A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 960

USA > Connecticut > Windham County > A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume II > Part 46

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There is another field of labor, however, in which Mr. Jaques has gained still wider renown and his high efficiency as a caterer has won for him the name of King George. In 1879 he was employed to assist in the preparation of a clam bake which

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took place at Maddens Grove, now known as Wildwood Park, and he thus became interested in the work, which he took up as a side line to his contracting business. He visited various places in the east to gain a thorough knowledge of the best methods of baking and serving clams and from that time to the present he has been a caterer for clam bakes, having a reputation second to none in this line of work, being known far and wide under the sobriquet. His services have been sought throughout Con- necticut and Rhode Island. Various fraternities, including the Elks, Masons and Odd Fellows, together with churches and commercial houses that hold an annual clam bake, always retain the services of Mr. Jaques, who is regarded as one of the best judges of clams in the country. He has used and baked as many as or more than five hundred bushels of clams in a single year at his various catering engagements. He secures the clams mostly from Rhode Island but has also used New Hampshire clams and at times has gone as far as Maine to secure the desired bivalves. He always personally selects the clams to be used and he has a complete clam-bake outfit and is ready to travel any place on short notice to take charge of an entertainment of this character. Mr. Jaques was the originator of the Old Home Week, an annual affair in the village of East Killingly. It is a yearly clam bake for his native village and the people look forward to this as a most interesting day. At such gatherings he always employs notable speakers, usually ministers, and in the evening an orchestra is secured and a dance held. It is always an occasion of rare pleasure to the village and surrounding country and a never-to-be-forgotten event by any who have the opportunity to attend. Mr. Jaques was once called upon to serve a clam bake on the estate of J. W. Doane of Thompson, Connecticut, who has one of the finest places in America and who thus entertained his friends at a gathering that cost several thou- sand dollars. Mr. Jaques' reputation as a baker of clams is known throughout the east, for the affairs which he has managed have been written up in all the papers in this part of the country. He is also a great sportsman, having a wide reputation as a fox hunter and trapper extending over forty years.

On the 12th of March, 1869, Mr. Jaques was married at Gloucester, Rhode Island, to Miss Jeanette Simonds, who was born at Foster, Rhode Island. They became the parents of four children: Mabel, the wife of George Pray, a mill man of East Kil- lingly, by whom she has two children, Abbie and Ruth; Minnie, the wife of Benjamin Cole, of Cranston, Rhode Island, and the mother of a daughter, Vera; Laura, the wife of Charles Egan, a detective of Providence, Rhode Island, by whom she has one child, Dorothy; and Frank L., who is station agent at East Killingly.

In politics Mr. Jaques is a democrat and a warm admirer of President Wilson. He has served as grand juror, has also been tax collector and constable and takes an active interest in political affairs. He is one of the well known residents of East Killingly, a substantial citizen, a genial gentleman and one who wins friends wherever he goes.

HON. FRANK ORRAY DAVIS.

A valuable farm property, situated a mile west of Pomfret Center, on the state road, pays tribute to the care and labor of Hon. Frank Orray Davis, who through the course of an active life has been identified with various lines of business and has also filled a number of public offices of honor and trust. He is now serving as post- master of Pomfret Center.

He was born in Pomfret on the 8th of January, 1859, and is a son of Charles and Betsy Elizabeth (Rich) Davis. The father was born in Thompson, Windham county, in 1818, and in young manhood removed to Pomfret and afterward became a resident of Oxford, Massachusetts. He learned the trade of wool sorter at the Slater woolen mills in Webster, Massachusetts, and subsequently removed to Ballston and afterward to Little Falls, New York, where he was employed as a sorter in various woolen mills, having become very expert at that business. He had a natural inclina- tion, however, toward mechanics and when the reaper was developed he made his way westward to Chicago and was employed in a reaper manufactory, being engaged in mechanical work in the establishment. Some time afterward he returned to Pomfret and later removed to Monson, Massachusetts, where he was employed as a wool sorter in the Reynolds Woolen Mills, spending six years in that connection. In 1866 he again came to Pomfret and in 1869 he went to New York city, where he was employed in sorting wool for a wholesale wool dealer. His next place of residence was at Sag Harbor, Long Island, where he worked as a truck gardener for nine years. On the expiration of that period he once more came to Pomfret and engaged in the cultivation of his old farm. Still later he retired from active life and passed

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away in Pomfret in October, 1895. His father was born in Thompson and the family was numbered among those that originally settled Oxford, Massachusetts, in the early colonial days. The mother of Frank O. Davis was born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, was reared in Oxford and passed away in Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1900, at the age of eighty-two years.

Frank O. Davis pursued his early education in the district schools of Monson, Massachusetts, between the ages of five and seven years and then to the age of ten was a pupil in the schools of Pomfret. He afterward spent three years as a student in the public schools of Brooklyn, New York, and from thirteen to sixteen years of age continued his studies in the schools of Sag Harbor. In 1875 and 1876 he was a student in the high school of Killingly, Connecticut, which completed his educational training. When his textbooks were put aside he turned his attention to farming and to the implement and farm machinery business at Pomfret Center and in 1899 he broadened the scope of his labors to include the real estate and insurance busi- ness. He has since given up the sale of farm implements but now conducts an exten- sive real estate business, handling farm, city and mill property. For eleven years he had a real estate office in Putnam, but he now conducts his real estate and insurance business at Pomfret Center, where he is also filling the position of postmaster, to which he was appointed on the 2d of January, 1917.

On the 12th of October, 1889, Mr. Davis was united in marriage to Miss Annie Louise Clapp, of Pomfret Center, a native of Pomfret and a daughter of John W. and Olive D. (Holt) Clapp, the former born in Pomfret, while the latter was a native of Hampton, Connecticut. Her father followed the occupation of farming as a life work. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have become the parents of three children, all born in Pomfret: Olive Elizabeth, who is a graduate of Smith College and is now teacher of history in the West Warwick high school of Rhode Island; Willard Gardner, who is employed by the Ship and Engine Company of New London, Connecticut; and Annie Idella, who is a Normal School pupil in Willimantic.

In politics Mr. Davis is a democrat. He has been a strong worker for prohibi- tion and has been very active in organizing and keeping alive the prohibition party in the town of Pomfret, doing everything in his power to advance the temperance cause and to bring to an end the sale and use of intoxicants. He has taught tem- perance both by precept and example and his efforts have been productive of much good. Mr. Davis has served as register of voters in Pomfret. In 1904 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature and was reelected in 1906. He served during his first term on the committee on federal elections and during his second term was house chairman of the committee on forfeited rights. He was also active during his second term in preventing the removal of the Brooklyn Bank from the town of Brooklyn to the town of Killingly in Windham county. He was appointed by Governor Baldwin as one of the three members of the fish and game commission of Connecticut and was reappointed for a second term. When Charles E. Barber of Plainfield, serving as county commissioner, died in office, Governor Baldwin appointed Mr. Davis to fill out the unexpired term and he served in that position for a year and a half.

He was a charter member of Wolf Den Grange and at one time a member of the State Grange. For twenty years he was identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was also a member of the Sons of Temperance but is not connected with any of these organizations at the present time. He owns and occupies a fine farm residence about a mile west of Pomfret Center and has long been recognized as a most active and prominent citizen of the town of Pomfret. He is actuated in all that he does by a public-spirited devotion to the general good and his labors have been far reaching and effective.

OWEN O'NEILL, M. D.

Holding to the highest professional standards in the practice of medicine and surgery, Dr. Owen O'Neill has made for himself a prominent position among the physicians and surgeons of Willimantic, where he has practiced since 1906. He was born in New London, Connecticut, September 25, 1881. His father, John O'Neill, is still a resident of New London, but his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary M. Filburn, passed away in 1902.

