Windsor County Vermont Biographies

CHASE, Charles Sherwin, lawyer; born, Springfield, Vt., (Windsor Co) Jan 8, 1866; son of Barton Walker and Sarah J. (Sherwin) Chase; educated in public schools of Detroit and at University of Michigan, graduating, degree of L.L.B., 1887; unmarried. Has been engaged in practice since July, 1887. Member Detroit Bar Association. Republican. Unitarian. Member Masonic order. Clubs: Fellowcraft, Detroit Golf, Country, Detroit Automobile. Recreations: Gold and automobiling. Office: 919 Hammond Bldg. Residence: Charlevoix Apts.

[ Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Copyright, 1908 - Contributed by Christine Walters]

DANIEL H. ADAMS.

Daniel H. Adams, principal of the Central Junior high school at Ogden and well known as a factor in the educational circles of Utah, was born in Chester, Vermont, March 17, 1860, a son of Ira H. and Marcella (Adams) Adams, who prior to their marriage were distantly related. The father was a native of Vermont and a descendant of one of the old families of the Green Mountain state of English origin. The first ancestors of the family in the new world came to America in the early part of the seventeenth century and from the same ancestry were descended John Adams and John Quincy Adams, both presidents of the United States. Ira H. Adams was a farmer by occupation and also engaged in the wholesale produce business in Chester, Vermont, where he resided throughout his entire life. There he passed away in 1902 at the age of seventy-seven years. His widow, who was also a native of the Green Mountain state, survived him for about a decade, passing away in 1912 at the age of seventy-nine. They had a family of six sons.

Daniel H. Adams of this review, the youngest of the family, attended the public schools of Chester, Vermont, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1882. He afterward became a student in a Vermont military academy and was graduated there from with a captain's commission in 1886, his commission being given through the governor, Levy K. Fuller, who signed the papers conferring upon him the title. After leaving the academy he spent several terms in educational work in Chester, Windsor County, Vermont, and then removed to Alma, Michigan, where he was principal of the high school for three years.

On leaving the Middle West he came to Ogden, arriving in the summer of 1890. In the fall of that year he entered the schools of Ogden and has since been continuously connected with the educational system of the city. He has been throughout the entire period a teacher in the Ogden high school and has contributed much to the splendid reputation of this institution as a factor in the educational development of the state. He holds to the highest standards in his professional work and keeps in touch with the most advanced methods of instruction.

On the 19th of August, 1902, Professor Adams was married in Lawrence, Kansas, to Miss Ellen M. Zimmerman, a native of the Sunflower state and a daughter of Rev. W. H. and Mrs. Zimmerman, both now deceased. Her father had charge of the Methodist diocese of Kansas for many years and was a well known representative of the clergy of that denomination. To Mr. and Mrs. Adams have been born two children: Katherine M., born in Ogden in 1904; and Daniel H., Jr., in 1905.

Professor Adams is a republican in his political views and during the period of the recent European war he did a great deal in connection with the Boys' Working Reserve in the sale of Thrift and War Savings Stamps and in other ways. He is a member of Weber Lodge, No. 6, A. F. & A. M., and is a faithful follower of the craft. He likewise belongs to the Weber Club and the family are members of the First Methodist church. Their aid and influence are ever given on the side of progress and improvement and Professor Adams and his family have made valuable contribution to the cultural development of the district in which they live.

[Source: Utah since Statehood: Historical and Biographical Volume 2; By Noble Warrum; Publ. 1919; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

EATON, Levi F., president Peninsular Engraving Co.; born, Windsor, Vt., Sept. 20, 1851; son of Hezekiah C. and Elizabeth (Damon) Eaton; educated in public and private schools; married at Pomfret, Conn., Aug. 28, 1882, Susan Medbury. Began active career as bookkeeper in provision house of Meriden, Conn., 1867, and later engaged in provision business for himself; entered engraving business at Meriden, 1883, under title of the Illustrating Engraving Co., later becoming Eaton & Peck Co.; sold out interest to Meriden Gravure Co. and came to Detroit, 1891, as foreman of engraving department of Winn & Hammond Engraving Co.; organized the Peninsular Engraving Co., 1895, of which has been the head since time of organization. Independent Republican. Baptist. Vice President Employing Photo Gravure Association; member Detroit Board of Commerce, Employers' Association of Detroit. Mason (32), Shriner. Club: Fellowcraft. Recreation: Motor boating. Office: 73 Fort St., W. Residence: 50 Atkinson Av.

[ Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Copyright, 1908 - Contributed by Christine Walters]

FORBUSH, William Byron, clergyman; born, Springfield, Vt., (Windsor Co) Feb. 20, 1868; son of Rufus Orestes and Eliza Ann (Spencer) Forbush; graduate Springfield High School; A.B., Dartmouth College, 1888; graduate Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1892; Ph.D., New York University, 1892; Litt. D., Hanover College, 1895; married at New York City, Nov. 29, 1890, Maud Muller Barden. Pastor Woodward Av. Congregational Church since 1906. Republican. President General Alliance of Workers with Boys; director Detroit Recreation League, D'Arcambal Farm School; trustee Franklin Street Settlement; member Detroit Board of Commerce. Author: The Boy Problem (6th edition), Boston, 1901; Travel Lessons in the life of Jesus, New York, 1904; the Boys' Life of Christ (2d edition), New York, 1905; Ecclesiastes in the Metre of Omar, Boston, 1906. Office: Woodward Av. Cong'l Church. Residence: 706 2d Av.

[ Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Copyright, 1908 - Contributed by Christine Walters]

JOHNSON, J. H., Born in Woodstock, Windsor Co., Vt. March 17,1817; came to Illinois in September, 1836; was Deputy Clerk of Circuit Court, in 1838-9, also Clerk of Circuit Court from July 4, 1840, to December, 1856; studied law, and admitted to practice in 1851 ; was also Probate Justice and Clerk of County Commissioners; was Director of C. & N. W. R. R., and was engaged on the line between Chicago and Oshkosh, soliciting subscriptions to the stock, and securing the right of way and purchasing timber lands, until June, 1858. Been married three times; had four children, one living; present wife was Maria Richmond, of Chenango Co., N. Y. . Source: 1877 McHenry County, Illinois Directory - Contributed by K. Torp

M. L. Joslyn

JOSLYN, M. L., Attorney at Law, Woodstock; born in Livingston Co., N. Y., September 10, 1826 ; came to McHenry Co. in November, 1838; owns 20 acres of land and Masonic Hall Block, Woodstock; was Presidential Elector in 1856 on the Buchanan ticket; was in the Legislature one term, in 1865 ; was Supervisor for twenty years; also elected to the State Senate, in 1876, for four years. Married Mary Robinson, December 25, 1862, who was born in Pawlet, Vt., 1838; has two children. . Source: 1877 McHenry County, Illinois Directory - Contributed by K. Torp

Ezra McCollum

The family is of Scotch-Irish origin, and several of its representatives came to America in an early day, locating in New Hampshire. The father of our subject, Ezra McCollum was born November 5, 1831, and was a physician and surgeon, practicing his profession in Windsor County, Vermont, throughout his entire life. His death occurred there at the age of forty years. His wife, Ellen M. (Farwell) who was born July 9, 1834, is yet living in Windsor County. They had a family of three children, namely: William D., of this sketch; Mary Della, wife of Frank L. Hubbard, of Rochester, Vermont; and Leon Ellwood, who is engaged in the real-estate and rental business in St. Louis, Missouri. The father of this family (Ezra) was a man of superior ability and force of character, self-educated, and paid his own way through the Berkshire Medical College. He was a stanch Republican in politics, and was known to some, extent as a campaign speaker. He held membership with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his wife belongs to the Congregational Church. She (Ellen) has been a second time married, but has no children by the second union.

[Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896, Page 483, Biography of William Dayton McCollum - Contributed by Nancy Piper]

Hiram Powers

HIRAM POWERS; The pyrotechnist, after displaying a succession of blazing rockets, bursting shells, and brilliant wheels, occasionally varies his entertainment by lighting a simple colored fire, which resting humbly on the ground, burns quietly and is hidden from the view of a majority of the spectators. But at the same time it spreads a bright halo all around, whose steady radiance is very pleasing when contrasted with the previous flashings and whirling's and explosions. In a similar manner the biographer, after presenting to his readers a succession of soldiers and statesmen, whose lives were crowded with incidents of dramatic interest, is sometimes called upon to consider the career of a man no less preeminent in his sphere than they in theirs; but who passed through life more quietly, and whose fame rests rather upon the productions of his genius than upon any brilliant performances. Such were some of the historians and poets, and such was Hiram Powers, one of the earnest and most distinguished of American sculptors.

