USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. II > Part 80
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PATRICK J. CALLAGHAN, M. D.
Dr. Patrick J. Callaghan, a graduate of the State University of Alabama. was for many years actively engaged in the practice of medicine in Waterbury and since 1915 has fol- lowed his profession in New Haven.
He was born in New York city, April 23, 1862, a son of Michael and Mary (McCartney) Callaghan, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The father there engaged in mercantile pursuits, residing at Castleblayney, where he engaged in the leather and shoe business on an extensive scale. He remained a resident of that country until his demise. Soon
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afterward his widow came to America and established her home in New York city. It was subsequent to her emigration that Dr. Callaghan was born. She afterward removed to Bridgeport, where she continued to make her home to the time of her death, which oc- enrred in 1915, when she had reached the age of eighty-seven years. She was married H second time and she became the mother of eight children: Mrs. Minnie Glynes, who re- sides in Bridgeport; Mrs. Eugene Carten, also living in Bridgeport: Miss Annie MeShane; Mrs. Conrad Prutting, of Bridgeport; James McShane, living in Bridgeport : Mrs. Bridget Reilly, widow of Christopher B. Reilly, and who resides in Bridgeport : and James Callaghan, deceased.
The other member of the family, Dr. Callaghan, was the third in order of birth. Ilis boyhood days were spent in New York city and in Bridgeport, where he attended the public schools. After leaving the high school at Bridgeport he became a student in the medical department of the University of Alabama, from which he was graduated with the class of 1>92. He then returned to Connecticut and opened an office in Bridgeport, where he remained for a time and then removed to Waterbury, where he continued in the private practice of medicine for over two decades. In 1915 he became a resident of New Haven, where he has since practiced.
lle is a man of pronounced ability in his chosen profession. He supplemented his early training by post graduate work in New York city and he has always remained a close and discriminating student of the profession, reading broadly and thinking deeply along lines which have to do with his chosen life work. He is a member of the New Haven, the New Haven County, the Connectieut State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. While residing in Waterbury he served for many years as city physician.
In April. 1893. Dr. Callaghan was united in marriage to Miss Mary Mulling-, of Waterbury, the wedding being solemnized in the Immaculate Roman Catholic church. She passed away in Waterbury in May, 1901, leaving one child. Mary Cecelia Madeline, who was born June 16, 1894, in Waterbury, and is a graduate of Mount St. Joseph's Seminary. in which she spent ten years as a student, completing her course in 1915. She is now a kindergarten teacher in Bridgeport.
Dr. Callaghan is well known in fraternal circles, holding membership with the Royal Arcanum and with the Owls, in which organization he has been president. lis religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church and he belongs to the Knights of Columbus. Hi- interest centers in hi- profession. the duties of which he discharges with a sense of conscientious obligation. and although his residence in New Haven has been of briet duration. he bas won a place among its most successful physicians.
EDWIN A. SMITHI.
Edwin A. Smith, for thirty six years actively connected with the legal profession and now serving as prosecuting attorney of Orange, was born August 14. 1537. in Allentown. Pennsylvania.
His father. Joseph H. Smith, was a native of the Keystone state, born December 23. 1×33, and was a representative of an old family of Pennsylvania of English origin. The family was founded in America in early colonial days and had sit or more representatives in the Revolutionary war. Joseph H. Smith was a wheelwright by trade and followed that business for many years but is now living retired in West Haven. He became a resident of New Haven in 1859 and during the intervening period has been closely con- nected with this section of the state. He married Hannah Barber, a native of Pennsyl- vania who belonged to one of the old Pennsylvania families. She traced her descent from Robert Barber, who came to America during the latter part of the seventeenth een- tury and settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The family were Quakers and although that seet is opposed to war, some of them participated in the Revolutionary war, thus aiding in winning American independence. Mrs. Smith survives and is now eighty-two years of age. her birth having occurred in Max. 1-55. To Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Smith
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were born four children, two of whom are living: Edwin A. of this review; and Mrs. T. J. MeRonald, of Southington, Connecticut.
