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

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Biographies:

Rose Terry Cooke, author, was born at West Hartford, Conn., Feb. 17, 1827; daughter of Henry Wadsworth and Anne Wright (Hurlbut) Terry. She was educated in the public schools of Hartford and by careful home training, and in 1843 became a school teacher. She was married in 1872 to Rollin H. Cooke, a manufacturer, of Winsted, Conn. Her published writings include: Poems (1861); Happy Dodd (1878); Somebody's Neighbors (1881); The Deacon's Week (1884); Root-Bound and Other Sketches (1885); No: a Story for Boys (1886); The Sphinx's Children and Other People's (1886); The Old Garden (1888); Steadfast (1889); and Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills (1891). She died in Pittsfield, Mass., July 18, 1892.

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

George Blinn Francis, engineer, was born in West Hartford, Conn., Jan. 31, 1857; son of Blinn and Lucy (Hart) Francis; grandson of Cyrus and Sabra (Blinn) Francis, and of Adna and Lucy (Woodruff) Hart; and a direct descendant from Robert Francis, who is said to have emigrated from Staffordshire, England, to Wethersfield, Conn., in 1651, and of Stephen Hart, who emigrated from Braintree, England, to Cambridge, Mass., and removed in 1635 to Hartford and subsequently to Farmington, Conn. He attended the high school of Hartford for two years; was a student in the engineering department of the Providence, R.I., water works, 1874-77; assistant engineer there, 1877-81; and assistant engineer, N.Y. West Shore & Buffalo railroad, 1881-82. From November, 1881, to May, 1887, he was engaged without intermission upon railroad work as draughtsman, inspector, transit-man, and assistant engineer for the West Shore, South Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Pacific, Ontario & Western, and New Jersey Junction railroads, and as division engineer of the New York Central & Hudson River railroad at Rochester, N.Y. He was principal assistant engineer of the New York, Providence & Boston railroad from May, 1887, to April, 1892, resident engineer on the passenger station and terminal work at Providence, R.I., from April, 1892, to July, 1896; and from July, 1896, resident and acting chief engineer in the construction of the southern terminal passenger station at Boston, Mass., at the time of its completion the largest structure for railroad passenger use in the world. He also conceived and designed the loop system of tracks as used for electric service in that station, the first application of this feature to a steam road terminal. He was elected to membership in the American society of civil engineers in 1883 and in the Boston society of civil engineers in 1897. He invented and patented in 1894 a solid metallic bridge flooring for railroad and highway bridges, which was extensively adopted in the United States. He was married April 11, 1882, to Florence Louise, daughter of James Green of Providence, R.I.

