USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 3 > Part 25
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The years brought him prosperity and high reputation, his interests extending to many other manufacturing corporations in Waterbury and other towns, his ac- knowledged ability making him a desir- able addition to any corporation. He was a director of several financial institutions, president of the Oakville Pin Company, president of the Capewell Horse Nail Company of Hartford, director of the Manufacturers' National Bank and of the Dime Savings Bank of Waterbury, and regarded as one of the ablest and most successful business men of his section of the State. The term "self made" is a hackneyed one and often misapplied, but no other so well fits Mr. Lewis. While he was endowed by his parents with su- perior intelligence, a strong frame and a stout heart, he had none of the advan- tages of higher education, and his only influential friends were those he won by his own demonstration of ability to serve them. His knowledge was practical, gained by contact with men in the shop with whom he worked shoulder to shoul- der, and with men of high rank with whom he sat in conclave around the direc- tors' table or in executive session. He was liberal and just in his dealings, pro- gressive in his business methods, public- spirited in his citizenship, popular with all classes of men. Often his fellow citi- zens persuaded him to serve them in pub- lic office, but he was essentially a busi- ness man and had little taste for office. He served as a Republican in the State
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Legislature, elected from the Democratic city of Waterbury in 1883, running against an able Democratic opponent, and in 1888 was the Republican nominee for Congress from the Second Connecticut District. His opponent was Carlos French, a popular Democrat of the Nau- gatuck Valley, by whom he was defeated, Mr. Lewis, even with his great personal popularity, not being able to overcome the normal Democratic majority.
Mr. Lewis married, October 29, 1850, Harriet M. Phippeny, of Hartford. They were the parents of seven children, four of whom are living: Edward F., born Au- gust 10, 1862; Truman S., September 15, 1866; Ida E., married William E. Fulton ; Mary S., married William J. Schlegel.
COOK, Charles Banister,
Manufacturer, Financier.
Charles Banister Cook, vice-president and factory manager of the Royal Type- writer Company of Hartford, Connecti- cut, has arrived at the position which he holds through sheer force of knowledge and understanding of the compelling forces which actuate every wheel and cog in the plant which is under his super- vision. Such knowledge cannot be gained in a course of technical training. The modern craving for efficiency has made the mistake in its rapid haste toward reform and its desire to conserve the energy wasted under old methods, of put- ting into executive positions in factories men fresh from the technical courses of colleges. The value of the college train- ing must not, of course, be underesti- mated, but it is more often than not, over- estimated. Charles B. Cook is not a col- lege trained man. He has traveled every step of the way from apprenticeship to the position which he now holds over a road which has not been made smooth by any
efforts other than his own. To the grad- uates of large universities, the condition of hunting a job is practically unknown. Mr. Cook walked the streets of New York City for many months seeking a job, often finding as many as one hundred and fifty applicants at six o'clock a. m. for a posi- tion which had been advertised for nine o'clock. It is only by actually experi- encing conditions that true and adequate understanding of them can be gained. Mr. Cook has a practical knowledge of everything required of a man in the shop, and knows what it is fair to expect of a man in any position which is under his management. Because he has worked among them, he knows the psychological conditions that affect men in their rela- tions toward their work, toward their subordinates, and toward each other, and through intelligent handling of the prob- lem which this presents has been able to bring about the most friendly relations between his subordinates and himself. Content among workmen and goodwill toward the company is of prime impor- tance in increasing the efficiency of a plant. Every comfort and convenience that the most advanced students of factory con- ditions recommend for better conditions of working, health and happiness of em- ployes has been installed in the plant.
