YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

OF

CONNECTICUT

1 86 1 - 1 894.

EVERETT, MASS.:
Massachxtse;tts Publishing Company.
1894.

Copyright, i8g4,
BY
WILLIAM F. MOORB,
EVERETT, MASS.

PRESS OF FRANK D. WOODBURY,
EVERETT SQUARE.

PREFACE.

BIOGRAPHY is capable of being one of the most interesting of publications from the
fact that human life is the most fascinating of all subjects, and every well told story
of a life is worth reading. In its field many gifted writers have found congenial
soil in which to sow the seeds of truth and righteousness. It is, moreover, a
department of literature sure to find many earnest and thoughtful readers. There is a
feeling of sympathy, binding together all ranks and classes of men throughout the ages,
which has its root in unity of nature, similarity of condition and circumstances, and a
common destiny, which leads those who are beset with difficulties, surrounded by dangers,
or hindered by opposition, to study the records of other lives ; to see if, perchance, they may
learn the secret of success, and in turn be able to win their way through all discourage
ments to positions of usefulness, honor and fame.
Thus the boy who finds it so difficult to master the task assigned him by his teacher,
and thinks that learning is such arduous work, will be encouraged to persevere by the
example of Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent scholar and commentator who, while a boy, was
the butt and jest of his school mates, because of his dullness and inability to comprehend
the simplest Eatin forms, and yet before his death was the master of all the oriental and
classical languages. In like manner the youth of slim purse, and perhaps discouraged at
the outlook, as he reads the story of the lives of the self-made men in the following pages,
and finds they attained their present height with no more vantage ground than he possesses,
will take courage and strive to reach like success.
Both History and Biography are valuable adjuncts in the history of the race. Each
has its province, which, if not absolutely distinct, is still outlined with sufficient precision
for practical purposes. History deals with the more general facts, is large- in outline,
stretches over great space and a long time, records the action of great masses, as states and
nations, or the dealing of nation with nation. If it busies itself with individuals, it is only
or chiefly in their relation to larger numbers, to communities or commonwealths. It is
continuous, unbroken — or if divided into parts, then only for convenience, to abridge the
whole into proportions commensurate to the time to be devoted to it, or to expand the
account of single peoples by a minuter detail of their corporate action. History is thus
comprehensive, general, national. It deals less with individual character than with universal
laws, and with actions peculiar to men in their united capacity. But the province of
Biography is much humbler, much less comprehensive, yet scarcely less important. It
records individual actions, not alone in their relation to the commonwealth, but in their
relations to other individuals. In its more complete form it may record, in extenso, the
dealings of man with man, or of a man with a commonwealth. The point of view is
entirely different in Biography from that of History. In the latter the individual is
unimportant, except in his infiuence on the state and nation. His personal purity and
greatness have no existence for History apart from their bearing on public affairs. But in
Biography the individual is all important. The facts of his life are the objects of our study,
and secondarily the motives which underlie them. (iii)

iv PREFACE.
The word Biography is modern in its origin, and of comparatively recent introduction.
As a "life writing" it is the photograph of the subject. It reveals the circumstances o
his birth and education; lays open the interior forces of development, the conditions
growth and the facts of accomplishment. As its aim is the improvement of the reader, i
dwells with special emphasis on whatever was excellent and commendable, and proposes i
for imitation as far as it may be legitimate and desirable. It scientifically presents the
ancestry of its subjects for brief and interested examination. In no section of the world
have family records been preserved with more accuracy and painstaking care than m the
states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is a matter of public congratulation that such
is the case.
Ralph Waldo Emerson affirmed that "a man is what his mother makes him," and
while there is much truth in the words the phrase does not express the whole truth. Past
generations, as ^Yell as the beloved mother have been concerned in the building of the man.
Physical peculiarities and mental tendencies have been transmitted to him by his ancestors.
The faults or virtues of progenitors modify the moral responsibility of living descendants.
This is often pleaded in extenuation of the wrong of habitual alcoholism. It is equally true
of those in whom no such appetite exists. The noble and godly fathers of the New Eng
land colonies believed that in improving their own intellectual powers, and in elevating their
own moral nature by watchful self-discipline, they were not merely benefitting themselves,
but that they were improving the mental and moral condition which their children should
inherit from them. That this sublime faith was founded in fact, the pages of this volume
amply attest.
No claim for historic merit is made for this work, except as it is the history of
individuals. The annals of the commonwealth of Connecticut have been compiled by differ
ent persons, but there is still room for a comprehensive history of the whole state, ample as
to its proportions and accurate in its details. Few states have been more fertile in deserv
ing men than Connecticut, and to bring the main facts of a portion of these worthy
citizens into public view is the real object of this volume. We say a portion, for it is cer
tain that not all the deserving merit of the state is concentrated within its covers. It is
believed that such a record will be of incalculable benefit, not only to the living but to yet
others who are to come after, and a part of whose culture will be the study of the history
of these very times, in which the men whose biographies are here set forth play no mean
part. Is it indulging in a hope utterly vain, if the prediction is made that these biographies
inay form one of the most acceptable sources of information from which the future historian
of Connecticut may draw his material when the present times shall have passed into the
domain of history?
We would take this opportunity to express our high appreciation of the uniform
courtesy with which we were received in all parts of the state, after the fact was made
evident that a high grade biographical work was to be brought out. From false concep
tions as .to the scope of this volume, as well as mistaken notions regarding their own dignity,
a few gentlemen have declined to assist in our work, and consequently their names are
"conspicuous by their absence" from our list of the "Representative Men of Connecticut."
While full credit has been given for quotations used, we would acknowledge our
indebtedness to "An Illustrated Biography of Connecticut," "Biographical Encyclopedia of
Connecticut and Rhode Island," and "Biography of Connecticut," for valuable data in the
preparation of sketches.
Everett, Mass., July 15, 1894.

( fih/i^uckiMdiuii^

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF CONNECTICUT.

1861 = 1894.

UCKINGHAM, WILLIAM ALFRED, the famous war governor of Connecticut,
was born May 28, 1804, in the ancient town of Lebanon, Conn.
He was the son of Samuel and Joanna Matson Buckingham, both of whom
were remarkable people. Of the first, it has been said "that he was an enter
prising and thrifty farmer, of cordial and hospitable characteristics, a Christian
gentleman of rare good judgment, of careful and exact business habits, reverent, tender-hearted
and full of sympathy, and rigid in his ideas of personal libert3^" Of the latter it has been
said, with equal truth, that ' ' she commanded the love and gratitude of the entire community
in which she lived ; that she ministered like an angel to the relief of the sick and dying ; that
she spent little on herself but much on others : scattering her gifts wherever needed and giving
most cheerfully the best at her command." With such a parentage, the son must of necessity
have developed an extraordinary manhood.
The memorials of the Buckingham family, from the first of the name who left England
in 1637, down to the present, have been preserved in unbroken line, and the^^ afford a splendid
illustration of the power of early influences in moulding the character of successive generations.
Thomas Buckingham, the first immigrant of the name, came first to Boston, then moved to
New Haven, and finally located at Milford, Conn. His son. Rev. Thomas Buckingham, settled
in Saybrook, was one of the founders of Yale College, and of the synod that formed the
Saybrook platform. Then follows (3) Daniel, (4) Daniel, Jr. , (5) Samuel, (6) Samuel, Jr. ,
who was the father of the Governor. The record shows that for two centuries and a half,
his ancestors have been men of fervent piety and rare sagacity in public affairs, of superior
intellectual powers, and of prominence in the community of which they were members.
Young Buckingham was born and reared among patriotic associations, as, from the colonial
period, Lebanon had stood preeminent for patriotism. Educated in the public schools of his
¦own and the neighboring village, he was taught to bear his own part in honest labor on his
father's farm. A year spent in teaching showed that the art of imparting learning was not
to his taste, and he decided to enter upon a mercantile life. At the age of nineteen, he
entered the employ of a business firm of Norwich, and from thenceforward he made careful
study of the principles of trade. After three years of close application, he determined himself
to enter a mercantile career on his own account. Opening a store in Norwich, so thoroughly
grounded was he in all the details of his business that the venture was a success from the start ;
in all that goes to make up a Christian business man, he was the model. Not long afterwards,
to his mercantile business he added manufacturing, and in 1848 he abandoned the former
altogether, to devote his entire time and energies to new and more expanded methods of
building up the latter.
In 1849 he was elected mayor of Norwich, and was re-elected the following year. In
1856 he was again chosen to the mayoralty,' and was re-elected in 1857. His four years'
administration of local affairs was clean and dignified, and he went out of office with the best
wishes of the whole community and with a reputation as broad as the state for official probity
(5)

6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and executive ability. With the exception of this position, Mr. Buckingham had held no
public office prior to 1858. Although his life had been passed in comparative quietude, Hon.
O. S. Ferry says of him in his memorial address before the Senate of the United States, " No
man ever lived who more truly, unaffectedly and constantly regarded all his possessions, whether
of time, talents, property or influence, as a stewardship from God and humanity. He taught
little children in the Sunday School ; as deacon of the church, he was its almoner to the poor,
and the distributor of the sacred emblems to the membership of its communion, and to the
stranger within its gates. He helped to found academies, build up public libraries, provide for
feeble churches, promote temperance reform, endow colleges, and to send the light of Christian
civilization to the remotest corners of the globe. He did all this so naturally, as it were, that,
proceeding from him, it seemed nothing extraordinary. Moreover, there were ever flowing
from him streams of hidden beneficence, gladdening many hearts and drying the tears in many
eyes, whose story will never be told until the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed."
A sketch in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut says : ' ' The great tidal wave of
popular opposition to the further progress of human slavery which disintegrated old political
parties and prepared the material for new ones, attracted Mr. Buckingham's warmest sympathies.
Having always been a Whig, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise shocked every sensibility
of his intellectual and moral nature. It followed, as a matter of course, that he should become
an ardent member of the Republican party. In 1856, when the new party for the first time
entered the field as the national political organization, his name was placed on the Republican
electoral ticket, and added no little to its success. Being thus prominently brought before the
people, and his excellent qualities better appreciated \>y being better known, in the spring of
1858, he was nominated and elected governor of the commonwealth. By consecutive annual
elections he held that exalted and responsible position for a period of eight years. The most
eventful portion of American history since the War of Independence was covered by his
tenure of office.
The first two years of his administration were comparatively uneventful ; but in the third,
the storm which had been gathering so long burst in all its fury. Two systems of society, each
diametrically opposed to the other and coeval with the Republic, came into violent collision.
Freedom and slavery were set in battle array, and one must yield the palm to the other. The
position of either party seemed right in its own eyes. The election of President Lincoln put a
final stop to the extension of slavery and brought the hostile forces to a definite issue. To
Governor Buckingham, "secession was rebellion, and an ordinance of secession was a declara
tion of war. ' ' Realizing the inevitable, he began to prepare for the confiict in the winter of
1860-61. His preparations were fully justified by the assault on Fort Sumter, and from the
fall of that Federal stronghold, he devoted himself, "mind, body and estate, to bring that
conflict to a successful issue."
The military and civil history of Connecticut during the war of 1861-65, is almost wholly
the story of his administration. Not only is his personal biography a prominent part of the
history of Connecticut, but also of the entire United States. In a great measure, the state
was unprepared for the dread issue forced upon it ; but, to quote again from Senator Ferry,
"The Governor anticipated the enactment of laws, assumed responsibility, and pledged his
private credit in the purchase of supplies and munitions of war for the troops which from all
parts of the state were filling up the rolls of the volunteers. When the Legislature assembled,
it passed acts of indemnity, and literally placed the whole resources of the state at his disposal.
And thus it continued substantially during the entire war. Never was a trust more faithfully
executed. As call after call proceeded from Washington, the Governor was indefatigable in
procuring the promptest response." His time, talents, and pecuniary resources were freely

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 7
given to the completeness of the equipment of the troops, and to the promotion of their
personal comfort. No detail was omitted ; neither Bible, nor books, nor suitable tents, nor
anything else that could in any way contribute to their welfare or efiectiveness. He conscien
tiously visited every regiment and addressed words of counsel and encouragement to its officers.
And throughout the terrible struggle Governor Buckingham's courage and convictions
never faltered for a moment. Compromise with citizens in arms against the national govern
ment was deemed impossible. To him national death was implied in the very word negotiation.
" Whatever of trial, suflering or privation may be in store for us," he said, "or however long
may be the controversy, firm in the faith that our nation will be preserved in its integrity, let
us in adversity as well as in prosperity, in darkness as well as in light, give the administration
our counsel, our confidence, our support." In the supreme crisis of the nation, a man cast in
such a mould was a tower of strength.
In Governor Buckingham's eyes, nothing was too good or too costly for the men of
Connecticut. To one whose duties kept him largely at the front, the Governor said, " You
will see a good many battles and much suffering ; don't let any Connecticut man suffer for
want of anything that could be done for him ; if it costs money, draw on me for it." While
yet the grounds were strewn with the dead and wounded, this person telegraphed from Gettys
burg, and quick as the wires could bear it came the response, " Take good care of Connecticut
men." During the whole continuance of the war, duty called him often to Washington, and
by his firmness, capacity, and devotion to the common cause, he earned the respect of all with
whom he came in contact. President Lincoln appreciated him at his eminent worth, and on
one occasion said to a gentleman from this state, " From Connecticut? Do you know what a
good governor you have got ? ' ' That the citizens of Connecticut realized they had one of
the best of chief magistrates is evidenced by the fact that they would not allow him to leave
his post while the Rebellion had its existence. Not until the collapse was total, and the
national victory fully assured, and the authority of the Republic re-established on a permanent
basis, would they permit him to retire to private life and seek the repose he sadly needed.
Even then they would not consent to dispense entirely with his services. In May, 1866,
his last term of office as governor expired, and just two years later he was elected a member of
the United States Senate. For the six years following, he was associated with that august body
of men who constitute the National Senate, and all regarded him with loving reverence and
unalloyed respect. An humble Christian, a pure statesman, a sincere patriot, a perfect gentle
man, he was indeed a model to his peers. The faithful representative of his state, and the
constant guardian of his country's interests, he was very assiduous in the transaction of business,
doing his work in committee and in the Senate with the laborious industry of his earlier prime,
and the matured wisdom of his ripening years.
As the session of 1874-75 commenced, it was evident that his active and eventful career
was drawing to a close. While the bodily powers were failing, his mind remained clear and
unperturbed. Near the end of life he sank into unconsciousness, and thus quietly passed away.
Governors, senators, representatives, and other great dignitaries, came to take one last look
into the face of the departed. Rich and poor, young and old, men and women, the brilliant
and the beautiful, all came to pay a last tribute to his sterling worth and manifold virtues.
Governor Buckingham was a strong advocate of temperance, and for some time was presi
dent of the American Temperance Union. A sincerely religious man, he attended faithfully to
his duties as such. He rendered valuable services to the church in a variety of ways, and
served with ability and distinction in many lay capacities. He was a corporate member of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was moderator of the First National
Congregational Council. Always an earnest friend of education, among his bequests was one

8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of 125,000 to the Yale Theological School. He was deeply interested in the effort to establish
the Norwich Free Academy, gave his personal efforts to raise a fund for its endowment, and
contributed an amount second only to one other. Never remiss in his duty to the poor, he
was at all times a generous benefactor to those in affliction.
Making no claim to oratory, he possessed great aptness and readiness for his duties. He
had a fund of useful information, a practical knowledge of business, and a ready ability to
express his views clearly and forcibly that always commanded the most respectful and undivided
attention. " As a member of the Senate committee of commerce, he mastered most fully the
important questions that were there presented for discussion and action. As chairman of the
committee on Indian affairs, he stood resolutely for justice for this stricken race, who so sadly
need friends. His voice and vote were always given with the most conscientious regard for
the public interest and the nation's honor."
Connecticut has been prolific of statesmen, of soldiers, of patriots, of great men in the
different walks of life ; but among them all, there is not one of whom she has more just cause
for pride than in William A. Buckingham. Eulogies are regularly pronounced on members of
the United States Senate and House of Representatives, but seldom indeed are those funeral
orations so truthful, so sincere and so heartfelt, as those that were uttered in connection with
his obsequies. To quote the closing sentences of a biographical sketch, "Rich in saving
common sense, and rich in all the elements and characteristics of symmetrical Christian man
hood, he has left a precious memory to his children and family, to his business associates, to
the patriotic soldiers for whom he wisely and judiciously cared, to the church of which he was
an adornment, and to the state of which he was one of the strongest and purest leaders. His
death recalled to the minds of many survivors, what the English Poet Laureate said in speaking
of one of England's good and great men :
O good gray head, which all men knew ;
O steady nerve to all occasions true ;
O fall'n at length that tower of strength
Which stood foursquare the winds that blew."
William A. Buckingham was married Sept. 27, 1830, to Eliza, daughter of Dr. Dwight
and Eliza Coit Ripley. Dr. Ripley was a wealthy and prominent citizen, known and respected
throughout the whole eastern section of the state. Their children were William Ripley who-
died in childhood, and Eliza Coit who married William A. Aiken, quartermaster-general on
Governor Buckingham's staff.
On the i8th of June, 1884, a beautiful memorial of Governor Buckingham was unveiled
in Hartford with appropriate ceremonies. It is in the form of a massive bronze statue of the
"war governor" in a sitting position, and is the work of Olin L. Warner a native of
Connecticut. It stands in a conspicuous position in the corridor of the state house and is the
admiration of all visitors.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

' VERILL, ROGER, of Danbury, lieutenant-governor of the state during the
period of the War, was born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, August 14, 1809.
He was the son of Nathaniel P. and Mary (Whittlesey) Averill, his father
and also his grandfather, Samuel Averill, being natives of Wa.shington, Conn.,
and both of them followed agricultural pursuits. His mother was the daughter
of John Whittlesey of Litchfield County, and all of her six brothers attained social promi
nence and distinction. The father of Governor Averill departed this life in 1856, at the
mature age of eighty-six, and his mother died in the same year, only one year younger.
"One of seven children," says the Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut, "young
Averill's primary education was received in the family circle and at the excellent common
schools of his native town. Possessed with a thirst for knowledge, and endowed with unusual
energy, he eagerly availed himself of two well-furnished libraries then in existence at Salisbury.
The first was established before the Revolutionary War, and was an enduring monument to
the sagacity and generosity of its founders. The other was founded by Caleb Bingham of
Boston, and was known as " Bingham's Library for Youth," and was from time to time largely
increased by donations of books from individuals, and by money voted by the town to purchase
new books as they were needed. It is believed that this was the first youth's librarj' in the
state, and perhaps in the country. The future governor's taste for reading was greatly stimu
lated by the use of these volumes. They contributed in no small degree to furnish him with
useful information in early life, and made him keenly appreciative of the pleasures and advan
tages of knowledge. After a term at the academy at Southington, he went to Bethany, Pa.,
and taught school in that place, and at the same time continued his studies preparatory to
entering college. Returning to his home after a year of teaching and study, he prosecuted
his studies under the guidance of his brother, Chester Averill, who was then professor of
chemistry and botany in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. Entering the sophomore class
of that institution in 1829, he graduated in 1832 with the highest honors of the college, and
subsequently received his diploma. He again returned to Salisbury and opened a select school,
which proved to be the origin of a highly successful academy at that place. Among his pupils
were several who have distinguished themselves in social, professional and official life, and
whose justly acquired reputation has refiected honor upon the academy and its founders.
Between the pursuits of the teacher and of the practical lawyer a natural alliance is
manifest. The first often proves to be an admirable preparation for the second. Both aim
to effect decisive action, through instruction and conviction. Superiority in the school augurs
superiority in the forum. Mr. Averill prepared for the practice of law by diligent and thorough
study in the office of the late Chief Justice Church, who was then a resident of Salisbury.
Admitted to the bar of Litchfield County in 1837, he began professional business in his native
town, and commanded the respect and confidence of its citizens from the outset. Various
public offices of trust and responsibility were successfully and satisfactorily filled. In 1843 he
was elected a member of the House of Representatives, in which he served on several important
committees, including that of claims, of which he was chairman.
He removed to Danbury in 1849, where he resided in full practice of the duties of his
chosen profession until the time of his death. For the years 1851 and 1852, he served as
judge of probate for the district of Danbury. In the spring of 1862, and annually thereafter
for four successive elections, he was elected lieutenant-governor of the state on the same ticket
with that excellent war governor, William A. Buckingham. Together they rendered most
efficient service to the state and country until the close of the Rebellion.

IO REPRESENTATIVE MEN
At his own residence he was the first to raise the Stars and Stripes on the arrival of
the tidings that the nation's flag had been subjected to insult and outrage at Fort Sumter.
Throughout the whole of the momentous struggle which ensued he powerfully aided, by personal
influence and patriotic liberality, in the gigantic work of preserving the Union. He presided
at many public meetings, and by word and deed in various ways encouraged military enlist
ments into the service of the United States. He presented a beautiful standard of colors
to the company of volunteers raised in Danbury, which assumed the name of the "Averill
Guards." In 1868 he was again elected to the Legislature, and served as chairman of the
judiciary committee.
Mr. Averill was a director in the Danbury National Bank, and of the Savings Bank of
Danbury for many years. He has also acted as director and treasurer of the Danbury Mutual
Fire Insurance Company since its organization, in 1851. In educational, as in fiscal affairs
of the town and state, he has always exhibited the deepest interest, and for thirteen years
sustained the office and performed the duties of trustee of the State Normal School.
Roger Averill was twice married. First to Maria D. White of Danbury. By this marriage
he had four children : Arthur H., John C, Harriet E., and Minnie W. His second wife was
Miss Mary A. Perry of Southport, Conn.

OUGLAS, BENJAMIN, of Middletown, ex-lieutenant governor of Connecticut
and president of the W. & B. Douglas Company, was born at Northford,
Conn., April 3, 1816.
The pedigree of the Douglas family can be traced backwards for more than
two hundred years to the first American immigrant ancestor. Back again from
that ancestor, this branch of the family in common with others has certain historical knowl
edge of its forefathers up to a period when authentic history is confused with the mists
of tradition. The Douglas family presents marked hereditary traits. Vigorous, persistent,
warlike and masterful, always, especially bold and aggressive when belligerent in deifense of
their rights — loyal and faithful unto death in season of warfare; in the times of peace their
energies are devoted with equal force to overcoming the difficulties of politics, theology,
law, medicine and mechanics. The Douglases of Middletown have achieved a preeminence
in the field of hydraulics, that reminds the observer of similar victorious achievements
on other and more celebrated scenes of activities.
Than the Douglas family, there is none more renowned in the romantic and thrilling
histories of the Scottish people. The original arms of the Douglases in the days of
chivalry were simply three silver stars on a blue field, a device which is held by heraldic
antiquarians to indicate relationship with the Murrays. "The cognizance of Douglas
blood," as Sir Walter Scott has expressed it, is given in Burke'' s Heraldry, and in ordinary
language may be thus described: "Upon a field of silver, a man's heart, red, beneath
an imperial crown, in its proper colors ; above the dividing line, upon a blue ground, three
stars of silver." The pages of English and Scottish history bristle with the exploits and
victories, the defeats of the Douglases. Since the arms of the British monarch have borne
the triple device of the rose, the thistle and the shamrock, there has been no battle of note
wherein the red cross of St. George has flamed in the van, that some loyal and fiery,
Douglas has not spurred in its defence, and helped to bear it on to triumph.

^^-^<2>.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 11
When the New World became accessible to the people of the Old, it could not well
have been otherwise than that the Douglas blood and name should be represented in
the influx of brave and conscientious settlers. William Douglas, son of Robert, of whom
little is known, was born in Scotland in 16 10. At the age of thirty he emigrated to
New England with his wife and two children. Tradition states that they landed at
Gloucester, and after a brief stay removed to Boston. He followed the cooper's trade, and
in 1660, having purchased property in New London, he removed to that town, and received
a grant of two farms in remuneration of his services. One of these, inherited by his
son William, has remained in the family, in the direct line of his male descendants, for
-over two centuries. The other was inherited by his son Robert, and is still in possession
of his direct male descendants.
Deacon William Douglas was active and efficient in the ecclesiastical and civil affairs
of the town, and was one of the commissaries of the army in King Philip's war. He also
represented the town in the General Court for several sessions. When he died, his pastor,
the Rev. Simon Bradstreet, noted the event in his diary, and added the simple but touching
remark: "He was an able Christian and this poor church will much want him."
William, the youngest son of Deacon Douglas, succeeded his father in the diaconate of the
¦church and held that honorable office until his death. Then followed two more Williams
in the family line. John Douglas, son of the fourth William, was lieutenant-colonel
of the Eighth Connecticut Regiment, the best equipped in the colony, and was a
man of great note in his day. Of the seven children of Col. John Douglas, William was
the fifth. He served as orderly sergeant in the company under Israel Putnam, and in the
expedition that captured Quebec and brought the war to an end, in 1759. After that he
engaged in the West India trade and amassed what was then looked upon as a small
fortune. Entering into the war between the colonies and the mother country with all the
•^courage and enthusiasm of a Douglas of earlier days, he first raised a company and later a
regiment. He contributed generously to the expense of enlisting and equipping his regiment,
literally sacrificed life and fortune for his country, was a brave and faithful officer, and also
a true patriot and Christian. His second son, a sixth William, was married January 28,
1797, to Sarah, daughter of Constant Kitland of Wallingford, by whom he had eight
children, of whom Benjamin Douglas was the youngest.
Said a sketch of him: "The domestic training of young Douglas was such as ordinarily
falls to the lot of scions of the substantial New England yeomanry. He worked on a
farm throughout the months usually devoted to agriculture, and studied in the local schools
in the winter. At the age of sixteen, he began to learn the trade of a machinist in
Middletown, and in 1836 entered into the employment of Guild & Douglas, its specialty
being the manufacture of iron pumps, the business having been established by his brother
William in 1832. Three years later Benjamin and his brother purchased the entire interest
in the business, formed a co-partnership and conducted their affairs under the style and
title of W. & B. Douglas. Their manufactures for the next three years were those of
an ordinary foundry and machine shop. They supplied steam engines and other fabrica
tions to the neighboring factories. But in 1842 they invented the famous revolving stand
cistern pump, and conceived the idea of making pumps their staple article of production and
commerce. Since the reception of their first patent, perpetual improvements in structure and style
have been effected, and over one hundred additional patents obtained to cover those
developments and kindred constructions. In Europe, also, their rights are protected by
similar issues. Old prejudices in favor of ancient instruments they soon discovered could

12 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
only be overcome by persistent energy, and Benjamin Douglas went from dealer to dealer with
a pump under his arm, explained its superiorities and demonstrated the propriety of adopting
it. Success came slowly, notwithstanding his determined efforts. Not more than three
hundred pumps were sold in the first twelve months. After that the demand rose rapidly.
Popular appreciation was fairly won and wide reputation and lucrative sales followed.
In 1858 William Douglas, the senior partner, died, and the entire control of the business
devolved upon the survivor. Up to that time, William had devoted himself principally to the
manufacturing department, in which his experience and genius were of great service, while
Benjamin, with equal aptitude, had bestowed his forces mainly on the mercantile branch.
The year following the concern was reorganized under a charter conferred by special act
of the legislature, as a stock company, which retains the old firm title of W. & B. Douglas, —
of which Benjamin Douglas is president ; and his sons, John M. Douglas the secretaiy and
treasurer, and Edward assistant secretaiy. Joseph W., a son of William Douglas, is
superintendent of the manufacturing department.
Continuous prosperity is, and always has been, a characteristic of the company, and is
in strict harmony with the mechanical skill and wise provision of general need that are
essential factors of its success. Not less conducive to the confidence universally felt in
their work is the conscientious integrity invariably incorporate with it. Pumps, like the
men that operate them, have consciences. The difference between the two is that pumps
possess the consciences of their makers ; the users of pumps only possess their own. The
little one-storied wooden shop, 60 x 40 feet, in which the manufacture commenced, and
in which it also continues, is in marked contrast with the numerous massive roomy buildings
that have since been added to it. The foundry is the largest in Connecticut, the furnace of
the most approved construction, and the castings remarkable for their excellence. More
than twelve hundred styles and sizes of pumping apparatus attest the hydraulic knowledge
of the proprietors, and minister to all the varieties of civilized wants. Pumps for artesian
and for ordinary wells ; force pumps for boilers and for manufacturing needs ; chain pumps,
fire engines, garden engines, rotary pumps for the elevation of liquor; air pumps, gas
pumps, and many other kinds of pumps; pumps made of brass, of iron, of copper, of
composite metal, are supplied in quantities on the briefest notice. One of the most useful
of them all is the improved tube or drive-well apparatus. Settlers in the western states
and territories prize it supremely, while exploring expeditions and marching military
detachments find it exceedingly useful.
Wherever the hydraulic machines of W. & B. Douglas are exhibited they carry off
the highest prizes for utility and worth. The first medals were awarded to them at the
Paris Exposition in 1867 ; in 1873 they received the Grand Medal of Progress, the highest
honor at Vienna; in 1876 at Philadelphia, and again at Paris, they bore off the palm
against all competitors. The demand for the Douglas hydraulic machines is co-extensive
with modern civilization. Not only throughout the United States, but in the British
Provinces, in South America, the Sandwich Islands, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa,
do they find a ready market, and hold their preeminence as prime favorites.
Men of Mr. Douglas's stamp are invariably called upon to serve their fellow citizens
in an official capacity. He has repeatedly represented his town in the General Assembly
of the state; from 1849 to 1855 he was mayor of the city of Middletown. In 1861
he was chosen as one of the presidential electors of Connecticut, and cast his vote for
Abraham Lincoln, and in 1861-62 he was lieutenant-governor of the state, serving with the
famous war governor, W. A. Buckingham. During the trying scenes at the opening of the
war he bore himself steadily and well, ably assisting the chief executive in the important work

Xiiig^'-Jjy il.J3.iiaalB dqii.5, ivewiorX.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 13
in which he was engaged. Mr. Douglas was president of the First National Bank of
Middletown from 1864, the year of its organization, to 1894 ; he is also president of the
Farmers' and Mechanics' Savings Bank of Middletown, and is one of the trustees of the
Wesleyan University, which is located in his own city.
Like nearly all his American ancestors, he is a member of the Congregational
Church, with which he identified himself in early life, and is a generous supporter of
the South Church in Middletown. A model business man, by his intelligence and
enlightened supervision of the concern in all its details and relations, he has expanded
its proportions to their present enormous size. Sagacious, experienced and resolute, but
gentle withal and devoid of ostentation, he has been admirably qualified _for his post,
and also for judicious ministration to the welfare of the company's employes, and to
the needs of society, whether local, national or universal.
Benjamin Douglas was married April 3, 1838, to Mary Adeline, daughter of Elias
Parker of Middletown, and niece of Major-Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield, U. S. A., who
was slain at the battle of Antietam, while in command of the Eleventh Corps. Of the
six children who have been the fruit of this union, John Mansfield, the eldest son,
Benjamin the fifth, and Edward the youngest, are connected in important managerial
capacities with the W. & B. Douglas Company.

ELLES, GIDEON, of Hartford, was born in Glastonbury, Conn., July ist, 1802.
He was secretary of the navy during the administrations of both Presidents
Lincoln and Johnson, holding the office for a longer time than any of his
predecessors or successors. He comes of the primitive Puritan stock. Thomas
Welles, the original settler, was in Hartford as early as 1636, was the first
treasurer of the colony from 1639 to 165 1, commissioner of the United Colonies in 1649 and
1654, and governor of Connecticut in 1655 and 1658. The estate in Glastonbury upon which
Mr. Welles was born was purchased from the Indians by Governor Welles in 1640, and has
never passed from the hands of his descendants.
After passing through the public schools, Mr. Welles attended the Episcopal Academy at
Cheshire, and completed his scholastic education at Norwich University. He was at first
inclined to enter the legal profession, and read law in the offices of Chief Justice Williams
and Hon. William W. Ellsworth; but later circumstances decided him toward a political life,
and he did not engage in general practice. In January, 1826, he became editor and one of
the proprietors of the Hartford Times, and upon the disorganization of the old Republican
and Federal parties, he was active in organizing the Democratic party in that state. The
Times, under the auspices of Mr. Welles, was the first paper in New England to sustain
General Jackson, and after his election, as Connecticut was represented by his opponents in
Congress, he was more than any man in the state President Jackson's confidential friend
and advisor in the local affairs of the state. He continued to edit the Times until the close
of Jackson's administration, and was a large contributor to its editorial columns until the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
Mr. Welles was elected to the Legislature from Glastonbury in 1827, and was the
youngest member of that body. He was repeatedly re-elected until 1835, when he was
appointed by the Legislature comptroller of public accounts. In the politics, legislative

14 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
action, and important measures of the state, for more than forty years, Mr. Welles bore a.
distinguished part, and the different measures and policy advocated by him ultimately became ¦
successful. As a counsellor and advisor, his party friends gave him their entire confidence,
and the results of his suggestions justified their selection. He was a strenuous opponent of
special legislation, and took a prominent part in advocating the abolition of imprisonment
for debt. He was also one of the advocates of low and uniform rates of postage, and of
many other reforms now universally conceded as wise.
Upon the election of Judge Niles (then postmaster of Hartford), to the Senate in 1836,
Mr. Welles was appointed to succeed him, the Hartford post office being one of the most
important distributing offices in the country, making the distribution of mails for all New
England. He remained in this position until the change of administration in 1841, when
he was removed. In 1842 he was elected comptroller by the people, the Constitution having
been changed, making the office elective, and was re-elected the following years. In 1846,
Mr. Polk, without solicitation and very unexpectedly, appointed Mr. Welles chief of the
bureau of provisions and clothing of the Navy Department, a position which he retained
until the summer of 1849.
The Missouri Compromise, followed by the Kansas aggressions, led to new party organiza
tions; the Republican party came into existence, and Mr. Welles was early active and promi
nent in organizing it. In Connecticut, the Hartford Evening Press was started to advocate
its views, and he became one of its principal contributors. In the spring of 1856 he was
the candidate of the party for governor, but the movement failed of success. The Republican
Convention in Philadelphia in the same year appointed him a member of the National
Committee, and for eight years he was one of its executive members. He was also chairman
of the Connecticut delegation to the convention at Chicago which nominated Mr. Lincoln
for the presidency.
When Mr. Lincoln took the presidential chair in 1861, Mr. Welles was invited to a seat
in the cabinet as Secretary of the Navy. The breaking out of the Rebellion soon made
evident that the position was one of great responsibility, and the selection proved to be an
eminently wise one. Mr. Welles took the ground in the outset that the Government ought
not to declare a blockade, but by proclamation close our ports to foreign commerce. If the
blockade was declared, it proclaimed to the world that an independent power was being
dealt with, and the rules and practice of international law must be observed. If the ports
were closed, an insurrection on the part of the southern states only was admitted, which
was a domestic affair, bringing the violators under our municipal laws, to be treated
according to the decision of our own courts. The matter was warmly discussed in the
cabinet, and a blockade was finally declared. Had the views advanced by Mr. Welles
prevailed, a large part of the cost of maintaining the fleet necessary to patrol our coast,
in accordance with the provisions of international law, would have been saved. As the
war progressed, Mr. Lincoln saw the mistake and regretted the decision made.
It will be impossible to detail or follow to any extent the successive steps which led
to the creation of a naval force, whose operations during the war shed a new lustre upon.
the naval history of our country ; but to be able to estimate properly the great executive-
ability and remarkable foresight of the secretary, certain points should be touched upon.
When Mr. Welles assumed charge of the navy department, in 1861, the total force of the
navy in commission, including tenders and store ships, was 42 vessels, carrying 555 guns,
and having a complement of 7,600 men. At the commencement of the session of Congress-
in December, 1861, Mr. Welles was able to report that when the vessels repairing, building-
and purchased were ready for use, there would be in the service 264 vessels, carrying 3,557-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 15
•guns, and that over 200 of these vessels were then in commission, the number of the
seamen being not less than 22,000. One year later, December, 1862, there were 427 vessels,
-carrying 3,268 guns, and 28,000 seamen; December, 1863, 588 vessels, carrying 4,443 guns,
and 34,000 seamen; and in December, 1864, there, were 671 vessels, carrying 4,610 guns and
45,000 seamen. Many of these vessels, built expressly for the service, were of the most
modern construction, and of a powerful and effective character. No such record has ever
been shown by any other maritime power. It not only tested the energy of the directing
authority, but in a large measure the resources of the country.
Not less creditable were the measures adopted by Mr. Welles for the prompt creation
of a large force of iron-clad vessels. Impatient of delay, in view of the condition of the
country and what an iron-clad force might accomplish, on the 3d of February, 1862, he
addressed a letter to the naval committee of the Senate, urging immediate action upon the
House bill which he had worked through in the fall of 1861. The Senate was stimulated to
action by this, and a bill authorizing the construction of twenty iron-clad vessels was approved
February 13th. The memorable engagement between the "Monitor" and the " Merrimac "
took place on the 7th of March following, and immediately the public pulse in all sections
of the country beat high for armored ships. But the foresight of Mr. Welles had anticipated
the call of the people, and the work of constructing an iron-clad navy had already been
commenced — a navy which did honor to the inventive genius of the country, and reflected
the highest credit upon the Secretary, under whose guidance and fostering care this great
initiation in a new naval policy was so successfully carried out. The steps taken by Mr.
Welles in the introduction of turretted iron-clad vessels and heavy ordnance, both of which
are the outcome of our civil war, it is no exaggeration to say, have revolutionized the
preparations for naval warfare throughout the world.
The first step in what subsequently became the policy of the government was inaugurated
by Mr. Welles as Secretary of the Navy. To return fugitive slaves to their masters, he said,
^' would violate every principle of humanity, and would be impolitic as well as cruel." He
therefore enlisted them for service, giving them reasonable compensation, as early as
September, 1861.
Mr. Welles held the office of Secretary of the Navy during the entire period of President
Lincoln's administration, and that of his successor, President Johnson, two full terms, and
longer than any of his predecessors. When differences arose relative to the reconstruction
measures, Mr. Welles resisted the idea that the states lately in rebellion should be considered
out of the Union, or deprived of their constitutional rights, and claimed that many of the
measures adopted by congress with reference to them were quite as repugnant and destructive
to our republican system as the attempt of a state to withdraw or secede. He adhered to his
lifelong principles, and much disturbance would have been avoided had his voice prevailed.
Soon after retiring from the navy department, Mr. Welles purchased the residence in
Charter Oak Place in Hartford, where he continued to reside. His leisure moments were, to
some extent, employed in essays and compiling accounts of important events connected with
the rebellion, and the administration of which he was a member, most of which were published
in the Galaxy or Atlantic Monthly. During his residence at Washington, Mr. Welles kept
a diary of important and inside occurrences, notably the discussions at cabinet meetings and
the opinions of distinguished men upon public events, as gathered in personal interviews.
This record enabled him authoritatively to correct many statements put forth as history,
placing important events in their true light, and giving to individuals their proper positions.
His last articles passing through the press at the time of his death, were the series in the
.Atlantic Monthly, defending Mr. Lincoln, whom he greatly admired, from charges made by
«Gen. Dick Taylor in an article in the North American Review.

1 6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
" For fifty years Mr. Welles was a constant and prolific political writer, and his essays,.
habitually bringing to the test of fixed principles the policy of successive administrations,
largely contributed to give interest to several leading journals and character to the politics
of the country. Among the papers to which he was a large contributor, besides those of
his own state, the Globe and the Union at Washington, and the Evening Post at New York,
were conspicuous. As a writer he was fresh, 'clear and forcible, and these qualities were-
prominent in his dispatches as secretary of the navy. He was in constant correspondence
with the state department upon matters growing out of the blockade, and some of his-
dispatches are models of vigorous composition. Charles Sumner, who read many of them,
said that he considered him the strongest writer in the cabinet. Mr. Welles was not a
public speaker, and rarely indulged in extemporaneous remarks, his newspaper life had
educated him to use the pen with great facility and power, and herein was his strength,
rather than the rostrum."
The Legislature of the State of Connecticut was in session at the time of the death
of Mr. Welles, and as one of the state's most eminent citizens, touching and appropriate
resolutions of respect were passed. In speaking upon the resolutions, Mr. Andrews (who
was later governor of the state, and afterwards chief justice), .gave a resume of Mr.
Welles's life, closing as follows: " The political questions which followed the close of the
Mexican War, and the agitation consequent therefrom, resulted in the formation of a party
opposed to the extension of slavery. With this policy Mr. Welles early identified himself,
and was prominent in its counsels, and when, in i860, that party obtained control of the
national administration he was invited to a seat in the cabinet of President Lincoln. The
events of that administration, and the part which Mr. Welles took, his efforts throughout the
war, and his life since, are too recent to need mention. It is well known that Mr. Lincoln
had a very great personal fondness for Mr. Welles, that he enjoyed his society, and trusted in
his counsel. All the friends of Mr. Lincoln aver with grateful distinctness the ability and
readiness with which Mr. Welles sprang to his defence from the breath of unjust comparison.
All detractors, whether high or low, have learned, to their humiliating discomfiture, that so
long as Gideon Welles was alive, they could not lay their unhallowed touch upon the least
of the laurels that justly belong to the brow of the martyred president."
Other speakers followed in the same strain, and the legislature adjourned out of respect
to Mr. Welles's memory. It was the last session which was to be held in the old state house
where Mr. Welles's influence had often been felt in the past, and the occasion was one of the
kind long to be remembered.
Gideon Welles was married June 16, 1835, to Mary Jane, daughter of Elias W. Hale,
Esq., a distinguished lawyer of Central Pennsylvania. Mrs. Welles, with three sons, Edgar T.,
Thomas G., and John A., all of Hartford, survived him.
In private circles he was social to a remarkable degree, and was never happier than
when surrounded by his family and friends. His long newspaper and public life gave him
unusual opportunities for becoming intimately acquainted with prominent men and the inside
history of events extending back for more than half a century, and he delighted to impart his
impressions to others. No one could spend an hour with him without being entertained
and instructed. He was of marked simplicity of character, remarkably free from ostentation
and show, and always just what he appeared to be. He was idolized by his family and
respected by all, and passed away universally honored and lamented.

^ Q/lyLcnnnJ

JfassaGSusetts QujlialLml Co, "FVerett.I'H

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 17

ORRIS, LUZON BURRITT, of New Haven, governor of Connecticut, was born
in Newtown, in that state, April 16, 1827.
The first Morris who came to Connecticut arrived with the New Haven
colony, and Morris Cove, now a part of the city of New Haven, derived its
title from this progenitor of the family. It is known that a descendant of the
first settler transferred his residence to Fairfield, but when the town was destroyed by the
British army the records were burned, and the surname of this member of the family was
lost. Daniel Morris moved from Fairfield to Newtown, and through his son Daniel, Jr., the
line comes down to Eli Gould Morris. The latter married Lydia Bennett, and became the
father of the Governor.
His early education was limited, and young Morris's life at the outset was encompassed
with difficulties from which a man of less spirit and determination would have shrunk in
despair. The means for defraying his expenses through college were earned at a black
smith's forge in Roxbury, and in an edge tool factory at Seymour, and the diploma which
has been awarded him by the great university, of which he has ever been a loyal son, was
merited in the highest degree. He is remembered as an efficient debater in the halls of old
Linonia, and is a popular member of the D. K. E. Junior and Skull and Bones Senior
societies. Mr. Morris made his entry into the political arena at a very youthful age.
Within a year after his graduation from Yale College in 1854, he was elected a member of
the State Legislature for the town of Seymour. The impression he made was so favorable
that he was returned in 1856. Having been appointed judge of probate, he transferred his
residence to New Haven in 1857. Mr. Morris was six times elected judge of probate for
the district of New Haven, and his wide experience gained here caused him to be made
chairman of the commissioners appointed by the legislature to revise the probate laws of
Connecticut. In 1870 he represented New Haven in the State Legislature, serving on the committee
on railroads as the chairman. 1874 found him in the State Senate, of which, besides being
chairman of the judiciary committee, he was president pro tem. In the Centennial year he
represented his adopted city in the House, and again in 1880 and 1881. At the two last
named sessions he took an active part in the discussions in the legislature about the
boundary line between Connecticut and New York, and again served on the judiciary
committee, and as chairman of the committee on incorporations.
Governor Morris is, and has been for a quarter of a century, a distinguished member of
the New Haven County Bar. By reason of his experience, drawn from his long service as
judge of probate, his practice has been largely connected with the settlement of estates.
Perhaps the reputation gained in this way may have been the reason of Mr. Daniel
Hand's confidence in his judgment and integrity. The story deserves to be told in fuller
detail than the scope of this work will allow. Mr. Hand was a northern man and was
successfully engaged in business in the South at the time of the breaking out of the war,
his partner being Mr. George W. Williams, a man of southern birth. His sympathies were
with the cause of the Union, and Mr. Hand naturally wished to be among his friends.
The property of northern men was being confiscated right and left, and how to save both
his life and his accumulated wealth was a puzzling question. He solved it by giving his
property outright to his partner, leaving it entirely to his sense of honor for a settlement
after the close of hostilities. Some years after the war was over, he sought out Governor
Morris and desired him to act as his counsel in the matter, and finally turned everything
into his hands. An accounting was made with Mr. Williams, ]\Ir. Hand simply taking

1 8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
what he chose to give. To his great credit be it said, that he was a thoroughly honest
man and in all the years which had elapsed he had continued the business and made
profitable investments on the basis that he and Mr. Hand were equal partners. In different
payments Governor Morris received from Mr. Williams about #648,000, which he invested
for Mr. Hand until the amount exceeded #1,000,000, when Mr. Hand made his gift to the
American Missionary Association. Mr. Hand's magnificent gift of #1,000,000 to be used for
the education of the colored people in the South, is still a pleasant memory among all
who are interested in the welfare of that downtrodden race. The details of the deed of
gift and of financial arrangements were made by Governor Morris, and it is estimated that
when the final settlement of the estate is brought about, the fund mentioned will receive
in the neighborhood of #400,000 more. That everything has been managed to the great
satisfaction of Mr. Hand, it is unnecessary to state, and it is equally apparent that a man
who could handle the disposition of a property of the magnitude of that described, must
be a financier of no mean ability.
A portion of his time has been devoted to financial matters ; and, had he chosen, he
could have gained a name equally honored in the business world as that he has secured
amid the legal lights of the state. He has been vice-president and president of the
Connecticut Savings Bank of New Haven for more than twenty years.
Mr. Morris's work in the Legislature had brought him to the notice of the leaders of
his party, and b)- the same means he had gained an extended acquaintance throughout
the state. In 1888 he was placed in the field as the candidate of the Democratic party
for governor. At the election he received a plurality of the votes cast, but the laws of the
state require a majorit}- of votes to elect, and as the Legislature was Republican the
gubernatorial prize was bestowed upon his competitor. At the next state election he was
again the leader of his party in the battle of ballots. On the face of the returns he
received a majority of the votes cast, but was restrained from assuming the duties of his
office by technicalities, the Republican incumbent holding over for the terni of two years.
In 1892, for the third time, he was placed in nomination for the governorship, and when
the votes were counted, it was found that he had received a majority over which there
could be no quibble, being almost an even thousand votes. He was formally inaugurated at
the capitol January, 1893, and is now filling his exalted station with honor to himself and
to the credit of the state. In addressing the members of the Legislature for the first
time, among other excellent points. Governor Morris said :
In a state that has existed for so many years and has had so many General Assemblies to make its
laws, it would seem at first thought that its laws must be nearly perfect, and that very little legislation
remained to be done. But when we consider the great changes that have taken place during the present
century in the methods of doing business, the manner of travel, the occupations of the people, and their ways
of living, we find the need for new legislation, for new laws and for amendments of the old laws, which in
their day were adapted to the wants of the people, but which, by reason of the great changes which have
taken place, have become either obsolete or unsuitable for the present time. In the early part of this century
the occupations of the people of Connecticut were principally agricultural. Whatever manufacturing was done
was for local needs. Steam as -a motive power was undeveloped; electricity as a means of communication was
unknown. So far as public conveyances were concerned, sailing vessels upon the navigable waters and stage
coaches upon the highways answered the purposes of the people.
But with the introduction of steam and electricity the methods and occupations of the people have greatly
changed. Instead of being an agricultural people, the inhabitants of the state have become engaged largely in
manufacturing. Formerly business was conducted for the most'part by individuals or by small partnerships,
and the market for produce and goods manufactured was strictly a home market. Now business is done by large
corporations, and the market for goods manufactured has extended over the world. These great changes in
the manner of doing business have called for alterations in our laws, and still call for further legislation. It
becomes an important duty for you to consider these changes and to so legislate as to meet the present
requirements of the people.

I'/Tb-B saclTUSf.tf 3 Rib]isl-ang C a. .E'.-eiett, Mas s .

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 19
Speaking of two of his appointments, the Hartford Courant, a paper the opposite of
friendly to Governor Morris and his party, said :
If all Governor Morris's appointments come up to the level of the two supreme court justices named last
week, it will be well. Judge Fenn's renomination was confidently expected and desired in both parties. He
is an old soldier, a good lawyer, and a very popular gentleman. Judge Baldwin is one of the most scholarly
lawyers of the state or of New England. He is a strong lawyer, clear-headed, widely read, courageous, well
grounded in the law, and he will prove a credit to the Connecticut bench. Two of his family have sat there
with honor to themselves and advantage to the commonwealth.
As the representative of the state on various public events. Governor Morris has per
formed all the functions of the office with dignity and credit to himself. At Connecticut
Day at the World's Fair, and at the dedication of the battle monument at Trenton, his
remarks were in keeping with and fully up to the requirements of the occasion.
There is no better exemplification of the results attainable in New England by men of
genius and perseverance than can be found in Governor Morris's career. Pushing his way
through college b}' hard work, he has reached his present high rank in the same manner.
In the maturer years of his life he has been one of the state's most trusted counsellors.
He has deserved and received the utmost honor and respect in whatever position he has
taken as a citizen. Look at him as a zealous seeker after knowledge in his youth, as a
lawyer making his influence felt in a city where good lawyers are not a rarity, as the
president of a solid savings bank, as a standard bearer of a great political party, and now
as the occupant of the gubernatorial chair of the state, his career is one in which he, and
the citizens of the state as well, have just cause for pride.
Luzon B. Morris was married June 15, 1856, to Eugenia L-, daughter of Lucius and
Laura Tuttle of Seymour. They now have an interesting family of six children, three sons
and three daughters, each of the latter being a graduate of Vassar College. Robert Tuttle
is a practising surgeon in New York ; Charles Gould is in Yale College, and Ray is now
preparing for that institution. Mary is now Mrs. Charles M. Pratt of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
Helen is the wife of Prof. Arthur B. Hadley, and Emily is still under the paternal roof.
The brief sketch of Governor Morris in the University Magazine concludes with the
following words : ' ' His personal character and honorable record entitle him to the high
esteem with which he is regarded by his associates in public service, and fellow citizens.
The wave of Democracy which secured his election probably breaks the dead lock in the
State Legislature which has harassed the state for nearly four years. The governor of any
one of the leading states is, of course, a possible president, but in the rise of Governor
Morris there is much that is similar to Mr. Cleveland's career of uninterrupted success."

^ADY, ERNEST, of Hartford, lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, and secretary
and treasurer of The Pratt & Cady Company, was born Sept. 6, 1843, in
Stafford, Conn.
From Nicholas Cady, who is known to have been a resident of Water-
town, Mass., in 1645, the line comes down in direct succession. Prior to
the Revolution (the exact year is uncertain) the family transferred their home to
Connecticut. Several members of the family served as soldiers during the Revolutionary
War, among them being Isaac Cady. Unfortunately he contracted camp fever, which
was prevalent where he was stationed, and died in 1777. His son. Garner Cady, was
for many years a member of the General Assembly, representing his native town of Stafford.

20 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
He was always a staunch Democrat, and his candidacy was a standing by- word with his
party. When the day for the nomination came around, and the question arose who was
to be the candidate, if there was any doubt about the election, the magnates of the
party would always fall back on him, "For," said they, "we can elect Squire Garner
sure." He was honored and trusted by men of all political parties and lived to the age
of more than fourscore and ten years. Garner Cady, Jr., father of the lieutenant-governor,
was born in 1805, and died in 1852 at the age of forty-seven, in the very prime of
his manhood, his death being caused by a runaway team. He married Emily, youngest
of the five children of Capt. John Taylor Greene, of Stafford. Six children were born
to them, two boys and four girls, Ernest being next to the eldest. On the maternal side,
the line comes from sturdy English stock, and the blending of the two strains finds
its exemplification in the subject of this sketch.
Young Cady's education was limited both in its range and in its extent. During
the summer months he worked on the farm or in the village factory, and during the
winter season he attended the public schools until he reached his sixteenth year, when
he had the privilege of one short term at Metcalf's Highland Academy, Worcester, Mass.
This ended his school days, as he was called home for lack of funds to continue longer.
He then commenced his business life as a clerk in a general store at Stafford, Conn., and
with the exception of the time spent in the service of his country, his residence in Stafford
lasted for eleven years. In the fall of 1864, Mr. Cady formed a partnership with R. S.
Beebe under the title of Beebe & Cady, and after five years of successful business the
connection expired by limitation. At this time he took an extended tour through the
western states, with the idea of locating in some enterprising town. After an absence of
four months, during which he passed through twenty-two states, and a part of Canada,
learning much about our glorious country, he became satisfied that with the same knowledge
and push a person is better off in New England than in the west or south.
In October, 1871, Mr. Cady made his second business venture, this time as proprietor
of the corporation store of the Norwich Woolen Mills, Norwich, Conn., a connection which
lasted five years and proved a marked pecuniary success. Receiving a handsome offer in
1877, he sold out his interest, and transferred his home to Hartford, where he has since
remained. Turning his attention to the field of mechanics, in July, 1878, in connection
with Messrs. R. N. and F. A. Pratt, he organized the Steam Boiler Appliance Company, with
a capital of #50,000. Their specialties were manufactured for them by The Pratt & Whitney
Company, in whose office they had desk room, and the enterprise was a success from the
start. Four years later, the business was organized under a special charter as The Pratt &
Cady Company, and the capital increased to #75,000. The manufacturing operations were
transferred to Union Place, where they had 1,600 feet of floor space and gave employment to
thirteen men. The company outgrew its limited quarters at the end of one year, and in
1883 they erected their first building on their present location. It was 40 x 140 feet, with
ell 30 X 60 feet, for brass foundry and boiler room, and at this time the capital was increased
again to #100,000. 1885 saw the addition of a two-story building, 180 x 40 feet, and the
foundry capacity enlarged 40 x 90 feet, and the number of the furnaces increased from twelve
to thirty. Two years later, the constantly growing business demanded another building almost
the size of the one just mentioned, and better office facilities were also included in this
change. In 1887, the company purchased the Johns- Pratt property in the rear of their own
buildings, which added about 6,000 square feet to their floor space. Since then they have
erected an iron foundry, 75 x 230 feet of brick and iron, which is without doubt the finest
in New England. It is fitted with a ten ton travelling crane, and three cupolas, and has a

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 21
¦capacity of thirty tons of iron per day. A pattern shop and storage room 30 x 190, with
pattern room above, is one of the later improvements. In 1893, all the buildings which
had previously been one story were increased to two, thereby adding greatly to the
appearance of the plant, as well as to its available working space. From thirteen men in
1882, they have increased to an average of over three hundred men, and the diminutive floor
rroom of 1,600 feet has grown to about 76,000 feet. The capital stock has gradually
swelled in size from #50,000 to #300,000, and their charter allows of a still further increase.
On the basis of a par value of #100.00, their stock has sold as high as #300.00 per share.
Hartford is a city of magnificent successes in manufacturing establishments, but the bare
enumeration of facts and figures regarding it will abundantly prove that The Pratt & Cady
Company is entitled to a leading place in the front rank. To all the success attained in
their special field, and to the solving of all the financial problems which must be met before
such success can be reached, Lieutenant-Governor Cady has contributed his full share,
having held the office of secretary and treasurer of this company from its organization.
Amid his other duties, he has found time to devote to the management and develop
ment of solid financial institutions. He is president of the Cooperative Building Bank Com
pany, and is a director in the Society for Savings which has deposits amounting to more
than #15,000,000, and holds the same position in the Hartford Board of Trade, an organi
zation in which he takes a deep interest. He is also first vice-president of the Cooperative
Savings Society of Connecticut, and is a member of the board of water commissioners of
Hartford. By virtue of his office as lieutenant-governor, he is a member of the state board
of education, and the Yale College corporation council, and is a director in several other
corporations in the city.
Up to this time Mr. Cady had never held political office of any kind, and had always
avoided preferment in that way ; consequently the surprise of his life was in store for him.
In the fall of 1892 his name had not been mentioned even incidentally in connection
with the nomination for lieutenant-governor, but his friends brought his name forward
at the Hartford County caucus of the Democratic party in Hartford, and he was given
a unanimous vote. On the assembling of the state convention, this vote was repeated,
and he was assigned to the second place on the ticket with Hon. Luzon B. Morris.
The nomination of the party was ratified by the citizens of the state, and he was duly
inaugurated as lieutenant-governor in January, 1893, and is now filling the office with
dignity, and with credit to himself and the state. He received a clear majority over all,
and a' majority of 6,101 over his competitor. Col. Frank W. Cheney, who was one of the
most popular men in the Republican party. As president of the Senate, Lieutenant-
Governor Cady occupied a delicate position, there being a tie between the representatives
¦of the two political parties, yet so honestly did he fulfil the requirements of the place
that his decisions were never appealed from. Though the session of 1893 was the
longest on record, he was never absent even once, and always called the meetings of the
Senate to order. It was his privilege as acting governor in the absence of Governor Morris
to sign the bill increasing the capital stock of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
to #100,000,000, being for the largest amount a bill was ever passed in New England, and
¦one of the largest in the United States. By his assiduity in fitting himself for an office
for which he had no previous training, and by the accuracy with which he has filled it, he
has won warm encomiums from men of all political parties.
Lieutenant-Governor Cady had an honorable experience in the War of the Rebellion.
Having enlisted as a landsman in the United States Navy, he was assigned to the gunboat
¦'' Westfield," Commander W. R. Renshaw, under Commodore Farragut, in tlie Western

22 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Gulf blockading squadron. Though covering the entire territory from Pensacola, Florida,
to the Rio Grande River, for some months they were engaged in blockading the port
of Galveston, Texas. In the closing days of 1862, one of the most disgraceful affairs of the
war took place, and Governor Cady was in a position to know the inside particulars.
Commander Renshaw had a party of Rebel officers on board the " Westfield," entertaining
them for some unaccountable reason, and when the " Hatteras " arrived, bringing part of the
42d Massachusetts regiment, he told its colonel on reporting to return to the "Hatteras"
and report the following morning, and then resumed the entertainment of his singular
guests. Lack of space prevents the insertion of the detailed story; but on the following
morning, Jan. i, 1863, the fleet was surprised and attacked by the Confederate fleet, which
had made its way down from Houston in the night. They first captured the " Harriet
Lane," and then demanded the surrender of the "Westfield," which had become grounded
on a bar. After consultation. Commander Renshaw decided to abandon and blow up his
ship to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, as it was full of valuable stores.
The men were loaded into the small boats and sent off, a train was laid to the magazines
 of which there were two — intended to last thirty minutes; but, by some error, it went
off in half that time, as the fourteen officers were standing on the gangway ready to
embark. Nothing was ever found of them which could be identified. Governor Cady was
the last man to leave the ill-fated "Westfield," and he barely succeeded in boarding the
last boat as it shoved off. This explosion ended the engagement with a terrible loss of life
and property to the Union cause, and a great victory for the Confederates. Many of the
Massachusetts men who had landed on the dock unprotecfed were killed, and the remainder
taken prisoners. All of the " Westfield's " men were picked up by the "Hatteras" and
carried to New Orleans. They were at once ordered to return to Galveston in the " Hatteras,"
and were transferred to the United States sloop of war, "Brooklyn," Commander W. G. Bell.
Soon after their arrival a blockade runner was seen in the distance and the ' ' Hatteras ' '
was ordered to reconnoitre. The stranger proved to be the steamer known as the " 290,"
Commander Raphael Senimes, and sending a heavy shot through the " Hatteras," sent it
to the bottom of the ocean, but the crew were saved. The "290" landed its prisoners on the
island of Cuba, and was seen no more. Had the gunboat " Oasco," which was fully equal
to the "290" in speed and battery, been sent out instead of the transport, very different
results would have ensued.
During their stay on blockade, numerous prizes were captured which were condemned
and sold, and Governor Cady had a share in several engagements, the second in importance
being at Senaca City. After routing the rebels and nearly destroying the town, the fleet
returned to Galveston. In July, 1863, Commander Bell received orders to report at the
Brooklyn Na^y Yard. This was glad news for all on board. Two or three stops were made,
but on the last day of August, 1863, the destination was reached in safety. Most of the men
were paid off and received their discharge papers. Governor Cady being among the number.
Not having any regular employment, he used the money earned during his service and secured
a three months' term at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsle, and the time and money
were among the best investments of his life.
Ernest Cady was married Jan. 16, 1871, to Ellen E., daughter of Ex- Lieutenant Governor
Hyde and sister of Major E. Henry Hyde of the Governor's Foot Guard. He has two sons,
Ernest H. Cady, who is a student at Yale Sheffield Scientific- School, and Charies W. Cady,
a student at the Hartford High School.

J<UU.c^ l:^cJ?^njAj

MaEsachiisetrsPuilisMiii, Co. "I'.vf.r': (t,Ma33.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 23

|ROOKS, ISAAC WATTS, of Torrington, speaker of the Connecticut House of
Representatives, was born in Goshen, Litchfield County, Nov. 8, 1838.
Mr. Brooks comes of a good old Connecticut family, who for several genera
tions past have occupied the old farm and homestead in the south part of Goshen.
His great-grandfather, Joseph, son of Charles and Mehitable (Norton) Brooks,
was born in Durham, Conn., about 1753, and married Amanda, daughter of Cyprian Collins.
His son Harvey was born in 1779, and died in 1873, at the ripe old age of ninety-three.
Watts H., son of Harvey and Polly (Taylor) Brooks, married Mary, daughter of John
Wadhams, Jr., and was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was a respected and
influential citizen, and represented the town at several sessions of the legislature. Mr. Brooks
was the second of four children, the eldest of whom, John W., was for three years insurance
commissioner of the state, and later president of the Orient Fire Insurance Company. Both
brothers attended Goshen Academy, and Mr. Brooks afterwards continued his studies at Brown
University, from which, however, he did not graduate, owing to ill health ; but later received
from the University the degree of Master of Arts.
In i860 he engaged in the mercantile business in his native town with his brother. This
¦connection lasted until 1871, and the following year he removed to Torrington where he has
since made his home. For ten years prior to his removal from Goshen he served as town
clerk, being regularly elected by the Republican party. With his brother, he formed the
banking firm of Brooks Brothers in 1872. They have supplied the needed banking facilities
for the merchants and manufacturers of Torrington so fully, that no other bank has been
organized in the town, and it is a direct compliment to their integrity and fair dealing that
such has been the case.
Without ever being a seeker after office, more positions of trust have been offered to
Mr. Brooks than his time would allow him to accept. He has been treasurer of Torrington
since 187 1, and also of the Borough since it was organized, was judge of the probate court
for four years, and for more than a score of years he has been treasurer of the Torrington
Savings Bank. He was one of a committee of three to look into the feasibility of supplying
water to the town, and on the formation of the water company in 1878 was chosen president,
and is now filling that office. The water works proved of immense benefit to the town, as well
as a pecuniary success to the stockholders.
In 1886 Mr. Brooks wq,f appointed one of the receivers of the Charter Oak Life Insurance
Company of Hartford, by Judge Pardee of the supreme court, and has devoted no small share
of his time during the past eight years to settling the affairs of that institution. Mr. E. A.
Stedman has been associated with him, and their labors are now drawing to a close. He is
also a director of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford.
Mr. Brooks has had his share of honors at the state capitol. In 1884 he served as a
member of the legislature from Torrington, and was appointed to the important place of
chairman of the committee on finance. In the same year he was appointed by Governor
Waller a member of a tax commission which recommended many changes in the laws relating
to taxation, subsequently adopted by the legislature. He was again elected to the state
legislature in 1892, this time by a majority of over 400. Enthusiastic friends brought forward
his name as a candidate for speaker, and in the Republican caucus he was nominated by a
large majority, on the first ballot. At the election in the House he polled the full Republican
.strength, receiving 133 votes to 105 for his Democratic competitor. The record shows that,
notwithstanding the immense amount of labor incident to the requirements of his position, he

24 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
was present at every session of the House. He was eminently fair in his decisions, and in
the make-up of committees. The Waterbury Republican voiced this sentiment most fittingly
in the following paragraph :
We are sure that the Democratic as well as the Republican members of the House of Representatives will
cordially agree with us in saying that Speaker Isaac W. Brooks has proved himself to bel'a most efficient presiding-
officer, and that he amply justified the high expectations of his friends. Dignity and fairness, two qualities which
are indispensable to a successful speaker, he possessed in an eminent degree. When the gavel is in his hand he
belongs to no political party, but is the Speaker of the entire House ; and consequently he has commanded the
complete respect of the 251 representatives over whom he presides. It must, indeed, be confessed that he is-
utterly deficient in that theatrical bluster and muscular assertiveness which some speakers have apparently
thought desirable for the discharge of the high responsibilities of the office, but in quiet efficiency it would be
difficult to find a presiding officer superior to the gentleman from Torrington.
In 1880 Mr. Brooks made quite an extensive European tour, and, after the close of the
session of 1893, he took a second shorter trip.
A gentleman of superior business capacity, it will be seen that Mr. Brooks has been
eminently successful in the management of financial interests. Besides being the head of a
successful banking firm, he holds three treasurerships, and yet, owing to his admirable system,
his books are models of clearness, while during more than a third of the time he has lived in
Torrington he has been engaged in untangling the snarls of a mismanaged insurance company.
The extract quoted from a contemporary newspaper reflects the sentiments of his constituents
in all parts of the state regarding his effective work as speaker of the house.

UEL, HENRY WADHAMS, M. D., of Litchfield, founder of the Spring Hill
Home for Nervous Invalids and President of the First National Bank of Litch
field, was born in that town which has produced so many men of mark, April 7,
1820. He died Jan. 30, 1893.
He was the son of Dr. Samuel Buel and was descended from William Buel or
Beville of Chesterton, England, who came to Windsor, Conn., in 1630, and whose son Samuel
Buel was one of the pioneers and landholders of Killingworth, Conn., where he held many
public offices of honor and trust. In 1721 Deacon John Buel, son of Samuel Buel and great-
great-grandfather of Dr. Henry Buel, came to Litchfield, where he became one of the first
settlers and proprietors.
Dr. Buel's father, and also his father's brother, William Bu«l, were physicians of note;
consequently it seemed the most natural thing for the young man, after his graduation from
Yale College in 1844 with honors, to enter at once upon the study of medicine. This he did
in the office of his father and later in the offices of Dr. W. P. Buel, and Dr. Gurdon Buck
of New York City. In 1847 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
New York, and with such honors that he was immediately appointed house surgeon at the
New York Hospital where he remained two years. In 1850 he received an appointment as
house physician of Sanford Hall at Flushing, L. I. This position he held for five years, and
while thus engaged may be said to have commenced his professional career as an expert in
mental diseases.
During these ten or twelve years passed in study and the practical experiences of hospital
life. Dr. Buel laid broad the foundations of his future professional success. How important
the experiences of this period were to him before he assumed the full responsibility which
attaches to the duties of a practicing physician, no one realized more fully than did Dr. Buel
himself. They placed him on vantage ground when his father began to feel the need of his-

MassaclruseltsPuilisMiig Ca.£TBrett,Mais

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 25
assistance on account of age, and called him to come to his aid. He resigned his position at
Sanford Hall and removed to Litchfield in 1854, where he became an assistant of his father
in general practice. In 1856 he visited Europe, and in 1858 founded the institution in Litch
field known as the Spring Hill Home for Nervous Invalids. Here began and ended the chief
and crowning work of his life, and by his energy and fine aptitude he made this institution
a complete success. His friend. Dr. Henry P. Stearns of Hartford, says of him in the New
England Medical Monthly : ' ' For this class of patients his large sympathies were always
enlisted and the institution became the center of his professional life. He sought to make it
truly a home, and as nearly as possible to have his patients enjoy a home life. They became,
especially in his latter years, as wards and children to him. He had that professional tact
in his intercourse with them that enabled him to secure their entire confidence, and they often
said that his presence gave more help and comfort than the medicine which he prescribed."
Dr. Buel held for many years the office of president of the Litchfield County Medical
Society, and was greatly beloved and admired by all of its members. Acknowledged as their
ideal of all that was noble, manly and courteous in the life of a physician, he found time amid
the multiplicity of his duties to attend regularly the meetings of the society, and to contribute
his share towards making them interesting and profitable. His opinions were highly valued
by his medical brethren as the product of a carefully trained, well informed and logical mind.
Many important positions in the medical world have been held by Dr. Buel. In 1872 he
was elected president of the State Medical Society, and received a vote of thanks for his
annual address on the " Advancement of the Medical Profession." He was a member of the
American Medico Psychological Association ; of the New England Psychological Society ; of
the Academy of Medicine of New York ; and of the American Medical Association. He was
appointed by Governor Hubbard as one of the three commissioners to examine into the need
of further provision for the indigent insane of the state.
Outside of his profession, in his native town and state, he filled several stations of honor
and trust. He was for twenty-two years vice-president, and since 1887 president of the First
National Bank of Litchfield. One of the projectors, he was at one time the president of the
Shepaug Railroad. Interested in the history of his state, he was a member of the Connecticut
Historical Society and of the New York University Club. In political life he was a zealous
Republican, and in religious faith he was a Congregationalist, having been a deacon for thirty
years of that church at the time of his death. Owning a large and productive farm near his
residence, he took much delight in keeping it under an excellent state of cultivation.
Dr. Buel's education and mental qualities, however, enabled him to go beyond the routine
practice of his profession, and gave him an interest in everything which pertained to the well-
being and growth of the community in which he lived. He was accustomed to do whatever
seemed to be the most important to his best judgment and then could readily pass on to duties
of another kind, while the diversity of his work seemed, in some measure, to rest his mind ;
so that, notwithstanding his many and varied duties, he always seemed to be fresh and vigorous.
His domestic relations were most happy and his influence both home and abroad was that of
a true gentleman. A friend who had known Dr. Buel for many years, writes of him, that
"Tennyson himself, so full of Christian amenity, never knew any one to whom these words
' He bore without abuse the grand old name of gentleman, ' would have better applied than to
Dr. Henry W. Buel. In every situation this refinement of head and heart was dominant. To
great personal and professional gifts Dr. Buel added a charm of manner and adaptation of
speech never surpassed. His kind deeds were twice blessed, and the tones of his sympathetic
voice come back to us with the memories of our dear sick ones and will tenderly vibrate until
we respond, like him, to the call which summons us to the world where earthly echoes cease."

26 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In the field of surgery. Dr. Buel was considered an expert, and was often called by other
physicians to distant towns to perform difficult and important operations. On such occasions
his judgment was sound, his courage assuring and his technique faultless. He was also greatly
in demand as a consulting physician in critical cases of severe disease, and was sure to leave
a good impression after him. He never sought to disparage or undermine the reputation of a
professional brother, but on the other hand he would adroitly manage to establish more firmly
the confidence of the patient and his family in the attending physician.
Soon after Dr. Buel's death a touching tribute to his memory appeared in the Hartford
Courant. It was from the graceful pen of his lifelong friend and early professional associate,
Dr. Gurdon W. Russell of Hartford, and was a faithful estiinate of his character. Dr. Russell
said : " My acquaintance with him commenced many years ago at a medical gathering in New
Haven, and ripened into a friendship which was mutual and sincere. He was ever interested
in matters pertaining to his profession and possessed the confidence of his brethren and the
favor of the public, and so was largely consulted by both. Of a large frame and robust
constitution, he was well calculated for great labor. Methodical in his arrangements and
business-like in his habits, he was able to attend to many and diverse occupations. Whatever
was of interest to the town, of a benevolent or public nature, found in him an ardent advo
cate and co-laborer. So robust was his constitution that he was able to perform an amount
of work that would have overwhelmed most men. It always seemed to me that he possessed
in an eminent degree that sober common sense which is a golden treasure to the fortunate
owner of it, and so he regarded the various matters which came before him with a temper
allied to the judicial mind. His disposition to do the thing which was right was uppermost
with him ; it was' a natural habit, and was confirmed from conviction. He was so much of
an educated Christian gentleman that it was comparatively easy for him to do that which
would give a man peace at the last. In all his relations, as husband, father and friend, he
was most happy ; in his professional life he was honorable and just ; in the recognition of
his duty to his fellows, he was liberal, humble and sincere. In the sturdiness of his character
we had the assurance that he would be honest in whatever he undertook. The private
institution which he established and conducted for a long time, was the intense desire of his
early manhood and the pride of his advancing years ; it was his life work, as he regarded it,
and was the outcome of a laudable ambition and a proper conception of his own powers.
He had a happy way of dealing with his patients which secured their confidence and aided
greatly in their restoration. We may place him in the. list of specialists who have been an
honor to our profession and to our state. He may be classed with Doctors Todd, Woodward,
Brigham, Butler and Shew, who gave their lives to the humane treatment of the insane."
Dr. Buel was twice married. First, March 24, 1859, to Mary Ann C. Laidlaw, who
died Dec. 31, 1864. He then married, April 24, 1867, her sister, Katherine K. Laidlaw,
who died Aug. 26, 1882. Three children survive him : Dr. John H. Buel, who succeeds his
father in superintendency of the Spring Hill Home, and is already making his mark in the
medical world, and two daughters, unmarried.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 27
JARRISON, HENRY BALDWIN, ex-governor of the state of Connecticut, was
born in the city of New Haven, Conn., on Sept. 11, 1821. His father was
a talented and eloquent member of the New Haven County Bar, born in the
town of Branford. The ancestors of Governor Harrison were residents of
Branford, in the first settlement of that town, says the Biography of Connecticut.
His first ancestor of the name in this country, Thomas Harrison, was a deputy from the
town of Branford to the assembly, which met at Hartford under the charter of King Charles,
in 1676. This Thomas Harrison was a man of decided capacity. When the major portion
of the inhabitants of Branford removed from that place to New Jersey in 1664, on account
of their hostility to the union between the New Haven and Hartford colonies, a brother of
Thomas Harrison, Richard by name, left Branford with the Rev. Abraham Pierson. Thomas,
however, believed that the colony of Connecticut was a good place to remain in, notwith
standing the fact of the union ; and that thereby membership in the established church was
no longer a necessary qualification for admission to the privileges of a freeman in the colony.
Thomas Harrison died in 1704, leaving one of the largest estates of the colony. In the
division of lands, many of the best locations from the seashore north as far as the present
village had been taken by him, and each of his sons and sons-in-law received a large and
fertile farm in the division of his estate.
Governor Harrison was educated at the Lancasterian School of New HaA'en, under the
cekbrated English teacher, John E. Lovell. For a few years he acted as the assistant of
Mr. Lovell, and he was highly respected and beloved by all the pupils of that school who
were under his tuition. He entered Yale College in 1842, and graduated in 1846, with the
highest honors of his class, being the valedictorian. Immediately after graduation he began
the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1848. He entered at once upon a fine
practice, and within a few years was recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the state.
He continued to practice his profession with great success, making a fine reputation, especially
as a corporation lawyer and as a successful advocate in the Supreme Court of Errors. He
retired from active practice about 1880, and while he has since that time declined to appear
in the courts, his advice and counsel are frequently sought upon intricate questions of
constitutional and corporation law. In 1872, when an amendment to the charter of Yale
College was adopted, by which the alumni are permitted to elect a certain number of Fellows
of the corporation. Governor Harrison was elected, and he continued to hold the position of
Fellow of the corporation of his alma mater until he resigned in 1885.
One of the most notable cases with which his name has been identified was the trial
of Willard Clark at New Haven for murder. It was all the more marked because it occurred
only eight years after his admission to the har. Charles Chapman of Hartford was associated
with him as counsel for defence. In 'an article on the "Bench and Bar of New Haven,*'
in the history of that city, the story of the trial is told in full. It contains the following
allusion to Governor Harrison : ' ' No one had suspected before that time that Clark was an
insane man within the ordinary meaning of the word. As junior counsel, Mr. Harrison
went into the preparation of the case with his usual thoroughness and ability. The young
woman was about seventeen years of age, and Clark was about thirty. He had courted
her with assiduity, and she had repulsed most of his attentions with disdain and disgust.
Clark insisted that, notwithstanding her apparent want of affection for him, she was deeply
in love with him, and that her negatives- were to be understood by him as affirmatives.
He seemed to believe that after her marriage with Wight she was dumbly pleading with
him to rid her from a hateful alliance. At that time, the defense of insanity upon a

28 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
single subject, monomania, had not received the general favor with juries it has since
acquired. The eloquence of his counsel, and the careful preparation of the evidence, con
vinced the jury that Clark was not legally responsible for the crime he had committed, and
he was acquitted on the ground of insanity."
In early life, Mr. Harrison was an active member of the Whig party, and in 1854 he
was elected by the Whigs and anti-slavery men of New Haven a member of the State
Senate from the then fourth district, which included the towns of New Haven, Hamden, and
Woodbridge. Among his associates in the Senate were James Dixon, afterward United States
Senator, William T. Minor, who was subsequently governor of the state, and a judge of the
superior court, and David C. Sanford, who became a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors.
All of these gentlemen were the seniors of Mr. Harrison, yet he received the important
position of chairman of the joint committees on incorporations, and on temperance.
From the latter committee, Mr. Harrison reported and secured the passage of the pro
hibitory law, sometimes known as the Maine law. It was so carefully drawn that all of the
many subsequent attacks upon the constitutionality of the act failed in the Supreme Court
of Errors. Mr. Harrison was also the author of the Personal Liberty bill, designed to
protect colored men against illegal attempts to deprive them of their liberty under the
Fugitive Slave act of 1851. During the seven years that followed before the outbreak of
the Civil War, no attempt was ever made in Connecticut to take a colored man out of the
state under the claim that he was a fugitive from slavery. Hon. Augustus Brandegee, a
member of the House in 1854, from New London, ably seconded Senator Harrison, and by
his eloquence carried the bill through the lower branch of the Assembly.
Two years later, upon the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Harrison, who
never joined the American or "Know Nothing" party, as it was called, entered heartily
into the formation of the new Republican party. He attended the first mass convention held
for that purpose at Hartford, Connecticut, in February, 1856, and was the first candidate
of that party for the office of lieutenant-governor. The Hon. Gideon Welles, of Hartford,
was the candidate for governor. The Republican ticket received in that election about six
thousand votes, but within two years thereafter most of the men who formed the remnant
of the Whig party, and those who had gone into the "Know Nothing" movement, united
with Mr. Welles and Mr. Harrison in the support of the principles and candidates of the
Republican part}'. For many years the voice and pen of Mr. Harrison were potent, and
the cause of freedom and the Union had no more eloquent advocate in the state. In 1865
Mr. Harrison was elected a representative from the town of New Haven to the General
Assembly at Hartford. He declined to be a candidate for speaker, and requested the
nomination of his colleague, the late judge E. K. Foster. Mr. Foster became speaker, and
Mr. Harrison became the leader of his party upon the floor of the House. His learning,
his eloquence, his sound sense, and his judgment as a legislator and a party leader, so
commended him to his fellow citizens that, by common consent, in every part of the
state, it was understood that he should become the successor of Governor Buckingham in
the executive office. A few weeks before the Republican convention assembled in January,
1866, some friends of General Hawley came to New Haven and requested Mr. Harrison
to withdraw his name as a candidate for governor, and urged that the Republicans owed
such a debt to the returned soldiers that one of their leaders ought to receive the nomina
tion for governor. At that time nothing but his own act could have prevented the
nomination of Mr. Harrison by acclamation. His admiration, however, for the men who
had gone to the front during the war for the Union was so great that he promptly wrote
a letter which was made public, absolutely forbidding the use of his name for the office

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 29
of governor, and urging the nomination of General Hawley. Before the Republican party
had another opportunity to recognize his ability by a nomination for that office, it had
gone into a minority in the state. In the presidential election of 1872 the Republicans
had regained control of the state, and as Marshall Jewell declined a renomination for
governor, the Republicans felt that it was time Mr. Harrison should receive the office
which he had so generously declined in 1865. The excitement over the proposed removal
of the capital from New Haven had reached such a pitch that Mr. Harrison, as a New
Haven man, was defeated in the convention of 1873. He was elected, however, a repre
sentative from New Haven to the General Assembly at Hartford, and again he so won
the respect and admiration of his party that in 1874 he was nominated by acclamation as
its candidate for governor. A tidal wave of Democracy, however, was then rolling over
the country, and the Republican party was defeated in Connecticut, as in almost every
other doubtful northern state. Mr. Harrison never wavered, however, in his support of the
principles of the party, and in 1883 he was for the third time elected a representative
from New Haven to the General Assembly. Upon the organization of the House, in 1884,
he was nominated by acclamation for speaker. He filled this responsible office with the
same careful and conscientious regard to the duties of his position as had characterized
him in all the work of his life, whether professional or public.
In the suminer of 1884 a warm contest arose over the nomination for governor. The
Democrats- had elected their candidates by a large majority in the election of November,
1882, and the popular Thomas M. Waller, then governor, was a candidate for re-election.
It was the Blaine campaign and a serious defection of several hundred Republican votes
was anticipated. The state was close and the leaders of the Republican party felt that a
careful and judicious nomination for governor was needed. The convention selected Mr.
Harrison. He entered with zeal into the campaign and made a number of eloquent addresses
in the larger cities and towns of the state. The Burchard incident prevented Mr. Blaine
and Mr. Harrison from securing the desired plurality, but the majority against the Democratic
ticket was two or three thousand. The General Assembly, at its January session, 1885,
elected Mr. Harrison governor, and he held the highest office in the gift of his native state
with eminent satisfaction and to the entire approval of all good citizens of all parties. As
a lawyer, orator and statesman, JMr. Harrison has always been especially noted for the long
and careful preparation of whatever work he may be obliged to perform ; and for the clear,
incisive manner in which he presents his views and conclusions. No one can listen to him
without being convinced that he not only believes he is right, but that he knows he is
right, and the hearer will usually come to the conclusion that he is right. Mr. Harrison
has been for years a prominent member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven.
On several occasions he has been a delegate to the Diocesan and National Conventions of
that denomination of Christians.
He married early in life Miss Mary Elizabeth Osborne of Fairfield, Conn., a daughter
of Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, who was at one time a member of Congress* from the Fairfield
district, and subsequently a judge of the county court.

3°

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

3URR, ALFRED EDMUND, of Hartford, senior editor and proprietor of the
Hartford Times, was born in Hartford, March 27, 1815.
He belongs to the old line of Burrs, so honorably and prominently asso
ciated with the colonial settlement of the present capital of the state. His
parents were James and Lucretia (Olcott) Burr. His ancestor, Benjamin Burr,
came to Hartford with a company from Newtown (Boston) in 1635, and his name is recorded
on the monument in the Centre Church burying ground of Hartford with the names of the
earliest settlers of the town. Benjamin Burr's son Thomas was born in Hartford in 1645.
Thomas, Jr., was born in Hartford, 1719. His son James, father of Alfred E., was born in
Hartford, in 1766. In early life he was a shipping merchant, dealing with the West India
Islands. James Burr married Lucretia Olcott, daughter of Jonathan Olcott of Hartford. Her
paternal ancestor, and maternal ancestor, John Marsh, were also among the earliest settlers,
arriving in Hartford in 1635. The combination of the two streams makes up the strong posi
tive personality of Alfred E. Burr. Educated in the schools of Hartford, he afterwards served
a regular apprenticeship in the trade of a printer. Just before reaching the age of twenty-four
he took a step which was lifelong in its effects. At that time he purchased a half interest in
the Hartford Times, a paper with which he has since been identified. In tastes, abilities and
habits Mr. Burr is eminently journalistic, and his professional successes have simply been
commensurate with his qualifications. By all the tests which can be applied, he is entitled
to rank with such born editors as Horace Greeley, Samuel Bowles and Henry J. Raymond.
The political principles of the Times have been fixed and unvarying. They embody the
conclusions of much careful thought and study, and command the respect due to conscientious
and deliberate conviction. Conscience and moral principles have been incorporated with its
issues since the hour of Mr. Burr's connection with it, and indeed from its very foundation
on Jan. i, 1817.
Previous to his becoming proprietor of the Times, he had been employed in the printing office
of the old Whig and Federal organ, the Connecticut Courant, a prosperous daily sheet. The
publishers wishing to retire, they offered the paper to Mr. Burr on easy and favorable terms,
but with conditions attached with which he could not comply. His fortunes were cast with
the Times, and in January, 1841, he purchased the remaining interest in the paper, and thus
became sole editor and proprietor. For nearly fourscore years the paper has been distinguished
by consistent continuity of doctrine in all matters pertinent to political philosophy and political
economy. It has been for many years the leading exponent of Democratic ideas in the state.
' ' Its special historic renown lies in its championship of needed reforms ; in having caught
and strengthened the spirit of the times, and in leading on progressive lovers of liberty to
eventual victory." Its first campaign was against the old Connecticut system of church and
state. All the citizens were taxed for the maintenance of the " Standing Order," the
Congregational churches.
The elections held in 181 7 resulted in the downfall of the dominant Federals, and in
calling the convention which framed the present Constitution in 18 18. Godly and learned
ministers strove in vain to avert the inevitable. They really believed that everything would go
to destruction in case of any material departure from the old order of civil and churchly affairs.
The Hartford Times was in the van of the Tolerationists, who succeeded in incorporating with
the Constitution three sections which were intended for the protection of religious freedom.
The remembrance of that exciting contest has almost faded out of the mind of the Common
wealth, and only the very aged recollect it. The evils apprehended have not been suffered,
but on the contrary true religion and morality have made cheering advances. In 1833 the

MassacliuseKsFulilLsTmig Co.EverBlt.Miss,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 31
Tim,es was again most vigorous and aggressive in its demand for the repeal of an obnoxious
and illiberal statute which denied to every believer in universal salvation of the human family
the right to testify in a court of justice. Other enactments of essentially the same character
were successively the objects of the Times' hostility, and ultimately suffered like obliteration.
In 1853 Mr. Burr himself was called upon to participate in the legislation of the state by
election to the House of Representatives, in which he served for one session. The circulation
of the weekly Times was in the meantime steadily increasing, and it was in the front rank of the
papers of the state. The daily Times, established March 2, 1841, also rose to the leadership
of its Connecticut contemporaries in point of circulation, and also of positive influence upon
the politics of the state. As an active and energetic protester against the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, Mr. Burr stood almost alone. He warned his party that if the plans of the
ambitious Stephen A. Douglas were carried out, the overthrow of the Democratic party would
follow, and that the resulting sectional organizations would probably involve the country in
civil war. His predictions were discredited even by local statesmen, but subsequent events
terribly justified them and vindicated his wisdom and foresight. In i860, the Times supported
the candidacy of Breckinridge and Lane.
Mr. Burr took strong grounds against the Know Nothing party. He sent reporters into
the lodges in Hartford, and gave their proceedings to the public. Publicity proved fatal to
their power, and the party waned and became extinct under repeated exposures. From 1830
to 1846, the Hon. Gideon Welles greatly enriched the columns of the Times by his trenchant
and able pen. He and Mr. Burr were congenial yoke fellows in party management. Before
the Civil War began, the patriotic dread of such a calamity led him to exhaust all means of
argument and persuasion to prevent it. Like Horace Greeley, he had no liking for "The
Republic whereof one half was pinned to the other by bayonets." When the end of actual
hostilities arrived, he unsparingly condemned the self-stultification of the Republicans, who
declared certain states to be out of the Union in order to effect the adoption of war amend
ments to the National Constitution. Exclusion and secession were alike repugnant to his
opinions, and in his estimation were equally disunionist measures.
In 1866, Mr. Burr was again elected to the popular branch of the state legislature, and
served with efficiency to the satisfaction of his constituents. He has been often and urgently
solicited to accept public honors, such as governor or election to congress, but has declined on
the ground of a preference for the pursuits of journalism. He is said to be the oldest active
journalist in the country. Half a century of uninterrupted professional practice has not only
imparted unusual deftness and skill in the use of his vigorous pen, but has clothed him with
a power akin to that which king-making Earl of Warwick won by his sword. Though
refusing official positions for himself, he has made many men what against his opposition they
would not have been, namely, congressmen, governors and incumbents of other positions.
Says a sketch of him, written ten years ago: "The Hartford Times is as much Alfred
By. Burr as the New York Times was Henry J. Raymond, or the New York Evening Post
was William Cullen Bryant. It is Alfred E. Burr speaking his deep-seated convictions on
matters of importance to locality, state and nation, and that with a candor and ability which
command universal respect. For thirty years his counsels have been potent with his political
party in Connecticut, and have not infrequently been the means of its victories at the polls.
In local affairs he has always exhibited the keenest interest. He is the advocate of progress
and the exponent of broad and wise plans of public usefulness. To him, more than to any
other editor, and indeed in opposition to some, the establishment of the excellent high school
in Hartford is due. He pleaded for, and pressed the construction of the City Water Works,
and the introduction of pure water from the mountain six miles west of the city. The beautiful

32 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Bushnell Park is also largely indebted to him for existence. His, too, was the project of
buying the thirteen acres of ground, together with the buildings, owned by the corporation
of Trinity College. The Rev. Dr. Bushnell declared that purchase was finally accomplished
through the efforts of the Times and its senior editor, Alfred E- Burr. The price paid to
Trinity College was #600,000. The ground was then tendered to the state for the site of its
new capitol. Mr. Burr was appointed president of the commission to whom the erection of
the new building was entrusted. That beautiful edifice cost #2,500,000. The money was
drawn from the treasury and disbursed by the president of the commission, under the law of
the state, to the satisfaction of the citizens, and also of the legislature, which passed resolu
tions of compliment to the commissioners. In all local improvement, beneficent undertakings,
and public-spirited measures, that tend to the promotion of civil order and welfare, he has
been conspicuous, and has infused the same spirit into his associates. Personal character and
eminent ability have always commanded for him the profound respect of his fellow citizens,
while sterling honesty in all private and public relations has conducted him to gratifying and
assured prosperity."
Mr. Burr was one of the original members of the state board of health, established in
1878, and was president of the board from 1884 till June, 1893, when he resigned. He was
one of the original members of the board of pardons, established in 1883, and he is still
a member of the board. He is a member of the permanent state commission of art and
sculpture ; president of the Dime Savings Bank of Hartford, and has occupied important
positions on committees and commissions under the municipal government of the town.
The Times enjoys the largest circulation of any periodical in Connecticut, and will doubt
less retain the proud preeminence, while its reputation for enterprise, promptitude and ability
in collecting and discussing current news is maintained at its present altitude.
Alfred E. Burr was married April 18, 1841, to Sarah A., daughter of Abner Booth of
Meriden, Conn. His wife still survives. The fiftieth anniversary of their wedding occurred
April 18, 1891. Three children have been born to them; namely, Edmund Lewis, born
February, 1842, and died October, 1845. Willie Olcott, born in 1843, and is now of the firm
of Burr Brothers, and the successful business manager of the Times. He married Angle,
daughter of Mr. Gilbert Lincoln. They have only one child, Florence Lincoln Burr, born in
1875. The daughter of Mr. A. E. Burr is Mrs. Ella Burr McManus, wife of Dr. James
McManus of Hartford. She is a regular weekly contributor to the Times.
Mr. Franklin L. Burr has had so large a share in creating the prosperity of the Times
during the last forty years, that his name should be mentioned in this connection. He is
twelve years younger than his brother, A. E. Burr, and learned the printer's trade in the
Ti7nes office. In 1853 he took a position in the office of the solicitor of the treasury in
Washington, and remained there two years, when he came back to assist in the editorial
department of the Times. His graceful articles along the lines of natural science and on
astronomy and geology have attracted much attention ; and his reviews of books have long
been a feature of the Times. The late Poet Tennyson wrote to him a special letter of thanks
for one of his reviews of the poet's works, and complimented him by saying it stood among
the best that had been written on either side of the Atlantic.
Mr. Burr became a partner in the firm of Burr Brothers, in 1858. He was married in 1853
to Miss Lizzie Morrow of Manchester, Conn. To them three children were born ; namely,
Mary, Frederick Woodbridge, and Emily Winifred. Frederick died at the age of twenty-
one, and Emily at twenty years.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 33
OOT, ELISHA K., president of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company,
at the time of his death in 1865, through genius for mechanical invention,
skill in administration and purity of character, bequeathed an infiuence for
good that is still profoundly if unconsciously felt. Born at Belchertown, Mass.,
May 5, 1808, he enjoyed during the winter the advantages of the district
school until fifteen years old, when he entered a machine shop at Ware. After completing
his apprenticeship he worked in different places till 1832, when on the i8th of August he
made a written contract with the Collins Company of CoUinsville, Conn. , to work two years
from date, "building and repairing gearing and machinery, keeping polishing wheels in
order, etc., etc." He was to receive for his services #546 per annum, to be paid at the end
of each year, and three hundred and twelve days were to be considered a year's work. No
provision was made for seeing ball games, or even for dropping off early for Christmas
dinner. One holiday only — probably the Fourth of July — could be squeezed out of the
arrangement. His superiority quickly attracted the attention of the owners and he was made
overseer of the repair department. A little later, by common consent, he became the real
¦overseer of the entire establishment, though not appointed superintendent by the directors
till 1845. Ingenious, vigilant and de-\'oted to the interests of his emplo}'ers, he rapidly
converted a somewhat primitive shop into a modern factory.
The following, taken from the fourth annual report of P. H. Woodward, secretary
of the Hartford Board of Trade, illustrates both the quality and the results of his work :
A hint like a flash of inspiration may in an instant disclose to one the theory of a complex situation.
When collecting material for the manual issued by this association in 1889, I was deeply impressed by the
emotion of one of our indu.strial chiefs, whose name is familiar to both hemispheres, while reverting to the
imperishable lessons taught by Colonel Colt and Elisha K. Root to future leaders just coming upon the stage.
They demanded the best work, at the same time sparing no effort to devise the most ef&cient means for the
attainment of mechanical ends. Perfection alone could satisfy their cravings. Others caught the inspiration
and carried it with them as they went out to plant the polonies near Park River, which are making that suburb
of Hartford one of the most fruitful spots on the planet. In those schools, too, hundreds are taught to-day
to strive for similar excellence. The method makes character, for honesty, truthfulness, fidelity are thus
inculcated in every act of production.
In communities as in families the laws of heredity are operative. Recognition of the principle throws a
peculiar interest around those who open new paths for mankind to follow in, and must be accepted as an excuse
for the introduction of the foUowing incident in the life of a person whose influence was so deeply impressed a
generation ago upon the industrial forces of the city that it has broadened with the fleeting years.
About 1836, while at the head of the fnechanical department of the Collins Company at CoUinsville, Elisha
K. Root was confronted by the sudden failure of a heavy and complicated machine used for several essential
processes in the production of the axe. The repairer, having tried in vain to remedy the trouble, called in
Mr. Root. A number of unsuccessful experiments disclosed the seriousness of the case. After an interval of
abstraction Mr. Root took a seat, motionless and in silence, before the recusant monster, whose mighty arms
refused longer to slave. Returning from dinner he held the same immovable attitude till night. No one
presumed to interrupt the vigil. Still the mystery baffled him. The next morning the silent communion was
resumed. Soon the clouds broke. Without a word Mr. Root went to his desk and dashed off a sketch that,
while preserving the massive frame, dispensed with a multitude of pieces, and produced the needed motions by
a few simple contrivances. The reconstructed machine recognized the genius of its master by the unfaltering
precision with which it did its appointed work, till replaced a few years later by a new invention of his own,
which is still in use.
Mr. Root was always zealous in the performance of duty and for the most part left
questions of compensation to adjust themselves. In a contract with the company dated
Feb. 3, 1836, for a nominal consideration he transferred to it his entire interest in the patentable
machines and improvements with which he had already enriched it. He also agreed to
¦continue in its employment for the further period of three years, to make all the improve
ments he could in the processes of manufacture, and that the ownership and benefit of all

34 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
his inventions should belong solely to the company. The pay agreed upon was #780 for
the first and second years, and #1,000 for the third. April 28, 1845, his salary was made
#2,000 per annum. The increase was voted not from solicitation on his part, but because
several large concerns outside of the state, including the United States Armory at Springfield,
tried to draw him away by tempting offers.
His inventions gave the Collins Company for a long time control of the American
market, besides opening a large export trade. By one of his devices the eye of the axe,
which had before been formed by welding, was punched out of the solid metal. Another
sharpened the tool by chipping instead of grinding, and thus saved not only labor, but also
the lungs of the operatives.
In 1849 Mr. Root moved to Hartford to take superintendence of the shops for the manu
facture of Colonel Colt's famous revolver. The enterprise, then in its infancy, grew with
amazing rapidity and success. The genius of Mr. Root was ceaselessly active in improving
old and contriving new devices for facilitating and cheapening the processes of production.
Even to catalogue them would overstep the limits of this sketch. In 1853, in the drop hammer,
he devised a new method of forging the parts. In 1854 he patented machines for boring the
chambers of the cylinder, and also for boring four barrels at one time. By him the parts
were made interchangeable, so that all the weapons of a given pattern were precisely alike.
In 1854-55, when the works were built for supplying Hartford with river water through
the Garden street reservoir, Mr. Root invented the pumps which were quite unlike anything
then to be found. These lasted over fifteen years, and proved so efficient that when worn
out they were replaced by others of similar pattern.
Mr. Root was eminently practical. Vagaries had no attraction for him. To reach the
best results by the simplest and most economical methods was his constant aim. Enough
has been written to indicate the extraordinary genius of Mr. Root in the field of mechanical
invention. He was a profound student and thinker. It can be truly said of him that in
every relation of life, as workman and employer, at home and in the community, he was
faithful to every trust. This is a virtue of supreme value at all times, and its need was never
more appreciated than now. At the death of Colonel Colt, in January, 1862, Mr. Root was
made president of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. He survived his asso
ciate in this marvelously successful enterprise about three and a half years, having passed
away Aug. 31, 1865.
Mr. Root married 2d Matilda Colt, daughter of Hon. Elisha Colt, comptroller of Con
necticut, 1806-19, s^ud treasurer -of the Society for Savings from its incorporation in 18 19
till 1829. Their children are Miss Matilda Colt Root; Ellen Root, wife of Charies H. Clark,
managing editor of the Courani ; and Dr. E. K. Root, a physician of Hartford.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 35
'ALLER, THOMAS MACDONALD, of New London, ex-governor of Connecticut,
was born in the city of New York in 1840, and is of Irish ancestry. The
death of his mother, his younger and only brother, William, and of his father,
events which quickly followed one another in the order named, left him before he
was eight years of age alone and unprotected in the city of his birth. The story
of his boyhood, as he frequently says, "the only really interesting partof his career," reads
like a romance. Thrown upon the world at this tender age wholly dependent upon his
own resources, he began the battle of life, with a few papers which the generosity of a
stranger supplied him, as a newsboy in the streets of New York. In a public after-dinner
speech delivered a few months ago at a banquet in Brooklyn, incidentally referring to this
time of his life, he was reported as saying :
I was a very small boy way back in '49, when gold was discovered in California ; but I remember that the
papers I was then selling (the Sun, Tribune and Morning Star) on the streets of New York were so filled with
accounts of the discovery of mountains of gold, that I thought gold would not be "worth a cent," and, with this
apprehension, instead of going with the star of empire westward, I went to Connecticut. I went there as to a
reformatory school, thinking that when I was good enough I would return to New York and become a New York
politician (laughter). I have stayed there a good while. I have got over the notion that the influx of gold will
destroy the financial system of the world, and I have come to the belief that this country can stand a good dea]
more of American silver in coin. I have returned to New York, but only to do business, not to be a politician.
I have had some temptation to step iuto the political waters here, but I have resisted it. I am satisfied that
a longer probation is necessary. I am not good enough yet (laughter).
His struggles as a newsboy were similar to those of other poor boys following the same
humble calling, says the Biography of Connecticut. He continued in this occupation during
the months of one summer only. He then became a "cabin boy " on a fishing vessel
sailing from the port of New York. During the gold excitement of 1849, and while he was
attached to the schooner " Mount Vernon," he was about to sail in that vessel to California,
when Mr. Robert K. Waller, a kind-hearted citizen of New London, became interested in
him, offered him a home and education, and made him by adoption a member of his family
and household, and the bearer of his name. Since this good fortune happened, Thomas M.
Armstrong, whose father's name was Thomas Christopher, and whose mother's name was Mary,
has been known as Thomas Macdonald Waller. The boy, who had already enjoyed the advantages
of the schools of New York city, then entered the public schools of New London, and
remained in them until he graduated at the Bartlett grammar school with honors, carrying
off the first prize in oratory at about the age of seventeen. The class to which he belonged
in the high school, of which Mr. E. B. Jennings, M. A., was the master, graduated several
boys beside Waller who have won distinction in life. In due time Mr. Waller began the
study of law and was admitted to practice in the courts of Connecticut. In his profession
he soon attained a reputation as a successful advocate, and acquired a lucrative practice.
At the opening of the war he enlisted in the Second Connecticut Regiment for a three
months' campaign, but on account of a painful disease of his eyes, from which he has
suffered more or less during life, he was not able to remain in the service. He did what
he could, however, by public speeches and otherwise, in recruiting regiments in Connecticut
and elsewhere. He was elected a member of the Connecticut Legislature in 1867, and again
in 1868, and during the latter session of the Assembly he took a leading part in an important
debate on the policy of bridging the Connecticut river. In a recent speech, delivered before
the Chamber of Commerce of the city of New Haven on " rapid transit," and published in
the state papers, in allusion to this incident, he is reported as saying :
The first public speech I ever made in New Haven which I am able to recall, was delivered in 1868, in the
old state house on the college green. Ex-Senator Eaton closed a several days' legislative debate against bridging
the Connecticut river, or as he used to call it, "bridging God's highway," on one side, and I closed it on the

36 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
other. New Haven was aroused from centre to circumference on that occasion in favor of the bridge. "You
cannot resist the nineteenth century," I remember was about the only argument urged, but it was sufficient
and successful (laughter). On the night of victory our esteemed friend, Harry Lewis (may he live long and
be happy), gave our side an ovation, and that night (we were all younger then) in the exuberance of our joy, we
"painted the town red." The old river ferry boats on the Connecticut went into ancient history, and the
locomotive crossed God's highway in triumph (applause). I recall this instance now because the predictions
that were sincerely made of all sorts of harm that would follow the change from the old to the new, from
the ferry boat to the bridge, would be to-night, in the light of our experience, curious and useful reading. I
have lived to see the Shore Line wooden bridge built and wear out with age, and in the progressive spirit of
the times a splendid iron structure take its place. The many years behind me since that speech was made
reminds me of approaching age. But the fact is not a sad one. We must all, you know, either die young or
grow old, and the latter alternative is preferable, if we are doing something worthy of our time as we pass
down the line (applause).
In 1870 Mr. Waller was elected secretary of state. The duties of this office did not
interfere with his legal practice. The clerks in the office did the business, — the secretary
had only the direction and supervision of the official work. In the Centennial year of
1876 he was elected speaker of the House of Representatives. The session was the shortest
that had been held for years, and much of the credit for the prompt manner in which the
public business was accomplished was ascribed by the newspapers of that day to the ability
and facility with which the .speaker discharged his duty. At the close of the session he
was presented with an elegant watch in token of the respect of his colleagues in the Assembly
for his impartiality and courtesy as their presiding officer. At the close of the session, the
judges of the courts of Connecticut appointed him as the attorney of the state for New
London county. This office he held by reappointments until he was elected in 1882 as
governor of the commonwealth. During his state-attorneyship he tried a number of criminal
cases which attracted the attention of the whole country, and the evidence and arguments
in which were published daily in all metropolitan journals. The trial of Herbert Hayden,
a Methodist minister, for the murder of one of his parishioners, occurred in New Haven
and occupied the court for more than two months. He was designated to conduct this
trial by the judges of the state at the request of the state-attorney, Hon. Tilton E.
Doolittle, who was disqualified by reason of some professional association with the accused.
Mr. Waller was elected and re-elected mayor of New London. • He succeeded the Hon.
Augustus Brandegee, and the Hon. Robert Coit was his successor in the office. He served
the city for nearly six years. His administration, as appears from the published reports of
his official vetoes and orders in the city press, was always spirited and sometimes aggressive.
His sweeping ' ' wooden awning, " " sidewalk ' ' and ' ' hitching posts ' ' orders are often now
referred to by New Londoners with an approving smile. The improvements the titles of
these orders suggest are appreciated now, but at the time they were issued they raised a
municipal tempest, and were the occasion of a city meeting in the historic old house, the
object of which was the censure of the mayor for his inordinate activity. The meeting was
an unusually long one, and the speeches were many and vehement : but the result was, after
a speech of defense by the mayor, that the meeting adjourned, sine die, without taking action,
and the mayor was in due time re-elected to office.
In 1882 he was nominated by his party as a candidate for governor, and after a
campaign in which he took the leading part, speaking everywhere in the state, he was elected
by a handsome majority. His administration was recognized by men of all parties as dignified
and conservative. The contemporaneous criticisms of the press of the state show that his
messages, public speeches and other state papers which are of record, were accorded unstinted
and general commendation. The delegates at the state convention which first nominated him
for governor were nearly divided in their preferences between him and other candidates, but
at the close of his two years' term as governor his party convention renominated him without

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1S94. 37
a division and with enthusiastic acclamation. He received in his second canvass for the
distinguished office a plurality of the votes of the people, and a larger number of votes than
Grover Cleveland, who was the candidate for President at the same election and who carried
the state. Mr. Waller failed, however, to obtain a majority over all, and as the General
Assembly was Republican, his competitor, Hon. Henry B. Harrison, notwithstanding the
popular choice, became the governor of the state.
President Cleveland offered Mr. Waller the appointment of consul general of the United
States at London, the most lucrative office it is said in the patronage of this government.
The public press approved the appointment, and expressed the opinion that Mr. Waller,
because of his speech in favor of Cleveland in the national convention of 1884, which is
specially noticed in the records of that convention, deserved the highest compliment and
office the President could give him. As consul general in London, Mr. Waller made such
a record that the state department on more than one occasion expressed its official satisfaction
in most complimentary terms, and the English and American people with whom he had
associated in social and business affairs for four years in London, gave a banquet in his
honor on the eve of his departure, at which three hundred people, including Minister
Phelps, Minister Grant, and the entire consular corps in Great Britain were present. On
this occasion he was presented with a costly silver ' ' loving cup ' ' bearing suitable com
plimentary inscriptions, and well filled with roj^al punch. Since Mr. Waller's return to
this country he has been engaged in his profession as the senior member of the firm of
Waller, Cook & Wagner, corporation lawyers at 15 Wall street. New York. His name
has been mentioned in the state papers as a candidate for the vice-presidency. The only
public position he has since held was connected with the World's Columbian Exposition.
He was nominated as a commissioner for Connecticut by Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley,
¦appointed to the position by President Harrison, and elected as first vice-president by
the national commission. He was frequently called to the chair of the commission by
President Palmer, and took an active part in all the debates of that body. As a presiding
officer in the chair he has won encomiums for his knowledge of parliamentary law. Of
his success as a debater, a writer in one of the Chicago papers has said: "He has made as
many motions and offered as many amendments as any other member of the body, and the
journal of the proceedings shows that, — excepting upon motions for adjournment, of
which he himself says he is always in favor — he has hardly ever failed to carry his point."
Mr. Waller still resides in New London. "He works," he says, "five days a week in
New York that he may live the other two in Connecticut."
Mr. Waller married in early life Miss Charlotte Bishop, a New London giri. His
present family consists of his wife, one daughter and five sons. His daughter is the wife
of Prof. William R. Appleby of the University of Minnesota. His eldest son, Tracy, is a
lawyer now practicing his profession in New London. His son Martin, a member of the
New London Bar, is engaged temporarily in mercantile business, and his son Robert K. is
now a student at Yale Law School. His two y^ounger boys are pursuing their school studies
in New London.

^8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
jENN, AUGUSTUS HALL, LL. B., A. M., judge of the superior court, late judge
of probate for the Winchester district, and brevet-colonel United States volunteers,
was born at Plymouth, Litchfield county. Conn., Jan. i8, 1844. The family of
Fenn has long been known in Connecticut as one of high respectability, and
its members have intermarried with some of the best and oldest families in the
state. On his paternal side the subject of this sketch traces his descent, through one of the
female alliances, to William and Elizabeth Tuttle of England, who were among the eariiest
settlers of New England and residents at New Haven about the year 1635, as fully set forth
in the genealogy of the Tuttle family, compiled by George F. Tuttle, Esq., of New Haven, and
published in 1883. His father, the late Augustus Fenn, son of Elam Fenn, was a native of
Plymouth, Conn., and married Esther Maria, daughter of Orison Hall of Plymouth, whose ances
tors were also among the first settlers of New Haven, Milford, Wallingford and Cheshire, Conn.
Judge Fenn received his early education at the district and common schools and at the
Waterbury high school. As a youth his tastes took a strong literary turn, and he contributed
freely both in prose and verse to newspapers and periodicals, and in 1859 published a small
volume of poems. In March, 1862, having settled on the law as a profession, he began its
study in the office of the Hon. Ammi Giddings of Plymouth. Although he applied himself
with diligence to the mastery of Blackstone and Kent, and to fulfilling the routine duties of
his clerkship, he was not for a moment insensible to the dangers threatening his country, then
in the throes of the Civil War. Ardently patriotic, he had watched the conflict from the very
first with the keenest interest, and, doubtless, had he been permitted to have his own way,
would have been one of the earliest — boy though he was — to take up arms in defense of the
national government. As the stirring events of the second year of the war unfolded them
selves he became dissatisfied with his inaction, and finally concluding that the nation had
need of the services of every one of her sons, however young, who might be capable of bearing
arms, he abandoned his studies, and in July, 1862, enlisted in the Nineteenth Regiment of
Infantry, Connecticut Volunteers, then being recruited in his section of the state. His com
rades at once recognized his fitness for leadership, and elected him to first lieutenancy of com
pany "K." In a short time the number and designation of the regiment was changed to the
Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and Lieutenant Fenn was chosen to the captaincy of
company "C." In the field he served with his regiment continuously nearly two years,
participating with it in all the eventful campaigns in which it was engaged and ably dis
charging every duty confided to him. " On June 22, 1864," says Vail, in his history of the
regiment, "he was detailed acting assistant adjutant-general on General Upton's staff. In
September he was appointed judge advocate of the division court-martial which tried twenty-
five cases. At Cedar Creek (Oct. 19, 1864), he lost his right arm. The surgeons of Annapolis
proposed to muster him out and discharge him for disability, but he protested, and wrote to
General Mackenzie, urging his interference. The consequence was that he was retained ; and
in less than seven weeks from the time that he had an arm taken off at the shoulder he
reported for full duty at the front, and was at once detailed as acting assistant adjutant-general
of the brigade again, which detail was afterwards changed to brigade inspector. He subse
quently participated in several fights. He was detailed as judge advocate five different times,
was brevetted major after Cedar Creek, promoted to major in January, 1865, brevetted lieu
tenant-colonel for Littie Sailor's Creek, and colonel for services during the war." This brief
and modest account of services, which were not only patriotic but heroic, has been quoted
with due acknowledgement in Lewis's History of Litchfield county and in Tuttle's Genealogy.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

39

Upon being mustered out of the United States service in September, 1865, Col. Fenn
returned to Connecticut and resumed the study of law in the office of Messrs. Kellogg &
Terry, a prominent legal firm at Waterbury. He was admitted to the bar at Litchfield,
Feb. 15, 1867, and then entered the Law School of Harvard University, where he studied
one year, at the expiration of which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Shortly
after resuming his studies at Waterbury he was chosen city clerk and held this office one
year. In 1869, after having practiced law about a year at Waterbury, he removed to
Plymouth in Litchfield county, where he resided and practiced until 1876. While at
Plymouth he held the offices of judge of probate, town clerk and registrar, and in 1875
he was the Republican candidate for the office of Secretary of the State of Connecticut. In
1876 he removed to Winsted, Litchfield county, where he has since resided. In 1880 he
was elected judge of probate for the Winchester district and held this office until March,
1887, when he resigned. In 1884 he was elected a member of the General Assembly, and
during his term served on the judiciary committee and as house chairman of committee on
forfeited rights. At this session he also was chosen one of the commission composed besides
himself of the Hon. Luzon B. Morris, Henry S. Barbour, E. L. Cundall and William B.
Glover, to revise the probate laws of the state, a labor to which he gave the most careful
attention and which was finally completed to the eminent satisfaction of the people. At
the close of the session he made the address to the speaker. In 1884 Col. Fenn was a
delegate to the National Democratic Convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for the
presidency, and in that campaign he took an active part in securing his election. In 1885
he was appointed by Gov. Harrison of Connecticut a member of the commission charged
with the revision of the general statutes of the state which reported the revision in 1888.
In 1887 his high legal attainments received a fitting recognition by his appointment as judge
of the superior court, a position he has since filled with ability and dignity.
He is at present chairman of the committee appointed by the judges to examine applicants
for admission to the bar. In the local affairs of Winsted, Judge Fenn takes a leading part,
not only by reason of his prominence in the judiciary, but also because of his well known
interest in every movement having for its object the improvement of the citizen or the
advancement of the public. He is chairman of the Winchester Soldiers' Memorial Park
Association, an organization chartered by the General Assembly in 1889, and having for its
object the erection of a monument and the maintenance of a memorial public park. He is
also one of the trustees of the Beardsley Library, the William L- Gilbert home (for neglected
children) and the Gilbert school, all well known institutions founded by philanthropic
citizens of Winsted and cherished by its residents and government. His scholarly tastes are
well shown in his fine library^ which, in addition to its being exceptionally full on the
subject of jurisprudence, contains a large number of poetical works, on history, science,
the arts, political economy^ and government. Notwithstanding the large demands made
upon his time by his judicial and official duties, he has found leisure to prepare
many articles for the press, and also many lectures and public addresses, a large num
ber of which have been published. Recently he has lectured somewhat extensively
throughout the state, taking as his themes: "With Sheridan in the Shenandoah," "Mis
taken Identity," and "Points of Law we Ought to Know." He has delivered addresses at
the dedication of many monuments erected in honor of the soldiers of the civil war, and has
a wide reputation for his stirring and beautiful tributes to the Union dead delivered on
Decoration Day for many years. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and
was the delegate-at-large from his state to the National Encampment in 1889, and a Con
necticut member of the National Council of Administration in 1890. He is also a member

40 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of the Knights of Pythias, the Winsted uniform division of which bears his name. He is-
also connected 'with several other organizations and societies, in all of which he is a man of
mark and great popularity. In 1889 he was honored by Yale University with the degree of
Master of Arts.
Judge Fenn was married in 1868 to Frances M. Smith, daughter of John E. Smith of
Waterbury, Conn., and has four children, two boys, Emory W. and Lincoln E., and two-
girls, Augusta F. and Lucia E.

LATER, JOHN FOX, manufacturer and philanthropist, was born in the town
of Smithfield, R. I., March 4, 1815.*
For three generations the Slater family has been engaged, either in Eng
land or the United States, in the improvement of cotton manufactures. Their
English home was at Belper, Derbyshire, where William Slater, a man of consid
erable property, the grandfather of John F. Slater, resided more than a hundred years ago,
until his death in 1782. At Belper and at Milford, not far from Belper, Jedediah Strutt was
engaged as a partner of Sir Richard Arkwright in the business of cotton-spinning, then just
becoming one of the great branches of industry in England.
Samuel Slater, fifth son of William Slater, was apprenticed to Mr. Strutt, and near the
close of his service was for some years general overseer of the mill at Milford. Having com
pleted his engagement he came to this country in 1789, and brought with him such an accurate
knowledge of the business of cotton-spinning, that without any written or printed descriptions,
without diagrams, or models, he was able to introduce the entire series of machines and pro
cesses of the Arkwright cotton manufacture in as perfect a form as it then existed in England.
He soon came into relations with Moses Brown of Providence, and through him with his son-
in-law and his kinsman, William Almy and Smith Brown. With the persons last named he
formed the partnership of Almy, Brown & Slater. For this firm, Samuel Slater devised
machinery and established a mill for the manufacture of cotton, at Pawtucket, R. I., in
the year 1790; but as this proved an inadequate enterprise, he constructed a larger mill at
the same place in 1793. A few years later, about 1804, at the invitation of his brother
Samuel, John Slater, a younger son of William, came from England and joined his brother
in Rhode Island. The village of Slatersville, on a branch of the river Blackstone, was
projected in 1806, and here until the present time the Slaters have continued the manu
facture of cotton goods.
John F. Slater was the son of John and Ruth Slater. He received a good education in
the academies of Plainfield in Connecticut, and of Wrentham and Wilbraham, Mass. At the
age of seventeen (in connection with Samuel Collier) he began to manage his father's mill at
Hopeville, in Griswold, Conn. In 1856, having gained in experience and shown his ability
as a manager, he took entire charge of this factory and also of a cotton mill at Jewett City,
another village of the same town where he made his home. Six years later he removed to
Norwich, with which Jewett City was then connected by railway, and this city continued to-
be his place of residence until his death at the beginning of his seventieth year. May 7, 1884.
On the death of John Slater, May 27, 1843, his sons, John F. and William S., inherited
his interest in the mills of Hopeville and Jewett City, Conn., and at Slatersville, R. I., and
they formed a partnership under the name of J. & W. Slater, adjusting their affairs so as to
* This sketch is condensed from a published memorial of Mr. Slater, from -which liberal extracts have been made.

>^£^r

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 41
be equal partners. In March, 1845, this firm sold their Hopeville property, and in 1849 bought
the interest of Samuel Slater's heirs in the mill at Slatersville. In 1853, after the lease of this
last-mentioned property to A. D. and M. B. Lockwood had expired, William S. Slater took
the management of the Slatersville mill, and John F. Slater that of the Jewett City mill.
The partnership of the brothers continued until Jan. i, 1873, when it was dissolved, each
taking the mill of which he had been the manager.
When Mr. Slater became responsible for the mill at Jewett City, there were ninety looms
in it, and at the time of his death this number had increased more than five fold, and as many
yards of cloth were then made in five weeks as had previously been made in twelve months.
During the forty years in which he operated this mill he maintained uninterruptedly the good
will of those whom he employed. He studied their welfare, and by so doing retained them in
his service. Probably it could not be said of any other mill in the country, but it was true
of the Jewett City mill, that every one of the seven overseers in different departments of the
business had been in the service of the same employer for at least seventeen years, four of
them for periods varying from thirty to forty-eight years. It was always Mr. Slater's policy
in the manipulation of his mill to keep a piece of machinery as long as it could do its work
satisfactorily, by careful management, even if it did not in appearance compare favorably
with that in other mills. He did not believe in continually trying experiments, but preferred
waiting till a new thing had been proved to be a success before using it. When this was done
no one was more ready to adopt an improvement. This, with a like policy in other particulars,
was one of the chief reasons for his success as a manufacturer.
In 1869, Mr. Slater, with others, united in completing a partially erected mill at Taftville
and putting it in operation. It was organized under the name of the "Orray-Taft Manufac
turing Company," but two years later the name was changed to the " Ponemah Mills." He
was one of the executive committee, and was president from the organization of the company
until his death. Simple justice requires the statement that the material part of the success
was due to his counsel and prudence.
Mr. Slater was an excellent judge of character in men, and especially of their ability and
knowledge, and thus in his latter days his manufacturing business was so organized that he
could give much of his time to other affairs, while he kept the reins in his own hands. It
was always his effort to run the mill as many days in the year as possible, and in hard times
or in war times to keep the machinery in operation to the last moment. During the War of
the Rebellion he continued to run his mill some time after most of the mills in his neighbor
hood had stopped, and in fact till cotton went up to sixty-seven cents per pound, never fearing
but that the Union forces would be victorious. When the subject was agitated in 1872-73
of shortening the hours of labor by one hour per day, he was one of the first to apply the
change to his own mills.
It is generally supposed that Mr. Slater inherited a large fortune from his father. This,
however, was not the case. Perhaps he may have had fifty thousand dollars from this source,
but the foundation and the large part of the fortune which he accumulated were the results
of his management of his mills. His mind was of sufficient calibre to grasp a variety of
enterprises, including manufacturing, railroad and miscellaneous corporations. Never a
speculator, it may be confidently stated that even in his earlier days no shares of stock were
ever purchased on a margin. In his later days, when his credit was almost limitless, it was
never his custom to buy stocks with money advanced on credit, but always waited till he had
the funds accumulated and available for investment. For the last dozen years of his life
Mr. Slater's interest in railroads was greater than in manufacturing. Though living quietly,
away from the centers of trade and finance, he kept himself conversant with the great railroad

REPRESENTATIVE MEN
systems of the country, and was an authority on the subject in his neighborhood, as the
number of calls and letters he received asking information would bear abundant testimony.
Familiar with all his different interests, he carried the accounts so perfectly in his head, that
if necessary he could correct the double entry books with which the record of his transactions
was kept. With no office 'except in his house, he managed all his diverse operations with
an ease which gave no impression of the magnitude of his concerns.
Before his last great gift, Mr. Slater made generous contributions to religious and educa
tional enterprises. He was one of the original corporators of the Norwich Free Academy, to
which he gave at different times more than fifteen thousand dollars. To the construction of
the Park Congregational Church, which he attended, he gave the sum of thirty-three thousand
dollars, and subsequently a fund of ten thousand dollars, the income of which is to keep the
edifice in repair. At the time of his death he was engaged in building a public library in
Jewett City, which has since been completed at a cost of sixteen thousand dollars. His private
benefactions and his contributions to benevolent societies were also numerous. During the
war his sympathies were heartily with the Union, and he was a large purchaser of the govern
ment bonds when others doubted their security.
Some years before his death Mr. Slater formed the purpose of devoting a large sum of
money to the education of the freedmen. It is believed that this humane project occurred to
him, without suggestion from any other mind, in view of the apprehensions which all thoughtful
persons felt, when after the war the duties of citizenship were suddenly imposed upon millions
of emancipated slaves. Certainly, when he began to speak freely of his intentions, he had
decided upon the amount of his gift and its scope. These were not open questions. He
knew exactly what he wished to do. It was not to bestow charity upon the destitute, nor to
encourage a few exceptional individuals ; it was not to build churches, school-houses, asylums
or colleges ; it was not to establish one strong institution as a personal monument ; it was
on the other hand, to help the people of the South in solving the great problem which had
been forced upon them, — how to train, in various places and under differing circumstances,
those who have long been dependent, for the duties belonging to them now that they are
free. This purpose was fixed. In respect to the best mode of organizing a trust, Mr. Slater
sought counsel of many experienced persons, — of the managers of the Peabody Educational
Fund, in regard to their work ; of lawyers and those who had been in official life, with respect
to questions of law and legislation ; of ministers, teachers and others who had been familiar
with charitable and educational trusts, or who were particularly well informed in respect to
the condition of the freedmen at the South. The results of all these consultations, which
were continued during a period of several years, were at length reduced to a satisfactory
form, and were embodied in a charter granted to a board of trustees by the state of New York,
in the spring of 1882, and in a carefully thought out and written letter, addressed to those
who were selected to administer the trust.
The characteristics of this gift were its Christian spirit, its patriotism, and its freedom
from all secondary purposes or hampering conditions. In broad and general terms the donor
indicated the object which he had in view; the details of management he left to others,
confident that their collective wisdom and the experience they must acquire would devise
better modes of procedure, as the years go on, than any individual could propose in advance.
The words which Mr. Slater employed to express his aim were these :
The general object which I desire to have exclusively pursued, is the uplifting of the lately emancipated
population of the southern states and their posterity, by conferring on them the blessings of Christian education.
The disabilities formerly suffered by these people, and their singular patience and fidelity in the great crisis of the
nation, establish a just claim on the sympathy and good will of humane and patriotic men. I cannot but feel the
compassion that is due in view of their prevailing ignorance, which exists by no fault of their own.

OF CONNECTICUT, 186T-1894. 43
But it is not only for their own sake, but also for the safety of our common country, in which they have been
invested with equal political rights, that I am desirous to aid in providing them with the means of such education
as shall tend to make them good men and good citizens, — education in which the instruction of the mind in the
common branches of secular learning shall be associated with training in just notions of duty toward God and man,
in the light of the Holy Scriptures.
The means to be used in the prosecution of the general object above described I leave to the discretion of
the corporation ; only indicating, as lines of operation adapted to the present condition of things, the training
of teachers from among the people requiring to be taught, if, in the opinion of the corporation, by such limited
selection the purposes of the trust can be best accomplished ; and the encouragement of such institutions as are
most effectually useful in promoting this training of teachers. I am well aware that the work herein proposed
is nothing uew or untried. And it is no small part of my satisfaction in taking this share in it, that I hereby
associate myself with some of the noblest enterprises of charity and humanit}-, and may hope to encourage the
prayers and toils of faithful men and women who have labored and are still laboring in this cause.
On the i8th day of May, 1882, Mr. Slater met the board of trustees in the city of New
York and transferred to them the sum of one million dollars, a little more than half of it
being already invested, and the remainder being cash to be invested at the discretion of
the board. After completing their organization, the board addressed to the founder the
following letter, which was signed by every member : New York, May 18, 1882.
To John F. Si.a.ter, Esq., Norwich, Conn.:
The members of the board of trustees whom you invited to take charge of the fund which you have
devoted to the education of the lately emancipated people of the southern states and their posterity, desire at
the beginning of their work to place on record their appreciation of your purpose, and to congratulate you on
having completed this wise and generous gift at a period of your life when you may hope to observe for many years
its beneficent influence. They wish especially to assure you of their gratification in being called upon to
administer a work so noble and timely. If this trust is' successfully managed, it may, like the gift of George
Peabody, lead to many other benefactions. As it tends to remove the ignorance of large numbers of those who
have a vote in public affairs, it will promote the welfare of every part of our country, and your generous action
will receive, as it deserves, the thanks of good men and women in this and other lands. Your trustees unite in
wishing you long life and health, that you may have the satisfaction of seeing the result of your patriotic forecast.
Since that time the trustees have met frequently and made appropriations in accordance
with the founder's wishes. As a general agent, they made choice of the Rev. A. G. Haygood,
D. D., of Oxford, Ga., who was succeeded in 1890 by Dr. J. L- M. Curry, also general
manager of the Peabody fund.
The appreciation of Congress was shown by the following resolution :
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
that the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to John F. Slater, of Connecticut, for his great
beneficence in giving the large sum of one million dollars for the purpose of "uplifting the lately emancipated
population of the southern states and their posterity, b)' conferring on them the blessings of Christian education."
Section 2. That it shall be the duty of the President to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable
devices and inscriptions, which, together with a copy of this resolution, shall be presented to Mr. Slater in the
name of the people of the United States.
After giving an exceedingly fair and just estimate of Mr. Slater's character in a memorial
address, his pastor, Rev. S. H. Howe, D. D., said: "The gift of Mr. Slater was one of
striking originality and uniqueness. Originating without suggestion from others, wholly with
himself, and elaborated to its minutest detail in his own thought, he chose to make his
offering, not to conspicuous institutions whose name or whose work should hold the giver
perpetually in the public eye, but, crossing the whole diameter of society, he carried it to
the lowest groove in our social and national life, to the poorest of this nation's poor, and
set it to work in spreading intelligence and building character in the present and oncoming
generation of a lowly race. With the sagacity of wise statesmanship and the fervor of
purest patriotism and the spirit of the Christian, he went to the lowest place and to the
weakest spot in our national fabric to strengthen it; to put a rock bottom underneath the
foundation of the nation he loved and we all love so well. He did one of the things which
the Christ, were He to come again, would commission His servants unto whom God has pleased

44 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
to grant prosperity in business' to do, a work whose far-reaching influences on the life of the
nation no e^-e can yet foresee. We have done full honor to the brave men who were the
inaugurators of the movement which cut the fetters of the slave, and to the brave armies
which fought the desperate battle to its successful issue. We to-day, and we shall more
fully in the future, do honor to a man who with others has taken up the more difficult
work of rehabilitating the emancipated slave, clothing him with the intelligence and the
manhood which qualify him for citizenship. It is a noble thing to break a slave's fetters,
but it is equally noble to help the slave to manhood, and give his race a future. At the
end of the next generation, and of the next and of the next, when this munificent charity
has gone into the culture and recovered manhood of the colored race, Mr. Slater's work will
be appreciated at its real and its far-reaching worth. ' '
John F. Slater was married May 13, 1844, to Marianna L-, daughter of Amos H. Hubbard.
Six children were born to them, of whom only the oldest and the youngest, a daughter and
a son, survived the period of infancy, and of these the son alone is now living. William
A. Slater is continuing the good work his father began, and by numerous benefactions to
his native city and elsewhere is giving expression to the kindness of his heart.

^EWELL, PLINY, of Hartford, president of the Jewell Belting Company and
various other corporations, was born Sept. i, 1823, in Winchester, N. H. This
ancient town was the residence of the Jewell family for several generations.
The record of the family line has been preserved unbroken for over 250
years. The list of the descendants of Thomas Jewell, published in the fewell
Register, says that gentleman was probably born in England about the year 1600, and that
sundry considerations lead to the conjecture that he was of the same stock as Bishop Jewell,
one of the early fathers of the English Protestant Episcopal Church. Thomas Jewell appears
in the Boston Record of Feb. 24, 1639, as the recipient of an additional grant of twelve acres of
land. He married Grisell Gurney, by whom he had several sons and daughters, and died in 1654.
His son Joseph, born April 24, 1642, first lived in Charlestown, Mass., and kept the ferry
between that place and Boston; about the age of fifty, he moved to Stow, Mass., and died
there at an unrecorded date. Joseph Jewell, Jr., was born in June, 1673, and died at Dudley,
Mass., in 1766. He was married Sept. 14, 1704, to Mary Morris of Boston, the ceremony
being performed by the Rev. Cotton Mather. Of their six children, the fifth, Archibald, was
born April 8, 17 16, at Plainfield, Conn., the family in the meantime having moved to this
state. Archibald Jewell married Rebecca Leonard, Jan. 6, 1741, and was the father of eleven
children. The second of these, Asahel, was born Aug. 2, 1744, married Hannah Wright
Nov. 5, 1767, by whom he had ten children, and died April 30, 1790. Asahel Jewell, Jr.,
was born May 16, 1776, just before the Declaration of Independence. He married Hepzibah
Chamberlain, Feb. 21, 1797, and was the father of six children, of whom Pliny, the eldest,
was born Dec. 27, 1797.
Pliny Jewell was an active member of the Congregational Church, and was politically
identified with the old Whig party, and was at several different times elected to the New
Hampshire legislature. For many years he carried on business as a tanner in that state,
and in 1845 he removed to Hartford, where he continued dealing in and finishing of leather,
and later added the manufacture of leather belting and tanning. The business of which he
laid the foundation so solidly is now successfully managed by his sons. He married Emily

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 45
Alexander, Sept. 9, 1819. Ten children were the result of this union, of whom Pliny Jewell
was the third. Marshall Jewell, three times governor of Connecticut, and minister to Russia,
and postmaster-general under President Grant, was one of the sons, and a sketch of his life
w^ill be found elsewhere in this volume.
The history of the firm is so clearly and truthfully told in a carefully compiled book,
issued by the Hartford Board of Trade in 1889, that it is reproduced here as a whole :
Pliny Jewell, Sr., born at Winchester, N. H., in 1797, came to Hartford in 1845, and began active life in his
¦new home by engaging in the leather and currying business. For several generations his ancestors in the male line
liad been tanners, so that he brought to the work all the knowledge and skill of the time. In 1848 he opened
a shop on Trumbull street for making leather belts, having been the third person in America to engage in
this special business. The father and his sons after him did much to educate the manufacturers of the United
States, and indirectly of Europe, to substitute this means for the conveyance of power in place of the costly
and cumbersome system of gearing then largely in use. For a number of years work in the shop was per
formed almost entirely by hand, the few mechanical appliances employed being rude and primitive. Four of
the five sons, — Pliny, Jr., Marshall, Charles A., and Lyman B., — were successively admitted into the partnership,
¦which, under the name of P. Jewell & Sons, soon won a world-wide reputation for the magnitude aud excellence
¦of its product.
In 1863, the firm bought the plating factory of the Rogers Brothers, at the corner of Trumbull and Hicks
¦streets, which they enlarged and partially rebuilt. The structure is now 185 x 44 feet, five stories high,
with an L of three stories. Three years ago, in order to accommodate their increasing business, they added
another building adjoining their old property, 100 x 60 feet, and five stories high. With an abundance of room,
and steam power and machinery — invented mostly by manufacturers of shoes, but adapted by the firm to the
requirements of belt-making, — the business, under the stimulus imparted by the war, expanded with great rapidity.
About 1856, they established a tannery at Detroit, Mich., where, for twenty-five years, their leather was
¦chiefly prepared. At present they are operating large tanneries both at Rome, Ga., and Jellico, Tenn., whence
their materials for belting are now almost exclusively drawn. With the destruction of forests in Michigan,
it has been found more profitable to use the works at Detroit for the production of other grades of leather,
the proximity of an abundance of oak giving to the southern locations an advantage which greatly outweighs the
disadvantages. In 1869, at the ripe age of seventy-two, Pliny Jewell, Sr., passed away, having lived to seethe
¦establishment he founded the largest of the kind in the country, and bequeathing, as a still more precious
inheritance, the record of a noble aud spotless life.
The education of the younger Pliny Jewell was obtained chiefly at the little red school house
at the fork of the roads, with an occasional three months' instruction in a school of a
higher grade which was provided in the autumn of each year, in the center of the town,
for pupils that had exhausted the resources of the district school. These are all the
advantages that any of the young Jewells ever possessed except Harvey, the eldest, who
was a graduate of Dartmouth college at Hanover.
Under the act of incorporation granted by the state in 1881, the Jewell Belting Company
was organized in April, 1883, as the successors of P. Jewell & Sons. The executive officers
are Pliny Jewell, president; Lyman B. Jewell, vice-president; Charles A. Jewell, treasurer;
and Charles E. Newton, secretary. From this industry there have been developed by suc
cessive steps the Jewell Belt Hook Company, the Jewell Pin Company, and the Jewell Pad
Company, each company being a thriving business in itself. In this trio of corporations
Mr. Jewell is a stockholder, and of them all he fills the office of president. The manu
facturing operations of the allied industries are carried on in one or another of the
cluster of factories which constitute the plant of the Jewell Belting Company, the parent
establishment. Official life has had little attraction for Mr. Jewell, and his tastes have led him to
remain in the ranks of the private citizens of the state. Banking and business corpora
tions have sought the benefit of his knowledge of affairs and long experience. He is a
director in the Hartford National Bank, the Travelers' Insurance Company, and the Phoenix
Fire Insurance Company, and is a trustee of the Hartford Trust Compau}-. Outside of these,
his activities are centered in the companies of which he is a stockholder. Taking

g REPRESENTATIVE MEN
a zealous interest in all that pertains to the welfare and advancement of the city of his
adoption, he is one of the vice-presidents of the Hartford Board of Trade and is a member
of the Hartford Club.
Practically the whole of Mr. Jewell's life has been spent in connection with the leather
business, and with all its details he is intelligentiy familiar. Such intimate knowledge of
the processes of manufacture and such a grasp upon all the forces of the business worid,
have naturally carried material success in their train. Although having reached the Biblical
limit of three-score and ten, he is still in perfect health, and quite as active in the business
as he ever has been, continuing in the command and general direction of every depart
ment, ably assisted by his two brothers, and his energetic and efficient secretary, Mr. Charies
E. Newton. He gives more particular attention to the manufacturing department, which
he has kept well in hand up to the present time, and proposes to as long as his strength
and health hold out.
In political life Mr. Jewell is a Republican of the stalwart kind, having been one of
the original organizers of the party in this state. Though accepting no preferment at the
the hands of his party associates, he has been a member since the days of Fremont and
Lincoln. His religious connections are with the Pearl Street Congregational Church and
Society, and his gifts are liberal for the support of public worship.
Pliny Jewell was married Sept. 5, 1845, to Caroline Amelia, daughter of William and
Matilda Bradbury of Manchester, England. Their two children are Edward, born Jan. 26,
1847, now a prominent leather dealer in Boston, and Emily Maria, now the wife of Mr.
Walter Sanford, the artist, of Hartford

fLLEN, JEREMIAH MERVIN, of Hartford, president of the Hartford Steam
Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.
Till quite recently, y^oung Americans, conscious of ability and eager for a
career, were largely attracted to the "learned" professions. Graduates from
the academy and from college, when confronted with the necessity of choosing
a vocation, felt almost confined to the pulpit, the bar, medicine, and teaching. Within half
a century the marvellous progress of science, with the countless applications of its discoveries
to practical affairs, has given a new trend to ambition, by opening fresh and illimitable fields
to human effort. While the ancient highways, worn by the monotonous tread of generations,
are still thronged with dusty travellers, pursuits variously combining science with business
now attract with growing force keen and adventurous minds. On one line of this manifold
and wonderful Sevelopment the subject of this sketch has been both pioneer and creator,
having built up an institution that has brought ample returns to the holders of its shares,
while reaching with its beneficence every part of the country and beyond.
From Samuel Allen, the emigrant ancestor who settled in Cambridge, Mass., in 1632,
Jeremiah M. Allen was the seventh in descent, and comes of sturdy Puritan stock. General
Ethan Allen was a descendant of Samuel. The family intermarried with the branch of the
Adams family that gave Samuel and John to the Revolution. A taste for science and mechanics
seems for a long period to have been transmitted from father to son. One was an astronomer
at a time when the appearance of "Allen's New England Almanac" was welcomed as a
notable event of the year. Another was one of the earliest in this country to engage in the
manufacture of telescopes and microscopes. Others were contractors and builders.

Ma6sacMsf,lts JiibliBliinp, Co Evereff.Mass.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 47
J. M. Allen, son of Jeremiah V. and Emily (Pease) Allen, was born at Enfield, Conn.,
May 18, 1833. He was educated at the academy in Westfield, Mass., with the view of
becoming a civil engineer. Subsequently he taught for four years, diligently improving
leisure moments in reading and study. In 1865, he was made the general agent and adjuster
of the Merchants' Insurance Company of Hartford, and later he accepted a similar position
in the Security Fire Insurance Company of New York City. In both places he labored
with characteristic fidelity, and with a success that attracted the attention of insurance circles.
Meanwhile the life-work for which Mr. Allen had been studiously but unconsciously preparing,
fell to him unsought. How the conception of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and
Insurance Company took form, and how it grew from weakness to strength, are concisely
told inthe descriptive and historical volume, " Hartford in 1889," written by P. H. Woodward.
In the year 1857, a coterie of young men in Hartford, drawn together by similarity of tastes, organized
the " Polytechnic Club " with the view, primarily, of investigating and discussing questions of science in relation
to the utilities of practical life. Among the members were Elisha K. Root, who succeeded Colonel Colt in
the presidency of the armory, Francis A. Pratt, Amos W. Whitney, E. M. Reed, Professor C. B. Richards
of Yale, Charles F. Howard, Joseph Blanchard, J. M. Allen, and others. Although few in number, they have,
on different lines of effort, made a marked impression on the events of the period. About this time Professor
Tyndall threw out the suggestion incidentally in one of his lectures that the spheroidal condition of water on
the fire-plates of boilers might be the cause of disastrous explosions. The hint, for it was scarcely more,
became the text of frequent talks regarding the cause of such explosions and the best methods of prevention.
Meanwhile, Mr. Reed, on returning from a European trip, brought home the results of late experiments conducted
under the direction of Sir William Fairbairn. It also became known that the Manchester Steam Users' Association
had already been organized in England with the view of preventing boiler explosions by periodical inspection.
Under the system as started there, the manufacturer paid a certain sum annually for the examination, receiving
in return either a certificate of the safe condition of his boiler, or a report condemning it, but the certificate,
like those in some places since issued by direct appointees of the state, involved no pecuniary obligation
whatever, and if disaster occurred, the paper, while relieving the holder from the charge of carelessness, entitled
him to no indemnity.
Although not one of the members of the Polytechnic Club was connected with insurance, the body
unconsciously drew inspiration from the local predominance of the interest, which was then making Hartford
famous as the home of skilled underwriters. In the course of the debates on the subject the attention of
the young men was attracted to the feasibility of combining a guaranty with the inspection, thus giving both
parties to the contract a pecuniary interest in the safet}' of the boiler. So far as known, the conception
had not at that time materialized elsewhere. Although distinctly evolved in the club, the seminal idea waited
several years for further development on account of the intervention of the civil war.
With the return of peace, the subject was revived, and in May, i856, prominent manufacturers in and out
of the state secured a charter empowering the company formed under it "to inspect steam boilers and insure
the owners against loss or damage arising from boiler explosions." In the following November the company
was organized, when J. M. Allen, who had given much study to this and related subjects, was urged to take the
management, but, having made other engagements for the year, was compelled to decline. E- C. Roberts was
accordingly elected president, and H. H. Hayden, secretary. In October, 1867, Mr. Allen succeeded to the
presidency, and under his care a sickly infant, seriousl}' threatened more than once with early death, has in
twenty years grown into present usefulness, strength and influence.
For a long time the process was slow and the way wearisome. Most seemed to regard the new departure
as a useless novelty that must soon run its short-lived course. What will Hartford people undertake to insure
next? was a question often asked in tones of undisguised derision. In the hands of a manager less firm in
conviction or less conciliatory in manner, the prophecy of disaster must have wrought its own fulfilment. Mr.
Allen met the flavor of sarcasm with the antidote of pleasantry, and toiled on to create a demand which it should
be his future business to supply. For the first five years the company occupied a single room sixteen or eighteen
feet square, and for the same period the floor of the vault was spread with papers for the protection of the books,
from the unwillingness of the officers to go to the extravagance of fitting it up with shelves. In a moment of
self-indulgence the president did invest fourteen dollars in a desk for his own use, but such outbreaks of luxury
seldom occurred.
Before the establishment of the company, the destruction of life, limb, and property
through the ignorance of boiler-makers, and the incompetence of "engineers," filled a wide
space in the daily record of casualties. To reduce and ultimately eliminate the hazards
arising from the use of steam has been the constant aim of the management. By frequent

48 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and thorough inspections, defects are detected in their incipiency and the proper remedies-
applied. Structures so worn or faulty as to approach the danger line are peremptorily
condemned. No chances are taken, no compromises with peril allowed. As a result, the
explosions of boilers under care of the company now scarcely reach one in ten thousand per
annum. Viewed as a work of beneficence, few attempts in the line of philanthropy have been
equally fruitful. The heavy drain on the premiums charged to the insured comes not from
payment of losses, but from cost of inspections. About one hundred and twenty experts
are constantly employed in making examinations. From the outset, Mr. Allen introduced
rigidly scientific methods in collecting and classifying facts. So far have his inquiries been
pushed that he has prepared many formulae that set forth with mathematical precision the
strength of materials under a great variety of arrangement and conditions. Although
invaluable to the company, these do not appear in its list of assets.
Ill 1867, Mr. Allen began the publication of the Locomotive, an illustrated monthly,,
intended primarily to explain in detail the causes and character of specific boiler explosions,
but afterwards so enlarged in scope that it has long been an exponent of the most advanced
studies respecting the steam boiler and cognate subjects. The magazine was changed to
its present form in 1880, and has attained a circulation of twenty-five thousand. The home
office is a storehouse of facts and statistics relating to every phase of the business. Of the
whole, all the patrons have the benefit without charge.
Mr. Allen has furnished plans for many of the most extensive steam plants in the country.
As the designs aim, by strictly scientific methods, to secure the highest degree of economy,
efficiency, and safety, the saving in operation as compared with the superseded systems
has often sufficed in a few years to offset the first cost of the outfit. The company has a
laboratory for the analysis of waters, and for such as are injurious to boilers the proper chemical
remedies are prescribed. Toward makers it holds an attitude of entire impartiality, permitting
no officer or employee to have any pecuniary interest in any appliance connected with the
trade. The growth and strength of the company can best be studied in the reports of the
state insurance commissioners.
For Sept. 16, 1892, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mr. Allen's election to the presidency,
his associates in conducting the business in all parts of the country arranged a surprise,
as touching to the principal person in the drama as it was unexpected. Being absent from
the city he was summoned back by telegraph, and returned under the apprehension that
unpleasant news awaited him. Hurrying from the station to his residence, he was relieved
to meet the welcome of a throng of familiar and beaming faces. Theodore H. Babcock,
manager of the New York department of the company, speaking for all, said that the "silver
anniversary" was regarded by officers, clerks, agents and inspectors of all degrees, as an
appropriate time to show the universal esteem in which he was held by them. He was then
taken into the next room to see the material forms in which goodwill and affection had
found embodiment. There reposed a solid silver tea service, salver, and complete set of
dinner, dessert, and tea cutlery, and spoons of silver. In all there were one hundred and one
pieces of exquisite workmanship. A plate on the large mahogany case containing most of the
treasures, bears this inscription :
1867 Presented to j. M. Allen 1892
By Officers, Agents, Inspectors and
Employees of the
Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection
AND Insurance Company.
Besides the silver, there was an elegant album containing the photographs of about fifty-
persons connected with the company, and autograph letters of congratulation in verse and prose>

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 49
In 1888, the Hartford Board of Trade was organized. At the earnest solicitation of the
directors, Mr. Allen took the presidency, and has held it continuously since. For a long period
the growth of the city had been painfully slow ; several enterprises had been torn up by the
roots to be transplanted in other soil, and despondency prevailed. Largely through the efforts
of this association a remarkable change soon became apparent. The town, after a long sleep,
seems to have entered upon a new career with the energy and courage of youth renewed.
In the annual reports of the board may be found the details of the movement. Of the
causes of the change let the Coitrant bear witness :
No other single agency has contributed so much to this result as the Hartford Board of Trade, with Mr.
J. M. Allen as its tactful aud judicious president, aud Mr. P. H. Woodward as its untiring secretary, full of
energy and resources. The turn of affairs dates from the time when the Board of Trade began to be felt as
a factor here. It concentrated public spirit, caught the common interest of the community, and roused the
people to a fuller sense of what this place is and may be.
Mr. Allen's services have been widely sought in the management of corporations and
trusts, and though often obliged from pressure of other duties to decline, he is a director in
the Security Company, the Connecticut River Banking Company, the Orient Insurance Com
pany, and the Society for Savings. He is associate executor and trustee of the estates left
by John S. Welles and Newton Case, amounting together to more than #1,500,000. He
belongs to an order of men, unfortunately too rare, whom the entire community by an unerr
ing instinct recognizes as honest, honorable, and certain to prove faithful to whatever trust
they may assume.
For many years Mr. Allen has been trustee of the Hartford Theological Seminary.
When the institution first moved to the cit}', it occupied rented quarters on Prospect
street. It now owns modern and spacious buildings in a choice location. Its finances
have improved correspondingly. Jan. 18, 1893, the Case Memorial Library was dedicated, Mr.
Alien delivering the historical address. His part in the work is thus referred to in the report
for 1893 of the secretary of the Board of Trade: "The building, as a whole and in detail,
originated in the brain of J. M. Allen, whose scientific knowledge and varied skill in
handling force and matter have found embodiment in many diverse and widely scattered forms."
Mr. Allen is non-resident lecturer of Sibley College and Cornell. University, and a
member of several scientific, literary, and historical societies, including the American Associa
tion for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Mechanical Engineers, the
American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia), the American Historical
Association (Washington, D. C), the Connecticut Historical Society, etc., etc.
With little time or taste for the scrambles of politics, Mr. Allen has rarely accepted
municipal office, and then only to promote some matter of public welfare in which he took
deep interest. It would be tedious to enumerate his particular services. A person of
capability and public spirit is always heavily loaded with cares. Perhaps the gift most
impressive to intimate associates is his readiness in overcoming physical obstructions and
annoyances by the application of principles of science.
Mr. Allen married, April 10, 1856, Harriet, daughter of Hermon C. and Mary A. Griswold
of Ellington, Conn., and has two children, Elizabeth Turner, wife of C. E. Roberts, and
William H. Allen. Mr. Roberts is the manager and W. H. Allen is the assistant manager of
the Boston office of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.

^o REPRESENTATIVE MEN
RANKLIN, WILLIAM BUEL, president of the board of managers of the-
National Home for disabled volunteer soldiers and vice-president of the Hartford
Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, and ex-major-general United
States volunteers, was born in York, Pa., Feb. 27, 1823.
His father was Walter S. Franklin, who was clerk of the United States
House of Representatives at the time of his death, in 1838 ; and his great-grandfather was
Thomas Franklin of Philadelphia, commissary of prisoners during the War of the Revolution,
who married Mary Rhoads, a daughter of Samuel Rhoads, a member from Pennsylvania of
the first Continental congress. The family came from Flushing, L- L His mother was a
daughter of Dr. William Buel of Litchfield, Conn., who was a descendant of Peter Buel
of Windsor, Conn.
Choosing a military career for himself, he secured an appointment as cadet at the United '
States Academy at West Point, in June, 1839. Passing through the regular curriculum of
the institution, he graduated and was brevetted second lieutenant of topographical engineers
four years later in July, 1843. The next two years were spent in extended service on the
western lakes and the Rocky Mountains. After another year in the Topographical office
at Washington, he was appointed second lieutenant in that service Sept. 11, 1846. His first
real experience as a soldier was received during the Mexican War. For gallant and meritorious
conduct at the battle of Buena Vista, he was appointed first lieutenant, Feb. 23, 1847. He was
assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at the military academy from July,
1848, to January, 1851. Again came a couple of years of active life, during which he was
engaged on service along the Atlantic coast. On March 3, 1853, he was commissioned first
lieutenant of topographical engineers, and until 1857 was assigned the duties in connection
with lighthouse work or custom house engineering. In March, 1857, he was appointed secre
tary of the lighthouse board, and in October of the last named year he was commissioned
captain of topographical engineers, for fourteen continuous years in that department. In
November, 1859, he was appointed superintendent of the capitol and post-office buildings, and
in March, 1861, was appointed supervising architect of the treasury department at Washington.
In the terrible conflict between the North and South, he gained undying fame for himself.
Commissioned colonel of the twelfth United States infantry. May 14, 1861, three days later
he was elevated to the rank of brigadier-general United States volunteers. In the Manassas
campaign, and at the battle of Bull Run, he was in command of a brigade, and until March,
1862, he was in command of divisions about the defence of the capital. General Franklin
took an honorable part in the Virginia peninsular campaign, and on June 30, 1862, he was
brevetted brigadier-general of the United States Army ' ' for gallant and meritorious conduct ' '
in the battle before Richmond, Va., and was appointed major-general of volunteers on July 4,
1862. In the Maryland campaign he was in command of the sixth army corps, and in the
battle of South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1862, commanded the left wing of the army of the
Potomac, carrying Crampton's Gap by assault, gaining a signal victory. He commanded
the sixth corps in the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. He commanded the left wing of
the army of the Potomac, Dec. 12, 1862, when the army was so disastrously defeated under
the command of General Burnside. In June, 1863, he was ordered to the department of the
Gulf, and served in Texas and Louisiana until April, 1864, when he succumbed to a wound
received at the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, where two horses were shot under him, and was
given his first leave of absence until November of the same year. During this time he was
captured by rebel raiders on the Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad, but fortunately escaped
from them the next night. From December, 1864, to November, 1865, General Franklin
was president of the board for retiring disabled officers at Wilmington, Del.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 51
In March, 1865, he received additional honor by being brevetted major general of the
United States Army, and just one year later he resigned his commission and retired to private
life. In the various trying positions in which he was placed, he always acquitted himself
with honor, and his military record is one of which he has just cause to be proud. Serving
his country faithfully, he risked his life in her defence, and his name should be inscribed
Jiigh on her roll of fame.
Selecting Hartford as his future residence, he removed to that city in 1865. In November
of that year he was chosen vice-president and general manager of the Colt's Patent Fire Arms
Company, and retained that position until April, 1888. In 1868, he was elected president
of the board of visitors of the United States military academy. When the new state capitol
was to be erected, he was selected as the most suitable person to act as president of the com
mission for the erection of the new state house in 1872-73 ; was consulting engineer from 1873
to 1877, and superintendent from 1877 to March i, 1880. The magnificent capitol is now
the pride of all the citizens of the state, and it is a remarkable fact that the cost of erection
was kept within the appropriations made by the legislature. In all the details of construction,
General Franklin's controlling hand could be felt and his vigilance was never relaxed. For
the fifteen years from 1863 to 1878 he was a member of the board of water commissioners,
and here his experience as an engineer was useful on numerous occasions. At the Centennial
exhibition. General Franklin was chairman of the committee of judges on engineering and
architecture. In 1876, he was chosen one of the presidential electors on the Democratic ticket, and
took part in the convention which nominated Mr. Tilden. From 1877 to 1879 he was adjutant-
general of the State of Connecticut, and since July, 1880, he has been president of the board
of managers of the National Home for disabled soldiers. Additional honors still awaited him.
In June, 1888, he was appointed commi.ssioner-general for the United States at the Inter
national Exposition at Paris, France, and in October of the following year he received the
appointment of grand officer of the French Legion of Honor, — a high compliment to be paid
an American. A member of the New York Commandery of the Legion of Honor, he was
for several terms its commander. His interest in secret societies is not confined to one section.
He is a member of the Cincinnati, of the Sons of the American Revolution, of R. O. Tyler
Post, No. 50, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Army and Navy Club. He still retains
his hold on the business world, and is vice-president of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection
and Insurance Company, and a director of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company,
and of the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford. He is also a director of the
Panama Railroad Company.
That General Franklin attained high rank as an engineer, is evidenced by his various
deserved promotions. No man could rise to the rank of major-general during the late war
unless he was a born leader of men, and unless he had rare capacity for handling large
bodies of troops. Returning to private life, unless he had executive ability of the highest
order, combined with a superabundance of practical common sense, no man could be the
controlling spirit of an immense corporation for over twenty years. Unless he was popular
in the truest and best sense of the word, no man could have filled the honorable positions
which have been awarded to General Franklin without any seeking on his part.
William B. Franklin was married July 7, 1852, to Anna L. Clarke, daughter of Matthew
.,St. Clair Clarke and Hannah B. Clarke of Washington, D. C. There are no children.

5 2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
¦ RENTICE, AMOS WYLIE, of Norwich, merchant and ex-state senator, was born
in Griswold, Conn., Dec. 20, 1816.
^ ^^^?r Amos Prentice, father of A. W. Prentice, was the son of John Prentice of
'n ^^^^ Griswold. His life was devoted to agricultural pursuits. He married Lucy
Wylie, by whom he had two sons. The youngest enlisted in the army for
defence of his country, and died in New York during the war.
Receiving simply a common school education, young Prentice, by hard study and persist
ent application, laid the foundation for a successful business and public career. He transferred
his residence to Norwich in 1823, and has made that city his home almost continuously ever
since. His first business experience was as clerk for W. A. Buckingham, subsequently the war
governor of the state. In 1831 Mr. Prentice entered the employ of Mr. John Breed, a hardware
merchant, in the store which proved to be his business home for the larger part of his life.
Such was his faithfulness and zeal that in 1840 he was made a member of the firm, the
name becoming John Breed & Co. In 1856 Mr. Breed went into a different line of business,
and, with Mr. Amos C. Williams, Mr. Prentice continued the sale of hardware specialties
under the old name. Six years later Mr. Williams died, and Mr. Prentice formed a new
partnership with Messrs. William A. Williams and Francis A. Dorrance, taking the name
of A. W. Prentice & Co. This connection lasted till 1888, when Mr. Prentice sold out his
interest to his clerks who had been with him for a long series of years. The firm name now
is Eaton, Chase & Co., the latter being Mr. Prentice's son-in-law, and they carry on business
along the same lines on which it was established nearly seventy years ago.
Mr. Prentice has devoted no small share of his time and talents to the management of
financial institutions. He has been president of the Norwich Savings Society since 1890.
With one exception, this is the largest savings institution in Connecticut. He has been
senior director of the First National Bank of Norwich for over twenty-five years. Besides
the financial organizations mentioned, Mr. Prentice is a director in the Richmond Stove
Company, and other companies of lesser note, and is a trustee of the Norwich Free Academy.
Men of Mr. Prentice's stamp must expect to have official stations tendered them for
acceptance. In 1854 he represented the old eighth senatorial district at the state capitol,
and served on the committee on state prisons as chairman. Among his colleagues that
year were Hon. James Dixon, subsequently United States Senator, Gov. Henry B. Harrison,
and the late Gov. William T. Minor. In 1859 his fellow citizens elected him mayor of
Norwich, and it was during his term of office that the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the founding of the city was celebrated. He was equal to all the responsibilities of the
occasion, and nothing occurred to mar the festivities of the day. Mr. Prentice served his
constituents so satisfactorily that he was re-elected the following year. The year 1877
again found him at the capital of the state, this time as the representative of his city in
the lower branch of the legislature. Hon. Lynde Harrison, Lieutenant-Governor Gallup, Ex-
Comptroller Chaunce}- Howard, and others who have since gained eminence in state affairs,
were also members the same year. Mr. Prentice served on the Republican side, and along
various lines exerted an important influence during the session. He was a member of the
judiciary committee, which is usually composed of lawyers, and was appointed on a special
committee on the examination of the state capitol.
The religious affiliations of Mr. Prentice are with the Broadway Congregational Church,
of which he has been deacon for over twenty years, following Governor Buckingham. His
course during his long residence in Norwich has greatly endeared him to its citizens, and
he is held in the highest esteem by men of all political parties and of all denominational beliefs.
May 18, 1840, Mr. Prentice was married to Hannah E. Parker. She died Dec. 24, 1887,
and of her four children, one married daughter is still living — Mrs. A. H. Chase.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 53

|RANDEGEE, AUGUSTUS, ex-member of Congress and ex-mayor of New
London, was born in that city, July 15, 1828.
"He is the youngest of the three sons of John Brandegee," says the Biography
of Connecticut. "His father moved when a lad from Berlin, Conn., to New
Orleans, where he acquired a competency as a broker in cotton. He served as
a member of the City Guards under General Jackson, and was engaged in the celebrated
hattle of Jan. 8, 1815, in which General Packenham and the flower of the British army were
¦defeated. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Deshon, was descended from
Huguenot ancestors who were driven from France by the revocation of the ' Edict of Nantes.'
His grandfather, Capt. Daniel Deshon, was appointed in 1777 to command the armed vessel,
^ Old Defence,' which was built and commissioned by the state of Connecticut for service
against the British in the Revolutionary War. His two grand-uncles, John and Richard
Deshon, served with conspicuous gallantry as captains of the Connecticut forces in the Revo
lutionary army.
" Young Brandegee laid the foundations of a classical education at the Union Academ)- in
New London, and completed his preparation for college at the Hopkins' Grammar School,
New Haven, under the tuition of the celebrated Dominie Olmstead. He entered Yale in
1845, during the last year of President Day's administration, and graduated with his class in
1849. Although he was necessarily absent during the larger part of his sophomore year, he
was graduated fourth in a class of students, an unusual number of whom afterward
became distinguished. Among these President Fiske of Beloit University (who ranked first
in the class). President Timothy Dwight of Yale (who ranked third), Judge Finch of the
New York Court of Appeals, and William D. Bishop, may be named as conspicuous examples.
After studying a year at Yale Law School, at that period under the superintendence of Ex-
Governors Bissell and Dutton, Mr. Brandegee entered the law office of the late Andrew C.
Lippitt, then the leading attorney at New London, with whom he soon after formed a
partnership which continued until 1854, when Mr. Brandegee was elected to represent his
native city in the House of Representatives of the State of Connecticut. The old Whig
party was then in the throes of dissolution after the disastrous political campaign under
General Scott ; and the proposed repeal of the Missouri Compromise had stirred the moral
sense of the North to its foundations. Mr. Brandegee threw himself with the ardor of a
young and enthusiastic nature into the anti-slavery movement. Although the youngest
member of the House, he soon developed talents of a very high order as a parliamentarian
and debater, and became its leader. He was appointed by Speaker Foster — afterward senator —
a member of the judiciary committee, and also chairman of the select committee to carr}-
through the 'Bill for the Defence of Liberty,' a measure drafted by Henry B. Harrison —
subsequently governor of the state — the practical ^effect of which was to prevent the enforce
ment of the Fugitive Slave Law in Connecticut. He was also appointed chairman of the
committee on the Maine law, and, as such, carried through the Assembly the first and onl}'
prohibitory liquor law ever passed in Connecticut. Mr. Brandegee was largely instrumental
in the election at that session of Speaker Foster and Francis Gillette to represent the anti-
slavery sentiment of Connecticut in the United States Senate.
" Returning to his practice, Mr. Brandegee was elected judge of the city criminal court
of New London. In the enthusiastic campaign for ' Free Speech, Free Soil, Freedom and
Fremont,' which followed the anti-Nebraska excitement, Mr. Brandegee took an active and
•conspicuous part. He made speeches in the principal towns and cities of Connecticut and
soon became noted as one of the most popular and well known campaign orators of his party.

^4 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
He was chosen as one of the electors of the state on a ticket headed by Ex-Governor Roger S.
Baldwin, and with his colleagues cast the electoral vote of Connecticut forthe 'Path- Finder,'
and first presidential candidate of the Republican party— John C. Fremont. In 1858 he
was again elected to represent the town of New London in the Connecticut House of
Representatives, and in 1859 he was a third time chosen. Although selected by his party,
then in a majority, as their candidate for speaker, in 1859, he was obliged to decline the
office on account of the death of his father. In 1 861, he was for a fourth time elected to
the House and was honored by being elected its speaker. This was the first 'war session'
of the Connecticut Legislature. The duties of a presiding officer, always difficult and delicate,
were largely enhanced by the excited state of feeling existing between the two great parties,
and the novel requirements of legislation to provide Connecticut's quota of men and means
for the suppression of the rebellion. The duties of the chair were so acceptably filled by
Speaker Brandegee, that, at the close of the session, he was presented with a service of silver
by Hon. Henry C. Deming, the leader of the opposition, in the name of the members of
both political parties, without a dissenting voice.
' ' Mr. Brandegee took a very active part in the great uprising of the North which followed
the firing upon Fort Sumter. His services were sought all over the state in addressing
patriotic meetings, raising troops, delivering flags to departing regiments and arousing public
sentiment. In 1863 he was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress of the United States as a
representative from the third congressional district of Connecticut, and in 1865 he was
re-elected, and served in the Thirty-ninth Congress. Although the youngest member of the
body, he at once took a prominent position, and was selected by Speaker Colfax as a member
of the committee on naval affairs, at that time, next after the military committee, one of the
most important. He was also a member of the committee on the auditing of naval accounts,
and chairman of a special committee on a post and military route from New York to Wash
ington. Mr. Brandegee continued a member of the House during the four historic years
covered by the Civil War and the reconstruction period, acting with the. most advanced wing
of his party, and trusted and respected by his associates, among whom were Garfield, Blaine,
Schenck, Conkling, Dawes, Winter, Davis and Thaddeus Stevens. He was admitted to frequent
and friendly intercourse with President Lincoln, who always manifested a peculiar interest
in Connecticut, and who was wont to speak of Governor Buckingham — its executive at
that time — as the 'Brother Jonathan' upon whom he leaned, as did Washington upon
Jonathan Trumbull.
"In 1864 Mr. Brandegee was a member of the Connecticut delegation to the National
Republican Convention, held at Baltimore, which nominated Lincoln and Johnson. It was
largely due to this delegation that Johnson was selected instead of Hamlin for the vice-
presidency, the Connecticut delegation being the first to withdraw its support from the New
England candidate. In 1871, notwithstanding his earnest protests, he was nominated for
the office of mayor of the city of New London. He received very general support and was
elected, but resigned after holding office two years, being led to this step by the exacting
requirements of a large and growing legal practice. In 1880 Mr. Brandegee was chairman
of the Connecticut delegation to the Chicago Republican National Convention, held in Chicago,
nominating Washburne for the presidency. His speech attracted favorable notice not only
in the convention, but throughout the country, and gave him wide reputation as an orator
and party leader. In 1884 he was again chairman of the Connecticut delegation to the
Republican National Convention, also held at Chicago, and made the nominating speech for
General Hawley, the candidate of his state for the presidency.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 55
"Forthe past five or six years Mr. Brandegee has, of choice, gradually retired from public
life and devoted himself almost exclusively to the practice of law at New London; and
although he has been repeatedly urged by the leaders of his party to take its nomination for
governor, and has been frequently talked of as an available candidate for the United States
senatorship, he has uniformly declined this and all other public offices and honors, preferring
to_ devote his entire time and energies to professional work, in which he is still actively
engaged, having as an associate his only son, Frank B. Brandegee, a graduate of Yale
University in the class of '85. As a lawyer Mr. Brandegee is ranked as one of the very
foremost in the profession ; as a politician, one of the highest ability and integrity, and as a
citizen one of the most honored and respected."

ULKELEY, MORGAN GARDNER, ex-governor of Connecticut, and president
of the .<Etna Life Insurance Company, was born in East Haddam, Conn.,
Dec. 26, 1837.
The name Bulkeley was originally spelled Buclough, and was derived from
a range of mountains in the County Palatine of Chester, England, and it runs
back to a remote antiquity. The Connecticut Bulkeley s can trace the family line by direct
succession for over six centuries. From an interesting old parchment in the possession of
Governor Bulkeley it is learned that Robert Bulkeley (or Buclough) , Esq. , an English Baron
in the time of King John, was lord of the manor of Buclough, in the County of Palatine.
From him by successive generations are (2) William, (3) Robert, (4) Peter, (5) John,
(6) Hugh, (7) Humphrey, (8) William, (9) Thomas, (10) Rev. Edward. Rev. Peter
Bulkeley, son of Rev. Edward, emigrated from England in 1634, settled in Massachusetts,
and, after a life of much usefulness, died in 1659. Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, son of the first
settler, was prominent in the colonial history of Connecticut, and married a daughter of Presi
dent Chauncey of Harvard College. It was said of him, " As a clergyman, he stood at the
head of his profession, and ranked among the first in medical science. He devoted much time
to chemistry, with its useful researches, and to philosophy as a cardinal branch of medical
knowledge. He was master of several languages, among them being Latin, Greek and Dutch.
He was famous as a surveyor, preeminent in his time as a chemist, and highly respected as a
magistrate." Then came the fourth reverend in the family line — Rev. John Bulkeley, the
first minister at Colchester, and regarded by the men of his time as a noted casuist and sage
counsellor. His son John was a judge, and held many, important offices of trust. Eliphalet,
son of the Honorable John Bulkeley, was father of John Charles and grandfather of Eli
phalet A. Bulkeley.
The latter is deserving of more than a passing notice. He was born in Colchester, June
29, 1803, graduated at Yale College in 1824, and was admitted to the bar at Lebanon, Conn.
Removing to East Haddam, he continued the practice of his profession and became president
of a bank. While residing here he was elected to the legislature once, and twice to the
Senate. In 1847, he settled in Hartford, and in 1857 was again elected to the legislature,
and received the honor of being chosen to the speaker's chair, being the first Republican to
occupy that responsible position. For many years he was associated with Judge Henry
Perkins under the firm name of Bulkeley & Perkins. At this time the subject of life
insurance was almost in the air of Hartford, and naturally his progressive mind became inter
ested in the new topic. Assisting materially in the organization of the Connecticut Mutual

^6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Company, he was chosen its first president, but retained the position only two years. In
1853, he 'was elected president of the ^tna Life Insurance Company, and remained at the
head' of the company until his death in 1872. He married Lydia Smith, daughter of Avery
jMorgan, and six children were the fruit of this union, of whom Morgan G. was the third.
The business career of the future governor began as bundle boy in a mercantile house in
Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1851. Being faithful and energetic, he was rapidly advanced on his
merits to' the position of salesman and confidential clerk; and in 1858 he became a partner
in the firm in whose employ he served seven years before as errand boy. When the call was-
made for troops to suppress the rebellion, he enlisted in the thirteenth New York regiment,
and went to the front as a private. During General McClellan's peninsular campaign, he
ser\-ed under General Mansfield.
The better to supervise his large financial interests, after his father's death in 1872,
Mr. Bulkeley decided to locate permanently in Hartford. Intimately acquainted with all the
details of questions of finance, he was the prime factor in the organization of the United States.
Bank, and became its first president. Now that, after twenty years of successful existence,
it is among the largest and most substantial of the city banks, gives evidence that the founda
tion was laid on a solid basis.
When the presidency of the ^tna Life Insurance Company became vacant by the retire
ment of Thomas O. Enders, he was elected to the position. The unexampled success which
has followed his management of the company's affairs is another tribute to his rare perception
and managerial skill. It is exceptional that a father is followed by a son at the head of a
corporation of such magnitude as the ^tna Life ; and as the company is so identified with
the lives of both, a passing mention of its history would seem fitting. Commencing its
existence as a branch of the ^tna Fire Insurance Company, it was organized under an inde
pendent charter in 1853 with Eliphalet A. Bulkeley as president. During the first decade
of its career, the company developed slowly. To quote from "Hartford in 1889," a volume
issued by the Board of Trade :
Nowhere is the greatness of the change in the attitude of the public towards life insurance more clearly
reflected than in the records of the ^Etna. In 1863, thirteen years from the date of organization, its assets
amounted to 1310,492. The impetus then given to the development of the company was stimulated and multi
plied by the energy of the management. Its subsequent growth in resources and surplus, in reputation and
popularity, has never for an instant been checked by adversities of any nature, or troubles from any quarter.
It has been singularly fortunate, too, in avoiding the errors of judgment which intelligence and prudence may,
without discredit, be expected to make under the law of averages. In 1868, its assets had increased to $7,538,-
612; in 1878, to $24,141,125 ; in 1889, $32,620,676. Success far transcending the dreams of the founders, and on
the whole perhaps unequalled in the records of life insurance, either in Europe or America, is easily explained
in the light of the facts. The ^Etna Life was a pioneer in loaning to western farmers, having entered the field
under highly favorable conditions. . All the early loans bore interest at ten per cent. The arrangement
proved greatly advantageous to both leaner and borrower. ; . . In economy of management the jEtna ranks
with the first three or four in the list of American companies. . The present capital is $1,250,000. The
marvellous growth of the ..Etna Life cannot be repeated in the future by any similar organization, because the
conditions which rendered the process possible have passed never to return.
At a banquet given by Illinois managers of the .^Etna Life Insurance Company, June,
1892, of Governor Bulkeley, in his address of welcome, Mr. R. W. Kempshall said:
As Leonidas, the Spartan, came from a family of soldiers, so it might be said that he who is our
guest tonight comes from a family of insurance men. His father, the venerable E. A. Bulkeley, was the
first president of the vEtna Life Insurance Company. His brother, Ex-Lieutenant Governor Bulkeley, was for
many years the vice-president, and I look with peculiar interest upon our president's little son (laughter
and applause) who undoubtedly has got insurance blood in his veins, for itis said, that when he was a baby,
and refused to be comforted with the ordinary rubber ring and rattle box, he would immediately subside,
in his most tempestuous moods, if only given an agent's manual and an ^tna policy to play with (long
laughter). It is my privilege to have known Mr. Bulkeley as a merchant, soldier and banker, as alderman

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 57
and mayor of the city in which he lives, and as governor of the state of Connecticut. He has held and
now fills many honorable offices, but his crowning one of them all I hold to be the presidency of the ^Etna
Life Insurance Company (long applause). He is not alone president of the directors, though always watchful
of their interests, but he is also careful for the rights of policy holders, and ever has an attentive ear and
kindly word for the encouragement of agents — a good all round president (applause). To be the accountable
head of our great company, with its millions of assets, thousands of policy holders, and tens of thousauds of
beneficiaries, is a heavy responsibility; but this trust so sacred, this obligation so great, rests upon the shoulders
of a man whom we all believe has the strength and ability to carry the load (applause).
At the same occasion and in response to Mr. Kempshall, Governor Bulkeley said :
" Speaking of the company, its first quarters were in a little room, about ten by fifteen feet
square, which was its home for several years, and it was my distinguished privilege at that
early date in the history of the company, to wield a broom early in the morning, sweeping
out the office. The remuneration was of the most liberal character — one dollar per week"
(laughter and applause) . It is not often given to a man to become a partner in the firm
whose employ he entered as a bundle boy, and later to become president of a great insur
ance company whose office he had swept when a youth.
Men of Mr. Bulkeley's stamp are not allowed to confine all their executive ability and
energy of character to the limits of one corporation. Besides bearing the burdens of the
management of the ^tna Life, he is also director in the ^tna Fire Insurance Company,
^tna National Bank, United States Bank, Willimantic Linen Company and other business
corporations. Inheriting his father's love for politics, Mr. Bulkeley naturally became a participant,
as well as an interested observer in local political affairs. He made municipal problems a
matter of conscientious study, and this doubtless had much to do with the satisfactory manner
in which he filled the offices to which he was successively chosen. Making an entrance into
official life as a councilman, later he was made an alderman, and for eight consecutive years
was elected mayor of Hartford. During his incumbency of this office, he exercised a watchful
care over income and expenditure, and advocated only such measures as would advance the
interests of the municipality, irrespective of partisan considerations. Liberal with his private
means for the amelioration of the distressed, he did much for the comfort and pleasure of the
working classes. His salary, as mayor, was more than disbursed in this way every year.
During his tenure of office as mayor of Hartford, he developed such rare executive ability
in civil affairs, it was not singular that Mr. Bulkeley's friends should urge his availability as
a candidate for gubernatorial honors. Acting upon this conviction, his name was presented
to the Republican convention of 1886. In the meantime, however, a movement in favor
of Mr. Lounsbury had acquired such momentum that, in the interest of harmony, Mr.
Bulkeley authorized the withdrawal of his name as a candidate. Joining heartily in the
support of his rival, he assisted materially in securing his successful election. His course at
this time was everywhere commended. At the next state convention of his party in August,
1888, Mr. Bulkeley was nominated for governor by acclamation. The choice of the party
was approved at the polls, and on the following January he took his seat in the gubernatorial
chair. The vigorous administration which followed was characteristic of the man, and will
be remembered as among the most notable in the history of the Commonwealth.
At the state election in November, 1890, a peculiar situation of affairs occurred, and amid
the trying scenes. Governor Bulkeley won fresh honors for himself. It was the first state
election under the new ballot law, and results were declared by town officers which were not
accepted as conclusive by the Senate to whom the election statistics were returnable under
the statute, or by the House of Representatives. As the legislature failed to settle the
questions of gubernatorial succession, under the Constitution it became Governor Bulkeley's
duty to continue to exercise the functions of his office for two additional years. The circum-

58

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

stances attending his second term as the official head of the state were delicate and sometimes
vexing in the extreme. That he bore every test most creditably is the highest praise that
could be awarded. After the usual details attending the adjournment had taken place. Gov
ernor Bulkeley spoke as follows, and his words were really a brief history of the session itself :
You have reached the closing hours of this session of the General Assembly, unprecedented in its length
in the history of our state and protracted from the wide and irreconcilable differences of opinion between
the two branches of the Assembly in regard to proper and legal constitutional provisions— resulting in a
complete cessation of legislation during your entire term of office. As you return to your several constit
uencies, you will certainly not be charged as assemblies too often are with burdening the people with an
excessive amount of legislation. I sincerely trust that no interest of the state has seriously suffered.
The experience of the last two years has demonstrated the law abiding character of our people, and the
strength and stability, under the severest test it has ever sustained, of the constitution and government
under which the old commonwealth has existed for so many years. In directing the customary and formal
adjournment, I commend each and every member to the protecting care of an all wise Providence now and
always. One of the first duties of the state legislature which assembled in January, 1893, was to
choose a United States Senator for the term of six years. The friends of Governor Bulkeley
brought his name forward as a candidate for this honorable office. When the final counting
of the votes was made, it showed he had a handsome vote and he has cause to be proud of the
support he received. The prize, however, was awarded to Gen. J. R. Hawley, the previous
incumbent. No citizen of the state could be elected governor of Connecticut and later be one
of the leading candidates for the United States senatorship, unless he have special qualifications
for these honorable positions.
In a well written sketch, the University Magazine says of him :
Governor Bulkeley's record as governor is too well known to need much comment here. Without a
particle of formalitj', he has yet shown the highest respect for the office. He has at all times been true to his
sense of duty, and has been alert, able and original to a marked degree, often under discouraging circumstances.
His thorough manliness and ability have made him the future leader of his party, and the natural candidate
for its highest honors. During the recent legislative deadlock between the two political parties, when at times
partisanship has risen to extreme heat, opposition press has severely criticised Governor Bulkeley's course, not
realizing perhaps that he continued in office against his private wishes, and in obedience to his interpretation
of the law and Constitution, which has been sustained by the highest court in the state. But it is sufiicient
tribute to his character, that even the Democrats, as a rule, have acknowledged his success as a public man,
and the sway of his popularity in private life. At recent ceremonials, such as the Washington and Columbian
festivals in New York, and the dedication of the World's Fair in Chicago, where he has been called upon to
lead the Connecticut delegations, he has always been received with the utmost cordiality, and has represented
the state with exceptional brilliancy. Governor Bulkeley is in the prime of life, both for business and political
work. As president of the iEtna he has strengthened that already strong company, and won a national repu
tation as a business man of the first grade. Socially, he is a prince of good fellows, and is rich, generous and
prominent in Hartford society.
Morgan G. Bulkeley was married Feb. 11, 1885, to Fannie Briggs, daughter of James
F. and Caroline A. Houghton of San Francisco, Cal. They have one son, Morgan Gardner,
Jr., who came as a Christmas gift in 1885, and one daughter, Elinor Houghton, born in 1893.-

m
p
M
^ ^-fe
%
A
^'Sii^g ,
1^
-^ ^
^
V
>
„.= .a,:huBettsMli..ngCo,Evu,ftMa.S,
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 59

^HASE, GEORGE LEWIS, president of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company,
Hartford, was born in Millbury, Worcester County, Mass., Jan. 13, 1828. He
was the son of Paul Cushing Chase, a lineal descendant in the sixth generation
of Aquila Chase, who came from Cornwall, England, and settled in Hampton,
Mass., in 1640. The links in the chain connecting the present with the past
are : (i) Aquila, (2) Moses, (3) David, (4) Daniel, (5) Paul, (6) Joshua, (7) Paul Cushing.
Receiving a thorough education in the regular English course of studies at Millbury
Academy, he was well equipped for the business life upon which, he entered. Beginning
his chosen sphere of action at the early age of nineteen years, he engaged in the insurance
business, as the agent of the Farmer's Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Georgetown,
Mass. Subsequently he was elected a member of the board of directors. His energy and
tact fitted him to become an efficient canvasser, and he operated first through southern
Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut ; and within a short time his agency included four
companies doing business on the mutual plan. One of this quartette, the Holyoke Mutual
of Salem, is still successfully engaged writing policies. In 1848, Mr. Chase was appointed
travelling agent for the People's Insurance Company of Worcester ; he retained that position
lor four years, when he removed to Ohio, having been appointed assistant superintendent
of the Central Ohio Railroad Company. His manifest ability was such, that a vacancy
beiiig made, he was advanced to the office of general superintendent of the road. Believing
in the value of organization, he was among the representatives who formed the first
Association of Railroad Superintendents in the United States, a meeting for the purpose
being held in Columbus in 1853.
His first choice in a business career still kept its hold on his affections, and, in i860,
Mr. Chase resumed his connection with the fire insurance business, accepting the western
general agency of the New England Fire Insurance Company of Hartford. This position
was held for three years, when he became a part of that company with which the rest
of his life was to be identified, by accepting the appointment of assistant western general
^gent of the Hartford F'ire Insurance Company.
In all the positions he had occupied, Mr. Chase had displayed ability of the highest
order, and in the new field he at once attracted the attention and approval of the board
of directors. Just after he entered his fourth year of service, the presidency of the com
pany was offered him. The duties and responsibilities of the office were great, and it was
only after a thorough deliberation that Mr. Chase decided to accept; and in June, 1867, he
succeeded Timothy C. AUyn, as president. As his connection with the Hartford Fire
Insurance Company now covers a period of thirty years, a few words regarding its history
would seem most fitting. To quote from "Hartford in 1889," by Mr. P. H. Woodward,
-secretary of the Board of Trade :
The lessons of history are most easily learned from examples. The Hartford was chartered in May,
1810, but from a policy still extant, it seems to have had an inchoate being as early as 1794. On the loth
of June following, the company was organized, by the choice of Nathaniel Terry as president, and Walter
Mitchell as secretary, with a capital of $150,000, made up of ten per cent, in cash, and the balance in the
notes of shareholders, secured by mortgages or private endorsements. It was hoped that the profits would
¦gradually pay off the notes, removing the liability to further assessments ; but the makers were men of
pecuniary solidity, prepared to meet the obligations, should the necessity arise. Thus equipped, the pioneer
¦ company, like Columbus at Palos, embarked upon an unknown sea, little dreaming of the discoveries to be
made, the wealth to be won, or of the all pervasive influence of the venture upon the future development of
the town. They started on the voyage without compass or chart, for even the elementary laws underlying the
business had not then been generalized, the facts were ungathered, and the literature of science, now loading
the shelves of large libraries, had not thrown one ray of light athwart the darkness.

