USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Meriden > An historic record and pictorial description of the town of Meriden, Connecticut and men who have made it > Part 62
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George M. Curtis attended the pub- lic schools of Meriden, military school of Cheshire and Trinity col- lege, Hartford, with the class of 1880. He entered business life as a clerk in the office of the Meriden Britannia Company immediately after leaving college ; and of this company he was elected assistant treasurer five years later. Upon the death of his father he was chosen treasurer of the con- cern which office he held until the Meriden Britannia Company was merged into the International Silver Company in 1898 when he became its first assistant treasurer. Two years later he was elected treasurer of the company which office he has since held. In addition to the responsible duties of that important position he serves as a director of the Interna-
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Pro. M. Chutro
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tional Silver Company, Home Nation- al Bank, Meriden Savings Bank, Mer- iden Trust & Safe Deposit Company and Meriden Gas Light Company. He is also secretary of the Curtis Home of Meriden; treasurer of the New Haven Anti-Tuberculosis Asso- tion which maintains a most humane sanatorium at Wallingford, and treas- turer and one of the directors of the Curtis Memorial Library. The last named institution, a handsome and costly marble structure, was pre- sented to the Town of Meriden by his mother and built solely under his per- sonal supervision. He is also chair- man of the committee to select the books of the library.
Mr. Curtis has always been a great lover of literature and is also one of the best authorities on historic mat- ters. He is a member of the Con- necticut Historical Society, of Hart- ford; New Haven Colony Historical Society and American Historical As- sociation. Through his love for dili- gent historical research he has con- tributed much, not only to the socie- ties of which he is a member, but to his native town. The early historical section of this book is from his ver- satile pen in which his accuracy of re- search is made fully manifest.
When the citizens of Meriden be- gan to plan for the one hundredth an- niversary of the incorporation of the town Mr. Curtis was their most hap- py choice for chairman of the general committee ; and his efforts in behalf of the celebration have been productive of the most pleasing results.
Mr. Curtis in his religious affilia- tions is associated with St. Andrew's Episcopal church, of which he is jun- ior warden. He is also secretary and treasurer of John Couch Branch, Sons of the American Revolution, and one of the most influential figures of the Home Club, of which he was one of the charter members.
He married November 30, 1886, Sophie Phillips, only daughter of the late Thomas Trowbridge Mansfield, of this city. They have one child, Agnes Mansfield Curtis, born September 6, 1887.
CHARLES PARKER.
The name of Charles Parker is not only indissolubly connected with that of Meriden but is properly recognized throughout the country as that of one who during, his long and useful life was a leader in the manufacturing world.
He was the founder of the Charles Parker company, the first mayor of the city of Meriden, and lived to the extraordinary age of 93 years. He was born in Cheshire, January 2, 1809, and was the son of Stephen and Rebecca Parker. He was descended in the sixth generation from William Parker, who in 1636, was one of the proprietors of Hartford, but who af- terwards removed with his wife, Mar- gery, to Saybrook.
Their son, John, was one of the early settlers of Wallingford, a por- tion of which is now called Meriden,
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and the Parker farm was first oper- ated by him.
Edward Parker, son of John, born in 1692 ; Joel Parker, son of John and Jerusha, born in 1723; and Stephen Parker comprise his paternal ances- tors. Stephen Parker, son of Joel and the father of Charles Parker, a soldier in the Revolutionary army, was born Aug. 8, 1759, and was twice married, first in 1787, to Sallie, daughter of Joseph Twiss, and sec- ond to Mrs. Rebecca Stone, daughter of Joshua Ray, who died in Meriden July 1, 1846.
Charles Parker was the second son born to the second marriage and like many boys of that period began his battle of life early. At nine years of age he was placed on a farm own- ed by Porter Cook with whom he lived until fourteen years of age. He did the chores and attended the vil- lage school and made himself gener- ally useful to his employer.
His first insight into manufacturing was at the shop of Anson Matthews in Southington, which he entered in 1827, where he went to work cast- ing pewter buttons, his wages being but $6 a week. Although a poor boy he was full of ambition, good health and a strong determination to succeed. Even though he received but a pit- tance for his hard and conscientious labor, with the practice of self-denial and strict economy he saved the sum of $70.
