subject's father, was born in Guilford May 26,
1809, and removed to Ohio in early life, returning
to Connecticut in 1844. He died at Derby in 1872
and his wife, Delana Elizabeth, died at Ansonia
in 1893. This worthy couple had eight sons and
two daugliters, some of whom were born in Con-
necticut and some in Ohio. Calvin C. and Austin
I', are the only survivors.
Austin r. Kirkham, who is now town and city
clerk of Ansonia, was born in MiJdletielil, Ohio,
Dec. 25, 1837, and is now one of the oldest resi-
dents of Ansonia. Soon after the war Jie was ap-
pointed United States postal clerk between New
York and Boston, which position he held a few
years, but he resigned to enter the employ of his
brother, Leveritt G. About 1881 he removed to
.\nsonia, where he has since resided. In i8go he
was appointed chief clerk in the United States
postal card agency, but after serving four years
was removed from office, soon after the Cleveland
t administration took the reins of government into
their hands. He returned to his home in Ansonia,
and at the following election was chosen
town and city clerk; at the end of the
term of two years he was again elected, for
his present term. In this office, as in all
the affairs of life, he is most courteous and af-
fable, giving respectful attention to everyone alike,
regardless of their station in life. Being of a sym-
pathetic nature, he is ever ready to listen to the
story of the weak, the oppressed and the unfor-
tunate, and his purse is ever open to assist any suf-
ferer or to promote any good cause. His life has
ever been one of unselfish sacrifice for the good
of others, and in the four years' struggle for liome
and country through which he passed his genial
disposition and cheery smile did much to brighten
the spirits and raise the hopes of those with whom
he came in contact. This brief sketch conveys
hut a faint idea of the man, but his innate modesty
is averse to praise, no matter how well deserved.
1 His highest ambition is to please those around him
and in this attempt he has gone beyond his strength,
but although he has been a constant sufferer for
years he is a marvel of patience. He will ever be
remembered by hundreds whom he has helped in
many ways. Upon the field of battle and in the
navy, while amidst the awful carnage, he was
cool, calm and collected. He saw no danger. He
thought not of himself, but of others. The deeds
he did are not to be recorded here, but in that great
book kept by the recording angel will be found
written high upon the scroll of fidelity to country
and love of fellow man the name of Capt. Austin
I'. Kirkham.
Capt. Kirkham was married, March 12, 1857,
to Miss Eunice A. Smaliey, of West Dennis, Mass.,
and they had two sons : Frank A., born Dec. 25,
1 1857, and Charles A., born Mav 30, 1864. Frank
A. Kirkham was educated in the common schools
in Derby, learned the trade of a silver burnisher,
later worked as a clerk in the grocery business in
Ansonia, and then took a position in the Indus-
trial Insurance. At the present time he is lo-
cated in Marlboro, Mass. He has been twice mar-
ried, and has one child by his first wife, Irene
(Conklin), of Sloatsburg, N. Y., now deceased.
His present wife, Louise Tuguer, was born in
Zurich, Switzerland ; they had one child, who died
in infancy. Charles A. Kirkham received a com-
mon-school education and learned the trade of ma-
chinist and toolmaker, and for a number of years
I has been employed by the Wheeler & Wilson Sew-
â– ing Machine Co. He married Miss Sylvia Downes,
of Newtown, Connecticut.
HjON. WILLIAM II. WILLIAMS, of the law
firm of Williams & Gager, of Derby, and for a
number of years past State's Attorney for New
Haven county, is, as his official position would
indicate, one of the leading members of the New
Haven County Bar.
Mr. Williams was born June 7, 1850, in the
town of Bethany, Conn., son of E. J. and Laura
J. (Baldwin) Williams. His advantages for ob-
taining an education were meagre indeed, and
his only schooling was limited to a few years at-
tendance at the district schools of the neighbor-
hood in which he passed his early boyhood — in
Durham, Conn. At seven years of age he left
home for the varied fortunes of a farmer's boy,
working on a farm in the summer season, and at-
tending school through the winters. He then
worked in a woolen mill or a grist mill_, or sold
goods from a peddler's wagon, as the exigencies of
the time might determine. In 1870 he went to
live with the late Judge Harris P. Munson, of
Seymour, under conditions which admitted of his
studying law in the Judge's office and under his
direction. For the first two years about one-half
of the time was passed in work and the other in
study, and the third year was given assiduously
to legal studies and to those preliminary attempts
at legal practice allowed to law students before
justices of the peace. He was examined for ad-
mission to the Bar at the November term of court
in 1873, and passed, and at the following term
of the Superior Court at New Haven, in January,
1874, he was admitted to practice law in all the
courts of the State.