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

Noah Webster, lexicographer, was born in West Hartford, Conn., Oct. 16, 1758; son of Noah and Mercy (Steele) Webster; grandson of Daniel and Miriam (Kellogg) Webster, and a descendant of John Webster, one of the first settlers in Hartford and colonial governor of Connecticut, and on his mother's side, of William Bradford of Plymouth. He matriculated at Yale in 1774, joined his father's company to aid in repelling Burgoyne's invasion in the summer of 1777, and was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1778, A.M., 1781. He taught school in Hartford, Conn., was admitted to the bar in 1780, established a school at Sharon, and removed to Goshen, Orange county, N.Y., in 1782. While there he compiled two small elementary books for teaching the English language, which were the beginning of his Grammatical Institute of the English Language, which comprised, when completed, a speller, a grammar and a reader. Prior to this time all the school books were by English authors, and Webster felt that the pedantry of the English educator would not please the American farmers' sons, and that a young independent nation needed new sympathetic text books. Accordingly in his Grammatical Institute, quotations from the American patriots were as numerous as those from the classics. After compiling his speller, Webster, realizing the necessity of adequate copyright laws, traveled from state to state, importuning legislators to enact such laws, and in 1790 his efforts bore fruit in the passage by congress of its first copyright legislation. From that time until 1832, Webster worked tirelessly for the extension of authors' rights. After the law was passed in 1790, Webster got a Hartford firm to print 5000 copies of his spelling book as a venture, and it is worthy of note that throughout the rest of Webster's life, whenever he was in need of funds he fell back on the sales of the spelling-book. He resumed school-teaching, started the American Magazine, lectured, practised law and did almost anything to turn a penny. He took a lively interest in politics, showing the greatest confidence in the young republic that many regarded as a doubtful experiment in government. He delivered an address "On the Effects of Slavery on Morals and Industry"in 1793, and the same year, during the French revolution, became editor of the newly established American Minerva, an anti-French paper. He favored Jay's treaty, and together with Chancellor Kent, wrote a series of twelve papers defending it, the first of which Jefferson ascribed to Hamilton. Webster was a strong Federalist, thoroughly loyal to Washington, and after abandoning the Minerva in 1798 as unprofitable, he continued his interest in public affairs, writing Essays on the rights of Neutral Nations, attacking the spoils system at the time of its inception under Jefferson, and publishing a reply to Jefferson's inaugural address. But during all his interest in other matters, he never lost his grasp on his speller. Its large sales necessitated many new editions, and each edition was thoroughly revised, new spellings being adopted and definitions altered. Webster was strongly in favor of phonetic spelling, carrying it to an extreme in his essays, and introducing it judiciously in his speller and dictionary. It is probable that his first impulse in this line was given by Benjamin Franklin, with whom he was intimate. Franklin first projected the dictionary, but thinking himself too old to undertake the work, presented Webster with what manuscript and type he had. Webster named his book the American Dictionary of the English Language, and although his first aim was to be correct, his book differed from the others of its class in that it was intended to go into the American household, and foreign words, foreign spellings of English words, and pedantic words, so common in Johnson, were dealt with harshly.. Webster maintained that the language spoken in America was not a dialect of the English, but a separate, legitimate branch of the parent stock; that Americans were better authority on good use in America than were Englishmen, and that simply because a word was confined to America, it was not a provincialism. On the whole, Webster's dictionary was decidedly patriotic. Etymology was the branch that attracted him most, and although it was the weakest point in his dictionary, his work in that line was remarkable. He traced words where they could be traced, and guessed at them when they could not, but his genius served him well, and modern comparative philology, of which he laid the foundation, shows some of his longest shots to have been surprisingly near the mark. Webster began work in 1806; in 1812 he removed from New Haven to Amherst, Mass., as a matter of economy, but in 1822, having exhausted his own library, he returned to New Haven, and in 1824, realizing the lack of material in America, he went to Cambridge, England, to use the university library. He finished the dictionary in January, 1825, and in 1828 the first edition was published. It was the first American dictionary, and long after Webster's death was the standard in this country. It is of especial interest to note that during the revision of the Bible (1870-80) there were several points of difference between the English and American scholars, and on many of these points the American company agreed with Webster's views as expressed in a revision of the Bible which he had made long before he compiled his dictionary. Webster revised his dictionary in 1840, and was engaged in another revision at the time of his death. He was married, [p.347] Oct. 26, 1789, to Rebecca, daughter of William Greenleaf of Boston, and they had one son and six daughters. He served in the legislatures of Massachusetts and of Connecticut, was one of the founders of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and during his residence in Amherst was actively interested in founding Amherst college, serving as first president of the board of trustees of Amherst academy at the time Amherst college was founded. He received from the College of New Jersey the honorary degree of A.M. in 1795, from Yale that of LL.D. in 1823, and from Middlebury that of LL.D. in 1830. Besides many pamphlets and monographs, Webster's books published during his life include: A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (3 parts, 1783-85); The New York Directory (1786; reprinted, 1886); Dissertations on the English Language (1789); A Collection of Essays and Fugitive Writings on Moral, Historical, Political and Literary Subjects (1790); The Prompter, or a Commentary on Common Sayings and Subjects (1791; reprinted as The English Ship righting Herself (after 20 years of Hard Fighting, 1806); The Revolution in France (1794); Collection of Papers on Bilious Fevers (1796); A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (2 vols., 1799); Miscellaneous Papers on Political and Commercial Subjects (1802; containing "Rights of Neutral Nations, "" An Address to the President (of the United States on the Subject of his Address," and "The Origin and State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices "); A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language (1807); A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806); Elements of Useful Knowledge (2 vols., 1809); History of Animals (1812); Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing his Education (1823); An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828); Biography for the Use of Schools (1830); The Holy Bible, containing Old and New Testaments in the Common Version, With Amendments of the Language (1833); History of the United States (1835); Family of John Webster (1836); Manual of Useful Studies (1839). See also "Websteriana, a Catalogue of Books by Noah Webster, collected from the Library of Gordon L. Ford, by Paul Leicester Ford and Emily Ellsworth Ford (1882). A good life of Webster, by Horace E. Scudder was published in" American Men of Letters" series (1881). He died in New Haven, Conn., May 28, 1843.

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

Lemuel Haynes, clergyman, was born in West Hartford, Conn., July 18, 1753, of mixed white and negro blood. He was a domestic servant, and in 1775 joined the colonial army as a minute-man at Roxbury, Mass. He volunteered to go with the expedition to Ticonderoga, and at the close of the same he settled in Granville, N.Y., where he worked on a farm and studied for the ministry. In November, 1780, he was licensed to preach and supplied the Congregational church at Granville for a time. He was married in September, 1783, to Elizabeth Babbat of Hartford, Conn., a respectable white woman. In 1875 he was ordained by the association of ministers of Litchfield county. He preached at Torrington, Conn., 1785-86, race prejudice forcing him to resign. He was a minister at Rutland, Vt., 1787-1817. In 1818 he was called to Manchester, N.H., and while there the Boorn brothers were condemned to be hanged for the murder of Louis Calvin, an insane man. Mr. Haynes visited the brothers in prison and becoming convinced of their innocence defended them on their trial. A few days prior to the date fixed for their execution Calvin reappeared and the people of Manchester maintained that the prayers of the colored preacher had been answered. In 1822 he was called to Granville, N.Y., and continued as pastor of the Congregational church up to the time of his death. He published Sermon Against Universalism, a reply to Hosea Ballou (1805). T.M. Corley wrote Life of Lemuel Haynes (1837). He died in Granville. N.Y.. Sept. 28., 1833.

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