Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

t ents
business when about twenty-one .wars
of age, and has spent the years since intervening
in the same line of activity. He
IS now located at No. I26l I'-roadway,
New York, a jewelry jobber, specializing
in novelties, but handling jewelry of all
kinds. His firm, Lippman, Spier & Halm,
ranks with the leading jewelry houses of
New York City, Mr. Spier being one of
the best informed men in his particular
line of business. He is a Republican in
his political faith, and a member of the
Episcopal church in Thompson, Connec-
ticut.
Mr. Spier married, in New York City,
Jessie Alma Ironside, born May 25, 1856,
in Sheffield, England, daughter of Isaac
and Martha (Beecher) Ironside, both her
parents also born in Sheffield. The
Beecher family has been traced in Eng-
land to John and Sarah (Richards)
Beecher, (1760) and has long been one of
the leading families of that section of
England. Mr. and Mrs. Spier are the par-
of two sons : Francis Atkinson, born
March 19, 1880; Reginald Ironside, born
March 10, 1887.
BROCKWAY, Ulysses Hayden,
Business Man, Public Official.
Arms—Gules a fleur-de-lis argent, on a chief
of the second (argent), a lion passant guardant of
the first gules. Two bars wavy, each charged
with three pales wavy, gules.
Crest—An escallop or.
The Register General of Great Britain
(1891) states that the name Brockway is
unknown in Scotland and Ireland, and
uncommon in England and Wales. It is
thought to have been derived from the
Old English name Brock. In compiling
the genealogy of the Brockway family in
America it was ascertained that all of the
name in America prior to 1850 were descendants
of YYolston Brockway, who
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
emigrated to Connecticut in the middle
part of the seventeenth eentury.
W'olston Brockway, immigrant ances-
tor of the Brockway family, was born in
England, about 1038, and came to Amer-
ica early in life. He settled in the Con-
necticut Colony, at Lyme, which has
since been the principal seat of the Brock-
ways, and from which center branches
have spread over the entire country.
W'olston Brockway purchased much prop-
erty in Lyme, and this with slight
changes is still in the hands of lineal descendants.
The family is one of the most
prominent in the vicinity of Lyme among
many who boast historic lineage. The
progenitor married, at Lyme, Connecti-
cut, Hannah Bridges, daughter of Wil-
liam Bridges. She died February 6,
1687.
Ulysses Hayden Brockway, deceased,
was a member of this distinguished old
99
family. He was born in Hamburg, in
the town of Lyme, Connecticut, July 19,
1851, the son of Jedediah and Elizabeth
(Lord) Brockway. He received his early
education in the public schools of the
town. When he was but slightly over ten
years old the Civil War broke out. Too
young to go to war, he became a drummer
boy for the recruits which were
drilled at Lyme. The stirring events of
the conflict inculcated in him a spirit of
adventure and an ambition which school
and drudgery of farm life could not sat-
isfy, and at the age of sixteen years he
left Lyme, and came to Hartford, which
city remained his home throughout his
life. He became thoroughly identified
with its business, political, social and fra-
ternal life.
Mr. Brockway secured his first employment
in the tailoring business, in which
he himself later became an employer. He
entered the oldest tailoring establishment