6o REPRESENTATIVE MEN
The first year, the income of the company was $4,498. and the expenses $530. A decade later, the
annual income had crept up to |io,io2, and in 1832, to $52,394. showing for the twenty-one years an average
annual gain of about $2300. During part of this period, losses were heavy, and some timid holders gave away
their shares to get rid of the note liability. In June, 1835, Eliphalet Terry became president, and continued
to hold that office until his death in 1849. The other presidents have been Hezekiah Huntington, from 1849
to 1864; Timothy C. Allyn, from 1864 to '67, and Mr. Chase, the present incumbent, since 1867. Just after
Mr. Terry's term of ofiice began, the company was put to a severe test by a large fire in New York ; but
it was met in a way to bring still greater success. Between 1845 and 1849, losses to the amount of over
$240,000 occurred in New York, Nantucket, Albany and St. Louis. Sixteen years of exemption from notable
disasters ensued, and then in swift succession came the conflagrations at Augusta and Portland, Maine, and
at Vicksburg, Miss. From losses incurred in the Chicago fire of 1871, the Hartford paid out over $2,000,000,
meeting every obligation in full. Thirteen months later, at the Boston fire of November, 1872, another loss of
half a million was met out of the current receipts.
President Chase brought to his position as the executive head of the company, a rich
and varied experience, and his skill as a manager was early put to the test in carrying the
institution successfully through the calamities at Chicago and Boston, which overwhelmed
most of its contemporaries. His management of the company's business and interests has
been matchless in character, placing him in the foremost rank of fire insurance representatives.
A large share of the company's growth for the last quarter of a century is due to his watch
fulness over details which often escape the notice of less careful managers.
All of President Chase's energy and ability has not been confined to the company of
which he is the head. His standing as an insurance manager was recognized by his associates
and competitors in the business from the outset. In the centennial y^ear, he was elected
president of the National Board of Underwriters, and is at present the board chairman of the
committee of legislation and taxation, by far the most important chairmanship in the
organization. His connection with the National Board has been one of commanding influence
and leadership, as his strong personality and long experience make themselves felt wherever
he goes. A share of his time has been given to financial institutions, and had he not devoted
himself to the line of insurance, he would have made a marked success as a banker. He is
a member of the Board of Trustees and one of the vice-presidents of the Society for Savings,
which is the largest savings bank in Connecticut ; and is also a trustee of the Connecticut
Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and a director in the American National Bank. Of the
Hartford Board of Trade he is a prominent member, and is thoroughly interested in the
industrial development and prosperity of the city where he occupies so leading and
infiuential a place.
In religious matters. President Chase affiliates with the Congregational Church, and
he is a member of the As}'luin Hill Congregational Church in Hartford. He has been five
times elected president of the Connecticut Congregational Club, of which the late United
States Senator Lafa}'ette S. Foster of Norwich was the first president. This club is the most
important la}- organization connected with the Congregational Church in the state, and it
wields an extended influence for good. Into his religious work, President Chase puts some
of the same energ}- and zeal which characterizes his secular affairs, and the results attained
are in similar proportions.
There is one evening in President Chase's life which is indelibly impressed on his memory.
A service of twenty-five years as the president of a corporation is not rare, but such expressions
of goodwill and kindly feeling are indeed exceptional. In June, 1892, an entertainment was
given by the Hartford Fire Insurance Compau}' to their employees, and it was a most enjoyable
occasion. The secretaries, together with the general and special agents, during the course of
the evening presented him with a silver loving cup, as a testimonial commemorative of his
twenty-fifth anniversary as president of the company. It was manufactured from an unique,
design, and on one side was the following inscription :

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 61
1867.
To GEORGE L. CHASE,
President Hartford Fire Insurance Company,
on the 25th Anniversary of His Assuming the Office,
With Loving Regards of his Co-Workers aud Associates,
The Secretaries, General and Special Agents
Of the Home Office Department, June 15th, 1892.
On the reverse side was a charming etching of Landseer's " Monarch of the Glen," which
is the seal and trademark of the company. The cup was a rich and artistic exhibition of the
skill of the silversmith. Accompanying it was a handsomely engrossed address which read:
1867. GEORGE L. CHASE, 1892.
President Hartford Fire Insurance Company.
In commemoration of the completion by you of twenty-five years in your present position, the
Secretaries, General Agents and Special Agents of the Home Office Department ask your acceptance of this
LOVING CUP,
as slight but fitting testimonial of the sentiment shared by all fortunate enough to be connected with
the "Old Hartford" under your wise and able administration.
We bring you happy greetings
On this triumphal day.
When five-and-twenty faithful years
Of toil have passed away.
Midst storm of fiery trial.
Among the stalwart few.
You guided the "Old Hartford's" course.
With steadfast hands and true.
God give you grace for duty
And strength your place to fill.
That you may be for years to come.
Our honored leader still.
P. C. Royce. Thomas Turnbull, Charles E. Chase,
James H. Leighton, James S. Cat.anach, Thomas Egleston,
J. W. Covington, W. S. Dewey, Frederick Samson,
A. D. Birchard, George S. A. Young, C. H. Van Antwerp,
Peter a. McCallum, James M. Hodges, W. R. Prescott,
John S. Goldsmith, J. B. McDonald.
Wherever President Chase has been seen, as a practical canvasser for insurance in early
life, as a railroad official, as head of the oldest and one of the largest fire insurance companies
in the state, on boards of financial institutions,' in social life, or as a consistent church member,
the same characteristics have marked his career. His indomitable pluck, his steady persistence,
coupled with executive ability of rare order, have made him a born leader, and this influence
has always been used to upbuild the corporations with which he has been connected, or for the
welfare of his fellow citizens. Hartford would be richer than it is now in worthy men, if there
were more of the same stamp within its borders. President Chase is an apt interpreter of art
and poetry, and his literary abilities are of no mediocre order. In 1882 he delighted a host of
friends by preparing for their entertainment a graphic description of his journey through the
western states and the Pacific coast, it being written partly in rhyme and partly in blank verse.
The brochure was entitled "To California and Return," and it is to be regretted that he
declined to allow its public circulation. A visit to Hawaii in 1893 was made into a popular
lecture, and it has been delivered before several interested audiences with great acceptability.
George L. Chase was married Jan. 8, 1851, to Calista M., daughter of Judson and Sarah
B. Taft. Three children have been added to the family circle, a son and two daughters.
The former, Mr. Charles E. Chase, is assistant secretary of the company of which his father
has been president for so many years. The son married Helen S. Bourne; they have one
daughter. The younger daughter died in 1866. The older daughter married Mr. Charles
H. Longley in 1874. She died in 1893.

62 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

WIGHT, HENRY CECIL, ex-mayor of the city of Hartford and member of the
firm of Dwight, Skinner & Company, was born in Northampton, Mass.,
Jan. 19, 1841.
His father was the Rev. Henry Augustus Dwight, son of Col. Cecil Dwight
of Northampton, and a graduate of Williams College, class of 1829. For
twenty years he conducted a classical school in the South, a considerable portion of the time
being spent in Norfolk, Va. The mother of General Dwight was Elizabeth, daughter of
Capt. William Britnall of New Haven. She was married Dec. 4, 1838, and died Oct. 29,
1843, leaving two sons, Charles Augustus Dwight and the subject of this sketch. Col. Cecil
Dwight, the grandfather of the general, was the son of Maj. Timothy Dwight of Northampton,
and Mary Edwards, daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, the noted New England theolo
gian. There were thirteen children by this marriage. Of the number may be mentioned as
distinguished leaders in their day, Pres. Timothy Dwight of Yale College, Theodore Dwight,
who was secretary of the Hartford Convention, and Nathaniel Dwight, who was one of the
originators of the movement that resulted in establishing the retreat for the insane in Hartford.
It is an interesting fact that the life work of each was performed in Connecticut. The
present honored head of Yale University, the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, belongs to the same
family with General Dwight, Major Timothy Dwight having been the ancestor of both.
Jonathan Edwards was also a common ancestor. The debt of Connecticut to the Edwards
and Dwight representatives is incalculable.
General Dwight's entry into business life was made as a clerk in a leading dry goods house
in his native town. He was engaged in this peaceful pursuit when the call to arms was made
in 1861. His patriotism was aroused and he at once enlisted in a three months' regiment, but
on account of Northampton's quota being filled he was unable to go directly to the front.
In September he was largely instrumental in organizing Company A, of the Twenty-seventh
Massachusetts Regiment, and, being appointed sergeant-major of the command, he went with
it through the Burnside Expedition to North Carolina. Three months after his enlistment,
he was appointed second lieutenant of Company H, and in April, 1862, was transferred to his
original company and promoted to the first lieutenantcy. In August of the same year he
received his commission as captain — a high honor for a young man who had barely attained his
majority. It was through faithful and valiant service at the front that Captain Dwight's
advancement was won. Until the fall of 1863, he remained with his regiment in North
Carolina, and at that time was assigned to provost duty in the city of Norfolk, Va., where
he had passed two ver}- pleasant years of his early life under his father's tuition. The spring
of 1864 found him again with his regiment, and he accompanied it in the campaign on the
James river under General Butler. Appointed recruiting officer of the Twenty-seventh Regi
ment in November, 1863, he was so successful in this work that under his leadership 343 men
re-enlisted. He served with the Twenty-seventh Regiment until May 16, 1864, when he
was assigned to staff service as assistant commissary of subsistence under special order from
headquarters. Captain Dwight continued in that branch of the service until his term of
enlistment expired, Sept. 28, 1864.
Just before the close of the war. Captain Dwight removed to Hartford and has since made
the capital city his home. At first he engaged in business with E. N. Kellogg & Co., who
were large dealers in wool, and later with Austin Dunham & Sons. Deciding to take a stand
for himself in the business world, with Mr. Drayton Hillyer, he formed the firm of H.-C.
Dwight & Co., which in 1881 became the present firm of Dwight, Skinner & Company.
They conduct an extensi\-e wool trade throughout the New England states, and have con
nections in all the western and southwestern states.

\, I

Mao.saGmiHait.jMilLsl-LLTiD Ca,t',eTi-.ll,Ma,S3

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 63
In everything which pertains to the welfare of his adopted city. General Dwight
has taken deep interest. Naturally he was called upon to serve the public in an official
capacity. Elected a member of the Common Council in 1871 from the fourth ward, he
brought to the office a large amount of practical good sense which rendered him a valuable
accession. He was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen from the same ward in 1875,
and was reelected in 1877, giving him two terms in the aldermanic chambers. General
Dwight exerted a strong and conservative influence in the board, and was an able debater
concerning all municipal interests. He was appointed a member of the board of street
commissioners by Mayor Morgan G. Bulkeley, Dec. 27, 1880, succeeding the Rev. Francis
Goodwin, resigned. He was reappointed during three subsequent terms, serving continuously
from 1880 to 1890. During this entire period he was regarded as one of the foremost men
in the department, and represented the best interests of the public in the board. The posi
tion afforded him an excellent opportunity for the display of business qualities.
Noting his faithfulness in the lesser offices, the citizens of Hartford called upon him in
April, 1890, to accept still higher honors at their hands. He was chosen mayor of the city,
and his administration of affairs was an exceptionally successful one for the city's interests.
Bringing to the office a thorough knowledge of the duties acquired by his years of service
in the different city departments, he was peculiarly well fitted to make a careful executive
functionary. Among the special points of advance made during his occupancy of the mayor's
chair may be mentioned : improved apparatus and organization in the fire department, better
police administration and the establishment of broader public views with regard to the street
service of the city. The first steps in behalf of an increased water supply were taken under
Mayor Dwight. His management of municipal affairs was able and economical. His appoint
ments were thoroughly creditable, placing in the city commissions men of experience and
training. Mayor Dwight's social qualities enabled him to represent the city on various public
occasions with exceptional felicity. The General is one of the most enjoyable post-prandial
speakers in the state, and as mayor this attainment was not infrequently brought into requisi
tion. He was in all respects a model public officer, patience, courtesy and high ideals
characterizing his administration during the two years in which he was at the head of the
city government.
Having rendered such valuable service to the city, it was but natural that he should
be nominated for reelection. He recei\'ed this honor in the largest Republican caucus ever
held in this city, his name being presented by Judge Nathaniel Shipman of the United States
Court. He was supported by the most eminent citizens here. But the political situation
was unfavorable at the time, and the election of his opponent, Hon. William Waldo Hyde,
was effected by an unimportant majority. The contest was eminently honorable to both
gentlemen. Numerous regrets were expressed at the result. The Hartford Courant fitly
voiced the sentiments of Mayor Dwight's large constituency when it said :
Henry C. Dwight retires from the position of mayor under circumstances which take from his defeat
all possibility of any reflection upon himself. The whole city recognizes the devotion and self-sacrifice that
have marked his interest in Hartford's affairs. He is a loyal gentleman, with a large heart and a true love
for the city. He has given his best services for two years to his fellow citizens, and he steps into private life
with the consciousness that the whole political atmosphere here is purer and better than when he entered
upon his official duties. For his part in this great uprising he has the gratitude of every good citizen.
Republican or Democrat, and it is a fact which he cannot but contemplate with pride.
Speaking of the same subject, the Hartford Telegr'am, a paper politically opposed to
Mayor Dwight, used the following complimentary words. Such praise is exceptionally rare
between those whom politics divides :

64 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Vale Mayor Henry C. Dwight. — It has been the lot of but few public officers of this, or any other
city in America, to retire into private life after as long a period of municipal usefulness as Mayor Henry C.
Dwight has rendered to his native city, and carry with him the universal approval of all classes of the
community. Mayor Dwight has been an honest and upright official, a gallant and courteous gentleman at
all times and under trying circumstances ; he has been an ornament to his party and a most true and faith
ful guardian of the prosperity of Hartford. In bidding him farewell in his official capacity, the Telegram is
sincere in wishing him God-speed socially — may his future in life be strewn with the garlands of prosperity,
and may health wait on him and add zest to the blessings that always follow rectitude and a conscientious
discharge of public and private duties.
Financial institutions have claimed a share of General Dwight's time and attention.
He is vice-president and trustee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, and is a director in the
American National Bank and the Phoenix Insurance Company. In all of these positions his
long experience makes his counsel valuable. Interested in the promotion of the public
schools, he is a member of the south district school committee, and also sustains official relations
with other institutions of the city. As mayor, he was ex officio a member of the Hartford
Hospital Corporation, and during the winter of 1892 was elected a member, receiving a
unanimous vote. The position is one of the most honorable in the city.
Zealously affected by all that pertains to the welfare of the old soldiers, when Robert
O. Tyder Post of the Grand Army of the Republic was organized in 1879, General Dwight
became one of the charter members. He is a member of the Loyal Legion and of the
societies organized by the armies of the Potomac and of the James. General Dwight is
the president of the Roanoke Association, founded to perpetuate the memories of the Burn
side Expedition. He is also a member of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, the
most influential of the army organizations in the state. He was appointed paymaster-general
on the staff of Governor Henry B. Harrison, serving in that capacity for two years from
January, 1885. The office brought him into intimate relations with the National Guard of
the state, and greatly increased his personal popularity in Connecticut military circles. On
the never to be forgotten battle flag day he served as commander of the Union Veteran Battalion,
and occupied the same position on Buckingham Day, when the statue of the great war
governor was unveiled.
For his three years' faithful service during the times which "tried men's souls,"
Mayor Dwight is held in high honor by all soldiers in the War. As a private citizen.
Mayor Dwight enjoys the fullest confidence of his contemporaries, and they have shown their
appreciation of his many excellent qualities by honoring him in the past. The future doubtless
has still higher honors in store for his acceptance. As a business man, he easily occupies
a place in the front rank, and in all the relations of life he discharges the duties which
devolve upon him with ability and dignity.
General Henry C. Dwight married Annie Maria Wright of this city, daughter of William
Lyman Wright, Oct. 3, 1865. The children are, Capt. William Britnall, Charies Augustus,
Henry Cecil and Grace V. R. Dwight. The General and his family belong to the Rev. Dr.
E. P. Parker's church and occupy a high social position.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 65

gXg^^^^EONARD, ELBRIDGE KNOWLTON, M. D., of Rockville, was born at
"" Stafford, Conn., Dec. 13, 1833. It was the same year in which Ex- President
Benjamin Harrison and Gen. James B. Weaver, a candidate for the presidency,
were born.
Dr. Leonard comes of a sturdy ancestry on both sides of the family line. In
Rev. Dr. Fobes's description of Raynham in 1793 is the following bit of history, which also
contains a mention of the first of the name in this country : ' ' The first adventurers from
England to this country, who were skilled in the forge iron manufacture, were two brothers,
viz.: James and Henry Leonard. They came to this town in the year 1652, which was
about two years after the first settlers had planted themselves upon this spot, and in the same
year these Leonards here built the first forge in Ainerica. Henry, not long after, moved to the
Jerseys and settled there. James, who was the great progenitor, from whom the whole race
of Leonards here sprang, lived and died in this town. He came from Ponterpool, in Mon
mouthshire, and brought with him his son Thomas, then a small boy, who afterwards worked
at the bloomery art with his father, at the forge. This forge was situated on the great road,
and having been repaired from generation to generation, it is to this day still in employ. On
one side of the dam, at a small distance from each other, stand three large elms and one oak
tree. Two of the elms are only three feet in circumference, and are still fiourishing. These
trees are now almost one hundred and twenty years old ; which, with the ancient buildings
and other objects around, present to the eye a scene of the most venerable antiquity. In
the distance of one mile and a quarter from this forge is the place called the Fowling Pond,
on the northerly side of which once stood King Philip's house. It was called Philip's hunting
house, because, in the season most favorable for hunting he resided there, but spent the winter
chiefiy at Mount Hope, probably for the benefit of the fish. Philip and these Leonards long
lived in good neighborhood, and often traded with each other; and such was Philip's friend
ship, that as soon as the war broke out, which was in 1675, he gave out strict orders to all
his Indians never to hurt the Leonards. During the war, two houses near the forge were
constantly garrisoned. These buildings are yet standing. One of them was built by James
Leonard long before King Philip's War. This house still remains in its original Gothic
form, and is now inhabited, together with the same paternal spot, by Leonards of the sixth
generation. In the cellar under this house, was deposited for a considerable time the head
of King Philip ; for it seems that even Philip himself shared the fate of kings ; he was
decollated, and his head carried about and shown as a curiosity by one Alderman, the Indian
who shot him."
From the original James Leonard, who was evidently a man of much force of character,
the genealogical line comes down through (2) Uriah, (3) William, (4) Jacob, (5) Jacob, Jr.,
(6) Rufus, (7) Jenks W. The latter married Lucy F., daughter of Amos Pease of Monson,
and his fourth son was the subject of this sketch. Lucy F. Pease was the seventh generation
from Robert Pease, who came to this country in the good ship Francis from the port of
Ipswich, England, the last of April, 1634, and landed at Boston. He subsequently settled
at Salem, and died at the early age of thirty-seven.
Dr. Leonard's father died in 1836, and his early life was spent with his grandparents
in Monson, Mass. After passing through the common schools, he finished his education
at the Westfield Academy. Being attracted towards the medical profession, he studied
faithfully with Dr. Marshall Calkins of Monson for three years. Subsequently he took a
regular course of medical lectures at Yale College. Locating in West Stafford, he remained
there for nearly two years, and then removed to Broad Brook, where he soon secured a

66 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
profitable practice. In 1879 he decided there was a better opening for an enterprising
physician in Rockville, with less extended travelling, and transferred his residence to that
thriving town. Here he has since remained, and a still greater success has attended his
efforts, as a constantly increasing list of patients will bear abundant testimony.
Without making a specialty of any portion of the human body, he has devoted himself
to the general practice of his profession, and as a broad-minded practitioner he has gained
a reputation which places him in the very front rank of the physicians of Tolland County.
And now at three score he is still actively engaged in relieving the woes of suffering humanity^
with a rare skill born of his long and varied experience. In 1884, Dr. Leonard was a delegate
to the National Medical Convention at Washington, D. C, from Tolland County. In 1889,
he was president and also clerk of the Tolland County Medical Society, and has been Fellow
of the society several times.
Medical practitioners rarely have time to devote to matters outside of their profession,
but Dr. Leonard allowed himself to be elected a representative to the state legislature in 1876,
from East Windsor. While a resident of that town he was town clerk and treasurer for eight
years, and a part of the time was also a member of the board of school visitors. Since he has
resided in Rockville he has again occupied the last named position, as the cause of education
is still dear to his heart. He is a valuable member both on account of his practical counsel
and his zealous interest in the work.
Dr. E. K. Leonard was married June 26, 1857, to Marietta P., daughter of Bostwick
Anderson of Stafford. Three children have been born to them: Lucy Ella, who died at the
age of eleven years, Perley B., now a bookkeeper of Belding Brothers & Company, Rock
ville, and Rufus Harry, a bookkeeper at Armour & Company's, Meriden.

ORGAN, HENRY KIRKE, was born in Hartford, Conn., Dec. 15, 1819, a
son of Denison Morgan and Ursula Brainerd, and a descendant of the line of
James Morgan of New London, who, removing to this country from Landaff,
Wales, in 1636, with his wife, Margery, was the ancestral forefather of a large
family who have identified themselves from the earliest days with the history
and progress of the State of Connecticut. James Morgan, on first coming to this country,
settled in Massachusetts, and afterwards was supposed to be one of the party .of emigrants
called the " Cape Ann Company," who removed to New London, Conn., in 1650. His
descendants in this state were numerous and brought honor to his name. Rev. Joseph Morgan,
a graduate of Yale in 1702, Simeon Morgan, who died in 1781 in defense of Fort Griswold,
Col. Christopher Morgan, William Avery Morgan, Edwin D. Morgan, governor of New York
State during the Civil War, and many others.
Mr. Denison Morgan, Mr. Morgan's father, was for many years an honored citizen and
merchant of Hartford, and an active and useful officer of the church, and his three sons,
the only children who survived infancy, all became prominent in their several spheres. The
two eldest early moved to New York — Rev. William F. Morgan, as rector of St. Thomas.
Church ; Mr. George D. Morgan, as connected for some years with the firm of E. D. Morgan
& Company, while the youngest son and the subject of this sketch remained in Hartford and
became more and more identified with the growth and interests of his native city. He was
educated at the well-known academy of those days at Ellington, of which Judge Hall was the
founder, and at an early age entered the office of his father and was engaged in active business.

Maasadiuaefts PuMsping Co.E-vBreit.Mass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 67
until" the year i860. Retiring at that time from business, he did not lose interest in public
affairs. He served on the board of relief for several years and has been a trustee of the
Pratt Street Savings Bank for nearly a quarter of a century, serving on its loaning com
mittee. He was elected as a director of the Hartford Hospital in 1880, and was assigned
to the executive committee and is at present its chairman. The Old People's Home was
completed under the present executive committee of the hospital. Mr. Morgan is a director
of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, also of the Hartford City Gas Light Compaii}'.
He has been faithful to all public trusts, and his business training and experience ha\'e
been of value to the institutions with which he has been connected. Mr. Morgan has been
a life-long Episcopalian, and was one of the founders of Trinity Parish, Hartford, serving for
many years as its warden.
He was married on April 14, 1846, to Emily Malbone Brinley, youngest daughter of
Mr. George Brinley of Boston. Five children were born of this union of whom four survi\-e :
Rev. George Brinley Morgan, rector of Christ Church, New Haven, Conn. ; Dr. William D.
Morgan of Hartford; Henry K. Morgan, Jr., of Morgan & Bartlet, bankers and brokers.
New York, and Miss Emily Malbone Morgan.

^OWNE, HENRY R., of Stamford, president of the Yale & Towne Manufactur
ing Company, belongs to the ninth generation of descendants from William
Towne who emigrated from Yarmouth, England, to Salem, Mass., about 1640,
and who died at Topsfield, Mass., about 1672. The descendants of William
Towne in this line continued to live in the neighborhood of Salem, Mass.,
until John Towne, the grandfather of Henry R., left there in his youth to seek his
fortune. He was born in 1787, and was a man of strong character with refined tastes and
rare ingenuity of both mind and hand. After leaving home he found his way to Baltimore
where he became connected in business with Mr. Henry Robinson of England, whose sister
he afterwards married. In 1817, immediately after his marriage, he moved to Pittsburgh,
Pa., and became interested in the early line of steamboats plying on the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. In 1832, he again moved to Boston, to accept a partnership with Mr.
Robinson in the Boston Gas Works, of which the latter was then the sole proprietor. In 1840,
Mr. John Towne removed with his family to Philadelphia, having amassed a considerable
fortune which enabled him to indulge his love for the fine arts by the purchase of many
notable paintings, and also his keen enjoyment of fiowers. His rare collection of "Heaths"
was one of the most remarkable of that day. He died in 1851.
His eldest son, John Henry Towne, father of Henry R., was born in Pittsburgh in
1818, but received most of his education in Boston, to which place, when he was about
fourteen years old, he moved with his parents. After distinguishing himself at the
"Chauncy Hall" school in Boston, he went to Philadelphia to study engineering, and soon
entered into partnership with the late Mr. S. V. Merrick, under the firm name of Merrick
.& Towne, proprietors of the Southwark Foundry, one of the earliest and most prominent
¦engineering concerns in this country, and still in existence. In 1843, John Henry Towne
was married to Maria R. Tevis, a daughter of Joshua Tevis, then a prominent merchant in
Philadelphia, with business connections in the South and West, and whose first wife had
been Rebecca Risteau Carnaii of Baltimore. The business of Merrick & Towne prospered,
and in 1848 Mr. Towne retired from the firm with means which formed the basis of his

68 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
subsequently ample fortune. He afterward engaged in various engineering enterprises, in
cluding the building of gas works. Shortly before the breaking out of the Civil War he
entered the firm of I. P. Morris, Towne & Company, of the Port Richmond Iron Works,
Philadelphia. During the Civil War many of the largest engines for monitors and other
war ships, as well as much heavy machinery, were built in this establishment, the
engineering head of which was Mr. Towne. He inherited his father's refined tastes, both
for nature and art, and had special delight in music. During his later years he was an
active member of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and upon his
death, which occurred in Paris, 1875, after amply providing for his family, left the residue
of his fortune to the University of Pennsylvania, the technical department of which was
thereupon named "The Towne Scientific School," in his honor.
His only son, Henry R. Towne, the subject of this sketc'h, was born in 1844 in
Philadelphia, and was educated there at a private school and also at the University of
Pennsylvania. He left the latter before graduating in order to enter the Port Richmond
Iron Works, where he was employed in the drawing office and shops, which was then the
customary mode of acquiring a training in mechanical engineering. The intense activity of
the war times gave him opportunity for rapid advancement, which he fully accepted. He
was sent by the firm to represent their interests in the erection of the machinery in the
monitor " Monadnock " at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Mass., and later of a sister ship,
the " Agamenticus," at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. He spent over a year on this duty,
and then returned to the works in Philadelphia where, soon afterwards, he was promoted to
the position of acting superintendent. Early in 1866 he made a trip to Europe devoted
chiefiy to visiting engineering establishments in England and France, and to several months
of study at Paris. After his return he was for a short time employed in the works of
William Sellers & Company, Philadelphia, and then returned to Port Richmond Iron Works
to take charge of the erection of the machinery in the large sloop of war ' ' Pushmataha ' '
at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. During this time he made a series of experiments ou
leather belting in cooperation with his friend, the late Robert Briggs, C. E. , which have
long been quoted in standard works under the name of the ' ' Briggs and Towne
experiments." In the spring of 1868, Henry R. Towne was married to Cora E. White, daughter of
John P. White, Esq., one of Philadelphia's old merchants, whose father was Dr. John White
of Delaware, and whose maternal grandfather was Gov. David Hall of the same state. Mr.
White's wife was Miss Eliza Canfield Tallmadge, whose father was Frederick Augustus Tall
madge, at one time recorder of the city of New York, and whose grandfather was Col. Benjamin
Tallmadge of the Revolutionary army, and aide-de-camp of General Washington. Among
Mrs. White's ancestors was Gen. William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence. His two sons, John Henry and Frederick Tallmadge, are connected with the
business at the works in Stamford.
In the summer of 1868, Mr. Towne formed a partnership with the late Linus Yale, Jr.,
then of Shelburne Falls, Mass., for the purpose of developing a business based on the
inventions of Mr. Yale relating to bank locks and key locks. These inventions marked'
the highest development, at that time, of the lockmakers' art, but Mr. Yale's means and
facilities had enabled him to commence the business only on a small scale. The purpose of the
new partnership was to provide new capital for its larger development, and to bring to the
manufacture the methods of production and organization with which Mr. Towne had become
familiar in his earlier training. The two partners, after careful investigation, selected Stam
ford, Conn., thirty-four miles from the city of New York, as the location for their future

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 69
establishment, thus obtaining the benefit of the skilled labor of New England together
with close proximity to the commercial metropolis of the country. The wisdom of this
selection has been fully established by subsequent events.
In October, 1868, Mr. Towne went to Stamford, where he prepared the designs for the first
building of the new works, and personally superintended its construction, Mr. Yale in the mean
time continuing his business at Shelburne Falls. On Dec. 25, 1868, Mr. Yale died suddenly, of
heart disease, in New York, before the new enterprise was fairly launched, and before the
partners had been able to more than merely discuss their future plans. Their enterprise had
been organized as a corporation, under the name of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company.
In July, 1869, Mr. Towne was elected president of the corporation, to succeed Mr. Yale, and
in the following year made an arrangement with the family of the latter whereby he acquired
control of their interests in the business, and they withdrew from the management. For a
number of years after this Mr. Towne was practically alone in the management of the business,
and became, ultimately, its sole owner. In 1881, the business had developed so largely as to
necessitate a large increase of capital for its proper conduct. Mr. Towne therefore increased
the capital stock to $500,000, retaining himself a controlling share, and disposing of the
the balance to other parties, among whom were a number of his employees and associates
in the management. A few years later, the rapid, growth of the business led to a further
increase of capital, which was then raised to its present amount of $1,000,000. Various other
products were gradually added to the company's line of manufacture, so that the original
corporate name was no longer appropriate, and it was therefore changed, by action of the
directors and stockholders, to the present name of "The Yale & Towne Manufacturing Com
pany," and a special charter obtained from the state of Connecticut.
Mr. Towne had been originally attracted to the business chiefly by the opportunity,
which he believed was afforded by the Yale key lock, for developing an important new
industry. While much younger than Mr. Yale, his previous mechanical training had made
him familiar with the value of modern machinery and processes, as applied to manufacturing,
and his inherited tastes led him to seek the opportunity of employing this knowledge in the
building up of a new industry, based on inventions and devices which were not merely novel,
but distinctly in advance of those then generally used, and which, under proper management,
might be so increased as to form the basis of a large and successful business. The final
outcome has justified these anticipations, although it was only reached after many years of
effort, trial and intense application, and of struggle against adverse conditions.
When Mr. Yale died, the Yale key lock existed only in some half dozen forms, out of
which, however, has since been developed the present line, comprising several hundred
varieties and embodying numerous improvements and inventions made by Mr. Towne and his
associates in the business. From the outset, the effort was persistent and continuous, not only
to raise the quality of workmanship to the highest standpoint, but also to modify and extend
the application of the Yale system to every^ form of lock to which it is adapted. The result
has been the creation of what is conceded universally to be the best and most secure type
of key lock in the world, and the largest and best series of fine locks ever made, the influence
of which has been increasingly felt throughout the trade in the United States, and has
contributed more than any single cause, in the past twenty-five years, to elevate and improve
the art of lock making and to place American locks distinctly in advance of all others.
At the present time that line of the company's products known as "Art Hardware,"
the style of which they have done much to elevate, embraces a vast variety of decorative
metal work, in every important school of ornamentation and of the highest artistic character.
Much of it is now done on special order, from original designs and in the most expensive

70 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
materials, architects and their clients having realized that the metal work used within a building
not only may be, but most properly should be, treated as an important element in the total
scheme of decoration. In this, as in its earlier work, the company has had numerous
imitators and followers, but still easily holds its position as leader, its products of both kinds
being generally regarded as distinctly the highest and best in the market, and still constituting
its principal business.
In 1875, Mr. Towne obtained exclusive rights under the patents of Mr. T. A. Weston,
relating to differential chain pulley blocks, and simultaneously acquired, by purch'ase, the
business of three manufacturers, each of whom had previously been making pulley blocks in
competition, thus uniting all interests and obtaining control of the market for this important
product during the lifetime of the Weston patents. All of these interests were then transferred
by him to the company, which thereupon added to its lines of product the manufacture of chain
pulley blocks, and later, the building of cranes and other heavy hoisting machinery. In
1877-78, Mr. Towne (then controlling all of the stock of the company) also negotiated the
acquisition of the business of two competing lock manufacturers, namely: the United States
Lock Company of Kingston, Mass., and the American Lock Company of Cassanobia, N. Y.,
thereby greatly strengthening the position of the company in its key lock business. A year
later, a partnership arrangement was entered into with Sargent & Greenleaf of Rochester,
N. Y., for the pooling of interests relating to time locks, whereby the parties to the agreement
ended a long and expensive patent litigation, and secured a controlling position in this field.
This relationship has continued to the present time with mutual benefit and satisfaction, and
now embraces bank locks of all kinds.
The last invention of Mr. Yale, before his death, was the application of his key lock to a
metallic letter box, for use in post offices. This device, now known as the Yale Lock Box, was
developed coincidentally with the other parts of the business, and is now in world-wide use,
having been adopted by the post-office department of the United States government, and by
those of many foreign countries. Recognizing that this part of the business would be strength
ened by including with it the manufacture of all the woodwork and other fittings required for
the complete equipment of post-offices, Mr. Towne organized a department for this purpose
in 1871, thus being the first to undertake the manufacture of post-office equipments as a
distinct specialty. This department grew steadily, and in time became important, but shared
the fate of most innovations in having later a multitude of imitators, who, while accepting
the original article as their model, have not always maintained its high standard of excellence,
so that the Yale post-office box, like its allied products, still holds an undisputed position
of leadership. The latest addition to the company's lines of product is the manufacture of
cabinet and trunk locks, which was inaugurated in 1891 as a separate department, and which
is now fully organized and equipped with the best and most modern machinery.
The operations conducted in the works embrace a very unusual range and variety of
mechanical products. The original building was erected in 1868-69. Thefirst addition was
made in 1872, since which date further additions have been made almost annually. The com
pany's property covers an area of about twenty-one acres, with a water frontage and railroad
connections. About 1,100 employees are engaged under normal conditions. •
Mr. Towne is director in several other corporations and a member of various scientific
organizations and clubs. He is a life-member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
was its vice-president in 1884-86, its president in 1888-89, and a frequent contributor to its
transactions. During the latter year he served as chairman of the joint party of American
engineers visiting England and France, about three hundred in number, who were the
recipients of great hospitality from foreign engineering societies. During 1889-90 he was an

MassactiusettsflfBliEhino Co,E-/erett,Mass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 71
active member of the New York Commission on the Worid's Fair, serving on the committee
on site and buildings, and also on the executive committee, until the decision was made
that the fair should be held in Chicago. He is also a member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, and of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, as well as of various social
clubs in New York. In 1888 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from the University
of Pennsylvania. A descriptive article on the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company in Picturesque
Stamford, published in 1893, closed with the following paragraph :
Nor can any statement of the benefit of The Yale & Towne industry to Stamford be complete which
omits mention of what the personal influence of its president, Henry R. Towne, has contributed towards the
most important improvements in the affairs of the borough and town which have been accomplished or in
augurated within the last ten years. Of these the most notable and significant — the general sewerage system
and the general and marked change for the better in the streets of the borough — are achievements largely
due to his exertions and influence. Indeed, in almost every phase and form in which modern progressive
ideas have taken practical shape in advancing the material interests of the town and borough for the last ten
or fifteen years, Mr. Towne's influence has been felt, and always in earnest support of those measures and
methods which in a few years have wrought so radical a change in the appearance and prospects of the town —
especially the borough — and in the spirit and temper of a majority of the people as related to public enter
prise and the march of modern improvements in America. It was a work of time and of patience, and its
achievements are at once the more honorable and the more enduring in that they are results, not of the more
or less questionable manceuvres of "practical politics," but of the open, frank, courteous and logical
discussion upon their true merits, of the various questions at issue from time to time.

|ARNUM, WILLIAM HENRY, of Lime Rock, ex-member of Congress and
ex-United States senator, was born in the village of Boston Corners, New York,
Sept. 17, 1818. He was the son of Milo and Laura (Tibbetts) Barnum. No
less than six governors of Massachusetts and one of Connecticut, as well as the
war governors of several other states, were born in the year 1818. That year is
noted in the annals of the country as the birth-year of a goodly number of men who made a
name for themselves in the business or literary world or in the wider field of national affairs.
Though Mr. Barnum received a good English education in the local public schools, he
was not a university man, and did not attain to the high degree of culture now within the
reach of nearly every young man. He graduated from the college of experience and observa
tion ; and honors gained here often have more value than the traditional sheepskin. Soon
after attaining his majority he engaged in business with his father, Milo Barnum, in the
production of iron from the ore, and as so large a portion of his life was connected with
the iron industry, some explanatory words would seem fitting. As early as 1734 a forge was
erected in the village of Lime Rock, the present headquarters of the Barnum-Richardson
Company. The ore beds having been developed, during the Revolutionary War large
quantities of cannon, cannon balls, shells, etc., were made here for the general government.
In the spring of 1830, Milo Barnum, the founder of the existing company, settled in Lime
Rock, and began business as a merchant. The foundry for the re-melting of pig-iron was
built about the same time, and soon after came under his control. He associated with him
Leonard Richardson, his son-in-law, and later his son William H., the firm then being Barnum,
Richardson & Co. The foundry business was carried on in a limited way in connection
with the store, the production being chiefly clock and sash weights, plough castings and other
small work. The business gradually increased, however, and about 1840 they began the
manufacture of railfoad work, such as chairs, frogs, heel-blocks, etc., for the Western Railroad,

72

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

(now part of the Boston and Albany road), then being built from Springfleld to Albany.
As the great tensile strength, combined with the chilling properties of the Salisbury iron,
renders it specially valuable for the manufacture of chilled cast iron car- wheels, their produc
tion naturally followed other railroad work. The iron early obtained its present excellent repu
tation for making ordnance, malleable iron and machinery. In 1852, Milo Barnum retired
from active participation in the business, and the flrm name was changed to Richardson,
Barnum & Company, under whose management the business rapidly increased. The present
joint stock company called the Barnum-Richardson Company was formed in 1864, and since
its organization large additions to the facilities have been made by the erection of new works
and the purchase of further interests in mining companies already in existence. To this
development, not only in the magnitude of the business but also of the processes of manufac
turing and the lines of goods manufactured, Mr. Barnum contributed more than his full share.
His great executive ability showed itself at an early age, and his native shrewdness was made
still more acute by experience. Besides his interests in the Salisbury district, he had interests
in the mining sections of the West.
Manufacturing largely the articles used by railroads, it was but natural that Mr. Barnum
should become interested in the management of the companies themselves. He was president
of the Housatonic road for many years. When he took hold of it the road was a piece of
unprofitable property ; but his energy infused fresh life into the corporation. For some time
he was president of the Connecticut Western road, and was a director in both roads at the
time of his death. He also had a share in the movement which resulted in the building of
the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad.
In 1 85 1, Mr. Barnum was elected to represent his town in the state legislature, and was
re-elected in 1852. Although very active in politics, he declined to accept further renomi-
nations until 1866, when he consented to run for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and was
elected, serving as the representative of the Fourth Connecticut district. This was the famous
Barnum vs. Barnum campaign — P. T. against W. H., and it was one of the hottest political
contests ever waged in the annals of Connecticut. In the arena of national politics and
legislation, he became at once a prominent figure. In 1866 he was sent as a delegate from
Connecticut to the National Union convention, held in Philadelphia, and was a delegate to
the National Democratic conventions of 1868, 1872, 1876, 1880, 1884 and 1888. Re-elected
to congress in 1869, he took a distinguished part in the legislation of that term, and developed
great strength as a party leader and an exponent of Democratic ideas. His course was warmly
approved by his constituents, and he was re-elected to the Forty-second, Forty-third and Forty-
fourth Congresses. While a member of the National House of Representatives, Mr. Barnum
served upon a number of most important committees, and was chairman of several. Upon the
death of Hon. Orrin S. Ferry, a United States senator from Connecticut, Mr. Barnum's name
was instantly coupled with the succession. When the business of filling the vacancy caused
by Senator Ferry's death came up in the Connecticut legislature of 1876, four candidates
were balloted for; namely: Henry B. Harrison, Republican; James E. English and Wilham
H. Barnum, both Democrats ; and Charies R. Ingersoll, also a Democrat, who received votes
in the lower house only. Ok May 17, 1876, when both houses met in joint convention,
Mr. Barnum received 168 of the 267 votes cast, Mr. English six, and Mr. Ingersoll one, the
remainder going to Mr. Harrison. Mr. Barnum was accordingly declared elected on the first
ballot. His term in the Senate lasted from May, 1876, to March 3, 1879. At the close of
the campaign in the former year he was made chairman of the National Democratic committee,
succeeding the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt of New York. He was continued in this responsible
position during the campaign of 1880 at the request of the nominee for the presidency in that

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. T^
year, Geii. Winfield S. Hancock, and the choice was a deserved recognition of his high ability
and distinguished services in the party councils during many previous campaigns, notably in
that of 1876, when he labored with indefatigable zeal in the interests of the Hon. Samuel J.
Tilden, whose warm friend he remained through life. Mr. Barnum was one of those who
believed Mr. Tilden should accept a renomination as a presidential candidate in 1880, and
personally urged him to do so. When General Hancock was selected he gave him his enthu
siastic support, and, being honored with the fullest confidence of that brilliant soldier, con
ducted the campaign of 1880 in his interests with unwearying effort and consummate skill. In
1884 he was again chairman of the National Democratic committee, and as such conducted
the campaign which resulted in the election of the Hon. Grover Cleveland to the presidency.
Much against his will, he remained chairman of the committee during the campaign of 1888,
and up to the time of his death, having served in such position continuously for nearly
thirteen years.
Senator Barnum possessed an acute intellect and great shrewdness of perception. He
read men as if they were open books, and was rarely at fault in his estimates of character.
This was conclusively shown in his selection of his lieutenants, all of whom were particularly
well endowed for the duties they were called upon to perform. As an organizer and executive
he possessed rare powers and had a wide repute. It has been said of him that " as a politician
he was more abused than any member of the Democratic party, simply for the reason that he
could not be managed." He was Jacksonian in his ideas and methods, and an indication of
the character of the man is found in his famous epigrammatic saying, "I never give up the
fight before the battle is begun" — an expression which has almost attained to the dignity
of a proverb. There was a rugged and honest independence in his character which was based
upon a noble manhood. He was one of the most active and industrious of men. It is more
than probable that his death was the result of overwork during the great campaigns he
personally directed. There was nothing of the self-seeking politician in the man, as was
clearly shown after the great party victory of 1884. Satisfied that the Democracy was in
power he made no demands and had no favorites to present for appointment or preferment.
The labor performed by Mr. Barnum in connection with politics was most exacting and
onerous, but he was never known to shirk a duty. His travelling alone involved a strain
which made heavy demands upon his endurance. The conduct of the business interests of
which he was the owner or directing head, likewise made heavy demands upon his time and
attention, but he seemed adequate to the discharge of every duty, and met every requirement.
Few men surpassed him in his appreciation of home and love for his family and the delights
of the domestic circle.
Mr. Barnum was prostrated by a serious illness in 1888, and although he rallied from it,
he did not again regain his hold upon health. Nevertheless, he did not take to his bed until
about four days before his death, which occurred on April 30, 1889. He died surrounded by
his family and friends. In the neighborhood of his home his death was regarded as a personal
bereavement by all, and there was not a house in the village without its badge of mourning
on the day of his funeral. In conformity with Mr. Barnum's manner of life, and in harmony
with the wishes of the family, the funeral services were conducted without ostentation. No
sermon was preached nor eulogy pronounced. The attendance of from 1200 to 1500 lifelong
friends and business and political associates from all sections of the country spoke louder than
words. It was a sermon in itself, and was a better tribute to the memory of the departed
one than the most eloquent sermon or flowery eulogy would have been. Throughout the
whole country his death was noted as that of an able American statesman. The New York
Herald, commenting editorially upon it in the issue of May ist, said: "In the death of

74 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
William H. Barnum, yesterday, the Democratic party loses one of its ablest fighters. His
sagacity, experience and nerve will be missed in the battles that are to come." Among the
tributes to his memory that may be quoted was that of his friend, Ex-President Cleveland,
who was profoundly touched by the intelligence of his death, and said: "Mr. Barnum was
the most unselfish man I ever knew. He gave liberally of his time and money for the benefit
of the Democratic party, and never used his position as chairman of the national committee
to advance the fortunes of himself or his political friends."
A few descriptive sentences are quoted from tributes of numerous papeirs : ' ' Even as a
boy he was a model for a business man of the old Yankee type — that type which has pushed
its fortunes wherever it could find place for them, without regard to what the work to be
done was." "He was a remarkable specimen of the self-made business man, along-headed
organizer, a keen judge of men, an untiring worker." " He had also held a seat in the Senate,
where he won the esteem of his colleagues by unfailing courtesy and industry, and a broad
and intelligent grasp of public affairs." " Although a prominent Democrat, he did not agree
with many of the leaders in his party in the policy of ' tariff for revenue only. ' He was not
a Free Trader in any sense, but held to the Republican idea that American manufactures
should be encouraged by such a tariff as would afford them protection against the encroach
ments of goods made by pauper labor in foreign countries. And yet his endeavors for the
success of the Democratic party at the polls were most vigorous."
The resolutions passed by the Democratic National Committee, besides expressing pro
found loss, personally and as a party, contained the following estimate of Mr. Barnum's
character: "His impartiality, tireless energy, liberality, sound judgment, rare knowledge
of men, and acute penetration into the causes of political results, marked him as one of the
most competent, as well as most devoted, of party managers. To his fidelity to official
duty, the people of the State of Connecticut and of the country, particularly those who
were his colleagues in Congress, unanimously bear witness. Respecting his great merits as
a private citizen and man of affairs, there is universal concurrence among a wide circle of
associates and friends, including many to whom his business enterprises furnished
employment." Said one who knew him well, "Though not a professing Christian, he came nearer to
the practice of Christian virtues in all his relations with his fellow men than most people
who claim to be guided by the teachings of the Gospel. In his family relations he was
truly a model husband and father. Though always overburdened with the cares of his
business, he never brought them into the family circle ; there was never a place for them
there ; he entered deeply into the hearts and affections of his wife and children ; never was
there a more loving and devoted family; it was a model family, about it has been shed the
holiest and sweetest infiuences; he was always in his home so kind and gentle, so firm and
yet so indulgent; he had the love and respect of his children as fully as a father could."
Mr. Barnum was married in Christ Church, Hartford, on Dec. 7, 1847, to Charlotte
Ann, daughter of Charles Burrall. Mrs. Barnum, with two sons and two daughters, still sur
vives. Charles W. Barnum, the elder son, succeeded to the management of the Salisbury
iron business and resides at Lime Rock; the other son, William M. Barnum, is a member
of the law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Barnum of New York City ; one of the daughters
is the wife of Rev. Howard S. Clapp.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 75

^EWELL, MARSHALL, who was thrice governor of the commonwealth, subse
quently envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia, and still
later postmaster- general of the United States, was born at Winchester, N. H.,
on Oct. 20, 1825, and died at Hartford, Conn., on Feb. 10, 1883.
He was descended in the seventh generation from Thomas Jewell, a native
of England, who was one of the early emigrants to New England, and who, in 1639, settled
at WoUaston, near Quincy, Mass., where he had obtained a grant of land. Until the present
century the ancestors of Mr. Jewell followed farming as their sole occupation, but his father,
Pliny Jewell, a native of New Hampshire, and at one time an active Whig politician, and
member of the legislature of that state, was not only a farmer but also a practical tanner.
Pliny Jewell gave up farming in 1845 and removed to Hartford, Conn., and there established
a successful business as a tanner and manufacturer of leather belting, in which he continued
until his death, a few years later. Marshall Jewell was one of five sons. His elder brother,
Hon. Harvey Jewell, LL.D., who died in 1881, was a lawyer of distinguished ability, who
was at one time a candidate for the office of governor of Massachusetts, and later in life
a judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama Claims. His three other brothers, Pliny,
Lyman and Charles, also engaged in business and achieved wealth and distinction in their
calling. The subject of this sketch was brought up on a farm but was taught the trade of tanning
by his father. He was not yet of age when, becoming interested in electricity, he went to
Boston, and there made a study of it particulariy in its application to telegraphy, then in
its infancy. In 1847 he went to Rochester, N. Y., where he mastered practical telegraphy,
at which he worked for a short time, first in the city named and afterwards at Akron, Ohio,
Columbus, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss. In 1848, when but twenty-three years of age, he
superintended the construction of telegraph lines between Louisville and New Orleans,
being thus occupied nearly a year. In 1849 he was called to Boston, Mass., and was
appointed general superintendent of the New York and Boston telegraph line. Although
practically certain of a distinguished future in connection with the development of telegraphy
he quietly gave it up at the request of his father, whose business had grown to such a degree
that he needed the assistance of his son. A few years later the elder Jewell died, and the
business was re-organized under the firm name of Pliny Jewell & Sons. Mr. Jewell, who was
now the head of the firm, rapidly developed what may truly be called a remarkable talent for
business. Becoming impressed by the belief that the tanning industry was being conducted
according to old fashioned methods, which might be improved by a knowledge of the methods
followed in other countries, he went abroad in 1859, and devoted several months to a careful
study of the trade at the principal points where it is carried on in Great Britain and
France. Becoming convinced that there was much to be learned in this way he repeated his
visit in the following year, and in 1865 made a third visit, extending his journey and
investigations on this last occasion to parts of Asia and Africa. Under the methods —
commercial, technical and scientific — employed by Mr. Jewell, the business which he directed
became one of the most flourishing of its kind in the world and made him a very rich man.
Mr. Jewell first came prominently into politics in 1868, when he was the Republican
candidate in his district for the State Senate. He had joined the Republican ranks among
the first in the state, and was widely known as an intelligent and enthusiastic supporter
of the party's principles, but until the year named could not be induced to run for any office.
Pressed by his friends to do so, he accepted, later in 1868, the Republican nomination for
governor of Connecticut. Although unsuccessful as a candidate for both the offices mentioned.

76 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
he was defeated for governor by such a small majority that his party insisted upon again
placing him at the head of the ticket in 1869 and he was elected, serving from May in that
year to May, 1870. Re-nominated in 1870 he was defeated by the Hon. James E. English,
who had previously served two terms as governor — 1867 and 1868 — and who was still very
strong with all classes of the people, being a "War Democrat" and a man of high character.
In 1871 Mr. Jewell was for a third time placed at the head of the Republican ticket and was
elected ; and being re-nominated at the close of his second term was re-elected and served
a third, his entire administration as chief executive of the state covering the years 1869, 1871
and 1872. Governor Jewell came to the executive chair with the most just and practical ideas
regarding the public welfare, and he left a marked impression upon the legislation of the
three years mentioned. Among the most noticeable reforms effected during his administration
were a re-organization of the state militia, a change in the laws concerning the rights of
married women to property and also in those of divorce. Some excellent laws bearing on the
government of Yale College also were passed; biennial elections were authorized and the
erection of a new state house at Hartford was begun. He left the capitol with the respect
of the entire people, in whose good esteem he remained until the day of his death.
In 1873 President Grant offered Governor Jewell the distinguished post of minister to
the court of St. Petersburgh. He accepted this position, and although abroad only a year
he rendered most important service to A,pierican interests. A practical business man and
coming from a state renowned for the variety of its manufactures, he soon observed that
a large part of the so-called American goods sold in Russia, such as sewing machines, scales,
etc., etc., were only fraudulent imitations. Through his efforts a trade mark treaty was
negotiated with the Russian government, by which the interests of American manufacturers
and of the Russian people were equally protected. While in Russia he continued his
investigations upon tanning, and was richly rewarded by the discovery that the secret of the
peculiar aroma of Russia leather lies in the use of birch bark in the process. This discovery
was fraught with great benefit to the American tanners, who have since manufactured Russia
leather with perfect success.
Recalled from the Russian mission in 1874, he was at once appointed postmaster-general
in the cabinet of President Grant. To this important department of the government placed
under his charge he applied the rules of business, and boldly instituted the most sweeping
reforms, conducting every proceeding with the inflexible integrity so characteristic of him
through life, and with an utter disregard for precedent or politicians. The notorious " straw -
bids !' and other corrupt practices in the states of Texas and Alabama were at once detected,
and speedily abolished by him to a great extent through the famous "Star- route" trials.
He also established fast mail trains and effected other salutary changes of great advantage
to the people. Such a vigorous administration as he gave to the department proved excessively
distasteful to the politicians of both parties, who were using it for their own purposes, and
he incurred their active hostility. He was too honorable a man to abate his vigilance in
the public service to please any one, and was ultimately sacrificed — a victim to his high
principles. He resigned the postmaster-generalship in July, 1876. The people of Connecticut,
justly proud of his splendid record in the public service, took occasion to show their apprecia
tion of it by giving him an enthusiastic public welcome upon his return to his home at
Hartford. Once free from the cares of office, Mr. Jewell devoted himself to his private business,
which had assumed great proportions, and to the discharge of his duties as director, trustee,
etc., in a number of banks, corporations, and other institutions, charitable as well as com-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 77
mercial, where his services were always highly valued. In the presidential campaign of 1876
he warmly supported Mr. Hayes. In 1879, he was the candidate of his party for the United
States senate, and was defeated by only two votes in the legislative caucus. Although urged to
take an active part in the Republican national convention of 1880, he declined to do so, not
desiring to oppose General Grant — then a candidate for a third term — for whom he still
retained a personal regard, though not in favor of his renomination. Chosen chairman of the
national Republican committee, he gave his splendid abilities without reserve to the conduct
of the campaign which resulted in the election of Garfield and Arthur, His numerous speeches
to large assemblages during this canvass, and the unremitting efforts he made to ensure the
success of the nominees, seriously impaired his health, and when stricken with pneumonia in
the latter part of the winter of 1882-83, he had not the strength to overcome the disease,
and died, as previously stated.
In his death Connecticut lost one of her greatest and purest citizens. The grief of the
people of the state, irrespective of party, was profound, and was shared by the lovers of
ideal citizenship and official purity in all parts of the Union. General Jewell's whole career
stamps him as a high-minded, patriotic and unusually valuable citizen and public officer.
During the Civil War he resolutely supported the national government, giving freely of his
means to aid in fitting out troops, and for the support of the widows and orphans of those
who fell in battle. ^ His influence as a wealthy manufacturer was very great, and was always
wielded in a manner helpful to the Union cause. He had always entertained a deep abhorrence
of slavery and rejoiced in its abolition. In religious convictions he was a Congregationalist,
and attended the services of the church all his life, and contributed generously to its speciab
work and charities. He was a man of fine nature and manners, and as a public speaker
ranked with the ablest of his contemporaries. His character had a simplicity which made it
striking, and at all times he was found on the side of right and justice. He was married
in 1852 to Miss Esther Dickinson, daughter of William Dickinson, a highly respected resident
of Newburg, N. Y. This estimable lady, with two daughters, survived him.

?LARK, WILLIAM BRADDOCK, of Hartford, president of the .^tna Insurance
Company, was born in that city June 29, 1841.
Mr. Clark comes of a sturdy English stock, his first American ancestor
being John Clark, who after a short residence in Newtown (now Cambridge),
Mass., moved to Hartford in the company which settled there in 1635. His
name appears upon the monument in the old cemetery in the rear of the Center Congre
gational Church as one of the early settlers of Hartford. He was a soldier in the famous
Pequot fight of 1637, and in 1657 he transferred his residence to Farmington, and he and
his wife became members of the First Church in that town. His son, Matthew, had a son
John, and Abel, son of the second John, was one of the seventy signers to an agreement
dated September 3, 1775, to go to Boston for the relief of the besieged inhabitants, but
was prevented by sickness from taking an active part in the war. A third John in the
family line was a farmer, and served in the war of 18 12 as corporal in Capt. Daniel
Deming's company, and was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
His parents were Abel N. and Emily I. Clark. Mr. Clark, Sr., was for twenty
years connected with the Hartford Coiirant, and was practically identified with its success
during those years. His industry was a most prominent trait in his character, while his

78 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
f
fidelity to every trust and duty, great and small, was equally conspicuous. His death
occurred in 1867, several years before he had reached the half century mark, in the very
prime of his manhood. A mention of him in the New York Times says : "In the death
of Mr. Clark the editorial fraternity has lost one of its most useful members, and the city
one of her most active, upright business men. His loss will be deeply deplored by a large
circle of friends, both at home and abroad."
After passing through the old North School, and' Gallup 's "College Green" school,
instead of completing his education by a regular collegiate course, William B. Clark entered
his father's newspaper office and remained there for a year. The life of an insurance
underwriter possessed more attractions for him as a means of gaining both business eminence
and pecuniary profit, than that offered by the newspaper publisher, and in 1857 he accepted
a position as clerk in the Phoenix Insurance Company. In this field he found full oppor
tunity for the development of all his powers. Six years later, when he was in his
twenty-third year, he was elected to the responsible post of secretary of the company.
This position he held until December ist, 1867,. when he was chosen assistant secretary of
the ^tna Insurance Company, and his subsequent life has been identified with the fortunes
of that monarch in the insurance worid. Mr. L- J. Hendee, one of the most successful
insurance managers Hartford has ever known, was president, and under his guidance Mr.
Clark became familiar with the vast detail connected with the ^Etna's business, and was
regarded by his chief with the utmost trust and confidence.
The decease of President Hendee, Sept. 4, 1888, necessitated a number of changes in
the administration of the company. Mr. Jotham Goodnow, who had been secretary for a
long series of years, was made president, and Mr. Clark, who received the unanimous vote
of the board of directors, was advanced to the vice-presidency. His thirty years' training
in subordinate capacities gave him a splendid equipment for the position, and, developing
under its responsibilities, his course was characterized by ability and judgment of the high
est order. He soon became entitled to a place in the front rank of the insurance magnates
of New England.
On the death of Mr. Goodnow, Nov. 19th, 1892, it was but a logical sequence of the
past policy of the ^tna that he was promoted to the presidency of the company. Not to
avail themselves of his practical experience and tried executive ability would have been
simply suicidal on the part of the directors. The selection was most warmly commended
by the local papers and the insurance journals.- Although next to the youngest president
in* point of years, in actual service with the Hartford companies, Mr. Clark is the senior
insurance officer in the city.
In the course of its article at the time, the Insurance Post said: "His large work as
vice-president is too well known to need any comment, and by a singular coincidence, his
recent election to the presidency occurred just twenty-five years to a day from the date that
he entered the company's service. In token of such anniversary and his election, Mr. Clark
was given an ovation in the company's dining-room, and was presented with a beautiful gift
in cut glass and silver, from the entire office force assembled."
The Insurance Sun expressed the following opinion: "William B. Clark, the able
vice-president of the ^tna of Hartford, has been advanced to the presidency of that company
on the death of the former chief executive, Mr. Goodnow. Mr. Clark has long earned
this honor, as he has been the active and efficient mover of events in the company's
management." The Independent felt safe in making the prediction : " He is universally regarded as one
of the ablest fire insurance underwriters in Hartford, and, as is well known, that city has

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 79
some very able insurance men. He has had much to do, particularly since his election as
secretary in 1867, and vice-president in 1888, in the direction of affairs of the iBtna,
familiarly called for the last fifty years 'The Old ^tna'— it began business in 1819 —
and under his management it is perfectly safe to predict the continued prosperity of the
company." Greater things are expected by the Insurance Age in the future: "W. B. Clark, the
new president, is a man who will well and ably fill the executive chair. He finds himself
president of the largest fire insurance company in assets and capital in this country, its
capital stock being $4,000,000, and its assets on Jan. i, 1892, $10,659,139. He will doubtless
bring and keep the ^Etna even more actively in the field than it has been for years."
Perhaps the most correct estimate of all (because given by one who knew him best)
is the editorial opinion of the Hartford Courant: "The election of president of the ^tna
(Fire) Insurance Company, recorded elsewhere, is an event not only of interest but of importance
to Hartford. The standing of all our fire companies is admirable, and they rank among
the first in the country. And the Jjtna is the largest, not only of these, but of all in the
United States. It stands there, with its more than ten millions of assets and its record of
$70,000,000 already paid out for losses, as the great fire company of America. It is, therefore,
of large importance to know who will manage it in the future, and there will be universal
satisfaction that the directors have chosen William B. Clark as president and executive head
of this great concern. Mr. Clark is a native of Hartford and has been just a quarter of a
century with the .^tiia. He knows it and he knows its business. A man of character,
decision, experience and judgment, he is especially qualified for the responsible duties that
fall to him, and the Courant congratulates both the old company and new president."
President Clark has found time to obey the call of his fellow-citizens to serve them in
an official capacity. In April, 1880, he was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen,
and filled that position for two years. He was appointed the aldermanic chairman of the
ordinance committee, the mayor holding the chairmanship ex officio, and in this situation he
rendered excellent service to his constituents. At the conclusion of his term in the Board
of Aldermen he was appointed a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, and held
that position for nine years, rendering some of the most efficient and practical service the
commission has ever seen. Financial and other corporations have called for and received a
portion of his time and energy. In July, 1875, he was chosen a director in the Travelers'
Insurance Company; in January, 1879, he became a director in the City Bank; July, 1883, he
was made a director in Mechanics' Savings Bank; in June, 1891, he was elected trustee of the
Society for Savings, and in January, 1893, trustee of the Holland Trust Company, New York.
Benevolent and charitable institutions have ever found a friend in President Clark. In
April, 1880, he was made a member of the corporation of the Hartford Hospital, and in
April, 1890, he was elected a director of the Retreat for Insane. He is a valued member
of the Connecticut Historical Society, and takes a zealous interest in all its transactions.
Before he had attained his majority, he was an enthusiastic member of the original "Wide-
Awakes" of 1 86 1, and was an active participant in the doings of that noted organization.
His Republicanism in 1893 has as true a ring as in the days of the great presidential cam
paign of i860. Mr. Clark is a member of the Veteran Corps of the old first company of
the Governor's Foot Guard.
His religious affiliations are with the first Baptist Church, of which he has been clerk
of the society and member of the society's committee for more than a quarter of a century.
Aside from his liberal contribution to the support of the church and its numerous charities.
President Clark is an active personal worker in the vineyard of the Lord. The president of

So REPRESENTATIVE MEN
r
the ^tna Insurance Company holds a unique position in the minds of Hartford people, but
not alone as the representative of an immense corporation, is Mr. Clark held in high esteem
by the citizens of the capital city. Of all that goes to make up a model citizen he is an
excellent type, and his reputation as a man and as an insurance official stands on equal
terms. Having but barely passed the half century mark. President Clark has yet many
years opening out before him in which to make the record of the .^Etna grander and more
magnificent than that attained by his honored predecessors in the past.
May 13, 1863, Mr. Clark was married to Caroline H., daughter of the late Philemon F.
Robbins. Five children blessed this union, but only the three daughters are living, the
two sons having died in early youth.

t

|OWARD, JAMES LELAND, ex-lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, was born
in Windsor, Vt., the i8th day of January, 1818. His ancestors came from
England and originally settled in Massachusetts some time previous to 1650.
Benjamin Howard, Jr., was born in Mendon, Mass., the 23d of August,
1713, married Mary Wheaton and died at Jamaica, Vt., the 29th of October,
1783. He had eighteen children, sixteen sons and two daughters. Calvin, his son, was
born in Mendon in 1762, and married Hannah Wellman. He removed to Jamaica, Vt., in
1780, with his father and six brothers, and died at Gouverneur, N. Y., in 1850. He had
twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. Leland, his son, father of James L-, was
born in Jamaica, Vt., the 13th of October, 1793, and died at Rutland, Vt., the 6th of May,
1870. He was a prominent clergyman of the Baptist church, commenced preaching when
only seventeen years of age, his first settlement being at Windsor, Vt., in June, 18 16, and
during his ministry of more than 50 years, he was pastor of Baptist churches in Windsor, Vt.,
Troy, N. Y., Brooklyn, N. Y., Norwich, N. Y., Newport, R. I., Meriden, Conn., Hartford,
N. Y., and Rutland, Vt. He was a man of broad and generous character, loved his work
as pastor and was greatly beloved and honored by his many parishioners. It was said of him
at his death : ' ' Such was Leland Howard ; he has finished his course, he has kept the faith,
he has left no stain upon his character or his profession; he was a good man and just."
He was married in June, 1816, to Lucy Mason, daughter of Capt. Isaiah Mason of Ira, Vt.,
and had eight children, four sons and four daughters.
James Leland, his eldest son, the subject of our sketch, received a practical business
education and entered upon a mercantile life in the city of New York in 1833. At the age
of twenty he removed to Hartford, Conn., and in 1841 formed a co-partnership with Edmund
Hurlburt under the firm name of " Hurlburt & Howard," for the manufacture and sale of
carriage and saddlery hardware, their place of business being next north of the City Hotel
on Main street. He eventually purchased Mr. Hurlburt's interest and soon after admitted
his brothers to the partnership under the firm name of "James L. Howard & Company."
This firm was one of the first in the United States to engage in the manufacture and sale of
railroad car furnishings, and to this business the firm devoted its best energies and resources
with marked success. In 1846, the firm built their extensive block and factory on Asylum
street, where the business is still continued. In 1876, a special charter was granted by the
state giving the partners a corporate relation, but retaining the old title of "James L. Howard
& Company," and James L. Howard has been president of the corporation since its organization.

]vrf:.t,idcriij.56iLi rj-'Dlisl-Q

Y^l-i^^:^T_.e^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 81
Mr. Howard is eminently a man of affairs and the financial and business interests of
Hartford have, for the past fifty years, engaged his earnest attention. He was chosen a
director in the Phcenix Bank in 1854, and still retains his place on the board. He was one
of the corporators of the Travelers' Insurance Company and has been a director from the
date of its organization in 1864 ; also vice-president of the Hartford County Mutual Fire
Insurance Company, and president of the Hartford City Gas Light Company since 1880 ; and
director in a number of manufacturing companies, where his business ability is recognized and
his counsel appreciated. In 1846, Mr. Howard was appointed agent of the Mutual Benefit
Life Insurance Company of Newark, N. J., and his own policy bears the early number of
" 1079." It was in his counting room that some of the first conferences were held which
resulted in the organization of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford,
the leading spirits in the enterprise being Dr. Guy R. Phelps and Elisha B. Pratt, Esq.
Active in politics, though never seeking office, Mr. Howard has honored and received honor
from many official positions, acting successively as councilman, alderman, park commissioner,
for many years a member of the high school committee, and also one of the building com
mittee and treasurer of the funds appropriated for the erection of the present high school
building. Originally a Whig, he naturally became a Republican when the party of " free
men, free speech, and free soil," was organized in 1856, and to these principles he has
willingly given an earnest, never wavering support.
In 1886, he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for the office of lieutenant-
governor, and the nomination was ratified at the polls. With that courtesy and fairness for
which he is everywhere respected, he presided over the deliberations of the Senate with
dignity and retired with the esteem of his associates, regardless of party lines. With his
religious convictions. Governor Howard entertains no compromise ; he is a representative lay
man of the Baptist church, and where duty calls him there he will be found. He was the
first president of the Connecticut Baptist Social Union and reelected for several terms ; is
now president of the board of trustees for the Connecticut Literary Institution of Suffield;
was president of the Connecticut Baptist Convention from 1871 to 1876; of the American
Baptist Publication Society from 1881 to 1884; of the American Baptist Home Mission
Society from 1890 to 1893 ; is president of the Connecticut Baptist Education Society, and
one of the board of managers of the American Baptist Missionary Union. He is trustee of
Brown University at Providence, R. I., of Shaw University at Raleigh, N. C, of Spelman
Seminary at Atlanta, Ga. , of the Newton Theological Seminary at Newton, Mass., and of
the American Baptist Education Society. He united with the First Baptist Church of Hart
ford, in January, 1841, and was chosen a deacon in 1857. His principal religious work has
been in the interest of his own denomination, but he is liberal in his judgment of others
and helpful in all good works. A pleasing episode in Mr. Howard's life was the remem
brance by his own church in Hartford of his fiftieth anniversary of continued and faithful
service, and the expression of heartfelt congratulations by the church and society, that with
unabated force and vision he was still at the work which he loved, and with those who loved
him. This testimonial was a spontaneous acknowledgment of eminent service in the Master's
work, expressed in fitting words by his lifelong friend, Hon. James G. Batterson, and was
ordered by a unanimous vote to be engrossed and spread upon the records of the church.
Mr. Howard's family and social life has been one of continuous sunshine. He was married
on the first day of June, 1842, to Anna, daughter of Hon. Joseph B. Gilbert, ex-treasurer
of the State of Connecticut. They had five children, three of whom are living: Alice, wife
of Hon. Edward B. Bennett, postmaster of Hartford ; Edith Mason, and Mary Leland. Two
have died : Anna, when four years old, and Julia, who married Walter R. Bush of Troy,
N. Y., leaving one child, Julia Howard Bush.

82 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
INGERSOLL, CHARLES ROBERTS, LL.D., of New Haven, ex-governor of
Connecticut, was born in the city where he now resides, Sept. i6, 1821.
The name of Ingersoll is one of the most notable in Connecticut, and also
in other New England states. Members of the family have occupied conspicuous
social positions in colonial times as well as in the later history of the state.
One of Governor IngersoU's uncles was judge of the United States District Court of Connecticut,
another was an officer in the United States Navy, and another uncle was a distinguished
divine in the Protestant Episcopal Church. General Colin M. Ingersoll, his brother, was
Representative in Congress from 1850 to 1854, and still another served for many years as
an officer in the United States Navy. His great-grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll,
was a Congregational minister at Ridgefield, and grandfather, Judge Jonathan Ingersoll, was
among the foremost members of the legal profession in his day, and was a man of intrinsic
moral worth, and held many infiuential public positions. Ralph I. Ingersoll, father of
Charles R., was even more prominent than his predecessors. Nominations to the United
States Senate and to governorship of the state were declined peremptorily, the resolve to
accept no political honors which would interfere with the practice of his profession was
immovable — save in a single exception. In 1846, President Polk appointed him minister
plenipotentiary to the Russian court, without his knowledge or consent, saying in the official
letter, "In this instance, at least, the office has sought the man, and not the man the office,"
and added, ' ' I hope you may accept the highly honorable and responsible station now tendered
you." The nominee did accept the post, and for two years rendered great service to the
country and honor to the station, as well as himself. He then returned to his profession
and practiced it with remarkable vigor and unqualified success for the next twenty years.
He married Margaret Von Heuvel of New York, a lady of Dutch ancestry.
Receiving his preliminary education in the public schools of his native city, young
Ingersoll entered Yale College, and was graduated near the head of the class of 1840. He
made a brilliant record for himself , but as the " D. K. E.," "Skull and Bones," and other
societies of to-day were not in existence then, his associations were simply with the literary
and general social life of his college days. The two following years were spent visiting
Europe as a member of the official family of his uncle. Captain Voorhees, commander of the
United States frigate "Preble." He wisely improved the opportunity thus afforded for
broadening his mind and increasing his stock of knowledge. Returning to New Haven,
he entered the Yale Law School, in which he enjoyed the benefit of two years' instruction
from Judge Samuel J. Hitchcock, Chief Justice David Daggett, and the Hon. Isaac H.
Townsend. Being admitted to the bar in 1845, he associated himself in practice with his
distinguished father, and, until the decease of that gentleman thirty years after, sustained
the relations of law partner to him. Throughout that lengthy period he was engaged as
counsellor in numerous important suits, which were handled in such a masterly manner as
to gain for him a wide reputation as a wise, upright, and eminently successful lawyer.
Educated under the immediate eye of his father, and, except the two years spent
abroad, always in intimate connection with him, it was but natural that politics should
share much of his attention. As the father sought a controlling influence in the state and
nation, solely for the purpose of preserving their safety and prosperity, and of conserving
and improving their morals, so in the same sense the younger Ingersoll became, and has
continued to be, a politician. Public stations have sought his acceptance, although he has
never sought them. It has been said of him: "He has declined more nominations than he
has accepted, and refused more offices than he has filled." In the sessions of 1856-57-58,
he represented the town of New Haven in the State Legislature, and occupied influential places
on committees, making his cultured power as a speaker felt on the floor. He again served

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 83
as a representative of New Haven at the State House. A nomination to the State Senate
he declined, but his oratorical power, his tried integrity, and his comprehensive knowledge
of legislation, rendered his services invaluable in the lower branch of the legislature. As
a member of the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1864, which nominated Gen.
McCleUan for the presidency, Mr. Ingersoll acted on the committee on resolutions. In 1872,
he was again chosen as delegate to the National Convention at Baltimore which nominated
Horace Greeley, and on this occasion he served as chairman of the Connecticut delegation.
The Democrats of Connecticut first nominated Mr. Ingersoll for governor in 1873, and
eminent politicians certainly dictated their choice. The honor was unsought, and he shrank
from the responsibilities which it brought, and it required much persuasion before he
yielded to the general wish. When the votes were counted it was found that he was elected
by a handsome majority^, running far ahead of his ticket in his own town and county. Giving
the state a clean and judicious administration, he was nominated and elected to the governor
ship a second time the following year, this time receiving a majority of over 7000 votes.
His constituents would not consent to be deprived of his services in the gubernatorial chair,
and in 1875 his name was again presented for the suffrages of the citizens of the state. At
this election he received the highest number of votes ever polled for governor previous to
that time. In this year Governor fngersoll signed the bill which had received a two-thirds
vote of each house, providing for and submitting to the people an amendment to the Con
stitution of the state which made an official term of all state officers and state senators biennial,
changed the date of the annual election from April to November, and terminated his own
duties as chief magistrate in January, 1877. He had the honor of being numbered with the
"Centennial" governors of the several states composing the American Republic in 1876.
His wisely directed and persistent energy is largely responsible for the creditable representation
of the great manufacturing and other capabilities of Connecticut made at the International
Exhibition held at Philadelphia. Foreseeing the benefit which must accrue from such an
enterprise, in his public capacity, he used all his powers to make it a decided success.
At each successive election his competitors were men of high grade, and worthy repre
sentatives of their party. His first rival for the governorship was Mr. Henry P. Haven of
New London. In 1874, it was Hon. Henry B. Harrison, afterwards governor of the state; the
following year Mr. Lloyd Greene of Norwich was the candidate, and for his last rival he
had Hon. Henry C. Robinson, the popular ex-mayor of Hartford. On his retirement from
the gubernatorial chair, Governor Ingersoll carried with him the unfeigned praise and honest
admiration of political friends and opponents alike. Said one of the latter: "Very few men
could be named for office by that party (the Democratic) in whose success the people of opposing
views would so cheerfully acquiesce." In the comparative privacy of unofficial life he
indulges his scholarly tastes, and charms all who come in social contact with him by his
unaffected courtesy and dignified bearing. Having passed the Biblical limit of three-score
years and ten, he is now quietly enjoying the fruits of the labors of his earlier years. A
writer in the University Magazine thus pleasantly alludes to him: "Governor IngersoU's
record in public life is one which most statesmen can only hope for and envy, and it has
received the praise of his bitterest political opponents. His career as a legal practitioner in
New Haven is such as to make his snow-white head, his military bearing, and his charming
personality, a byword throughout the state." Yale's recognition of his eminent services was
the conferring of the degree of LL.D. in 1874.
Charles R. Ingersoll was married Dec. 18, 1847, to Virginia, daughter of Admiral Gregory.
The family now consists of four children, one son and three daughters. In the society of
his wife and children. Governor Ingersoll has found some of the purest and most ennobling
pleasures that fall to the lot of humanity.

84 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

BARKER, CHARLES, of Meriden, president of the Charles Parker Company,
was born Jan. 2, 1809, in Cheshire, Conn. This was also the birth year of
a galaxy of noted men prominent along different lines of activity. A very
partial list would include Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, president
and vice-president respectively, William E. Gladstone, "the Grand Old Man,"
Robert C. Winthrop, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edgar A. Poe, Admiral John A. Dahlgren,
Prof. Charles Darwin, and those staunch old abolitionists, Parker PiUsbury, Oliver Johnson
and Stephen S. Foster.
Parker has always been a familiar name in New England. The first of the name in
Connecticut was William Parker, who was one of the early settlers of Hartford and Saybrook.
His son John was among the first planters at Wallingford, and, settling about two miles west
of the village, gave the name to Parker's Farms. John Parker is recorded as being an active
business man and one who did much for the advancement of the interests of the settlement —
an example his descendants have closely followed. Of his family of ten children Edward
was the eighth, and in his group of ten, Joeh was the fourth. Of Joel's five children, Stephen
was the youngest.
Charl.es Parker was the son of Stephen and Rebecca (Stone) Parker. At the age of nine
years he was placed with a farmer by the name of Porter Cook, with whom he remained until
he was fourteen. Farm work, interspersed with a limited amount of time spent in the public
schools, occupied his attention until he was eighteen. His first experience in manufacturing
was casting buttons for Anson Matthews of Southington. In August, 1828, Mr. Parker came
to Meriden and went to work making coffee mills for Patrick Lewis. Just before his twen
tieth birthday he launched out into business on his own account on a capital of seventy
doUars, taking a contract from Lewis & Holt for thirteen months to manufacture coffee mills.
His shop stood nearly opposite his present fine residence, but little did the hard working youth
realize what the future had in store for him. By industry and economy he acquired eighteen
hundred dollars on this contract. Making a co-partnership with Mr. Jared Lewis, they
took another contract from Lewis & Holt, which, besides coffee mills, included ladles and
skimmers. In January, 1831, he sold out to Mr. Lewis and purchased an acre of ground,
on which he built a shop and manufactured coffee mills and waffle irons, going into the
market with his own goods. Lewis & Holt failed in November, 1833, and Mr. Parker had
the whole field to himself, and vigorously improved the opportunity. The same year he
associated with him Edmund Parker, his brother, and Heman White, taking the firm name
of Parker & White. They were doing a successful business in Alabama when the hard
times of 1837 came upon the country, and the concern lost heavily, an embarrassment from
which they did not recover for about six years. They were often advised to fail, but they
decided otherwise, and finally paid their entire indebtedness in full. This partnership was
dissolved in 1843, and Mr. Parker continued alone.
His business steadily increased, and in 1844 he added largely to his buildings, and put
in steam power to take the place of the primitive horse power previously used. Mr. Parker
was the first to manufacture plated spoons and forks and to plate hollow ware in Meriden.
From time to time he added to the range of his products, until at length he was represented
in the market by a great variety of goods. Intuitively he seemed to decide on the articles
which would prove salable, and his judgment never erred. The value of a good name has
been splendidly exemplified in Mr. Parker's experience. It was not long after he began
business that he found the reputation which preceded him aided him materially in extending
his sales, and new avenues were constantly being opened up in every market in the land.

e J'Ka/I^^

r!Zj!.-^'l' J^S-v:,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 85
Besides his factory at Meriden Center, at one time he carried on shops at East and West
Meriden, Yalesville and Prattsville. More room was needed, and again and again he was
called upon to enlarge his facilities, until the present extensive works have been the outcome.
Until 1877 Mr. Parker carried on the entire business alone, and his hand was kept on
every detail of manufacturing. Finding the cares of the great establishment too heavy for
his advancing years, and desiring to perpetuate the business he founded, he formed the
present corporation of the Charies Parker Company. The capital is $500,000, and the officers
are Charles Parker, president ; Charles E. Parker, vice-president ; Dexter W. Parker, treasurer,
and W. H. Lyon, secretary. Though interested in all the business projects as ever, Mr.
Parker leaves the active management to his associates, who through long years of connection
with him have become as familiar with the conduct of affairs as he is himself. The bare
enumeration of the list of articles made by this firm would make a small pamphlet. The
coffee mills which he began to' make more than sixty years ago are still manufactured,
though they are vastly improved, and are of all sizes and many designs. To succeed in the
face of strong competition is one of the best tests of true success. The United States
government was looking for the lamp best adapted for use in the army, and from a mass
of specimens, the "Parker" lamp was selected. This order was filled, and again the
authorities called for bids for another supply of lamps modelled after the ' ' Parker, ' ' and
again the Charles Parker Company came off victorious? Their trade is constantly increasing
all over the known world. Even now, it extends to South America, Europe, Australia,
the West Indies and other remote points. Wherever the Parker goods are introduced they
at once obtain an exclusive foothold. It is the oldest industry in the city, and not only in
Meriden, but with the entire trade, ranks with the very highest.
The gun department, which is carried on under the name of Parker Bros, for the
purpose of distinguishing it from other branches of their extensive business, was organized
during the rebellion of 1861-65, fo^ the purpose of supplying arms for the Union army, and
was successfully conducted on those lines until the close of that memorable struggle. After
the close of the war the Parker company found themselves in possession of a large amount
of machinery and stock adapted to the manufacture of guns, and at first devoted themselves
to producing rifies for general use. Soon after the}' decided to undertake the manufacture
of shotguns and took out their first patent in 1866, covering a combination for locking the
barrels. New patents covering different devices were added soon after, one in 1872, covering
the check-stop in opening barrels, and other important inventions were added in 1876,
1877, 1878 and 1879. In 1887 they patented their well-known hammerless action as now
made, and added two other patented improvements in 1889.
Their gun plant as it now exists covers about two acres of ground and gives regular
employment, when in full operation, to two hundred men. The works embrace a variety
of departments adapted to the manufacture of the gun from the very beginning until its
arrival at a state of completion. An extensive blacksmith and forging department is in
active operation in a separate building, where all parts of the gun are forged. The other
departments consist of a milling-room, barrel-turning and boring-room, engraving- room,
stock- making room, and one for making special machinery adapted to the manufacture of the
different parts of the Parker gun. Eleven different frames for the various sizes, weights
and qualities of guns are made in the factory, constituting a greater variety than that embraced
in the works of any other company in this country. The principal points of excellence in
the Parker gun are its simplicity of construction, its great wearing powers, and its superior
shooting qualities, which points have placed it in the first rank for execution with the best
guns in the worid, and won for it the appropriate soubriquet of the "old reliable Parker."

86 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
When Meriden took her place in the sisterhood of Connecticut municipalities, it was but
natural that the citizens should turn to their representative business man and seat him in the
mayor's chair. Mr. Parker served as the head of the city government for the years 1867
and 1868, and, as numerous precedents were to be established and many questions . settled
which would never occur again, it gave him an opportunity for the display of that careful
judgment and executive ability for which he is noted. Mr. Parker's sympathies were heartily
enlisted in the war for the preservation of the American Union. To this work he gave not
only of his time and talents, but also of his means.
At the age of thirty -one, Mr. Parker experienced a change of heart, and thenceforward
dedicated himself to the service of his Maker. Two years later he became a member of the
Methodist church, and has since rendered invaluable assistance to that religious organization
in Meriden and elsewhere. To the Methodist church on Broad street he not only gave the
lot, but also gave three-quarters of what the building cost. His brother John and he together
contributed nearly $50,000 toward the erection of the present Methodist church.
His success has not been of an ephemeral character built on a speculative foundation.
His pecuniary prosperity has been attained by strict economy and a close application to busi
ness. Laboring men who are striking to-day for nine or even eight hours, would not feel
like putting in fifteen hours per day, as Mr. Parker has often done. In the rush of business
management, time could not be found for correspondence, and that kind of work has been
relegated to the hours of the evening week after week. Most men wish to succeed, to have
the emoluments of place or wealth which success brings in its train, but they are not always
willing to pay the price. Mr. Parker was not one of these. He realized that good fortune
was synonymous with hard work, and he never spared himself in the attainment of his
objects. Starting with the possession of rare good sense, the height he has reached has been
gained by great industry, careful methods in businsss, and punctuality in the keeping of
engagements. His liberality has been of the most unostentatious kind, and whenever he has
conferred a favor, he has endeavored to conceal the fact from public knowledge. In the
three-score years which have elapsed since he commenced manufacturing in such an humble
way, he has lived to see the business then started grow to its present immense proportions,
and the village of Meriden gradually develop into one of the fairest cities in the state of
Connecticut. Honored and loved most by those who know him best, it is to be hoped that
he will be spared to see what the opening of the twentieth century will bring forth.
Charles Parker was married Oct. 6, 1831, to Abi, daughter of Thomas Eddy of Berlin.
Of their ten children, three are now living : Charles E. Parker, now vice-president of the
Charles Parker Company; Dexter Wright Parker, who graduated from West Point in 1870,
and now treasurer of the same company, and Annie Dryden, wife of W. H. Lyon, the
efficient secretary of the corporation.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 87
;ainwright, william Augustus muhlenberg, m. d., of Hartford,
was born in New York City, Aug. 13, 1844.
On both sides of the family line Dr. Wainwright comes of a sturdy English
stock. Peter Wainwright, an English merchant, settled in Boston not long
after the Revolutionary War. Here he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan
Mayhew, D. D., a Congregational minister. Dr. Mayhew was a descendant of Thomas Mayhew,
one of the early settlers of the country, and the first governor of Martha's Vineyard. Soon
after his marriage, Peter Wainwright returned to Liverpool, and it was there that his three
children were born ; but in 1803 he again took up his abode in America. Jonathan Mayhew,
his oldest son, was born Feb. 24, 1792, and graduated from Harvard University in 1812.
Teaching occupied his time for several years, then he decided to devote his life to the
work of the sacred ministry, and after taking a course of theological studies was admitted to
the order of priesthood of the Episcopal church in Christ Church, Hartford, Conn., Aug. 16,
181 7. Limited space will prevent any mention of the invaluable work he did in the service
of his Master, and how he managed to compress all that he did into the hours of his busy life
is a standing marvel. His literary labors were numerous and varied, an especially important
piece of work being as chief working member of the committee of the general convention to
prepare the standard edition of the Book of Common Prayer. After having been rector of
several large city parishes, in 1852 he was chosen provisional bishop of the diocese of New
York. He threw himself heartily into the responsibility laid upon him ; but the burden was
too great, and he broke beneath the strain and died in New York City, Sept. 21, 1854. Bishop
Wainwright was married in August, 1818, to Amelia Maria, grand-daughter of Judge John
Phelps of Stafford, Conn. Fourteen children were born to them, and of these the subject
of this sketch is youngest.
Dr. Wainwright received his name from Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, the founder
of St. Luke's Hospital, New York City. His earlier education was secured at a private
school, and, entering Trinity College in i860, was graduated from that institution in 1864.
The desire to be a physician seems to have been engrafted into his being from his youth, and
soon after leaving college he commenced the study of medicine in New York City under the
tuition of Doctors Alexander Hosack and Henry B. Sands. He took the regular course at
the CoUege of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Successfully passing his examination in
December, 1866, he at once went into the New York Hospital. From March to December,
1865, Dr. Wainwright was "interne" at the Hartford Hospital. He was awarded his diploma
in the spring of 1867, and, after passing two y^ears' service in the old New York Hospital,
came to Hartford, where he has since made his home. In 1890 he was elected a member
of the board of medical visitors to the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford.
In 1872, Dr. Wainwright was elected an attending physician and surgeon of the Hartford
Hospital. When the change took place and the division of the work assigned was effected,
he was appointed one of the visiting surgeons, which position he still holds.
He was appointed assistant surgeon of the first company of the Governor's Foot Guards,
then under the command of Major John C. Kinney, and held office for the space of ten years.
He is now medical supervisor for the State Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of New
Jersey, the Union Mutual Company of Maine, and the United States Life Insurance Company
of New York, and is also one of the medical examiners of these companies and of the Mutual
Life Company of New York. Of the Charter Oak Life Company he was medical examiner,
and, after the death of Dr. Jackson, was made medical director, and filled that position until
the company went into insolvency. He is a member of the American Medical Association,

88 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and is also a member of the vState Medical Society. For several years he was clerk of the
Hartford County Medical Society, that being the only officer whose duties continued from year
to year. He was president of the society in the one hundredth year of its existence, and
during all the tests of the Centennial celebration was fully equal to the requirements of the
occasion. Dr. Wainwright is a forceful and pleasant speaker, and a few paragraphs are quoted
from his address :
Looking back into the past, it seems a blessed thing to have been born and to live in the nineteenth
century. Life is a very different thing to-day from what it was a hundred — nay, fifty years ago. It almost
takes one's breath away to stop and think of the immense strides that have been taken since our century
began, in the advancement of all things that go to make up the civilization of to-day. Only to begin to
enumerate the most important of them would take much more time than has been allotted to me.
To the lasting honor of the medical profession, it can be said with the utmost truth, that in no branch
of any art or science has the advancement been greater than in our own ; and to no one class of men is the
world more indebted to-day than it is to noble and honored members of our craft. To name them all would
be to fill a volume; but to prove that the pride which is in us is not false in character, I have but to mention
the names of Bichat, Broussais, Laennec, Louis, Trousseau, Hunter, Sydenham, Cullen, Jenner, Bright, Cooper,
Skoda, Rokitansky, Virchow, Pasteur, Koch, Rush, Warren, Mitchell, Bard, Physick, Hosack, Dewees, Sims,
Nathan Smith, Mott, Van Buren, Gross, McDowell, Kimball, Atlee, Knight, Wells, Simpson ; and a name
which is almost unheard, if not entirely unknown to most of us, but one which ought to go down to posterity
with the rest — Dr. Carl Koller of New York, who, when a medical student in Vienna, discovered the
anaesthetic properties of cocaine.
When it is taken into consideration that whatever has been done in our ranks during the last century
has been done for the good of the human race, to relieve its sufferings, to give it life and health and strength,
and under God to increase the number of its days, we may, I think, be pardoned for the honest pride we have
in meeting here to celebrate the end of our first hundred years' work, and to do honor to those of us who
have passed on before.
It is not only "the evil that men do that lives after them:" it is the good that they have done that
"makes the whole world kin," that keeps their memories ever green, and that makes us love to talk and
think of their noble lives, aud their unselfish deeds, which have made life a hundred times more worth living
to-day than it was a hundred years ago.
As a member and one of the vestrymen of St. John's Church, Hartford, Dr. Wainwright
takes a zealous interest in everything which pertains to the welfare of the Protestant Episcopal
church. He has been several times a delegate to the State Diocesan Convention, and twice
he has been sent to the General Convention of the church — at New York in 1889, and at
Baltimore in 1890. At the first dinner and annual meeting of the Church Club of the
diocese of Connecticut in January, 1893, he was chosen president of the club, and to be
made the head of such an organization may be taken as a marked compliment. In 1865 he
was initiated into the mysteries of masonry in Holland Lodge, No. 8, of New York City, and
on coming to Hartford became a member of St. John's Lodge. He is also an active member
of the Connecticut chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and a member of its
board of managers.
Besides being in demand as a speaker on special occasions, Dr. Wainwright wields a
facUe pen. He wrote the medical history chapter for the "Memorial History" of Hartford
County, one of the most carefully prepared volumes of the kind ever issued. He has reported
several cases and read various papers before the State Society, which have always been listened
to with interest. At the centennial anniversary of the Connecticut Medical Society, his paper
was upon " Medico- Legal Aspects of Chloroform." It was a consideration of a surgeon's
accountability when his patient dies from the administration of chloroform for the purposes of
an operation. After stating the law in regard to injury to person, the doctor said :
My own belief is that chloroform is just as safe a drug to use as opium, strychnine or hydrocyanic acid,
and that we are perfectly justified in using it. I believe that in many cases it is a safer drug to use than
ether. An infinitely greater number of our patients die from the effects of our surgical operations than die
from the effects of the anaesthetic which is given to make the operation possible ; and one might as well say

Massachusetts Pui],iBlun6 Co.EverBtt.Mas

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 89
that we should beat our scalpels into ploughshares and our lichotrites into pruning-hooks, because once in a
while a life is lost by means of them. I would never willingly tell a patient that any surgical operation was
absolutely safe, or that the administration of either chloroform or ether was absolutely safe ; but I should no
more hesitate to give chloroform in the one case than I should hesitate to perform the operation in the
other. At the same time, as the patient or the patient's friends should share with the surgeon the
responsibility of the operation, so should they share with him the danger of the anassthetic. And in those
cases where it seems best to the surgeon, if the patient is willing to take the risk of the more dangerous,
but in a number of cases the more agreeable anaesthetic, the surgeon is, in my judgment, perfectly justified
in using it; and does thereby exercise the "ordinary diligence, care and skill" that the law calls upon him
to use; and he should not be held accountable to law, either human or divine, if the dreadful calamity falls
to his lot of sending a human soul to its creator.
Still on the inside of the half century mark of life. Dr. Wainwright occupies an enviable
position amid the physicians of Hartford, as well as of the state at large. Without devoting
himself to any special field in his profession, he has gained a reputation which many a man
with a score of years more on his shoulders might be proud to possess.
He was married Jan. 14, 1869, to Helena Barker, daughter of the late Thomas Grosvenor
Talcott of Hartford. Of their eleven children four are now living, two sons and two daughters.

lENEDICT, ELIAS CORNELIUS, of Greenwich, senior member of the banking
firm of E. C. Benedict & Co., New York, was born in Somers, Westchester
County, New York, Jan. 24, 1834.
The name Benedict is derived from the Latin benedictus, "blessed, well-
spoken of." Though unknown as a proper name in the Latin tongue, it is
common as such in those languages of modern Europe which are offshoots from the Latin,
or are, from the prevalence of the Romish religion, sprinkled with Roman derivatives. Bene
dict in English and German becomes Benedek in Austrian, Benedetto in Italian, Bendito in
in Spanish and Portuguese, Benoit in French, besides various other forms. It undoubtedly
became a proper name from the ancient custom of adding to or substituting for a family
name some striking individual characteristic or the name of some patron saint.
Among those Englishmen who went into voluntary exile rather than endure the cruelties
and oppressions of the Stuarts in the state and lands of the church was Thomas Benedict
of Nottinghamshire. There is reason to suppose that his own remote ancestor had made
England his refuge from religious persecution on the Continent. He emigrated to New
England in 1638, and soon afterwards married Mary Bridgum,' who came over in the same
ship. They resided for a time in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and then moved to the
valley of the Connecticut, from which they later transferred their home to Southhold, on Long
Island, where their nine children were born. Sometime before 1670 he again made his home
in Connecticut, both political and religious reasons accounting for the change, and settled
in Norwalk. Mr. Benedict must have been a welcome addition to the society of Norwalk,
as he was at once elevated to official station, nor was it a spasmodic appreciation of his
sterling qualities, as the following list will bear abundant testimony : He was town clerk at
different times for a period of nearly ten years ; the records are still preserved in his own
handwriting, and are legible and properly attested by his own signature. His term of
service as selectman covers seventeen years, closing with 1688. In 1670 and again in 1675
he was the representative of Norwalk to the General Assembly. Always zealously affected
in religious matters, he was chosen deacon of the church soon after his arrival in Norwalk,
and held that important office during the rest of his life. Besides the service of these more

90

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

conspicuous appointments, he rendered much valuable assistance to his friends in a non-
official and neighborly way. His good sense and general intelligence, some scientific knowl
edge and his skill as a penman, made him their recourse when papers were to be drafted,
lands to be surveyed and apportioned or disputes to be arbitrated.
From Thomas Bentley, the emigrant, the family line comes down through the second
son John. He was a freeman of Norwalk in 1680 and succeeded his father as selectman in
1689, and filled that office again from 1692 to 1694, and also in 1699. He was occupied
chiefly, however, with church affairs, having become deacon probably on the death of his
father. Thenceforth the records show him to have been constantly on committees having
charge of the religious and educational interests of the community, now "obtaining a
minister, ' ' then ' ' hy^ering a schoolmaster. " In 1 705 the church honored him by voting him
a sitting " in ye seat before ye pulpit." He served as representative in the General Assembly
in the sessions of 1722 and 1725. Then follows a second John, who was also prominent as
a selectman and in other town offices, and was deacon for many years. His fourth son was
Nathaniel. Like those who had preceded him, he was a man of mark and filled numerous
official positions in the town and state. It was said of him at the time of his death that
"He has left ninety-one grandchildren and eighty-eight great-grandchildren, the whole
number of his descendants now living being 191. For about thirty-two years he sustained
the office of deacon of the First Congregational church in that town. Deacon Benedict was
one of those venerable personages by whom what remains of the pious habits of our fore
fathers have been transmitted to the present generation. His long life has been eminently
exemplary, and years to come will feel its happy influence. Every morning and evening
witnessed his devotion. His Sabbaths were faithfully appropriated to public worship and
religious family instructions. An amiable, cheerful disposition, a sound mind, improved by
a degree of reading and much reflection, and adorned with a bright constellation of
Christian graces, comprised his character."
In the fifth generation came another John, and his son Henry was the father of the
subject of this sketch. Henry Benedict is deserving of special mention. After graduating
at Yale College, although for some years in feeble health, he determined to devote himself
to the ministry of the gospel, and pursued a theological course under private instruction.
Commencing his work at Waterbury, Conn., after preaching one year at Gal way, he was
installed pastor of the Congregational church at Norwalk, in August, 1828, and continued
there for four years amid scenes of great religious interest and fruitfulness. Impaired health
compelled him to resign his church and visit the South. In October, 1833, Rev. Mr. Benedict
accepted a call to Lansingburg, New York, and remained there two years. After which,
declining permanent engagements, he preached in Covington, Ky., in StUlwater, and in
New York Cit}-. Leaving New York he was settled over the Congregational church at
Westport, Conn., for twelve years. Resigning this church, he spent the year 1852 in
Europe, and on his return accepted a call to Portchester, where he continued until 1863,
when advancing years induced him to lay aside his duties as pastor. He married Mary
Betts, daughter of Captain Stephen Lockwood of Norwalk, Conn., Sept. i, 1823. Seven
children were born to them, of whom Elias C. was the fourth. Mr. Benedict died at Saratoga
Springs, July 18, 1868.
A private institution at Westport, Conn., and a public school of Buffalo, N. Y., gave
young Benedict all the scholastic education he received, but in the wider school of experience
he has gained a fund of knowledge not to be secured in the great universities. Just after
entering his sixteenth }'ear he went into the banking office of Corning & Company, New York,
as clerk. Wisel}- improving all his opportunities for learning the intricacies of financial

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 91
affairs, in October, 1857, he entered the mercantile world on his own account as Benedict
& Company, his office being at 63 Wall street. Fourteen years later, October 9th, the very
day of the disastrous fire in Chicago, he formed a partnership with Roswell P. Flower, now
governor of New York. This connection lasted until 1875, when the present firm of E. C.
Benedict & Company was organized, and the name has remained unchanged.
During the latter part of the war and the years which followed, when gold was a
marketable commodity, the daily sales at times were simply enormous. The necessity of a
clearing house for these increasing amounts was readily apparent. To meet this pressing
need, Mr. Benedict with others organized the Gold Exchange Bank, and his brother, Henry
M. Benedict, was chosen president. At the time of the famous "Black Friday," when Jay
Gould and those associated with him tried to corner all the gold in the country, the bank
demonstrated its great efficiency, and it lived till the year before the resumption of specie
payments, when the need for its existence had passed away. Mr. Benedict was president
of the bank for the last few years of its life, and during the whole of its career was an
active spirit in its management.
The trend of Mr. Benedict's mind runs largely to the promotion and development of
extensive enterprises. He has made successful the placing of the securities of the gas com
panies of New York, Baltimore, Troy, Indianapolis, Chicago, Albany, and Brooklyn. In
all the companies he is a managing director, and his infiuence is felt everywhere along the
lines which lead to financial success.
Since 1863 Mr. Benedict has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and,
out of the IIOO members at the present time, only thirty can date their connection to an
earlier period. Though always honored by his associates for probity of character, not hav
ing the slightest desire for official station, he has never been prominent in the management
of the Exchange.
For over two score years Mr. Benedict has been a resident of the pleasant town of
Greenwich, Conn., although he has made his home in Connecticut almost continuously since
1840. On one occasion, while he was on a trip to California, and entirely without his
knowledge, he was unanimously elected warden of the town. On his return, he found the
financial affairs of the town in a decidedly tangled condition, and bringing his experience
to bear he brought order out of the seeming chaos, and having performed this valuable
service for his fellow townsmen, he declined emphatically a subsequent election. This one
year covers Mr. Benedict's whole experience as an office holder. His name was prominently
brought forward as the Democratic candidate for governor of Connecticut in 1882, but
while acknowledging the high compliment implied, he declined to allow his name to be
used in that connection.
Mr. Benedict has been extremely fortunate in the friendships he has formed. He was
the close friend of Edwin Booth, and it was on board of his yacht during a cruise in 1887
with Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Lawrence Barrett and others, that Mr. Booth brought out the
philanthropic plan for assisting his fellow actors which resulted in the formation of the club
called "The Players." Joseph Jefferson can also be classed among his intimate acquaint
ances, and with President Grover Cleveland his relations have been of even a closer nature
than with either of the gentlemen named. One must live his life on a high plane to be
on friendly terms with such choice spirits as these, but they are only examples of his
associates, and the connection simply reveals a higher phase of his character.
Oct. 6, 1859, Elias C. Benedict was married to Sarah, daughter of Lucius Hart of New
York. Four children have been born to them — Frederick Hart, who is associated with his
father in business, Martha, now Mrs. Ramsay Turnbull, Helen Ripley and Louise Adele.

92 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

AVIS, CHARLES HENRY STANLEY, was born in Goshen, Conn., March 2,
1840. He is the seventh in lineal descent from Dolor Davis, one of the original
settlers of Barnstable, Mass., in 1634. His father. Dr. Timothy Fisher Davis,
was a practitioner of medicine in Litchfield, Plymouth and Meriden, removing
to the latter place in 1849, and where he died in 1870.
The early education of the subject of this sketch was obtained in the public schools of
Meriden, where he was prepared for college, and under a private tutor pursued the studies of
the freshman and sophomore classes, and was prepared to enter the junior class when his plans
were broken up, and he went to New York to live. Always having a predilection towards the
study of medicine, he entered the office of Dr. William Baker of New York, and soon after
matriculated in the medical department of the New York University, pursuing the full course.
After receiving his diploma he pursued a post-graduate course and received a certificate of
honor, signed by Drs. Valentine Mott, John W. Draver, Alfred Post and the rest of the
faculty, in testimony of having passed one of the best examinations. After taking a course
in the medical department of the University of Maryland, and a special course at the Harvard
Medical school, he returned to Meriden and succeeded his father in the practice of his pro
fession. After five years he went abroad for travel and study, and, after visiting Germany,
Italy, Switzerland, Scotland and- Ireland, he followed for several months the practice in the
hospitals of London and Paris. Upon his return to Meriden, he very soon built up a large
and lucrative practice, extending to the surrounding towns.
Dr. Davis was one of the founders of the Meriden City Medical Society, and was its
secretary for several years. He became a member also of the New Haven County Medical
Society and the Connecticut State Medical Society. In 1887, the late Lemuel J. Curtis
donated some 5^300,000 for a Home for Old Ladies and Orphan Children, and Dr. Davis was
appointed attending physician, and he has had the medical charge of the Home ever since.
He has been a large contributor to the medical press. Among fifty or more articles con
tributed to medical journals and enumerated in the catalogue of the library of the surgeon-
general at Washington, are "Report of one hundred and thirty cases of Diphtheria;"
"Five cases of Puerperal Eclampsia; " "Hereditary Influence; " "Morbus Coxarius, Report
of two cases ; " " Marriages of Consanguinity ; " " Clergymen's Sore Throat ; " " Infirmities
of Genius;" "Genius vs. Eccentricity and Insanity;" "Is Consumption contagious ?" etc.
He has attended at the birth of some six hundred children, but owing to his many duties
he has been obliged to give up obstetric practice. Dr. Davis is examining physician for the
Pennsylvania Mutual Life Insurance Company, the New York Life, United States Life, Mas
sachusetts Mutual, Equitable, New Jersey Mutual, Knights of Honor, Chosen Friends, New
England Order of Protection, Golden Circle, A. O. U. W. and O. U. A. M., and during the past
twenty-five years he has examined over one thousand applicants.
While greatl}- in love with his profession, which for many years has occupied his time
from twelve to fourteen hours a day, Dr. Davis has found time to take up other pursuits which
have been a source of pleasure and relaxation from the severe duties of his profession.
When Mr. Davis first went to New York, he entered into partnership with Mr. Charles H.
Thomas, a well-known philologist and translator, and opened a book-store for the sale of works
particulariy in the Oriental and classical languages, they being at that time the only firm
making a specialt}- of philological works. Their store was also the headquarters for the sale
of the works of Thomas Lake Harris, and other New Church writers. In a back room in
this store the American Philological Society was organized, with Rev. Dr. Nathan Brown
(formeriy missionary to Assam, and who translated the Bible into Assamese, and afterwards

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 93
missionary to Japan) as president, Rev. William U. Scott (afterwards missionary to Burmah)
as vice-president, and Dr. Davis as corresponding secretary. Dr. Davis at this time, under
Dr. Brown, took up the study of Hebrew and Syriac, which in after years he followed with
Arabic, Assyrian, Ancient Egyptian, as well as the modern languages. He began at this
time to form a library which at the present time contains some six thousand volumes.
At sixteen Dr. Davis began to contribute to the press. In his eighteenth year he con
tributed a column article every week for a year to the New York Chronicle. At this time he
began to gather material for a history of Wallingford and Meriden ; and in 1870 he published
this history, containing nearly one thousand pages, and tracing out some sixty genealogies of
the early settlers. It is one of the largest and most complete of the New England local
histories. Two thousand copies were printed, and every copy was sold. For four years
Dr. Davis edited for th.^ American Bookseller, the "Index to Periodical Literature," carefully
indexing each month, under appropriate heads, the contents of some one hundred and thirty
American and foreign periodicals.
While following the practice of Morrell Mackenzie in London, and Fournier in Paris,
Dr. Davis became much interested in the study of the throat, and the result was a work on
"The Voice as a Musical Instrument," which was published by Oliver Ditson & Company,
and has had a very large sale. Dr. Davis has been greatly interested in the education and
management of backward and feeble-minded children. While abroad he visited the Institute
des Enfants Arridrds at Gentilly, near Paris, the Scottish National Institution for Imbeciles
at Larbert, Sterlingshire, Scotland, the Royal Albert Asylum at Lancaster, and other like
institutions. He has written largely for the press on the subject, and several of his articles
were translated into Spanish and were published in El Reportorio Medico. Some of these
articles were incorporated in a work entitled ' ' On the Classification, Training and Education
of the Feeble Minded, Imbecile and Idiotic." It is Dr. Davis's purpose to enlarge this work
and publish another edition, as there has been a large demand for it.
One of the founders of the Meriden Scientific Association, Dr. Davis has for twelve years
been the secretary and ' director of the department of ethnology and archaeology, and has
edited the four volumes of its transactions. To these volumes he has contributed articles on
the ' ' Cycocarpus Gracilis ; " " The Discovery of Ainerica before Columbus ; " "A List of the
Forest Trees and Shrubs found growing in Meriden," etc., and has read numerous papers on
scientific subjects before the association. As the association exchanges with some four hun
dred home and foreign scientific societies, the duties of secretary have been no sinecure, and
he has personaUy attended to all of the exchanges and correspondence, beside attending to
his own correspondence, which averages from twenty-five to fifty letters a week.
For many years Dr. Davis has been interested in Oriental philology and archaeology. In
1888, he published the first number of Biblia, a monthly journal devoted to Oriental research
in archaeology, epigraphy, ethnology, geography, history, languages, literature, religion, etc.
It is also the organ of the Egypt and Palestine Exploration Funds. This journal has a large
•circulation in this country, and has subscribers in Great Britain, France, Germany, India,
Japan, Egypt, Syria and New Zealand ; also in the Hawaiian Islands. Dr. Davis has edited
this journal for six years and has been a large contributor to its pages. In the first volume he
published the Hebrew text of Genesis, for which he made a literal, interlinear translation.
In connection with Rev. Dr. Camden M. Cobeen of Ann Arbor, Mich., Dr. Davis has written
'" A History of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Discoveries," with an introduction by
Rev. William C. Winslow, D. D., LL.D. This magnificent work, the finest ever published
on the subject by private enterprise, is a large folio of some four hundred pages, and with one
thousand illustrations. Nearly the whole of the first edition was subscribed for at twelve
13

94 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
dollars before the work went to press. In 1894, Dr. Davis published an edition of the Ancient
Egyptian " Book of the Dead." This unique work reproduces the seventy-nine plates of the
Great Turin Papyrus, and the twenty plates of the Louvre Papyrus, with a complete translation
of the 167 chapters. To this work Dr. Davis contributed an introduction, and chapters on "The
Religious Beliefs of Primitive Peoples," " The Religion of Ancient Egypt," " Animal Worship
in Ancient Egypt," "The Egyptian Pantheon," and "The Symbolism of the Book of the
Dead." Dr. Davis also autographed for this work M. Lieblin's valuable Index Alphabetique,
which was photo-engraved. He has nearly completed a work entitled " The Pharaohs and
their Times, or Egypt in her Magnificence and Grandeur," giving an account of the land and
the people ; the tombs, temples and palaces ; the manner and customs, arts and sciences, par
ticularly during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first dynasties, when Egypt had arrived
at the height of her magnificence and prosperity.
For a number of years Dr. Davis has been engaged in his magnum opus, an Egyptian-
English and English-Egyptian Dictionary, which will contain some 12,000 definitions.
Notwithstanding his many duties. Dr. Davis keeps abreast with the times in all depart
ments of literature, receiving every month some fifty periodicals from France, Germany, Great
Britain and this country, devoted to science, medicine, literature and art. He is one of the
honorary secretaries of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and was one of the advisory council
of the World's Fair Auxiliary, in the department of philology and Egyptology. To this
department he contributed a lengthy paper on the religion of Ancient Egypt.
While not practically interested in politics except in the interest of good government.
Dr. Davis was elected to represent Meriden in the General Assembly of 1873, and was the
first Democratic representative that Meriden had sent in twenty years. At this session he
served as chairman of the committee on education. He was elected again in 1885, and served
as clerk of the same committee, and was sent a third, time in 1886, when he served on com
mittees on insurance and on constitutional amendment. In 1885, he was nominated for judge
of probate for the Meriden district, but declined. In 1886, he received the nomination for
state senator for the sixth senatorial district, but lost his election by thirty-two votes, although
in Meriden he ran two hundred ahead of the opposing candidate. In 1886, he was elected
mayor of the city by a large majority, the first Democratic mayor since the city was incor
porated, in 1867. One of the local papers said: "His inaugural address showed that he was
no novice in municipal government, and his administration has been characterized by ability,
fidelitv and impartiality." In 1887, he was reelected mayor, and although nominated again in
1888, he declined the nomination, as he considered that he had devoted sufficient time to
municipal affairs. During his administration he called a public meeting to organize a Board
of Trade, and was unanimously elected the president of the board. He also, in connection
with Messrs. Webb and Burgess, organized three building and loan associations, and was presi
dent of the first two and a trustee of the third. To assist and build up these associations.
Dr. Davis edited and published for a year a monthly journal of sixteen quarto pages devoted to
building and loan societies, writing nearly all of the contents of each number. After nearly
one thousand members had been obtained for the associations, the journal ceased publication,
as it had accomplished its object.
In 1872, Dr. Davis was elected a member of the Meriden school board and has .served
in that capacity for twenty-two years. For five years he was the acting school visitor, visiting
some sixty schools twice every three months. For a number of years he has been chairman
of the board. His annual reports showed a thorough knowledge of educational methods.
When the high school was organized in 1882, Dr. Davis was elected a member of the com
mittee and has held the position since and is chairman of the committee. In 1889, he delivered

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 95
a course of twelve afternoon lectures before the senior class, giving a critical and analytical
history of English literature from Chaucer to the present day. The lectures proved so inter
esting that they were attended by an audience of over three hundred ladies, several of the local
clergy and others. Dr. Davis also delivered other afternoon lectures at the high school on
"Troubadours and Their Times," "Scandinavian Literature," and "The Influence of
French and Italian Literature on early English Literature."
In 1 89 1, the Legislature appointed Dr. Davis a trustee of the State Reform School, now
the Connecticut School for Boys. He is secretary of the board and on its most important
committees. In 1893, seeing the necessity of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Dr. Davis prepared a petition which he caused to be circulated, and in two weeks some one
hundred and forty names were signed, and the Meriden Humane Society was organized and
afterwards incorporated. With the exception of the prosecuting officer the society is officered
entirely by women.
Dr. Davis is fond of society and greatly enjoys a game of chess. He has been for a
number of years a member of the Home Club. He is also a member and corresponding
member of some thirty societies, among which are the American Oriental Society, American
Philological Society, Society of Biblical Archaeology of London, Royal Archaeological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland, Associate of the Victoria Institute and Philosophical Society
of Great Britain, International Society of Orientalists, Societe d' Anthropologic of Paris,
American Association for the Advancement of Science," etc., including also some ten historical
societies. For twenty-five years Dr. Davis has been a member of the Masonic order, having taken
the degrees in chapter, council and commandery of the York rite, including the Knights of
Malta ; and in the Scottish rite, the Lodge of Perfection ; Council of the Princes of Jerusalem ;
Chapter of Rose Croix^ H. R. D. M. ; and Consistory of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret ;
in all, thirty-two degrees above the Knights Templars. He is also a noble of the Mystic
Shrine. Besides being a member for twenty-five years of the Odd Fellows, he is a member
of the Encampment, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Ancient Order of Foresters,
Ancient Order of Shepherds, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, Royal Arcanum, Order of
Chosen Friends, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Past Warden of the New England Order
of Protection, and is a member of numerous other benevolent and protective associations.

gULKELEY, WILLIAM HENRY, ex-lieutenant governor of Connecticut, and
president of the Kellogg & Bulkeley Company, was born in East Haddam,
Conn., March 2, 1840.
The genealogy of the Bulkeley family can be traced back in direct line
to Robert Bulkeley, Esq., one of the English barons in the time of King John,
in the thirteenth century. The name was originally spelled Buclough, and many of the
title took a prominent part in the early history of Great Britain. From Baron Robert, in
the tenth generation, the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, born in Bedfordshire in 1583, was the first
of the name to emigrate to this country. He settled in Massachusetts in 1634, and was a
man of considerable mark, being the purchaser of land from the Indians, and the founder
of the town of Concord, in which he built the first house and of which he became the first
minister. His son. Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, married a daughter of President Chauncey of
Harvard College, and occupied no small place in the colonial days of Connecticut. He was-

96 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
a many sided man, and even in the nineteenth century would have gained an exceUent
reputation for himself. Then followed Reverend John, almost equal to his father, who was
the first minister of Colchester in tjiis state. The second John in the family line was a
judge, and is known in the annals of his time as the Honorable John. His son, John Charles
Bulkeley, was the father of Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, a man of wide experience, who did much
for the upbuilding of Hartford. One of the organizers of the company, he was chosen first
president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, later he was elected president
of the ^tna Life Insurance Company and filled that position for twenty- two years, leaving
the company at his death in 1872 on a solid and substantial basis. He married Lydia S.,,
daughter of Avery Morgan, and of the six children, William H. was the fourth.
When the subject of this sketch had reached the age of seven years, the family residence
was transferred to Hartford, and he has since, with the exception of ten years, made that
city his home. Young Bulkeley's education was obtained in the district and high schools
of Hartford, those popular educators, T. W. T. Curtis and F. F. Barrows being his principal
instructors. Leaving school before graduation, with an admirable record for application and
scholarship, he entered the old and leading dry goods establishment of Thatcher, Goodrich
& Stillman. After a short experience here, he sought for a place to broaden his knowledge
of business affairs, and in March, 1857 he went to Brooklyn, N. Y., and secured a position
with H. P. Morgan & Company, who were engaged in the same line of trade.- Deciding
to enter mercantile life for himself, he opened a dry goods store on Fulton street, Brooklyn,
in 1 86 1. This was conducted successfully for six years and showed the possibilities of the
future merchant.
In 1867, Mr. Bulkeley returned to Hartford and has since been a resident of the capital
city. He at once organized the Kellogg & Bulkeley Company, to carry on the lithographing
business, and was chosen president of the company, an office which he has filled to the
present time.
For some time he served as vice-president of the ^tna Life Insurance Company, of which
his father was president for so many years, and of which his honored brother. Gov. Morgan
G. Bulkeley, is now the head. He still retains a place on the board of directors. As director
and other official, Mr. Bulkeley is connected with a number of banking, insurance and business
corporations of Hartford. Among them are : The United States Bank, which he organized,
the American National Bank, the Orient Fire Insurance Company and several of the
manufacturing companies of the city and vicinity.
His love for the intricacies of the dry goods business, gained by a dozen years' experience
in early life was stUl strong, and in 1878 Mr. Bulkeley purchased the "Bee Hive," a famous
Hartford establishment. For the past sixteen years this has been the chief secular object
of his attention, and he has managed its numerous departments with exceptional success.
The business tact and executive ability required to successfully conduct a large retail estab
lishment are similar to those which are demanded in the building up of a manufacturing
industry, and he would have been equally prosperous in any department of business to which
he chose to devote himself. In the spring of 1894, he disposed of his interest.
Being one of the first to respond to the call for troops after the attack upon Fort
Sumter, Mr. Bulkeley has a creditable war record. As a member of the Brooklyn City
Guard, G Company, Thirteenth Regiment, New York National Guards, he went to the front
with his command April 19, 1861. The organization was in service four months. In 1862
he organized Company G of the Fifty-Sixth Regiment, New York National Guards, and was
elected captain. Through the Pennsylvania crisis of 1863, he was in Gen. "Baldy" Smith's.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 97
division, and with it passed through all the dangers of that campaign. During the New
York draft riots his regiment was ordered home, and the exigencies of the situation being
ended, the regiment was disbanded, its term of service having expired.
In municipal and state politics Mr. Bulkeley has been both honored and burdened
with official positions. For five years he was a member of the common council board of
Hartford, serving one year as vice-president and a similar term as president of that body.
At the expiration of membership in the council his constituents still desired to retain him
in their service. He was made a member of the board of street commissioners, and by
successive appointments filled that position for several years. Putting some of the same
zeal and energy into the work which characterize his business relations, Mr. Bulkeley
proved one of the most efficient members the board has ever had. During the administra
tion of Gov. C. B. Andrews, he served as commissary general of the state of Connecticut.
At the Republican state convention in the fall of 1880, his friends brought forward
his name for the nomination as lieutenant-governor, and their choice was made unanimous.
This selection received triumphant ratification at the polls, and General Bulkeley served
with credit as the colleague of Gov. H. B. Bigelow during the years 1881-82. As the
presiding officer of the Senate, he won and received the approval of that body, irrespective
of party affiliations, for his fairness in ruling and his uniform courtesy during the sessions.
When the Republican convention assembled in the fall of 1882, General Bulkeley's was
the only name mentioned prominently for the nomination for gubernatorial honors, and he
was placed at the head of the ticket by acclamation. The nomination made an exceedingly
favorable impression on the state at large, and the campaign opened auspiciously.
Speaking of General Bulkeley, the Hartford Post said : ' ' Our candidate for governor is
now so well known throughout the state, that there is no occasion for any extended
biographical notice. General Bulkeley has made a model lieutenant-governor, and has
gained in popularity every day since his ej^ection, two years ago. A clear headed man of
business affairs, an enterprising citizen largely interested in matters affecting local and state
prosperity, socially most agreeable and pleasant in manners, he possesses qualifications for
the candidacy of an uncommon order."
In an article on the same subject, the New York Times had the following compli
mentary allusion to the candidate: " As a prominent business man of Hartford, an able
and honest political leader, a citizen of high grade, and thoroughly deserving the distinction
he has attained. The popular principle that should govern promotions seems to have had
weight with the convention, and the lieutenant-governor who has discharged his duties
acceptably to his fellow citizens is likely to be the governor of Connecticut."
The year 1882 will be remembered as one which was decidedly unpropitious for
Republican candidates. It was the year in which Grover Cleveland received his phenomenal
majority of nearly 200,000 in New York, and General Butler was elected governor of
Massachusetts. On the face of the returns, Thomas M. Waller, General Bulkeley's
Democratic competitor, had a majority of some 8,006 votes, but these included what were
known as the "famous black ballots," cast in New Haven. The legality of the ballots
was tested, and by the courts they were declared invalid in a plainly worded decision. The
legislature was Republican in both branches, and after the verdict of the court had been
promulgated, had any partisan action been taken, it will be readily seen that most un
pleasant complications would have ensued. General Bulkeley was equal to the occasion,
and solved the Gordian knot of difficulty in a characteristic manner. In an open letter to
the public, he renounced all possible claim to the governorship, and the letter was in
every way worthy of the man.

98 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Hartford, Dec. 30, 1882.
Charles J. Coi,E, Chairman Republican State Committee,
Dear Sir : My attention has been called to the various communications which have appeared in the
public prints, relating to the "black ballots," so called; I desire to say for myself that under no circum
stances — no matter what doubts may exist in regard to the legal election of Gov. Waller- — I cannot and have
not for one moment entertained the idea that it would be possible for me to hold the office of governor under
the existing circumstances, no matter what the general assembly may do or declare ; and any action they take,
must be with the knowledge that in no event will I serve or take the position, which I believe it was the
intent of the electors to give to another. Very truly yours, Wm. H. Bui.keI/EY.
The legislature then passed the "Healing Act," validating the disputed "black ballots,"
which was a very peculiar document. Mr. Waller was installed in the gubernatorial chair,
and General Bulkeley retired to private life with the respect of all the citizens of the state.
After the battle regarding the ballots was over, the Hartford Post spoke thus of General
Bulkeley's course during the campaign: "General Bulkeley has stood in the face of unscru
pulous opposition, which has gone to extreme lengths in assailing him unjustly, in a dignified
attitude ; he has permitted no word to escape his lips which could possibly be distorted into
an unpleasant reflection upon his traducers. He has borne himself like the true gentleman
that he is, and in his defeat the cleanliness of his record and the manliness of his bearing
give his friends a renewed assurance that their confidence in him was fully deserved."
Governor Bulkeley is an active member of Robert O. Tyler Post, G. A. R., of Hartford,
and also of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, and in each of these organizations his
interest is shown in many practical ways. A member of the Peari Street Congregational
church, he is a generous contributor to its charities. A prominent citizen of Hartford for
nearly two-score years, Governor Bulkeley's name is conspicuous in political and business
circles, far outside the limits of the city and county. First, as having occupied the second
highest office within the gift of the people of his adopted state, and next as the proprietor
of one of the most noted dry goods emporiums «i this section of New England. His ances
tors were distinguished for the impression they made on the moral, civil and business life
of the communities in which they lived, and this representative of a later generation is no
exception to the rule of the past. In private life, he is a gentleman of superior traits of
character, and the social life of Hartford would be the loser by his removal. Now in the
prime of his manhood, always popular with his constituents and honored by his fellow-citizens,
it is more than probable that the future has yet higher honors in store for his acceptance.
Wm. H. Bulkeley was married Sept. 8, 1863, to Emma, daughter of Melvin and Letitia
Gurney of Brooklyn, N. Y. The family circle now includes six children: Mrs. Edward S.
Van Zile of New York city. Col. W. E. A. Bulkeley of Hartford, Mrs. David Van Schaack
of Brooklyn, N. Y., John C. Bulkeley, student at Trinity College, and SaUie Taintor and
Richard Beaumaris Bulkeley, the two latter being still under the parental roof.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 99

;OODWARD, P. HENRY, of Hartford, son of Ashbel and of Emeline (Bicknell)
Woodward, was born in Franklin, Conn., March 19, 1833.
He is the eighth in descent from Richard Woodward, who embarked in
the ship "Elizabeth" at Ipswich, England, April 10, 1634, and whose name
is on the earliest list of proprietors of Watertown, Mass. The Woodward
genealogy is giveA in Dr. Henry Bond's History of Watertown. His father was a physician
of unusual skill, and incidentally a deep student of the antiquities and genealogies of New
England. A sketch of his life may be found in the New England Historical and Genealog
ical Register for April, 1886. The son graduated at Yale College in 1855, grading high
for thoroughness and elegance of scholarship. He studied law in part at Harvard, and toward
the close of i860 opened an office in Savannah, Ga., in company with William Robert
Gignilliat, Jr., of that state. Soon interrupted by the outbreak of war, professional practice
was never resumed. Returning north after most of the lines of communication had been
closed to through travel, he spent the next year in study and writing.
From September, 1862, till September, 1865, he furnished the editorials and attended
to the night dispatches of the Hartford Daily Courant. A reminiscent letter from Mr.
Woodward in the memorial number issued Dec. 10, 1892, says, "Personally my connection
with the Courant was delightful from beginning to end, and was given up regretfully from
loss of health through overwork."
In September, 1865, he was appointed special agent of the post-office department, and
was entrusted with the duty of reconstructing the service in the state of Georgia. The
task was performed so efficiently that he was soon placed in charge of the through mails
and of the whole scheme of distribution between the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico,
and eastward to the Carolinas. He transferred the work from stationary offices like Nashville,
Montgomery and Augusta to cars fitted up for the purpose, and as he was allowed without
interference to select clerks with sole reference to their qualifications, the mail facilities of
the South were quickly raised from disorganization and chronic incompleteness to a degree
of excellence unsurpassed in the most favored parts of the country.
With the change of administration he was relieved from superintendence of the railway
service and assigned to general duties, with headquarters at Augusta, Ga. The position
involved a great deal of travel, required at times intense but brief spurts of mental activity,
and brought numerous adventures, some of which in the disordered state of the country were
made more exciting by a flavor of peril. Occasionally the rapidity and certainty with which
complicated skeins were unravelled, startled by dramatic effects the witnesses drawn by
circumstances into the inquiries. In February, 1873, Mr. Woodward, then engaged on
important matters in Georgia and Alabama, received repeated and urgent dispatches to
hurry to Washington. On reaching the department he was told that there was dishonesty
in the management of the office at New York city, and was instructed to probe it to the
bottom. He was also assured that the government would stand behind him with all its
resources. He met by appointment Harry G. Pearson, then a railwa}- postal clerk, ¦\yho after
wards, by successive promotions for merit alone, became postmaster of New York city.
Together they commenced the work.
In the first corner invaded, the cold blooded stealings from the government exceeded
$10,000 per annum. Other corners were just as bad. Very soon they began to encounter
mysterious obstacles. The petty thieves inside were in league with powerful politicians on
the outside who, for the sake of themselves and their confederates, put forth herculean efforts
to stop the investigation. F'inally after a siege of a month or more, during which the defenders

lOo REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of guilty secrets were protected by masked batteries at every turn, Mr. Woodward received
from Postmaster- General Creswell a letter stuffed with personal compliments but relieving
him from further prosecution of the case, and directing him to turn over all the books and
papers connected with the affairs of the outgoing regime to a convenient tool held in reserve
for such emergencies. The compliments in the missive that ended the investigation brought
unspeakable pain to the recipient, for these were so many implicit admissions that gangs
of politicians banded together for plunder and for mutual protection were sometimes strong
enough to laugh at law and justice, and even to defy successfully the government of the
Republic. Permitted to select his residence wherever he pleased, Mr. Woodward now trans
ferred his headquarters from Georgia to Connecticut.
In the summer of 1874, Hon. Marshall Jewell was recalled by President Grant from
the court of St. Petersburgh to take the position of postmaster-general. One of his earliest
acts as a member of the cabinet was to unite with Secretary Bristow in sending a commis
sion to Texas to investigate charges of wide-spread corruption brought against federal office
holders in that state, and he selected Mr. Woodward to represent the post-office department.
Several had preceded on similar missions and in each instance had pronounced the accusa
tions to be groundless. In a few days at widely separated places the commission unearthed
a mass of villainy, the accumulation of years of mal-administration, that astonished even the
parties who had persisted in pressing the charges in the face of roseate reports from successive
investigators. Speedy removals followed in the principal federal offices of that state.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Woodward was appointed chief of the corps of special agents.
About a quarter of the force consisted of highly gifted and skillful men upon whom the real
work devolved. Many on the rolls were incompetent. The corps was rapidly reconstructed
with a single eye to efficiency. Subordinate divisions were established at convenient points
throughout the country,, and other changes of method introduced which became permanent
features of the system. Unfit men were dropped and promotions made from other branches
of the sei-vice for merit alone in disregard of the demands of politicians. Quickly the force
rose to unexampled effectiveness. Other departments in difficult cases invoked its aid. Fail
ure to succeed became a tradition of the past. Conspiracies between contractors and clerks
to obtain routes by fraudulent bids were discovered and broken up. Old abuses were rooted
out. Large sums were saved by cutting off or reducing unnecessary service dishonestly
procured. Mr. Woodward supervised the entire work.
Meanwhile in pursuing the whiskey frauds Secretary Bristow had invaded the White House.
In the memorable utterance, " Let no guilty man escape," General Grant spoke in all sincerity,
little dreaming that his own confidential secretary was deeply implicated. Unwisely both
Bristow and Jewell entered the Cincinnati convention in 1876 as candidates for the succession.
Instead of planning for advancement, reformers should be prepared for martyrdom. The
action of those gentlemen gave their enemies the opportunity to persuade the President that
his own confidential advisers had scandalized his administration, merely to rise on the dishonor
of their chief. Weary and desperate. General Grant dismissed them both. The move was
foUowed by the official massacre of all who had been prominent in the exposure and prosecution
of frauds in the two departments. Thus the subject of this sketch was retired after eleven
years of service.
In his "Testimony relating to the Star Route cases" (page two and following), Hon.
Thomas L. James, postmaster-general under General Garfield, explains how Mr. Woodward
was recalled. At an interview on the 9th of March, 1881, the President told IV^r. James
that in the star route service ' ' he was satisfied there had been willful waste of the public
money and gross corruption," and instructed him "to pursue this investigation untU there
were no more facts to ascertain." He then asked, "How do you propose to proceed?"

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. loi
I replied that, with his approval, I should telegraph P. H. Woodward of Connecticut, formerly chief
special agent of the Post-office Department, and a man of character and integrity — who, while in the depart
ment, had rendered great service to the government in breaking up the practice of straw bidding in connection
with star-route contracts — to come to Washington, and that I would place the investigation in his hands. The
President said that this met with his entire approval.
On my way back to the department, I met Senator Hawley and Governor Jewell of Connecticut. At my
request both these gentlemen telegraphed to Mr. Woodward to accept the position of inspector. In reply to
my telegram, Mr. Woodward met me in New York on the 12th of March, when I asked him to become my
confidential agent in the investigation of the star-route frauds. He accepted, accompanied me to Washington,
and was commissioned as an inspector on the 14th of March. I notified the President of Mr. Woodward's
arrival. He said that he was much annoyed in regard to certain large post offices in North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia ; that he did not wish to make mistakes in appointments in this connection ; that only
men fit to be postmasters and those having the confidence of the people should be appointed, and that as
Mr. Woodward had formerly lived in the South he thought it would be well to place all the applications
for appointment in his hands and let him visit the cities in which these offices were located, inquire into
the fitness and character of the applicants, and recommend the person best equipped for the place. These
suggestions were carried out, and in consequence very little progress was made in the star-route investiga
tions until the ist of April. * * * *
In the early part of April, fortified with facts and figures laboriously and carefully collated, Mr.
Woodward and myself called on the President and exhibited a comparative statement of the most corruptly
manipulated routes. He displayed great surprise, and wished to know if the figures had been verified by
the records. He also added that he had been providentially saved from falling into a trap which had
evidently been set for him, aud seemed to be contemplating some peril which he had escaped. ¦» * * On
the 19th of April, Inspector Woodward addressed me a communication strongly urging that the interests of
the pending investigation and of the department demanded the retirement of Thomas J. Brady from the
office of second assistant postmaster-general. The same evening Woodward and myself called upon the
President, to whom I referred the letter. He at once directed Brady's dismissal.
Picked men were sent to the Rocky Mountain states, and territories, where most of the
manipulated routes were located, in quest of facts relating to the performance of the
service. Mr. Woodward personally examined seriatim the complicated and bedeviled papers
on file in the department, and prepared the abstracts showing just what had been done and
what could be proved. All implicated persons who hoped to obtain immunity by giving
information, were required to communicate through him. On this point Dr. Edward C.
Savidge says — in his "Life of Benjamin Harris Brewster," page 140:
Messrs. MacVeagh and James, knowing the difficulty of acquiring the secrets of a rich, powerful and
well-organized ring, quietly announced that the administration would protect from harm the minor tools of
the principals who would give valuable information to the government. It became Mr. Woodward's duty to
receive these confidences, and he thus acquired the secrets of the ring, which he reduced to writing. Many
of these, seen by the writer, are startling in the number of eminent men they implicate. Mr. Woodward's
position was unique, yet perilous. The criminals learned to trust him implicitly ; he never broke faith with
one of them. They understood that their disclosures should guide the government in preparing the cases,
but should not harm themselves, or be used in court, unless they were to be accepted as state's evidence
and given immunity. It was the policy of the government to mention no man's name in connection with
the matter unless he was to be taken into court and prosecuted.
An account of the methods of the conspirators, of the trials, and of the debauchery of
the juries, may be found in the "Life of Benjamin H. Brewster," by Dr. E. C. Savidge.
More exhaustive information is contained in the records of the two trials filling seven large
volumes, and in the testimony taken by the committee of the House. (48th Congress, ist
Session, House of Representatives, Mis. Doc. 38, Part 2.)
Of the part performed by Mr. Woodward, Mr. Richard T. Merrick, leading counsel for
the government and the acknowledged head of the Washington bar, said : (Aside from
associate counsel), the others "with whom I was brought more directly in contact than
with anybody else were Mr. Woodward, whom you have had before you, and Mr. Lyman,
the present second assistant postmaster- general, and two more diligent, faithful and earnest
officers neither this nor, in my judgment, any other government ever had."
14

I02 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In addition to other testimony of similar import Attorney General Brewster said, ' ' I
think without Mr. Woodward these cases never could have been instituted. I think he
was, to use one word, invaluable. He is a man of remarkable intelligence ; he is a man
of great purity of character ; he is an educated gentleman. In all my life, in an experience
of over forty-six years of legal practice, I never have met with a man who could assist a lawyer
better than Mr. Woodward."
Mr. Woodward left the postal service soon after the change of administration in 1885.
In 1888, prominent business men of Hartford, discouraged by the stationary condition of the
town and by the removal to other places of several promising enterprises, organized the
Board of Trade. At the urgent solicitation of the president, Mr. J. M. Allen, and others,
Mr. Woodward took the secretaryship. He proceeded at once to collect full and exact
statistics in respect to insurance, banking and manufactures — the leading interests of the city.
These duly incorporated into historical accounts, and reinforced by other matter relating to
public works, education, art, local charities, etc., etc., were published the following season
in a volume of two hundred and twenty pages. Four-fifths of an edition of ten thousand
were circulated within a few months. The growth of the town since the formation of the
Board of Trade has been phenomenal. The record year by year may be found in the annual
reports of the association.
In June, 1890, the Hartford Board of Trade Room and Power Company was organized
with a capital of $100,000 fully paid, Mr. Woodward being secretary and treasurer. The
following season an elegant building of three stories, three hundred and sixty feet long, was
completed. It was then sold on terms which reimbursed the shareholders, principal and
interest, the purchasers carrying out the original purpose of the undertaking.
For the hundredth anniversary of the Hartford Bank (June 14, 1892), at the request
of the president and directors, Mr. Woodward wrote its history, a book of one hundred and
seventy-six pages. Many years ago he wrote a series of sketches drawn from the postal service,
under the title of " Guarding the Mails."
Sept. II, 1867, Mr. Woodward married Mary, only daughter of Charles Smith of South
Windham, Conn., a highly successful manufacturer, widely known for ability and elevation
of character. He has two children, a daughter and son.

BALDWIN, SIMEON EBEN, of New Haven, associate justice of the Supreme
Court of Errors, was born in the city where he now resides, Feb. 5, 1840.
The exact locality in England from which John Baldwin, the original
emigrant of the name, departed is unknown, and the time of his arrival in
this country is also uncertain. In early manhood he came from Norwich to
Guilford, about 1650. His son Thomas had a son Ebenezer who was a captain in the
militia, and a representative to the General Court. Simeon Baldwin, son of Ebenezer, was
a man of marked character and took a prominent part in the affairs of the day. Graduat
ing from Yale College in 1781, besides being a member of Congress and mayor of New
Haven, he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. He married Rebecca, daughter
of Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Roger Sherman Baldwin,
named for his maternal grandfather, graduated from Yale College in the class of 1811, from
which institution he afterwards received the degree of LL.D., an honor which was also
conferred on him by Trinity College, Hartford. High official stations were often presented

OF CONNECTICUT, T861-1894. 103
for his acceptance. In 1843-44 he was governor of Connecticut, and in 1847 he was
chosen United States senator. He took an active part in the national Peace Convention of
1861. His wife, n^e Emily Perkins, was a daughter of Enoch and Anna Perkins of
Hartford. Her mother was a daughter of Rev. Timothy Pitkin of Farmington, a Fellow of
Yale College and a trustee of Dartmouth College, and was a grand-daughter of President
Clapp of Yale. She was a descendant of John Haynes, who occupied the unique position of
first having been governor of Massachusetts and afterwards of Connecticut, and' of Gov.
William Pitkin of Connecticut. She was also descended from Gov. George Wyllys of
Connecticut, and of Gov. Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts, and Gov. WUliam Bradford of
the Plymouth Colony. Of his father's family, Simeon E. Baldwin was the youngest.
His preparation for coUege was received at the Hopkins grammar school, and entering
Yale he was graduated in the class of 1861. Choosing the legal profession as the one best
adapted to his tastes, Mr. Baldwin studied at the Yale and Harvard Law Schools and also
had the benefit of experience in his father's office, the latter being one of the leading
lawyers of the state. Admitted to the bar in 1863, he at once commenced the practice of
his profession in the city of his birth. This was continued until 1893, when he was
appointed by Governor Morris associate judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. In this
score and a half years, he made annual additions to his reputation as a painstaking and
conscientious lawyer, who left nothing undone which would assist in bringing success to
his side of the case. Without devoting himself to any special branch of the law, he secured
a large and profitable clientage and what is known as "general practice," throughout the
state, and occasionally was engaged in cases in the courts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and New York.
Among the more prominent cases with which Judge Baldwin's name is identified are
Todd vs. Townsend Savings Bank, involving the question of the rights of holders of non-
negotiable paper as against assignees in bankruptcy, the case being finally carried to the
Supreme Court of the United States; the Union Switch Signal Co. vs. Hall Switch &
Signal Co., in which the validity of the Hall patent for automatic railroad signals as the
first American patentee in this land was involved; Boston & Providence Railroad vs.
Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad, before the Supreme Court of Rhode Island,
brought to attack the lease and sale of the defendant road to the Boston, Hartford & Erie
Co. ; Earl P. Mason et als. vs. the same, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the
District qf Massachusetts, involving claims of the preferred stockholders of the defendant
road; the suit under which the New York & New England Road was put in the hands
of a receiver by the Circuit Court of the United States in 1884, entitled Bressey vs. New
York & New England Railroad Co. ; the foreclosure of the Middletown, New Haven &
Willimantic Railroad first mortgage in 1875, in the Superior Court of Middlesex County,
Connecticut ; the Andover heresy case, so called, before the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts; the Shepaug voting trust cases, in the Superior Court of Fairfield County,
Connecticut, involving the validity of the voting trusts for the control of the corporation ;
the case of the mayor of New York vs. the New England Transfer Company, in the
Circuit Court of the southern district of New York, involving the right of the defendant
to run a steam transfer around the city to connect the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which the city claimed required a ferry license.
In 1869, Judge Baldwin was invited to become an instructor in the Yale Law School.
He accepted the offer, and filled the position until three years later, when he was made
professor of constitutional law at Yale, and has given instructions to a greater or less
extent to the present time. He was a member of the commission appointed by the state

I04 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
in 1872 to revise the laws on the subject of education, and the next year was made a
member of a commission to revise the general statutes of the state. The report of this last
commission was the basis of the revision effected in 1875. F'of the year 1877 he was a
member of the committee on jurisprudence of the State Bar Association of Connecticut, and
in this capacity he drew and presented the report in favor of adopting the system of code
pleadings in civil actions in this state. His work resulted in legislative action to that
effect, and he was made a member of a commission in 1878 to devise a proper plan to
achieve this end and simplify legal procedure in civil cases. From 1885 to 1887 he was a
member of the state commission to revise the system of taxation and revenue. They
reported in favor of a series of changes, afterwards adopted by the Legislature, and which
have increased the income of the state by the amount of several hundred thousand dollars.
Judge Baldwin served for some years as chairman of the committee on jurisprudence
and law reform of the American Bar Association, and was elected president of that association
in 1890. In 1884 he received the honor of an election as president of the New Haven Colony
Historical Society, and by successive elections is still filling that office. His long and intimate
acquaintance with the early history of the colony, render him especially well adapted for the
duties incumbent upon the position. He is also a member of the American Antiquarian
Society, and of the association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations. As
a writer. Judge Baldwin is a standard authority upon matters pertaining to the statute law
of the state, and he is the author of a digest on the "Connecticut Law Reports," published
in two volumes, as well as of a large number of articles, papers and addresses frorn time to
time. The subjects are by no means confined to legal points, but embrace theology, social
science, the theory of government and other questions of an abstract character. Several
have been read before the American Historical Association, American Bar Association and
American Social Science Association ; others before the Tennessee and Ohio State Bar
Associations, etc.
For a long series of years. Judge Baldwin has been recognized as a leading factor in
the political affairs of his native state. During the presidential campaign of 1884, he was
president of the Independent State Committee, which advocated the election of Grover Cleve
land to be chief executive of the nation. In 1889, he was president of the State Democratic
Club, and was reelected annually up to the time of his going on the bench. He has also been
president of the Monticello Club, which is the leading Democratic social organization of the
state, and the only Democratic club owning a building in the New England States. In
religious faith Judge Baldwin affiliates with the Congregational Church, and has served as
moderator of the General Conference. At different times he has been president of the New
Haven Congregational Club, and also of that organization which is accomplishing so much
of good — the Young Men's Christian Association of New Haven. He was one of those who
were instrumental in securing East Rock Park, and since the Commission of Public Parks
was instituted by the legislature he has been vice-president of the board. Here again his
wide experience and carefully trained mind have made his counsels of great value.
His reputation as a lawyer is secure, and is based on the solid foundation of long con
tinued success. His infiuence as an author, and the value of his writing's, increases with
each succeeding year. And in his new position as associate judge of the Supreme Court of
Errors, he has given proof of Governor Morris's wisdom in selection. Wherever he has been
placed he has always been equal to the situation, and he has never disappointed his constituents
or those who had honored him in the elevation to office.
Simeon E. Baldwin was married Oct. 19, 1865, to Susan, daughter of Edmund Winchester
of Boston. Three children were the result of this union, of whom two are living. Roger
Sherman, a graduate of Yale College in 1890, and of the Law School in 1893.

Massachusetts FuiiismTig Co. Everett, Mass,

y^^i^^^

olr^EcttsHiblisfmig Co E-'£Tett Mass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 105
^ENEY, HENRY, senior member of the old and well-known firm of H. & W.
Keney of Hartford, was born March 20, 1806.
Mr. Keney's direct ancestors were among the ancient inhabitants of East
Hartford, some of whom spelled the name Keeney, as will appear by monu
mental inscriptions bearing dates in the latter half of the seventeenth century.
His father, Joseph Keney, removed to Hartford about the year 1800, and established a grocery
business in the same store subsequently occupied by his sons Henry and Walter. Joseph
Keney died in t8ii, leaving a widow and the two little boys. Madam Keney's maiden
name was Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Turner. She died in 1848, but lived so long in the
enjoyment of a mother's pride that her boys had won success, by business methods which
gave them the highest reputation for integrity and honor.
Henry was educated in the public schools of Hartford, and at the early age of fifteen
entered the grocery store of Alva Gilman as a clerk. The reliable and energetic character
of the boy was so quickly developed and appreciated, that at the age of twenty-two he was
admitted as a partner, with Stephen Spencer, under the firm name of Gilman, Spencer &
Keney. Two years later he retired from the firm, and with his brother Walter commenced
business on their own account, under the name of H. & W. Keney, in the store formerly
occupied by their father, and the business they established has continued to this day. In
1855, Ebenezer Roberts and James N. Goodwin were taken into the firm, and the style
became Keneys, Roberts & Goodwin. This continued until the death of Mr. Goodwin in
1867, when it was changed to Keneys & Roberts. The death of Walter Keney in January,
1889, necessitated another change. William Tucker and H. H. Goodwin were then admitted
as partners, under the style of Keney, Roberts & Company ; and thus after sixty-four years
the business is still being pushed with energy and success, and under the same roof. The
building was first occupied by Joseph Keney, then by E. & R. Terr}?, next by James
Goodwin, 2d, then by H. & W. Keney, and has had no other tenants.
Various enterprises occupied the attention and capital of the original firm of H. & W.
Keney, other than the mercantile affairs of the partnership in their store; and their success
gave them first rank as ideal business men. They were never separated in business, nor in
personal affairs, and they had no separate accounts. The expenses of one were the expenses
of the other. What one received the other received, and the gifts of one were the gifts of the
other. If they gave largely it was without ostentation, but with the business purpose of
accomplishing the object in view. In a smaller way the aggregate, though large, was charac
terized by that discretion which gives temporary help, without creating permanent dependence.
They had a substantial interest in everything which was useful and looked to the welfare
of Hartford. The Public Library, Hartford Library, Trinity College, Old People's Home,
Goodwill Club, Young Men's Christian Association, Hartford Hospital, Orphan Asylum, etc.,
all have received largely from their munificence, and in the best sense of the word they
loved to do good.
Henry Keney is personally the subject of this sketch, but the history of one brother is
so closely the history of the other, that it is impossible to speak of one without mentioning
the other. It is a singular fact that he never changed his residence but once. The house
where he was born is on the east, and the house where he lives on the west side of the
store, and but a few rods apart ; he now owns them both.
In June, 1842, Henry Keney was elected director in the Hartford Fire Insurance Com
pany, and in 1885 was chosen vice-president. He has been director of the Farmers' and
Mechanics' Bank since May, 1840, and vice-president since January, 1869, and has held the
same office in The Hartford Carpet Company for many years. He is a director in The

io6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Hartford & Wethersfield Horse Railroad Company, and a trustee in the Society for Sav
ings, Hartford Hospital, Old People's Home, Orphan Asylum, and others in which he has
taken special interest.
An ardent admirer and a great lover of good horses, his stables are never without
witnesses to his unerring judgment of their desirable qualities. To be Henry Keney's
horse is evidence of qualifications to which few attain, and of which those owned by him
have reason to be proud. They are his faithful servants, and he is their faithful friend.
Henry Keney fills a very large place in the community which has enjoyed his
prosperity, and profited largely by the example of a well balanced, consistent, and useful
life. It is enough to say that for the work of his hands the world has been made better.
He has passed the age when the strength of man is but labor and sorrow, but there are
none who will not pray that his days may be lengthened, and his strength increased.

iENEY, WALTER, born July lo, 1808. Married Mary Jeannette Goodwin, June
3, 1840. Died Jan. 21, 1889, without children.
The family and business history of his brother, Henry, having been made
the subject of the previous sketch, his story need not be told, as they are
substantially the same; nevertheless he had personal characteristics which lent
a peculiar charm to his life, and will ever remain in the memory of his numerous friends.
His quiet and unobtrusive humor, which so frequently disclosed the keen and appreciative
sense of passing events, and the peculiarities of other men, was often the only evidence that
he had noticed so carefully those things which were supposed to have been unobserved.
Those who received his benefactions were often surprised to find that he knew how great was
the necessity, which had been relieved with so much delicacy and thoughtfulness. Demon
strations of gratitude were embarrassing; he knew that his object had been accomplished;
his inner consciousness was satisfied, and that was enough.
His judgment was accurate and just, and, with great toleration for the opinions of others,
he adhered to his own convictions. A single word, question, or sign, which betrayed an
opposite opinion, often had more weight than strong declamation, in which he never indulged.
A life long and most intimate friend made the following public contribution to his
memory : ' ' Few men have lived more industrious, prudent, and honorable lives than Walter
Keney. To his quiet disposition, great evenness of temper, and sound judgment, was added
altogether more of a firmness of opinion than many would suspect. A violent opposition to
the views of another was no part of his nature, so he did not make himself offensive by his
contradictions, or bring reproach by his silence. Those who knew him well were often
astonished by his ready recollection of what he had read, and the aptness of the quotations
which he made. He was singularly attentive to his friends, keenly enjoying their society,
and mindful of their interests ; his sympathy was kindly manifested in all their trials and
afflictions; his pleasure was increased by their success and prosperity. WhUe he was an
acti\-e benefactor to the parish, he could look beyond its borders for his gifts. His generous
nature found refuge in his kindly help to the poor and afflicted, and to the furtherance of all
objects for good. Few have lived more useful lives in our town, or have afforded a better
example to young men."
He was a director in various institutions, which profited by his infiuence and advice.
A large estate was left to his wife, whose will expressed the aim and purpose of a successful
life, which was not onl}- valuable in the times which have past, but reaches far into the
future, with a kindly beneficence which cannot be expressed with words.

Maseauiuatltsruiiitran^Go tVerelt.Ma

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

107

Va

OBERTS, EBENEZER, of Hartford, member of the firm of Keney, Roberts &
Company, was born in Westfield, Conn., Oct. 28, 18 19. He was a son of Enoch
Cornwall Roberts and grandson of Ebenezer Roberts, Esq. The latter was an
officer in the War of the Revolution, and with Washington in operations about
New York and the North River, and the battles in New Jersey and Yorktown,
After the war he settled in Westfield, near Middletown, Conn.
At the age of fifteen years, Ebenezer Roberts entered the employ of H. & W. Keney of
Hartford. His promptness, efficiency and the conscientious care with which he performed all
the duties assigned him, soon found appreciation by his employers. Gradually advanced from
point to point in management of affairs, in 1855 he was taken into partnership in the firm,
the name being changed to Keneys, Roberts & Goodwin. On the death of Mr. Goodwin, the
name became Keneys & Roberts, and in March, 1889, after the death of Mr. Walter Keney,
William Tucker and Henry H. Goodwin were taken into the firm, and the title was changed
to Keney, Roberts & Company, which it still retains.
This house is the oldest wholesale grocery house in the state, and has been doing business
on the same location for over half a century. As the Messrs. Keney advanced in age, the
active management has been left more and more in the hands of Mr. Roberts, and he has
well sustained the traditions of the past. Bringing into the concern only the capital of
sterling qualities in the shape of energy, integrity and great capacity for business, he has
risen to his present position in the mercantile world of Hartford simply by his own endeavors.
No concern in New England is better known or more highly respected for its reliability and
fair dealings.
The responsibilities of public office have had little attraction for Mr. Roberts, but he
has devoted a small share of his time to finance and insurance. He has held a directorship
in the Hartford National Bank for many years, and he fills a similar position in the Travelers'
Insurance Company and in the National Fire Insurance Company. In all these boards his
counsel is valued, and his opinions command the fullest respect.
Jan. 18, 1843, Mr. Roberts was married to Clarissa, daughter of Bela and Clarissa Bancroft
of Granville, Mass. Mrs. Roberts died Jan. 12, 1883, and is mourned by a wide circle of
friends. One child, a daughter, Florence C, wife of Col. William C. Skinner, is still living.

RENCH, CARLOS, of Seymour, ex-congressman from the Second District, was
born in Humphreysville (now Seymour), Aug. 6, 1835.
His first American ancestor, Francis French, came over exactly two hun
dred years previously in the ship "Defence," and landed in Boston in 1635.
He was at that time a mere boy, and later transferred his residence to Milford,
Conn. From him the family line comes down through(2) Francis, Jr., (3) Israel, (4) Charles,
to (5) Raymond, who lived in Humphreysville, and married Olive Curtis of Middlebury,
Conn., and of their children the subject of this sketch was the oldest.
Young French's education was largely obtained at General Russell's school at New
Haven. After spending several years in his father's factory and gaining an intimate acquaint
ance with business affairs and at the same time becoming a thorough mechanic, in 1859 he
entered the manufacturing world on his own account, the line of goods produced being car
springs. In 1866, he, with others, set the Fowler Nail Company in operation, and three

io8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
years later he became its president, and is now holding that office. As a director, Mr.
French is interested in the Seymour Manufacturing Company, the United States Pin Com
pany, the Seymour Electric Light Company, and the H. A. Mathews Manufacturing Company,
his counsel and experience adding in no small degree to the success of each corporation. A
share of his financial interests are placed in New Haven, and he has been a director of the
Second National Bank of that city for many years.
Men of Mr. French's ability and force of character must expect to be asked to accept
official station at the hands of their fellow-citizens. In i860 and again in 1868 he was elected
to represent the town of Seymour in the lower branch of the state legislature, and the latter
year served on the committee on general railroad law. He had been previously mentioned
as a candidate for the office, but in 1886 he was nominated by the Democrats of the
Second Congressional District as their standard bearer, and the nomination was ratified at
the polls. In Congress he was no drone, but represented the best interests of the entire
congressional district. He served as a member of the committees on invalid pensions, on
claims and on labor, though his principal work was in connection with the first-named com
mittee. The states of Massachusetts and Connecticut were assigned to him, and he looked
out carefully for the old soldiers within their borders. Mr. French has ever been reluctant
to accept office on account of his engrossing business responsibilities, but has served on the
local school board, and has been energetic in matters relating to the improvement and growth
of the village of Seymour.
Always a friend to every movement tending to the development of the Naugatuck Valley,
he has naturally been a zealous advocate of the railroad which runs through its entire length.
As the Naugatuck road had been leased to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail
road Company, it was very fitting that when there was an election to fill some vacancies at
the last meeting of the corporation, that he should be chosen a director in the latter road.
In an article alluding to the changes in the board, and the personnel of the new mem
bers, the Hartford Courant said of him :
The Hon. Carlos French of Seymour has long been interested in the Naugatuck road and is another of
the leading men of that busy valley. He is a man of large ability, held in high esteem by a wide circle of
friends. The board has a number of influential Republicans in its membership, but Mr. French will prevent it
from tipping over that way. He is a Democrat from 'way back, and is supposed to carry the ark of true
Democracy about with him. Mr. French belongs these days with Governor Ingersoll and other Democrats of
that sort, who are used by their party as candidates at the time when they are sure of defeat — evidences of
respectability rather than of hope.
Although made by a paper belonging to the opposite party, the point regarding Mr.
French's faithful adherence to Democratic principles is most fitly taken. Ever since the
close of the war he has been prominent in the counsels of his party in Connecticut, and on
the death of Senator Barnum, he was deemed the most suitable person to succeed him in
a still wider field of action, and was chosen a member of the National Democratic Com
mittee. The Courant rightly voices the sentiment of the state, that whether men agree with
his political principles or not, for his business ability and sturdiness of character they enter
tain the highest respect.
Carlos French was married AprU 29, 1863, to Julia H., daughter of John Miles Thomp
son of Bridgeport. Two children have been born to them, of whom one, Raymond T.,
is now li\'ing, and is associated with his father in manufacturing.

.'i>,^'?';>:y Afi7>'j?\^:.. m-y Co.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 109

|ALSEY, JEREMIAH, LL.D., an eminent lawyer of Norwich, several terms a
member of the State House of Representatives, was born at Preston, Conn.,
on Feb. 8, 1822.
A sketch in Biography of Connecticut says that ' ' He is the son of the late
Jeremiah S. Halsey, a respected citizen of Preston, and through him is descended
from Revolutionary stock, his grandfather. Col. Jeremiah Halsey, also of Preston, a lawyer of
great ability and extensive practice, having served with credit as an officer in the Continental
army. The maiden name of his mother was Sally Brewster, and on her side he traces his
ancestry to Elder William Brewster, who came over in the "Mayflower," and of whom he is a
descendant in the seventh generation. In childhood his health was delicate and, in conse
quence, his early education was obtained under serious disadvantages. After the usual years of
instruction in the primary and grammar schools of his native village, he attended the old
Academy at Norwich, which was one of the best institutions of the kind in the state. Here, an
affection of the eyes gave him a great deal of trouble and, in connection with continued ill-
health, interfered with his regular attendance and made it impossible for him to pursue the full
classical course, thus defeating his laudable desire to complete his education at Yale CoUege.
By a degree of perseverance, which, under the trying circumstances, entitles him to great
credit, he obtained, nevertheless, an exceUent education, although it cost him no inconsider
able suffering.
A change of climate being ordered by his family physician, he went to live at Haw-
kinsville, Ga., and there studied law in the office of Messrs. Polhill & Whitfield. He was
admitted to the bar by the superior court for the southern circuit of Georgia, at Hawkins-
ville, on April 23, 1845, and on December nth of the same year, having returned to the
north, he was duly admitted to the bar of Windham County, Conn. His health being still
in a precarious condition, he was obliged to devote further time to travel, but he continued
his studies, notwithstanding many drawbacks, and laid a solid foundation upon which to base
active practice when his physical health permitted him to enter the legal arena. In September,
1849, being somewhat improved in health, he opened law offices at Norwich, in partnership
with the late Samuel C. Morgan. Devoted to professional duties and desirous only of
eminence at the bar, he had no thought or wish for political honors. But his fellow-
citizens of Norwich insisted upon his serving them in the legislature, and in 1852, being
nominated on the Whig ticket for the state House of Representatives, he was elected to
that body by a vote which proved the respect entertained for him by the people irrespec
tive of party. In 1853 he was reelected to the House, and in that year also was appointed
city attorney of Norwich. After holding the latter office some eighteen years, winning
golden opinions by his skilful defense of the city's interests, he resigned it in order that he
might have more time to devote to his duties as a member of the commission charged with
the task of building the new State House at Hartford, upon which he had been appointed
by Governor Ingersoll. These duties terminated with the completion of the structure named,
in 1880. They were performed in the most conscientious manner and received grateful
recognition from the highest officials and from the press and public in all parts of the state.
A man of clear views and decided opinions, Mr. Halsey has never been a doubtful sub
ject upon political issues, although he has never courted prominence as a politician. The
principles of the Republican party met his warmest approval from the outset, and he joined
this organization as soon as it enunciated its platform. In 1859, he was elected to the legis
lature a third time, and was reelected in i860. During the trying period of the Civil War
he was ardent in his support of the federal authorities and did all that lay in his power
15

no

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

to keep the state of Connecticut up to the highest requirements of patriotism. In April,
1863, Mr. Halsey was admitted to practice in the United States Circuit Court, and on Feb.
24, 1870, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. A
contemporaneous writer says : ' ' The reports of many cases determined by the Supreme
Court of the United States, in which Mr. Halsey made elaborate and effective arguments,
will ever be monuments of his great ability and learning as a lawyer." Two of the
most marked cases, " Wright vs. the Norwich & New York Transportation Company,"
reported 13 Wallace, p. 104; and "The City of Norwich." 118 U. S., p. 468, settled
the construction of the act of Congress limiting the liability of ship owners on the basis
of the maritime law of P^urope, giving full protection to the vast shipping interests of
the country.
Mr. Halsey's eminence at the bar has been won by patient industry and heroic battling
with adverse circumstances. Only the greatest determination of character could have enabled
him to overcome the serious obstacles which he has encountered from hi's earliest years
through the feebleness of his health, and only a will of iron could have sustained him in his
ascent t<T eminence in his profession despite these obstacles. Few of his contemporaries have
labored more assiduously to cultivate their intellects, to broaden their knowledge, or to elevate
their profession. Respected alike for his solid acquirements — general as well as professional —
and his pure character, he stands with the foremost members of the legal profession of
Connecticut, and is known and honored far beyond the boundaries of the state which has
been the principal theatre of his forensic efforts. Mr. Halsey combines a gift of pure logical
power with an absolute lucidity of statement. In these most important qualities of an
advocate and counselor, he has had few equals in his state and few superiors in the country.
He is always abounding in common sense, and his judgment as a manager of causes is almost
infallible. His gifts flow out of a clean, honorable, truthful nature. Trinity CoUege gave
him the degree of LL- D. in 1882.
A devout Christian, Mr. Halsey has been a regular attendant at Christ Church (Episcopal),
Norwich, ever since taking up his residence in that city, and during most of the time has
held the office of warden or vestryman. He is liberal in his donations for Christian purposes,
missionary and charitable, and is a generous friend of the poor and needy who seek his
counsel and assistance. The inheritor of two honored names, he has added to their lustre
by a blameless and a briUiant life, and his example and the lesson to be derived from it is a
gift of no mean value to his native state.
• Mr. Halsey was married on June i, 1854, to Elizabeth Fairchild, the daughter of Andrew
Fairchild of Redding, Conn. Mrs. Halsey is a woman of great refinement and high culture,
and her home is one of the most charming and hospitable in the state. She has been' active
in church work for many years, and her charities have drawn upon her the blessings of a host
of grateful recipients.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. m
|ACON, FRANCIS, M. D., of New Haven, was born in that city Oct. 6, 1832.
The records of the First Church in Woodstock, Conn., show, in the fair hand
writing of Abiel Leonard, then pastor of that church, that on the 9th of
August, 1764, "Joseph Bacon of Stoughton, Mass., and Abigail Holmes of
Woodstock" were married. Stoughton was originally part of Dedham, and
Michael Bacon, of whom Joseph is known to have been a descendant, was among the planters
of that town, his name appearing on the records as early as 1640. Joseph Bacon seems to
have been both ingenious and enterprising, but never in any high degree successful from a
worldly point of view. David, fifth child of Joseph and Abigail Bacon, had all his father's
mechanical ingenuity and dexterity, and at the same time possessed a strength of character not
equalled by his father. Using the word in a noble sense, though it is commonly uttered with
a sneer, David Bacon was a visionary matt. The vision which he had was a vision of this
world made better and happier through his willing toil and suffering, and to this heavenly
vision he was not disobedient. The pathetic story of his marriage to Alice Parks, a saintly
and heroic girl of seventeen, of his mission to the wilderness of the northwest, and his subse
quent efforts in behalf of emigration, is too long to be more than barely mentioned in this brief
sketch. He died in his forty-seventh year of a broken heart, "not having received the promise."
Leonard, then fifteen years old, the eldest of seven children, left to be the mainstay of
the family, was not unlike his father in character. He had the same holy "enthusiasm of
humanity," the same high hope of what the world was to become, the same faith in God
that there was nothing wrong but could be set right, and that he could help to set it right.
Deciding to enter the ministry, he pursued a full course of theological studies, was regalarly
ordained and found his lifework preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., was a divine of the highest reputation, both at home and
abroad, as a philosophic theologian and a masterly preacher. He was pastor of the First
Church of New Haven from 1825 to 1866, when he was made pastor emeritus, and remained
such until his death in 1881. A concise estimate of his character and a clear statement of
the value of his labors is well told on the tablet which the Ecclesiastical Society connected
with the church placed on the south wall of its house of worship : ' ' By the grace of God,
Leonard Bacon, a servant of Jesus Christ, and of all men for His sake, here preached the
Gospel for fifty-seven years. Fearing God and having no fear besides, loving righteousness
and hating iniquity, friend of liberty aud law, helper of Christian missions, teacher of teachers,
promoter of every good work, he blessed the city and nation by ceaseless labors and a holy
life, and departed peacefully into rest Dec. 24, 1881, leaving the world better for his having
lived in it."
At an early stage in the battle against slavery. Dr. Bacon espoused the cause of freedom,
and his pen continued to be active both against slavery and they who, in destroying the cancer,
would have destroyed the body which it imperilled, till slavery was abolished by President
Lincoln's proclamation of freedom. Lincoln once said to Rev. Joseph P. Thompson that he
"received his first convictions of the enormity of slavery from the writings of Dr. Bacon."
He married Lucy, daughter of Ebenezer Johnson of Johnstown, N. Y., and in their family
of nine children, Francis was the fourth.
The early education of young Bacon was received in select schools at New Haven, which
was followed by a course of study at home under a private tutor. Thence he was sent to
fhe Phillips Academy of Andover, Mass. Electing the profession of medicine as the one
best adapted to his tastes, he entered the office of the celebrated Dr. Ives of New Haven, and
in due course matriculated at the medical department of Yale University in 1849, from which

112

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

he was graduated as M. D. in 1853. Active practice began in Galveston, Texas, where he
reinained about five years, part of which time he was in charge of the Galveston City Hospital.
Being of northern birth. Dr. Bacon had no sympathy with the peculiar political sentiments
of the people among whom he dwelt. A comparatively short space of time brought with
it both medical reputation and pecuniary success. But the teachings of the father had been
instilled into the son, the bright prospects for worldly advancement were laid aside for the
sake of principle, and in 1859 he removed to his northern home.
In the Civil War, which broke out after his return from the South, and the advent of
which he had foreseen for some years, he promptly and patriotically arrayed himself on the side
of constitutional law and order. In April, 1861, he entered the military service of the United
States, in his native town, as assistant-surgeon of the Second Connecticut Volunteers, which
was a three months' regiment, and which took part in the first disastrous engagement at Bull
Run. Dr. Bacon was present with his command on that occasion. After the expiration of
its term of enlistment, he was commissioned as surgeon of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers,
and held that position until July, 1862, doing field duty most of the time, and being present
with his regiment at its debarkation on Hilton Head, where it was the first to land on the
hostile shore, and the first to wave the flag of Connecticut — after the stars and stripes —
" above the traitorous soil of South Carolina."
At this time Gen. T. W. Sherman, who was in command of the expedition, issued a
proclamation intended to conciliate the people of South Carolina and induce them to return
to their allegiance to the United States. It proved a most deplorable mistake, but Dr.
Bacon's share in the transaction was greatly to his credit. Speaking of the affair, Mr. G.
W. Smalley, correspondent of the New York Tribune, said: "The mission was considered
both important and direct, and some time was spent in the selection of an envoy. General
Sherman finally entrusted it to Dr. Francis Bacon, surgeon of the Seventh Connecticut
Volunteers, and detailed Lieutenant Wagner of his staff to accompany him. A circular
letter was prepared by General Sherman worded as foUows : ' Dr. Bacon and Lieutenant
Wagner are sent under a flag of truce to convey to any citizens of South Carolina they
may meet with the earnest wishes of the undersigned that all loyal citizens should return
peaceably to their homes and protect their property from the ravages that the negro popu
lation are now committing. All loyal and peaceable citizens shall be protected in their
persons and property and receive the benefit of all constitutional enactments in their behalf.
T. W. Sherman, Brigadier General Comdg. Port Royal, S. C, Nov. 13, 1861.'
"Armed with this letter. Dr. Bacon and Lieutenant Wagner started November 14, about
nine in the morning, on the United States gunboat 'Seneca,' for Beaufort, and on their arrival
capturing a couple of rather indifferent mules and hoisting a large white flag, rode inland."
The story of their adventures was ludicrous in the extreme in places and slightly exciting
in others, but a lack of space prevents its being inserted here. Mr. Smalley closes with
this paragraph : ' ' There is some reason to hope that General Sherman himself is aware
that his proclamation was a piece of folly, viewed mill tary- wise, or politically, and he is
too good a soldier to let a known blunder pass uncorrected. Certain it is that throughout
his army, there are not two opinions concerning the policy of the general commanding.
Officers of every rank, and men of every regiment, disapprove and regret it. I have not
heard one expression in its favor, nor even an apology for its issue. This being the case,
and the account I have given of the flag of truce having some ludicrous features, it is only
right to say that Dr. Bacon discharged the unpleasant duty imposed upon him with the
utmost faithfulness, courage and address."

^^^r^:^^:-^::^

MissaDliusBftsPuiliatiiTig Co. Evera ItXass.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 113
He was also on duty with his regiment on Tybee Island, at the siege and capture
of Fort Pulaski, Ga. In July, 1862, he was commissioned surgeon of the United States
Volunteers, with the rank of major, and became surgeon-in-chief of Gen. Silas Casey's
division. He remained on duty in that position at Washington, D. C, until May, 1863,
when he was transferred to New Orleans, in which city he organized the St. Louis General
Hospital, of which he reinained in charge about a year. During part of his period of
.service at New Orleans, Dr. Bacon filled the office of medical inspector of the Department
of the Gulf in a most acceptable and efficient manner, and was also for some time the acting
medical director.
In August, 1864, he resigned his position in the United States Army, in order to
accept the office of professor of surgery in the School of Medicine connected with Yale
College ; which office he retained until June, 1877. Simultaneously with the assumption of
professional functions, he commenced the practice of medicine in New Haven, and has
since pursued it with marked ability and success. His specialty is that of surgery, in
which his operations have gained such fame for skilfulness that his services are frequently
called into requisition in different sections of Connecticut and the adjoining states. He
ranks among the first half dozen leading physicians of the state, and in his own chosen
line is practically at the head. Gifted with a steady hand and rare judgment. Dr. Bacon
has gained his present high position by close study, and the success he has attained is
fully deserved. He is an occasional contributor to the medical journals, but confines him
self mainly to surgical topics. -*
It was but natural that he should be called upon to fill official stations in the various
societies and corporations with which he is connected. For nearly thirty years he has been
a director in the Connecticut State Hospital, and his counsel is greatly valued. He was
president of the State Medical Society in 1887 and 1888, and was president of the New
Haven Medical Society for the space of three years, and rendered good service while in
that position. Dr. Bacon was one of the organizers of the American Public Health
Association, and worked efficiently in that society for several years. He is a prominent
member of the American Medical Association, is one of the medical visitors of the Retreat
for the Insane at Hartford, and has been a member of the Board of Pardons since its
organization in 1883.
Francis Bacon was married June 7, 1866, to Miss G. M. Woolsey, daughter of Charles
W. Woolsey of New York.

jENNIS, RODNEY, of Hartford, one of the founders, and secretary during its
entire existence to date, of the Travelers' Insurance Company, was born in
Topsfield, Mass., Jan. 14, 1826. His strain of blood, which goes back to the
early settlers of New England, has been notable for a persistent union of com
bative wij:h strongly religious tendencies ; to aspire to the good and to fight
for the good, according to Cromwell's advice, has been the instinct of each generation.
The first emigrant ancestor, Thomas, was a soldier in King Philip's War; his grandson,
a graduate of Harvard, was army chaplain and surgeon for twelve years, 1737-49, in the
middle French wars, then a pastor and teacher in New Hampshire and Massachusetts; his
grandson. Rev. Rodney Gove Dennis, graduate of Bowdoin and Andover, was a clergyman
in Topsfield, and then in Somers, Conn., — a man of lofty feeling and unbending character;

114

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

and the son of the latter was Rodney Dennis, whose life has been no less devoted to the service
of righteousness and moral aspiration than his clerical progenitors, and no less full of militant
manliness than his soldier ones.
He was one of ten children, six daughters and four sons; the three other sons died in
the prime of a youth of extraordinary promise, though from diseases implying no constitutional
weakness, but four of the sisters are still living. Two of the brothers obtained a liberal
education, largely through the help of this one; he had one term in a high school, but Hke
so many capable boys from the swarming families of old New England, saw no more school
after the age of fourteen, becoming the stay of the household and farm. At sixteen he came
to Hartford, in the employ of the late Gurdon Fox at his grocery on Central Row, and for
five years did a man's work at a boy's pay, delivering goods by hand, or barrow, or team,
grooming horses, and whatever else was required. On coming of age in 1847, he chose to
set up for himself in spite of liberal offers to remain, and in partnership with A. C. Ives, as
Dennis & Ives, established a grocery business on South Main street. He was the first in
Hartford to introduce the modern "specialties," such as canned and bottled goods, which
have entirely transformed the old grocery trade. The business fiourished well, but in 1849,
Mr. Ives was attacked with bleeding from the lungs, went away for his health, and never
returned to work. Mr. Dennis carried it on alone till the winter of 1850-51, when he sprained
his knee so severely as to disable him for several months. On resuming his management,
he found the business to be so disorganized that re-making it was too great a struggle, and
discontinuing it, he went into the employ in Augusta, Ga., of the great firm of Hand, Williams
& Wilcox. (The head of this firm was a Connecticut man, the well-known Daniel Hand,
who was driven out for loyalty at the outbreak of secession, received after the war his full
share of the property — over a million — from the lofty honor of his southern and secession
partner, Mr. Williams, and has lately given a million to the American Missionary Society.)
After two years' stay, he came north to Albany, where he remained two years longer, and
was married in the latter of the two years, 1855 ; in that year he returned to Hartford and
took a position in the Phoenix Bank, which he held till 1864, on the starting of business by
the Travelers. Mr. Dennis's known ability and integrity — the latter standing especially high from his
having straitened himself for years to discharge obligations not legally his, and which no
one but himself considered even moral ones — made it natural to solicit his services and the
weight of his name to establish the new enterprise. He embarked his fortunes in it, and
devoted his life to it, straining every faculty of mind and body to insure its success ; and here
the reward of early discipline, self-sacrifice, and the resource developed by business training
with no one to rely on but himself, became manifest. He was the last man in the world to
have any small pride of place, and his unashamed labor and economy of management were
prime factors in the company's permanence. For some time he was himself the entire force
of emplo}'ees, sole cashier, clerk and office boy, and for many years he worked double the
hours of any clerk, doing detail work early and late, often into the small hours of the morning
when others were asleep. His severe labor broke down his health at last, and rendered him
for a short time unfit for office business, but after a short and successful business trip tO
California he at once resumed his desk.
Through the company's first months of comparative neglect and public incredulity, its
short burst of unshared prosperit}-, its succeeding years of fierce competition and slow mastery
and sole survi\'al, its later ones of unapproached eminence, and its still later ones when,
though it remains greatest and grows greater, the field is once more thick with rivals— he
has remained its watchful guardian and laborious servant, his first care and thought, its success

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. "5
and its good repute; anxious that it should prosper as the just reward of doing equity, and
in order to retain the power of doing equity, but still more anxious that it should do equity.
To him there is no difference between the moral obligations of a man and a corporation, and
any seeming success of either is an apple of Sodom if not earned by honest service and based
on the immutable laws of God.
Aside from this crowning business place, he has had a life as a man and citizen which has
been full of still richer honors and compensations, though less visible to the great world, and
many of them forever invisible and unknown to any but himself and the separate actors one
by one. Public place he has never sought ; he has felt that he could not give the time and
labor needed to discharge its duties properly, and he would not discharge them otherwise.
Nor has he ever coveted the ostensible headship even of the associations for good works and
public welfare, of which he has been a wheel-horse and fountain of ready service; all that he
could give or do as an officer, he would equally do as a private member, and he preferred to
leave the name to others, and he has held such places because the societies wished it for their
own credit and public advantage, not because he wished it for his own laurels.
A list of his directorships, trusteeships, and guardianships would create surprise from its
number and variety, yet even that would not furnish a living impression of his real place in
public esteem. Hardly any business venture has been started that seemed likely to benefit
the city but he has invested in it, with small reference to personal profit, not from visionary
cloudiness of judgment, but with a wish to share the duty of citizens in running some risk for
public service. In purely business directorships, those of the Hartford Trust Company, the
Overman Wheel Company, the Farmington Power Company, the Hartford Electric Light
Company, the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, and the Hartford City Gas Light Company
may be mentioned, but his energies have been fully as much given to charitable and humane
work. For forty years no enterprise, small or great, has been undertaken in Hartford for the
amelioration of humanity, in which he has not been foremost with purse and time, and,
hardest of all, sacrifice of the shrinking from doing distasteful things, with everything,
indeed, but the most plentiful of things in such enterprises — ^ tongue and vanity. In connection
with "Father" Hawley, he founded in 1842, the Morgan Street Mission School, the first
attempt in Connecticut at organized care for and visitation of the poorest classes in the cities,
and the rescue, protection and instruction of their children; it was the parent or forerunner
of all the systematic public charities of the state. The incoming of a large foreign element
first made this a pressing need. While in Augusta, Ga. , he founded a similar institution there,
and after his return to Hartford he was for twelve years superintendent and teacher of the
Morgan Street School, and for some years taught an evening school twice a week. He is
now president of the Hartford Charitable Society, the oldest of its kind in the state. He was
one of the corporators of the Connecticut Humane Society, and has been its president from
the first, as well as (what would not follow) a principal director and active laborer, quick to
anger against any inhumanity either to man or beast, or the neglect of decent duties to
children or wives. The hundreds of neglected or abused children it has rescued from ruin, from
criminality or proletarianism, and set on the road to reputable lives, are its sufficient monu
ment, and it has been equally active in saving animals from the cruelties perpetrated by the
brutal, the niggardly, or the thoughtless.
Mr. Dennis is also vice-president of the American Humane Society, and the American
Anti- Vivisection Society, and of the Hartford Young Men's Christian Association, chairman
of the board of managers of the famed Insane Retreat, a trustee of the Connecticut Industrial
School for Girls, a trustee of the Society for Savings, which has as much of disinterested

ii6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
public spirit as of business in its conduct, chairman of the finance committee of the Connecticut
Bible Society, and director of the Tract Society and the American Missionary Society. He
was president of the University Extension Society till relieved at his earnest wish. Of his
trusteeships of private estates of widows and orphans, his guardianships, and his private
benefactions, not alone in money, but in the far scarcer and more valuable gifts of judicious
management and chances for self-help, it is the misfortune of a printed notice that it cannot
tell. They make up the total of a record which is as good a possession for the owner as for
its beneficiaries, and there could be no higher expression.
Mr. Dennis's domestic life has been one of rare happiness and harmony of taste and char
acter. His wife was Miss Clarissa Strong of this city, from an old New England family which
has not belied its name. Her only brother, William Strong, recently died in Kenosha, Wis.,
of which city he was at one time mayor. One sister was the wife of Gustavus F. Davis,
president of the City Bank of Hartford, and vice-president of the Travelers; another, of
Charles P. Welles of Hartford; another, of Hiram W. Warner, a successful New York
merchant (both dead) ; the last sister recently died in Kenosha, Wis., the widow of Judge
Josiah Bond of that city, who was a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, and a classmate of
Hon. Dwight Pardee. She died in 1888, an irreparable loss of a high-minded, loving, and
sympathetic companion. They had five children, two sons and three daughters. One son
died early; the other, Rodney Strong Dennis, is an expert accountant in New York, in the
firm of Trenholm, Teele & Dennis; one daughter is the wife of Ralph W. Cutler, president
of the Hartford Trust Company ; the second, the wife of Thomas Little, Esq., of Philadelphia;
the youngest is unmarried and resides with her father.

fOCKWOOD, FREDERICK ST. JOHN, of Norwalk, president of the Fairfield
County National Bank and of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad, was born
in the city where he now resides Aug. 23, 1825.
Lockwood is an old English name dating back to the fourteenth century,
and it has been borne by^ honorable men who have gained reputation for
themselves both in war and civil affairs. It is uncertain to which branch of the family
Robert Lockwood belonged, but it is known that he came from England about 1630 and
settled in Watertown, Mass. In 1646, he removed to Norwalk, Fairfield County, Conn.,
where he died in 1658. His son Ephraim married Mercy Sention (now written St. John),
and of his children the family line comes down through Eliphalet. He was a deacon in
the church and was sent to the General Assembly one term. His son Peter was also a
deacon and was a representative to the Assembly six times. In the fifth generation there
came a second Eliphalet on the genealogical tree, and he was the first military man of the
family, being a member in the First Company of Col. Charles Webb's Seventh Connecticut
Regiment in the Revolutionary War, and later was an assistant commissary of issues. He
represented Norwalk se\en times in the General Assembly. Col. Buckingham St. John
Lockwood, sixth in descent from the original emigrant, married Polly Esther, daughter of
William and Mary Esther (Belden) St. John, and of their six children the subject of this
sketch was the youngest.
After passing through the public schools of his native town, young Lockwood was
fitted for college at the grammar school in New Haven, where he had for fellow scholars
Timothy Dwight, now president of Yale College, and Augustus Brandegee, who has since

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 117
attained marked fame as a lawyer. Having a muscular frame and a lively disposition, Mr.
Lockwood took an active interest in the athletic sports of the day ; especially in boating
matters. The history of Yale College says of his efforts in this direction: "In August,
1845, Fred. St. John Lockwood of Norwalk was captain of the 'Augusta,' an eight-
oared, 38-foot boat, bought for $170 by the '49 Club,' clincher built, of red cedar, with
boxwood ribs, copper fastened. She could beat any boat in the bay." This boat, with
another brought from Boston by Peter Parker, was the real beginning of what has since
become the "Yale Navy." Although the boat was far more heavily constructed than the
racing shells of to-day, the time they made has rarely been beaten by the crack crews of
this generation. The students of the present year have cause to thank Mr. Lockwood for
his zeal in aquatic sports. He was graduated in 1849, and received his degree of A. M.
in 1852. On the death of his father in 1850, Mr. Lockwood took charge of the ancestral acres
and became a tiller of the soil for several years. For a short time he studied law under
the direction of Judge Butler, but the intricacies of Blackstone were not to his taste and
he soon gave up his legal researches. Becoming financially interested in the Union Manu
facturing Company, producers of felt cloths, he assumed a share of the management. Dur
ing the war period and for a number of years afterward liberal dividends were declared.
Mr. Lockwood was a director in the Norwalk Mills in the earlier stages of its history, and
though they manufactured a fine grade of cassimeres, evil times came to the company and
he was made trustee in bankruptcy and re-organized the company under the title of the
"Norwalk Mills Company," since which time the company has done a successful business.
From 1859 to 1862, Mr. Lockwood served as bank commissioner, being appointed to
the office by Governor Buckingham. He represented the town of Norwalk in the lower
branch of the State Legislature in 1865, and was reelected the following year. At this
time he presented a bill calling for the uniforming of the Connecticut militia according to
a given standard. The bill was stoutly opposed by those who could not see advantages to
be derived, but it was passed triumphantly, and he was made a member of the committee
to arrange the styde and procure uniforms. He was again a member of the Legislature
from Norwalk in 1872, and this year he served as chairman of the finance committee.
Important matters affecting the handling of money came before them. The old usury laws
were abolished and the rates of interest were equitably fixed ; and all this class of legisla
tion was beneficially influenced by Mr. Lockwood's experience and financial ability.
In 1868, he was elected president of the Fairfield County Bank, and, after it was
re-organized as the Fairfield County National Bank, he retained the presidency until 1890,
resigning the office in favor of Hon. James W. Hyatt, late treasurer of the United States.
This is the second oldest bank in Fairfield County, Conn., -and is one of the solid insti
tutions of the state. Having previously served as director and vice-president, in 1882 he
was chosen president of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad, and still retains the office.
He effected the lease of the road first to the Housatonic Railroad Company and later to the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and it is now run as a department of the
latter road. In his early manhood, Mr. Lockwood took a zealous interest in military affairs.
For five years he was on the staff of Major-General King, and for seven years more he
served on the staff of Gen. W. H. RusseU as brigade inspector.
As a legislator, as a manufacturer, as a banker and as railroad manager, Mr. Lockwood
has gained an honorable name for himself, and in each station to which he has been called
he has more than filled the expectations of his constituents. He has always been a mov
ing force in the community where he resides, and has ever ranged himself on the side of
right and of good government.
16

ii8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Frederick St. John Lockwood was married Feb. 21, 1866, to Carrie, daughter of
Frederick S. and Nancy (Raymond) Ayres of West Troy, New York. Three children
have been born to them. Elizabeth, now Mrs. Frank W. Hubbard of Michigan, Frederick
Ayres, a student at Yale University, class of '94, and Julia Belden, a miss of twelve at
home. They have an elegant house built immediately alongside of the sharp conical hill
on which General Tryon sat during the burning of Norwalk.

