AUTHORITIES. Loomis Female Genealogy, ii, 528-29.
Isaac Baldwin, the second son and child of Captain Isaac Baldwin (Yale 1774), of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born in Litchfield on February i, 1784. He remained in New Haven after graduation on the Berkeley Scholar- ship.
His father removed to Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, in 1811, and this son accompanied the family. At about that time his reason gave way, and he was confined in Pompey as a maniac for over thirty years.
He died there on January 27, 1844, ^t the age of 60.
He was never married.
authorities.
Baldwin Genealogy, ii, 538. IVal- Woodruff, Genealogical Register of worth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 339. Litchfield, 12.
Samuel Sacket Baldwin, the eldest child of Captain Isaac Baldwin (Yale 1774) and Hannah (Sacket, DeLan- cey) Baldwin, of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born in Litchfield on October 22, 1781.
He studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and in 1806 he settled in the practice of his profession in Pompey, Onondaga County, New York.
On March 23, 1808, he married in Salina (now Syra- cuse), in the same county, Melinda, daughter of Dr. Thomas Rawson.
432 Yale College
She bore him one son (who died in infancy), and died on July lo, 1811.
He next married Julia Anne, daughter of Peter W. Yates, of Albany and Pompey, by whom he had one son and two daughters.
Some years later he removed to Illinois, where he engaged in practice.
In 1853 he returned to New York State, to live with his elder daughter in Geneva. He died there on February 19, 1854, in his 73d year.
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin Genealogy, ii, 538, 573. Woodruff, Genealogical Register of Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 339. Litchfield, 12.
Henry Bates, son of Jonathan and Lydia Bates, of Darien, then a parish in Stamford, Connecticut, and grand- son of John and Sarah E. Bates, of Darien, was born on June 14, 1780. His mother was a daughter of Josiah and Abigail (Gorham) Scofield, of Stamford. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
When he left College he went at once to the City of New -York, to engage in business; but by 1805 had returned to Darien, which was thenceforth his place of residence.
When Darien was set off from Stamford in 1820, he was elected to the first Board of Selectmen, and served in that capacity for twelve years. He represented the town in the General Assembly at a single session, in 1822, but had no taste for politics. The personal characteristic which is now best remembered is his great kindness to the poor.
He was married in New York City on June 4, 1803, by the Rev. Dr. John MacKnight, to Frances Bloau (or Blaau), of New York, who died in Darien on August 23, 1844, aged 63 years.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 433
Their children were five sons, all of whom grew to maturity.
AUTHORITIES. Rev. Herbert S. Brown, MS. Letter, May, 1910.
Thomas Kimberly Brace^ the only son of the Hon. Jonathan Brace (Yale 1779) and of his wife Anna (White), widow of Thomas Kimberly (Yale 1766), was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, on October 16, 1779. For the next six years his father lived in Vermont, but then returned to Glastonbury, and in the summer of 1794 finally settled in Hartford.
The son was for many years an extensive and successful merchant in Hartford, and through life one of the promi- nent citizens of that place. In 1831 and 1832 he was one of the representatives in the State Legislature, and from 1840 to 1843 Mayor of Hartford. He was prominent in the organization of the ^tna Insurance Company, and its first President, holding the office from 1819 to 1857.
He died in Hartford, after a few hours' illness, from congestion of the lungs, on June 14, i860, in his 8ist year.
He was married by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong, on August 25, 1807, to Lucy Mather, daughter of John and Lucy (Mather) Lee, of Hartford, who died on March 6, 1837, aged 51 years. They had a large family of children.
He married, secondly, on July 31, 1838, Emily, daugh- ter of Captain Calvin and Experience (Saxton) Burt, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and widow of Elisha Burn- ham, of Boston, who died in September, 1832. She had at that time one son.
She died in Longmeadow on March 4, 1872, in her 82d
year.
•
authorities.
Burnham Genealogy, 2d ed., 212-14. Burt Genealogy, 87-88. 28
434 y^^ College
Erastus Fitch Brown^ son of Elias Brown, a farmer of Windsor, Connecticut, and grandson of Ephraim and Mercy (Westland) Brown, of Windsor, was born in Windsor on March 20, 1779. His mother was Prudence, eldest daughter of Joseph Fitch, of Bloomfield, then part of Windsor, and he was thus a first cousin of his classmate Fitch. He entered College after the opening of the Fresh- man year.
At the time of his graduation he was threatened with pulmonary consumption, and he accompanied Tutor Jere- miah Day (Yale 1795) in August, 1801, to Bermuda, for the sake of his health.
Mr. Day returned in April, 1802; but Mr. Brown was well enough to engage in teaching, and remained there until the early summer of 1804. In 1802 or 3 he married Mrs. Susannah (Ingham) Steele, a widow with several children.
For two years after his return to the United States, he taught school in East Windsor.
In September, 1806, he removed to a school in Flushing, Long Island, but broke down early in 1807, and returned with his family to Bermuda. In August, being at that time in a deep decline, he went alone to the United States, and reached his native town, where he died on October 12, in his 29th year.
He united with the church while in Bermuda.
Mrs. Brown remained in Bermuda, with her only child by her second marriage, a son who left descendants.
Several letters from Mr. Brown are preserved in Presi- dent Day's manuscript correspondence in the Yale Library.
AUTHORITIES. The Jaunceys of N. Y,, 9.
Elijah Clark entered College after the opening of the Freshman year from Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia. A well-known General Elijah Clarke emigrated
Biographical Sketches, 1801 435
from North Carolina to Washington, and had two sons, John (born 1766), who became Governor of the State, and Elijah; but it is very doubtful if the latter was our graduate.
There is some reason to think that the graduate settled in Pointe Coupee, in central Louisiana, or else in Alabama.
He is said to have died in 1830.
Alfred E. Clark, of Pointe Coupee, who may have been a son of the graduate, was a member of the Yale Class of 1827, and died in February of the Junior year, at the age of 17.
NoYES Darling^ a grandson of the Hon. Thomas Dar- ling (Yale 1740) and Abigail (Noyes) Darling, and the eldest child of Thomas Darling, Junior, and Mary Darling, was born in Woodbridge, then part of New Haven, on September 19, 1782. His mother was the only daughter of John Dibble (Yale 1758), of Woodbridge. He united with the College Church in January of his Senior year.
He began the study of theology after graduation, and from 1804 to 1808 filled the office of Tutor in the College.
He was engaged in business in New York City about 1813, which he relinquished for a life devoted to agricul- tural pursuits in Woodbridge.
About 1830 he removed to New Haven.
He held for a long period the position of County Sur- veyor, and was also for a short time Clerk of the Probate Court for the New Haven District.
In 1823 he was appointed Assistant Judge of the County Court, serving in that capacity until 1830, when he received the appointment of Chief Judge of the same Court, which he held until 1838. In 1842 he was again appointed a Judge of the County Court, and (with the exception of a short interval) he presided on its bench until his death.
In 182 1, 1822, 1823, and 1829, he was a Representative in the State Legislature from Woodbridge.
436 Yale College
In 1825, 1826, 1827, 1830, and 183 1, he was a member of the State Senate. As one of the Senior Senators for the year 1827-28 he was ex officio a member of the Yale Cor- poration, and in that capacity he introduced a resolution looking towards the abolition of the study of the classics, which called out the Report by Professor Kingsley noticed above on p. 365.
In June, 1833, he was elected Mayor of New Haven, and held the office for one year.
He was a man of industrious habits and discriminating mind, and was distinguished for his impartiality and uni- form courtesy as a Judge, and his usefulness as a citizen.
His views both in religion and politics underwent a change in his maturer years, which alienated from him many of his former friends. He was one of the earliest avowed Universalists in New Haven.
He died at his residence on Whalley Avenue, in New Haven, after a lingering illness of over two months, on September 17, 1846, aged 64 years, leaving only a small estate. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Menzies Rayner, a Universalist preacher from New York, and the Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell.
He was married in Woodbridge, on April 15, 1826, by the Rev. Joseph Clark, to Ann, daughter of Ebenezer and Abigail (Dudley) Parker, of Woodbridge, who died on July 3, 1869, in her 69th year.
Two daughters and a son survived their father; an elder son died in infancy.
Judge Darling gave much attention to improvements in horticulture, and to the investigation of insects injurious to vegetation; and many valuable communications from him on these subjects were published in agricultural journals.
His only separate publication was:
An Address upon Injurious Insects; delivered before the New Haven Horticultural Society, and the New Haven County Agricul-
Biographical Sketches, 1801 437
tural Society; at their Annual Fair, October ist, 1845. ... New Haven, 1845. 8°, pp. 52. [B. Publ. Y. C.
The Address occupies pp. 1-26.
AUTHORITIES.
Mrs. Chas. R. Hume, MS. Letter, Hist. Society's Papers, i, 141. N. H. August, 1910. New Haven City Year Daily Register, Sept 18, 1846. Book for 1864, 82. N. H. Colony
JosiAH William Dunscomb was a native of Bermuda. He became a physician in Bermuda. His name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates published in the fall of 1826.
Henry Dwight, the youngest child of Jonathan and Margaret (Ashley) Dwight, of Springfield, Massachu- setts, and a brother of Edmund Dwight (Yale 1799), was born in Springfield on June 25, 1783.
After graduation he became a partner in the mercantile firm in Springfield of which his eldest brother was the head, and for the furthering of their business he spent a year in England; but on his return he decided to prepare himself for the Christian ministry.
He accordingly pursued theological studies with Presi- dent Dwight and in Princeton, New Jersey; and in the latter part of the year 18 12 began to supply a church in Utica, New York. An outgrowth of this body was organ- ized as the First Presbyterian Church in Utica on Feb- ruary 3, 1813, of which Mr. Dwight was ordained and installed pastor the next day, with a salary of $700.
On settling in Utica he boarded in the house of Mrs. Susan Miles Sill, the widow of Elisha Eaton Sill (a brother of Theodore Sill, Yale 1797), of Geneva, New York, who died in October, 181 2, and sister of the Hon. Samuel M. Hopkins (Yale 1791). On May 17, 1814, he married Mrs. Sill, a lady of remarkable intelligence and grace.
45^ Yaie College
She had two sons by her first husband, who grew to maturity.
In his brief pulpit career Mr. Dwight was able, earnest, and successful; but on account of the loss of his voice he was obliged most reluctantly to take a dismission on October i, 1817.
He then removed to Geneva, and established there the Bank of Geneva, whose history up to the expiration of its charter in 1853 was one of honor to its founder and of great value in the development of the resources of all that region. Mr. Dwight's superior financial ability, seconded by his manifest moral excellence, won for him the highest public esteem. Nor did his business habits destroy at all his relish for practical religious eflFort. His labors as an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Geneva were varied and abundant. He was active in founding the American Home Missionary Society, of which he was from the first a Director, and for twenty years before his death the President.
He was a Trustee of Hamilton College from 18 14 to 1829, and a Trustee of Auburn Theological Seminary for the last thirty years of his life.
He .was a public-spirited citizen in many directions ; for example, the establishment of the first State Lunatic Asylum in New York was due mainly to his persistent advocacy.
At the age of sixty he retired from business, having acquired ample means, to secure more leisure for a life of good works.
He died in Geneva on September 6, 1857, in his 75th year. In the distribution of his estate, by his will the American Home Missionary Society, the Sunday School Union, the American Tract and Bible Societies, and the American Board of Foreign Missions received large legacies.
His wife died in Geneva on August 30, i860, in her 79th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 439
Their children were two sons and one daughter, all of whom survived him. The elder son was graduated here in 1835.
Mr. Dwight's portrait is given in the Dwight Genealogy.
He pubHshed:
A Farewell Sermon [from Acts xx, 32], to the First Utica Pres- byterian Society, on the occasion of the Dismission of their Pastor, who had for some months, by the weakness of his voice, been unable to discharge the duties of his office, delivered the first Sab- bath in October, 1817. Utica, 1817, 8°, pp. 26.
[B. Ath. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Home Miss. Society, 32d Utica, 218, 33^43. Dwight Family, Report, 1 15-17. Bagg, Pioneers of ii, 865, 901-06.
Martin Ellsworth, third son of Chief -Justice Oliver Ellsworth, and Abigail (Wolcott) Ellsworth, of Windsor, Connecticut, and brother of Oliver Ellsworth, Junior (Yale 1799), was born in Windsor on April 17, 1783.
He entered early on a mercantile life in his native town, and after continuing in business for about twenty years, withdrew from active pursuits and thereafter occupied the family mansion, chiefly engaged in agriculture.
He was known as Major Ellsworth, from his rank in the State militia. He was a man of high character and good abilities.
He died in Windsor on November 2, 1857, in his 75th year.
He married on October 19, 1807, his third cousin, Sophia, third daughter of Samuel and Jerusha (Wolcott) Wolcott, of South Windsor. An elder sister married Jam^'s Wadsworth (Yale 1787).
She died on June 8, 1870, in her 85th year.
Their children were four sons (of whom the youngest died in infancy) and three daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1830.
44° Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Loomis Female Genealogy, i, 30. 219, 222-23. Wolcott Memorial, 205. Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii.
George Fitch, the youngest son of Joseph Fitch, a cooper, of that part of Windsor, Connecticut, which is now Bloomfield, and grandson of Joseph and Sarah (Shaler) Fitch, of East, now South Windsor, was born on April 22, 1774. His mother was Prudence, daughter of Phineas and Deborah (Moore) Drake, of Windsor. He was thus a first cousin of his classmate Brown, and both were great-nephews of John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat.
On graduation he taught school for a year or two in Newark, New Jersey, and perhaps elsewhere, and then entered on mercantile life (in the fur trade) in New York City, and amassed a large fortune by lucky speculation. He was reduced to poverty in 1813 or 18 14, by the mis- conduct of a partner, and the sudden change took away his reason. He is believed to have died, insane, in or near New York, in the summer of 1824, in his 51st year. Letters of administration on his estate were dated August 12, i8;24.
AUTHORITIES. S. S. Batterson, MS. Letter, July 1867. Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii, 263.
AsAHEL Hathaway^ Junior, the elder son of Squire Asahel Hathaway (Yale 1759), of Suffield, Connecticut, was born in Suffield on May 31, 178 1.
He was for some ten years a dry-goods merchant in New York City, but in 18 12 returned to his native place, where he remained until his death there on October i, 1829, in his 49th year.
He married on March 11, 1807, Nancy, daughter of Cap- tain Augustus Diggins (Yale 1767), of New York, who long survived him.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 441
Their children were three sons, all of whom died unmar- ried, and three daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Dwight Family, ii, 924-26.
Alcis Evelyn Heart, the only child of Major Jonathan Heart (Yale 1768), who died in 1791, was born, probably in Berlin, Connecticut, on October 10, 1782. In the sum- mer of 1797 his mother married the Rev. Dr. Cyprian Strong (Yale 1763), of that part of Chatham, Connecticut, which is now Portland. He entered the Sophomore Class in Williams College in 1797, but remained for only a part of the year ; and joined the Sophomore Class here in the fall of 1798.
He studied law, and settled in practice in Hartford, with the most brilliant prospects, but died there, suddenly, of a violent fever, on April 19, 1805, in his 23d year. He was buried in Hartford two days later. His was the first death in the Class.
He married Charlotte, daughter of Seth and Mehitable (White) Overton, of Chatham, who survived him, with- out children.
On his tombstone is engraved:
Endowed by nature with a superior mind which was expanded by science and adorned with elegant Literature: among his rela- tives, friends and acquaintances he lived greatly beloved and respected, and died deeply and universally regretted.
AUTHORITIES. Andrews, Hart Family, 395, 437-38. Conn. Magazine, v, 523.
Peter Hitchcock, the youngest son of Valentine Hitchcock, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was born on October 19, 1 78 1. His eldest brother was graduated here in 1786, and died in 1794.
44* y^l^ College
He entered College at the opening of the Sophomore year, having taught a district school in winter and labored on a farm in summer to secure the means for education.
After graduation he studied law with Barzillai Slosson (Yale 1791), of Kent, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1804.
He settled in practice in his native town, and there married, on December 12, 1805, Nabby, the youngest child of Elam and Abigail (Hall) Cook. Early in 1806 he removed to Burton, in the Western Reserve district of Ohio, his being one of the first families to settle in that township.
He was a member of the Ohio Legislature from 18 10 to 1812, and State Senator from 1812 to 1816. In 1815 he was tendered by Governor Thomas Worthington a com- mission as Judge of the Supreme Court, a position which he declined. In 181 6 he was commissioned as Major Gen- eral in the militia.
He served one term in Congress (1817-19), and then began a long career as Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, serving from 1819 to 1833, from 1835 to 1842, and from 1845 to his voluntary retirement in February, 1852, — twenty-eight years in all, during the last twenty-one of which he was Chief Justice.
In 1850 he was chosen a member of the convention to form the new State Constitution, and gave valuable ser- vice in that capacity.
He died at the house of his eldest son, in Painesville, Ohio, while on the way from a professional engagement in Columbus to his own home in Burton, from disease of the liver, aggravated by overwork, on March 4, 1854, in his 73d year. His body was taken to Burton for burial.
His widow died in Burton on July 26, 1867, at the age of 83.
They had five sons and five daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1826, and the fourth in 1832. One son and one daughter died in infancy.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 443
Judge Hitchcock was the embodiment of common sense, and exhibited in his judicial career unusual breadth of mind for that time. His decisions had a strong and bene- ficial influence on the future law of the State, and are still regarded with high respect. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Marietta Col- lege in 1845, and by Western Reserve College in 1849. An engraving from his portrait is given in the Hitchcock Genealogy.
In politics he was originally a Republican of the Jeffer- sonian school, but subsequently a Whig.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, 680, Biogr. Sketches of American Law-
795. Hitchcock Genealogy, 135, 153- yers, 630-33. Magazine of Western
54. Howe, Hist. Collections of Ohio, History, ii, 199-200. Munson Record,
Centennial ed., i, 687. Livingston, 90.
George Hoadly, the eldest child of Captain Timothy Hoadly, of Northford Parish, in (North) Branford, Con- necticut, and grandson of Sergeant Timothy and Mary (Harrison) Hoadly, of Northford, was born on Decem- ber 15, 1 78 1. His mother was Rebecca, widow of Jared Taintor, of Northford, and daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Wilford) Linsly, of Northford. He was a first cousin of Noah Linsly (Yale 1791).
After graduating he studied law in New Haven with the Hon. Charles Chauncey, and from March, 1803, to Com- mencement, 1806, held the office of Tutor in the College. At the Commencement in 1804 he delivered a Master's Oration on the Abuses of Language, and at Commence- ment in 1805 the Phi Beta Kappa Oration, on the Impor- tance of the Profession of the Law.
After this he was for about two years the Washington correspondent of the United States Gazette of Philadel- phia, of which Enos Bronson (Yale 1798) was the editor.
444 Yale College
Later, he returned to New Haven and entered on the practice of the law, in which he attained the promise of remarkable success. Mr. William W. Woolsey, a retired merchant of New York, who had settled in New Haven, became much interested in Mr. Hoadly, and as President of the Eagle Bank, which was incorporated in 1811, and which commanded a large share of public confidence, he unhappily persuaded his young friend to give up his pro- fession and become Cashier of the bank. Mr. Woolsey returned to New York in 181 5, and Mr. Hoadly succeeded to the presidency, which he held until the disastrous failure of the bank in September, 1825. The President and Direc- tors had loaned on insufficient security an amount equal to the entire resources of the bank, and inevitably great indignation was felt towards the President, though it was afterwards conceded by most witnesses that his error was one of judgment only, and that he derived no profit from the losses of others.
He had been chosen Mayor of the city in 1822 and served until his resignation early in 1826.
In August, 1829, he settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and had a useful career there as Justice from 1832 to 1847. Of the judgments given by him in over twenty thousand cases not one was ever reversed. He was also Mayor of the city in 1846 and 1847.
The rest of his life was spent in retirement in Cleveland. During these years he was able to indulge his love of reading and his exquisite taste in horticulture and botany. He was remarkable for the evenness of his temper and the kindliness of his disposition.
He died in Cleveland, after less than a fortnight's illness, from a pleuritic attack, on February 20, 1857, in his 76th year.
He was married in New Haven, on November 8, 18 19, to Mary Anne, the eldest child of William Walton and Elizabeth (Dwight) Woolsey, of New York and New Haven, and widow of Jared Scarborough (Yale 1803), of
Biographical Sketches, 1801 ' 445
Hartford, who had died in November, 181 6, leaving her with one son. She was a sister of President Woolsey, and niece of President Dwight. She died in Cleveland on April 28, 1 87 1, aged 78 years.
They had three daughters and one son (Western Reserve College 1844). The eldest daughter married Dr. Thomas F. Pomeroy (Union College 1836), and the second married the Hon. Joshua H. Bates (West Point
1837).
Mr. Hoadly's portrait is given in the Hoadley Gene- alogy. .
AUTHORITIES.
Atwater, Hist, of the City of New 50. Kennedy, Hist, of Cleveland, 269, Haven, 335. Cleveland Herald, Febr. 283. Trowbridge, Hoadley Geneal- 21, 1857. Dwight Genealogy, i, 249- ogy, 28, 53-55-
Samuel Holbrook, the youngest of ten children of Timothy Holbrook, a farmer of Lebanon, Connecticut, and Hannah (White) Holbrook, was born in Lebanon on December 16, 1776. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Zebulon Ely (Yale 1779).
After graduation he taught school, meanwhile contin- uing his studies with the intention of entering a profession, until impaired health compelled him to adopt more active pursuits.
After one year's experience in Connecticut as a mer- chant he removed about 1808 to Freeport, Maine, and car- ried on mercantile business as a member of the firm of Holbrook & Fowler until the beginning of the War of 1812.
He then returned to Lebanon, but in the fall of 18 15 resumed business in Freeport, and for about ten years was engaged in general mercantile trade.
In 1824 he purchased the Governor Trumbull farm in Lebanon, and removing there carried on farming for some years.
446 * Yale College
Subsequently he was for two years interested in the business of Sherley & Hyde, book publishers in Portland, and then returned to Freeport, and in the spring of 1830 again embarked in trade there. From 1832 to 1836 he was associated with William Grore in the firm of Holbrook & Gore, and in the latter year gave up his business to his son. He had never enjoyed good health, and in his latter years his mind was so much affected as to render him unfit for the transaction of business. He had already acquired an ample fortune.
He was afterwards a resident of Portland for five years, and then returned to Freeport, where he died on June 17, 1849, i^ ^^s 73d year.
He married on October 13, 181 1, Hannah, daughter of John and Patience Webster, a native of North Yarmouth, Maine, who died on November 7, 1820, in her 35th year.
He next married, in the fall of 1828, in Portland, Eliza- beth, fifth daughter of Captain Ebenezer and Abigail (Bailey) Douglas, of New London, Connecticut, and widow of Major Joseph Howe, of Portland. She died in Portland on October 8, 1868, in her 79th year.
By his first wife he had three sons, of whom two died in infancy, and one daughter.
Mr. Holbrook was a man of sterling integrity, of cor- rect habits, and a sociable disposition. In early life he was a Democrat in Politics, and later a Whig. He held many town offices, including that of Representative in the State Legislature.
AUTHORITIES.
Clayton, Hist, of Cumberland 177. 5". A. Holbrook, MS. Letter, County, 285. Douglas Genealogy, 93, March, 1862.
William Law, the eighth son and youngest child of the Hon. Richard Law (Yale 1751), of New London, Con- necticut, was born on March 15, 1782. Two of his broth- ers were graduated here, in 1791 and 1800 respectively.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 447
He studied medicine after graduation, and settled in practice in North Carolina. His uncommon personal attractiveness, cordial manner, and professional skill made him much beloved.
He died in Murfreesboro, in that State, on November 10, 1818, in his 37th year.
AUTHORITIES. T. p. Hall, Genealogical Notes, in. Starr, The Repository, Hi, 219.
Henry Lord, the son of Martin and Concurrence Lord, was born in (North) Killingworth, Connecticut, on Octo- ber 20, and was baptized by his grandfather on Decem- ber 30, 1 78 1. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. William Seward (Yale 1734) and Concurrence (Stevens) Seward, of North Killingworth.
He studied theology, and in April, 1804, received a call to settle over the Congregational Church in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, on a salary of $366.67. He accepted the call and was ordained and installed on June 20.
During his pastorate of thirty years special revivals of religion occurred in 1816, 18 19, and 1831; and two hun- dred and forty-three persons united with the church on profession of their faith.
He married, on August 19, 1810, Fidelia, eldest daugh- ter of Elnathan and Lydia (Pomeroy) Graves, of Wil- liamsburg, who died on November 25, 1828, in her 36th year. By her he had two sons (graduates of Amherst College, in 1831 and 1838, respectively) and two daugh- ters.
He afterwards married Minerva Graves, a younger sis- ter of his first wife, born in March, 1799, by whom he had no children.
The circumstances of his last illness were very affecting. His eldest son, who had just completed his education, died at home of fever, on November 8, 1834. His father and
448 Yale College
his sister were at the time too ill to be informed of his death; and both soon followed him to the grave. Mr. Lord died, of the same fever, on November 22, at the age of 53 years.
His wife survived him, with the younger son, who became a minister.
Mr. Lord's epitaph describes him as "a faithful minis- ter of Christ, and an example of modesty, gentleness, punctuality, simplicity, and godly sincerity." He is still remembered for the kindness and urbanity of his manners and his strict conscientiousness.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from II Chron. xv, 7], delivered before the Hampshire Missionary Society, at their Annual Meeting, North- ampton, Aug. 22, 1822. Northampton, 1822. 8°, pp. 38.
[U. T. 5'. Y. C.
The Sermon occupies pp. 1-20, and is a plain, practical plea for home missions.
2. The Mourner's Duty. — A Sermon [from Jer. xii, i] delivered at Williamsburg, Nov. 30, 1828, the Sabbath after the interment of Mrs. Fidelia Lord, by her bereaved Husband. Amherst, 1829. 8°, pp. 21. [A. A. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Quart. Register, x, 385, 405. at Williamsburg, 1836, 6-7. Rev.
Bridgman, Northampton Epitaphs, John Pierpont, MS. Letter, May,
159. Holland, Hist, of Western 1910. Mass., ii, 299-300. Lusk, Discourse
Matthew Minor, Junior, the eldest son of Deacon Matthew Minor, and grandson of Captain Matthew Minor, of Woodbury, Connecticut, was born on October 22, 1780. His mother was Phebe, daughter of Jesse and Phebe Root, of Woodbury.
He studied law after graduation with the Hon. Noah B. Benedict (Yale 1788), of Woodbury, and practiced law in the same town from the date of his admission to the bar in 1804 until his death.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 449
A man of great uprightness of character, he was much employed in public business, having a large share of the confidence of his fellow-citizens.
He served as Representative in the General Assembly in 1808, 1810, 1830, 1832, and 1833; and as State Senator in 1837. His native diffidence prevented his being as prominent at the bar as his powers entitled him to be.
He died in Woodbury on December 17, 1839, i" his 60th year.
He married, on October 22, 1802, Lorena, eldest child of Jabez and Sarah (Betts) Bacon, of Woodbury, who died on May 30, 1848, in her 67th year.
Their children were five sons and five daughters. The youngest son was graduated here in 1844.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, Litchfield County Bench and Bar, 94. 389-90, 517, 652, 655-56. Jabez Root Genealogy, 62. Bacon's Descendants. Kilbourn,
Russell Jehu Minor, the third son of the Rev. Jehu Minor (Yale 1767), of South Britain Parish, in South- bury, Connecticut, was baptized by his father in March, 1780.
In his earHer life his name was written as Jehu Russell Minor. In 1791 his father removed to South East, Put- nam County, New York. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he returned to South East, and there the rest of his life was spent. He was mainly occupied in teaching.
He died in South East on January 29, 1851, in his 71st year.
He married Susan, daughter of Captain Nathaniel Pad- dock, of Carmel, in Putnam County.
They had no children. 29
450 Yale College
He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church of which his father was pastor, also leader of the choir and Super- intendent of the Sunday School ; and was held by the com- munity in the very highest regard.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 651. South East, 12, 21, 23. Macouhrey, Historical Sermon at
Henry W. Nichols was a son of John Nichols (Yale 1773), of Waterbury, Connecticut. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
His career is not known, but he is believed to have died young in Virginia. His father and his family removed in 1808 to Athens, Greene County, New York, where the father died in 1815.
Our graduate's name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of 1826.
Thomas Jackson Oakley, son of Lieutenant Jesse and Jerusha (Peters ) Oakley, was born in the township of Beekman, Duchess County, New York, on November 10, 1783. His father was a Revolutionary officer and a pros- perous farmer. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year. A brother was graduated here in 1 8 14, and a sister married Robert Wilkinson (Yale 1806).
He studied law with Mr. Ruggles in Poughkeepsie, in his native county, and began practice there after his admission to the bar in 1804.
In 1808 he married a daughter of the Hon. Robert Wil- liams, of Poughkeepsie.
In February, 18 10, his father-in-law, who had been elected to the State Senate as an Anti-Federalist, secured, by what was thought a discreditable change of base, the appointment of Mr. Oakley, who Was a Federalist, as Sur-
Biographical Sketches, 1801 45 ^
rogate of Duchess County; but a reversal of political power threw him out of office a year later.
He was elected in 18 12 to the 13th Congress (March, 1813-May, 1815), and made a reputation there as an able debater.
He was a member of the New York Assembly during four sessions, from January to April, 1816, and from Jan- uary 1818, to April, 1820. While in the Assembly he is said to have introduced the bill for founding the State Library.
In July, 18 1 9, he succeeded Martin VanBuren on his removal from the office of Attorney-General of the State, and served until February, 1821. In this capacity he made arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States, which placed him in the front rank as an advocate.
In 1827 he was again elected to Congress, as a Clinton Democrat, but resigned his seat in May, 1828, having accepted the office of Judge of the Superior Court of New York City, which he held until his death, becoming Chief Justice in October, 1847, o^ the resignation of the Hon. Samuel Jones (Yale 1790) . His career in this office estab- lished his reputation as a great nisi prius lawyer and judge. In private life he was wholly unostentatious.
He died in New York City on May 11, 1857, in his 74th year, having retained his mental vigor to the very end.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Union College in 1853.
His portrait is given in volume 4 of the Green Bag; and a miniature, painted by John Trumbull in 1827, is in the Yale Art School.
After the death of his first wife he married, on March 29, 183 1, Matilda Caroline, a daughter of Henry and Car- oline (Smith) Cruger, of New York. Her father was once Mayor of Bristol, England, and Member of Parlia- ment, and afterwards State Senator in the New York Legislature.
Their children were two daughters and three sons.
452 Yale College
Mrs. Oakley died on January 25, 1891, in her 75th year.
Judge Oakley was an active member of the Episcopal Church, and often a delegate to the diocesan conventions.
As a Judge he was unequalled for the plain statement and methodical arrangement of the facts of the case, and for his clear, penetrating and rapid apprehension, impar- tiality, and robust common sense.
Hammond, in his Political History of New-York, in com- menting on events in 18 16, says:
For my part, I consider Thomas J. Oakley one of the most talented men which the state of New-York has produced. His intellectual powers were strong and vigorous, and he was capable of immense mental labor. Always cool and calculating, in the highest heat of debate he possessed a most perfect self control, and never permitted his feelings to get the better of his judgment. As a clear, ingenious and logical, though sometimes sophistical reasoner, he appeared to me unrivalled in our legislative halls at Albany. He is not an orator. He fails of being so from his want of ardor of feeling, and his utter lack of imaginative powers. His coolness, his caution, his forecast, and his perfect self command, peculiarly fit him for a party leader in a legislative assembly. In congress he differed from the over zealous eastern federalists. He wished, at least, to manifest an apparent disposition to furnish sup- plies to government for carrying on the war, and to confine his opposition to the manner in which the war was carried on. Mr. Clopton, an old and sagacious politician of Virginia, who was a member of congress . ., told me, in 18 16, that had the federal mem- bers of congress, during the war, put themselves exclusively under the management of Oakley, and implicitly followed his lead, in his judgment, the administration would have been prostrated.
The Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, who had known him from boyhood, describes him as
A man whose equal, for consummate judgment, for moderation of temper and balance of mind, for profound insight into all those matters which lay within the range of his studies and duties, for love of impartiality and justice, and for unspotted purity and integ- rity his country has rarely seen.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 453
AUTHORITIES.
Crosby, Annual Obituary Notices, cese of N. Y., 1857, 87. N. Y.
1857, 256-57. Green Bag, iv, 401. Geneal. and Biogr. Record, ii, 78,
Hammond, Political Hist, of N. Y., 181. Robertson, Reports of Superior
4th ed., i, 281, 427-28, 507. Journal Court of N. Y. City, i, xv-xxii, of Convention of Prot. Episc. Dio-
JoHN Webster Perit, the elder son of John Per it, a merchant of Norwich, Connecticut, and grandson of Peter and Abigail (Shepherd) Perit, of Milford, was born in Norwich on April 22, 1781. The Perits were descended from a Huguenot family which early took refuge in the New Haven Colony. His father died in 1795, and his mother, Ruth, daughter of Pelatiah Webster (Yale 1746), of Philadelphia, after spending some years in Philadelphia, married, just at the beginning of his Junior year in Col- lege, Colonel Christopher Leffingwell, of Norwich, the father of William Leffingwell (Yale 1786). A brother was graduated here in 1802, and a double cousin in 1803.
After graduation he entered into business as an East India merchant in Philadelphia, and chartered vessels for that trade, establishing a factory in Canton, China, where one son died in 1833.
He died at his residence in Philadelphia, two doors above the old United States Mint, on Chestnut Street, on October 8, 1845, i^ his 65th year, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
He was married by the Rt. Rev. William White, on December 3, 1805, to Margaretta, daughter of Dr. Dunlap, of Philadelphia, who survived him for many years.
They had fourteen children, of whom one daughter mar- ried Joseph S. Ropes (honorary M.A. Yale 1853).
Mr. Perit was a tall, graceful man, distinguished for his courtly address and his kind and generous disposition.
AUTHORITIES.
P. W. Huntington, MS. Letter, Norwich, 322, 550. May, 1910. Perkins, Old Houses of
454 ^^^^ College
Royal Phelps, the elder son of John Phelps (Yale 1759), of Westfield, Massachusetts, by his second wife, Mercy Moseley, was born on March 16, 1781. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in Jan- uary of his Senior year.
He studied theology after graduation, and was early employed in missionary service in New York State.
On February 20, 1806, he was married in Lowville, Lewis County, by the Rev. James Murdock (Yale 1774), to Hannah, second daughter of Colonel John and Mary (Baldwin) Spafford, of Tinmouth, Vermont, and Low- ville; and on the 5th of the next month he was ordained as an evangelist in his native town.
For the next ten years he labored in Cayuga County, New York, with his residence in the village of Sempronius, and for the latter part of the time as the settled pastor of a small Presbyterian Church which he had organized in Moravia, then part of Sempronius.
He was dismissed from this pastorate on February 20, 1816.
In later years he was still mainly engaged in missionary labor, without settlement over any church, in New York State, with some excursions into Ohio and Pennsylvania.
His wife died in Lowville on June 17, 1831, in her 48th year; and his own death occurred, in Watertown, Jeffer- son County, on November 16, 1831, in his 51st year.
His children were two daughters and one son ; the latter became a wealthy and influential merchant in New York.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist. Sketch of Westfield, 301. Spoflford Genealogy, 76, 158. 23. Hotchkin, Hist of Western New Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii, York, 353. Phelps Family, i, 184, 595-
AzARiAH ScoFiELD, SOU of Uriah Scofield, a farmer, of Stamford, Connecticut, and Elizabeth, his wife, and grand- son of Miles and Ruth (Bates) Scofield, of Stamford, was
Biographical Sketches, 1801 455
born in (North) Stamford on February i, and baptized on April 21, 1776. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
He taught school in New York City for a few years after graduation, and married there, on November 10, 1805, Ruhama, daughter of Ezra and Eunice Scofield.
He then returned to Stamford and taught a select school for some five or six years.
He then removed to New York State, where the rest of his life was spent. For the first two years he was a mer- chant in Hadley, Saratoga County, on the Hudson River, and then moved across the river to Luzerne, in Warren County, where he engaged in lumbering in connection with his other business for six years, and was very prosperous.
He next moved northward to Schroon Lake, in Essex County, and continued in the same business for six years longer, when he failed disastrously and was stripped of all his property.
He next went to Pleasant Valley, in Duchess County, where he taught for two years. After this he spent a year in Luzerne, and finally in 1833 or 1834 settled in Chautauqua County, in the southwestern corner of the State. He taught school for a year, and then tried to resume life as a merchant, but his health became poor and he had very little success.
He died in the small village of Dewittville, on the eastern side of Chautauqua Lake, in 1853, aged yy years.
He had four daughters and four sons, all of whom grew to maturity.
AUTHORITIES. Huntington, Stamford Registration, 93. Rev. Seeley Scofield, MS. Letter, 1869.
Frederick Scofield, son of Benjamin and Rebecca Scofield, of (North) Stamford, Connecticut, was born in Stamford on August 13, 1778. His mother was a daugh- ter of David and Rebecca (Whiting) How, of Stamford.
454 ^^^^ College
Royal Phelps, the elder son of John Phelps (Yale 1759), of Westfield, Massachusetts, by his second wife, Mercy Moseley, was born on March 16, 1781. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in Jan- uary of his Senior year.
He studied theology after graduation, and was early employed in missionary service in New York State.
On February 20, 1806, he was married in Lowville, Lewis County, by the Rev. James Murdock (Yale 1774), to Hannah, second daughter of Colonel John and Mary (Baldwin) Spafford, of Tinmouth, Vermont, and Low- ville; and on the 5th of the next month he was ordained as an evangelist in his native town.
For the next ten years he labored in Cayuga County, New York, with his residence in the village of Sempronius, and for the latter part of the time as the settled pastor of a small Presbyterian Church which he had organized in Moravia, then part of Sempronius.
He was dismissed from this pastorate on February 20, 1816.
In later years he was still mainly engaged in missionary labor, without settlement over any church, in New York State, with some excursions into Ohio and Pennsylvania.
His wife died in Lowville on June 17, 1831, in her 48th year ; and his own death occurred, in Watertown, Jeffer- son County, on November 16, 1831, in his 51st year.
His children were two daughters and one son ; the latter became a wealthy and influential merchant in New York.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist. Sketch of Westfield, 301. Spoflford Genealogy, 76, 158. 23. Hotchkin, Hist of Western New Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii, York, 353. Phelps Family, i, 184, 595-
AzARiAH ScoFiELD, SOU of Uriah Scofield, a farmer, of Stamford, Connecticut, and Elizabeth, his wife, and grand- son of Miles and Ruth (Bates) Scofield, of Stamford, was
Biographical Sketches, 1801 455
born in (North) Stamford on February i, and baptized on April 21, 1776. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
He taught school in New York City for a few years after graduation, and married there, on November 10, 1805, Ruhama, daughter of Ezra and Eunice Scofield.
He then returned to Stamford and taught a select school for some five or six years.
He then removed to New York State, where the rest of his life was spent. For the first two years he was a mer- chant in Hadley, Saratoga County, on the Hudson River, and then moved across the river to Luzerne, in Warren County, where he engaged in lumbering in connection with his other business for six years, and was very prosperous.
He next moved northward to Schroon Lake, in Essex County, and continued in the same business for six years longer, when he failed disastrously and was stripped of all his property.
He next went to Pleasant Valley, in Duchess County, where he taught for two years. After this he spent a year in Luzerne, and finally in 1833 or 1834 settled in Chautauqua County, in the southwestern corner of the State. He taught school for a year, and then tried to resume life as a merchant, but his health became poor and he had very little success.
He died in the small village of Dewittville, on the eastern side of Chautauqua Lake, in 1853, aged yy years.
He had four daughters and four sons, all of whom grew to maturity.
AUTHORITIES. Huntington, Stamford Registration, 93. Rev. Seeley Scofield, MS. Letter, 1869,
Frederick Scofield, son of Benjamin and Rebecca Scofield, of (North) Stamford, Connecticut, was born in Stamford on August 13, 1778. His mother was a daugh- ter of David and Rebecca (Whiting) How, of Stamford.
456 Yale College
After graduation he studied law, and for a few years practiced his profession in Danbury and in Stamford.
Subsequently he became a teacher in Honesdale, Penn- sylvania, and in Philadelphia.
He died in Burlington, New Jersey, on December 30, 1840, in his 63d year.
He married, in Danbury, on October 16, 1803, Maria, eldest daughter of Major Ezra Starr (Yale 1774). A sister married Eleutheros D. Comstock (Yale 1807). She died in Philadelphia on May 14, 1824, in her 41st year.
Their children, one daughter and three sons, all left descendants.
AUTHORITIES.
Huntington, Hist of Stamford, Starr Family, 408-09. 371; Stamford Registration, 91-92.
Jared Scofield was a son of Reuben Scofield, of Stam- ford, Connecticut.
He became a teacher in Philadelphia, and was so engaged as late as 1833, but not much later.
His death is reported to have occurred in 1841.
AUTHORITIES. Huntington, Hist, of Stamford, 461.
Henry Stanley, the only son of Frederick Stanley, of Litchfield, Connecticut, by his first wife, Sabra Bishop, and grandson of Timothy and Mary (Hopkins) Stanley, of Litchfield, was born in Litchfield on February 9, 1783. His mother was a daughter of Jonathan and Submit (Smith) Bishop, of Litchfield. He entered Williams Col- lege in 1796, and remained about two years, resuming his studies here in 1799, at which date his father kept a large country store in Brooklyn, Connecticut. (He had removed to Windham in 1790, and to Brooklyn in April, 1799.)
Biographical Sketches, 1801 457
He graduated with a brilliant reputation, and early became prominent as a leader among the local Democrats.
He studied law, and settled as early as 1804 in New York City; where, after a brief but highly creditable career, he died, from typhus fever, unmarried, on August 24, 1820, aged 373^ years.
AUTHORITIES. Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, ii, 224. Warren, Stanley Families, 253.
Truman Starr, the sixth child and eldest son of Ephraim Starr, a prosperous store-keeper in Goshen, Con- necticut, and grandson of Joseph and Priscilla (Roper) Starr, of Middletown, was born on June 6, 1780. His mother was Hannah, eldest daughter of Adna and Hannah (Miles) Beach, and widow of Uri Hill, of Goshen. A brother was graduated here in 1802 ; and a sister married the Rev. William F. Miller (Yale 1786).
He spent his life on his farm in Goshen. He long acted as a Justice of the Peace, and was universally known as ''Squire Starr." He was a Representative of the town in the Legislature at the fall session in 1825.
He died in Goshen on April 16, 1848, in his 68th year.
He married, on November 4, 1804, Esther, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Burwell) Nettleton, of Watertown, who died on July 17, 1828, at the age of 55.
He married, secondly, on April 21, 1829, Hannah, daughter of Josiah and Hannah (Phelps) Coombs, of Wethersfield, who died at East Windsor, on March 29, 1870, aged 88 years.
His children were four daughters, one by his first wife, and three by his second, all of whom survived him.
authorities.
Starr Family, 139-41.
45^ Yale College
James Stedman, the youngest son in a family of ten children of Thomas Stedman, a house-carpenter of Hamp- ton, Connecticut, and grandson of Deacon Thomas and Anna (Seaver) Stedman, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Hampton, was born on October 6, 1779, and baptized on April 26, 1780. His mother was Mehitable, daughter of Deacon Ebenezer Griffin, of Hampton. Thomas Sted- man (Yale 1785) was a double first cousin.
After graduation he studied law in Hartford with Theo- dore Dwight, a brother of President Dwight, until in March, 1803, he accepted the position of Tutor at Yale. When he left the tutorship in 1806 he began practice in Norwich, Connecticut, where he continued through life.
His professional business was never extensive, but he held the office of Clerk of the Courts of New London County for some twenty-five years before his death, and was highly respected in all relations. He united with the First Congregational Church on profession of his faith in 1830, and held the office of deacon in that church from
1837.
He retained his bodily and mental vigor in a remarkable
degree to the last, and died in Norwich, after an illness
of less than a week, on May 18, 1856, in his 77th year.
He married, in Norwich, on November 18, 1810, Eunice Huntington Carew, who was born in May, 1787. She was the eldest child of Ebenezer Carew, of Norwich, by his second wife, Mehitabel Gardner, and was named (as so often was done) for her father's first wife.
Their children were four sons and two daughters, all of whom married.
The elder daughter was the wife of the Rev. Robert Aikman (Yale 1843).
AUTHORITIES.
L. B. Barbour, MS. Letter, Oct., ed., 632. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. 1910. Caulkins, Hist of Norwich, 2d Register, xiv, 70, 73.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 459
Zalmon Storrs, the second son of Dan Storrs, of Mans- field, Connecticut, and grandson of Thomas and Eunice (Paddock) Storrs, of Mansfield, was born in Mansfield, on December 18, 1779. His mother was Ruth, second daugh- ter of the Hon. Shubael Conant (Yale 1732) and Ruth (Conant) Conant.
In 1802 he began the study of law with Thomas S. Wil- liams (Yale 1794), then of Mansfield, but after the death of his elder brother, in April, 1803, he felt obliged to take his place in the management of the large country- store which their father had long conducted, and he con- tinued in that occupation for many years.
He was also a pioneer in that part of the State in the manufacture of silk thread, having established a factory in 1835.
He was a Justice of the Peace from the spring of 18 13 until disqualified by age (in 1849). I^ May, 1813, he was first sent as a Representative of the town to the General Assembly, and was re-elected for five more sessions, — the last in 1 84 1. He was the first Postmaster at Mansfield Centre (in 1825), and retained the office for upwards of twenty years. For 1834-35, and again for a period of six years (1843-49) he was Judge of Probate for the district of Mansfield. In 1834 he was the candidate of the Anti- Masonic party for Governor of the State.
He united with the Congregational Church in Mansfield in July, 1823, and was highly esteemed as a pillar of that body.
He died in Mansfield on February 17, 1867, in his 88th year, being the last survivor of his College Class.
He married, on April 26, 1804, Cynthia, daughter of Josiah and Mary (Leavens) Stowell, of Mansfield, who died on April 17, 1833, in her 53d year.
He married, secondly, on November 10, 1835, Mrs. Clarissa M. Stowell, of Middlebury, Vermont, who died on December 9, 1869, aged y6 years.
460 Yale College
His children, by his first marriage, were four sons and three daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Dimock, Mansfield Records, 168, 173, 175, 287, 432. Storrs Family, 330, 332-33.
Joseph Trumbull^ the eldest son of David Trumbull, of Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of the elder Gov- ernor Jonathan and Faith (Robinson) Trumbull, of Leb- anon, was born on December 7, 1782. His mother was Sarah, second daughter of Ebenezer and Sarah (Clark) Backus, of Norwich. A brother was graduated here in 1807. Their eldest sister married her first cousin, Wil- liam Trumbull Williams (Yale 1795), of Lebanon.
After graduation he studied law with his brother-in- law just mentioned, and early in 1802 he went to the West- ern Reserve of Ohio with the intention of settling there. He was admitted to the bar in the summer, but in the fall returned to Connecticut and was admitted to the bar of Windham County.
In May, 1804, he settled in Hartford, where he contin- ued in practice until his election as President of the Hart- ford Bank, in June, 1828, after which date he retired permanently from his profession.
He was prominent in political life, as a leader in the Whig party, and in 1832, 1848, and 185 1, he was one of the Representatives of Hartford in the General Assembly. In 1834 he was elected to fill a vacancy as Representative in Congress, and he was again a member of the House in the 26th and 27th Congresses, from 1839 to 1843. He resigned his presidency of the bank in November, 1839.
For one year, 1849-50, he filled the office of Governor of Connecticut, maintaining there as elsewhere, both in his public career and private character, the reputation of an honored name.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Yale in 1849.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 461
He died in Hartford, on August 4, 186 1, in his 79th year.
He married, on March 6, 1818, Harriet, second daugh- ter of General Henry and Abigail (Tinker) Champion, of Westchester Parish in Colchester, Connecticut, and sister of Aristarchus Champion (Yale 1807). She died on October 15, 1823, in her 35th year, leaving an only son, who was graduated at Wesleyan University in 1841, but died before his father.
He next married, on December i, 1824, a first cousin of his first wife, Eliza Brainard, only daughter of Colonel Lemuel Storrs, of Middletown, Connecticut, and sister of the Hon. Henry R. Storrs (Yale 1804) and Chief Justice William L. Storrs (Yale 1814). Her health became somewhat infirm about 1849, ^^^ she died the same night as her husband, aged yy years. Their only child married Lucius F. Robinson (Yale 1843), and survived her parents.
An engraving from Judge Trumbull's portrait is given in Norton's Governors of Connecticut.
He published :
1. Speech on the Treasury Note Bill. — Delivered in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, March 24, 1840. [Washington, 1840.] 8°, pp. 16. [Y. C.
2. Speech on the Bankrupt Bill, delivered in the House of Rep- resentatives, August II, 1841. Washington, 1841. 8°, pp. 8.
[Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Hartford Daily Courant, Aug. 6, Champion Genealogy, 283, 293-94.
1861. Hine, Early Lebanon, 102. Trumbull, Hist of Hartford County,
Norton, Governors of Conn., 213-16. i, 127, 331. Storrs Family, 435. Trowbridge,
William VanDeursen, Junior, a son of Captain Wil- liam VanDeursen, of Middletown, Connecticut, by his wife, Martha (or Patty), the eldest daughter of the Rev. Chauncey Whittelsey (Yale 1738), of New Haven, by his second wife, Martha Newton, was born in New Haven,
462 Yale College
and was baptized here on February 2, 1783. When an infant his parents removed to Middletown.
He studied law in Middletown and Litchfield.
In March, 1812, he received the appointment of Captain of the 3d regiment of artillery in the United States Army, and he was for several months in 1812 and until after July, 181 3, in command of Fort Trumbull at New London. He was honorably discharged from the service on June i, 1814.
He subsequently practiced his profession in Middletown, where he died, after a short illness, on September 26, 1833, in his 51st year.
He married in Middletown on November 28, 1830, Mary Cranston, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, who died on January 9, 1892, at the age of 100 years and 3 months.
He had two children, a daughter and a posthumous son.
AUTHORITIES.
Field, Centennial Address at Mid- ter, Oct., 1910. dletown, 207. F. F. Starr, MS. Let-
JoHN Wales, the second of the three sons of the Rev. Professor Samuel Wales (Yale 1767), was born in New Haven on July 31, 1783, and was baptized by President Stiles in the College Chapel on August 31. One brother was graduated in 1793, and another in 1807.
After a course of legal study with his brother-in-law, Seth P. Staples (Yale 1797), he began the practice of law in Hartford, where he remained until 1812. At the Com- mencement in 1804 he delivered a Master's Oration, on the Importance of Judicial Establishments.
He then removed to Baltimore, and subsequently, in October, 18 15, to Wilmington, Delaware, which was his home for the rest of his life. He continued to follow his profession for about thirty years. He formed a partner- ship with James M. Broome, which continued until Mr. Broome's removal to Philadelphia in 1819.
Biographical Sketches, 1801 4(S3
He was a very successful practitioner, with a high repu- tation as a chancery lawyer, and his employment in that branch of professional business was very large.
He was always interested in public affairs, was active in politics as a Whig, and took his share of political cam- paigning. At a later date he sympathized with the Republican party.
He was occasionally called into public service. He held the office of Secretary of the State of Delaware for the year 1845-46, and in March, 1849, when the Hon. John M. Clayton (Yale 181 5) entered the cabinet of President Tay- lor, Mr. Wales was elected to the Senate of the United States, to fill the remainder of Mr. Clayton's term, until March, 1851.
He was one of the original promoters of Delaware Col- lege, was President of one of the oldest banks in Wilming- ton, a Director in the first Fire Insurance Company organ- ized in the State, and bore a principal part in obtaining the charter for the city, and in the earlier steps for the con- struction of the railway between Philadelphia and Balti- more by way of Wilmington.
On the approach of the Civil War he was hostile to secession and every form of disunion.
On the 1 2th of November, 1863, he attended a meeting of the friends of the Union in Middletown, in the same county, and contracted a severe cold, which terminated fatally on December 3, in his 8ist year.
He was a regular attendant on public worship, and held strong and sincere religious convictions.
He married on June 12, 1820, Ann, the only daughter of Major John Patten, of Revolutionary fame, of Dover, Delaware, and granddaughter of the Rev. John Miller, of Dover. She died on November 10, 1843, ^^ her 44th year.
Five children survived her. One son was graduated here in 1845, ^^^ ^ grandson in 1891.
464 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin Family, i, 333. Pres. Leonard E. Wales, MS. Letter, May, Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 81, 89. 1910.
Joseph Wood, the second son of David Wood, a pious farmer of Stanwich Parish, in the northern part of Green- wich, Connecticut, and grandson of Joseph Wood, of Huntington, Long Island, and Greenwich, was born on March 24, 1779. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Simon Ingersoll, of Greenwich.
He studied law with Judge Charles Chauncey, of New Haven, and on his admission to the bar in 1803 settled in Stamford, Connecticut, where he continued in practice until 1826. He was Clerk of the Stamford Probate Court from 1814 to 181 6, and Judge of that Court from 18 16 to 18 19; and was one of the Representatives of the town in the General Assembly in 182 1 and 1822.
From 1826 to 1837 he resided in Bridgeport, and then for four years in New York City, where he established a periodical devoted to agriculture.
In 1 84 1 he removed to New Haven, and there spent the remainder of his life.
He was Judge of the New Haven County Court for two years (1844-46), in which office he showed conspicuously the true qualities of a jurist. He was also elected City Clerk for six years, 1844-49.
His death occurred in New Haven with tragic sudden- ness, from ossification of the arteries, on November 13, 1856, in his 78th year. He was a member of a circle of retired clergymen and laymen, who were in the habit of meeting weekly in President Day's study ; and on the day of his death he was present at such a meeting and had taken part in the discussion of the morning, when he fell lifeless. A brief pamphlet, entitled. Memoranda respect- ing the late Hon. Joseph Wood, was published soon after (New Haven, 11 pp.).
Biographical Sketches, 1801 465
His religious character was unquestioned, and he served as a deacon in the First Church in New Haven from 1848 to his death. During- his later years he gave much time to the study of the Scriptures and the investigation of questions of theology.
He married, on May 10, 1809, Frances, second daughter of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, and sister of his classmate. She died in New Haven, on March 14, 1868, in her 82d year.
Of their five children, one son was graduated here in 1833. The elder daughter married the Rev. Sylvester Cowles (Hamilton Coll. 1828) ; and the younger married Professor Chester S. Lyman (Yale 1837).
Judge Wood collected materials for the life of his dis- tinguished father-in-law, which have been made use of by later hands.
AUTHORITIES. Huntington, Hist, of Stamford, ^71-7^- Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., ii, 219.
30
466 Yale College
Annals, 1801-02
Elizur Goodrich, the new Professor of Law, was inducted into office by President Dwight in the College Chapel, on the 8th of December. His duties included the delivery of a two-years' course of lectures, at intervals of once in two weeks, or thirty-six in all.
In the following spring an extraordinary revival of religion was experienced in the College, in which the num- ber of professing Christians had been distressingly small.
At Commencement, in September, 1802, Moses Stuart, of the Class of 1799, was elected Tutor, in place of his classmate, Oliver Ellsworth, Junior, resigned.
At the same time Tutor Benjamin Silliman, of the Class of 1796, was appointed to the new Professorship of Chem- istry and Natural History, the intention of establishing which the Corporation had put upon their records four years before; and another new professorship, of Lan- guages and Ecclesiastical History, was also instituted, to which Ebenezer Grant Marsh, of the Class of 1795, now Tutor and Instructor in Hebrew, was elected. A com- mittee was appointed to ask the aid of the General Assem- bly of the State for his support.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 467
Sketches, Class of 1802
*Truman Baldwin, A.M. et Mediob. 1807 *i865 *Isaacus Chapman Bates, A.M., e Congr., Rerump.
Foed. Sen. *i845
*Henricus Bigelow, A.M. et Mediob. 181 1 *i832
*Guilielmus Fowler Brainard, A.M. *i844
*Radulphus Isaacs Bush *i86o
*Levi Hubbard Clarke, A.M. *i840
*Lm Collins, A.M. *i859 *Jesup Nash Couch, A.M., Reip. Ohion. Cur. Supr.
Jurid. *i82i
* Johannes Alfredus Davenport *i864
* Johannes D wight *i8o3
* Achilles Henricus Elliot *i856 *Jeremias Evarts, A.M. *i83i ''David Dudleius Field, A.M., S.T.D. Guil. 1837 *iSej *Thomas Ford *i840 *Eleazarus Foster, A.M. *i8i9 *Hezekias Frost *i827 *Johannes Hall, A.M., Tutor *i847 *Elisaeus Hammond *i85i *Daniel Haskel, A.M., Univ. Viridim. Praeses *i848 *Simeon Hecock, A.M. *i849 *Silas Higley, A.M. *i853 "^Johannes Hough, A.'M. et Guil. 1806 et Mediob.
1807, S.T.D. Med. 1845, in Coll. Mediob. Lingg.
Graec. et Lat. etiam S.T. etiam Litt. Angl. Prof. *i86i *Samuel Hubbard, A.M., LL.D. 1827 et Harv.
1842, Reip. Mass. Cur. Supr. Jurid. *i847
468 Yale College
♦Nathan Johnson, A.M. 1808 et Harv. 1827, Socius
ex officio *i852
"^Sherman Johnson, A.M. *i8o6
"^Johannes Keep, AM. *i870
*Sheldonus Clark Leavitt *i86o
*Roswell Guilielmus Lewis, A.M. ^1829
* Johannes Nelson Lloyd *i84i
♦Jonathan Huntington Lyman, A.M. *i825 ♦Guilielmus Maxwell, A.M., Coll. Hampd.-Sidn.
Praeses *i857
"^Marcus Mead, A.M. *i864
*Samuel Merwin, A.M. . *i856
♦Howardus Mitchelson *i8i7
♦Ebenezer Moseley *i854
♦Cyrus Pearce *i8o2
♦Pelatias Perit, A.M. *i864 ♦Carolus Hobby Pond, Reip. Conn. Vice-Gubern.
et Gub., Socius ex officio *i86i
"^Carolus Prentice *i838
♦Aaron Burr Reeve *i8o9
"^Erastus Scranton, A.M. *i86i
♦Ulysses Selden *i8i2
♦Carolus Shelton *i832
♦Nathan Shelton, M.D. 1835 ^1864
^David Austin Sherman, A.M., Tutor, Coll. Tenn.
Orient. Praeses *i843
♦GuiHelmus Lay Smith, A.M. *i8i3
♦Junius Smith, A.M., LL.D. 1840 *i853
♦Ephraimus Starr *i828
"^Guilielmus Lightbourn Strong, et Mediob. 1804,
A.M. *i859
*Roswell Randal Swan, A.M. *i8i9
♦Christophorus Tappan *i830 ♦Gideon Tomlinson, A.M. 1808, LL.D. Trin. 1827,
Reip. Conn. Gubern., Socius ex officio, e Congr.,
Rerumpubl. Foed. Sen. *i854
♦Guilielmus Trescott *i8i7
Biographical Sketches, 1802 469
*Ira Webster, A.M. *i859
*Richardus Williams, A.M. *i844
"^Sela Strong Woodhull, et Neo-Caes. 1803, A.M.
et Neo-Caes. 1806, S.T.D. Cone. 1822, in Coll.
Rutg. Metaphys. Prof., in Acad. Theol. Nov.
Brunsv. Hist, et Polit. Eccl. Prof. *i826
Truman Baldwin, a son of Amos Baldwin, of (West) Granville, Massachusetts, and grandson of Deacon Ezra and Ruth Baldwin, of Durham, Connecticut, was born in Granville on September 27, 1780. His mother was Mar- gery, eldest daughter of Ephraim and Comfort (Curtiss, Bishop) Munson, of Granville. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Timothy M. Cooley (Yale 1792), of East Granville.
After graduating he was a teacher for six months in the Academy in Westfield, Massachusetts, and then studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, Connecticut. In June, 1804, he was licensed to preach by the Southern Association of Hampshire County. He received an ad eundem Master's degree from Middlebury College in 1807.
He was first settled in the ministry as pastor of the Congregational Church of Charlotte, Vermont, on Lake Champlain, from November 4, 1807, to March 21, 18 15.
While there he married, in 1808, a daughter of the Hon. Joel Linsley, of Woodbury, Connecticut, and Cornwall, Vermont, and a sister of the Rev. Dr. Joel H. Linsley (Middlebury Coll. 181 1).
On November 15, 18 15, he was installed as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in that part of Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, which is now the town of Oran, where he labored with success until his dismission on June 10, 1828.
In June, 1829, he was commissioned by the American Home Missionary Society to the Presbyterian Church in
470 Yale College
Cicero, in the same county, with which he remained for three years, during which more than seventy persons were added to the membership of the church.
He then, on account of poor health, resigned this charge, but so far as the state of his health allowed, labored for a few years in various places in the Western part of the State, — as in Darien, Genesee County, for one year, 1836-37.
Later, though his health was still infirm, he removed to Middleport, in' Niagara County, where his eldest (mar- ried) daughter was then residing, and with the assistance of his two younger daughters established a school for the instruction of both sexes.
This enterprise, also, he was obliged by feeble health to relinquish, and in the fall of 1845 ^^ returned to a home- stead in Cicero which he had retained, and where he after- wards lived.
His wife died on July 27, 1862, and Mr. Baldwin died, in Cicero, on July 27, 1865, in his 85th year.
Their children were three daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin Genealogy, i, 504, 534-35- etteer, i, 741. Hotchkin, Hist, of Hetnenway, Vermont Historical Gaz- Western N. Y., 315-16, 324, 551.
Isaac Chapman Bates was a son of Colonel Jacob and Ruth Bates of Granville, Massachusetts, and a first cousin of Elijah Bates (Yale 1794). His mother was a daughter of Phineas Robinson of Granville, and widow of Isaac Chapman, who died in November, 1776. He was born in Granville on January 23, 1779, and was prepared for Col- lege by the Rev. Dr. Timothy M. Cooley (Yale 1792), who had married his half-sister. An excellent scholar in College, and distinguished as a writer and speaker, he was chosen to deliver the Valedictory Oration at graduation.
He studied law in New Haven with Seth P. Staples (Yale 1797), and afterwards with Judge Samuel Hinckley
Biographical Sketches, 1802 471
(Yale 1781), of Northampton, where he was admitted to the bar at the May term in 1805. An oration which he delivered on the fourth of July brought him at once into favorable notice, and he soon took a prominent rank among the practitioners in Western Massachusetts. His strik- ing personal advantages, — a commanding presence, a rich, silvery voice, and graceful address, joined with a power of manly and lucid argument, made him especially effective as an advocate before a jury.
He was not only much employed in professional, but also in civil life. In 1808-09, ^"<i o^^e subsequently, he was a Representative in the General Court of Massachusetts; and in December, 1827, he took his seat as a Representative in Congress (anti- Jackson), where he was continued for eight years, and then declined a re-election. After tHis he served again as a member of the State Legislature, and was for two years in the Governor's Council. He served as a presidential elector in 1836 and 1840.
In January, 1841, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the Hon. John Davis (Yale 1812), who had just been chosen Governor. When this term had expired, he was elected Senator for the next six years (1841-47), but did not live to finish his term. He had been much overworked in the discharge of his duties, and in February, 1845, made an able speech, opposing the admission of Texas. Though ill, he appeared in his seat for the last time on the last day of that month, and he died in Washington on March 16, in his 67th year.
His colleague in the Senate, Daniel Webster, in announcing his death, paid a high tribute to his ability and eloquence.
He married, on September 21, 1807, Martha, the eldest child of Judge Samuel Henshaw (Harvard 1773) and Martha (Hunt) Henshaw, of Boston and Northampton, who died in Northampton on November 9, 1874, in her 92d year.
472 Yale College
They had five daughters and three sons. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Fordyce M. Hubbard (Wil- liams Coll. 1828) ; the second daughter married the Hon. Samuel H. Walley (Harvard 1826) ; the third daughter married Lewis J. Dudley (Yale 1838) ; the fourth daugh- ter married Haynes H. Chilson (Amherst Coll. 1843) 5 ^^'^ the youngest married, first, Charles F. Smith (Amherst 1838), and secondly, John A. Dana (Yale 1844). The eldest son was graduated here in 1833 ; the youngest died in infancy.
He published:
1. An Oration pronounced at Northampton, July 4, 1805. .. Northampton, 1805. 8°, pp. 31.
. [A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S.
Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. The Federalists of the town and vicinity arranged for this Oration.
2. An Oration, pronounced before the Washington Benevolent Society of the County of Hampshire, on their first Anniversary, 1812. In commemoration of the nativity of Washington. North- ampton. 8°, pp. 24.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S.
■ N. Y. Publ. Y. C. A view of the administration of Washington as President, from the Federalist standpoint.
3. An Address to the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agri- cultural Society, Northampton, Mass., October 23, 1823. North- ampton, 1823. 8°, pp. 35. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
4. Speech on the Tariff Bill. — Delivered in the House of Rep- resentatives, March 26, 1828. Washington, 1828. 8°, pp. 26.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br: Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
5. Speech on the Indian Bill. — House of Representatives — May, 1830. 8°, pp. 24. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
Also, reprinted in a volume, edited by Jeremiah Evarts, of Speeches on the passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians, delivered in Congress (Boston, 1830).
Biographical Sketches, 1802 473
6. Speech on the Bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, to reduce the Tariff. — Delivered in the House of Represen- tatives, January 30, 1833. Washington City, 1833. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C.
7. Speech in the Senate of the United States, in defence of the Protective System: delivered February 21, 1844. Washington, 1844. 8°, pp. 18.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
W. G. Bates, Hist. Address at Family, 45. 5". Clark, Northamp-
Dedication of Court House, 51-S2. ton Antiquities, 233, 280-81. N. E.
Booth Family, 10. Bridgman, North- Hist, and Geneal. Register, xxix,
hampton Epitaphs, 104. Chapman 128; xxxi, 141-42.
Henry Bigelow, the fifth son of Azariah Bigelow, of Marlborough, then part of Colchester, Connecticut, and grandson of David and Editha (Day) Bigelow, of Marl- borough, was born in Marlborough on February 20, 1778. His mother was Margaret, third daughter of Nathaniel and Patience (Gates) Bigelow, of Westchester Parish in Colchester. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Ichabod Lord Skinner (Yale 1793), of North Coventry, and united with the College Church on profession of his faith in July of his Senior year.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers, on June 7, 1803.
In January, 1804, the Congregational Church in the vil- lage of Middletown, in Rutland County, Vermont, pro- posed to him to preach for them with a view to settlement, and in May, 1805, he was regularly called to the pastorate. On September 5, he was ordained and installed as pastor and he remained there until his death, on June 25, 1832, in his 55th year. He had received about one hundred and fifty persons into the church. His health had begun to fail early in 183 1.
474 Yale College
He married in 1803 Abigail Clarke, a niece by marriage of his theological instructor, in whose family she had been brought up. They had five daughters and two sons, all of whom married and had families. One son was grad- uated at Middlebury College in 1836.
In 1840 Mrs. Bigelow removed to Royalton, Fairfield County, Ohio, and thence to Finley, in Hancock County, in the same State, where she died on April 10, 1852.
Mr. Bigelow was regarded as an eloquent speaker, of remarkable pulpit power. In daily life he was very social, with a ready wit, and was sometimes thought to show more levity than was becoming a clergyman ; but he never carried his jocose habit into the pulpit.
He published :
A Sermon [from Acts xvii, 21], delivered at Castleton, on the 22 of February 1814, before the W. B. Society, of the County of Rut- land, in commemoration of the Birth of Washington. Middlebury, 1814. 8°, pp. 28. [A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ.
The sermon occupies only pp. 1-2 1 ; it is devoted to showing how the country has departed from the precepts of Washington.
AUTHORITIES.
Bigelow Family, 138, 254. Good- Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, iii, 831-32. win, Foote Family, 78. Hemenway,
William Fowler Brainard_, the eldest son of Judge Jeremiah G. Brainard (Yale 1779), was born in New Lon- don, Connecticut, on September 21, 1784. He was pre- pared for College by Jacob B. Gurley (Dartmouth Coll. 1793) in New London.
He studied law with his father, and practiced through life in his native place, becoming eminent in his profession. He was offered a College tutorship in 1804, but declined it. He was an able advocate, often very humorous, and not infrequently brilliant. He was also conspicuously able as a writer. He was one of the Representatives in the General Assembly in 1840.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 475
He died in New London, after three years of declining health, on April 27, 1844, aged 60 years.
He married, on October 10, 181 1, Ann, youngest daugh- ter of the Hon. Amasa Learned (Yale 1772), of New London, who died on August 17, 181 7, in her 34th year. Her only child, a daughter, died in infancy.
He next married, on March 18, 1832, Sarah Ann, second daughter of Captain John and Eunice (Frink) Prentis, of New London, by whom he had three daughters and one son (who died in infancy). She died on November 29, 1882, in her 82d year. The eldest daughter married the Hon. Robert Coit (Yale 1850).
He published :
1. Masonic Lecture, spoken before the Brethren of Union Lodge, New-London, on the nativity of St.John the Baptist, June 24, A. L. 5825. New-London, 1825. 8°, pp. 16.
{Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d edition. Boston, 1829. 8°, pp. 16. [B. Publ.
The same. 3d edition. Boston, 1830. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Publ. Brown Univ. Y. C. This edition, published by the Anti-Masons, has been in some par- ticulars edited in their interest.
2. An Address, in commemoration of the Sixth of September, 1 78 1, spoken on Groton Heights, Sept. 6, 1825. New-London, 1825. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Remarkable for felicity of composition.
AUTHORITIES.
Binney, Prentice Family, 2d ed., 18-20. Caulkins, Hist, of New Lon- 295. Brainerd-Brainard Genealogy, don, 571. Learned Genealogy, 2d pt i, 62, 92-93. Brainerd Family, edition, 113.
Ralph Isaacs Bush, son of David Bush, of Greenwich, Connecticut, was born in Greenwich on October 29, 1779. His mother was Sarah, third daughter of Ralph Isaacs, of
476 Yale College
Norwalk, Connecticut, sister of Isaac Isaacs (Yale 1750) and Ralph Isaacs (Yale 1761), and aunt of the wife of President Dwight. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765), of Greenwich.
After graduation he pursued the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Clark Sanford, of Greenwich, and then attended a course of lectures under Dr. Rush in Philadel- phia. He afterwards studied in the office of Dr. Joshua Birch, of New York, and attended medical lectures in that city.
He practiced his profession for about fourteen years, with high reputation, in Hempstead, now Ramapo, Rock- land County. Becoming tired of country practice, he removed about 1825 to the city of New York, where he continued his practice with increased reputation for six or seven years. After this he engaged in the sale of drugs and medicines, in which he was very successful, until his retirement, at the age of seventy, with an ample fortune.
He died in New York City on August 4, i860, in his 8 1 St year.
His wife was Elizabeth VanValen, of New York City, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. One son and one daughter died in infancy, and two sons from cholera in early manhood.
AUTHORITIES. Charles W. Curtiss, MS. Letter, August, i860.
Levi Hubbard Clarke was born in Sunderland, Massa- chusetts, on September 22, 1782, the second and eldest sur- viving son of Captain Lemuel Clarke, of Sunderland, and grandson of Deacon Jedediah and Sarah (Russell) Clarke. His mother was Kezia, third daughter of Captain Israel and Abigail (Smith) Hubbard, of Sunderland. He entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
After being graduated, he was associated for a time with his classmate Couch in teaching school in New Haven,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 477
pursuing in the meanwhile the study of law with Judge Charles Chauncey. He also studied later with Asa Bacon (Yale 1793), in Canterbury; and was admitted to the bar of Windham County early in 1805.
In the spring of 1805 he began practice in Haddam, from whence he removed after two or three years to Middletown.
He married, on November 6, 1809, Mary Ann, youngest daughter of Deacon John and Sarah (Johnson) Griswold, of Lyme. She died in Middletown on January 31, 18 12, in her 26th year.
In 1816 he joined with Dr. Levi Ward in purchasing from the State of Connecticut its interest in a tract of land in Western New York belonging to the State School Fund ; and removed to what was then known as Carthage, on the border of the present city of Rochester, New York, where he invested largely in real estate, in connection with Elisha B. Strong (Yale 1809). In 1820, the destruction of a very expensive bridge recently completed over the Genesee River at Carthage depreciated the value of his property, so that he was compelled to begin life anew, and he resorted to the use of his pen for support.
In 1820 he reported the proceedings of the State Legis- lature for the New-York American; and in the next year he reported the debates and proceedings of the Constitu- tional Convention, which were published, both in the American, and in a separate volume (New- York, 182 1.' 8°, pp. 367).
In the same year, on the creation of Monroe County, he was appointed a Judge of the County Court, but did not long act in that capacity.
Removing to New York City, he became an assistant editor of the American (1821-24). He was then for one year Secretary of the Greenwich Insurance Company.
In 1825 he went abroad for an extended tour in England, Ireland, France, and the Netherlands, his letters being published in the New-York Commercial Advertiser.
478 Yale College
While still abroad he was solicited by the editor of the Statesman to return and take charge of that paper; he accordingly returned in 1828 and purchased it and edited it for some years.
On the discontinuance of the Statesman, he purchased the Morning Herald — an enterprise which proved unsuc- cessful.
In 1832 he became Secretary of the Colonization Society in New York; and at the close of that year, on the death of Robert C. Sands, an editor of the Commercial Adver- tiser, he succeeded to his position, which he retained until he was appointed in 1835 a Justice of the Seventh, Tenth and Fifteenth Wards of the city of New York, an office which he held until June, 1839.
In the fall of 1838 he was attacked with paralysis, which threatened his life. A second stroke, in March, 1839, evidently impaired his mind. Recurring shocks required his removal, in July, to the house of a brother, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he died, on Feb- ruary 6, 1840, in his 58th year. He was buried beside his wife in Middletown.
His only child married Bushnell White (Williams Coll. 1836.).
AUTHORITIES.
Boyd, Hist of Winchester, 394. 291-92. Turner, Hist, of Phelps and Salisbury, Family Histories, ii, 119. Gorham's Purchase, 566, 608-09. /. M. Smith, Hist, of Sunderland,
Levi Collins^ son of Lieutenant Joseph and Grace (Brown) Collins, of Somers, Connecticut, and grandson of Deacon William and Anne (Jones) Collins, was born in Somers on February 22, 1777.
He had learned the hatter's trade, before he began to study with a view of entering a profession. He was prepared for College by Henry Davis (Yale 1796), while in Somers as a student of theology. In College, and later,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 479
he was distinguished as a singer and teacher of sacred music.
After graduation he studied theology with his pastor, Dr. Backus, and was licensed to preach by the Tolland Association of Ministers in February, 1804. For about two years and a half he preached in various pulpits, chiefly in Connecticut, and declined a call to settlement in Paxton, Massachusetts, on account of constitutional weakness of the lungs.
Finally, his voice having partially failed him, he was obliged to forego preaching, and in the fall of 1807 he took charge of the Academy in Monson, Massachusetts, where he remained for six years. In the fall of 1814 he took the agency of a cotton manufactory in Amherst, Massachusetts, where his health became somewhat restored. •
Resigning this agency in January, 18 17, he resumed preaching, and in April removed to Otsego County, New York, intending to labor exclusively in the ministry. He was known, however, as a teacher, and was pressed into that business again, with the result that he spent the next four years in that county, engaged in teaching, and in preaching as opportunities offered. He then removed to Sherburne, in Chenango County, where four more years passed in a similar way.
But the confinement of a school was found to be affecting his health, and in 1825 he settled on a farm in Fabius, Onondaga County, whence in 1832 he removed to another farm in Smyrna, Chenango County, where he continued until 1846.
In 1833, as his health now seemed more stable, he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church as an evangelist ; and he labored as opportunity offered until 1842, when disease permanently disabled him.
In 1846 he removed to a farm in Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois, which was the home of his daughter ; and he died in Belvidere on December 11, 1859, in his 83d year.
480 Yale College
■ He married, early in 18 18, Alice Allen, who survived him. They had two sons and three daughters, of whom one daughter and one son survived their father.
AUTHORITIES.
Rev. Dr. D. D. Field, MS. Letter, Hist. Almanac, i86l, 159. August, i860. Wilson, Presbyterian
Jesup Nash Couch, the eldest son of Simon Couch, of Redding, Connecticut, and grandson of Thomas and Eliza- beth (Jesup) Couch, of Green's Farms in Fairfield, was born in Redding on August 3, 1778. His mother was Eleanor, youngest daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Andrews) Nash, of Fairfield. He entered Yale after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He was awarded the Berkeley Scholarship at gradua- tion, and remained in New Haven for two years, conduct- ing a school in connection with his classmate Clarke, and at the same time studying law with Judge Charles Chaun- cey.
He settled in 1804 ^s a lawyer in Chillicothe, Ohio, and attained a high standing there. In 1808-09 ^^ was a Rep- resentative in the State Legislature. In the war of 18 12 he served as aide-de-camp to Governor Return J. Meigs
(Yale 1785).
In February, 18 16, he was elected by the General Assem- bly a Judge of the Supreme Court, and this office he held until his death, in June, 1821, in his 43d year. He was never married.
Judge Couch was an amiable man, and much esteemed for his legal ability and uprightness.
AUTHORITIES.
Jessup Genealogy, 97. Nash Fam- i, 366, 398. Todd, Hist, of Redding, ily, 117. Schenck, Hist, of Fairfield, 2d ed., 233.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 481
John Alfred Davenport, the elder son of the Hon. John Davenport (Yale 1770), was born in Stamford, Con- necticut, on June 24, 1783. At an early age he was sent to the Academy conducted at Greenfield Hill by the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, whose wife was a first cousin of his mother. After' Dr. Dwight's election to the Presidency, he was successively under the instruction of his pastor, the Rev. Daniel Smith (Yale 1791), of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765), of Greenwich, and of the Rev. Dr. Matthias Burnet, of Norwalk.
In the summer of 1802 he entered a counting-house in New York, and for half a century was engaged in mercan- tile life in that city. He applied himself to his calling with characteristic energy and enthusiasm, guided by strong common sense and unbending religious principle. His practical sagacity, however, did not altogether secure him from unfortunate enterprises, and during the war of 1812 he experienced serious reverses. About 1839 he removed his residence to Brooklyn ; and thence in the sum- mer of 1853 to New Haven, where he had previously built up a manufacturing establishment.
He spent his remaining years in retirement in this city, and died here after five months of acute suffering from Bright's disease, on October 14, 1864, in his 82d year.
The Memorial Discourse delivered at his funeral by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Elisha L. Cleaveland, was afterwards published.
