USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v.2 > Part 12
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MEBABY
5
Arrest Palmer
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a large modernly equipped plant, trans- acting an extensive business. In this growth and prosperity Mr. Rowland has been a contributing factor, no department of the company's business showing more efficient management than the secretary- treasurer's office. Mr. Rowland came to Waterbury when a young man fresh from school and has spent his entire business life in that city. All but five years of that period has been spent with the com- pany whose financial affairs are in his capable hands. He is a wise, cautious, yet progressive business man and has won enviable standing among men of affairs. He is a member of the Weston branch of the well known Rowland fam- ily, son of Samuel Sherwood and Emily Cole (Thorpe) Rowland.
Samuel Sherwood Rowland, an only child, was born in Weston, Connecticut, died at Southport in the same State about 1886, aged sixty-four years, a farmer. He married Emily Cole Thorpe, born in Southport, who died in 1875 at Weston. Two of their five children are living, Henry Lincoln, trust officer of the Colo- nial Trust Company of Waterbury, and Herbert S. (the youngest child), of further mention. The deceased are: Harriet J. (the eldest child), wife of A. C. Barron, of Nunda, New York; Edith Sherwood. who married Asa F. Bosworth, of Provi- dence, Rhode Island; and Mary Emily, who died unmarried.
Herbert Samuel Rowland was born at Weston, Connecticut, August 21, 1866. but at the age of ten years the family moved to Southport, Connecticut, where he attended public schools until his ad- mission to Fairfield Academy, and for five years he was a student at South Berk- shire Institute, New Marlboro, Massa- chusetts. After his graduation he entered the employ of the Waterbury Button Company at Waterbury, continuing in back to New England, the home of his
that employ for five years. He then formed the connection that now exists with the Berbecker & Rowland Manufac- turing Company. The plant of the com- pany is located at Waterville, near Water- bury. He is also a director of the Water- bury Trust Company and of the Apothe- cary Hall Company. Mr. Rowland is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, the Waterbury Country Club, the Waterbury Club, the Home Club, the First Congregational Church, and in polit- ical faith is a Republican. He has never sought nor accepted public office, but is fully alive to the responsibilities of citi- zenship and interested in all that pertains to the public welfare.
Mr. Rowland married, at Woodbury, Connecticut, October 6, 1893, Susan S. North, born at Waterbury, daughter of Dr. Alfred North, a long time physician of Waterbury, now deceased, and his wife. Amelia H. (Buck) North, born in New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland are the parents of two children: Alfred North, born January 15. 1901, and Helen North. December 31, 1903.
PALMER, Robert,
Business Man, Public Official.
Ten generations of Palmers, William Palmer and his descendants, have flour- ished in America, the founder coming from England on the ship "Fortune" in 1621. one year after the Pilgrims of the "Mayflower." Every State in the Union claims descendants of William Palmer, and in Connecticut there are many of the name. Robert Palmer, of Waterbury, Connecticut, of the tenth American gen- eration, is, however, of New York birth, his grandfather, also a William Palmer, having settled in Dutchess county of that State. The lapse of time has brought him
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earlier ancestors, and to the State of Con- necticut, where another Robert Palmer, but of an earlier generation, was a famous shipbuilder.
The name Palmer was originally a com- mon title of those pilgrims who had re- turned from the Holy Land bringing with them as a token, and a remembrance of their pilgrimage, a branch of a palm tree. Thus is Scott's "Marmion," Canto I- xxiii :
Here is a holy Palmer come, From Salem first and last from Rome.
Certain returned Crusaders were knight- ed and allowed to assume the title "Pal- mer" as a surname.
William Palmer, the American founder of the family, settled in Plymouth with the Pilgrims, his land being in that part later set off as Duxbury. He brought a son William (2), and by a second wife had a son Henry. This son William (2) died before his father, but left a son, Wil- liam (3), from whom many Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York Palmer families are descended. William Palmer, of the eighth generation in America, a descendant of William Pal- mer, "the founder," lived in Dutchess county, New York. He married a mem- ber of the Society of Friends, Miss White, and of their children three are yet living : John Allen, of further mention; Edward and Milo Palmer, of Torrington, Connec- ticut.
John Allen Palmer, born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1845, is now (1916) living retired at Falls Village, Connecti- cut, an honored veteran of the Civil War. He was little more than a boy when he enlisted in the Fifth Regiment Connecti- cut Volunteers, and except when in hos- pital, or a prisoner, there were no battles in which this famous fighting regiment took part in which he did not participate.
He was severely wounded, was captured by the Confederates and confined within the infamous Andersonville stockade, but survived all perils, and when finally honor- ably discharged and mustered out of the United States army had completed four and one-half years of service. He re- turned to Dutchess county a veteran in experience, having hardly yet attained his majority. He became a farmer and stock- raiser, following that occupation and busi- ness all his active years, residing several years at Amenia, Dutchess county, where his son Robert was born. He married Sarah U. Buckley, born in Sharon, Con- necticut, who died in 1904. John A. and Sarah U. Palmer were the parents of ten children, seven of whom are living: John, deceased; Robert, of further mention ; Thomas, deceased ; Richard ; Emma, wife of H. N. Adams, of Goshen, Connecticut ; Sarah, wife of William Harding, of Mount Vernon, New York; Nathaniel, of Tor- rington, Connecticut; Dolly, wife of C. E. Holcomb, of Canaan, Connecticut ; Anna, residing in New York City ; Mary, residing in New Rochelle, New York.
Robert Palmer, second son of John Allen and Sarah U. (Buckley) Palmer, was born at Amenia, Dutchess county, New York, February 24, 1870, of the tenth Palmer generation in America. When he was less than a year old his parents moved to Sharon, Connecticut, where he resided for twelve years, then left home. He attended public schools in Sharon, and after leaving home worked for different farmers at Burrville for two years, attend- ing school during the school year. He then spent two years in a similar manner at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, working and attending school. He then returned to Connecticut, and in 1892, being twenty- two years of age, located in Waterbury, where for eighteen years he was in the employ of the American Ring Company,
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becoming foreman of the packing depart- ment after one year of service and remain- ing so for seventeen years.
He had taken a deep interest in public affairs from the beginning of his resi- dence in Waterbury, but only as a voter and party worker, until 1907, when he was elected a member of the Board of Relief, serving two years. In 1909 he was the nominee of the Republican party for town clerk, serving his term of two years most efficiently, and in 19II was reelected for another two years. In 1913 he was again the nominee of his party, and at the November polls was the only Republican on the city ticket to be elect- ed. In 1915 he was nominated for a fourth term, and as in 1913 was the only Republican to emerge triumphantly from the ordeal of the polls, his majority being 1171. This leaves the inference very plain that Mr. Palmer has filled the office of town clerk so well that his Democratic friends overlook their party prejudices in their desire to retain an efficient town clerk in office. This is highly compli- mentary to the town clerk and highly commendable to the independent voters who have retained him in office in the face of an adverse party majority.
Mr. Palmer is particularly well known in fraternal and society circles, holding membership in thirty-four organizations, five of them being fraternal organizations of Waterbury. In many of these he holds official positions and in others he has passed all the chairs. The societies to which he belongs cover a wide fraternal and social field, the principal ones being : Waterbury Lodge, No. 265, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Water- bury Aerie, No. 379, Fraternal Order of Eagles ; Waterbury Lodge, No. 703, Loyal Order of Moose; Speedwell Lodge, No. IO, Knights of Pythias ; White Oak Camp, Woodmen of the World; Amity Castle,
No. 11, Knights of the Golden Eagle ; Foresters of America; New England Or- der of Protection ; Concordia Singing So- ciety; Concordia Club of Danbury ; Pequot Club of Waterbury ; Brooklyn Athletic Club ; South End Social Club ; Recreation Rod and Gun Club ; Oakville Pigeon Game Club; Waterbury Sporting and Fishing Club, of which he is presi- dent; Washington Hill Athletic Club : Turn Verein Vorworts, of Waterbury ; Broadway Social Club.
Mr. Palmer married, in Waterbury, November 27, 1897, Catherine Kilbride, born in Waterbury, June 23, 1875, daugh- ter of Lawrence and Mary (Cullen) Kil- bride, both deceased. Lawrence Kil- bride was born in the county of Queens, Ireland, married in England, Mary Cul- len, also born in Queens county, Ireland, then came o the United States, locating in Waterbury, where both died. Robert and Catherine Palmer are the parents of six children, one of whom died in infancy. The living are (1916) : Raymond, aged eighteen ; Frank, aged sixteen; Joseph, aged fourteen ; all high school students ; Walter, aged twelve, attending grammar school ; Marie, aged seven, attending the primary department of Notre Dame Con- vent. Mrs. Palmer is a member of the Roman Catholic church, the children also being brought up in that faith.
