Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

She was born July 26, 1784, and died April 13, 1850. To this marriage came children as fol- lows: (i) Anna Maria, born April 17, 1808, mar- ried Aaron Summers. They lived in the vicinity of the old homestead throughout their lifetime. Anna Maria died December 30, 1887. (2) Eliza- beth Emily, born August 25, 1809, married Philo Baldwin. She died January 30, 1888. (3) Char- ity Susan, born June 6, 181 1, married Samuel Baldwin. She died August 20, 1884. One of their daughters married Elliott Peck, of the firm (in days gone by) of Sterling & Peck, of Bridge- port. (4) Ebenezer Seeley, born October 6, 1813, married November 30, 1 83 i , Hannah Maria Downes. He died November 10, 1867, his death being the result of a kick from a horse. (5) Louisa Augusta, born August 4, 18 16, was mar- ried November 17, 1839, to Eli Lyon. They went to Michigan and reared a large family. She died April 16, 1888. (6) George Hoadley, born September 6, 1818, married February 19, 1845, Betsey Reed, of Redding. He died Sep- tember 21, 1875. (7) Mary Rebecca, born April 6, 1 82 1, married Isaac Beach, and moved to Michigan, where she still lives, being the only member of the family surviving. (8) Andrew Leavenworth is referred to at length farther on. (9) Charles Carroll, born December 6, 1824, died January 12, 1849. (10) David Beardsiey, born November 20, 1827, died January 19, 1849. The late Andrew Leavenworth Winton, whose sad death occurred at Bridgeport, on July 29, 1892, having been killed by the cars while endeavoring to quiet a fractious horse he was driving, was one of the most prominent of the older citizens of Bridgeport. Born November 20, 1822, at the old Winton homestead, the lad, at the early age of fourteen, went to Easton, where he attended the academy through the winters and worked on a farm during the sum- mers. At nineteen he began his career as a school teacher, engaging in the work several sea- sons. When twenty-two he for a time was asso- ciated in a store at Easton with a brother, and in the spring following he began business for himself, starting a store on temperance princi- ples, on account of its intemperance in the place " Devil's Den," and succeeded in business, leav- ing the place at the end of eight years without a grog shop in it. We next find him at Sauga- tuck, where in 1853 he built a store and resi- dence. A man of tact and excellent judgment and business ability, he left Saugatuck after a period of thirteen years with twenty-five thou- sand dollars. For three years thereafter he operated very successfully a flouring-mill some two miles above Westport, and in 1863 he per- 154 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. manently located at Bridgeport, purchasing the Berkshire mills, which were very much out of repair. He took great pride in this property and expended thousands of dollars in its improve- ment until the mills were commodious and mod- ern, and to this business he gave the balance of his life. The history of the mills is that a custom- mill was built on the east side of the river in 1783 by William Pixlee and James French, while in 1792 it was secured to them by charter. This was afterward bought by a Mr. Penny, who built the present mill on the west side of the river, and did a large business in kiln-dried meal for the West Indies. Gen. Enoch Foote became the next proprietor; his successor was James Porter, who bought the property, and while in his hands the dam and the east-side mill were carried away in a flood. The dam was re-built, but not the east-side mill. The mill was owned afterward successively by Anson Ryan, Wasson & Craft, Ryan & Wells and Mr. Winton. Mr. Winton was an earnest and consistent Christian, and an ardent temperance advocate. He had been a member of the Congregational Church since 1842, and was one of the founders of the Park Street Church of that denomination, in which at the time of his death he held the of- fice of senior deacon. He was a man of strict integrity, honorable in all his dealings, and though stern and firm he had a kind heart, and was generous though quiet and devoid of show in his gifts. A man of force and strong charac- ter, he was not without enemies, yet was ad- mired for his straightforward course. One al- ways knew where to find him. Full of energy and ambition, he made and lost many thousand dollars. On November 24, 1847, Mr. Winton was married to Miss Mary Esther Gorham, and there were born to them the following children: Fred- erick Norman, August 2, 1852, died July 15, 1857; David Terry is referred to farther on; and Andrew Lincoln, born January 26, 1864, who was graduated at the Bridgeport High School, and in 1884 at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College, is now chief chemist