USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 4 > Part 24
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valescing after a long illness. What could be inore healing than the sheltered seclusion of "On- the-Hill?" In its comfortable sun parlors, its pleasing walks, its appointments for rest, the sick bed is soon forgotten. The clear, pure air, the sparkling mountain water, the well regulated table, and the carefully planned program of recre- ation take the place of your drugs and permit your system naturally to regain its normal condition of robust health.
In another place he says :
Here in the high altitude of the beautiful Berk- shires, Nature herself is a cure for most ills. The very air is scented with the fragrance of good health; the sun radiates it; your whole system thrills with the joy of living.
Besides his active work as a physician, Dr. Jackson takes a keen interest in medical matters generally, and is a mem- ber of the important societies of the pro- fession, among which should be men- tioned the American Medical Association, the Waterbury Medical Society, and the Connecticut Society of Alienists. He is also prominent in the local lodge of the Masonic order. In the matter of his re- ligious belief, Dr. Jackson is a Congre- gationalist and attends the church of that denomination at Watertown.
Dr. Jackson is a member of a family that was very prominent in New Bruns- wick. New Jersey, for a number of years -the Sillcocks family. His grandpar- ents were Nathan Hunt Jackson and Sarah (Conover) Jackson, the former born in New York City, and the latter in New Jersey. He became an important business man in New York City, where he established a large trade in grates and fenders and allied hardware goods, under the name of Nathan H. Jackson, the firm afterward changing its name to William H. Jackson & Company, at one time the largest dealers in New York in that line.
Dr. Jackson was married, at Boston, to Miss Alma DeForest Curtiss, a native of
Watertown, Connecticut, and a daughter of Colonel Eli Curtiss, of that place, and Mary Frances (Davis) Curtiss, of Bos- ton, his wife. Colonel Curtiss, who was in command of a Connecticut regiment in the Civil War, died in New York City in the year 1871, and was survived by his wife until 1901, when her death occurred also in the same place. To Dr. and Mrs. Jackson one daughter, Frances Curtiss Jackson, was born December 15, 1893.
LYALL, Alexander Sellars, Business Manager.
Alexander Sellars Lyall was born in Dundee, Scotland, December 9, 1864, only child of Robert and Mary (Morris) Lyall, for many years residents of that city. He acquired a limited education in the schools of Dundee, completing his studies at the age of twelve. His first employ- ment was in a dry goods store in Dundee, his service extending over a period of six years, when he secured a more lucrative position with a larger establishment in Glasgow, remaining in that employ two years, or until 1884, in which year he emi- grated to the United States, locating in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. The following year he removed to Nor- wich, Connecticut, in which city he con- tinued his residence for four years, secur- ing employment as a clerk in the depart- ment store of Reid & Hughes Company, one of the largest and finest concerns of its kind in the State, of which Mr. Lyall is now (1916) the manager of the branch store located in Waterbury, he taking up his residence in that city in 1890. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks, and his religious affili- ations are with the First Congregational Church in Waterbury.
Mr. Lyall married, in Norwich, Con- necticut, March 27, 1888, Louise Loomis
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Nichols, a native of Norwich, daughter of William Leonard and Louise (Loomis) Nichols, lifelong residents of Norwich. Mr. Nichols died in Norwich, February 29, 1865, and his widow now resides in Springfield, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Lyall are the parents of one child, Harold Morris, born June 2, 1890, who makes his home in Waterbury with his parents, but a larger portion of his time is spent trav- eling for a concern in Boston, Massachu- setts, which he represents as agent.
KILBOURN, Joseph Austin, M. D., Physician, Hospital Official.
Since graduation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1897, Dr. Kilbourn has practiced in Hartford, where he has at- tained high rank as a skillful, honorable practitioner. He is of the eighth genera- tion of his family founded in America by Thomas Kilbourn in 1635, and although his ancestors have been men of promi- nence in the public life of Wethersfield and Glastonbury, Connecticut, since the first settlement, he is the first in his direct line to pursue a professional career.
Thomas Kilbourn, the founder, was born at Wood Ditton, Cambridgeshire, England, in 1578, and with a portion of his family came to America on the ship "Increase," sailing April 15, 1635. He settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he died in 1639. He and his wife Frances were members of the Church of England.
