The Newtown bee., 1907-05-31
LITCHFIELD COUNTY.
NEW PRESTON.

LIlCHFlELD COUNTY.
 NEW PRESTON.
 FREDERICK HULL BOSWELL.
 Frederick Hull Cogswell was born in New Preston, Conn.,, March II, 1859, and had just passed his 18th birthday. He was the son of Egbert and Mary EIizat tHulD Cogswell, his ancestors hay ing come from the earliest stock of the taste led him to enter the Connecticut Literary Institution, in Suffield, where he graduated, with hOnors, in 1881. He studied law for a time at ) the Yale Law school and at the Uni 1882, Clara Knowles Wood, who sur wives him, with three children. MT COgswell came to this city early in his young manhood. With we'll de- i fined taste for writing and literary ed with the New Haven Register, but later gave himself to stenCgraphy, in | which he had been interested early in life. In 1884 MT Cogswell published "Cogswell's Compendium of Phonog- raphy,." work on which he spent several years, and which is to-day among the large selling and standard books on the practice of stenography. In this book, which made MT CogS- well well known throughout the | country, the author drew on the best and most practical parts of the stand ard works to date on the subject, es pecially Graham's and Munson's, and added such large amount of his per sonal experience that as "The Cogs- we'll System" 1t has been used more | been the system used in the New Ha- ven courts and very largely through out the state. In professional steno- graphy MT Cogswell's name will re- main for years connected with one of the standard works on the subject. In the same year in which he pub lished this book, having taught the practice of stenography in this city to many of the older and best known stenographers now in business through out this state, MT Cogswen was ap pointed official stenographer to the su- | perior court of New Haven, being the | first to hold that position in this | country, as the only one to date, as we'll as being among the first official court reporters in the country. His offices have been on the upper floor of the court building, on Church street, and in those offices, under MT Cogs- | wells direction, have been compiled | the reports of the most famous New close atten tiOn to the court business during the last twenty-three years, MT Cogswell found time and inclina- | tton to engage in number of literary and historical pursuits, the results of | which have been of great advantage Of a strong historical and antiquarian | tendency, MT COgSwell early aSSociat-
 ed himself with the few who have made personal researches in New Ha- | ven history. He was for years an ac- tive member of the New Haven His torical society and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and
 the Connecticut Society of the Found CTS and Patriots. His interest and re- searches in this line led to consider unusual interest and value, which he contributed from time to time to the | records of the New Haven Historical Society, to the Connecticut Magazine them the New England Magazine. To these he also contributed several liter ary papers and sketches, one of which
 was descriptive, in hctional form, of a Revolutionary landmark in Wood-
 bridge. MT Cogswell's largest and most important contribution to New Haven Colony historical study was his novel, "The Regicides, which ap- peared in 1896, and which is the best and most accurate presentation of the emigration here of Goffe and Whalley that has been made. Besides its his
 torical interest 'sThe Regicides" is a singularly delightful piece of pure TO-
 mantle writing; its style is easy and
 pleasant, it's characters are flesh and and official life of the times faithful
 and interesting. The novel remains
 to-day the best work of historical tic-
 tion that a resident of New Haven has
 front of fiction written by New Ha.
 veners. MT Cogswell was engaged and
 deeply interested in a second histori-
 cal novel of Connecticut at the time
 of his death, and had practically
 worked into shape for publication the
 had also published "Art Works oi
 New Haven," and contributed chap
 ters to "Historic Towns of New Eng years or more MT and Mrs Cogswell
 had occupied during the summer time
 rambling and hospitable cottage in
 Woodbridge, where a. good part Of Mi
 Cogswell's literary work was done, ano
 which was gathering place for many } his wife, three children, a daughter } Miss Olive Cogswell, and two sons
 Clarence Holloway Cogswell, juniol
 Frederick Hull Cogswen, Jr., sopho . more in the college. MT Cogswell' E
 many interests and labors in the life Of the New Haven courts and in liter
 ature and Connecticut history cannot
 be complete record of his life, as nc
 list of things done can be the whole k life history of any man. His persona ? life, as known to those who were for n tunately intimate with him tt : greater or less degree
 Carried greater success than any list O.
 attachments or public acts can. Hi - friendlineSS was marked trait ir D him, as was his gentleneSS His mino U was filled with the best things il
 books and nature, and was of a refined