USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 3 > Part 12
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Nellie (Spencer) Hotchkiss, of Meriden. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the parents of two sons: Spencer Hotchkiss, born April 21, 1901, and Atwood Hale, March 19, 1908.
NETH, David B.,
Electrical Engineer.
There is doubtless much to be said in favor of Carlyle's opinion that the man of ability can find expression for himself, for his talents and powers, in almost any direction, and that the fact of his doing so in this or that medium is largely de- termined by circumstances and that whether he be a poet or a politician, a scientist or a soldier, is of comparatively little significance, so the genius lies be- hind. He goes on to say that it is inter- esting to consider how supremely great a man Shakespeare, for instance, might have been in any one of many callings had only fate called his attention or moulded his early tastes in that way in- stead of towards the writing of plays. But this idea, although it be correct in a cer- tain degree and in certain instances, may easily be carried too far, for certainly we can all call to mind cases within our own experience of men whose thoughts seemed to lie so exclusively in certain channels, that however brilliant might be their achievement therein we felt doubtful if they might even rival the average man in other directions. Of course these are both extremes and, as a matter of fact, we find the vast majority of unusually able men to lie somewhere between the two, able, that is, to do one thing better than any- thing else, but able also to do all things better than their neighbors. Nevertheless we find that they lean towards one or the other extreme and so it is in the case we are particularly considering.
David B. Neth, the distinguished citi-
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zen of Waterbury, Connecticut, whose name heads this brief sketch, is undoubt- edly a man of very broad abilities, a man who by turning his efforts consistently in any one of many directions could excel in what he took up, yet it is equally un- deniable that he has one talent which overbalances all the rest and that would probably make work of any other kind more or less burdensome to him. This particular talent lies in the direction of mechanics, and into this line he has forced himself against many obstacles, the re- sult amply justifying the wisdom of his choice. Mr. Neth comes of a race noted for its scientific and mechanical triumphs, his father having been a native of Wur- temburg. Germany, in which part of the world his ancestors have resided from re- mote times.
The father, John Neth, was a son of parents who both lived and died in the ancient city, but he came to the United States at the age of eighteen years. The disturbances and distresses incident to the unsuccessful revolution of 1848 and the following year were the main impulse of the youth in coming to this country, but his enterprising nature felt strongly the lure which new and growing commu- nities exert upon the peoples of a more settled social status, and it was for more freedom and more opportunity that he made the voyage. For a time he made the city of Troy, New York, his home, but after a few years went on to Win- chester, Connecticut, where he purchased a fine farm and followed farming as an occupation during practically his entire remaining life. He was successful and finally retired, going to Torrington, Con- necticut, where he died at the advanced age of eighty-three years. He married Hannah Bidwell, a native of Winchester, and they had four children, all living, born to them of whom the Mr. Neth of
this sketch is the eldest. The others are John, a resident of Tarrytown, New York, who holds the position of superintendent of the gas works there ; George, a resident of Chicago, an electrician and represents the Electric Storage Battery Company of America there, as its western manager ; Annie, the wife of Frederick E. Lattimer, of Torrington, Connecticut.