Mr. Palmer is a man of genial nature, very friendly and filled with the generous spirit of fraternity, brotherly love and manliness. His friends are many, his up- rightness, integrity and honorable life commending him to all.
CHURCH, Ulysses Grant,
Attorney-at-Law.
The law is an exacting mistress to those who would follow her, but, though, exact- ing, she brings great rewards. Of her
Conn-2-6
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votaries she demands from first to last that they make themselves students, nor will she excuse them from this necessity, however far they may progress in knowl- edge. Of them, too, she will have the strictest adherence to her standards, the closest observation of the etiquette she has approved, so that one should not in- considerately pledge himself to her cause. Yet there are some who possess a pure love of the law for its own sake, even in this day and generation, some who would regard it as well worth their best efforts even though it were an end and not a means, a road that existed for its own sake and led nowhere. Such is undoubt- edly true in the case of Ulysses Grant Church, the distinguished attorney of Waterbury, Connecticut, whose name heads this brief sketch, a profound stu- dent of the law and an ardent lover of its traditions and its methods.
Ulysses Grant Church was born No- vember 22, 1869, at Chaplin, Connecticut, a son of Julius and Minerva (Turner) Church, and a member of an old and lionored New England family, whose founder, Richard Church, came to Plym- outh, Massachusetts, in 1630. The pa- ternal grandfather, Morris Church, was born in Mansfield, where he lived most of his life, was a farmer in Chaplin, living there in the high regard of his neighbors until his death at the age of eighty-seven years. He was twice married, but it was by his first wife, Patty (Robbins) Church, that his children were born. There were three in all, two daughters, Martha and Eunice, both deceased, and Julius, Mr. Church's father, now also deceased.
Julius Church was born in Mansfield, but afterward made his home in Chaplin, where his son was born, and finally at North Windham, where he died in 1915 at the age of eighty-nine years, his wife having died there the year previous at
the age of eighty-two. Like his father he was a farmer, and his son, Mr. Church, enjoyed the benefits that come from a youth spent amid the wholesome, vigor- ous environment of the farm. He was the youngest of five children, the others being as follows: Emma, who died at the age of thirteen years; Edith, who became Mrs. Charles Smith, of North Haven, Connecticut, and died in 1891 ; Clifton J., who now resides at the old homestead at Chaplin with his wife, Eva (Whittaker) Church, and their two children, Bernard and Lawrence; Martha, now Mrs. Orin F. Colburn, of North Windham, and the mother of two children, Raymond and Edith.
Ulysses Grant Church lived in his native town of Chaplin during the first seventeen years of his life, and there at- tended the local public schools for the rudimentary portion of his education. Later he went to the Mount Hermon School at Northfield, Massachusetts, and graduated therefrom in the year 1891. In later life Mr. Church served a term as trustee of this institution. He was a youth of much ambition and no little taste for study and he matriculated at Yale University in 1891 and graduated with the class of 1895 from the academic de- partment. It had been a growing desire on his part to study law, and upon com- pletion of his academic course he en- tered the Yale Law School and graduated therefrom two years later with the class of 1897. Shortly after, the outbreak of the Spanish-American War turned Mr. Church's thoughts away from the law temporarily. He joined the auxiliary force of the United States navy, mustered in for the occasion. However, the war was soon over and in January, 1899, Mr. Church came to Waterbury, Connecticut, and there began his practice of the law, Waterbury having remained his home up
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to the present time. He opened his office at Nos. 17 and 19 Odd Fellows' Building, his present location, and was very suc- cessful from the outset. His practice is now a large and important one and he is regarded as one of the leaders of the county bar.
Besides his private practice in the law, Mr. Church has identified himself promi- nently with the affairs of the city he has chosen for his home and has already ren- dered valuable service to the community. Greatly interested in politics from an early age, Mr. Church has allied himself with the local organization of the Repub- lican party, of the principles and policies of which he is a staunch supporter. It was soon recognized by his colleagues that Mr. Church was a coming power in the political situation and a natural leader and he was placed in a number of respon- sible positions in the party's organization. He was chairman of the city committee for a number of years and for six years the member from the Fifteenth Senatorial District in the State committee. He is at present holding this responsible place, serving his fourth term therein, having succeeded General Lilly in this position. In 1906 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the District Court and served in this difficult post until 1914, a period of eight years. He is one of those chosen in 1915 to serve on the State civil service commission by Governor Holcomb, and is still effectively serving the State in this capacity.
