Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

(VI) Eben Booth, son of Philo and
Anna Booth, was a well known farmer in
Bridgeport, Connecticut, for several de-
cades. He was widely known and emi-
nently respected in Fairfield county.
Eben Booth married Sarah (Sally) Steele,
member of a family long established in
Connecticut ;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
they were the parents of
eight children, all daughters, who removed
after marriage to the West.
(VII) Mancy Booth, daughter of Eben
and Sarah (Steele) Booth, was born near
Bridgeport, Connecticut, December 22,
1805. She became the wife of Colonel
Lyman Baldwin, and shortly after her
marriage removed with her husband to
Auburn, New York, later going to De-
troit, Michigan, where she died in 1882.
Mrs. Baldwin is remembered greatly by
the older generation of Detroit's citizens,
as a gentlewoman of birth and breeding,
who worked indefatigably beside her husband
for the advancement of religious in-
terest in the city. She was also one of
the leaders among the noble Christian
women of Detroit whose self-sacrificing
efforts in behalf of Michigan soldiers at
the front, in the hospitals, and maimed
and wounded at home, are matters of his-
tory.
WILLIAMS, Frederick Henry,
Physician, Antiquarian, Author.
Frederick Henry Williams, M. D., was
born in Pleasant Valley, Barkhamsted,
Connecticut, June 12, 1846, son of Dr.
Orville Williams. His mother, Minerva
(Gillette) Williams, died in 1855, and his
father in 1859. Left an orphan at the age
of thirteen years, Dr. Williams made his
own way in the world, supported himself
and financed his own education. Until
he was almost twenty years of age, he
lived on the farm of his maternal grand-
178
mother. His early life was spent largely
in Granby, Connecticut, but later he set-
tled in Hartford in order that he might
gain better educational advantages, for
he had determined to enter a medical col-
lege. In 1869, after two and one-half
years of medical study, he suddenly lost
his hearing. This was a severe blow to
the young man, but he did not give up his
intention to become a physician. He con-
tinued his studies, and supported himself
in the meantime by working in the print-
ing offices and drug stores until 1874,
when he received his diploma from the
board of censors of the Connecticut-Bot-
anico-Medical Society, chartered in 1848.
In 1880 he was granted an M. D. diploma
by the Connecticut-Eclectic Association.
He settled in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1876,
and has won high standing as a successful
physician, particularly in chronic and
obscure diseases. His practice is very
large and extends throughout Western
Connecticut and the Connecticut valley.
As a result of his sudden deafness in
early life, he became so dependent upon
his own mental resources that he soon
came to be an omnivorous reader and an
intense student. He speaks, reads, and
writes French ; reads German and Swed-
ish ; and
has a knowledge of Latin. He is
deeply versed in surface geology, anthro-
pology, and archaeology, and his collection
of prehistoric archaeological specimens is
unusually fine. The results of his reading
and study have inspired his pen, and
he has contributed largely to newspapers
and magazines, on medical, scientific, and
other subjects. As an historical student,
his attainments are unusually high, and
his reading has been directed particularly
to American and European history. He
is a keen student of men and public af-
fairs, and seldom is wrong in his estimate