USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v.2 > Part 11
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Edmund Grant Howe married Frances Kies, daughter of Samuel and Pamela (Davis) Kies. Her mother, Pamela (Davis) Kies, was born at Charlton, Mas- sachusetts, March 4, 1778, died June 24, 1824. Five children were born to Edmund Grant and Frances (Kies) Howe: Ed- mund Miner, deceased; Charles Grant. deceased ; Frances Pamela, married Wil- liam J. Wood, deceased ; George Summer, deceased; and Daniel Robinson, of fur- ther mention.
(VIII) Daniel Robinson Howe pre- pared for college in the public schools of Hartford, and entered Yale University. whence he was graduated Bachelor of Arts, class of "74." He began business life as clerk in the dry goods store of Collins & Fenn in Hartford. following that service by a clerkship in the Hart- ford National Bank. He then formed a partnership with Atwood Collins, founded the banking house of Howe & Collins and for several years was engaged in private banking operations. He then retired and has since devoted himself to the management of his own private business affairs and in the administration of the duties of sev- eral trusteeships that have been confided to him. He, however, holds important con- nection with several Hartford corpora- tions of note, serving as vice-president of the Society for Savings. director of the National Exchange Bank, director of the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, and trustee of the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He is an ex-treasurer of the Hartford Orphan Asylum, the American School for the Deaf and Wat- kinson Juvenile Farm School. He is a
member and deacon of the First Church of Christ, is an ex-president of the Federa- tion of Churches and of the Young Men's Christian Association. His college fra- ternities are Kappa Sigma Epsilon, Delta Kappa, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and at Yale also of the senior society, Scroll and Key. For many years he was a member of the Hartford and Hartford Golf clubs, his present membership being with the Uni- versity Club. He is not actively interested in politics, but takes more than passive interest in public affairs, always support- ing those measures and enterprises that promise good to the community.
Mr. Howe married, February 16, 1876. Henrietta A., daughter of Erastus and Mary (Atwood) Collins, her father a dry goods merchant of Hartford, her mother of a Philadelphia family. They have three children : 1. Edmund Grant, educated in Hartford public schools, at Yale, at Leip- sic, Germany, and the Sorbonne, Paris, now instructor at the University of Pitts- burgh; he married Eleanor Wilson, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, and has a son, Daniel R. 2. Henrietta, married Clement Scott. of New York City, and they have one child, Clement. 3. Mar- jorie Frances, married Maynard Hazen. of Middletown, Connecticut.
BEARDSLEY, Charles William, Man of Enterprise, Legislator.
It would be difficult indeed to find a stronger, healthier and more capable type of men than that formed by the pure blooded descendants of the English colo- nists who settled here in the early days and handed down their courage and enter- prise and all the many virtues which so strongly characterized them and rendered them more fit than any other race that came to this wilderness of the "New World" to cope with its dangers and hardships and finally draw a great nation,
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Charles I Beardsley
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a brilliant civilization, from such difficult and unpromising beginnings. It is with this type that we rightly associate the thrilling events which led up to the gain- ing of independence and freedom for the American people, it is this race that has wrought most of the great deeds of the young nation which have made its name a synonym for enlightened tolerance and virtuous courage the world over. It is from this splendid stock that the dis- tinguished gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch claims his descent, both he and his forebears displaying well the qualities and traits of their class and race. The Beardsley family is one of the oldest in New England and one of those that founded the charming town of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639, its progenitor, Wil- liam Beardsley, having settled there in that year and given the little settlement in the woods the name that it has since borne. This he did in honor of his birth- place in old England, Stratford-on-Avon, from whence he sailed to the colonies in 1635. The first four years of his life in this country he spent in Hadley, Massa- chusetts, and then removed to Connecti- cut where his descendants have remained to the present day, where they are at present very numerous. Some of them in the early days pressed on westward to New York and it is interesting in this connec- tion to note that the town of Avon in that State was named by them in honor of the river on whose banks their ancestors dwelt. The particular line of his descend- ants of which Charles William Beardsley is a member, remained through the long interval of years residents of Stratford until the generation preceding him, when his father removed to the neighboring town of Milford whither his business took him towards the later end of his short life. The record of the Beardsleys in both towns has been of a kind in full harmony
with the best representatives of their type.