Mr. W^illiams was appointed, under the new
liquor law of 1874, prosecuting agent, and came
1422
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
under obligation to the State to administer the
law faithfully. Its intent and spirit were manifest,
its language was plain, and it threw on the prose-
cuting attorney an onerous responsibility, espe-
cially in those towns which refused to grant li-
censes. Liquor men in some of those towns were
defiant, and sought in various ways to intimidate
the prosecuting attorney, and, failing to quiet him,
turned their efforts to removing him from office.
But in all the long struggle Mr. Williams retained
the support of the moral and law-abiding forces
of the Commonwealth to such an extent as to
vindicate completely his course as a faithful pro-
tector of the public good. He issued from the
struggle bearing the confidence and honor of the
best portions of society, and really laid the foun-
dations for rising to higher distinctions than he
had yet attained to. for in the judgment of men of
high virtue he bore himself honorably throughout,
and won a good name over all the State.
In the spring of 1880 Mr. Williams opened a
branch ofiice at Birmingham, retaining his prac-
tice at Seymour, and also his home, until the
spring of 1882, when he settled permanently in
the town of Derby. In April, 1885, he became
a member of the law finn of Wooster, Williams &
Gager, succeeding in the old firm of Wooster,
Torrance & Gager David Torrance, whose ac-
ceptance of an appointment to the Bench of the
Superior Court had made a vacancy. The co-
partnership thus formed so remained until broken
by the death of Col. Wooster in September, 1900.
This firm is one of the strongest and most suc-
cessful law- firms of the State, and among the
ablest, as was also the old firm, and an invitation
on the part of such men extended to Mr. Will-
iams to succeed a man like Judge Torrance, and
join such men as Col. Wooster and Mr. Gager, is
of itself an eloquent tribute to our subject's abil-
ity, as is also the official relations he has sustained
to the county and to Connecticut since January,
1896, when he was tendered and accepted the high,
honorable and important office of State's Attorney
for New Haven county.
Socially Mr. Williams is genial, pleasant and
deservedly popular. He is a member of Xew Ha-
ven Commandery, No. 2, K. T., and also a mem-
ber of the Knights of Pythias. His political af-
filiations have been with the Democratic party, but
in 1896 he voted for William McKinley for presi-
dent.
Glancing backward over this sketch one readily
observes what native worth and steady industry,
with the upward gaze, may accomplish. Given
the aspiring mind and heart, and the patient toil
of years, and the young man thrown upon the
world with no resources outside of himself may
come to eminence in the professions, and to es-
teem in the community where he lives.
On May 5, 1874, Mr. Williams was married to
Miss Iris E. Munson, daughter of Hon. Harris P.
Munson, his preceptor. She died in September,
1876, and on June 17, 1878, he was married to
Miss Nellie A. Johnson, of Oxford, Conn. From
their elegant home is dispensed a generous hos-
pitality. The residence, built in 1887-88, at No.
115 Atwater avenue, Birmingham, is one of the
busiest places in Derby, and is beautifully located,
overlooking the city of Ansonia.
PEASE. The Pease family of Connecticut
is one of the old Colonial families of tliis Com-
monwealth. It is the purpose of this article to
briefly treat of the New Haven branch whose head
was the late Thomas H. Pease, for half a century
an active merchant and substantial citizen of the
Elm City, and who was succeeded in business by
his son, Salmon G. Pease, book seller and sta-
tioner at No. 102 Church street.
Bom March 3, 1849, Salmon G. Pease, now
of New Haven, is a descendant in the ninth gen-
eration from Robert Pease, who was a son of
Robert and Margaret Pease, of Great Baddow,
County of Essex, England, and who came to
America in the ship "Francis" from the port of
Ipswich, England, in 1634, landing at Boston. Mr.
Pease located in Salem, and there died in 1644,
aged thirty-seven years. His wife, Marie, and
' other members of his family probably came later.
From this emigrant settler the lineage of Salmon
G. Pease is through John, Robert (2), Samuel,
Nathaniel, Calvin, Salmon and Thomas H. Pease.
