USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Commemorative biographical record of New Haven county, Connecticut, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, V. I, Pt 1 > Part 73
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Greene Kendrick, son of John Kendrick, was born April 1, 1798, the seventh in a family of eleven children, at the homestead near Charlotte, N. C., and in that locality attended school, later assisting in the management of the plantation. At about twenty he engaged in the mercantile business at Charlotte, and in 1829 he located in Waterbury, and from that time on until his death figured pre-emi- nently in its industrial life and in all of its affairs, public and social. He had married, June 12, 1823, at Augusta, Ga., Anna M., daughter of Mark Leav- enworth, and a native of Waterbury, with whom he lived happily for forty-seven years. It was through the influence of Mr. Leavenworth that he came. North and located in Waterbury, where he became a member of the firm of Mark Leavenworth & Co .. manufacturers of clocks, the firm later be- ing styled Leavenworth & Kendrick. They were among the first to engage in the manufacture of gilt buttons, out of which industry grew the manufacture of brass. Mr. Kendrick subsequently engaged in the manufacture of pocket cutlery, and organized the Waterbury Manufacturing Co., which under his direction procured skilled labor from abroad and
For A Quete
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proved the practicability of competing successfully with Europe in this useful art. He atso later or- ganized and successfully established under peculiar difficulties the Oakville Pin Co. He was interested in the American Suspender Co., and many other manufacturing corporations. In the latter years of his life he obtained the controlling interest in the manufacture of silver-plated ware, then recently es- t. blished in Waterbury by Rogers & Brother. While active in the 'n'lustries of Waterbury at home, he served the town abroad yet more efficiently in the combining of capital in co-operative work. The
passage of the measure gave a stimulus to all man- ufacturing in Connecticut, especially in Waterbury.
In the days of the old Whig party Mr. Kendrick was an able exponent of its doctrines in town, State and national affairs-loval to it as long as it ex- isted, and then stood aside, acting with the Demo- cratic party so far as he acted at all. He was ever loyal to his convictions of right, following them without regard to party lines. By native manliness and justice, he outgrew party bondage, and in his later years sought to conciliate and harmonize the differing elements of strife, always preferring prin- ciple to party. Born in the South, he deeply re- gretted the necessity of war, but when it came he was loyal to his adopted section.
Mr. Kendrick was many times honored by his fellow citizens by election to public trusts. He was a representative from the town eight times in the Legislature, and three times from the district in the State Senate. He was honored with the office of lieutenant-governor of the State in 1851, and sub- sequently in an election by the Legislature he came within one vote of being chosen governor. He was Speaker of the House in 1854 and 1856, and in the latter year was the candidate of his party in the Legislature for United States Senator, and by only two votes was defeated bv L. S. Foster.
Mr. Kendrick took an active interest in every- thing that looked to the prosperity of Waterbury. For many years he was chairman of the board of education and also president of the board of agents of the Bronson Library. "His convictions of re- ligious truth were profound, but he was not a Church member, for he could not adopt a creed as a whole unless he was willing to accept it in detail. Here, if anywhere, he believed, was the place for frankness and honesty; if he could not enter the Church without mental reservations, he would not enter at all. Yet his interest in the Church was deep and permanent. and in all that concerned its material prosperity he served it faithfully." He was active in the support of the First Congregational Church, and was chairman of the Society building committee in 1840. In the midst of a busy life he was ever ready to lead in all movements to improve and beautify the town, and was a leading spirit in making Center Square Park, and was one of the pioneers in the movement to open Riverside Cem- etery, devoting himself to complete the organiza- tion of the plan ; he was also chairman of the Board
of Trustees, and delivered the address at its dedica- tion. He was a promoter of the Naugatuck rail- road. Mr. Kendrick was an orator of exceptional power, and had he devoted himself to public life he would have been a leader in legislative bodies. Mr. Kendrick died Aug. 26, 1873, his wife having preceded.him three years, dying May 6, 1870. Their children were: John, Katherine ( Mrs. Frederick G. Wheeler) and Martha.
