USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 22
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HON. LIVINGSTON W. CLEAVELAND.
Judge Livingston Warner Cleaveland was born January 31, 1860, at South Egremont, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. His father, Rev. James Bradford Cleaveland, a well known Connecticut Congregational clergyman, died April 21, 1889. His mother, Elizabeth H. Jocelyn Cleaveland poetess, author of the widely read poem "No Sects in Heaven," died in New Haven, January 19, 1911. Her father was the late Nathaniel Jocelyn, the noted portrait painter of New Haven, and one of the founders of the American Bank Note Company of New York city. Judge Cleaveland is a direct descendant paternally of Gover- nor William Bradford, of the Mayflower, and Moses Cleaveland; maternally, a descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, passengers on the Mayflower, related by common an- cestry, paternally to Grover Cleveland and Governor Chauncey F. Cleveland, and maternally to John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Governor Jonathan Trumbull.
Livingston W. Cleaveland graduated from the law department of Yale College with the degree of LL. B., in 1881. He is now secretary of his class. In 1888 he received the degree of M. L. from Yale University. His first occupation was the law. Prior to his admission to the bar, however, he had been employed during vacation periods, for a number of years, in the National Tradesmen's Bank of New Haven. He was elected judge of probate for the district of New Haven in 1894. The first republican to hold that office in nearly thirty
HON. LIVINGSTON W. CLEAVELAND
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years, he was elected for six terms of two years each. In 1898 he was the only republican on the ticket, national, state or local, to carry New Haven. In 1900, when Bryan carried New Haven and the democratic candidate for governor carried the city by about four thousand five hundred, Judge Cleaveland carried the city by about one thousand, one hun- dred. He carried every town in his district every time he ran and occupied the office longer than any one elected in nearly a century. In 1906 lie declined to be a candidate again and accordingly in January, 1907, resumed his law practice. Among the noted cases heard by him was the will case of the late Philo S. Bennett, with which Colonel W. J. Bryan was connected : as executor. Before going on the bench, Mr. Cleaveland was a member of the board of councilmen of New Haven two terms, 1891-1892, representing the tenth ward, and a member of the Board of Finance of New Haven, representing the board of councilman. In 1902 Judge Cleaveland received one hundred and fifty-eight votes in the state convention for the republican nomination for governor of Connecticut. Judge Cleaveland is a member of the International Law Association, the American Bar Associa- tion, and of its Local Council for Connecticut, the State Bar Association of Connecticut, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descend- ants, the Graduates Club, New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the Improved Order of Hep- tasophs (Supreme Committee on Laws 1894-1896), and the New Haven Charter Revision Committee; is a director of the New Haven Young Jlen's Republican Club Committee, a director of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, treasurer of the New Haven branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; one of the national man- agers of the American Sunday School Union, and chairman of the State Young Men's Christian Association. He was president of the Connecticut State Young Men's Christian Association convention in 1903, 1909, 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916; moderator of the Con- necticut Congregational Conference in 1905; president of the New Haven Congregational Club in 1900; has been superintendent of the New Haven City Mission Sunday School since 1889; is a deacon of the United (Cong'l) Church of New Haven, and was chairman of the New Haven Independence Day Celebration Committee 1910-14. He was chairman of the local finance committee for the National Council of Congregational Churches held at New Haven in 1915, has been since 1914 a member of the New Haven County Bar Ex- amining Committee on Moral Character and since 1916 president of Admiral Foote Post Citizens Corps, G. A. R. Upon the passage of the selective service, war draft act by Congress in 1917, he was appointed by President Wilson as member of the local board for Division No. 1 in the city of New Haven, serving as chairman of the board. April 8, 1912, he married Mrs. Frances (Ferrins) Dowkontt, widow of the late Dr. George D. Dowkontt, of New York city, founder of the International Medical Missionary Society. Judge Cleaveland's law offices are in the Second National Bank building and he resides at No. 350 Elm street, New Haven, Connecticut. He is an enthusiastic horseback rider.