He became a Christian in his Senior year in College, and led a consistent and useful Christian life. During many years, both in New York and Brooklyn, he was an elder in the Presbyterian Church.
He was married, in February, 1806, to Eliza Maria, elder daughter of Dr. William Wheeler (Yale 1779), of Redhook, New York, by his second wife, a daughter of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith (Yale 1751). She died in New Haven on July 13, 1859, aged 75 years. Their chil- 31
482 Yale College
dren were four daughters and two sons. The sons were graduates of Yale (in 1833 and 1830 respectively), and became clergymen. One daughter married Russell C. Wheeler (Yale 1816), and a second married his brother, J. William Wheeler (Williams Coll. 1825).
A photograph of Mr. Davenport is given in the Supple- mentary Edition of the Davenport Family, and an engrav- ing from the same in Atwater's History of New Haven.
•AUTHORITIES.
Atwater, Hist, of the City of N. ed., 247-52, 280-84. N. Y. Geneal. Haven, 603. Davenport Family, 2d Record, v, 78.
John Dwight, one of the twin sons of President Tim- othy D wight (Yale 1769), was born at Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, Connecticut, on September i, 1784. He was prepared for College in part by his father, and in part by the Rev. Enoch Huntington (Yale 1759), of Middletown.
He was a youth of much promise, though subject to physical infirmity. During his College course he showed considerable poetic talent. He became interested in relig- ion in the revival in his Senior year, and was intending to study for the ministry; but died of consumption in Had- ley, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1803, in his 19th year. He was visiting Miss Mary Kellogg, a sister of Giles C. Kellogg (Yale 1800), to whom he was engaged to be married, but who died soon after him.
In the inscription on his tombstone in Hadley, doubtless composed by his father, he is described as "a youth of hopeful talents, an enlightened education, and an intense love of knowledge, a disposition distinguished by amiable- ness, and a life by filial duty and fraternal afl:'ection, and an universal gentleness of demeanor."
AUTHORITIES. Dwight Family, i, 171, 202-03. N. Y. Geneal. and Biogr. Record, iv, 153.
i
Biographical Sketches, 1802 483
Achilles Henry Elliot, the eighth in a family of nine children of Deacon George Eliot, of Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut, was born on July 26, 178 1. A brother was graduated here in 1786; one sister married Othniel Williams (Yale 1810), and another married the Rev. John Niles (Yale 1797). He was prepared for Col- lege by his pastor, the Rev. Achilles Mansfield (Yale 1770), who was also his first cousin's husband. He entered with the Class of 1801, but left it on account of a long illness in the Sophomore year, and joined the next Class, though still feeble, in the summer of 1800.
After graduation he taught in an Academy in Windham for one year, and for the following winter in South Glas- tonbury. He then returned to his native place, where he spent the rest of his life on his father's farm. He was also for some years postmaster.
Though much hampered by ill-health, he lived to old age, dying in Clinton on September 29, 1856, in his 76th year.
He married, on September 5, 181 1, Mary (Polly), daughter of William Stannard, of Westbrook, then part of Saybrook, born on October 6, 1790.
They had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy, and a son.
AUTHORITIES. Eliot Genealogy, 2d ed., 78, 115. Walworth, Hyde Geneal., ii, 842.
Jeremiah Evarts, eldest son of James and Sarah Evarts, of Guilford, Connecticut, and Sunderland in southwestern Vermont, and grandson of Reuben and Honor (Evarts) Evarts, of Guilford, was born in Sunder- land, on February 3, 1781. His mother was the eldest daughter of Timothy Todd (Yale 1747), of East Guilford, now Madison, and he was thus a first cousin of William Todd (Yale 1806) and the Rev. Dr. John Todd (Yale
484 Yale College
1822). His parents removed to Georgia, in northwestern Vermont, in 1787; and in January, 1798, he was sent to the minister of his mother's native parish, the Rev. John Elliott (Yale 1786), to complete his preparation for Col- lege. As an undergraduate he was one of the most bril- liant and influential members of an unusually brilliant class. He united with the College Church in his Senior year. At Commencement he delivered a striking Oration on the Execution of Laws (afterwards published in the Panoplist, vol. 2).
After some months spent at home, he took charge, early in April, 1803, of the Caledonia County Grammar School in Peacham, Vermont, and remained there for one year.
Having decided on the law as his profession, he began its study with Judge Charles Chauncey, of New Haven, in April, 1804; and on September 10, having declined the offer of a tutorship in College, he was married by President Dwight to Mehitabel, fourth daughter of the Hon. Roger and Rebecca (Prescott) Sherman, of New Haven, and widow of Daniel Barnes (non-grad. Yale 1793), who had died in August, 1799, leaving one son.
At Commencement in 1805 he delivered a Master's Ora- tion on the vanity of pursuing fame.
In July, 1806, he was admitted to the bar and opened an office in New Haven, where he continued in practice for nearly four years. He was considered a well-read and sound lawyer, and was an able though not a popular advo- cate. His conscientiousness was too strict to allow of any compromise with violations of law, and this sometimes placed him in unpleasant isolation.
He took an active part in the religious life of the city, and was much interested in all the religious movements of the time, and after the Panoplist, a monthly religious and lit- erary journal, was established in Boston in 1805 ^e wrote frequently for its pages.
At the beginning of 18 10, he was invited to take the editorship of the Panoplist, with a salary of one thousand
Biographical Sketches, 1802 485
dollars ; and having accepted the oflfer he began his work in February, and in May established his family in Charles- town. Six years later his residence was transferred to Boston.
He continued to edit the Panoplist until it was super- seded by the Missionary Herald at the close of 1820; and he was himself the author of the main part of the original articles and the reviews in that work.
In addition to his special duties, Mr. Evarts was active in advocating and furthering many of the most important philanthropic and religious undertakings which came within his survey. In particular, he was one of the prin- cipal founders of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810, and was elected Treasurer in 181 1, and one of the Prudential Committee in 1812. On the failure of the health of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Wor- cester, the Corresponding Secretary of the Board, in Jan- uary, 1821, Mr. Evarts assumed his duties also; and after Dr. Worcester's death he continued to do double duty, until September, 1822, when he was elected Corresponding Secretary, and relieved from the office of Treasurer. This arrangement, combined with the editorship of the Herald, continued until his death.
He was also a Deacon in the Park Street Congregational Church, from May, 1819, until his death.
Mr. Evarts had strong mental powers, and was an easy, practiced writer and eloquent speaker. With evident sim- plicity and uprightness of character, and devotion to the principle of benevolence, he united a remarkable capacity for correctness and thoroughness in the despatch of busi- ness.
In the last years of his life he was greatly occupied and distressed by the controversy between the State of Georgia and the Cherokees (among whom the American Board had a mission), and he spent his strength in the vain effort to prevent the outrage of the removal of the Indians from their native soil.
486 Yale College
His health had always been frail, and the unremitting labors of his office kept him constantly overburdened and exhausted. After many fluctuations in his condition, he was advised, early in February, 1831, that it was necessary for him to give up all care and seek immediately a tropical climate.
He sailed alone for Havana on February 15, and arrived there on March 2. There, and near Matanzas, he remained until April 18, when he embarked, as he thought gradually improving, for Savannah. He arrived there on the 24th, much exhausted by the voyage; and a week later proceeded by water to Charleston, South Carolina, which city he reached on the 3d of May. There, in the family of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer (Princeton Coll. 1800), everything possible was done for his comfort; but he passed away, from pulmonary consumption, on May 10, in his 51st year.
His body was brought to Boston for burial, in the family vault beneath the Park Street Church, and a Sermon on his death was delivered in Andover, by appointment of the Prudential Committee of the American Board, by the Rev. Dr. Leonard Woods (Harvard 1796), which was afterwards published (Andover, 1831, 8°, pp. 27). A Tribute to his memory, by the Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring (Yale 1805), was delivered and published at the request of the Executive Committee of the Auxiliary Foreign Mis- sionary Society of New York and Brooklyn (New York, 183 1, 8°, pp. 32). An extended Memoir of his life by his son-in-law, Mr. Tracy, was published in 1845 (Boston, 8°, pp. 448).
By his wife he had three daughters (the youngest of whom died in childhood) and two sons. The eldest daugh- ter married the Rev. David Greene (Yale 1821), and the second married Ebenezer C. Tracy (Dartmouth Coll. 1819). The elder son was graduated at Yale in 1832, but died within a year. The younger son was graduated in 1837, and became an eminent lawyer and statesman.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 487
Mrs. Evarts died at the house of her son in New York, on March 5, 1851, in her 78th year.
The Memoir of Mr. Evarts contains an engraving from a portrait painted by S. F. B. Morse in 1817.
He pubHshed:
1. An Oration, delivered in Charlestown, (Mass.) on the Fourth of July, 1812. . . Charlestown, 1812. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C. The oration is devoted to exhibiting the excellence of our free government, and describing the most prominent dangers which assail it.
2. An examination of charges against the American Mission- aries at the Sandwich Islands, as alleged in the Voyage of the Ship Blonde, and in the London Quarterly Review. Cambridge, 1827. 8°, pp. 67. [Harv, Y. C.
Revised from an article printed in the North American Review for January, 1828. Anonymous.
3. Essays on the present crisis in the condition of the American Indians; first published in the National Intelligencer, under the signature of William Penn. Boston, 1829. 8°, pp. 112.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
The 'same. Philadelphia, 1830. 8°, pp. 116.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus.
Anonymous. These articles appeared in twenty-four numbers of the National Intelligencer, from August to December, 1829, and were widely copied by other newspapers.
Mr. Evarts also contributed to the North American Review for October, 1830, an article on the Removal of the Indians; and he edited anonymously, with an Introduction, the following volume : —
Speeches on the passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians, delivered in the Congress of the United States, April and May, 1830. Boston, 1830. 12°, pp. viii, 304.
Ten annual reports of the American Board (1821-30) were writ- ten by him, as well as a great amount of literature emanating from the Rooms of the Board. His Memoir contains many of these official papers and copious selections from his diary and corre- spondence.
488 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Quart. Register, iv, 73-85. 223. Lord, Views in Theol., iii, 86-
Anderson, A. B. C. F. M. Memorial 114. Prescott Memorial, 90-91, 124-
Volume, 124-25, 210-13. Boutell, 26. Sprague, Annals of the Amer.
Life of R. Sherman, v, 351. Hemen- Pulpit, ii, 6^7. Tracy, Memoir of
way, Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, i, 241- J. Evarts. Wyman, Charlestown
45. John Todd, Life and Letters, Genealogies and Estates, i, 337.
David Dudley Field was born in East Guilford, now Madison, Connecticut, on May 20, 1781. He was the younger son of Captain Timothy Field, and brother of Timothy Field (Yale 1797) ; and was prepared for Col- lege by his pastor, the Rev. John Elliott (Yale 1786). He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in March of the Senior year.
After graduation he went to Somers to study theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), and he was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers, in September, 1803. In Somers he met his future wife. Submit, fourth daughter of Captain Noah Dickinson, of Somers, and sister of Matthew Dickinson (Yale 1804). They were married by the Rev. Diodate Brockway on October 31, 1803.
In. November he went to Haddam, where he preached for five months as a candidate and was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church on April 11, 1804, on a salary of five hundred dollars. Here he remained exactly fourteen years, being dismissed, at his own request, on the same month and day in 18 18.
After this he spent five months on a missionary tour, under the appointment of the Missionary Society of Con- necticut, among the new settlements in Western New York, along the southern shore of Lake Ontario.
On his return he passed through Stockbridge, Massa- chusetts, where the Rev. Dr. Stephen West (Yale 1755) was just completing his long ministry, and preached there for a few Sabbaths. After his return to Connecticut an invitation for further service in Stockbridge was sent him,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 489
and after three months' supply of the pulpit he was installed as pastor of the Congregational Church on August 25, 1819, thus beginning a ministry, on a salary of six hundred dollars, that was to continue for nearly eigh- teen years.
In 1837 he learned that the church in his old parish of Haddam had become divided, and that it seemed probable that he alone could unite them. He listened to their call and requested a dismission from Stockbridge. Accord- ingly he was re-installed in his former charge on April 11, just thirty-three years from his ordination there.
In the summer of 1837 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Williams College.
He remained in Haddam for seven years, or until the parish, which was spread over a large township, was divided, and he took charge of a new society, formed on May I, 1844, in the village of Higganum, two miles north of the old church, where he continued to preach for seven years longer, or until June, 1850.
As he was approaching the age of seventy years, his children now desired him to retire from active labor, and to return to Stockbridge, which they regarded as the fam- ily home. Accordingly, in the spring of 185 1, he removed thither, where he remained until his sudden death, on April 15, 1867, ^ged nearly ^6 years.
His wife died in Stockbridge on August 16, 1861, in her 79th year.
They had eight sons (one of whom died in infancy) and two daughters. Four sons were graduates of Wil- liams College, in 1825, 1832, 1837, and 1838, respectively. The eldest son, David Dudley Field, became a distin- guished lawyer in New York City; the sixth son, Stephen J. Field, was Chief Justice of California and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; the seventh son. Cyrus W. Field, achieved the successful laying of the first Atlantic Telegraph. The elder daughter mar- ried the Rev. Josiah Brewer (Yale 1821).
490 Yale College
An engraving from a likeness of Dr. Field is given in the Nezv England Magazine, volume vii (1889), page 412, and in the Field Genealogy.
He was an earnest and effective preacher, and per- formed his pastoral duties with admirable conscientious- ness and fidelity. He had a natural taste for historical researches, and his publications in this field have an abiding value.
He pubHshed:
1. A Sermon, preached at Haddam, December 14, 1813, at the Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Brainerd, Relict of Doct. Hezekiah Brain- erd [Yale 1763] . . Middletown, 1814. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. A. S. C. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A History of the Towns of Haddam and East-Haddam, Connecticut. . . Middletown, 1814. 8°, pp. 48.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. New York, 1892. 8°, pp. 48. [B. Publ. U. S.
3. A Good Minister of Jesus Christ. — A Sermon [from I Tim. iv, 6] preached at Chester, in Saybrook, January 3d, 1816, at the Ordination of the Rev. Nehemiah B. Beardsley. Middletown, 1816. 8°, pp. 16. [C. H. S. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. The Sabbath. — A Sermon [from Mark ii, 27], preached at Hartford, on the evening of May 15, 181 6, before the Connecticut Society, for the promotion of Good Morals. Hartford, 1816. 8°, pp. 23. [C. H. S. Y. C.
5. Warning against Drunkenness. — A Sermon [from Luke xxi, 34] preached in the City of Middletown, June 20, 1816, the day of the Execution of Peter Lung, for the Murder of his Wife. . . Mid- dletown, 1816. 8°, pp. 28.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
6. The reciprocal Duties of Ministers and People, a Sermon [from I Thess. v, 12, 13], preached in the First Society of Killing- worth, June II, 1 81 7, at the Ordination of the Rev. Hart Talcott. Middletown, 1817. 8°, pp. 22. [U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 491
7. A Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex in Con- necticut.— Published by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Middletown, 181 9. 8°, pp. 154.
[A.A.S. A.C.A. B.Ath. B.Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
8. A History of the County of Berkshire, Massachusetts. . . By Gentlemen in the County, clergymen and laymen. Pittsfield, 1829. 12°, pp. 468 + 4 pi. + 2 maps.
[B.Ath. B.Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M.H.S. U.S. Y.C. This volume was edited and largely prepared by Dr. Field.
9. A History of the Town of Pittsfield, in Berkshire County, Mass. . . Hartford, 1844. 8°, pp. 80 + map.
[A.C.A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Originally published in the Pittsfield Sun, 1834-35.
10. Centennial Address. With historical sketches of Cromwell, Portland, Chatham, Middle-Haddam, Middletown and its parishes. Middletown, 1853. 12°, pp. 295.
[A.C.A. B.Ath. B.Publ. Harv. N.Y.H.S. U.S. U. T. S. Y. C.
11. An historical Sketch, Congregational, of the Church in Stockbridge, Mass. . . New York, 1853. 8°, pp. 30.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. S. Y. C.
12. The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States . . New York, 1857. 8°, pp. 303 + 6 pi.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
13. Brief Memoirs of the Members of the Class graduated at Yale College in September, 1802. 1863. 8°, pp. 127.
[A.C.A. B.Publ. U.T.S. Y.C. Dr. Field had been appointed the historian of the Class in 1842, and this privately printed volume is the result of his researches ; it has proved invaluable in the preparation of the present sketches.
AUTHORITIES.
H. M. Field, Record of the Fam- 63. N. E. Hist.-Geneal. Society's
ily of Rev. D. D. Field. Historical Memorial Biographies, vi, 226-28.
Magazine, 2d series, i, 351-54- N. E. Pierce, Field Genealogy, i, 277, 410-
Hist. and Geneal. Register, xxii, 362- 21.
492 Yale College
Thomas Ford was born in Georgetown, on the South Carolina coast, about sixty miles northeast from Charles- ton, in 1782. He was prepared for College in New Lon- don, Connecticut. He united with the College Church on confession of his faith at the opening of the Junior year.
After graduation he did not study a profession, but retired to his valuable rice plantation on Black River, five or six miles north of Georgetown.
He married and had a family of seven sons and one daughter; but his wife and children all died before him. One son was for a short time a member of the Class of 1830 at Yale.
He died on November 15, 1840, aged 58 years.
He was a man of unimpeachable character, and his death was widely lamented.
Eleazar Foster, third son of Edward Foster, of Union, Tolland County, Connecticut, and grandson of Deacon Edward and Rachel Foster, of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, was born in Union on June 6, 1778. His mother was Rachel, third daughter of Timothy and Lydia (Kings- bury) Newell, of Needham, Massachusetts. He was obliged to rely on his own exertions to gain the means for his education, and his health was never vigorous ; so that his preparation for College, at the Academy in Leicester, Massachusetts, was long delayed. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in July of his Senior year.
After graduation he returned to Leicester Academy as English preceptor for one year, and then settled as a lawyer in New Haven.
On January 12, 1806, he married Mary ("Polly"), youngest daughter of John and Sarah (Beers) Pierpont, of New Haven, and widow of Edward J. O'Brien, who had died in May, 1799, leaving two children.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 493
He soon secured a large practice, especially in the Pro- bate Court, as he had won the public confidence for integ- rity and discretion, as well as for capacity. He was one of the Representatives of New Haven in the General Assem- bly in May, 181 7.
After a prolonged struggle with disease, aggravated by his close devotion to business, he died in New Haven on May I, 1819, aged nearly 41 years. His widow died here on January 29, 1852, in her 74th year.
Their children were four daughters, who lived to old age, unmarried, in New Haven ; and four sons, the eldest of whom died in infancy. The third son, bearing his father's name, was graduated at Yale in 1834.
A very appreciative sketch of Mr. Foster, written by his neighbor. Judge William Bristol (Yale 1798), was printed in the Connecticut Journal.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Journal, May 4 1819. 344-45- Washburn, Hist, of Leicester Dwight Genealogy, ii, 1064-65. Ham- Academy, 147-48. mond. Hist, of Union, 156-57, 342,
Hezekiah Frost,, a son of Deacon Daniel and Phebe (Farnham) Frost of Canterbury, Connecticut, was born in Canterbury on February 7, 1778.
He was prepared for admission to advanced standing by John Adams (Yale 1795), in Canterbury, and entered some time after the beginning of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he was for a short time Preceptor of the Woodstock Academy ; and then studied law with Asa Bacon (Yale 1793), of Canterbury, and was admitted to the bar about March, 1805.
He then went to Guildhall, Vermont, with the purpose of familiarizing himself with practice in that State and ultimately settling there. A little later he removed to Derby, near the Canada line; but in March, 1807, he made another removal to Windham Hill, then the principal vil-
494
Yale College
lage in the town of Windham, about fifteen miles north- west of Portland, Maine, where he resided in the practice of his profession, until his death there, from consumption, on May 27, 1827, aged 49 years.
He first married Esther, daughter of Deacon Daniel Clarke, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, and Plymouth, Vermont, their intentions of marriage being recorded in Windham on December 15, 1807. She died on June 10, 18 19, aged 32 years, and he was next married, on June 17, 1821, by the Rev. Gardiner Kellogg (Yale 1791), to Hannah Brown, of Windham, who survived him and next married John Harmon, of Otisfield, Maine.
By his first wife he had three daughters and three sons (one of whom died while a Sophomore in Middlebury Col- lege) ; by his second wife he had two sons and a daughter.
He was regarded as a man of superior attainments in his profession, a ready and eloquent speaker, and a man of true worth in the community, always interested in everything that in any way contributed to the town's wel- fare. He had a large circle of acquaintances, and died greatly lamented.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Courant, July 20, 1819. S. T. Dole, MS. Letter, June, 1910.
John Hall, the only son and the youngest of four chil- dren of Deacon John Hall, a merchant in East Windsor, Connecticut, and Eunice (Dorchester) Hall, was born in Ellington, then a parish in East Windsor, on February 26, 1783. A sister married the Rev. Diodate Brockway (Yale 1797). He was prepared for College by the Rev. Nehemiah Prudden (Yale 1775), of Enfield. He joined the Church in College on profession of his faith in July, 1802.
The first two years after graduation he spent chiefly in New Haven, in the study of theology and the pursuit of
Biographical Sketches, 1802 495
general literature; and he then filled for three years the office of Tutor in the College.
In 1807 he returned to Ellington, and being in feeble health gave up the idea of studying a profession. For a short time he was associated in business with his brother- in-law, Levi Wells, a merchant in Ellington.
On June 5, 1808, he married Sophia, only daughter of Dr. Joseph and Roxana (Allyn, Wadsworth) Kingsbury, of East Windsor; her mother was by a former marriage the wife of Dr. Joseph B. Wadsworth (Yale 1766).
He now purchased a large farm about half a mile from the center of the village and for thirty years superintended it himself, pursuing agriculture on scientific principles and succeeding by large expenditure in raising his land to a very productive state.
He was also greatly interested in education; and after an apprenticeship at the Academy on East Windsor Hill, he opened in 1825 a classical school for both sexes, pri- marily for the benefit of his own children. In 1829 he secured the incorporation of another enterprise, known as the "Ellington School," for boys, of which he was Prin- cipal until 1840. This school acquired much celebrity for the thoroughness of its work.
Mr. Hall also entered to some extent into public life. As early as 181 1 he received a commission as Justice of the Peace; and in May, 1812, he began a service of six years as an associate Justice of the Tolland County Court. He was a representative in the General Assembly in Octo- ber, 1815, and May, 1819; and in 1817 he was an unsuc- cessful candidate for Congress. After 1820 he retired, from choice, from all active part in political affairs.
He was deeply interested through life in religious pro- gress, and in earlier years occasionally supplied the place of a minister in neighboring destitute districts.
On giving up the charge of his school he mainly retired from labor, except that he discharged the duties of post- master of the village from 1841 to 1845. His health.
49^ Yale College
always feeble, had declined for some time before his death, which occurred in Ellington on October 2, 1847, i^ his 65th year. Two discourses, occasioned by his death, by his pastor, the Rev. Nathaniel H. Eggleston, were published in 1848 (8°, pp. 29) ; they bear ample testimony to his diligence, his upright character, and unquestioned piety.
His first wife died on May 19, 1829, in her 41st year. He next married, on September 6, 1830, Harriet Smith, daughter of Dr. Elijah Fitch Reed (honorary M.D. Yale 1822) and Hannah (McLean) Reed, of East Windsor, who died on February 13, 1859, ^^^^ 53 years.
By his first marriage he had eight sons (the youngest of whom died in infancy) and two daughters; and by his second marriage four sons (the eldest of whom died in infancy) and one daughter. The second son was grad- uated at Yale in 1831, and the eldest received an honorary M.A. degree here in 1845. The second daughter married the Rev. John G. Baird (Yale 1852).
He published :
1. An Oration, delivered at Tolland, Connecticut, before the Washington Benevolent Society, February 22d, 1814. Hartford, 1814. 8°, pp. 25. [ B. Publ. N. Y. H. S.
On the causes of the present disastrous state of affairs, the cor- ruption of the public morals, etc.
2. On the Education of Children, while under the care of parents or guardians. New York, 1835. 12°, pp. 190. [U. S.
The same. 2d edition. Hartford, 1836. 12°. {Br. Mus.
3. The Reader's Guide, containing a notice of the elementary sounds in the English language ; Instructions for Reading both prose and verse, with numerous examples for illustration, and les- sons for practice. Hartford, 1836. 12°, pp. 360. {U. S.
Several editions.
4. The Reader's Manual. 1839. 12°, pp. 300.
5. The Primary Reader. 1839. 18°, pp. 143.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 497
After his death was published by his children:
How are the Dead Raised? and with what body do they come? An Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead, as taught in the New Testament; with particular reference to the question of a Future Existence of the Human Body. Hartford, 1875. 12°, pp. 216. [U.S. Y.C.
The doctrine arrived at is that the body which dies is not raised, but a spiritual body.
The Yale Library has a manuscript meteorological record kept by Mr. Hall from January, 181 7, until his death.
He spent portions of more than twenty years of his life in pre- paring a work on Mental Philosophy, which he did not complete.
AUTHORITIES.
Kingsbury Genealogy, 264, 331-33- Hist, of Windsor, 2d ed., i, 754, 817- 7. i?o&fei«.y. Diary, i, 367, 371. Stiles, 20,830; ii, 363-64, 428.
Elisha Hammond^ the second son and fifth child of Hezekiah Hammond, a farmer of Hampton, in Windham County, Connecticut, and grandson of Josiah and Mary (Davis) Hammond, of Woodstock, was born in Hampton on May 26, 1780. His mother was Lucy, third daughter of Deacon Ebenezer and Hannah (Chandler) Griffin, of Hampton. Thomas Stedman (Yale 1785) was a first cousin. He was prepared for admission to the Sophomore Class by John Adams (Yale 1795), in Canterbury. In July of the Senior year he united with the College Church on profession of faith.
On taking his degree he began to prepare for the legal profession with Judge Charles Chauncey, in New Haven, but after a few months returned to Canterbury and con- tinued his studies under Asa Bacon (Yale 1793). He was admitted to the Windham County bar in 1804, and then removed to West Brookfield, Massachusetts. As a third year of study was required there, he spent it in the office of a distinguished lawyer, the Hon. Jabez Upham (Har- 32
498 Yale College
vard 1785), where he remained until Mr. Upham's death in 181 1. He then opened an office by himself in the same town, and remained there until 1830.
Though not distinguished as an advocate, he was regarded as a sound and upright lawyer. He was a Rep- resentative of the town in the General Court in 18 10, 18 12, and 1815.
His circumstances became embarrassed, in consequence of his having engaged in woolen manufactures and other pursuits unsuccessfully, and he therefore removed, in 1830, to the city of New York, with the design of estab- lishing a law-periodical. Abandoning this design, he was there engaged until 1837 in editing law-books for the press.
He then spent a year in Saratoga, and (after a short interval of residence in New York) another year in Wor- cester, Massachusetts, engaged in a similar manner. He finally returned to Brookfield, and there resumed his profession.
He died in West Brookfield, after some months of great feebleness, on May 12, 1851, at the age of 71.
He had received some property from his father (who died in 1813) and had accumulated at one time quite a fortune, but was not a good financier and died in compar- ative poverty.
He married, on October 24, 181 1, Phebe Parsons, the youngest daughter of Captain David and Martha (Keyes) Hitchcock, of West Brookfield, who died in New York on November 26, 1836, in her 54th year.
They had three daughters (two of whom were deaf- mutes) and two sons; the two elder daughters and the younger son died in youth.
He published :
1. The Town Officer. Worcester, 1824. 12°.
2. A Treatise on the Law of Contracts. Boston, 1840. 12°.
[B. Ath.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 499
3. A Treatise on the Law of Fire Insurance, and Insurance on inland waters. . . New York, 1840. 8°, pp. xi, 182.
[Br. Mus. U. S.
4. A Practical Treatise ; or, an Abridgment of the Law apper- taining to the office of Justice of the Peace; and also relating to the practice in Justices' Courts. . . . West Brookfield, 1814. 8°, pp. xvi, 596. [Br. Mus. Yale Law School.
Among the works edited by him are :
Commentaries on American Law, by Theophilus Parsons. New York, 1836. 8°.
Treatise on the Law of Evidence, by Samuel M. Phillipps. New York, 1839. 8°. 2 V.
AUTHORITIES.
Hammond Genealogies, ii. 283, lard, etc., Addresses before the Wor- 303-04. Hitchcock Family, 422. Wil- cester County Bar, 206.
Daniel Haskel, a son of Roger Haskel, a farmer in the parish known as Long Society, in Preston, Connect- icut, and Anna (Mix) Haskel, was born in June, 1784. His father died early, and his mother next married, in August, 1795, the Rev. Solomon Morgan, of Canterbury. He was prepared for advanced standing in College by John Adams (Yale 1795), in Canterbury, and entered sometime after the beginning of Sophomore year. In July of the Senior year he united with the College Church on profession of faith.
In 1803-04 he taught a public school in Norwich Town. He was next (1805) an assistant to his old teacher, Mr. Adams, in Bacon Academy, Colchester, After this he taught for two years in Lincoln Academy, Newcastle, Maine.
In 1807-08 he studied theology with President Samuel Stanhope Smith, of Princeton College, and privately, and he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Associa- tion of Ministers on September 2y, 1808.
500 Yale College
After various short engagements in Connecticut, he went to Saint Albans, Vermont, to preach, and was called thence to the small Congregational Church (of twenty-one members) in Burlington, V^ermont, which was then divided into two parties, on the question of liberality of doctrine. A majority of the church favored the call to Mr. Haskel ; but the majority of the Society favored another candidate, who was substantially a Unitarian. The result was that two new Societies were formed, and Mr. Haskel was ordained and installed on April lo, 1810, over that called the First Calvinistic Congregational Society, — the sermon on the occasion by his classmate Hough being afterwards published.
He was married by the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus, in Beth- lehem, Connecticut, on the 17th of the following October, to Elizabeth Leavitt, a sister of his classmate.
He continued the faithful and beloved pastor of the church in Burlington, until elected, in 1821, to the presi- dency of the University of Vermont established in that town. His dismission from his pastorate followed on June 22, 1822. The church had increased under his ministry to ninety-one members.
Iti accepting this appointment he undertook a great labor. There were then but twenty students connected with the University, and it devolved upon him to elevate its position and character. His influence was soon felt, for in October, 1823, the number of students had risen to one hundred and eight; but there were still pressing difficul- ties, which were increased by the burning of the principal College building in 1824.
While in these circumstances he was violently attacked with inflammatory rheumatism. His mind, which always had a peculiarly metaphysical bent, had in previous years suffered severely from religious melancholy; and in April or May, 1824, on recovery from his rheumatism, he was left in a condition of mental derangement, which rendered it impossible that he should continue his duties as head
Biographical Sketches, 1802 50*
of the University. The form of his monomania consisted in a beHef that he had passed out of a material state, and was no longer in the world in which he formerly lived; from this he never recovered, though the mania eventually abated in force, and on general subjects he was sane.
In consequence of this malady he was separated from his family for many years, — part of the time being spent in various institutions, and part with a brother in Western New York and Ohio, and other friends. At length he rejoined his family in Brooklyn, New York, where Mrs. Haskel had taken up her residence with her mother.
From this time he took up more steady employment, giving instruction in literature, and lecturing frequently in schools. He also took great interest in the construction of apparatus of various kinds for school use. For one year he was a bookkeeper in the American Exchange Bank. In his latter years he was cheerful; and he was much inter- ested in preparing with great labor and care a valuable statistical work on the United States.
In the last year of his life his health gradually declined, and he died in Brooklyn on August 9, 1848, in his 65th year. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
Mrs. Haskel survived him for many years.
Their children were four daughters (two of whom died in infancy) and three sons.
A portrait, taken in early life, is owned by the Univer- sity of Vermont.
He usually spelt his name Haskel, though more rarely Haskell.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Matt, xxviii, 20], delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Hiram S. Johnson, as Pastor of the Church in Hopkin- ton, N. Y. November 4, 1814. Burlington, 181 5. 8°, pp. 28.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Brown. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y.C.
2. Some Remarks on "Some Communications first published in the Brattleborough Paper"; by W. Wells. [Burlington, 1816.] 8°, pp. 16. {B. Ath. B. Publ.
503 Yale College
The Rev. William Wells, the minister in Brattleborough, was in sympathy with Unitarian belief,
3. The Doctrine of Predestination maintained as scriptural, rational and important. A Discourse [from Eph. i, 11], delivered to the Calvinistic Congregational Church and Society in Burlington, Vermont, January 5th, 1817. Burlington. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S.
4. A Sermon [from Mark xvi, 15], delivered in Randolph, at the Annual Meeting of the Vermont Juvenile Missionary Society, Octo- ber 13, 1819. . . Middlebury, 1819. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-20.
5. A Sermon [from II Cor. v, 18], delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Royal A. Avery, to the Pastoral Care of the Congregational Church in Cambridge, Vermont, December loth, 1823. St. Albans, 1824. 8°, pp. 36. [A. C. A. B. Ath. Brown.
The sermon occupies only pp. 1-25,
6. Lessons on Astronomy, adapted to the Planetarium, Globe, and other connected articles, in the New York School Apparatus. New York, 1833. 12°, pp. 9 + 7 + pl- [Y. C.
7. The Juvenile Class Book of Natural History . . . New York, 1841. 12°, pp. viii, 124. [U.S.
8. A complete descriptive and statistical Gazetteer of the United States of America. . . By D. Haskel and J. Calvin Smith. New- York,* 1843. 8°, pp. 752.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. S. Y. C. Also, later editions, and a translation into German.
9. A Chronological View of the World . . . New York, 1845. 12°, pp. 278. [U.T.S.
Several editions.
He also prepared for the press as editor several volumes, as :
A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the interiour of North
America. . . By D. W. Harmon. Andover, 1820. 8°, pp. 422 + i
pi. 4- I map.
McCulloch's Universal Gazetteer . . New York, 1844-45. 2 vols. 8°.
AUTHORITIES.
The Adviser, ii, 158. Hemenway, i, 372. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, i, 521-22, Pulpit, ii, 526-31. 525-26, 537-38. T. Robbins, Diary,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 503
Simeon Hecock, the fourth son of Benjamin Hecock, a wealthy farmer of Southbury, Connecticut, and grand- son of Deacon Benjamin and Sarah (Stiles) Hecock, was born in Southbury on November 17, 1780. His mother was Molly, eldest child of Joseph and Mary (Johnson) Pierce, of Woodbury.
He studied no profession, but spent a life of tranquility on the paternal farm in Southbury.
After several months of much suffering, from an affec- tion of the heart, he died in Southbury on July 9, 1849, ^^ his 69th year.
He married, on January 7, 1809, Anna Lucy, daughter of James Wakeley, of Huntington, Connecticut, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, all of whom, as well as his wife, survived him.
AUTHORITIES. Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 566.
Silas Higley^ the fifth child of Ozias and Martha Hig- ley, of (West) Granby, Connecticut, and grandson of Cap- tain Joseph and Sarah (Case) Higley, was born in Granby in 1780. His mother was a daughter of Joseph and Eliz- abeth (Hayes) Gillet, of Simsbury. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Timothy M. Cooley (Yale 1792).
After taking his degree he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford. He joined the Congregational Church in Granby in October, 1804, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Asso- ciation of Ministers on February 5, 1805.
He continued to preach for about four years, and had three calls for settlement. Thus, after preaching for a few months in Fair Haven, Vermont, he was called to the church there on January 2, 1806, with a salary of $3CXD, but declined the call. He also declined similar invitations
504 Yale College
from Fairfax, Vermont, and Whitehall, New York. In the summer of 1807 he was preaching in Winchester, Con- necticut. But being feeble, and unable to speak in public without danger, he gave up the ministry and studied law, in part with John Langdon in Castleton, Vermont, and in part with Jonathan W. Edwards (Yale 1789) in Hartford, Connecticut.
He opened a law office in his native town, but did not practice extensively. He was honorably identified through life with the organization, growth, and management of the leading interests of the town. He died in Granby, on June 21, 1853, aged 73 years.
He married Melissa, second daughter of Deacon Seth and Mehetabel (Topping) Hayes, of Granby, who died there on May 16, 1856, in her 75th year.
Of their five children, all died young except a daughter, the mother of John H. Case (Yale 1855) and William C. Case (Yale 1857).
AUTHORITIES.
Hayes Family, 59. Hemenway, Johnson, The Higleys, 350, 352-53. Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, iii, 715. T. Robbins, Diary, i, 326-27.
John Hough was the only child of Dr. Walter Hough, of Canterbury, Connecticut, who was a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, and was stationed at Stamford, Con- necticut, at the time of the birth of this child, on August 17, 1783. His mother was Martha ("Patty"), fourth daughter of Deacon Daniel and Mary (Bellamy) Lock- wood, of Stamford. His father was the son of John and Abigail (Baldwin) Hough, of Bozrah and Canterbury.
He was prepared for advanced standing in College by John Adams (Yale 1795), in Canterbury, and entered after the opening of the Sophomore year. He was a superior scholar during his College course. In July of the Senior year he joined the College Church on profession of faith.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 505
In the winter after graduation he taught the grammar school in Westchester Society in Colchester. In 1804 he began the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. Moses C. Welch (Yale 1772), of Mansfield, with whom he remained for several months; after which he studied also with the Rev. Dr. Joel Benedict, of Plainfield, and the Rev. Dr. Levi Hart (Yale 1760), of Preston. He then, in the spring of 1805, joined the theological class under the instruction of President Dwight; this was soon dispersed by an alarm of yellow fever, and he returned to his former teachers. On October 8, 1805, he was licensed to preach by the Windham Association of Ministers.
In the summer of 1806 he went to Vermont, as a mis- sionary of the Connecticut Missionary Society; and began preaching in Vergennes, so much to the edification of the people that in a few weeks he was invited to become their pastor. He accepted the call, and was ordained and installed there on March 12, 1807. The church was small, but gradually increased, especially from a revival in 1810.
After a pastorate of five years he was dismissed on August 25, 1812, and soon after accepted the Professor- ship of the Greek and Latin languages in Middlebury Col- lege. He was married on November 19, 181 2, to Lucy, sister of his classmate Leavitt and of the wife of his classmate Haskel; and in the same month he entered on his duties at Middlebury, where he remained as a Profes- sor for twenty-seven years. In 18 17 he was transferred to a new chair as Professor of Theology, but in 1825 resumed the chair of ancient languages, and in 1838 was transferred to another new chair of English Literature and Education. He was eminently successful and popular as an instructor, and had a clear and vigorous style as a writer.
In 1839 he resigned his professorship, to resume the work of the ministry. For a few months he served as an agent of the American Colonization Society in Western New York. A year or two later he went thence to Ohio,
5od Yale College
and on June 24, 1841, he was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Windham, Portage County. Here he had a large congregation and labored with fidelity and success, until in May, 1850, he took a dismission, with the expectation (which was not realized) of a settlement in Illinois.
His sight had now, however, begun to fail, and his blind- ness in a few years became almost total. His remaining years were spent with his sons, — from 1850 to 1852 with his younger son in Lasalle, Illinois, and from 1852 with his elder son in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his wife died on February 11, 1859.
About the ist of July, 1861, he was stricken with paral- ysis, and he died in Fort Wayne on July 17, in his 78th year.
He had three sons and three daughters, — of whom a son and two daughters died in infancy. The surviving sons were graduated at Middlebury College, in 1838 and 1839 respectively.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Middlebury College in 1845.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from II Cor. ii, 16], delivered April 10, 1810, at the Ordination of the Rev. Daniel Haskel, as Pastor of a Church in Burlington. Burlington, 1810. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from Luke xvi, 15], preached April 16, 1823, at the Ordination of the Rev. Beriah Green, Pastor of the Congrega- tional Church, Brandon. Middlebury, 1823. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
3. A Sermon [from I Cor. vii, 21], delivered before the Ver- mont Colonization Society, at Montpelier, October 18, 1826. Mont- pelier, 1826. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. Mechanical labor combined with study. An Address deliv- ered before the Mechanical Association of Middlebury College,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 507
commencement evening, Aug. 18, 1830. In the American Quarterly Register, Boston, February, 1831, vol. 3, pp. 166-73.
Commending the workshop recently erected at Middlebury.
5. Address; in Addresses delivered at the Inauguration of the Professors of Middlebury College March 18, 1839. Middlebury, 1839. 8°, pp. 47-56.
A plea for the study of English literature.
6. Commemorative Notices of Deceased Alumni of Middlebury College; An Address delivered August 22, 1850. In Addresses and Proceedings at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of Middlebury College. Middlebury, 1850. 8°, pp. 41-101.
He is also believed to have been the author of an anonymous article, published in The Literary and Philosophical Repertory, Middlebury, November, 1813, vol. i, pp. 349-75, with the title:
Review. A history of the Indian Wars with the first settlers of the United States, particularly in New-England.
The reviewer discusses with an extremely caustic pen and extraor- dinary felicity of expression this anonymous History, of which the author is now known to have been the Rev. Daniel C. Sanders (Harvard 1788), President of the University of Vermont. The criticism was so severe that the author withdrew his book from cir- culation, and succeeded in destroying all but a very few copies. Professor Hough's animosity was evidently mainly due to his distrust of the author's Unitarian sympathies, and perhaps also in part to the jealousies between the rival institutions at Middlebury and Burlington.
He was also one of the editors of the sixth volume and sole editor of the seventh volume of The Adviser; or Vermont Evangelical Magazine, Middlebury, 1814-15. 8°.
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin Family, i, 272. Chitten- 394. Lockwood Genealogy, 200, 339-
den, Personal Reminiscences. 285-86. 40, 460. Vermont Qironicle, Nov. 19,
Congregational Quarterly, iii, 378-79. 1861. Wilson, Presbyterian Hist. Al-
Huntington, Hist, of Stamford, 362, manac, 1862, 186-88.
Samuel Hubbard, the youngest child of William and Joanna Hubbard, of Boston, and grandson of Daniel Hub- bard (Yale 1727), was born in Boston on June 2, 1785.
5o8 Yale College
His mother was a daughter of James and Joanna (Mas- carene) Perkins, of Boston, and died in his infancy. He was under the care of his mother's sisters in Boston, until sent to school in 1793 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he lived in the family of the Rev. Dr. John Marsh. Mean- time, his father had married again, in 1789, and removed to Colchester, Connecticut, which later became the son's home. He was prepared for College by a year or more at the Plainfield Academy, under the instruction of Calvin Goddard (Dartmouth Coll. 1786), and entered Yale in January, 1799. His father died in the latter part of his Junior year.
After taking his degree he studied law with Judge Charles Chauncey, in New Haven, and with Charles Jack- son (Harvard 1793), of Boston.
He was admitted to the bar in 1806, and settled in Sep- tember in Biddeford, Maine, where he continued with good success for several years. Early in 181 1 he returned to Boston and formed a professional connection with his former instructor, which lasted until Mr. Jackson's eleva- tion to the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts in 18 13. He soon rose to the highest rank in the profession, both as a counsellor and advocate, and became engaged in extensive and laborious practice.
His legal business brought mercantile business in its train. At the organization of the Suffolk Bank, in 1818, he was made a Director. He continued in this office for twenty-four years, and during this time he was the legal adviser of the bank. He was also President of the bank from April to November, 1825.
He was a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1816-18, 1820, 1821, and 1831, and of the State Senate in 1823, 1824, and 1838. In 1820 he was a member of the Convention for revising the State Constitution.
He gave much of his time to educational and religious interests. In March, 1821, he united with the Park- Street Congregational Church, and thenceforth exerted a
Biographical Sketches, 1802 509
wide influence as a Christian man. He twice declined an election as Deacon. For twenty-two years (1821-43) he was one of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for nine years their chairman. He was a Trustee of the Andover Phillips Academy and Theological Seminary from 1823 to 1843. K^ ^^s the President of the Ameri- can Education Society from 1827 to 1843; ^"^ ^^^ ^^ the founders of the American Tract Society (in 1814), and its Vice President for 1839-42. From 1829 until his death he was a member of the Corporation of Dartmouth College. He was the Vice President of the American Home Missionary Society from its foundation (1827) until his death.
In 1832 his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene, died, leav- ing a very large estate, of which Mr. Hubbard was the principal trustee. The financial distresses of the follow- ing years brought heavy losses, and Mr. Hubbard's want of success in managing the Greene property led to his resigning his trusteeship in 1840. At this time he lost also the greater part of the estate which he had accumu- lated, and ever after he was straitened in his circumstances. During these years he gave up active practice.
In 1842 he was appointed by Governor John Davis (Yale 1812) to succeed Judge Samuel Putnam (Harvard 1787) as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, — a station which he held with honor and usefulness until his death.
He was taken ill while holding court in Northampton, in September, 1847, ^^^ he died at his home in Boston on December 24, in his 63d year.
A sermon preached on the Sunday after his funeral by his pastor, the Rev. Silas Aiken (Dartmouth Coll. 1825), was afterwards published; and a very satisfactory bio- graphical sketch, by his eldest daughter, is included in volume I of the Memorial Biographies of the New Eng- land Historic-Genealogical Society.
5Z0 Yale College
He married on June 8, 1815, his second cousin, Mary- Ann, eldest daughter of Gardiner and EHzabeth (Hub- bard) Greene, of Boston, who died on July 10, 1827, in her 38th year. He next married on October 28, 1828, Mary Ann, second daughter of Elisha and Rebecca (Man- waring) Coit, of New York City, and widow of the Rev. Henry Blatchford (Union Coll. 181 1), who died in 1822. She died in Liverpool, England, on July 20, 1869, in her 72d year.
By his first marriage he had four daughters and one son. The eldest daughter married Edward Buck (Yale
1835).
By his second marriage he had one daughter and five sons. The second son was a Harvard graduate of 1854; and the two youngest sons were graduates of Yale, in 1859 and 1862, respectively.
Judge Hubbard received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale in 1827 and from Harvard in 1842.
An epitaph suggested for his grave, and quoted with approbation by his daughter, reads:
Of an ancient family: of commanding presence: of urbane manners and a kindly heart : learned in the inspired oracles as well as in human law : a sound divine not less than a just judge : active as a philanthropist because earnest as a Christian; he moved with authority among men, and walked with God, and was not, for God took him.
His portrait is given in the Hubbard History and Gene- alogy.
AUTHORITIES.
Chandler Family, 2d ed., 225. alogy, 324-36. N. E. Hist.-Geneal. Chapman, Coit Family, 126, 214. Society's Memorial Biographies, i. Day, Hubbard History and Gene- 86-101.
Nathan Johnson, son of Elisha and Sarah Johnson, of Southborough, Massachusetts, and grandson of Isaac and Rachel (Thomas) Johnson, of Southborough, was born on August 24, 1779, and was prepared for College by the Rev.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 5^'
Dr. Samuel Austin (Yale 1783), of Worcester. In March of the Sophomore year he united with the College Church on profession of his faith.
For two years after he was graduated he taught in East (now South) Windsor, Connecticut, reading theology in the meantime with the Rev. Dr. David McClure (Yale 1769). He then went to Windsor, and resided in Chief Justice Ellsworth's family, instructing his two sons who were graduated here in 1810, and a few other pupils. He was licensed on February 6, 1805, by the Hartford North Association of Ministers, but after preaching once or twice was attacked with bleeding at the lungs and abandoned the idea of following the ministry.
He then studied law with Judge Ellsworth, was admitted to the bar in 1806, and in 1807 settled in Hartford, where he led an active and useful life.
During the War of 1812 he served in the militia as Cap- tain, and was stationed on the Connecticut seaboard. Later he was connected with the 2d Light Artillery Regi- ment as Colonel from 1816 to 1820, and held the rank of Brigadier General of Artillery from 1820 to 1828.
In the political struggle in Connecticut from 18 16 he was a leader of the Toleration party; and after that had triumphed he served as a Representative in the General Assembly for four years (1820-23), and as one of the clerks at each session. He was also a member of the State Senate for five years (1825-29), and ex officio a member of the Yale Corporation from 1826 to 1830. He received an ad eundem Master's degree from Harvard in 1827.
General Johnson took a deep interest in the cause of education, and was active in promoting the success of the public schools.
Besides other distressing infirmities, he suffered after 1842 from a fall which embarrassed him in walking, even about the house.
He died in Hartford on October 12, 1852, in his 74th year.
jia Yale College
He married, on August 17, 1818, Sarah B., daughter of the late Dr. Hezekiah Merrell, of Hartford,
Their children were six daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter married the Rev. William E. Dixon (Wil- liams Coll. 1833) ; the fourth daughter was the mother of James W. Holcombe (Yale 1868) and John M. Holcombe (Yale 1869).
AUTHORITIES.
Southborough Vital Records, 48. i, 127, 183, 588, 594- Trumbull, Hist, of Hartford County,
Sherman Johnson^ son of John Johnson, of Southbor- ough, Massachusetts, and grandson of Isaac and Rachel (Thomas) Johnson, was born in Southborough on August 18, 1776, and was the oldest of the Class at graduation. His mother was Persis, daughter of Ephraim Sherman.
He was prepared for College mainly at the Leicester Academy, and entered after the opening of the Sophomore year. In July of Sophomore year he united with the Col- lege Church on profession of faith.
After graduation he began the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, Connecticut, but completed it under the Rev. Dr. Nathan- ael Emmons (Yale 1767), of Franklin, Massachusetts.
On February 6, 1805, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Second (or Plymouth) Congregational Church in Milford, Connecticut, in which relation he sus- tained the character of a pious and good man. He died there on May 21, 1806, in his 30th year.
He married Sarah (or Sally), the eldest child of Jacob and Rhoda (Humiston) Daggett, of New Haven, and a niece of Captain Henry Daggett (Yale 1771), by whom he had one son, who left children.
Mrs. Johnson spent her later years in the family of her sister, the wife of Judge Bennet Bronson (Yale 1797), of
Biographical Sketches, 1802 513
Waterbury, where she died on November 9, 1852, in her 77th year. She was buried beside her parents in New Haven.
AUTHORITIES.
Blake, Hist of the Mendon Asso- Family, 142, 182. Southborough Vi- ciation, 278-79- Doggett-Daggett tal Records, 49-
John Keep^ the seventh child and youngest son of Sam- uel Keep, a thriving farmer of Longmeadow, Massachu- setts, and grandson of Samuel and Mary (Colton) Keep, of Long-meadow, was born there on April 20, 1781. His mother was Sabina, daughter of Joseph and Experience (Hale) Cooley, of Longmeadow. The Rev. John Keep (Yale .1769) was his uncle, and the Rev. John R. Keep (Yale 1834) his nephew.
For a year after graduation he taught in Bethlehem, Connecticut, at the same time reading theology with the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787). He then continued his theological course with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, and was licensed to preach on June II, 1805, by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers.
Having already received an invitation to supply in Blandford, Massachusetts, he began his work there on the following Sunday; and although the church was divided into warring factions he united all in his favor. He was ordained and installed there on October 30, — the sermon by Mr. Hooker being afterwards published.
He was married, on June 2, 1806, to Lydia, second daughter of Judge Nathan I^ale (Yale 1769), of Goshen.
When the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society was formed (1818), he was elected Secretary, and held that office while he remained in Blandford. He also gave instruction to lads in his own house.
After sixteen years of arduous labor, he received calls to go elsewhere, and decided to leave the parish, although when his decision became known the vote of the congrega- tion was unanimous for his remaining.
33
514 Yale College
In May, 1821, he had two calls before him: — one from the Congregational Church in Homer, Cortland County, New York ; and one from the church in Brunswick, Maine, where the congregation would include the Bowdoin stu- dents, and the preacher would also teach moral philosophy in the College.
He accepted the call to Homer, and was installed on November 7 over a church of four hundred members and a congregation of six hundred. The parish covered an area of ten miles square, and the labor which he assumed was very arduous. Under his leadership, as at Blandford, the church took strong ground for temperance.
Disaffection began to arise in the church in 1828 in con- sequence of a case of discipline; and in 1833, on account of additional disaffection caused by his sympathy with the "new measures" of revivalists, he felt obliged to tender his resignation. He was dismissed on October 3. Five hundred and forty-two members had been added during his pastorate. He was a Trustee of Hamilton College from 1827 to 1834, and of Auburn Theological Seminary from 1832 to 1834.
On leaving Homer he had before him two invitations : — oneto an agency in New England of the American Coloni- zation Society; and one to what is now the First Presby- terian Church in Cleveland, Ohio. He chose the latter, and after preaching there for a year, he with a colony from this church organized what is now the First Congre- gational Church, and was its pastor for two years.
In the spring of 1834 he was elected a Trustee of Ober- lin College and President of the Board. At this time, although but fifty- three years of age, he began to be called ''Father Keep," by which title he was ever after endeared to Oberlin. He had long been opposed to slavery, and active in behalf of the colored race; and soon after his election as President of the Oberlin Trustees, he gave the casting vote which determined the admission of col- ored students to that institution.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 515
In June, 1836, he resigned his pastoral charge to accept the financial agency of Oberlin, but his success was inter- rupted by the monetary crisis of 1837, and he resumed preaching in Ohio and New York, for two years. In May, 1839, he went to England to secure funds for Oberlin, in company with another Trustee, and after eighteen months' labor brought back $30,000, which saved the College from bankruptcy.
He then resumed preaching in Ohio for ten years : — in Mansfield, during 1841 ; in Hartford, for over four years; and after that in Arcade, New York, and Litchfield.
In 1850 he made Oberlin his permanent home and again became financial agent, raising $90,000 by the sale of scholarships. His gifts to the College and to benevolent causes were far beyond those of many persons who had much larger resources.
He was a man of vigorous constitution, and of great energy and perseverance. After a lifetime of entire health, he died in Oberlin, of old age, on February 11, 1870, in his 89th year. He was the last survivor of his Class. An Historical Sketch of his Life, presented at his funeral by President J. H. Fairchild, was afterwards pub- lished.
His wife died in Oberlin on August 10, 1865, in her 85 th year.
Their only child was graduated at Yale in 1832.
Father Keep's portrait, from a photograph taken a short time before his death, is given in the Keep Genealogy.
He published :
1. Motives for Well-doing. A Sermon [from II Thess iii, 13], delivered in Northampton, August 24, 181 5, before the Hampshire Missionary Society, at their Annual Meeting. Northampton, 1815. 8°, pp. 24.
[A, A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. The character and design of the Church. A Sermon [from Ps. 1, 2], delivered, in Stockbridge, July 23d, 1817, at the Ordination
5i6 Yale College
of the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, as an Evangelist. Stockbridge, 1817. 4°> PP- 18. [C. H. S. Y. C.
3. Nature and Operations of Christian Benevolence. — A Ser- mon [from II Cor. xi, 29], delivered Oct. 21, 1818, before the Directors of the Domestic Missionary Society, of Massachusetts proper, at their first meeting in Northampton. Northampton, 1818. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. A Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Congregational Church in Homer, Cortland County, N. Y. ; with Remarks. Homer, 1833. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. M. H. S. U. T. S.
5. Keep's Reply to the Strictures of the Journal and Telegraph upon his Narrative. Homer, 1833. 8°, pp. 12.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
6. An Address [from Isa. lix, 14-15], delivered December 22, 1837, in the Village of Lockport, N. Y., commemorative of the Martyrdom of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy. . . November 7, 1837. Lock- port, 1838. 12°, pp. 22. [B. Ath. U. T. S.
7. Moral Influence. — A Sermon [from Isa. xxviii, 10], preached October 25, 1838, at the Installation of the Rev. D. N. Merritt, as Pastor of the Congregational Church in Riga, Monroe Co., N. Y. Rochester, 1839. 8°, pp. 30.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S.
8. Congregationalism, and Church-action: with the Principles of Christian Union, etc. New York, 1845. 12°, pp. 143.
[Br. Mus. Y. C. In part, a justification of the theological position of Oberlin, and an exposition of the guilt of slave-holding.
9. Recollections of the origin of the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions. In Memorial Volume of the first fifty years of the A. B. C. F. M. Boston, 1861, 8°, pp. 51-55.
Mr. Keep was present at the Jubilee Meeting of the Board in i860, being the only survivor present of the members of the Gen- eral Association of Massachusetts in 1810; and read these Recol- lections.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 517
10. Sketches of the religious life and faith of Mrs. Lydia Hale Keep of Oberlin. By her Husband. — With Remarks by her Pas- tor, Rev. C. G. Finney. Oberlin, 1866. 16°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. Harv. Y. C.
After his death was published :
A Discourse [from Deut. xxxii, 7] delivered at Blandford, Mass., Tuesday, March 20th, 1821. Giving some account of the early settlement of the Town and history of the Church. — Printed from a recently discovered manuscript copy. Ware, 1886. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Best, Keep Genealogy, 35, 61-65. nial, Appendix, 66, 72-73. Wood,
Descendants of Nathaniel Ely, 41, 90. Taverns and Turnpikes of Bland-
Hotchkin, Hist, of Western N. Y., ford, 120-21, 161-62, 172, 226-27. 421-22, 514. Longmeadow Centen-
Sheldon Clark Leavitt, the son of David and Lucy Leavitt, of Bethlehem, Connecticut, and grandson of David Leavitt, was born in Bethlehem on January 7, 1785, and was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787). His mother was the elder daughter of Sheldon and Betty (Keeney) Clark, of Oxford. His classmates Haskel and Hough married his sisters.
After graduation he returned to Bethlehem, and from the time of his father's death, in January, 1807, he devoted himself principally to the care of the large estate left to the family, and spent his life in their service.
He was the Representative of the town in the sessions of the General Assembly for October, 18 15, May, 18 17, 1820, 1822, 1824, 1825, and 1828. In 1834 he was a can- didate of the Anti-Masonic party for Congress.
In 1837 he removed to Brooklyn, New York, and made his home there with his mother and his sister, Mrs. Haskel, being the most devoted of sons and brothers.
In the fall of i860 he took a journey to the West, and on his return was taken ill at the house of a nephew (John Hough, Junior) in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he died on November 4, in his 76th year. He was never married.
5i8 Yale College
RoswELL William Lewis, a son of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765), was born in Wilton, Connecticut, in 1783. His father removed to a church in Greenwich, in 1786, where he prepared this son for College.
He became a lawyer and settled in New York City, where he married Sarah, daughter of Captain John Rooke, on March 29, 1814.
He was for a year or two Judge of the Marine Court.
He died very suddenly, from apoplexy, in New York, on December 17, 1829, aged 46 years, and is buried in Green- wich.
His wife survived him, with their children, one daughter and three sons.
John Nelson Lloyd, the only son of John Lloyd, Junior, of Lloyd's Neck, in Oyster Bay, Long Island, and grandson of John and Sarah (Woolsey) Lloyd, of Lloyd's Neck, was born there on December 30, 1783. His mother was Amelia, daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer White (Yale 1733), of Danbury, Connecticut. His father died in 1792, and -his grandfather Lloyd in 1795, so that young Lloyd, as the heir to a large landed estate, was perhaps the wealth- iest member of the Class. As an undergraduate he espe- cially excelled in declamation. He united with the College Church in January of his Junior year.
After taking his degree he retired to his estate and took the general oversight of it. He spent, however, much of his time in New York City, where he was for a while con- nected with George Fitch (Yale 1801) in the fur trade.
He married, on February 18, 181 5, Phoebe T., daughter of General Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Townsend) Coles, of Dosoris, Long Island, who died in New York, on June 20, 1823, in her 33d year.
In the latter part of his life he sank into a deep melan- choly, in which he continued for about four months before
Biographical Sketches, 1802 519
his death, which occurred in the city of New York on May 31, 1841, in his 58th year. He was buried in the family vault at Lloyd's Neck.
His children were two sons and two daughters. The elder daughter married Dr. Alexander H. Stevens (Yale
1807).
An account of the Lloyd family, from his Journal, 1838, was printed in 1884 in Memoranda concerning Lloyd's Neck by his granddaughter, Mrs. Schmidt.
AUTHORITIES.
Dzvight, Strong Family, i, 636. Thompson, Hist, of Long Island, N. Y. Geneal. Record, v, 18-19. 2d ed., i, 494.
Jonathan [Huntington] Lyman, the only son sur- viving infancy of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman (Yale 1767) and Hannah (Huntington) Lyman, of Hatfield, Massa- chusetts, was born in Hatfield on June 13, 1783. He him- self assumed his middle name after graduation, out of regard for his mother's, family. He was prepared for College with remarkable thoroughness by his father.
He remained in New Haven after taking his degree as the Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School for three years, and having meantime read law with Judge Charles Chauncey, he began practice in his native town; but removed in 1807 or 1808 to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he spent the rest of his life.
He had a high standing at the bar, and was a useful cit- izen. He was often a Representative in the General Court, and at the time of his early death was Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions, and County Attorney.
He died in Northampton on November 3, 1825, in his 43d year. The inscription over his grave fitly describes him as "an enterprising and useful citizen, of high intel- lectual powers, and accomplished education, . . distin- guished alike by private affection and public regard."
522 Yale College
eloquent and impressive orator, with a most genial dispo- sition, always accompanied with sincere piety. He published :
1. Poems, Philadelphia and Baltimore, 1812. 12°, pp. 144.
[Harv. The same. Philadelphia, 1816. 18°, pp. 168. [Br. Mus.
The volume is dedicated to President Dwight.
A few selections are printed (pp. 173-87) in Specimens of the American Poets; with critical Notices. Lon- don, 1822. 12°.
2. An Oration on the Improvement of the People, spoken before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Hampden Sydney Col- lege, at the third Anniversary Meeting, . . on Thursday, September 28, 1826. Norfolk, 1826. 8°, pp. 52. [Y. C.
A plea for better education in Virginia.
3. An Oration commemorative of the Rev. John Holt Rice, D.D. . . Richmond, 1832. 8°, pp. 33. [U. S.
4. A Memoir of the Rev. John H. Rice, D.D. . . Philadelphia, 1835. 12°, pp. vii, 412 -f pi.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sem. Y. C.
He found a congenial labor during his later years in editing the following :
The Virginia Historical Register and Literary Advertiser [or. Note Book, or. Companion]. Richmond, 1848-53. 6 vols. 8°.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. S. Y. C.
A quarterly journal, chiefly designed for the publication of the proceedings of the Virginia Historical Society.
A volume published at Baltimore in 1816 (16°, pp. 220), with the title. Letters from Virginia, Translated from the French, has been ascribed to Mr. Maxwell, but is believed to have been written by Professor George Tucker.
AUTHORITIES.
Forrest, Hist. Sketches of Nor- cal Magazine, i, 75-76. Virginia folk and vicinity, 202-04. Histori- Historical Reporter, ii, 5-6.
Mark Mead was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on November 6, 1782, the son of Jonas Mead, and nephew of
Biographical Sketches, 1802 523
Abraham Mead (Yale 1739). His mother was Sarah, daughter of Captain Isaac Howe, of Greenwich. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis (Yale 1765). He united with the College Church in July of the Sophomore year, on profession of his faith.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and the Rev. Dr. John Smalley (Yale 1756), of Berlin, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association of Ministers in June, 1804.
He was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congre- gational Church in Middlebury, Connecticut, in November, 1809, and served in that office until March, 1830. During his pastorate 124 persons joined that church on profession of their faith.
His later engagements were all transient. Thus, he supplied the church at Grassy Hill in Lyme, from July, 1833, to July, 1836. In 1839 he returned to his native town, and from July, 1 841, to January, 1844, he was acting pastor of the church in Weston.
He died in Greenwich on August 8, 1864, in his 82d year.
He married, on November 14, 1804, Hannah, younger daughter of Zaccheus and Deborah (Close) Mead, of (West) Greenwich, who died on April 25, 1873, aged 90 years.
Their children were two sons, the younger of whom was graduated from the Yale Medical Department in 1829.
Mr. Mead was a man of great purity and excellence of character.
AUTHORITIES. Anderson, Churches of Mattatuck, 155. Mead Family, 248-49, 454.
Samuel Merwin, son of Miles and Abigail (Beach) Merwin, of Milford, Connecticut, was born in Milford on March 21, and was baptized by the Rev. Samuel Wales
524 Yale College
(Yale 1767) on July 22, 1781. He was prepared for Col- lege by his pastor, the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo. In July of his Senior year he united with the College Church on pro- fession of his faith.
Immediately after graduation he began the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, but in 1803 transferred himself to the care of President Dwight.
On February i, 1804, he was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers; and early in July following he began to supply the United Society (later occupying the North Church) in New Haven, then having about 150 members. He was ordained and installed as their pastor on February 13, 1805, on a salary of $700, which was afterwards raised by successive addi- tions to $1,000; the sermon on the occasion was preached by President Dwight.
On October 22, 1805, he was married to Clarina Brad- ley, daughter of Colonel Timothy Taylor, of Danbury.
On December 29, 183 1, he was dismissed from his pas- torate, at his own request, owing to want of health and strength for longer service in so prominent a position. Over 800 persons had been added to the church during his ministry.
On February 23, 1832, he was installed as pastor of the Congregational Church in Wilton, Connecticut; but his health did not improve as he had hoped, and he insisted upon a dismission on September 25, 1838.
He then returned to New Haven, where he spent the rest of his life. For a time he gave instruction to young men in his own house, and he also gave much time to vol- untary pastoral service among the poor. For years he conducted Sunday worship in the Chapel of the Almshouse.
Some time before his death paralysis impaired his physi- cal strength. He died in New Haven on September 3, 1856, in his 76th year. His widow died here on Feb- ruary 15, 1859, aged 70 years.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 525
They had two sons (graduates of Yale in 1827 and 1839, respectively) and five daughters, all of whom sur- vived him.
The eldest daughter married the Rev. Joseph D. Wick- ham (Yale 1816) ; the second married the Rev. George I. Wood (Yale 1833) ; the third married the Hon. Charles Marvin (Yale 1823) ; the fourth married the Rev. Clin- ton Clark (Amherst Coll. 1835) ; and the youngest mar- ried the Rev. Gordon Hall (Yale 1843).
Mr. Merwin was a man of a remarkably meek, gentle, and patient spirit ; notably gifted in prayer, but considered a dull preacher. He is commemorated by a tablet in the present United Church, and by a portrait in their Chapel.
He published :
1, A Missionary Sermon [from Isa. xxxv, i], delivered in the North Presbyterian Church, in Hartford, on the evening of May 17, 1814; at the request of the Trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. Hartford, 1814. 8°, pp. 15.
[B. Ath. C. H. S. Y. C.
2. A Discourse [from Num. xxiii, 23, and Ps. xliv, i] on the Completion of Fifty Years Service in the Ministry of the Gospel; delivered by request, in the North Church, New Haven, February 25th, 1855. New Haven, 1855. 8°, pp. 72.
[B. Publ. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Embellished with the engraved portrait of the author.
Mr. Merwin and the pastor of the First Church (Nathaniel W. Taylor) printed in the Christian Spectator for January, 1821, vol- ume 3, pp. 49-52, an account of the Recent Revival in New Haven.
AUTHORITIES.
Congregational Year Book, 1857, Discourse, 1892, 34-35, 45. Willard, 1 18-19. Button, Hist, of the North isoth Anniversary of Wilton Con- Church, 86-88. Munger, Historical gregational Church, 57-60.
Howard Mitchelson was born in Simsbury, Connect- icut, in 1779.
He studied medicine in Cheshire, and was duly licensed to practice by the Connecticut Medical Society.
526 Yale College
He opened a drug store in New Haven, where he remained until 1807, when he went to England, for the purpose of purchasing medical supplies in London; but in consequence of the embargo he was detained there and resumed his occupation as a druggist.
In 18 1 3 he returned to this country, and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. In 18 14 he went to Gothen- borg, Sweden, where he chartered a vessel, loaded her with silks, and embarked for Amelia Island, Florida. The ship encountered violent storms, and after a long and peri- lous experience was brought into Georgetown, on the South Carolina coast. Here both vessel and cargo were seized under the embargo laws. The former was released ; but the latter, valued at about $70,000, Dr. Mitchelson gave bonds for, and then sold for about $100,000.
The case was taken to the United State Supreme Court, and when a decision was reached it was in favor of the government; but in the mean time Dr. Mitchelson had died, in Charleston, on August 4, 18 17, at the age of 38. He was unmarried.
Ebenezer Moseley, the third child and elder son of Colonel Ebenezer Moseley (Yale 1763) and, Martha (Strong) Moseley, of Hampton, Connecticut, was born in Hampton on November 21, 1781. His College course was interrupted for a time by a threatening of pulmonary dis- ease, but he recovered, and maintained his rank as a high scholar.
After graduation he studied law for one year with Judge Charles Chauncey, of New Haven, for a second year with Judge Jabez Clark, of Windham, and for a third year with Judge Samuel Hinckley (Yale 1781), who had married one of his mother's sisters.
Towards the close of the year 1805 he decided to settle in Newburyport, Massachusetts, then in the full tide of prosperity, and he soon entered on a large and lucrative practice, and received many students into his office.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 527
As time passed, he gradually withdrew from the active duties of the profession. He was vested, however, with various offices of public honor and trust, and in all served faithfully and acceptably. He welcomed LaFayette, on his visit to Newburyport, as chairman of the Board of Select- men; was president of the day on the occasion of the celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the set- tlement of Newbury ; and was often commissioned to rep- resent the town in an official capacity. In 18 13-14 he was Colonel of the Sixth regiment of militia. From 1816 to 1820 and from 1834 to 1836 he was a Representative in the General Court of Massachusetts and in 1821-22 a member of the Senate. For many years he was Master in chancery for the County, and in 1832 Presidential Elector, voting for Henry Clay.
He took much interest in agricultural improvement, and was for some years President of the Essex Agricultural Society.
He died in Newburyport very suddenly on August 28, 1854, in his 73d year.
On June 17, 1810, he married Mary Ann, daughter of Edward Oxnard (Harvard 1767) and Mary (Fox) Oxnard, of Portland, Maine, who died on March 9, 1840, in her 54th year.
Their children were four sons, of whom one died early, and two daughters. The eldest son was educated at Yale (Class of 1833), and the second son at Harvard (Class of 1836). The elder daughter married the Rev. Dr. Artemas B. Muzzey (Harvard 1824).
AUTHORITIES. Dwight, Strong Family, ii, 1197, 1 199-1200. Moseley Family, 33-42.
Cyrus Pearce, the youngest of eight children of Nathan Pearce, of Southbury, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Comfort (Jenners) Pearce, was baptized on April II, 1782. His mother was Mabel, daughter of
528 Yale College
Samuel and Abigail Wheeler, of Southbury. He was prepared for College, in part at least, by Moses Stuart (Yale 1799) in Easton; and entered at the beginning of the Junior year. Though of uncultured manners, he had a mind of more than common versatility and power, and much poetical genius.
In the summer of Junior year he delivered at a meeting of the Class a satirical poem called The Yaliad, descriptive of his classmates, which was circulated widely in manu- script and is even now very amusing reading.
In the spring of his Senior year he was attacked with consumption, which resulted in his death, at Southbury, on November 3 (or 13), 1802, in his 21st year. He was thus the first of the Class to die.
AUTHORITIES. Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 671.
Pelatiah Perit_, the younger son of John and Ruth (Webster) Perit, of Norwich, Connecticut, was born in Norwich on June 2^, 1785. His brother was graduated here in 1801. He was prepared for College, in part at the Pennsylvania Academy, in Philadelphia, and in part at the Hopkins Grammar School, in New Haven. He united with the College Church on profession of faith in July of his Senior year.
Immediately upon graduation, though only 17 years of age, he established in his native place a school for youth of both sexes, in which he was entirely successful. He was then expecting to spend his life in the ministry of the gospel. But a partial failure of his health, and especially of his voice, led to a reconsideration of his purpose. After a year of teaching, therefore, he began as a clerk in a large importing-house (Rhodes & Co.) in Philadelphia, with which he remained until 1809, having in the mean- while made several voyages to the West Indies and South America.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 529
He then removed to New York City, and on September 6 of that year was married to Jerusha, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Lydia (Hubbard) Latjirop, of Norwich, and niece of Daniel Lathrop (Yale 1787).
In 18 1 7 he became a partner in the shipping firm of Goodhue & Co., extensively engaged in foreign commerce, in which he continued until its dissolution at the end of 1 86 1. His high standing as a merchant was soon widely recognized, and wherever known he was respected for his ability and integrity and large knowledge of commer- cial affairs.
From May, 1853, to May, 1863, he was President of the New York Chamber of Commerce. In 1857, when the peace of the city was endangered by riotous assemblages, and party faction prevented an organization of the police, he was chosen by common consent to fill a vacancy in the Board of Police Commissioners, and rendered at much personal sacrifice an important service in restoring the public security.
Throughout his life he was an active supporter of the institutions of Christian benevolence. In especial, he was zealously interested in the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was Presi- dent for many years of the American Seamen's Friend Society, and of the Seamen's Savings Bank in New York. As President of the Chamber of Commerce, he was ex officio a Trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island, and took a lively interest in that charity. He was a Trustee of the Union Theological Seminary from 1836 to 1857, and of the New York University from 1839 to
1854.
His wife died on October 18, 1821, in her 33d year, and was buried in Norwich ; and he next married, in 1825, her second cousin, Maria, daughter of Daniel Lathrop Coit, of Norwich, and a sister of the wife of Professor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799).
In 1836, for reasons of health, he removed his residence to Bloomingdale, on the Hudson, then a suburb of the 34
530 Yale College
city. His house was near the large Orphan Asylum of New York, and he watched over the welfare of its inmates with incessant kindness, perhaps the greater for never having had children of his own.
In 1859, in consideration of his advancing age, he determined, notwithstanding the unimpaired vigor of his bodily and mental powers, to withdraw gradually from business engagements. At that time he retired to New Haven, where he erected a handsome residence on Hill- house Avenue, and to occupy his leisure devoted himself to "the collection of materials for a History of the Com- merce, Finance, and progressive Wealth of the United States, since the close of the Revolutionary War, with Sketches of the eminent Merchants who have contributed largely to the national prosperity." He was, however, only beginning to reduce his materials to a form suitable for publication, when his death occurred, in New Haven, on March 8, 1864, in his 79th year.
His widow died in New Haven, on March 31, 1885, in her 92d year.
The Proceedings of the New York Chamber of Com- merce on his death were published (New York, 1864, 8°,
pp. 15)-
A discourse commemorative of his life, by his pastor,
the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon (Yale 1820), was the basis
of an article by the same hand in the Merchants' Magazine
for April, 1864. This was accompanied by an engraved
portrait, from a photograph. An earlier portrait, painted
about 1835, is owned by the College.
By Mr. Perit's will the College received, at the death
of his widow, the sum of $15,000, which has been applied
to the endowment of a Professorship of Political and
Social Science.
AUTHORITIES.
Bill Family, i8i. Chapman, Coit Merchants' Magazine, April, 1864, Family, 58. Huntington, Lathrop 1, 245-54. Family Memoir, 74, 146. Hunt's
Biographical Sketches, 1802 S31
Charles Hobby Pond, the elder son of Charles Pond, of Milford, Connecticut, a Captain in the Revolutionary- army, and grandson of Captain Peter and Mary (Hub- bard) Pond, of Milford, was born on April 26, 1781. His mother was Martha, daughter of John and Martha (Smith) Miles, of Milford. His middle name was the family name of the mother of his grandmother Pond. An elder sister married Abraham V. H. DeWitt (Yale 1785). He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo, and the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem. He was distinguished in College for great muscular strength and for an uncommon vein of wit.
After graduation he studied law with the Hon. Roger M. Sherman (Yale 1792), of Fairfield, and was admitted to the bar in Fairfield County, but never practiced.
About this time his health was somewhat impaired, and he took a voyage to restore it. Having made this begin- ning, he followed the sea for several years, first as super- cargo in his father's vessels, and then as Captain.
After his retirement from the sea, he became prominent as a Jeffersonian Democrat.
He was for one year (1818-19) an Associate Judge of the New Haven County Court, and Sheriff of the County from 18 19 to 1834, when he voluntarily relinquished his commission and again retired to his paternal estate in Mil- ford. In 1836 and 1837 he was once more an Associate Justice of the County Court.
In April, 1850, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State, and was twice re-elected, with an interval of one year (1851-52). While holding this office he became acting Governor, in June, 1853, by the appointment of Governor Thomas H. Seymour as Minister to Russia, and discharged this duty, like all other public and private duties, with fidelity and acceptance, until the expiration of his term in May, 1854. The remainder of his days were spent in private life, though he was known to be in political
532 Yale College
sympathy with the pro-slavery Democrats. He died in Milford, in the house in which he was born, after an illness of several weeks, on April 28, 1861, at the age of 80.
In 1808 he married Catharine Dickinson, of Milford, who died on November 25, 1853, aged 68 years.
Their children were one son, wht) died near the end of his Sophomore year in College, in June, 1828, and six daughters, of whom only the two youngest survived them.
A copy of Governor Pond's portrait (in the State House at Hartford) is given in Norton's Governors of Connecticut.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Magazine, x, 168, 170-71. N. v, 48-49. Norton, Governors of Haven Colony Hist. Society's Papers, Conn., 223-26.
Charles Prentice^ son of John and Martha (Clement) Prentice, of Bethlehem, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and grandson of Christopher and Betsey (Terrill) Pren- tice, was born in Bethlehem in 1778.
He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787).
After graduation he studied theology with his pastor's uncle, the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers, and was licensed to preach in 1803 by the Litch- field South Association of Ministers.
He married on June 5, 1804, Clarissa, third daughter of James and Reliance (Hatch) Kasson, of Bethlehem, and on September 20, was ordained pastor of the Congre- gational Church in (South) Canaan, in his native county.
His wife died of consumption on May 25, 1805, in her 28th year; and he next married, on November 24, 1807, Clarinda Parmelee, of Goshen.
Mr. Prentice remained in Canaan through his life ; and died there, after a year of great suffering from a chronic disease of the stomach, on May 29, 1838, at the age of sixty. His wife long survived him.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 533
By his first marriage he had one son, who was grad- uated at Yale in 1832, and entered the ministry. By his second marriage he had nine children, two of whom died in infancy ; four daughters and three sons survived him.
He was small and rather feeble in physique, but a man of devoted piety and uncommon gift in prayer.
AUTHORITIES.
Centennial Anniversary of Litch- 96, 222-26. Cothren, Hist, of Wood- field County Consociations, 121-23. bury, i, 4SS-S6, 603, 673. Conn. Evangelical Magazine, vi, 185-
Aaron Burr Reeve^ the only child of the Hon. Tapping Reeve (Princeton Coll. 1763), of Litchfield, Connecticut, and grandson of the Rev. Abner Reeve (Yale 1731), was born in Litchfield on October 3, 1780. His mother was Sally, only daughter of the Rev. Aaron Burr (Yale 1735), and sister of that Aaron Burr who was, while this Class were in College, a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He was well prepared for College by the 'Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem, Connecticut, but did not apply himself steadily to the work of the course. He studied law in Litchfield, and began practice in Troy, New York, with flattering prospects of success.
