Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Philo Slocum Newton, son of Daniel
and Lucy (Maynard) Newton, was born
March 29, 181 1, at Heath, Massachusetts,
and died at Hartford, Connecticut, May
2, 1 891. He was reared in Shrewsbury,
receiving such educational advantages as
the town schools of his day afforded. On
December 1, 1841, he married Elizabeth
Ann, daughter of Nathan William and
Abigail (Coleman) Pelton, of Wethersfield,
born August 13, 1822, and died May
12, 191 1. She was a descendant of John
Pelton, who was born in England about
1616, and who is on record as a landowner
in Boston in 1634. Mr. and Mrs.
Newton were the parents of the following
children : Anna Coleman, who married
Dr. George F. Hawley, of Hartford, and
Philo Woodhouse, who married Angelia
Holden Thompson, daughter of Deacon
Alfred and Lucy (Maynard) Holden,
at Worcester, Massachusetts, April 17,
1890.
DES JARDINS, Benjamin M.,
Noted Inventor.
In the preamble to a narration of the
life and achievements of Benjamin Myrrick
Des Jardins, inventor, it is unneces-
sary to indulge in elaborate eulogy of
the man ; pen-pictures descriptive of his
industry, his ingenuity, his versatile qual-
ities and meritorious characteristics,
would be superfluous ; to plainly record
his triumphs in and contributions to the
world's mechanical arts is sufficient to in-
dicate his superlative qualities; his
achievements show the eminence to
which his genius has exalted him among
the meritorious inventors of the latter
half of the nineteenth and the early dec-
ades of the twentieth century. Further-
more, his name has found honored posi-
tion in so many national and internation-
al publications of this period, his achieve-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
96
ments have been recounted so often in
American and foreign journals, technical
periodicals, magazines, and like literature,
and his inventions have wrought such
definite effect upon one phase, in particular,
of this generation's progress in me-
chanics, that historical students of the
next and subsequent generations, in an-
alyzing the world's progress of the pres-
ent period, will readily become cognizant
of the appreciable service rendered the
inventive and mechanical arts by Benjamin
Myrrick Des Jardins, and will allot
to him his rightful place among the
American inventors of this age.
Invention, in the man, has been the
outcome of the possession and exertion
of an invaluable composite quality, in
which are embraced courage, intellect,
imagination, determination, persistence,
pertinacity, an indifference to poverty,
and a wonderful optimism. All these, and
some others, have place in the requisite
composite quality, but all would fail to
attain the result sought unless genius,
that intangible something which so often
appears to run contrary to apparent prac-
ticability and theoretical supposition, be
present as the main component. Very few
of the worth-while inventors of this age,
or for that matter of past ages, have been
deficient in these qualities, and there have
been very few who have not in their in-
itial efforts lamentably lacked the finances
without which even the most valuable inventions
may not be able to pass the em-
bryonic stage. Benjamin M. Des Jardins
cannot be excepted from this generality,
for he has demonstrated that he possesses
all of the above-enumerated qualities, as
well as some additional and equally cred-
itable qualities which were developed
during his early struggle for his mere
material existence, and for the instilling
of life within the inventions of his fertile
brain. One of the additional qualities