yond the allotted limit of man's years, was free from
ambitious strivings for public notice, yet in its quiet
usefulness it made an impression upon the commun-
ity which will remain as an inspiration toward riglit
doing among all who knew him.
.\lr. W^ood was born Ajjril 4, 1816, in Littl. -
boro, Lancashire, England, son of James and Isa-
bella Wood. James Wood was for some years su-
l)erintendent of a cloth factory at Littlelx)ro, and
came to .America in 1828, to take a similar position
in a mill at Amesburv, Mass., where he died in
1832. His wife died July 7. 1822. This worthy
couple had three sons and one daughter; the last
named, Mrs. Joshua Miriam, of Ashburnham,
-Mass.. was the last surviving member of the fam-
ily, and died in March. 1883. Of the sons, Lineus,
who died in 1863 in New Bedford, Mass.. was a
prominent Mason, holding the rank of Sir Knight.
I'linv, formerlv a Methodist minister of Cam-
55
bridge, .Mass., and at one time chaplain of the
State Senate, died in 1876 in Munich, having been
sent to the Vienna Exposition by his State.
As a boy our subject became thoroughly famil-
iar with all branches of the cloth manufacturer's
art. and before leavin,g En,gland was engaged as a
flannel finisher for the .\mesbury Mills. On May
12, 1828, he arrived in this country, landing in Bos-
ton, and although a mere boy he proved so compe-
tent in his work that he was appointed in 1832 to
act as superintendent of the mills during the remain-
der of the year of his father's decease. Later he was
employed in Andover. Lowell and Taunton, and on
April I. 1839, he removed to Derbv, Conn., having
been enga.ged by Plumb & P.cach. cloth manufactur-
ers, whose mill was located opposite the old Somers
building, in :\Iain street, Birmingham. The writ-
ten contract, which was for the term of two years,
is now in the possession of the family. For seven-
teen vears he remained in that locality, and at one
time he was connected with the wire drawing busi-
ness conducted by the Howe Pin Co., at Birming-
ham. In 1848 he went to .-Xnsonia with D. W.
I'lumb, and in 1855 he became superintendent of
the mills of Wallace & Sons, then newlv organized.
During the thirty-three years which he spent *vith
them he had the satisfaction of seeing constant
srrowth and development in the business, in which
his advice and masterly management were of rec-
ognized value. It was during the memorable bliz-
zard week of March. 1888. that he first found his
health impaired, and fronj that time he took no act-
ive part in business affairs. An attack of the grip'
in the following winter left him very feeble, and a
brief illness in August terminated his life. After a
last visit to the mill he remained at home, nalizing
that the end was near, and some of his brethren of
the I. O. O. F. were, at his request, constantly at
his bedside during his last days.
In politics Mr. Wood was a Republican, and al-
though he never sought public office his keen inter-
est in local affairs was shown in manv wavs. To
all progressive movements he gave liberallv, ac-
cording to his judgment, and for manv years be at-
tended the Episcojial Church at Ansonia. Public
affairs had not for him an absorbing interest, how-
ever, coming second to the cares of his business
and the welfare of the workingmen under his con-
trol, over 600 in number during the last vears of
his stay. His manner was kind, and his cheery
"Good mornin,g, young man," was like a ray of
sunshine. In 1877. in his sixty-first vear, he and
his wife went to Europe, visiting all the cities of
note, and making a pleasant stay at his birthplace,^
where among other old acrmaintances he found the
man who had taken his father's old position in the
mills half a century before.
On June 20. 1847. Mr. W^jod was married in
Birmingham to Miss Elizabeth \\'allace, a native of
Manchester. England, and a dau.ghter of the late
Thomas Wallace. She passed away Feb. 19, 1900,
866
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
at the age of seventy-seven, while residing with her
son, Thomas J. Wood, in the home built by our sub-
ject. Of two other sons, John W. died in Ansonia
in 1898, aged forty-three years; and W. R. died a
number of years ago.
Mr. Wood's funeral was largely attended, his
great popularity bringing crowds of people to
watch the solemn procession through .Main street,
from his residence on North Cliff street. Wallace
& Sons had ordered their mills closed for tl'.e entire
day in memory of his long and faithful services.
The workmen, many of whom had known him for a
score of years, assembled at the Episcopal Church
to pay their last tribute of respect to one who had
always been their friend and benefactor, and there
was manv a moist eye among them as the hearse
bore the remains to their last resting-place. Nau-
gatuck Lodge, No. 53, I. O. O. F., marched in a
body in the procession, accompanied by the grand
•officers of the State and ten members of the Veteran
Odd Fellows Association, of which j\lr. Wood was
vice-president ; among the floral tributes was a cross
four feet in height given by the Veterans .Associa-
tion. The pall-bearers were chosen from iS^auga-
tuck Lodge and Ousatonic Lodge, of Birmingham.
