CALL FAMILY

BIOGRAPHY

AS RECORDED IN:

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF TOLLAND AND WINDHAM COUNTIES CONNECTICUT.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES.

PUBLISHER: J.H.BEERS & CO., CHICAGO; 1903 P. 924

CALL. One of the largest business houses in the manufacture and dealing of harness and horse supplies in eastern Connecticut is that owned and conducted by Charles F. and George H. Call, in Danielson, Conn., successors to their father, Henry S. Call, who for a number of years was prominently known to the trade. The family is an old one in the annals of New England. The first family record is found in Charlestown, Mass., and Boscawen, N.H. The latter town was settled about 1734 by families from Newbury Mass., and from the fact that the Jackman family (with whom the Calls are closely connected) came from that place to New Hampshire, it seems almost certain that Moses Call lived for a time at Newbury and the records show that the greater part of his life was spent in New Hampshire.

Moses Call married Mehitabel Jackman and their children were: Hannah, born Sept. 6, 1751; Phebe, born Sept. 11, 1753; Silas, born March 17, 1758; Phebe (2), born Sept. 10, 1760; Timothy, born Feb. 13, 1763; David, born May 18, 1765; Daniel, born Oct. 13, 1767; and Nathan, born Oct. 15, 1770. Mehitabel (Jackman) Call died Oct. 19, 1809. She was a daughter of Deacon George and Hannah (Bishop) Jackman, and descended from James Jackman and his wife Jemima, who came from Exeter, England, to Newbury, Mass., her lineage being through Richard, Richard (2) and George Jackman. George Jackman and brother Richard settled in Boscawen, New Hampshire.

At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Lieut. Moses Call served on the Committee of Safety, was an officer in the Boscawen company and took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, being a lieutenant in Capt. Kimball’s company in the Bennington campaign of 1777, the company marching July 4th of that year to oppose Gen. Burgoyne’s advance from Canada to Lake Champlain.

Silas Call, son of Moses, was a lieutenant of Henry Gerrish’s company, which was formed at Boscawen immediately after the news of the battle of Lexington was received, and saw hard service. Silas Call was also a soldier and an officer in the war of 1812, dying in the service.

Among the earlier campaigns against the Indians when the settlement of Contoocook was threatened and attacked in 1743 and 1744, Moses Call and a John Call were members of the military company for their defense.

Timothy Call, son of Moses Call, was born Feb. 13, 1763, at Boscawen, N.H., and was drowned in Lake Champlain, in July, 1804. In 1790 he was graduated from Dartmouth College, after which he read law and practiced at Gilmanton, N.H. There he married Abigail Cleveland, a native of Canterbury, Conn., who was on a visit in New Hampshire, where she met Mr. Call. The only child born to this union was Henry Cleveland Call, born Feb. 14, 1797, at Gilmanton, N.H. After Timothy’s death, in 1804, the widow and child returned to her home in Canterbury, Conn., where, in time she married again.

Henry Cleveland Call, only son of Timothy and Abigail (Cleveland) Call, grew up in Canterbury, where he enjoyed the advantages offered by the common schools. When of proper age he learned the harness-making trade and located at Sterling Hill, town of Sterling, Conn., where he carried on his trade in connection with a tanning establishment, his house and shop standing opposite the Baptist Church. Mr. Call was a successful business man and was a man also of inventive genius. In the possession of one his descendants at New Haven, Conn., is a certificate granting him a patent on a certain style of horse collar, this document bearing the date of 1835, and being signed by Andrew Jackson. The sample collar is owned by Call Brothers, of Danielson. It is said that Henry C. Call owned the first carriage in the town of
Sterling, Conn. Henry C. Call married Phoebe Smith, daughter of Pierce and Polly (McGregor) Smith of Sterling Hill, and nine children were born to them, five of whom lived to grow to maturity: Maria Dorrance, born Oct. 22, 1827, married Oct. 14, 1844, William Bowen Fenner, and had children, - Eva, Frank and Phoebe; Susan Emeline, born Oct. 14, 1830, resides in New Haven, Conn.; Henry Smith, born Oct. 29, 1832; Mary Eliza, died young; Charles Cleveland, born Feb. 12, 1829, died March 14, 1892 (he married Emily H. Kenyon and had one daughter, Ida. A second marriage resulted in the birth of four more children); Jane Elizabeth, born Nov. 1, 1838, married April 27, 1862, Henry Wells Graham and resides in New Haven. They are the parents of one daughter, Florence Jean.

Henry Smith Call, son of Henry Cleveland Call, was born Oct. 29, 1832, on the homestead at Sterling Hill, Conn. Here he grew up, attended the district school, learned the harness-making trade of his father and continued to work with him until the former’s death, at the age of sixty years. Both his parents were interred in the Oneco cemetery at Sterling. For three years Henry S. Call carried on the business alone, and in 1858 he moved to Moosup and for a year followed his trade there. The next year he located at Central Village, Conn., and remained in business there until 1868, at which time he settled in Danielson. For a year he carried on the harness business in partnership with Geo. W. Sanders, but at the end of the year took entire charge, and continued actively at his trade until its increasing business was assumed by his two sons in 1883. Successful in business, Mr. Call was also held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens. His death occurred Aug. 26, 1900, and one of the eulogies at that time spoke of his sterling honesty and uprightness of character. In politics he was a staunch Republican, although he never accepted office.

The first marriage of Henry S. Call was to Mary F. Gaskell, daughter of George B. and Roxcilla (Perkins) Gaskell, of Smithfield, R.I., born there July 26, 1836, and died in Danielson April 10, 1885. The second marriage of Mr. Call was to Addie E. Knight, of Sterling, Conn. The children of Mr. Call were Ella Frances, born Sept. 1, 1857, died in January, 1863; Charles Frank, born Jan. 20, 1859; George Henry, born Feb. 26, 1861; and Arthur Graham, born July 27, 1865, who is employed in a department store at
Watertown, N.Y.

Reproduced by:

Linda D. Pingel – great-great granddaughter of Cyrus White of Rockville, Ct.