OLIVER CROMWELL TULLER. To the visitor
of Simsbury town who is interested in picturesque beauty, and in the indexes
of prosperity, the broad acres of the successful merchant and farmer whose
name appears above, and his imposing residence, would doubtless be pointed
out. Mr. Tuller is one of the largest land owners in the town. He conducted
for many years a successful mercantile business, and is among the foremost
of the town in enterprise and progressive thrift. He was born at West Simsbury
Nov. 26, 1844.
The Tuller family are among the oldest citizens
of Simsbury, and are numbered among its best people. Our subject is of
the sixth generation from John Tuller, or Tulloe, who was the first of
that name in Hartford county. The line of descent is as follows:
(II) Jacob Tuller, son of John Tuller, was
born in Simsbury May 22, 1694. He married, Jan. 27, 1721, Mary Moses, and
settled in East Weatogue, where he engaged in farming. His four children
were: Mary, born Jan. 16, 1723-24; Elisha, born Feb. 22, 1726; and Sarah
and Jacob, twins, born Aug. 13, 1727.
(III) Elisha Tuller, son of Jacob and Mary
(Moses) Tuller, was through life a farmer of West Simsbury. He married
Sarah Case, daughter of Jacob Case. He removed in 1768 to Case's farm,
in West Simsbury, where he remained until his death, Feb. 7, 1814. His
wife died Dec. 20, 1798. Their eight children were as follows: Sarah, born
Nov. 24, 1752, married Phineas Case; Elijah, born Feb. 20, 1754, died in
infancy; Elijah, born March 21, 1757, married Polly Eno April 30, 1782,
and died Jan. 29, 1819; Joel, born Nov. 15, 1758, married Dec. 22, 1787,
Mary, daughter of Noah Case, and died Jan. 22, 1826; Rosana, born Jan.
31, 1763, married Daniel Olmstead; Abigail, born in 1767, married Thomas
Case (3), and died Jan. 27, 1844; Asaph, grandfather of our subject, was
born in 1774, and died Nov. 5, 1853; Lettice married Jerdiah Case.
(IV) Asaph Tuller, grandfather of our subject,
was a farmer and stock raiser of Simsbury. He married Ruth Case, daughter
of Bartholomew Case, and to them were born the following children: Amelia,
who married Thomas Yining; Electa, who married David Reed; Serena, who
married Dwight Leonard; Orsmond; Ruth, who married Judson Wilcox; Homer,
who died unmarried; Delinda, who married George Vining; Jeremiah, father
of our subject; Nancy, who married Sylvanus Sexton, and Harriet, who died
young. For his second wife Asaph Tuller married. Rhoda Hart.
(V) Jeremiah Tuller, the father of our subject,
was born on a farm in West Simsbury in 1808. He acquired a good education,
and followed farming all his life in West Simsbury, where he was a land
owner, and was also engaged as a manufacturer. He was elected to the State
Legislature at New Haven, and locally he served as selectman and filled
many other offices. He was also a colonel in the State militia. He died
on the farm in West Simsbury in 1872, and was buried in Simsbury. He was
liberal in church views, and attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. He
married, Jan. 25, 1832, Luranna E. Phelps, a native of East Weatogue, and
a representative of one of the oldest families in the State of Connecticut,
being a daughter of Oliver C. Phelps, and great-granddaughter of Lieut.
David Phelps, of Simsbury. William Phelps, the first who settled in America,
was a native of Somersetshire, or Dorsetshire, England. He settled in Windsor.
His son Joseph was born about 1629 in England. He married, Sept. 20, 1660,
Hannah, daughter of Roger Newton, and sister of John Newton. She died in
Simsbury in 1675. The children of Joseph and Hannah Phelps were Joseph,
born Aug. 20, 1667; Hannah, Dorn Feb. 2, 1669, who died young; Timothy,
born in 1671; Sarah, born in 1672, who married John Hill; and William,
born in 1674, who died Oct. 8, 1689. Joseph married for his second wife,
Jan. 9, 1676, Mary Salmon, widow of Thomas Salmon. He was made a freeman
in 1664, and died in 1684 at Simsbury, where he was buried.
Joseph Phelps, his son, born in Simsbury,
engaged in farming. He represented the town of Simsbury in the General
Assembly in 1709 and 1727. He married first Mary Collier, who died in 1697,
and for his second wife Sarah, daughter of John and Sarah (Spencer) Case,
Nov. 9, 1699. She was born Aug. 14, 1676, and died May 2, 1704. For his
third wife he married Mary Case, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Case.
He died Jan. 20, 1750. The children of Joseph Phelps by his first wife
were Joseph, born Oct. 9, 1689; Hannah, born Oct. 25,1693, who married
Samuel Humphrey; Mary, born Oct. 17, 1696, who died Jan. 9, 1713. By his
second wife the children of Joseph Phelps were Sarah, born Aug. 11, 1700,
who died Jan. 14, 1714 and Damaris, born March 5, 1703, who married John
Mills. By his third wife his children were John, born Feb. 14, 1707, who
died Jan. 5, 1713, Amos, born in 1708, who married Sarah Pettibone; Elizabeth,
born April 7, 1709, who married July 23. 1725, Daniel Hoskins; and David,
born in 1710.
