Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

1717, Annah Mulford, daughter of Thomas
Jr., and Mary (Bassett) Mulford. She
was born July 28, 1691, and died at East
Haddam, Connecticut, June 26, 1772. Chil-
dren : I. John, of whom further. 2.
Thomas, born February 5, 1720-21. 3.
Stephen, born March 18, 1723; married,
in 1746, Apphia Pepper. 4. Elizabeth,
twin with Stephen. 5. Nathaniel, born in
1725, died at East Haddam, Connecticut,
in 1804. 6. Richard, born July 16, 1727;
married (second), in 1763, Deborah Howland;
he died before 1790, and his widow
remained in East Haddam. 7. Joshua,
born May 28, 1730. 8. Apphia, born July
Abner Beebe. 9. James,
18, 1731 ; married
born October 22, 1735.
(V) John (2) Sparrow, son of Stephen
and Annah (Mulford) Sparrow, was born
in Eastham, Massachusetts, July 6, 1719,
and died in East Haddam, Connecticut,
July 25, 1764, aged forty-five years. He
removed from Eastham, Massachusetts,
to East Haddam, Connecticut, before 1749.
He married Elizabeth, who was born in
1723, and died in East Haddam, October
1 1 , 1 774, in her fifty-second year. Children :
I. Mary, born December 14, 1749. 2. Annah,
of whom further. 3. Elizabeth, born
December 13, 1753. 4. John, born Febru-
ary 22, 1756. 5. Apphia, born May 2, 1758.
6. Stephen, born November 8, 1760. 7.
Benjamin, born November 9, 1762.
(VI) Annah Sparrow, daughter of John
(2) and Elizabeth Sparrow, was born
April 19, 1751. She married, April 2, 1777,
Abner Banning (see Banning III).
BISHOP, Rev. Ethan Ferris,
Rector.
It seems that the House of Bishop,
particularly those branches of that great
house whose foundations were laid in
Stamford, Bridgeport, and other towns
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
S3
and cities of Connecticut, was second to
none in the versatility by which its mem-
bers have been able to do many things
so well that they have stood out as lights
along the pathway of progress, and with
their lamp of leadership in one line of en-
deavor or another, or in more than one
line simultaneously, have illuminated the
highway cast up by them and on which
others of their kin or of their fellows
have trod to the goal of successful achievement.
With individuals of the Bishop
family the light of genius has attended
their way and by it they have been se-
curely and brilliantly led to accomplish
great things, not only for themselves but
also for the lasting benefit of their fellowmen.
While to a greater or less degree
this endowment of life with the high reward
of one's applied skill was a birthright
of most members of the Bishop
family who have shed luster on the his-
tory of the State of Connecticut, it ap-
pears to have bestowed its most prodigal
of attainments and successes upon the
principles of this memoir. They were
acknowledged to be without their peers
in the realm of transportation—railway
and steamboat—and several members of
the Bishop family contributed not a few
pages to the annals of railroading in New
England and of steamboat navigation in
the coastal waters of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and New York. The Bishop
transportation genii did more, perhaps,
than any others to develop railroad prop-
erties in the theaters of their operation
during their day and generation. They
were, indeed, '"men of the hour."
Born in Madison, New Jersey, March
27, 1825, died in Bridgeport December 7,
1883, Ethan Ferris Bishop was a son of
Alfred F. and Mary (Ferris) Bishop. His
father was the captain of railroad con-
struction who did more than any man of