History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

08"' yi'iir of Ilis.Vgf." His first wife, the mother of thirteen children, is j buried near him. The stone contains: " Hon- lyes Bnrioil yo Boily III' M" Sariili Bnrr, Wili! t.i O.lo Auihfw ISiirr, \\lio Di'liarteil this Lifp Dt'Ct'Ui' if, AiiTio Iloni", 174.'», Ageil -Ij years wantiili; l-'J I>'s." Eev. Aarnn Burr, son of Daniel (2d), grandson of ! Daniel (1st), and great-grandson of Jehuc Bnrr, was born in 171G in the northern part of Fairfield. In 1738 he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Newark, N. J., and in 174S the second jiresident of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), of which lie was one of the principal founders. He married Esther, daughter of Jonathan Edwards, who was the third president in the same college. Their children were Sarah, who married .Judge Tajjpan Reeve, and Aaron, Jr. His duties were very .arduous ; his rela- tions as pastor to this one church continued twenty years. In 17')7 he made a trip to Stockbridge, and returned home exhausted. College and public duties were so importunate that he did not pay sufficient attention to malaria, which was tlireatening to jirostrate him, but jiersisted in attending to his duties. He never recovered from this attack, the malaria running into a fever, so that he exj)ired in 1757. Few men have heen more sincerely mourned than this one of Fair- field's sons. The magnates of the land were at his funeral. Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, pro- nounced a glowing culogium, and the i>ress and the pulpit vied in honoring his virtues, talents, and benef- icence. In 1762 he published a Latin grammar, used in the college long after his death. He abo published sev- eral sermons and a work, — " The Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ maiutained." He was more noted as a teacher than as a writer. His son, Aaron Burr, was one of the most notorious men of the United State.s, in war, jwlitics, and law. In the Presidential election he and Thomas Jefferson had a tie. Ai'ter seven days' arguing, voting, and in- vestigating, it was decided that Jefferson should have the Presidency and Burr should be Vii-e-1'resident. There is so nnicli to say of him it is dilticult to sum him up in a line or so. His duel with Hamilton, the new government scheme^ in tlie Southwest, and his family are familiar to most [leople. He was truly " the Napoleon of America." Seth Burr, son of Daniel and Ann Silliman, was born in 17()1, served through the war of 1770, and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. A few years after, being in India, he was pressed into the British service, and served under this same Lord Cornwallis. The Burrs have always Ijcen of public service, fur- nishing judges, clerks, captains, colonels, legislators, and teachers. Three town clerks are of this family. — Peter (built tlie Smith house, opposite B. Betts), who served with Nathan Gold from ]7fi(; to 1724; Thaddeus, from 172G to 1755; David, from 1755 to 1759. Samuel, son of Maj. John and grandson of Jehue Burr, graduated at Harvard College in lGi)7, and was one of the most famous teachers of his time. For twelve years he was master of the grammar-schocd in Charlestown, a ju-eparatory school for Harvard, which had a reputation in the colonies similar to that of Eton and Kiigby in England. His body was laid among the illustrious. This is his inscription: " Here lyes tlie Body of 51^ Samuel Burr, Ula.ster of Arts. W"as lioni ill tliis town of l^'aiilielii .April 2ii(l, in ye Year 1079; was eilucateil at Harvanl ('oUeye, in Cambriilge, uiuler ye Fauioun M' W«' Brattle, and Tliare lie was ^ladiiate'^ ye fii^t time in ye Year lO'.iT, ye seeolid time iu y Year 17IIII, lit Moris est. Who ai'ter lie had .Salved liis generation by ye will of God ill y I'sefiil Station of a GraiiiniarSeliooI Miuster, at Charles- town, aiioiit Twelve Years, uiion a Visit to this His Native Place, Ite- IKirted this I.iti' .Viisiist 7tli, in y year 171!l, aged 40 Years, 4 months, & :. Days." Catharine, daughter of Silas and Charity (Banks) Burr, married Morris Kctchum, a banker of New York. He (Mr. Ketchnm) died ISSO.* Henry, son of P^phraim and Eunice (Sherwood) Burr, who married Mary F. Slabac, was a merchant in San P'rancisco, Cal., where he died in 1871. His body Wits brought on and interred in Fairfield. Mr. Ephniim Burr is eighty-six, hale and hearty. Cajit. D;ivld, son of Eben and Hannah (Osliorne) Burr, marrieil Ellen Magdalen, of Marseilles, France. He was a master-mariner, and was lost with the ill- fateil steamer, " Evening Star," off Cape Hatteras, in October, IStiG. Capt. William Ktmpp, whose widow and four daughters reside in Fairfiehl in a house that h:is been standing ninety-six years, was also on board. A tombstone to his memory contains this (the Ma- sons' emblem is above tlie inscription) : * See Wcetport. 