(II) John Pease, son of Robert the settler^ was
born in England in 1630, and came to New Eng-
land when a lad. He is first of record in Salem,
when mentioned in connection with his father's
estate, in 1644. He married (first) Mary Goodell,
daughter of Robert Goodell. of Salem. She died
Jan. 5, 1669, and he married (second) Dec. 8,
1669, Ann, daughter of Isaac Cummings, of Tojv
field, Mass. Mr. Pease settled in that part of
Salem called Northfields, uniting with the First
Church of Salem in 1667. He is supposed to have
removed in about 1681 to Fresh Water Brook,
which was a part of Springfield, Mass. In about
1682 he removed to Enfield, Conn., where he was
active in the Church. He died there in 1689. His
v.'ife, Ann, died in the same year.
(III) Robert Pease (2), son of John, horn
Mav 14, 1656, in Salem, married Dec. 16. 1678,
I Abigail Randall, and settled in Northficld. In
1681 he removed his family to the Connecticut
Valley, settling in Enfield, of which town he was
one of the first constables. He died there in 1744.
aged eightv-cight vears.
(IV) Samuel Pease, son of Robert (2), born
Dec. 30, l686, in Enfield, married Elizabeth War-
ner, and settled in his native town, where he died
in 1770.
(V) Nathaniel Pease, son of Samuel, born
Sept. 29, 1728, in Enfield, married -A.pril 24, 1755,
Eunice Allen. Between 1760 and 1764 he re-
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
1423
moved from Enfield to Norfolk, Conn., being
among the first settlers of the town. He died
tliere March 28, 1818, at the advanced age of
nearly ninety vcars. His wife died March 21,
1807.
(VI) Calvin Pease, son of Nathaniel, born
Sept. 14, 1757, in Enfield, married Sally, daughter
of Titus Ives. Mr. Pease was a farmer and for
many years an inn-keeper in Canaan, Conn, where
he died. He was a patriot of the Revolution.
(\'1I) Salmon Pease, son of Calvin, born June
14, 1783, in Norfolk, Conn., married Matilda Hunt-
ington, daughter of Dr. Thomas Huntington
(Yale, 1768), of Canaan, and was a resident of
Canaan until the fall of 1826, when he removed
to Charlotte, Vt., and there died July 23, 1857.
He was a farmer.
(Vni) Thomas H. Pease, son of Salmon, born
Oct. 24, 1815, in Canaan, Conn., married (first)
April 16, 1838, Catherine N. Coon, of Brooklyn,
N. Y. On April 17, 1848, he married (second)
Elizabeth Graham, of New Haven, and June 2,
1852, married (third) Eliza Morris, of Bethel, Vt.
Mr. Pease lived to be almost seventy-five years
of age, dying in New Haven, Sept. 15, 1890. His
early years were passed in Canaan, Conn., and
Charlotte, Vt. For a period he was engaged in
business in Albany. Later he had a position on
the New York Observer. Still later he became
associated in New York City in the book business
with C. S. Francis, and subsequently was en-
gaged in that business alone on Broadway, corner
of Lispcnard street. In 1842 he came to New
Haven and engaged in the same line, and for the
long period of nearly fifty years continued in that
business, and was one of New Haven's highly re-
spected and esteemed citizens. His first location
was in the old Miles tavern on Chapel street, near
where now is situated the "Young Men's Insti-
tute" building. After doing business in that loca-
tion for thirty-six years he removed in 1878 to
the present location of his successors. No. 102
Church street. At that time his son, Salmon G.
Pease, became associated in business with him, and
succeeded him on the father's death. The elder
Mr. Pease was a member of the United Society.
Hie was an Odd Fellow, a member of Wooster
Lodge, F. & A. M., and of the Union League of
New Haven.
Four children were born to Thomas H. Pease,
as follows: Caroline M., Mary H., William B.
and Salmon G. Of these Capt. William B. Pease,
born Jan. 30, 1844, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862, in the
15th Conn. V. 1. Later he was appointed lieu-
tenant in the 8th U. S. C. T., and served till the
close of the Civil war. On March 7, 1867, he was
commissioned first lieutenant in the nth Regiment
U. S. A., and is' now a retired captain of the
United States Regular Army. S.\lmon G. Pe.\se
entered Yale College in 1868, just one hundred
years after the graduation from that institution of
his great-grandfather. Dr. Thomas Huntington.
He succeeded his father at the hitter's death, and
successfully continued the same line until he re-
tired Jan. I, 1902, just sixty years after the estab-
lishment of the business by Thomas H. Pease, and
he was succeeded by ''The Pease-Lewis Company."
WILLIAM j; ATWATER. The name At-
water has been associated with the history of New
Haven from its earliest settlement, and of the well-
known business men and citizens of the last cen-
tury the late William Atwater, and his sons, Henry
J. and William J., stood deservedly high in the
social and business life of the city. William J.
