Preston, Sherwood Odle

SHERWOOD ODLE PRESTON

Great good came to the world through the labors of Sherwood Odle Preston, now deceased, who for more than thirty years was agent for The Organized Charities Association of New Haven. Actuated by a spirit of broad humanitarianism, he was constantly extending a helping hand where aid was needed and there are hundreds who have reason to bless and cherish his memory. He became widely known throughout the state in connection with his work for organized charity and to him might be applied the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote concerning one of his classmates:

"You see that boy laughing, you think he's all fun, 
But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done."

Mr. Preston was born in Fairfield county, Connecticut, his birth having occurred on Beaver street, now Fairfield avenue, in Bridgeport, December 30, 1848, his parents being James Henry and Abbie Jane (Bouton) Preston. His opportunities to acquire an education were limited to the district school and he was only eleven and a half years of age when he started to work, his first employment being in the saddle tree shop of Captain William Peck, then located where the Bridgeport depot now stands. He received a wage of two dollars per week and little tips which were given him by the workingmen, for whom he did errands. Later he worked on the farm of his grandfather, Odle Bouton, through the summer seasons and for a short period attended school in the winter months. He afterward found employment with the Wheeler & Wilson Company of Bridgeport in the manufacture of needles and later worked for the Winchester Armory at Bridgeport, rifling gun barrels for a year. He was next engaged with the same company in slowboring gun barrels and, removing to New Haven, he continued with the Winchester Arms people, being after-ward employed in the carriage hardware factory of M. Seward & Sons, with whom he continued for a brief time. He then returned to the Winchester Armory, where he remained until his eyesight became impaired and his health failed, obliging him to give up work. He was then tendered the position of agent for the Associated Charities, with office at No. 23 Church street. This was on July 25, 1885, when the association became The Organized Charities Association. He began at a salary of fifty dollars per month and received the appointment through the influence and encouragement of the late Hon. Francis Wayland, president of the association. Mr. Preston continued to occupy that position until his death. In 1903 he was oppointed probation officer of the city courts by Judge E. C. Dow and was later appointed to the same position in the courts of common pleas and superior courts, continuing to serve until 1906, when he resigned, feeling that his time was demanded by his other duties. In his official capacity as agent of The Organized Charities Association he was not alone known in his own state but thoroughout many other states of the Union by reason of his reputation in connection with his New Haven work.

In Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mr. Preston was married by the Rev. R. J. Adams on the llth of April, 1874, to Roberta E. Stow, who was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, a daughter of Hon. William W. Stow, a prominent and highly esteemed citizen of Wallingford, who represented that town in the legislature for several terms. Mrs. Preston is still living making her home on Humphrey street in Now Haven. She has been a most devoted wife and mother and a loyal Christian, holding membership in the Baptist church. She is also a member of Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. By her marriage she became the mother of one child, Elizabeth Vincy, who became a missionary and was stationed at Madras, India, and later at Impur, Naga Hills, Assam, India. In Madras she was married to Dr. Walter A. Loops, a physician, and in 1909, on account of ill health, they returned to America, settling first in California and afterward becoming residents of Austin, Colorado, where they are now engaged in farming. To Dr. and Mrs. Loops were born the following named: Hope, who was born August 6, 1907, and died in infancy; Dwight, who was born June 20, 1908, and passed away in infancy; Faith Elizabeth, born July 5, 1909; David Preston, born February 15, 1911; Sherwood Charles, born Sep-tember 14, 1912; and Walter Lester, born January 26, 1916. The adopted children are: Sherwood Dean Preston, who resides in Cheshire, Connecticut, and who was married March 4, 1912, to Emma Grenier, by whom he has one child, Mildred Althea, who was born June 29, 1917; Celia L. Preston, who died in childhood; and Roberta Vincy, who was married April 19, 1916, to Donald A. Dibble, of New Haven and they have one daughter, Barbara Sherwood Dibble.

Mr. Preston died at his home at 324 Humphrey street, New Haven, October 24, 1912, and was buried in Evergreen cemetery. Many resolutions of respect were passed and many letters of condolence received by his family from those who knew this man of sterling worth and his many acts of Christian charity. He was a Christian in the highest and fullest sense of the term. His fight for the right was often a hard one but through his persistency he overcame evil with good and like St. Paul he kept the faith and fought a good fight. He was a faithful member of the Baptist church, serving as superintendent of the Mission on Nash street for nine years and for four years superintendent of the Sunday School. In Hope church he also served as deacon and when the churches united he became a deacon of the First church. In 1893 he was made a member of the Connecticut Prison Association and served continuously on various committees of that society, doing much to further prison reform and to stimulate the "little seeds of good asleep" in every individual. He belonged to St. John's Lodge, No. 8, F. & A. M., of Stratford, Connecticut, and was connected with the Sons of Temperance and with other societies seeking to benefit humanity. He was identified with Company K of the Eighth Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard. His home life was an ideal one and he was a most devoted husband and father. He also held to the highest standards of citizenship. His charity was unbounded and, like his Master, he was a lover of the young and the innocent. He adopted three children whom he and his devoted wife reared and cared for as though they were their very own.

At his death the New Haven Times-Leader said of him: "Mr. S. O. Preston, who died yesterday, was a man to whom the people owed a big debt of appreciation and gratitude. He accomplished more in respect to organized and well directed work for charity than has been accomplished by all other efforts combined in this city. He was the uncompromising foe of the professional beggar. He was the never failing friend of the deserving poor. More than a quarter of a century ago he discovered that indiscriminate charity was breeding professional paupers in New Haven. He found many instances where bank accounts were being added to regularly, whole families supported and daughters furnished musical instruction from the proceeds of systematic begging of those who were led to believe that applicants were actually suffering. He established a system of investigation that very soon stopped a large part of the professional begging. He established a system of employ-ment and insisted that those able to work should give adequate service for what they received. His belief was that all able to work ought to earn enough for their needs and he provided the work. It was the right policy and the Preston way of enforcing it has had farreaching influence for good in this city and all over the country. In 1889, when it was discovered that fraud and professional pauperism had for some time been successful in raids upon the public treasury, Mr. Preston gave valuable and gratuitous aid in exposing the grafters and establishing a system of investigation in the public charities department which has been continued from that time and which will never be abandoned. Mr. Preston handled many thousands of dollars which were given him to spend at discretion. No man could have been more faithful and upright in his stewardship. Mr. Preston was a man of high and conscientious purpose—honest to the heart's core. His work in behalf of those in trouble—the unfortunate, the wayward young—and the good results of that work are fully known to no living man or woman. Only the God who gave and who has taken away knows all that this good man accomplished for humanity in New Haven. He lived a life of faithful self-sacrifice. He literally wore himself out in a service few men are fitted for and which no other man in this city could have performed so well. In a sense perhaps not commonly understood or realized Mr. Preston filled a large place in this community and all who knew him today mourn his loss and profoundly respect his memory."
 
 

Modern History of New Haven
and 
Eastern New Haven County

Illustrated

Volume II

New York – Chicago
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 
1918

pgs 328 - 332

 
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COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
pages / text are copyrighted by
Elaine Kidd O'Leary & 
Anne Taylor-Czaplewski
May 2002