History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

city to ,-idvise in all matters connected with the city 'u' said " his early cihu'ation was defective, ami had bonds issued for the benetit of the Hoiisatonie Kail- ""' qnaiilicd him to write history." but his interest road Cianpany. Mr. Sherman was the secrctarv of and his confidence grew as he progressed. The result the council, and the meetings were gciu-rally held in »as not a com|iletc history, bill the embodiment of a • his otlice. The records of the council are extant. m-'^^ "I I-"'' -"I'l valuable inlormation of great value. To these and other duties Mr. Sherman added an 'I'o I hose who would study the early history of ISridgc- ageney for procuring jiensions for IJevolutionarv sol- P'H't :i"'l Stratticld, or their families, " Ksqiiirc Sher- diers and widows of deceased soldiers. I'rum the man's IJeciillcclinns" are a necessity, and every pass- absence of earlv records the establishment of these ing year they increase in value. 150 lUSTOUl' OF FAlKFiELJD CULMV, CUNNECTICUT. Mr. .Sherinan's relijrir)us convictions commenced early in lite. They were frrounded on the Word of (Jod, were pronounced, and influenced lii.s whole being. He and Iiis estimable wife together united with the Strattield churcii, the church of his fathers, in 1S12. Though modest and rctirinfr, here, a.s in secular matters, his worth was tlioroughly a[)iire- ciated and Ins services sought. In ISHd he was elected to the otKce of deacon, and continued in active service until 1858. He was for a long period upon the Society (or Parish) Committee, and its most active member. He wa.s also clerk and treasurer of the churdi. The res])onsibility and labor involved in this connection added very materially to his daily cares and duties. As to how they were met, his ))a.s- tor in his funeral discourse bears this testimony : " In the heart to see the house of God prosper, and thought- fulne.ss for widows, for the poor and bereaved, he was without fault. Many a child of sorrow has called him blessed." He was not ambitious for wealth. This is apparent from his early voluntary retirement from mercantile business, also from the firm Chris- tian prinei|ile whicli led him to decline, w'hen a young man, to sell liijuor by the glass, and this, long before the temperance reformation, while it Wiis customary and entirely respectable to do so. It was urged upon him, and visions of wealth were painted before his eyes. Hut he was inflexible, and would have no share in a traflic wiiich was injuriou.s, which he saw- to be wrong, whether others did or not. Having acquired a moderate competency, lie seemed only desirous of earning by his useful labors enough to provide for his moderate family expenses and dis- bursements for rcligicms and charitable ])urposes. These latter i)robably seldom, if ever, fell short of the Scripture rule of one-tenth of his income. He often remarked that " it was a very nice thing to live right;" and again, that Agur nndei-stood the matter jiretty well in his prayer; " Remove far from nic vanity and lies. (Jive nie neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me," etc. In his own estimation, he had not much religion to sjieak of. Cut his life told, and, referring to it, it was well said in the funeral discourse before quoted : "One exemplary, faithful, kind, ])eaeeable, loving, practical Christian life, sustained to the last — such a.s our lamented and venerable friend luis led in this community — is worth to the cause of (xod and truth and human salvation, more than all mere head ortho- doxy,— the spasmoilic piety, the exhorUitions and con- versations, which are so common and so cheap in every place, — all |)Ut together — a thousand fold. Such a life is a 'living epistle' written not with ])en and ink, but with the linger of (!od. Men can- not help reading it, nor can they hel]> believing it. " So lived and labored Isaac SirivKMAN, .\nd rested Nov. 2.'}, 18(i3." ROWLAND B. LACET. 1 f one were to choose a ])roper title for the biogra- phy of the subject of the present sketch, no fitter one could be found than " Record of a busy and exceed- ingly useful life." Rowland Bradley Lacey, only son of Jesse and Edna (Munson) Lacey, wiis born at Kaston, Conn., April (), 1818, and conies from excel- lent New England stock, being connected upon his mothers side with the family of President Stiles, of Yale College, and directly descended from John Haynes, the first Governor of Connecticut colony, and his wife, Mabel Harlakenden. Upon his father's side he is descended from John Lacey, an ejirly set- tler of Strattield Parish, and Deacon David Sherman and Deacon Henry Rowland, both of whom were pillai-s in the ancient First Church. His great- grandfather, Edward Lacey, son of John, removed to North Fairfield, now Easton, in 1756, and was one of the founders of that town. His grandfather, Zacluiriah Lacey, son of Edward, was a Revolu- tionary soldier, who served under Witshington at the time of the evacuation of New York, and