David Phelps, born in 1710, in Simsbury, was
an ensign and later a lieutenant in the militia. On April 25, 1731, he
married Abigail Pettibone, who married for her second husband Deacon David
Strong, of Bolton, Conn. David died April 9, 1760. The children of David
and Abigail Phelps were David, born May 7, 1732, died in July, 1732; David,
born March 26, 1733; Abigail, born Nov. 5, 1735, married Edward Griswold,
and for her second husband Deacon Amasa Case; Elisha, born Oct. 17, 1737;
Noah, born Jan. 22, 1740; Rachel, born Dec. 11, 1741, married David Humphrey,
of Simsbury; Ruth, born Sept. 15, 1743, married Jonah Case; Sarah, born
Oct. 15, 1745; Susannah, born Jan. 4, 1748, married William Nash; and Lois,
born March 4, 1750, married Samuel Hayden, of Harwinton, Connecticut.
David Phelps, born March 26, 1733, was a soldier
during the Revolution. He died in Simsbury. He married for his first wife,
April 7, 1753, Abigail Griswold, born at Windsor May 6, 1732, died May
16, 1795. For his second wife he married Harriet, widow of Sargt. Noah
Humphrey. The children born to David and Abigail Phelps were: Abigail,
born Nov. 16, 1754, married Jared Merrill; Ozias, born May 1, 1756, married
Sally Judson; David, born Nov. 13, 1759, married Asenath Humphrey; Elizabeth,
twin of David, married Samuel Terey; Rhoda, born Sept. 22, 1765, married
Abel Tilley; Roswell, born Oct. 31, 1767, married Dorcas Pettibone; Alexander,
born Feb. 26, 1769; Susanna, born Dec. 27, 1773, married Frederick Phelps;
Oliver Cromwell, born Dec. 22, 1774, married Susan Ensign, of Simsbury,
and they were the parents of Mrs. Luranna E. (Phelps) Tuller.
The children born to Jeremiah and Luranna
E. (Phelps) Tuller were as follows: Asaph (deceased); Cornelia, who married
Jarvis Harrington, of Collinsville, Conn., and is now deceased; Georgie
(deceased) was the wife of Charles Raymond, of New York; Phelps (deceased),
who married Lizzie M. Bulkley (deceased); Oliver C., our subject; Hattie,
who married Joseph Layton, of Providence, R. I. The mother died at the
home of our subject, at the age of eighty-nine years. She was a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a devout Christian, a woman of education,
in earlier life a school teacher, a good mother and wife, and of high moral
character.
Our subject attended the district schools
of West Simsbury, also the New Britain high school. He was reared on the
home farm in West Simsbury, and when a young man he embarked in the mercantile
business in West Simsbury in partnership with his brother under the name
of Tuller Brothers. The business was most profitably conducted until the
death of his brother, after which our subject sold his interest and has
since engaged extensively in dairy and general farming and tobacco growing.
Mr. Tuller is the owner of 500 acres of land, and is one of the largest
land holders in Simsbury. He is a stockholder in the Simsbury Creamery.
He has made many improvements on his farm, and has remodeled his home,
which is one of the finest in West Simsbury.
Mr. Tuller married, in 1884, at Stamford,
Conn., Julia Dibble, a native of that city, daughter of Capt. William Henry
Dibble. She was educated in the district schools and in the high schools
of Stamford, the State Normal School at New Britain, and also the State
Normal School at New York City, and was a successful school teacher, for
two years teaching in West Simsbury. Mrs. Tuller is a member of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, Abigail Phelps Chapter, Simsbury, a lady of
refinement and culture, and devoted to her home and family. She is a consistent
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Capt. William Henry Dibble, her father, was
born in New York City April 20, 1820, son of David Dibble, and grandson
of John Dibble, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and lived in
Fairfield county, Conn. The Dibble family was one of the oldest in Darien,
Fairfield county. John Dibble died there in 1646, leaving two sons, Samuel
and Zachariah Dibble. For two and a half centuries the family has been
prominent in the local history of Darien. David, the father of Capt. Dibble,
was born in Darien, Fairfield Co., Conn., and removed to New York City,
where he was employed on municipal work. He died in New York in 1826, and
was buried there. In politics he was a Democrat. He married Margaret Smoke,
who bore him four children: David; Mary, who married Joseph Flannabel;
John and Capt. William H.
Capt. Dibble, from early boyhood, was engaged
in coasting in the local trade, and at the age of twenty-one he was captain
of a coaster along the Atlantic. For twelve years he commanded a vessel,
after which he returned to Stamford, Fairfield Co., Conn., where he engaged
in farming. In June, 1862, he enlisted at Stamford in Company B, I7th Conn.
V. I., under Col. Noble and Capt. Hobbie, and participated in several engagements.
He was discharged in 1864, and returned home. For the past thirty years
he has been blind, losing his eye-sight as the effect of injuries sustained
during his army life, and since 1894 he has made his home at the residence
of Oliver C. Tuller, West Simsbury. Capt. Dibble married, in New York City,
Harriet N. Lockwood, daughter of Josiah A. Lockwood, and to them six children
were born, as follows : Harriet, who married Daniel Hall, of Vermont, and
is now deceased; William Henry, of Stamford; Julia, wife of Oliver C. Tuller,
our subject ; Josiah, of Denver, Colo.; Mary, who married Louis J. Fox
and is now deceased; and Martha, deceased. The wife of Capt. Dibble died
in 1895 at West Simsbury, and was buried in Stamford. In politics the Captain
is a Republican.
To Oliver C. Tuller and wife have been born
five children: Oliver, William, Alartiemae, Raymond and David. Jn politics
Mr. Tuller is a Democrat. He is liberal in church views, and is a man of
intelligence, good judgment and success. He is genial, well known, popular,
and in general ability and public spirit is among the foremost citizens
of Simsbury.
Commemorative
Biographical Record
of
Hartford County,
Connecticut
Illustrated
Chicago
J. H. Beers & Co.
1901
pgs 472-474
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