The sixth child in a family of eight, William Backus was born on October 22, 1803, in Woodstock, CT. His father died when he was thirteen years old. William’s mother was the daughter of Charles Church Chandler, a well-known lawyer from Windham. In 1819, he traveled to Marietta, Ohio, where Dudley Woodbridge’s mercantile establishment employed him. Ill health required William to return to Norwich, where he took up residence in his ancestral home, becoming the seventh generation of Backuses to live there.

Through long days of hard work, the family farm began to prosper with bumper harvests of corn, rye, and potatoes, among other crops, including a large herd of cattle. William worked on the farm by day and read and studied by lamplight at night. He was able to publish an extensive, 400-page genealogy of the Backus family. William’s financial success enabled him to make generous contributions to private charities and public benefactors later in life. His gift of $75,000 to the founding of the Backus Hospital is one example of his sensitivity toward the unfortunate and distressed in our society.