Lorin S. Atwood, born in Mansfield July 23d, 1812, is one of twelve children of Elisha and Anna (Hartshorn) Atwood. From about 1850 to 1860 he was engaged in the hotel business in Hampton. He then removed to Brooklyn and was a merchant there till his death in 1888. He married, first, a Miss Cooley, by whom he had three children: Juliette, Arvila and Herman. His second wife was Margaret Bradbent, who had one son- Oscar F.
John M. Baker, son of Almon and Hannah (Tucker) Baker and grandson of John Baker, was born in Brooklyn in 1814, and has followed the business of carriage making through life. He married Sarah French, of Plainfield, daughter of Hezekiah French, February 14th, 1848. Their children are: John F., born in 1849; Edwin, born in 1851, and Jennie, born in 1S56, died in 1887.
Henry D. Bassett, son of Joseph Bassett, was born in 1528. About 1852, he succeeded his father in the business of making cloth, which the latter had carried on for twenty years. A year later he changed the business to carding wool and grinding grain. In 1866 he built a new saw mill. Mr. Bassett is one of the most successful business men of Brooklyn. He married Alsada, daughter of Pardon Phillips. Their children are: Edward W., Fannie, Ellen L., George C. (who was killed by being thrown from a load of lumber on his seventeenth birthday, June 28th, 1880), Mary C. and Almira.
Benjamin Brown, born in Brooklyn in 1807, is a son of Benjamin Brown and grandson of John Brown. Benjamin Brown, Sr., married Susanna Cooper, daughter of Nathaniel Cooper, of Rehoboth, Mass., and came to Brooklyn in 1805. He had four children: Susan, Benjamin, Emeline and George. Benjamin Brown in early life was engaged in teaching, and since 1839 has been a farmer. He married Emeline Mason, of Providence. Their children are: George, Frank, Charles (in Providence), Ardelia (married a Pond), Ann (married Joseph K. Potter), John (married Hattie Utley), William and James A., who graduated at Brown University in 1883 and at Newton Theological Seminary in 1836. He is a Baptist minister at Newark, Ohio.
Sanford Chapman was born in Griswold, Conn., and came to Brooklyn in 1550. He is one of eleven children of Joseph and Ruth (Main) Chapman, and grandson of Rufus Main, a soldier of the revolutionary war. Mr. Chapman is a successful farmer. He was married in 1844 to Laura, daughter of Ira Miller, and has six children: Mary, married Alfred Havens; Hattie, Irving, Alice, married Wellington James; Ida and Susie.
Francis Clark was born in Leeds, England, and came to Brooklyn in 1852. He learned the trade of currier, and bought a tannery in Brooklyn in 1853, which business he conducted till his death in 1875. He married Sarah M. Heath in 1841. They had five children: Sarah, Benjamin, Levi, Francis and John.
Henry M. Cleveland, son of Mason Cleveland, was born in Hampton, Conn., in 1827. He was a member of the general assembly in 1867, 1877, and 1882, a member of the state board of education four years, appointed in 1877 a member of special commission to examine insurance companies of Connecticut, and appointed member of commission to revise expenditures of state. He married Mary A., daughter of Jonathan A. Welch, in 1854. They have four children: Louis B., a graduate of Columbia Law School, class of 1876, lawyer at Putnam; Lilly C., married Lieutenant Commander Louis Kingsley of the United States Navy; Mary A., and Henry M. Jr.
Martin W. Crosby was born in Lisbon, Conn., and came to Brooklyn in 1855. The ancestor of the family in this country came from Lancashire to America in the ship ” Susan & Ellen” in 1635. Mr. Crosby was appointed deacon of the Congregational church of Brooklyn in 1877, which position he has retained until the present time. He married Abby,, daughter of Marvin Dexter. and a descendant in seventh generation from Reverend Gregory Dexter, who came to America and settled at Providence in 1644, and was pastor of the First Baptist church at Providence. They have two children: Henry D., and Mary A.
William H. Cutler, born in Killingly in 1817, is a son of Dan and Amy (Bussey) Cutler, the former a soldier of the war of 1812, and a son of Benjamin Cutler. In early life William H. worked in a cotton mill. He was in the jewelry business in Providence about twenty years, came to Brooklyn in 1865, and has since been a farmer. He has been selectman several years. He married Sarah F. Washburn of Killingly, and they have one son, Charles H., an engineer at Taunton, Mass.