John Kilbourn, son of Thomas and Frances Kilbourn, was born at Wood Ditton, England, September 29, 1624, and came to Wethersfield, Connecticut, with his father in 1635. He became a man of civil and military prominence, holding many town positions. His first wife, Naomi, whom he married in 1650, bore
him three children, of whom John was the eldest.
John (2) Kilbourn, of the first Ameri- can-born generation, was born at Weth- ersfield, Connecticut, February 15, 1651, died at Glastonbury, Connecticut, No- vember 25, 1711. He was talesman, con- stable and grand juror, a man of consider- able prominence in both towns in which he resided. He married, March 4, 1673, Susannah, daughter of William Hills, who died in October, 1701.
Abraham Kilbourn, son of John (2) and Susannah (Hills) Kilbourn, was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, August 25, 1691, and died there in 1770. He was constable of the town for seven years, treasurer three years, selectman eighteen years ; representative, 1721-30-56. He married three times, the line of descent being through Joseph, son of his second wife, Mary, daughter of Samuel Tudor, of Windsor, Connecticut, who died Au- gust 5, 1751.
Joseph Kilbourn was born in Glaston- bury, January 14, 1723, and died there June II, 1790. He was a lister, 1748-59; surveyor, 1752-62-70. He married, March I, 1744, Mary, daughter of Joseph Hol- lister.
Joseph (2) Kilbourn, son of Joseph and Mary (Hollister) Kilbourn, was born in Glastonbury, April 1, 1765, and died there May 14, 1851. He married (first) April 4, 1793. Hannah Sellew, died January 23, 1826, daughter of Philip Sellew.
Horace Kilbourn was born in Glaston- bury, Connecticut, November 11, 1809, died there in 1868, youngest child of Jo- seph (2) and Hannah (Sellew) Kilbourn. He passed his active years a successful farmer. He married, in 1858, Mary Young, born in Kilkenny, Ireland, as was her father. Joseph Young. They were the parents of three children : Joseph A., of further mention ; John, died aged four-
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teen years; Rosella, died aged sixteen years.
Joseph A. Kilbourn, son of Horace and Mary (Young) Kilbourn, was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, November I, 1860. He passed his earlier school life in California, entering Fordham University, New York, when a lad of fifteen years, later beginning his business career with an insurance firm of Hartford. He be- came one of the strong men of the insur- ance field, and served the Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York as gen- eral agent until thirty-four years of age. He then began the carrying out of a long cherished ambition and commenced the study of medicine, a profession for which he had a decided predilection. In 1894 he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland, whence he was graduated Doctor of Medicine in April, 1897. After graduation he at- tended lectures at Sloane Maternity Hos- pital, New York City, and in the fall of 1897 began the practice of his profession in Hartford, Connecticut. From 1897 until 1914 Dr. Kilbourn was in Hartford, becoming firmly entrenched in public favor, ministering to a large clientele and standing high in the regard of his pro- fessional brethren. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Connecticut State, Hartford County and Hartford City Medical societies. He was for many years a member of the staff of St. Francis Hospital-in fact, the oldest in point of service. His clubs are the City and Automobile of Hartford. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Veteran Corps of the Gov- ernor's Foot Guard.
Dr. Kilbourn married, in Hartford, Connecticut, January 6, 1884. Sarah A. Dooley, born May 20, 1862, daughter of Timothy Dooley, a native of Kings coun- ty, Ireland. Dr. and Mrs. Kilbourn have
six children : 1. Horace Ogden, born June 17, 1885; a graduate of Yale University, class of 1907 ; now a stock broker of New York City ; married Helen Van Dusen, of New York, and has children : Sarah, Sam- uel and Austin. 2. Joseph Berney, men- tioned below. 3. Austin, born April 5, 1889; a graduate of Yale, class of 1911 ; now a business man of New York City. 4. Jonathan, born January 2, 1891 ; a grad- uate of Yale, class of 1913; now with the American Trading Company; married Clara Kent, of Brooklyn, New York. 5. Orrin Paul, born September 3, 1893; a graduate of Yale, class of 1914; now in the advertising business in New York City. 6. Constance May, born November 29, 1895.
