USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 8 > Part 35
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(VII) Theodore Winchester, son of Ebenezer and Elizabeth Nelson (Story) Winchester, was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 30, 1842, and died in Balti- more, Maryland, December 11, 1883. He received an education better than was given to most youths of his day. He pos- sessed an active mind, and besides mak- ing the most of the opportunities afforded him he added to his store of knowledge by wise and careful reading and by keen. and thoughtful observation. He literally grew up in the printing office of his father, the work being such as appeals to almost
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every boy. He became a thorough all- round printer, and remained identified with the printing business in one way and another as long as he lived. He took out a number of patents, and contributed many improvements in methods of de- signing, cutting and making type. Dur- ing the sixties and seventies he was asso- ciated with his father in the ownership and operation of a newspaper and print- ing plant at Marietta, Ohio. It was there that he began his inventive work on printing appliances. At the time of his death he was associated with the Balti- more Type Foundry. During all these years he was associated with various pub- lishers, for he was an exceptionally fluent and versatile writer. While he never essayed to be a poet, he possessed a splen- did gift of poesy, though this was exer- cised mostly for his own entertainment. As a free-lance writer his editorial writ- ings appeared in many publications. He also possessed marked artistic talent, but this too was used merely as a means of amusement.
On December II, 1865, Theodore Win- chester married Anna Maud Jackson, who was born November 25, 1847, in Danby, New York, and died January 21, 19II, in Los Angeles, California. In her latter years she was known in literary circles and among her friends as Mrs. Winches- ter-Dennie. Her second husband, de- ceased, was Henry Eugene Dennie, a pioneer builder of railroads in Mexico and Central America. From girlhood, Mrs. Winchester-Dennie was devoted to edu- cational and literary work, and became prominent in both, particularly as an edi- torial writer on political and governmen- tal matters and as a promoter of modern education. Her newspaper work took her to Mexico in 1881, and there she labored for and succeeded in the introduction of
the American school system. As a mark of distinction, she was the first woman to be commissioned by the Mexican govern- ment as Professor of Instruction, which followed her marriage to Mr. Dennie. After a residence of about twenty years in Mexico, and having become a widow, she made her home with her son, Albert E. Winchester, in South Norwalk, Con- necticut. Her long continuous work had made her an invalid, and her entire for- tune had been exhausted in the advance- ment of education and uplift effort. In about five years she went to the Pacific coast in the hope of restoring her health, but her strength continued to fail until January 21, 19II, when she passed away. Until a few months before the end, Mrs. Winchester-Dennie pursued her literary work as a reviewer, rewriter and critic of fiction and other writings. Her father, George Jackson, of Virginia and Mary- land stock, late of Ithaca, New York, was of English and Scotch descent. Her mother was Caroline (Denton) Jackson, of Danby, New York, who was of Eng- lish and Irish descent. A direct maternal ancestor is understood to have been an Irish countess who married below her station and ran away to America. George Jackson worked on the laying out of Washington, D. C., and was early asso- ciated with Samuel F. B. Morse, the in- ventor of electric telegraphy, and Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, with whom he helped to construct the first electric telegraph line between Washı- ington and Baltimore. His forefathers, after concluding that slavery was wrong, freed their slaves and came North, set- tling in the vicinity of Ithaca, many years before the war that settled the slavery question. He was also one of the original "Forty-niners" who went to seek gold in
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California. Upon his return he resumed his occupation of farmer and cattle dealer.