He married in Litchfield, on November 21, 1808, Anna- bella Shedden, a native of New York City, of Scotch parentage; and died in Troy on September i, 1809, at the age of 29. They had one son, who died, just as he was about to take his degree at Yale in 1829.
Mrs. Reeve next married, on April 12, 18 12, David Judson Burr, of Richmond, Virginia, and died on January II, 1849, ii^ her 62d year. A son by her second marriage was graduated at Yale in 1839.
AUTHORITIES.
Todd, Burr Family, 2d ed., 137, Genealogical Register of Litchfield, 197. Tuttle Family, 386. Ward Fam- 182-83. ily Genealogy, 64, 113. Woodruff,
534 Yale College
Erastus Scranton, the eldest in a family of eleven children of Theophilus Scranton, a farmer of East Guil- ford, now Madison, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Ichabod and Chloe (Fowler) Scranton, of Madison, was born on August i, 1777. His mother was Abigail, sec- ond daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Bartlett) Lee,, of Madison. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. John Elliott (Yale 1786).
After graduation he taught for six months a grammar- school in Rocky Hill, a parish in Wethersfield, and then returned to Madison and studied theology with Dr. Elliott.
He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Asso- ciation of Ministers on February i, 1804, and having received a unanimous call to become the first pastor of the Congregational Church just formed (March, 1805) in the North part of Milford, now Orange, he was ordained and installed there on July 4, 1805. Here he remained pastor over twenty years, and proved himself a faithful and use- ful minister, the Society being greatly prospered under his care.
He was dismissed at his own request on January 2, 1827, after which he preached in Wolcott, as stated supply from June, 1827, to July 1829. He left because of insuf- ficient support, — receiving less than $300 a year.
He then accepted a unanimous call to the Congregational Church in Burlington, and was installed there on January 2, 1830, with an annual salary of $400. After ten years' service he was dismissed on May 2y, 1840.
He continued to reside in Burlington, occasionally preaching in neighboring churches, and also laboring as an agent of the Connecticut Bible Society for about four years. He died in Burlington on October 5, 1861, in his 85th year, and was buried in his native place.
He married, on April 10, 1806, Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Newton and Elizabeth (Northrop) Prudden, of Milford, who was born on February 3, 1785.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 535
They had no children, but adopted a niece of Mrs. Scranton, who married the Rev. Gardner S. Brown (Dart- mouth Coll. 1834).
He published :
A Genealogical Register of the Descendants of John Scranton of Guilford, Conn., who died in the year 1671. Hartford, 1855. 8°, pp. 104. [B. Ath. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. S. Y. C.
He also left in manuscript a History of Milford.
Selections from his Journal while in Wolcott are printed in Orcutt's History of that town.
AUTHORITIES.
"Connecticut," Jan., 1897, vii, 3-4. Anniversary of ist Church, Milford, Orcutt, Hist, of Wolcott, 102-08. 124-25. Scranton Genealogy, 30, 41-42. 250th
Ulysses Selden, the only son of Captain Ezra Selden, Junior (Yale 1773), of (North) Lyme, Connecticut, was born in Lyme in 1780. His father dying in his infancy from a wound received in the Revolutionary War, he was brought up at his grandfather's house in Hamburg Society, North Lyme. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Frederick W. Hotchkiss (Yale 1778), of Saybrook.
After studying law in Litchfield, he opened an office and began practice in Norwich. A pulmonary consumption becoming seated upon him, he retired to the house of his uncle in North Lyme, where he died on January 24, 18 12, in his 32d year. He was unmarried.
AUTHORITIES. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 581-82.
Charles Shelton, the eldest son of Agur Shelton, of Huntington, Connecticut, was born in Huntington on July 16, 1782. His mother was Abigail, daughter of the Rev. Christopher Newton (Yale 1740), of Huntington, and his
536 Yale College
father was a brother of the Rev. Philo Shelton (Yale 1775). He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Huntington.
After graduation he read theology for a time, with some design of entering the ministry of the Episcopal Church, to which his family adhered; subsequently, however, he studied medicine with his second cousin. Dr. William Shel- ton (Yale 1788), an eminent practitioner in Huntington.
He settled as a physician in Cheshire, and enjoyed a large practice. Besides attending to the duties of his pro- fession, he was for several years a Selectman and Justice of the Peace, was a Representative in the General Assem- bly during five sessions in 1811-17, and again in 1830, and at the time of his death was a State Senator.
He died in Cheshire, after a few days' illness, from quinsy, on August 28, 1832, in his 51st year.
He married, on May 9, 18 13, Lucinda, daughter of Dr. Thomas Tryon and Lucinda (Foot) Cornwall, of Cheshire, who died on January 21, 1872, aged 76 years, at her daugh- ter's house, in Kingston, New York.
Their children were two sons and a daughter, all of whom lived to maturity.
AUTHORITIES.
Cornwall Family, 34. Orcutt, Hist, union, 82. Ward Family Genealogy, of Stratford, ii, 1281. Shelton Re- 106, 174.
Nathan Shelton^ the youngest son in a family of ten children of Andrew Shelton, of Huntington, Connecticut, and a first cousin of his classmate, just noticed, was born in Huntington on June 6, 1784. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Nathan and Comfort (Thompson) Booth, of Huntington. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Ely, with his cousin.
He studied medicine for about a year in Newtown, under Dr. Gideon Shepherd, and then in Huntington with Dr. William Shelton, and was authorized to practice by a
Biographical Sketches, 1802 537
Committee of the Medical Society of Connecticut, though he afterwards (in 1805-06) attended further lectures in the Medical Department of Columbia College, New York.
In the fall of 1806 he settled in Jamaica, Long Island, where he had an extensive practice. The honorary degree of M.D. was conferred on him by Yale College in 1835.
Towards the close of his life he gave up his practice to one of his sons who lived near him, and spent a happy old age in Jamaica, where he died on July 25, 1864, having just entered on his 8ist year.
He married, on July i, 1812, Eliza Henrietta, eldest daughter of Frederick William and Mary (Dundas) Star- man, who died on February 23, 1828, aged 38 years. He next married, on October 28, 1831, Mary Ann Sophia, a younger sister of his first wife, who died on October 11, 1839, aged 45 years.
By his first marriage he had nine children, of whom six died in infancy ; the two sons who survived were graduated at Princeton College in 1834 and 1836, respectively; one became an Episcopal clergyman, and the other a physician. By his second marriage he had one son, who died in early childhood.
AUTHORITIES.
Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1280. Family Genealogy, 105, 173. Shelton Reunion, 7^, 7^-77- Ward
David Austin Sherman, the second son of John and Rebecca (Austin) Sherman, of New Haven, and grand- son of the Hon. Roger Sherman, was born in New Haven, on December 10, 1781, and was baptized on September 29. He was named for his uncle, the Rev. David Austin (Yale 1779). Two of his brothers were graduated here, in 1792 and 1803 respectively. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he spent two years in New Haven, in the study of general literature. From 1804 to 1810 he
538 Yale College
was a Tutor in the College. He also studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Associa- tion of Ministers on September 29, 1812.
On October 6, 18 13, he was married by the Rev. Ira Hart (Yale 1797) to Mary Ann, elder daughter of Major Paul and Nancy (Bell) Babcock, of Stonington, Connect- icut, and granddaughter of Colonel Henry Babcock (Yale 1752) ; she became deranged and died on August 3, 181 5, in her 24th year, leaving a son.
From the fall of 181 5 to the fall of 18 16 he was precep- tor of Bacon Academy, in Colchester, at the same time preaching more or less in the vicinity.
In 1820 he assumed the Presidency of the East Ten- nessee College, at Knoxville. He remained there until 1825, when he retired in consequence of impaired health.
Afterwards he taught belles lettres and philology in the Polytechnic School at Chittenango, New York.
Later, he made his home for some time with a brother, Deacon Charles Sherman, of Suffield, Connecticut, preach- ing as he had opportunity (as, in 1835-36 in Poquonock Society in Windsor).
On May 8, 1840, he was ordained in New Haven, as an evangelist, to accept a commission from the American Home Missionary Society, with his station at East Troy, about thirty miles west of Racine, Wisconsin. He labored there with great usefulness until his health failed in the latter part of 1843. He died in Racine, on December 16, aged 62. His son died before him, unmarried.
AUTHORITIES.
Home Missionary, February, 1844, Record, xlii, 41. Wheeler, Hist, of xvi, 221. N. Y. Geneal. and Biogr. Stonington, 218.
Junius Smith, the third son of General David Smith, a Major in the Revolution, of Plymouth, then part of Watertown, Connecticut, was born on October 2, 1780. His mother was Ruth, elder daughter of Captain Aaron
Biographical Sketches, 1802 539
and Experience (King) Hitchcock, of Suffield. A brother was graduated here in 1806. He was prepared for Wil- liams College by the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem; but entered Yale during Sophomore year. He joined the College Church on profession of faith in July, 1802.
After graduation he studied law in Litchfield, and began practice in New Haven with prospects of success. In 1805 he was employed by the owners of the ship Mohawk, of New Haven, which had been seized and condemned as a prize, to prosecute an appeal before the Admiralty Court in London, involving a claim against the government for a large amount. He was detained in England for four years by this business, and had meantime engaged in com- merce there, as a representative of the firm of Tallmadge, Smith & Co., of New York. Late in 18 10 he visited Amer- ica, but soon returned.
He conducted a prosperous business for many years, but afterwards met with heavy losses. Beginning with 1832 he devoted himself with great zeal to the project of transatlantic steam navigation. He sailed for New York in August of that year, to press this project on the attention of the merchants, but met with the opposition of incre- dulity, and returned to London in December.
He endeavored, but in vain, to enlist the support of the London and Edinburgh Steam Navigation Company, whose steam vessels were the largest then afloat. In June, 1835, he issued a prospectus of a company for the construc- tion of ocean steamships, with a capital of f 100,000; but not a single share was taken. At length, after numerous discouragements, the British and American Steam Navi- gation Company was finally organized by him in 1836, and the Sirius, the first vessel to steam her way across the Atlantic, arrived in New York on the morning of April 23, 1838.
He came to America in 1839, and was received with hearty congratulations, as the pioneer in pressing and
540 YcUe College
demonstrating the oracticability of ocean steam naviga- tion. Yale conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1840,
Finding his anticipation of pecuniary return from this enterprise disappointing, he turned his attention to the cul- tivation of the tea-plant in the United States. In a visit to China he had become convinced that tea could be success- fully raised here ; and he purchased, about 1843, ^^ exten- sive plantation in Greenville, South Carolina, where he proceeded to propagate the plant.
While thus engaged he received in February, 1852, an injury to the skull, from which he never recovered. He spent his last days at the house of a nephew in Astoria, Long Island, where he died on January 22, 1853, in his 73d year.
He married, on April 9, 18 12, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Smith, Esquire, of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, Eng- land, who died on June 5, 1836. Their only child married the Rev. Edward Knieht Maddock (Cambridge Univ.
1833). He published :
1. . An Oration, pronounced at Hartford, before the Society of the Cincinnati, for the State of Connecticut, . . July 4th, 1804. Hartford, 1804. 8°, pp. 27.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. A Federalist account of the tendencies of the Jeffersonian system of government.
2. Letters upon Atlantic Steam Navigation, Collected from sundry periodical publications. London, 1841. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Publ. Y. C. A part of these letters, with other similar material, had been printed in the American Journal of Science and Arts, 1838-39, xxxv, 160-67, 332-36; xxxvi, 133-36.
3. Essays on the Cultivation of the Tea-plant, in the United 'States of America. Addressed to the People of the United States generally, and to the Planters and Farmers of the Southern & West- ern States particularly. New York, 1848. 8°, pp. 55.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 54^
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, graphical Hist, of Litchfield County,
Appendix. 127. Bronson, Hist, of 246-57. Marsh, Hitchcock Gene-
Waterbury, 432-34. Connecticut alogy, 224. Magazine, xi, 50-52. Kilbourne, Bio-
WiLLiAM [Lay] Smith, son of Seth and Hannah (Lay, Murdock) Smith, of (East) Lyme, Connecticut, and a half-brother of the Rev. Dr. James Murdock (Yale 1797), was born in 1782. He assumed his mother's maiden name as a middle name some time after graduation.
Having studied medicine with Dr. William Brenton Hall (Yale 1786), of Middletown, he first settled as a physician at Pitch Landing, Hertford County, North Car- olina, where he married Nancy Harrell. Thence he removed to Murfreesboro, in the same county, where he died on September i, 181 3, aged 31 years. His practice was somewhat extensive, and he was bidding fair to rise to eminence in his profession.
He left one child, who was graduated at Yale in 1834.
His widow next married James M. Yancey, of Hertford County, by whom she had a son who was graduated here in 1847.
Ephraim Starr, the second son of Ephraim Starr, of Goshen, Connecticut, and a brother of Truman Starr (Yale 1801), was born in Goshen on October 10, 1784.
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Ammi R. Robbins (Yale 1760), of Norfolk.
After' graduation he studied for a year in the Litchfield Law School, to get a knowledge of the general principles of the profession, but without any design of practicing.
He then took a long journey through the West and South, and finally in 1809 settled in business in Albany, New York, as the head of the wholesale dry-goods firm of Starr, Sheldon & Co. In August of this year his father died, from whose ample estate he received $60,000.
I
54* y<iie College
On November 26, 18 10, he married Sarah, daughter of Joseph and Susanna (Keith) Goodwin, of Lenox, Massa- chusetts.
Early in 1812 Mr. Starr dissolved his connection with Mr. Sheldon, and removed to New York City, where he became a shipping-merchant, trading to the East Indies. Owing to the outbreak of the war with Great Britain, the time proved extremely impropitious for such ventures, and he failed disastrously.
About 1820 he returned to Albany. He was qualified, however, to serve as an able accountant, and after the Hon. William L. Marcy became Comptroller of the State, in Feb- ruary, 1823, he appointed Mr. Starr Deputy Comptroller. He discharged the duties of that office with eminent ability and integrity until his death.
In the summer of 1828 he took a journey to Cleveland, Ohio ; and while crossing Lake Erie on his return he con- tracted a bilious fever, and died suddenly in Buffalo, after about two weeks' illness, on August 17, in his 44th year.
His widow died at Lake Mahopac, New York, on August 14, 1877, in her 67th year.
Their children were three daughters, all of whom left descendants, and a son, who died in infancy.
Mr. Starr was, both in College and in later life, an excellent musician and a good writer, especially of verse.
AUTHORITIES. Starr Family, 139, 141.
William Lightbourn Strong was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, on October i8, 1782, the third son of Colonel Adonijah Strong, of Salisbury, by his third wife, Abigail Bates, of Hanover, New Jersey, and grandson of Noah and Lydia (Dart, Pierce) Strong, of Coventry and Salisbury. A younger brother was graduated here in 1807, and a sister married the Rev. Jonathan Lee (Yale 1809). He
Biographical Sketches, 1802 543
was prepared for College, partly by the Rev. Timothy M. Cooley (Yale 1792), of Granville, Massachusetts, and partly by the Rev. Amos Chase (Dartmouth Coll. 1780), of Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, Connecticut. He joined the College Church oii profession of faith in Sep- tember, 1800. He shared a Berkeley Scholarship at graduation.
He remained in New Haven for a year and a half, study- ing theology with President Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on February i, 1804.
During the ensuing year he preached in various places, — as in Vergennes, Vermont, for about three months. He received an ad eundem Bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1804.
On April 3, 1805, he was ordained and installed as suc- cessor to the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), the eminent pastor of the Congregational Church in Somers, Connecticut, where he labored with great fidelity and suc- cess for nearly a quarter of a century, receiving about 300 persons to the membership of the Church.
He was dismissed from Somers on July 2, 1829, and on June 23, 1830, he was installed over the Congregational Church in Redding, on a salary of $450.
From this charge he was dismissed, at his own request, on February 26, 1835.
On June 3, 1835, he was settled over the Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Ontario County, New York, where he continued for about five years, when the failure of his eyesight obliged him to relinquish active duty.
After this he spent a year in Auburn, New York, and then removed to Fayetteville, in Onondaga County, where he died, after a brief illness, from an attack of dysentery, on August 31, 1859, in his 77th year. A memorial ser- mon by the Rev. George A. Oviatt (Yale 1835), his suc- cessor at Somers, was published (New Haven, 1859. 8°, pp. 18), with a portrait.
544 Yale College
He married, on June 8, 1807, Harriet, youngest child of Henry and Ann (Lord) Deming, of Lyme, and Wethers- field, Connecticut, who died in Springfield, Massachusetts, on May 8, 1875, in her 86th year.
Their children were five sons and six daughters. Four sons were graduated at Yale, in 1828, 1831, 1838, and 1843, respectively, the eldest of whom became a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and the third fol- lowed his father's profession. The second daughter married the Rev. Robert E. Willson (Hamilton Coll. 1834), and the fifth married the Rev. Dr. Henry Darling (Amherst Coll. 1842).
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Job xix, 21], delivered at Ellington, at the interment of Mrs. Lydia Ellsworth, (relict of the late Deacon Gur- don Ellsworth,) who died May i8th, 1806. . . Hartford, 1806. 8°, pp. 19. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
2. The Israelite indeed. A Sermon [from John i, 47] delivered at Somers, January 12, 1819, at the funeral of Deacon Joseph Sex- ton . . Hartford, 1819. 8°, pp. 23.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. A Sermon [from Deut. xxxii, 7], delivered Lord's Day, January 6, 1828, soon after the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Organization of the Church in Somers . . Hartford, 1828. 8°, pp. 24. [B. Publ. C. H. S. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc. U. T. S.
4. The Death of Good Men. A Sermon [from Isa. Ivii, i] deliv- ered at the funeral of the Rev. Moses Warren. Springfield, 1829. 8°. [Br. Mus.
5. A Sermon [from Acts xx, 32], preached July 5, 1829, the Sabbath after the Author's Dismission. Hartford, 1829. 8°, pp. 15. [Br. Mus. C.H.S. U. T. S.
He was also the author of one or two tracts published by the American Tract Society.
AUTHORITIES.
Deming Genealogy, 121. Dwight, 28-29. Trowbridge, Champion Gene- Strong Family, ii, 1042, 1047. 150th alogy, 273. Anniversary of Church in Redding,
Biographical Sketches, 1802 545
RoswELL Randali, Swan, the second son of George Swan, of (North) Stonington, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Lucy (Denison) Swan, of Stonington, was born on June 16, 1778. His mother was Abigail, second daughter of John and Lucy (Brown) Randall, of Stoning- ton. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Hezekiah N. Woodruff (Yale 1784). His mother died in April, 1797, and his father in January, 1798. In Col- lege he was distinguished for sound scholarship, great energy, and decision of character, He united with the church on profession of his faith in December of his Soph- omore year, and labored with apostolic zeal in the revival during his Senior year. At Commencement he delivered the Salutatory Oration.
Being in comfortable pecuniary circumstances, he resided during the greater part of the two years imme- diately after graduation in New Haven, prosecuting gen- eral studies. In March, 1804, he seems to have decided to prepare for the ministry, and soon after he went to Frank- lin, Massachusetts, and entered on the study of theology under the Rev. Dr. Nathanael Emmons (Yale 1767) with peculiar earnestness, though interrupted by the attacks of a severe and dangerous disease, which pursued him through life. After an illness of two months he thought it prudent to try a change of climate, and in October, 1804, he resumed his studies under the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford, Connecticut. On February 6, 1805, he was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association of Ministers. He preached a few times, but was soon laid aside again by illness.
In the latter part of December, his health was so far restored that he took charge of an Academy in Stoning- ton, at the same time supplying the vacant pulpit. He declined an invitation to settle over that church, and in November, 1806, went to the Congregational Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, to preach as a candidate. He was 35
546 Yale College
called with great unanimity to that pulpit, and was ordained and installed there over a church of 142 members, on January 14, 1807. His pastorate ended with his death, from consumption, in Norwalk, on March 22, 1819, in his 41st year. His last sermon was preached in the previous October.
He married, on May 14, 1807, Harriet, second daughter of Captain Amos and Sally (Rhodes) Palmer, of Stoning- ton, who died at the house of her daughter in Westerly, Rhode Island, on July 10, 1874, in her 84th year.
They had one son, who died young, and four daughters, two of whom died in infancy. The only daughter who survived both parents was the wife of the Hon. Nathan F. Dixon (Brown Univ. 1833). James G. K. McClure, Junior (Yale i9o6\ is a great-grandson.
Mr. Swan was a laborious and successful minister, judicious, decided, energetic, and eminently pious. Over two hundred and sixty persons were admitted to the church during his brief pastorate. The Rev. Dr. Abel McEwen (Yale 1804) describes him as "resolute and devout; a warm-hearted, faithful minister; a man of extensive knowledge and strong purposes."
He was a joint author, with the Rev. Heman Hum- phrey (Yale 1805), of the following:
Intemperance. — An Address, to the Churches and Congregations of the Western District of Fairfield County. New-Haven, 1813.
8°, pp. 31- . . [y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Bouton, Historical Discourse at leek, Norwalk, 219. Sprague, Annals
Norwalk, 62-63. Goodrich, Recol- of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 485-88.
lections of a Lifetime, i, 177-78- Wheeler, Hist, of Stonington, 521,
Hall, Hist, of Norwalk, 167. Park, 614-15. Memoir of Emmons, 257-58. Sel-
Christopher Tappan, Junior, son of Christopher Tap- pen, of Kingston, New York, and grandson of Petrus
Biographical Sketches, 1802 547
Tappen, of Kingston, was born in 1783. A sister of his father married Governor George CHnton. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year, and united with the College Church on profession of faith at the opening of Junior year.
After graduation he studied law, and settled in practice in his native place. He was a member of the State Assem- bly in the session of 1816-17, and served as Clerk of the Ulster County Court from 18 18 to 182 1. He sustained the reputation of a good lawyer and an estimable citizen.
He died in Kingston on February 22, 1828, aged 44 years.
He married, on November 9, 1809, Cornelia, daughter of Dr. Luke Kiersted, of Kingston, who died on August 21, 182 1, aged 35 years.
Of their five children, three sons survived infancy.
AUTHORITIES. Schoonmaker, Hist, of Kingston, 447.
Gideon Tomlinson was born in Stratford, Connecticut, on December 31, 1780, the eldest child of Jabez H. Tom- linson (Yale 1780).
He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Y. C. 1769), of Huntington. He united with the College Church by profession of faith in August of the Senior year.
After graduation he spent about a year in teaching in the family of Mr. Upshur, of Northampton County, Vir- ginia, the father of a future Secretary of the Navy, Judge A. P. Upshur. While teaching he also studied law, and on his return to Connecticut in November, 1803, he con- tinued his studies with Judge Charles Chauncey, in New Haven, where he was admitted to the bar.
In 1807 he settled in practice in Fairfield, with his resi- dence on Greenfield Hill.
548 Yale College
In politics he was a Democrat, and on the triumph of his party in the State he was sent to the Legislature for the four sessions in 1817 and 1818. After serving as Clerk of the House of Representatives in October, 18 17, he was chosen to fill the Speaker's chair at the two succeed- ing sessions.
He was elected to the United States Congress for the four sessions from 1819 to 1827, or until his election as Governor of the State in March, 1827. He held this office for four years, from May, 1827, resigning in March, 1831, on being appointed a Senator of the United States, which office he filled for the term of six years. In the mean time he with many other Connecticut Democrats had been driven by Jackson's course into the ranks of the new Whig party.
After this long and honorable career in the public ser- vice, he retired to private life.
He died, from consumption, in Fairfield, on October 8, 1854, in his 74th year.
He married, on December 15, 1807, Sarah, daughter of Walter Bradley, of Greenfield Hill, who died on Decem- ber 25, 1842, in her 56th year. Their only child was a member of the Class of 1839 at Yale, but died before graduation.
Governor Tomlinson married, secondly, the widow of William Wright, of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Trinity College in 1827.
A copy of a portrait, painted while he was in the Senate, by S. F. B. Morse, is given in the Tomlinsons in America; and one of another portrait in the Connecticut State House is given in Norton's Governors of Connecticut.
His only publications were his official Messages as Governor.
AUTHORITIES.
Norton, Governors of Conn., 159- 1103, 1315, 1317; Tomlinsons in 63. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, America, 102, 145-46.
Biographical Sketches, 1802 549
William Trescott^ a scion of a wealthy family of Charleston, South Carolina, was born in Charleston in 1784. He was prepared for the Sophomore Class at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Connecticut.
He studied law, and settled in the practice of his profes- sion in his native place.
He died in Charleston, after a short illness, from a fever, induced by exposure to the night air, on September 23, 1817, in his 34th year.
He left a wife, one son, who became a physician, and one daughter.
Ira Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on January 22, 1781, the only child of Gideon and Sarah (Caldwell) Webster, and was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus (Yale 1769), of Somers; but at the earnest desire of his parents he gave up the plan of enter- ing the ministry and settled on the paternal estate as a farmer. In this occupation he had marked success. He was a pioneer for that region in the reclamation of swamp land, the preparation of manures, the improvement in breeds of cattle and sheep, and the introduction of many new varieties of fruits.
He was also untiring in efforts to improve the social, moral, and religious character of the community. He was the first to gather, in his native village, a Sunday School, and was for many years its Superintendent. He always manifested a deep interest in the prosperity of the common schools, and as Chairman of the School Committee for years devoted much time and thought and labor to the advancement of their usefulness.
In 1830 ill health and pecuniary embarrassments induced him to remove with his family to New Haven, where he kept a boarding-house for a few years.
550 Yale College
In 1836 he returned to Hartford, and devoted some years to teaching a private school, with special reference to the preparation of young men for College.
He afterwards engaged in the publication and sale of religious books; and in particular, about 1843-44, became interested in the history of the New England Primer, and made a collection of early editions, which later passed into the hands of Dr. Henry Barnard (Yale 1830), of Hart- ford. Mr. Webster reprinted in 1843 ^ copy of the 1777 edition of the Primer, then the earliest known. During these years he resided at different times in East Hartford, Glastonbury, and Farmington.
A tendency to pulmonary disease, which began to develop more than thirty years before his death, so far increased upon him that for several seasons he sought a Southern climate for the winter months.
His latest residence was in Wallingford, Connecticut. For much of the last year of his life his bodily weakness was so great that his mind also suffered. He died in Wal- lingford on February 3, 1859, at the age of 78.
He married, on September 11, 1809, Ann Lockwood, only daughter of Asa and Prudence (Warner) Francis, of Hartford and Wethersfield, who died in Wallingford on January 6, 1862, in her 75th year.
Their children were six sons and four daughters. The fifth son was graduated at Yale in 1847.
AUTHORITIES.
Ford, N. E. Primer, 21. H. L. Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 343. Miller, MS. Letter, July, i8S9- Stiles,
Richard Williams, the seventh son of Nathaniel and Lois (Sackett) Williams, of Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of Samuel and Deborah (Throop) WiUiams, of Lebanon, was born on April 17, 1780.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Strong (Yale 1772), of Norwich, and was licensed
Biographical Sketches, 1802 551
to preach by the Windham Association of Ministers on October 8, 1805.
On June 2, 1807, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational Church in Brookfield, Connecticut, the sermon on the occasion being preached by the Rev. Dan Huntington (Yale 1794), of Litchfield. He had been settled with the provision that, on giving six months' notice, his engagement might be terminated ; and on find- ing an element of opposition in the parish, he gave such notice in November, 1810, and with the consent of the Con- sociation withdrew in April, 181 1.
On January 9, 1812, he was installed by the Presbytery of Columbia County, New York, as pastor of the Church in Cairo; the sermon preached on that occasion by the Rev. Dr. David Porter (Dartmouth Coll. 1784), of Cats- kill, was afterwards published.
He was dismissed from Cairo in January, 18 16, and afterwards labored as a missionary for three months among the scattered people on the Catskill Mountains. During the year 181 7 he supplied the Congregational Church in Salem, Connecticut. In 18 18 he labored in Chaplin, Connecticut, for three months ; and elsewhere in the same State, until he went to Penn Yan, New York, in June, 1820.
After temporary employment, he was installed there by the Presbytery of Geneva on September 19, 1820, and con- tinued in charge of that church until September, 1825. Early in 1826 he removed to Horseheads, in Chemung County, and for four years supplied the churches there and in Southport. In 1830 he supplied at Reading, in Steuben County, and then for two years at Springfield, in Otsego County.
After this he was engaged for ten years in Bible distri- bution from house to house in Central and Western New York. In the division of the Presbyterian Church, he was warmly interested on the side of the New School, and was an earnest advocate for temperance and anti-slavery.
552 Yale College
After this his reason was affected, and he lingered for about two years in a state of insanity, incapable of per- forming any labor.
He died in Union Springs, Cayuga County, on Novem- ber 15, 1844, in his 65th year.
He married, on May 18, 1808, Electa, youngest daughter of Captain Daniel and Sarah (Hale) White, of Andover, Connecticut, who died in Union Springs, on March 25, 185 1, aged 68 years. They had four sons and five daugh- ters, all of whom survived their parents.
AUTHORITIES.
Hotchkin, Hist, of Western N. Y., Efiscourse at Brookfield, 15 - 16. 396-97, 450. Kellogg, Memorials of Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pul- John White, 106. Pierce, Hist. pit, iii, 498. Williams Family, 145.
Selah Strong Woodhull^ the only surviving son of James Woodhull, a merchant of New York City, by his first wife, Keturah Strong, and the grandson of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Woodhull, of Brookhaven, Long Island, was born on August 4, 1786. His mother, who died 'in his infancy, was a sister of George W. Strong (Yale 1803). His father died of the yellow fever in Sep- tember, 1798, just as he was ready to enter Columbia Col- lege. A year later he transferred his relationship to Yale, where he was the youngest in his Class. He received an ad eundem Bachelor's degree from Princeton College in 1803.
After graduation he began the study of law, but soon relinquished it for theology under the care of his uncle, the Rev. Dr. John Woodhull (Princeton 1766), of Free- hold, New Jersey. He finished his studies under the Rev. Henry KoUock, of Princeton, New Jersey, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in April, 1805, while still in his 19th year.
On December 6, 1805, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Boundbrook, New
Biographical Sketches, 1802 553
Jersey, — the sermon on the occasion being preached by Dr. Kollock. He was dismissed from this charge on Novem- ber 25, 1806, to accept a call from the First Reformed Dutch Church in Brooklyn, New York. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Union College in 1822. He served as a Chaplain in the army in 1814, and as Secretary for Domestic Correspond- ence of the American Bible Society from 1820 to 1825.
In 1825 he was elected Professor of Mental Philosophy in Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity in the Theo- logical Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church in the same place. He removed to New Brunswick, and was inducted into office on November 25. His zeal and appli- cation to his new duties broke down his health, and he died, after ten days of acute suffering, from inflammatory fever, in New Brunswick, on February 2y, 1826, aged 40^ years.
He married, on April 8, 1807, Cornelia, daughter of Aaron and Hannah (Carll) Van Cleve, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, who died at the house of her eldest surviving daughter, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on January 3, 1845, aged 54 years. They had one son, who died in infancy, and five daughters. The eldest, and the third, married the Rev. Dr. Jonathan B. Condit (Princeton 1827) ; the second married James G. Nuttman (Princeton 1831); and the youngest married Josiah L. Pickard (Bowdoin 1844).
Dr. Woodhull had a vigorous intellect, and was remark- able for industry, decision of character, and executive abil- ity. His sermons were prepared with great care, but he would never consent to furnish any for print. It is an indication of his habits of work that he left over fifty ser- mons ready for use, which had never been delivered.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, i, 620-21. 17. Sprague, Annals of the Amer.
Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Pulpit, ix, pt. 2, 161-64. Stiles, Hist.
Church, 1827, i, 265-72. N. Y. of Brooklyn, iii, 636. Geneal. and Biogr. Record, xiii, 16-
5*54 ^^^^ College
Annals, 1802-03
The Class entering College in the fall of 1802 was unusually large.
In March, 1803, Tutor Henry Davis (Yale 1796), the Prof essor- Elect of Divinity, broke down in health ; and at just about the same date Tutor Ebenezer Grant Marsh (Yale 1795), who was also Instructor in Hebrew and the prospective Professor of Ancient Languages, also fell vic- tim to an incurable disease. Their places in the tutorship were filled by James Stedman and George Hoadly, both of the Class of 1801.
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 555
Sketches, Class of 1803
*Samuel Forbes Adam, A.M. *i854
* Cornelius Adams *i8o6 *Elisaeus Deming Andrews, A.M. *i852 *Boyle Van-Brugh Baldwin
*Hosea Beckley, AM. *i843
*Guilielmus Belden, AM. 181^ *i86i
*Georgius Bloom, A.M. 1814 *i824
*Rinaldus Burleigh, A.M. *i863
*Thomas Davies Burrall, A.M. *i872
*Thomas Philotheus Chiffelle ^1834 *Samuel Church, LL.D. Trin. 1847, Socius ex
officio, Reip. Conn. Cur. Supr. Jurid. Princ. *i854
*Guilielmus Shelden Darling *i86i
*Thomas Darling, A.M. *i843
*Mills Day, A.M., Tutor *i8i2
*Littleton Purnell Dennis, e Congr. *i834
*Aaron Button, A.M., Soc'ms *i849 *Serenus Edwards Dwight, A.M., S.T.D. 1833,
Tutor, Coll. Hamilt. Praeses *i850
*Elisaeus Ely, A.M. *i846
* Johannes Fitch *i845 "^Henricus Ford, A.M. *i848 *Georgius Washington Hall *i868 *Josephus Harrington, A.M. 1816 *i852 *Zera Hawley, A.M. 1808 *i856 *Norman Hickok *i842 *Horatius Holley, A.M., LL.D. Cincinn. 1823,
Univ. Transylv. Praeses *i827
*Georgius Hubbard, A.M. 1825 *i853
55^ Yale College
*David Humphreys, A.M. *i8o9
*Eli Hyde, A.M. et Mediob. 1833 *i856
* Johannes Hyde, A.M. *i848 *Jahacobus Bond TOn *i859 *Isaacus Edwards Judson, A.M. *i856
* Jonathan Warren Kellogg, A.M. *i853 *Josua Kennedy
* Jonathan Law *i859 *Addin Lewis, A.M. Univ. Georg. 1806 ^1842 *Nathan Mansfield, A.M. , *i8i3 *Carolus Mitchell *i83i *Minott Mitchell, A.M. *i862 *Jacobus E. Morris
*Pelatias Webster Perit, A.M. *i8ii
*Georgius Perkins *i852
*Jahacobus Porter, A.M. ■ *i846 *Noachus Porter, A.M., S.T.D. Dartm. 1828, Socius *i866
*Nicolaus Phillips Randall, A.M. *i836
* Johannes Taft Reed, A.M. *i839 *Thomas Rice
*Guilielmus H. Sackett *i820
* Jacobus St. John *i8i5 *David Sanford . *i8o5 *Jared Scarborough, A.M. 181 1 *i8i6 ^Henricus Sherman, A.M. *i8i7 "^Sethus Smith, A.M. Guilielm. *i849 *Solomon Smith *i832 *Elias Starr *i855 *Georgius Washington Strong, et Neo-Caes. 1804,
A.M. et Neo-Caes., LL.D. Viridim. 1837 *i855
*Carolus Augustus Stuart *i850
*Guilielmus Augustinus Taylor, A.M. *i852
"^Samuel IVhittelsey, A.M. *i842
Biographical Sketches, 1803 557
Samuel Forbes Adam, the eldest son of John Adam, of (North) Canaan, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Sarah (Leonard) Adam, of Taunton, Massachusetts, was born in Canaan on June i, 1783. His mother was Abigail, daughter of 'Squire Samuel Forbes, of Canaan.
His grandfather Forbes was one of the pioneers of the iron manufacture in Salisbury, the adjoining town to Canaan; and Mr. Adam devoted his life to developing successfully the iron business which he had inherited.
He was one of the Representatives of the town in the General Assembly at the sessions of May, 1816, 1825, 1827, and 1828.
He married on April 17, 1805, Alary, daughter of Ezra Sampson (Yale 1773), of Hudson, New York, by whom he had one daughter and three sons.
He died in Canaan on May 2, 1854, at the age of 71.
AUTHORITIES. Adam Genealogy, 7, 10.
Cornelius Adams, Junior, the second of the four sons of Cornelius Adams, of Canterbury, Connecticut, who received their degrees at Yale (in i8(X), 1801, 1803, and 1806, respectively), was born in Canterbury on November 9, 1776. He was prepared for College by his second cousin, John Adams (Yale 1795), and entered during the Junior year. He joined the College Church in July, 1802.
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association of Ministers in June, 1804.
On June 13, 1805, he was called to settle over the Con- gregational Church in Scotland Society, in Windham, with a salary of £100. He accepted the call, and was ordained and installed on December 5, to the great satisfaction of the parish.
Ss8 Yale College
But their happiness was short-Hved; as he died, from quick consumption, in Scotland, on November 28, 1806, aged 30 years.
He was married, at Danbury, by the Rev. Israel Ward, on November 20, 1803, to Mary M. Clark.
AUTHORITIES. Adams History, 324. Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, ii, 237-38, 305, 307.
Elisha Deming Andrews^ the eldest child of Jonathan Andrews, of Southington, Connecticut, and first cousin of Josiah B. Andrews (Yale 1797), was born on February 18, 1783. His mother was Ruth, daughter of Elisha and Mary (Wads worth) Deming, of Southington. In May of the Junior year he united with the College Church on profession of faith.
On graduation he began teaching in West Springfield, Massachusetts, at the same time studying theology with the minister of the parish, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754).
On November 2, 1806, he began preaching in Putney, on the Connecticut River in Southern Vermont. In April,
1807, he was called to the pastorate there, and was ordained and installed on June 25. The sermon preached by Dr. Lathrop was afterwards published. On September 13,
1808, he married Elizabeth (or Betsy), only daughter of Dr. Seth and Anne (Abbot) Lathrop, of West Springfield, and granddaughter of his theological teacher.
Mr. Andrews remained at Putney until May 27, 1829, when he was dismissed at his own request. His pasto- rate was a period of entire harmony and religious pros- perity. As the result of a revival in 18 16, one hundred and fifty persons were added to the church. It was a sign of the warm afifection with which his old parish regarded him, that upon his death, more than twenty years after his departure from them, they sent a tribute of remem- brance and respect.
Biographical Sketches, 180$ 559
Subsequently he removed to New York State, and preached for a year in West Bloomfield, Ontario County, and then for two years in Mendon, in the same vicinity. In 1833 he removed a few miles further north, to a farm in Pittsford, being obliged to give up preaching on account of difficulty with his voice.
In 1840 he sold his farm and emigrated to Armada, Michigan, about thirty-five miles north of Detroit, where he purchased a small estate, on which he resided until his death. He recovered his voice so that he was able to supply a destitute region near his home by occupying a school-house as a church. He is remembered as being affable in manner, and a great lover of children.
He died in Armada on January 12, 1852, aged nearly 69 years. His wife died on June 5, 1859, aged nearly 71 years.
They had eight children: two died in infancy, and five sons and one daughter survived them. The eldest son was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1831, and a younger son at the University of Michigan in 1849.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews Memorial, 157, 271-72. Family Memoir, 183-84. Sprague,
D wight Family, ii, 774-75. Hemen- Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 538.
way, Vermont Hist. Gazetteer, v, Timlow, Hist. of Southington,
pt. 2, 243-44. Huntington, Lathrop 494-95. viii, x.
Boyle VanBrugh Baldwin, the elder son and third child of General David Baldwin, a merchant of Newtown, Connecticut, and Hannah (Brooks) Baldwin, and grand- son of Colonel Caleb and Naomi (Herd, or Hard) Baldwin, of Newtown, was born on November i, 1786. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Junior year.
All that is known of his later life is that he is said to have met an early death by drowning in the Mississippi River.
560 Yale College
His name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in the summer of 18 14. As he is not named in his father's will (dated April, 181 1) he almost certainly died before that date.
AUTHORITIES. Baldwin Genealogy, i, 445.
HosEA Beckley_, the elder surviving son of Jonathan Beckley, of Berlin, Connecticut, and grandson of Daniel and Ruth (Hart) Beckley, of Wethersfield, was born in Berlin on December i8, 1779. His mother was Mary, only daughter of David and Lydia ( Andrus) Webster, of New- ington Parish, in Wethersfield. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year. He was selected at his graduation from College to give the Salutatory Oration. In May of his Junior year he had united with the College Church on profession of faith.
After graduation he studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association of Ministers in June, 1805.
After preaching in various localities he supplied the pul- pit in Dummerston, Vermont, the adjoining town to Put- ney, where his classmate Andrews had been settled in June, 1807; and on January 26, 1808, he received a call to settle as pastor of the Congregational Church in that town. Having accepted the call, he was ordained and installed on March 2 ; the sermon on that occasion by the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin (Yale 1788), of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, was afterwards published.
He continued in the pastorate until his withdrawal in 1836. His success in his ministry may be inferred from the fact that one hundred and fifty persons were added to the church. He then removed a few miles, to Chesterfield, New Hampshire, where he supplied the pulpit of the Con- gregational Church for most of the time to 1842.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 5^'
He died in Chesterfield on October 15, 1843, ^^ ^^^ 64th year, and was buried in Dummerston.
He married, on September 21, 1808, Lydia, the only sur- viving daughter of Deacon Abraham and Lydia (Redfield) Pierson, of Killingworth, now Clinton, Connecticut, and sister of Dr. William S. Pierson (Yale 1808). She died on May 9, 1857, in her y2d year.
Their children were three daughters and two sons.
He published :
A Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Luke Whitcomb. 8°, pp. 31.
Appended to
A sermon delivered at Townshend, (Vt.) February 4, 1821, on the occasion of the Death of the Rev. Luke Whitcomb . . By James Tufts. Brattleborough, 1821. 8°. [M. H. S. Y. C.
After his death appeared:
The History of Vermont; with descriptions, physical and topo- graphical. Brattleboro, 1846. 8°, pp. 396.
[Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
The publisher's note explains that the author had nearly prepared this work for the press, and had obtained a large list of subscribers ; this being the only patrimony left to his family, it was issued for the benefit of his widow.
AUTHORITIES.
Hemenway, Vermont Hist. Gazet- Genealogy, 38. Sprague, Annals of
teer, v, pt. 2, 88-89. Pierson Gene- the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 326. Stiles,
alogy, 15. Randall, History of Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 62, 68. Chesterfield, 141, 226. Redfield
William Belden, the eldest child of Captain Azor Belden, of Wilton, then part of Norwalk, Connecticut, and a nephew of the Rev. David Belden (Yale 1785), was born in Wilton, on July 16, 1781. His mother was Hannah, daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Couch) Smith, of Nor- walk. In July, 1802, he joined the College Church on pro- fession of faith. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year. 36
56a Yale College
After graduation he studied law, and was for a short time engaged in practice in Norwalk. He soon, however, left this profession, and prepared himself for the ministry of the gospel. He also taught during part of this time, being the principal of the Academy in Weston, Connect- icut, in 1810-11.
In October, 18 12, he was settled as pastor of the Congre- gational Church on Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, where he remained until 1821, being at the same time engaged in carrying on the academy which President Dwight had founded in that place. Among his pupils was Dr. Dwight's nephew, the future President Woolsey.
On leaving his parish he taught for a few years in the village of Fairfield. In 1824 he removed to New York City, and opened a classical school, which he taught for several years. He was then appointed principal of one of the public schools, and subsequently an instructor in the Normal School in that city, being one of the leaders in the movement which led to the establishment of that school.
He continued in service until 1853, when he resigned on account of advancing age. In the meantime he had twice declined invitations to the presidencies of Colleges.
In 1858 he removed to Brooklyn, New York, where he died on March 20, 1861, in his 80th year.
He married, on February 5, 1807, Abigail Frances, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Cass) Hatch, of Kent, Connecticut, born on November 9, 1785. Their children were three sons and three daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Selleck, Norwalk, 394-95. Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 91-92.
George Bloom came to College from Clinton, Duchess County, New York.
In July of the Junior year he united with the College Church on profession of his faith.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 563
He settled as a lawyer in Poughkeepsie, New York, and had a brilliant career, which was ruined by his convivial habits.
He was a member of the State Assembly from Duchess County in the 32d Session, November, 1808, to March, 1809. In March, 181 1, he succeeded Thomas J. Oakley (Yale 1 801) as Surrogate of the County, and held that office for two years. In 181 3 he was the President of the village of Poughkeepsie. In February, 181 5, he was appointed District Attorney for the Second District, com- prising Delaware, Duchess, Rockland, and Ulster Coun- ties; by an Act passed in April, 1818, each county was made a separate district, and he continued as Attorney for Duchess County until July, 18 19.
He died in Poughkeepsie in November, 1824. His wife, Harriet, died on July 13, 1816, after a lingering illness of over six months, in her 30th year.
RiNALDO Burleigh was born in that part of Ashford which is now Eastford, Connecticut, on February 20, 1774. His grandfather, John Burley, came to America with Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, in 1730, married Miriam Fuller, of Thompson, and settled in Union, Con- necticut. Their first son, John Burley, Junior, the father of Rinaldo, settled in Eastford, and died in 1784, leaving a large family in very straitened circumstances. His wife was Persis, the second daughter of David and Elizabeth Harwood, of Sutton, Massachusetts; she next married John Blanchard, of Union.
On the death of his father, Rinaldo was apprenticed by the selectmen to a farmer for the term of his minority. When fourteen years old one arm was crushed nearly to the shoulder in a cider-mill and amputated. This rendered him less efficient for manual labor, and as one result the desire was awakened for an education, by which he might
564 Yale College
maintain himself. At the age of seventeen he obtained release from his indentures, and with only the scantiest supply of clothing set out to make his way in the world. After one winter at a common district-school, he was able to teach the following winter ; and by slow advances, aided by generous friends, especially by his preceptor, John Adams (Yale 1795), of Plainfield, he was enabled to enter College during the Junior year. He united with the Col- lege Church on profession of his faith at the end of Junior year. His poverty and deserts and graduation were so great that the Corporation took the unusual step of remit- ting his back dues for tuition, etc.
He chose teaching as his profession, and in the Acade- mies of Woodstock (1814-16) and Colchester, and for a much longer time, beginning in 1803, in that of Plainfield, won a distinguished reputation. He counted among his pupils the children of every State in the Union and of some foreign lands. He was considered a mature scholar, a strict disciplinarian, thorough, painstaking, and conscien- tious in instruction.
His studious habits and close application induced a dis- ease of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness in 1847.- Some years before this, as dimness of vision increased, he relinquished his teaching, and retired to a farm just north of the village of Plainfield, where he had taught longest. From 181 7 until his death, for over forty- five years, he was a Deacon in the Plainfield Congre- gational Church, and discharged the functions of his ofiice acceptably, until prevented by blindness and other infirmities.
He was a cordial friend of the anti-slavery and temper- ance movements, and of other social reforms.
He married Lydia, younger daughter of John and Eliz- abeth (Bond) Bradford, of Canterbury, who died many years before him.
His death occurred in Plainfield, on February 10, 1863, ten days before he had completed his 89th year.
Biographical Sketches, 180$ 5^5
He had nine children, of whom two died in infancy, and two in the flush of early manhood. Four sons, all highly gifted, and a daughter survived him. One son was widely known as an abolitionist orator and editor; and a second as a poet and journalist; and the others as temperance lecturers and writers.
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, Mass., Union, 292, 294-95- Lamed, Hist. 77. Lucian Burleigh, MS. Letter, of Windham County, ii, 306-07, 325, July, 1863. Hammond, Hist, of 427-28, 454, 508-09.
Thomas Davies Burrall^ second son of Jonathan Bur- rail (Yale 1781), of Canaan, Connecticut, and a grand- son of the Rev. Thomas Davies (Yale 1758), was born in Canaan on June 2, 1786.
Soon after graduation he entered the office of his step- mother's brother, the Hon. David Sherman Boardman (Yale 1793), of New Milford, as a student of law; but removed to Poughkeepsie, New York, about a year before his admission to the bar.
Some two years after beginning practice (as a partner of Judge Philo Ruggles), he was attacked with bleeding of the lungs, and was compelled to spend 'a year in the South.
After his return, he removed, in September, 18 12, to Geneva, New York, where he resumed practice, but in a short time found his professional life too confining, and finally abandoned it, purchasing a farm near the village, where he resided for nearly forty years; the last twelve years of his life, however, were spent at his residence on the bank of Seneca Lake, in Geneva, where he died, after an illness of three weeks, on June 24, 1872, aged 86 years.
For more than forty years 4ie gave most of his time and thought to the invention and improvement of agricultural implements, having erected foundries and shops for that
566 y^le College
branch of manufacture, and accompHshing much in the way of Hghtening the labors of the farmer.
He was one of the founders and original trustees ( 1813) of the Geneva Academy, now Hobart College, and took the deepest interest in its welfare, remaining a trustee until his death.
He married, on August 25, 1813, his first cousin, Char- lotte, only daughter of William and Polly (Leach) Davies, of Poughkeepsie, who died, without issue, at Geneva, on September 14, 1820.
In January, 1822, he married Sarah J. Mann, of Hudson, New York, who died at Geneva, on April 12, 1831.
In March, 1837, he married Margaret, widow of Sam- uel Mott, who survived him.
Two sons by his second marriage, and one son by his third marriage, also survived him.
He published :
Address, before the Ontario Agricultural Society, at its fourth annual meeting, October 22, 1822. Canandaigua, 1822. 8°, pp. 21,
[U. S.
At the time of the death (1863) of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hale, President of Hobart College, Mr. Burrall printed a sketch In Memoriam, which is republished in the
Sermons of Rev. Dr. Hale, Claremont, 1883. 8°, pp. 15-31.
AUTHORITIES. E. J. Burrall, MS. Letter, April, 1873. Davies Memoir, 59, 87, 96.
Thomas Philotheus Chiffelle was born in Charles- ton, South Carolina, about the ist of May, 1783. At the close of the Junior year he united with the College Church on profession of faith.
He returned after graduation to Charleston, where he married Henrietta C, daughter of James and Judith (Smith) Ladson, on March 18, 1806. She was then about 17^ years old.
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 5^7
He died in Charleston, the last of June, 1834, of brain fever, aged 51 years and 2 months.
AUTHORITIES. Miss I. DeSaussure, MS. Letters, August and September, 1910.
Samuel Church, second son of Nathaniel Church, of Salisbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Samuel and Mary (Porter) Church, of Bethlehem, Connecticut, was born in Salisbury on February 4, 1785. His mother was Lois, second daughter of John Ensign, of Canaan. His preparation for College was completed under the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem. In College he was distinguished as a scholar, giving especial promise in belles-lettres.
In April, 1804, he began the study of law under the Hon. Judson Canfield (Yale 1782), of Sharon, with whom he remained for more than a year. In April, 1806, he became a member of the Law School in Litchfield, and in Septem- ber he was admitted to the Litchfield County bar.
On November 26, 1806, he married Cynthia, eldest child of Captain Seth and Esther (Landon) Newell, of Salis- bury.
He spent the next summer in Ohio, with the view of settling there ; and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of that State on June 20 ; but the delicate state of his wife's health caused him to give up this plan, and in the spring of 1808 he began the practice of his profession in his native town.
In 1810 he was appointed Postmaster, and removed to Furnace Village, now Lakeville, where he resided for five years. In 181 5 he settled at Salisbury Centre, where he spent most of his professional life.
In 18 18 he was first apnointed a Justice of the Peace, and, to use his own words, "thought not of aspiring to a higher place." In the same year came his first introduc-
568 Yale College
tion to political life as a delegate to the Convention which formed the Constitution of Connecticut. He was one of the leaders in the work of the Convention, standing firmly for the rights of the minority, a permanent judiciary, the free exercise of the elective franchise, and a total severance of church and state.
In 1820, 1821, 1823, 1829, and 1831, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly, and in 182 1 was appointed Judge of Probate for the Sharon District, which office he held undisturbed by party influences until his resignation in 1832. In 1824, and for three successive years, he was elected to the State Senate. In August, 1825, he was appointed State's Attorney for Litchfield County, and so continued until 1832, when he was chosen an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court. He was advanced to the rank of Chief Justice in 1847, ^^^ ^^\^ that position until his death, which took place on September 13, 1854, in his 70th year, at Newtown, while on a visit at the house of his son-in- law, the Rev. Benjamin W. Stone (Trinity Coll. 1838). He had removed his residence to Litchfield in 1845, but was buried with his kindred in Salisbury.
By virtue of his office as a senior Senator he was a mem- ber of the Yale Corporation from 1826 to 1828. Trinity College conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1847. His parents were Methodists; but from 1833 he was a consistent and faithful member of the Episcopal Church. Connected through life with the Democratic party, he was proud of the fact that his suc- cessive promotions to the offices of Associate and Chief Justice were due to legislatures with whose political opin- ions he did not accord.
Mrs. Church died on April 27, 1853, in her 66th year.
They left two sons and two daughters. The eldest son was graduated at West Point in 1828, and spent nearly his entire after life there as Professor of Mathematics, The younger son was graduated at Trinity College in 1841.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 5^9
Judge Church brought to the study of the law rare pow- ers of analysis, as well as a remarkably retentive memory, and had a ready facility in casting his conceptions into the form of written propositions, which made his opinions among the most lucid of American law writings.
He published :
1. A Historical Address, delivered at the Commemoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the first annual town meeting of the town of Salisbury, October 20, A. D. 1841. New Haven, 1842. 8°, pp. 96. [Y.C.
The Address occupies pp. 1-84.
2. Address, delivered at Litchfield, Conn., on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration, 1851.
Pages 21-69 i" Litchfield County Centennial Celebration, held at Litchfield, Conn., 13th and 14th of August, 1851. Hartford, 1 85 1. 8°. Reprinted (pp. 1-38), and accompanied with a portrait of the author, in D. C. Kilbourn's Bench and Bar of Litchfield County. Litchfield, 1909. 8°.
A manuscript paper on the Constitution of Connecticut, written at the request of the Hon. Gideon H. Hollister (Yale 1840), is preserved in the New Haven Colony Historical Society; Mr. Hol- lister embodied portions of this paper in the chapter on the Consti- tution of 1818 in volume i of his History of Connecticut.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, 527. Genealogical Societjr's Memorial Bi- Livingston, Biographies of American ographies, ii, 240-45. Newell Gene- Lawyers, 55-58. N. E. Historic alogy, 208-09.
Thomas Darling, a son of Dr. Samuel Darling (Yale 1769), was born in New Haven on April 25, 1785. At the close of his Junior year he united with the College Church on profession of his faith.
For thirty years from 1808 he was in active business in New York City, as an East India merchant.
After a long period of infirmity he died in New Haven on January 14, 1843, ^^ ^is 58th year. He was buried in New Haven.
57° Yale College
Like his father he was endowed with sound judg- ment and inflexible integrity, and he bore with cahimess and mildness the great reverses of fortune which he experienced.
He was married by President Dwight, on February 3, 1807, to Frances, daughter of Captain Hezekiah and Mehetabel Frith, of Bermuda and New Haven, and sister of Joseph Frith, a member of the Class of 1807, who was killed by an accident while gunning in his Junior year. She died in Flushing, Long Island, on July 12, 1871, in her 84th year.
A son was graduated here in 1836.
William Shelden Darling, an older brother of the last-named graduate, was born in New Haven on Septem- ber 25, 1783.
He remained here for a few years after graduation, and in 1805 held the position of Librarian of the Mechanic Library, of which his father was an influential proprie- tor. Later, he resided for a time in Bridgeport, but by 1 8 II- removed to the city of New York, where he was a dry-goods merchant for many years (at first in the firm of Darling & Chapman).
He died in Bergen, New Jersey, on October 26, 1861, aged 78 years.
He married an English lady, Sophia Augusta Geib, who survived him with their children, two sons and two dausfhters.
*fc>'
Mills Day, the youngest son of the Rev. Jeremiah Day (Yale 1756), and a brother of President Jeremiah Day (Yale 1795) and of Thomas Day (Yale 1797), was born in New Preston parish, in Washington, Connecticut, on September 30, 1784. He united with the College Church at the close of Junior year.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 57'
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Litchfield South Association of Minis- ters on Jurte 3, 1806. In the fall of that year he entered on a tutorship in College, and served for two years. For reasons of health he then retired, but was able to resume the work in the fall of 1810.
He died, while still in office, in New Haven, on June 20, 1812, in his 28th year. He is buried here.
He was endowed with superior talents, and was an excellent instructor. *'As a man, he was unusually correct and amiable; as a scholar, eminently distinguished; as a Christian 'blameless and harmless and without rebuke.' " His temperament was much the same as his eldest broth- er's, calm and modest. ^
The Yale Library has a manuscript diary of Mr. Day, describing a tour from Washington City to Ohio, in the summer of 1810.
AUTHORITIES.
Boltwood, Noble Genealogy, 65. Spectator, July 4, 1812. Day Genealogy, 2d ed., 20. N. Y.
Littleton Purnell Dennis, son of Henry Dennis, was born in 1784, at the family seat on Wicomico Creek, in Somerset County, Maryland. His mother was Ann, daughter of Judge Lemuel Purnell, of the same county. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He adopted the law as his profession, and attained dis- tinction at the bar. He also embarked early in political life, and served several terms in both branches of the State Legislature. He was repeatedly a Presidential Elector; and in 1833 was elected a Representative in Congress.
He died in Washington, during the first year of his service, after an illness of about a week, on April 14, 1834, in his 50th year, and was buried in the Congressional burying-ground. He was unmarried.
572 Yale College
Mr. Dennis was a man of lovable character, of great popularity, and noted for his wit.
AUTHORITIES. Janus U. Dennis, MS. Letter, June, 1910.
Aaron Button,, the youngest of nine children of Deacon Thomas Dutton, of Watertown, and grandson of Thomas and Abigail (Merriman) Dutton, of Meriden Society, in Wallingford, Connecticut, was born in Watertown on May 21, 1780. His mother was Anna, eldest daughter of Reuben and Keziah (Moss) Royce, or Rice, of Meriden. The Rev. Professor Matthew R. Dutton (Yale 1808) and the Hon. Henry Dutton (Yale i8i8) were his nephews. He was prepared for College under the instruction of the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem, and entered after the opening of the Freshman year. In College he stood among the first three or four of his Class in scholar- ship. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in May, 1802.
After graduation he was for a single year the preceptor of the Woodstock Academy, and then pursued the study of theology under President Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the Southern Association of Ministers of Litch- field County in October, 1805.
In April, 1806, he married Dorcas, third daughter of Samuel and Dorcas (Skinner) Southmayd, of Watertown. At Commencement in 1806 he delivered a Master's Ora- tion on the Religious Education of Children.
In the summer of 1806 he began to preach in the vacant pulpit of the First Congregational Church in Guilford; and he gave such satisfaction that in September the Church called him to the pastorate, and on October 6 the Society voted to offer him a salary of six hundred dollars. He was ordained and installed on December 10, — the sermon on that occasion being preached by Mr. Backus.
Biographical Sketches, iSoj 573
His ministry continued during a period of nearly thirty- six years, and was eminently successful in building up the church. When he laid down his office, the church-mem- bership, which had in 1806 numbered less than thirty, had increased to about four hundred. No less than six distinct revivals of religion took place under his labors, and over six hundred persons made a profession of religion during his ministry. Besides his pastoral duties, he prepared many young men for College.
In the latter part of his stay in Guilford, dissatisfaction with him sprang up, partly owing to his having taken a decided position as an abolitionist. At first only a minority opposed him, and they made no public move until November, 1839. Their number gradually increased until the dissatisfied party had a majority in the Society, though not for some time in the church. The course of both par- ties seems to have been marked by great firmness and no little acerbity; and after a request from the dissentients to be dismissed had been refused, Mr. Button found the situation too strained for him to continue, and he resigned on June 8, 1842. The party which stood by him took their dismission in November, 1843, ^^^ formed the Third Church, which still exists.
In a little less than a year after his resignation, and just as he was entering on his 64th year, Mr. Button went to what is now the State of Iowa in the service of the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society. There a new field of use- fulness opened before him, which he was prepared to enter with all the ardor of youth. He was invited to the pastoral charge of the church in Burlington, the capital of the Territory; and in August, 1843, he returned to New Eng- land, to complete the arrangements for a permanent removal. Just as he was about beginning his eastward journey, he was attacked with chills and fever in an aggravated form ; and having with some difficulty reached his children in New Haven, he was immediately prostrated with severe illness. He recovered so far as to be able, in
574 y^^^ College
a few instances, to preach, but the years that remained were, at best, years of great infirmity.
He died on June 13, 1849, aged 69 years, at the house of his eldest daughter in New Haven, and was buried in Guilford. The sermon preached at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon (Yale 1820), of New Haven, was afterwards published (New Haven, 1849, 8°, pp. 17).
His wife died in Guilford, from consumption, on Sep- tember 17, 1 841, in her 6ist year. Their children were three daughters and five sons. The eldest son was grad- uated at Williams College in 1832, the second at Yale in 1833, and the third at Yale in 1837; of these the two elder entered the ministry, the second being the devoted minister of the North Church in New Haven for over twenty-seven years. Of the other sons, one died while preparing for College, and one at the opening of his Junior year (Class of 1842). The eldest daughter was for many years at the head of a successful school for young ladies in New Haven, and the second was married to the Rev. Edwin R. Gilbert (Yale 1829).
Mr. Button was a member of the Yale Corporation from May, 1825, until his death.
Dr. Bacon has emphatically characterized Mr. Dutton as a wise, good, honest, fearless, and happy man. Any description of him should also note his unmistakably jovial temperament.
The poetical chronicler of Guilford gives the key-note of his service there in the lines :
A valient soul, who sacrificed himself, And chose that rather than the parish pelf.
He published :
1. The Gospel the power of God unto salvation. — A Sermon [from Rom. i, 16], delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Thomas Ruggles . . in Derby, August 31, 1809. New-Haven, 1809. 8°, pp. 23. [A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
2. The Importance of a faithful Execution of Law. — A Sermon [from Rom, xiii, 3-4], delivered before the Connecticut Society for
Biographical Sketches, iSoj 575
the Promotion of Good Morals, October i8th, 1815. New-Haven, 1815. 8°, pp. 22,
[A. C.A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. The BeUever's Triumph over Death. — A Sermon [from I Cor. XV, 55-57], occasioned by the Death of Mr. Nathaniel Stone, and delivered at Guilford, Nov. 26th, 181 5. New-Haven, 1816. 8°, pp. 20. [A. C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C.
He was also a contributor to the Monthly Christian Spectator, and other periodicals. He preached the Concio ad Clerum at New Haven in Commencement Week, 1829, but it was not published.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, traits, 66. Sprague, Annals of the
Appendix, 47. Branson, Hist, of Amer. Pulpit, ii, 489-92. Steiner,
Waterbury, 388. T. Robbins, Diary, Hist, of Guilford, 284-87. ii, 151. Robinson, Guilford Por-
Sereno Edwards Dwight, the fifth son of President Timothy D wight (Yale 1769), was born on Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, Connecticut, on May 18, 1786, and was named for a younger brother of his father. In 1795 the family removed to New Haven, where he was prepared for Col- lege at the Hopkins Grammar School. At his graduation from Yale he delivered an Oration on Divorces.
He spent the first year after graduation in Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, as an assistant in the Academy conducted by James Morris (Yale 1775). Returning to New Haven, he passed a year as his father's amanuensis, while serving also as an assistant to Professor Silliman in chemistry, and a second year in general studies, while also holding the Berkeley Scholarship. On taking his Master's degree in 1806, he delivered a poem, entitled. The Temple of Poesy. Next came four years in a College tutorship, during which time he also studied law under the direction of Judge Charles Chauncey and Nathan Smith (honorary M.A. 1808).
In November, 18 10, two months after resigning the tutorship, he was admitted to the bar of New Haven
576 Yci^^ College
County, and entered with characteristic ardor on the life of a practicing lawyer.
On August 28, 181 1, he was married by his father to Susan Edwards, second and eldest surviving daughter of the Hon. David Daggett (Yale 1783), of New Haven.
In 1812 his health was weakened by a lingering fever, in the treatment of which mercury was freely used, with most deleterious effects. A fiery eruption soon extended over different parts of the body, the irritation of which was most distressing, and which no applications could ever effectually remove.
In the summer of 181 5, under the powerful preaching of the Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, he became a Christian, and soon relinquished the law for the ministry of the gospel. He was licensed to preach by the West Association of Min- isters of New Haven County on October 8, 18 16. His first sermon was delivered in the Center Church, New Haven, and in the afternoon of the same day in the same pulpit his father preached what proved to be his last sermon.
A few weeks later, he was chosen by the United States Senate as their Chaplain for the session of 1816-17, and accordingly passed the winter in Washington.
In'the early summer of 18 17 he was unanimously invited to the pastorate of the Park Street (Congregational) Church in Boston. He accepted the call, and was ordained and installed on September 3, 181 7 ; the discourse preached on that occasion by the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher (Yale 1797) was afterwards published.
He threw himself into the work of his office with great zeal, and was rewarded with abundant success. Especially in 1822-23 a powerful revival of religion added largely to the church. His health broke down under incessant labor, and in the summer of 1824 he was given by his congrega- tion a vacation in Europe for a year.
On his return he resumed his duties with apparently recruited health; but about the end of January, 1826, in consequence of unusual exertions in speakmg in the pulpit,
Biographical Sketches, i8o$ 577
his voice was so much injured that every subsequent effort to speak was attended with much difficulty, — an evil which he ascribed to the disproportionate dimensions of his church. Becoming convinced that the cause of this disa- bility was irremovable, he reluctantly urged a dismission, which was as reluctantly granted on April lo.
Soon after this he returned to New Haven, in which city and its vicinity he resided for the next seven years. Dur- ing the earlier portion of this time he preached occasionally, but did not seek a parish, as he was mainly occupied for some time in completing a life of his great-grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, and an edition of his works, for both of which he had long been collecting materials.
Early in 1828, in conjunction with his youngest brother (Yale 1815), he opened 'The New-Haven Gymnasium," a large boarding-school for boys, in the building after- wards known as the Pavilion Hotel, on the water-front of the city. The school was modeled on the plan of the Ger- man gymnasia, and furnished a really superior education. The attendance was for some time gratifyingly large, but the health of both of the principals proved' unequal to the labor, and the Gymnasium was discontinued in the summer or fall of 183 1.
Mr. Dwight continued to reside in New Haven until 1833. In March of that year he was chosen President of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, in succession to the Rev. Dr. Henry Davis (Yale 1796), and in April he signified his acceptance of the appointment. He was in- ducted into office on August 14, and in September received from Yale the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
On taking office he found that the pecuniary embarrass- ments of the institution were such that a large part of his time must be given to the unwelcome task of collecting funds. This occupied him for about half of his first year. In view of the debt still remaining, he then advocated a removal to Utica; and failing in accomplishing this he resigned his office in September, 1835. He had been thor- oughly successful as an instructor and as a disciplinarian. 37
578 Yale College
The next three years were spent in New Haven. His malady continued to distress him intensely, and with it was now joined dyspepsia in some of its worst forms.
In the fall of 1838 he removed his residence to New York City, but his health was by no means benefited by the change. His wife, who had been for some time suffer- ing severely from chronic dyspepsia, grew much weaker in the early summer of 1839. She was taken to New Haven, and died at her father's house on August 18, in her 52d year. Their only child had died on the day of its birth.
Dr. Dwight returned to New York, and for eleven years lived a homeless, lonely, hermit-like life, enduring acute bodily and mental suffering from an incurable disease.
Early in October, 1850, he went to Philadelphia, to try the effect of hydropathic treatment. After a few weeks he was suddenly seized with chills and fever, followed by softening of the brain. He died there on November 30, in his 65th year, and is buried in New Haven.
In natural temperament he was warmly affectionate, but impetuous and impulsive, giving him sometimes the appearance of being overbearing and dogmatic. His endowments made him an able and eloquent preacher, an acceptable and useful pastor, an acute scholar, and an inspiring teacher. He was undoubtedly the most intellec- tually brilliant of President Dwight's sons.
He published :
1. Slave Representation, by Boreas. — Awake! O Spirit of the North. [New Haven.] 1812. 8°, pp. 23. [B. Ath. Y. C.
The substance of this anonymous pamphlet first appeared, in the form of two essays, in the Connecticut Jorunal for October 15 and 22, 1812; it deals exhaustively with the injustice of the provision for slave representation in the Constitution of the United States.
2. A Sermon [from Phil, iii, 21], delivered at the Funeral of Rev. Joshua Huntington, late Pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, Sept. 13, 1819. Boston, 1819. 8°, pp. 44.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 ,579
3. Thy Kingdom come; a Sermon [from Matt. vi. 10], delivered in the Old South Church, Boston, before the Foreign Mission Society of Boston and the vicinity, January 3, 1820. Boston, 1820. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A.S. A.C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. The Greek Revolution. — An Address, delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, on Thursday, April i, and repeated at the request of the Greek Committee, in the Old South Church, on the evening of April 14, 1824. Boston, 1824. 8°, pp. 34.
[A. C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. 2d edition. Boston, 1824. 8°, pp. 36. [Y. C.
5. The Gospel, its own witness to the conscience: — a Sermon [from John iv, 41-42], delivered in Portland, Nov. 9, 1825, at the Installation of the Rev. Charles Jenkins. . . Portland, 1826. 8°,
PP- 51-
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Brown Univ. Y. C.
6. The Death of Christ : being the substance of several Sermons [from Luke xxiii, 23], delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, in the month of January, 1826. Boston, 1826. 8°, pp. 128.
[A.C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. The design is to answer the question, Why did Jesus die upon the cross?
7. Memoir of the Life of President Edwards. New- York, 1829. 8°, pp. 766 + pi. [Br. Mus. Y. C.
8. The Hebrew Wife: or the Law of Marriage examined in relation to the Lawfulness of Polygamy and to the extent of the Law of Incest. New- York, 1836. 12°, pp. iv, 189.
[A. C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. A legal argument (composed while the author was a practicing lawyer) against marriage with a wife's sister. Reprinted in Glas- gow, 1837.
9. "Forbid them not;" or the Hindrances, which prevent little children from Coming to Christ. New- York, 1838. 12°, pp. 82.
[A. C. A. Y. C.
Two contributions to the American Journal of Science may be noticed :
580 Yale College
Description of the Eruption of Long Lake and Mud Lake, in Vermont, . . in the summer of 1810. In vol. xi, 1826, pp.
39-54 + pl-
Notice of a Meteoric Fire Ball. In vol. xiii, 1828, pp. 35-37-
He published, as editor, the following :
1. Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd; . . . chiefly taken from his own Diary. By Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton. Including his Journal, now for the first time incorporated with the rest of his Diary . . New-Haven, 1822. 8°, pp. 507.
2. The Works of President Edwards: with a Memoir of his Life. In ten volumes. New-York, 1829-30. 8°.
After his death his younger brother, the Rev. Dr. William T. D wight (Yale 181 3) published:
Select Discourses of S. E. Dwight, D.D. . . With a Memoir of his Life. Boston, 185 1. 12°, pp. Ixviii, 382.
[Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
The volume includes ten sermons, besides Nos. 4 and 6 of the above-mentioned publications.
AUTHORITIES.
C. C. Baldwin, Diary, 295. Dog- Old South Church in Boston, ii, 405,
get-Daggett Family, 154, 201-02. 428r-^2. N. Y. Geneal. and Biogr.
B. W. Dwight, Dwight Genealogy, i, Record, iv, 153. T. Robbins, Diary,
171, 203-05. W. T. Dwight, Memoir i, 709. Sprague, Annals of the
of S. E. Dwight, prefixed to his Amer. Pulpit, ii, 629-33.' Select Discourses. Hill, Hist, of the
Elisha Ely, the second son of the Rev Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Huntington, Connecticut, was born in Huntington on October 25, 1782. He joined the College Church in August, 1802.
The two years after graduation he spent in New Haven, filling the office of College Butler.
From 1808 to 1822 he was a successful grocer in New York City, in the firm of McGregor, Darling and Ely. He then returned to his native town and occupied himself with agricultural pursuits. After many years of infirm
Biographical Sketches, 180$ 581
health, he died suddenly, in the house in which he was born, on December 3, 1846, in his 65th year.
The prominent traits of his character were integrity and generosity, supported by a strong faith in the Christian religion.
He married, on January i, 1815, Eloise, youngest daugh- ter of Captain Henry and Anna (Tomlinson) Curtiss, of Stratford, Connecticut, her mother being the second wife of Mr. Ely's father. She died in 1863, in her 73d year. Their children, two daughters and seven sons, all grew to maturity.
AUTHORITIES. Ely Ancestry, 115, 212. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1181, ii97-
John Fitch was born in Windham, Connecticut, on September 14, 1783, the second son of John and Clarissa Fitch, of Windham, and grandson of John and Mercy (Lathrop) Fitch. His mother was an adopted daughter of Nathaniel Wales, of Windham. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
Upon graduation he studied law and was admitted to the Windham County bar in 1805. After practicing in his native town for nearly sixteen years, he removed in the spring of 182 1 to the adjoining town of Mansfield, in Tol- land County, where he resided until his death, after a long and painful illness, on June 8, 1845, i" his 626. year.
He was a member of the State Senate in 1828 and 1829. He was State's Attorney for Tolland County from 1831 to 1835 ; for three years, from 1835 to 1838, he was Chief Judge of the Tolland County Court; and from 1838 to 1842 Judge of Probate for the District of Mansfield.
He married, first, Huldah, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Dyer, of Windham, by whom he had no children ; and sec- ondly, the widow of Jonathan Ashley Welch, of Brooklyn, Connecticut.
582 Yde College
Henry Ford was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on August 4, and was baptized on September 5, 1783, the son of Jonathan and Eunice Ford, of Morristown. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the close of his Junior year, having entered College during that year.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Dr. James Richards, of Morristown. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York, and his first settle- ment was in Bethlehem, Albany County, where he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Hudson on February 9, 1809. His pastorate there was terminated on April 21, 1813; and on the 27th of the following October he was installed at Lisle, in Broome County. He was dis- missed from Lisle on March 7, 1820, and next served as the stated supply of a church in Elmira, in Chemung County, from May, 1820, to the beginning of 1827.
For the next twelve or fifteen years he resided in Lisle, supplying as he had opportunity vacant churches in the vicinity.
About 1842 he returned to Elmira, and for the last five years of his life acted as colporteur for the American Tract Society in Chemung County, and in Bradford and Tioga Counties, Pennsylvania.
After the division of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, he was connected with the New School body.
He died in Elmira on November 6, 1848, in his 66th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Harlow, Hist, of Hudson Presby- Morristown ist Presbyterian Church tery, 37-38. Hotchkin, Hist, of Record, i, 182. Western N. Y., 427, 429, 437, 447.
George [Washington] Hall, son of Abner and Phebe (Percival) Hall, of East Haddam, Connecticut, was born in East Haddam on July 29, 1782, and entered College dur-
Biographical Sketches, iSoj 5^3
ing the Freshman year. In College and for some years afterwards he did not use a middle name. He joined the College Church on profession of faith in July, 1802.
After graduation he studied theology, and married, on November 6, 1804, Mary, daughter of Henry and Ann (Lord) Deming, of Wethersfield.
On September 25, 1804, he was licensed to preach by the North Consociation of Ministers of Hartford County, and was soon after settled as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cherry Valley, New York, where he continued for about two years. His wife died in Cherry Valley on October 22, 1806, in her 22d year, leaving a daughter, who also died soon.
About this time he experienced a change of doctrinal views, and was thenceforth in sympathy with the Unitarian churches, and was mainly occupied in teaching.
During the war of 18 12 he served as a Chaplain in the army, and was stationed in Portland, Maine.
He went to Georgia as a teacher in 181 5, and on his return in 18 17 found similar occupation in Boston. In 18 18 he opened a school for bOys at Mount Vernon, near Harlem, New York. In 1819 he married his second wife, Harriet, eldest daughter of Perkins and Bridget (Orne) Nichols, of Boston.
Soon after this he went South again for his health, and found employment as a teacher in Rutherford, North Carolina.
About 1823 he returned to New York City and opened a large boarding school for boys on Thirteenth Street, which proved very successful. General LaFayette paid the school a visit when in New York in 1824, and being requested to give it a name, named it the Washington Institute.
In 1828 Mr. Hall lost his second wife, and in the same year he m.arried her first cousin, Emily, daughter of John and Pamela (Prentice) Orne, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts. In 1829, finding his health failing under the responsibilities
584 Yale College
of his school, he disposed of it to the Rev. Joseph D. Wick- ham (Yale 1815), and purchased a large farm in Shrews- bury, New Jersey. This, however, proved to be too much care for him, and he soon disposed of it and found relief in Southern travel. He returned in 183 1 and repurchased the Washington Institute property; the effort, however, was too much for his health, and in 1836 he retired perma- nently, by his physician's advice, from all active labor.
He had acquired a handsome competency, a part of which he invested in the Sans Souci Hotel at Ballston, New York, where he mainly resided for the rest of his life. His vigorous physical constitution re-asserted itself speed- ily, but his mental powers were never fully restored, though able to enjoy his books, an(j a daily student of the Scriptures.
In 1842 he lost his third wife, at the age of 38; and in June of the same year he married Amelia, youngest daugh- ter of Colonel James Warner, of New York City.
He died, after a brief illness, in Troy, New York, where he had boarded for the last three winters of his life, on February 24, 1868, in his 86th year. His wife survived him. He left no children.
AUTHORITIES. Deming Genealogy, 121. Mrs. Hall, MS. Letter, April, 1868.
Joseph Harrington^ son of Joseph Harrington, of Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and grandson of Samuel and Elizabeth (Stratton) Harrington, of Westborough, was born on June 27, 1781. His mother was Ruth, third daughter of Deacon Joseph and Ruth (Hunt) Merriam, of Grafton. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
He died at his residence in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on December 7, 1852, in his 72d year, having suffered an apoplectic attack two days previously.
Biographical Sketches, i8os 585
He spent his life as a practicing lawyer in Boston, until the spring of 1849, when he received an appointment in the Boston Custom House, which he held until his death.
He maintained a very respectable standing in his pro- fession, and in private life his character was unblemished. He was an ardent and active friend of temperance. In politics he was a thorough-going Federalist, and after- wards a Whig.
He married a daughter of Ralph Smith, of Roxbury, at one time a noted Democratic politician.
He left five sons and two daughters. Two of his sons were graduated at Harvard College, in 1833 and 1834, respectively, and became Unitarian clergymen.
AUTHORITIES. Dr. Jos. Palmer, MS. Letter, Dec, 1852. Westborough Vital Records, 60.
Zerah Hawley, the youngest son of the Rev. Rufus Hawley (Yale 1767), of Northington Parish, in Farming- ton, now (West) Avon, Connecticut, was born in 1781. Two nephews were graduated at Yale, in 1833 and 1837, respectively. He joined the College Church in July, 1802.
