Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 2, Part 178

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1172

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 2 > Part 178

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Our subject retains a residence in Berlin, a prop- erty that has been in the family for several genera- tions, it formerly belonging to his great-grandfather, though the house has since undergone various im- provements and is now a beautiful and commodious summer home. Mr. Hooker has served as presi- dent of the Berlin Agricultural Society. He was one of the charter members of the Farmington Country Club, and has served as its president. At this writing he is president of the Berlin Board of Trade ; and he is a member of the Quinnipiac Club of New Haven. Politically he has always been a Democrat, though in 1896 he voted for sound money. Himself and wife are members of the Episcopal Church at New Britain.

On Nov. 1, 1869, Mr. Hooker was married to Anna Louise Newton, of Lockport, N. Y., and to

this union have come children as follows: Henry, who was graduated from Yale College in 1896, is associated in business with his father : and Caroline N. is still in school, now attending a ladies semi- nary in New Haven.

HENRY FISHER, a well known resident of East Glastonbury, has held a responsible position in Crosby & Co.'s mills for many years, and is now their oldest employe in point of service. His long term of service gives proof of the esteem in which he is held by the firm, and by his reliability and in- dustry he has won the esteem of his associates.

Frederick Fisher, the father of our subject, was born in Saxe Weimar, Germany, in 1812, and was reared to farm work, attending school only until the age of fourteen, as was required by law. In 1857 he came to the United States with his family, the voyage between Bremen and New York lasting eight weeks. On his arriyal he came to Hartford by boat, and then made his way to East Glastonbury, where he purchased a farm of George Fogil. Soon afterward he sold that property, and in 1863 he bought a farm from Sira Bennett, and there he spent his remaining years, his death oc- curring May 6, 1889. His wife, Elizabeth Fear, who was also a native of Saxe Weimar, is also deceased, and the remains of both are interred at East Glastonbury. Of their six children, five were born in Germany. Frederick, a farmer in Glaston- bury, married a Miss Smith; Elizabeth died in Germany : Henry was the third in order of birth ; George died young : John died in infancy ; Elizabeth, the only one born in America, died in childhood.

Our subject was born Dec. 18, 1847, and was ten years old when he came to America. He at- tended the common schools in Germany and Amer- ica and leaving school at the age of thirteen entered the mill of Crosby & Co., in East Glastonbury. He began in the card-room as a weaver, later became watchman, and in 1874 was given a position in the machine shop. He has charge of all the machine work and does all repair work, being a thorough me- chanic. He has been industrious and frugal, and owns a farm which is operated by his son George C., of whom mention is made farther on. In addi- tion to his labors in the mill he does work on the farm, while his wife, to whom he gives much of the credit of his success, is an industrious and helpful housewife. They keep several cows, and supply many of the factory employes with milk. At the time of his father's death, the farm was encumbered. but Mr. Fisher now has paid every obligation and saved money besides. Politically he is a strong Republican, but has never held office ; in religious faith he is identified with the Methodist Church at East Glastonbury ; socially he belongs to Elk Lodge, No. 53, I. O. O. F., at Glastonbury.

On Feb. 12. 1870, Mr. Fisher was married to Miss Anna Pitcher, who was born March 18, 1847, i11 Saxe Weimar, Germany, and came to the United States in 1869. They have three children :

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(1) Elizabeth married George W. Wilson, a weaver in Crosby's mills, and they have three children, Mildred E., Eva A., and Doris P. (2) Frederick H., a resident of Hartford, married Mary Wilson, and has one child, Ethel Marie. (3) George C., born September 6, 1876, attended the Neipsic dis- trict school until the age of fifteen, and has since been engaged at farming on the homestead, which he now manages; in the spring of 1899 he bought a steam sawmill, capable of sawing ten cords of wood daily, and he has a good business in sawing stove wood. In politics he is a Republican, and he is a prominent member of the Grange.

PROF. HENRY R. MONTEITH, prominent as an educator in the State of Connecticut, is a na- tive of Vermont, born at MeIndoes Falls, where his father, and grandfather before him, had ac- quired a high place in the lumbering world, being for many years identified with the firm of Brewer, Gilchrist & Co.

