Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 11

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1 > Part 11

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Born March 27, 1815, in Hartford, son of James and Lucretia (Olcott) Burr, the veteran edi- tor was in the fullest sense a Hartford and Con- necticut man, for three of his ancestors were orig- inal proprietors of the town of Hartford some 260 and more years ago, and here have lived through all of that period the direct line of his Burr ances- tors. On his paternal side, Benjamin Burr, the founder of the Hartford branch of the family, was one of the founders of the city in 1635, and one of the original proprietors in 1639, and from him Editor Burr was a descendant in the fifth genera- tion, his line being through Thomas, Thomas (2), and James Burr. On his mother's side he was a descendant in the seventh generation from Thomas Olcott, one of the original proprietors of Hartford in 1639, who was a merchant, and one of the found- ers of the trade and commerce of the Colony of Connecticut ; for generations his descendants were prominent and influential in Hartford. Editor Burr's line from Thomas Olcott is through Samuel, Thomas (2), Joseph, Joseph (2), and Lucretia (Olcott) Burr.

James Burr, the father of Editor Burr, was engaged in the East India trade near the close of the eighteenth century, when two of his brigs were captured by French privateers, and still another was lost in a gale off the Barbadoes, and to meet his obligations he sold a large and valuable tract of land, upon which the central portion of the city of Cleveland is now situated. This loss rendered him financially unable to support his large family in the manner he desired.

At the age of thirteen Alfred E. Burr entered the employ of George Goodwin & Sons, then the publishers of The Connecticut Courant. Young Burr's capability was quickly recognized by the Goodwins, and before he was twenty-one years of age he filled the responsible position of foreman in the office. In 1836 the proprietors of the Cour- ant, who had become much attached to him, and fully appreciated his ability and integrity, proposed to sell him the paper on very unusual and favorable terms, an offer that few young men without means would have had the moral courage to decline. The offer was coupled, however, with the conditions that he should attend a certain denominational church, and adopt the political faith upheld by the paper. Both of the stipulations were distasteful to Mr. Burr, and he was obliged to reject what was intended as the kindliest of proposals.

The Hartford Times was then published as a weekly and semi-weekly paper. Early in the year

1838 Jones & Watts, the publishers, failed in busi- ness and suddenly left the city. Soon afterward John M. Niles, Gideon Welles, and one or two others, came into possession of the Times estab- lishment. They induced Henry A. Mitchell, then State's attorney for Hartford county, to resign his office and take charge of the Times. He became sole proprietor in May of that year. In November, 1838, Mr. Burr called at the Times office, and in- quired of Mr. Mitchell if he would dispose of a half-interest in the paper. He suggested to the proprietor that the paper could be greatly im- proved, mechanically at least, and referred to sev- eral existing features in its publication which might be advantageously changed. Gideon Welles was present on that occasion, and it was then that he and Mr. Burr formed an acquaintance which ripened into a lifelong personal friendship. Mr. Welles subsequently admitted to Mr. Burr that he had urged Mr. Mitchell to sell him the half-inter- est. During a later interview with Mr. Mitchell an agreement was entered into, to take effect Jan. I, 1839, at which time Mr. Burr took charge, os- tensibly, of the mechanical department of the Times, although, during the following two years, he · did considerable editorial work, particularly in connection with the news service. Near the close of the year 1840, Mr. Burr purchased the other half-interest of Mr. Mitchell, and took full pos- session of the establishment on Jan. 1, 1841. On March 2, of that year, he began the publication of the Daily Times, as a morning paper. No pros- pectus had been circulated, but after a brief can- vass three hundred subscribers were obtained, and the new daily was issued. But there was a demand for an evening paper, especially from the working men, and about two weeks later Mr. Burr changed the morning to an evening journal. In the course of a year the daily circulation reached a thousand copies, and in two years about two thousand.

