USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v.2 > Part 33
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Outside of his profession, the life of
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Judge Prentice has been one of service in many ways. For ten years, 1879-89, he was an officer of Company K, First Regi- ment Connecticut National Guard. In 1885 and 1886 he was president of the Hartford Library Association ; since 1894 president of the Hartford Public Library, and since 1906 president of the Watkin- son Library ; is a member of the board of trustees of Wadsworth Athenaeum, and in 1899 was president of Yale Alumni As- sociation of Hartford county. He is a member and for three years was president of the Hartford Golf Club, and belongs to the Hartford Club, the Graduates Club of New Haven and the Monday Evening, a literary club. He is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Connecticut Historial Society, and is a communicant of the Congregational church. In 1913-15 he was a member of the committee on missions of the National Council of Con- gregational Churches, and is vice-presi- dent of the American Missionary Society. In 1913 Yale University and Trinity Col- lege conferred upon him the honorary de- gree of LL. D.
Judge Prentice married, April 24, 1901, Anne Coombe, daughter of Andrew J. Post, of Jersey City, New Jersey. Mrs. Prentice is a member of the Colonial Dames of America, and is active in a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations of her city. She is presi- dent of the Union for Home Work, and director of the Hartford Orphan Asylum, the Visiting Nurse Association, and the Babies' Hospital.
CROFUT, Sidney Winter, Financier, Public Official.
Mr. Crofut's business life now covers upwards of forty years, spent partly in clerical, but mostly in official positions and relations, and his success is the
strongest proof that the principles that have guided him are correct and worthy of emulation. He was early impressed with the value of the motto, "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well," and from his beginning at the foot of the ladder as clerk, thoroughness, method, application and reliability have distin- guished him in every position.
Sidney Winter Crofut was born at Os- sining, Westchester county, New York, son of George W. and Susan (Fisher) Crofut, the former named a merchant of high repute, sterling in his integrity and strong in character, and the latter named was a woman of high ideals, conscientious and sincere. His education was obtained in private schools and completed at Mt. Pleasant Military Academy. At the age of eighteen years his institutional educa- tion was completed, at which time he en- tered the great school of business life, be- ginning as a clerk in the home office of an insurance company in New York City. He was so efficient as a clerk that he was soon promoted to the position of cashier and later became secretary.
During his military academy days, when not at his studies, he had spent the recreation periods in out-of-doors sports, and after a few years the close confine- ment of office life told on his health, when he realized that he must spend more time in the open in order to regain his health, and resigning his then official position, he removed to the hills of Windham county in Connecticut at Danielson, expecting to remain there temporarily, but an unex- pected opportunity offered itself in the purchase of an insurance agency, the largest in that section of the State, which he availed himself of. He assumed the open air management of his agency and won back his usual health and strength. He continued the agency very success- fully for ten years, up to 1894, when he
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abandoned that line of business and ac- cepted the appointment of bank commis- sioner of the State of Connecticut. With his usual efficiency, he served under the administrations of three governors, the value of his services being recognized by reappointment. In January, 1900, he re- signed as bank commissioner to accept his present position, that of first assistant treasurer of the Society for Savings, of Hartford, the largest savings bank in the State.
During his several years of residence in Danielson (formerly Danielsonville) Mr. Crofut took an active part in public affairs and in the development of the borough. He served as a member of the Court of Burgesses; chairman of the high school committee ; vice-president of the savings bank; president of the Library Associ- ation; director of the National Bank; member of the Board of Education, and served three consecutive terms as warden of the borough. His administration of the warden's office was marked by a con- stant series of public improvements and business efficiency. Electric arc lights su- perseded gas lights for street illumination ; the fire department was reorganized and fire hydrants installed in all parts of the borough and hose houses located in hither- to neglected localities; the free public library and reading room were established from which has grown the present Li- brary Association and its beautiful library building. All this was accomplished with- out an increase of public indebtedness. In 1893 Mr. Crofut was elected a member of the General Assembly, representing the town of Killingly, previously having been nominated by acclamation at both the Republican and Democratic caucuses. In political faith he is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Lafayette Lodge, No. 100. In Hart- ford he has confined himself closely and
strictly to his duties in connection with the financial institution with which he holds official relation. In addition to his offices as assistant treasurer and trustee of the Society for Savings, he serves on the directorate of the Hartford-Aetna Na- tional Bank, and on the board of trustees of the Security Trust Company. His clubs are the Republican and Get-To- Gether, both of Hartford.
Mr. Crofut married in Brooklyn, New York, Lucy E., daughter of Hon. William W. Marcy, and lineally a descendant of Captain Reuben Marcy and Colonel Thom- as Knowlton, of the Continental army. Their daughter, Florence. Marcy Crofut, is a graduate with the degrees of A. B. and A. M. of Wellesley College.