(VIII) Albert E. Winchester, son of Theodore and Anna Maud (Jackson) Winchester, in 1871 accompanied his mother to her old home in Ithaca, New York, where he attended school until New York City became their home in 1876. At the age of ten he secured his first position, as office boy with the Wall street law firm of Wells Hendershott. The spring of 1881 found our subject em- barking for old Mexico with his mother, who had been appointed to write a guide- book for the Gould-Grant Railroad, then under concession, and as Mexican corre- spondent for several American periodi- cals. At that time he was just fourteen years old, and there being no suitable school for him in Mexico in those days, and having evinced from earliest boy- hood an insatiable zeal and ardor for con- structive mechanics, and a keen apprecia- tion of scientific values, he became an' apprentice in the Mexican Central Rail- road, which was then being built to the United States. He served successively in the treasury department, the mechanical section in connection with locomotive and car building, and out on pioneer railroad construction. On completing his time in 1883, he was sent back to the United States to qualify for college and took a preparatory course in the Whitlock Acad- emy, Wilton, Connecticut. At this early day the young man was investigating the then new problem of the commercial de- velopment of electricity as his limited time permitted, and at the conclusion of his course at the academy, instead of en- tering college, he began in the year 1886, as the youngest member of the parent Edison Company's engineering staff, un- der the well known veteran electrical and mechanical engineer, J. H. Vail, who was
then the general superintendent, and con- tinued with the various organizations of the Edison interests in line of succes- sion from draughtsman to constructing engineer, until the formation of the Gen- eral Electric Company, with which he remained until 1893, when he became a director of the Electrical & Mechanical Engineering Company of New York, and its superintendent of construction for the three ensuing years.
During 1896 and 1897, Mr. Winchester was on the staff of the New York Edison Illuminating Company. From that time to the present (1921) he has held his pres- ent position of general superintendent of the South Norwalk Electric Works. Back in 1892, he designed and superin- tended the construction of this plant, after which year and until 1902 he also served as a member of South Nor- walk's Board of Electrical Commission- ers. Thus he has devoted himself contin- uously to his city since 1892, contributing a large part of his time and ability with- out remuneration other than the know- ledge of having done his best as a public servant. Mr. Winchester's present stand- ing in his city, in addition to that of su- perintendent of the electrical works, is that of superintendent of the fire alarm telegraph since 1893, and city electrical engineer since 1902. He also assists the Public Utilities Commission of Connecti- cut in a consulting capacity, and is elec- trical adviser to several municipalities and private corporations. He is a direc- tor of the Norwalk Building and Loan Association, and a member of the execu- tive committee of the South Norwalk Board of Trade. In 1906 Mr. Winchester became president of the Water and Elec- tric Company of Westport, Connecticut, and so continued until the company was absorbed some years later by the New
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York & New Haven Railroad Company. In the meantime, he saw the Westport concern rise from a precarious condition to one of prosperity as the result of the united and earnest purpose of himself and his associates to deal fairly with its pa- trons.
Mr. Winchester's scientific and social affiliations are numerous. He holds the highest grade, that of Fellow, and has been a full member, of the American In- stitute of Electrical Engineers since 1887. He is also a founder member of the Edi- son Pioneers, who were the great inven- tor's helpers in his discoveries before the latter eighties. He is a member of Old Well Lodge, No. 108, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Butler Chapter, No. 38, Royal Arch Masons; Washington Council, No. 6, Royal and Select Masters ; Washington Commandery, No. 3, Knights Templar; and Pyramid Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His memberships also include the Eastern Star, the Red Men, Elks, Heptasophs, Royal Arcanum, South Nor- walk Club, Knob Club, Council of the Norwalk Division of the Boy Scouts of America, and others.
Since 1893 Mr. Winchester has been a constantly active member of the South Norwalk Fire Department, of which he was chief for two terms, stepping back into the ranks in 1907. After twenty years of continuous service he was made an active life member of Old Well Hook & Ladder Company, which he had early joined, and of which he is now treasurer. In the volunteer service he is credited with never having faltered in the line of duty; regardless of weather, personal safety or other consideration he would be found in the thick of the fight, using good judgment and telling efforts, which won him the respect of his associates and the
citizens generally. He is also a member of the Connecticut State Firemen's Asso- ciation and the Connecticut Fire Chief's Club.
He has often been mentioned for politi- cal offices of prominence, but has declined to be a candidate. He is opposed to en- tering any political contest for the glory' of winning, or to oppose a friend, or to seek and accept an office that is held and wanted by a man who has faithfully ren- dered efficient service.