Charles Dorrance was born in Brooklyn in 1824. He is a son of Samuel, and is descended from one of the early settlers of the county. He married, first, Janet Sharp, and second, in 1877. Frances Davis, daughter of Randall Davis. His children are George, born 1850, lives at St. Paul: Janet C., married John Davenport; Harriet E., married Albert Putnam; Kate, and Fannie G., married John Payne.
Vine R. Franklin was born in Brooklyn January 2d, 1843. He is a son of John and Laura P. (Hammond) Franklin, whose children were Vine, William H. and Annie, and a grandson of William B. Franklin, of Ashford. Mr. Franklin represented Brooklyn in the legislature of 1887, and has held various town ofices He married Josephine H. Main, of Brooklyn, and has one daughter, Lucy H., born in 1867.
John Gallup, born in Sterling April 9th, 1807, was a son of David and Nancy (Jacques) Gallup, and descended from John Gallup, who came from England in 1630 and married Christabel, sister of Governor Winthrop. Mr. Gallup was educated at the schools of Brooklyn and Plainfield; was deputy sheriff and .sheriff for ten years in early life; was president of the Windham County National Bank twenty years; representative to the legislature twice, once as senator, and was bank commissioner three years. He married Maria C. Tyler, great-granddaughter of General Putnan. Their children were: Henry. superintendent of the Boston & Albany railroad; Ellen DI. and Edward, who was assistant general manager of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, and died in October, 1888, at 46 years of age.
George G. Gilbert was born in Brooklyn October 20th, 1814. He is a son of John W. and Hannah A. Gilbert and great-grandson of John Gilbert, the first of the name in Windham county, who was of the fourth generation from Sir John Gilbert, who came from Devonshire, England, to Massachusetts in 1636: In early life Mr. Gilbert learned the machinist’s trade, which he followed eight years, and has since been a farmer: He has been twice married.
Hezekiah Hammond, son of Hezekiah, born December 14h, 1782, married October 1st, 1804, Polly Greenslit, and had three children. She died in 1814. He married Lora Burnett in 1816 and she died in 1817, leaving one child. He married third, Hannah Warren, daughter of John and Hannah (Fuller) Warren, April 22d, 1819. She had four children: Charlotte, Helen, Frances and Lucy. Charlotte, the eldest, born November 16th, 1822, married September 28th, 1847, Gurdon A. Brown, son of Artemas Brown, of Brooklyn, who was educated at the schools of Brooklyn, and engaged in real estate business at Philadelphia, where he died at 32 years of age. Hezekiah Hammond, 2d, brother of Colonel Asahel, was a descendant of Thomas Hammond, of Suffolk county, England, who married Rose Tripp May 14th, 1573, and whose sons William and Thomas came to America about the year 1630.
Colonel Asahel Hammond was born in Hampton May 10th, 1778, and married December 9th, 1801, Betsey Robinson. He removed to Brooklyn, Conn., in 1842, was a director of the Windham County Bank and president of the Windham County Fire Insurance Company, and colonel of the state militia. He died in 1861, and his wife died in 1865. They had eleven children, of whom Catherine, born May 10th, 1810, married in 1834 C. W. Cain, of Petersburg, ETa., who was ensign in the 2d Regiment, United States Dragoons, in the war of 1812, and afterward a merchant in New York city. They had three children: 1. James H., born 1836, received an academical education, enlisted at the commencement of the civil war, was wounded and confined in Libby Prison during the summer of 1864, was first lieutenant 1st Connecticut cavalry; 2. Elizabeth A., born 1838, married in 1866 John W. Hunt, who came from England, was engaged in mercantile business in New York, and died in 1885, leaving three children; 3. Mary C. Cain, born July 14th, 1840, resides at the old homestead at Brooklyn.
Harvey Harris, born in Brooklyn in 1859, is a son of George W. Harris, one of the largest land owners in Windham county, who was a son of Hosea Harris. Harvey Harris was married to Mary Cheney December 25th, 18S2. .
Erastus Harris was born in Brooklyn in 1815. About the year 1839 he commenced the business of blacksmithing and wagon making. His business increased until he employed fifteen or twenty men. He also carried on farming, and for many years engaged in staging, owning several different lines. In the time of the civil war he was active in the support of the government. He contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of the community, and was kind and charitable to the poor. He married in 1840 Miss Amy Herrick, daughter of Timothy Herrick. They had one daughter, Fannie, who married Charles W. Snow. Mr. Harris died in 1871.
