The Stonington (Connecticut) Historical Society Richard W ...
The Stonington (Connecticut) Historical Society Richard W ...
The Stonington (Connecticut) Historical Society Richard W ...
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Stonington</strong> (<strong>Connecticut</strong>) <strong>Historical</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
<strong>Richard</strong> W. Woolworth Library<br />
STONINGTON MEMOIRS AND BIOGRAPHIES: A<br />
Select List<br />
From <strong>Historical</strong> Footnotes, May 1999<br />
Biographic Sketch of William Chesebrough, the First White Settler of<br />
<strong>Stonington</strong>, Conn., by Amos Sheffield Chesebrough, Hartford: Case,<br />
Lockwood & Brainard, 1893. Brief account of the English-born gunsmith<br />
who settled at Wequetequock Cove in 1649.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Life and Times of Major John Mason of <strong>Connecticut</strong>: 1600-1672, by<br />
Louis Mason. New York: Putnam's, 1935. A biography of the soldier who<br />
slaughtered the Pequots at Mystic in 1637 and was granted Mason's Island.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Diary of Thomas Minor, <strong>Stonington</strong>, <strong>Connecticut</strong>, 1653-1684, New<br />
London: <strong>The</strong> Day Publishing Company, 1899; <strong>The</strong> Diary of Manasseh<br />
Minor of <strong>Stonington</strong>, <strong>Connecticut</strong>, 1696-1720, 1915. Terse but informative<br />
journals on seventeenth-century farming by father, who settled at<br />
Quiambaug Cove in 1653, and son. Also available in a more recent<br />
combined edition.<br />
Once Upon Quoketaug: <strong>The</strong> Biography of a <strong>Connecticut</strong> Farm Family,<br />
1712-1960, by Rudy J. Favretti, Storrs: Parousia Press, 1974. Story of the<br />
Williams family, which settled on Quoketaug Hill, above Old Mystic, and<br />
stayed to this day. A warm and detailed chronicle.<br />
A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But<br />
resident above sixty years in the United States of America. Related by<br />
Himself. New London: C. Holt, 1798. <strong>The</strong> autobiography of the famous<br />
slave who had three <strong>Stonington</strong> owners and who eventually earned his own<br />
freedom and that of his family. Also available in Five Black Lives,<br />
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1971.<br />
Colonel Jonathan Palmer's War Diary, <strong>Stonington</strong>, 1774-1775: including<br />
the British Attack on Long Point, August 30, 1775. Edited by Norman F.<br />
Boas. Local account of the earliest days of the Revolution.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America, by
Joy Day Buel and <strong>Richard</strong> Buel, Jr. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984.<br />
Detailed, enlightening account of the life and marriage of Mary Fish, of<br />
Mystic and New Haven.<br />
Voyages Round the World; with Selected Sketches of the Voyages to the<br />
South Seas . . . , by Edmund Fanning. New York: Collins & Hannay, 1833<br />
(republished, 1970). <strong>Stonington</strong> captain (1769-1841) who discovered the<br />
Fanning Islands in the South Seas, and continued on around the world in the<br />
Betsey, first vessel based in New York to complete the circumnavigation.<br />
Nathaniel Brown Palmer: An Old-Time Sailor of the Sea, by John Randolph<br />
Spears. New York: Macmillan, 1922. <strong>The</strong> famous <strong>Stonington</strong> seafarer<br />
(1799-1877) who was a captain at 19, the discoverer of Antarctica at 22, and<br />
later leading ship designer and builder. Reissued with a foreword by Norman<br />
F. Boas and a bibliography on the discovery of Antarctica.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Mallorys of Mystic: Six Generations in American Maritime Enterprise,<br />
by James P. Baughman. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1972.<br />
Hefty account of the shipping dynasty founded by Charles Mallory (1796-<br />
1882).<br />
That Skipper from <strong>Stonington</strong>, by <strong>The</strong>da Kenyon. New York: Julian<br />
Messner, 1947. A fictionalized account of the life of <strong>Richard</strong> Fanning Loper<br />
(1800-1881), seaman, inventor, and entrepreneur, whose Magic was the first<br />
successful U.S. defender of the America's Cup.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Life Story of Henry Clay Trumbull, by Philip E. Howard. Biography of a<br />
member of a talented <strong>Stonington</strong> family. Trumbull (1830-1903) was a<br />
missionary, army chaplain, and prolific writer. <strong>The</strong> section on <strong>Stonington</strong><br />
was probably written by his sister, the local colorist Annie Trumbull<br />
Slosson.<br />
"She Was a Sister Sailor": <strong>The</strong> Whaling Journals of Mary Brewster, 1845-<br />
1851. Edited by Joan Druett. Mystic: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1992.<br />
Refusing to let her husband vanish for years, Mary Brewster sailed with him<br />
on the Tiger, out of <strong>Stonington</strong>. This is her record of tedium, terror, and<br />
adventure.<br />
<strong>Stonington</strong> Ice, by Joseph A. Vargas, III. Westerly: Leo F. Manfred<br />
Associates, 1976. Winning tale of an ice business, founded by two early<br />
Portuguese immigrants, Frank Sylvia and Joseph A. Vargas, in 1864 and
operated by the family until 1955.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Davis Homestead, by Lawrence Davis. Edited by Emily Lynch.<br />
<strong>Stonington</strong> <strong>Historical</strong> <strong>Society</strong>, 1986. Recollections of family life on<br />
<strong>Stonington</strong>'s oldest surviving farm.<br />
Grace Wheeler's Memories. <strong>Stonington</strong>: Pequot Press, 1948. Recollections<br />
of country life by a beloved chronicler of <strong>Stonington</strong> history, who died in<br />
1956 at the age of 98.<br />
Draggerman's Haul: <strong>The</strong> Personal History of a <strong>Connecticut</strong> Fishing<br />
Captain, by Ellery Thompson. New York: Viking, 1950. Republished by<br />
Book & Tackle Shop, Watch Hill, 1981. Lively tales from a noted fisherman<br />
and amateur painter.<br />
A Life In Photography, by Rollie McKenna. New York: Knopf, 1991.<br />
Recollections of a leading photographer who lived in <strong>Stonington</strong> for years,<br />
gorgeously illustrated with her work.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Thousand Dollar Yacht, by Anthony Bailey. New York, Macmillan,<br />
1968. Republished by Stackpole, 1996. A saga of small-boat sailing in<br />
<strong>Stonington</strong> waters centering on the built-to-order Billy Ruffian. Illustrated<br />
by a local artist, Peter Tripp.