Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

three children: i. Charlotte Elizabeth,
married Joseph H. Woodward, actuary of
the Workman Compensation Commission
of New York. 2. Captain Ralph Den-
nis Cutler, manager of the appliance department
of the Hartford Electric Light
Company, and now a member of the
Quartermaster Corps, United States
Army, at Camp Greene, Charlotte, North
Carolina. 3. Ruth Holman, wife of
Charles DeLancey Alton, Jr., office man-
ager of the J. B. Williams Company of
Glastonbury.
Mr. Cutler owed his prominence in the
business world to no fortuitous circumstances
; he was the architect of his own
fortune, and his achievements in the
modern world of business confer an added
luster to a line of distinguished ancestors.
His high ideals, unselfish interest in pub-
lic affairs, and uniform courtesy won for
him a high place in the esteem of his fellow
citizens. At his death the city of
Hartford lost one of its substantial busi-
ness men. Mr. Cutler had a genial, social
side and was a recognized personality in
social gatherings, clubable, cordial and
entertaining. Many friends will miss him
and his adopted city, Hartford, will be
without one of the men she could surely
rely upon.
THOMPSON, Whitefield Nelson,
Alienist.
There is ample record that several of
this name were among our earliest seventeenth
century settlers. Sir William
Thompson, of England, was the owner of
property about Boston, and his coat-ofarms
has come down through many gen-
erations of James Thompson's descend-
ants, but patient research fails to estab-
lish the exact connection between the
English and American houses. Edward
Thompson came over in the "Mayflower"
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
44
in 1620; John, his brother, came over in
1643; Archibald Thompson settled in
Marblehead in 1637; Edward Thompson
settled in Salem in 1637; Doctor Benjamin
Thompson settled in Braintree and
was town clerk in 1696, and left at his
death eight children and twenty-eight
grandchildren.
James Thompson was among the origi-
nal settlers of Woburn, Massachusetts,
and settled in that part of the town which
is now known as North Woburn. He
came in Winthrop's great company, in
1630, and first settled in Charlestown. He
was born in 1593, in England, and was
accompanied on his journey by his wife
Elizabeth and three sons and one daugh-
ter. He was then thirty-seven years of
age, and tradition has it that he was one
of the party who landed at Salem, Massa-
chusetts, in the early part of June, 1630.
His coat-of-arms is identical with that of
Sir William Thompson, a London knight,
and it is probable that he came from that
family. With his wife, Elizabeth, James
Thompson was admitted to membership in
the First Church of Charlestown, August
31, 1633. I n the following December he
was admitted as a freeman of the town.
In December, 1640, he was one of the
thirty-two men who subscribed to the
noted town orders for Woburn. He was
among the few adventurers who early
pushed their way into this wilderness
region. Charlestown Village was incorporated
in 1642, under the name of Wo-
burn, and it is believed that this was in
memory of the ancient town of that name
in Bedfordshire, England, whence some
of the emigrants probably came. James
Thompson was chosen a member of the
First Board of Selectmen, and continued
to serve the town in that office nearly
twenty years with brief intervals. In
1650 he was the commissioner to carry
the votes for town officers to Cambridge.