Joseph Berney Kilbourn, son of Joseph Austin Kilbourn, was born October 8, 1887, and was educated at Trinity Col- lege, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland. He was graduated Doctor of Medicine from the latter institution, class of 1911. He passed two years at the Woman's Hos- pital in Baltimore, and St. Vincent's Hos- pital of New York City; then went to Vienna, Austria, for special study in sur- gery. In 1914, when war was declared in Europe, he was attending a surgical con- gress in London, England. He had pur- sted post-graduate courses in the Univer- sity of Vienna, and offered his services to the Austrian government. He remained in America until October, 1914, then re- ceived an appointment to organize a royal hospital train. The Austrian govern- ment, the Red Cross Society and private subscriptions, contributed to equip the train, which had accommodations for four hundred wounded soldiers with Dr. Kil- bourn as chief surgeon. The first trip of the train was to the fortress of Pryzmsyl, which the Austrians took, but soon aban- doned in retreat. This retreat, said Dr.
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Kilbourn, was orderly and well managed. The wounded were taken into the interior of Austria to the town of Tarnow, which the Russians invested at Christmas time. This was an exciting time for Dr. Kil- bourn. The Austrians retreated, and the ambulance train was ordered to Russian Poland. Dr. Kilbourn's next field of serv- ice was the Carpathians. Here the weather was bad, and many soldiers of both sides suffered from frozen feet and hands. In May the Austrians broke through, and Dr. Kilbourn's ambulance train followed them. Then he was sent to the Italian front after the declaration of war by Italy. For nearly a month the ambulance train acted as a mobile field hospital there. By September, 1915, Dr. Kilbourn was sent back on the Galician front, where the fighting was severe. He was taken sick with pleurisy and chronic bronchitis, and for two months had to give up his work with the wounded. When he recovered he was sent to Bul- garia, being surgeon of the fortress hos- pital in Scumen. In May, 1916, he was relieved, after securing permission to come home, and in July, 1916, arrived in Hartford, where he will remain, having no intention of returning to Europe.
KANE, Thomas F., Physician, Public Official.
For a quarter of a century Dr. Kane, A. B., M. D., has been engaged in gen- eral medical practice in Hartford, the city of his birth. Although burdened with the cares of a large private practice, he has given much of his time to the preserva- tion of public health by long and continu- ous service as member and as president of the city board of health, and in season and out of season preaches the gospel of prevention of disease by sanitary precau- tion.
There is no profession that requires more self-sacrifice than does the medical -sacrifice not only of personal comfort, but of personal feelings; no branch of public duty is more discouraging than that of impressing upon the public at large the necessity of sanitary precaution and the observance of sanitary regula- tions. Dr. Kane, however, for years so sac- rificed himself and bore these discourage- ments, and he has seen much good result from his labors in improved conditions. The gospel he preached and the example he set has spread wonderfully, the need of civic sanitary precaution is better understood, and the public health more carefully safeguarded through his en- lightening labors.
Dr. Kane is a son of Patrick and a grandson of Daniel Kane, both born in County Clare, Ireland, where the latter was a prosperous tenant farmer and a man of local influence. Patrick Kane, educated in the national schools of County Clare, also followed tilling the soil, but in 1846 crossed the ocean to St. John, New Brunswick. A year later he came to Hartford, where he died in 1867. He was a man of good natural ability, ener- getic and industrious, much respected by those who knew him. He married Bridget Spellacy, who survived him. She was also born in County Clare, and was the first of her family to come to the United States. One by one she sent for her fam- ily, and in 1846 her father. James Spel- lacy, came to complete the family circle, and lived retired until his death. When left a widow with four children, Mrs. Bridget Kane, a woman of strong char- acter, bent her energies to their support, gave each a good education, and all richly repaid her disinterested love and sacri- fice. Mary. the eldest, and her sister, Margaret Matilda, both became public school teachers ; Nellie, the home keeper ;
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and Thomas F., whose career will be traced, were the children of Patrick and Bridget (Spellacy ) Kane.
