History of Hartford, (Hartford County) Connecticut United States of America

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Biographies:

Frederic Beecher Perkins, author, was born in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 27, 1828; son of Thomas Clap and Mary Foote (Beecher) Perkins; grandson of Enoch and Anna (Pitkin) Perkins, and of the Rev. Lyman and Roxana (Foote) Beecher, and a descendant of John Perkins, Boston, 1631, Ipswich, 1633. He matriculated at Yale in the class of 1850, but left in 1848 to study law under his father; was admitted to the bar in 1851, and was graduated at the Connecticut Normal school in 1852. He practised law in Hartford, and held various local offices, 1852-54; engaged in literary work in New York, 1854-57, and was married, May 21, 1857, to Mary, daughter of Henry and Clarissa (Perkins) Westcott of Providence, R.I. He was associated with Henry Barnard in editing the American Journal of Education at Hartford, Conn., 1857, meantime serving as librarian of the Connecticut Historical society; was secretary of the Boston public library for a time; librarian of the San Francisco free public library, 1880-87, and connected with a San Francisco newspaper after 1887. He published: President Greeley, President Hoffman, and the Resurrection of the Ring (1872); Scrope (1874); Check List for American Local History (1876); My Three Conversations with Miss Chester (1877); Devil Puzzlers and other Studies (1877); Charles Dickens: His Life and Works (1877); Rational Classification of Literature for Shelving and Cataloguing Books in a Library (1881). He died at Morristown, N.J., Jan. 27, 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Frederic Perkins Dewey, chemist, was born in Hartford, Conn., Oct. 4, 1855; son of Daniel S. and Elizabeth (Perkins) Dewey; grandson of Daniel and Fannie (Shepard) Dewey, and of Isaac and Betsy (Belden) Perkins; and a descendant of Deacon Benjamin Chaplin, a first settler, in whose honor Chaplin, Conn., was named. He was graduated at the Sheffield scientific school, Yale college, in 1876, and was assistant in analytical chemistry at Lafayette college, 1876-77. In July, 1877, he became chemist of the North Jersey iron company and in 1878 took a postgraduate course in the laboratory of the Sheffield scientific school. In 1879 he was engaged as chemist of the Roane iron and steel company and in 1881 was employed by the census bureau, in association with Dr. George W. Hawes, in investigating the building stones of the United States. In December, 1882, he was appointed curator of metallurgy in the U.S. national museum, Washington, D.C. From 1889 he was engaged in expert work in chemistry and metallurgy in Washington, D.C. He was married April 12, 1877, to Charlotte Esther Candee of West Haven, Conn. His published works include: A Preliminary Descriptive Catalogue of the Systematic Collections in Economic Geology and Metallurgy in the United States National Museum (1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Benjamin Norton, publisher and author, was born in Hartford, Conn., July 1, 1825; eldest son of Major Benjamin Hammatt and Augusta (Ware) Norton. He was educated in Boston and in Sanbornton, N.H., and was engaged in the book business in Boston until 1848, when he removed to New York city, where he was in the house of D. Appleton & Co. until 1850, when he went into the publishing and bookselling business for himself. He made a special study of book collections for libraries, and in 1852 engaged in publishing Norton's Literary Gazette and Publishers' Circular, and Norton's Literary Letter. He published many important works, including the first issue of Peele's "Index to Periodicals," and Stewart's "Naval Dry Docks" and "Naval Steamships" of the United States. He was elected assistant secretary and librarian of the Book Publishers' association upon its organization, turning over to the use of the association his Gazette and relinquishing the editorial management in July, 1855. He served throughout the civil war, attaining the rank of brevet brigadier-general U.S.V. He was a commissioner to the World's Fair in London in 1851; a juror of the fair in New York in 1853, and United States and New York state commissioner to the Paris exposition 1867, residing in Paris 1867-1870, where he published the Continental Gazette in English. He was the first to propose the Centennial exhibition of 1873-76, and the foreign exhibition held at Boston in 1883, of which he was manager. He removed to Chicago in 1890, on the invitation of the managers of the Columbian exposition, to aid in the organization of that enterprise. He edited the Civil Service Chronicle in 1888; and is the author of Rifled Guns and Munitions of War (1869); History of the Centennial Exposition, illustrated in colors (1877); and World's Fairs (1891). He died in Chicago, Ill., Jan. 29, 1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Pitkin, jurist, was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1725; son of Governor William and Mary (Woodbridge) Pitkin. He was educated for the law, and in 1758 was appointed major of the Connecticut forces, raised for the expedition against Canada, and served through the campaign under General Abercrombie. He was married to Abigail, daughter of James and Abigail (Stanley) Church. He was appointed colonel of militia in 1762, was a member of the Connecticut council, 1766-85, and a member of the council of safety, 1775-84. He was judge of the state superior court for nineteen years, judge of the supreme court, 1784-89, and chief justice in 1789, and was a delegate to the convention that ratified the constitution of the United States in 1788, and signed the instrument. He began to manufacture gunpowder for the Revolutionary war in 1775, in the mills owned by his father and uncle, where the iron industries had been prohibited by the British in 1750. He died in Hartford, Conn., Dec. 12, 1789.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor