Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

As a boy our subject spent much of his time farming, as was the custom of the boys of that time. At the age of sixteen he was graduated from Eli Gilbert's select school in Redding, and then began the teaching of school himself. When eighteen he removed to Bridgeport at the time it was but a borough, and for a period was assist- ant postmaster to Stephen Lounsbury. On the opening of the Housatonic railroad in Bridgeport, in 1839, he was appointed the local agent. From that incumbency he resigned in 1844 to accept a position as bookkeeper with the saddlery firm of Harral & Calhoun, and nine years later he be- came manager of the concern, which was then one of the leading manufactories in the State, having agents in both the South and the West. In 1863 the firm name was Lacey, Meeker & Co. -<.«;■{ COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 163 The Civil war brought heavy losses to the firm, and it consequently closed up business in the early " sixties." Mr. Lacey's first work in municipal reform was in the fire department. Between the years 1840 and 1850 he was an active member of the volunteer department; from private he was promoted to be foreman and, finally', assistant engineer. In 1848 he drew up and procured the adoption of a cit}' bylaw for the bet- ter organization of the department, which system continued in force till the adoption of the paid system in 1870. He was a member of the com- mon council in 1848, 1852, 1853 and 1854. There was no better bookkeeper in Bridgeport than Mr. Lacey. As a penman he was an e.\- pert, and took pride in his copy. In 1870, at the request of Mayor Morford, he visited the large cities of the East and examined their system of financing and bookkeeping. On the strength of his experience he devised and inaugurated the present system of city finances and bookkeeping. The system was partially revised by the late Francis Ives. From 1870 to 1880 Mr. Lacey was the city auditor. He was also connected with the board of Road and Bridge Commission- ers (now the board of Public Works), and he was clerk of the Park Commissioners, which po- sition he held to the time of his death. From 1876 up until his decease he had sole charge of the management of the town Sinking Fund, a position of heavy responsibility. If one were to venture to enumerate the branches of the city government of which Mr. Lacey was an active and influential member, he would have to speak of all. He had much to do with the raising of the standard of the public schools of the city. He organized and prepared the Bridgeport Municipal Register, and was its compiler for ten years. He was one of the pioneers of the Board of Trade, and was its active secretary all through the late David M. Read's administration. Considering his long years of service, and the amount of work performed by him, there was no more active Church worker in Bridgeport. He was always a total abstainer and a man of deep religious views. He became a member of the First Congrega- tional Church in 1837, and was actively identified with same until his death, to which fact records of the Church attest. In 1850 he was elected as one of the deacons, and at the time of his death was a senior deacon. His last service in this respect was as a delegate to personally notify Rev. De Peu of his call to the Church. He was also appointed by the Church to represent them at the consociation that was to authorize and ar- range for the transfer of the present pastor of Bridgeport. For nearly fifty years he was the society's treasurer, chairman of the socie- ty's conmiittee, Sunday-school teacher, librar- ian, teacher of the Bible class and superin- tendent. His death brought a distinct loss to the Church. He was president of the Fairfield County Historical Society for many years; was much interested in the Sons of the American Revolution, and was one of the charter members of the lodge in Bridgeport. Mr. Lacey was twice married, first to Jane E., daughter of Deacon Isaac Sherman. She died in 1857, and he subsequently married Eliza- beth Richards Boardman, of Hartford, who died January 5, 1894. The children born to the first marriage were: Mary L. , who married (first) Major Ezra Day Dickerman.and (second) Samuel S. Hunter; Edward R., who died when six years of age; Henry R., who died in infancy; and David Sherman. To the second marriage was born one child, Henrietta B. "In the death of Mr. Lacey there passed away one of the striking characters of Bridge- port, and local history will give him a place as one of the distinguished citizens, a man of ex- emplary life and a charitable and kindly charac- ter. He was a man of deep sympathies. It was a pleasure for him to assist the families of his friends in their time of trouble, and perhaps he has written more obituary notices for his friends than any other man in Bridgeport. Perhaps some friendly hand will do the service to his memory which has become a part of the religious and civil history of the town." CvAPTAIN CALEB W. MERRITT (deceased). ' This typical sea captain of years ago lived in the village of Greenwich, where he was born January 18, 1822. He was a rugged and hardy representative of the sea-faring class, and, after a career long and profitable, retired to the com- posure of a farm and fireside among his old ac- quaintances, whom he entertained with many a tale of bygone days. His taste for the sea was most honestly derived, for both his father and grandfather were active and successful command- ers and owners of craft. Captain Merritt was a descendant of one of the earliest New York families, which over two hundred years ago was founded in this country. The earliest known representative, William Mer- ritt, was mayor of New York City from 1696 to 1698, and died in 1708. Among the children born to him and his wife, Margery, was a son John, called Major. The latter lived in Rye township, Westchester Co., N. Y. He and his 164 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. wife, Mary, had a family of ten children, as fol- lows: Daniel, Caleb, Nathan, Tliomas, John, Phoebe, Amy, Ruth, Mary and f-fannah. The second son of Caleb was Daniel, who was born August 17, 1742, married Rebecca Sherwood, and died July 15, 1782. His eldest child, Capt. Ebenezer Merritt, was the grandfather of our subject. Capt. Ebenezer Merritt was born at Hoppen Ridge, near Port Chester, N. Y. , March 28, 1746. He was a noted boatman on tfie Hudson river, prior to the appearance of steam power. On one occasion, when laid up at Sing Sing, awaiting a breeze, he chanced to meet a young lady, Cynthia Willis, a member of a prominent family of that city, and not long after, on Au- gust 17, 1783, they were united in marriage. Mrs. Merritt was born July 29, 1765. Captain Merritt sailed the sloop " George Washington " on the Hudson river. Capt. Caleb Merritt had in his possession a coin which his grandfather, in 1790, accepted as passage money from a Ger- man, going from New York to Albany, en route to Rhinebeck to buy land from the Indians. Later in life Capt. Ebenezer Merritt retired from the sea, retaining his interest in vessel property, however, for years afterward. For many years after abandoning the water he was a leading citi- zen of Greenwich. Both he and his wife were act- ive members of the Congregational Church. He died in 18 19 at Albany, and was buried in Sing Sing, his wife surviving him several years. The nine children of Ebenezer and Cynthia Merritt were as follows: Daniel, father of our subject, born in Sing Sing, N. Y., October 19, 1784; Willis, a sea captain, who was once wrecked on the ocean and rescued from a raft, and subsequently migrated to Ohio, where he bought land in an early day; Henry, once a jus- tice of peace in the City Hall, New York, and a prominent citizen of that metropolis; John, for years a lawyer in New York and later a citizen of Ohio; Wesley, a leading dry-goods merchant on Broadway, N. Y. , owning one of the largest stores of his day, who migrated to California during the gold excitement, and who subsequently became a well-known journalist in Illinois, where he died (he was the father of Gen. Wesley Mer- ritt, who graduated from West Point in i860, and is now so prominent in the military affairs of the nation); Charles, a New York private detec- tive, who made various professional trips to Europe; Cynthia, who married and died in New York; Phcebe, who married Gideon Peck, and died in New York; and Ann E., who married James Wood, of Tarrytown, N. Y., and died there. Capt. Daniel Merritt, eldest son of Ebenezer, and father of our subject, was reared a sailor boy. His parents removed to New York when he was but a boy, and at the age of twelve he went as cook for his father. Thus began a seafaring career that lasted for years. lit; ssms married May 19, 1807, to Miss Sarah Lyon, who was born March 23, 1786, daughter of James and Susan (Marvin) Lyon, and was reared in New York. Her father died when comparatively young, and her mother subsequently married James Green. Capt. Daniel Merritt owned the vessels "Union" and "Theodore," and sailed them between Greenwich and New York. He retired from the sea at the age of forty-eight years, but retained interests in his vessels. To each of his sons he gave $1,000, and if they de- sired more capital he loaned them the money on interest. Daniel Merritt was a Whig in politics. He removed with his family from New York to Greenwich, where he died April 30, 1849, His wife died July 8, 1848.