Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

born April 30, 1747, and died March 26, 1834, the mother of the following children: (i) John, born October 3, 1778, died November 8, 1845; he was a successful farmer. (2) Abel, born Octo- ber 5, 1779, died November 3, 1852, in Boston, Mass. ; he was a prominent builder, and erected in Boston some of the best dwellings of his time. (3) Nathan, born March 12, 1781, died in Port- land, Maine, in 1826. (4) Luther, the next in order of birth, will be more fully spoken of farther on. (5) Amos and (6) Jonas (twins), born December 13, 1783. Amos was a farmer by occupation, a great Bible student, and a man of unusual general information; he died at Am- hert, N. H., January 30, 1858. Jonas married, settled in Providence, R. I., and died about 1825, childless. (7) Hannah, born August 28, 1785, died June 23, 1786. (8) Anna was born January 5, 1787. (9) Phineas, born March 8, 1789, died January 23, 1852; he was a mason by trade, and also followed agricultural pursuits in Hopkinton, Mass. (10) Lucy, born March 20, 1791, died February 10, 1832, unmarried. (VII) Luther, commonly known as " Major Hubbard," was born August 13, 17S2, and died iu Manchester, N. H.,- March 2, 1857. For many years he was an extensive monument dealer in Hollis, N. H., doing a large business, was widely known and respected, and it is said of him that "he probably never had an enemy." On December 18, 1806, he was married to Han- nah Russell, who was born July 9, 1781, and died at Manchester, N. H., December 12, 1870, the mother of the following named children, all born at Hollis, N. H. : (i) Luther Prescott, the eldest, will be more fully spoken of farther on. (2) Mary A. was born December 25, 1808. (3) Hannah, born November 9, 181 1, died at Hollis, N. H., May 18, 1834. (4) Thomas, born No- vember 20, 1813, died July2i, 1815. (5) Thomas Russell, born October 15, 18 17, was a typical self-made man, having risen from a farm hand to a merchant in Nashua, N. H.; for a time he was in business at Fall River, Mass., thence moved to Manchester, N. H., where he purchased a a sash, door and blind factory, with a kmiber business in connection, and was eminently suc- cessful; he built for himself a magnificent home in Manchester, and owned also a cottage at Rye Beach, where the family spent the summers. His aged parents died at his home. He served as an alderman of Manchester, and for two con- secutive terms represented that city in the State Legislature. (6) William, born November 3, 1821, died at Fall River, Mass., in 1848. (?) Sarah C, born October 30, 1824, was the youngest. 94 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. (VIII) Luther Prescott Hubbard, born June 30, 1808, at Hollis, N. H., attended the district schools of his native place, after which he was for a short time a pupil at the Pinkerton Acad- emy. He was twice married, first time Novem- ber 28, 1832, to Miss Sarah Ogden Johnson, born September 11, 1812, in Elizabeth, N. J., a daughter of Jonathan W. and Mary A. (Wood- ruff) Johnson, and children as follows came to this union, all born in New York City: Theodore Frelinghuysen, born March 16, 1834, died De- cember 27, 1840; John Cleveland, born April 20, 1836, died January 22, 1841; and Luther Prescott, Jr., born January 20, 1840, now treas- urer of the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company. The mother of this family died December 29, 1840. She was a woman of ex- cellent social qualities and rare personal beauty. On November 29, 1848, Luther P. Hubbard married Miss Mary Cummings Tenney, who was born in Hollis, N. H., November 19, 1819, a daughter of Hon. Ralph E. and Phtebe Colburn (Smith) Tenney. A brief record of the children by this marriage is as follows: (i) Frederick A. is the eldest; (2) Miss Mary Tenney was born in Hollis, N. H., October 12, 1855; (3) John Theodore, born in Brooklyn, N. Y., October 2, 1857, died February 2, 1882 (he was engaged in the insurance business in Minneapolis, Minn.); (4) William Norris, born November 2, i860, at Greenwich, Conn., is a physician in New York City; (5) Benjamin Farley, born at Greenwich, Conn., January 20, 1863, died in 1884, at Greenwich. He was a very brilliant young man, and when he was but twenty-one years old his writings appeared prominently in the New York Obsfii'LT, The Christian Union, and other re- ligious papers. In his early manhood Luther Prescott Hub- bard was a stone cutter, working on the Bunker Hill monument, " Tremont House," Quincy Market, and other buildings in Boston, and, later, was a contractor for stone work in New York City. But more than sixty years of his life was devoted to the interests of the sailors, being connected with the Bible Society, and the New York Port Society. At the time of his death he had been for thirty-four years the finan- cial agent of the American Seamen's Friend So- ciety. He had also been for forty years the honored secretary of the New England Society in the City of New