Though he is an inventor of acknow- ledged genius, Mr. Winchester has never taken out any patents for himself, holding that his employers were entitled to the results of his efforts. Among other de- vices, he originated one of the first prac- tical quick-break switches for heavy electric currents, the exact principles of which are in general use to-day. The sectional iron bracket pole for supporting trolley wires was developed by him ; also improvements in the key sockets for in- candescent lamps; an automatic trolley pole and contact for electric train service ; an early car motor controller, and he aided in the evolution of the one now commonly in use on electric street cars. He contributed many other improvements and modifications of great value to trol- ley line appliances and construction, to which work he was assigned for a consid- erable period of time. In 1916-17 he col- laborated with the General Electric Com- pany in evolving the new type of very efficient ornamental street lighting unit that was first installed in South Norwalk in 1918. He was also detailed from time to time on special lines under the direc- tion of Mr. Edison, of which fact he is justly proud, and believes that his contact with the great inventor has been of incal- culable benefit to him. Mr. Winchester's speciality, however, has gradually con-
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centrated his attention on the intricate engineering and management details of electric lighting and power undertakings. He has participated in the designing of over one hundred electric lighting and street railway generating stations, of which some were erected under his per- sonal supervision. Some of the more im- portant of these plants were: The early Edison stations in New York City, Bos- ton, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, New Orleans, Kan- sas City, Topeka, Milwaukee, Detroit, Providence, Brooklyn, Wilmington, and many others. In electric street railway work he was connected with the construc- tion of the Richmond street railway-the pioneer of the old Sprague Company-the street railways of Scranton, Brooklyn, Jamaica, Hoosic Falls, Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls, New York's first ex- perimental road using the surface contact plates, and many others.
In the autumn of 1905, representative citizens from all parts of the Nation were called to New York City to attend a spe- cial convention of the National Civic Fed- eration, assembled at Columbia Univer- sity, in response to the demand of the American people for real facts relating to the advantages and disadvantages result- ing from applied public and private own- ership of public utilities. This vital issue had become a topic of serious contention between privately owned public serving utilities on the one hand, and those people who believed that the public should own and operate its own utilities. A commit- tee of twenty-one commissioners, of whom Mr. Winchester was one, was by vote named and given the necessary power and finances to thoroughly investigate this subject under operative conditions, both in this country and abroad, aided by a picked corps of experts in engineering,
management, accounting labor economics, and civic efficiency. The list of names is too long to include in this article, but it comprises men recognized the country over as leaders in their respective fields. In recognition of his experience and qual- ifications, Commissioner Winchester was also selected as one of the two electric lighting and power experts of the foreign investigation committee. He sailed for England in the early spring of 1906, and for five months his time was wholly occu- pied in a minute investigation of the elec- tric, gas, and street railway undertakings of the large cities of England, Scotland and Ireland, and afterwards devoted much of his time in this country to aiding in the compilation of the vast amount of data included in the commission's report. This report was given to the public in 1907, and still stands as the most com- plete work of its nature, and is the world's best authority within its field.
During Mr. Winchester's stay in Lon- don, in 1906, Superintendent Hamilton, of the London Fire Brigade, gave a spe- cial demonstration of fire fighting in his honor as a visiting active fire chief. A building was provided especially for that purpose, to which fire apparatus was called from a distance as great as three or four miles, in order to establish a time record for response. Prominent features of the exhibition were the scaling of buildings and life-net rescues.