Mr. Cook has profited by every step in his career, turning every situation with which he has had to cope to advantage ; he has turned to his advantage the mis- takes of other employers and superiors in their attitude toward the men under them. The result is that he is always accessible to his men, and is sought as a sort of high tribunal in affairs of importance. He shows them that their advancement not only benefits themselves, but is of advan- tage to the factory. He believes in build- ing up from material recruited inside the plant, and a cause of his popularity with
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his men is his application of this principle in the fact that he does not bring men from outside the establishment to fill higher and better positions. Mr. Cook's motive in keeping in touch with his men springs not only from a desire to promote friendly feelings toward the company and himself, but from a genuine desire to encourage and educate his men in the art of making the most of themselves, and achieving the full possibilities of their talents. It is an instinctive desire to lend a helping hand to every fellow creature. He was born a leader among men, and by thoughtful observation and the study of nearly all that has been writen on the subject, has made himself masterful, ex- ecutive, forceful, progressive and aggres- sive, but without that disagreeable qual- ity of pugnacity. His rule is one of reason and persuasion, and he leads men to see that their own self interest leads in the direction in which he wants them to go. Courtesy, thoroughness and system are guiding principles in Mr. Cook's life. His career is an example of the opportunities which American industry presents to every man who has the keenness to see its possibilities and the courage to grasp them in whatever form they are offered. Despite the fact that he spent the long working hours of the day in manual labor in the shop, he studied at night to acquire a thorough knowledge of the scientific principles underlying his work, and to keep abreast with the latest developments in the mechanical world. He is a preacher and exemplar of optimism, and has a con- tagious enthusiasm for his work which he imparts to all who come in contact with him. He has endeavored, not by preach- ing, but by an appeal to their reason to set before his men the value of clean, up- right living, and the advantage in mate- rial things which results from it.
Charles Banister Cook, son of William
and Sarah (Sewell) Cook, was born at Sydenham, England, October 14, 1875. His father was the son of Samuel Roberts and Ann (Carrier) Cook, residents of Rochford, England, and was born in that town, October 4, 1839. He attended the Rochford National School, and was a member of the Congregational church. He married, at Runwell, Essex, March 29, 1867, Sarah Sewell, who was born at Bil- lericary, Essex, England. He has been an enthusiastic horseman all his life, and has had charge of some of the famous hunting stables of England.
Charles B. Cook was educated in the parochial school of the Episcopal church until he reached the age of nine years, after which time he attended the Hazel- tine Road Board School until he was eleven years old. Then his formal educa- tion ceased, and the excellent training which he has since then acquired has been the result of burning the midnight oil into the "wee sma' hours" of the morn- ing. He was ambitious and willing to pay the price of the sacrifice which this meant. As is always the case, those who have bought education at a dear price, appreciate it to an extent impossible of conception to those who have taken it casually. Mr. Cook has, therefore, ever since been an active and ardent supporter of every movement having for its objec- tive the bringing of educational oppor- tunities within the reach of those who in early life have been denied them. At the age of eleven years he went to work as a gardener, and from that time until he was fourteen found employment in such unskilled labor as a child of his years could perform. Upon reaching fourteen years he became a messenger in the tele- graph service of the government. (Tele- graph is a government monopoly in Eng- land). At seventeen he went into the electrical department of the General Post
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Office, the first position in which his work was mechanical.
Mr. Cook came to America at the age of nineteen years, and went to Albany, New York, where he was employed in a large commercial house for two years. He then decided to enter upon a mechan- ical line of work and went to New York City in search of work, searching for many months before he finally secured a position in the factory of the Underwood Typewriter Company at Bayonne, New Jersey, as stock boy. When he left that company in 1907, he was one of the lead- ers, in charge of eighteen hundred men, and his rise was by no other forces than his natural aptitude for the work, indus- try, initiative and ambition to succeed, qualities which win success wherever and by whomever they are exercised, and without which success by honorable means is impossible. In 1907, Mr. Cook became assistant factory manager for the Royal Typewriter Company, then located in Brooklyn, New York. The factory was brought to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1908, and he had an important part in the colossal task of transplanting a large manufacturing plant. In Hartford the difficulties experienced in Brooklyn from a large floating working population have been reduced to a minimum of about three and one-half per cent. Manufacturers have come to realize the expense involved in training a workman, and that the in- vestment is totally lost when the worker leaves his job. Factories, therefore, which have instituted departments for scientific study of conditions have become alive to the desirability of locating their plants where workers are not drawn from a con- stantly shifting population. In 1911, Mr. Cook was made factory manager, and on January 6, 1913, was elected vice-presi- dent and a director of the company which now employs about two thousand hands,
and is excelled by no factory of its type, as regards equipment. As has been men- tioned before, it has all the latest appli- ances for safe-guarding the life and health of the employes, including an emergency hospital and a trained fire company. The factory also has a dining room, a magnificent library, and a Mutual Benefit Association.