Among the cases successfully tried, since his resumption of his law practice, is that of Blake vs. Brothers, which went to the Connecticut Supreme Court. In this case the question of the constitutionality of the Connecticut secret ballot act was involved. Judge Cleaveland was employed by the city of New Haven as special counsel to represent the defendant, the election moderator. He is joint author of "Probate Law and Practice of Connecticut," published (1915) by the Banks Law Publishing Company of New York. In 1912 he delivered an historical address at the bi-centennial of the Congregational church in Kensington, Connecticut.
LEVERETT MARSDEN HUBBARD, JR.
Leverett Marsden Hubbard, Jr., a banker with financial interests in Wallingford and in Hartford, making his home in the former city, where he was born February 15, 1882, is a son of Judge L. M. Hubbard. His education was acquired in the Wesleyan Academy at Wil- braham, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with the class of 1901, and in the Princeton University, where he won his Bachelor of Science degree in 1905. He then entered the banking business in New York city with N. W. Harris & Company, of New York, Chicago and Boston. In 1909 the name of the firm was changed to Harris, Forbes & Company. This
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is the largest distributing bond and investment firm in the country. In 1914 Mr. Hubbard was made manager for Connecticut, with offices in Hartford, and supervises the interests of the company in this state, in which connection an extensive business has been developed. Besides being a member of that firm Mr. Hubbard is also interested in the Wallingford Trust Company, of which he is a director and a member of the executive committee. His long ex- perience in banking has made him thoroughly familiar with every phase of the work and with the investment business, and there is perhaps no one in Connecticut better qualified to speak upon the value of commercial paper or to advise as to judicious investment than he
In his political views Mr. Hubbard is a republican and has taken an active interest in local affairs but never as an office holder by reason of the fact that his business interests keep him largely away from the city. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Compass Lodge, No. 9, F. & A. M., of Wallingford; St. Elmo Commandery, K. T., of Meriden; Lafay- ette Consistory, S. P. R. S., of Bridgeport; and Sphinx Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Hart- ford. He likewise has membership in the Quinnipiac Club, the Country Club of New Haven, the Princeton Club of New York and the Wallingford Club. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in St. Paul's Episcopal church. He resides at No. 26 South Main street in Wallingford and is numbered among the representative business men of Connecticut, figur- ing prominently in financial eireles, while also widely and popularly known in social circles and in fraternal connections.
HON. EDWIN RUTHVEN KELSEY.
Prominent among the lawyers and lawmakers of Connecticut is numbered Hon. Edwin Ruthven Kelsey, who is now judge of the town court and also judge of the probate court of Branford and who in 1912 was elected to represent his district in the state senate.
He was born in Clinton, Middlesex county, Connecticut, September 8, 1873, and is a descendant of William Kelsey, who was one of the original settlers of Killingworth, Con- nectient. His father, Edwin Ruthven Kelsey, was born in Clinton and took up the profes- sion of school teaching, while later he engaged in the business of manufacturing fish oils and fertilizer products, establishing a large plant for his business on Darrows island, off the town of Branford, in 1870. This was during the days of the large fishing industry in this locality and he conducted a business of extensive proportions, with which he was connected until 1908, when he retired from aetive life. He was always much interested in public edu- eation and was a helpful member of the Branford board of education. He also served as president of the board of trustees of Short Beach Union chapel and he was vice president of the Short Beach Association. He made his home at Short Beach, Branford, and there passed away February 5, 1910, honored and respected by all and most of all where he was best known. In early manhood he wedded Charlotte Parks, who was born at Clinton, Connectieut, a daughter of Edwin Parks and a representative of one of the old families of Clinton. She still survives and now lives at the Kelsey home at Short Beach.
