USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 13
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As a business man, Mr. Wheeler was distinguished for his organizing and ad- ministrative abilities, his energy, enter- prise, foresight, good judgment, and fair dealings-qualities which were recognized throughout the business world. His so- licitude for all employed by the corpora- tion of which he was the head was espec- ially marked, and won for him profound regard. He contributed largely to the success of various important local enter- prises. He was an incorporator of the People's Savings Bank ; a director of the Bridgeport City Bank, Bridgeport Hy- draulic Company, Bridgeport Horse Rail- way Company, Fairfield Rubber Com- pany, Willimantic Linen Company, and
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the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. He was an active member of the Board of Trade, and the Board of Aldermen, and of the building committees of schools and county build- ings, and a commissioner for building the State Capitol at Hartford. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Seaside Club ; a donor to and one of the chief promoters of Seaside Park of the city of Bridgeport; and a commis- sioner for its development. He was the principal founder of the business of the Bridgeport Wood Finishing Company, and through the invention of "Wheeler's Wood Filler" introduced new methods in finishing woods, which continue to be more and more widely followed. He was a generous contributor to and for thirty- three years a vestryman of St. John Epis- copal Church. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Wheeler repeatedly declined nomina- tion to official positions. He served in the Bridgeport Common Council, and also for several terms in the State Legislature and Senate. Upright in every aim, he com- manded the esteem of the people of his native State, and especially of those in the community in which for so long a period he was a vital and beneficient factor. Blessed with robust health until 1893, he was overtaken by illness and died just as the year closed.
His first wife, Huldah Ruth (Bradley) Wheeler, of Watertown, Connecticut, to whom he was married in 1842, died in 1857. There were four children by this union: Martha, died young; Anna B., died young ; Samuel H., a sketch of whom follows; and Ellen B. (Mrs. Edward W. Harral). The Bradley coat-of-arms is as follows :
Arms-Gules, a chevron argent between three boars' heads couped or.
Crest-A boar's head couped or.
Motto-Liber ac sapiens esto.
On August 3, 1858, Nathaniel Wheeler married Mary E. Crissy, of New Canaan, Connecticut, who survived her husband until April 20, 1910. By this mariage there were four sons: Harry De Forest, born April 6, 1863, died July 10, 1881 ; Archer Crissy and William Bishop, twins, of whom further ; and Arthur Penoyer, born October 20, 1875, died July 13, 1877.
WHEELER, Archer Crissy; WHEELER, William Bishop.
Archer Crissy Wheeler and William Bishop Wheeler, the twin brothers, who for many years resided at No. 350 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut, where Archer Crissy Wheeler still re- sides, were born on September 14, 1864, in Bridgeport, County of Fairfield, State of Connecticut.
In 1893, at the time of the death of their father, his duties and responsibilities fell largely upon his sons, Archer Crissy and William Bishop, and Samuel H. Wheeler, a son of Nathaniel Wheeler by a former marriage with Huldah Ruth Bradley, of Watertown, Connecticut, who died in 1857.
Like their distinguished father, these three brothers took up the work of these large interests which devolved upon them with ever increasing scope and magnitude. Samuel H. Wheeler assumed the active management of The Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, which was fin- ally sold to Singer Manufacturing Com- pany in 1905. With their brother-in-law, Edward W. Harral, Archer Crissy and William Bishop Wheeler continued the management, with practically the entire ownership of The Fairfield Rubber Com- pany, of Fairfield, Connecticut, which be- came one of the largest manufacturers in its line of production, and which made the highest grade of rubber fabric for auto- -
-
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mobile and carriage tops produced in the United States. In 1916 The Fairfield Rubber Company was sold to E. I. Du- Pont DeNemours & Company, of Wil- mington, Delaware.
Besides managing and developing these manufacturing interests, these three brothers were largely instrumental in the present development of Main Street, the principle business section of Bridgeport, as it stands to-day. In 1905. they con- structed The Security Building at No. 1115 Main Street, and gave Bridgeport its first eight-story, all fire-proof, steel structure. Soon thereafter, Samuel H. Wheeler constructed the Stratfield Hotel and gave Bridgeport its first modern fire- proof hotel.
About this time Archer Crissy and Wil- liam Bishop erected at No. 1140 Main Street the fire-proof department store now occupied by Rockwell & Company. The Wheeler Block, for many years occupied by the D. M. Read Company, has be- longed to the family for more than fifty years, and the real estate holdings and developments of the Estate of Nathaniel Wheeler, which have been managed by Archer Crissy Wheeler, as sole surviving executor of his father's will, since the death of Samuel H. Wheeler, are located in nearly every section of the city of Bridgeport.