HON. JOHN KENDRICK, son of Greene and Anna M. (Leavenworth) Kendrick, was born May 27, 1825, near Charlotte, N. C., but was brought by his parents when four years of age to Waterbury, Conn. Prepared for college at the school of Stiles French, in New Haven, he entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1843. Returning to Waterbury, he was for a time assistant teacher in the academy there, later for a time being en- gaged in mercantile business in New York. He be- gan the study of law at Waterbury in 1845, in the office of N. J. Bull, and later attended the Yale Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in 1847 at the age of twenty-two, and opened an office in Waterbury. Like many another gifted son of genius, he found the law a dry study, and the neces- sary confinement to his office was peculiarly irksome to one of his active temperament; moreover, the road to income and fortune was much easier and shorter in those early days of manufacturing in Waterbury outside of a law office than in it, and so after a year or so he became a manufacturer. Here he made a mistake of which he was con- scious in later years, and so some two years be- fore his death he returned to the Bar in company with his son Greene, in whom chiefly he had gar- nered up his heart. Had he been faithful to the law from the outset, endowed with that genial sunny disposition, that lively wit and playful fancy, that brilliant intentive and comprehensive intellect. and that remarkable faculty of influencing and gaining over his fellow men, none that knew him well ever doubted that greatness, as the world es- teems greatness, would have been easily achieved by him.
Mr. Kendrick was repeatedly honored with the votes of his fellow citizens. In 1848 he was elected town clerk. He was first chief judge of the city court upon its organization of the city government. He was three times mavor of Waterbury-1864, 1865 and 1868. He was in the Legislature in 1869, and in 1871 was the candidate of his party for Con- gress, but was unsuccessful in the election that fol- lowed, and at the time of his death he was serving as city attorney. From 1857 to 1859 he was as- sistant editor of the New Haven Register, and was once a defeated candidate for probate judge. Both of his defeats referred to were owing to strife in the ranks of his own party. Mr. Kendrick at the time of his death was one of the agents of the Bronson Library Fund, and a member of the Dem- ocratic State Committee, a position he had filled for several years. For upwards of thirty years Mr.
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.
Kendrick had exercised a powerful influence in the politics of Connecticut. He was first a Whig and afterward a Democrat. Mr. Kendrick was a mem- ber of the famous Peace Convention at Philadel- phia in 1866. In 1869 he received an appointment from Gen. Grant as special bearer of the treaties which had been made with the Belgian government, and spent some time in European travel. He was a classical scholar with a natural capacity for lan- guages.
Mr. Kendrick married Marion Marr, and their children were: (1) John Kendrick, born May 31, 1850, became a lawyer by profession but pursued a business career ; he became a successful inventor and died at Dayton, Ohio, April 27, 1895. (2) Greene Kendrick is mentioned farther on.
With a thorough and intimate knowledge from his youth of the greater doctrines of our religion, and an intellectual belief in their truth, it was not until the beginning of his last illness that he ad- dressed himself in earnest to the work of prepara- tion for the great change which he thought could not be far distant. Few men ever more readily de- tected hypocrisy, few more utterly scorned pharisa- ism, and so, honest with himself and with humanity, he approached his God. He left with his friends a most gratifying and consoling evidence that he died with the faith and hope of a Christian. His death occurred May 27, 1877.
"In a city as large as Waterbury when a man dies the wave soon passes over him and he is seldom in men's thoughts, less frequently upon their tongues; but for many years to come John Kendrick will be spoken of with many a kindly reminiscence. The poor will long remember that large heart, that open hand. Few men ever lived in this community whose virtues men so kindly ap- preciated, and to whose failings men were so will- ingly a little blind."
HON. GREENE KENDRICK, son of John and Marion (Marr) Kendrick, was born May 31, 1851, in Waterbury, Conn. He attended school at Water- bury, and was prepared for college at Round Hill school in Northampton, Mass. He was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1872, having been the Berkley scholar for three years. After his grad- uation he took one year of post-graduate work, then entered the Yale Law School, from which he was graduated in 1875, having taken the Jewell, Ed- wards and Roman Law prizes, which were all that were offered that year. He was admitted to the Bar June 8, 1875, and began practice with his fa- ther, and on the death of the father in 1877 he was appointed city attorney to fill out the father's un- expired term. From 1874 to 1879 Mr. Kendrick was city clerk, and auditor of State from 1875 to 1881. He was a member of the board of educa- tion from 1875 to 1883; represented Waterbury in the State Legislature in 1876, 1877 and 1878; and was mayor of the city in 1882 and 1883. In 1888 Mr. Kendrick moved to New York, where he was
admitted to the Bar of that city and became a member of the law firm of Finley & Kendrick. He was associate counsel with the late Col. Robert G. Ingersoll in the celebrated contest over the Hart will. He returned to Waterbury in 1892.