Re¥. Mr. Woodcock, rector of the Episcopal
Church, read prayers at the house and the funeral
services at the church, and the procession then went
to Birmingham, where the remains were interred.
At the grave the ritual of the L O. O. F. was read
by John Naukervis, N. G. of Naugatuck Lodge, as-
sisted by G. E. Church, Chaplain, and Grand Mas-
ter F. S. Hunt made a short address in which he
eulogized the deceased, telling of his work in the
society and his standing as a citizen. In this con-
nection it is appropriate to review Mr. Wood's long
service in the L O. O. F., as he was one of the old-
est and most prominent members of the Order in
this State. For nearly half a century he had been
an earnest worker in the society, and was looked up
to as the pillar around which they grew, and at the
yearly meeting of the Veterans' .\ssociation he was
always present. At the time of his residence in
Derby he was the oldest Odd Fellow there, and he
was instrumental in founding Ousatonic Lodge,
No. 6, of Birmingham, of which he remained a
member until the organization of Naugatuck lodge,
of Ansonia, in 1849. In 1841 there were five lodges
in Connecticut, and Mr. W'ood, in order to re-or-
ganize the local lodge, became a member of Quin-
nipiac Lodge, New Haven. The curiosity caused
by the local establishment was so great that the
trunk containing the paraphernalia had to be hid-
den in the cellar over night. Mr." Wood successively
passed all the chairs, and became past noble grand.
He was a conservative Odd Fellow, and proved a
capable and efficient officer, discharging the duties
devolving upon him with care and skill, and ruling
with a tact that avoided all signs of unjust discrim-
ination.
Thom.\s J. Wood, the only surviving son of our
subject, was born June 8, 1848, in Ansonia, soon
after the place was given its name. His education
was secured in the common schools of the Jity and
at Cheshire Academy, and at the age of sixteen he
entered Wallace & Sons mills, and gained a practi-
cal knowledge of the business under his father's
direction. He was promoted at the latter's death to
the ix)sition of superintendent, which he has since
held — although the firm of Wallace & Sons has
been superseded by the Coe Brass Mfg. Co. — mak-
ing about thirty-five years of continuous service
with the establishment. He is a stanch Repubiicat;
and is prominent in municipal affairs, having been
a member of the board of burgesses and alderman
from the First ward during the first two years of
city government. During his term he served as
chairman of the Police committee and the commit-
tee on Claims, and his work was characterized by
ability and rare fidelity. He has also been active in
military affairs, serving five years as a member of
Company H, 2d C. N. G., in which he was promoted
first to the post of orderly sergeant and then to tiiat
of second lieutenant, with which rank he was dis-
charged. He is a charter member of the local
Board of Trade, and of the Eagle Hook and Lad-
der Company of Ansonia, of which he was foreman
and treasurer for some years. ]\Ir. Wood attends
the Episcopal Church, and socially is identified with
various organizations, including the F. & A. M.,
George Washington Lodge. No. 83 ; the .Vnsonia
Club, of which he is a charter member; and the I.
O. O. F., Naugatuck Lodge.
In March, 1869, Mr. Wood was married to
Miss Marie C. Clemens, daughter of A. B. and
Catherine (Girard) Clemens, the fornier a prom-
inent retired citizen of Ansonia, and a well-known
expert in machinery, for many years the superin-
tendent of the Farrell Foundry. Mrs. W^ood is a
member of the D. A. R., being of Revolutionary de-
scent through her mother, who was a Girard. The
only son of this union, Robert A. Wood, learned
the brass business with his father, and is now fore-
man of several departments with the Manhattan
Brass Co.. of New York, where he resides. He
married Miss Eva M. Perkins, of .\nsonia, and
they have two children : Robert Thomas, bom
Nov. 14, 1899; and Ethel May, born May 10, 1901.
GIDEON LUCIAN PLATT, M. D., late of
Waterbury, where for fifty-three years he was act-
ively engaged in the practice of medicine, was one
of the city's useful and prominent citizens. He de-
scended from an ancestry among the oldest and
most prominent of Connecticut.
Richard Piatt, the progenitor of many of tiie
Platts of New England, came to this countr\- in
1638, landing at New Haven. He was enrolled
among the first settlers of Milford, Nov. 20. 1^)39,
having four in family. In .\ugust, 1889, at the in-
teresting and noteworthy commemoration of the
settlement of Milford two hundred and fiftv vears
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
867
liefore, the name of Richard I'hitt was mentioned
with lionor, and among- the co])ing stones of the
beautiful memorial hridtje erected over the W'apa-
waug to perpetuate the memory of the early settlers
was one placed with this inscription:
DEACON
RICIIAUl) I'LATT,
OlilT 1684.
