Prominent People of Torrington, Connecticut

Having tackled a few of the other Connecticut towns (Wolcott, New Milford) where Samuel Orcutt had written the history of the town and had identified several individuals who he felt worthy of writing a biography for, I decided to next tackle Torrington – a town in Litchfield County with which I am pretty familiar. The town was founded in 1737, around the same time as Wolcott, and Orcutt had published his book in 1878, just four years after the one on Wolcott. So, I thought it would take a similar effort to read through the book, extract all the information on the prominent people, and put this blog together. I was in for a shock!

In his preface, Orcutt at least acknowledges that the time he spends on writing these books is simply because he wants to, not because as the local church pastor he is paid to do so. He states, “… had there been a prospect of a small remuneration, six months more of time would have been given to it … although he is well assured that the information here recorded is greater than that of most books of the kind published in this country.” But he then goes on to acknowledge that at least there is one person in the town supporting him as he states, “… but for the prompt encouragement at a certain time, by substantial aid, by one of the citizens of the town … the book would not have been written by the present author. It is also true that but for the very generous price paid for one of the books by the Town, the amount of matter printed must have been far less or the price of the book considerably increased.”

Orcutt follows a similar pattern in each of his town history books – first writing about the history of the town, then presenting lists of preachers, town fathers, town organizations (churches, schools, etc.). Then he gets into the biographies of the important people in the town and finishes off with a bunch of genealogical descendancy charts. But there were two significant differences as he pulled this information together for Torrington.

First, this is first time that one of the towns he is writing about has a very significant person in US history who was born there. In Wolcott, the two individuals who would have been well known were Seth Thomas (who may not have traveled much himself, but whose clocks did), and Amos Bronson Alcott (who is mostly remembered as the father of Louisa May Alcott since her books were far more widely read that the transcendental musings of her father). And New Milford’s most respected individual was Roger Sherman who had such an impact on the founding of the country. But the “famous son” of Torrington was the somewhat notorious John Brown. Brown, an ardent abolitionist, had moved west and in 1859 had led a raid on the town of Harpers Ferry, hoping to capture the prominent citizens of the town, seize the federal armory and arsenal, and have the local slaves join them as freedom fighters. Unfortunately, the local militia pinned them down and that afternoon a group of US Marines, led by Robert E. Lee (remember that this was before the Civil War and so Lee was a military leader for the not-yet-divided country). Brown was captured, placed on trial, and charged with treason. He was sentenced to death for his crimes and hanged later that year. (You can read about some of that here). Since these events had taken place less than 20 years before Orcutt was putting his book together, there was a lot of first-hand information available. Thus, the biography of John Brown occupies 105 pages!

But the second difference in this book is that Orcutt appears to have been badly bitten by the genealogy bug while in Torrington. I can understand that as I am similarly afflicted. Whereas the book on Wolcott only lists 31 individuals and the book on New Milford has 43, this book on Torrington lists 128 individuals. In addition, there are extensive genealogy charts (in small font). Thus, this part of the book takes 550 of the 900 pages, including the biography of John Brown mentioned above.

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I pulled the list of names and dates and realized the enormity of the task in front of me, the prospect of having to build ancestral trees for that many people was overwhelming and I began to question my sanity in starting such a project. While there were some family groups that I could work on together, it was still a lot of trees to build, all the while checking to see where/how this individual was related to me because of a common ancestor in Connecticut/New England history.

And there were other obstacles along the way. First, many of the biographical entries did not have dates of death (because the individuals were still living at the time Orcutt was writing). But also, many of the entries did not have dates of birth either – the entry starting out by giving the date the person married or the date they graduated from Yale. So, in order to even get started I had to make assumptions on what a reasonable date was for their birth and then confirm things once I found the person’s parents. In addition, Orcutt was not always very careful in his writing and the wrong dates were sometimes listed in the book. Being off by a year was a common occurrence and I’m used to that as census records are also often off. But three stand out as particularly egregious: (1) being off by 20 years so the person would have been in their 40s when getting married; (2) being off by 100 years – ahh, such a simple typo, but one that took me over an hour to recognize as another individual in that same family line had the same name; and (3) there was one instance where a family had a son with a given name, and when he died young (at about 8 years old) and the mother was once again pregnant, they gave the same name to the newborn (a common practice in those days) and Orcutt attributed the older son’s birthdate to the younger son (he went on to become a physician).