JYLER, ORSAMUS R., ex-commissioner of insurance for the state of Connecticut,
was born in Torrington, Conn., Jan. 17, 1840.
Lieutenant Walter Fyler, the first emigrant of the name, is known to have
been in Dorchester, Mass., as early as 1635, but from what part of England he
came, or anything concerning his previous history, it has been impossible to
ascertain. He removed to Windsor with the colony from Boston, in 1635, his house being
within the Palisade. That he was a man of much force of character and respected by his
fellow-citizens is evidenced by the fact that he was deputy to the General Court in 1647,
and again from 1661 to 1663. From Lieutenant Walter, Mr. Fyler's family line is brought
down through (2) Zerubbabel, (3) Zerubbabel, Jr., (4) Silas and (5) Capt. Stephen Fyler.
The latter was a soldier in the war for the independence of his country, and took part in
the siege of New York.
After the close of the war he was a captain iij the militia, and was one of the three
original Democrats in what is now the town of Torrington. Not being a believer in the
compulsory mode of supporting the gospel, he joined the Baptist church, and honored his
profession of religion with a well-ordered life. His son, Harlow Fyler, inherited part of his
father's homestead, and by purchase added to it until he owned eight hundred acres of land.
In addition to his large farm and dairy he carried on other successful enterprises, and was a
man of great energy and business ability, pursuing all honorable methods of obtaining success.
He niarried Sibyl R. ToUes. His death occurred in his eighty-second year. O. R. Fyler
was the eighth child of this union.
The district school gave young Fyler his early education, and it was completed at Wes
leyan Academy, Wilbraham, Mass. When he returned to the paternal home, the stirring
scenes at the opening of the War of the Rebellion were being enacted, and the patriotic
spirit of Capt. Stephen Fyler found a fresh exemplification in his grandson. Mr. Fyler
enlisted as a private in the Nineteenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, under Col. Leverett
W. Wessels, Sept. 11, 1862. The regiment was one of those assigned to the defence of the
capital of the nation. In December, 1863, the Nineteenth was changed from an infantry to a
heavy artillery regiment, and was thenceforward known as the Second Heavy Artillery. As the
numerical strength of a regiment of artillery is greater than that of the infantry, one man
was selected from each company to be a recruiting officer. Mr. Fyler was chosen from
his company and did good work in bringing the total number up to 1,800 men. At Camp
Dutton, Litchfield, he was made color sergeant, and while on recruiting service he received
a second lieutenant's commission bearing date of Feb. 6, 1864, and, on March 4, was mustered
as such officer at Gen. R. E. Lee's residence at Arlington Heights. Lieutenant Fyler's
command joined General Grant's army in May, 1864, and took part in the batties of North
Anna River, Cold Harbor, the struggle around Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, and at Winchester,
under General Sheridan, in September, 1864, where he was wounded in the left leg. Mr.

'^>J '

^l^

Massachusetts Riblisliini Co, EveTetf, Mass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 119
Fyler received a first lieutenant's commission for bravery displayed on the field of battle at
Winchester. The battle of Cold Harbor was fought June i, 1864. The regiment was
disposed in three lines, the objective point being the heavy earth-works defended by Long-
street's veterans. It passed at double-quick to the first line, capturing it, and sending to
the rear over three hundred prisoners ; forward again at double-quick, with intervals of less
than 100 yards between the battalions, to and through a stiff abattis within twenty yards of
the enemy's main line, where it met a most destructive fire from both its front and left
flank. Nothing could withstand the murderous fire that now met them ; further advance
was impos.sible. As a result of this conflict 323 of Litchfield County's bravest sons were left
on the field, 129 of them dead, or mortally wounded ; a record unsurpassed by any regi
ment, north or south, in a single battle, during the war. After Mr. Fyler's return home it
was nearly a year before he could engage in business. The effects of his wound were last
ing, making him lame for life.
Mr. Fyler's first business experience was in a flour and grain store, carried on under
the name of O. R. Fyler & Company, a connection which lasted about two years. In 1866,
he was appointed by President Andrew Johnson, postmaster of Torrington, and he had the pleas
ure of receiving two appointments from President Grant for the same office, one from Presi
dent Hayes, and he was one of the very few who received a commission with the signature
of President Garfield. On the change of the administration his term of office expired in April,
1885. During the nineteen years he filled the position, the town of Torrington increased
largely in population, and the needs of the office grew in similar proportions. Facilities were
added as required, and, when he stepped down, the Torrington office was recognized as one
of the best managed in the state. It was a long and honorable term to extend over nearly
a score of years, and to cover the periods of four Presidents, one of them holding the execu
tive for two successive terms, and a majority of the citizens of the town united in expressing
their regret that political exigency demanded a change.
Farming operations occupied Mr. Fyler's attention for the next year, and on July i, 1866,
he was appointed insurance commissioner by Governor Harrison. He was re-appointed by Gov
ernor Lounsbury and continued in office by Governor Bulkeley, holding the position for nearly
seven years. He entered upon his duties resolved to carry out the requirements of the posi
tion without fear or favor. His first official act was to place the Charter Oak Life Insurance
Company of Hartford in the hands of receivers, and his course was universally commended.
The Continental Life Insurance Company was known to be weak, but it had contrived to pass
previous examinations. He probed the matter to the bottom, and discovered a worse state of
affairs than had been supposed. The company was placed in the hands of competent receivers.
Mr. Fyler's zeal, coupled with his success, gained him a name in the insurance world
upon which he could look with great satisfaction. Later he made a s}'Stematic examination of
the strength of all the companies, something which had never been done in but one instance
before, and paid especial attention to the real estate investments in the West. This proved a
most acceptable feature, as it showed the actual strength of the companies and raised Hartford
higher than ever in the estimation of the insuring public. He reorganized the business of
his office on a solid basis and left the affairs of his office in excellent shape for his successor.
The town of Torrington is indebted to Mr. Fyler for his active efforts in securing a fine
system of water works. He was the first to call a meeting of the citizens, at which time a
committee was appointed, consisting of Isaac W. Brooks, Charles F. Brooker and O. R. Fyler,
to investigate the subject and report. At a subsequent meeting the same committee was
appointed to secure subscriptions and have charge of the work. He was made superintendent
and all the various works have been erected under his immediate supervision. The water

I20 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
company started with a capital of $30,000, and has been increased three times to provide for
the enlargements required, and is now $75,000. The storage capacity of the first basin seems
exceedingly meagre as compared with that of the present one. From 18,000,000 gallons in
1878, an increase was made in 1882 to 71,000,000 gallons, and in 1891 this was more than
doubled by other basins, bringing the total capacity up to 196,000,000 gallons. The five miles
of pipe at first have risen to eighteen, and the care and responsibility of the company increased
in like degree. The engineering difficulties to be overcome have been in Mr. Fyler's charge
from the inception of the company, and that the stock is in demand with none offered for sale,
is the best test that his efforts have proved a success.
From his earliest manhood he has been a strong Republican and an active worker in the
ranks of that party, casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln while in hospital at
Winchester, Va., the state having sent commissioners to collect the soldiers' vote. He was a
delegate to the National Convention at which James G. Blaine was nominated for the presi
dency, and is a member of_ the state central committee. Though he has held his full share
of the offices of the town, one term in the Legislature of 1866 will cover his official career
outside of the positions mentioned. As postmaster and insurance commissioner, he was barred
from holding other stations to which his many friends would gladly have elected him. As a
soldier, Mr. Fyler brought back from the war a most honorable record, and still carries with
him a visible remembrance of the "times that tried men's souls." Let his long term as
postmaster bear abundant testimony that his management of the office was acceptable to his
supporters ; while his sterling and fearless work as insurance commissioner is too fresh in the
minds of the citizens of the state to need more than a passing mention as to its comprehensive
efficiency. Mr. Fyler married Mary E., daughter of David Vaill of Torrington, Dec. 14, 1865. One
daughter, Gertrude B., was the result of this union. •

GODWIN, JAMES, for nearly thirt}^ years president of the Connecticut Mutual
Life Insurance Company, Hartford, was born March 2, 1803. After passing
by five }'ears the three score and ten allotted to man, he passed on to his
reward, March 15, 1878, full of honors and sincerely mourned by all his
contemporaries .
The family name Goodwin is one which has been, and is to-day, very widely dis
tributed, not onl}' over England, but over most of the northern countries of Europe.
Instances of its occurrence are to be met with in remote antiquity. As far back as
the fifth century it is to be met with in Germany, in the forms Gudwin and Godwin.
It is obviously a name composed of two elements, about the meaning of which there can
be little dispute. The word vin, or win, certainly means a friend, but the question is
open whether the element Good should be referred to the Gothic theme guda or to another
theme goda. According as it is combined with the first or second, the meaning of the name
Goodwin will stand for good friend or God''s friend. In either case it is a name of honor,
and tells of a worthy ancestry. In English records the name Goodwin is numerously
mentioned in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and at the close of the fifteenth
century there were three considerable families who bore the name of Goodwin known in
the county of Norfolk, and of assured position in the counties of Suffolk and Essex.
Ozias Goodwin, the head of the Connecticut family, married Mary, daughter of Robert
Woodward of Braintree, England. He is known to have been a resident in Hartford in

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 121
1639. By successive generations the family line comes down through Nathaniel, Ozias and
Jonathan to James Goodwin, father of the subject of this sketch. He was a man of promi
nence in his day, being an officer in the Governor's Foot Guards, and interested in the
development of Hartford. He was married March 3, 1799, to Eunice, daughter of Captain
Lemuel and Ruth (Woodford) Roberts. Of his three children, James, Jr., was the second.
The education of the future insurance president was gained in the school of John J.
White, a popular institution of the times. At the age of sixteen he left the pursuit of
knowledge to enter the activities of business, becoming a clerk for Joseph Morgan. The
energy and executive ability which were characteristic of his later years manifested them
selves at an early age. Just after attaining his majority, he became proprietor of the
principal line of mail stages running out of the city. The possibilities there were in the
coming power of railroads, Mr. Goodwin grasped at an early period, and gradually between
1835 and 1840 he disposed of his stage interests. No act of his life showed greater fore
sight and intuition into matters which affect mercantile success. In 1837, he was made a
director in the Hartford & New Haven Railroad, and it was the successful operations of
this road which decided his change of business.
Fire insurance had long been a prominent feature of the business of Hartford, but life
insurance was an untried experiment. In 1846, a charter was obtained for the Connecticut
Mutual Life Insurance Company, the plan being purely "mutual," the policy-holders elect
ing the officers, and nominally controlling the company. The company organized with Mr.
Bulkeley as president. Dr. Phelps as secretary and Mr. Ayrault as actuary. The Connecticut
Mutual wrote 205 policies during the first year of only a few weeks, nearly 3,400 in the
next two years, 4,243 in 1849, and 5,589 in 1850; its assets increasing meanwhile from
nothing to $918,406.73. Its financial standing was much solidified by the severe economy
with which Dr. Phelps had been trained, and which was part of his nature. After 1850
the company began to decline in new business, until it reached its lowest point in writing
only 587 policies for 1856; then fortune changed. Gaining regularly, it wrote 1,544 policies
in i860, and 14,161 in 1867. But through all times alike its financial position steadily
improved. Its assets, which had been only $3,760,748 in 1861, rose to $7,225,040 in 1865,
$27,566,479 in 1870, and to $40,371,939 in 1875. In 1848, Mr. Bulkeley retired from, the
company and was succeeded by Major Goodwin. This able man retained the position until
1865, when he gave up the presidency (though remaining a director and financial adviser),
and Dr. Phelps assumed the headship. In 1869, the latter died, and Major Goodwin was
again called to the presidency, which he retained until his death in 1878. His name is
intimately connected with the great growth and prosperity of the company, as well as with
the solid foundation on which it is built. Much of the success of other similar companies
which came later upon the scene is due to following the principles which he first enunciated
and then tested. All credit should -be given to the pioneer in whatever field he may
devote his strength.
Major Goodwin's interests and activities were far from being confined to the insurance
company he did so much to upbuild. For forty years he was a director in the Hartford
Fire Insurance Company, and always took a share in moulding its lines of management.
In the Collins Manufacturing Company, the Hartford Carpet Company, Holyoke Water
Power Company, the Gatling Gun Company, Connecticut Trust Company, the Hartford
Fire Insurance Company, and numerous other business enterprises, his influence was felt in
everything pertaining to their development. He was indeed one of the "directors who
direct," and it would be well for numerous corporations of the present day if the men
whose names appear on the board of management took the same personal interest in every
detail which Major Goodwin always felt in the companies of which he formed a part.

122 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Being interested in military matters, he enlisted at the age of eighteen in the First
Company of Governor's Horse Guards, and by gradual stages he rose to be major, an. office
he filled from 1829 to 1833. A large number of religious societies and charitable institu
tions shared his beneficent interest. He was a trustee of Trinity College and a director of
the Hartford Hospital. A vestryman of Christ Church for sixteen years, his zeal for the
welfare of the parish was life-long. The higher office of warden he always declined, and
but for his refusal to serve he would have been vestryman at the time of his death.
Possessing the full confidence of the community alike in his judgment and in his integ
rity, his courage, foresight and self-reliance made him a natural leader. In all the affairs
with which he was connected, his molding power was felt. Constant usefulness and
benevolence marked every portion of his life, and when he passed on to his reward the
loss was mourned by the state at large. A brief sketch of him in the genealogy of the
Goodwin family has the following truthful summary of character :
His business career, which was uninterrupted to the end, was characterized by great courage, energy and
firmness, united with equal wisdom and caution. He had to a remarkable degree the habit of self-reliance ia
all matters of importance. His discernment was keen, and his judgment almost unerring. He was of necessity
a leader, and in everything in which he took part, however quietly, his shaping hand was manifest. His;
mind was comprehensive in perception, acute in analysis, direct and forcible in operation. His temperament
was calm, cheerful and almost perfectly equal. Few men have carried more numerous or important trusts, and
none ever discharged them with more fidelity. He had a simple, pure, deeply affectionate nature, and in all his
private and social relations was particularly happy. His life was an example of perfect integrity in the faithful
discharge of the highest responsibilities, and of constant usefulness in the community in which he dwelt.
James Goodwin was married July 30, 1832, to Lucy, daughter of Joseph and SaUy Spen
cer Morgan. He died March 15, 1878, and his wife, who had lived the ideal life of a
Christian gentlewoman, followed him Sept. 19, 1890. Seven children were born to them,
of these two are living : James Junius, and Francis. The latter is an ordained priest of the
Episcopal church, and though not now in charge of a parish, his time is largely devoted to
church work. Mr. James J., besides holding several positions of trust and responsibility
has the management of his father's estate in connection with his brother.

;HITING, CHARLES B., president of the Orient Insurance Company of Hartford,
Conn., was born in Greenbush, New York, Sept. 3, 1828. He came from New
England stock, both his parents having been born in New Hampshire. Mr.
Whiting descended from the Rev. Samuel Whiting, the first minister of Lynn,
Mass., who came to this country in 1636. His wife was Elizabeth St. John, a
sister of Sir Oliver St. John, who was lord chief justice of England under Cromwell, whose
cousin he was. Oliver St. John defended John Hampden in the celebrated ship money case.
The early days of young Whiting were passed partly in school and partly attending to
various duties in his father's store. Beginning first in the public schools of his native
town, his education was completed at a superior boarding school at Williamstown, Mass. On
attaining his majority h& left his parental home and entered the employ of the Boston &
Albany Railroad Company at East Albany, and remained in this position the space of three
years. The next two years were passed in steamboating with the " People's Line " of Hudson
River steamers.
In 1855, Mr. Whiting became infected with the "western fever," so prevalent at the time,
and located in the town of De Soto, Wis. , on the Mississippi River. Here he passed nine years
of varied experiences as railroad and steamboat agent, postmaster and representative of the

>5^

MQS&ac,liuseftsTlililishin.g Cn.E-Wiielt, MasE

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 123
^tna Insurance Company of Hartford, Conn. Becoming interested in developing the insur
ance idea, he formed a connection with the Accidental Insurance Company of New York, and
removed to that city in 1866. Attracting the favorable attention of the executive committee
of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, he was offered the position of secretary a few
months later, and filled all its requirements most satisfactorily untU May, 1870. Without
leaving his chosen sphere of action he made a change in his field of work. At the last named
date Mr. Whiting became the state agent of the Home Insurance Company for New York,
and the next decade of his life was spent in faithfully and laboriously advancing the interests
of that sterling corporation. Failing health compeUed him finally to resign, greatly to the
regret of his superiors. A few months of enforced rest intervened, but he could not remain
idle. His first active service was with the Springfield (Mass.) Fire and Marine Insurance
Company. This connection was of extremely brief duration. Receiving an unanimous election
as secretary of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, he removed to the capital city in October,
1881. Here he had excellent opportunities for gaining breadth of experience, and he easily
met all the responsibilities placed upon him.
Faithfulness and zeal in a subordinate position brought the opportunity to accept a higher
one. In May, 1886, he was called to the presidency of the Orient Insurance Company, and is
still engaged in filling the duties of that office. Under Mr. Whiting's management the busi
ness of the company has rapidly increased. When he assumed the management, in 1886, the
premiums were only $500,000, and in 1893 were $1,500,000. The company is represented in
nearly every state in the Union, and during its existence has paid nearly $8,000,000 in losses.
A clear and forcible writer on the subject of insurance, Mr. Whiting has at times con
tributed articles to various newspapers. He has delivered addresses before the New York
State Association and the Underwriters' Association of the Northwest. He has also delivered
two addresses to the Connecticut State Fireman's Association. Mr. Whiting is vice-president
of the city bank of Hartford, vice-president of the Mather Electric Company of Manchester,
Conn., vice-president of the Perkins Lamp Company of Manchester, Conn., a trustee of the
Holland Trust Company of New York City, and a trustee of the Dime Savings Bank of Hart
ford, Conn., and an active member of the Connecticut Historical Society, in which he takes
great interest. Though somewhat along in years his vigor remains unimpaired, and his
capacity for work is as great as ever.
Mr. Whiting married Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick S. Fairchild of Greenbush,
N. Y., who is still living. They have no children.

UNBAR, EDWARD BUTLER, of Bristol, ex-state senator, and a leading
manufacturer of the town, was born in Bristol, Nov. i, 1842.
Mr. Dunbar comes of a sturdy Pennsylvania stock. Butler Dunbar, the
founder of this branch of the family, removed from that state about 1821, and
settled in Bristol, Conn. Being of an inventive turn of mind, he soon went
into the clock business, a line of trade with which the very atmosphere seemed charged in that
section of the state. His son, Edward L., followed in his footsteps, and established himself
in the manufacture of clock springs and clock trimmings in 1840, in Bristol. He was the first
to make a specialty of the production of clock springs from sheet steel, oil-tempered. In 1857,
with Wallace Barnes, he went into the manufacture of steel springs for hoop skirts, which
were then coming into fashion. Finding the business profitable, they went into the making

124 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of the hoop skirts, and established a factory in New York, which was in charge of William F.
Tompkins, and it was here that Mr. E. B. Dunbar got his first business experience. The
New York factory was a marked success as long as it was carried on, but a change in prevailing
fashions caused it to be abandoned. Edward L. Dunbar married Julia, daughter of Joel
Warner, and of his six children, Edward B. was the second.
After passing through the common schools of his native town, young Dunbar's education
received its finishing touches at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. In the spring
of i860, before he had reached the age of eighteen, he went to New York city to assist Mr.
Tompkins in his father's factory. Five years later he returned to his old home, where he has
since been occupied in the manufacture of clock springs and other small springs, under the
firm name of Dunbar Brothers. This business was established by his father with half a
dozen hands, the most crude processes being used, and the production being correspondingly
limited. By the introduction of the improved machinery of the present time, thirty men can
turn out from 5,000 to 7,000 clock springs per day. In the last decade, the large clock manu
facturers have many of them commenced to make their own springs, so the business of the
firm has changed to a considerable degree. They now devote themselves to making small
springs for all kinds of purposes, and in the course of the year turn out millions.
Ever since Mr. Dunbar became a voter he has taken an active interest in politics, and
has been a prominent worker in the ranks of the Democratic party. For over twenty years
he has been a member of the Democratic town committee, and for six years served as chair
man. He has always been a strong friend to educational interests, as his course in town
meetings and his public speeches will bear abundant testimony. From the very establishment
of the high school he has been chairman of the committee, and is also a member of the third
district school committee.
Mr. Dunbar has held a large number of the official positions within the gift of his fellow
citizens. He has been grand juror, and for over twenty years has been one of the registrars
of voters. Always taking great interest in the fire department and the development of its
efficiency, for the last ten years he has filled the responsible position of chairman of the Board
of Fire Commissioners. When he was made chairman the fire department had only hand
engines, and it was in a large degree owing to his labors that two steam fire engines were
purchased, and the morale of the department placed on a much higher basis.
At the State House Mr. Dunbar has passed four legislative terms with honor to himself
and to the great satisfaction of his constituents. He was first sent to the lower branch to
represent the town of Bristol in 1869, and was returned a second time in 1881, serving on the
committee on claims.
His first experience as a member of the Senate was in 1884, and he was reelected in 1886,
and on both these occasions he ran more than a hundred votes ahead of the state ticket in his
own town. Being in the minority party, only a small portion of the honors fell to his share,
the chairmanship of the committee on federal relations and new towns and probate districts,
made up the list. He has the proud consciousness of knowing that he has never yet been
placed before the people for their suffrages when he suffered defeat.
Being a working man himself, Mr. Dunbar possesses a warm sympathy for the working
classes, and while at the capitol he looked well to their interests. He was one of the most
earnest advocates of the weekly payment law, and in fact inaugurated the system in his own
factory before the law was passed. In 1890, he was mentioned, with others, as a possible
candidate for congressional honors, but he peremptorily declined to allow his name to be used
in that connection, his business interests requiring his undivided attention.

>'ff! s 3 n.Lni.i : •!i' r? r'ij.hJj;,5'hirL& Co, Eve,re,) l,Ma,3B , 1

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 125
A share of Mr. Dunbar's time has been devoted to financial institutions. He has been
a director in the Bristol National Bank since it was organized in 1875, and is a vice-president
in the Bristol Savings Bank. One of the prime movers in the organization of the Bristol
Board of Trade, he was chosen vice-president, an office he filled for several years.
In religious faith Mr. Dunbar follows in the footsteps of his fathers, and is a member of
the Congregational church of Bristol, and at different times has served as chairman of the
society's committee. Not all of his activity in the cause of righteousness has been confined
to the church of which he forms a prominent part. For the four years from October, 1886,
to October, 1890, he served as president of the Bristol Young Men's Christian Association,
and in this capacity rendered some valuable assistance to the cause of the Master whom he
professes to serve among the young men of Bristol. In 1892, an effort was made to start a
public library in the town, and Mr. Dunbar took hold of the movement with his accustomed
zeal. He was chosen president of the organization, and did much to place it on the firm
foundation where it now rests.
Edward B. Dunbar was married Dec. 23, 1875, to Alice, daughter of Watson Giddings,
a carriage maker of Bristol. This union has been blessed by three children, of whom one
daughter. Marguerite, and one son, Edward Giddings, are living. Mr. Dunbar and his
family are living in the house built more than half a century ago, and for a time occupied
by Chauncy Jerome, the famous clock maker. It has been entirely remodelled and every
modern improvement introduced.

¦ILLIAMS, JAMES BAKER, of Glastonbury, president of the J. B. WUliams
Company, was born in Lebanon, Conn., Feb. 2, 1818.
It was the year noted in the annals of our country as being the starting
point of a large number of men who were prominent in state and national
affairs, as well as in the world of mechanics and manufacturing. Six governors
of Massachusetts were born this year, and Connecticut can claim Gov. Richard D. Hubbard
(once a schoolmate of Mr. Williams), United States Senator William H. Barnum, and Lieu
tenant-Governor James L- Howard.
The name Williams is very ancient in its origin, and it probably extends throughout the
English-speaking world. Most of the earliest members of the name were doubtless of Welsh
extraction. They formed a large portion of the principality of Wales in England, somewhat
like the O's in Ireland and the Macs in Scotland. Many of the noted men and women of
England and America have borne this name.
The first of this family to emigrate to this country was Robert Williams of Norwich,
England. He settled in Roxbury, Mass., and was made a freeman in 1638. From him the
family line comes down through (2) Capt. Isaac Williams, his second son, who settled in
Newton, Mass. , and was a deacon of the First Congregational Church in that place — and (3)
his son WiUiam, who was for fifty-five years the minister of the church in Hatfield, Mass.
This Rev. William Williams married first Eliza, a daughter of Rev. Seaborn Cotton, whose
son. Rev. Elisha Williams, was for thirteen years the president of Yale College ; and for a
second wife he married Christian, a daughter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, D.D., of Northamp
ton, Mass., and a sister of the mother of Jonathan Edwards, D.D. (4) Her son. Rev.
Solomon Williams, D.D., was pastor of the church in Lebanon, Conn., for fifty-four years.
He married Mary, a daughter of Judge Samuel Porter of Hadley, Mass., and their oldest son,
17 •

126 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Eliphalet Williams, D.D., was pastor of the First Church in East Hartford for fifty -five years;
and his son, Rev. Solomon Williams of Northampton, Mass., was also a pastor in that place
fifty-five years.
The second son of Rev. Dr. Solomon Williams of Lebanon was Ezekiel Williams, Esq.,
of Wethersfield, Conn., who was the father of the late Hon. Thomas S. Williams of Hart
ford, and for many years the chief justice of the state of Connecticut. His third son was
Hon. William WUliams of Lebanon, Conn., of whom it is said that "for more than ninety
sessions he was scarcely absent from his seat in the legislature, except in 1776 and 1777,
when he was a member of the Continental Congress, and as such signed the Declaration of
Independence." His fourth son, and in this line the fifth, was Dr. Thomas Williams of
Lebanon, who married Rebecca Wells, a lineal descendant of Gov. Thomas Wells, and who
was the mother of the sixth of this line, Solomon Williams, also of Lebanon. He married
Martha Baker, a daughter of Dr. Joseph Baker of Pomfret, now Brooklyn, Conn. When the
news of the battle of Lexington reached that place. Gen. Israel Putnam and many of his
neighbors started for Boston, and his friend and physician. Dr. Baker, went with them as surgeon
for the troops of Connecticut. Dr. Baker was at the battle of Bunker Hill, and also at Fort
Griswold to attend the wounded and dying soldiers after the fight and massacre at that place.
Mrs. Williams was of Huguenot descent, her mother being a daughter of Rev. Ebenezer
Devotion, whose ancestors are traced back to prominent families in France about seven hun
dred years. Two of her brothers were officers in the United States Army during the war of
1812, and Col. Rufus L- Baker was connected with the ordnance department as late as 1857.
The birth-place of Mr. Williams was the house built as a parsonage in 1710, by Rev. Samuel
Wells, a kinsman of his grandmother, and in 1722 sold to and occupied by his successor in
the ministry. Rev. Dr. Solomon Williams. Here, too, lived Dr. Thomas WiUiams a life of
eighty-four years, and here his son Solomon lived and reared most of his ten children, of
whom the subject of this sketch was the sixth. This house is still standing, is in good repair,
and is one of the noted homes in that old and historic town. In this house was formed and
kept for many years the first circulating library in New England, among whose members were
President Clapp of Yale CoUege, Joseph Trumbull, the father, and Gov. Jonathan Trumbull,
his son, who was for many years its secretary, and was succeeded in that office by Dr. Thomas
Williams. The catalogue of books, their cost, and the records are still extant. On these
premises during the winter of 1780 and 1781 a part of a regiment of five hundred French
hussars, under the command of the Duke de Lauzun, were quartered, and with five other
regiments from France were reviewed on the town common by General Washington. This
venerable town has furnished the state five governors, for thirty-seven years, and several gov
ernors for other states, seven members of Congress for this and other states, and three United
States senators..
In the public schools of this old town, of East Hartford and Hartford, supplemented by'
two short terms in the East Hartford Academy, Mr. Williams obtained what was supposed to
be equivalent to a common-school education. To make up in part the felt deficiency, after
entering a store where his time and labor was required for six days and evenings in a week till
about nine o'clock, he made it his rule to study from nine till eleven at night and to rise at five
in the morning and study till called to the day's business. This he continued for many
years, and the habit thus formed has been a help to him during all his subsequent life. His
first business experience was behind the counters of a country store at Manchester. At the
end of four years he secured an interest in the business, under the name of Keeney &
WUliams. Two years later, he engaged in the drug business with his brother, George W.
Williams (since of Hartford), and they began the manufacture of druggists' articles in a small
way, and soon after they added the production of soaps, etc.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 127
In 1847, he transferred his business from Manchester to Glastonbury, and set up manu
facturing in what was formerly Hale's grist mill, run by water power. The building was
twenty-four by forty feet, with attic and cellar. For the first two years Mr. Williams carried
on his operations alone, but in 1849, he was joined by his brother, William S. WiUiams, the
name becoming J. B. Williams & Company. For the first dozen years they manufactured soap,
inks, blacking, etc., but about i860, all other lines except the first were either sold out or
dropped, and they have confined themselves wholly to that speciality ever since.
By always producing a superior article, an excellent reputation was soon gained for
Williams' soaps, and now, after more than half a century of existence, there is not a cloud upon
the fair name of the company. By gradual enlargement, the business, which started in the little
building twenty- four by forty, has grown until it covers between 60,000 and 80,000 square
feet of floor space. A walk through the various buildings reveals the fact that the plant is
supplied with every possible labor-saving appliance, and nothing is omitted which will tend
to improve the quality of their production. To the average man, the processes required to
produce a high grade of soap are utterly unknown, but success is only attained by long
experience combined with an intimate knowledge of the proper chemicals. The Williams'
" Yankee Shaving Soap" is a popular article in all parts of the United States and Canada,
and to their other specialties in 1885, they added the manufacture of "Ivorine," a washing
powder which has found its way into a numerous array of families. The J. B. Williams
Company can make the rare claim that it has never lost a customer while he continued business,
and that, with scarcely if any exception, in no year since it has been in business has it failed
to make an increase over the preceding one.
Though Mr. WiUiams grew up as a near neighbor of Governor Buckingham, and was
the familiar friend of many of the public men of the state, a couple of terms in the legislature
will cover his entire official life. While at the capitol he was chairman of the committee on
engrossed bills, and was a member of the committee on education and other committees of
lesser note. He has often been solicited to allow his name to be used as a candidate for state
and town offices, but has invariably declined, except in connection with schools or the
Ecclesiastical Society and Congregational church of the town, in which last he has held the
office of deacon for over thirty- five years. His business energies have been practically confined
to the building up of the widely known company which bears his name. He is also president
of The Williams Brothers Manufacturing Company of Naubuc, Conn., and vice-president of
The Vermont Farm Machine Company.
The ' ' Memorial History of Hartford County ' ' contains the following brief allusion to the
firm: "This privilege is now owned by The J. B. Williams Company, successors to Messrs.
James B. & William S. Williams, who established themselves here before 1850, in the manu
facture of soaps of all kinds, ink and shoe blacking. Their business is now confined to the
former articles. Their success consequent upon a career of active, intelligent business, is such
as greatly to have benefitted themselves, their town, and all good enterprises."
James B. Williams was married Sept. 24, 1845, to Jerusha M., daughter of David' and
Jerusha (HoUister) Hubbard of Glastonbury. She died in 1866, and in July, 1869, he married
Julie E. Hubbard, a younger sister. Mr. Williams has eight living children, of whom six are
the children of his first wife.
The J. B. Williams Company, incorporated under the laws of the state, is composed of
Mr. WiUiams and his sons, David W. and Samuel H., and of his brother, William S. Williams
and his sons, George G. and Bernard T. Mr. Williams's second son, James S., is superin
tendent of The Williams Brothers Manufacturing Company at Naubuc. The young men in
business, in society, and in the church are nobly filling the places soon to be vacated by
their fathers.

128 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

fLSOP, JOSEPH WRIGHT, M. D., of Middletown. Born August, 1838, died
June 24, 1891. The Alsop family of Connecticut was practically established
by Thomas Wandell of Newtown through Richard Alsop, his nephew, whom
he brought from England when a mere boy, about 1665, and adopted as his
son and heir. It is said of Mr. Wandell: "That the one act of his life
which serves to perpetuate his name in local history, was his effort to thwart the burning
of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury which tried Ralph Hall and
wife, and acquitted them." The great qualities of mind and heart possessed by Wandell
were impressed upon his young protdge and relative, and these have been transmitted un
tarnished, through the succeeding generations down to the present time. Richard Alsop
fell into possession of Wandell 's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the
manor" until his death in 1 718. Of his three sons, John removed to Esopus on the
Hudson River, where he became a prominent attorney. Richard Alsop, his son, was
probably' born at Esopus, and after receiving a thorough mercantile education, he came to
Middletown about 1750. He was one of the pioneers of the West India trade, in which he
was remarkably successful and accumulated a large fortune. There were no established
insurance companies at this time, and he not only took his own risks but insured vessels
for others on his private responsibility. He was a man of broad, liberal views, public-
spirited, and engaged heartily in all works of benevolence. Besides being a leading Mason
in his town, he was a member of the state legislature, and also occupied other public
positions. Capt. Joseph Wright Alsop, the eighth child and second son of Richard, was born
March 2, 1772. The death of his father when he was but four years of age, left him
dependent on his mother, to whose careful training he was indebted for his success in life.
He became a sea captain, and re-opened the West India business established by his father
many years before. Captain Alsop was a man deservedly popular, and proved himself
a worthy representative of his distinguished predecessors. Joseph W. Alsop, Jr., third child
of Captain Alsop, was born in Middletown, Nov. 32, 1804. At an early age his father
designed him for commercial pursuits, for which he had a special fondness and ability,
inherited from his father and grandfather. Following in their footsteps he successfully
engaged in the West India trade, and also interested himself in the development of rail
roads, being the first president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. Like those who had
preceded him, he was a thorough business man, and a firm friend of the poor and
unfortunate, for whom it is recorded that he frequently made personal sacrifices. Oct. 25,
1837, he married Mary Alsop, daughter of Francis J. Oliver of Boston, and the subject of
this sketch was their only child.
After receiving his primary education. Dr. Alsop entered Sheffield Scientific School. In
i860, deciding to make the medical profession the means of future advancement, he
engaged in the study of medicine, and in 1861 he was awarded the degree of M. D. from
the medical department of the University of New York.
Taking an active interest in public affairs. Dr. Alsop was naturally called upon to
serve his friends in official stations. In 1873 he was chosen to the lower house of the
state legislature, this being his first experience as a law maker. He was senator from the
eighteenth district in 1881, and was returned to the senate from the new twenty-second
district for the years 1881-82, 1883-84, 1885-86.
Dr. Alsop was a member of the State Board of Agriculture from 1883 until his death,
and gave no small share of his time to the work of the board. Everything affecting the
farmer or his farm found in him a ready helper.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 129
For ten years he was trustee of the hospital for the insane at Middletown, and for
half a dozen years occupied the same position with the industrial school for girls, and in
special fields rendered some efficient service. He was also visitor of the Sheffield Scientific
School. He was an active friend to the development of all local institutions, and the work
he gave to their advancement was simply limited by the amount of time at his command.
In the Democratic State Convention of 1890, Dr. Alsop received the nomination for the
lieutenant-governorship, on the ticket with Hon. Luzon B. Morris. This honor came to
him without any effort or solicitation on his part. When the votes were counted, he had
an apparent majority of 566. On the assembling of the legislature, the senate and the
house failed to concur regarding the status of the returns, and, with the single exception of
the comptroller, no official was declared elected. An anomalous state of affairs prevailed,
and under the constitution the old officers of two previous terms "held over." In company
with Mr. Morris, he had begun quo warranto proceedings against the existing officers, but
death ended all his claims to station in this world.
The death of Dr. Alsop produced a profound sensation of loss in Middletown. Flags
were displayed at half mast throughout the city, and all places of business were closed
during the funeral. The solemn services were conducted by Bishop Williams, assisted by
Rev. Dr. Parks, rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity. The interment was in Indian
Hill Cemetery. In the course of an article the Hartford Courant, a paper opposed to him
politically, said :
The news of his death brought a shock to the community where he resided, not alone on account of its
suddenness, but because he was everybody's friend. Being possessed of large means, his acts of benevolence
and charity were many, but always bestowed with modesty and lack of ostentation. He kept standing orders
with the butcher and baker, whereby many poor families were kept from hunger, and yet no one knew of it
save the parties immediately interested, A gentleman of genial and lovable habit, his advice and judgment
were often sought. He was especially a valuable member of the board of trustees of the Hospital for Insane,
and was rarely absent from their meetings. And yet he possessed a degree of firmness which would not
permit him to swerve from a conviction once settled. Senator Alsop was a Democrat always, not seeking
office, but ready to answer his party's call. Yet when the nomination for lieutenant-governor was offered him
in 1890, he hesitated and accepted with misgivings, fearful that he could not endure the strain of the campaign
on account of the malady which ended his life, and of the existence of which he had been painfully aware for
some years. But he thoroughly believed that he was elected lieutenant-governor, and when urged by his
party friends to preside over the Senate, neglected to do so on account of his physical condition alone.
The following resolutions were passed by the Senate, after several eulogistic tributes
setting forth the strong and attractive qualities of his nature, his courage of conviction, his
courtesy and kindness of heart, and his disinterested devotion to the welfare of others :
Resolved by the Senate, That the recent death of Lieutenant-Governor Joseph W. Alsop has filled the
hearts of the members of the Senate with profound sorrow.
By this sad event the state has lost a good, useful and patriotic citizen, who by his public service and
private virtues had won the love and esteem of all who knew him.
In his death the Senate mourns the loss of one who was for many years one of its most honored, able
and distinguished members. The Senate extends heartfelt sympathy to his bereaved family and relatives in
this their great affliction.
In 1869, Dr. Alsop was married to Elizabeth, daughter of H. C. Beach of New York.
She died in 1889. Four children, three sons and one daughter, survive.

I30

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

lICKINSON, FRANCIS LEMUEL, M. D., of Rockville, was born Jan. 29, 1816,
in Portland, Conn.
About the middle of the last century, David Dickinson came from England
and settled in Marlboro, Conn., where he was a deacon and prominent in church
affairs. His son, Deacon David Dickinson, Jr., followed in the footsteps of his
father. Lemuel, son of David, Jr., married Sarah C. Clark, and the subject of this sketch
was their only child.
Dr. Dickinson's father died in 1819, before the son was a year old, and the mother
removed to Colchester, Conn., where she afterwards resided. The early scholastic training of
young Dickinson was obtained in the district schools, and he was fitted for college at the
Bacon Academy in Colchester. The winter after he was seventeen he taught the district
school at Rocky Hill, and the two following winters he taught the high school at Vernon.
The medical profession attracted his attention as the one best suited to his tastes in which
to attain eminence, as well as pecuniary success. Accordingly he commenced the study of
the effects of "pills, powders and potions" in the office of Dr. Frederick Morgan of Col
chester, and later on he continued his studies with Dr. Alvan Talcott of Vernon, Conn.
After taking the regular course of lectures at the Yale Medical CoUege he was graduated
with the degree of M. D. in 1840. A serious illness interrupted his career after a few months'
practice at Hampton, Conn., and he was obliged to spend some time with his friends. His
health being restored. Dr. Dickinson resumed the practice of his profession in Willington,
where he reinained until the summer of 1863, when he transferred his residence to Rockville.
In this thriving town he has since resided, and by his marked ability and success in the
treatment of disease has gained a high reputation for himself. He has been connected with
several notable cases which attracted much attention at the time, but no detailed description
was written of them, and consequently full credit cannot be given for the skill displayed.
His standing as a ph}-sician is based on the broad ground of his rare skill in the handling
of intricate cases of whatever nature he may be called upon to treat. His reputation has
been earned by half a century spent in the faithful service of humanity.
Although fully alive to his responsibilities as a medical practitioner. Dr. Dickinson has
not denied the calls of his fellow-townsmen, when they have requested him to serve them
in an official capacity. In 1850, and again in 1857, he represented the town of WUlington
in the state legislature, and after his removal to Rockville, he was again sent to the
legislature from the town of Vernon for the years 1875 and 1876. During the session of
1875, he served as chairman of the committee on insurance, it being the first year such a
committee had been appointed, and naturally various perplexing questions came up for set
tlement, and in the latter year he was a member of the committee which superintended the
erection of the Connecticut state building at the Centennial.
Receiving the nomination of the Republican party for senator in the twenty-first district,
he accepted and was elected by a handsome majority. In this instance, as weU as in 1875,
when he was the candidate for the lower house, the town had been strongly Democratic, but his
popularity was such that he gained the victory for his party each time. His services were
so acceptable that he was elected for two following years. While in the senate, he was
chairman of the committee on education and of the canvassing committee, besides holding
a membership on several other commirtees. But his constituents were not yet done with
him. In 1880, for special reasons. Dr. Dickinson was urged to stand as a candidate for
selectman, and finalh- consented, and was easily elected. Since that time he has positively
declined to accept political or other office.

....'/'^^-^^-^^^>^-^-t^^?::.,^

Mas saclius etta Fufflisliing Co,Ever6ll,Ma,3

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 131
For over twenty years he has been a director in the First National Bank of Rockville,
and for half that time he has served as vice-president. Dr. Dickinson has been president of
the Tolland County Medical Society several times, and takes an active interest in everything
which pertains to the development of medical science.
Dr. F. L. Dickinson was married Sept. 28, 1840, to Roxie, daughter of Col. Francis
McLean, who built the first mill in Rockville, and was practically the founder of the place.
Four children have been born to them, of whom three are now living. His oldest son,
Francis P., is a farmer, A. P. is selectman of Rockville, and A. T. is in charge of the
plant of the Rockville Electric Light Company.

^ASE, NEWTON, of Hartford, founder of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Com
pany, was born in Canton, Conn., March 12, 1807. Mr. Case had an abund
ance of excellent company in starting on the journey of life. Henry W. Long
fellow, John G. Whittier, Charles Francis Adams, Morton McMichael, Prof.
Louis F". Agassiz, David Dale Owen, William L. Dayton, Hiram Sibley, Ezra
Cornell and a score of others known to fame were born the same year. Having passed
the fourscore allotted to man, he died Sept. 14, 1890.
He came of a sturdy Connecticut ancestry containing its full share of the pioneer and
Revolutionary spirit. Mr. Case was a descendant of John Case, a settler in New London,
in 1656, who removed to Windsor the following year, and afterwards to Simsbury, where
he died in 1704. He was a member of the General Assembly for several years, and a man of
prominence in his day. From him, by successive generations, the family line came down
through Joseph, and Jacob, one of the pioneers of Simsbury, Case's Farms being named
after him, to Jesse Case, who was a native of Simsbury, and is known to have served in
the Revolutionary War as a corporal in Capt. John Brown's company in the Thirteenth
regiment at New York in August and September, 1775. His son, Jesse Case, Jr., married
Sarah, daughter of Deacon Elisha Cornish, of West Simsbury, now Canton. Of their ten
children, the subject of this sketch was the eighth.
The early life of Mr. Case was spent on his father's farm, receiving a limited educa
tion. At the age of twenty-one he came to Hartford, as a writer in the Hartford Courant
well said of him, " Bare- handed, with no title to fortune, save what lay in his natural
ability, a sturdy physique, habits of industry and economy, an upright character, and a
common school education." At first his occupation was that of a copper-plate printer.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into the printing business, Mr. Case celebrated
the event by inviting to his home a number of his old friends and employees. Among
them were all his old partners except three, who were deceased. During the course of
the evening he told them in a well written paper, the history of his business career, from
which we quote several paragraphs describing what he terms, "way marks along the un
even pathway of a business life."
At the age of twenty-one I came to Hartford, having no knowledge of any business except that of
farming, and obtained a situation to work for my board in a copper-plate printing establishment. After
beginning to receive wages, I continued to work at the same business for about eighteen months longer. In
August, 1830, I commenced business on my own account, associated with Mr. E. H. Wilcox, and continued
that connection a little more than one year. I then conducted the same business alone for about two years,
after which Mr. A. D. Waters was admitted as a partner. At that time there was a large amount of plate
printing done in Hartford, a natural outgrowth of the publication of school geographies and atlases.
In 1835 and 1836 our business was carried on in what was then known as the Mitchell building on
State street, the site now occupied by the Courant building.

132 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
The printing office of J. Hubbard Wells was in the same building. Mr. B. D. Tiffany, with whom I
had some acquaintance, was the foreman of the office, and from him I learned that the establishment was
for sale. I think he stated the price and terms, and admitted that he was himself looking for some one to
go in with him and make the purchase. At that time I had no idea of becoming one of the purchasers, for
I did not suppose it in my power to raise the necessary money. The first serious thought of my attempt
ing the partnership came to me as I chanced to awake about three in the morning after our conversation.
The matter then presented itself so clearly to my mind that I decided upon a plan of action for the coming
day. The price asked for the printing office was 14,500.00; of this, ;Ji, 500.00 was to be paid in cash, and the
balance by a satisfactorily endorsed note. Then, beyond this, the purchasers were to assume obligations
incurred by Mr. Wells for new materials amounting to $2,000. On the sixth day of January, 1836, I made a
proposition to Mr. Tiffany to enter partnership with him and make the purchase. I had only J700 in cash,
but was satisfied I could borrow fSoo more, and thus make the cash payment of Jj!i,500. On application to
a friend I also learned that I could obtain the necessary endorsement of $3,000, and with this financial
equipment, we concluded to embark upon the enterprise. Mr. Tiffany was the practical man in the printing
department, and I undertook to keep the accounts and look after the finances of the establishment. Mr.
Waters and myself were mutually interested in the copper-plate printing business and also in this new
enterprise. Thus the ship was launched and the voyage begun.
By 1837 the firm had paid all their indebtedness but $1,000, and amid the numerous
financial disasters and failures in all branches of business they were sorely pressed. The money
was finally raised by loan and their plant saved. In January, 1838, he severed his connection
with Mr. Waters, the latter taking the copper-plate business and Mr. Case the Case, Tiffany &
Company establishment. At this time they purchased the plant of Mr. Philemon Canfield, who
was the proprietor of the largest printing house in the city, his foreman, Mr. L. Burnham,
becoming a partner in the firm. This addition necessitated larger quarters, and the old county
jail was leased for five years, being purchased at the end of that time. In 1840, they pur
chased the stereotype plates of the "Cottage Bible" issued in two volumes, with historical
and practical comments. The first year they sold nearly ten thousand copies, and down to
1857 they had disposed of one hundred and fifty thousand sets.
Mr. Burnham died suddenly in 1848, leaving only Mr. Case and Mr. Tiffany. In 1850
the firm commenced to do its own binding, and Mr. Edmund Shattuck was given an interest,
a connection which lasted five years. Three years later Messrs. James Lockwood and Albert
G. Cooley were admitted to the firm, and, in 1857, Messrs. Tiffany and Cooley both retired,
leaving Mr. Case with only one partner again to bear the responsibilities of their constantly
increasing business. The services of "a young, capable and energetic man" were needed,
and Mr. Leverett Brainard was taken into the concern, the name becoming Case, Lockwood
& Brainard, and this connection remained unbroken until severed by Mr. Case's death. Jan.
I, 1874, the business was incorporated under special charter from the state as The Case, Lock-
wood & Brainard Company. Mr. Case closed his interesting paper with the following
suggestive words :
A little less than twenty years ago, I gave up active service in the company, believing that I was to
enjoy a period of partial retirement, and be relieved from any very laborious duties. But becoming interested
in some other enterprises, I found that business cares were still upon me, and so they have continued to
the present; the mitigating consideration of these continued responsibilities being the firm belief that under
the care of a kind Providence, it is "better to wear out than to rust out." A "business man" I must
expect to remain while health and strength are left me.
Mr. Case's natural energy and activity of mind found employment in various manu
facturing operations, outside of the printing business. He was one of the organizers and
president of the National Screw Company, a successful corporation which was finally
merged into the American Screw Company of Providence, R. I. Another enterprise in
which he was largely interested in later years was the Shelby Iron Works of Shelby, Ala.
With his money and credit he carried the company through some trying times, but finally
came out with a profit, selling his stock in 1889 for a round quarter mUlion of dollars.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 133
At the time of his death, Mr. Case was a director in the Willimantic Linen Company,
the First National Bank, the Orient Fire Insurance Company and the Charter Oak Bank,
being one of the founders of the latter.
In the course of a long article the Hartford Courant said the following kindly words :
Though Mr. Case was a business man by his calling, commercial interests were not by any means the
only subjects of his care. He was animated by an earnest public spirit : always warmly concerned for the
public welfare. Hartford was the city of his love. He was very pronounced and ardent in his political views
and full of the sentiment of patriotism. He was a man, too, of a strong and sincere Christian faith, and
walked in the fear and love of God his whole life through. Religious things engaged his heart in a measure
answerable to their importance. He was, as is well known, of a decidedly conservative type in his theological
sympathies. Of his valuation of what he held the true evangelical doctrine he gave indisputable and ample
truth. He was a. trustee of the Hartford Seminary from its foundation and its unfailing friend ; while by his
benefactions to it he has shown his sense of responsibilities attaching to the trust of wealth. Moreover, the
fact that his chief gifts to it have been to its library (amounting to no less, first and last, than $150,000)
is witness to the breadth of his conception of the place that belongs to learning in the due preparation of
men for the service of the holy ministry. Mr. Case was one of the original members of the Asylum Hill
Congregational Church at its organization in 1865, and by his wise counsel, liberal support and sincere ^d
humble piety has ever been to it an element of strength. He was a person who went his way in life with
much quietness, but a near acquaintance with him infallibly discovered that quality of a simple, true, honest
nature that compels respect and affection. He was a good man, who aimed to serve God in this generation,
and his earthly days had a fitting close in his tranquil departure.
Mr. Case was enthusiastic in carrying on the details of his business, and it was with
pride that he watched its growth to its present extensive dimensions. He stood at the head
of the printing and publishing interests of this state. Kind and just as an employer, it
was usually said that to enter his establishment was to find a position for life. His integrity
was unquestioned, and at every point where he touched his fellow men he was trusted to
the fullest degree. A public spirited man, he was ready to lend his aid to worthy enter
prises and projects, and was associated with many business institutions, and in the direction
of banks, insurance and manufacturing companies.
The sketch of him in the record of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Ameri
can Revolution has the following correct estimate of his character :
He was a genuine New England man, strongly attached to the principles and traditions of his New
England fathers. He was a true American. His patriotism was staunch and broad. He was proud of his
Revolutionary ancestry, and used to exhibit with feeling an old musket which his grandfather carried in the
¦^yar — a gun of peculiar make, much shortened of its original dimensions, but still of extraordinary length.
He was a man of quiet ways, not seeking publicity or preferment. He had an open and pronounced opinion
as to men and measures, both in politics and religion, and was conservative in each. He was a Christian
man as evidenced by his daily life. In his religious views he held strongly to the faith of his fathers ; he
had no room for the theological speculations of these later days, the old faith seemed to him the best. For
nearly half his life he was a trustee of the Hartford Theological Seminary, and in this connection gave
bountifully of his means to its support, both by hand and testament. The "Newton Case Library" connected
with the Seminary, is both a witness to his generosity and a monument to his memory.
Newton Case was married Dec. 12, 1832, to Lemira B., daughter of Jehiel and Hannah
L- Hurlburt of Chatham. Mrs. Case died in 1878. During the remaining years of his
life his only daughter. Miss EUen M. Case, was his constant companion. Miss Case still
resides in the elegant parental home at Farmington Avenue.

18

134 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
;^AILEY, EZRA BREWSTER, secretary, treasurer and manager of the E. Horton
& Son Company, Windsor Locks, and collector of customs at the port of Hart
ford, was born in Franklin, New London County, Conn., March 29, 1841.
The blood of the sturdiest New England stock flows through his veins.
His early ancestry on either side of the line represents prominent famUies in
both the Puritanic and Revolutionary periods of our country's history. They, with their
descendants, have been distinguished for their physical vigor and intellectual attainments, as
well as for inflexible integrity and patriotism. Through his father, Aaron Bailey, he is a
descendant of the Baileys of Groton, whose ancestor came from England in the early history
of the country. His mother, nee Eliza Brewster, descended in direct line from Elder Brewster
of Mayflower and Plymouth fame, through his eldest son, Jonathan. Mr. Bailey's youth
was passed on the ancestral farm in Franklin (of which he is now the proprietor), and at
the district school, his elementary education, which is the basis of all literary accomplishments,
was acquired. He was nurtured in the habits of industry, and it was here he laid the founda
tion of his future success.
Though still in his minority on the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, Mr. Bailey's
impulses, inherited from a long line of patriotic ancestors, impelled him to enlist at once for
the defence of his country. He joined Company B of the Twenty-Sixth Connecticut Regiment
and went into camp Sept. 5, 1862. Prostrated by a severe attack of typhoid fever while in
camp, he was taken home early in the following November, but still in a critical condition.
His recovery was slow and long deferred, but at no time thereafter during the war was he able
to perform active service, and his patriotic designs were of necessity abandoned. Resuming
his former duties with his father as soon as he was sufficiently strong to be of assistance, he
reinained at the old homestead until 1867. In that year he removed to Windsor Locks, and
for the space of a year he carried on a farm, devoting considerable attention to the raising of
tobacco. In 1868, he was appointed assistant postmaster at Windsor Locks, and in connection
with this position he held a general agency for various publications sold on subscription by
canvassers. Making an engagement with W. J. Holland & Company, a large subscription
book publishing firm of Springfield, Mass., in 1870, he occupied the responsible place of
supervisor of agencies. While discharging the duties of this position, he travelled extensively,
visiting nearly every town in the northern states, as well as in Canada and the British
Provinces. For four years he followed this business, and succeeded in making it profitable.
Upon the organization of the firm of E. Horton & Son of Windsor Locks on a joint
stock basis in 1873, he became its secretary and treasurer, and continued in that position for
three years. The corporate name of the new company was The E. Horton & Son Company,
and their business was the manufacture of the Horton lathe chuck. This chuck was invented
by Mr. Eli Horton in 1851, and was the precursor of numerous others which followed in the
path he marked out. In fact all the lathe chucks offered at the present time are modelled
after Mr. Horton' s original idea, and the nearer they come to his standard the greater has been
their success. The Horton chuck has borne the test of over forty years service, and its
popularity is attested by use all over the civilized world. It has been awarded the first prize
in every case where it has been exhibited in competition with others.
In the Centennial year he left the company and removed to his farm in Franklin, a
delightful country place, whose attractions include some of the most romantic spots to be
found in the state. Here he devoted his time mostly to agricultural pursuits. Four years
elapsed and there was a change in affairs at Windsor Locks, and he was called to assume
control of The E. Horton & Son Company, since which time he has held the three offices

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 135
as secretary, treasurer, and general manager. In this dozen or more years the business has
grown, under Mr. Bailey's skillful management, to such an extent that eight times as many
men are employed at the present time as when he took it in charge. Further extensions
are contemplated in the near future, which will add quite largely to the amount of business.
Not all of Mr. Bailey's efforts and executive ability have been confined to the corporation
of which he is the controlling influence. He forms a component part of various other
extensive business enterprises. Intimately concerned in the establishment of the Windsor
Locks Electric Lighting Company, he was one of the incorporators, and is now president
and a member of the board. He is a director in the Windsor Locks Savings Bank, and also
in the Connecticut River Company, an important corporation which owns the Enfield and
Windsor Locks water power, and furnishes water for all the mills at Windsor Locks, and he
holds the same relations with the Dwight Slate Machine Company of Hartford, manufacturers
of fine machinery. A prominent promoter and one of the original incorporators, he is a
director in the Windsor Locks Water Company, which supplies the village with water for
domestic purposes. When the J. R. Montgomery Company of Windsor Locks was re-organ
ized in 1891 as a joint stock corporation, with a large capital, he was made a member of the
board of directors. This company manufactures warps and novelty yarns, and stands at the
head of all enterprises of its class in the country. He is also a member of the Hartford Board
of Trade. Dating back to the earlier years of the existence of the party, Mr. Bailey has been an
ardent and active Republican, and as such has been elected to various positions of public trust.
In 1879, he was elected representative to the state legislature for the town of Franklin, being
awarded the largest majority any candidate ever received from that town. After his return
to Windsor Locks he was again elected to the legislature, carrying the town by a majority of
thirteen, though naturally it is a Democratic stronghold. Serving on the committee on
incorporations in the session of 1883, he rendered essential assistance in the organization of
the Windsor Locks and Warehouse Point Bridge Company. Four years later he was given
additional honors by his constituents, being elected state senator, running ahead of his ticket
in seven towns in the district. As chairman of the committee on education and of the fisheries
committee, he }vas enabled to carry through several important measures. In the senate he
was active and prominent in support of the movement giving towns the control and manage
ment of school district affairs. His efforts in this direction were so marked as to give him
much favorable attention among the friends of education all over the state.
Reports of his solid business capacities and faithfulness in subordinate offices had been
carried to Washington. In 1890, Mr. Bailey received the appointment from President
Harrison as United States collector of customs for the port of Hartford. Speaking of the
matter, that sterling Connecticut journal, the Hartford Courant, said: "The President on
Saturday nominated the Hon. Ezra B. Bailey to be collector of customs for the Hartford
district. Mr. Bailey is an exceUent representative of the Connecticut citizen, born in the
back country, brought up on a farm, subsequently trained in business, and always equal to
his opportunity whenever it comes. He has been successful in whatever he has undertaken.
and has come to occupy an important position in politics and business and social affairs.
. He brings to the office of collector integrity and business ability, and his personal
qualifications that have brought success elsewhere, and he will undoubtedly prove an
efficient officer. He was cordially endorsed for the position by both Senator Hawley and
Congressman Simonds, and his appointment , has been for some time very generally
expected. His many friends will be glad to hear of his good fortune." His administration
of the duties of the office has proved the truth of all the good words previously said of
his character.

136 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Mr. Bailey's social tastes and instincts are strong, and in all the activities of the
various organizations with which he is connected he engages with enthusiasm. His connec
tions include a membership in the American Societj^ of Mechanical Engineers, in the
Connecticut Society of the vSons of the American Revolution, and of various other societies,
etc. In the Masonic fraternity, Mr. Bailey has attained high honors. He is a member of
Euclid Lodge, No. 30, of Windsor Locks, of Washington Chapter, No. 30, R. A. M., of
Suffield, Washington Commandery, No. i, K. T., stationed at Hartford, and of Pyramid
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Bridgeport.
Success seems to be the natural conclusion of all Mr. Bailey's undertakings. He has
made the E. Horton & Son Company the leading concern in its special line, and his judg
ment of business matters is such that he has materially assisted other corporations in which
he is interested to success. Now in the prime of his mature manhood, he occupies an im
portant and influential place in the business, political and social affairs of the state.
Ezra B. Bailey was married Dec. 14, 1871, to Katie E., daughter of Eli and Katherine
(Ellsworth) Horton, a mention of whom has been made previously. The Hortons of Wind
sor Locks represent one of the oldest and best of New England families, which, since colonial
times, has contributed numerous distinguished names to the country's service and history. Miss
Horton was a descendant in the eighth generation, from John Alden and Priscilla (Mullens)
Alden, prominent characters in the story of the Puritans. Thus in the present generation
are mingled several strains of ancient English blood which have separately quickened some
of the best specimens of American manhood. The issue of this marriage are Philip Horton
BaUey, now approaching his majority, and who is a student at Yale University, New Haven, and
Helena Ellsworth Bailey, now in school at the Connecticut Literary Institute in Suffield, Conn.

;OODRUFF, GEORGE MORRIS, of Litchfield, for twenty years raUroad com
missioner of the state of Connecticut, was born in the town where he now
resides, March 3, 1836. Like most of the men who can trace their genealogi
cal line back to the early days of Connecticut, Mr. Woodruff comes of that
sturdy English stock which did so much to make the state ' ' the land of
steady habits." Matthew Woodruff, the first of the family in this country, came from Surrey
County, England, and was among the early settlers of Hartford, and he subsequently removed
to Farmington. His son Nathaniel came to Litchfield soon after its first settlement, he having
purchased one sixtieth of the township on the Sth of August, 1721. Jacob, son of Nathaniel,
born in Farmington in 171 7, came to Litchfield with his father and became one of the leading
men of the town, and was a volunteer soldier in the Revolutionary War, as was also his son,
James Woodruff. Morris Woodruff, son of James, was a representative man in Litchfield,
and actively interested in the military affairs of the state, having been commissioned as a
captain, by Gov. Jonathan Trumbull (Brother Jonathan) in 1809 ; as major, by Gov. Roger
Wolcott, in 1812; as colonel, by Gov. John Cotton Smith, in 1816 ; as brigadier-general, in
1818, and as major-general in 1824, both by Gov. Oliver Wolcott ; he was for many years
a representative in the general assembly and an associate judge of the county court, though
not a lawyer.
George C. Woodruff, son of Morris, was born in 1805 and graduated at Yale in 1825,
studied law in the famous law school of Judge Gould, and was admitted to the bar of Litch
field County in 1827. From the first he took a leading position, gradually rising till he

'-^JD

Massachusetts Rdjlislun^ CcfiveTett, Mass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 137
became its acknowledged head. Of scrupulous integrity, unwavering faithfulness and unweary
ing zeal, he was entrusted by his fellow-citizens with almost every official duty which could
be placed upon him, from local town office to member of Congress. In 1873, he was elected
by the State Senate a judge of the superior court, but the selection was not concurred in by
the House. - Early in life he married Henrietta S. Seymour, a granddaughter of Major
Moses Seymour, a soldier of the Revolution, and a sister of the late Chief Justice Origen S.
Seymour of Connecticut. Their only son, and only child who survived infancy, is George
M. Woodruff. The early education of young Woodruff was obtained in the local schools, and he was
fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. Entering Yale College, he was
graduated in the class of 1857. The legal profession being suited to his tastes and adapted
to his bent of mind, he at once commenced the study of law in the Harvard Law School,
Cambridge, Mass. In 1859, he was admitted to the bar of Litchfield County and began
practice in his native town, where he has since remained.
Mr. Woodruff was elected town treasurer in i860, and by successive elections has filled
that responsible office to the present time ; and his long term of service is simply an expres
sion of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens. He represented Litchfield in
the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1863, and again in 1865, serving each year on
the judiciary committee. In 1872, he was again sent to the state capitol as a representative
of the town, being chairman of the committee on claims, and took an active part in the
legislation of the session. Another office Mr. Woodruff has held for a quarter of a century,
and which is by no means a sinecure, is that of judge of probate for the district of Litchfield.
With the exception of one term he has held this position continuously since 1868. In 1863,
he was commissioner for Connecticut to the Universal Exposition at Hamburg, it being
among the first of that line of international exhibitions which culminated in the World's
Fair at Chicago. From 1865 to 1877, he was a member of the state board of education,
when, owing to press of other duties, he resigned the appointment. Always a zealous advo
cate of popular education, in the agitation for its improvement he rendered excellent service,
his counsel being of the most practical nature.
From his youth a member of the Congregational Church in Litchfield, and for nearly
thirty years superintendent of its Sunday School, his means and services have been devoted
to its prosperity.
In all the positions mentioned, Mr. Woodruff has gained an honorable name for himself,
and for his faithful work deserves to be remembered by the citizens of Connecticut. But it
is not upon his reputation as a lawyer, or as a legislator or as a judge, however clean the
record may be, that his name will be handed down to posterity. It will rest upon his labor
for a score of years as railroad commissioner of the state of Connecticut. Gov. Charles R.
Ingersoll appointed him a member of the board of railroad commissioners in 1874, and by
subsequent appointments he has continued in that capacity up to the present time. Gov
ernors R. D. Hubbard, Charles B. Andrews, T. M. Waller, H. B. Harrison, Morgan G.
Bulkeley and Luzon B. Morris have deemed it for the best interests of the state to retain him
in office. As these comprise four Democratic and three Republican administrations, it will be
seen that merit and not political influence accounts for his long continuance in so important
and oftentimes trying position. Since his second year of service, Mr. Woodruff has been
chairman of the board, and as the legal member the writing of the opinipns falls to his lot.
In this score of years an extended list of knotty points have come up for settlement, and the
decisions of this board have rarely been set aside. A good general lawyer before he was
made railroad commissioner, he has gained with the passing years a most intimate knowledge

138 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of the law pertaining to railroads, and is now so expert in such matters that his counsel is
often sought by the leading lawyers of the state. Besides his work as commissioner, he has
also served as a member of special committees on railroad affairs.
Financial institutions have claimed a share of Mr. Woodruff's attention. He is now, and
since 1885 has been president of the Litchfield Savings Society, and treasurer of the Litchfield
Mutual Insurance Company. Faithfulness in the performance of duty and the conscientious
carrying out of every trust imposed upon him are among his most prominent characteristics.
Wherever he has been placed he has never disappointed those who elected or appointed him,
and he can take a just pride in looking back over the honorable record of the past. On the
under side of three score, he has many years of usefulness to his native town and in the broader
field of the state still opening out before him.
George M. Woodruff was married June 13, i860, to Elizabeth F., daughter of James B.
Parsons, Esq., of Flushing, Long Island. Three chUdren have been born to them: George
C, a graduate of Amherst and the Union Theological Seminary, now a clergyman in charge
of Faith Mission Church, Washington, D. C; Eliza P., who has become Mrs. Alex. McNieU,
and James Parsons, who graduated at Amherst in 1891, and at Yale Law School in 1893, and
after taking a post-graduate course is now a practicing lawyer in Litchfield, and is foUowing
in the footsteps of his father.

AY, HENRY, of Winsted, president of the Hurlburt National Bank and of other
leading corporations, was born in Salisbury, April 5, 1834.
Like mail}' other men who have made their mark in Connecticut affairs,
Mr. Gay comes of a sturdy Massachusetts stock. John Gay, the first of the
name, crossed the ocean in the ship "Mary and John" in 1630, and was one of
the original nineteen settlers of Dedham in 1635. Second in the family line is Samuel Gay,
who was selectman of Dedham, and then came a second John, who married Mary Fisher, and
their son John was born in Dedham in 1699, and moved to Litchfield, though he was not one of
the first settlers. John, Jr., was selectman twice, and lived to the good old age of ninety-four.
In the fifth generation was Perez Gay, who married Margaret Fairbanks, and became the
father of eleven children. The sixth generation was Edward Gay, and his son Henry San
ford Gay, married Mary, only daughter of Stephen Reed of Salisbury, and of their four
children the subject of this sketch was the youngest.
At the age of fourteen, Mr. Gay entered the store of Robert B. Mitchell of Salisbury
as clerk, and remained in his employ for four years, gaining a fair knowledge of business
transactions. His first experience in banking was with the Iron Bank at Falls Village, where
he remained two years. In 1854, he transferred his residence to Winsted, where he has since
resided. His first connection here was with the old Winsted Bank, organized on a state basis;
later he was made cashier, and at the end of ten years, in 1864, having proved himself in
CA-ery way fitted for the office, he was made president of the bank. Three years afterward
the affairs of the bank were wound up and the stockholders paid in full.
Mr. Gay then formed a private banking firm with W. L- Gilbert, under the name of
Gilbert & Gay, a connection which lasted until 1890. In 1874, Mr. GUbert was elected
president of the Hurlburt National Bank, and Mr. Gay accepted a position as cashier, and
on the death of Mr. Gilbert in 1890, he succeeded to the presidency, and is now successfully
managing the concerns of the bank. While officers of the bank they continued their private
loan business, and at that time the firm had a capital of $200,000, with a surplus of over
$100,000, and a profit and loss account of $30,000.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. i39
The management of financial interests has claimed a large part of Mr. Gay's attention,
still he has found time to assist in buUding up the material welfare of Winsted. He is
a director and also president of the Winsted Edge Tool Company, of the New England
Knitting Company, and of the Winsted Optical Company. He also holds a directorship in
in the Wm. L. Gilbert Company, the George Dudley & Son Company, the T. C. Rich
ards Hardware Company, the Clifton Hosiery Company, the Winsted Hosiery Company, the
Winsted Shoe Company, the Morgan Silver Plate Company, the Music Hall Company and
the Winsted Savings Bank.
Men of Mr. Gay's business and executive ability must expect to be called upon to
serve their fellow-citizens in an official, capacity. Besides holding various other offices, he
was treasurer of the town of Winsted for a dozen years. His Winsted constituents have
sent him to the state legislature six different times: in 1875, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1885 and again
in 1889. He was chairman of the finance committee one year, and a member of this com
mittee for three other sessions. He was chairman of the state's prison committee the year
the addition was made to the prison, and it was also the last year the prisoners were
allowed to come before the committee, and both these facts together gave the committee a
year of exceedingly hard work. In 1892, Mr. Gay was the Republican candidate for state
treasurer, but though he ran ahead of his ticket, it was not a good year for the Republi
cans, and he failed of election, and the state lost the services of an honest and competent
man. In Winsted, where Mr. Gay is best known, he is most highly honored, and in all
matters pertaining to the development of the town his advice is sought and valued on
account of the long practical experience behind it. Having just reached three score, and in
the full possession of all the strength of his later manhood, Mr. Gay has yet many years
of usefulness stretching out before him.
Henry Gay was married May 20, 1857, to Charlotte E., daughter of Deacon Thomas
Watson of Winsted. One daughter, Mary W., came to bless the home. She is now the
wife of Dr. E. L- Pratt of West Winsted, and is the mother of one son, named for his
grandfather.

SINGSBURY, FREDERICK JOHN, of Waterbury, president of the Citizens'
National Bank, and of the Scovill Manufacturing Company, was born in
Waterbury, Jan. i, 1823.
From the Biography of Cojinecticut it is learned that he descends
from the old Puritan settlers of Massachusetts, his ancestor being Henry
Kingsbury, a native of England, who came to Boston with Governor Winthrop in 1630.
This ancestor settled first at Ipswich, whence he removed to Haverhill, where he died.
His son Joseph, a man of family, removed from Haverhill to Norwich, Conn., in 1708.
Accompanying the latter was his son, Joseph Kingsbury, Jr., a native of Haverhill, who
had married, before leaving that place, Ruth, daughter of John Denison of Ipswich. A
grandson of this couple, John Kingsbury by name, was graduated at Yale College in 1786.
He settled at Waterbury as a teacher, but afterwards studied law, was admitted to practice
and rose to distinction at the bar. He was one of the judges of the New Haven county
court for many years. He also sat upon the probate bench of the district of Waterbury,
for thirty years. By his wife, Marcia Bronson, daughter of Deacon Stephen Bronson of
Waterbury, and a descendant through a long line of deacons of one of the first settlers of

I40 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
that town, he was the father of several children, one of whom, Charles Denison Kingsbury,
born at Waterbury in the last century, died there on Jan. i6, 1890, at the great age of
ninety-five years. Charles Denison Kingsbury married Eliza, the daughter of Dr. Frederick
Leavenworth of Waterbury and great-granddaughter of the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, pastor
of the first Congregational Church of Waterbury from 1739 to 1797.
Frederick John Kingsbury, the subject of this biographical sketch, was the eldest child
of this union. Educated primarily in the local schools at Waterbury and in part by his
maternal uncle, the Rev. Abner Johnson Leavenworth, a distinguished educator, then resid
ing in Virginia, with whom, first at Warrenton and afterwards at Petersburg, he spent a
year or two of his youth, he prepared for college under Seth Fuller at Waterbury. In 1842,
he matriculated at Yale College, and, after being graduated there in 1846, entered the Yale
Law School, where he enjoyed the advantage of instruction lender the late Chief Justice
Storrs of Connecticut and the Hon. Isaac H. Townsend, who were then in charge of the
latter institution. Late in 1847 he went to Boston and finished his preparatory legal
studies in the office of the Hon. Chas. G. Loring; and in March, 1848, he was admitted to
the bar in that city. For family reasons, the chief being the ill-health of his mother, he
returned to Connecticut before the close of 1848. For several months he held a responsible
clerkship in the office of the Hon. Thos. C. Perkins of Hartford, but in the spring of 1849
he opened law offices of his own at Waterbury.
Commended by his personal worth and attainments, as well as by his active interest in
public affairs, he was chosen in 1850 by the people of Waterbury to represent that town in
the Connecticut House of Representatives. While serving this term in the legislature his
attention was drawn to the subject of banks for savings, and believing that the time was
opportune for founding an institution of this class in Waterbury, which was then attaining
prominence as a manufacturing centre, he laid the matter before a number of his influential
townsmen. Their approval of the project being obtained, he secured the necessary charter
and in the latter part of 1850 organized the Waterbury Savings Bank, of which he was
chosen treasurer. This office he still fills, and the marked success of the institution of
which he has all these years been practically the administrative head, is universally admitted
to be due chiefiy to his unwearied devotion to its interests and his correct methods of in
vestment. Taking a further step in the business of banking, Mr. Kingsbury organized, in
1853, the Citizens' Bank of Waterbury. His esteemed associate in this enterprise was the
late Mr. Abram Ives, who was the first president of the bank and whom Mr. Kingsbury
succeeded in 1868. This institution, of which Mr. Kingsbury is still the executive head,
was re-organized under the national banking law in 1865. It has a capital of $300,000 and
is one of the most flourishing banks in the state.
Reelected to the state legislature in 1858 and again in 1865, Mr. Kingsbury served
during both terms as chairman of the committee on banks, and during the last term was
also a member of the committee on the revision of the statutes. In 1876, he filled the
honorable position of commissioner of the state of Connecticut to the International Centennial
Exhibition at Philadelphia. In that year also he was offered the Republican nomination for
governor of Connecticut. The great extent of his business interests at the time obliged
him to decline this high honor, but yielding to the solicitation of many party friends he
consented to accept the nomination for lieutenant-governor, the Hon. Henry C. Robinson
of Hartford having accepted the first place on the ticket, which, however, was defeated.
Besides the two bank positions he holds Mr. Kingsbury has, since 1868, been the
president of the Scovill Manufacturing Company, which under his administration has steadUy
advanced to the front rank among the manufacturing corporations of Connecticut. The dis-

^.tUtX^'-^

(2^.^(ZyZ^Z- f/Jf:/ €L-C^C-t.^^'fl^

J<&lrcp6hbj.n hJ)lUh.iri.g ¦iE^ravmo C'/. Iftiu'SirTr,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 141
charge of his official duties in connection with the several corporations named necessarily
makes heavy demands upon his time, but he always finds sufficient leisure to take a help
ful part in movements or projects which contain even a promise of public advantage or of
material or moral benefit to his native state or city. Many such movements have been
greatly indebted to his personal aid and infiuence, and few have failed to derive some ad
vantages when his broad culture, excellent judgment and large experience have been called
to their assistance. A local institution in which he is deeply interested is the Bronson
Library of Waterbury; and as a member of its managing board, the chairman of its library
committee and its treasurer for nearly a quarter of a century, he has been most active in
maintaining its representative character and advancing its material welfare.
In the business and financial world Mr. Kingsbury is respected as a man of great
ability, strict integrity and honorable purpose. His success, both as a banker and manu
facturer, has been achieved by reputable means, and the fortune of which he is the master
has been acquired by legitimate methods. While his cares and responsibilities have been
many and constant they have never been allowed to extinguish his scholarly tastes, which
have been nourished ISy the cultivation of historical and philosophical study and by frequent
literary effort. A number of interesting articles from his pen have been published in lead
ing American magazines and indicate that this author is the possessor of a well-stored mind,
sound reasoning faculties and an unusually felicitous style. Mr. Kingsbury has been happily
called "a conspicuous representative of the best American culture, illustrating the practica
bility of combining an intelligent interest in literature, art and science with fidelity to
important business trusts and to constantly accumulating duties." He is widely known in
the best social circles of the state as a gentleman of high character, cultivated intellect and
generous impulses, and is universally respected as one whose aims, both public and private,
have always been pure and commendable and whose example is rich in encouragement to
all who strive for success with honor.
Mr. Kingsbury married, on April 29, 1851, Miss Alathea Ruth ScoviU, eldest daughter
of the late William H. ScoviU of Waterbury, and great-granddaughter of the Rev. James
Scovill, who was graduated at Yale College in 1757, took holy orders in England, and
returning to America as a missionary of the venerable society for the propagation of the
gospel, became the first rector of the Episcopal Church in Waterbury.

lALLUP, DAVID, was born in Sterling, Conn., July 11, 1808. In early life
his father died, leaving a widow and three boys and two girls. John Gallup,
formerly cashier of the Brooklyn (Conn.) bank, was the oldest son. Judge
Gallup was the second son, and Hon. Amos Gallup was the third son. One
sister, Ruby Gallup, married Charies G. Williams, Esq., of Brooklyn, Conn.,
and is living at this writing. The other sister, Esther, married Dr. Henry Campbell of
Sterling, Conn. She and her husband died many years ago.
The judge followed the career of the typical and successful New England boy ; worked
on a farm, taught school, married and settled down, and later on engaged in politics and
rendered valuable service in his town, county and state. He married Julia A. Woodward,
daughter of Capt. Lemuel Woodward, a leading citizen of Plainfield, in 1834. He then located
in Plainfield where he constantly resided until 1865, after which time with his family he spent
a portion of each year in Hartford, Conn. , though retaining his legal residence in Plainfield.
19

142 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
The judge early became interested in town affairs, and largely through his sound and
firm management the town of Plainfield kept clear of debt and vexatious entanglements.
Never during the period of the war did it allow a debt to accumulate, although every require
ment of the town was promptly and abundantly furnished, and at all times every public
interest, the welfare of the schools, internal improvements and the common prosperity were
carefully guarded and cherished. He was for twenty-three years judge of probate for the
Plainfield district, and administered with great fairness and justice the business of the office,
and being entirely familiar with the circiftnstances of the various estates he settled, he rendered
very valuable aid to all concerned.
-Judge Gallup represented Plainfield in the lower house of the general assembly in the
years 1841, 1850, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866 and 1867; was speaker of the house in 1866,
was senator in 1869, and was elected lieutenant-governor in 1880, and for two years was
president of the senate. The five consecutive years of his legislative service were during the
war period and the year foUowing, and in this time he served prominently on the finance
committee, being conspicuously the author of the financial system which furnished means to
carry Connecticut successfully through the war crisis. This service was* exceedingly valuable.
It was to him also that credit is largely due for legislation in 1877 giving equal protection
to the property rights of married women. For these services, in connection with his strong
help in Eastern Connecticut in supplying pecuniary aid to equip soldiers during the war, by
advancing money in their behalf for their families, as well as supplying money to towns, he
is entitled to honorable remembrance. His legislative action was highly useful to the state,,
as it was influential in the highest degree.
Judge Gallup was prudent in business affairs, and was successful in his many enterprises.
He made no publication of his benefactions, yet he was exceedingly kind to deserving men
who needed assistance, and his generosities were far greater than was ever known. He was
interested in many of the largest business concerns in the state, in banking and other affairs,
and left a large property. His wife, Mrs. Gallup, who survived him, died in November, 1884.
He had two children who died before the judge. One was a son, William W., a young man
of much promise, who died in 1869, and the other was a daughter, Julia EUa, who was the
wife of Lieutenant-Governor George G. Sumner. Judge Gallup died at the United States
Hotel at Hartford, Aug. 18, 1883. He and his family are buried in the Cedar Hill Cemetery
in the latter city.

;ROSS, CHARLES EDWARD, of Hartford, senior member of the flrm of Gross,
Hyde & Shipman, leading lawyers of the city, was born in Hartford, Aug. 18,
1847. The family line can be traced in direct succession to Isaac Gross, who
emigrated from England and settled in Boston previous" to 1650. From him
the line comes down through three Massachusetts branches and through (5) Freeman, (6)
Thomas, (7) Thomas Freeman, to (8) Mason, who was born in Litchfield in 1809. At the
age of seventeen he came to Hartford, and entering business life^ he became a successful
wool merchant. Taking an interest in military matters, for several years he served as captain
of the Light Infantry. He married Cornelia, daughter of John Barnard, Jr., of Hartford,
and of their six children, the subject of this sketch was the youngest. Mrs. Cornelia Gross
was the granddaughter of Capt. John Barnard, who was a soldier in the early French wars;
he fought sturdily through the entire struggle for American independence, was present at the
surrender of Cornwallis, and lived to be one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati.

lncniy(U

Massachusetts Pullishiiie Co. HverettMass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 143
In the collateral branches of the family tree may be mentioned Gov. Richard Treat,
Lieutenant-Governor Webster, the Wolcott family, and Capt. Joseph Wadsworth of charter
hiding fame. It is a singular fact that, with barely one exception for ten generations or
more, all of the ancestors of Mr. Charles E. Gross, and also of his wife, were born either in
Old England or New England.
The early education of Charles Edward Gross was obtained in the public schools of his
native city, and it was completed at Yale University, from which institution he graduated
with honor in 1869. He took the oration stand, and was a leading Phi Beta Kappa man.
The first year after leaving college was spent as a teacher at Hall's School in Ellington,
Conn. Returning to Hartford in 1870, Mr. Gross commenced the study of the technicalities
of the legal profession with the Hon. Charles J. Hoadley, and later on he entered the law
office of Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde as a student. In September, 1872, he was admitted to
the bar of Hartford County, and reinained as a clerk with Waldo, IJubbard & Hyde, and
four years afterwards, January, 1877, he was made a member of the firm, the name remain
ing the same. On the death of Judge Waldo in 1881, the title was changed to Hubbard,
Hyde & Gross, and after Governor Hubbard's death in 1884, it became Hyde, Gross & Hyde,
and again after the death of Hon. Alvan P. Hyde, it became Gross, Hyde & Shipman,
which it still remains. The partners are Charles E- Gross, William Waldo Hyde and Arthur
L- Shipman, all graduates of Yale. Mr. Gross has made a special study of insurance and
corporation law, and in his chosen part of the legal world has few equals in the state. By
far the larger share of this class of work transacted by the firm falls to his lot, and he has
gained an enviable reputation for himself by his skillful and conscientious handling of the
important cases entrusted to his care.
The services and experience of Mr. Gross are in demand by business and insurance cor
porations. He is a director in the J^tna Insurance Company, and since its re-organization
in 1889, he has been a director in the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company. At the
annual meeting in 1893, he was chosen a director of the New York & New England Rail
road Company. He is one of the trustees of the Society for Savings, the largest institu
tion of the kind in Connecticut. Of manufacturing companies he holds a directorship in
the Western Automatic Machine Screw Company, and of the Smythe Manufacturing Com
pany, both of them successful Hartford corporations. He is also a trustee of the Wadsworth
Atheneum. By persistent declination, Mr. Gross has contrived to keep outside the whirl of political
life, although it is merely stating an open secret to say that various official honors have been
placed before him for acceptance. Always interested in the material prosperity of the city
of his birth, he was one of the organizers of the Hartford Board of Trade, which is a moving
force for good in the community, and is now serving on the board of directors. As a result
of a pubUc meeting held in 1885, a committee of twenty gentlemen, known to be interested
in moral and philanthropic movements, was selected, who were to use their utmost endeavors
to arouse the minds of the citizens to the importance of action on the license and other
public questions. This committee has done yeoman service before the legislature and board
of County Commissioners. During the entire time Mr. Gross has held the laboring oar as
secretary of the committee, and by precept and example has greatly furthered the work.
He is ;also a director of the Charity Organization Society, the object of which is to
simplify and harmonize the charitable work of the city, which had previously been sadly
mismanaged, or rather had suffered from lack of concerted management. In 1891, he was
one of a special committee of five, appointed by the town. Prof. John J. McCook being the
chairman, on out-door alms. It was found that the United States led the world as to

144 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
expense per capita in out-door alms giving, etc. Connecticut led the rest of the states, and
Hartford led Connecticut. All of the committee gave much time to the consideration of the
intricate questions before them and though the report was largely the work of the chairman,
Mr. Gross attended to the legal bearings of the case and the effects of his experience could
be seen on numerous pages. The report created a profound sensation in the city and state,
and was the direct means of stopping many abuses which had grown up. It has since been
introduced into several colleges as a text-book on charitable work, the statistical value being
simply incalculable. A municipal reform club has recently been formed in Hartford, called
the City Club, having over four hundred members, and Mr. Gross is president of the club.
The Hartford Courant thus briefiy alludes to an important service Mr. Gross rendered
to the medical practitioners of Connecticut :
The active struggle before the last legislature over the Medical Practice Act is still remembered all over
the state as is the fact brought out at the hearing, that Charles E. Gross, who so ably managed the case for
the Connecticut Medical Society, declined to accept any fee for his service. The doctors, however, have taken
another way to testify their appreciation of his assistance and yesterday the society, through its officers, presented
him with a unique and very choice testimonial. It is in the shape of a beautiful hand-made volume, bound in
white morocco, and enclosed in a rich silk case. The book on opening it is found to consist of a number of
parchment pages on which are exquisitely engrossed the resolutions of thanks passed by the society. The
illuminated lettering in colors is worthy of the old monks, and the whole work is noticeably beautiful.* * * *
The resolutions which were printed in the volume of " Proceedings," are as follows :
In recognition of the distinguished service rendered to the people of Connecticut by Charles E. Gross, Esq.,
in connection with the recent passage of the Medical Practice Bill by the legislature ; and in view of the fact
that this service has included many scores of conferences with the members of the committee which represented
this society in securing such legislation ; the drafting of the bill and subsequent modifications of it ; the pre
sentation of the most cogent of arguments in favor of its enactment ; which latter has covered some years
and all of which has been done without compensation, and often with great personal inconvenience and sacrifice
of business interests, and with such devotion to the welfare of all concerned as to render it almost if not quite
unique in character ; therefore
Resolved : That the Connecticut Medical Society hereby expresses its high appreciation of these services
of Mr. Gross, and begs to extend to him in behalf of its members and its constituency its thanks and con
gratulations, that this resolution be spread upon the records of this society, and that a copy be suitably en
grossed for presentation to him.
Though Mr. Gross is of a legal turn of mind, and stands in the front rank among the
lawyers of the state, it will be seen that he has not confined hinself wholly to the technicalities
of his profession. Everything that affects the welfare of the capital city finds in him a ready
champion and active worker. In the Board of Trade, in financial and insurance corpora
tions, in manufacturing companies, in philanthropic work, his infiuence is felt, and always
for the upbuilding and development of the city along right lines. Now in the prime of his
manhood, there are yet many years of continued usefulness stretching out before him.
On the fifth of October, 1875, Mr. Gross was married to EUen C, daughter of the late
Calvin Spencer of Hartford. Three chUdren have been born to them : Charles Welles,
who has passed his examination and enters the next class in Yale University; William
Spencer, who died at the age of two years, and Helen Clarissa, now ten years of age.

I la So a chusettsTuilishiiij^ Co.EvE.iett. Mas 3 .

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 145
EARS, EDWARD HALE, president of the Collins Company of CoUinsville
(and Hartford), was born in Williamsburg, Mass., Feb. 23, 1846, a lineal
descendant of Richard Sears, who was a member of Plymouth Colony Court in
1662. Mr. Sears is the son of Benjamin F. Sears, who was a manufacturer
of edge tools at Williamsburg, and who removed to CoUinsville to engage in
the same work with the Collins Company, of which, as it has proved, his son, who was then
but a boy, was eventually to be the president and manager. The young man graduated at
the CoUinsvUle high school, and prepared to take a scientific course at Yale in order to become
a civil engineer, but at the solicitation of Samuel W. Collins, then president and one of the
founders of the Collins Company, he entered the office of that corporation in 1863, and
undertook the mastery of the business in all its branches and details. He has reinained there
continuously, advancing from one position of responsibility to another. He was agent, then
vice-president, and, since the death of Maj. W. J. Wood in 1886, he has been president and
general manager.
With his long experience, his thorough knowledge of the business, and his natural gift
of organization, he has been singularly successful in systematizing the details of manufacture,
and, under his management, the Collins Company has become the largest axe and edge tool
works in the world, employing, as it does, about seven hundred men. The product of the
factory has been so increased, its high standard of exceUence so well maintained, and the cost
of production so restricted by skill and economy, that the company stands at the head in its
many lines of work, and is known all over the world wherever people cut wood or break the
ground. Civilization, as it advances, carries the Collins Company's tools in its hands, and,
as it develops, finds more and more uses for them.
Mr. Sears is the head of the great company, which has a capital of one million dollars,
and whose extensive works at CoUinsville cover seventeen acres of ground. AVith his long
service there, he knows every detail of the business, and to a large degree it is now of his
own planning and arrangement. He has made a special study of the art of iron and steel
making and the conditions of treatment necessary to prepare such materials for use, and has
studied both at home and abroad the industry which he has in charge. He possesses the
fullest confidence of his board of directors, who in various ways have indicated their high
esteem of his personal worth and executive ability ; and the growth and prosperity of the
company, in the close times since he took the management of its affairs, have amply justified
the trust that they have put in him. He is quiet and unassuming in his manner, but clear
and positive in his views, — a man of few words but many resources; and the success of the
company under his administration assures him a place among the leading manufacturers of
New England.
This great concern, now the largest of its kind in the world, was established in 1826 by
the firm of Collins & Company. Before that time all axes were made by hand by blacksmiths,
and were crude, unfinished tools that required grinding by the purchaser before he could use
them. Samuel W. Collins, founder of the establishment, conceived the idea of making axes
ready for use, to be furnished to and sold by the hardware trade. He and his associates,
David C. Collins and William Wells, bought a mill privilege on the Farmington river,
where CoUinsville has since grown up, and began manufacture. The partnership became a
corporation in 1834 with a capital of $150,000, which has since been increased by cash pay
ments to $1,000,000.
The mechanical skill of the late E. K. Root, a former superintendent (subsequently
president of the Colt Company of Hartford) had much to do with the introduction of improved

146 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
machinery in the company's early history, and hence with its progress and development.
During recent years the inventions of others and the systematizing of the departments of labor,
with the maintenance of the high quality of its products, have enabled the company to compete
successfully with both domestic and foreign manufacturers. In its works, axes in almost
every conceivable variety of style and size are made for all the countries of the world. From
the small axes used in Burmah and Ceylon, weighing from one-half to two pounds, the range
of weight extends to seven pounds for Australia and New Zealand. Strange and peculiar
patterns are made for trade with Mexico, Central and South America. In all over eight
hundred patterns of axes, hatchets and picks, adzes and machetes are manufactured. Machetes,
which are used for wood and cane cutting in Spanish American countries, are a considerable
item of manufacture.
The annual consumption of coal in all departments is eleven thousand tons. Power is
obtained by the use of twelve large water wheels and eight steam boilers. The product is
five thousand edge tools per day besides a large output of steel plows. The company also
makes and consumes two thousand tons of bar iron and nine hundred tons of steel per annum.
Although the business has passed through some years of depression the company has made
a dividend every year for nearly sixty years, and its business is much larger and more extensive
now than at any previous time in its history. Its recent extensive growth, and its present
satisfactory condition, are attributable in very large degree to the intelligent management and
the unremitting attention of its efficient president.
Mr. Sears married Miss Elizabeth Prince Ames, a native of Princeton, Ind. Of their
three sons, David Lloyd Sears is the only child surviving. Mr. and Mr. Sears live in Hart
ford, where the company has an office, but spend a part of the year in a summer home near
CoUinsville, where are the factories of the company. C. H. C.

ERWIN, SAMUEL EDWIN, of New Haven, ex-lieutenant-governor of Con
necticut, and president of the Yale National Bank, was born in Brookfield,
Fairfield County, Aug. 23, 1831. The year 1831 was noted as one in which
a brilliant array of men distinguished in their several spheres of action first saw
the light. An enumeration would include a long list of statesmen, which
should be headed by President James A. Garfield, Redfield Proctor, secretary of war, and
John W. Noble, secretary of the interior, and a dozen other senators and cabinet officers.
A roll of an equal number of Union generals would have Phil Sheridan as leader, while the list
of business and professional men of eminence would reach into the scores. Emperor Frederick
WUliam of Germany was born in 1831, and a limited class of female celebrities would have
in it Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes, Mrs. David Croly, "Jennie June," Helen Jackson, "H. H.,"
and Mary Louise Booth.
Governor Merwin is a lineal descendant of Miles Merwin, one of the early prominent
settlers of Milford, whose name is still perpetuated in Merwin's Point, in the southwestern
part of the county. The oldest memorial of the dead in the ancient burial ground at Milford
is a sandstone slab of elaborate ornamentation in arabesque design which has been defaced
by the hand of time. It bears an inscription to the memory of Miles Merwin, after whom
Merwin's Point was named. His son, Samuel Merwin, born Aug. 21, 1656, was one of the
first settlers of New Milford, and his name appears as one of the proprietors having a large
allotment of land in that part of the town which was subsequently incorporated as Brookfield.
Four successive Samuels followed in the family line. Samuel E. Merwin, son of the last
Samuel, married Ruby Nearing, and became the father of the subject of this sketch.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 147
The education of the future governor was simply that afforded by the district school of
his native town, supplemented by a year's instruction in the high school of the adjoining
town of Newtown. At the age of sixteen, the family moved to New Haven, where another
year was passed at school. Before he reached his majority, he associated himself with his
father under the firm name of S. E. Merwin & Son, a connection which lasted until 1880.
Outside of his active and successful business life. Governor Merwin has been identified
with a number of important public and private trusts. He served as commissioner of police
for two years, and for nine years he was an industrious and efficient member of the board of
education. In 1872, he was induced to accept the nomination for senator in the fourth district,
and received the compliment of being elected by a majority of five hundred in a district
heavily Democratic. As candidate of the Republicans for mayor of the city, and also for
member of congress for the second district, his great popularity in both cases nearly resulted
in overcoming heavy Democratic majorities.
In the military circles of the state. Governor Merwin has been even more conspicuous
than in private life. He was in command of New Haven Grays during the war, and by
successive promotions became lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the Second Regiment. No
man in Connecticut not engaged in actual service, performed more efficient labors than he.
In response to a call from Governor Buckingham in 1863, the Grays, under his command,
volunteered to go to Gettysburg. For thirty days during the draft riots in New York, his
company remained under arms, in hourly expectation of being called upon to aid in averting
that appalling danger. Guarding conscripted men, consigning to their last resting place with
appropriate honors numerous officers and men who had fallen iij battle, or died in hospitals,
and receiving with proper military display the returning veterans of the war, became part
of his official duties while in command of the regiment. Just in closing his term as a soldier
he rendered a most important service, for which he deserves to be gratefully remembered by
the citizens of Connecticut. Through his efforts, a gang of prize fighters and their associates
were captured at Charles Island, opposite Milford, and the whole party were taken to New
Haven and turned over to the civil authorities. The prompt and efficient action at that time
has since saved the state from similar scenes of brutal character. His great admiration and
friendship for the soldiers led to his appointment as chairman of the committee to build the
soldiers' monument erected by the town of New Haven, and it is largely due to his 'untiring
zeal and energy that a most beautiful tribute has been dedicated to the memory of those who
lost their lives in the cause of the Union.
Mr. Merwin rendered some very valuable service to his state when he was filling the
office of adjutant-general for the years 1869, 1870 and 1872. It was through his efforts that
the military system of the state was re-organized on its present efficient basis. The entire
National Guard was grouped into one brigade with a regiment located in each congressional
district. The change was very favorably considered, and the new system has been copied in
other states.
There was no choice by the people at the state election in 1888, and on the assembling
of the legislature he was chosen lieutenant-governor for two years, on the ticket with Hon.
Morgan G. Bulkeley. In 1890, Lieutenant-Governor Merwin was given a unanimous
nomination as the Republican candidate for governor. On being presented to the convention,
he received a most enthusiastic reception. After speaking of the work of the Republican
party and the issues of the day, he thus voiced his sentiments regarding himself :
Gentlemen, I am a thorough-bred Connecticut man, born and brought up on a Connecticut farm. I love her
hills and valleys, and honor those who till her soil. I rejoice in the prosperity of her cities and villages and
sincerely hope the wage-earner and employer may continue in harmonious relations for all time to come, thereby

148 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
insuring to honest labor and industry just reward. I most fully appreciate her schools and institutions for learning.
May they continue to teach the young the great principle of patriotism, love of country and justice between man
and man. I have faith in the future prosperity of our state, faith in our people, because I believe their faith with
mine is pinned to the motto of Connecticut: "Qui transtulit, sustinet." My life has been devoted to business,
and I trust you will not call me egotistical if I say it has been my endeavor to deal fairly and honorably by my
fellowmen. My politics will be conducted on the same broad principle, and in victory or defeat I hope to retain
the confidence, goodwill and friendship of my fellow-citizens, and, above all, my own self-respect and honor.
You have placed me before the people as a candidate for governor, feeling that claim of the people, and that
they through you have nominated me. If elected, as I hope to be, I have but one promise to make them. It will
be my earnest endeavor to serve the interests of Connecticut faithfully and well, thereby serving the interests of all
her people, trying to remember at all times that I am their servant and not their master. With this promise I go
before them for their suffrages, and, whether elected or defeated, they will find me loyal to Connecticut and all of
those interests that have placed her among the first in the great sisterhood of states.
Again there was no election by the people at the polls in November. When the legis
lature assembled in January, 1891, a series of technical differences arose, and as a consequence,
no legal election or inauguration of officers was effected by that body, except in the case of
comptroller, who was declared elected by the people. The narrative of the next two years
forms an unpleasant page in the history of Connecticut. During the trying and embarassing
scenes which followed, Lieutenant-Governor Merwin bore himself in a manner which called
forth the highest encomiums, both from his friends and those politically opposed to him.
In 1892, for the second time, he received the Republican nomination for governor with
great unanimity. His speech of acceptance was a splendid summary of the Republican side
of the controversy which had existed, as well as of the issues which divided the two great
parties. In opening, he said :
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : Two years ago, the Republicans of Connecticut, through
their representatives assembled in convention in this hall, nominated me as their candidate for governor. Your
committee have advised me that this convention has seen fit to again honor me with the nomination, and I am here
to accept the same, and to return my sincere thanks for this renewed expression of confidence. We have been
witnessing a strange condition of affairs in Connecticut. Twenty months have passed since the general assembly
should have elected some one governor of this commonwealth. Every intelligent citizen knows that our constitu
tion requires that a majority of all the votes cast are requisite to the election of a state officer, and if no candidate
receives a majority, it devolves upon the legislature to elect one of the two receiving the highest number of votes.
At the last election no candidate for governor received a majority of the legal votes cast, and under all the prece
dents the people had a right to expect the general assembly would proceed under the constitution and make its
choice. That bod}' being Republican on joint ballot, no fair-minded man can doubt for one moment that I would
have been its choice. If any citizen ever doubted the loyalty of the majority of that legislature to me, that doubt
must long since have been dispelled. It was not only loyalty to me that kept them in one solid phalanx, but there
was a principle involved that was far above the question of the governorship, a principle which the constitution
guarantees and which every citizen of Connecticut should hold dear, to wit. : The right to cast one vote and to
have that vote counted as cast. The importance of this principle has been recognized by our national convention,
and, for one, I am glad that our party stands pledged by its platform to secure the rights guaranteed by the consti
tution of the United States to every voter throughout the land.
Speaking of the result of the convention, the Waterbury American, a leading inde
pendent paper, said : " The Republican state ticket, nominated at New Haven on Wednesday,
with substantial harmony and yet with opposition enough to give life and interest to the
proceedings of the convention, is a strong and clean one. General Merwin is known by
everybody, and known as a gentleman, an honorable business man, and a worthy candidate
for the highest state office."
The tidal wave of democracy which swept over the country was too strong to be over
come, and he failed of election. The battle of ballots was well fought, but victory was with
the opposition. If the Republicans of Connecticut do their whole duty, they wUl see to it
in the future that Lieutenant-Governor Merwin is placed (where he should have been several
years ago) in the gubernatorial chair. No citizen of the state more richly deserves the honor.

M=i5 5aB]iij.sett,;;f-'.i.>jL5lLiri.f; CQ,EveTE!t,M3.:3a,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 149
Financial and other institutions occupy no small share of Governor Merwin's attention.
At present, he is president of the New Haven Savings Bank — the largest savings institution
in the city — and he holds the same office in the Connecticut Hospital Society, and is a
trustee of the Orphan Asylum. He is also a director in the New Haven & Derby Railroad,
and in the Shepaug, Litchfield & Northern Railroad, both of the companies being leased to
the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. These various official positions indicate
the esteem in which he is held by his associates, and they are an equal indication of his
charitable nature, as all are a drain on his time and pocket without any pecuniary com
pensation. Almost daily is it his pleasant privilege to be the counsellor and advisor of
widows and orphans. Frequently during the past score of years Governor Merwin has been
called upon by the business men of New Haven to settle various estates, including those of
banks, merchants, manufacturers, and insurance companies. In all of the important trusts
which have been confided to him, and some of them have been exceedingly complicated, he
has ever won the respect and grateful acknowledgment of the creditors for his faithful and
energetic settlements.
During his two score years of residence in New Haven, by his public spirit and zeal in
the welfare of his adopted city. Governor Merwin has endeared himself to all classes of citizens.
In all the various walks of life, whether civil or military, public or private, his name has
been synonymous with honor, integrity and strength. Not all of the good deeds of such a
man as he show on the surface, and numerous are the families who have cause to bless
his memory for benefactions unknown to the outside world. In every way worthy to occupy
the seat once filled by Buckingham and Jewell, the people of Connecticut will honor them
selves by making him the administrative head of the state.
Samuel E. Merwin was married Feb. 27, 1857, to Lucy Emily Beers, daughter of Anthony
and Betsy Beers of Brookfield.

UMBALL, CARLOS CLINTON, son of Daniel KimbaU, Jr., and of Roxana
(McCray) Kimball, was born at Ellington, Conn., April 24, 1828. Having
graduated at the Ellington Academy, in 1848, he continued his studies in the
classical department of the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Mass. He
left this institution to take the position of assistant principal in the academy
of his native town, whence he was invited to take charge of the high school in the Green
ville district of Norwich, Conn., where he remained for three years. In both places the
proficiency of his classes, especially in mathematics, attracted the attention of educators ; and
also an order and discipline that were maintained without apparent effort, and with rare
displays of authority. He resigned his position in Greenville to become principal of the
Webster School in New Haven, where the corps of teachers under him numbered from
twelve to fourteen. After remaining here for three years, although the work had many
attractions for him, he decided that a career having broader relations with the world pre
sented greater opportunities for both pleasure and profit. In 1860, he accordingly resigned,
and after two years spent in travel took up the permanent business of life.
In 1863, Mr. KimbaU located in Hartford, accepting the management of the New Eng
land department (embracing all New England except Boston) of the Insurance Company of
North America. Established at Philadelphia in 1792, this is the oldest and, with a single
exception, the largest fire insurance company in the United States. For thirty years the
relationship has continued without a ripple, to the eminent satisfaction of all parties. Con
sidering the vicissitudes of the business, it is remarkable that the books of the office show
a net profit for every^ year of this long term. ,

I50 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In 1866, the Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company began operations on a
capital of $300,000, and at the end of twelve months found that about one-third of the
sum had been swallowed up in the experiment. Visions of bankruptcy alarmed the stock
holders. Meanwhile the value of the shares had fallen one-half, and some of the owners
took steps preUminary to winding up the venture. At this juncture Mr. Kimball, after
repeated solicitations from the directors, consented to accept the presidency. He at once
radically revised its aims and methods, infusing such vitality into the management that within
three years the impairment of capital was made good from the business, and the company
established on a dividend paying basis. Having learned by observation what could be accom
plished on the somewhat novel plans of the association, other parties now secretly bought a
controlling interest in the property for the purpose of handling it. As often happens in such
cases, the promoters of the scheme failed to win the success which had allured their ambition,
though later the enterprise became solidly established.
Mr. Kimball has for many years been constantiy solicited to take part in the organization
and management of new enterprises. Although compelled in many cases to decline, he has
found time to aid in the permanent establishment of several of our highly-successful institu
tions, both financial and industrial. A few may be mentioned by way of illustration. He
was one of the corporators and from the beginning has been a director of the Security Com
pany and of the Loan and Guaranty Company. He is a director in the Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection and Insurance Company. In association with WUliam A. Healey he became a
shareholder in what is now the Pratt & Cady Company in its early days, and as director has
been identified with its remarkable growth. In 1884, he accepted the presidency of the
Smythe Manufacturing Company which has developed the patents and makes the only machine
in Ainerica for sewing books by thread. From small beginnings and in the face of many
obstacles, it has been graduaUy introduced into leading binderies in all parts of the world.
Even Russia, supposed to be impenetrable to the latest devices of civilization, has several in
operation, and a number have found their way to Australia. The mechanism so combines
simplicity with ingenuity, and in the process of evolution is covered by so many interlock
ing patents, that it is not likely to have a rival for a long time to come. Shares in the
capital stock of $300,000 are eagerly sought at a large premium. When Mr. Kimball
assumed charge of the business the machine was still quite imperfect, but he had entire faith
in the correctness of the underlying principle. Hence with unwearied assiduity he applied his
energies to the double task of perfecting the various devices that contributed to the accom
plishment of a common end, and of overcoming the popular prejudice which at first declared
the undertaking to be impracticable. In this instance, patience, tact and a fertility of resource
suited to the conquest of both physical and moral difficulties, have met deserved success.
Mr. KimbaU has always held aloof from the intrigues of politics, refusing to be a can
didate for elective offices, or to enter in any way into the rush for place. His deep interest
in popular education has led him to take a long and active part in the management of his
local school district, and he has served as one of the board of school visitors for the town.
On the formation of the Hartford Board of Trade, in 1888, Mr. Kimball was elected
first vice-president, aud has been annually reelected since. An intimate knowledge of me
chanical principles, skill in detecting the vital excellencies and defects of mechanical con
trivances, and a broad acquaintance with practical affairs, have made his services in this
position peculiarly valuable to the association and to the public.
Mr. KimbaU married Oct. 29, 1863, Caroline E., daughter of Hon. E. A. Converse of
Staff ordville. Conn., a man of very high character, whose active career in business spanned
nearly half a century. He has two sons, George Converse and Frederick Strong Kimball,
both graduates of Yale University, and both now in business in Hartford.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 151
^ATCHELLER, WHEELOCK THAYER, of Winsted, ex-comptroller of the
state, was born in Winchester, Conn., Feb. 18, 1840.
This branch of the Batcheller family is of Massachusetts stock, the old
homestead being located in Worcester County. In 181 7, Wheelock T.
Batcheller transferred his residence to Winsted, and, in 1833, he was followed
by his son, William G. Batcheller. The latter married Julia M. Thayer, and of their two
sons the subject of this sketch was the youngest.
Young Batcheller' s education was received at the common schools of his native town,
and at the Claverack (New York) Institute. Deciding to pursue a mercantile life, he
entered the business of scythe manufacturing, founded by his maternal grandfather. While
thus engaged a call to arms was made for the suppression of the Rebellion, and he enlisted
in Company F, Second Connecticut Volunteers, Col. Terry's regiment, and went to the
front as first lieutenant. He participated in the disastrous battle of Bull Run, and upon
his return from his original three months' enlistment he assisted in organizing the Twenty-
eighth Connecticut Volunteers, and though he had but just passed his majority, was chosen
lieutenant-colonel. In the campaign around Port Hudson Lieut. -Col. Batcheller commanded
his regiment, the colonel being in command of the brigade.
He was afterwards transferred to the quartermaster-general's department of Gen.
Sherman's army, and had charge of important railroads in Georgia and North Carolina
from Johnston's surrender to the official close of the war. He was mustered out in December,
1865, with an enviable reputation for faithful service.
In 1867, Mr. Batcheller resumed the manufacture of scythes, and was the president of
the George Dudley & Son Company from 1882 to 1889, and in the last named year retired
from active business, though he is now interested financially in several manufacturing
companies. Mr. Batcheller has had his share of official honors, but they have never been of his
seeking. In 1879, without his solicitation and by a handsome majority, he was elected
representative to the legislature from Winsted as a Republican. At this session he served
as House chairman of the military committee, and made a good record for efficient work.
In 1880, he was elected comptroller of the state on the ticket with Gov. H. B. Bigelow,
and filled that responsible position for two years. Mr. Batcheller was prevailed upon to
allow his name to be used as the Republican candidate for senator from the eighteenth
district in 1885, and was again sent to the capital to represent his constituents. His
previous experience made him an exceedingly valuable member, and he served on the com
mittee on appropriations in 1885, and the following year his committees were finance and
capitol grounds and furniture. These were the last two years at which annual sessions
were held.
Taking a zealous interest in the welfare of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr.
Batcheller was a charter member of Palmer Post of Winsted, and has served as an aid on
the department commander's staff.

152

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

ILLER, EDWARD, founder and present head of the extensive corporation of
Edward Miller & Company, Meriden, was born in Wallingford, Conn., Aug. lo,
1827. His grandfather was Rev. Samuel Miller of Wallingford, and his father,
Joel Miller, lived on the old homestead in early life, but, transferring his
residence to Meriden, he died there in 1865. The mother of the future
manufacturer was Clarissa, daughter of Seth D. Plum, one of the first to engage in the
production of tin ware and a prominent man in his day.
As a farmer's boy, and amid the surroundings of an ordinary Connecticut farm, Edward
Miller started on the journey of life. The common schools of the district where he lived,
together with a couple of terms at Post's Academy, Meriden, afforded him all the education
he received, except that to be obtained from the great book of Nature, or that which he
acquired later in the severe school of experience. Work and the practical affairs of daily
life filled young Miller's time after his tenth year far more than ideas gained from books.
At the age of fifteen, he began to learn how to make lamp screws, hoops and candlestick
springs in the small factory of Mr. H. N. Howard of Meriden, the family having moved
to that city several years previously. His faithfulness here secured him a position at better
wages with Stedman & Clark, who manufactured a similar line of goods, where he remained
two years. Gradually the ambition had grown within him to manufacture and sell goods
which should be identified with his own name. Accordingly he proposed to his father that
he buy a set of tools, and manufacture springs, screws, etc., and place on the market in
the Miller name. Later a partnership was formed under the style of Joel Miller & Son.
An old wood shed was utilized as a factory, foot power lathes and presses were set up, and
the manufacture undertaken. After the partnership had continued over a year, Mr. Edward
Miller, then only twenty years of age, bought out his father's interest and his own legal
"time," up to his majority, for $800.00, giving his notes in payment. Unusual success at
tended his operations, as before the end of the following year the notes were paid out of
the profits. His limited quarters becoming too straitened for the amount of business trans
acted, a new shop was added, horse power took the place of foot, and a little later steam
furnished the motive power. Each advance represented a stage of progress towards greater
things to come.
Mr. Miller's ideas of extension grew faster even than his rapidly growing business.
More room, better appliances, and greater freedom in manufacturing were needed. At this
time the ground where the present great factory stands was purchased, his wife, who had
become his helper and counsellor, being much opposed to the movement, as she feared the
loss of the little fortune they had accumulated. The wooden factory was built, and the
plant included a small stationary engine. New inventions had been demanded by the trade
before this date, as the use of camphene and burning fiuid was widespread. Every demand
was met promptly. As rapidly as the market called for new designs, with equal celerity
did Mr. Miller change the products of his factory. The production of fiuid burners was
increased, improvements being made as needed, invention going hand in hand with the
process of manufacture. Every prospect seemed bright, but disaster came from an un
expected quarter. A sudden fire swept through the factory, levelling it completely and'
destroying dies and patterns, lathes and presses, the result of thirteen years' hard work.
The engine and boiler were the only things preserved amid the general destruction. The
blow was a severe one, but Mr. Miller met it with fortitude. The fire occurred in the
eariy part of 1856, but before the close of the year everything was in running order again.
Then came the panic of 1857, and all the neighboring shops were shut down. When the

MJn.^ ?lyr GJia.r-n.anJiy-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 153
financial cyclone had somewhat spent its force, Mr. Miller went to New York, January i,
1858, seeking for something novel or useful with which to retrieve his shattered fortunes.
He saw the kerosene burner, just brought from Austria. Returning home at once, he
determined to make this new burner, only in an improved condition. Owing to the cost of
the distilled oU, fluid burners were in much greater demand than kerosene, but the new
kind of burner was made and placed on the market. Others soon followed where he led,
but he deserves the distinction of being the first to offer kerosene burners in the market as
the product of American manufacture.
The dawn of a new era in illuminating was now opening upon the country. As the
coal fields of Pennsylvania ^and Ohio were opened, the price of oU was lowered, and the
demand for the burner increased immensely. Useful and ornamental brass goods were
added, and again the factory became taxed beyond its capacity, necessitating successive en
largements. In 1866, it seemed wise to Mr. Miller to associate with himself other capitalists
in the business. A joint stock company was formed in July of that year, under the
corporation name of Edward Miller & Company, the capital being $200,000. The already
large plant continued to grow under the auspices of the new company, until now the
factory covers several acres of ground and work is furnished to nearly 800 employees.
Let a few sentences from the Meriden Daily Joicrnal show how the standing of the
firm is appreciated at home: "The company's prosperity is such that it knows no dull
periods or its workmen want of employment. The departments are fully equipped with all
the most modern machinery that can aid in the rapid and perfect production of goods. It
is the rule in the manufacture* of their goods that excellence is the grand thing to be at
tained, and the high esteem in which their products are held by dealers and consumers
warrants the assertion that they realize the end sought. Their products are largely exported
to foreign lands, and immense as this business is, it is daily increasing. It would be an
impossibility to enumerate the great assortment of articles made by this company. Prominent
among them are lamp trimmings of every variety, tinners' hardware, together with brass
and bronze goods. Their designs are thoroughly their own, and are selected by those
appreciative of the superiority of American goods and the American styles over those of
foreign lands. Yet the company keeps a sharp eye on the centres of artistic productions,
with a view that none shall excel them. The result is that not only are the designs of art
centres equalled, but in most cases excelled by the addition of the American artist.
"In 1884, the company began to manufacture the 'Rochester' lamps. No adequate
conception of their value as illuminators could be gained, however, except to see them when
lighted. They give a clear, steady, beautiful, yet strong light, that is proof at first sight
of their superiority. Over one thousand different designs of the ' Rochester ' are made,
varying from the 'Rochester, Jr.' to the 'Mammoth,' capable of fiooding the largest hall
with a light almost equal to that of an electric arc light."
When the "Rochester" lamp reached its present standard, Mr. Miller thought
perfection had been attained ; still as imitations began to be placed on the market he
determined to reach out further than ever into the realms of light production. Every
principle of the new lamp must have a scientific basis, and no detail be omitted which
would affect its working in the slightest degree. The result of his experiments finds
expression in the "Miller" lamp, in which there is nothing left to be desired. It is sim
plicity itself. It has no dirt pocket, and cannot get out of order ; the central draft through
a solid, seamless brass tube cannot leak ; it has the screw adjustment and plunge movement
to be used at pleasure, both perfect; oil cannot drip down the tube, and to crown all, it
has the best and simplest device for rewicking ever invented. Naturally Mr. Miller takes

124 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
great pride in this latest achievement. Every point of importance is different from all other
lamps, and each new principle is fully covered by patents. It was but fitting that the man
who made the first kerosene burner should produce the perfect lamp of the future, and it
was equally fitting that this king of burners should bear his name.
Mr. Miller, when by himself, always relied wholly upon the merit of his productions
for success, and following this course the company have achieved a reputation which is
very valuable. There is the same careful attention paid to the minute detaUs of the
business, from mixing the native metals which form the alloy, to the final finishing of the
smallest article they produce. There is always the same earnest endeavor to attain
perfection, and the company has as nearly reached it as it is possible for man to do. The
present officers of the company are Edward Miller, president; Edward Miller, Jr., secretary
and treasurer; B. C. Kennard, assistant treasurer; and Arthur Miller, superintendent.
A Republican in politics, Mr. MUler is an ardent supporter of the principles of his
party. Refusing solicitations to accept political preferment, he has confined himself wholly
to the building up of the magnificent business of which he is rightly the head. A Baptist
in religious belief, he is a member of the church on Broad street, and is warmly attached
to his church home, to the yearly support of which he is a liberal donor, and in 1869 his
thoughtfulness showed itself in the gift of an elegant organ, which has added no littie to
the interest and solemnity of the worship. Mr. Miller is an acknowledged leader in his
denomination throughout the state, and for a series of years has been treasurer of the
Connecticut Baptist Education Society.
But his liberality is by no means confined to the denoinination of which he forms an
integral part. AU true objects of benevolence, both within and without the Baptist
fraternity, share in his generosity. His donation to the German Baptists resulted in the
erection of their building, and gave the work a great impetus. At one time there was a
crisis in the affairs of the Connecticut Literary Institute of Suffield, and the sum of $50,000
was needed to place it on a firm financial basis. Mr. Miller saw the opportunity, and by
making a leading gift, set the ball in motion and the necessary amount was pledged. His
grasp of the situation and his promptness in acting were in every way characteristic of the
donor. That worthy organization, the Young Men's Christian Association, has also been a
sharer in his bounty, and his benevolence has been shown in numerous ways not known to
the outside public. It is an interesting study to trace the development, both of the man
and of the great industry with which his life is identified, and the solid character of the
first permeates every ramification of the latter. The high reputation gained by the company
could never have been secured if the man behind it had ever lowered his standards or
cheapened his productions.
Edward MiUer was married April 14, 1830, to Caroline M., daughter of Joel Neal of
Southington. Mrs. Miller at once became her husband's active helper and wise counsellor.
She did not disdain to aid him in light work in the shop when orders were pressing, and
she assisted him materially in laying the foundation of the business. Five children have
been born to them, three of whom are now living. Edward Miller, Jr., is a graduate of
Brown University, and is the secretary and treasurer of the company. A large portion of
the management has devolved upon him during the past ten years, and he is a worthy son
of such a sire. Arthur E. Miller has been lately promoted to the superintendency of the
factory, and is a young man of great promise. Layette A. is the wife of Charles A.
Kendrick of Meriden.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 155
ARNAM, HENRY,* of New Haven, civil engineer and ex-preddent of the
Chicago & Rock Island RaUroad, was born in the town of Scipio, Cayuga
County, N. Y., Nov. 9, 1803. He died Oct. 4, 1883, just before reaching the
Biblical limit of four score years.
During the last quarter of the last century, a small company of Connecticut
farmers left the pleasant valley of the Thames to settle in the wilderness west of the Hudson.
At that time even the eastern part of the state of New York was regarded as the far West.
Much of the land was thickly wooded, and they who made their homes there were true
pioneers. They had not only to clear the surface which they expected to till, they had to
face, if necessary, the attacks of the Indians. Eliab Farnam of Preston, with his wife and
child, formed part of the company. He settled in Mount Hope, Orange County, and there
spent the remainder of his days. His son, Jeffrey Amherst Farnam, married his cousin,
Mercy Tracy, and after two years passed in Big Flats, where their first child was born, the
young couple moved to the town of Scipio, where the rest of their eleven children were born,
and where, in 1842, Jeffrey Farnam died.
It was on the Scipio farm that Henry Farnam, the sixth of the family, was born. Like
his brothers, he was possessed of considerable physical strength, and showed great fondness
for music, the singing in the village church being mainly carried on by the various brothers
of the Farnam family. He displayed, however, at an early age, a greater appetite for books
and a less eager devotion to boyish sports than the other brothers of the family. The two
subjects that most attracted him were poetry and mathematics. His memory, like that of his
mother, was singularly retentive. Even in his old age he could repeat many verses which
he had committed when a boy, especially extracts from Cowper and Pope, who were his
favorite authors. His aptitude for mathematics was such that, even with the little instruction
and the few text books he was able to command, he mastered the elements of trigonometry
and survejang before he was sixteen. Yet he was often obliged to pursue these studies in
the evening, when, to save the expense of a candle, he worked by the light of the winter's
fire. Farm work was never congenial to him, and while he was still a boy he was sent to live
with Dr. Phineas Hurd, a connection by marriage, with the intention of studying medicine.
What he saw of the physician's life did not arouse in him any ambition to pursue that career,
and he returned to his father's farm to occupy his time with manual labor, to finish his school
ing, and later to teach in the village school himself. The opportunity for the more profitable
use of his talents soon came, and it is significant that his first professional work was on the
earliest of those great highways of commerce between the East and the West to which he was
destined in his later life to make such important additions. The Erie Canal had been begun
in 181 7, and four years later, through the influence of a relative, Mr. Farnam got a situation
on the section west of Rochester. Commencing as rodman, he was soon made assistant
engineer. The work was unhealthy, and the exposure to the miasmatic influences of the
swamps was all but disastrous to his health. When he left the Erie Canal on its completion
in the fall of 1824, the malarial poison had so fastened itself upon his system that his family
almost despaired of his life. A change of air was deemed advisable. He was now his own
master, and after another winter of school teaching, he took advantage of the offer of a position
on the Farmington Canal, and moved in the spring of 1825 to Connecticut.
The twenty-five years that followed were years of great toil, heavy responsibility, and
small reward. They were the long apprenticeship of his life. They were the period in which

* This sketch is condensed from a " Memoir of Henry Farnam " by Prof. Henry 'W. Farnam.

156 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
he laid painfully and slowly the foundations of character and experience upon which his later
success was to be built. The Farmington Canal had been chartered in 1822, but it was not
put under construction until 1825, when Mr. Davis Hurd was appointed its chief engineer.
It was as his assistant that Mr. Farnam came to New Haven. Upon the retirement of Mr.
Hurd in 1827, he was made chief engineer, and held that office as long as the canal was in
operation. The canal was finished as far as Farmington in 1828, and the line was finally
carried to Northampton in 1835. Unfortunately the company did not prove profitable, and
the original stock became a total loss. A new company was formed which put over $120,000
into the business, but was no more successful than the old one had been. Further changes
were made in 1840, and Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, who was a large stockholder, virtually con
trolled the property for the next five years. The vicissitudes of the company were numerous,
and in 1845 Mr. Sheffield sold the greater part of his stock and withdrew from the presidency.
During all this time, Mr. Farnam acted as chief engineer and superintendent. He was
constantly travelling up and down the line of the canal in his buggy, called hither and thither
by sudden emergencies. By night and by day, in rain and shine, he responded promptly
to whatever demands were made upon him, and at the same time he was often obliged to
provide for raising the funds needed to pay operating expenses. The growing competition
of the railroads had its part in preventing the canals from sharing in the increasing business
of the state. Mr. Farnam then suggested to Mr. Sheffield that a railroad should be built along
the line of the canal, and the canal itself abandoned. This measure would evidently save
the expense of acquiring the right of way, and of doing a great deal of the grading, and
would, at the same time, substitute for the antiquated canal a more efficient means of com
munication. Mr. Sheffield was favorably impressed, and bought back the stock he had sold,
and again became president of the company, Mr. Farnam continuing to act as chief engineer
and superintendent. Complications arose with the New Haven & Hartford Road, and after
the canal road was opened as far as CoUinsville, certain legislation was obtained which made
all of Mr. Sheffield's work unnecessary and entirely blocked his plans. Disappointed in
those whom he had trusted, Mr. Sheffield closed up his business, and for the time gave up
all active interest in railroading in the East. At the same time Mr. Farnam resigned his
position, and both men were now at liberty to turn their attention to a field which offered
a better opportunity for the use of their talents.
Though continuously employed by the Northampton Company for a quarter of a century,
Mr. Farnam found time to take an active part in the inauguration of the road to New York.
This period of his life was beset with many discouragements. He had to work hard in the
service of the company which was a constant drain upon the owners, and the cause of much
contention and complaint among New Haven people. He had done this with no material
reward beyond a small salary. Mr. Sheffield had a correct idea of the situation when he said,
in speaking of the losses of New Haven people by the canal: "No man in Connecticut lost
as much as Mr. Farnam, for he lost not only all that he had invested in its stock (which was
all he had saved of his hard earnings in former years), but he lost ten or twelve years of the
prime of life, when he might elsewhere have received large salaries as engineer." These
years were hard, and yet they brought some compensating advantages. For one thing, he
won the esteem of all his acquaintances for his skill as an engineer, for his judgment in busi
ness, for his honest}- and nobility of character, and for his liberality. The canal was also the
means of bringing him into close personal relations with a number of men upon whose friend
ship he looked back in later years with unmixed satisfaction, and whose example was undoubt
edly a great infiuence in moulding his own character. Exceedingly complimentary resolutions
were passed by the New Haven and Northampton Company upon his retirement in 1850.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 157
The period that follows was in sharp contrast with that just past. Twenty-five years
had now been devoted to the service of one company. During the next six years, Mr.
Farnam had charge of the construction of four railroads. He designed and built the first
bridge over the Mississippi river, and he became the president of the leading railroad system
of the Northwest. Quick to appreciate the importance which railroads were to have in the
economic development of the country, he had given proof of his foresight in being one of
the incorporators of the New York road, and in suggesting the New Haven and Northampton
road as a substitute for the canal. He showed equal prescience in seeing that the great field
for building railroads lay in the West, and that those who wished to operate upon a large
scale would find there abundant opportunities. His first visit to the West was made in the
faU of 1850, when he went out at the invitation of Mr. William B. Ogden. Mr. Ogden was
president of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which was then in operation only as
far as Elgin, and he hoped to interest Mr. Farnam in his enterprise. The whole country
was still undeveloped, but he was much impressed by what he saw of its possibilities. Before
committing himself to any project, however, he made a second visit in the same year, this
time in company with his old friend, Mr. Sheffield, and the two pushed on as far as Rock
Island on the Mississippi river.
The Michigan Southern road ha,d come to a standstill at Hillsdale ; its financial condition
was very weak, and but four miles of the road had been built in 1850. Mr. Farnam
proposed to build that portion which was yet unfinished, and to furnish the capital for doing
it. The proposition was thought to be a daring one, for on the one hand there was con
siderable jealousy of Eastern men in the West, which caused many obstacles to be thrown in
their path, and, on the other hand, there was great distrust of Western enterprises among
Eastern capitalists. Railroads which are now regarded as sound and conservative investments
were then considered wild speculations. The proposition, however, was too good to be
rejected. The contract was made with the firm of Sheffield & Farnam, work was begun, and
in March, 1852, the first locomotive entered Chicago from the East over the rails of the
Michigan Southern road.
The construction of this road was but the preface to the main work for which Mr. Farnam
went to Chicago. The task that now confronted him was, first, to build a road from Chicago
to the Mississippi, and then to carry it further and open the way for the first railroad across
the continent. The firm of Sheffield & Farnam had agreed to build the road from Chicago
to Rock Island and furnish the capital, provided the charter of the Rock Island & La Salle
road could be suitably amended. This was accomplished by persistent effort. In AprU, 1852,
the work was begun, and on the 2 2d of February, 1854, the first train passed over the rails
from Chicago to Rock Island, and on the lOth of July the road was formally turned over to
the company, some eighteen months before the time specified in the contract. The terms of
the contract are interesting as showing how much was done by the contractors and how little,
comparatively, by the company. The firm agreed to build and equip the entire line for the
gross sum of $3,987,688. The rush of travel was so great that even before the completion
of the road, it was necessary to increase the equipment, and in this way the final expense was
brought to about $4,500,000.
While the main line of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad was being constructed, Mr.
Farnam was engaged in pushing a branch south towards Peoria. This branch was put through
with the same rapidity that was shown in the construction of the main line. The contract
was signed July 4, 1853, and in less than a year the road was completed and turned over to
the La Salle Company. Thus before the first six months of 1854 had passed, a road had
been constructed from Chicago to the Mississippi, and a branch had been run as far as Peoria,

158 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
in the central part of the state. The completion of this undertaking was justly regarded as
of the first importance to the development both of the state of Illinois and of the whole
country, and was commemorated by two celebrations. The first was a local affair, and the
other was national in its character, and was managed by the firm of Sheffield & Farnam on a
scale proportional to the magnitude of their achievements.
Mr. Farnam had little time for festivities in those exciting days. His vacations were
few and there was so much work to be done that every moment seemed precious. Before
the Rock Island Road had been completed, he and his associates had already made other
plans, first for a bridge across the Mississippi River, and then for a railroad to run through
the state of Iowa to the Missouri. The bridge was built by an independent company of
which he was president. He also designed the bridge and superintended its construction.
It was finished in April, 1855. The execution of these projects was beset by many
difficulties, with more in fact than had been met with in the construction of the Rock
Island Road, but a lack of space prevents the mention of the details. The railroad through
Iowa was also buUt under great difficalties. Mr. Farnam was the leading spirit of this
enterprise, but unfortunately he could no longer command the services of Mr. Sheffield,
who felt that he had arrived at a period of life at which he was justified in retiring from
active business, though he continued to aid the enterprise liberally by subscribing to its
funds. The special difficulties were gradually overcome and the work of building the
Mississippi & Missouri Railroad was begun in May, 1855. There was great stringency in
the money market and much trouble was also experienced in finding a market for securities
of the road, but a still graver danger presented itself. Mr. Farnam's new partner had un
fortunately yielded to the general spirit of speculation which had taken possession of so
many of the railroad men of that time. The result was that, when the commercial crisis
of 1857 came, it brought the firm to the very brink of ruin. The necessity for an assign
ment was overcome by the prompt and vigorous measures taken by Mr. Farnam, and he
was able to avoid failure. Ultimately he was enabled to extend the road to Grinnell,
though it was not carried through to the Missouri until after he had retired from active
business. While these cares were weighing upon him, he was acting as president of the Chicago
& Rock Island Railroad, and was also for a time the president of the Merchants' Loan
and Trust Company, a bank of which he was one of the original stockholders. He was
also actively interested in promoting the plan for extending the railroad system across the
continent to the Pacific Coast. It is interesting to notice that as early as 1856, Mr.
Sheffield, in one of his letters, speaks of the desirability of getting a charter for a railroad
from the Mississippi River . to San Francisco, so that this was evidently a part of the
original plan of the far-sighted men who finished the Michigan Southern road. When the
time seemed ripe for putting this plan into execution, Mr. Farnam became one of the incor
porators of the Union Pacific Company. But he soon found himself entirely out of sympathy
with the methods by which his associates proposed to conduct the enterprise, and ceased to
have anything to do with it after the first work of incorporation had been accomplished.
Mr. Farnam had now been at work continuously since the age of sixteen, and felt the
need of repose. He was deeply interested in the war in which the country had been plunged,
but he felt at his age he could do more by his financial support than by any form of personal
service, and he could not remain in this country without becoming constantly involved in all
kinds of laborious responsibilities. Everything pointed to a trip abroad as the one thing
needful. In June, 1863, he resigned the presidency of the Rock Island RaUroad, and in
August he started for an extended visit to foreign countries.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. i59
Of the remaining twenty years of Mr. Farnam's life, five were spent mainly in travel
abroad, and fifteen in his home in New Haven. In 1868, he returned to the United States
and took up his residence again in New Haven, the city in which he had passed so many years
of active life, and in which all of his children had been born. Before the year 1873, four of
his children had married, and all of them sooner or later made New Haven their home. The
remainder of his life was spent quietly and peacefully in the management of his property, in
acts of public benevolence, and in the enjoyment of the society of his children and grand
children. One of the chief pleasures of Mr. Farnam's life had always been to do good to others.
This was so natural and so thoroughly a part of himself that it seems needless, and in truth
it would be impossible, to mention in detail his acts of kindness and generosity. What he
gave was always given unostentatiously, and without any desire for notoriety. In some cases,
however, his name became permanently connected with his gifts. As early as 1863, he gave
$30,000 to Yale College, to be expended in the erection of a new dormitory. At a later period
he added another $30,000, and the building which this money made it possible to erect in
1870, and which was the first structure of the new quadrangle, was called by his name. He
frequently gave smaller sums to the different departments of Yale College, particularly to the
art school, the library and the divinity school. His gift pf the "Farnam drive" of P^ast
Rock Park, connected his name with a feature of the city in which all the people of New
Haven take a just pride. The hospital, too, interested him constantly, and in addition to
numerous other gifts, he endowed one of its free beds. The representatives of minor charities
and public institutions were frequently seen at his house, and seldom went away without some
substantial expression of his good will.
Mr. Farnam's health was always robust, and illness was soinething of which he had no
experience from the time of his recovery from the malarial fever contracted in the Tonawanda
swamp until the last few years of his life. The stroke of paralysis which ended his life came
without warning on Saturday evening, Sept. 30, 1883, and he died peacefully and apparently
without pain on the morning of Oct. 4.
In all respects Mr. Farnam's nature was exceptionally well balanced. Thus, while setting
up a high standard of conduct for himself, he was charitable towards the shortcomings of
others, and while generous and open-handed, he was never wasteful or extravagant. Busy as
he was during the greater part of his life, he never allowed himself to become a slave to his
profession, and always took pleasure in music, art, the drama and nature. His character was
marked by a singular consistency. He was always the same. He did not have one standard
of conduct for the counting-room, and another for the home. He did not stoop to practices
in public life which he would have scorned in his relations towards his friends. He was
always open, true, and straightforward.
Mr. Farnam was married Dec. i, 1839, to Ann Sophia Whitman, daughter of William
Whitman of Farmington. His five children, all of whom survive him, were Dr. George
Bronson Farnam, William Whitman Farnam, now treasurer of Yale University, Charles Henry
Farnam, Sarah Sheffield Farnam, wife of EU Whitney, Jr., and Henry W. Farnam, professor
of political economy in the Sheffield Scientific School.

i6o REPRESENTATIVE MEN

ijELDING, ALVAH NORTON, of RockvUle, secretary of the Belding Brothers
Company, and manager of the Rockville Mills, was born in Ashfield, Mass.,
March 27, 1838.
The Belding family traces its genealogical line to the very beginning of
the state of Connecticut. William Belding, who was one of the settlers of
Wethersfield, removed still further westward to Norwalk in 1646. His oldest son, Daniel,
soon after attaining his majority moved to Hartford, and in 1686 he transferred his residence
to Deerfield, Mass., where ten years later the greater part of his family were killed or captured
at the terrible massacre by the Indians. Samuel Belding, son of Daniel, had five children,
of whom the oldest, Samuel, Jr., located in Ashfield, and was the first clerk after the town
was incorporated in 1765. His son, John, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and
probably served in the campaign of General Gates which resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne.
Hiram Belding, youngest son of John, married Mary Wilson, step-daughter of Deacon Dimick
Ellis of Ashfield. They remained on the old homestead until their family of six children
were well advanced toward adult age. In 1855, Mr. Belding removed to Otisco, Mich., and
purchased what is now the site of Belding in that state. After seeing material progress made
in the development of the town, he died in 1866. A. N. Belding was the fourth in Hiram
Belding's family of six children.
Young Belding's education began in the common schools and ended in the high school
of his native town. At the age of seventeen he removed to Michigan, where he cleared wild
lands, and assisted in founding the town of Belding. The energetic spirit of the man, and
the desire to engage in mercantile transactions, soon made itself manifest. In company with
his brother, Hiram H., he began the sale of sewing silk from house to house, the material
being supplied by another brother, Milo M., who was in business in the East. This enterprise
was a success almost from the start, and at an early period required several teams to transport
the goods, while the firm controlled the greater part of the jobbing trade of that section.
In 1863, the three brothers started a house in Chicago, and the same year they formed
a partnership with Mr. E. K. Rose for the purpose of manufacturing silk. At first they
rented the lower fioor of what was then the Glasgow Thread Company's mill in Rockville,
and later erected one of the buildings they now occupy. This partnership was dissolved
in 1866, and for three years the Beldings were not represented in Connecticut. It was in
1869 that Mr. A. N. Belding decided to renew his connections with Rockville manufacturing,
and coming to the town he rented the old Leeds MUl, which he carried on till 1871. Then
the firm bought the mill built under the previous regime, and have since made four additions,
giving them about three times the capacity of the first mill. Having gotten this enterprise
into good working order, Mr. Belding purchased a mUl at Northampton, Mass., in 1874,.
and commenced the production of silk at that point. Since that time two new mills have
been erected under his supervision, besides a boUer and engine-house, and here again he
directed everything until the labor grew too great, and the management was placed in the
hands of a competent man. His next move was the establishment of a silk factory in a rented
mill in Montreal. It was successful from the beginning and soon outgrew its first quarters.
Mr. Belding then purchased a four-storied mill one hundred and thirty by forty-five feet,
deeming it sufficient for the business. Two additions, each larger than the original mill,
have been made, and he had charge till the second mill was in operation, and again distance
and the demands elsewhere caused him to seek a trusty manager. At Rockville an average
of five hundred hands are employed, at Northampton six hundred and fifty, and at Montreal
five hundred. In 1882 the entire business in the East and West was incorporated under the

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 161
laws of Connecticut as "Belding Brothers & Company," with a capital of $666,000, which
has since been increased to $1,000,000, and they have a surplus of nearly $900,000. It will
be seen that Mr. Belding has had practical control of affairs in the East, and it is due to his
executive ability, combined with an intimate knowledge of manufacturing, that the marked
success attained has been secured. Even now, with an experienced manager at both North
ampton and Montreal, he keeps a close watch over the details.
Not only in the East but also in the western town named for Belding Brothers, has Mr.
Belding's influence been felt most beneficially. In 1877, he planned and supervised the
erection of a mill for the manufacture of silk, bought all the machinery, and got everything
in running order. This was afterwards sold to a syndicate, and is known as the "Richardson
MiU." Four years ago he built another mill for his own firm. It is of brick, three stories
in height, three hundred and twenty-five by forty-five feet, is fitted with the best modern
appliances for manufacturing silk, and takes one of the largest engines in Michigan to furnish
the power. Belding Brothers have always been noted for their thoughtful care for the welfare
of their employees, and here it is shown in the comfortable boarding house built under his
direction. It contains a good library, and is most homelike in its appointments, the morals
of the girls being looked after as well as their physical comfort.
In 1890, Mr. Belding assisted in forming' the Belding Land & Improvement Com
pany, and has been president since its formation. His practical knowledge was of great
value in laying out the plots of ground, and besides holding the office of president he has
been the actual manager of the business. The enterprise has proved a financial success,
and has been of much assistance in the development of the town. The company now owns
two elegant blocks, a basket mill, and the finest hotel in any small town in the West, in
addition to other real estate. One incident may be mentioned as showing the pluck of the
Belding Brothers in their enterprises. An attempt was made to bore an artesian well in the
vicinity of their mill in Northampton. A depth of 3,700 feet was reached through the
sandstone, and $32,000 expended and then the whole was abandoned. For the first time in
its business career the firm had been baffled. The Belding Brothers are also interested in
the development of the new South. In Tennesee and North Carolina they own 75,000
acres of land teeming with almost inexhaustible wealth in timber and minerals.
The bare enumeration of the various official positions held by Mr. Belding will show
his wide interest in manufacturing and business affairs. Besides being a director and secre
tary of the Belding Brothers & Company's silk mill, Rockville, president of the Belding
Land & Improvement Company, Belding, Mich.', and vice-president of the Belding Savings
Bank, he holds a directorship in the following corporations : Belding, Paul & Company Silk
Mill of Montreal ; Carlson & Courier Silk Manufacturing Company, San Francisco ; in the
Miller Casket Company, of Belding, Mich., and the St. Lawrence Marble Company, Gouver
neur, N. Y. In Rockville he is a director in the Rockville National Bank, the People's
Savings Bank, and the American Mills Company, and is a stockholder in several other
companies. Despite his varied multifarious interests, Mr. Belding finds time to devote to the wel
fare of the city where he resides, and is one of its most popular citizens. He is a typical,
energetic. New England business man, possessed of the rare ability to accomplish a great
many things, and do them all equally well. He has an intuitive faculty of always striking
when the iron is hot, and, to carry the simile still further, none of the numerous irons
he has in the fire are ever burnt. Systematic, prompt, thorough, he contrives to throw
off an amount of work which would be simply appalling to a man of weaker mind, or
one with a narrower line of business characteristics. Mr. Belding is a firm believer in

1 62 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Republican principles, but by no stretch of the imagination could he be classed as an
active politician. So great is his popularity, however, that he was elected to the state
legislature in 1882, by the largest proportionate vote ever cast in his town, receiving 757
votes out of a total poll of 901. He served on the committees on incorporation and on
rules, doing good work on both committees.
Men in business life need something to divert their minds and relax the intense strain
caused by the competition of the times. Mr. Belding finds both relaxation and pleasure in
a fine farm in Ellington, which he purchased in 1877. The place has been greatly im
proved in the years which have elapsed, and his blooded horses and sleek Jerseys are a
constant source of pride.
A. N. Belding was married Jan. 6, 1870, to Lizzie S., daughter of H. A. Merrick of
Shelburne Falls, Mass. Two children, a son and a daughter, were the result of this union.

;AIT, JOHN TURNER, was boYn at New London, Conn., Aug. 27, 1811. His
father d}ing when he was very }-oung, his mother returned to reside in Norwich,
which was her birthplace and the home of her relatives, and where her son
received his early education in the public and select schools of the town. When
he reached a suitable age he entered the employment of a leading merchant of
the place and for nearly three }'ears had a mercantile training. Deciding then to follow the
profession of the law he resumed his early studies, passed a year at Bacon Academy, Colchester,
and two years at Washington, now Trinity College, Hartford, pursuing such an academic
course as would benefit him in the profession which he proposed to enter. He studied law
with the Hon. L. F. S. Foster and Hon. Jabez W. Huntington, was admitted to the bar in
1836, and commenced practice at Norwich, where he has since remained. In 1842, he received
the appointment of aide-de-camp on the staff of the late Governor Cleveland. He was state's
attorney for the County of New London in 1842-44 and 1846-54, the duties of which office
he discharged in a manner that won the approval of the public and gave him a leading
position at the bar.
When the Bar Association of that county was organized in 1874 he was elected its presi
dent and has held the position by unanimous annual reelections to the present time. He was
the candidate on the Democratic ticket for lieutenant-governor in 1854-55-56-57, but he
and his associates on the ticket failed of an election. He was the first elector-at-large as a
War Democrat in 1864, on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket, the Republican Convention nomi
nating him for that po.sition by acclamation. He was a member of the state Senate in 1865
and 1866, being chairman of the committee on the judiciary throughout both sessions, also
serving in the last year as president pro tempore. He was a member of the State House of
Representatives in 1867, 1871 and 1873, serving as speaker the first year, his party nominating
him for the place by acclamation. Mr. Wait declined that position on his reelections, but
acted as chairman of the committee on the judiciary on the part of the House, while serving
on other House committees. He was a candidate for lieutenant-governor on the Republican
ticket in 1874, but with his associates on the ticket was unsuccessful. In 1876, he was elected
to the Forty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. H. H. Stark
weather, and was reelected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and
Forty-ninth Congresses. After serving for eleven years, he declined a further renomination.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 163
While a member of congress Mr. Wait served on the committee on commerce, on elec
tions, on foreign affairs and on several subordinate committees, and was also one of the three
members of the House associated with three members of the Senate, as a joint commission to
consider the existing organizations of the signal service, geological survey, coast and geodetic
survey and the hydrographic office of the Navy Department, with a view to secure greater
efficiency in these departments. It may also be stated here that while a member of the
House of Representatives in 1883, the compliment was bestowed upon him of an appoint
ment as chairman of the select committee of the House to attend the unveiling of the statue
of Prof. Joseph Henry, at Washington, his associates on that committee being among the
most distinguished and prominent members of the congressional body thus represented.
As a member of congress, Mr. Wait cared for the interests of his constituency with
untiring vigilance and zeal. The extensive industries which give employment to thousands
of citizens in the two eastern counties of the state had in him an intelligent and watchful
guardian. As the advocate and friend of home industries, he steadily opposed in Congress
every attempt to impair or weaken the laws under which Connecticut manufacturing and
mechanical interests have sprung up and prospered, and gave his support to e\-ery measure
calculated to advance the commercial and agricultural prospects of the state. During his
eleven years of service at Washington he was invariably attentive to the demands made
upon his time and consideration by his constituents in matters affecting their private interests.
Courteous and frank toward all who approached him, he allied men to him by the strongest
personal ties, and became universally popular as a consistent representative and champion of
his district and state. Before entering upon legislative and congressional duties, in the interim
between sessions, and since retiring from public service, Mr. Wait's law practice has been
extensive and profitable, his commanding influence at the bar insuring him all the business
that could possibly be attended to. P^or forty years he was engaged in nearly all the impor
tant cases, civil and criminal, that have come before the New London county courts. His
practice has included scores of important cases, not only in his own county and the state, but
before the United States courts, all of which he conducted in a masterly manner, and was
generally able to bring to a successful and satisfactory termination for his clients.
Mr. Wait is connected by blood with many of the leading families in Eastern Connecticut.
On his father's side he is associated with the Griswolds and Marvins of Lyme, while on his
mother's side he is a lineal descendant of William Hyde and Thomas Tracy, two of the thirty-
five colonists who settled at Norwich in 1659. His family have given many prominent mem
bers to the legal profession. Marvin Wait, his father, was born in Lyme in 1746. He was
admitted to the bar in 1769, when, forming a partnership with Samuel Holden Parsons, then
King's Attorney for New London county, he removed to New London and entered at once
upon the practice of law. He continued this relation until the War of the Revolution when
Mr. Parsons was appointed a major-general by Congress and entered the army. Marvin Wait
soon became a leader in public affairs and prominent at the bar. He was for several years a
judge at the county court, a presidential elector in 1793 an4 cast his vote for Washington.
He represented the town of New London nineteen times in the General Assembly of the
state, and was one of the commissioners appointed to sell the public lands and establish the
splendid school fund of Connecticut. He died in 18 15. Henry Matson Waite, former chief
judge of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, and Morrison R. Waite, late chief
justice of the United States Supreme Court, sprang from the same stock and were near rela
tives of the subject of this sketch. His mother was a daughter of Philip Turner of Norwich,
a distinguished physician, who served under General Amherst as assistant surgeon through
the French war. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was appointed by congress sur-

1 64 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
geon- general of the eastern department of the army, and filled that position with signal ability
and credit until near the close of the struggle. He died April 20, 1815, in the 75th year
of his age, and was buried with military honors in St. Paul's churchyard in the city of New
York. His career had been brilliant and his success unequalled.
In 1842, Mr. Wait married Mrs. Elizabeth Harris, who died in 1868. He has not
remarried. Three children were born of the union, two of whom still survive. His son,
Lieutenant Marvin Wait, left college and at the age of eighteen enlisted in the Union army,
as a private in the Eighth Connecticut regiment. He served with distinguished courage in
the field, was highly commended by special mention in the reports and orders of his superior
officers, and in the gallant charge of the Connecticut Brigade at Antietam he fell mortally
wounded. Although then but nineteen }'ears of age he had command of his company in that
battle. Severely wounded in his right arm he seized his sword with his left, refusing to retire,
and advancing with his company and encouraging them to press forward he fell riddled with
bullets. The story of his devotion to every detail of duty, his undaunted spirit and his forti
tude in battle will be preserved upon Connecticut's historic page with that of Nathan Hale,
the youthful martyr of the Revolution. Two daughters of Mr. Wait are now living, the
elder the wife of Col. H. W. R. Hoyt of Greenwich, the younger the wife of James H.
Welles, Esq., of Norwich.
Those who have known Mr. Wait most intimately in the social relations of life bear
ready testimony to his exceptional worth as a neighbor and friend. He is a gentleman of the
old school, courteous, hospitable and generous. His literary culture and acquirements have
been fitly acknowledged by the honors that have been bestowed upon him. In 1851, Trinity
College conferred upon him the degree of A. M., and in 1871, Yale College gave him the
same honor. In 1883, he received from Howard University the degree of LL- D., and Trinity
College again recognizing his ability and prominence conferred that degree upon him in 1886.
Mr. Wait is a member of the New London County Historical Society, of the order of the Sons
of the Revolution and of various other social organizations. He has been the president
of the I. K. A., a collegiate society embracing in its membership students and alumni of
Trinity College, ever since its incorporation by act of the Connecticut legislature. He is one
of the corporators of the "WUliam W. Backus Hospital" of Norwich, existing under the
general laws of this state and organized April 8, 1891, to make available the munificent gifts
of W. W. Backus and William A. Slater for the charitable purpose indicated. He has been,
ever since the establishment of ' ' The Eliza Huntington Memorial Home ' ' for the aged and
infirm ladies in Norwich, its president, and as such has managed its affairs with wise prudence
and in such a manner as to carry out to their fullest extent the generous and benevolent
purposes of its founders. This institution was created by the benefactions of the late Jede
diah Huntington and his wife Eliza, who was a sister of Mr. Wait. The founders provided
grounds and buUdings for the home and $35,000 in cash for its proper maintenance. There
are many financial and trust institutions in New London county with which Mr. Wait has
been long prominently and closely identified, officially and otherwise, and with regard to the
management of which his advice is constantly sought and followed. Want of space forbids
their mention in detail, but they stand among the foremost in New London county for their
strength, solidity and importance. John T. Wait is an unusually eloquent and impressive
orator. His speeches at the bar, in the legislature, in congress, on the stump, and from the
platform embrace a wide variety of subjects, to the consideration of all of which he has
brought research and learning, wit, logic, breadth of thought, felicity of diction, and a remark
ably keen knowledge of human nature. As a leader of his party in both branches of the
General Assembly of Connecticut he was called upon to give frequent expression to his views

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 165
on pending questions and he never failed to impress his hearers with his power as a debater
and his grace and skill as an orator. His eulogy on Lincoln, delivered in the state Senate
in 1865, and his addresses on assuming the office of speaker of the House at the beginning
of the session in 1867, and his retirement from the chair at the close of the same session, are
models for all similar occasions. As an indication of their respect and affection for Mr.
Wait, the members of the House presented to him at the time of the final adjournment, a
set of silver which bears the following inscription :
PRESENTED TO
HON. JOHN T. WAIT,
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES,
MAY SESSION,
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN,
BY THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF PARTY,
AS A TESTIMONIAI, OF THEIR APPRECIATION OF HIS
ABII,ITY, URBANITY AND IMPARTIAI,ITY
IN DISCHARGING THE DUTIES
OF THE CHAIR.
Mr. Wait's congressional speeches were especially effective in producing the results he
aimed at in their delivery. They were logical, filled with facts clearly stated, unanswerably
put and were elevated in tone, expression and sentiment. Among the most notable were his
argument of Dec. 12, 1877, in the Colorado contested election case of Patterson and Belford,
his speech July 6, 1878, in the California election case of Wigginton and Pacheco, and his
exposition of the law and facts in the South Carolina case of Smalls and Tillman in 1882. In
these cases he set forth the law governing contested elections with such perspicuity and force,
and with such ample and well selected citations of authorities, that the speeches are themselves
almost a complete compendium of principles and decisions affecting this very important branch
of law. It is said of one of these speeches that Mr. Wait thereby actually convinced the
sitting member, whose claim he was opposing, as to the invalidity of his title to a seat. In
1880, by his effective speech to the House for an appropriation for the New London Navy
Yard he succeeded against strong opposition in carrying a bill giving $20,000 for a building,
and in 1881 he made a brief but spirited and convincing appeal, replete with patriotic senti
ment, by which he obtained an appropriation of $10,000 for repairs to the Groton monument
and the expenses of the Centennial celebration. He made another clear-cut, epigrammatic
and effective speech on the Chinese Indemnity Fund in 1885, in which he laid down and
enforced the principle of fair dealing between nations in their intercourse with each other and
carried the House with him in support of his views. One of the ablest and most elaborate
speeches made upon the tariff question in either branch of congress, in the earnest and intense
debate of 1884, was made by Mr. Wait. It was a statesmanUke discussion of the subject,
evincing a profound, practical, historical and philosophical knowledge of the principles
involved in one of the most important questions that has ever claimed the attention of the
national legislature. The speech received a wide circulation in pamphlet form and in news
papers throughout the country, and extracts were freely used as campaign documents by the
Republican managers in the succeeding presidential contest.
Besides the speeches above mentioned, Mr. Wait while in congress made forcible and
notable addresses as occasion demanded on extending the benefits of the pension laws, on
appropriations for geodetic surveys, on international improvements, on the banking system
and the currency, on educational bills, on the civil service and on many other public questions
of importance. His intense patriotism led him to make public addresses for the preservation
of the Union before the outbreak of hostilities. Immediately after the first gun was fired at

1 66 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Sumter, his voice was heard with stirring and impassioned eloquence at a public meeting of
the citizens of Norwich, convened to aid in the support of the government and to give expres
sion to the loyalty of the people. As a presidential elector, and as a candidate for congress
in six successive campaigns, he was in constant demand as a political orator. It may be
safely said that there is hardly a town in Windham and New London counties in which
he has not been called to discuss publicly the issues involved in pending political struggles
and always with marked effect. His appearance upon the platform is invariably the signal
for warm applause. His speech at the Centennial celebration in Groton in 1881 was noted
for its finished diction and lofty sentiment, and the numerous addresses which are even
yet demanded from him on all public occasions partake of the qualities mentioned in the
speeches to which reference has been made. He has been the orator at many Memorial Day
observances, and his warm and earnest interest in the welfare of veteran soldiers and the deeds
done by them during the Civil War has served to call forth some of his most eloquent efforts,
filled with beauty of thought and pathos of expression. His various addresses in Woodstock
at the repeated observances of the Fourth of July for a number of years are full of patriotic
sentiment and eloquent in thought and language. One of them has been characterized as
" a gem of oratorical expression and patriotic sentiment." His published eulogy of the late
Hon. LaFayette S. Foster, delivered Sept. 12, 1880, before the Superior Court at New London,
on presenting the resolutions adopted by the bar of that county, his speeches at the dedication
of soldiers' monuments, and at the Norwich centennial celebration, his numerous addresses
at public meetings on matters of general interest and importance, bear testimony to the versa
tility of his genius, to his broad and extended knowledge of widely varied subjects, acquired
by his habits of patient research and studious application, and to that richness and beauty
of rhetorical expression which embellish and adorn all his public utterances. As a frequent
contributor to the press for man}' years his articles have always been sparkling, clear and full
of information. He was a writer for Greeley's New Yorker in 1839, and when in 1840
C. W. Everest prepared a beautiful gift volume and engaged John Williams, now bishop of
Connecticut, Mrs. Sigourney, William James Hamersley, Park Benjamin, James Dixon, Willis
Gaylord Clark, Robert Turnbull, Melzar Gardner and other of the brightest writers of the
day to contribute to it, Mr. Wait's contribution was one of the best of the collection. And
now, when a special historical event is to be written up, or an obituary notice of some promi
nent citizen furnished, his ready pen is the first one thought of to be called into service.
Both before and during his career in congress he accomplished much for deserving soldiers
and their families. From the beginning of the war he was closely identified with their inter
ests and welfare. So marked and well known was his earnestness in this direction that in
the history of the part taken by Connecticut in the War of the Rebellion, as written by the
Rev. John M. Morris and W. A. Crofut, a very high compliment was paid to Mr. Wait by
the formal dedication of the work to him. The following is the text of the dedication:
"To John Turner Wait, late Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, a
patriot whose only son fell in defense of his country, and whose many acts of kindness have
endeared him to the soldiers of Connecticut, this volume, the record of their services and
sufferings, is cordially dedicated."
During his terms of service in congress his labors in behalf of soldiers were onerous and
invaluable. His prompt and unfailing attention to the unceasing calls that reached him for
assistance in hastening the settlement of the claims of poverty-stricken veterans and their
families resulted in lifting burdens from the shoulders of hundreds of worthy applicants and
brought comfort and happiness into many humble homes. The soldiers of Eastern Con
necticut have been prompt and glad to give expression to their appreciation of his efforts

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 167
in their behalf . Sedgwick Post, No. i, G. A. R., located in Norwich, the first Grand Army
Post established in this state, has shown an especial affection for Mr. Wait and made him
an honorary member. On every parade or public occasion where the members of the post
are ceremonially mustered, Mr. Wait is invited as their honored guest. The sincerity of their
regard is attested by their presentation to him of a richly engraved badge of solid gold
which bears the following inscription : " Presented by Sedgwick Post, Number One, G. A. R.,
to the Hon. John T. Wait, the Soldiers' Friend. Norwich, Conn., December Twenty-five,
Eighteen Hundred and Eighty -seven.
Nor is it from the soldiers of his town alone that expressions of esteem come to Mr.
Wait. There is hardly a community in the third congressional district that has not some story
to teU of his prompt and effective services in behalf of some worthy, disabled veteran. Marvin
Wait Post, G. A. R., of Dayville, in Windham county, was named in remembrance of his son,
to whose service and death in the army reference has been already made in this sketch, and
as a mark of honor to Mr. Wait, and a recognition of his loyal and untiring devotion to the
wants and interests of Union soldiers. Mr. Wait is still in active practice, at his office every
day, enjoying good health, with faculties practically unimpaired. His fourscore years have
touched him but with a light and gentle hand, and the sincere hope of his unnumbered friends
that he may long survive to enjoy the honors and repose which he has earned has a promise
of a rich fulfillment.

|OYT, HEUSTED W. R., was born in Ridgefield, Conn., on the ist of Novem
ber, 1842. His father. Rev. Warner Hoyt, rector of the Episcopal church at
Ridgefield, died when the subject of this sketch was an infant. He studied in the
common school and the academy of that town, sa}'S the Biography of Connecticttt,
and afterwards entered Columbia College, New York City. About the middle
of his first term at Columbia College he was seized with a severe and protracted illness, and
was unable to continue his studies there. On his recovery he immediately began the study
of law in New York City, and for the period of about two years was secretary of the United
States prize commissioners for the district of New York. He was admitted to the bar in 1865,
and commenced practice soon after in Greenwich, Conn., where he rapidly rose to distinction
as a counsellor at law, being elected to serve the town as its counsel, and the borough as
attorney. His pleasant address and wonderful command of language, superadded to thorough
scholarship and profound knowledge of legal principles, contributed greatly to his success as
an advocate and enabled him in a very short time to gather round him a large clientele.
He has been engaged in several important litigations, among which may be mentioned
that he was retained as sole counsel for the late William M. Tweed, in a suit brought against
him by James H. Ingersoll in the Connecticut Superior court, in which over $160,000 was
claimed by the plaintiff, and defended his client with complete success. While thus winning
for himself an honorable place in the ranks of the legal profession of his state, his abilities
as a public speaker early attracted the attention of the Republican party managers, and in
1869, while still a young man, he was chosen a member of the state Senate. Here he acquitted
himself so well that he was returned in 1873. During both his senatorial terms he was
entrusted with the discharge of important legislative duties, being appointed chairman of the
committees on military affairs and engrossed bills in the former year, and in the latter, chair
man of the committee on incorporations. Occupying this honorable station before the
community, his fellow-citizens of Greenwich were not slow to recognize the abilities of Mr.

1 68 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Hoyt, and especially to hold him in high estimation as a public speaker. Few men in the
state of Connecticut have stood as high in this regard as Mr. Hoyt, and he gained the wide
reputation he enjoyed almost from the outset of his professional career. His platform addresses
on all public occasions were finished and elegant in style. When the town of Greenwich
dedicated its handsome monument to its loyal sons who took part in the Civil War, and
upheld the banner of the republic on the land and on the sea, Colonel Hoyt was chosen
president of the day at the dedicatory services, and delivered an address which, for the earnest
patriotism that pervades it, for the vigor of its thought, and the graceful language in which it
was expressed, deserves a permanent place in the public records. A single extract from this
masterly address is all our space will allow. Having stated at the outset that "no men in
all history made nobler sacrifices, did braver deeds, or accomplished greater purposes than
they, no cause ever existed which was higher or holier," he went on to say:
It has been said that the teachings of the founders of New England may be summed up in this
short formula "Faith in God, faith in man, faith in works." This New England trinity of doctrines was the
source of that inspiration which impelled the action of the patriots of the war of 1861. They had faith in God,
believing that He intended this Republic to be the most enlightened, the most advanced, the freest and greatest
nation of the earth. They had faith in man, that, under God, he possessed the ability and virtue to save
such a nation when its existence was imperilled. They had faith, also, that only by the works of patriot
ism and conscience, could that result be accomplished. This faith they had inherited from their fathers.
It came to them as -a birthright. They had drawn it in with their mothers' milk aud breathed it in from
the free air of the northern hills. They were the sons of the buried generations whose obedience to con
science had led them to fight for civil and religious liberty in England, and whose faith in God had brought
them to the shores of the new world to lay amid dangers and privations the foundations of a nation dedi
cated to humanity and liberty. But for them the days of fighting had gone by. The wilderness had been
subdued, independence had been gained for them by their fathers. They were bred to the arts of peace.
In 1886, Mr. Hoyt was elected as a representative from Greenwich to the Connecticut
legislature, and occupied the leading position both upon the floor and in the committee room,
being House chairman of the committee on the judiciary. He was returned to the House in
1887, and in that year was elected to preside over the deliberations of that body, as its speaker.
By his admirable discharge of the important duties of speaker of the House of Representatives
during its session of 1887, he won marked distinction throughout the state. He was nominated
as the candidate of the Republican party for speaker by more than the Republican majority.
His speech upon taking the chair was printed in full in the journal of the House, and is a
model of brevity and statesmanlike counsel. The people of the state of Connecticut had
recently adopted a constitutional amendment providing, among other things, for biennial
instead of annual sessions of the legislature, and a revision of the statutes, and Speaker Hoyt,
while advising that the members should endeavor to make the session as short as possible,
reminded them that they must give all needful consideration to the measures that would come
before them, and that "the efficiency of a legislative body is not to be determined by the
length or volume of its laws, but rather by its careful scrutiny of proposed measures and its
wise rejection of such changes as are unnecessary." He concluded with the following eloquent
words :
We follow in the line of men who have done much for Connecticut. Wise and vigorous minds have
left their impress upon her legislative history. From the feeble settlements planted in the wilderness amid
doubts and fears, but with faith in the sustaining hand of the Almighty — nurtured amid perils and priva
tions—strengthened and invigorated by the conflicts of their early years,— swept by the dark shadows of
revolution and civil war, has arisen a commonwealth distinguished for its patriotism, its enterprise and vir
tue, rich in material wealth, but richer — infinitely richer — in the love and devotion of its children. Let us
enter upon the performance of our duties with a deep appreciation of the worth and dignity of the state
whose servants we are, so that when our labors are ended, we may ^feel that no step backward has been
taken, but that our every act has conduced to its continued tranquility and prosperity.

ff

i'tiSEdchusettE

Pu|li8liiiig Co,i;verett,]vfasa,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 169
Mr. Hoyt performed his duties as speaker with signal ability, and to the satisfaction of
all parties. In every measure presented or discussed he manifested a lively interest, and,
whether in the chair or on the floor, always commanded respect, and wielded an important
influence in legislative ¦ affairs. The thanks of the House were tendered to him at the
close of the session, on motion of Mr. Davis of Haddam, the gentleman who had been
his unsuccessful competitor for election to the office of speaker. In proposing the vote, Mr.
Davis warmly eulogized his faithfulness, firmness, courtesy and kindness, and his impartial
conduct to business, purged of partisan feeling, which had so won over the minority of the
House that all claimed him as their own — "Speaker of no party, but of the entire House
of Representatives." Other members from both sides of the House joined in this tribute,
and it was passed unanimously by a rising vote, and the cordial feeling of the whole body
towards Mr. Hoyt was emphasized by the presentation to him of a beautiful silver service —
not a very usual ceremony at the close of a legislative session.
His standing before the bar and the public in his native state was due entirely to the
exceUent use he had made of his gifts and opportunities. They secured for him a numerous
and profitable clientage, and his legal practice was therefore very extensive. He was trustee
and attorney for the Greenwich Savings Bank, and a director in the Byram Land Improvement
Company. He was also attorney for the Bell Haven Land Company and other large corpora
tions, and judge of the borough court of Greenwich. One element of his popularity which
cannot be overrated was his uniform courtesy to all who approached him, his unvarying kind
ness and affability towards the humblest as well as the highest. This characteristic trait tied
to him hosts of friends, who were unswerving in their attachment. An able debater, quick
and effective at repartee, and entertaining in conversation, he was socially very popular. In the
midst of a busy professional life, he was often called upon by his fellow-citizens of Greenwich
to fill local positions of public trust, and, as a good citizen, he was ever prompt and ready to
respond to their call.
Colonel Hoyt married Miss Annie E. Wait, daughter of Hon. John T. Wait, whose
biography and portrait appear in the preceding pages. Four interesting children were added
to the family circle. Colonel Hoyt died April 7, 1894, sincerely mourned not only by his
immediate friends, but also by those who had honored him in life throughout the state.

ICHOLS, JAMES, of Hartford, president of the National Fire Insurance Company,
was born in Weston, Fairfield County, Conn., Dec. 25, 1830.
James Nichols, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, gained an honest
living by tilling the soil, and was the head of a patriarchal family of twelve
chUdren. Of these, Isaac Nichols married Betsy Platt, and of their chUdren the
present James Nichols was the second.
Young Nichols alternated between the public schools as scholar or teacher and his
father's farm tUl his twenty-first year. Having decided in early boyhood to become a lawyer,
his evenings and holidays had been devoted to the study of his chosen profession for several
years, and now he began a regular course under the tuition of Amos S. Treat. Mr. Nichols
was admitted to the ^bar at Danbury in the spring of 1854, and the following April he located
at Thompsonville, and commenced the practice of his profession. A few months later he
was appointed assistant clerk of the Hartford County Superior Court, and transferred his
residence to Hartford, where he has since remained. In 1861, he was elected judge of probate

I70 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
in the Hartford district, which embraced the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, Rocky HiU,
West Hartford, Windsor Locks, East Hartford, and Glastonbury. The position was one of
great importance, requiring exceptional ability for the discharge of its duties, and Judge
Nichols won the admiration of all parties on account of the successful way in which the
judicial work of the office was performed. He was the first Republican judge for twenty
years, and after serving three years there was a political change and there has not been
another judge from that party until the present one.
Though Mr. Nichols remained in the successful practice of his profession till 1867, for
several years previous!}' he had been much attracted by the possibilities there were in the
field of fire insurance. This feeling grew into a desire to have a share in the development
of this ever widening interest. Accepting a position as special agent and adjuster of the
Merchants' Insurance Company of Hartford, he entered heartily into his new work, and such
was his zeal that he was rapidly promoted by the board of directors. From the outset he
manifested especial adaptability for the insurance business, and his legal training often proved
an excellent help. On the death of Mr. E. Thomas Lobdell in 1869, Mr. Nichols
was made secretary of the company, which under the able leadership of Mr. Mark Howard
was a synonym for strength and good management. Strong as it was, the Merchants' Insur
ance Company was unable to recover from the unprecedented disaster at Chicago, and
consequently surrendered its charter.
Taking the charter of a company which had been incorporated in 1869, Messrs. Howard
and Nichols organized the National Fire Insurance Company in 1871, the former becoming
president, while the latter was made secretary. Such was the confidence of the old stockolders,
as well as the business men of the community at large in the integrity, and ability of the two
men, that $750,000 was subscribed in four days after the books were opened. With a capital
of $500,000 the new company commenced active business in December, 1871. Mr. How
ard's experience was in\-aluable and his name a tower of strength, but not long after his
health began to fail and he took a six months' trip to Europe. It was during this time
that the extensive fire in Boston occurred, causing a loss of about $170,000. A plain state
ment of the affairs of the company was made to the stockholders, and their confidence in the
president and secretar}' was such that they paid in without hesitation $150,000 in cash, which
at once placed the company on its feet, and dividends have been paid regularly ever since.
]\Ir. Howard's health continued to grow worse, and though his counsel was invaluable,
backed up as it was by such a long business experience, the laboring oar fell to the secre
tary. On the death of Mr. Howard in 1887, Mr. Nichols succeeded to the presidency, a
promotion to which he was most fully entitled.
In September, 1893, the National Company occupied for the first time its elegant
building on Pearl street. The Hartford Courant gave a full description of its appointments,
and in the course of the article, after speaking in a complimentary manner of Mr. How
ard's connection with the company, it said :
Judge James Nichols, who had been secretary of the National since its organization, was selected president
when Mr. Howard died, and under his progressive policy the company has developed rapidly in strength and
extent of business. The following comparisons will show some of the details of growth, and tell their own
story of progressive management :

Assets
Business Eastern
WesternPacific

Jan. I, 1887.
f 1, 969, 907
1887.
I239.396 287,867 41.993

Jan. I, 1893.
I3. 153.454 1892.
1741,964
1,053,003 217.549

Increase.
11,183,547 1502,568 765,136175,556

$569,256 i!2,oi2,5i6 i!i,443,26o

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 171
During this period the National has re-insured the risks and taken the business of the Washington
Fire & Marine of Boston, the Atlantic of Providence, the People's of New York, the Kenton of Kentucky,
the Fireman's of Dayton, O., and the German Fire of Philadelphia.
The business of each department shows a great growth in the six years of President Nichols's man
agement, increasing almost threefold in that period, and the National has not failed to pay every loss in
full, and also to pay its stockholders regular dividends of lo per cent, a year.
President Nichols has become one of the veterans of fire insurance. He came to Hartford, a young
lawyer, in 1854, and at first was assistant clerk of the county court, subsequently becoming' a partner of the
late Hon. Julius L. Strong. In 1862, and in 1864 and 1865, he was elected judge of probate for this district,
and in 1870 he became secretary of the old Merchants' Fire Insurance Company. He has been connected
with the National ever since its organization — twenty-two years ago. Bringing to it training and practice in
the law, a large experience of men and affairs, deliberate judgment and shrewd foresight, he has proved just
the man to conduct the affairs of the company in these later and important years of its development, "and
its growth and stability are ample evidence of his executive abilit}'.
Judge Nichols was very prominently brought before the fire underwriters of this country
in connection with the famous Bennett Brothers' case in Syracuse, he being chairman of
a committee consisting of himself, Richard D. AUiger, Esq., and Mr. Daniel C. Osman, who
had the case in charge. In this case over $120,000 insurance was involved, twenty- three
companies were interested, and over $350,000 loss was claimed by^ the assured. The property
was located in the centre of a brick block, the upper stories of which were occupied for
dwellings, and the fire consumed several stores and was attended with great danger to life
as well as great destruction of property. The assured assigned his property to his creditors,
among whom were sixty-three of the leading mercantUe firms of New York, whose debts
could only be coUected from the insurance. These sixty-three creditors assumed an active
part in the prosecution of the claim, using freely their influence as merchants and insurers
to compel payment, signing individually a memorial to the companies interested urging the
settlement of the claim, independent of the committee, and in many instances withdraw
ing their patronage from the companies interested. The assured also distributed circulars
throughout the whole country abusing the committee and demanding that the policies of the
the companies contesting the claim be refused by the insuring public.
Notwithstanding the great pressure brought upon the companies to settle the loss not
one company yielded, but all firmly sustained the committee, and after a long and severely
contested trial of thirty days' actual session in court, the case was won by the companies,
a large amount of money saved, a villainous fraud exposed, and the perpetrators punished,
one turning state's evidence, and living in poverty and shattered health the balance of his
life ; another committing suicide by taking poison to escape a long incarceration in the prison
to which he had been justly sentenced, and a third dying in an insane asylum, his mind
broken and his reason shattered as a result of this terrible crime.
Judge Nichols and his able associates on the committee were greatly interested in the
exposing of the outrageous fraud, and their persistent and well-directed efforts in behalf
of the companies were rewarded by complete and deserved success. This case won for
him a national reputation and stamped him and his coadjutors among the ablest men in
the profession. All of President Nichols's energies are not confined to the successful insurance company of
which he is the head. He is vice-president of the Charter Oak National Bank, and is a director
in the Phoenix Life Insurance Company, and a trustee of the Society for Savings, which is
the largest corporation of the kind in the state. In political matters he has always acted
with the Republican party, having joined that party at a very early age. His religious
connections are with the Park Church of Hartford, of which he has been a member
for many years. He has been a member of the Court of Common Council, and is a
member of St. John's Lodge of Masons. The life of President Nichols has been one of

172 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
thorough success, and his career has been highly honorable throughout. For two score
years he has lived in the city of Hartford, and he is held in high esteem by its citizens. His
future career, judging by the past, is full of promise of greater usefulness.
James Nichols was married July 9, 1861, to Isabelle M., daughter of Nathan Stark
weather of Hartford. Three children have been born to them, of whom Helen, now Mrs.
H. A. Smith of Rochester, N. Y., is the only survivor.

?0IT, ROBERT, president of the New London Northern Railroad, was born in New
London, April 26, 1830. At the time of his birth the country seemed to be in
the throes of preparation for a race of men who should make their mark in the
councils of the nation, on the field of battle, as well as in various prominent
places in civil life. A very brief list of the men who came upon the scene of
action in the years 1830-31, would include President Chester A. Arthur, James G. Blaine,
B. F. Tracy, and Jere M. L- Rusk in the first named year, and President James A. Garfield,
Redfield Proctor, John W. Noble, Thomas L- James, J. C. New, Daniel Manning, members
•of the cabinet, while a long list of Union generals would be headed by the honored name
of Philip Sheridan, and the array of men prominent in business, literature and fine arts
could be enumerated by scores.
The Coit name is of Welsh origin. In common with all persons of the same name in
Connecticut, Mr. Coit traces his descent from John Coit, one of the earliest pioneers of the
state, who came from Gloucester, Mass., in 1650, and first settled in New London. From
him by successive generations the line comes down to Joshua Coit. He was a graduate of
Harvard College in the class of 1776, and, choosing the profession of law, he settled in New
London. During the }-ears from 1784 to 1793, he served almost continuously as a member
of the General Assembly, part of the time filling the speaker's chair. In the last named
year he was elected to Congress, and was reelected regularly until his death in 1798. Robert
Coit, son of Joshua, was born in 1785, and married Charlotte Coit, Oct. 15, 1821. He was
a leading merchant of New London, and was president of the New London Savings Bank, and
of the Union Bank, the latter being the oldest institution of the kind iii the state, having
just celebrated its centennial of existence. Of the seven children of Robert and Charlotte
Coit, Robert was the fourth. On his father's side of the family line, he is a direct descend
ant of Elder Brewster of the Mayfiower, through his daughter Grace.
He was prepared for college at excellent private schools in New London and Farmington,
and, entering Yale, was graduated in the class of 1850. This was the first class to be carried
entirely through the college curriculum by President Woolsey. In the same class were Rev.
Leonard Woolsey Bacon, Hon. EUis H. Roberts, Martin Camp of California, and others of
lesser note.
The intricacies of legal technicalities being attractive to his tastes, he began the study
of law with Hon. William C. Crump, and at the Yale Law School. He was admitted to
the bar of New London County in 1853, and at once commenced the practice of his pro
fession in the city of New London. Mr. Coit was elected judge of probate in i860, and filled
that position for four years. When the Bankruptcy Act was passed he was made register
for his district, and held that office as long as the law was in force.
In 1867, Mr. Coit made a change in his business relations. He was offered and accepted
the treasurership of the New London Northern Railroad, and since that time his life has been

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 173
almost wholly identified with that corporation. A few years later he was elected vice-
president, and soon afterwards promoted to the presidency, and is now filling that responsible
position. During the quarter of a century since he became connected with the company, the
road has been extended by construction from Amherst to MUler's Falls, and by purchase to
Brattleboro. The volume of business has nearly doubled, and the value of the stock has
increased in Uke proportions. If success be taken as a test of executive abUity coupled with
careful management, Mr. Coit may be held up as an example of an excellent railroad official.
Men of Mr. Coit's stamp are never permitted by their fellows to hide their lights under
a bushel. In 1879, he was elected mayor of New London by a handsome vote, and received
the compliment of two reelections. It was during his incumbency of the mayor's chair that
the centennial celebration of the burning of the town took place, and he added to his previous
reputation by the manner in which he handled all the detaUs. The same year he was elected
to the mayorality he was sent to the General Assembly from New London, and served on
the judiciary committee and on the committee on constitutional amendments. Mr. Coit was
elected to the state Senate for two years in 1880, and at the expiration of his term was
elected for two years more. In the upper branch of the legislature he served as chairman
of the committees on corporations, on cities and boroughs, on insurance, and was a member
of other committees. For the last two years he filled the office of president pro tempore.
Speaking of his legislative work, the Hartford Post said in January, 1883 :
Hon. Robert Coit, senator for the Ninth District, is one of the best known and most influential members
of the legislature. The present session will constitute the closing half of his second term as a member of the
senate, he having been elected in the fall of 1879, and again in 1881, by handsome majorities on both occasions.
¦» * * * In the eastern section of the state Senator Coit possesses great personal popularity, his abilit}-, con
scientiousness, and acumen being recognized by those who are of the opposite political party.
Mr. Coit's services have been called for by other institutions, and his official positions
are only limited by the amount of time. He is now president of the Union Bank, and
treasurer of the New London Steamboat Company, and is one of the vice-presidents of the
Savings Bank of New London. Here is what the Hartford Courant thinks of Hon. Augustus
Brandegee, an old time friend of Mr. Coit's, and following that is Mr. Brandegee's
opinion of the gentleman himself, as expressed in the latter part of 1891 :
The Hon. Augustus Brandegee, one of the brightest and most entertaining and liveliest citizens of Connecti
cut, has developed suddenly an amusing notion that he is an old man, and as such he contributes his remi
niscences to the New London Telegraph. Of course they are most enjoyable. * * * * He closes his interesting
article with a sketch of the Hon. Robert Coit, which that gentleman's many friends ¦will read with most
appreciative commendation :
Last of all, but not least, I must a say a word of Robert Coit, who though still living has left the bar for
the more congenial pursuits of business life. He was just entering upon a successful career at the bar, when
some evil genius persuaded him to take the position of treasurer of the New London Northern Railroad,
from which he. ultimately was promoted to be its president. He had every quality to have made a great
lawyer, and ultimately a great judge. He was cultured in ancient and modern literature. He was familiar with
the useful as well as graceful sciences and arts. He had a diction and power of speech when once aroused
that carried not only persuasion but conviction with it. He knew how to express his thought with the pen
as well as the tongue in pure English undefiled. He had studied law as a science from its deep English
foundations and his mind was broad enough and strong enough to apply it with its limitations and adap
tations to the whole business of life. And then he had a character as pure as the sunlight, which had come
to him through a long line of noble ancestors, with whom honesty, fidelity, integrity and honor were heredi
tary transmissions, and to whom a stain was a wound. So equipped I hoped to see him pass from the front
rank of the bar to the front rank of the bench as one of the great names in our judicial history. But
just as his sun began to mount to its meridian he left the bar for the more congenial activities of a busi
ness life as president of the New London Northern Railroad. To him more than any and all others, it is
true that the stock of that local corporation, in which so many people in this vicinity are interested,
stands higher in the market, with but two or three exceptions, than any other railroad in the United States.
The first day of August, 1854, Mr. Coit was united in marriage to Lucretia, daughter
of William F. Brainard, a prominent lawyer of New London, and a brother of J. G. C.
Brainard, who gained fame as a poet. Two children have been born to them. One, William
B. Coit, is now living. He is following in his father's steps in the legal profession, and
is assistant city attorney of New London.
23

174 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

IALL, JOHN HENRY, of Hartford, vice-president and treasurer of Colt's Patent
Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, was born in Portland, Conn., March 24,
1849. He is a descendant of the ninth generation of John Hall, born in Cam
bridge, England, in 1584, who came to this country and settled in Roxbury, Mass.,
in 1633. In September of the same year, he, with John Oldham and two others,
explored the region bordering the Connecticut River, and their report, dated Jan. 20, 1634, led
to migrations from Dorchester to Wethersfield, and from Cambridge to Hartford. In the year
1635, it is recorded he was made "freeman" in Boston. In 1636, he joined the Hooker
and Stone colony, and went to Hartford, removing his family thither in 1639. He owned
and occupied as his place of residence a tract of six acres bordering on the Little River,
now circled on its southern and eastern aspects by the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad Company, and overlooking Bushnell Park. In 1650, he moved to Middletown, then
called Mettabesick, being one of the original purchasers of land from the Indians. Samuel
Hall, of the third generation in this country, in 1719 moved to East Middletown, afterwards
known as Chatham, and now as Portland, and down to the present generation the famUy has
continued to reside there.
Alfred HaU, of the eighth generation, father of the subject of this sketch, entered Wash
ington College, now Trinity, the first day the bell rang for prayers, and his eldest son,
Samuel, was the first son of a graduate to enter the same college. After his graduation
Mr. Alfred Hall selected the law as his profession and completed the course of study at the
Harvard Law School ; at the request of his father, however, he then returned to Portland
and engaged with him in the direction of the affairs of the brown-stone quarry, known as
the Shaler & Hall Quarry Company, organized during the Revolutionary War by Nathaniel
Shaler and Samuel Hall, father of Alfred, and grandfather of John H. Hall. The following
copy of an advertisement taken from the Middletown Gazette or Foederal Adviser, published
in Middletown, Oct. 13, 1781, save in its quaint spelling, would satisfy to-day in its ener
getic promise :
The Free Stone Quarry at Chatham, (known by the name of Johnson's Quarry), is now worked under
the Direction of Shaler and Hall, who will supply the Stone at the Shortest Notice, and at the lowest prices
either in the Ruff or finished, and in such Dimensions as may be required. They will contract to furnish
any quantity, for public or private Buildings, Flags, Grave Stones or Monuments, aud deliver them at any
Port in North America. Orders directed (post-paid) to Shaler and Hall at the Quarry, Chatham, will have due
attention. Oct. 13th, 1781.
Mr. Alfred Hall succeeded his father in the presidency of the Quarry Company, and for
many years took an active interest in its affairs. The position for some time past and in
the present is held by Mr. John H. Hall, who, by his energies and progressive manage
ment has revolutionized its working, introducing machinery up to date, keeping it abreast
with the times, and causing it to enter upon a new era of prosperity.
Mr. Hall attended the public school in Portland, went thence to Chase's school in
Middletown, and completed his course of study at the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at
Cheshire. He preferred business to a professional career and entered into the employ of
Sturgis, Bennet & Co., 125 and 127 Front Street, New York, at that time the largest
importers of tea and coffee in the United States, where he remained five years, enjoy
ing rapid promotion, attaining at the age of nineteen to charge of foreign and insurance
departments. In December, 1877, he returned to Portland with his family, having purchased
a large interest in the "Pickering Governor," —at that time in a very depressed condition-
under the firm name of T. R. Pickering & Co. Owing to his tireless energy and wise

f9f, I

MassachusettsTlLblisliing Co Everett, Mass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 175
business management the enterprise became a rapid success. In five years from the time
of his association with the firm, the manufacture and sale increased from less than five
hundred a year to five thousand. "No pent-up Utica contracts his powers." Successful
in his competition on this side of the water, he engaged in competition with English
manufacturers, and the sale of the " Pickering Governor " to Great Britain and her colonies
now represents per annum three times the original output. When business communication
is effected with the planet Mars, the " Pickering Governor " wiU probably regulate the first
flying machine and be the first in the field.
During his ten years' residence in Portland from 1878 to 1888, he was prominent in the
interests of the town. He was elected president of the Shaler & Hall Quarry Company in
1884, and refused nominations to both branches of the state legislature, tendered him by the
dominant party. In 1888, his business, which had been carried on under a partnership, was
organized as a corporation, Mr. Hall retaining his proprietary interest and holding the position
of treasurer. About this time the continuous ill health of Mr. R. W. H. Jarvis, president
of the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, and his consequent retirement from
active management in the concern, together with the general depression of its business, and
the resignation of Gen. William B. Franklin, determined its board of directors to offer to Mr.
Hall the position of general manager of the corporation. An arrangement was made satis
factory to both parties, and he entered upon the duties of his office with the business acumen
and untiring zeal and energy so characteristic of him. Although Mr. Jarvis retained the
presidency, it was understood, owing to his condition of health, that he was to be relieved
of all the responsibility and care attaching to the office. Mr. Caldwell H. Colt, the vice-
president, was absent from Hartford the greater portion of the time, so that almost from the
beginning of his connection with the corporation the entire direction of affairs, both within
the manufactory and in its relations with the business world at large, devolved upon Mr. Hall.
The directors, soon assured of his ample capability and worth, supported him loyally in the
changes he advocated, and under his vigorous direction the company has been strengthened
at home and abroad.
During his residence of six years in Hartford, his geniality and his business ability have
received a flattering recognition on the part of its citizens. He has declined nomination to
municipal office, but, since 1890, has served on the city board of water commissioners, having
been re-appointed in 1893, upon the expiration of his first term of service. He is director in
several of Hartford's most prominent corporations, namely : The Phoenix Insurance Company,
the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Hartford National Bank, the Dime Savings
Bank, and was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade, and a member of its first board of
directors. He is also a director in the Specialty Manufacturing Company and the Neptune
Meter Company of New York. He is a great social favorite, and enjoys membership in the
Hartford Club, the Manhattan Club, the New York Athletic Club, and the Engineers' Club
of New York City, the New York Yacht Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, and the New Haven
Yacht Club. He belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, and is a Mason of the
thirty-second degree, a member of St. John's Lodge, No. 4, and Washington Commandery,
No. I, of Hartford, and is now serving as one of the building committee upon the proposed
new Masonic Temple in Hartford.
On Feb. 9, 1870, Mr. Hall married Miss Sarah G. Loines of New York. She is descended
on her father's side from Quaker stock, and from the Hopkinses of Rhode Island. Her ances
tor, Stephen Hopkins, was a very prominent citizen of that honored commonwealth during the
Revolutionary period. He was chief justice of both the Court of Common Pleas and the
Superior Court, governor of Rhode Island, and speaker of its House of Representatives. He

176

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

was twice elected to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and was one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence. Their union has been blessed with the birth of four chUdren,
two of whom survive, Mr. Clarence Loines HaU, aged twenty-two, now in the employ of Colt's
Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, and Miss Grace Loines Hall, still a blooming
school girl in her "teens."
Mr. Hall has always been a member of the Episcopal church, and is now senior warden
of the parish of the Good Shepherd in the city that is favored by his residence. He is loyally
faithful to the interests he represents, whether of a public or private character, and has stead
fastly declined calls to a wider field for the display of his energies, with promise of a more
lucrative employment.

