Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

It is not known how long the Starr family had their home at Ashford, and the earliest record in existence connected with the name is that of the baptism of Margaret Starr, January 5, 1583. Ash- ford, once called the " Manor of Esshetford," is a small town forty-five miles southeast of Lon- don, in the county of Kent, a locality famous from the earliest period of English history as the battle-ground between the sons of the soil and hordes of invaders of various nationalities. The most conspicuous building in the little town, and one of especial interest to us, is the grey old parish church, known as "St. Mary's." It is a large structure, with three aisles, three chancels, a transept and a beautiful stone tower, and the date of its erection is now only to be surmised. Among its ancient tombs are some bearing the dates of 1490, 1564, and 1591, and these must have seemed to Dr. Comfort Starr as old and re- mote as are our Colonial relics to us, when he worshiped within the stately building. He was evidently a man of standing, as in 1631 he was warden of St. Mary's Church. At a vestry meet- ing held in 1634 it was voted that "Comfort should lend to Jno. Langford the sum of ^12 on the security of his house, it being copyhold." In 1634, only a short time before he came to Amer- ica, he was one of the committee to make repairs upon the old edifice. Dr. Comfort Starr was a " chirurgeon " (or surgeon as the word is now spelled and pronounced), and seems to have been a man of wealth, as he owned an estate at Ash- ford, which he retained until his death. When he came to the New World he brought three servants, which a man of small means could hardly have afforded in those days. His wife, Elizabeth, died June 25, 1658, aged sixty-three, and, as has been noted, he passed away in the fol- lowing year. They had eight children, all born in England: Thomas, born 16 — ; Elizabeth, born 162 1 ; Comfort, born 1624; Mary, born 16 — ; John, born 16 — ; Samuel, baptized March 2, 1628, buried April 16, 1633, in Ashford, England; Hannah, baptized July 22, 1632; Lydia, baptized March 22, 1634. II. Thomas Starr, the eldest son of Comfort, evidently lived in Duxbury, Scituate, Yarmouth, and in Charlestown, Mass., where in 1654 he was clerk of the Writs, and he died there October 26, 1658. He was a householder, with small in- come. Of his wife it is only known that her name was Rachel, and it is probable that she went, after his death, with her younger children to Hempstead, L. I. Their children were: Samuel, born 1640; Comfort, born 1644; Eliza- beth, born 1646; Benjamin, born February 6, 1647-48; Jehosaphat, born January 12, 1649-50; Constant, born 1652, died October 5, 1654, at Charlestown; William, born March 18, 1654-55, died December 13, 1659, at Charlestown; and Josiah, who was the founder of the Danbury branch. III. Capt. Josiah Starr, the youngest son of Dr. Thomas, was born September i, 1657, in Charlestown, Mass., and was an infant when his father died. He was one of the seven patentees named in 1702 when town privileges were granted to Danbury, and was elected the first town clerk, the second justice of the peace, and was after- ward surveyor. In 17 10 he was commissioned lieutenant, in 1713 captain of the first company or "train band," and for three years he was justice of Fairfield county. In 1702 he was elected deputy to the "General Court," a posi- tion of great honor and distinction, to which he was annually chosen as long as he lived. He died January 14, 171 5-16, and was interred in the ancient burial place in the rear of the present jail. His wife Rebekah died July 15, 1739, aged seventy-four years, and was buried beside her husband. Their children were: Thomas, born 16 — ; Benjamin, born 1683; John, born 1684; Hannah, who married a Mr. Dibble and had two sons; Rachel, born in 1G90, and married Capt. John Benedict; Josiah, born 1693; Samuel, the great-great-grandfather of our subject; and Com- fort, born October 20, 1706, and died May ir, 1763, leaving X'Soo by will to the city of Dan- bury for the perpetual maintenance of a school there, the instructor to be capable of teaching Latin and Greek as well as the "three R's. " IV. Samuel Starr, son of Captain Josiah, was born in Danbury about 1700, and married Abigail Dibble, who died July 24, 1791, aged eighty-eight years. They had six children, viz. : Samuel, our subject's great-grandfather; Rachel, who died August 12, 1824; Silvanus, born 1736; Caleb, born February, 1739; Abigail, who died November 27, 1767, in her twenty-sixth year; and Peter, born September 17, 1744. V. Samuel Starr, son of Samuel, was born July 28, 1732, and died of smallpox October 18, 1770. He was married April i, 1752, to Ann , born November 5, 1731, and they had eleven children, whose names and dates of birth and death are here given: Noah, March 24, 1753. 