Edwin A. Smith is indebted to the public school system of New Haven for his early educational opportunities. He passed through consecutive grades to the high school and when seventeen years of age started out to earn his own livelihood, being first employed along mechanical lines. It being his desire to enter upon a professional career he entered with that purpose in view the law department of Yale University and was graduated in 1881 with the LL. B. degree. He pursued post graduate studies during the following year. receiving the degree of Master of Laws. Following his graduation he at once opened an office and entered upon practice, in which he has actively continued to the present.
In 1892, in New Haven, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth 1. Cornwall, a native of Connecticut, born in New Haven and a daughter of Samuel and Louisa Cornwall, both of whom have passed away. The latter belonged to the Woodruff family of Orange, Connecticut, while the Cornwalls were of an old Milford, Connecticut, family of English descent. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born two sons: Alan, who was graduated from Vale in 1916 with the Bachelor of Arts degree: and Woodruff R., who was a member of the class of 191s in the Sheffield Scientific School, and was drafted in the national army.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith are connected with the Episcopal church and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party. He was a member of the town court of Orange, having been assistant judge for four years. le has also served as assistant proseenting attorney and is now prosecuting attorney of Orange.
THOMAS LAWRENCE REILLY.
Thomas Lawrence Reilly, former congressman and former mayor of Meriden, who for many years figured prominently in journalistic circles in Connecticut, was born in New Britain, September 20, 1858. a son of John and Catherine (Fagan) Reilly. The father was a native of County Cavan. Ireland, and the mother of County Longford. Both came to America in the early '50s and after a brief period spent in Brooklyn, New York, re moved to New Britain. The father was an iron molder by trade. During the last ton years of his life he was a resident of Buffalo, New York, where he was keeper in the Erie County penitentiary. With his brother-in-law, the late James Reynolds of New Haven, he was prominently identified with many Irish national movement -.
Thomas L. Reilly received his early education in St. Mary's parochial school and after- ward attended the State Normal School at New Britain, Connecticut, where he was grad. nated on the 30th of June, 1876, being the only male member of this Centennial class, which numbered twenty-six. When his textbooks were put aside he began working for a contractor, S. P. Cooley, in the Russell & Erwin factory at New Britain, drilling spindle- for door knobs. His initial activity that brought him eventually to the field of journalism was put forth during his school days, when he wrote local news for several state paper -. Later he had charge, under Town Clerk John Walsh, of New Britain, of the task of getting up the first index of the records of that town. In the fall of 1876 he entered the employ of the Kiernan Printing Company of New Haven and in September. 1957. he and the family removed to Meriden and there he entered the law office of Attorney D. J. Donahoe. intending to engage in the practice of law as a life work. He remained with Judge Don- ahoe until the latter removed to Middletown and then entered the office of the late George A. Fay. His mother's death, resulting from an accident, occasioned a change of hi- plan- and he began to work as clerk and bookkeeper for the late John F. Butler. Subsequently he was employed in the packing department of the Meriden Britannia Company and from there began his active newspaper life as the regular Meriden representative of the New Haven Union. He afterward was employed successively by the Meriden Press, the Mer- iden Republican and the New Haven Register. being legislative reporter tor the last named paper during the session of 1555. On the 11th of April of the latter year he became associated with Francis Atwater, F. E. Sands and the late Les Alen in the pub- lication of the Meriden Daily Journal. being secretary of the company and city editor.
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For a quarter of a century there was no change in the directors or officers of that cor- poration, and Mr. Reilly remained with the Journal until elected to congress in 1910.
On the 1st of January, 1884, in Blackstone, Massachusetts, Mr. Reilly was united in marriage to Miss Maria E. Rowen, a daughter of Michael Rowen. She died November 30, 1906, and in 1909, in Meriden, Connecticut, Mr. Reilly was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. S. Downes, a daughter of Charles Downes. Mr. Reilly has seven children, namely : Robert Rowen, Katherine Margaret, Mary Franees, Louis James, Arthur E. J., Rose Aequin and Agnes Monica. Katherine and Rose are Sisters of Mercy and are known in their order as Sisters Valeriana and Madelena, respectively. The only one married of the chil- dren is Arthur, American viee consul at Stockholm, Sweden. His wife was, before her marriage, Stephanie Kasprowicz, of Warsaw, Poland. Thomas Lawrence Reilly, 2d, is the result of that marriage.