Atwater is still active in business, being the senior
member of the firm of W. J. Atwater & Co., deal-
ers in masons' and builders' supplies, a business
established by his brother and himself fifty years
ago. His son, E. I. Atwater, is at present the
junior member of the firm.
David Atwater, the emigrant ancestor of the
New Haven families bearing that name, came from
Kent, England, and was one of the first planters
at New Haven, his name being affixed to the Plan-
tation Covenant June 4, 1639. In the first di-
vision of lands among the settlers he was assigned
an extensive tract in what was known as Cedar
Hill, where he died Oct. 5, 1692.
William J. and Henry J. Atwater, sons of the
late William Atwater, are descendants in the sev-
enth generation from David Atwater, their first
American ancestor, their line being through David
(2), Joshua, David (3), Jared and \\'iiliam At-
water.
David Atwater (2), son of David the planter,
was born in 1650, spent his life in New Haven,
and died in 1736.
Joshua Atwater, son of David (2), was born
in 1687, married Anna Bradley in 1721, and set-
tled on a portion of the original farm, where he
died in 1773.
David Atwater (3), son of the foregoing
Joshua, married Elizabeth Bassett in 1744, when he
was twenty-one years of age. She was the mother
of all his children. His second wife was Mrs.
Abiah Cooper. David Atwater (3) was one of
the committee who after the close of the Revolu-
tion took action as to the proper treatment of the
Tories, and his name appears among the signers
of the document pertaining thereto. The family
has a record of his wife, who w-as the great-grand-
mother of William J., having provided food for
more than fifteen hundred ol the American sol-
diers during the period of three weeks while they
were passing through this section.
Jared Atwater, son of David (3), was born in
1758, and married Eunice Dickerman. They lived
on Cedar Hill, where he died in 1813.
William Atwater, son of Jared, and the father
of William J. and Henry J. Atwater, was bom
June 17, 1805, and was left fatherless at the age
1424
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
of eight years. His mother had a numerous fam-
ily, and when he was sixteen years of age young
William left his native home on Cedar Hiil and
came to New Haven to leam the carpenter's trade.
He acquired his knowledge of the business under
the direction of an older brother, and from the
time of his majority carried on the building trade
in New Haven for ten years, at the end of which
period he returned to his native town. There he
purchased a farm, and for eighteen years was en-
gaged in its cultivation. At tiie end of that time
he came to New Haven and embarked in the mer-
cantile business with his sons, Henry J. and Will-
iam J., the firm being H. J. Atwater & Co. By
close attention to their business, good management
and upright dealings, these gentlemen greatly pros-
pered, and the house is now the oldest in the city
conducted under the same name. The elder At-
water became quite wealthy, and owned consider-
able real estate and many fine homes. He con-
tributed largely to the improvement and progress
of the community in which he lived. His w-as a
busy and useful career, and as a man and a citi-
zen he was held in higii regard and great esteem
by his associates. Hi? religious connections were
with the Congregational Church, and with his wife
he belonged to the Chapel Street Society when he
first lived in New Haven ; at Mamden they be-
longed to the Whitneyville Congregational Church ;
on their return to New Haven they became mem-
bers of the Third Congregational Church, and
still later joined the Humphrey Street Congre-
gational Church, while it was still a mission^ Mr.
Atwater gave the entire lot for the church edifice
and donated about one-fourth of the entire ex-
pense of construction of the church- Upon his
death he left a permanent fund for the support
of the Gospel. In his political views Mr. Atwater
was a Republican, and he served in the ranks of
that party from its first organization.
On ^Iav 21, 1828, Mr. Atwater was married to
Eliza, daughter of Joel and Eunice Ford. She
died April 7, 1878, and on April 15, 1879, he was
married to Mrs. Mary C. Hemingway, of Fair
Haven East. His children, all of the first mar-
riage, were: (i) Henry J., born July 18, 1829,
who died in 1884; (2) \\'illiam J., born Feb. 10,
1831 ; and (3) Mary J., born Feb. 16, 1833, who
became the wife of Herman D. Clark. The fa-
ther passed away in April, 1897.
William J. Atwater is now the only member
of his family living. He was educated in New
KJaven and in Merideii, where he w:as a pupil of
Henry D. Smith. He started in the grocery busi-
ness, which he continued for a year, and then
went into business with his brother and father, as
noted above. For fifteen years they continued in
'.',:is line, and then sold out and went into th?
paper business under the same name. After the
brother's death William J. carried on the business
until the death of his father, at the age of ninety-
one. Then he sold out the brother's business, and
has been associated with his son.