Owen O'Neill acquired a public school education and determined upon the prac- tice of medicine as a life work. With that end in view he entered the Long Island Hospital College at Brooklyn, where he spent a year, and later studied in the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in

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1904 with the M. D. degree. He afterward spent a year as an interne in St. Joseph's Hospital at Philadelphia and later was for two years connected with the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. In 1906 he took up his abode in Willimantic, Con- necticut, where he has since been engaged in practice, and through the passing years his business has steadily increased in volume and importance. Something of his high professional standing is indicated in the fact that the Windham County Medical Society has honored him with election to its presidency. He is very careful in the diagnosis of his cases, is thoroughly in earnest, conscientious in the perform- ance of his duties and by reason of his ability is meeting with marked success. He also belongs to the Connecticut Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion.

On the 11th of July, 1914, Dr. O'Neill was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Bentley and they have one child, John Bentley, who was born June 9, 1915. Dr. and Mrs. O'Neill are communicants of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church and he is identified with the Knights of Columbus. Fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and politically he maintains an independent course, voting according to the dictates of his judgment without regard to party ties. He is a self-made man and one whose success and progress are due entirely to individual effort, laudable ambition and indefatigable energy. His professional col- leagues as well as the general public speak of him in terms of high praise by reason of what he has achieved in professional circles.

Dr. O'Neill has joined the United States forces and is at the present doing duty in France, placing his wide knowledge at the disposal of his country in her struggle to maintain democracy and freedom throughout the world.

REV. WILLIAM ARTHUR KEEFE.

Rev. William Arthur Keefe, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic church at Norwich, Connecticut, went to that place from Plainfield, where for eight years he had filled the pastorate of St. John's church. He is one of the best known representatives of the Catholic clergy in Connecticut, owing not only to his work in the church but to his active service in connection with the Council of Defense during the period of the World war.

He was born in Terryville, Connecticut, February 17, 1877, a son of Martin L. and Catherine (Ryan) Keefe. The father was born in County Clare, Ireland, and as a boy went to Terryville, Connecticut, where he married. Later he removed to Water- bury, where he was superintendent of a manufacturing company for forty years, there passing away on the 10th of February, 1919. His wife, who was born at Terry- ville, Connecticut, is now living at Waterbury. Their children are: William Arthur; Mary, who is now a teacher in the art department of the Waterbury grammar schools and is president of the Teachers Association of Waterbury; and Martin, who served as a private in the Fifth Regiment of United States Marines and was with the American Expeditionary Force in France, participating in the battles in which American troops were engaged. He is now a student in the Georgetown University at Washington, D. C.

Father Keefe whose name introduces this review attended - the public schools of Waterbury until graduated from the high school and afterward became a student in Holy Cross College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1899. For a year he attended the Grand Seminary at Montreal, Canada, and then continued his college work in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remained for a year. He next entered the University of Louvain in Belgium and was ordained to the priesthood in 1903 by Bishop Van der Stoppen, of Malines, Belgium. In the meantime he taught English and American history in the American College of the University of Louvain. In 1903 he returned to his native land and was assigned to the position of curate at the Church of the Sacred Heart at Taftville, Connecticut. He was afterward con- nected with St. Ann's church at Waterbury, Connecticut, for nine months and subse- quently with St. Augustin's church at Bridgeport, Connecticut, for three years. The next three years were spent at St. Mary's church at Norwich, Connecticut, and for a year he was pastor of St. Thomas' church at Voluntown, Connecticut. In 1911 he became pastor of St. John's church at Plainfield, Connecticut, where he remained until September 1, 1919, when he became pastor of St. Mary's church at Norwich, where he is now located.