David B. Neth was born August 8, 1868, in Winchester, Connecticut, where his father was farming at that time, and the first eleven years of his life were spent in his native township. His child- ish associations were thus formed with the charming old Connecticut town and with that rural life that has bred so many of our strongest men. There, also, he gained the rudiments of education at the local schools, from the first showing him- self to be a quick and responsive pupil. When he was eleven years of age, his parents took him with them and removed to the city of Hartford, and there he en- joyed the advantage of the unusually fine schools for two years, and then, at the age of thirteen, began on the business career that has not even yet reached the zenith of its achievement. His talent for all things mechanical had already mani- fested itself with no uncertainty, and it became his task to seek for some occupa- tion which might involve his beloved me- chanics. His first position was distinctly a success, viewed from this standpoint, and the thirteen year old youth found himself installed as a hand in the Hart- ford Machine Screw Works. But al- though the work led him in somewhat the direction he desired, it was, as a mat- ter of fact, much too heavy for him at that period of his life, and his health gradually broke down under the strain. It was a great hardship for the young man to be obliged to give up, for his heart was set on winning success in this particular de-
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PUBLIC LIDT ARY
& TOR, LENOY HILDEN FOUNDATIONS
Thomas JA alicante
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partment, but the necessity was impera- tive and he was obliged to resign his posi- tion and return to Winchester to the home farm and work there. He was nineteen years of age at the time and with his characteristic philosophy took the matter calmly enough and proceeded to perform a task to the best of his ability for which he had no real love. This obstacle, that looked so unsurmountable at first sight, did not prove to be permanent, and he was not finally debarred from carrying out his wishes. For his health, although much impaired, had the happy elasticity of youth and quickly responded to the more wholesome out-of-doors life which he led on the farm. Two years saw his health and strength rewon, nor from that time to this has it ever deserted him to the same extent, nor forced him to aban- don his business. It was in 1888 that he came to the city of Waterbury and there once more began work, this time in the employ of the Standard Electric Time Company. This was in 1888 when he was but just of age, so that, as it was, he was rebeginning at an age when most young men start their careers for the first time. The work, too, was much more in line with his desires and inclination than even the first, and he rapidly ad- vanced both in knowledge and in position with the firm. In 1900, however, he had an offer from the United Electric Light and Water Company to accept a position in the concern as superintendent, an offer which he promptly accepted and which well illustrated how remarkable had been his achievement, since he had come off the farm but twelve years before, strong and healthy, but with little expert knowl- edge of the work he was now called upon to superintend. From June, 1900, until May, 1914, he held this responsible post and was then appointed chief electrical engineer of the concern. He is well known
as an authority on electrical engineering, both theoretical and practical, and now enjoys what he had so great a desire in the past for, the opportunity to express his mechanical and scientific faculties in work.
Mr. Neth is active in many aspects of the community's life quite outside of his business interests. Socially and frater- nelly he is prominent and he belongs to many orders and clubs in the city among which should be mentioned the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Waterbury Country Club, the first for twenty-five years and the second since its organization. In his religious belief, Mr. Neth is a Congregationalist and for some years has been a singer in the choir of the First Church, and attends the First Church of that denomination in Waterbury. He is markedly philanthrop- ic and liberally supports the activities of the congregation of which he is a mem- ber.
At Waterbury, on February 5, 1902, Mr. Neth was united in marriage with Elizabeth Mallory Blair, a native of that city, and a daughter of John and Mary Winchester (Butcher) Blair, the latter a native of Baltimore, Maryland. To Mr. and Mrs. Neth have been born three chil- dren : Marshall Winchester, born July 18, 1904; Paul, died at age of four months ; and Katherine Blair, born November 13, 1913.
KILMARTIN, Thomas Joseph, M. D., Eminent Physician.
There is something that appeals to the popular imagination as intrinsically noble about the adoption of a profession the object of which is the alleviation of human suffering, such, for instance, as medicine, especially where, as in this case,
Conn-3-6
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the sacrifice of so many of the comforts and pleasures of life which men count so highly is involved. When, in addition to this, the task is not merely voluntarily chosen, but is carried out in a spirit of altruism worthy of the profession, the sincerest admiration of all is claimed. Such, in a high degree, is the case in the career of Dr. Thomas Joseph Kilmartin, of Waterbury, Connecticut, who is ren- dering to his fellow citizens and to the community an invaluable service, not only in the carrying out of his private practice on a high ethical plane, but as a public officer who has in his charge the safeguarding of the public health.