Mr. Burr had no working capital at that time, and no one to "back" him. He had given six per cent. notes on purchasing the small plant, which had grown steadily under his management, and it required hard work and the strictest economy to meet the current expenses and pay interest as it became due. But his industry and indomitable will prevailed, and he succeeded in making improve- ments in the paper, and reducing his indebtedness each year until he was clear of debt. His ambi- tion was to make the Times the foremost paper in the State. He spared neither labor nor expense in pushing the paper ahead, often refusing nomina- tions for the highest offices within the gift of the people of the State, preferring to make his paper successful rather than to accept political honors. In later years his past labors upon the Times were justly rewarded. The following is extracted from the issue of the Times on the morning of Mr. Burr's death :

His relations were close with the Democratic leaders of Connecticut during the early years of the daily issue of this

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

paper. His duties brought him in close association with John M. Niles, Gideon Welles, Loren T. Pease, and Thomas H. Seymour. The value of the daily presence of such men at the Times office was very great to the young editor, who was quietly developing into a persuasive and influential writer, while maintaining his close relations with then. These men there discussed the leading questions of the day, and other questions of a world-wide interest. Young Burr had the benefit of almost daily discussions of political ques- tions by those men of strong intellects and firm convictions. It was a rare and peculiar school, and, in the language of Mr. Burr, himself, we "doubt whether any other young man of that day, beginning a career of journalism, had the benefit of a school at all approaching its wide scope of knowledge and clear-headed grasp of the broad principles of Democ- racy, and the distinction in the intricate political machinery of the State and Federal Governments upon which our republic was founded."

It was under such inspiration as this that Mr. Burr's style as a political writer was formed, and for more than forty-five years nearly everything relating to politics, Na- tional and State, that appeared in the Tunes came from his hand. He believed the best way to inculcate ideas and principles was for men to meet each other. Hence he was not a polemical writer, and he never issued his editorial projectiles over the heads of those whom he addressed. He neither assumed a lofty intellectual superiority to the men who bought his newspaper from day to day, nor did he make the error of assuming that their stock of ideas was greater than it really was. He wrote and spoke as a plain American man and addressing plain American men, and he early acquired the habit of lucid and terse statement which made the happiest impressions upon the minds of his daily read- ers. In the sharp political controversies which rose prior to and during the Civil war much incisive, biting give-and- take was inevitable, yet bitter antagonisms,even with political opponents, were never to his liking, and he rarely indulged in those acrid personalities which made the colunmns of the political newspapers in New York such reservoirs of Billings- gate, when Webb, Greeley, Raymond, the elder Bennett, Hugh Hastings, and others of their day, set the pace in the political journalism of the metropolis. Mr. Burr made the Times a Democratic newspaper of the most stead- fast and rock-bound quality, and, standing on that ground, he adhered firmly to his principles when the organization was threatened with disruption by unwise leadership. With all his might he opposed the movement to repeal the Missouri Compromise, and when that unfortunate act led on to the fatal schism of 1860 he stood with the supporters of Breck- enridge and the South, against Stephen A. Douglas and the doctrines of squatter sovereignty, and was most influential in the large vote Connecticut cast for Breckenridge, as com- pared with other New England States. He believed that the war which broke out in 1861 had been needlessly forced upon the country, and that it might have been averted by a wise spirit of conservatism and adherence to Democratic principles, and so did not swerve from his consistent course, and when another four years rolled around nearly 49 per cent. of the total vote of Connecticut supported the policy advocated by the Times. He stood in the storms of those days like adamant for what he believed to be sound and conservative principles in government, and there is proba- bly no man to-day who will dare to say that his motives at that time were not as pure and as patriotic as when, over thirty years afterward, in the campaign of 1896, the Timex, with his entire acquiescence, repudiated the heresies which Populists, disguised as Democrats, had thrust into the party platform, and aided with all its influence in defeating the candidate for the Presidency, whose election would have aimed a death-blow at the public credit.

From the time when Mr. Burr first made the Times' influence felt as a political newspaper in Connecticut his relation to the organization of the party became an intimate one, and his activity in party work during political cam- paigns was second to that of no other man in the Demo- cratic ranks. For many years no Democratic platform was adopted in Connecticut which was not wholly or in part prepared by him. In campaign after campaign he raised all money that was obtained for party work, never failing himself to be a large contributor.

Mr. Burr was repeatedly a delegate to National Democratic conventions, and on those occasions his influence was not small. In the campaign of 1876 he came into intimate relations with Ion. Samuel J. Tilden, and in the election that followed the State of Connecticut was carried for that gentle- man by a plurality of 2,900 over Hayes, and a ma- jority of 1,712 over all. He was a delegate to the convention held at Cincinnati, in 1880, and eight years later was a member of the committee on Resolutions at the Democratic National convention which met at St. Louis and renominated Grover Cleveland, and it was under Mr. Burr's leadership that the platform reported to the committee de- clared for a "fair and careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the better wages of American and foreign labor." Throughout his whole career Mr. Burr neglected no opportunity to maintain the need of guarding the interests of the laboring man in the framing of tariff laws, and it was his care for the wage earner's interest which contributed in no small degree to the maintenance of the numerical strength in Connecticut. He was never at any time a seeker for political office, Na- tional, State or local, yet he served with great fidel- ity two terms in the Connecticut Legislature, being appointed chairman of the committee on Education, by a Republican speaker.