MARY ins WIFE.
Dr. riatt was a descendant in the si.xth genera-
tion from Richard Piatt, of Milford, the line of his
descent being through Lieut. Joseph Piatt and three
consecutive Gideon Platts, our sul)ject being fifth
in the line bearing the name of Gideon.
Gideon Piatt (2), son of Gideon Piatt, married
March 17, 1783. Hannah Clark, daughter of Joseph
Clark, all of Milford, Conn., and their children were
Gideon, Joseph and Merrit.
Gideon Piatt (3), son of Gideon (2), and the
father of the subject of this sketch, was born Dec.
19, 1784, and married Nov. 8, 1807, Lydia Sperry.
daughter of Capt. Jacob Sperry. They became
residents of Middlebury, Conn. Mr. I'latt was a
deacon, as was his father before him. in the Congre-
gational Church of Milford, where they were highly
respected and esteemed citizens.
Dr. Gideon Lucian Piatt, son of Gideon (3),
•was born July 20, 181 3, in the (what is now) town
of Middlebury, Conn., and in addition to attending
the schools of the town he was a pu])il in the cele-
brated classical school of Simeon Ilart, of Farm-
ington. Conn. He was prepared for the medical
profession under the direction of Dr. Henry Bron-
son, of Waterbury, and under Dr. William Tully,
then of New Haven, and a professor in the Yale
Medical School, where young Piatt pursued a regu-
lar course of study and received the degree of M. D.
in 1838. He immediately established himself in pro-
fessional work at A\'aterbury, where he continued
same with success and rare usefulness for over fifty
years. Soon after settling in Waterbury he became
associated in the practice with his former preceptor.
Dr. Bronson, which partnership continued until Dr.
Bronson's rcmova4 to New Haven, in 1842. In
1849 Dr. Piatt bought what is known as the Apothe-
caries' Hall property, of Benedict & Coe, and along
with Dr. Fish opened a drug store which since 1852
has borne the name of Apothecaries' Hall. At one
time Dr. Piatt was associated with Dr. Philo G.
Rockwell. In 1880 he took into partnership with
him the late \\'alter Hamlin Holmes, who afterward
became his son-in-law, a partnership which lasted
until the death of Dr. Piatt. Dr. Piatt accumulated
considerable real estate in ^^'aterbury that later be-
â– came very valuable. He was president of the New
'â– Haven County ^fedical Societv in 1880 and the fol-
' lowing year president of the State ^fedical Society.
I He was an active member of the First Congrega-
\ tional Church of \\'aterbury, and became one of the
• incorporators of the Second Church there.
On Dec. 18, 1844, Dr. Piatt was married to
Caroline Tudor, a lineal descendant in the seventh
generation from Elder William Brewster, of the
Plymouth Colony, also of Owen Tudor, of Windsor,
Conn., and of Rev. Samuel and son, Dr. Elihu Tu-
dor, the eminent surgeon, who was one of the found-
ers of the Connecticut Medical Society. To this
marriage were bom four children : ( i ) Dr. Lucian
Tudor, born in 1846, received the degree of M. D.
from the University of Pennsylvania in 1869. On
Sept. 15, 1871, he married Rebecca Hurlbut, of
Winsted, Conn., and has one daughter, Medora H.
(2) Medora Caroline is the widow of Dr. Walter
H. Holmes. (3) Dr. Walter Brewster, born Dec.
20, 1853, was graduated from Harvard Medical
College, and received the degree of F. R. C. S. at
the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England.
