JAMES F. BUGBEE, a well-known
merchant of Lyme, was born in Tolland, Conn., on the last day of January,
1863, son of A. S. Bugbee and his wife, Serepta Barrows Bugbee. He represents
the fifth generation of his family in America, his great-great-grandparents
having come from England when their son, John Bugbee, his great-grandfather,
was but a youth. They were industrious people in humble circumstances.
John Bugbee was a tailor by trade, and lived to be an old man. His son
Alanson, a farmer in Tolland County, now retired and living in Hartford,
was born in Mansfield, August 25, 1804, and at the age of ninety-three
is still remarkably well and strong for his years, and in possession of
all his faculties. He was a manufacturer of woollen goods in Tolland, and
at one time had three stores. He met with heavy loss through indorsement
and fire, but in all business was thoroughly honest, and would never keep
a cent that was not lawfully his own. His wife, Abigail Spcllman, of Stafford,
who died in 1887, at the age of seventy-nine, was the mother of nine children,
eight of whom, five sons and three daughters, grew to maturity. One of
the sons, Sylvester by name, enlisted in the cavalry at eighteen, and had
served nearly three years in the Civil War, rising from the ranks to be
Sergeant, when he was killed at Wilson's Raid, being then but twenty-one.
The living children of Alanson Bugbee are: Arthur, of Springfield, Mass.;
Walter, in Middletown, Conn.; and Mr. A. S. Bugbee, of Saybrook, born in
1832.
For eight years Mr. James V. Bugbee was in
business at Silltown in Lyme, in company with R. W. Chadwick, the firm
being R. W. Chadwick & Co., dealers in flour, feed, and grain. In 1889
the firm sold out, and Mr. Bugbee bought the stock and trade of Robert
Ebell at the general merchandise store where he is now located and carrying
on a successful trade. Mr. Bugbee is a Master Mason of Pythagoras Lodge,
No. 45, of Lyme, and also a member of the I. O. O. F. In politics he is
a Democrat. He has been a member of the Board of Relief, and is one of
the Selectmen of the town. In 1895 he was sent as Representative to the
legislature, and served his constituents to their satisfaction and to his
own credit. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee are members and earnest supporters
of the Congregational church.
On July 11, 1880, Mr. Bugbee was married
to Mary Louise, daughter of Thomas S. and Charlotte Augusta (Rogers) Swan.
Her father, a native of East Haddam, was born in 1815, and died in 1882;
and her mother, a native of Lyme, was born in 1824, and died in 1870. Grandfather
Thomas W. Swan, father of Thomas S., was a man of note in public life.
His wife was Louisa Emmons, of East Haddam. She bore him three sons and
three daughters. Thomas S. Swan was a farmer in Old Lyme, near Laysville,
and was very prominent in public affairs in the town. He served as a Representative
in the legislature, was Town Clerk for over twenty-five years, and was
actively interested in educational matters. Mr. and Mrs. Swan had five
children, of whom four grew to maturity; namely, T. Walter, Ada, Helen,
and Mary Louise. T. Walter Swan, born in 1846, was graduated from Yale
College in the class of 1869, was admitted to the bar in 1871, and died
in Florida in 1878 of lung trouble. His wife survives him, together with
a son, T. Walter Swan, Jr., in Yale, and Isabel, also a student in college.
Ada Augusta is a widow, and lives at Shelburne Falls, Mass. Helen Lizzie
was the wife of Austin Perkins, of Norwich. She died in Kingston, N.Y.,
in 1890, on the l0th of September, at the age of thirty-one years. Mary
Louise was educated in the common schools of Lyme and in Norwich. She was
married to Mr. Bugbee at the age of nineteen, and began her wedded life
in this town. Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee have one child, a daughter Ruth, eleven
years of age.
One of Mrs. Bugbee's great-grandfathers on
the maternal side was Lynde Lord, born at Lyme in 1767. He was a descendant
of William Lord, who was born in England in 1623, came to America with
his father, Thomas Lord, in 1635, and was a comparatively early settler
of Saybrook. Lynde Lord married Mehitable Marvin, a descendant of Reynold
Marvin, who came from England about the year 1635, it is thought, and died
in Lyme in 1662. Matilda, daughter of Lynde Lord and grandmother of Mrs.
Bugbee, was born in 1794, and married in 1822 John Rogers, a graduate of
Yale in the class of 1815 and a physician. He removed to Ohio in 1837,
where he died many years later. His two children were: Mrs. Bugbee's mother;
and an older daughter now living in Ohio
Biographical Review Volume
XXVI
Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens
of New London County Connecticut
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1898
pgs 173 - 174
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