Mr. Burr early saw the importance of new manufacturing enterprises to the growth of Hart- ford and the Times, and no man was more active than he in seeking to enlarge the opportunities for highly paid labor in Hartford. He took an active part in aiding Col. Colt in establishing his great plant. He was a member and chairman of the com- missions in 1873 which built the State Capitol, and the enormous work was carried on without exceed- ing the appropriation, and to the accomplishment of this end much was due to his good management and unflinching firmness and vigilance. Again, he was useful to the public service as chairman of the committee to sell Hartford's old town farm prop- erty in such a manner as to yield a handsome sum to the city. He was ever a friend and influential supporter of the Hartford Public High School, and did much to help it when there was great op- position to its plans. He was largely instrumental in carrying through the scheme for Bushnell' Park, which was also bitterly opposed. He saw the pos- sibilities of that waste spot and backed the project. He was an original member of the street board of Hartford, appointed in 1872, and served thereon until 1876. To him also is due a large share of the credit for the establishment of the West Hart- ford reservoir system. He saw more clearly than others at that time the need of a supply superior to that of the Connecticut river, which even then was contaminated. He was a member of the State board of health from 1877 to 1893, and its presi- dent from 1885. Ile was a member of the board of pardons from 1883 to 1897.

As appropriate at this place is given the reso-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

lution adopted at a meeting of the Hartford Busi- ness Men's Association at the time of Mr. Burr's death :

He was recognized for more than half a century as an active promoter, by pen and word, of every enterprise for the welfare and advancement of his native city. He gave his valuable aid in making Hartford the important business center that it is to-day, and he was always foremost by his personal labor and example in forwarding the growth of the city as a municipality and the benefits as individuals. His active participation in many large enterprises, and his con- nection with some of the city's greatest banking, insurance and manufacturing corporations, gave him a close insight into the business life and needs of Hartford, and, knowing them, he was earnest in his labors for the advancement of the people, alike by aid from his private means and the pub- licity and encouragement given in the columns of the news- paper he controlled.

Mr. Burr was active from the outset in the Good Will Club, an organization of boys for their advancement and own good, and was instrumental in securing for them the building they occupy, and he was president of the club from its organization, in 1888, until his death. Mr. Burr was always ready to assist any public enterprise that promised well for the people, either by co-operation or money, For a long term of years he was a trustee of Unity Church. He was president of and director in a number of business corporations, among them the Dime Savings Bank, the charter for which he was active in securing in 1870 (he became its first and only president up to the time of his death) ; Spring Grove Cemetery Association; and the Connecticut Fire Insurance Co., in which he was a director for nearly thirty years. Mr. Burr was the oldest pol- icy holder in the Connecticut Mutual Life Insur- ance Co., his policy being one of the first issued when the company began business, in 1846.

Through all the long years of Mr. Burr's busi- ness career his only business partner in the Times was his brother Franklin L. Burr.

Some years ago Alfred E. Burr purchased the interest of his brother, who came into the business in 1854, and at the time of the former's withdrawal from the management of the Times he made a deed of the entire establishment to his son, W. O. Burr, who has since been the responsible and actual director of the affairs of the paper.

A lovelier, kinder, more unselfish and nobler na- ture has seldom been developed on earth than that of the late Alfred Edmund Burr. Those who knew him best have felt most keenly his loss. At the time of his death all of the corporations with which he was connected and many other organiza- tions in Hartford passed the most praiseworthy resolutions, and in the leading papers of the coun- try appeared editorials setting forth his remarka- ble personality, high character, influence, and the power he exerted during his long, busy and useful life.

On April 18, 1841, Mr. Burr was married to Sarah A., daughter of Abner Booth, of Meriden, Conn., and of their three children Edmund L. died when three years of age; William Olcott Burr is

a resident of Hartford, and referred to above; and Sarah E. is the wife of Dr. James McManus, of Hartford. The mother still survives.

