Orrin Kirtland Todd7, (William6, Simeon5, Joel4, Ithamar3, Michael2, Christopher1) born Dec. 6, 1833, died March 14, 1879, married Ellen Jane, daughter of Elhanan and Ellen (Kelly) Dewey, who was born June 23, 1840, died Oct. 23, 1908.
Mr. Todd was born under the friendly shelter of the ancestral roof at the middle-eastern slope of Mount Carmel not many miles from New Haven, Conn. Several generations of the family had succeeded to the same spot of ground, and three had used the same dwelling with its broad doors, easy ascending staircases and immense fire-places, its fine breadth of exterior and its great and hospitable rooms. This manor was maintained by a large acreage of well-tilled, rich and productive lands covering an extensive scope of both the mountain-side and of the deep loamed valley below, and had yielded ample incomes to all so fortunate as to be within the charmed circle of this potent colonial patronymic.
Kirtland, as he was called, inherited the genius of his people for both agriculture and skill in mechanics. He also had some apitude for business, but more than all else was he a patriot and in a quiet determined manner always stood for the Constitution and the Flag; and these convictions he gave liberally to his six sons and three daughters. His father’s intense spiritual insight, for William Manning was a great christian and a cultured gentleman of unlimited hospitalities, which was also Kirtland’s pre-natal legacy from out a splendid well-lived and nobly adorned past to this active new group of boys and girls as will be seen from the following records which have been modestly and loyally verified.
Orrin Kirtland Todd was early in his married life associated socially and in mechanics at Quinipiac–then an important industrial village with its own church and school on the confines of Wallingford, North Haven and Hamden–with J. N. Pierpont, afterwards member of the Legislature, Robert Wallace, David Stevens and William D. Hall. These men launched out from there and each made his individual mark in the use of his initiative, two of them becoming world-famous.
Mr. Todd’s war record was with Company B., of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers and he was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service. The war hardships so debilitated and undermined his powers of endurance, however, that he lived to be but 46 years of age, passing away March 14, 1879, after an illness of only four days, and a company of lifelong friends from among whom Roswell Q. Morse, Jonathan Neugent, Dennis M. Morris and Elijah D. Russell–all well-known citizens of Wallingford and of certain and peculiar prominence–sorrowfully and lovingly observed the final honors at his burial. His pathway had not been strewn with roses but he is believed to have done the best he could and he held the friendship of the multitude. Several farms had yielded luxuriantly to his management, his handiwork enriched the output of four of the great manufacturing plants of the state, yet he had spent all his life, excepting his war-days, in his native county, three of whose noted towns–Wallingford, Hamden and Cheshire–cornered in the front yard of his home.
His faithful wife, Ellen Jane Dewey Todd, a tireless, ambitious, noble-hearted and accomplished christian woman of Cymbri-Celtic, (Welsh-Irish) extraction stood loyally by him in every trying hour and with him was glad in his successes. She was totally absorbed in a supreme regard for her husband and his children, all of whom she had born to him, to whose welfare she unceasingly gave all the thoughts of her heart. She survived him 29 years and to her invincible energy is due much of the personal effect which flowed out of the collective life of this family of Todds. Her contribution has been a high value, and her passing away October 23, 1908, was profoundly mourned. From very early in life she was an earnest member of the Congregational Church, and her pastor officiated at her interment.
Children:
*1775. Harriet Ellen, b. April 19, 1860.
*1776. William Elhanan Manning, b. Sept. 13, 1864.
1777. Martin Bele, was a loyal, loving-hearted man, m. a charming and competent wife, established a good home, became ill and gradually wore himself into a strange decline and despondency. He disappeared in 1899 and has never been heard from since. He was the largest man of the family. Ambitious, humorous, talented. All possible search was made for him but without avail. Like his father he had hosts of friends who, for many years, could not give him up and who still lament his strange vanishing.
1778. Robert Burton, was drowned at 12 years of age, in Community Lake, Wallingford, Conn.
*1779. Clifford Kirtland.
*1780. Whitney Alfred, b. in 1874.
*1781. Frances Adelaide.
1782. Cornelia (Nellie) Irene, m. Dec. 20, 1896, Edward, son of William Tompkins of Ashland, N. Y., Rev. John J. Blair, pastor of the Congregational Church of Wallingford, Conn., officiating. She had equal opportunity with Frances Adelaide, in the matter of education and cultivation in music. Most of her life has been spent in Conn. These two younger sisters have been together in not only their early domestic years, but because of an extreme fondness each has always felt for the other have tried to be as much associated as possible in every way. Consequently they live but a few doors from each other still, and move together in much the same community and social circles. Each are brunettes and their lively wit and cordial manner has given them a universal acquaintance in the old home town. Edward Tompkins was an active member of Co. K., 2nd Regiment C. N. G., and was discharged a Sergeant. He is said to have been a most excellent shot at the target practice on the rifle range and as unusually good in drill work. He has followed the silver industry most of his life in which he is regarded as an adept in several branches, skillful and rapid. There are no children consequently both were free to do their war bit, which Nellie at the present time (1919) is still continuing. Both are active members in the M. E. Church and are deservedly popular in all the social grooves in which they move. They have been prospered and own their home. Nellie and Frances are still practically inseparables. Each is member of the same chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and are active in everything that will advance community progress. They are each skilled in the use of the key board and have pleasant voices, Nellie singing in church choirs for many years. As up-to-date women they feel a most delightful, conscious responsibility in all affairs of the public interest, both local and National, and have proved themselves true daughters of their fathers’s in all matters constitutional and in a free expression of patriotic opinion.
*1783. Allison De Witt, b. June, 1879.