After remaining in the Southing- ton Button shop for a year and later being employed by Horace and Har-
ry Smith in Naugatuck, in August, 1828, he came to Meriden and went to work for Patrick Lewis.
His first manufacturing venture was making coffee mills on a contract ; and during the next thirteen months by good management and close ap- plication he cleared $1,800, a large portion of which he was able to save. He then took in as a partner Jared Lewis and assumed another and larger contract from Lewis & Holt, manufacturing coffee mills, ladles and skimmers.
In 1831 he sold out to Jared Lewis and purchased an acre of land upon which was situated an old brown house for which he paid $650. On this land he built a stone shop which was finished in the spring of 1832, in which he manufactured coffee mills and waffle irons and from which sprung the several plants of the Charles Parker Company of the present day, the interesting history of which is given elsewhere in this vol- ume. He later took in as partners his brother, Edmund Parker, and Heman White.
That he was a pioneer in the man- ufacture of hardware in this coun- try and that he was the first man to introduce steam power in Meriden are matters of record. That he also over- came, it would seem almost miracu- lously, obstacles which would have put la stop to the operations of any ordi- nary man, is shown several times dur- ing his remarkable business career.
The panic of 1837 affected him temporarily but he rallied quickly and
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Cha! Parken
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Dexter W Parker.
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within five years he had repaid to his creditors every penny of his indebt- edness including the interest. That Mr. Parker knew his own business capacity and never undertook that which he could not accomplish him- self alone, seems also to be proven by the fact that his great success seems to date from 1845 when he dissolved the partnership then existing with his brother and Mr. White. Mr. Parker was a man who relied entirely upon his own judgment and, possessing re- markable foresight and almost bull- dog tenacity, having once decided ur .- on a course of action, always san- guine of ultimate success, he was nev- er dissuaded from his purpose either by seeming adversity or the well in- tended advice of his friends.
His business grew year by year to mammoth proportions. The great di- versity of product of the several scat- tered factories, called for a display of his remarkable ability as a financier, yet it is stated that there never was a time during his whole business ca- reer that he could not tell how he stood.
The evolution of his business life from an apprentice boy to a captain of industry, according to one of his biographers, would be "the story of the growth of a small inland Connec- ticut town possessing a few local ad- vantages developing in a compara- tively few years into a thriving and prosperous city, prominent among the residents of which he was a prince among his equals."
death he was stricken with an illness which affected his strong physique but not his unusual mental attain- ments and which confined him much of the time to his home. Notwith- standing this he continued to direct his several large enterprises and up to the very last of his long and use- ful life his counsel was that which de- cided the more important matters of the company. Few men, indeed, have made such a record for a continued business service for the benefit of the town, and no man's business credit in the history of Meriden was rated higher than that of Charles Parker.
As a resident of Meriden Mr. Par- ker was naturally a foremost citizen. He took an active interest in all pub- lic affairs both locally and otherwise. In his early life he was a Democrat and after the Civil war broke out he showed his loyalty to the Union by helping to equip companies of mili- tia in response to President Lincoln's call for troops, and thereafter identi- fied himself permanently with the Re- publican party of which he became a staunch supporter and, although one of the presidential electors who voted for Franklin Pierce, he became an ar- dent admirer of Abraham Lincoln and was a delegate at both the conven- tions in Chicago and Philadelphia where General Grant received re- spectively his first and second nomi- nations for President.
When Meriden received its city charter in 1867 Mr. Parker was shown the confidence and esteem of
About twenty years before his the people by being chosen the first
RESIDENCE OF DEXTER W. PARKER.
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mayor. During his administration he conducted the affairs of the then infant city not only wisely but with as much care as he did his own pri- vate business.
As a result Meriden as a city es- tablished a remarkable precedent, which its citizens look back upon with pride.
Mr. Parker was a member of Mer- idian Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and held the distinction of being the last sur- viving charter member of that Ma- sonic lodge. He was also a member of St. Elmo Commandery to the members of which before his death he presented a beautiful banner in memory of his brother, Rev. John Parker, his son, Wilbur Parker, and his nephew, George White Parker, all of whom were active members of that high branch of the order.