SAMUEL HENRY WOODRUFF YALE, late secretary and treasurer of the Meriden Savings Bank, was a member of the well-known family which gave its name to New Haven's famous col- lege. The first of the name in this country was Capt. Thomas Yale, whose history is fully given in the genealogy of Horace Yale elsewhere. (II) Capt. Thomas Yale, of the second generation, is also described in the same article. His brother, Elihu Yale, made a contribution to the funds of the Connecticut Institute, which thereupon adopted his name and became Yale College.
(III) Capt. Theophilus Yale, son of Capt. Thomas (II), was born Nov. 13, 1675, in Walling- ford, and married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Samuel and Anna Street, of the same town. He was a magistrate from 1724 until his death, Sept. 13, 1760, and held many offices, civil and military. His widow died at the home of their son-in-law, Joseph Hough, Nov. 28, 1784, aged ninety-four years. Their children were: Elihu, Ann, Samuel, Theo- philus, Sarah, Catherine and Mary.
(IV) Samuel Yale, son of Capt. Theophilus, was born Jan. 28, 1711, in Wallingford, and was a farmer in the northern part of the town, the present site of Yalesville. He died Oct. 6, 1754, leaving a large estate. On March 11, 1736, he married Sus- annah Abernethy, of Wallingford, who died May 30, 1770, at the age of fifty-nine years. Their children were : Samuel, Street, Susannah ( who mar- ried first a Parker, second a Hamilton, and lived at Egremont, Mass.), Charles, Waitstill and Amasa.
(V) Of the life of Street Yale, son of Samuel, of Wallingford, little is known. The dates of his birth and death cannot be found. The maiden name of his wife, Mary, is also unknown. She sur- vived him, and passed away at Ballston, N. Y. Their children, all born in Wallingford, were: Samuel, Reuben, Ruth, Charles (died in infancy), Charles and Mary.
(VI) Samuel Yale, eldest child of Street, was born Aug. 18, 1763, in Wallingford. He married (first) Eunice Paine, of Meriden, and (second) Mehetable Rice, of Wallingford. He was the first manufacturer in Meriden, commencing the produc- tion of cut nails in 1791. His shop was a small building on the hill, near the present site of the Center Congregational Church, and there he and his son operated a nail machine by hand, heading each nail separately. In 1794 he commenced the manufacture of pewter buttons, and employed sev- eral hands. He accumulated a handsome estate. To his first marriage came children as follows: William was born March 17, 1784; Roxana, born in 1786, married Jonathan Y. Clark, and died Sept.
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Stalyfale
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26, 1828; Samuel was born April 4, 1787; Charles, April 20, 1790; Iva, March 31, 1792; Selden, Feb. 29, 1795; Hiram, born March 27, 1799, married Rosetta Robinson April 6, 1821, and died July 21, 1831. His widow married William Carter, of Wallingford. The children of the second wife were: Maria, born Nov. 30, 1804, married E. N. Howard; and Mehetable, born in October, 1808; married Thomas Tyler-all of Meriden.
(VII) Samuel Yale, second son and third child of Samuel, was born April 4, 1787, in Wallingford, and married Laminta, daughter of Jehiel Clark, of Meriden. At an. early age he began to assist his father in the manufacture of cut nails and, later, pewter buttons. After the death of the father the sons Samuel and Hiram continued the business which he had founded. They spent several years at Richmond, Va., in the tin business. Returning to Meriden, they were joined by their brothers Will- iam and Charles in the production of tin and Britannia ware. Their goods were distributed chiefly by peddlers. Being progressive and enter- prising, the brothers brought skilled artisans from England and were soon foremost in the Britannia trade, furnishing the finest tea and church services and similar goods. Charles and Hiram Yale re- moved to Wallingford, and Samuel remained in Meriden and continued the tin and Britannia busi- ness, having a shop for some time on Liberty street, later at the corner of Broad and East Main streets. He retired in 1858. In early life Mr. Yale was a deputy sheriff several years. He was made a director of the Meriden Bank on its or- ganization, and held that position until his death. During the existence of the Meriden Academical Association he was its president and a trustee. It was through his influence that the first Abolition meeting in Meriden was permitted to be held in the school house near his home on Broad street. In 1850 he built what was known as the Odd Fellows' building, on the site of the present Broad Street Hall, owned by Meriden Center Lodge, I. O. O. F., and in 1856 he erected the brick block at the north- east corner of East Main and Broad streets. Mr. Yale died March 12, 1864, aged seventy-seven years, and his widow passed away one year later. in her seventy-ninth year. Their children were: Caroline, born July 3, 1813, died June 25, 1814; Henry Clark, born Oct. 29, 1815, died April 15, 1817; Jane Ann, born Dec. 20, 1820, died Nov. 20, 1842; Samuel H. was born July 30, 1822; and Hiram A. was born Nov. 5, 1824.