All of the above made for several intense days with long hours chasing down ancestors for these 128 individuals – looking at the bios for relevant information, correlating that with the descendant charts in the back of the book (scrolling and searching through a 900 page book in an online copy is not quick), relying on the search features of ancestry dot com to give me good results from sometimes imperfect search criteria, dealing with the ever-present changes in spelling of names over the generations, always checking for consistency of dates and places from one generation to the next, and relying on my memory of all the names of my own Connecticut/New England ancestors so I could cross-correlate these Torrington trees with my own and find the sometimes elusive connections.

But, at long last, I finished my research a few hours ago and the details of all those cousin connections are listed below. Of the 128 individuals, 118 share a common ancestor with me in our rich history (note that the use of nCmX represents nth Cousin, m times removed). (Also, indenting is used to denote family groups and entries with “***” indicate the head of the family group but where that individual is not in the list of biographies in the book.) Of the rest, 8 are related with me through marriage as their wives share an ancestor with me (the word “wife” is underlined in these instances). And two were not from New England as their ancestors and their wives were from elsewhere (one from France, one from Ireland), but they raised their families in Torrington, and they had daughters who married local individuals who shared an ancestor with me (the word “daughter” is underlined in these instances).

So, without further ado, here are the results of my extensive research. It was many hours, but enjoyable!

·         Russell Catlin Abernethy (1780-1861), 5C7X via Matthew Allyn (1605-1670)

·         Rev. Hiram P. Arms (1779-1881), 5C5X via Nicholas Snow (1599-1676)

·         Rev. John D. Baldwin (1809-1883), 5C6X via Edward Spaulding (1596-1669)

·         Dr. Erastus Bancroft (1790-1873), 5C6X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)

·         Eliza [Curtiss] Bassett (1784-1868), 3C5X via Joshua Hotchkiss (1651-1722)

·         Owen Brown (1771-1856), 4C7X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)

o   John Brown (1800-1859), 5C6X via Joseph Loomis

·         William Battell (1784-1832), 2C7X via Joseph Sherman (1650-1731)

o   Joseph Battell (1774-1841), son of William, 3C6X via Joseph Sherman

o   Ann S. Battell Loomis (1783-1861), dau of William, 3C6X via Joseph Sherman

o   Sarah [Battell] McEwen (1781-1859), dau of William, 3C6X via Joseph Sherman

·         Rev. James Beach (1780-1850), 4C7X via Richard Beach (1611-1691)

·         Allen G. Brady (1822-1905), parents from Ireland, wife from Canada, daughter married Henry Hotchkiss (1841-1917) 3C4X via Jesse Hotchkiss (1738-1776)

·         Adelbert M. Calkins MD (1846-192), 6C4X via Robert Royce (1605-1676)

·         Israel Coe (1794-1891), 5C5X via Nathaniel Baldwin (1610-1658)

o   Lyman W. Coe (1820-1893), 6C4X via Nathaniel Baldwin

·         Rev. Lucius Curtiss (1816-1901), 4C4X via Joshua Hotchkiss (1651-1722)

·         Arvid Dayton (1814-1892), pipe organ maker, 5C4X via Christopher William Todd (1617-1686)

·         Rev. Spencer O. Dyer (1827-1897), 6C5X via Francis Cooke (1583-1663)

·         Rev. Brown Emerson (1805-1887), 3C5X via John Dix (1658-1745)

·         Rev. Stephen Fenn (1824-1875), 4C4X via Richard Sperry (1652-1734)

·         Rev. George Reid Ferguson (1829-1896), to S. Africa, father from Scotland, 6C6X via William Eddy (1558-1616)

·         Sophia [Hayden] Fogg (1814-1895), 7C3X via Nathaniel Merrill (1601-1654)

·         Noah Fowler (1750-1824), wife is 2C7X via Thomas Tuttle (1634-1710)

o   Warren R. Fowler MD (1775-1826), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Norman Fowler (1777-1871), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   George Fowler (1778-1803), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Remus Marcus Fowler MD (1791-1879), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Parleman Bradley Fowler MD (1780-1813), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Raphael Fowler (1785-1869), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Romulus Julius Fowler (1791-1879), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Sibyl Catlin Fowler (1787-1855) 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

o   Ursula Fowler (1796-1873), 3C6X via Thomas Tuttle

·         Stephen Fyler (1756-1836), 4C8X via Thomas Newberry (1594-1636)

o   Harlow Fyler (1795-1880), son of Stephen, 5C7X via Thomas Newberry

o   Polly [Collier] Fyler (1758-1847), husband is 4C8X via Thomas Newberry

·         Rev. Joseph Gaylord (1836-1905), 4C6X via Samuel Munson (1643-1688)