He was a true member of the Sons of the American Revolution from 1893. From early manhood until his regretted decease he was & devoted and influential member of the First Methodist church to which so- ciety at one time he gave the prince- ly sum of $40,000 towards building the present handsome edifice. He also gave to the city of Meriden eight acres of land now contained in the beautiful public breathing place known as Hubbard Park.
His late residence on Broad street, an illustration of which is presented, is still one of the grandest in Meri- den, and since his death has been oc- cupied by his son, Dexter W. Parker.
Mr. Charles Parker was married
in 1831 to Abi Lewis Eddy and to that union ten children were born, of whom Dexter W. Parker is now the only one surviving.
DEXTER W. PARKER.
Dexter Wright Parker, president of the large manufacturing corporation known as the Charles Parker Com- pany, is the only living son of the late Charles and Abi Lewis (Eddy) Parker. He was born at the corner of Main and High streets, Meriden, November 23, 1849, and received his early education at Russell's Colle- giate and Commercial School. This. was supplemented by an attendance at the government military academy at West Point, the appointment as a. cadet to which came to him through Congressman Warner, of Middle- town.
He graduated from West Point in 1870 and, with the commissioned rank of second lieutenant, saw active ser- vice with the Sixth U. S. Cavalry on the frontier of Texas, Indian Terri- tory and Kansas.
After a creditable service in the regular army he returned to Meriden and began his extended business ca- reer as his father's partner. In 1878, when the firm was merged into a cor- poration, he became one of the offi- cers and gradually his father came to rely more and more upon him until in his old age the entire management of the large business finally devolved up- on him and his brother, Charles E. Parker.
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Ill realth finally compelled him to take an extended rest, which was con- tinued until after his brother's death when W. H. Lyon assumed the man- agement of the business and the sub- ject of this sketch became treasurer of the company. This office he held un- til the death of his father in 1902, whom he naturally succeeded as pres- ident of the company.
Mr. Parker resides in the impos- ing Parker homestead on Broad street and is held in high regard in the community. His prominence in the manufacturing world makes him one of the prime factors of the wel- fare of Meriden and his concern in the progress of his native town has ever been conclusively shown.
In addition to filling the important office of president of the Charles Park- er Company he is one of the direct- ors of the City Savings Bank and for- merly was one of the directors of the First National Bank. He is also a member of the Home Club.
ANDREW J. COE.
Andrew J. Coe, the first judge of the Municipal Court of Meriden, was born in this town September 15, 1834. He was a son of Calvin and Harriet (Rice) Coe and the sixth of a family of nine children who reached matur- ity. He died February 25, 1897, af- ter a life fully identified with Meri- den's welfare, and his death was a personal loss to an unlimited circle of intimate friends. Born on the Coe farm, which was always his home,
he first left it for a college course and graduated from Wesleyan Univer- sity with honors in the class of 1855. Deciding to establish himself in the west, he commenced the study of law in Iowa, but being unable to endure the malarial climate there, he returned to Meriden, and completed his law studies in the office of the late Col. Dexter R. Wright, being admitted to the New Haven county bar in 1858. Another effort to locate in the west was frustrated by a long illness from which he never quite regained his early vigor. After three years of pro- gressive law practice in New York, Mr. Coe returned to the farm which he carried on for some years but spending most of his winters in the south.
He became the sole owner of the Coe property in 1873, having bought out the interests of his brothers, Henry and Winfield. It was Judge Coe who conceived the building of the famous Coe "Castle." This and the old Calvin Coe homestead, is described else- where in these pages.
In 1860 Judge Coe was elected rep- resentative to the legislature and served on the judiciary committee. Again elected, in 1867, by the Repub- lican party, although himself a Dem- ocrat, he was made chairman of the finance committee. During his ser- vice in the state legislature, he was appointed to adjust the court house contest between the towns of Dan- bury and Bridgeport, and also served as chairman, the same year, of the spe- cial committee that examined the ac-
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Kate tous Cor
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counts of the state treasurer. When the Meriden Municipal Court was es- tablished, by the unanimous nomina- tion of the citizens, he was appointed the first judge. This office he re- signed in 1869 to engage in the fer- tilizer business and assumed the charge of the Southern Department of the Bradley Fertilizer Company, with headquarters at Charleston, S. C., where he remained for sixteen years. He was also one of the founders of the Dryer Company of Cleveland, Ohio, also manufacturers of fertiliz- ers. Judge Coe was descended from a long line of ancestors famous for patriotism, integrity and independence of thought and action. A lifelong friends says, "He inherited in marked degree characteristics that gave him a strong and uncompromising individ- uality. Of rare intellectual tastes, he found time for a vast amount of study and research. Broad and liberal in his views, his convictions, always strong and the result of serious thought, once formed he yielded them to none ; yet with the rare consistency that advanced with further accession of knowledge he was always in the line of progress."