The family of which Dr. Kilmartin is a member had its origin in County Tipper- ary, Ireland, where in the early part of the nineteenth century Thomas Kilmar- tin, his grandfather, was living. He was a man of influence and prominent in the community where he resided, conducting the county store and the postoffice there. His son, Thomas Kilmartin, Jr., father of Dr. Kilmartin, was born in County Lim- erick, Ireland, but came to the United States as a young man to seek the greater freedom and opportunity to be found here. He came alone and located in Waterbury, Connecticut, where he had no friends to lend assistance, yet with the courage and enterprise that is so marked a characteristic of his race, he set to work to make his way in this strange land and succeeded so admirably that he soon found himself at the head of a small grocery establishment and conducting an inde- pendent business, which was successful, and for a quarter of a century, or up to the time of his death, he continued so en- gaged. He married, in Waterbury, Con- necticut, Margaret Hennesy, a native of County Limerick, Ireland, now deceased. They were the parents of seven children, as follows : Thomas Joseph, of whom fur-
ther; two daughters, both bearing the name of Mary, who died in infancy ; Mar- garet, deceased, who was the wife of James Courtney, of Waterbury ; Kather- ine, a teacher in the Driggs School in Waterbury ; James, an assistant steward at the Elks Club ; and Ella, who resides in the old Kilmartin home in Waterbury.
Dr. Thomas Joseph Kilmartin was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, November 3, 1872, and has made that city his home up to the present time (1916) with the excep- tion of a brief period when he was away at college. The preliminary portion of his education was gained in the public schools of his native city and he gradu- ated from the high school in 1889. He en- tered Niagara University at Niagara Falls, New York, in the same year, and by his marked talents as a scholar secured for himself the favorable regard of his in- structors and masters. It was during his course at Niagara University that he defi- nitely decided to take up as a career the profession toward which he had felt im- pelled from early youth, and upon his graduation with the class of 1892, he en- tered the medical school of the University of New York, where he pursued his stud- ies with distinction until the year 1895 and then graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. A year and six months spent at the hospital on Black- well's Island, New York, and at Ford- ham Hospital, gave him the necessary practical experience. He then returned to Waterbury, and in the autumn of 1896 began the active practice of his profes- sion. For the first twelve years or more Dr. Kilmartin confined himself to his pri- vate practice and in that time built up a very extensive and lucrative one and es- tablished an enviable reputation as a most able physician and a man of the highest ideals. His greatest interest was in sur- gery, however, and in that he specialized
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as far as his practice permitted. He has had a wide experience with that dread dis- ease, small-pox, having on three or four occasions been highly successful in his treatment of patients during epidemics of the scourge, having made a careful study of it, and is recognized as an expert and an authority on the subject, not only in his own State but throughout the entire country, and his services have been called into requisition many times by the State Board of Health, to whom he has ren- dered valuable service which is highly appreciated. At the time of the founding of St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury in 1909, Dr. Kilmartin was requested to be- come its attendant surgeon, a position that he more willingly accepted as it offered him greater opportunities for his specialty, surgery. He has fully availed himself of these advantages and now stands very high in that branch of his profession. He is now serving in the capacity of State examiner for the John Hancock Life Insurance Company and the Phoenix Life Insurance Company. He was appointed president of the Water- bury Medical Society in 1911, is president of his Alumni Class of New York Univer- sity Medical School, and holds member- ship in the State and County Medical soci- eties.
But Dr. Kilmartin has not confined his services even to the semi-public type of work which he performs at St. Mary's; he has turned his attention to the large and intricate problem of conserving the public health. For the proper handling of this problem two qualifications are essential, neither of them any too com- mon. The first and most obvious being that of a large experience and high techni- cal skill in medical things. The second, scarcely, if any, less important is a clear grasp of democratic principles and a pro- found sympathy with them. Both of
these it is the good fortune of Dr. Kil- martin to possess, and not alone his good fortune, but that of the community over whose hygeia he presides, for he pos- sesses that most rare of combinations, the definite knowledge of the specialist and the tolerance of the average man. It is thus that he knows both what are the best regulations to enforce and the place where personal liberty should properly begin and regulations should not be enforced at all. Dr. Kilmartin's experience in public life began as early as 1898, only two years after he had returned from his studies and taken up practice in Waterbury. He was then elected a member of the Board of Education and served two years. His service in that office was of so high a quality, both for ability and disinterested- ness, that the following year he was ap- pointed city health officer and from that time to the present, with a single break of two years, he has continued to hold that office. The satisfaction he has given and is still giving his fellow-citizens is indeed great, and their best interests in this important province demands that he be continued therein. For nearly twelve years Dr. Kilmartin was a member of the State Militia, having joined the Second Regiment of Infantry, Connecticut Na- tional Guard, as a private. He gradually worked his way into a higher rank and finally resigned, as regimental surgeon with the rank of captain of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment. In social and club circles Dr. Kilmartin is as active as one with such exacting demands upon his time can be, and is a member of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Waterbury Country Club. In his religious belief he is a Catholic, as have been his forebears from the begin- ning, and he is a member of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Water- bury.
