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 2 > Part 3
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Maier Zunder was both enterprising and public- spirited to an exceptional degree, and contributed not a little of his time and means to work in dif- ferent lines leading up to the advancement of New Haven. For more than twenty years he was a member of the school committee, to which he was first elected in 1867, and was re-elected seventeen consecutive times. While on the board he served at different times on every committee, and succeeded the late Harmanus M. Welch as president of that body. Always interested in public affairs, his office- holding was confined to the board of education. The Zunder school in George street was named in honor of him.
Maier Zunder held membership in several or- ganizations. He was treasurer of the Congregation Mishkan Israel ; was a past master of the I. O. O. F .; belonged to the Germania Lodge; Connecticut Rock Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he was a char- ter member ; and Horeb Lodge, I. O. B. B., of which he was at one time president. He was a member of the board of governors of the Bnai Brith Home, in Yonkers, N. Y. Socially he was connected with the Harmony Club and other organizations. Mr.
Zunder was a man of open heart and generous spirit, and did a work of charity in the city of which little was known, but which made his death, on June 29, 1901, a serious loss to many worthy and unfortunate people. In commercial circles Mr. Zunder was very strong. Thirty-five years ago he assisted in the founding of the National Savings Bank, and for twenty-five years was its president. It is said that during that long period he was never absent from any regular meeting of the bank officials. For many years he was one of the directors of the Mechanics' Bank, and was one of the most active members of the Chamber of Commerce. He was also associ- ated with the New Haven Colony Society.
Mr. Zunder is survived by two brothers and two sisters: Louis, who is at Grand Rapids, Mich .; Seligman, who is connected with the National Sav- ings Bank of New Haven; and Mrs. David Lauten- back and Mrs. Feuchwanger, both of whom reside in New Haven.
Mr. Zunder was twice married. His first wife, Mina Rosenthal, died, and he then wedded her sis- ter, Mrs. Regina (Rosenthal) Zunder, widow of his brother. This union was blessed with the fol- lowing children: Isabella, who is the wife of Seig- wart Spier, of New Haven; Albert; Theodore; So- phie, who married Isadore Chase, of Waterbury; Delia, who is the wife of Charles L. Weil, of New Haven ; and Reginal E., a clerk in the National Sav- ings Bank. By her former marriage Mrs. Zunder had three children : Flora, wife of Lewis P. Weil ; Carl; and Albert Rosenthal.
ALBERT ZUNDER was born June 29, 1856, in New Haven, and was there reared to manhood, re- ceiving his education in a private school, and finish- ing at the Wooster school. When he was seventeen years of age he was taken into his father's store, and, in a sense, grew up with the business. At the present time he is at the head of the firm. Albert Zunder was married Oct. 8, 1882, to Rose E. Falk, a daughter of Maier Falk, of Albany, N. Y., where she was born, and where her father was in the tobacco trade. Monroe F. is the only surviv- ing child of this union.
Albert Zunder takes an independent position in politics and holds to the principle of voting for the best men for public position. Since the death of his father he has been elected treasurer of the Jewish Synagogue. For five years he has been treasurer of the Harmony Club, and for fifteen years was as- sociated with its management ; he is also a member of the I. O. O. F .; of Connecticut Rock Lodge, F. & A. M .; Knights of Honor, and the Heptasophs.
JAMES H. SANDERSON, one of the success- ful and progressive agriculturists of Hamden, New Haven county, has made his special field of industry a success, and is highly esteemed and respected by all who know him. He was born in Middletown, Conn., Oct. 7, 1829, son of David Sanderson, a na- tive of Hamden, where the grandfather, Cyrus San- derson, was employed in the gristmill owned by
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Eli Whitney and Jerry Davis. Cyrus Sanderson died at about the age of sixty years.
David Sanderson passed his boyhood and youth near Whitneyville, where in early life he served an apprenticeship to the gunmaker's trade, and he con- tinued to follow that occupation there for some time. Subsequently he worked in Johnson's gun shop, at Middletown, and while there married Miss Sarah H. Tiffin, of that place. After the birth of our sub- ject the father returned to Hamden and entered the Whitney Gun Works, where he was employed until 1861. He removed to the farm where our subject now resides in 1841. There he died in 1862, at the age of fifty-eight years. James H. is the oldest of his three children : William H. is a resident of Rock Island, Ill .; and Chandler died in 1862.