·         Rev. Alexander Gillett (1749-1826), wife is 2C6X via John Frisbie (1650-1694)

o   Rev. Timothy Gillett (1780-1866), son of Alexander, 3C5X via John Frisbie

o   Sally [Hodges] Gillett (1787-1887), wife of Timothy, 3C6X via Augustine Cobb

·         John Gillett (1776-1857), 5C5X via Thomas Dibble (1613-1700)

·         Rev. Epaphras Goodman (1790-1862), 5C5X via Richard Seymour (1604-1655)

·         *** William Grant (1706-1786), wife is 2C9X via John Strong (1605-1699)

o   Daniel Grant (1743-1787), son of William, 3C8X via John Strong

o   Matthew Grant Jr (1763-1843), grandson of William, 4C7X via John Strong

o   Miles Grant (1819-1911), great-grandson of William, vegetarian, 5C6X via John Strong

·         Stanley Griswold (1763-1815), 3C8X via Edward Griswold (1607-1690)

·         Fannie W. [Curtiss] Gulliver (1823-1892), 4C4X via Joshua Hotchkiss (1651-1722)

·         Dr. Thatcher Swift Hanchett (1838-1911), 7C6X via Richard Austin (1548-1623)

·         Rev. Luther Hart (1783-1834), 5C5X via John Hall (1605-1676)

·         Rev. Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833), father was African, mother was white, wife is 5C5X via Nicholas Street (1603-1674)

·         Dr. Elkanah Hodges (1747-1797), 2C7X via Augustine Cobb (1633-1714)

o   Erastus Hodges (1781-1847), son of Elkanah, 3C6X via Augustine Cobb

·         Israel Holmes (1800-1874), president of Waterbury Brass, 4C6X via Thomas Judd (1608-1688)

·         *** Jacob Hinsdale (1734-1815), 3C7X via Richard Seymour (1604-1655)

o   Rev. Abel Knapp Hinsdale (1765-1851), son of Jacob, 4C6X via Richard Seymour

o   Rev. Burke Aaron Hinsdale (1837-1900), great-grandson of Jacob, 6C4X via Richard Seymour

·         Orrin L. Hopson (1814-1877), 5C5X via John Hall (1605-1676)

·         Rev. Stephen Hubbell (1802-1884), 4C6X via Jacob Gray (1641-1712)

o   Martha [Stone] Hubbell (1814-1856), wife of Stephen, 5C5X via John Archer (1630-1675)

o   Mary Elizabeth Hubbell (1833-1854), dau of Stephen, 5C5X via Jacob Gray

o   Rev. William Stone Hubbell (1838-1930), son of Stephen, 5C5X via Jacob Gray

·         Daniel Hudson (1738-1821), wife is 3C7X via Nicholas Camp (1627-1706)

o   Daniel Coe Hudson (1774-1840), son of Daniel, 4C6X via Nicholas Camp

o   Daniel Coe Hudson Jr (1809-1832), son of Daniel Coe, 5C5X via Nicholas Camp

o   Barzillai Hudson (1780-1858), son of Daniel, 4C6X via Nicholas Camp

o   Erasmus D. Hudson MD (1805-1880), son of Daniel Coe, 5C5X via Nicholas Camp

o   Martha [Turner] Hudson (1806-1887), wife of Erasmus, 6C6X via John Waterbury (1621-1658)

o   Daniel Wyatt Hudson (1833-1855), son of Erasmus, 6C4X via Nicholas Camp

·         John Hungerford (1787-1856), wife is 5C6X via William Andrews (1595-1676)

o   Rev. Edward Hungerford (1828-), 6C5X via William Andrews

·         George O. Jarvis MD (1795-1875), 5C6X via Thomas Fitch (1590-1632)

·         Rev. Harvey Loomis (1785-1825), 5C6X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)

·         *** David N Lyman (1711-1787), 3C7X via Richard Lyman (1618-1662)

o   Elijah Lyman, MD (1773-1819), son of David N Lyman, 4C6X via Richard Lyman

o   Norman Lyman MD (1787-1850), son of David N Lyman, 4C6X via Richard Lyman

o   Rev. Orange Lyman (1780-1851), son of David N Lyman. 4C6X via Richard Lyman

o   Rev. David B Lyman (1803-1884), grandson of David N Lyman, 5C5X via Richard Lyman, went to Hawaii

·         George Lyman (1790-1882), 5C6X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)

·         Rev. Noah Merwin (1752-1795), 4C8X via John Talcott (1562-1603)

·         Rev. John A. McKinstry (1811-1889), 6C4X via Ralph Hemingway (1603-1678)

·         Henri Migeon (1799-1876), from France, daughter married Frederick J. Seymour (1824-1889) 4C5X via Richard Seymour