He was born in Woodstock, Vt., on the 29th of July, 1805, and Lived there until he was fourteen years of age, when his father, despairing of being able to provide for his large family on a New England farm, removed with them to what was then the far West, the State of Ohio, and settled at Cincinnati. The father soon died, leaving the emigrant family destitute. Thrown thus entirely upon his own resources, Hiram showed that he possessed those qualities which go to constitute the self-made man; willingness to labor, determination to succeed, and promptness in embracing any opportunity that might offer for bettering his condition. With these characteristics he combined the rarer ones, unlooked for in one of his birth and education, of an artistic taste, and a mechanical and inventive genius. Ever on the alert to turn an honest penny, he was at length put in charge of a reading room in a hotel, by an elder brother, who had attained to the editorship of a local newspaper. The enterprise did not prove to be a paying one, and it was soon abandoned. Powers not long afterward induced a charitably disposed organ builder and clock-maker to employ him in the capacity of a bill collector, and his success in that line led to his becoming a workman in the factory. His employer was not long in finding out that he had in Hiram Powers a valuable assistant. A short space of time sufficed to make him thoroughly familiar with his new occupation, and he was then made superintendent of the mechanical branch of the business.

About the time that Powers was thus raised above his former condition of poverty, a plaster cast of Houdon's Washington which he chanced to see aroused within him his latent ambition to become a sculptor. He instinctively felt that he possessed the ability to perform similar work, and began to seek earnestly for an opportunity to learn. From his early boyhood he had delighted in fashioning mechanical toys, and had been much admired for his ingenuity by his playmates. He was fortunate in making the acquaintance of a Prussian who was engaged in modeling a statue of General Jackson, and from him he learned many of the important principles of his art. His natural talent for sculpture developed rapidly, and before long he had acquired considerable local fame for the correctness of the likenesses which he executed in wax or clay.

He was about twenty-three years of age when he found a more congenial occupation than any in which he had yet been engaged. Recommended by his skill in modeling and his familiarity with clock mechanism, he was employed by a Frenchman, named Dorfeuille, the owner of a museum, to construct a series of automatons from wax and other materials, with the proper machinery for putting them in motion. He was quite successful, and for seven years he continued to delight the not over critical audiences which patronized his exhibition. The most celebrated group of figures which he made, was a representation of the inhabitants of the Infernal Regions, in which demons, skeletons and ghosts writhed in most orthodox torments. The somewhat Dantesque idea of this entertainment is said to have been suggested by the famous English authoress, Mrs. Trollope, who was then living in Cincinnati, and who took much interest in the artist's work. Among the numerous circle of acquaintances which Powers formed in Cincinnati, was a gentleman named Nicholas Longworth, who proposed to establish him as proprietor of the museum. Powers declined this offer, but as he was now married, and constrained by the cares of an increasing family to seek a wider field, he accepted that gentleman's aid in 1835, and removed to Washington.

During his two years' residence in the national capital, he was busily engaged in making models for busts of many of the prominent men of the time. John Quincy Adams, Calhoun, Chief Justice Marshall, Martin Van Buren, and many others were among the number of his patrons. He went to Marshfield with Daniel Webster, to obtain sittings, and passed a most enjoyable week at the statesman's home. His bust of President Jackson was a work of remarkable accuracy, so that the Prussian Minister, Baron Krudener, whose authority in matters of art was highly considered, censured the artist for his fidelity to nature, it being contrary to his notions of propriety to reproduce the lines and wrinkles in the features of so exalted a personage as the Chief Magistrate of the Nation. In 1837, Powers left America, to seek in Italy those facilities for prosecuting his art which are to be found nowhere else in the world. He was enabled to do this mainly through the liberality of General Preston of South Carolina, who advanced him a thousand dollars, and authorized him to draw upon him annually for a similar sum for several years. Powers was always profoundly grateful to this generous friend, although he amply repaid him in after years in the choicest products of his studio, and deeply regretted his patron's disloyalty during the Rebellion. A son, who was born to Powers in Florence, received the name of Preston, and has himself obtained an honorable reputation as a sculptor.