James H. Sanderson was twelve years of age when the family removed to the farm in Hamden, and amid rural scenes he grew to manhood. He remained on the farm until about fifteen, assisting in its operation, and then entered old Squire Whit- ney's gun shop at Whitneyville to assist his father, who was employed there. In those days this shop was turning out the first of the old Navy revolvers of the Colt pattern. Mr. Sanderson spent in all about twenty years at gun and pistol working, giv- ing up that work in 1865. About 1857 he built the house near the old homestead and lived there for twelve years, after which he returned to the farm where his boyhood was passed. Since about 1865 he has devoted his entire time and attention to agri- cultural pursuits, for the past thirty years making a specialty of market gardening, raising all kinds of vegetables, which he retails ; he also carries on fruit growing. He has a good farm of twenty acres.
In 1856 Mr. Sanderson was united in marriage with Miss Ellen R. Curtiss, of Hamden, daughter of Philo Curtiss, and they have had three children : Elizabeth; Maria; and Hattie, wife of William C. Mansfield, of Hamden. In his political affiliations Mr. Sanderson is a Republican, though he seldom attends an election, his assistance to the party being rendered almost entirely through the influence he exerts. He was a stanch supporter of the Free Soil doctrine during the period of its agitation. . Mr. Sanderson gives an earnest support to all measures which he believes will prove of public benefit. He is widely and favorably known and has a host of warm friends in the community where he has so long made his home; for a man of his age he is well preserved, in spite of his life of activity.
HENRY C. ROWE, the head of the firm of H. C. Rowe & Co., growers and shippers of Rhode Island and Long Island Sound oysters, was the pioneer in deep water oyster culture, and this firm now owns more oyster ground than any other in the United States.
Mr. Rowe was born in New Haven April 23, 1851, son of Ruel and Abbie (Gordon) Rowe, and grandson of Levi Rowe. His ancestors were land holders in New Haven in 1640. His great-grand-
father, Ezra Rowe, and Matthew Rowe (3), brother of Ezra Rowe, were in the Colonial army in the war of the Revolution. Mr. Rowe's ancestors were pub- lic-spirited and enterprising citizens. His father, Ruel Rowe, carried on various commercial and mer- cantile enterprises, and at the time of his death, in 1868, was engaged in the importation of oysters, principally from Southern waters, and in shipping them to Canada, New York and the West. Upon his death, in May, 1868, his son, Henry C., under- took the conduct of the business, although then but a boy of seventeen. His mother was, however, a woman of rare intelligence, character and energy, and it was with the aid of her advice that he was able to lay the foundation of what has become a great and successful enterprise.
For about a year after his father's death, Henry C. Rowe carried on the business along the same lines, but the Southern competition for the Western trade was strong, and he soon began to build up a New England trade, which formed the nucleus of the extensive business of the present firm. In later years he has shipped all over the northern parts of the United States and Canada, as far west as Cali- fornia and Oregon, and as far east as England and Germany. Mr. Rowe now owns over ten thousand acres of oyster ground in Long Island Sound, be- side controlling a large area in the State of Rhode Island, and gives employment to a great number of persons and vessels of various kinds. The culti- vated oysters of Connecticut and Rhode Island are superior in quality and flavor to most of the Chesa- peake Bay and other Southern stock, and Con- necticut alone ships annually millions of bushels of oysters, opened and in shell, to the markets of the United States, Canada and Europe.
