Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

C CHARLES A. HAWLEY is best known to the ^JJ citizens of Stamford and Fairfield county. Conn., as the president of the Stamford National Bank, with which he has been identified for over thirty years, and which he has served in his pres- ent capacity for twenty years. He is a native of that thriving city, having been born there Novem- ber 5, 1 82 1, and comes from a good old family of Fairfield county, where the Hawleys have lived for several generations. Mr. Hawley's great- grandfather, Milton Hawley, lived and died in the town of Huntington, this county, where ' the grandfather, Cyrus Hawley, was born. His son, Charles Hawley, father of Charles A., was also born in the town of Huntington, in that part now known as Monroe. Charles Hawley was in his day one of the bright lights of the legal profession m Fairfield county, and was well known and respected throughout the State of Connecticut. His boy- hood was spent in Monroe, where he received his early education, attending boarding school, and he afterward entered Yale University, whence he graduated in 1816. For the three succeeding years he devoted himself to preparation for the profession he had decided to adopt, attending the then famous Litchfield Law School, and in 18 19 he began practice, settling in Stamford. His native intellectual gifts, cultivated in the best schools of the day and vitalized by an uncommon industry and capacity for work, soon won for him a foremost position at the Bar of Fairfield county, 92 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. and one of the largest and most lucrative prac- tices of his time and place. His best talents were devoted to his professional work, and his eminence as a lawyer and jurist best filled the measure of his ambition and won for him his greatest successes— those which brought to him the highest gratification as well as more sub- stantial rewards. The wide scope of his informa- tion, both as a student of general literature and as a learned lawyer, his shrewd judgment in regard to men and things, the clearness, force and origi- nality of his style as a pleader at the Bar — these and many other characteristics gave him a marked pre-eminence among the leading members of a profession which, in his time, included several who for learning, eloquence and general intel- lectual equipment will bear no unfavorable com- parison with the foremost men of the legal pro- fession in the present day. Ability of such high order, however, could not go unrecognized by the community in general, and in 1821 Mr. Haw- ley was elected to the State Assembly as repre- sentative from the town of Stamford. In this capacity he served seven sessions up to 1829, and in 1830 he was elected to the office of State sena- tor from the Twelfth district. In the spring of 1838 his name was placed on the State ticket for lieutenant governor, his election followed, and he distinguished himself in this, as in other walks of life; but he never forsook his profession for the political arena, devoting himself to it exclusively for many years, retiring eventually on account of advancing age. He passed away January 23, 1866, at his home in Stamford, living to see the beginning and triumphal end of the great Civil war, in which his country was engaged for the preservation of the Union, and his death was widely mourned, especially in the town of his adoption. Mr. Hawley was married, in Stam- ford, to Mary S. Holly, daughter of David Holly, and their family consisted of eight children, viz. : Charles A.; Martha C. , who is in Europe; Jane D. F., living in Stamford; Marianna (deceased); Emeline, of Stamford; Elizabeth K., in Europe; Maria A. (deceased); and Francis M. Charles A. Hawley was reared in Stamford, and here received his elementary training, attend- ing private schools in this town and a boarding school in the town of Monroe. For some time he studied in the office of William T. Minor, subsequently entering his father's office, and at- tending to his private business. In 1866 he be- came connected with the Stamford National Bank, and in 1878, upon the death of John W. Leeds, he was chosen president of that concern, an office which he has filled continuously to the present time. The Stamford National Bank is the successor of the old Stamford Bank, which was chartered by the State in 1834, and the building, which stands on a triangle lot at the junction of Main and Bank streets, is one of the architectural features of the business part of the town of Stamford. The interior finish is admir- able, the woodwork being of cherry, the floors tiled, and all the appointments tasteful and hand- some. The main floor is used jointly by the Stamford National Bank, the Stamford Savings Bank and the Stamford Safe Deposit Company, and Mr. Hawley is a director in the last named organization and vice-president of the Stamford Savings Bank. He is also connected with other Stamford corporations, and is in the foremost rank of the successful business men of the place, his ability, keen judgment, high principles and long experience in financial affairs giving his opinion a value in commercial circles wherever he is known. His enterprise and unusual quali- fications in his line have brought to him the measure of success in business life which his father attained in the legal world, and he is in- deed a worthy representative of one of Fairfield county's best families, and a citizen of whom Stamford may well be proud. Mr. Hawley was united in marriage, Novem- ber 12, 1866, in Stamford, to Miss Alice E. Holly, daughter of William Wells Holly. They have no children. They attend St. John's Church, in which Mr. Hawley is a vestryman. Fraternally, he is a member of Union Lodge, F. & A. M., of Stamford. LUTHER PRESCOTT HUBBARD, in whom I was worthily represented the eighth genera- tion of a family that has reflected honor to citi- zenship and credit to the name for nearly three centuries in New England, died at Greenwich, Fairfield Co., Conn., September 18, 1894. The Hubbard family is an old and numerous one in New England, where the progenitors in this country first located. It comes from excel- lent English stock, and is one whose members have filled honorable positions in England, have occupied important political positions, and main- tained throughout high rank as merchants, bank- ers and professional men. For a long time a Hubbard was governor of the Bank of England; some have occupied seats in Parliament; others have been distinguished as philanthropists and for acts of benevolence. The American branch of the family descends from three brothers who came from England during the early part of the seventeenth century and settled in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Their de- Ill ■:.. -I.: .'I'.' ■-rv /:;'/. J '^\ ,1'^M m :l 'si w JJ n B^^ /* mf[M wK^^^^^' .y C^tccM^e/r /^/htJC/fZCc^<-i-<^e^y>-^^>' COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 93 scendants are scattered over the entire United States, and among them are found men who have filled many positions of honor, trust and responsibility — such as judges, governors of States, and members of Congress. For many years, Hon. Samuel Hubbard, of Boston, was chairman of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Luther Prescott Hubbard, the subject proper of this biographical notice, descended from as follows: (I) George Hubbard (one of the three broth- ers above referred to) was born about the year 1600 in Somersetshire, England, and on coming to America settled in the portion of Wethers- field, Conn., now called Glastonbury. Lands were assigned to him, which have ever since been occupied by the family. He was a man of considerable note in the colony, and at its com- mencement he made a deposition respecting the purchasing from the Indians of the lands of Wethersfield by the General Court, which de- position was ordered to be printed. He was a member of the first General Court, in 1638, and of several subsequent courts. In 1644 he re- moved to Milford; from there, in 1648, to Guil- • ford. By his wife, Mary, he had four sons and five daughters, of whom: (II) John resided for a time in Hadley, Mass., whence Tie in 1660 removed to Hartford, Conn. He died in 1705, the father of two children, the youngest of whom was (III) Jonathan, born January 3, 1659, settled in Concord, Mass., in 1680. He married Han- nah Merriam, of that locality, a member of a noted old family in Colonial days, and there he died in 1728, the father of eleven children — seven sons and four daughters — of whom (IV) Thomas, the ninth child and sixth son, was born August 27, 1696. By his wife Mary he had an only son, (V) Nathan, born February 23, 1723-24, at Concord, Mass. He married Mary Patterson April 2, 1745, and by her had a family of twelve children — three sons and nine daughters. He was a farmer by occupation, and made his home in Groton, Mass., was kind, benevolent and hospitable, a man of irreproachable character, and Hved to an advanced age. (VI) Thomas, the eldest child of the above, was born December 28, 1745, and died May 25, 1807. He was twice married, first time to a Miss Conant, of Townsend (who bore him one son, Thomas), and on October i, 1777, he wed- ded Miss Lois White, of Lancaster, Mass.,. of one of the first families of the town. She was