"Two years before his death Judge Coe had a severe attack of pneumonia and hoping to avoid the recurrence of it, spent the succeeding winter in Car- acas, Venezuela. About the same time his marriage with Miss Kate Foote, of Guilford, took place, and his friends looked for a bright afternoon to crown his life but his honeymoon was marred by ill health which did
not improve. His last illness was of about six months' duration and his death was peaceful and painless. He was laid at rest in Walnut Grove cem- etery. His home life, his untiring de- votion to his mother and his loyalty to his friends and relatives was ad- mirable and those who knew him es- teemed him as a peer among men."
Judge Coe is survived by his wid- ow, Mrs. Kate Foote Coe, now of New Haven, a woman of charming personality, superior intellect, and cultivated mind.
KATE FOOTE COE.
Kate Foote Coe, widow of Judge Andrew J. Coe, was born in Guilford, Conn., May 31, 1840. She is one of a family of ten children, a daughter of George A. and Eliza (Spencer) Foote; and her mother, still living, is possessed of good health and all her faculties at the age of 93.
Her ancestry on her father's side includes General Ward, of Revolu- tionary fame, and Colonel Andrew Ward, an officer in the French and Indian wars. The place at Nut Plains, Guilford, on which she was born, has been in the possession of the family for many generations and the first apple trees planted in New Haven county were brought here by her forefathers.
As a girl she attended the Guil- ford district school, afterwards Miss Dutton's Private School at New Ha- ven, and later the Guilford Institute and High School. After having ac-
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quired sufficient training she began her career as a teacher.
The first school over which she presided was the district school of her native village; later she taught at the Hartford Female Seminary. In 1863 she went south and during the latter part of the Civil war taught among the blacks.
One of her sisters was Harriet Ward Foote, who died in 1885 and was the first wife of General Haw- ley who later became United States senator from Connecticut. During the war she with Mrs. Hawley joined him at different points.
From Beaufort, S. C., where she first taught the negroes, she went to St. Augustine, Fernandino and Jack- sonville, Fla., in all of which both she and Mrs. Hawley did their ut- most in a noble, womanly way to al- leviate suffering humanity and en- lighten the helplessly ignorant. Af- ter the close of the war Miss Foote continued teaching.
The work of her pen has ever de- lighted the reading public and for many years she has contributed fic- tion to the best magazines. For fif- teen years she was the Washington correspondent of the "Independent" and during her extended stay at the national capital she secured the full- est confidence of many of the coun- try's famous men and women ; and to- day it is probable that she enjoys as wide an acquaintance as any woman of New England. This acquaintance, coupled with the knowledge of the people of this and other countries, in 21
which she has traveled extensively, has been of profit to the readers of her writings.
While in Washington she became interested in the welfare of the In- dians and after the death of her sis- ter, Mrs. Hawley, who was the first president of the Washington branch of the National Indian Society, she became the head of that society. In carrying out the duties of the office from 1886 to 1895 she traveled exten- sively over sections of the country in- habited by the Indians, and accom- plished much in establishing schools and hospitals for them.
In 1886 she accompanied Miss Alice Fletcher, who had previously done much for the Indians, to Alas- ka. The party sailed from Port Townsend in a schooner and made the extended and somewhat perilous trip only under difficulties ; and her com- panions, upon the advice of Charles Dudley Warner and General Hawley, were sent by the government to study the customs and needs of the nations. It is needless to state that they were greatly aided in the work by Miss Foote, whose observations were also helpful in her literary work.
