John Whiting Storrs

JOHN WHITING STORRS
1824-1887
JOURNALIST
PHOTOGRAPHER
NEWSPAPER EDITOR
DERBY POET LAUREATE

John Whiting Storrs might be described as the unofficial "poet laureate" of Derby. He lived from 1824 to 1887 and is buried in Oak Cliff cemetery with his wife Elizabeth. He was a reporter, photographer, and poet of great ability. He worked for the Sentinel, The Derby Transcript, the New Haven Register and the New haven Palladium.

He was also the editor of the Derby Journal and The Derby Weekly News in addition to having his own photography shop. He was called on regularly to commemorate in poetry some of the great events in Derby history including the dedication of the Ousatonic Dam and the dedication of the War of the Rebellion monument on the Birmingham Green. (Click on the thumbnail to see an excerpt of his historical poem on Derby history which was published in Samuel Orcutt's History of the Old Town of Derby).

Mr. Storrs was very attached to the union veterans of the civil war. His patriotic poems and personal efforts on behalf of the survivors so endeared him to the soldiers that he was regarded as one of their own. A year before his death in 1887 he published a history of the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers. It was praised as the best regimental history ever published in the state. 

After his death, his poems were published in the book pictured above.


John Storrs as a younger man - photo from the Derby Public Library.

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