(VIII) Samuel H. Yale, son of Samuel, was born July 30. 1822, and reared in Meriden, and was early associated with his father and brother in manufacturing tin and Britannia ware. He died April 18, 1846, eighteen years previous to the death of his father. In 1843 he married Miss Susan Woodruff, daughter of Daniel and Eliza ( Bristol) Woodruff, of Southington, Conn. His widow sur- vived him only one year, passing away in 1847.
The subject of these lines was the only child of this union.
Samuel Henry Woodruff Yale was born April 18, 1844, in Meriden. By the untimely death of his parents he was left an orphan at the age of two years, and was reared by his grandparents. He acquired his education in the public schools and academy of Meriden, studied Greek, French and German, and was prepared for college. Determin- ing upon a business career, while still a youth he entered the Meriden Savings Bank as clerk, grad- ually winning promotion until he became secretary and treasurer, which position he filled thirteen years or until his death, which occurred Nov. 2, 1890. His remains repose in the beautiful East cemetery.
From early youth Samuel H. W. Yale was a reader and close student of men and affairs. He rarely played like other boys, but made companions of books. Being well read, he was an excellent conversationalist, and his large library afforded au- thorities upon every subject of human interest. . His gentle and modest character endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. In political prin- ciple he was a Democrat, but he was not in any sense a politician. Of domestic tastes, he lived a strictly temperate life, and his death was a source of regret to many citizens of Meriden beside his immediate relatives.
On July 26, 1876, in Meriden, Mr. Yale married Cecelia Ida Saleski, a lady of great business ability. Three children came to this union, viz .: Samuel S., a very intellectual and promising youth, who died in 1895, and was interred in East cemetery; Cecelia Maria ; and Ethel Laminta. The daughters are graduates of Kenwood Sacred Heart Convent, Albany, N. Y., and are popular in Meriden social circles. Mrs. Yale has carefully conserved and improved the estate left by her husband, and has built several houses in the city. Her beautiful home, at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, has been remodeled after plans of her own and is one of the most desirable residences in Meriden.
BENJAMIN PAGE, one of Meriden's leading citizens and successful men of affairs, is the senior member of the old established insurance and real- estate firm of Page & Pardee. He was born in the town of North Branford, Conn., Sept. 4, 1840. a son of Benjamin and Sarah E. (Merriam) Page. and a brother of Rev. Charles Page, of North Bran- ford, and of John M. Page, a well-known merchant of Naugatuck, in whose biographies will be found the family genealogy.
From early life Benjamin Page showed an in- tellectual leaning. his anxiety to obtain an educa- tion making that the chief business of his life until the age of seventeen, when he was first engaged as a teacher. Full preparation had been made for this profession, Mr. Page having been educated in the public schools, supplemented by a short course at the New Britain State Normal School. A general
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course of reading further stimulated a naturally quick understanding.
Finishing his first school term in Wallingford with success, he followed the profession in East Haven and North Branford, and for a term of four vears was the efficient principal of the South Meri- den school. While still engaged in his professional duties he established an insurance business, this be- ing the same which has been so well known through the county and State for the past thirty-six years. From a small beginning. in 1865, it has grown in importance until now it covers a large field and ranks with the best in this part of Connecticut. Since 1892 the firm has had added strength through the admission of Mr. L. C. Pardee as a partner, a young man of push and energy, who is fully in accord with Mr. Page in business methods. Mr. Page has done an extensive business in the settling up of estates in and around Meriden, his unques- tionable honesty, experience and excellent judgment making him a very reliable and prominent man in this line of business.