Before this result was reached, however, many great difficulties were encountered and overcome, which cannot even be mentioned within the limits of this sketch. Before 1870 Mr. Rowe realized the great possibilities and immense future for the oyster industry of New England-if oysters could be prop- agated on a great scale in Northern waters, in- stead of depending principally upon supplies from the South. In order that this could be done, im- portant legislation was necessary, and it was not until May 14, 1874, that he took from the State the first large grant of oyster ground made in the deep waters of the Sound, outside of the harbors, reefs and islands, and commenced the work of oyster propagation on a large scale. This new enterprise was looked upon as foolhardy, the general opinion being that no defensible right could be secured to the ground, and that, if it could, the culture itself, for many reasons, was impracticable. Many of the predictions were not wholly mistaken, and the young man found a rough road to travel over ere he reached the goal of his ambition. When some of the early obstacles were overcome, and he had con- verted some of the sea bottom of the Sound into a prospective oyster farm, numerous other difficult- ies arose. The general public had an idea that
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oysters grew like wild fruit, and needed only to be plucked; and many believed that the right of property in oyster ground was a wrong to the pub- lic, and that all oysters in the water were common plunder. Much prejudice against the enterprise existed, and it was for a few years alniost iinpos- sible to get redress from the courts for the thefts and trespassing practiced, for, as the oyster farms were increased to include hundreds of acres, thefts were frequent and the beds difficult to guard. As Mr. Rowe's experiment began to give promise of a successful industry, others went into the enterprise, and some of them, not understanding the law for a written title, went into the Sound and staked out ground here and there, regardless of the rights of others. In substance, such were the nature and con- ditions attending the earlier years of oyster culture in Long Island Sound, and they clearly show that the undertaking was fraught with difficulties on every hand, and imposed on the projectors grave, and sometimes most unpleasant, responsibilities, as suits in court were frequent and embittered. But the pluck and energy of Mr. Rowe and his asso- ciates were equal to the occasion and finally tri- umphed, establishing the largest oyster industry in New England, and Mr. Rowe now owns and pays taxes upon more oyster ground than any other per- son or firm in the United States.
Rowe & Co. in 1897 commenced the use of ex- tensive grounds in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Is- land, in connection with their vast oyster fields in Long Island Sound, and they now control more ground in Rhode Island-as well as in Connecti- cut-than any other person or firm. Their prin- cipal shipping house is located at the east end of Quinnipiac bridge, New Haven, and is arranged on an entirely different plan from any other oyster house in the United States. The oysters are handled by such methods as to insure their perfect condi- tion, and with the least labor practicable. This firm own and use three wharves about seven hun- dred feet in extent, and with a depth of water sufficient to permit the loading and unloading of their steamers at either high or low water. The plant is equipped with every facility for storing, shucking and packing oysters, and is the most con- venient, as well as the most complete, in the coun- try. Five thousand bushels can be caught and handled per day.
During the years of progress in this line of in- dustry in Long Island Sound much legislation has naturally come up in matters of titles and regula- tions, and for twenty-five years no such bills have come up and been passed without Mr. Rowe's careful consideration. One of the most vigorous contests in the Legislature, in which he was en- gaged, occurred in 1880, when he secured the pass- age of a bill permitting him to dredge on his own ground with his own steamer, which was the only oyster steamer then owned in New Haven. The other oyster planters vigorously opposed its use, and through their influence Mr. Rowe was opposed
by the representatives from New Haven and East Haven, both in the House and before the Legislative committee. Thirteen persons were before the com- mittee to oppose the provision, and Mr. Rowe only in its favor. After a lively contest the committee favored it by a vote of eight to one, the Senate by fourteen to four, and the House by a two-thirds vote, deciding that Mr. Rowe was right, and that the act was just to those who opposed him so bitter- ly. They claimed that steam dredges would not only destroy his own oyster beds, but those of his neighbors, but later they owned and used steam dredges themselves.
Since its formation, in 1881, Mr. Rowe has been one of the leading spirits in the Oyster Growers' Association, and for five years past has been its president. Men who were once his opponents now support his views. He has been connected with many measures having for their object the advance- ment of the oyster culture. He was mainly instru- mental in the removal of the place for depositing dredged material, in the government work, through the orders of the United States engineer officers. He also secured the passage of an act, by the Legis- lature, for the same purpose. In 1882 Mr. Rowe assisted Lieut. Francis Winslow, of the United States navy, in carrying on some interesting and successful experiments in the artificial propagation of oysters.
In 1887 Mr. Rowe presented to the General As- sembly a statement of the conduct of the Shell Fish Commission, as it was then constituted, and showed where the State could save nine thousand dollars per year in the management of this commission. The General Assembly acted upon this information and by legislation passed upon Mr. Rowe's state- ment more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars have been saved to the State up to the present time.