Mr. Beardsley's grandfather, William Henry Beardsley, was a man of parts. He was born in Stratford in the year 1767, and died in 1841 at the age of seventy- three years. His wife, who was a Miss Sarah Beach, of Huntington, Fairfield county, Connecticut, was a daughter of Israel Beach and a descendant of John Beach, of Stratford. They were the par- ents of seven children of which the fifth, Charles, was the father of Mr. Beardsley. Charles Beardsley was born in Stratford in 1806, and followed the occupation of farming as his ancestors had before him for many years. He learned the trade of shoemaker and followed this in connection with farming. He married, about 1831, Sarah Baldwin, a daughter of Hezekiah Baldwin, of Milford, Connecticut, and in 1844 they removed to that town. Nine years later, in 1853, when but forty-seven years of age he died leaving eight chil- dren as follows: Charles William, with whose career this sketch is especially con- cerned; Abigail, born May 9, 1832, and became the wife of Charles R. Baldwin, of Milford ; Alvira, born June 4, 1834, de- ceased; Hezekiah, born April 30, 1836, deceased, who for many years conducted a large contracting and building business at Milford; George, born January 20, 1838, deceased, who had charge of the cabinet work in the schools of New Haven in which city he made his residence ; Theodore, born February 23, 1840, de- ceased, who conducted a large contract- ing business in Springfield, Massachu- setts; Sarah J., born January 25, 1842. deceased, married Edward Clark, of Mil- ford; and Frederick, who was connected with the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford Railroad for many years.
Charles William Beardsley was born May 27, 1829, at Stratford in the old fam-
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ily home, and there passed the years of his childhood until his fifteenth year. He attended the public and private schools of his native town and there gained his education, but upon leaving Stratford and moving to Milford he abandoned his studies and learned the shoemaker's trade as his father had before him His appren- ticeship lasted about three years and he then followed the trade for upwards of fifteen years more and with a consider- able degree of success. He was fifteen years old when he began his apprentice- ship and continued in this line until he was in the neighborhood of thirty years of age, when his failing health warned him that his life was too confined for health. Accordingly he gave up his shoe- making and engaged in stock raising and farming, trading in high-grade cattle-for a number of years. In this he was ex- tremely successful and some of the finest Jersey cattle that has ever come into the country has passed through his hands. As years passed he took his son into busi- ness with him and the two men raised fancy stock getting as high as four thou- sand dollars a head for some of their prize cattle. They also raised trotting horses and were widely known for their success. At the height of his success in this line Mr. Beardsley had his attention drawn to another enterprise which he considered offered him splendid opportunities. This was the raising of seeds for farm plant- ing, and he proceeded at once to carry the scheme into effect. He purchased one of the finest farms near Milford and from the outset met with a high degree of suc- cess. He entered into a contract with the great firm of Peter Henderson & Com- pany of New York to supply them with seed and this turned out a most lucrative agreement for both parties. Some few years ago Mr. Beardsley himself with- drew from active management of the busi- ness, but his son continues it to this day
and still supplies the New York seed man with his seed.
But it was not merely in his business successes that Mr. Beardsley became prominent in the community. He took an extremely active part in public affairs and was closely allied to the local organ- ization of the Democrat party. He was elected selectman and succeeded himself twelve consecutive terms in the same office. He was a member of the fire de- partment for twenty-two years, and a member of the board of education and did invaluable service to his fellow citi- zens in all these capacities. In 1889 he was elected to represent Milford in the Connecticut State Legislature, serving for two years on that body during which time he was a member of the railroad com- mittee and the commission in charge of the Washington Bridge. He participated in the movement to install the new struc- ture as a free bridge, those across the Housatonic at that period being all toll bridges. He made a strong motion be- fore the Legislature urging this point and had the satisfaction to see the bill passed providing for the upkeep of the bridge out of the county funds. He was re- elected to the Legislature in 1891 and was again on the railroad committee. Gov- ernor Bulkeley appointed him to the Shell- hsh Commission and in 1893 he was re- appointed to this office by Governor Mor- ris.
