History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

lived for six years. Again meeting with a good offer, lie sold this farm and bought one near the village of Huntington Centre, where he died Oct. 1, 1879, fall- ing dead from his chair from heart disease. His mother also died suddenly from the same cause. In Huntington Mr. Glover engaged in the dairying and ganlening business, making a success of it and gradually improving and beautifying his quiet coun- try home. In religions belief Mr. Glover was a L'niversalist. having joined that denomination when quite a young man. Forbidden to preach on account of the weak- ness of his voice, he always took an active interest in church matters, and was an official of his church or- ganization at Bridge])ort for many years. He wijs a man of sterling integrity, living strictly up to his Christian principles. In manners genial, by nature kind-hearted, he gained both the respect and the es- teem of his neighbors and acquaintances, and wa~ called upon several times to fill offices of public trust. In politics, Mr. (Jlover was a Republican from the first organization of that party, and was alive to all the questions of the day. Mr. Glover was married March 20, 1838, to Henri- etta Smith, daughter of Henry A. Smith, a son of Fitch Smith, of Derby, Conn. The union was blessed by two children, — Henry Fordyce, born Dec. 2, 1842, and Theophilns Nichols, born Aug. 9, 1847. Henry Fordyce Glover succeeds his father in tin- management of the farm and dairv', and is a man strong in nerve and body. Theophilus Nichols Glover is a minister of the Uni- versalist faitli, and fills the puljiit of that church at Dowagiac, Michigan. Simeon, father of Henry Glover, was married three times. His third wife, Mary Gregory, bore him four children, — Ives, Mclora, Nancy, and Henry. Simeon was the son of Henry. Henry had three sons,^ Simeon, Elias, and Solomon. Henry was the son of Henry, who was the son of John tilover, who came to Newtowu from Stratford. REV. THOMAS PUXDERSON.» The name and the pleasant face of one long since glorified will awaken many tender and endearing recollections in the minds of surviving friends in his former ]>arishes, in the ministry, and in the church at large. " His record is on high." To those who knew him best, in the favored intimacy of home, no earthly record nor speaking likeness is needed to keep him ever clearly in sight. To those less favored in the intimacy of acquaintance, no better memorial can be offered than the following biograi>hical sketch, l)rei>ared for the AVi/' Yuri- Obsrri-er by the late Rev. Dr. Hewit, of l?ri«lLaiH,rt. a neighboring pastor and a beloved friend. • By the Bev. RoUin S. Stooe. X'** \ ri ■ .r t':v.ij:ip:r^0K riU.\TIN(!TOxV. 425 "The late Rev. Thomas Punderson was born in Kew Haven, Conn., Doi'. 2>i, 1783 ; a descendant of John Punderson, (Jiie ol' the oriirinal seven pilhirs of the First Church, tlien under the ministry of John Davenport; was graduated at Yale ( 'ollege, Septem- ber. 1804; was licensed to preach the gospel in LStit'i; spent a jiart of the summer of 1S(I7 on a missi<m to the northwest portion of the State of New York ; was ordained to the work of tlie ministry in the Second Congregational Cliurcli and Society in Pitts- field, Mass., Oct. 20, 180!* ; was married to Miss Betsey I Day, of Catskill, N. Y., May 4, 1813; was dismissed", ' in consequence of the reunion of the Secon<l with the First Church, Feb. 215, 1817 ; was installed ]iastor of the church and society in Huntington, Conn., Nov. 18,1818; was dismissed Jan 1, 1S44, and died Aug. 1, 1848. "Being a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for F'oreign Missions, he attended the annual meeting in September las-t at BuH'alo, and while on his way home he was taken ill of a bowel com])laint, from the efiects of which be did not re- cover. On TJinrsday morning last, .July 27th, a stric- ture of the large intestines took jilace, tbllowed by acute pain, and terminating fatally on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 1, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the thirty-ninth of bis nunistry, leaving a widow and four children (a son and three daughters, one of whom is married) to mourn their irrejiarable loss. "He was aware of the severe and dangerous nature of his last illness, and when it was evident that his recovery was hopeless, lie manifested the same calm and even temper which he exhibited througli life. AVith the tcndi-rness of a husband and a father, and with the faith, hope, and sublime frani|uillity of a saint, he blessed bis wife and chilili'en, one by one, in the name of the Lord ; and when bis I'ailing voice had sunk to a scarcely audible wliisper, he exclaimed, 'Grace, 'tis a charming sound I Glory to God in the highest !' and expired. "The character of !Mr. Pundersim is more easily apprehended than it can be described. He was a transparent nuin, — ' an Israelite indeed.' His ])iety, his integrity, his benignity, his humility, liis disinter- estedness, his cheerfulness, bis consistency, — indeed, all his qualities, as a man, a Christian, and a minister of the gospel, — were evident as the light. He iniUnl with God. In his own house he was a pattern for our imitation in all that is amiable in domestic life, and his dwelling was the home of purity, comfort, and thankfulness. In the house of God lie was a good minister. He was sound in the faith once delivered to the saints, and he preached the distinguishing doc- trines of grace with an unction which tlie lore of tlie truth only can impart. He was not ambitious, neitlier was he covetous or envious. Patiently, meekly, ear- nestly, constantly, he sought the present peace and Uiture salvation of all the souls committed to his care. He loved his work, and he loved bis people. 