Mr. Reilly is a member of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church at Meriden. He is identified with several fraternal organizations, being a charter member of Silver City Council, No. 2, Knights of Columbus; the Meriden lodge of Elks; Pilgrims' Harbor Council of the Royal Areanum; the Woodmen of the World; and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was elected grand esteemed leading knight of the Order of Elks at the Grand Lodge, which met in Boston, July 11, 1917. He is also identified with the Ancient Order of Hibernians and he has membership in the John Dillon Club, the Amaranth Club of Mer- iden, the 1711 Club of Meriden and the Knights of St. Patrick of New Haven.
In polities he is a democrat and his military record covers service with the Second Company of the Governor's Foot Guard of New Haven. He has been active in public offiee as a selectman and member of the school board, was also a director of the public library and was mayor of his eity from January, 1906, until April, 1912. He was elected to congress from the second congressional district in 1910 and reelected in 1912 from the new third district, his term expiring March 4, 1915. On the 5th of April of that year he was appointed income tax agent and was made estate tax agent on the 1st of July, 1917.
Mr. Reilly has long been an active factor in molding publie thought and action in his section of the state. It is a dull mind that does not respond to the touch of his thought, to the play of his fancy, to the foree of his logic. His breadth of view has not only recognized possibilities for his own advancement but also for the city's development, and his lofty patriotism has prompted him to utilize the latter as quickly and as effectively as the former.
OSCAR EDWARD MAURER, D. D.
Dr. Oscar Edward Maurer, an eminent divine who was pastor of Center church of New Ilaven, while in close touch with all ecclesiastieal interests and a most earnest and eon- secrated worker for the development of his ehureh, is one who has never lost the common touch and therefore has put forth effective activity not only for the uplift of the individual but also for the benefit of the community. Holding to the highest standards of citizenship, he has labored along those lines which recognize the needs of the foreign element for instruction in the ideals and standards of American citizenship. In a word he has passed beyond that stage at which the church for many years seems to have rested-the stage in which the church instruction regarded largely the history of ancient raees and their God, with comparatively little instruction concerning the fact that the same Deity presides over the destinies of our own country as well and has to do with its history and epoch making just as with the history of countries of the past. In a word Dr. Maurer is in touch with advanced thought and purposes and holds at all times to the highest ideals.
He came to New England from the middle west, his birth having oceurred in Garna- villo, lowa, January 22, 1878. His father, Jacob D. Maurer, was also a native of that state and of German descent. The family emigrated to America as the result of participation in the German revolution and Jacob D. Maurer spent his life as a teacher in the publie schools of lowa, where he passed away in 1896, at the age of fifty-four years. He was largely instrumental in developing the public school system of his native state, his
REV. OSCAR E. MAURER, D. D.
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labors constituting an element of great value in that connection. Ilis wife, who bore the maiden name of Laura E. Wirkler, is likewise a native of Iowa and of Swiss descent, her people having come to the new world in 1853. Mrs. Maurer still survives. She became the mother of four sons, of whom Dr. Oscar E. Maurer is the eldest. The others are: Rev. W. Irving Maurer, who was graduated from Beloit College in 1904 and from Yale in 1909 and is now pastor of the First Congregational church at Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Lloyd L. Maurer, who was graduated from Beloit in 1911 and from the Yale Medical College in 1916 and is now on duty as first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve, at Newport News, Virginia; and Keith L. Maurer, who was graduated from Amherst College in 1917 and is now mechanic's mate in the naval reserve. A sister, Norma, died in her fourteenth year.