Father Keefe is without doubt one of the most able public speakers in the state of Connecticut and is as popular with those of Protestant faith as those of the Cath- olic faith. He is state lecturer of the Knights of Columbus and was appointed a mem-

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ber of the publicity bureau of the State Council of Defense by Governor Holcomb. Representing that bureau, he made speeches all over the state in behalf of the Liberty loans and on many other topics in relation to the war. He is the Catholic priest that has been most in the public eye in Connecticut through the period of world strife. He has addressed large public and civic gatherings, also chambers of commerce, patriotic organizations and councils of the Knights of Columbus and has been in demand as a public speaker not only in Connecticut but in other states as well. On the 20th of May, 1917, during the early days of the war, he conducted a flag raising on the lawn of the church at Plainfield, which was the greatest civic event ever held in the town, being attended by at least twenty thousand people, including William H. Taft, who was the guest of Father Keefe for the occasion. Chambers of commerce throughout eastern Connecticut were represented by committees, as were various other patriotic and civic organizations. There was present a company of United States Marines from the naval station submarine base at New London and companies of United States regulars from the fort. It was an occasion never to be forgotten by those in attendance.

While at Plainfield, Father Keefe was a member of the school board. He is a director of the Holy Name Society for three counties and in various lines his labors have been put forth for the benefit of mankind and for the betterment of community and country at large. He is a priest well fitted for duty in connection with the largest congregation of the country but remained at Plainfield in order that he might have time for the service that he was giving to the public as an orator upon the vital ques- tions of the day. He is a man of fine physique, of liberal education and of the most lofty principles and it was with the deepest regret that Plainfield witnessed his de- parture that he might take up his new duties at Norwich. By reason of his splendid oratorical gifts and the dominating spirit of his life his usefulness is almost limitless and the fruits of his labor were many times manifest in his work in the Council of Defense, as they have been in connection with his labors in the church.

HON. OSCAR FITSLAND ATWOOD.

Hon. Oscar Fitsland Atwood, now serving as judge of probate of the town of Brooklyn, Connecticut, and formerly a representative in the state legislature, was born in Brooklyn, December 2, 1865, a son of Loren S. and Margaret (O'Neil) Atwood. The father was born in Mansfield, Connecticut, where he acquired his education, and in young manhood he there followed the occupation of farming. In the early '50s he and his brother Melvin Atwood, removed to Hampton, Connecticut, and purchased the old Curtis tavern. They conducted this old stage coach tavern until 1860, when they sold the business and Loren S. Atwood removed to Brooklyn, purchasing land in the west village. He built thereon a dwelling and a store and established a grocery busi- ness, conducting the store to the time of his death, which occurred October 12, 1888. He was regarded as a valued and substantial citizen of his community, his worth being widely recognized by all with whom he came in contact. He was married in Brooklyn to Margaret O'Neil, who there passed away on the 15th of February, 1912, having sur- vived her husband for almost a quarter of a century.

Oscar Fitsland Atwood, the only child of this marriage, acquired his education in the district schools of Brooklyn and received his early business training in his father's store, where he remained as an assistant until his father died and then con- tinued the business alone. He was appointed postmaster when he bought out the gen- eral store of Lewis Searles, of Brooklyn, whom he succeeded in the postoffice. Mr. At- wood remained active in the grocery trade until 1897, when he sold the business to Elliott E. Allen and became a clerk in the store of the Williamsville Manufacturing Company, with which he was thus connected for five years. Called to public office, he has since largely given his attention to official duties. In 1905 he was elected town clerk and treasurer of Brooklyn and has been reelected to the dual office at each biennial election since that time. In 1908 he was elected judge of probate and has been reelected every two years since that date. He is also a member of the town school committee and is serving as its secretary and treasurer. His political allegiance has always been given to the democratic party, which finds in him a stalwart champion of its principles. In 1914 he was elected to the state legislature and served as a member of the committee on forfeited rights. In 1916 he was reelected to the general assembly and was made a member of the committee on shell fisheries.

On the 15th of June, 1892, at Brooklyn, Mr. Atwood was united in marriage to Miss Grace Angell, a daughter of George D. and Mary (Peckham) Angell, the former a native of Canterbury and the latter of Pomfret. Mrs. Atwood passed away December 28, 1894.

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In religious faith Mr. Atwood is an Episcopalian, belonging to Trinity church, of which he is junior warden and treasurer. He is also well known in fraternal circles, having membership in Protection Lodge, No. 19, I. O. O. F., of Central Village, in Dorcas Lodge, No. 59, of the Rebekahs at Danielson and in the Brooklyn Grange, of which he is past master. The major part of his time and attention, however, is given to his official duties, and that he is most competent in the offices of town clerk and treasurer and judge of probate is indicated in the fact of his frequent reelections. Over the record of his public career there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil and Brooklyn claims him as one of its representative and valued citizens.