28 No one hath aught to lay to his charge; nor is there any one kimwii who insinuated even that he was not an examide to believers in every good wor<l and work. Few ministers of the gospel, if, in<leed,any tliere are, wlio may with more coiitidence than he exclaim, ' I am pure of the blooil of all men.' "His funeral was attended on Thursday, the 3d inst.. by a large concourse of the inbaliitants of the town, of all denominations, and from the towns ad- joining, and by bis neighboring brethren. The deep solemnity oltlie jH-o]ile through all the services, from the <lwelling-li(nise to the church ami from the church to the grave, gave impressive witness to the universal conviction that be was a man of God, and that lie had gone to receive from the lips of the Lord, whom be bad served in his life and glorified in bis death, the ]ilaudit, 'Well done, tbou good and faithful ser- vant ! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' " To the foregoing obituary sketcli by Dr. Flewit, a member of Jlr. Punderson's family adds the reminis- cence that in his missionary bmr in the State of New Y'ork in the summer of ]8t»7, S])oken of above, "he was accompanied by the Rev. Dr. Beniiet Tyler," afterwards |)resident of East Windsor Seminary, Conn., and that " he preaciied in Rochester when that place contained but one frame house, an<l the only building capiable of accommodating a congregation was a barn, which was used on that occasion in lieu of a church." The present writer recalls a temperance meeting which he had been invited to address in Mr. Punder- son's ])arish full fifty years ago, when a mere sopho- more himself, and how, at the close of his youthful and perhaps useless etl'ort, the beloved pa-stor came to his su[q>ort with a rousing and most effective home- made and imin-omptu sjieecli. He drew a striking compariscm Ijctween the ravages of strong drink and those of beasts of jircy let loose in a community and destroying many a precious life, while yet the people did not seem to be at all alarmed and did not bestir themselves to cheek the dreadful .slaughter. Near the close of his cpiarter-century pastorate in Huntington, when so many churches were wearying of their old ])astors and longing after smart j'oung men, he (Uie day preached a mildly satirical sermon from the com]daintof the Israelites in the wilderness, "Our soul loatlieth this light bread" (Num. xxi. o). If tbey did not see the quails falling njiiiid the camp that ilay, tbey were servecl with a dish of "strong meat" well flavored ami prepared. His long, (piiet, uneventful life wm yd full of telling imintH, — full <if gentle luunor and silent force, — not tame, dull, monotonous, at all ; "not slothful in busi- ness: fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.'' Y'ears after bis decease, and at the grave of bis noble wife, a venerable deacon said, in answer to the inquiry how the church had prospered since lie left it, "We made a great mistake wlu-n we let Mr. Punderson go." He belonged to a generation not at all inferior to 426 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. the present, but very unlike. — a generation of min- isters not adapted to the wants of our more bustling and aggressive age, but in their day and generation faitliful anil beloved, and whose praise was in all the churches of the land. Having lost by death one daughter and an only son, and having survived her luisband nearly twenty- eight years, Mrs. Punderson died in New Haven, April 30, 187(), and was buried in Huntington, by the side of her husband an<l among the friends of her youth. Two marrieil daughters still survive her, — Mrs. Emily P. Ritchie, of Brooklyn, and Mrs. Frances P. Gilbert, of New Haven. JOHN I. HOWE, the eldest son of William Howe and Mary Ireland, was born in the town of Ridgefield, Conn., July 20, 1793, and died in Hirmingham, Conn., Sept. 10, 1876. He remained at home, working on his father's farm in the summer and attending the district school in the winter, until the age of nineteen, when lie com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. Perry, a physician of that town. He was graduated at the medical university of New York about the year 1814. He commenced the practice of his profession in the city of New York, and for several years was one of the resident physicians of the New York almshouse.