USSELL, GURDON WADSWORTH, A. M., M. D., of Hartford, was born in
that city, April 10, 1815. His parents were John and Martha (Wadsworth)
Russell. John Russell was a native of Litchfield, and subsequently became a
printer and publisher in Hartford.
After the usual preparatory course, young Russell entered Trinity College,
and graduated in the class of 1834. Choosing the medical profession as the one in which to
gain an honorable name for himself, he commenced to prepare for the duties of its exercise
the same year of his graduation from college, in the office of Dr. A. Brigham of Hartford.
This gentleman at a later period took charge of the Hartford Retreat, and after that became
identified with the management of the insane asylum at Utica, N. Y. Matriculating at the
medical department of Yale College in 1835, he pursued a thorough course of study, and in
1837 received the diploma of M. D. from that institution. Locating himself at Wethersfield,
Conn., he prosecuted a successful medical practice in that vicinity for one year, and then
transferred his residence to Hartford, which, since 1838, has been his home.
Drawing his inspiration from his old tutor. Dr. Brigham, Dr. Russell is greatly interested
in the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford. Desirous of promoting the welfare and progress
of the institution, in 1875 he erected a completely furnished and handsome chapel, and presented
it to the coi-poration for the benefit of the patients under its care. Many observant and
judicious physicians who have studied how to "minister medicine to minds diseased," regard
this act of munificence as one of the wisest and most scientific of the long list with which Dr.
Russell must be credited. Different forms of mental aberration are doubtless induced by
brooding on religious subjects, especially when aided by other causes ; but it is none the less
true that the calm, thoughtful inculcation of Christian truth, and the benign infiuence of
genuine Christian worship have prevented multitudes of oppressed and wounded souls from
becoming hopelessly insane. Observing the whole field of human experiences, science adapts
its measures, as Dr. Russell has done, to the most judicious style of human healing and
happiness. Dr. Russell was the first and has been the only medical examiner of the .^tna Life
Insurance Company. In this capacity he has contributed his full share to the grand success
attained in the forty-three years of its existence. To the building up of a great life company,
ability in managing the finances is necessary ; energy and push are required to secure business
in the face of competition, but all these would be of no avail without the closest scrutiny of
the risks incurred. That Dr. Russell's services have found ready appreciation, let the follow
ing sentiments from a speech of Governor Bulkeley's before an assemblage of the agents of
the company in June, 1892, bear witness :

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. ^77
With a single exception, I appear here to-night, not only as the president of the iEtna Life Insurance
Company, but as the second oldest living employee of that institution. There is but one person living to-day who
was connected with the company from its organization, and is connected with it at the present time. The most of
you general agents have had many occasions to appreciate, and sometimes complain of, the manner in which he
has performed his duties. When I tell you that our medical examiner. Dr. Gurdon W. Russell, was elected
medical examiner of the company at its very organization, and occupies that position to-day, you will recognize
a name with which you are all familiar, and one to whom the company, its agents, and its policy holders, are
greatly indebted for years of generous service. (Applause.)
Recognized by his fellow practitioners as one of the leaders of his profession in the state
for many years, they have naturally asked him to accept honors at their hands. Dr. Russell
has served as president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and in other official capacities
in connection with county and city societies. The reputation of his professional abilities has
extended far beyond the limits of his native state. For one year Dr. Russell was vice-president
of the American Medical Association. Of late years, for reasons satisfactory to himself. Dr.
Russell has partially withdrawn from the exclusive pursuit of his profession, and has devoted
much time and energy to various philanthropic enterprises. Successful labors in his chosen
field of action brought ample resources in their train, and he has wisely and unostentatiously
contributed to various worthy charities connected and unconnected with the medical pro
fession. Gurdon W. Russell was married in 1838, to Elizabeth S. Tuttle. She departed this life
in 1871.

?HAFFEE, JOSEPH DWIGHT, of WUlimantic, president of the Natchaug Silk
Company, and ex-member of the state Senate, was born in Mansfield, Conn.,
Aug. 9, 1847.
Frederick Chaffee, grandfather of Colonel Chaffee, was a farmer in prosper
ous circumstances. He married Eliza Knowlton of Ashford, Conn., and their
only son, Orwell S. Chaffee, was born in that town in 1823. O. S. Chaffee inherited no taste
for agriculture, though brought up on a farm, and, after receiving a limited education, he
went to Northampton and served a regular apprenticeship at the trade of silk manufacturing
in that place. Transferring his residence to Mansfield, he married Lucinda A., daughter of
Joseph Conant, one of the most successful silk manufacturers of the town. Engaging in busi
ness with his father-in-law, he became prominent in the realms of business life, and was ever
recognized as a public- spirited citizen. He contributed no little to the development of the
silk industry of Connecticut, and at one time represented his town in the state legislature.
He was the father of three children, of whom J. D. Chaffee was the oldest.
Joseph Dwight Chaffee had the best advantages afforded by his native place in the way
of education. Of an intensely practical turn of mind, professional life had no attractions
for him, his choice being always for more stirring scenes of the business world. At the age
of sixteen he began preparations for his future career by taking a thorough training in all the
processes of silk manufacturing in his father's mill. Under his father's careful instruction
he mastered every detail of manufacture, became an expert in the machinery employed, and
at the same time he acquired great familiarity with the best wa}'S of marketing the products
of the mill. In 1872, he was admitted to partnership in his father's business, and the firm
name was changed to O. S. Chaffee & Son. At this time the plant was removed to Williman
tic, and additional facilities secured to meet the demands of the growing business. Prosperity
attended their efforts, and new and larger mills were required, together with more machinery.
Every modern device which would tend to improve the quality of the goods was added at

178 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
once, and the firm has gained a reputation among the first silk manufacturers of the country.
With increasing years, Mr. O. S. Chaffee gradually withdrew from active participation in
the business, and its management naturally devolved upon the junior partner. At the death
of his father, in 1887, Mr. J. D. Chaffee became sole proprietor of the business, and has since
carried it on in the most successful manner. Connecticut now ranks third in the silk industry
of the United States, and it is due to the founders and present owner of the Willimantic mill
to record the fact that their skill, intelligence and enterprise have been factors of no small
moment in bringing about this desirable result.
In political life, Mr. Chaffee is a thoroughgoing Republican, and from the day he cast
his first vote he has taken an active interest in the public affairs of his town and state. He
was elected, in 1874, a representative to the legislature from Mansfield, and, though one of the
youngest members of that body, he made a good record for himself. Business duties pressing
upon him, he declined a second term. In 1885, he accepted the Republican nomination for
the Senate from the Twenty-fourth district, and against a strong opponent was elected by a
handsome majority. While in the Senate, he served as chairman of the committees on fish
eries and on labor, the latter being an entirely new one on the list. Some perplexing questions
came before each committee, but Mr. Chaffee had the satisfaction of seeing all of his reports
adopted. Shortly after leaving the Senate in 1887, he was surprised at being appointed aide-de-
camp on the staff of Governor Lounsbury, with the rank and commission of colonel in the
National Guard of the state. Though devoid of all military training, Mr. Chaffee is exceed
ingly popular in military circles. While at the State House he was the friend and advocate
of every measure brought forward to benefit or increase the efficiency of the state militia in
any direction. This fact will doubtless account both for the appointment and the popularity.
He is recognized among the manufacturers of the state as a man of energy and possessed of
the most advanced and progressive views. Since 1887, he has been president of the Natchaug
Silk Company. He is a director in the W. G. & A. R. Morrison Machine Company, one
of the leading corporations of the state, and also has served on the board of several other
companies. Says a sketch of him: "Mr. Chaffee's honorable career as a business man, his faithful
service as a public official, and his unsullied private character, have placed him high in the
esteem of his fellow-citizens generally, and those employed in his mills speak of him as a
considerate friend of labor, who recognizes that the advancement of the moral and material
welfare of all wage earners is a duty not only demanded by justice, but earnestly called for
by the wisest business policy."
J. D. Chaffee was married Sept. 12, 1867, to Martha, daughter of George B. Armstrong
of ]\Iansfield. They have three children, Arthur Dwight, Charles Howard and Gertrude
Armstrong.

OF CONNECTICUT, t 861-1894. 179
Zanders, GEORGE MARCELLUS, of New Britain, ex- member of Congress,
and vice-president of the Landers, Frary & Clark Manufacturing Company, was
born at Lenox, Mass., Feb. 22^ 1813. He was the son of MarceUus and Marietta
Hoyt Landers. His grandfather, Capt. Asahel Landers, served two years in
the Revolutionary Army, and was with Gen. Anthony Wayne at the exciting
capture of Stony Point. His father served in the War of 181 2.
When he was seven years old his father moved from Lenox to Hartford and was a teacher
in what was then the Center or Stone School. His father died in 1824, and young Landers,
eleven years old, returned to Lenox to live with his grandfather. His education was limited
to that which could be obtained in the public schools. At the age of sixteen he was appren
ticed to Aaron Hart of New Britain, for the purpose of learning the carpenter's and joiner's
trade. After working as a journeyman for some years he engaged in business on his own
account, erecting his own house and other buildings in the town. Perceiving that manu
facturing promised surer and at the same time more prompt returns than could be secured
in the trade he had learned, he decided to enter the new field. First with Josiah Dewey
about 1840, and later by himself in his own name, he had a shop near his house. The
specialties made were furniture casters and window springs. In 1841-42, Mr. Landers built
a shop on East Main street, and commenced the manufacture of coat and hat hooks, and
other small articles of manufacture. Energy and a careful attention to detaUs soon made
themselves felt, and he built up a fiourishing business. In 1853, a company was organ
ized under the joint stock corporation act, known as the Landers & Smith Manufacturing
Company. Additions were made to the shop and the operations considerably enlarged. The
business of Frary, Carey & Company of Meriden was purchased in 1862, and the capital
increased to $50,000. At this time Mr. Smith retired and James D. Frary of the Meriden
company came in, the company being reorganized by special act of the legislature, as Landers,
Frary & Clark, a name it still retains. The number of articles made was increased, and the
amount of business became larger than ever before. Table cutlery was added to the variety
of goods already made four years later, and the ^tiia works were built and new machinery
introduced. The works were destroyed by fire in 1874, but they were immediately rebuilt
on a larger scale and supplied with improved machinery. The small beginnings of over
fifty years ago Mr. Landers has seen grow into an immense corporation, doing an extensive
and successful business in all parts of the country.
When Berlin first petitioned that New Britain be set off as a new town, the division was
opposed, because only one representative was allowed, and Mr. Landers, with other gentlemen,
appeared before a committee of the legislature to give reasons for the opposition. New Britain
had become more populous than the other two parishes taken together, and cast a majority
of the votes. As a result of the protest, the town was allowed two representatives. At the
election which followed, Ethan A. Andrews was chosen one representative, and Mr. Landers
the other. The History of New Britain says: "These men by their wisdom, firmness and
harmony secured important advantages to the town." He was again returned to the lower
branch of the General Assembly in 1867 and 1874.
In 1853, and again in 1869 and 1873, he was sent to the state Senate from the first
senatorial district. At this time Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Rocky HiU, Berlin,
New Britain and Southington were all included in this district. He was the Senate chair
man of the committee of the legislature that secured the change in plans for the new state
Capitol, although contracts had been entered into for the construction of an inferior build
ing. He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1875, and was reelected in 1877, and
rendered valuable services to his state and district during his term of office.

i8o REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Mr. Landers has been identified with most of the important measures of progress in the
town and city since their incorporation. In June, 1857, the town voted to accept "An act
to supply the borough of New Britain with water for public and private purposes," and
that Messrs. F. T. Stanley, and H. E. Russell and Mr. Landers be appointed a board of
commissioners to carry out the provisions of the act. They proceeded at once with the work,
which was promptly executed according to a general plan, but owing to the careful manage
ment of the commissioners, it was completed at considerably less cost than was first
estimated. Such records are of rare occurrence.
Mr. Landers was one of the first board of sewer commissioners that had general charge
of issuing sewer bonds and constructing and supervising the sewers of the city. The work,
though expensive, was economically and successfully prosecuted, and by constant vigilance
the commissioners secured to the city, without any charge for their services, a system of
sewerage at once efficient and satisfactory. In the Library Association of New Britain Mr.
Landers took a deep interest, and served at one time as president, but this organization finally
passed out of existence. When the New Britain Institute and Library Association was formed
in 1853, he was chosen vice-president, and he was one of the incorporators of the New Britain
Institute in 1858. He was a member of the school committee for several years, and was
chairman of the committee having charge of the erection of the Normal School buUding. He
was one of the first park commissioners appointed in 1869, and in this capacity rendered
valuable service to the city.
For many years Mr. Landers was a director of the New Britain National Bank, resigning
in 1878 to accept his appointment as bank commissioner. He was again appointed to this
office in 1887 by Governor Lounsbury. He was one of the incorporators of the New Britain
Gas Light Company, a member of the first board of directors, and from 1865 to 1893 ^^ served
as president of the corapany. A share of Mr. Landers 's time has been devoted to railroad
matters. He was one of the incorporators of the New Britain RaUroad, and for a long series
of years was a director in the New York & New England Railroad.
In every movement which has taken place for the last half-century to advance the material
prosperity of New Britain, Mr. Landers's influence has been felt. His fourscore years sit
lightly on his .shoulders, and his bearing is that of a sprightly gentleman of seventy. Honored
most by those who know him best, it is to be hoped that he may be spared yet many years.

|EALY, WILLIAM ARNOLD, of Hartford, was born in Scituate, R. I., Sept.
7, 1815. His father, Thomas Healy, was of English origin, his ancestors
having come to Rhode Island in 1730. Through his mother. Patience Arnold,
Mr. Healy was able to trace his ancestry in an unbroken line back to Ynir, a
Welsh king, who flourished about the middle of the twelfth century. The
Arnolds were a well-known and prominent family, and intimately connected with the early
history of Rhode Island. Mr. Healy was also a direct descendant from Roger WUliams,
the founder of the State of Rhode Island.
After receiving a common school education, he went to Packerville at the age of seven
teen, entering the store of Mr. Daniel Packer. Mr. Packer was a man of large property and
varied business interests, owning most of the town of Packerville, which was named after him.
Upon the death of :\Ir. Packer, Mr. Healy was appointed agent and manager of his extensive
business interests in Packerville, and in this position displayed marked ability and faithfulness.

0^c:^y

Massachusetts Puilisliin.^ Co.Eveiett.Xass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

I5I

In July, 1853, Mr. Healy went to West Virginia as the representative of a syndicate
composed mostly of Hartford gentiemen : Mr. E. A. Bulkeley, father of Ex-Governor Bulkeley,
Hezekiah Huntington, John Warburton, Daniel Phillips and others. This syndicate had
purchased a large tract of land in Mason county, and sent Mr. Healy there to develop the coal
and salt resources which were supposed to exist there. Mr. Healy started the work under
the charter of the Mason County Mining and Manufacturing Company, and Hartford City, a
town of several thousand inhabitants situated upon the banks of the Ohio, was founded by
him in the prosecution of this enterprise. The chief factor of profit in the business proved to
be in the production of salt which was vigorously and successfully carried on.
In 1859, Mr. Healy, with tlie cooperation of Hon. B. B. Horton, the president of a
neighboring salt company, formed a syndicate comprising all the salt companies on the Ohio
river. The name of the new combination was the Ohio River Salt Company, and Mr. Horton
was elected president, while Mr. Healy was appointed selling agent. This position necessitated
his removal to Cincinnati, and he at once plunged into great business activity. The output of
the new salt company was not less than a half millions barrels yearly, and Mr. Healy had the
entire charge of selling this large product. When the war broke out, water freight rates
became very high, and he saw that there was a large profit to be derived from steamboats.
Accordingly, in company with Mr. I. B. Davis, a steamboat named the Crescent City was
bought and partially paid for. Shortly after her purchase she was chartered by the United
States government and remained in the service of the government for twenty months, when
she was sold at a handsome advance over the purchase price. The success of this venture
led to further investments in steamboats, and many boats were built and handled by Mr.
Healy and Mr. Davis with satisfactory profits.
Living in Cincinnati, Mr. Healy was in a centre of stir and excitement whUe the war
lasted, and it was during this period that he laid the foundation of his fortune, as the high
prices which prevailed made large and profitable operations possible. One transaction in salt
deserves mention not only for its successful issue, but as an illustration of the integrity of a
Southerner. When the war broke out, the Ohio River Salt Company had a large quantity of
salt at Nashville, Tenn., consigned to a merchant by the name of Mallet. . The company con
sidered this salt as an almost total loss, and Mr. Healy, with two other gentlemen, made the
company an offer for it which was accepted. Salt soon rose to a high figure in the Con
federacy, and Mr. Mallet sold the entire consignment at an extremely handsome profit. But
when Mr. Healy's agent went to Nashville to settle the accounts and receive the money.
General Polk had established martial law in Nashville and had issued an order that no
money should be aUowed to go through the lines. Mr. MaUet, however, by bringing to bear
powerful personal influence, succeeded in obtaining a pass allowing the agent to go through
the lines without being searched. He thereupon departed by train and reached Cincinnati
safely with his money, this being the last train which went out of Nashville for many months.
While in Cincinnati, Mr. Healy was widely known and respected. His ability and
integrity were universally recognized, and he was regarded as one of the leading business men
of the city. He was a director of the Merchants' National Bank, a large and prosperous
institution, and whose president, Mr. H. C. Yergason, was brought when a young man from
Hartford to Cincinnati by Mr. Healy, taking the position of teller, from which he steadily
advanced to the presidency.
In 1866, Mr. Healy left Cincinnati, owing to the poor health of his wife, and came to
New York, where he entered the wholesale coal business in partnership with Elisha and
Daniel Packer, sons of his old employer at Packerville. He remained in New York a little
more than two years, when he was again obliged to change his residence, owing to Mrs.
24

i82 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Healy's continued ill-health, and in 1868 he came to Hartford, making his home at first in
the Allyn House. A little later he purchased the property situated on the corner of High and
Walnut streets, formerly occupied by the poetess, Lydia Sigourney. Here he erected a com
modious residence, where he resided until his death.
Mr. Healy soon began to make himself felt in Hartford business circles. The first posi
tion held by him was the presidency of the National Screw Company, to which he was elected
upon the death of the former president, Hon. William Faxon. He continued in this position
until the company became merged with the Providence Screw Company in 1876. One of the
most important and successful of business achievements was the resuscitation of the Pratt &
Whitney Company, one of the finest machine shops in the world. At the time Mr. Healy
became interested in this company, its fortunes had fallen to a low ebb, and it was on the
verge of bankruptcy. Mr. Healy advanced a large sum of money, took charge of its finances,
and in a few years had the satisfaction of seeing the concern prosperous and paying regular
dividends. Mr. Healy was a director in many local institutions, and his advice and aid were
sought for on all sides. His business experience had been so wide and varied that his judg
ment was much broader and more comprehensive than that of the business specialist. He
was an excellent judge of commercial paper, and bought large quantities yearly, rarely
making a loss.
His characteristics were courage, good judgment and strict integrity. He had the courage
of his convictions to an unusual degree, but was not rash in forming an opinion or over-hasty
in reaching a conclusion. Loving business for its own sake, its atmosphere was as necessary
to his happiness as the breath of life to his existence. His integrity and honesty were well
known, and having once made an agreement he could be relied upon to carry out his part
to the letter, even though at a financial loss. He had a generous heart and feelings as
tender as those of a woman, though often concealed under a somewhat stern exterior.
Many deeds of kindness and charity, unknown save to the recipient and himself, might be
chronicled, and numerous young men were quietly helped by him who owed their later success
to his kindness and encouragement.
Among the institutions with which Mr. Healy was officially connected, in addition to
those already mentioned, are the following : The Pratt & Cady Company, the Billings &
Spencer Company, the Capewell Horse Nail Company, the Hartford Electric Light Company,
the Norwich Bleachery Company, the Yantic Woollen Company, the Hudson River Water
Power and Paper Company, the American National Bank, the Iowa Mortgage Company, the
Dime Savings Bank, and others of lesser note.
The following newspaper extracts will serve to show the estimation in which Mr. Healy
was held in Hartford. Among other things the Courant said: "The deceased was a man
whose counsels in business matters were valuable, and they were appreciated by financial and
business men of this city. To a clear head and discriminating mind he had added the
advantages of a successful business life, varied in character and extensive in scope. He had
kindl}' feelings and a frank and pleasant way of dealing with his fellow m^n. Socially he
was agreeable, always gentle, manly and courteous. He was ever ready to lend a helping
hand, and, while conservative and reasonably cautious, he dared to embark in enterprises
from which more timid minds shrank."
The following extract is from the Post: "Mr. Healy was in aU respects an able and judi
cious business man, and wUl be greatly missed in Hartford, where he has been known and
honored for a long period. He was careful and conservative, but never hesitated to engage
in new enterprises when his judgment was enlisted in their favor. His prepossessions were
alwa}-s in support of business men, and a great many successful people in this city owe their
prosperity to his stimulating interest in them."

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 183
Mr. Healy. was married to Susan Clark Moore of Jewett City, Conn., July 21, 1841.
Two children were the fruit of this union, WUliam Arnold Healy, born in PackervUle, in
1852, and Susie Virginia Healy, born in Hartford City, W. Va., in 1859. The son lived
but two years, dying in 1854. Mrs. Healy died in Hartford, May 13, 1879, and Mr. Healy
survived her six years, the date of his death being Sept. 29, 1885. Miss Healy was married
in April, 1885, to Mr. John S. Camp of Middletown, Conn.

mGUR, PHINEAS MILLER, of Middlefield, pomologist of the State Board of
Agriculture, and vice-president for Connecticut of the American Pomological
Society, was born in Middlefield, Feb. 8, 1826. He was the only chUd of
Phineas and Esther (Kirby) Augur, who lived to adult age, being a grandson
of Deacon Prosper Augur, and a descendant, in the sixth generation, of Robert
Augur, who settled in New Haven Colony, and married Mary Gilbert, daughter of Deputy
Governor Gilbert, Nov. 20, 1673.
After receiving a good education in the common English branches in the public schools,
he entered an academy and gained still further instruction in Latin, higher mathematics, and
natural science. The faculty of imparting information was strong in Mr. Augur, and he
began to teach in the Durham Academy, following this up with work in the old Wells
Grammar School in Hartford and elsewhere. This experience had, with close study, fitted
him for the position of surveyor, and soon after he was married he was appointed county
surveyor, and some years later surveyor-general's deputy for Middlesex County, an office he
filled for several years. During this time he made a survey and map of Middlefield, with the
necessary post roads, compiling statistics, etc., which David Lyman used successfully at
Washington in securing the establishment of a postoffice at Middlefield.
That Mr. Augur was held in high esteem in his own town, is best evidenced by the
confidence shown in him by its citizens, especially in the matter of conferring office upon him.
In 1866, when Middlefield was set off from Middletown, he was chosen sole assessor, and
made out the first assessment list of the town, a piece of work which required much care and
excellent judgment. He was elected a member of the first board of education, and held that
office for twenty-five years, and was justice of the peace from the organization of the town
until 1884. In 1869, he was sent to represent the town in the General Assembly, and while
he was at the state capitol he served as a member of the committee on incorporations, and
was the author of several bills now on the statute books.
Mr. Augur, when first married, settled on the farm which had previously belonged to his
father and grandfather, and lived there until the time of his death. He taught school only
one or two winters after he was married. He was employed a considerable portion of the
time in his early life in surveying in Middletown and adjoining towns, but he gave up that
business in 1869 to his oldest son. He had always been an enthusiast in fruit culture, and
had established the business of growing and selling fruit trees, plants, shrubbery, etc., his
two youngest sons being associated with him, under the name of P. M. Augur & Sons.
When the Middlefield Farmers' Club was organized, Mr. Augur was appointed secretary,
and by successive elections held that office for many years. His prominence and reputation
as a farmer secured him an election as member of the State Board of Agriculture in 1869,
but after two years' service he declined a reelection. Three years later, however, he was
chosen pomologist of the State Board of Agriculture, and acted in that capacity until his death.

1 84 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
It was while he was in this office that he rendered his most important service to the state at
large. In the early part of 1876, he was delegated by the board to make a collection of the
agricultural products of Connecticut for the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Although
a very small and inadequate sum had been appropriated by the State Centennial Commission
for the purpose, by close economy an exhibit was made which, in excellence, extent and
variety of grains, corn, fruits, vegetables and seeds, was regarded as among the very best.
It was specially remarkable from the great number of fruits of Connecticut origin.
Throughout his life Mr. Augur was always an independent thinker, sympathizing with
the anti-slavery movement, with temperance reform, and civil service reform. His voice
was ever heard and his vote cast in favor of the best common roads, the best common schools,
and the improvement of the villages of the state. A strong believer in economy, he condemned
extravagance either in public or private life. In early life he united with the Congregational
church of Middlefield, and in 1850, was elected deacon of the church, and for over thirty
years he filled that office. Mr. Augur was a life member of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, and was vice-president for Connecticut of the American Pomological Society for
several years, and was also a member of the State Horticultural Society.
Almost from his youth he was interested in the cause of temperance, and though he had
been an enthusiastic Republican, in 1884, he joined the ranks of the Prohibition party. In
1890, he was the candidate of the party for the governorship of the state. His election was
not anticipated, but he received a very complimentary vote.
Mr. Augur was one of the best known farmers in the United States. Original but
practical in his methods, he made frequent and valued contributions to the leading agricultural
publications. He was always an active supporter of educational and humane institutions,
and in this way did much to advance the moral welfare of the state in which he was born, in
which he lived his useful life, and in which he died.
To Mr. Augur's influence and effort the town of Middlefield is largely indebted for its
exceUent school-houses. When he began his married life, all the school-houses in Middlefield
School Society were of the old style, with plain wooden benches, and desks around the outside
of the room. Resolved never to send his chUdren to school untU a better school-house should
be built in his own district, he began to work for a new school-house. A beautiful site was
finally purchased, and the district voted to build a new school-house, and Mr. Augur was
chosen chairman of the building committee. He spent much time in examining the best and
most modern school-houses in the state, and in planning for the new one in his own district.
It was finally completed, with all the improvements then known in the arrangement of rooms
and furniture, method for heating and ventilating, reference library, circulating library, etc.
In a comparatively short time all the other three districts, of what is now the town of Middle-
field, had new school-houses of similar arrangement and construction. With modern school-
houses of such exceUence, there was a demand for only the best teachers.
Just before he attained his majority, Mr. Augur was united in marriage to Miss Lucy
E. Parmelee of Guilford, a lady of marked worth and excellence. Three sons and two
daughters were born to them. E. P. Augur, the oldest son, is now city surveyor of Middle-
town. Alfred and Charles carry on the business in which they had been engaged with their
father. The two daughters, Lucy and Mary, are both married and reside in Guilford, Conn,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 185
SELLOGG, STEPHEN WRIGHT, ex-member of Congress, and a distinguished
member of the Waterbury bar, was born in Shelburne, Ma.ss., AprU 5, 1822.
Mr. Kellogg descends from Revolutionary stock. The Biography of Con
necticut says that "his great-grandfather, Lieut. Jacob Pool of Massachusetts,
was second in command of the company of troops raised in Franklin county,
in that state, which formed part of the small army, under General Arnold, that left Cam
bridge on September 11, 1775, penetrated the wilderness of Maine, and boldly marching
across the intervening territory, climbed the Heights of Abraham and attacked the strongly
fortified citadel of Quebec, before the walls of which the gallant patriot died. The grand
father also of General KeUogg, although then but a lad of sixteen years, served in the
American army during the last year of the successful struggle for independence."
The parents of the subject of this sketch were Jacob Pool Kellogg and Lucy W. Kellogg,
the latter the daughter of Stephen Wright of Westford, Mass. His early years were spent
upon his father's farm. Having completed the usual course in the district school he entered
the academy at Shelburne Falls, of which the Rev. John Alden was then the esteemed
principal. Later he studied at the excellent private school in the same village, kept by
Alvin Anderson, his warm friend. While pursuing this advanced course of study, which
occupied him from his sixteenth to his twentieth year, he taught the district school in the
winter months, and during the entire suminer worked upon his father's farm. At the age
of twenty he entered Amherst College, where he passed two terms of the freshman year.
In the spring of 1843, he entered the freshman class in Yale College. Three years later he
was graduated there, taking one of the first three honors of his class, in the same class with
Governor Harrison, always his warm friend. After graduation he had charge of an academy
at Wilbraham, Mass., for a few months. In the winter of 1846, he began the study of law
in the Yale Law School, and at the same time took a position as instructor in Greek in
the classical school then kept by the Hon. Aaron N. Skinner at New Ha^'en. Mr. KeUogg
successfully passed the required examination for admission to the bar in the suminer of 1848,
and was admitted at the same time with Governor Harrison, and at once entered upon the
practice of law, opening his first office at Naugatuck. Six years later he removed his law
office to Waterbury, where he permanently established his home.
In 1853, he was elected to represent the fifth district in the State Senate, of which, in
1851, he had been the clerk, and in 1856 he represented the town of Waterbury in the
Connecticut House of Representatives. He was offered the nomination of speaker of the House
by the caucus, but declined in favor of an older colleague. His high legal attainments were
appropriately recognized in 1854 by his appointment as judge of the New Haven County
Court, and by his selection the same year for the office of judge of probate for the district
of Waterbury, in which capacity he served seven years. He was a delegate to the Repub
lican national convention at Chicago in i860, and a member of the committee on platform,
upon which the Republican party won its first national victory under the lead of Abraham
Lincoln. He was also appointed delegate to the national convention of 1868, and was
chairman of the Connecticut delegation in the national convention of 1876 at Cincinnati.
As an ardent Union man Mr. Kellogg gave his cordial support to the Federal government
during the Rebellion period, and loyally aided his state in every patriotic effort to maintain
the integrity and dignity of the nation. Becoming connected with the military forces of
Connecticut he rose rapidly to the rank of colonel of the Second Regiment, a position he
held three years. He took a leading part immediately after the war in the work of organ
izing the National Guard of the state to take the place of the militia, and drafted and pro-

1 86 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
cured the passage of the bill which secured this result. The term " National Guard," and
the system of organization first introduced by him in that state, have since been adopted
by a large number of the states of the Union. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-
general in the Connecticut National Guard in 1866, and served as such until the absorbing
nature of his official duties in the national legislature compelled him to tender his resignation,
which was reluctantly accepted by the state authorities, who thoroughly appreciated his
intelligent labors in connection with the state troops.
The soundness of Mr. Kellogg's views upon national questions led to his nomination
for Congress in the second district of Connecticut in the early part of 1869. In this canvass
his personal popularit}' was no unimportant factor, as the majority of the voters of the dis
trict were politically opposed to him. Elected by a fiattering majority over his opponent he
took his seat in the Forty-first Congrees and served therein with marked distinction for a
new member. His success in maintaining the interests of Connecticut in the national legis
lature and the prominent part he took in the tariff legislation of 1870 led to his renomina
tion for Congress in 187 1, and the same services sufficed to wipe out the political antago
nism of many voters of the opposite party, and to secure his reelection. In the Forty-
second Congress his record was even more brilliant than during the preceding, he having be
come thoroughly familiar with the customs and precedents which obtain at the national capital.
At the close of his second term he was reelected aud served a third. While in Congress he
performed most effecti\'e work on a number of important committees, among them being
those on the judiciary, patents, war claims. Pacific railroads, naval expenditures and civU
service reform. He was chairman of the committee on naval expenditures in the Forty-
second Congress, and of that on civil service reform in the Forty-third, and as such was
untiring in his labors. His successful efforts in behalf of the improvement of the harbors of
Connecticut, which had long been neglected by Congress, won him the gratitude of the peo
ple of the state irrespective of party and added greatly to his political strength.
The fact that on each occasion when he was elected to Congress, it was necessary to
overcome an opposition majority of fully twenty-five hundred votes in the district, attests the
high appreciation in which his services were held by the public at large. A leading Demo
cratic lawyer of New Haven, the late Hon. Alfred Blackman, used often to say that "Mr.
Kellogg was the best congressman the state ever had." General Kellogg was one of the first
to perceive the necessit}- for reorganizing both the war and treasury departments at Wash
ington. Each had completely outgrown the original provisions under which it was conducted,
and relief could onl}- be effected by radical changes. The treasury department, in particular,
having been run on a system inaugurated some forty years previously, had become unwieldy,
having grown to immense proportions by means of appropriation bills passed as the necessi
ties of the service required, especially during the Civil War." This department is stiU
carried on under the enactments as prepared by General Kellogg. He .was renominated by
acclamation for the Forty-fourth Congress in the spring of 1875, as Connecticut then held
its elections in April. Most members of that Congress had been elected the preceding Nov
ember, and the House already elected was Democratic by about eighty majority. That fact
contributed largely to his defeat, and the tide of Democratic success was then at its full
height, for though he ran neariy fifteen hundred ahead of his ticket, it was not enough
to overcome the large Democratic majority of the district. He then retired from public life
to recover his law practice, which had been very large when he entered Congress. He had
never left his duties in the House during its session to try a single case in the whole six
years, but had tried such cases as he could during vacation, and his law practice had
suffered by his close attention to his public duties.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 187
He declined the nomination for governor in 1878, being president of the convention
that made the nomination, and when the Republicans had elected a majority for the legis
lature for the first time in five years, he publicly withdrew his name from the list of can
didates for United States senator then to be elected. As a lawyer his reputation is based
on profound knowledge, general as well as special, his power as an advocate, and on a
briUiant and unsullied career of nearly half a century at the Connecticut bar. Although
confining himself of late years very closely to his professional duties, he has not in the least
degree relinquished his deep interest in public affairs, and on a number of occasions has pub
lished his views upon important questions, principally through articles written for the press.
In 1881, two days after President Garfield was shot, he prepared an article in regard to
the presidential succession, which was given wide publicity in the papers of the country,
and attracted great attention. At that time there was but a single life — that of Vice-
President Arthur — between organized government and anarchy. In the article referred to
General Kellogg proposed and advocated the exact system of presidential succession that was
some years afterwards adopted by Congress after long debates upon the subject. Therefore
to him justly belongs the credit for the conception and the first presentation of the present
order of succession, by which, in the event of the death or incapacity of both president and
vice-president, the chief magistracy of the nation devolves upon the members of the cabinet,
beginning with the secretary of state.
Full of years and honors, and rich in the esteem of the public. General Kellogg stands
before his fellow-citizens over "threescore and ten," with a stronger mentality and physique
than fall to the lot of most men who reach that ripe age ; his well-ordered and temperate
life leaving him to-day in the possession of every faculty unimpaired, and with unlimited
powers of application and usefulness.
He was married Sept. 10, 185 1, to Lucia Hosmer Andrews, a great-granddaughter of
Hon. Titus Hosmer, a member of the Continental Congress in 1778-79, and from 1780 until
his death a judge of the maritime court of appeals of the United States. Another great-grand
father of this esteemed lady was Major-Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons of the Revolution. Her
grandfather was the eminent jurist, Stephen Titus Hosmer, for thirty years a member of the
supreme court of Connecticut, and during a large portion of this period chief justice. There
are six living children by this marriage, the oldest son, Frank W. Kellogg, being an officer
in the navy. Two other sons have adopted the legal profession, one being now a student
in the Yale Law School. A promising son, John P. Kellogg, also a lawyer, is associated
in practice with his father. The three daughters of General Kellogg are all married and live
in New Haven and Waterbury, Conn.

ORGAN, JUNIUS SPENCER, although not a native of Connecticut, was
long a resident, and never lost his interest in its affairs, and finally^ chose the
capital of the state as his last resting-place. He was born in West Springfield
(now Holyoke), Mass., April 14, 1813, and is a lineal descendant of Miles
Morgan, one of the first settlers of Springfield. The latter was born in Bristol,
England, in 1616, and, being a younger son and of a venturesome disposition, he conceived
the idea of joining one of the many vessels that conveyed emigrants from his native town to
America. He arrived in Boston on one of these in April, 1636, and soon afterward penetrated,
with an expedition headed by Colonel Pyratreon, into the wilderness, and settled at what is
now Springfield, Mass. He built for himself a fortified block house on the bank of the

i88 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Connecticut river, on the site now occupied by the car shops of the Connecticut River Rail
road. Not long after his arrival in Springfield, he married Prudence Gilbert, a fellow
passenger on the voyage from Bristol. When the sacking of Springfield occurred. Captain
Morgan's block house became the fortress of the place, and after the burning of the settlement,
held out until messengers had been despatched to Hadley, and thirty-six men (the standing
army of the colony of Massachusetts Bay), under command of Capt. Samuel Appleton, marched
to Springfield and raised the siege. A colossal bronze statue of Capt. Miles Morgan, which
stands in the court house square of Springfield, shows him in huntsman's dress, jacket, boots,
and cocked hat, with a rifle over his shoulder.
From the heroic settler, the family line comes down by successive generations, to Joseph
Morgan. He married Sarah Spencer, and was the father of the subject of this article.
After attending several schools and receiving only a limited education, Mr. Morgan
began his business career with Alfred Welles of Boston in April, 1829, and remained in his
employ until reaching his majority. In July, 1834, he entered the banking house of Morgan,
Ketchum & Company of New York, but, after eighteen months' service, he decided to remove
to Hartford. On the first of April, 1836, he became the junior partner in the firm of Howe,
Mather & Company, which did a large and successful dry goods business when Hartford was
the centre of an extended trade in that line. The firm was changed to Mather, Morgan &
Company, Feb. i, 1850, but it was dissolved a year later when Mr. Morgan, at a very urgent
invitation, went to Boston to join James M. Beebe in the same business. The new concern
was known as James M. Beebe, Morgan & Company, and it became one of the largest in the
country. No small share of the success attained can be laid to Mr. Morgan's energetic
efforts and recognized executive ability. It was in 1850 that he went to Europe for the first
time, and while there he met Mr. George Peabody, upon whom he made so favorable an
impression that, a few years after, Mr. Peabody offered him a partnership in his firm. This
exceedingly flattering offer was accepted, and in October, 1854, he entered the firm of George
Peabody & Co. Ten years later Mr. Peabody retired, and the firm of J. S. Morgan & Co. took
the place of the older concern. Under his name the house increased in strength and influence
until it was rightly ranked among the trio of great banking houses of the world. Always a
staunch friend of American institutions, during the War of the Rebellion, at frequent intervals,
he rendered valuable assistance in England to the government of this country.
As an authority in money matters, Mr. Morgan's opinion was quoted and accepted on the
bourses of Europe, while his financial transactions have been marked by pronounced success.
His engineering of the French loan in 1870, known ever since as the Morgan loan, was accom
plished under such difficult circumstances as to establish his reputation more than any other
single transaction up to that time. Mr. Morgan's occasional visits to America were always the
signal for complimentary receptions. On one occasion, when a banquet was given to him in
New York, special trains brought friends from Baltimore, Harrisburg and Boston, and Ex-Gov
ernor Tilden of New York, Gov. A. H. Rice of Massachusetts, Governor Hartranft of Penn
sylvania, Ex-Governor Hawley of Connecticut, and Ex-Secretary McCulloch were among those
who delivered addresses.
While in Hartford he entered actively into its social and public affairs. He was one of
the corporators of the Young Men's Institute, and served as trustee for two years, being vice-
president of the organization in 1839. A consistent member of Christ Church, he was a
member of the vestr}- from 1845 to 1849, and into his religious work he put the same zeal
which he did into his business transactions. From 1849 to 1853 he was one of the advisers of
the Orphan Asylum. For several years he was a member of the Governor's Foot Guard.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 189
Mr. Morgan always maintained his interest in Hartford and its institutions, and has made
numerous generous gifts to their support. Among them were Trinity College and the Hartford
Orphan Asylum, giving to the latter a sum of money to be called the Sarah Morgan fund, in
memory of his mother, Mrs. Sarah Spencer Morgan.
In 1887, he gave a large and valuable painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which he had
purchased for that purpose, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The
exact cost of this act of thoughtfulness was never known, but it ran well into the thousands
of doUars. His magnificent donation of $100,000 to the fund of the free public library of
Hartford, coming at the time it did, gave such inspiration to those who were behind the
movement that it practically made the enterprise an assured success. His private gifts to
cases of need, to philanthropic institutions, and to the cause of the Master whom he professed
to serve, will never be known until the books are opened at that last great day when the
secrets of all hearts shall be laid bare.
Junius S. Morgan was married to Juliet, daughter of John Pierpont, the poet. Mrs.
Morgan died in 1880. Mr. Morgan died at Monte Carlo,. AprU 8, 1890, having passed by
seven years the three score and ten allotted to man. His death was caused by injuries received
by jumping from his carriage while the horses were unmanageable. The surviving children
are J. Pierpont Morgan, head of the firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company, New York ; Sarah,
wife of George H. Morgan of New York ; Mary, wife of Walter Burns, active partner of
J. S. Morgan & Company, London, and Juliette, wife of Rev. John Morgan of Paris, brother
of George H. Morgan of New York. The family connections are numerous in Hartford and
vicinity. Perhaps the best tribute to Mr. Morgan's memory appeared in the Hartford Courant.
The day after his death that sterling Connecticut journal said editorially :
Mr. Junius S. Morgan died yesterday without rallying from the shock received last Thursday, and Hart
ford loses one of its best friends, and the business world loses one of its most successful and honored leaders.
Mr. Morgan has become very rich, and his wealth has been acquired in a straightforward, honorable way, in
striking contrast to the manner iu which so many of the nineteenth century fortunes have been secured.
When the name of Morgan is associated with a business matter the public confidence is at once assured. In
the great railroad enterprises that the firm has taken up in this country it has always acted to save and never
to wreck, and the title to its great wealth is a clean one. Mr. Morgan began his active life in Hartford, and
the city and its people always held a place in his affections. It was his home from the time he was four years
old until he went into business, and for years he was in business here. His son, J. Pierpont, was born here,
and spent his boyhood in this city. Father and son have shown their interest in Hartford very recently by
their princely gifts of |ioo,ooo and $50,000 for the Free Public Library, and before that Mr. Morgan had
given liberally to the Orphan Asylum, and to Trinity College and other local objects.
All Hartford has reason to hold him in affectionate remembrance for what he has done for us, and the
news of his death will bring grief to thousands who never saw him. Those who did know him personally and
well, speak of him, as for years they have spoken of him, with peculiar tenderness. His generous impulses
came from a kind heart and a sweet nature, and the manner in which he put his good wishes into shape
of practical assistance, made his aid doubly welcome. We have seen some of his public benefactions, but it
is understood that in private life among friends and acquaintances he was continually and most kindly using
for the benefit of others the wealth that he possessed. The pleasure that he found in being rich lay in the oppor
tunity it gave him for doing good. Mr. Morgan's name is known throughout the business world. He was
one of the conspicuously rich men of this age of great fortunes. And to occupy such a position and yet
be known for the honesty with which he acquired and the kindness and liberality with which he gave, is as great
a fortune as his wealth aud a more precious possession.
In telling the story of Mr. Morgan's life, the historian of the Connecticut Historical
Society used the following words:
He joined this society December 6, 1843, four years after its organization, and how well he kept it in
memory during his residence in a foreign land, and how ardent his friendship for it was, is proved by the
frequent valuable contributions he made to its treasures, and especially by that rare and princely gift, recently
made, our acknowledgment of which could only have reached him a few days before his death. And what more
25

I90 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
fitting place than this could there be to publish that acknowledgment : The Connecticut Historical Society, ia
acknowledging the gift from Mr. Junius S. Morgan of the colossal work, " Facsimiles of manuscripts in European
Archives relating to America, 1773-83," is conscious that no ordinary form of thanks is adequate to express its feel
ing at once of the donor's generosity, and of his fine judgment in the selection of a. gift. Not alone is it of
a cost far beyond the present or probable resources of the society, and therefore most unlikely to have come
into our possession in any other way, but it will be incomparabl}'' the most massive and most valuable collec
tion of original documents on American history yet published ; being especially of unique value as consisting
of photographic fac similes of the documents themselves, thus putting the humblest student on a level, in
capacity of original research, with the wealthy and leisured or official classes, who can visit foreign capitals,
and ransack foreign libraries without stint. This enormous collection, to which this society gave its endors-
ment years ago, has been made possible only by private subscriptions, necessarily limited ; and therefore Mr.
Morgan, in becoming for our benefit one of the small number of subscribers, is not alone conferring on this society
a benefit of incalculable historic value, but is aiding to make certain the accomplishment of the work itself,
and thus earning the gratitude of Americans and students of American institutions everywhere. The period
covered by the collection, including as it does the proximate genesis of the Revolution, that war itself, and
the negotiations by which our independence was assured, is perhaps the most important, probably the most
intricate, and certainly in foreign lands the least understood period of our history ; and the work is therefore
not only an intellectual but a patriotic service of high order.
In view of these facts, the Connecticut Historical Society as a body, and individually, express to Mr. Mor
gan their deep and enduring gratitude and appreciation for his most generous and judicious gift to themselves,
his aid in securing from failure a stupendous and valuable historical labor, and his patriotic services as an
American, in aiding a truer knowledge of his country's acts and motives in her crucial time ; and their trust
and belief that the studies which this gift will stimulate and enable to be carried on, will mature into work
that in honoring Hartford will also honor her munificent son. It is the will of the society that the fore
going expression of thanks be properly engrossed and forwarded by the Secretary to Mr. Morgan.

|ENRY, EDWARD STEVENS, mayor of RockvUle, and ex-state treasurer, was
born in Gill, Mass., Feb. 10, 1836.
The Battle of the Boyne was one of those decisive conflicts in the history
of the world whose influence has been far reaching in its effects. It settled
the religious status of England for a long series of years. In this sanguinary
struggle, David Henry, a sturdy North of England yeoman, took part, serving under the colors
of William of Orange, and after peace was declared he settled in Coleraine, in the north of
Ireland, on a grant of land given him by the king. His son, Hugh Henry, the founder of
the family to which Mr. Henry belongs, was one of the members of an organized colony
which emigrated from the vicinity of Coleraine in 1733, and settled in what was then known
as "Boston Township, No. 2," and subsequently became the town of Coleraine, Mass. He
was a man of much force of character. His son Benjamin was a soldier in the French and
Indian Wars, serving in the company called Roger's Rangers, under General Israel Putnam.
Removing to the town of Halifax, he was for seventeen years a member of the Vermont Legis
lature. In the third generation, David Henry, probably named for his patriotic ancestor, was
one of the first settiers of Heath, Mass., and lived tUl by seven years he had passed the four
score allotted to man. His son, Edward Fish Henry, was a farmer by occupation. He married
Elisa A., daughter of Dr. Simon A. Stevens of Guilford, Vt., who bore him six chUdren, and
of these E. Stevens was the oldest.
The family moved to Rockville, ToUand County, Conn., when E. Stevens was very
young, and at that place the lad received his education, attending the public schools and also
the local academy. At the age of nineteen he began active life. Coming from an old and
highly-respected family, well educated and endowed with natural talents of a superior order,
the young man proved a welcome accession to the business community of the place. Taking
a livel}' interest in public affairs, he soon made his mark, and at an age when many persons of

VW. Preston l< cut.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1S94. 191
no mean capacity are still comparatively obscure, he had obtained for himself general recogni
tion as one of the most intelligent and progressive citizens of the town. Both directly and
indirectly he has been unceasing in his efforts to promote its business interests, and, in the
broadest sense, the welfare of its inhabitants. He has taken a most active and prominent
part in founding and fostering several of its leading financial institutions, among" them the
People's Savings Bank, of which he has been the managing officer since its organization in
1870, and also the First National Bank of RockvUle, and of which he was for many years a
director. He was likewise one of the incorporators of the First National Bank of Willimantic,
of which he is still a director. Another important fiduciary trust held by him is the treas
urership of the Tolland County Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
A man of the highest personal character, of proven integrity, energy, reliable and public-
spirited, Mr. Henry has been honored by his fellow-citizens with a number of public trusts.
For fifteen years he sat as an active trial justice at Rockville. A zealous Republican in
politics, he was nominated by his party to represent his town in the state legislature, and
though having as an opponent one of the strongest men that the Democrats could bring
forward for the office, he was elected by a flattering majority. In 1887, he was elected to the
state Senate to represent the Twenty-third senatorial district. During these two terms he
served on several very important committees and distinguished himself by his close attention
to public affairs. In the summer of 1888, he was sent as a delegate-at-large from Connec
ticut to the Republican National Convention, at Chicago, and in the canvass which resulted
in the election of General Harrison to the presidency he took an active part in his state. In
1888, his abilities were appropriately recognized by his nomination for the office of treasurer
of the state, and he was elected, the heavy vote he received bearing ample testimony to his
repute and to the general confidence reposed in his integrity. As state treasurer, Mr. Henry
gave the citizens of Connecticut a clean administration of this important branch of the state
government, and has instituted a number of reforms in the minor workings of the department,
which have been productive of much benefit.
Said the Hartford Courant, speaking of his renomination :
His administration of the treasury has been admirable, and he has had to work under the disadvantage of
new laws and new circumstances. He has so managed these that he has been able to get rid of the state tax
altogether, and, with no added burden on the people, to save them say half a million dollars a year in direct
taxes. He is a useful part of the new machinery of taxation established by the last legislature, and by reason of
his experience can carry on the department at this time better than au equally good man could to whom the
position was new. Hence for business reasons his renomination seems advisable, to say nothing of his personal
strength as a candidate on the ticket. The convention will nominate a strong and the successful ticket, and do it
without discord or dissension ; and if Mr. Henry is renominated for treasurer the state will be sure of capable and
economical management of its finances for the next two years.
After the election, complications regarding the counting of the votes ensued, and then
followed two years in the history of the state the scenes of which it is to be hoped will
never be repeated.
Mr. Henry was nominated for congressional honors in 1892, and though he polled the
full strength of his party, it was not a good year for Republican candidates, and he failed
of election. Under a caption of "A Thoroughly Good Nomination," a Connecticut' paper
thus alluded to his fitness for the position :
The Republican congressional convention on Saturday merely responded to popular feeling and expectation
in the party when it nominated E. Stevens Henry by acclamation. His unquestioned fitness for the place and his
personal popularity make him as strong a candidate as could be selected, and he has the advantage of an excep
tional record as treasurer of the state for the past four years. In that time the state tax has been removed, the
state debt reduced by the payment of all obligations which were due, or on which there was an option of payment,
and the revenues have been largely increased. In the peculiar complications arising from the failure of the Demo-

192 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
cratic Senate to cooperate in electing state officers, Mr. Henry's firmness and sound judgment have been repeatedly
exemplified, and have strengthened the claim on the confidence of the people which he had established during a
long course of service in both branches of the Legislature, and in the several financial institutions with which he
has been connected. No better or stronger candidate can be found in either party, and with him victory should
be assured. RockvUle took a place among the sisterhood of Connecticut cities in 1893, and at the
first election in December of that year, Mr. Henry was chosen mayor by a handsome majority
over his Democratic competitor, the most popular man who could be pitted against him.
Although a sturdy Republican, he has the confidence and good will of hundreds of his
Democratic fellow-citizens, many of whom have voted for him every time he has been a
candidate for office, believing him to be above mere partisanship in the discharge of public
trust as the sequel has always proved him to be. In Tolland county, it is probable that no
office-holder for years has won and held the respect of the general public to such a degree
as Mr. Henry. As a state officer, he vastly increased his personal popularity, and added
greatly to the strength of his party. In private life, he is a gentleman of irreproachable
character, kindly sympathies and liberal views.
He was married on Feb. 11, i860, to Miss Lucina E. Dewey of Lebanon, Conn. The
Dewey family is one of the oldest in Connecticut, and the ancestors of Mrs. Henry were
among the first settlers of Lebanon. Mr. and Mrs. Henry have one child, a daughter.

rROFUT, HENRY, of Danbury, one of the leading hat manufacturers of
Connecticut, was born in Danbury, April 20, 1820.
His ancestors for several generations were Connecticut people of the
sturdy middle class. Isaac Crofut, his grandfather, lived near Bethel, and
from there his father, Jared Crofut, came to Danbury in the early part of the
century. Jared Crofut married Grace Drew of Redding, and became the father of three
boys and three girls, and of the half dozen, Henry was the third.
The limited amount of education young Crofut received was obtained in the district
schools and later at evening schools. Put on a farm at the age of nine years, he remained
there for seven years, doing the "chores" and otherwise carrying out the ordinary duties
of a farmer's boy of the times. At sixteen, he decided to leave agricultural pursuits .and
devote his energies to manufacturing. Accordingly he entered the employ of Abijah
Tweedy of Danbury and served a regular apprenticeship of five years at the hatting trade.
Such was his application to business and quick comprehension of the principles of hat
manufacturing, that Mr. Crofut was made foreman of the shop before he attained his
majority. He worked as foreman for nine years, gaining experience in business manage
ment each succeeding year. In 1853, he went into manufacturing with William Tweedy,
son of Abijah Tweedy, as partner, the latter furnishing the capital for the new concern.
This partnership lasted until 1856, when it was dissolved, and the firm of Crofut, Bates &
Wynian was formed, and a complete new factory was erected. The financial crisis of
1857-58 was too severe a strain for the youthful partners, and they were obliged to faU.
Personal friends in New York and Danbury helped Mr. Crofut to purchase the old plant in
1859, and start afresh on his own account. In 1863, he took RoUo Nichols, his son-in-law,
into the firm as partner, and the name was changed to Henry Crofut & Co., and two years
later another son-in-law, Joseph White, was added to the concern. On the death of Mr.
Nichols, the firm became Crofut & White, which it stiU remains. Mr. Crofut started in to

f t^^jfe^-^'w£>-iCxL

MassarJiUseKsHjilishiRs Gq t/-Pjr6tt,Mass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. i93
do a safe business, even if a small one, but during the war his business grew to immense
proportions. One branch was the manufacture of a popular kind of hats for the California
trade, but these hats have long ago passed out of style, though they were very popular in
their day. The twenty employees at the first have grown to an average of over ten times
that number in later years. The factory was burned in 1892, but was rebuUt at once larger
and more convenient than before. The firm makes an excellent line of medium priced
goods, both in stiff and soft hats, and their reputation is second to none in the state.
Mr. Crofut's energies have been largely confined to the manufacturing business of
which he is the head. Still, he found time to assist in forming the Union Savings Bank
in 1867, and served as vice president for many years, and he has been one of the directors
of the Pahquioque and Danbury National Banks for a number of years. His conservative
opinions have made him a safe financial adviser.
He has invariably declined election to town offices, though his name has been mentioned
for various positions. He was induced to accept a nomination and was elected to the
legislature of 1887-88, serving as a member of the railroad committee. In 1889-90 he served
in the state Senate for the Fifteenth district, and was chairman of the committee on engrossed
bills. Said the Hartford Courant, speaking of the nomination to the Senate :
The Republicans of the fifteenth senatorial district to-day nominated Henry Crofut, a wealthy hat
manufacturer of this city, by acclamation. Mr. Crofut represented, this district in the state Senate before and
is nominated this time to defeat Michael J. Houlihan, his Democratic opponent. Jlr. Crofut is, perhaps, the
most popular manufacturer in the entire hatting district and was the only employer who stood by his work
men in the big strike ten years ago. He enjoys the unique distinction of being the only manufacturer that
never had any labor trouble in his shop in thirty years of active business. He is so popular among the
hatters that he is known in every hatting district in the United States. His election is regarded as a
certainty. Almost from its formation Mr. Crofut has been an active and consistent member of the
Republican party. During the war, he rendered valuable assistance to the Union cause, and
gave liberally of his time and means. His friendship for the soldiers has continued up to
the present day. Honored in the community where he resides for his probity and upright
ness of character, he is an excellent representative type of the best citizenship of Connecticut.
Though by several years he has passed threescore and ten, he is still actively engaged every
day in the management of his manufacturing business.
Henry Crofut has been married three times. First, in 1842, to Sarah Maria Bevins.
She died, leaving four children, of whom three are now living. Second, to ^Maria Stewart,
who died, leaving one child, and the third time to EUen Moore. His daughter, Laura
Elizabeth, became the wife of Mr. RoUo Nichols, and Mary Amelia is the wife of his present
partner, Joseph White.

?ARVIS, GEORGE CYPRIAN, M. D., of Hartford, was born in Colebrook, Conn.,
April 24, 1834.
In the Jarvis genealogy the statement is made that the Jarvis family of the
^ United States and British America are of English extraction, though the stock
comes from Normandy, whence they emigrated into England. The name was
originally Gervais. Their seat is at Bretagne, and the first name found is Jean Gervais,
who lived about ^^the year 1400. The arms of the Gervais family showed a shield, " D'or, a
une pomme de^pice, placds au canton, dextre du chef ; et un chouette places au canton senes-
tre accompagnee en pointe d'un crapaud, le tout de sable." Both in this country and Europe,
the name Jarvis has been enrolled in almost all the learned professions and pursuits in life.

194 REPRESENTATU'E MEN
It has given a dignity to the bench and bar; it has graced the professions of ' medicine and
surgery ; it has adorned the pulpit and the stage ; it has entwined its garlands of poetry with
music and painting, and has thundered its deeds of daring over the ocean wave and among
the distant islands of the sea. Earl St. Vincent, Sir John Jarvis, the renowned British
admiral, was a noble type of the hero and EngUsh sailor. The late Bishop Jarvis, and his
son. Rev. Samuel Fanner Jarvis, D. D., LL.D., were among the prominent divines of the
Episcopal Church. John Wesley Jarvis was one of the most accomplished artists of his time.
The earliest records of any settlement of the Jarvises in this country, show the name
of one John Jarvice as living in Virginia in 1623, and John Jarvis is mentioned in the records
of Boston as one of the coroner's jury in September, 1648. Dr. George O. Jarvis, the father
of the subject of this article, was the son of John Jarvis and Elizabeth BouteUe. He was
born in New Canaan, Conn., July 14, 1795, and was a thorough English scholar and an
educator of youth during his early manhood and scholastic life. Studying medicine with his
brother-in-law. Dr. Truman Spencer Wetmore of Winchester, Conn. , after being licensed to
practice, he settled first in Torrington, renio\ing from there to Colebrook, and finally to
Portland, where he died at a ripe old age, sincerely mourned by the people among whom he
had lived for so many years. Dr. Jarvis married Miss Philamela Marshall, by whom he had
six children. It is recorded to his credit that he was the inventor of an ingenious surgical
apparatus for reducing fractures and dislocations. In 1845, he went to Europe and after
delivering a series of lectures he was awarded a gold medal by the Society for the Promo
tion of Arts and Sciences, the medal being received from the hands of Prince Albert, the
husband of Queen Victoria.
George C. Jar\'is, the youngest son of Dr. George O. Jarvis, received his early education
in the district school, which he attended until he was fifteen years of age, after which he
spent a year at the military academy at Norwich, Vermont, and another year with Rev. S.
M. Emery of Portland, Conn. Entering Trinity College in 1851, he remained through the
junior year, leaving in 1853. The next three years were spent as a clerk in a drug store
in Middletown, thereby acquiring a practical acquaintance with materia medica. Having had
the theory and practice of medicine illustrated before him all through his life, he naturally
chose the medical profession as the one best suited to him in which to gain both reputation
and financial success. Accordingly he commenced the study of medicine with his father,
whose extensive surgical practice gave unusual facilities for illustrations in this branch of the
profession. He also studied for two years with the distinguished gynaecologist. Dr. J. Marion
Sims. Attending the regular course of lectures at the medical department of the University
of the City of New York, he received his degree of M. D. from that institution in March, 1861.
Dr. Jarvis at once began the practice of his profession in Stamford, Conn., but the call
of his country was too loud to be neglected, and he offered his services to the government.
They were accepted readily, and in December, 1861, he was commissioned assistant-surgeon
of the First Battalion Connecticut Cavalry. He was promoted to be surgeon of the Seventh
Connecticut Volunteers, October, 1862, and was later a member 6f General Terry's staff.
Through a large part of the war he was operating surgeon of the first division of the Tenth
Army Corps.
In General Butler's expedition on the James River, he took part, and was the chief operat
ing surgeon at the assault on Fort Fisher, where his skill was put to a severe test. Near the
close of the war. Dr. Jarvis was the surgeon in charge at WUmington, N. C, where about
twenty thousand wrecks of humanity from Andersonville, Raleigh and other southern prisons
passed under his care, and the responsibilities of his position were complex and trying in the
extreme. Some idea of the terribleness of the situation may be gained when it is stated

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 195
that of the twelve surgeons under him, eleven fell victims to the fearful contagion of a
malignant typhus or prison fever, and of those who were stricken seven died, while of the
enlisted men the average mortality was twenty per day. Under his direction the men were
cared for and fed, and those who were able to bear the strain were transported to northern
hospitals. From a slum of pestUence, the filthy city of WUmington was transformed to a
clean and healthful place of residence. That his duties were performed to the satisfaction
of his superior officers is all that need be said regarding his wearisome labors.
During the siege of Morris Island in 1863, he volunteered for a midnight assault, after
other surgeons who were appointed found reasons for not being disturbed. After serving
honorably and with distinction through the war, he was mustered out July 20, 1865. Be
sides being a skillful and reliable surgeon. Dr. Jarvis's army record shows that he was
noted for his bravery and gallantry, as is best illustrated by the numerous places of trust
and responsibility to which he was assigned.
Under the title of ^'- At Olustee," a Hartford lady wrote a true story of the Seventh
Connecticut Regiment and its surgeon. The tale was an exciting one but entirely too long
for reproduction, but at a very thrilling period occurs the following paragraph :
" J U.St at that moment," Uncle Dick resumed, "as Rob was losing consciousness, up dashed our brigade
surgeon ; he had been in the thickest of the fight, giving all the aid in his power to the wounded, and now
following after the retreating forces, was picking up those who had fallen out of the ranks, and hurrying
them off in wagons to headquarters. He was a young fellow, tall, straight and handsome, with the keenest
eye I ever saw, one that pierced through all the shams aud make-believes of the shirkers ; but he had
always a kind word and a cheery smile for the poor sick aud wounded fellows iu his brigade. He was quite
young, not more than twenty-eight or thirty, but with as clear a head and skillful a hand as any old surgeon
of twice his years. He was a great favorite with all the boys, the sight of his face or the sound of his voice
was as good as a dose of medicine, we used to say." Then the story goes on to tell of how the surgeon put Rob on
his horse and had a long, weary walk himself. Near the close comes this sentence : " The Seventh received high
praise for their gallant conduct throughout the whole affair, but to my mind the hero of Olustee was our
surgeon. A man is -brave, I acknowledge, who can march up to a cannon's mouth, or stand under the heavy
fire without flinching ; but he is one of man}', excitement, enthusiasm and discipline nerve him up to it ; but
in cool blood to give up his best chance of life like that, to run the risk of being shot by the enemy follow
ing them, or of being taken prisoner, a fate worse than death, and to tramp those long weary miles, with
muscles all unused to such exercise, just for the sake of a poor fellow who was nothing to him, shows
courage of a far higher order. It is the stuff of which heroes are made."
On his return from the war, he settled in Hartford, and soon won a position among
the leading surgeons of the state. A large general and consultation practice was a natural
result, and it is here that Dr. Jarvis has built up the exceUent reputation he possesses.
Original in his conceptions, and bold though careful in his researches, has made at the least
one of the discoveries which should immortalize his name. Gaining a clue from an autopsy,
in July, 1877, he performed the first operation for appendicitis and since then has operated
successfully in over thirty cases. He failed in only two cases where the patient was too
far gone before he was called. Others have followed where he opened the way, but to him
should be awarded the credit of being the pioneer in this new field of surgical science.
The first successful operation in ovariotomy in Hartford was the work of Dr. Jarvis.
Here his close analysis of causes came to the rescue, and he discovered that the use of im
pure water was the reason for so many previous failures. In the line of general surgery, Dr.
Jarvis has now the highest rank of his profession in the state. By careful experiments two
years ago, he found out a radical cure for inguinal hernia, and has performed the operation
several times. He supposed he was the originator in this new field, but after seven consecu
tively successful cases he found that Dr. Halstead of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Dr. Macewen of Scotland and Dr. Bassine of Padua, had made the same discovery and were
working along similar lines at the same time. The discovery is none the less to his honor,
as the investigations were made entirely independent of other physicians.

196 REPRESENTATIVE MEN .
In 1869, Dr. Jarvis was appointed examining surgeon for pensions, and, on the re
organization of the board in Hartford, was appointed its president. He filled that office tUl
1884. For six years he was a member of the examining committee for conferring degrees
at Yale CoUege, and relinquished the position through ill health. He was appointed one of
the visiting surgeons of Hartford Hospital in 1872. As the time has been so fully occupied
in the practice of his profession. Dr. Jarvis has had little opportunity for literary work, though
his tastes led him in that direction. He has found time, however, to make sundry contribu
tions to medical and surgical literature, and to the societies of which he is a member.
Dr. Jarvis was married to Martha, daughter of George GUlum, Esq., of Portiand, Conn.
They have one daughter, who is now the wife of Dr. C. E. Taft of Hartford.

LACKSTONE, LORENZO, ex-mayor, and a leading manufacturer of Norwich,
was born June 19, 1819, at Branford, Conn., and died Nov. 14, 1888.
AU students of English literature are familiar with the name of Blackstone.
No member of the legal profession, either in the United States or Great Britain
or the British colonies, is unacquainted with the "Commentaries on the Laws
of England," published by Sir WiUiam Blackstone, 1765-68. The master of the English
language, he was the first of all institutional writers who taught jurisprudence to speak in
the words of the scholar and gentleman. No less eminent as a Christian than as a laAvyer,
his native country has no son of whom she has more cause to be proud. Legal authors of
the highest character, on both sides of the Atlantic, have profitably exercised their profound
learning and critical acumen in annotations on his wonderful pages.
Colonists from the Blackstone family were received in New England at an early date.
An eccentric non-conforming clerg}'inaii was the first who appears in colonial records. In
1628, it is known that he was living in almost complete loneliness at the head of Massachusetts
Bay, on the peninsula of Shawmut. It is stated in the records of the place that when
Governor Winthrop arrived at Charlestown in the summer of 1630, that "Mr. Blackstone,
dwelling on the other side of the Charles river, alone, at a place by the Indians called Shaw
mut, where he had only a cottage, at or not far off from the place called Blackstone Point, he
came and acquainted the governor with an excellent spring there, withal inviting him and
soliciting him thither, whereupon, after the death of Mr. Johnson and divers others, the
governor, with Mr. Wilson, and the greatest part of the church, removed thither." In
consideration of his service, at a court held in April, 1633, fifty acres of land near his house
in Boston were granted to Mr. Blackstone forever.
For some unknown reason the old planter did not choose to remain in the neighborhood
of his new associates. Removing to the banks of the Pawtucket river, within the present
limits of the state of Rhode Island, he met Roger Williams, the founder of the Baptist church
in America, and though they were not in fuU sympathy, they made their homes not far apart.
The preliminary education of young Blackstone was gained in the district school of his
nati\'e place, and it was finished in the local academy. The hereditary influence of the first
Blackstone had no effect on his choice, and after several years' experience in mercantile
business, at the age of twenty-three he took an important step, which proved to be the
foundation of his subsequent success. The field was comparatively new, and the enterprise
an experiment full of risk, but his energy and ability brought forth most satisfactory results.
He opened an agency and commission house in Liverpool, England, for the sale of American

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. ¦ 197
merchandise, and ere long his transactions extended over all parts of Great Britain, and to
many points on the Continent and Australia. A few years after, to his already successful
business, he added the sale of rubber overshoes, being the first to introduce the Goodyear
rubber goods into Great Britain. Just as he had built up an extended trade in this special
line, he was notified by Charles Mackintosh & Company, the great rubber manufacturers of
Manchester, that he was infringing on their rights as owners of the patents of Thomas Han
cock, who was in litigation with Charies Goodyear. Never did the business tact and foresight
of the man show itself more clearly. He immediately entered into an arrangement with
Messrs. Mackintosh & Company, which gave him the exclusive right to sell rubber boots and
shoes in every part of Great Britain, and at the same time secured himself against the com
petition of American manufacturers and their English agents. It was a rare stroke of good
policy, and the results attained more than vindicated the wisdom of his action.
In 1857, Mr. Blackstone closed up his foreign business and removed to Norwich, Conn.,
where he resided till his death. His choice of a permanent abiding place was largely influenced
by his close relations with the Messrs. Norton, his brothers-in-law, who were leading merchants
of Norwich, as well as by his intimate friend. Governor Buckingham.
Becoming interested in manufacturing industries, in 1859, Mr. Blackstone purchased the
old Blashfield factory site. Erecting a substantial brick building, he put in new machinery,
modernizing the mill, and running the spindles up to a grand total of 28,000. The name
was also changed to the Attawaugan mill. Not long after he and his three brothers-in-law
were incorporated by the state under the name of The Attawaugan Manufacturing Corporation.
Besides the one mentioned, they purchased and operated three other mills, the Ballon, the
Totokett and the Pequot mills.
Gradually Mr. Blackstone extended his connections to various corporations, and naturally
his services were sought in an official capacity. He became a director in the Ponemah
Manufacturing Company, one of the largest in New England, and Richmond Stove Company.
Not all of Mr. Blackstone' s energy and managerial ability were confined to the building up
of manufacturing properties. On the organization of the Chelsea Savings Bank he was
chosen president and retained that office for a number of years. At the time of his death, he
was president of the Norwich Bulletin Association, and of the Occum Water Power Company.
In the Thames National Bank, and the Thames Land & Trust Company he was a director,
and he occupied the same position in the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, and other
railroads and corporations.
In local affairs Mr. Blackstone was deeply and beneficently interested, and has served as
tnistee of the Norwich Free Academy. Of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Norwich he
was a member for several years, and officiated as mayor for a similar period. During his admin
istration as mayor, the present system of water works with reservoir was conceived and built.
He represented his constituents in the lower branch of the legislature in 1871, and in
1878, as the successful candidate of the Republican party, he took his seat in the Senate.
Reelected to the same body in 1879, he served as chairman of the committee on finance with
marked ability. His extensive and protracted business experience, acknowledged skill in
financial matters, thorough acquaintance with legislation, and manifold accomplishments of
head and heart, enabled him to wield powerful infiuence among his fellow legislators. All his
attainments were used to the advancement of the best interests of the state at large. Mr.
Blackstone was an active and useful member of the Broadway Congregational church, and for
many years he served in the honorable position of deacon.
Lorenzo Blackstone was married in Branford, Conn., Oct. 17, 1842, to Emily, daughter
of Asa Norton, Esq. Three sons and two daughters were the result of this union : James
26

198 ¦ REPRESENTATIVE MEN
De Trafford, Harriet BeUe, EUen Frances, WiUiam Norton and Louis Lorenzo. James
De T. Blackstone is now treasurer of the Totokett Company, and secretary and treasurer of the
Occum Company. William N. is treasurer and agent of the Attawaugan Company, and a
director in the Thames National Bank and the Chelsea Savings Bank.
Mr. Blackstone's death occurred Nov. 14, 1888. The funeral services were from his
residence, and the interment was at Yantic Cemetery. The pall bearers were Messrs. Amos
W. Prentice, H. H. Osgood, Gardiner Greene, Henry BUI, Thomas D. Sayles, and John
MitcheU. After giving a summary of his life's history, the Norwich Bulletin said: "In
the death of Hon. Lorenzo Blackstone, Norwich loses a valued and esteemed citizen. In
every position in life he proved capable and efficient, and was as highly respected for his
private virtues as for his superior business qualifications and public services."

TRONG, DAVID, of Winsted, president of the Strong Manufacturing Company,
and of the First National Bank, was born in East Hampton, Conn., Aug. 17,
1825. That the Strongs of England, Ireland and Scotland are all of different
origin respectively, is manifest from the variety of their family crests. The
Strong family of England was originally located in the county of Shropshire.
Richard Strong was of this branch of the family, and was born in the county of Caernarvon,
Wales, in 1561. In 1590, he removed to Taunton, Somersetshire, England, where he died in
1613, leaving a son, John, then eight years of age, and a daughter, Eleanor. John Strong
moved to Plymouth, and having earnest Puritan sympathies he sailed for the New World
March 20, 1630, in company with one hundred and forty persons, in the ship "Mary and
John." In 1635, after assisting in founding and developing the town of Dorchester, he made
a brief stay in Hingham, and then located in Taunton, where he remained about ten years.
His next change was to Windsor, Conn., where he was appointed with four others "to
superintend and bring forward the settlement of that place," which had been settled a few
years before by a portion of the colony that with him had founded Dorchester. The " History
of the Strong Family" says of him: "In 1659, he removed from Windsor to Northampton,
Mass., of which he was one of the first and most active founders, and as he had previously been
of Dorchester, Hingham, Taunton and Windsor. In Northampton he lived for forty years,
and was the leading man in the affairs of the town and of the church. He was a tanner
and very prosperous in his business. He owned at different times, as appears by records
in the county clerk's office, some two hundred acres of land in and around Northampton."
From Elder John Strong the family line comes down through Jedediah, Jedediah, Jr.,
Ezra, David, who was a commissary in the Revolutionary army, to John C. A. Strong.
The last named was the youngest of nineteen children, married Deborah L- Clark, and was
the father of the subject of this sketch.
He received his education in the district school of East Hampton, during the intervals
of work on his father's farm, mingled with casual employment in a bell factory. For the
next few years, his life was varied indeed. Two years were spent with N. S. Markham,
a hoe manufacturer; subsequently he taught school several seasons, and for a couple of
winters he travelled as salesman for a book concern in Virginia and the West. In 1856,
Mr. Strong formed a partnership with A. H. Markham, under the name of Markham & Strong,
and went into the business of silver plating bells for the bell manufacturers of East Hampton.

^

'"°'''J}7,-r

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 199
Not long after they added the manufacture of coffin tacks and screws of white metal, then
much used by undertakers, and also the common kind of coffin handles. At the opening of
the War of the Rebellion, Clark Strong, only brother of David, returned from Missouri and
assumed the active management of the factory, while David carried on the farm.
In August, 1862, Mr. Strong and his brother, Clark, enlisted in Company C of the
Twenty-fourth Connecticut Volunteers, a nine months' regiment. He rose to the rank of
first lieutenant, and took part in General Banks's expedition in the Gulf Department, being
in all the forced marches from New Orieans to Port Hudson. His captain was off duty from
sickness, and he commanded the company during these marches, and also at the siege of
Port Hudson. The army record is one filled with faithful service and no shirking of duty.
Returning from the scenes of battie, Mr. Strong resumed his place on the paternal farm,
his brother taking charge of the factory, which had been managed by Mr. Markham in the
meantime. Just after the close of the war, Mr. Strong opened up a trade with undertakers,
selling by sample and buying his goods of Markham & Strong, and this proved to be a
growing business. In January, 1866, arrangements were perfected for moving to Winsted.
A joint stock company was formed there, under the title of the Strong Manufacturing Company,
and Mr. Strong was authorized by the company to buy the Markham & Strong business,
and the purchase was effected. For the first three years W. L- GUbert served as president,
then N. Adams filled the chair, and in 1871, Mr. Strong was chosen president, an office he
has held up to the present time. He soon took a leading position among the manufacturers
of that thriving town, and continues to hold a commanding place in the community. The
company has passed through several financial crises, but continues to increase the volume
of its trade from year to year.
Mr. Strong is also identified with the Winsted Hosiery Company, the New England
Knitting Company, the Winsted SUk Company, and the Winsted Shoe Manufacturing
Company, and in all these companies takes his full share of the management, being president
of the first and last named companies. Financial interests have called for a share of Mr.
Strong's attention. He is president of the First National Bank of Winsted, having been a
director since 1883, and is a member of the firm of H. M. Tanner & Company.
Men of Mr. Strong's probity of character and acknowledged capacity in business affairs
must expect to be called upon to accept official honors at the hands of their fellow townsmen.
He has been a selectman of the town of Winchester, and twice warden of the borough of
Winsted. From early manhood he has been a consistent Republican, and has always upheld
the principles of that party on the battle-field and in civil life. In 1872, he represented the
town of Winchester in the lower branch of the state legislature. Mr. Strong was again a
member of the House in 1886, at which session he served on the appropriation committee,
as well as other committees of lesser importance.
For many years he has been an active member of the Congregational church, and he
puts into his work for his Master the same characteristic energy he does into his business.
Mr. Strong's life has been passed mainly in farming and manufacturing, but wherever he has
come in contact with his fellow men, as a workman himself, as an employer of labor, as a
town officer, as a member of the legislature, he has always gained their entire confidence and
highest respect.
David Strong has been married three times. First to Frances A. Daniels-, Nov. 4, 1852.
She died March 24, 1856, leaving no children. He was married Sept. 14, 1857, to Chloe
Maria, daughter of Henry Colt, by whom he had one son, who died in infancy. She died
Feb. 2, 1865, and for his third wife he married Emerette L- Colt, sister of his previous wife.
Five children have been born to them, of whom three are living, Frederick Clark, Herbert
Gillette and Homer David Strong.

200 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
'ILSON, GROVE HERRICK, M. D., of Meriden, was born in Stockbridge,
Mass., March 25, 1824.
Two of the oldest and most honorable families in England and America
are united in the subject of this sketch. He is descended from Rev. WUliam
WUson, D. D., a canon of His Majesty's Royal Chapel, who married the
daughter of the Puritan Archbishop Grindal, and whose son, the Rev. John Wilson, married
Elisabeth, daughter of Sir John Mansfield, and, as one of the expedition of Governor
Winthrop, became the first pastor of the church of Boston.
On the maternal side the ancestry of Dr. Wilson can be traced to Eric the Forester,
of the royal house of Denmark, whose long war with the Angles resulted in the cession to
him of the counties of Warwick and Leicester in England. To this day the Eric (or
Herrick) famUy have a manor at Great Stratton, and a perpetual pew in the cathedral at
Leicester. The Rev. WiUiam Herrick, who was chaplain to Edward VI. and also minister
to the Sublime Porte under Elizabeth, was the grandfather of Robert Herrick, the famous
poet, and Sir William Herrick, whose son Henry was the first member of that family to
emigrate to America. It is recorded that he settled at Salem, Mass., in 1639, and his
great-grandson. Dr. Daniel Herrick of Preston, Conn., was the father of Sally Herrick,
who married Joseph H. Wilson in 1822, and became the mother of the future doctor. To
the famUy of Eric also belongs the discoverer of Greenland, whose son, Leif Eric, founded
the settlements at Martha's Vineyard and Rhode Island, an event commemorated by a statue
in Boston. Eminent positions in public and private life have also been adorned by other
members of the Herrick family.
At the common schools of Tyringham and Lee Academy, Mass., the early education of
Dr. Wilson was obtained, the special object in view being a preparation for the profession
of teacher. In his native state as well as in Delaware, he successfully engaged in teaching,
until failing health obliged him to seek occupation less confining. The problems of
medicine attracted him, and, beginning its study, he graduated from the Berkshire Medical
Institution in 1849. The scientific principles of Hahnemann attracted his attention, and
two years later he adopted homoeopathy, and has since followed in the footsteps of his great
leader. After practising his profession in North Adams and Conway, Mass., for several
years, he located in Meriden during the financial crisis of 1857, when the outlook of the
place was decidedly unpromising. It required but a limited period to establish an excellent
reputation for himself, and his professional career has been exceptionally successful, continu
ing uninterrupted to the present time. Before Meriden became a city, his patronage
embraced nearly two-thirds of the grand list of the town.
Dr. Wilson's activity as a practitioner would seem to preclude efforts in other directions,
however meritorious, but such has not been the case. To the medical knowledge of the
country he has contributed several original papers of much value, and, in 1882, he published
a monograph which clearly established the theory of the epidemic nature of intermittent
fevers in New England. Well informed in all the mechanical progress and invention of the
times, all the doctor's tastes lie in the direction of liberal and scientific culture. His
townsmen have frequently been given the benefit of his extensive knowledge in the form of
familiar talks on subjects of natural science. Two years before Edison invented the phono
graph. Dr. Wilson had brought out an instrument of that nature. Among his inventions
may be mentioned the "aural masseur," an instrument for treating deaf ness ' by the
massage of the internal ear, through the medium of aerial vibrations, a mode of which he
claims priority.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 201
In the public schools the doctor has maintained a continuous interest. He successfully
advocated the abolition of the "rate biU," making the schools absolutely free to every child
in Meriden. Within two years thereafter the state confirmed the wisdom of this action by
passing a law extending the same privilege to all the children of the commonwealth.
Other public interests have been accorded his sanction and support, nor has he shirked the
duties and responsibilities of official station. In 1880, and again in 1882, he served as a
member of the General Assembly for Meriden, and at each session his course was both
creditable to himself and beneficial to his constituents. For the past dozen years he has
been a member of the Connecticut Board of Health, and in this position his protracted
experience and intimate knowledge of affairs made him a valuable addition to that body. A
resident of a manufacturing community, the doctor has kept himself in close touch with the
life of the place, and is a zealous supporter of all that pertains to its welfare. He is
president of the Meriden Buckle Company, a young but growing corporation organized for
the purpose of manufacturing buckles and trimmings for arctic overshoes.
In early manhood Dr. Wilson connected himself with the followers of Masonry, and
has since become acquainted with all its mysteries. He had the honor of being the first
commander of St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, and by successive elections passed through the
various chairs in regular order until, in 1893, ^^ reached the eminence of grand commander
of the Grand Commandery of Connecticut. For the year 1893 ^^ served as mayor of the
city of Meriden, and was a worthy successor to the honorable men who had preceded him
in that office. An active member of the Ecclesiastical Society of the First Congregational
church of Meriden, he has been given an opportunity to show his appreciation of religious
truth. Says a sketch of him in the History of New Haven County :
Although somewhat independent in regard to theological systems, he has, without being a member of the
. Christian church, never failed of supporting the measures of the gospel, and holds to a rigid moralit)' in all
the ways of life. His religious sentiments are exalted, and his thoughts upon such subjects, profound and
liberal, are often evinced in his actions in his social and professional life. He served on the building com
mittee of the present First Congregational church edifice — one of the finest in the state — which was greatly
embellished by his artistic taste and efforts to elevate the style of architecture. The finely ornamented capitals,
designed by him, are examples of his love for this work, and show his knowledge of sacred symbolism, ex
pressing in carved and enduring stone the course of natural and revealed religion in the human heart. Dr.
Wilson has a genial and benevolent nature, is a ready conversationalist, loving controversial discussions, but is,
withal, conservative in his speech and actions, and is justly considered an influential and popular citizen.
Dr. Wilson was married Nov. 30, 1848, to Margaret A., daughter of John Adams of
Pencader Hundred, Delaware. He has one son, Edgar A. Wilson, who graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1881, with the degree of M. D., and after practicing several
years in Rockville came to Meriden, and is now associated with his father, and materially
lightens the cares of the increasing practice.

203 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

^ LOWES, GEORGE HEWLETT, of Waterbury, president of the Board of
_^ Trade, and managing member of the firm of Randolph & Clowes, was born
"^^^f^M^ at Clinton, Oneida County, New York, June 17, 1842, during his father's
presidency of the Clinton Liberal Institute.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century the name of Clowes first
appears in America. Here, its starting point was in that old, historic and thriving town of
Hempstead, L- I. Indeed, the burying ground of St. George's church in Hempstead is, in
its epitaphs, a sufficient history of the family since its first advent to this country. It is
a surprising fact, in looking over its records from the beginning, to find so many of the
name in succeeding generations who have pursued professional and scholarly lives, — doctors,
lawyers, clergymen, almost exclusively, — many of them quite distinguished in their life
work. Perhaps, however, no one of the name acquired so high a position in the world of
letters and scholarship as the Rev. Timothy Clowes, LL.D., the father of our present
subject. This man, most eminent in his profession, was born March 18, 1787; was graduated
as Master of Arts at Columbia CoUege in 1808; was a clergyman in 1809 of the estabhshed
church, with a parish at Jamaica, L. I., and later one in Jersey City; was rector of St.
Peter's church, in Albany, from 1810 to 1817, — at the end of which time he returned to
Hempstead, and for three years taught with marked success one of the leading classical
institutes of the countr}-. Recognizing his vast and varied erudition, he was honored in
182 1, with the degree of Doctor of Laws by Allegheny College, and the same year was
appointed the principal of Erasmus Hall, Flatbush, L. I. In 1823, Dr. Clowes received a
call to the presidenc}- of Washington College, Maryland, which he accepted. Over this insti
tution of learning he presided for six years. During a part of this period he was also rector
of the Episcopal church in Chestertown, Md., and of St. Paul's, Kent County, Md. In 1829,
Washington College was destroyed by fire, and Dr. Clowes again opened his classical school
in Hempstead, L- I. This seminary in the succeeding nine years became widely celebrated
as an institution of learning. The Clinton Liberal Institute, Oneida County, N. Y., called
him in 1838 to its presidency, — a position which he creditably occupied for four years. Dr.
Clowes died at Hempstead, Long Island, June 19, 1847.
If the subject of this notice derives some of his best qualities to insure success in life
from his distinguished father, he is no less indebted for many of his most manly
characteristics to his mother. Her maiden name was Miss Mary Hewlett, and her mother's
name was Mary Sands. She came from a long and noted ancestry. Her lineage is distinctly
traced, step by step, to the middle of the eleventh century in England, and her famUy was
exclusively of Saxon origin. The name was originally Sandys in the olden times, but has
since been speUed Sandes, Saudis, and Sands. Dr. Benjamin Sandys was Archbishop of
York in the time of Cromwell, who confiscated his vast estates just as he treated every
thing of value with which he came in contact. There is at present an association of the
Sands's family heirs, — of which Mr. Clowes is a member, — seeking for a restoration to them
through the British Parliament of these estates, aggregating $100,000,000. In Ainerica, the
Sands family first appears in the person of Sir Edwin Sandys, who, in 1617, became
governor and treasurer of the Virginia colony. Subsequently, in 1640, representatives of the
parent stock in England settied in Boston, Mass. The genealogy of the Sands famUy from
this point to the present, — covering nearly three centuries, — is both interesting and
instructive, but our narrow limits forbid its introduction here. Suffice it to say, that it
comprised members of all of the three recognized professions, men prominent in business
circles in New York and elsewhere, officers, soldiers and patriots of our wars of the
Revolution and of 1812, bankers, members of Congress, judges, naval officers, and scholars.

scl-ius'.'."-3 TijMislirrif, Co E-.'e.i-slt, Mass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 203
Mr. Clowes 's father died when he was but five years of age. Upon his widowed mother
devolved the care, education and training of two children, both of tender years. Until he
was eleven years of age, Mt. Clowes attended the Hempstead Seminary and Jamaica
Academy. For the four following years, he was a student of the Thetford Academy,
Thetford, Vt. At the age of fifteen, his brother, then a banker in De Pere, Wis., gave
him a position in his banking house, which he retained until he entered St. Lawrence
University at Appleton, Wis. Since his college days, until 1875, he made his home with
his mother in Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Clowes has also an honorable record, as a young and
patriotic citizen, in our late Civil War. Under the competent instruction of Colonel
Tompkins, who had been commissioned to educate officers for military positions, he passed
a successful examination before the board of United States examining officers, and was at
once appointed adjutant of the McCleUan infantry. Having aided in recruiting 600 men for
a new regiment, an order of consolidation with another and smaller body of recruits was
issued by the war department, and, — owing in all probability to political favoritism, — the
entire regimental staff of the latter body was placed in command of the full regiment. It
was a flagrant piece of injustice, but it did not in the least diminish the patriotic ardor of
Mr. Clowes. On a second call for troops, he at once reenlisted, a musket on his shoulder,
with the 47th Regiment, N. Y. N. G. Soon he was appointed sergeant-major of the
regiment, which position he held when mustered out. He had, likewise, during the War
of the Rebellion, an extensive experience in the navy of the United States. For a year
and a half he served on the United States gunboat Flambeau, doing duty off the coast of
North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Later he was transferred to the United
States storeship "Home," and was faithful to duty aboard this ship until she was ordered
home in the summer of 1864. His elder brother, Joseph Clowes, now retired, was also in
the service of the navy of the Union as admiral's secretary, and the loss of a leg at the
fall of Fort Fisher sufficiently attests his love of country and his sacrifice for her in her
hour of sore distress. This is all the more marked as he volunteered his services for shore
duty against the admiral's advice not to go ashore with the marines.
In 1882, Mr. Clowes was united in marriage to Miss Mamie T. Blacknall, daughter of
Dr. George W. Blacknall of Raleigh, N. C, and their home is a model of refinement, happiness
and domestic felicity.
The first experience of Mr. Clowes in a mercantile life began as bookkeeper and after
wards as salesman, for the flourishing house of Gardner & Company, New York. This was
late in 1864. At the end of two years he received a flattering offer from the Middlefield Fire
and BuUding Stone Company, 1269 Broadway, N. Y. While thus engaged, he was appointed
paymaster's clerk on the United States gunboat "Juniata," ordered to the European station,
and sailed in July, 1869. He was abroad tUl 1872. Returning to the United States, he at
once was engaged as loan and discount clerk for the New York Loan Indemnity Company.
In this position he won the respect and admiration of all who dealt with him, and, through
their confidence in him personally, he influenced to this company during the two years of
his connection with it, deposits of his friends of upwards of a quarter of a million of dollars.
It was with this banking house that the old firm of Brown & Brothers of Waterbury, Conn.,
with a reputation world-wide for upwards of forty years, then kept their New York account.
Late in 1874, when the New York Loan Indemnity Company were arranging to discontinue
business, Mr. Philo Brown (the then president of Brown & Brothers), asked, in the course
of a business conversation, its president, if he could recommend one of the employees of the
bank to him, a man who would have the requisite character, stamina and ability, if engaged,
to grow up and become identified with his large business establishment in Waterbury. Calling

204 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
up Mr. Clowes, the president at once remarked to Mr. Brown: "Of all those employed in
this bank, I speak in every respect most highly of this one." That recommendation was
sufficient, an engagement of Mr. Clowes at once foUowed, and, as a result, on Jan. i, 1875,
Mr. Clowes came to Waterbury and entered upon his duties as head bookkeeper of Brown &
Brothers. During the entire period of his connection with Brown & Brothers, covering
about eleven years, it should, however, be stated that Mr. Clowes had no part in the direction,
policy or management of the concern. Owing to financial difficulties and embarassments and
other causes, entirely foreign to a discussion here, in January, 1886, it was deemed advisable
for the once powerful and solid company of Brown & Brothers to make an assignment. This
event occurred under the presidency of Franklin Farrel, Esq., the elder Brown having died
some }'ears before. The trustees of the company, however, recognizing the ability and
integrity of Mr. Clowes, retained him for his aid to them in winding up its involved and
intricate affairs.
His keen mercantile sagacity told him at once that the purchase of the seamless tube,
brazed tube and boiler business from the trustees might be made the nucleus of a great
industry. This, however, was at that time but a small portion of the original plant of Brown
& Brothers. To secure its control required an outlay of $37,500. The purchase price of the
kettle business of the late company was fixed at $5,000 additional. At once and without
delay Mr. Clowes applied to a friend of years' standing, Mr. Edward F. Randolph, a man of
wealth and with large business interests in New York, for the capital necessary to make this
purchase. After a conference, Mr. Randolph at once agreed to furnish conditionally the
requisite sum. The imposed condition was in substance that the entire responsibility of the
direction and management of the plant, when bought, should devolve upon Mr. Clowes. It
was an immense undertaking for one man to assume, especially when a new company, under
new conditions and surroundings, must be built up on the wreck of the old. The entire
purchase price of $42,500 was, however, at once furnished. Mr. Clowes assumed all personal
responsibility of management, and in April, 1886, the sale was effected by a transfer of the
portion indicated of the former Brown & Brothers' plant from the trustees to Randolph &
Clowes. The partnership capital of the new firm was at that time fixed at $75,000 (though
subsequently many times increased), and the partnership of Randolph & Clowes was launched
upon its business career. At that time (April, 1886) they employed fifty men and one clerk.
Their office quarters consisted of a small room, about fourteen feet square. By comparison,
at the present writing (January, 1894) they now employ eight under superintendents, and
over five hundred hands. The main office, a magnificent brick structure, beautiful in its
architectural design, and its convenience, where all books, records and accounts are kept, gives
employment to fifteen clerks. The firm also at present has its own offices in New York^
Boston, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, together with a large distributing depot in Chicago.
After their first purchase as before described, in 1886, for three years Mr. Clowes put
forth all his energies towards building up the little business so acquired. From small begin
nings, the volume of business transacted rapidly increased. In three years $105,000 had been
laid out upon it, and, at the end of that time, this thriving partnership, in its seamless
tube, brazed tube and kettle departments was transacting a business exceeding $600,000 per
annum, — a surprising showing upon the original investment. At this juncture, the energy,
executive ability and business skill of Mr. Clowes stood him well in hand. Consuming, as
they did, large quantities of sheet brass and copper, his business sagacity suggested the pro
priety of his firm engaging likewise in its manufacture. Their increased business, also, had
outgrown the quarters which it then occupied. Consequently, in March, 1889, the present
partners purchased of the trustees, at a cost of $75,000, the old rolling mUl of Brown &

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 205
Brothers, — the largest single roUing miU in the country, — together with the remainder of
the property. It was a business venture at which many old and experienced manufacturers
shook their heads, predicting only impending ruin and disaster to the young and thriving
firm. But, as we have seen, among his qualities Mr. Clowes does not number the coward
ice of a faint heart. He was not to be satisfied until he could reach a point where he could
see his firm second to none, either in its capacity for volume of business, credit in its
finance, or ability in its management.
Whether or not he has succeeded, the figures alone will show. Starting with about
200 customers on its books, this concern now has nearly 3000. Up to the present time
over $500,000 has been spent in improving the property, as originally purchased. The cost,
therefore, of this plant, — starting in such modest proportions but eight years ago, — is to
the partners over $650,000.00. The betterments to the property, — taking into consideration
the constantly increasing success of the enterprise, — give it a value more than double their
entire cost. In the management and de\'elopment of this enormous industry Mr. Clowes
has had no aid from any source, except the generous financial assistance of his partner, who,
however, has given no time whatever to its conduct, policy or supervision. It must also be
remembered that, during these few years of the growth and maturity of this firm, it has been
compelled in the open market to face and combat the competition of old and established cor
porations, with limitless credit and recognized experience born of many years. Its success,
is, therefore, an added cause for congratulation to Mr. Clowes, as its manager. Perhaps one
of the main causes for this rapid and enormous growth may, under the circumstances, be
found in the rigid system of economy upon which Mr. Clowes has insisted in every detail.
Expenses of selling and marketing goods, as well as the general expenses of the manage
ment, — all outside of the actual cost of production — have been reduced by him to a minimum.
The cost to the company of this item has never exceeded three per cent, of their sales.
The difference between this figure, and the selling expenses of other companies in the same
line — running from seven to twelve per cent, on their output, — goes far towards explain
ing why Randolph & Clowes can make so good a financial exhibit, and how carefully,
judiciously and systematically their business is managed.
Mr. Clowes is still the active, energetic, persevering manager and partner of this great
and prosperous firm. Their extensive and magnificent works, occupying a central portion of
the city of Waterbury, covering an area of neariy seven acres, with unlimited and never-
failing water supply from the Naugatuck River, which is in close proximity ; the size,
convenience and neat condition of their buildings ; the immense, powerful, modern and
varied character of their machinery, — all go to make of Randolph & Clowes's a grand and
unsurpassed manufacturing establishment. This alone is an enduring monument to George
H. Clowes. Few business men in the country can point to such stupendous results, accu
mulated in so few years, by their own personal, individual, unaided efforts. No wonder that
the city of Waterbury, with its immense manufacturing interests, has Been glad to honor
Mr. Clowes with the presidency of its Board of Trade, to which position he was elected
Jan. 8, 1894.
Although quiet, unobtrusive, affable and ever courteous, he is of a type of business men
who possess at bottom sterling honesty, absolute independence and limitless perseverance.
In every enterprise, with him "to think is to perform." Inheriting through a long line of
ancestors what may be called the severely Saxon qualities, — integrity, determination and
clear-headedness — he yet adds to them the peculiarly American traits of push, pluck and
self-reliance. This rare combination in itself is enough to guarantee success in any man.
To the possession of this compound of qualities both of mind and heart the present high
position of Mr. Clowes in the manufacturing world is largely due.
27

2o6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Let the Examiner voice the sentiments of the citizens :
Last Monday the Waterbury Board of Trade organized for the current year, 1894. New members were
admitted, and it looks as if this body would be a more powerful factor for the welfare of our city the
coming year than ever before. They began their work well by making the very creditable and deserved
selection of Mr. George H. Clowes as their president. Mr. Clowes is one of Waterbury's most active and enthu
siastic business men. At the head of an immense establishment himself, he has shown by his own endeavors
the past eight years just what business pluck and endeavor can do. He has established an industry among
us, giving employment to 400 men, and has made it successful from the beginning. His election, therefore,
as president of the Board of Trade shows conclusively that this board means business. We shall indeed be
much mistaken if, during his presidency of this Board, it does not have a decided influence in all matters
of public importance to our citizens.
In political life Mr. Clowes has always been a staunch Republican, and takes pride in
being a member of that great organization. Besides the official positions he holds in Water
bury, he is also vice-president of the State Board of Trade of Connecticut, and a director
in the Cooperative Savings Society of Connecticut, at Hartford.

^=^ORSE, GEORGE MILTON, of Putnam, president of the Powhatan and the
Morse Mills Manufacturing Corporations, was born in Central Falls, Rhode
Island, Aug. 25, 1830. It was a time prolific in the birth of men who were
prominent in national affairs, as well as in literature and other fields of action:
President Chester A. Arthur, James G. Blaine, and a long line of cabinet officers
and Union generals, not to mention a goodly array of men who were leaders in their chosen
spheres. Milton S. Morse, father of the subject of this sketch, was largely engaged in manufact
uring and erected the Morse and Nightingale stone mills in Putnam. He contributed in no
small degree to the prosperity of the place, and will ever be remembered for his strong
character and abilit}' as a manager of corporations.
The education. of George M. Morse was obtained principally in the public schools of his
native town, and of the city of Providence. After passing a limited period in the West, he
returned to Putnam, where he resided, and has been a moving force in the community for
over forty years. In 1872, under the supervision of his father and Mr. George C. Nightingale,
he built the Powhatan Mill. He is now president of the Powhatan and the Morse Mills
Corporations, which are among the leading cotton manufacturing concerns in the Quinnebaug
Valley. For over a dozen years his son, Mr. A. I. Morse, has filled the office of superin
tendent, but Mr. Morse still carries the heavy burden of the management with apparent ease.
It was but natural that a man of Mr. Morse's probity of character and knowledge of
business affairs should be called upon to accept official honors at the hands of his fellow
citizens. He has held and worthily filled various offices within the gift of his townsmen.
In 1890, he was elected to represent Putnam in the General Assembly, and served on several
important committees.
Mr. Morse has decided opinions both in regard to politics and religion. In political life
he is an ardent Republican, and at each election uses his utmost influence for the success of
the party ticket. He is a member and deacon of the Baptist church of Putnam, and deeply
interested in Christian work. The camp meeting grounds at Douglass, Mass., are largely
owned by him, and for many years he has been an active participant at the meetings.
George M. Morse was married to Melora Whitney of KiUingly. Nine children were the
result of this union, all of whom are now living, two of the sons being associated with the
father in business.

MassacIiusett3M]is'hineCo,£vsr6tt,INraE

i

1

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1S94. 207
KILTON, DeWITT CLINTON, president of the Phoenix (Fire) Insurance
Company of Hartford, Conn., was born in that portion of the present town of
Thomaston, Conn., which was then known as Plymouth Hollow, Jan. 11, 1839.
He is a descendant of the ancient English famUy of Skeltons of Yorkshire
and Warwickshire, his first American ancestor being Dr. Henry Skilton, who was
born in the parish of St. Michael's, Coventry, in 1718. In his seventeenth year Henry Skilton
saUed for America in a " gun ship," the day of starting being April i, 1735, and after living
in Roxbury, Mass., for a short time, he transferred his residence fo Preston, Conn., where in
1741 he married the daughter of Joseph Avery of Norwich. He removed to Southington in
1750, ten years later to Woodbury, and in his old age to Watertown, where he died in 1802,
in his eighty-fifth year. Dr. Skilton was the first physician to commence the practice of
medicine in Southington, and the house he built in that town is still standing.
Mr. Skilton's ancestors were among the early and most distinguished settlers of Hartford
County. On his father's mother's side he is a descendant of Hon. John Steele, the young
Englishman who was the close friend and companion of Rev. Thomas Hooker in bringing the
party from Massachusetts Bay Colony and founding the city of Hartford, and was prominently
active for years in connection with the development of the towns of Hartford and Farmington.
In the illustrious list may also be included Hon. John Wadsworth, (the half-brother of Captain
Wadsworth, who is said to have removed and concealed the Connecticut charter in the old oak) ,
Sir William Southmayd, Hon. Matthew Allyn (one of the original parties to the royal charter) ,
Hon. John Allyn (who is called in the History of Connecticut " the great secretary "), WiUiam
Pynchon, Esq., Gov. Thomas Welles, Captain William Judd and Timothy Judd, Esq., the
last two representatives of Waterbury in the colonial government almost continuously for
forty years, and many others of equal prominence in the history of the colony and state.
After receiving a limited education in the district schools, young Skilton removed to
Hartford in 1855, and began his mercantile career in the dry goods trade. In October, 1861,
he first entered the insurance business as a clerk in the office of the Hartford Fire Insurance
Company. Less than a year had elapsed when his patriotic impulses were stirred, and he
enlisted in Company B of the Twenty-second Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. He was
elected second lieutenant, and served with distinction in the army until he was mustered out
July 7, 1863, having been promoted to a first lieutenantcy in the meantime.
On his return from the army, Mr. Skilton resumed his old position with the insurance
company, and continued in that capacity till December, 1867. At this time, as he had
gained a reputation for himself in his chosen field of action, he was elected secretary of the
Phoenix Insurance Company. This position he held till Aug. i, 1888, when for six weeks he
filled the office of both secretary and vice-president. On Sept. 11, 1888, he resigned his office
as secretary and was made vice-president and acting president, and served in this dual capacity
till Feb. 2, 1891, when he was elected president of the company, and is now filling that
important position. Owing to the ill-health of the late Henry Kellogg, president of the
company for many years, he was relieved of all care and responsibility of its affairs from
Aug. I, 1888, till his death in January, 189 1, the duties of the office being performed by the
vice-president. When Mr. Skilton entered the service of the company in December, 1867, the capital
was $600,000; the assets were $1,234,195, and the surplus, $113,683. On the ist of January,
1894, the capital of the Phoenix Company had more than trebled, the exact amount being
.$2,000,000; the assets had increased four and one-half times to $5,429,793, and the surplus
was more than six times as large, having grown to $713,195. Its premium income for the

2o8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
year 1868 was $1,219,211, and for the year 1893 it was neariy three times as great, $3,306,-
240. During Mr. Skilton's connection with the company it has paid out for losses almost
a round thirty millions of dollars. The great growth in American underwriting has been made
during the last thirty years, and Mr. Skilton's underwriting career has been contemporary
with this growth, and he has been identified with all work looking to reforms in that busi
ness and broadening its methods. He was a member of the committee that prepared the New
York Standard poUcy, now in use in most of the United States.
The records of the National Board of Fire Underwriters show that in i860 there were
129 joint stock fire insurance companies doing business in the state of New York, and that
they collected in premiums that year on all their business in this country, $6,710,412.27,
and paid for losses, $3,578,934.15. The same records show that in 1893 there were 127
joint stock fire insurance companies doing business in that state (two less than in i860), and
that they collected in premiums on their entire business that year $134,984,282.00, and paid
out for losses $90,344,075. This great increase not only shows the wonderful growth in the
business of American fire underwriting, but also clearly shows the great growth of the
country, and the immense increase in the amount and value' of insurable property. It is
believed by many, that fire underwriting has been one of the greatest factors in the develop
ment of the business of the country, for fire insurance protection is the basis of all business
credit. In the last seven years 192 companies have either failed or withdrawn from the
business, and since i860, the records show that 797 companies have failed or retired from
business, withdrawing $174,864,426.00 in assets from the fire insurance business of the
country. Those that have fought the fight and still remain have proved their solidity and
strength. In addition to his official connection with the Phoenix Company, Mr. Skilton is a director
in the Hartford National Bank, a corporator and trustee of the State Savings Bank, a mem
ber of the military order of the Loyal Legion, of the Grand Army of the Republic and of
the Hartford Club. His relations- with the National Board of Fire Underwriters have been
highly honorable. After serving for three years as secretary, he was vice-president for seven
years, and then filled another term of three years as president. He ranks unquestionably
among the expert underwriters of the country, and while the credit for all the success
attained by the Phoenix cannot be laid at his door, for he has been ably assisted by his
official associates, still his services have been invaluable, and a large share is acknowledged
as being due to his able management. Interested in educational affairs he held the office of
committeeman of the west middle school district for several years. In political matters he
acts with the Republican party, and his religious connections are with the Asylum Avenue
CongregationaL Church.
Aug. 8, 1865, Mr. Skilton was married to Ann Jeannette, daughter of Lyman Andrews
of Hartford. Two children were born to them, neither of whom is now living.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 209

IMONDS, WILLIAM EDGAR, of CoUinsville, ex-speaker of the Connecticut
House of Representatives, ex-member of Congress, and ex-United States com
missioner of patents, was born in CoUinsvUle, Conn., Nov. 24, 1842. Through
his father he was descended from the famUies of Simonds and (Daniel) Webster;
and through his mother from the families of Weaver and Converse, the latter
tracing an unbroken line from Roger de Coigneries, who came to England with William the
Conqueror. His father died in 1845, after a long illness, leaving no means for the support of his widow
and three chUdren, of whom William, the subject of this sketch, was the youn.o-est. Mrs.
Simonds, a woman of superior intellect and high character, bravely assumed her heavy duties
and as bravely discharged them, giving to her children an excellent English education. When
he had completed the usual course in the graded and high schools of his native village, William,
then a well-grown lad of sixteen, eagerly entered the arena of labor, endeavoring to become
self-supporting, and helpful as well to his devoted mother. His first employment was at the
works of the Collins Company, manufacturers of cutlery, at Collins\ille. Out of the small
compensation received for his services, he managed to save enough to enable him to take a
course of study at the Connecticut State Normal School at New Britain, which he entered
in the fall of 1859, and from which he was graduated in i860. Obtaining a position as a
school teacher he remained thus engaged until the summer of 1862, when he gave up teaching
to enter the Union army as a volunteer. Enlisting in August as a private in Company A, of
the Twenty-fifth Connecticut regiment, he made such a good impression that he was advanced
within a few days to the grade of sergeant-major, and as such was mustered into the United
States service. Accompanying his regiment to the seat of war, he served with it in the
department of the Gulf, and for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Irish Bend, La., AprU
14, 1863, was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and assigned to Compan^¦ I. Twenty-
five years later, April 14, 1888, at a reunion of the regiment held in Hartford, on the
anniversary of the battle. Col. George P. Bissell, former commander, referring to that memor
able occasion in his address, said :
I have always regretted that we could not have gone into that fight as a solid regiment, but it was not so
ordered, and we went in, half all over the lots and half in reserve, but that gave an opportunity for us later to
execute one of the most difficult manoeuvres in war, that of forming a regimental line under fire, and sharp fire,
too ; but we did it, thanks to McManus and Ward, and also to William Edgar Simonds, whom I promoted in the
field for his coolness in that act.
Lieutenant Simonds was mustered out with his regiment at the expiration of its term of
service, on Aug. 26, 1863. Having already determined upon the law as a life vocation he
entered Yale Law School, and was graduated therefrom in 1865, with the degree of Bachelor
of Laws. After practicing in a general way for nearly two years, Mr. Simonds became
interested in patent law, and since then has devoted himself exclusively to this branch of
his profession. He has embodied the results of his researches in this department in several
voluminous works, which are conceded to possess high merit, and have been accepted by the
legal profession as standards. These works are entitled, "Design Patents," " Digest of Patent
Office Decisions," "Summary of Patent Law," and "Digest of Patent Cases," embracing
all patent cases decided by the federal and state courts since the foundation of the government.
In 1884, Mr. Simonds was called to the faculty of Yale Law School as lecturer on patent
law, and still retains that position. He has occupied a similar position in the Columbian
University at Washington, D. C, since 1891. Being widely recognized as an authority on
patent law he draws his practice from all parts of the United States, and is counsel for many

2IO REPRESENTATIVE MEN
cases on the dockets of the United States Supreme Court, and a number of the United States
Circuit Courts, including those of the district of Massachusetts, Northern and Southern New
York, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Mr. Simonds has always been a Republican in politics, and was elected by that party
to the Connecticut legislature in 1883, and immediately took rank as one of the leaders in
that body, and was made chairman of the joint standing committee on railroads. In this
capacity he was prominent in effecting the passage of wise laws governing the railroads of
the state. Commenting upon his labors in connection with the passage of what was known
as "the short haul bill," the Hartford Courant of April 12, 1883, said: "Mr. Simonds is
a lawyer whose large practice in the specialty of patents has thrown him into familiar relations
with our manufacturers. His practical experience has undoubtedly shown him the necessity
and justice of such a bill as this, and he is entitled to the gratitude of the state for having
advocated it as he did." Reelected to the House in 1885, he had the honor of being chosen
speaker, and " his administration of that office was such as to make every member his personal
and lasting friend." His intelligent advocacy of the bill establishing the Storrs Agricultural
College aided materially in securing its passage in 1885. He has been a trustee of this
institution since 1886.
On the subject of agriculture generally Mr. Simonds is no mean authority, as his many
public addresses bearing on this topic indicate, notably, those delivered at the commencement
exercises of the Agricultural College in 1885, 1887 and 1892, and at the annual meeting of
the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in 1888. Mr. Simonds has likewise given close study
to the science of political economy, and has published several highly interesting papers
upon economic questions, among which may be named one entitled, "Discontent Among the
Laboring Classes," in the state labor report for 1888, and one on "Wool and Woollens,"
given in that year and printed in full in the Hartford Post, and widely copied by the public '
press. His brief career in the state legislature so clearly proved his capacity for legislative
duties that in 1888, he was nominated for Congress by the Republicans of the first district,
comprising the counties of Hartford and Tolland. In the ensuing canvass he developed
remarkable strength, being successful in defeating the sitting Democratic member. As a
member of the Fifty-first Congress of the United States, Mr. Simonds served from March 4,
1889, until March 4, 1891. A writer, speaking of his work in Congress, says :
He signalized his service in the Fifty-first Congress by his successful efforts in connection with international
copyright. A bill looking to that end had been decisively defeated in the House, when Mr. Simonds drew and
introduced another bill and secured for it, after repeated contests, a victory quite as decisive as its former defeat;
which bill subsequently became a law, it being the first international copyright act of the United States, a measure
which has been contended for ever since Henry Clay began the agitation of this subject half a century ago.
Mr. Simonds was unanimously re-nominated for Congress by the Republican congressional
convention of his district in 1890, but went down with the poUtical landslide which gave
the Democrats a more than two-thirds majority in the House. In 1891, the office of United
States commissioner of patents becoming vacant. President Harrison appointed Mr. Simonds
to the position, which he held until 1893. The selection proved agreeable to persons of all
shades of political belief, and was favorably commented upon throughout the whole Union,
JMr. Simonds's special fitness for the office being indisputable. His administration of the
office, including some hundreds of judicial decisions, the introduction of reforms and unequalled
reports to Congress, has been pronounced phenomenal, even by political opponents. Possessing
great abUity as an orator, Mr. Simonds has, on many notable occasions, been chosen to deliver
formal addresses. His eulogy on the late MarshaU Jewell of Connecticut, delivered in 1883 ;
his Gettysburg appropriation speech, delivered in 1885; his Memorial Day oration at

MasEacliusettsPiiblialung Co.ETei6tt,Masa,

oL

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 211
Hartford, on May 30, 1887 ; his historical discourse on the centennial of the first company of
the Governor's Horse Guards, in 1889, and his Memorial Day address at Ariington National
Cemetery in 1893, are all recognized as masterly efforts. Few citizens of Connecticut are
more popular than Mr. Simonds. He is an especial favorite of the veterans of the Civil War,
and has been the Memorial Day orator in nearly all the large cities of Connecticut. He is a
member of the military orders known as the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Loyal
Legion of the United States, and also of several leading organizations of a civic and benevolent
character. Yale gave Mr. Simonds the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1890, and France made
him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1891. The following are among his published
productions: " Law of Design Patents, 1874; " "Historical Address, Canton, Conn., 1876; "
"Digest of Patent Office Decisions, 1880;" "Summary of Patent Law, 1883;" "Grant
Memorial Address, Derby, Conn., 1885;" "Proposed Amendment to Constitution of Conn.,
1886;" "Discontent Among Laboring Classes, in Annual Labor Report, Conn., 1887;"
"Memorial Day Address, Hartford, Conn., 1887;" "Centennial Address, First Company
Governor's Horse Guards, Hartford, Conn., 1888;" "Speech in Congress, May 9, 1890, on
Tobacco Schedule of Tariff BUI;" "Report to House of Representatives on International
Copyright, June 10, 1890," reprinted in Haven's book on same subject; " Speech in Congress,
Dec. 3, 1890, on International Copyright; " " Speech in Congress, Feb. 19, 1891, on Shipping
BUI; " "Natural Right of Property in Intellectual Productions," in Yale Lazv fournal, October,
1891 ; "Report to Congress as Commissioner of Patents, January, 1892;" "Report to
Congress as Commissioner of Patents, January, 1893;" "Memorial Address at Arlington
National Cemetery, 1893;" "Are Our Patent Laws Iniquitous?" in North American
Review, December, 1893.
WiUiam E. Simonds was married Oct. 17, 1877, to Sarah J. Mills, daughter of Hon.
Addison O. Mills of Canton, Conn., now deceased.

jOWARD, MARK, of Hartford, late president of National Fire Insurance Company,
was born in Loose, County of Kent, England, May 27, 181 7. His grandfather,
Mark Howard, had been a leader in an uprising against the tyranny of George
IIL, in consequence of which the family estates were confiscated. Hatred of
oppression drew the studies of Mark Howard, 2d, to the history and government
of the United States. In 1831, with his two sons, Mark and John, aged respectively thirteen
and eleven, he crossed the ocean to establish his home in America. Four weeks after reaching
Ann Arbor, in the territory of Michigan, the father died, leaving directions on his death bed
that the boys should not be sent back to England, as he wished them to be brought up under
the infiuence of Republican institutions. Judge Dexter of Ann Arbor was their guardian and
friend. To those who knew Mark Howard in life, his picture will recall the integrity, the force,
the fearlessness in pursuit of right, that made him, wherever he was, a trusted leader. Com
paratively few men in a generation are so fully guided as was he by intellectual and moral
convictions. His aims were high, his ideals exalted. In his nature the compliance that
coquettes with principle and compromises with wrong, never for a moment found lodgment. He
took deep interest in the issues that preceded and followed the war, and, on all the stirring
questions that from time to time agitated the public, the community knew in advance just
where he would be found. He was absolutely fearless, and never more at home than when
battling for justice at the head of a forlorn hope.

212 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
At the age of se\'enteen he established a newspaper in Ann Arbor in the interest of the
Whig party. It was published one-half in the German language and one-half in English.
He entered ardently into frontier politics, and while stUl a minor was appointed clerkof one
of the branches of the legislature and held the position for two terms. His clear vision and
well defined opinions brought him into the councils of much older leaders, while his trenchant
pen gave him an influence far beyond his years.
At the age of twent}-six he was appointed local agent at Ann Arbor for the Protection
Insurance Company of Hartford. His services in a narrow field were so valuable that, in 1846,
he was appointed special agent of the company with authority to supervise existing and to
establish new agencies at the West, and at that time he removed to Hartford. He was the
first person in the United States to be employed by any company for this exclusive work.
He travelled from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico by stage coach and steamer, experiencing
his full share of hardships and adventures.
The Protection, the Hartford and the ^tna suffered heavily in the great St. Louis fire
of 1849. The management of the Protection seriously contemplated permitting the concern
to die then and there, having lost heart from repeated disasters. Mr. Howard protested
against the proposed step as unnecessary and cowardly, begging permission to go in person
and settle the losses. The cholera was then raging in the city, residents were fleeing for
their lives, and of those who remained scores were dying daily. Mr. Howard having carried
his point walked into the pestilence and paying with ready cash the losses, inspired a
confidence in Hartford institutions which gave them a long push forward toward supremacy.
Mr. Howard quick!}- built up a large and profitable business for the Protection at the West.
But the gains in that quarter were more than off-set by losses incurred at sea and on our
inland waters. He protested earnestly but in vain against the continuance of a policy which
had proved persistently disastrous. The directory, however, refused to heed his warnings.
Accordingly he severed his connection with the concern rather than be held even remotely
responsible for its errors. His predictions were verified by its failure in 1854.
An extract from an address delivered at Niagara Falls, June 9, 1885, by Mr. Charles
B. Whiting, then secretary of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, and later president of
the Orient, touches upon some of the contributions of Mr. Howard to the science of insurance :
I will only mention one more instruction book, when I am done. It is the issue of the " Protection " of
about 1848, which was inspired by Mark Howard. It was much the most elaborate of any before issued, and
is the basis for all our modern books. Here appear for the first time the definitions of insurance terms. It
treats of the "Moral Hazard," the "Local and Internal Hazard," and gives full instruction for the inspection
of risks. Here, also, appear standards for the rating of a large number of risks ; forms of policy for a great
many hazards ; and for the first time, the three-quarter value clause. This book was the greatest contribution
to iusurance literature that had been issued up to that time, and very far in advance of any of the others. The
definitions are those in vogue to-day, and there has been but little, if any, improvement on the forms there
put forth. Subsequent books are but an enlargement of this. The text for them all is found within its covers.
In 1857, the Merchants' Insurance Company was chartered with a capital of $200,000,
and with permission to begin business when ten per centum had been paid in, the balance
of the stock to be represented by notes. Mr. Howard was elected president, July 7, 1857,
but refused to accept unless the entire capital was paid in cash. The condition was com
plied with, the Merchants' being the first insurance company in the city to start on a fuUy
paid capital. From the beginning it was phenomenally successful, and so continued tiU
overwhelmed by the great Chicago fire of October, 1871. No attempt was made to com
promise with the sufferers, or to save a single penny from the wreck. On this point
"Hartford in 1889" says:
Every dollar was turned over to the policy holders, to be distributed pro rata among creditors. While an
institution of splendid promise was thus engulfed in the fiery tempest, the managers emerged with a record
many times more valuable commercially than any salvage which the sharpest settlements could have secured.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 213
Under a charter granted in May, 1869, but till then unused, the parties interested in the Merchants' pro
ceeded to form the National Fire Insurance Company, deeming it better to give up the old organization, with
its honorable history and good name, than to contend with the complications liable to arise from the unpaid
balances at Chicago. Oct. 18, 1871, ten days after the outbreak of the great fire, the books were opened, and
|6o8,ooo were subscribed on a call for f20o,ooo, a notable proof both of the unconquerable resolution of the
community and of confidence in the men who were to conduct the affairs of the new company. At the first
meeting of the stockholders, Nov. 27, the directors of the Merchants', with few changes, were made directors
of the National, and it was voted to increase the capital to 1500,000. On the same day the board unanimously
elected Mark Howard president, and James Nichols secretary.
In 1881, the capital was increased to $1,000,000 and Mr. Howard held the presidency
till he passed from earth, Jan. 24, 1887.
Mr. Howard was one of the founders of the Republican party, and for years one of
its most vigorous and efficient leaders. The Union League of Connecticut was started in
his private parlors. Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, United States senator from Connecticut, who
knew the man g.nd his work intimately, thus writes of him, "Mr. Mark Howard was high
in the list of those who were ready at any hour, day or night, to work or to give in the
cause of the Union. His zeal was unbounded. His moral courage was of the very highest.
He always insisted upon obeying the very highest motives and impulses. He had illimitable
confidence in the patriotism of the great mass of the people and irr an ultimate victory even
in the darkest hour. In all the political movements that preceded and followed the organiza
tion of the Republican party, Mr. Howard was one of the foremost. He was among the first
five or ten that actually met and organized and corresponded and talked to get together a
nucleus of the young party." * * * "Mr. Howard was delightfully impulsive, inspiring,
hopeful and brave. Some people said he was too impulsive and not practical, just as they
said of Israel Putnam, Ethan Allen, General Sherman, Phil. Sheridan, etc. Those of us
who were active thirty or forty years ago will remember him with the greatest affection so
long as we remember anything."
He was appointed by President Lincoln the first internal revenue collector in Connecticut.
The system was new and in the absence of decisions on questionable points of law, wide
latitude in interpretation was left to collectors. Mr. Howard brought to the position rare
powers as an organizer, keen perceptions and a sturdy sense of justice. He was so fair that
appeals were seldom taken from his rulings, not a few of which became incorporated in the
general system of the country. Intensity of conviction renders some people self-assertive and
disagreeable. Not so with Mr. Howard. He was always the courteous and charming gentle
man and was beloved by a large circle of friends.
Mr. Howard married, Oct. 14, 1852, Miss AngeUne Lee of New Britain, Conn., youngest
daughter of Judge Thomas Lee, and the eighth generation from John Lee, who settled at
Hartford in 1634.
Mrs. Howard's great-grandfather was Col. Isaac Lee of P^armington (New Britain) a
patriot of the Revolution. This branch of the American family traces its descent from John
Lee of Essex County, England, and inferentially from the ancient and noble family of the
same name in Shropshire. Her father died when she was sixteen years of age. She was
educated in part in the celebrated school of her aunt, Mrs. Lincoln Phelps. In her character
are combined energy, resolution and courage with feminine gentleness and benignity. She
has travelled extensively at home and abroad. Amid pressing calls of society and charity she
has found time for a wide range of study, embracing literature and philosophy. For years
their beautiful home in Hartford was a center of attraction.
The children of this union are AngeUne Lee Howard, married to Morgan W. Beach ;
Amy Lee Howard, married to Louis Bertrand Graves ; Dr. William Lee Howard, married to
Clara A. Oatman; Myra Lee Howard, married to Kirk H. Field.
28

214 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
EARLS, CHARLES EDWIN, of Thompson, lawyer and ex-secretary of state,
was born in Pomfret, Conn., March 25, 1846.
The branch of the Searls family from which he is descended was originally-
located at Dorchester, England, and the first emigrants to this country settied in
and assisted in buUding up Dorchester, Mass. Salter Searls was the first of
the name to transfer his residence to Connecticut, and he found a home in Windham County,
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. Of his eight sons, Bela married Hannah Walcott,
and was the father of Edwin C, who was born in 1815, and died in 1857. In early life he
was a merchant, but later he went to New York and established himself as a broker. He
married Caroline, daughter of Darius Mathewson of Pomfret. The subject of this sketch was
their only son.
Though born in Pomfret, young Searls's life until he was twelve was nearly all passed
in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; at that age he returned to Thompson and has since made his home in
that town. Private schools in the city of Brooklyn furnished the foundation of his educa
tion, Thompson Academy gave the preparation for college, and, entering Yale University, he
was graduated from that institution in the class of 1868. The intricacies of Blackstone
being in accordance witli his tastes, he began the study of law in the office of Gilbert W.
Phillips, Esq., of Putnam, and was formally admitted to the bar of Connecticut in 1870.
Though retaining his residence in Thompson, Mr. Searls at once opened an office in Putnam,
and is still in the active practice of his profession. Without making a specialty of any
branch of legal research, he has secured a large and increasing list of clients, including
nearly all the extensive corporations of the vicinity, and at the present time he stands in
the very front rank of the Windham County Bar.
Everything which affects the welfare of his adopted town, fi"nds in Mr. Searls a
zealous advocate, and his influence has been felt in numerous beneficent ways. In 1869,
he was elected town clerk of Thompson on the Republican ticket, and has served for
many years as justice of the peace. He was called upon by his fellow-citizens to serve
as their representative in the lower branch of the state legislature in 1871, and was
chairman of the committees on new towns and probate districts. For the years 1881 and
1882, he filled the office of secretary of state, having been elected on the ticket with Gov
ernor Bigelow. In 1886, he was again sent to the House of Representatives, and at this
session was a prominent candidate for the office of speaker, and was chairman of the
committee on appropriations, and chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments.
Mr. Searls received a complimentary vote from his county in the Republican congres
sional convention assembled to put in nomination a candidate for Congress from the third
district in 1884. In whatever station Mr. Searls has been called upon to fill he has
acquitted himself with credit and to the satisfaction of his constituents. His record as a
law}'er is clean and free from trickery, and, as he is still on the under side of the half-
century mark, it may be safely predicted that the future has other and higher honors in
waiting for his acceptance.

Ma.asacTiusettsPuilisliiiLg Co.EvBTelt.Mass,,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 215
AY, GEORGE HERBERT, of Hartford, vice-president of the Pope Manu
facturing Company, was born in Brooklyn, Conn., April 3, 1851. On the
paternal side, four generations had lived in the fruitful valley of Quinnebaug,
the village of Dayville taking its name from his great-grandfather. On the
maternal line, he is the fifth in descent from Gen. Israel Putnam, through his
son. Col. Daniel, and granddaughter, Emily Putnam. Another ancestor, whose fame is more
local than that of General Putnam, was Godfrey Malbone of Newport, R. I. He was an
eminent merchant of that old city, and was active in fitting out privateers in the French
and Spanish wars. At the request of Governor Shirley, he was commissioned to raise a
regiment of three hundred and fifty men in Rhode Island, to join the expedition against
Louisburg. Captain Malbone's residence, in the suburbs of Newport, was called "the most
splendid in all the colonies." Years were spent in its construction, and it was burned soon
after completion. He died in 1768. His granddaughter, Catherine, daughter of Shrimpton
Hutchinson and Elizabeth (Malbone) Hutchinson, married Col. Daniel Putnam, son of the
general. The son of Captain Malbone and brother of Mrs. Hutchinson, Col. Godfrey Malbone,
Jr., after the financial reverses that befell his father in his declining years, removed, in 1766,
to the estate of three thousand acres in the Brooklyn Society of Pomfret, bought by the
Malbones of Gov. Jonathan Belcher. Soon after his settlement there, the people of the
village began to agitate the question of replacing the Congregational church which had done
service for thirty years, by a new edifice better suited to the more ambitious tastes of the
time. A potent argument used by the advocates of the measure was that under the laws
of Connecticut a large share of the expense would fall on this new comer. Educated in
England at the University of Oxford, an ardent loyalist and churchman, he at once roused
himself to beat the attempt on the part of the chosen people to "despoil the Egyptian."
The fight was long and vigorous. B}' an amendment to the early colonial law, extorted by
growing complaints against its injustice. Episcopalians, where they supported a church and
ministry of their own, were relieved from the tax for the "standing order." Beginning
alone, Malbone rallied increasing numbers till, in 1771, Trinity Church, Brooklyn, emerged from
the smoke of conflict, an established and enduring fact. Mr. Day's family have been mem
bers of this historic church since its foundation.
Having duly improved the advantages offered by the common schools of his native town,
Mr. Day entered Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., in 1869, but left toward the end of the
first year on account of trouble with his sight. In October, 1870, he moved to Hartford,
taking a clerkship in the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, and remaining with that
institution seven years. He then resigned to enter the employ of the Weed Sewing Machine
Company, Oct. i, 1877. The enterprise was struggling against adverse conditions. At one
time the business had been highly prosperous, but profits had faded with growing intensity
of competition. The plant was well equipped and the skill of its mechanics was unexcelled.
It was this reputation that attracted to Hartford, in the spring of 1878, Col. Albert A. Pope,
whose name has since become a household word. He came not only to place an order
for a small lot of bicycles, but with a view to their future manufacture here as a stand
ard business. Colonel Pope argued with a confidence which no objections could shake,
that the machine was destined to come into general use. Even the contagion of enthusiasm
failed to produce general conviction that the ingenious toy could ever find a wide market.
Mr. Day earnestly favored taking up the bicycle. In this, as in many other cases, results
have fully proved the correctness of his intuitions. The rapid growth of the business.

2i6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the prosperity of the company following upon the new departure, its leading place in the
transition which is bringing to the front the industrial forces of the city, may be said to
mark an epoch in local development.
The services of Mr. Day were rewarded by rapid promotions. March 17, 1879, he was
made secretary; Feb. i, 1883, secretary and assistant treasurer; April 17, 1884, secretary and
treasurer; Feb. 5, 1885, treasurer and general manager ; and March 25, 1887, president and
treasurer. In 1890, the Pope Manufacturing Company became sole owner of the property
through the purchase of the Weed stock. In the re-organization which followed the transfer
Mr. Day remained in charge of the manufacturing department in Hartford, as vice-president
and general manager.
Perhaps a few figures will most clearly exhibit the late growth of the company. From
the reports of the Board of Trade we learn that, including the rubber works, the number of
employees increased from 283 in 1888 to 1,022 in 1893, a gain of 261 per cent, in five years,
and that during the same period the square feet of floor surface increased from 108,342 to
338,654, a gain of 212 per cent. At the close of the year 1893, it had under roof seven and
three-fourths acres of flooring. Within that time it absorbed the Hartford Rubber Works,
multipl}ing the productive capacity of the plant by six. It also built an elegant factory of
three stories, the main structure 266 x 50 feet, aside from boiler-house and other accessories,
for steel tube drawing.
While attentive to profits, the conipau}' has been regardful of the comfort, health and
education of employees. In the winter of 1887-88, it opened a large and sunny reading-room
for use at noon. The tables are strewn with papers and magazines, while fresh treasures
are added year by year to the library shelves. Soup, coffee and other light refreshments of
the best quality are served at cost. Each man has a separate locker for clothing. All the
arrangements tend to cultivate habits of cleanliness and self-respect. Mr. Day believes that
expenditures thus made with sole reference to the well-being of the men, by heightening their
zeal, alertness and efficiency, incidentally yield excellent returns as an investment.
In 1889, Mr. Day persuaded the directors of the Weed Company to adopt a long-nurtured
scheme of his for supplying in the vicinity of the works high-grade tenements at moderate
rentals. Columbia street was opened on vacant property of the company, and twenty-four
houses were built at a cost of about $70,000. Although in block, each, containing nine rooms
and fitted to meet the most exacting demands of convenience and health, is planned for a
single family. When the Weed people sold their shares to Colonel Pope, this interest was
detached and separately incorporated. The investment not only attracted a very desirable
colony but has proved highly remunerative. On simUar lines of development Mr. Day and
his associates have other schemes in view of a far more comprehensive character. Under
the title of "Good News for Hartford" the Courant said, editoriaUy, in May, 1894: "The
article elsewhere, on the removal of the offices of the Pope Manufacturing -Company from
Boston to this city, deserves a careful reading. It conveys good news, mighty good news,
too, for Hartford. Already Colonel Pope and Mr. Day have done a deal for this city. This
new move identifies the great interests Colonel Pope controls still closer with Hartford, and
gives promise of benefit alike to city and factory. And the suggestions of how the whole
city can be improved and of what more public spirit can do for the community may reason
ably be hoped to lead to further progress. Whatever Colonel Pope and Mr. Day have
touched here they have made better. Their factories are models, and the various improve
ments that they have undertaken have had a public as well as a private value. The pres
ence of such men is worth a great deal to a city, and we congratulate all Hartford on the
added prosperity and the further awakening of public spirit of which this new and impor
tant step gives promise."

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 217
In 1888, Mr. Day took a leading part in organizing the Board of Trade, in which he
has been a director from the start. In 1890, this association decided that the welfare of the
city would be advanced by the erection of an industrial building. Accordingly, a company
with a paid capital of $100,000 was formed, which proceeded to put up a massive, elegant,
well-lighted factory of four fioors, 360 feet long. Mr. Day was director and vice-president.
As the structure neared completion the directors became convinced that the interests of the
shareholders would be promoted by a sale of the property. Mr. Day was requested to find a
purchaser. He conducted negotiations with such celerity and success that in a short time
the subscribers to the stock received back their money with interest. The present owners
occupy about one-half of the floor space, renting the rest in accordance with the plans of
the projectors. Owing to the deadlock in the legislature of Connecticut, no appropriation was made to
aid the people of the state in presenting a suitable display of their arts and industries at the
Columbian Exposition in 1893. To meet the exigency $50,000 was raised by private
subscriptions. Governor Bulkeley appointed a board of managers for the commonwealth,
of which Mr. Day was a member, and also treasurer of the above fund, and of the further
appropriation afterwards added by the legislature. Beginning late on account of the deadlock,
the board was compelled to repair the evils of lost time by the energy of its movements.
Mr. Day repeatedly visited Chicago in the discharge of his duties. The success accomplished
by fhe united action of the members is too recent and too widely known to need comment.
Mr. Day is a trustee in the Society for Savings and the Dime Savings Bank, a director
in the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, the American National Bank, in many
manufacturing companies, and in educational and charitable institutions.
Though deeply interested in public affairs, and always ready to contribute freely both
time and money to promote the public welfare, he has manifested intense distaste for public
office. As would be inferred from the success of the enterprises with which he has been con
nected, and in the management of which he has been largely responsible, Mr. Day
possesses keen perceptions and sound judgment united with a broad grasp of affairs. To a
marked degree he commands the confidence, esteem and affection of the people with whom
he is brought into personal relations. Thoughtful of others and forgetful of self, he has
unconsciously won the good wUl of aU, not by seeking popularity but by deserving it.
Mr. Day married Oct. 13, 1877, Katharine Beach, daughter of J. Watson Beach, a
member of the firm of Beach & Company, one of the prominent importing houses of the
country. He was director, and at one time president, of the Mercantile National Bank,
president of the Weed Sewing Machine Company, and a director in several other corpora
tions. He was a man of wide information, great intelligence and genial nature, sharing the
burdens of business and lending a helping hand to every public interest. He was the ninth
child of George Beach, for many years the president of the Phoenix Bank, who had a family
of thirteen sons and four daughters. J. Watson Beach died March 17, 1887. The family
has long been prominent in the business and social affairs of Hartford.

2 1 8' REPRESENTATIVE MEN
?RATT, FRANCIS ASBURY, of Hartford, president of the Pratt & Whitney
Company, was born in Woodstock, Vt., Feb. 15, 1827.
Among the earliest of English surnames occurs the • name of Pratt. Many
of its branches have held stations of influence and power in the British
Empire. The first American ancestor of the Connecticut family was John
Pratt, who came from the southern part of England and settled in Dorchester, Mass., where
he was made a freeman May 4, 1632. Of his son John's children, the third John in the
family line located at Reading, Mass., from which place the family ultimately removed to
Reading, Vt. Charles Pratt, a native of Reading, Vt., was a man of great mental and
physical strength. Transferring his residence to Michigan in 1834, he died there at the
advanced age of ninety-four. His son, Nathaniel M. Pratt, was born in Reading, Vt., in
the opening year of this century. He carried on business as a leather dealer, and was a
noted speaker in the temperance cause at a time when such agitation was the reverse of
popular. Francis A. was the son of Nathaniel M. and Frances M. (Nutting) Pratt.
From his childhood, young Pratt showed mechanical inclinations which gave indication
of genius. At an early age the boy was found repeatedly stealing away from his compan
ions to construct and put in operation a turning lathe, a water wheel, or a steam engine.
While other lads were at play after school or on holidays, he employed his time with a
jack-knife and such rude tools as he could command, in giving shape and form to mechani
cal designs which had previously been evolved from his busy brain during school hours, or
when lying awake at night; schemes of a practical nature even then, as in later life,
effectually banishing sleep.
When he was eight years old Mr. Pratt's parents moved to Lowell, Mass., and his
education begun in his native town was continued in his new home until he was seventeen.
He had the good fortune to be apprenticed to Warren Aldrich, a machinist of excellent
reputation as to his workmanship, and a kind master. The indifferent facilities with which
the machine shops of that day were supplied, furnished just the incentive which the young
apprentice needed to bring into exercise his expanding inventive genius. The lack of a
proper tool was often in his case the occasion of an invention which filled the need. At
the age of twenty, Mr. Pratt went to Gloucester, N. J., where he was employed first as a
journeyman, and later as a contractor. In 1852, having secured a position in the pistol
factory of Samuel Colt, he removed to Hartford, where he has since made his home. Being
offered the foremanship of the Phoenix Iron Works, he accepted the situation, and finally
became superintendent of the works. WhUe at Colt's factory, he had made the acquaintance
of Mr. Amos Whitney, and, knowing him to be a skUled workman, when an important open
ing was to be filled at the Phoenix Works, he selected Mr. Whitney, and the two labored
together at this establishment until 1861.
The year before closing their connection with the Phoenix Works, the young men made
their plans and resolved to unite their fortunes. Hiring a room, some of their first work
was done for the Willimantic Linen Company. A few months after getting into operation,
their shop was destroyed by fire, but another month found them settied in new quarters,
the energy of their subsequent career thus eariy showing itself in action. Here they con
tinued to grow, until all the available space in the building was occupied by their machinery.
In 1862, Pratt & Whitney took Munroe Stannard of New Britain into partnership, and in
view of the present capital of half a million, their contribution of $1,200 each as a work
ing basis seems almost preposterous. From "Hartford in 1889," a volume prepared by Mr.
P. H. Woodward, secretary of the Hartford Board of Trade, some pertinent paragraphs
are quoted :

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 219
Beginning with the manufacture of machine tools, guu tools, and tools for the makers of sewing machines,
the firm has gradually extended its lines till a partial catalogue of its products fills hundreds of pages. Here,
in applied mechanics, the resources of science and art have been long and conscientiously devoted to the task
of embodying the ideal in the real. A poor piece of work was never knowingly allowed to be done on the
premises. To the mind of every one conversant with the business the imprint of the establishment signifies
simplicity, strength, precision, elegance, durability, and complete adaptation of means to ends. Essential as is
the question of prices aud profits, it has here always ranked secondary to the question of materials and work
manship. The company made an invaluable contribution to science not less than the mechanical arts by producing,
after years of effort and at great expense, a machine for exact and uniform measurements. The troubles which,
from lack of standard guages, beset every large shop, and the growing demand for the production of inter
changeable bolts and nuts, early in the sixties led to the general agitation of the subject among mechanical
engineers, especially those connected with the building and repair shops of railways, with a view of finding,
if possible, a remedy for the evil. Among the benefits secured a few may be mentioned by way of illustration :
Railways now find it practicable to have all bolts and nuts of any one size perfectly interchangeable. The
adoption of definite diameters for the centers and tires of locomotive driving-wheels has reduced the number of
sizes from infinitude to six. The production of pipe and fittings has been brought to uniformity. Standard
guages for these and other uses, too many to be enumerated, are made by The Pratt & Whitney Company.
The story of the financial and other struggles of the early partners in laying the
foundation of the present great corporation reads like one of Jules Verne's romances. None
but the parties themselves can ever understand, much less appreciate, the nature or the
magnitude of the obstacles they encountered, the sacrifice involved, and the unceasing and
gigantic efforts employed, in surmounting them one after another as they were presented.
If the two young men had not possessed a reserve fund of pluck, endurance and determina
tion, which gave them a sublime faith in themselves and a confidence which could not suffer
defeat, the end sought would never have been successfully attained. In 1869, under a
charter from the state, the Pratt & Whitney Company was incorporated, with a capital of
$350,000, afterwards increased to $500,000 from earnings. Of the present company, Mr.
Pratt is president, and has been from the start the controlling spirit. He has made no less
than eight trips to Europe, principally in the interests of the company, and has secured
foreign business amounting to nearly^ three millions of dollars. The European features of
the company's output are entirely the result of his suggestions and efforts. The value of
the connections thus formed and of the reputation gained for the Pratt & Whitney Com
pany throughout the civilized world, it would be impossible to compute by a money
standard. Taking a broad and comprehensive view of business affairs, Mr. Pratt believes
that for his company the world is its field, and therefore that it is only necessary to
seek business in a liberal and intelligent way to secure it every time in the open market.
He has been a conspicuous exponent of the industrial enterprises of Hartford "for
the last score and a half of years. Having acquired a high reputation among scientific
men at home and abroad, Mr. Pratt is regarded as an expert in nearly every branch of
mechanical art. This reputation gained for him in 1891 an appointment from the secre
tary of the treasury of the United States as one of the board of commissioners for the expert
examination of the treasury vaults. The city of Hartford has received eight years of valu
able service from him — four as a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, and four
years as one of the city fathers on the Board of Aldermen. Beside the immense corporation
of which he is the head, Mr. Pratt is president of the Electric Generator Company, and is
a director in the Pratt & Cady Company. Interested in everything which tends to develop
the business prosperity of his adopted city, he holds a directorship in that energetic organ
ization, the Hartford Board of Trade. He is a valued member of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. Joining the Masonic fraternity in early life, he is now a Master
Mason and member of St. John's Lodge.

2 20 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Oct. 31, 1851, a double wedding occurred in LoweU, Mass. F. A. Pratt was joined in
marriage to Harriet E., daughter of John R. Cole of Lowell. At the same time and place,
ex-alderman Asa S. Cook of Hartford, married an older sister. Eight children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, five of whom died in infancy, and one son at the age of
twenty-six years. Of the two surviving children, Carrie Louise is now Mrs. J. E. Spalding
of Hartford, and Francis C. Pratt, a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School, is in busi
ness with his father.

'ETMORE, JOHN GRINNELL, of Winsted, manufacturer, and president of the
Winsted National Bank, was born in Winchester, AprU 27, 181 7.
The Wetmore family of Connecticut is descended from Thomas Whitmore,
who came from the west of England to Boston, Mass., in 1635, being, the
eleventh }'ear of the reign of Charles the First. The first mention of his
name to be found in the colonial records is in the Wethersfield town records in 1639-40, as
the owner of certain lands, where it appears he first settled on coining to the Connecticut
river. Subsequentl}' he removed to Hartford, though the exact date is unknown. Later,
Mr. Whitmore, with his father-in-law, John Hall, and three others were the first to settle the
plantation of Mattabesek, now Middletown. The spelling of the name began to be changed
to its present form in the third generation, and was very generally adopted in the fourth.
Mr. Whitmore was married three times and became the father of sixteen children. Of these,
the family line comes down through Samuel, the seventh, Samuel, Jr., John and Seth, to a
second John, born in Winchester, October, 1780. He married Huldah, daughter of Thomas
and Phoebe (Grinnell) Spencer, by whom he had seven children, John G. Wetmore being
the fifth. A common school education was all that the future manufacturer and capitalist received.
His first business \'entiire was as merchant in company with Lucius Clarke, and later he
was extensivel}' engaged as a builder. The production of woolen goods occupied his atten
tion for several years, and finally he began the manufacture of pins, which he continued
with great success up to the time of his death. .
The present flourishing New England Pin Company, of which he was part owner and
manager, was organized in 1851, with Mr. Wetmore as general manager. It was the day of
small things, the machines were few in number, of old style and of poor working qualities.
Large quantities of pins were imported at this time, and the manufacture in this country
was monopolized by the American and Howe Pin Companies, for the reason principally that
they held the only patent for sticking pins. He was determined to overcome the difference
between his compaii}- and their competitors. Setting his inventive genius to work, after
two years of constant application and an expense of $20,000, he perfected a machine which
would do the work of ten of those owned by the old companies. As soon as these machines
were put in operation the New England Company made rapid strides towards success. From
time to time other companies were purchased, and the business merged into the parent
corporation. Among them were companies in New Jersey, Boston, Montreal, Cohoes, N. Y.,
and the last being the Pyramid Pin Company, a large establishment located at New Haven.
Naturall}- the business assumed immense proportions. The present plant is furnished with
every modern improvement, and has a capacity for the production of 11,000,000 pins daily.
Jay E. Spaulding, son-in-law of Mr. Wetmore, came into the concern as book-keeper in

)

'r\

*!(gf

''^fW

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 221
1872, three years later he was made secretary of the company, and for the past ten years
he has been business manager as well. Since Mr. Wetmore's death he continues as the
executive head of the concern.
In political life Mr. Wetmore was originally an old line Whig, and on the formation of
the Republican party he became a member, and was ever afterwards a sturdy upholder of
its principles. Whenever he thought it would advance the interests of the town he allowed
himself to be elected to various offices. He has been selectman of the town, and was one
of the first officers of the borough of Winsted, having been warden from 1862 to 1865.
For the years 1861 and 1862 he represented the town in the state legislature.
Mr. Wetmore was untiring in his efforts to build that portion of the town known as
the "Centre Village," which is the northern termination of the Naugatuck Railroad. In
1872, he erected the Winsted Opera House, one of the finest and most complete in its
appointments in the state, with a seating capacity of 1,200, and not long after he erected
the fine brick building known as the Wetmore Block. Not all of Mr. Wetmore's life was
devoted to manufacturing. In 1878, he organized the Winsted National Bank, was chosen
its first president, and held that office until his health failed. The bank was located in the
opera house block, in a portion built expressly for that purpose, and was in all respects a
complete banking office.
A man of enlarged views, Mr. Wetmore was always recognized as one of the most
public spirited citizens Winsted ever possessed. His life was one of steady and active
devotion to business. The great success attained has been the natural result of his ability
to examine and readily comprehend any subject presented to him, with power to decide
promptly, and courage to act with vigor and persistency in accordance with his convictions.
Such men give tone and solidity to any community, and their taking away is ever to be
deplored. Oct. 3, 1 841, John G. Wetmore was united in marriage with Eliza Frisbe Rosseter of
Harwinton, Conn. She died March 9, 1847. He was married the second time, in 1849, to
Eliza Phoebe, daughter of Col. Roswell Lee, for twenty years superintendent of the United
States armory at Springfield, Mass. One daughter, Eliza R., who married Mr. J. E.
Spaulding, was the result of the first marriage.
Said the Winsted Press at the time of his death: "The New England Pin Company,
of which Mr. Wetmore was president, was organized in 1851, and owes its success to his
invention of a machine for sticking pins, and also to his ability as a business man. He
was quick in his perception, deep in his plans, sound in his judgment of every day affairs,
wilful and determined in the execution of his designs. He paid homage to power, wielding
it with a strong hand when it was his, and yielding to it as readily as other men when he
saw the necessity. What he agreed to do he did, and what he did was thoroughly done,
every detail looked after, every item scrutinized. Spurred by the pleasure of money-making,
he was about his business early and late. Outside of his office and his business he was
companionable, free in conversation, and free enough in his purse. His energy, good sense
and devotion to his own interests made him a most valuable citizen, and one whose place
it wiU be difficult for his successors to fill. He builded houses and factories. He created
business, he gave employment to working people, and in his relations to the latter he was
a master who won respect by enforcing obedience and fulfilling to the letter his business
obligations. He was a strong man, and by the people of this vUlage will be really missed."

29

222

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

ARRIS, JONATHAN NEWTON, merchant, banker and philanthropist, was
born in Salem, Conn., Nov. i8, 1815. He is sixth in descent from James
Harris, who was in Boston, Mass., 1666, where in 1683, seven of his children
were baptized in the Old South Meeting House. In about 1690, with his wife
and three sons, James, Asa and Ephraim, he came to New London, where he
died in 1715, at the age of 74 years. The family were noted for their sterling qualities of
mind and were men of deep religious convictions, and these characteristics are found in
their full exemplification in the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Harris was educated for the life of a merchant, and when about twenty years of
age he came to New London, Conn., and entered the employ of one of the large mercantUe
firms there. Two years later he commenced business on his own account and in his own
name. By subsequent changes the firm became Harris & Brown, Harris, Ames & Company,
and Harris, WiUiams & Company, which -firm continued untU 1865, when he retired from
that branch of business to take charge of greater and more important financial interests.
In 1848, in company with others, he established the firm of J. N. Harris & Company
of Cincinnati, Ohio, a concern which has now continued in business almost half a century,
and has on its books the names of more than twenty thousand merchants with whom the
company has done business in the South and West. Mr. T. H. C. Allen of that firm has
been the resident partner and manager at Cincinnati. Mr. Harris, however, continued to
reside at New London. In 1862, during the Civil War and later, Mr. Harris, in company
with Mr. HiU of Philadelphia, built collieries and operated what were known as the "HUl
& Harris" coal mines at Mahanoy City, Pa., which enterprises were very successful, the
coal from these mines becoming widely known for its power to generate steam. These
mines were sold just before the panic of 1873.
Mr. Harris has been for more than forty years connected with banking and financial
institutions. He was director in the Bank of Commerce for many years, and, since 1876,
has been president of the New London City National Bank. He has also been connected
with railroad and steam navigation companies. One of the organizers, he was for several
years the president of the FeUows Medical Manufacturing Company of Montreal, Can., with
branches in New York and London, Eng. He was also director in the Davis & Lawrence
Company of Montreal, director in the New London Northern Railroad, of the New London
Steamboat Company and in several other companies.
He represented his town in the lower branch of the state legislature in 1855, at which
session he served as a member of the joint standing committees on banks and on finance,
where his experience gave weight to his counsel. It was at this session that the free bank
ing law, enacted in 1852 as an experiment, and which had caused serious loss to the
stockholders, was repealed, and the banks which had been organized under the provisions
of that law were given special charters. In 1864, he was senator from his district and was
chairman of the joint standing committee on banks. At this session of the legislature an
act was passed enabling the state banks to organize under the national banking law, while
still retaining their rights under their old charters, with all the privileges originally granted,
so that they might at any time thereafter, without further legislation, surrender their national
organization and resume business under their old charters. Nearly all the state banks.
subsequently adopted the national banking act, the best and safest system of banking ever
established by any nation.
After being a member of the city government for a number of years, Mr. Harris was.
ma}or of the city for six consecutive years, from 1856 to 1862. In this capacity he rendered

]vlassschu5etts liiilisl-ung bo.LT&Tett.^eLS

C^iA^yLylyO

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 223
assistance to his old friend Governor Buckingham amid the trying scenes of the opening
years of the Civil War. New London was the centre for recruiting in his part of the state,
and Fort Trumbull in that town was the rendezvous for troops going to the front. At
times' whole regiments were quartered at that post. During the war, on almost every
Sabbath, Mr. Harris had charge of the religious services at the fort. Some of those
meetings were .long remembered for their helpful influence.
In 1854, the "Maine law" was passed by the legislature of Connecticut. It was full
of strength and vigor, easy to enforce, and was executed according to its terms. AU the
city government were in favor of the law and its prompt enforcement. When this was done,
there was but littie business before the police court; the officers had rest and the city had
peace and quiet as never before. This continued until about i860, when public opinion
began to set against so much rigor; soon rumors of civil war arose and the trend of public
interest set in another direction.
Mr. Harris has been noted for his ardent love for the cause of Christianity, and has
become prominent for his devotion to Christian education. He was an early and firm friend
of the great evangelist, Dwight L- Moody, and aided materially in founding Mount Hermon
School and Northfield Seminary. More than one Herhionite has just cause to feel a personal
gratitude for his direct aid and encouragement. The Hermonite, a well edited paper published
at Mount Hermon, has the following paragraph regarding the new president :
At the graduation exercises of the last class which left Hermon's halls on June 13, 1893, the Hon. J. N.
Harris presided in the absence of both the president, the late Mr. Hiram Camp, who was then near death's
¦door, and the vice-president, Hon. William H. Haile. Mr. Harris presided with becoming dignity, aud his
benign smile and fatherly words did much to lessen the disappointment felt by the students at not being again
permitted to greet Mr. Camp and to listen to his happy response.
At a meeting of the board of trustees, held at Springfield, Mass., in the autumn (1893) for the purpose of
electing a president of that body, Mr. Harris was chosen. This honor is a most fitting one to bestow upon him
because of his long connection with the school as trustee, and his untiring interest and aid in its development.
A more satisfactory choice could not have been made. As students of Mount Hermon we feel that the interests
of our school will be well looked after under a president so eminently fitted for that position in the manage
ment, and we hope he may be spared to us many years to aid in the fuller development of the institution
which he knows from its inception.
In religious work and education in Japan Mr. Harris has taken a deep interest,
especially as planned by the Rev. Joseph Hardy Neesima, a Japanese educated in the
United States through the kindness of the late Alpheus Hardy of Boston. In 1889, he
founded and endowed the Harris School of Science, which constitutes the scientific depart
ment of the Doshisha University at Kioto, Japan. This munificent gift amounted to
$100,000, and the school of science was opened in 1890. The scope and purpose of this gift
.of Mr. Harris are set forth in his letter to the trustees, January, 1890, in which he says :
In the hope of promoting the cause of Christ in Japan, and of providing opportunities for instruction in
science under the best Christian influences, I devote one hundred thousand dollars to the establishing of a
school of science, and for scientific instruction, in connection with what is known as the Doshisha at Kioto,
Japan. This school of science is to constitute a part of a Christian universit}', which is to supplement the
present collegiate course and is to be known as the Harris School of Science.
His generosity in dealing with worthy and charitable projects has been felt on numer
ous occasions. He built and presented to the city the Memorial Hospital, whose doors were
opened Aug. i, 1893. His public spirit and the confidence he feels in New London's future,
were illustrated when he erected the Harris Building, the leading business structure in the
city, and one of the finest in the state of Connecticut.

224 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
He has been connected with many religious and charitable organizations, and was chair
man of the state executive committee of the Young Men's Christian Association of Connecti
cut, who, in 1875, inaugurated a system of evangelistic meetings in connection with the
churches in the smaller towns and parishes in the state. These meetings were conducted
by members of the executive committee, which were continued, except in summer months,
until 1 88 1. This work was done entirely free of charge to the churches visited, and the
results were very helpful.
Mr. Harris was a charter member of the Connecticut Bible Society ; a corporate mem
ber of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; a charter member and
president for several }'ears of the board of trustees of the international committee of the
Young Men's Christian Association, New York ; was charter member and president of the
Young Men's Christian Association of New London, and member of the board of trustees ;
was president of the board of trustees of Bradley Street Mission for twenty years, 1874 to
1894 ; was director of the Evangelistic Association of New England, with headquarters at
Boston. From time to time Mr. Harris has been connected with many other religious organiza
tions for Christian work. For nearly twenty years (in summer) he was one of the leaders
in sustaining open-air religious meetings on the streets and byways of the city. He was a
member of the Second Congregational church of New London, and one of its deacons.
Mr. Harris has been twice married; first, May, 1843, to Jane M., daughter of Benjamin
Brown of New London. vShe bore him eight children, but she and they have all passed over
to the other shore. He was next niarried, July, 1869, to Martha, daughter of Hon. Lewis
Strong of Northampton, and granddaughter of Gov. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts.

|TORRS, MELANCTHON, M. D., of Hartford, ex-president of the Connecticut
State Medical Society, was born in Mansfield, Conn., Oct. 2, 1823.
Storrs is a Scandinavian, or rather Teutonic word, meaning great, in the
sense of royal power or authority. Its form in old Norse is Stor ; in Anglo-
Saxon, Stor, Stur, and old German, Stur, and in English, Stor, Storr, Storrs.
The spelling of the names in England was not settled till about 1700, and the name Storrs
is varied like the others, ranging through a dozen changes from Stor to Stoares and Storyes.
Storrs is found in documents of the thirteenth century, and may then have been long in use.
Through Johanna White, wife of Robert Storrs, the family is allied to the Shelleys and
Sidneys, two of the historic families of England.
The earliest known ancestor of Samuel Storrs, the emigrant, was William Storrs, of
Sutton-cum-Lound, whose will was proved in 1557. From him the line comes down by
direct succession through Robert Cordall, to Thomas Storrs of York. His wife's name was
Mary, and of their seven children Samuel was the fourth. He was born in 1639, and came
to Barnstable, Mass., in 1663. On so excellent an authority as Mr. Charles Storrs, who spent
twenty years preparing a history of the family, it may be stated that with the exception of a
small family of the same English stock in Richmond, Va. , no one of the name of Storrs has
been found in this country who is not descended from Samuel Storrs of Barnstable. About
1698, he removed to Mansfield, Conn., of which town he and his eldest son, Samuel, Jr.,
were among the proprietors. He was one of the original nine male members of the Mansfield
church, and is said to have been a large, fine looking man, and the allusions to him show him

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 225
to have been prominent and influential in the religious and social affairs of the town. Joseph,
son of Samuel, Jr., was the father of Rev. William Storrs, a most faithful pastor of Ashford,
Conn. His son, William, Jr., married Harriet E., daughter of Othniel Woodward of Westford,
Conn., and of their eleven children Melancthon was the eldest. William Storrs was an
industrious and frugal man, a farmer and manufacturer of furniture, who lived to the good
old age of nearly ninety-two, enjoying to the last the confidence and respect of all who knew
him. Mrs. Storrs was said to have been " a woman of good common sense, devoted to the
welfare of her faniUy, unmindful of her own ease and comfort. In her strong faith and
exemplary life, she left a rich inheritance to her children."
UntU he was twenty-one, Melancthon Storrs lived at home, alternately working with his
father and teaching in the district schools. The theory and practice of medicine being
attractive to his tastes, he commenced its study with Dr. F. L- Dickinson of Willington, Conn.
At the end of two years his studies in medical lore were suspended to enter Brown. University.
In 1850, he entered Yale College, and was graduated from there in 1852. The foUowing
year was spent in New York teaching deaf mutes, continuing the medical studies as he had
opportunity. Later he took a course at the Yale Medical College, and received his degree
of M. D., in the latter part of 1853. Locating in Colchester, Conn., Dr. Storrs at once entered
upon the practice of his profession, and remained there until the call was made to arms in
1861. Though he was rapidly gaining reputation and success as a practitioner, he was not
long in determining the course for him to pursue. When the Eighth Regiment was organized
in the fall of 1861, he entered the service as surgeon of that command. His ability was
promptly recognized, and he was promoted to the brigade headquarters under General Harland
of Norwich, who commanded the Connecticut Brigade. This organization at Antietam
was composed of the Eighth, Eleventh and Sixteenth Connecticut and a regiment from
Rhode Island. Subsequently the Twenty-first and Fifteenth Regiments were added to the
command. The officers at headquarters were principally Connecticut men, and the comrade
ship of the staff was of the finest character. In the group Dr. Storrs was a prominent and
noted figure, being fitted by education and natural qualifications for the social position that
was conceded him. Not that he ever thought of assuming superiority on account of his
position. That was not possible with a man of his temperament and modesty. But he was
one of the most enjoyable of associates, and was loved by the brigade. He was in several of
the hardest battles of the war, including Antietam and Fredericksburg. Towards the con
clusion of the contest, -he was executive surgeon of the army hospital at Fortress Monroe,
a position of great responsibility and trust. In October, 1864, Surgeon Storrs completed his
three years' term of service. Under a general act of Congress he remained in the field as acting
staff surgeon United States Army until July 17, 1865, making nearly four years of active
service in the army. These years were characterized by the pleasantest of memories not less
than by the most exacting requirements.
No' officer is brought more intimately into relationship with the men than the surgeon
who is faithful to the duties entrusted to his attention. Equally with the chaplain he is the
confidant and adviser of the men, and there is a trust felt in him that cannot be felt towards
any one else. The office of army surgeon is one deserving of great respect and admiration,
and, when occupied by a man of the high personal traits of Dr. Storrs, it becomes one of
most influential positions in the brigade or division. He made the office all that it was intended
to be, surrounding it with the most pronounced personality and good fellowship. It should
not be presumed that Dr. Storrs was not a strict disciplinarian, for such he was, and always
demanded that recognition which he was invariably willing to extend to the rank and authority
of others. In camp and on the march he was the soul of honor and justice, dealing with the

226 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
men and interests pertain,ing to the position which he held with the utmost fairness. With
the veterans he holds the most admirable position to this day, and is the possessor of their
unswerving respect and confidence.
Speaking of the suffering of the troops, in one place the "Military and Civil History of
Connecticut During the War," says: "Of the Eighth Regiment, sixty lay sick of fever at
Morehead City, and nearly forty died of typhoid fever. There were only two captains present
for duty April 21, and Surgeon Melancthon Storrs was the only welhttian of the field or staff
officers ; and it was fortunate that he was an exception, for his skill and tireless devotion to
the regiment rendered him of incalculable service." In another place the same authority says
of him: "He- had showed himself diUgent; quietly faithful, skillful, cool in battle, quick to
see, and steady and calm in executing. He was often summoned from his regiment to positions
requiring ability and reliability at corps and general hospitals. So manifest was his excellence,
that he was sent for a special purpose to Washington. "Dr. Eli McCleUan, the surgeon of the
regular army in charge of the United States General Hospital of Fortress Monroe, in endorsing
his orders added the statement that ' Dr. Storrs was the most efficient surgeon ever on duty
at this hospital.' "
At the close of the war Dr. Storrs settled in Hartford, where he has since made his home.
He is one of the trio of physicians who form the front rank of the profession, and he worthily
deserves the place accorded him. Dr. Storrs has successfully performed some of the most
intricate and difficult operations known in the range of surgical knowledge, and his skill in
this peculiar field is unrivalled. His removal of the tri-facial nerve, and his work on the
cleft palate should receive special mention, as he is the only man in the state who performs
this operation, while in the line of intestinal surgery he stands unequalled. At the meeting
of the Connecticut Medical Society in May, 1887, he read an interesting paper on "The
Neurectomy of the Tri-Facial Nerve," a subject with which he is most intimately acquainted.
That Dr. Storrs is highly esteemed by his contemporaries is evidenced by the numerous
official positions to which he has been elevated. In 1891, he was elected president of ^he
Connecticut State Medical Society, and his address at the meeting on ' ' The Health of Our
Schools" was afterwards published by the state as a school document, such was its inherent
value. It touched upon the school building, its ventUation and safety from fire, and went on
to discuss the age and time of study, exercises, manual and industrial training, inspection,
sanitary legislation, and closed with the following words :
It has been said that the Connecticut school has relatively declined: It may be that in the great success, in
the glorious traditions of the early schools of the state, we have relied too much upon our inherited advantages, or
been too conservative in the adoption of the new methods of study and management, successful in other states.
But our discussion confines us to the lines of health. We presume that in the first schools planted here in the
wilderness, though they were under the supervision of such illustrious men as Davenport, Mason, Hopkins, Hooker
and Eaton, some of whom had studied the free schools in their exile home in Holland, the matter of school
sanitation had never been discussed. Neither did the pilgrims on board the- Mayflower discuss the question of
putting a steam engine into that little ship. Sanitation is a word of this generation, and already is not fully
expressive of the most advanced ideas in this direction. The hygienic watchword to-day in Europe, more than
m this country, is asepsis. It is this that is cleaning the streets of the continent. It is reducing the death rate
of the cities, and bids defiance to plague and pestilence, and our mission as physicians in this great work is not
ended, until we see this great principle not only pervading and permeating our schools, but made authoritatively
and permanently effectual. When this is done a long step forward has been made in regaining the reputation and
the glory of the Connecticut school.
In 1892, Dr. Storrs was made president of the Section of Surgery at the centennial meeting
of the society, and read a most valuable and interesting paper on " A Century of Surgical
Progress— its Causative Conditions." As an example of the style of that which preceded it,
the closing paragraph is quoted:

^^

' '^^^

R

JUm

r

^^^2

Wj^^'^^^P'

^^v^ '^^BS^^^H^B

^^k

i^^^^^^^p

H^^^^Tv^

fjy & . ^<^C.-^>^iyy,

Massachusetts Fuilisliiiig Co,Ev6T6ff,Mass,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 227
When we talk of medicine and surgery iu this little state, we feel.that we have a common country, and a
common inheritance, that we are one together like England, like France. But yet this little state of Connecticut
has had her share of glory. Her surgeons dead and alive have ever been in the front. Her illustrious surgical
teachers, Nathan Smith and Jonathan Knight, have been to the medical republic what Trumbull, Sherman and
Ellsworth as statesmen were to the nation. The roll-call of the great men in medicine, as in all the walks and
professions of life throughout the country, would find many whose lineage runs back to Connecticut. We have,
now taken a glance at some of the general causes of surgical progress for a century, and having viewed them in
their relations to the earlier ages, and having seen that the truths and the facts of earlier history have found their
fuller growth and completion in later history, we can but feel, as we contemplate the surgical triumphs already
made, and the possibilities inherent in the future, that we are in some way joined to the grander progress of the
future, and that all the discoveries, and all the steps of progress to be made, will be so many links to bind more
compactly together the centuries past and the centuries to come.
For thirty years Dr. Storrs has been a director and medical adviser in the Connecticut
General Life Insurance Company. He is a director in the Hartford Hospital, and is one of
the visiting surgeons. He is a member of the Hartford City Medical Society, of the Con
necticut State Medical Society, of the American Medical Association, of the American Asso
ciation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians, and at the International Congress in 1887, was
one of the vice-presidents of the Surgical Section. At the Berlin Medical Congress in 1891,
of which he was a member. Dr. Storrs read a paper on ' ' The Neurectomy of the Superior
Maxillary Nerve," which was most favorably received. Writing from Berlin at the time, a
correspondent of the Hartford Courani said: "From a physician I heard that Dr. Storrs of
Hartford read a fine paper here before the recent medical congress. As there were about
five thousand physicians from different parts of the world, it was a marked honor, and
especially so, as the Germans, who were noticeably tired from preceding papers, showed their
interest in this, by marljed attention throughout the delivery."
Perhaps the most valuable work Dr. Storrs ever did for the state at large was in connection
with the "Medical Practice Bill." He was chairman of the committee from the State Medical
Society, which was instrumental in securing the needed legislation, and throughout the entire
time he held the laboring oar. This bill makes registration of physicians necessary, enforces
examination before persons are allowed to practice, and in every way raises the standard of
the profession. His zeal in this instance deserves the highest appreciation and commendation.
Dr. Melancthon Storrs was married Nov. 29, 1853, to Jane D., daughter of Rev. Charles
S. Adams of Westford, Conn. Four children have been born to them. Charles Adams, who
died in his fourth year, William Melancthon, now in the hardware business in Hartford,
Frank Herbert, in the wholesale grocery business, and Jennie Gertrude, now the wife of Rev.
Frederick J. Perkins, a missionary in Brazil under the Presbyterian Board of Missions.

pLLINGS, CHARLES ETHAN, president of the Billings & Spencer Company,
Hartford, was born in Weathersfield , Vt., Dec. 5, 1835. This year saw the
birth of a number of men who have made a name for themselves in different
spheres of action. Mr. Billings is descended from a sturdy Green Mountain
stock. Rufus Billings was a respected farmer of Windsor, Vt., and his son,
Ethan F., married Clarissa M., daughter of James Marsh of Rockingham, Vt. The latter was
a blacksmith, with a practical turn of mind, so that the present manufacturer comes honestly
by his inventive faculty.
The education of "young Billings was limited to that which could be obtained in the
common schools of the town of Windsor, in the Green Mountain state. At the age of
seventeen years he entered as an apprentice in the machine works of the Robbins & Lawrence
Company of Windsor, and served the regular term of three years. After becoming a journey-

228 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
man machinist, he was employed for some time by the same company in their gun department.
The year 1857 found him at Hartford, and, with the exception of a few years spent in Utica,
New York, he has since made that city his home.
The idea of drop forgings was probably introduced into the United States by that many
sided man, Samuel Colt. To a slight extent they were afterwards used at the armories at
Springfield, Mass., but the processes of manufacture were crude, the work imperfect in its
nature, and the practical results within exceedingly narrow limits. It was left for Charles E.
Billings to raise an unimportant adjunct of the machine shop from a lowly position to its
present dignity and consequence in the world of mechanics. In 1856, Mr. Billings went into
the employ of the Colt's Arms Company as tool maker and die sinker, and it was here that he
first gained an insight into that line of business with which his future life was to be identified.
He was confident that certain parts of the work could be accomplished in a far easier way than
by the old methods, and he bent his mind to the solution of the problem. The second year
of the war he was called to the gun factories of E. Remington & Sons at Ilion, N. Y. Here,
in the face of mild opposition and much open doubt, he built up a plant for drop forgings
which increased by forty-fold the efficiency of labor in the production of various parts of their
pistols. The effect was quite a revelation to the company and clearly showed the possibilities
there were in the new idea. Returning to Hartford in 1865, for three years he acted as
superintendent of the manufacturing department of the Weed Sewing Machine Company.
After a few months spent at Amherst, Mass., he settled permanently in Hartford in
1869. With Mr. C. M. Spencer, he at once organized the firm of Billings & Spencer, and
at the very outset of their career they experienced severe reverses by engaging in the manu
facture of the Roper sporting arms. In 1870, they took up drop 'forgings as a specialty,
but by gradual degrees it became their whole business. As the development of this business
has really been Mr. Billings's lifework, a descriptive paragraph to the uninitiated will not
be inappropriate. He saw the immense saving of labor to be effected, as well as the im
provement which could be made in numerous small parts of machines. Starting from the
crude efforts of the two or three who have preceded him, by successive stages he has brought
the art (for art it certainly is) up to its present high standard. Bars of iron, steel, bronze
or copper could be transformed into pieces of irregular shape and size with rapidity and
precision. The dies are made from blocks of the best bar steel, and in these are cut the
form of the article to be forged, one-half of the thickness in the lower and the other half in
the upper die, and both parts are then hardened to the proper temper. One die is fastened
to the base and its counterpart to the hammer of the drop. Where the shape to be produced
is unusually complicated, a series of dies is used and red hot bars are subjected to the blows
of the hammer until the desired figure is reached. Guided by the uprights of powerful frames,
hammers weighing from three hundred to two thousand pounds fall from one to six feet and a
few rapid blows complete this part of the process. The forgings are then passed on to other
rooms to be finished and polished.
The all-pervasive force in the development of the extensive plant on Broad street has
been the inventive talent of Mr. BiUings. Let a single instance suffice. When passing
through the Edison Electric Works in 1886, he noted the existing method of making com
mutator bars. These are L shaped pieces of copper set at an angle to each other. Horizontal
belts, thin and wedge-like, separated by some non-conducting substance, are placed side by
side around the shaft of the d}'naino and bound firmly together. Electricity is generated by
the friction of metallic brushes revolving at high speed against the edges of the bars. Here
was Mr. Billings's opportunity and he wisely improved it. The bars had previously been
made in two pieces, united by pins and solder, and, as the current was partly broken, the best
results could not be obtained. The electrician of the works was sure they could not be

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 229
produced in any other way, but the inventor's mind had even then solved the difficulty.
Returning home, Mr. Billings cut the dies and in less than three weeks sent to the Edison
Company an invoice of bars forged in a single piece from pure copper, and having a homo
geneous, molecular structure throughout. The material is of the greatest possible density.
By this invention of Mr. Billings the cost of the bars was greatly diminished and their
efficiency increased in like degree. The best proof of their success lies in the fact that they
almost immediately sprang into favor with the electric companies.
The firm was organized on a stock company basis, in 1869, under a liberal charter, the
capital being $125,000, with the privUege of increasing to $300,000. The present officers
are Charles E. BiUings, president and general manager; E. H. Stockier, secretary ; Lucius H.
Hoh, treasurer ; F. C. BiUings, superintendent ; and H. E. Billings, assistant superintendent.
It is the leading concern of its kind in the United States.
Besides developing the drop forging business, which owes so much to his genius and
persistence, Mr. BUlings is the inventor and patentee of numerous useful articles manufactured
by his company, which are largely sold in this country and Europe. Among them may be
noted screw plate, double-acting ratchet drill, adjustable beam caliper, breech-loading firearms,
pocket knife, drill, chuck, adjustable pocket wrench, etc.
In the mysteries and teachings of the Masonic Order, Mr. Billings has been greatly inter
ested, and by initiation has become familiar with all of the York and Scottish degrees, and is
an honorary member of the Supreme Council Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the
Northern Masonic jurisdiction of the United States, 1874 ; also, a member of the Royal Order
of Scotland, 1891. He was grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Knight Templars
of Connecticut in 1887. His local membership is with Washington Commandery. For several
years he served as a private in the ranks of the First Regiment Connecticut National Guard.
It was but natural that official station should be presented to Mr. BiUings for acceptance,
though he has allowed his name to be used in this connection to a very limited extent. He
has been a member of the Court of Common Council, and for four years he represented the
third ward in the Board of Aldermen. During the last two years of his service he was chair
man of the ordinance committee, and in that capacity he exerted an important influence in
moulding affairs for the best interests of the city. At present he is president of the board of
fire commissioners. Though not an active politician in any sense of the word, Mr. Billings's
sympathies have always been with the Republican party, and his thought and voice have ever
been cast in furtherance of its principles. In religious matters he affiliates with the Second
Ecclesiastical Society, and is a liberal contributor to its support. Concerned in all that affects
the enlargement of the scope of business of his adopted city, he is a trustee of the State
Savings Bank and the Hartford Trust Company, and is a member of that energetic organiza
tion, the Hartford Board of Trade, and also of the Hartford Club.
During the summer of 1890, Mr. Billings visited Europe and came back with clearer ideas
of the possibilities there are in his own country. A gentleman of the most enjoyable personal
character, he is regarded as one of the foremost business men of the capital city. His success
as a manager of industrial interests is phenomenal, and as a pioneer along a new line of manu
facturing development, he deserves the highest praise. In private life, as a public official,
and as the head of one of Hartford's leading establishments, Mr. Billings is honored and
esteemed by his fellow-citizens.
Charles E- Billings has been twice married. First, to Francis M., daughter of Willard
Heywood. She died, leaving him two children. For his second wife he married Eva C,
daughter of Lucius H. Holt of Hartford. Two children were the result of this union. His
sons, F. C. and H. E. Billings are associated with him in business, the former as superin
tendent and the latter as assistant superintendent of the Billings & Spencer Company.
30

230 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

?HAFFEE, CHARLES ELMER, of Windsor Locks, president and treasurer of
the Medlicott Company, was born in Monson, Mass., June 30, 1818. This year
% is noted for the long list of men prominent in state and national politics, as
well as in the world of business, who first saw the light within its limits.
The Chaffee family is of Welsh origin, and many of the Connecticut branch
have been tillers of the soil. Chadwick Chaffee was a farmer of Monson, Mass., and his
son, Freeborn M., fought in the defence of his country in the war of 1812. Mr. C. E. Chaffee
was the son of Freeborn M. and Betsey (Leonard) Chaffee, the latter being a resident of
Stafford, Conn.
The ordinary district schools afforded him all the education he received. At the age of
seventeen he went into the Holmes & Reynolds MUl, for the purpose of learning the trade
of wool sorting. Sixty years ago the sorting of wool in this section was more important
and extensive than at the present time, and the future manufacturer served a long appren
ticeship. The training gained in this humble position was more valuable to Mr. Chaffee
in after life than had the same time been spent in Yale College. It was here that the
germ of that thorough knowledge of wool was planted, which has grown during years of
patient study and labor, and which now gives him the reputation of being one of the best
judges of wool in the country.
In 1838, he removed to Rockville, and for half a dozen years worked in the Rock and
New England mills. Failing health caused his return to Monson, where he purchased a farm,
and lived an out-door farmer's life for two years. Having regained his health, he made an
engagement with the Enfield Stockinet mill at Thompsonville, of which W. G. Medlicott
was agent. Here, besides the buying of wool, he continued his old trade of wool sorting.
In 1863, Mr. Medlicott bought a little shoddy mill in Windsor Locks, on the site of the present
mill, and the erection of the principal part of the main building was begun. Mr. Chaffee
went with Mr. Medlicott in the new venture, and later was selected for the responsible
task of going to Nottingham, England, to purchase the full fashioned machinery for the
new mill. Financial troubles came upon Mr. Medlicott in 1867, and, a company being
formed to assume the business, Mr. Chaffee made an investment in the stock. The same
year he gave up active work for the company, and purchased a tinware business, which he
enlarged and developed materially, his energy and good management bringing prosperity
in their train.
The Medlicott Company failed in the Centennial year, and the failure gave Mr. Chaffee
an opportunity which he has most wisely improved. Being a director, he was appointed
assignee, and in that capacity carried on the mill for half a year. At this time a new 'com
pany was formed with a capital of $125,000, and Mr. Watson Beach of Hartford was chosen
president. A year passed and Mr. Chaffee decided upon a new course of action. He deter
mined to secure control of the stock and take the management in his own hands, and accord
ingly bought out a Boston stockholder who owned a two-fifths interest. Then came a marked
change in the running of the mill. Minor details of the manufacturing received as careful
attention as those which show more on the surface. Mr. Chaffee was indefatigable and
unceasing in his labors, beginning with the starting of the mill and never stopping tUl the
last spindle had ceased to hum. Nor did his work always end then, correspondence and
other duties often carrying labors far into the night. His eariy experience in wool sort
ing stood him in good stead here, and the principle of using only the best wool has
always been closely adhered to. Since Mr. Chaffee's management began he has largely
improved the mill and increased its capacity, two four-storied ells, together with a box and

Massac.li.useltsfljilisMng Co,i;v6rBtt,Maas.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 231
machine shop, having been added. Two hundred hands are employed, and the pay-roll
amounts to $100,000 annually. The goods produced stand in the very front rank in their
class, and the sale extends from Maine to California. The wages paid are the largest of
any mill in this country, the employees are prosperous, many owning homes of their own,
and their intelligent, industrious appearance is noticed by all visitors.
Windsor Locks owes Mr. Chaffee a heavy debt of gratitude. Taking a bankrupt
concern, he placed the business on a firm foundation, thereby affording employment to a
goodly number of its citizens. The story of his life shows how that by years of hard
work and honesty of purpose, seeming adversity may be turned to a real success. While
he has been striving to accumulate a fortune for himself, he has never been forgetful of
the necessities of those around him. His good deeds, though numerous, are largely unknown
to the townspeople at large, but many of the town's unfortunates have a tender spot in
their hearts for both him and his family.
Mr. Chaffee's energy and business activity have not been wholly confined to the com
pany of which he is the head. In financial institutions, he is vice-president of the Wind
sor Locks Bank, and a director in the Mercantile Bank of Hartford. He is president of
the' Windsor Locks and Warehouse Point Bridge & Ferry Company, and is a director in
that enterprising manufacturing concern, the J. R. Montgomery Company. For four terms,
he held the office of first selectman of Windsor Locks, and for five years was a member of
the board of assessors. A member of the Congregational church since his early manhood,
Mr. Chaffee has been honored by places of great trust and responsibility, having been a
member of the church committee for eighteen years, and of the society's committee for a
period six years longer. When a young man in Monson, he was associated with the old
state militia service.
Besides its indebtedness for rebuUding a defunct industry, Windsor Locks has another
deep cause to cherish the memory of Mr. Chaffee. To quote from the opening address of
Mr. J. R. Montgomery: "Fortunately, however, the town had one citizen whose patriotic
soul had always burned with love for country, and love for its sturdy defenders, and was
blessed with a generous heart and a purse to match." The combination in the last line
does not always exist in the same person. The occasion of the remark was the gift of an
elegant Memorial Hall made by Mr. Chaffee to the local Post of the Grand Army. It is
one of the finest memorial structures devoted exclusively to Grand Army purposes to be
found in the United States. The building is entirely of Monson granite, two stories high,
with basement and attic, the external beauty being fully equalled by convenience of arrange
ment within, the total cost being approximately $28,000. Wednesday, June 10, 1891, the
date of dedication, was made a gala day by the citizens of the town, and business was
practically suspended. The town was filled with visiting Posts and soldiery, together with
a brilliant array of civil and military dignitaries, and the procession formed was worthy of
the occasion. On the front of the building is a polished marble slab, bearing the following
inscription : 1890.
S0I,DIERS' MEMORIAI, HAI^L,
built by
CHARLES E. CHAFFEE,
and presented by him to
J. H. CONVERSE POST,
No. 67, G. A. R.
In memory of those who went from Windsor
Locks and lost their lives in the ser
vice of Our Country in the
late Civil War.