Few men managing such extensive interests are willing to sacrifice time and energy to public meas- ures. Mr. Rowe has not sought public responsi- bility, but when it has been placed upon him by various organizations, including the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the Connecticut Oyster Growers' Association, and other organizations, he has performed the duties entrusted to him with faithfulness. Among other public movements, he was one of the first to advocate the annexation of a part of the town of East Haven to New Haven, and was on the committee to secure the passage of the bill providing for annexation. He was active in the preliminary work to secure the building of the Quinnipiac bridge, and later for the new bridge, to replace Tomlinson's. On the petition of H. C. Rowe and others the Legislature in 1885 ordered the draw in the bridge just referred to widened to eighty feet or more, and it is an interesting coin- cidence that the General Assembly of 1842, upon the petition of his father, Ruel Rowe, ordered the draw widened to fifty-four feet, while twenty years before that date his grandfather, Levi Rowe, headed
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a movement to have the draw widened, the width then being but twenty-six feet. In 1883 Mr. Rowe procured the passage of a bill by the Legislature to protect infant children from ill usage when in the care of other than their parents. In 1884 and 1885 he was chairman of a committee from the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth wards of New Haven to oppose the schemes of consolidation then before the Legislature, and in 1886 was a member of a similar committee from the borough of Fair Haven, East.
As a member of the Chamber of Commerce of New Haven, Mr. Rowe has rendered the city valu- able service. He has worked faithfully for the im- provement of New Haven harbor. He was secre- tary of the New Haven Harbor committee for one year, and for the past three years, as chairman of the committee, has labored successfully with others in securing Congressional legislation for harbor im- provement. His duties in these capacities necessi- tated preparation of a great amount of information and statistics. The legislation secured was a pro- vision for the expenditure of $345,000 for dredging the harbor of New Haven, and exceeded by $105,- 000 the total amount that had been previously ex- pended for that purpose by the Government during the whole history of the city. On March 29, 1899, at the fifty-ninth annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of New Haven, resolutions were unani- mously passed thanking Mr. Rowe for his efficient services on the Harbor committee.
In 1901 the Chamber of Commerce requested suggestions of legislation to remedy the very unjust assessments which then existed in New Haven. The need of remedy was urgent, as the assessments ranged from one and one-fourth times to three times the market value of real estate. There were 3,580 appeals to the board of relief among the 10,377 real- estate tax-payers of New Haven. Neither the board of relief nor the Superior Court proved of any avail in remedying these evils. Under these circum- stances the Chamber of Commerce invited all citi- zens of New Haven to offer remedies, and a method proposed by Mr. Rowe was unanimously approved by the committee on Legislation of the Chamber, and by the Chamber itself. The leading members of the Chamber, with Mr. Rowe, urged the passage of what was known as the "Rowe Bill," and the Ju- diciary committee of the General Assembly voted to recommend its passage, notwithstanding its very unique and original provisions. After having. so voted, however, four members of the Chamber ap- peared before the committee in. opposition to the measure. The committee then reversed its posi- tion, on the ground that the Chamber of Commerce was not united, and as the measure was quite with- out precedent. they hesitated to pass it, although the committee had previously shown its approval of the principle involved by voting .to. recommend the measure. Although the Bill did not become a law, the able presentation of the case to the public made at that time resulted in a reduction of the unjust assessments by the amount of twenty million dol-
lars on the next assessment made after this work of the Chamber.
Mr. Rowe's public services, however, have been only in cases where he was asked to assume re- sponsibility, and his principal work has been the great enterprise of cultivating oysters on a large scale in the deep water of Long Island Sound, in which work he has come to be a recognized author- ity. As such, at the request of the United States Government, he read a paper before the Interna- tional Fisheries Congress at the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893, and also addressed the members of the Legislature of Virginia in January, 1894, by invitation of the Fish Commission of Virginia. His success in the oyster industry has resulted not only from a thorough study of the practical culture of oysters, but is also largely due to the fact ( for he has achieved success in the commercial department of the industry as well) recently expressed in a pithy way by one of the competitors of the firm, who said: "It is of no use to try to get the trade of H. C. Rowe & Co., because their customers know that they can not only depend on the quality and condi- tion of the oysters, but they know that they will always get full measure and solid meats." This- reputation enables the firm to hold its trade, al- though often undersold in price, by competitors. The unprecedented success of H. C. Rowe & Co. emphasizes the old saying that "honesty is the best policy."