The beautiful companionship existing between these twin brothers has perhaps rarely obtained, and was known and noted by and among all their friends and ac- quaintances. They lived inseparable lives and hardly ever were they to be seen apart. In business matters their com- bined judgment was brought to bear with unusual foresight, precision and success, and their integrity and fidelity were rec- ognized by all with whom they came in contact. They were unfailingly courte-
ous and their friendships were strong and lasting. Their acquaintances were many and nearly every acquaintance could be said to be a friend. They were members and liberal supporters of St. John's Prot- estant Episcopal Church, and were more than usually interested in the various charities and institutions of their city. Moreover, their private charities were large and many. With them, the worthy who were in need could always find not only an audience but sympathy and sub- stantial assistance as well. They were fond of outdoor life and derived much pleasure from the study of its trees and shrubs and birds and flowers. They were also much interested and took part in sports of various kinds, especially outdoor sports, and were members of nearly all of the clubs of Bridgeport, and of clubs of other cities besides.
William Bishop Wheeler died Febru- ary 20, 1920, and Samuel H. Wheeler died November 14, 1920, leaving Ellen B. Har- ral and Archer Crissy Wheeler as the sole surviving children of Nathaniel Wheeler. For the Genealogy of Archer Crissy and William Bishop Wheeler, see Orcutt's "History of Stratford and Bridgeport," published in 1886 by the Fairfield County Historical Society.
WHEELER, Samuel Hickox,
Manufacturer, Developer of Real Estate.
Samuel Hickox Wheeler was born in Watertown, Connecticut, September 16, 1845. He died in Chicago, Illinois, No- vember 14, 1920. He died quite suddenly of heart trouble. He was the son of Na- thaniel and Huldah Ruth Bradley, who had three other children. His father was the organizer of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, makers of sew- ing machines, at first located in Water-
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town, but after 1856 at Bridgeport, Con- necticut. The paternal grandparents of Samuel H. Wheeler were David and Sarah (De Forest) Wheeler, and he was a lineal descendant of Moses Wheeler, one of the original members of the New Haven colony, who came from England in 1638 and was among the first to whom land was allotted in New Haven. He moved to Stratford in 1648, where he died in 1698 at the age of one hundred, the first of the immigrants known to have lived a full century. His wife was Miriam (Hawley) Wheeler. Huldah Ruth (Brad- ley) Wheeler was the daughter of Lucius Brown Bradley and Adelia (Hickox) Bradley. She traced her ancestry to Wil- liam Bradley, who emigrated to America in 1637 from Bingley, Yorkshire, England. He moved to New Haven in 1644.
Samuel H. Wheeler was prepared for Yale College by James M. B. Dwight. He graduated in the class of 1868. After graduation he went to Chicago and took charge of the business of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company as a member of the firm of Farrar & Wheeler. He withdrew from that firm at about 1886. He then engaged in the real estate busi- ness in Chicago. In 1894, on the death of his father, he moved to Bridgeport, Con- necticut, and became president of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Com- pany. He held that position until 1905, when the company sold out to the Singer Manufacturing Company. After his re- tirement from the manufacturing busi- ness he became active in the development of real estate in Bridgeport. He built the Stratfield Hotel in that city. He was much interested in the subject of ventila- tion, and the last few years of his life spent a great deal of time working out his theory. He wrote a pamphlet on the sub- ject called "Natural Upward Ventila-
tion." It has caused very favorable inter- est among those who are fighting tuber- culosis. His idea is especially adapted to schools, and he was instrumental in hav- ing it installed in many, where it has given much satisfaction. He spent much time in reading and collecting books on American colonial history. He was a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Order of Founders and Patriots of America.
After coming East to live in 1894 he made his home in Fairfield, Connecticut. He belonged to St. Paul's Episcopal Church of that place. He was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, November 17. The funeral services were conducted by the Rt. Rev. Chauncy B. Brewster, one of his classmates.
He was married May 17, 1876, in Chi- cago, Illinois, to Amelia Vernon Rumsey, daughter of Julian S. Rumsey and Martha (Turner) Rumsey. She died April 23, 1877. They had one daughter, Amelia Rumsey, who in 1919 married Major Craufurd-Stuart of the British Army. He married again, June 18, 1844, at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Elizabeth Theodora Rumsey, the sister of his first wife. They had three children: Theodora (B. A. Vassar, 1911-M. D. Johns Hopkins, 1916). She married William P. Finney, M. D., in 1916. Nathaniel Wheeler (Yale B. A. 1914-LL. B., 1916). Ellen Rum- sey (B. A. Vassar, 1915-R. N. Presby- terian Hospital, New York, 1920).