Mr. Cook is connected in an advisory and executive capacity with several finan- cial and commercial organizations. He is president of the Midwood Theater, Inc., of Brooklyn, New York, and a director of the Hartford Morris Plan Bank. He has always been deeply interested in educa- tional affairs, and is a director of the Young Men's Christian Association, and of Hillyer's Institute, in the educational departments of these institutions. He was chairman of the building committee that erected the present Young Men's Christian Association Building, which is one of the handsomest, most convenient, and best equipped to be found in any city of Hartford's size in the entire country. Mr. Cook is vice-president of the Hart- ford Chamber of Commerce. He is also vice-president of the Rotary Club. He is a Republican in politics, but has no fur- ther connection with the political world than that of the ordinary man of affairs, interested in the political issues of his day. He has, however, served on the Re- publican town committee. He is now a member of the Board of Education, in which capacity he has done some very valuable work for the city of Hartford. He was the originator of the continuation work of the High School, which provides vocational training for young men. The introduction of this form of training into the high schools was the successful termi- nation of a six years' battle against con- servatism by Mr. Cook and those inter- ested with him in the issue.
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Mr. Cook is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; of the Society for Industrial Education; of the Hartford Lodge, No. 88, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; of Summit Lodge, No. 44, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows; and the Hartford Club.
Mr. Cook married Eliza, daughter of Joseph Johnston, of Albany, New York. Their children are: Dorothy Lansing, Charles B., Jr., and Alan Sewell. The family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church.
Because of the fact that he is thor- oughly conversant with every phase of factory life, Mr. Cook is regarded as an authority on it, and has written many articles on efficiency, factory manage- ment and allied subjects for technical journals. He is the author of a book that has had a very wide sale, entitled, "Fac- tory Management." This covers factory accounting and the human element of the plant. The following excerpt gives in the form of a resumé Mr. Cook's ideas and theories on the subject of cooperative in- dustrial education, for which he has labored unceasingly for several years:
After a great deal of time and thought in regard to some way of procuring additional education for our shop boys, it has strongly forced itself upon me that a system of technical training, under proper tutorage, and under the apprenticeship system is what the manufacturers of Hartford need to-day. Our shop boys, good and bad, as far as ability goes, are being put into positions whereby they are simply cogs in the wheel of a great system, becoming specialists in a meagre capacity, and the time comes when, too late to turn themselves, advancement is out of the ques- tion, due to their restricted experience. The boy of well-to-do parents escapes this condition as he can make changes without interference of the stoppage of pay that goes to the needy family, and who has a better educational foundation. What we want in Hartford, and please let us emphasize this, is an educational course, followed and endorsed by most or all factories of this city for the boys who are ambitious and have ability.
Under the present system of our factories, impor- tant position are filled by men from outside, and you will, I think, agree with me, that most of them could have been filled from the ranks if the employees had had the advantage of cooperative education.
WELCH, Archibald Ashley,
Insurance Actuary.
Through the work of actuaries, life in - surance has been reduced to an exact science. In the earlier days of the busi- less complete reliance was placed upon a single table of mortality rates, but now that there are companies in our country whose life has passed the half century mark, such companies rely more upon their own actuarial departments, and the result of their own experience. This has given those departinents an added impor- tance, and to-day no company can suc- ceed that is weak in actuarial strength, for the actuary is the mathematical sheet anchor of his company, and on his exact- ness in preparing the different tables of figures hangs the weal or woe of that company. For a quarter of a century Mr. Welch has been an actuary, and that he is to-day actuary and vice-president of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, and has been chosen president of the Actuarial Society of America is all the proof that is needed to establish the high value of his attainment. The four gener- ations of his ancestors, beginning with Rev. Daniel Welch, of the third gener- ation, have been students or graduates of Yale College, and there he entered but did not graduate with his class, leaving at the end of his junior year, but later re- turned and received his degree.