It is appropriate in this article to refer to Frank- lin L. Burr, who for so many years was associated with his brother in the conduct of the Times, who in his unselfish nature and great good heart never failed to accord due praise for his invaluable ser- vices in the editorial department, and to claim that much of the success of the Times was due to his vigorous and facile pen. The younger brother, Franklin L. Burr, was born Dec. 9, 1827, in Hart- ford, and learned the printer's trade in the Times office. In 1853 he took a position in the office of the solicitor of the Treasury in Washington, D. C., but after a period returned to Hartford to assist in the editorial department of the Times. He be- came a partner in the business, as referred to in the foregoing. He was enthusiastic in the pursuit of his profession, and his articles along the lines of natural science and astronomy and geology at- tracted much attention, and his reviews of books were long a feature of the paper. The poet Ten- nyson on one occasion wrote him a special letter of thanks for one of his reviews of the poet's works, and complimented him by saying it stood among the best that had been written, on either side of the Atlantic.

In 1853 Franklin L. Burr was married to Liz- zie Merrow, of Manchester, Conn., and to the union came children as follows: Mary, Frederick W. and Emily, the latter dying when twenty-three, and Frederick when twenty-one.

Mr. Burr passed away Feb. 5, 1901. One sis- ter. Frances E. Burr, who all through life made her home with Alfred E., is now the only survivor of fourteen children-seven boys and seven girls.

FREDERICK E. BISSELL. The Bissell home- stead in the town of East Windsor has been held in the family name from an carly day, having been built just prior to the Revolutionary war, and three generations of the family were born in the same room. Our subject's grandfather was born on the farm, but in another house, and he built the one that is still standing. Four generations have thus been born on the farm.

Capt. Hezekiah Bissell, the grandfather of our subject, was born and reared on the old farm, and the residence built by him was regarded as a fine building in its day. He was a man of ability and in- fluence, and during the Revolutionary war he served as captain of a company which he had assisted in raising. He died at the homestead in 1828, in his ninety-fifth year.

Hezekiah Bissell (2), our subject's father, was born in the house mentioned above, and resided there throughout his life. He died July 5, 1872, in his eightieth year, and his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Ellsworth, died Dec. 30, 1871, at the same age. They had six children: Elizabeth E., deceased; Cornelia M., now the wife of Capt.

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and the Courant, he resumed editorial life, and Charles Talcott, of Glastonbury; Hezekiah F., de- ceased; Mary, who died in infancy; Frederick E., our subject ; and Carlos F., deceased.

Frederick E. Bissell was born Oct. 15, 1833, in the house built by his grandfather, and grew to manhood at the homestead, becoming familiar with all the details of agricultural work. In 1865 he built a new house, also making other improvements upon the farm, and he now has about fifty acres under cultivation. As a general farmer he is suc- cessful, and for some years he has been engaged also in tobacco growing and in the dairy business. As a good citizen he takes an active interest in local affairs being one of the leading advisers in the Re- publican organization. Since 1890 he has served as justice of the peace with credit to himself and sat- isfaction to his fellow citizens. He is a prominent worker in the local Grange, in which he has been gatekeeper, and is now steward, and he and his esti- mable wife are leading members of the Congrega- tional Church at East Windsor.

On Nov. 17, 1857, Mr. Bissell married Miss Charlotte Dexter, daughter of Edward Dexter, a highly esteemed resident of Broad Brook, and two children have blessed the union: (1) Willie F., a progressive and enterprising agriculturist, resides at the homestead, and relieves his father of the act- ive management and oversight of the farm. (2) Ellen E. married Frank Winn, of Rocky Hill, this county.

CHARLES S. STERN, A. B., M. D., a success- ful physician and surgeon of Hartford, was born July 25, 1868, in Springfield, Mass., of German ancestry.

The Doctor's great-grandfather, Solomon Stern, born in 1764, settled in Hartford about 1840, with his son Moses, and died there in 1860, at the age of ninety-six. Although a weaver by trade, he did not engage in active business after his arrival, as he was already well advanced in years. By his first wife. Julia, he had the following children : Ascher, Aaron, Moses, Myer (a merchant of Hart- ford, and a member of the common council of the city in 1864), and Brina. By his second wife, Yetta, he had Levi, a jeweler and merchant ; a daughter, Bienschen; and Abraham, a prominent merchant of Hartford, who died in 1885.