He studied medicine and settled in New Haven, where he practiced medicine and afterwards dentistry for many years. He had but indifferent success, and in 182 1 went to Ohio with the intention of settling there ; he was, how- ever, disappointed in this project, and in October returned to New Haven. At a later date he endeavored to add to his resources by taking pupils. About 1835 impaired health induced him to retire to a farm in his native place, where he died on March 6, 1856, aged 75 years.
He married, on October 18, 18 10, Harriet, daughter of Captain WilHam and Esther (White) Sherman, of New Haven, born on October 31, 1784.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman, Trowbridge Family, 54. tennial Commemoration, 38. Hawley Record, 82. W. Avon Cen-
586 Yale College
Norman Hickok, son of James and Ann Hickok, of Lansingburg, Rensselaer County, New York, was born in 1783, and entered Williams College, at the opening of the Sophomore year, coming thence to Yale a year later. A sister married WiUiam Page (Yale 1797).
He resided for some time after graduation in Lansing- burg, and later in Harlem, New York.
He was a member of the New York Assembly from the New York City district for two sessions, from January, 1840, to May, 1841.
He died in Harlem on December 9, 1842, in his 60th year, and was buried in Sheffield, Massachusetts. He was probably never married. He was a man of very large build, weighing four hundred pounds.
Horace Holley^ the second of six sons of Luther Holley, a country merchant of Salisbury, Connecticut, and grandson of John and Sarah (Lord) Holley, of Sharon, was born in Salisbury on February 13, 1781. His mother was Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Simon Dakin, a Baptist preacher, of Oblong, Duchess County, New York, and of Rebecca (Perry) Dakin. In his youth his father destined him for a business career, but a decided taste for intellec- tual pursuits finally led him to College. In 1797 he was sent to Williamstown, Massachusetts, and placed in the academy connected with Williams College. After a bril- liant undergraduate course at Yale, he delivered at grad- uation an Oration on the Slavery of Free-Thinking. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the close of his Junior year.
He settled at first in New York City as a student of law in the office of Riggs & Radclifif, — Mr. Radcliff being a Yale graduate of the Class of 1793. Through the influence of President Dwight, however, a few months later, he forsook the law and returned to New Haven, to study theology under the President's direction.
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 587
He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Asso- ciation of Ministers in December, 1804, and on January i, 1805, he was married here by the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard to Mary, daughter of EHjah Austin, a New Haven mer- chant, who died of yellow fever in New York in 1794, and his wife Esther Austin.
He then passed six months under his father's roof in Salisbury, engaged in composing sermons and in pursuing his theological studies. He then returned to New Haven, and received various invitations for a settlement.
He decided, perhaps rather hastily, to accept a call to the church at Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, of which President Dwight had been the last settled pastor; and he was ordained and installed there by the Western Consociation of Fairfield County on September 13, 1805, with a salary of $560. He found, however, that this salary was too small for comfort, and he therefore took a dismission three years later, on September 13, 1808, from a society otherwise entirely agreeable.
He soon received calls from Marblehead, Massachusetts, from the First Church in Middletown, Connecticut, and from Albany, New York; but these were all declined in favor of an invitation, after several weeks of probation, from the Hollis Street Church in Boston. He was installed over that church on March 8, 1809, the sermon preached on the occasion by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eckley (Princeton Coll. 1772), pastor of the Old South Church, being afterwards published.
Mr. Holley's views of theology had apparently been gradually conforming to those later known as Unitarian ; and his new parish sympathized in general with those views, while he soon came to be counted as a liberal of the liberals. His pastorate in Boston was in every way a happy one. The congregation doubled itself during that period. His sermons delivered in the ordinary course of his ministry were generally extemporaneous, but the charm of his eloquence thrilled his audience. For special occa-
588 Yale College
sions he wrote out his addresses in full, but uniformly declined to allow them to be printed. Among those which made the most impression were a Sermon before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 181 1, a Discourse on the death of the Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster in 18 1 2, an Oration for the Washington Benevolent Society in 181 5 (a full and sympathetic commentary on Federalist principles), a Discourse on the anniversary of the Boston Female Asylum in 18 16, a Sermon on the death of President Dwight in 181 7, an Anniversary Discourse before the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth in the same year, and his Farewell Discourse in 1818.
In November, 181 5, he was elected to the Presidency of Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky, an institution originally under Presbyterian control, but did not accept the election. Two years later, on November 15, 18 1 7, he was again, and unanimously, elected to this office, with a salary of $2,250.
In March, 18 18, he made a leisurely journey to Lexing- ton, where after looking over the field he decided that duty and extent of usefulness obliged him to accept the Presidency, which he did on June 25. This decision was the mistake of his life.
He then returned to Boston, took a dismission on August 24 from his church, which relinquished him with great regret, and in October proceeded to Kentucky, where he was formally inducted into office on December 19.
Under his influence the University rapidly increased in numbers, and the facilities for education were enlarged. From the first, however, the disappointment of other can- didates for the presidential office, and slander and perse- cution prompted by sectarian bigotry, interfered with Mr. Holley's usefulness and embittered his life. Disappointed in being able to induce the State Legislature to supply the pecuniary needs of the University, he signified to the Trus- tees in January, 1826, his intention to resign his office; and he carried out this intention in March, 1827.
Biographical Sketches, i8oj 589
He had for some time had in his family and under his care a number of small boys, the sons of wealthy Louisiana planters; and he now proposed to take a few such boys and some older youths abroad for education for six or eight years. He left Lexington for New Orleans, on March 2y, with this plan in view ; but on his arrival there some influential citizens proposed to him the establishment of a literary institution in the vicinity. He acceded to this new plan, and with all his native impetuosity threw him- self into the arrangements without delay. They were almost completed when he found himself prostrated by the unaccustomed exposure to tropical heat; and as a neces- sary relief he embarked on July 22, in the ship Louisiana, for New York, intending to return in November.
A case of yellow fever developed on the ship ; Dr. Hol- ley contracted the disease, and died on July 31, and was buried in the Gulf of Mexico, in the 47th year of his age.
A Discourse delivered at Transylvania University in November, 1827, by Professor Charles Caldwell, M.D., on the Genius and Character of President Holley, was published in 1828, with an Appendix of biographical and illustrative matter, chiefly by Mrs. Holley (8°, pp. viii, 294+pl. ) . This includes an engraving from an excellent portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
A Discourse occasioned by his death, by his successor in the HoUis Street pulpit, the Rev. John Pierpont (Yale 1804), was also pubHshed (Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 31).
His wife survived him, with their children, a daughter and a son. In the fall of 183 1 she made a visit to Texas, where her uncle and cousin had founded a settlement, and 1833, she published her Observations. She died in New Orleans on August 2, 1846, from yellow fever.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on Mr. Holley by the Cincinnati College in 1823.
No one can now read the Memoir of Dr. Holley without acknowledging that he was a faithful and devout Christian man, who loved truth ardently and sought it earnestly.
590 Yale College
Mr. Pierpont in his Discourse describes his mind as dis- tinguished for promptness and power, and enumerates among his natural advantages :
An elegant form, a graceful action, a countenance beaming at once with the expression of earnestness and intelligence, an elocution ready and perfectly distinct, though sometimes rapid and always energetic, a manner graceful and full of dignity.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop (Harvard 1825), in a volume printed by the Wednesday Evening Club, describes him as endowed "with good scholarship and thorough intellectual training, a noble presence, magnificent voice, a speaking eye, and a large magnetic force."
He published :
A Discourse occasioned by the Death of Col. James Morrison, delivered in the Episcopal Church, Lexington, Kentucky, May 19th, 1823. Lexington, 1823. 8°, pp. 37.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Delivered at the request of the Trustees of the University.
He published, — anonymously, in The General Repository and Review, vol. iii, pp. 324-78, Cambridge, Mass., April, 1813 :
Review of A Contrast between Calvinism and Hopkinsianism, By the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely. With its Recommendations.
He also published in the Western Review, at Lexington : On Education in the Western States, 1819; The Imperfection of Language, 1820.
These articles are quoted in Caldwell's Memoir, pp. 167-77, 257-65-
In the same volume many of his letters are given, also quotations from his manuscript sermons, his Plan of religious instruction and worship in Transylvania University, 1824 (pp. 227-34), his final Report to the Trustees, March, 1827 (pp. 207-15), etc.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, vii, 323. Bos- Proceedings, xix, 30. Peter, Tran-
ton Daily Advertiser, Oct. i, 1846. sylvania University, 104-53. R. I.
Boston Wednesday Evening Club Hist. Society's Publications, 1894, ii,
Centennial Celebration, 26-32. Lor- 173. Sprague, Annals of the Amer.
ing. Hundred Boston Orators, 3d Pulpit, viii, 265-66. Tuttle Family,
ed., 368-75. Mass. Hist. Society's 627.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 59'
George Hubbard, the youngest of three sons of John Hubbard, a farmer of Wintonbury Parish, in Windsor, Connecticut, now Bloomfield, and grandson of John Hub- bard, of Wintonbury, was born on July 23, 1780. His mother was Susannah, daughter of Pelatiah and Martha (Chapman) Mills, of Wintonbury. John Mills Hubbard (Yale 1829) was a nephew. He was absent during the whole of Senior year in Bermuda, for the sake of his health ; but kept up his studies so as to take his degree with his Class.
He taught school in Windsor, with some interruptions, in 1803-05, and in the summer of 1805 delivered the annual oration in that town in commemoration of Ameri- can Independence.
In October, 1805, he began the study of law in Suffield, and in the spring and summer of 1806 continued it in Simsbury with Colonel Noah A. Phelps (Yale 1783). After further study in Hartford, he was admitted to the bar of Hartford County in the summer of 1807.
In September, 1807, he settled in Stonington, where he practiced his profession until his death. From April, 1809, until 18 1 7, he served as Postmaster of the town.
On September 7, 1809, he married Sally, the second daughter of Deacon Thomas and Amy (Denison) Swan, of Stonington, and widow of Dr. Charles Phelps, of Ston- ington, who had died in January, 1808, leaving a large fortune in real estate. Complications affecting the settle- ment of Dr. Phelps's estate and the rights of three minor children occupied much of his time until 1818.
He had long been an active Jeft'ersonian Democrat, and upon the transfer of political power in Connecticut, he was sent to the General Assembly as a Representative, in Octo- ber, 1817, and May, 1818. In May, 1819, he was a can- didate for the office of High Sheriff of New London County, but was unsuccessful. He was, however, at this date appointed Clerk of the new Probate District of Stonington.
593 yaie College
Mrs. Hubbard died, after a week's illness, from pneu- monia, in Stonington, on April 5, 1841, in her 69th year. He married, secondly, in Mansfield, on February 28, 1844, Lucretia, third daughter of Elijah and Betsey (Sears) Ranson, of Salem Parish, in Colchester, and widow of John R. Watrous, M.D. (honorary Yale 1818), of Col- chester, a Revolutionary surgeon, who died in December, 1842. She was born in March, 1790.
He died in Stonington on September 26, 1853, in his 74th year.
By his first marriage he had two sons, one of whom died in infancy, and a daughter.
He published :
George Hubbard's Autobiography : with a brief Narritive [sic] of his Lineage, paternal and maternal, and succinct notice of passing events. New London, 1852. 12°, pp. 35. [Y. C.
A very naive and amusing compilation.
AUTHORITIES.
Day, Hubbard Hist, and Gene- Chester branch, 88. Wheeler, Hist. alogy, 299. Diniock, Mansfield Rec- of Stonington, 538, 613. ords, 254. Ranson Family, Col-
David Humphreys^ the youngest child of Major Elijah Humphreys, of Derby, Connecticut, and a nephew of Gen- eral David Humphreys (Yale 1771), was born in Derby on February 26, 1784. His mother was Anna, second daughter of the Rev. Dr. Richard Mansfield (Yale 1741), of Derby. A sister married the Rev. James Thompson (Yale 1789).
His name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in 181 1. He is said to have died shortly before, — probably in 1809 or i8io; one report says that he died at sea, another in New Orleans, and a third in Derby.
AUTHORITIES. Humphreys Family, 151. Mansfield Gen., 66. Orcutt, Hist, of Derby, 736.
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 593
Eli Hyde, the third son and child of EH Hyde, of Frank- lin, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Matthew and Elizabeth (Huntington) Hyde, of Franklin, was born there on January 20, 1778. His mother was Rhoda, youngest daughter of John and Elizabeth (Abel) Lath- rop, of Franklin. He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Nott (Yale 1780), and entered after the opening of the Sophomore year. He was already a member of the Franklin Church.
After a thorough course of theological reading under the instruction of the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin (Yale 1788), of Rocky Hill, and the Rev. Dr. Cyprian Strong (Yale 1763), of Chatham, he was licensed to preach by the Hart- ford South Association in June, 1804.
In June, 1808, he was ordained and installed over the Presbyterian Church in Oxford, Chenango County, New York. After a ministry of about four years he was dis- missed, because the Society could not furnish him with an adequate support, and then devoted several months to missionary labor in Northern New York.
On July 7, 181 2, he was called to the Congregational Church in Smith field Society, in Amenia, Duchess County, where he was installed on January 20, 18 13, and where he remained until May, 182 1.
He was installed over the Congregational Church in Salem, New London County, Connecticut, in November, 1822, and continued there until April, 183 1.
His last regular settlement was over the Congregational Church in Salisbury, Addison County, Vermont, where he was installed on May 30, 1833. He was dismissed in September, 1836, principally on account of want of sup- port. Later he performed home missionary service for a few years in Allegany County, New York. He died in his native town on October 3, 1856, in his 79th year.
He married, on November 24, 1807, Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Nott, of Franklin, who survived him for many years. She was born in July, 1786. 38
594 Yol^ College
Their children were five sons, two of whom died in infancy, and three daughters, of whom one died in infancy.
Mr. Hyde was a man of logical mind and a good writer; but without rhetorical graces. His manners were some- what formal, and he was hampered by an impediment in his speech.
AUTHORITIES.
The Adviser, v, 95. Congrega- P. H. Smith, Hist, of Dutchess tional Quarterly, iii, 334-35. Galpin, County, 118. Walworth, Hyde Gen- Annals of Oxford, 205. Hunting- ealogy, i, 97, 415-16. Weeks, Hist. ton, Lathrop Family, 82. /. H. of Salisbury, 183-84. Woodward, Smith, Hist, of Duchess County. 353. Hist, of Franklin, 72-73.
John Hyde, the eldest child of Vaniah Hyde, of Frank- lin, Connecticut, and grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth (Huntington) Hyde, of Franklin, was born there, on July 7, 1776. His mother was Rebecca, daughter of Captain Joshua and Mary (Throop) Barker, of Lebanon. He was prepared for College, with his third cousin and classmate, Eli Hyde, by his pastor. Dr. Nott; and had united with the Franklin Church before coming to Yale.
After devoting the usual period to a theological course under the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Associa- tion of Ministers on June 11, 1805.
On February 20, 1806, he was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church of eighty-five members in Mount Carmel Society, in Hamden, on a salary of $500. He accepted the call and was ordained and installed there on May 20, the sermon on the occasion being preached by Dr. Nott, whose daughter Susan he had married on the 22d of the preceding month.
In January, 1811, he was dismissed from this charge; twenty-six members had been added to the church under his ministry.
On May 26, 18 12, he was called to settle over the Con- gregational Church in Preston, Connecticut, and he was
Biographical Sketches, i8os S9S
installed there on July i. After a successful pastorate of fifteen years, he was dismissed on May 28, 1827; sixty-seven members had been added to the church on profession of their faith during his ministry.
In April, 1828, he was again installed, over the Congre- gational Church in the North parish in Wilbraham, Mas- sachusetts, where he remained until January, 1832.
This was his last regular settlement; but he preached in various places for brief periods, as in Bozrah, Connect- icut, from April, 1835, to April, 1837.
His wife died in West Killingly, Connecticut, now Dan- ielson, on March 20, 1842, in her 60th year.
Mr. Hyde died in Franklin, at his father-in-law's house, much respected and beloved, on August 14, 1848, aged 72 years.
His children were three daughters and three sons. The eldest daughter married Stephen W. Meech (Yale 1826).
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Quart. Register, x, 385. Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 192,
Congregational Quarterly, iii, 334. Thayer, Centennial Discourse at
Preston Church Bicentennial Cele- Hamden, 11-12. Walworth, Hyde
bration, 3S-40, 70-71. Sprague, Genealogy, i, 134, 611-12.
Jacob Bond I'On, the only son of Richard TOn, a wealthy planter of Charleston, and St. James Santee, in Charleston District, South Carolina, was born about the 1st of July, 1782. A sister married Thomas Lowndes, a member of Congress from South Carolina.
In early life he was an adherent of the Federalist party.
He was commissioned as a Captain of Artillery in March, 1812, and remained in the service until June, 1815, having under his command the fortifications at Charleston and Savannah. He was later known by the honorary title of Colonel.
He was early elected to the State Legislature, and after serving in the Lower House was also President of the
59<5 Yale College
State Senate. In 1824 he was the unsuccessful candidate of the National party for Governor.
In 1832 he was a member of the Convention which passed the nullification ordinance.
After years of infirmity, succeeded by nine months of acute suffering, he died at his ancestral home in Charles- ton on July 17, 1859, aged yy years. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. S. C. Hist, and Geneal. Magazine, iii, i86.
Isaac Edwards Judson^ the youngest son in a family of eleven children of Captain James Judson, of Roxbury Par- ish, in Woodbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Isaac and Elizabeth (Hawley) Judson, of Woodbury, was baptized on September 16, 1781. His mother was Deborah, young- est daughter of John and Deborah (Hurd) Leavenworth, of Woodbury, and widow of Joshua Judson. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith at the close of the Junior year.
He went into business in a country store in Roxbury, in partnership with a brother-in-law, but failed disas- trously, in consequence of which his mental powers were shattered. He removed to Albany, New York, where he lived with a widowed sister, and assisted her in conducting a boarding-house.
He died in Albany on December 10, 1856, in his 76th year.
He was never married, and his health had always been feeble.
AUTHORITIES.
1
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 594. Leavenworth Genealogy, 48, 83-84. J
Jonathan Warren Kellogg, the youngest son of Sam- i
uel Kellogg, a farmer of New Canaan, Connecticut, and
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 597
grandson of Martin Kellogg, of New Canaan, was born on April 17, 1780. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Deacon Jonathan and Mary (Richards) Waring (or Warren), of New Canaan. He united with the Church in College on profession of his faith at the end of his Junior year.
He spent his life in the work of instructing in schools and academies.
About 1806 he took charge of a large school in New York City, which was broken up by the epidemic of yellow fever in the summer of 1822.
He died in New Canaan on May 12, 1853, aged 73 years.
He was married, and had four daughters and two sons.
AUTHORITIES.
Kelloggs in the New World, i, 183-84, 206-07, 212-14. Rev. Theoph- 161, 342. C. Nichols, Autobiography, ilus Smith, MS. Letter, June, 1853.
Joshua Kennedy entered College from Washington, Georgia, after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He is believed to have spent his life in his native State.
He is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of 1841.
Jonathan Law, son of William and Sarah (Hotch- kiss) Law, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was born in Cheshire on January 14, 1784. A brother was graduated here in 1792. He united with the College Church on profession of his faith in August, 1802. He had entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
In April, 1805, he entered the office of Judge Charles Chauncey, of New Haven, for the study of law, and he was admitted to the bar in this city on March 3, 1807.
He began practice in Hartford in 1807, and in March, 1809, was appointed Postmaster. He retained that office until the accession of Jackson to the Presidency, in March, 1829.
598 Yale College
About 1844 he returned to Cheshire, where he died on November 4, 1859, aged nearly 76 years.
He was married by the Rev. John Foot, on May 6, 1807, to Stella, eldest child of Samuel and Abigail Ann Hull, of Cheshire, and niece of Jotham I. Doolittle (Yale 1795), who died in Hartford, on December 13, 1 841, in her 56th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Joseph P. Beach, MS. Letter, Wm. Law, MS. Letter, July, i860. October, 1910. Davis, Hist, of Wal- Tuttle Family, 653. Ward Family lingford, 819. Doolittle Family, 318. Genealogy, iii.
Addin Lewis, fourth son of Captain Nathaniel and Sarah (Gridley) Lewis, of that part of Southington, Con- necticut, which is now Wolcott, and grandson of Nathan and Mary (Gridley) Lewis, was born in Southington on January 4, 1780.
In 1804 he accepted a position as Instructor or Tutor in the University of Georgia, at Athens, and remained there for four years. In this service he had gained such reputation and esteem that he was appointed the first Col- lector of the District of Mobile, without his solicitation. The importance of the office induced his acceptance, though the emoluments were small; and he found the position, as that of the chief representative of the general government, one with scope for all his powers.
At the same time he filled the office of Postmaster, and was made Mayor of the city and President of the local bank.
As years passed he became identified with all the public interests of the city and vicinity, and amassed quite a fortune. Having suffered for years from consumption, and being wearied of long official service, he retired at length from all his duties.
For some years he spent the summers in Connecticut, and the winters in the South. Finally, becoming a good
Biographical Sketches, 1803 599
deal deaf, he settled about 1827 permanently in New Haven, and died here on April 7, 1842, in his 63d year.
He was married, by the Rev. David L. Ogden (Yale 1814), on September 29, 1823, to Fanny, second daughter of his own cousin, Seth Lewis (Yale 1783), of Southing- ton, and widow of Anson Judd, of Southington and Phil- adelphia. Two of her sisters married Yale graduates — Timothy Jones (1804), and Dr. E. Huggins Bishop (1826). She died in New Haven on December 2, 1832, in her 43d year. Their children were three daughters, all of whom died young.
In his will he provided, after the death of his only sur- viving daughter without issue, for the gift of $10,000 to the town of Wolcott for the support of public schools, of $15,000 to the town of Southington for the building and maintenance of an Academy, and of $5,000 for the Yale Library. ■ '
AUTHORITIES.
Orcutt, Hist, of Wolcott, 200-02, ton, 437-42, clix-clx, clxii. 515-16. Titnlow, Hist, of Southing-
Nathan Mansfield, the only son of the Rev. Achilles Mansfield (Yale 1770), of that part of Killingworth which is now Clinton, Connecticut, was born on August 6, 1784. In July of his Junior year he united with the College Church on profession of his faith.
He studied medicine after graduation, and established himself in practice in his native village, where he died, unmarried, on April 6, 18 13, in his 29th year.
AUTHORITIES. Mansfield Genealogy, 56, 102-03. Tuttle Family, 206.
Charles Mitchell, the fourth son of Chief-Justice Stephen Mix Mitchell (Yale 1763), was born in Wethers-
6oo Yale College
field, Connecticut, on August 31, and was baptized on September 11, 1785.
He studied law after graduation, and settled in practice in Baltimore, Maryland. He was regarded as the clever- est of a large family of brothers, and achieved a high reputation at the bar. He was also brilliant and witty in social life, but was the victim of convivial habits.
He died in Baltimore, after a long illness, on June 10, 1 83 1, in his 46th year. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Courant, June 21, 1831. Genealogies, i, 180. Stiles, Hist, of Salisbury, Family Histories and Wethersfield, ii, 507.
MiNOTT Mitchell^ who was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, on September 24, 1784, was a son of the Rev. Justus Mitchell (Yale 1776), and of Martha Mitchell, a sister of the Hon. Roger Minott Sherman (Yale 1792). A brother was a member of the next lower College class, but did not graduate; the Hon. Chauncey Mitchell Depew (Yale 1856) is a grandson of this brother.
After pursuing the study of law under his uncle's direc- tion, in Norwalk, and with Elisha Williams, of Hudson, New York, he entered in 1806 on the practice of his pro- fession in White Plains, New York. He continued to be for many years easily the leader of the Westchester County bar, giving also professional instruction from time to time to many young men whom his legal acquirements and excellence of character drew around him. In his later years he was to some extent engaged in other business, until near the close of his life the large fortune which he had accumulated by unremitting industry was entirely swept away by unfortunate investments.
He died at White Plains on February 20, 1862, in his 78th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 601
A Sermon delivered at his funeral by his pastor, the Rev. David Teese, was printed in New York in 1862 (8°, pp.21).
He married, on December 3, 1806, Eliza Leeds, daugh- ter of Dr. Joseph and Patty (Leeds) Silliman, of New Canaan, who survived him. Two of her brothers were Yale graduates, in 1806 and 1808, respectively.
He had six sons and two daughters. Three sons became lawyers, and one was a physician of distinction in Brook- lyn, New York.
AUTHORITIES. Scharf, Hist, of Westchester County, i, 541.
James E. Morris, the eldest son of James Morris (Yale 1775 )> was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, South Farms Parish (now Morris), on December 4, 1784. In July of his Junior year he united with the College Church on pro- fession of his faith.
He studied law in Litchfield, but went South early, mar- ried, and died there.
One account places him in Virginia; another report says that he died in Waynesboro, Georgia, about 1824.
AUTHORITIES. Woodruff, Litchfield Geneal. Register, 151.
Pelatiah Webster Perit, son of Thaddeus Perit, of New Haven, was born in New Haven early in 1783. His mother was Sophia, daughter of Pelatiah Webster (Yale 1746), of Philadelphia, who was married in March, 1782, and died in May, 1784. He was thus* a double first cousin of John Webster Perit (Yale 1801) and Pelatiah Perit (Yale 1802). His father married, secondly, in Novem- ber, 1789, Desire Sanford, of New Haven, and died in August, 1806.
6o2 Yale College
He became a merchant in New Haven, in partnership with Anthony P. Sanford, and was married here, on Sep- tember 20, 1808, by the Rev. Dr, Bela Hubbard to Frances (or Fanny) Hall.
He died at his residence on Union Street in New Haven, on April 16, 181 1, after a long and painful illness, borne with Christian patience, in his 29th year.
His widow survived him without children, and next married, in October, 181 2, Dr. Rodolphus Ladd, of Staf- ford, Connecticut. Mr. Perit's estate, of nearly $10,000, was divided between her and his step-mother.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, April i8, 1811.
George Perkins, the youngest son in a family of ten children of Dr. Elisha and Sarah (Douglas) Perkins, of Plainfield, Connecticut, was born in Plainfield on October 19, 1783. Two brothers were graduated here in 1791 and 1794, respectively. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year. In August, 1802, he united with the College Church. -
He studied law after graduation, with his brother-in- law, the Hon. Charles Marsh (Dartmouth Coll. 1786), of Woodstock, Vermont, and bfeing admitted to the bar in 1806 settled in practice in Norwich, Connecticut, where he continued until 1821.
He then abandoned the law for theology, taking a brief course of study with his brother (Yale 1791), in Coates- ville, Pennsylvania. In September, 1823, he began to preach in Ashburnham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and having been called to settle there in December, was ordained and installed on February 25, 1824, as pastor of the Congregational Church.
Having resigned this charge because his wife's aged parents needed his care, he was dismissed on July 3, 1832;
Biographical Sketches, iSo^ 603
and was installed the next month over the Congregational Church in Jewett City, in the township of Griswold, Con- necticut. He was forced by ill health to resign this charge on September 4, 1838, and he then returned to Nor- wich as his permanent place of residence, — being for some time occupied with the settlement of the estate of his father-in-law, who died in 1837.
He recovered sufficiently to be able to preach occasion- ally, and from 1840 to 1845 ^^ supplied the church in Bozrahville in that vicinity.
He died in Norwich on September 17, 1852, aged nearly 69 years.
He married, in December, 181 7, Marionette, the eldest child of Dr. John and Hannah (Huntington) Turner, of Norwich, who died early in September, 1820, aged 31 years.
He next married Betsey Huntington Turner, a sister of his first wife, who died in 1838.
By his first marriage he had one daughter, and by his second marriage two sons. One son was killed while on a whaling voyage shortly before his father's death.
Mr. Perkins was an amiable man, yet possessed of the most unbending integrity of character. Though not a popular speaker, his ministry in Ashburnham was success- ful and unusually acceptable. It was said of him that he combined dignity with affability, and unusual plainness of speech with equal kindness. In the pulpit he was often colloquial, sometimes eloquent, but always instructive.
AUTHORITIES.
Perkins, Old Houses of Norwich, City, 13. Stearns, Hist, of Ash- 581. Perkins 'Family, pt. 3, 31, 61. burnham, 266-70. Shipman, Hist. Discourse at Jewett
Jacob Porter, elder son of Seth Porter, of Abington, in Plymouth County, and Cummington, in Hampshire
6o4 Yale College
County, Massachusetts, and grandson of Jacob and Esther (Ford) Porter, of Abington, was born in Abington on December 30, 1783. His mother was Mary, second daughter of Captain Edward and Abigail (Shaw) Cobb, of Hingham and Abington. He entered WiUiams Col- lege at the beginning of the Sophomore year, and removed to Yale in time to have his name enrolled in the Catalogue of November, 1802, then calling himself of Abington, though his father had already removed to Cummington.
He spent his life in Plainfield, formerly a part of Cum- mington. He studied medicine, and practiced his profes- sion, though very inconsiderably, his attention being mostly given to botany, mineralogy, and literature.
He died in Plainfield on November 15, 1846, aged nearly 63 years. He bequeathed to the Yale Library the larger part of his valuable collection of books and pamphlets; and a small number of his manuscript compositions, both in prose and poetry.
He married, in April, 1813, Betsey Mayhew, of Wil- liamsburg, Massachusetts, who died on July 3, 1813.
He married, secondly, on November 18, 1819, Sally Reed, who survived him for many years.
By his second marriage he had three daughters, of whom only one survived him.
He was elected a corresponding member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York in 1820, a member of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Agriculture in 182 1, and a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1822. He was also a member of the American Geological Society, and an honorary member of the Belfast Natural History Society.
He published :
I. To the Memory of Mrs. Betsey Porter. — Died at Plainfield, Massachusetts, July 3, 1813, Mrs. Betsey Porter, wife of Doctor Jacob Porter, aged 21. Cambridge, 1813. 8°, pp. 8.
[A. A. S. Y. C.
Dr. Porter is the editor, rather than author.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 605
2. Lines to the memory of Miss Bethiah Burton, of Greenfield,
New-Vork, who died at Plainfield, Massachusetts, November 30,
1814, aged 16. . . Ballston-Spa, 181 5. 8°, pp. 4.
[A. A. S. Y. C.
3. Poems. Hartford, 1818. 8°, pp. 27 -\- pi.
[A. A. S. B. Puhl. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C. The Yale Library owns the original miniature from which the portrait here given is engraved. No. 2 (above) is included in the pamphlet. The first piece is an address to William CuUen Bryant, recently of Plainfield.
4. Topographical Description and Historical Sketch of Plainfield, in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, May, 1834. Greenfield, 1834. 8°, pp. 4.
\A. A. S. B. Puhl. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
Two editions appeared, differing only in the names of the print- ers,— one by T. Prince, and one by Prince and Rogers.
He published in the First Series of the Collections of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society:
An Account of Plainfield : vol. 8, 1819. pp. 167-73; Some Account of Cummington : vol 10, 1823. pp. 41-45.
Dr. Porter also contributed frequently to the American Journal of Science; among his contributions may be specified :
Floral Calendar for Plainfield, Massachusetts, 1818: in vol. i, 1819, pp. 254-55.
Floral and Miscellaneous Calendar for Plainfield [1819-20] : in vol. 3, 1 82 1, pp. 272,-^4.
Miscellaneous Localities of Minerals : in vol. 6, 1823, pp. 246-49 ; vol. 7, 1824, pp. 58, 252-53; vol. 8, 1824, p. 233; vol. 10, 1826, pp. 18-19.
Notice of a Rocking Stone, in Savoy, Massachusetts: in vol. 9, 1825, pp. 27-28.
Notice of the American Antiquarian Society: in vol. 18, 1830, PP- 136-39-
He also published a number of translations from the French and Spanish, of which may be specified :
Summary Notice concerning Bible Societies . . [From the French.] Northampton, 1827. 8°, pp. 16.
Serious Examination, from the Spanish. [A tract.] Northamp- ton, 1829. 8°, pp. 12.
\
6o6 Yale College
Instructions and Observations concerning the Use of the Chlorides of Soda and Lime. — By A. G. Labarraque. [From the French.] New-Haven, 1829-40. 8°. 3 editions.
Method of Using the Chloride of Soda, either for dressing ill- conditioned sores, or as a means of purifying unhealthy places, and of disinfecting animal substances : by A. G. Labarraque. [From the French.] New Haven, 1830. 8°, pp. 7.
And 2d edition, Northampton, 1833.
The well spent sou ; or, Bibles for the poor negroes. — Translated from the French. New-Haven, 1830. 8°, pp. 16.
AUTHORITIES. Dyer, Hist, of Plainfield, 75. Porter Genealogy (1878), 51, 81-82.
Noah Porter, the eldest child of Deacon Noah Porter, of Farmington, Connecticut, by his second wife, Rachel, daughter of Moses Merrill, of a part of Farmington now included in West Hartford, was born in Farmington on December 15, 1781. Two half-brothers were graduated here, in 1786 and in 1795, respectively. He was pre- pared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Joseph Washburn (Yale 1793), held the highest rank for scholarship in his College Class, and was their valedictory orator. Before coming to New Haven he had united with the Farmington church.
After his graduation he taught in a gentleman's family in or near Easton, Maryland; and then studied theology with President Dwight (while holding the Berkeley Schol- arship), and with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen.
He had already been licensed to preach, when his pastor was obliged to seek the restoration of his health at the South. By the time that the news of Mr. Washburn's death (on December 25, 1805) reached Farmington, Mr. Porter's acceptableness in the supply of the pulpit began to be recognized, and he soon received a call to the pastor-
Biographical Sketches, i8os 607
ate. He was also invited, in September, 1806, to a tutor- ship in Yale, but he preferred not to be turned aside from the ministry, and having accepted the Farmington call, he was ordained and installed there on November 5, 1806, President Dwight preached the sermon on that occasion.
He retained the respect and love of his church and congregation through an unbroken ministry of fifty-five years, until he was supplied with a colleague, in October, 1 86 1. During this time eight hundred and sixty-six per- sons were added to the church. For five years longer, though his interest for the church was unabated, he willingly withdrew for the most part from active service. His salary had never exceeded seven hundred dollars. On September 15, 1866, he was prostrated with a bilious attack, under which he sank gradually and painlessly, until his death, on September 24, in his 85th year.
A volume was published (Farmington, 1867, 8°, pp. 75), comprising the address delivered at his funeral by Presi- dent Woolsey, and memorial discourses by his successor in the pastorate, the Rev. Levi L. Paine (Yale 1856), and the Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell (Yale 1827).
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1828. From Sep- tember, 1823, until his retirement on account of deafness in July, 1862, he was a valued member of the Yale Corpo- ration, and served on its Prudential Committee from 1847 until 1862.
He married, on December 20, 1808, Mehitabel, the youngest child of Captain Giles and Anna (Pinto) Meigs, of Middletown, Connecticut, who died in Farmington on October 6, 1874, at the age of 88.
Their children, three sons and four daughters, all sur- vived them. The sons were graduated here, in 1829, 183 1, and 1836, respectively, — the second son as Professor and President adding eminence to his father's name. The second daughter was the wife of the Rev. John R. Keep (Yale 1834). The eldest daughter, a woman of remark-
6o8 Yale College
able character and gifts, established a school for young- ladies in Farmington, which has given that village in recent years high renown.
Dr. Porter was a man of decided ability, but of great modesty and simplicity of character, and of equal meek- ness and gentleness. Devoted with singleness of heart to his special work, he was yet wide in his sympathies and, wonderfully for one of his years, kept up to the last with the times. He was rewarded with the universal love and veneration of all good men.
He gave a cordial support to the various missionary and reformatory enterprises of the day; and it is especially to be remembered that the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions was organized, in September, 1810, at his house.
He pubhshed:
1. Perjury prevalent and dangerous. — A Sermon [from Ex. XX, 7], delivered in Farmington, at the Freemen's Meeting, Sep- tember, 1813. Hartford, 1813, 8°, pp. 15.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from I Tim. v, 22], delivered at the Meeting of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Good Morals, in New- Haven, October 16, 1816. [New-Haven, 1816.] 8°, pp. 23.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. On participation in other men's sins.
3. A Discourse [from Deut. xxxii, 7], on the Settlement and Progress of New-England. Delivered in Farmington, on Friday evening, December 22, 1820. Hartford, 1821. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. Memorial of a Revival. — A Sermon [from Ps. cxxvi, 3], delivered in Farmington, at the Anniversary Thanksgiving, Decem- ber 6, 182 1. With an Appendix. Hartford, 1822. 8° pp. 23.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. As the fruits of this revival, 224 persons had been added to the church on profession of their faith during the year 1821.
5. A Sermon [from Numb, xiv, 24], delivered at the Funeral of the Hon. John Treadwell, Esq., formerly Governor of the State^ of Connecticut, who died August 18, 1823. Hartford, 1823. 8°, pp. 19. • [A. C. A. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 180$ 609
6. A Letter on Revivals, March 12, 1832. In W. B. Sprague's Lectures on Revivals, 1832, Appendix, pp. 68-77.
7. Commending the Gospel to the Conscience. — A Sermon [from II Cor. iv, 2], delivered at the Ordination of Noah Porter, Jun. to the pastoral care of the First Church of Christ in New Milford, April 27, 1836. New Haven, 1836. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. Y. C.
8. A Sermon [from Ps. xxxvii, 37], preached at the funeral of Horace Cowles, Esq., at Farmington, February 9th, 1841. Hartford, 1842. 8°, pp. 26. [Y. C.
9. Charge at the Ordination of the Rev. Theodore Dwight Wool- sey, LL.D,, . . . October 21, 1846.
In Discourses and Addresses at President Woolsey's Ordination and Inauguration as President of Yale College. New Haven, 1846. 8°, pp. 41-49-
10. A Sermon [from Mark xi, 25] preparatory to the Lord's Supper: preached in the First Congregational Church in Farming- ton, Dec. 4, 185 1. Hartford, 1852. 12°, pp. 12. [B. PubL
On a spirit of forgiveness.
11. Two Sermons on Church Communion [from Rom. xv, 7] and Excommunication [from I Cor. v, 11], with a particular view to the case of Slaveholders in the Church. Hartford, 1853. 8°, pp. 31. [A. C. A. Y. C.
An argument for tolerance.
12. A Sermon [from Rev. ii, 7], occasioned by the Death of Miss Sarah A. Cowles, preached in the First Congregational Church, in Farmington, Conn., Oct. 2^, 1853. New- York, 1853. 8°, pp. 23. [Y.C.
13. Civil Liberty. — A Sermon [from II Cor. iii, 17], preached in Farmington, Connecticut, July 13, 1856. New- York, 1856. 8°, pp. 22. [B. Publ. Y. C.
Founded on Dr. Lieber's work on Civil Liberty.
14. Half-Century Discourse [from Feci, i, 4] ; on occasion of the fiftieth Anniversary of his Ordination as Pastor of the First Church, in Farmington, Conn., delivered November 12th, 1856 Farmington, 1857. 8°, pp. 54.
[A. C. A._ B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C
39
6io Yale College
Dr. Porter was also a frequent contributor to the Monthly and to the Quarterly Christian Spectator; among his articles in the latter may be specified :
Review of Letters on Revivals of Religion, vol. 2, 1830, pp. 234- 46.
Review of some of the leading Doctrines of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, in their influence on Christian Experience, vol. 2,
pp. 483-504-
Review of the Works of President Edwards, vol. 3, 183 1, pp.
337-57-
Farr on Revivals, vol. 4, 1832, pp. 25-33.
[Review of] Hints designed to aid Christians in their efforts to convert men to God, vol. 4, pp. 229-50.
Sprague on Revivals of Religion, vol. 5, 1833, pp. 20-45.
Hinton's Harmony of Reason and Revelation, vol. 5, 484-504.
Hinton's Active Christian, vol. 5, pp. 552-68.
Mitchell's Young Christian's Guide, vol. 6, 1834, pp. 140-56.
Philip on Manly Piety, vol. 6, pp. 267-91.
Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. Luther Hart, vol. 6, pp. 475-96.
[Review of] The Domestic Constitution, vol. 7, 1835, pp. 185-223.
Eight of his sermons appeared in the The National Preacher: two in volume 6, 1831 ; one in volume 13, 1839; o^e in volume 14, 1840; one in volume 19, 1845; one in volume 24, 1850; two in volume 28, 1854.
AUTHORITIES.
Cowles, Sketches of early settle- z^, 224-25. T. Robhins, Diary, i, ments, 29, 32-34. Meigs Genealogy, 872, 939.
Nicholas Phillips Randall, the eldest in a family of ten children of Nicholas Randall, a farmer, of Voluntown, Connecticut, and grandson of Nathan and Eleanor (Cot- treli) Randall, of Westerly, Rhode Island, and Voluntown, was born in Voluntown on July 25, 1779. His mother was Content, daughter of Jonathan and Jenevereth (Branch) Phillips, of Oris wold, Connecticut. His College course was delayed until he could, by his own labor, provide for his expenses. He entered after the opening of the Junior year.
Biographical Sketches, i8os 6ii
Directly after graduation he entered the law office of Hotchkiss & Simons, in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, where he continued until his admission to the bar.
In 1807 he opened an office in New Hartford, in the same county, but in 181 1 removed to Manlius, in Onon- daga County.
For a short time he was in partnership with James O. Wattles; but during the rest of his life he practiced by himself with marked ability and success. He died in Man- lius, after a long and tedious illness, on March 7, 1836, in his 57th year.
In early life he united with the Baptist Church in his native town, but he ultimately connected himself with the Protestant Episcopal Church in Manlius, in which he held the office of warden at the time of his death.
He married, in Clinton, in 1809, Sally Bristol, a native of Clinton, who died there in February, 181 5, in her 28th year. He married, secondly, in 18 15, at Sandy Hill, in Washington County, Belvidera, eldest daughter of Dr. Zina and Mabel (Lockwood) Hitchcock, of Sandy Hill, who died in Manlius on September 21, 1818, in her 31st year. He married thirdly, at Caldwell, in Warren County, in 18 19, Eliza Norman, a native of England, who died in Manlius in June, 1822, aged 31 years. He mar- ried, fourthly, in 1823, at Manlius, Sibyl Dyar, who was born in Rutland, Vermont, in May, 1800.
By his first wife he had a son, who was graduated at Hamilton College in 1828, and a daughter. By his sec- ond wife he had one daughter; by his third marriage a son who died in youth; and by his last marriage two daughters and two sons (one of whom died in infancy).
An engraving from a portrait of Mr. Randall is given in Clark's Onondaga.
AUTHORITIES.
/. V. H. Clark, Onondaga, ii, Randall Genealogy, 96, 108-09. 201-05. Hitchcock Genealogy, 245.
6i2 Yale College
John Taft Reed, the eldest child of Major Cheney Reed, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, and grandson of Joseph and Eunice (Taft) Reed, of Brookfield, was born on April 19, 1785. His mother was Sally, daughter of Tilly and Mary (Buckminster) Rice, of Brookfield.
Not many years after graduation he became a partner in the firm of Reed & Rice, importers, of Boston, which his father had founded. About 18 18 he went into part- nership in the same business with Luther Faulkner (Har- vard 1802), in Boston, and continued in that firm until his death, in Boston, on August 13, 1839, in his 55th year.
AUTHORITIES. Reed Family (1861), 196.
Thomas Rice, the youngest son of Colonel Stephen Rice, a farmer, of Hardwick, Worcester County, Massa- chusetts, and grandson of Beriah and Mary (Goodenow) Rice, of Hardwick, was baptized on June 9, 1782. His mother was Dorothy, daughter of Deacon James and Hephzibah (Eager) Woods, of Marlborough. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year. .
He studied law after graduation, and began practice in Boston with good prospects; but a passionate fondness for music broke up all other plans. He returned to Hard- wick, and for some years lived a reckless life; but finally took a new departure and removed to Rutland, Vermont, where he supported himself by teaching music. From Vermont he is believed to have gone to Kentucky, but he had no direct communication with his relatives, and they were never informed of the time and place of his death.
He is not known to have married. He was of respecta- ble attainments and gentlemanly deportment, genial, and fond of society, but lacked energy and definite purpose.
authorities.
Paige, Hist, of Hardwick, 462-63; MS. Letter, Febr., 1886.
Biographical Sketches, 1803 613
William Henry Sackett, youngest son of Justus and Anna (Lyon) Sackett, of Greenwich, Connecticut, and grandson of Nathaniel and Anne (Bush) Sackett, of Greenwich, was born in Greenwich on August 25, 1782. His parents were connected with the Episcopal Church.
He studied medicine after graduation with Dr. David Perry, of Ridgefield, and in 1805 or 1806 settled in prac- tice in Bedford, Westchester County, New York, where he soon came to be esteemed as the most accomplished physi- cian in the county.
He died in Bedford on December 29, 1820, in his 39th year, — his early death being attributed to his excessively arduous labors.
He was married, on September 28, 1808, by the Rev. Ebenezer Grant, to Rebecca, daughter of Colonel Jesse and Catharine (Holmes) Holly, by whom he had one son, who died in early childhood, and four daughters, who sur- vived him.
AUTHORITIES.
Scharf, History of Westchester of America, 127, 190. County, i, 574. Weygant, Sacketts
James St. John, the eldest in a family of thirteen chil- dren of Benoni St. John, of New Canaan, Connecticut, and grandson of Daniel and Mary St. John, of New Canaan, was born on September 16, 1782. His mother was Eliza- beth, daughter of James Burchard, of New Canaan.
He settled in Georgia after his graduation; and while on his way from there, intending to reside permanently among his kindred, his death occurred in Philadelphia, on February 20, 1815, in his 33d year.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Courant, March 7, 1815. St. John Genealogy, 156.
6 14 yo,^^ College
David Sanford, son of John Sanford, of Newtown, Connecticut, was born in 1783. He exhibited in childhood an unusual proficiency in mathematics, which led to his being prepared for College, which he entered soon after the opening of the Junior year. He was distinguished while here, alike for his piety and for his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.
For several months after graduation he was in doubt about a profession, but finally determined on entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Having injured his eyes, however, by too close application, he was advised to lay aside his books for a time, and accepted an appointment as Deputy-Surveyor under Jared Mansfield (Yale 1777), Surveyor-General of the United States.
Accordingly he left home in July, 1804, for Marietta, Ohio, and began his new work. He enjoyed good health until August, 1805, when he was attacked with a slow intermittent fever. He died at the foot of the Rapids of the Miami River, in Southern Ohio, on October 11, 1805, aged 22 years. His death was lamented with the keenest regret by all who knew him.
AUTHORITIES.
Churchman's Monthly Magazine, Letter, Sept., 1848. Indiana Hist, iii, 284-88. Dr. E. T. Foote, MS. Society's Collections, ii, 359-60.
Jared Scarborough, the eldest of eight children of Joseph Scarborough, of that part of Pomf ret which is now Brooklyn, Connecticut, and grandson of Jeremiah and Mary (Holbrook) Scarborough, was born in Pomf ret on January [or February?] 26, 1781. His mother was Deliv- erance, younger sister of Sanford Kingsbury (Yale 1763). He united with the College Church in August, 1802.
He became a merchant (firm of Caldwell & Scarbor- ough) in Hartford, but died early, on November 25, 1816,
Biographical Sketches, 1803 615
in his 36th year. In the war of 18 12 he was a quarter- master of the Connecticut troops, and Captain of a cav- alry corps.
He married, first, Margaret, daughter of Major John and Margaret (ColHer) Caldwell, of Hartford, who died on March 2^, 1808, aged 21 years.
He next married, on September 5, 1813, Mary Anne, eldest child of William Walton and Elizabeth (D wight) Woolsey, of New Haven, by whom he had one son, — besides two children who died at birth. She next married, in November, 18 19, George Hoadly (Yale 1801), and died in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 28, 1871, aged 78 years.
AUTHORITIES.
American Ancestry, iii. 218. eal. and Biogr. Record, iv, 154. Tal- Dwight Family, i, 250. N. Y. Gen- cott, Kingsbury Family, 243-44.
Henry Sherman, the youngest son of John and Rebecca (Austin) Sherman, of New Haven, and a brother of John Sherman (Yale 1792) and David A. Sherman (Yale 1802), was born in New Haven on October 16, and was baptized on December 11, 1785. He entered after the opening of the Freshman year. He united with the Col- lege Church at the end of his Junior year.
After graduation he held the Berkeley Scholarship for one year, and then took charge of Staples Academy in what is now Easton, Connecticut, where he also studied theology; and during the year 1807-08 he was the Rector of the Hopkins School in New Haven. He was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on November 9, 1808.
For some years he preached mainly as an occasional supply: as, in North Stonington for three months in 181 1.
His only settlement in the ministry was in Easton, where he was ordained and installed as pastor in April, 1813. His pastorate terminated in June, 1815.
6i6 Yale College
During the summer of 1815 he was preaching in the vacant parish of Norfolk, Connecticut.
He made his home in New Haven, and before long an inherited tendency to insanity became manifest. He died in New Haven, ''after a short and distressing illness," on February 4, 18 17, in his 32d year.
He married, in October, 181 3, Martha, third daughter of xA.mos and Hannah (Williams) Denison, of North Ston- ington.
They had one daughter.
Mrs. Sherman next married, on May i, 1826, the Rev. Stephen Peet (Yale 1823), then of Euclid, Ohio, who died in March, 1855. She died on November 13, 1877, in her 82d year.
AUTHORITIES.
Baldwin and Clift, Denison De- and Biogi:. Record, xlii, 42. scendants, 190, 192. N. Y. Geneal.
Seth Smith, the third and eldest surviving child of Deacon Seth Smith, of Hadley, Massachusetts, and grand- son of Deacon Jonathan and Mehitabel (Cook) Smith, of Hadley, was born on July 4, 1785, his mother being Lydia, second daughter of Thomas and Rhoda (Worthington) Smith, of Hadley and Williamstown. A brother, the Rev. Dr. Worthington Smith, was graduated at Williams Col- lege in 1816, and became President of the University of Vermont. He entered College after the opening of the Junior year.
He studied theology after graduation with President Dwight, and with the Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde (Dartmouth Coll. 1788), of Lee, Massachusetts. In June, 1806, he united with the Church in Hadley, and in February, 1808, he was ordained there for home missionary service.
He was sent to Central New York by the Hampshire Missionary Society, and on January 24, 1810, was installed over the First Presbyterian Church in Genoa, Cayuga
Biographical Sketches, 1803 617
County, where he exercised a lifelong ministry with grati- fying success.
He died suddenly in Genoa, from neuralgia of the heart, on January 30, 1849, i^ ^^^ ^4^^ year.
He married in Hadley, on October 11 (or November 29), 1810, Margaret, eldest child of General Samuel and Lucy (Hubbard) Porter, of Hadley, born in February, 1787, who survived him.
His only son, and four of his seven daughters, also sur- vived him.
He was a Trustee of Auburn Theological Seminary from 1820 until 1849.
In the notices published after his death, he is called "a pattern of all the virtues which adorn the sacred profes- sion" ; and attention is particularly drawn to "his meek- ness combined with firmness, his calmness without apathy, his zeal for the truth without bitterness, his uncompromis- ing strictness without obstinacy, his gentleness without weakness, and his ability and fidelity in preaching the gospel."
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 903-04. Appendix, 114, 132, 135. Worthing- Hotchkin, Hist, of Western N. Y., ton Smith, Select Sermons, with 356. Judd, Hist, of Hadley, 2d ed.. Memoir, 4-5.
Solomon Smith came to College from Hartford, Con- necticut, and was perhaps a son of Dr. Solomon Smith, whose wife was Ann, third daughter of Lieutenant John and Abigail (Theobald) Talcott, of Milford. He united with the College Church on profession of faith at the end of Junior year.
He became a lawyer in Hartford, but removed to Albany, New York.
On April 22, 18 12, he married Ursula L, daughter of Dr. Isaac and Mary (Gorham) Bull, of Hartford, by whom he had five children. He died in 1832.
His widow, born April 18, 1790, long survived him.
6i8 Yale College
Elias Starr, the only son of Nathaniel Starr, a farmer, of Danbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain John and Sarah (Taylor) Starr, of Danbury, was born on Jan- uary 12, 1779. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Taylor, of Danbury. He entered the Class after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduating he returned to his native town, and for a time followed a mercantile life, but eventually made teaching his settled occupation.
He was one of the Representatives of Danbury in the General Assembly at the tw^o sessions of. 181 2, was for some years Town Clerk, and always a man of influence.
In April, 1834, he removed to New Rochelle, New York, where he taught for four years, and then removed to New York City, where he continued in the business of teaching until 1852, when advancing years compelled him to retire.
He then went back to Danbury, intending to pass there the rest of his life; but subsequently returned to New York, where he died on February 17, 1855, aged 76 years.
He married, on November 14, 1804, Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Hon. William Edmond (Yale 1777), of Newtown. She died on May 13, 1825, aged 40 years.
He next married Harriet Howard, daughter of Joseph Fairchild and Elizabeth (Burr) White, of Danbury, who died in Brooklyn on January 8, 1876, in her 84th year.
By his first wife he had five daughters and one son. The eldest daughter was the mother of Bishop Armitage, of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin. By his second wife he had two sons, the elder of whom was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of New York in 1846, and the younger became a well- known jeweler in New York. He w^as called Colonel Starr, having commanded a regiment raised during the war of 1812, but probably not called into active service.
AUTHORITIES. Bailey, Hist, of Danbury, 152. Starr Family, 324-25.
Biographical Sketches, i8o^ 619
George Washington Strong, the youngest in a fam- ily of eight children of Judge Selah Strong, of Setauket, in Brookhaven, Long Island, and grandson of Thomas and Susannah (Thompson) Strong, of Brookhaven, was born on January 20, 1783. His mother was Anna, daughter of William Henry and Margaret (Lloyd) Smith, of Brook- haven. The Rev. Dr. Selah Strong Woodhull (Yale 1802) and the Hon. Selah Brewster Strong (Yale 181 1) were his nephews. In College he was ranked* as one of the best scholars in his Class. He joined the College Church on profession of his faith at the close of Junior year. He received an ad eundeni Bachelor's degree from Princeton College in 1804.
He adopted the law as his profession, and was admitted to the bar in New York City late in 1806.
He was a lawyer of superior powers and attainments, and was successively in partnership in New York with John Wells (Princeton 1788), who died in 1823, George Griffin (Yale 1797), and Marshall S. Bidwell, LL.D. (Yale 1858), — all lawyers of eminence. He was both pro- foundly learned in legal principles and a master of all departments of practice.
His character was one of remarkable symmetry. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is remem- bered by those who knew him best as a wise and upright man, of great dignity of manner, who feared God and regarded carefully the rights and interests of his fellows.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by the University of Vermont in 1837. An engraved portrait is given in the Strong Family Genealogy.
He died in New York City on June 27, 1855, after three days' illness, in his 73d year.
He married, on July 8, 1809, Angelina, sister of John Nelson Lloyd (Yale 1802), who died on September 20, 18 14, aged 29 years.
He next married, on May 22, 1819, Eliza Catharine, youngest daughter of Oliver and Catharine (Brownejohn)
620 Yale College
Templeton, of New York, who died on November 25, 1853, in her 69th year.
By his first wife he had two daughters, of whom the elder married Ehas Hasket Derby (Harvard 1824). By his second wife he had two sons, of whom the younger died in infancy, and the elder was graduated at Columbia Col- lege in 1838, and followed his father's profession.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, i, 620, Biogr. Record, v, 19. 633-34, 636-37. N. Y. Geneal. and
Charles Augustus Stuart was a son of Colonel John Stuart, of Greenbrier, (West) Virginia, and a grandson of John and Margaret (Linn, Paul) Stuart. His mother was Agatha, second daughter of Thomas and Jane (Strother) Lewis, of Augusta County, which then included the most of West Virginia, and widow of her first cousin, Captain John Frog, of Staunton, in Augusta County, who was killed by the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774.. In that battle John Stuart, Junior, acquired fame for his courage, and this brought him the acquaintance with Mrs. Frog. At his death he left a very large fortune.
His son entered Yale after the opening of the Freshman year.
He married soon after graduation the daughter of a Scotchman, Mr. Robertson, who lived on a large plantation in Augusta County, about twelve miles from Staunton; and there he spent the greater part of his life. He was the President of the Board of Public Works of the State, a magistrate of the County, and filled other positions of trust and honor.
He had two sons, who settled in Greenbrier, and a daughter; and soon after his wife's death he returned to his native place, where he died, probably between 1845 ^^^ 1850.
Biographicc^ Sketches, i8o^ 621
AUTHORITIES.
Gilmer, First Settlers of Upper Augusta County, 288, 292. Georgia, 50-51. Peyton, Hist, of
William Augustine Taylor, the eldest child and only surviving son of General Augustine Taylor, of New Mil- ford and Sharon, Connecticut, and grandson of the Rev. Nathanael Taylor (Yale 17/K ), of New Milford, was born in Sharon on September 18, 1784. His mother was Hul- dah, the eldest daughter of Colonel Samuel Canfield, of New Milford, and a sister of Judson Canfield (Yale 1782).
He returned to Sharon after graduation and at first taught a select school. Later, he was in business as a merchant in company with his father; but in 1816 he removed to New York City. He was in service in the War of 1812, and was afterwards commonly called Colonel.
He was engaged for a few years in mercantile pursuits in New York; but not being successful he reverted to teaching, for which he had a real gift, both from his attainments and from a peculiarly amiable and attractive disposition.
He came to an untimely end by the upsetting of a boat in which he was taking a fishing excursion with two other gentlemen, off New Rochelle, New York, on July 29, 1852, at the age of 68.
AUTHORITIES.
Orcutt, Hist, of N. Milford, 775. Aug., 1870. Gen. C. F. Sedgwick, MS. Letter,
Samuel Whittelsey, the eldest of thirteen children of Roger Newton Whittelsey, a farmer of Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, Connecticut, and grandson of the Rev. Samuel Whittelsey (Yale 1729), of Milford, was born in Litchfield on December 18, 1775. His mother was Anne, eldest daughter of Jacob Woodruff, of Litchfield, by his second wife, Anne Farnam. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
62 2 Yale College
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association in June, 1804. He was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in New Preston Society, in the township of Washington, on December 30, 1807; and on November 10, 1808, he married Abigail, third daughter of the Rev. Samuel Goodrich (Yale 1783), of Ridgefield.
He was dismissed from this charge, owing to lack of pecuniary support, on April 30, 181 7. During his pastor- ate one hundred and forty-two persons had been added to the church.
Immediately on leaving New Preston he went to Hart- ford, as Superintendent (or Steward) of the Hartford Deaf and Dumb Asylum, just opened, and retained that office until early in 1824.
In April, 1826, Mr. and Mrs. Whittelsey became prin- cipals of the Ontario Female Seminary in Canandaigua, New York, from which they went to another large Sem- inary for young ladies in Utica. In 1832, while in Utica, Mrs. Whittelsey began the publication of the Mothers' Magazine, which she edited until about 1850; she subse- quently revived it under the title of the Magazine for Mothers and Daughters.
In December, 1833, they removed to New York City, where Mr. Whittelsey died suddenly on April 15, 1842, in his 67th year.
Mrs. Whittelsey died at the house of her younger daugh- ter, in Colchester, Connecticut, on July 16, 1858, in her 70th year.
Their children were five sons (of whom two died young) and two daughters. The eldest child was graduated here in 1834, and became a missionary in India. The youngest child married the Rev. Lucius Curtis (Williams 1835).
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, ily, 107-08. Whittlesey Genealogy, 270. E. M. Gallaudet, Life of T. H. 1898, 83, 140-42. Woodruff, Litch- Gallaudet, 124, 137-38. Tuttle Fam- field Geneal. Register, 238.
Annals, 1803-04 623
Annals, 1803-04
A few weeks after the Commencement in 1803 a com- munication appeared in the Hartford RepubHcan paper, The American Mercury (for October 6), claiming that the attendance at Commencement had been notoriously small, because Republicans did not care to be insulted, as in some previous years, especially 1798 and 1799, by offensive political harangues; and severely blaming President Dwight. The article was answered in The Connecticut Courant for November 9.
Ebenezer Grant Marsh (Yale 1795), the brilliant young Professor-elect of Languages, died on November 16, and was sincerely mourned.
Tutors Bancroft Fowler (Yale 1796) and Moses Stuart (Yale 1799) resigned in 1804, and Noyes Darling (Yale 1801), John Hall (Yale 1802), and David Austin Sherman (Yale 1802) succeeded to that office.
At Commencement, 1804, the Senior Fellow, the Rev. Timothy Pitkin (Yale 1747), of Farmington, resigned his office ; and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong (Yale 1769), of Hartford.
At the same session the name of the Lyceum was for- mally given to the "large and elegant building" begun in 1801, for a library and recitation-rooms; while to the new dormitory adjoining it, later known as North Middle Col- lege, the name of Berkeley Hall was given.
The Corporation at this time voted that "Freshmen shall not hereafter be sent on errands by their fellow- students."
624
Yale College
Sketches, Class of 1804
"^Parker Adams
^Daniel Chapman Banks, A.M.
^Johannes Harveius Beach
Voab Brace, A.M. 1808, S.T.D. Guil. 1854
*David Brush
*Naboth Buckingham
* Johannes Caldwell Calhoun, LL.D. 1822 et Hamilt.
1821 et Columb. 1825, e Congr., Rerump. Foed.
Milit. et Polit. Seer, et Vice-Praeses et Sen. "^Johannes Chester, A.M., S.T.D. Cone. 182 1 *Gerardus Clark, A.M. 1808 ^Chester Cotton *Georgius Colton *Matthaeus Dickinson, A.M. *Marcus Doolittle, et Mediob. 1804, A.M. Mediob. *E2ra Stiles Ely, A.M., S.T.D. Wash. Tenn. *Sumner Ely, M.D. Hobart. 1837, Soc. Med. Nov.
Ebor. Praeses ^Johannes Myers Felder, e Congr. *Heriricus Frost, A.M. ^Christophorus Edwards Gadsden, S.T.D. Carol.
Austr. 1815, Eccles. Anglic. Carol. Austr. Episc.
* Johannes Gadsden, A.M. 18 17 *David Gardiner "^Johannes David Gardiner *Moses Gillett
^Benjamin Franklin Hampton
^Johannes Preston Hampton, Reip. Mississ. Cur.
Supr. Jurid. *Royal Radulphus Hinman, A.M. 181 1, Reip.
Conn. Seer.
*i835 *i844 *i839 *i86i *i858 *i842
*i85o *i829 *i86o *i85o *i858 *i8o9
*i86i
*i857 *i859
*i843
1852
*i844 *i849 *i848
*i829 *i868
Biographical Sketches, 1804 625
*Josua Huntington, A.M. et Harv. 1808 *i8i9
^Jonathan Huntting *i850
*Timotheus Jones *i84i
*Curtis Judson, et Mediob. 1804 *i8o4
♦Gualterus Raleigh Kibbe *i864
♦Franciscus King, A.M. *i837
*Guilielmus Kinne, A.M. *i848 "^Theodericus Cornelius Lansing, A.M. Cone,
S.T.D. Guil. 1826, in Acad. Theol. Alburn. Rhet.
Sacr. Prof. *i857
*Abel McEwen, A.M., S.T.D. Cone. 1846, Socius *i86o
"" Johannes Marsh, A.M., S.T.D. Jeff. Penns. 1852 *i868.
*Reuben Smith Morris, A.M. 1814 *i832
*Amos Northrop, A.M. *i8i2 *Sethus Norton, A.M., Tutor, in Coll. Hamilt.
Lingg. Prof. *i8i8
* Johannes Pellet *i8o9
"^Johannes Pierpont, A.M. 1820 et Harv. 182 1 *i866 *David Plant, Reip. Conn. Vice-Gubernator, Socius
ex officio, e Congr. *i85i
*Georgius Plummer, A.M., Socius ex officio *i872
*Horatius Potter *i84i
"^Thomas P under son, KM.. *i848 *Heusted Reynolds
"^Samuel Rich *i845
*Guilielmus Robinson *i8o4
''^Newton Skinner *i825
*Carolus Blair Snowden *i825
*Micha Sterling, e Congr. *i844
*Guilielmus Stoddard *i8i8
*Henricus Randolph Storrs, A.M., e Congr. *i837
*Eliphalet Swift • *i857
*Henricus Swift, A.M. 181 1 *i866 *Agur Tomlinson *Bennet Tyler, A.M., S.T.D. Mediob. 1823, Coll.
Dartm. Praeses, in Acad. Theol. Vindes. Orient.
Theol. Dogmat. Prof, et ejusd. Praeses *i858 40
$a6 Yale College
*Stephanus Upson *i824
*Jeremias Vanderbilt *i85i
*Jahacobus Adrianus VanHeuvel, A.M. 1808 *i874
* Johannes Carrington Warner, A.M. 1808 *i829 *Carolus Henricus Wetmore *i868
* Amos Ha wley Wheeler *i84i *Amos Whitehead *i8o8 *Franciscus Bayard Winthrop, A.M. *i84i *Johannes Still Winthrop, A.M. *i855 *Josephus Wright, A.M. *i864
Parker Adams^ third son of Captain John and Mary (Parker) Adams, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and a brother of John Adams (Yale 1795), was born in Canter- bury on May 6, 1779, and entered College after the open- ing of the Sophomore year.
He studied after graduation for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was ordained Deacon by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore, of New York, on October 18, 1808, and Priest by the Rt. Rev. Alexander V. Gris- wold, of the Eastern Diocese, on October 27, 181 1.
On October 31, 181 1, he was married to Frances Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Chester) Coit, of Canterbury and Norwich.
In 1815, or a little earlier, he became Rector of Trinity Church in Lansingburg, and of Grace Church, in Water- ford, New York, holding both charges until 18 18.
He was elected Rector of the Church in Claremont, Sumter County, South Carolina, on June 20, 18 18, and remained there until 1821.
From 182 1 to 1829 he was Rector of St. John's Church, Johnstown, New York.
His last charge was over St. Stephen's Church, in New Hartford, Oneida County, New York, of which he was Rector from August, 1829, until his death, which occurred in St. Augustine, Florida, on June 10, 1835, at the age of
Biographical Sketches, 1804 ^at
56 years. He is buried in the Old Protestant Graveyard in that city. Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, in announcing his death, describes him as "truly a good man."
His widow died in New York City, on May 20, 1846, in her 626. year.
Their children, three sons and a daughter, all died young.
AUTHORITIES.
Adams History, 321, 332. Chap- Convention Journal, 1835, 39. Stiles,
man, Coit Genealogy, 54, 107. Dal- Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 215. Hatn-
cho, Hist, of Prot. Episc. Church in ilton B. Tompkins, MS. Letter, Febr.,
S. C, 393. N. E. Hist and Geneal. 1899. Register, 1, 335. N. Y. Prot. Episc.
Daniel Chapman Banks, of Greens Farms, in that part of Fairfield, Connecticut, which is now Westport, was born in 1782, and entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Fairfield West Association of Ministers on October 8, 1805.
He supplied for a time the First Congregational Church in Canterbury; and on August 12, 1807, he was ordained and installed over the Congregational Church in Trumbull, where he remained until February 2, 1813.
He resigned at that time, because desirous of a more extended field of usefulness, and feeling a deep interest in the spiritual welfare of the multitudes then pressing into the West.
He removed accordingly to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was instrumental in building up a Presbyterian Church, of which he became pastor. He contributed largely from his private funds for the erection, in 181 7, of their first house of worship; and continued their zealous, faithful, and beloved minister, until declining health and a constitu- tion broken by incessant application to his duties caused his withdrawal.
628 Yale College
He died in Louisville, after a painful illness of several months, on July 12, 1844, aged 62 years.
He married Martha A., daughter of Major William Silliman, the elder half-brother of Professor Benjamin Silliman (Yale 1796), and Phebe (Jennings) Silliman, of Fairfield, who died in New York City, while on a visit to her younger and only surviving son, on August 5, 1844, aged 63 years, from dysentery, after an illness of a few days.
AUTHORITIES. Hurd, Hist, of Fairfield County, 779.
John Harvey Beach came to College from Huntington, Connecticut.
After graduation he taught in Utica, New York, in the meantime also studying law.
He was admitted to the bar in Auburn, New York, in 1808, and practiced his profession there for the remainder of his life. He was also interested in extensive flour mills.
He was a member of the New York Assembly in three sessions, from September, 1814, to April, 1817.
He died in Auburn in August, 1839.
His wife, Mrs. Christina Beach, survived him, with three sons and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, 269.
JoAB Brace^ the son of Zenas and Mary (Skinner) Brace, of West Hartford, Connecticut, was born in West Hartford on June 13, 1781. He united with the church in July, 1799, and taught school during the year before he entered College.
He began the study of theology in his Junior year, and continued it after graduation under the direction of his
Biographical Sketches, 1804 629
pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins. He received a Hcense to preach on September 26, 1804, from the Hart- ford North Consociation, and on the second Sunday thereafter he began to preach in the adjoining parish of Newington, in Wethersfield, where he continued until his ordination and installation as their pastor, and colleague vi^ith the Rev. Joshua Belden (Yale 1743), on January 16, 1805. The sermon on this occasion, by the Rev. Dr. Per- kins, was afterwards published. The church then con- sisted of fifty-one members.
The senior pastor, who, however, had performed no duties since 1803, died in July, 1813; and Mr. Brace con- tinued his peaceful and successful ministry for a full half- century. In October, 1850, he communicated his intention to resign on December i, 185 1; but the Society voted, a few weeks before that date, to request him to remain until he should have completed fifty years of service, and he acceded to the request.
He relinquished active work on January 16, 1855, and was then able to make the remarkable assertion, that, from the day of his licensure, *T had not a single Sabbath's vacation, either to consider the call, or to prepare my first pastoral sermon, and I have never had a vacation to this day, but have preached without intermission." During his ministry he admitted two hundred and thirty-one mem- bers to the church. His salary was never over five hun- dred dollars, and he supplied his further needs by keeping a private school, in which boys were fitted for college. He also tilled his own farm, and his garden was the model for his neighbors.
He retained until his death the title of senior pastor, but removed at once to his daughter's house in Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts, where he died, from dropsy of the chest, after an illness of about three weeks, on April 20, 1861, in his 80th year. His body was taken to Newington for burial. The sermon preached at his funeral by his son-in-law, Dr. Todd, was printed in the National Preacher.
630 Yale College
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Williams College in 1854.
He married, on January 21, 1805, Lucy, daughter of Seth and Lucy (Sedgwick) Collins, of West Hartford, who died in Newington on November 16, 1854, at the age of 72.
Their children were two daughters and four sons. The elder daughter married the Rev. Dr. John Todd (Yale 1822), and the younger married the Rev. Samuel N. Shep- ard (Williams Coll. 1821). The three elder sons were graduated at Yale, in 1832, 1837, and 1841, respectively.
Dr. Brace was known by all for goodness and righteous- ness, with manners of unaffected simplicity.
A copy of his photograph is published in the History of Wethersfteld.
In 1824 he served as an agent for the collection of sub- scriptions for the erection of the new Yale Chapel. A valuable collection of pamphlets in 27 volumes, made by him and bound up by members of hi§ family, is in the Yale Library.
He published :
1. Address delivered before the Peace Society of Hartford County, at their semi-annual Meeting in West-Hartford, Sept. 2, 1829. Hartford, 1829. 8°, pp. 20.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Y. C. The subject is, War inconsistent with the Gospel of Christ, and destructive of human happiness.
2. Half-Century Discourse. — History of the Church in Newing- ton : its Doctrine, its Ministers, its Experience : presented in the Discourse [from I Cor. ii, 2-5] delivered on Tuesday the i6th of January, 1855, on his relinquishment of active service, at the close of half a century from his Ordination in that place. Hartford, 1855.
8°, pp. 75.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C. An admirable specimen of such literature.
He also published :
An Account of a Revival of Religion in Newington, in the Monthly Christian Spectator, iv (1822), 273-77.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 631
AUTHORITIES.
National Preacher, Oct., 1861, iv, Annals of Newington, 77-78, 105, N. S., 287-304. 5"/»7^.y, Hist, of Weth- 123-80. ersfield, i, 808-13; ii, 127. Welles,
David Brush was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on January 13, 1783, the son of James and Martha Brush, of Greenwich.
His Hfe was spent in the practice of the law in New York City, from 1810 until 1855, when on account of declining health he returned to his native town, where he died on April 22i, 1858, in his 76th year. His wife, Sophia, sur- vived him, with three sons and a daughter.
AUTHORITIES. James H. Brush, MS. Letter, July, 1859.
Naboth Buckingham, the youngest son of Nathan and Esther (Osborn) Buckingham, of Oxford, Connecticut, and grandson of Samuel and Silence (Clark) Bucking- ham, of Milford, was born in Oxford on December 12, 1779, and was baptized on March 5, 1780. His mother was probably a daughter of Joseph Osborn, of Oxford.
He studied medicine after graduation with Dr. David Hull (Yale 1785), and settled in Exeter, Otsego County, New York, where he remained in practice for over thirty years. He died in Exeter, much lamented, on September 5, 1842, in his 63d year.
He married, in January, 18 12, Sally Lusk, of Canaan, Columbia County, New York, who died in Lockport, New York, in 1858, aged 75 years.
Their children were three daughters, all of whom left issue. The eldest married the Hon. Joseph D. Husbands (Union Coll. 1828), and the youngest married the Rev. Washington Stickney (Hamilton Coll. 1834).
AUTHORITIES. Chapman, Buckingham Family, 48, 54. Shatpe, Hist, of Oxford, 18.
632 y<ile College
John Caldwell CalhOun, the third son of the Hon. Patrick Calhoun, of Abbeville District, South Carolina, and grandson of James and Catharine Calhoun, of Done- gal, Ireland, and Abbeville County, was born on March 18, 1782. His mother was Martha, daughter of William and Rebecca Caldwell, of Ireland, and of Newberry Dis- trict, South Carolina, and he was named for his uncle. Major John Caldwell, who had been murdered by Tories in November, 1781. His father died in February, 1796; and as a youth of promise, he was sent in the fall of 1800 to an academy kept by his brother-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Moses Waddel, in Columbia County, Georgia. In the summer of 1802 he came to Newport, Rhode Island, with the family of his first cousin, the Hon. John Ewing Col- houn, and after further study there with a private tutor he entered the Junior Class at Yale in the fall of 1802. Here he held a high rank for scholarship and talent and for gentlemanly conduct. In the Senior year his high distinc- tion was foreseen by President Dwight, and at Commence- ment he was assigned an Oration, on the Qualifications necessary to form a Statesman; but illness prevented his speaking.
He spent the winter after graduation at Abbeville, in the study of law, and was then for eighteen months a student in the Litchfield (Connecticut) Law School.
In the summer of 1807 he was admitted to the bar at Columbia, in his native State, and settled to the pursuit of his profession in Abbeville. In October of the same year he was elected to the State Legislature, and made such a marked impression that in October, 18 10, he was elected to the National House of Representatives by a large majority.
A few years of law practice had enabled him to accumu- late a moderate competency, and on January 8, 181 1, he was married in St. John's Parish to Floride Bonneau Col- houn, the only surviving daughter of his first cousin, San- ator John Ewing Colhoun and Mrs. Floride (Bonneau)
Biographical Sketches, 1804 633
Colhoun, who was ten years his junior, and brought him an additional fortune. They settled on a plantation, which he called "Bath," in Abbeville District.
In November, 181 1, he took his seat in Congress, and for substantially the whole of the remainder of his life Wash- ington was the center of his activities.
After serving as a member of Congress for seven ses- sions, or until March, 1817, and winning distinction as an able debater, he entered the Cabinet of President Monroe, in December, 181 7, as Secretary of War, and retained that position until March, 1825, when he became Vice-Presi- dent of the United States. In the War Department he showed distinct administrative ability, introducing an unprecedented degree of order, regularity and energy into the affairs of that office.
As Vice-President he fulfilled to the general satisfaction the duty of presiding over the deliberations of the Senate, and was a second time elected to the same ofiice, — General Jackson being substituted for John Quincy Adams as President.
In the autumn of 18 17 he purchased, in connection with his mother-in-law, a handsome residence on Georgetown Heights; but after he became Vice-President he found it impossible to keep up an establishment on his salary, as his private income was much diminished by the increasing agricultural depression in South Carolina ; and he accord- ingly broke up housekeeping and made plans for a new house at Fort Hill, near Pendleton, in his native region.
The revision of the tariff in 1828 was judged by Calhoun to affect his native State disastrously; and he prepared the draft of an epoch-making Exposition and Protest on that subject, which was substantially adopted by the South Carolina Legislature. The doctrine of this paper involved the maintenance of State sovereignty, even to the extent of the nullification of Federal legislation.
In the meantime his political aspirations, which had been fixed upon the Presidency, were (temporarily, at least) sacrificed by a personal quarrel with Jackson.
634 ^^^^ College
The nullification ordinance was passed by the South Carolina Convention in November, 1832, and in December one of the South Carolina seats in the United States Senate was vacated by the election of Robert Y. Hayne as Gover- nor. Calhoun was then elected Senator, and having sent to the Secretary of State on December 28 his resignation of the Vice-Presidency, he was sworn in as a member of the Senate on January 4, 1833.
In 1842 he was again prominently mentioned as a can- didate for the Presidency at the next election; and in preparation for the expected nomination he announced in November his intended withdrawal from the Senate in March, 1843.
He remained out of public office for a single year, but finally declined to permit his name to be submitted to the Democratic Convention which nominated a President in 1844.
As early as 1836 he had advocated the admission of Texas into the Union; and in March, 1844, in order to carry out this plan and to preserve slavery, he accepted the place of Secretary of State in President Tyler's Cabi- net, though conscious that his health was breaking.
His duties in that office ended in March, 1845. He then declined the offer of the English mission from President Polk (as he had previously declined it from President Adams in 18 19), and in the following November, Senator Daniel E. Huger having resigned in his favor, was again elected to the United States Senate, and retained his seat until his death.
Early in the winter of 1848-49 his failing health gave uneasiness to his friends. He had sufifered for some years under a pulmonary complaint, and the failure of the heart caused his death, in Washington, on March 31, 1850, at the age of 68. His burial was in Charleston.
His widow died at their home. Fort Hill, near Pendle- ton, South Carolina, on July 25, 1866, in her 75th year. Their children were three daughters and five sons.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 635
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Yale College in 1822, also by Hamilton College in 182 1, and Columbia in 1825.
Mr. Calhoun's private life was distinguished for its purity and simplicity, and he carried himself with remark- able dignity, with unspotted integrity, and unstinted devo- tion to duty. Daniel Webster, in his remarks in the Senate on the day after Mr. Calhoun's death, bore willing testimony to his undoubted genius and commanding talent ; and defined his eloquence as "plain, strong, terse, con- densed, concise, sometimes impassioned, still always severe. Rejecting ornament, not often seeking far for illustration, his power consisted in the plainness of his propositions, in the closeness of his logic, and in the earnestness and energy of his manner."