Mr. Church is a conspicuous figure in fraternal circles in Waterbury and a prominent member of several orders. He belongs to Harmony Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Eureka Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Clark Commandery. Knights Templar. He is also a member of the local encampment of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Waterbury Lodge of Elks, and the Waterbury Lodge of Spanish War Veterans. He is a mem- ber of the Waterbury Club and decidedly active in the general social life of the city. He keeps in touch with his colleagues of the profession by membership in the American Bar Association and the Con- necticut Bar Association. In the matter of religious belief Mr. Church is a Con- gregationalist, attending the First Church of that denomination in Waterbury and giving liberally of effort and money in its cause.
On December 21, 1899, at Chaplin, Con- necticut, the marriage of Mr. Church to Mabel Spafford Lincoln was celebrated. Mrs. Church is a native of Chaplin, born July 10, 1875, a daughter of Edgar S. and Katherine (Griggs) Lincoln, then of Chaplin, now of Waterbury, where Mr. Lincoln lives in retirement, having with- drawn from the active life of a large mer- cantile establishment some years ago. There is another daughter besides Mrs. Church, Lucy, now the wife of Hubert Blake, of New Britain, Connecticut. To Mr. and Mrs. Church one child has been born, Richard Lincoln Church, December 17, 1912.
The life of Mr. Church may well serve as an example for the young men of his community. Possessed of talents above the average, a capable mind and alert per- ceptions, to which he adds a fine legal training, he is turning the better part of his efforts to the service of the commu- nity, contenting himself with the knowl- edge of work well done. For such a one the future seems to smile most fairly, and it may be discreetly predicted that, with a growing reputation and his faculties at their prime, the coming years will wit- ness still higher achievement than in the past.
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FILLEY, Homer Gilbert,
Active Factor in Community Affairs.
Among the successful business men of the prosperous city of Waterbury, Con- necticut, a high place is due to Homer Gilbert Filley, whose career from the out- set has been successful in the best sense of the term, in that it has contributed to the welfare of the community as well as to his own, and which has placed him high in the regard of his fellow citizens. Mr. Filley is a fine type of citizen, com- bining in his character and personality in very happy proportion the qualities of the practical business man with those of the public-spirited altruist, whose thoughts are with the welfare of the community. It has been by his own efforts that he has risen from the humble position of clerk in a dry goods store to that of one of the city's prominent merchants, and through- out this long and worthy career he never has conducted his business so that it was anything but a benefit to all his associates and to the city-at-large. He is frank and outspoken, a man whose integrity has never been called in question. who can be, and is, trusted to keep the spirit as well as the letter of every contract and engagement that he enters into. He is possessed of the truly democratic in- stincts, easy of access to all men and as ready to lend his ear to the humblest as to the proudest and most influential.
Homer Gilbert Filley was born July 6, 1861, in the city of New Haven, Connecti- cut, but his family, which is an old one, lived in the early years in the neighbor- hood of Bloomfield, Connecticut, in which town his paternal grandfather, Gurdon W. Filley, was born. This gentleman was married to Polly Crampton, of Bloom- field, and while yet a young man moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, where he was the possessor of a fine farm which he
operated with a high degree of success during the remainder of his life. He and his wife were the parents of four children, none of whom are at present living. One of these, Myron Winslow Filley, was the father of the Mr. Filley of this sketch. He was born at Litchfield, and during his early youth lived upon his father's farm. He had a strong ambition to come to the city, where he believed a far greater op- portunity existed for success, and accord- ingly he removed to New Haven and there entered the photographer's line. His success was marked and he remained in this work until the close of his life, attend- ing to his business at his office on the very day of his death. This occurred at the age of seventy-seven at his home. He was married, in 1859, to Cleora Gilbert, then a girl but seventeen years of age, who is still residing in New Haven. She was a native of Hamden, Connecticut, and one of the seven children of Griswold I. and Mary (Ford) Gilbert, of whom only she and one brother, John Gilbert, of New Haven, senior member of the grocery house of John Gilbert & Son, survive. To Mr. and Mrs. Filley, Sr., six children were born. One of these, Emma, died in in- fancy, the five others now living being as follows: Homer Gilbert, the eldest, of whom further ; Mary, who is now the wife of the Rev. H. S. Wanamaker, of Frank- fort, Wisconsin; Luella, who resides in New Haven ; Walter O., also a resident of New Haven and the holder of the respon- sible office of State forester of Connecti- cut ; and Sarah, now Mrs. C. C. Chatfield, of New Haven.