Elias H. Main, son of Gardner, and grandson of Nathaniel Main, was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1808. In early life he was a mason, and afterward engaged in mercantile and real estate business in New York city. He has held various town offices. He married Susannah, daughter of Reverend John G. Dorrance, a graduate of Brown University, who was a grandson of Reverend Samuel Dorrance, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, who settled in Sterling, Conn. Their children are: Sarah E., Caroline T., George W., Alice P. and John G., who was adjutant in the 6th New York cavalry, and was killed at Cedar Creek, October 19th, 1864.
Enoch Pond was born in 1810, and came to Brooklyn in 1824. He is a son of Enoch, and grandson of Enoch Pond, who came from Wrentham, Mass., to Ashford, Conn., and was pastor of the church there. Mr. Pond learned the trade of cabinet maker, which has been the business of his life. He married Sarah A. Utley, and they have four sons: Theodore D., who enlisted in the 21st Connecticut volunteers and served till close of war, married Delia M. Brown; George E., enlisted in the 21st Regiment, was wounded at the battle of Dury’s Bluff, graduated at West Point in 1872, and is a captain in the United States army; Charles F., graduated at Annapolis in 1872, is lieutenant in navy, and John C., an officer at the Connecticut state prison.
Abram Shepard, born in 1806, in Plainfield, was a son of John Shepard, and a descendant in the fourth generation from Isaac Shepard, one of the first settlers of the town of Plainfield. Abram Shepard came to Brooklyn about 1837, and engaged in farming and mercantile business, which he continued till his death, in 1877. He was married in 1828 to Hannah Webb of Sterling. Their children were: Edward, living in California; Mary, married to James Pike; Maria, Duncan, Cameron and Esther A., a school teacher.
Simon Shepard, son of William, and grandson, of Simon, was born in Plainfield in 1833, came to Brooklyn in 1866, and is a farmer. He is one of the selectmen of the town, and has held various town offices. He was married in 1857 to Louisa, daughter of John Gardner. Their children are: Martha, married John E. Allen; Nettie, married Benjamin Clark; John, Charles C., Jennie, Morgan and Simon E.
Preston B. Sibley was born in Eastford, Conn., and came to Brooklyn in 1880. He is a son of Samuel Sibley, who came to Windham county from Sutton, Mass., in 1827, and a descendant in the sixth generation from one Sibley, who came from Wales to Massachusetts in 1705. He is a director in the, savings bank, and Windham County Insurance Company. He was married in 1862 to Katie Noble, and they have three children.
Joseph B. Stetson, born in Brooklyn, Conn., is a son of James, and a descendant in the eighth generation from Robert Stetson, who settled at Scituate, Mass., in 1634, and a great-grandson of Nathan Witter, who came to Brooklyn from Preston in 1753. Mr. Stetson represented Brooklyn in the legislature of 1880.
B. H. Weaver was born in Plymouth, Vt., in March, 1814. He is a son of Caleb Weaver, who married Betsey Clark, grandson of Benjamin Weaver, who served as a captain in the revolutionary war, and a descendant of Clement Weaver, who lived at Newport, R. I., as early as 1655. Mr. Weaver was in mercantile business in Massachusetts from 1833 to 1855, then removed to New York city, where he continued business till 1861, then came to Brooklyn, Conn., where he has been engaged in farming till the present time. He was married October 19th, 1841, to Sarah J. Gates, and has one son, J. Frank Weaver.
Charles G. Williams was born in Sterling, Conn., is a son of Nathaniel and Hannah Williams, and grandson of Samuel Williams. In early life he taught school, and afterward was a farmer. He married in 1846 Lucy E. Gallup, of Sterling, daughter of John Gallup. His second wife was Ruby G. Burgess, daughter of David Gallup, of Plainfield. He has three children: Mary M., born in, 1848; Nathaniel, born in 1850, and John C., born in 1856.
Henry N. Wood was born in South Scituate, R. I., and came to Plainfield, Conn., in 1865. He is a son of Nehemiah and Phila Wood. The family are of English origin. Mr. Wood learned the trade of blacksmith, and has for many years been foreman in that department at the mills of the Wauregan Company. He married in 1848 Mary Saulsbury and has three sons: Nehemiah, Henry and Charles, who married Ida Westcott.
Additional Offsite Biographies
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut, Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889