232 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Many pleasant and complimentary allusions were made to Mr. Chaffee during the orations
of the day, but perhaps the justest mention of all was by his old friend, Mr. J. L- Houston,
who made the presentation address. In the course of his remarks, he said :
His is one of those transparent characters, always shining with a clear, steady light, known and read aud
respected by all who live within the circle of its influence. Let me make a brief allusion to the public spirit
of the raan; to his genuine altruistic feeling ; to his generous conceptions of duty towards circles lying out
side his own domestic hearth, and the group of his own immediate personal friends and associates; to
his attitude toward all movements and causes which "make for righteousness " and for the interests ofthe
community as a whole. During all his busy life he has yet found time to think of these things, and has
acted fully up to the high standard of his consciousness. Shakespeare has described a man as a type of
a class of good men, one "Who loves all, trusts a few, and does harm to none." My friend is all this,
but I think he is something more. He has always been a personal force operating for the good of the
community in which he was cast. We all know that he has been a model husband and father and head
of a household, a faithful member and officer of his church, but he never let his conception of duty stop
there, as so many of us do. His hand has always been held out generously in promoting the general good
and in appreciation of everything pure and noble. Aud so it has been, as we see to-day, in the manner
of his showing his patriotic love of country, and his admiration and appreciation of those who, during the
giant struggle of our civil war, sprang to the front and formed themselves into a living wall in defence of
an imperilled Republic. During those days of fiery trial he felt an obligation stamped upon his very
soul, and he has never ceased to remember that obligation.
In erecting a memorial building to the soldiers, Mr. Chaffee left a tangible remembrance
of his own generosity. Truly did Hon. James T. Coogan say: "In years to come when
the son or grandson of some old soldier shall bring his children to this shrine to show them
where their grandsire's memory is honored, and when he tells them of the great war of the
Rebellion and the noble deeds of their ancestors, I know he will not forget to tell them of
the soldiers' friend, Charles E. Chaffee."
In a lengthy description of the events of the day, the Hartford Post said: "The Ufe
of Mr. Chaffee has been one of superb consecration to duty, and no greater treasure could
be left with the community in which he has lived so long, than the example which he has
impressed upon all classes of men. It is a legacy of priceless value. As a Christian in the
community, and the manager of great industrial and financial interests, his career has been
in every way an honor to American manhood."
Charies E. Chaffee was married May 15, 1839, to Abilena, daughter of Cyrus and Chloe
(Richmond) Dunbar. Three children have been born to them, but they all died in infancy,
or eariy youth. One adopted daughter, Etta C. Chaffee, in a large measure fills the vacant
place in their hearts.

^^^glREENE, JACOB LYMAN, president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance
^^^g Company, Hartford, was born at Waterford, Me., Aug. 9, 1837. He comes of an
^^gr excellent family, well known in the Pine Tree State, being the son of Jacob H.
^M [j and Sarah Walker (Frye) Greene. Speaking of his parents, it has been said
that his father was a man of staunch character, distinguished for physical vigor,
positive convictions and strong religious views. His mother was a lady of the most affable
character, winning and graceful in manner, thoroughly enlightened and earnestly devoted to
the welfare and advancement of her children. One of his great-grandfathers was Thomas
Greene of Rowley, Mass., who was a non-commissioned officer of the minute-men at Lexington,
and served throughout the Revolutionary War, being promoted to the rank of first lieutenant
for distinguished bravery and efficiency. At the close of the war he moved to Waterford, Me.
Another great-grandfather was Major-Gen. Joseph Frye of Andover, Mass., who held impor-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 233
tant commissions and rendered valuable services at the siege of Louisburg in the French and
Indian wars, during which he had some thrilling experiences. He received a grant of land
in which a portion of the present town of Fryeburg was included and removed thither with
his family. Young Greene manifested a strong disposition for study at an early age, and sought every
opportunity within his reach for intellectual improvement. His first steps along the hill of
knowledge were taken at Fryeburg and Bethel academies. At that time the Michigan Uni
versity opened its doors to students without cost, so far as tuition was concerned. Turning
his steps thitherward he drank still deeper of the Pierian spring. After completing his studies,
he chose the legal profession in which to exert the future activities of life, and began the
practice of law in the town of Lapeer, Mich.
The paint had hardly become dry on the "traditional shingle," when the first gun was
fired at Fort Sumter, and the call made for troops to suppress the Rebellion. Enlisting as a
private in the Seventh Michigan Infantry, he was soon afterwards advanced to the rank of a
commissioned officer. His regiment was ordered to the School of Instruction at Fort Wayne,
and when its full complement was reached in August, 1861, it was sent to the front. Lieu
tenant Greene served in all the campaigns of his command until the spring of 1862, having
been promoted to the first lieutenantcy of his company in the meantime. A long and
exhaustive sickness intervened, which incapacitated him for active service for an entire year.
Recovering his health in the summer of 1863, he returned to the front and accepted an
appointment as assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General Custer. This position he
retained until the battle of Trevelyan Station, where he was captured in June, 1864. Colonel
Greene became familiar with the interior of Libby, Macon and Charleston prisons, and his
experiences in them were exactly the opposite of pleasant. While at Charleston, he was
selected as one of the officers to be placed under Union fire. Being removed to Columbia, he
was paroUed, transferred to the P^ederal lines and placed on duty at Annapolis. It was not until
April 8, 1865, that he secured exchange, and immediately afterwards he returned to Virginia,
joining General Custer at Burksville Junction, April 10. After participating in the grand
review at Washington of the Army of the Potomac, General Custer was ordered to New Orleans.
Colonel Greene accompanied him to the new field of action, and went with him up the Red river
to Alexandria, where a division of cavalry was organized. Having been made commander of
the central division of Texas and of the cavalry in the department, Custer advanced into the
state, making his headquarters at Austin. Colonel Greene, who had been promoted to the
full rank of major and brevetted lieutenant-colonel for distinguished gallantry, was made
chief of staff of both commands. His connection with General Custer had been of such an
intimate nature, when the latter was mustered out as major-general of volunteers, Colonel
Greene applied for his discharge and received it in April, 1866, one year after the surrender of
Lee at Appomattox. While he was exceedingly unfortunate in regard to his ill-health and
the time spent in Southern prisons, still Colonel Greene rendered valuable service ; and General
Custer ever gave his abilities the highest appreciation. His military title is fully deserved
by five years' participation in the War of the Rebellion.
Returning to civil life, he spent the next four years at Pittsfield, Mass. Becoming inter
ested in a new sphere of action, he began his insurance career as agent of the Berkshire Life
Insurance Company, but his executive ability soon made itself manifest, and he was invited to
take a position in the office of the company. His reputation extended beyond the town and
state in which he lived. In June, 1870, he was called to Hartford as assistant secretary of
the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in April of the following year he was

234 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
elevated to the post of secretary. On the death of President Goodwin, who had filled the
place for so many years, he was elected to the presidency, and is now filling that responsible
position. As President Greene's connection with the company covers more than a score of years,
and during that time it has made vast advances in all directions, it is fitting that a paragraph
be devoted to the history of the company. The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company
is one of the original five whose story goes back to the beginning of the business in this
country. Chartered in May, 1846, it was organized and issued its first policies in December
of the same year, with Eliphalet A. Bulkeley as president and Guy R. Phelps as secretary.
James Goodwin, a man of rare financial abilities, succeeded Mr. Bulkeley as president in 1848,
and, with an interruption of three years from 1866 to 1869, during the incumbency of Dr.
Phelps, held the position until his death in 1878. Since 1878, Mr. Greene has been the
official head of the company.
To President Greene's mind, the stability of his company has ever been his chief care.
Long before others had begun to realize the possibUities of a change in the interest rates of
the country, he commenced to bring the finances under his charge into shape to meet the
coming reduction. The idea was laughed at in some quarters, sneered at by others, and only
the most far-sighted could see any possible danger. Subsequent events, however, proved his
action ino.st wise. From an excellent publication, issued by the Hartford Board of Trade in
1889, the following truthful sentiments are taken:
The Connecticut Mutual is peculiarly strong, not only in solid assets, but iu a conservatism of policy, the
wisdom of which will become more and more apparent with the lapse of time. Its premiums and reserves
upon risks taken since April, 1882, are computed on the assumption that before the liabilities mature, safe
investments cannot with certainty be depended upon to yield a yearly net income of over three per cent, instead
of four percent., the basis heretofore required in prudent legislation and estimates. When taken, the step, quite
at variance with the prevalent tendency, provoked, in certain quarters, acrid criticism, but its justification is com
ing more quickly, perhaps, than its advocates foresaw. Within a decade, able economists have written elaborate
papers to prove that for a generation, at least, the annual rate of interest in the United States, except for short and
transient intervals, could not fall below six per cent. The arguments were based upon the extent of our unde
veloped and partially developed territory, the tireless energy of our people, and the enormous sum certain to be
required both for the enlargement of old aud the initiation of new enterprises. In reality, capital increases much
more rapidly than the demand for it in safe investments. For many months at a time, call loans on the best
security have ranged from one per cent, to a fraction above, the best state bonds yield barely three per cent., and
government bonds still less. Nothing but a long and destructive war can arrest even temporarily the downward
movement. In view of the further fact that life insurance contracts, in many instances, will run forty, fifty or
sixty years, and that every one kept in force must ultimately be paid in full on penalty of bankruptcy, it is easy
to see that all similar institutions, to meet remote obligations, must follow in practice, if not avowedly, the
example first set by the Connecticut Mutual.
Not all of President Greene's executive ability and business energy have been confined
to the insurance company of which he is the head. He has been called to act in an official
capacity in connection with financial institutions. At the present time he holds a directorship
in the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company, in the Society for Savings, in the Hartford
Fire Insurance Company, and the Phoenix National Bank. In all these different boards he
is valued as a safe counsellor, and his long experience gives his advice a special significance.
In church affairs. President Greene affiliates with the Protestant Episcopal body, and he
is senior warden of Trinity church. He is also a leading member of the Church Temperance
Society, and treasurer and a trustee' of the Bishop's Fund. As a citizen of Connecticut,
President Greene takes a zealous interest in all that affects the welfare of the commonwealth.
His abilities and habits of industry lead him into various useful activities. He is a frequent
and popular speaker at meetings of religious and scholastic bodies, and has been selected as
orator of the day on several important occasions. His social connections include membership
in the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution, trusteeships in the Wadsworth
AtheuEcum, Watkinson Library, Church Home, and other local organizations.

^^Jsf /S l^i-^C-C,-^-<^

MRtiopoliteaiTu-TilLslmi^ .'i-Eiibiavirii Co ITt^vToxX.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 235
A man of superior endowments. President Greene stands before the community, not only
an able business manager, but a thoroughly useful and greatly valued citizen. Official life
has had no charm for him. The prestige of station has been brought to his notice, but he has
ever chosen to remain in the circle of business activity. It has been tersely said of President
Greene: " He is at the head of one of the largest insurance organizations in the United States,
to which honorable position he brings the qualifications of undoubted ability, the most absolute
fidelity, a clear conception of duty, and a loyalty of principle which under no circumstances
either surrenders or compromises."

^IGELOW, HOBART BALDWIN, of New Haven, ex-governor of Connecticut
and president of the Bigelow Company, was born in the adjoining town, North
Haven, May 16, 1834. His death occurred Oct. 12, 1891, passing on to his
reward in the very prime of his later manhood.
From both sides of the family line. Governor Bigelow came of excellent
ancestry, and the combination of the two strains of blood, made a rare specimen of New
England's best type of man. Of the ancestry of John Biglo of Watertown, Mass., the
progenitor of the American Bigelows, practically nothing is known. Presumably he was of
English descent, but neither history nor tradition establish this as a fact. The first
mention of his name is found in the Watertown records, where his marriage appears under
date of Aug. 30, 1642, being the first recorded in that town. By trade he was a black
smith, and was an energetic, public spirited man, having served as an officer of the town
in various capacities, and he is also spoken of as a soldier. P^om him the family line
comes down through (2) Samuel, and (3) Samuel, Jr., to (4) Cornelius, and in this
generation the present spelling of the name appears for the first time. Cornelius Bigelow
served as a non-commissioned officer in the French and Indian wars. His son (5) Paul
was at Cambridge, April 19, 1775, as drummer of the Westborough company of minute
men, and tradition says he served throughout the Revolutionary War, being present at the
taking of Quebec by General Wolfe. Elisha (6), son of Paul Bigelow, was associated with
his brothers in the manufacture of cut nails, and being a very ingenious man he did much
to invent and perfect machinery for that purpose.
In the seventh generation, Levi Lewis, son of Elisha Bigelow, was born Dec. 13, 1802.
He married Belinda Pierpont, a lineal descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, the second
minister in New Haven, and one of the founders of Yale College. Until new methods of
manufacturing cloth and the concentration of capital made it unprofitable, he followed the
business of a clothier. Subsequently he engaged in the manufacture of chain pumps with
bright prospects of pecuniary success, but the enterprise was wrecked by the perfidy of a
trusted agent. During all the years he was engaged in manufacturing he never surrendered
his title of farmer, and was in every way an honor to the tillers of the soil. A man of
strict integrity, Mr. Bigelow faithfully and fearlessly performed the duties required of him,
being often honored by his townspeople in the distribution of offices.
The education that was common to the sons of farmers at the time was all that Mr.
Bigelow received. During his boyhood, business reverses overtook his father, who was then
a manufacturer of chain pumps in Berkshire County, Mass. Thrown on his own resources
at the age of seventeen, his native endowments were at once called into positive exercise.
Like many eminently successful men, his youthful imagination had often dwelt upon the

236 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
city, as the theatre best fitted for the display of his powers, and the field most likely to
yield the largest harvest in repayment of toil. To the city he went and found employment
with the New Haven Manufacturing Company, then under the management of his uncle,
Asahel Pierpont, and here he served a regular apprenticeship as a machinist. Entering the
foundry and machine shop of Ives & Smith, by successive stages he ascended from a lowly
position first to the management and finally to the proprietorship of the factory.
With his immense force of character, enlarged by practical experience and acquaintance
with the world, Mr. Bigelow found himself at the beginning of the road leading to assured
competence and corresponding social distinction. He wisely seized and used his opportunity.
Others sought business relations with him, among them being Mr. Henry Bushnell, inventor
of the compressed air motor. Together they contracted with the national government in
1 86 1 for the supply of "gun parts" for 300,000 Springfield rifies. Nearly three years were
required to fill the contract, during which time Mr. Bigelow gave employment to about
two hundred men. When the war closed the demand for his manufactured products
increased, necessitating a similar increase in the facilities, and the works were removed to
Grape Vine Point, where they are now situated. Two years prior to removal Mr. Bigelow
had added the manufacture of boilers to his previous business, and this department has
since become famous throughout the country. The superior quality and workmanship of
the boilers and the remarkable excellence of the engines are as well known in St. John,
N. B., and in California as in New Haven and vicinity. In the new location all the
departments expanded greatly, and, under his fostering care, the total output increased to
magnificent proportions. In 1883, the business was incorporated as the Bigelow Company,
under a special charter granted by the legislature of that year.
Remarkably successful as a manufacturer, Mr. Bigelow was no less efficient in fiscal
matters. He was especially identified with the Merchants' National Bank of New Haven,
and to its management he gave no small share of his time. Upon the death of Mr. Nathan
Peck in 1882, he was elected president of the bank, and retained that position until the fall
of 1889, when he resigned, though he held a directorship up to the date of his own death
in 1 89 1. Among the other corporations with which he was interested are Holcomb Brothers
& Company of New Haven, extensive carriage manufacturers, with whom he was connected
for about twenty years. To the capital which he brought to their aid in the infancy of
the concern, and the skillful and judicious counsel in the management of their affairs, is
largely due the high position which they now occupy as manufacturers. He was in reality
the founder of the National Pipe Bending Company of New Haven, and was its president
from its inception to the time of his death.
Mr. Bigelow's continued success as a manufacturer had not passed unnoticed by his
fellow-citizens, and he was called upon to fill a variety of public stations. The municipal
honors he received, however, were simply commensurate with the value and worth of such
a man to the community. He was elected to the Common Council in 1863, and the follow
ing year was made a member of the Board of Aldermen. A year of public service in each
body was all that could be spared by the exactions of business. From 1871 to 1874 he was
a member of the Board of Supervisors, and from 1874 to 1876 he filled most acceptably the
office of fire commissioner. Sent by the Republicans of New Haven to the legislature of
1875, he acquired further popularity by his talents and address, and gained additional
reputation by action on important committees, especially in that on banks. His long
experience had rendered him specially adapted to fill the office of mayor. Though belong
ing to the party nominally in the minority in New Haven, in 1879 he was elected for a
two years' term by the very handsome majority of 2,587 over the opposing candidate. This

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 237
election was a gratifying tribute to his inteUectual, moral and social value, effected as it
was, not entirely by the political party with which he affiliated, but by citizens of all
shades of political opinion. Mr. Bigelow's administration of this office was marked by two
events of peculiar and permanent interest to the citizens of New Haven. It was during his
official term, and very largely due to his support and encouragement, that the East Rock
Park Commission was created and the' park opened, making an important addition to the
beauty and comfort of the city. The other was the admirably planned and successful effort
of the city government under his direction for the building of the breakwaters which have
been projected and are being carried on by the United States government for the improve
ment of the city's harbor.
He was sent as one of the delegates to the National Republican Convention at Chicago
in the summer of 1880, and contributed largely to the success of his political compatriots at
the polls in the election which followed. The same year Mr. Bigelow received an exceed
ingly complimentary nomination in the Republican state convention, and was triumphantly
chosen to the chief magistracy of the state. This exalted position he filled with quiet
dignity, thorough impartiality and great good sense. The wise and liberal character of his
past action was a sufficient guarantee for the sound discretion and enlightened policy of his
administration. After Governor Bigelow's retirement from official life, his attention was devoted to the
development of his growing manufacturing industries, though his lesser interests in other
business enterprises drew heavily upon his strength. His career has been preeminently that
of the man of business, familiar with and skillful in modern methods of conducting large
enterprises. All the success he has attained has been based upon thoroughness and energy
in action, a careful attention to details, combined with the severest integrity and avoidance
of speculation. The same characteristics have always marked his administration of public
affairs. It was the possession of such qualities which won for him the hearty esteem of his
fellow citizens, and which was deepened by his open-handed and broad-minded practical
benevolence. The full extent of benefactions has been realized by only a few, but a host
of persons in New Haven and elsewhere will rise up and call him blessed at the last for
prompt assistance rendered in time of need.
Governor Bigelow was married May 6, 1857, to Eleanor, daughter of Philo Lewis.
Mr. Lewis came of a family which has left its mark upon the administration of New
Haven affairs. Of their children, two sons reached the years of maturity : Frank L. , who
succeeded to the presidency of the Bigelow Company, and also to a directorship in the
Merchants' National Bank, and Walter P., now residing in New York, and in charge of the
Bigelow Company's office in that city.

31

238 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
|AWLEY, JOSEPH RUSSELL, of Hartford, ex-governor of Connecticut and
United States senator since 1881, was born Oct. 31, 1826, in Stewartsville,
Richmond County, North Carolina.
His father,. Rev. Francis Hawley, was a native of Farmington, Conn.,
and a descendant of one of the early settlers of the state. His mother, n^e
Mary McLeod, was of Scotch ancestry, the McLeods from time immemorial being among the
most warlike and powerful clans in the west of Scotiand. Rev. Francis Hawley removed
to the South on reaching his majority and entered into mercantile business ; later he devoted
himself to the work of the Christian ministry, and after fourteen years' labor in North and
South Carolina, he returned to his native state in 1837, bringing his family with him.
Beginning in the district school, the education of young Hawley was continued in the
Hartford grammar school, and, on the removal of the family to Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1842,
in the Oneida Conference Seminary at that place. Entering Hamilton College, he was
graduated with honor in the class of 1847, having made an excellent reputation as a linguist
and orator. Athletic amusements and exercises contributed to give him a splendid physical
development, and thus aided to prepare him for the influential part he was to play in the
great drama of national . life. Subsequent to graduation he taught school, and at the same
time took up the study of law. In May, 1849, he contracted a partnership with John Hooker,
Esq., of Farmington, and the September following they opened an office in Hartford under
the title of Hooker & Hawley.
Pronounced identification with the Free Soil party marked Mr. Hawley 's entrance into
public life. Chosen chairman of the Free Soil committee at the opening of 1851, he held
that position until those who thought and acted with him in relation to national polity were
blended in the Republican party. Together with eight other gentlemen, he set the movement
in motion which resulted in the formation of the Republican party in Connecticut. Active
agitators necessarily use the newspaper press in pushing beneficent reforms, and Mr. Hawley,
in harmony with the general law, became a frequent contributor to the Republican, a weekly
organ of the Free Soilers. The law business of Hooker & Hawley grew rapidly in size,
but it was evident that politics rather than law was the sphere to which he was best fitted.
After a year's experience with the Hartford Evening Press, he relinquished the practice of law
permanently. Then he invited first Charles Dudley Warner of Chicago, and later Stephen A.
Hubbard of West Winsted, to associate themselves with him in the proprietorship of the Press.
After three years of hard labor, the Pi-ess was placed on a paying basis. Just at this
point came the "irrepressible conflict," long dreaded, but seemingly unavoidable. The
demand was made for troops to suppress the Rebellion, whose leaders had been emboldened
to violent acts of treason by the apparent inactivity of the North. President Lincoln's call
reached Hartford Monday, AprU 13, 1861. In conjunction with Mr. Drake, Mr. Hawley
promptly raised a military company, and purchased rifles for them at Sharp's factory. It
was the first organization of the kind that was completed in the state, and was accepted,
fully enrolled, Thursday evening, April 16. He was elected captain, and with his regiment
proceeded at once to Virginia and took part in the battle of Bull Run, his three months'
term of enlistment expiring on the day of the engagement. Captain Hawley was then
appointed major by Governor Buckingham, and, assisting in raising the Seventh Connecticut
Volunteers, was still further promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy.
The Se\'enth was known as one of the fighting regiments of the state, and under such
a leader it could not well have been otherwise. With his regiment, Lieut. -Col. Hawley
had a share in the Port Royal expedition, and was represented at Morris Island and Fort

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 239
Wagner. In July, 1861, Colonel Terry having been made a brigadier, he received his merited
commission as colonel. The regiment next formed part of the Florida expedition under
General Seymour, and Colonel Hawley had command of a brigade. At Olustee he added to
his military laurels and was recommended for promotion " for gallant and meritorious service."
Ordered to Virginia, the Seventh was conspicuous at the battle of Drury's Bluff and the
engagements around Bermuda Hundred, as well as in the trenches before Petersburg. His
hardly earned commission as brigadier reached him in October. Under General Butler, he
assisted in keeping peace at New York during the presidential election. After a brief sen-ice
as chief of staff for General Terry, he was assigned by General Schofield to the command
of Wilmington, North Carolina, where he found a new class of duties added to those of ordinary
military character.' Fifteen thousand refugees were dependent upon him for food, while the
reconstruction of his native state largely occupied his thoughts. Completing his work in
July, 1864, he was again made chief of staff to General Terry at Richmond, and the position
was one which called all his knowledge of civil and miUtary law into earnest exercise, as
grave complications were of constant occurrence. The merits of General Hawley were
recognized in October by the brevet of major-general, conferred for distinguished services
throughout the RebeUion. With final leave of absence he returned to Hartford the same
month, but was not discharged from the service until Jan. 15, 1866.
It was but fitting that the illustrious soldier should receive civic honors at the hands of
his fellow citizens. Such has often been the case in the history of the world. Nominated
by the Republicans for the chief magistracy of the state, he was elected over his Democratic
competitor, James E. English, and served from May, 1866, to May, 1867, with great acceptance.
The swing of the political pendulum was in the opposite direction at the next election, and
Mr. English was chosen as his successor, and Governor Hawley declined further candidacy.
Having given so large a share of his time to the service of country and state, General
Hawley's private affairs now claimed his attention and energies. Effecting the consolidation
of the Press and Courant, and adding W. H. Goodrich to his active partners, he has published
the Courant since 1866, though for the last dozen years the management of the paper has
been almost wholly in the hands of his associates. Politician and statesman in the truest
sense of the words. General Hawley has been a prolific writer and vigorous speaker in each
of the annual state campaigns, and not unfrequently in the campaigns of neighboring states.
In presidential canvasses he has always been a prominent and effective actor, and has served
as delegate or alternate to the National Convention of his own party for a score of years, his
first experience being at the Baltimore Convention of 1864. In 1868, he was nominated in
caucus for United States senator, but the "good war Governor" Buckingham obtained the
honor, and -with it the sincere concurrence of his patriotic competitor. Four years later he
was again nominated for the senatorship, but was defeated by the defection of members of his
party, who united with the Democrats and reelected Hon. O. S. Ferry. In September, 1872,
he was elected to the vacancy in the First Congressional District occasioned by the death of
Hon. J. L. Strong, and was~reelected in the spring of 1873. During his three years' service
he was a member of the committees on claims, centennial commission, military affairs, and
currency and banking.
At the organization of the United States centennial commission in 1872, he was chosen
president, and was subsequently reelected annuaUy. General Hawley had intelligent faith
in the usefulness and success of a national industrial exhibition, and it was largely through
his efforts that the loan of a million and a half dollars was effected. In the spring of 1876,
the centennial commission unanimously requested him to go to Philadelphia and devote his
whole time to the interests of the great exhibition. He was finally prevailed upon to accept,

240 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and in cooperation with the other officials remained on the ground till January, 1877, two
months after the close of the most briUiant and imposing international industrial exhibition
held up to that time in the interests of human progress and welfare. In Connecticut itself,
General Hawley was closely identified with all the state arrangements in relation to the
Centennial exhibition, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his state contribute in due pro
portion to the enterprise and reap the profit of extensive advertisement and enlarged sale of
its products. General Hawley was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress from the First Congressional
District, taking his seat March 4, 1879, and as usual rendering effective service for his con
stituents. In January, 1881, he was the unanimous choice of his party for the United States
senatorship, and was elected to succeed Senator Eaton, whose term expired in March. In
the upper house of Congress he found a fitting field for his patriotic and extended usefulness,
and few, if any, within its halls are better qualified for wise and far-reaching action. Six
years later, he was reelected for a second term. That his work is appreciated let the following
paragraph from the Army and Navy fournal show :
We congratulate the army upon the action of Senator Hawley in introducing the excellent bill to improve the
efficiency of the army, which appears elsewhere, and upon the report our correspondent gives of its prospects of
becoming a law. If it cannot be passed this session the outlook ahead is not a brilliant one. We fear that the new
Congress will be found to have in it elements of ignorant hostility to the maintenance of an efficient military estab
lishment that will make proper action even more diificult than it has been heretofore. Every effort should therefore
be made, by those who realize the needs of our military establishment, to secure the passage of General Hawley's
bill. Accept the measure as it stands ; do not dispute over it, but throw the whole weight of military experience
and military sentiment, in its favor. It is a measure most important to the country as well as to the army.
When the legislature assembled in January, 1893, one of its first and most important
duties was the election of a United States senator. General Hawley was again a candidate,
and though he was not the unanimous choice of his party associates in the caucus, he was
awarded every vote in the joint ballot of both houses. His election was received with much
rejoicing, not only in Connecticut, but- in all parts of the country. The testimony of the
Worcester (Mass.) Spy was that:
Since the day when "Joe Hawley " led a small, but enthusiastic, band of " Free Soilers " out into the suburbs
of Hartford to fire a salute over the election of Charles Sumner of Massachusetts to the United States Senate, there
has not been a truer Republican than he in New England. He was early in the field in defence of the Union, and
has for years been one of the ablest and most honest members of the national Senate. He is a senator in whom all
New England takes pride.
The Granite state joined in the general notes of commendation, as the following from
the New Hampshire Republican will bear witness :
The reelection of General Hawley to the United States Senate by the Republicans of Connecticut is an act that
causes rejoicing among the New Hampshire comrades of his marches, battles and sieges. He is a comrade whom
they admire, whom they talk about at their campfires, aud in whose loyalty to their interests they place implicit
faith. But it is not alone his comrades who extend the hand of congratulation. Every Republican in the Granite
state who admires courage and respects ability aud honesty is pleased that General Joe Hawley is to be continued
at the front in the great battles that are yet to be fought and won to the end that every man in America — regardless
of former conditions of servitude — may stand equal before the law. The Republicans of Connecticut, therefore, in
honoring Joe Hawley, have honored themselves and the Republicans of the whole country.
Let the Bridgeport Post voice the sentiments of Connecticut:
The people of this state are glad that Joseph R. Hawley is to be returned to the United States Senate. General
Hawley's long experience in national affairs, his integrity and patriotism, eminently fit him for this high honor.
Some may feel, perhaps, that it is time some one else is given a chance, but the common people who are not in
politics would rather trust their interests to his tried judgment and honor.
Scores of similar comments might be published, but only one more is added. Says the
New York Press:

yH^. — ¦

Mas E aclius etf 3 Pulli slim J, C o , Evbt ett , IVTas s ,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 241
The re-nomination of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley for the United States Senate in Connecticut is in timely and
highly satisfactory contrast to the spectacle which has been presented in the capital of New York. The result is
gratifying to Republicans throughout the country who believe in placing and in keeping the best man at the helm.
Senator Hawley is a statesman of well proven ability, of keen and deliberate judgment, of resolute aud vigorous
action. He is a typical American, a splendid example of the success which may be achieved under American insti
tutions by the exercise of native energy, integrity and patriotism.
The lack of space prevents a more extended example, but the foUowing from a speech
made at the Republican State Convention of 1892, will give expression to his opinions and
also be a brief sample of the terse and vigorous English that General Hawley uses :
This is the opening hour of what bids fair to be a hotly-contested campaign, involving principles of the highest
importance and probably the control of the national government for many years. The Republican party comes to
the crisis with its usual abundant pride in a noble past and its high purposes for the future. During the last thirty
years our party has underlaid the very foundations of our government, perfected the constitution, destro3'ed secession,
destroyed slavery, established universal suffrage and equal civil rights, given free the public lands to the actual
settler, drawn from foreign nations acknowledgments of the full American citizenship of our adopted fellow-citizens,
reduced by two thousand millions the great national debt, established a national currency, applied to the Indian the
treatment due from a Christian democracy, bestowed unprecedented relief upon the disabled soldier aud his widow
and his orphan, and put into vigorous practice the legitimate doctrines of protection, building up a national self-
dependence with astonishing success ; in short, iu every imaginable field of governmental activit3' erecting monu
ments of wise legislation. In none of these things ha^^-e we had the cordial cooperation of the Democratic party.
In almost every one we have had its vigorous opposition. Our friends the enemy jeer us for pointing with pride at
our record. It is a pleasure they cannot enjoy. We offer that record as the only valuable security that our future
control would be as beneficent as our past.
Being a member of the party in the minority. Senator Hawley was not assigned to any
important committees, still he fared better in this respect than most of his colleagues of the
same political faith. He is one of the leaders on the Republican side, and his speeches have
lost none of their force and pungency, but have gained in strength of expression from his
long experience. TEELE, HARVEY BALDWIN, M. D., of Winsted, was born in Southington,
Feb. 22, 1827, the anniversary of the birthday of the " Father of his Country."
He died May 24, 1890.
Among the early pioneers from England, in the early settlement of New
England, particularly in the founding of the colony of Connecticut, John Steele
of Essex County acted no unimportant part. His name appears first in connection with
Dorchester, one of the earliest settlements of the colony of Massachusetts, in the year 1630,
only ten years after the arrival of the Pilgrim company in the Mayflower. He is next men
tioned as one of the proprietors of Cambridge, and, having been made a "freeman," was
elected a representative from that town to the General Assembly in 1635. In the autumn of
1835, Mr. Steele led the pioneer band of Rev. John Hooker's colony through the rugged,
pathless wilderness to a new location on the Connecticut River. As leader and magistrate
he appears to have conducted the expedition wisely and well. Other expeditions the same
season failed, but this succeeded, largely owing to his indomitable perseverance. "And
here," says 'Ca.t Genealogy of the Steele Family, " as a faithful head of a family, as an active
member of their church, as a magistrate, as one of the principal members of their colony
court, he aided in establishing a community, the duration, wisdom, and happy influence of
whose institutions have been — with few exceptions — the glory of the state. * * * Thus,
unambitious except to do good, and to be faithful to every trust committed to him, did he
pass some thirty of the active years of his life, in founding with others according to their
views, a new home in the new world." From him by successive generations the family line
comes down through (2) Samuel, (3) Capt. James, (4) Dr. Joseph, (5) Ebenezer, (6) Selah,
(7) Selah, Jr. Selah Steele, Jr., was married three times, and by his first wife, nee Phoebe
Baldwin, was the father of the subject of this sketch.

242 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
H. B. Steele's early education was obtained in the public schools of New Britain, and,
when the question came to be settled regarding his vocation for life, he chose the medical
profession. With Dr. Sperry of Hartford, he studied in the botanic school of medicine, and
later took a regular course of lectures in the medical schools of New York, and was well
read in other departments of the science of healing. For over forty years he practiced in
Winsted, and was recognized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the state.
He made no part of the human body a specialty, but devoted himself to general practice,
and it was in the broad work of his chosen profession that his reputation was gained. Dr.
Steele was a member of the Connecticut Medical Association, and his advice and counsel
were sought after by physicians throughout his section of the state, as well as in the adjoin
ing towns of Massachusetts. His faculty of diagnosing diseases was remarkable in the extreme.
It would seem as if he did not need to ask the regulation questions of his patients — that
he could see what ailed them. Many stories are related of the wonderful power which he
possessed in this direction. He was also a skillful surgeon. A young physician once said :
"It is as interesting to be with Dr. Steele in an operation, as to attend a clinic in New
York, one learns so much of him." Free from professional jealousy, he was always glad to
assist his }'ounger brethren, and to say appreciative words to or of them, ever remembering
his own early and unassisted efforts. An enthusiastic student, it was only a few months
before his death that he reviewed anatomy with great thoroughness.
The taxing cares of an increasing practice bore heavily upon him, still he found time
to give attention to public affairs, and took no little interest in so doing. The welfare of
Winsted was very close to his heart, and he was active in all measures which would pro
mote the growth and prosperity of the town. During the War of the Rebellion Dr. Steele
was a strong Union man. After the battle of Fredericksburg he was sent by the town
authorities to minister to the wants of the wounded, and was indefatigable in his efforts in
that direction. Retaining his interest in military matters, he assisted in the organization of
Company I of the Fourth Regiment Connecticut Militia, which was named in his honor the
"Steele Guards."
His fellow-citizens have honored him with various official positions, for which he was
eminently fitted by his mental qualifications and long training. During the administrations
of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan he served as postmaster of West Winsted. Dr. Steele
represented the town of Winchester in the legislature of the state for the sessions of 1875,
1879, and 1887, and was senator for the Fifteenth senatorial district for the year 1874-75.
In both House and Senate he took a prominent position. He did good work as chairman
of the committee on finance in 1875, and in 1879, was chairman of the committee on humane
institutions, and engrossed bills, the latter being one of the most important and laborious
in the House. In 1887, he was a leading member of the judiciary committee. While in
the Senate he was a member of the committee on cities and boroughs, and on the committee
on corporations. It was during his term of service at the state capital that the effort was
made to remove the court-house from Litchfield to Winsted. Litchfield had been the county
town from the beginning, and though it was the central point, it was bleak and inaccessible,
and when the old court-house was burned down, there was immediate thought of rebuild
ing elsewhere. Winsted had the advantage of excellent railroad facilities, but Litchfield was
unwilling to part with her ancient prestige, and other towns also wanted the prize. There
was an earnest fight in the legislature, during the course of which Dr. Steele made a speech,
calm, dignified and argumentative, which was said to be the speech of the session. Win
sted won the prize, but was obliged to share it with New Milford. Dr. Steele foresaw
that wisdom and prudence would still be necessary, and on returning home he prevented

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 243
the citizens from celebrating the event. His thought was that other towns wanted the
court-house as much as Winsted, and his town could not afford to lose the friendship of
the rest. His popularity was strikingly illustrated in 1874, when he was elected by a large
majority in a district strongly Republican, his opponent being one of the leading Republicans
of the state.
Dr. Steele was one of the best informed members of the Masonic fraternity in his section
of the state, having been initiated in St. Andrew's Lodge, July 2, 1851, and three years
later was chosen its master. He joined Meridian Chapter in 1859, and was high priest of
the chapter for the years 1860-61. A limited circle of business outside of his profession
has claimed a portion of his time. For a long series of years he was trustee of the Mechanics'
Savings Bank, and at the date of death was president of that institution, and was a director
in the Hurlbut National Bank. He was associated with Colonel Batcheller in the manu
facture of scythes at Winsted, and was also interested in the Eagle Scythe Works at River-
ton. His interests were not merely those of a financial character, but by his counsel he
assisted materially in the success attained.
The end came suddenly, in the very prime of his later manhood, soon after he had
passed his sixty-third birthday. Though willing to live and continue the good work he was
doing, he was prepared to go on to his reward. The touching scenes at his funeral were
simply the expressions of the loving respect in which he was held by all classes in the com
munity. A sentence in the mention of the first emigrant of the name is eminently true of
Dr. Steele: " Unambitious except to do good and be faithful to every trust committed to him."
Many kindly words were spoken of him at the time of his death. The Witisted Herald
closed a glowing tribute to his memory in the following words :
He took high rank in the House during his last term (1887) and was made a member of the judiciary com
mittee. He was a well-informed man and an excellent talker, and was both persuasive and pleasing, and when he
¦had "the floor" he was always accorded the close attention of his audience, whether at the State Capitol, the town
meeting, or at the post-prandial exercises of any board or society of which he might be a member or guest. Few
men had the " fraternal " characteristic more stronglj' marked than Doctor Steele. He was a prominent Mason, and
his lectures on Masonry were listened to with delight by members of the Lodge whenever he could be induced to
give them. He was a member of various other fraternal organizations, but of late years his age debarred him from
membership in several beneficiary societies which would gladly have opened their doors to him. But the realm in
which Doctor Steele will be most missed aside from his own home will be in the homes where he was the beloved
physician. His practice was very large and might have been very lucrative to him, but he was so much inclined
to wave his hand and say, "That's all right," when asked for his bill, that the wonder is that he ever accumulated
any property. The story of his leniency in matters of "collections" may be had from the mouth of every poor
man in the community who had occasion to employ him, and there are no sincerer mourners over his death than
among the poor. He was to them the " Good Samaritan," and on Sunday afternoon fully one thousand persons,
mostly of this class, called at his home to look upon the face of their friend and benefactor.
He forgot his own soul for others.
Himself to his neighbor lending.
He found his Lord in his suffering brothers,
And not in the clouds descending.
In the beginning of his career Dr. Steele laid down two simple rules for his life: First,
Never to play games of chance, not that such games were totally wrong in his sight, but
because he had no time to spend that way. Second, Never to sit down where liquor was
sold. He was always a strong temperance man, and could never be induced to taste
intoxicating drinks. Although he often voted "No License," for reasons which seemed wise
to himself, he believed that in the present state of society the greatest amount of good could
be accomplished only by " High License."
Harvey B. Steele was twice married. First, April 30, 1861, to Mary Mather of Win
sted, who died in 1872. Second, April 26, 1882, to Emily, daughter of John Stanwood
of Hartford. She survives him and still lives to honor his memory in the old homestead.

244 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
|UCK, JOHN R., of Hartford, was born in East Glastonbury, Dec. 6, 1836,
and was educated at the academy there, later at Wilbraham Academy,
Massachusetts, and then entered Wesleyan University, Middletown, but did not
graduate. In 1877, that institution gave him the degree of M. A. After
leaving college, following the example of other successful country boys, he
began teaching school and taught at Manchester, Glastonbury, East Haddam, and elsewhere,
generally in academies, that excellent sort of educational institution which of late years has
passed very nearly out of existence.
Mr. Buck came to Hartford in 1859, and took up the study of law with Judge Martin
Welles and Julius L. Strong, the latter of whom afterwards became his partner. In 1862,
he was admitted to the bar. Two years later he was elected by the Republicans to be
assistant clerk of the lower house of the Connecticut General Assembly, and, foUowing the
regular line of promotion, was the next year clerk of the house, and the next after that the
clerk of the senate. This course opens to a young man a wide acquaintance with men and
affairs in politics and has proved the entrance for many other prominent men to a public
career. In 1868, Mr. Buck was president of the Hartford Common Council; in 1871 and
1873, he was city attorney of Hartford; from 1863 to 1881, he was treasurer of Hartford
county, and in 1880-91, he was state senator for the first (Hartford) district. He was
nominated for Congress in 1880, and was elected over Beach, Democrat, by a vote of
17,048 to 17,114. Running for the same office in 1882, he was defeated by W. W. Eaton
by a vote of 14,740 to 14,047. He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress in 1884, over
Eaton, by a vote of 16,589 to 16,285, 410 votes having been given for Hammond,
Prohibitionist, and 237 votes for Andrews, Greenbacker. In 1886, he was again the
candidate of his party for the Fiftieth Congress and was defeated by Vance, Democrat, by
a vote of 14,898 to 14,568. Hart, Prohibitionist, received 996 votes, and Loper, Labor
candidate, received 378 votes. When the next election approached, Mr. Buck declined to
allow his name to be used as a candidate, having determined to devote himself directly to
the practice of his profession. While in Congress, he was on the committee on the revision
of the laws, the Indian affairs committee, and the committee on naval affairs, and, in the
last position, was influential in securing the construction of new ships.
In 1887, he and the Hon. Lorrin A. Cooke were made receivers of the wrecked
Continental Life Insurance Company, and the much involved affairs of that company have
since been gradually working into order. Mr. Buck's old partner. Congressman Julius L.
Strong, died in 1872, and in 1883 he formed a partnership with Judge Arthur F. Eggleston,
now state attorney, and at that time already one of the most prominent and successful of
the younger members of the bar, as Buck & Eggleston, and this firm is employed as
counsel by a large number of important local corporations and private firms, and is
represented now in nearly all the important cases tried in this part of the state, besides
being often called elsewhere. Mr. Buck holds his position through no accident of good
fortune, but as a result of honest, hard work and an attractive personality which has drawn
to him a very wide acquaintance. The choice gift of making friends is one of his natural
qualities, and he is personaUy known to as many people in the state as any man in
Connecticut, while he has acquaintances in every state in the Union. Men who meet him
remember him. In politics, his experience ranges from town, city, and state affairs to the
deliberations of Congress, and in law it ranges from the drawing of the will or the organiz
ing of a corporation to an argument before the supreme court. His acquaintance with the
theory and practice of both politics and law is extensive and his advice in both fields is

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 245
highly valued, for he is universally regarded as a peculiarly safe and judicious counsellor.
He has been a Republican from * his first appearance in politics and no gathering of the
leaders of the party in the state is complete without him. His manner is deliberate, and
caution is one of his characteristics, but his conclusions are positive and he always has the
courage of them.
In his thirty-five years of life in Hartford, Mr. Buck has earned his reputation alike for
abUity and for honesty. Those who advise with him, know he will say what he thinks,
and those who are opposed to him know that he wUl use only honorable methods in dealing
with them. He is director in the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and in the
Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In social life, among his near friends,
he is loved for his sincerity, his simple tastes, the genuineness of his sympathy, and his
almost boyish enthusiasm. No man is more fond of his books, no man appreciates a joke
more, no man enjoys a "day off" better, or finds more genuine pleasure in the sports of
the country, whether shooting, fishing, or the mere walk abroad. Some years ago, he
bought the old Buck family mansion near Buck's corners in East Glastonbury, the home of
his boyhood, back three miles from the Connecticut river and eight miles below Hartford,
on one of the highest hills between that city and New London. He has refitted it and
made his summer home where he can enjoy the breezes under the great trees that his
ancestors set out, and where his friends are always welcome and almost always represented,
and where, among the boys he grew up with, he is still one of them.
Mr. Buck married Miss Mary A. Keeny of Manchester, in 1865, and they have two
children. Miss Florence K. Buck and John Halsey Buck, who graduated from Yale in 1891.

ORGAN, J. PIERPONT, of New York, is the son of Junius S. Morgan, the
story of whose life appears in the preceding pages, and to which reference
should be made for points of family history. He was born in Hartford, Conn.,
April 17, 1837, and like his father, he has gained both pecuniary success and
business reputation outside his native state. His preparatory education was
received at the English High School, Boston, and it was finished in a thorough manner at
the University of Gottingen, Germany.
Inheriting from his father executive ability of a rare order and a taste for financial
operations of an extended scope, he has developed his talents along this line until now he
is the actual head of the leading banking firm of the United States. Before he attained his
majority, Mr. Morgan entered the banking house of Duveau, Sherman & Company, New
York, and for three years he gained experience in moneyed transactions. In i860, he was
appointed the agent and attorney in the United States for George Peabody & Company of
London, of which firm his father was an active member. This was the testing time of his
career, but he proved equal to all the responsibilities of the position amid the trying times
of the war period. Four years later he became the junior partner of the firm of Dabney,
Morgan & Company, and in 1871 he was made a member of the house of Drexel, Morgan
& Company, and that connection has lasted to the present day.
Few men who have been so prominent in Wall street are as little known as Mr.
Morgan. He is a man of few words, is seldom seen on the street and is difficult of access
during business hours. Most of his time is spent in his office or at his home, where his
family life is of a quiet and modest nature. Well known in London, he is almost as
32

246 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
powerful a factor there as in New York City. The trend of his mind is towards financial
projects of a size the very thought of which would overwhelm a man of smaller calibre. If
he had done nothing else throughout his busy career, his re-organization of the tangled
affairs of the West Shore RaUroad would have raised him to a place in the very front rank
among American financiers. In recognition of his service as chairman, the re-organization
committee presented him with a silver and gold dinner set costing $50,000, and it was a
well deserved tribute to the successful carrying out of his original plan for solving the
difficulties of the situation. He was the unseen leader of the force in the more recent
railroad war which ended in the overthrow of what was known as the " Reading Combine."
His position as the head of the largest banking house in America makes him the centre
around which numerous important railroad schemes revolve. In his office have been arranged
many railroad deals with which the public was not made acquainted till months after the/
had been consummated.
Official stations have been showered upon Mr. Morgan until it would tax his memor)^
to remember all the meetings he is called upon to attend, and in many cases over which he
has to preside. To charitable objects Mr. Morgan gives large sums of money, and is alwayd
a liberal subscriber to public enterprises and for the relief of distress. To St. George'^
Protestant Episcopal church, of which he is a member, he presented a magnificent memorial
building costing $300,000, which was dedicated in 1888. The fund of the Hartford FreS
Public Library was enriched by $50,000. In 1892, he gave half a million dollars as an en
dowment to the New York Trade Schools, and he contributed a like sum to the building
of St. John's cathedral, and the same year he added to the American Museum of Natural
History a unique collection of gems valued at $20,000. His interest in suffering humanity
is evidenced by the fact that during the cholera season, he bought the steamer Stonington
and gave it to Dr. Jenkins for the use of the Normandia's passengers. Unlike some rich
men of this last quarter of the nineteenth century, Mr. Morgan does not forget or shirk his
obligations and responsibilities to the rest of mankind.

;OLT, COL. SAMUEL, may be said not only to have started the enterprise, but
also to have introduced the methods that have given Hartford a unique position
?) for excellence of manufactures. More than thirty years after his death the
methods pursued by him and transmitted through the industrial leaders whom
he trained, continue dominant in 'the large establishments of the place.
Born at Hartford, July 19, 18 14, he was the third son of Christopher Colt, and on the
maternal side the grandson of John CaldweU, long one of the most prosperous and public
spirited merchants of the city, and president of the Hartford Bank from its organization in
1792 tUl 1819. The fortune of Major CaldweU, largely impaired by the depredations of
French privateers, mostly disappeared during the grievous depression in New England that
came with the war of 1812. His sons-in-law were involved in similar disa.sters, so that the
lad whose cradle was rocked amid affluence, was forced to enter upon the struggle of life
unaided and alone.
At the age of ten he was sent to his father's factory at Ware, Mass., and later to a
boarding school at Amherst, but longing for activity in a broader field, in July, 1827, he
shipped before the mast for Calcutta, making on the voyage a model prophetic of the
revolver. After his return he went back to the mill at Ware, where, under the tuition of

' :i

av^d jj'^- a 'vv'^a^ht ^.iDiO\, E-5m. a Flioio^TApiiljT" Br.idj ,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 247
William T. Smith of the dyeing and bleaching department, he learned many facts of
chemistry and became quite an adept in the practical parts of the science. With the
knowledge and dexterity thus acquired, at the age of eighteen alone he tried the world a
second time, now as a lecturer upon nitrous oxide gas. The tours of "Dr. Coult," extend
ing from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and continued at intervals nearly three years,
provided the means for the slow development of his invention. At an age when most boys
are still at school he had visited the antipodes, delighted large audiences from the platform
and thought out devices which have since revolutionized the uses of firearms. In the years
1835 and 1836, respectively, he obtained patents in Great Britain and the United States for
a rotating cylinder containing several chambers to be discharged through a single barrel.
In 1836, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company with a nominal capital of $300,000,
about one-half paid in, was formed at Paterson, N. J., to make the revolver. With
traditional dislike for innovation, two boards of United States army officers reported against
the weapon. During the Seminole war Colonel Colt passed the winter of 1837-38 in the
swamps of Florida, making valuable friends among the officers in command, and proving in
service the utility of the pistol. Already many had fallen into the hands of Texan rangers
and had aided conspicuously in winning Texan independence. Although in 1840 an able
board of army officers, aided by the light of experience, reported unanimously in favor of
Colonel Colt's inventions, the Paterson company failed in 1842, so that their manufacture
seemed to be indefinitely suspended.
In 1847, at the instance of General Taylor, one thousand of the pistols were ordered by
the government for service in the Mexican War. The market was bare but Colonel Colt,
from new models embodying many iinprovements, filled the contract by extemporizing a shop
at Whitneyville, Conn. After years of heroic but disheartening struggle the hour of
triumph had come. Thenceforward success followed success with a rapidity and rush at that
time unparalleled in the history of American enterprise. Various patents, sold at the collapse
of the Paterson company, he obtained again by purchase.
In 1848, Colonel Colt transferred his plant to Hartford. Driven by the inflow of business
out of such narrow quarters as the city then afforded, he conceived the idea of building an
armory that should surpass any private armory on the planet. Dazed by the vastness of his
plans, the general public gazed with wondering incredulity upon their swift and successful
accomplishment. In 1852, he bought a large tract in the south meadows on the banks of
the Connecticut river, within the city limits, and enclosed it with a dyke about one and three-
quarters miles in length, sloping upward from a base of one hundred feet to a driveway on
top of forty feet, and' raised thirty-two feet above low water mark. The walls were both
protected and adorned by an abundant growth of willows. The severest freshets have left
the property unharmed. The armory itself was begun in 1854, and finished in 1855.
Meanwhile Colonel Colt hovered between Europe and America, everywhere honored. On
his journeys business and pleasure were happily combined. While his genius and kingly
presence commanded personal homage, the product of his armory having become indispensable,
exacted tribute, not only from the most powerful empires, but from lonely frontiers and
from the remotest outposts of civilization. As finished, the armory consists of two parallel
buildings, each of four stories, and five hundred feet long, connected at the center by a
building also five hundred feet long, the whole resembling in form a capital H.
Of the enduring influence upon the community of Colonel Colt's methods, "Hartford in
1889," says :
Under the management of Colonel Colt, aided by the able men whom he gathered around him, the establish
ment advanced, in an incredibly short period, to a foremost rank among the leading houses of the world. The
position was won not more by the great value of Colonel Colt's invention than by the excellence of workmanship

248 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
that extended to every detail of construction, and the severity of judgment that could tolerate no remediable imper
fection in the mechanism of the weapon, or in the machinery by which it was made. Several of the most important
industries of Hartford were organized by colonists from the armory, who brought to new lines of effort the same
determination to produce the best results by the most efficient means. The leaven of the old lump pervades the
new. Could one trace downward and outward hidden and intricate streams of influence, he would find that the
lessons inculcated in the armory a generation ago, and since taught by its graduates, have been largely instrumental
in stimulating other manufacturers here to set up similar standards, and in winning for Hartford a world-wide repu
tation for the excellence of its manufactured goods. * * * Xhe armory became a genuine training school in
applied mechanics, where absolute excellence, even if beyond human reach, was the only recognized standard.
After the Mexican War, orders came in ceaseless and swelling streams. Meanwhile, the
process of simplification and improvement kept pace with the demand. Machinery for the
work was both invented and made on the premises. From this department several foreign
armories were largel}' equipped.
In boyhood, Colonel Colt began to experiment with submarine explosives, and was,
perhaps, the first person to realize adequately the possibilities of the torpedo for harbor
defence. In the presence of the highest officials of the nation, he blew up ships in motion
by batteries concealed beneath the surface, sending the electric spark from stations miles
away. He eloquently urged the government to adopt the system, but his conceptions were
so far ahead of the age that years must pass before their utility could be recognized.
He was also the first to devise and lay an insulated submarine electric cable, having thus
in 1843 successfully connected New York city with stations on Fire and Coney Islands.
Colonel Colt married at Middletown, Conn., June 5, 1856, Miss Elizabeth H. Jarvis,
eldest daughter of Rev. Wm. Jarvis, a lady of rare gifts and graces. On the 7th, the bridal
party sailed for Liverpool, and proceeded thence to St. Petersburg, where they witnessed
the coronation of the Emperor Alexander, and took part in subsequent fetes. In February,
1857, they moved into the elegant home which he had built on a spacious plateau over
looking the armory and the valley of the Connecticut. Here amid domestic joys he found
blissful relief from the exactions of a business that now encircled the globe. Here two
sons and two daughters were born to them, and here entered the angel of death to claim
three of the number. The spirit that had conquered uncounted obstacles in the battle
of life was well-nigh broken by these bereavements.
With vast resources at command and inspired by almost unerring foresight. Colonel Colt
had in mind colossal schemes that, had time been given, might have dwarfed previous accom
plishments. Among them was an addition to the armory of a plant for the manufacture of
cannon on a large scale. But time was not given. Jan. 10, 1862, he passed away in the
meridian of his powers. At the funeral fifteen hundred workmen from the armory, with tearful
eyes, lined the pathway to the grave. The city and the nation mourned.
Colonel Colt had all the attributes of the born leader. He was an exceUent judge of char
acter, and, though a stern disciplinarian, by fairness, kindness and generosity bound to himself
with hooks of steel his assistants and employees. Those who knew him best loved him most.
The Church of the Good Shepherd, a beautiful edifice built by Mrs. Colt within the enclosure
of the dyke, is one of many memorials consecrated by affection to his memory. She has
managed the affairs of the great estate with a wisdom that has preserved its integrity, with a
benevolence that through organized charity and private channels has carried comfort to many
homes, and with a profusion of refined hospitality that has imparted a richer coloring to the
social development of the city. It can be truly said of her that the influence conferred by
large wealth and exceptional talents has been uniformly exerted to promote the happiness and
welfare of others.
But one chUd, CaldweU Hart Colt, survived the period of infancy. Born Nov. 24, 1858,
he was educated largely under the direction of private tutors, though he attended for a time

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 249
St. Paul's Preparatory School at Concord, N. H., and the Sheffield Scientific School at New
Haven. He eariy manifested great fondness for the sea, becoming an accomplished sailor.
In 1881, he bought the "Dauntless." In her he cruised in many waters and took part in
several famous races. Brave, generous and zealous in efforts to build up the yachting interests
of Ainerica, he was beloved by a wide circle of friends. At the time of his death in Florida,
Jan. 21, 1894, he was vice-commodore of the New York Yacht Club and commodore of the
Larchmont Club. Extracts from the resolutions adopted at the annual meeting of the last
named club, show the high esteem in which he was held by his associates:
It is no exaggeration to say that Caldwell H. Colt was the typical yachtsman of his day, and that no man iu
this country or abroad has earned a higher place in the annals of the sport to which we are devoted. He had carried
his flag with credit to himself, and honor to his country in many seas. He was the master of his own vessel, and
never feared to face danger, never hesitated to embark in a race.
On the placid waters of Long Island Sound, amid the turbulent waves of mid-Atlantic, and in foreign seas he
was equally at home, and was ever a thorough seaman, a gallant yachtsman, and a true sportsman. He never
declined a contest because success seemed doubtful, and he never stooped to take an unfair advantage of an adver
sary. In the private relations of life his loss will be felt and deplored by many men in many countries. He had
travelled widely ; and wherever he had gone, he had never failed to win devoted and admiring friends. Always
courteous, always generous, always mindful of the comfort and pleasure of others, it is not strange that he earned
and kept the affectionate regard of all with whom he came into contact. It can be truly said of him that to know
him was to love him, and that, the longer and better he was known, the more he was beloved.
The Larchmont Yacht Club honored itself when he was elected Commodore, and to him is due no small part
of its present prosperity. We have lost a friend, but his memory will not grow dim, and his example will survive
to remind us constantly what a thorough yachtsman ought to be.

HEFFIELD, JOSEPH EARL, of New Haven, was born in Southport, Conn.,
June 19, 1793. He passed on to his reward Feb. 16, 1882, having by nine
years exceeded the biblical limit of fourscore.
His father and grandfather were extensive ship owners, and took an active
part in the War of the Revolution, in an armed vessel which was commissioned
by Congress but was equipped and sailed by themselves. Mabel (Thorp) Sheffield, his
mother, was the daughter of Walter Thorp, also of Southport, a shipmaster and owner, who
was engaged in West India trade. The business of both the Sheffields and Captain Thorp
was almost destroyed by the Berlin and MUan decrees of Napoleon.
Till the age of fourteen, young Sheffield faithfully attended the village school, except
that meanwhUe he showed the adventurous spirit of the family by going twice to Carolina
as a cabin boy. In 1807, at the age of fourteen, he was taken as a clerk to Newbern,
N. C, by Mr. Stephen Fowler, and in the year following was transferred to the drug
store in the same town of his brother-in-law, the late Dr. Webb, continuing there till the
spring of 1812, when, as he was on a visit to his parents, war was declared against Great
Britain. At the age of twenty, he was solicited to act as supercargo of a vessel bound for
North Carolina, which should run the British blockade at Sandy Hook, and provide itself with
a return cargo of pitch and other naval stores then bringing a high price in New York.
Being successful in both enterprises he was made a partner in the house before he was 21;
commencing his almost uniformly successful and always sagacious career. In two years he
showed his self-reliance and sagacity, when finding his house at the close of the war in
possession of a large stock of goods bought at war prices and under heavy liabilities, he
sold them at low rates and as rapidly as possible, "contrary to the judgment but not to
the consent of his partners," and rapidly converted the returns into naval stores which still

25°

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

continued high at New York; "much to the joy of his associates and surprise of his more
timid and tardy neighbors who had not believed in the rapid decline of goods, and had
looked on these bold operations with no little misgiving and astonishment."
In 1816, prices having fallen in North Carolina to a ruinous point, and his firm having
still on hand a large stock of goods, he set off on horseback upon a solitary journey of
exploration of a thousand miles, much of it through the then Indian territory. His desti
nation was the new settlements in Alabama to which emigrants were then rapidly flow
ing. After visiting several infant towns, he fixed upon Mobile as his future home, then
containing 1,000 inhabitants, and ordered at once his entire stock of goods, worth some
$50,000, to be shipped to this port. They did not arrive until the spring of 1817, when,
pursuing the policy already adopted, he sold them very rapidly at low prices, investing the
proceeds in cotton and peltries, in what was almost the first cargo that was sent directly
from Mobile to New York. In view of what was regarded by many as the unfortunate
location of Mobile as a sea-port, Mr. Sheffield in connection with several enterprising
merchants undertook to locate and build up another port on the other side of the bay.
The enterprise proved unsuccessful, and after five years of hard labor he returned to Mobile
in 1822, no better in his fortunes than when he began. Here he remained, prosecuting a
very extensive and lucrative business, till the spring of 1835, when he removed from Mobile
to New Haven at the age of forty-two. His reasons for this course were his abhorrence of
slavery, and a desire to "give such education to my children as will fit them for a rational
and religious course in this life, and prepare them for a better."
This removal did not terminate his business relations with Mobile. For some nine years
afterwards he regularly spent his winters in that city for the purpose of buying and shipping
cotton, and was brought into still closer connection and higher reputation with the merchants
and capitalists of New York.
The next most important event of his life, so far as his subsequent history is concerned,
was the purchase of the majority of the stock of the so-called Farmington Canal, the legal
titie of which was the New Haven & Northampton Company. The most of this stock had
fallen very largely into the hands of Mr. Sheffield at a low price, and for several years
it yielded a moderate profit to Mr. Sheffield and Mr. Henry Farnam, its principal owners,
the latter gentleman having been connected with it as an engineer from the beginning of
its construction. Later on they began the construction of a railway along the line of the
canal, but complications arose which were exceedingly adverse to its success, and were exceed
ingly vexatious to Mr. Sheffield. Both the gentiemen decided to transfer their energies
and activities to another and distant field, not, however, without leaving upon Mr. Shef
field a series of burdensome and expensive responsibilities for the remaining thirty years of
his life in extending and completing the canal railway.
The purchase and operation of this canal led to an intimate and unbroken friendship
with Air. Farnam in which both found the greatest satisfaction. This friendship grew out
of the most intimate business relations in which each admirably supplemented the other, and
to the perfect confidence and united strength which attended this union should be ascribed
the inception and the eariy completion of some of the most important enterprises of the
present generation. The management of this canal naturally brought Mr. Sheffield into
intimate connection with the capitalists and merchants of New Haven, and into active zeal
for the promotion of its interests by other public works. Few people know how prominent
and influential was Mr. Sheffield in the first conception and actual construction of the rail
way to New York. It was largely through his efforts that the subscriptions were secured
and the work begun.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 251
His new enterprises in the West, however, were inspiring and full of hope, and their
splendid and most honorable success was most gratifying to his ambition. They were also
largely remunerative. The first of these undertakings was the connection with Chicago of
one of the great western lines by the construction of the last one hundred miles that had
long been delayed. This was easUy accomplished by the credit of Mr. Sheffield and the
energy of his associate, and the day after Chicago was connected for the first time by rail
with New York, the price of real estate was doubled in the great city of the lakes.
The next movement was still bolder in its proposal and more successful in its achieve
ment. It was another movement towards the Pacific by the construction of the Chicago
& Rock Island Railroad. This was finished in five-eighths of the time contracted for,
and with scarcely the least friction or delay, by reason of the confidence which was felt
in the financial ability and honesty, and the skill and energy, of the two contractors. At
its completion, in 1854, 1,000 guests were invited by Messrs. Sheffield and P^'arnam to a
holiday excursion, which was one of the most memorable and instructive that was ever
celebrated in the country. The next move westward was the bridging of the Mississippi.
Other and important interests arrested this enterprise, and serious legal difficulties were
interposed which were finally set aside by the highest tribunal of the nation. This being
accomplished, the work of moving farther westward was, after some hesitation, finally
left by both to other hands. In all these movements and the transactions incident to
them, Mr. Sheffield made large additions to his estate, although he was till nearly the end
of his life vexed and burdened by the many calls which were made upon him to save and
make sure his first railway investment. It was most gratifying to him and his friends to
find that this enterprise, which had been so long a drain upon his estate, and a constant
trial to his patience, by an unexpected event a few months before his death, had at last
made good the confidence, the pledges and assurances which he had embarked in it.
From the principles which he had early adopted for the direction of his business life,
Mr. Sheffield never deviated, and he held them if possible with greater warmth and tenacity
at the end than at the beginning. They were a part of his manhood, the expression of his
living self, the application of sound ethical and practical principles. They will always hold
good in the acquisition and protection of property, in the ambitions and competitions of
exchange, in the hopes of enterprise, in the projects that build cities and people deserts, that
tunnel mountains and open highways for nations. From the earliest days of trade and
commerce down to the present, there have been merchants and bankers who were not only
princely in their state and splendor but also princely in their honor and truth; not only
princely in the reach of their plans and aims, but princely in their methods of fulfilling them.
There have also been merchants and bankers who have been the meanest and most cruel of
their kind. To which of these classes Mr. Sheffield belonged, it need not be said. Whatever
else might be said of him, it was always true that as a man of business his sense of honor
was as quick as the blush of a maiden, and hence it was that whenever he gave his word,
no matter how largely or speedily any credit was needed, credit and money were always at
his command. He abhorred from the bottom of his soul sharp practices of every sort ; he
was never content to fulfill his word or bond merely to the letter if he could by any means
evade its spirit. He was not honorable simply from the traditions of his guild, but he was
honorable from the convictions of his conscience and the sentiments of his heart.
Thus far Mr. Sheffield has been followed in the transactions of business and the
accumulation of wealth. It is but natural that he should be followed in the use of his
property and the exercise of benevolence. The most conspicuous and widely known of his
benefactions were made to the Scientific School which will always be known by his name.

252

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

These benefactions began the year after the successful completion of the Rock Island Rail
way, in 1855, and continued till his death, with an unremitting flow for a period of twenty-
seven years. His attention had previously been favorably directed to the college by the per
sonal interest and sympathy in his early railway operations by two or three members of
its faculty, at a time when personal sympathy was especiaUy grateful. After the marriage
of his daughter in 1854, to Prof. John A. Porter, the professor of Analytical and Agricul
tural Chemistry, 1852-1864, in the then infant and struggling "Department of Philosophy
and the Arts," he had made his first donation to this department of some five thousand
dollars. This was just before he went abroad in 1856, for an absence of two years or
more. Professor Porter was a broad-minded and sanguine scholar, of varied knowledge
and culture in both literature and science, who was well fitted to inspire a man like Mr.
Sheffield with interest in the prosperity and plans of the then infant institution. It was a
time when the so-called New Education was beginning to be talked of, and when varied
projects were devised and discussed for promoting an education which should be at once
more technically scientific, and more positively practical than had been provided in the
colleges. To meet these wants in a tentative way one section of the department already
spoken of was organized, and its friends soon became convinced that for its successful
development it needed a separate building and apparatus, as also a fund for the endow
ment of professorships. AU these were in part provided for by Mr. Sheffield about the
time of his return from Europe in 1858. The old Medical College was purchased for
$16,500, then enlarged and re-fitted at an expense of $35,000, and completed as Sheffield
Hall in time for the opening of the school in September, i860. In October, of the same
year, Mr. Sheffield, perceiving that an additional endowment was essential to its success,
added $40,000, making according to his statements an expenditure of $101,557.92.
In 1865-66, after the state grant of $135,000, he again enlarged Sheffield Hall at an
expense of $46,739.38, and added a library fund of $10,000. Later through his influence
Mrs. Higgin gave ^"5,000 to endow a professorship, and at her death added a legacy of
/i,ooo for the same purpose. In 1870-71, he gave the land and contracted for the erection
of North Sheffield Hall at a cost of $115,360. Other large gifts are not named, which
included liberal contributions for specific objects, and frequent additions to its income. All
these gifts may be estimated as something over $450,000. By his will he directed that his
handsome residence and the grounds attached should eventually become its property, and
that the school which bears his name should share equaUy with each of his children in the
final distribution of his large estate. All these gifts may be safely estimated as considerably
more than $1,000,000. It is worthy of notice that whenever anything was contributed to
the school by others, :\Ir. Sheffield was inspired to add a liberal gUt of his own. The gift
of the state fund induced him to enlarge Sheffield Hall and to add to its apparatus and
library. The efforts for endowment in 1869-71, which were responded to to the extent of
some $90,000,. including the gift of Mrs. Higgin, led him to add some $76,000 to the
endowment previously given by himself.
It also deserves to be noted that the relations of Mr. Sheffield to the trustees and officers
of the college and scientific school have uniformly been most pleasant and friendly. Every
one of his gifts was inspired by an intelligent and unshaken confidence in the theory of the
school and in the wisdom of its managers. It is most noteworthy that he never manifested
the desire or made the effort to direct its policy or interfere with its administration. When
elected a member of the corporation of the college by the votes of the graduates, he took his seat
at a single session in acknowledgment of the compliment, but forthwith resigned his place.
He never attended the commencement of the college or the anniversary of the scientific

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 253
school. Whenever any enlargement of its resources was needed he was glad to be informed,
but he was content to understand the reasons for the opinions of those in whom he confided,
without attempting to alter them or advancing a theory of his own. It was enough for him
to confide in the judgment of men whom he believed to be honest, and knew they were
competent. In these respects he was a model worthy of imitation, and presented a striking
contrast to many patrons of schools of learning and institutions of beneficence. While in
some relations he manifested a sensitive distrust of men, he was slow to withdraw his confidence
from those whom he had learned to trust. In respect of intelligent, cheerful, abundant,
untiring, and modest liberality to institutions of learning, Mr. Sheffield was an example to
the men of wealth in all this land. His liberality of this description has been surpassed by
few in respect to the amount of his gifts. Here and there indeed one has given larger sums
with the express purpose of founding an institution which should be called after his name. Mr.
Sheffield began his benefactions with no such intentions or expectations, but from a personal
conviction of the value and promise of a tentative school which was then regarded only as an
offshoot of a great university. It grew in his esteem and confidence as he witnessed its well-
earned success by honorable methods, on a basis of honest work. It also grew in his affections,
and before he knew it, it was adopted as his child. His opportunity was a rare one indeed ;
but it is perhaps more rare that such an opportunity finds a man sagacious enough to under
stand and improve it.
Mr. Sheffield did not limit his public benefactions to the scientific school. He was for
many years a trustee of Trinity College and warmly interested in its prosperity, and gave
to it, from time to time, donations amounting in all to $16,800. The Berkeley Divinity
School of Middletown, also had his warm and active sympathy, which was manifested by
liberal gifts from time to time, to meet its pressing wants, amounting in all to $75,000, and
by a generous legacy at his death of $100,000.
Nor did Mr. Sheffield limit his benefactions to institutions of higher education. The
earliest object of any distinguished liberality after he became a resident in New Haven was
the parish school of Trinity church. He found this school, in 1854, in a straightened con
dition, and at the instance of a few well-known ladies of the parish, he gave $5,000 as a fund
for the support of a teacher, and a second $5,000 after his return from Europe in 1858.
About this time the necessity for a Parish Home was pressed upon his attention by the same
ladies. As the result of this solicitation, and of his own deliberate and serious thoughts, he
provided for the excellent and interesting suite of buildings on George street, which include
a parish school-house, an old ladies' home, and a chapel, with accommodations for a minister
at large, at a cost of some $160,000, all of which were given in trust to the parish of Trinity
church, and solemnly consecrated on the 24tli of July, 1869.
Mr. Sheffield was a man of superior intellect, and this superiority was manifested in the
acuteness, penetration and forecast of his judgment, and by the skill and success with which
he made his business life to become an efficient school of training to his plastic mind. He
delighted in the use of the pen, and he made the practice of writing a business and delight.
Had he given himself greater leisure and opportunity for the culture of literature, for which
he had a decided taste, he might have become an accomplished writer, as he certainly could
not but be an able critic. Clear statement, acute analysis, exhaustive argument, decisive con
futation, orderly method, felicitous diction and elevated sentiment, are all conspicuous in
many a business letter and report. Mr. Sheffield set the highest value upon these qualifications,
and upon the value of a liberal education to develop and mature them, and for this reason
he supported schools of learning with such lavish liberality. He may in some respects have
builded more wisely than he knew, but it was altogether in harmony with his judgment that
33

254 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the school which bears his name, early became more than a school of special skill and limited
research, and was lifted up into a college of liberal culture, which aims as specifically to
discipline the inteUect and character as it does to impart technical knowledge and skill.
It was impossible that a man of such largeness of views, and of so wide an acquaintance
with commercial and public affairs, should not be a man of decided political opinions and
ardent political sympathies. Like many of his fellow- merchants at the South, especially in
those early times, he was known as a man of Northern principles during the many years in.
which the questions which divided the people of the Sjouth were those of nullification and
state rights on the one side, and Unionism and federal authority on the other. He cast his
first vote with great energy, at Newbern, N. C, in 1814, for what was then called the Federal
ticket. Party spirit was at fever heat, and Mr. Sheffield was brought into critical relations
with dangerous men, one of whom made a deadly assault upon his person. The event was
reported through the country and made no little sensation. Subsequently, at Mobile, during
the exciting times of nullification, from 1830 to 1835, he was again very thoroughly aroused
by the preparations and threats of an active resistance to the collection of certain duties on
cotton bagging at Charleston and Mobile, and was prominent as a member and promoter of a
quasi military organization of some sixty or seventy Northern residents for the purpose of
defending the United States authorities against violence.
These excitements were scarcely over, when by his removal to the North he encountered
the rising waves of a movement of a very different character — the anti-slavery movement which
in varying forms and varying fortunes finally led to the memorable CivU War, in which
American slavery perished forever. With the anti-slavery movement as such in any of its
phases and organizations, Mr. Sheffield never sympathized, much as he had learned to dread
and abhor slavery. He withdrew in silent grief and disdain from all political parties when he
gave his last vote at any election for Bell and Everett. The war was to him an event in which
he had no complacency in any of its aspects except in its assertion of the sovereignty of the
Union. In any other relation he could not look upon it with the least satisfaction. But he
made this position no excuse for the neglect of his social duties, and continued in the active
discharge of his accustomed neighborly duties and in the administration of public and private
charities. He contributed liberally to alleviate the hardships and sufferings of the soldiers
in the field and the hospital. The fact deserves notice that many of his most liberal
contributions were made after the war broke out, when he was more than seventy years old.
When the war was well over, and the many ugly questions which peace brought with itself
were in some sort settled, he more than acquiesced in the extinction of slavery, though he
never forgot to sympathize with the personal sufferings and hopes of his old acquaintances
at the South. At the same time he fell back with more than accustomed loyalty upon his.
recollections of Clay and Webster, and the school of patriots and orators which they
represented. In concluding a memorial discourse, Pres. Noah Porter of Yale College said:
Those of us who knew Mr. Sheffield as a neighbor can testify that he was eminently courteous, sympathizing"
and just, and that the more intimately we knew him the more emphatically did we find him a warm and true
friend who rejoiced with us in our joys and mourned with us in our bereavements and sorrows. Few of his-
acquaintances knew how warm and tender-hearted he was, how sensitive to the singing of birds, to the indications-
of spring, to the beautiful in nature, to the pathos of literature and the sorrows and joys of human kind, nor how
freshly these emotions warmed his heart to the end of his life.
In his own family he was eminently affectionate and tender-hearted both as husband and father, finding in
his own home the haven of his rest, and looking within it for his most satisfying delights. His children look
back to many hours of their earliest childhood as made merry by his cheerful sympathy, and to the shaded years
of their own family life as illumined and hallowed by his watchful care, his sensitive tenderness and his grave
admonitions. He died in peace and gratitude and love and hope in the presence of them all. As they watched the

=v<?5^^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 255
ebbing of his life they could not but bless their Father in Heaven for the goodness which had given them such a
father on earth, while they could not but weep that a blessing so long continued should be taken away. " So long
continued! " For nearly ninety years he lived, and when he died his eye was scarcely dim nor was his natural
force greatly abated. We see him no more, but he lives with God. Meanwhile the great school which he almost
¦created, the poor whom he blessed with his bounty and his love, the city which he enriched by his enterprise and
beautified by his taste, the church in which he was a devout and humble believer, all unite to hallow and bless his
memory. Joseph E. Sheffield was married in 1822, to Maria, daughter of Col. T. St. John of
Walton, N. Y.

?ORBIN, PHILIP, of New Britain, founder and present head of the P. & F.
Corbin Company, and ex-state senator, was born in Willington, Conn., Oct.
26, 1824. Descended from a long line of sturdy New England ancestors, Mr.
Corbin's strength of character came to him by inheritance. James Corbin was
one of the forty men who settled Woodstock, Conn., in 1686. It is not known through
which of his sons the family comes down, but Lemuel, his grandson, was the father of
Philip Corbin, who removed from Dudley, Mass., in 1793, to Union, Conn. A history of
the town says of him, "Mr. Corbin was a man of more than ordinary powers of body and
mind, which, guided by stern integrity, gave him an influence largely felt wherever he
w^ent. He was a farmer, owning a large tract of land, and used, to manufacture potash in
considerable quantities, which he sold in Norwich. At one time he owned part of the
Mashapaug saw mill. He was selectman a number of years, and represented his town in
the legislature in 1814-15. He was a prominent and influential member of the church at
Union, and one of the building committee of the present meeting-house." He married
Hhoby Healey, by whom he had six children. Of these, Philip Corbin, Jr., was the third.
From Union he transferred his residence to Willington, and in 1833, he moved to West
Hartford, where he died July 24, 1881. He married Lois Chaffee of Ashford, Nov. 29,
1820. Ten of their children lived to years of maturity. His father was a farmer of small
means, and the six boys became early inured to hard work, thus developing vigorous
physical frames, industrious habits, self-reliance and enterprise, which largely counterbalanced
the disadvantages of their limited education.
Besides attendance at the district schools, Philip Corbin was a student for three terms
at the West Hartford Academy. From the age of fifteen to that of nineteen, he was
employed in farm labor away from home, performing the full work of a man and earning a
man's wages, which were, however, received by his father. Having a decided mechanical
taste, at nineteen he resolved on a change of employment, and in March, 1844, he went to
New Britain, already a thriving center of manufacturing industries. He obtained work first
in the factory of Russell & Erwin, and later in the lock shop of North & Stanley. At the
•end of ten months, by careful attention to details and working out of regular hours, he had
become so expert that he felt competent to undertake a contract on his own account. Mr.
Corbin made his bid, received the contract, and fulfilled it to the satisfaction of the firm.
The next year he got a second contract, and in this he took his brother Frank into
partnership. Each of the boys, until attaining his majority, retained for his own use only
enough to pay his personal expenses, giving the balance to their father.
In 1849, the brothers entered into partnership with Edward Doen, under the style of
Doen, Corbin & Company, and built a small shop at the east end of the town. This was
fitted up with machinery run by horse power, steam power having been introduced only tq

256 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
a limited extent ; the joint capital being nine hundred dollars, and the proprietors did most
of the manual labor with their own hands, ¦ all of them being successful workmen. It is
not the province of this sketch to follow the firm through all its subsequent changes. The
same fraternal interest which led Philip Corbin to associate his brother Frank with him in
his early contracts, brought the younger brothers, each in turn, gradually to share in the
business, until four of them have at different times had a part in its management. By 1853
the business had rapidly increased, and in that year it was organized as a joint stock
company, retaining the name of the firm. In the two score years which have elapsed since
that time, improvement in machinery, with the enlargement of the old and the erection of
new buildings, have increased the capacity of the company from seventy-five men to an
average of 1,200 in all its various departments.
In conclusion, an article published some years ago in "Representatives of New
England Manufacturers ' ' says of the concern :
It was the aim of the Messrs. Corbin to engage in a line of business distinct from that of any of the manufac
turers around them, and in competition only with foreign imported goods. The first articles made were ox balls,.
for tipping the horns of cattle, also window springs, lamp hooks, and similar articles, aud in these they soon
attained a profitable business. They adhered to their proposed line until others in the vicinity engaged in the same
lines of manufacture. They determined then to enter fields they had previously avoided, and began the manufac
ture of hinges, latches, bolts, locks and miscellaneous hardware for building purposes. They at first contented
themselves with making the plainer and cheaper goods, in which other concerns had for years been plodding along,,
but in 1868, they struck into a new field, and began to make more ornamental and more expensive goods than had
heretofore been in the market. These included hinges, knobs, escutcheons and other door trimmings, mostly-
bronzed. The Corbins were the first to use in this specialty of manufacture the bronzing process patented by
Hiram Tucker of Boston, which soon became popular in the lamps and gas fixtures, and other ornamental goods of
the Tucker Manufacturing Company. They have supplied not only private purchasers, but many public and!
government buildings, including all the bronze hardware for the State, Navy and War Department Buildings at
Washington ; for Post Office and Sub-Treasury Building at Boston, and for other buildings erected in Boston since
the great fire, and also in New York and other large cities for mercantile, banking and insurance purposes. To
them was awarded the contract for supplying the hardware for the fine Capitol of Connecticut. To meet this
demand, a large corps of the best workmen, of inventors, designers and pattern makers, is employed in the pro
duction of articles novel iu device aud artistic in design. All the stockholders of the company, except the members
of the firm of North & Stanley, who invested capital at the outset, and have never had any active relations with its
business, are employed in some capacity, and with the exception of Messrs. Peck and Spring, the former the secre
tary and the latter the superintendent of the factory, are brothers. They combine the enterprise, energy and
mechanical skill which marked Philip Corbin.
He is the president of the New Britain Architectural Terra Cotta Company, which has
only been in existence for a short time, but it is doing an exceUent business. He also
occupies the position of president and treasurer of the Corbin Hardware Company, which is
an outgrowth of the P. & F. Corbin Company. It was organized in 1882, for the purpose
of manufacturing cabinet locks and cabinet hardware.
First an active member of the old Whig party, and then of its successor, the present
Republican party, Mr. Corbin has never cared for office, being content from a private station
to see the best interests of the country conserved. In 1849, he was induced to accept the
position of warden of the borough, and when New Britain was incorporated, he became a
member of the Common Council. The establishment of the water works was largely his
work, and he has served many years upon the board of water commissioners. In 1884,.
he was elected to the lower branch of the state legislature, and was appointed House chair
man of the important committee on insurance. It was characteristic of him to spend a large
amount of time in examining the technical merits of the measures submitted. His nomi
nation for state senator in the fall of 1888, was wholly unsolicited, but was demanded by
the interests of the district. The election which followed proved the wisdom of the choice

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 257
of the convention, and gave to the district an able senator and a loyal worker. As in all
other fields of service his experience in the senate chamber was one of great usefulness to
his constituents and to the state, and of lasting credit to himself.
Mr. Corbin was married June 21, 1848, to Francina T., daughter of Henry W.
Whiting. Three children have been born to them, of whom two are now living. Charles
F. is associated with his father in business and Nellie F. is the wife of William Beers.

|RAINARD, LEVERETT, mayor of Hartford, and president of the Case, Lock-
wood & Brainard Company, was born in Westchester Society, Colchester, Feb.
13, 1828. Mr. Brainard comes of a sturdy Connecticut stock, and in him is found no
deterioration from the high standard of the past. He is a grandson of William
Brainard, who was ensign of a company of militia in the regiment commanded by Lieut. -Col.
Levi Wells, which did service in the continental army in 1780. His father's name was
Amaziah Brainard, and his mother was Huldah Foote, daughter of Nathaniel Foote.
The education of the future man of business was obtained in the public schools and the
Bacon Academy at Colchester. From the age of thirteen years, when he was left in charge
of the old homestead at Westchester, on account of the death of his father, he has been the
architect of his own fortunes. A portion of his early life was spent in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Brainard became a resident of Hartford in 1853, his first business connections being
with the City Fire Insurance Company, as secretary. He filled this responsible position for
five years, and then entered into an active partnership in the firm with which his life for the
last forty-five years has been identified. The firm has a most honorable record, and a few
words of its early history are fitting. In January, 1836, Newton Case and E. D. Tiffany
bought out the printing office of J. H. Wells, and commenced operations as Case, Tiffany
& Company. A year after the formation of the firm, the panic of 1837 struck the country.
The blow was a hard one, but the plucky partners weathered the storm. For fifteen years,
"Webster's Unabridged Dictionary" was printed at their office, and their success with the
' ' Cottage Bible ' ' led the firm on until many other works were added to the list of subscription
books publi-shed by them, and the field was diligently cultivated, with satisfactory results.
In 1853, James Lockwood and Albert G. Cooley were taken into the partnership, and four
years later Messrs. Tiffany and Cooley, and the following year Mr. Brainard became part of
the concern. The name was changed to Case, Lockwood & Brainard, and this association
remained unbroken until the death of Mr. Lockwood in 1888. Mr. Case died in 1890, and
Mr. Brainard is now the only one of the older members connected with the business. By
special charter from the state, the establishment was organized as "The Case, Lockwood &
Brainard Company" in 1874, and Mr. Case was chosen president. At his death, Mr. Brainard,
who had been secretary and treasurer, was made the head of the firm, and he is still filling that
important position. The company's plant is the largest in the state, and they do practically
all kinds of work required in the "art of the preservation of all arts."
Mr. Brainard's strength and business capabilities have not all been confined to the
immense printing establishment of which he is the head and controlling spirit. He is president
of the Hartford Paper Company, and holds a directorship in the ^tna Life Insurance Company,
the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, Hartford & New York Steamboat Company,
the .iEtna National Bank, the State Savings Bank, the Orient Fire Insurance Company, the

258 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company and the Willimantic Linen Company. In each
of these varied corporations, his long experience and excellent judgment render him a valued
counsellor. Mr. Brainard is a member of the Pearl street Congregational Society, and is
interested in all the charities and Christian work connected with that organization.
Without seeking the honors of official station, Mr. Brainard has not shirked the respon
sibilities which every intelligent citizen has in the government of his city and state. He has
been a member of the Court of Common Council of Hartford, and in 1884, represented the city
in the legislature. Being appointed House chairman of the committee on railroads, in that
capacity he rendered invaluable service to his constituents, as he brought all the useful
knowledge gained by long experience to bear on the questions introduced for solution. In
1890, he was appointed the head of the World's Fair commission for this state, his principal
associate being Ex-Governor Waller. Later, Mr. Brainard was selected by the joint members
of the commission at Chicago, as the chairman of the committee on manufactures, in ah
respects the most important of the working committees of the commission. The appointment
of a citizen of Connecticut for this responsible place, was a high compliment to the state, as
well as to the gentleman on whom the honor was conferred. Republican in his political beUef,
he has been a distinguished representative of that party's interests from the very beginning
of his public career. A .single terin in the legislature, a few years in the Common Council of
Hartford, will cover the extent of his service in an official capacity before his election as
mayor of the city. This event was brought about without effort on his part and against his
wishes, considerable pressure being brought to bear to induce him to accept the nomination.
Said the Courani previous to the Republican caucus in the spring of 1894 :
Several other excellent men have been talked of for the office, but Mr. Brainard is recognized as especially
fitted to be the candidate at the present time, embod3'ing as he does so many elements of political strength in
addition to his manifest personal fitness. Mr. Brainard is one of Hartford's leading citizens. He has both pride
and personal interest in the city's welfare. He has devoted a useful life to work here, much of which has gone to
cares and concerns that have built up the place. He happily combines shrewd business capacity with genuine
public spirit, and, wherever his name has been mentioned, there has been the declaration that he would make aa
admirable mayor — strong as a candidate and safe as an official. The assurance that he will accept removes the
only objection ever offered. Now let's take hold and nominate him. The caucus is called for the Rink for to
morrow night. Be there and vote for him.
The same paper said after the election :
The election of Mr. Brainard is a distinct and noteworthy triumph for good citizenship. He did not seek
the nomination; it sought him. It sought him because of his fitness for the place and the occasion, and the result
justifies the wisdom of the selection. His vote in the caucus was something any man might be proud of. His
vote at the polls is equally complimentary. He has turned Hartford from seven hundred and seventy-nine
Democratic to one thousand one hundred and nine Republican — a change of over one thousand eight hundred.
Mr. Brainard's personal conduct during the canvass has been on a par with his dignified attitude before it. He
has flatly refused to buy votes. Traders found he wasn't their man. He relied on the people of Hartford, ready
to be their mayor if they wanted him, ready to remain a private citizen, if they so voted. They have shown what
they did want and have shown it unmistakably. This is a mighty good day for Hartford.
Leverett Brainard was married in the year 1866, to Mary J., daughter of Hon. Eliphalet
A. and Lydia (Morgan) Bulkeley. Mr. E. A. Bulkeley was the founder of the ^tna Life
Insurance Compau}-, and was a prominent factor in the upbuilding of Hartford a generation
ago. Ex-Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley, and Ex-Lieut. -Gov. WiUiam H. Bulkeley, are
brothers of Mrs. Brainard. The family consisted of ten children, five sons and five daughters.
Two only of the sons are now living.

""%ir-
;5S
"^1
i!
'^^H
^
.#^
j^tk
irSHI
1^'
^^mS^P
s fi^^^^^^^^^^l^^^B^F^^^^
i
l^^v
fi ** ^^^^^S-^fijH8B»
w
%
PP'^
w
.^
lhrrfiii/,i',ri/ P'fMJHitma ALiiryravina Cc U/'fycf-o
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 259
TILES, NORMAN CHARLES, of Middletown, a distinguished inventor and
manufacturer, and founder of the Stiles & Parker Press Company, was born
on June 18, 1834, in the little viUage of Feeding Hills, Agawam, Mass. He
traces his descent from one John Stiles, who came in 1635 (with three brothers)
from his native place, Milbroke, Bedfordshire, England, to Windsor, Conn.,
of which they were among the first settlers. His eldest son. Sergeant Henry, born in
England, was a carpenter and builder — one of the "master workmen" employed in build
ing the residence of Rev. Timo. Edwards, first pastor of East Windsor, Conn., the house
in which the great divine, Jonathan Edwards, was born. His eldest son, Henry, resided in
Windsor. His fourth chUd, Jonah, born in 1700, removed to Westfield, Mass., about 1730,
and was the first of the Westfield (Mass.) Stiles line. His second son, (Lieut.) Gideon,
born in 1731, was, during the Revolutionary period, a very prominent citizen of Westfield
in all matters, political, military, civil, and ecclesiastical — always holding some position of
trust in the town's affairs. His fifth child, Dorus, born in 1765, was a powder manu
facturer, and erected the first powder mill in the state of Massachusetts — "a man of extra
ordinary parts." His early education was scant, but he was a great reader, and remarkably
conversant with history. He was a leading man in the town of Southwick, which he repre
sented in the state legislature three terms, and was thirteen times chosen selectman of his
native town (Westfield). Observant, thoughtful, quiet, almost taciturn, he was often called
upon to arbitrate between neighbors, and was a " natural born lawyer." His eldest son
was Henry Stiles, a farmer of good family connections and some means, who carried on, in
addition to his regular occupation, the manufacture of whip-lashes, for which at that day
there was a large sale. Henry Stiles married SaUie Avery of Southwick, Mass. His family
consisted of eight children. Although a very worthy and industrious man, capable both as
an agriculturist and manufacturer, misfortunes overtook him, and his straitened circumstances
interfered with his design of giving his children a good education. They were, never
theless, duly instructed in the rudimentary branches, and being unusually bright were little,
if any, behind their more fortunate associates and neighbors.
The subject of this sketch (the sixth child of Henry and SaUy Stiles) , began the actual
work of life at an early age. His tastes were in the line of the mechanical arts, and even
as a mere child he possessed decided genius in this direction. One of his earlier essays was
upon an unused clock which fell in his way when he was but ten years old. Some defect
in the works had stopped it, and it was deemed worthless. The boy's curiosity was aroused,
and taking the clock apart he examined it carefully, found and remedied the defect, and
with comparative e&se restored the timepiece to good running order. Many boys who give
evidence of genius are frequently charged with being idle and shiftless at first, from the
fact that they have not yet got into their proper groove, and find effort in any other not
only distasteful but difficult. Young Stiles was never open to any of these charges. He
seemed to be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to be helpful and useful, and he
was intensely practical in whatever he undertook to do. It is related of him, that when he
was only twelve years old, he built an ell to his father's house, doing all the work un
aided, including designing, carpentry and painting, and making a perfect success of it. The
range of his appreciation took in mechanical construction from the most ponderous to the
most delicate, and he studied with the greatest pleasure as well as care every machine, in
strument or contrivance that he came across. Among his successful boyish constructions
may be named a miniature steam engine, a miniature fire engine, and a violin, all of
which were marvels of accuracy, although made with the simplest tools.

26o REPRESENTATIVE MEN ¦
In 1850, when sixteen years of age, he went to Meriden, Conn., and engaged with his
brother, Doras A. Stiles, in the manufacture of tinware. There was little in this occupa
tion to rivet the attention of his budding genius, and in a little while he gave it up to
take a position in the American Machine Works at Springfield, Mass., where he remained
until he was of age, serving a full apprenticeship to the trade of machinist, and master
ing it in every detail. After a brief service as a journeyman with a Mr. Osgood, who was
a contractor for the Holyoke Machine Company, he returned to Meriden, Conn., and entered
the shops of the Messrs. Snow, Brooks & Co., — now owned by Messrs. Parker Brothers —
where he was employed in making dies and other fine work requiring great skill and in
genuity. He entered subsequently the employ of Messrs. Edward Miller & Company, at
Meriden, with whom he remained until 1857, when, having saved a little money, he deter
mined upon independent effort. He began by hiring bench room from Mr. B. S. Stedman,
a practical machinist at Meriden, and soon afterward he bought out his stock and tools.
In i860, he brought forward his first invention, known as a toe-and-instep stretcher, which
immediately found favor with the boot and shoe manufacturers, and had a great success.
Two years later, in the midst of a great pressure of business, his factory was destroyed by
fire, involving a heavy loss, from which, however, his energy and perseverance soon enabled
him to recover. When he resumed business he had as a special partner, Mr. Alden Clark,
but this gentleman retired shortly afterwards, disposing of his interest to his nephew, Mr.
George L. Clark, who continued in association with Mr. Stiles until 1867, when the part
nership was dissolved. The business by this time had acquired proportions which rendered
additional facilities imperative, and Mr. Stiles, after carefully examining the ground, con
cluded that it was advisable to transfer his works to Middletown, Conn. This transfer was
effected in 1867, and, the results proving satisfactory, the works were permanently estab
lished at that place, where they now remain, and rank as one of the most important indus
tries of the state.
One of Mr. Stiles's principal inventions — indeed, the one upon which his chief fame as
an inventor may be said to rest — is his stamping and punching machine. To this machine,
perfected by him, and first brought forward in 1864, he added several valuable improve
ments previous to establishing his business at Middletown, among them being what is known
technically as an " eccentric adjustment," which he patented in 1864. This "adjustment"
gave his machine a decided advantage over all other punching machines then in use, an advan
tage which it still retains. Other manufacturers were not slow to perceive its value, and Messrs.
Parker Brothers of Meriden, who were engaged in manufacturing a rival punching machine,
known as "The Fowler Press," adopted Mr. StUes's invention. Mr. StUes claimed an in
fringement of his patent, and took the matter at once into court, and a long and expen
sive litigation followed. A compromise was finally reached by the consolidation of both firms,
the new organization taking the name of The StUes & Parker Press Company. The busi
ness of this company is practically controlled by Mr. Stiles, who is the largest owner of the
stock, and who fills the dual position of treasurer and general manager ; his second son, Mr.
Edmund S. Stiles, being now the secretary and superintendent. Besides the presses named,
the company manufactures dies, drop-hammers, and general sheet-metal tools, and also designs
and constructs to order special machinery of every kind. As the directing and responsible
head of the business, Mr. Stiles has displayed high intelligence, rare executive ability, and
unflagging energy. Several years ago the business had reached such a development that
additional facilities were required, and to meet the need a branch factory and office were
established in the city of New York.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 261
In 1873, Mr. Stiles took his machine and other inventions to the Vienna Exposition,
where they attracted marked attention with the result of securing a market in many foreign
countries. He was appointed state commissioner from Connecticut. This high compliment
was sincerely appreciated by Mr. Stiles, but his position as an exhibitor precluded his
acceptance of the honor. At the International Centennial Exposition, held in Philadelphia
in 1876, Mr. Stiles's acknowledged ability as an inventor, engineer and expert was again
recognized by his official appointment as a member of the advisory committee to the board
of commissioners, and his services in this capacity gave high satisfaction both at home and
abroad. At the last great international exhibition held in Paris in 1889, Mr. Stiles exhibited
his invention, and it was awarded the gold medal of honor, the highest prize conferred. By
steady advances the Stiles presses have made their way to every quarter of the globe, and are
now in use not only in the navy yards and armories of the United States, but also in those of
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico and France. Other manufactures of
the company have likewise secured a large foreign as well as domestic market. For some
years Mr. Stiles has been a member of the United States Patent Association, which includes
upon its roll the examiners in the government patent office, solicitors of patents and inventors.
He is one of the seven directors of this widely extended association.
Mr. StUes occupies a leading position among the citizens of Middletown, not only by
reason of his briUiant business success, and the importance of his large plant to the community,
but through his hearty interest in everything appertaining to the welfare and advancement of -
the city and its inhabitants. His aid in the management of the affairs of the municipality has
been sought frequently and given freely, and at the urgent request of his neighbors he has
served two terms in the Board of Aldermen.
As the founder and head of one of the important industries of the country, Mr. Stiles is
entitled to stand among the leading manufacturers and business men of America, and by reason
of his unrivalled genius in the special field of its exercise, he will always occupy a prominent
place among American inventors. His upward progress from the modest position of a farmer's
boy and machinist's apprentice to that of the head of a great manufacturing company, with
a world-wide reputation as an inventor and business man, has been achieved by rare genius,
unflinching perseverance, earnest effort and high character, and affords a lesson to the aspiring
youth of the country which is full of profit and stimulus.
Mr. Stiles was married on March 23, 1864, to Miss Sarah M., daughter of Henry Smith,
Esq., of Middletown. Both he and his excellent wife occupy a leading place in the social life
of the city in which they reside, and they have a record of kindly and unostentatious usefulness
which endears them to a large circle. They have three children. Dr. Henry R. Stiles, now
of New York City, Mr. Edmund S. Stiles, associated with his father in business, and Miss
Milly B. Stiles, who is the efficient handmaid of her worthy mother in many noble acts of
philanthropy.

34

262 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

gARNUM, PHINEAS TAYLOR, of Bridgeport, the world-renowned showman,
and one of Connecticut's best known sons, was born in the town of Bethel, "in
that state, on July 5, 1810, and died at his home in Bridgeport, Conn., on
April 7, 1891.
His father, PhUo Barnum, was a son of Ephraim Barnum of Bethel, who
was a captain in the American forces during the Revolution. Philo Barnum was a farmer
who combined with his agricultural skill a mastery of the tailor's trade and a well developed
commercial instinct. At times in his life he kept a country store and also an inn or tavern,
but fortunes were few and far between in those days, and although he was a shrewd and
industrious man, he left no property at his death, which occurred in 1825, when he was
but forty-eight years old. The maiden name of the mother of the subject of this, sketch
was Irena Taylor, and from her father, Phineas Taylor, of whom he was the first grand
child, the boy derived his name. Phineas Taylor Barnum, who was fifteen -when his father
died, was the eldest of the five orphaned children, the youngest being seven years of age.
In his memoirs he says: "I was obliged to get trusted for the pair of shoes that I wore to
my father's funeral. I literally began the world with nothing, and was barefooted at that."
Mrs. Barnum bore herself heroically under her heavy burden, and by economy, industry and
perseverance, redeemed the homestead so that it reinained in the family.
Phineas early developed the love of trading, for which the people of Connecticut are so
famous. He worked on the famil}' farm considerably during- boyhood and attended school
as a matter of course when it was in session. His education was not given special atten
tion, yet he mastered the rudiments, and reading, travel, observation and intercourse with
all manner of people, brightened and increased his knowledge, so that even at an early period
in his life he appeared to better advantage than many who had devoted years to study. He
had in a superlative degree that power of adapting himself to people and to circumstances,
and that ready wit which prevents the inteUigent New Englander feeling at a disadvantage
in any company. Until he was eighteen he worked for others as occasion offered, but then,
having saved a little money, he opened a store at Bethel. Combining with his mercantUe
pursuits the agency for a lottery chartered by the state for building the Groton monument,
he prospered so well that he built a larger store and attempted business on a broader scale.
The credit system, then so largely in vogue, killed this enterprise in a very short time and
forced him to adopt other means of livelihood. He was but nineteen years old when he
married a young lady of about his own age, the daughter of worthy parents living in the
neighborhood of his birthplace.
His manliness and versatility also were exemplified in a remarkable degree in 183 1,
when he entered upon an editorial career which, though short, was brilliant in the extreme
and full of incident. He was led to this step by the refusal of a Danbury newspaper to
print several of his contributions. Purchasing a font of type he founded a small printing
office from which, on Oct. 19, of the year named, he issued the initial number of his own
paper. The Herald of Freedom. In its columns he attacked fearlessly whatever he felt was
an abuse. The consequence of his youthful intrepidity was a crop of libel suits, and finally,
upon conviction in one of them, imprisonment in the local jail for sixty days. The people,
however, greatly admired his honesty and courage, and proved their appreciation by giving
him a magnificent ovation at the expiration of his term, conducting him in a coach drawn
by six horses and preceded by a band of music through the public thoroughfares, and every
where greeting him with loud and oft-repeated huzzas.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 263
In 1834, finding his property dwindling to small proportions, Mr. Barnum left Bridge
port for New York, hoping to better his fortunes. In the following year he attended an
exhibition in Philadelphia where he saw a colored slave woman named Joyce Heth, advertised
as "the nurse of George Washington, one hundred and sixty-one years old." Instantly
perceiving the show value of this wonderful old woman, he bought her from her owners for
$1,000, and, advertising her with marvellous tact and shrewdness, soon had an income of as
high as $1,500 a week. Thus began his long career as a showman. For some years he
traveled with small shows in the southern states, but in 1841 returned to New York about
as poor as he ever was in his life. At that time Scudder's American Museum, which had
cost its founder $50,000, was for sale, the heirs asking $15,000 for it. The New York
Museum Company was contemplating its purchase when Mr. Barnum came upon the field.
He saw the opportunity and by a brilliant stroke grasped it, purchasing the collection on
credit for $12,000. By means of clever advertising, he kept his name and the attractions of
the show he had purchased constantly before the public, and Barnum's American Museum
soon became known from one end of the country to the other. Situated at the corner of
Broadway and Ann street, on the site now occupied by the New York Herald building, it
became a Mecca towards which every intelligent traveler bent his steps upon arriving in the
metropolis, and the crop of quarter-dollars reaped by its enterprising proprietor and manager
mounted away up into the millions.
It was in 1842 that Mr. Barnum brought forward Charles S. Stratton, of Bridgeport,
Conir., then less than two feet high and weighing only sixteen pounds. This little gentle
man, to whom Mr. Barnum gave the happy title of "Gen. Tom Thumb," was exhibited
in the United States and Europe with great success, appearing before many of the crowned
heads, and everywhere exciting unbounded curiosity and receiving the most distinguished
courtesies, in which Mr. Barnum participated, on all occasions. In 1869, he made a tour
around the world with the little general. In 1849, Mr. Barnum entered into a contract with
Jenny Lind, "the Swedish nightingale," for one hundred and fifty concerts in America,
agreeing to pay her one thousand dollars for each. Her appearance at Castle Garden, then
a hall devoted to public entertainments, created the wildest excitement, and the tickets for
the first performance were sold at auction at large prices. Altogether but ninety-five concerts
were given, yet the gross receipts amounted to about three-quarters of a million dollars, of
which Mr. Barnum's share was considerable.
Mr. Barnum was continually surprising the public. He catered to the millions and from
them drew a rich harvest of quarter-dollar pieces. At no other place in the United States
could so much be seen for the money as at his museum. By degrees he made it a great
public educator, and also an agent of moral reform, for the entertainments given in the
lecture room at every performance were not only amusing but instructive and edifying. This
lecture room, at first but a small chamber, was gradually enlarged until it was capable of
seating three thousand people. Many actors, subsequently very distinguished, made their
eariy appearance on the stage of this hall. A few years after acquiring the American
Museum, Mr. Barnum bought Peak's Museum, the only rival he had, and consolidated it
with his own. This great and valuable collection was destroyed by fire on July 13, 1865.
Although then fifty-five years of age and sorely tempted to try retirement, Mr. Barnum con
cluded to rebuild and open another museum, consideration for his one hundred and fifty
employees being an active factor in his resolve. The new museum was equally as successful
as the old, but it, too, was destroyed by fire on the night of March 3, 1868.
In the spring of 1871, he established a great traveling museum and menagerie, introduc
ing rare equestrian and athletic performances, to which, after the addition of an excellent

264 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
representation of the ancient Roman hippodrome, the gigantic elephant. Jumbo, and other
novelties, he gave the name of "P. T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth." This show
opened at Fourteenth street. New York, in November, 1872. Its popularity was assured
from the beginning and increased every year. This remarkable show was even taken abroad,
where its success was astounding. Its proprietor and founder became as well known in
Europe as in America. The great " Olympia " building, situated six miles from the centre
of the city of London, could scarcely seat one-half the number of applicants who came every
day. Two and a half millions in all paid admission fees during the short season. Before
his death Mr. Barnum entered into an agreement with his equal partner in this show, Mr.
A. J. Bailey, that in the event of the death of either, the survivor should continue the ex
hibition. This covenant was faithfully carried out by Mr. Bailey, and not only is the show
conducted with all its old-time features and many new ones, but Mr. Barnum's name
remains connected with it, and his portraits are to be found in the shop windows wherever
it appears. Mr. Barnum was one of the most moral of men. In early life he occasionally drank
wine, but when, through acquaintance with the world, he saw the dreadful effects of in
toxicating beverages, he unhesitatingly became an advocate of temperance. He began his
appearances as a lecturer in the summer of 1866, delivering, with fine effect, a discourse
entitled "Success in Life." Every penny received by him from this and all his other public
lectures he devoted to charity. His tour was an ovation. In 1869, he began to lecture
on temperance, and met with the same brilliant success. In fact, whatever he attempted in
the way of a public performance was certain to terminate successfully, yet he was the vic
tim of many heavy losses, for apart from the crashing blows he received through fires, which
destroyed several of his museums, and his magnificent palace, Iranistan, at Bridgeport, he
sank over a miUion doUars in 1856-57, through confidence in the representations of a large
manufacturing company. The energy of the man could not be crushed, and, backed by his
splendid credit, enabled him to rebuild his fortunes in every instance with great rapidity.
Mr. Barnum became prominently and permanently identified with Bridgeport in 1846, when
he buUt there an oriental villa, to which he gave the Persian name of "Iranistan." He
expended large sums of money in improving and beautifying the city, built miles of streets,
and planted thousands of trees; he encouraged budding manufactures, and made extensive
public donations, including public parks, worth upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. Institutions of learning, churches, hospitals, and art galleries received from him
thousands of dollars, in many cases superb buildings well equipped for the purposes for
which they were intended. His donations to charitable and educational institutions alone
would foot up a fortune.
In eariy life Mr. Barnum was a Democrat of the old school, and he conducted The
Herald of Freedom as a Jacksonian Democratic journal. His vigorous personality made such
an impression upon the politicians that in 1852 or 1853, they urged him to accept the
party nomination for governor. As his business at that time frequently paid him as much
in a day as the salary of the governor would amount to in a year, he respectfully dechned
the honor. When the treasonable intentions of the southern states became apparent in i860,
he joined the Republican party, with which he acted until his death. He gave loyal support
to the Federal government all through the war period, and, while too old to take up arms,
sent four substitutes to represent him in the field. He rejoiced at the downfall of slavery,
and m the spring of 1865 accepted a nomination to the Connecticut legislature from the
town of Fairfield, in order that he might have the honor of voting for the proposed con
stitutional amendment abolishing slavery forever, and of supporting an amendment to the

1/^^rz^^io^

^

MassacliusEttsPiibliEliiagCa.EveTett.Mass.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 265
state constitution "to allow men of education and of good moral character to vote, regardless
of the color of their skins." In 1866, he was appointed by Governor Hawley a commis
sioner to the Paris exposition, but declined. In the spring of 1867, he was nominated for
Congress. In that year the state went Democratic, and few, if any. Republicans were elected.
Mr. Barnum served four years in the state legislature, and during that time placed him
self on record as the unconquerable foe of corrupt railway companies and officials, and
the unfailing friend of every movement for the welfare and improvement of humanity.
On the 5th of April, 1875, he was elected mayor of the city of Bridgeport by a majority
of several hundred, although the place was known as a Democratic stronghold. He gave
a pure and honest administration of this office, and left it with the best wishes of all.
During the forty years he resided in Bridgeport he was unremitting in his efforts to
advance the city's welfare, and well deserved the name of public benefactor. He was for
several years president of the Bridgeport Hospital, and one of its chief supports. By means
of a fund established by him, two gold medals are annually awarded in the Bridgeport
high school for English orations. As an author Mr. Barnum is well-known to fame through
his " Autobiography," thousands of which have been sold, and by a work entitled " Hum
bugs of the World," and a story entitled " Lion Jack." He had a great sense of
humor, and whatever he wrote was most easy and agreeable reading. His self-possession
was one of his most remarkable traits. Nothing was able to ruffie it. He always had his
wits about him, and whether in the presence of European royalty or the sovereigns of
America, was invariably at ease and master of the situation.
Mr. Barnum was twice married. His first wife, Mrs. Charity Barnum, the esteemed
partner of his joys and struggles for forty years, died Nov. 19, 1873. In the autumn of
1874, he married the daughter of his worthy English friend, John Fish, Esq., who sur
vives him. For many years Mr. Barnum maintained a splendid home in Fifth Avenue,
New York city. But he seemed to be too large a man to be claimed by any one city,
however great, and was rather looked upon as a national, indeed it might be said, an
international character. His death was a source of real grief to hundreds of thousands,
especially to the great world of children, as whose steadfast friend he was particularly
proud of being known. No higher compliment has ever been paid to a citizen of the
United States than that found in an editorial published in the New York Sun years ago,
in which, after alluding to Mr. Barnum's "breadth of views, profound knowledge of man
kind, courage under reverses, indomitable perseverance, ready eloquence and admirable busi
ness tact," the writer closed his remarks by saying: "More than almost any other living
man, Barnum may be said to be a representative type of the American mind."

pROWNE, JOHN D., of Hartford, president Connecticut Fire Insurance Company,
was born in the town of Plainfield, Windham County, Conn., in 1836. The
old homestead first occupied by his great-great-grandfather is still in the family,
and now occupied by an elder brother.
Mr. Browne comes of long-lived, hardy, Puritan and Revolutionary stock —
the kind which broke up the rugged soil, built the public highways and the school houses and
churches, and fought the battles for liberty and independence. His grandfather, John Browne,
enlisted as a musician in the patriot army in 1776, serving with two of his brothers through the
long and trying period of the war, and was promoted while in service to the position of fife
major of his regiment. His father, Gurdon Perkins Browne, was a hard-working farmer who

266 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
reared his family in habits of industry and frugality, and did not forget to inculcate by precept
and example those principles of robust morality and patriotism in which he had himself been
trained. He was also a school teacher of considerable celebrity and for more than thirty years
taught the winter term of the district school. He was an ardent Democrat of the old school,
always performing his duties as a patriotic citizen, and voting at every election in his town until
the very close of his long life, dying at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Mr. Browne's
mother was a woman of rare qualities, deeply solicitous for the intellectual and spiritual
culture of her children and earnestly devoted to her family. She died at the age of eighty-
seven. Mr. Browne's youthful life was devoted to the farm and the district school, and at the
age of nineteen he taught one of the schools of his native town. But the duties of a school
teacher were not congenial as a life-work ; and having, in 1855, made a visit to the then
far-off territory of Minnesota, he made a second journey thither in the spring of 1857, and
located in Minneapolis. He was for two years connected with the Minneapolis Mill Company,
and aided in the development and improvement of the magnificent water-power at that point.
Afterwards he went to Little Falls, then a small hamlet located about a hundred and twenty-
five miles north of St. Paul, where he spent a year as secretary and agent of the 'Little Falls
Manufacturing Company, engaged in developing the water power there by the construction
of a dam across the Mississippi.
While in Minnesota, Mr. Browne was actively prominent in local and state politics, aided
in organizing the Republican party in Minnesota, and held intimate relations with the domi
nant party at the national capital throughout the administration of President Lincoln, for
whose election he had been an enthusiastic and effective worker. He was often a delegate to
county and state conventions, and was elected an alternate delegate to the national con
vention which nominated Mr. Lincoln. His Republicanism was known to be of the most pro
nounced type, and his political activity and enthusiasm constituted him an important factor
in the councils of his party throughout the greater portion of the period of eight years over
which his residence in Minnesota extended.
At the close of the presidential campaign, in the autumn of i860, he was elected mes
senger to take the first electoral \'ote of Minnesota to Washington, in which city he remained
during the succeeding winter, having been appointed to a desk, embracing suspended land titlesi
in the interior department at the capitol under Jo. Wilson, then commissioner of the general
land office. He returned to Minnesota in the spring of 1861, and for four years, during
Lincoln's administration, was chief clerk in the office of the surveyor general of public lands
at St. Paul, to which city the office had been recently removed from Detroit.
In 1865, Mr. Browne returned East, and soon afterward entered upon insurance work,
in 1867 becoming permanently connected with the Hartford Fire Insurance Company as its
general agent and adjuster. In 1870, he was elected secretary of that company, in the duties
of which office he was engaged for ten }^ears, until called to the presidency of the Connecticut
Fire Insurance Company in 1880. Under his conservative administration the Connecticut has
reached high rank among the solid and prosperous business and financial institutions in this
great insurance center. The premium income of The Connecticut, as shown by the annual
statement Jan. i, 1880, was $399,348, and the assets, $1,483,480. The premium income for
the year ending Jan. i, 1894, was $1,630,731, and the assets, $2,831,088. During this period
the company never failed to pay its regular semi-annual dividend, amounting in the aggregate
to $1,200,000. The unique home office building, standing on the corner of Prospect and
Grove streets, is due largely to his efforts to secure for the company a suitable and permanent
home for the transaction of its large and increasing business.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 267
In late years, with characteristic independence of thought and action, Mr. Browne has held
slack allegiance to the Republican party, earnestly advocating the election of Mr. Cleveland
and indorsing the policy of his administration. He sustains official relations with various
business and social organizations in Hartford. He is a director in the Phcenix Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the National Exchange Bank, the Hartford Board of Trade, the Board of
United Charities, the Humane Society and the Connecticut State Prison Association. He
is also a member of the Connecticut Historical Society and of the Sons of the American
Revolution. J. D. Browne was married Oct. 23, 1861, to Miss Frances Cleveland, daughter of Luther
Cleveland, Esq., of Plainfield. She died Dec. 25, 1893, leaving two daughters, Alice Cleve
land Browne and Virginia Frances Browne, the elder being the wife of Francis R. Cooley,
son of Hon. F. B. Cooley of this city.

PERRY, NEHEMIAH D., of New Haven, postmaster of that city for more
than a quarter of a century, and ex- secretary of state of Connecticut, was born
at Woodbridge, New Haven County, Conn., on July 10, 1827.
He is of Puritan ancestry, being in direct line of descent from Richard
Sperry, one of the early settlers of New England, and who, as a member of
the New Haven colony, received a grant of land a little west of the cit}' limits near the
"Judges' Cave" on the slope of West Rock, so-called from its having been for a time the
hiding place and shelter of the "regicide" judges — Generals Goffe and Whalley, and Colonel
DixweU of Cromwell's army, who condemned Charles I., and, after the restoration, fled to
America, where they were cared for by their friends in Massachusetts and Connecticut,
prominent among whom was Richard Sperry, who became somewhat famous through his
brave and generous devotion to these fugitives.
The subject of this sketch is the third son of Enoch and Atlanta Sperry. His father was
a farmer and manufacturer of some means and of excellent repute, who transmitted to his
offspring the best qualities of the sturdy Puritan stock from which he sprang. Young Sperry
was educated in the public schools of his native place, and spent one year at Prof. Amos
Smith's private school at New Haven. Being not only a diligent student and an assiduous
reader, but also painstaking and observing, he made rapid progress in his studies and proved
more than the equal of many lads who enjoyed greater advantages. As a youth he developed
remarkable self-reliance and great independence of character, and at a time of life when maii}^
are still groping blindly along the thorny paths of knowledge he, as an instructor, was
communicating to others what he had learned and with laudable ambition was steadily adding
at the same time to his own acquirements. By his labors as a teacher, and also through his
connection with his father's business, he was enabled to save several hundred dollars ; and
with this small capital at his command he entered upon a very successful business career in
New Haven as the junior member of the building firm of Smith & Sperry, founded in 1848.
From the first he displayed an unusual energy in his calling, and soon became one of the best
known business men of the "Elm City." His activities were not limited to any special line
of operations, but embraced a number of very important and original iinprovements of a public
character. He was one of the chief organizers of a company for constructing and operating
the horse railroad connecting New Haven with Fairhaven and Westville, and as its president
for ten years directed and managed its affairs with rare energy and discretion. Through his

268 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
direct personal efforts, during this period, much legislation in Connecticut favorable to horse
railroads was secured. He was interested also in steam railroads, and served for several
years as a director in the New Haven & Derby and New England & Erie Railroad com
panies. He was a director, likewise, in the Highland Suspension Bridge Company. It may
be said that no enterprise of any magnitude affecting the city's interests, present or prospective,
has failed to secure his hearty cooperation and assistance, direct or indirect.
From the day he polled his first vote, Mr. Sperry has taken an active and intelligent
interest in political affairs, local, state and national. Previously a Whig, he became connected
with the American party upon its formation, and in 1854, was its principal leader in Con
necticut, although then one of its youngest members. In 1855, he was a delegate from
Connecticut to the national convention of the American party held in Philadelphia, and was
appointed a member of the committee on resolutions. As such he vigorously opposed the
incorporation of pro-slavery planks in the platform, as false in logic and vicious in principle;
and when they were adopted he unceremoniously bolted the convention. This decided stand
for principle made him very popular with his party in the North, particularly in Connecticut,
where his ability as a political leader also was well known, and his nomination for the office
of governor of that state was only checked in the state convention of 1855, when it was
remembered that he fell .short several years of the constitutional age for that office. As this
age limit did not extend to the office of secretary of state he was nominated for that position
and was elected. A year later he was nominated and reelected. In 1856, while serving as
secretary of state, he was a member of the national convention of the American party, held
at Philadelphia, which placed Ex-President Fillmore at the head of its ticket. Here again
he vigorously opposed the resolutions adopted to secure the Southern vote and declined to
support the nominees.
Together with many others of the party who held views in consonance with his own, he
attended the first national convention of the newly-formed Republican party, which was held
in New York city in the same year, and gave his warm support to the candidacy of General
Fremont, for whose election he labored with extraordinary energy during the ensuing campaign.
Chosen chairman of the state Republican committee, at the beginning of this campaign,
he filled this position during the critical period preceding the Civil War and also during its
continuance. In the state campaign of i860, he played a most important part, exhibiting rare
qualities as a leader and manager, and carrying the election of Governor Buckingham, thus
swinging Connecticut into the Republican line for Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, President
Lincoln appointed him postmaster of New Haven. In 1864, he was a member of the Repub
lican national convention, held at Baltimore, which re-nominated Lincoln for the presidency,
and at that time was a member and the secretary of the national Republican committee. He
was one of the seven persons selected by the national committee to conduct the campaign of
1864, and was chosen its secretary. Throughout the period of the War of the Rebellion he
gave his best services to the Union cause, and to his able and unceasing efforts in Connecticut
the government is greatly indebted. In 1868, he presided over the state convention which
nominated the electors who voted for General Grant for President.
His political activity, since 1868, has been in no degree inferior to what it was during the
years preceding, and has earned for him a national reputation. Soon after the beginning of
President Cleveland's administration, Mr. Sperry's place as postmaster of New Haven was
sought by prominent Democrats, and its incumbent was removed on purely political grounds.
He was restored to office by President Harrison eariy in 1889, on a petition extensively signed,
without regard to party, asking him to become a candidate. The postmastership of New
Haven is a position of great weight and responsibility, and the office itself holds the first rank

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 269
in the state and rates among the chief in the United States. It is a matter of record, and is
so held by the general public, that Mr. Sperry's administration of its duties left nothing to be
desired. The honest and diligent manner in which he discharged the business of the office
gave universal satisfaction, and, together with the many iinprovements introduced by him and
carried forward successfully, indicate uncommon ability as an executive and manager. Not
the least of these improvements was the assorting of mails to the various stations in New York
city which resulted in saving many hours in delivery. On numerous occasions Mr. Sperry
has been highly complimented by the authorities at Washington, and, in 1866, Postmaster-
General A. W. Randall named him as one of a select commission of distinguished experts to
visit European countries and inspect and report to the department upon the foreign mail
systems. Although the acceptance of this appointment would not have made necessary his
resignation as postmaster of New Haven, he felt compelled, for personal reasons, to decline it.
During the later years of his incumbency Mr. Sperry enjoyed the unique distinction of being
one of the oldest postmasters by presidential appointment in the United States, and it is
worthy of note that he held his commission in a city and town which his ancestors helped to
found nearly two and a half centuries previous to the date of its issuance. Mr. Sperry resigned
the office of postmaster of New Haven on April 15, 1885, after an incumbency of twenty-four
years. As an evidence of their high appreciation of his eminent services, his fellow citizens
without regard to partys, gave him a complimentary banquet shortly afterward at the Hyperion
Theatre, the largest auditorium in the city. This banquet was one of the most notable
ever given in the state, and no other citizen has received a more spontaneous and hearty
tribute, either before or since, in the city of New Haven.
No man is more profoundly interested in the welfare of New Haven, and few, if any,
have deserved more highly by their consistent and persistent efforts in its behalf to rank
among its worthies. No man is better known in the city, and, probably, no one has a greater
number of personal friends. A strong supporter of the American system of public schools,
he is deeply concerned in preserving them as they have been handed down by their patriotic
and enlightened founders, that is, on a Christian basis. A victory of which he is as proud
as any other achievement in his eventful life was won by him in 1878, when he vigorously
attacked the action of the New Haven board of education which, by the vote of a majority
of its members, had ordered the discontinuance of the reading of the Bible in the public
schools of the city. Taking the logical ground that the Bible, being the moral code, taught
the young a clear idea between right and wrong, Mr. Sperry made an appeal to the general
public against the course adopted by those in charge of the work of education. His vigorous
opposition and logical arguments in favor of the Bible, voiced in many of the leading
churches in New Haven, aroused a sentiment which, still further stimulated by his fervid
utterances in the press, speedily caused a revocation of the obnoxious order, and it was
rescinded by a vote of three to one, with the hearty approval of the entire Christian community,
Protestants and Catholics alike. Although given special prominence, this incident is but one
of many instances in which he has stood up, sometimes alone, but always undaunted and
undismayed, and fought nobly for principle and that which he holds sacred. It suffices to
show the stamp of the man and explains the high esteem in which he is held by all. It is
proper to state here that Mr. Sperry's views in regard to the education of the young have
never been those of a fanatic or bigot. He is a firm believer in the separation of church and
state, and is opposed to all sectarianism in connection with the public school system, hold
ing that this position is the only one tenable by an American citizen.
Mr. Sperry has served his fellow-citizens honorably and faithfully in several elective pub
lic offices. He has been a councilman and alderman of the city, and also one of the select-
35

270 REPRESENTATIIE MEN
men of the town of New Haven. In 1886, he was nominated by the Republicans in his
district as their candidate for Congress. The circumstances at the time were such that he
could have been elected, but, for private reasons, he declined the honor, to the regret of all
the members of the convention. In 1888, he was a delegate to the Republican national
convention which nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency, and was a member of
the committee on platform. As a public speaker and debater, Mr. Sperry possesses a won
derful power to move and infiuence his auditors. His voice has been heard upon the plat
form for years, and few men have equal tact and force in placing facts before an audience.
He is one of the strongest advocates of "Protection, " in the Republican ranks, and his
voice has been heard with no uncertain effect upon this vital topic on numerous occasions.
In the debate before the Connecticut State Grange in 1887, the subject being " Wherein
does Protection benefit Agriculture ? " he was one of the two orators selected by the National
Protective League to answer for " Protection." The " Free Traders " selected as their spokes
men, Messrs. Wells, Sumner and J. B. Sargent; but the last named only appeared. In the
absence of his colleague. Professor Denslow of New York, Mr. Sperry was likewise left un
supported. On this occasion he achieved a decided victory over his opponent, so much so
that the Free Trade paper admitted" the fact. His success was a signal one, as the result
in the farming district showed in the election held a year later. Mr. Sperry also appeared
before the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1888, and discussed "Protection" with a
committee of that body. Even his opponents admitted that he made the best defence they
ever listened to ; and the result of the vote in the legislature justified the remarks. During
the presidential canvass in 1888, a challenge was sent out by the Tariff Reform Club, (Demo
cratic) of New Haven, to the Republicans to debate the "Mills Bill." The "Protectionists"
accepted the challenge, and Mr. Sperry was selected by ' their unanimous vote to present
their case. It was a high compliment to Mr. Sperry's power, but it was well deserved.
Mr. Sperry has been several times a delegate to the National Board of Trade, and on
each occasion made a powerful impression upon that body. For years he has taken a decided
part in favor of the old town government system, instituted by the founders of the com
monwealth. His speech before the committee of the Common Council of New Haven on
this subject was one that will long be remembered. In 1887, he was selected by Senators
Platt and Hawley and others to write an article on " The Advantages of Protection," for
the Christian Secretary, a paper published in the city of Hartford, in reply to a Free Trade
article in the same paper, by Prof. W. G. Sumner. Mr. Sperry's article covered a whole
page of the paper, and excited such wide spread interest that four hundred thousand copies
were published to meet the immediate demand, and a large edition in pamphlet form was
afterwards published and broadly circulated. The New York Tribune and other leading journals
pronounced it one of the strongest as well as one of the ablest papers on the question of
"Practical Protection" ever pubUshed'. Mr. Sperry delivered the address at the national
postal convention held at Alexandria Bay on Sept. 8, 1891. The address was to have been
delivered by Col. S. A. Whitfield, first assistant postmaster-general of the United States,
or by Hon. James E. White, general superintendent of the railroad maU service, but as neither
of these gentiemen could attend, Mr. Sperry was telegraphed for to supply their place. With
his usual courtesy he responded to the invitation in person, and his address, which was
published largely throughout the country, was one of the chief features of the convention.
As a business man Mr. Sperry has been very successful. He is a member of the well-
known firm of Smith, Sperry & Treat of New Haven, contractors and builders, who have
constructed some of the most palatial residences and largest factories in the city. In social

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 271
Hfe he is very popular, and is connected officially and otherwise with a number of the princi
pal local organizations. Of one of these, the Quinnipiack Club, probably the oldest in the
city, he has been president for twelve years or more.
N. D. Sperry was married in 1847, to Miss Eliza H., daughter of Willis and Catherine
Sperry of Woodbridge. This estimable lady died in 1873. His present wife, to whom he
was united in 1875, was formeriy Miss Minnie Newton, whose parents, Erastus and Caroline
Newton, were highly respected residents of Lockport, N. Y., where the young lady herself
was born.

;iLCOX, HORACE CORNWALL, of Meriden, president of the Meriden Britannia
Company, of the Wilcox & White Organ Company, and other corporations,
was born in Middletown, Jan. 26, 1824. He passed on to his reward Aug.
27, 1890, the fatal power of paralysis cutting short his life, seemingly at the
very height of its usefulness.
The family of Wilcox is of Saxon origin, and was seated at Bury St. "Edmonds, in the
county of Suffolk, Eng., before the Norman conquest. Sir John Dugdale, in his "Visitation
of the County of Suffolk," mentions fifteen generations previous to 1600. The arms of the
family are: per fesse, or and as., a fesse, gules, over all a lion rampant, countercharged.
Crest : a demi-lion rampant, az. The lion rampant indicates that he to whom the arms
were granted had gained a victory whilst in command of an arm}\ In the reign of King
Edward Third and the kings who followed, the name Wilcox occurs frequently in connection
with men of high degree. The Connecticut branch of the family is traced to John Wilcox,
who is known to have been an original proprietor of land in Hartford in 1639. His son
John, born in England, was the father of Ephraim and by successive generations through
John and Joseph, to Elisha B. Wilcox, who was born in 1795 and died in 1881.
Horace C. was the son of EUsha B. and Hepsibah (Cornwall) Wilcox of Aliddletown.
The ordinary duties of a farmer's boy filled his life until he reached the age of twenty, in
the meantime obtaining such an education as one could get in the public schools of his
native town. The year before he attained his majority, he commenced his career in the
somewhat prosaic business of peddling tinware. The pecuniary basis of his later fortune
consisted of three dollars, every cent of which was borrowed. His more immediate capital,
however, was a strong will, a clear and vigorous brain, and a hopeful disposition. This
extended his acquaintance, and the possibilities of the new business of manufacturing
Britannia ware was brought to his attention. Coming to Meriden, he first sold goods made
by James Frary, and his success was such that finally he supplied Mr. Frary with stock and
took all he could produce. Widening his operations, he also handled ware made by William
Lyman and John Munson of Wallingford, and I. C. Lewis & Company of Meriden. About
this time, he took his brother Dennis into partnership, under the firm name of H. C. Wilcox
& Company. This connection lasted until 1852, when the conception of a combination of
interests occurred to Mr. Wilcox, which he proceeded to put into execution. The
concentration of rival interests is going on continually at the present time, but then the
idea was new and untried. Through his efforts, after 'a friendly deliberation, the entire
Britannia trade of the city formed itself into what is now known as the Meriden Britannia
Company. The incorporators were H. C. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, Dennis C. Wilcox, James
A. Frary, Lemuel J. Curtis, W. W. Lyman and John Munson. Mr. Isaac C. Lewis was

272 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
chosen president, and Mr. H. C. Wilcox secretary and treasurer. His previous experience
had in a measure fitted him for the responsibilities of the new position, and Mr. Wilcox
entered upon his duties with enthusiasm. In 1866, Mr. Lewis declined to serve longer as
president, and Mr. Wilcox was made the head of the growing concern. This office he filled
until his death, being a period of twenty-four years. His administration was, as might
readily be supposed, energetic and full of push. Building wisely on the foundation he had
helped to lay, he secured a mercantile success not often paralleled in the business world.
From a single frame building in 1852, by successive accessions, immense brick structures
have been erected, until the various factories, together, have the fioor space of over ten
acres, or about 425,000 square feet. The original capital of $50,000 has been increased to-
$1,100,000, and besides the company has over $20,000,000 invested. The Meriden Britan
nia Company is the largest of its kind in the world. To all this development, and to aU
the exceptional success attained, Mr. Wilcox contributed his full share. His faculty for hard
work and his rare executive powers well qualified him to be the head of such an extensive
enterprise. At his death, Mr. Lewis was again chosen to the presidency, which position he
retained until his death in 1893, when Mr. George H. Wilcox, who had been secretary of
the company for several years, was elected to assume the office and with it the cares and
responsibilities which his father had borne for a quarter of a century.
Extended as were the operations of the Meriden Britannia Company, Mr. Wilcox did not
confine all his talents to its manageinent. Appreciating the musical and mechanical qualifica
tions of his kinsman, Mr. H. K. White, he entered into a partnership under the name of The
Wilcox &; White Organ Company, for the purpose of manufacturing organs. They began
on a somewhat larger proportionate scale than Mr. Wilcox's first efforts, but here again he
assisted in building up one of I\Ierideii's largest industries. When the business was organized
on a stock company basis, he was chosen president and held the office until his decease, in 1890.
There seemed to be absolutely nothing which affected the welfare of the city of his adop
tion, in which Mr. Wilcox was not interested. The extension of its railroad facilities was-
almost a hobby with him. It was through his exertions in the early eighties that the Meriden
and Cromwell raUroad was built, and by it Meriden gained direct _ tide water communication.
Later, the road was extended to Waterbury, and the name changed to the Meriden, Waterbury
& Connecticut River Railroad. The city owes him a heavy debt for this piece of work alone,
if he had done nothing else to advance its development. Elected first president of the road,
his tenure of office was onl}- cut short by his death.
Meriden responded nobly when the call was made for troops on the breaking out of the
RebeUion. To providing for the wants of the citizen soldiery, many of whom were his own
employees, Mr. Wilcox gave liberally of his time and money. His efforts to aid the success-
of the Union cause lasted until the surrender at Appomattox. Public official station was not
to Mr. Wilcox's taste ; but having assisted in securing the incorporation of Meriden as a city,
he allowed himself to be elected mayor, and served during the year 1875-76, showing that
he was as capable of managing a city as he was of controlling an immense manufacturing
corporation. The leading traits of Mr. Wilcox's character were his indomitable energy and his
unwavering perseverance. Starting with a borrowed capital of three dollars, by his own
unaided exertions he accumulated a large property. The various enterprises with which he
has been connected are to-day monuments to his sagacity and shrewd management. To the
very last he presented abundant evidence of having perseveringly and judiciously developed
his splendid natural abUities, both mental and physical. It has been truthfully said of him,
that, "Being a gentieman of tremendous energy, clear foresight and great quickness of

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 273
judgment, he occupied his various honorable and important offices with much acceptability
to all concerned therewUh." In the afternoon of his existence he was able to regard his
career with satisfaction and equanimity. The promise of a long and happy evening to his
life was shortened by the power of insidious disease. A single sentence from a mention of
his death in the leading journal of the jewelry trade wUl show the estimation in which he
was held by his contemporaries. The paper said: "The king of the silverware trade is
dead." Success is a result of the skUled use of means and the powers of nature; persistent
success always proves ability of the highest order. Judged by this standard, the titie just
applied to Mr. Wilcox is fully deserved, as he was a born leader and organizer of men.
Horace C. Wilcox was twice married: First, Aug. 9, 1849, to Charlotte A., daughter
of Jabez Smith of Middletown, by whom he had five children. She died May 6, 1864. He
was married a second time to EUen M., daughter of Edmund Parker of Meriden. Three
children were the result of this union.

;ARNER, CHARLES DUDLEY, was born on the 12th of September, 1829, at
Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass., in the same region that William Cullen
Bryant and George William Curtis came from. At his father's death his
mother removed to Cazenovia, N. Y., where an acquaintance with Joseph R.
Hawley began, which has had much to do with shaping the career of each of
them, for it was through this acquaintance that later in life Mr. Warner was led to make
Hartford his home, Hawley his partner, and journalism and letters his occupation. He and
Hawley were companions in school days at the seminary in Cazenovia and at Hamilton
College, where Hawley graduated in 1847, and Warner, taking the highest prize in English,
in 1851. They have been close personal and business associates ever since i860.
After graduating from college, Mr. Warner first undertook to be a surveyor, and sub
sequently studied law at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1856, he took up its practice
in Chicago, but his early fondness for letters, which had made him from boyhood an eager
reader, had never left him, and, when the opportunity offered to enter newspaper work, he
was very ready to accept. It came about in this way. Hawley, who has since become
major-general of the army, governor of Connecticut, and member of Congress, and is now
(1894), in his third term as United States senator, was, before the war, a young lawyer in
Hartford, acting also as editor of the Press, a newspaper established by the Connecticut
founders of the Republican party to advocate its principles. In i860, needing editorial
assistance, he sent for his early friend, Warner, to come and join him at $800 a year. Such a
newspaper salary in those days was considered 'worth having, and Warner accepted. Soon
afterward Hawley, the first man to enlist from his state, started off for the war, leaving his
associate in charge of the paper.
Mr. Warner has practically held that position ever since, for Hawley's public services
have so broken in on his newspaper work that the latter has been only occasional and in
termittent. In 1867, the owners of the Press bought the famous and venerable Hartford
Courant, (founded in 1764, the oldest journal in the country), and merging their publication
in it, put into the conservative family paper the vigor and enthusiasm that had marked their
ambitious enterprise, thus developing one of the most active forces in Connecticut affairs.
Mr. Warner's early editorial work was of high quality, but it was necessarily anonymous and
impersonal. He came first before the public personally through" INIy Summer in a Garden,"

274 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
which appeared as a series of Saturday morning contributions to The Courant in 1870. They
were written without effort, in an easy and spontaneous style, and delighted all who read
them with their delicious humor, and their fidelity to nature — not merely as shown in the
garden, but in the gardener and his friends. These letters were gathered into a volume to
which Henry Ward Beecher wrote a preface. The book had a large sale, and it still goes
on selling. It was reprinted abroad, and secured for its author at once a hold upon English
speaking people. Many of its bits of homely philosophy have become household words.
And, indeed, in the long list of his subsequent works there is none that does not give
to the reader its full share of quotable paragraphs, which lodge in the memory because of
their well-put truth, or their equaUy striking absurdity. In his description, "On Horse
back," of the trip that he and Professor Lounsbury of Yale made through North Caro
lina, he tells of the compromise that they reached on the subject of climbing mountains.
One wanted to take in that arduous experience and the other objected. So, in order to
satisfy the ambitious member of the party, they agreed that no mountain under 6,000 feet
was worth climbing, and then, to satisfy the other, that every mountain over 6,000 feet
was too high to climb. Thus, satisfying both by mutual concessions, they continued their
journey with their differences reconciled, and one kind of compromise well illustrated. In one
county, where absolute and voluntary total abstinence prevailed, they found the jail locked
up and abandoned. "It's not much use," says Mr. Warner, "to try to run a jail without
liquor." It was in a letter from Sicily to The Courant t\\at he wrote after visiting the
sulphur mines, that he "never expected to see so much sulphur — at least not in this
world." Iil his account of "Camping Out in the Adirondacks," the great moral question is
mised wlicther a minister, off there away from his congregation, where he will throw a
sto;;c at a squirrel on Sunday, can also properly shoot at a mark on that day, and it is
sugQ' -.; -d that perhaps he may — with an air gun that makes no noise. In the same sketch,
descri.); :-^- the immeasurable aiiiio}'aiice caused by the snorers at night, he ventures the
soleui-! comment that }-ou can "never judge what a person is when he is awake." In his
skv cli cf the ' ' Killing of the Deer, ' ' one of the choicest things he has written, he tells of
tlic fri^;-'it of the timid doe wdien she dashed into a popular Adirondack resort and every-
bo'y ran out to see her. "Nothing is so appalling to a recluse as half a mile of summer
bcif '¦CIS," and off she went at extra speed.
Piis ' ' How the Spring Came In New England ' ' has for years been reckoned a safer
guide than the daily government predictions. New England, he says, is "the exercise
ground of the weather," and the spring, which doesn't reach us until it is past, leaves us
" a legacy of coughs and patent medicines."
But while so much of what Mr. Warner writes provokes a smile, a true moral purpose
underiies his work. This is in aU his writings, as it is in the life of the man himself, but
it is especially noticeable in his later books. His novel, "A Little Journey in the World,"
published in 1889, is no less noteworthy for its dramatic interest and fine study of character
than for its healthy tone and its wholesome strength. It has had a very large circulation,
has been the subject of club debates and pulpit sermons, and has brought to its author a
deal of interesting correspondence.
Mr. Warner has just finished another novel, "The Golden House," in which appear
some of the characters whom we already know through the "Little Journey." This, Uke
the other, deals with the problems and complications of modern life, and, in the opinion of
those who have read the manuscript, it is decidedly superior to its predecessor.

Tb.a CiirtfLiiy rjjjlL£hucg,3i.En4Tavai\4[:,o Clucagc

^./^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 275
Mr. Warner has traveled widely and observed always. He has been practically all over
this country from Mexico to Canada and from Mt. Desert to Coronado Beach, and abroad
he has lived in England, Germany, France, and Italy, has journeyed through Spain and
into Africa, and has been up the Nile and made himself an authority in Egyptology.
For some years he has been actively engaged upon Harper's Monthly Magazine, at first
editing, and with a short essay introducing, the Editor's Drawer ; and now, since Mr.
Curtis's death, contributing the Editor's Study. But he retains his personal and pecuniary
interest in The Courant, of which he owns soinething more than a quarter. Every day
when he is in Hartford he walks the two miles each way between his home and the
office, and the tone and policy of the paper are his constant care. In the office, as well as
out of it, he is the most approachable and companionable sort of man.
His home in Nook Farm, near, but not the same as, that which had the "Garden," is
close by the homes of Mark Twain and Mrs. Stowe, in the western part of the city, and
its hospitable charm is known to friends all over the world. It is one of the social centers
of Hartford, esthetic and unconventional, and fitly represents the delightful life that Mr. and
Mrs. Warner lead among their multitude of friends.
Mr. Warner is a member of Hartford's, at least -locally^, famous Monday Evening Club,
of the Century, University and Players' Clubs of New York, and of the Tavern Club of
Boston among others, and is president of the N. E. Association of Hamilton Alumni. He
holds the honorary degrees of M. A. from Yale, Hamilton and Dartmouth; L- H. D. from
Hamilton, and D. C. L- from the University of the South. He is a meinber of the Asylum
HUl Congregational Church of Hartford, of which his intimate friend, the Rev. J. H. Twitchell,
is the pastor.
His books include the following: "My Summer in a Garden," " Saunterings," "Back
Log Studies," " Baddeck and That Sort of Thing," "My Winter on the Nile," "In the
Levant," "Being a Boy," "In the Wilderness," "Life of Captain John Smith," "The
Work of Washington Irving," "A Roundabout Journey," "Their Pilgrimage," "On Horse
back," "South and West and Comments on Canada," "A Little Journey in the World,"
"Our Italy," "As We Were Saying," "As We Go" and "The Golden House." C. H. C.

^OE, LYMAN WETJMORE, a leading citizen of Torrington, prominent for many
years in both branches of the state legislature, and widely known as one of the
?j most enterprising and successful manufacturers of Connecticut, was born in
Torrington, Conn., June 20, 1820. He died Feb. 7, 1893, sincerely mourned
by all who knew him. His father, Israel Coe, was a well-to-do and highly
respected citizen of Waterbury, Conn., and his mother, whose maiden' name was Nancy
Wetmore, belonged to a well-known New England family of that name.
Mr. Coe's education began in the public schools of his native village, was continued at
the Waterbury high school and was finished at the Morris Academy and the private collegiate
institute of Prof. W. W. Andrews, at South Cornwall. After spending a few months in a
store at Waterbury, he secured a minor clerkship with the firm of Wadhams, Coe & Company
at WolcottviUe, which he held two years. He then accepted a more responsible position
with Lewis McKee & Company, merchants and manufacturers at Terryville, who were the
first cabinet lock manufacturers in the United States. Young Coe remained three years with
this firm, spending one year of the time at its brass mill at Torrington, where he gained that

276 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
practical and thorough knowledge of manufacturing which was ever afterward so serviceable
to him as a business man. In the spring of 1841, he accepted the secretaryship of the Wol-
cottvUle Brass Company. He resigned this position in the summer of 1845, to assume charge
of the brass wire mill at Cotton HoUow, which had been established by the newly organized
Waterbury Brass Company. 'The able manner in which he attended to. this branch of the
business led to his being chosen, early in 1846, to the dual position of secretary and treasurer
of the Waterbury Brass Company. He now took up his residence at Waterbury, the
administrative headquarters of the corporation, and in order that the manufacturing department
might be more fully under his supervision, it was removed from Cotton Hollow to that town.
Mr. Coe was \'irtually at the head of this company for eighteen years, and by his distinguished
ability as general and financial manager, raised it to a high degree of prosperity.
In May, 1863, he severed his connection with it, and purchasing the entire stock of the
WolcottviUe Brass Company, he organized the Coe Brass Company, which began operations
with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. This business he established at Torrington,
thus giving to his native place greater importance as a manufacturing centre. Mr. Coe
brought to the discharge of his duties as president of the new company, natural business
abilities of the first order, and an experience of over a quarter of a century in the special
field of its operations. Sagacious and enterprising, he soon succeeded in placing the company
in the foremost rank both as to the quality and quantity of its output. By degrees its products
were pushed into every important market in this country and into many of the principal foreign
markets, in all of which they have continued to hold their own, notwithstanding the most
lively competition. To-day the Coe Brass Company stands as one of the leading manufactories
of its kind in the United States. Its machinery requires one thousand two hundred horse
power, one thousand of which is supplied by four steam engines, and two hundred by water
power from the neighboring streams. A large force of employees find steady and remunerative
work in the offices, warerooms and manufactories of the company, and the whole enterprise
has contributed in a marked degree to the prosperity and advancement of Torrington. By
gradual increase the capital of the company has been raised to three hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars. Although the detail of the business was simply enormous, it was so
effecti\'ely systematized by President Coe that the whole concern ran along easily and almost
with the precision of clock-work.
In 1845, Mr. Coe was elected by his fellow-citizens of Torrington to represent that
town in the state legislature. Although a very busy man at that time, he attended to
his legislati\-e duties so closely, and displayed so much character in his work that he
might have been reelected were it not for the circumstance of his removal to Waterbury.
In 1858, whUe a resident of Waterbury, he was again elected to the state legislature. At
the close of his term he declined to reenter the field owing to the increasing pressure of
his regular business. In 1862, finding himself able to give the necessary attention to
public duties, he accepted the nomination to the state Senate from the Republicans of the
fifth senatorial district. Elected by a vote which cleariy demonstrated his popularity, he
served to the close of that term, winning the hearty approval of loyal men of all shades
of political belief, particularly by his patriotic support of every measure tending to sus
tain the national government in the great war then going on for the suppression of
rebeUion. His removal from the district in the following year alone prevented his re
nomination. In 1876, he was chosen to the state Senate from the fifteenth district, and
by successi\-e reelections was retained as its representative during five years. While in
the Senate he served on several of its most important committees, and for two terms
was president pro tern, of the Senate. Both on the floor of tiie Senate and in the com-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 277
mittee room he was an active and earnest promoter and advocate of wholesome measures,
displaying those qualities of judgment natural in a successful business man, the main
spring of which was patriotism and common sense blended in about equal proportions.
In connection with the demands of his business, and also for the purpose of secur
ing much-needed rest and recreation. Senator Coe travelled extensively both at home
and abroad; and by personal experience and contact gleaned a vast fund of informa
tion regarding the people, their customs and habits and institutions, in many places. As
a manufacturer and business man Mr. Coe was specially distinguished by his great enter
prise, which apparently never slumbered. Quick to perceive opportunities he was equally
quick in making them his own, and no small share of the brilliant success he achieved in
life was due to this faculty. Managing every transaction with scrupulous integrity, prompt
and reliable in keeping contracts and engagements, and ambitious at all times to do the
very best that can be done, he possessed a reputation as a man of honor, of progressive
business methods and of broad views second to none in the state. As a manufacturer he
was known at home and abroad as one of the most reliable and enterprising in America.
Mr. Coe was actively interested for many years in every enterprise, pubUc and private,
having in view the development and prosperity of Torrington, and the improvement of the
material and moral welfare of its inhabitants. It may be said without fear of contradiction,
that he was undoubtedly acknowledged by all as the leading citizen of the town, and
judged by his unremitting labors in its behalf he appears to be rightly entitled to this
enviable distinction. His record as a public man was unblemished, and up to the time of
his death his opinions were sought and highly valued as those of a wise, experienced and
honorable publicist. In the ordinary social relations of life Senator Coe was remiss in no
particular, being a cultivated gentleman, a good citizen, a helpful neighbor, and a sincere
Christian. Were his reputation founded on his personal qualities alone, they would suffice
to give him an eminent place among the worthies of his native state.
He was married on Nov. 3, 1841, to Miss Eliza Seymour, daughter of Samuel Seymour
of Torrington. They had three children.
The impressive services at the funeral of Mr. Coe were most significant proof of the
esteem in which he was universally held. A large number of prominent gentlemen from
out of town were present, for he had friends everywhere, and, as for Torrington itself, the
whole town took part in the funeral. Flags were all flying at half staff, factories, stores and
banks were closed, all business being practically suspended, and the streets were lined with
people, all of them wearing the sober look of men and women who realized that a mis
fortune had befallen the community, and that all had lost a friend.
Numerous tributes of respect were given by various corporations and bodies with which
he was connected, but the most comprehensive as well as the most touching were the reso
lutions passed by the directors of the Coe Brass Company :
The Hon. layman Wetmore Coe, president of this corporation, died suddenly at his home in Torrington,
Thursday, Feb. 9, 1893, aged 73 years. In his death this corporation loses its founder, and its first and only presi
dent. Mr. Coe was naturally interested in the manufacture of brass, as his father, Mr. Israel Coe, had been among
the first to introduce this branch of industry into the United States. Mr. I,. W. Coe was first actively engaged in
this business in connection with the WolcottviUe Brass Compau}', the first certificate of stock of that corporation
having been signed by him as secretary, May 20, 1841. In 1846, he removed to Waterbury, and from that time
until 1863, was associated with the Waterbury Brass Company as its executive official.
In 1863, he returned to Torrington (then WolcottviUe) and having acquired the entire capital stock of the
WolcottviUe Brass Company, organized the present corporation under the name of the Coe Brass Manufacturing
Company. At that time the business was not in a flourishing condition, but Mr. Coe's energy, foresight and ability,
sustained by the cordial support and loyalty of his stockholders, who were of the best element among the Nauga
tuck "Valley business men, soon placed the company in the first rank, — a position which it has held until the
36

278 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
present da3'. The history of the corporation since that time is in general that of the entire brass business of the
country, and especialh- that of the Naugatuck Valley, it having created and maintained a field peculiar to itself.
The development of the present extensive plant from its modest beginning, under Mr. Coe's presidency, is one of
the triumphs of the American industrial age. In his death the last of that circle of business men in the Naugatuck
-Valley who made the manufacture of brass a national industry has passed away.
The leading characteristics of Mr. Coe in his business relations were his pronounced convictions and courage
in maintaining them, his quick perception of advantageous circumstances and ability in utilizing them the
thoroughness of his plans, his wide views of the commercial field, his cordial and trusted relations with his asso
ciates and the patrons of the corporation, and his genial aild equitable dealings with his fellow-officers and the
employees of the company. The members of this board mourn his loss as that of an associate with whom they
had ever been in the most cordial sympathy, a leader in whose sagacity they had placed especial confidence, and
a personal friend to whom they had become deeply attached, and whose memory will ever be held by them in the
warmest esteem.
Resolved, That the preceding minute be entered in the records of the corporation, that an engrossed copy
be sent to the family of the deceased, aud that copies be transmitted to the press.
Attest, Ch.^rIvES F. Brooker, Secretary.

iiROOKER, CHARLES FREDERICK, of Torrington, president of the Coe
Brass Manufacturing Company and senator from the Eighteenth District, was
born in the town where he now resides, March 4, 1847.
The first of the name on record in this country was John Brooker, who was
known to be at Guilford with his wife, Mary, in 1695. From the fact that he
continued to transact business with leading citizens of the town until his decease, it is
presumed he had lived in Boston for a number of years previous to his coming to Guilford.
He carried on the business of shipwright and was a man of considerable property'^for the times
in which he lived. His son Abraham was a merchant, and died suddenly at the eariy age
of^ thirty-four. Abraham Brooker, Jr., married Tamar Murry and was the father of eight
children. Of these, Samuel was the sixth, and was the first of the family to come to Torring
ton. His youngest sou Martin married Sarah Maria, daughter of Samuel Seymour, and was
the father of the subject of this sketch. He gained his living by agricultural pursuits, and'
was a man of sterling worth.
Educated at the public schools of his native town, at an eariy age he began his business
career m a mercantile establishment in WolcottviUe, now Torrington, and after two years he
accepted a position with Benedict, Merriman & Company of Waterbury. In 1864, he returned
to Torrington, of which place he is still a resident. Entering the employ of the Coe Brass
Manufacturing Company as bookkeeper, he displayed such efficiency and knowledge that
m 1870 he was elected secretary of the company. In the interests of the company he has
spent.a large amount of time in Europe and the West Indies, and during his long-continued
seiYice, has made a dozen trips abroad. After the death of Mr. Lyman W. Coe, in 1893,
Mr. Brooker was naturally selected as the president of the company, and is now filling that
responsible position. Owing to Mr. Coe's increasing years, the burden had fallen upon him
ff."''''''Vr'r^'''''°'''^''' ^""^ ^°^^^^q^^ently there was little change in the management of
affairs. The Torrmgton Register stated the situation very cleariy in the following paragraph :
which''S^e\t^r.Tcoe'wou,Tr " '''^'^'''''"^^^ ^ t^<= P-t of the people of this borough as to the effect
prospeHt^ of hat compa'v's such a" -"^ I ^^-g^--^^ of the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company. As the
glad'to be able to savth t'the drectLrartS t '" ''^ "^"^^^ °' ^^^^ ^°^^"^^"^^^ ^^^ '^' ^ ^-
ability of Mr. Charles F Brooker for t wen '^ T"''"^ ''''' afternoon, recognizing the long service and
mously elected him to ' the oos^'tio, '7"'^"^' ""'''' "^^ '"'' twenty-four as secretary of the company, unani-
continLuceofthrsamemanremeTt 'T '° '"'"'''' ''" '"'^ ^""^^"^^'^ ^- ^- C^" ^bis ensures a
same management m so far as it can be assured without the mature judgment and wise

JVa5:ick.selt3Tui:li5ji;iu5 Go.Zwstt. Melss.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 279
counsel of the founder of the company. With Mr. Brooker as president, Mr. E. T. Coe as secretary and
treasurer, and Mr. Janies Doughty as assistant secretary and salesman, we are confident that the same energy,
prudence and foresight which have characterized the management of the company in the past, will continue to
be exercised in the future, and it will go on in its present prosperity, a highly creditable institution to
Torrington and profitable to its share-holders. We congratulate the new president on his accession to this
exceedingly honorable position, and extend our best wishes for the success of the great industry of which he
is now the head.
Mr. Brooker is one of the most active business men in Western Connecticut. In addition
to being the head of a large corporation, he holds a directorship in the Thomaston Bank, the
Turner & Seymour Manufacturing Company, the New Process Nail Company, and other
lesser corporations, and is vice-president of the Torrington Savings Bank. With Messrs.
O. R. P^yler and J. W. Brooks, he organized the Torrington Water Company, and built the
water works which are among the most substantial in the country. Besides being of incal
culable benefit to the town, the company has proved a great financial success.
Recognized as one of the prominent Republicans of Connecticut, Mr. Brooker is a member
of the central committee from his section, and his influence is felt in moulding the policy
of the party. In 1875, he had the honor of representing his native town in the state legislature,
his colleagues from Litchfield County including Henry Gay, the Winsted banker, and State's
Attorney James Huntington of Woodbury. At this session he served on the committee on
insurance. He was a member of the Senate from the Eighteenth District in 1893. The
good government of the town of Torrington has always claimed a share of Mr. Brooker's
attention, and among other services rendered he has been a member of the Board of Burgesses
for a number of years.
As he was splendidly equipped by training and extensive travel for the position, Governor
Bulkeley appointed Mr. Brooker one of the alternate commissioners for the World's Fair
from Connecticut. He was a member of the state commission, and assisted in the regular
work performed by such commissions. Mr. Brooker has been a member of the Union League
Club of New York for twenty years, and also of the Engineers' Club of that city. He is
a member of the Geographical Society and of- the New England Society, both of New York.
In religious belief, he is a Congregationalist, being a member of the church of that denom
ination in Torrington, and for a score of years has served as chairman of the society's
committee. At the annual election of 1893, of that great Connecticut corporation, the New York,
New Haven & Hartford RaUroad, Mr. Brooker was chosen a member of the board of directors.
He had previously been a director in the Naugatuck Road, which was leased to the company
named, and was familiar with the affairs of the road. Speaking of the new names added to
the board, the Hartford Couj^ant said :
Charles F. Brooker of Torrington, is president of the Coe Brass Company of that place, one of the great
concerns of the Naugatuck Valley, and has been for several years a director of the Naugatuck Railroad. He
was a member of the last state Senate. Mr. Brooker has a very large personal acquaintance, and is everywhere
respected. He is one of the ablest of the younger business men of the state, and combines tact and executive
ability with a personal character of the choicest sort. He is an excellent representative Connecticut citizen.

28o REPRESENTATIVE MEN

3ILL, HENRY, of Norwich, book publisher, state senator, bank president, and
founder of the Bill Library in Ledyard, and of the Henry Bill Publishing
Company, was born in that part of the town of Groton, now Ledyard, on
the i8th of May, 1824. He was the son of Gurdon and Lucy (Yerrington) Bill.
His early life was spent upon the farm, but having a desire to see more
of the world, he went to New London, where, after a brief experience as apprentice in the
office of the New London Gazette when he was in his sixteenth year, Mr. Bill returned to
his native town and the following winter secured a position as teacher in the Broad Brook
district in Preston. That he might be better qualified for the responsible duties of teacher,
he entered the academy at Plainfield, then one of the most celebrated schools in the country.
Until he reached the age of twenty, his winters were occupied in teaching in the schools of
Plainfield and Groton, and his summers in helping his father on the paternal farm, inter
spersing these occupations with a limited period of trade in New London. The force and
energy which were ever so characteristic of Mr. Bill now made themselves apparent. At
twenty his year of minority was purchased of his father, and soon after he engaged in a
business which was to occupy the remainder of his active life, and in the prosecution of
which all the highest objects of his ambition were achieved. We went to the West, where
he engaged in selling books for several years, and as the months went by he gained a prac
tical insight into the business of publishing books which he could have secured in no other
way. In the fall of 1847, having decided to enter the field as publisher on his own account,
he returned to his native county and located in the city of Norwich. In taking this step
he was much encouraged by the elder Harper Brothers of New York. They instinctively
recognized the material for success which he possessed, and gave him unquestioned credit,
and during the rest of their lives remained his warmest friends.
Here for nearly two score years Mr. BiU pursued his avocation as a book publisher with
ceaseless energy and with uniform success. A catalogue of the works which he published
and distributed by hundreds of thousands all over the United States by agents would include
such standard volumes as "Stephen's Travels in Yucatan," " Maunder's History of the
World," "Murray's Encyclopaedia of all Nations," " Kitto's Bible Histories," Abbott's
History of the CivU War," "The Life of Christ," and "Young People's History of the
the Bible," etc., etc.
Such a life of hard, persistent work deserved and was rewarded by an ample fortune.
But the labor of securing this desirable result had made sad inroads on his health, and a
change was made necessary in the management of the widely extended interests. Mr. BiU
then organized his extensive business into the joint stock corporation, which stiU fiourishes-
under the title of the Henry Bill Publishing Company. At this time to a large extent he
retired from the activities of mercantile life.
Following the traditions of the family, in eariy life Mr. Bill's political affiliations were
with the Democratic party. It was as a Democrat that he represented the Norwich district
in the Senate of 1853, and his popularity was so great that in the election he received a
liberal share of the votes of his opponents. He was the youngest member of the Senate
at that session. When the contest came in 1856, and the party was rent asunder, he cast
his lot with the anti-slavery section, and has since been an active and uncompromising-
member of the Republican party. During the Civil War his services and time were freely
given to the Union cause. He was the devoted friend of Governor Buckingham, who was
at the helm of state during those trying scenes, and the governor relied greatiy upon his
advice and counsel. He was a presidential elector in 1868, on the General Grant ticket^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 281
but with the exceptions named he has held no public office. In his eariy manhood Mr. Bill
became a member of the Congregational Church, and during his residence in Norwich was
a member of the Broadway Society, being a liberal supporter of its work.
The citizens of Norwich will ever be deeply indebted to Mr. BiU for his philanthropic
interest in the extension of their park privileges. The reclaiming of the tract, now known
as Laurel Hill, one of the most thrifty and beautiful suburbs of Norwich, was wholly his
work. He gave outright to the state a public park valued at $8,000, after having first made
the gift possible. To his native town of Ledyard his interest took the form of a fine
library, known as the "Bill Library." This was solely for the benefit of the people of the
town, and together with the gift of a handsome parsonage, cost not less than $12,000. He
has also taken a deep interest in the welfare and education of many colored young men in
the Southern states since the war. His benefactions along this line have resulted most
favorably in numerous instances. For nearly thirty years he was vice-president of the
Chelsea Savings Bank, for two years served as president, resigning the office only on account
of declining health.
In the future of his adopted city Mr. Bill always had great faith, and, obeying the
Scriptural injunction, he showed his faith by his works. His investments were almost
wholly in real estate, and in its care and management he found ample occupation after his
retirement from the whirl of business life. In this respect, as in all the leading traits of
his character, his example is a valued and safe guide. Few of the sons of New London
County have made a more lasting impress upon its moral and material interests than
Mr. BUI, and when the roll of its sons who have made an honored name for them
selves shall be called, his name will be found among the very first. He was one of the
best products of the solid Connecticut institutions — self-made, self-reliant, strong to execute
whatever he planned, a worthy citizen, a good friend and a model neighbor, he left a lasting
mark for good upon the community where he passed the active period of his life.
Henry Bill was married Feb. loth, 1847, to Julia O. Chapman, daughter of Simeon and
Ursula Chapman. Of the seven children born to them, two daughters and a son are now
living. He died Aug. 16, 1891, greatly beloved and lamented by all his fellow-citizens. His
remains lie buried in Yantic cemetery in Norwich.

CARPENTER, ELISHA, of Hartford, judge of the Supreme Court of the state
„. of Connecticut, was born in Ashford, Windham County, Jan. 14, 1824. His
^' father was Uriah B. Carpenter, a farmer in moderate circumstances. He was
of British descent, of a numerous family both in England and in this country.
William Carpenter and three sons emigrated to this country in 1642, and
settled in Massachusetts, just east of Rhode Island. A generation or two later some of
their descendants] settled in eastern Connecticut. No one of the name became famous or
particularly wealthy; on the other hand, so far as is now known, no one belonged to the
criminal or vicious classes; but all were respectable and law abiding citizens. His mother's
name was Marcia Scarborough. The Scarborough family, too, was prominent in England,
and numerous in this country. What has been said of the Carpenters is equally true of
them. The two grandfathers of Judge Carpenter, although quite young, were soldiers of the
Revolutionary War. Both died before he was born, but their widows lived about a quarter
of a century after, and were pensioners. Both famUies were somewhat noted for their
longevity.

282 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
The father of Judge Carpenter was a man of small means. His main occupation was
tilling the soil, although he held the most important offices in the gift of the town —
selectman, justice of the peace, judge of probate and representative in the General Assembly.
His main reliance for the support of his family was the farm; and that required unremitting
toil, economy and good management. Nearly everything — food and clothing — came directly
or indirectly from the farm. Flax, the direct product of the soil, supplied clothing for the
family during the summer; wool produced by the flocks kept on the farm, supplied it in
winter. Both were substantially made into cloth, and, to a considerable extent, by the
female members of the household. The feet were protected from the cold by hides produced
on the farm, and converted into leather by the local tanner. Boots and shoes were made
by the male members of the faniih'. Such was life in rural Ne-w England in 1824, and for
some twenty years afterwards. Uriah B. Carpenter died at Eastford in 1872, at the venerable
age of eighty-one years. Elisha, the subject of this sketch, was his fourth son.
Brought up on the farm owned and cultivated by his father, the lad divided his time
about equally between agricultural labor and study. Although at this time his opportunities
of acquiring an education were extremely limited, he made excellent progress and when only
seventeen years of age was sufficiently well advanced in his studies to engage in school
teaching, his first charge being in the town of Willington in the northern part of the state.
Having secured a degree of financial independence through his labors as a teacher — which
were continued at intervals during a period of seven years — he set about preparing himself
for college, entering the Ellington Institute at Ellington, Tolland County, the principal of
which when he began the course was the Rev. Richard S. Rust, who was succeeded later
on by the Rev. Mr. Buckham, and both of whom were widely known as skilled instructors.
Several circumstances combined to prevent his carrying out his intentions regarding a college
education, and, about the year 1844, he turned his attention to the study of law, being
assured that his educational qualifications were now amply sufficient to justify this step.
After a thorough legal training in the office of the late Jonathan A. Welch, Esq., of
Brooklyn, Conn., he was, in December, 1846, admitted to the bar, and the beginning of the
ensuing year found him engaged in active practice in his native place. Here he remained
until March, 1851, when he removed to Danielsonville, Conn., succeeding to the practice of
the late Hon. Thonias Backus, a lawyer of considerable note, who then retired from business.
The ability displayed by the young lawyer drew upon him the attention of persons
high in authority, and, in 185 1, he was appointed state's attorney for Windham county
and served as such one year. In 1854, he was again appointed to the office named and
served untU 1861. In 1857 and 1858, he sat in the state Senate as the representative of
the fourteenth senatorial district of Connecticut, and during the session of the latter year
was chairman of the judiciary committee and president pro tem. of the Senate. The opening
of the Civil War found him a member of the state House of Representatives, and as chairman
of the military committee of this branch of the legislature, he rendered valuable service to
the Union cause, of which he continued a staunch and conspicuous supporter until the close
of the Rebellion. At the opening of the session there was no law in the state by which
the executive could turn over to the general government any portion of the military power
of the state. Governor Buckingham, however, who shirked no responsibility, had already
placed several regiments at the disposal of the government, which were then in the field.
The military committee, realizing the importance of prompt action, prepared a biU legalizing
the previous action of the governor and providing for the future, which biU became a law
during the first week of the session, and continued the groundwork of legislation on that
subject during the war.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 283
By that legislature he was elected a judge of the Superior Court — not as a Republican,
for there were no party nominations — to succeed Judge Butler, who was promoted to the
Supreme Court bench. His term of office commenced July 4, 1861. In 1865, he was elected
to fill the vacancy upon the bench of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, caused
by the retirement of Judge Dutton — formerly governor of the state, — who had reached
the constitional limit as to age. Judge Carpenter took his seat upon the supreme bench in
February, 1866, and, although still a comparatively }-oung man, brought to the exercise of
his high judicial functions rare attainments, both as a law}'er and jurist, and many scholarly
accomplishments. Judge Carpenter has been reelected for three successive terms of eight years each, and
at the expiration of his constitutional limit, he lacked but one month of twent}'-eight years
of continuous service in the highest court of the state. He held his distinguished office
for a longer time than any other judge since the adoption of the Constitution, and for a period
of twenty-three years, previous to 1889, he was the youngest man on the bench. As a judge
he has won general esteem without attempting to influence it by resorting to merely popular
methods ; and his decisions and rulings, universally regarded as conspicuously just and able,
stamp him as a man of high intellect and rare judgment and discrimination, and have earned
for him a distinguished place among American jurists. The cause of popular education has
always found a firm and progressive supporter in Judge Carpenter, who was an active and
efficient member of the State Board of Education from its organization in 1865, down to the
close of 1883. For some years also he has served on the State Board of Pardons. In private
life Judge Carpenter is widely loved and respected. An honorable and high-minded gentleman,
his example and infiuence as a citizen is a constant power for good, not onl}- in the community
with which he is most closely identified, but also throughout the state.
Speaking of the enforced retirement, the Hartford Post said:
Judge Elisha Carpenter retires, on Sunday, January 14, from his place on the Supreme Court bench, on
account of the legal limitation .of age — for on that day he will be 70. He is as vigorous mentally as ever, and
does not propose to rust out iu "innocuous desuetude," but will return to the practice of the law. It will be
difficult for his friends to realize that Judge Carpenter, who has been for a generation on the bench of the
Superior and the Supreme Courts, is going back to the practice of his profession. He has formed a partner
ship with a much younger but very promising lawyer from his native couiitj' (Windham), Mr. Frank B. Williams;
and their law office will be in Hills's Block, 333 Main street. It is a coincidence that Judge Carpenter's law
partner, Mr. Williams, is the grandson of Judge Backus of KiUingly, in whose office Judge Carpenter read the
law, and to which he succeeded when Judge Backus in 1850 retired.
Judge Carpenter took his place in the Superior Court on the 4th of July, 1861 — the memorable opening
year of the war. He held that place not quite five years, and on the nth of February, 1866, was promoted to
the Supreme Court, a position he has held with credit for nearlj' twenty-eight years. His work in the highest
court has been marked by conscientiousness and ability. His decisions have been, as a rule, models of clearness
and good sense. Perhaps he has been best noted as an authority in will cases ; but he has shown a wide range
of knowledge of other fields and subjects, and a judicial mind. Always aiming to be a man of the people, his
decisions have been made in a way that "the common people" could understand. He ought to have a good
deal of useful and successful work yet in his profession ; and his numerous friends will heartily wish him all
success in it.
He has been twice married. His first wife, Harriet Grosvenor Brown, a daughter of
Shubael Brown of Brooklyn, Conn., was united to him in marriage in 1848. This lady died
m 1874, leaving one son, De Forest Lockwood, who died in 1879, and three daughters, Alice
L., Harriet B., and Marcia S., still living. In 1876, Judge Carpenter married his present
"wife, whose maiden name was Sophia Tyler Cowen. This esteemed lady, whose native
place is Saratoga, is a lineal descendant, through her mother, Sarah S. Tyler, of Rev. Thomas
Hooker, the founder of Connecticut, and also of Jonathan Edwards, the distinguished divine,
and is a daughter of the late Sydney J. Cowen of Saratoga, N. Y., and a grand-daughter
of Hon. Esek Cowen, formerly a judge of the supreme court of New York. Two children,
Sidney Cowen and Helen Edwards, both now living, are the issue of this second marriage.

;84 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

^01

^HOMPSON, CURTIS, of Bridgeport, counseUor at law, was born Oct. 30, 1835.

'&^ John Thompson, the original emigrant of the name, came to New England
'^wL on a visit of inspection, tradition says, in the good ship, "Elizabeth and Ann,"
in 1635, and, being satisfied with its appearance, returned home to sell his
property, and come back for life. While in England he was married, and on
his second trip to this country, he settled in Stratford some time before 1646. John Thompson
was a man of considerable property, and died leaving a good estate. His son, Ambrose,
married a grand-daughter of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut, and was for nine years
a deputy at the general court, and sat, in 1692, on the jury which was the last to condemn
to death a woman for witchcraft in Connecticut. Deacon John, son of Ambrose, was a man
of importance in the town and county. He was town clerk for many years, for seven years
a deputy to the general court, during which time he was frequently appointed to settle
disputes concerning church sites in Fairfield County, and for twenty-two years a justice of
the peace and quorum in the county court. His son, Lieut. John Thompson, married for
his second wife, Mehitabel, daughter of the Rev. John Webb of Fairfield, one of the ten
Congregational clergymen who founded Yale College, and their fourth son was Captain
David, the father of David, Jr., who was in the West India trade, and the grandfather of
George, the father of the subject of this sketch. George Thompson was a manufacturer
and merchant in Stratford, and married Lucy Ann, daughter of Freeman Curtis, a direct
descendant of William Curtis, who landed at Scituate, Mass., in 1632. His widow, Elizabeth,
and two sons, William and John, came to Stratford in 1639, and they and their descendants
were prominent in the affairs of the state. Through intermediate ancestors, Mr. Thompson
is connected with the Wells, Peck, Booth, Judson, Lewis and other old families. On his
maternal side he is a descendant of the Rev. Adam Biakeman, the pioneer minister of
Stratford. "Curtis Thompson early in life evinced a love for study, and acquired a good education
in the public and private schools. There was at Stratford a library of four hundred volumes
of well selected books. To these he had access in his youth, and the opportunity was most
diligently improved. He was prepared for, but did not enter Yale College. His excellent
parents, blessed with a family of ten children, did not feel able to send him to coUege.
Baffied in this strong desire, he worked for a while at a trade, and taught school, but he still
pursued his studies with private instructors and at the Stratford Academy. He became an
active participant in the Debating Society of Stratford and the Philomathean Society of
Bridgeport, which experience has been of great value to him.
Finally turning his attention to the law, he studied with George W. Warner, Esq., and
D. F. Hollister, Esq., of Bridgeport, and at Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar
of Middlesex County, Mass., Dec. 14, 1863, to the Fairfield County (Conn.) bar April 28,
1864, and to the United States courts Nov. 21, 1870. In the earlier portion of his professional
career, Mr. Thompson had an extensive criminal practice, and in this field he gained an
enviable reputation for himself. Perhaps the most important case was that of Mrs. Lorena
Alexander in 1878. She and one Bassett were charged with the murder of Stuttering Jack,
who.se body they tried to sell to a Yale professor for dissection. The case was so atrocious
in its details, that it seemed hopeless from the start, but Mr. Thompson, with his associate,
Albert M. Tallmadge, Esq., handled it with skUl and abUity. It attracted wide attention
at the time. Speaking of his share of the work, the New York Sun said :
Mr. Thompson is a slow, careful and unimpassioned speaker. He reasoned through the case from
beginning to end, forgetting nothing and making his meaning clear at every point. He apparently felt the
jury was not with him. Next, Mr. Thompson adverted to the letters in which he had begged for an interview.

l'..ld.r..;dchu.3aits PiitilLfiiijiR Co. ii.ve.re-LMvtae

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 285
Thus far the speaker had avoided all effort at elocution, but in reading three of the prisoner's letters — one to
City Attorney Holt, one to State's Attorney Olmstead, and one to her mother, his voice was carefully modu
lated and adapted to the sentiments expressed. The reading of these letters was a fine stroke for the defence.
Nearly every woman in the court room shed tears and some sobbed outright. The jury. were visibly affected,
and even Judge Beardsley was apparently not unmoved. j
The jury were divided, but at last agreed on murder in the second degree. While his
professional work has been general — Mr. Thompson has devoted much time to probate,
banking and corporation law. As a member of the Congregational church, he has been
employed as counsel in some noted ecclesiastical contests. He was one of the counsel in
support of N. S. Wordin's will, the most famous case of the kind in Fairfield County. For
a score of years he was the legal counsellor of P. T. Barnum — and drew numerous wills
for him. With all the noble gifts of the great showman to charitable and public objects,
Mr. Thompson was in hearty sympathy ; and when ' ' The Barnum Institute for Science and
History" was dedicated after Mr. Barnum's death, he was unanimously chosen to make the
opening address, presenting the building to the learned societies. He drew up the provisions
of Mrs. Catherine A. Pettengill's will, in which nearly half a million was given by this noble
woman to the church, and city, and charity, and he was instrumental thereby in securing
$100,000 for the Bridgeport Public Library, whereby it was placed on a solid footing.
Mr. Thompson's connection with the bank brought him largely into real estate transac
tions, and in this branch of his profession he has grown to be an expert. Mr. Thompson
stands in the front rank among the members of his profession, and easily holds his position
by his long experience, his comprehensive grasp of the technicalities of a case, and his
strong and forcible manner of presenting his side of the question at issue. But he aims to
make his office "a court of conciliation," and to aid his clients in avoiding trouble "and
settling controversies before they grow into law suits."
His official career has been an extended and honorable one. In 1864, Dr. J. T.
Dennison having been appointed judge of probate for the Fairfield district, he was made
clerk of that court, and during the next four years did most of the probate business of the
district. It was a good school for him, and the experience gained has been useful to him
in many ways. The following year Mr. Thompson represented Stratford in the state
legislature, and was twice reelected. In his first term the legislature was strongly Republi
can in tone, but with 1866 came the re-construction party and the condition of things was
much different. This year he assisted in securing the election of Hon. O. S. Ferry as
United States senator. He was elected for the third time in 1867, and at each election had
the satisfaction of seeing his majority increased. In 1865, he served as a member of the
judiciary committee; in 1866, as chairman of the same committee, and the last term as
chairman of the committee on corporations, which happened that year to be one of the
most important of the session; he was, also, a member of the committee on contested
elections and of other committees.
The high value his fellow-citizens place upon his services is evidenced by the number of
offices to which he has been elected. In 1867, he was town clerk of Stratford. In 1868, 1869
and again in 1872, Mr. Thompson was deputy judge of the city court of Bridgeport. For
three years, commencing in 1874, he served as councilman and alderman of the city, and as
a member of the committee to revise the charter and ordinances. In 1883, he was attorney
for the town of Bridgeport, and for the years 1879, 1882, 1886 and 1887, he was city attorney.
Seeing the need of obviating the anomalous condition of things existing, in 1888, he headed
a movement, which was successful, to consolidate the town and city governments. With able
assistants and hard work the amendment was carried through the legislature. Now no one
would think of returning to the former state of affairs. The service he rendered to the city
37

286 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
at this time can hardly be over- valued. He is a trustee of the Fairfield County Law Library
Association, a meinber of the Fairfield County Historical Society, the Bridgeport Scientific
Society, the Seaside Club, and other institutions. In politics he has been always a warm
supporter of the best principles advocated by the Republican party.
For many years :\Ir. Thompson was a member of the board of directors of the old
Bridgeport Library. At that time it was not a public institution, and only by much self-
sacrificing labor was it kept open. The handsome gift (mentioned previously) which he
had the pleasure of securing has since placed the library on a firm financial basis. The
management of moneyed institutions and corporations has claimed a share of his attention for
the last twenty years. In 1872, he was counsel, and in 1875, was chosen corporator and
trustee of the Bridgeport Savings Bank, and has held these positions continuously to the
present time.
As a speaker and author, outside of his profession, Mr. Thompson has gained an honor
able name for himself. In recognition of his ability, Yale College conferred the degree of
Master of Arts upon him in 187 1. None who were present will ever forget his patriotic
defence of Washington and Grant against the aspersions of his own minister made at a
public service : it showed the instincts of his heart, and was greatly to his credit. He has
delivered addresses on numerous occasions, but perhaps that at the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of the founding of Stratford was among the most notable. The closing para
graph is an example of his pleasing yet forcible style :
Old Stratford as au agricultural and old-fashioned commercial place, held its own, but when the great
West compelled Connecticut to turn to manufacturing and invention, Stratford fell behind. Mrs. Kirk truly
says: "The village has never been stirred by those uneasy activities which overturn other New England towns,"
or if such an impulse has been felt, "Stratford has cast off its unruly suburbs with their enterprises, industries
aud ambitions." Stratford has retained in her life and manners most of the old time customs ; a marked equality and high
average of moral and intellectual manhood ; homes of comfort and peace, of plain living and deep thinking,
in whicli few are very rich or very poor ; and a. people interested in public affairs. The people here prac
ticed civil service reform before it became the dogma of parties. From 1650 to 1835, there were only ten town
clerks — leading citizens of the town — Joseph Hawley, Capt. John Minor, Lieut. Joseph Curtis, Deacon John
Thompson, Robert Fairchild, Robert Walker, Aaron Benjamin, Elijah Ufford, Silas Burton and David Brooks.
For 52.J. years between 1803 and 1857, David Brooks was postmaster. But I must close, omitting much I should
like to speak of. What is the real significance of this day's work? In calling to remembrance the doings of
our fathers, we honor them and ourselves. They found this place a wilderness, filled with savage beasts and
men. They subdued and converted it into a paradise. But it was not for that they came hither. History
teaches us that when liberty aud law were triumphant in England, Englishmen ceased to emigrate ; and that
for 150 years after 1640, there were but few accessions to New England. Our fathers came and did their work
here for liberty and law.
Read Kennan's story of Russia's treatment of her freedom loving sons in Siberia, and learn what a hate
ful thing despotism is. The Stuarts were as bad as the Czars. Liberty and law have been preserved to us.
Shall we preserve them intact? The insidious forces of despotism are constantly at work under new forms;
but we can and must resist them. The maxim, "A people without morals may acquire liberty, but without
morals they cannot preserve it," I believe is true; and, if so, a serious duty devolves upon us and our suc
cessors. Aided by the. precepts and examples of our truly noble ancestry, we ought not to fail ; but of late
certain forces have been slowly working a change in the habits and morals of our people. We must not be
deluded. Liberty without wisdom and virtue may be the greatest of evils. Human nature is alike everywhere.
It is a moral influence, which, with the blessing of God, has here formed a state of society so eminently
desirable. The same influence which has formed it is indispensable to its preservation.
Nov. 21, 1867, Mr. Thompson was married to Marie Louise, daughter of James and
Katherine (Barry) Willcox ; her parents being of New York famUies. Mr. WUlcox was,
at that time, president of the WUlcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine Company, and had a
country residence at Stamford. Five children were the result of this union, of whom there
are Uving only James Willcox Thompson, a graduate of Yale College, '90, and of the
University of Tennessee, '92, now a lawyer, and in the state secretary's office, and
Katherine Barry Thompson, a graduate of B. H. S., '92.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 287
INOR, WILLIAM THOMAS, of Stamford, ex-governor of Connecticut, was born
in that town, Oct. 3, 1815, and died there Oct. 13, 1889.
iy|w./u«-^ . . The earliest historic ancestor of the Minors in England, says the " Biograph-
*^ ^^^ '" ical Encyclopedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island," was a loyal subject of
King Edward IIL, named BuUman, who lived on the Mendippe Hills in Somer
setshire, and who followed the occupation of a miner. About 1350, while the sovereign was
on his way to France, BuUman provided him with an escort, and received grateful recognition
of his services in the change of his surname to Miner or Minor, and in the bestowment of
ail appropriate coat of arms. His first American ancestor was Thomas Minor, who emigrated
from England in the company of John Winthrop. Arriving at Stonington about the year
1646, he settled with his fellow-colonists at Pequot in 1647.
Governor Minor was the second son of Simeon Hinman and Catherine (Lockwood)
Minor of Greenwich. Entering Yale College at fourteen years of age, he graduated from
that institution with the class of 1834, and among his classmates were several bright young
men who afterwards rose to distinction in various walks in life. Much of what the youthful
graduate had learned in school and college he successfully imparted to his pupils as a teacher,
and found in that pursuit an excellent preparation for future professional and political life.
His aptitude for the latter was apparent to his fellow townsmen, who invited him to deliver
the oration on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence before he had attained his
majority. During the five years of his experience as teacher in his native town, he began
the study of law under the guidance of his father, who was one of the principal legal
practitioners in Fairfield County. Admitted to the bar in 1841, he commenced practice in
Stamford, and successfully prosecuted its duties until July, 1864, when he was appointed
consul-general at Havana by President Lincoln.
His political career began April, 1841, with his election by the citizens of Stamford to
represent them in the lower house of the state legislature. So satisfactory did the service
rendered them prove, that he was again returned by his constituents for three consecuti\'e
years; and again in 1846, 1847, 1852 and in 1868, he was sent by them to the state House
of Representatives. Between the two latter years, in 1854, he was chosen to serve in the
Senate of the state, aiid was also appointed by the legislature of that year to the office of
judge of the county court for Fairfield County. Promotion to the highest official position in
the commonwealth speedily followed, for in 1855, he was elected governor of Connecticut,
and was reelected in 1856.
The vast immigration of foreigners to our great republic is not an unmixed good. Evils
are associated with it whose operation the wisest legislation is needed to neutralize. The
social, political and military organizations, composed exclusively of members of foreign birth,
had challenged his attention and were brought to the thoughtful notice of the legislature in
his message of 1855. "Combinations," he remarked, "of our alien population — social,
political, and military — are existing all over the country. So far as the social combinations
do not interfere with or disturb the rights of others, they should remain unmolested. The
political organizations, so far as they are now existing, composed of naturalized citizens,
cannot be disturbed; but I do not believe that military companies, to consist entirely of foreign-
born citizens, should be formed. Everything about such a company reminds its members,
not that they are American citizens, but that they owe allegiance yet to their native land."
In the summer of the same year. Governor Minor ascertained that there were se\-eral military
companies belonging to the state militia that were exclusively composed of naturalized citizens,
and of men who had not been naturalized at all. He therefore issued an order, under which

288 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
such companies were disbanded, and their arms and equipments returned to the state arsenal.
Nor was he less philosophical and far-seeing in his opinions of the common schools of Connecti
cut. In them he saw the factors of true American nationality, and the surest safeguard
against anarchy and bad government. Consequently, he ever felt the deepest interest in
their welfare, and strove, both as voter and legislator, to make them ideally excellent: "Second
to none, equal to the best." His was the honor of being the first governor of Connecticut
to recommend to the legislature that the common schools should be made free to all the
children of the state. "I shall cheerfully cooperate with you," he said, "in making our
common schools free; for such, in my opinion, the true policy of our government requires
that they should be." The result of his labors, and of the efforts of other philanthropic
co-laborers, has been to raise the common schools of Connecticut to a state of efficiency that
is probably not surpassed in any state, and is certainly unapproached by many of them.
Below the so-called practical phUanthropies of ordinary legislation lies a wretched class,
ignored by most of the governments of the world, and hitherto but slightly noticed in
America. It consists of the imbecUe and idiotic. Governor Minor brought these unfortunates-
to the attention of the legislature, spoke of the good that had been accomplished elsewhere,
and recommended that body to ' ' take the necessary steps to ascertain the number of idiotic
in the state, their present condition, the probabilities of improvement, and everything
requisite to enable a future legislature to act wisely and humanely with reference to this
class." In July, 1864, Mr. Minor was appointed consul-general at Havana, in the island of
Cuba, by President Lincoln, and entered upon his duties in December following. The post
was one of great trust and responsibility, and required unusual discretion and firmness on
the part of its incumbent. Havana was the resort of a large number of persons from the
rebellious southern states, who were engaged in blockade-running and in other undertakings
injurious to the commercial and national interests of the United States. Constant care and
watchfulness were needed on the part of the consul-general to thwart their destructive plans.
About the ist of June, 1865, the formidable Confederate ram, "Stonewall Jackson," entered
the harbor. Friends and enemies alike supposed that she would overmatch and possibly
destroy the entire United States fleet at Key West, sweep every national vessel from the
Gulf of Mexico, and raise the blockade of Galveston, New Orleans, and the entire Mississippi
river. Had these expectations been realized, new life would have been given to the rebellion,
and the war for the preservation of the Union been indefinitely protracted. Mr. Minor
therefore resolved to prevent her departure from the port, and through the kind offices of
the Spanish Captain- General Dulce, then in command in Cuba, succeeded in the endeavor.
The "ram" was surrendered to General Dulce, and by him afterward given up to the
United States government. On the day after her surrender to that officer, a powerful
armament, consisting of two monitors and five other vessels of war, commanded by Admiral
Godon, steamed into the harbor, prepared to defend the interests of the United States in the
event of any emergency. That fieet had been dispatched by the government, in consequence
of information forwarded by Consul-General Minor. Fortunately coercive measures had been
rendered unnecessary by previous negotiations and the surrender of the vessel. Mr. Minor
continued at his post untU April, 1867, when he resigned, returned home, and resumed the
practice of his profession. The manifold mischiefs which afterward grew out of the policy
of President Andrew Johnson vindicated Mr. Minor's dissent from the same, and the conse
quent relinquishment of his office.
In the spring of 1868, Mr. Minor was again elected to the legislature, and gave his best
efforts to accomplish a much needed reform. It was generaUy believed that electoral frauds-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 289
were quite common under the system of voting then prevalent. Whether the belief were
justified by facts or not, it is certain that the system then in vogue afforded facilities for
fraud, that any political party might utilize so far as seemed to be desirable. That system
was peculiar to Connecticut: allowing votes to be cast in any town of the state on a
certificate from the town clerk of some other town that A. B. had been admitted an elector
of the state, the presumption being that A. B. was the person presenting the certificate. It
was asserted that in different towns in the state large numbers of such certificates had been
obtained in the names of persons deceased, and of persons removed from the state, and
fraudulent votes cast upon the same.
The legislature was so clearly convinced of the necessity of reform at this point, that it
appointed a joint committee, of which Governor Minor was chairman on the part of the
House, to investigate the matter and report appropriate legislation. The work thus confided
to the committee was performed with thoroughness and zeal, and an entirely new electoral
registry law, which abolished the vicious practices complained of, was drafted and reported
to the legislature. A heated contest occurred over its passage. Those opposed to it claimed
that it was a partisan measure, and intended to operate in favor of one political party.
How this could be was not apparent to an outside observer. It evidently operates with
equity on both parties. If any of its provisions seem to be burdensome, both parties are
equally affected by them. It impartially imposes the same liabilities and obligations upon
all citizens. Its working has effectually checked the old practices, which, if left unchecked,
would have eaten out the very life of popular institutions. It was no small service to the
latter that was rendered by the legislature in the final adoption of the bill.
In 1868, Governor Minor was appointed by the legislature one of the judges of the
superior court of the state, for the term of eight years, and entered upon his duties in August
of the same year. His judicial administration was characterized by his usual ability, dili
gence, fidelity and harmony with the unwritten law of the state. The latter wisely divorces
all judicial functionaries from current politics, so far as active manageinent and advocac}- are
concerned. The judges of Connecticut have always voted as they pleased, but have con
scientiously abstained from attendance on political meetings and participation in partisan
politics. The action of Judge Minor was in harmony with the uniform precedent established
by his predecessors and co;ntemporaries. For reasons satisfactory to himself, he concluded
not to fulfil his entire official term, and, in 1873, tendered to the legislature his resignation,
to take effect on the 15th of November of that year. After that time he was a resident
of Stamford, addicted to congenial pursuits, and wholly abstinent from legal practice.
Somewhat pertinent to Governor Minor's dissent from President Johnson's political
measures is the statement of the fact that in 1864, he was a delegate at large from Con
necticut to the National Republican Convention, held in Baltimore, on the 9th of June,
1864, and was also the chairman of his delegation. He then voted in favor of the renomi
nation of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and of the nomination of Andrew Johnson
for the Vice- Presidency. Connecticut was the first state called upon that gave a united vote
to any candidate for the latter office, and its twelve votes cast unanimously in favor of the
candidate from Tennessee contributed largely to his nomination, if, indeed, it did not assure it.
Governor Minor was married in April, 1849, to Mary C, second daughter of John W.
Leeds of Stamford, a gentleman who was president of the Stamford Bank from the date of
its organization in 1834, to that of his death in March, 1878. Five children, of whom two
are now living, were the fruit of this union. One of the survivors is a daughter, named
Emily C., and the other is a son, Charles W., who is a practicing lawyer in the city of
New York.