Thomas F. Kane was born in Hartford, Connecticut, February 23, 1863, and until 1880 attended the South street and high schools of the city. In 1880 he entered the College of the Holy Cross at Worces- ter, Massachusetts, completed a classical course, and was graduated Bachelor of Arts, class of 1884. He had decided upon the medical profession, and after gradu- ation from Holy Cross, at once entered the Medical Department of Harvard Uni- versity, there remaining two years. He then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, receiving his de- gree of Doctor of Medicine in 1887. In the same year he began practice in Hart- ford, and there amid those who have known him from boyhood he has fought his way upward from the bottom to the topmost rounds of the ladder of medical success. He has won alone and unaided, has never had a partner, has never low- ered the high standard of professional ethics with which he began, has kept in close touch with every advance in medi- cal thought, treatment or discovery, and has taught prevention as ardently as he has practiced cure of disease. He is a man of pleasing personality, and he num- bers his friends wherever known. He is a member of the medical societies of city, county and State, and is highly regarded by his professional brethren.
In 1891 and again in 1897 he was elected for three-year terms on the board of school visitors. In 1893, by appointment of Mayor Hyde, he became health com- missioner, proving so valuable a member that he was reappointed in 1895, again in 1899, and in the spring of 1900 was chosen president of the Board of Health, con- tinuing as president until 1902. In 1904 he was reappointed until 1913, when he
refused reappointment. He was appoint- ed a member of the State Board of Chari- ties, July 1, 1903, serving until June, 1915, having during that period been president of the board three different terms of two years each.
He is a member of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, the church of his par- ents and family ; is a Knight of Colum- bus, and still displays, as of yore, a deep interest in public affairs. He is a director of the Dime Savings Bank and has other business interests of importance ; is treas- urer of the Catholic Transcript, and con- sultant at the Isolation Hospital.
Dr. Kane married, October 10, 1905, Mary Ellen, daughter of Patrick H. Quinn, of Hartford, and has two chil- dren-Thomas Quinn, born March 5, 1908; and Mary Scott, born November 6, 1912.
GARDE, Walter S.,
Public Official.
While the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, the inevitable law of destiny accords to tire- less energy, industry and ability a suc- cessful career. The truth of this asser- tion is verified in the life of Walter S. Garde. For many years he has been prominent in the business, political and social circles of Hartford, and through his own well directed efforts he has at- tained a position of distinction, not only along the line of his chosen work, but by reason of his marked loyalty and his de- votion to the public good, those qualities having been manifested in many substan- tial ways, and thus Mr. Garde has gained the regard of all with whom he has been associated.
The name of Garde has been for two generations associated with the highest type of hotel proprietorship in Hartford
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and New Haven, Connecticut. William Henry Garde, father of Walter S. Garde, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, March J3. 1850. He was educated in the public schools of that town and in the Cheshire Academy. After completing his studies, he went to Meriden, Connecticut, and was employed for a short time in the fac- tory of Bradley, Hubbard & Company. He then engaged in the restaurant busi- ness on his own account, removing to Southington, Connecticut, in 1886, to conduct a hotel, which line of work he continued in until 1890, when he removed to Fort Plain, New York, and there con- ducted a hotel for a year, after which he removed to New Haven, Connecticut, and opened the Westmoreland Hotel, located on State street, which he conducted for one year, from 1892 to 1893. On June I, 1894, Mr. Garde opened the Hotel Garde in New Haven, at that time the best hotel in the city, and conducted the same until 1904, a period of ten years, when he dis- posed of it, and removed to Hartford, Connecticut, there establishing the Hotel Garde. While a resident of New Haven, he had formed a corporation with his wife, and son, Walter S. Garde, under the name of the Hotel Garde Company, which secured the old Batterson property on the corner of Asylum and High streets. This they remodelled into a fine hotel prop- erty. Mr. Garde was a member of the Knights of Pythias in Meriden, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in New Haven. Mr. Garde married Ada H. Chapin, a daughter of George F. and Mary (Bowles) Chapin, of Hartford. Of his three children, two are as follows : William Roslyn, who was a partner in his father's business, died unmarried, and Walter S., of whom further. William H. Garde was injured in the Wallingford tornado in 1878, and from that time until his death, which occurred January 28,
1907, he was a constant sufferer from the effects of his experiences at that time.