On Dec. 20, 1889, he married Mary Ferine, daugh-
ter of E. Glynn Ferine, of Baltimore, Md., and has
three sons, Washington. Lucian and David. (4)
Charles Easton died at the age of thirty-seven. The
mother of these died August 10, 1896. Dr. Gideon
L. Piatt died Nov. 11. 1889. and a writer in the
Waterbury American, who knew him well, said:
Dr. Piatt earlv in his professional life attained a
high reputation both as a physician and surgeon, but it was
in the practice of his profession in that very close and
peculiar relation of a family physician, and which especially
exists in a country practice, that the strong points of his
character were most clearly seen and his highest usefulness
developed. In the modern style of city medical practice,
where each organ has its special expert, in which it is the
organ rather than the man of wdiich the case and condition
are considered, that peculiar relation of the family physician,
whose constant watchfulness continued from birth to death,
and included usually not only the relation of physician but
that of confidant, adviser and sympathetic counselor and
friend, is almost unknown. It may be that modern .scientific
pathology has rendered unnecessary that intimate knowledge
of heredity, predisposition and environment on which the
success of the old-line physician was based, but whatever
it may do for the physical man, it can never be to the
spiritual, to the moral, to the intellectual nature — in short
to the man himself — what the close and intimate relation of
the family physician made him. This was pre-eminently
the style of Dr. Piatt's practice. He knew his patients,
their lives, circumstances and surroundings, their parentage
and histrry. their constitutional predispositions and heredi-
tary tendencies, all these consciously or unconsciously went
to make up his diagnosis of a case and to indicate to his
mind the treatment it demanded. His patience was un-
wearied. Calm and equable by temperament, he was still
more so by long training and culture, and by a noble self-
command that never deserted him. He brought into the
sick room an invigorating presence, a sense of rest, peace
and comfort. One of his patients says of him. "I felt, as a
child, when sick, that as soon as I saw Dr. Piatt I should
be better. I can feel now his cool hand, with a touch that
always seemed to bring relief."
In figure he was tall, erect, striking and dignified,
but in measure so kindly sympathetic that he won his way
at once to the confidence of his patients. He was not sat-
isfied with the diagnosis of the case and a prescription of
remedies, but he took into account all the merits of nursing
and the limitations of the situation, and. with much in-
genuity and no chemical skill, he would improvise means
from surrounding material, and buy comfort and con-
venience out of circumstances that were often unfavorable.
While he kept up well with the progress of the profession,
he still retained a knowledge and liking for many of those
S('iS
CnMMRMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
cloniostic remedies which were dear to the hearts of past
generations. His knowledge of Medical Botany was imich
beyond what is considered necessary for the modern practi-
tioner. To relieve, an
suffering, was his brief summing up of the physician's call-
ing, and he justly regarded it as a public one, requiring all
a man's devotion, and in which success brought its own
abundant reward in the consciousness of well doing. His
moral standard was a very high one, but he was broad in
his sympathies and not severe in his judgment of others.
His religious faith was well formed, calm and serene, and
shone forth as a ruling power of his life. His work
afforded a clear and steady delineation of the character
and purpose of a line of men like himself of Puritan life
and lineage. It may be said, without the slightest dis-
paragement to present or future practitioners of the art of
hcahng, that this honored and beloved physician was the
last e.xamnle of the departing line that Watcrbury will
know, for the time that made such a man and such a life
possible has gone forever. Probably since the death of
Rev. Dr. Clark no man in this community has passed away
whose loss will be keenly felt as a personal grief in so
many hearts and homes as that of Dr. Piatt.
JUDD. l~or iii)\var(l of two huiulred and sixty
years the Jiulds have been known to New Englaiid
— i. c., siiice llie arrival at Cambridge, Mass., in
1634, of Thomas Judd, the emigrant ancestor of
the Xew I'.ritain and Wallingford branch of the
family, of which it is the purpose of this article to
treat. For two hundred or more years the posterity
of Ucacon Anthony Judd have figured in the his-
tory of Xew liritain, where through the first half
of the last century John Judd, and his sons and his
grandsons, in tinn, h.ive been prominent in mechani-
cal and manufacturing lines ; and the son Morton,
and his sons, through the latter half of the century,
in Xew Haven and Wallingford, respectively. No-
table among the Judds thus engaged at these sev-
eral points have been John, the blacksmith; his
sons, Morton and Oliver S.. and Morton's sons,
Hubert L., Albert 1). and Edward M. Of these,
Hubert L. Judd was for one and a half decades
president of the extensive manufacturing plant of
H. L. Judd & Co., at Wallingford, where until his
death, on Dec. Ii, 1899, he was one of the promi-
nent citizens and leading business men. President
Judd was a descendant in the sixth generation
from Deacon Anthony Judd, who was descended
from Thomas Judd, the emigrant ancestor, of
Farmington, Conn. Anthony Judd married Su-
sannah Woodford, and became the first deacon in
the Great Swamp Church. The line of descent of
President Judd is through John, John (2), John
(3) and Morton Judd.
(H) John Judd. son of Deacon .Anthony, born
in 1718, married Mary lUirnham, daugliter of Rev.
William Burnham, fist pastor of the Great Swam])
Church. Mr. Judd was one of the first settlers of
the central part of the town of New Britain, having
his home and farm on the north side of West Main
street. He was a lieutenant in the local militia, and
also held some civil offices. He was a member of
the Ecclesiastical Society in Farmington in 1752,
and was there mentioned by Dr. Smiley as from
the church in Kensington. His death occurred Oct.