While abroad, Mr. Winchester was also a United States delegate of the Amer- ican Institute of Electrical Engineers to the International Congress of Electrical Engineers at London. Professor J. H. Gray, in his report on the South Norwalk plant, speaks characteristically of Mr. Winchester, as follows :
Although the present superintendent, Mr. A. E. Winchester, was originally chief promoter of the
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plant, the constructing engineer, and for nearly ten years one of the Commissioners-resigning July 1, 1902, and from four years previous to that date up to the present time superintendent of the plant-and although he takes a very active part in Republican politics and always has done so, I have not been able to find that political considerations have at any time had any influence in the promo- tion, disciplining or dismissing of any member of the force or with the operation of the plant. It ought also to be said that a large part of the success of the plant and of the enthusiasm with which it is regarded by the public are due to the personal activity and character of Mr. Winches- ter. His character in connection with the plant and his dominating influence over its fortunes are unique, so far as my observation goes. I under- stand that Mr. Winchester, in the early days, served the city in connection with the establish- ment and management of the electric plant with- out any salary at all, and in recent years has served as superintendent for a smaller compen- sation than he could command elsewhere. I be- lieve also that every extension and enlargement of the works recommended by him has been speedily authorized by the city, and that in no case has the expense of the work exceeded his estimate as presented to the city meeting. In fact, he has come well within every special appropria- tion made for investment, except one for $5,000 for motors, in which the original estimate was not exceeded. (Schedule I., volume II., pages 667-8, report entitled "Municipal and Private Operation. of Public Utilities").
In his early career, Mr. Winchester took up the contrasting study of private and public ownership of public serving utilities from the standpoint of civic bene- fits and economies. He had heard much strong argument on both sides of the con- troversy by his associates and others whose opinions were shaped by connected interests, so seldom substantiated by clearly demonstrated facts, that he be- came interested, not as a radical either way, but in the belief that the question was of such importance that it should be given deeper and broader consideration, from a purely practical and unbiased point of view, than the opposing sides
seemed able to agree upon. He wanted to know the real truth, and although already possessed of a fair insight into the methods of private ownership, he felt sure that a close investigation on both sides of the question would fail to demonstrate either the fallacies or the virtues of either side to the extent alleged, and that the best results for all concerned depended not so much upon the title of ownership, as upon the degree of honesty in the policy of management and the perfection of business methods and efficiency of opera- tion. When fully convinced that the question of ownership was secondary to service rendered, and that no up-to-date reason existed why a well handled pri- vately or publicly owned undertaking in the service of the people could not oper- ate with equal satisfaction, Mr. Winches- ter accepted the opportunity to prove his hypothesis in South Norwalk, with the backing of the people and the best type of business men as his associate commis- sioners in the upbuilding of this enter- prise. The resulting plant owned by the city, as previously mentioned, was de- signed by him, even to the details of its business methods, its system of rates and accounting, and has always been under his charge. From every point of view and from its earliest existence this plant has made good. Not only has it expanded to many times its original size, but it is famous all over the country for its long continued undeniable success, and be- cause it paid up its entire investment of borrowed capital, of over two hundred thousand dollars, with interest, from its own earned profits and has never cost the citizens one cent of taxation, but has paid money into the municipal treasury in- stead.
That Mr. Winchester is not biased as to ownership of public utilities is evident
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from the fact that while busy pushing the it was published in the Annals of the South Norwalk municipal plant to suc- American Society of Political and Social Science, in January, 1915. His advice has also been largely sought by both private undertakings engaged in public service, and by municipalities that he has become known for his broad judgment through- out the United States, as a safe authority on public service problems. His mother's charge, "My son, be a good citizen," has been Mr. Winchester's inspiration since boyhood. cess, he was also busy in the same way as president of the private water and electric service company, in the adjoining town of Westport. Mr. Winchester holds that public ownership has a legitimate field of its own, and that no well conducted pri- vate enterprise in the same line that gives its community a square deal need fear civic competition. Public ownership, in his opinion, is the people's alternative of the present time against an unjust mo- nopoly armed with iniquitous power to force unsatisfactory service and unrea- sonable rates upon its following, simply because, being a monopoly, it can. He is confident that such abuse of dominion through lack of proper control-not the rule, and when evident is mostly the pub- lic's fault-will in a not remote to-mor- row compel society to assume its dormant power and demand irresistibly that pro- digous change be made in current laws, establishing equal, just and sufficient protection against infringements both ways, between publicly owned common weal and privately owned public service monopolies.