290 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
lENDEE, LUCIUS JUSTIN, of Hartford, for twenty-two years president of
the .^tna Fire Insurance Company, was born in Andover, Conn., July 13, 1818.
He died Sept. 4, 1888, having just passed the scriptural limit of three score
years and ten.
"The kindly face which looks upon the reader from the opposite page,"
said the Insurance fournal, "has looked its last upon this world ; but it has left an impression
upon the business and social life of the community which will outlast the work of the engraver.
That was a false philosophy of human life which taught that 'The evil men do lives after
them, the good is oft interred with their bones.' The good and evil both live, the one to
spread untold blessings, the other to scatter measureless evils. As the pebble dropped in the
pool sends ever widening circles to the farthest shore, as the imprisoned fern leaves its clear
cut impress on the enduring rock, so a human life goes out of the ranks of busy men, but it
leaves behind it an influence which endures. There is no doubt about the kind of influence
Mr. Hendee's life has left with us. Without touching upon his family and social life,
which were singularly beautiful, there is enough in his business career to bear the witness of
'Well done, good and faithful servant.' "
Lucius J. Hendee was the son of Eliphalet and Amelia (Babcock) Hendee. He was
brought up with the surroundings of a country vUlage and a country store in Connecticut.
It has been a much disputed question whether this is the best school in which to train men
for subsequent careers of usefulness, but when it brings out such men as Mr. Hendee, one is
inclined to vote in favor of the country store. The moral and mental fibre of the subject
doubtless has much to do with the outcome of such training, but it is a school in which boys
learn to think, and that, in the hurrying life of our larger cities, is not a general accom
plishment. Perhaps it is well that the future insurance president passed through this process
of development. His first experience as an underwriter was derived amid the most ordinary circumstances.
Abner Hendee, his uncle, carried on a miscellaneous store of the times, and in addition was
the local agent of the ^tna Fire Insurance Company in Hebron. From 1836 to 1852, Lucius
was his uncle's general assistant, and by daily contact with him gained a knowledge of the
rudiments of the business, and imbibed the solid principles which guided him on to paths of
usefulness and eminence. In the last named year he succeeded to his uncle's business,
including the insurance agency. He watched over the risks he assumed for the company
with the greatest care for several years, meeting with the success which always follows earnest
endeavor, but without indulging in any anticipations of further exploits in the field of under
writing. The truth of the familiar text : ' ' He that is faithful over a few things shall be
made ruler over many things," was illustrated in his case. His careful methods and sterling
integrity, his intelligence and .skill in handling cases, had attracted attention at the home
office, and secured him numerous friends. When the position of secretary became vacant in
1861, he was chosen to fill the office. It was a wonderful and extraordinary promotion from
a country agency to the secretaryship of the best known of American insurance companies,
but the coinpliment was well deserved. Executive ability and judgment of the highest order
were required of him during the whole time he occupied the office, as it covered the trying
}'ears of the most stupendous war that has e\-er disturbed the affairs of a civilized nation. The
records of the company show what he accomplished. The ^Etna was a large company even
then, having agencies in nearly every city and town in the Union, and its movements were
watched with the keenest interest. Competitors who followed where it led did well, for the
new secretary was a masterful man, in every way equal to the needs of the hour. His growth,
as well as that of the company, was remarkable during these years.

^^WPr-estmAC'V^'

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 291
On the death of Mr. Thomas A. Alexander in 1866, Mr. Hendee was very naturally
elevated to the presidency. To have chosen any one else would simply have been mad
ness on the part of the directors. This office he held by successive elections until his death
in 1888. Besides a thorough knowledge of accounts and of financial matters generall}-, Islx.
Hendee brought to the service of the ^tna a practical acquaintance with what was then,
and is stUl, a prominent feature of its business, country risks. What was of still greater
value in the manageinent of an insurance compan}-, he brought a clear head and a wonderful
faculty .for keeping his own counsel. The ^tna had assets of about two and a quarter
niillions when he became its secretar}', and at his death it had nearly ten millions. Its
income in the first named year was $1,850,000, and in the last year of his life it was
$3,043,000. Under his efficient management the ^tna became the largest fire insurance
company in the United States. Its name was ever the synonym of impregnable strength,
unvaried fair dealing and wise progressiveness.
Every officer of a successful insurance company works his business life into that success.
The condition of the Mtna at the time of his decease is a monument to Mr. Hendee's life
work. There was never a suspicion that in the dealings of the ..Etna under his adminis
tration, either with the policy holders or with his associates in business, that there was aught
but the fullest measure of justice. He was a man, who, in the words of the psalmist,
" sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not." By his genial disposition and many acts
of kindly consideration he endeared himself to all his associates, whether in the executive
department or in the large force of employees in the office. He was regarded by all as a
friend. Energetic, and seemingly concentrated as Mr. Hendee's efforts were to make the ^tiia
a magnificent success, let it not be supposed that it engrossed all his attention. Soon after
succeeding to the business of his uncle in 1852, his active mind grappled with other
problems. The condition of the country was then in a state of effervescence. Whigs,
Democrats, Republicans, Abolitionists and Free Soilers were striving for the ascendancy in
the councils of the nation. A lover of liberty and equality, Mr. Hendee espoused the
principles of the Republican party. In 1856, he was elected to the state Senate and was
reelected the foUowing year. He was elected state treasurer on the ticket with Governor
Buckingham in 1859, and with him was reelected the two following years. During these
five years of service at the State House he had not lost his hold upon his insurance
interests. While he probably had no thought of ever occupying the presidential chair of
the JJtna, somebody else was thinking for him, and in 1861, after completing his third
term as state treasurer, he was chosen secretary of the ^tna.
The positions of trust which he might have held in Hartford were simply limited by
his time and strength. Mr. Hendee was interested in the subject of insurance in all
legitimate forms. He was a charter member and until his death a director in the Hartford
Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company, and by his wise counsel assisted materially
in the success attained by that flourishing institution. He was for several years vice-
president of the Charter Oak Bank, and also a director in the Security Company. jNIr.
Hendee's religious affiliations were with the Protestant Episcopal church, and his religious
home was in St. John's, Hartford. Almost from the time of his coining to the city he
held the office of vestryman, and for many years he served as treasurer of the church.
Into his work for his Master he put the same energy and abilit}^ he used in building up
the .iEtna; and the parish was greatly benefitted by his labors.

292 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Many kind and complimentary allusions were made to Mr. Hendee by the various
journals of the day at the time of his decease. His memory can be honored in no better
way than by showing the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. The Hart
ford Courant said editorially:
The death of Mr. L. J. Hendee, president of the ^tna Insurance Company, takes from social and business
circles in Hartford a familiar figure. Mr. Hendee has been for nearly a quarter of a century identified with
one of the largest financial institutions of Hartford, and his integrity and foresight have done much to main
tain and add to the ^Etna's splendid reputation for soundness and fair dealing. Mr. Hendee leaves behind
him a good name without spot of any sort. He was universally respected and esteemed — a quiet, useful,
wise and honorable man. In all respects he was a good citizen and a good man.
A paragraph from an article in the Hartford Times says :
Mr. Hendee's record as a business man is one of unimpeachable integrity. He was scrupulously honest
even in the merest trifles. In character he was sincere and upright, a man of the finest moral sensibilities
and of almost womanly gentleness of disposition. Though peculiarly modest, his was a character of noble
manliness. He was one of the best of story tellers. His manner was deliberate, but every word counted,
aud his yarns had always a point of application, as well as of contagious jollity.
At the opening of this sketch a suggestive quotation was made from the Insurance fournal.
All the papers devoted to this subject contained feeling allusions to the vacancy created
by the death of Mr. Hendee in the fire underwriting world. Speaking of his appearance
the Standard said :
Mr. Hendee was a man of commanding appearance, and his massive head, clear cut features, and expres
sive eyes, are well portrayed in the likeness that heads these lines. There was something in his phy.sical and
mental make-up that suggested the broad guage statesman of a. former generation. If he appeared somewhat
stern to strangers, it was a sternness which applied only to his high sense of rectitude, justice and honor,
which were coupled with a peculiarly kind and gentle disposition, and an unvarying considerateness, to which
all his associates of the ^tna Insurance Company will bear sorrowing testimony, not less than his many
friends and neighbors.
The closing scene of his life is beautifully told by the Argus :
At home, not many miles from his birthplace, amid the scenes of his successful labors, within sight of
their beauties and within sound of their music, surrounded by friends who had known him long and loved him
well, he died as he would have wished to die — calmly and peacefully — ripe in years and riper still in manly
aud generous deeds. Toward the last, the fine old face, always reflecting peace and good--will to his fellows,
shone with a new and more perfect light, which came direct from Him whose servant he was, and in whose
vineyard he had long been a faithful worker.
Excellent and appropriate resolutions were passed by the various companies and the
church to which Mr. Hendee belonged. Lack of space prevents the insertion of even the
tribute of his associates of the ^tna Company, though it was the best of them all.
Nov. 23, 1852, Mr. Hendee was married to Adeline E. Whitmore of Middle Haddam.
His worthy wife passed on to her reward in 1884. Of their five children all are yet living.
Abner, who is successor to Crittenden & Co., New Haven ; Richard, now in business in
Birmingham; Lucius, and two daughters, Hetta E., and Sarah J., who live at the old
home in Hartford. '

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 293
ERRY, ORRIS SANFORD, of Norwalk, United States senator from Connecticut,
was born in Bethel, Conn., Aug. 15, 1823. His father, Starr Ferry, was a
prominent hat manufacturer in his native town. His mother's maiden name was
Esther Blackman. His superior mental endowments became apparent in early
youth. He was apprenticed to his father's trade, and subsequently cherished
just pride in the proficiency he had attained in that calling. As chairman of the Senate com
mittee on patents, in the last session of Congress he attended, he proved himself to be in
advance of advocates and experts in thorough knowledge of that branch of manufacture. Love
of books and passion for study took possession of him in early life, and he left his trade to
enter upon a course of preparation for coUege. At the age of fourteen he was sent by his
father to a preparatory school at Wilton, Conn., in 1837, and completed his preliminary studies
at New Haven in 1840, under the instruction of Mr. Harvey Olmstead. Judges of character
saw in him a youth of rare talents and promise. While others acquired knowledge laboriously,
to him it was merely pastime. In 1840, at the age of seventeen, he entered Yale College, and
while there ' ' his fine powers of mind soon found appreciative recognition, particularly in the
department of literature and debate. He early became one of the editors of the Yale Literary
Magazine ; was also a successful competitor for the Townsend literary prize ; and uniformly
stood among the very highest in anything that required elaborate or extemporaneous address.
His prestige thus gained in letters, together with his hearty social qualities and his fine
personal appearance, secured for him a marked popularity, as well in circles without as within
the college." " He graduated in 1844, .at the age of twenty-one," says an article in the "Biographical
Encyclopedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island, " " and at once commenced the study of law
with Thomas B. Osborne of Fairfield. One year later he entered the office of the late Chief
Justice Thomas B. Butler, in Norwalk. In two years from that time he was admitted to the
bar, and became the partner of his former preceptor. His professional associations were most
fortunate. Judge Butler was remarkable for his legal learning, varied acquirements, love of
justice, and generous social qualities. The bar of Fairfield and the adjoining counties had
many eminent lawyers. There- were the venerable Charles Hawley, Roger Sherman Baldwin,
the IngersoUs, Judges Butler, Seymour, Dutton — all learned in the mysteries of jurisprudence,
the first two becoming chief justices of our high court. Besides these there were a score of
younger men — Minor, Beardsley, Loomis, White, Carter, Beach, Harrison and others near his
own age, of rare ability." Address of H. H. Starkweather on the Life and Character of
O. S. Ferry; corrected and read by James A. Garfield, p. 62. Surrounded by this arrays of
cultured and disciplined talent, it speaks volumes in favor of the young practitioner's industry
and talent, to state that within a few years from his admission to the bar he had placed himself
at the head of his profession.
In 1847, ^^ received the commission of lieutenant-colonel of the Twelfth Division of
Connecticut militia ; in 1847, he was appointed judge of probate for the District of Norwalk ;
in April, 1855, and again in 1856, he was elected to the state Senate ; in the same year he was
appointed state attorney for Fairfield County, and held that position until 1859, when he was
elected representative to Congress from the Fourth District of Connecticut. In Congress he
served on the committee on Revolutionary claims, and on the committee of thirty-three on the
rebellious states. The House then embraced many men of marked character and ability. The
great leaders of the South, schooled in politics and accustomed to rule, were there. The North
also was represented by many men of great ability, but mostly new to the public service. Mr.
Ferry took a conspicuous part in the discussions of the body from the very outset. His opin-
38

294 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
ions and positions were identical with those of our most thoughtful and practiced statesmen.
His analyses of the state of the country were skilful and just ; and his views of the duty
of the national government such as were amply justified by the following march of events.
How much of the marvelous effectiveness then and afterwards revealed in the service of
his country had its origin in personal consecration to the highest duties and noblest ends need
not be here discussed. In the autumn of 1859, he made a public profession of religion, and
united with the First Congregational church of Norwalk. That he had not done so before was
not owing to real indifference or prejudice, but to the strength of his propensities to sense and
sin. The power of these was broken by Divine grace, and he entered into the liberty where
with Christ makes His people free. Thenceforward, as he once remarked to Senator Wadleigh,
he tried to live as though the next moment would usher him to the bar of the Eternal
Judge. In this frame of mind he found nothing inconsistent but everything that was con
gruous with the service of his troubled and imperilled country. He was an eminently sincere
man — sincere in his professions and sincere in all his actions. This sincerity was manifest
in his worship in the sanctuary ; in the Sunday school, where he was a faithful and edifying
instructor ; in the place of social prayer, where his voice was often heard in remarks and
fervent petition ; in occasional religious lectures, wherein he used all his wealth of scriptural
learning, of general and critical knowledge, to unfold and enforce the truths of Christ and
of his revealed religion. Humility was as obvious as sincerity. Mind and heart and life
were wholly given to Christ. The Rev. Dr. Cliilds, a former pastor of Senator Ferry, wrote
of him in the Congregationalist , Dec. 9, 1875 :
It is true that in early life he was skeptical; but the transition from skepticism to faith was real and
thorough. His conversion was as clear as that of Paul. In the latter part of the year 1865, he delivered a course
of lectures, rapidly prepared, on the evidences of Christianity. These, I think, indicated the working of his
own mind in passing from the darkness of unbelief to the Christian faith. The great fact on which he rested
was the resurrection of Christ. He had satisfied himself, as a lawyer, as an investigator of evidence, that, as a
historic fact, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. That settled everything. The Bible was inspired because it
had upon it the seal of the risen Christ. Christianity, with all its facts and doctrines was true, because it was
grounded in Him who was dead and is alive again. This was to him a real and living faith. He grew in it and by it.
The state of the nation at the epoch of his entrance upon congressional duties was such
as to call forth all the powers of his richly and rarely endowed nature. A sagacious counsellor
and a wise statesman, he was also an eloquent advocate and orator. The magnetic and con
vincing power with which he spoke placed him amongst the masters of forensic and popular
address. He was uniformly equal to the emergency. No voice was more potent in rallying
the masses than his. No counter force was more feared by political opponents than that which
he brought to bear. Nowhere did he speak "with the counsel of the statesman and the
authority of the general in war" to greater effect than in the Senate of the United States;
and nowhere was appreciation of his colossal merit more genuine and emphatic. During the
congressional session of 1875, at the end of a fifteen minutes' speech on the Louisiana question,
Senator Schurz remarked to a mutual friend, " Poor Ferry ! Ill and weak as he is, he is head
and shoulders above any other man in the Senate in point of inteUectual force."
Mr. Ferry was preeminently a man of convictions. He decided and acted according
to his conviction of what was clearly and broadly right. Questionable causes, as a la-wyer,
he positively refused to espouse. More than once he said to those who, with much entreaty
and gold, sought to enlist his services: "No, gentlemen, I think you are not in the right,
and I wiU have nothing to do with your case." Such a man could not possibly be in any
other than a resolutely hostile attitude to slavery and secession. On the 24th of February,
1 86 1, he made an earnest speech in Congress, in which he affirmed that the southern leaders
demanded that the Constitution be so amended as to give protection to slave property every-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 295
,where in the United States, while they refuse to pledge that even such an amendment,
with the repeal of the personal liberty bills, should constitute a final and satisfactory adjust
ment. " To buy transient peace, even if possible, at the price of this amendment, is to
enact a dangerous precedent. Any new demand will be enforced by repeated secession.
. A compromise now is but the establishment of sedition as an elementary principle
in our system  There is no course left but for the government to vindicate its
dignity by an exhibition of its strength." The old Puritan spirit rose in him with lion-like
majesty and force, and calmly resolved on vigorous and prompt action. He served in the
Cassius M. Clay guard, which patrolled Washington day and night, in the season of alarm
and peril, before the arrival of troops. In June he was commissioned as colonel ol the Fifth
Connecticut Volunteers. In March, 1862, he crossed the Potomac, at Williamsburgh, with
his regiment, advanced into Virginia, drove the eneiny from Winchester, and occupied the
place. Soon after that he was appointed brigadier- general, and took command of the brigade
under General Shields, whose division was ordered to join McDowell. In the severe and
sanguinary frays that followed, General Ferry bore himself with distinguished gallantry,
earned brilliant reputation by services during the war, and at its close devoted his best
energies to the political and social welfare of the country he would have died to save.
When the war for the preservation of the Union ended, he resumed the practice of his
profession; but in the next year, 1866, was elected to the Senate of the United States, in
which he served one full term, and to which he was reelected in 1872. He entered the
Senate at the beginning of the Fortieth Congress. The problem of reconstruction was to be
solved. By many he was held to be unduly conservative in his tendencies. It is true that
he early favored large amnesty to those who had been in rebellion against the government;
but it is also true that he always maintained with masterly ability not only the right of the
nation, but its duty to secure liberty, enfranchisement, and civil rights to those who had
been slaves. He wrote considerably for the press. Many of his speeches were printed in
the Congressional Globe, but otherwise he left no publications. Bribery and corruption never
attempted to approach him, for sterling integrity elevated him beyond the reach of tempta
tion. "As a senator," said Mr. English of Connecticut, "he had a clear conception not
only of the duties but the responsibilities of the position, and was fearless in the discharge
of those duties." Senator Bayard, of Delaware, affirmed that "his censure of what he
deemed corrupt, dishonest, and unworthy, was unhesitating and unsparing. And he never
permitted the garb of party to shelter a guilty man from his just denunciation. For six
years we served together upon the committee on private land claims, where cases involving
the title or possession of extensive and valuable bodies of land came frequently before us.
His inteUigence, acumen, and fine legal and judicial abUities were in this way made known
to me; and reports of important cases, comprehending questions of law and fact of a com
plicated nature, where lapse of time and fraud had combined to obscure truth and justice,
were made by him, and are on the files of the Senate, in which his vigorous and instinctively
honest mind dissolved all doubts, and arrayed the merits of the case in clear and orderly
precision." Honest, unswerving sense of right was his grand characteristic. It led him into courses
of action opposed to popular convictions, and provoked warm indignation in his constituents
at times. But indignation gave place to admiration when they saw that he wanted and
intended to be and to do right under all circumstances. Considerations of personal friendship
had no weight with him when opposed to ascertained duty. There was no member of the
national Senate for whom he had more profound regard than for Charles Sumner. But he
did not hesitate to oppose that great and cherished friend when personal conviction of right

296 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and duty impelled him so to do. On the 27th of January, 1874, he spoke in fearless and
uncompromising language in opposition to the Civil Rights Bill, and drew from Mr. Sumner
the pathetic and deploring remark: "Mr. Ferry, your speech is far the most damaging blow
my measure has yet received." Genuine moral courage was required to strike that blow, and
that moral courage was one of the crowning exceUencies of his character.
His last speech in the United States Senate was his uncommonly eloquent and brilliant
address in memory of his old colleague, William A. Buckingham. His own end was drawing
near. Leaving Washington, shortly before the close of the Forty-third Congress, he reached
Norwalk in a state of extreme exhaustion. A new method of medical treatment in Brooklyn,
N. Y., was tried, but failed to give needed relief. His disease was softening or decay of the
spinal marrow. Pain was excruciating, agony uncontrollable. Even then a few of Christ's
tender words from the Gospel of St. John would quiet him. On the 20th of November, 1875,
his friends and physicians bore him tenderly back to Connecticut that he might die in his own
home. The following day was one of November gloom that passed away as the evening drew
nigh, and the day closed in all the glory of a gorgeous sunset. That unearthly glory was
symbolic of the splendors that enwrapt the soul of Orris S. Ferry, in his departure to the
Paradise of God. He died on the Lord's day, Nov. 21, 1875, at 2.15 P. M., aged fifty-two
years, three months, and seventeen days.
In his death the country lost one of its purest and ablest statesmen ; the commonwealth
of Connecticut, which proudly reckons many distinguished sons among her jewels, the peer of
the most gifted of them; the legal profession, one of its soundest counsellors and most eloquent
advocates; the communit}- in which he lived, an accomplished Christian gentleman; and his
family such a husband and father as only such a husband could be to a loved and loving wife,
and such a father to an affectionate and devoted daughter.
Senator Ferry was married on the 17th of May, 1847, to Charlotte C, daughter of
Governor Clark BisseU. One daughter was the fruit of their happy and auspicious union.

PERRY, LEWIS, the sixth child and second son of Daniel Gilbert and Harriet
Frances (Pelton) Sperry, was born on East Windsor Hill, in the town of South
Windsor, Jan. 23, 1848'.
His father, a farmer, born at Sperry's Farms, Woodbridge, Conn., was a
lineal descendant of Richard Sperry, so well remembered for his protection to
the regicides in 1661. Other paternal ancestors of the New Haven colony were Matthew
Gilbert Todd, Cooper Heaton or Eaton, Wilmot and Carrington. Harriet Frances Pelton
was daughter to James Pelton and Sophia Gaylord. Sophia Gaylord was a descendant of
Dea. William Gaylord, Matthew Grant, Daniel Clark, Humphrey Prior, John Drake,
Benedictus Alvord, Thomas Moore, John Osborn of Windsor, and from the Edwards famUy
of Hartford, the Lathrop of Norwich, and the Pease of Enfield, Conn. James Pelton was
descended from John Pelton of Boston, 1634, and from Margaret Thompson, a Scotch widow
with nine children who saUed from Ireland in 17 18, in the fleet of five ships commanded by
Captain Temple, bound for Boston.
None of Lewis Sperry's ancestors arrived in New England later than 1730, all became
at once land owners in the varied towns which they chose for their homes, and all were
farmers, whatever other occupation or profession they may have joined with their agricultural
pursuits, and in every war, from the Pequot war to the Civil Rebellion, some ancestor or
near relative fought on the winning side.

-%''-;y.' RKBjsselw'atf

16 9 2,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 297
Mr. Sperry's boyhood was spent on a farm in the Connecticut valley where beauty of
scenery and fertility of soil frees the farmer from many of the hardships and privations which
pertain to that occupation in more remote or barren regions. He attended both public and
private schools in the neighborhood. At the age of thirteen he was sent to New Haven
and was a member of the family and school of the well known teacher, Mr. Sidney A.
Thomas. Later he entered Monson Academy, was graduated in 1869. The succeeding four
years were spent in Amherst. He was popular in college, was an editor of the Amherst
Student, and an active member of the debating societies, but never, at that time or since,
has he joined any secret society. He perhaps gave more time to the study and practice of
debate and oratory, than to the regular studies of the college course. He won several prizes
as a speaker and debater, and the first Hardy at his graduation in 1873.
He immediately entered the law office of Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde in Hartford, Conn.
Judge Loren Waldo was an elderly man of singular mildness and purity of character joined
with marked ability in his profession. Daily intercourse with such a man could but give
noble ideals of life to any youth coming under his influence. Gov. Richard D. Hubbard
was then one of the foremost lawyers in the state, and Mr. Alvan P. Hyde, both as a
lawyer and as a man, was worthy to complete the firm. Here the student could see exem
plified each day the highest requirements in the study of law and its most honorable
application when practised as a profession.
Admitted to the Hartford County bar in 1875, Mr. Sperry the following year joined
with ex-Lieut. -Gov. George G. Sill in renting the chambers at 345 Main street, and between
Mr. Sill and Mr. Sperry began a friendship which time has only deepened. Here might
be noted a strong trait in the character of Lewis Sperry — ^in his home, among his play
mates in the district school, at college, and with those whom he oftenest meets in the
practice of his profession — he has formed deep and abiding friendships which evince no
variableness nor shadow of turning. Since his entrance into public life Mr. Sperry, so far
from forgetting his earlier friends, appears to feel for them even a tenderer regard, as for
those who did not come with political popularity and will not depart with it.
In 1876, Mr. Sperry represented his native town in the legislature and was of the
committee for education.
When the new coroner law went into effect in 1883, he was appointed coroner for
Hartford county, and had the difficult task of applying a law without precedents to guide
him. The most notable case which came under his care while holding this office, was the
explosion of the boilers in the Park Central Hotel. The coroner's finding and his courage
and good judgment in holding the responsible parties guilty in this accident was noted by
the New York and Boston papers, and editorial comment termed his a "model report."
The capacity he showed for the administration of public affairs led to his selection as
a candidate for Congress, and, after his nomination in 1890, his career can be culled from
the public prints.
The Hartford Times (.Democrat), Sept. 30, 1890, said : "Lewis Sperry of South Windsor,
was nominated by the Democratic Congressional convention of the First District, this after
noon, by a vote of 74 to 32. Mr. Sperry is among the most capable lawyers of Hartford
county, a young man of pure character and sound judgment."
Commenting on the nomination, the Hartford Post (Republican), of the same date
remarked: "Mr. Sperry is a honorable gentleman, not much in politics, who is very little
known outside of the immediate vicinity of Hartford and Windsor. He will resemble nothing
so much as a quiet, unemotional gentleman who has taken a ' flyer ' in the political market."
After the election the Amherst Student took pride in saying :

298 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Hon. Lewis Sperry ('73) -will represent the First Connecticut District in the Fifty-second Congress, having
defeated Simonds (Rep.) by 708. Mr. Sperry's popularity is shown from the fact that two years ago Simonds
carried the district by 813, making a gain for Mr. Sperry of 1521. Hartford city, where Mr. Sperry practices
law, was carried by him by 1112, being the largest majority ever given a congressional candidate. Amherst's
new congressman, while in .\mherst, captured many prizes, including the first Hardy.
The Springfield Republican, of Nov. 9, 1890, remarked:
It is seldom that a candidate of either party has been complimented so highly by the votes of his
political opponents in the profession as has Mr. Sperry. He will not be so showy a man as Mr. Simonds, but
he will be a hard worker, which is his natural habit.
For a congressman spending his first winter at the national capital, Mr. Sperry had his
full .share of official social life. His re-nomination was a foregone conclusion, and the Demo
cratic congressional convention simply carried out the wishes of his constituents in making
him a candidate for a second term. His speech in accepting the nomination showed a
thoughtful consideration for the interests of his district. No Democrat had ever been elected
to this district in a presidential year, and it was also a peculiar condition of affairs that
no congressman ever succeeded himself. First a Democrat, then a Republican, and then
another Democrat, and then another Republican, consequently all the precedents of the '
past pointed to a Republican victory. With the chances apparently against him, and the
district almost a tie between ^Ir. Harrison and Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Sperry won by the hand
some majority of 540. Part}- lines were closely drawn in the rest of the district, but his
personal following in Hartford carried the day. As his first term was in the nature of
an official education, he is doing better in the present Congress than in the previous one.
He has been made chairman of the sub-committee on banking and currency, charged with
the investigation of the question of increasing the national bank circulation.
The Baltimore Sun of Aug. 2, 1893, contained the following bit of news: "Representa
tive Lewis Sperry made to-day one of the best speeches for the repeal of the Sherman act which
has been heard in the House since it met in extraordinary session." Mr. R. E. Preston,
the acting director of the Mint, said that two most valuable speeches delivered in Congress
on the silver repeal bill were those of Mr. Sperry of Connecticut and Mr. Catchings of
Mississippi. Mr. Preston has supplied himself with a number of copies of each, and uses
them freely in answering questions received by him from all over the country. Congress
man Helborn of California, a Republican and a free silver man, whose views are diametrically
opposed to those of Mr. Sperry, said : "I regard Mr. Sperry's speech as the ablest pre
sentation of the arguments used on the other side. The statistical information gathered
by the Connecticut congressman is wonderful in its completeness, and I have sent copies
of the speech to every banker, and every other man directly interested in financial matters
in my district, because there is no other manner in which I can supply them with the
information they should have in such complete and concise form."
At an annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce in New Haven, Nov. 21, 1893,
he said: "I fear that the ways and means committee wUl report a bill that I shall refuse
to vote for." This speech was reported throughout the country, and he was looked upon as
the leader of the party opposition to the WUson bUl. This position he maintained and was
one of the seventeen Democrats who voted against the bill. A storm of censure raged through
the newspapers, and he was vehemently called upon to resign. The New York World said
editorially: "No such man has a right at this time to call himself a Democrat." The St.
Louis Republican wrote: "Of all the men who deserted their party to-day only one will be
missed and that is Sperry of Connecticut."
The Neiv York Sun (Dem.) and the Republican papers approved his course. His reasons
for his opposition were fully given in his speech delivered in the House, Jan. 17, 1894, and

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 299
can be summed up in the words: "It is not a revenue measure," and in his plea that the
high tax on Sumatra tobacco be retained he stood firmly on the statement he made in his
speech accepting his re-nomination for Congress. He then said: "The policy of the Demo
cratic party has always been to tax the luxuries, the unnecessaries of life, so to .speak, as dis
tinguished from the necessaries. SUks, and imported liquors and wines, and tobacco have
always been considered legitimate objects for heavy taxation." This plain statement of his
political or tariff beliefs seems to have been forgotten by most of the newspapers, when they
accused him of caring more for his own district, where tobacco was raised, than for the
welfare of the country at large.
But a great deal of misrepresentation could be borne with equanimity when the veteran
leader of the Democratic party in Connecticut, the Hartford Times, thus justly and
unequivocally defended the young statesman, in its editorial columns :
Washington despatches speak of special efforts made to induce the Hon. Lewis Sperry to agree to forward
the Wilson bill by voting to-day to make a quorum. Both Speaker Crisp and Mr. Wilson are said to have
urged him to this, not necessarily in order to secure a quorum, but to be in line with the Democratic side and
help make a solid front in favor of the bill. But Mr. Sperry is said to have stood his ground firmly, and to
have told these gentlemen that the bill as it now stands with the large reduction on Sumatra leaf tobacco,
is against the interests of his district, against the sentiment of a majority of the voters of the district, and
against his own view of what is right, and that unless it is modified he will vote against it.
Mr. Sperry also holds, — and in this position he has others who will stand with him —
that the proposed bill is not an adequate revenue bill. This we judge is to be the main point
in his opposition to a bill framed especially and wholly "for revenue," but which will, it is
admitted, involve a vast loss in revenue to start with.
He is nota "Cuckoo" congressman; he does his own thinking. And he will have the
approval of the majority of the voters of the First District of Connecticut. It will strengthen
instead of harming him to stand firmly by his own principles. Mr. Sperry is no mere echo
of anybody's orders. He has the brain and the nerve to see his way clear, and to stand firmly
by his own convictions. Such a man, in either party in Congress, wins respect. He has
more infiuence than any merely "Me, too," congressman would have, in the House as well
as athome. At the time of this writing the fate of the Wilson bill is undecided. Mr. Sperry
has already announced that he will not stand for a re-nomination to Congress, but that he will
return to Hartford and devote himself to the practice of his profession, inasmuch as his duty
to his family is now more pressing than his public duties. What his future has in store
therefore, cannot be even guessed at.
Nov. 7, 1878, he married Elizabeth Ellsworth, only daughter of Dr. William Wood of
East Windsor Hill. Their children are, Mary Elizabeth, born Jan. i, 1880, and Ellsworth,
born June 30, 1881.

'PyLLS, DAVID AMES, has long been the representative economist of the
United States, and a thinker whose vast information, fearlessness^ and
thoroughly judicial mind, have won him fame among economists the world
over, says an excellent article in the Popular Science Monthly. He has
proved his ability and sagacity in the successful management of large
business interests. While most economic teachers have been confined to class-room and
text-book, it has been his exceptional good fortune to practically apply his science to the
reform of fiscal errors. Since vacating his high office under the federal government, he
has exerted wide and growing influence upon the legislators of the nation.

300

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

Mr. Wells was born in Springfield, Mass., June 17, 1828, and is a lineal descendant
on the father's side of Thomas Welles, governor of the Colony of Connecticut, 1655-1658,
and on the mother's side of David Ames, who, under Washington, built and established
the National Armory at Springfield. He and his brother Oliver were the founders and
progenitors of the well-known manufacturing and railroad-building family of Massachusetts.
After graduating at Williams College in 1847, and writing and publishing his first book,
entitled "Sketches of Williams College," David Ames Wells was for a time (1848) an
assistant editor with the late Samuel Bo-wdes of the Spriiigfield Republican. While thus
employed, Mr. Wells suggested the idea, and was associated in the invention, of folding
newspapers and books by machinery in connection with power printing-presses ; and the first
machine ever constructed and successfully operated was built at his expense and worked
under his direction in the office of the Republican. Having, however, a taste for scientific
pursuits, and being now in the possession of some means through the sale of his interest
in the above invention, he quitted the pursuit of journalism, and, in 1849, entered the
Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, becoming also at the same time a special
ptipil of Professor Agassiz, who had then recently arrived in this country. Graduating in
the first class that completed a course of study in the Scientific School in 1851-53, he
immediately received the appointment of assistant professor in this institution and also that
of lecturer on physics and chemistry in Groton Academy, Massachusetts. During his resi
dence in Cambridge, j\Ir. Wells, in association with George Bliss (late United States
district attorney for New York), commenced, in 1849, the publication of an annual report
on the progress of science and the useful arts, which, under the name of the "Annual of
Scientific Discovery," was continued for many years.
Between 1857 and 1863, Mr. Wells was engaged in the preparation of a series of
scientific school-books, which at one time attained a very extensive circulation, two of the
series having been translated by missionaries into the Chinese language, while a third — an
elementary treatise on chemistry — was adopted as a text-book at West Point.
Mr. Wells, however, first came prominently into public life in 1864, whUe residing in
Troy, New York, through the publication in that year of an essay on the resources and
debt-paying abilit}- of the United States, bearing the title of "Our Burden and Strength."
This essay was first read at a literary and social club in Troy, then published privately,
then reprinted and circulated by the Loyal Publication Society of New York, and, receiving
at the same time the approval of the federal government, it became one of the most noted
publications of the war period. It was reprinted in England and translated into French and
German, and had a circulation which is believed to have been in excess of two hundred
thousand copies. Coming at a period when the nation was beginning to be alarmed at the
prospective magnitude of the public debt, and apprehensive of an impending crushing burden
of taxation, its publication and circulation proved a most effective agency for restoring public
confidence and maintaining the credit of the federal government.
The perusal of this pamphlet made a great impression upon President Lincoln, and in
January, 1865, he sent for Mr. Wells to come to Washington and confer with him and
Mr. Fessenden, then secretary of the treasury, on the best methods of dealing, after the
termination of the war, then evidentiy at hand, with the enormous debt and burden of tax
ation that the war had entaUed upon the nation. The result of this conference was the
passage by Congress of a bill, in March, 1865, creating a commission of three persons for
the purpose of inquiring into and reporting "on the subject of raising by taxation such
revenue as may be necessary in order to supply the wants of the government, having
regard to and including the sources from which such revenue should be drawn, and the best

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 301
and most effectual mode of raising the same." Of this commission, Mr. Wells was appointed
chairman by the then secretary of the treasury, Hon. Hugh McCulloch ; and its report, in
1866, which was mainly the work of Mr. Wells, presented for the first time a full and
exact statement of the curious and complex system of internal and customs revenue which
had grown up during the war, when the necessities for raising immense sums of money with
the utmost promptness and regularity were so great as to transcend all ordinary considera
tions, and justify the maxim, "Whenever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession,
or a source of income, tax it." How wonderfully successful this system of taxation proved,
is shown by the circumstance, that for the last year of its full operation — 1865-66 — it
yielded from internal revenue sources alone $310,000,000, and from internal revenue, customs,
and other sources, the aggregate sum of $559,000,000, drawn from a tax-paying population
not much in excess of twenty-two millions. In addition to this feature of the Revenue
Commission Report in 1866, it also contained elaborate reports on sugars, tea, coffee, cotton,
spices, proprietary articles — patent medicines and the like — petroleum, fermented liquors,
and distilled spirits as sources of revenue, with estimates as to the amount of revenue which
the treasury might expect if taxation on them, at various rates, was to be continued ; the
whole being really the first practical attempt in the United States to gather and use national
statistics for great national purposes.
On the termination of the Revenue Commission in January, 1866, by limitation of
service. Congress was so well satisfied with the work that Mr. Wells had performed, that
he was immediately appointed, for a term of four years, to an office created for him, under
the title of "Special Commissioner of the Revenue," the duties of which were thus defined
by the enacting statute: "He shall from time to time report, through the secretary of the
treasury, to Congress, either in the form of bill, or otherwise, such modifications of the
rates of taxation, or of the methods of collecting the revenues, and such other facts per
taining to the trade, industry, commerce, or taxation of the country as he may find by
actual observation of the operation of the law to be conducive to the public interest."
In this office, and invested with large powers, Mr. Wells entered with ardor upon the
work of reconstructing and repealing the complex system of internal taxation, which had
become terribly oppressive, and the longer continuance of which had become unnecessary ;
and, under his initiation and supervision were originated nearly all the reforms of importance
in our national revenue system — internal and customs — that were adopted by Congress
between the close of the war in 1865 and the year 1870, namely : the re-drafting of the
whole system of internal revenue laws, the reduction and final abolition of the cotton-tax,
and the taxes on manufactures and crude petroleum; the creation of supervisory districts
and the appointment of supervisors ; the origination and the use of stamps for the collection
of taxes on tobacco, fermented liquors and distUled spirits, and the creation of the Bureau
of Statistics. To the head of this bureau Mr. Wells called, from the office of the Spring
field Republican, its assistant editor. Gen. F. A. Walker ; and under his management the
bureau was first efficiently organized.
Up to the year 1867, Mr. Wells, who was born and reared a member of one of the
largest manufacturing and Whig families of New England, was an extreme advocate and
believer in the economic theory of protection. In 1867, Congress having instructed the
secretary of the treasury to present at its next session a draft of a new tariff looking to
reductions of war-rates, and the business of preparing the same having been turned over to
the office of the special commissioner, Mr. Wells, with a view of qualifying himself for
the work, visited Europe under a government commission, and investigated, under almost
unprecedented advantages, nearly every form of industry, competitive with the United
States, in Great Britain and on the Continent. These personal experiences in respect to
39

302 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
European industry, coupled with a subsequent study of our customs system, and a complete
re-drafting of our whole tariff rates under instructions from Congress through the secretary
of the treasury, gradually, and greatly against all his preconceived ideas, led Mr. Wells
to a complete abandonment of his original position as a strong protectionist, and to the
adoption of the belief that free trade, made subordinate to revenue and progressively but
tentatively entered upon, was for the best interest of the whole country.
The announcement of these views, and especially the publication of his report for 1869,
created great opposition among the protectionists, and Horace Greeley publicly charged that
Mr. Wells had been corrupted through British gold distributed through the agency of
Mr. A. T. Stewart. Mr. Stewart, exceedingly angry at being brought into this matter,
desired that Mr. Wells should at once institute proceedings for libel, and several leading
members of the New York bar volunteered to take charge of the case. But Mr. Wells felt
that it was not necessary to vindicate his pubUc or private character by any such action,
and refused to become a party to it. The story, nevertheless, found extensive credence,
and is undoubtedly believed by many persons at the present time who are unable otherwise
to account for such a change in the economic opinions of the commissioner so shortly after
his return from Europe. A draft for a very complete revision of the tariff, prepared by Mr.
Wells in accordance with instructions, together with a full and elaborate report on the existing
revenue resources and condition of the country, submitted to Congress through Secretary
McCulloch, and with his hearty indorsement, in December, 1867, nevertheless found great
favor, and, embodied in a bill, with slight modifications, came very near being successful.
When the office of special commissioner expired by limitation in 1870, President Grant,
giving the personal dislike of the secretary of the treasury at that time — Mr. Boutwell —
to the commissioner as a reason, refused to reappoint Mr. Wells in case of a renewal of his
office. On his retirement in July, 1870, a large number of members of both houses of
Congress, without distinction of party, united in a letter headed by Messrs. Sumner, Trum
bull, Carpenter, Henry Wilson, Buckingham, Anthony, Thurman, Schurz, Bayard, Edmunds,
Fenton, and others, on the part of the Senate, and Messrs. Blaine, Garfield, Logan, Allison,
Cox, Hooper, B. F. Butler, Kerr, Dawes, Eugene Hale, Banks, Poland, Oakes Ames, Niblack,
Randall, Brooks, Beck, J. A. Griswold, James Brooks, A. A. Sargent, J. F. Wilson, F. Wood,
Noah Davis, D. W. Voorhees, W. H. Barnum and others, on the part of the House — of which
the following is an extract : "The undersigned, members of the Forty-first Congress, who have
been cognizant of your labors as special commissioner of the revenue, take the occasion of
your retirement from public duties to express to you their appreciation of the work you
have accomplished, and the great ability with which you have discharged the duties of your
office. How much soever they may perhaps have differed with you touching the matter of
your conclusions upon particular points, they desire nevertheless to bear testimony to the
great value of your work, and to the honesty and the faithful and untiring zeal which have
characterized your whole public career. ' ' At the same time a committee of citizens of differ
ent states, members of both parties, presented to Mr. WeUs several testimonials of great ¦
value; one of which, a superb bronze statuette, some thirty inches high, representing " Labor,"
in the form of a fully developed workman, leaning upon his sledge-hammer, bears upon a
silver plate the foUowing inscription : PRESENTED TO
Hon. DAVID A. WELLS,
ON HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE OFFICE OF
SPECIAI, COMMISSIONER OF THE REVENUE,
BY CITIZENS OF NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND,
AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR HIS UNSUtWED INTEGRITY
AND HIGH PERSONAI, CHARACTER; AND AS A SWGHT
RECOGNITION OF HIS INESTIMABLE SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRYMEN.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 303
Commenting on the discontinuance of the office of special commissioner of revenue,
the North American Review used at the time the following language: "The system of
taxation, by which the government has been in receipt of its enormous income, was estab
lished during the war ; and the man who deserves the most credit for its reform is Mr.
David A. Wells, whom General Grant and Secretary Boutwell united in bowing coldly out
of public service. It was he who proved the capacity of the country to stand an enormous
taxation, and pointed out the most convenient and legitimate sources of revenue ; and the
most continuous changes and improvements in our revenue system, including even those
under the administration that dismissed him, were but the following out of the suggestions
and the line of argument which he had presented while in the Treasury Department. To
him and to Congress, and to a generous and patriotic people does the country owe the
proud exhibition of debt and tax reduction."
As soon as it was known that Mr. Wells was to retire from his office at Washington,
the appointment as chairman of a state commission for investigating the subject and the
laws relating to local taxation_^was tendered him by the governor (Hon. John D. Hoffman)
of the state of New York and accepted ; and in this new position Mr. Wells prepared and
submitted to the legislature two reports (in 1872 and 1873,) and a draft of a code of laws.
Both of these reports were subsequently reprinted in the United States and in Europe ; and
one of the first acts of the French minister of finance (M. Wolowski), after the conclu
sion of the Franco-German War, was to order the translation and. official publication of
Mr. Wells's report as special commissioner of revenue for 1869. This compliment was
further supplemented in the spring of 1874, by the election of Mr. Wells, by the French
Academy, to fill the chair made vacant by the death of John Stuart MiU, and also in the
same year by the voting to him of the degree of D. C. L- by the University of Oxford,
England. The honorary degree of LL.D. had been previously given to him by the col
lege of his graduation (Williams), and that of M.D. by the Berkshire Medical College in
1863. In 1873, on invitation of the Cobden Club, Mr. Wells visited England and deliv
ered the address at the annual meeting and dinner of the club. In 1872, he was invited
to lecture on economic subjects at Yale College. In 1875, he was elected president of the
Democratic State Convention of Connecticut ; and he has served twice as delegate at large
from Connecticut to presidential nominating conventions, in 1872 and in 1880. In 1876,
Mr. Wells, after refusing to accept a regular nomination for Congress in the third district of
•Connecticut, was put upon the course by resolution of the Democratic convention, with the
result, in the face of conditions otherwise wholly favorable to the Republicans, of reducing
a hitherto impregnable Republican majority from 1,176 to 40.
In 1870, Mr. WeUs was elected a member of the Cobden Club ; in 1871, honorary
member of the Royal Statistical Society of England; in 1875, president of the American
Social Science Association, succeeding Dr. Woolsey of New Haven ; in 1877, a foreign
associate member of the Regia Academic dei Lincei of Italy ; in 1880, president of the New
London County (Conn.) Historical Society ; and in 1881, president of the American Free-Trade
League. In 1878, Mr. Wells was appointed by the President a member and subsequently
elected president of the National Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at
West Point. In 1876, he was appointed by the United States court one of three trustees
and recei-vers of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, and in the course of the following
fourteen months rescued the corporation from bankruptcy, and expended a considerable sum
for improvements and repairs, without incurring an additional dollar of indebtedness. In
1877, he was appointed by the State Board of Canal Commissioners chairman of a commis
sion to consider the subject of tolls on the New York canals, and in the next year made an
¦exhaustive and acceptable report.

304 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In 1879, in connection with the late E. D. Morgan of New York and J. Lowber Welsh
of Philadelphia, and as trustees of the bond-holders, he bought under foreclosure and sale,
and reorganized the New York & Erie RaUroad, and served for some time as a member
of the finance committee of the board of direction of the new company. In 1879, he was
elected by the associated railways of the United States, in connection with Charles Francis
Adams of Massachusetts and John M. Wright of Philadelphia, a member of a board of
arbitration, to which the associated railroads agreed to refer all their disputes and all arrange
ments for pooling or apportioning their respective competitive earnings. For two years the
efforts of this board were successful and acceptable ; but, at the commencement of the third
year, from causes to which the board was not a party, arbitration was refused by certain
roads, and the arrangement was first suspended, and finally terminated. Pending final action
as to the continn^ance of the board, Messrs. Wells and Adams voluntarily relinquished the
sum of ten thousand dollars each, that was due them, on the ground that no service having
been required of them or given, they were not honorably entitled to compensation for doing
nothing. During the last twenty }'ears few Americans have written and spoken more frequently
and more acceptably to the public on subjects connected with the industry, commerce,
finance, shipping, railroads, taxation and labor of the country, than Mr. Wells ; and some
of his productions in pamphlet form, as "The Primer of Free Trade," "Why we Trade
and How we Trade," and "The Dollar of the Fathers vs. The Dollar of the Sons," have
attained a wide circulation. Of books, the following are well known: "Robinson Crusoe's
Money," Ulustrated by Nast, or the experiences of an island people in using different kinds
of money, 1876; "Our Merchant Marine; How it Rose, Increased, Became Great, Declined,
and Decayed," 1882; "Practical Economics," 1885; "A Study of Mexico," 1887. Concern
ing the latter work, M. Romero, the Minister of Mexico to the United States, writes:
"Although I differ with you on several points, and in respect to some of your conclusions,
it is surprising to me how well you have understood the condition of Mexico and its diffi
cult problems, especially so far as its relations with the United States are concerned." To
which the Rev. George B. Hyde, one of the leading and oldest missionaries of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in Mexico, adds, under date, at the Mission of Puebla, of May, 1887: "I
have, I think, read all works of importance relating to the social and political economy of
Mexico ; and the ' Study ' is the only one that has not either looked with eyes that saw a
paradise or a desert. I consider the book the most valuable yet published on the real con
dition of Mexico."
The series of papers "On the Economic Disturbances since 1873," now publishing in
the Poptdar Science Monthly, being also reprinted concurrently in Europe, are regarded both
m this country and Europe as among the most instructive and valuable contributions that
have been made in recent years to any department of economic science.
Mr. Wells's present residence is in Norwich, Conn., where he is the owner of one of the
most pleasant old-fashioned houses in New England, and one of the best private economic
libraries in the country.

.£^ od~-e.C^C.^JjL

]'';.ic.;:Fii.hii;FtfEEil]]isldn.^ Co. t.vfTp.u.Mas.s

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 305
^^EWELL, JAMES DUDLEY, senior member of the firm of J. D. Dewell &
«m>f| Company, New Haven, and president of the State Board of Trade, was born
^Pl ^^ Norfolk, Conn., Sept. 3, 1837. His father, John Dewell, was a native of
^^^ Dutchess county, N. Y., of Scotch descent, and, during his years of activity,
was prominent as a manufacturer and merchant in Norfolk. His mother, n^e
Mary Humphrey, was born in Norfolk, Conn., and descended from Michael Humphrey, who
settled in Windsor, Conn., 1640 to 1645.
Soon after passing his twentieth birthday, he came to New Haven and entered upon
a mercantile career. His first business connection was with the firm of Bushnell & Com
pany, wholesale grocers, as salesman. Two years later, he was made a member of the firm.
After Mr. Dewell was admitted to a share in the councils of Bushnell & Company, his
energy and ability aided greatly in expanding the volume of their business. In 1864, the
firm name was changed to Bushnell & Dewell, and, in 1877, it was again altered to J. D.
Dewell & Company, in which form it has become familiar to the mercantile world.
Financial matters have occupied no small share of Mr. Dewell's attention. He is vice-
president of the Security Insurance Company, and director in the New Haven Water Com
pany and the City Bank of New Haven. To each he gives that valuable assistance he is
abundantly able to render from his long experience and intimate knowledge of business affairs.
No sincere effort for the public advancement of New Haven, or for the social improve
ment of its citizens, has failed to enlist his warm interest and generous support. As one of
the business men of the city, Mr. Dewell has ever desired to join his good fortune to the
community around him. To the development of New Haven by means of its Chamber
of Commerce, he has devoted much time, and for many years he served as its president.
Taking a wide field of action, and wishing to benefit all branches of industry in his native
state, Mr. Dewell is largely responsible for the organization of the State Board of Trade.
Elected president on its formation in 1891, he is still filling that position by unanimous
consent. The Young Men's Institute of New Haven has always held a tender spot in his
heart, and for twenty years he has been a director and contributor to its needs.
He is also a member of, and takes great interest in, the New Haven Colony Historical
Society, 'State Hospital of New Haven, Sons of American Revolution and Evergreen Ceme
tery Association. Mr. Dewell has not held political office, yet he takes great interest in
legislative matters, both national and state. His conscientious belief on political lines is
that the principles and policy of the Republican party are best calculated to promote the
happiness of the people and prosperity of the nation. In other words, he is a Republican
of the Lincoln type.
Mr. Dewell was married July 2, i860, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Keyes of Norfolk. Six
chUdren have blessed their union, of whom five are living : one daughter and four sons.

3o6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

[ESSIONS, JOHN HUMPHREY, of Bristol, president of the Bristol National
Bank, and senior member of the firm of J. H. Sessions & Sons, was born in
Burlington, Conn., March 17, 1829.
In ancient Anglo-Saxon tongue appears a name that may be best expressed
in modern English by the word " Sass," says the Magazine of Western His
tory. In this old language it means the dweller on, or a tiller of the soil. Pursuing the
study of the name further down the annals of heraldry, the name ' ' Sasson ' ' appears with
the same meaning. The family who bore it were tillers of the soil, and investigation still
further shows Sesson, Sisson, Sission and Sessions — natural dialectic derivatives of the same
root, bearing the same meaning, and borne by families whose avocations were shown by
their names. In the history of the ancient town of Wantage, England, appears early in
the sixteenth century, the first records of the English family Sessions. Like many another
family in English history, the occupation is evidenced by the name, and the student of history
is not surprised to find the family farmers. There the occupation of farmer usually is
that of overseer of the large manors of an English lord or baronet, rather than as prac
ticed in America, where a farmer is his own overseer. In the old town records mention
is made of Alexander Sessions, the farmer of Dudley Manor. That he was a good farmer
is further shown, and when Thomas Dudley, deputy governor of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, came with his superior, John Winthrop, and a company of emigrants, to Ainerica in
1630, Alexander Sessions was requested to come in his capacity as farmer for the new estates
of his employer.
Little that is definite can now be said of Alexander Sessions in the new world
during the early years of the colony. That he shared the privations of the cclony, aided
in its development, and managed well his trust, can be safely inferred from his character
and from the history of the colony as brought down to the present time. Later, it is
known that he became one of the first settlers of Andover, Mass., and was made a free
man. To Alexander Sessions and Elizabeth his wife, were born seven sons, whose biblical
names attest the Calvinistic principles of their parents. Of these sons, Alexander, Jr., was
in after years one of the most prominent. He lived to be ninety-one years old, and, not
withstanding his great age, his mental and bodily vigor remained till almost the last. He
settled in Pomfret, Conn., and died there in 177 1. From him the family line comes down
through Amos to John, who was a man much respected. He was for two years a mem
ber of the Continental Congress, and a member of the New York legislature for two terms.
His son, John, Jr., had seven children, three of whom became Congregational ministers,
and were men of mark in their generation. Calvin Sessions, the third son of John, Jr.,
married Lydia Beckwith, January, 1822. Of their chUdren, John H. was the fourth.
After receiving a limited education in the public schools, at the age of fifteen years,
young Sessions went to work on a farm for the munificent salary of eight dollars per month.
He did the "chores," and part of the time was sent to school. Two years later, he
entered a manufactory of toys, child wagons, etc., his pay being ten dollars per month,
and the work extending over eleven hours per day. Here it was Mr. Sessions became
skiUed in the art of wood-turning, and he continued to follow this business, for the period
of nine years. In 1857, he decided to branch out on his own account, and commenced on a
small scale, and it was but natural that he should do something in the line of'clock making,
with which that section of the state was permeated. He made a specialty of tips, knobs
and columns for the styles of clocks then considered fashionable, and, later, he added knobs,
etc., for the cabinet hardware trade.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 307
On the death of his brother, Mr. A. J. Sessions, he purchased his business, and joined
it to that he was carrying on. This added materially to the range of articles produced.
Mr. John H. Sessions, Jr., was made a member of the firm in 1872, the name becoming John
H. Sessions & Son, which it still remains. They occupy several large buildings, and employ
about sixty men all the year round. The business is mainly the manufacture of Taylor's
patent trunk bolts and fixtures, hinges and rollers, wrought iron corner clamps, felloe plates
and washers, rubber tip door stops, furniture knobs, escutcheons, etc. It is the largest
factory of its kind in the country. The main building is two stories and attic, 100 x 30,
with two ells, and kiln-drier lumber house. The tinning room is two stories, 40 x 40, and
the japanning room, 30 x 30, with three brick ovens. The large brick building, which is
used for storage of finished goods, packing room and office, is 93 x 40, four stories with base
ment. Large power presses are used in the business, and the castings used are mostly of
malleable iron.
The firm carries a stock of two hundred and fifty tons of malleable iron, and four
hundred to five hundred tons of hoop iron and sheet iron, and does a business approxima
ting $250,000 per year. Last year the firm used over 1,300,000 pounds of malleable iron,
and 1,800,000 pounds of wrought iron. The firm has a very large home trade, supplying
all the principal trunk dealers in the trunk-making centers, which are : Newark, Chicago,
Milwaukee, Racine, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia, Petersburg,
Richmond, Denver, San Francisco, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and New York.
The firm also does a large export business in Canada, having customers in Montreal, Toronto,
Ottawa, St. John, N. B., and other Dominion cities. Reciprocity has opened up new
channels of trade, Cuba being a large purchaser of the products of the firm. The European
trade of the concern is also large, as they make many shipments of goods to London,
Paris, Dublin and Berlin. Through New York commission houses thousands of dollars worth
of goods are annually shipped to South America.
After being associated two years with his father and brother in business, William E.
Sessions, the second son of Mr. J. H. Sessions, purchased a foundry, which had been badly
run down, the capital being furnished by his father. It was organized as the Sessions
Foundry Company, and has proved a most profitable investment. Starting with a limited
amount of business, the concern has grown till now they give employment to two hundred
and twenty-five men, and the sales foot up $300,000 yearly. The plant has been increased
eight times since they took hold of the enterprise, and with their four cupolas they now
have a capacity for melting forty tons daily.
Mr. Sessions is a many sided man, and has been almost uniformly successful in all his
operations. Financial management has claimed a share of his attention. He was one of the
prime movers in the formation of the Bristol National Bank in 1875, and being chosen as
the first president, has held the office to the present time by successive reelections. On the
organization of the Bristol Water Company in 1881, Mr. Sessions's infiuence had been so
marked that he was unanimously elected president, and has filled the responsible duties of
the office ever since. In electrical development he has taken no small degree of interest,
and contributed largely to the formation of the Bristol Electric Company in 1886, and here
again he was elevated to the presidency by mutual consent. Under his energetic administra
tion, the company has grown immensely, and they now light the village of Forestville, as
well as the town of Bristol. For five years he was a member of the firm of Lamson, Sessions
& Company of Cleveland, Ohio, furnishing much of the capital in the early life of the
company, and after it became an established success, he withdrew. Though never a seeker
after political honors, Mr. Sessions allowed himself to be elected to the General Assembly
for the year 1885, and at that term served as a member on several important committees.

3o8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
A firm friend of education, everything which tends to the upbuilding of society at large
has ever found a zealous supporter in Mr. Sessions. He has been a member of the board of
trustees of Wesleyan University, Middletown, for over a score of years, and for nearly the
whole of that time has served on the executive committee of that excellent institution. He
is also a meinber of the board of trustees of Wilbraham Academy, Wilbraham, Mass. It will
be seen that Mr. Sessions's church affiliations are with the Methodist denomination, though
he had three uncles who were honored members of the Congregational ministry, and of the
church of that faith in Bristol he holds the honorable position of chairman of the board of
trustees, and also of the board of stewards. His pecuniary gifts to the work have been both
frequent and large in the past, but the beautiful church edifice just completed is the crowning
monument of his liberality. The seating capacity of the old buUding belonging to the society
was about eight hundred, and the new church, holding one thousand, is joined on in such a
way as to make nearly the whole available, giving a total capacity of nearly one thousand
seven hundred in plain view of the pulpit. The material is granite, with Long Meadow red
stone trimmings, and as the design is carried out it makes a churchly structure, very attractive
to the eye. The cost of the new church and remodelling the old one was not far from $70,000.
The congregation was growing, the space, for a larger was greatly needed, and it is unnecessary
to state that the handsome gift is most highly appreciated. The liberality of the father is
emulated in due proportion by the sons — the older one furnishing the fittings, and the
younger supplying a fine organ. The members of the congregation wished to have some
share in the new edifice, and consequently they have added certain special articles, and in a
suitable position have placed an elegant testimonial window, though one need not be a prophet
to see that Mr. Sessions's memory will never be forgotten by succeeding congregations as they
worship within the walls of the building provided by his thoughtfulness.
John H. Sessions was married April 27, 1848, to Emily, daughter of Allen Bunnell of
Burlington, Conn. Three children were the result of this union, all of whom are now living:
John H. Sessions, Jr., who is associated with his father in business, and has always been
actively interested in the prosperity of Bristol, having been one of the fire commissioners
since 1880 ; William E. Sessions, who is the manager of the Sessions Foundry Company, and
Carrie, who is now Mrs. Neubauer.

IMPSON, SAMUEL, of Wallingford, president of the Simpson, HaU & MiUer
Company, was born in the town where he lived all his life, April 7,
1814. He died on his eightieth birthday, April 7, 1894. For over a quarter
of a century he had suffered from a malignant cancer, and had endured many
operations which gave him temporary relief.
Like only a few of Connecticut's prominent men, Mr. Simpson is of German parentage.
Samuel George, who was born in Hesse, Muhlenberg, and became a lieutenant in the British
army, came to this country with his regiment in 1767, and was soon afterwards sent to
New Haven, to aid in enforcing the Stamp Act. While stationed in that town he married
Lydia, daughter of John Johnson, a large land holder, and assumed the name of Robert
Simpson. His only son received the name of Samuel George Simpson, thus combining his
real and assumed names. The latter niarried MeUnda, daughter of John and Lois (Beadle)
HuU. In 1806, he disposed of his farm in Wallingford, and with other Connecticut farmers,
bought a tract in the Western Reserve in Ohio, whither he removed with his family. After

^¦^^^C^^^'^'^^-VJ

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 309
a residence there of five years, during which one son, George, was born, the family returned
to Wallingford, and two more sons, Harmon and Samuel, were added to the circle. Samuel
G. Simpson died in Wallingford in 1842, aged sixty.
Samuel Simpson was not born to wealth, and for this the people of his native town
have reason to be thankful, for had his fortune been inherited instead of amassed, Walling
ford might not have the large factories, the public buildings and the importance it now
enjoys as an industrial center. Instead of a life of idleness in pursuit of pleasure through
inherited opulence, his has been a life of activity, devoted to the purpose of making the
world better from having lived in it ; mankind better from his association with them and
the condition of humanity exalted.
When he was eleven years old, in 1825, he served as chore boy to Dr. Moses Gaylord
for a period of two years, and at the age of fifteen he entered an apprenticeship term with
Charles and Hiram Yale, who then were engaged in the business of making pewter spoons,
etc., in Yalesville, but who had originally started in some part of the building now standing
on the south-east corner of Main and Center streets, known as the Beckley place. I. C.
Lewis, with whom Mr. Simpson was afterwards associated in the Meriden Britannia
Company, was also an apprentice with the Yales at the same time.
Such was his aptness and general ability that when he was twenty, Mr. Simpson was
made foreman of the factory, and continued in that position till July, 1835. At this time a
contract was made by which Mr. Simpson and L- L- Williams, a former employee of the
Yale firm, undertook the manufacture of the goods for Charles Yale, but when he died in
November of the same year the contract, as part of his estate, was sold to the firm of
Henshaw & Yale who failed in 1837, and made an opening for the firm of Williams &
Simpson to step in and manufacture the goods on their own account. They continued
successfully in the business until January, 1838. when their entire plant was destroyed by
fire. The fire occurred in the night, and on being awakened and informed of the calamity,
Mr. Simpson exclaimed: "There goes every dollar I have in the world!" This was the
literal truth, but friends rallied themselves the next day, and money enough was raised by
subscription to enable him to start again.
The year in which he established himself in business witnessed his marriage to Martha
De Ette Benham, whose family, although residing in Cheshire, belonged to the branch
which carried their lineage back to Joseph Benham, one of the original planters of
Wallingford. His next business effort was a partial failure, but he brought success out at the last.
About this time a Mr. Pelton of Middletown approached Mr. Simpson with a proposition to
engage in the Britannia business, and an arrangement was made, but in a short time he
found that Pelton had not the financial backing which he claimed, and the partnership was
dissolved, but the ball had started which has rolled along until the result now shows up in
the immense concerns of R. Wallace & Sons, Simpson, Hall, Miller & Company, the
Simpson Nickel Silver Company, and other concerns which, while not having been the
direct outgrowth of this beginning, can nevertheless trace the causes that led to their locating
in Wallingford back to the influence exerted through these firms.
Mr. Simpson became interested in the Meriden Britannia Company, and contributed no
small share to the solid foundation on which it was built. He finally sold his holdings to
Horace C. Wilcox, who divided them among his associates, Dennis C. Wilcox, Isaac C.
Lewis, William W. Lyman, Lemuel J. Curtis and George R. Curtis. This purchase gave
the Meriden men control of the corporation formed by a consolidation of Mr. Lewis's and
Mr. Simpson's business, and to each of these men the reward of a magnificent business and
40

3IO REPRESENTATIVE MEN
their heirs an estate of many millions. Mr. Simpson was the last survivor of these wonder
fully successful men, who, with no capital other than their own indomitable persistency,
have left as monuments of their business skill the big silver ware factories of Meriden and
Wallingford. Mr. Simpson's life is a history of these great industries.
After closing his connection with the Meriden Britannia Company he became a partner
of the late Robert Wallace, under the name of Wallace, Simpson & Company, and his
energy, capital and business skill helped to build up the spoon industry which, under the
name of the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company, employed upward of 600 persons
and is the largest spoon business of this country. Mr. Simpson sold his interest in this
corporation some years ago and devoted his time and attention to the Simpson, Hall &
Miller Company and the Simpson Nickel Silver Company. They were successful, extraor
dinarily so, during the years when he was able to more particularly direct them. He
possessed in an eminent degree the skill of managing men, of securing their confidence, of
driving a sharp bargain and still retaining their confidence as a man of unquestioned
integrity and absolute reliability.
With the late Joel H. Guy he organized the First National Bank of Meriden and had
much to do with the foundation of the P^irst National Bank of Wallingford, and was its
president from its organization until a short time ago. His name as president of the Dime
Savings Bank has given it a reputation for financial stability that was of great value to this
institution during the trying times of the past year. As a financier his judgment was of
great value to all the enterprises with which he was identified. In his best days his keenness
and extraordinary knowledge of men enabled him to weather the financial storm of 1873, for
all his companies, although they were young and endeavoring to get into a market pretty
well crowded even in these days.
Mr. Simpson was a Democrat, and during the war occupied rather an unenviable position,
as he was one of the peace men. He was in business and had large interests that were
dependent on all sections of the country for patronage, and he wanted the differences settled
up without disturbing the status of trade, and he was consequently criticized \,j his townsmen
who took the view that war had got to come. As the intimate political friend of Mayor
Osborne of the Register, Ex-Governor English, Senator Eaton, and a host of old-timers,
nothing delighted Mr. Simpson more than to recall the times when to -be a Democrat meant
very much more than it did in later years. It meant social ostracism, and not a littie personal
annoyance, but a more courageous man than he never breathed.
His only personal military service was in 1841, when he was paymaster of the regiment
of the old militia which was commanded by Col. Henry Hull. They were both mustered out at
the same time. Mr. Simpson always discriminated in favor of Wallingford, and the evidences
of his patriotism abound on every hand. There are but few institutions, public as well as
private, in the borough that he has not been directly interested in exalting. The present
perfected state of the public schools received the impetus from him when he was on the
committee shortly after the war. He was instrumental in having the present site of the high
school building selected, although he faced opposition from almost the entire district.
The town of Wallingford has honored him in every way, as a representative to the
legislature, first warden of the borough and selectman. He represented his party and this
state in Cincinnati when General Hancock was named as a candidate for the presidency. He
was not a politician in the strict sense, he was too outspoken and lacked the diplomacy that
would clothe his opinion in words of double meaning. His stand on the temperance question
cost him his election as senator from the Sixth District, and he might have had the nomination
for lieutenant-governor had he chosen to accept it.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 311
Mr. Simpson was senior warden of St. Paul's church, and most generous in his donations
to it. He subscribed over $20,000 for its new church, and built the parish house connected
with it in memory of his deceased daughter. The Ladies' Library Association have had the
use of a suite of rooms in his business block for years free of charge. To those in distress
he was ever ready to lend a helping hand, and the deserving never applied in vain.
The people of this generation have regarded him as a wealthy and successful business
man, but a glance backward over the long vista of years which have rolled their succeeding
rounds since 1814, and his career viewed through all the vicissitudes he has passed, shows
that whatever he has accomplished has been the result of personal toil, frugal habits and
incessant application to duty, labor and business. The light of heaven is refiected in the
character of a noble man, one who has a stern, set purpose in the attaining and maintaining
of a standard of integrity that can only be measured by the rule of equal and exact justice,
always tempered by the divine attribute of charity that throws its mantle covering over the
faults and failures of his erring brother man. Such was the character of Mr. Simpson, stern
and unflinching in the discharge of public duties, always holding himself up to a higher
standard than he exacted of others, and faithful to every trust to the very last.
The following minutes, which were drawn by Judge Hubbard, were adopted by the
directors of the First National Bank :
It becomes our sad duty to record the death of Samuel Simpson, Esq., from its organization a director in
this corporation, and until a recent period its president. While it is not our province in this minute to make
special note of the general and many-sided usefulness which marks the career thus brought to a close, it may in
truth be said that the same superior capacities and virtues that won for him preeminent success in other and con
spicuous relations in life were prominently exhibited in the wisdom, prudence and sagacity, combined with the
high sense of justice and integrity with which he discharged his offices in this institution and contributed so
largely to the successful conduct of its affairs. The place which here knew him shall know him no more forever,
and yet remembering his fullness of years and of honor and his longings for relief from the terrible sufferings he
had so long though so patiently endured, we can hardly lament his departure, while in common with the whole
body of the community in which he passed his life and for whose welfare he did so much, we shall cherish as a
priceless treasure the memory of his character as a man, a philanthropist and a Christian. The cashier is directed
to spread this minute upon the record, and transmit a copy, with an expression of our sympathy, to Mrs. Simpson.
To Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were born four sons and two daughters. All the sons and
one daughter have passed over the river, the surviving daughter being Mrs. Elizabeth Melinda
Hull, widow of the late Gurdon W. Hull, who was associated with Mr. Simpson in various
business operations. Mrs. Simpson is still in vigorous health and resides at the old homestead.
There are two grandchildren, Mrs. C. H. Tibbits and Miss Bessie Hull.

SORTER, NOAH, D. D., LL. D., president of Yale CoUege, was born Dec. 14,
181 1, in Farmington, one of the most beautiful and attractive of the country
towns of Connecticut. He died March 4, 1892.
He was of Puritan ancestry, being descended ' from one of two brothers,
Robert and Thomas Porter, natives of England, who settled at Farmington in
1640. His father, the late Rev. Noah Porter, S. T. D., born at Farmington, in 1781, was gradu
ated at Yale College with the highest honors in 1803. Ordained pastor of the Congregational
church in Farmington about three years later, he ministered to that charge until his death,
in 1886. He was a man of exalted character and edifying life, a zealous as well as a devout
Christian, and a theologian of rare learning. It was in his study at Farmington, on Sept. 5,
1810, that the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was organized and held
its first meeting. For more than a generation he was a member of the corporation of Yale

312 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
College, and during the greater part of the time served upon its most important committees.
His children all shared his Christian zeal, love of learning and philanthropic spirit. Samuel,
one of his sons, has achieved a world-wide fame as an educator of the deaf and dumb, and is
now emeritus professor in the National Deaf Mute College, at Washington, D. C. His
daughter Sarah likewise achieved distinguished success as an educator.
"In the home of such a father," says the "Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut
and Rhode Island," " all the associations connected with the eariy life of the future president
of Yale College were calculated to awaken an interest in study and a desire to enter upon the
life of a scholar. But there were still other influences which contributed to stimulate in him
the love of learning. There were within the limits of the town two public libraries, which
furnished a good selection of books, which served to arouse in him a taste for the best literature.
Farmington was also the home of several families of wealth and cultivation, who gave to its
society a tone of refinement and elegance not often possessed at the time by the smaller towns
of the state.
The interest which the boy early manifested in books was so great, and his progress so
rapid in the ordinary English branches of education, that, before he was eight years of age,
his father, at the solicitation of his instructor, Mr. Simeon Hart, who was about to spend the
winter in the neighboring town of Winsted, and asked to be permitted to take his pupil with
him to begin the study of Latin, consented to the arrangement. Mr. Hart subsequently
graduated at Yale College, and immediately resumed his position as teacher of the academy in
Farmington, and it was under him principally that young Porter was fitted for college. He
was for a short time, however, under the instruction of Mr. John H. Lathrop, who was after
ward chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and of Mr. Elisha N.. Sill, who has filled
several important public offices, and is now living in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In 1824, also, an
arrangement was made with his uncle. Dr. Humphrey, president of Amherst College, of a kind
which at the time was not uncommon in New England.
He was received into the family of Dr. Humphrey, one of whose sons took his place
in the home at Farmington. While at his uncle's, young Porter studied under Mr.
Ebenezer Snell, afterward professor of natural philosophy in the college at Amherst. Dr.
Porter also sent his son for a term or two to the school in Middletown, Conn., and he thus
had what was then the unusual advantage of seeing something of the world outside of his
native town before he entered upon his college life.
Still another of the influences under which President Porter was brought as a boy
should not be passed by without notice. His teacher, Mr. Hart, early interested him in
botany, and it was in pursuing his studies in this science that he was led to accustom
himself to long walks, and to acquire that habit of close observation, that appreciation of
the beauties of natural scenery, and that love of a life in the country, which have characterized
him ever since, and which have led him in his vacations to undertake long expeditions
through the Adirondack woods and the forests of Canada.
In his sixteenth year he left home to enter Yale College as freshman. The class of
183 1, of which he became a member, had in it an unusual amount of ability. Its career,
however, was a stormy one. The period in which it was in college was marked by a wide
spread rebellion against the authority of the faculty — known as the "bread-and-butter
rebellion " — in which a large number of students in each of the classes participated. There
was also an element of constant excitement in his own class, in the struggle of a South
Carolina faction and a Virginia faction for the leadership. Mr. Porter. took a high rank as
a scholar, and so conducted himself throughout his whole course as to secure the respect of
the authorities of the college, while at the same time he had the confidence of his classmates,,
for many of whom he formed warm attachments which proved lifelong.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 313
After graduating in 183 1, Mr. Porter became the rector of the ancient Latin school in
New Haven, which had been founded in 1660, and which is known as the Hopkins
Grammar School. Here he gained an honorable reputation for his ability as an instructor,
and especially for his success in administering discipline in a school which had been
traditionally somewhat unnUy. In 1833, he was elected tutor in Yale College, and served
in that capacity for two years as the instructor of the somewhat famous class of 1837 in
Greek. WhUe tutor he pursued the regular course of study in theology in the Yale
Divinity vSchool under Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor.
In 1836, he became the pastor of the Congregational church in New Milford, Conn.,
being ordained in April of that year. Mr. Porter's pastorate in this town was a laborious
one. The church was one of the largest in the state, and its members, many of whom were
farmers, were scattered over a town which by the road was sixteen miles from north to
south, and nine from east to west. For nearly seven years he had the charge of this
important church, where he acquired reputation for his ability in the pulpit, and for the
energy and faithfulness with which he discharged all the duties of a pastor, riding diligently
at all seasons over the long hills to visit his parishioners, and holding stated meetings in
the most remote districts of the town. It was while settled in this country parish that he
began by his contributions, published in the leading periodicals of the day, to attract
attention as an original and vigorous thinker on theological and philosophical subjects.
In 1843, he became the pastor of the South Congregational church in Springfield, Mass.,
where he remained for four years, when he was chosen, in 1846, Clark professor of mental
and moral philosophy in Yale College. After occupying this chair for twenty-five years, on
the resignation of President Woolsey, in 1871, he was elected president. It was considered
at the time to be a fortunate circumstance that a president was secured who was acquainted
with all the traditions of the college, and was in thorough sympathy with them. President
Porter's views on the subject of collegiate education were set forth in his inaugural address,
and in his work on American colleges. They were conservative, though he was by no means
indisposed to seek for improvements on the past, as is shown by the fact that during his
administration very important changes were made in the methods of instruction. The college
during his presidency was very prosperous. Several costly buildings were erected ; the corps
of instructors was much enlarged ; the department of philosophy and the arts was re-constructed
so as to induce instruction for graduate students ; and the different departments of the college
have been officially recognized by the corporation having "attained to the form of a university."
President Porter during all his life was a very voluminous writer. His published works,
consisting of reviews, essays, addresses, sermons, are too numerous to mention here even by
their titles. He was a constant contributor to the press and to the most important magazines
and reviews. His most elaborate 'work is a treatise on the "Human Intellect" (New York,
1866; 8vo, pp. 673), of which Prof. Benjamin N. Martin, his reviewer, says {^Nciu Englander,
January, 1869) : "In comprehensiveness of plan and in elaborate faithfulness of execution
the work is far before any other in the language." He adds: "For such a labor of years,
and such an example of enthusiasm in the pursuit of abstract truth, the author's countrymen
may well be proud of him ; and . . . their grateful appreciation of an aim so high, and
so well sustained, will rank him, perhaps, foremost among our American scholars in the
loftiest and most difficult walk of investigations."
Among his principal publications is a "Historical Discourse, Commemorating the Two
Hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of Farmington" (1840); " The Educational System
of the Puritans and the Jesuits " (1851) ; "Books and Reading" (1870); " American Colleges
and the American Public" (1871) ; Science of Nature vs. Science of Man;" — " A Review of

314 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer;" "Evangeline" (1882); "The Elements of Moral
Science, Theoretical and Practical" (1885); "Life of Bishop Buckley" (1885); "Kant's
Ethics," "A Critical Exposition" (1886). Dr. Porter was undeniably one of America's most
scholariy metaphysicians. His labors as a lexicographer in connection with the revision of
of the second and later editions of "Noah Webster's Unabridged Dictionary" of the English
language, were very arduous, and brought him great fame, as well as universal recognition
as a scholar. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the University of
the City of New York in 1858, and that of Doctor of Laws by the Western Reserve College
in 1870, by Trinity College, Conn., in 1871, and by the University of Edinburgh, in 1886.
Dr. Porter married Mary, eldest daughter of his esteemed instructor and friend, the Rev.
Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor of New Haven, in 1836.

V

;^p<;fr^;ATLING, RICHARD JORDAN, of Hartford, Conn., a distinguished American
J [>^:iJ/.;^ZS- inventor, whose celebrated revolving battery gun, which bears his name, has
given him world-wide fame, was born in Hertford County, N. C, on Sept. 12,
1818. His father, Jordan Gatling, a man of sterling character and remarkable
for his energy and industry, was a farmer in easy circumstances, and the owner of
quite a tract of land, and a number of slaves. His mother's maiden name was Barnes. Rich
ard, who was the third son of six children, was brought up to regard labor as honorable and
economy a duty ; and it was impressed upon him in }'outh that with due diligence, success
could surely be reached through these avenues. Not the least of the influences acting on
him was the high Christian character of his mother. Every facility of an educational char
acter that the neighborhood afforded was taken advantage of by him, and at the age of
seventeen, when he had exhausted the resources of the locality, he was an unusually bright
and well-informed lad. Never shirking his duty on the farm, he grew up healthy and
sturd}- in limb. The vitality of his mind equalled that of his body, and long before he
was out of his teens he was working conjointly with his father upon an invention for
sowing cotton seed, and also upon a machine designed for thinning cotton plants. The
genius of invention thus aroused, soon exercised itself in a variety of ways, to the advan
tage of his neighbors as well as of his own people, and thereafter never slumbered.
Being a good penman, says the "Biography of Connecticut, " young Gatling found
employment copying records in the office of the county clerk of Hertford County, and
was thus engaged during the greater part of his sixteenth year. At the age of nineteen
he took a position teaching school, but soon abandoned this occupation to engage in mer
chandizing, which he followed successfully on his own account for several years. It was
during this latter period that he busied himself with the invention of the screw propeUer
now so extensively used in steam- vessels. Having first given his discovery a practical
test attached to an ordinary boat, he applied for a patent, going himself to Washington
in 1839, with his model. Upon reaching the capital, he found that a patent upon the
same appliance had already been granted to another inventor. Though sadly disappointed
to learn that he had been forestalled in his discovery, he wasted no further time
upon the matter, but turned his attention to other inventions. Shortiy afterwards he
invented and patented a seed-sowing machine designed for sowing rice, which he adapted
subsequentiy to sowing wheat in drills. In 1844, he removed to St. Louis, and for a
year worked as a clerk in a dry-goods store. While thus engaged he employed a skUlful

i'Jl' C''!<tijrjj"illi-.'ismar, f-l.v.yn'.i',/,,. Cj. C'

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 315
mechanic to construct his seed-sowing machines, which found a ready sale. Interest in
them soon became so wide-spread that, in 1845, Mr. Gatling gave up his other occupa
tions to devote his whole time to their improvement and sale, aud established agencies in
several of the principal cities of the Northwest.
WhUe proceeding from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh in the winter of 1845-46, he was
stricken by smaU-pox, and as the steamboat in which he travelled was caught in the
ice and frozen in for thirteen days, he lay all that time without medical attendance and
came very near dying from neglect. This terrible experience impressed him with the
necessity for acquiring a knowledge of medicine so that he might be able to serve him
self and others also, should occa,sion arise. The leisure of several years was now devoted
mainly to the study of medicine, and regular courses of instruction were taken at the Indiana
Medical College, then at Laporte, and subsequently at the Ohio Medical College at Cin
cinnati. He completed his medical studies in 1850. Being now free to resume business
operations, he established himself at Indianapolis, and engaged in the manufacture and
sale of his seed-sowing machines, investing his profits, which were then considerable, in
real estate speculations and in aiding in the construction of a number of the railroads
leading to that city.
Dr. Gatling was an enthusiastic advocate of the advantages of drilling wheat over the
old method of sowing broadcast, and he was the first to introduce this class of imple
ments into the Northwestern states, and probably did more than aii}' other man to secure
the general adoption of drill culture in the West. His drills for years took many medals
and prizes at the various state fairs, and his .skill as an inventor received high recogni
tion from distinguished sources, including a medal and diploma from the Crystal Palace,
London, 1851, and a gold medal from the American Institute, New York City. Another
invention in agricultural machinery produced by him about this time was a double-acting hemp-
brake, which is still employ^ed in some parts of the West. In 1849, he conceived the design
of transmitting power from one locality to another, or rather of distributing it from a main
source — originating from steam or water — to numerous other points, through the medium
of compressed air in pipes laid under ground as gas and water pipes are laid, a great cen
tral power generator thus sufficing to drive many smaller engines situated in shops and factories
at a distance. This method of using compressed air is now employed in working drills in
mining operations, and in the construction of tunnels, etc. For years he sought to obtain
a patent on this invention, but was unsuccessful, the authorities at the Patent Office in Wash
ington denying his claim on the ground that this was a discovery and not an invention.
Failing to secure the protection of a patent. Dr. Gatling abandoned this scheme after the
expenditure of much time and money. In 1857, he invented a steam-plough, designed to
be operated by animal and steam power combined, but ill-health and other causes prevented
him from working out the details of this machine to practical results.
But the great invention of Dr. Gatling, and that with which his name is indissolubly
linked, is one which is in marked contrast to those employed in the peaceful pursuits
of agriculture. This is the world-renowned Gatling gun, one of the most terrible engines
of modern warfare, the design of which was conceived in 1861. When the Civil War
broke out Dr. Gatling resided at Indianapolis. A true patriot, he closely followed the
events of the war, and watched its progress with keen interest. The arrival and depar
ture of troops found him at the depot using his fine powers of observation, and constantly
on the alert for an idea upon which he might build something of utility to the govern
ment. His humane feelings were deeply affected by the miseries and sufferings of those
"who went forth to fight the nation's battles, and he offered all the sympathy of a warm

3i6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and generous nature to those around him bereaved of their loved ones by the sad fortunes
of war. One day, while contemplating the fact that the casualties in war resulted chiefly
from exposure and disease, the thought flashed upon him that it was perfectly possible
to make labor-saving machinery for war. His reasoning was to the effect that if one man,
by means of a machine, could do the work of a hundred men, a great many could be
withdrawn from the manifold dangers incidental to the prosecution of war ; in other words,
the necessity for large armies would no longer exist.
The idea of the machine gun now universally known as the ' ' Gatling ' ' was conceived in
1 86 1, and the first one was constructed and fired by the inventor at Indianapolis in the spring
of 1862. The test took place in the presence of a number of army officers and private citizens.
Two hundred and fifty shots per minute were discharged from the gun with ease. The effect
was startling and the invention became the talk of the land. Some of Dr. Gatling's friends,
prompted by mistaken notions of humanity and for other reasons, sought to dissuade him
from manufacturing his gun, but believing he was entirely in the right, he allowed no in
fluences to interfere with the carrying out of his project. The gun as first exhibited, although
deemed imperfect by its inventor, contained the main essential principle of the later perfected
weapon. During 1862, Dr. Gatling constructed several of his guns, making iinprovements
in each. In the fall of that year he gave an order for six of them to the firm of Miles Green
wood & Company of Cincinnati. About the time they were ready for delivery the factory
was burned and the guns, together with all the plans and patterns, were totally destroyed,
subjecting the inventor to heavy pecuniary loss, and compelling him to begin his work all over
again. Shortl}- after this unfortunate circumstance he made thirteen of his guns at the
Cincinnati Type Foundry Works. Some of these guns were finally employed in active service
by the Union forces on the James River, near Richmond, under General Butler, in repelling
attacks of the rebels. He also had twelve of his guns made by the Cooper Fire- Arms Manu
facturing Company in Philadelphia, in 1865. These were subjected to numerous tests at the
Frankford Arsenal, and subsequently , at Washington and Fortress Monroe. The most severe
tests having proven entirely satisfactory to Secretary of War Stanton, and Gen. A. B. Dyer,
chief of ordnance, the arm was adopted by the government. In August, 1866, an order was
given for one hundred of these guns, fifty of one-inch and fifty of fifty one-hundred ths of an
inch calibre. They were made at Colt's armory, Hartford, Conn., and were delivered to the
United States authorities in 1867. In that year Dr. Gatling visited Europe and spent nearly
a year and a half in bringing his invention to the notice of the several governments.
He made a second trip in 1870, and upon his return to America settled at Hartford, Conn.,
where he stiU lives. He again visited England in 1880. Since the approval of the Gatiing
gun by the United States government, it has been adopted by Russia, Turkey, Hungary,
Egypt and England. From the day it was first brought out, in 1862, down to the present
time, it has been subjected to the most severe tests, both in Europe and America, and has
emerged successfully from all. In England the "Gatiings" were subjected to a general and
exhaustive trial at the government butts. Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, with the result that they
were recommended by the authorities and finally adopted. That the "Gatiing" antedates
the French mitrailleuse is conclusively proven by documentary evidence in the possession of
its inventor, who, communicating with the artillery commission of the French army as early
as 1863, received a reply asking for definite information, and treating the invention as perfectly
novel and original. Since that time the gun has been examined and tested by commissions
from every government in Europe, with one exception (Belgium), from nearly all the South
American governments, and those of China, Japan, Siam, and Egypt, with the resuUs as
previously stated.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 317
Technically described, the Gatling gun is a group of rifle-barrels arranged longitudinally
around a central axis or shaft and revolving with it. These barrels are loaded at the breech
with metallic cartridges while the barrels revolve, and the mechanism is in constant action.
In other words, the operations of loading and firing are carried on while the barrels and locks
are kept under constant revolution. The mechanism by which this is effected is admirably
contrived. Although only one barrel is fired at a time, some patterns are capable of dis
charging one thousand shots per minute. There is no perceptible recoU and the accuracy
of the firing is soinething marvelous. Various sizes of the arm are manufactured, some
suitable for the defence of fortifications, others adapted to field service, use on shipboard, and
in boats; and still others so light as to be easily managed by one man. By an ingenious
device for distributing its shots^ through the arc of a horizontal circle, the gun can be made
to perforin the work of a front rank of infantry. ¦ The gun is operated by two men, one
turning the crank and the other supplying the breech with cartridges. These latter are fed
from feed-cases, so constructed that before one can be exhausted another may take its place,
insuring a continuous fire. A writer in the Science Record, after referring to the many thor
oughly severe tests to which this arm has been subjected, pithily adds:
Thus has the Gatling gun steadily, slowly and surely fought its way, inch by inch and step by step, against
the strongest opposition of prejudice, old-fashioned notions, pecuniary interest, and rival arms, and through the
stern ordeal of long, frequent, and severe tests and trials, to the front rank it now proudly and defiantly occupies.
We deal in no extravagant language, says the same writer, when we say that the importance of this great
invention can hardly be overestimated. The absorbing interest with which it has been regarded by the fore
most governments of the world, the searching aud thorough scrutiny and investigation with which it has been
treated, the severe and exhaustive tests and trials to which it has been subjected, the complete triumph which
it has achieved upon every field, its adoption by almost every civilized nation, and the revolution which its
successful operation is compelled to bring about in military affairs, warrant the statement that these gnus will
play a most prominent and decisive part in all future wars. No intelligent mind will gainsay and it requires
no gift of prophecy to predict that upon the pages of imperishable history that will record the details of these
wars the name of Gatling will be indelibly stamped.
Dr. Gatling has devoted nearly thirty years of his life to the task of perfecting this
remarkable invention, and has personally supervised and conducted numerous tests of the
gun's efficiency before nearly all the crowned heads of Europe. Everywhere he has been
received with distinguished consideration, and in Russia the highest government officials
extended to him marked attention. Through all the attentions and honors he has received,
Dr. Gatling has remained the same "well-bred gentleman, gentle in speech and jnanner, and
always preserving that republican simplicity which so well befits the American citizen and
is everywhere the surest passport to kindly recognition on equal terms. The Gatling guns
are now manufactured in the United States at Colt's armory and at Birmingham, Eng. Dr.
Gatling has for many years been president of the Gatling Gun Company, the main office
of which is in Hartford. Dr. Gatling is also president of the Harrison Veterans of 1840 —
an organization of elderly men who voted for Gen. William Henry Harrison for President.
His residence is in Charter Oak Place, a short distance from the spot where the historic
"Charter Oak" formerly stood. He is constantly laboring on some of his inventions, and
has recently taken out patents for several valuable inventions, among them an improved
method for casting guns of steel, which, it is believed, wUl supersede all other systems of
manufacturing heavy ordnance ; a torpedo and gunboat which embraces improvements of
pronounced character and of great value in naval warfare ; and an improved pneumatic gun,
designed to discharge high explosive shells, which can be used either on shipboard or in
land and harbor defences. The American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers,
organized in 1891, at its first meeting, held at Washington, D. C, January, 1891, elected
Dr. Gatling its first president, an hono'r of which he is justly proud. Considerably above
41

3i8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the medium height, somewhat portly, of pleasant countenance and engaging manners. Dr.
Gatiing is a general favorite among the people of Hartford. He takes a sincere interest in
local affairs, contributes generously to every public movement having a patriotic or charitable
object, and in almost every imaginable way acts well the part of a good citizen and a
kindly neighbor. He has received many honors from scientific bodies, both at home and
abroad, and from a number of foreign governments, but he wears them all with the greatest
modesty and continues his labors with as keen a zest as in his earlier days. The state of
North Carolina may well be proud of her modest and industrious son. His eminent personal
merit and high scientific achievements refiect honor upon his American name.
Dr. Gatling was married at Indianapolis, in 1854, to Miss Jemima T. Sanders, the
youngest daughter of the late Dr. John D. Sanders, a prominent practitioner of medicine
in the city named. This estimable lady — a devoted wife and mother — has made his home-
life exceptionally happy, and for full two score years or more she has been his loving
helpmeet in the fullest and noblest significance of the term, sharing alike his cares and his
triumphs, ever hopeful, ever helpful. Of the five children born to them, the two eldest, a
daughter and a son, died in chUdhood. The surviving children are a daughter, Ida, the
wife of Hugh O. Pentecost, and two sons, Richard Henry and Robert B.

OBINSON, HENRY CORNELIUS, LL.D., of Hartford, ex-mayor of that city,
and ex-fish commissioner of Connecticut, was born in Hartford, Conn., Aug.
28, 1832. He is a younger son of the late David Franklin and Anne Seymour Rob
inson, highly esteemed residents of Hartford, and through both descends from
the first Puritan settlers of New England. On the paternal side, he traces his ancestry to
Thomas Robinson (possibly a kinsman of the Rev. John Robinson, the venerated pastor of
the Mayflower pilgrims) who came from England among the earlier arrivals, and, in 1667,
settled at Guilford, Conn., where a party of non-conformists, under the Rev. Henry Whitfield,
had established themselves in 1639. Through his mother, who was a daughter of Elizabeth
Denison, wife of Asa Seymour, of Hartford, he descends in a direct line from William Brew
ster (born in Nottinghamshire, England, in 1560), one of the leaders of those who came
over in the Mayflower, and the ruling elder of Plymouth Colony.
The subject of this sketch received his early education at the Hartford grammar school
— the oldest educational institution in the state — and at the high school after its union wit h
the first named. In 1849, he entered Yale College, and was graduated there with high
honors in 1853. The class of this year was one of more than usual distinction, says the
"Biography of Connecticut," among its members being the Hon. Andrew D. White, presi
dent of Cornell University and Minister to Germany ; Bishop Davies of Michigan ; Dr.
Charlton T. Lewis and Dr. James M. Whiton of NewYork; editors Isaac H. Bromley and
George W. Smalley of the Neiv York Tribune; United States Senator R. L- Gibson; Hon.
Benjamin K. Phelps ; the poet, E. C. Stedman, and others who have already gained especial
honors in American history. Having closed his coUege course, Mr. Robinson began the
study of law in the office of his elder brother, Lucius F. Robinson, with whom, after three
years of practice by himself, he became associated as a partner in 1858, and with whom he
remained untU the relationship was severed by death, in 1861, subsequent to which he
managed his business alone uiitU 1888. In that year he took his eldest son, Lucius F.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 319
Robinson, into the firm then organized under the style of H. C. & L. F. Robinson, which
is, to-day, one of the foremost at the Connecticut bar, and widely known in the New
England and Middle states.
Among the scientific subjects which engaged Mr. Robinson's attention during his earlier
manhood, that of pisciculture — from its important bearing on the human food supph- — ¦was
given special study. In 1866, Governor Hawley, with a view to giving Connecticut the
advantages of Mr. Robinson's researches and knowledge, appointed him fish commissioner of
the state. Although carrying a large law practice at this period, he accepted the appoint
ment and at once interested himself in experiments and legislative measures looking to the
preservation and development of the fish industry in Connecticut. " Through his instru
mentality laws were placed on the statute books providing for the condemnation of the pound
fishery at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and the discontinuance of that method of
fishing. Before these wholesome laws could become fairly operative, under partisan influ
ence they were repealed, and others substituted which were of no practical use, as has
been proven, in preventing or arresting- the destruction of the shad fisheries in these waters,
in spite of artificial propagation." From the same contemporary authority quoted, it
appears that "the first artificial hatch of American shad was made under Mr. Robinson's
direction as commissioner, associated with the Hon. F. W. Russell, before the Connecticut
legislature, and in the presence of the late Prof. Agassiz, who was a deeply interested
spectator in the experiments and in the legislative contest upon the subject then in progress."
In 1872, Mr. Robinson was nominated by the Republicans for mayor of Hartford. The
city is usually Democratic, but Mr. Robinson's personal popularity and the confidence reposed
in him by voters of all shades of political belief, led to his being generally supported,
and he was elected by a large majority over his opponent. He served from 1872 to 1874,
and gave the people an administration notable for its purity and efficiency. During his
incumbency municipal affairs were conducted on business principles, and while every effort
was made to advance the general welfare, many wise economies were practiced at a great
saving to the tax -payers. During his administration and largely under his leadership, Hart
ford gained its long-sought prize of becoming the sole capital of the state. Through his
recommendation the establishment of several of the departmental commissions of the city
was secured. In 1879, Mr. Robinson represented the town of Hartford in the General
Assembly of the state, and during the single term that he served was instrumental in
securing a number of important enactments in the interests of his constituents, including
the change in legal procedure. He was chairman of the judiciary committee, and it is said
that he, as such chairman and leader of the House, had the exceptional experience of having
the action of his committee substantially sustained by the House in every instance of its
reports. Mr. Robinson became a Republican at the time of the formation of the party and has
since then supported its principles. Studying public questions from the point of view of the
statesman, rather than that of the politician, his infiuence in party affairs has always been
exerted on a high plane. The distinguished esteem in which he is held within his party
is amply evidenced by the fact that he was nominated three times by it for the office of
governor, the first time in the spring of 1876, and again in the fall of 1876, and again in
1878 — the latter nomination he declined. In each instance he was nominated by acclamation.
He was a member of the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1880, which
nominated Garfield and Arthur, and was the author of a large part of its platform. In
1887, he was the commissioner for Connecticut at the Constitutional Centennial celebration
held in Philadelphia. Owing to his large legal practice he has been obliged to decline a

320 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
a number of honorable appointments which have come to him unsolicited. His connections
with the various institutions of Hartford are numerous. He is counsel for many of the
leading corporations of the state. In the late suit of quo warranto involving the question
of the state governorship, Mr. Robinson was the senior counsel for the Republican party.
He is a director in the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Company, the Connecticut Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the Pratt & Whitney Company, the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company
and the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company ; a trustee of the Con
necticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and a member of the Hartford Board of Trade.
In philanthropic, religious and charitable enterprises his counsel is constantly sought,
and in all educational movements in his native city he is looked upon as one whose ripe
scholarship, as well as civic pride, may be trusted implicitly. In furtherance of these various
aims and objects he has done an immense amount of work, having held for many years a
number of responsible positions on committees and as a member of boards of directors and
trustees and of the ecclesiastical associations of the state and city. He is a member of the
Hartford Tract Society, and a trustee of the Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford, and also
of the Hartford grammar school. He is likewise the vice-president of the Bar Association
of Connecticut and also of that of Hartford county; a member and ex-president of the Yale
Alumni Association of Hartford, and one of the founders of the Connecticut Society of the
Sons of the Revolution, to which he claims affiliation through descent from Col. Timothy
Robinson, his great-grandfather, who served honorably in the Revolutionary struggle. In
recognition of his finished scholarship he received, in 1888, from his alma mater, Yale College,
the degree of Doctor of Laws.
In the domain of law Mr. Robinson stands among the foremost members of the Con
necticut bar, a position to which he has advanced through years of diligent study and
industrious toil, and by successful practice of remarkable breadth and variety. His professional
attainments are scholarly, and together with his high personal character have gained him
wide esteem and many warm friendships on the bench aud at the bar, as well as in private
life. He possesses rare natural gifts as an orator, which have gained added force and brilliancy
from his broad culture and sincere patriotism. Some of his public efforts in this capacity
have been complimented in the warmest terms by capable critics, and have contributed largely
to increase his popularity. His favorite themes are found in patriotism, loyalty, and devotion
to country and to the broad interest of humanity. His oration at the unveiling of the Putnam
equestrian statue at Brooklyn, Conn., in 1871, has been accorded a place with the most
brilliant efforts of Connecticut's most gifted orators. He was the memorial orator at the
Hartford obsequies of President Garfield and General Grant. A number of his Memorial Day
addresses evince the loftiest patriotic sentiment, and have had a wide circulation in public
prints. Of these the one delivered before the Grand Army of the Republic in 1885, was,
perhaps, the best. Lack of space will prevent the insertion of more than a paragraph :
Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, said, in words that are already classic, "The world will little note nor
long remember what we may say here, but it can never forget what they did here." It is a profound truth.
Heroic deeds are better aud greater than the best words. And yet that is not all. When Mr. Lincoln added
those words to the pearls of human eloquence, did he do nothing? Was his utterance a mere flash of rhetoric
to die in the air, like a fork of lightning? Was not his great thought, clothed as it was in epigram most
attractive, itself a great action? Has it not stimulated to reverence and patriotism for these twenty years, and
will It not souud down the coming ages as a tone of sacred melody? The hour for the sword was a supreme
hour, and it was an hour for supreme action. But to the field of Gettysburg another hour had come, -an
hour to gather lessons from heroic sacrifice, and to write them in history. It was an hour to pluck the
blossoms which were then just unfolding upon the mounds of the martyrs. The patriot orator plucked them
and lifted them, as a sacrament, to the eyes of the world, in his words of undying emphasis. And so in your
memorial songs aud eulogy and decorations for seventeen years, as truly if not as supremely as when you

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 321
marched to the mouth of death at Gettysburg and Antietam, you have been teaching the sons and daughters
of the Union what is the glory and honor and worth of that patriotism which exchanged home and comfort
for fevers in swamps, starvation in prison, and wounds and death in the shock of battle.
And it is here, noble veterans, survivors of this brave band of heroes, that you have strange power above
the power of other men. It is the consummate power of tragedy. From these graves which you are honorino^,
and from your own graves which will be honored to-morrow, voices are speaking and will speak, which must
find a hearing; for the struggles and sufferings of man are universal in their sway, and so, as tragedy is the
ultimate of struggle and suffering, its power over human hearts is universal and measureless. The leaves which
are stained with blood are the text-books of human life.
By marriage, Mr. Robinson is connected with the famous TrumbuU family of Connecticut,
his wife, born Eliza Niles- TrumbuU, being a daughter of John F. TrumbuU of Stonington.
His brother, the late Lucius F. Robinson, also married into this family, taking as wife, Eliza
L. Trumbull, a daughter of Gov. Joseph Trumbull of Connecticut; and Dr. J. Hammond
Trumbull of Hartford, married Sarah A., the elder sister of Mr. Robinson. Mr. and Mrs.
Robinson are the parents of five children — Lucius F., Lucy T. (the wife of Mr. Sidney
Trowbridge Miller of Detroit), Henry S., John T., and Mary S. The oldest son, Mr. Lucius
F. Robinson, a graduate of Yale, was admitted to the bar in 1887, and is now the partner of
his father.

yONVERSE, JULIUS, of Stafford, woolen manufacturer, and ex-member of both
% branches of the state legislature, was born in that town on March i, 1827.
He is of Huguenot origin and descends from Henry Converse, who came
to America early in the last century and resided during the closing years of
his life at Thompson, Conn. Asa Converse, a son of the latter, removed from
Thompson to Stafford about 1750. He married and became the father of six children,
Solvin, James, Darius, Asa, Alpheus and Sybil. Solvin, the eldest son, born in Stafford
soon after his parents settled in that place, married, in 1780, Sarah, daughter of Josiah
Holmes and granddaughter of Deacon Holmes, a highly respected resident of Woodstock,
Conn. He died at Stafford, where he had resided during his entire lifetime, in March, 1813.
He left eleven children, and Solva, the second son, and father of the subject of this sketch,
was born at Stafford, April i, 1790. Early in life he married Esther, daughter of Deacon
Alden Blodgett, who was a native of the same town. They had eleven children, three of
whom died in infancy. Those who grew up were named Almeda, Adeline S., Alden S.,
Orrin, Josiah, Julius, Hannah B., and Frances E- Solva Converse was one of the pioneer
woolen manufacturers in northern Connecticut. He was an enterprising and prosperous
man, a worthy and respected citizen and an earnest Christian. He lived to tiie advanced
age of eighty-eight, dying at Stafford, Nov. 22, 1877. Julius, the subject of this sketch,
was his third son, and seems to have inherited many of his sterling qualities.
Educated principally in the local public schools, young Converse passed from them to
the Ellington high school and finished his studies at an excellent private school in Brimfield,
Mass. Desirous of obtaining a mastery of the business in which his father was successfully
engaged, he connected himself with the Mineral Springs Manufacturing Company, which had
its mills at Stafford, and having acquired the practical part of the work by actual labor,
entered the counting-room of the company in order to learn the administrative part.
Intelligent and devoted to the duties assigned him, he rose to be treasurer of the company,
and in 1866 he became agent also. Managing the affairs of this dual position with con
summate skill and ability he buUt- up a most profitable business, in wdiich, by degrees, he

322 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
became a large shareholder, and, in 1885, the sole proprietor. Mr. Converse is joint owner
also in the large woolen mill of EUis & Converse, at Orcuttville, Conn., and is interested
in a number of other enterprises of importance, in several of which he is the controlling
spirit. He assisted in organizing the Stafford National Bank and was also an incorporator of
the Savings Bank of Stafford Springs, and has since served in its directory. Another
corporation, in the affairs of which he takes a great interest, is the Hartford Life and
Annuity Insurance Company. For many years Mr. Converse has been distinguished for his
efforts to promote the interests of Stafford. As a means to this end he has used his
influence and wealth to improve and beautify the town, with the happiest results. The
impetus given to the work through his generous aid has stimulated other citizens to take
an interest in the task, and to-day the effect is witnessed in a variety of ways, all having
an elevating and refining infiuence upon the inhabitants and tending to enhance the value
of property in the locality.
While attending faithfully to his varied business interests as well as to this labor of
love, Mr. Converse is a very busy mm, but this fact does not interfere with his discharging
the duties of citizenship in a political way. An ardent Republican ever since the formation
of the party, he was a loyal supporter of the national authorities during the late Civil War.
In 1865 and 1866, he served in the state House of Representatives, having been elected on the
Republican ticket. In 1872, he was a presidential elector on the Republican national ticket
and cast his vote for Grant and Wilson. In 1877, he was elected to the state Senate
defeating his opponent, one of the most popular Democrats in the state, by a heavy majority.
In the Senate he served on the committee on finance and gave a most satisfactory account
of his stewardship. Still occupying the front rank as a party man he was sent as a delegate
to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, in 1888, and cast his ballot for Harrison.
It is doubtful if there is a more patriotic or public-spirited person resident in Stafford than
ex- Senator Converse. His large interests there serve to keep alive his regard for the place,
but down deeper and nearer to his heart than any purely monetary interest is his love for
the place of his birth, the scene of his life-long labors and the center of his famUy ties.
Mr. Conver^ niarried, June 11, 1854, Miss Mira C. Lord of Stafford, and to this
union there haA-e been born eight children, four of whom, LUlia A., Eugenie H., Julius
Carl and Louie S. are still living.

jAMERSLEY, WILLIAM, of Hartford, judge of the Supreme Court, was born
in that city Sept. 9, 1838. He was the son of Hon. WUliam Janies
Hamersley, for many years a distinguished resident of Hartford, and at one
time postmaster of the city.
After passing through the grammar and high schools of Hartford, young
Hamersley entered Trinity College in 1854, but never graduated. Deciding to use the
legal profession as a means for attaining future honors and successes, in the middle of the
senior year he left college to commence the study of law in the office of Welch & Shipman.
While a student he spent a season in Europe, preparing himself by observation and study of
Europeaii customs, laws and manners for the work which has commanded his chief considera
tion and interest through life. Admitted to the bar in 1859, he still clung to his old home,
and at once began the practice of his profession.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 323
Mr. Hamersley made his entrance into official life as a member of the Court of Common
Council in 1863. Three years later he was chosen vice-president of that body, and for the
years 1867 and 1868 he served as president. From 1866 to 1868, he held the position of city
attorney, and then resigned to accept an appointment as state's attorney for Hartford County,
a position which he filled for twenty years with great acceptability.
In the legislature of 1886, he represented Hartford at the capital, and served on the
committees on judiciary and federal relations. From the beginning of his career, Mr.
Hamersley has been a hard-working, painstaking, studious and industrious man. A first rate
city attorney, a thoroughly valuable state's attorney, and a successful general lawyer has
been the result. City or state, and clients as weU, have been ably and faithfulh' ser\-ed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hamersley has been a close student of interests and principles of the com
monwealth, and has contributed much essential aid in bringing about measures for the
promotion of the public good. He was one of the founders of the Connecticut State Bar
Association, and, with Richard D. Hubbard and Simeon E. Baldwin, constituted the committee
of that association through whose initiatory efforts the American Bar Association was formed.
Through its agency much of the most important legislation enacted during twenty years
or more has been achieved. Mr. Hamersley was one of the original promoters of the civil
procedure reform, and was a member of the commission which drafted the Practice Act, as
well as the rules adopted by the court for giving due effect to that act. He was both early
and active in promoting the improvement in the jury system in Connecticut. His life has
mainly been given to the practice of his chosen profession, and to work relating to reform in
law proceedings. Judge Hamersley was elected a member of the General Assembl}' of 1893, but on February
8, he was nominated by Governor Morris a judge of the Superior Court for eight years from
Feb. 16, 1893. He was promptly confirmed by concurrent vote in the General Assembly on
February 14, and resigned his seat in that body, declining later on to accept the pay due him
as a representative. He was afterwards nominated by Governor Morris to the vacancy in the
supreme bench to occur Jan. 14, 1894, upon the retirement of Justice Carpenter, and, on May
31, was confirmed by concurrent vote of both houses.
He had scarcely become settled in his new position when he was elevated to a position
on the supreme bench. Said the Hartford Times oi May 12, 1893:
Governor Morris, to-day, sent in the nomination of Judge AVilliam Hamersley to be a Justice of the
Supreme Court of Errors of this state, in the place of Justice Carpenter, whose term expires by age next
January. The governor has made an excellent selection in this case — the best he coulcl have made. Judge
Hamersley is peculiarly well fitted to be a judge of the Supreme Court, by his clear knowledge of the science
of law, and his close studies for over thirty years iu his practice before the Superior and Supreme Courts.
The tendency of his mind and his studies fit him for a. place in the higher court. In the brief time he has
occupied a seat on the Superior Court bench, he has won the esteem of all who are concerned in that court.
Without distinction of party the desire has been that Mr. Hamersley should go upon the Supreme Court bench
next January, in the place of Judge Carpenter, who will then be 70 years of age, and cannot, under the Con
stitution, act any longer.
He was confirmed for the Supreme Court without one vote against him in either house,
and that notwithstanding the fact that his confirmation renders the Supreme Court Democratic.
Had the Republican House chosen so to do, and had it been up to, or rather down to, such
small politics, it might have refused to confirm any Democrat and so kept the control with
.the Republicans, since the chief justice could have called up any Republican judge he chose
to act with the four Supreme court members. The course of the Republicans deser\-es
consideration for its fairness and its elevation above petty trickery, and it indicates also a
thorough appreciation of the honesty and trustworthiness of Mr. Hamersley, whom the
House knows personally by direct association with him. It was a noteworthy compliment,
hut one fully deserved.

324 REPRESENTATIIE MEN
A sketch of ^Ir. Hamersley in the Hartford Post, a paper politically oppcsed to him,
closes with the following just estimate of his character: "He is a man of sound, substantial
and unusual literary accomplishments. His papers on various subjects show his merit for
clearness, strength and fine execution. His political speeches and views are argumentative ,
logical, and give evidence of thorough research and knowledge. Probably his party associates
hereabout would choose him sooner than any one else to present a defence of Democratic
principles and tenets. No inducement could sway him one jot or tittle from the dictates of
his conscience. Among his legal associates he is known for his extremely keen moral sense
and scrupulous honor and courage, which know neither fear nor compromise. With the
sturdiest of moral qualities, he is wholly charitable, considerate, and brave in sympathy and
action."

;ALLACE, ROBERT, of WalUngford, founder of the R. Wallace & Sons
Manufacturing Company, was born in Prospect, Conn., Nov. 13, 1815. It
was onl}' a few months after the fate of Europe was settled for a generation
at Waterloo, and it is safe to say that men of the same name contributed to
the success of the English arms. There were stirring scenes being enacted in
this country as well when the future manufacturer made his appearance in the world. He
died Jan. i, 1892.
The two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon stock which flourish at their best on the
soil of Great Britain are united in his person. James Wallace, his father, was a farmer
with small means, but he had all the heroic traditions of Scottish history as they were
handed down to him by his ancestors. There is little doubt that the hero of whom it is
sung "Scots wha hae wi' WaUace bled," is a remote progenitor. His mother's name was
Urania Williams, a patronymic which stands well in English history. From such an
ancestry he inherited a sturdy constitution and a strong love of liberty.
Receiving only a limited education, at the age of eighteen, young Wallace secured an
old grist mill in Cheshire for a shop, and began the manufacture of spoons on his own
account. A year had been spent amid these primitive surroundings when an event happened
which people are prone to call ' ' good luck. " It is to be doubted if there is such a thing
as ' ' good luck ' ' in the strict meaning of the word, but one may have the good sense to
seize an opportunity when it is presented. Common sense Mr. Wallace possessed in a high
degree. Note how he utUized a bit of information. Meeting a New Haven patron one day
he was shown a spoon made from a metal new to both of them, known as German silver.
What were its constituent parts? How was it compounded? No riddle of the ancients was
ever more puzzling. Hearing that an analytical chemist. Dr. Louis Fechtwanger by name,
had brought a small bar of the strange metal from Germany, he was applied to for the
unravelling of the mystery. Mr. Wallace purchased the bar, had it rolled in Waterbury,
and from it made four dozen spoons.
While in Waterbury he had the good fortune to meet a gentleman who had recently
arrived from England, and who brought with him the formula for making German silver.
Restraining his eagerness somewhat, Mr. Wallace proposed to buy the formula, and finally
the trade was effected for $25.00. Nickel, copper and zinc were procured, and the first
German silver made in this country was compounded in 1834 in the factory of Robert
Wallace at Wallingford, and under his personal supervision. This event marked a new
epoch in the manufacture of metal goods in the United States, and all honor should be

Enc ^-'^- F h.Kary.'XnJ'^ ¦>-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 325
given to the pioneer in the industry. It was at this period that the simple machinery was
moved from the Cheshire grist mill to a good location on the Quinnipiac, below Walling
ford, and preparations were made for the manufacture of spoons and flat ware on a more
extensive scale. When Mr. Wallace started in business the man who could turn out three
dozen solid silver spoons in a day was a treasure, and they were pretty rough specimens,
too. The product of his factory was then about nine dozen spoons per day. In those days
it was a mystery to the proprietors where all the spoons went to and they often talked of
cutting down the product for fear of over production.
A score of years elapses, and a different scene is revealed to view. The crude processes
of the past have been laid aside. Everything is done by new and improved machinery,
the invention of Mr. Wallace, and all the work is performed in that methodical manner
which is a reflex of the founder's character. In the easiest and quickest way must all
goods in process of making be handled, and this style of handling must be perpetuated, for
then do workmen become rapid and successful, and it is by these elements that profits
accrue to any business. In 1855, the capital stock was only a paltry $1,200, a little later it
was increased to $14,000, but, in 1865, this amount was raised to $100,000, and the name of
the new combination was made Wallace, Simpson & Company. Great enlargements were
made in the factory, and, by the introduction of improved machinery, its capacity for
production was increased in a still higher proportion. Six years later, Mr. Wallace purchased
the stock of his partner, Mr. Samuel Simpson, and, with two of his sons, formed the new
concern of R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company, one third of the stock being held
by the Meriden Britannia Company. As the years had gone on they had added a long list
of articles in great variety of design — sterling goods, nickel silver-plated ware, both flat
and hollow, of high grade, not to mention an extended line of novelties.
The time had come for another advance in the processes of manufacture. Could a firmer
and more elastic basis for silver-plated ware be found? Something lighter and less bulky.
What of steel ? Numerous unsatisfactory experiments were made, but at last Mr. Wallace's
patience and persistence conquered all obstacles, and success was obtained. This invention
doubled the plant of the company and also the business. The patent was infringed upon
by the Oneida Community, which gave rise to a great legal battle in which the Oneida
people were defeated and perpetually enjoined. He formed a new company, still working
within the limits of the old one, of himself, his sons and sons-in-law, under the style of
Wallace Brothers. The factory has grown to be the largest in the world devoted to the
manufacture of flat table ware. The consumption of metal in all the departments is from two
and a half to three tons of steel per day, and about half that amount of nickel silver.
The concern has branch houses in New York and Chicago, and is never idle for lack
of orders. The present officers of the company are members of his own family, and were
schooled by the founder of the great industry. They are F. A. Wallace, president; Henry
L. Wallace, secretary ; and W. J. Leavenworth, treasurer, the latter being a son-in-law.
A sketch of Mr. Wallace in the "History of New Haven County," has the following
kindly words to say of him :
It would be difficult to find a finer illustration of life-long, steady, persistent attention to business than
Mr. Wallace. Many attempts have been made to turn him aside, many allurements have been thrown before
him, such as entice most other men, but none of them have moved him in all his life from his single aim of
being a first-class and foremost manufacturer in his special line of goods. He has been for many years one
of the heaviest tax-payers in the town of Wallingford, and it has been the desire of many of his townsmen that
lie should serve them in official capacity, and receive the honors of the town, but he has as steadily with
drawn himself from all appearance of notoriety, and preferred his daily business routine to political emolu
ments. His gathered wealth has given him the opportunity, and his large acquaintance might have furnished
42

326 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the incentive of movement in public in a showy style, but he has eschewed it all, purposely avoiding it and pre
ferring to be, among his fellow-men, a great deal more than seeming to be. His tastes are as simple to-day
as they were when he was only eighteen years of age, and hired an old grist mill in Cheshire and began
the manufacture of spoons on his own account.
Mr. Wallace has given an example of sterling integrity, business enterprise, perseverence, indomitable
will and keen forethought to his townsmen, and is held in high esteem by them. He has a warm, genial
temperament, that may flash for a moment into vivid pyrotechnics and startle the workmen, but the next hour
be, as in general, velvety as a fresh lawn. The appeals for charity are never turned aside. His family are
provided with sittings in church and urged to fulfill zealously the duties of church life as becoming to man and
due to his Maker. His large, well furnished home on Main street, Wallingford, is always open to his friends,
and he is happy when his family and they are happy.
This is such a correct estimate and teUs the story so completely, that there is little
left to be said. Having nearly reached the fourscore years allotted to man, he passed on
to his reward. Mr. Wallace was one of the old school of men. Up to the date of his
last sickness he had his bench in the factory, where he was always to be found, apron on
and hard at work, and ever ready to give information to those who desired it. Like
Mackay, the bonanza millionaire, he thought there was "too confounded much quarter-deck "
in the business offices, and it was rarely he was seen there. He was always at his little work
bench, with the men in the factory.
Robert Wallace was married March 22, 1839, to Harriet Louisa Moulthrop of New
Haven, Conn. She was singularly suited to him in her tastes for mutual companion
ship, and after almost exactly forty-five years of happy wedded life she passed on to her
reward, Jan. 19, 1884, sincerely mourned by friends and neighbors. Ten children were born
to them, of whom eight are living. One son died in infancy, and another, William J., at
the age of thirty years. The living are Mrs. Adeline Morris and Mrs. Nettie A. Leav
enworth of Wallingford; Robert B. Wallace of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Hattie E. Wallace and Henry
L. Wallace of Wallingford ; Mrs. Adela C. Sisson of New York ; George M. Wallace of
Chicago, and Frank A. Wallace of Wallingford.

^NDSLEY, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, M. D., of New Haven, was born at Orange,
N. J., Aug. 19, 1826. Dr. Lindsley traces his family line to John Linle
or Lindsley who is known to have been in Bradford in 1650. His son,
P'rancis, was one of the colonists who migrated to New Jersey and settled in
Newark, in 1666. From him the line comes down through (3) Ebenezer,
(4) Ebenezer, Jr., (5) Nathaniel, to (6) Daniel, who married Eliza, daughter of Stephen
Condit, a descendant of one of the original settlers of Newark. After her death, he
married Alicia M. Gaston. Charles A. Lindsley was the only child by the first marriage.
The early education of young Lindsley was obtained at the common schools of his
native place and as a private pupil of his rector. Rev. J. A. Williams, and his preparation
for college was received at the school of Rev. Mr. Ten Broek of Orange. Entering Trinity
College, he received the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in 1849. After graduation he was em
ployed as first assistant at that standard institution, the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Conn.,
for one year. The intricacies of the practice of medicine being attractive to his tastes, he
commenced its study in the office of Dr. Asa J. Driggs of Cheshire, Conn. He also attended
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and the medical department of Yale
College, taking two courses of lectures and receiving the degree of M. D. in 1852. The same
year he began the practice of his chosen profession in New Haven, where he has remained
to the present time, gaining an honorable name as a medical practitioner, and securing a
lucrative circle of clients.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 327
In i860, when in his thirty-fourth year. Dr. Lindsley was appointed professor of materia
medica and therapeutics at Yale College, and filled that responsible position until 1883, and
since that time has been professor of theory and practice of medicine, and for more than a
score of years was dean of the medical faculty.
From 1864 to 1876, Dr. Lindsley was attending physician of the Connecticut State
Hospital, being secretary of the Hospital Society from 1865 to 1877, and was health officer of
New Haven from 1874 to 1888. Everything that tends to the development of medical science
or the broadening of its scope, finds in Dr. Lindsley an active supporter. He has been a
member of the New Haven Medical Society for many years, and, in 1877, served as its presi
dent. He also holds a membership in the General Hospital Society of Connecticut, and is an
honorary ¦ member of the New Jersey Medical Society. In 1875-76, he was president of the
County Medical Association; was president of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1892, which
was the centennial year of its organization, and was vice-president of the American Medical
Association in 1891-92.
Outside of the immediate lines of his profession. Dr. Lindsley takes a deep interest in
all that makes for the highest physical welfare of the community. He was one of its most
active promoters and has been a member of the Connecticut State Board of Health since its
organization in 1878, and since the death of Dr. C. W. Chamberlin, in 1884, he has been
secretary of the board and its executive officer. He is president of the International Con
ference of State and Provincial Boards of Health, and, in 1877, was vice-president of the
American Public Health Association. One of the originators of the New Haven Dispensary
in 1863, he served as vice-president till the death of Governor English, and since that time
he has been president of that beneficent institution.
Dr. Lindsley's contributions to the literature of his profession cover a long series of years,
and in the special field to which he has largely devoted his efforts they are considered the
standard. Commencing in 1858, his first paper was "A Dissertation on Puerperal Convul
sions," which was published in the proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society. From
1874 to 1887, he edited the annual reports of the New Haven Board of Health, with tabulated
statements of the vital statistics of the town of New Haven. In 1878, he wrote an extended
paper on "Registration of Vital Statistics in Connecticut; " in 1879, one on " Sanitary and
Unsanitary Conditions of the Soil ; " in 1880, his subject was " Prevailing Methods of Sewage
Disposal;" and in 1881, "Vaccination." All these papers were published in the annual
reports of the Connecticut State Board of Health, and each was worthy of special mention.
Taking as his subject "Proprietary Medicines — their use demoralizing to the medical pro
fession and detrimental to the public welfare," in 1882, Dr. Lindsley prepared a most valuable
article, deserving of wide-spread circulation. From 1884 to 1891, he edited the annual reports
of the State Board of Health, and for the same years he edited the annual registration reports
of the vital statistics of Connecticut, and neither the amount of work required, nor its value
to the state at large, can easily be overestimated. "Facts in Sanitation of Practical Value "
was published in the report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1889. His address
as president of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1892, was principally devoted to the
Beginning and growth of Sanitary Legislation in Connecticut," and here again his long
and extended experience gave his opinion great weight.
Throughout the entire state, Dr. Lindsley is everywhere counted in the ver}- front rank
of his profession, and he richly deserves the reputation he has gained by more than two score
years of faithful service to suffering humanity. His literary labors have been vastly beneficial,
and, as will be noted, are very practical in their nature, and along the line of improvement
in public health and morals. His influence in this direction is wide-spread, and its \-alue to
the world at large can scarcely be estimated too highly.

328

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

Dr. Lindsley was married AprU 13, 1852, to Lydia L., daughter of Major Aaron B.
Harrison of Orange, N. J. Three children have been born to them: Harrison W., who was
a promising architect and died Dec. 27, 1893 ; C Purdy, who has followed in his father's
footsteps, and has an M. D. attached to his name, and Caroline.

pCKS, RATCLIFFE, of Tolland, president of the Canfield Rubber Company of
Bridgeport, was born at Tolland, Conn., Oct. 3, 1843.
Thomas Hicks, the American ancestor of this branch of the Hicks family,
came from London, England, to Scituate, Mass., and took the oath of fidelity
there in 1644, his brother Robert having arrived earlier in 1621, in the ship
"Fortune." From Thomas the line comes down through (2) Daniel, (3) Daniel, Jr., (4)
Benjamin, (5) David, to (6) Ratcliffe. He was a resident of Providence, R. I., and was a
seafaring man, being captain of a vessel, and in the pursuit of his calling made numerous
voyages along the American coast and to foreign shores. His son, Charles R., married Maria
A. Stearns, and the present Ratcliffe Hicks was their oldest child.
Pursuing his preparatory studies at Monson Academy, young Hicks entered Brown
University in i860, and was graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1864. While in college
he was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, and took high rank in his class, being one
of the commencement orators. His first occupation in life was as a teacher of the school in
his native viUage, and at the same time he began the study of law in the office of Judge Loren
P. Waldo, the teaching experience and legal research extending over the years from 1864 to
1866. In the last named year he was admitted to the bar of Connecticut, and during the
same year he formed a partnership with United States Senator Platt of Meriden, and continued
this business relation for three years, adding largely to his stock of knowledge of Connecticut
law by his association with the senior member of the firm. The next ten successive years
were spent in practice alone, and the last three were passed in the city of Hartford. The
success he attained at the bar has rarely been surpassed by a man of his years. Mr. Hicks's
widely extended practice caused him to be identified with many of the important cases of the
New England courts. Possibly the most notable was the celebrated Sprague suit in Rhode
Island, where a fee of $10,000 was received, probably the largest on record in that state.
His subsequent prominence as a manufacturer has somewhat obscured his reputation as a
lawyer, but those whose memories include the docket from 187 1 to 1881, will think of him
first as a brilliant lawyer, and it seemed almost a pity to spoil so promising a legal light even
to make the excellent man of business he proved to be.
Becoming connected with the Canfield Rubber Company of Bridgeport, in 1882, Mr.
Hicks was elected president, and has since devoted his great executive ability to the manage
ment of its interests. Under his fostering direction this concern has increased its capital
stock from $10,000 to $250,000, and besides it has a surplus of as much more, with sales
aggregating $1,000,000 yearly. A couple of paragraphs are quoted from the New York
Independent oi December, 1893: " The history of the Canfield Rubber Company is remarkable
from the fact that it was only in 1882 that it was organized with a capital of $10,000. They
had at that time a little manufacturing establishment, and virtually felt their way year by
year, seeing the demand for their goods increase, and year by year they saw the necessity for,
and did increase their plant and add to their capital, until now their capital stock is represented
by $250,000, with a surplus of the same amount, and their sales amount to about $1,000,000

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 329
a year. Of course they long since stopped enlarging their original factor}-, and have erected
one of mammoth proportions, suitable in every respect for their particular line of manu
facture. Their capacity now exceeds 5,000,000 pairs of dress shields per year.
The display made at the World's Fair by the Canfield Rubber Company was a very
creditable one indeed. The company had on exhibition two wax figures, one representing
Jared H. Canfield, the inventor of the Canfield seamless dress shield, and the other representing
a working girl to whom he was explaining the method of manufacturing the dress shield.
The figures were so strikingly realistic that large numbers of people upon finst viewing them
supposed them to be living persons.
Speaking on the same subject, the Neiv York Sim said: "Mr. Ratcliffe Hicks, president
of the company, is a man of remarkable business ability. His success is due, not more to the
self-recommending article he set out to manufacture, than to his untiring and ingenious efforts
to make every woman inthe land give it at least one trial." And the 5'?^« evidently has a
very just appreciation of Mr. Hicks's characteristics.
Though by no stretch of the imagination could he be classed as an office seeker, Mr.
Hicks has had a share of official honors, and one need not be a prophet to foresee yet
higher honors in store for him in the future. He represented the constituency of Tolland
in the state legislature of 1866, and had the distinction of being the youngest member at
that session. He was sent again to the legislature in 1893, and was a member of several
important committees, rendering excellent service on each. His speech on constitutional
reform was his greatest effort, and it brought him much favorable comment. Two paragraphs
are selected as showing the style of the whole :
"I have one appeal to make to the members of this House. To most of them it does
not make a penny's difference who carries this state politically two years hence. The sun
will shine, the grass will grow and business go on the same, whichever political party
triumphs. This country is lost and saved regularly every four y^ears. Let us do right, let
us make a record that we can live by and die by, that merits the approval of our own con
sciences, and of the intelligent future historian who will some day write up the record of
this General Assembly. No party has permanently triumphed politically in this country.
The party that is down to-day is up to-morrow. The political cauldron of American politics
is like the ebb and flow of the ocean, but there is one thing always safe to do, and then,
whether success or defeat awaits you, you have the consciousness of having done the right
thing, and in the end history will vindicate our action."
He closed with the following ringing words: "I shall vote for this bill, not because
I think it will benefit the Democratic party, for I do not think that either political party
will reap any permanent political advantages from a constitutional convention, but I shall
vote for this bill because it is right. This question rises above all party politics. The state
is greater than any political party. Our children and our chUdren's chUdren have an
abiding interest in our action to-day. I prefer to stand where the old Roman stood, and to
do right though the heavens fall."
Mr. Hicks was city attorney of Meriden from 1869 to 1874, and from 1873 to 1876,
he was also attorney for the county of New Haven. Before the Democratic State Con
vention of 1892, it seemed as if he had a safe lead for the nomination as lieutenant-
governor. Indeed, several papers went so far as to say that ' ' For second place on the ticket
it is given out as if by authority, that Ratcliffe Hicks, formerly of ^Meriden, but now of
Tolland, retired from business, will be the man. Mr. Hicks is a lawyer of recognized abUity,
and a Democrat of the old school. He would have the advantage of being thoroughly

330 REPRESENTATIJE MEN
known throughout the state, which is more than can be said of some of the men who have
been suggested for the place." But for reasons which appeared good to him he stepped
aside, and the prize went to a personal friend.
Having but just crossed the half century line of life, he is now in the very prime of his
manhood, and the citizens of his native state wUl doubtless find more use for his execu
tive abUity and his acquaintance with affairs which is the resjiU of his long legal and
business experience, to which may be added the breadth acquired by extended travel in
foreign lands. Being of a lively and social disposition, he is a member of the Lotus
and Colonial clubs of New York City. He has a comfortable share of this world's goods,
being several times a millionaire, with large real estate interests in Meriden, Bridgeport,
New Orleans and New York.
Mr. Hicks was married in 1879, to Mrs. Wilbur F. Parker of Meriden, Conn. One
chUd has been added to the family circle.

'DOLSEY, THEODORE DWIGHT, D. D., LL.D., ex-president of Yale College,
New Haven, was born in New York, Oct. 31, 1801. Died July i, 1889.
The first American ancestor of his line was George Woolsey, who settled
among the Dutch, in what is now the state of New York, during the early
part of the seventeenth century. The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, of Southold,
L. I., grandson of the original immigrant, graduated at Yale College in 1709, and spent
the last twenty years of his life at Dosoris, now Glen Cove, on the same island, in the
enjoyment of a considerable estate, which came to him through his-wife. His grandson,
William Walton Woolsey, born at Dosoris in 1766, became a merchant in New York, and
was long an important member of the Chamber of Commerce, treasurer of the American
Bible Society, and in connection with various other public institutions. He married
PUizabeth, sister of President Dwight, of Yale College, who had previously married his
sister. By her he had seven children, all of whom attained maturity and became heads of
families. The sixth of these was Theodore Dwight Woolsey, who graduated at Yale
College in 1820.
Soon after his graduation young Woolsey went to Philadelphia and read law, says the
"Biographical Encyclopedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island" — but with no wish or
intention to prepare himself for the practice of the legal profession — in the office of Charles
Chauncey, Esq., a near relative of his father by marriage. The two following years were
spent at Princeton in the study of theology, to which he had devoted himself. In 1823-25
he served as a tutor in Yale College, having received appointment to that office some
months before leaving Princeton. He then resumed the study of theology, and was licensed
to preach in 1825. After further study at home he went to Europe, in May, 1827, and was
absent a little more than three years, residing for purposes of study in France and Germany
for about two years, and spending the remainder of the time chiefly in England and Italy.
Returning home in July, 1830, he was elected, in the course of 1831, to the professorship
of Greek in his Alma Mater, and held that office for the next fifteen years. During the'
earlier portion of his incumbency he published editions of the " Alcestis of Euripides,"
Camb.,. 1833, 121110; the "Antigone of Sophocles," 1835, i2mo; the "Prometheus of
.Eschylus," 1837, 121110;. the " Electra of Sophocles," 1837, i2mo ; and the " Gorgias of

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 331
Plato," chiefly according to " Stallbaum's Text," 1842, i2mo — which, taken together,
constitute a more considerable contribution to Greek learning than had been made by any
earlier Greek scholar in the United States. The able and critical C. C. Felton, reviewing
these productions in the North American, said: "Professor Woolsey has now completed his
proposed course of Greek Tragedies. He has given specimens from among the best works
of the three masters in an agreeable form, and accompanied by a body of notes which
deser^^e all praise." A. P. Peabody, in the same periodical, wrote: "We have been
astonished to find how easUy they (Nos. i, 2, 3 and 4) have initiated the veriest novices
in Greek into the intricacies of the ancient drama."
In 1842, Professor Woolsey was one of a committee that established the Nen' Englander,
the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon being the principal founder and contributor. President
Woolsey 's papers, we understand, number over sixty. Among these, four extensive articles
on the" Revival of Learning in the Middle Ages," several on "Divorce," especially in the
United States, and three on the "Treaty of Washington," together with an address on the
" Life and Services of President Day," have been the most noticeable. Those on "Divorce"
were afterward enlarged and published in a separate work, entitled, " Essays on Divorce and
Divorce Legislation, with Special Reference to the United States" (New York, 1869;
i2mo, pp. 308). On such a topic as this opinions are widely divergent. The Christian
public, however, gave them close attention, in view of " the exactness and thoroughness
with which they discussed the legal effects of this great question, as well as from the sound
discrimination displayed in the examination of its social aspects."
In 1845, the health of his wife required Professor Woolsey to be absent from his post
for a considerable portion of the year, during which he visited England, France and Italy,
and had the great satisfaction of going to Athens, and of travelling into the Peloponnesus
and Bceotia. Before his return President Day had determined to resign the office which he
had filled with most eminent success and acceptance ; and on finding that it was the earnest
and general wish of the trustees, the faculty, and the public that he should be the successor
of that gentleman. Professor Woolsey, after some weeks of hesitation, consented to occupy
his place, which he did for the next quarter of a century. His next volume consisted of
"Discourses and Addresses at the Ordination of Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, LL.D., and
his Inauguration as President of Yale College," Oct. 21, 1846 (New Haven, 1846; 8vo,
pp. 100.) In his inauguration discourse he expatiated upon the value of a classical
education. The preacher was an exemplification of his own theory, and as such had been
honored by the diploma of LL.D. from the Wesleyan University in the preceding year. A
"Historical Discourse," pronounced before the graduates of Yale College, one hundred and
fifty years after the foundation of that institution, was his next publication, and was issued
in 1850. Had it been expanded into one or even two volumes, it would doubtless have
given greater satisfaction.
Being, by his election to the president's chair, divorced from the teaching of Greek,
Dr. Woolsey gave instructions by text-book and lectures in History, Political Economy, and
International Law. The latter subject, to which he had not been wholly a stranger,
received from him a good deal of attention, and after some fourteen years of study and
instruction he published in i860, his " Introduction to the Study of International Law,
Designed as an Aid in Teaching and in Historical Studies." Revised and enlarged editions
have since been published — five in all — each containing improvements on the imperfect first
one. Some of the highest living authorities have commended this work in the warmest
terms. "It is not only excellent in its&ii,''^ said. t\i& North American Review, "but it meets
a want long felt. Till now there has not been a fit text -book -on International Law for our

332 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
college classes. For this use President Woolsey 's work is especially adapted." It is now used
extensively in the academical and collegiate institutions of the United States, and is also a
text-book in the English universities. It has been republished twice in England, has been
translated into Chinese, under the superintendence of Dr. W. A. P. Martin, president of
the Imperial Tungwai College, and also into Japanese.
In 187 1, at the ripe age of seventy years. Dr. Woolsey resigned the presidency of the
university over whose fortunes he had presided so long, but he ever manifested the deep
est interest in its welfare as a member of the Board of Trustees, or Fellows, as the charter
of the college calls them, down to the year of his death. In the same year appeared in
New York a volume of sermons from his pen, entitled, "The Religion of the Past and the
Future," also two sermons, published in New Haven, on "Serving our Generation," and
"God's Guidance in Youth." After the death of Prof. Francis Lieber, in 1872, president
Woolsey re-edited, with notes, his work on " CivU Liberty and Self-Government, " (Phila
delphia, 8vo, 1874); also his " Manual of Political Ethics," (two vols., 8vo, 1874). In 1878,
Dr. Woolsey published a work in two large volumes, entitled, "Political Science," or, the
" State Theoretically and Practically Considered," which contains the results of the researches
and reflections of many years. Among his other publications is "Helpful Thoughts for
Young Men." He also published sundry single sermons, and was a contributor to the
Bibliothcca Sacra, Biblical Repository, fournal of the American Oriental Society, College Cour
ant, (New Haven), Independent, etc., etc., and also translated for Dr. Andrews's "Latin-
English Lexicon," founded on the larger Latin-German Lexicon of Dr. WUliam PVeund,
(New York, 1851). His eulogy on the late president C. C. Felton, in the Smithsonian
Report, 1861, and his contributions to the Boston Lectures for 1870, entitled, "Christianity
and Scepticism," all deserve mention in the record of a busy and beneficent life. He issued
a small book on "Communism and Socialism," — theories which are shaking the founda
tion of European empires, and which make themselves felt even in our democratic republic
— the principal matter of which was first published in the Independent, an infiuential New
York weekly newspaper.
Ex-President Woolsey devoted a considerable part of his time in the latter part of his
life to the revision of the New Testament, he being .a member and the chairman of the
American company engaged in that work in concert with the British revisers. "Through
desire, a man having separated himself intermeddleth with all knowledge," is a generaliza
tion whose justice this truly representative American scholar most thoroughly vindicates. For
several years he was one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and for twenty-five
years, until he had reached the age of seventy, one of the most prominent college presidents in
the land. Dr. Noah Porter, his chosen successor, forcibly expresses the estimate of Dr.
Woolsey, by all who knew him best, in the words: " As a scholar. President Woolsey is
distinguished for the exactness of his knowledge, the extent of his erudition, and the breadth
and sagacity of his judgment ; as a teacher, for the glow of his imaginative and ethical spirit,
and for the vigor of his impartiality in searching after and imparting the truth ; as a theo
logian, for the extent of his biblical knowledge, the catholicity and candor of his theological
opinions, and the fervor of his childlike faith ; as a friend, for the warmth and endurance of
his attachments ; and as a man, for a rare assemblage of qualities which have secured to him
an enviable place in the love and respect of his generation. Few men have been more dis
tinguished in this country for eminence in so great a variety of departments of scholarship
and culture, and few men have secured for themselves the solid respect of so great a number
of their countrymen for high personal and moral excellence."

CC^iJ-^^t-'T^ y- ^t^

r

MassacliusettalliHishingCo.Everett.Wrass.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. ZlZ
President Woolsey was married, Sept. 5, 1833, to Elizabeth M., only daughter of Josiah
Salisbury. She died Nov. 3, 1852, leaving three sons and six daughters, of whom one
daughter and one son are still living. The son was graduated from Yale University in 1872,
and from Yale Law School in 1876, and since 1879 has been professor of international law
at the last named department. For his second wife. President Woolsey married Sarah S.,
daughter of Gilman Pritchard of Boston, Mass., Sept. 6, 1854, who survives him, with two
daughters and one son.

jYDE, ALVAN PINNEY, head of the law firm of Hyde, Gross & Hyde, was
born in Stafford, March 10, 1825. He died in Hartford, Feb. 6, 1894.
Mr. Hyde caifte of a good old Puritan stock. He was a lineal descendant
in the seventh generation of William Hyde, who came from England in 1633,
with Rev. Thomas Hooker, and who, three weeks later, was one of the company
that followed Hooker to the Connecticut valley and settled the town of Hartford. The name
of William Hyde is on the monument in the old Hartford burying-ground, as one of the
earliest settlers. He was an original proprietor of the town of Norwich, which was settled in
1660, as was also his son, Samuel. The fourth son of Samuel Hyde was Thomas; the second
son of Thomas was Jacob ; the second of Jacob was Ephraim ; the eldest son of Ephraim was
Nathaniel, and the eldest son of Nathaniel was Alvan, who was the father of the subject of
this sketch. Nathaniel Hyde, his grandfather, and Alvan Hyde, his father, were both -iron manu
facturers of Stafford, and both of them successful in their day. Alvan Hyde married Sarah,
daughter of Isaac Pinney, Esq., of Stafford. A brief sketch of Mr. A. P. Hyde in the
"History of Tolland County," contains the following paragraph: "His parents stood during
their lives among the foremost in the old town of Stafford. His father was often elected to
represent his town in the state legislature, and was also one of the selectmen of the town.
His mother, in the church and in the neighborhood where she lived, was regarded as ' a
mother in Israel,' to whom all the poor, the sick and unfortunate were free to apply, with a
certainty of having their needs supplied. She was a 'saint,' if ever there was one on earth,
her ears and her heart being always open to every appeal of the needy, and her hand as open
as her heart to relieve their wants and necessities. His father died, leaving a reputation, not
only as a good business man, but as a thoroughly honest man, whose word was as good as any
other man's bond. Hence it is not difficult to account for the ' soul of honor ' that dwells so
characteristically in their son. Their worthy names and examples are justly enshrined in his
memory, while their distinctive traits are simply reproductions in characteristic form in him."
After passing through the public schools of his native town, young Hyde was prepared
for college at Monson Academy, and, entering Yale College, graduated with honor in the class
of 1845. He was a member of the Skull and Bones Society, and occupied a position of
respect, influence and leadership in his class. Among his classmates were Gen. Henry B.
Carrington, WiUiam E. Downes of Birmingham, Gen. Basil Duke of St. Louis, the late Con
stantine C. Esty, ex-congressman from Massachusetts, the late Mayor Carter H. Harrison of
Chicago, George W. Sheffield of New Haven, the late Gen. Richard Taylor, son of Ex-Pres.
Zachary Taylor, and who served with distinction in the Confederate army, the late Associate
Justice WiUiam B. Woods of the United States Supreme Court, the late Daniel Chadwick of
I<yme, the late Judge Henry Day of New York, and the Rev. John Wheeler Harding of
Longmeadow, Mass.
43

334 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Choosing the legal profession as one best suited to his tastes as the vocation of his future
life, he commenced the study of the intricacies of law in the office of the late Hon. Loren P.
Waldo, then the distinguished lawyer of Tolland, and a professor at Yale College. Mr. Hyde
was admitted to the bar at Tolland in 1847, but retained his residence in his native town
until 1849, when he removed to Tolland, and associated himself, with Judge Waldo, who in
the meantime had become his father-in-law. This connection lasted for five years, when Mr.
Hyde desired a wider field of action and transferred his residence to Hartford, in which change
Judge Waldo accompanied him. In 1867, the late Gov. R. D. Hubbard joined the firm, and
the title became Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde. Ten years later Mr. Charies E. Gross was
admitted as a partner, and in 1881, on the death of Judge Waldo, the firm assumed the name
of Hubbard, Hyde & Gross. About this time William Waldo Hyde and Frank Eldridge
Hyde, sons of Mr. Hyde, were made members of the firm. Both of the new partners were
graduates of Yale College, and it is a singular coincidence that all of the members of the firm
at that time and since have been distinguished Yalensians. The death of Governor Hubbard
in 1884, involved a new change in the firm name, which was then made, and remained Hyde,
Gross & Hyde until his death.
Official situations naturally seek men of Mr. Hyde's stamp. He made his entry into
political life as a member of the General Assembly for the town of Tolland in 1854. Re
elected in 1858, and again in 1862, he served on several committees of importance. In the
Masonic Order Mr. Hyde always evinced a lively interest, and was acquainted with all the
degrees up to the thirty-second. He was initiated into Uriel Lodge, located at Merrow Station,
in Tolland County, in 1858. Such was his zeal for the order that in May, 1862, he was
elevated to the rank of grand master of the Connecticut Grand Lodge, and was reelected the
following year. His administration was eminently successful. Next to his home and family
Mr. Hyde loved his alma mater. He was an enthusiastic Yale man, and attended aU the
reunions of his class, and every other Yale event possible. He was president of the Yale
Alumni Association of Hartford, but was prevented by his enfeebled condition attending
the last annual banquet, over which his son. Mayor Hyde, presided. He was always a host
at any Yale entertainment; his speeches the wittiest and his laughter the most contagious.
Mr. Hyde was an extensive traveller and had visited all sections of the United States,
including the far off Alaska, and was not a stranger to many portions of Europe. Always a
regular attendant at the South Church, he was at one time a member of the society's committee,
and was much interested in church affairs.
In political matters he affiliated with the Democratic party, and was one of the best
exponents of its principles in the state. After his removal to Hartford he was the candidate
of his party for congressional honors three times, but failed of election in each instance.
Mr. Hyde was a gentleman of broad culture and intelligence, and his standing at the bar
was one of marked distinction and honor. He held a high place among the ablest lawyers
of the state, and the list of his peers in the profession was extremely limited. His forensic
ability was not less brilliant than his legal, and his fiights of eloquence commanded universal
admiration. As a public speaker his services were often sought after, and he has delivered
addresses on numerous prominent occasions. It is only a plain statement of an acknowledged
fact to say that Mr. Hyde was one of the most gifted men in Connecticut, and the people of
the state would have honored themselves by placing him in any position which was in their
power to bestow.
Although Mr. Hyde's career of public service and usefulness was mainly pursued and
chiefly accomplished along the lines of his chosen profession, he was, nevertheless, connected
with many of the pubUc institutions of the city-social, educational, humane, financial and

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 335
religious — and earnestly engaged for their support and good management. All movements
for the improvement of the city and community that commended themselves to his good
judgment received his cordial and generous support, and it is universally admitted that by
his removal the city of Hartford has lost one of its most public-spirited, most influential and
esteemed citizens. His valuable counsel in the^ direction of several of our prominent mercantile
institutions was highly appreciated. Directly or indirectly he generously assisted many of
our benevolent and humane institutions, and was a sympathetic friend and helper of the
deserving poor.
Alvan P. Hyde was married in 1849, to Frances Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Loren P.
Waldo. Their children are William Waldo Hyde, now mayor of Hartford, and Frank
Eldridge Hyde, United States consul at Lyons, France, both of whom have been associated
with their father in the practice of the legal profession.
Mr. Hyde had an elegant home on Charter Oak place, the ground including the spot
where the Charter Oak, so famous in Connecticut history, stood for centuries. All the historic
associations of the locality were reverently preserved, as he was one of the most ardent of
patriots, as well as the most fascinating of orators.
After being in delicate health for several months, necessitating his withdrawal from active
business, Mr. Hyde had planned for a journey to Florida with his wife; but on the 6th of
February, 1894, the very day of his intended departure, he -was taken suddenly ill and sank
gradually until he passed away, from heart failure, resulting from the weakened state of his
system. Many were the tributes paid to his memory by the newspapers representing all shades
of political thought, and all united in bearing testimony to his sterling worth of character and
his almost unequalled ability as a lawyer. The editorial comment of the Hartford Post, a
paper not in sympathy with him politically, well voiced the sentiments of the rest:
Hon. A. P. Hyde, who died yesterday, has long been held one of the leading Connecticut lawyers and one
of the ablest of Democratic advisers in the state. His withdrawal from active practice because of the illness
which has resulted in his death, is a loss to the legal fraternity of the state. In many branches of law he had
few superiors. He was perhaps the highest authority on riparian rights in New England, and his knowledge
of this branch of the law as it pertained to Connecticut was complete. As an advocate he was clear, earnest,
and successful. With a good grasp of his case he was a good speaker and when the occasion demanded it he
could be eloquent or witty. He 'was a loval son of Yale and he has occupied a conspicuous place among its
honored alumni.
At a meeting of the bar of Hartford, called to take action on his death, the following
resolutions were presented by Hon. Henry C. Robinson, and unanimously adopted:
In the death of the Hon. Alvan Pinney Hyde the bar has lost an eminent lawyer. Nature equipped him
for usefulness. His frame was strong and stalwart, his intellect penetrating and logical, and his moral character
honest and sound. Study and culture developed his natural powers. A long career of honorable practice
carried him to the front rank of the profession and its most important activities, whence he retired for a few
months of sickness, and died. He had an instinct for correct reasoning. His thoughts flowed out in a clear and
forcible sentiment. He was faithful to his client and his cause, and his own conscience as well, from the first
hour of examination until the last decree of the court was registered. If he succeeded he was generous, if he
lost he was brave. In consideration for his associates he had no superior, in dealing with his opponents he
was always fair. His broad outfit for professional achievement made him a favorite counselor and advocate in
large interests, but he was never deaf to the inquiry nor reluctant to serve the cause of the humble client. He
won his victories by direct and open attack ; he had no use for indirection nor intrigue. No problem of logic
puzzled his refiection, and no crisis confused his perception. His knowledge of jurisprudence was reinforced
by a large knowledge of human nature, for he was full of humanity. He had, what is of supreme importance
in furnishing a good lawyer or a good judge, a fine sense of that natural justice which underlies the written
law of statutes and constitution. He was fair to a witness, for he was full of kindness. Aggressive in his
assertions of a righteous cause, he delighted to fight fraud and tyranny, but he had only sympathy for the
unfortunate and the weak. He loved the law and his love was returned. His name and his life are woven into
the records of our courts for the last forty years.

336 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In business circles he was influential and useful. He was skillful in banking, insurance and book-keeping.
He was fearless and upright in public life. As a friend he was true ; as a husband, father and brother, he was
tender and self-sacrificing. His genial presence was a joy to companionship. He brought much sunlight and
no darkness to social life. He was full of hope. He believed in man, individually and socially, and for
cynicism and pessimism neither his head nor his heart had any harbor. His career was successful and honor
able. We remember him and will remember him with respect, admiration and love. We will attend his.
funeral in a body, and the clerk of the bar will enter this minute upon our records and transmit a copy of it
to his family.

^OOMIS, FRANCIS B., of New London, ex-lieutenant-governor of Connecticut,
was born at Lyme, AprU 9, 1812. He died July 13, 1892.
The Loomis family is one of marked distinction, as it has been known in
England for more than four hundred and fifty years, and at a still earlier
period in Lombardy and Spain. F. B. Loomis was a lineal descendant of
Joseph Loomis, who emigrated from Braintree, Essex County, England, in 1638. Joseph
Loomis and his family were among the first settlers of Windsor, the oldest town in Con
necticut. The homestead built by them more than two hundred and fifty years ago in that
town is still in a perfect state of preservation, and is occupied by one of the descendants
bearing the name of Loomis, who holds the original land purchased. Of the five sons of
Joseph Loomis the line comes down through the second. Deacon John Loomis. He was
a representative to the legislature for four different sessions, and his monument may be
seen in the old Windsor burying ground. Daniel Loomis, son of John, had a son John,
who. was the father of Joel Loomis, the father of the governor.
Joel Loomis was an infiuential public man, a frequent representative of his town in
the General Assembly, judge of probate for many years, for a brief period an associate judge
of the county court, and the intimate friend of the late Chief Justice Waite of Connecticut,
whose son occupied the exalted position of chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States. For his second wife he married EUis ChappeU, daughter of Ezekiel Chappell, who
served through the whole of the Revolutionary war, and endured all the sufferings of that
terrible winter at Valley Forge. Thus the sturdy English stock of the paternal side was
supplemented by the revolutionary spirit of the maternal grandsire.
In early youth Mr. Loomis improved the opportunity of acquiring an education, afforded
by five years' tuition in a private school where those branches of knowledge that were most
likely to be of service to him in a business career were judiciously and diligently taught.
Thus prepared for the active duties of life, on attaining his majority, he immediately began
the manufacture of woolen goods in his native town, and that with a vigor and wisdom
that were rewarded by success from the very beginning. In 1847, the year before his
removal to New London, Mr. Loomis was honored by an almost unanimous election to the
lower branch of the legislature.
Removing to New London in 1848, Mr. Loomis enlarged his sphere of operation, and
for many years was prominently identified with the business and financial interests of that
city. Subsequent to his leaving Lyme, he erected the woolen mUls at Montville, and after
ward became the owner of the RockweU mUls at Norwich, and other factories in that town,
now controUed by the firm of Sturtevant Brothers. He also constructed and managed for some
time the steam woolen miU at New London, which factory was the first ever built in the
city for the production of textile fabrics, and of which he was the sole owner. The woolen
miU at Coventry, Tolland County, was yet another, and the last of his creations in that
special department in industrial art. In the marvelous development of the woolen manu-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 337
facture during the three decades between 1840 and 1870, Mr. Loomis was one of the prin
cipal factors. In 1840, the United States Census returned the amount of capital invested
in that business as in excess of $15,000,000, employing 21,000 persons, and producing
goods to the value of $20,696,000. In 1870, the census returned the number of woolen
manufacturing establishments as 2,891 ; of hands employed, 93,108 ; of capital invested, $108,-
998,000 ; and the value of the annual product at $177,963,000 — figures which reveal an
amazing increase in the accumulated values and industrial resources of the nation.
Not content with these manifold enterprises, he next acquired the exclusive title to the
the large steam cotton mills at Sag Harbor, N. Y. In the administration of all these
undertakings Mr. Loomis was alone, and unassisted by any partner. During the civil war,
his manufacturing was conducted on a more extensive scale than that of any other individual
in the state. His employees rose to the number of over one thousand, and his numer
ous establishments were running night and day, in the fulfilment of government contracts.
Universal executive ability, such as that which is needed in wise and thorough manipula-
latioii of a regiment in the field, is requisite to the successful conducting of so large a
business. Some scores of West Point graduates, on retiring to civil life, have become manu
facturers, and in peaceful pursuits have brought all their trained and quick-witted energies
into masterly exercise. Mr. Loomis himself, in early life, displayed a natural relish for
military affairs, and at the age of twenty-one was honored by election to the colonelcy of
the Third Regiment of Connecticut militia.
As a financier his abilities were no less conspicuous than as a manufacturer. Quick to
perceive proffered advantages, and active in turning them to private and public account, he
availed himself of the privileges conferred by the National Banking Act, soon after it was
passed, and organized the First National Bank of New London, which was one of the first
of its class, either in the state or in the country. He subscribed, and owned nearly the
whole of the capital stock, and directed its operations in person from the date of its organi
zation until its cessation from business in 1877. Investment rarely pro\-ed to be more lucrative
than did that. Dividends for many years averaged twelve per cent, in gold, and the surplus
accumulations more than equalled the capital. Throughout the rebellion against the United
States, that bank was the government depository for Eastern Connecticut, and for a long
time held average government deposits of over $4,000,000. It was also entrusted with the
sale of government bonds, and fioated over $20,000,000 of the several issues. Possessed of
an ample fortune, obtained by processes only beneficent to multitudes. Colonel Loomis retired
from manufacturing business soon after the close of the war, and employed his energy and
resources in stock speculations and railroad enterprises. Some of the former have been of
colossal magnitude. The latter, particularly in the South and West, have been on a large
scale, have tended to develop the capabilities of those sections of the land, and thus to
enrich the inhabitants, while they have yielded rich pecuniary harvests to the daring cultivator.
Politically, Colonel Loomis began life as a Whig, and acted in concert with that party
untU it ceased to exist. When the rebellion broke out, he patriotically devoted himself
to the support of the national cause, and lost neither heart nor hope in the darkest and
dreariest hours of the sanguinary struggle that ensued. The grit and tenacity of the old
Cromwellians were manifest in his presidency of the war meeting held in the old court
house at New London, on the evening of the day when traitorous hands fired on the
national flag at P''ort Sumter. His liberality was equally apparent in his contribution to
the fund for raising the first company of volunteers sent from that city. The spirit and
genius of the Revolutionary fathers never shone more resplendently than in the offer of
Colonel Loomis, in 1864, just before the carnage and horror of the Wilderness, to furnish

338 REPRESENTATIIE MEN
and equip at his own expense one thousand men for one hundred days, in order to relieve
the garrison at Fort Trumbull, that the regtUars stationed there might be sent to the front.
The noble offer was not accepted, but the genuine and glowing patriotism which dictated it
at the supreme hour of the conflict, received appropriate acknowledgment from the President,
in the following autograph letter, printed in Raymond's " Life, Public Services, and
State Papers of Abraham Lincoln," and justly claiming insertion here:
Executive Mansion, Washington, May 12, 1864.
My Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 28th April,
in which you offer to replace the present garrison at Fort Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose to
raise at your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this time to accept this proposition, on account
of the special duties devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a meritorious
instance of individual patriotism. Permit me, for the government, to express my cordial thanks to you for
this generous and public-spirited offer, which is worthy of note among the many called forth in these times of
national trial. I am, very truly, your obedient servant,
F. B. Looms, Esq. A. LINCOLN.
Throughout the war, and until 1872, Colonel Loomis acted in harmony with the Repub
lican party, but uniformly declined all overtures to become a candidate for office. The
Liberal Republican movement of that year enlisted his heartiest sympathy and cooperation,
and he was nominated elector at large on the Greeley and Brown ticket. From that time he was
politically identified with the Democracy. In 1872, he declined the unanimous nomination as
candidate for senator for the Seventh District, and shortly after the congressional nomination
of the Third Congressional District was also unanimously tendered, but he refused to accept.
Of the St. Louis National Democratic Convention, which nominated Tilden and Hendricks
for the chief offices in the gift of the American people, he was a delegate at large from
his own state, and was elected chairman of the state delegation. He was also made a presi
dential elector at large on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket from his state. In November,
1876, he was elected to office of lieutenant-governor on the Democratic ticket, and as pre
siding officer of the Senate, in the subsequent legislative session, discharged his duties with
acceptability and skill, added to an impartial dignity that commanded the respectful atten
tion and grateful applause of political -friends and opponents alike. At the close of the
session, the last ever held in the old State House, the Hon. Senator Browne of the Eighth
District, in delivering the farewell of the Senate to its presiding officer, spoke as foUows:
' ' Mr. President : I take great pleasure i.n presenting to you the resolution which has
been unanimously adopted by this Senate in your absence. It is the spontaneous outburst
from the heart of every member of this Senate. Further, Mr. President, it is with hesitation
and doubt that I have consented, at the request of my brother senators, to express in some
inefficient degree the feelings which animate us in the closing hours of the session. I may
weU say, it would have accorded better with my own feelings if it had faUen to some
senator who could better express the sentiments of aU of us upon such an occasion as this.
"By the progress of time, which in its rapid pace delays for nothing human, we are
brought to the closing hours of this session — a session which wUl be notable in the history
of this commonwealth as the last session held in the old and time-honored capitol of the
state. The distinction has fallen to you, sir, to preside over our deliberations; and while
}-ou were placed in the position which }-ou have so well graced, by the action of a party,
}'ou have forgotten that you were- a partisan, and have conducted yourself as a statesman.
As a member of the opposite party, and speaking for the members of ..that party as well as
the whole Senate, I ma}- say that no act of yours has been such that it could not be com
mended and appro\'ed by all.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 339
"In your official position, on every occasion, you have treated all questions fairly and
honorably, and in a manner to command the respect and approval of all. Strange as it
may seem, yet it is true, that during the two years that you have presided over this body,
no appeal has been made from the rulings of the chair. In all personal relations, coining
together strangers to each other as it were, we have come to love and esteem you, and no
member of this Senate will sever the relations which have bound us together without feelino-s
of pain and regret at the parting, which will extend far into the future ; but that pain will
be softened by a pleasure in the new friendships which have been the growth and product
of this session, which we seriously hope will only terminate with life. It brings feelings of
sadness as we review the history of the session, to think of parting ; but we must not let
its sadness oppress us. We must remember that life is like a picture : it has its sunshine
and its shadow. Let us not forget that we have for weeks walked together with you in
sunshine; in this parting hour we stand within the shadow. But as we part, whether in
sunshine or in shadow, may God be with us all."
The senator then, on behalf of the Senate, presented Lieutenant-Governor Loomis with
a large photograph of the old State House, with the picture of the twenty-one senators
grouped around it, as a testimonial of friendship and esteem.
Mr. Loomis was urgently requested to become a candidate for the lieutenant-governorship
for a second term, and although positively declining the honor, he was chosen by acclama
tion in the convention, but he refused to stand as the candidate.
In the fall of 1880, he was a prominent candidate for gubernatorial honors, and it was
the belief of all the leading men in the party that his nomination would insure success to
the Democratic ticket. His peculiar fitness for the position, in connection with his popularity
among the masses, were some of the reasons why Mr. Loomis should have been the
candidate of his party in the earnest and critical campaign of 1880. Whatever ma}'- have
been his personal wishes in the matter, he after mature consideration prepared the following
letter, which speaks for itself : New London, August 17, 1880.
ArEXANDER Troup, Editor New Haven Union :
My Dear Sir: Your valued paper has made such frequent mention of my name in conection with the
Democratic nomination for governor that I now ask the use of its columns to announce that, after a careful
consideration of all the circumstances, I have decided to withdraw as a candidate for any position before the
convention to-morrow. I am deeply sensible of the kindness and partiality which has induced leading organs
of Democratic opinion, and hosts of friends in all parts of the state, both openly and privately to advocate my
nomination. I am not unmindful of their wishes, nor insensible to the distinguished honor at such a time as
this of leading the Democratic party to victory. But I am unwilling that any action of mine should produce
embarrassment to the convention, or that the introduction of my name there should contribute, even in the
slightest degree, to divided counsels.
We are entering upon a campaign the importance of which, to the country and the Democratic party, can
hardly be overestimated. Peace, harmony, fraternal good-will ; the burial forever of the passions and resent
ments of civil war ; the preservation of the rights of the states, and of the proper powers by the Federal
Government; the maintenance of the Constitution in the spirit of the men who made it; the prosperity and
happiness of all in all parts of the land — these depend upon the success of the Democratic party and the
election of its noble candidate. To this great end all private ambition should be sacrificed and all personal
self-seeking and local claims subordinated.
In this great contest Connecticut is claimed as a doubtful state. She is certainly a pivotal state ; and
¦with harmonious counsels and wise nominations she is certainly Democratic. I hold it to be the duty of
every Democrat to contribute to such a result by every means in his power and by any sacrifice at his command.
In view of the consequences at stake, all differences should be adjusted, all jealousies put aside, all claims and
preferences .surrendered, and the convention be left at liberty to select such a candidate as will not only unite
the great Democratic party, but also draw to its support that great body of conservative voters who are
opposed to sectionalism and misrule. I have no doubt that the convention will, by the exercise of wisdom
and harmony, come to such a result, and that its proceedings will place Connecticut in the list of that great
majority of the states which are certain for Hancock and English.
I am, with great respect, yours truly,
FRANCIS B. LOOMIS.

340 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Thus we find him putting aside self that he might perhaps the better secure the success
of his party, and one whom in honoring, the people would have honored themselves.
Though retaining his interest in the political affairs of the state and nation, Mr. Loomis
never afterward took an active part in any movement.
Mr. Loomis was twice married ; first to Miss Ingham of Saybrook, by whom he had one
daughter, who Is now Mrs. George D. Whittiesey of New London. After her death he
married Miss Beckwith of Kentucky, who survived him, and by whom he had three
chUdren. Two of them died in infancy, and the other is now Mrs. Charles W. Havemeyer
of Hartford. Speaking of Mr. Loomis's death the New London Day said: "Though an especially
active and energetic man in all the affairs of life in his earlier days, he was not known to
the present generation. He amassed a fortune at one time a great one, and made it the
instrument of much good in helping those who had a claim on his interest and many who
had no special claim, and in extending a generous hospitality to his friends. To the
younger men about him, whose abUity he recognized, he was ever a warm friend and en
couraged them with advice and material aid." The editorial comment of the New London
Telegraph was, "Francis B. Loomis, who died yesterday morning, was a famUiar figure in
New. London, where his death is greatly regretted by men of both parties. Mr. Loomis
was a Democrat of ¦ the good old fashioned kind. He had been a prominent man here for
half a century. He was a quiet and exceedingly unostentatious man, who loved to live in
a simple and unassuming manner. He possessed a fund of varied information with regard
to the affairs of state and country, and had an extensive acquaintance with leading men in
both parties. Though not a great speaker, it was everywhere conceded he was a man of
individual thought and unquestioned ability."

ITCHELL, CHARLES E., long a resident at New Britain, widely known in
the United States as an authority on patent law, and late United States com
missioner of patents at Washington, was born in Bristol, Conn., on May ii, 1837.
Mr. Mitchell's great-grandfather was William Mitchell, who was born in
Scotland in 1748 and came to this country, a young man, before the Revolu
tionary War. He settled in the town of Bristol, and during the war fought on the side of
the colonies. William Mitchell had a large family of sons who were all men of character and
prominence. Among them was S. Augustus Mitchell, the geographer, and George Mitchell
who served in the Connecticut Senate and several sessions in the lower house. George Mitchell
was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His parents were George Henry and Lurene
Mitchell, both natives of Connecticut, the latter being a daughter of Ira Hooker of Plainville,
Conn. On his mother's side, Mr. Mitchell's ancestry included Thomas Hooker of the Con
necticut colony, and Capt. Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York after it came under
English control.
Mr. Mitchell was prepared for college at the well-known Williston Seminary at East
hampton, Mass., and, in 1858, entered Brown University where he was graduated in 1861.
After a course of stud}' in the Albany Law School, he received the degree of bachelor of laws
in 1864, and returning to his native place entered upon the practice of his profession. A
diligent student, careful in his methods and wise in his counsels, the young lawyer made
rapid headway and in a few years was not only prosperous, but also prominent. In 1870,

V"

p

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 341
when New Britain sought incorporation as a city, Mr. Mitchell and his partner, Mr. F. L.
Hungerford, drew up the charter. One of the first appointments made under the new municipal
government was that of Mr. Mitchell as city attorney, and in this capacity he supervised the
preparation of the code of by-laws for the city government. Mr. Mitchell was elected to repre
sent New Britain in the state legislature in 1880, and was reelected in 1881. His ability as a
lawyer was of great service in the House of Representatives, where during his first term he
was chairman of the committee on incorporations, and during his second term a member of
the judiciary committee. An important work performed by him during the session of 1880
was that of redrafting the corporation laws of the state, in which labor he was ably assisted
by the Hon. John R. Buck, who was Senate chairman of the committee on incorporations.
As a member of the legislative commission, appointed to consider and report upon the necessity
for a new state normal school building, he made a thorough investigation, and through his
strong affirmative efforts infiuenced the passage of the bill providing for its erection, together
with the requisite' appropriation.
Quite early in his professional career, Mr. Mitchell had his attention drawn to patent
cases, and, becoming interested, has since made patent law a study and a specialty, and
ranks now among the first patent lawyers in the country. His practice being principally in
the United States Courts, he has won a national reputation. In 1889, President Harrison
appointed him United States commissioner of patents, and, when he accepted the office, it
was generally conceded in the legal profession that his long study of, and practical familiarity
with, this department of law, qualified him in no ordinary degree for this highly responsible
position. While at Washington, Commissioner Mitchell instituted several important reforms in the
administration of the patent office, with the immediate result of greatly improving the service.
He resigned his commissionership on July i, 1891, owing to the demands made upon him by
his private practice, which demanded his whole attention.
The nature of his specialty and his official position have been instrumental in bringino-
him into business relations with lawyers in all parts of the country, and few in his profession
are more widely known or more highly respected for solid attainment, purity of character and
unfailing courtesy. Mr. Mitchell's services as an advocate have been sought in connection
with almost every branch of the industrial arts protected by letters patent, the " Tucker
bronze" cases and "Rogers trade-mark" cases, and many of the Edison lamp cases being
instances exhibiting the variety and importance of his litigation. He is at present established
in New York City, retaining however his Connecticut office and business connections.
In a report to the National Civil 'Service Reform League on the condition of the patent
office occurs the following paragraph regarding Mr. Mitchell's appointment, character and
work ; and its complimentary strain was well deserved :
The appointment of the present commissioner by President Harrison was made in pursuance of sound
business principles. There were several candidates for appointment, some of them retired congressmen, and
many of them with strong political backing; but the President resisted this influence, and declared that, if
the patent bar would unite in a recommendation, he would appoint the man they recommended. The present
commissioner, Mr. Charles E. Mitchell, was suggested. He was a patent lawyer of extensive experience and
of recognized standing, with a large income from his profession ; and his acceptance of the office involved
considerable pecuniary sacrifice. As soon as it was ascertained that he would accept, the leading patent lawyers
of the country endeavored to secure his appointment. He had their almost unanimous support as thoroughly
¦well qualified for the position. This commissioner seems to be independent of political influences, aud has
inaugurated valuable reforms. * * ? Your committee are glad to report from information iu their posses
sion, derived, as they believe, from trustworthy and non-political sources, that there has been a decided
improvement in the efficiency of the office since the appointment of the present commissioner.