Dr. Oscar E. Maurer was educated in the public schools of lowa until his personal labor made it possible for him to pursue more advanced courses in college and university. While in high school he learned the printer's trade and from 1893 until 1897 owned and published the Garnavillo Sentinel, a six-column quarto weekly newspaper, at which time he was the youngest member of the Iowa Press Association. He sold his paper in 1897 and for a year engaged in teaching in his native state before entering Beloit Academy, in which he spent one year as a student. He then matriculated in Beloit College and won his Bachelor of Arts degree upon graduation, magna cum laude, in 1903. While there he took deep interest in debating and oratory and was on the winning team of two intercollegiate debates and gained first place in the Interstate Oratorical Contest held at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1902, in which sixty-seven colleges were represented. In 1903 he entered Yale and received the Master of Arts degree from the Graduate School of Yale in 1906, while in the same year he won the Bachelor of Divinity degree upon completing a course in the Yale Divinity School. In 1912 Beloit College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. While in the seminary he assisted in establishing the Yale Divinity Quarterly, the first student magazine of the Yale Divinity School, and served on its editorial board for two years. He was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association in 1904 and held the student pastorate in the Congregational church at Easton, Connecticut, for two years while in the seminary. lle was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1906 and accepted the pastorate of the church at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1909, when he became pastor of Center church in New Haven, where he remained continuously from April, 1909, to December, 1917. He has been a trustee of Center Church Home for Aged Women and president of the Congregational Union of New Haven since 1910. He is also president of the Davenport Association, which conducts the Davenport church and settlement on Green street. He is a director of the Organized Charities Association, is a member of the executive committee of the American Missionary Association, is secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a director of the Congregational Board of Ministerial Relief and a trustee of Piedmont . College-associations which indicate something of the nature and breadth of his interests. In addition he has found time for authorship and in 1915 published a volume entitled The Brotherhood of the Burning Heart. He is also the author of a number of articles on theological and literary subjects which have appeared in current magazines.
On the 25th of July, 1905, Dr. Maurer was married to Miss Marion Elizabeth Spooner, a daughter of William Spooner, of Oak Park, Illinois, who. however, is a native of Litch- field county, Connecticut, and of Elizabeth (Brown) Spooner, a native of Dutchess county, New York. Mrs. Maurer is a graduate of Beloit College of the class of 1903. By this marriage there are three sons: William Spooner. born May 2, 1909: Oscar Edward. bora January 22, 1911; and Eric Wirkler, born February 28, 1915.
There is a military chapter in the life record of Dr. Maurer, who became a member of the Second Regiment of the Wisconsin National Guard, with which he served for two years in early manhood, while since 1910 he has been chaplain of the Second Company of the Governor's Foot Guards of Connecticut with the rank of captain. In December, 1917, Dr. Maurer sailed for France, to enter on a year's service with the army Young Men's Christian Association, after having been in similar service for three months in Camp Meade, Mary- land. He belongs to the Beta Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa. to the Beta Chapter of the Delta Sigma Rho and to the Phi Kappa Epsilon of Yale. He is also a member of the Association of Congregational Ministers, of the Graduates Club and of other organizations. His labors have been of far-reaching effect and benefit and have covered efforts for the
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union of the Davenport and Center churches, the adoption by the First church of a definite policy of work among the foreigners of New Haven, the democratization of the First church, the people's forum, open-air preaching and mid-week services. He feels deep interest in social and labor problems and has frequently been invited to act as mediator in labor difficulties. He studies the great vital and significant questions of the age with deep earnestness and thoroughness and believes in the education of the masses, for which end he has instituted the people's forum that all questions of general concern may be freely discussed. His Christianity is the basic element of all of his teaching; he has ever endeavored to instruct people in the ways of life that they might hold to higher standards in their relations with their fellowmen, in all business connections and in matters of citizen- ship, while recognizing that the guiding hand of destiny is the hand of omnipotent power.
REV. JOHN LOUIS CEPA.
Rev. John Louis Cepa, the zealous and highly esteemed pastor of St. Stanislaus' Roman Catholic church and principal of the parochial school conducted in connection with that parish, was born in Poland, November 24, 1880, a son of John and Frances Cepa, both of whom were living at the outbreak of the great war. His sister, Mary Frances, is also still in Poland.