To-day applied success is possibly our most convincing factor, representing its public ownership phase, on the one side, in the model South Norwalk plant, and on the other, private ownership in the progress of the Westport Company, both more or less influenced by the same mind.
Mr. Winchester has said much upon the subject of public utilities, in print and from the lecture platform. He read a notable paper before the Conference of American Mayors, held at Philadelphia in November, 1914, covering the subject of municipal ownership of an electric plant as exemplified in the South Norwalk ven- ture. The paper was of such merit that
Many who know the subject of this sketch call him "Colonel." Mr. Winches- ter claims no title to military rank. Some time previous to the Spanish-American War, he served as confidential adviser to agents of the Cuban revolutionists in electrical and engineering matters, with particular regard to the laying of mines. Having been in Cuba, and speaking Span- ish, and heartily in sympathy with the. struggle for "Cuba Libre," he was se- lected as a member of a proposed military engineering corps, with the rank of col- onel, to be sent to Cuba. As the United States had not at that time become in- volved in Cuba's struggle, Mr. Winches- ter declined the appointment, in the inter- est of maintaining neutrality, but many friends still apply the title, much to his embarrassment.
Mr. Winchester has been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was married on October 24, 1888, was Carrie Augusta Davenport Whitlock, daughter of Augus- tus Whitlock, in whose academy Mr. Winchester had prepared for college. She died childless on September 24. 1894. Mr. Winchester married for his second wife, February 1, 1896, Elizabeth Grant Bray, who was born in Lincroft, New Jersey, April 8, 1876, daughter of David H. and Stella C. (Van Schoick) Bray. He was a farmer for many years in the vicin-
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ity of Red Bank, New Jersey. This union has been blessed with the following chil- dren : I. Louis Dennie, born August 4, 1897, died July 2, 1898. 2. Herbert Dav- enport, born July 30, 1900; he left the freshman class at Stevens Institute of Technology to enlist as a volunteer in the United States army, 1918; he was not sent overseas, but was honorably dis- charged from the service in 1919 and returned to college.' 3. Edward Van Schoick, born July 8, 1901 ; at the age of seventeen he tried three times to enlist in the United States navy, but was re- jected on account of his youth; he took a position in the New York Division Su- perintendent's Office of the New York & New Haven Railroad Company.
Mr. Winchester's favorite pursuits are the study and practice of those sciences involved in his vocation, the study of po- litical science, economics and philosophy. His patriotism is intense, which to his mind finds its best expression in rendering efficient public service for the sake of the results rather than for personal reward. He believes in constructive rather than destructive criticism; in bringing har- mony out of confusion ; in attracting peo- ple to each other by showing the good that can always be found in everyone, if it is appealed to sympathetically; in set- tling disputes by man-to-man and heart- to- heart conferences; in telling the good that can be told of others, with emphasis ; in helping the needy without their learn- ing the source of the benefaction. He is greatly interested in everything that per- tains to his fellow-man, and his special interest in boys finds an outlet to their advantage in his activities in connection with the Boy Scout movement, already referred to. Mr. Winchester is a strong believer in Divinity, and is convinced that all things are controlled and actuated by
a positive, authentic, supreme purpose of concentrated right, which is perfect power and action eternal. Though non- sectarian in his own views, he honors and respects all creeds and those who en- deavor faithfully to live up to them.
EMERY, Albert Hamilton,
Celebrated Inventor.
The derivation of names, which is al- ways an interesting study, proves that places of abode and occupation were the most frequent sources of their origin, but very often we find one derived from either a personal characteristic or similar qual- ity. The surname, Emery, is derived from Almeric, a Christian name signify- ing "of obscure origin." It was gradu- ally changed to the present English form and spelling. In the Italian it is Amerigo and is forever represented in the word "America."
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