Mr. Atwater married for his first w'ife Olivia
Atwater, who lived only one year and two months
after marriage. His second wife was Harriet
Barnes, a daughter of Horace Barnes, a shipping
merchant of New Haven, and to this union came
three children, two of whom are living: Edward
I., in business with his father; Elizabeth, who mar-
ried Henry L. Sterrett, of Cincinnati, Ohio; and
William (deceased).
Edward Irving Atwater was educated at the
New Haven Business College, was with H. C. War-
ren, the banker, for two years, and then entered his
father's office. He married Lila Mather Brooks,
who was born in Cheshire, and they have two chil-
dren, Margaret and William Irving.
William J. Atwater began life as a \N'hig, but
united with the Republicans on the organization of
that party. For two terms he has served on the
board of public works ; was police commissioner
one term ; has been alderman two terms ; and
wherever he has been found he has never failed to
prove himself a competent and public-s])irited
official. Mr. Atwater is a Mason ; a member of the
I. O. O. F., in which he has passed all the chairs;
belongs to the Knights of Honor; and to the Sons
' of the American Revolution. Mr. Atwater has ex-
tensive interests in some of the most successful
western mining companies, and is extensively inter-
ested in New Haven real estate. He and all his
family are connected with the Church of the Re-
deemer, Congregational.
JACQUES. The Jacques family has for forty
years been prominently identified with the history
of Waterbury, where the late John Josiah Jacques,
M. D., a successful physician and business man,
and a substantial citizen, figured for upward of
a third of a century, and where the boyhood and
business career of his son, Eugene Leslie Jac-
ques, have thus far been passed in a manner that
has given him an excellent outside acquaintance
and popularity enjoyed by few men.
The Jacques familv is of French Huguenot
origin, the earlier generations of the Waterbury
family living in Rhode Island, in which State the
great-grandfather of the late Dr. John Josiah Jac-
ques w-as a criminal lawyer, and was for thirteen
successive terms a representative in the General
Assembly of that State. More recent generations
of the family reside in the town of Tolland, Con-
necticut.
John Josi.mi J.vcques, son of Amos and Mary
(Kenyon) Jacques, of Tolland, Conn., the for-
i mer a farmer and builder, was born Oct. n, 1831.
in Tolland, one of four children — three sons and
a daughter — the sons all becoming physicians, and
the daughter the wife of a physician. The chil-
I dren other than Dr. John J. were Dr. Calvin W.
I Jacques, of Manchester, Conn. ; the late Dr. A. J.
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
1425
Jacques, of Bridgeport, Conn.; and Narcissa, who
married Dr. I. J. Sperry, of Hartford, Conn. Dr.
John J. Jacques was reared on his father's farm,
and in the schools of the locality received the
rudiments of an education, lie began the study
of medicine under the direction of Dr. Sperry,
later attending the medical college at Worcester,
Mass., from which institution he graduated. He
began the practice of medicine at Plymouth Hill,
Conn., where he remained two years; then set-
tled in W'aterbury, where he passed the rest of his
life, and had a career both useful and successful.
Sometime late in the 'si.xties or early in the 'sev-
enties Dr. Jacques opened a drug store on Bank
street. This store he subsequently sold, and he
then bought what was known as the Park drug
store on Park place, and continued there until
his death, .giving simple prescriptions and dispens-
ing drugs to a large number of people whose faith
in him and his practical theories never wavered.
He was a careful, good business man, and accumu-
lated considerable property, leaving as a monument
to his enterprise and public spirit the beautiful
opera house bearing his name, erected in 1886 at
a cost of $50,000. For some thirty years prior
to his death the Doctor was in poor health.
Dr. Jacques was a man of strong personal
views which would not allow him to permit ques-
tions of the hour pass without note, and this char-
acteristic made of him an earnest political mover.
At one time he was well known throughout the
State as a political speaker whose power with the
people w-as great, a power that was often proved
in Waterbury town and city meetings, where he
mercilessly attacked persons and things which
could not meet with his approval ; and he was
generally on the winning side in the long run.
He occasionally delivered medical lectures. He
was a railroad commissioner one term, and served
as postmaster of Waterbury under President John-
son. During the Greeley campaign he bolted with
many other good Republicans andl went to that
leader, and from that day forward he was a stanch
independent Democrat, never afraid to standi by
his principles, antagonize whom he might.
On July 8, 185 1, Dr. Jacques was married to
Susan L. \rarsh, daughter of Guy C. and Lamira