Moses Stern was born April 16, 1810, in Hesse, Germany, and died Feb. 7. 1886. Bv occupation he was a weaver, and he also carried on a small farm. He married Taubschen Bloch, and had nine children : Jacob is mentioned below : Threasa mar- ried Bernard Goodkind; Julia married Abram Strasburger : Hannalı married Solomon Lorsch ; Jennie married Abram Danzig: Bertha died, aged seventeen or eighteen: Daniel M. is a wholesale liquor dealer in New York City: Max D. was a successful business man of New York, and died

July 3, 1898; and Ella married Abram Adler, of Rochester, New York.

Jacob Stern, our subject's father, was born in 1838, in Hanover, Germany, and came to this coun- try in childhood. When a young man he engaged in the dry-goods business in Springfield, and about 1880 he became a traveling salesman for his brothers in New York City, then enjoying a large and pros- perous business. His route covered many sections of New England, and he also had a large trade in New York City and its adjacent towns. During his long connection with the firm, lasting until his death, on Feb. 9, 1897, his fidelity and integrity were of the highest standard. In politics he was a Democrat, and he took an active interest in military affairs as a member of the first company, Gov- ernor's Foot Guard, being a veteran member at the time of his death. He married Miss Rosa Mayer, who was born in Landau, Bavaria, Ger- many, daughter of Isaac Mayer, and granddaugh- ter of Mayer Halevy. The family was from the province of Alsace-Lorraine, and before coming to the United States Isaac Mayer was a wealthy and prominent banker in that section; but the revolu- tion in Germany, in 1848, caused him to emigrate to this country. Isaac Mayer married Bella Mass, from Frankfort-on-the-Main, a member of one of the aristocratic or noble families of that section, and the great banker, Chevalier Adolph Bingen, who was knighted by the King of Italy, was her nephew. After coming to this country Isaac Mayer, who was very learned, and a scholar of excep- tionally brilliant attainments in philosophy and the Hebrew law, became a rabbi. He first had a con- gregation in Cincinnati, Ohio,, and while there, with the assistance of Dr. Wise, inaugurated the modern reform in the Jewish worship. Later he officiated as rabbi in Rochester, N. Y., and Hartford, Conn., where he was much sought for by scholars of all religions, who appreciated his deep and accurate knowledge of matters which could not be found in books. His later years were spent in New York, where he died Dec. 31, 1897, at the age of eighty- nine years.

Jacob Stern and his wife had six children : Clotilda married Julius Lewy, of New York; Mon- roe died aged fourteen years: Charles Seymour is mentioned below ; Ethel B. married Arnold Le Witter, of New York: Nathan M. is in business in New York City : and Winfred M. is a student.

Dr. Charles S. Stern attended the public schools of Hartford in bovhood, graduating from the West Middle School in 1881, at the age of twelve years and nine months. In 1882. at the end of his second year in the high school, he went to New York with his parents The following vear he entered the College of the City of New York, where the degree of A. B. was conferred upon him in 1888. In this course he had given special attention to studies which would assist him in his chosen pro-

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

fession, and in the fall of 1888 he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, of New York City. As an under-graduate he did much practical work in the Charity Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital, and after graduation was connected with the staff of the Gouverneur Hospital and the German Hos- pital of New York City. In 1893 he engaged in general practice in the city, where for some time he was an inspector in the health department, hav- ing passed the civil service examination. Early in 1894 he opened an office in Hartford, where he has built up an extensive practice, his specialty be- genita-urinary diseases; he has charge of the genito-urinary department at the Hartford Dis- pensary. From 1896 to 1898 he was city physi- cian under appointment of the commissioners of charity ; he is one of the police surgeons of the city, is medical inspector for the Board of Health, and he is an active member of the City, County and State Medical Societies. During the war with Spain he was an officer in the Medical Depart- ment, United States Army, and was ordered to Chickamaugua Park with the Ist Corps, where he did duty as executive officer of the Ist Division hospital, and later as acting assistant quarter- master of the 3d Division Hospital. From there he was ordered to Porto Rico, but an illness-typhoid fever, contracted at Chickamaugua-of two months prevented him from going until December. He spent four months as post surgeon at San German, Porto Rico, and after a six-months stay on the island left the service, July 10, 1899, resuming his practice in Hartford in September of that year. The Doctor is fond of athletics and music, and is prominent socially as a member of the Hartford

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Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 11

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1336

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336