Susan and Morris Abbott were the foremost Milford genealogists and historians of their time. Because of her research of founding families for descendants at the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration, Susan was urged to write, and did so, “Families of Early Milford” which was published in 1979. Because of his interest in Milford Cemetery, Morris published “Milford Tombstone Inscriptions” based on epitaphs gleaned from his survey in the cemetery’s old section in the 1940’s. Some of these stones are no longer there or the inscriptions unreadable.
Susan was born in Milford March 21, 1901, daughter of William H. and Clara Louise Smith Woodruff. She married Morris Woods Abbott, a native of Nebraska, August 30, 1922. They had two children: Alice Ann (Jones) who died in 1993 and William Woodruff Abbott.
Susan was a member of the Freelove Baldwin Stow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Milford Historical Society and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. She sang for more than 40 years in the choir of First United Church of Christ Congregational and was frequently a soprano soloist.
She was so absorbed in her work helping attendees in confirming their descent from founding Milford families during Founding Families Day in 1976 during the nation’s Bicentennial that she never had a chance to pose for any pictures on the Memorial Bridge. Whenever called with a genealogy question, she was known to promptly get back to the caller with an answer after consulting her records. She moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in 1989 where she died Dec. 13, 1994 at the age of 93.
Morris was born Feb. 19, 1898 in Schuyler, Nebraska, son of Chauncey and Caroline Antoinette Woods Abbott. He graduated from Yale University in 1922. He worked for the F.H. Woodruff Seed Company in Milford and eventually became its treasurer. He was a member of the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, New Haven Colony Historical Society and historian for the Milford Historical Society. He was also a director of the Milford Cemetery Association, treasurer of Milford Hospital, on the American Red Cross, and as an Army veteran of World War I, a member of American Legion Post 34.
He devised a map of the old section of Milford Cemetery in 1943, showing location of the stones, making it easier for people to find them and identify stones that are currently unreadable. All this information on the cemetery’s old section was in his book, “Milford Tombstone Inscriptions,” published in 1967. A version of the map is currently available in a shelter in the cemetery near the Revolutionary War Monument, assembled and constructed by a Boy Scout for his Eagle Scout project.
Morris also wrote a book about the Memorial Bridge in Milford called “The Bridge on the Wepawaug,” published in 1972. Later, around the time of the Bicentennial in 1976, he became concerned about neglect in maintenance of the bridge. Weeds were sprouting up around it. Small saplings were even growing out of niches between the stones. He brought this to the attention of the Public Works Department hoping they would spruce up the area, but got no results. Morris then took it upon himself to take a series of pictures, which he mounted and showed at a Board of Aldermen meeting. The aldermen saw to it that the bridge was spruced up.