Our subject was given every advantage in the way of an education. The academy of his native town afforded him a good preliminary training and fitted him for college. In 1869 he was graduated from Dartmouth College, and then entered upon his life's work, that of teaching. Until 1878 he was engaged in his chosen calling in New York. and while in that city he studied law under the able direction of E. Delafield Smith. In 1876 he was admitted to the Bar, and the year he resigned his position as instructor in New York (1878) he returned to Caledonia county, Vermont, and was there admitted to the Bar, but the following year he accepted the principalship of the Unionville high schools, in Farmington, Hartford county, which he resigned only to accept the chair of English, His- tory, Civics and Algebra in a college, The fresh- man and Sophomore classes will be more directly under his charge, and, judging from the past, it is only safe to say that his success is assured.

In 1873. Mr. Monteith was united in marriage with Miss Ella Ryder.

CURTIS C. COOK, secretary of the Hart- ford Electric Light Co., though so prominently identified with one of the most important indus- tries of Hartford, is one of the youngest business men in that city, and his is a record of wonderful success attained solely by indefatigable industry and force of merit.

Mr. Cook was born March 4. 1874, in Hart- ford, son of John Cook, a native of Middletown, this State, who was reared in the locality of his birth, and received his education in the common schools. On coming to Hartford he opened a mar- ket in Church street, which he conducted a number of years, eventually selling out to J. P. Newton. From that time until his death he lived retired, passing away at the age of sixty-one years. He married Lucy A. Alexander, born in Portland, Conn., who survives him, living in Hartford, and they had

five children, four of whom are yet living; Charles C., who is mentioned below: Carlysle, who is a collector for the Hartford Electric Light Co. (he is a thirty-second degree Mason) ; John W .; and Curtis C. Mrs. Cook was the adopted daughter of a Mr. Pratt, who had a large family, two now surviving : John ; and Sarah, Mrs. Woodruff, whose husband was formerly ticket agent in Hart- ford.

CHARLES C. COOK, son of John Cook, and brother of Curtis C. Cook, of this article, received his education in the schools of Hartford. Later he became associated in business with the late John C. Mead, a prominent builder of Hartford, and on the death of Mr. Mead became associated with a Mr. Hapgood. Since then Mr. Cook has for some years continued in business alone, and so active and energetic has he been as a contractor and builder that he has become widely and favorably known. Up to 1893 he resided in Hartford, but since has been a resident of West Hartford, where he has become prominent in public affairs, and has been especially interested in the finances of the town. Since 1898 he has very acceptably filled the deli- cate position of first assessor, and used every ef- fort to make possible a ten-mill tax that was voted in September, 1900. He is .on a refunding commit- tee having as its object the refunding of the town's debt of over $160,000 at a low rate of interest. Mr. Cook is vice-president of the Southern New England Paving Co., a director of the Atna In- demnity Co., and the Kellogg & Bulkeley Co., and has large interests in several other corporations. He is a stanch and active Republican, and on Oct. 24, 1900, was made, without a dissenting vote, at the West Hartford Republican convention the nominee of that party for representative from that town to the General Assembly, of which body he is now a member.

Curtis C. Cook received his education in the com- mon schools and the Hartford Public High School. and commenced his business career as accountant for the F. S. Kibbee Co., wholesale grocers, with whom he remained three years. His connection with the Electric Light Co. dates from Nov. 9, 1892. when he became first assistant accountant of the concern, holding that position until he was made secretary, on Sept. 30, 1899. Mr. Cook is also treasurer of the Hartford Power Co. His respons- ible connection with so important a concern speaks more highly than words of his efficiency and busi- ness ability, the Hartford Electric Light Co. priding itself on having the finest plant in the country, completely equipped and in splendid running or- der. All the details of the management are most admirably arranged, and the smooth and success- ful operation of the plant is due to the able men at the head of the company, among whom Mr. Cook occupies no inconspicuous place. He has attained a position in the business world which many an older man might well envy.

On Dec. 23. 1897, Mr. Cook was united in mar-

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riage with Miss Georgia L. Gates, a native of Hart- ford, daughter of Julian Gates, who for many years was connected with the Hartford post office. Mr. Gates was the father of two children, twins. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have had one child, Madeline. They are well known socially, and Mr. Cook is a member of the Hartford Yacht Club.

