The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express CompanySmyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
History
The Life of Henry Bradley Plant: Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company
Smyth, G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson)
Plant family; Plant, Henry Bradley, 1819-1899
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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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