York. James C. Carter, in eulogizing their late secretary, said to the So- ciety: " His unostentatious life, free from all selfish ambitions, filled with industry, with de- votion, with usefulness, in which every duty to God and man was faithfully performed — these eighty-six years without a stain — this constitutes of itself an achievement, a noble accomplish- ment, of which his family, his children, and we, his associates and friends, may well be proud." Mr. Hubbard was for several terms warden of the borough of Greenwich, and he was a member of the standing committee and for a number of years clerk and treasurer of the Sec- ond Congregational Church. But he never sought office or position. He enjoyed his books and his friends, the latter easily made and never abandoned, and they could always depend upon him. His recollection of faces, names and dates was remarkable. While strong in his opinions, he was courteous and charitable toward those with whom he disagreed, and his voice was often heard in debate, in town, school and Church meetings, but no one ever saw him lose his tem- per. He possessed considerable literary ability, and for many years was a regular contributor to the " Sailors Magazine," the New York Ob- server, and other periodicals and papers. In 1872 he published a volume entitled " Descend- ants of George Hubbard from 1600." He also published in the year 1872 a circular entitled " How a Smoker got a Home," editions of which have appeared annually, and have been spread broadcast throughout this and foreign countries, and since his death have been circulated by the W. C. T. U. Therein Mr. Hubbard gives his own experience with tobacco as both a chewer and smoker. He says he began the use of to- baccco at the early age of twelve years, chewing first, then smoking, and continued a slave to the habit several years, or until he united with the Church, when he soon afterward abandoned both indulgences, and, to use his own words, "was emancipated from a slavery worse than Egyptian bondage." He now saved up the money that he would otherwise have spent in tobacco, and in course of time purchased, with the accumulated savings, a beautiful property in Greenwich, commanding a fine view of Long Island Sound. Some interesting statistics are also given by him in the "Circular," from which we glean the following: "My smoking was moderate compared with that of many, only six cigars a day at six and one-quarter cents each, equal to $136.50 per annum, which at seven per cent, interest for sixty-one years, amounts to the small fortune of $118,924.26." Continuing, Mr. Hubbard, says: " Great as this saving has been, it is not to be compared with improved health, a clear head and steady hand, at the age of over eighty-five years, and entire freedom from desire for tobacco in any form." COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 95 WILLIAM D. B. FERRIS (deceased). The future historian will have in this volume a veritable "treasure trove," preserving as it does in substantial form the histories of the men and women who have been and are prominent in various lines of progress. In the following sketch mention is made of the Ferris and Black- man families, whose names are held in the highest esteem in this section, having always been associated with the sterling qualities that constitute good citizenship. The late William David Baldwin Ferris, who was for many years a leading agriculturist of Newtown, was a great-grandson of Squire Zach- ariah Ferris, a prominent pioneer of that locality. The Ferris homestead, a fine estate near New- town village, has been occupied successively by five generations in a direct line, as follows: (i) Zachariah Ferris (great-grandfather of our sub- ject); (2) Abel Ferris (the grandfather), who died May 21, 1824, aged seventy-two years, five months, eleven days, and Abiah, his wife, who died September 10, 1842, aged seventy-nine years; (3) Gideon Baldwin Ferris (the father of our subject); 1^4) William D. B. Ferris; and (5) George B. (now deceased), son of the last named. The line of descent is traced through Jeffrey Ferris, a pioneer of Greenwich, to England and France. The members of the Ferris family have always been connected with agricultural put- suits, and as substantial and progressive citizens have taken an active part in local aflairs, being especially interested in religious work and in the support of the Episcopal faith. Besides the record in Newtown cemetery of Abel and Abiah Ferris, above given, are found the following: John Ferris died 1758. Abraham Ferris died 1789, aged si.xty-eight years; Mrs. Betsy Ferris, his wife, died August 28, 1759, aged thirty-six years. Johnathan Ferris died September 21, 1850, aged si.xty years. Gideon Baldwin Ferris, the father of our sub- ject, was born in 1793, and died September 7, 1849. His wife, Charlotte, who died in the spring of 1868, was a daughter of William Nor- throp, and granddaughter of David Northrop, the owner of a large tract of land in Hope-