JUDGE HARRISON BELKNAP FREEMAN, lawyer, judge of probate for the Hartford district, oiving to his long service in the position he now oc- cupies is well and favorably known to the people of Hartford and Hartford county.

Judge Freeman was born in Hartford Sept. 5, 1838, son of Horace and Eliza ( Belknap) Freenian. He was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1862, studied law at the Hartford Law School and in the office of Edward Goodman, and was admitted to the Bar in Hartford county in 1864. From 1871 to 1874 he served by appointment as judge of the city police court. He was elected to his present office in 1887.

On June 1, 1864, Judge Freeman was married to Frances Hall Bill, born July 31, 1839, daughter of Erastus and Phobe (Rood) Bill, of Hartford. Mrs. Freeman is a descendant in the eighth gen- eration from John Bill, who is of record as at Boston, Mass., in 1638, the year of his death, her line being through Philip (of England, Ipswich, Mass., and New London, Conn., in 1668), John (2) (who went with his father to New London, and was later of Lebanon), Lieut. James ( who was born, lived and died in Lebanon), Deacon James (of Leb- anon and Chathanı), Erastus, and Erastus Bill (2).

To the marriage of Judge Freeman and his wife have been born: Bertha, Fannie and Harrison B. The last named was born Aug. 22, 1869, in Hart- ford. He was graduated from the Hartford Pub- lic High School, and entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1892. He studied law in the office of Charles J. Cole, and with the class of 1894 at Yale Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in Hartford county in 1894.

HON. RICHARD DUDLEY HUBBARD. In the death of Mr. Hubbard, at his residence in Hart- ford, Feb. 28, 1884, there passed away a distin- guished son of Connecticut, one who at that time was the acknowledged head of the Bar of the State.

Mr. Hubbard was born Sept. 7, 1818, in the town of Berlin, Hartford Co., Conn., of humble origin, and was early left an orphan, with means barely sufficient for his education. He passed his boyhood in East Hartford. He was graduated from Yale College in 1839, less noted for scholarship in his class than he afterward became in the legal profession, but, as he himself said, he paid partic- ular attention to belles-lettres and oratory. Imme- diately after his graduation he commenced the study of law with the late William Hungerford, and was admitted to the Bar in 1842. He was State's attor- ney during the terms 1847-1854 and 1857-1869. A

Democrat in politics, he was not a partisan, and his patriotism was conspicuous during the period of the Civil war. In 1867 he was elected to Congress by the Democratic party, but found political life at Washington very little to his taste, and at the end of his term declined a re-nomination. In 1876 he was elected by the same party governor of the State, being the first to serve under the two-years term. To the discharge of the duties of this office he brought great intelligence, an earnest desire to pro- mote the public welfare, and an absence of partisan feeling. In his first message he called the attention of the Legislature, in very strong language, to the injustice done to women by the antiquated law governing their property rights in marriage, and under his supervision the act of 1877, making a radical change in the property relations of husband and wife, and based upon the principle of equality, was drafted and passed.

It was, however, in the field of the law that Gov. Hubbard won his great success. Here he became a foremost figure in the public eye. He was not only the first lawyer in the State, but its greatest orator. His superiority as a lawyer was owing less to a laborious study of books, though he was always a diligent student and very thorough in the prepara- tion of his cases, than to his perfect comprehension of legal principles. He had obtained a complete mastery of the science of the law. He would detect the slightest swerving from its harmony as a fine ear would detect the least discord in music. He had strong common sense, by which he tested every- thing. But with the soundest of judgments he united the greatest quickness of apprehension and brilliancy of imagination; with apparently unlim- ited grasp of mind, a rare fineness of discrimina- tion. He was, however, never led astray by a fond- ness for legal casuistry, and he had no relish, and but little respect, while yet fully understanding them, for the mere technicalities of the law. His mind was eminently a philosophical one, and found recreation in the study of philosophical systems and abstract speculation, nothing interesting him more than the great mysteries and baffling questions of life.