On May 28, 1850, Mr. Beardsley was united in marriage with Sarah Baldwin, a native of Milford, born January 4, 1827, a daughter of Elnathan and Sarah (Stow) Baldwin, old and highly respected resi- dents of that place. Mrs. Beardsley died November 24, 1906, aged seventy-nine years. Three children have been born to them as follows: I. DeWitt Clinton, May 18, 1852, now a manufacturer of boxes in New Haven; married Martha P. Avery, of Stratford, and has four chil-
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Charles 7. Bear deley
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dren : Medorah H., Maud C., Stanley A., died in 1915, and Ida Frances. 2. Sarah Etta, born February 10, 1855, died in 1915; was the wife of Charles Clark, now engaged in the extract business in West Haven: they were the parents of two children: George W. and Elwood R. 3. Charles Frederick, who resides at home and is now carrying on the great seed business founded by his father. Mr. Beardsley is a Congregationalist in re- ligious belief and in 1850 joined the First Church of that denomination in Milford and is to-day one of the oldest living members. He is a member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows.
BEARDSLEY, Charles Frederick, Substantial Citizen.
When man first emerged from that state of civilization in which his intellect was approximately that of a beast, and became a thinking being, the first pur- suit or occupation to which he directed his energies was the cultivation of the soil. On this state of development, the first beyond the actual battle for self- preservation, depended the later evolu- tion of the entire race. Upon the impor- tance or unimportance of the position which agriculture occupies in the national life, the subsequent history of the nation hinges. Rome drew by far the greater proportion of her famous statesmen, sol- diers, generals, writers and poets from that sturdy caste which formed the very sinews of the nation. the "agricolae," or farmers. And her greatness lasted so long as the homely virtues, connected with the cultivation of the soil, stood for the highest and best in the ideals of the empire. Pompey, Cicero, Marius, Cato, Cincinnatus, men whose names are syn- onymous with the greatness and prestige of the Roman Empire, came from the farming class, and when not occupied
with professional affairs, or the affairs of the State, reverted to it. It was not until Rome undervalued the virility and inspira- tion to be gained from nearness to the soil, and, forsaking the country, went madly into the dissipated life of the cities, that she fell.
We Americans are essentially a nation of farmers, on a colossal scale, and our greatest men have ever been, and will continue to be sons of the soil. From the very founding of the nation farming has occupied first place in the national pur- suits, and has been responsible to a greater extent than any other thing for the position which America holds in the world to-day. It is this fact that makes agriculture a topic of absorbing interest to thinking people, and draws men to it as a life work.
Charles Frederick Beardsley comes of a family of gentlemen farmers, which reaches back to the times of the Revolu- tion. He is the son of Charles William Beardsley, whose sketch precedes this, and was born on the Beardsley farm in Milford, Connecticut, in the house in which he now lives, on June 16, 1866. He was given educational advantages of a high order, and attended the elementary and high schools of Milford, later going to the Russell Military Academy at New Haven. He left school at the age of six- teen years, however, and returned to his father's farm. He selected farming from among the walks of life for which his edu- cational training had prepared him, as his vocation, and has devoted his entire life since that time to it. He has made a close and continual study of the latest and most scientific and efficient methods of farm- ing. and has applied all these to his work. Mr. Beardsley is regarded as one of the most prominent farmers in the entire State of Connecticut. He has given much time to the raising of fine cattle and horses, and has specialized in the raising
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of race horses. For forty years, all kinds of garden seed, raised on the Beardsley farm, has been sold to Peter Henderson & Company of New York, and the ex- cellence of its quality has become a stand- ard by which other seed is measured. The Beardsley farm covers one hundred and fifty acres of land of superior grade, valued at two hundred and fifty dollars an acre. Beside this, Mr. Beardsley owns several other tracts of land in the vicin- ity of Milford.
