Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

necticut Humane Society ;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Charity Organ-
ization ; Visiting Nurse Association
Wellington Cemetery Association; Lincoln
Farm Association ; Connecticut Peace
Society ; American Forestry Association ;
Connecticut Civil Service Reform Association,
and Municipal Art Society. For
several years he was a member of the
board of trustees of the Connecticut Lit-
erary Institute of Suffield, and was president
of the board for two years. Major
Preston is a strong and active Republican,
and has served in the common council and
as a member of the board of aldermen.
Major Preston married, September 9,
1863, Clara M., daughter of John G. Litchfield,
of Hartford. Children : Harry Ed-
ward, born September 27, 1864, died at
San Antonio, Texas, April 7, 1893 > Eve-
lyn Wallace, born April 9, 1867.
In 1868 Major Preston began to arouse
interest in a project to form a Baptist
church on Asylum Hill, and on January
1, 1869, he circulated an invitation signed
by himself and a number of other leading
Baptists to attend a meeting to discuss
the matter. In 1871 the committee of
which he was a member purchased the
lot. In that year a Sunday school was
organized, and the following year the
church edifice was completed. Major
Preston was treasurer from 1872 to 1901,
and deacon from 1875 to the present time.
He is a member of the Baptist Social
Union of Connecticut, which he has
served as secretary, treasurer and presi-
dent at different times. He has also
served as a member of the board of the
Baptist State Convention.
ELLSWORTH, Philip Fowler,
Civil Engineer, Company Executive.
Philip Fowler Ellsworth, Bachelor of
Science, and by profession a civil engi-
neer, although young, has held responsi-
;
78
ble appointments on important engineer-
ing commissions and projects, municipal
and otherwise, and is now recognized as
one of the most enterprising of the
younger generation of business men of
Windsor, Connecticut. Since 1914 he has
remained in that town, which is his native
place, to devote his time, in managerial
capacity, to the affairs of the Windsor
cannery, a joint stock corporation found-
ed by his father more than twenty years
ago, and known to producers and whole-
salers throughout New England, as ex-
tensive packers of canned foods.
Philip F. Ellsworth was born in Wind-
sor, Connecticut, December 1, 1883, the
son of Horace House and Laura L.
(Fowler) Ellsworth, and a descendant of
Josiah Ellsworth, who came to Windsor,
in 1644. The house of Ellsworth has given
many distinguished men to New Eng-
land, including Chief Justice Oliver Ells-
worth, prominent Connecticut leader dur-
ing the Revolution, later United States
Senator, and eventually Chief Justice of
the United States Supreme Court. He,
with two others, constituted a commit-
tee appointed, in 1799, by President
Adams "to negotiate with France as an
extraordinary commission to avert a war
between the two countries, if possible."
His son, William Wolcott Ellsworth, became
a conspicuous member of the Con-
necticut bar, was elected to Congress,
later became judge, and subsequently
elected Governor of the State of Connec-
ticut. And many other ancestors, of the
direct or collateral lines of Philip Fowler
Ellsworth bring him into the genealogies
of some of the principal Colonial families
of New England.
Originally from England, where in
early generations the name was variously
styled : Elswort, Elsworth, Elesworth,
Ellesworth, or Aylsworth, the father of
the American progenitor is supposed to