As an orator Mr. Hubbard was best known to the general public. His success here was of course attributable in large measures to great natural pow- ers ; but he had improved these by a good classical education, and by the superadded scholarly culture of a lifelong familiarity with the ancient and miod- ern classics. Indeed, it was this culture that gave to his oratory its special charm. With no attempt at rhetorical display. with never an impassioned de- livery but a special quietness of manner, he yet had an exquisiteness of thought, a fertility of imag- ination, and a power and grace of expression that made his addresses on every occasion captivat- ing to his hearers; while his more studied efforts were worthy of any orator of any age. Some of his addresses at meetings of the Bar, called to pay tributes to deceased members, have been remarka-

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ble for their beauty. That upon William Hunger- ford, who had been beyond any other man in the State the representative of the ancient school of English lawyers, and who died in extreme old age in 1873, is one of the finest pieces of composition that the English language has ever known.

Mr. Hubbard lacked ambition ; he had no fond- ness for appearing before the public; no desire for office or honor. Even for the law, in which he won so great triumphs, he felt no great enthusiasm. He loved the quiet of his library, and the company at table and fireside of cultivated and congenial friends. In all this he was somewhat too ready to seek his ease, but he rose up manfully to meet the demands of any clear public duty. His integrity was more than unquestioned ; it had the emphatic endorsement of the whole public. In social life lie was the most charming of companions, with a sparkling wit and rare conversational powers, and a faculty of bringing to his service and to the en- tertainment of his friends quaint passages of humor and of wisdom from the old English writers. In every position in life he was facile princeps.

JOHN DEAN BROWNE, president of the Connecticut Fire Insurance Co., Hartford, is a na- tive of New England, born in 1836 in the town of Plainfield, Windham Co., Connecticut.

John Browne, his grandfather, was a patriot of the Revolution, as were also two of the latter's brothers, all Windham county men, where their ancestors had lived for generations, and of that sturdy type of men and women who were equal to the conditions and emergencies of the times in which they lived. Gurdon P. and Esther (Dean) Browne, our subject's parents, were piain, unassum- ing farming people, industrious and frugal, resi- dents of the old Browne homestead, where still live their posterity, the fifth generation of the family to occupy it. They reared their children in habits of industry and frugality, and by precept and ex- ample inculcated in them those principles of robust morality and patriotism in which they themselves had been trained, and which were striking charac- teristics of their ancestry. Gurdon P. Browe, too, was a school teacher of the old type, beginning his profession at seventeen, following it through thirty- six winters. He was an ardent Democrat of the Old School, always performing his duties as a pa- triotic citizen, and voting at every election in his town until the very close of his long and useful life, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. His wife was a woman of rare qualities and Christian virtues, deeply solicitous for the spiritual and in- tellectual culture of her children. She passed away at the age of eighty-seven years.

President Browne, reared amid agricultural pur- suits among the rugged hills of New England, and in the atmosphere that pervaded the home of such parents, imbibed a spirit of independence and self- reliance that developed the man he came to be --- foremost among the men of insurance in the pro-

fession. Such environments of his boyhood were favorable to the formation of correct habits and a manly character, and promotive of the best develop- ment of the natural gifts which he had inherited from a long line of sturdy and honorable ancestors. His youthful life was passed on the farm, alternat- ing between attendance at the district school and work on the farm. At nineteen he taught one of the schools of his native town. The great North- west offered greater inducements to young men than the home State then gave, and in 1857 young Browne located in the then far away Territory of Minnesota, forming a connection with the Minne- apolis Mill Co., his location there being the result of a visit made to that locality in 1855. He re- mained two years with this company, and then went to Little Falls, a town at that period of a few hundred inhabitants, located on the Mississippi river, passing a year as director and agent of the Little Falls Manufacturing Co. Here he aided in the development of the great water power of that section, which has since become so useful and valuable, as he did also at Minneapolis.