The boyhood of Homer Gilbert Filley was spent in his native city, New Haven, and it was at the fine public schools there that he received his education. Upon his graduation from the Dwight Grammar School, however, he did not further pursue his studies, but coming alone to the city of
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Waterbury he went to work in the dry goods establishment of F. T. Turner & Company. This was in the year 1879. and for eight years he continued in this employ, gradually rising in position until he held one of responsibility and promi- nence. In 1887, however, he severed his connection with this concern entirely and then became associated with J. M. Bur- rall & Company, dealers in furniture and doing a large business in undertaking. This firm was the first in the undertaking business in the city, having been estab- lished there as early as 1849. Mr. Filley was admitted to this firm as a partner and remains thus associated up to the present time. Upon the death of J. M. Burrall in the year 1909, the concern became the Fil- ley & Crane Company and the control and management of the large business passed into the hands of Mr. Filley, where they still remain. In virtue of his position as one of this concern, Mr. Filley is recog- nized as one of the most influential busi- ness men and merchants in the city and has won for himself a reputation second to none for integrity and solid conserva- tism.
There are many other departments of activity in which Mr. Filley is prominent, and there are few movements undertaken for the advancement of the public inter- ests which, if they appeal to his judgment of what is well considered and wise, with which he is not identified, often as a leader. In fraternal and club circles as well as in the more informal functions of society, he is conspicuous, and his name is included in the membership rolls of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Country Club of Waterbury. In his religious belief he is a Congregationalist and he attends regularly divine service at the Second Church of this denomination in Waterbury, contributing liberally to its work, especially that of a beneficent and
philanthropic nature, and himself taking an active part therein.
Mr. Filley was married to Minnie Elea- nor Ford, at Torrington, Connecticut, on September 18, 1890. Mrs. Filley is a na- tive of Torrington and a daughter of Wil- liam and Susan W. (Wilson) Ford. old and highly respected residents of that place. Mr. Ford was for a long period a farmer there, his death occurring many years ago, but Mrs. Ford still resides there at the age of seventy-two years.
BLAKESLEY, Albert Johnson,
Financier.
Albert Johnson Blakesley, whose life has been so closely associated with the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, since his birth there, is a fine example of the strong men who in the past and present genera- tions have brought such great industrial and financial development to New Eng- land. As in the case of so many of these, Mr. Blakesley is the product of two fac- tors, which are apparently well fitted in combination to produce the strong, yet polished, type that has made New Eng- land so famous in the world of business enterprise. These factors are, in the first place, a native culture, the result of its presence in the past generations of his an- cestors, and in the second place a youth- ful environment of simplicity, with wealth sufficient for all needful things yet not enough to excuse from the normal tasks and labor and so produce the spirit that shrinks from effort.
Mr. Blakesley was born April 30, 1858, at Waterbury, Connecticut, and has al- ways made that city his home. He re- ceived his education at the excellent pub- lic schools there and graduated from the Waterbury High School with the class of 1873. His father, Augustus M. Blakesley, had already made himself a prominent
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figure in the banking circles of the city and reached a high place in the regard of his fellow citizens. The elder man was not a native of Waterbury, but had come thither from Plymouth, Connecticut. He was a son of Milo and Dorcas (McKee) Blakesley, of Plymouth and Terryville, Connecticut, and was himself born there March 4, 1830. He came to Waterbury some time before the birth of his son, and became associated with the Waterbury National Bank, rising finally to the office of cashier, his term, of service there being fifty-six years, from 1852 to 1908, in which year he died on October 20. He married Margaret O. Johnson, of Cadiz, Ohio, whose death'occurred in Waterbury in 1884, and by whom he had two children, the Mr. Blakesley, of this sketch, and a daughter, Jennie Elizabeth, born August 25, 1865, who is now the wife of Dr. John M. Benedict, of Woodbury, Connecticut, and the mother of two children, John Blakesley and Ruth.
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