His influence on the course of South Carolina at a criti- cal period, and the effect of his teachings in the formation of the Southern Confederacy, have made his career his- toric, beyond perhaps that of any other Yale graduate of his century.
Several portraits of Mr. Calhoun are extant; copies of the most interesting of these are given in the pamphlet History of the Calhoun Monument at Columbia (Charles- ton, 1888).
Mr. Calhoun's publications were mainly in the form of' Congressional speeches and official reports which appear in full in his collected Works; it does not seem necessary to make a list of these in their original form, but only to enumerate a few special publications:
I. Onslow in reply to Patrick Henry. Originally published in the National Intelligencer. [Washington, 1826.] 8°, pp. 28.
[U.S.
An anonymous reply in two numbers to two articles in the National Intelligencer, now known to have been written by Philip R. Fendall, writing under the pseudonym of Patrick Henry, with the heading, An argument on the powers, duties and conduct of the Hon. John C. Calhoun, a Vice-President of the United States, and President of the Senate ; Calhoun was criticized for his failure
636 Yale College
to control Senators in debate, and his defense was the lack of rules permitting this.
2. The Exposition and Protest, reported by the Special Com- mittee of the House of Representatives [of South Carolina] , on the Tariflf; . . December 19, 1828. Columbia, 1829. 8°, pp. 40.
[U. S. Y. C. This paper was furnished by Mr. Calhoun, and promulgated, with slight modifications, by the legislature ; it involved the doctrine of nullification, the right of a State to veto a Federal law.
3. Correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun, President and Vice-President of the U. States, on the subject of the course of the latter, in the deliberations of the Cab- inet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences in the Seminole War. Washington, 1831. 8°, pp. 52.
[5. Ath. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. Y. C. Published by Mr. Calhoun, with an introductory address "To the People of the United States." The correspondence was dated from May to August, 1830, and related to Jackson's conduct of the war against the Seminoles in 18 18.
4. Address to the people of South Carolina. July 26, 183 1. Published in the Pendleton Messenger.
On the relations of the States and the General government. An elaboration of the Exposition of 1828.
5. Important Correspondence on the subject of State Interpo- sition, between His Excellency Gov. Hamilton, and Hon. John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States; — [Copied from the Pendleton Messenger of 15th Sept. 1832.] Charleston, 1832. 12°, pp. 27. [B. Ath. M. H. S. Y. C.
An elaboration of the Address of July, 1831.
6. Letter in answer to an invitation from a Committee appointed by a Convention of Democratic Republican Electors of the City of New York, to deliver an Oration at the celebration of the sixty- fourth Anniversary of the Independence of the United States. New York, 1850 [sic]. 8°, pp. 8. [A^. F. H. S.
Dated at Washington on June 4, 1840.
7. Life of John C. Calhoun, presenting a condensed History of Political Events from 181 1 to 1843. Together with a selection from his Speeches, Reports, and other Writings subsequent to his election as Vice-President of the United States, including his leading
Biographical Sketches, 1804 637
Speech on the late war delivered in 181 1. New- York, 1843. 8°,
PP- 74, 554 + pl- [y. C.
Each part was also published separately.
The Life here printed was in the main of Mr. Calhoun's own composition, though retouched by the Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter. See Hunt's J. C. Calhoun, pp. 250-53.
The second part includes thirty-three Speeches, two Reports, and Nos, I, 4, and 5, as above.
8. Address to his Political Friends and Supporters [Dated, Feb- ruary, 1844].
9. Address on taking the chair of the Southwestern Convention, Memphis, Nov. 13, 1845.
10. Letter in relation to the mode of appointing Electors of President and Vice-President [Dated, Fort Hill, November, 1846].
11. Address to the people of the Southern States. [Fort Hill,
S. C. ?i849.] 8°, pp. 15. [U.S.
In reply to accusations of treachery to the South by Colonel Thomas H. Benton. Several editions.
After his death the following appeared : —
12. The Works of John C. Calhoun. . . New- York, 1854-57. 6 volumes. 8°.
Edited by Richard K. Cralle, and published under the direction of the General Assembly of South Carolina. The first volume contains A Disquisition on Government, written in 1843-48, and A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States ; this had been already published separately in 185 1. Volumes 2-4 contain Speeches ; and volumes 5-6 Reports and public letters.
13. Correspondence of John C. Calhoun. Edited by J. Frank- lin Jameson. Washington, 1900. 8°, pp. 1218.
Published separately, and also as volume 2 of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association ; it includes a very valuable calendar of Calhoun's letters previously printed.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, iv-viii, passim. Calhoun. Lippincott's Magazine, Ixii,
Miss M. Bates, Private Life of J. C. 81-^, O'Neall, Bench and Bar
Calhoun. History of the Calhoun of S. C, ii, 283-312. Pinckney, Life
Monument at Charleston, von Hoist, of J. C. Calhoun. Salley, Calhoun
John C. Calhoun. Hunt, John C. Family of S. C, 20, 22-25.
638 Yale College
John Chester^ the eldest son of the Hon. John Chester (Yale 1766), of Wethersfield, Connecticut, was born in Wethersfield on August 17, 1785, and was baptized four days later. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem.
During his undergraduate course he had been careless of self-improvement ; but a change of purposes soon after graduation led him to study for the ministry with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lyman (Yale 1767), while teaching in Hatfield, Massachusetts, and he was licensed to preach in October, 1807, by the Hartford South Association of Ministers.
After preaching for brief periods in Marblehead and Springfield, Massachusetts, and declining calls from the South Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut, and the church in Cooperstown, New York (in 1810), he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hudson, New York, on November 21, 18 10.
The church over which he was settled had been for some time without a pastor, and the congregation, never large, had very much dwindled ; but he was eminently successful in his arduous task.
In 181 5 a second Presbyterian Church was formed in the neighboring city of Albany; of which he was invited to become the pastor; having accepted the call, he was installed by the Presbytery of Albany on November 3.
For upwards of twelve years he devoted himself assid- uously to the best interests of his flock, and indeed to all the temporal and spiritual interests of humanity within his reach.
He gave much attention to his duties as Trustee of the Albany Academy, and also of the Albany Female Academy. He was from 181 5 a Director of the Princeton Theological Seminary, and was Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1823. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Union College in 182 1.
In the winter of 1826-27 he made special exertions for the spiritual advancement of his people, under which his
Biographical Sketches, 1804 639
originally vigorous constitution gave way. In the spring of 1828 he found his health so much impaired that he con- sented to take a journey for its improvement. He was not again permitted to resume pastoral work, but died at the house of his father-in-law in Philadelphia, on January 12, 1829, in his 44th year.
A small volume of Obituary Notices was published by order of the Trustees of his congregation in 1829, and a memorial sermon by the Rev. Edward N. Kirk was also printed. Another volume, published in 1818, descriptive of an unpleasant episode in his experience, bears the title. Official Documents of the Presbytery of Albany exhibiting the Trials of the Rev. John Chester and Mr. Mark Tucker; it relates to his trial, in 18 17, on charges of slander against a brother minister, from which he was triumphantly acquitted.
He married, on June i, 1818, Rebecca, daughter of Rob- ert Ralston, a well-known philanthropist of Philadelphia, by whom he had five daughters who survived him, besides two children who died in infancy. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Dr. S. Beach Jones (Yale 1831).
Mrs. Chester died at the house of a son-in-law, in Ded- ham, Massachusetts, on October 28, 1856, aged 66 years.
An engraving from a portrait of Dr. Chester, painted in 18 1 3, is prefixed to the Obituary Notices. In figure he was very corpulent, but active and graceful in movement and buoyant in temperament. His acknowledged power and reputation were due, not so much to eloquence or intel- lectual supremacy, as to a fervent and affectionate nature and sincere devotion to his work.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from I Cor. iii, 9], delivered before the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society, at their Annual Meeting in Canaan, September 21st, 1813. Hudson, 1813. 8°, pp. 39.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. C. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-27.
2. Narrative of the State of Religion within the Presbytery of Albany. Albany, 1820. 8°. [B. Publ.
640 Yale College
3. A Sermon [from Jer. vi, 16], in commemoration of the landing of the New-England Pilgrims, delivered in the 2d Presby- terian Church, Albany, December 22d, 1820. . . Albany, 1820. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. Knowledge and Holiness the sources of Morality. — A Ser- mon [from Ps. cxliv, 15], delivered by appointment, before the Albany Moral Society, in the North Dutch Church, October 5th, 1 82 1, and by request, on the following Sabbath, to the people of his charge. Albany, 1821. 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Publ. C. H. S. Y. C.
He edited and was a liberal contributor to the Columbian Maga- zine, a periodical published in Hudson in 1814-15.
He was the author of a Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), prefixed to a volume of his Sermons. (Utica, 1824. 8°, pp. xxxvii.)
He delivered the annual Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Yale in September, 1816, on the Mutual and necessary connection of Science and Literature with Religion; but it was not printed.
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 739. Register, xxii, 340-41. Obituary
Goodwin, Genealogical Notes, 17. Notices of the Rev. J. Chester, D.D.
Hinman; Puritan Settlers, 563-64. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit,
Munsell, Annals of Albany, vii, 108; iv, 401-10. Stiles, Hist, oi Wethers-
ix, 180. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. field, ii, 216-18.
Gerardus Clark, the youngest of four sons of William Clark, a tavern-keeper of New Milford, Connecticut, and a descendant of a Colchester (Connecticut) family, was born in New Milford on January 20, 1786. His mother was Annis, youngest daughter of Lieutenant Daniel and Hannah (Hitchcock) Bostwick, of New Milford. His father died in September, 1800, after which he was pre- pared for College by Judge David S. Boardman (Yale 1793), and entered as a Sophomore. In later life he enjoyed recalling the fact that in Senior year he was some- times employed by President Dwight as an amanuensis.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 641
After graduation he began the study of law in New York City, in the office of John G. Bogert, who was for a number of years Russian Consul.
In 181 1 he was admitted to the bar of New York, and was for many years engaged in extensive practice. He was at one time a member of the Board of Education of the City, and in that connection prepared a paper defending the use of the Bible in the common schools, which was pub- lished in pamphlet form and exerted considerable influence.
In 185 1 he removed his residence to New Rochelle, in Westchester County; but he continued in active practice in the city until a few weeks before his death. He retained all his faculties, both mental and physical, until the last.
He died in New Rochelle on August 23, i860, in his 75th year, and was buried in New Milford.
He married, on November 21, 1825, Ann Maria, the eldest child of John G. and Mary Corbett (Ludlow) Bogert, of New York, and a sister of Dr. Cornelius R. Bogert (Yale 1820) . She was born in July, 1795, and sur- vived her husband, with their children, a daughter and a son (Columbia College 1852).
Mr. Clark was an adherent of the Whig party in politics. He joined the Episcopal Church while in College, and was for some years one of the Wardens of St. Mark's Church, New York, and afterwards of Christ Church, Pelham, and a vestryman of Trinity Church, New Rochelle.
Hiram Ketchum, a prominent member of the New York bar, who had known Mr. Clark for many years, and had been associated with him in some important cases (as, for example, in the prosecution of Bishop B. T. Onderdonk), wrote of him: "He was a careful, discriminating, indus- trious, and learned lawyer, practising close and thorough analysis of legal principles, and preparing his cases at the bar with great care."
AUTHORITIES.
Bostwick Genealogy, 158. Henry Hinman, Early Puritan Settlers, 607. W. Clark, MS. Letter, July, 1861. i?ijfeer. Hist, of Harlem, 2d ed., 469. 41
643 Yale College
Chester Colton^ the second son of Deacon Abijah and Mary (Gaylord) Colton, of West Hartford, Connecticut, and grandson of the Rev. Benjamin Colton (Yale 1710), was born in West Hartford in December, 1783, and was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins. His elder brother was a classmate.
After graduation he studied theology with Dr. Perkins, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Asso- ciation of Ministers on June 8, 1808.
In July, 18 1 3, he began to supply the vacant pulpit of the Congregational Church in Brentwood, near Exeter, New Hampshire. In due time he accepted a call to settle there, on a salary of $400, and was ordained and installed as pas- tor on January 25, 181 5. He was married on May '25, 1815, to Eliza, third daughter of Ebenezer and Eleanor (Whitman) Faxon, of West Hartford, whose brother had married his eldest sister in 1802.
After a successful pastorate, during which over forty persons had been added to the church, he was obliged, on account of inflammation of the eyes, to take a dismission on March 16, 1825. He then returned to Connecticut, and after the recovery of his health supplied various pulpits (as in Colebrook, 1828).
In February, 1829, he was settled over the Congrega- tional Church in Old Lyme, where he continued with acceptance for eleven years. Subsequently he supplied for a few months in Goshen, Connecticut.
The rest of his life was spent in missionary service in Western Ohio (at North Bend, Greenville, etc.), and he died in New Carlisle, Clark County, on September 13, 1850, in his 67th year. His widow died on May 20, 1865, in her 78th year.
Their children were one daughter, who married the Rev. E. Roger Johnson (Bowdoin Coll. 1838), and one son.
He was interesting and instructive as a preacher, and highly respected as a man.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 643
His theological sympathies were with his classmate Tyler, and his name appears on the editorial board of the Evangelical Magazine, at its beginning in Hartford in 1832.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, ii, Hampshire Churches, 21. Salisbury, 1481. Farnam, Descendants of John Family Histories and Genealogies, i, Whitman, 598-99. Lawrence, N. xviii. Tuttle Family, 91-92.
George Colton, the elder brother of the last-named graduate, was born in West Hartford on January 12, 1779. He united with the church in September, 1799, and then decided to devote himself to the ministry, and began to prepare for College with his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins. Entering on his undergraduate career as a mature Christian, trained to the love of books, he gave his time greatly to reading in general theology, including especially the Latin fathers. He is said to have mastered the entire College Library of that day.
After graduation he joined his brother in the study of divinity under Dr. Perkins, and in 1806 began his career as a home missionary. His active life was mainly spent in Central and Western New York, his earliest commission being from the Connecticut Missionary Society to the Black River settlements.
In 1808 or 9 he was ordained and installed as pastor of a small Congregational Church in Westford, near Cherry Valley, where he remained until June 12, 1822, when he was installed over the Presbyterian Church in Royalton, Niagara County, from which he was dismissed on June 30, 1829. Later, his home was successively in Elba and East Bethany, Genesee County; in Wyoming, Wyoming County (1836-39) ; and in Lockport, Niagara County.
About 1853 he returned to New England, and resided in Ware, Massachusetts, and Fair Haven, Connecticut. In the fall of 1857 he went to the house of his youngest son in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he died suddenly on
i
644 Yale College
February 12, 1858, at the age of 79. He was buried in his native town.
He was a sound theologian and an interesting preacher, though a man of marked idiosyncrasies.
He married on November 5, 1808, Lucy Cowles, of Otisco, Onondaga County, New York. She was a native of Bristol, Connecticut, and a half-sister of Lewis Gaylord Clark and WilKs Gaylord Clark. She died in Otisco, at the house of her brother-in-law, Jesse Gaylord, on July 31, 1838, in her 51st year.
He had seven sons and two daughters. Five of the sons were regularly graduated at Yale College (in 1832, 1840, 1844, 1848, and 1850, respectively), and a sixth received an honorary Master's degree (1850).
AUTHORITIES.
/. Milton Colton, MS. Letter, Octo- Notices, 1858, 69-70. Hotchkin, Hist, ber, 1910. Cothren, Hist, of Wood- of Western N. Y., 511. bury, ii, 1481. Crosby, Annual Obit.
Matthew Dickinson, son of Captain Noah and Han- nah Dickinson, of Somers, Connecticut, and grandson of James and Mary Dickinson, of Somers, was born in 1780. A sister married David Dudley Field (Yale 1802).
He went to North Carolina on graduation, and became the Principal of Franklin Academy, near Louisburg, in Franklin County. For about four years he conducted this institution with success, and accumulated from his earn- ings some six or seven thousand dollars.
Late in 1808 he resigned his position and began the study of law ; but he died there, after a short but distress- ing illness, on September 17, 1809, aged 29 years. Pie was unmarried.
AUTHORITIES.
Allen, Hist, of Enfield, iii, 2422. 11, 1809. H. M. Field, Record of the Amer. Hist. Association, Annual Re- family of Rev. D. D. Field, 15. port, i, 914-16. Conn. Courant, Oct
Biographical Sketches, 1804 645
Mark Doolittle, the youngest of eight children of Titus Doolittle, of Russell, Massachus'etts, was born on December 5, 1781. He was prepared for College princi- pally by his brother Joel (Yale 1799), at Middlebury, Ver- mont, and entered Yale after the opening of the Junior year.
After graduation he studied law, at first with the Hon. Eli B. Ashmun (Harvard 1809), of Blandford, Massachu- setts, and afterwards with the Hon. Elijah H. Mills (Wil- liams Coll. 1797), of Northampton; and was admitted to the bar in 1807, when he began practice in South Hadley.
In 18 1 2 he removed to Belchertown, where he after- wards resided, actively engaged in the labors of his profes- sion till within a few weeks of the close of his life.
He represented his district in the Senate of Massachu- setts in the year 1821-22. He also represented Belcher- town in the lower branch of the General Assembly in 1824-25, and again in 1825-26; and was a member of the Governor's Council in 1828-29.
He died in Belchertown after a very severe illness, on November 7, 1855, aged nearly 74 years. . He first married, about 1808, Betsey Matilda, daughter of Dan and Betsey (Hunter) Smith, of West Haven, Vermont, and niece of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith (Yale 1751), a woman or rare virtues and intelligence, who died, after an illness of nearly two months, on Novem- ber 13, 1814, aged 38 years.
He next married, on August 10, 181 7, Sarah T., daugh- ter of Charles C. Raboteau, of Newburyport, who died on February 4, 188 1.
By his first marriage he had two daughters, of whom the younger married John Stacy (Yale 1837). By his second marriage he had a son who died in early childhood and a daughter who died at the age of 18.
Mr. Doolittle was a well-read lawyer, greatly respected for his ability, his fairness, and his high-toned morality
646 Yale College
and gentlemanly bearing. In politics he was a Whig. He was a leading advocate of temperance.
He was a sincere and consistent member of the Congre- gational Church in Belchertown, and very active and use- ful in the Sabbath school. He was a great admirer of the Puritans, and religious works were his favorite reading. For a number of years he sought to encourage the study of the Bible in the Senior Class at Yale, by placing a sum of money in the hands of the Faculty to be expended in the form of prizes to those who should pass the best exam- ination in the Scriptures.
An engraving from his portrait is given in his Sketch of the Church in Belchertown.
He published :
1. An Address, at Northampton, October 11, 1826, to the Society of the Counties of Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden, for the promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. Northampton, 1826. 8°, pp. 24. [A. A. S. B. Publ. M. H. S.
2. Temperance a source of national wealth. 1826. A prize essay.
3. The Christian Sabbath of Divine Authority, and obligatory on men to be observed the First Day of the Week. Northampton, 1845. 12°. [Br. Mus.
A lecture.
4. Historical Sketch of the Congregational Church in Belcher- town . . with notices of the Pastors and Officers, and list of communicants chronologically arranged, tracing genealogies, inter- marriages and family relatives. Also, embracing numerous facts and incidents relating to the first settlers and early history of the place. Northampton, 1852. 12°, pp. 282 + pi.
[A. C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. Y. C. An excellent historical work.
AUTHORITIES.
M. Doolittle, Hist. Sketch of Bel- Genealogical Society, Memorial Biog-
chertown Church, 168-69, 273, 276-77. raphies, ii, 473-77- Stiles, Hist, of
W. S. Doolittle, Doolittle Family, Wethersfield, ii, 634. Tuttle Family,
229, 359-61. New England Historic 218.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 647
Ezra Stiles Ely, the eldest son and second child of the Rev. Zebulon Ely (Yale 1779), of Lebanon, Connect- icut, was born in Lebanon on June 13, 1786, and was named for the venerated President of Yale, under whom his father had been a student and tutor. He made a pro- fession of religion before he was fourteen, and was pre- pared for College by his father.
After a brief period of theological study with his father, he was licensed to preach on December 12, 1804, by the Standing Committee of the Windham Association of Ministers.
On October i, 1806, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the small Congregational Church (of only thirty members) in Westchester Society in Colchester, the adjoining town to Lebanon ; the sermon preached on that occasion by his father was afterwards published.
In April, 1810, he was dismissed from this charge, to take the position of Stated Preacher to the Almshouse and Hospital in the City of New York. He was supported by private subscriptions, and began duty at the Almshouse in June, and at the Hospital in October. In these self-deny- ing labors, and especially in his printed report of them, he commended himself so highly that he was invited on October 11, 1813, to the pastorate of the important Third or Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He had already received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Washington College, Tennessee. He resigned his chaplaincy on July i, 18 13, in prospect of this call, but was not installed over his new congr-egation until September 7, 18 14. This delay was caused by a divi- sion of the church, induced by his strong anti-Hopkinsian tenets, which had led in the meantime to a trial before the New York Presbytery in January, 18 14, resulting from the sharp language in his published Contrast between Cal- vinism and Hopkinsianism; after three days' trial he was unanimously and honorably acquitted. The story is con-
648 Yale College
tained in a volume published at Philadelphia in 18 14 (16°, pp. 170), with the title: A History of ecclesiastical pro- ceedings relative to the Third Presbyterian Church in Phila., the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, and several of the Judica- tories of the Church with which they are connected.
In 1 8 14 he married Mary Ann, daughter of Samuel K. and Margaret (Means) Carswell, of Philadelphia, a lady of large wealth.
He threw himself with boundless activity into the work of the pastorate, and for over twenty years was a prom- inent figure in the city and in the denomination. While faithful and untiring in his proper professional sphere, he interested himself also in public matters, and used the large means at his disposal to help all good causes. For exam- ple, being a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jefferson Medical College, he came forwards at a critical moment, when the existence of the institution seemed to depend on a prompt outlay of funds, and provided the means for the purchase of land and for the erection of a building which saved the College.
He was elected Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1825, and held that office for eleven years, administering it with marked efficiency. In the mean time the Assembly conferred on him its highest honor by elect- ing him Moderator in 1828.
In 1834 Dr. Ely, with characteristic enthusiasm, con- ceived the idea of founding a city under Presbyterian auspices, in Marion County, near the Mississippi River, in Northern Missouri, in connection with which should be planted' a College, a Theological Seminary, and various industries, by means of which the students should earn their own support. Many of his congregation embarked in the scheme and forsook their homes to follow him. His pastoral relation was dissolved by Presbytery on May 16, 1835, though he continued to supply the pulpit for about a year longer. During his pastorate he had received 666 persons into the church.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 649
Dr. Ely invested some fifty thousand dollars in his new enterprise, and accepted the Professorship of Polemic Theology, Biblical Literature and Sacred Criticism, in the Theological Department; but the result proved a failure, partly on account of the financial crisis of 1837.
After a struggle of several years (followed by the death of his wife in 1842, at the age of 50), he came back to Philadelphia, broken in health and ruined in fortune.
He married again in 1843 Caroline, daughter of Thomp- son and Eliza A. (Stockly) Holmes, of Virginia, and in the spring of 1844 became the pastor of the First Presby- terian Church of Northern Liberties, a suburb of Phila- delphia, where he labored with unabated zeal until prostrated by a stroke of paralysis in August, 185 1.
He lingered in extreme feebleness until his death, in Philadelphia, on June 18, 1861, at the age of 75.
He had by his first marriage three daughters and four sons, and by his second marriage two daughters and three sons. His wife survived him, with six of his children. Francis Parsons (Yale 1893) ^"^ Edward Ely Curtis (Yale 1910) are great-grandsons.
Copies of two portraits of Dr. Ely are given in the History of Old Pine Street Church.
He published:
1. Sermon [from I Cor. ii, 2] delivered on the First Sabbath after his Ordination. Hartford, 1806. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Sermon [from Rev. xiv, 13] for the rich to buy, that they may benefit themselves and the poor. New- York, 1810, 8°, pp. 27.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Published to arouse an interest in his work in the Almshouse.
3. A Contrast between Calvinism and Hopkinsianism. New- York, 181 1. 8°, pp. 280.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. This work was partly aimed at the Rev. Gardiner Spring (Yale 1805), who had lately been settled over the Brick Presbyterian
650 Yale College
Church in New York, and was suspected of Hopkinsianism ; it was answered by the Rev. James Wilson, in 18 14.
4. The Journal of the Stated Preacher to the Hospital and Alms- house, in the City of New- York, for the year of our Lord 181 1. New- York, 1812. 12°, pp. 300.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C. Sketches of interesting experiences of pastoral work among the degraded and friendless. Republished in London in 181 3, with the title. Visits of Mercy.
5. The Second Journal of the Stated Preacher to the Hospital and Almshouse, in the City of New- York, for a part of the year of our Lord 1813 . . Philadelphia, 1815. 12°, pp. 255.
[Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. Y. C. These two Journals also appeared in later American editions, with the title, Visits of Mercy, in two volumes.
6. Ten Sermons on Faith. Philadelphia, 1816. 12°, pp. 215.
[A. C. A.
7. The Quarterly Theological Review. Conducted by the Rev. E. S. Ely, D.D. Philadelphia, 1818-19. 2 volumes. 8°, pp. 572; 510. , Y.C.
Apparently Dr. Ely was the sole author of this Review.
8. Conversations on the Science of the Human Mind. Phila- delphia, 1819. 12°, pp. 228. [U. S. Y. C.
9. A Synopsis of Didactic Theology. Philadelphia, 1822. 12°, pp. 308. [A. C. A. B. Ath. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. Memoirs of the Rev. Zebulon Ely, A.M. of Lebanon, Con- necticut ; compiled from his own writings. Philadelphia, 1825. 8°, pp. 56. [N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
11. Retrospective Theology, or the Opinions of the World of Spirits. Philadelphia, 1825. 8°, pp. 45.
[A. A.S. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C. The imaginary experience of the author in the future world, with sarcastic references to various acquaintances, both living and dead.
12. The Collateral Bible; or, a Key to the Holy Scriptures: in which all the corresponding texts are brought together into one view . . — By William McCorkle, assisted by the Rev. E. S. Ely, D.D. and the Rev. Gregory T. Bedell, A.M. Philadelphia, 1826-28. 3 V. 4°. [B. Publ. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 651
These volumes extend only through the Old Testament. Vol- umes 2 and 3 were edited by Dr. Ely and Mr. Bedell.
13. The Duty of Christian Freemen to elect Christian Rulers-: a Discourse [from Ps. ii, 10-12] delivered on the Fourth of July, 1827, in the Seventh Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia: with an Appendix, designed to vindicate the liberty of Christians, and of the American Sunday School Union. Philadelphia, 1828. 8°,
PP- 32-
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
This Sermon, as printed in the newspapers, had been used in the State Senate, in February, 1828, to justify a refusal to incorporate the American Sunday School Union; and was now published by the author in self-defence.
14. A Discourse [from Rom. xv, 19], delivered at the opening of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, on the 21st of May, A. D. 1829. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. C. H. S. Y. C.
15. A Discussion of the conjoint question, is the doctrine of endless punishment taught in the Bible? or does the Bible teach the doctrine of the final holiness and happiness of all mankind? In a series of Letters between the Rev. E. S. Ely and Rev. Abel C. Thomas. New-York, 1835. 12°, pp. 288. [B. Publ.
Dr. Ely's Letters were originally published in the Philadelphian.
He also edited for some years, without compensation, The Phil- adelphian, a weekly religious paper.
He left in manuscript a History of the Churches of Philadelphia.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, viii, 178, 184. IS7-97- Hist Magazine, iii, 254-55.
Congregational Quarterly, iii, 333. Nevin, Hist, of Philadelphia Presby-
Ely Ancestry, 100, 300-01. Gibbons, tery, 188-90, 304-05. Wilson, Pres-
Hist. of Old Pine Street Church, byterian Almanac, 1862, 180-84.
Sumner Ely, the second son of Adriel Ely, a farmer of Lyme, Connecticut, and grandson of Captain Richard and Margaret (Olcott) Ely, of Lyme, was born on May 22, 1787. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Jabez Stow,
652 Yale College
of Saybrook. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Frederick W. Hotchkiss (Yale 1778), of Saybrook, and entered in the fall of 1801, — at first joining the Freshman Class, and after a few days applying for and being admitted to the Sophomore Class.
After graduation he studied medicine with Dr. Thomas Broadhead, of Clermont, Columbia County, New York, at that time a popular instructor, engaged in an extensive practice. He remained for nearly five years, devoting however a part of the time to teaching in an academy to earn money; and on August 30, 1809, he was authorized to practice by the Greene County Medical Society.
In July, 18 10, he began practice in Clarksville, in the township of Middlefield, Otsego County, where he con- tinued until his death, — a period of over forty-seven years. Frugal and temperate in his habits, and blessed with a vigorous constitution, he was able to undergo the expo- sures and fatigues of an extensive rural practice, and to reap the rewards of devotion and experience. From 181 1 he was an active and highly trusted member of the County Medical Society, and in 1837 he received the honorary degree of M.D. from Geneva, now Hobart College. In 1840 he was elected President of the State Medical. Society, and held office for one year.
He was deeply interested in popular education, and held for a considerable portion of his life the office both of trustee and inspector of schools. In the war of 181 2 he raised a volunteer company of riflemen, of which he was chosen Captain, and continuing in the militia, he rose finally (in 1830) to the rank of Brigadier General, retiring after one year's service.
In 1836 he represented his district in the State Legisla- ture, and in 1840 was elected Senator and retained that office for four years.
He continued in unabated usefulness and growing respect until about the beginning of the year 1857, when he received an injury on the head, from a fall, which
Biographical Sketches, 1804 653
resulted in a fatal inflammation of the brain, of which he died, on February 3, in his 70th year.
A memoir, by Dr. J. S. Sprague, in the Transactions of the State Medical Society for the next year, is accompanied by a lithographic engraving, which also appears in the Ely Ancestry.
He married, on June 11, 18 16, Hannah Knapp, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Cornwall) Gilbert, of Middlefield, who died in 1868, aged yy years. His children, five sons, all survived him, two of them being physicians and one a lawyer.
His only publication was :
Annual Address delivered before the Medical Society of the State of New- York, February 3, 1841. Albany, 1841. 8°, pp. 15.
[Y. C. On inflammatory fever.
AUTHORITIES.
Crosby, Annual Obit. Notices, the Medical Society of N. Y. State, 1857, 141-43. Ely Ancestry, 73, 130. 1858, 23-34. Ely Reunion, 67. Transactions of
John Myers Felder, the eldest child of Judge Samuel and Mary (Myers) Felder, of Orangeburg District, South Carolina, and grandson of Judge John Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Shaumloffel) Felder, of Orangeburg, was born on July 7, 1782. His grandfather was an emi- grant from Zurich, Switzerland. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year. A brother was graduated here in 1822.
He studied law in the Litchfield Law School, in company with his classmate and intimate friend, Calhoun, and being admitted to the bar in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1808, settled in his native place, and enjoyed a lucrative practice for about twenty years. In 181 2, 18 14, and 1822, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Represen- tatives, and to the State Senate from 1816 to 1820. Before the War of 1812 began he held the rank of Major
654 yoi^ College
in the militia, and just as it closed, he was on his way from his home, at the head of a battalion, to assist in the defence of the seaboard.
After having been several times a candidate for the United States Congress, he was elected to that body in 1830, and served from 183 1 to 1835, when he declined a re-election. In 1840 he was again chosen State Senator, and continued to serve in that capacity until his death.
Throughout his political career he was a strong Demo- crat, and he took a conspicuous part in the legislature in efforts to regulate and economize the financial affairs of the State. He refused to follow his friend Calhoun into the nullification movement, because he thought it would destroy the Union.
After retiring from the practice of the law he purchased large tracts of land covered with pine timber in his own and adjacent Districts, built saw-mills, and engaged in the lumber business, amassing a fortune estimated at half a million dollars. He was an active member of the State and County Agricultural Societies.
In August, 185 1, he made a visit to his half-sister, in Georgia; and on his return, while traveling alone on the Georgia Railroad, was taken suddenly ill with bilious colic, and died at Union Point, Georgia, on September i, in his 70th year. He was never married.
He was elected a Trustee of the South Carolina College in 1812.
AUTHORITIES.
Felder Family, 9. Hunt, J. C. Cal- Bar of S. C, 11, 325-37. houn, 15-16. O'Neall, Bench and
Henry Frost was born in Plymouth, then part of Watertown, Connecticut, in 1785. During his College course he gave his residence as New Haven. He was admitted to the College Church on profession of his faith in August, 1802.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 655
He studied theology in New Haven after graduation, and was licensed to preach for four years by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on September 17, 1807.
He then labored in various settlements as a missionary, his last employment being in Western New York, under the direction of the Connecticut Missionary Society, from March to June, 181 1.
After his license had expired, he sought its renewal, but was refused on account of apparent unsoundness of mind. It was said that his condition was due, in part, at least, to being crossed in love.
In September, 1 821, he was living with his mother near Port Gibson, Mississippi, and again applied for a renewal of his license, that he might in a more orderly way labor in that vicinity.
In July, 1823, he was living near Fredericksburg, Vir- ginia, and preaching in Presbyterian congregations; but his career there was arrested by reports from the Western States, impeaching his moral character.
In May, 1824, the New Haven East Association, in ignorance of these rumors, consented, on his appeal in person, to grant him a re-license until their next meeting in September; and in the meantime he preached for two months in Mansfield, Connecticut.
In 1826 the Association received abundant testimony from those who had observed his career in the West and South of his bad reputation for honesty and trustworthi- ness.
He died in Dorchester County, on the lower eastern shore of Maryland, on September 6, 1843, ^t the age of 58.
Christopher Edwards Gadsden, the eldest son of a family of eight sons and eight daughters of Philip Gads- den, of Charleston, South Carolina, and grandson of General Christopher Gadsden, a distinguished Revolution-
656 Yale College
ary hero, was born in Charleston on November 25, 1785. His mother was Catharine, daughter of John Edwards, a Charleston merchant, who was also a patriot of the Revo- lution. His next younger brother was a classmate, a third was graduated in 1806, and a fourth in 1820.
He was prepared for College at home, in the Associated Academy, a school then enjoying a high reputation, and early formed a determination to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which his father was a devoted adherent, though his mother was a Congregation- alist. He joined the Junior Class at Yale in 1802.
On his return from College in 1804, when he had reason to suppose that his family was wealthy, he found that their fortunes had undergone a serious reverse. He completed, therefore, as soon as he could, his preparation at the Gen- eral Theological Seminary in New York, and when little more than the canonical age, he was ordained by Bishop Moore, in New York City, on July 25, 1807. In the fol- lowing January he was elected Minister of St. John's Parish, Berkley, South Carolina.
On December 21, 1809, he was elected Assistant Minis- ter of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, and consequently resigned his charge at Berkley on February 2, 18 10. On April 14, 18 10, he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Madison, in Williamsburgh, Virginia. In Charles- ton, as formerly at Berkley, he took charge of a number of pupils, in order to aid his family.
On the death of the Rector in May, 18 14, he succeeded (on July 17) to the rectorship of St. Philip's, the oldest and perhaps the most important congregation in the dio- cese; and this relation he sustained with much acceptance until his death. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by South Carolina College in 181 5.
Dr. Dehon, the Bishop of South Carolina, died in 1817; and at the election of a successor, in 1818, Dr. Gadsden would have been unanimously chosen had he allowed his name to be proposed.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 657
When the next vacancy in that office occurred, at the election held in February, 1840, Dr. Gadsden was one of the two candidates proposed, and was chosen on the first ballot, by a small majority of the clergy and a large one of the laity. In view of this vote, he appealed to the clergy to unite on some other person; but the sincerity and magnanimity of his appeal had the effect of removing all opposition.
His consecration took place in Boston, the residence of the Presiding Bishop, on June 21, 1840, and the sermon preached on that occasion by Bishop Doane, of New Jer- sey, was afterwards published.
He was actively engaged in his twofold duties as Bishop and as Rector, until February, 1852, when a disease of the kidneys, from which he had already suffered, took on a more acute form. After intense suffering, he died at his residence in Charleston, on June 24, 1852, in his 67th year. He was interred in the chancel of St. Philip's Church, and the discourse preached on the following Sabbath, by the Rev. John B. Campbell, was afterwards published.
On October 8, 1816, he married Eliza A. Bowman, who died in October, 1826. By this marriage he had no issue.
He was married, the second time, on February 11, 1830, to Jane, youngest daughter of William Dewees, of Charles- ton, who survived him with their children, three daughters and two sons.
An engraving from a portrait is given in Perry's Bishops of the American Church.
Bishop Gadsden was a man of great humility, honesty, and self-denial. He devoted himself untiringly to his duties, and was a model of the Christian graces.
He published :
1. A Discourse [from Rev. ii, 10], preached and published by request . . . , on the Occasion of the Death of Bishop Dehon. Charleston, 1817. 8°, pp. 36. [Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. A Statement for the General Theological Seminary. Pre- pared for the meeting of the Annual Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina, 1819.
42
658 Yale College
This diocese had been the first to press the plan of a General Theological Seminary.
3. A Sermon [from Gen. 1, 7, 9, 10], preached at St. Philip's Church, August 21, 1825, on the Occasion of the Decease of Gren. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Charleston, 1825. 8°, pp. 31.
[B. Ath. Harv.
4. An Essay on the Life of the Right Reverend Theodore Dehon, D.D., late Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina . . Charleston, 1833. 8°, pp. vii, 341.
[B. Publ. U. S. Y. C.
5. A Discourse [from Acts viii, 3] on the occasion of the death of the Right Rev. Nathaniel Bowen, D.D., late Bishop of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina . . By the Rector of St. Philip's Church. Charleston, 1840. 8°, pp. 50.
[Harv.
6. The Sermon [from Luke xix, 41-42] preached at St. Philip's Church, by the Rector, on the Fast-Day, May 14th, 1845, recom- mended by the President of the United States. Charleston, 1841. 8°, pp. 18. [Harv.
7. The Times, morally Considered, in a Charge, from the Bishop, to the Clergy of the Diocese of South-Carolina, delivered in St. Philip's Church, Charleston, on Monday, 13th February, 1843. Charleston, 1843. 8°, pp. 28.
[B. Publ. Harv. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc. Enforcing lessons from loss of property.
At this time he also proposed to issue two other Charges: — The Times ecclesiastically considered ; and The Times theologically considered; but these do not seem to have appeared.
He also published a tract : The Prayer Book as it is.
He edited the (Charleston) Gospel Messenger, containing many contributions from his own pen.
AUTHORITIES.
Dalcho, Hist. ' of Prot. Episc. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pul- Church in S. C, 209, 273. Perry, pit, v, 510-14. C Wallace, Sketch of Bishops of the Amer. Oiurch, 79. Bp. Gadsden.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 659
John Gadsden, the next younger brother of the pre- ceding graduate, v/as born in Charleston, South CaroHna, on March 4, 1787. He was educated with his brother, and entered College in .his company.
After graduation he studied law, and was admitted to the bar at an unusually early age, in 1808. He at once began practice in Charleston, and by slow degrees achieved a good position as a lawyer.
He represented the city in a half-session of the State Legislature, and also filled the place of City Intendant. In 1 82 1 he received, unsolicited, the office of District Attorney of the United States, and held it for nine years.
In October, 1830, his health began to decline, and he died in Charleston, after a lingering illness, on January 31, 183 1, in his 44th year.
He left a widow, his first-cousin on his mother's side, who died soon after him, and one son.
He published:
An Eulogy on the late Keating Lewis Simons, Esq., pronounced . . on the Tenth of September, 1819; by appointment of the Revolu- tion Society. Charleston. 8°, pp. 25. [B. Ath. Harv. M. H. S.
AUTHORITIES. O'Neall, Bench and Bar of S. C, ii, 51-56, 599, 601.
David Gardiner, the second son and child of Captain Abraham and Phebe (Dayton) Gardiner, of East-Hamp- ton, Long Island, and grandson of Colonel Abraham and Mary (Smith) Gardiner, of East-Hampton, was born on May 2, 1784. His father died when he was twelve years old. He entered College after the opening of the Fresh- man year.
He studied law after graduation with Sylvanus Miller in New York City, and began practice there.
In 181 6 he married Juliana, the only surviving daughter of the late Dr. Michael McLachlan, a wealthy brewer, of
66o Yale College
Scotch descent. As his marriage brought him some for- tune, he reHnquished about 1819 his profession and retired to his native town, where he thenceforth Hved.
He held the office of State Senator for four terms, from January, 1824, to December, 1827.
He met an untimely death by the bursting of a great gun on board the United States steam-frigate Princeton, on the Potomac, near Mount Vernon, on February 28, 1844, in the 60th year of his age. Funeral services over his body and those of the Secretary of State and the Secre- tary of the Navy were held in the East Room of the White House three days later.
His widow died at her residence in Castleton, Staten Island, after long feebleness, on October 4, 1864, aged 65 years.
Their children, two sons and two daughters, survived their father. The elder daughter married, four months after her father's death, John Tyler, President of the United States. Robert A. Gardiner (Yale College 1887) is a grandson.
He was the author of the following :
Chronicles of the Town of Easthampton, County of Suffolk, New York. New York, 1871. -8°, pp. vii, 121. [U.S. Y. C.
This was originally published in the Corrector newspaper, about the year 1840.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, xi, 523, 525. his Descendants, 132, 149. Hedges, C. C. Gardiner, Lion Gardiner and Hist, of East-Hampton, 283.
John David Gardiner, the eldest child of John Gardiner, a farmer of East-Hampton, Long Island, and grandson of Deacon John and Elizabeth Gardiner, of East- Hampton, was born on January 2, 1781. His mother was Esther, younger daughter of Abraham and Esther (Mil- ler) Hedges, of East-Hampton, and widow of Aaron Fithian, of East-Hampton. His father removed to East Moriches, Long Island, in 1795, and died there in July,
Biographical Sketches, 1804 661
1799. The two Gardiner graduates of this Class were fourth cousins.
Seven months after his father's death, on February 18, 1800, at the age of 19, John D. Gardiner married Frances, daughter of Abraham and Joanna (Miller) Mul- ford, of East-Hampton, and settled in his native town. His preparation for College was completed in Clinton Academy, in East-Hampton, and a special vote of the Prudential Committee of the Yale Corporation, in Sep- tember, 1802, allowed him to enter the Junior Class, although a married man.
In May, 1805, he became the principal of the Academy at Chester, in Morris County, New Jersey, where he remained until May, 181 1; having, during that period, pursued theological studies under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. James Richards, of Morristown and Newark.
In 181 1 he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York and New Jersey, and in October of that year he was invited to supply the Presbyterian Church in the village of Sag Harbor, in Southampton and East- Hampton, Long Island. After a sufficient trial he was called to the pastorate in April, 18 12, and was ordained and installed on October 2.
He labored assiduously in the discharge of his duties, and with distinguished usefulness, for twenty years, until his dismission on June 5, 1832. He remained at Sag Har- bor, beloved and honored, until his death there, on Sep- tember 13, 1849, ii^ his 69th year.
His wife died in Sag Harbor, on March 22,, 1814, in her 34th year; and he next married, on November 20, 1814, Mary, youngest daughter of Samuel and Sarah (White) L'Hommedieu, of Sag Harbor, and widow of Nathan Cook, who died in November, 181 1. She was a lady of considerable literary ability, and a Collection from her prose and poetical writings was published in 1843. She died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on November 16, i860, in her 70th year.
662 Yale College
By his first marriage he had two sons and one daughter, and by his second marriage eight sons and three daughters ; of the latter family, three sons and a daughter died in infancy. The second son by the second marriage was graduated at Yale in 1835, and the fifth son at New York University in 1847.
AUTHORITIES.
C. C. Gardiner, Lion Gardiner and Mallmann, Hist, of Shelter Island, his Descendants, 137, 154-56. Hedges, 310-11. Thompson, Hist, of L. I., Hist, of East-Hampton, 284-85, 3i5- 2d ed., i, 347-48.
Moses Gillett^ son of Matthew Gillet, Junior, a farmer of New Hartford, Connecticut, was born in New Hartford on April 19, 1776. His mother was Lois, youngest daugh- ter of Samuel Douglas, a farmer of New Hartford, of Scotch descent. He became a Christian under the pastor- ate of the Rev. Dr. Edward D. Griffin (Yale 1790) during a season of revival in 1795-96, and after struggling with many discouragements from feeble health and pecuniary embarrassments, succeeded in completing his College course. His mother, with the Scotch fervor for education, had persuaded her husband to sell a part of his farm in order to provide funds.
He then studied theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, and was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers on June 11, 1805.
In September, 1806, he began to supply the pulpit of the First Congregational (afterwards Presbyterian) Church of Rome, New York ; and a year later, on October 14, 1807, he was ordained and installed as pastor there, over a church of thirty-four members.
He retained this office for thirty years, or until his dis- mission in October, 1837. During this time he worked with great singleness of purpose, and had the satisfaction of admitting over eight hundred members into the church.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 663
In one remarkable season of revival, during which he had the assistance of the Rev. Charles G. Finney, he admitted on a single Sunday (in March, 1826) one hundred and eighty-four persons to membership.
After his resignation he supplied the pulpits of vacant churches in Moscow and Sweden, in Western New York, until his health became enfeebled, when he returned (in the spring of 1844) to Rome. He still continued to preach (for the last time in November, 1847) ^s long as he was able; and he died in Rome on June 4, 1848, in his 73d year.
He was a man of eminent piety and apostolic zeal.
The wife of his youth, Sylvia Merrill, of New Hartford, died suddenly in 181 3, and he next married Harriet, daughter of Jedidiah and Sarah (Andrews) Mills, of West Hartford, who died in April, 1869, in her 84th year.
By his first wife he had two daughters and one son ; one daughter was the wife of the Rev. Elihu P. IngersoU (Yale 1832).
By his second wife he had two sons and three daughters. The elder son was graduated at Hamilton College in 1838, and became a minister. One daughter was the mother of Edward Wells Southworth (Yale 1875), ^ ^^^g^ benefac- tor of the Yale Library. The youngest daughter is still living.
He edited, in connection with the Rev. John Frost and the Rev. Noah Coe, the following:
A Narrative of the Revival of Religion, in the County of Oneida, particularly in the bounds of the Presbytery of Oneida, in the year 1826. Utica, 1826. 8°, pp. 88. [Y. C.
This includes (pp. 9-13) an Account of the revival in Rome, by Mr. Gillett.
AUTHORITIES.
Douglas Genealogy, 127. Knox, 10-22. N. Y. Observer, July 8, 1848. Semi- Centennial Sermon at Rome,
664 Yol^ College
t
Benjamin Franklin Hampton was not a member of College when the catalogue of November, 1800, was issued, but appears in the list of the Sophomore Class in the cata- logue of November, 1801, where his residence is given as Columbia, Georgia. The place then known as Columbia Court House is now Appling, the county seat of Columbia County.
Nothing is known of Mr. Hampton's history, beyond the fact that his name was first marked as deceased in the Tri- ennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in 1817.
John Preston Hampton, a brother of the last-named graduate, entered College at the same time.
He studied law after graduation, and was admitted to the South Carolina bar by the Court of Common Pleas at Columbia on April 22, 1807.
He emigrated to Mississippi while it was still a Terri- tory, and on the establishment of the judiciary system in the new State, he was elected, in January, 18 18, a Judge of the Supreme Court.
On the death of Judg-e John Taylor, in May -or June, 1820, he was elected as Presiding or Chief Justice. In 1825 he was granted leave of absence from the State on account of illness. In January, 1829, a resolution was introduced into the Legislature, requesting his resignation, unless he had a reasonable hope of recovery, since for three years he had been unable to perform his duties. Fortu- nately the resolution was suppressed ; and a few days later, on February 5, the Governor announced that news of his death had been received.
The records of the Court bear testimony to his learning and his sensitive regard for justice.
authorities.
Lynch, Bench and Bar of Missis- of Mississippi Hist, i, 833-34. sippi, 81-83. Rowland, Encyclopedia
Biographical Sketches, 1804 665
Royal Ralph Hinman, the only surviving son of Gen- eral Ephraim Hinman, a merchant of Roxbury, Connect- icut, and grandson of Deacon David and Sarah (Hinman) Hinman, of Southbury, was born in Roxbury on June 20, 1785. His mother was Sylvania, daughter of Lieutenant William and Ann (Bennett) French, of South Britain village, in Southbury. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem. His name was originally Ralph ; but in a list of his College Class published during Freshman year, his classmate Ches- ter, who was on the committee for collecting the material, prefixed Royal to the Ralph, as fitly descriptive of his friend ; and the appellation was afterwards retained.
He taught in an Academy in Richmond, Virginia, during a part of the years 1804 and 1805, and then entered as a law-student in the office of the Hon. David S. Boardman (Yale 1793), of New Milford, Connecticut. A year later he removed to the Litchfield Law School, and in 1807 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Roxbury, where he continued for over twenty years; he was post- master from 1823 to 1833, and in 18 14, 1825, and 183 1, Representative in the General Assembly.
He removed to Southington in 1833, and while in prac- tice there acted for about two years as Judge and Clerk of Probate for that District. In 1834 he was nominated for Congress as a Jackson Democrat; and in April, 1835, was elected Secretary of the State, in succession to the Hon. Thomas Day (Yale 1797).
He removed to Hartford in May, 1835, and for seven years retained the post of Secretary. After his retirement from this office, he continued to reside in Hartford, and was nominated for postmaster in 1844, but failed to obtain the appointment. A little later in the same year President Tyler offered him the position of military store keeper at the Springfield Armory, which he declined ; but in Septem- ber he accepted the post of Collector of Customs for the
666 Yale College
port of New Haven, only to be superseded on the change of administration six months later. He had been a dele- gate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in May, 1844!
He then returned to Hartford and continued there until 1852, when he removed to New York City.
He died in New York on October 16, 1868, in his 84th year.
He married on September 14, 18 14, Lydia, youngest child of General John Ashley (Yale 1758), of Sheffield, Massachusetts, who died in New York on August 27, 1853, in her 65th year. Her children, four daughters and a son, survived her.
He was one of the charter members of the Connecticut Historical Society at its reorganization in 1839, and an honorary member of various similar societies. He bequeathed his manuscript genealogical collections to the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, in Boston, of which he was a member.
He published :
1. Letters from the English Kings and Queens Charles II, James II, William and Mary, Anne, George II, &c. to the Governors of the Colony of Connecticut, together with the Answers thereto, from 1635 to 1749; and other original, ancient, literary and curious documents, compiled from files and records in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut. Hartford, 1836. 12°, pp. 372 -{- 4 pi.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
2. The Blue Laws of New Haven Colony, usually called Blue Laws of Connecticut; Quaker Laws of Plymouth and Massachu- setts; Blue Laws of New York, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. First record of Connecticut; interesting extracts from Connecticut records ; cases of Salem Witchcraft ; charges and ban- ishment of Rev. Roger Williams, &c. ; and other interesting and instructive antiquities. Compiled by an Antiquarian. Hartford, 1838. 12°, pp. 336.
[B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. Y. C. The compiler's name does not appear.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 667
3. A Historical Collection, from official records, files, &c., of the part sustained by Connecticut, during the War of the Revolu- tion . . Hartford, 1842, 8°, pp. 644 + 2 pi.
[D. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mu^. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. S. Y.C.
4. A Catalogue of the Names of the first Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the time of their arrival in the Colony, and their standing in society, together with thei^ place of residence, as far as can be discovered by the records. — Collected from the State and Town records. Hartford, 1846. 8°, pp. 367.
[A. A. S. B. Publ. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C. Published in five numbers, with index.
The same, revised edition, with title:
A Catalogue of the Names of the early Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the time of their arrival in the country and Colony, their standing in society, place of residence, condition in life, where from, business, &c., as far as it is found on record. Hartford, 1852-56. 8°, pp. 884. 6 numbers in one volume. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
Numbers 1-5 (1852) contain from Abbe to Danielson; Number 6 (1856) relates to the Hinman family, and was also published separately.
A partially reprinted edition was issued at Albany in 1872. This work is still of value beyond his other compilations.
In 1835 ^"d ^^3^ ^^ was the chairman of committees appointed by the Legislature to revise and publish the Public Statutes of the State, and to prepare and publish the Private Laws.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, morial Biographies, vi, 294-95. Titn-
370-71, 563. Hinman, Catalogue of low, Hist, of Southington, 8, 448.
early Puritan Settlers, 854-56. N. E. Trowbridge, Ashley Genealogy, 98. Historic Genealogical Society's Me-
JosHUA Huntington, the eldest son of General Jedi- diah Huntington (Harvard 1763), of Norwich and New London, Connecticut, by his second wife, Ann Moore, and grandson of General Jabez Huntington (Yale 1741), of Norwich, was born in Norwich on January 31, 1786. His
668 Yale College
mother was a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Chan- ning) Moore, of New York City, and a sister of Bishop Richard C. Moore, of Virginia. The family removed to New London in his infancy. He was prepared for College by Jacob B. Gurley (Dartmouth Coll. 1793), of New Lon- don, and by the Rev. Frederick W. Hotchkiss (Yale 1778), of Saybrook, and he entered Yale at the opening of the Freshman year. A brother was graduated here in 1807, and a half-brother in 1784.
He united with the College Church in May, 1802, and after graduation he studied theology, under the direction successively of President Dwight, the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, and the Rev. Dr. Jedidiah Morse (Yale 1783), of Charlestown, Massachusetts.
He was licensed to preach by the New London Associa- tion of Ministers in September, 1806, and from the first was heard with special approbation. From Springfield, Massachusetts, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Port- land, Maine, he received invitations to preach with a view to settlement; and in August, 1807, the old South Church and Congregation in Boston took preliminary steps which resulted in their voting in February, 1808, a call to Mr. Huntington to become Colleague Pastor with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eckley (Princeton Coll. 1772), with an annual salary of $1,300. Another call was received at the same time from the First Congregational Church in Middle- town, Connecticut.
He accepted the Boston call, and was ordained and installed on May 18. It had been expected that President Dwight would preach the sermon, but he was taken ill on his way to Boston, and his place was filled by Dr. Morse (by whose intervention Mr. Huntington had been first brought to the notice of the church), whose sermon was afterwards published, and was somewhat of a challenge to the more liberal theologians of the vicinity, with whom Dr. Eckley was believed to sympathize, but whom Mr. Hunt- ington was relied on to oppose.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 669
Mr. Huntington was married on May 18, 1809, to Susan, daughter of the Rev. Achilles Mansfield (Yale 1770), of that part of Killingworth, Connecticut, which is now Clin- ton, a woman of fine mental endowments and high spiritual attainments.
The senior pastor of the church died after a brief illness on April 30, 181 1, leaving the sole responsibility of the pastorate on the shoulders of Mr. Huntington, at the age of 25.
His constitution had always been somewhat delicate, and the amount of labor that devolved on him in his proper pastoral work and in the promotion of numerous benevo- lent and moral enterprises in the community, proved an over-match for his physical energies. He took an especially deep interest in the American Education Society, formed at a meeting in his study in 181 5, and also in the Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor, founded in 18 16, of which he was the President.
His feelings were also deeply agitated by the widening breach between the ministers and churches in his vicinity. He ceased in the summer of 18 17 to exchange with the clergy who favored Unitarianism ; and one of the last acts of his pastorate was to decline, on behalf of his church, to take part in the settlement of his classmate, John Pier- pont, over the Hollis Street congregation.
He had several times within two years been obliged to intermit his labors in the pursuit of health; and in July, 1819, he left home for a long journey to Niagara and Quebec, in company with the Rev. Sereno E. Dwight (Yale 1803). On his return he was so ill that he was compelled to leave the stage at Groton, Massachusetts, thirty miles from Boston, where he was received into the house of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Chaplin (Harvard 1772), the minister of the Congregational Church. Here he languished with typhus fever for sixteen days, during which his wife joined him; and he died there on September 11, in his thirty- fourth year.
670 Yale College
The funeral took place in Boston two days later, and the sermon preached by Mr. Dwight was afterwards pub- lished ; a few sentences from it are as follows :
Religious integrity was the solid foundation of* his ministerial and pastoral character. No characteristic, perhaps, contributed more to his usefulness than his prudence. His prudence was accom- panied by immovable firmness. It was apparent that his great object was to discover his duty, and when discovered to perform it. His humiHty was unaffected. As a preacher, few young men in our country have been equally popular. If he made peculiar progress, during the latter years of his life, in any one Christian grace it was in humility.
Mrs. Huntington died in Boston on December 4, 1823, aged nearly 33 years. Her Memoir, written by her husband's successor, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin B. Wisner- ( Union Coll. 18 13), passed through four editions, and was republished both in London and Edinburgh.
Their children were four daughters and two sons. One daughter and one son died in infancy. The elder son was graduated at Yale in 1832. The youngest daugh- ter married Dr. Jedidiah V. Huntington (New York Uni- versity 1835). - '
An engraving from a portrait of Mr. Huntington is given in volume 2 of Hill's History of the Old South Church.
His only publications were :
1. Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Abigail Waters, who died in Boston, November 22d, 1816, in the 96th year of her age. To which is prefixed the Sermon [from Rev. xiv, 13] preached on occasion of her death. Boston, 1817. 12°, pp. 180 + pi.
[Harv. N. F. Publ.
The same. Second edition. Boston, 1817. 12°, pp. 144.
[B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
2. Right Hand of Fellowship; appended (pp. 41-44) to A Sermon preached in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Nov. 5, 1818, at the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. Pliny Fisk, [etc.] . . as Missionaries . . By Moses Stuart. Andover, 1819. 8°.
3. Substance of [his] Address at Concert Hall, on the Anniver- sary of the Boston Foreign Mission Society.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 67 1
In volume 15, pp. 73-75 (February, 1819), of the Missionary Herald, Boston.
AUTHORITIES.
Blake, Early Hist, of the ist ington Family Memoir, 243-45, 324.
Church, New London, 298-300. Mansfield Genealogy, 103-12. Pan-
Green, Groton Historical Series, ii, opiist, xvi, 529-35. Sprague, Annals
81. Hill, Hist, of the Old South of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 501-03. Church, ii, 366-436, 603-04. Hunt-
JoNATHAN HuNTTiNG, youngcst son of William and Puah (Osborn) Huntting, of East-Hampton, Long Island, and grandson of Nathaniel and Mary (Hedges) Huntting, of East-Hampton, was born on February 13, 1778. Jon- athan Huntting (Yale 1735) was his great-uncle. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he taught in the Academy in his native town, and in the meantime studied theology under the instruction of his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher (Yale 1797), and the Rev. David S. Bogart, of South- ampton.
He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Long Island on October 10, 1805, and supplied the pulpit in Fishkill for the first five months of 1806.
In June, 1806, he began to preach in the Presbyterian Church in Southold, Long Island, where he was ordained and installed as pastor on August 20, 1807. On Septem- ber 20, 1808, he married Julia, daughter of Abraham Sayre, of his native place.
He fulfilled a long and useful ministry in Southold, until dismissed at his own request on August 2y, 1828. He continued to reside there, but for much of the time served as stated supply to neighboring congregations. Thus, for the four years ending in the fall of 1832 he supplied the church on Shelter Island.
He died at his home in Southold, after ten days' illness, on December 30, 1850, in his 73d year.
One of his sons was graduated at Amherst College in 1835, and became a minister.
672 Yale College
Mr. Huntting was a preacher of marked power and acceptableness, and of excellent character. He was deeply and conscientiously devoted to the Presbyterian polity.
AUTHORITIES.
Hedges, Hist, of East-Hampton, Island, 1 10-12. Thompson, Hist, of 303. Mallmann, Hist, of Shelter Long Island, i, 399-400.
Timothy Jones^ fourth son of Isaac Jones (Yale 1757), was born in New Haven on August 2y, 1784.
He studied medicine for a year or two after graduation with Dr. Eli Ives (Yale 1799), of New Haven, and after- wards with Dr. Eli Todd (Yale 1787), of Farmington.
In 1810 he settled as a physician in Southington, where he married, on October 31 of that year, Rhoda, third daughter of Seth Lewis (Yale 1783), born on December 10, 1791.
In social Hfe he was highly respected; and in addition to a successful professional career of over thirty years, he was honored with many public trusts, such as Town Clerk, Judge of Probate (1835-39), ^"^ Postmaster (1839-41).
He died in Southington, firm in the Christian faith, on June 8, 1 84 1, in his 57th year.
He had six sons and three daughters, of whom four sons and a daughter died in early life. The eldest daugh- ter married the Rev. Robert P. Stanton (Yale 1843).
AUTHORITIES.
Loomis Female Genealogy, i, 234. 43. Timlow, Hist, of Southington, N. Y. Geneal. and Biog. Record, xlii, 458, cxli-cxlii, clx.
Curtis Judson came to College from Woodbury, Con- necticut.
He united with the College Church on profession of faith in May of his Sophomore year. He received an ad eundem degree from Middlebury College at graduation.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 673
He remained in New Haven to pursue the study of theol- ogy ; but had scarcely begun his work, when he died here on October 25, at the age of 23. He was the first of the Class to be removed by death.
He was a young man of eminent piety.
AUTHORITIES. Conn. Journal, Nov. i, 1804.
Walter Raleigh Kibbe was born in Somers, Con- necticut, on September 8, 1781, the son of Amariah and Hannah Kibbe, of Somers.
He studied law after graduation, and was admitted to the bar in 1807.
He settled in the practice of his profession in his native town, and was much engaged in public business. He was Postmaster from 1821 to 1828, represented the town in the General Assembly in 1828, 1829, 1831, 1834, and 1838, and was State Senator from the 20th District in 1832. He also held the office of Judge of Probate from 1838 to 1848.
He maintained a consistent reputation for uprightness and independence; and was noted for his eccentricities, sharp wit, and powers of sarcasm. His devotion to the study of the Bible, especially in his later years, was remark- able.
His first wife, Mrs. Deborah Kibbe, died on November 21, 1832, aged 48 years.
His second wife, Mrs. Sabrina M. Kibbe, died in child- birth on February 26, 1840, aged 46 years.
Of his six children only three survived him.
His remarkable constitution continued vigorous to the last, and he died in Somers, after an illness of a few days, on April 22, 1864, in his 83d year.
AUTHORITIES. Allen, Hist, of Enfield, iii, 2431-33. 43
674 y<^^ College
Francis King, the eldest son of Colonel Oliver King, of Vernon, then part of Bolton, Connecticut, and grandson of Seth and Mary (Smith) King, of Bolton, was born on May 12, 1783. His mother was Chloe, daughter of Hezekiah and Amy (Cornish), Humphrey, of Simsbury. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he taught school in Nyack, Rockland County, New York, for two years; and then spent two years in the study of theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, Connecticut. He was licensed as a preacher by the Litchfield North Association of Minis- ters on June 14, 1808, and exercised his vocation, chiefly in Connecticut, for the next four or five years. He spent five months in 1809 in missionary service in Vermont ; and for about nine months in 1810-11 he supplied the vacant pulpit in Orford Society, now Manchester, Connecticut.
Subsequently he resided in his native town until 1834 or 1835, when he removed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he died on July 16, 1837, in his 54th year. He was never married.
He united with the Congregational Church in Vernon in May, 1807, and was chosen a Deacon in that church in June, 18 16, — in which office his father and his grandfather had preceded him. He was also an efficient helper in the Sunday School and in all forms of Christian activity.
AUTHORITIES.
Bolton and Vernon Vital Records, 1883. T. Robbins, Diary, i, 427, 456, II. A. S. Kellogg, MS. Letter, Febr., 474.
William Kinne^ son of David Kinne, of Black Hill, in Plainfield, Connecticut, was born there on May 19, 1781. He was prepared for College at the Plainfield Academy under John Adams (Yale 1795), and entered after the opening of the Freshman year. He joined the College Church in August, 1802.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 675
After graduation he spent two or three years in teaching in Hallowell, Maine, where he married EHza Evans, of that town, a sister of the Hon. George Evans (Bowdoin Coll. 1815), afterwards United States Senator, and daugh- ter of Daniel and Joanna (Hains) Evans.
His father died in 1808, and Mr. Kinne returned from Maine with large plans for the development of his father's extensive farm on Black Hill. He finally bought up the interest of the other heirs, and thereby involved himself in debt, which with some ill-success in various other under- takings proved in the end quite ruinous to his temporal prosperity. He was obliged to give up his patrimony, and for some of his last years was much dependent on his children.
The rest of his life was spent in the adjoining town of Canterbury, where he was always respected and esteemed as a man of intelligence, honesty, and piety.
His father's family attended the First Congregational Church in Canterbury, which he joined on profession of faith in 18 14, He held the office of Deacon in this church from December, 1824, to 1847.
One labor of love which was characteristic of the man was his planting a beautiful row of some two hundred sugar-maple trees, about half a mile in length, on the road which descends from Black Hill towards Canterbury.
He died suddenly in Canterbury on August 18, 1848, falling lifeless in his yard from heart-disease, in his 68th year.
His wife survived him with eleven children, of whom the eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1848; the second son, an educated physician, died a few months after his father.
AUTHORITIES.
Kingsbury and Deyo, Hist, of 429. R. C. Learned, MS. Letter, Kennebec County, i, 505. Lamed, July, 1849. Hist of Windham County, ii, 325,
676 Yale College
DiRCK Cornelius Lansing, son of Cornelius and Hes- ter (Vanderheyden) Lansing, and grandson of Abraham Jacobse and Catharina (Lievens) Lansing, was born in Lansingburg, New York (which was named after his grandfather), on March 3, 1785; his College preparation was completed under the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), in Huntington, Connecticut, where a married sister was then living. He is said, however, to have still suffered, after his entrance at Yale, from unfamiliarity with Eng- lish,— Dutch having been the family tongue. He united with the College Church in August, 1802, and began his preparation for the ministry while an undergraduate.
After graduation he studied theology, mainly under the supervision of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford (honorary M.A. Yale 1796), of Lansingburg; and was licensed to preach on January 6, 1806, by the Presbytery of Columbia. In the summer of the same year he went to Onondaga, in Central New York, where he soon collected a Presbyterian Church, of thirty-five members. After more than a year of self-sacrificing service in this new field, he was ordained and installed as their pastor by the Presbytery of Geneva on December 2, 1807.
In the growth of the town the location of the meeting- house proved inconvenient for a considerable portion of the settlers, with the result that Mr. Lansing took a dis- mission on February 7, 1810; and with forty of the ninety church-members formed a second church in Onondaga Hollow, over which he was installed on the 14th of the next month. He was one of the original Board of Trus- tees of Hamilton College, in 1812.
His health failing, he was dismissed from his pastorate on February 2, 1814, and retired for rest to a farm in the eastern part of the State. He continued, however, to preach as he had opportunity, and for the whole time of his residence there, regularly supplied the Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, Saratoga County, where some two hundred members were added through his ministry.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 677
In the summer of 18 16 he was invited to supply tempo- rarily the Park Street Congregational Church in Boston, but thought it wise to decline a proposal to be settled in that city.
In November, 18 16, he received a unanimous call to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church, of forty-five members, in Auburn, New York. Having accepted this call when in the prime of his powers, he was installed there by the Cayuga Presbytery on April 20, 18 17, and for more than twelve years maintained his reputation as the most eloquent pulpit orator in that portion of the State. The impressiveness and efficiency of his preaching may be indicated by the fact that over one thousand persons during this period united with his church on profession of their faith.
He was largely instrumental in the establishment of the Theological Seminary in Auburn, and served without com- pensation as the first incumbent of the chair of Sacred Rhetoric from May, 1821, until his resignation in August, 1826. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Williams College in 1826.
At the earnest and repeated solicitation of the Second Presbyterian Church in Utica, he was dismissed from his charge in Auburn on June 16, 1829, and was installed in Utica in the following month. For nearly three and a half years he labored there with characteristic ardor and faith, until health again required a change.
Late in 1832 he removed to New York City, and on February 10, 1833, he was installed over a new free church, composed of twenty-one young men and fourteen young women, later known as the Houston Street Presbyterian Church. He labored in this interesting field until the spring of 1835, when ill health again compelled his retire- ment; in the meantime the church-membership had increased eleven-fold.
For the next eleven years he was obliged to make his health his constant care, but labored successively in various
6tS Yale College
pulpits, mainly in Central and Western New York, as an evangelist or a stated supply, with blessed results. He assisted the feeble pastor of his old church in Auburn in 1835-37; organized a church in Western Illinois in 1838- 39; supplied the vacant pulpit in Auburn in 1842-43; and also ministered in Utica for a few months, and in Syracuse for about three years.
In 1846 he returned to New York City and took charge of a feeble Presbyterian church in Chrystie Street, whence he went in March, 1848, to Brooklyn, as the first pastor of the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church. He carried through the erection of a house of worship for this Society, but after a long struggle with disease was compelled to take a dismission on December 19, 1855.
In the following spring he removed to Walnut Hills, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died, after three months of constant and severe suffering, from inflamma- tion of the stomach and liver, on March 19, 1857, at the age of 72. His body was taken to his native place for burial.
An eloquent Commemorative Discourse, delivered in the Clinton Avenue Church by the Rev. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson (Yale 1838), of New York, was afterwards published. An engraving, from a likeness taken in later years, is prefixed to this Discourse, as well as to Dr. Lan- sing's last published Sermon.
He was four times married: — first, on February 14, 1805, to Elizabeth, second daughter of Patroon Jacob D. and Jane (Yates) VanderHeyden, of Troy, who died on July 2, 181 2, in her 38th year; secondly, on February 11, 1813, to Laura, fifth daughter of the Rev. Caleb Alexander (Yale 1777), of Onondaga Hollow, who died in Utica on March 6, 1831, in her 38th year; thirdly, on November 28, 183 1, by the Rev. Dr. James Milnor, to Susan Frances VanRanst, of New York City, daughter of Cornelius W. and Ann (White) VanRanst, of Pine Plains, New York; and lastly, on April 15, 1852, to Mrs. Laura Camp Dick-
Biographical Sketches, 1804 679
inson, of Hanover, New Hampshire, daughter of Joel Camp, of Litchfield, Connecticut, and widow of the Rev. Austin Dickinson (Dartmouth Coll. 1813), of New York City, who survived him.
He had six sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and five daughters survived him. The four sons of one of the daughters by his second marriage (Mrs. Grin- nell) were graduated at Yale.
He published:
1. Thanksgiving Sermon [from Ps. cvii, 8], preached before the Inhabitants of the Town of Onondaga, November 25, 1806. Utica, 1807. 8°, pp. 23. [Y. C
2. A Sermon [from I Kings viii, 27], preached March 6, 1817, at the Dedication of the New Presbyterian Church, in the Village of Auburn. Auburn, 1817. 8°, pp. 16. [B. Ath.
3. Sermons, on Important Subjects of Doctrine and Duty. Auburn, 1825. 8°, pp. 355.
[B. Ath. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Containing twenty sermons.
4. Remedy for Intemperance. — A Sermon [from Habakkuk ii, 15], delivered in the Bleecker- Street Presbyterian Church in Utica, on Sabbath Evening, July 15, 1832. . . Utica, 1832. 8°, pp. 16.
[Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
5. A Sermon [from Gen. xxviii, 17] : preached at the Dedica- tion of the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church, Brooklyn, December i6th, 1855. New York, 1856. 8°, pp. 25 + pi.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
After his death his daughter, Mrs. Grinnell, printed privately the following :
Semi-Centennial Sermon [ from Ps. cvii, 7 ; Prov. iv, 11; and Hosea xiv, 9], delivered on his resignation from the pastorate of the CHnton Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, L. I., Jan. 6th, 1856. Washington Heights, 1872. 8°, pp. 41. [U. T. S. Y.C.
The pamphlet includes (pp. 35-41) a Funeral Address by Dr. Lansing, from John xi, 25.
68o Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Auburn Theol. Seminary, General Hist, of Pine Plains, 390. Sprague,
Catalogue, 1883, 215. Dwight, Strong Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iii, 407.
Family, ii, 1258, 1260-61. Fowler, J. P. Thompson, Discourse com-
Hist. of the Church in Auburn, 6-9. niemorative of Dr. Lansing. Wood-
Hotchkin, Hist, of Western N. Y., worth, Reminiscences of Troy, 2d
212-13, 217, 327-28, 345- Huntting, ed., 72.
Abel McEwen, the youngest child of Deacon Robert McEwen, a well-to-do farmer of Winchester, Connecticut, and grandson of Gershom and Martha (Pickett) McCune, or McEwen, of Winchester, was born there on February 13,' 1780. His mother was Jerusha, third daughter of Abel and Thankful (Moss) Doolittle, of Watertown. In the summer of 1799 he united with the church, and with the ministry as his aim he spent the next year with the Rev. Ammi R. Robbins (Yale 1760), of Norfolk, in« preparation for College. He was awarded the Valedictory Oration at graduation.
For the most of the next year he studied systematic theology in New Haven under the direction of President Dwight; and then took a few months of practice in pas- toral theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen. He was licensed to preach by the North Asso- ciation of Ministers of Litchfield County on September 24, 1805, and soon had several opportunities for settlement.
On May 20, 1806, the Rev. Henry Channing (Yale 1781) was dismissed from the pastorate of the First Con- gregational Church in New London; and soon Mr. McEwen was heard in the vacant pulpit, by the strong recommendation of President Dwight, with the result that in July he was unanimously and heartily invited to become pastor, with a salary of $670, and a parsonage.
He accepted the call on September 23, and was ordained and installed on October 22, Dr. Dwight preaching the sermon. The church then had about two hundred mem- bers.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 681
On January 21, 1807, he was married by the Rev. Sam- uel John Mills (Yale 1764) to Sally, the eldest daughter of William and Sarah (Buckingham) Battell, of Torring- ford, and sister of Joseph Battell, of Norfolk, who had married a daughter of Mr. McEwen's old teacher, the Rev. Mr. Robbins. In 1809 $200 was added to his salary, which remained afterwards unchanged through his pas- torate.
He was chosen a Fellow of Yale College in September, 1826, and was a member of the Prudential Committee of the Corporation from 1853.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Union College in 1846.
He continued in full service until April i, 1854, when in accordance with his own request he retired from active duty. A colleague or associate pastor was settled in June, 1856, and Dr. McEwen remained in New London, univer- sally honored. His wife died in New London on March 9, 1859, aged nearly 78 years; and his own death followed, after an illness of nine weeks, on September 7, i860, in his 8 1st year. The Discourse delivered at the funeral by his associate, the Rev. Thomas P. Field, was afterwards published.
An engraved likeness is given in Boyd's History of Win- chester, and in Blake's History of the First Church in New London.
His children were three sons and four daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Yale in 1827, and the eldest daughter married Cortland L. Latimer (Yale 1832). The two youngest daughters died in early womanhood.
Dr. McEwen was an original and able preacher and a wise counselor. His knowledge of the theological history of New England, and especially of Connecticut, was thor- ough and minute, and his keenness and wit in conversation unrivaled.
Pie published:
68 a Yale College
1. The Prayers of the Church requested for the ministry of the Gospel: — A Sermon [from I Thess. v, 25] delivered in Stonington, at the Installation of the Rev. Ira Hart : December 6, 1809. New- London, 1810. 8°, pp. 20. [B. Ath. C. H. S. Y. C.
Mr. Hart was the author's nearest ministerial neighbor.
2. A Sermon [from Rom. xiii, i] preached at the Anniversary Election, Hartford, May 8, 1817. Hartford, 1817. 8°, pp. 22.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. A Sermon [from Ps. cxii, 4-6], preached at the Funeral of Gen. Jedediah Huntington, of New-London, who died September 25, 1818; aged 75 years. New- York, 1818. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. S.
U. T. S. Y. C. General Huntington was the father of a classmate of the author.
4. A Sermon [from Eph. iii, 8], preached at Haddam, December 16, 1818, at the Ordination of the Rev. John Marsh, Jr. Middle- town, 1818. 8°, pp. 27.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Mr. Marsh and the author were classmates. The sermon occu- pies pp. 1-17.
5. Review on the employment of Evangelists in our older settle- ments. Report of the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut. In th,e Quarterly Christian Spectator, volume i, pp. 425-38, Sep- tember, 1829.
Against the ordination of Evangelists for this purpose.
6. A Sermon [from Ez. xvi, 3], preached on the day of the Public Thanksgiving of Connecticut, November 26th, 1835, in the First Congregational Church, New-London. [New-London,] 1835. 8°, pp. 22. [A. C. A. Y. C.
On bad homes.
7. A Sermon [from Ps. cii, 14] preached in the Meeting-House of the First Congregational Church in New London, September 30, 1849; when the worship of God in that House was closed. New London, 1850. 8°, pp. 23. [M. H. S.
8. A Sermon [from Acts iv, 19], preached in the First Congre- gational Church, New London, Conn., on the Day of Thanksgiving, November 28, 1850. New London, 1851. 8°, pp. 16.
[A.C.A. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. On the duty of opposing the Fugitive Slave Law.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 683
9. Sermon [from Hebr. vii, 23-24] preached in Franklin, Conn., May 28, 1852, at the Funeral of the Rev. Samuel Nott, D.D. New- London, 1853. 8°, pp. 18. [A. C. A. U. T. S.
10. Discourse, containing Sketches of the lives of some of the Ministers of the Consociation of Litchfield County. In Proceed- ings of the North and South Consociations of Litchfield County, Ct., in convention at Litchfield, July 7 and 8, 1852, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of their primitive organization. Hart- ford, 1852. 8°, pp. 65-104.
An entertaining and valuable chapter of reminiscences.
11. Half-Century Sermon [from Isa. Ixi, 4] on some changes which have occurred, in the First Congregational Society in New London; in this city; and in the County to which it pertains: delivered January 27th, 1857 . . New London, 1857. 8°, pp. 29.
[B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
12. Congregationalists in their relation to other religious sects, characterized by error, fanaticism, or disorder ; — an historical paper. In Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut; pre- pared under the direction of the General Association, to commemo- rate the completion of one hundred and fifty years since its first annual assembly. New Haven, 1861. 8°, pp. 274-85.
He furnished Dr. Sprague with two brief papers, which were printed in the Annals of the American Pulpit in 1857: — volume i, pp. 674-77, on Samuel John Mills; and volume 2, pp. 200-06, on David Austin.
AUTHORITIES.
Blake, Later Hist, of ist Church, Discourse at New London Church
New London, 298-402. Boyd, Hist. Bi-Centennial, 31-33, 44-47- New
of Winchester, 58, 538. Chapman, London County Hist. Society's
Buckingham Family, 23. Congrega- Papers, ii, 34-37- Orcutt, Hist, of
tional Quarterly, iii, 68, 335-37- Torrington, 520. Robbins, Diary, i,
Doolittle Family, 266. Field, Dis- 45, 302, 1012. Starr's Repository, iii,
course at Dr. McEwen's Funeral; 168. Torringford Centennial, 70.