·         Rev. Jonathan Miller (1761-1831), 3C5X via John Bassett (1652-1714)

o   Rev. David Miller (1793-1855), 4C4X via John Bassett

o   Marcia [Whiting] Miller (1790-1863), 5C4X via John Parmelee (1584-1659)

·         Rev. Samuel John Mills (1743-), 2C8X via Benjamin Beach (1644-1713)

o   Rev. Samuel J. Mills Jr (1783-1818), died in Africa, 3C7X via Benjamin Beach

·         Rev. William H. Moore (1820-1903), 5C3X via Henry Crane (1635-1711)

·         Rev. Charles Newman (1831-1874), 4C4X via Thomas Curtis (1648-1736)

·         Rev. [Joseph] Franklin Noble (1837-1922), 6C4X via James Bennett (1618-1659)

·         *** Ebenezer North (1703-1789), 1C9X via John North (1611-1692)

o   Noah North (1733-1818), son of Ebenezer, 2C8X via John North

o   Alfred North MD (1836-1893), G2GF of Ebenezer, 4C6X via John North

·         Paul Peck (1702-1777), 2C8X via Paul Peck (1608-1695)

·         Rev. Lavalette Perrin DD (1816-1899), 7C3X via Samuel Boreman (1615-1673)

·         Dr. Jeremiah W. Phelps (1824-1890), 6C5X via William Phelps (1599-1672)

·         J. O. Pond MD (1790-1881), 3C7X via John Farrington (1624-1676)

·         Rev. Nathaniel Roberts (1704-1776), 2C7X via Luke Hill (1630-1696)

·         *** Henry Roberts (1758-1813), 3C7X via William Roberts (1617-1689)

o   Rev. Warren H. Roberts (1826-1902), grandson of Henry, 5C5X via William Roberts

o   Nelson Roberts (1814-1894), grandson of Henry, 5C5X via William Roberts

·         Jesse B. Rose (1821-1889), 4C4X via John Frisbie (1650-1694)

·         Frederick J. Seymour (1824-1889), 4C5X via Richard Seymour (1645-1710)

·         Rev. Henry Martyn Sherman (1838-1918), 3C5X via James Crofut (1667-1724)

·         Elisha Smith Esq (1751-1813), 5C4X via Nathaniel Foote (1592-1644)

·         Charles B. Smith (1810-1861), 5C6X via John Strong (1605-1669)

·         Jeremiah Spencer (1770-1863), 4C7X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)

·         Dr. Bela St. John (1827-1908), 4C5X via Joseph Northrup (1623-1669)

·         Rev. Jacob Hurd Strong (1828-1904), 5C6X via John Strong (1605-1699)

·         Joseph Taylor (1753-1802), 3C7X via Sarah Griswold (1634-1715)

o   Ann [Wilson] Taylor (1751-1838), wife of Joseph, 4C7X via William Buell (1605-1681)

o   Uri Taylor (1786-1865), son of Joseph, 4C6X via Sarah Griswold

·         Elisha Turner (1822-1902), wife is 6C5X via Thomas Fitch (1590-1632)

·         Isaiah Tuttle (1753-1831), 2C6X via Samuel Tuttle (1659-1733)

o   Uriel Tuttle (1779-1849), son of Isaiah, 3C5X via Samuel Tuttle

·         Rev. Herman Vaill (1794-1870), 5C6X via Thomas Staples (1617-1688)

·         George D. Wadhams (1800-1862), 5C5X via Richard Strong (1604-1655)

·         Caroline H [Hayden] Wainwright (1831-1914), 7C3X via Nathaniel Merrill (1601-1654)

·         Lauren Wetmore (1801-1890), 4C7X via George Hubbard (1601-1684)

·         Noah Wilson (1715-1796), m. Ann Cook, wife is 3C8X via William Buell (1605-1681)

·         Amos Wilson (1725-1816), bro of Noah, wife is 3C8X via John Strong (1605-1699)

·         John Whiting (1726-1820), 3C8X via John Whiting (1561-1617)

·         Dr. Samuel Woodward (1750-1835), 3C8X via Henry Woodward (1607-1685)

o   Mary Woodward (1783-1859), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Samuel B. Woodward MD (1787-1850), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Elijah Woodward MD (1789-1817), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Griswold Woodward (1791-1847), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Rufus Woodward AM (1793-1823), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Dr. Henry Woodward (1795-1832), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

o   Dr. Charles Woodward (1798-1872), 4C7X via Henry Woodward

·         Luther H. Wood MD (1847-1899), 7C3X via John Stowe (1581-1643)

·         George Wolcott (1806-1857), 6C5X via Joseph Loomis (1590-1658)