CHAPTER I.
The Plant Family—Birth of Henry Bradley Plant—Mr. Plant’s Parents—Ancestors Came from England in 1639—David Plant Occupied Many Positions of Honor and Trust—A. P. Plant’s Successful Business Career—H. B. Plant on his Mother’s Side is Descended from Joseph Frisbee, a Major in Washington’s Army—Reverend Levi Frisbee, Father of Professor Levi Frisbee of Harvard College—Connection with Sir William Pepperell, Bart.—The Historian of the Frisbee Family—Richard of the Second Generation Went from Virginia to Connecticut, and Settled at Branford, 1644—Sketch of Oliver Libby Frisbee, Historian of his Family—Senator Hoar’s Relations to the Frisbee Family—Frisbee Patriotism and Services to their Country—They Were Good Church-Going People, Mostly of the Puritan Belief—Probability that the Frisbees Came from Wales.
HENRY BRADLEY PLANT was born October 27, 1819, at Branford, Connecticut. His paternal great-grandfather was attached to Washington’s army as a private, when Washington was at Newburg, and he was one of the guard of the unfortunate Major André at the time of his execution. His great-grandfather on his grandmother Plant’s side was a major in General Washington’s army at the same time.
Mr. Plant’s father was Anderson Plant and his mother was Betsey Bradley. They were married December 23, 1818, and were of good old Puritan ancestry who came from England about two hundred and sixty years ago. According to a genealogical table at the end of this volume, it will be seen that John Plant was in Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1639,—some give the date three years earlier,—and his son, John Plant, is granted a tract of land at Branford in 1667. These people possessed the characteristics that distinguished their race. They loved freedom, were thrifty, energetic, self-reliant, patriotic, and devoutly religious. Many of them were officers, and most of them members in the Congregational Church, which was the only church in the town for the first hundred years of its history.
Some of them occupied positions of honor and responsibility in the State and country.
David Plant was born at Stratford, prepared for college at the Cheshire Academy, graduated at Yale College in 1804, studied law at the Litchfield Law School, and was a classmate of John C. Calhoun. In 1819 and 1820, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and in 1821 was elected to the State Senate and twice re-elected. He was Lieutenant-Governor of the State from 1823 to 1827, and from 1827 to 1829 he was a member of the United States Congress. In politics he was a staunch Whig. He was an influential man in the political circles of his day in the State of Connecticut, and Calhoun, when Secretary of State, offered him any position within his gift; but he refused to hold office under the dominant party.
Another successful man of the Plant family was A. P. Plant, son of Ebenezer and Lydia (Neal) Plant, born at Southington in the year 1816.
Early in life he began to earn his own living, and by industry, economy, and business tact he became in time the head of a large manufacturing establishment. He settled in that part of the town known as the “Corner,” a part which rapidly increased in population and soon grew into a prosperous village. It bears the name of Plantsville in honor of A. P. Plant and his brother E. H. Plant. His biographer says: “He made a profession of religion in 1833; and from that time was an influential member of the Baptist Church. In 1850, he was elected a deacon of the church in Southington, and held the office until 1872, when he transferred his relations to the new enterprise started in his own village. To this church he gave liberally, and left it a legacy in his will.” He is described as a most faithful and consistent Christian, an esteemed officer in the church, and a firm believer in the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Christian.
Henry Bradley Plant, on his grandmother’s side, is a direct descendant of Joseph Frisbee, a major in Washington’s army. The Frisbees were a numerous family, and many of them occupied positions of honor and influence in the history of the country. One of them writing to Mr. Plant says:
“I suppose you have often wondered what has become of my history of the Frisbee family. I have been diligently at work on it since you heard from me. It has grown from a very small beginning to be quite an affair, namely, from looking up my ancestors so that I could join the hereditary societies of the United States, to writing a history of over one thousand of the lineal descendants of Edward Frisbee, the first settler. I find them a noble race, worthy of history. I have also looked up my maternal ancestors and can trace them back to 1497, thirteen generations, among them Sir William Pepperell.”