Archive of Two Leading Connecticut Families

Publication Date: 1960

About this Item

Archive of Two Leading Connecticut Families, 1820s-1960s 1.5 feet of correspondence, legal and financial documents, genealogical materials, notes, publications and photographs Generally Good to Very Good condition with some staining and edgewear to several aged documents This collection documents two leading families of New Haven, Connecticut, the Pitkin family and the Russells. According to Doris B. Townshend s "The Streets of New Haven: The Origin of Their Names" (1984), Pitkin Street, named for the Pitkin family, was "for a long time the oldest privately owned street in America." It exists today as the pedestrian Pitkin Plaza. William Pitkin (1635-1694) emigrated from England in 1659, and was the first Attorney General of Connecticut. Following generations of Pitkins were also officeholders and leaders; William Pitkin II was a prosperous businessman and politician, whose son William III (1694-1769) was the 31st governor of the colony. William IV was elected a member of the United States Congress in 1784. Pitkin Glassworks was established in 1783 and held a 25-year monopoly on the manufacturing of glass in Connecticut. Samuel L. Pitkin, born in Hartford in 1803, was the Adjutant General for the State of Connecticut from 1837 to 1839. William R. Pitkin (born in 1877) and his brother James Sherman Pitman (1882-1950) managed the extensive family real estate business in New Haven; James was also a well-known author about yachting. This collection holds sketches, designs, and proposals for Pitkin Street and various buildings in New Haven. There are receipts, contracts and correspondence concerning the street s establishment and other construction and business ventures of the family. Some items of note include a double-sided handwritten letter from "Your loving father" James S. Pitkin to "My dear Will" with sketches of buildings on "Pitkin Place," an early (1854) New Haven City Gas Light Company bill, and probate papers for the estate of Captain Abraham Bradley (with a section to Mary Ann, widow of Samuel L. Pitkin) of 1874. Bradley was a Yale College graduate who listed his various employments as "a surveyor of land, master of a vessel, selectman, town treasurer, representative in the state legislature, justice of the peace, a zealous Whig, captain in the Revolutionary War, judge of the court, town clerk, and something of a scribbler in prose and verse." There are dozens of letters from the 1820s to the 1960s, as well as lovely mounted photographs, and handwritten, typed and transcribed family genealogies. The archive contains a New Haven Fire Marshal s Office License and Permit to erect a brick addition to Pitkin Street of September 1904, fantastic letterhead of William R. Pitkin, Attorney at Law, and an 1891 typed letter with a great map of New Haven on its verso. There is a 1901 indenture between James Pitkin of Boston and the city of New Haven, allowing him to occupy a salesroom and workrooms in the tailoring and clothing business, as well as land warranty deeds belonging to William R. Pitkin in the 1910s. The other family documented in this collection stems from William Russell, who emigrated to New Haven in 1637. His descendants include the Reverend Noadiah Russell (one of the ten founders of Yale in 1701 and a trustee of Yale College from 1701 to 1713) as well as William Huntington Russell (1809-1885). In 1836, William Huntington Russell opened a private preparatory school for boys which would become known as the New Haven Collegiate and Commercial Institute. He was reported to have foreseen the Civil War and introduced a very thorough military drill and discipline into his school, eventually lending his students to the Union army. Known as a highly knowledgeable man in military affairs, Russell was hired to organize the Connecticut militia. He later co-founded the Yale University "Skull and Bones" secret society. Later Russell progeny include Frank Henry Russell (1878-1947), Yale graduate, aviation pioneer and the first G. Seller Inventory # 717

Bibliographic Details

Title: Archive of Two Leading Connecticut Families

Publication Date: 1960