2018 inductee
Capt. Rev. Henry G. Marshall
Henry G. Marshall was born in Milford on January 2 1839, and resided at 89 West River Street with his family including two sisters, Hattie and Mary. A bright young man, Marshall, preparing for the ministry, graduated from Yale in 1860.
After the civil war broke out he enlisted August 4, 1862, in the 15th Connecticut Regiment at the rank of Sergeant. At that time, all of Connecticut's regiments contained only white men. Though allowed by the federal Government since 1862 it was not until November 1863 that Republican Gov. William Buchanan called for men of color to sign up. Hundreds did, so many in fact that the regiment was oversubscribed by January 1864.
A regiment is roughly 1,000 men who were allocated in the 29th in13 companies, A through L. The vast majority of men were former slaves or descendants of slaves. The first African slaves arrived in Boston on a Dutch ship in 1638, the same time as Milford’s founders arrived from England.
Slavery was made "legal" in Massachusetts and was not outlawed in Connecticut until 1848. So eager they were to fight “like Moses” for the freedom of their southern brothers that some from Rhode Island and New Jersey, and likely elsewhere, feigned Connecticut citizenship to join.
One claimed to be from Clinton but no record before or after the war exist to confirm this. Another man, Miggs,was a new African immigrant and sadly one of the first to die in battle.
On February 16, 1864, Marshall took a step up professionally by joining the Connecticut 29th U.S.C.(U.S. Coloreds) becoming a first lieutenant under the esteemed Colonel William B. Wooster, formally of the Connecticut 20th.
Wooster and his number two, Lt. Col. Ward, were beloved by the black troops for their compassion, courage and leadership. Even though there were more than 125 officers of African descent one rising to the rank of Major, all the commissioned officers of the 29th were white, at least partly to assuage Connecticut Democrats who feared that rapacious black men would ravage the south.
Marshall was promoted to captain on January 31, 1865, and assigned to lead Company I of the 29th regiment. In the histories of the 29th written by African American troops, Rev. J.J. Hill (1867) and Rev. Alexander H. Newton (1910), there is, sadly, no mention of Company I nor Capt. Marshall. However, the captain did write of the exploits of the 29th that confirm their accounts
The troop mustered and trained in Fair Haven. So many men had come that the full complement of the 29th was filled by January 1864 resulting in the formation of the Connecticut 30th Regiment. It was merged into the Connecticut 31st as even more volunteers arrived.
Approximately 75% of all eligible asking American men in Connecticut between the ages of 15 and 50 volunteered. Each volunteer was entitled to a signing bonus of $75 from the County, $310 from the state of Connecticut and $300 from the Federal government. However, these recruits only received the $310 from the state and then were surprised to receive just half of a white soldier’s pay.
Frederick Douglas spoke to inspire the men but all already knew what was at stake. The regiment paraded through New Haven to Long Wharf to the cheers and tears of whites and blacks I like. They set off from there in March 1864 to Annapolis to be armed with brand-new Springfield rifled muskets.
The regiment served valiantly in Hilton Head and Beaufort, South Carolina, where training and some skirmishes occurred before moving north to fight 30 battles in Petersburg and Richmond, VA. theaters among at least 75,000 African American troops.
Troops of the 29th were the first to enter Richmond and escorted Lincoln onto the fallen Confederate capital. After the war, the 29th was transported to Brazos De Santiago for garrison duty at Brownsville Texas. En route the only blemish on the 29th was a near mutiny. A rumor had gone out the men were being shipped to Cuba to be sold as slaves.
The officers and more sensible troops settled their fellows down. After a terrible and disrespectful experience in Texas they were ordered back to Connecticut in November 1865 for mustering out. Gov. Buckingham welcomed them back and lamented “… although Connecticut now denies you privileges which it grants to others… the voice of the majority of liberty-loving freeman will be heard demanding for you every right and every privilege."
The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of United States banning slavery and granting legal rights were still years ahead and only passed over the Democrat opposition because of Republican control of the southern states during reconstruction.
In total, 23 were killed in action, 22 more died of their wounds while 153 died of disease. Men from Milford who served in the 9th included Capt. Marshall and first Lt. Charles L. Louden, and black soldiers, who included: Sgt. William Ricks, Cpl. Anson P. Jackson, Private Dwight A. Rallis, Pvt. Joseph Hanes, Pvt. James M. Hempstead, Pvt. David Jackson, Pvt. John Phillipo, and, Mus. Peter H. Billings, a "musician" and probably a trumpeter or drummer who was likely under-aged.
Henry Marshall mustered out separately from his troops on October 24,1865, as did Col. Wooster, who resigned his commission while they were in Texas. Marshall was a proud member of the George Van Horn Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post, equivalent of today's Veterans Associations. The G.A.R. had a meeting room in the second floor, center section, of the old Town Hall. Their records and paraphernalia were all destroyed when the Town Hall burned to the ground in 1910. (1915?)
After the war, Marshall attended Andover Theological Seminary and took up the ministry in September 1868. He married Mariette Crosby of Danbury, August 25, 1869, having one son, William, born September 21, 1870.
The Rev. Marshall served as minister of the First Church of Christ Congregational in Cromwell, Connecticut, from 1885 to 1904, where he was both evangelist and successful temperance fighter.
He returned to Milford to pastor a local church. In 1911 and 1912 he served as Chaplain of the Connecticut Legislature House of Representatives. He is buried in Milford Cemetery where his tombstone reads: "Captain Henry G. Marshall of Co. I 29th Conn. Vols., Died Oct. 11, 1918 AE 79, Rev. Minister of the gospel 45 years.”
