My Genealogy Hound

JOHN H. STORRS, a large real estate dealer and one of the successful business men of the town of Ware, was born in Victory Mills, Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1831, son of John Frink and Sally (Topliff) Storrs.

John Henry Storrs, his paternal grandfather, was a successful agriculturist of Ashford, Conn. He married Miss Polly Frink, and three sons and a daughter were born of their union, as follows: John Frink Storrs; Bazalel Storrs, a farmer, who died at the age of sixty-two years, leaving no family; William Storrs, who is married, but has no children; and Polly, the wife of Harvey Sedgwick, of Palmer, Mass.

John Frink Storrs, when grown to manhood, turned his attention to the livery business, which he first took up in Oswego, N.Y. In 1839 he came to Monson, Mass., and later resided successively in Stafford and at Ellington, Conn., but finally removed to Ware in 1856. Although he began without cash capital, he was very successful. He had a large and profitable business. Besides his livery stable, he had on the road thirteen stages, requiring the employment of eighty horses. His wife, to whom he was married in 1818, bore him a son and daughter; namely, John H. Storrs and Maria Storrs. The latter was for about forty years the leading milliner of Ware. She has now retired, and resides with her brother. Their mother died in 1860, sixty-two years of age; and their father, after living to the age of seventy-nine years, passed away eight years later.

John H. Storrs attended the high school and Monson Academy, and later the school at Stafford, Conn. He left school to take a clerkship in a general merchandise store, where he remained for six years. He then purchased a team, and during the succeeding six years was successfully engaged in selling goods throughout Tolland County, Connecticut, and vicinity. In 1856 he removed to Ware, where he opened a dry-goods and millinery store in company with Charles Wilcox, under the firm name of Wilcox & Storrs. Two years later his partner withdrew; and he carried on the business alone until 1869, at which time, having overworked so that his health was failing him, he sold out to parties from Boston. He then took up the real estate business. He began by purchasing vacant land, erecting buildings upon it, and then selling or renting the same. In 1868 he began to build on seven acres of land that he had purchased for two thousand dollars in 1866. Of this land within the past three years he has sold about fifty building lots, at prices ranging from three hundred to one thousand dollars each. He also purchased a farm containing fifty-eight acres, for which he paid seven thousand, five hundred dollars. The sale of a part of this property has brought him twenty-five thousand dollars, and he has still a large part of it left. His sons, John H., Jr., and George D., are now engaged in the business with him; and they are the largest operators in Ware. Among the buildings they have erected are: the brick blocks on Main and North Streets, embracing eleven stores and the post-office; and the Mansion House, a fine modern hotel. They have also four other stores, which they rent. The erection of stores and blocks was begun in 1881. Besides attending to his own property, Mr. Storrs also takes charge of property belonging to non-residents.

He has been twice married. The maiden name of his first wife was Miss Delia Pierce. She died in 1859. He afterward married Miss Emma J. Draper, a daughter of Lyman Draper. Of the six children born of this union one died when nine months old and one at the age of three years and six months. The others are: John H. Storrs, Jr.; George D. Storrs; Mabel O., wife of George W. Dunham, the teller of the Ware Savings Bank; and Mary B. Storrs, who is now at Smith College and a member of the class of 1896. Mr. Storrs has one grandson, John H. Storrs, third, son of John H. Storrs, Jr., who is six years of age. His second wife died July 13, 1891, in the fifty-first year of her age. Mr. Storrs votes with the Democratic party. He has been a Selectman and Assessor for many years.