of the Connec- ticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, with which he has been identified since his graduation. He is at this time president of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists of the United States. David Terry Winton, the subject proper of this sketch, was born May 20, 1859, at Sauga- tuck, Conn. He attended the private school of Emory F. Strong at Bridgeport, the Sedgwick Institute at Great Bari-ington, the Park Avenue Institute at Bridgeport, and the Norwich Univer- sity at Northfield, Vt. His first newspaper ex- perience was in 1877 during his stay in North- field, where he was special correspondent for the Northfield Nezcs. For a period after leaving school in 1879 he traveled in the West and South, in Texas and throughout Mexico. Re- turning to Bridgeport, in 1881, he was contented for probably a year, then again went to the West, where at various points throughout Illinois, In- diana and Michigan for some ten years he de- voted himself to the newspaper business. In 1892 he returned to Bridgeport, and has since been identified with its interests. For several years he has been connected with the publication of the Morning Union in different capacities, and is now its directing head. With a natural taste and aptitude for newspaper work, and the prac- tical experience travel and contact with the world has given him, coupled with his energy and ca- pacity for work, Mr, Winton is making a success in his calling. He has taken hold of the Union, and is making out of it a newsy paper, one of the great advertising mediums of the Park City. The paper, established some fifteen years ago by Frederick A. Bartlett and Charles O'Cain, is typographically speaking one of the neatest pa- pers in the State. It is a seven-column, eight- page journal published daily (Sundays excepted) by the Morning Union Company, of which Fred- erick A. Bartlett is president. On November 19, 1898, David Terry Winton was married to Rosamond C. Zwisler, a native of New York City, and a daughter of Dr. Will- iam C. and Catherine Dorothy (Kraussman) Zwisler, the latter of whom is deceased. Ebenezer and Ann Seeley, the great-grand- parents of David Terry Winton, were born Jan- uary 10, 1761, and July 15, 1762, respectively, and were married November 7, 1782. Their death occurred May 21, 1842, and April 19, 1813, respectively. Lieutenant Nathaniel Seeley, from whom many of the Fairfield county Seeleys sprang, was the son of Robert Seeley, who was made a free- man of the Massachusetts Colony May 18, 1631. Lieutenant Seeley was in New Haven, Conn., in 1646, whence he removed to Fairfield, and was made a freeman in 1647. Mary Esther (Gorham) Winton, the mother of our subject, born July 22. 1829, died January 16, 1889. She was a daughter of Isaac (3) and Adeline E. (Bennett) Gorham, born, he on March 10, 1802, and she on October 28, 1804. They were married October 24, 1821, and died Sep- tember 19, 1 88 1, and April 3, 1884, respectively. They had'two children, the other being George M., born November 15, 1822. . COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 155 From one Joseph Gorham, son of James Gorham, of Barnstable, Mass., came many of tfie name who have lived in Fairfield county. Joseph Gorham was in Stratford as early as 1715. M' TON. HOBART RUTLEDGE WHEELER is one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Trumbull, having valuable real-estate holdings in that town and in Bridgeport. His winters are spent in the city of Bridgeport, while in the summer he removes to his pleasant country residence in the town of Trumbull. He takes an active interest in all that concerns the welfare of the public, and for years has been a leading worker in the Democratic party, serving at one time as representative from Trumbull in the State Legislature. Mr. Wheeler belongs to a well-known pioneer family, and is of the eighth generation in descent from Sergeant Ephraim Wheeler, who came from England at an early date in company, pro- bably, with Rev. John Jones and party. He located first at Concord, Mass., where he was made a freeman March 13, 1639, and in 1644 he came to Fairfield, this county, with Mr. Jones' colony. At this time he had a wife and one child, if not two. He became prominent in the colony, acquiring a large amount of land, which was mentioned in his will, dated September 22, 1669. On October 28, 1670, his estate was inventoried at ten hundred and twenty-six pounds sterling, eighteen shillings and sixpence, and in 1681 his widow paid ta.xes on 706 acres of land. He had eleven children: Isaac, born in 1O38, who died in infancy; Isaac (2), born December 13, 1642; Mary; Ruth; Hannah; Rebecca; Judith; Abigail, who died February 7, 1712; Samuel, who was not twenty-one years of age in 1669; Timothy; and Ephraim.