Rona Geib Stoetzer
Rona Geib Stoetzer cracked a German code for the Federal Bureau of Investigation during World War II. After the war she had a job at the Central Intelligence Agency and never told her family what she did. Once married and settling down as a homemaker in Wilton and Milford she took on more prosaic duties as a Westport Planning and Zoning secretary and tax preparer for H&R Block.
“She was quiet, an avid reader, liked to do the New York Times crossword puzzle, loved to travel and she traveled the world,” said her son, Anthony, who lives in the 1823 farmhouse where she grew up in Milford.
Rona Geib was born was born March 11, 1919 in Carneys Point, NJ. Her father, Henry was a doctor and mother Mary Ellen a nurse. In 1926 they moved to Milford where she was Milford High School valedictorian in the Class of 1936. She attended Smith College majoring in French, spent her junior year in France, and graduated in 1940.
“She was good in languages and knew German too,” said Anthony, noting the skill helped her land a job in the FBI’s cryptanalysis division where she cracked a German code. This achievement produced a letter dated May 15, 1944 from Director J. Edgar Hoover. He noted she had solved an “official problem which faced the FBI laboratory” and lauded the “remarkable piece of work that resulted from your complicated and painstaking efforts.”
After the war in 1946 she was assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps in Berlin and Frankfurt working to get gold bars and art looted by the Nazis returned to their owners.
It was in Frankfurt where she met Otto Carlos Stoetzer, a lawyer and native of Argentina who spoke German and Spanish and had to return to Germany to reclaim his family’s frozen assets. They came to the United States in 1948 where she joined the CIA and he became a State Department translator, later earning a PhD in history at Georgetown University. They married in 1956. Besides Anthony they also had a son Eric who currently lives in Honolulu. “I don’t know what she did at the CIA,” said Anthony. “We’d ask her and she wouldn’t tell us.”
The family moved to Wilton in 1961 where Rona raised her sons and took on jobs in Westport and working for H&R Block. Otto commuted to Fordham University in the Bronx where he was a professor in political science and Latin American History from 1966 to 1991.
Rona and Otto divorced in 1989, and she moved back to her old house in Milford where she died in 2013 at age 94 in the same room where her mother died.
Otto spent his last years in Argentina where he died in 2011.
Thomas C. Parsons
The Parsons Government Complex, formerly Milford High School, is named after Thomas C. Parsons, a man who spoke his mind and was active in the political, religious and social fabric of Milford.
As former Police Chief William Bull said of him: “He did a lot of work for people that no one ever knew he was doing.” Though he garnered much recognition for contributions to Milford, most of his service was helping people with alcoholism for he was a sober alcoholic himself. He became sober with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.
“He started “Alateen” in Milford which helped hundreds if not thousands of kids over the years,” Leo P. Carroll, an old friend, said. “They attended meetings not necessarily because they had the disease but because a sibling or parent had the disease.”
One of his awards was the YMCA’s Service to Youth Award. He was honored as Citizen of the Year in 1980 and the WTNH Jefferson Award in 1981. He was a member of Governor Ella Grasso’s Organized Task Force on Youth and Alcohol, New York Governor’s Conference on Education of Alcoholics, Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission and Milford’s Drug and Alcohol Abuse Committee.
He served on the boards of Connecticut Valley Hospital, Health Systems Agency of South Central Connecticut, Region II Mental Health Board and Alcohol Services of South Central Connecticut.
Parsons was born in 1914 in Yonkers, N.Y. and had three brothers and three sisters. He was a Milford resident for more than 35 years. He married Kathleen Delaney and they never had children.
“Tom was such a humble guy,” said Carroll. “He was continuously sober for more than 25 years when he died of a respiratory illness.”
Parsons’ grave marker is a stone military one flat in the ground. It only states he was an Army Tactical Sergeant in World War II and lived from 1914 to 1984. During the war he received the Bronze Star which is awarded for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service in a combat zone,” according to the online website Wikipedia. Carroll did not know how Parsons earned that award. Parsons was a member of Milford Post 196 of the American Legion after the war.
By the time of his death, Parsons was called “Mr. Milford” and city flags flew at half-staff for several days in his honor. He was a member of the Republican Town Committee and served as Republican Registrar of Voters.
A “grass roots movement” sprouted after his death to name the new government building being transformed from Milford High School after Parsons, according to Carroll. It was led by Aldermanic Chairman Fred Lisman and City Clerk Margaret Egan. No other names were in contention, and the Aldermen passed the measure by a unanimous vote.
Parsons was devoted to his church. He was president of St. Mary’s Parish Council, St. Mary’s Holy Name Society and member of the Archbishop’s Council representing the Milford Vicarate.
He was also President of the Milford Chamber of Commerce, United Way, and Rotary Club, and served on the board of the Milford Chapter of American Red Cross, Milford Homemakers Home Health Association and Milford Mental Health Clinic. Another friend, Robert Gregory, noted he was the only male member of the Future Secretaries of America Milford Chapter. Every year from his store at Parsons Office Supply he would donate a typewriter to an outstanding female graduate of Milford High School
Baldwin & Lampkin
Baldwin & Lampkin was a high end shoe maker was one of the early industrial revolution companies in America. Other products later made in the building after they left included hand operated vacuums and locks. Its factory still stands as office condos on North Broad Street.
