History of Woodstock, (Windham County) Connecticut United States of America

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Biographies:

Charles Morris, naval officer, was born in Woodstock, Conn., July 26, 1784. His father was purser on the U.S. frigate Congress. He was appointed a midshipman on board the Congress; sailed from Portsmouth, N.H., and made a cruise to the West Indies. On his return he was assigned to the Constitution, Commodore Preble's flagship, and was one of the seventy who volunteered on the expedition to recapture or burn the the U.S. frigate Philadelphia, then in the hands of the Tripolitans. On Feb. 3, 1804, the party under Lieutenant Decatur of the Enterprise sailed from Syracuse in the ketch Intrepid, and after a stormy voyage of fifteen days gained the harbor of Tripoli and found the Philadelphia anchored within half a gunshot of the bashaw's castle and the principal battery. Two Tripolitan cruisers lay by the starboard quarter and several gunboats on the starboard bow. The Philadelphia was manned by one thousand Turks and her guns were all mounted and loaded. At eleven o'clock at night the ketch came alongside and the crew of seventy boarded the frigate, Lieutenant Decatur and Midshipman Morris leading the boarders, and Morris was the first to roach the quarter-deck of the Philadelphia. They surprised the Turks, killed about twenty, the rest either jumping overboard or being driven below, and after setting fire to the frigate the boarders drew off and under a hail of shot retreated safely out of range. Morris was transferred to the Argus, Lieut. Isaac Hull, and after the action of Aug. 3, 1804, while in a small boat belonging to the Argus, boarded and captured a small French privateer that had just escaped from the harbor. In January, 1807, he was promoted lieutenant, and in July, 1812, was made executive officer of the Constitution, Capt. Isaac Hull. He had charge of the ship in the celebrated sixty-hour race pursued by a British fleet, and in the engagement between the Constitution and the Guerri?re was shot through the body, but recovered. He was promoted captain March 5, 1818, and in 1814 was given command of the U.S. frigate John Adams, in which vessel he captured many valuable prizes. While repairing his ship on the beach at Hampden, Maine, he was attacked by a fleet of sixteen British vessels. He at once constructed fortifications on land, behind which he mounted the guns from the ship, and called in the militia from the country. Lieutenant Lewis arrived from Castine with a detachment of twenty-eight of the U.S. artillery. The attack occurred Sept. 3, 1814, before which the militia fled, and but feeble resistance was made by the ship's crew and the artillery, to prevent the capture of the John Adams Captain Morris set her on fire, after spiking the guns. The crew were separated into small parties and retreated through the woods to Portland. Morris was in command of the Gulf squadron, 1816-17, and of the squadron on the coast of Buenos Ayres, 1819-20; was naval commissioner, 1823-27 and 1832-41; commanded the Brandywine during the special commission of that vessel in conveying General Lafayette as a guest of the nation back to France in 1825; was on special duty as inspector of navy yards in England and France; supervisor of the naval academy, Annapolis, and chief of the bureau of ordnance and hydrography, Washington, 1851-56. He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 27, 1856.

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

Henry Chandler Bowen, journalist, was born in Woodstock, Conn., Sept. 11, 1813. In 1833 he went to New York city as clerk with the dry-goods firm of Arthur Tappan & Co. In 1838 he formed, with another clerk, Theodore McNamee, the firm of Bowen & McNamee. He afterwards was head of the firm of Bowen, Holmes & Co. The outbreak of the civil war compelled the firm to retire from business. He was married June 6, 1843, to Lucy Maria, daughter of Lewis Tappan. At the time of the fugitive slave law excitement, in 1852, Mr. Bowen's firm was boycotted in the south and elsewhere on account of his denunciation of the law, and the letter, in which he refused to sign the call for the Castle Garden meeting, in support of the fugitive slave law, became famous on account of the sentence in which he said that the firm of Bowen & McNamee had "its goods, but not its principles for sale." Mr. Bowen was a member of the "Albany Convention" of Congregationalists in 1852, which abrogated the "Plan of Union" with Presbyterians. Later he, with others, organized the Congregational union, to which he gave the sum of $5,000. At the Albany convention Mr. Bowen pledged the sum of $10,000 to aid in building Congregational churches on condition that $40,000 more should be raised by the churches, and over $60,000 was raised. He was one of the original founders of the Broadway Tabernacle, and of the church of the Pilgrims and Plymouth church, Brooklyn. He heartily adopted the anti-slavery views of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and, with a view to providing an organ for liberal and anti-slavery, Congregationalism, he established The Independent in 1848, under the editorship of Dr. Leonard Bacon, Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, Dr. R. S. Storrs, and Dr. Joshua Leavitt. When the original editors retired he made the paper undenominational, under the editorship of Mr. Beecher. After 1871 he was himself editor, as well as proprietor and publisher, withdrawing from all other business. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Feb. 24, 1896.