44

342 REPRESENTATIJE MEN
In the affairs of the city in which he long resided he takes a deep interest, and his efforts
to advance the welfare of his fellow-citizens have been persistent from the day he took his
place among them. He took a very active and leading part in securing for the Young Men's
Christian Association in New Britain, of which he was president for several years, the large
and commodious structure which it now occupies ; and in various ways has been of service to
this and other local organizations of worth and character. Learned in the daw, of sterling
integrity of character, and actuated only by worthy motives in whatever he undertakes or
endorses, he holds an enviable position both as a lawyer and a man. In private life, as in
public, he is held in great esteem and has hosts of warm, personal friends.
Mr. Mitchell was married, in 1866, to Miss Cornelia A. Chamberlain, a native of New
Britain, Conn., a lady in every way worthy of her husband. They have three children.

|UBBARD, ROBERT, M. D., of Bridgeport, late assistant medical director and
acting medical director United States volunteers, and, in 1879, president of the
Connecticut j\Iedical Society, was born in Upper Middletown, now the town of
Cromwell, Middlesex County, Conn., on April 27, 1826.
He is a member of the old Connecticut family of Hubbard — branches of
which are now to be found in many parts of the Union — which traces its descent from
English ancestors of the name who were among the early settlers of New England, arriving
about the year 1660, and who, before the close of the century, had become prominent
members of the Connecticut colony. His father, the late Jeremiah Hubbard, was a native
of Upper Middletown, now Cromwell, and during many years of his life followed the sea in
the West Indian trade which, in his time, was extensively carried on from Middletown. A
man of simple habits, intelligent, brave, honest, hard-working and God-fearing, he was a
sturdy specimen of the old-time "Yankee salt," of the type which made the American navy
and merchant marine' famous during the first quarter of the present century. Although
frequently at sea and the mate of the vessel- in which he sailed, he was equally at home on
land, being likewise a farmer and the owner of a respectably sized although not over-
productive farm in Middlesex County. His wife, born Elizabeth Roberts, was a native of
Middletown and the daughter of Wickham Roberts, a prosperous farmer of that place, whose
lands included in part the beautiful site now occupied by the Connecticut Hospital for the
Insane. Jeremiah and Elizabeth Hubbard were the parents of eight sons and two daughters,
Robert, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest of this large family, the care of
which ultimately compeUed his father to abandon his sea-faring life and settle down upon
the home farm. In the labor on this farm the boy began to take a hand at a very early
age, and in his later youth he shared about equally with his father the various tasks. Such
education as he obtained during these years was of the elementary kind afforded by the
district schools of that period. These he attended somewhat regularly until well grown,
when his agricultural tasks were increased and he was able to devote the winter months
only to mental cultivation. He left school when seventeen years old. At this age he was
a sturdy youth, sensible and practical, able to read and write correctly, and well up in
"figuring," having during his last year at school "ciphered through Smith's arithmetic in
dependently of his researches in that text-book in the course of his regular studies." At
the time he left school he possessed a genuine thirst for knowledge, and although there was
no apparent probability of his having an immediate opportunity to gratify it, he cherished

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 343
the hope of being able to do so at a later period. On two grounds he shrank from asking
his time of his father ; first, because he was as serviceable to him as a hired man could be ;
and second, because he felt it would be unjust to ask any aid or privilege which his
brothers must necessarily be denied. But his desire to tread the paths leading to higher
knowledge would not be stifled and was finally gratified through the kind offers of two of
his family friends — a Mrs. Gridley of Cromwell, and Mr. afterward Rev. Jared O. Knapp;
the first agreeing to give him his board and lodging in compensation for certain ser\'ices
upon her place ; and the last, to give him his tuition in return for his care of the school
room of the academy of which he was principal. The boy's good mother, proud of the
ambition of her first-born, added her own entreaties to his and the desired freedom was at
length obtained.
In the beginning young Hubbard's intention was merely to emancipate himself from the
monotonous drudgery of farming, which he clearly perceived could never be made to give
an adequate return for the devoted labors of a life time, even granted that it permitted the
time for the gratification of his growing taste for reading and study — ¦which it did not;
but he had as yet no greater ambition than to enter upon a business career and his studies
were pursued with this end in view. At the academy, which he now entered, he found
many pupils of both sexes who were considerably his junior in years much further advanced
than he was, but he applied himself diligently to every branch taught and soon placed
himself on an equal footing with them. When the spring session terminated, having
finished Day's algebra, acquired some knowledge of chemistry and gained a fair foundation
in the stud}- of Latin, he resolved to make an effort to obtain a collegiate education. The
remaining two years were given over to working and stud}'ing to attain this object. A
season's farm labor brought him in fifty dollars in cash besides his board and lodging, and
other occasional employments added slightly to the means at his command ; but hard work
and long hours interfered with study and it was not until 1846 that he had finished his
¦preparatory course. In that year he passed the regular examinations at Yale College and
became a member of the class of 1850. In the face of all the adverse circumstances at
tending his attempt, his success in this respect merits high compliment, for he accomplished
in three years, during half of which he had to perforin hard manual labor, what frequently,
under favoring conditions, occupies double the time. With no incident of special note,
.save that of getting into debt, he passed through the freshman year at college.
At its close he was offered the principalship of the academy in the village of Durham,
Conn. Having the intention of returning to college and completing the course he accepted
this position, hoping thereby to earn sufficient to carry out his design. But a year later he
was induced by a medical friend — Dr. Benjamin F. Fowler of Durham, to undertake the
study of medicine. He came to this new task with what may be called a fine preparation
for it. He was in reality a well educated young man, and possessed a mental strength
which had gained rather than lost by his varied struggles and experiences. From the first
he found the prescribed reading in medicine most interesting and he made rapid headway.
When the second year of his term as principal expired he resigned that position and entered
Dr. Fowler's office as a student, remaining there a twelvemonth. He then placed himself
.under the tuition of Dr. Nathan B. Ives, an eminent practitioner of New Haven, becoming
a member of his family as it were, although paying for his board and instruction by
rendering such assistance to the doctor as was required. He reinained with Dr. I^-es two
¦years, during which he regularly attended the medical school of Yale College. In 1851, he
was graduated at this institution with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and had the
additional honor of being the valedictorian of his class. In February, of the same year, he

344 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
removed to Bridgeport, arriving in what was destined to be his future home, with twenty-
five dollars of borrowed money in his pocket, and an indebtedness of two thousand dollars
which he had incurred in getting his education.
To his way of thinking, however, the worst had now been passed, and he entered upon
his professional career with a courageous heart and high aims. Beginning in a modest way,
boarding at the city hotel, and having his office in a drug store in Wall street, he kept his
expenses within reasonable limits and from the start was self-supporting. By degrees his
practice enlarged, and, as he was both conscientious and polite, he made friends rapidly,
and very soon was in the receipt of a handsome income. In May, 1854, he formed a co-part
nership with Dr. David H. Nash, a graduate of the medical institute, Yale College, which
continued seventeen years, and was as successful and profitable as it was agreeable. In
1861, when the War of the Rebellion broke out, he was a practitioner of such high stand
ing that upon the recommendation of the State Medical Society, of which he was an honored
member, he was appointed by Governor Buckingham on the board of medical examiners
(eight in number), to investigate the qualifications, and to pass upon all applicants for
the positions of surgeon and assistant surgeon in the regiments then being raised by
Connecticut. In 1862, he himself took the field as surgeon (with the rank of major) of the Seven
teenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. A few months later he was promoted to
a brigade surgeoncy in General Sigel's corps, and shortiy before the battle of Chancellorsville
was again promoted to the rank of surgeon of division in General Devin's command. In
recognition of his meritorious services on the field on the day of that battle he was raised
to the rank of medical inspector (assistant medical director) and assigned as such to the staff
of General Howard. At the battle of Gettysburg, he served as medical director in charge
of the Eleventh Corps ; and when, at a later date this same corps was ordered to Lookout
Mountain he was again assigned to serve as its medical director and also as staff-surgeon to
General Hooker. He participated in the battles af Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge
and Ringgold, and was conspicuous for his devotion to the wounded upon those bloody fields.
Arduous campaigning, and the intense mental strain consequent upon his heavy responsibili
ties as a high medical officer, finally impaired his health to such an extent that' he was com
pelled to leave the field. Resigning from the army he returned to Bridgeport, and after a
brief period of rest, resumed private practice, to which he still gives his earnest attention.
In the hope of obtaining relief from a severe attack of sciatica, which probably had its
origin m the field. Dr. Hubbard went to Europe and spent considerable time in Germany.
While abroad he made many interesting studies, visited a number of the principal hospi
tals and other medical institutions, and formed the acquaintance of some of the most
distmgmshed foreign medical men. A second trip to Europe was made in 1883, and a
third m 188c;. In the public affairs of Bridgeport Dr. Hubbard had taken a lively and

intelligent interest from his first settiement in the town. Being recognized as a progressive,
high-minded citizen, who had the interests of the place at heart, he was elected in 1874
to represent it in the state legislature. His services in the Connecticut House of Repre
sentatives were marked by a conscientious discharge of duty to the people of the state at
arge, as well as to his constituents. In 1875, he was nominated for Congress by the Repub-
Tll^ aTji 'T\""""'' ''''"'' °' Connecticut, his opponent being the Hon W.
H. Barnum. Although his party was in the minority in the district, he received a very
ar ty._ In 1876 he was again elected to represent Bridgeport in the state legislature. The
following year he was renominated for Congress, his opponent being Levi wfrner, who was

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 345
elected by a small majority. Pressed in 1879, to take for the third time the congressional
nomination in his district he refused to do so, although the subsequent victory of the Repub
licans at the polls was clearly foreseen. His reasons for this course were found in the
exacting requirements of his professional labors, rather than in any disinclination to serve
the people, or to expose himself as his party's standard bearer to a third defeat.
In the year last given, he had the honor of being chosen president of the Connecticut
Medical Society. A practitioner of forty years' experience, as honorable as it has been
brilliant and successful. Dr. Hubbard stands among the first physicians of his native state.
He is a respected member of nearly all the leading medical societies, and has contributed
several interesting and important papers and addresses to the literature of his profession. He is
still in active practice, and has thousands of warm and appreciative friends in all parts of the
state, not the least valued being his former comrades of the Union army, who remember with
pride and gratitude his noble labors in their and his country's service during the Rebellion.
Dr. Hubbard was married on April 25, 1855, to Miss Cornelia Boardman HartweU, the
youngest daughter of Sherman and Sophia HartweU, honored residents of Bridgeport. Mrs.
Hubbard died in 1871. The children of this marriage are: Sherman HartweU Hubbard,
graduate of Yale Law School, in large and successful practice in Bridgeport, with patent
law as a specialty, married to Miss Comete Ludeling, eldest daughter of the Hon. John F.
Ludeling, formerly chief justice of the state of Louisiana ; Sophia Todd Everest, wife of
Charles M. Everest, vice-president of the Vacuum Oil Company, Rochester, N. Y., and
Cornelia E. Hubbard, Bridgeport.

lOOMIS, DWIGHT, late associate judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut,
and member of the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses of the United
States, was born in the village of Columbia, Tolland County, Conn., July 27,
182 1. The family of Loomis is of English origin, and the Connecticut branch
of it dates back to the original settlement of the New England colonies. The
father of Judge Loomis was Elam Loomis, also a native of Columbia. He married Miss Mary
Pinneo, a native of Hanover, N. H., whose father, James Pinneo, was of French ancestry.
The subject of this sketch, who is the only surviving issue of his parents, was educated
primarily at the public schools in Columbia. After leaving there he attended, during several
terms, the academies at Monson and Amherst in Massachusetts, where, under excellent
instructors, he finished his youthful education and qualified himself to undertake the instruc
tion of others. Returning to his native place he taught school for several years with marked
success, being more than ordinarUy endowed with the faculty of leading youth along the
thorny paths of knowledge, and especially happy in holding the attention of his pupils, and
in awakening in their natures that early thirst for knowledge so necessary to subsequent
educational progress. Quite a number of those who had the advantage of his instruction
during his brief period have lived to realize the high value of their young instructor's kindly,
but none the less effective, methods of stimulating their zeal while at school.
Dwight Loomis was one of those young men to whom a college education was not
essential. He had within himself, as subsequent events amply proved, that earnestness of
purpose and power of application which enabled him to acquire, unaided, the mental discipline
which is said to be the chief result of a well-spent life at college. Had the means of his
parents permitted, he would have taken a collegiate course, but the expense, even in those
days of simple living, was too large an item to be borne by any but the very well-to-do. By

346 REPRESENTATH'E MEN
the time it was in his power to bear the necessary cost, it was time to decide upon his life
work, and without hesitation he made choice of the law. There was no fancied preference
for the work of the legal profession in this decision, for the young man possessed many of the
chief requisites for success at the bar, and was urged to the step not only by his personal
inclinations but also by the advice of wiser heads. After completing his academic education,
he had joined a literary and debating society in his native town and at its rostrum had developed
great skill in discussion, and oratorical powers of no mean order. In the debates in which
he participated he showed a keenness of logic and a judicial fairness of mind which clearly
indicated that he had a future at the bar, and possibly on the bench. In 1844, being then a
well educated and unusually promising young man of twenty-three years of age, he went to
Ellington and began the systematic study of law in the office of the Hon. John H. Brockway,
a leading lawyer and politician of Tolland County. Shortly afterward he entered the law
school of Yale College, at New Haven, where he remained one year, when he was admitted
to the bar in Tolland County in March, 1847. In the autumn following, he was taken into
partnership by Mr. Brockway, and at once opened an office in the town of Rockville, being
the first lawyer to establish himself at that place. Business came much more rapidly than is
usually the case with young lawyers, and he was soon blessed with a large practice in which
he had remarkable success.
In 1 85 1, he had become so popular that he was elected to the General Assembly of the
state, and during the single term he served in this body he earned enviable distinction not
only as a wise legislator hut also as a speaker and parliamentarian. Mr. Loomis was in ardent
sympathy with the movement which opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the
extension of slavery into free territory, and was sent as a delegate from Connecticut to the
National Convention held at PhUadelphia in 1856, at which the Republican party was organized
and John C. Fremont was placed in the field as its candidate for the presidency. He took a
very active part in the presidential canvass following this convention, and won new laurels
on the stump in his native state. In 1857, he was elected to the state Senate as representative
of the 2 ist senatprial district. Here he had the rare distinction of being appointed, during his
first term, to the chairmanship of the judiciary committee, a position eloquently and truly
described by an eminent contemporary, as one "of the highest honor and responsibility,
reserved for those only whose legal attainments, efficiency and personal worth befit them for
its administration." Two years later he was the Republican candidate for the Thirty-sixth
Congress in the first Congressional district, comprising the counties of Hartford and Tolland ;
and although the district was considered a doubtful one by his party, and notwithstanding
the fact that a disappointed aspirant for the nomination took the field as an independent
candidate, Mr. Loomis was elected. At the close of his term he was re-nominated to represent
the same district, and was reelected by a majority considerably in excess of that previously
received. Mr. Loomis's congressional career covered the closing years of Buchanan's administration
and the opening years of Lincoln's. No more stirring epoch has occurred in the history of
the country than these four years, each day of which was fraught with momentous conse
quences to the Republic. During this period the labors of the patriots in the national
legislature were heavy with responsibUity, and to their credit it must be recorded that they
were unffinching in their devotion to duty, and heroic in their defiance of treason and
rebellion. Mr. Loomis bore his full share in introducing, advocating and supporting the
patnottc measures rendered necessary by secession and armed rebellion. Apart from this he
rendered valuable services as member and chairman of the committee on expenditures in the
treasury department, and also as a member of the committee on agriculture and of the

//

.ayi^^^ty^

MB-teopohtauMjllslimg tUigramig Co.-RewToTk

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

347

committee on elections, the last named being one of the greatest importance. He was seldom
absent during the sessions, and rarely missed a vote. He participated with earnestness in
aU the various important debates, and his voice was ever raised in favor "of strengthening
the resources of the nation, and maintaining the integrity of the Union." Conscientious in
his conduct, unfaltering in his allegiance, and logical and manly in his utterances, he
exerted a powerful influence upon national affairs, and his patriotism and ability were
recognized and applauded both by his colleagues and his constituents, as well as by all loyal
citizens. In 1864, his eminent legal attainments and high character were honored by his election
as judge of the Superior Court. At the close of the eight-year term, in 1872, he was
reelected to the same position. In 1875, he was elected associate justice of the Supreme
Court of Connecticut, and served as such until June 3, 1891, when his term expired by
limitation, according to the laws of the state. On the bench, as well as in the halls of the
state and national legislatures. Judge Loomis has given unbounded satisfaction. His career
has been marked, from first to last, by a high sense of honor, unremitting industry, and
talents of a superior order. His qualifications for public life were both brilliant and solid,
some of them born in him, others the result of studious thought and careful cultivation.
Acute analysis of character and ability have asserted that his mental and temperamental
qualities admirably adapted him to the judicial office. Always patient and courteous, capable
of exercising the greatest forbearance, gifted with a good memory, endowed with uncommon
powers of analysis, as well as an acute perception, and possessing rare judgment and
discrimination, he combined the higher qualities of the head with the noblest qualities of
the heart ; and exercising both alike, has worn the ermine with becoming dignity, and has
discharged his judicial functions in such a manner as to reflect the highest credit upon the
office he filled and the character of the man who filled it.
Judge Loomis was married on Nov. 26, 1848, to Miss Mary E. Bill, daughter of Josiah
B. Bill of Lebanon, Conn. This lady died June i, 1864. On May 20, 1866, he was
married, secondly, to Miss Jennie E. Kendall, daughter of Hubbard KendaU of Beloit,
Wis., who died March "6, 1876. The only child of Judge Loomis is a daughter. Miss
Jennie Grace Loomis, the issue of his second marriage.

TEARNS, HENRY PUTNAM, A. M., M. D., superintendent of the Retreat for
the Insane, Hartford, was born in Sutton, Mass., April 18, 1828.
The name Stearns is found among the earliest annals of the Massachusetts
Colony. Capt. John Stearns was one of the first settlers of Watertown in that
state, and from him the family line comes down through his seventh son.
Increase. The latter served two years and three months in the Revolutionary army, and
his son. Increase, Jr., finished out the remaining nine months of a three year's term. Asa,
eighth chUd of Increase Stearns, Jr., married Polly Putnam of Sutton, Mass. She was a
descendant in the sixth generation of John Putnam, who with his son, Nathaniel, settled
in Salem, Mass., in 1634. Of their four children, Henry P. was the second. His parents
were Asa and Polly (Putnam) Stearns, both of them being members of Massachusetts families,
and endowed -with all the characteristic qualities of the strong, thoughtful and energetic
people who colonized the state at the outset of New England history.

348 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
After the usual preparatory education, young Stearns matriculated at Yale College, from
which he honorably graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1853. Natural tastes and apti
tudes, together with the conviction that the largest individual usefulness could be best
attained in the medical profession, next led him to attend lectures in the excellent medical
schools associated with the Universities of Harvard and Yale, from the latter of which he
received the degree of M. D. in 1855. Desirous of enriching native culture by the best
knowledge and most approved art of the Old World, he then crossed the Atlantic, and
spent the two following years in diligent study at Edinburgh in connection with the cele
brated school of Scottish physicians and surgeons, which has added so many eminent
names to the list of scientific practitioners of the healing art. Returning in 1857, Dr.
Stearns first located at Marlboro, Mass., and after practicing successfully there for the space
of two years, he removed to Hartford, where he has since made his home.
In April, 1861, when the call to arms was made. Dr. Stearns offered his services to
the government, and was commissioned as surgeon of the First Regiment of Connecticut
Volunteers, and at the expiration of their three months' term of service, he received the
appointment of surgeon of the United States Volunteers. In this position he served until
September, 1865, when he was honorably discharged with the brevet of lieutenant-colonel.
Dr. Stearns's commission as surgeon bears the date of AprU 18, 1861, the day before the
passage of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment through Baltimore, making him the first com
missioned surgeon in Connecticut, and probably in the United States, of volunteer troops. He
received his initiation into the realities of actual warfare at the first battle of Bull Run.
After being commissioned surgeon of United States Volunteers he was ordered to the Depart
ment of the West, and assigned to the staff of Gen. U. S. Grant, with whom he remained
during the winter of 1861-62, and until the army moved up the Tennessee River. In that
campaign he was medical director of the right wing of the army under command of Major-
General McClernand. At this time he was made medical director of the United States gen
eral hospitals, and as acting medical inspector, remained in the service until after the close
of the war, being mustered out Sept. i, 1865, with the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel.
His army record is without a stain, and he filled all the trying responsibilities of surgeon
in the field and as medical director in the hospitals with rare skill and unswerving fidelity,
gaining a reputation for himself to which every soldier who came under his charge will bear
abundant testimony.
When Dr. Stearns entered upon the responsible position of superintendent of the Retreat
for the Insane at Hartford, he began what has proved to be his life work. For over
thirty years he has now been engaged in the discharge of the duties of the office, and has
gained a reputation for himself which is not confined to the United States. In February,
1876, he delivered an address" to the graduating class in the Medical Department of Yale
College, which was afterwards published by the medical faculty. It reveals his intimate
acquaintance with the history, theories and practice of medicine, and illustrates his ability
not only to describe them, but also to promote the further triumphs of the science and
art whose achievements he so eloquentiy details. Naturally, he refers to the advance in
the treatment of insanity during the last fifty years. "I would not," he says, "and
hardly could if I would, exaggerate either the cruelties practiced by society in general,
towards those afflicted by this most terrible of human maladies, or the utter lack of
appreciation by our profession, of the true nature of the disease, before and during the
first quarter of the present century. And that was true, not of any one country, but in
all the fairest and most civilized countries of Europe. The chronic insane, when they were
thought to be harmless, were permitted to wander about from village to village, the

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 349
object of the hootings, mockery and abuse of cruel boys and men. When they became
excited or dangerous, they were chained up like wild beasts in barns or sheds built for this
purpose, or thrown into dungeons, where they were scourged or beaten, till the evil spirit
should be subdued. There they were kept month after month, neglected or forgotten,
without sunlight, in the heats of summer and the frosts of winter, fed with the refuse of
tables if fed at all, tUl wasted to skeletons, and not unfrequently starved to death."
After an exceedingly graphic and powerful description of the prisons erected throughout
Europe for the detention of the insane, and the horrible treatment therein meted out to them.
Dr. Stearns proceeds to contrast the accommodations and treatment now provided : "So that
the countries of the whole civilized world seem to be vying with each other in the strife
to make amends for past ignorance aud cruelties, and secure better things for the future.
The old idea that insanity was a disease of a spiritual nature, has faded ,away, and now we
investigate it as a physical lesion ; we diagnose by study the symptoms and conditions of
its different forms, and adapt our course of treatment, as we do in diseases affecting other
organs or structures of the body. Nay, more, by as much as insanity is a disease most
obscure in its beginnings, and difficult to be investigated, by so much more are we pushing
researches, and putting forth efforts to unveil the mystery; and, by as much as it is the most
fearful of all forms of disease, by so much are we endeavoring to alleviate its sufferings,
and surround its unhappy victims with every restorative measure likely to be of sers-ice.
We build costly mansions surrounded by panoramic views of rivers, mountains, green fields
and leafy woods. Airy courts, filled with trees, shrubs and the fragrance of flowers are open
for their enjoyment at all hours of the day. Rooms with the cleanest walls and floors, and
filled with the purest air and sunshine, adorned with cheerful pictures, and even luxury,
have taken the place of dark, narrow and lonely cells. Kindness and sympathy have forever
driven into darkness cruelty, chains and scourgings. We strive to allay fearful bodings, and
to alleviate sufferings. We bring quiet and sweet repose to the weary and exhausted brain,
and by soothing care and gentle steps, we try to lead back the mind disordered and wander
ing again to the bright visions of reason. More than fifty per cent, of the acute cases of
insanity admitted to our hospitals now recover; and I boldly declare, without fear of chal
lenge, that if medical science had achieved nothing else for humanity during the past fifty
years than to have wrought such a change in our views and treatment of insanity — a change
so great that the disease is robbed of half its terrors — it would be entitled to honor and
gratitude, till that time comes when diseased brains and mental suffering shall no more
be known." The whole is worthy of a wide reading, but lack of space forbids a more extended quota
tion. Such an address is peculiarly stimulative of enthusiasm and application, and especially
when its auditors remember "that advancement in all departments of science generally goes
on by the grains contributed by the many, that the largest prizes come only rarely ; that there
has been but one Newton, one Franklin, one Jenner, and one Wells."
In 1876, Dr. Stearns also published a very valuable series of "Statistics of Insanity
Relative to Re-admissions to the Retreat." Some of the figures are quite startling. Another
pamphlet, published by Dr. Stearns in 1877, discusses the question: "Are Boards of Lunacy
Commissioners Expedient for American Asylums?" While he admits the excellence of the
British system, for reasons growing out of the political constitution of the United States, he
deems the adoption of a similar plan to be altogether impracticable for this country. Each
of Dr. Stearns's annual reports contains a mass of information, statistics, etc., relative to his
special field, which are simply invaluable to all students, and they are noted for practical
suggestions, with which they are filled. He has also made contributions to the leading
magazines of the day, and wherever published his opinions are held in the highest esteem.
45

250 REPRESENTATIVE 'MEN
Since 1876 Dr. Stearns has been lecturer on insanity in Yale University. He is a
member of the Connecticut State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the
New England Psychological Society, the American Medico-Psychological Association (of
which he has been president), the British Medico-Psychological Association, and of the
Boston Medico-Ps^-chological Society, and of other learned bodies. He holds the office of
director in the Traveler's Insurance Company, the Hartford Trust Company, the BiUmgs
& Spencer Company, the Hartiord Retreat, the Connecticut Humane Society, etc. Dr.
Stearns is a member of the Connecticut State Medical Society, of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, of the New England Psychological Society, and of sundry
other scientific and literary organizations. ,
His contributions to medical literature have mainly taken the form of pamphlets reprinted
from medical journals. They deal with questions, some of which are as old as humanity
itself and reflect much light upon the occult causes of human suffering. Among the eariiest
of his publications was a paper on "Fracture of the Base of the Skull," m the American
fournal of Medical Science for 1866. An essay on the "Use of Chloral Hydrate" appeared m
the transactions of "Connecticut Medical Society for 1874." A critique on the discovery of
modern anaesthesia, followed in the New York Medical Record oi 1876. It was m answer to a
paper by Dr. Henry J. Bigelow of Boston, claiming the honor for Dr. Morton of Boston.
With admirable skill and convincing argument he' established the truth of his position. In the
long list special mention should be made of "Expert Testimony in the case of United States
vs^ Q^mt^axx," 1882. (Reprinted from Government Report). "Insanity, Its Causes and
Prevention," 260 pages, 1883. "A Case not Wholly Hypothetical," American fournal
Insanity, October, 1889. "Some Notes on the Present State of Psychiatry," (Address as
president of the American Medico-Psychological Association, 1891), and "Lectures on Mental
Diseases," 1892, a volume of over six hundred pages, which contained his ripest and best
thoughts on the specialty of his life.
Henry P Stearns was married in 1857, to Annie Elizabeth Storie of Dumfries, Scotiand.
Their children are Henry Stuart, who graduated from Williams College, and later received
the degree of LL. B., from Yale University, and is now a practicing lawyer in Boston, Mass.;
EUen Brodie, who died in infancy, and Charles Storie, who is now in business in Hartiord.

HEELER, GEORGE WAKEMAN, of Bridgeport, associate judge of the
Superior Court, was born in WoodvUle, Miss., Dec. i, i860.
Stephen Wheeler of Easton, Conn., was a judge of the county court, and
his son, Charles, was a man of some mark, who held various local offices, and
represented his town in the state legislature. George W. Wheeler, son of
Charles, after, graduating at Amherst College, went to WoodviUe, Miss., in 1857, where he
was the principal of a large school. Returning to the North in 1868, he settled. in Hacken-
sack, N. J., where he is now an honored judge of the court of common pleas. He married
Lucy, daughter of Henry Dowie of Andes, N. Y., and the subject of this sketch is the older
of their two children.
The future judge graduated from the Hackensack Academy in 1876, and from Williston
Seminary a year later. Entering Yale in 1877, he graduated from the academic department
in 1881. Choosing the profession of law, Mr. Wheeler studied its principles with Garrett
Ackerson, Jr., of Hackensack, and later took a course at the Yale Law School, from which
he received his degree in 1883. He at once took up his residence in Bridgeport, where he
has ever since made his home. Forming a partnership with Mr. Howard J. Curtis under the

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 351
firm name of Wheeler & Curtis, they soon commenced to obtain their full share of the legal
practice of the city. This connection lasted until 1893, when Mr. Curtis was elected judge
of the court of common pleas, and Mr. Wheeler was appointed by Governor Morris, and
confirmed by the legislature, as associate judge of the Superior Court.
Mr. Wheeler was city attorney of Bridgeport from July, 1890, to the same month in 1892,
but this was his only official position until his present one. His practice was general in its
nature, and his fine reputation is built on no special branch of the law. While he was city
attorney of Bridgeport, he had two notable cases placed under his charge, both of which were
carried to the Supreme Court and were decided in his favor. One was Somers vs. City of
Bridgeport, a police department case, and the other was Rylands ex rel. vs. Pinkerman. His
first case before the Supreme Court was won in his twenty-eighth year, Davidson vs. Holden,
and the decisions of two lower courts were reversed, making quite a triumph for the youthful
lawyer. He is the youngest man who has been appointed to the bench of the Superior Court for
many years, if not since the state was formed. Notwithstanding the fact that he has been in
the world barely a third of a century. Judge Wheeler upholds the dignity of the judicial ermine
as easily as if his years had been doubled, and his course has met with favorable commendations
from all parts of the state. At the close of the term at New Haven in the spring of 1894, the
Register of that city said :
Judge G. W. Wheeler, who has presided over the civil side of the Superior Court since the opening of
the court last fall, will conclude his labors here for the present to-morrow. Judge Wheeler has gained many
laurels during his stay in this district, not only on account of his knowledge of the law but through his keen
perception of human nature and his determination to accord every one justice in the true sense of the word.
The legal profession speak in the very highest terms of Judge Wheeler, whom they hold to be the best
upholder of the dignity of the court, the most absolute non-respecter of persons, and at the same time the
most obliging judge who has graced the bench in this state in a. score of years. As one prominent lawyer
expressed it this morning: "If appointing young men as judges would give us such men as G. W. Wheeler,
I think I echo the sentiment of the bar of the state when I say that it would be the greatest blessing that
the judiciary of the state has received."
At the same time and on the same subject, the Evening Leader had the following
paragraph :
Yesterday Judge Geo. W. Wheeler finished holding court in New Haven, and left to begin his duties in
another county. It is not an exaggeration to say that no judge of a Connecticut court ever presided more
efEciently, more impartially, and to the greater satisfaction of the public, lawyers, clients, spectators, and all
concerned, than Judge Wheeler. Always courteous, he is never forgetful of the dignity of his position, and he
is always mindful of the rules of law and practice. Every lawyer is required to conduct his cases strictly
according to the rules of practice and evidence, but when necessary to call special attention to a departure
from what he considered the proper conduct of the case. Judge Wheeler's reminder was always expressed in a
gentlemanly way, which at once gained him the respect of the practitioner. It is safe to say no judge ever
presided over this court to the greater satisfaction of the best lawyers of New Haven County.
Judge Wheeler never forgets to be a gentleman. No matter how vexatious the details of the case may
be, no matter how wearied he is by long hours of service upon the bench, no matter how much in haste after
adjournment of court, he is always ready to give audience to those desiring to address him, and he is always
in the highest sense mindful of the feelings of those with whom he is associated. Probably no judge ever
¦worked more hours during a term of court than Judge Wheeler has while presiding over the last term in this
county, and certainly no judge ever retired at the end of the term with the more sincere regard and good
wishes of all who have watched his conduct or made his acquaintance. He is an able lawyer and a good judge.
He is a credit to the legal profession and to the land of his nativity.
Judge Wheeler is a member of the Democratic party from strong conviction, and takes
naturally to all the exciting contests of political life. In all the campaigns since he became
of age, and up to the time of his appointment as judge, he had a liberal share of work, and
his opponents soon learned to respect his ability as a manager. He is a firm believer in the
theory that the judiciary should be kept out of the field of political strife, and he carefully
practices what he believes.

352 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

|UBBARD, RICHARD DUDLPvY, of Hartford, ex-governor of Connecticut, was
born in Berlin, Sept. 7, 1818. He died Feb. 28, 1884. Aside from its
alliterative qualities, 1818 was noted as being the year in which a long line
of men prominent in various spheres of action first saw the light.
From the earliest colonial days the Hubbard family has been identified
with the history of the state, and few, if any, names appear more frequently and conspicu
ously in its historical records. Many persons distinguished in legal, clerical and political
pursuits, as well as in the mUitary service of the United States, have borne this patronymic.
Orthographically it would seem to indicate descent from the old Norse stock, which, blended
with the Saxon, has done so much to spread Protestant civilization throughout the world.
R. D. Hubbard was the son of Lemuel and Elizabeth (Dudley) Hubbard. His father
was a nati\-e of Berlin, but his mother came from FayetteviUe, N. C.
The youth of the future governor was passed in East Hartford, and he was prepared
for college at the famous Wright School. He matriculated at Yale CoUege and graduated
therefrom in the class of 1839, having just reached his majority. Being of an exceptionally
self-reliant nature, he was constitutionally fitted to depend on his own resources. Choosing
the profession of law as the one in which to gain a name for himself, he entered the office
of Hungerford & Cone at Hartford. Mr. Hubbard accustomed himself to close and com
prehensive study, and soon acquired a general knowledge of common and statute law, and
by this means he became thoroughly qualified for the achievement of the widest success at
the bar. Mr. Hubbard made his entrance into political life as a representative to the state
legislature for the town of East Hartford, and received the compliment of a reelection the
foUowing year. He held the post of state's attorney for Hartford County from 1846 to 1868,
inclusive. Having transferred his residence to Hartford, in 1855, and again in 1858, he
represented that city in the legislature. As a member of the judiciary committee and also
chairman of the committee on the school fund, he wielded great power in moulding the
legislation of the state. For its present high standard of efficiency, the excellent pubUc
school system of Connecticut is largely indebted to him for service that was simply
invaluable. During the war for the preservation of the American Union Governor Hubbard's
sympathies and services were patriotically extended to the federal government, and his zeal
was shown in many practical ways. His interest took special shape in caring for the gallant
soldiery from Connecticut. He held that the mUitary value of soldiers, other things being
equal, is in proportion to their moral character. This view was shared by Governors
Buckingham and Douglass, by Rev. Dr. L. W. Bacon and other clergymen, as well as by
such experienced commanders as Washington, Wellington and Napoleon. He cooperated
hberall}- with Dr. Bacon in organizing and sustaining the chaplain's aid committee, whose
object was to supply all Connecticut regiments with chapel tents, circulating libraries and
regular newspapers. They also assisted the chaplains in their labors for the improvement
of the mental and moral welfare of the men. While it lasted this association was enabled
to accomplish much good. The results certainly justified the remark of one of the
beneficiaries, that "Connecticut is leading every other state, even the Old Bay State, in the
aid she is furnishing her chaplains."
The war in the interest of national unity and free institutions ended in 186 s Two
years later, Mr. Hubbard was sent to the Fortieth Congress as the representative' of the
Pirst District. The work of the session was the reconstruction and consolidation of our

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 353
common country, and the devising of measures for protecting the equal rights and privileges
and for fostering the welfare of all its citizens. He served as a member of the committee
on claims and on expenditures in the post-office department, and was recognized as a careful
and painstaking legislator. The second nomination was offered him at the close of his
congressional term, but, from motives of preference for the legal profession, it was declined.
Yielding to the importunities of many friends, Mr. Hubbard accepted the Democratic
nomination for governor in 1872, but his candidacy was unsuccessful before the people. In
1876, the office again sought and secured his acceptance, and in the following election he
was triumphantly chosen to the gubernatorial chair. The "Souvenir of the Centennial"
states that "Almost under protest he took part in the canvass by making a few speeches."
As the first incumbent of the chief magistracy under the amended constitution of the state,
which makes the term of governor biennial in duration. Governor Hubbard held office for
two years.
A biographical sketch of him gives the following succinct statement of his mental quali
fications: "His reputation as an orator is of a high order. Few surpass him in magnetism
and attractiveness, have more ample command of language, or hold more closely the attention
of auditors. His speeches in Congress received cordial commendation, and his addresses at
home have been characterized by great acceptability. His fame as a speaker rests chiefly
upon his successful efforts in the courts of law. During his protracted service as state's
attorney for Hartford County, he was engaged in some litigations of extraordinary legal
interest, in which he acquired wide reputation for cultured ability. Thoroughly familiar with
all legal principles, and quick to adduce all pertinent precedents and authorities at pleasure,
he also delights to plant himself on those eternal equities which underlie all just legal enact
ments. Remarkable for the aptness of his diction, for the force and beauty of his illustrations,
and for the sympathy which bursts from the heart in sympathy with its client, the triumphs
live in the memories of legal contemporaries, many of whom regard him as the present leader
of the state bar. His personal dignity of manner has sometiines, it is said, been mistaken
for haughtiness, but those who know him best affirm with truthfulness his steadfastness in
friendship, his kindliness of soul, and his courtesy in intercourse with men. His opinions are
the fruit of mature thought, his firmness in harmony with his convictions, and his integrity
unquestioned by his wide-spread constituents."
Richard D. Hubbard was married Dec. 2, 1845, to Mary Juliana, daughter of Dr. William
H. Morgan of Hartford. Six children were born to them, of whom one son and three
daughters are now living. He died at his home in Hartford, Feb. 28, 1884.
His eminent qualities of mind and heart and the high esteem in which he was held
by his fellow citizens caused many suggestions to be made in respect to a statue or some
other fitting public memorial of him. Nothing definite, however, toward this end was
accomplished until after the death of George D. Sargeant in 1886. Mr. Sargeant was a
resident of Hartford, a gentleman of ample means, of much culture, and a warm friend of
Governor Hubbard. By his will he bequeathed to his executors, Alvan P. Hyde and John
R. Redfield, Esquires, the sum of $5,000, to be by them used, together with such additions
as might be made thereto, in the erection of a suitable statue of Governor Hubbard, either
in the capitol building, on the capitol grounds, or on Bushnell Park, as might be deemed
most advisable. It was thought most fitting that the statue be placed on the capitol grounds,
and at the January session, 1887, of the General Assembly, a resolution was passed appoint
ing a commission consisting of the governor, the comptroller, and the Honorables Oliver
Hoyt of Stamford, Jeremiah Halsey of Norwich, and Henry C. Robinson of Hartford, to
select a suitable location for the same. These gentlemen decided upon the conspicuous site
near the southeast corner of the grounds, a short distance from the capitol building, where

354 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the statue now stands. The executors invited competition for a bronze portrait statue, and
the design submitted by Mr. Kari Gerhardt, the eminent sculptor, was accepted by them
as being in all respects satisfactory, and the statue was erected in accordance therewith.
The statue is of heroic size, a most admirable likeness of its subject, and represents him
standing in a natural attitude, as though about to address the court or jury. The granite
pedestal bears upon a bronze tablet the simple inscription :
RICHARD D. HUBBARD
LAWYER ORATOR
STATESMAN
The statue was unveiled on June 9, 1890. On the afternoon of that day the governor
and other state officers, the judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts and of the United
States Court, the ex-governors of the state, and other distinguished citizens, assembled by
invitation at the Allyn House, and were escorted by The First Company of Governor's Foot
Guards and The Hubbard Escort to a platform which had been erected on the capitol
grounds near the statue, where the dedicatory exercises were held. The members of the
State Bar Association and of the Hartford County Bar, of which organizations Governor
Hubbard was president at the time of his decease, attended the exercises in a body, and
there was present a very large assemblage of the citizens of Hartford and of other parts of
the state. From the memorial address of Judge William Hamersley, delivered on this occasion,
a few paragraphs are quoted :
To the study of the law Hubbard devoted his life. He quickly attained eminence, and was called upon
to deal with the highest ranges of the profession, and thus came to the study of the social and political
questions, that in the latter years of his life so gained by his discussion and advocacy. But through all he
was the lawyer, recognizing in his profession the field of action that more than all others called for the high
est qualities of manhood, and gave opportunity for the most useful gifts to the present and the future.
It is true that during his two years in Congress he was little more than a spectator; for he was a
member of the minority at an exceptional time, when the tyranny of the "standing rules" that manacled
free deliberation deprived the minority of responsibility as well as rights. But as governor of this state he
felt the responsibility of office, and had the opportunity to respond. The state will long have reason to
remember gratefully the aid he gave in promoting, to use his own language, the " needed betterments in the
system of laws which govern us ; in the prompt administration of justice between man and man ; the econo
mies of public expenditure ; in the interests of popular education, the reformation of suffrage ; in the regulation
¦ of corporate franchises; and in the protection of the savings of the poor against fraud and embezzlement."
His whole nature was in revolt against the inequalities that come from privilege. All his personal
ambitions, the acquirement of influence, power, wealth, centered in his passion for independence. The only
privilege he coveted was the "glorious privilege of being independent." To the attainment of that end, as
the prime ambition of life, he bent his energies. And so there grew up pervading his whole nature a not
ignoble pride. It breathed no contempt, but was the champion of equality ; it was not based on selfishness
or self-esteem ; it was a generous pride, for it freely scattered from the full horn the good gifts of fortune,
and only kept under the lock and key of an impenetrable reserve its troubles and its cares. This was
hardly pride in the current meaning of the word ; it was rather the tribute he paid to the master spirit
of his life, the service by which he held his grant of independence.
To the office which he held, as governor of this state, many men have come, and gone — some without
regret — some possibly with censure. He was one of those whose inauguration was greeted with rejoicing,
whose retirement was accompanied with unfeigned and deep regret. This was not because of the manly
fight he made to protect and promote the interests of the people, not because of his masterly state papers
that have even now become admitted precedents and acknowledged authority ; it was mainly and chiefly
because his logic, brilliancy, courage, truth, were pervaded by a personality that unconsciously, but most
really, laid hold of the heart of the people.
To this crowning power we owe this statue now given to the guardianship of the state. It is the gen.
erous gift of one whose later years were passed in quiet retirement, wholly aside from the struggles and
interests of the busy world, and who, as a looker-on, not only saw the brilliant gifts of the lawyer and the
public man, but felt the fascination of his personal attraction, and so out of the fullness of his heart gave
this memorial, not to the lawyer, the orator, the statesman, but to the man.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

355

^ORRANCE, DAVID, judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, lieutenant-
colonel, U. S. v., and late secretary of state, was born in Edinburgh, Scotiand,
on March 3, 1840. His father died in Scotland, and, after his death, his
widow, with five children, including the subject of this sketch, came to
America in 1849.
The famUy settied in Norwich, Conn., where young Torrance attended the public schools,
and also learned the trade of paper-making, working at this business untU July, 1862, when
he enUsted as a private in Company "A," of the Eighteenth Regiment of Connecticut
Volunteers. A younger brother, James Torrance, enlisted in 1861, in the Third Regiment
Connecticut Volunteers for three months, and at the expiration of that period enlisted in
the Thirteenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers for the term of three years. He was
killed at Port Hudson in the year 1863. Soon after his enlistment the subject of this
sketch was promoted to a sergeantcy in his company, and, on Dec. 22, 1863, he was
commissioned captain of Company "A," Twenty-ninth Regiment of Connecticut Volun
teers — a command which was composed of colored men recruited in the state. With
this regiment he remained in active service in the field, until October, 1865, when he
was mustered out with his command at Brownsville, Texas, having in the meantime
been commissioned major of the regiment in July, 1864, and its lieutenant-colonel in the
month of November following. While a member of the Eighteeenth Regiment he was
taken prisoner by the rebel forces, and was confined for a time in the famous (or rather
infamous) Libby prison, whence he was removed to Belle Isle, where, a little later, his
exchange was effected.
Upon his muster out of service in 1865, he returned to Connecticut, and entered upon
the study of law at Derby, in the office of Col. William B. Wooster, under whom he had
served in the army. He was admitted to the bar in 1868, and immediately thereafter
formed a co-partnership for the practice of law with Colonel Wooster. This co-partnership
continued until Colonel Torrance was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut
in 1885. He was chosen to represent Derby in the lower branch of the state legislature,
in 1871, and was reelected the following year. In 1878, he was nominated on the Repub
lican ticket for the office of the secretary of state of Connecticut, and, being elected, served
in that office during the administration of Gov. Charles B. Andrews, the present chief
justice of the state. In 1880, he was appointed judge of the New Haven County Court of
Common Pleas, for the four years' term beginning in 1881. At the expiration of his term
he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court by Gov. Henry B. Harrison, and in 1890,
he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, by Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley.
His term upon this bench will expire in 1898. Judge Torrance has been connected with
the Grand Army of the Republic for many years, and is also a member of the Army and
Navy Club of Connecticut.
He was married in 1864, to Miss Annie PYance, daughter of James France of Norwich,
who has borne him three Children, two sons and a daughter.

356 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

;ARNER, SAMUEL LARKIN, of Middletown, mayor of that city from June,
1862, to 1866, and representative of the Second District of Connecticut, in the
Thirty-ninth United States Congress, was born in Wethersfield, Conn.,
June 14, 1828. He died Feb. 6, 1892. Both on the paternal and maternal
sides he descends from ancestors who were among the first settlers of Ipswich
and Boston, Mass., and his paternal ancestors were members of that group of families that
founded Wethersfield. His father, Levi Warner, an enterprising and well-to-do citizen of
Wethersfield, married Sarah Larkin, daughter of John Larkin, a respected resident of that
town. The subject of this sketch was the third born of eight children.
His father's means permitting, he received a good education, attending first the local
common school and academy, and subsequently the Wilbraham Academy. Having finished
his studies, he engaged in school teaching, and for four years followed that pursuit with
gratifying success. Mr. Warner, early in life, decided to take up the profession of law, and,
about the time he became of age, began the systematic study of law under Judge William
M. Matson of Hartford. In addition to a thorough training in the office of this gentleman,
he had the advantages of a regular course of instruction at the Yale Law School, and of a
two years' course at the Harvard Law School. He finished his legal studies at Boston, and
in 1854, was admitted to the bar in that city. He then returned to Hartford, where he was
well known, with the intention of beginning the practice of law. Through the influence of
ex-Governor Seymour, who became interested in him while he was a student, he was
brought to the notice of Governor Pond, then chief magistrate of the state, who made him
his executive secretary. The duties and responsibilities of this position were greatly
increased while Mr. Warner held it, by the serious illness of Governor Pond. Not infre
quently the young secretary was called upon to direct and decide upon matters of grave
moment without having opportunity to consult his superior, thus practically exercising his
functions to a considerable extent. Acting thoughtfully, rationally and modestly, he secured
the respect of all with whom he came into official connection, and won the esteem of the
executive, who on many occasions gratefully acknowledged his indebtedness to his clever
young assistant. At the close of Governor Pond's administration, Mr. Warner went to live
at Portland, Conn., where he opened law offices.
Unusually bright and alert in his profession, and well informed on public questions, he
easily took a prominent position, and, in 1858, was chosen to represent the town of Portland
in the state legislature. His experience at the state capital proved of great service to him,
directly and indirectly, for besides largely increasing his knowledge of the law, it had given
him a thorough insight into public affairs, and a wide acquaintance with public men. In
actual practice he soon developed a remarkable degree of ability, and clients came to him
from a wide extent of territory. In a few years he found it necessary to open an office at
MiddletOAvn for the convenience of his clients in that section of the state, and thither he
subsequently removed. Carried by his large practice into all the courts of the state, he had
frequently to do battle with some of the greatest lights of the legal profession, and although
at first he lacked experience at the bar, he so completely made up for it by diligent study,
close observation and careful preparation of his cases, that he rarely failed to win his cause!
His success as a lawyer gave him great local popularity, and, in 1862, he was elected
mayor of Middletown. He assumed this office with well defined ideas regarding its duties
and responsibilities. The water supply of the city being noticeably defective, he applied
himself with great energy to the task of securing a new system and placing it on a firm basis.
His brilliant success in this and other directions so strengthened his popularity that he was

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 357
retained in office four years. While the Civil War was going on, he was distinguished in
his state by the zeal with which he sustained the federal authorities. Appreciating his
patriotic endeavors, the Republicans of his district nominated him for Congress early in the
struggle. His opponent was the late Governor English, a man of ripe experience and great
personal popularity, and, as the district was strongly Democratic, Mr. Warner was defeated.
At the next Congressional election, Mr. Warner was again nominated by the Republicans.
He was at this time at the zenith of his popularity in the district, and was loyally supported
by many Democrats who cordially endorsed his views upon national issues. The result was
his election by a majority of seventeen hundred votes. His term in Congress was marked by
close attention to duty and by an enthusiastic support of the Republican administration.
Although pressed to accept a re-nomination at the close of the term, he felt compelled to
decline for private reasons of a business nature.
Mr. Warner had the honor of a personal acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, and warmly
supported his re- nomination for the Presidency. He acted as one of the secretaries of the
convention which placed him in the field for his second term, and gave freeh- of his services
to secure his reelection. When his chief was struck down by the hand of an assassin, Mr.
Warner was chosen by the people of Middletown to deliver the address on the occasion of
the Lincoln memorial services held in that town. Upon the death of President Garfield, a
similar honor was conferred upon him. As the unanimous choice of the committee ha\dng
charge of the centennial celebration of Middletown, held on July 14, 1884, he delivered the
oration on that occasion. This, like all his public utterances, was carefully prepared and
historically accurate, and was widely complimented for its interesting information and eloquent
language. Mr. Warner's labors after leaving Congress were principally in the line of his
profession, and his standing at the bar in his native state was second to none. He had
great strength as a cross-examiner, and in trials before a jury seldom failed of success. The
records of the Supreme Court of Errors show his mastery of his cases in that forum. It is
said by the judges of that court, that no brief or presentment of causes in their court show
more or better preparation or conception of the case than did Mr. Warner's. The last
case of prominence which he conducted was the Brainerd will case, which he fought hard
and won after a long contest.
An upright lawyer, a useful citizen and a capable public official, he achieved an enviable
record, and is deservedly held in high esteem not only in the city of which he was an honored
resident, but in the state at large.
Mr. Warner was married, in 1855, to Mary E., daughter of John Harris, Esq., of Norwich,
Conn., by whom he had two sons, Harris, and Charles Winthrop.

NGLISH, JAMES EDWARD, of New Haven, who was successively member
of both houses of the state legislature, governor of the commonwealth, repre
sentative in Congress, and United States senator, was born in New Haven,
March 13, 1812. He died March 2, 1890.
Governor English's ancestors on both sides were residents of Connecticut
long anterior to the war for national independence. He was always proud of his descent
from good Puritan stock, rightly estimating the worth of ideas at the root of New England
civilization — fervent religious zeal ; the sacrifice of ease and self-indulgence to lofty princi
ples, and the subordination of private life to the welfare of the state. He was descended
from Clement English of Salem, Mass., whose son Benjamin niarried Sarah Hard in 1699,
46

358 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and the following }'ear moved to New Haven. Here was born a second Benjamin English,
who, when the B'ritish army invaded the city, July 5, 1779, fell pierced by a bayonet. His
son, also a Benjamin English, owned vessels engaged in the West India trade, and during
the administration of Thomas Jefferson held a position in the custom house. Of his family
of eleven children, James English, the father of the governor, was one. He married Nancy
Griswold, a woman of fine, serious dignity, and gifted with a shrewd intelligence, who came
from one of the best families in the state.
After receiving a good common-school education, James E. English, then in his six
teenth year, apprenticed himself to Mr. Atwater Treat of New Haven, to learn the trade of
carpenter and joiner. His first work at this calling was upon the old Lancaster school-house
in his native city, and was performed on June 27, 1827. Upon coming of age he attained
the dignity of journeyman and at once entered upon a successful career. Within two years
he had made almost three thousand dollars, and reasoning that he needed a larger field for
the exercise of his talents than that afforded by his trade, he gave it up to engage in the
lumber business, in which he remained twenty years. His next great enterprise was in the
development of the clock industry. In partnership with Mr. Harmanus M. Welch of New
Haven, he bought the clock property of the Jerome Clock Company of that city, and
organized the New Haven Clock Company, which under his able direction became in a
few years one of the largest and most prosperous in the world. As his means increased
he became connected with various other enterprises, manufacturing and commercial, some
of them of great magnitude, and several being in other states. In 1855, Mr. English
became identified with the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Company of Naugatuck, in
which he retained a large interest up to the time of his death — a connection covering a
period of thirty- nine years, during twenty-nine of which he was president of the company.
He also became a large stock-holder in the Adams Express Company, the Plainville Manu
facturing Company, the Bristol Brass Company, and other enterprises. Investing largely in
New Haven real estate, he did much toward improving and developing it. None of his
wealth was gained by speculation, nor was he ever known to push his own interests at the
expense of others. His remarkable business sagacity enabled him to accumulate a large
fortune, and for many years preceding his death he was the reputed possessor of several
millions, and was rated as one of the richest men in Connecticut.
For upwards of forty years Mr. English received elective honors at the hands of his
fellow citizens, who held him in the highest esteem from his earliest manhood. When but
twenty-four years of age he was chosen a member of the board of selectmen of the town of
New Haven, and did his duty so well that he was retained in that position for several years.
In 1848-49, he was a member of the board of common council of the city of New Haven.
Chosen to represent New Haven in the legislature of 1855, he made such a good impression
by his attention to public business that he was elected to the state Senate in the foUowing
year. WhUe a member of the state Senate Mr. English obtained a charter and established
the Connecticut Savings Bank, of which he was president from 1857 until the time of his
death. Offered a renomination in 1857, he feh compelled to decline it, owing to the increas
ing importance of his private business, which demanded all the time at his disposal. In
i860, he was a candidate for lieutenant-governor of the state on the Democratic ticket, but
was defeated, the threatening condition of affairs in the Southern states adding greatly to the
strength of the Republican vote.
While a true Democrat on national issues, Mr. English was opposed to the policy of
secession, and sturdily adhered to the Union cause throughout the dark period covered by
the war of the Rebellion. He was one of the staunchest supporters of the federal author-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 359

ities, and gloried in being what was then called a "War Democrat." Elected to Congress
in 1861, he sat in that body during almost the whole period of the Ci\-il War, and by his
voice and vote on all occasions pro\-ed himself a patriot of the highest principles, one who
regarded country as far superior to party, and who dared to act at all times as his honor
and conscience dictated, regardless of personal consequences. During the four years that he
was a meinber of Congress he served on the committee on naval affairs, where he rendered
services of exceptional value to the' country, and was also a member of the committee on
public lands. He supported all the war measures of the administration, but on questions of
finance, internal policy and revenue reform, he remained a consistent Democrat, voting against
the legal tender bill, and the national bank system. No Republican entertained a more
profound hatred of slavery than did Mr. English, and he never concealed his detestation of
this "monstrous injustice" from his colleagues or the public; in this differing considerably
from some of the more timid members representing Northern constituencies and holding their
seats as "War Democrats." One of the greatest acts of his life, in his own estimation, was
his unflinching vote in favor of the emancipation of the slaves. His work in Congress, apart
from the great issues of that momentous period, was attended to with the same fidelity as if
it had been his private business.
In 1866, he was a delegate from Connecticut to the national union convention held at
PhUadelphia. The following year he was elected governor of Connecticut, succeeding William
A.Buckingham, the famous "War Governor," whose faithful friend and supporter he had
been throughout the crisis of the Civil War, although not of his party. The elections in
Connecticut were held annually at that time, and Governor English was reelected executi\'e
of the state in 1868. In 1869, he was succeeded by the Hon. Marshall Jewell, one of the
most distinguished and popular Republicans in the state, whom he defeated in 1870, in which
year he served his third and last term as governor.
Few governors of Connecticut have been as popular as Mr. English. AU Connecticut
was proud of the man, of his,personal history^, of his private traits and his public record. The
position of an executive officer gave especial distinction to his most characteristic gifts,
intellectual, official and social. His messages were models of terse and well chosen English;
his few words were to the point ; his manners were dignified, and distinguished by a fine
courtesy. His presence on all occasions and in every sort of assemblage roused inten.se
enthusiasm. His services to his state and his country were widely recognized. He always
took the deepest interest in the cause of education, and his efforts so greatly promoted and
developed the facilities offered by the public schools, that he has been called " the father
of the free school system in Connecticut."
After leaving the executive chair, Mr. English sought rest and recuperation in travel,
and devoted the principal part of several years to visiting different sections of the United
States and a number of the foreign countries, being everywhere received with the consider
ation due to his long and prominent public service. In November, 1875, he was appointed
by the governor of the state, a United States senator to fill the vacancy caused by the
death of Senator Orris S. Ferry, and ser^^ed as such until May, 1876, when he was suc
ceeded by the Hon. William H. Barnum, who had been elected to the office by the legislature.
In 1873, 3.n effort had been made to enlarge the library of the Yale Law School,
and Governor English gave $10,000 to the University to buy books, and increase the privi
leges and faculties of the law students, of whom his son, Henry, was one. He superin
tended the designs and execution of the Soldiers' monument, on the summit of East Rock,
and successfully carried through all the business connected with the management of the
enterprise. Naturally the erection of this beautiful memorial on so striking a site, turned

360 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
the attention of the New Haven people to the importance of securing an easy approach
to the heights which make so noble a background to the seaside city, and offer such
advantages for a suminer pleasure ground. One picturesque drive was provided by the
city, another by Mr. Henry Farnam, and in 1885, Governor English gave $23,000 to com
plete a third road, and it did much to set off the advantages which New Haven possesses.
Mr. English married, Jan. 25, 1837, Miss Caroline Augusta Fowler of New Haven, who
bore him three sons and a daughter, of whom the youngest, Henry F. English, alone survives,
and who has since his father's death managed the large estate. Mrs. English died Oct. 23,
1874, aged sixty-two years. On Oct. 7, 1885, Mr. English married Miss Anna R. Morris
of New York city, who survives him. She was the daughter of Lucius S. and Letitia C.
Morris, and was the descendant of one of the oldest of New Haven families, the Morrises
of Morris Cove.

|ARRIS0N, LYNDE, a distinguished member of the New Haven bar, late
speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and member of the state
Senate, and sucessively judge of the City Court of New Haven, and of the
Court of Common Pleas of New Haven County, was born in the city of New
Haven, Conn., Dec. 15, 1837.
Judge Harrison's ancestors on both sides may be traced back to the earliest settlers of
New England. Among them were Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of Windsor, his
son Henry, who was one of the nineteen persons to whom King Charles II. granted the
charter of Connecticut, and Gov. Roger Wolcott, colonial governor in 1754, who had
commanded the Connecticut militia at the siege of Louisburg. Justice Simon Lynde of
Boston, and his son. Judge Nathaniel Lynde, who was one of the first settlers of Saybrook,
the Rev. John Davenport, first pastor of the church in New Haven, Thomas Lord, one of
the first settlers of Hartford, Deputy-Gov. Francis Willoughby of Massachusetts, the Rev.
Abram Pierson, first pastor of the church in Branford, and the Rev. John Hart, first pastor
of the church at East Guilford, now Madison, were also among his ancestors. Thomas
Harrison, who was born in England, one of the first settlers of Branford, and who represented
that town in the Assembly at Hartford in 1676, was the first of his name in the colony,
and the common ancestor of nearly all the Harrisons in Connecticut who resided there in
the days before the Revolution. His parents, James and Charlotte Lynde Harrison, natives
and life-long residents of New Haven, were people of standing and means, and being them
selves possessed of more than ordinary learning, they gave their chUdren the best educational
advantages. As a boy, the subject of this sketch, who was the eldest son, attended the Lancasterian
and the Hopkins Grammar schools in New Haven, and, upon finishing his studies there,
took a thorough course in the higher branches at Russell's Collegiate and Commercial Insti
tute, in the same city. His inclinations, even thus early, were for a professional career,
and as he seemed to possess a natural taste for the study of law, he was encouraged by
his parents to prepare himself for admission to the bar. After a brief period of preparatory
reading, he entered Yale College Law School, where he pursued the full course of study,
and was graduated in i860, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Being fully admitted to
the bar, he entered upon the practice of law in New Haven in 1863, and since then has
maintained his law office in his native city. During the sessions of 1862-1863, he served
as clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and, in 1864, was clerk of the state

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 361
Senate. In the discharge of the duties of both these positions, he exhibited remarkable
inteUigence and tact, his work showing a clearness of conception .and thoroughness of
execution which indicated that he possessed unusual readiness in grasping the details of
public business. In 1865, the Republicans in his district nominated him for the state
Senate, and he was elected to that body by a flattering vote. In the following year he was
honored by a renomination, and was reelected by a larger vote than he received at first.
He distinguished himself in the Senate by his logical and earnest support of a number
of the most important measures brought up for action during his two terms, one of the
chief being that for the construction of the Shore Line Railroad bridge across the Con
necticut River, at Saybrook.
At the close of his second term he withdrew from politics for a time, and, devoting him
self wholly to professional work, succeeded in a few years in building up quite a large practice,
estabhshing a solid reputation as a lawer. In 1871, the state legislature chose him to the
office of judge of the City Court of New Haven. He remained upon the bench of the
City Court until 1874, when he resigned in order to enter the state House of Representa
tives as a delegate of the town of Guilford, in which place he has had a summer home for
more than twenty years. His residence there, upon the waters of the Sound, known as " Bay-
hurst," is one of the most beautiful natural locations on the New England coast. He con
tinued to represent Guilford until the close of 1877, serving during the last term as speaker
of the House. In July, 1877, he was chosen judge of the Court of Common Pleas of New
Haven County, and at the expiration of the term, four years later, was again chosen to the
state House of Representatives. He remained in the legislature until 1882, and during
that time served as chairman of the judiciary committee, and was the acknowledged leader
of his party on the floor of the House.
For several years past he has devoted himself to his profession, and especiaUy as counsel
for several railroad and other corporations. Judge Harrison's political affiliations until 1891
were with the Republican party, the great principles of which he upheld with vigor,
ability and eloquence. He served for a number of years upon the Republican State Central
Committee, was its chairman in 1875-76, and again from 1884 to 1886, and was also a
delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1876 and 1880. He did not agree with
the high tariff principles which became the principal issues of the Republican party after
1888, nor with the position of the Republicans of Connecticut upon several state issues in
1891. Therefore, he voted in 1892 for Grover Cleveland, and the Democratic state ticket,
aud joined the Democratic party.
Possessed of a wide and varied knowledge of men, gleaned through long experience at
the bar, on the bench and in the legislative chamber. Judge Harrison is a valuable addition
to any deliberative body^. In party councils, state as well as national, his expressed
opinions upon all public questions are received with the high respect to which they are
entitled ; and in more than one crisis in affairs they have been followed with signal benefit.
In the legislature, his influence has been equally potent, and its effects have been felt with
excellent ' result in eveiy part of the state. Well informed, earnest and conscientious, he
never fails to impress his colleagues when he advocates a cause or a measure, and his
opposition to a bill has generally proved a serious obstacle to its passage. A marked
illustration of his power in swaying the opinions of his legislative associates was afforded
during the session of 1877. A bill, granting to married women equal rights with men in
the ownership and disposition of property (which had been defeated on three former
occasions), was brought up in the House. Judge Harrison regarded it as a wise and just
measure, and fearing that it would again fail, he quitted the speaker's chair, and going
upon the floor advocated it with so much logic and eloquence, that it was passed.

362 REPRESENTATIIE MEN
It is doubtful if there is a man in Connecticut who takes deeper interest in public
questions, or who has exerted greater weight upon the fundamental law of the state. Of
the twent}--seven amendments to the state constitution, at least eleven are due to his
intelligent initiative and able support. He was the author of the amendment changing the
time of the state elections from the spring to the fall; of that forbidding the representation
of new towns in the General Assembly, unless the new and parent town shall each have at
least two thousand five hundred inhabitants ; of that preventing any county or municipality
from incurring debt in aid of any railway corporation, and from subscribing to the capital
stock of such corporation ; and of that forbidding any extra compensation or increase of
salary for any public officer to take effect during the term of an existing incumbent. He
also drafted the biennial session amendment of 1884 ; the present state election law of 1877,
and the well-known "specific appropriation biU," by virtue of which specific estimates must
be made for every appropriation, and through which many thousand dollars are annually
sa\ed to the state.
Watchful at all times of the people's interests, he has on several occasions taken decided
steps to thwart the projects of speculators, who have endeavored to profit by the ignorance
or apathy of the public. His successful opposition as counsel for the New York, New Haven
& Hartford Railroad Company, to the various schemes for building "straw" railways for
speculative purposes throughout the state, is in itself sufficient to entitle him to public
gratitude. Upright and honorable in all transactions, both public and private, an open foe
to knavery, whatever its guise, and wholly indifferent to hostile criticism when serving the
public weal. Judge Harrison is held in high respect even by his enemies. In private life he
is known as a man of scholarly attainments and warm social instincts ; a true friend, and a
sincere Christian.
He was niarried on May 2, 1867, to Miss Sara Plant, daughter of Samuel O. Plant, an
esteemed citizen of Branford. Mrs. Harrison died on March 10, 1879, leaving three children
who are now living, William Lynde, Paul Wolcott, and Sara Gertrude Plant Harrison. On
the 30th of September, 1886, he married Miss Harriet S. White of Waterbury, the only
daughter of Luther C. White, a well known manufacturer of that city, and they have one
daughter, Katharine White Harrison, born Aug. 3, i^

OBLE, WILLIAM HENRY, brevet brigadier-general U. S. V., late colonel of the
Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers, one of the oldest members of the Fair
field County bar, and prominently identified for more than half a century with
the city of Bridgeport, the charter of which he was instrumental in securing,
was born at Newtown, Conn., Aug. 18, 1813. He died Jan. 19, 1894.
Through both father and mother he traces his ancestry to the founders of New
England. On the paternal side he is a descendant of Thomas Noble of Westfield, Mass.,
one of the eariiest English settlers of that colony; and also, in a later generation, from
John Noble, the pioneer of New MUford, Conn. Seven generations of his family lie side by
side in the old burial ground in the southern part of New Milford. On the maternal line he
descends from the Sanfords of Newtown, who were among the pioneer settlers in Connecticut.
His mother, whose maiden name was Chariotte Sanford, was a daughter of John Sanford,
Esq., an influential citizen of Newtown, and it was upon the homestead of the latter that
that General Noble was born. His father, the Rev. Birdsey Glover Noble, who died in

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 363
1850, was educated at Yale College, graduating in the class of 1810, and after stud}'ing theology
at the general seminary of the Episcopal church in New York city, was admitted to orders.
At the time of his son's birth and for fifteen years thereafter he was rector of Christ church,
Middletown. Later in Ufe he established private academies at Bridgeport, and at Brookhn,
N. Y., over which he presided until his death. He was a man of piety and learning, and
excited a wide-spread influence for good both as a clergyman and a teacher.
The subject of this sketch was educated primarily at a celebrated military school in
Middletown, the principal of which, Capt. Alden Partridge, an officer of the regular army,
had been superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Under this
accomplished officer and teacher he received, in addition to other instruction, a thorough
military training, which made a permanent impression upon him, physically and mentally, and
qualified him in after years for the high command to which he was called by the executive of
his native state. One of his first essays under arms, made when he was but twelve years of
age, was in the great parade held in New York city in 1826, to commemorate the semi
centennial of American Independence, on which occasion he marched, musket on shoulder, in
the ranks with his school- fellows. At the age of fifteen years he entered Trinity (then Wash
ington) College, Hartford, where he remained during the freshman year. He then entered the
sophomore class at Yale College, where he finished the classical course, and was graduated with
honors in 1832. After devoting a year or two to post graduate studies he accepted, in 1834,
the position of teacher of the French and Spanish languages in his father's school at Bridge
port. Two years later he "decided upon the law as a profession, and after a thorough course
of study in the office and under the direction of the late Judge Joseph Wood of Bridgeport, an
esteemed friend of his father, he was, in 1836, admitted to the bar of Fairfield County, and
began practice at Bridgeport.
One of his earliest efforts of a public character was in connection with the movement to
raise Bridgeport to the rank of a city, and he was instrumental in securing the charter which
conferred municipal privileges. He was also instrumental in securing the charter for the
Housatonic Railroad Company, and when this corporation was organized became its secretary,
and held that office for many years. After serving several years as clerk of the courts of
Fairfield County he was, in 1846, appointed state's attorney for that county. Nominated for
Congress by the Democrats in 1850, he carried Fairfield County by a heavy majority, but
failed of election owing to the great preponderance of the opposition vote in Litchfield County,
which was then included in the same congressional district. For upwards of ten years he was
actively engaged in local improvements at East Bridgeport, and believing that its interests
and also those of the city proper would be greatly advanced by closer union, he bore a consid
erable share of the expense of building and repairing all the bridges which connect the two
places. Purchasing the old Bridgeport bridge, he rebuilt the entire structure at his own
expense, making it more modern and commodious, and erected a covered footway across it,
quite a novelty at that time. In 1851, he built at his own expense, the first raUroad foot
bridge between the two sections. In 1852, in conjunction with the late P. T. Barnum, he
dedicated Washington park to public use, and added one hundred acres of streets and buUding
lots to Bridgeport. A year later he procured the charter of the Bridgeport Water Company,
acting as attorney for Nathaniel Greene and his associates, who carried out the undertaking.
The passage of the act incorporating the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company, under the charter
of which the city of Bridgeport obtains its present water supply, was effected through his
instrumentality in 1857. In both these corporations he was named a commissioner, and as
such sanctioned the issue of bonds by which the necessary capital was procured for their
operations.

364

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

In i860. General Noble gave his cordial support to the platform adopted by the Douglas
branch of the Democratic party at the convention held in Charieston, April 23, and Baltimore,
June 18. When the spirit of secession manifested itself, he was among the most outspoken
in its denunciation, and as a loyal supporter of the federal authorities he took an active and
distinguished part in organizing the Union party in his native state. He labored earnestly m
securing the election of Governor Buckingham and vigorously advocated and supported the
effective war measures inaugurated and successfully carried out under his administration. Not
content with his civil labors, he resolved to enter the army for active work in the field, and
was at once tendered the colonelcy of the Seventeenth Connecticut regiment by Governor
Buckingham, which he accepted, receiving his commission July 22, 1862. His recruittng
operations were conducted with a degree of vigor and success which was truly remarkable,
even for that patriotic epoch. Within thirty days from beginning his task he reported one
thousand men ready for duty. His regiment was mustered into the service of the United
States August 28, and left the state for the seat of war September 3 following. After doing
duty for a few weeks at Fort Marshall, defences of Baltimore, the regiment was sent to Fort
Kearney, a defence of Washington, where it reinained untU November 5, when it was ordered
to join' Sigel's Eleventh Corps at Gainesville, Va. Asa part of this force it served in the
reserve sent to support General Burnside at P'redericksburg.
After General Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac, Colonel Noble's
regiment was in Howard's Eleventh corps, which, at the battle of ChancellorsvUle, formed the
extreme right wing of the Union line. In this battie the Seventeenth Connecticut gave a
brilliant account of itself. Colonel Noble, while gallantly leading his men into action, was
severely wounded in two places and had his horse shot under him. Unhorsed, with his left
leg torn and disabled by the fragment of a shell, and bleeding profusely from a wound in his
left arm, the main artery of which had been severed by a rifle ball, it was almost a miracle
that he escaped death. His life blood ebbing from his wounds he was carried fainting from
the field. Fortunately the wounded artery became clogged, and to this circumstance he owed
his preservation. As soon as he was able to use his injured limbs he returned to his post of
duty and was in time to participate in the decisive conflict at Gettysburg, in which he had
the honor to command the brigade which was advanced into the town to drive out the enemy's
sharpshooters during the battles of July 2d and 3d, stationed at the foot of Cemetery Hill.
After the repulse of the army of Northern Virginia, under Lee, Colonel Noble was ordered
with his regiment to Folly and Morris Islands, S. C, sieges of Wagner and Sumter, and after
the fall of Wagner and the battle of Olustee, to Florida, and upon his arrival there was again
entrusted, by General Gordon, with the command of a brigade and given charge of the military
di.strict comprising the whole of the state east of the St. John's river, his headquarters being
at St. Augustine.
As acting brigadier-general he commanded brigades of troops in several important raids,
and also on various expeditions under Generals Birney, Gordon, Hatch and others. On
Christmas eve, 1864, while crossing to St. Augustine from Jacksonville, after attending a
court-martial, he was taken prisoner by rebel guerillas, and notwithstanding that every effort
was made to rescue him, he was carried off by his captors to Tallahassee. A brief term of
imprisonment at Macon, Ga., followed, and about the middle of February, 1865, he was sent
to Andersonville and confined in the officer's quarters. He underwent, for two months, the
horrors of this vile den, and was finally released when the general exchange of prisoners was
effected about the middle of April.
Colonel Noble's able, faithful and heroic services attracted the attention of all his superior
officers, and elicited their warmest commendation. General Grant personally recommended

¦liieOemuiyftil)]is.limg fejia^rs-^viiij Co. uhicago.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 365
him for promotion, and in June, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier- general. Returning to his
regiment after his release he continued with it until July 19, 1865, when he was mustered
out of service with his command at Hilton Head, S. C. After that time he devoted himself
to the duties of civil life, principally in the arena of legal effort, but giving his attention
largely to matters of public moment and to the advancement of the city with which he was
so long and prominently identified. There were few men in Connecticut who were more highly
esteemed for their solid virtues than General Noble, and it is doubtful if even the city of
Bridgeport numbered among its citizens a truer friend, a worthier patriot or a more honorable
gentieman. General Noble's interest in his comrades of the CivU War epoch suffered no abate
ment with the lap:. . of years. He took an active part in the various works in which they
engaged, charitable, historical and otherwise, and was a prime favorite with all who wore the
"blue." As chairman of the executive committee of his regiment he received the fine
monument erected at Gettysburg in honor and memory of the Connecticut soldiers who fell
on that memorable battlefield, and in turn passed it over to the care of the Gettysburg
Memorial Association. He afterward discharged the same duty at the dedication of the second
monument of his regiment at the north front of Gettysburg, Cemetery Hill.
General Noble was married in 1839, to Miss Harriet Jones Brooks, daughter of Benjamin
Brooks, Esq., of Bridgeport, a descendant of Colonial Governors WUUam Bradford of Massa
chusetts, and Theophilus Eaton and William Leete of Connecticut.

?OUNSBURY, PHINEAS CHAPMAN, governor of the state in 1887 and 1888,
and for some years past president of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank
in the city of New York, is a resident of the town of Ridgefield, where he
was born on the tenth day of January, 1841. His parents were of sturdy New
England stock and true representatives of the best type of New England life.
His father was a farmer and is still living, a man venerable in years and greatly respected
in the community where he resides.
The subject of this sketch spent his early years upon the farm, one of the best of all
schools for the development of health, good sense, and habits of industry. He was not
content with this, however, but devoted himself as opportunities offered to the acquirement
of a thorough intellectual training. In the schools of his native state he signalized himself
by his proficiency, particularly in mathematics, declamation and debate. He obtained also in
addition to what is known as an English education some knowledge of the ancient classics.
At the close of his academic life he entered upon his business career. He began to be
widely known as a business man, with the formation of the firm of Lounsbury Brothers,
the business of which firm, the manufacture of shoes, was first located in New Haven.
This enterprise prospered greatly and was removed after a few years to South .Norwalk,
where under the style of Lounsbury, Matthewson & Co., the facilities were increased and the
business largely extended. By energy and honorable dealing the firm won for itself a lead
ing place among the manufacturers of the state, and for its members, fortune and excellent
reputation as broad-minded and progressive business men. Widely known and respected for
his sound views on monetary affairs, Mr. Lounsbury had already sat for a number of years
as a member of the board of directors of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank of the
city of New York, when in 1885, he was unanimously elected its president. This institution,
which was organized in 1829, with a capital of a mUlion dollars, is one of great solidity,
47

366 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
and its presiding officer, who' has shaped its policy and successfully directed its affairs for
so many years, is accorded a distinguished place among the leading financiers of the metrop
olis. Although he has large interests in New York, he is still more largely interested in
the manufacturing industries of his native state where he has, from the outset, resided in
the town where he was born. In 1862, he polled his first vote, casting it, as he has
unvaryingly done ever since, in favor of the principles and candidates of the Republican
party. He was among those who enlisted early at the breaking out of the war between the
North and South. He served as a private soldier in the Seventeenth Regiment of Connecti
cut Volunteers. After several months at the front he was honorably discharged on account
of serious illness. He was subsequently recommended for a pension. This just and pleasing
recognition of his service he had however no need nor disposition to receive, and accordingly
it was not accepted.
In 1874, Mr. Lounsbury was elected to represent his town of Ridgefield in the House
of Representatives of the state. His attitude upon the temperance issue, as well as his
staunch Republicanism had much to do with securing for him this honor. He entered this
body with no thought of becoming one of the Republican leaders, but his special talents
were quickly perceived by his party colleagues, and he was at once accorded the prominence
he merited. His clear views and excellent business methods were highly serviceable in
committee work, and on more than one occasion his eloquence on the fioor of the House
resulted in signal advantage to the measures he advocated. One of the services which mark
this part of his history was in connection with the restriction of the sale of intoxicating
liquors. He was one of the framers of the existing rigid local option laws of Connecti
cut. The reputation he acquired as a public speaker at this time also brought him into
prominence, and he was called to exercise his ability in this direction in the service of
his party during the state and presidential campaign which followed. In this respect he
has rendered most effective service on many occasions. This was particularly the case
during the Blaine campaign of 1884. He has also been called upon in several instances of
historic note to act as orator. Among the more recent of these may be mentioned the
dedication of the monument reared by Connecticut to her heroic dead on the battle-field
of Gettysburg, and the famous Independence Day celebration at Woodstock in 1886. Of
all the gifted speakers who took part in the latter celebration, "he it was," says a contem
porary writer, " whose words were carried away by the populace as fittest to be remembered."
Naturally thus he became one of the most popular men in the Republican ranks, and
in 1882, he was brought forward as a candidate in the Republican State Convention for
the office of governor. For party reasons, at his request, his name however was withdrawn,
and the nomination was given to Hon. William H. Bulkeley, brother of Gov. Morgan G.
Bulkeley. In 1884, Mr. Lounsbury's friends again brought his name forward, and although
the nomination was given to Mr. Harrison, Mr. Lounsbury exhibited no surprise or dis
appointment, but worked loyally in support of the nominee. At the convention held at
Hartford, in 1886, he was unanimously nominated for the office of governor on the first
ballot. His manly conduct on previous occasions, and his untiring political se^yices had
greatly increased his following, and his nomination proved exceedingly popular and he was
elected as the chief executive of the state of Connecticut. His term of office, which covered
two years, was marked by a wise, patriotic and dignified administration of public affairs,
which has placed his name high among those of the governors of that commonwealth. One
of the abiding effects of his administration is the change that was wrought in the laws of
Connecticut by what is known as " The Incorrigible Criminals Act." The pecuHarity of
this law at this point is that a '"person who has twice been convicted of an offense -^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-/894. 367
the penalty of which is imprisonment for a term not less ¦ than two years — shall upon
conviction for a similar offense be sentenced for the term of twenty-five years. Governor
Lounsbury believed that the life sentence should be the one imposed in such cases. His
argument in the .message in which he brought this subject to the 'attention of the legis-
ture rested upon the fundamental idea that the state prison is primarily for the protection
of society. His words are memorable and deserve to be quoted :
I commend to your most earnest consideration the wise and timely suggestions which the prison directors
make with reference to the criminal class. These suggestions will bring to you as a body, the question which
no doubt has often come to you as individuals, what is the state prison for? It was not meant to be an insti
tution of reform, though of course the Christian idea of reform runs all through its management. It was not
meant to be even a place of punishment, except so far as the punishment of crime tends to the promotion of
law and order. Least of all was it meant to be a house of refuge, to which the habitual criminal could go until
the people had forgotten their wrongs and their wrath, and it was safe for him to begin again his career of
plunder and violence. The prison will be answering the full purpose of its existence when it gives permanent
protection to all good citizens, by shutting up forever within its walls and behind its bolts and bars, the entire
criminal class of the state. Is it protection when you unchain the mad dog and let him loose on the play
ground ? Is it protection when you open the door of the cage and let the tiger out into the crowded street ?
Is it protection when you open the gates of your prison, and out into the peaceful walks of society send forth
the hardened criminal, whose brutal instincts have been intensified by confinement, and who has obeyed all the
rules of prison life simply that he might the sooner begin again to rob and murder? When you have answered
these questions you will favorably consider the recommendation of your able board of directors, and will place
upon our statute books a law not less stringent than that of the state of Ohio. Some future legislature will
wisely take a long step beyond this and will fix the life sentence as the penalty of every crime, the commission
of which shall show that the man is already a confirmed criminal.
Though Upon theoretical grounds it was not thought best to formally impose the life
sentence in such cases, yet what in most cases would be equivalent was provided for, and
the Incorrigible Criminals Act was passed unanimously by the legislature. He was also
largely influential as governor in the enactment of laws prohibiting the running of rail
road trains in the state between the hours of ten o'clock and three o'clock on Sundays.
The object of this was to secure the necessary quiet for worship, and to afford a larger
measure of weekly rest for the men employed upon railroads. Commendation for those
who hold public positions seldom comes from their political opponents. But when Governor
Lounsbury retired from office, the Hartford Tunes, the leading Democratic paper of the
state contained the following :
Governor Lounsbury retires from the executive office to-morrow, with a record alike creditable to him as
a man and as an official. While our political preference did not favor his election to the chief magistracy of
the state, and while we had in the outset, some doubts as to the probable methods of his official course, we may
frankly say at this time that we are satisfied that he has been one of the best governors Connecticut has ever
had. We have found in Governor Lounsbury a gentleman of sterling integrity, of unfailing courtesy, gifted with
excellent business tact, and inclined to administer the affairs of the state on business principles and with a
view to economy and efficiency in every matter requiring his official consideration and action. Governor Louns
bury unquestionably retires from office with the respect and hearty good feeling of every one, irrespective of
party, with whom he has been brought into official or personal relations.
As a large employer in one of the principal manufacturing states of the Union, Governor
Lounsbury has made a close study of the labor question, and his views have had very gen
eral endorsement among those affected. Known to be humane and honorable in his deal
ings, he is to-day one of the most popular men in the state among the working men.
Among the veteran soldiers he is likewise remembered as one who stood in their ranks in
the great struggle to suppress the Rebellion and to preserve the Union. His intensely
patriotic course upon all public questions has led to his being spoken of as " a^ second
Buckingham." He is at present largely occupied with business. In addition to the position he
holds as president of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank, he is a trustee of the
American Bank Note Company, chairman of the executive committee of the Washington

368 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Trust Company, and actively connected with many other flnancial enterprises. This sketch
would not be complete if it were not said that he is a man of strong religious convic
tions and feelings. He is a loyal adherent to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one
of the most influential of her laymen. In 1888, he served as a lay delegate in the General
Conference of the church. He holds honored relations to the schools of this denomination,
notably the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., of which institution he has for
many years been a trustee. In 1887, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from this
University. Governor Lounsbury, as will be seen from the portrait which we give, is a
man of striking appearance. Well built, rugged looking and combining agreeable manners
with natural dignity, he is a fine specimen of American manhood, a citizen of whom his
native state may be proud.
He was married in 1867, to Miss Jennie Wright, daughter of Mr. Neziah Wright, one
of the founders of the American Bank Note Company. Mrs. Lounsbury is a lady of
elegant culture and refinement, and fittingly graces a most hospitable home, and the large
circle of friends in which she, with her husband, moves.

^LLEN, JOHN, of Saybrook, Conn., was born in Meriden, Feb. 6, 1815, and
was the eldest of four children of Levi Allen, a farmer and prominent citizen
of that town. His mother's maiden name was Electa Hall, and he is a lineal
descendant of Roger Allen, who was one of the earliest English settlers of
New Haven, a contemporary of Rev. John Davenport, and deacon in his
church. His grandfathers, Archelais Allen and Aaron Hall, both of Wallingford, Conn.,
were patriots of the Revolution and soldiers in the war that achieved our national independ
ence. The former enlisted at the time of the "Lexington alarm," and served under General
Putnam; the latter enlisted May 20, 1777, at the age of sixteen, in Capt. Stephen Hall's
company of Col. Heman Swift's Seventh Regiment "Connecticut Line," and was honorably
discharged at the expiration of his term of service. May 15, 1780. He was in the battles
of Germantown, Brandywine, Monmouth and Stony Point, and in the campaign under
General Washington at Valley Forge.
After receiving a good public school and academic education, the subject of this sketch
was placed by his parents in the store of Maj. Elisha A. Cowles, where, under several
changes in the style of the firm, he served a clerkship of six years, from the age of
fourteen to twenty. Incidental to his business duties were opportunities for attending an
evening school in the winter months for advanced studies, an elocution society, and a
lyceum, of which he availed himself. In March, 1836, he removed from Meriden to New
York, and entered the employ of Perkins, Hopkins & White, then extensively engaged in
the dry-goods jobbing trade at wholesale with the merchants of the southern states. He
remained with that firm in confidential relations through a period of unusual instability and
difficulty in the mercantile affairs of the country, during which time, by active participation
in the business, he gained valuable experience in laying the foundation for his future
prosperity. Upon the dissolution of that firm in 1842, and the re-organization of Perkins
& Hopkins, he became interested as a partner, and upon a subsequent re-organization
under the name of Hopkins, Allen & Company, he came prominently before the public in
its enterprising and successful administration.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 369
His intercourse with the jj^bple of the South made him acquainted with their views
and policy in reference to the institution of slavery, and perceiving the growing antagonism
between free. and slave labor, and the existing conflict of principles, which foreshadowed
serious difficulty to the country, he resolved to withdraw from the mercantile business
(then conducted largely upon credit), which he did as an active partner in 1855, and in
the year following he established a residence in the town of Saybrook, Middlesex County,
Conn., where his family now resides. When the secession movement ripened into rebeUion
against the authority of the government of the United States, he gave the national cause
his earnest support. In September, 1862, he paid a private bounty of fifty dollars each to
the several persons enlisting from the town of his residence in Company B, Twenty-fourth
Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, under the call of the President for troops.
Mr. Alien received in 1863, an unsought nomination to represent the nineteenth sena
torial district in the state Senate, and was elected. He was reelected in 1864. In both
years he was made chairman of the joint standing committee of the General Assembly on
finance, whose labors were of the highest importance in that critical period of public affairs,
when the state was raising money for the war. The financial measures recommended by
that committee and adopted by the legislature, not only enabled Connecticut to creditably
place her full quota of men in the field, but established a policy in the revision of the tax
laws most favorable to the public interest, and which has reduced to a minimum amount
the state debt. The present equitable method of taxing railroad property, on the basis of
what it will sell for, by which the market value of its stocks and bonds is made the measure
of value for the purpose of taxation, was suggested by him. On the 17th day of June, 1864,
Mr. Allen introduced into the Connecticut legislature the first resolution in favor of the
abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment (see journal of the Senate, pages 273 and
274)- He was one of the delegates from Connecticut to meet a convention of loyal Southern
ers at Philadelphia on the 3d day of September, 1866, called to give expression to the
sentiments of the people in support of Congress against the defection of Andrew Johnson.
He was prominent in the movement that arrested the "peace flag" heresy at Saybrook, or
the raising of any flag not representing all the states of the Union. While he was a senator
in the years aforesaid, he was one of the Fellows of the corporation of Yale College, the law
then being that the six senior senators were members ex-officio of that corporation. In the
Hayes presidential campaign of 1876, Mr. Allen was a Republican presidential elector in this
state. He was elected president, in 1867, of the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville Railroad Company
of the state of Illinois, which position he held in active administration of the property for
twelve years, completing in 1869 the extension of its road from Virginia to Jacksonville.
In 1891, the road began to be operated as a part of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa F^ system,
and of its main line between Chicago and St. Louis, Allen Manvel being president of the
corporation. Mr. AUen was again elected to the Connecticut State Senate from the twenty-first
district — formerly the nineteenth — and served during the sessions of 1884 and 1885 as
chairman of the joint standing committee on railroads. He was chairman of the legislative
committee in charge of the public services at the inauguration of Warner's statue of William
A. Buckingham in the battle-fiag vestibule of the capitol, and he covered back into the
treasury of the state $259.99 out of the sum of six thousand dollars appropriated by the
General Assembly for the statue ceremonies. For many years he has been identified with
the public library in Old Saybrook and president of the association. He was chairman of
the revision committee that framed its present constitution and by-laws. He presided at the

370 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
public exercises, held under the auspices of the ladies of Oil Saybrook, on the^ 27th day of
November, 1885, that celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first settle
ment of Saybrook by English colonists. In matters of church government he is a Congre
gationalist, in theology a Unitarian, in politics a Republican.
On the loth day of November, 1847, Ire married Mary Ann Phelps, second daughter of
the late Hon. Elisha Phelps and Lucy (Smith) Phelps of Simsbury, Conn. They have two
sons, John H. and William Hall, both unmarried ; and four daughters, Lucy Phelps, the
eldest, who niarried Charles LesUe Morgan of Great Neck, L- L, and New York; Jennett,
who married Hon. William Hamersley of Hartford ; Mary Constance, who married Benjamin
Knower of Scarborough-on-the-Hudson and New York ; and Grace Electa, the youngest,
who is wedded to her parents, — their pride and joy.

^RADLEY, NATHANIEL L-, of Meriden, treasurer of the Bradley & Hubbard
^lanufacturing Company, was born in Cheshire, Conn., Dec. 27, 1829. The
period of 1830-31, was productive of a long list of men prominent along
different lines of activity in national and business affairs, and in the realm of
literature. The tide commenced to rise in the last half of 1829, and during that
six months was born a class of men of whom Roscoe Conkling, Geo. W. Childs, C. G.
Halpine, perhaps better known as "Miles O'Rielly," will serve as examples. President
Chester A. Arthur, James G. Blaine, three of Garfield's cabinet, a score of Union generals,
as many congressmen, and an extended list of men who gained reputation for themselves
in other spheres of action, came upon the scene in 1830.
Mr. Bradley's parents were Levi and Abigail Ann (Atwater) Bradley. His father was
a prudent tiller of the soil, of wide-spread influence in his town, and a man whose moral
worth was felt in the upbuilding of virtue and temperance in the community. The entire
family circle joined heartily in the conscientious observance of all his religious duties. The
liberal support which he ever gave to the cause of religion, is the best evidence that all his
sympathies were in accord with the principles of Christianity. To the study of history he
devoted much time, and the interest was sustained until the close of his life. With
such an example 'constantly before them, moral excellence combined with mental and physical
soundness would naturally be expected.
N. L. Bradley was the fourth chUd and youngest son of his parents. The education
needed to fit him for the stern duties of life was obtained at the Meriden Academy. His
first instructor was John D. Post, and his studies were completed under the guidance of
Dexter R. Wright, afterwards prominent in the affairs of the state. At the conclusion
of his academic course, he passed a year as clerk in a hardware store in New Haven.
Owing to the strongl}' expressed wish of his father, he then returned home, much to the
regret of his employer, and gave himself up to the prosaic labors of the farm. On reach
ing his majority, Mr. Bradley had formed no definite plans for his course in Ufe. Agricul
tural pursuits were far from being remunerative, nor was the drudgery satisfying to his
ambition. By prudence he had accumulated what seemed in his eyes a small fortune, and
this he invested in a clock factory in Southington, a few miles from his native town. The
compensation he received, $1.25 per day, could hardly be termed munificent. It was amid
these humble surroundings that his genius for work had its first opportunity to display its
real power. Being offered a contract for making clocks in the factory, he quickly accepted.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 371
and his business abUities stood the test successfully. The facilities for producing the
clocks were greater than those for disposing of them and an accumulation occurred, which
necessitated the stopping of the factory. A proposition was made to Mr. Bradley that
he visit New Haven, Philadelphia and other cities for the purpose of selling off the surplus
stock. This offer was also accepted, and his success was phenomenal. The president was
so gratified that Mr. Bradley was elected a director, the other salesmen were dismissed, and
he was made a traveling representative of the company.
Large enterprises often have extremely small beginnings. It was so with the great
industry with which Mr. Bradley's name is associated. More than two score years ago, in
1852, a joint stock company was formed under the titie of Bradley, Hatch & Co., with a
capital of $5,000. The members were W. L. Bradley, Walter Hubbard and C. P. Hatch.
Being vigorously pushed, the business grew so rapidly that in the short space of two years,
more capital was imperatively needed. Not having the requisite cash for further investment,
the Hatch Brothers decided to retire from the company. Selling out his dry goods business,
Walter Hubbard, with William L. and Nathaniel L- Bradley reorganized the company, with
the title of Bradley & Hubbard. The business and good will of the previous joint stock
company were purchased, and the plant permanently located on the same spot where the
present immense factory stands. Until 1875, the business was transacted on an ordinary
co-partnership basis, but in the year named, a joint stock company was again formed under
the name of Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, and such the title of the firm
still remains. Walter Hubbard was chosen president, C. F. Lindsey secretary, and N. L-
Bradley treasurer, and no change has been made in these officers. From an article in the
Meriden fournal, a descriptive paragraph is quoted :
The history of the company has been one of rapid development, due to the great energy and business
ability of Messrs. Bradley and Hubbard, the founders of the original firm. The firm started business in an
old two story wooden building, now used as a repair shop, and a small brick foundry. A glimpse at the
immense buildings of to-day tells the story of the growth since then better than words can do. In 1870, the
first large brick structure was erected, and since then the constant demand for additional room has necessitated
the erection of other factories in which there are employed over 1,000 hands. Without doubt the company is
the largest and best known as manufacturers of chandeliers, gas fixtures, lamps and bronzes in existence. There
are many of the greatest buildings all over the country that have been fitted out by this company, and their
goods are always eagerly sought for since they possess the merit of artistic beauty far ahead of all competitors,
as well as stability and honest quality.
The company's factories are equipped with the finest machinery and mechanical appliances in the world.
Every part of their immense establishment having been built by them for the express purpose for which it is
used, their facilities for producing work in every branch are unequaled. Among the army of workmen which
they employ are artists, designers, modelers, and skilled artisans. With a rapid but sure progress the company
have grown from a modest beginning to occupy a unique and prominent position in the manufacturing indus
tries of this country.
In the humble beginnings of the business Mr. Bradley officiated both as manufacturer
and salesman. Later salesrooms were opened in New York, to the management of which
• Mr. Hubbard gave his almost undivided attention. Offices and salesrooms have been
established in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, and their products find a ready and
extended sale, not only in the United States, but are largely exported to foreign countries.
The most important period in the growth of the city of Meriden is covered by the
time which Mr. Bradley has resided within its limits. The population of 3,000 has grown
to 23,000, while the size and value of its manufacturing industries has increased in even
greater proportions. With the development of its municipal interests he has been closely
identified, and all that tends to promote the truest welfare of a community has found in
him a ready helper. Though often solicited so to do, the constant and pressing demands of
his growing business have not allowed him to burden himself with many official duties.

372 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
For one year he served as alderman, and part of the time acted as mayor. He holds a
directorship in the First National Bank, the City Savings Bank, Meriden Fire Insurance
Company, Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company, Meriden Horse Railroad Company,
and the Meriden Publishing Company, and to each he gives a share of his time and
counsel. Although his name does not appear in connection with them, Mr. Bradley is
interested in several other financial corporations in Meriden.
Every worthy public enterprise finds in him a liberal supporter. His influence is
strongly felt in the political and religious life of the community. To the improvement of
the physical features of the city he has given much time, the streets, parks and cemeteries
being objects of his especial regard. As president of the Meriden Park Company, he has
rendered most valuable service.
The story of Mr. Bradley's life would not be fully told unless reference is made to his
zeal for the promotion of religious works of every description. Freely and regularly are his
gifts made to proper objects of charity, and every effort for the public good ..receives not only
sympathy from him, but also substantial aid. Among the flrst to provide for the work of the
Young Men's Christian Association, he subscribed generously to the fund when the building
was erected, and his interest in and gifts to this worthy adjunct of the Christian church
have continued to the present time. He is a member of the First Congregational church of
Meriden, and closely connected with all its work. For over twenty years he has served on
the committee of the society, and during all these years he has faithfully sought to build up
a harmonious and prosperous fellowship. Having but just entered upon his second half-
ceutury of existence, Mr. Bradley is now in the very prime of his later manhood, with every
prospect of seeing what the first quarter of the twentieth century has in store for the world.
Mr. Bradley was married Oct. 25, i860, to Hattie E., daughter of Selden and Lucy Hooker
(Hart) Peck of Kensington, Conn. His wife is a sharer in all his benevolent and religious
works, and is a constant source of inspiration to him in his efforts to benefit humanity. One
son, Clarence P. Bradley, was the result of this union. He is now a director in the Bradley
& Hubbard Manufacturing Company.

ITCHELL, CHARLES LeMOYNE, of New Haven, ex-member of Congress,
was born in that city, Aug. 4, 1844. He died March i, 1890.
Some of the best blood of the colonial and Revolutionary periods of
Connecticut history found its expression in Mr. Mitchell. On the maternal
side his genealogical line can be traced to Sir Thomas Fitch of Eltham, Kent
County, Eng., who was formally created a baronet. He was a judge of much distinction
and is so mentioned by Sir William Blackstone. Thomas Fitch, a lineal descendant of the
baronet, died in Braintree, Eng., leaving a widow and several sons, and after disposing of
the family estate, they all emigrated to this country between the years 1634 and 1638.
Thomas Fitch, Jr., settied in Norwich, and, in 1665, was acknowledged as the wealthiest
citizen of the town. Then followed two generations each bearing the same name, and
the third Thomas Fitch was lieutenant-governor with Gov. Roger Wolcott from 1750 to
1754, and for the next twelve years was governor of Connecticut, and was chief justice of
the colony from 1766 to 1770. Jonathan, son of Governor Fitch, was a colonel in the
Revolutionary War. His daughter Sarah married Marvin Gorham, whose ancestors came over
in the Mayflower, and their daughter was the mother of Charles L. Mitchell.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 373
WUliam Mitchell came to this country at a date impossible to ascertain accurately.
His son John settled in New Haven, but his business was largely in the South. Edward
A. MitcheU, son of John, married Elizabeth Mary Gorham, and became the father of the
subject of this sketch. He was born in Bristol in 1815, and manifested exceptional business
capacity at an early age. Though never prominent in political affairs, he was appointed
postmaster of New Haven by President Tyler, and retained that position under President
Pierce. He took an active part in establishing several of the great manufacturing industries
which have been the means of building up the district which his son afterwards represented
in the halls of Congress. For the last twenty years of his life, he was connected with
many of the foremost manufacturing interests of the state. Among them were the Rogers
& Smith Company, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Meriden Britannia Company,
Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company, and the Willimantic Linen Company.
C. L. Mitchell received a liberal education at the popular school of General Russell, at
New Haven, and later at the Rectory School, Hamden, and the Episcopal Academy,
Cheshire. Two years were then spent in a journey around the world, a trip which included
Asia, Africa and Europe, and did much to broaden his mind and enlarge his conceptions of
the scope of mercantile affairs. The enumeration of the companies in which Mr. Mitchell
was a director will convince the most casual reader that time did not hang heavy on his
hands, for lack of employment. He held a directorship in the Winchester Arms Company,
the Meriden Britannia Company, Mitchell, Vance & Company, and the Tradesmen's Bank,
New Haven. As a stockholder, he was interested in many of the prominent manufacturing
enterprises throughout the state, among them being the Cheshire Brass Company, Benedict
& Burnham Company, and the Waterbury Clock Company, Waterbury, R. Wallace & Sons,
Wallingford, the Meriden Cutlery Company, and Wilcox & White Organ Company,
Meriden; and the Bridgeport Brass Company, Bridgeport. Always ready to assist in
promoting new industries that met his approval, Mr. Mitchell's practical knowledge of
business affairs and intelligent interest in scientiflc inventions connected with industrial
progress, caused his counsel to be sought and valued by inventors.
Mr. Mitchell made his entry into the public life of the state as a member of the
legislature for the town of East Haven, in 1878. The district usually gave a heavy Republi
can majority, but such was his popularity, he carried it for the Democrats. The following
year, he received the Democratic nomination for senator, but failed of election, though
receiving more than the party vote in a majority of the towns. Remembering his previous
success, his friends suggested his name for the nomination for congressman in the Second
District, in the fall of 1892. In presenting Mr. Mitchell's name to the congressional con
vention, Mr. Colin M. Ingersoll said in closing: "I have had the good fortune to be daily
associated with the Hon. Charies L. MitcheU. I have noted with admiration his correct
habits, his courtly bearing, his methodical ways, his business capacity, his connection with
manufacturing interests and his mercantile transactions. His generosity is known to all
classes, poor and rich alike. He has also religious associations. Give us this man for a
candidate. Give him the handling of the Democratic flag in this congressional district, on
which I wish to see no glittering generalities, but bearing on it only economy and honesty
in the direction of public affairs. He will carry that flag into the thickest of the fight, and
it will never be allowed to trail in the dust. I wish that by acclamation the name of
Charles L. MitcheU might be adopted by this convention."
Speaking of the nomination, the New Haven Union said : "It is needless to say that
Mr. Mitchell will be elected. He was the unanimous choice of a convention representing
all the towns of New Haven and Middlesex Counties. He is a man of high character, is
48

374 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
well acquainted with the commercial and business interests of the district, and is wholly
beyond the reach of corrupt agents who infest the lobbies of Congress. Mr. Mitchell's
popularity was attested by the enthusiasm displayed for his nomination. His' majority will
be very large. He will poll hundreds of Republican votes. His name will strengthen the
state ticket of the Democratic party."
The choice of the party convention was endorsed at the polls. Mr. Mitchell's course
at Washington was so satisfactory to his constituents, that when his first term expired, he
was reelected by an increased vote. In this Congress he served as chairman of the com
mittee on patents, and on other lesser committees. He was extremely popular at the
capital of the nation and to a high degree enjoyed the confidence of President Cleveland.
His church affiliations were with the Protestant Episcopal church and he was a member
of the vestry of St. Paul's church. New Haven. The religious and benevolent institutions
of the city and state found in him a consistent friend, and he took an active part in their
support and management. Fernhurst, Mr. Mitchell's family homestead, one of the most
attractive of the many beautiful residences in the environs of New Haven, has been in the
possession of the family for three generations.
Said a brief mention of him in the Hartford Post Annual: "In private life Mr.
Mitchell is a general favorite, a staunch friend and a good neighbor. He is a generous
patron of art, a buyer and reader of good books, and a skilled horticulturist. By family
training and inheritance, as well as by his own deliberate choice, a Democrat, Mr. MitcheU
is free from offensive partisanship. He not only accepts, but heartily believes, in political
progress, and has always the courage to stand by his convictions."
Charles L- Mitchell was married Feb. i, 1871, to Emma C, daughter of Anthony
Morse of Lebanon, N. H. Two children were born to them, Edward Anthony, named for
his grandfathers, and Elise Lathrop.
The mention of Mr. Mitchell's death in the New Haven fournal and Courier contained
the following just comment :
In New Haven he was endeared to all who knew him by his amiable qualities, his wide charities, and his
public spirit. A man of the most generous and lively nature, few men had more or warmer friends. During
his term of office at Washington he was among the most influential as well as popular members of congress,
and had a wide circle of friends all over the country. No man could be dearer to his friends, and he will be
long and sadly mourned. But it is only those who enjoyed his intimate friendship who can fully appreciate
the many charms of his character, the cheerfulness which even illness could not depress, the generosity which
was as direct as it was unfailing, and the taste for art, books and flowers which made his home life beautiful.
His business associates always found in him an intelligent and sagacious co-worker, and had the utmost confi
dence in his enterprise and judgment. But it is by his many personal friends — and few men had so many —
that his loss will be longest and most keenly felt.

OF CONNECTICUT 1861-1894. 375
JORTER, GEORGE LORING, M. D., of Bridgeport, was born in Concord, N. H.,
April 20, 1838. He is a descendant in the ninth generation from John Porter,
who settled in Hingham, Mass., in 1635. Among his ancestors are Elizabeth
Porter, who was the mother of Gen. Israel Putnam ; Asahel Porter, killed at
Lexington; Gen. Moses Porter, who, entering the army, early in the Revo
lution, continued in the service untU 1822, " all his life in the service of his country, longer
than any officer of his grade, won the confidence and admiration of all as an able and coura
geous soldier, and a high disciplinarian," and Colonel Porter, a gentleman who received a large
land grant from one of the Georges in the northern part of New York and Vermont.
Dr. Porter was graduated from the New London, N. H., Academy in 1855, and four years
later, he received his degree from Brown University. Choosing the medical profession as
the one best suited to his tastes for the employment of his life, he entered Jefferson Medical
College, and taking the regulation course of studies, gained his title of M. D. in 1862. The
War of the Rebellion was in progress, and deciding to enter the service of his country, he
passed the examination of the army medical board in the April after graduation. He was
assigned to duty as a "proof candidate," at Strasburg, Va., then under the command of
Major-General Banks.
When the national army retreated down the Shenandoah Valley, on the 25th of May,
Dr. Porter volunteered to remain with the sick and wounded, and was captured by Colonel
Ashby of the Virginia Cavalry, but Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson at once reinstated him in
charge of the hospital, and also requested him to care for the Confederate wounded. This
was one of the earliest instances, if not the very first, in the War of the Rebellion of the
recognition of the right of medical officers to claim the protection of the rules of war govern
ing non-belligerents. For his conduct at this time he received honorable mention in the
official reports of the division and department commanders, and a commendatory letter from
the surgeon-general. July ist, he was assigned to Best's Battery (Light Battery F, Fourth
Artillery, the oldest military organization in the service, having been in continuous service
during and since the Revolution), and was present at the battle of Cedar Mountain, .the
combats along the Rappahannock, the second battle of Bull Run, and the battle of South
Mountain. After Antietam he was in the general hospital at Braddock Barracks, Frederick,
Md., until November, when he joined the Fifth Cavalry (U. S. A.), and served with the
regular army until 1864. He was present at the battles of Fredericksburg, Beverly Ford,
Gettysburg, Brandy Station and Todd's Tavern; the engagements at Flemming's Crossroads
and Manas.sas Gap ; the actions at Kelly's Ford, Middletown, Upperville, Williamsport, Boons-
boro (where he was wounded by a fragment of shell), Funkstown, Falling Waters and Beaver
Dam; the skirmishes at Warrenton, Ashby 's Gap, Front Royal, Culpepper Court House and
Morton's Ford. He conducted the first train of wounded sent to the transports on the Potomac
after the battle of the Wilderness, May, 1864, and was the bearer of important dispatches
to Washington. In referring to his services with the regiment, Captain Mason (afterwards in command
of General Grant's escort), testified, "he was fearless in the discharge of his duty on the
field of battle. He was always with the regiment when it was engaged with the enemy,
and had many applications from his orderlies to be returned to their companies, as the service
there was seemingly less dangerous than to remain with him. He often performed impor
tant surgical operations on the field and under a heavy fire. During his service the regiment
was engaged in many battles, losing heavily in kUled and wounded. Assistant- Surgeon Porter's
faithfulness to the sick and wounded is gratefully remembered by the officers and men ; and

376 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
his conspicuous gallantry during the battles of Upperville, Aldie, Gettysburg, Williamsport,
Funkstown and Brandy Station, where he took the dead and wounded almost from the
hands of the enemy, entitles him to the greatest praise and consideration. He enjoyed the
goodwill and cordial esteem of the Regular Cavalry Brigade."
After leaving the Army of the Potomac, he served as the post-surgeon at Washington
Arsenal from May, 1864, until May, 1867, and was the only commissioned officer present at
the burial of the body of J. Wilkes Booth. He had medical charge of the conspirators against
President Lincoln and his cabinet, during their imprisonment in the old penitentiary buUding,
and was present at the hanging of four of them, and conducted the others to Tortugas.
From Washington he was ordered to Camp Cook, Montana, where, after many vicissitudes
by field and by flood, he reported August, 1867. He served with an expedition to the
Musselshell River, and during April and May of 1868, in addition to his medical duties,
volunteered for, and stood regular tours as officer of the day, to relieve the line officers,
who were greatly overworked by the constant presence of hostile Indians.
Resigning his commission. Dr. Porter crossed the continent on horseback in August and
September, 1868, traveling alone over the Lewis and Clarke trails, and returned to the east
by steamer via the Isthmus. He then located in Bridgeport as a practicing physician and
surgeon, and has since retained his residence in that city, adding to his reputation with
each succeeding year. To medical publications he has made numerous contributions, and
his address as president of the State Medical Society upon the cost ©f sickness to the
individual and to the state was widely • copied throughout the country. Dr. Porter started
the discussion in Bridgeport on suspended animation, which resulted in the passing of the
present coroner's law of the state of Connecticut, and it is generally conceded that his
address before the judiciary committee of the legislature largely determined the enactment
of the present medical practice act. He has had a share in many civil and criminal trials,
being called upon to give expert testimony, and has made numerous official post mortem
examinations. The profession of which he is a leading member has honored him in
various ways. Besides serving as president of the Bridgeport City and Fairfield County
Medical Societies, for the years 1888 and 1889 he was president of the Connecticut Medical
Society. He is one of the judicial council of the American Medical Association, and the
American Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Porter was made a Mason and a Knight Templar in the city of Washington, in
the old George Washington bodies. He is now one of the nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and
is a thirty-second degree Mason, being a member of Corinthian Lodge at Bridgeport.
Taking in a grand total of the whole, he is a member of nearly seventy different societies
and organizations. He has been connected with the National Guard of Connecticut, and
has served as surgeon of the Fourth Regiment, and as medical director of the state brigade.
He is a member of the Loyal Legion of the state of New York and is one of the inspectors
of the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford.
Dr. Porter's wife was a Providence lady, the daughter of Mr. Chaffee, the inventor of
the Chaffee cylinder for vulcanizing rubber. They have four children.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. ^77
ESSENDEN, SAMUEL, of Stamford, a distinguished lawyer and state's attorney
for Fairfield county, ex-member of the Connecticut House of Representatives,
and prominent for many years as a leader in the Republican party, was born
at Rockland, Me., April 12, 1847.
The family to which he belongs was descended from Nicholas Fessenden,
says the "Biography of Connecticut," who came from England, and settled in Cambridge,
Mass., in 1674. One of its worthiest members of the third generation was the Rev. William
Fessenden, who was graduated at Harvard College, and became the first minister of Fr}'eburg,
Me., then a district of Massachusetts. His son, Samuel Fessenden, born at Fryeburg, July
14, 1784, was a man of marked distinction. Connecting himself with the mUitia while a
young man, he rose to the rank of major-general, and for many years commanded a division
of the Massachusetts citizen soldiery. He was a lawyer by profession and was engaged in
active practice in the courts of Maine for more than forty-five years, where, by his great
ability and absolute integrity, he achieved a distinguished and justly deserved reputation as
a safe and faithful counselor and able advocate, ranking among the most prominent and
successful members of the bar. In politics a Federalist, he became a pronounced anti-slavery
man in 1841, joining the ranks of the Abolitionists with whom he was closely identified
until the formation of the Republican party, the principles of which he warmly espoused
and ably and eloquently defended. Possessed of great moral courage and devoid of physical
fear he always took a prominent part in the discussion of public questions, having the courage
of his convictions in the expression of his opinions during the exciting and stormy period of
anti-slavery agitation. General Fessenden, who was the grandfather of the subject of this
sketch and for whom he was named, had nine sons, three of whom, William Pitt, Samuel C.
and Thomas A. D., were in the delegation of Maine in the Thirty-seventh Congress, the only
instance in the history of the United States where three brothers have been elected to the
same Congress from the same state. The eldest, the late William Pitt Fessenden, who will
always be held in honored remembrance for his distinguished services to his country during
the late civil war, and as" secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President Lincoln, has
passed into history as one of America's ablest statesmen and financiers.
The second, Samuel Clement Fessenden, though overshadowed by the national fame of
his eminent brother, was, like him, a man of ability and distinction. Born in New Glouces
ter, Me., March 7, 1815 (five years before the district of Maine was admitted as a state), he
was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1834, and at the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1837.
After being pastor of the First Congregational church in Thomaston (now Rockland),
Me., for nearly twenty years, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and shortly afterwards
was elected judge of the municipal court of Rockland. He was a leading abolitionist and
one of the founders of the Republican party, and as the candidate of that party was elected
to Congress in 1861, serving until 1863. He married Mary A. G., daughter of Joshua Abbe
of Bangor, Me. His family consisted of four sons and eight daughters. The eldest son,
Joshua Abbe Fessenden, entered the army at the outbreak of the Rebellion and became a
captain in the United States army. He served in the Army of the Cumberland, and was
wounded at Chickamauga.
The second son, Samuel, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Lewiston FaUs
Academy, Auburn, Me. The outbreak of the RebeUion found him a boy of fourteen, in the
midst of his preparation to enter college. From the firing of the first gun on Sumter he
burned with the desire to enter the service of his country. At sixteen his mUitary ardor
could no longer be held in restraint, and sacrificing his college career, he gallantly enlisted
as a private in the Seventh Maine Volunteer Battery. On December 14, 1864, being strongly

378 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
recommended for promotion by General Grant, he was appointed to a first lieutenancy in the
Second United States Infantry, by President Lincoln, and before the close of the year was
offered a captaincy in that company, but having been recommended for a commission
in the artillery service of his own state, with the duties of which he was practically
familiar, he declined to accept these commissions, and on Jan. 15, 1865, although
lacking three months of being eighteen years of age, was commissioned as second lieutenant
in the First Maine Volunteer Battery, then at the front. After a brief service with this
command he was appointed as aide on the staff of Major-General Albion P. Howe, and
remained in this position until mustered out of the service at the close of the war. He
participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, and
in every position in which he was placed performed his duties so gallantly and conscientiously
as to win the favorable recognition of his superiors.
Upon leaving the army he decided upon adopting the profession of law, and took the
full course of study at the Harvard Law School, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of
Laws. On March 4, 1869, having taken up his residence at Stamford, Conn., he was duly
admitted to the bar of Fairfield County. A Republican by preference, as well as by inherited
instinct, he took an active part in politics from the date of settling at Stamford, and, in 1874,
was elected on the party ticket to the lower branch of the state legislature. He served
during this term as a member of the judiciary committee and "made one of the ablest
speeches of the session on the parallel railroad project, carrying the House by the eloquence
and force of his presentation of the case." In 1876, he was a delegate from Connecticut to
the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati, and after Connecticut had complimented
her favorite son, voted every other ballot for the nomination of Janies G. Blaine. In 1879,
he was again elected to represent Stamford in the General Assembly, and became one of the
leaders of his party in that body. Mr. p-essenden has been an active and prominent member
of every State Republican Convention held in Connecticut for fully fifteen years. Gifted
with rare eloquence and seemingly unlimited capacity for hard work, he has won high dis
tinction as a part}' leader. In 1880, he was again a delegate to the Republican National
Con\-ention at Chicago, and voted steadily from "start to finish" for the nomination of
Mr. Blaine. In 1884, he was elected secretary of the Republican National Committee, and in
that capacity showed himself the possessor of singular executive abUity. He is stUl a mem
ber of the National Committee of his party, and as one of the executive board ranks with
its most trusted advisers. In 1888, he was a delegate at large to the Republican National
Convention of that year, was chosen chairman of the delegation, and took a prominent part
in bringing about the nomination of President Harrison, and was engaged in the active work
of the campaign which followed.
Although StUl a young man for one so prominent, Mr. Fessenden has had a rare
experience of men and events. He began his career by valiantiy facing the enemies of his
country on the field of battle. While in the army and since, his social relations have
brought him into contact with almost all the prominent men in pubUc life. His great
poUtical activity in recent years has kept him in close touch with the leaders of his party
in all parts of the country. He is known as a man of strict integrity, high intelligence and
infinite resources, an able and trustworthy executive officer and a wise and experienced
manager and counselor. He is renowned at the bar for the care he bestows on the
preparation of his cases and for the skill and eloquence wUh which he presents them. It
is doubtful if there is a more powerful or successful advocate in the state than Mr.
Fessenden in a cause involving a great principle or a public benefit. He has the reputation
among his colleagues of being a formidable antagonist at any time, being not only skUlful,
thorough and eloquent, but likewise powerful in his influence over juries.

-.Tii.muc.jri'^

-^ ^Z.

^^^yZ^^^-^-^

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 379
Mr. Fessenden has few equals in personal popularity. He seems to possess the art of
holding the many friends whom his many fine qualities of head and heart draw to him. If
there is one class of citizens in whose esteem he stands higher than in any other it is
probably the veteran soldiers, with whom, not only in Connecticut, but in many other
states where he is known, he is a prime favorite. He was one of the founders of the
Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, of which he is stUl a member. He is a member of
the miUtary order of the Loyal Legion, and also of numerous civil bodies, including the
Bar Association of Fairfield County, of which he has been president for many years. He is
also director of the Stamford National Bank, the Stamford Loan and Trust Company, and
other financial institutions. In 1880, he was appointed by the judges of the Supreme and
Superior Courts, state's attorney for Fairfield County for the term of two years and by suc
cessive re-appointments stiU holds that office. His private practice is very large, covering
almost every department of law, as his learning seems to include almost every department
of knowledge. Samuel Fessenden was married June 26, 1873, to Helen M., daughter of Theodore
Davenport of Stamford, Conn. They have three children, one son and two daughters.

^ARNER, IRA DE VER, M. D., of Bridgeport, senior member of the firm of
Warner Brothers, was born in Lincklaen, Chenango County, N. Y., March 26,
1840. The first of the family of whom there is any accurate record is Abel
Warner, though nothing is known of his antecedents. He was born about 1760,
and lived at Hardwick, Mass., where he died March 11, 1816. His wife was a
direct descendant of P^'rancis Cook, who came over on the "Mayfiower," and a relative of Capt.
John Cook, the explorer. Abel Warner had eight children, among them Justus Warner, the
father of Charles Dudley Warner and George Warner, now living at Hartford, Conn., and Ira
Warner, the grandfather of Ira De Ver Warner. Ira Warner removed from Massachusetts, when
he was a young man, to Truxton, N. Y., where he owned a farm of several hundred acres of
land, and raised a family of twelve children. His oldest son was Alonzo Franklin Warner, the
father of the subject of this sketch. He was born Nov. 18, 1810, and died Dec. 31, 1846. He
was a sturdy, honest farmer of central New York, and in principles a thorough Quaker.
The mother of Dr. Warner was Lydia Ann Converse, a daughter of Calvin Converse, a promi
nent citizen of Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y. Her grandfather was Edward Converse, who
resided at Thompson, Conn. , and removed to Butternuts during the early part of the present
century. Tradition in the family says that the Converse family are descended from Edward
Converse, who came over with Governor Winthrop and afterwards settled at Woburn, Mass.
After receiving a common school and academic education, Mr. Warner decided upon the
medical profession as the one best suited to his tastes in which to exert the future activities
of life, and entered the office of Dr. C. M. Kingman, a prominent physician and surgeon of
McGrawville, Courtland County, N. Y. Pursuing his studies with diligence and close
attention, a little later he took the regular course at Geneva Medical College and had the honor
of being the valedictorian of his class.
Commencing the practice of his profession at Nineveh, Broom County, N. Y., Dr. Warner
remained there about two years, and then returned to McGrawville, and succeeded to the
practice of his former preceptor. Dr. Kingman. The place of a physician put him in close
touch with the needs of humanity, and he was soon convinced that the masses of the people

38o REPRESENTATIVE MEN
should be given instruction regarding their physicial organization. Accordingly he instituted
a series of popular lectures, which he delivered with marked success throughout New England
and the Middle States. An attractive speaker and a thorough master of his profession, he
naturally drew large and intelligent audiences, and for the space of ten years he continued
upon the lecture platform, everywhere impressing his hearers with the cogency of his arguments
and their own need of enlightenment.
During his career as a lecturer. Dr. Warner brought one of his ideas into practical shape.
He had become assured that many of the diseases of woman were the result of badly contrived
corsets, and to meet this need of the suffering female sex, he invented the justly celebrated
Warner health corset. Its practical construction and the endorsement of the doctor's name
soon gave the new corset great popularity. The manufacture was begun at McGrawville,
where it was continued until 1876, when the largely increased sales demanded better facilities.
After due consideration. Dr. Warner decided to locate in Bridgeport, the site of the present
brick factory was selected, a building erected, and in October of that year the manufacture of
corsets was commenced. Not content with producing a corset which worked a revolution in
the style of this much needed article, he still gave the subject his study, and in 1878, he
patented and began the manufacture of the famous flexible hip corset, an improvement being
that the bones ran horizontally around the body instead of vertically as in all previous efforts.
"Coraline," a stiffening for corsets, made from "Ixtel," a species of hemp, are among the
doctor's later ideas of making the best and most comfortable and easy fitting "stays."
In an almost incredibly short period of time, an industrial enterprise of vast proportions
has been built up, of which not only Bridgeport, but New England and the entire country
has just cause to feel proud. It is the largest establishment of the kind in America, and the
success attained is full}- deserved by the energy displayed. From a small shop where six
hands were employed, the business has grown till it fills a model plant supplying work for
sixteen hundred people, and with facilities for turning out seven hundred dozen corsets daUy.
Seven hundred sewing machines are used, some of them running twelve needles simultaneously.
Dr. Lucien C. Warner, a younger brother of Dr. I. De Ver Warner, has been a partner in the
business from its commencement, the title of the firm being Warner Brothers. Dr. Lucien
C. Warner has charge of selling the goods at the New York and Chicago offices, and has
done much to introduce the goods abroad. Besides their immense sales in this country, the
Warner corsets are made in England by William Pretty & Sons of Ipswich.
Warner Brothers have always felt a deep interest in the physical welfare of their employees.
Though ever thoughtful of the comfort of those who worked in their shops, they still realized
that something better was needed, and these ideas gradually took tangible shape in the
"Seaside Institute." This is a brick buUding about seventy feet square and three stories
high, erected on a lot adjoining their factory, and devoted wholly to the uses of their girls.
The building contains a hall, reading-room and library, together with class and work rooms,
bathing faculties, etc., and its general management is patterned, to some extent, after that
of the Young Men's Christian Association. The total cost of the building is something over
$90,000. Its value is thoroughly appreciated, and it is a magnificent monument to the
Christian thoughtfulness which made its existence possible. It was opened with appropriate
ceremonies Nov. 10, 1887, by Mrs. Grover Cleveland, wife of the President, and she entered
heartily into the spirit of the occasion, about three thousand working women having the
privUege of shaking hands with the first lady of the land. During the panic of 1893, a smaU
army of unemployed women were fed at the restaurant at nominal rates.
From the very founding of the Bridgeport Young Men's Christian Association, Dr.
Warner has been zealous in the promotion of its success, as he has a strong faith in the

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 381
possibilities of work along its lines. He was chosen the first president of the organization,
and by successive elections has held that office to the present time. Being a practical manu
facturer himself, he has paid much attention to the educational and industrial phases of the
work. Besides giving the land on which the handsome association building now stands, his
yearly donations to the current expenses have been liberal in the extreme. His interest in
young men has not been confined to the city where he makes his home, but for two years
Dr. Warner served as chairman of the Connecticut state committee, and in this broader field
his efforts brought about a renewed zeal in the association cause in all parts of the state.
Fully occupied in his business and actively interested in philanthropic work, with a single
exception he has always declined official honors. For two years he was a member of the
Bridgeport City Council, and contributed his share, giving the citizens a business administra
tion of affairs. For four years he has been vice-president of the Pequannock Bank. In
religious faith he affiliates with the Presbyterian doctrine, and is an active worker in that
portion of the vineyard of the Lord in which his lot is cast. He is a member of the First
Presbyterian church of Bridgeport. Having by only a few years passed the half-century
mark of human life. Dr. Warner has yet many years of usefulness stretching out before him.
With none of his faculties impaired and all his abilities merely improved by long experience,
his opportunities for good in the future are even greater than they have ever been in the past.
His early zeal for suffering humanity, his philanthropic treatment of his employees, and his
disinterested work in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association, together with
his professional learning and his executive ability as a business manager, all combine to
stamp Dr. Warner as one of the representative men of Connecticut.
He was married Sept. 24, 1862, to Lucetta H., daughter of David Greenman of McGraw
ville, N. Y. Three children have been born to them, Annie L., now Mrs. N. W. Bishop,
De Ver H. and Hugh F. The last named died May i, 1879, aged eight years.

?AMP, HIRAM, of New Haven, president of the New Haven Clock Company,
was born AprU 9, 1811, at Plymouth, Conn. He died July 12, 1893.
fj His father, Samuel Camp, and his grandfather, who bore the same name,
were substantial New England yeomen, and of the stalwart, unconquerable.
Puritanic stock, to which the country and the world are so largely indebted.
Samuel Camp, Sr. , was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, was well acquainted with General
Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and rendered efficient service to the cause of his
country at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Staten Island. Four of his brothers, namely,
John, Bennajah, Joab and Ephraim, also served in the patriot armies. John Camp became
a Congregationalist minister, and Samuel Camp a deacon in the same order of the Christian
church. The latter settled in Plymouth, and in old age was maintained by his son, Samuel
Camp, Jr., the father of Hiram Camp, who also supported his wife's parents. The pressure
of onerous responsibility thus resting on the shoulders of the younger Samuel, made it very
necessary that all the members of his family should aid in sustaining it. The farm was poor,
and the soil rocky. The good old deacon, when past the season of effective agricultural labor,
employed his declining energies most usefully, by visiting every family in the town, at least
once in the course of each year, in order to converse witTi its members on religious topics,
and to pray with and for them. His son followed in the same beneficent path, was intensely
interested in religious affairs, had committed not less than half the contents of the Bible to
49

382 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
memory, and was always ready to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
The influence of such examples and of such teaching upon his " children was benign and
powerful. He literall}- obeyed the injunctions of the Almighty to the Israelitish people, and
through them to all people, to speak of His precepts and promises to their children, when
lying down, rising up and walking by the way.
Young Camp's abilities were utilized while he was yet in very tender years. At the age
of four he was tied on a horse used in plowing. The child slipped from the back of the animal
on one occasion, and narrowly escaped violent death, while the frightened horse ran about
the field, with the strange burden dangling against his legs. Incidents similar in character
are recorded of several eminent men, who in their childhood were providentially preserved to
accomplish their destined mission in mature life. Such educational advantages as the common
country schools of the time afforded were appropriated by the rapidly developing youth.
The study of " DaboU's Arithmetic," and of "Walker's Spelling- Book " was not a complete
preparation for business life by any means, but it was much better than none. The value
of opportunity to individuals resides largely in their own disposition to improve it. Hiram
Camp eagerly seized the opportunit}- presented, and then proceeded to make further oppor
tunities for himself. He had a natural taste for mechanical pursuits, and besought his
father's permission to work with his uncle in the manufacture of clocks. It was finally
determined that he might do so on attaining the age of eighteen. When that eventful epoch
arrived, breakfast over, family worship ended, " Good-by " pronounced to parents and sisters,
he struck a direct line across the country for about ten miles to the residence of Chauncey
Jerome, his mother's brother. All his worldl}- goods were then tied up within the limits
of a cotton handkerchief. Mr. Jerome received his nephew with kindness, and ere long put
him in charge of all his works. The business association then formed continued for some
what more than twenty years.
At that period the clock manufacture was in its infancy. Little had been done toward
its establishment in this country previous to the year 1815. From that time to 1829, it grew
slowly, and by the aid of machinery that was small in quantity and poor in quality. Since
then vast improvements, to which Mr. Camp has largely contributed, have been effected.
The measurement of time by the mechanical contrivances known as clocks, is compara
tively of very recent date. The sundial and the clepsydra were the early machines used for
that purpose, the first showing apparent time, and the latter giving a rude approximation
to mean time. These inadequate instruments doubtless provoked the inventive ingenuity
of the unknown person, or persons, to whom the world is indebted for its invaluable clocks.
Whether he or they were French, German, or- Italian is impossible now to determine. Strik
ing clocks were known in Italy in the latter part of the thirteenth, or the beginning of the
fourteenth century. In the year 1288, the fine imposed on the chief justice of the king's
bench was appropriated to furnishing a clock for the famous clock-house near Westminster
Hall. St. Mary's, at Oxford, was not provided with a clock untU 1523, when one was paid
for out of fines imposed on the students of the university. Venice did not obtain a clock,
according to one author, until 1497. Henry de Wyck, a German artist, who placed a clock
in the tower of the palace of Charies V., about the year 1364, is held by some to have been
the inventor of the machine; but it is more probable, as Berthoud suggests, that it is a
compound of successive inventions, each worthy of a separate contriver. Analogy certainly
sustains this opinion, for the timepieces of the present day have been brought to their present
degree of perfection by consecutive improvements upon the comparatively rude mechanism
of De W}-ck.
In 1560, the celebrated astronomer, Tycho Brahe, possessed four clocks which indicated
hours, minutes and seconds. Prior to that year the substitution of a main-spring for a weight,

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 383
as the moving power, and also the application of the fusee, must have taken place. Huyghen
is often credited with the application of the pendulum to the clock, and is entitled to the
honor of having done so in a masterly and scientific manner, although it is known that
Richard Harris, a London artist, invented a long pendulum clock in 1614. Science is much
indebted to the ingenious manufacturers of clocks, for, in 1577, Moestlin, by counting the
number of beats made during the time of the sun's passage over a meridian, determined the
sun's diameter to be thirty-four minutes and thirteen seconds. Huyghens discovered that
the pendulum vibrated slower as it approached the equator, which led the way to the subse
quent discovery that the earth is not a globe, but an oblate spheroid.
In 1680, Clement of London invented the anchor escapement; and, in 1715, George
Graham discovered the means of rectifying the errors of the pendulum, caused by the con
traction and expansion of metals under changes of temperature, in the celebrated mercurial
pendulum. He afterward introduced the dead-beat escapement. Since his death numerous
scientific improvements of great value have been made by successive inventors, which have
given to timepieces the quality of precision to a degree that closely approximates perfection.
Among the men through whose genius and industry this splendid result has been attained,
must be included Hiram Camp of New Haven. In 1842 or 1843, Mr. Jerome removed part
of his works, that for the making of cases, to New Haven. In 1845, JNIr. Camp having then
been for sixteen years in his employ, Jerome's movement shop was burned to the ground,
and much of the contained machinery destroyed. Measures were at once taken to rebuild it,
not in Bristol, Conn., but in New Haven.
Mr. Camp was the inventor as well as the manufacturer of most of the different kinds of
clocks' made at the present time. One of his most curious inventions is a clock which beats
time to music, and whose movements can be regulated at will. It was designed for the use
of schools in marking time for gymnastics, calisthenic and military exercises. In 1851, he
entered, into business on his own account, erected a building, and began the manufacture
of clock movements. This enterprise he prosecuted alone until 1853, when he organized
a joint stock association, under the title of the New Haven Clock Company. The capital
of the corporation was fixed at $20,000. The officers were as follows : Hiram Camp, president ;
James E. English, late governor of Connecticut and also United States senator, treasurer;
and John Woodruff, since a member of Congress, secretary. In 1856, the New Haven Clock
Company increased its capital and productive capacity by purchasing the machinery and
business of the Jerome Clock Manufacturing Company. Its organization was slightly changed
at the same time, James E. English becoming secretary as well as treasurer. He was after
ward succeeded in the former office by Edward Stevens, the present secretary, and the capital
stock was simultaneously increased to $200,000. Throughout all these changes Mr. Camp
retained the presidency of the company, and the general management of the manufacturing
department. More clocks have been made under his supervision than under that of any one
living man. His management of an establishment, making more clocks than any other on the
globe, extended backwards half a century. Until within the past twenty-five or thirty years,
the principal seats of the clock manufacture have been in England, France and Switzerland.
But the United States have made, and are still making, gigantic strides toward the leadership
in this, as in other branches of mechanical art. The United States census of 1870 showed
that in that year there were forty-six establishments in this country devoted to the fabrication
of clocks, clock cases, and clock materials; that the machinery in these establishments was
run by eighteen steam engines and twenty-nine water-wheels ; that sixteen hundred and five
hands were employed; that the capital invested in them amounted to $1,133,650; and that
the wholesale value of their products reached the sum of $3,022,253. Of these aggregates,

384

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

the state of Connecticut had twenty-eight establishments, eleven steam engines, twenty-seven
water-wheels, fourteen hundred and seventy-one employees, $1,008,650 invested capital, and
$2,747,153 in wholesale value of the products. AU these figures have been largely increased
in the years which have elapsed since the date named.
Mr. Camp's energies were not wholly confined within the Umits of manufacture and trade.
He filled several public offices in deference to the wishes of the people, such as member of
the city council, selectman of the town, chief engineer of the civic fire department, and
member of the state legislature. The Emperor Charies V., after his stormy and eventful
reign, sought peace in the seclusion of the monastery at Yuste, in Spain. There he amused
himself by the collection and study of timepieces. Not one of them could he compel to keep
precisely the same time with another; nor could he hold any one in exact correspondence with
the movements of the heavenly bodies. From this deficiency of power over mechanical
arrangements in carrying out his purposes he inferred, when too late, his supreme folly in
having imperiously striven to make his multitudinous subjects think and worship just as he
had done. Mind is more variable than matter, and is governed by other forces. Not less
pious, but vastiy more wise, than he, Mr. Camp sought to bring about the harmony of human
heart and life with the mind and wUl of the Almighty Mechanic of the universe, by support
ing two Sabbath school missionaries in Nebraska, and also a city missionary in another state.
He knew that each human being has his place in the world's mechanism, whether it correspond
to that of wheel, fusee, escapement, or merely tooth or peg, and aimed through the instru
mentality of his missionary agents, and the help of the Divine Spirit, to fit each for his place
in the great whole ; so that humanity in its entireness may move in perfect accord and concord
with the Great Author of nature and the Giver of all grace.
Later in life Mr. Camp became greatly interested in the work of the famous evangelist,
Dwight L. Moody, and was president of the school at Mt. Hermon at the time of his death.
At different times he ga\'e about $100,000 to the development of the school and other branches
of the work at Mt. Hermon, and he made liberal provision for its continuance at his death.
His funeral was one of the largest which ever took place in New Haven, and all who had known
or been associated with him seemed to take pleasure in showing their respect for their deceased
townsman and fellow citizen, and in paying their last tribute of love and affection for their
deceased friend. In the course of his remarks the Rev. Watson L. Phillips of the Church of
the Redeemer said :
The principal thing to be looked at in a man is his attitude toward spiritual things and truths — truths
which are universally regarded as truths even by those who don't accept them as the fundamental principles of
their own living. That which lives longest when bodily relations have faded from sight is what comes from
one's personal relation to these spiritual truths.
Mr. Camp was wont to remark that about fifteen years ago a great change came to him both as a Christian,
a business man and a representative of the Christian church. The truth of Christ was held by him in his earliest
manhood in most steadfast belief. But he was simply a Christian business man, loving the church of his choice,
giving to it of his substance and attending it regularly. But after the time of which I speak there was a marked
change in him — a change in his line of thinking. Religion from that time became the business of his life. All
that he had become up to that time throughout a diligent life and all that he had acquired was from that hour
devoted to Christ. He regarded himself simply as a steward. He lived in His name and by His grace. And he
went forth day by day to strive as he had never striven before to make his life conform to the principles of the
New Testament. And he went forth with his goods in his hand, doing good to all with whom he came in contact.
Aud in this I think we can find the key to the wonderful impression which he has made upon this community
and upon all men with whom he associated. The greatest question of his life was when and how he could be of
the most use to the most men. Iu a word religion in its sweetest, purest and most ennobling sense became the
business of his life.
I think his two principal characteristics were simplicity and strength. And he was strong through his very
simplicity. He was a strong man both mentally and physically — one of the sturdy, rugged men who moved
among us and who blessed the church of which he was a member and the community of which he was a citizen.

MassacK-LLsettsFuilishing Co, leverett. Maaa

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 385
Some things came of this change, too. He had loved the church before. But now he loved it with the fondest
affection, and he gave his heart to the work in such a way that it became his ambition to serve the church in the
highest and strongest way. He also developed a much stronger love for the Holy Scriptures and strove to fill his
mind with them.
After the completion of his public bequests, which were exceedingly liberal, the remainder
of Mr. Camp's property was equally divided between his three daughters, Mrs. Mary A. White,
a widow, who has been a resident at the home of her father for some time ; Mrs. Sarah Jane
Cruttenden, wife of George Cruttenden, and Mrs. Jeannette Harmount, also a widow.

|AMMOND, GEORGE ASAHEL, of Putnam, senior member of the firm of
Hammond, Knowlton & Company, silk manufacturers, was born May 26,
1 84 1, in Hampton, Conn.
The first representative of the Hammond family in America emigrated
from England and settled in the suburbs of Boston now Newton. His grand
father, Asahel, and a brother, Hezekiah, each settled upon farms in the town of Hamp
ton early in the century, and later both bought homes at Brooklyn, the county seat,
moving there soon after 1840. Three sons and five daughters were born to Asahel. George
Robinson, the second son, father of George A., purchased the farm, after teaching in Wind
ham County schools, where he always lived, for a term of years. There were four sons and
four daughters, of whom one-half died in childhood. Charles Storrs was married and died at
the age of thirty-seven. His son, Clarence Asahel, is now living. Lucy Ann married George
Hart and died at the age of thirty. William Henry occupies the old farm, well known as
"Red Roof," which in the census of 1890 showed the largest production of any in Windham
County. He has two daughters living. The mother of George A. Hammond was the eldest
of nine children, he was the eldest grandchild, and his son, Charles Henry, the eldest great
grandchild; the latter died in Colorado at the age of twenty, April 15, 1888. There is a
group picture in existence, showing four generations living, of Mr. Hammond's grandmother,
his mother, himself and son, with about twenty-five years difference in their ages.
His education was obtained at the county schools, and for two terms at Williston Seminary,
Easthampton, Mass. While there he took a thorough course in penmanship, and for one
term was assistant teacher in that branch in the seminary. Following in the footsteps of his
father, he taught five terms in Windham County schools.
The War of the RebeUion was in progress, and just after Mr. Hammond attained his
majority, the town of Hampton had a call for nine men to fill its quota. A meeting was
called for the purpose of securing enlistments, and the authorities invited men to state what
inducement in money would cause them to enlist. Stirred by patriotic impulses, he announced
promptly that he would go to the defence of his country without any money consideration.
His example was immediately followed by four others, and as soon as this fact became known
the quota was filled without further trouble and a draft on the town prevented.
He joined Company G, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Volunteers as private, but by vote
of the company was soon elevated to the rank of orderly sergeant. The regiment was com
manded by Col. Thomas G. Kingsley and served under General Banks through that memora
ble siege at Port Hudson. The Twenty-sixth Connecticut was brigaded with the Fifteenth
New Hampshire, of which Senator Henry W. Blair was colonel, the One Hundred and
Twenty-eighth New York and Twenty-fourth Maine. The brigadier general was Neal Dow,
the noted leader in the temperance cause. Captain Stanton of Company G was killed May
27, in the first assault made on Port Hudson, and Orderly Sergeant Hammond was then

386 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
appointed by the colonel acting lieutenant the remainder of his term. His term of service
did not reUeve him from possibUity of draft, and wishing to enter business furnished a
substitute for full three years' term. He entered the sUk business with his uncle, Charles
L. Bottum, August, 1864, in the town of Mansfield, Conn.
Mr. Hammond was especially fortunate in having as instructor in the spooling and
finishing department Goodrich Holland, brother of "Timothy Titcomb," and Anson Swift,
a well known throwster, and having as co-workers John A. Conant and his brother Hiram.
At the close of the second year, his constant application to the details of manufacturing
gained him the position of superintendent of the mill, and at the end of the third was given
an interest, and five years later he was made a meinber of the concern. Mr. Hammond was
early recognized as an expert in the spooling of silk, and this reputation caused him to be
invited to set up spoolers in three new mills and assisting in the work of starting many
others. Twice fiattering inducements have been made to go to other mills, but he always
remained loyal to the concern with which he first engaged.
With his cousin, Charles C. Knowlton, as an active partner, and George M. Morse as a
special partner, Mr. Hammond established a silk mill at Putnam, Conn., in 1878. The two
partners purchased Mr. Morse's interest in 1881, and in 1885, Louis Hauchhaus, who had
served three years as salesman, was taken into the concern. It is a favorite saying of his,
"Pretty good will not do, the best attainable is poor enough." The factory has always
been proverbial for its neat appearance, and this has no little effect on the quality of the
goods produced. He prefers to lead and let his competitors follow or imitate his successes.
Year by year the sales of the firm have steadily increased until in 1893, probably no concern
in the country made a larger output in their specialties of sewing silks, machine twists and
silk braids. January ist, 1894, his firm with two others formed the New London Wash Silk
Company at New London, Conn., and they produce "wash silk" embroideries of superior
merit, which are growing in popularity in the market. Mr. Hammond is now recognized as
one of the leading manufacturers in his line, and this reputation has been gained by fair
dealing and persistent work, backed up by a thorough knowledge of all the processes and
details which enter into the manufactured product.
Men of his stamp and character must expect to be called upon to serve their fellow
citizens in official stations. At an early period after his arrival in Mansfield, he was placed
upon the school board, and retained his membership as long as he resided in the town.
After coining to Putnam, he was again made a member of the school board, serving one
year as acting school visitor, and is now a member of the board. In 1876, he represented
the town of Mansfield in the state legislature, and served on several important committees.
Mr. Hammond was elected to the legislature in 1885, from the town of Putnam, and was
reelected by the popular vote the following year. He was appointed chairman of the com
mittee on manufactures, and a member of the railroad committee, and was generaUy
acknowledged as one of the active working members of the House. It was mainly through
his efforts that the charter for the Putnam Water Works was granted, being one of the first
legislative acts of the session. For two years he served as a member of the executive
committee of the Home Market Club, Boston. The second year. Gen. Wm. Draper, now a
member of Congress, was president of the club. On the same committee with Mr. Hammond
were T. J. Coolidge, ex-minister to France ; W. H. Bent, now president of the club ; Wm.
A. RusseU, ex-member of Congress, and other men of equal prominence.
He took great interest in the fact that Putnam was the first town in the county to intro
duce a s}'stem of city water works, as well as an electric light plant, and was active in
promoting both enterprises. For two years he was president of the Electric Light Company

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 387
of Putnam, his mill and residence being the first in the town to introduce the new light.
Having but just rounded out the first half century of life, he has yet many }'ears of useful
ness before him, and one need not be a prophet to -make the prediction that the future has
still higher honors in store for his acceptance.
George A. Hammond was married Oct. 12, 1862, to Jane, daughter of Hezekiah Crandall,
and niece of Prudence Crandall who was prominent in anti-slavery days. Of their two
chUdren, a son and a daughter, the latter. Bertha Elizabeth, is still living.

|REWSTER, LYMAN DENISON, of Danbury, Conn., was born in Salisbury,
Conn., July 31, 1832. He is the son of Daniel and Harriet Averill Brewster.
His grandfather, Daniel Brewster, Sr., was born in 1730, at Preston, Conn.,
and was the great-grandson of Jonathan Brewster, eldest son of "Elder
William Brewster," the "Chief of the Pilgrims."
Few, indeed none, of his contemporary statesmen can boast of a more distinguished and
heroic ancestor. William Brewster was born of an ancient family, educated at the
University of Cambridge, acquainted with the splendid court of Queen Elizabeth, and
conversant with public affairs. He was the intimate and confidential servant and friend of
William Davison, the trusted secretary of the sovereign ; and when his patron was disgraced
and wickedly imprisoned in the Tower of London, Brewster "remained with him, rendering
many faithful offices of service in the time of his troubles." Two years after the fall of
Davison, Brewster — who was then about twenty-three years of age — went to reside with
his father at the stately old manor-house of Scrooby, near the northern boundary of Notting
hamshire. There he acted for his infirm old father, who held an office in the service of
the Queen. Five years after that he was himself the postmaster at Scrooby, and lived "in
good esteem among his friends and the gentlemen of those parts, especially the godly and
religious." He was an earnest, godly man, had accepted Puritan views at the university,
and did much for the promotion of religion in his own locality. He was especially active
in securing the services of good preachers, and earned the praise that Paul gave to some of
his converts, by giving beyond the measure of his ability for their support.
In 1617, the Pilgrims discussed the project of removal to the new world, and, in 1618,
Brewster and Cushman secretly repaired to London to negotiate in behalf of the church
with the Virginia company. In 1619, it was decided that the pioneers in the daring enter
prise should be accompanied by Ruling- Elder Brewster, the pastor's colleague in the oversight
of the flock. On July 22, 1620, the pioneer PUgrims embarked on board the "Speedwell,"
at Delft-Haven, for Southampton, in their native land ; whence they were to sail for
America. The " SpeedweU " was a minute vessel of only sixty tons, and was designed to
serve as a tender to the " Mayflower," a ship of a hundred and eighty tons. On the fifteenth
of August, 1620, the two insignificant vessels sailed from Southampton with a hundred and
twenty passengers, and all the material needful for founding a colony in the wilderness. It
was a "day of smaU things" for the Pilgrims. But in those small things were the germs
of mighty religious and political revolutions that were to change the face of Christendom,
and hasten the evangelization of the human race.
On board the ' ' Mayflower ' ' the church worshipped under the presidency of its teaching
and ruling elder, WUliam Brewster; and at Christmas landed on Plymouth Rock — the
American Mecca. In the privations, hardships, sicknesses, and deaths which followed dis-

388 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
embarkation, William Brewster proved himself to be a true follower of the Lord, who
washed His disciples' feet. Gravest and stateliest of all his company. Elder Brewster was
revered and loved by all who knew him. In 1623, he was rejoined by two of his daughters,
who had been left behind in Holland. For nine years he was practically the pastor as
well as the teacher of "the church in the wUderness." When he died it was in green and
flourishing age, full of honors, and enriched by the reverence, love, and trust of multitudes
in both hemispheres. It is not too much to add that William Brewster's head and heart
have impressed their characteristics upon the American people as profoundly, perhaps,
though not as visibly, as those of George Washington.
It was with strictest propriety that the descendant of the old Cambridge University
student was destined to receive a liberal education. Lynian D. Brewster was fltted for
college — chiefly at Williams Academy, in Stockbridge, Mass. In 1851, he entered the
freshman class at Yale, and graduated from that venerable institution in 1855. He was
the poet of his class. Subsequent to graduation, he studied law under the direction of the
Hon. Roger Averill, at Danbury, Conn., and was admitted to the bar on the twenty-first of
January, 1858. There he soon rose to the dignity and influence of a leading member, and
became the first judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Fairfield County — holding the
office with credit and distinction from 1870 to 1874. He has also interested himself in all
public matters germane to the best interests of his neighborhood. He has served as judge
of probate," school visitor of Danbury for sixteen years, and also as one of the directors of
the Danbury Savings Bank.
In 1870, and again in 1878 and 1879, Judge Brewster was elected to the lower house
of the Connecticut legislature. In 1878, he was an influential member of the judiciary
committee, on which he served with Governor Andrews; and, in 1879, was on the same com
mittee in company with Hon. Henry C. Robinson of Hartford. During the session of 1878,
he was chairman on the part of the House of the committee on state expenditures, and
also of the committee on constitutional amendments. He also effectively advocated various
important measures, including the repeal of the "omnibus" clause in the divorce law.
In the same year he was appointed by Governor Hubbard a member of the commission
for revising the civil procedure code. When the report of the commission was presented
in the session of 1879, Mr. Brewster bore an active part in the two days' debate which
ended in its adoption, and also in the subsequent work of the commission in preparing
new forms and rules of practice under it. The result of the work of the two }«ars was
the adoption by the legislature of the "Practice Act" and "Book of Forms," which
placed Connecticut first of the New England states among the so-called "code states"
of the Union. These have done away with the technical differences in forms of actions
prevaiUng under the old common law system. He also, at the opening of this session, secured
the adoption of a new joint rule, making the committee on engrossed bills a committee
of correction, to correct all mistakes and report back to the House all defective bills.
The object of the committee on correction is to prevent imperfect acts from becoming
laws, untU they have been carefuUy revised and considered by it. The work itself is of
cardinal importance to careful legislation.
This is not the only beneficent legislative measure for which the people of Connecticut
are indebted to Judge Brewster. In the House journal of 1870, appears the record of bUls
introduced by him for the economy and protection of labor. One of these, No. 23, pro
vides that "every railroad company shall require sufficient security from the contractors for
the payment of all labor performed in the construction of said road : and such company
shall be liable to the laborer for labor actually performed on the road." This clause became

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 389
a law. An act for the protection of labor. No. 88, providing that preferred debts due from
insolvent estates for labor and services performed, be allowed to the amount of fifty dollars,
instead of twenty-five as now provided, also became a law. Twelve bills which passed
into law, introduced by him in 1878, greatly reduced the expenses of the state.
In November, 1879, Judge Brewster was elected by the Republican party to the state
Senate from the Eleventh District, by a majority of 315. His victory was all the more
flattering because the district had been carried by the Democrats since 1865 ; and further,
because the hatters, who constitute a considerable fraction of the voters in Danbury, voted
largely for him, without reference to party, in view of his advocacy, in the previous session
of the legislature, of a state commission to examine into the feasibility of regulating prison
labor, so that it shall not injuriously affect outside laborers. In the session of 1880, he
again served on the judiciary committee, but in the capacity of chairman.
Since the close of his judicial and legislative terms, the most noticeable event in his
professional history has been his connection with the Tilden will case. As one of the
counsel for the heirs, Mr. Brewster spent a liberal share of four years' time investigating
the merits of the case and preparing briefs. It was an exceedingly intricate affair, with
wide-spread ramifications, and it gave him an excellent opportunity for legal research.
Mr. Brewster is a member of the American Bar Association, and several years has been
chairman of the committee on uniform state laws. At Danbury he has been interested
in public matters in a marked degree, and in addition to official stations previously mentioned,
he has been chairman of the book committee in the Danbury Library since it started,
about 1869.
Hitherto, on common testimony. Senator Brewster has maintained a character for purity,
public spirit, ability and useful service in strict harmony with the reputation of that heroic
and godly Pilgrim leader whose memory cannot die, and whose fame will be greener and
more luxuriant as the centuries roll onward into eternity. As a politician Mr. Brewster
has never stood in with the" "heelers," or run with the "machine" men. In public
life he has displayed the qualities of an honest and public spirited citizen. He is one
of the best known members of the bar of the state, serving often on important committees
and is a gentleman of very pleasant manners.
In 1868, he was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Ives, daughter of George W. Ives
of Danbury.

^

^URNER, EDWARD THOMAS, a prominent citizen of Waterbury, late president
of the Fourth National Bank of that city, late representative of the fifth Sena
s' torial district in the state Senate, and distinguished in mercantile circles as
^^ a leading business man of the Naugatuck Valley, was born in the town of Litch
field, Litchfield County, Conn., March 21, 1835, and died at his home in
Waterbury, Dec. 2, 1891. His father, Eber Turner, who died at Litchfield, in 1857, aged
seventy-five years, was a native of the same town, and a farmer by occupation. His
mother, Malita Wilmot Turner, was a daughter of Asa WUmot of Woodbridge. She also
reached the mature age of seventy-five years, dying at Litctfield, in 1863.
The subject of this sketch was brought up on the paternal farm, and had the usual
opportunities for obtaining an English education enjoyed by farmer's sons in the section
in which he lived. At an early age he was apprenticed to the shoe trade, but in his
later youth followed farming. When of age he engaged in business in a small way on

50

^go REPRESENTATIVE MEN
his own account, at PlainviUe, Conn., carrying on what is known as a general store. In
i86^ having acquired sufficient capital to warrant his engaging in a larger enterprise, lie
removed to Waterbury, and, in partnership with Mr. WUliam Newton, opened a dry-goods
store there. In 1864, the firm of Newton & Turner was dissolved, _ Mr Newton retiruig.
Mr. Turner continued the business alone untU 1883, when he admitted Mr. H A Skid
more as partner, the firm then becoming Turner & Co. In 1890, his only son, Mr. Charles
E. Turner, was given an interest in the business, the firm then adopting the name of E.
T. Turner & Co. _ ^ 1 j j
In the selection of Waterbury as a promising location in which to start a large dry-goods
business, says the "Biography of Connecticut," Mr. Turner displayed rare perspicacity At
the time he opened his store the town had a population of about eight thousand, and was
already a flourishing manufacturing centre. Its business men were among the most pro
gressive in the state, and neglected no opportunities for advancing the interests of their
town The place itself possessed many natural advantages which attracted outside capital,
and this, together with the enterprising character of its people as a whole, made its
development rapid, and placed its prosperity on a substantial basis. Probably no town of
its size in the Eastern states derived more solid advantages from the phenomenal increase
in general business which foUowed the termination of the Civil War. But the notable
increase which has taken place in its trade, wealth and population, has not been tiie
result of accident. Men of courage, enterprise and abUity toUed unceasingly to effect it,
and prominent among them from the day he set foot in the town, was Mr. E. T. Turner.
Beginning within his own domain of enterprise he pushed his business with so much
intelligence and energy that in a short time it stood at the head of the dry-goods trade
of Waterbury. A wholesale department was finally added to the business, and many
smaller concerns in the same Une of trade, both in Waterbury and the surrounding country,
drew no inconsiderable portion of their supplies from the firm. Good judgment in buying,
and the command of sufficient capital, enabled the firm to hold and increase its trade
despite all competition, so that to-day, its customers, both wholesale and retail, may be
found throughout the length and breadth of the Naugatuck Valley. In every part of this
territory, as well as in Waterbury, the name of Mr. Turner is synonymous with honesty and
fair dealing. He won his business successes by legitimate means, and the ample fortune
which he enjoyed was the outcome of his applied brains and energy. The extensive busi
ness of the house of which he was the head, has been carried on for many years in the
commodious and central quarters at 38, 40 and 42 Bank street. The establishment is the
largest and finest in the city, and probably has no superior between New York and Boston.
Mr. Turner's excellent judgment in financial matters led to his being chosen a member
of the board of directors of the Manufacturers' Bank of Waterbury. He resigned this position,
after holding it several years, in order to accept the presidency of the Fourth National Bank
of Waterbury, one of the most flourishing institutions of its class in the state. This position
he held until he died. Notwithstanding his apparent absorption in business 9.ffairs, Mr.
Turner found ample time in which to serve his fellow citizens in a public capacity. As a
member of the Common Council of the city, in 1886, he was earnest and persevering in
instituting and promoting many measures of great public utility. At a later period, as fire
and water commissioner of the city, he helped to bring this department to a high degree of
excellence. In 1884 land 1885, he represented the fifth senatorial district in the state Senate,
serving during the entire term as chairman of the committee on banks and banking, and,
during 1885, as chairman of the committee on military affairs. An examination of his record
in the Senate shows that he was one of the most painstaking and intelligent members of

TKe Century Hjllislmg 8fETigi'a\ang Co.CMcago.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 391
that body. His labors in committee were performed with zeal and discretion, and it is
known that in his capacity as chairman he never reported a bill that was not passed.
Although a Republican in politics and the nominee of the Republican party, he was elected
to the Senate in a district strongly Democratic, a substantial attestation of the general confi
dence reposed in his integrity and abUity.
To enumerate in detail all the public movements in Waterbury in which he took an
active part, would be to mention nearly every one of any importance set on foot while he
was a resident of the city. One of the most important was the introduction of the street-
raUroad system into the city, a movement in which he took the initiative, and which he
was successful in carrying forward over every opposition. The lapse of but a short time
was sufficient to prove the wisdom of his enthusiastic labors to secure this result. He was
also one of the pioneers in promoting the introduction of the electric light system in Water
bury. Mr. Turner was one of those progressive citizens who believe in adopting and apply
ing the marvelous inventions and discoveries made by science, perceiving their advantages
long before they begin to appeal to the general public. His prevision frequently arrayed
him for a time against the unthinking majority, but he was so diligent and earnest in
explaining the benefits and advantages of whatever project he advanced or upheld, that in
the end he invariably succeeded in breaking down all rational opposition, and in carrying
his point. It happened more than once that what was at first opposed as a more or less
selfish enterprise was finally enthusiastically supported as a work of immediate public neces
sity. It may be said to his credit that Mr. Turner was never mixed up in any jobs or
dubious schemes. His work was always open and above board ; and in no single instance
did he aid or abet any but the most useful enterprises. His most striking characteristic was
a restless energy, which, when once enlisted in favor of a project, nothing could arrest save
success. To this energy, so honorably exercised, the people of Waterbury are heavily
indebted, and it is doubtful if there was any man in the city who was more sincerely
respected, or whose labors received more grateful acknowledgment.
Mr. Turner was married in 1856, to Miss Jane E. Hubbard, daughter of Jesse Hubbard
of Watertown, who with two children, Charles E. and Edith J., survive him. The son con
tinues the business interests he left. The daughter is the wife of George A. Ailing of New
Haven, Conn.

ORGAN, DANIEL NASH, treasurer of the United States, was born in Newtown,
Fairfield County, Conn., Aug. 18, 1844. The Morgan famUy is one of the
most ancient in Wales, and the ancestors of the subject of this sketch came
from that country to Ainerica in pre- Revolutionary times. Some of them
established themselves at Springfield, Mass., and others at New London, Conn.
The first of the name known to have lived in Norwich, Conn., in 1700, was Peter
Morgan. His son was Capt. Zedekiah Morgan, who settled in Newtown, and in the days
of the Revolution, owned a six hundred and ninety acre tract of land at Hopewell, where
large numbers of cavalrymen and horses were quartered during one winter of that struggle,
and which is still known as the Morgan farm. He was one of the worthies of the town,
and, although jeopardizing a large property by his action, entered heart and soul into the
cause of American independence and lived to witness its triumph. His descendants inter
married with the Sanford family of Redding, and the. Nash and Camp families of Norwalk.
The Morgans are a sturdy race and among other characteristics seem to be noted for

2^2 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
their longevity The four grand-parents of Daniel Nash Morgan reached the great ages,
respectively, of eighty-four, ninety, ninety-six and eighty years. Hezekiah Morgan his
grandfather, was a farmer in Redding, Conn., and his father, Ezra Morgan, a native of that
town, was one of the most prominent public men in that part of the state. He represented
Newtown in the state legislature for several sessions and was a life-long merchant and
farmer. He was president of the Hatters' Bank of Bethel several years, and held other
official positions of honor, trust and responsibility. Mr. Morgan married Hannah Nash,
daughter of Daniel Nash of Westport, who was noted as an able financier. Mr. Morgan
had eight children. j j-^ i, i, j
His eldest son, Daniel Nash Morgan, was a bright and energetic boy, and after he had
obtained a sound training in the English branches at the local public schools he decided
upon a business career and, at the age of sixteen years, took a clerkship m his father s
store at Newtown, at his own request being placed on the footing of a stranger, thus
receiving, during the first five years of his service, only the compensation then usually paid
to young men learning the business, viz., fifty doUars for the first year, sixty for the
second, seventy-five for the third, eighty-five for the fourth and one hundred for the fifth
year Out of this meagre income he paid all his expenses excepting board, and upon arriving
at the age of twenty-one found himself the happy possessor of fifty dollars, which had been
saved from his earnings. His ambition and energy even at this eariy period of his life were
marked. The first year after serving his apprenticeship he managed his father's store as
proprietor. He then spent several months as clerk in the dry goods house of Taylor & Joyce
of Bridgeport, whose employment he left in order to become a member of the firm of Morgan
& Booth of Newtown Centre, which did a large, thriving business. Three years afterwards, in
September, 1869, this firm was dissolved by mutual agreement and Mr. Morgan removed to
Bridgeport, where he became associated with Mr. Ezekial Birdsey, 2d, in the dry goods and
carpet business, the style of the firm being Birdsey & Morgan.
In 1879, this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Morgan became the sole proprietor of
the spacious quarters on the principal street of Bridgeport, and it was a leading house in the
dry goods and carpet business in that thriving city. He sold out the business Jan. i, 1880,
to devote all his time to banking. As a merchant, Mr. Morgan developed qualities of the
highest order. Bred to business under the eye and direction of his father, a man of great
activity and sterling probity, he had spent years in mastering the details of commercial
transactions before permitting himself to act in them as a principal. When he took the
higher position he was well qualified to fill it, and his efforts were successful from the begin
ning. To remarkable energy and business capacity he added a ready grasp of modern methods
of building up trade and increasing the reputation of his house. He was quick to comprehend
the needs of the community which he supplied, and was willing to furnish the most desirable
and seasonable goods, even though in doing this his profits on the individual transactions were
smaller. In this way the house with which he was connected became a leading one in
its department ; and its trade was drawn from an area far greater than that of the city in which
it was situated.
In 1876, in order to obtain personal knowledge of the eastern countries, and to secure
a change from so close an application to business for many years, he made a trip to Europe,
and while abroad availed himself of every opportunity to broaden his knowledge, not only of
business but of affairs in general. His sojourn in Great Britain and on the continent was thus
an educational tour, and being more prolonged and extensive than those usually taken by
business men, afforded him an opportunity to become acquainted with the social as well as
the business life of the several countries he visited. In the year of 1877, he was the senior
partner of Morgan, Hopson & Company, wholesale grocers.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 393
About this time Mr. Morgan became interested in politics, and although he has uniformly
adopted the policy of never seeking an office or position of any character, yet political honors
have been showered upon him. He is very popular in the rank and file of the Democratic
party, and has also a large Republican following. In 1873,. his fellow citizens, appreciating
his worth, elected him to the Common CouncU of Bridgeport and reelected him in the following
year. In 1877, he served as a member of the Board of Education. In 1880, he was the choice
of the people for the office of mayor of Bridgeport, and filled that position with signal ability.
In 1882, he was elected to the state legislature on the Democratic ticket by a phenomenal
majority, and, as in his canvass for the mayoralty, he received many votes from members of
the opposition parties. In 1884, he was a second time chosen by a large majority mayor of
Bridgeport. His second administration, like his first, was marked by vigorous efforts to
advance the welfare of the city, and was especially fruitful in bringing business methods to
bear in the transaction of public business, a rigid but wise economy, being enforced so far
as practicable and advisable, and the interest of the taxpayers faithfully guarded, while
no injustice was done to any of the city's inhabitants. During his second term as chief
magistrate of the city, he was elected state senator from the fourteenth district, and served as
such during the years 1885 and 1886. In November, 1892, he was again elected to the state
Senate by the phenomenal majority of 1755, which is larger than ever given in the history of
Bridgeport for a mayor, representative or senator. In the Senate he was a member of
important committees, and rendered valuable services both to the district and to the state.
"In every office he has been called upon to fill," says i^t New York Graphic, in com
menting upon his political career, "he has shown his worth and has performed his duties
in a manner that has won commendation from political opponents as well as friends."
Mr. Morgan's prominence in the financial world began in January, 1879, when he
was elected to the presidency of the City National Bank of Bridgeport. In the year 1878,
he was chosen trustee, and later vice-president and president of the Mechanics' and Farmers'
Savings Bank. His labors in connection with this institution have been noteworthy, and
that its assets have risen in fifteen years from $27,000 to nearly $1,500,000, is in no small
degree due to his influence and able management. He has been president of this institution
since 1888. In addition to these important financial positions, Mr. Morgan fills, or has filled,
several others of scarcely inferior moment. One of these was that of vice-president and chair
man of the executive committee of the Consolidated Rolling Stock Company. It was a position
of great responsibility, the company's property consisting of more than five thousand freight
cars. The capital of this corporation is about four million dollars, and it has paid more
than a mUlion dollars in dividends since its re-organization in 1886. He is interested also
to a greater or lesser degree in several manufactories and industries centering in that city.
Mr. Morgan is a believer in the Episcopal faith, and a regular attendant at Trinity
church, of which he was parish clerk thirteen years, and was senior warden for a number
of years. He took a warm interest in the Young Men's Christian Association, of which
he was a director, and as a member of the building committee of this organization devoted
a great deal of time with others to superintending the construction of the new headquarters
erected on Main street, at a cost of more than one hundred thousand dollars. The Bridge
port Hospital has likewise claimed his efforts and services in securing funds as a member
of the building committee. For years he was one of the executive committee, and vice-
president, and since 1890, has been president of that noble institution. In all works for
the good of the city or its people he is ever ready to aid, and his gifts to the poor and needy
are said to constitute no small part of his expenditures. It is not too much to say that
Mr. Morgan enjoys the confidence of the ^great body of his fellow-citizens. He has never

394 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
run for office without this fact being proven through the large number of votes he receives
from persons of opposing political faiths. His residence on Washington avenue is one of
the pleasant and inviting homes in the city, and it has been one of his special delights
to fiU it with whatever would have a tendency to increase its comforts and attractions.
For many years he has been affiliated with the Masonic order, and for two terms was
Master of Corinthian Lodge, F. & A. M., one of the principal lodges in Bridgeport. He
is likewise a meinber of Hamilton Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar, of Pyramid
Temple, M. S., and of Pequonnock Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F. He is serving on the execu
tive committee of Bridgeport Scientific Society, and is a member of the Bridgeport His
torical Society, and of the Bridgeport Board of Trade, and holds a directorship in the Wheeler
& WUson Manufacturing Company. When a branch of the society of the Sons of the Revolu
tion organized in this state in the summer of 1893, it elected Mr. Morgan vice-president, which
honor he now holds. The City National Bank of which he was president fifteen years has
a capital of $250,000, and was eminently successful during his administration of its affairs,
paying eight per cent, dividends during the period named, and adding $160,000 to the surplus
account. Mr. Morgan resigned the presidency and directorship of the bank, and also as
senator of the state of Connecticut, the latter part of May, 1893, to assume the duties of
United States treasurer, June i, 1893. Incidental to his retirement from the state Senate
was a most magnanimous and probably unparalleled act of courtesy on the part of the
Republican side of the chamber, who, appreciating the distinguished honor conferred upon
the state, and esteeming their colleague highly, and appreciating the high honor conferred
upon him, agreed to pair, when it was desired, one of their number with Mr. Morgan,
even after he had resigned, until the end of the session, thus absolving themselves of the
majority they would have gained, as the Senate had been equally divided. This pair
continued a month after Mr. Morgan resigned.
When President Cleveland appointed Mr. Morgan treasurer of the United States,
April II, 1893, the Senate confirming him April 15, 1893, the press of Connecticut, regardless
of their political views, and prominent men of both parties, were unstinted in their praise
of his selection of the well-known financier for a position of such great responsibility.
On assuming the duties of the office, June i, 1893, he became responsible for the vast
sum of $740,817,419.78, and gave receipts therefor, when the coin, currency and securi
ties were counted, a piece of intricate work which required three months' time. The con
dition of the national finances has demanded careful application, and while one of the busiest
officers of the government, he is one of the most thoroughly reliable of the nation's officials.
A few especially pertinent quotations from the various newspaper comments are given
as indicative of the tone of the whole. The first is from Dickerman's United States
Treasury Counterfeit Detector :
The appointment of the Hon. Daniel N. Morgan of Bridgeport, Conn., as treasurer of the United States, is
one which we believe to be in every way commendable. We confess to a sympathy with the sentiments of the
' ' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," which found expression in the confession of a stronger regard for the individual
with a family before him than for the one without. That is, while the self-made man may be all well enough,
the man with a century or two of polishing aud molding back of him, all other things being equal, is the better
of the two. Treasurer Morgan is not only a financier, but the son and grandson of financiers. He comes of an
old and influential Connecticut family, and has been trained both as a business man and banker and as a man of
public affairs.
When a very young man, he became interested in politics, and positions of honor and trust have been
thrust upon him without his seeking. While a Democrat in politics, he has a large following among Repub
licans, because of his freedom from all political chicanery.
Mr. Morgan was still serving in the state Senate of Connecticut when appointed United States treasurer.
He entered upon the duties of the latter position while the legislature remained in session. Mr. Morgan's
qualification for his new office no one disputes, and his appointment caused general satisfaction in Bridgeport,
where everybody knows him.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 395
Another is from a Washington letter published in the Nezv Haven fournal and Courier :
Of the office holders here probably Hon. Daniel N. Morgan of Bridgeport, United States treasurer, while of
exceedingly dignified appearance, is the best liked and most respected of men. He was one of Bridgeport's leading
citizens and financial giants. He is always courteous and pleasing to all, while at the same time attending strictly
to his duties. He is making one of the best treasurers, from all standpoints, that the United States has ever had.
Treasurer Morgan returned late last week from Bridgeport, where he had been called by the illness of Mrs.
Morgan, who is improving, I understand.
Upon his return he brought with him a beautiful volume, bound in white kid, and enclosed in a handsome
case of blue and white. The volume is in the nature of a testimonial and embodies the resolutions adopted at a
recent meeting by the City National Bank of Bridgeport relative to the resignation of Mr. Morgan as president
of the bank. The resolution is all engrossed by hand and signed by the directors of the bank, all prominent men,
and some of whom have national reputations. Treasurer Morgan is ably assisted in his duties by Private Secretary
Charles G. Watson, one of Bridgeport's brightest young men, who was a reporter on the Evening Farmer four
years. The comment of the New Haven News was :
Senator Morgan's appointment as treasurer of the United States is not only the choice of a competent man
for an important post, the duties of which, under present circumstances, will demand great tact and discretion,
but a merited recognition of the valuable services he himself has rendered in Connecticut politics. Mr. Morgan
accepted the nomination for mayor of Bridgeport when there was little hope of success, and when an election
would have brought him no new honors, for he had 'already filled the position with distinction. Others hung back
from leading a forlorn hope, and he promptly responded to a call of his party, and made a handsome run. Mr.
Morgan was one of the founders of the State Democratic Club, and is now its vice-president. The Senate will lose
in him one of its best members.
The Meriden Republican was sure nothing but good could coma from the nomination.
It said :
It is a pleasure for the Republican to join its contemporaries in commending the selection of the Hon. D. N.
Morgan of Bridgeport to be United States treasurer. Senator Morgan is a gentleman of the Democratic first class,
highly respected and often honored by his townsmen, with wide and honorable experience in legislative, financial
and general business lines. He takes with him to his high position of trust and responsibility the respect aud
confidence of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Morgan was married on June 10, 1868, to Miss Medora Huganin Judson, daughter
of the late Hon. WUliam A. Judson of Bridgeport, but formerly of Huntingdon, Conn.,
who was a member of the legislature four times, a state senator, besides holding many
other positions of honor and trust. He was a grandson of Col. Agur Judson, one of the
celebrities of the Revolutionary epoch, and a descendant of WUliam Judson, who settled
with his family in Stratford in 1638. Their children now living are Mary Huntington
Morgan and William Judson T.Iorgan.

I AY, CALVIN, of Hartford, a leading merchant of the city, was born in West-
field, Mass., Feb. 26, 1803, and died June 10, 1884. He was a descendant in
the sixth generation from Robert Day, one of the first settlers of Hartford,
through his son Thomas, who removed to Springfield, Mass., and was the
ancestor of the family in that state. His father, Ambrose Day, was a substan
tial farmer, owning and occupying from early manhood, a pleasantly situated farm, lying
about three miles from the. village of Westfield. Much respected by his neighbors for
his kindly disposition, integrity, and good sense, he was for many years one of the select
men of the town. He died in 1858, at the age of eighty-five years, his wife, n^e Mary
Ely, having preceded him in 1838.
Calvin Day, fifth chUd of Ambrose and Mary Day, received his education in the dis
trict school and later at the Westfield Academy, which still flourishes, and was then noted
among the higher educational institutions of Western Massachusetts. The pleasant life at
the Westfield Academy was a favorite reminiscence in after years.

396 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
He removed to Hartford when a young man, and entered into business. Mr. Day
appreciated the importance of Hartford at that time as a dry goods trade centre. Western
merchants then came East to buy, and this city was a central point near to the factories,
and an advantageous place for handling goods. Drummers were nearly unknown, but Mr.
Day, early in his wholesale trade, adopted the plan of sending experienced men to the
western country to invite dealers to come here. He formed with his brother Albert, the
wholesale firm of A. & C. Day, and opened a warehouse on the present site of the Cheney
block. Eventually, Mr. Day formed a partnership with the late E. H. Owen, under the
firm name of Day, Owen & Company, and removed to Asylum street. Mr. Day subsequently
bought the site opposite the Allyn house, erected the present building and moved into it.
He continued with the firm until about 1862, when, having accumulated a handsome for
tune, he retired. A few energetic and capable firms in Hartford in those years, conducted
a very large business of this kind, and made the small city, in spite of its possession of
few or no special natural advantages for such a trade, a quite widely known and important
centre of distribution. Among those firms it is safe to say that none stood higher for
ability, energy and integrity than that of Day, Owen & Company, throughout its long
existence. He was a director in the Hartford Bank for forty years, and was a director in the
Hartford Fire Insurance Company. His connections with other corporations were numerous.
He was a director in the Landers, Frary & Clark Company, and the American Hosiery Company
of New Britain, and the Agawam Canal Company, Springfield, president of the American MiU
in Rockville, a director in the Watkinson Library, president of the board of trustees of the
American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and a director in the Insane Retreat. For several
years he was a director, and later one of the trustees of the old Hartford, Providence & Fishkill
Road, retiring when the road passed into the hands of the New York & New England RaUroad
Company. His faith in the road was full, and it is due to his efforts that the word Fish
kill was put into the charter name. He was confident the road would reach the Hudson.
While seldom taking an active part in' politics, and having no desire for office, Mr.
Day was always a valued and efficient worker for his political party. He was an old-fashioned
Jackson Democrat in early life, and was one of the first twelve men in Hartford who voted
for Andrew Jackson, when to vote for "Old Hickory" in Connecticut was far from being
a popular act. He was a consistent Democrat down to the time of the election of Frank
lin Pierce. The attempt to repeal the Missouri Compromise disgusted him with the party,
and he, with D. F. Robinson, Mark Howard, J. R. Hawley, J. F. Morris, Gideon Welles,
J. M. Niles and others formed the nucleus of the Republican party of Hartford, numerous
other Democrats following the lead of such influential men as Messrs. Day, Welles and Niles.
These Republican pioneers met one night in the upper room of Col. George P. Bissell's
banking office, and prepared the first Republican address to the voters of the state. This
was just prior to the nomination of Fremont. After that time Mr. Day was a sturdy Repub
lican and took part in putting the Evening Press on its feet. During the war he was an
active worker, and contributed liberally from his means in fitting out troops. He was a
valued adviser of Connecticut's great war governor — WUliam A. Buckingham — and served
for many months as chairman of the city committee for raising troops. When engaged in
this patriotic work he gave largely of his time, regardless of his pressing business interests.
At this time, or afterward, he never wanted nor would he accept office, but if any com
mittee or other work was to be done, his services could always be relied on. But once did
he accept a nomination, and that was for the state senatorship in the Hartford district, at a
time when the district was so strongly Democratic that his defeat as a Republican candidate
was a certainty.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 397
His mUitary title as "Major," came from his command, from 1833 to 1835, of the old
Governor's P''oot Guard. Major Day had in him a good deal of the true military quality of
the better sort. It showed itself in his erect carriage and high bearing, even down to the
day of his death. He enlisted as a private in the Foot Guard in 1823, and rose by suc
cessive degrees of promotion up to the chief command of that fine and showy old corps 
which is older than the battle of Bunker HUl. He was major-commandant when, in June,
1833, occurred the great display in honor of President Jackson's visit to Hartford  as
proud a day as the major ever saw.
Mr. Day's time and abilities, his remarkable vigor of mind and body, were not, how
ever, devoted wholly to his own affairs. In everything that commended itself to his judg
ment, as tending to promote the moral or material welfare of the community in which he
lived, or of his fellow men, he felt a deep and intelligent interest, and in such matters as
came within his sphere of action he was among the foremost workers. He was felt as an
active power for good in the leading local institutions formed for benevolent purposes ; and
organizations of wider scope, for promoting in this country and abroad educational and
religious interests, likewise found in him a strong supporter and a liberal friend. It was
noticeable that whenever he took part in associations or gatherings of men of affairs, he
was recognized by the best among them as a leader, by reason of his force of character, the
soundness and penetration of his judgment, and his integrity, public spirit, fidelity to his
associates and steadfastness of purpose.
Calvin Day married Catherine Seymour, daughter of the late Charles Seymour of Hart
ford. Their married life extended over a period of nearly fifty-seven years, and a union
has seldom been blessed with more of domestic happiness, or with more entire sympathy
of tastes, beliefs and affections. Mr. Day's strict sense of duty imparted no tinge of morose-
ness or gloom to his character, and the same traits which had made him respected and loved
in all the other relations of life, could not fail to endear him, in an eminent degree, as a
husband and father. The tone of domestic life was heightened by hospitality and by travel
at home and abroad. There were four children, all of whom survive their parents. The
four children are : Julia S., wife of Col. George P. BisseU; Mr. John C. Day, Miss Caroline
E. Day, and Kate, wife of Joseph C. Jackson, lawyer, of New York city.
The Hartford Courant closed a beautiful tribute to his memory with the following
description of his personal appearance: " Major Day was a gentleman of striking personal
appearance. He was of medium height, but even in his old age had, until within the last
two years, every indication of strength and vigor — a straight frame and an elastic and active
step. He had always a smooth-shaved face, never wearing whiskers, and his full head of
hair was a beautiful silvery gray. He always carried a cane, but it was generally tucked
under his arm and seldom touched the ground. It never seemed to occur to him that a
man of eighty needed it to lean upon. To see him, even once, upon the street, was to
receive an indelible impression of the dignity and power that were in him."
Numerous resolutions of respect were passed at the time of his death by the various
corporations and institutions with which he was connected, but perhaps those of the directors
of the Retreat for the Insane were the most comprehensive and will voice the sentiments
of the rest :
In the death of the Hon. Calvin Day, which occurred on the loth day of June, 1884, at the advanced age of eighty-
one years, the city has lost one of its most distinguished and respected citizens, whose presence upon our streets, in
our places of business, and in our religious, educational, charitable and patriotic assemblies has for all these
years marked him as a man to be depended upon ; as the man whose influence and voice would be always for
good order, and for the advancement and promotion of the great and controlling interest of the city of his adoption,
and whose great purpose was to secure the moral and material interests and advancement of his fellows. The
51

398 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
record of his life is impressed upon the city in which he lived ; upon the church of which he was a most exemplary
and consistent member ; upon the extensive industrial and business enterprises which have distinguished the
city and which, to no small extent, have been promoted and made successful through his efforts, persevering
endeavors and good judgment ; upon the great religious charities of the times, to which he contributed with an
open hand, upon the benevolent and educational undertakings which give character to Hartford, and are
exemplified in our schools, our asylums and our Retreat ; and in his successful efforts when a young man to
secure for the city and its citizens the erection of the Atheufflum Building, with the libraries and art collections
accommodated there. His patriotism and love for the Union led to his selection as a trusted adviser and counselor
of Governor Buckingham during the dark and most trying and discouraging period of the war, and'the work
he did in that direction is entitled to our grateful remembrance. His integrity of character is seen in his whole
life, and in the esteem in which he was held in this whole community. Though he had well-settled and decided
views and opinions of his own and fearlessly gave expression to what he believed to be right and proper, he was
tolerant and considerate of the views of others. His liberality and large-heartedness is seen in the expenditure
of his time and money in the advancement of all good and charitable enterprises. For these many years he has
been an active and efficient member of the board of managers of this Retreat. The benefit of his counsel and
judgment is seen in the beauty of its grounds and surroundings, and in the comfort and home-like accommodations
of its halls and rooms. In his death the Retreat has lost an earnest friend and benefactor ; an able counselor and
its second officer and oldest director, and each member of this board a friend and associate whose memory we shall
delight to cherish and honors. Jonathan B. Bunce, Clerk.

^ILE, WILLIAM CONRAD, A. M., M. D., of Danbury, was born in Pleasant
Valley, Dutchess County, N. Y., Jan. 23, 1847. He was the son of Rev. Benja
min F. Wile, a noted Presbyterian minister, and Betty Buckley, a lady from
one of the prominent families of the state. The family, an old Dutch one,
came originally from Amsterdam. Doctor Wile's mother is of English descent,
and came from the same stock as Ex-Governor Bulkeley of Connecticut.
Doctor Wile's early education was acquired under the direction of Rev. Edgar Poe Roe,
who occupied at the time a prominent place among the teachers of that state, and of whose
pupils were numbered many who have gained eminence and reputation. Under this effi
cient tutorship, he reinained several years, gaining an extensive knowledge and proficiency
in various branches of learning. When the call was made for troops at the beginning of
the rebellion, he responded to the urgent demands of the occasion, and became a meinber
of Company G, One Hundred and Fiftieth New York Volunteers. He was then in his
sixteenth year, and his term of service lasted two years and eight months. Gettysburg was
the first real battle in which he was engaged, and he followed Sherman on his march to
the sea. In accordance with a long cherished desire, he began the study of medicine in 1865,
with Dr. John H. Dwan at Pleasant Valley, N. Y. In 1870, he received his degree of
M. D. from the medical department of the University of New York. Soon after graduation
he engaged in the practice of his profession in New Brunswick, N. J., and Highland, N. Y.,
but later he removed to Newtown, Conn. Here Doctor WUe remained for several years|
occupied with professional work, which was distributed over a large territory, and of which
surgery formed a prominent feature. It was during this period that he conceived the idea
of founding a medical journal, and the outcome of his thinking took shape in the New
England Medical Monthly. This publication, by reason of its many distinctive features,
soon acquired popularity and assumed a foremost position among medical journals of the
day, its circulation in this, its twelfth year of existence, being equalled by few medical
publications in this country. Two years ago he began the publication of " Prescription," and
It IS proving as great a success in its field as the "Monthly."

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 399
Dr. Wile's professional and literary attainments were destined to still further and more
marked recognition. In 1887, he was tendered the professorship of mental and nervous
diseases in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, where his success as a practitioner
and his skill in imparting information rendered him a highly popular and valued teacher.
The surroundings at the college and the conditions attending city life were not congenial to
him, and having received urgent inducements to go to Danbury, Conn., he removed to that
city and has since made it his home. The specialty of surgery has always received greater or
less attention from him, and by reason of his knowledge of anatomy, and his marked
mechanical ingenuity, he has made from time to time valuable contribution to this department
of medicine. His success in nearly all the major operations, as well as in the specialty of
abdominal surgery, have likewise added to his reputation and given him an extended consulta
tion practice throughout the southern portion of the state. He holds the position of medical
examiner of the town of Danbury, and surgeon of both the Housatonic and New England
Railroads. In the development and welfare of medical organizations of all kinds. Doctor WUe takes
a deep interest, and this feeling has gained for him an extended acquaintance among members
of the profession in this country and Europe. The high esteem in which he is held by his
contemporaries is evidenced by the numerous official stations to which he has been chosen. He
has been vice-president of the American Medical Association, president of the American
Medical Editors' Association, of the Fairfield County Medical Society and of the Danbury
Medical Society, secretary of the Section of Anatomy at the Ninth International Medical
Congress. He has been a member and delegate to the British Medical Association, and is a
member of the Medico-Legal Society, the Connecticut State Medical Society, and in January,
1894, he was chosen president of the Merchants' Board of Trade of Danbury.
Doctor Wile is a prolific writer, and has contributed to these societies and to the medi
cal publications many important papers upon surgical, medico-legal and other subjects. In
addition to such work, he is occupied with the editorship of the Monthly, and another more
recent publication, the Prescription, which has already attained a large circulation. His
literary acquirements, which are of a high order, and his interest in educational matters have
won for him deserved recognition from the Central College of Kentucky, which has awarded
him the honorary degree of A.M. The mysteries of the Masonic fraternity find in Doctor
WUe a faithful exemplar. One of the leading Knight Templars of the state, he is also a
thirty-second degree Mason. He is a member of other fraternal and business organizations.
In the social circles of Danbury, and wherever he is known. Dr. Wile is considered a
valuable acquisition whenever his onerous duties allow him to devote a few hours to his
friends. Politically, he has always been identified with the Republican party, though never
an office seeker in any sense of the word. His wide professional knowledge, his keen lit
erary acumen and his rare executive ability have won for him a foremost place among his
medical brethren, and it would seem as if they delighted to do him honor. His many
attractive qualities of mind and heart have placed him high in the esteem of all who have
the honor of his acquaintance. Such men give distinction to any position which they are
called upon to fill, and are a credit to the state in which they live.
Dr. W. C. WUe was married in 1871, to Eliza Scott Garrison of New York. After a
dozen years of devoted companionship, she succumbed to disease of the lungs, but she left
an only daughter who perpetuates her many endearing qualities. In 1887, he was married
a second time to Hattie Adele Loomis of New Haven. She is an accomplished lady, and
dispenses hospitality with a lavish hand.

400 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
An article in the Medical Mirror, published in 1891, contained the following comment
regarding Doctor Wile :
Dr. Wile is a combination with which one rarely meets. He is somewhat of a universal specialist ; possessed
of a considerable amount of Yankee ingenuity, he has invented several mechanical appliances for the treatment
of diseases which are worthy of use by the profession. He has contributed largely and well to the literature
of the profession during the past ten years. About nine years ago he established iu Connecticut the New England
Medical Monthly, in spite of the cautious advice of friends who felt that the undertaking was a risky one, and
were not fully aware of his great abilities as a journalist. It was not long until he had made a very pronounced
impression upon the calm and placid sea of medical journalism. From one end of the country to the other it
was soon evident that the New England Medical Monthly had at its helm a seaman well able to keep the vessel
in full command.
His reputation is not confined to America. Among his most intimate friends was the late J. Milner Fother-
gill, whom the entire medical world knew and honored. Dr. Wile was elected president of the American Medical
Editors' Association at the meeting held at Cincinnati in 1888 ; he was also chairman of the committee of arrange
ments of the American Medical Editors' Association when the latter entertained the visiting editors from the
various countries of the world in attendance upon the International Medical* Congress at Washington in 1887.
Dr. Wile's superb executive ability and skill in managing such affairs was here manifested. It was one of the
grandest meetings that the medical editors ever held, followed by a banquet rarely equalled ; the dining-hall,
filled with tables decorated in a royal way, with guests gathered from the uttermost parts of the earth; the
leading men in medicine, not only as writers and thinkers, but workers as well were there. One may live a
long life and yet never have an opportunity to be present at such a gathering. The success of this meeting
and dinner was largely due to Dr. Wile.

|ITCH, SAMUEL, of Rockville, manufacturer, was born in Enfield, Conn., Dec. 2,
182 1, and though he has passed the three score and ten allotted to man he is
still in vigorous health.
The Fitch family is of French origin. Samuel Fitch, father of the sub
ject of this sketch, was a native of Bolton, Conn., but removed to Albion, N. Y.,
and died there. He married Nancy Atwell of MontvUle, Conn., and the present Samuel
was their only child.
Like most of the youth of his time he passed several terms in the district school his
education being completed at the academy at Wilbraham, Mass. Until he was twenty-two
he followed the quiet and healthful life of a farmer, but wishing to see more of the world
he engaged in the sale of merchandise in New England. His trips were frequently extended
to Canada, where furs were exchanged for other commodities. Wearying of the travel and
erratic course of living which his business necessitated he settled in West Stafford, and
renting a building he began the manufacture of knit goods. For thirteen years he continued
at this location and during that time, though he labored diligently and built up an excellent
reputation for the quality of the goods he produced, the result was not entirely satisfactory.
His fellow citizens soon learned his many exceUent characteristics, and in 1858, and again
in 1859, he was chosen selectman of the town.
The, growing viUage of Rockville attracted his attention, and he transferred his business
to that point. In 1874, Mr. Fitch purchased the site of his present factory, and since that
date the buUdings have been greatiy enlarged and improved. Though manufacturing an
extensive variety of knit goods, there are certain specialties which have given the mill a
deservedly high reputation. Desiring to perpetuate the name and at the same time
appreciating the advantages of a corporative existence, the business was regulariy incor
porated as "Samuel Fitch & Sons Co." With him was associated his son Spencer S
Fitch. To these were added later, George G. Smith, who is now the secretary, and
Edwm G. Butler. •'

WtVPrestDn^-C'ir:

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 401
Originally an " Old Line Whig," on the organization of the Republican party, Mr.
Fitch became one of its supporters and has since done all in his power for the success
of Republican principles. Official stations naturaUy seek men of his stamp for acceptance.
The list of local offices he has held would be quite extended. For the years i860, 1861
and 1877, he represented his town in the state legislature, and during the first two' years
used his utmost endeavors to support the energetic efforts of Governor Buckingham in the
prosecution of the war. From 1863 to 1869, he was state railroad commissioner. Mr.
Fitch was one of the incorporators and is a director in the People's Savings Bank of
Rockville. On the second of December, 1889, being his sixty-eighth birthday, he was
elected the first mayor of the new city of Rockville for two years. In the administration of
his office as mayor he exercised the same kind of business ability which characterizes
the management of the affairs of his own corporation, and .as a consequence his official
career was a marked success. The same year he was elected mayor he was chosen
vice-president of the United States Central Railroad Company.
While he has been buUding up a successful business of his own, Mr. Fitch has given
much time and thought to the development of his adopted city. In its material welfare
he takes a zealous interest, and all movements for the general good of the community
find in him an active supporter. During the existence of the Second Congregational
church of Rockville, Mrs. Fitch was a member, and he was a liberal contributor to
its treasury. Samuel Fitch was married Jan. 9, 1845, to Mariette, daughter of Daniel Spencer of
Enfield. Their children are: Spencer S., now associated with his father in business;
Sarah E., wife of C. H. Strickland, and Fred H., who died in 1875.