Edwin Ruthven Kelsey acquired his early education in the Morgan school at Clinton, Connecticut, and then entered Yale, in which he won the Bachelor of Arts degree upon gradu- ation with the class of 1897. His broad literary learning served as an excellent foundation unon which to rear the superstructure of professional knowledge which to acquire he entered the Yale Law School, from which he was graduated in 1899 with the LL. B. degree. For a time he engaged in active practice as a member of the firm of Harriman & Kelsey, well known attorneys of New Haven. In 1901 he was appointed deputy judge of the town court of Branford and held that position for eight years. In 1909 he was appointed judge of the town court and is still serving upon the beneh. In the fall of 1911 he was elected judge of the probate court of the town of Branford to fill out an unexpired term, taking the office in January, 1912. In that year he was elected for a two years' term and was reelected in 1914 and in 1916, so that he is still the ineumbent in the office, having served continuously since the 1st of January, 1912. In 1912 he was elected state senator, serving during the session of 1913, during which he was made a member of the committees on fish and game, public health and safety. on claims and on senate appointments. He proved an active work -
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ing member of the upper house and was connected with much important constructive legis- lation.
On the 26th of September, 1899, Mr. Kelsey was married to Miss Frances Elizabeth Watrous, of East River, in the town of Madison, New Haven county. She was born in Madison, a daughter of Andrew Stone and Jennie (Dudley) Watrous, who were also natives of Madison. Her father is a retired stone mason and now resides at East River, but the mother has passed away. To Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey have been born four children: Frances Watrous, Grace Gavina, Edwin Ruthven and Roger Allen.
Mr. Kelsey gives his political endorsement to the men and measures of the republican party. He is president and treasurer of the board of trustees of the Short Beach Union chapel, in which position he became his father's successor and is a past master of Widows Son Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., of Branford.
IION. DENNIS ALBERT BLAKESLEE.
Hon. Dennis Albert Blakeslee is conducting business as a general contractor, specializing largely in railroad building. At the same time he has ever recognized the duties and obliga - tions of citizenship and has rendered adequate return for the advantages of citizenship through service in office. Indeed, his name is written large on the pages of Connecticut's his- tory. for he has been a member of its state senate, has been lieutenant governor and has also figured prominently in military circles.
He was born in New Haven, March 11, 1856, and in the paternal line comes from English ancestors, while in the maternal line he is of Scotch descent. His parents were Charles Wells and Martha Jane Blakeslee. The former was a well known contractor and was horn near Westfield, Massachusetts, August 11, 1824, a son of Mathew Gilbert Blakeslee. He was ten years of age when his parents returned to Connecticut, after which he resided for a time in Hamden. Later he worked on a farm through the summer months, while in the winter seasons he attended school and while still quite young he began taking small contracts in New Haven. In 1844 he purchased his home property on George street and there en- gaged in farming on the land now occupied by Grace Hospital. In 1872 he began tak- ing contracts for street paving and his business grew year by year until it reached mam- moth proportions. In later years he admitted his sons to a partnership and finally they took over the responsibilities of the business, thus relieving the father of all care. He gave his political allegiance to the republican party from the time of its organization and his religious faith was that of the Methodist church, to the teachings of which he gave loyal support. Mr. Blakeslee was married twice. He first wedded Eliza Clark, a native of Milford, who passed away in New Haven. For his second wife he chose Martha Jane (Waters) Blair, the widow of Basil Blair, of New Haven. By her former marriage she had two children, William H. Blair and Mrs. Jasper Copley. The children born of the second marriage are Dennis A., Dwight Welsh, Phebe, Clarence. Mrs. Martha Lyman Law and Theodore R. The last named married Miss Addie Hawley and their children are Vera M., Gladys, Dwight W. and Frank.
From early youth Dennis A. Blakeslee had plenty of farm work to do, such as milking the cows, delivering milk and caring for the horses. He has never regretted the carly training he received, however, and believes that all boys should have some regular work to do, as it inculcates habits of industry, thrift and perseverance. When he was sixteen years of age he started upon his life work as a timekeeper for his father on a contract at Bridge- port. He quickly learned the contracting business in principle and detail and has spent his entire life as a general contractor. In this undertaking he is associated with his brother and the firm has had many large and important contracts and has been most successful. They have largely specialized in railroad building and in this connection are widely known. Their interests are conducted under the firm style of C. W. Blakeslee & Sons.