BRYANT, Waldo Calvin, Manufacturer.
In the seventh generation from his im- migrant ancestor, Stephen Bryant, born in England, a member of Plymouth Colony as early as 1632, Waldo Calvin Bryant has by dint of inventive genius, hard work
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HeBryant
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and close application to business risen to the highly important position of president of the Bryant Electric Company, a three million dollar corporation of Bridgeport, and during his long and successful career he has given to the world a number of electrical devices which have enabled other manufacturers by their use to mar- ket with vastly greater volume the prod- ucts of their own plants, and incidentally to add to their wealth, while the employ- ment of these devices has contributed be- yond all computation to the comfort and convenience of the mercantile and in- dustrial public and of the home-maker ; indeed, wherever electricity has carried its modern-day blessings, the Bryant de- vices have been made a vehicle of its ap- plication. Mr. Bryant is a director in other important industries, besides being an official in two banks. The Bryant Electric Company has contributed in a very large measure to the industrial growth and the prestige of the city of Bridgeport as a manufacturing center. Its head stands high in favor with the United States government. During the World War he was appointed chief of the Bridge- port Ordnance District by the War De- partment in February of 1918, a position which he filled with remarkable ability until January, 1919. After the United States declared war against Germany, the country was divided into thirteen ord- nance districts. Previous to this action Bridgeport had attracted country-wide attention to itself because of its great out- put of war munitions. The Bridgeport district was officially named District No. 2 upon the United States Ordnance De- partment becoming decentralized. Mr. Bryant was given full authority for the organization of his district, which became the second in importance of its kind in the country.
The founder of the Bryant family name in this country, Stephen Bryant, has his name in the records of Plymouth Colony in 1638. Following his removal to Dux- bury, he was listed as among those able to bear arms in 1643. He was admitted a freeman June 6, 1654, at Plymouth, to which place he again had removed about 1650, He was a constable in Duxbury June 6, 1654; highway surveyor at Plym- outh June 1, 1658; served on the jury March 5, 1660-61 ; and was constable at Plymouth June 1, 1663. He married Abi- gail, daughter of John Shaw, who came from England. Their children: Abigail, born in Plymouth Colony, married Lieu- tenant John Bryant; John; Mary; Ste- phen (2) ; Sarah ; Lydia, married William Churchill; Elizabeth, married Joseph King. Stephen (2) Bryant, son of Ste- phen and Abigail (Shaw) Bryant, was born at Plymouth, February 2, 1658. He settled at Plymouth. The principal facts of his record of existence are the births of his children. He married Mehitable, sur- name unknown. Their children: Ste- phen (3) ; David; William ; Hannah ; Ich- abod; Timothy. Ichabod, son of Stephen (2) Bryant, was born in Middleboro, Mas- sachusetts, July 5, 1699. He was an an- cestor of William Cullen Bryant, poet and journalist, through his son Philip and grandson Peter, father of William Cullen Bryant. Ichabod lived in Raynham, Mas- sachusetts, and from that village he re- moved to North Bridgewater. He died at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 22, 1759. He married Ruth Staples, who died May 27, 1777. Their children : Philip, married Silence Harwood ; Nathan ; Seth ; married Elizabeth French; Job, see for- ward; Gamaliel, settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts; Phebe, married Henry Howard; Ruth, married Holmes ; Sarah, married Francis Cook; Anna, mar-
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ried -- Robinson ; Prudence, died un- married.
Job Bryant, son of Ichabod and Ruth (Staples) Bryant, was born in Bridge- water or in the neighbor town of Rayn- ham, Massachusetts, about 1742. He was a blacksmith and a farmer. He was also a soldier of the Revolution. He married Mary Turner. Their children : Anna, mar- ried Abiel Phillips of Easton ; Nathan, mar- ried Sarah Jordan; Calvin, married Re- becca Morse ; Job Staples, married Lovice Pratt ; Thirza, married Mannasseh Dick- erman ; Oliver, married Nabby, daughter of Timothy Ames; Clement, see forward ; David; Samuel; Asa, married (first) Me- hitable Snow, married (second) Betsy Snow, sister of his first wife; Harriet, married David Dunbar, Jr.