John Marsh, the youngest in a family of seven children of the Rev. Dr. John Marsh (Harvard 1761), of Wethers- field, Connecticut, and a brother of Ebenezer Grant Marsh (Yale 1795), was born in Wether sfield on April 2, 1788, and was baptized by his father four days later. He was
684 ^^^^ College
prepared for College (1798-1800) by the Rev. Azel Backus (Yale 1787), of Bethlehem, and entered after the opening of the Freshman year. He united with the Col- lege Church on profession of his faith at the close of his Sophomore year.
He taught school for a time after graduation ; and also held the Berkeley Scholarship at College, and then studied theology with his father, being licensed to preach by the Hartford South Association of Ministers in June, 1809. For some years he preached in various places as a stated supply for brief periods; thus, he supplied the church in Manchester during the summer of 181 1, the Wall Street Presbyterian Church in New York during six months in 1814-15, and the church in Prospect in 1817-18. He declined a call to the church in Cheshire in 18 17.
At length, in June, 18 18, he was invited, with a salary of $700, to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Haddam, and having accepted the call, he was ordained and installed on December 16, — the sermon being preached by his classmate McEwen.
During his laborious and successful ministry there, his attention was especially directed to the promotion of tem- perance, which was then beginning to be an important issue in the country. In May, 1829, the Connecticut Tem- perance Society was organized, and his prominence in the movement was recognized by his appointment as Secre- tary. A felicitous address which he made at Pomfret, a few months later, brought him into further prominence, and his activity made him so widely known that in January, 1833, he was invited to leave his pastorate with a view to removing to Philadelphia, as Agent of the Pennsylvania State Temperance Society. He was accordingly dismissed from Haddam on April i, 1833, and entered on a lifelong work.
In October, 1836, he became Corresponding Secretary of the reorganized American Temperance Union and editor of its new monthly Journal; and in this connection
Biographical Sketches, 1804 685
he removed to New York City in 1838. He also estab- lished in 1839 the monthly Youth's Temperance Advocate. These editorial responsibilities, with manifold and labo- rious activities for the cause in public and private, engrossed his thoughts, his time, and his strength, for the next thirty years. In 1846 he visited Great Britain, as a delegate to the World's Temperance Convention. In 1852 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
In December, 1865, the American Temperance Union was superseded by a new organization, and Dr. Marsh's official duties terminated. He devoted his leisure for the next few months to the composition of his autobiography, and then continued as opportunity presented itself to write and speak effectively on the theme nearest his heart.
Since 1861 he had suffered from two attacks of partial paralysis. In July, 1868, in connection with the movement for the erection of a new building for the Yale Divinity School, he undertook to aid in the collection of funds; but within a week, on July 30, he fell into an unconscious state, from which he partially awoke, paralyzed, the next day. He lingered with little suffering, at his house in Brooklyn, New York, until August 4, when he died peace- fully, in his 8 1st year. He was buried at his early home in Wethersfield.
He was married, in Warren, Connecticut, by the Rev. Peter Starr (Yale 1764), on October 5, 1824, to Frances, second daughter of John and Phebe (Pomeroy) Talmadge, of Warren, who died in Brooklyn, New York, on Decem- ber 27, 1852, in her 58th year. Their children, three sons and three daughters, survived them, except one son who died in infancy. The eldest child was graduated at Yale in. 1845, ^rid became a clergyman.
Dr. Marsh was well adapted to the conspicuous part which he bore in the temperance work, no less by his hope- fulness and courage than by his strength of conviction and earnestness of purpose. He was a thoroughly good man, and accomplished a great amount of hard labor.
686 Yale College
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Prov. iii, 9], preached in Haddam, on the Annual Thanksgiving, November 30, 1820. Middletown, 1820. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. C. H. S. Y. C.
2. Memoir of Miss EHza Brainard, who died in Haddam, November 30, 1820. Middletown, 1821. 12°, pp. 24.
[N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C. Anonymous.
3. The beloved physician. — A Sermon [from Col. iv, 14] occa- sioned by the death of Doct. Andrew F. Warner, of Haddam, June 23, 1825, Hartford, 1825. 8°, pp. 20.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. U. T. S. Y. C.
4. An Epitome of general Ecclesiastical History from the earliest period to the present time.. . . New York, 1827. 12°, pp. 420; maps & plates. [U. S.
Many subsequent editions, — the i6th in 1864, pp. 466 + maps and charts.
5. Appeal to Professors of Religion on the use of Ardent Spirits. 1829.
6. Putnam and the Wolf; or, the monster destroyed. — An Address delivered at Pomfret, Con., October 28, 1829, before the Windham Co. Temperance Society. Hartford, 1829. 12°, pp. 24.
[A.A.S. C.H.S. Hafv. Y. C.
7. The Rum-drinking Christian, a short Sermon. 1829.
8. Second Declaration of Independence. 1834.
9. The Bow of Promise. — An Address, delivered before the New York Marine Temperance Society, at the erection of a new flag, on . . July 4th, 1840. New York, 1840. 8°, pp. 20.
[B. Puhl. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. The Pool of Bethesda, or the Unfortunate Drunkard's Call for Help. [A Sermon, from John v, 7.] [New York, 1841.] 12°, pp.8. [U.T.S.
11. The Hand of God in the Reformation of Drunkards. A Sermon [from Ps. cxviii, 23] reprinted from the American National Preacher for September, 1842. New York, 1842. 8°, pp. 14.
[U. T. S.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 687
12. Hannah Hawkins, the Reformed Drunkard's Daughter. New York. [1843.] 12°, pp. 72 + pi.
13. An Exposition of the Excise Law of the State of New York; with an Argument for no license, delivered at Babylon, L. I., and before the Orange and Ulster County Temperance Societies. New York, 1846. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. Y. C.
14. A Sermon [from James iv, 12, and Ps. xx, 5] on the true Element of Moral Reformation, or hope for the Temperance enter- prize. First published in the American National Preacher [for May, 1848]. New York, 1848. 8°, pp. 16.
[A.C.A. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
15. A choice collection of more than Two Hundred Temperance Anecdotes. . . Useful to Temperance Lecturers. New York, 1848. 12°, pp. 180.
16. A Discourse [from Neh. xiii, 15-17] on the Extent and Evils of the Sunday Liquor Traffic in Cities. Delivered before the New York Tenth Ward Temperance Society, and in several churches in the City. New York, 1848. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
17. A Half Century Tribute to the Cause of Temperance. An Address delivered at New Paltz, before the Ulster County Temper- ance Society, January 8, 185 1. New- York, 185 1, 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Puhl. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
18. The Napoleon of Temperance. Sketches of the Life and Character of the Hon. Neal Dow. . . New-York, 1852. 8°, pp. 24 + pi. [A. C. A. Harv.
19. The Widow of Tekoa; a Plea for a Marine Law. New York, 1853. 12°, pp. 24. [Br. Mus. U. T. S.
20. The Triumphs of Temperance, a Discourse [from Ps. cxxvi, 3]. Published by request in the National Preacher for Feb. 1855. New- York, 1855. 8°, pp. 16.
[ A. C. A. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
21. The Actings of Faith in Moral Reforms. — A Word to the Friends of Temperance. New York, 1856. 12°, pp. 24,
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. A sermon, from Hebr. xi, 30.
688 Yale College
22. Frauds in Intoxicating Liquors. — The Sin of Drunkard Making. New York, 1856. 16°, pp. 36. [A. C. A. Y. C.
23. The Temperance Battle not Man's but God's. — Written and pubHshed for the Instruction and Encouragement of the Friends of Temperance throughout the United States. New- York, 1858. 8°, pp. 24. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
A sermon, from II Chron. xx, 16.
24. The Temperance Speaker, compiled from various sources for the use of Bands of Hope, Juvenile Temperance Associations, Cadets of Temperance, &c., in their monthly and weekly meetings. New York, i860. 12°, pp. 72. [B. Publ. N. Y. Publ.
25. Connection of the Congregational Ministers and Churches of Connecticut, with the Rise and Progress of the Temperance Reformation. In Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, prepared under the direction of the General Associa- tion . . New Haven, 1861. 8°, pp. 205-20.
26. The Cause of Temperance as connected with Home Evan- gelization; an Address delivered at the Conference of Churches, within the limits of the North Assoc, of Litchfield Co. Conn, held at Falls Village, June 10 & 11, 1863. New- York, 1863. 12°, pp. 23.
[A.C.A. Harv. Y. C.
27. Letter to the Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D. of New Haven, Conn. New York, 1865. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. A remonstrance against his objections to prohibition.
28. The Drunkard's Heart the Devil's Palace: captured and reclaimed by the Son of God. New York, 1865. 12°, pp. 16.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. U. T. S. A sermon, from Luke xi, 21-22.
29. The Ledyard Monument. — A Temperance Address, at New London, Conn., February 22d, 1866, before the County Temp. Con- vention. New- York, 1866. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. U. S. U. T. S.
30. Temperance Recollections. Labors, Defeats, Triumphs. An Autobiography. New York, 1866. 12°, pp. vii, 373.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 689
31. Letter to Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D., on his Denial of Teetotalism as a Bible rule. New York, 1867. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. A Reply was made to this Letter by Rev. D. R. Thomason.
32. Letter on the Promotion of Moral Reforms by Secret Societies. Addressed to Hon. W. E. Dodge, President of the National Temperance Society. New York, 1868. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Against Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, and other Temper- ance Secret Orders.
Dr. Marsh published a large number of other Temperance tracts and minor papers, of which no list has been attempted.
His work includes also the Reports of the Connecticut Temper- ance Society while he was Secretary, from 1830 to 1833; and editorial labors on the Journal of the American Temperance Union, from 1837 to 1865, and the Youth's Temperance Advocate, from 1839 to 1865.
He edited in 1820 Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles- Lettres, reduced to question and answer; and in 1840 Anti-Bacchus : an Essay on the Evils connected with the use of Intoxicating Drinks, by the Rev. B. Parsons.
AUTHORITIES.
Congregational Quarterly, xi, 66- Stiles, Hist, of Wethersfield, ii, 497- 68. E, J. Marsh, Genealogy of the 98. George Marsh Family, 60, loi.
Reuben Smith Morris, the second son of James Mor- ris (Yale 1775), of Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, Connecticut, was born on May 23, 1786. He was named for Dr. Reuben Smith (Yale 1757), of Litchfield, who had married his mother's sister. A brother was graduated in the Class of 1803. He entered College with the Class of 1803, but soon left that Class.
He studied law and settled at first in Cayuga, New York, and afterwards in Auburn. 44
690 Yale College
He married in September, 181 1, Sally, third daughter of Hezekiah and Samantha (Beach) Goodwin, of Aurelius, Cayuga County.
He died in Utica, New York, in 1832, aged 46.
Mrs. Morris died in Lockport, New York, on November 7, 1863, in her 69th year.
Their children were two daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Goodwin Family, 452. Woodruff, Geneal. Register of Litchfield, 151.
Amos [B.] Northrop, third son of Dr. Joel Northrop (Yale 1776), was born in New Haven in 1784. He assumed a middle initial after leaving College.
He went to Charleston, South Carolina, almost imme- diately upon graduation, and there studied law. He acquired an excellent position at the bar, to which he was admitted in 1808, and was so highly esteemed at the time of his early death that his friends were intending to elect him to a seat in the State Legislature.
He died in Charleston on September 27, 1812, in his 28th year, after four days' illness.
He married a Miss Bellinger, and left two sons and a daughter. One of the sons adopted the profession of his father; the other was graduated at West Point in 1831, and in 1861 entered the Confederate service, in which he attained the rank of Commissary General.
AUTHORITIES. Charleston Times, Sept. 29, 1812. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc. Papers, i, 117.
Seth Norton, the fourth son of Colonel Ichabod Nor- ton, and a brother of the Rev. Asahel Strong Norton, of the Class of 1790, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, on February 12, 1780. He did not enter College until after the opening of the Freshman year.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 691
For a year after graduation he was the Preceptor of the Woodstock (Connecticut) Academy, and in 1805 he suc- ceeded the Rev. Robert Porter (Yale 1795), his fellow- townsman, as Principal of Hamilton Oneida Academy, in Clinton, New York, where his brother Asahel was pastor. In the fall of 1807 he was recalled to Yale as Tutor, but he held that office for only a single year, returning in 1808 to his post at Clinton. In the fall of 1812 the Academy was succeeded by Hamilton College, in which he filled the chair of Languages, until his death there, after many years of struggle with infirm health, from consumption, on December 7, 18 18, in his 39th year. He was the acting President of the College, from the death of President Backus in December, 18 16, until the arrival of President Davis in the fall of 1817.
He married, less than a year before his death, Amanda, daughter of Frederick W. and Margaret (Moore) Kel- logg, of Whitestown, New York, who died in June, 1844.
Their only daughter survived them.
Professor Norton was a man of considerable mental force and weight of character. His personal appearance was not pleasing, with a sallow complexion, jerky man- ners, and rapid and abrupt speech. He was, however, a good scholar, and his students looked up to him with filial respect and reverence. He was particularly fond of music, and was himself a good singer, and chorister for many years of the village church.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, i, 289, 297- 485. Memorial Book of Hamilton 98. Gridley, Hist, of Kirtland, 124-26. College, 1862, 68, 86, 184-85, 215. Kelloggs in the New World, i, 215,
John Pellet, the second son of Rufus and Drusilla (Wheeler) Pellet, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and grand- son of Jonathan and Jerusha (Bradford) Pellet, of Can- terbury, was born on July 4^ 1783. He was prepared for
69< y^l^ College
College at the Plainfield (Connecticut) Academy by John Adams (Yale 1795), and entered after the opening of the Freshman year.
He is said to have studied medicine at Harvard College, and to have gone thence to Salem, Massachusetts, perhaps for further study. An advertisement in the Salem Gazette of April II, 1806, shows that he was then about to open a school there for "youth of both sexes, who wish to obtain a knowledge in the various branches of education." He was still teaching there in 1808, and on April 24 of that year prayers were requested for him at the East Church, he being ill with bleeding at the lungs. He returned home, and died on June 15, 1809, in his native town, at the age of 26.
AUTHORITIES.
G. F. Dow, MS. Letter, Aug., 1910. ii, 325. Temple, Hist, of North Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, Brookfield, 702.
John Pierpont^ the second son of James Pierpont, a clothier of Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, Connect- icut, 'and grandson of James Pierpont (Yale 1718), of New Haven, was born in Litchfield on April 6, 1785. His mother was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Charles and Ann (Huntington) Collins, of Litchfield. Two of his sisters became the wives of the Rev. John Langdon (Yale 1809).
During the year after graduation he pursued further studies under the direction of the Rev. Joseph E. Camp (Yale 1787), of Northfield parish in Litchfield.
In 1805 he went to South Carolina as private tutor in the family of Colonel William Alston, and remained four years. On his return he studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and on September 23, 1810, he married his fourth cousin, Mary Sheldon, elder daughter of Lynde Lord (Yale 1783), of Litchfield.
Later, he entered the office of Ebenezer Moseley (Yale 1802), of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and after his
I
Biographical Sketches, 1804 693
admission to the bar in Essex County began practice in Newburyport in 18 12, and removed his office to Boston in 1814.
In consequence of the war his profession proved unre- munerative, and as his heahh also demanded more active employment, he then engaged in the retail dry goods busi- ness in partnership with his brother-in-law, Joseph L. Lord, at first in Boston, and in the winter of 18 15 in Baltimore ; but in this also he was unsuccessful.
In 1816 he abandoned business and began the study of theology in Baltimore, whence he removed to the Harvard Divinity School. In October, 18 18, he left the School, and on April 14, 18 19, was ordained and installed as minister of the Hollis Street Church in Boston, in succession to the Rev. Horace Holley (Yale 1803), and in sympathy with the Unitarian wing of the Congregational body. The sermon preached on this occasion by the Rev. Dr. Henry Ware was afterwards published.
During the earlier half of his pastorate he maintained a leading position in the community, and his parishioners were apparently united in his support. In the summer of 1819 he was placed on the School Committee of the town, and did good service for between seven and eight years at that time, and again subsequently; as Secretary of the Committee he urged the establishment of a High School for Girls, said to be the first of its kind, which was organ- ized in 1825.
With the ardor of an impulsive and enthusiastic nature, he interested himself actively in many public topics, espe- cially those on which in his judgment the conscience of the community needed to be awakened. Thus, his attitude on the temperance and slavery questions was emphatically made known, much to the disgust of a large contingent of merchants in his congregation, interested in the sale of liquors, and of conservative politicians in the same body. In 1835-36 he spent nearly a year in Europe and the Holy Land, for the benefit of his health.
694 Ycile College
At the annual meeting of the Society in September, 1838, the dissatisfaction with their minister first found formal expression; but the conference of a committee with Mr. Pierpont relieved the tension of the situation. A year later it was voted by a bare majority of the pewholders that Mr. Pierpont's usefulness was so far impaired that he is requested to resign ; but he declined to take that step, con- sidering himself set for the defence of the freedom of the pulpit. In March, 1840, on the ground that many of the oldest members of the Society had ceased to attend the church, it was voted that Mr. Pierpont's services are no longer desired. After other ineffectual negotiations a mutual ecclesiastical council was convened in July, 1841, to which the charges against Mr. Pierpont were submitted, with the result that no charges against his moral character were sustained, though the Council expressed a disappro- bation of his conduct in some respects, but not sufficient to furnish grounds for advising a dissolution of the min- isterial relation. A majority of the Society, however, declined to accept the Result of the Council, and the old state of hostilities continued.
After prolonged wrangling, Mr. Pierpont resigned on May 10, 1845, o^ the payment of accumulated arrears of salary. He then went to Troy, New York, as the minister of the newly organized First Unitarian Society, which he served from August, 1845, to August, 1849.
From Troy he was called, in June, 1849, to the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church in (West) Medford, Massachusetts, on a salary of $1,000. He accepted the call on July 5, and removed thither in the summer, but no formal services of installation were held.
His wife died in Medford on Aueust 23, 1855, in her 69th year ; and he was next married at Pawling, Duchess County, New York, on December 8, 1857, to Harriet Louise, daughter of Archibald Campbell, of Pawling, and widow of Dr. George W. Fowler, of Washington, Litch- field County, Connecticut.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 695
He was thought by his congregation to be unwisely per- sistent in preaching poHtics, and the unrest thus occasioned led to his resignation in the spring of 1858. His residence continued in Medford, and he supplied vacant parishes as opportunity offered.
On the breaking out of the war in 1861, though in his 77th year, he promptly offered his services, and was appointed by Governor Andrew on September 12 as Chap- lain of the 226. Massachusetts Regiment. But his strength soon gave way under the hardships and exposure of the service, and he accepted in November a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, which he held until his death. He was occupied until March, 1864, in the compilation of a Digest of Decisions and Instructions of the Treasury Department to Collectors of Customs.
While on a brief vacation he died suddenly, of disease of the heart, in West Medford, on August 27, 1866, in his 82d year. His monument in Mount Auburn characterizes him as "Poet, Patriot, Preacher, Philosopher, Philanthro- pist." A Discourse on his life and character by the Rev. Nathaniel Hall was printed.
He had by his first marriage three sons and three daugh- ters. The second son was graduated at Harvard College in 1840, and became a minister. J. Pierpont Morgan, the financier, is a grandson.
Mr. Pierpont was tall and vigorous in person, and thor- oughly honest, fearless, and outspoken. In his prime he was an attractive and inspiring preacher, and no one can read his printed sermons without a high respect for his piety and Christian zeal. He was conspicuously lacking in tact and in the ability to deal with men ; and while his transparent sincerity and high ideals command admiration, one is continually impatient with his reckless waste of splendid opportunities. He had genuine poetic gift, which chiefly found expression in occasional verses and in contri- butions for the furtherance of the moral reforms which commanded so much of his sympathy.
696 Yale College
He also performed a useful service in the preparation of text-books which had a large circulation.
In his later years he was an ardent believer in Spirit- ualism.
He published :
1. The Portrait. — A Poem delivered before the Washington Benevolent Society, of Newburyport, on the Evening of October 27, 1812. Boston, 1812. 8°, pp. 36.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Y. C. Commemorating Washington, and deploring the destruction of commerce by the Embargo.
2. Airs of Palestine; a Poem. Baltimore, 1816. 8°, pp. xxvi, 56.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S.
The same. 2d edition. Boston, 1817. 12°, pp. 58.
[A. C. A. Bowdoin. Harv.
The same. 3d edition. Boston, 1817. 16°, pp. vii, 13-66.
[N. Y. Publ U. S.
3. The American First Class Book; or Exercises in Reading and Recitation: selected principally from modern authors of Great Britain and America. Boston, 1823. 12°, pp. 480.
[A. A. S. U. S. Many editions.
4. What think ye of Christ? — A Sermon [from Matth. xxii, 42], preached at Newburyport, Sunday, October 26, 1823. Cam- bridge, 1823. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Second edition. Cambridge, 1824. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. A. S. Y. C. The author designs to show that, regarding Christ as the media- tor, speculations about his physical nature are immaterial;
5. "Knowledge is Power," or the true secret of New England's strength. — A Sermon [from Ex. xxxv, 30-35], preached in Hollis Street Church, Boston, on Fast Day, April 5, 1827. Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 16. [A. A. S. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 697
6. The National Reader; a selection of exercises in Reading and Speaking . . Boston, 1827. 12°, pp. 276. [B. Publ.
Numerous editions.
7. A Discourse [from John v, 35] delivered in Hollis Street Church, Boston, September 2, 1827: occasioned by the Death of Horace Holley LL. D. . . Boston, 1827. 8°, pp. 31.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U.S. U.T.S. Y.C.
8. The Object of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. — A Sermon [from I Pet. i, 3] preached in the Congregational Church in Fed- eral Street, Boston, January 6, 1828 : the Sunday Evening Lecture. Boston, 1828. 12°, pp. 15. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S.
The object stated is, to prove his divine mission.
9. As you sow, so must you reap. — A Sermon [from II Cor. ix, 6] preached at the Ordination of Rev. Samuel Presbury, over the Second Congregational Society in Northfield, Mass. Feb. 27, 1828. Northampton, 1828. 8°, pp. 34.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Brown. Harv. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-23.
The same. Second edition. Boston, 1828. 8°. [Br. Mus.
10. ''Who goeth a warfare at his own charges?" — A Discourse [from I Cor. ix, 7] delivered before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, on the celebration of their 190th Anniversary, Boston, June 2, 1828. Boston, 1828. 8°, pp. 28.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
Several editions. In criticism of the militia system of the State.
11. Introduction to the National Reader; a selection of easy lessons. Boston, 1828. 12°, pp. 168. [U. S.
12. Sermon, the Fashion of this world passeth away. 1830.
13. The Young Reader: to go with the Spelling Book. Boston, 1830. 12°, pp. 162. [U. S.
14. On Substitutes for Religion. Boston, 1832. 12°, pp. 23.
[F. C. Tracts of the American Unitarian Association, ist Series, vol. 5, No. 56.
698 Yale College
15. The Garden of Graves. In The Token, Boston, 1832. 16°, pp. 374-90.
The same, separately. Boston, 1841. 8°, pp. 15,
[B. Publ. Harv. On Mount Auburn Cemetery.
16. On the Moral Influences of Physical Science. Boston, 1833. 8°, pp. 20. [Harv. Y. C.
A lecture.
17. Sermon. The great salvation. 1833.
18. The Burning of the Ephesian Letters. — A Sermon [from Acts xix, 19-20] preached in Hollis Street Church, Sunday, 8th Dec. 1833. Boston, 1834. 8°, pp. 16.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. M. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
Christian principle requires a sacrifice of means of unlawful gain ; the sermon is really, though covertly, against the manufacture and sale of intoxicants.
19. Jesus Christ not a Literal Sacrifice. Boston, 1834. 12°, pp. 24. [Y. C.
Tracts of the American Unitarian Association, ist Series, vol. 7, No. 81.
20.' The "Address to the People"; delivered at the Installation of Rev. Henry A. Miles as Pastor of the South Congregational Society in Lowell, Wednesday, 14 Dec. 1836. Lowell, 1837. 8°, pp. 8. [Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Second edition. Boston, 1849. 8°, pp. 8.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus.
21. New Heavens and a New Earth. — A Discourse [from II Peter iii, 13] preached in Hollis Street Church, Sunday, January i, 1837. Boston, 1837. 8°, pp. 18.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S.
22. Moral Resurrection. — A Sermon [from John v, 25], preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Oliver C. Everett, as Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Northfield, Wednesday, March 3, 1837 Boston, 1837. 8°, pp. 31.
[B. Publ. Brown. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. The sermon occupies pp. 1-20.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 699
23. Angelic Ministrations. — A Sermon [from Ps. civ, 4] preached in Hollis Street Church, in Boston^ Sunday, April 16, 1837, the spire of the Church having been struck by lightning, on Saturday 8th of the month. Boston, 1837. 8°, pp. 17.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
24. "The Things that make for Peace." — A Sermon [from Rom. xiv, 17-19] preached in Hollis Street Church, Sunday, 3d Dec, 1837. Boston, 1837. 12°, pp. 15.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. U. T. S. On the duty of right moral feeling and action.
25. Moral Rule of Political Action. — A Discourse [from Acts V, 29], delivered in Hollis Street Church, Sunday, January 27,
1839. Boston, 1839. 12°, pp. 24.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. Y. C.
The same. Boston, 1839. 8°. [B. Ath. Br. Mus.
The purpose of the discourse is to apply the rule named to the question of slavery.
26. The Little Learner. Boston, 1839. 12°.
2y. Letters to the Proprietors of Hollis Street Meeting House, September, 1838, September and October, 1839; Reply to the charges of the Committee, October, 1839; A Voice from the House .of Correction, March, 1838; Suffolk County Memorial. In Pro- ceedings in the Controversy between a part of the Proprietors and the Pastor of Hollis Street Church, Boston, 1838 and 1839. [Includ- ing, with separate title-page. Proceedings of a Meeting of Friends of Rev. John Pierpont, and his Reply to the charges of the Com- mittee, of Hollis Street Society. — October 26th, 1839.] Boston. 8°, pp. 7-10, 30-39, 49-53 ; pt. 2, pp. 9-48, 51-60.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
28. The Reformer and the Conservative. — A Discourse [from I Thess. V, 21] delivered in Hollis Street Church, Sunday, 24th November, 1839. Boston, 1840. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. M. H. S. U. T. S. A plea for the combination of the two types.
29. National Humiliation. — A Sermon [from II Chron. xxviii, 10], preached in Hollis Street Church, Fast Day Morning, April 2,
1840. Boston, 1840. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
700 Yale College
30. Charge, delivered at the Installation of the Rev. John Park- man, in Dover, N. H., April 22, 1840. With a Discourse on that occasion, by the Rev. Ezra S. Gannett. Boston, 1840. 8°, pp. 37-47-
31. Airs of Palestine, and other Poems. Boston, 1840. 16°, pp. xiii, 334.
[B. Ath. B. Ptihl. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ.
32. Correspondence between a Committtee and the Pastor of Hollis Street Society, upon the subject of a Second Ecclesiastical Council. — From Oct. 26 to Nov. 12, 1840. Boston, 1840. 8°, pp. 23.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
33. Remonstrance against the Action of the Ex-parte Council, with his offer of a mutual council; the Committee's Reply. Feb. I5-I7th, 1841. Boston, 1841. 8°, pp. 23.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
34. Sermon. "I have lost my children, and am desolate." 1841.
35. A Letter from the Pastor of Hollis Street Society, to his parochial friends, with their Reply to the same, — October and November, 1841. Boston, 1841. 8°, pp. 23.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
36.. The Cold Water Melodies, and Washingtonian Songster. Boston, 1842. 12°, pp. 72. [Y. C.
Anonymous.
The same. Second edition. Boston, 1843. 12°, pp. 162.
[Y. C. With the compiler's name.
37. A Discourse [from Zech. i, 5] occasioned by the death of William Ellery Channing. Preached in Hollis- Street Church, Oct. 16, 1842. Boston, 1842. 12°, pp. 23.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U.T. S.
38. A Discourse [from Matth. xvi, 15] on the Covenant with Judas, preached in Hollis-Street Church, Nov. 6, 1842. Boston, 1842. 8°, pp. 39.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. Occasioned by the case of George Latimer, a fugitive slave in Boston.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 701
39. The Anti-Slavery Poems of John Pierpont. Boston,, 1843. 12°, pp. 64. [B. Publ. Harv.
40. Sermon. Man dieth and wasteth away. 1843.
41. Charge, delivered at the Ordination of John Pierpont, Jr. October 11, 1843.
With the Sermon, by Caleb Stetson.
42. Correspondence between the Committee of the Proprietors of the Meeting House, in Hollis Street, and the Rev. John Pierpont, which terminated in his Resignation, May 10, 1845. Boston. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C.
43. Letter of the Boston Association of Congregational Minis- ters, to Rev, John Pierpont, with his Reply [dated November 25, 1845]. Boston, 1846. 8°, pp. 16.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. Y. C. A friendly but frankly outspoken Reply to a Letter of fraternal farewell from the ministers who had mainly withdrawn from fellow- ship with him during his trials.
44. Charge at the Installation of Rev. John T. Sargent, in Somerville, Mass., February 18, 1846. With the Sermon by W. H. Furness. Somerville, 1846. 8°, pp. 23-30.
45. Phrenology and the Scriptures. New York, 1850. 12°, pp. iv, 3-44. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv.
46. Sermon. Despise not the little ones. 1850.
47. Poem, delivered at Litchfield, Conn., on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration, 1851. Hartford, 1851. 8°, pp. 32.
48. The New Reader. Philadelphia, 1854. 12°.
49. The Pilgrims of Plymouth : a Poem delivered before the New-England Society in the City of New York, at their semi- centennial Anniversary, December 22, 1855. Boston, 1856. 8°, pp. 30. [A.C.A. B. Publ. Harv. U. S. Y. C.
50. The simplicity of liberal Christianity. Albany, i860. 12°, pp. 10. [B. Publ.
From volume 2 of Tracts for the Times.
He delivered a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College in July, 1852, on The Life of the Scholar; but it was not printed.
702 Yale College
AUTUORITIES. Atlantic Monthly, xviii, 650-65. County, 283-88. Medford Hist. Reg-
E. Bacon, Lecture before Y. M, C A. 33-48. Brooks, Hist, of Medford 262-63, 312; and revised ed., 257-59 Christian Examiner, Ixxxi, 374-88
ister, vi, 75-89. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy, i, 299-300. /. G. Wilson, Bryant and his friends, 380-82. Winsor, Memorial Hist of Boston,
Dwight Family, ii, 1059-60. Kil- iii, 651; iv, 343. Woodruff, Geneal.
bourne, Biogr. Hist, of Litchfield Register of Litchfield, 134, 177.
David Plant^ the only son of Solomon and Sarah (Ben- nett) Plant, of Stratford, Connecticut, and grandson of James and Bathsheba (Page) Plant, of Stratford, was born on March 29, 1783. He was prepared for College at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, and entered after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied law in the Litchfield Law School, and then settled for practice in his native town.
He entered early into politics, and represented Strat- ford in the Lower House of the General Assembly in May, 1814, and in all the sessions of 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. He was then a State Senator in 1821 and 1822, and for the four next years Lieutenant Governor. His active career closed with his service as a Member of Congress for one term, 1827-29. In later years he continued to be a staunch Whig. In these years he also gave much atten- tion to the investigation of historical questions, and made considerable acquisitions in that line of study. In all the relations of life he was esteemed and honored.
After a few days of slight indisposition, he fell dead in the street, in Stratford, from disease of the heart, on October 18, 1851, in his 69th year.
He married on December 5, 18 10, Catharine, only daughter of Dr. William A. and Phebe (Lewis) Tomlin- son, of Stratford, who died on June 2, 1835, in her 48th year. Their children were three sons and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1271 ; Tomlinson Genealogy, 83.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 703
George Plummer, son of Isaac Plummer, of Glaston- bury, Connecticut, was born in Glastonbury on December 7, 1785. His mother was Abigail Elizabeth, sister of Judge Isaac Mills (Yale 1786) . After being trained at the Academy in Glastonbury, he had a brief period of study preparatory to College in Huntington, Connecticut, under the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), whose wife was his maternal aunt.
After graduation he studied law with his uncle, Judge Mills in New Haven, until he was admitted to the bar in March, 1807.
He then returned home, to settle in the practice of his profession ; and on May 7 was married to Anne, the eldest daughter of his pastor, the Rev. William Lockwood (Yale
1774).
He continued in practice until April, 181 2, when his father died, leaving him a farm of about one hundred acres in excellent condition. He soon found that he must abandon either the farm or his practice, and was not long in deciding to give up the law.
During the summer of 1814, as Brigade Major in the militia, he was called into the service of the United States ; his brigade was stationed at New London, and his position was one of much labor and responsibility.
The Democratic party being dominant in Glastonbury, and his views being opposed to that party, he was not often called to public office. He did, however, hold the office of Town Treasurer for about thirty years, until he declined further service, in 1864. In 1844 ^^^ again in 185 1 he was elected by the Whigs to the State Senate ; and during both years he was an ex-officio member of the Yale Corpo- ration.
He was elected a Deacon of the Congregational Church in Glastonbury in 1827, and held that office until his death.
His wife died on December 25, 1859, and his death occurred on June 2, 1872, in his 87th year.
704 Yale College
His children were two daughters, both of whom died in early married life, and a son (Yale 1832). The elder daughter married the Rev. Samuel Rockwell (Yale 1825).
AUTHORITIES.
Chapin, Glastenbury Centennial, February, 1865. 215-16. G. Plummer, MS. Letter,
Horace Potter^ the elder son of General Daniel Potter (Y'ale 1780), of Thomaston, then part of Watertown, Con- necticut, was born in Thomaston on December lo, 1781.
After graduation he studied medicine in Philadelphia, and settled in 1805 in New Lisbon, now Lisbon, Colum- biana County, Ohio, where he practiced his profession through life.
He died in Lisbon on November 15, 1841, aged nearly 60 years.
He was twice married: — first, to Nancy Stoughton, by whom he had one daughter; and secondly to Abrilla Quimby, of Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, by whom he had six daughters and three sons. A son and a daughter by the second marriage are still living.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Letter, Sept., 1910. Tuttle Family, Appendix, 107. E. Q. Potter, MS. 68.
Thomas Punderson, the elder son of Captain Thomas and Hannah (Booth) Punderson, of New Haven, and grandson of Thomas and Mary (Miles) Punderson, of New Haven, was born on December 28, 1783. His father was a first cousin of Cyrus and Ebenezer Punderson (Yale 1755). He united with the College Church at the end of his Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, and was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association on June 11,
Biographical Sketches, 1804 705
1806. For a part of the summer of 1807 he served as a missionary in northwestern New Yprk.
On August 22, 1809, he was invited to the pastorate of the Congregational Church formed on that day by seces- sion from the First Congregational Church of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on account of dissatisfaction with the political course of the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Allen. Having accepted the call, he was ordained and installed there on October 26. The sermon on this occasion by the Rev. Moses Stuart (Yale 1799) was afterwards pub- lished.
Mr. Allen died a few months later; and the causes of the separation having passed away, the pastors of the two churches resigned simultaneously in February, 181 7, and the breach was healed. During his brief ministry in Pitts- field Mr. Punderson had admitted 56 persons to his church.
On November 18, 1818, he was installed as pastor of the Congregational Church in Huntington, Connecticut, where he continued, beloved and honored, until his resignation, which took effect on January i, 1844. During his min- istry there 214 persons were admitted to the church, — 186 on profession of their faith.
His residence continued in Huntington. In September, 1847, ^^ attended the annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Buffalo, New York, and on his return was seized with an illness from which he never recovered. He died in Huntington on August I, 1848, in his 65th year.
He was distinguished for meekness, prudence and prac- tical wisdom. His engraved portrait is given in Orcutt's History of Stratford, and in Hurd's History of Fairfield County.
He married, on May 4, 18 13, Betsey, youngest child of Stephen and Dimmis (Ransom) Day, of Colchester, Con- necticut, and Catskill, New York. She died in New Haven on April 30, 1876, in her 85th year.
One son and three daughters survived him. 45
7o6 Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman, Trowbridge Family, 48. 998-1000. Smith, Hist, of Pittsfield,
Hurd, Hist, of Fairfield County, 424. ii, 19-30, 419. Sprague, Annals of
Loomis Female Genealogy, i, 384. the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 477. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 982,
Heusted Reynolds was a native of Greenwich, Con- necticut.
He is believed to have gone to North CaroHna, and to have died there.
His name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in 1841.
Samuel Rich, the eldest of thirteen children of Wil- liam and Abigail Rich, of Bristol, Connecticut, and grand- son of William and Mary Rich, of Bristol, was born on April 30, 1779. He united with the Congregational Church in his native place in January, 1800, and entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied theology under the direc- tion of President Dwight, and he was licensed to preach, by the Hartford South Association in June, 1805.
In 1806 he was ordained and installed as pastor of a Congregational Church in Sangerfield, Oneida County, New York, where he remained until his dismission in 1816.
In May, 1818, he was installed over the Congregational Church in Columbia Society, now Prospect, Connecticut, which he left in May, 1824, having become so deaf as to be incapacitated for further pastoral duty. After this he preached only occasionally.
He removed his residence about 1825 to West Haven, and thence to New Haven in 1832.
From 1835 he was partially insane, and a large portion of his time was spent at the Insane Retreats in Hartford, Connecticut, and Brattleboro, Vermont. He was not, however, so much affected as to require close confinement for much of the time, but went about the town freely, hav-
Biographical Sketches, 1804 . 707
ing pledged his word to take no advantage of the liberty- granted him, which obligation he would rigidly observe.
He died in New Haven on September 11, 1845, i^ his 67th year.
He married, on May 7, 1806, Angelina, eldest child of Thomas and Hannah (Candee) Painter, of West Haven, who died in New Haven on July 24, 1856, aged y2 years.
One son and four daughters survived them, — two other children having died in infancy. Henry W. Merwin, a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School in 1895, is a great-grandson.
AUTHORITIES. Baldwin, Candee Genealogy, 36. G. B. Rich, MS. Letter, November i860.
William Robinson, the only child of the Rev. William Robinson (Yale 1773), of Southington, Connecticut, by his second wife, Sophia Mosely, was born in Southington on August 31, 1784, and was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin (Yale 1788), of Rocky Hill. His health was delicate from early life, and he entered the Class after the opening of the Freshman year.
In the spring of 1804 he was compelled to leave College by his feebleness, and with a friend took a journey into Massachusetts for higher air and medical treatment.
Though not actually present at the time of graduation, his rank and character were such that he received a regular diploma. He died in Southington, of pulmonary consump- tion, on November 14, 1804, in his 21st year.
He was intending to enter the ministry, and President Dwight wrote of him : "He was possessed of fine endow- ments and an excellent disposition. Few youths have at the same age advanced further in literature and in amia- bleness of life."
AUTHORITIES.
Robinson, Memoir of Rev. W. tory of Southington, 498-99, ccxxii. Robinson, 120-21, 186. Timlow, His-
7o8 . Yale College
Newton Skinner, the only child of Roswell Skinner, of Turkey Hills Society in East Granby, Connecticut, and grandson of Azariah and Rizf^ah (Mitchelson) Skinner, of Windsor, was born on October 2, 1782, and was bap- tized on August 24, 1783. His mother was Mary, young- est daughter of Richard and Lydia (King) Gay, of East Granby. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he studied theology with his mother's first cousin, the Rev. Ebenezer Gay (Yale 1787), of Suf- field.
In the summer of 1808 he labored as a missionary of the Hampshire (Massachusetts) Missionary Society in North- ern Vermont. In the next year he declined invitations to settle in Brimfield, Massachusetts (in April, 1808), and Woodbridge, Connecticut.
In December, 1809, he received a call to New Britain Society, then part of Berlin, Connecticut, as colleague pas- tor with the Rev. Dr. John Smalley (Yale 1756), which he accepted on the loth of January. He was ordained and installed on February 14, the sermon preached on the occasion by Mr. Gay being afterwards published.
The senior pastor continued to preach occasionally until September, 1813, but did not die until June, 1820.
Mr. Skinner continued in office until his sudden death, after four days' illness, on March 31, 1825, in his 43d year. He left an estate of about $10,000.
He married, on May 10, 1815, Ursula, third daughter of Samuel and Jerusha (Wolcott) Wolcott, of East, now South Windsor. One of her sisters married James Wadsworth (Yale 1787), and another married Martin Ellsworth (Yale 1801).
Their children were two daughters and one son. The son was graduated at Yale in 1842. The younger daugh- ter married the Rev. Sylvester Hine (Yale 1843), ^^^ the elder daughter was the mother of Charles H. Levermore (Yale 1879).
Biographical Sketches, 1804 709
Mr. Skinner published :
A Sermon [from I Chron. xxix, 13-14], delivered at the Dedi- cation of the new Congregational Meeting-House, in Berlin, Society of New-Britain, January 22, 1823. Hartford, 1823. 8°, pp. 24.
[Y. C.
After his death the following article by him was published in the Christian Spectator for July, 1825, volume 7, pp. 337-42: Biographical Sketch of the late Dr. Smalley.
Mr. Skinner was an earnest, business-like man, remark- able for firmness and independence, unattractive in manner, but having a vigorous and active mind and per- forming an almost incredible amount of ministerial labor. His sermons were devoid of illustration or ornament, but logical and forcible. He was a warm advocate of mis- sions, and did much to raise the standard of the schools in the town. About three hundred persons joined the church during his ministry.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, New Britain, 86-92, 256. 1000. Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, 2d
Hyde, History of Brimfield, 105. ed., ii, 689. Turkey Hills Congrega-
Loomis Female Genealogy, i, 30, 122. tional Church Records, 30. Wolcott
T. Robbins, Diary, i, 466, 579, 628, Memorial, 205.
Charles Blair Snowden, son of Charles Snowden, a merchant of Charleston, South Carolina, and Ann Law- rence, his wife, was born in that city on November 27, 1785. He was prepared for College at the Associated Academy in Charleston, and entered after the opening of the Freshman year.
After graduation he studied law at home in the office of John Julius Pr ingle, and was admitted to the bar in 1808.
He soon, however, gave up the law for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and in 1809 began to officiate as lay reader in the vacant parish of St. Stephen's, including Pineville, in Berkeley County, about forty miles north of Charleston. He was ordained a deacon in the
710 Yale College
Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop White, on April II, 1811, and was then elected minister of the Parish which he had been serving. He had three congregations under his care, with his residence in Pineville.
On April 16, 1812, he married Maria Lois, daughter of Charles C. and Lois (Lequex) Drake.
He resigned his charge in 18 17, but continued to reside there, engaged in part in teaching, until his death, on November 11, 1825, at the age of 40.
He had an active and vigorous mind, and a well- grounded faith in the Gospel. He was fond of retire- ment, but abounded in practical sympathy with the distressed and in generosity to his friends.
His wife died at her home in Pineville in May, 1885, in her 92d year. They had nine children. Professor Yates Snowden, of the University of South Carolina, is a grand- son; and owns a miniature of his grandfather painted in his Senior year. Many members of the Class indulged in similar miniatures, at an expense of one hundred dollars apiece.
AUTHORITIES.
Churchman's Magazine, Jan., 1826, Gospel Messenger, ii, 384; iii, 36.
iv, 320. Dalcho, Hist, of Prot. Episc. O'Neall, Bench and Bar of S. C, ii.
Church in S. C, 330. Miss I. De- 603. Saussure, MS. Letter, Sept., 1910.
MiCAH Sterling, the eighth son of Captain William Sterling, of Hamburg Society in North Lyme, Connecticut, and a brother of General Elisha Sterling (Yale 1787), was born in North Lyme on November 5, 1784.
He began the study of law in the Litchfield Law School, and completed it with Judge Nathan Williams, of Utica, New York.
After his admission to the bar he practiced for a year in Adams, Jefferson County, New York, but in 1809 settled in Watertown in the same county, where he spent the rest of his life.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 7H
He early won distinction as a lawyer, and also entered political life as a Federalist. He was sent to Congress for one session, 1821-23; but in the subsequent develop- ment of Jackson's policy he forsook his old party friends, and was sent to the State Senate for four terms, 1836-39, as a Democrat.
He suffered heavy pecuniary losses in the financial crisis of 1837, and was embarrassed in consequence for the remainder of his days. Through life he enjoyed the respect of his fellow-townsmen as a true gentleman, of high moral worth.
He died of scarlet fever, in Watertown, on April 11, 1844, in his 60th year.
He married on September 7, 18 13, Betsey, daughter of the Hon. Ethel and Hepzibah (Hopkins) Bronson, of Rutland, in the suburbs of Watertown, by whom he had one daughter and six sons. The daughter married Nathaniel P. Wardwell (Union Coll. 1837).
Mr. Sterling married, secondly, on August 6, 1833, Ruth, younger daughter of Uriah and Phebe (Marvin) Benedict, of Albany, by whom he had one son.
AUTHORITIES.
Benedict Genealogy, 172. Hough, worth, Hyde Genealogy, ii, 801-02. Hist, of Jefferson County, 452. Wal-
WiLLiAM Stoddard, the eldest child of Samson Stod- dard, of Watertown, Connecticut, by his second wife. Amy Goodwin, and grandson of John and Mary (Atwood) Stoddard, of Watertown, was born on September 29, 1781. His mother was the eldest child of Thomas and Anna (Kilbourn) Goodwin, of Litchfield South Farms, now Morris. Dr. Abiram Stoddard (Yale 1800) was a half- brother. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year.
He studied medicine, and settled as a practicing physi- cian in Mobile, Alabama, where he died, of typhus fever, on December 22, 1818, in his 38th year.
712 Yale College
He married Lavinia Stone, who survived him with their two children, both daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Family, 310. Sharpe, Hist, of Sey- Appendix, 132. Columbian Register, mour, 168. Stoddard Genealogy, N. H., March 13, 1819. Goodwin 1865, 34.
Henry Randolph Storrs, the eldest son of Colonel Lemuel Storrs, of Middletown, Connecticut, and a grand- son of Lemuel and Hannah (Gillett) Storrs, of Mansfield, was born in Middletown, on September 3, 1787, and was thus the youngest member of his Class. He entered after the opening of the Freshman year. His mother was Eliz- abeth (or Betsey), daughter of Colonel Henry and Debo- rah (Brainard) Champion, of Westchester Parish in Colchester. A brother was graduated here in 18 14, and a sister married Governor Joseph Trumbull (Yale 1801).
He began the study of law after graduation in Cham- pion, Jefferson County, New York, where his father owned much land; but soon removed to Whitestown in Oneida County, where he pursued his studies under Thomas R. Gold (Yale 1786), and was admitted to the bar in 1807.
On September 21, 18 10, he married Esther, only daugh- ter of Colonel Daniel C. and Esther (Paine) White, of Whitestown.
He was a brilliant advocate, with the advantage of a commanding person and a wonderfully rich and flexible voice. The charm of his oratory brought him into such prominence in State politics that he was sent to the United States Congress (as a Federalist) in 18 17, and served for two terms. In 1820 he advocated strenuously the Mis- souri Compromise, but his unexpected vacillation so offended his constituents that he was not renominated, though acknowledged to be one of the ablest men in the House.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 713
In 1822 he was again elected in competition with Eze- kiel Bacon (Yale 1794), by a combination of the Demo- crats opposed to DeWitt Clinton with the old Federalists ; and he held his seat through four Congresses (1823-31), during which he maintained his reputation as a debater of the first rank. In the meantime he served with distinc- tion as Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Oneida County from March, 1825, to December, 1829.
At the close of his Congressional term he removed to New York City, where he won high distinction at the bar.
In the summer of 1837 he came to New Haven for the benefit of the health of his only daughter; and died of heart-disease at the Pavilion Hotel, on July 29, in his 50th year. His daughter died here about a month later.
Mrs. Storrs spent the closing years of her life with an early friend, in New Hartford, New York, where she died on August 15, 1882, in her 98th year.
They had four sons, of whom the eldest was graduated at Union College in 1833, and the third at Princeton in
1837. Judge Storrs bequeathed valuable manuscript collections
to the Buffalo Historical Society.
He published:
1. Speech, in the House of Representatives, on the Seminole War. January 23 [1819]. 12°, pp. 18. [N.Y.Publ. U.S.
2. Speech on the proposition to amend the Constitution of the U. States, respecting the Election of President & Vice President. Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 17, 1826. Washington, 1826. 8°, pp. 28.
[B. Ath. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Puhl. U. S.
The same. 1833. 12°. [M. H. S. N. Y. Puhl.
3. Substance of Mr. Storrs' Remarks, at the Meeting of the Friends of the Administration, held at Whitesboro', July Fourth, 1828, for the purpose of nominating an Elector of President, and Vice-President, for the County of Oneida. Utica. 12°, pp. 28.
[A. C. A. Haru. Y. C. A defence of President J. Q. Adams's administration, and of Clay as opposed to Jackson.
714 y^i^^ College
4. House of Representatives, May 15th, 1830. — Speech in Com- mittee of the Whole House, on the Bill for the Removal of the Indians West of the Mississippi. Utica, 1830. 8°, pp. 53.
[A. C. A. B. PubL Y. C.
A protest against the unjust treatment of the Indians.
AUTHORITIES.
/. Q. Adams, Diary, v, 226-28, 313- Kellogg, Memorials of John White,
14; vi, 295. Bacon, Early Bar of 137. Storrs Family, 417-29. Trow-
Oneida, 24, 28-30. Conn. Med. So- bridge, Champion Genealogy, 290,
ciety's Proceedings, 1892, 551. P. 306-07. Jones, Annals of Oneida County, 797.
Eliphalet Swift^ son of Charles and Deborah (Clark) Swift, of Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of Silas and Abigail (Tupper) Swift, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, was born in Lebanon on July 6, 1780. Judge Zephaniah Swift (Yale 1778) was a second cousin. He entered College after the opening of the Freshman year, and united with the church on profession of his faith at the end of Sopho- more year.
He studied law a'fter graduation, and began practice in 1806 in Norwalk, Connecticut, in the village of Saugatuck, in the present township of Westport. He married, on Jan- uary 13, 1806, Abigail, third daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Jesup (Yale 1760), of Greens Farms, Fairfield.
He had a long and useful career in Saugatuck, only relinquishing his business on account of increasing infir- mities a few years before his death.
He represented Westport in the General Assembly in 1839-41, and 1844-45. He was also Judge of the West- port Probate District from 1844 to 1849.
He died in Westport on September 21, 1857, in his 78th year.
After the death of his first wife he married, on July 15, 1820, Esther, daughter of David and Esther Judah, of Saugatuck, and widow of Edward Jesup (who died in 1814), a brother of the first Mrs. Swift. She died of consumption on July 8, 1821.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 71S
In 1835 he married Mrs. Maria (Church) Eldridge, who died in ^lorristown, New Jersey, on January 19, 188 1.
By his first marriage he had two sons and a daughter. Everett M. Swift, a grandson, was graduated here in
1873.
AUTHORITIES. Jessup Genealogy, 139-42.
Henry Swift, son of Seth Swift, of Amenia, Duchess County, New York, and grandson of Judah and EHzabeth (Morton) Swift, of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Amenia, was born on February 5, 1784. His mother was Mary Wells, of Franklin, Connecticut. He entered Col- lege after the opening of the Freshman year.
He studied law in the office of Judge William W. Van Ness, of Poughkeepsie, was admitted to the bar in 1807, and at once entered upon a large practice in his native county. He soon acquired a leading position in his profes- sion, which he maintained until 1852, when, in the full tide of health and prosperity, he retired to the enjoyment of his farm and garden and books. He had always declined public office.
He died at his residence in Poughkeepsie, on November 5, 1866, in his 83d year.
He married, on July 23, 1807, Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Warner, of Long Island. Two sons were grad- uated at Yale, in 1836 and 1840 respectively.
AUTHORITIES. American Ancestry, v, 168. C. W. Swift, MS. Letters, Aug. and Sept., 1868.
Agur Tomlinson, the second son of David and Ruth (Hawkins) Tomlinson, of Derby, Connecticut, and grand- son of Agur and Sarah (Bowers) Tomlinson, of Derby, was probably born in 1780. His parents both died before
7i6 Yale College
he entered College. In May of his Sophomore year he united with the College Church on profession of his faith.
He was deranged during a large part of his life after graduation.
His name is first marked as deceased in the Triennial Catalogue of Graduates issued in 1838.
AUTHORITIES. Tomlinson Genealogy, 71.
Ben NET Tyler^ the youngest child of James Tyler, of Middlebury, then part of Woodbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Daniel Tyler, of Branford and Middlebury, was born on July lo, 1783. His mother was Anne Hun- gerford, of Watertown.
He was prepared for College by his pastor, the Rev. Ira Hart (Yale 1797). He united with the College Church on profession of his faith while an undergraduate. His father died in the spring of his Sophomore year.
The year after graduation he spent in teaching the Academy in Weston; and in the fall of 1805 he began theological studies under the instruction of the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen. He was licensed to preach on September 30, 1806, by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers. His health for the next year was infirm, and he was obliged to decline several calls which he received.
In the fall of 1807 he was invited to supply the pulpit in South Britain, a parish in the westerly part of South- bury, which had been without regular preaching for four or five years. He continued there during the winter, and in the spring received a unanimous call to become the pastor of this church, of thirty-three members, upon a salary of $450.
He accepted the call, and was ordained and installed there on June i, 1808.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 717
He had already been married, on November 12, 1807, to Esther, the eldest child of Deacon John and Esther (Stow) Stone, of Middlebury.
For fourteen years he labored quietly and effectually in South Britain, while over one hundred members were added to the church on profession of their faith, and his annual salary was increased to $600. During this period he received into his family a succession of boys to be prepared for College and young men for the study of theology.
The presidency of Dartmouth College became vacant in May, 1821, by the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Dana (Dartmouth 1788) ; and Mr. Tyler, greatly to his surprise, was invited during the following winter to accept the position. He had no special friends among the Trus- tees, but had been recommended by the Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Porter, of the Andover Theological Seminary, and by others ; and after some deliberation he yielded to the advice of friends and accepted the election.
He was dismissed from his parish on March 6, 1822, was inaugurated at Dartmouth in the same month, and entered on the duties of his new office in June.
In 1823 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury College.
He retained the Presidency for six years, and had the satisfaction of leaving the institution in a more prosperous condition than that in which he found it. He was suc- cessful in raising a fund of $10,000 for the aid of students seeking an education for the ministry; and his influence on the religious tone of the College was considerable. The Professor of Divinity was laid aside by illness in the sum- mer of 1825, and Dr. Tyler preached regularly from that time; a memorable revival of religion occurred in 1826.
" In May, 1828, he received very unexpectedly a unani- mous call from the Second Congregational Church in Port- land, Maine, of which the late Dr. Edward Payson had been pastor; and although his situation at Hanover was
7i8 Yale College
pleasant, he had never become as much at home as in the duties of the ministry, and he yielded willingly to the supe- rior attractions of a cultivated parish.
He accordingly left Dartmouth at the close of the aca- demic year, and was installed at Portland on September 17, — the sermon by the "Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher (Yale 1797) being afterwards published.
Soon after his settlement, Dr. Tyler became more widely known by his publications as a champion of the old-school New-England Calvinism; and when in September, 1833, ^ new theological seminary was established in Connecticut, to combat the doctrines taught in the Yale Divinity School, he was unanimously elected to fill the office of President and Professor of Theology.
After deliberation and wide consultation. Dr. Tyler decided that it was his duty, though at a pecuniary sacri- fice, to accept the appointment, and accordingly resigned his pastoral charge on April 22, 1834. The corner-stone of the first seminary building was laid, in that part of East Windsor which is now South Windsor, on May 13, and Dr. Tyler was inducted into office on the same day.
For twenty-three years he fulfilled the duties of this station. In July, 1853, on reaching the age of seventy, he tendered his resignation to the Trustees, but they unani- mously declined to accept it. Four years later, in July, 1857, in accordance with the advice of trusted friends, and admonished by his age and infirmities, he resigned his office, though retaining the pastorate of the church con- nected with the Seminary. He continued in good health and vigor, and preached nearly one third of the time dur- ing the following winter. He thus continued, happily and usefully employed, until the 14th of May, 1858; on the morning of that day he was seized with a severe neuralgic attack, from which he expired, in South Windsor, the same evening, in his 75th year.
His wife had been in feeble health for many years, and on the day after Dr. Tyler's funeral she sank under an
Biographical Sketches, 1804 719
attack of neuralgia, which ended her Hfe on May 25, in her 73d year.
Their children were six daughters and six sons, of whom two daughters and one son died in infancy. The eldest son was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1831, and the fourth son at Amherst in 1845 5 both became ministers, and the latter a missionary to the Zulus. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Professor Calvin E. Stowe (Bowdoin Coll. 1824) ; the third daughter married the Rev. John Goddard (Bowdoin 1833) ; and the fourth mar- ried the Rev. Dr. Nahum Gale (Amherst Coll. 1837).
Dr. Tyler's part in the controversy between the adhe- rents of what were commonly known as "Taylorism" and 'Tylerism," was what brought him most into prominence ; if not logically so powerful as Dr. Taylor, he was decided in his views and fearless in their expression, but not per- sonally rancorous; and his naturally amiable disposition made him beloved wherever known.
His engraved portrait is given in the Congregational Quarterly, volume 2, and elsewhere.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Hebr. x, 36], preached at Litchfield, before the Foreign Mission Society, of Litchfield County, at their annual meeting, February 10, 1813. New-Haven, 1813. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. Revival of Religion in South Britain, a Parish in the Town of Southbury, (Con,). In the Panoplist, volume 9, pp. 199-204, September, 1813; reprinted in his New England Revivals, 1846, pp. 350-61.
3. The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance, vindicated and established. A Sermon [from Phil, i, 6]. New-Haven, 1817. 8°, pp. 24. [A.C.A. N. Y. PubL U. T. S. Y. C.
The same [with Sermon by J. Leland, etc.]. New- York, 1820. 8°, pp. 44. [B. PubL U. T. S. Y. C.
Mr. Tyler's sermon occupies pp. 1-2 1.
4. The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance, further vindicated : in Reply to the Animadversions of Mr. Rayner and Mr. Thorp . .
720 Yale College
To which is added an Appendix, in which the remarks of Mr. Rayner upon Calvinism in general, are considered. New-Haven, 1818. 8°, pp. 51. [A. C. A. Y. C.
5. General Reasons for believing the Doctrines of Grace. [No. I of Tracts, designed to illustrate and enforce the most important Doctrines of the Gospel.] [New-Haven, 1818.] 12°, pp. 12.
[Y. C. Anonymous.
6. Comment on John 3, 5. In the Christian Spectator, vol. i, pp. 17-20, January, 1819.
Anonymous.
7. A Serious Call to those who are without the Pale of the Episcopal Church. — By a Consistent Churchman. . . [New-Haven, 1819.] 12°, pp. 24.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Harv. Y. C. The imputation of authorship on the title-page is an impudent fiction, as the object of the tract is to hold up the claims of the Episcopal Church to ridicule. An anonymous answer, entitled A Sober Appeal to the Christian Public, now known to have been written by the Rev. Harry Croswell, of New Haven, appeared the same year; and two anonymous replies to Mr. Croswell were also issued.
8. Review of Methodist Error . . By a Wesleyan Methodist. In the Christian Spectator, volume 2 (June, 1820), pp. 300-06. Anonymous.
9. Religious Principle, the foundation of personal safety, and social happiness. — A Sermon [from Gen. xx, 11], preached at Con- cord, on the day of the Anniversary Election, in the State of New- Hampshire, June 3, 1824. Concord, 1824. 8°, pp. 31.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. Y. C.
10. A Sermon [from Isa. Iviii, i], preached at Woodstock, Vt. November 28, 1827, at the Ordination of the Rev. John Richards, as Pastor . . Woodstock, 1827. 8°, pp. 17.
[A. C. A. Brown Univ.
11. Strictures on the Review [by the Rev. Dr. N. W. Taylor] of Dr. Spring's Dissertation on the Means of Regeneration, in the Christian Spectator for 1829. Portland, 1829. 8°, pp. 64.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y.C.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 721
12. A Vindication of the Strictures on the Review of Dr. Spring's Dissertation on the Means of Regeneration in the Christian Spectator for 1829, in reply to the Reviewer and Evangelus Pacificus [=Rev. Hubbard Winslow]. Portland, 1830. 8°, pp. 63.
[A. C. A. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
13. Remarks on Rev. Dr. Taylor's Letter to Dr. Hawes. Boston, 1832. 8°, pp. 12.
[A. C. A. B. Puhl. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S.
Y. C. Originally published in the Spirit of the Pilgrims, vol. 5, pp. 325-36, June, 1832.
14. The Prospects of the Heathen without the Gospel. — A Ser- mon [from Rom. x, 13-15], preached in Portland, on Sabbath even- ing, February 26, 1832. Portland, 1832. 8°, pp. 22.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
15. Reply to Dr. Taylor. In the Spirit of the Pilgrims, vol. 5, pp. 508-23, 545-63, Sept.-Oct., 1832.
16. A Letter to the Editor of the Spirit of the Pilgrims. To which are added Remarks on a recent Letter of Dr. Taylor in the Christian Spectator. Portland, 1833. 8°, pp. 40.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. The Letter appeared in the Spirit of the Pilgrims, vol. 6, pp. 284- 306, May, 1833.
17. Inaugural Address, and Addresses of Rev. Dr. Perkins and Rev. Mr. Riddel, on laying the Corner Stone of the Theological Institute of Connecticut, delivered at East Windsor, May 14, 1834. Hartford, 1834. 8°, pp. 28.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. Dr. Tyler's Address occupies pp. 13-28; it was also published in the Evangelical Magazine for July, 1834, volume 2, pp. 23-35.
18. An Appeal to the Public, in behalf of the Theological Insti- tute of Connecticut. [1834.] 8°, pp. 8. [Y. C.
This was acknowledged to be the composition of Dr. Tyler.
19. Letters on the Origin and Progress of the New Haven Theology. From a New England Minister to one at the South. New York, 1837. 12°, pp. 180.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. A connected account of the controversy with Dr. Taylor; acknowledged to be written by Dr. Tyler to the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, of South Carolina. 46
72 2 ' Yale College
20. A Review of President Day's Treatise on the Will. Hart- ford, 1838. 8°, pp. 30.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
Arguing that President Day's positions are opposed to the New Haven theology.
■ 21. A Sermon [from Jer. v, 29], Preached at East Windsor, on the Day of the National Fast, May 14th, 1841. Hartford, 1841. 8°, pp. 24. [A. C. A.
On Divine indignation at a corrupt nation.
22. Miracles. In the New Englander, vol. 2, pp. 208-21, April, 1844.
23. Baptismal Regeneration. In the New Englander, vol. 2, pp. 397-414, July, 1844.
24. Memoir of the Life and Character of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D.D. Hartford, 1844. 12°, pp. 367 + pi.
[B. Publ. Bowdoin Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Second edition. Hartford, 1845. 12°, pp. 367 -J- pi.
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. S. Y. C.
25. The Sufferings of Christ, confined to his Human Nature : a Reply to a book entitled The Sufferings of Christ. By a Layman. Hartford, 1847. 12°, pp. 233. [A. C. A. U. T. S.
The book reviewed was by George Griffin (Yale 1797).
26. New England Revivals, as they existed at the close of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Compiled principally from narratives first published in the Conn. Evangelical Magazine. Prepared for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society . . Boston, 1846. 12°, pp. 378.
[A. C. A. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
27. [Letter to the Rev. Dr. Bushnell, on his "Discourses on Christian Nurture."] [Hartford, 1847.] 8°, pp. 22. No title page.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
28. Letters to the Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D., containing Strictures on his book, entitled "Views of Christian Nurture, and subjects adjacent thereto." Hartford, 1848. 8°, pp. 80.
[A.C.A. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
29. The Worth of the Soul. — A Sermon [from Matt, xvi, 26], preached at Westport, Conn., at the Ordination of Rev. Joseph D. Strong, April 13, 1853. Norwalk, 1853. 8°, pp. 14.
[A. C. A. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 7*3
30. A Discourse [from II Cor. viii, 12] on Human Ability and Inability, Hartford, 1854. 8°, pp. 24.
[Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. Replied to, with criticism, by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Harvey (Yale 1808), one of the prominent founders of the Theological Institute of Connecticut.
31. A Letter to the Rev. Joseph Harvey, D.D., in reply to his Strictures on a Sermon of the Author, entitled "A Discourse on Human Ability and Inability." Hartford, 1855. 8°, pp. 26.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
Replied to, with criticism, by the Rev. Ira Case (Amherst Coll. 1848), a former student at the Theological Institute.
These painful attacks on Dr. Tyler's doctrinal position were mainly due to his conservative use of terms, which were otherwise discarded.
32. An Address, to the Alumni of the Theological Institute of Connecticut, delivered July 15, 1857, on the occasion of the Author's resigning his office of President and Professor of Christian Theol- ogy. Hartford, 1857. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
After his death appeared:
33. Lectures on Theology. — With a Memoir, by Rev. N. Gale, D.D. Boston, 1859. 8°, pp. 395 + pi.
[A.C.A. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The Memoir (pp. 1-149) was also published separately.
34. Worth of the Soul, and other Sermons. — With an Introduc- tion by Rev. E. W. Lawrence, D.D. Boston (Congregational Pub- lishing Society). [1873.] 8°, pp. 367 + pi. [B.Puhl
Includes twenty sermons, of which two had been before pub- lished (Nos. II, 32, above).
He was the author, over the signature T. B., of many articles in the Christian Sentinel, a monthly periodical conducted by the officers of the Theological Institute, in 1845-47.
To volume 2 of Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit he contributed brief notices of Dr. Azel Backus (pp. 283-86) and Dr. Caleb J. Tenney (pp. 474-75).
He edited the Remains of the Rev. Asahel Nettleton (Yale 1809) : Hartford, 1845. 12°.
Three of his Sermons appeared in the {American) National Preacher:
724 ^^^ College
Free Salvation, from Rev. xxii, 17, volume 2, pp. 161-69, April, 1828;
Persuasives to immediate repentance, from Acts xxiv, 25, volume 5, pp. 88-96, November, 1830;
Human and Divine Agency united in the salvation of the soul, from Phil, ii, 12-13, volume 7, pp. 17-24, July, 1832.
AUTHORITIES.
Beardsley, Hist, of the Episcopal 36; ii, 1461-64. Crosby, Annual
Church in Conn., ii, 144-45, 207-13. Obit. Notices, 1858, 329-30. Gale,
Congregational Quarterly, ii, 351-62. Memoir of B. Tyler. Sharpe, South
Cothren, Hist, of Woodbury, i, 235- Britain Sketches, 7, 141.
Stephen Upson, the only son of Captain Benjamin Upson, a farmer of Waterbury, Connecticut, and grand- son of Benjamin and Mary (Blakeslee) Upson, of Water- bury, was born on June 12, 1783. His mother was Mary, widow of Thomas Clark, and second daughter of Daniel and Mary (Brownson) Hine, of New Milford. His pre- paratory studies were pursued under the Rev. Israel B. Woodward (Yale 1789), of Wolcott, and Thomas Lewis (Yale 1798), of Salem Society in Waterbury, now Naug- atuck.
During his Junior year he became a convert to Repub- lican (that is, Democratic) opinions — an unusual course for students under the domination of President Dwight.
Upon graduation he began the study of law with Judge Charles Chauncey, of New Haven ; but feeling the neces- sity of making his own way, he left home in March, 1805, and went to Virginia, and in April began an engagement for six months as teacher in the family of General Guer- rant, a few miles north of Richmond. When this period had expired he entered the family of Nathaniel Pope, an able lawyer of Hanover, about fifteen miles north of Rich- mond, as a teacher for one year, with the advantage of instruction in law. Before the year had expired, Mr. Pope was killed in a duel, and Upson then, at the solici- tation of his .friend, Addin Lewis (Yale 1803), went to Georgia. He entered the law office of the Hon. William
Biographical Sketches, 1804 725
H. Crawford, in Lexington, Oglethorpe County, and after his admission to the bar became Mr. Crawford's partner. The latter was sent to the United States Senate in 1807, and continued to fill an eminent place in the public life for many years; so that this connection gave immediate and full scope for Mr. Upson's talents.
He soon interested himself in State politics, and in 1808 wrote a notable series of articles, entitled An Enquiry into the constitutionality, the necessity, the justice, and policy of the Embargo lately laid upon Law in this State, relating to the Stay Laws just enacted, which was published in the Georgia Express and also in the Savannah Advertiser.
Later in life, having accumulated considerable property, he purchased a plantation and was intending to raise cot- ton. He was also a member of the State Legislature, and when Mr. Crawford was nominated for the Presidency in February, 1824, he gave him active support. He had by his political addresses so won the confidence of the Demo- cratic party in the State that he was, at the time of his death, regarded as sure of the next election to the United States Senate. He had acquired more reputation, perhaps, as an advocate than any contemporary in the State. He was an elegant and persuasive speaker, of very agreeable manners, and a high-minded, honorable man.
He died in Lexington on August 3, 1824, in his 42d year.
He married, on November 12, 1813, Hannah, the young- est of six daughters of the Rev. Dr. Francis Cummins, a distinguished Presbyterian minister of Georgia, and Sarah (Davis) Cummins. She next married Elijah Boardman, of New York, and after his death returned to the South.
Mr. Upson's children, three sons and two daughters, all survived him. The eldest son was graduated at Union College in 1832, and attended the Yale Law School; and the youngest son was graduated at Yale College in 1841.
AUTHORITIES,
Anderson, Hist, of Waterbury, i, Wat^rbury, 443-46. Appendix, 141. Branson, Hist, of
726 Yale College
Jeremiah Vanderbilt^ the only son of Jan and Han- nah (Polhemus) Vanderbilt, of New York City, and grandson of Jeremias and Abigail (Vanderbilt) Vander- bilt, was born in New York on April 16, 1786.
After graduation he entered on a mercantile career in New York. He served in the State militia during the war of 1812, attaining the rank of Major in the artillery. The family tradition represents him as a fine horseman, and kind and genial in his private relations. He is said to have had some official position in regard to the City institutions on Blackwell's Island.
He married Hannah Lockwood, only daughter of Sam- uel and Ruhamah (Lockwood) Read, of Redding, Con- necticut, and Woodbridge, New Jersey.
In 1850 or early in 185 1 he removed to Rahway, New Jersey, where he died on August 29, 185 1, in his 65th year. His widow died on July 12, 1865, aged 78 years.
They were members of the Second Presbyterian Church in Rahway, and were buried in the burial-ground of the First Presbyterian Church in Woodbridge. Of their eight children, only two married daughters and a son grew to maturity and survived their parents.
AUTHORITIES. Mrs. Edward W, Ball, M.S. Letters, 1911.
Jacob Adrien VanHeuvel, the son of John C. and Justina H. F. Vandenheuvel, was born in Maestricht, Hol- land, on January 14, 1787. His father settled in New York City as a merchant in 1792, having resided for a few years previously in the Dutch Colony of Demerara, Guiana, of which he was Governor. A sister married the Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll (Yale 1808). He united with the College Church in August, 1802.
After graduation he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in New York in 1808, but never practiced.
■ Biographical Sketches, 1804 727
Soon after this date he removed to Ogdensburg, in St. Lawrence County, New York. In 1820 he purchased large tracts of land in the village of Fordsburg, about seven miles south of Ogdensburg, and in that immediate vicinity. In recognition of his proprietorship and of his lavish expenditure for the benefit of his tenants (which resulted disastrously for his own estate), the name of the village was changed to Heuvelton.
In February, 1832, he was authorized by an Act of the State Legislature to change his name from Vandenheuvel to VanHeuvel.
He resided in Ogdensburg or Heuvelton, indulging his literary tastes, until about 1865, when he removed to Oneida County, and subsequently to Syracuse, and lived in that neighborhood until his death, in Syracuse, on May 3, 1874, in his 88th year, — the last survivor of his Class.
He was never married.
He published :
1. An Oration, delivered at Ogdensburgh, New- York, on the Fourth of July 1827. . . . Ogdensburgh, 1827. 8°, pp. 27.
[B. Publ. U. S. Y. C.
2. El Dorado; being a Narrative of the circumstances which gave rise to reports, in the sixteenth century, of the existence of a Rich and Splendid City in South America, to which that name was given . . ; including a Defence of Sir Walter Raleigh, in regard to the relations made by him respecting it, and a Nation of Female Warriors, in the Vicinity of the Amazon . . New- York. [Copy- righted 1844.] 8°, pp. viii, 166 + map.
[Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Hough, Gazetteer of N. Y., 583; Counties, 417. Hon. C. R. Ingersoll, Hist, of St Lawrence and Franklin MS. Letter, Febr., 1875.
John Carrington Warner, the eldest child of Colonel Reuben Warner, of New Milford, Connecticut, and grand- son of Oliver and Lois (Ruggles) Warner, of New Mil- ford, was born on February 18, 1782. His mother was
728 Yale College
Eunice, second daughter of Dr. John and Susanna (Noble) Carrington, of New Milford. He entered College just after the opening of the Sophomore year.
After graduation he pursued the study of medicine in Columbia College, and was admitted to the Medical Society of the City and County of New York in March, 1808.
He then settled in practice in Wilmington, Delaware, and on May 17, 1809, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sam- uel Howell, of Philadelphia. He probably removed to Philadelphia about 1811 or 181 2, and thence about 181 5 to a farm called "Deer Park," in Haddonfield, New Jersey, about ten miles from Philadelphia, on a tract of land orig- inally taken up by Mordecai Howell, his wife's grand- father. Here he practiced for the rest of his life, mixing his own medicines, among which was one of some note, called "Warner's Gout Cordial."
He died at Deer Park on February 17, 1829, aged 47 years, and was buried in the Friends' burying ground in Haddonfield. His widow died on August 16, 1867. Their children were four daughters and two sons; the sons died in infancy.
AUTHORITIES.
Orcutt, Hist, of New Milford, 793. December, 1910. Dr. J. R. Stevenson, MS. Letter,
Charles Henry Wetmore, the youngest of twelve chil- dren of the Rev. Israhiah Wetmore (Yale 1748), of Trum- bull, Connecticut, was born in Trumbull (then part of Stratford) on May 12, 1783. His father died in 1798, and he was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, of Bridgeport.
In 1805 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Henry, of Lansingburg, New York, at the same time teaching in the Academy, of which his former instructor. Dr. Blatch- ford, was now the head. During 1806-08 he continued his medical studies under Dr. Eli Burritt (Williams Coll.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 729
1800), of Troy. Having also attended lectures at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, he obtained a license from the censors of the Rensselaer County Medi- cal Society, and began to practice in Troy in 1809; but removed in 1810 to Waterford in Saratoga County.
In 1 814 he was commissioned by Governor Tompkins as Surgeon of the 144th Regiment of Militia.
On June i, 1814, he married Eliza, fifth daughter of John and Eunice (Wells) Rathbone, of New York, and in 18 1 6 he removed to New York, where he was quite suc- cessful in building up a practice.
His father-in-law had extensive landed property in central Ohio, and Dr. Wetmore was induced to remove thither in November, 18 18, in order to assist in the man- agement of these interests. He settled on a farm which he named Locust Grove, near the village of Worthington, just north of Columbus, where for many years he divided his time between the practice of his profession and agricul- tural pursuits, until infirm health compelled him to retire from active business. In later years his residence was in Columbus.
His wife died in Columbus in February, 1853, in her 626. year. He died after a brief illness at Locust Grove, then the residence of his youngest son, on October 10, 1868, in his 86th year.
His children were five sons and six daughters, of whom three sons and two daughters survived him. The eldest son was graduated at Jefiferson Medical College, Phila- delphia, in 1843.
AUTHORITIES.
Rathbone Genealogy, 355, 387-88. January, 1869. /. C. Wetmore, Wet- Talcott, N. Y. and N. E. Families, more Family, 122-24, 138-40. 647. C. J. Wetmore, MS. Letter,
Amos Hawley Wheeler came to College from Brook- field, Connecticut.
730 Yde College
He settled in Trumbull, Connecticut, as a lawyer, and represented the town in the General Assembly in May, 1814, and October, 1816. He appears to have withdrawn from practice (or removed?) about 1825.
In March, 18 10, he is on record as withdrawing from the Congregational and joining the Episcopal Church.
He is reported as having died in 1841 ; no administra- tion of his estate is found in the Bridgeport Probate Dis- trict, of which Trumbull was a part at that date.
AUTHORITIES. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1030, 1047.
Amos Whitehead entered College from Waynesboro, Burke County, Georgia, after the opening of the Fresh- man year.
He returned to his native place after graduation, and is said to have died (from the results of dissipation) in 1808.
AUTHORITIES. Hon. J. H. Trumbull, MS. Letter, May, 1874.
Francis Bayard Winthrop, the second son of Francis Bayard Winthrop, of Boston, and grandson of John Still Winthrop (Yale 1737), of New London, Connecticut, was born in Boston on March 20, 1787. His mother was Elsie, eldest child of Thomas and Cornelia (Lispenard) Marston, of New York. In his childhood his father removed to New London, and thence, before his sons entered College, to New York City, where he was a merchant.
He returned to New York after graduation, and entered into mercantile business. He was married at Stamford, Connecticut, by the Rev. Salmon Wheaton (Yale 1805), on August 14, 1808, to Julia Ann, youngest daughter of Moses and Sarah (Woolsey) Rogers, of New York, who died in New York, on April 21, 18 14, in her 26th year.
Biographical Sketches, 1804 731
He next married, on January 29, 1816, Elizabeth, second daughter of William W. and Elizabeth (Dwight) Wool- sey, of New York, and sister of President Woolsey. Her father was a half-brother of the mother of Mr. Winthrop's first wife.
In the spring of 1823 he removed to New Haven, where he died suddenly on March 21, 1841, at the age of 54.
He was for some years a vestryman of Trinity Church, New Haven.
His widow died in West New Brighton, Staten Island, on October 28, 1863, aged 69 years.
By his first wife he had one daughter, who died in infancy, and two sons, who were graduated at Yale in 183 1 and 1832, respectively.
By his second wife he had four sons and four daughters. The two elder sons died early; the third son, the gifted Theodore Winthrop, was graduated here in 1848, and the fourth in 185 1. The second daughter married a son of William Johnson (Yale 1788), and the youngest married Theodore Weston (Yale 1853).
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight Family, i, 253-54; ii, 1097- Descendants, 159. Selleck, Norwalk, 98. N. Y, Geneal. and Biogr. Record, 166, 171-72. iv, 151, 154. James Rogers and his
John Still Winthrop, older brother of the preceding graduate, was born in Lyme, Connecticut, on February 14, 1785. A half-brother was graduated in 1809.