17 — ; Abigail, July 22, 1754, May, 1813; Sarah, March 27, 1756, January 30, 1819; Ann, November 7, 1757, October, 1827; Peter, No- vember I (.'), 1759, April 13, 1812; Piatt, July 29, 1761, 17 — ; Hannah, June 29, 1763, Febru- yi,',v v'l ^0\i 111 IV ;l '11-! Mi 98 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ary, 1828; Eunice, August, 1765, May, 1813; Mary, August i, 1767, 17 — ; Olive, July 11, 1769, December 2, 1833; Samuel, April i, 1771, 18 — . VI. Peter Starr, son of Samuel, and the grandfather of our subject, married Deborah Smith or Weed (?), who died May 6, 181 2, aged fifty-one years. Five children were born to them: Smith, October 3, 1784; Rory, July 22, 1786; Anna, born June 29, 1788, died July 20, 1844; Harry, July 26, 1795, and Orlando, Sep- tember 5, 1804. VII. Rory Starr, son of Peter, and the father of our subject, was born in Ridgebury Parish, and received a common-school education. He was a great reader, with a wonderful memory, and was noted as a man of few words and many deeds. He possessed decided mechanical genius, and for many years followed carpentering in Danbury, where he framed the first house put together by the square rule, now the common method, but then considered impossible. He was greatly in- terested in reading of the invention of the circu- lar saw in England, and was the first to put it into practical operation here. He dammed a small stream that ran through his grounds, built a mill, and put up a circular saw and turning lathe to run by povC^r, and numbers of people from far and near came to see these wonderful inventions. This mill was the beginning of the business carried on successfully, many years by himself, next by his son George, and now, 1897, hy his nephew, Daniel Starr, who has conducted it for twenty years. Rory Starr represented the town in the General Assembly in 1831-1832- .!833, and was a member of the Senate one year. An active Christian, he was for years a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and -.throughout his life he exerted a wide influence for good. He married Sarah, twin daughter of Stephen Bronson and Eunice Wildman Bene- dict. She was born April 23, 1790, and died April 30, 1850; and his own death occurred Feb- ruary 17, 1845. Of theirfive children, William, born April 12,' 18 13, was learning the trade of •printer in Bridgeport, when he died November 'I3, 1830; George, born August 26, 1815, car- ried on the business established by his father, for many years. He was twice elected to repre- sent his town in the Connecticut Legislature, in 1S58 and 1861; Peter, born May 23, 1820, was scalded, and died March 7, 1823, from his in- juries; Benedict, the subject of our sketch, is mentioned more fully below; Mary, born March 5, 1828, was married July 13, 1852, to Noah Knapp Barnum, who was born December 24, 1824, the son of Darius and Maria Knapp Bar- num. He was a prosperous merchant in Savan- nah, Ga., before the Civil war, and later con- ducted a mercantile business in New York City. Professor Starr was born August 4, 1822, at the old family residence on Elm street, Dan- bury, and his education was begun in the schools of that city. In 1838 he entered the seminary at Amenia, Dutchess Co., N. Y. , and from 1840 to 1844 he pursued a course in the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. On graduating from that institution he taught two years in the academy at Danbury, and then con- ducted a private school in the same place for two years. In 1849 he went to Newark, N. J., to teach in the Wesleyan Institute, where he remained until 1856, and for two years of this time he was principal. His next work was in the Wesleyan Female College at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he spent five years as Professor of Mathematics. In 1861 he established a private school at Hamilton, Ohio, but he left this posi- tion in 1866 to establish "Starr's Institute," a boys' boarding school, in the village of Seven Mile, Butler Co. , Ohio. With his marked ability as a teacher and disciplinarian, developed by ex- tensive and varied experience, he could not fail of success in such an enterprise, and he remained there eighteen years, building up in the mean- time a flourishing institution. After an interval of rest, occasioned by the death of his wife, he resumed his professional labors, going to Chatta- nooga, Tenn., in the spring of 1887, to fill a place in the university there during the absence of one of the professors. In the fall of the same year he returned to Danbury, where he has since been engaged in private teaching. He is a mem- ber of the board of education in his city, and spends much of his time among the local schools. As there are seventy-five teachers in the town- ship, the task of visiting each is no light one, but Professor Starr has done a most effective work in counseling and inspiring these faithful and hardworking instructors.