On the 4th of December, 1878, Dennis Blakeslee was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie Law and their children are Hattie F .. Martha, Albert D., Harold L., Miles Grant and Dorothy. The parents are members of the Congregational church and fraternally Mr. Blakeslee is connected with the Masons. His political support is given to the republican party and in
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1880 and 1881 he was a member of the New Haven common council. From 1884 until 1890 he served as fire commissioner of New Haven and later was called upon for more important pub- lic service. In 1906 he was elected a member of the state senate for a two years' term and in 1908 was reelected to that office, so that he remained a member of the upper house of the state legislature for five years. His position upon any vital question is never an equivocal one. He thoroughly studies the questions and issues of the day, carefully considers each public problem from every possible standpoint and when once he has determined upon a course never falters in his advocacy thereof. He has also been lieutenant governor of Con- neeticut and for twenty-five years has been numbered among the most loyal and influential republicans of the state. For eight years he was a member of the Second Company of the Governor's Horse Guard and for part of that time was major in command of the organiza- tion. ITis life work has brought him prominently before the public and among the leading men of Connecticut the record of none has perhaps been more faultless in honor, fearless in conduet or stainless in reputation.
WILLIAM CHARLES HARMON.
William Charles Harmon, president of the Pond Lily Company of New Haven and thus well known in manufacturing circles of the eity, where he was born October 7, 1868, has continuously made his home here with the exception of a brief period spent upon the Pacific coast. His father, George M. Ifarmon, was a native of Brookfield, Massachusetts, born December 2, 1837, and removed to New Haven prior to the Civil war. After the out- break of hostilities with the south he joined the army as a member of the Company F, Fourth Connecticut Infantry, becoming a second lieutenant. This command was afterward changed to the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, in which he was made captain of Com- pany G. After the war he turned his attention to manufacturing in New Haven and in his later years was also interested in business enterprises in New York and Boston. He was likewise prominently identified with public affairs in his adopted city, standing at all times on the side of progress and improvement, and for a period he was adjutant general of Connecticut under Governor Bigelow. He died in 1910, while bis wife passed away May 5, 1904. She bore the maiden name of Mary A. Baldwin and was a daughter of Darius Baldwin, of Orange, who came from Oxford, England. The ancestral line of William Charles Ifarmon can be traced baek to a remote period. His grandfather, Marvin Harmon, was a native of the state of New York and wedded Lavinia Jenks, a danghter of the Rev. Hervy Jenks, who was a descendant of Roger Williams. To Mr. and Mrs. George M. Harmon were born five children: George H., who died in July, 1882; Mary L., the wife of Charles E. Hellier, of Boston; William C .; Frank W., a member of the firm of Harmon & Spaulding of New Haven; and Edward F., of California.
No special event occurred to vary the usual routine of life for William Charles Harmon in his boyhood and youth. Starting out in the business world, he became a partner in a men's furnishing goods store in 1886, with Charles W. Wilson, establishing the firm of Charles W. Wilson & Company. Later the name was changed to Harmon Brothers, com- posed of William C. and Frank W. Harmon, and continued as such until 1897 when William C. retired from the firm. He afterward spent two years in California and in 1900 he bought an interest in the Pond Lily Company, in which he was made secretary and treasurer. In 1905 he purchased the controlling interest and retained his position of secretary and treasurer until 1912, when he became the president.
On the 25th of March, 1890, Mr. Harmon was married in New Haven to Miss Mira L. Cargill, a daughter of Frank A. Cargill, of this city. They have two children, Margaret and William C. The dangliter is a sculptress of New York city. The son was with the Calco Chemical Company of Boundbrook, New Jersey, until he volunteered for service in the ordnance department and is now holding the rank of first lieutenant. He married Ethel Thomas, a daughter of Captain Thomas Thomas, of New Haven, and has two children, Jane and Elizabeth.