Her extensive travels to other quar- ters of the globe have also broadened her scope of information. Her first trip abroad was in 1872 when she spent a year in Europe. Some time after her celebrated trip to Alaska she visited Japan in company with the daughter of Moses Beach, of Peeks- kill, N. Y., and while there making her headquarters at the American Le-
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gation, was also entertained by the wives of leading Japanese officials, including Baroness Matsuki, in whom she found a constant friend.
In her travels Mrs. Coe has found and improved the opportunity of studying the people also in the Phil- ippine Islands, Mexico, Jamaica and Trinidad and upon her marriage with Julge Andrew J. Coe she spent a win- ter in Caracas, Venezuela. Her mar- ried life, which was highly congenial, was saddened only by the poor health of her husband which in two years was ended by his death, a sad blow from which she has never fully re- covered.
Upon the death of her husband she returned to Meriden and for some time thereafter conducted the Coe farm from which she held a life in- come, but a few years later she sur- rendered her interests to the future heirs and removed to New Haven, taking up her residence with her sis- ter, Mrs. Edward H. Jenkins, whose husband, Dr. Edward H. Jenkins, is director of the Agricultural Experi- ment station of Connecticut, and where she has since resided also with her aged mother.
Mrs. Coe has for many years been a leader in the Daughters of the Amer- ican Revolution. After having been one of the charter members of Mary Washington chapter, D. A. R., of Washington, D. C., she became a member of Susan Carrington Clarke chapter, D. A. R., of Meriden. Of this chapter she has been the regent. since 1895. She is also a member of
the Washington Ladies' Club of Washington, D. C. Her interest in Meriden is unbounded from her pleas- ant associations with it and Meriden is proud to claim her as its own.
JOHN DENTON BILLARD.
John Denton Billard, who died on February I, 1902, was one of Meri- den's most respected and prominent citizens. His long life was a success- ful one, and in his death Meriden sus- tained a genuine loss. Not only was he a shrewd, broad-minded man of business ; but he possessed a personal- ity that won for him many and true friends. He did not herald his good deeds, but they were not few. He was, in fact, an unostentatious Ameri- can gentleman.
John D. Billard was born in New York City, February 28, 1819. At the age of fourteen he removed to Say- brook, Conn. After attending school two years, he was apprenticed to Jere- miah Gladwin to learn the carpenter's trade. At this time he became ac- quainted with a fellow employe of Mr. Gladwin, George W. Lyon, with whom later he was to form the firm of Lyon & Billard of Meriden. When his five years' apprenticeship was completed he continued to work for Mr. Gladwin as foreman, and superintended the building of some of the best houses in Essex, Deep River, Saybrook, and Lyme.
In 1847 Mr. Billard came to Meri- den, and with Mr. Lyon formed the
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John Billard
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firm which became so successful and which is now one of the most impor- tant business institutions of the city. The company was incorporated in 1878 as The Lyon & Billard Company, with Mr. Billard as president, an of- fice he continued to hold until his death; although during the last ten years of his life he was not actively engaged in its management.
Mr. Billard's financial career was highly successful and most honorable. He was elected president of the First National Bank on April 2, 1881 ; also of the City Savings Bank, succeeding the late Joel H. Guy. He continued to hold these offices during the last twenty years of his life, devoting practically his entire attention to their interests and developing a knowledge of the business that gave him high rank in banking circles as a man of sound judgment and keen discern- ment, qualities that made him a safe and conservative executive for those two important and prosperous insti- tutions. He was one of the organiz- ers and original stockholders of both these banks and of the Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company.
Mr. Billard took an intelligent and active interest in the affairs of the city and town, serving the city as councilman and alderman. For over twenty years he was a member of the board of compensation, a position in which he rendered valuable service to his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Billard was married Septem- ber 8, 1841, to Emeline E. Spencer,
daughter of Captain Samuel Spencer, of Saybrook. She died in December, 1887.
Mr. Billard's home life was a hap- py one. He loved his home, and his beautiful house and grounds on Col- ony street gave him a vast amount of pleasure. The only social organ- ization to which he belonged was the Home Club. Notwithstanding his quiet and simple tastes he was far from being a recluse ; and his friends and acquaintances knew his as a pleas- ant and affable gentleman, kind of heart, and constantly doing little act: of kindness that showed the true spir- it of charity.
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