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

Jedidiah Morse, clergyman and geographer, was born in Woodstock, Conn., Aug. 23, 1761; son of Dea. Jedidiah and Sarah (Child) Morse, and a descendant in the fifth generation from Anthony Morse, the immigrant, 1635. His father served in the Connecticut legislature for over fifteen years. Jedidiah, Jr., attended the Woodstock academy and entered Yale in 1779; but before the college term commenced was drafted as a soldier in the Connecticut line. He was, however, exempted from military duty, and was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1783, A.M., 1786. He taught a class in singing in Guilford, Conn., in 1783. He studied theology under Jonathan Edwards and Dr. Samuel Wales, and established a school for young girls in New Haven. He was licensed to preach, Sept. 27, 1785, and was pastor at Norwich, Conn., 1785-86. He was tutor at Yale college 1786-87, and was pastor of the Congregational church in Midway, Ga., in 1787, he preached as a candidate for the Collegiate Presbyterian churches of New York, March-August, 1788; and succeeded the Rev. Joshua Paine as pastor of the First Congregational church of Charlestown, Mass., in 1789. He was married, May 14, 1789, to Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Finley) Breese of Shrewsbury, N.J. He resigned his charge in Charlestown in 1820, and returned to New Haven, where he resided until his death. He was trustee of Andover Theological seminary, 1795-1826. He turned his attention to the civilization and christianization of various Indian tribes of North America, and under commission of the secretary of war he spent two summers in visiting several tribes with a view to improving their condition. He was elected a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1792, and its secretary in 1802; a member of the Massachusetts Emigrant society; and founded the Charlestown Association for the Reformation of Morals in 1813. He aided in the establishment of the navy yard at Charlestown; was appointed chaplain and visitor of the state prison in Charlestown in 1805, was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1811, and formed a society for the benefit of the Indian tribes within the United States at Washington, D.C., in 1822, but failing health prevented his personal attendance at the meetings of the society, and after two or three years it ceased to exist. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by the University of Edinburgh in 1794. He devoted much of his time to literary work, especially in the publication of geographies. He established the Panopolist in 1805, and was its sole editor for five years; and is the author of: Geography Made Easy (1784); American Geography (1789); Elements of Geography (1797); American Universal Geography (2 vols., 1814; 2nd ed., 1819); Report on Indian Affairs (1822); Annals of the American Revolution (1824); and, in connection with the Rev. Elijah Harris, wrote History of New England (1808), and with Richard Cary Morse a Universal Gazetteer (1823). He died in New Haven, Conn., June 9, 1826.

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

George McClellan, surgeon, was born in Woodstock, Windham county, Conn., Dec. 23, 1796; son of James and ??? (Eldredge) McClellan. He was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1816; studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated M.D., 1819. He was resident physician of the Almshouse hospital, 1818-19. He was married in 1820 to Elizabeth, daughter of John H. Brinton of Philadelphia, Pa. He opened a dissecting room in 1821, and gave private lectures on anatomy and surgery which resulted in a charter for the Jefferson Medical college in 1825, where he was professor of surgery, 1826-38. In 1838 the school faculty was reorganized, and his name was excluded, whereupon he obtained a charter for the Pennsylvania College Medical school, and was lecturer there, 1839-43. He acquired a large practice as surgeon in the United States, and also had patients from the West Indies, South America and Europe, and was especially eminent in ophthalmic surgery. He was the author of original medico-chirurgical reports; one of the conductors of the American Medical Review and Journal; editor of Eberle's Theory and Practice of Physics (1840); and the author of The Principles and Practice of Surgery, edited by his son, John H. B. McClellan (1848). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 9, 1847.

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