Walter S. Garde was born in Meriden, Connecticut, July 30, 1876. He received his elementary education in the public schools of Meriden. He then attended the Southington High School, leaving a year before the completion of his course to finish in the Clinton Liberal Institute at Fort Plain, New York. Upon the re- moval of his parents to New Haven, he entered the famous Hopkins Grammar School, which he attended for a year, after which he pursued a special law course at the Yale Law School. In the meantime he had become interested with his father in the hotel business, and as- sumed charge of the affairs of the Hotel Garde of Hartford, which he conducted until August, 1913, and from that time to the present he has leased the property. When the lease on the Hotel Garde of New Haven expired, Mr. Garde remodeled the property and built additions to the hotel, which now contains two hundred and seventy-four rooms. It is one of the highest class hotels in the State of Con- necticut. After the improvements on the property were completed, he again rented the property under a lease to its manage- ment. Several years ago Mr. Garde pur- chased the old Commercial House of New Haven, which he also remodeled, and leased to its present management which is conducting it under the name of the Hotel Volk. He is a man of good busi- ness talent and ability, and has been chosen to serve in various capacities, namely: President of the Hartford In- vestment Company, president of the Ros- lyn Investment Company, vice-president of the Eastern Machine Screw Corpora- tion of New Haven, and a director of the Fidelity Trust Company of Hartford and of the People's Bank and Trust Company of New Haven. For four years he was
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the president of the Hartford Dispensary, which institution was the direct out- growth of his efforts, largely developed by him, and of which he was justly proud.
Mr. Garde entered official public life in the semi-official capacity of a member of the Chamber of Commerce, of Hartford, of which body he is still a director. He has served as delegate to conventions several times, and was a member of the State Central Committee of the Repub- lican party for four and a half years, from 1909 to 1914. He has been president of the Board of Water Commissioners for three years, and as executive head of this important board has had an immense amount of work and responsibility. The technical work in the construction of Hartford's new water system, the stu- pendous piece of work before the board at the present time (1917), is in charge of Caleb Mills Saville, civil engineer of the Hartford Water Works. But aside from its purely technical side the work involves considerable litigation, which on account of his official capacity falls to Mr. Garde. The capacity of the present res- ervoirs supplying the city is about two billion gallons. The capacity of the new works will be about nine billion gallons. The construction involves a new supply pipe line forty-two inches in diameter, and four miles long, from the city to the West Hartford Reservoir; a filtration plant at the West Hartford Reservoir having a capacity of about fifteen million gallons a day ; a concrete conduit, about one and one-half miles long, five feet high, four feet and nine inches wide ; a pipe line connecting the distributing reservoirs at West Hartford with the new impounding reservoirs in Canton about eight miles away. The Nepaug Reservoir will have a capacity of about nine billion, five hun- dred and sixty million gallons, and will cover an area of eight hundred and fifty
acres. It is built by the construction of three dams-Nepaug dam, maximum height one hundred and fifty-seven feet, thickness at the base one hundred and twelve feet, top twenty feet, and two other smaller dams, one at Phelps Brook and the other at East Hartford. In order to construct the Nepaug Reservoir one thousand, six hundred and fifty acres of land were purchased, including forty-two individual farms, the removal of sixty buildings and two cemeteries. Seven miles of highways were abandoned and four miles were constructed to take its place. The reservoir will have a short line of eleven miles and a maximum length of two and a quarter miles. The maximum depth of Nepaug will be nine- ty-seven feet and the average depth thir- ty-four feet, the largest body of fresh water in Connecticut. In order to com- pensate mill owners for water diverted to the city, a reservoir is being built on the east branch of the Farmington river at East Hartford. The work will be com- pleted in the early part of the year 1918. Mr. Garde's part in the mighty work is ample evidence of his standing in the minds of the people of Hartford.
Mr. Garde is a member of Trumbull Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma- sons, of New Haven, of which he is past master ; a member of the Lafayette Con- sistory, Supreme Princes of the Royal Secret ; New Haven Commandery, Knights Templar, of which he is past commander ; Sphinx Temple, Mystic Shrine, of which he is past potentate; and on September 19, 1909, was given the thirty-third degree of Masonry. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Hartford; Myrtle Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Meriden ; the Masonic Club of New York City, the Knights Templar Club of New Haven, the Republican Club, the Country Club
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ot Farmington, the Hartford Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the Union League Club of New Haven, and the Thames Club of New London.
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