Clement Bryant, son of Job and Mary (Turner) Bryant, was born about 1785 at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He was a blacksmith virtually all his life. He en- listed for service in the War of 1812, and his widow received a pension in the form of a grant of one hundred and sixty acres of land. He died in 1837. He married in 1805, at Athol, Massachusetts, Rachel Wheeler, daughter of Zaccheus Wheeler. Their children: Royal; Mercy; George Quincy Adams, of whom further; Mary Ann; Richard ; Silence; Jonathan ; Calvin Turner, of whom further; and Rachel.
George Q. Adams Bryant, son of Clem- ent and Rachel (Wheeler) Bryant, born January 9, 1819, at North Orange, Mas- sachusetts. He removed to Athol, and later to Winchendon, Massachusetts, where he engaged in house-painting in partnership with his brother Calvin Turner. In 1860 they entered the grocery business and remained together in that line with great success until the death of the brother Calvin, July 14, 1906, since which time George Q. Adams con-
ducted the business. George served in the Civil War, entering as a private and re- turning as third sergeant. He married Louise A. Roby, daughter of Moody Roby, Peru, Vermont. She died June 20, 1894. They had no own children. They adopted Finette Miller, daughter of Mary Ann (Bryant) Miller, sister of Mr. Bry- ant. Children of Thomas and Mary Ann (Bryant) Miller : Joseph of Athol; Albert of Athol; Finette, married John W. Barnes, of Westminster, Massachusetts.
Calvin Turner Bryant, eighth child of Clement and Rachel (Wheeler) Bryant, of Athol, Massachusetts, and father of Waldo Calvin Bryant, of this review, was born June II, 1830, at Athol. His time outside school was spent in his uncle's chair factory. After a year of work in a restaurant in Worcester, Massachusetts, he was employed by the successor of the first owner, and subsequently bought the restaurant. He sold out that business and started another restaurant. After a year had passed he abandoned that busi- ness and entered a pistol factory. Tak- ing part in the gold rush to California, he remained there from 1851 to 1855, and "made his pile." He again went West in 1856, and returned in the fall of that year to Winchendon, where he engaged in house-painting. In 1859 he journeyed to Pike's Peak in quest of gold, but was unsuccessful. He went on by ox-team to California and remained there a year, when he returned to Winchendon and his house-painting, which business he conducted until 1860, when he and George Q. Adams engaged in the gro- cery business, which Calvin Turner fol- lowed until his death, July 14, 1906, the partnership having been in existence for forty-six years. Calvin Bryant was a member of the First Baptist Church of Winchendon. He was an active member
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of the Republican party, and was overseer of the poor of his town for a number of years. He was a director of the Win- chendon Cooperative Bank from its in- corporation until his death. He was one of the town's most highly respected and esteemed citizens. Calvin Bryant mar- ried, October 9, 1860, Almeda Dexter, of Royalston, Massachusetts, born January 2, 1830, daughter of Ebenezer Wheeler and Cynthia (Walker) Dexter. Mr. Dex- ter was born March 24, 1780; died in 1860. He was a farmer and mill owner and held many responsible offices in Royalston. His wife was born December 19, 1799; died in May, 1870. The children of Cal- vin Turner and Almeda (Dexter) Bryant: Flora Almeda, born November 21, 1861, and became a valued teacher in the Win- chendon public schools; Waldo Calvin, of this review.
Waldo Calvin Bryant, son of Calvin Turner and Almeda (Dexter) Bryant, was born December 17, 1863, at Winchendon, Massachusetts. He attended the schools of his native town until he was fourteen years of age, when he entered the shops of Baxter D. Whitney at Winchendon and began to learn the machinist's trade, also pursuing his studies during the school terms and serving at his trade dur- ing the vacation periods. After finishing his course of study at the grammar school when he was sixteen years of age, he en- tered Cushing Academy at Ashburnham, Massachusetts, and prepared for entrance to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He was graduated from the institute in the class of 1884 at the age of twenty with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He at once secured a position in the expert department of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachu- setts. He only held that position one month, and was transferred to Bridge- Club. He is a member of the American
port as assistant to George Cutter in the operation of the local electric light plant. He continued to fill that position until the spring of 1885, when a Bridgeport com- pany took charge of the local plant, and he went to Waterbury, Connecticut, to take charge of a part of the work of super- intending the Waterbury Electric Light Company. He was with the Waterbury Company a little more than three years, and during that period he had invented the Bryant "push and pull switch," which with other electric light supplies he soon began to manufacture at a plant in Bridge- port. He organized the Bryant Electric Company, having only a small capital, but having taken out patents on a number of electric lighting devices, he continued to manufacture them until July, 1889, when he incorporated the Bryant Electric Company with a capital stock of five thou- sand dollars.