Rev. John L. Cepa attended the public schools in his native town and continued his education in the Catholic University at Fribourg, Switzerland, and graduated from that institution in 1905. On the 24th of October of that year he came to America and was assigned as assistant pastor of the Sacred Heart Polish Catholic church of New Britain. After filling that position with marked ability for ten months he was given charge of St. Stanislaus' church at Meriden, taking up his work here August 24, 1906. At that time the church membership was abont twelve hundred but it has now reached the four thousand mark. The wonderful growth which the church has made during the eleven years of Rev. Cepa's pastorate is further indicated by the fact, that when he came here the church property consisted of a wooden building situated at Oak and Jefferson streets, which was sold and replaced by a fine brick church and school, together valued at one hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars.
Father Cepa has one assistant, Rev. George J. Bartlewski, who was also educated in the university at Fribourg, and so extensive is the work of the parish that at least one other priest is badly needed, but on account of conditions in Poland it has been impos- sible to seenre the services of young Polish priests. The school has an attendance of about seven hundred and twenty pupils and the teaching is done by twelve Sisters. The Rev. Cepa has done much of the work of the institution and has taken a great interest in promoting its upbuilding, realizing the importance of a Christian education. He gives himself unstintingly to the upbuilding of the interests of the church along its varied lines of activity and finds his greatest pleasure in the consciousness of having accomplished well the task given him to do. lle has the entire confidence and the hearty cooperation of his parishioners and is recognized not only as one of the leading representatives of the church in Meriden but also as one of its most influential citizens of Polish extraction.
CHARLES GODFRIED JOHNSON.
Charles Godfried Johnson, well known as the president of the Algonquin Amusement Company of New Haven, was born in Sweden, July 10, 1880, and when but five years of age was brought to the United States by his parents. Charles P. and Hannah Johnson, who landed at New York city but almost immediately afterward removed to New Haven.
Here Charles G. Johnson became a pupil in the public schools but his educational op- portunities were somewhat limited as it was necessary that he provide for his own sup- port from an early age. He was first in the employ of the Greist Manufacturing Company, with which he remained for two years, after which he spent one year in a grocery store.
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Later he was with the Winchester Arms Company for nine years and during that period carefully saved his earnings until he felt that his capital and his experience justified him in engaging in business on his own account. In 1911 he organized the Algonquin Amuse- ment Company, which he incorporated in the same year, becoming its president, with George R. Kelsey as the secretary and treasurer. He has extensive and expensive bowl- ing alleys and billiard parlors containing seven alleys and twenty-three tables. Ilis place contains thirteen thousand, two hundred square feet of floor space and is splendidly appointed. He maintains a high class establishment, standing for clean sport and he is himself a bowler of national reputation, having taken part in exhibitions in the United States from coast to coast. He appeared in public exhibitions at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and he has given instruction in bowling in all of the impor- tant eities from Boston to the Golden Gate. In 1905 he won the state bowling champion- ship and again for three successive years thereafter. In 1911 he and his partner. Mr. Kelsey. broke the world's two-man record in bowling at Buffalo. New York, with a score of 1,355, and this record still holds. In 1912 at the national meet, in Paterson, New Jersey, of the National Bowling Association Mr. Johnson again was the winner in the two-man event, it being the only instance on record up to that time where one man won the same event two years in succession in a national contest. In 1914 Mr. Johnson headed the team from New Haven that won the world's championship at Buffalo, New York. In his establish- ment in this eity he employs fifteen men and his business is most liberally patronized.
Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss Olga Olson and they had one chikl, Charles E. Mrs. Johnson died September 9, 1914, in New Haven, her demise causing sincere regret among her many friends and many were the tokens of condolence and sympathy the bereaved family received.
Mr. Johnson belongs to Olive Branch Lodge, No. 84, F. & A. M .; Myrtle Chapter, R. A. M .; and Grotto Council, R. & S. M. He is also identified with the Vasa. a Swedish organization, and in politics is an independent voter. While he has made a success of his business interests, he has done even more in upholding the highest standards as a sportsman and New Haven is proud to number in her citizenship one who holds the world's championship in bowling.
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