SHELDON BRAINERD THORPE is a widely known citizen of North Haven, a descendant of an old family whose ancestry dates from William Thorpe, who sailed from England to America in 1635, coming with wife and daughter, both of the name. of Elizabeth, and settling in New Haven in 1638. His second marriage was to Margaret Pigg. The eldest son of William, named Nathaniel, owned land at "Blue Hills" which his daughters, Experi- ence and Lydia, sold to Enos Tuttle in 1733. The wife of Nathaniel was Mary Ford, of Charlestown, Mass., and the children of this marriage were: Na- thaniel, Samuel, Mary and Abigail. His second marriage was to Sarah Robbins, who bore him: Sa- rah, Experience, Lydia, William and Elizabeth.
Nathaniel Thorpe, of the above family, grew to. manhood. He and his wife Elizabeth had eight children : Nathaniel, Samuel, Isaac, Hannah, Re- becca, Moses, Aaron and Elizabeth. Isaac Thorpe, son of Nathaniel, married Dinah Ludington in 1725, and their residence was in North Haven, where the records. of the Congregational Church. ·testify to them being devout people. Their children. were: Isaac, Mary, Nathaniel, Nathaniel (2), Jonathan, Titus, Jacob, Amos and Dinah.
Jacob Thorpe married Eunice Bishop June 20, 1768, and was killed by the British forces at East Haven, July 6, 1779, leaving children : Asa, Zophar, Jacob; Beda and Billa. The widow, Eunice Thorpe, married Jonathan Ralph, and the children of this- union were: . Tilly, Jonathan and . Eunice.
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Billa Thorpe, the grandfather of our subject, in 1800 married Polly Moulthrop, who died in 1867, her husband dying two years previously. The children of this union were: Beda, Eunetia, Jacob, William Darius, Beda Roxsina, Dennis, Polly De- light, Rachel and Grace.
Dennis Thorpe, the father of our subject, resided in North Haven, on the Wallingford road, in an old brick house which was a noted landmark in the lo- cality; having been built in 1759. At the time of his death, Nov. 7, 1900, he was the oldest male resident in the town. He married, Jan. 3, 1837, Elmina Bas- sett, who died Jan. 2, 1901. The children of this union were: Our subject, Marthena, Amanda, Ells- worth Harrison, and Henry Lewis.
Sheldon B. Thorpe was born in the old brick house, on the upper plains of North Haven, Conn., Feb. 21, 1838. Educational privileges in that place were most meager, but, by the aid of a few terms in the local academy of the town, he had acquired suf- ficient knowledge, by the age of sixteen, to engage in teaching, and was employed in the public schools of Northford, Hamden and North Haven. In that day the old-fashioned country "Lyceum," with its lectures, debates and dramatic entertainments re- ceived his support, and he was an occasional con- tributor to the newspaper press of that period.
The demands of the Civil war claimed his at- tention, and, with many of his companions, he en- listed Aug. 9, 1862, in Company K, 15th Conn. V. I., and saw hard service along the Atlantic seaboard. In 1865 he entered the employ of the N. Y., N. H. & Hartford R. R. Co., as assistant station agent, at Windsor Locks, Conn., where he remained several years, and was then engaged by the Adams Express Co., as a messenger between New York and Spring- field. Mr. Thorpe served this company for four years, a portion of the time being in charge of the Merchants' Union Express Co., in New Haven. In 1871 he resigned this branch of the business and connected himself with the commission house of H. E. Smith & Co., in which line, in one capacity and another, he remained until he entered the em- ploy of The Stiles Brick Co., of North Haven, where he is at present engaged.
Mr. Thorpe was married Dec. 25, 1865, to Isabel Jane Barnes, a daughter of Daniel and Jane (Barnes) Barnes, and two sons have been born to them: Gardiner E., agent of the Bradstreet Co., at Boston; and Arthur B., connected with the New England Engineering Co., with residence in Hart- ford, Conn. In 1858 Mr. Thorpe became a member of the Congregational Church, later served as sup- erintendent of the Sunday-school some years, was also treasurer and clerk of the church for a time, and has been clerk of the First Ecclesiastical So- ciety for twenty-five years. In politics he has al- ways been a Republican, and represented the town in the Legislature in 1881. For many years he was a member of the board of education, acting as school visitor a portion of the time.
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