?OOKE, LORRIN A., of Barkhamstead, ex-lieutenant-governor of Connecticut,
was born amid the Berkshire hills in New Marlboro, Mass., April 6, 1831.
The Cooke family dates back to an early period in Massachusetts history.
Hezekiah Cooke, the first known of the name, settled in New Marlboro, at a
date it is impossible to fix. His son, Solomon, had a son, Solomon, Jr., and
the latter was a faithful soldier in the Revolutionary army. Lewis, son of the second
Solomon, was a captain in the Massachusetts state militia, before his removal to Chenango
County, N. Y., early in its history. He took his son, Levi, then but a lad, and brought him
up amid the roughness of a pioneer experience. A few years' experience satisfied him that
life in the east was preferable. Levi Cooke married Amelia Todd in 1829, and in 1837 he
removed to the adjoining town of Norfolk, and six years later he again changed his residence
to Colebrook. Here, after having spent an honorable career as a farmer, citizen and
neighbor, he died in May, 1871, while serving as a member of the House of Representatives.
Mrs. Cooke died in 1889, aged eighty-seven. Lorrin A. was the only child of Levi and
Amelia Cooke.
Receiving his education in the common schools and Norfolk Academy, his early man
hood was passed teaching school in the winter and tilling the soil during the summer
season. He had a rare faculty of imparting knowledge, which is the first element of a
successful teacher, and was repeatedly invited to teach the same school. Gradually laying
aside the vocation of teaching, Mr. Cooke, in company with his father, settled down to a
farmer's life upon the farm owned by Jonathan Edwards, D. D. (afterward president of

402 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Union College) w^hile he was the pastor of the Colebrook church. In all that goes to make
intelligent, progressive farming, he soon took the lead, and at an early age was made
president of the agricultural society in his part of the county. He was foremost in the
movement to secure for his brother farmers the advantages of a milk train to New York,
and in various other practical ways showed an enterprising spirit and zeal for the general
welfare. Mr. Cooke's political life began in 1856, when, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected
to the state House of Representatives. An enthusiastic, conscientious young Republican, in
those formative days of the party when Know-Nothingism controlled the state, he held to his
convictions and voted for Francis Gillette and against James Dixon until the very last. He
was always proud of his course at that time, especially after Mr. Dixon's change of political
faith. Having a practical knowledge of educational affairs, he was early made acting school
visitor, and rendered ^'aluable service to the town in this capacity. In 1864, he was chosen
first selectman. It was a time when the burden of recruiting, fiUing quotas and other labors
connected with the prosecution of the war demanded the best executive ability the town
could furnish, and a wiser selection could not have been made. He met every test success
fully, and filled the office by successive elections until he removed from Colebrook.
It was but natural that such marked energy as Mr. Cooke displayed should attract the
attention of others than his immediate neighbors. In 1869, he was urgently invited to
become manager of the Eagle Scythe Company at Riverton in the town of Barkhamstead.
He accepted the position and filled it untU the company discontinued business in 1889. His
management of this trust has been characterized by vigor, industry and success. The
factory had just been rebuilt, a debt contracted larger than the capital stock, prices had
begun to steadily decline, and competition was increasingly strong. The situation was
severe enough to tr}- se\-erely the capacity of a man fresh from the farm, without previous
experience in any line of manufacturing. In the face of every obstacle, however, existing
or which has arisen, the company became solidly established. For several years he was
postmaster at Riverton.
Since his residence in Barkhamstead, Mr. Cooke has been sought for to fill other
positions of trust. Living in a town strongly Democratic, his Republican principles have
prevented his being elected to official stations. Nominated on one occasion, he reduced the
normal, adverse majority of fifty to fifteen in his own case. As candidate for senator from
the Fifteenth District in 1875, ^^ was defeated with the whole ticket though he received an
exceedingly fiattering vote in Barkhamstead. Again a candidate for senator in 1881, from
the reconstructed Eighteenth District, he received a majority of 328, 23 more than the
majority in the previous presidential year, and carried every town but Colebrook. His
senatorial record proved so satisfactory to his constituents that he was again placed in
nomination in 1882, and .though pitted against a strong and energetic competitor, his
majority was iii, when almost every candidate of his party was defeated in the political
tornado of that year.
Mr. Cooke's excellent service in the Senate rendered him more widely known, and had
much weight in securing his nomination to the lieutenant-governorship. Few senators were
more popular. At first he did not take a prominent part in the proceedings, but as he grew
more accustomed to his surroundings, his voice was heard as occasion offered, and his sugges
tions were so sound, and at the same time they were so modestly and cleariy expressed that
he attracted much favorable attention. Under the circumstances his election as president
pro tem. at his second term foUowed as a matter of course. As chairman of the committee on
education on the part of the Senate he made an enviable record, performing his duties with

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 403
such an inteUigent apprehension of the needs of the state as to call for the highest praise from
those best qualified to judge. During the last session he was also chairman of the committee
on engrossed bills, a position affording no opportunity for display, but involving a liberal
share of time, much hard work, and demanding qualifications of a high order. He was
appointed on the part of the Senate, a special committee to .investigate certain matters in
connection with the Storrs Agricultural School at Mansfield.
At the Republican State Convention held in New Haven in the suminer of 1884, \\x.
Cooke was nominated for the office of lieutenant-governor on the first ballot without opposition,
and was placed on the ticket with Hon. Henry B. Harrison. The nominations of the
convention were subsequently ratified at the polls. When it had fallen to his lot to occupy
the chair of the Senate, he performed his duties to the entire and cordial satisfaction of all
the members, without distinction, and this experience gave him unusual fitness for the
responsibUities of the lieutenant-governorship. The citizens of the state would have made
no mistake in placing him in the gubernatorial chair.
In reUgious faith Mr. Cooke is a Congregationalist, and takes a zealous interest 'in all that
pertains to the welfare of that branch of the church militant. He was a delegate to the sixth
triennial national council of that body held at Chicago in 1886, and had the honor of being
chosen moderator of the proceedings. The gathering contained representatives of the church
from all parts of the Union, and the selection was a high compliment. Mr. Cooke was also a
delegate from the Fourth Congressional District to the National Re;7ublican Convention at
Chicago in the fall of 1892, when President Harrison was re-nominated.
With Hon. John R. Buck, he was made one of the receivers of the Continental Life
Insurance Company of Hartford in 1887. The affairs of the company were in an exceedingly
tangled and intricate condition, and they are just completing their labors. Mr. Cooke is a
director of the State Industrial School for girls and of the State Humane Society, and is one
of the trustees of the Hartford Theological Seminary. While a resident of Colebrook in i860,
he became a member of the Congregational church, and for the larger part of the time until
his removal he was an efficient superintendent of the Sunday school. In Riverton he continues
to render the same earnest service to the Master in whose cause he has enlisted.
Every public position Mr. Cooke has filled has come to him unsought and without'effort
on his part. He is one of the men whom office seeks, and has never been found in the ranks
of the office seekers. He finds his best and highest enjoyment in his business, in the society
of his friends and in his home ; still he does not feel at liberty to neglect a call to serve his
fellow citizens, and after a trust is once accepted he fills it conscientiousl}', and with all his
trained abilities.
Lorrin A. Cooke was married in 1858, to Matilda E., daughter of Deacon Abner S.
Webster of Sandisfield, Mass. She died in 1868, without issue. For his second wife he
married, in 1870, Josephine E., daughter of Michael Ward, a Riverton manufacturer. Of the
three children born to them only one daughter survives.

404 - REPRESENTATIVE MEN

'HEELER, NATHANIEL, president of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company, was born in Watertown, Conn., Sept. 20, 1820, and died in Bridge
port, the city for whose welfare he had contributed so liberally, Dec. 31, 1893.
He was a descendant, in the seventh generation, from Moses Wheeler, who
came to America from London, Eng., in 1638, and who lived in New Haven,
Conn., in 164 1, and settled in Stamford, which then included the present site of Bridgeport,
Conn., as early as 1643. Moses Wheeler was an extensive land owner and a man of promi
nence in his community. He died in 1695, having lived one hundred years. Many of his
descendants still reside in Connecticut, mainly in the towns of Stratford, Derby and
Watertown. David Wheeler, the father of Nathaniel, was a carriage-maker at Watertown, having six
children. Nathaniel worked at the carriage trade, and made quite a reputation as a painter
of taste and ingenuity in the decoration of carriages and the old-fashioned sleighs, which
were profusely decorated with stripes and ornaments. In 1841, in which year Nathaniel
attained his majority, his father retired to a farm, and Nathaniel took the carriage business
on his own account, and conducted it successfully for about five years. At that time the
manufacture of small metallic wares having become an important industry in the neighboring
town of Waterbur}', he decided to engage in it. Buckles, buttons, eyelets and slides for hat
bands were among the articles made, and, beginning with hand tools only, he soon introduced
machinery of various kinds in their manufacture, greatly cheapening their cost. Among the
articles he produced were polished steel slides for ladies' belts, etc., which he was among the
first to make in this country. The price at first was eight dollars a gross, but he reduced it
to twenty-five cents a gross through the improvements he introduced in machinery and
methods of production.
Buckles and slides for hat bands were made in the same town by the firm of Warren
& Woodruff, and Mr. Wheeler joined his business to theirs, the partnership proving a success.
When on a -visit to New York, he. heard of the Wilson Sewing Machine, then considered
almost in the light of a novelty. It was on exhibition in the old " Sun " Building on Fulton
street. After examining it he saw its possibilities and at once made an engagement with
Mr. Wilson to go to Watertown with him to perfect the machine and superintend its manufacr
ture. The result of this arrangement was that Messrs. Warren, Wheeler, Woodruff and Wilson
formed a copartnership under the name of Wheeler, Wilson & Co. All of these gentlemen
afterward bore an important relation toward the development of the Wheeler & Wilson sewing
machine. The one, however, whose untiring energy, capacity to anticipate and prepare for
the future, ability to inspire in others the same degree of confidence in his business acumen
that he felt himself, and whose faculty of adapting himself to every situation made and con
tinued him the central figure in this development and success, was Nathaniel Wheeler. The
important part played by him in making the sewing machine a practical and commercial success
will be best understood by a brief reference to the earliest known attempts to make machinery
do with needle and thread the work formerly done by hand.
The "History of P'^airfield County," published in 1881, contained the following mention
of this corporation, which fills so large a place in the city of Bridgeport: " The Wheeler
& Wilson Company has been so long and so intimately connected with Bridgeport, and has
given employment to so large a number of the population, that no history of the city, even
though a brief one, can be written without containing some account of it-. This company
removed to Bridgeport in 1856, but, in order to gain a clear idea of its history, it is necessary
to go back to 1849, the year when Allen B. Wilson first invented his sewing machine.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 405
Nathaniel Wheeler, who was born in Watertown, Conn., in 1820, was then carrying on the
manufacture of light metallic goods in his native place. Happening to be in New York upon
business, he went to see the new sewing machine, which was then on exhibition in a room in
the old "Sun" Building, and was attracting considerable attention. Mr. Wheeler quickly
recognized the merits of the invention, and at once entered into a contract to build five hundred
of the machines at his factory in Watertown, Mr. Wilson agreeing to remove to that place
and superintend their manufacture.
Further improvements having been made in the machine, an application for a patent was
filed, and the document was issued Aug. 12, 1851. Messrs. Wheeler and Wilson now entered
into copartnership with Alanson Warren and George P. Woodruff of Watertown, under the
firm name of Wheeler, Wilson & Company, and began the manufacture of machines under
the patent. Several hundred had been sold, and Mr. Wheeler had succeeded in introducing
them into the extensive shirt factories at Troy, N. Y., and New Haven, Conn., and had
established depots for their sale in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, when, for the better
prosecution of. the business, the firm was dissolved, and the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company was organized in October, 1853, with a capital of one hundred and sixty thousand
dollars, one hundred thousand of this sum representing the patent right, and the remainder
standing for tools, machinery and working capital already employed in the business.
The first president of the company was Alanson Warren, and the first secretary and
treasurer George P. Woodruff, while among the original incorporators and stockholders was
George Mallory, then of Watertown, but for many years past a resident of this city. Mr.
Wheeler was elected president of the company July 18, 1855. In the spring of 1856, the
business having greatly increased, it was decided to remove to East Bridgeport, where the
works of the Jerome Clock Company had been purchased. Since that tipie its history had been
identified with that of Bridgeport. The original clock factory^ has been greatly enlarged and
new buildings erected, so that the establishment is at present one of the most extensive and
complete in the country.
At the present time the principal buildings consist of the main factory, for metal-working,
assembling, testing, etc., occupying one complete square, 368 by 307 feet, under one roof ; a
wood- working factory, covering a second square, 526 by 219 feet; a foundry and needle
factory upon a third, 368 by 232 feet ; the works altogether covering over seven acres of
ground. To show how far division of labor is carried, it may be mentioned that the well-
known rotary hook undergoes one hundred and twenty-eight distinct operations, a glass-presser
thirty-two, and a hemmer seventy. As the sewing machine proper is useless without the
needle, the latter is, of course, an article of prime importance. No department of these works
is more interesting than the mechanical processes of converting steel wire into perfectly
finished needles. The distinct operations in the making of each needle now number thirty-
three, having been recently reduced from fifty-two by improved machinery.
The wood-working or cabinet department of this company is under a separate organiza
tion, styled the Sewing-Machine Cabinet Company. The main buildings of this department
are two in number, each 526 feet in length. Here is made all the furniture for the machines,
from a plain table-top to the most elaborate and expensive full case or cabinet. The raw
material, brought from Arkansas and elsewhere, is cut to dimensions in the company's saw
mill, and afterwards worked up into the desired forms. The excellent finish of the cabi
net-work is obtained by the use of the wood-filling invented by Mr. Wheeler, and patented
Jan. 18, 1876. The invention is said to be one of great value, not only for sewing-machine
work, but for all kinds of wood- work where a superior finish is desired."

52

4o6 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
He was not content to limit his services to his company to executive and purely prac
tical functions. His inventive ability was of prime importance and benefit. Although the
company from the beginning consistently adhered to the rotary mechanism, its machines, as
has been seen, from time to time underwent material modifications, and in recent years very
radical improvements were in the main due to the experiments instituted and directed by
Mr. Wheeler, to the consequent inventions of others put into practical shape by him, and
especiaUy to original inventions of his own.
Mr. Wheeler's inventions, as shown by the Patent Records, are as follows : In 1876,
and again in 1878, he patented wood-filling compounds, now in general use. In 1876, with
J. A. House, he patented a power- transmitter clutch ; in the same year, with PhUo M. Beers,
an improvement on a former invention of Beers's for polishing needle eyes. In 1878, a
refrigerator. In 1883, a ventUating arrangement for railroad cars; also a system of heating
and ventilating houses. In 1885, with Wibur F. Dial, the eccentrically-centered loop-taker;
also the feed regulator, for the No. 12 machine, two patents. In 1890, the barred hook
used in the No. 2 machine, two patents for tension release and one for combination of parts
in the No. 9 machine. He also patented a design for cabinets.
If it be conceded that the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co. have been foremost in
the march of improvement in the art of sewing by machinery, it must be conceded that the
progress made b}- them was due to Mr. Wheeler personally in a greater degree than to any
other man. An acti\'e business career of fifty-two years, each of which saw some valuable
contribution from Mr. Wheeler to the industry with which his name will always be associated,
is a record which au}- young man, starting as he did, may review with profit. His ambition
was ever at the highest, and his aims were always of the broadest, it being his frequently
expressed desire to leaye behind him a record which would stand to his honor.
Mr. Wheeler had many other interests besides those in the sewing-machine company.
At the time of his death he was a director of the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad Company, a position which he had filled for many years ; director in the Willi
mantic Linen Company, and in the City National Bank and Mountain Grove Cemetery
Association, and an officer in several other corporations in which he was financially interested.
Years ago his fellow-townsmen saw and appreciated in him the qualities which had
drawn the attention of the entire business world. He was several times elected to the local
Common Council, and in 1872 represented his city as a member of the House of Representa
tives. In 1873, and again in 1874, he was the state senator from his district, and he served
as a member of the local Board of Education from its organization until he resigned about
two years ago. In all of these capacities Mr. Wheeler served with distinction, and especially
was his connection with local educational matters of material benefit to his city. The system
of ventilation in the public schools of the city was his invention, and it is conceded to be
one of the best in use. He was a meinber of the building committee of the present county
court house and of the high school. He was one of the building commission on the present
state capitol, which has the proud distinction of being about the only costly public building
ever erected in this country within the appropriation. At other times Mr. Wheeler's consent
was all that was lacking to secure for him the nomination for Congress and the governor
ship of his state.
In foreign countries, too, Mr. Wheeler's genius and achievements were recognized. The
Wheeler & WUson Co.'s display at the World's Exposition, at Vienna, in 1873, caused the
Austrian Emperor to bestow upon him the Cross of the Order of Francis Joseph I. This
made him a knight of the empire, and gave the right to the prefix of "Sir." This is a
distinction rarely conferred, and is the same of which "Sir" George M. Pullman, the palace-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 407
car builder, was the recipient. The title ends with the life of the person, and it is required
that at the death of the latter the decoration be returned to the Emperor. Abhorrent of
ostentatious display, Mr. Wheeler never wore the cross but once, that being on a special
occasion at the Chicago Exposition. At the Exposition Universelle, Paris, in 1889, he
received the Cross of the Legion of Honor of France, with the rank of chevalier.
Mr. Wheeler was truly a part of the city of Bridgeport, and deeply will his loss be
regretted by its citizens. For thirty-six years he had watched and assisted the growth of
the place in which he made his life's success, and in many ways his public-spirited
exertions and liberality in behalf of that city bore rich fruit. It was principally through his
efforts, while a meinber of the Common Council, that a local sewer system was instituted.
That his death should be indirectly due to a sewer seems like the irony of fate. Early in
life, he recognized the great need for various sanitary reforms, and it may be said to have
been one of his life-objects.
Voicing the sentiments of all the citizens, a Bridgeport paper said a few days before his
decease :
We regret to hear of the very serious illness of the Hon. Nathaniel Wheeler of Bridgeport. His physicians
were with him all last night, and we judge that hope is almost abandoned. Mr. Wheeler is a very capable
business man, an upright citizen and respected gentleman. He was the principal member of the well-known
Wheeler & Wilson Sewing-Machine Company, and he amassed a large fortune in that great business. He is
known as a modest, quiet man of pleasant address. He was a member of the state capitol commission, where
he served for seven years in an intelligent and very useful manner. He neglected no Jut)' in that long and arduous
work. He was present at almost every meeting, and no detail of the work escaped his attention, as the building
progressed story by story. His suggestions were always wise and practical. A man of principle, of strict integrity,
a friend of justice, a stern opponent of jobs and wrong doing, is Nathaniel Wheeler. He has been a useful citizen,
and his services have been of value to the public whenever he has been called to attend to public duties.
After his death, the Hartford Courant, a paper politically opposed to Mr. Wheeler,
practically gave expression to the feeling throughout the state :
The death of the Hon. Nathaniel Wheeler of Bridgeport was recorded in Monday's Courant. He has
been feeble for some time, and his recovery was not expected, but his death, though not a surprise, is none the
less a loss to the state, aside from the personal grief it brings to many friends.' Mr. Wheeler was a strong man
and a good citizen. Things that he undertook to do were generally accomplished. He had the patience and
energy and foresight that made business a success, and along with these had a clean character and a reputation
for trustworthiness and integrity that nothing in his career ever tarnished. Whoever came in contact with him
was impressed with his directness, his force of mind and his simple honesty. He served the state in many
ways, never ambitious for public office, but always ready to do his duty, and was, from the consolidation in 1872,
a director of the NewYork, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Bishop of Bridgeport, Mr.
Robinson of this city, and Mr. Trowbridge of New Haven, who died a few weeks ago, were for a long period of
years the controlling force of the corporation. The Courant did not agree with Mr. Wheeler's politics, for he was
a life-long and earnest Democrat, but he was sincere in them, and in his death Connecticut has lost a good citizen.

fUBBARD, HENRY GRISWOLD, of Middletown, pioneer in the manufacture of
elastic webbing in the United States, for many years general manager of the
Russell Manufacturing Company and ex-state senator, was born at Middletown,
Conn., October 8, 1814, and died at his home in that city, July 29, 1891.
Mr. Hubbard traced his ancestry back to the earliest settlers of New England .
George Hubbard, the founder of the family in America, was born in Wakefield, England, and
with his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Watts, came with the first English emi
grants to Hartford, Conn., in 16136. Both spent their lives at Hartford, as did also their son,
Joseph, born there Dec. 10, 1643, and their grandson, Robert, born Oct. 6, 1673. The first
named married Mary Porter, whose parents, likewise, were early settlers of the place. Robert

4o8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
married AbigaU Atkins. Their son, also named Robert, born at Hartford,, July 30, 1712,
niarried Elizabeth Sill, of Saybrook, Conn., a granddaughter on her mother's side of Richard
Lord, whose wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Samuel Hyde, the son of William Hyde,
who came to this country in 1633, and settled at Newton, now Cambridge, Mass. WUliam
Hyde, with the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first pastor of the church in that place, removed
in 1635-36, to what is now Hartford. William Hyde was of English birth, and belonged
to a family whose ancestors came to England with William the Conqueror, and from whom
descended many distinguished statesmen of that country. Soon after his marriage with
Elizabeth Sill, Robert Hubbard (2d) purchased a farm at Middletown, and removed to that
place, where he spent the rest of his life following the occupation of farming.
His son, Elijah, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, born in Middletown in
1745, married Hannah Kent. Even in boyhood he evinced a predilection for mercantile pur
suits, and when eighteen years of age engaged in trade, his capital being but nineteen cents.
From this insignificant beginning he rose by rapid stages to a position of wealth and influ
ence, and became the richest merchant in the town. His principal held of enterprise was
in the West India trade, of which Middletown was, before the Revolutionary war and for
many years thereafter, one of the chief centers. During the struggle for Independence, Mr.
Hubbard labored with patriotic zeal and energy to advance the cause of the colonies.
As commissary and superintendent of stores, commissioned by the Connecticut authorities,
he rendered valuable services to the Continental army. When hostilities ceased, he reengaged
in the West India trade, and amassed a comfortable fortune. In local affairs he enjoyed
a high degree of prominence, being a justice of the peace — an office of great honor in
those times — and for twenty-eight years in succession the representative of his district in
the General Assembly of the state. As a financier he was likewise well-known and success
ful, being the originator and largest stockholder in the old Middletown bank, incorporated
in 1795, and its president from that date until his death, which occurred at Hartford in
1808, while he was in attendance at the General Assembly.
His son, also named Elijah, was born at Middletown, July 30, 1777, was educated at
Yale CoUege, graduating in 1795. After reading law at Litchfield, he was admitted to the
bar at New London, where he engaged in practice. He rose to distinguished prominence
in public life, was mayor of Middletown for many years, served eight terms as a member
of the state Assembly, and held other offices of honor and trust. A successful financier,
from 1822 to 1846, he filled the office of president of the Middletown bank. He married
Miss Lydia Mather, daughter of Samuel Mather, a highly respected resident of Lyme, Conn. ,
who bore him four children, of whom Henry Griswold was the second.
He received his early schooling at Middletown, and when about fourteen years of age
he entered as a pupil at the famous military academy of Captain Partridge at Norwich, Vt.
After two terms at this institution he entered the Ellington high school where he was pre
pared for coUege. He then entered Wesleyan University, his intention being to secure a
thorough classical education. At the age of seventeen, and before completing the course, he
found that his health would not stand the strain of application to study, and quitting the
university, he took employment as a clerk in the office of J. & S. Baldwin, merchants. After
a brief term in their employ he went to the city of New York and took a clerkship in the
office of Jabez Hubbard, a distant relative, who was a commission merchant in woolens.
Here he reinained until he mastered the intricacies of trade. In 1833, he returned to
Middletown, and in partnership with Jesse J. Baldwin engaged in the dry goods business.
Success crowned his youthful efforts, and he at once took rank with the leading business
men of the place.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.

409

Upon attaining his majority he was offered and accepted the responsible position of
manager of the Russell Manufacturing Company, of which he had become a stockholder.
To the duties of this position he devoted his best energy and talents, with the happiest
results. It has been said of him that " his individual history is indelibly inscribed in the
history of this company." Many of its greatest successes have been directly attributable to
his personal zeal and shrewdness. One of the greatest of these, the successful manufacture
of elastic webbing, was achieved in. 1841. The circumstances attending this notable advance
in weaving are as follows : Up to the year mentioned the manufacture of the webbing for elastic
suspenders had scarcely been attempted in America. Resolved to remedy this deficiency
Mr. Hubbard purchased in New York a single pair of imported suspenders, for which he paid
three dollars. Having pulled out the rubber threads he gave them to his foreman and asked
him to make a warp of them and then to weave a strip of thread. Although a skilled
workman, the foreman confessed his inability to comply with this request. Nevertheless
Mr. Hubbard persisted in his belief that it could be done, and eventually proved that it
could be done.
About this time he learned that a Scotchman named George EUiott, employed in a
factory at New Britain, Conn., was weaving elastic webbing on a hand loom, a single strip
at a time. Seeking an interview with this workman he found that the factory in which he
had been employed was closed. After diligent search he found the man himself, and
learned from his own lips that he had a valuable secret in the preparation and manipulation
of rubber thread. To secure the services of this skilled workman he bought the machinery
employed by him and gave him also a remunerative position in the service of the Russell
Manufacturing Company. The price paid for the machinery was one hundred dollars.
Thereafter it was employed in the mills of the Russell Company, where it was improved
and adapted to various requirements in the manufacture of elastic webbing, giving to the
company a decided advantage in the trade. To Mr. Hubbard belongs the credit of its
introduction, and he could justly claim the honor of being the pioneer in the manufacture
of this fabric in the United States.
After Mr. Hubbard became connected with the Russell Manufacturing Company he
managed its affairs with zeal and rare sagacity up to his last illness. Master of every
detail of manufacture he guided and controlled each department with increasing care and
with the happiest results. Just and considerate in his treatment of the employees of the
company, he had their respect and best wishes. In the seven great mills controlled by the
company, hundreds of the men, women and children employed were known to him
personally, and many of them in time of sickness and distress were the grateful recipients
of his bounty or friendly offices. Although he was the executive head of one of the greatest
corporations in the state and obliged to guard every moment of his time during business
hours, he was one of the most accessible of men and received the humblest workman as
freely and courteously as the richest merchant prince. Neither his wealth nor his eminence
in the business world affected his demeanor, which was affable and agreeable under all
circumstances. In social circles he -was greatly esteemed as the possessor of many of the most sterling
qualities of mind and heart. By religious faith he was an Episcopalian, but he entertained
liberal views regarding the rights of the various denominations, respecting equaUy the
claims of Catholic and Protestant, and solicitous only for the true essentials of Christianity.
Mainly at his own expense he caused to be erected a chapel at Middletown, in which the
services of the Episcopal church are regularly maintained. He also built a residence for the
rector and, in addition to the rent, contributed a regular amount monthly to his salary.

4IO REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Absorbed by his business duties he had little leisure for politics, but, yielding to the judg
ment of the leaders of his party (Democratic) he consented to accept a nomination as state
senator from the Eighteenth Senatorial District, and being elected by a large vote served as
such during 1866. In 1884 and 1888, he was presidential elector and each time voted for
Grover Cleveland for President. In business circles his name was a tower of strength, being
a synonym for honesty and reliability. Since the incorporation of the Middletown bank in
1844, he had been a member of its directory. He was also trustee and manager of the
Middletown Savings Bank for a number of years, and at one time its president.
Mr. Hubbard married on June 19, 1844, Miss Charlotte Rosella McDonough, daughter
of that valiant American naval officer. Commodore Thomas McDonough, the hero of Lake
Champlain. The three children born of this marriage are Margaret Sill Hubbard and Lucy
McDonough Hubbard, the latter the wife of Samuel Russell (son of George Russell, Esq.,
and grandson of the Hon. Samuel Russell), vice-president of the Russell Manufacturing
Company, and Charlotte E., who died in 1850, when but two years old.

IjEAD, DAVID M., of Bridgeport, ex-member of the Senate of Connecticut, late
president of the Board of Trade of Bridgeport, and widely known as one of the
leading merchants and manufacturers of New England, was born at Hoosac
Falls, N. Y., on Oct. 12, 1832. He died Dec. 5, 1893.
His parents, Moses Farnum and Sally Read, removed to North Adams,
Mass., when he was a child, and in that village he spent his boyhood and received his early
education, attending first the district school and then the academy. At fifteen, having mastered
the branches taught, he left his books to enter upon the practical work of life. Many of his
ancestors had been successful farmers, and being blessed with sound health, he concluded to
follow that caUing. Accepting a situation as farm hand on a farm near by, at a salary of four
dollars a month and board, he entered upon his labors with the zeal of youth, expecting to till
the soil and harvest its crops. But his ambition in this respect was not gratified immediately,
for the first work to which he was put was the very necessary but rather prosaic occupation
of sawing and splitting wood. This occupation, conducted under the blazing sun — accord
ing to what appeared to be time-honored precedent — somewhat dampened the ardor of the
young aspirant for agricultural proficiency, and when, having completed this laborious task,
he was taken up on the slope of the mountain and given another, even more uncongenial
to him, namely, that of picking and piling stones, his disappointment was so great that it
vented itself in indignant protest, and he abandoned farming forever.
Mr. Read received his first knowledge of mercantile life in a dry-goods store at Williams
town, Mass., in the year 1847. After spending a year or more at WiUiamstown he left that
place to take a more profitable situation at Lenox, Mass. When about twenty years of age
Mr. Read removed to Bridgeport, Conn., having accepted a responsible clerkship in the old-
established dry-goods house of E. Birdsey & Co. Having carefuUy husbanded his means,
Mr. Read found himself, early in 1857, the possessor of about fifteen hundred dollars — which
represented his savings for a period of about five years. In August of that year he obtained
a loan of an equal amount from Mr. Hanford Lyon, a wealthy gentleman of his acquaint
ance, who was very much interested in his success and encouraged him to begin business
on his own account ; and with his augmented capital and in association with Mr. W. B.
Hall of Bridgeport, as partner, he opened a dry-goods and carpet store in that city. Twenty

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1S94. 411
years later, in August, 1877, Mr. Hall retired and Mr. Read conducted the business alone
untU 1885, when, on account of its magnitude, re-organized it into a close corporation, con
sisting of himself as president, his two sons, a nephew and his buyer (Mr. Burton). This
corporation is one of the most extensive and successful in the dry-goods and carpet trade in
the Eastern states, and as the legitimate successor of a house established more than a quarter
of a century, and which has passed unscathed through every commercial perturbation occur
ring since its foundation, including the great panics of 1857, 1861 and 1873, it enjoys an
unsurpassed reputation for honesty and solidity.
In association with his brother, Mr. Charles A. Read, he began the manufacture of
ingrain carpets in a small way in 1869, their factory being at Bridgeport. At first the
establishment operated two looms, but by gradual increase this number was soon extended
to twenty. In 1873, this manufacturing business was turned into a stock concern, under
the title of the Read Carpet Company, with a capital of fifty-five thousand dollars, which
was increased to two hundred thousand dollars in 1877. Mr. David M. Read was chosen
president and selling agent, with headquarters at Bridgeport, and salesroom at 935 Broadway,
New York. At the present time the company's mills contain fifty ingrain power looms and
twenty Axminster looms. The output, consisting of ingrain and Axminster carpeting, equals
in value about half a million dollars annuaUy.
Mr. Read took an active part in the organization of the Bridgeport Board of Trade,
founded in 1875, and, being elected its president in the following year, served in that
capacity till the close of 1890, when he resigned. He was a director in the Bridgeport
National Bank and vice-president of the City Saving Bank for many years ; and at various
times was connected officially or otherwise with a number of local institutions, mercantile,
charitable and social. For upwards of eight years he served as brigade commissary in the
Connecticut National Guard, with the rank of major, and was acting commissary general of
the encampment of Connecticut troops at the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia, in 1876.
For his executive ability in the management of his department during this encampment he
was highly complimented by the governor and general commanding.
Interested in everything appertaining to the welfare of Bridgeport, he at all times was
willing to serve his fellow-citizens even at the cost of much personal inconvenience. He
was a member of the Board of Education, a member of the City Council and also first alder
man of the city, and in each of these positions met the highest expectations of the public,
discharging the varied duties and obligations of the respective offices with zeal and discretion.
Until the Greeley campaign of 1872, Mr. Read was a Republican, at which time he became
an independent. In 1881, he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for state representa
tive and was elected by a very large majority. In 1884, he was sent as delegate to the
Democratic convention at Chicago which nominated Grover Cleveland for president, Mr. Read
being then, and until his death an ardent Cleveland man. In 1888, he was elected to the
state Senate, and again in 1890, his constituents feeling that he had not finished his work
for them, returned him to the Senate by a largely increased majority. Upon the convening
of the Senate, Mr. Read was unanimously elected president pro tem. Owing to the illness,
and later the death of Lieutenant-Governor Alsop, Mr. Read was the presiding officer at
every session of the Senate, virtually acting lieutenant-governor. It was possibly owing to
his innate courtesy that a collision was averted in the Senate in 1891. One day General
Merwin, the hold-over lieutenant-governor, decided by advice of his political associates to
present himself there and preside over that body. He took the chair unopposed, called on
Chaplain Seymour for prayer, which that Democratic clergyman willingly gave. Then he
read a brief address stating in gentlemanly terms the fact of his right to preside, and, call-

412

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

ing his friend. Senator Read, to the chair, turned over the position to him. It was a trying
moment. Mr. Read made no step toward interference or dispute, but on the invitation
walked quietly up, shook hands and took the chair. Had not the two men been of gentle
manly characters a row might easily have developed. As it turned out, each probably
thought the better of the other for what had happened, and the incident did credit to
Connecticut. It is one of the few pleasant memories of the discreditable deadlock.
Mr. Read served as chairman of the Connecticut World's Fair Board and did valuable
work for this state. He was also deeply interested in the Boys' Club, and addressed the
Chicago Boys' Club, urging them to push forward honestly and energetically, assuring them
that in this country there was always room at the top for an honest man. He delivered an
address at the Connecticut buUding, Jackson Park, on Connecticut day, Oct. ii, 1893.
Both as merchant and manufacturer and also as a public servant, Mr. Read stood high in
the esteem of the community in which he lived. His success was achieved on broad rather
than close lines, and he was fairly entitled to be classed with the most enterprising and
progressive men of the state. His personal popularity was very great owing to his numerous
public-spirited acts, his well-known generosity, and his unfailing courtesy. He was a fine
type of the intelligent, broad-minded and useful American business man ; as capable and
trustworthy at the helm in public affairs as in the management of great private interests.
Mr. Read married on December 3, 1855, Miss Helen Augusta, daughter of Philo F.
Barnum, in his life a prominent citizen of Bridgeport, brother of P. T. Barnum. Four
children have been born to this marriage, of whom one, a daughter, Helen Augusta, died on
October 13, 1872. The surviving children, two sons and a daughter, are: Charles Barnum
Read, now treasurer of the D. M. Read Company of Bridgeport ; David Farnum Read, who
was graduated at Yale College in 1883, and is now vice-president of the D. M. Read Company,
and manager of the New York office of the Read Carpet Company ; and Miss May Louise Read.
The funeral of Mr. Read was one of the most notable which ever took place in Bridgeport.
Distinguished men from all parts of the state were present, and the whole ceremony was a
universal tribute of respect. Almost all the state officers were present, the two Senates in
which he served were well represented, and numerous members of the judiciary, and other
prominent persons paid the last honors to the dead. Voicing the sentiment of the citizens,
^^ Standard said: "In the death of the Hon. David M. Read, which occurred yesterday,
Bridgeport loses a man closely connected with its growth and prosperity for the past thirty
years. There are but few men who could compare with him in that respect, while the void
created in social circles by his demise will be long unfilled. His friends were legion and his
enemies very few. He drew men to him by his admirable qualities, and he seldom lost a
friend once made. He was active and progressive in all public matters and for years labored
for the advancement of the interests of Bridgeport as diligently as he did in the direction of
his private affiairs. Big-hearted, generous, able, full of activity and push, he infused his
spirit into those about him and carried out his enterprises with a zeal and judgment which
commanded approval and achieved success. It is safe to say that not a man could be taken
from active life in this city who will be more generally missed and no one whose death will
be more sincerely mourned."

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 413
^REGORY, JAMES GLYNN, M. D., of Norwalk, was born in that city May 12,
1843. Two strains of Gregory blood, both coming from old England, are
united in the subject of this sketch. The record of the given name of the
first Gregory to enter the bounds of Connecticut has been lost ; but from his
son Moses, the succession comes down through Ezra and a second Moses to Ira.
Ira Gregory was a thorough physician of the old school and a man of much force of charac
ter. He married Frances A., daughter of Moses Gregory. Mrs. Gregory's first American
ancestor was John Gregory, who landed at Boston, the exact year being unknown, and at a
later period the family crossed over into Connecticut.
After passing through the common schools of his native town, and taking a course at the
Wilton Academy, he was prepared for college, and entering Yale University was graduated in
the class of 1865, having a high place among the "honor men." Choosing the life of a
physician as that best adapted to his tastes, he commenced the study of medicine at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and received his degree in March, 1868. After
serving a term in Berlin City Hospital, in 1870, he located in Norwalk, where he has since
made his home. He was associated with his father, and thus gained the benefit of his father's
experience, and on the death of the latter, in 1872, he succeeded to his practice. In the years
which have elapsed, he has added largely to the list of patients, and his record book shows a
wide range of cases. Without devoting himself to any special line in his profession, he has
built up a reputation from the general practice of medicine equaled by few in the limits of his
native state.
It was but natural that honors of various kinds should be laid before him for acceptance,
and they have been borne in a most becoming manner. Dr. Gregory is a member of the State
Medical Society and has been president of the Fairfield County Medical Society. In 1882, he
was surgeon-general of the state, on the staff of Governor Bigelow, and in this capacity he
took part in the Centennial celebrations at Yorktown and Charleston. P^'or five years he was
trustee of the Middletown Asylum for Fairfield County, and for half a dozen years he was
United States Examiner for Pensions, but resigned in 1890, owing to the press of other duties.
He is now on the consulting board of the Soldiers' Home at Nuroton.
In the civil affairs of the city of Norwalk, he has always taken a deep interest. Besides
serving on school boards at different times. Dr. Gregory was a member of the Court of
Burgesses for three years, and for one year filled the office of warden. For one term he
represented the city of Norwalk in the lower branch of the state legislature, being the first
year the new state house was occupied. At this session he served as chairman of the com
mittee on federal relations and as a member of the committee on claims. Dr. Gregory is a
Master Mason, but has never held any office in this noble order. He has passed through all
the chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Grand Lodge.
Though not a member, he attends the Congregational Church, and takes an active interest in
its welfare. As a citizen, as an official and as a physician, he is highly respected in the city
of his birth, where he is best known. It would seem almost as if he gave a contradiction to
the Scripture saying, that " A prophet is not without honor except in his own city," because
it is those who have grown up alongside of him from childhood who possess the most confidence
in his ability. Nor is his reputation as a physician by any means confined to the city limits.
In medical circles throughout the state his name is recognized as a leader in the profession,
and all his brethren delight to do him honor.
James G. Gregory was married Dec. 4, 1877, to Jeannette Lindsley, daughter of Timothy
S. Pinneo, Esq., of Greenwich. Mr. Pinneo was the author of Pinneo's Grammar, and other
standard school books, and came from a staunch Huguenot family. Three children were the
result of this union : Edward Slosson, Jeannette Lindsley and Alyse Earl.
S3

414

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

|YDPv, EPHRAIM H., of Stafford, ex-lieutenant-governor of the state. A sketch
of his life in "An Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut" says that
the name of the Hon. Ephraim H. Hyde of Stafford is famUiar to the people
of this state as that of a leading politician, an agricultural scientist, and a
thoughtful student of social economy. In every one of these capacities he is
no less widely than favorably known, and his many years are crowned with many honors.
He was born at Stafford, on the first day of June, 1812. He married Hannah Converse
Young, Sept. 27, 1836. Six chUdren were born to them, three of whom died in infancy,
another at the age of four years; the other two, EUen E., wife of Ernest Cady, of the
Pratt & Cady Company, and E. H. Hyde, Jr., of the firm of Hyde & Joslyn, are now
living at Hartford. His. wife died Feb. 26, 1862, and, on Oct. 19, 1869, he married Miss
Mary S. WiUiams of Hartford, who now survives.
Attendance at the district school in his native town, and about six weeks of study at
the academy in Monson, Mass., comprised his entire school education. His boyhood was
passed in the manner common to the bo}'s of that time ; work on the farm, accompanied by
general service in an old-time hotel connected with the farm and known as the half-way
stage station between Worcester and Hartford, and about four months as a stage driver
between Stafford and Sturbridge, fiUed up the years between school and the commencement
of his active business life. He took an efficient and active interest in the Universalist
Society of Stafford, serving therein as sexton, organist, and leader of the choir for fifteen
years. Entering a country store as a clerk in his eighteenth year, he became proprietor of
the same in his twenty-first }-ear, and from that time on he has been closely identified with
the business interests of the town. He was interested in a blast furnace business for about
eight years ; in his twenty-ninth year he was the chief promoter of a cotton mill at Staf
ford Springs; he was for many years interested in the business of .manufacturing satinets,
as one of the firm of Converse & Hyde ; and he has been actively engaged in many other
industrial enterprises. His energies have been devoted principally, however, to promoting
the agricultural interests of the state and to breeding blooded stock.
About the year 1842, having become the owner of two or three large farms, all of
which he retained until within a few years, and most of which he still owns, he commenced
the careful breeding of stock from imported and native cattle, and thus entered upon a
course that was to make his name familiar as a household word to the leading agriculturists
throughout the country.
Mr. Hyde began with Devons, and afterwards experimented with Ayrshires, Durhams,
and Jerseys ; but believing the Devons to be the best adapted to this part of the country,
he applied himself to the scientific selection and breeding of that class, and as a result he
greatly improved the stock and produced herds of rare beauty and excellence, the winners
of many a sweepstake medal and prize. He will be known in the years to come as the
pathfinder for Devons in this country. Animals from his herds have gone to all parts of
the country, and it can be said with truth that the improvement of the stock in his native
state is owing in a large measure to his care and wisdom as a breeder of pure-blooded
Devons. He early became concerned in the general agricultural interests of the state, and has
been an active and zealous participant in all movements for their protection and advance
ment. Fully comprehending the needs of the farmers, and also the necessity of arousing
them to a realization of the benefits to be derived by the adoption of more intelligent and
scientific methods of farming, he zealously devoted the best years of his life to the interests

4^4

(nx^t^

"^ ,'^.-

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 415
of agriculture, giving his time, money, and talents without stint, and bringing to the
service an indomitable will and energy that prosecuted its aims with a patient industry that
was untiring. It was largely owing to his infiuence and enterprise that the Tolland County
Agricultural Society was organized in 1852. He was its president from its organization to
i860, and again from 1864 to 1868 ; and Hyde Park at Rockville was thus named in his
honor, and in recognition of his services to the society. He was president of the Connecticut
State Agricultural Society from 1858 to 1881 ; vice-president of the New England
Agricultural Society from its beginning; vice-president of the State Board of Agriculture
from its organization in 1866 to 1882 ; and was chosen again in 1890, and is now vice-
president ; chairman of the commissioners on diseases of doinestic animals for thirty years,
which office he still holds ; president of the American Breeders' Association from 1865 until
it resolved itself into sections for each breed ; president of the Connecticut Valley Agricultural
Association, comprising Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont ; corporator
of the Connecticut Stock Breeders' Association ; vice-president of the Dairyman's Associa
tion ; chairman of the committee to publish the first volume of the American Herd Book ;
president of the Tolland County East Agricultural Society, from its organization in 1870 to
1876 ; and one of the trustees and vice-president of the Storrs School, a position which he
still retains. Mr. Hyde had long been in favor of a school in which the science of
agriculture should be taught, and was one of the first two persons who consulted the Storrs
brothers in regard to the project of establishing the school at Mansfield. The scheme met
his approval ; and that the plan was finally adopted, and that the school has been able to
maintain itself against the numerous attacks that ha\'e been made upon it by friends and
foes alike, is largely owing to his indefatigable efforts and earnest support. At a meeting
of the trustees in 1889 he was chosen one of the building committee to erect the beautiful
and commodious structures which have been completed at about the estimated cost of
$50,000. His labors to secure reform in the management of prisons and houses of correction have
been extensive and persistent. He is one of the founders and directors of the Prisoners'
Friend Association, and a director, also, of the Industrial School for Girls; and has been
more or less active in the direction of the state board of education, especially in 1867, 1868,
and 1869. When the United States Agricultural Convention met in Washington some time
since, he attended as delegate from the New England Agricultural Association.
He has also been called to numerous other offices by the citizens of his town and state.
Hs, was county commissioner for Tolland County in 1842-43 ; a member of the House of
Representatives from Stafford in 1851-52 ; a delegate to the National Democratic Convention
at Baltimore; and in the presidential campaign of i860 he took a prominent part, identify
ing himself with the state rights faction, whose head and candidate was Breckinridge, and
was made an elector on their ticket. He was a state senator and president pro tem. of
the Senate in 1876 and 1887, and lieutenant-governor in 1867 and 1868. WhUe occupying
the latter position the office of commissioner of agriculture at Washington became vacant,
and he was strongly pushed for the place, every member of the legislature then in session,
irrespective of their party affiliation, signing the petition, and nearly all the state delegation
in Congress. He took an earnest and lively interest in the Connecticut Experimental
Station, and was chosen vice-president of the board of control at its organization March 29,
1879, and still retains the office. He presided at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the primitive organization of the Congregational church and society in Franklin, Conn.,
Oct. 4, 1868. He was president of the ToUand centennial celebration in 1876, delivering
the opening address, and he has occupied many other offices of more or less importance.

4i6 . REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In all his public life, covering a period of nearly half a century, his aim has been to
subser\-e the interests of the state, and not the shadow of a suspicion rests on his honored
name. His conduct, motives and methods have been straightforward and honorable, and
his record is one of which he may well be proud.
Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Hyde has filled a large place in the state, but his name wiU
be best known as that of the eminent breeder, who by his enlightened efforts materially
assisted in raising the farming industry of the state to a higher level, and in vastly
increasing the value of its dairy farms and stock.
In the course of years he is now aged; but few are the men of half his age who are
to be compared with him in activity and endurance. Always strictly temperate in his
habits, he has saved himself from the infirmities that so often overtake public men in their
declining years. With a tall and slender form, a well-bred face, a flowing white beard and
the graceful courtesy of an elder day, he presents a striking figure. Affable and agreeable,
fond of society and companionship, kind and considerate of others, with a pleasant smile,
and a cheerful greeting always, he has as large a circle of personal acquaintances and friends
as any man in the state, and no one is more highly esteemed.

jOOKER, JOHN, of Hartford, ex-reporter of judicial decisions for the Supreme
Court of the state, was born at Farmington, Conn., in 1816.
After receiving the usual preparatory education, Mr. Hooker entered Yale
College, and was graduated in the class of 1837. Being of a legal turn of
mind, he studied law at the Yale Law School, and was admitted to practice
in the courts of the state. His careful attention to the interests of his clients, combined with
a thorough knowledge of Connecticut law, soon gained for him an increasing list of patrons.
In 1858, Mr. Hooker was appointed " Reporter of Judicial Decisions" for the supreme
court of the state, and the responsible duties of this office proved to be his life work. For
thirty-six years he filled the position, retiring Jan. i, 1894, then in his seventy-eighth year.
The greater part of the extended series of Connecticut Law Reports was prepared and published
by him, and the value of his painstaking work can hardly be over-estimated. Not many of
the la-wyers who search through these dry legal volumes ever think of the hand and brain
which arranged them for convenient use and then handed them down to posterity. c?
Mr. Hooker, in early manhood, was one of the leading anti-slavery men of the state, and
when this cause had providentially reached a successful culmination, he afterwards espoused
the cause of woman suffrage. In recent yedrs, he has investigated the phenomena of spirit
ualism, and after subjecting them to the most rigid tests has become a believer in the reality
of communications from departed spirits. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and
has served as deacon for the greater of his life. In his theological beliefs, he ranks with the
most liberal of the progressive branch of that body of Christians.
Mr. Hooker was married in 1841, to Isabella, daughter of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher and
sister of the authoress, Harriet Beecher Stowe. The golden wedding was appropriately cele
brated in I 89 I.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1S94. 417
ILES, FREDERICK, a distinguished cUizen and business man of Salisbury,
Conn., prominently identified for many years with extensive iron industries in
Columbia County, N. Y., and during three terms the representative in the
Congress of the United States from the Fourth congressional district of Connecti
cut, was born at Goshen, Litchfield County, Conn., Dec 19, 1815.
He is a member of one of the oldest famUies of New England, being descended in a
direct line from Richard MUes, who arrived in Boston from England in 1636, and who was
one of the early settlers of New Haven. His father, the Hon. Augustus Miles, a promi
nent citizen of Goshen, served with distinction in both branches of the Connecticut legisla
ture, and is stUl remembered in the state as an able and upright public official. In his youth
Frederick Miles attended the public schools at Goshen, and completed his education by a
thorough course of study at the local academy. At the age of seventeen, being then a
well-educated youth, he secured a clerkship in one of the leading dry-goods houses at New
Haven, where he devoted a year to gaining an insight into business methods. When eighteen
years of age he took a responsible clerkship in his father's store at Goshen, and, in 1838, he
was admitted to partnership. He reinained associated in business with his father until 1857.
In the spring of 1858, he removed to Salisbury, where he has since resided. Shortly
after retiring from mercantile business, Mr. Miles became interested in iron mines at Copake,
Columbia County, N. Y., and this industry under his fostering care and able management
has developed into one of considerable magnitude and importance, giving employment to a
large number of workmen. As a citizen, having large and valuable business interests at stake,
Mr. Miles has always kept abreast of American legislation. He has made a close study of the
leading questions which have engrossed public attention for many years, particularly those
bearing on finance and the tariff, and became known in the business world as a gentleman
of sound and practical views upon these and upon legislation in general. A Republican in
political faith, he was brought forward by that party, in 1878, as its candidate for Congress
in his district — the Fourth — an acknowledged stronghold of the Democracy. Mr. Miles was
one of the best known men in this district and no one stood higher in public esteem. His
integrity as a business man, his broad views on public questions and his great personal
popularity caused him to be supported at the polls not only by the voters of his own party,
but also by many of the opposition, who felt that he could be relied upon to represent the
interests of his constituents in a non-partisan spirit and for the general welfare. Notwith
standing that the Democratic nominee was a man of irreproachable character, Mr. Miles was
the choice of the people, being elected by a majority of eleven hundred and seventy-nine
votes. This astonishing victory was repeated in 1880, Mr. Miles, who had been a second
time nominated, being reelected by a heavy maljority. In 1888, he was again placed in the
field by his party, and was a third time elected to represent his district in the National Congress.
Mr. Miles's congressional career was marked by an earnest sympathy with Republican
institutions, by the vigor with which he upheld the interests of the important constituency
he represented, and by the breadth and logic of his views upon all great national questions.
He defended the credit of the country against all plots and schemes which could in any
way impair its high standard, and as a firm friend of the American workingman he earnestly
supported the protective tariff measures inaugurated by his party. Although not conspicuous
as a debater, he was a power in the committee room, where the real work of legislation is
mainly accomplished. Able and dignified in all his dealings, he was held in the very highest
respect by his colleagues and the various high officials of the national government with whom he
held public relations. To his intelligence and zealous care of the interests of his constituents

41 8 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
on all occasions he added a courtesy of demeanor which contributed in no small degree to
enhance his popularity. He was particularly courteous to the people of his own state, and
no man from Connecticut ever visited him at the national capital, or sought an interview
with him at home, without feeling that Congressman Miles was heartily his friend, and wiUing
to serve his interests to the best of his ability.
In 1890, Mr. Miles was a fourth time nominated by the Republicans of Fairfield County
for congressional honors, but the political complications of that year in Connecticut were
inimical to the success of his party, which failed to elect its candidates for national offices.
Mr. Miles's personal standing and popularity, however, have been in no way impaired or
lessened, and he is to-day, as for many years past, one of the strongest men politically in
the whole state. In private life he is noted for his kindliness and courtesy. Faithful to
his friends, and watchful of every interest confided to his care, he has merited and received
the highest respect both as a private citizen and a public official. In person he is the embodi
ment of manly vigor and honest self-reliance. His forehead is broad and high, his eye is
large and kindly in expression, and his mouth and chin indicate great strength of character.
He bears his years as easily as he does his honors, and clearly belongs to that class of men
who " would rather be right than President."

^LSON, FREDERICK MORSE, M. D., of Bridgeport, was born in Hebron,
Maine, Dec. 8, 1850. It is a Maine family. Dr. Wilson being the first in his
line to settie outside of the state. WUliam WUson, son of Thomas and Ann
Wilson, was a respectable farmer at Topsham, and his youngest son, Adam, set
his heart upon having a better education than the youths around him. The
father offered the old farm as an inducement for the ambitious son to remain at home and
become a tiller of the soil. Upon Adam's declining the proffered farm, his father incontinentiy
refused to give him further assistance, and consequently the youth shouldered a bundle contain
ing his " earthly all " and walked from Topsham to Hebron, a distance of thirty miles. Here
he found a place to " do chores " for his board, and fitted himself for college at the Hebron
Academy. Entering Bowdoin CoUege, he was graduated in the class of 1819, being in his
twenty-sixth year. Deciding to enter the sacred ministry, Mr. WUson went' to Philadelphia
and took a course of theological studies under Rev. Dr. Stoughton and Rev. Alvah Chase.
He was ordained at Topsham, Me., Dec. 20, 1820, and first supplied a pulpU at New Haven,
Conn., at the same time continuing his studies under Dr. Fitch of Yale CoUege. Leaving this
field, he preached successively as Wiscasset, Turner and New Gloucester, Me.
In 1828, he established a denominational paper in Portiand, which is still published under
the name of Zion's Advocate. Besides being both editor and proprietor of a paper. Rev Mr
WUson also preached quite regulariy on the Sabbath, supplying different pulpits. At the end
of nine years he gave up editorial work, and again resumed his labors as a pastor, taking
charge of the First Baptist Church of Bangor. Three and one-half years were spent here
two more at Turner, and then he assumed his old place again as editor of Zion's Advocate,
a connection which lasted untU 1848. Disposing of his paper he moved to Hebron, and after
passing three }^ears here and five more at WaterviUe, he gave the last fourteen years of his life
to the poorer churches of Maine, staying with each only a sufficient time to get them in a condi
tion to be self-sustaming. In this work he was especially successful. As preacher, pastor
and editor, he took rank with the ablest men of his denomination. WatervUle CoUege gave
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1854. s s >'

^^. j: <^

Mas sacluis etts RjnislTJ-n.g Co Everett , Mas s

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 419
Dr. Wilson married Sarah H. Richer, who was a lineal decendant of Matuiin Richer, who
emigrated from England to America about 1670, being closely followed by his brother, George
Richer. Both brothers niarried and became the heads of families not far from what is now
Dover, N. H., and both of them were killed by the Indians on the same da}', June 4, 1706.
Joseph Richer, son of Maturin, was said to have been "a man of large worldly substance."
His son, Capt. Joseph Richer, had a son Dominicus, who was the father of Mrs. Wilson.
Frederick M. WUson, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of the four chUdren of
Dr. Adam and Sarah H. (Richer) Wilson. He was prepared for college at the WaterviUe
Academy, and entering Colby University at the age of sixteen, he was graduated in the class
of 1871. The medical profession being attractive to his tastes, he at once commenced its
study. Taking one course of lectures at Bowdoin College, he entered the Medical Department
of Harvard University, and received his degree of M. D. in 1875. He practiced his profession
at WaterviUe, Me., for two years. He then moved to New York City, and for a year gave
his whole time to study of the eye and ear.
In January, 1879, Dr. Wilson opened an office in Bridgeport, Conn., and has since made
that thriving city his home. These fifteen }'ears lia\-e been filled with hard and continuous
work. At the end of three months he gave up general practice, and has since treated only
diseases of the eye and ear. During all this time, he has served regularly on the staff of the
Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New York City. Many interesting and difficult cases
have come under his care, but a technical description would only be of value to the student
or specialist in the same field. During the years 1882 and 1886, he was in England and on
the Continent engaged in the study of his specialties.
Dr. Wilson is a member of the Bridgeport, Fairfield County, and Connecticut Medical
Societies. Of the city and county societies he has served as president. He is ophthalmic and
aural surgeon to the Bridgeport Hospital, and is instructor in the Post Graduate School at
New York. For the year 1893, he was vice-president of the Bridgeport Scientific Society,
and he is a meinber of the American Ophthalmological Society ; also of the American Otological
Society. He read technical papers before both these societies at the Congress of American
Physicians and Surgeons, at Washington, in May, 1894. The Connecticut State Medical
Society elected him " Dissertator " for 1895.
Doctor WUson was married Nov. 13, 1883, to Mrs. Carrie A. Marsh, daughter of E. H.
Somers, Esq., of West Haven, Conn. The family consists of two daughters.

^ERRY, GEORGE EDWARD, of Waterbury, attorney-at-law, was born in Bristol,
Conn., Sept. 15, 1836, and is a lineal descendant from Samuel Terry, who
emigrated from England, and settled in Springfield, Mass., in 1650.
The foundation of Mr. Terry's education was laid in the common school.
He was preparing for college at the Albany (N. Y.) Academy, and also read
ing law in his uncle's office, when his health broke down, and he was obliged to seek
more active employment to save his life. His next experience was in a clock shop, where
he had been previously employed; later, he learned the machinist's trade, but this routine
work grew exceedingly irksome to him, and one day while engaged in a pin factory at
Winsted, he suddenly decided to throw up his position and become a lawyer. Acting promptly,
he at once commenced the study of legal technicalities in the office of Samuel P. Newell,
Esq., of Bristol. Here he industriously wrestled with the intricate problems laid down in

420 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Blackstone for more than two years, and, in the summer of 1857, he entered the office of
John Hooker, Esq., of Hartford. Mr. Terry was admitted to the bar of Hartford County
at the March term, 1858. He did not enter immediately upon the practice of his chosen
profession, but spent the next year looking out for some land interests of his father's in
the state of Virginia.
In January, 1859, the real occupation of Mr. Terry's life began by his opening an office
in Plainville, Conn., commencing without a partner. The spring of i860 saw him elected a
member of the legislature for the town of Farmington. He had the honor of being the
youngest member at that session, and his committee appointment was chairman on fisher
ies. In the fall of 1862, his patriotic desires to serve his country could no longer be restrained,
and he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Connecticut Regiment, under Col. George P. Bissell.
The regiment was placed in the army of General Banks, in Louisiana, where they had a
share in the battle of Irish Bend. Later they followed the rebel general, Dick Taylor, to
Shreveport, from which point they took transports for Port Hudson, where they remained
until its surrender. Mr. Terry was in all the engagements in which his regiment partici
pated, and was honorably discharged in August, 1863, and he came home with the sense
of duty faithfully performed, and with no bullet wounds in his body.
September, 1863, found him located at Waterbury, where he has since continued to
reside. He at once formed a partnership with Hon. Stephen W. Kellogg, under the title
of Kellogg & Terry, a connection which lasted until March, 1881. Until July, 1888, he
pursued the practice of his profession alone, and at that time he entered into a partnership
with Nathaniel R. Bronson, the firm name being Terry & Bronson. This connection still
exists. Among the more important cases with which Mr. Terry has been associated are
Terry vs. Bamburger, the point involved being the right of a receiver to recover property in
another state, then in the hands of an assignee in bankruptcy. A number of delicate
and sharply contested issues were brought out, and the case went to the Supreme Court
of the United States, but was finaUy decided in his favor. It established a principle which
is now considered most excellent law.
He was also counsel in the case of Donovan's appeal from Probate. This was an
action for money loaned to a married woman on her own account, and the question
involved was whether her property generally would be holden in equity for its repayment,
or only that held by her for her sole and separate use. The case was carried to the
Supreme Court of Connecticut, which held that her property generaUy was holden.
As Mr. Terry's practice has been general in its nature, his high reputation is based on
his comprehensive knowledge of law, rather than on a special study of a single line of legal
questions. Noted for his careful preparation of a case, his battie has been half won before
he ever appears in court. He easily stands in the front rank of the lawyers of the state.
The list of Mr. Terry's official positions are quickly enumerated. He has been assistant
state's attorney for New Haven County since 1891 ; was clerk of the City Court of Water
bury from 1866 to 1872, and city attorney from 1883 to 1891. For two years he has been
president of the Waterbury Gas Light Company, and he is a director of the Fourth National
Bank, of the Waterbury Savings Bank, of the West Side Savings Bank, and of the Water
bury Traction Compau}-. In none of these stations is he a figure-head, but his counsel is
valued and his influence felt in all important operations.
George E. Terry was married September 20, 1862, to Emma, daughter of Benjamin
Pollard. She died in AprU, 1868, leaving one son, Fred L., who is now in the office of the
Waterbury Button Company. He was married for the second time to Fannie E. WUliams.
Two chUdren were the result of this marriage, both of whom are now dead.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 421
E FOREST, ROBERT E., of Bridgeport, member of Congress from the Fourth
Congressional District, was born in Guilford, Conn., Feb. 20, 1845. His grand
father, George Griswold, was a worthy farmer of Guilford. His father, George
Cleaveland Griswold, and his mother, n6e Julia Chapman, are still residents of
that town.
Mr. DeForest's youthful days were passed on the paternal farm, attending Guilford
Academy as opportunity afforded, and from that institution he entered Yale College in 1863,
and was graduated with honors four years later. While in college, he was noted for his
ability as a writer and for his capacity to turn off large quantities of work, as well as for his
readiness in debate and his graceful fluency of speech. He labored under the disadvantages of
poverty, and endured the sacrifices and hardships which many a New England boy has passed
through while struggling to get an education. Just before he came to Yale a gentieman named
DeForest had left a certain sum of money to be used in educating any young man who would
pass the best examination and take the name " DeForest." Such was his thirst for knowledge
that, having the ability to fulfil the first requirement, he decided to accept the condition
attached to the bequest, and it was from this reason that a change in his surname was effected.
After leaving college, Mr. DeForest decided to enter the legal profession, and engaged
in teaching as a means of support, at the same time studying the technicalities of law most
diligently. He was admitted to the bar in 1868, and, settling in the city of Bridgeport, he
continued to earn his livelihood by teaching night schools and acting as a private tutor, until
clients, recognizing the young man's worth and industry, pressed upon him eager to secure
his services. As a lawyer he has been especially successful, and as an advocate he is unex-
celled at the bar of Fairfield County. Learned in the law, easy in manner and fertile in
resources, he is a dangerous opponent and always makes a brilliant presentation of a case.
The younger men at the bar count him as their best friend, and they come to him more
frequently for advice and assistance over the rough places in law than to any other meinber
of the legal fraternity of the county. For several years he was associated in practice with the
late Judge Sidney B. Beardsley.
From his earliest manhood, Mr. DeP^orest has taken an active interest in public matters,
and has been honored with a goodly share of official stations. In 1872, he was appointed
prosecuting attorney for the city of Bridgeport, and two years later, at the age of twenty-nine,
he was elected by the legislature judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Fairfield County.
At the close of his three years' term upon the bench. Judge DeForest retired, carrying with
him the respect and confidence of the entire bar, and with an established reputation as a
keen, able and honest lawyer.
The citizens of Bridgeport had been watching and appreciated his manly course on
numerous occasions when it had been put to the test. In 1878, Judge DeForest was nominated
and elected mayor of the city. He placed the direction of the city finances on a practical
basis, and by his prudent management reduced the municipal debt by a sum of $31,000, a fact
which speaks volumes for his conservatism and discretion. When the town and city govern
ments of Bridgeport were consolidated in the spring of 1889, the Democratic party turned to
him as the one man who could safely hold the rudder of municipal government through this
time of new ways and methods. In the three preceding years the debt of the city had been
increased over $200,000, but this year he secured a reduction of $50,000. The following year
he was nominated for the mayor's chair against the most popular man in the Republican party,
and who had previously filled the office for two terms. After one of the hardest political con
tests ever fought in Bridgeport he was again elected mayor by an unexpectedly large vote
over his competitor. His administration was admirable and satisfactory to his constituents.
54

422 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
In 1880, the Democratic party elected Judge DeForest to the state legislature by a hand
some majority, where, from the very opening of the session, his force, eloquence and ability
enabled him to take a commanding position. He deservedly won considerable repute for the
favorable stand he took toward the oyster-growers of the state, and almost single-handed he
carried through a minority report in their interest. The oystermen have never forgotten that
the solid basis on which the oyster legislation of the state rests is largely due to his earnest
efforts in their behalf. Altera memorable contest in 1882, he defeated the late Hon. Amos
S. Treat for the state Senate, and the record he made in that body gave him an enviable repu
tation in all parts of the commonwealth. For several terms Judge DeForest has served as
corporation counsel for the city of Bridgeport, and, in 1888, he was unanimously endorsed by
the bar of Fairfield County for a position on the bench of the Superior Court.
His name was brought forward in the Democratic Congressional Convention of the Fourth
District in October, 1890, and he was enthusiastically nominated as the standard bearer of the
party. The opposition candidate was the incumbent of the office, but with the chances
decidedly against him he was victorious at the polls. In the course of a forcible speech
accepting the nomination. Judge DeForest said :
How true it is that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty ! " How restless is the spirit, how watchful are
the eyes, how manifold and subtle are the resources and expedients of despotic power ! How it has dogged the
footsteps of humanity from land to land and from age to age ! Wherever the experiment of human government
has been attempted — how, everywhere and always has it insinuated itself into the places of authority, and bowed
down the backs of God's children to tribute! Here, in these United States of America, in this age of enlighten
ment and toleration under the ^gis of our popular system, we flattered ourselves, forsooth, that we should be'
safe. -Vain and delusive hope ! The spirit of despotism is here, under the form of free institutions ; under the
knavish disguise of a pretended philanthropy ; under perjured oaths of allegiance to law and justice, the spirit of
despotism is here. It stalks in our midst ; it lurks in the shadows of our National Capitol ; it ascends its
vestibule ; it haughtily and insolently treads its halls. There, among those patriotic and sacred associations and
memories ; there, under the folds of the flag ; there, in the very central shrine and by the very altar of our
freedom it enthrones itself, in all the hideousness and hatefuluess that ever smirked and snarled under a British
crown, when the men of '76, with far less provocation than we suffer, rather than endure it longer unsheathed the
bloody sword of revolution.
It is the same old spirit, engaged in the same old work. Taxation and tyranny — the lust of power and the
lust of gold — joining hands, sordid, unholy and cursed alliance, with its feet upon the prostrate and bleeding
form of betrayed and outraged liberty. Is it not indeed so? Is there fancy or exaggeration in this picture? Nay !
Nay ! What was the taxation against which our fathers rebelled, conipared with that by which the Republican
party has harassed, oppressed and impoverished this people for a quarter of a century ? It was the same in
principle, but in magnitude, in enormity, it was not a drop in the bucket in comparison with that which this
Republican conspirac}' of tyranny and avarice is imposing upon us. Necessary taxation, reasonable taxation,
fair, just and honest taxation, no one will complain of. But we charge the Republican party, and the charge
cannot be evaded or palliated — we charge the Republican party as our ancestors charged King George with
unnecessar3', unreasonable, unjust, unfair, dishonest and ruinous taxation ; taxation that discriminates against the
poor and in favor of the rich ; taxation upon the simple necessaries of life ; taxation that concentrates and
consolidates enormous wealth in a few selfish hands and grinds the face of poverty ; taxation that deprives capital
of its profits, labor of its wages and agriculture of every phase of prosperity. Can this be gainsaid?
Speaking of the nomination, the Norwalk Record -^aiA Mr. DeForest a very graceful tribute :
His sturdy democracy and advocacy of the principles of his party, and his integrity and strong force of
character are elements that singled him out from his fellow Democrats to be their leader. He was a poor boy
and by his indomitable courage aud careful efforts he has attained his present prominence. He has always been
the friend of the people and not of the corporations. To protect the oppressed and unmask infamy has been his
guiding principle. Three times have his fellow-citizens elected him to the mayoralty of Bridgeport, and he has
honored them by an honest administration of the affairs of that office. He has also served his state well in the
legislature, and as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and other offices. He is a man above reproach and
is a man of the people.
His first term of service in Congress demonstrated to the voters of the district the value to
them of a representative in Congress possessed of brains, capacity, character and courage.
At the Democratic Congressional Convention of the Fourth District in 1892, there was no

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 423
argument regarding the nominee, and Judge DeForest received a second unanimous nomination.
In presenting his name, among other good things. Judge Albert M. Tallmadge said : "From
him we expected much. He has more than realized our expectations. The people of this
congressional district without regard to party, are proud of their representative in Congress,
and the people of this district will see that he is returned to the place he has so honorably
fiUed. Is it reasonable to suppose that Democrats alone were proud of the ringing speech
of our representative against the free coinage of silver ? Did he not represent the people of
this district when he said : ' This proposition for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, at
the ratio and upon the terms here designated', excites in the minds of those whom I have the
honor to represent, and so far as I know, in the minds of all the people of the entire state and
section from which I come, the profoundest apprehension, as being in their judgment a measure
involving political heresy, unsound finance, commercial disaster, industrial prostration and
moral culpability.' "
He was again elected and is now serving his second term with credit to himself and to
the satisfaction of his constituents. In every instance he has faithfully represented the inter
ests of his district. The Washington papers and the New York papers spoke highly in
commendation of his silver and tariff speeches, notably the New York Times and the New
York World. In Connecticut most of the papers of the state commended his stand and his
speech on the silver bill, while papers and men of all parties have shared in the pride of the
Democrats in this exceptional record of Judge DeForest in his term of service. When the
record of his work during his second term is written it is safe to say that it will be equally
satisfactory. When he has been before his fellow-citizens for election. Judge DeForest has never been
beaten. The secret of his hold upon the people is not hard to find. He believes in them ;
they reciprocate his confidence. He has stood for their rights and fought their battles. Then
his character is as open as the day, and his life has been above all reproach. In personal
appearance he would attract favorable attention in any land ; a refined and intelligent face,
a body strong, well-built and active, and a head indicative of the possession of brains, with a
manner unmistakably sincere — these go to make up the man. Easy and courteous in
demeanor, approachable at all times to every comer, it is not to be wondered at that Judge
DeForest is popular with all classes in society. For some years past he has been junior warden
of Trinity (Episcopal) Church, and is an earnest cooperator in every good work in the city
of Bridgeport. Robert E. DeForest was married Oct. 18, 1871, to Rebecca Bellows, daughter of Judge
John S. Marcy. Their children are Frederick Marcy, who has just finished his third year at
Yale College, Robert Griswold and John Bellows.

424 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
yHAP:\IAN, ]\IAR0 S., of Manchester, president of the Perkins Lamp Company
of Manchester, and of the Hartford Manila Company, Hartford, was born in
East Haddam, Feb. 13, 1839.
After receiving a thorough common school education, Mr. Chapman engaged
in mercantile pursuits at Manchester, and was so occupied when the call came
for troops in 1861. His patriotic zeal was fired, and he enlisted in Company C, Twelfth
Regiment, and rendered faUhful service in the War of the Rebellion. His term of enlist
ment having expired — in 1864 — he accepted a situation with the Plimpton Manufacturing
Company, Hartford, and, his executive abUity being appreciated, he has been gradually
advanced until now he is treasurer of the company. When the Plimpton Company secured
the contract from the government for manufacturing stamped envelopes, the work was placed
in charge of Mr. Chapman, and the position has given him an excellent opportunity for
showing the business capacities he possesses.
In the various branches of electric development, Mr. Chapman has taken a deep interest.
He is now president of the Perkins Lamp Company, and of the Mather Electric Company,
both of which are located at Manchester, and are doing a prosperous business. He is also
president of the Hartford Manila Company, which has an extensive mill at Burnside. Under
the inspiration of Mr. Chapman's management, the business of this company is in a flour
ishing condition. It will be seen that no small share of Mr. Chapman's interests lie in the
capital city, and every effort for the extension of its trade limits finds in him a ready
helper. He is an active member of that energetic body, the Hartford Board of Trade, and
is also a director in the City Bank.
From his earliest manhood, Mr. Chapman has been an earnest and valued member of
the Republican party, and, as such, has often been called to serve the party and the state
in places of public trust. His connection with the Republican town committee of Manches
ter extends over nearly a quarter of a century, most of the time serving as chairman. In
1881, he represented Manchester in the lower branch of the legislature, and was appointed
chairman, on the part of that body, of the committee on cities and boroughs. A number
of perplexing questions arose that year, and it was one of the hardest worked committees
of the session. His services were of undoubted value to the state at large, and his beneficial
influence was felt and acknowledged by all his associates in the House. In the fall of 1884,
Mr. Chapman received the unanimous nomination of the Republicans of his district for the
senatorship, and was elected by a gratifying majority.
A member of the Republican state convention which nominated Hon. Henry B. Har
rison for governor, he was an able and influential supporter of the cause of the party in the
campaign which followed. In all the state and national campaigns Mr. Chapman's services
are in constant demand. He is an admirable debater and a clear and forcible speaker, always
presenting his views with great earnestness and in a style to carry conviction to the minds of
the hearers. His business connections have brought him in close touch with a number of the
prominent men of the state in both political parties, and he has the highest respect of them all.
A thorough Republican and a sturdy upholder of Republican principles, Mr. Chapman is in
no sense a bitter partisan, and his manly course has secured for him the esteem of those to
whom he is politically opposed.
Mr. Chapman's first wife died in 1869, leaving one daughter, who is now the wife of
E. S. Ela, editor and publisher of the Manchester Herald. His present wife was Miss Helen
C. Robbins of Manchester. Two daughters were the result of this union. The religious
connections of the family are with the Centre Congregational Church.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 425
OOD, DAVID A., of Hartford, proprietor of the United States Hotel, was born
in Sheffield, Berkshire County, Mass., Sept. 27, 1817. Mariner Rood, who is
the first of the family line of whom definite knowledge can be ascertained, moved
from Simsbury to Canaan, Conn., something over a hundred years ago. His
son David had a son, David, Jr., and the latter married Salome, daughter
of Stephen Partridge of Canaan. In 1815, he moved to Sheffield, Mass., and engaged in
agricultural pursuits. The subject of this sketch was the third of their eight children.
The education of young Rood was a liberal one for the times, being gained at the
excellent public schools of Massachusetts. His first business venture was as proprietor of
a hotel in New Haven. Two years later, he took charge of the Connecticut Hotel, Hartford,
and this he sold in 1849, in order to enter mercantile business in Winsted, Conn., where
he remained until November, 1851. Then he bought out the Eagle Hotel, Hartford, which
he enlarged and changed to the Trumbull House, and continued as proprietor until the
spring of 1865, when he took a lease of the United States Hotel, which was in an adjoining
building. In 1867, he bought out the TrumbuU House, and two years later he connected
them together, since which time the name TrumbuU has been dropped and the whole known
as the United States Hotel. With one or two breaks, of greater or less length, Mr. Rood
has retained the management, and is the oldest hotel proprietor, both in age and years of
service, in the state of Connecticut, now engaged in active business. Besides his connec
tion with the hotel interests named, he was proprietor of Fenwick Hall, Saybrook, for five
years, and of the Manhansett Hotel for one year.
For a number of years he was connected with the National Guard of Connecticut, and
served as lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment for three years. Colonel Rood is a con
sistent Republican in political life, having been identified with that party since the days of
Fremont, in 1856, and has been honored by various offices within its gift. A member of
the Hartford board of police commissioners for ten years, he rendered excellent service to
the city in that capacity. He was treasurer of the Brown School for fourteen years, and has
been a director of the Dime Savings Bank for a still longer period. His religious affiliations
are with the Pearl Street Congregational Church, of which he is a member. In Hartford,
where he has lived for nearly half a century, he is honored and respected, as well for his high
personal character as for his civic virtues.
D. A. Rood has been twice married. First, March 23, 1843, to Maria W., daughter of
Asaph Woodford of Avon, Conn. She died Jan. 23, 1883, leaving two sons and one daughter:
Frank D., chief clerk in the governor's office; Arthur Woodford, clerk at the United States
Hotel, and Emma Louise, who is now Mrs. Henry H. Goodwin of Keney, Roberts & Com
pany. He was married a second time, Sept. 10, 1884, to Abbie P., daughter of Sanford
Carroll of Dedham, Mass., who was a lineal descendant of John Alden of the Plymouth
colony.

426 REPRESENTATIVE MEN

DGERTON, FRANCIS D., M. D., of Middletown, was born at East Hampton,
Conn., August 26, 1838. Dr. Edgerton comes of an excellent Connecticut
famil}', his tastes for the intricacies of medical lore and practice being largely
inherited from his father. Dr. Francis G. Edgerton, the third son of Simeon
and Lucy (Griswold) Edgerton, was born in Norwich, Conn., in 1797, and died
in East Hampton in 1870. He studied medicine with Dr. Philemon Tracy of Norwich Town
and Dr. William P. Eaton of Norwich City, and after attending the regulation course of
lectures in New Haven, he received a license to practice, locating in East Hampton, where
he gained an honorable name for himself. He married Miss Marietta Daniels, by whom he
had one son — the subject of this sketch.
The early education of young Edgerton was obtained in the public and select schools of
his native town. While quite a boy, he evinced a decided taste for the profession which his
father had so successfully followed for so many years, and thenceforward he was given every
opportunity to acquire a thorough knowledge of its principles. The years from thirteen to
fifteen were spent at the preparatory school at Wilbraham, Mass., and from there he went to
East Greenwich, R. I., where, in 1857, he had the honor of delivering the salutatory address
before the graduating class at the anniversary exercises. Entering Wesleyan University, he
graduated in the class of 1861.
Following out his lifelong ambition. Dr. Edgerton at once commenced the study of
medicine under his father's excellent tuition. Subsequently, in 1862, he attended a course of
lectures at the Berkshire Medical College, and, in 1863, took a regular course of medical lectures
at the University of Vermont, from which institution he received his degree of M. D. Soon
after he passed an examination for assistant-surgeon of the Twenty-first Regiment, Connecticut
Volunteers, and received his commission as such, but was prevented by circumstances beyond
his control from entering the service. The years 1863-64 found him at the College of Physi
cians and Surgeons, connected with Columbia College, N. Y., attending a third course of
lectures. He graduated from this institution in 1864, receiving a second diploma. After
passing a competitive examination in April of the same year under the commissioners of
Charities and Corrections, he spent eighteen months in Bellevue Hospital and six months at
the hospitals on Blackwell's Island.
In July, 1866, Dr. Edgerton came to Middletown and commenced the practice of his pro
fession as the successor of Dr. John EUis Blake. He soon commenced to enlarge the list of
his clientage, and U has continued to increase untU the present time. The limit of his
practice is by no means confined to the city in which he lives, but he is often called in con
sultation in different parts of the state.
His medical contemporaries have made known their appreciation of his executive abilities
by electing him to various official positions, and his course while in office clearly showed that
their confidence was not misplaced. From 1873 to 1877, Dr. Edgerton was secretary and
treasurer of the Middlesex County Medical Society, and from 1876 to 1882, he was treasurer
of the Connecticut Medical Society. Commencing with the very date of the organization of
the institution, he has been the attending physician at the State Industrial School. As the
representative of the State Medical Society, he delivered the annual address before the gradu
ating class of the Yale Medical School in 1878, and it was a masterly production.
Dr. Edgerton's reputation in the profession of which he forms an honorable part, as well
as m the community in which he resides, has been gained by careful study and conscientious

fZ^trz

^ f^./^.

CiC'-i't,t,tiS-^,:^'^Cy

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 427
service in relieving suffering humanity. Now in the prime of his later manhood, he has yet
many years before him in which to bless his fellow-men by curing the ills which their flesh
is heir to.
Dr. F. D. Edgerton was married in 1868, to Amelia Dupont, daughter of Henry C. Cruger
of New Orleans, La. Three children have been born to them : Henry Cruger, Francis Cruger,
and John Warren.

AMILTON, DAVID BOUGHTON, of Waterbury, president and manager of
the Rogers & Brothers Company, and of other corporations, was born Oct. 19,
1824, in Danbury, Conn.
He is a descendant of one of the few Scotch families who came to Con
necticut in the seventeenth century. William Hamilton emigrated from Scot
land to this country in 1690, and landed on Cape Cod, going from there to Rhode Island, and
later to Bear Mountain in Danbury. He brought with him a cane inscribed " Wm. Hamilton,
Gentleman," which shows that he was a man of mark for the times in which he lived. Born
in 1644, he died 1746, having by more than two years rounded out a century of life, and one
of his daughters lived to the same good old age. From the original emigrant the line comes
down through (2) Joseph, (3) Silas, (4) Paul, (5) David, who married Deborah Knapp
Boughton. David Hamilton was a volunteer soldier in the war of 1812, and the subject of
this sketch was the youngest son of his six children. The second, third, fourth and fifth
generations of the family were all born in the same old homestead.
The common schools and Danbury Academy supplied all the education young Hamilton
received, with the exception of a special course at a private school in Hartford. Until he was
seventeen he remained on his father's farm, and the next two years were spent teaching school
in Hartford and Wethersfield. For the years 1851 and 1852, he was a clerk in the Hartford
Post Office ; but the real work of his life began when he entered the employ of Rogers &
Brothers, manufacturers of silver-ware in Hartford. Five years were well invested learning
the details of the business. In 1858, the plant was moved to Waterbury, and Mr. Hamilton
went with the concern as both book-keeper and salesman. When the company was incor
porated in 1859 he was chosen secretary, but he still continued to attend to the outside business
as before. April 18, 1861, he was in Philadelphia, and not realizing all that was happening, went on
to Baltimore, on the last train before communications were cut off. After the exciting scenes
of the 19th, Mr. Hamilton pushed on to Washington on the 20th, and there found that com
panies were being formed for the defence of the capital of the nation. He at once enlisted in
a company commanded by Cassius M. Clay, and for two weeks he stood guard, and performed
the other duties of a soldier. In response to Governor Buckingham's call for volunteers, three
regiments had been raised before he got home, and he joined the fourth, which for some reason
was not taken. He finally went into active service in July, 1861, and his command was
placed in the Army of the Northern Potomac under General Banks. Lieutenant Hamilton
was detailed to serve as corps quartermaster. When the army went into winter quarters in
1861, he was made clothing officer for the fifth army corps, and was practically a member of
Gen. Banks's staff. The care of camp equipage was included in his duties. He was the last
officer to leave Strasburg, making his exit with twenty-three wagons about 2 p. m., after
burning all the clothing and camp equipage which he was unable to take with him. His
command getting cut off, he led his train of wagons and one hundred soldiers by a circuitous

428 REPRESENTATIIE MEN
route, and after passing through some rare experiences, he saved every man and all the equip
age. Lieutenant Hamilton was with his regiment at Cedar Mountain, where the regiment was
badly cut up and placed in reserve^ on the march from Culpepper to Washington, being in
the skirmish at Warrenton Springs. They were in line of battle at Chantilly, but were not
actually engaged. Soon after this, on the return of the regiment to Maryland, Lieutenant
Hamilton was promoted to a captaincy. In the spring of 1863, he was honorably discharged.
While Mr. Hamilton was in the service of his country, the business of the Rogers &
Brothers Company was carried on. He was made treasurer of the company in 1865, and four
years later was made president, though he has been manager of the company ever since his
return from the war. They make a specialty of silver-plated flat table ware, and under his
management the output has been increased tenfold.
Mr. Hamilton has found time to devote to other corporations and enterprises besides the
one of which he is the controlling spirit. Since its organization in 1881, he has been presi
dent of the Manufacturer's Bank, and has occupied the same position in the Waterbury
Lumber Company since it was started in 1884. He is president of the Connecticut Steam
Boiler Inspection and Insurance Compaii}- of Waterbury. He holds a directorship in the
Meriden Britannia Company, in the Bridgeport Brass Company, in the William Rogers Company
of Hartford, and the Wilcox & White Organ Company of Meriden, and has been a director in
various other companies. In 1881, he had the honor of being the first Republican to be sent
from the Waterbury district to the state Senate after the war. In the local offices he has gone
almost the entire round, having been councilman, alderman, selectman, water commissioner
for twenty years, school visitor and president of the school board, and wherever he has been
placed he has never disappointed the expectations of those who elected him to office. He is
an excellent representative of the sturdy Connecticut yeomanry, and has gained an honorable
name for himself in the manufacturing world.
D. B. Hamilton was married May i, 1847, to Mary, daughter of Squire Rogers of Hart
ford. She died in 1859, leaving one son. He was married a second time in 1863, to Mary,
daughter of Lewis Birely of Frederick, Md., who was a noted manufacturer of leather. She
died in 1870, leaving a son and a daughter. He was married again in 1871, to Isabel Ely of
Lyme, Conn., by whom he became the father of one son. His oldest son, Charies A.
HamUton, is president of the Rogers & Hamilton Company of Waterbury, and treasurer of
the Bridgeport Brass Company.

NDERS, THOMAS OSTRAM, of West Hartford, ex-president of the ^tna Life
Insurance Company, and of the United States Bank of Hartford, was born in
Glen, N. Y., Sept. 21, 1832. His father, who bore the same name as the son,
was a leading merchant and justice of the peace, and was recognized as one of
the prominent citizens of the place.
The larger part of Mr. Enders's early life was passed in Meriden, where he received a
thorough common school education. The late John G. North, who was a prominent figure in
fire underwriting and afterward in life insurance, was the first person to interest him in the
subject of insurance, and employed him as a solicitor in Eastern Connecticut. At the age
of twenty-two, Mr. Enders came to Hartford, and continued to reside in that city and West
Hartford untU his death. For a brief period he was a clerk in the dry goods store of Mr.
Joseph Langdon. Entering the employ of the .^tna Life Insurance Company as clerk, he
was from the outset an invaluable cooperator with Pres. E. A. Bulkeley. By close application

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 429
he gained a comprehensive knowledge of the intricate details of life insurance, and four years
later, then in his twenty-fourth year, he was elected secretary of the company. Upon the
death of Hon. EUphalet Bulkeley, in 1872, he was chosen president, and the advancement
was but a step along the line of legitimate promotion. He held this position until he was
succeeded, in 1879, by ex-Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley, son of the former president. It was
during the period covered by Mr. Enders's management that the ^tna made such rapid strides
as to become one of the largest and strongest life companies in the United States. He was a
prudent and sagacious manager, and the true principles of safe life underwriting seemed to
be born in him. A conservative investor and exceptionally well-skilled in the manageinent
of finances, he early foresaw the development of the life underwriting business in this country,
and used every opportunity to advance his company's interests by enlarging its field of opera
tions and strengthening its resources.
In " Hartford in 1889," a volume published by the Board of Trade, occurs the following
paragraph regarding one feature of the Etna's success :
Success far transcending the dreams of the founders, and on the whole perhaps unequaled in the records
of life insurance, either in Europe or America, is easily explained in the light of the facts. One of the postu
lates of the business demands that investments shall yield an annual income of four per cent., the excess being
available either for immediate distribution among the insured, or for building up a fund held in reserve to
meet claims maturing many years hence, when the rate of interest on approved security will certainly fall
below that figure. The /Etna Life was a pioneer in loaning to western farmers, having entered the field under
highly favorable conditions. At the time when its treasury began to be distended by the volume of inflowing
premiums, the Illinois Central railway had a large number of outstanding contracts with settlers on their lands,
agreeing to convey titles on payment of the purchase money. Both sides desired the completion of the contracts.
At this juncture, the ^tua Life came forward and furnished the needful funds, taking mortgages on the farms
as security. All the early loans bore interest at ten per cent. The arrangement proved highly advantageous to
both lender and borrower. The fertility of the soil attracted heavy immigration, with consequent enhancement
in the value of the properties. While the company had abundant reason to be satisfied, thousands of farmers
rose from poverty to wealth by the aid thus afforded them. As the region grew rich, and the loans were paid
off, the company pushed westward into Iowa, repeating the process on the same terms. Employing only trained
and faithful agents, it seldom met with defaults, and when compelled to foreclose generally succeeded, by
patience, in drawing a profit from the transaction. The perils of growing competition were met by increase of
carefulness, one of the rules being to loan, in no case, in excess of the value assessed for taxation.
For two years after his retirement from the presidency of the ^tna Life Insurance Com
pany, Mr. Enders sought relief from the arduous business cares of the quarter of a century
previous. But a man of his recognized financial and executive ability could not be permitted
to remain idle. In 1881, he was elected president of the United States Trust Company, which
later became the United States Bank, succeeding ex-Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley in the control
of its affairs. In his management of the bank he displayed the same efficiency in direction
and capacity for handling large mercantile problems which characterized his methods while at
the head of the life company; The bank, which had always been a remarkably successful
institution, soon advanced to the front rank of Hartford's financial corporations, and has
occupied an enviable prominence among the banks of the state. Feeling the need of rest and
total abstinence from business cares, Mr. Enders retired from the presidency of the bank in
1892, and was succeeded by Henry L- Bunce. After that date he devoted himself to the care
of his large private interests, having in the period of his nearly two score years of business
activity accumulated a handsome competency.
Mr. Enders retained a directorship in the ^tna Life Insurance Company, and held similar
official relations with the ^tna Insurance Company, the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and
Insurance Company, the Society for Savings, the Dime Savings Bank, the Charter Oak
National Bank and the United States Bank. He was interested financially in various com
panies where the management lay in other hands. In political affairs Mr. Enders was an.
55

430 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
energetic Republican, and his influential work was appreciated both by members of his own
party and those of the opposition. In 1889, and again in 1891, he represented the town of
West Hartford in the lower branch of the state legislature, serving the first year as chairman
of the committee on appropriations, and in the latter year as chairman of the committee on
banks. For both of these positions he was well fitted by previous training, and he made a good
record as a capable legislator. Mr. Enders was a regular attendant at St. John's Church, and
was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was a man of most exemplary personal character,
and he was in the fullest degree a representative of the best financial and business integrity,
not only of Hartford, but of the whole state of Connecticut.
Mr. Enders married Harriet, daughter of Dennis Burnham, Esq., of Hartford. She sur
vives him with two sons. Dr. Thomas O. Enders of New York, and John O. Enders, discount
clerk at the United States Bank. A son and a daughter have died. After suffering for nearly
two years from spinal sclerosis, he passed away on the night of June 21, 1894. His funeral
was one of the largest held for some years. The officers and clerks of the .^tiia Insurance Com
pany and of the United States Bank were present in a body, and the floral tributes were
numerous and handsome.

CHENEY, BENJAMIN HICKS, M. D., of New Haven, was born in Vicksburg,
Miss., Oct. 10, 1838. Dr. Cheney's childhood and youth was passed in New
York City, where he received his primary education in the public schools and
later attended the free academy, now the College of the City of New York.
Afterwards he entered Wesleyan University and completed his studies at Amherst
College. Medical practice being attractive to his tastes, he commenced the study of its princi
ples in 1857, and attended lectures at the CoUege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.
Having decided to make his residence in the South, he went to New Orleans and entered the
University of Louisiana, from which he graduated in March, 1861. The startling scenes of
the opening of the War of the Rebellion were just commencing, and though of Southern
birth. Dr. Cheney was Northern in his spirit, and he at once came to the North and offered
his services to the United States Government. His first appointment was that of acting
assistant-surgeon of the United States army, being stationed at Camp Chase, near Columbus,
Ohio. He was soon after commissioned assistant-surgeon of the Forty- first Ohio Regiment.
and later still was appointed assistant staff surgeon on the staff of Maj. -Gen. John Crittenden
commanding the Twenty-first Army Corps. After the battle of Chickamauga, he was transferred
to the staff of the Fourth Army Corps as medical purveyor and assistant to the medical director
of the corps. He was in active service in all the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland
up to the capture of Atlanta. At this point, for family reasons, he tendered his resignation.
Returning again to the service in 1864, he was appointed one of the examining surgeons in
the provost-marshal's bureau for the sixth district of Illinois, with headquarters at Joliet.
Wherever Dr. Cheney was placed during his term of service, in the field, in the hospital or
as an examining surgeon, he rendered most valuable assistance to his superior officers and
contributed his full quota to bringing about the final victory of the Union arms.
After the close of the war Dr. Cheney remained in Joliet till 1870, when seeking a wider
opportunity for the practice of his chosen profession, he removed to Chicago. As far back as
1866, he had become interested in the principles of homeopathy and read numerous works on
the subject. He also experimented with homeopathic remedies, and the result of his investi-

Massachusetts MlisliiiiS CD. heiEtl. Mass

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 431
gations convinced him of the truth of the new doctrine, and induced him to adopt it as the
guide of his future practice. In Chicago he formed a partnership with Dr. G. D. Beebe, one
of the leaders of the homeopathic faith in that section, and this connection lasted tiU 1871,
when the great fire destroyed both his home and practice, compelling him to seek a new field
of labor elsewhere. Finding an opening in New Haven, he removed to Elm City, where he
has since remained.
In the city of his adoption. Dr. Cheney has been honored by his fellow-citizens, and the
official stations he has filled show that his professional ability is appreciated. For eight years
he was a member of the Examining Board of Pension Surgeons, and for six years he served
as one of the city Board of Health. He has naturally taken much interest in the societies
pertaining to his branch of medical science, and is a member of the city and state Homeo
pathic Medical Societies, having been president of both. His army experience entitled him
to join, and he has become a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the military
order of the Loyal Legion.
In 1870, Dr. Cheney was elected a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and
the following year he became associate editor of the " Medical Investigator," a position which
gave him an excellent opportunity for the display of his literary talents. Dr. Cheney has not
only contributed to the advancement of medical science by example and practice, but also by
numerous short articles in scientific journals has he aided in upholding the noble cause of
homeopathy. Realizing that even now the principles discovered by Hahnneman are greatly
misunderstood, he has done valiant battle for the cause he has espoused.
He is descended from William Cheney who was born in Essex County, England, in the
year 1604, and settled in Roxbury, 1635. This pioneer died in 1667, leaving a family behind
him whose names are closely connected with the early histories of Roxbury and Cambridge.
Dr. Cheney's father, the Rev. Laban Clark Cheney, was the third son of John B. Cheney, the
sixth in the direct line of eldest sons, beginning with William the pioneer.
May 10, 1863, Dr. Cheney was married to Sarah, daughter of Algemon Sidney and Salome
Glidden Austin. Mr. Austin was a leading ship builder of Newcastle, Me., and -was an ex-
member of the Maine legislature. The Austin and Glidden families figure in the early settle
ment of Massachusetts and Maine. They now have four children, three sons and one daughter.
Benjamin Austin is instructor in obstetrics and gynsecology at Yale College ; Arthur Sanford
took the thesis prize at Yale Medical School, and is now assistant-surgeon in the Stefane Hos
pital at^Reichenberg, Austria; Harold C. is preparing for college, and Alice J. is still under
the paternal roof.

|ALL, JOHN MANNING, of WUlimantic, vice-president of the New York, New
Haven & Hartford Railroad Company and ex-judge of the Superior Court, was
born in the city where he resides, Oct. 16, 1841.
The great mass of the English Halls undoubtedly are the posterity of the
men of Halle who came in the successive Saxon invasions of England. They
were called De la Halle, which became a surname and is now simply Hall. It is said that
the Halls of Great Britain exceed in number any other name except those of Smith, Jones,
Brown and Robinson. The branch of the family to which Judge Hall belongs traces its
genealogical line to George Hall, who came from England when a young lad of nine years old
and settled at Quidnic, R. I., where he was judge of the general court for twenty years.
His son, Dixon Hall, removed to Sterling, Conn., where he held many offices of trust and'

432 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
honor in the town and county. Horace Hall, son of Dixon, was a man of much prominence
in his day, being selectman for thirteen years and justice of the peace for twice that time,
was representative to the legislature several times, and was superintendent of the New England
Cotton Manufacturing Company for nearly a score of years. He married Elizabeth, daughter
of John Manning of Albany, by whom he had three children, and of these only John M., the
youngest, is now living.
After obtaining all that the public schools of WUlimantic could give in the way of educa
tion, he took a year at Dr. Fitch's then famous school at South Windham, and after that for
two or three years devoted himself to mercantile life in his father's business in WUlimantic.
It was while watching the numerous trials held before his father as justice of the peace that
young Hall acquired a taste for the law, and one day suggested to his father that he would
like to become a lawyer. Receiving encouragement and the promise of such assistance as he
could give, in less than a month thereafter young Hall was enrolled as a student at Williston
Seminary, P^asthampton, Mass. Here, by hard work, he crowded the three years' course into
two, graduating among the first in his class, and entered Yale in the fall of 1862. At Yale he
won distinction as a writer and speaker, capturing many literary honors in debate and com
position. He received the Townsend prize, competed for the DeForest Medal, was president
of the Linonia Society, and elected a member of the famous "Skull and Bones " society. After
graduation at Yale, in 1866, he entered Columbia Law School, graduating in 1868, and also
studied in the office of Mr. Robert Benner, and was admitted to the New York City bar.
Returning to Willimantic, Mr. Hall began the practice of law in that city. His list of
clients soon began to grow in numbers, and in a few years extended into Windham, Tolland
and New London counties, and to such an extent that in the first-named county, during the last
years of his practice, it was the exception when he was not found on one side or the other
of any case in which large issues were involved. One of the most important cases in which
he was engaged was that of the Willimantic Trust Company, about $40,000 being involved.
The company had been petitioned into insolvency and receivers appointed, when it was dis
covered that certain of the stockholders had sold their stock to the company and pocketed the
proceeds just previous to the financial crash. Claim was made that this action was illegal,
and that the money so obtained should be refunded and placed among the assets of the com
pany. Judge Hall appeared for the receivers, and there was a brilliant array of counsel for
the other side. The case was bitterly fought and was finally carried to the Supreme Court,
where a decision was rendered in his favor. This decision established a precedent for all
similar cases, and the able way in which it was handled was a notable triumph of legal skill.
When appointed a judge of the Superior Court, in 1889, he was recognized by his associates as
the leader of the bar in Windham County, who complimented him upon hjs election by a
memorable banquet at the Hooker House, which was attended by the entire bar of the county.
Judge Hall has had an honorable legislative experience. In 1870, when he was barely
twenty-nine years old, he was sent to the General Assembly as the representative of Willi
mantic, and was reelected the two foUowing years. For the year named he was chairman of
one and a member of several of the minor committees. During the second year the question
arose about the election of governor, fraud being claimed in New Haven and other places.
Judge Hall made some vigorous speeches from the floor of the House, and was appointed a
member of the committee of investigation, making everywhere a favorable impression. He
was also a member of the judiciary committee, and during the session was made chairman.
He was chairman of the railroad committee, and a member of other committees for the
session of 1872. His fellow-citizens called upon him again, in 1881, to represent their inter
ests at the state capital, where he served as a member of the judiciary committee and as

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 433
chairman of the committee on senatorial districts, and, in 1882, he was chosen to the speaker's
chair by a handsome vote. He fiUed this position with urbanity, and gained the respect of
his political opponents by the fairness of his decisions. In 1889, Judge HaU was chosen
senator from the Seventeenth District, and was appointed chairman of the judiciary com
mittee, and was elected president pro tem. of the Senate. While the session was in progress,
he was appointed judge of the Superior Court, and after a trip to Europe, he returned to his
home in Willimantic. His course refiected honor upon the position he occupied and proved
conclusively that the appointment was most fitly made.
At the annual meeting of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, in
October, 1&93, Judge Hall was elected vice-president of the road. The company had need
of the legal services of a man of his capacity and experience, and the events which have
elapsed since show clearly that the selection was wise. The appointment was hailed by the
press, in the state and out of it, with most fiattering comments. An editorial in the New
Haven Leader read as follows :
The selection of Judge John M. Hall of Willimantic, as the successor of Lucius Tuttle, who resigned the vice-
presidency of the Consolidated road recently, is a most admirable one. Judge Hall is a genial, cultured and
talented gentleman. He is not a practical railroad man, but the position he is to occupy is that of a corporate,
legal adviser, which will bring with it large responsibilities and a need for legal knowledge and wise business"
discretion, which have always been Judge Hall's strongest characteristics. As a lawyer, Judge Hall had a very
large and important practice. He was very successful in all the great cases in which he appeared before the
higher courts. As a judge, he has been universally liked, and his conduct of cases has won very sincere appro
bation from his associates on the bench, and from members of the bar. There is great regret among all the lawyers
of the state that so good a judge is to retire. Judge Hall will fill his new position to the entire satisfaction
of the directors and stockholders of the Consolidated road, and also to the public. He has ornamented every
position that he has ever held, and he has gained steadily in public estimation from the time he first appeared
before the people until the present day. His character is without a blemish ;- his reputation is untarnished ;
his ability is great ; his popularity extensive. Born in Connecticut, reared in Connecticut, and having spent
his life in Connecticut — climbing from the bottom of the ladder to the highest round thereof — there is every
reason why the whole people of Connecticut should wish Judge Hall Godspeed and rejoice at his prosperity,
and in the fact that the great Consolidated railroad is to have among its active managers a gentleman so well,
widely and favorably known.
The opinion of the Hartford Courant was along the same lines :
The directors of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad on Saturday elected to the place of first
vice-president, Judge John M. Hall of Willimantic, as Lucius Tuttle's successor. This was a surprise to the
public, who had expected to see some practical railroad man, as near as might be like Mr. Tuttle, chosen to
the place. Instead, the directors have taken a lawyer, and, while they are about it, a good one. Judge Hall is
in the prime of life, — not too old to learn what he needs to know of practical railroading, and old enough so
that he brings to his position mature judgment and a large experience of men and affairs. He is an accom
plished gentleman, aud an able and brilliant lawyer. His keen and active mind will be of constant value in the
management of this now immense corporation, and the company is stronger for securing his services. And
Judge Hall himself steps into a handsome salary and a place of large power and usefulness.
In Willimantic Judge Hall has held about all the offices in the gift of the people. He
was for several years acting school visitor, and was the first to write a report favoring the
consolidation of the school districts. He early advocated the establishment of the high
-school, and was chairman of the first high school committee appointed. In 1872, he advo
cated a more modern charter for the borough and was the committee to draft the same, and
the charter has remained until the charter of the new city, which was adopted in 1893,
and in the drafting of which he had a prominent part. At an early day, he advocated a
liberal system of public improvements, which resulted in better streets, sidewalks, curbing
and street lines, and finally the excellent system of sewers, of which committee he was
chairman during its existence.
He has been a member of the State Bar Association since its organization, and for a
number of years he was one of the executive committee of that organization. Casting his

434 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
first vote for Abraham Lincoln, Judge Hall has ever been one of the most active of Republi
cans. The principles of the party have at all times been given the cordial support of his
voice and pen, and in the use of both his opponents will bear witness that he is most effec
tive. Having worn the judicial ermine for five years, with an honorable career behind him,
and now the occupant of a most responsible office, Judge Hall has but just entered on the
second half century of existence, and the future has doubtless yet higher honors in store
for his acceptance.
Judge John M. Hall was married Sept. 27, 1871, to Julia White, daughter of Silas F.
Loonier, president of the Willimantic Savings Institute. Three children have been born to
them, all of whom are now living. John L-, the oldest, graduated at Yale in the class
of 1894. In 1893, he took the "Ten Eyck" prize, and was elected to the "Skull
and Bones " Society, and in his senior year was elected class orator, won a Townsend
oration and then took the DeForest gold medal, the highest Yale honor. This is a record
never excelled, if ever equalled. He will now enter the Yale Law School.

^^IBBITS, JOHN ARNOLD, of New London, ex-coUector of the port and ex-
""^l consul to Bradford, England, was born in the city where he died, in February,
WL 1844. His death occurred July 22, 1893.
^^^ Eariy in life, says the New London Telegram, he manifested the quali
ties that made his brilliant career in so many different walks a matter of
easy prophecy. His school days were a record of creditable achievement in the district and
Bartlett High schools. East Hampton, and later at Williams College, where, though his stay
was but half the usual course, his abilities attracted the attention of the faculty, and enlisted
their good will and encouragement in the endeavor to win honors which were in easy reach
to one so gifted by nature. His schoolboy compositions were noticeably easy and graceful in
style, and gave evidence of reasoning faculties and a fund of information that were remark
able for his years. He was, in fact, a natural writer, and in that direction his journalistic
associates at least have always thought lay the road to his highest possibilities of usefulness
and fame. Like many other young men who were entering upon the serious business of
life at the outbreak of the war, service to his country had the first claim, and though he
had begun with Judge George Goddard the study of law, his chosen profession, it was inter
rupted for several years while he was at the front.
His military record was one to be proud of, and his comrades in the fighting Fourteenth
were always his cherished friends in after life. Major Tibbits's army career began with
his enlistment in the Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteers, which left the state Aug. 28, 1862,
and was in action for the first time September 17, at Antietam. While climbing over a
stone wall during the engagement. Sergeant Tibbetts, waving his sword in his right
hand, was a mark for a sharpshooter and a minie ball came whizzing through the air,
striking the palm of his right hand and coursing up his arm to a point above his wrist,
where it came out. Nothing daunted by his wound, he changed the sword to his left hand
and was almost immediately struck by another ball, which entered his left arm above the
wrist and came out through the palm of his hand. These wounds placed him hors du
combat. As soon after the engagement as possible, he was sent home and for a long time
remained there until his wounds had healed, and he was ready again to take up arms in
defence of the country and his principles.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 435
He was promoted to the second lieutenantcy of Company F, of the Fourteenth, and in
that capacity participated in the battle of Gettysburg, where the Fourteenth bore a distin
guished part, and a full share of the glory of the day and the regiment was won by Lieuten
ant Tibbits. Subsequently he was appointed captain and commissary of subsistence, and
assigned to Custer's division under Sheridan, serving in the Shenandoah VaUey. He was
conspicuous for attention to duty and gallantry in action in this capacity as in the line, until
the close of the war, and his term of service ended only with the end of the war after the
terrible campaign of the WUderness. He was brevetted major, a promotion he had earned,
and his comrades, in whatever branch of the service they had shared, sum up his qualifica
tions and mUitary career by saying he was a good soldier.
Mr. Tibbits's journalistic career was a long and brilliant one. Immediately after his
return from the war, he purchased an interest in The Star, then published by David S.
Ruddock, and continued as editor of the paper until 1872, when The Star was absorbed by
a new company composed of Courtiand I. Shepard, John A. Tibbits and John C. Turner.
This company began the publication of The Telegram, and Mr. Tibbits assumed editorial
control until 1881, when he formed a new company to issue The Day. Into The Day he
threw his whole ambition, and the paper gained a widespread reputation in a remarkably
short period of time. He continued as its editor up to the time of his accepting the post
of consul to Bradford, England. As a newspaper man, Mr. Tibbits had the versatility of
genius. Some of his reportorial work never was excelled. His report for The Day of the
famous Malley trial at New Haven, filling nearly a page daily, was a masterpiece of journalistic
work. Mr. Tibbits's writing was as legible as fine copper-plate. His copy scarcely ever
showed an alteration or interlineation. The last newspaper work he did was for The Day,
and consisted of letters from Bradford, describing phases of English life as it came under
his observation. Although he had ceased to have a financial interest in the paper, he con
tinued to exhibit a lively concern in its growth and success.
About 1866, Major Tibbits began the study of the law with Hon. Augustus Brandegee,
and almost simultaneously entered the political field, making speeches in the campaigns and
doing yeoman service up to and including the last political campaign. His political life was
eminently characteristic of the man. He was an ardent partisan, believing in the princi
ples and destiny of his party with a faith that never wavered and admitted of no compro
mise in thought, word or deed. But though he entered the lists at every political tourney,
and fought with a zeal and energy unsurpassed, even his bitterest party opponents were free
to say that he was an honest politician, a distinction that is all the more honorable for its
rarity. He was an accomplished speaker, ready, graceful and forcible, and possessed the gift
of rousing his audiences to enthusiasm. In this state he had spoken in every town and
hamlet, beginning indeed with a patriotic address in the early days of the war, at the meet
ing-house at Quaker HiU, and the Republican central committee recognized his ability in
the last four presidential campaigns by sending him into other states where the need of
speakers of ability called for their best. In 1884, he made the campaign of Indiana with
James G. Blaine, and received many compliments from that gentleman on his abUity, which
were well merited.
He habitually overworked himself in every campaign, and as regularly took to his bed
when the battle was over and the excitement ended, with his nervous system for the time
shattered. He never learned to spare himself, and to this more than any other cause is due his
untimely death. His political word was never broken : it was as good as his bond, and so
accepted by political friend and foe alike. Had he spent as much time and energy on his

436 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
own account, harvesting political rewards, as he gave to the service of his friends, he would
have reached the highest places of honor and profit long ago. When he put his hand to
the plough in behalf of his friends, he never looked back.
There has been no movement of importance to the city of New London in the past thirty
years in which Major Tibbits did not have a hand, and he was wise in counsel and active
in work for the city's good. He bore his share of municipal service, having been judge of
the police court, a meinber of the board of education, city attorney, and twice he has
represented the town in the General Assembly, the last time in the session of 1885, his
town and himself having been honored by his election to the speaker's chair, in which
place he won the praise of the press of the state without distinction of party, for his able
and impartial management of the affairs of the House.
Major Tibbits's first federal office was the gift of General Grant's administration, an
appointment as Pacific railroad director on behalf of the United States government. This
was early in the seventies, and, in 1877, President Hayes appointed him collector of the port
of New London. At the expiration of his term he was reappointed by President Arthur.
His administration of the trust was business-like and acceptable to all who had any con
nection with the office.
The last office filled by Major Tibbits was United States consul at Bradford, England,
a post he vacated just before his death. This appointment to such an important consulate
was a source of much pride and gratification to his friends, who had felt that the party
had never before adequately recognized the long and valuable services of Major Tibbits.
A brilliant career was predicted for him in England, which was but partially realized owing to
his ill health which continued during his entire stay abroad. In Bradford the public appear
ances of Major Tibbits stamped him in the English mind as an accomplished speaker, and
his administration of the consular office was exceptionally good and satisfactory to the
Bradford merchants. They took pleasure in testifying to their esteem for the American
consul by paying unusual honors when the time came for his departure for home, and his
family have souvenirs of their residence in Bradford that show the affection and regard of
their English friends.
In the discharge of any public duty Major Tibbits was particularly conscientious, mak
ing it a point to be prompt and thorough and to leave nothing open for criticism, a quality
that was well known and appreciated by his superiors and the public. It is rather a
singular commentary on politics that as prominent a factor as was Major Tibbits in all the
political moves in Connecticut, yet- he was never a candidate on the state ticket. In 1886,
however, he was brought forward as a candidate for governor on the Republican ticket, but
coming late into the field, already occupied by two candidates of unusual strength, he had
but one chance, in the possible division of the convention so evenly that neither of the
prominent candidates could hope to win, in which case the prize would have gone to the
major without dispute and he would have been elected by the people beyond a doubt, as
he had the numerous assurances of support from the younger element of the Democratic
party that would have materialized on election day and made him the choice of the people.
Some of his warmest friends and admirers were in the Democratic party in various
portions of the state, and they would have been glad of an opportunity to show their
appreciation of the man- and his abilities by promoting him to the highest office in the
state. It was a pleasant episode in Major Tibbits's Ufe, though he faUed in his ambition,
for he received so many assurances of good will that he never had reason to doubt ever
after the personal esteem of his friends. It is as a politician that his name is best known,
and his family and friends have the pleasant memory that it is unconnected with any
questionable political act.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 437
The several occupations of Major Tibbits's busy life at times divorced him from the
law, a mistress that will tolerate no divided allegiance. He had neither the time nor the
inclination to pursue its study and practice with that absorbing interest and industry that
are alone crowned with success. Yet he was a brilliant advocate and his counsel was
valued by his brothers in the law with whom he was from time to time associated. Soon
after he was admitted to practice he formed a law partnership with ex-Governor Waller,
his life long friend, which was mutually satisfactory and closed only on account of other
duties absorbing the major's time. When ex-Governor Waller's turn came to leave the
practice of the law to serve the government abroad as consul general at London, he in
stinctively turned to Major Tibbits to fill his place in his law firm, which became ' Waller,
Tibbits & Waller and continued in successful practice untU the major left for his own post
in Bradford. As a lawyer Major Tibbits took for his chief model Hon. Augustus Brandegee,
with whom he began the study of the law with serious purpose after the war, and his
ambition was to resemble that gentleman as an advocate before juries.
In any of the several occupations that Major Tibbits has pursued since his young man
hood, he could have won the blue ribbon had he devoted himself exclusively to a single
one, but it was not in his nature to plod along in any one path, and he followed his bent
achieving success as everyone knows, and fulfilling his duty to the world in his own way
and with an honest purpose. To those who were favored with close relations to him the
memory of his life is precious. He was a good friend and a delightful companion and
incapable of jealousy or animosity. He was singularly forgiving, and no matter how bitter
a controversy he might be engaged in, he emerged with no scars of the conflict nor any
scores to pay. No man loved his native place with a warmer, stronger love. New London
was to him the center of the universe, no other place compared with it and no advantage
in life could have compensated him for a long absence from its familiar scenes and friends.
John A. Tibbits was married February 19, 1873, to Lydia, daughter of John Dennis.
She survives him with one son named after his maternal grandfather.

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE, of Hartford, author, perhaps better known
by his nom de plume, " Mark Twain," was born in Florida, Monroe County,
Mo., Nov. 30, 1835.
Receiving a limited education in the village school at Hannibal, Mo., he
was apprenticed to a printer at the age of thirteen and worked at his trade in
St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New York. In 185 1, Mr. Clemens became a pilot on
Mississippi river steamboats, and ten years later he went to Nevada as private secretary to
his brother who had been appointed secretary of the territory. Afterward he undertook
mining in Nevada, and became, in 1862, city editor of the Virginia City Enterprise. In
reporting legislative proceedings from Carson, he signed his letters "Mark Twain," a name
suggested by the technical phraseology of Mississippi navigation where, in sounding a depth
of two fathoms, the leadsman called out " mark twain." He went to San Francisco in 1865,
and was for five months a reporter on the Morning Call, then tried gold mining in the placers
of Calaveras County, and having no success he returned to San Francisco and resumed news
paper work. In 1866, he spent six months in the Hawaiian Islands.
After his return, says "Appleton's Cyclopedia," he delivered humorous lectures in
California and Nevada, and then returned East and published " The Jumping Frog and other
Sketches." The same year he went with a party of tourists to the Mediterranean, Egypt and
56

438 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Palestine, and on his return published an amusing journal of the excursion entitled " Innocents
Abroad," of which twenty-five thousand copies were sold in three years. He next edited the
Buffalo Express. After his marriage he settled in Hartford, and still makes his home in
that city.
Mr. Clemens delivered witty lectures in various cities, contributed sketches to the
" Galaxy " and other magazines, and in 1872 he went to England on a lecturing trip. WhUe
he was there, a London publisher issued an unauthorized collection of his writings in four
volumes, in which were included papers he never wrote. The same year appeared in Hartford
"Roughing It," containing sketches of Nevada, Utah, California and the Sandwich Islands,
and in 1873, in conjunction with Charles Dudley Warner, a story entitied " The GUded Age,"
which was dramatized and produced in New York in 1874. This comedy, with John T.
Raymond in the leading part, Col. Mulberry Sellers, had an extraordinary success. He subse
quentiy published " Sketches, Old and New," " Adventures of Tom Sawyer," a story of boy
life in Missouri (1876), "Punch, Brothers, Punch" (1878), "A Tramp Abroad" (1880),
"The Stolen White Elephant," and "The Prince and the Pauper" (1882), and "Life on
the Mississippi " (1883).
In 1884, Mr. Clemens estabhshed in New York the publishing house of C. L- Webster
& Co., which issued, in 1885, a new story, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," a sequel to
" Tom Sawyer," and in that and the following year brought out General Grant's " Memoirs."
The share in the profits accruing to Mrs. Grant from this publication, under a contract signed
with Gen. Grant before his death, amounted in October, 1886, to $350,000, which was paid
to her in two checks, of $200,000 and $150,000. Mr. Clemens's works have been republished
in England, and translations of the principal ones in Germany. The later experiences of
C. L. Webster & Co. were not as successful as their early operations. Under the title of
" Puddin' Head Wilson," he is now (July, 1894), issuing a serial which is attracting much
attention. In an article by George F. Ferris, in " Appleton's Journal," occurs the following estimate
of "Mark Twain: "
Of humor in its highest phase, perhaps Bret Harte may be considered the most puissant master among
our contemporary American writers. Of wit, we see next to none. Mark Twain, while lacking the subtility and
pathos of the other, has more breadth, variety and ease. His sketches of life are arabesque in their strange
combinations. Bits of bright, serious description, both of landscape and society, carry us along until suddenly
we come upon some master stroke of grotesque irresistible form. He understands the value of repose in art.
One tires of a page where every sentence sparkles with points, and the author is constantly a,ttitudinizing for
our amusement. We like to be betrayed into laughter, as much in books as in real life. It is the unconscious,
easy, careless gait of Mark Twain that gives his humor the most potent charm. He seems always to be catering
as much to his own enjoyment as that of the public. He strolls along like a great, rollicking schoolboy, bent on
having a good time, and determined that his readers shall enjoy it with him.
Mark Twain's early literary training was that of a writer for newspapers, where news was scarce and hard
to get, and the public demanded their intellectual fare dressed in the hottest, strongest condiments. Is it not
natural that we should see distinct and powerful traces of this method in all his later work ? In spite of this fault,
our writer is so thoroughly genial, so charged with rich and unctious humor, that we forget the lack oi finesse and
delicacy in its breadth and strength. Its tap root takes no deep hold in the sub-soil, and we may not always find
a subtile and penetrating fragrance in its blooms. But these are so lavish, bright and variegated, that we should
be ungrateful indeed not to appreciate our author's striking gifts at their full worth. " Innocents Abroad " and
" Roughing It " are the most thoroughly enjoyable examples of Mark Twain's humor. While they are not to be
altogether admired as intellectual workmanship, the current of the humor is so fresh, so full of rollicking,
grotesque fun, that it is more than easy to overlook faults, both in style and method.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 439
?INES, H. WALES, of Meriden, president and treasurer of the H. Wales Lines
Company and of the Meriden Lumber Company, was born in Naugatuck, Conn.,
June 3, 1838.
Mr. Lines possesses an extra share of Revolutionary blood in his veins,
as he is a "Son of the Revolution" by three direct branches of the family
tree. He is a great-grandson of Enos Bunnell, who was a private soldier in the Ninth
Company of the First Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Colonel David Wooster, in 1775.
He occupies a similar relationship to Elisha Stevens, a private soldier in Captain Clarke's
company of artificers, who were in the service of their country for five years. The third
great-grandfather was Walter Booth, a private soldier in the Third Company of the Fifth
Battalion, commanded by Colonel WiUiam Douglas. Calvin Lines and his wife, nee SaUie
Booth, were old residents of Bethany, Conn. His son, Henry W. Lines, married Harriet
Bunnell, and settled in Naugatuck. H. Wales was one of the children by this union.
After graduating at Naugatuck High School, young Lines decided to learn the trade of
a mason, and carried out this idea by going to work for a new concern. The practical lessons
gained in these early days have been invaluable to him in his subsequent career. In 1862, he
removed to Middletown and still continued to work at his trade. Two years later, Mr. Lines
formed a copartnership, under the firm name of Perkins & Lines, for the purpose of dealing
in building materials, and also to act as general contractors for all kinds of mason work. Mr.
Perkins retired in 1878, and the firm of H. Wales Lines & Co. was formed, the partners being
Mr. Lines and Mr. H. E. Fairchild. Ten years later another change occurred, the business
being converted into a joint stock company under the title of the H. Wales Lines Company.
The present officials are H. Wales Lines, president and treasurer ; Henry E. Fairchild, vice-
president ; L. A. Miller, secretary. These gentlemen, with F. L- Hammond, form the board
of directors. The company commenced with ample capital to carry on an extensive business,
and their success has been phenomenal, taking in several of the New England states. Nine-
tenths of the factories of Meriden were erected by them, the list including the plants of the
Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, the Meriden Britannia Company, and Edward
MiUer & Company. Their handiwork may be found among the churches, school-houses,
business blocks and fine residences of the city in great profusion.
Another vigorous organization of which Mr. Lines is the president is the Meriden Machine
Tool Company, which commenced operations in 1890. They make a specialty of tools for
the manufacture of silverware, and after building up a successful business in Meriden, they
have extended their operations to distant states. He has been president of the New England
Brown Stone Company since 1891, and is a director in the Middletown Bronze Company and
the C. F. Munroe Company. The Meriden Lumber Company is one of the oldest and most
prominent of the establishments in that branch of trade. The business was started by Con
verse & Clark, in 1867, and an evidence of their enterprise is shown in the fact that they were
the first concern to ship lumber by car direct from the West. In March, 1890, the present
company was organized, and they have added greatly to the volume of business transacted by
their predecessors. Its official board consists of H. Wales Lines, president ; F. G. Platt,
treasurer, and F. Boardman, secretary. Financial institutions have sought the advantage to
be gained from his long experience and superior judgment. He is a trustee of the Meriden
Savings Bank, and a meinber of DeBussy, Manwaring & Company of New Haven and
Springfield. It was but natural that his fellow-citizens should desire to have him serve them in an
official capacity. In 1872, Mr. Lines was elected to the lower branch of the state legislature,
and for the years 1878-79, he was a member of the Senate. While in the Senate, he

440 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
served as chairman of the committee on cities and boroughs, and also of the committee on
contested elections, doing faithful and satisfactory work in each instance. ' Such is his popu
larity in Middletown that he was placed in the mayor's chair for three consecutive years,
his term of office covering 1877-78-79. He was elected as a Republican, being the first
mayor chosen under strict party alignments. The Council was a tie the first year, but it
contained a good Republican majority the two last years. During Mr. Lines 's administra
tion, a complete revision of the city charter was made, and also a thorough reformation in
regard to the running of the city by departments, and the system of keeping accounts
introduced by him has been continued by the city officials ever since. It was the first year
the city had ever been managed within its income, and at the same time the debt was
slightly reduced. For his last year, he received two- thirds of all the votes cast, and was
unanimously nominated for a fourth term, but he positively declined to accept the office
longer. His administration of the office was one of the most successful in the line of excel
lent mayors which Middletown has possessed. In 1888, Mr. Lines was the Republican
candidate for Congress from his district, but it was not a good year for candidates of that
party. He was beaten by between seven and eight hundred votes, while Grover Cleveland
received a majority of about twenty-five hundred, and the Democratic nominee for governor
had thirty- two hundred.
In all that pertains to the welfare of his adopted city, Mr. Lines has always taken a
zealous interest. Every plan for advancing the material development of the city finds in him
a ready helper, and to many of the important improvements of the past he has contributed
valuable assistance. The influence of the work he accomplished while in the mayor's chair
is still felt at the city hall, and he unconsciously set a standard which later officials have
simply striven to equal. Having but recently passed the half-century mark, Mr. Lines is
now in the very prime of his matured powers, and there are yet higher honors awaiting his
acceptance in the future.
H. Wales Lines was married in June, 1861, to Sarah C, daughter of Rev. Washington
Munger, Baptist minister of Waterford, Conn. P'^our daughters were the result of this union,
of whom all are now living and married.

"M"

M-

UBBARD, LEVERETT MARSDEN, of Wallingford, attorney-at-law, and ex-
secretary of state, was born at Durham, Conn., AprU 23, 1849. His grandfather,
Eber Hubbard, moved from Massachusetts, when a young man, to Martins-
burg, Lewis County, N. Y., and, in 1843, he transferred his residence to
Alexandria Bay, where he made his home until his death. Rev. Eli Hubbard,
father of Leverett M., was a distinguished pulpit orator, and for many years before his death,
in 1868, had been a clergyman of note in Mississippi. He married a daughter of Mr. L. W.
Leach, a prominent merchant and honored citizen of Durham. She was the only sister of
Hon. L. M. Leach and Hon. Oscar Leach, both of whom are recognized as among the most
substantial and influential men of Middlesex County.
Mr. Hubbard was prepared for college at Wilbraham Academy, and entered Wesleyan
University, but did not graduate. After leaving college, he decided to enter the legal profes
sion, and at once began the study of law at the Albany Law School, from which he was
graduated in 1870. In August of the same year he located at Wallingford, and soon became
marked by the bar of the county, as well as the community at large, as a young man of fine

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 441
spirit and rare intellectual endowments. From that time he has steadily grown in the confi
dence and esteem of the people, untU now no lawyer of his age in New Haven County has
more remunerative practice or is more widely known and thoroughly respected. From the
beginning of his practice he has maintained an office connection in New Haven. To supple
ment the work of the law school he pursued his studies a year with the late Charles Ives.
From 1874 to 1877 he was a law partner of Morris F. Tyler, and since that time he has been
associated with John W. Ailing, one of the leading lawyers in the state.
In the course of his practice, Mr. Hubbard has been connected with several notable
criminal cases. He was the original counsel of Rev. H. H. Hayden, who was accused of
the murder of Mary Stannard ; the trial lasted four months, and all the jury save one were
understood to be in favor of acquittal. With the state's attorney, he assisted in securing
the conviction of John Anderson, charged with killing Horatio G. Hall. The case was
carried first to the Superior Court and finally to the Supreme Court, where a sentence of
imprisonment for life was pronounced. He was the counsel for the state in the case of
State vs. Frank Carroll, arraigned for the murder of Michael Ealy. Gradually he has secured
a large corporation practice, and is attorney for all the immense manufacturing establish
ments in Wallingford.
Mr. Hubbard was appointed postmaster of his town by President Grant in 1872, an
office he held by successive appointments until the inauguration of President Cleveland in
1885, when he resigned with an unexpired commission for three years. His administration
of the office was marked by great fidelity, and an exceptionally intelligent conception of the
requirements of the position which naturally secured for him the universal appreciation of
the patrons. Upon his retirement he was tendered a complimentary banquet by citizens of
both political parties, an affair which was widely remarked at the time for its elaborateness
and the enthusiasm with which it was attended.
Mr. Hubbard has been borough attorney for Wallingford since 1870, and counsel for
the town during most of the same period. He has been a director in the First National
Bank since its organization in 188 1. On the death of Mr. Samuel Simpson in the spring
of 1894, who had been at the head of the Dime Savings Bank from its foundation twenty-five
years ago, he was elected to the presidency. As he had controlled the management of the
bank for some months during Mr. Simpson's illness, and had been a director for ten years,
he was in every way qualified for the position. Since 1881, he has been a trustee of the
Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Mass., and served as a member of the committee on finances.
Upon the establishment of a borough court for Wallingford by the legislature of 1886, he
accepted the position of first judge, and is still discharging the duties of that office to the
eminent satisfaction of the community.
At the Republican State Convention, in 1886, Mr. Hubbard was unanimously nominated
as the candidate for secretary of state on the ticket with Gov. P. C. Lounsbury. He had the
honor of receiving the largest vote of any one of his associates, running ahead of his ticket
five hundred votes, and changing a normal Democratic majority of one hundred and seventy-
five in Wallingford to a majority of fifty for himself. It is not too much to say that in
dignity, ability and enterprise, Mr. Hubbard's administration as secretary has rarely been
equalled and never excelled in the history of the state. Among the many noteworthy services
he rendered while in that office, for which he was universally esteemed, was his preparation
and publication of the most comprehensive and elaborate ' ' Register and Manual of the State
of Connecticut " ever issued. It has been the model upon which all subsequent editions have
been fashioned, and is highly valued for its accuracy and variety, and easily ranks among the

442 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
most complete books of its kind ever compiled. Another feature deserving of mention was
that through his special efforts the matter was arranged and the work brought out immediately
after the close of the legislative session.
Though he has invariably declined to aUow his name to be used, he has been mentioned
as a candidate for Congress from his district on several occasions. He was a delegate-at-
large to the Republican National Convention which nominated President Harrison.
In religious belief he is a Methodist, but he attends the Congregational church and takes
part in the management, giving freely of his time and money. Mr. Hubbard is esteemed
throughout the community, of which he forms an important part, as an honorable and upright
citizen, and he possesses great popularity among all classes and in both political parties.
Mr. Hubbard was married May 21, 1873, to Florence G., daughter of Wooster Ives, a
lineal descendant of Governor Wolcott and John Davenport, the first minister to New Haven.
Four children have been born to them, all of whom are living : Georglana, Samuel Wolcott,
Leverett Marsden, Jr., and Kenneth Davenport.

|UCK, EDWIN A., of WiUimantic, merchant and ex-state treasurer, was born
in Ashford, Conn., Feb. 11, 1832. After passing through the common schools
of his native town, one term at the Ashford Academy completed his education.
He commenced teaching at eighteen, and for six years following he continued
the occupation of teacher in the winter and of working on the farm during the
summer months. In 1856, Mr. Buck really began the business of his life. At that time he
engaged in the sale of sawed lumber, and this soon grew into an extensive trade, his specialties
being- car timber, plough handles and beams, and also chestnut finishing lumber, large quanti
ties of which were shipped to New York. Several water-power saw-mills and a small regiment
of men were employed in supplying material. Just after the close of the war he purchased at
bankrupt sale the property of the Westford Glass Company, and associating with him Capt.
John S. Dean and Charles L. Dean, both residents of Ashford, he commenced the manufacture
of glass under the firm name of E. A. Buck & Co. This firm made a valuable addition to the
business interests of the town, as it gave employment in various capacities to about one hundred
and fifty men. The business was managed so successfully that it became necessary to establish
houses both in New York and Boston, not only for the sale of the firm's goods, but other
lines of goods not manufactured by them. As his lumber interests required his close attention,
in 1874 Mr. Buck sold out the glass business.
He was one of the original incorporators of the Stafford Savings Bank and was elected
president of that institution, and for several years he was a director in the Stafford National
Bank. Becoming interested in real estate in Willimantic, he resigned his offices in the
Stafford banks in the autumn of 1875, and removed to that town, where he has since made
his home. Two years later, Mr. Buck formed a partnership with Allen Lincoln of WUli
mantic and E. M. Durfee of Ashford, for the purpose of carrying on the grain business,
and soon after he bought out Crawford & Banford, hardware dealers at Stafford Springs,
and located his eldest son at that place to look out for his interests. This business is stiU
carried on in the same firm name of E. A. Buck & Company, and besides this he has two
other firms of E. A. Buck & Company, one in oil and the other in hardware at Palmer, Mass.
In addition to the WUlimantic firm of E. A. Buck & Company, dealers in hard wood lumber,
of which firm Colonel Marvin Knowlton is a member, he is also the head of the firm of E. A.
Buck & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in flour and grain, his son, W. A. Buck, being the
junior partner.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 443
Financial matters have always occupied a share of Mr. Buck's attention, and his opinions
have ever been valued by contemporaries. In 1885, he was elected a director and the following
year president of the Willimantic Savings Institute, and held the position for two }'ears.
During this time the bank passed through a very critical period of its history, caused by the
irregularities of its treasurer, but he finally placed it on a sound financial basis.
It is but natural that men of Mr. Buck's stamp should be sought after to accept official
station at the hands of their fellow-citizens, but he commenced his office-holding functions at
an exceptionally early age. When he had barely attained his majority, he was elected con
stable of his native town, and in 1856, in his twenty-fifth year, he was elected by the
Republican party a member of the state legislature, being the youngest member of the House.
Four years later he was again elected to the legislature by a coalition of the Republican and
Union Democrats by a very handsome majority.
He was also appointed by the town to fill its quota of soldiers, and was a firm friend of
the Union cause, furnishing money to pay for enlisted men which was afterwards repaid by
the town. Mr. Buck has never lost his interest in the soldiers who fought for the preservation
of the Union, and has assisted many of them in obtaining pensions from the government. In
the closing year of the war he changed his political faith and joined his fortunes with the
Democratic party, and the town, which had previously been Republican, was carried by the
Democrats. The foUowing year he was elected to the state legislature from Willimantic, and
served on various important committees.
Mr. Buck has a firm hold on the affections of his fellow-citizens and has held nearly
all the offices within their gift. He has been successively assessor, selectman, town clerk
and judge of probate. In 1874, and again in 1875, he represented Willimantic in the lower
branch of the legislature, and served both sessions on the judiciary committee. In the spring
of the centennial year he was elected to the Senate, it being the last session in the old state
house. His faithful committee work gained him an excellent reputation in the state capitol.
At the Democratic Convention in the fall of 1876, he was nominated as the party candi
date for state treasurer, and the nomination being ratified at the polls, he filled the office for
two years. Mr. Buck was renominated for the same position in 1878, but shared the fate of
the rest of the Democratic ticket. Political life always had an attraction for him, and the
various official stations he has held show that his services and experience have found ready
appreciation among his fellows. For many years he was a member of the town committee,
and also of the state central committee of the Democratic party, and for two years was a
member of the finance committee.
Honored at home and throughout the state, Mr. Buck can look back upon a career it
would be hard to parallel. A thorough man of business and equally interested in the affairs
of state, he occupies an enviable position in the community where he resides. Having just
passed his three-score years, he is now in the very prime of his later manhood, with many
opportunities yet before him for benefitting his town and state and for active work in the
political organization of which he forms a prominent part.
Edwin A. Buck was married in 1855, to Delia Lincoln of Ashford. Of the chUdren born
to them four are now living.

444 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
gATTERSON, JAMES GOODWIN, of Hartford, is one of the most widely
known citizens of Connecticut. Through the magnitude and variety of his
business interests, the zeal with which he applies himself to them, the scholarly
uses to which his leisure is devoted, his public spirit, —the whole wide range
of his tireless activity, — he occupies a position of peculiar prominence.
He was born in Wintonbury, Conn., now Bloomfield, a few mUes from Hartford,
Feb. 23, 1823. Subsequently the family removed to New Preston, Litchfield County (the
birthplace of the Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell), and there he lived until he was sixteen years
old, studying in the schools and academy of the neighborhood with the hope of entering
college. But circumstances not being propitious he went to Ithaca, N. Y., as an appren
tice to the printing house of Mack, Andrus & Woodruff, mastering the printer's art and
following up on his own account the hints to study that the business gave to a naturally
active mind. After he had served his time as a printer he returned to New Preston and
the family then removed to Litchfield, a dozen miles away, where he went into business with
his father, and subsequently entered the office of Judge Origen S. Seymour and read law.
Lack of means, however, led him to give it up, and he once more joined his father,
Siineon S. Batterson, in the marble business. He held to this for five years in Litchfield,
and then, seeking a larger opportunity, removed to Hartford, and this city has been his
home ever since. His father also went to Hartford and they conducted together the marble
business there. Their work at first consisted largely of monuments and other cemetery
work, but gradually developed into the construction of buUdings, first at home and later all
over the country. From its small beginning, he has developed this industry to one of very
large importance, and has been interested in putting up many of the finest structures in
the country.In Hartford he made the plans for and built the old brown stone Pratt Street Savings
Bank, taken down a few years ago, because outgrown, and built the brown stone State
Savings Bank building on Pearl Street, the marble building on Main Street of the Phoenix
National Bank, the granite and marble work of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance
Company's building, corner of Pearl and Main Streets, and the famous marble capitol on
BushneU Park, besides various other works of importance. About i860, after he had been
'in the business about fifteen years in Hartford, Mr. Batterson established his marble works
in New York City, and from that has built up what is now the largest and best equipped
establishment in that line in the United States. It is on Eleventh Avenue, and employs
about five hundred men. His first New York contract was the Worth monument at the
junction of Fifth Avenue and Broadway in 1857. Other work of his includes the stone and
marble part of the Mutual Life building in New York, the granite and marble of the
Equitable Life building, the Manhattan Bank building in WaU Street and many other banks,
the marble work on the Waldorf and Imperial hotels in New York, Cornelius Vanderbilt's
house in New York, W. K. Vanderbilt's marble residence at Newport, R. I., the City Hall
in Providence, R. I., and the granite and marble work of the great Library for Congress now
going up in Washington.
His success in this work is a result not merely of his indomitable energy and push,
but also of the application of intelligent study to the subject. Mr. Batterson is well up in
geology as well as a dealer in stone, and his attention to this branch of science was
developed almost accidentally. New Preston, where he lived as a boy, is near Lake
Waramaug and on the east side of the lake rises the pinnacle of Mt. Waramaug. One day
J. G. Percival, the poet-geologist of Connecticut, came through that region and hired the

^^m^^ ¦

Ma.ssacliusett5 Publial-ang Co.Everatt,]v[3_5s

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 445
boy Batterson to guide him to the top of the pinnacle. (Percival used to make trips all
about the state in his studies and made the first geological survey of the state.) As they
went up the pinnacle he kept hammering the rocks and gathering specimens until the boy,
who was ordered at such times to hold the horse, thought the stranger crazy and was on
the point of surrendering his contract and running home. He mustered courage, however,
to ask first what all this was for, and Percival finding the boy interested sat down and gave
him his first lessons in geology, put with such clearness and enthusiasm that the young
hearer was delighted and at once began to apply himself to the same study. He has
become now an acknowledged authority in that line and his scientific attainment as well as
his business progress may be traced to the chance meeting with Percival arid the trip up
the pinnacle of Waramaug.
Mr. Batterson has traveled frequently and extensively abroad. His first trip was in
1858, when he was sent out by Col. Samuel Colt, Enoch Pratt and others, to settie the
affairs and bring home the works of the promising Hartford sculptor, Bartholomew, whose
untimely death at Rome had closed a most promising career. Bartholomew's works are now
in the keeping of the Wadsworth Atheneum at Hartford. Mr. Batterson put up a monument
for the sculptor close by Vergil's tomb, near Naples, where he was buried.
The winter of 1858-59, he spent in Egypt where he met Brunei, the great English
engineer, and made a critical study of the ancient monuments in the valley of the Nile.
Again, in 1863, he went abroad and on this trip he noticed the system of railway
passengers' assurance that was then beginning to prove itself a success in England. He
consulted the actuaries, brought home the idea and organized the Travelers' Insurance Com
pany of Hartford. The scheme was first laughed at as visionary and then, when its
success was apparent, was threatened with extinction through reckless and universal
competition. Seventy rival companies were started within a few years, but all of them died
and the Travelers absorbed the business. It was the first company of its kind in the
country and is now not only the oldest but the largest and most famous in the world. A
wise management, which includes the prompt payment of losses, has made it known all
over the civilized world wherever accidents happen. In 1866, the company added also a
regular life insurance to its business and it is now one of the great life companies of the
country. Mr. Batterson has been the president of the Travelers ever since it was established,
and the founding of this company in the face of doubt and even ridicule, and making of it
the great and famously successful institution that it is, will probably be reckoned his great
est work in life. At the time of this writing, July, 1894, the Travelers' Insurance Company
has over $16,000,000 invested assets, and has paid over $25,000,000 in losses to policy-holders.
Speaking of the fact that the Travelers entered upon an untrodden field in the range
of insurance, "Hartford in 1889" says:
For eight generations children have read with unabated interest of the pilgrimage of Hooker and his
flock through the trackless forest, from Massachusetts Bay to the banks of the Connecticut, with only the
compass and north star for guides. On starting into the wilderness the Travelers had the benefit of neither
compass nor star. At home no one had gone before to cut a bush or blaze a tree, while the conditions underlying
the casualty business in England differed so widely from those in America that the scanty generalizations
formulated in tables by the pattern company proved treacherous and misleading. From the bottom stone in
the foundation to the flag-staff on the tower, the officers constructed as they went, without aid from architectural
designs or preformed plans, necessarily making many mistakes, and costly mistakes, too — tearing down, changing,
rebuilding, adding here and discarding there — till from a chaos of materials grew the present solid, stately and
enduring edifice, the despair of rivals and the delight of friends.
No kind of business, and especially no branch of insurance, can be carried on with safety till its laws have
been generalized from a wide range of experience. In the case of the Travelers, it was necessary to get the
experience and to deduce the governing principles simultaneously. The process of adjustment demanded
frequent and radical changes in classifications and rates, introducing confusion into methods, annoying and
57

446 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
losing patrons, and exciting in faithful agents ebullitions of sore displeasure. The knife of the surgeon was in
constant requisition. Meanwhile, the executive officers did not sleep on beds of roses, at least till the small
hours of the morning, for midnight often found them at headquarters, toiling over the solution of changeful
problems, or anxiously discussing what should be done next.
A sketch of Mr. Batterson in "An Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut,"
speaking of this portion of his life, says :
Mr. Batterson in 1863 had been on one of his various tours through Europe and the East, which have made
him one of the best informed men of the generation on Oriental geography, history, politics and social life ; and
returning from Italy, where he had given acute attention to marbles and architecture, passed through England,
where the success of the Railway Passengers' Assurance Company, founded a few years before, had demonstrated
that accident insurance was practicable — a fact much shadowed \f the failures of previous petty attempts in
England. Grasping at once the possibilities of the new business, and as a Hartford man feeling the instinctive
local capacity for success in the insurance field, he induced a number of other capitalists and active business men
to join with him in starting an accident company ; 1250,000 was paid in as capital, and a charter obtained the same
year for insuring against accidents of travel alone. But it was not till the next year, when the charter was
amended to allow it to insure against accidents of all kinds, that much business was done. "Very few but the
promoters expected it to live any length of time, and when in a year or so it became evident that it was to be one of
the great business successes of the age, this sudden growth and prosperity came near being more ruinous than its
first difficulties ; for it inspired such a belief that the accident business was the sure road to wealth, that, in the
"boom" which followed, a swarm of new companies were organized, and most of the great railroads ejected the
Travelers and started accident organizations of their own. A new corporation, the Railway Passengers' Assurance
Company, composed of representatives from all the leading accident companies, was formed in the winter of i856 to
consolidate the railway "ticket" business und^r one management; a few years later every one of the others was
dead, and the Travelers, as the sole legatee, turned the company iuto the ticket department of its own organization.
Its superiority of brains, money, and incredibly hard work and economy, had enabled it to remain the solitary
survivor. Meanwhile in 1866, it had added a regular life-insurance department, which in the last few years has
taken sudden and enormous strides that have placed it among the foremost of New England companies.
Mr. Batterson is a man whom a robust physical frame, and a still more robust, assimilative and fiexible
intellect, enable to accomplish ah amount and variety of work which fills the ordinary man with wonder and
despair. One of the most valuable intellectual qualities is the faculty of instant adjustment to any uew piece of
work — one of the rarest and most precious of faculties; to him, five minutes' time are good for five min
utes' accomplishment whenever taken. He is a formidable debater, a capable actuary and a thorough student of
economics. The amount of solid reading he does would alone tax severely the energies of most men ; he keeps abreast
of the highest thought of the age, and knows what its leaders are thinking and saying on every subject. He has a
large library, of the highest quality in selection. His judgment in art is delicate and just, and his fine collection
of pictures covers a remarkable range of schools and subjects. Altogether, few men live a more symmetrical 1 ife
of business and thought, assimilation and production ; and in his combination of vigor and delicacy of mind, of
solid judgment and nice taste of appreciation alike of the profoundest thought and the subtlest graces of style,
he has few equals.
But neither has life and accident insurance with its innumerable exactions, nor the
quarrying of granite and marble and the construction of great buildings, absorbed all of Mr.
Batterson's time. The leisure, which most busy men give to recreation, he devotes to study,
finding in change of mental activity the rest that other men find in doing nothing. He is
an earnest student of Greek, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish, and has aU the time some
special study on hand into which he plunges when he has a spare hour or evening. He is
a great lover of Homer, Vergil and Horace, and has rendered much of the Iliad into Eng
lish, preserving the metre and the literal meaning of the Greek.
Mr. Batterson is a man of compact frame and commanding presence, possessing a pow
erful voice and a ready wit, and in public gatherings is a most effective speaker. He has
never sought nor taken public office, but has, nevertheless, been and is a great force in
the community. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party, and all through
the war was the chairman of its state central committee, never losing an election, and man
aging affairs with a tact that dispelled jealousies, owing to his wise judgment of men, and
the fact that he was not himself a candidate for any office.

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 447
Mr. Batterson's home is an elegant residence on Albany Avenue, a mile or more from
his office. In the picture gallery are choice examples of the old Italian schools of paint
ing, the Dutch and Flemish schools, and the modern French, English and Belgian. His
studies at home and abroad, and his extensive travels have made him an authority in art
matters. His mineralogical collection is also exceedingly valuable, and includes a multitude
of choice specimens — in many cases a special story of its discovery attaching to each piece.
This, he found in an Egyptian chalk cliff, that, he found in Russia, another in Scotland,
or Norway, or Italy or in our own far West, and each full of interest and practical instruction.
The honorary degree of M. A. was conferred upon him by Yale, at the suggestion of
his friend. Dr. Bushnell, and also by Williams College. He is a trustee of Brown University,
a member of the society for Biblical Exegesis and an active member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Batterson married Eunice Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Goodwin, Esq., of
Hartford, and has two children living: James G. Batterson, Jr., vice-president of The New
England Granite Works, and Mary Elizabeth, wife of Charles Coffing Beach, M. D.

USSELL, CHARLES ADDISON, of KUlingly, congressman from the Third
District, was born in Worcester, Mass., March 2, 1852. Of Mr. Russell's
genealogy it may be mentioned that his paternal ancestors settled in Cambridge,
Mass. , and remained there long enough to take a hand in the celebrated fight
at Lexington before they emigrated to New Hampshire where his father was born.
His mother, who was a Wentworth, traced her lineage directly to the old colonial Governor
Wentworth of New Hampshire.
Receiving his primary education in the common schools of Worcester, he was prepared
for college under the tuition of Rev. Harris R. Greene. He was graduated from Yale
University in the class of 1873, taking high rank. as a student, and winning popularity in his
class by his genial manner and his enthusiasm in athletic sports. Immediately after his gradua
tion he devoted himself to newspaper work, and, up to 1878, was actively engaged on the
Worcester Press as city editor, and was for a short time thereafter connected with the Worcester
Spy. Since that time Mr. RusseU has been engaged in the business of manufacturing woolens
at the village of Dayville, in the town of KiUingly, as treasurer of the Sabin L- Sayles Company.
In 1881, he was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Bigelow, and was a very
popular member of the official gubernatorial family. He served the town of KiUingly in the
state House of Representatives in 1883, and was House chairman of the committee on cities and
boroughs. While in the legislature he distinguished himself by his readiness in debate and
skiU in disposing of the public business. He was secretary of state in 1885-86, having been
elected on the Republican ticket with Hon. H. B. Harrison at its head. Thus the stages
were very natural that led in the fall of 1886 to his elevation as candidate for Congress from
the Third District, and he received victorious support at the polls, which always has been
the case whenever he has been a candidate for public office. The honor thus bestowed has
been three times repeated, and he is now serving his fourth term in the halls of Congress.
The record shows that the interests of the Third District were wisely entrusted, and have
.been safely guarded at the national capital during Mr. Russell's incumbency of the high and
honorable office.
Congressman Russell is a forcible writer, a polished and graceful speaker, and a man of
exceptional abilities. His political speeches in various portions of the state during recent
campaigns were of the most reasonable and convincing character, increasing the intensity

448 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
of partisan friendships on the part of those already within the Republican party and unques
tionably adding new recruits from among the intelligent and thoughtful part of the opposition.
From his speech at the Republican State Convention in 1892, a trio of paragraphs are
selected, showing his forcible style and strength of statement :
So, gentlemen delegates, assembled here as representative in every section of Connecticut of the Republi
can party, we have reason to feel and express confidence of coming success. The Republican party was born in
an aggressive advocacy of freedo-m, progress and prosperity for American humanity. It is to continue its aggression
in this campaign for the maintenance of American industry, for the development of American enterprise and the
supremacy of American labor conditions. The issue is squarely drawn. Our opponents for once have honestly
expressed their policy in their platform. They didn't really intend to do so, and ever since the declaration of
their national convention, they have sought to apologize and explain. But the southern Bourbon and the eastern
mugwump are running Democracy and the Cleveland tariff reform is shorn of all ambiguities in this campaign
and means free trade. Our opponents are thirsting for a campaign of education, and warring among themselves
as to the system of education which they shall teach. It is an old heresy of Democracy to disintegrate the
geography of this Union, and this Democratic campaign for the education of the people is now, as in the past,
somewhat geographically disintegrated as respects industrial policies and legislation. Against their textbook
theories and essays, which tax the ingenuity, to corral in the respective localities for which they are com
pounded as specific remedies, we submit as practical education the prosperous condition of the country as a
whole. Our campaign is waged on the education which is illustrated in the renewed thrift of the Connecticut
valley farms, aud iu the newly established industry of a thriving Bridgeport, or a prosperous New Haven, or a
busy, bustling manufacturing village of one of our eastern counties. We gauge tariff legislation on practical
results, and not on theoretical disquisitions.
As Republicans, our patriotic duty is to aggressively and constantly present the issue as made for us by
the nominations and the platform of the Democratic party. A noted Democratic authority in the newspaper
line just now declares that "the Democratic party is committed to the doctrine that the McKinley tariff is not
a benefit but an injury to the American people. Its success in the present canvass largely rests upon the estab
lishment of that truth in the minds of the people." Truth, indeed! In the last campaign malicious and false
statement of the probable effect of the McKinley law is to receive refutation in this campaign by truthful and
potent illustration of practical results. The Democratic party is committed to the doctrine that the American
people are in a condition of calamitous distress, staggering under a tariff which establishes and develops our
'industries and maintains and increases the wages and blessings of our work people. The Democratic party resents
as a blow to its cause and as a factor in its defeat any publication of facts aud any state of things which shows the
contrary of our distress and poverty. Every pound of tobacco grown in the Connecticut valley is a thorn in the
Democratic side. Every yard of plush or velvet woven in the new Bridgeport factory is an argument against
the Democratic position. Every case of cotton goods sent to South America from a Connecticut mill is a damage
to the Democratic issue. The report of the United States Senate finance committee, showing increased wages
and diminished cost of living, is a knock down to the Democratic party. And now "the cold facts" from the
Democratic labor commissioner of the state of New "Vork, showing that seventy-seven per cent, of the industries
covered in that state present an increase either of wages, or products, or both, since the operation of the McKinley
law, is a knock out for the Democratic issue in this campaign.
The first session of the Fifty-second Congress has closed. The Democrats enjoyed a majority of one hundred
and fifty-three over the Republicans, and adjournment was made without any serious effort to repeal the McKinley
law. Was the law a tithe of the iniquity and damage they declare it, then surely they were bound in duty and in
honesty to repeal it. Failing to do so, they stand convicted of asserting what they do not believe and what the
facts disprove. Their piecemeal attack ou the McKinley law was buncombe and quite on a line with " Holmanese "
economy. On a profession of affording free raw material to the industries of the country, they select wool and
binding twine as the articles to be first of all relieved of all tariff duty. The nice discrimination of Democratic
intellect which classes wool and binding twine in the same category of free raw material is plastic political jugglery.
The wool of the West is as much a product of industry as the woolen cloth of the East, and each is a legitimate
and necessary consideration of a protective tariff. Each industry has prospered and the country been benefitted
by the effort of protection, and each is destined to be further developed by the continuance of the protective system.
Under a high tariff on wool, the number of sheep in the United States increased from 28,000,000 to 44,000,000.
Under the Democratic tariff prior to i860. Great Britain was making most of our woolen goods for us, and her
woolen mills were consuming annually 300,000,000 pounds of wool, while our mills consumed 85,000,000 pounds.
Under the Republican protective tariff, we are largely making our own woolen goods, and consuming every year
now more than 400,000,000 pounds of wool, while the mills of Great Britain consume scarcely 50,000,000 more than
our factories. So we are catching up with the old country just as we did in the iron industry. We have crossed
the line and passed our rival in the iron manufacture, and we will do the same in the woolen trade. In ten years
we have increased the amount of wages paid to operatives in American woolen mills from ^47,000, 000 to f 76,000,000.
But in face of this magnificent increase in production and wages and in full light of the fact that domestic woolens

OF CONNECTICUT, 1 861-1894. 449
are cheaper than ever before to the consumer, the Democratic tariff-reformers select the wool and woolen industries
in their guerilla war on protection as the first for destruction, and propose first in their reform to give over the
home market for wool and woolens to foreigners. Under protection we have become the greatest manufacturing
people in the world, and the greatest agricultural people as well. Mechanical industries have been built up in
the midst of our farms, and labor and capital are not more necessary partners in the development of business
than are manufacture and agriculture essential to laborers in the establishment and profit of American industry.
Mr. RusseU was married in 1880, to EUa Frances, daughter of the late Hon. Sabin L-
Sayles of KiUingly. They have two children.

?LATT, ORVILLE HITCHCOCK, LL. D., of Meriden, distinguished American
lawyer and statesman, who has held in succession the offices of secretary of
^ Wi^g^ state, state senator and speaker of the House of Representatives of Connecticut,
^ W<L^^^, and who is now serving his third term as a United States senator from that
state, was born in the town of Washington, Litchfield County, Conn., on July
19, 1827. He is a son of Daniel G. Platt, a well-known and respected farmer of Litchfield
County, who died at Washington, where he had resided many years, in 1871, being then
sixty-three years old. His mother, n6e Almyra Hitchcock, was also a native of Connecticut.
The subject of this sketch remained at the old homestead until he was almost of age,
giving his parents the love, honor and allegiance of a dutiful son and assisting his father
in the management of the farm. Brought up in a home dominated by intelligence and the
Christian virtues, he was given every incentive to improve his mind and was warmly encour
aged to persevere in his studies. Having made excellent use during his early boyhood of his
privileges at the district schools, he was sent in his youth to the academy in his native town,
sometimes facetiously termed "the Gunnery," after its principal, Mr. Frederick W. Gunn, an
able and accomplished teacher, under whose personal supervision he was instructed in the
higher mathematics, rhetoric and the classics. When he was about twenty years of age he
applied himself to the law, studying for a time in the office of the Hon. Gideon H. Hollister,
then a leading lawyer of Litchfield and also celebrated as a historical writer. In 1849,
Mr. Platt, then a young man of twenty-two, possessed of sound sense, a good education and
a very thorough preparation for practice, was admitted to the bar at Litchfield. About a year
and a half later he availed himself of an opportunity to still further qualify himself for the
demands of his profession by taking a position as chief clerk in the office of the Hon. Ulysses
Mercur, a leading lawyer of Towanda, Bradford County, Pa., whose distinguished abilities
have since raised him to the dignified office of chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Key
stone State. Admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, he practiced at Towanda until 1851, when he
returned to Connecticut and opened law offices in Meriden, where he established himself as a
permanent resident.
Soon after his return to Meriden Mr. Platt became associate editor of The Whig, a paper
which had an existence of about three years, and the experience he gained in this capacity has
since been useful to him in numerous ways. From 1852 to 1857, he served as judge of probate
for the Meriden District. In 1855, he was chosen clerk of the Senate of Connecticut and served
as such during the session of that year. One of the first to enlist under the standard of the
Republican party upon its organization in 1856, he took a very active part in politics and dis
played such marked abUity that in 1857 he was nominated on the state ticket for the office
.of secretary of state, and was elected, serving one term. In 1861, he was elected to the state
Senate as the representative of the Sixth District. During the single term he served in this

450 REPRESENTATIVE MEN
body, and likewise during the whole period of the Civil War, he was a firm supporter of the
war measures of the federal government, and was untiring both as an official and as a private
citizen to aid the Union cause and to comfort and sustain those who had taken up arms in
its defense. In 1864, he was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, and was honored
by being made chairman of the judiciary committee. This appointment carried with it by
long-established custom the leadership of the party, and nobly did he fulfil the trust reposed
in him. The constitutional amendment providing for the extension of the elective franchise
to the soldiers in the field was passed by the Senate by the party vote of eighteen to three.
The claim was immediately made by the opposition that the amendment had failed to secure
the votes of two-thirds of the whole house, and the speaker, guided by the precedent in his
favor, decided that the amendment was not carried. Mr. Platt appealed from this decision, and
after a protracted debate, resulting from his protest, the amendment was carried without a
shadow of doubt as to its legality. Five years later he was again chosen to represent the
town of Meriden in that branch of the state legislature. At the beginning of the latter term
he was elected speaker of the House, and presided over its deliberations with wisdom and
impartiality. When he retired from the speaker's chair at the close of the term, he was known
and respected throughout the state as one of its purest and ablest officials, one whose qualifica
tions for legislative work were of an exceptionally high order, and whose brilliant abilities,
energy and influence it was eminently desirable to retain in the public service. Notwithstand
ing this, however, and in the face of a strong party sentiment to keep him in public life, Mr.
Platt retired for a time from politics to give his attention more fully to his law practice which
had grown to ver}- extensive proportions and demanded his close personal supervision.
He was appointed state's attorney for New Haven County in 1877. Two years later, just
before the expiration of the official term of the Hon. Wm. H. Barnum as United States senator
from Connecticut, Mr. Piatt's name was repeatedly and prominently mentioned as that of a
tried and trusted citizen of large experience in public and legislative affairs, who might be
relied upon to fill this eminent position with honor and benefit to the state. The sentiment
in Mr. Piatt's favor grew very rapidly, and on Jan. 16, 1879, when the Republican members
of the state legislature held a caucus to select their candidate, he was one of the two or three
men in the whole commonwealth who was found to have a strong support for the approaching
vacancy. On the thirty-eighth ballot out of the one hundred and forty-nine votes cast, he
received seventy-six; Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, one of the most popular men in the state,
seventy-two ; and Marshall JeweU one. This ballot proving satisfactory, the nomination of
Mr. Platt was, on motion, made unanimous, and, as the Republicans controlled the state legis
lature, he was elected senator of the United States.
From his earliest manhood, he has always enjoyed the most implicit confidence of the
citizens of his adopted city. When his election became known, they gave him an enthusiastic
reception, members of both political parties being represented. To be right has always
been the leading aspiration of Senator Piatt's life ; and in response to some kindly words he
took advantage of the opportunity to emphasize this characteristic. He said: " That which
is right is priceless to me ; and in all the campaigns and achievements of the Republican party
in which I have participated, I have never steered a middle course, but did what I thought
to be right." A friend of excellent discrimination said of him at the time,— and the words
seem almost prophetic : ' ' Senator Platt carries to the Senate independence of judgment,
intimate acquaintance with political history, and a thorough mastery of the fundamental
principles of a Republican form of government. We greatly mistake if the senator does not
prove to be one of the ablest and most serviceable members Connecticut has ever sent to the
honorable body to which he is accredited."

OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 451
In 1885, at the expiration of his first term, he was unanimously reelected ; and in 1891,
at the close of his second term he was again accorded this distinguished honor. On the
assembling of the Senate in March, 1893, the Republicans, for the first time in thirty years,
found they were not in the majority. Senator Platt was one of the few members of his party
who received a minority chairmanship. At this time when such remarkable attention is being
paid to the public health, his committee, that entitled " on the transportation and sale of meat
products," is one of special importance. Senator Platt also retains his assignments as a
minority member on the committees with which he has hitherto been prominently identified :
territories, Indian affairs, judiciary, patents, and the revision of the laws.
The official career of Mr. Platt affords a noteworthy example of the tendency in an enlight
ened community to seek out men of brains, character and merit for positions of public trust,
and also of the desire to reward and honor unswerving fidelity to the public interests. Without
resorting to the arts of the practical politician, Senator Platt has attained to the highest legis
lative rank in the Republic. The test of time has only served to prove the wisdom of his
selection for the eminent position he has filled- so ably for so many years. Every official act of
his has been prompted by the purest patriotism and has had its foundation in wisdom and honor.
The only question in his mind before taking sides upon a public issue seems to be : "Do the
best interests of the people require that I support or oppose this measure ? ' ' Once this has
been answered conscientiously, he devotes himself to the matter in hand with all the zeal of
an earnest, truthful and energetic nature, confident in the success of the right and working
for that end with all the skill and resources at his command.
Senator Platt is a terse and forceful speaker, preferring brevity, clearness and precision to
any striving after material effect. At the state and county conventions of his party, Senator
Platt has been called to preside many times. Ease and gracefulness characterize his services
in this capacity, and these attributes, combined with his strict impartiality, render him a model
presiding officer. His speeches on such occasions usually give the keynote to the campaign
which follows. He was selected as the president of the Republican State Convention at New
Haven in September, 1890, and spoke at length on the issues of the hour. Senator Piatt's
services as a speaker are always in demand, and the announcement of a speech or oration from
him is sure to attract a large assemblage. At the commencement of the war his voice and
talents were put to excellent use in the service of his country, and old soldiers will remember
well his stirring orations. His delivery is convincing and his words well chosen and to the
point. At a meeting of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution held at
Meriden in February, 1893, he made a strong plea for a new history ofthe state modelled upon
lines which he pointed out. He said the Connecticut Society could not assume to itself a
nobler mission than to insist that such a history be written, and went on to show that a body
of men whose ancestors had any part in the Revolution might be inspired to patriotic zeal by
a perusal of the vivid story of the past. His allusions to the future of the country were
received with rounds of applause.
Of Senator Piatt's speech in the Senate on the Roach case, the New York Recorder says :
" The great speech of the debate was made by Senator Platt of Connecticut. It was a master
piece of 'concise statements and irresistible logic, and he laid before the Senate and the country
coldly and relentlessly the damning charges which had been made against the North Dakota
senator, and which had not been denied." The New York Tribune says: "Senator Piatt's
arguments were conclusive and impregnable. They left the Democrats without a leg to
stand upon."
Senator Platt is one of those comparatively rare examples of marked success professionally
and politically, to whose record his fellow-citizens who have known him from boyhood can

452

REPRESENTATIVE MEN.

point young men, and without hesitation invite them to make it a study for their conduct
in life. It was a fine moral spectacle he presented when, for many years, he was the
beloved teacher of a class of about one hundred members in the Sunday-school of a leading
Meriden church. Never did he put his talents to a better use, and his influence for good
cannot be estimated. The condition of the world at large would be greatly improved if
more men of Senator Piatt's stamp were to devote even a portion of their time to making
clear the hidden mysteries of the Word of God.
A practical man of affairs, he always commands the attention of his auditors and never
forfeits their respect. His legal practice has attained very great proportions, and in the
conduct of patent cases, of which, for years, he has made a specialty, he ranks with the
most successful in the country. His eminent position as a lawyer has been won by many
years of study and hard work, and the regard in which he has always been held by his
colleagues at the bar is the legitimate outcome of a most honorable professional experience.
In private life he holds a place not in any degree inferior, being respected by all who come
into contact with him in any capacity, or for . any purpose. Without ostentation, he has
done much as a promoter of Christian and philanthropic work, his aims being the good of
society and the succor of the weak, helpless and unfortunate. For many years he has
been a consistent promoter of temperance, and his public utterances on this subject gave
forth no uncertain sound. No man in Connecticut enjoys a wider or more enduring
popularity. Orville H. Platt was married May 15, 1850, to Miss Annie Bull of Towanda, Pa. Two
children were the result of this union : James Perry, now in partnership with his father in
Meriden, and Daniel Gold, who died, at the age of six years, in 1864. Mrs. Platt was a lineal
descendant of the Calverts who came from England and settled in Virginia. Her death
occurred in November, 1893. A prominent member of the First Congregational Church in
Meriden, she took a great interest in all charitable institutions and societies. She was always
kind to the needy and distressed, and in an unostentatious manner performed many charitable
acts. Until a few years ago, her homes, both in Meriden and Washington, were the scenes
of many pleasant social gatherings, and she proved herself a most charming hostess and a
successful entertainer. From the time of her affliction until her death, her daughter-in-
law, Mrs. J. P. Platt, was her constant attendant.

INDEX.

Allen, Jeremiah Mervin  46
AUen, John  368
Alsop, Joseph Wright  128
Augur, Phineas Miller  183
Averill, Roger  9
Bacon, P^rancis, M. D  in
BaUey, Ezra Brewster  134
Baldwin, Simeon Eben  102
Barnum, Phineas Taylor  262
Barnum, William Henry  71
Batcheller, Wheelock T  151
Batterson, James Goodwin .... 444
Belding, Alvah Norton  160
Benedict, Elias Cornelius .... 89
Bigelow, Hobart Bald-win . . . . 235
BUI, Henry  280
Billings, Charles Ethan  227
Blackstone, Lorenzo  196
Bradley, Nathaniel  370
Brainard, Leverett  257
Brandegee, Augustus  53
Brewster, Lyman Denison .... 387
Brooker, Charles Frederick . . . . 278
Brooks, Isaac Watts  23
Browne, John D  265
Buck, John R  244
Buck, Edwin A  442
Buckingham, William Alfred ... 5
Buel, Henry Wadhams, M. D. . . . 24
Bulkeley, Morgan Gardner .... 55
Bulkeley, William Henry .... 95
Burr, Alfred Edmund  30
Cady, Ernest  19
Camp, Hiram  381
Carpenter, Elisha  281
* Deceased since the sketch was placed in type.
58-

Case, Newton  131
Chaffee, Charles Elmer  230
Chaffee, Joseph Dwight  177
Chapman, Maro S  424
Chase, George Lewis  59
Cheney, Benjamin Hicks, M. D. . . 430
Clark, William Braddock  'j'j
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne . . . . 437
Clowes, George Hewlett  202
Coe, Lyman Wetmore  275
Coit, Robert ,  173
Colt, Samuel  246
Converse, Julius  321
Cooke, Lorrin A  402
Corbin, Philip  255
..Crofut, Henry  193
Day, Calvin  395
Day, George Herbert  315
Davis,- Charles Henry Stanley, M. D., 92
DeForest, Robert E  421
Dennis, Rodney  113
Dewell, James Dudley  305
Dickinson, Francis Lemuel, M. D. . . 130
*Douglas, Benjamin  10
Dunbar, Edward Butler  123
Dwight, Henry Cecil  62
Edgerton, Francis D., M. D. . . . 426
Enders, Thomas Ostram  428
English, James Edward  357
Farnam, Henry  155
Fenn, Augustus Hall  38
Ferry, Orrin Sanford  393
Fessenden, Samuel  377
Fitch, Samuel  400

454

INDEX.

Franklin, William Buel  50
French, Carlos  107
Fyler, Orsamus R  119
Gallup, David  141
Gatling, Richard Jordan  314
Gay, Henry  138
Goodwin, James  120
Greene, Jacob Lyman  232
Gregory, James Glynn, M. D. . . . 413
Gross, Charles Edward  142
Hall, John Henry  174
HaU, John Manning  431
Halsey, Jeremiah  109
Hamersley, William  322
Hamilton, David Boughton . . . . 427
Hammond, George Asahel .... 385
Harris, Jonathan Newton  222
Harrison, Henry Baldwin  27
Harrison, Lynde  360
Hawley, Joseph Russell  238
Healey, WiUiam Arnold  180
Hendee, Lucius Justin  290
Henry, Edward Stevens  190
Hicks, RatcUffe  328
Hooker, John  416
Howard, James Leland  80
Howard, Mark  211
Hoyt, Heusted W. R  167
Hubbard, Henry Griswold .... 407
Hubbard, Leverett Marsden .... 440
Hubbard, Richard Dudley .... 352
Hubbard, Robert, M. D  342
Hyde, Alvan Pinney  302
Hyde, Ephraim H  414
Ingersoll, Charles Roberts .... 82
Jarvis, George Cyprian, M. D. . . . 193
Jewell, Marshall  7^
Jewell, Pliny  44
Kellogg, Stephen Wright  185
Keney, Henry  105
Keney, Walter  106
Kimball, Carlos Clinton  149
Kingsbury, Frederick St. John . . . 139

Landers, George MarceUus . . . . 179
Leonard, Elbridge Knowlton, M. D. . 65
Lindsley, Charles Augustus, M. D. . 326
Lines, H. Wales  439
Lockwood, Frederick St. John . . . 117
Loomis, Dwight  345
Loomis, Francis B  336
Lounsbury, Phineas Chapman . . . 365
Merwin, Samuel Edwin  146
Miles, Frederick  417
Miller, Edward  153
Minor, William Thomas  387
MitcheU, Charles E  340
Mitchell, Charles LeMoyne . . . . 372
Morgan, Daniel Nash  391
Morgan, Henry Kirke  66
Morgan, J. Pierpont  245
Morgan, Junius Spencer  187
Morris, Luzon Burritt  17
Morse,' George Milton  • 206
Nichols, James  169
Noble, William Henry  363
Parker, Charles  84
Porter, George Loring, M. D. . . . 375
Porter, Noah  311
Pratt, Francis Asbury  218
Prentice, Amos Wylie  52
Read, David M  410
Roberts, Ebenezer ....... 107
Robinson, Henry Cornelius *¦. . . . 318
Rood, David A  425
Root, Elisha K  33
RusseU, Gurdon Wadsworth, M. D. . 176
Searls, Charles Edwin  214
Sears, Edward Hale  145
Sessions, John Humphrey .... 306
Sheffield, Joseph Earl  249
Simonds, William Edgar  209
Simpson, Samuel  308
Skilton, Dewitt Clinton  207
Slater, John Fox  40
Sperry, Lewis  296
Sperry, Nehemiah D  267

INDEX.

455

Steele, Harvey Baldwin, M. D. . . . 240
Stiles, Norman Charles  259
Stearns, Henry Putnam, M. D. . . . 347
Storrs, Melancthon, M. D  224
Strong, David  198
Terry, George Edward  419
Thompson, Curtis  284
Tibbits, John Arnold  434
Towne, Henry R  67
Torrance, David  355
Turner, Edward Thomas  389
Wainwright, W. A. M., M. D. . . . 87
Wait, John Turner  162
Wallace, Robert  324
WaUer, Thomas Macdonald .... 35

Warner, Charles Dudley  273
Warner, Ira DeVer  ¦ . 379
Warner, Samuel Larkin  356
Welles, Gideon  13
Wells, David Ames  299
Wetmore, John Grinnell  220
Wheeler, George Wakeman . . . . 350
Wheeler, Nathaniel  404
Whiting, Charles B  122
Wilcox, Horace Cornwall  271
WUe, WUliam Conrad, M. D. ... 398
Williams, James Baker  125
Wilson, Frederick Morse, M. D. . . 418
Wilson, Grove Herrick, M. D. . . . 200
Woodruff, George Morris  136
Woodward, P. Henry  99
Woolsey, Theodore Dwight .... 330

REFERENCE INDEX.

JEtna Insurance Company, 56, 57, 77, 78, 79,
80, 122, 123, 212, 290, 291, 292.
^tna Life Insurance Company, 55, 56, 57,
96, 128, 176, 177, 257, 258, 428, 429,
430.
Arthur, Chester A., 77, 172, 187, 319, 436.
Barnum, William H., 71 (sketch), 125, 302,
359, 450-
Bigelow, Hobart B., 97, 151, 235 (sketch),
429.
Blaine, James G., 121, 172, 378, 435.
Brandegee, Augustus, 36, 53 (sketch), 116,
Brown University, 23, 81, 154, 225, 328, 447.
Buckingham, William A., 5 (sketch), 9, 12,
52, 54, 64, 117, 126, 268, 280, 282, 296,
302, 344, 369, 396, 401, 408, 412, 423,
427.
Bulkeley, Eliphalet A., 55, 56, 96, 181, 258,
428, 429.
Bulkeley, Morgan G., zi^ 55 (sketch), 63, 96,
119, 137, i47> 176, 181, 217, 258, 279,
355, 366, 399, 429.
Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, 23, 87,
119, 215.
Cleveland, Grover, 19, ^,7, 39, 73, 74, 91, 97,
104, 267, 268, 298, 361, 394, 410, 411,
440, 441.
Colt, Samuel, 33, 34, 47, 218, 228, 246
(sketch), 445.
Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, 115,
265, 266, 320.
Connecticut Historical Society, 25, 49, 79,
189, 190, 224, 267.
Connecticut Medical Society, 25, 88, 92, 113,
123, 144, 177, 224, 226, 227, 327, 344,
345, 350, 376, 399, 413, 419, 426.

Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company,
51, 81, 96, 121, 232, 233, 234, 320, 444.
Continental Life Insurance Company, 119,
244, 403.
English, James E., 72, 76, 310, 357 (sketch),
383-
Garfield, James A., 77, 100, 119, 146, 172,
187, 293, 302, 319, 320.
Grant, Ulysses S., 45, 76, 77, 119, 268, 303,
320, 322, 348, 364, 378, 436, 441.
Greeley, Horace, 30, 31, 83.
Harrison, Benjamin, 37, 65, 135, 191, 210,
268, 270, 341, 378, 403, 442.
Harrison, Henry B., 27 (sketch), 39, 52, 53,
64, 72, 83, 119, 137, 185, 293, 298, 355,
366, 403, 424, 447.
Hartford Board of Trade, 21, 33, 45, 49, 60,
102, 135, 150, 175, 217, 218, 229, 234,
267, 269, 320, 424, 429.
Hartford "Courant," 19, 26, 34, 49, 63, 77, 79,
99, 108, 129, 131, 133, 135, 145, 170,
175, 182, 189, 191, 193, 210, 216, 227,
239, 259, 273, 274, 275, 279, 397, 407,
433-
Hartford Fire Insurance Company, 59, 60, 61,
105, 121, 123, 212, 234, 266, 393.
" Hartford in 1889," 47, 56, 59, 212, 218,
247, 429, 445.
Hartford "Post," 97, 98, 173, 182, 210, 232,
283, 297, 324, 335, 351, 374.
Hartford Steam BoUer Inspection and Insur
ance Company, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 150,
429.
Hartford Theological Seminary, 49, 133, 403.
Hartford " Times," 13, 30, 31, 32, 284, 292,
297, 299, 323, 367-

458

REFERENCE INDEX.

Hartford Trust Company, 45, 229.
Harvard University, 35, 95, 99, 103, 113,
377, 378.
Hawley, Joseph R., 28, 29, 54, 58, loi, 135,
188, 213, 218 (sketch), 265, 270, 273,
319, 396, 450.
Hayes, Rutherford B., 77, 119, 436.
Hubbard, Richard D., 25, 125, 137, 143,
297, 323, 334, 352 (sketch), 388.
Ingersoll, Charles R., 72, 109, 137, 295.
JeweU, Marshall, 29, 47, 49, 75 (sketch), loi,
210, 359, 450.
Johnson, Andrew, 15, 119, 288, 289, 369.
Lincoln, Abraham, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 54,
84, III, 120, 173, 185, 266, 268, 287,
288, 289, 300, 320, 338, 346, 357, 376,
378, 434-
Lounsbury, P. C. , 57, 119, 178, 180, 365
(sketch), 441.
Merwin, Samuel E., 146 (sketch), 411.
Minor, WUliam T., 28, 52.
Morris, Luzon B., 17 (sketch), 21, 39, 103,
104, 129, 137, 323, 351.
National Fire Insurance Company, 51, 107,
169, 170, 171, 211, 213, 245.
New Haven "Journal and Courier," 374,
395-
New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail
road, 21, 103, 108, 117, 149, 257, 279,
320, 362, 406, 407, 431, 433.
Orient Fire Insurance Company, 23, 49, 96,
122, 123, 133, 257.
Phoenix Insurance Company, 45, 64, 67, 78,*
175, 207, 208.

Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, 23,
175, 217, 267.
Platt, Orville H., 270, 328, 449 (sketch).
Robinson, Henry C, 83, 140, 318 (sketch),
335, 353, 388.
Sons of the American Revolution, 51, 88, 133,
164, 175, 234, 267, 342, 372, 380, 381,
393, 451-
Tilden, Samuel J., 51, 188.
Travelers' Insurance Company, 45, 79, 81,
107, 113, 114, 350, 445, 446.
Trinity College, 87, 98, 105, no, 122, 162,
164, 176, 189, 194, 253, 314, 322, 363.
United States Bank, 57, 96, 428, 429, 430.
Waller, Thomas M., 23, 29, 35 (sketch), 97,
98, 137, 258.
Welles, Gideon, 13 (sketch), 28, 31, 396.
Woodward, P. H., 33, 47, 49, 59, 99 (sketch) ,
218.
Wesleyan University, 13, 308, 368, 408, 426,
430, 440, 441.
Yale University, 5, 17, 19, 21, 27, 53, 55, 62,
65, 66, 76, 82, 83, 99, 102, 103, 109,
III, 125, 126, 130, 136, 137, 138, 140,
145, 159, 164, 172, 176, 185, 187, 196,
209, 211, 225, 235, 252, 254, 275, 284,
286, 287, 293, 303, 311, 312, 313, 318,
321, 326, 330, 331, 333, 334, 335, 343,
346, 348, 350, 356, 359, 360, 363, 369,
388, 412, 413, 416, 418, 426, 427, 431,
432, 447-
Young Men's Christian Association, 104, 105,
115, 125, 154, 224, 342, 372, 380, 381,
393-

THE STORY OF THE BOOK.

One is occasionally privUeged to read the circumstances under which a popular novel is
written, but it is something of an innovation for the story of a book to accompany the
volume itself. The sequel wUl show the reason for the present revelation.
The writer was an experienced newspaper man and had an excellent situation on a
standard Boston weekly ; he had previously assisted in bringing out two similar volumes in
other states, and was debating in February, 1893, as to whether he should bring out the present
book on Connecticut. While he was impressed from his business acquaintance with the state
that the field was a fair one, somehow he could not settle the question for or against the propo
sition. He is a professed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and has a certain amount of faith
in prayer, but had never put any matter of business to the test. Then it occurred to him to
"take it to the Lord in prayer," and ask Him to settle the question.
Not long after he was sent to Hartford to represent his paper, and the thought came —
Here is the opportunity. Accordingly he had a copy of a book issued by the previous
company expressed ahead ; he took with him an outline sketch of a prominent gentleman of
his acquaintance, with other needed data, and started out. At the close of business hours one
afternoon he went to his hotel, knelt down and prayed that the Lord would by some sign
make it plain whether it was wise to commence the work in question. The call was made and
the gentleman was very favorably impressed with the high character of the other work, and
on the assurance that the standard of the present one would be equally high, he consented
to render all the needed assistance to complete the sketch. The matter of an engraving to
accompany the sketch was broached, and an appointment made at his house before business
hours the next morning. After another prayer previous to starting, without going into
details, an order for a fine steel plate was secured. The gentleman knew the writer as a
newspaper man, and simply on the assurance that the work would be brought out he had
faith enough not only to order an engraving, but also to give an introduction to others. Was
not that a sufficient answer to the prayer for a sign ?
On his return to Boston, the writer gave up his situation as soon as other arrangements
could be made. From that time his faith in the ultimate success of the work has never
wavered. The Lord promised the land of Canaan to the children of Israel, but they had to
fight for nearly every foot of the territory ; and so this has been no easily won battle. By
means of introductions from the gentleman mentioned, other valuable friends were secured,
and with an excellent start at the capital the whole state, or rather, its representative men
have been made to believe that a clean, first-class biographical work was to be brought out.
No special cases can be given, but doors have been opened to success in a wonderful manner
and apparently by a powerful, unseen hand. Delays occurred, a few of them extremely
aggravating ones at the last, but that is the fate of most enterprises, whether they are suc
cessful or not. To many men the financial result of eighteen months' work would not be
satisfactory, but the writer has done much better than if he had remained at his old place,
and he is satisfied.

460 THE STORY OF THE BOOK.
The reader may doubt the efficacy of prayer in business ; he may even be inclined to
scoff at the bare thought that the God of heaven rules in the affairs of this world ; but such
a reader knows full well that the year from March, 1893, to March, 1894, was one of the most
inauspicious for starting new enterprises there has been in this country for a third of a
century. Now will he explain why this work succeeded in the face of the discouraging sur
roundings and when so many others failed? The writer makes no claims for exceptional
business shrewdness or ability, and he resolved some time ago to let the reason for his success
be known. The words of the Psalmist are just as true to-day as when they were written so
long ago : " Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass."
William F. Moore.