Although a man of prominence in the town of Milford, Mr. Beardsley has never taken an active part in its political affairs, declining firmly any nomination to public office. He is a Democrat in political affiliation, but not bound against his better judgment by party lines. His time has been so entirely taken up by his busi- ness pursuits that he has never become a member of any clubs, or fraternal organ- izations of any sort. He is a member of the First Congregational Church of Mil- ford.
On August 29, 1911, Mr. Beardsley mar- ried Florence Montonboult, a daughter of Joseph and Agnes (Palmer) Monton- boult, of Montreal, Canada. Mrs. Beards- ley was born at Alpina, Michigan. Her father, a farmer near Montreal, is of French descent, and her mother English.
A fact of historical interest in connec- tion with the Beardsley farm is that one of the oldest houses in the State of Con- necticut, two hundred and fifty years old, still stands intact upon it. The house in which Mr. Beardsley himself was born is sixty-five years old.
REEVES, Francis Thomas, Lawyer, Jurist.
When the new American race is at length wholly formed in this country after years of slow preparation in which the
peoples of many climes and races are amalgamated to form a single unit, it seems practically incontestable that the general character of the resulting race will be Anglo-Saxon or English. It will, of course, contain a thousand other ele- ments and the gaiety and pathos of the Celt, the romance of the Slav, the inten- sity of the Hebrew will all probably exist as modifications of those traits of energy and enterprise that we have come to look upon as typically Anglo-Saxon ; yet these will dominate, and it shall be from the English, from whom we have them, that the customs, the institutions, the prevail- ing social tone of that prospective people will be derived. It has so happened that, by a fortunate circumstance, the English people, upon whom we depend for our most fundamental traits, were the first and dominating element here, that they established a civilization of their own type here and that there has never been a sufficient inroad of foreign elements to greatly alter it, since as each new con- tingent arrived its members were trans- muted into Americans who adopted our way of thinking as they adopted our lan- guage and thus, while they modified slightly, yet in the main only added to the mass and momentum of the great English tradition of freedom and equal- ity upon which our very existence as a nation is built. We are not so fortunate as to have to-day an immigration of Eng- lishmen in any way comparable in num- bers with that of many other races, yet they still find their way here now and then. to make splendid citizens and take their share in preserving in a new land the splendid traditions of a common an- cestry.
While not himself a native of Eng- land, having been born in Thomaston, Connecticut, August 3, 1877, Francis Thomas Reeves, the distinguished gen-
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tleman whose name heads this brief ap- preciation, is a son of one who was, and it has been his part, during the compara- tively brief portion of his life that he has spent, to maintain the best traditions and associations of the race in his character and conduct. It was Mr. Reeves' grand- parents, Francis and Martha (Broad) Reeves, who were the real immigrant ancestors, his father being an infant of but two years when he was brought to his new home in America. Francis Reeves was employed as a salesman in this country and in the course of his career travelled to many parts of it. He was a man of extremely adventurous and enterprising spirit and it was but five years after he had come here to live that he lost his life in the Pike's Peak region of Colorado, whither he had gone on a prospecting expedition. Of the four chil- dren of Francis and Martha (Broad) Reeves, the eldest, Francis, Jr., is de- ceased, and the second is Peter B. Reeves, the father of Francis T. Reeves.
As has already been stated, Peter B. Reeves was born in England two years before his journey across the Atlantic, on June 28, 1852. He now resides in Water- bury, Connecticut, where he is associated with the Waterbury Clock Company. He married Ada M. Savage, of New York City, November 6, 1875, and their chil- dren were: Francis Thomas, of whom further ; William Ainsworth, born May 18, 1879, at Thomaston; Ada May, born February 29, 1884, in Brooklyn, New York ; and Martha Amelia, born February I, 1889, in Jersey City, New Jersey, and died April 19, 1914.