Rev. Daniel Welch was a son of Thom- as Welch, a large landowner of Windham county, Connecticut, son of James Welch, the American founder of the family, who was a soldier in King Philip's War in
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1676. He received land for his services in that war at Voluntown, Connecticut, and leaving Rhode Island, he settled upon his land at Voluntown, where he died prior to 1726. In 1702 he was living in Plainfield, Connecticut. Rev. Daniel Welch was a graduate of Yale, class of 1749, was ordained minister over the church at North Mansfield, June 29, 1752, and continued its pastor until his death, April 29, 1782.
His son, Rev. Moses Cook Welch, D. D., was a graduate of Yale, class of 1772, taught school, studied law, but in defer- ence to his father's wishes discontinued it, served for a time in the Revolutionary army, illness ending his service, then studied divinity and succeeded his hon- ored father as minister of the church at North Mansfield, being ordained June 2, 1784. He continued in the ministry until his death, April 21, 1824, having been pastor of the same church forty years. He was a member of the Yale College Corporation, 1822-24, and received in 1824 the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College. Many of his ser- mons, addresses and essays have been published.
His son, Dr. Archibald Welch, attended medical lectures at Yale College, and was licensed to practice in September, 1816, but not until 1836 did he receive his de- gree of M. D. from Yale, having then been in successful practice at Mansfield and Wethersfield, Connecticut, for twenty years. He practiced at Mansfield, 1816- 32; at Wethersfield, 1832-48, and at Hart- ford from 1841 until his death, 1853. For ten years he was in charge of the medical department of the Connecticut State Prison, was secretary, vice-president and president of the State Medical Society. He represented his district in the State Assembly, was a strenuous advocate of the temperance cause, well informed on
all questions of public interest, and a for- midable antagonist in discussion or de- bate. He was highly esteemed, was a skillful physician, very hospitable, witty, lively and entertaining in speech, gener- ous with his wealth and freely helped those in need. He met his death in the disaster at Norwalk, Connecticut, when the train upon which he was returning with other prominent physicians from a meeting of the American Medical Asso- ciation, in New York, went into the river through an open drawbridge.
His son, Henry Kirk White Welch, was born at Mansfield, Connecticut, January I, 1821, and died in November, 1870. He was a graduate of Yale, class of 1842, studied law, became a law partner of Judge Nathaniel Shipman, was highly rated as a lawyer, and was a director of the old Continental Insurance Company. He took a keen interest in public affairs, filled many offices of public trust, repre- sented Hartford in the General Assembly, and was chairman of the high school com- mittee. He was a man of high ideals, cul- tured tastes, and the soul of honor. Mr. Welch married, October 5, 1858, Susan Leavitt Goodwin, of Hartford, daughter of Edward and Eliza Amy (Sheldon) Goodwin. Children: Archibald Ashley, of whom further ; Edward G., born Janu- ary 14, 1861, died in 1894; Frances G., born March 7, 1864, became the wife of Bernard T. Williams ; Henry Kirk White, born December 4, 1865, associated offi- cially with the J. B. Williams Company, of Glastonbury, Connecticut; Lewis S., born July 19, 1867, graduate of Yale, class of 1889, and the first editor of "Yale Alum- ni Weekly."