326 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. " Capt AVilliam Knnpp, ' sun of John and Estlier Knupp, Born in FairtlclJ, Fob. 21, 1S25. Lost nt 80.1 Oot. ;i, IfCn ,» In tlic Stoanmliip ' Kvoning Star,' M'liich fonn<lorotl on lior passage from Now York to Now Orleans. "His last wortls wlion bidding ailien to tho officers of the slilp wore, ' If you sun-ive, and I do not, toll them at home 1 died doing my duty.' "'Twas the first time I mourned the dead; It was my lieaviest, my worst. Wy husband, and was thine llie first?" Samuel Burr, brother of David, wsus lost from the barque " Palermo" in 1.S.57. Of thi.s family, An<;cline married Doacon i^amuel Morehouse (see " Colonial," No. 11); Sarah and Eliza married brothers, James and Rcnjamin Bulkeley (sec " Colonials," 1, 2, 11, 15) ; Cornelia married Andrew P. Wakeinan,t Mary mar- ried John Henry Jennings, of prominenec in Green's Farms; and William married Catharine Sherwood. Emma and Franeis reside in the paternal mansitm. In 1878, Fairfield was represented in the Legisla- ture by Oliver Burr, of Oreenfield, and Ebenezer Burr, Jr., of Mill Plain (Fairfield), who is a promis- ing lawyer and clerk of the County Court. The Burrs have married into about every old family in Fairfield through several generations, and, as they have never been dispersed much, there is scarcely a fiimily but has a Burr origin. 3. The Congregational Parsonage. — This wa.s built for Hon. Roger Minott Sherman, born at Woburn, Mas.«., May 22, 1773. He wa.s the youngest of si.\ chil- dren of Rev. Josiah Sherman, the Congregational minister of that place. His father was descended by four removes from Capt. John Sherman, of Dedhain, England, who came to Watertown, Mass., in 1635. Hon. Roger Jl. Sherman was a nephew of the Hon. Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His (Roger M.'s) mother wjts Mar- tha, daughter of the Hon. James Minott, of Concord, Mass., who was four removes in descent from Cicorge Minott, one of the first English settlers in Dorchester, Mass., where he was a ruling elder for thirty years. I Rev. J. Sherman preached in Milford, Mass., Goshen, ' Conn., and Woodbridgc, where he died, leaving six children. In 1780, at the age of sixteen. Judge Sherman en- tered the sojjhomore class at Yale. In six weeks his father died, leaving no property ; so the son's \ chances at college appeared of a negative charac- ter, hut an uncle (Hon. Roger Sherman) came to his relief and rendered necessary aid. He taught school in New Haven through the last half of his college days, but attended regularly the duties of , • In • cyclone. t A pivmiuout olBccr In town and State. his class, and graduated with honor. He taught next in an academy in Windsor, and began the study of law under Hon. Oliver ElUworth. He after>vards took a common school in Litchfield, and continued the study of law under the Hon. Tapping Reeve. In 170.') he was tutor in Yale College, and instructed the cla.ss that graduated in 1797, at the same time studying under Hon. Simeon Baldwin. There were several distinguished men, both in his own class and the one he instructed. As tutor he was peculiarly successful. He resigned that office, and in 1796 was admitted to the bar in New Haven. He then estab- lished himself in Norwalk, having married Miss Flizal)eth, daughter of Dr. William Gould, of New Haven. She was sister of Judge Gould, of Litchfield. They had two children, twin sons, of high promise, but they both died young. In 1807 he removeil to Fair- field, where he resided till his death, which occurred Dec. 30, 1844. As a jurist he had few equals. From 1814 to 1818, Mr. Sherman wiis a member of the upper branch of our State Legislature, where he showed a high power in debate and a patriotic devo- tion to the welfiire of the people. In 1814 he was chosen by the Legislature of this State a delegate to the convention of the New England States a.s.sembled at Hartford for the purpose of devising measures suited to the exigency brought on by the war. New England sent her most gifted and patriotic statesmen. In this galaxy he shone with peculiar lustre, and an account of his labors has been published. From 1818 to 1839 he was wholly devoted to his profession, except that he was now and then a mem- ber of the Legislature. He originated and drafted many important laws, which have become inwrought into the fixed policy of his native State. These refer to the administration of justice, tending to abridge the cost and delay involved in vindicating our rights at law, and to abolish cumbrous formalities. In 1839 he was judge of the Superior Court and associate judge of the Supreme Court for the re- vision of errors in that State. His written opinions in the Court of Errors (published in Vols. XIII. and XIV. of the Connecticut Reports) are the most im- portant monuments to his great intellect which he has left to posterity. In 1842 he resigned this office, on account of poor health, that he might have the genial support of a retired home-life. He died aged seventy-one years and seven months.