He spent his Hfe as a merchant in New York City.
He was married, on August 14, 1808, at the same time and place with his brother, to Harriet, daughter of Fitch and Hannah (Bell) Rogers, and a first cousin of his brother's wife. Mr. Rogers was a descendant of Gover- nor Thomas Fitch (Yale 1721), who settled in St. John, New Brunswick, after the American Revolution, but later returned to Stamford, Connecticut. Mrs. Winthrop died
73* y^l^ College
in Stamford on March 2, 1835, aged 48. Their children were five sons and five daughters, of whom one son was graduated at Yale in 1830.
He died at the residence of another son, Charles E. R. Winthrop, in Perry County, Illinois, on September 6, 1855, in his 71st year.
AUTHORITIES.
American Ancestry, iii, 6i. John 239-40. Winthrop Family, 14. Rogers and his Descendants, 158,
Joseph Wright^ the second child of James and Lucy (Hale) Wright, of Glastonbury, Connecticut, and grand- son of James and Lois (Loomis) Wright, of Wethersfield, was born on September 2, 1785. His preparation for College was begun at the Academy in Glastonbury, and was completed under the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Huntington. His father died in his infancy.
For two or three years after graduation he had the charge of the Academy in his native place, and was a suc- cessful teacher. He then engaged in agricultural pursuits on his paternal estate, where he continued to reside through life, a worthy, highly respected, and useful citizen.
In 1827 he was chosen a Deacon of the First Congrega- tional Church, and he performed the duties of this office until his death.
He married, on November 24, 1808, Sarah, second daughter of his pastor, the Rev. William Lockwood (Yale 1774), by whom he had four sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity. Two sons were graduated at Yale, in 1832 and 1839, respectively.
Mr. Wright and his classmate Plummer were warm personal friends, and their lives presented a striking parallelism.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapin, Glastenbury Centennial, Dec, 1864. Stiles, Hist, of Wethers- 180. Geo: Plummer, MS. Letter, field, ii, 859.
Annals, 1804-05 1Z%
Annals, 1804-05
In April, 1805, Professor Silliman sailed for Europe, with a commission to expend the sum of nine thousand dollars for replenishing the Library and the Philosophical and Chemical apparatus.
An alarm lest yellow fever should spread in New Haven, led to the dismission of the students in July, 1805 ; but as the alarm proved unnecessary. Commencement exercises were held as usual, in September.
At this date. Tutor Davis having definitely declined the oflfer of the Professorship of Divinity, which President Dwight had been filling by temporary arrangement, the President was now formally elected to the vacant chair, and accepted the appointment.
At this date, also, Tutor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799) was appointed Professor of Language^ and Ecclesiastical History. He was also made Librarian, — the duties of that office having been hitherto assumed by the Senior Tutor for the time being.
With this appointment the permanent Faculty of the College was now constituted as it was to remain unchanged until the President's death in 1817; and the settlement of the College authority in the hands of this remarkable group of men, consisting of President Dwight, and Professors Day, Silliman, and Kingsley, marks the commencement of a distinct and important era, with which this volume may well close.
734 ^^^ College
Sketches, Class of 1805
* C arolus Atwater, A.M. *i825
*Samuel Badger, A.M. *i866
*Samuel Bellamy Beach *i866
"^Nehemias Beach Beardsley *i868
*Sheldonus Wales Candee, A.M. *i82i
*Henricus Chapman *i823
* Simon Couch *i826 *Leonardus Cowles, A.M. *i86i
* Johannes Austin Crocker, 1806 *i8i6 *Rodolphus Dickinson *i863 *Harveius Elliot, A.M. 1810, M.D. Coll. Med. et
Chirurg. Nov. Ebor. 1817 *i824
*Ziba Foot *i8o6
^Nathanael Freeman, A.M. *i854 ^Thomas Hopkins- Gallaudet, A.M., LL.D. Res.
Occ. 1851, Tutor *i85i
* Johannes M'Kinnie Gilmour *i8o7 *Timotheus Goodwin, A.M. *i8i8 *Ebenezer Gray *i844 *Edvardus Hooker, A.M. et Mediob. et Carol.
Austr., Tutor *i846
*Robertus Jacobus Houstoun, A.M. *i8i8
^Hemanus Humphrey, A.M., S.T.D. Mediob. 1823,
Coll. Amh. Praeses *i86i ^Samuel Farmar Jarvis, A.M., S.T.D. Univ. Penns.
1819, LL.D. Trin. 1837, in Coll. Trin. Lingg.
Orient. Prof. *i85i
* Aaron Herveius Kelsey *i863 *Gualterus King, A.M. *i852 *Jacobus McBride *i8i7
Biographical Sketches, 1805 735
♦Johannes Morin Scott McKnight, 1846, A.M. 1846 *i848
"^Allen McLean, A.M. *i86i
*Fredericus Marsh, A.M. *i873
*Robertus Moore *i854
*Georgius Olcott, A.M. *i864
*Joel Page *i832
♦Johannes Owen Pettibone, A.M. *i876
* Thomas Ruggles * 1 836
*GuiHelmus Mather Smith, A.M. *i864
*Elihu Spencer *i8i9 ^Gardiner Spring, A.M., S.T.D. Hamilt. 1819,
LL.D. Lafayett. 1853 *i873
♦Samuel Stevens, et Neo-Caes. 1805, A.M. *i844
♦Earl Swift, M.D. 1830 *i869
♦Zacharias Tomlinson *i838
♦Guilielmus Welch ♦181 1
''Salmon Wheaton, A.M., S.T.D. Trin. 1835 *i844 "^Johannes Milton Whiton, S.T.D. Neo-Caes. 1848 ♦1856
♦Josua Lewis Williams, A.M. *i832
Charles Atwater, the youngest son of Jeremiah and Lois (Hurd) Atwater, of New Haven, and a brother of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Atwater (Yale 1793), was born in New Haven on August 18, 1786. He united with the Col- lege Church in July of his Freshman year, during which year he had entered College.
After graduation he studied theology with President Dwight, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association of Ministers on September 30, 1806.
On March i, 1809, he was ordained and installed by the New Haven East Association as pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in North Branford; and on October 4, 1809, he was married by the Rev. Bezaleel Pinneo to Mary, daughter of Miles Merwin, of Milford, and sister of the Rev. Samuel Merwin (Yale 1802).
736 Yale College
Mr. Atwater was a man of sincere piety, devoted to his work, and acceptable and successful as a preacher. He was erect and portly in figure, with a clear, powerful voice. Ninety-six persons were added to the church under his ministry.
He died in office, in North Branford, on February 21, 1825, in his 39th year, and is buried among his people.
He had four sons, the eldest of whom died in childhood. The third son was graduated at Yale in 1839.
His widow married, on June 22, 1827, Abijah Fisher, of New York City, and died on October 13, 1879, in her 95 th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Atwater Family, 150, 204. Wood, North Branford, 18. History of Congregational Church,
Samuel Badger, the youngest child of Edmund Badger, of Windham, Connecticut, and a grandson of Samuel and Abigail (Bingham) Badger, of Windham, was born on December 6, 1786. His mother was Lucretia, sister of Shubael Abbe (Yale 1764).
He married, in the year of his graduation, Olivia Ann, the eldest of eight daughters of Joel and Eleanor (Strong) Root, of New Haven, who died in Philadelphia, on Jan- uary 22, i82y, in her 39th year.
After graduation he read law in the office of Jared Ingersoll (Yale 1766), of Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1809.
When only 27 years old, in April, 18 14, he received from Governor Snyder the appointment of Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas ; but this position he resigned in July, 18 1 5, on accepting from the same source the appointment to the important office of Alderman, with the duties of a civil magistrate, which he held for twenty-five years, or until in 1840 the office was made elective, when he declined to be a candidate.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 737
After that date he confined himself mainly to the ordi- nary duties of a Notary Public.
In the latter portion of his life he suffered from serious financial embarrassment.
He died in Philadelphia, after a lingering illness, on March 14, 1866, in his 80th year.
By his first marriage he had twelve children. One daughter married Dr. N. Beers Ives (Yale 1825).
He married, secondly, on September 28, 1829, Lucretia Brown Watson, third daughter of Captain George and Deborah (Sturges) Hoyt, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who died in Philadelphia on August 24, 1832, aged 28 years.
He married, thirdly, on June 17, 1834, in Philadelphia, Rosina L. C. Bradley, of Providence, Rhode Island, who survived him.
In early life Mr. Badger contributed a series of well- written sketches of members of the Philadelphia bar to the Democratic Press, a daily newspaper of that city.
He was for some years one of the Trustees of the Jef- ferson Medical College.
AUTHORITIES.
Dwight, Strong Family, 4, 82. Hoyt delphia, Jan. 25, 1827. Timlow, Hist. Family, 505. Loomis Female Gene- of Southington, ccxx. Weaver, Hist alogy, i, 236. National Gazette, Phila- of Windham, 20, 64,
Samuel Bellamy Beach^ the only son of Ashbel Beach, of Litchfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Samuel and Rachel (Strong) Beach, of Litchfield, was born (prob- ably) in 1784. His mother, Anne Bellamy, was descended from the Bellamys of Cheshire, Connecticut. In his infancy the family removed to Whitestown, in Oneida County, New York, where they cleared a farm. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year, and his scholarship is shown by the fact that he gave the Salutatory Oration at graduation.
In March, 1809, he appears in Easton, on the eastern shore of Maryland, as the editor and ostensible owner of 47
738 Yale College
a weekly paper, called The People's Monitor. A Repub- lican paper was already established there, and the new venture was in the interest of Federalism ; but Mr. Beach's connection with the enterprise lasted for only little over a year. From the fact that he named a son for Governor Goldsborough, it has been thought that he was at one time a tutor in the Governor's family, in Dorchester County, on the Eastern Shore.
Either before or after his Maryland experience, he engaged in business as a merchant in Oswego. He also studied law, and settled in practice in Oswego as early as 18 1 7. In February, 1821, he was appointed District Attorney of Oswego County, but did not long continue in office. He is next heard of in Mount Clemens, Michigan Territory, where he was a successful school-teacher.
In 1828 he was settled in Albany as one of the publish- ers of the (daily) Morning Chronicle and (semi-weekly) Albany Chronicle.
After this date he was long a resident of Oneonta, in Otsego County, and was identified with many public improvements there. He abandoned the profession of law, and in December, 1838, in company with Cyrenus Noble, he began the manufacture of shaving and fancy soaps in Oneonta ; but the partnership was soon dissolved.
During VanBuren's presidency (1837-41) he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Post Office Department, which he held until 1862.
His residence continued in Oneonta, and he was one of the projectors of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad, as a connecting link between the Erie Railroad at Bing- hamton and Albany.
He died in Oneonta on July 31, 1866, aged 82 years, having been confined to the house for more than a year previously.
He married, about 1815, Mrs. Ann (Porter) Taylor; and after her death, about 1834, Martha M., daughter of Samuel Bates, of Morris, Otsego County, who died in June,
Biographical Sketches, 1805 739
1867. By his second marriage he had five sons and four daughters ; three sons and two daughters died in infancy. He pubHshed :
1. Considerations against continuing the Great Canal West of the Seneca: Addressed to the Members-Elect of the Legislature of the State of New- York; by Peter Ploughshare. Utica, 1819. 8°, pp. 29. [B. Ath. B. Publ.
Opposing the completion of the Erie Canal between the Seneca River and Lake Erie; dated Jefferson County, N. Y., July 20, 1819.
2. Escalala: an American tale. Utica, 1824. 12°, pp. 109.
[Y. C. A poem in five cantos, describing the extermination by the Indians of a Scandinavian colony of mound-builders, near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
AUTHORITIES.
O. Beach, MS. Letter, January, Talbot County (Md.) Press. Hist 1910. Boltwood, Noble Genealogy, of Macomb County, Mich., 545. 81. S. A. Harrison, MS. Hist of
Nehemiah Beach Beardsley, son of John Beardsley, of Stratford, Connecticut, and grandson of Abraham and Bethia (Curtis) Beardsley, of Stratford, was born on June 20, 1780. His mother was Jerusha, eldest daughter of Nehemiah and Sarah (Middlebrook) Beach, of North Stratford, now Trumbull. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Dr. David Ely (Yale 1769), of Huntington.
After graduation he studied divinity with the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop (Yale 1754), of West Springfield, Massa- chusetts, and was licensed to preach by the Hampshire South Association of Ministers in October, 1806. He had already married, on September 18, 1805, Achsah, daughter of Joseph and Experience Morgan, of that part of West Springfield which is now Holyoke, and widow of Samuel D. Chapin, of Somers, Connecticut. Later he served for several years as a home missionary in Maine.
740 Yale College
Late in 1815 he was invited, with considerable unan- imity, to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Chester, then part of Saybrook, Connecticut; and he was ordained and installed there on January 3, 18 16.
For five years the church dwindled under his ministry; but in 1 82 1 a revival of religion occurred, as the result of which twenty-six were added to the church-membership, while only three had been previously received by him.
His relation to his people had become somewhat uncom- fortable, and the Middlesex Consociation on being con- sulted advised his dismission, which took place on Feb- ruary 27, 1822.
In February, 1824, he was called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church in Union, Tolland County, Con- necticut, on a salary of $350, and was installed there on April 14. His ministry was terminated by his dismission on April 18, 1831.
After this ill health somewhat disabled him, and he removed to Somers, in the same county, where he remained until his death. He was able to supply for brief periods, from six months to a year, at different times, vacant con- gregations in Tolland and Windsor, Massachusetts, and elsewhere in the vicinity. He died in Somers, on February 28, 1868, in his 88th year. His wife, a woman of most excellent character, died thirteen days before him, aged 93.
Their children were two daughters and two sons.
AUTHORITIES.
Chesebrough, Hist. Sketch of the 75, 278. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, Congregational Church of Chester, ii, 1138. Rev. G. A. Oviatt, MS. 14-15. Hammond, Hist, of Union, Letter, June, 1868.
Sheldon [Wales] Candee, the second son and child of Deacon Justus Candee, of Oxford, then part of Derby, Connecticut, and grandson of Caleb and Lois (Mallory) Candee, of Oxford, was born on July 15, 1781. His mother was Eunice Norton, of Washington, Connecticut.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 741
He assumed a middle name after leaving College. He entered the Class after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He settled as a lawyer in Hartford, and there married, on April 10, 1810, Julia Ann, eldest child of Jesse and Rebecca (Fish) Root, who died in Hartford, on April 2, 1820, in her 31st year.
In December, 18 19, he left home for a warmer climate, in consequence of his declining state of health. He sank rapidly under a fatal disease of the lungs, and died at the home of a friend in St. George's, British Guiana, on Feb- ruary 8, 182 1, in his 40th year.
His children were two sons and two daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
American Ancestry, viii, 115. Can- alogy, 191, 259-60. Sharpe, Hist, of dte Genealogy, 28, 53-54- Conn. Oxford, 61. Trumbull, History of Courant, June 12, 1821. Root Gene- Hartford County, i, 127.
Henry Chapman, the eldest child of Simon Chapman, of Tolland, Connecticut, by his second wife, Lydia Carlton, and grandson of Captain Samuel and Hannah (Strong) Chapman, of Windsor and Tolland, was born on July 23, 1777. He became a Christian during a revival at Vernon, in 1800, and then decided to enter College with a view to the ministry.
After graduation he studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the Hartford North Association of Ministers on June 3, 1806.
He probably went soon on missionary service to New York State; and spent his whole ministerial life there. His last pastoral charge was with the Congregational Church in Hartwick, Otsego County, where he died very suddenly on August 30, 1823, at the age of 46.
AUTHORITIES.
Chapman Family, 312. Dzvight, logg, MS. Letter, January, 1883. Strong Family, ii, 1086. A. S. Kel-
74* Yole College
Simon Couch, the youngest child of Simon Couch, of Green's Farms in Westport, then part of Fairfield, Con- necticut, was born on November 9, 1788. His mother was Abigail (or Nabby), third daughter of Dennie and Desire (Lovel) Chapman, of Green's Farms.
In November, 1806, he was married in Westport by the Rev. Dr. Hezekiah Ripley (Yale 1763), of Green's Farms, to Elizabeth Hyde.
His history has not been traced further, but he is believed to have left Westport after 181 5 and to have settled in Louisville, Kentucky.
He has been sometimes confused with another Simon [A.] Couch, six years younger, a brother of Jesup Nash Couch (Yale 1802), from Redding, who was a physician in Marion, Ohio.
AUTHORITIES. Chapman Family, 206.
Leonard [H.] Cowles, the youngest son of Gamaliel Cowles, a shoemaker of Southington, Connecticut, and grandson of Josiah and Jemima (Dickinson) Cowles, of Southington, was born on January i6, 1784. His mother was Anna, fifth daughter of Abel and Mary (Coach) Carter, of Southington. The Rev. Pitkin Cowles (Yale 1800) was a first cousin.
He studied law in New Haven after graduation, and settled in 18 14 in Delaware, in central Ohio. He soon married a daughter of Colonel Moses and Elizabeth (Egleston) Byxbe, of Delaware, and in conjunction with his father-in-law, who was the leading citizen of the town, was prominent in all public matters.
He served as a representative in the General Assembly from 1822 to 1824.
He died in Delaware on December 29, 1861, aged nearly 78 years.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 743
AUTHORITIES.
Hist of Delaware County, Ohio, Southington, Ixvii. 319, 329, 331- Timlow, History of
John Austin Crocker was a son of the Rev. Daniel Crocker (Yale 1782) and Ann (Austin) Crocker, of New Haven. He entered after the opening of Freshman year, and did not complete the work of Senior year in College with his Class, but received his degree in 1806.
In 1809 his father settled in the ministry in Redding, Connecticut, and the son found employment there as a teacher.
He died in Redding in 18 16.
RoDOLPHUS Dickinson, the third son and sixth child of Colonel Thomas Wells Dickinson, a farmer of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and grandson of Captain Thomas and Prudence (Smith) Dickinson, of Hatfield and Deerfield, was born on June 27, 1786. His mother was Thankful, third daughter of Colonel David and Thankful (Taylor) Field, of Deerfield. An elder sister married Pliny Arms (Yale 1798). He spent the first two years of the course in Williams College.
He studied law after graduation in Northampton with Major John Taylor (Harvard 1786), and was admitted to the bar of Hampshire County in 1808.
He married, on November 9, 1809, Nancy, third daugh- ter of Captain David and Elizabeth (Bull) Hoyt, of Deerfield.
On the organization of Franklin County in 181 1 he was appointed Clerk of the Courts, and retained that office until 18 19. Meantime he was in very embarrassed cir- cumstances. From 1816 to 1819 he was in partnership with his wife's brother-in-law, Colonel John Wilson, in a printing and publishing house in Deerfield, which did considerable business, circulating its publications by book-
744 ^^'^ College
agents. Mr. Dickinson was the author of several of these works.
On September 17, 1819, he was ordained Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop Griswold, after which he removed to the northwestern part of South Caro- lina, where he was instrumental in the formation of two parishes, about twenty-five miles apart — Greenville and Pendleton. During the first eighteen months of his alter- nate service there, he traveled upwards of seven thousand miles on horseback. He was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Bowen on February 20, 1822.
He returned to Deer field in 1832, and made that place his residence for the rest of his life. From 1832 to 1838 he officiated in Trinity Church, in the adjoining town of Montague, to a small congregation, made up of Episco- palians and Unitarians.
He was a Jefifersonian Democrat in politics, and was a candidate for Congress in 1839.
Mr. Dickinson was transparently honest, and simple as a child; but visionary and over-sanguine. His schemes often miscarried, but he bore adversity with patience and cheerfulness, and was unflagging in industry.
During the later part of his life his mental powers were partially clouded. He died at his residence (built by his own hands) on Pine Hill in Deerfield, on October 29, 1863, in his 78th year.
His widow died on April 11, 1870, in her 82d year.
Their children were two daughters, and a son who died in infancy.
He published :
1. A Digest of the Powers and Duties of Sheriffs, Coroners, Constables and Collectors of Taxes. Springfield, 1810. 8°, pp. iii, 232. [B. Ath.
2. A Compilation of the Laws of Massachusetts, comprising the Titles of Assessors, Auctioneers, Clerks, Commissioners of Sewers, Districts, Engines and Engine Men, Fences and Fence Viewers, Ferries and Ferry Men, Field Drivers, Fire and Fire Wards, Health
Biographical Sketches, 1805 745
Committees or Officers, Hog Reeves, Measurers of Wood and Bark, Militia, Moderators, Overseers of the Poor, Parishes and Precincts, Plantations, Proprietors of Common and General Fields, Proprie- tors of Common and Undivided Real Estate, Proprietors of Social Libraries, Sealers of Weights and Measures, Selectmen, Surveyors of Highways, Surveyors of Lumber, Surveyors of Private Ways, Towns, Treasurers, and Tythingmen . . . . Boston, 181 1. 8°, pp. viii, 280. [A.A.S. B.Ath. B. Publ. M.H.S.
3. Elements of Geography, or, an extensive Abridgment thereof. Illustrated with maps. Accompanied with a new and extensive Introduction, comprising the astronomical and other subjects pre- liminary to the Study of Geography : — By Epaphras Hoyt. Boston, 1813. 8°, pp. 360 + 2 maps.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U.S. General Hoyt was an uncle of Mrs. Dickinson.
4. A Geographical ^nd Statistical View of Massachusetts Proper. Greenfield, 1813. 8°, pp. 80.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
5. A Compendium of the religious doctrines, religious and moral precepts, historical, and descriptive beauties of the Bible ; with a separate moral selection for the Apocrypha: intended for the use of Families, but more particularly as a Reading Book for Schools. Greenfield, 1814. 18°, pp. 250. [B. Publ.
The same. Second edition. Greenfield, 181 5. 12°, pp. 274.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. U. S.
The same. Third edition. Greenfield, 181 5. 12°, pp. 252.
[B. Publ. U. S. Also, later editions, — a 6th in 181 7.
6. The Columbian Reader. Prefixed an Introduction on the arts of reading and speaking. Boston, 181 5. 16°, pp. 204.
[B. Publ. The same. Second edition. Comprising a new and various Selection of Elegant Extracts in Prose and Poetry, for the use of schools in the United States. Boston and Hallowell, 1818. 12**, pp. 204. [B. Ath.
7. A Geographical, Statistical and Historical View of the Town of Deerfield, in the County of Franklin, and State of Massachusetts ;
746 Yale College
intended as an exhibition of the plan and execution of a contem- plated Gazetteer of Massachusetts Proper. Deerfield, 1815, 8°, pp. 29+1. [B. Ath. B. Publ.
8. A Description of Deerfield, in Franklin County, intended as an exhibition of the plan of a contemplated Gazetteer of Massa- chusetts Proper. Deerfield, 181 7. 8°, pp. 8.
[A.A.S. B. PubL N. Y. H. S. The same. Greenfield, 1818. 8°, pp. 8. [A. C. A. B. PubL'
9. A Digest of the Common Law, the Statute Laws of Massa- chusetts, and of the United States, and the Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, relative to the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace. Deerfield, 1818. 8°, pp. viii, 521.
[A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. M. H. S. Copyrighted, April, 181 7.
10. Biographical Sketch of Samuel Field [Yale 1762]. In Field's Miscellaneous Productions in Poetry and Prose. Greenfield, 1818. 12°, pp. 5-20.
11. A Description of Northfield and Lexington, intended as an exhibition of the plan of a contemplated Gazetteer of Massachusetts Proper. Greenfield (Deerfield), 1818. 8°, pp. 15. [A. C. A.
12*. The Christian and Miscellaneous Portfolio, an original work. Philadelphia, 1823. 12°, pp. 179. [B. Ath.
13. A new and corrected version of the New Testament; or, a minute revision, and professed translation of the original Histo- ries, Memoirs, Letters, Prophecies, and other productions of the Evangelists and Apostles; to which are subjoined, a few, gen- erally brief, critical, explanatory, and practical notes. Boston, 1833. 8°, pp. 500 + pi.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C.
A work of labor, but highly unsatisfactory. An engraved por- trait of Mr. Dickinson is prefixed.
AUTHORITIES.
C. C. Baldwin, Diary, 203-04, 211. 829; ii, pt. 2, 147-49, 215. Willard,
Hoyt Family, 450. Pierce, Field Gen- Hist, of Greenfield, 166. Mrs. G. A.
ealogy, i, 214. Sheldon, History of Williams, MS. Letter, June, 1870. Deerfield, i, 611; ii, pt. i, 818-19,
Biographical Sketches, 1805 747
Harvey Elliot, the youngest child of Timothy Elliott, a farmer of North Guilford, Connecticut, and grandson of Abial and Mary (Leete) Eliot, of Guilford, was born on November 22^, 1784. His mother was Rebekah, daugh- ter of Jacob Rose, of North Branford. He was prepared for College by his second cousin, the Rev. Dr. John Elliott (Yale 1786), of East Guilford, now Madison.
For six months after graduation he taught school in New Rochelle, New York, and then began to study medi- cine in the office of Dr. David Rogers, of that place.
He received a New Jersey State license in 1808, and began to practice in Harlem, New York.
He received the degree of M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 181 7.
He continued in Harlem until his death there, on Feb- ruary 3, 1824, in his 40th year, having become the leading physician in that vicinity. He was buried in Harlem, but his remains were removed to Guilford in 1867. The inscription on his monument states that he "enjoyed the confidence and esteem of a large and respectable commun- ity, by whom his death is deeply regretted."
He was unmarried. His library and instruments were inherited by his nephew. Dr. Ellsworth Eliot (Yale 1849).
AUTHORITIES. Descendants of John Eliot, 2d ed., 84. Steiner, Hist, of Guilford, 505.
ZiBA Foot, the fourth son of Edward Foot, of Newtown, Connecticut, and grandson of George and Catharine (Bur- rit) Foot, of Newtown, was born on July 20, 1785. His mother was Anna, second daughter of Jehoshaphat and Hannah (Basten) Prindle, of Newtown. His early habits of study led to his beginning to teach a public school before he was sixteen years of age. By this means he earned enough to justify, in 1802, his beginning to prepare for Yale, which he entered at the opening of the Senior year.
748 Yale College
At the end of the course he was successful in winning a Berkeley Scholarship.
He was a warm friend of David Sanford (Yale 1803), and following his example, immediately after the close of the Senior examinations, without delaying for Coinmence- ment, he started for Cincinnati, to seek employment as a land-surveyor from Colonel Jared Mansfield (Yale 1777), the Surveyor-General of the United States. His journey (in August) was a trying one, but after securing the desired appointment, he spent the winter in Cincinnati. He started on a surveying tour on March 4, 1806, and met with a succession of exposures and accidents which brought on illness and hastened his untimely end. After various misfortunes and sufferings he was accidentally drowned, while engaged in surveying, in a small lake or pond in the southwest corner of what is now Gibson County, in southwestern Indiana, on April 30, 1806, in his 2 1 St year. His body was recovered, and subseqently buried in Bedford, Indiana.
He was the first of the Class to die.
While in Cincinnati he had become engaged to be mar- ried to Harriet Sisson, a niece of Mrs. Mansfield, who mar- ried in December, 1807, Dr. Daniel Drake, the distin- guished physician of Cincinnati.
AUTHORITIES.
Foote Family (1907), 144-45. Good- ana Hist. Society's Publications, ii, win, Foote Genealogy, 144, 307. Indi- 359-6S- Prindle Genealogy, 45.
Nathaniel Freeman, son of Thomas Freeman, of Mansfield and Lebanon, Connecticut, and grandson of Stephen and Hannah (Jenkins) Freeman, of Mansfield, was born in 1778. His mother, Sarah Southworth, of Ashford, was probably a daughter of John and Sarah (Higgins) Southworth. He united with the College Church in July of his Freshman year.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 749
He remained in New Haven after graduation, holding for two years the office of College Butler, and serving at the same time as Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School. He was also studying theology, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association of Ministers on August 6, 1807.
After having supplied the pulpit there for at least a year, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in Oxford, Connecticut, in May, 1811, but continued for only three years longer, or until July, 1814. The baptisms or births of two daughters and a son are recorded in Oxford.
His next regular settlement was in the present township of Easton, then included in Weston, where he was installed over the Congregational Church in February, 18 19.
He remained here until his dismission in April, 1832. A year later, in April, 1833, he began to supply the church on Greenfield Hill, in Fairfield, where he continued for nearly nine years. During that period he lost his wife and seven children.
His last years were spent in Easton, where he died on June 18, 1854, aged 76. He was buried by the side of his wife, on Greenfield Hill.
He married, on November 20, 1810, Mary B. Fox, who died at Greenfield Hill on December 27, 1837, aged 52.
AUTHORITIES.
Freeman Genealogy, 2d ed., 137. Greenfield Church, 35. Sharpe, Hist. H. B. Smith, 150th Anniversary of of Oxford, 73.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the eldest of a family of twelve children of Peter Wallace Gallaudet, a merchant of Philadelphia, and grandson of Thomas and Catharine (Edgar) Gallaudet, of New York, was born in Philadel- phia on December 10, 1787. His mother was Jane, or Jennett, daughter of Captain Thomas and Alice (Howard) Hopkins, of Hartford, Connecticut. A brother was grad-
75® y^le College
uated here in 1815. The progenitor of the family fled from France soon after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Mr. Gallaudet's father removed to Hartford in 1800, and his preparation for the Sophomore Class at Yale was com- pleted in the Hartford Grammar School.
Although among the youngest members of the Class, his rank in College was among the highest, and he excelled especially in English composition.
In the fall of 1805 he entered on the study of law in the office of the Hon. Chauncey Goodrich (Yale 1776), of Hartford, but the state of his health compelled him a year later to suspend his legal studies, which he never resumed.
For the next two years he devoted himself largely to the study of English literature and the practice of English composition ; and he then filled the office of Tutor in Yale College for two years. At Commencement in 1808 he delivered a Master's Oration on the Use of Ambition as a Motive in the Education of Youth.
His health now required a more active life; and he accepted a commission from a commercial house in New York to travel through Ohio and Kentucky. The journey greatly improved his physical condition, and on his return he entered the employ of the firm for which he had been traveling as clerk, with the intention of engaging per- manently in business.
But his convictions of duty soon reasserted themselves ; and in January, 181 2, he joined the Andover Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in September, 18 14. He was licensed to preach by the Ministers' Association of Salem and vicinity on June 14, 1814, and at once received several flattering invitations to become a candidate for settlement, — among them one from the North Parish of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
In the interest of his health, which was still delicate, he thought it best to return to Hartford and preach only occa- sionally for the ensuing winter.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 75 1
He had already shown a great interest in the case of a young daughter of Dr. Mason F. Cogswell (Yale 1780), of Hartford, who was a deaf-mute ; and as a result of this interest he was invited, in April, 181 5, by Dr. Cogswell and a group of his friends among the wealthy and public- spirited citizens of Hartford, to undertake the headship of a school for the instruction of deaf-mute children in that place, and to prepare himself in Europe for the task.
He accepted the invitation, and sailed for England in May. The British schools for the deaf being private monopolies, he found it impossible to get there the training which he needed ; finally, in March, 18 16, he went to Paris, where the Abbe Sicard, of the Royal School for Deaf- Mutes, granted him every facility for accomplishing his purpose. He was able to return to America in the follow- ing summer, and then devoted his time to the enlistment of public sympathy and patronage for the new enterprise.
The Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was opened in April, 18 1 7, and Mr. Gallaudet remained at its head for thirteen years.
On August 29, 1 82 1, he was married to one of his pupils in the Asylum, Sophia, younger daughter of Minor and Rachel (Hall) Fowler, of Guilford.
His duties as Principal engrossed so much of his time and so broke down his health that he felt obliged, in January, 1830, to request relief from the burden of daily instruction; and when he found that this relief was thought unnecessary by the other teachers, he felt obliged to hand in his resignation, in April, 1830, taking effect in the latter part of October.
This was reluctantly accepted, though as a life-director he continued, by the desire of the Board, to exercise an important influence in the management of the institution.
He made use of his leisure mainly in the preparation of elementary school-books, and in helping forward the cause of moral and religious education ; but he had many invitations, of a tempting nature, to other fields of useful-
75? Yole College
ness. Thus, in 1830, he was urgently solicited to become the agent for New England of the Colonization Society; the Trustees of the Asylum for the Blind in Boston requested him to become the first Principal ; and the New York University offered him the chair of the Philosophy of Education.
Many other offers followed in the succeeding years, but he preferred not to leave his Hartford home. In 1837 a new prison was erected in Hartford, and in the absence of any means at the disposal of the County Commissioners for hiring a chaplain, Mr. Gallaudet volunteered to dis- charge the duties without pay (having been ordained in Hartford, on September 23, 1834) ; and he continued to perform religious service every Sunday morning, and to visit the prison from time to time during each week, from December, 1837, to March, 1844, when a chronic affection of the throat and lungs obliged him to give up the duty.
In July, 1838, he also undertook the office of Chaplain to the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford, which involved one preaching service on Sunday afternoon, daily prayers through the week, and pastoral duty as seemed advisable, with an annual salary of $750.
His health began sensibly to fail in the spring of 185 1, and the extreme heat in the first week in July led to a severe attack of dysentery from which he was unable to rally. He died at his home in Hartford on September 10, in his 64th year.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Western Reserve College a few weeks before his death.
Mrs. Gallaudet died on May 13, 1877, in her 80th year. Their children were four sons and four daughters. The eldest son was graduated at Trinity College in 1842, and became an Episcopal clergyman, especially devoted to work among deaf-mutes. The youngest son became the Presi- dent of the National Deaf-Mute College, later the Gallau- det College for the Deaf, in Washington. One daughter
Biographical Sketches, 1805 753
married the Rev. Dr. H. Clay Trumbull (honorary M.A. Yale 1866). Two grandsons were graduated at Yale College in 1893, and one in 1898.
A Tribute to Dr. Gallaudet was published at Hartford in 1852 (pp. 268, 8°), containing a Discourse at a memorial service by the Hon. Henry Barnard (Yale 1830), and other papers. The Life and Labors of Dr. Gallaudet, by his classmate, Dr. Humphrey, appeared in 1857 (pp. 440, 12°), with an engraved portrait ; and another Life, by his youngest son, with an engraving from another portrait, was issued in 1888 (pp. viii, 339).
His character commanded the respect and love of the community. His pioneer work for the deaf deserves the very highest praise, and was crowned with signal success ; while the breadth and discrimination of his interest in edu- cation and the moral reforms of the age were strikingly suggestive and fruitful.
A monument was erected in 1854 on the grounds of the Hartford Asylum, with bas-reliefs representing him and his work; and a bronze statue was placed on the grounds of the National Deaf -Mute College in 1889.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from Isa. xxxv, 5-6] delivered at the Opening of the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb persons, at the request of the Directors, on Sunday Evening, April 20th, 181 7, in the Brick Church in Hartford. Hart- ford, 1817. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. H. S,
N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Reprinted in Barnard's Eulogy and Humphrey's Life.
2. Discourses on various points of Christian Faith and Practice ; most of which were delivered in the Chapel of the Oratoire, in Paris, in the Spring of 1816. New- York, 1818. 8°, pp. vii, 239.
[A. C. A. Andover Theol. Sent. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Brozvn Univ. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Republished in London, 1818. Containing sixteen Discourses, one being the Sermon mentioned under the last head. Dedicated to Hannah More. 48
754 y^^^ College
3. Sketch of the origin and present state of the Institution at Hartford for instructing the deaf and dumb. In the North Ameri- can Review, vol. 7, pp. 128-32, May, 1818.
4. On teaching the Deaf and Dumb. In the Christian Observer, London, vol. 18, pp. 646-50, 784-87, October and December, 1819.
Anonymous articles, signed G.
5. An Address, delivered at a Meeting for Prayer, with refer- ence to the Sandwich Mission, in the Brick Church in Hartford, October 11, 1819. . . Hartford, 1819. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. At this meeting the Rev. Hiram Bingham's marriage was per- formed.
6. A Discourse [from I Cor. i, 27-28], delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Hartford Evangelical Tract Society in the Baptist Meeting-House, in Hartford, January 5, 1820. Hartford, 1820. 12°, pp. II. [A.C.A. C.H.S.
7. A Discourse [from II Cor. vi, i], delivered at the Dedication of the American Asylum, for the Education of Deaf and Dumb persons. May 22d, 1821. Hartford, 1821. 8°, pp. 15.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y. C. Republished in Barnard's Tribute, and Humphrey's Life.
8. A Sermon [from Rom. xv, 21], on the Duty and Advantages of Affording Instruction to the Deaf and Dumb. Portland, 1824. 8°, pp. 24. [A. C. A. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
The same. Concord, 1824. 8°, pp. 20.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. This is sometimes referred to as A Plea in behalf of the Deaf and Dumb.
9. Plan of a Seminary for the Education of Instructers of Youth. Boston, 1825. 8°, pp. 39.
[A.A.S. A.C.A. B.Ath. B.Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Y.C. Originally published in the Connecticut Observer, a Hartford newspaper, in 1825, with the title, Letters of a Father.
A new edition of the pamphlet was published in the American Annals of Education for 1831, vol. i, pp. 24-30, 48-53, under the title, Remarks on Seminaries for Teachers.
10. Oral Language and the Language of Signs. 1826.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 .755
11. An Address on Female Education, delivered, Nov. 21st, 1827, at the Opening of the Edifice erected for the accommodation of the Hartford Female Seminary. Hartford, 1828. 8°, pp. 34.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
12. A Statement with regard to the Moorish Prince, Abduhl Rahhahman. — Published by order of the Committee appointed to solicit Subscriptions in New- York, to aid in redeeming the Family of the Prince from Slavery. New-York, 1828. 8°, pp. 8.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Harv. Y. C.
13. A Summary of an Address delivered at a Public Meeting, held on the Evening of October 21st, in the Middle Dutch Church, to aid the operations of the American Colonization Society.
In the Proceedings of the Meeting, New York, 1829. 8°, pp. 5-13.
14. The Child's Picture Defining and Reading Book. Hartford, 1830. 12°, pp. 52. [B. Publ.
Originally prepared for deaf-mutes. Several editions.
15. Review of the Difficulties of Infidelity, by the Rev. G. S. Faber. In the Quarterly Christian Spectator, volume 2, pp. 385-97, September, 1830. Anonymous.
16. The Child's Book on the Soul. Hartford, 1830. 16°.
The same. Second edition. Hartford, 183 1, 16°, pp. 128.
[Y. C. In many editions and translations.
17. The Youth's Book of Natural Theology, illustrated in Familiar Dialogues, with numerous engravings. Hartford, 1832. 12°, pp. 248 -|- 16 pi.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Many editions and translations.
Also, revised, 1835, with title. The Class-Book of Natural Theol- ogy, for Common Schools, and Academies ; with . . a copious list of Questions.
18. Lecture on the Principles of Association, as giving digptiity to the Christian Character.
In Lectures originally delivered by the Goodrich Association. Hartford, 1833. 12°, pp. 39-66.
756 Yole College
19. Scripture Biography for the young; with critical illustra- tions and practical remarks. American Tract Society. [1833-39.] II vols. 12°.
20. The Child's Book, on Repentance; designed, also, for older persons. Hartford, 1834. 12°, pp. 147 -|- pi.
21. The Mother's Primer. Hartford.
22. Language of Signs Auxiliary to the Christian Missionary. In the Literary and Theological Review, volume i, pp. 2CX)-i3, June, 1834.
23. The Child's Book of Bible Stories, with practical illustra- tions and remarks. On the Fall. New York (American Tract Society). [1834.] 12°, pp. 71 + 10 pi.
24. The Every-Day Christian. No. I. . . . New- York, 1835. 16°, pp. 141. . [A. C. A.
25. Public Schools, Public Blessings. Published by the Exec- utive Committee of the New York Public School Society, 1837.
26. With the Rev. Horace Hooker: The Practical Spelling Book, with Reading Lessons. Hartford. [1840.] 12°, pp. 166.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. An excellent manual.
2y. With the Rev. H. Hooker: The School and Family Dic- tionary, and Illustrative Definer. New- York, 1841. 16°, pp. 221.
[B. Publ. Several editions.
28. On the Natural Language of Signs; and its value and uses in the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. In American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, volume i, pp. 55-60, 79-93, October, 1847 — January, ,1848.
He contributed largely to other periodicals. For example, to the American Annals of Education the following articles :
In volume i, for 1831 : Methods of Teaching to Read (pp. 49- 51) ; Philosophy of Language (pp. 70-77, 117-23, being a revision of four articles in the United States Literary Gazette, volume 4, Boston, April-June, 1826) ; Language of Infancy (pp. 99-102, 321-23, and volume 2, for 1832, pp. 185-90). In volume 7, for 1837: Family and School Discipline (pp. 451-54, 510-14, 550-54). In volume 8, for 1838: Recollections of the Deaf and Dumb, to
Biographical Sketches, 1805 757
illustrate the principles of Family and School Discipline (pp. l-ii; and reprinted in the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, volume 2, pp. 54-59, October, 1848). In volume 9, 1839: On Attention (pp. 173-76).
Mention should also be made of his contributions to the Connect- icut Common School Journal, 1838-40, and the Mothers' Magazine, 1838-51 ; and of the Annual Reports which he wrote of the Ameri- can Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb from 1817 to 1830, and other Reports from his pen, as some of those of the Connecticut Coloni- zation Society and the Hartford County Auxiliary Foreign Mission Society.
He published an American edition of Henry Dunn's Principles of Teaching, with the title : The School Teacher's Manual. Hart- ford, 1839. 12°, pp. 223. [U. S.
After his death were published :
In Barnard's Tribute, 1852 : Extracts from Journal of Visit to Europe in 1815-16, pp. 117-30; and Discourse [from Mark iv, 28] delivered at the Dedication of the Chapel of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, January 28th, 1846, pp. 210-14.
Starting in life; or, Hints addressed to an elder scholar, to which is added "Going Apprentice." Philadelphia, American Sunday- School Union. [1862.] 12°, pp. 54 + pi. [U.S.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Annals of the Deaf and Life and Labors of Gallaudet. N. Y.
Dumb, iv, 65-136. Barclay, Memorial Geneal. & Biogr. Record, xix, I2i.
of A. B. Hutton, 20-27. Barnard, Simpson, Lives of eminent Philadel-
Tribute to Gallaudet. E. M. Gallau- phians, 387-89. Sprague, Annals of
det. Life of T. H. Gallaudet D. B. the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 60^15. Hall, Halls of N. E., 24. Humphrey,
John McKinnie Gilmour came to College from Hali- fax, on the Roanoke River, in the northeastern part of North Carolina. He entered after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He returned to his native place after graduation, and died there in the earlier part of the year 1807, leaving a widow and an infant daughter.
One of his classmates contributed an Elegy, in prose, on his death to The Balance, a newspaper published in
7S8 Yale College
Catskill, New York ; from the phraseology used in refer- ence to his wife, it may perhaps be inferred that she was a native of Norwich, Connecticut, or the vicinity.
AUTHORITIES. The Balance, Sept. 8, 1807.
Timothy Goodwin, the youngest of twelve children of Joseph Goodwin, of Bloomfield, then called Wintonbury Parish, in Windsor, Connecticut, and a nephew of Heze- kiah Goodwin (Yale 1761), was born in Bloomfield on April 4, 1783. His mother was Rosanna, daughter of Captain Jonathan and Anna (Hubbard) Gillet, of Bloom- field.
For some years after graduation he was occupied in teaching.
On December 10, 181 1, he married Beulah, third daugh- ter of Deacon Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Raynolds) Ely, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts; and at his marriage his father gave him a farm in Bloomfield, on which he settled.
He died in Bloomfield- on July 28, 181 8, in his 36th year.
His widow died in Hartford on December i, 1838, in her 47th year. Their children were two sons, the younger of whom died in infancy, and three daughters.
AUTHORITIES.
Descendants of Nathaniel Ely, 44, Longmeadow Centennial, pt. 2, 60. 100. Goodwin Family, 475, 490-91.
Ebenezer Gray^ the eldest child of Colonel Ebenezer Gray (Yale 1763), of Windham, Connecticut, was born in Windham on May i6, 1787. His father died when he was eight years old.
He joined the United States Army in May, 1812, with the rank of First Lieutenant of the nth Infantry, but resigned two months later.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 759
He was occupied for longer or shorter periods in his Hfe as a teacher in the vicinity of Windham.
He died in Windham in 1844, at the age of 57. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. Heitman, Hist. Register of U. S. Army, i, 471.
Edward Hooker, the youngest of eleven children of Colonel Noadiah Hooker, of Farmington, Connecticut, and a brother of John Hooker (Yale 1796), was born in Farm- ington on April 27, 1785. His scholarship in College was high, and he delivered at Commencement an Oration on the influence of foreign manners and opinions.
Immediately on graduation he joined his brother John, in Columbia, South Carolina, for the study of law, intend- ing to practice in the South. Later, he taught a school in what is now Cambridge, nearly sixty miles west of Colum- bia, from February, 1806, until March, 1807; and served as Tutor in South Carolina College, in Columbia, from March, 1807, to November, 1808. He then, just as he was ready for admission to the bar, returned to Connecticut, to accept a tutorship at Yale, where he remained for three years.
While in this position he became engaged to Elisabeth, second daughter of Captain Henry Daggett (Yale 1771), of New Haven; and in preparation for his marriage he resigned his office in the College, returned to Farmington, assumed the charge of his aged father's farm and other business affairs, and built a home for himself.
He was married on May 24, 1812.
His mother died in November, 18 16, and he then took his father to his own house and fitted up the old home as a school for the preparation of boys, especially from the South, for College.
The school became quite noted, but after a few years a movement was undertaken for the establishment of an
760 Yale College
Academy in Farmington, and Mr. Hooker closed his own school to further this plan.
He then settled down to literary work, active partici- pation in the public affairs of the town, and scientific farming. He filled the offices of Town Clerk (1828-33), Justice of the Peace, and Judge of Probate (1834-36). He represented Farmington in the General Assembly in 1835, 1837, and 1838. From 1822 to 1834 he served as Deacon in the Congregational Church.
His intelligence and probity rendered him a most useful citizen, and he discharged all the duties of public office with wisdom and unblemished integrity.
He died in Farmington, after four days' illness, from exhaustion and disease contracted by attendance on a dying brother, on May 5, 1846, at the age of 61.
His widow died in Hartford on August 2, 1869, ^.t the age of 83.
Their children were two daughters and three sons. One daughter and one son died in infancy. The elder daughter married the Hon. Francis Gillette (Yale 1829). The elder son was graduated here in 1837, and the young- est became a Commander in the Navy.
Portions of Mr. Hooker's very interesting manuscript Diary, from September, 1805, to December, 1808, were printed in the Annual Report for 1896 of the American Historical Association, volume i, pp. 842-929.
AUTHORITIES.
Descendants of Thomas Hooker, 141, 180. Prescott Memorial, 94. Re- 64, 140-42. Doggett-Daggett Family, ligious Herald, May 30, 1846.
Robert James Houstoun, the youngest son of Sir George Houstoun, Baronet, of Savannah, Georgia, and grandson of Sir Patrick Houstoun, who came to Georgia in 1735, and Lady Priscilla Dunbar, was born in Savan- nah in 1784. His mother was Ann, daughter of Thomas Moodie, Deputy Secretary of the Province.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 761
He returned home after graduation, and there married Sarah, daughter of Major Alexander and EHzabeth (Ful- ler) McQueen.
He died at his residence in Savannah, after a long and distressing illness, on February 22, 1818, in his 34th year. His life had been an exemplification of sincere piety.
His only child was the mother of Brigadier General Rob- ert H. Anderson, of the Confederate service.
AUTHORITIES.
Bulloch, Habersham Family, 180, 1818. Spring, Personal Reminis- 182. Savannah Republican, March 4, cences, i, 202-07.
Heman Humphrey, the eldest of thirteen children of Solomon Humphrey, a substantial farmer of West Sims- bury, now Canton, Connecticut, by his second wife, Hannah Brown, and grandson of Solomon and Naomi (Higley) Humphrey, of West Simsbury, was born on March 26, 1779. His mother was the eldest child of Captain John and Hannah (Owen) Brown, of West Simsbury, and an aunt of John Brown of Harper's Ferry. A brother was graduated at Middlebury College in 18 13.
When he was about six years old the family removed to Burlington, then a parish in Bristol. He began school- teaching during the winters when in his 17th year; and this led finally to his preparation (while teaching in Har- winton, from i8cx) to 1803), under the Rev. Joshua Wil- liams (Yale 1780), for admission to the Junior Class at Yale. His diligence was such that he received a speaking appointment on graduation, delivering an Oration on the dangerous tendency in the prevailing neglect in the educa- tion of children.
On leaving College he at once began his theological studies under President Dwight's direction; and in the spring of 1806 removed to Goshen, where he continued his work under the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789). On
76* Yale College
September 30, 1806, he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers.
In October he received an invitation to preach as a can- didate in Fairfield. He went there early in November, and remained for three months. Very soon after the close of this engagement, he received a unanimous call from the Fairfield church and congregation, which he thought it his duty to accept.
He was ordained and installed on April 16, 1807, the sermon on the occasion by Mr. Humphrey's pastor at Bur- lington, the Rev. Jonathan Miller (Yale 1781), being afterwards printed.
On April 20, 1808, he was married to Sophia, only daughter of Deacon Noah Porter, of Farmington, by her brother, the Rev. Noah Porter, Junior (Yale 1803).
The Fairfield pastorate continued for ten years. But the salary ($600) proved inadequate for a growing family, and Mr. Humphrey's health flagged under the pressure of circumstances. Finally with reluctance, and to the lasting regret of his people, he was dismissed in May, 1817.
He then preached for a few weeks in Hartford, where there was some prospect of his being called to the First Church. In the meantime he received an urgent invitation, in September, 181 7, to the First Church in Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts, where after a period of separation into two churches the breach had recently been healed. Pie accepted the call and was installed on November 27.
Six years of a very happy and useful pastorate, over one of the largest and most desirable congregations in the State, followed, during which an extensive revival of relig- ion added about 170 members to the church.
In July, 1823, he was elected to the presidency of the Collegiate Institution in Amherst, Massachusetts, and a few weeks later he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Middlebury College.
Though ardently attached to his people, who were equally attached to him, and eminently successful in the
Biographical Sketches, 1805 763
pastoral office, he felt it to be his duty to call a council of the neighboring ministers and churches for advice as to the offer made him ; and in accordance with their advice he was dismissed on September 23.
He was inducted into the presidency on October 15, and for twenty-two years labored incessantly to build up the new institution. His first duties included the securing of a College charter from the Legislature (in February, 1825) and of funds for the endowment.
His duties of instruction, including the sole charge of the Senior Class, were onerous, and in addition when a College Church was formed in March, 1826, he was installed as the pastor. The influence of his character and example was a constant inspiration to the students, and his earnestness and consecration were visibly impressed on the life of the institution, while his tact and equanimity were invaluable qualities in his dealings with individuals.
He had the satisfaction of seeing the feeble College grow into an assured position ; but as in the course of years the income fell below the expenses, there was manifested an impatience on the part of some of the Alumni for an infusion of new blood, to which he responded promptly by offering his resignation, in January, 1844, which was accepted to take effect in April, 1845.
For the most of the ensuing year he made his home with his son-in-law, the Rev. Henry Neill, in Hatfield, occupying his leisure largely by the supply of vacant congregations in the neighborhood.
He then settled in his old parish of Pittsfield, where with gradually lessening activity he awaited the end serenely and peacefully.
He died in Pittsfield, after a month's illness, on April 3, 1861, aged 82 years. The sermon preached at his funeral by his successor in the pastorate, the Rev. Dr. John Todd (Yale 1822), was afterwards published; the preacher emphasizes Dr. Humphrey's remarkably well-balanced character, and his great practical wisdom, integrity, sim-
764 Yale College
plicity, magnanimity, benevolence, humility, and devoted piety.
His widow died in Pittsfield, after a week's illness, from severe bronchitis, on December 13, 1868, aged 83 years.
Their children were five sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters survived them. Four sons were graduates of Amherst, in 1828, 1831, 1835, and 1843, respectively; three of these became clergymen, and the fourth was a lawyer and Member of Congress. Of the other sons, one died in infancy, and one in his Sopho- more year in College.
The second daughter married the Rev. Dr. Henry Neill (Amherst 1834), and the third married the Rev. Dr. David Torrey (Amherst 1843).
An engraving from a portrait presented by the Alumni of Amherst to the College soon after his resignation, is given in Tyler's History; and an engraving from another portrait in possession of the family is given in the Hum- phreys Family.
He published :
1. With the Rev. Roswell R. Swan (Yale 1802) and the Rev. William Bonney: Intemperance. — An Address, to the Churches and Congregations of the Western District of Fairfield County. New-Haven, 181 3. 8°, pp. 31. [F. C.
2. The efficacy and importance of combined and persevering action. Illustrated, in a Sermon [from Gen. xi, 6], delivered at New-Haven, Oct. 19, 1814, before the Connecticut Society, for the promotion of Good Morals. New-Haven, 181 5. 8°, pp. 28.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
3. The Duties of Ministers and People. A Sermon [from I Tim. iv, 15], preached before the General Association of Connect- icut, at New-Haven, June 18, 1816. With an Appendix. New- Haven, 1 81 6. 8°, pp. 24.
[A.C.A. C.H.S. N.Y.H.S. U.T.S. Y.C. On ministerial support.
4. On doing good to the poor. — A Sermon [from Mark xiv, 7], preached at Pittsfield, (Mass.) on the day of the Annual Fast, April 4th, 1818. Pittsfield, 1818. 8°, pp. 46.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. C. H. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 765
5. A Sermon [from Matth, ix, 35-38], preached at Lenox, at a meeting called for the purpose of forming a County Education Society, auxiliary to the American Society for educating pious youth for the Gospel Ministry, July 6, 1818. Pittsfield. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
6. The promised land. A Sermon [from Joshua xiii, i], delivered at Goshen, (Conn.) at the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. Hiram Bingham & Asa Thurston, as Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, Sept. 29, 1819. Boston, 1819. 8°, pp. 40, xvi.
[A. A.S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. The Sermon occupies pp. 1-32.
7. The character and sufferings of the Pilgrims. — ^A Sermon [from Ps. xliv, 1-3], delivered at Pittsfield, (Mass.) December 22, 1820 . . With an Appendix. Pittsfield, 1821. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The Appendix, pp. 34-40, contains a brief historical sketch of the Church and Town of Pittsfield.
•
8. An Address, delivered at the Collegiate Institution in
Amherst, Ms. on occasion of his Inauguration to the Presidency of that Institution, Oct. 15, 1823. Boston, 1823. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. The subject is Education, physical, mental, and moral; and the address is one of the author's best efforts.
9. The good Pastor. — A Sermon [from Eph. iv, 11], preached in the City of Boston before the Pastoral Association of Massachusetts. May 31, 1826. Amherst, 1826. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. A Sermon [from I Sam. vii, 12] preached at the Dedication of the College Chapel in Amherst, Mass. Feb. 28, 1827. Amherst,
1827. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C. Subject, The Lord our Help.
11. Parallel between Intemperance and the Slave Trade. — An Address delivered at Amherst College, July 4, 1828. Amherst,
1828. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
76<J Yale College
12. Essays upon the perpetuity, change, and sanctification, of the Sabbath. New York, 1829. 12°, pp. 106.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S.
The same. London. [1830.] 16°, pp. 72. [Y. C.
13. Indian Rights & Our Duties. — An Address delivered at Amherst, Hartford, etc. December, 1829. Amherst, 1830. 12°, pp. 24. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S.
Several editions. Occasioned by the forcible expulsion of the Indians from Georgia.
14. The Kingdom of Christ. — A Sermon [from John xviii, 36] preached before the Annual Convention of the Congregational Min- isters of Massachusetts, in Boston, May 29, 1830. Boston, 1830. 8°, pp. 36. [A. C. A. B. Publ. C. H. S. Y. C.
15. An Address delivered at the opening of the Convention of Teachers, and of the Friends of Education, in the City-Hall, in Hartford, November loth, 1830. Hartford, 183 1. 8°, pp. 19.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. Y. C.
16. The Way to Bless and Save our Country: A Sermon [from Prov. xxii, 6], preached in Philadelphia, at the request of the American Sunday School Union, May 23, 1831. Philadelphia, 1831. 12°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
17. Letter on Revivals, April 10, 1832. In W. B. Sprague's Lectures on Revivals, 1832, Appendix, pp. 115-20.
18. The Good Arimathean. A Sermon [from Luke xxiii, 50], preached at the Funeral of Nathaniel Smith, Esq. of Sunderland, Mass. February 28, 1833. . . Amherst, 1833. 8°, pp. 36.
{A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Y. C.
19. Letter to the Editor of the Literary and Theological Review. In volume i, pp. 31-42 (January, 1834), of that period- ical ; an introduction to the work of the Review.
20. Debates of Conscience, with a Distiller, a Wholesale Dealer, and a Retailer. New- York (American Tract Society). 12°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Y. C.
21. Miscellaneous Discourses and Reviews. Amherst, 1834. 12°, pp. 415. [A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
Including Nos. 2, 4, 7-10, 13, 16, 18, with extracts from i.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 767
22. A Glorious Enterprise. A Discourse [from I John, iii, 8], delivered in the College Chapel, Amherst, Mass, June 29, 1834. Amherst, 1834. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. C. H. S. U. T. S. A plea for warfare in Christ's service.
23. The Power of Truth. — A Sermon [from Eccl. xii, 11], preached at the Installation of the Rev. Horatio N. Brinsmade, over the Congregational Church & Society in Pittsfield, Mass., Feb- ruary II, 1835. Pittsfield. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. C. H. S. Harv. U. T. S.
24. Christian Memoirs: or the nature of conviction of sin and regeneration illustrated in narratives of the conversion of eminent Christians. Boston, 1836. 12°, pp. 297 + pi. [B. Ath. Y. C.
A compilation and abridgment of the lives of ten British Christians.
25. Rotation in the pastoral office. In the Literary and Theo- logical Review, volume 3, pp. 346-62, September, 1836. Also, as Doctrinal Tract No. 40, published by the American Doctrinal Tract Society. Boston, 1837. 12°, pp. 16.
[A.C.A. B.Publ. C.H.S. Y.C.
26. The Sixth Commandment: a Discourse [from Ex. xx, 13], delivered in the Chapel of Amherst College, March 11, 1838, and published at the request of the Students. Amherst, 1838. 8°, pp. 31. [A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
Against dueling.
27. Great Britain, France and Belgium : a short tour in 1835. New York, 1838. 2 volumes. 12°, pp. 309; 344.
[A.C.A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
28. A Sermon [from Ps. cii, 13-15], preached at Portland, Maine, Sept. 12, 1838, before the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions, at their twenty-ninth annual meeting. Boston, 1838. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
29. A Discourse delivered before the Connecticut Alpha of *. B. K. at New Haven, August 14, 1838. New Haven, 1839. 8°, pp. 23. [Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
On Education.
768 Yale College
30. Domestic Education. Amherst, 1840. 12°, pp. 239.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. Originally published in the New-York Observer in 1839 ^s Thoughts on Education.
31. Death of President Harrison. — A Discourse [from Ps. cxlvi, 3-4] delivered in the Village Church in Amherst, Mass. on the morning of the Annual State Fast, April 8, 1841. Amherst, 1841. 8°, pp. 24. [A.C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S.
The same. Second edition. Amherst, 1841. 8°, pp. 24.
[Y.C.
32. Th'irty-four Letters to a Son in the Ministry, Amherst, 1842. 12°, pp. 352. [A. C. A. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
The same. Second edition. New-York and Amherst, 1845. 12°, pp. 352. [U.T.S. Y.C.
A manual of pastoral duty ; addressed to his eldest son.
33. The Bible in Common Schools, an introductory Lecture before the American Institute of Instruction. In the Lectures delivered at Pittsfield, August, 1843. Boston, 1844. 12°, pp. 1-30.
[B. Ath. Y. C.
34. The Woman that feareth the Lord. — A Discourse [from Prov. xxxi, 10, 30] delivered at the Funeral of Mrs. D. W. V. Fiske, February 21, 1844. Amherst, 1844. 16°, pp. 48. [B. Publ.
35. . Impressions of Dr. Asahel Nettleton, in letter dated August 1844. In Tyler's Memoir of Nettleton, 2d edition, pp. -356-65.
36. Revival Conversations. Boston, 1844. 12°, pp. 168.
[A. C. A. U. T. S. Originally contributed to the New England Puritan, in 1844.
37. Mr. Webster's Plea in the Case of the Girard Will. In the New Englander, volume 3, pp. 89-105, January, 1845.
38. Valedictory Address, delivered at Amherst College. Amherst, 1845. 8°, pp. 23.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Largely historical.
39. A Mother in Israel: a Sermon [from Judges v, 7] preached in Easthampton, at the Funeral of Mrs. Sarah Williston, Septem- ber 21, 1845. Pittsfield, 1846. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. Y. C. Mrs. Williston was the wife of Payson Williston (Yale 1783).
Biographical Sketches, 1805 769
40. An Address delivered at the opening of the new Normal Schoolhouse in Westfield, Mass., on Thursday, September 3, 1846. Boston, 1846. 8°, pp. 21. [B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S.
In his capacity as a member of the State Board of Education.
41. A Tribute to the memory of Rev. Nathan W. Fiske, late Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Amherst Col- lege. Amherst, 1848. 8°, pp. 29.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
42. The shining path. — A Sermon [from Prov. iv, 18 and x, 7] preached in South-Hadley, at the Funeral of Miss Mary Lyon, March 8, 1849. Northampton, 1849. 8°, pp, 21.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
43. Memoir of Rev. Nathan W. Fiske, Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College ; together with selections from his Sermons and other Writings. Amherst, 1850. 12°, pp. 392 + pi. [A. C. A. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
The Memoir occupies pp. 1-96.
44. The Missouri Compromise : an Address delivered before the Citizens of Pittsfield, in the Baptist Church, on Sabbath Evening, Feb. 26, 1854. Pittsfield, 1854. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. T. S. Y.C.
45. The Life and Labors of the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, LL.D. New York, 1857. 12°, pp. 440 + 3 pi.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
46. Old Age. — A Discourse [from Ps. xc, 10], delivered at the Funefal of the Rev. Ebenezer Jennings of Dalton, Feb. 8, 1859. Pittsfield, 1859. 8°, pp. 19. [U. T. S. Y. C.
Mr. Jennings was graduated at Williams College in 1800.
47. Revival Sketches and Manual . . . New York (American Tract Society). [1859.] 12°, pp. 476.
[A. C. A. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
48. Our Nation. A Discourse [from Ps. cxlvii, 20] delivered at Pittsfield, Mass., January 4, 1 861, on the Day of the National Fast. Pittsfield, 1861. 8°, pp. 37. [A. C. A. Harv.
49
770 Yale College
After his death the following was issued :
Sketches of the Early History of Amherst College, prepared at the Request of the Trustees. [Northampton, 1905.] 8°, pp. 32.
[B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. S. Y. C. Printed from a manuscript in Amherst College Library.
He furnished Dr. Sprague with several sketches, which were printed in his Annals of the American Pulpit: in volume 2, of William Robinson (pp. 135-36), Dr. Alvan Hyde (pp. 303-05), Asahel Hooker (pp. 320-21), Dr. Giles H. Cowles (p. 331), and Dr. John Brown (pp. 590-91) ; and of Bishop Griswold, in volume 5 (PP- 420-21).
He printed six sermons in the National Preacher, as follows : A dreadful meeting [from Isa. xlvii, 3], and Solemn Responsi- bility [from I Thess. v, 22], volume 4, pp. 269-84, November, 1829; Time measured by Eternity [from James iv, 14], volume 8, pp. 289-96, December, 1833; Wisdom and Folly [from Prov. x, i], volume 18, pp. 145-51, July, 1844; Waiting for a Revival [from Hab. ii, 3], volume 21, pp. 142-48, June, 1847; True and False Religion [from H Kings, x, 15], volume 26, pp. 97-110, May, 1852.
He also wrote much for various other periodicals, such as the New York Observer, the Panoplist, and the (Monthly) Christian Spectator.
He edited a selection from the Sermons of his third son, the Rev. John Humphrey (New York, 1856. 8°).
AUTHORITIES.
Colton, The Old Meeting House, Humphrey. T. Robbins, Diary, i, 709. 79-81. Hitchcock, Reminiscences of Smith, Hist, of Pittsfield, 282-304, Amherst College, 25-29. Humphreys 391. Tyler, Hist, of Amherst Col- Family, 399, 545-58. Memorial lege, 127-58, 266-75, 280-91. Sketches of Heman and Sophia
Samuel Farmar Jarvis, the only surviving child of the Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis (Yale 1761), was born in Mid- dletown, Connecticut, where his father was then Rector, on January 20, 1786. His father became Bishop of Con- necticut in 1797, and in 1799 removed to Cheshire, where his son was already a student in the Episcopal Academy. The son entered the Sophomore Class in College in 1802.
I
Biographical Sketches, 1805 771
His scliolarship was distinguished, and he deHvered on graduation an Oration on ReHgious Enthusiasm.
On taking the Master's degree in 1808, he dehvered an Oration on the Origin and Progress of Romance.
He was ordained a Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church by his father, in Trinity Church, New Haven, on March 18, 1810, and was advanced to the priesthood on April 5, 181 1.
On July 3, 1810, he was married by his father to Sarah, the eldest child of Captain Elisha and Jeannette (McCurdy) Hart, of Saybrook, Connecticut, a lady of great personal beauty. They resided in his father's family in New Haven until March, 181 1, when he accepted the rectorship of St. Michael's Church, in Bloomingdale, to the north of New York City. From the first it was expected that he should also assume the rectorship of St. James's Church, which had been built to accommodate the wealthy New Yorkers who had built summer homes on or near the East River and found St. Michael's Church too far away; but the adjustment of the proportions of the rector's salary to be paid by the two churches was not set- tled until October, 1813, after which he was instituted at St. James's.
He soon became a prominent factor in the diocese of New York, serving for two years (1818-20) on the Stand- ing Committee, and officiating on Sunday afternoons in the winter of 18 17-18 in Trinity Church during the absence of one of the assistant ministers. He took a leading part in the movement for the establishment of the General Theological Seminary, and in May, 1819, resigned his pastoral charge to devote himself to the duties of the Pro- fessorship of Biblical Learning in the Seminary, where he had apparently already for over a year been giving instruc- tion. In the summer of 18 19 the honorary degree of Doc- tor of Divinity was conferred on him by the University of Pennsylvania.
But hardly was he settled in. his new chair, when he received a call (in March, 1820) to be the first Rector of
772 Yale College
St. Paul's Church, .Boston, whither he removed m June. He began his ministry there under highly favorable aus- pices, but a coolness gradually sprang up between the Rec- tor and the leading laymen in the Church, due in part on the one hand to a failure to pay the promised salary ($2,500), and on the other to a disappointment in the drawing qualities of the minister, and a surmise that he was too eager for his own pecuniary interest. Doubtless there was some fault on both sides; but no one can read his correspondence with the wardens and vestry without a conviction of his integrity and his devotion to his sacred calling.
He resigned his charge on October 7, 1825, and in July, 1826, went to Europe with his family (he had then four children living), with a view of qualifying himself more perfectly for certain works which he had projected, bear- ing on the history of the Church.
During this absence he visited the most important Euro- pean libraries, and collected a library of his own of remarkable value. He officiated in public services and pastoral work in different places, as he had opportunity. The most of his time was spent in Italy, where he gained an especially intimate knowledge of the practical workings of the Roman Church.
He returned to America in February, 1835, ^^ accept the position of Professor of Oriental Literature in Trinity College, in Hartford, where he remained, however, for only two years. During this time he was continuing his careful preparation for his proposed historical work; and he resigned in order to have greater leisure for this pur- pose. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Trinity College in 1837.
He then accepted the rectorship of Christ Church in his native town, and in October, 1838, was appointed by the General Convention "Historiographer of the Church with a view to his preparing, from the most original sources now extant, a faithful Ecclesiastical History reaching from
Biographical Sketches, 1805 773
the Apostles' times to the formation of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in the United States." He had, while at Trinity College, taken the charge of two or three students in theology; and from the time of his removal to Middle- town until his death he was regularly occupied with the instruction of a few candidates for the ministry. One great service of his to the Church was the training in theol- ogy of Bishop Williams of Connecticut. Meantime for many years, in fact since leaving Boston, he had been harassed by domestic troubles; and in May, 1839, Mrs. Jarvis presented a petition for a divorce, on grounds of cruelty and unbecoming conduct, to the State Legislature, which resulted in a trial before a Committee of the General Assembly, who refused to grant the petition. The distress caused by these charges and the publicity attending the trial led ultimately to the resignation of his rectorship in April, 1842 ; but he devoted himself during the rest of his life from April, 1843, ^o building up a small congregation in the adjoining town of Haddam.
He was able to publish an Introduction to his proposed History (in 1845), ^^^ volume i of the work itself (in 1850) ; but in the fall of the latter year symptoms of disease began to manifest themselves, and he died in Middletown on March 26, 185 1, in his 66th year. He was buried in the vault of his mother's family in Trinity churchyard, New York City.
Dr. Jarvis had the advantage of ample fortune ; was dis- tinguished by courtly bearing and bland manner. His writ- ten style is almost faultlessly pure. He was transparently guileless in character and sincere in his Christian faith.
An engraving from an early portrait is given in the Jarvis Family, and in tbe Annals of St. Michael's.
He was a Trustee of Trinity College (1841-51) and of the General Theological Seminary ; and filled various posts of honor and influence in the diocese of Connecticut.
His children were three sons, one of whom died in infancy, and three daughters. The youngest son was edu-
^74 ^(^^^ College
cated at Trinity College (Class of 1845), ^"^ became a clergyman of the Church. The eldest daughter married Osbert B. Loomis (Yale 1835).
Mrs. Jarvis died on December 28, 1863, in her 77th year.
His valuable library, of about 10,000 volumes, chiefly in ecclesiastical history and antiquities, was sold by auction in New York in November, 1851. Many of the books had belonged to the historian Gibbon.
His collection of paintings was sold in the same month.
He published :
1. Want of Patronage the Principal Cause of the Slow Pro- gress of American Literature. — An Oration, delivered before the Society of Phi Beta Kappa, upon the Anniversary of that Institu- tion, December 5th, 1806. New-Haven, 1806. 8°, pp. 22.
[B. Ath. Y. C.
2. Prospectus of an American Edition of Griesbach's Greek Testament. Dated, Bloomingdale, March 30th, 1813. 8°, pp. 16.
[Y.C. The edition was never published.
3. An Address, delivered in the City of New Haven, at the Lay- ing of the Corner- Stone of Trinity Church, May 17th, 1814; together with the Form of Prayer composed for that occasion. New-Haven, 1814. 8°, pp. 15.
[Berkeley Div. School. Trinity Coll. Y. C. Also, a modern reprint.
4. The blessed state of the dead who die in the Lord. — A Sermon [from Rev. xiv, 13] preached at Saybrook, in the State of Con- necticut, Sunday, April 9th, 181 5, at the Funeral of Mrs. Jannette Hart, the wife of Elisha Hart, Esq., of that place. New- York, 1815. 8°, pp. 25.
[B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. Mrs. Hart was the mother of the preacher's wife.
5. The duty of offering unto God Thanksgiving. — A Sermon [from Ps. 1, 14] preached in St. Michael's Church, Bloomingdale, on the second Thursday in April, A.D. 1815; the day appointed by the President of the United States as a Day of Thanksgiving for the restoration of the blessings of Peace. New- York, 1815. 8°, pp. 16. [Berkeley Div. School. N. Y. H. S.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 775
6. The Unity of the Church: a Sermon [from I Cor. xii, 25], preached in Trinity Church, New- York, Tuesday, Oct. i, 1816, before the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church iTi the State of New-York. New- York, 1816. 8°, pp. 37.
[B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
7. A Letter to the Chiefs of the Onondaga Indians, to convert them to Christianity. 181 7.
8. A Discourse on the Religion of the Indian Tribes of North America. Delivered before the New- York Historical Society, December 20, 1819. New- York, 1820. 8°, pp. iii.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. Trinity Coll. U. S. Y. C. The same, in volume 3 of the Collections of the Society. New- York, 1 82 1, pp. 181-268.
Reviewed by John Pickering in the North American Review, volume xi, pp. 103-13 (1820).
9. The Conversation of our Saviour with Nicodemus illus- trated.— A Sermon [from John iii, 9], preached in St. Paul's Church, Dedham, Wednesday, June 20, 182 1, before the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the State of Massachusetts. With notes, and an Appendix, in which the Sub- ject of Regeneration is more largely considered. Boston, 1822. 8°, pp. 76.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. A Sermon [from Luke x, 2], preached before the Auxiliary Education Society of the Young Men of Boston, January 23, 1822, on the occasion of their third anniversary , . Boston, 1822. 8°, pp. 24. [A. C. A. B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus.
11. A Method of Daily Prayer, for the use of Children and Young Persons, previous to Confirmation. Boston, 1822. 12°, pp. 36. [B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School.
12. A Narrative of events connected with the Acceptance and Resignation of the Rectorship of St. Paul's Church, Boston. [Bos- ton, 1825.] 8°, pp. 108.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. M. H. S. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
13. A Sermon [from John iv, 3=;!, preached in Christ Church, Hartford, before the Church Scholarship Society, Wed. Eve. August 5th, 1835 ; and by request, at an adjourned meeting of the Society,
776 Yale College
in Christ Church, Middletown, before the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Connecticut, Wed. Eve. October 14th, 1835. Hartford, 1835. 8°, pp. 24.
[F. C. '
The same. 2d edition. Annexed to Extracts from the Journal of the Convention. Middletown, 1835. 8°, pp. 25-35.
[M. H. S. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
The subject is, the Necessity of providing Labourers for the ingathering of God's Harvest.
14. Catalogue of the Pictures, which formed the Collection of Joseph Capece Latro, ancient Archbishop of Taranto, &c. in the Kingdom of Naples. Now exhibited in the New- York Dispensary in White Street, for the benefit of that Charitable Institution. New York, 1835. 8°, pp. 40. [Y. C.
Preface signed S. F. J. The pictures belonged to Dr. Jarvis.
15. An Address to the Citizens of Hartford, on the Birth-Day of Linnaeus: May 24th, 1836. On behalf of the objects of the Natural History Society. . In the Transactions of the Society, Hartford, 1836. 8°, pp. 64.
[Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. C. H. S. Trinity Coll. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
16. Christian Unity necessary for the Conversion of the World: a Sermon [from John xvii, 20-21], preached in St. Thomas's Church, New- York, Sunday Evening, June 26, 1836, before the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, constituting the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. New York, 1837. 8°, pp. 50.
[B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. T. S.
17. The first Annual Address of a Rector to his Parishioners, delivered in Christ Church, Middletown, Connecticut, on Easter Monday, April 16, 1838. Middletown, 1838. 8°, pp. 28.
[Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. Y. C.
18. The long home of man: a Sermon [from Eccl. xii, 5], preached in St. Stephen's Church, East Haddam ; on Tuesday, the i6th day of January, 1838, at the Funeral of the Rev. Stephen Beach . . New-York, 1839. 8°, pp. 24.
[A. C. A. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C. On the doctrine of the intermediate state. Originally composed in 1816.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 777
19. An Address to the Inhabitants of Middletown, at their request, on the 17th of April, 1841, occasioned by the death of Wil- liam Henry Harrison, late President of the United States of Amer- ica. Middletown, 1841. 8°, pp. 27.
[Br. Mus. C. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
20. Two Discourses [from H Pet. i, 19-21, and H Thess. ii, 1-2] : with an Appendix in which Mr. Miller's scheme, concerning our Lord's second advent, is considered and refuted. New York, 1843. 12°, pp. 183.
[Berkeley Div. School. Trinity Coll. U. S. Y. C. Containing elaborate calculations on scriptural chronology.
21. No Union with Rome. — An Address to the Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, occasioned by the unjust accusation of a tendency in our communion towards the errors of the present Church of Rome. Hartford, 1843. 12°, pp. 44.
[B. Publ. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. M. H. S. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
22. Worldly and Christian Education compared. A Sermon [from I Cor. viii, i], preached in St. John's Church, South Hackney, on the. first Sunday after Easter, April 14, 1844, in aid of the Parochial Schools. . . . London, 1844. 8°, pp. 19.
[Berkeley Div. School. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. Y. C.
23. The Holy of Holies seen through the Sanctuary. A Sermon [from Hebr. x, 24-25], preached in the Church of All Souls, St. Mary-le-Bone, the first Sunday after Trinity, 9th June, 1844, being the day appointed by the Lord Bishop of London for a gen- eral devotion of the offertory within his Lordship's Diocese, to the increase of churches in the Metropolis. London, 1844. 12°, pp. 31.
[Berkeley Div. School.
24. A Chronological Introduction to the History of the Church, being a new inquiry into the true Dates of the Birth and Death of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and containing an original Harmony of the Four Gospels, now first arranged in the order of time. London, 1844. 8°. [Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus.
The same. New- York, 1845. 8°, pp. xvi, 618.
[B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Severely criticised by Professor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799), in the New Englander for April, 1847.
778 Yale College
25. A Synoptical Table of Egyptian and Sacred History. 1846.
26. Memoir of Bishop Jarvis. In The Evergreen, volume 3, pp. 97-99, 147-53, 173-79 (April-June, 1846).
Anonymous.
2y. The Colonies of Heaven. — A Sermon [from Phil, i, 27-30] preached before the Bishop, Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Connecticut, in Convention assembled, on Tuesday June 9th, 1846, in Trinity Church, New Haven. Hartford, 1846. 8°, pp. 40.
[Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. Y. C.
Treating of Christians as citizens, or rather colonists, of Heaven. In the Appendix, the Concordat between the churches of Scotland and Connecticut, in 1784, was printed for the first time.
28. The Promise to You and your Children. A Sermon [from Acts ii, 39] preached in Grace Church, Saybrook, after having bap- tized the infant son of the Rector, the Rev. Junius M. Willey, on the eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, October 11, 1846, P.M. Hartford, 1846. 8°, pp. 20.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. T. S. Y. C.
29. The Presence of God in His Church. — A Sermon [from II Cor. iii, 5-6] preached in St. John's Church, Hartford, on Trinity Sunday May 30, 1847, • • ^^ the Admission to the Order of Priests of the Rev. A. Jackson . . — To which is prefixed the Author's Vindication of his Chronology from the Aspersions of Professor Kingsley, in the last April number of the New Eng- lander. Hartford, 1847. 8°* PP- 32-
[B. Publ. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. Y. C. Answered by Professor Kingsley in the New Englander for October, 1847.
30. A Reply to Doctor Milner's "End of Religious Controversy," so far as the Churches of the English Communion are concerned. New- York, 1847. 12°, pp. 251.
