Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

continued in successful business until
after his marriage, when he disposed of
that business. He continued his residence
in New Haven until 1910, then removed
to Tariffville, Connecticut, which was his
home until death. In Tariffville he was
not in active business, but was fully occu-
pied with the care of his invested inter-
est. In New Haven Mr. Lamb was a
member of old Hiram Lodge, No. 1, Free
and Accepted Masons. He was a man of
high moral tone and intellectually, very
careful of all obligations of life, quiet,
studious and companionable.
Henry W. Lamb married, February 18,
1897, Mrs. Emily A. Hotchkiss, daughter
of Harrison C. and Maria A. (Jones)
Smith. By her first marriage Mrs. Lamb
has a son, Earl Harrison Hotchkiss. Mrs.
Lamb's father, Harrison C. Smith, died in
1888. He was a machinist engaged in his
business at both Deep River and Chester.
He was known as the "veteran bit maker,"
and at the time of his death was foreman
of a shop in Philadelphia, which city had
been his home for several years. He was
a member of Deep River Lodge, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and a
member of the Baptist church. Harrison
C. Smith married Maria A. Jones, daugh-
ter of Richard Jones, a resident of the
Deep River section called "The Plains,"
a substantial farmer and stock raiser.
They were the parents of two children
Emily A., now widow of Henry Winslow
Lamb, and Ivan Smith, of New Haven,
Connecticut. Mrs. Lamb is a granddaughter
of Wells Smith, a farmer of Deep
River, and his wife, Catherine A. (Town-
er) Smith.
THOMPSON, Henry Zelah,
Tobacco Grower.
To the casual sightseer motoring the
level valleys in the northern part of Conn-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
134
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ecticut, the only impression left on the
mind is that of one tobacco field after another,
with scarcely a boundary between
them. To the casual observer the people
of the countryside are much like the fields,
one man after another all engaged in the
same line of wr ork, so presumably one
man after another all more or less alike.
So the men of the city place all agricul-
turists in a class and call them farmers.
The ordinary man of business, whose in-
terests do not touch those of the food and
tobacco grower, fails entirely to realize
that the man behind the plow in a very
large measure makes our civilization. It
is not the farm, not the character of the
crops, but the man himself at the head of
the productive work of the world, that
holds the welfare of thousands in his
hands. Nor are all farmers alike. Among
them can be found many men of broad
sympathies, of high ideals, alive to the
moral and spiritual progress of their gen-
eration, as well as the material needs to
which they directly minister. Such a man
is Henry Zelah Thompson, of East
Granby.
Thompson is a very old and honored
English name, and the family, many gen-
erations before their transplanting to
America, ,was the bearer of the following
arms
Arms—Azure a lion passant guardant or;
within a bordure, argent.
Crest—A lion rampant, ducally gorged or.
(I) The progenitor of this family in
America was the Rev. William Thompson,
who was born in 1598-99, in Lanca-
shire, England. He matriculated at
Bragen Nose College, in Oxford, January
28, 1628. He preached in Winwick, a par-
ish in Lancashire. In 1637 he came to
Boston, and was first engaged at Kit-
tery, but later settled at Braintree, Massachusetts.
He removed from there and