GEORGE WESLEY IDE.

George Wesley Ide, who is engaged in blacksmithing and carriage making in the town of Brooklyn, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, July 25, 1866, a son of Charles Wesley and Jane Louise (Green) Ide, who resided at Woodstock. The family is traced back to an early period in the colonization of New England, having been founded in Southbridge, Massachusetts, in 1680. There Obadiah Ide was born and he was the first of this branch of the family to remove to Woodstock, settling in the English neighborhood of North Woodstock. To Obadiah Ide and his wife, Abigail, was born a son, Wesley, whose birth occurred in Woodstock and who married Ruth Brown. She was a daughter of Jonathan and Mary Brown, the former a Revolutionary war hero who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, Wesley and Ruth (Brown) Ide were the grandparents of George W. Ide of this review. His father, Charles Wesley Ide, was a native of Woodstock and a farmer and lumberman of that place during his active life, there passing away in 1896, while his wife died in 1891.

George Wesley Ide was educated in the common schools of Woodstock and in the Nichols Academy at Dudley, Massachusetts, thus being qualified for life's practical and responsible duties by liberal educational training. He worked with his father as a farmer and lumberman until he had attained his majority and in 1889 he started out in the business world independently. He began learning the blacksmith's trade, served his apprenticeship in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and after about four years in the employ of others started in business on his own account in 1894. For a brief period he was located in Pomfret, Connecticut, and then removed to Chaplin, this state, where he conducted a blacksmith and carriage manufacturing shop for about twenty years. In 1916 he removed with his family to Brooklyn and has here engaged in the same line of business, while he expects soon to extend the scope of his activi- ties by the establishment of a garage. He is an expert workman in his line and has always been accorded a liberal patronage.

On the 30th of May, 1889, Mr. Ide was married in Bristol, Connecticut, to Miss Jessie Benton Reed, who was born in Chaplin, Connecticut, a daughter of Eliphalet and Mary (Mosley) Reed, of that place. Four children have been born of this mar- riage. Wesley George ,who was born in Chaplin, Connecticut, March 5, 1890, is now an engineer on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. He married Lucy Maria Kimball, a daughter of George H. and Maria Kimball, mentioned elsewhere in' this work. Wesley G. Ide and his wife reside at Willimantic, Connecticut, and have two children: Ruth Jane, born March 5, 1915; and Howard Wesley, born October 22, 1919. Edna Blanche, the second of the family, born April 5, 1891, at Southbridge, Massachusetts, is the wife of Oliver R. Roberts, of Hartford, and they are the parents of a son, Elwyn Clayton. Roland Wendell, born at Pomfret, Connecticut, November 11, 1894, is now a locomotive engineer on the New York, New Haven & Hartford. He served as a volunteer on the Mexican border in 1916 as a member of Company L, First Infantry Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard, of Willimantic, and in June, 1918, joined the navy for service in the world war, being thus engaged until March, 1919. Russell Abner, the youngest of the family, was born at Chaplin, April 16, 1901, and is at home, working with his father.

In his political views Mr. Ide is a stalwart republican and while in Chaplin was chairman of the republican town committee for many years. There he also served on the board of assessors, as a member of the board of relief and served on the town school committee. He was likewise active along other lines and for two terms was master of Natchaug Lodge, No. 22, K. P., of Willimantic. He is also a past master of Natchaug Grange No. 68 of Chaplin, having filled the chair for two consecutive years. He is financial secretary of the Master Horse Shoers National Association, Local No. 426. He has ever been much interested in music and possesses much natural skill and talent in that direction in both instrumental and vocal music. He has played and sung at many entertainments and was formerly bandmaster of the

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A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume II, Part 46

Author: Lincoln, Allen B Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co. Number of Pages: 960

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 960