From 1857 to 1865, during the years of his ca- reer in the North Star State, young Browne was actively prominent in the affairs of the Territory and State. He aided in organizing the Republican party in 1855, and held intimate relations with the dominant party at the National Capital throughout the administration of President Lincoln, for whose election he had been an enthusiastic and effective worker. He was often a delegate to county and State conventions, and was chosen an alternate dele- gate to the National Republican Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln. His Republicanism was known to be of the most pronounced type, and his political activity and enthusiasm constituted him an important factor in all the councils of his party during the greater portion of the eight years cov- ered by his residence in Minnesota. At the close of the Presidential campaign, in the autumn of 1860, Mr. Browne was elected messenger to take the first electoral vote of Minnesota to Washington, in which city he remained during the succeeding winter, having been appointed to a desk in the In- terior Department at the Capital under Joe Wil- son, then commissioner of the General Land Office. He returned to Minnesota in the spring of 1861, and for four years, during Lincoln's administration. was chief clerk in the office of the surveyor-general of public lands at St. Paul, to which city the office had been recently removed from Detroit.

Returning East in 1865, Mr. Browne one year later entered the work of insurance, becoming per- manently connected with the Hartford Fire Insur- ance Co. as its general agent and adjuster. In 1870 he was chosen secretary of that company, in the duties of which office he was engaged for ten years, or until called to the presidency of the Con- necticut Fire, in 1880, in which incumbency he still continues. It is but just to Mr. Browne to sav that since his elevation to its chief executive office

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the Connecticut has abundantly maintained its high standing among the solid and prosperous institut- tions of its class in this insurance centre, while its progressive tendency is illustrated in the figures fol- lowing. In 1880 the premium income of the Con- necticut Fire was $507,871, the assets $1,636,382; in the year ending Jan. 1, 1898, the premium in- come was $1,668,232, assets $3.559,357 : premium income Jan. 1, 1900, $1,872,144.34. During this period the semi-annual dividend, regularly paid, amounted to $1,500,000 ; in 1900 it was $1,750,000. The handsome building, at the corner of Prospect and Grove streets, was largely the result of Presi- dent Browne's planning and taste.

President Browne sustains official relations with a number of business and social organizations in Hartford. He is a director in the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co., the National Exchange Bank, the Board of United Charities, the Hartford Board of Trade, and Retreat for the Insane, is a member of the Historical Society, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is president of the Hart- ford Charitable Society, and of the Connecticut Humane Society. Socially he is a quiet courteous gentleman. Politically Mr. Browne has for some years been rather independent. He advocated the election of President Cleveland, and believed in his administration.

On Oct. 23. 1861, Mr. Browne was married to Frances, daughter of Luther Cleveland, of Plain- field, Conn. She died in 1893, leaving two daugh- ters, Alice C. and Virginia F., the former being the wife of Francis R. Cooley, son of Hon. Francis B. Cooley, of Hartford.

CHARLES R. BURT, secretary of the Con- necticut Fire Insurance Co. of Hartford, was born March 4, 1845, in Hartford, son of Richard S. and Maria A. (Boardman) Burt. While yet in his teens young Burt began an active conection with the local agency of the Connecticut Fire In- surance Co. In 1865 he entered the office of the company as clerk. In December, 1867, he was made assistant secretary, and in January, 1873, secretary of the company, a position he has since held. Hc is an active member of what was the Pearl Street Congregational Church, having been some years a deacon, and superintendent of the Sunday-school.

On Oct. 5, 1871, Mr. Burt was married to So- phia Matilda Sill, of Middletown, Conn., who was more than twenty years the lady superintendent of the Sunday-school, and is a valucd assistant in many branches of charitable work in Hartford. They have no children.

JUDGE WILLIAM HAMERSLEY was born in Hartford Sept. 9, 1838, a son of the late Hon. William James Hamersley, who was for many years a distinguished resident of the city.

Judge Hamersley was a pupil at the old Gram- mar School, afterward at the High School, and entered Trinity College with the class of 1854, but

left during his Senior year to begin his legal studies in the office of Welch & Shipman. He was ad- mitted to the Bar in 1859, and in 1863 was elected a member of the court of common council, later was vice-president of the board, and president during 1867 and 1868. He also held the position of city attorney, resigning in 1868 to accept the position of State's attorney for Hartford county. He held this office for twenty years. In 1886 he repre- sented the town of Hartford in the legislature, serv- ing on the Judiciary and Federal Relations com- mittees. He was again a member of the House in 1893, but resigned during the session to take the position of judge of the superior court, holding same until Jan. 14, 1894, when he was advanced to to the Bench of the supreme court.

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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 2, Part 178

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1172

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1172