16, 1781.
(HI) John Judd (2), son of John, born in 1746,
married, in 1769, Lydia Mather, atid resided on
West Main street, in New Britain, west of his
father. He died Jan. 6, 1796.
( 1\') John Judd (3), son of John (2), was born
May 8, 1772, and married in 1792 Ursula Stanley.
He resided on West Alain street. New Britain, on
the site where his son Morton later built. Mr.
Judd was a blacksmith by occupation, having
learned the trade with his uncle, James North. His
shop was opposite his house, and on the site where-
his sons afterward engaged in the manufacturing
business. Mr. Judd died July 18, 1822. His chil-
dren were: Nancy, born Sept. 17, 1793, married
I in 1813 Austin Woodford, and died in Vermont;
; Aurora was born March 20, 1795; John B., born
March 25, 1796, married in 1822 Betsey Hart;
Polly, born Sept. 14, 1797, married in 1816
] Pliny Slater; Alarilla, born May 7, 1799,
married in 1820 Rollin Dickinson, and (sec-
ond) in 1852 Gilman Hinsdale; Minerva,
born in 1801, died in infancy; Marinda,
born in 1802, died young; Harry, born Nov. 2,
j 1804, married in 1828 Julia A. Lewis ; Anna, born
1 Nov. 4, 1807, married in 1826 Lawrence Richards,
and (second) in 1840 Gilman Hinsdale; Morton,
born Nov. 5, 1808, married in 1828 Lucina Dun-
' ham, and (second) in 1855 Julia .\. Blinn ; Lydia
was born Feb. 9, 1810; Oliver S., born Nov. 30,
1816, married in 1838 Emily A. Lewis, and (sec-
ond) in i860 Eveline Atkins.
(V) Deacon Morton Judd, son of John (3), and
j the father of the late President Hubert L. Judd, of
Wallingford, was born Nov. 5, 1808, in New Brit-
ain, where he attended the neigbl)orhood sc;hool
until his thirteenth year. His boyhood was accom-
panied with no special advantages. It was a time
when the originators of the industrial prosperity of
New Britain were struggling to lay the foundation
of its greatness, and young Judd felt the influence
of the life about him, and at thirteen years of age
went into a brass foundry to learn the trade of cast-
mo- brass. Later, after working for a wviv in South-
ington, and in the shops of Seth -J. North and Ira
Stanley, in New Britain, he engaged in business for
himself on West Main street, adjoining his father's
shop on the east. In about 1833 he went into part-
nership with his brother Oliver S. Judd, the style
of the firm being M. & O. S. Judd. They soon
afterward established their business at another
point in the town, and the product of their shops
was plated harness hames. In 1846 this part of
their business was sold to Henry North, and they
commenced the manufacture of other goods. By
1847 Morton Judd had succeeded in gaining a firm
foothold in the manufacturing world. He invented
a sash fastener (the first ever made in .Aiuerica).
patented Sept. 4, 1847, which, together with window
springs, etc., the brothers manufactured extensively.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
869
111 1853 Albert D. Judd became a partner under
the fifiii name of M. Judd & Co. They continued to
do l)usincss until 1863, when Albert D. Judd pur-
chased the establishment from his father and uncle,
Oliver S. However, he conducted the same but
a few weeks, when he resold it to his uncle, Oliver
S. Judd, of late years the manufacturer of builders'
and saddlers' hardware in the old original factory on
West Main street, New Britain.
In 1864 Morton Judd's sons, Hubert L., Albert
1). and Edward M., entered into partnership in
.\ew Haven for the manufacture of upholstery
hardware. Two years later !Morton Judd moved
to New Haven and entered into partnership with
his son Albert D., for the manufacture of builders'
hardware, and out of this investment grew the Judd
Manufacturing Co. Albert D. Judd became presi-
dent, and the business of the com])any was greatly
enlarged. It was continued in New Haven until
1877, and then removed to W'allingford, where the
company erected a large plant on the west side of
the railroad, and began the manufacture, on a large
scale, of stationers' and druggists' hardware. The
principal stockholders were Morton Judd and his
sons, Albert D., Hubert L. and Edward M., Hubert
L. acting as the company's agent for the sale of
their goods in New York. In 1886 H. L. Judd &
Co., who had been engaged in the manufacture of
upholsterers' hardware in Brooklyn, bought out
the business and plant of the Judd Manufacturing
( o. in Wallingford. In 1887 they moved a part of
iheir Brooklyn plant to the Wallingford factories,
and the remainder in 1897. In 1890 a large build-