[B. Ath. Berkeley Div. School. Br. Mus. Trinity Coll. U. T. S.
31. The Rock of the Church. In the Church Review, volume i, pp. 75-81, 218-27, April-July, 1848.
32. Vindication, of his Chronology from the aspersions of Prof. Kingsley ... In the Church Review, volume i, pp. 82-103, April, 1848.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 77$
Answered by Professor Kingsley, in the New Englander for July, 1848. In this protracted controversy Professor Kingsley showed superior scholarship, as well as keener skill in argument.
33. "Kenrick on the Primacy." In the Church Review, volume I, pp. 165-86, 325-51, 485-50o» July. 1848- January, 1849.
34. A Voice from Connecticut; occasioned by the late Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of North Carolina, id the Clergy and Laity of his Diocese. Hartford, 1849. 8°, pp. 43,
[Berkeley Div. School U. T. S. Y. C. On Priestly Absolution.
35. Egyptian Antiquities. In the Church Review, volume 3, pp. 1-27, April, 1850.
36. The Church of the Redeemed, or the History of the Media- torial Kingdom. Vol. I. containing the first five periods : from the Fall of Adam, in Paradise, to the Rejection of the Jews and the Calling of the Gentiles . . Boston, 1850. 8°, pp. xxiv, 622.
[A.C.A. Berkeley Div. School. U. T. S. Y. C.
While in Boston he was one of the editors of The Gospel Advo- cate, a monthly periodical in the interest of the Episcopal Church.
In 1844 he edited the following :
Mariolatry : or. Facts and Evidences demonstrating the Worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the Church of Rome . . By Thomas Hartwell Home. Hartford. 12°, pp. 98.
AUTHORITIES.
Andrews, Hart Family, 406, 462. 44-50. /. P. Peters, Annals of St.
Beardsley, History of the Episcopal Michael's, 31-34, 43-45, 230-33. Salis-
Church in Conn., ii, 87-88, iio-ii, hury, Family Histories and Gene-
310, 356, 369-70. Church Review, iv, alogies, i, 87, 91. Sprague, Annals of
188-202. Dix, History of Trinity the Amer. Pulpit, v, 530-35. JVal-
Church, iii, 48-51. Jarvis Family, 19, worth, Hyde Genealogy, ii, 752.
Aaron Hervey Kelsey, son of Captain Aaron Kelsey, a soldier of the Revolution, was born in (North) Killing- worth, Connecticut, on October 2, 1783.
He studied law after graduation in the office of Levi H. Clarke (Yale 1802), of Haddam, and was admitted to the bar, but never entered upon practice.
,780 Yale College
Shortly after his admission he went to Genesee County, New York, and remained there two years. He then returned to his native parish, where he spent the rest of his Hfe. He had good intellectual powers and a retentive memory ; but fell into intemperate habits, and was obliged to earn his support as a farm-laborer, and finally to become dependent on the town.
He died in Killingworth on July 4, 1863, in his 80th year. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. IV. Lord, MS. Letter, July, 1863.
Walter King, a son of the Rev. Walter King (Yale 1782) by his first wife, Sarah Austin, was born in New Haven, on January 6, and was baptized on February 19, 1786. In his infancy his father was settled in the ministry in Norwich, Connecticut.
Soon after graduation he began a course of law studies in the office of Erastus Clark, of Utica, New York; and after* his admission to the bar in 1809 became Mr. Clark's partner, until his death in November, 1825. He continued in practice for about seven years longer, for a part of the time in connection with James Dean. He was a good office-lawyer, but in 1832, as his health required more active employment, he purchased a small farm in Marcy, about ten miles northwest of Utica, where he continued for twenty years. Owing to his infirmities he then sold his farm, and was returning from a visit to friends in Dun- kirk, and intending to settle again in Utica, when he died suddenly on board a canal-boat on the Genesee Valley Canal, on July 16, 1852, aged 66^ years.
He had long been a humble, devout, earnest Christian, and while residing in Utica was a trusted Elder in the Pres- byterian Church and a favorite teacher in a Bible Class connected with that church.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 781
He was married, in Windham, Connecticut, on Novem- ber 13, 1809, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Hon. Jabez and Anne (Elderkin) Clark, of Windham, and a niece of his partner, Mr. Clark. She died on September 19, 1812, in her 23d year, leaving one daughter.
He next married, in October, 181 5, Electa, daughter of Elias and Elizabeth (Baldwin) Jones, of Adams, Massa- chusetts, who survived him with one son, — a daughter having died in infancy.
He published :
The Gospel Harmony, chronologically arranged in separate les- sons, for Sunday Schools and Bible Classes. 4th edition. New York, 1 85 1. 12°, pp. ix, 235.
AUTHORITIES.
Bagg, Pioneers of Utica, 263-64. Geneal. & Biogr. Record, xlii, 42. Baldwin Genealogy, ii, 621. N. Y.
James McBride was born in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, on April 17, 1784, and entered College in the Junior year from Salem, in the northern part of Sumter County. He was early left an orphan, with small means, and secured his education by indefatigable industry and perseverance.
He studied medicine after graduation, and settled as a physician in the neighborhood of Pineville, in Berkeley County. Late in life he removed to Charleston, where he died, during an epidemic of yellow fever, on September 21, 1817.
Much of his leisure was devoted to his favorite study of botany, to which he made valuable contributions. The second volume (Charleston, 1824) of Dr. Stephen Elliott's Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia is inscribed to his memory, in evidence of his valuable aid. Dr. Elliott adds to his acknowledgments :
Profoundly skilled in his profession and high in the confidence of his fellow citizens, he fell a victim to the fatigues and exposure
78a ^ Yale College
of an extensive practice. In the midst of a brilliant career, with prospects of increasing usefulness and extended reputation, he died at the age of 33.
Of his publications the following only have been noticed :
On the Power of Sarracenia adunca to entrap Insects ;
Some Account of the Lycoperdon solidum of the Flora Virginica, the Lycoperdon cervinum of Walter.
In the Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London, volume 12, pp. 48-52, 368-71. 1818.
AUTHORITIES.
Elliott, Sketch of Botany of S. C. paedia of Amer. Biography, xi, 203. and Ga., ii, vii-viii. National Cyclo-
JoHN MoRiN Scott McKnight, the only son of Dr. Charles McKnight (Princeton Coll. 1771), a distinguished surgeon of New York City, who was also Professor of Anatomy in Columbia College, and grandson of the Rev. Charles McKnight, of Cranberry, New Jersey, was born in New York on April 20, and baptized on May 9, 1784. His mother was Mary, only daughter of General John Morin Scott (Yale 1746), of New York. His father died in 1 79 1, and his mother in 1796.
He left College during his Junior year, but was admitted to his degree with his Class in 1846.
He studied medicine with Dr. Wright Post, of New York, and was admitted to practice in April, 1808.
On November 21, 1 821, he married Maria, eldest daugh- ter of William and Isabella (White) Edgar, of New York.
Dr. McKnight was at one time eminent in his profession, and ranked as high as any of the practitioners of his gen- eration ; but after his marriage, being in the enjoyment of ample pecuniary means, he retired in a great measure from practice, and pursued his profession rrterely as a source of occupation to himself, and as a means of charity to the poor. He was connected with several hospitals, was one of the founders of the St. Nicholas Society, and a member of the Societv of the Cincinnati.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 783
He died in New York on May 8, 1848, aged 64 years. His widow died on March 9, 187 1, in her 84th year. Their only child was a son who left descendants.
He was of stout build, about six feet in height, and of rather dark complexion. Two portraits of him are in the possession of the family.
AUTHORITIES.
Dr. Theodorus Bailey, MS. Let- allied families, 17. ters, February, 191 1. Duyckinck and
Allen McLean, the youngest son of Captain Alexander McLean, of (North) Bolton, now Vernon, Connecticut, and grandson of Allen and Mary (Loomis) McLean, of Vernon, was born on June 20, 1781. His mother was Joanna, eldest child of Jonathan and Miriam (Spalding) Smith, of Bolton. A sister married Elijah F. Reed, M.D. (honorary Yale 1822).
He studied theology after graduation, and was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association of Ministers on September 29, 1807.
In February, 1809, he was called, on a salary of $450, to the Congregational Church in Simsbury. He continued to preach there through the following summer, accepting the call on July 20, and on August 16 he was ordained and installed as pastor.
In 1846 his eyesight began to fail, and in 1848 he sud- denly became totally blind. A colleague pastor was set- tled in May, 1850, but Mr. McLean continued in office until his death, in Simsbury, on March 19, 1861, in his 80th year. At his funeral a discourse was read which had been writ- ten, by Mr. McLean's request, many years before, by the Rev. Jairus Burt (Amherst Coll. 1824), of the neighboring parish of Canton, who died in 1857.
Mr. McLean married, on January 21, 1810, Sally, third daughter of Timothy and Sarah (Olmsted) Pratt, of East Hartford, who died on October 2^, 183 1, in her 51st year.
7^4 Yale College
He next married, on January 28, 1833, Nancy, second daughter of Captain Lot and Keziah (Cleveland) Morgan, of Plainfield, who died on September 22, i860, in her 66th year.
By his first marriage he had four sons and a daughter. The third son was graduated here in 1836, and became a minister; two grandsons have also received Yale degrees, B.A. 1865, ^^^ M.D. 1871, respectively.
He published :
1. A Thanksgiving Sermon [from Prov. xxviii, 19] on Prac- tical Agriculture. Preached at Simsbury, Nov. 24, 1836. . . Hart- ford, 1837. 8°, pp. 16. [A. C. A. Br. Mus.
2. A Discourse [from II Cor. vii, 3, II Pet. i, 15, and II Thess. iii, 16] on the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Ordination as Pastor of the Church in Simsbury, Conn. Delivered August 16, 1859. Hartford, 1859. 8°, pp. 35.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Loomis Female Geneal., i, 597-99- Diary, i, 335-36, 386, 403, 407. Whil- Morgan Family, 89-90. T. Robbins, telsey, Pratt Genealogy, 27> 59-
Frederick Marsh_, the eldest of eight children of Jona- than Marsh, a farmer and carpenter of New Hartford, Connecticut, and grandson of Jonathan and Theodosia (Kellogg) Marsh, of New Hartford, was born on Septem- ber 18, 1780. His mother was Damaris, second daughter of Caleb and Damaris (Porter) Pitkin, of New Hartford. He was prepared for College by the Rev. Ammi R. Robbins (Yale 1760), of Norfolk, and joined the College Church on profession of his faith in July of his Freshman year.
After graduation he studied theology with the Rev. Asahel Hooker (Yale 1789), of Goshen, and was licensed as a preacher by the Litchfield North Association of Min- isters on September 30, 1806. He spent the following year in preaching in North Goshen and New Preston, and in
Biographical Sketches, 1805 785
Newark, New Jersey. He then in the course of another year decHned calls to Simsbury and Branford, on account of ill health.
In January, 1808, he began to supply the pulpit in Win- chester, Connecticut; and after some months of travel, and having once declined a call to the pastorate, he accepted (on December 30, 1808) a second unanimous call, on a salary of $430, and was ordained and installed on Feb- ruary I, 1809.
He married, on May 22, 1809, Parnal, daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Flower) Merrill, of New Hartford.
On February i, 1846, he relinquished his salary, and asked for a colleague, who was settled in August, 1846; and on October 2, 1851, both pastors were dismissed at their own request.
For the next ten years, until his eyesight failed, "Father Marsh," as he was affectionately called, preached more or less for neighboring churches as occasion arose.
He continued to reside in the house which had been his home since 1809, and died there on February 6, 1873, in his 93d year, being then the oldest Congregational minis- ter in the State. The Discourse delivered at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eldridge (Yale 1829), of Norfolk, was afterwards published. Father Marsh is described as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."
He was a Trustee of the Theological Institute of Con- necticut from 1836 to 1870. His children were three daughters (one of whom died in infancy) and five sons. The second daughter married the Rev. George Carrington (Yale 1822).
A portrait is given in the History of Winchester, and elsewhere.
He published :
I. A Sermon [from Zech. i, 5-6] delivered to the First Society in Winchester, November 10, 1822 ; being the day which completed Half a Century from the ordination of their first minister. Hart- ford, 1823. 8°, pp. 23. [B. Publ.
50
786 Yale College
2. A Sermon [from Ps. xlvi, lo] delivered at Norfolk, Conn., December 3, 1841, at the Funeral of Joseph Battell, Esq. New- York, 1842. 8°, pp. 32 + pi. [A. C. A. U. T. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Boyd, Hist of Winchester, 237-39, xxiii, 196, 211-13. Pitkin Genealogy, 256. G. M. Carrington, MS. Letter, 39. Robbins, Diary, i, 301, 386, 429. June, 1873. Hartford Marsh Family,
Robert Moore was born in that part of Stratford, Connecticut, which afterwards became Huntington, on October 21, 1781. He was probably a son of Captain Robert Moore, by his wife Phebe, daughter of Captain Joseph and Elizabeth (Curtiss) Tomlinson.
After graduation he studied law, and was admitted to practice in Auburn, in Central New York. He soon removed to Wyoming County, in the western part of the State, at first settling in Warsaw, and finally in 18 18 in Perry, some five miles distant.
Here he practiced his profession, and filled various local offices, such as Justice of the Peace (from 1829), Super- visor, and School Inspector. After about 1835, on account of his health, he did not engage much in business. He accumulated a handsome property.
He died in Perry on February 22, 1854, in his 73d year.
He was married, in Leroy, Genesee County, on January 15, 1827, and left a large family of children.
AUTHORITIES. R. H. Stedman, MS. Letter, March, 1866.
George Olcott, the second and elder surviving son of the Hon. Simeon Olcott (Yale 1761), of Charlestown, New Hampshire, was born in Charlestown on November 22, 1785. He entered College after the opening of the Fresh- man year.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 787
On leaving College he began at once the study of law in the office of the Hon. Benjamin West (Harvard 1768), of Charlestown, and was admitted to the bar in i8o8. From 18 10 he practiced his profession successfully in his native village until August, 1824, when he was appointed Cashier of the first bank chartered in Charlestown, called the Connecticut River Bank. He held that office until his death, when he was probably the oldest Cashier in the United States.
He filled also various town offices, including that of Treasurer from 1837. Though frequently urged he would never consent to become a candidate for the Legislature, nor for any office that would take him away for any con- siderable time from his duties in connection with the bank.
He died in Charlestown on February 4, 1864, in his 79th year.
One who knew him well, wrote of him the day after his death :
An entire want of selfishness was one of his most prominent characteristics. In social life he was noted for his courteous man- ners, his genial disposition, and his ready sympathy . . , and in his official life for the faithful discharge of his public duties; yet it was said of him in the village where he had always lived, when his death was announced, that "he never had an enemy." As a citizen he was generous, public-spirited, and always lent his influence and used his means in the right direction. Educated in the Federal school of politics, in his more mature years he remained a firm and most ardent disciple of that faith.
He married in 183 1 Charity, sixth daughter of Deacon Timothy and Lois (Hammond) West, of Charlestown, and widow of her first cousin. Deacon Benjamin West, of Boston. She died on May 24, 1836, in her 54th year, leaving no children.
He next married, in August, 1837, Emily Ann, eldest daughter of Isaac and Susan (Claxton) Silsby, of Charles- town, who survived him with their children, three sons.
A photograph, taken in advanced life, is given in the History of Charlestown.
f9Bi Yale College
AUTHORITIES.
Bell, Bench and Bar of N. Hamp- Hist, of Charlestown, 493-95, 547, shire, 538-39. Olcott Descendants, 608, 681. Terry Families, 64. revised ed., 50, 64. Saunderson,
Joel Page was born in Conway, Franklin County, Mas- sachusetts, on October 31, 1784, the son of Theophilus and Mabel Page, of Conway. He entered College after the opening of the Sophomore year.
He is reported to have lived in Easton, Maryland, and to have died there in 1832, at the age of 48.
John Owen Pettibone, the fourth son of Colonel Jona- than Pettibone, of Simsbury, Connecticut, and grandson of Colonel Jonathan and Martha (Humphrey) Pettibone, of Simsbury, was born on October 22, 1787. His mother was Hannah, daughter of John and Esther (Humphrey) Owen, of Simsbury. He entered College after the open- ing of the Freshman year.
He spent his life in his native place, highly respected and honored. In 1822 and 1828 he was a member of the State Legislature, and in 1834 of the State Senate.
He outlived all his classmates, and died in Simsbury on August 19, 1876, in his 89th year. He never married.
AUTHORITIES. Pettibone Genealogy, 32. Simsbury Records, 252.
Thomas Ruggles, the youngest child of Dr. Nathaniel Ruggles, Jr. (Yale 1758), of Guilford, Connecticut, was born in Guilford on August 17, 1777. His father died in 1793. He united with the College Church on profes- sion of his faith at the end of Freshman year.
After graduation he studied theology, and he was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association of Ministers on September 30, 1806.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 789
He was called to settle over the Congregational Church in Derby, in March, 1809; but owing to divisions in the parish he asked, in May, the advice of the New Haven West Association as to his acceptance; and was advised to defer his answer for a few months. He was ordained and installed as pastor in Derby on August 31, 1809, the sermon on the occasion by the Rev. Aaron Dutton (Yale 1803), the Guilford pastor, being afterwards published.
On April 9, 1812, an ecclesiastical council was called to take action on charges against Mr. Ruggles. He was ready to resign, on the score of health ; but other reasons led the council to dismiss him from his charge, and virtu- ally if not actually to depose him from the ministry.
His wife, Hannah, daughter of Elisha and Abigail (Hawley) Shelton, of Huntington, an adjacent town, died on October 2, 1814, in her 27th year; and before the close of that year he married Lucinda, daughter of Charles and Sarah (Atwater) Hull, of Wallingford. He then removed to Wallingford, and is said to have conducted for a time the Union Academy in that town.
His wife's father died in May, 18 19, and as she inher- ited a considerable estate, he then gave up teaching.
He died, insolvent, in Wallingford, on November 29, 1836, in his 60th year; his widow died on April 11, 1853, in her 74th year. A daughter by his first wife died shortly after him. Several illegitimate children survived him.
AUTHORITIES.
Atwater Hist, 2d ed, 123. Bond, Hawley Record, 56-57. Orcutt, Hist History of Watertown, 107. Davis, of Derby, 264-65, 286-87. Sprague, Hist of Wallingford, 537-38, 816. Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, ii, 490.
William Mather Smith, the only child of the Hon. John Cotton Smith (Yale 1783), of Sharon, Connecticut, was born in Sharon on August 18, 1787, and was baptized by his grandfather, the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith (Yale 175 1 ), on February 6, 1791. He united with the College Church at the end of Freshman year.
79© Yde College
After graduation he began the study of law with his maternal uncle, Nicholas Evertson (Yale 1787), of New York City, who died of a malignant fever in April, 1807. Mr. Smith contracted the disease, with the result that his constitution was so shattered as to change all his plans of life. He retired to Sharon, and devoted himself for nearly forty years to the comfort of his parents.
He was married on February 19, 1809, to Helen, daugh- ter of Gilbert Robert and Martha (Kane) Livingston, of Rhinebeck, New York.
He inherited the graceful and dignified traits of his father and grandfather, and was a man of devoted piety, who spent his life literally in doing good. As early as 1818 he entered warmly into the duty of sustaining and advancing the interests of Sunday Schools, and the busi- ness of instructing youth through that medium was his chosen and beloved employment for the rest of his days. For more than forty-five years he was the Superintendent of the Sunday School in Sharon, and his happy method of exposition was remarkably adapted to interest the pupils and to attach them warmly to himself.
In September, 1828, he was chosen to the office of a Deacon in the Congregational Church, which he greatly honored and held until his death.
He died in Sharon, after a brief illness, in great peace of mind, on March 19, 1864, iii his 77th year; and his widow in May, 1867.
Of their three sons, the eldest was graduated at Yale in 1830; the second was graduated at the Berkshire Medical School in 1833 ; the third was graduated at Rutgers Col- lege in 1832, and died just as he was entering on the work of the ministry.
AUTHORITIES.
Holgate, Amer. Genealogy, 177. Letter, 1864. Stiles, Hist, of Weth- McLaughlin, Discourse at Funeral of ersfield, ii, 634-35. Van Alstyne, W. M. Smith. C. F. Sedgwick, MS. Sharon Records, 118.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 791
Elihu Spencer, son of the Hon. Isaac Spencer, of Millington Parish, in East Haddam, Connecticut, Treas- urer of the State of Connecticut from 1818 to 1835, and grandson of Major General Joseph Spencer, of Millington, was born in 1783. The Rev. Dr. Elihu Spencer (Yale 1746) was his great-uncle. His mother was Lucretia, eldest daughter of Harris and Elizabeth (Turner) Colt, of Lyme. He united with the College Church near the close of his Freshman year.
He studied law, and settled in practice in Durham, Greene County, New York, thence removing to Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio.
He died in Warren, on July 21, 1819, aged 36 years.
He married, while in Durham, about the ist of Feb- ruary, 1812, Sally Lyman, of Durham, Connecticut.
Gardiner Spring, the eldest surviving son of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Spring (Princeton 1771), the able and influen- tial minister of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and grand- son of Colonel and Deacon John and Sarah (Read) Spring, of Northbridge, Massachusetts, was born in Newburyport on February 24, 1785. His mother was Hannah, second daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins (Yale 1749), of Hadley, Massachusetts. Two of his brothers were grad- uates of Yale, — in the Classes of 181 1 and 1819, respec- tively. His preparation for College was mainly gained in the Newburyport Grammar School. He entered Yale in 1800, but on the failure of his health withdrew at the close of Freshman year, and a year later joined the next College Class. He was chosen to give the Valedictory Oration at graduation.
He then entered at once the law office of Judge David Daggett (Yale 1783), in New Haven, supporting himself mainly by serving as precentor in the First Church and
79? Y(il^ College
by conducting a large singing-school. Meantime he accepted an invitation to go to Bermuda as a teacher, and remained there from the early part of 1806 until the middle of September, 1807. During his first vacation he returned to New Plaven, and on May 25, 1806, he was married by the Rev. Moses Stuart (Yale 1799) to Susan, daughter of Captain Hanover and Phebe (Wolcott) Barney, of New Haven, who had been a pupil in his singing-school.
While in Bermuda he pursued his legal studies under the advice of Chief Justice John C. Esten (Yale 1792) ; and on his return to New Haven he entered the office of the Hon. Nathan Smith (honorary M.A. Yale 1808).
At the Commencement in 1808 he delivered a Master's Oration, on the Patriot; and on the next day listened to a powerful sermon by the Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, of New York, on the duty of preaching the Gospel, which had a lasting effect on his life.
He was admitted to the bar in New Haven on December 15, 1808, and at once opened an office for practice. On April 24, 1809, he united with the First Church, and began an active Christian life ; and during the following summer closed up his legal business and made arrangements to enter the Theological Seminary just opened at Andover, Massachusetts, in September.
He remained at Andover for only eighH; months, and having secured a license to preach he left there in May, 1810, to attend the meeting of the Presbyterian General Assembly in Philadelphia..
On his way thither he preached an evening lecture in New York; and on his return was invited to supply the pulpit of the Brick Presbyterian Church, on the triangular plot now bounded by Beekman and Nassau streets and Park Row, for three Sundays. His appearance on June 3, the first of these Sundays, gave so great satisfaction that he was voted the next day a unanimous call to the pastor- ate, with a salary of $2,500. His acceptance of this call
Biographical Sketches, 1^05 793
was sent from Andover on July 6, and his ordination and installation followed on August 8.
The position was a conspicuous and exacting one, espe- cially for a minister with such limited training and expe- rience ; but the man responded to the call', and maintained himself with dignity and credit. In 1819, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hamilton College, and in the same year his salary was increased to $3,250; it remained at this figure until 1854, when it was raised to $5,000. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was given him by Lafayette College in 1853.
He was repeatedly called to other responsible stations (as, during his early ministry to the Presidencies of Dart- mouth and Hamilton Colleges, and later to a professorship in Princeton Theological Seminary), but he remained faithful to his people ; and they remained faithful to him.
As early as 1848 his increasing years rendered a consid- erable amount of pulpit assistance necessary ; and in Octo- ber, 1855, Dr. Spring, especially in view of failing eyesight, asked for further help, evidently preferring the appoint- ment of a colleague. The matter was temporarily put aside, in consequence of the project for a removal up-town. In 1856 a lot of land was purchased on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, and the new church was opened in October, 1858. A colleague-pastor was installed in May, 1859, and Dr. Spring was relieved of all duty.
After two years of invalidism, Mrs. Spring died on August 7, i860, in her 73d year.
On August 14, 1861, Dr. Spring was again married, to Abba Grosvenor, the only surviving child of Elisha Wil- liams, a distinguished lawyer of Hudson, New York, and Lucia (Grosvenor) Williams. She died shortly before Dr. Spring. Dr. and Mrs. Spring were second cousins, though the relationship was not discovered until after their marriage.
794 Yale College
After a further period of gentle decay, Dr. Spring died in New York City on August i8, 1873, ^g^^ 88>^ years.
A Discourse delivered later by his colleague, the Rev. Dr. Murray, with the addresses at the funeral, was sub- sequently publislied.
By his first wife he had seven sons and eight daughters : of these, seven children survived him.
Copies of two portraits, one in early and one in later life, are given in his great-grandson's History of the Brick Church.
Dr. Spring's style in preaching was vigorous, simple, and always interesting.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from James ii, 18], preached April 21, 181 1, for the Benefit of a Society of Ladies, instituted for the relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. New- York, 181 1. 8°, pp. 21.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
2. Essays on the distinguishing traits of Christian Character. New-York, 1813. 8°, pp. 230.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. Several editions, and a French version. The work is distinctly practical, though an outcome of theological discussions in which the author had become involved.
3. Something must be done: a New Year's Sermon [from II Chron. xxix, 16-17], preached on the last day of the old year. New- York, 1816. 8°, pp. 39.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S.
Y.C. Several editions. On the necessity of a revival of religion.
4. The Doctrine of Election illustrated and established in a Ser- mon [from Eph. i, 3-5] preached on the evening of the second Lord's Day in December, 1816. New- York, 1817. 8°, pp. 43.
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. V. T. S. Y. C. Several editions. A review by Hosea Dodge was published in 1817.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 795
5. A Brief View of Facts, which gave rise to the New- York Evangelical Missionary Society of Young Men, . . New-York, 181 7. 8°, pp. 20. [Y.C.
Anonymous. In relation to a doctrinal division in the Young Men's Missionary Society of New-York.
6. An Oration, pronounced on the evening of the 5th of Feb- ruary, before the Alumni of Yale College, resident in the City of New- York, in commemoration of their late President, Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D. New-York, 1817. 8°, pp. 35.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
7. A Sermon [from Acts viii, 30-31], preached before the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at their ninth Annual Meeting, Sept. 10, 1818. Boston, 1818. 8", pp. 19.
[U. T. S.
8. Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, late Missionary to the South Western Section of the United States . . New- York, 1820. 8°, pp. 247.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Two other editions.
9. A Tribute to New England: a Sermon [from Ps. cvii, 7], delivered before the New-England Society of the City and State of New- York, on the 22d of December, 1820 . . . New- York, 1821, 8°, pp. 44.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
10. The subjection of the Kingdoms of this world to the King- dom of our Lord and His Christ: a Sermon [from Rev. xi, 15] preached in the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, January 19, 1823 ; in aid of the American Domestic Missions. Lx)ndon, 1823. 8°, pp. 20. [B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C.
11. An Appeal to the Citizens of New- York, in behalf of the Christian Sabbath. New- York, 1823. 8°, pp. 28,
[A. C. A. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
12. A Funeral Sermon [from John xi, 25], occasioned by the death of the Rev. Philip Melancthon Whelpley, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York, preached in that
796 Yale College
Church on the 26th day of July, 1824; together with an Address delivered at his Funeral. New- York, 1824. 8°, pp. 44,
[Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
13. The Discriminating Preacher: a Sermon [from Isa. iii, 10- 11], preached in the North Church in the City of Hartford, Dec. I, 1824, at the Ordination and Installation of the Reverend Carlos Wilcox, as Pastor of said church. Hartford, 1825. 8°, pp. 37.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Y. C.
14. The Excellence and Influence of the Female Character: a Sermon [from Prov. xxxi, 29], preached in the Presbyterian Church in Murray-Street, at the request of the New- York Female Mission- ary Society. New- York, 1825. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C. Several editions.
15. The Address of the Executive Committee of the American Tract Society to the Christian Public . . . New-York, 1825. 8°, pp.25. [Y.C.
The Address, which was written by Dr. Spring, occupies pp. 1-15.
16. A Dissertation on the Means of Regeneration. New- York, 1827. 8°, pp. 50,
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C. Enlarged from a discourse preached at Princeton Theological Seminary; reviewed by the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor in the Quarterly Christian Spectator, volume i. 1829, and by the Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler (Yale 1804).
17. The Sabbath a blessing to mankind. New York (American Tract Society). [1827.] pp. 16.
A sermon.
18. Moses on Nebo: or Death a Duty: a Sermon [from Deut. xxxii, 48-50) occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Joseph S. Christ- mas, late Pastor of the Bowery Presbyterian Church, and preached in that Church on the evening of the Sabbath after his interment. New- York, 1830. 8°, pp. 47 + pi.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
19. The Importance of Christian knowledge. Sermon, from Phil, i, 9. In Discourses delivered in Murray Street Church on Sabbath Evenings, during the months of March, April and May, 1830 . . New York, 1830. 8°. pp. 11-39.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 797
20. A Tribute to the Memory of the late Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, delivered and published at the request of the Executive Committee of the Auxiliary Foreign Missionary Society of New York and Brooklyn. New York, 1831. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
21. An Address delivered at Princeton, New Jersey, at the annual examination of the Students of the Theological Seminary, May, 1832. In the Annual of the Board of Education of the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Philadelphia. [1832.] 12°, pp. 301-16.
22. A Sermon [from Isa. xxvi, 9], preached August 3, 1832, a day set apart in the City of New- York for Public Fasting, Humil- iation, and Prayer, on account of the malignant cholera. New- York, 1832. 8°, pp. 40.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
23. A Dissertation on Native Depravity. New- York, 1833. 8°, pp. 93. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. T. S. Y. C.
Enlarged from a sermon, and preached in the Chapel of Yale College ; reviewed by the Rev. Dr. N. W. Taylor in the Quarterly Christian Spectator, volume 5, 1833.
24. Christian Sanctification. In the Literary and Theological Review, volume i, pp. 103-20, January, 1834.
25. The will of God performed on earth. — A Sermon [from Matt, vi, 10] preached at Utica, N. Y. Oct. 8, 1834, before the American Board for Foreign Missions, at their twenty-fifth annual meeting. Boston, 1835. 8°, pp. 32.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. U. T. S. Y. C. Reprinted in London.
26. Hints to Parents on the Religious Education of children. New York, 1835. 12°, pp. 130 + pi.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. B. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Reprinted in London.
27. The Extent of the Missionary Enterprise. A Sermon at the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. London, 1835.
Reprinted as Missionary Paper, No. 21, of the American Board. Boston. 12°, pp. 24.
79^ Yale College
28. An Address before the Mercantile Library Association of the City of New- York. New- York, 1837. 8°, pp. 39.
[B. Publ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. Y. C. On the habit of industry.
29. Death and Heaven: a Sermon [from II Cor. v, i] preached at Newark, at the Interment of the Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D., on the loth of November, 1837. New- York, 1838. 8°, pp. 40.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. Y. C. Several editions. Republished, in slightly changed form, as: Christian Confidence, illustrated in the Death of the Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D. New- York, 1838. 12°, pp. 55.
[N. Y. Publ. U. T. S.
30. Fragments from the Study of a Pastor. — Vol. I. New York, 1838. 12°, pp. 160.
[A. C. A. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
31. The Obligations of the world to the Bible: a Series of Lectures to Young Men. New York, 1839. 8°, pp. 404.
[A. C. A. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Several editions.
32. The New Sepulchre. — A Discourse [from John xix, 41] delivered on the Sabbath evening after the death of the late Pres- ident Harrison. New-York, 1841. 8°, pp. 31.
[A. C. A. Y. C.
33. The Supremacy of God over the Nations: a Discourse [from Jer. x, 7], preached May 14, 1841, a day set apart for Pub- lic Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, on account of the Death of the President of the United States. New- York, 1841. 8°, pp. 47.
[B. Publ. U. T. S. F. C.
34. The Danger and Hope of the American People: a Dis- course [from Ps. xlvi, i] on the day of the annual Thanksgiving, in the State of New- York. New- York, 1843. 8°, pp. 46.
[B. Publ. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
35. The Saviour's Presence with his Ministers. — A Discourse [from Mass. xxviii, 20] delivered before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, at the opening of their sessions at Louisville, Kentucky, in May, 1844. New- York, 1844. 8°, pp. 51. [U. T. S. Y. C.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 799
36. A Dissertation on the Rule of Faith; delivered at Cincin- nati, Ohio, at the semi-annual meeting of the American Bible Society . . New- York, 1844. 8°, pp. 104.
[A. A. S. A. C. A. B. Puhl. Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
37. The Attraction of the Cross ; designed to illustrate the lead- ing truths, obligations and hopes of Christianity. New- York, 1846. 12°, pp. 413. [Br. Mus. U. S. U. T. S.
Several editions. Republished in London.
38. The Bible not of Man: or, the Argument for the Divine Origin of the Sacred Scriptures, drawn from the Scriptures them- selves. New York ( American Tract Society). [1847.] 12°, pp. 319. [A. C. A. B. Publ. N. Y. H. S. U. S. U. T. S.
Republished in London.
39. The Bethel Flag: a series of short discourses to Seamen. New York, 1848. 12°, pp. 309. [Br. Mus. U. S. Y. C.
Containing 26 sermons, besides prayers and an order of burial service.
40. The Power of the Pulpit ; or Thoughts addressed to Chris- tian Ministers and those who hear them. New York, 1848. 12°,
PP-459 + pl-
[A. C. A. Harv. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C. Several editions.
41. Strictures on the Review of the work entitled "The Power of the Pulpit," contained in the . . Princeton Review, for July, 1848. New- York, 1848. 8°, pp. 45. [A. C. A. U. T. S.
The anonymous review was written by Professors J. A. Alex- ander and C. Hodge.
42. A Pastor's Tribute to one of his flock. — The Memoirs of the late Hannah L. Murray. New York, 1849. 8°, pp. 312 -f- pi.
[Br. Mus. Harv. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
43. Influence. A quarter-century Sermon [from Matt, xiii, 33], preached in behalf of the American Tract Society, in the Reformed Dutch Church, Lafayette Place, New York. New York, 1850. 8°. pp. 44.
[A.C.A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Dr. Spring was one of the founders of the Society.
8oo Yale College
44. The Mercy Seat : thoughts suggested by the Lord's Prayer. New York, 1850. 8°, pp. 383. [A.C.A. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
45. First Things : A Series of Lectures on the great facts and moral lessons first revealed to mankind. New York, 1851. 2 vol- umes. 8°, pp. 395 ; 396. [B. Publ. U. S.
Several editions.
46. The Glory of Christ : illustrated in His Character and His- tory, including the Last Things of His Mediatorial Government. New York, 1852. 2 volumes. 8°, pp. 301 ; iv, 312.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. A sequel and counterpart to the last-named work. Republished in London.
47. Address, delivered at the Anniversary of the New York Female Auxiliary Bible Society, on the 14th of April, 1853. [New York, 1853.] 8°, pp. 15. [B. Publ.
48. Paul's Argument for Home Missions. A Discourse [from Rom. ix, 1-3] preached by the appointment of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at their annual meeting in the city of Buffalo, New York, in May, 1854. Philadelphia, 1854. 8°, pp. 31. [A. C. A. B. Publ. Br. Mus. U. T. S.
49. Triumph in Suffering. — A Discourse [from Rom. viii, 18] delivered at the Funeral of the Rev. L S. Spencer, D.D., Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, L. L New York, 1865. 8°, pp. 29. [N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
50. The Contrast between Good and Bad Men, illustrated by the biography and truths of the Bible. New York, 1855. 2 volumes. 8°, pp. 417; 413. [B. Publ. N. Y. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
51. The Old and the New Church. — Two Discourses: the first [from Ps. xlviii, 9-14] delivered on the 25th of May, 1856, as the closing Sermon in the old Brick Church in Beekman Street : the last [from Lev. xix, 30] on the 31st of October, 1858, at the Dedi- cation of the New Brick Church on Murray Hill. New York, 1858. 8°, pp. 64. [A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S. Y. C.
52. The Complaint and Expostulation of Moses. A Discourse [from Ex. vi, 12], at the Installation of the Rev. William J. Hoge, as Associate Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, in the City of New York; delivered May 22d, 1859. In Installation Services of the Rev. W. J. Hoge. New York, 1859. 8°, pp. 3-26.
[A. C. A. B. Publ. U. T. S.
8'
Biographical Sketches, 1805 801
53. Sermon on the death of Horace Holden. New York, i860.
54. Brick Church Memorial, containing the Discourses delivered by Dr. Spring on the closing of the old Church in Beekman St., and the opening of the new Church on Murray Hill; the Discourse [from Isa. li, 16] delivered on the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Instal- lation as Pastor of the Brick Church ; with the proceedings of the Memorial Meeting, and the Discourse [from Luke xx, 36] preached on the occasion of Mrs. Spring's Decease. New York, 1861. 8°, pp. 248 + pi. [B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U^ T. S. Y. C.
55. State Thanksgiving during the Rebellion. — A Sermon [from Jer. ix, 23-24], preached November 28, 1861. New York, 1862. 8°, pp. 48. \B. Publ. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. Y. C.
56. The Mission of Sorrow. New York (American Tract Society), 1862. 12°.
57. Pulpit Ministrations; or, Sabbath Readings. A Series of Discourses on Christian Doctrine and Duty. New York, 1864. 2 volumes. 8°, pp. 480 + pi. ; 452.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. U. T. S. Containing 39 sermons, not elsewhere published.
58. Personal Reminiscences of the Life and Times of Gardiner Spring. New York, 1866. 2 volumes. 12°, pp. 348 + pl; 293.
[A. C. A. B. Ath. Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ. U. S. U. T. S. Y. C.
He furnished Dr. Sprague with two brief sketches, printed in vol- ume 4 of his Annals of the American Pulpit: of Philip M. Whelpley, pp. 502-04, and of Dr. L S. Spencer, pp. 713-16.
He edited : The Brick Church Hymns. New York, 1823.
Three of his sermons appeared in the National Preacher : Inter- nal Evidences of Revelation [from Ps. cxxx, 2], volume i, pp. 65- 80, October, 1826; Wealth a fearful snare to the soul [from Mark x, 23], volume 4, pp. 369-80, May, 1830; The alarming power of Sin [from Jer. xiii, 23], volume 11, pp. 147-55, March, 1837.
AUTHORITIES.
Bond, Hist, of Watertown, 447. N. Y. and Brooklyn, 535-81. Knapp, Hist, of the Brick Church, Spring, Personal Reminiscences. 120-319. Patten, Lives of Clergy of
51
8o2 Yale College
Samuel Stevens, the eldest of four sons of General Ebenezer Stevens, of New York City, who were graduated at Yale (in 1805, 1807, 181 1, and 1813, respectively), and grandson of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Weld) Stevens, of Boston, was born in New York on March 14, 1785. His mother was Lucretia, daughter of John and Mary (Aus- tin, Ellery) Ledyard, of Hartford, Connecticut, and widow of Richardson Sands, of Sands' Point, Long Island. He entered Yale after the opening of the Sophomore year, and received an ad eundem degree at Princeton in 1805.
After graduation he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1809. He practiced his profession in New York, and maintained a highly honorable standing. He was an alderman of the city, and the Anti-masonic candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1830 and 1831. He died in New York on November 24, 1844, in his 60th year. He was never married.
AUTHORITIES. N. Y. Geneal. and Biogr. Record, vii, 13.
Earl Swift,, the third son of Barzillai and Sarah (Fear- ing) Swift, of Mansfield, Connecticut, and grandson of Rowland and Mary (Dexter) Swift, of Sandwich, Massa- chusetts, was born in Mansfield on April 8, 1784. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and he remained on the farm until he was sixteen. He was then prepared for the Sophomore Class by his pastor, John Sherman (Yale 1792).
Soon after graduation he began the study of medicine with his brother-in-law. Dr. Jabez Adams, of Mansfield, and continued it with Dr. Joseph Palmer, of Ashford. He also attended a course of lectures in the Harvard Medical School, and was licensed to practice in May, 1808, and in the same year established himself in Windham, On April 18, 18 10, he married Laura, youngest daughter of Captain Ralph and Eunice (Huntington) Ripley, of Windham.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 803
In 1 812 he removed to Wether sfield, where he practiced for two years, and then returned to (South) Mansfield, and continued there during the remainder of his Hfe. He had a large practice, and was very skilful and successful as a physician, and beloved and respected as a man of sound and discriminating judgment.
He received the honorary degree of M.D. from Yale in 1830.
He relinquished practice only about a year before his death, which occurred in Mansfield on June 14, 1869, i" his 86th year.
His wife died on April 17, 1870, in her 78th year.
His children were six sons and four daughters, of whom all but two sons survived him.
AUTHORITIES.
Amer. Ancestry, iii, 226. Conn. 177-78. Rev.K.B.Glidden, IS.S. "Ltt- Med. Society's Proceedings, 1871, ter, July, 1869. Huntington Family 435-36. Dimock, Mansfield Records, Memoir, 179. Ripley Family, 15.
Zachariah Tomlinson^ the youngest son of Josiah Tomlinson, a farmer of Newtown, Connecticut, and a nephew of Zachariah Tomlinson (Yale 1788), was born in Newtown on May 5, 1784. His mother was Anna, youngest daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Nichols) Shel- ton, of Huntington, and a first cousin of her husband's mother.
His residence remained in Newtown, but he died, of phthisis, in Trumbull, on January 27, 1838, in his 54th year.
He was probably unmarried.
AUTHORITIES. Orcutt, Hist, of Stratford, ii, 1313; Tomlinson Family, 85.
William Welch, the eldest child of John Welch (Yale 1778), and Rosetta (Peebles) Welch, and grandson of
8o4 Yale College
Major David and Irene (Marsh) Welch, of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born in Litchfield on August 6, 1785.
In June, 1808, he received a commission as First Lieu- tenant of the 4th Infantry in the Army of the United States, and in June, 1810, he was promoted to the rank of Captain ; but he died, in Newport, Kentucky, on August 25, 181 1, having just entered on his 27th year.
AUTHORITIES.
Conn. Courant, Sept. 24, 181 1. Army, i, 1018. Woodruff, Geneal. Heitman, Hist. Register of U. S. Register of Litchfield, ,235.
Salmon Wheaton, son of Orange Wheaton, of Mar- bledale, in Washington, Connecticut, and grandson of Joseph and Lydia (Kent) Wheaton, was born in 1782. The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel S. Wheaton (Yale 1814) was his. first cousin. He did not enter College until 1804.
In January, 1806, he began his studies for the Episcopal ministry with Bishop Jarvis, in New Haven, at the same time residing in the Bishop's family, and he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop on September i, 1807. He officiated in Stamford from the ist of October until his advancement to the priesthood by Bishop Jarvis on September 4, 1808. Soon after that date, at the request of the Rector, the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard (Yale 1758), he was engaged as Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New Haven, where he remained until his acceptance of a call to the rectorship of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, in October, 1810.
His predecessor at Newport was the Rev. Dr. Theodore Dehon (Harvard 1795), who was afterwards Bishop of South Carolina ; and Mr. W^heaton was married in Trinity Church, Boston, on September 24, 1812, by the Rev. Dr. John S. J. Gardiner, to Ann, sister of Dr. Dehon, and daughter of Theodore Dehon, of Boston.
During his long ministry in Newport he raised a perma- nent fund of $10,000 for the parish. He was for twenty
Biographical Sketches, 1805 805
years the President of the Standing Committee of the diocese and a deputy to the General Convention.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on him by Trinity College in 1835.
He resigned his charge in April, 1840, and removed to Johnstown, Fulton County, New York, where he served as Rector of St. Michael's Church.
At Easter, 1843, ^^ was taken ill during service in church, and after suffering acutely for nineteen months, his death there followed on December 24, 1844, at the age of 62. He was buried in a tomb under St. Paul's Church, Boston, as was also his widow, who died on December 8, 1855, aged 7^ years.
A tablet inscribed to their memory was erected in Trinity Church, Newport, by their daughters. One daughter mar- ried Dr. David King (Brown Univ. 1796).
AUTHORITIES.
Batchelder, Hist, of the Church in 277-84, 301-06; ii, 64-66, 83-84, 109. the Eastern Diocese, ii, 233-34. Mason, Orcutt, Hist, of New Milford, 789. Hist, of Trinity Church, Newport, i.
John Milton Whiton, son of Dr. Israel Whiton, of Ashford, Connecticut, and Winchendon, Massachusetts, was born in Winchendon on August i, 1785. His mother was Dorothy, second daughter of Samuel and Azubah (Howe) Crosby, of Winchendon. He was prepared for College at the Leicester (Massachusetts) Academy, and entered Dartmouth College in 1801. By his father's desire he left Dartmouth in 1804, and spent his Senior year at Yale. He was distinguished for scholarship, and espe- cially for his proficiency in the classical languages.
He then spent one year as an assistant of James Morris (Yale 1775), in his Academy in Litchfield South Farms, now Morris, Connecticut, where he formed the acquaint- ance of Mr. Morris's eldest child, Abby, to whom he was married on October 18, 1808.
8o6 Yale College
In the fall of 1806 he returned to Dartmouth College to attend medical lectures, supposing that his voice was not sufficient for public speaking. But on arriving in Han- over, after some mental struggle, he concluded to begin theological studies under the direction of Professor Ros- well Shurtleff (Dartmouth 1799). He completed his studies with the Rev. Dr. Samuel Austin (Yale 1783), of Worcester, Massachusetts, and in July, 1807, began to sup- ply the Presbyterian Church in Antrim, Hillsboro County, New Hampshire. A call was voted him by the town in September; but after a month or two he declined it, per- haps from lack of unanimity, or from consciousness of incomplete preparation, and went away. In May, 1808, the call was renewed, with a salary of $450, and on his acceptance, notwithstanding some opposition, he was ordained and installed there on September 28, 1808.
By his prudence and charity he soon gained the hearts of the community; but in 1826 a new meeting-house was built, and much opposition was developed in reference to its location. Happily, however, a powerful revival of religion, which brought nearly one hundred persons into the church, swept aside the opposers.
After other periods of like progress, a special revival was enjoyed in 185 1, and Dr. Whiton (the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity having been conferred on him by Princeton in 1848) with characteristic prudence took advantage of this time to announce, in May, 1852, his intended resignation of the pastorate, on account of the burden of advanced age, and the arduousness of his work in the large and hilly territory comprising the parish. He preached his farewell sermon on the last Sunday of Decem- ber, 1852, and after a few weeks spent elsewhere, removed to the adjoining village of Bennington, where without resuming the pastoral relation, he served as acting pastor of the small Congregational Church (of only forty mem- bers) until his death, on September 2y, 1856, in his 72d year.
Biographical Sketches, 1805 807
His widow died on April 10, 1865, in her 82d year.
His children, two sons and four daughters, all survived him. The eldest daughter married the Rev. Josiah Ballard (Yale 1833), and the second daughter married Cyrus S. Richards (Dartmouth 1835) ; the Rev. Dr. James Morris Whiton (Yale 1853) and the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Rich- ards (Yale i860) are grandsons.
An engraved portrait of Dr. Whiton is given in the History of Antrim.
In his ministry he was distinguished for his retiring and unostentatious character, as also for his eminent wisdom and sound practical sense, and the faculty of expressing a great deal in a few words. These qualities gave him an extensive influence in the region of his residence. His ministry was a successful one, and his church a shining example of healthy growth and internal peace.
Besides his proper ministerial work, he took a deep interest in education, and served as chairman of the school- committee pi the town for nearly forty years. About eighty young men studied under his care in preparation for admission to College or for the ministry.
Two likenesses of Dr. Whiton are reproduced in the Commemorative pamphlet published by his descendants in 1908.
He published :
1. The Gospel Minister is the Messenger of the Lord. — A Ser- mon [from Mai. ii, 7] preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Samuel Howe Tolman, as Colleague Pastor . . in Shirley, Mass., October 25, 181 5. New-Ipswich, 1816. 8°, pp. 16. '
[B. Ath. Br. Mus. Y. C.
2. Youth called upon to remember God. — A Sermon [from Eccl. xii, i], addressed to the young, and delivered at Antrim, on Lord's Day, August, 1816. Concord, 1817. 8°, pp. 15. [Y. C.
3. Importance of the preached Word. A Sermon [from Mark xvi, 20] at the Ordination of Rev. O. C. Whiton. Portland, 1818. 8°. ■ [Br. Mus. N. Y. Publ.
Mr. O. C. Whiton was a brother of the preacher.
8o8 Yale College
4. Brief Notices of the Town of Antrim. In Collections of the New-Hampshire Historical Society, volume 4. Concord, 1834. 8°, pp. 216-24.
5. Sketches of the History of New-Hampshire, from its settle- ment in 1623, to 1833 . . Concord, 1834. 12°, pp. 222.
[B. Publ. Br. Mils. Harv. N. Y. H. S. U. S. Y. C.
6. A Half Century Sermon [frim Ps. cxlv, 4], delivered at Antrim, N. H., on Lord's Day, September 30, 1838: on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of the Presbyterian Church in that place : it being also the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Ordination of the Author as Pastor of that church : With an Appendix, containing Sketches of the Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the Town. Con- cord, 1838. 8°, pp. 24. [B. Publ. M. H. S.
7. The Salvation of the Gospel great, and not to be neglected with Impunity. A Sermon from Hebr. ii, 3. In the American National Preacher, volume 18, pp. 115-20, May, 1844.
8. Sermon [from II Peter i, 5-7] on Temperance, delivered at Antrim, N. H., on Lord's Day, September 28, 1845. Boston, 1845. 8°, pp. 16. [B. Publ.
9. Sermon at the Funeral of the Rev. Ephraim P. Bradford, December, 1845.
10. History of the Town of Antrim, N. H., for a period of one century; from 1744 to 1844. Concord. [1852.] 8°, pp. 95.
[B. Publ. Br. Mus. Harv. U. S.
11. Farewell Sermon. 1852.
He left in manuscript a History of Presbyterianism in New Hampshire; and also four lectures on the history of his native town to 1820, which were incorporated in the later history prepared by the Rev. A. P. Marvin.
AUTHORITIES.
Cochrane, Hist, of Antrim, 90, 183- chendon, 3-4, 426, 452, 475. Sprague,
86, 750-60. Commemoration of the Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iv, 413.
Rev. Dr. Whiton's Ordination, 1908. Woodruff, Geneal. Record of Litch-
Lawrence, N. Hampshire Churches, field, 151. 14^50, 160. Marvin, Hist, of Win-
Biographical Sketches, 1805 809
Joshua Lewis Williams, son of the Rev. Joshua Wil- liams (Yale 1780), of Southampton, Long Island, was baptized by his father on March 6, 1785. In his infancy his father removed to Harwinton, Connecticut. He united with the College Church near the close of his Freshman year.
He studied theology, and was ordained and installed on June 14, 1809, as pastor of the Congregational Church in Middletown Upper Houses, now Cromwell, where he remained until his much lamented death, on December 29, 1832, aged nearly 48 years.
He was a judicious, devoted, and useful minister; and apart from his pastoral work was especially faithful in his oversight of the schools in his parish, besides teaching lads in his own house. Two hundred and thirty-one members were added to the church under his ministry, there being especially large accessions in 1818 and 1827.
He married Catharine, fourth daughter of Judge John Mix (Yale 1775), of Farmington, who survived him, dying on October 2;^, 1863, in her 76th year.
They had one son and two daughters who grew to maturity.
He published :
1. A Sermon [from I Cor. ii, 3], preached before the North Society of Greenwich, July 25th, 1828; at the Ordination and Installation of Rev. Chauncey Wilcox. Norwalk, 1828. 8°, pp. 19. [C. H. S. Y. C.
Mr. Wilcox was a parishioner of the author.
2. A Sermon [from Ps. Ixii, 8-9], preached in Middletown, Upper-Houses, on the day of Public Thanksgiving, November 26th, 1829. Middletown, 1830. 8°, pp. 16. [[/. T. S. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Dudley, Hist, of Cromwell, 8, 10- ants, 103. Stiles, Hist, of Wethers- II. 33- Field, Centennial Address at field, ii, 834. Middletown, 241. Hooker Descend-
APPENDIX
The graduates commemorated in the present volume are 540 in number.
The places of their nativity, so far as known, are as follows: — Connecticut, 403 (New Haven County, 88; Hartford County, 70; Litchfield County, 62 ; Fairfield County, 54 ; New London County, 44; Windham County, 41 ; Middlesex County, 26 ; Tolland County, 18); Massachusetts, 55; New York, 33; South Carolina, 16; Georgia, 9; New Hampshire, 3; Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ver- mont, Virginia, 2, each; Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, i, each; outside of the United States, 4.
In their latest or principal places of residence they may be classi- fied as follows : — Connecticut, 210; New York, 142; Massachusetts, 45; Ohio, 23; South Carolina, 22; Georgia, 13; Pennsylvania and Vermont, 12, each; North Carolina, 6; Maine and New Hampshire, 5, each ; etc.
As to their occupations, 182 were lawyers; 109, ministers; 87, in business ; 40, teachers ; 37, physicians ; 27, farmers and planters.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS
Page 318, line 6 from bottom. A John Akin, possibly the graduate, was married in Poughkeepsie, by the Rev. Philander Chase, early in 1803, to Belphane Cook, and had a daughter and son, born 1803-05; she was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Breested) Cook, of Poughkeepsie, bom in 1776.
Page 330, line 10 from bottom, for 1810, read i^i.
Page 628, line 11 from bottom. John H. Beach died on August 8, 1839, aged 54 years. He had also been for years President of the Auburn Bank.
INDEX
Italics indicate the graduates of whom Biographical Sketches are given.
Adam, Samuel F. (1803), 557 Adams, Cornelius (1803), 557-58 Adams, John (i795), ^33-37 Adams, Parker (1804), 626-27 Adams, Rufus (i795), 138 Adams, Stedman (1801), 419 Adams, Thomas (i8cx)), 387 Akins, John (1798), 318-19, 811 Allis, Thomas W. (1796), 178 Alvord, Saul (1800), 387-88 Andrews, Elisha D. (1803), 558-59 Andrews, Josiah B. (i797)f 239-43 Arms, Pliny (1798), 3I9 Atwater, Charles (1805), 735-36 Atwater, David (i797). 243 Atwater, Jeremiah (i793). 54-56, 176,
342 Austin, John P. (l794), 98-99 Austin, Ralsaman C. (1801), 429-30 Backus, Charles (i769)» 176, 237 Backus, DeLucena (1792), 3-4 Bacon, Asa (i793). S6-s8 Bacon, Ezekiel (i794), 99-103 Bacon, John (1796), I79 Bacot, Henry H. (1798), 319-20 Badger, Samuel (1805), 736-37 Bailey, Roswell (1801), 430-31 Baldwin, Amos (1798), 320 Baldwin, Boyle V. B. (1803), S59-6o Baldwin, Henry (1797), 243-46 Baldwin, Isaac (1801), 431 Baldwin, Michael (i795), 138-39 Baldwin, Samuel S. (1801), 431-32 Baldwin, Truman (1802), 469-70 Banks, Daniel C. (1804), 627-28 Bartlett, Shubael (1800), 388-90 Bassett, Amos (1784), tutor, 52 Bassett, Archibald (1796), 179-81 Bates, Elijah (1794), 103-04 Bates, Henry (1801), 432-33 Bates, Isaac C. (1802), 470-73 Beach, Burrage (i793), 58-59 Beach, John H. (1804), 628, 811 Beach, Samuel B. (1805), 737-39 Beardsley, Nehemiah B. (1805), 739-
40 Beckley, Hosea (1803), 560-61 Beecher, Lyman (1797), 247-58 Belden, Hezekiah (1796), 181-82 Belden, Jonathan (1796), 182-83 Belden, Joseph, (i795), 139-40 Belden, William (1803), 561^2 Benedict, Amos (1800), 390-91 Benedict, Noah, 427
Benedict, William (1797), 258 Berry, Heman (1793), 59-60 Bigelow, Henry (1802), 473-74 Billings, Joseph (1797), 259 Bishop, Timothy (1796), 183-84 Bissell, Hezekiah W. (1793), 60 Blackman, Samuel C. (1793), 60-61 Bliss, Oliver (1795), 140 Bloom, George (1803), 562-63 Boardman, David S. (1793), 61-63 Bostwick, Charles (1796), 184-85 Botsford, William (1792), 4-5 Brace, Joab (1804), 628-31 Brace, Thomas K. (1801), 433 Bradley, Ezra (1797), 259-60 Bradley, Jesse S. (1800), 391-92 Brainard, William F. (1802), 474-75 Brainerd, Hezekiah (1793), 6^ Brainerd, Israel (1797), 261-63 Bray, Oliver (1795), 140-41 Brewer, Eliab (1793), 63-64 Bristol, William (1798), 321-23 Brockway, Diodate (1797), 263-65 Bronson, Bennet (1797), 265-67 Bronson, Enos (1798), 323-24 Brown, Daniel B. (1800), 392 Brown, Erastus F. (1801), 434 Brown, Pardon (1793), 64 Brush, David (1804), 631 Brush, Perlee (1793), 65 Brush, Samuel S. (1795), 141 Buckingham, Naboth (1804), 631 Bunnell, Rufus (1797), 268-69 Burleigh, Rinaldo (1803), 563-^5 Burnet, James (1798), 324 Burrall, Thomas D. (1803), 565-66 Burritt, Benjamin (1799), 345 Burt, Timothy (1794), 104-05 Bush, Jonathan (1792), 5-6 Bush, Ralph I. (1802), 475-76 Calhoun, John C. (1804), 632-37 Candee, Sheldon W. (1805), 740-41 Cantey, James (1796), 185 Carrington. Abijah (1800), 393 Chapin, Calvin (1788), tutor, 96 Chapman, Asa (1792), 6-7 Chapman, Elisha (1797), 269-70 Chapman, Ezekiel J. (1799), 345-46 Chapman, Henry (1805), 741 Chase, Harvey (1800), 394 Chauncey, Charles (1792), 8-10 Chauncey. Elihu C1796), 186-87 Chester. John (1804), 638-40 Chiffelle, Thomas P. (1803), 566-67
8l2
Yale College
Church, Samuel (1803), 567-69 Clark, Elijah (1801), 434-35 Clark, Gerardus (1804), 640-41 Clark, Jehu (i794), 105-06 Clarke, Asahel (i797), 270-71 Clarke, Levi H. (1802), 476-78 Cleaveland, William P. (i793), 65-66 Collins, Alexander (i795), 141-42 Collins, Levi (1802), 478-80 Colton, Chester ( 1804) , 642-43 Colton, George (1804), 643-44 Connecticut, grants from, 176, 427 Connecticut Academy, 385 Connecticut Hall, 237 Cook, Samuel (1795), 142-43 Cooke, Increase (1793), 66-67 Cooley, Timothy M. (1792), 10-14 Couch, Jesup N. (1802), 480 Couch, Simon (1805), 742 Cowles, Leonard (1805), 742-43 Cowles, Pitkin (1800), 394-96 Crocker, John A. (1805), 743 Dana, James, Fellow, 316 Dana, Sylvester (1797), 271-73 Darling, Noyes (1801), 435-37, 623 Darling, Thomas (1803), 569-70 Darling, William S. (1803), 570 Davenport, John A. (1802), 481-82 Davis, Henry (1796), 187-92, 316,
427, 554, 73Z Day, Jeremiah (i795), 143-48, 316,
427 Day, Mills (1803), 370-71 Day, Thomas (1797), '27^-y6 Denison, Charles (1796), 192-93, 342,
427 Dennis, Littleton P. (1803), 571-72 DeWitt^ Peter (1799), 347-48 Dickinson, Matthew (1804), 644 Dickinson, Rodolphus (1805), 743-46 Doolittle, Benjamin (1793), 68 Doolittle, Joel (1798), 348-49 Doolittle, Jotham I. (1795), 149 Doolittle, Mark (1804), 645-46 Dow, Daniel (1793), 69-72 Dunbar, Asaph (1800), 396 Dunbar, Daniel (1794), 105 Dunscomb, Josiah W. (1801), 437 Dutton, Aaron (1803), 572-75 Dutton, Warren (1797), 277-79, 385,
427 Dzvight, Benjamin W. (1799), 349-51 Dwight, Edmund (1799), 351-53 Dwight, Henry (1801), 437-39 Dwight, John (1802), 482 Dwight, Josiah (1794), 106-07 Dwight, Serena E. (1803), 575-80 Dwight, Pres. Timothy (1769), elec- tion of, 130; Professor of Divi- nity, 237, 723 ; criticisms of, 316- 17, 343, 38s, 623 Edmond, David (1796), 194-95 Edwards, Jonathan W. (1789), tutor, I, 96
Eells, James (i799), 353-54 Eliot, Andrew (i799), 354-55 Elliot, Achilles H. (1802), 483 Elliot, Harvey (1805), 747 Elliott, John (1794), 107-08 Ellsworth, Martin (1801), 439-40 Ellsworth, Oliver (1799), 355-56, 427,
466 Ely, David (1800), 396-97 Ely, Elisha (1803), 580-81 Ely, Enoch (1792), 14-15 Ely, Ezra S. (1804), 647-51 Ely, Sumner (1804), 651-53 Esten, James C. (1792), 15-17 Evarts, Jeremiah (1802), 483-88 Fairbanks, Thaddeus (1796), 195-96 Fairchild, Robert (1793), 72 Farr and, William P. (1798), 325 F elder, John M. (1804), 653-54 Field, David D. (1802), 48S-91 Field, Timothy (1797), 279-81 Fitch, George (1801), 440 Fitch, John (1803), 581 Flagg, Hezekiah (1800), 397 Foot, Samuel A. (1797), 281-83 Foot, William L. (1797), 283-84 Foot, Ziba (1805), 747-48 Ford, Henry (1803), 582 Ford, Thomas (1802), 492 Foster, Eleazar (1802), 492-93 Fowler, Bancroft (1796), 196-^, 427,
623 Freeman, Nathaniel (1805), 748-49 Frost, Henry (1804), 654-55 Frost, Hezekiah (1802), 493-94 Fuller, Daniel (1798), 325 Gadsden, Christopher E. (1804), 655-
58 Gadsden, John (1804), 659 Gallaudet, Thomas H. (1805), 749-57 Gardiner, David (1804), 659-60 Gardiner, John D. (1804), 660-62 Gardiner, Jonathan (1795), 149-50 Gay, Ebenezer (1787), tutor, I Gemmil, John, 130, 176 Gilbert, James (1800), 398-99 Gillett, Moses (1804), 664-65 Gilmour, John McK. (1805). 757-58 Goodrich, Charles (1797), 284-85 Goodrich, Elizur (1752), 316 Goodrich, Elizur (1779), professor,
427, 466 Goodwin, Timothy (1805), 758 Gould. James (1791), tutor, 52, 96,
129, 176 Gray, Ebenezer (1805), 758-59 Griffin, George (1797). 286-87 Griswold, Diodate J. (1793), 73 Griswold, Joab C1793), 73-74 Grosvenor, Thomas P. (1800), 399-
401 Hale, Elias W. (1794). 108 Hall, George W. (1803), 582-84 Hall, John (1802), 494-97, 623
Index
813
Hamlin, Alanson (i799). 356 Hammond, Elisha (1802), 497-99 Hampton, Benjamin F. (1804), 664 Hampton, John P. (1804), 664 Hanford, Enoch (1800), 401-02 Harrington, Joseph (1803), 584-85 Hart, Ira (i797). 287-89 Hart, William (1792), 17-18 ^ Hasell, William S. (1799), 357 Haskel, Daniel (1802), 499-502 Hatch, Moses (1800), 402-03 Hathaway, Asahel (1801), 440-41 Hawley, Zerah (1803), 585 Heart, Aids E. (i8oi),44i Hecock, Simeon (1802), 503 Hedges, Jesse (1792), 18-19 Herrick, Claudius (1798), 325-27 Herrick, Edward (1796), 199 Heyward, Benjamin (1794), 109 Hicock, Horatio (1798), 327-28 Hicock, Norman (1803), 586 Higley, Silas (1802), 503-04 Hine, Homer (1797), 289-90 Hinman, Royal R. (1804), 665-67 Hitchcock, Peter (1801), 441-43 Hoadly, George (1801), 443-45, 554 Holbrook, Samuel (1801), 445-46 H alley, Horace (1803), 586-90 Holley, Nathaniel (i795), iSo-51 Hooker, Edward (1805), 759-60 Hooker, John (1796), 200-01 Hough, John (1802), 504-07 Houstoiin. Robert J. (1805), 760-61 Howell, Thomas (1798), 151-52 Howland, Joseph (1800), 403-04 Hoyf, Amos (1792), 19 Hubbard, Bela (1792), 20 Hubbard, Elijah (1795), 152-53 Hubbard, George (1803), 591-92 I-Iubbard, Henry (1792). 20 Hubbard, Ruggles (1796), 201 Hubbard, Samuel (1802), 507-10 Hubbard, Thomas H. (1799). 357-58 Humphrey, Heman (1805), 761-70 Humphreys, David (1803), 592 Humphreys, John (1796), 201-02 Huntington, Dan (1794), 109-12, 237,
316 Huntington, Joshua (1804). 667-71 Huntington, Samuel G. (1800), 404-
05 Huntting, Jonathan (1804), 671-72 Hyde, Eli (1803), 593-94 Hyde, John (1803"), 594-95 In^ersoll, David B. (1792), 20-21 I'On. Jacob B. (1803), 595-96 I sham. Jirah (1797"). 290-92 Jves, Eli (1799). 358-62 Ives, Ezra (1797), 202 Jarvis. Samuel F. (1805), 770-79 Johnson. Nathan (1802). 510-12 Johnson. Sherman (1802), 512-13 Jones, Isaac (1792), 21-24
Jones, Samuel (1800), 405-07 Jones, Timothy (1804), 672 Jones, Williatn H. (1796), 202-03 Judd, Bethel (1797), 292-95 Jndson, Curtis (1804), 672-73 Judson, Isaac E. (1803), 596 Judson, Philander (1800), 407 Keep, John (1802), 513-17 Kellogg, Giles C. (1800), 407-08 Kellogg, Jonathan W. (1803), 596-97 Kelsey, Aaron H. (1805), 779-80 Kennedy, Joshua (1803), 597 Keteltas, Philip D. (1792), 24 Kibbe, Walter R. (1804), 673 King, Francis (1804), 674 King, Nathaniel (1792), 24-25 King, Salmon (1796), 203-05 King, Walter (1805), 780-81 Kingsley, James L. (1799), z(>2-67,
427, 733 Kinne, Aaron (1794), 113 Kinne, William (1804), 674-75 Knox, Hugh (i8oo), 408-09 Lansing, Dirck C. (1804), 676-80 Lathrop, Joseph (1754), 52, 96 Lathrop, Samuel (1792), 25-27 Law, Jonathan (1803), 597-98 Law, Prentice (1800), 409 Law, Samuel A. (1792), 27-29 Law, William (1801), 446-47 Learned, Ebeneser (1798), 328-30 Leavitt, Sheldon C. (1802), 517 Lee, John (1793), 74 Lewis, Addin (i&)3), 598-99 Lewis, Isaac (1794), 1 13-16 Lewis, Thomas (1798), 330-31 Lewis, Zechariah (1794), 116-17, 237
342 Linsly, Noah (1791), tutor, 96, 129 Lloyd, John N. (1802), 518-19 Lord, Henry (1801), 447-48 Lyceum, 427, 623 Lyman, Asa (1797), 296-97 Lyman, Jonathan H. (1802), 519-20 Lynde. John H. (1796), 205-06 McBride. James (1805), 781-82 McCrackan, John (1792), 29-30 McEwen, Abel (1804), 680-83 McEwen, Charles (1799), 367-68 McK night, John M. S. (1805), 782-
83 McLean. Allen (1805), 783-84 Mansfield, Nathan (1803), 599 Marchant. Henry (1792), 30 Marsh. Ebenezer G. (i795). 153-55.
316, 342. 466. 554. 623 Marsh, Frederick (1805), 784-86 Marsh. John, Fellow, 427 Marsh, John (1804). 683-80 Mather, Oliver (1799), 368 Mather. Samuel (1792), 31-32 Maxwell. William (1802), 520-22 May, Hesekiah (1793), 74-76
8i4
Yale College
Mead, Mark (1802), 522-23 Meigs, Henry (i799), 368-^9 Meigs, Josiah (.1778). 129, 427 Merwin, Samuel (1802), 523-25 Miner, Thomas (1796), 206-10 Minor; Matthew (1801), 448-49 Minor, Russell J. (1801), 449-50 Mitchell. Charles (1803), 599-000 Mitchell, Donald G. (1792), 32-33 Mitchell, Minott (1803), 600-01 Mitchell, Stephen M. (i794), 118 Mitchell, Walter (i795), i55 Mitchelson, Howard (1802), 525-26 Moore, Robert (1805), 786 Morris, James E. (1803), 601 Morris, Reuben S. (1804), 689-90 Moseley, Ebeneser (1802), 526-27 Mulford, Hervey (i794), 118-19 Munger, Elijah (i795), 156 Murdoch, James (i 797 ), 299-303 Newberry, Roger (i799). 370 Nichols, Henry W. (1801), 450 Niks, John (1797), 303-04 North Middle College, 342, 427, 623 Northrop, Amos (1804), 690 Norton, Seth (1804), 690-91 Oakley, Thomas J. (1801), 450-53 Ogden, John C, pamphlets by, 316-
17, 38s Olcott, George (1805), 786-88 Olcott, Michael (1793), 76-77 Osborn, Jeremiah (1799), 370 Page, Joel (1805), 788 Page, William (1797), 304-05 Pardee, Amos (1793), 77 Parker, Daniel (1798), 331-34 Parker, Joseph (1796), 210 Parker, Peter M. (1793), 78 Parsons, David, 130 Pearce, Cyrus (1802), 527-28 Pellet, John (1804), 691-92 Perit, John W. (1801), 453 Perit, Pelatiah (1802), 528-30 Perit, Pelatiah W. (1803), 601-02 Perkins, Benjamin D. (1794), 119-20 Perkins, George (1803), 602-03 Perkins, Nathan (1795), 156-58 Perkins, William (1792), 33-34 Peters, Samuel A. (1794), 120-21 Pettibone, John O. (1805), 788 Phelps, David (1793), 78-79 Phelps, Elisha (1800), 409-10 Phelps, Oliver L. (1794), 121-22 Phelps, Royal (1801), 454 Phelps, Samuel M. (1795), 158-59 Phi Beta Kappa Society, 316 Pierce, John, 130 Pierpont, John (1804), 692-702 Pitkin, Timothy (1747), 623 Plant, David (1804), 702 Piatt, Sidney (1799), 371 Plummer, George (1804), 703-04 Pond, Charles H. (1802), 531-32
Porter, Amasa (1793), 79-80 Porter, Jacob (1803), 603-06 Porter, Noah (1803), 606-10 Porter, Robert (1795), 160 Potter, Horace (1804), 704 Prentice, Charles (1802), 532-33 Prince, William (1796), 210-11 Pundejcson, Thomas (1804), 704-06 Putnam, David (1793), 80-81 Radcliff, John (1792), 35-36 Radcliff, Peter W. (1793), 81-82 Randall, Nicholas P. (1803), 610-n Reed, John T. (1803), 612 Reeve, Aaron B. (1802), 533 Remington, Jonathan (1798), 335 Reynolds, Heusted (1804), 706 Reynolds, William S. (1795), i6o-6l Rice, Thomas (1803), 612 Rich, Samuel (1804), 706-07 Ripley, David B. (1798), 335-36 Ripley, Erastus (1795), 161-62 Robbins, Levi (1796), 211 Rabbins, Thomas (1796), 211-19 Robinson, William (1804), 707 Rudd, Samuel (1792), 36 Ruggles, Thomas (1805), 788-89 Russell, Joseph (1793), 82-83 Sackett, William H. (1803), 613 St. John, James (1803), 613 St. John, Lewis (1800), 410-11 Saltonstall, Winthrop (1793), 83 Sanford, David (1803), 614 Sargeant, John (1793), 84 Savage, Thomas (1792), 37 Scarborough, Godfrey (1799), 372 Scarborough, Jared (1803), 614-15 Sco field, Asariah (1801), 454-55 S CO field, Frederick (1801), 455-56 Scofield, Jared (i8oi).45$ Scranton, Erastus (1802), 534-35 Scranton, Jared (1795), 162-63 Sedgwick, Theodore (1798), 336-38 Seelye, Isaac (1796), 219-20 Selden, Ulysses (1802), 535 Seymour, Horatio (i797\ '?o6-o8 Seymour, Ledyard (1792), 37-38 Sheldon, Elisha (1800), 411-12 Shelton, Charles (1802), 535-36 Shelton, Nathan (1802), 536-37 Shepard, Samuel (1793), 84-87 Shepherd, Charles (1798), 338-39 Sherman, David A. (1802), 537-38,
623 Sherman, Henry (1803), 615-16 Sherman, John (1792), 38-41 Sherman, Oliver (1795), 163 Sherman, Roger, 52 Sherman, Roger M. (1792), 41-45,
129, 237 Shipman, Elias (1799), 373 Sill, Theodore (1797), 308-09 Silliman, Benjamin (i7g6), 220-27,
342, 466, 733
Index
815
Silliman, Gold S. (1796), 227-28 Skinner, J. Lord (i793), 87-89 Skinner, Newton (1804), 708-09 Smith, David (i79S), 163-67 Smith, Harry (1800), 412-13 Smith, Junius (1802), 538-41 Smith, Richard (i797), 309-10 Smith, Seth (1803), 616-17 Smith, Solomon (1803), 617 Smith, William L. (1802), 541 Smith, William M. (1805), 789-90 Snowden, Charles B. (1804), 709-10 South College, i, 52, 96-97 Spalding, Asa (1792), 45 Spencer, Elihu (1805), 791 Spring, Gardiner (1805), 791-801 Stanley, George W. (i793), 89-90 Stanley, Henry (1801), 456-57 Staples, Seth P. (i797). 310-11 Starr, Elias (1803), 618 Starr, Ephraim (1802), 541-42 Starr, Truman (i8oi),457 Stearns, Elisha (1796), 228-29 Stebbins, Josiah (1791), 96, 237 Stedman, James (i8oi), 458, 554 Sterling, Micah (1804) , 710-11 Stevens, John (1800), 413 Stevens, Samuel (1805), 802 Stiles, Ezra (1746), 129-30 Stoddard, Abiram (1800), 413-14 Stoddard, William (1804), 711-12 Storrs, Henry R. (1804), 712-14 Storrs, Zalmon (i 801), 459-60 Strong, Asahel (1796), 229-30 Strong, Ephraim (1792), 45-46 Strong, George W. (1803), 619-20 Strong, Nathan (1769), 623 Strong, Theodore (1797), 311-12 Strong, Thomas B. (1800), 414-15 Strong, William L. (1802), 542-44 Stuart, Charles A. (1803), 620 Stuart, Moses (ijgg), 373-82, 466,
623 Swan, Roswell R. (1802), 545-46 Sivift, Earl (1805), 802-03 Swift, Eliphalet (1804), 714-15 Swift, Erastus (1800), 415-16 Swift, Henry (1804), 715 Talleyrand, visit of, 97 Tallmadge, Matthias B. (i795), 167-
68 Tappan, Christopher (1802), 546-47 Tarbell, Grosvenor (1793), 90-91 Taylor, Nathanael (1745), 427 Taylor, William A. Ci&>3), 621 Thacher, Stephen (1795), 16S-69 Tod, George (1795), 170-72 Tomlinson, Agur (1804), 715-16 Tomlinson, Gideon (1802), 547-48 Tomlinson, Zachariah (1805), 803 Tracy, Fanning (1796), 230-31
Tracy, Thomas (1795), 172 Trescott, William (1802), 549 Trumbull, Joseph (1801), 460-61 Tucker, John H. (1796), 231 Twining, Stephen (i795), 173-74 Tyler, Bennet (1804), 716-24 Tyler, Daniel P. (1794), 122 Upson, Stephen (1804), 724-25 Vanderbilt, Jeremiah (1804), 726 Van Deursen, William (1801), 461-62 Van Heuvel, Jacob A. (1804), 726-27 Wade, Giles (1800), 416 Wakeman, Thaddeus B. (1799), 383 Wales, Isaac M. (1793), 91-92 Wales, John (1801), 462-64 Wales, Samuel (1767), 52, 96 Walter, Joel (1800), 416-17 Warner, John C. (1804), 727-28 Washburn, Joseph (1793), 92-94 Webster, Ira (1802), 549-50 Welch, William (1805), 803-04 Wetmore, Charles H. (1804), 728-29 Wheaton, Salmon (1805), 804-05 Wheeler, Amos H. (1804), 729-30 Whitehead, Amos (1804), 730 Whiting, Elisha G. (1795), 174 Whitman, Lemuel (1800), 417-18 Whitney, Eli (1792), 47-50 Whiton, John M. (1805), 805-08 Whittelsey, Chauncey (1800), 418-19 Whittelsey, Samuel (1803), 621-22 Wilcoxson, David B. (1798), 339-40 Williams, Eliphalet (1743), 427 Williams, Joseph (1798), 340-41 Williams, Joshua L. (1805), 809 Williams. Richard (1802), 550-52 Williams, Samuel P. (1796), 231-36 Williams, Solomon (1792), 50-51 Williams, Thomas (1800), 419-26 Williams, Thomas S. (1794), 122-25 Williams, William T. (1795), 174-75 Winn, John (1799), 383-64 Winthrop, Francis B. (1804), 730-31 Winthrop, John S. (1804), 731-32 Witter, Ezra (1793), 94-95 Wood. Joseph (1801), 464-65 Woodhtill, Selah S. (1802), 552-53 Woodruff, Ephraim T. (1797), 312-15 Wright, Joseph (1804), 732 Yale College, catalogue of students in, 237; class reports of, 14, 276, 491 ; criticisms of, 316-17, 342- 43, 385, 623 ; grants to. 176. 427 ; illness in. 96, 129; library, 49; President's house, 316, 342; pro- fessorships in. 316, 427, 466; revival in, 466; treatment of Freshmen in, 130-31, 623 Yates. Andrew (1794), 125-28 Young, David (1798), 341
LD 6323 D$ V.5
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch
Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale Col- lege with annals of the col- lege history
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
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