LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES


He came to Massachusetts in 1630.
and was one of the principal found-
ers of Watertown. He returned to
England the following year, leaving
behind him his two eldest sons. He
was a large proprietor of the stock
of the company, and continued to
take an active interest in its wel-
fare. He was also one of the patent-
ces of Connecticut, of which Colony
his great-grandson, Gurdon Salton-
stall, became governor, and held the
office for seventeen   consecutive
years, 1707-1724. The name has
been sustained in high respectability
by his descendants to the present
day, among whom     was the late
Leverett Saltonstall, a distinguished'
citizen of Salem.
   "On the outbreak of the Civil
war in England, Sir Richard took
part with the parliament. In 1648
he was appointed a member of the
high court of justice instituted for
the trial of the Duke of Hamilton,
the Earl of Holland, the Earl of
Norwich, Lord Capel, and Sir John
Owen. He died about the year 1658,
and left a legacy to Harvard col-
lege."
         "Early Alliances"
  One of the early scions of the
Saltonstall family in Connecticut
married into the Stoddard. family
and there were other early alliances
with prominent people. For example,
when the Rev. Aaron Burr died, in
1757, his father-in-law, the Rev.
Solomon Stoddard, succeeded him as
president of the college from which
has descended the Princeton univer-
sity of today.
  Accounts agree that the     Rev.
Aaron Burr was a man of much
grace and distinction of mind and
manner. His son, and namesake, in-
herited these graces, with a mental
brilliancy that prepared him to en-
ter college at the very early age of
eleven years. His extreme youth
prevented this, but he was allowed,
as a favor, to enter the sophomore
class in his thirteenth year.
  Add to all this, the grandmother
who was the daughter of the famed
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, and it is
easy to believe that no "accident"
save that of birth, accounts for Col.
Stoddard's having studied law in
the office of Aaron Burr, and with
two of New York's most disting-
uished chancellors. He was kinsman
o. all the Burrs, and their family
circle was illustrious in scholarrhip,


in pulpit, and in public affairs.
With names such as have been cited
may be included the Dwights, and
other equally  distinguished  Con-
necticut families.
  A biography of Aaron Burr says:
"In the truest sense, Aaron Burr
was well born."   So was Colonel
Stoddard, whom we will now try to
connect with his own immediate
family.
        Father a Surveyor
  Col. Stoddard's father, Richard
M. Stoddard, was in Albany, New
York, about the beginning of the
nineteenth century, employed as the
surveyor in charge of the Holland


        FIRST MAYOR


COL. T. B. STODDARD


company's large tracts known as fthe
"Holland Patent." In 1801 he had
moved west and lived in Canandia-
gua, then the company's headquart-
ers. Later he entered the employ of
the Phelps and Gorham Land com-
pany, of Boston, purchasers of large
tracts of Indian titles in New York
state, which had been alloted to the
state of Massachusetts in settle-
ment of Indian war claims between
the two states. Later he became
local agent for the Phelps and Gor-
ham company at Canandaigua. Here


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