Mr. and Mrs. William C. Harmon reside in Orange, Connecticut. He is a stanch republican in politics where national interests are involved but at local elections casts an independent
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ballot. He is prominent in club circles, holding membership with the Union League, the Quinnipiac, the New Haven Country, the Edgewood, the New Haven Yacht, the Silver Sands Clubs and the Loyal Legion. He likewise belongs to the Civic Society and stands for all those things which are most worth while in the life of the community. He belongs also to the Chamber of Commerce, while the firm of which he is the head has a membership in the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, the National Association of Manufacturers and also the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers. Mr. Harmon is a progressive business man, alert to every opportunity that opens in the natural ramifications of trade, and passing over the pitfalls into which unrestricted progressiveness is so frequently led, he has been enabled to focus his energies in direction where fruition is certain. In his business career, a native justice expresses itself in correct principle and practice. In civic matters he displays a deep earnestness impelled and fostered by indomitable perseverance, and in all that he does he is ruled by more than ordinary intelligence and good judgment.
ALDEN MARCHI YOUNG.
Through the popularizing of electricity, many wonderful changes have come about during the last forty years. To accomplish these seemingly marvelous results. two classes of men were needed-the inventor and the business man. Among the latter elass, few men have made a greater or more lasting impression upon the state of Connecticut, and, incidentally upon the northeastern section of the United States, than Alden March Young.
Mr. Young was a native of Hadley, New York, born September 6, 1853. His parents were Dr. William S. and Esther (Kilbourne) Young. His father was of Scotch descent, while the Kilbournes were of New Hartford stock. After completing the public school course in his native town, it was the intention of Mr. Young's father, who was a civil war surgeon, that his son should follow in his footsteps. As a consequence, Mr. Young spent some time study- ing with his father along medical lines, and tutoring on general subjects. But Mr. Young soon found that his natural abilities were not having their proper development and, with that quick decision, which later became characteristic, he abandoned medicine as a career and took up electricity, which was to be the medium of his greatest help to his community.
His first employment, along his chosen lines, was with the Western Union Telegraph Company at Syracuse. He soon became an expert telegrapher, and operated for the stock exchange in Buffalo. Later, going to New York, he became familiar with the cable depart- ment of the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company, and then returned to Buffalo, as man- ager of the company there, taking this position before he reached the age of twenty-five.
After a few unimportant changes of employment, which, however, served to hroaden his knowledge of the practical working of electricity, as then known, Mr. Young moved to Waterbury in June, 1878. Here he became superintendent and manager of the Water- bury Automatic Signal Telegraph Company. In this capacity he installed for the Waterbury Clock Company the first telephone in Waterbury.
Mr. Young's interest in electric eall bells, and the incidental wiring, caused the ineep- tion, in 1880, of the movement which resulted in the development of the New England Engineering Company, a corporation of which Mr. Young was president at the time of his death, and which operated five retail and contract departments, a New York contracting office, and owned the stock of a successful wholesale electric concern. This company has done some of the most important electrie installation work in Connecticut, as well as large central station construction in New York, New Jersey and Ohio. After having been out of the Waterbury Automatie Company for a short time. Mr. Young returned as secretary, which position he retained until 1888.
Mr. Young's interest in the expansion and nses of electricity caused him to associate himself with Messrs. Plume, Turner and A. O. Shepardson in the chartering of a corpora- tion to furnish electric light and power in Waterbury. The first plant of this company was in a frame building on Bank street, afterwards used as a pattern shop by the Water- bury Farrel Foundry and Machine Company. In 1893, over two hundred miles of electric wire had been strung about the city. The same year the legislature amended the char- ter of the Waterbury Horse Railroad Company, and changed its name to the Waterbury
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Traction Company. Mr. Young became secretary, and was chiefly responsible for the electri- fication of that line. Previous to this, however, he had been the first to apply electricity to the movement of street railway cars in Connecticut, by electrifying the Derby Street Railway. He then applied power to the New Haven and West Haven road, the second in this state to be electrified. As a pioneer in the development of electrical energy, Mr. Young had to meet the opposition of the so-called vested interests. The New Haven road was his bitter opponent when it came to paralleling steam lines with electric trolleys. Lawyers still talk of the Canastotia Knife Company's famous injunction suit. This was an attempt by the steam road to hold up a trolley line, by preventing a necessary crossing. Mr. Young's practicality was exemplified by the fact that while he employed the best obtainable legal talent. and left the suit to them, he anticipated the possibility of an adverse decision by quietly purchasing other property. The result was that the court decided in favor of the >team road, but the trolley line was built on another right of way.
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