He was welcomed to Italy by Greenough, who was almost exactly of his own age, but whose advantages had been immeasurably greater than his own. The two artists became warm friends, and mutually aided each other in designing mechanical contrivances and improved modeling materials, by which the drudgery of their art was lessened to a considerable degree. Powers was extremely painstaking and faithful; he was no dreamer, but aimed at a truthful delineation of nature, and neglected no means for attaining the desired end, though sometimes taken to task by carping critics for devoting too much of his time to the invention and construction of patent files, " perforating machines," and other labor-saving devices. His portrait busts have rarely been excelled. He was soon abundantly supplied with orders, but hardly had he become fairly settled, when the death of his eldest son unfitted him for a time for work. He received flattering notice from native artists, as well as from Thorwaldsen, who especially praised his head of Webster. In the second year of his residence in Italy he produced his first ideal piece, a statue of Eve, "fit," said the Danish sculptor already referred to, "to be any man's masterpiece."

A year later he conceived the design of the Greek Slave, which was not however completed until 1843. It was the most famous piece of statuary produced since the days of Canova. It is probably better known to-day, through its numerous reproductions, than any other work of modern art. It was purchased by an English gentleman, and exhibited by him, gratuitously, in London, in 1845, receiving high encomiums which established the artist's reputation beyond cavil. He subsequently made five replicas of this work, one of which is now in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington. Among his other ideal pieces may be mentioned the Fisher Boy, II Penseroso, Proserpine, California, and the Statue of America which was exhibited at the World's Fair of 1851. All of these displayed remarkable vigor of conception, and beauty of finish; and they are justly esteemed as choice treasures of art; but they do not constitute the artist's highest claim to the grateful remembrance of his fellow country men. That rests upon his numerous busts and statues of the distinguished men of his country, whose form and features he has preserved for future generations in almost living marble and bronze, and to which he devoted his maturest thought and labors. Prominent among them are the Franklin and the Jefferson in marble in the national Capitol, Washington, the property of the State of Louisiana, and Calhoun of South Carolina, and the Webster in bronze before the Massachusetts State House.

Powers never returned to America, but made Florence his permanent residence. He was, however, none the less an American at heart, and would gladly have quitted his exile, had he not been constrained to remain abroad by the exigencies of his profession and from motives of economy. He hived for many years in a hired house, but toward the close of his life he built a charming villa just outside the Porta Romana, and near by, several of his married children also made homes for themselves. The American or the English visitor was heartily welcome, both to his house and to the spacious atelier which he erected in his garden, while he was held in high esteem by his Italian neighbors. The patriotic American has just cause to be proud of the success of Hiram Powers, who probably did more than any other man to elevate American Art and American Genius in the eyes of Europeans. He died June 27, 1873, in his sixty eighth year.

[Source: Biographical Sketches of Preeminent Americans, Volume 3; By Frederick G. Harrison; Publ. 1893; Transcribed and submitted by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

ROBINSON, George O., lawyer, retired; born, S. Reading, Vt., (Windsor Co) June 14, 1832; son of Lewis and Sarah (Manning) Robinson; educated in Vermont schools, University of Vermont, A.GB., 1857, honorary degree of LL.D., Albion College, Michigan, 1904. Married, Greenwich, Conn., Sept. 27, 1859, Helen Mather (now deceased); again, Cincinnati, O., May 7, 1891, Miss Jane M. Bancroft. Began practice at Janesville, Wis., 1858; removed to Detroit, 1861, and continued in practice until 1892. Has large interests in timber and mining lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Southern states. Member Robinson & Flinn, timber, mining and law, established, 1872. Formerly justice of the peace and member Board of Education. Republican. Methodist. Twice a delegate to Methodist General Conference and member book committee in charge of all Methodist publications; for twenty-five years president Methodist Publishing Co.; delegate to the Centennial Methodist Conference of 1884, held at Baltimore, Md., and also delegate to Methodist Ecumenical Conference, held in London, England, Sept., 1901; founder and for ten years president Methodist Deaconess' Home; for nine years trustee Albion College, and built Robinson Hall and donated same to the College; for sixteen years president board of trustees Central M.E. Church. Club: Old Club of St. Clair Flats. Recreations: Gardening, fruit raising and farming. Office: 1220 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit. Residence: 425 Cass Av., Detroit; summer residence: Robinhurst, Grosse Ile, Mich.

[ Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Copyright, 1908 - Contributed by Christine Walters]

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