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Dr. Kilmartin was married in Water- bury, November 5, 1900, to Mary C. Coughlan, a native of Waterbury, daugh- ter of James and Lucy ( Loughlin) Cough- lan, life-long residents there. To Dr. and Mrs. Kilmartin six children have been born as follows: Thomas, now a student in the Waterbury High School ; Lucy, a student in the Grammar School ; James, also a student there ; Rosemary, Margaret and Katherine.
LAWLOR, James Richard, Lawyer, Public Official.
Among the active, public-spirited citi- zens, so many of which Waterbury, Con- necticut, can boast among her sons, there is none more worthy of comment and re- spect than James Richard Lawlor, whose name is already, and is becoming more, closely identified with the various activ- ities of the city. There is scarcely an aspect of the life of the community in which he is not a conspicuous figure, al- though, of course, it is in the direction of his own profession and in the political situation that his influence is most potent- ly felt. Although himself a native of this country, having been born in Waterbury, Connecticut, September 17, 1875, Mr. Lawlor is of Irish descent on both sides of the house and inherits those marked qualities of his race which seem to fit its members particularly for professional callings, wheresoever they may go or under whatsoever conditions they may live upon the surface of the earth.
His family originated in Queens coun- ty, Ireland, and there, in the first half of the century just past, lived Peter Lawlor, the grandfather of the Mr. Lawlor of this sketch. This worthy gentleman lived and died in his native place and there reared a family of eleven children, all of them, like himself, deceased. One of them, who
bore the same name of Peter, was born in County Queens, Ireland, but came to this country while still a very young man, his enterprise and energy making a way for him in this land of strangers until he reached a good position, both in his busi- ness and in the regard of his neighbors and fellow citizens. Upon first arriving in this country he went to Farmington, near Hartford, Connecticut, where he made his home for a short period. He then removed to Waterbury and this city remained his home until the time of his death in 1902, his residence there cover- ing a period of about forty years. During most of this time he was employed by the Waterbury Brass Company and was one of their most trusted men. He was mar- ried, in Waterbury, to Mary Kilbride, like himself a native of County Queens, Ire- land, who survives him and still resides in Waterbury at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Lawlor, Sr., were the parents of nine children as follows: John, now a resident of Troy, New York; Lawrence, now connected with the police force of Waterbury ; Joseph W., a resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut ; Bridget, de- ceased, who married Thomas J. Dough- erty, of Waterbury; Mary, now Mrs. Thomas G. Smith, of Waterbury; Anna C., now Mrs. Joseph E. Smith, of Water- bury ; Catherine F., now Mrs. M. F. Mc- Grath, of Waterbury; and James Rich- ard, who forms the subject of this sketch.
