The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1898-09-02

ed for deliberation, that forgetting him
self, he Immediately exclaimed, 81 second
the motion" The members turned
around astonished to hear it coming from
the spectators-when recognizing the
form Of the veteran legislator of forty
three sessions, they remembered his old
habit, and burst into loud laughter.
The old Federalist became now thorough
~ Disguised with such Federation"
legislative proceedings.
He was an active and Influential mem
Der of the Masonic orders in their differ
ent names, representing his home lodge,
the Rising Sun, for many years in the
Grand Lodge, and held several of the
chairs and stations in that body.
Gen Daniel B. Brinsmade was the only
son of Daniel N. and Abigail Farrand
Brinsmade, and born in 1892, ne lived his
life of eighty years in Judea, where his
father lived before him. He was one of
the leading spirits of his day; holding
the office of town clerk for over 40 years,
and representing his towr, in the General
Assembly, several times. He took great
interest in military affairs, and was
colonel Of the Fifth Regiment of Con-
necticut Cavalry in 1917, and was subse
quently made general of the State
Cavalry. In 1851 he was honored as the
president of the Litchfield County centen-
NAL celebration, and exhibited on that
occasion the epaulets and scarf worn by
Gen Lafayette during the War of the
| Revolution, which are heiI-looms in the
Brinsmade family. He was prominent
in Masonic affairs and was Grand Master
of the State in 1927 and 1928. One of his
four children, Abigail Irene, married
Frederick w. Gum, the distinguished
teacher, whose only daughter, with heI
husband, John G. Brinsmade, a grandson
of General .Brinsmade, now continues the
school-thus making Brinsmade dynas.
5y of a complete 100 years.
Near the road from Smoke Hollow to
Davies Hollow, is the depression that
marks the home in which Ephraim Kirby
was born in 1857. The old farm is now
mos ly forest. The Ford family lived
a little nearer Mount Tom, in the old
house now nearly in ruins, and Davies
family a half-mile west in the valley.
The snews that made Putnam leave his
plow reached the ears of this boy and
he fastened with his fint-lock and pow
der-horn to Bunker Hill, and for eight
years he struggled in Freedoms cause.
He was in 10 battles and skirmishes, and
received IS wounds, seven of which
were sabre cuts at Germantown, where
he was left for dead.
At the close of the war he studied law
with Reynold Marvin of Litchfield, and
also received the degree of M. A. from
Yale college. Ia 1889 he published a
courts of his state, being the first vol
ume of reports ever published in this
country, and is still standard authority.
He was a member of the Society Oh
Cincinnati. a Free and Accepted Mason,
and held many of the official positions of
that order, being the first General Grand
High Priest of the General Grand
Chapter.
He was honored by his resident town
of Litchfield with Is semi-aanual cleo
tions to the Grand Assembly of Connec-
ticut.
| He married Ruth Marvin and had sew
eraI children, and some of his posterity
have been very pominenE military men.
General Kirby Smith, commanding the
last Confederate army that surrendered,
was his grandson.
He was appointed by President Jeffer-
son Judge of the newly organized ter
ritory of Orleans, and died while pro-
ceeding there to assume the office at
Fort Stoddard, on October 2, 1904, aged
46 years. One of
THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SONS OF JUDEA
was the late Gideon Il HOLSTER, known
so well as the historian of Connecticut.
He was born in the southeastern part of
the town in the deep valley OF the West
Sprain Brook, in an old farmhouse
which was built more than q century
and quarter ago by one of his ancestors,
who was an officer in the French and
Indian wars. This house has been kept
in repair by the HOLSTER family, who
still occupy it and till the ancestral side.
hills.
He graduated at Yale in 1910, evincing
high scholarship and great literary and
forensic talent. Under Judge Seymour's
careful training he was admitted to the
Litchfieid bar in 1912, and soon became
and always held the position of leading