The Goodwin family, of which Mrs. Henry Kirk White Welch was a represen- tative, was founded in America by Ozias Goodwin, who came with his brother, Elder William Goodwin, and settled in
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Hartford, Connecticut, where Ozias Good- win in 1639-40 had a house and lot "on the highway leading from Seth Grant's house to Centinal Hill." From Ozias Goodwin and his wife, Mary (Woodward) Goodwin, whom he married in England, the line of descent was through their son, Nathaniel Goodwin; his son, Samuel Goodwin; his son, Samuel (2) Goodwin ; his son, George Goodwin; his son, Ed- ward Goodwin, father of Mrs. Weich. George Goodwin, born January 7, 1757, died May 13, 1844. At the age of nine years he became office boy to Thomas Green, who founded the Hartford "Cou- rant," October 29, 1764. From that time until 1836 George Goodwin was connected with the "Courant" as office boy, appren- tice, editor and owner, and when in 1836 the paper was sold to J. L. Boswell one of the stipulations of the contract was that Mr. Goodwin should have the privilege of working in the "Courant" office when- ever he pleased, and until very near the close of his life he availed himself of this light. Edward Goodwin, his son. born December 7, 1800, was a graduate of Yale, class of 1823. He entered the law school of Judge Reeve at Litchfield, but at the solicitation of his father gave up the study of law and became editor of the "Cou- rant." When his father retired from the "Courant" in 1836, Edward Goodwin asso- ciated with his father and brothers in the firm of Goodwin & Company, publishers and paper manufacturers, and in the firm of H. & E. Goodwin until going out of business in 1861. He was later deputy collector of internal revenue, but from 1861 was practically retired from public life. He was a man of strong natural ability and cultivated literary tastes, a student of classics and a. fine Latin scholar. He married (second) Novem- ber 3, 1820, Eliza Amy (Lewis) Sheldon, born in Goshen, Connecticut, December
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29, 1798, died January 7, 1887, daughter of Elihu and Clarinda (Stanley) Lewis, of Onondaga county, New York, and widow of Henry Sheldon, of Litchfield, Connec- ticut. Edward Goodwin died October 25, 1883, nearly three years after celebrat- ing the golden anniversary of his second wedding day. Children of second mar- riage: Edward, married Annie S. Conk- lin; Susan Leavitt, born March 31, 1834, married Henry Kirk White Welch, of previous mention ; Sheldon, born July 7, 1836, married Emma S. Messenger.
Archibald Ashley Welch, eldest son of Henry Kirk White and Susan Leavitt (Goodwin) Welch, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, October 6, 1859, in which city he has since resided. He passed through all grades of the North School and the high school, graduating in the class of 1878. He then entered Yale Col- lege, completing his junior year, then left college to engage in business life. He spent the years until 1890 as clerk in the actuary's office of the Travelers' Insur- ance Company of Hartford, resigning to accept the office of actuary of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hart- ford. In 1891 he completed his senior year course at Yale, and was awarded his degree of Bachelor of Arts, class of 1882. He has continued as actuary of the Phoenix until the present time (1917), and in 1904 was elected second vice-presi- dent, receiving the appointment of vice- president in January, 1915. He is also a trustee of the Society for Savings, and a director of the Hartford Retreat, one of the United States trustees for the Prus- sian Life Insurance Company, and a director of the Chamber of Commerce. l'or fifteen years he served as chairman of the high school committee, and is ex- secretary and now vice-president of the American School for the Deaf. He is an ex-president of the Actuarial Society of
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America, a member of the Hartford, Hart- ford Golf, University, Farmington Coun- try clubs, the Graduates Club of New Haven, the University and Yale clubs of New York City, and Delta Kappa Epsilon and Delta Kappa fraternities. In religious affiliation he is a member of the Christian Science church, and in politics a Repub- lican.
Mr. Welch married, October 24, 1889, Ellen Bunce, daughter of James M. and Elizabeth (Chester) Bunce. James M. Bunce was a wholesale grocer of Hart- ford, and vice-president of the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad Company.
TRAUT, George Washington, Manufacturer, Financier.
Three generations of this ancient Ger- man family have contributed to the in- dustrial and commercial greatness of New Britain, Connecticut : Frederick A. Traut, the founder: Justus A. Traut, his son ; George W. Traut, his grandson, all men of education, mechanical genius and wealth. Frederick A. and Justus A. Traut have now passed to their reward, having borne well their part in life's activities. After over half a century of life in his adopted city, Justus A. Traut thus ex- pressed his sentiments as a proud and loyal citizen of the United States: "A man's nationality remains part of him al- ways, and this is as it should be. I can- not help feeling a double sense of loyalty as if the roots of my life-tree were divided, one-half still growing in the Vaterland, while the other is thriving in the gener- ous atmosphere of this glorious republic, and more closely confined in the atmos- phere and circle of my friends and busi- ness associates of a lifetime in whose midst I hope to enjoy many a year of active and therefore happy usefulness."
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