James Richard Lawlor, the youngest son of Peter and Mary (Kilbride) Law- lor, was brought up in his native city of Waterbury, which has remained his home up to the present day and has been the scene of all his busy activities. He was educated in the excellent public schools of the place and also attended night school, as he was of an extremely am- bitious nature even while still a mere lad. The circumstances of his family were
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such that he was not able to attend the regular schools as long as most boys, but had to turn to aid with the support of the family. He was only fourteen years of age when this became necessary, and in order to supplement his somewhat scanty advantages in this direction he attended night school for a considerable period. notwithstanding the great additions to his work this involved. At the age of four- teen he left school and sought and found employment among the great industrial concerns that play so prominent a part in the business life of Waterbury. His first position was with Rogers & Hamilton, the great silverware manufacturing con- cern. The lad remained no very great time with the Rogers people, but it was long enough to win the friendship and regard of his superiors on account of his intelligence and willingness to do hard work. He then secured a better position with the Waterbury Watch Company and there remained for six years, rising rapid- ly until he held a post of responsibility in those great works. During this time, however, his ambitions were wide awake and urged him into an entirely different line of work, for which he found himself possessed of a much stronger inclination. He desired, in short, to follow some pro- fessional calling and finally settled upon the law as that to which he felt the strongest impulse. In pursuance of this intention, he gave up his position with the Waterbury Watch Company and en- tered the Law School of the South West- ern Baptist University at Jackson, Ten- nessee. He graduated there in 1902 with the degree of LL. B. and then went to the Catholic University of America at Washington, D. C., and there took an- other year of work at the splendid law school of that institution, winning the degree of LL. M., and the same year was admitted to the Connecticut bar and be-
gan his active practice. He chose his na- tive city as the scene of this new activity and the result since has well justified the choice. Right from the outset he made his personality felt in the life of the com- munity and in the autumn following the opening of his office he was elected to the Board of Education. For two years he served most adequately in this ca- pacity and then received the appointment to the office of assistant city clerk. This was in the year 1906 and he continued to hold this position until 1911 when he was elected tax collector of the city, a post in which he is still serving his fellow towns- folk. In the meantime his legal practice has kept full pace with his political pre- ferment, and he is already regarded as one of the leaders of the bar in the county. Much important litigation is entrusted to him and he handles it with an ability and sense of the highest standards of legal ethics that at once give great satisfaction to his clients, and prove how well founded were his hopes and expectations as to his success in this profession.
In other directions, also, Mr. Lawlor is a force in the city's affairs. He is espe- cially prominent in social and fraternal circles and is a member of a number of important orders and other organizations of the same kind. Among these should be mentioned the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Foresters of America. In his re- ligious belief Mr. Lawlor is a Catholic, as have been his ancestors before him for unnumbered generations, and he is a member of the Church of St. Patrick in Waterbury, where he is a prominent figure in the work of the parish.
It was on November 14, 1907, that Mr. Lawlor was united in marriage with Mary A. Farrell, of Waterbury, a daughter of Terrence and Ellen (Delaney) Farrell,
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old and highly honored residents of that place. To Mr. and Mrs. Lawlor have been born three children as follows: Mary Kilbride, July 30, 1909; Rosalind Farrell, October 18, 1910; and Richard James, Jr., October 20, 1915.
STURGES, Everett Judson, Banker, State Official.
A faithful public servant, a capable and efficient business man, Mr. Sturges has earned a place among the leading men of his State. He is a descendant in the eighth generation of one of the oldest families of the Commonwealth, a family that did its share in winning our coun- try's independence, that has given the State public officials, able and incorrupti- ble, and whose members in the quieter walks of private life have contributed to its upbuilding as successful and honor- able business men. From this worthy ancestry Mr. Sturges has inherited those qualities which make men preeminent among their fellows. He was born No- vember 30, 1866, in Charleston, South Carolina, son of Everett and Emeline P. (Beers) Sturges. The first mention of the name Sturges was in a French volume published by Abbe MacGroghegan, which reads: "About the year 815, during the reign of Conor, who reigned fourteen years, Turgesius, a son of a king of Nor- way, landed a formidable fleet on the north coast of Ireland ; and again, about the year 835, a fleet commanded by the same man landed on the west side of Lough Lea, where he fortified himself, and laid waste Connaught, Meath and Leinster, and the greater part of Ulster, and was declared king. He reigned about thirty years. Finally the people revolted, and under the lead of Malarlin, Prince of Meath, he was defeated by a strategem and put to death." The first authentic
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