He graduated in June, 1875, at the head of a class of eleven, and delivered the valedictory address. He entered Brown University the following September, and graduated in 1879 with the degree of A.B. He then pursued the theological course at Yale University, and graduated in 1882 with the degree of B.D., having presented a thesis on the subject: Theories of the Atonement. He ministered for sixteen weeks during the summer vacation of 1880 for the Congregational Church at North Wolfborough, N. H. During the summer vacation of 1881, and the school year following, he ministered to the Baptist Church in Easton, Conn. On graduating at Yale in May, 1882, he accepted a call to the Congregational Church in Riverton, Conn., a pleasant and thriving village among the Litchfield hills, with an interesting people, where he was ordained the following October. He delivered the alumni poem at the Connecticut Literary Institution, Suffield, at the anniversary of 1883. After a ministry of five years at Riverton he accepted a call in May, 1887, to the two Congregational churches of East and North Woodstock, Conn., where he remained in charge of two parishes for nearly twelve years, receiving into the churches during this period one hundred new members; and during the last seven years was an active member of the school board of Woodstock. Concluding his services for the Woodstock churches March 1, 1899, he accepted a cordial invitation the following September to minister to the Congregational Church of Buckingham, Conn., and while here took up the pleasing work of preparing a genealogy of the Viets family.

Francis H. Viets married, May 23, 1883, Mary Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Amos D. and Maria (Waterman) Smith, born in Providence, R. I., Dec. 12, 1857. Amos D. Smith was a son of Isaac and Mary (Fargo) Smith of East Schuyler, Herkimer county, N. Y. He was a brass founder in Providence, where he died Feb. 12, 1895, aged seventy-two. He was in the Civil War, in a regimental band, in the R. I. Eleventh Regiment, Company I.

Amos D. Smith married Maria Waterman Oct. 27, 1851. She was one of nine children of William Waterman, for

twenty-nine years treasurer of the town of Johnston, R. I., a lady of gentle bearing and exemplary character and life, a descendant of Roger Williams, founder of Providence, and one of the first advocates of religious liberty. She died in Providence April 4, 1900, at the age of eighty-one.

Mary Elizabeth Smith graduated at the Providence High School in 1876, and at the Rhode Island State Normal School in 1879, after which she taught four years in one of the grammar schools of Providence with gratifying success.

CHILDREN.

i. Marion Amelia, b. at East Woodstock, Conn., Nov. 21, 1887; graduated from the Normal Grammar School, Providence, June, 1901; is in the high school.

ii.

Ruby Elizabeth, b. at East Woodstock, Conn., March 5, 1889; graduated from the Normal Grammar School, Providence, June, 1901; is in the high school.

iii. Paul Winthrop, b. at East Woodstock, Conn., April 18,

1894.

210

(Edward Bradford," Benj. E., Dan, Abner,' John,' John.')

EDWARD BRADFORD VIETS, Son of Benjamin E. and Anna (Hubbard), was born in Granby Jan. 27, 1857. He was educated at the public schools, and at the Connecticut Literary Institution at Suffield, but more completely in business and in the school of life, where he was an apt learner. He went at the age of twenty-one to Hartford, where he was in business for several years. Later he made a tour of the southern states with his cousin, Jasper Goodrich. For several years subsequent to 1880 he was conductor on the street cars in Chicago, and later has been in business in the same city. He married at Joliet, Ill., Aug. 17, 1886, Dr. Lewis of the Central Presbyterian Church officiating, Lillie Melissa Boardman Maxwell, daughter of George Henry Maxwell of Boston and Melissa Tryphena Matteson of Chautauqua, N. Y., whose grandfathers, Matteson and Whitford, were Revolutionary soldiers, and both lived on farms at Chautauqua Lake. Mrs. Viets' father, George Henry Maxwell, was the second son of

Edward Maxwell of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Nancy Boardman of Boston, Mass.; the former, coming to America with his parents, settled in Maine at Bethel, Wells, and Maxwell.

6

5

211

(Scott Benj., Benj. E., Dan, Abner,3 John,' John.')

SCOTT BENJAMIN VIETS, son of Benjamin E. and Anna (Hubbard), was born in East Granby May 4, 1859. He attended a few terms at the Connecticut Literary Institution at Suffield; was in the employ of a manufacturing firm in Waterbury, Conn., for a time, and has since resided at the old homestead in East Granby, where he has conducted the farm. He married in 1882 Chloe Marietta Viets, daughter of William A. Viets of East Granby.

CHILDREN.

i. Ethel May, b. in East Granby June 26, 1883.

ii.

Bernice Lucia, b. Dec. 14, 1885; is in the high school at
Windsor, Conn.

iii. Dorothy Phelps, b. Feb. 4, 1892.

212

5

(Martha Ann, Gervase, Luke, Luke, John,' John.')

MARTHA ANN VIETS, daughter of Gervase and Esther (Phelps), was born in Granby Sept. 17, 1824, and died Sept. 12, 1889. She married, May 6, 1846, Apollos P. Griffin, born in 1821, and died in 1878. They resided at Hungary in Granby.

CHILDREN.

i. Marcus A. Griffin, b. April 26, 1847; m. Nov. 7, 1871, Evelina A. Cushman. Children:

(a) Milo Cushman Griffin, b. Aug. 7, 1873; m. Gure

tha Ina Moore.

(b) Carl Viets Griffin, b. Dec. 19, 1875; m. Effie

Aldrich.

(c) Henry Apollos Griffin, b. Aug. 24, 1879.
(d) Gertrude Lorena Griffin, b. Dec. 19, 1886.

ii. Milo Griffin, b. June 28, 1849; drowned July 15, 1857.