Only the first four years of his life was spent by Francis Thomas Reeves in his native town of Thomaston, his parents moving in 1881 to Brooklyn, New York, where he first attended school. Eight years later they came to Waterbury, Con-
necticut, and there the lad attended the high school for a couple of years. He was fourteen years of age when he left his studies and found employment with the Waterbury Clock Company, with which his father was and is still connected. The younger man entered the employ of this great company in 1891 and remained there for nine years, being promoted sev- eral times in that period. He was pos- sessed of a great ambition, however, and mnade up his mind to make a name for himself in a profession and ultimately de- cided on the law. Accordingly in 1900 he left the company and in September of that year entered the Southwestern Bap- tist College at Jackson, Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1901 with the de- gree of Bachelor of Laws. He went to the Washington and Lee University in 1902 and graduated with the class of 1903, again taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws. His graduation took place in June and before the month was over he had returned to Waterbury, Connecticut, and opened an office and established him- self in legal practice there. From the out- set Mr. Reeves was successful, and al- though he is still a comparatively young man he is regarded as one of the most promising attorneys in the city and already as a leader of the bar. He entered politics some years ago and quickly made his personality felt in the affairs of the city. It is in this connection that he is best known in Waterbury and that part of the State. As early as 1904 he was appointed to the position of assistant city clerk and served in that office for upwards of two years, becoming the Democratic candidate for tax collector in the autumn of 1905. To this office he was elected and again in 1907, serving for two years or four years in all. But much more impor- tant matters were coming to the young man, whose most efficient and disinter-
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ested work in the offices he had held at- tracted the favorable notice of the public generally. He became the Democratic candidate for mayor of Waterbury in 1909 and was defeated by only ninety- two votes by William B. Hotchkiss. Two years later, Mr. Reeves was again candi- date and again ran against Mr. Hotchkiss, who was up for reëlection, and whom he this time defeated. He served in this most important post for two years and rendered an invaluable service, not merely to his party, but to the community gen- erally, carrying out much that was valu- able in the way of public work and re- form. One of the important things ac- complished in his administration was the completion of the plans for the new Waterbury City Hall. In the year 1914 Mr. Reeves was appointed judge of the District Court of Waterbury, an office that he is still holding and which expires in 1918. Besides these more important offices, Judge Reeves has held many minor ones and many local honors have been accorded him, these being a slender expression of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens.
Judge Reeves is a man who does not allow his profession to narrow his outlook upon life, or his more formal official duties to blind him to the general life of the community which he has been called to preside over. In the matter of social and club activities he is a prominent par- ticipant and belongs to a number of im- portant organizations. He is a member of the local lodge of the Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the Elks, a member of the Waterbury Conclave of the Hepta- sophis, and the Charter Oak Camp of the Woodmen of the World. He was also a member of several local societies and clubs and made himself interested in the success of all. In the matter of religion
Mr. Reeves is affiliated with the Epis- copal church and is a member of Trinity parish in Waterbury.
On June 9, 1904, at Naugatuck, Con- necticut, Mr. Reeves was united in mar- riage with Betty Peterson of that place. Mrs. Reeves is a native of Sweden and a daughter of Peter Larson and Christina Peterson, who still reside in Sweden. To Mr. and Mrs. Reeves has been born one daughter, October 5, 1910, Doris Betty.
Judge Reeves is a man of thoroughly Democratic ideals and standards, a man who disregards the external characteris- tics of men and perceives the essential underlying manhood in each. He is ex- tremely fond of outdoor sports and pas- times, especially of hunting and fishing, enjoys automobiling greatly and is an en- thusiastic billiard player, but if he may be said to have any hobby at all that hobby is his work, in which he is completely wrapped up. Indeed, work appears to be his play, and one of his chief occupations outside of the practice of his profession or the discharge of his public duties is the subject of banking, of which he is a very thorough student. So much is he a student of this subject that he is em- ployed as instructor in the principles of banking in the Waterbury Chapter of the Institute of Banking.
ROWLAND, Herbert Samuel, Manufacturer.
Among the many important manufac- turing concerns which give Waterbury, Connecticut, its commercial importance is the Berbecker & Rowland Manufactur- ing Company, Herbert S. Rowland being secretary and treasurer. This company manufactures and imports plain and fancy furniture nails, cabinet and upholstery hardware, brass and other metal goods, had a small beginning, but has grown to
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