Under the skilfully guiding hand of Mr. Bryant the business of the corporation took on amazing growth, and it is rated as at the very forefront of concerns of the kind in this country. Mr. Bryant fills the positions of president, treasurer, general manager and director of the corporation. He also occupies the offices of president, treasurer, general manager and director of the Perkins Electric Switch Manu- facturing Company. He is a man of in- fluence in financial circles, and is a direc- tor of the First National Bank of Bridge- port, and vice-president and trustee of the People's Savings Bank. His connection with other enterprises includes director- ships in the Bridgeport Hydraulic Com- pany, the Bridgeport Brass Company, the Bead Chain Manufacturing Company, and the Siemon Corporation. He is a director of the Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport Public Library and Bridgeport Boys'
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Institute of Electrical Engineers of New York. His clubs are the Union League, Bankers' University, and the New Eng- land Society of New York, the Brook- lawn, University and Algonquin of Bridgeport, the Country Club of Fair- field, Connecticut, and the Metabetchouan Club of Canada.
Mr. Bryant married, April 6, 1887, Ida Gerald of New London, Connecticut, and they have two children: Waldo Gerald, born July 30, 1891, and Doris, born March 26, 1902; graduated from the Westover School, Westover, Connecticut.
Waldo Gerald Bryant, son of Waldo C. and Ida (Gerald) Bryant, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 30, 1891. He was educated in public and private schools in Bridgeport, the Hotchkiss School and Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, class of 1914. In that year the Bead Chain Manufacturing Com- pany was organized and incorporated and he became president and treasurer, posi- tions he still retains. May I, 1917, he enlisted at Newport, Rhode Island, in the United States Naval Reserve Forces as quartermaster, third class, for service in the World War. September 15, 1917, he was transferred to the submarine base at New London, Connecticut, and was de- tailed for duty with the board of anti-sub- marine devices. In January, 1918, he was commissioned an ensign, and continued his duties with the same board in experi- mental work and in the development of anti-submarine devices until January I, 1919, when he was ordered on inactive duty until May 1, 1921, when he was hon- orably discharged. Mr. Bryant is a direc- tor of the Bridgeport Trust Company. His clubs are the Brooklawn Country and the University of Bridgeport, the Pequoit Yacht Club of Southport, Yale Club of New York City, and the Meta-
betchouan Club of Canada. Mr. Bryant married, October 7, 1919, Ruth McCaskey, daughter of Frederick E. and Marietta (Beach) McCaskey, of Toledo, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant are the parents of two children: Ruth Ann and Waldo Dexter Bryant.
BISHOP, Henry Alfred, Railway Official.
Having as his American progenitor Rev. John Bishop, Puritan minister of Boston, Massachusetts, who afterward be- came the minister at Stamford, Connecti- cut, Henry Alfred Bishop, of the fifth generation of descent, has become one of the best-known railroad men of the East. He is a son of the celebrated William D. Bishop, who as president of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company gave to that system one of the very best administrations known to rail- road annals in the United States, and brought that property up to a high grade of efficiency and a place of prosperity which since never has been surpassed and seldom equalled in all its history. The deplorable state of the New Haven system of these latter days does not have its root in the regimes at the head of which were those genii of railroading who were of the House of Bishop.
Henry Alfred Bishop has proved his worth as the son of a great father, and in addition has demonstrated his own ability in managing important transportation systems. He has had much to do with the coordination of the railroad lines of the New England States, inclusive of val- ued service to the New Haven Railroad in its palmy days and of executive and man- agerial offices on railroads of the Middle Atlantic States. His contributions to the political life of the State of Connecticut
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and his home city of Bridgeport have been marked with fidelity to the trust reposed in him when he filled the offices of mem- ber of the State Legislature, a member of the Board of Aldermen and president of the Board of Police Commissioners. His business, financial, social and fraternal associations are widely varied and of great value, he being either an officer, a director or a stockholder in numerous industrial and financial institutions and corpora- tions, while in club life and in the realm of the more important fraternities he has membership of long standing. His career has, in fact, shed additional luster on the family name of Bishop, of which the peo- ple of Connecticut in general and of New England as well are justifiably proud.
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