Woodbridge and Backus families business records

The Woodbridge and Backus families of Norwich, Connecticut, engaged in international and coastwise shipping and trade of commodities like iron, rum, molasses, tobacco, and sugar. The families were connected by marriage and apparently not formal business partners, but their mercantile activities and shipping ventures often overlapped.

Elijah Backus was born in Norwich to Elizabeth Tracy and Samuel Backus (1693-1740) in 1726. He managed an iron works and grist mill at Yantic, Connecticut. Elijah served as a captain during the Revolutionary War, and the Backus Iron Works cast cannons, mortar, and horse shoes for the Continental Army, and anchors for privateers. Other products manufactured by the iron works were farm tools, saw mill cranks and saws, and grist mill spindles. Elijah was involved in shipping and trade of commodities other than iron, and retail sales at a general store. He was also a justice of the peace.

He married Lucy Griswold in 1753, and they had nine children, four of whom lived to adulthood: Lucy (1757-1818); Elijah (1759-1811); James (1764-1816); and Clarina (1769-1831). Elijah Backus died in Norwich in 1798.

Dudley Woodbridge was born in Stonington, Connecticut, in 1747. He graduated from Yale in 1766, and became a lawyer in Norwich. He married Lucy Backus, daughter of Elijah Backus, in 1774. He was the first postmaster of Norwich, serving from February 1781 to September 1789.

Woodbridge sold rum, foodstuffs, and dry goods from a general store in Norwich, and invested in shipping ventures to the West Indies, often in partnership with his brother, Samuel Woodbridge, and sometimes his in-laws. In the late 18th century, he joined his brother-in-law James Backus and moved to Marietta, where he resumed his law practice. He died there in 1823.

James Backus, was one of the first settlers of Marietta, Ohio, in April 1788, where he was an agent for the Ohio Company, conducting surveys of the town. At his father’s request, he returned to Connecticut in March 1791 to run the family iron works, grist mill, and shipping interests. James also simultaneously formed a brief business partnership with his cousin, Rufus Backus (born 1761), which dissolved in 1796. Rufus & James Backus imported and traded goods from the West Indies like molasses, salt, and rum, as well as tea from China, French indigo, and British dry goods; they consigned with merchants in New York, Boston, and Providence, Rhode Island.

James at some point bought out his siblings’ share in their father’s businesses, which he ran until 1814. He also operated a farm and meatpacking plant, constructed a saw mill, and built and maintained two carding machines.

James Backus married Dorothy Church Chandler in 1793, and they had eight children, including William Woodbridge (1803-1892) and Henry T. (1809-1877).

William Woodbridge Backus inherited his father’s farm, while his brother Henry T. Backus became a lawyer in Detroit, Michigan, and later a judge in the Arizona Territory. William was not involved in shipping like other Backus family members, but sold beef and produce from the farm, and invested in stock in the Chicago & Alton Rail Road, Phenix Insurance Company, Shoe and Leather Bank, and other companies. William also wrote and published A Genealogical Memoir of the Backus family in 1889.