Mr. Page is a man of excellent business ability, possessing a strong grasp of affairs, while at the same time employing only those methods which gain the confidence of the public. No small amount of his success has resulted from his known personal integrity. He came to Meriden without capital or influential friends to aid him, and attained success through energy, industry and good business meth- ods.
At about the age of twenty-five Mr. Page be- came identified with the Republican party, and has since been a stanch supporter of its principles. His services were recognized in 1883 bv an election to a seat in the city council as alderman from the Third ward, which office he held by re-election for a period of four years, the last two of which he was presi- dent pro tem. The strict performance of official duty, without fear or favor, made him a most desir- able candidate for the honorable position of mayor, and to that office he was elected, in 1889. His ad- ministration was characterized with so much wis- dom and such a general improvement along munici- pal lines, that his fellow-citizens again so honored him, in 1890, and after serving with dignity, useful- ness and ability for two years, he was tendered a third nomination, but this he declined. His party, however, did not permit his etirement to private life, but elected him to represent his town in the State Legislature, in 1894, this duty being performed with the same scrupulous honesty which has character- ized all his official life. During his legislative term he was made clerk of the committee on Insurance, his knowledge of the subject making this a pe- culiarly wise selection. For a period of ten years, Mr. Page filled the offices of city and town collector. during which time millions of the public funds passed through his hands. In January, 1902, he was appointed fire commissioner by Mayor Seeley. In all public affairs and at city functions, Mr. Page
is in great demand as a presiding officer, the case and dignity with which he performs the duty reflecting credit both on him and his city. How- ever, although forced by circumstances into public life, Mr. Page is domestic in his tastes, and finds his greatest pleasure in his own home, which is pre- sided over by his most estimable wife.
In 1864 Benjamin Page was married in North Branford, to Miss Margaret A. Cook, who was born in Wallingford, a daughter of Leverett and Thankful (Stevens) Cook. Mrs. Page is a worthy descendant of an old Wallingford family of prom- inence. The only child born to this marriage is Jen- nie A., who is the wife of Frederick W. Kilbourne, of Springfield, Massachusetts. Fraternally Mr. Page has long been an active member of Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M., and Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F. Both he and his wife are de- voted members of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, where for a number of years he has been warden and vestryman, devoting time and means to the support and extension of the influences of this church. Very charitable, he has always taken a deep interest in the benevolent enterprises of the city, materially as- sisting when it has been within his power. Mr. Page is a director in the Meriden Savings Bank, president of the Curtis Home, and a director in the Middlesex Mutual Assurance Company of Middle- town. It is not too much to say of Benjamin Page that, as he has been shown wise in counsel, few men have been proved more scrupulously faithful in at- tending to the duties of public office.
JAMES TOLLES, teller of the New Haven County National Bank, New Haven, is a repre- sentative of one of the oldest families of West Haven, and was born there July 8, 1848, in a house near his present residence. The house was built before 1800 by his grandfather, Capt. Dann Tolles, a sea captain, who was a native of West Haven, and passed his time there when on shore. This worthy citizen died in 1833, aged fifty-eight years. His (second) wife, Lucy (Smith), was a daughter of Jeremiah Smith, also a native of West Haven. She was the mother of ten children, and lived to the age of sixty-seven years, dying in 1844.
James Tolles, our subject's father, was born in ISIO, in the house mentioned above, and was reared upon a farm, the property belonging to his father. He learned the shoemaker's trade, in all its details, of Newton Stevens, and, the order trade being a profitable one, followed same for some years in West Haven, and for one winter in the South. Later he retired to the old homestead, where he died in 1868, aged fifty-eight. In politics he was a Republican, and he and his estimable wife were devout members of the Congregational Church. James Tolles mar- ried Miss Julia A. Stevens, a member of an old fam- ily of this section, daughter of Newton and Polly Stevens ; the latter belonged to the well-known Rey- nolds family of this county. Our subject's mother
James Tolles.
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died aged eighty-two. Of three children, our sub- ject James, who was the youngest, is now the only one living; Arabella married Joseph Ridley ; Jessie died in infancy.
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