after- wards commanded a small guard which was stationed for a time upon Fairfield beach. Rowland Lacey was brought up upon his father's farm in Easton, receiv- ing the usual common-school education of the day. When fourteen years of age he was sent to a select private school, taught by Eli Gilbert, in Redding, Conn. At the early age of fifteen and a half years he commenced teaching a district school in his native town ; and in the summer of 1834, and the following winter, taught the large public school upon Redding Ridge, many of the pupils being quite as old as their youthful preceptor. Among those who attended this school were .Mr. Henry Sanford, of this city; Sheriff Aaron Sanford, of Newtown; Henry B. Fanton, of Danbury. and others. The next year wius p;issed as a jiupil at Easton Academy, after which, in .Vpril, lS3(i, at the age of eighteen, he removed to Bridgeport. This place was then only a small village of some three or four thousand inhabitants, with very few of the public improvements now possessed. There were no jiarks, no sewers, no gas, a very scanty supply of public water, and flagged sidewalks only in a portion of throe or four business streets. The principal imblie buildings were the Bri<lgeport and Connecticut banks and the wooden Sterling Hotel on ilain Street, then just completed. Mr. Laeey's first occupation in Bridgeport was tliat of assistiint postmaster. This i)lac3 he held, at first under Stephen Lounsbury, and afterwards under Smith Tweedy, for nearly four years, with an interval of about six months in 1838, which were spent in study at Easton Academy. On the opening of the Housatonic Railroad, — one of the very first roads of the country, — in December, 183!l, Mr. Lacey took a position in the transportation dei>artment, and as agent at Bridgeport bore a largfe I'hrtto. by Wilsnii. Bridgeport. 1!1!I IK IMPORT. 151 sluur ni' thr ii>ji( iiisiliilitif^ iif ii]ifratiiiij: tlir mail. (|uc>l nlMayor ]\roit(ir(l ami (illiir |iriiiiiinciil •jnitlc- For several years during tlie wiiitei- seasim tliis was men, Mr. l^aeey \ isited New Haven and Ilartlord, tile only steam line between New York and .\lliany, Newark, N. .T., and Si)rin>;lielil, Mass., in order to and the traffie was very heavy, taxing to tlie utmost examine the methods of keej>ing the imhlie aeeounts not only the uu'agre faeilities for handling freight, ete., in use in those eities. From information thus ae- liut the mettle and resoun'es of the manage men I. The i] iii red lie drew up the ]iresent linaneial system, whieh. duties intrusted to ;\Ir. L;ieey, however, were faith- after having been revised, and in ~ome res|ieits rlab- fully and .sueeessfully jierioruinl until Mareh. Is44, orated, by Franeis Iv<'s, lCsi|., was ado|ilrd by ihe when he voluntarily withdrew, not without the re- Common Couneil, Feb. liO, 1S7I, ,\l lie- same tiuu' monstranees and e.xpresscd regrets of Alfred Uishop he was a|i]iointed eity auditor, an olliei' wliieli lir has and other leailin,!i: men eonneeted with the road. In filleil w iih euunent ability and faithfulness to the taking leave of the railroad business, lie had tin- sat- pre^iiit time, having been tliriee rc-eleeted to it, — viz., isfaetion of feeling that not only had his serviees in bS74, 1S77, and ISSd, The original aji|ioinIment . been highly prized by tin/ eoinpany, but that no nns- was made under a l)iaiioiaalie administration as a take or negligenee of his had ever been the oera-ion non-parti-an one, and has always had the -npporl cd of injury to either life or jiroperty. The immediate leading men of lioth |>arties. As atlditor of the eity, reason for his making the ehange was an unsolicited all matters of linauee and aeeounts pass under his ])ro])osition upon the ]>art of Messi-. I larral i^ ('al- insp.itioii. and no bills oi- elainis ean be paid without houn that he should take the position (d' book-keeper his exannnation and approval, lie has also been in their saddle-faetory. eonneeted almost eonstantly during the above period This was at that time one of the leading nmnufae- with the street and sewi r departments, as the elerk turing establishments in ( 'onm/etient, doing a large and man of business of the board of road and bridge and remunerative Southern trade, and having a ware- eonnnissiiuiers. and as secretary of the I'ark eonnnis- house in New York and a branch establishment in sinners. In addition to other services ]ierformeil. all Charleston, S. C. Mr. Lacey soon became assis(:nit the men in both of these de]iartmcnts ai'e paid tlu-ir manager of the maiiufaidory. and so familial' w itii all wecklv wages bv him jicrsonally, a matter ol no small the iletaib, both of the saddle trade and the ollice responsibility and lalior. In all these transactions business, that new hands who did not know to the there has been a remarkable freedom from i rmr, and contrary supposed that he had been brought up to the books ami aeeounts have been kept with accuracy it. In IS.'i:; he became a member of the lirm of JIar- and care.