HENDERSON, John Thomas, Civil Engineer.
The fame of the great bridge that spans the Connecticut river at Hartford carries with it the name of John Thomas Hender- son, who as chief draughtsman, assistant to the chief engineer, and as chief engi- neer, has been connected with the bridge from the preliminary studies until the present time. Since June 1, 1898, he has been in the service of the Connecticut River Bridge and Highway District, being then but twenty-two years of age. Heavy responsibilities have been placed upon him in the years that have followed, but he has proved as trustworthy as the granite in the great arches of the bridges he has planned, and has gone forward to more important duties after each test of his quality.
Modern construction depends upon the known strength of parts, and this deter- mining the strength of materials is an important and vital part of an engineer's duty. No part of a great structure is allowed to be placed in position without
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definite knowledge of its quality. This is as true of the men entrusted with respon- sibility as it is of the material used. Men are tested for knowledge, invention, skill, courage, nerve and endurance. There is no minimum allowed, but he must stand the test at maximum before he can be trusted fully. Mr. Henderson has stood this test and has not been found wanting. "Hard work and having to shift for him- self" has developed a strong, self-reliant man, and an engineer whose work, im- portant as it has been, has only had its beginning.
John Thomas Henderson was born near Elkton, Cecil county, Maryland, March 19, 1876, son of William Cyrus and Annabel (Smith) Henderson, and is a grandson of John Henderson, who came from Scot- land shortly before 1812, and served as lieutenant in the American army during the second war with Great Britain. Son of a farmer and merchant, he had early learned the meaning of the word "Work," and many and long were the days spent in farm labor. But he was determined to have an education, and through a willing- tess to work every hour outside of school he managed to complete public school courses, and also compassed a course at Newark Academy. He was especially in- terested in mathematics, mechanics, phy- sics and history, and after entering Dela- ware College, Newark, Delaware, he spe- cialized in those studies, and in addition took a four years' military course. He had to "work hard" and "shift for him- self," earning money in summer to pay his way through the next college year, and though he had always worked hard the shifting for himself but developed him. In 1896 he was graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer, and the next two years he spent in the study of bridges and bridge building. He went to New York City in 1898, obtained a position as rod-
man under the consulting engineer of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company, and did a draughtsman's work for Wil- liam Rich Hutton. He remained in New York until June, 1898, then located in Hartford, securing a position as draughts- man with the Connecticut River Bridge and Highway District. Edwin Dwight Graves was then consulting engineer, and under him Mr. Henderson designed sev- eral bridges for the Greenwich and John- sonville Railway Company of New York, the bridge across the Penobscot river at Bangor, and a suspension foot bridge across the Kennebec river at Waterville. He was chief draughtsman in designing the steel plate girder bridge at East Hart- ford, and on all the preliminary studies for the great bridge that connects East Hartford with Hartford. He continued as chief draughtsman and assistant engi- neer during the construction of the bridge until May 28, 1906, when impaired health compelled Chief Engineer Graves to re- linquish his duties, and so well had Mr. Henderson seconded the efforts of his chief, and so well had he stood all previ- ous tests, that he was advanced to the post of deputy chief engineer by the Bridge Commission. This test he too stood at "maximum," saw the great work completed, and continues at the head of the engineering department of the Bridge and Highway District. The work done by the Bridge Commission has been esti- mated at $3,000,000, and in all their work from preliminary surveys to completion he has had a part. His reputation as an engineer may safely rest upon the "Hart- ford Bridge."
He was elected an associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, September 3. 1902, a full member, Sep- tember 3, 1907, and a member of the Con- necticut Society of Civil Engineers. To his fine mental powers and alert sinewy
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frame, he has now added experience and training, and withal is a gentleman of pleasing personality that wins him many friends. Mr. Henderson has attained high rank in the Masonic order. He is a master Mason of St. John's Lodge; a capitular Mason of Pythagoras Chapter; a Cryptic Mason of Wolcott Council; a Sir Knight of Washington Commandery, and a noble of Sphinx Temple, of which he is a past illustrious potentate. In the Ancient Ac- cepted Scottish Rite he holds all degrees up to and including the thirty-second, be- longing to Charter Oak Lodge of Perfec- tion, of which he is past thrice potent master ; Cyrus Goodell Chapter of Rose Croix; Hartford Council, Princes of Jeru- salem, of which he is past sovereign prince; Connecticut Sovereign Consis- tory. His club is the Hartford Golf, his hours spent on the links being his favorite out-of-doors recreation, music also being one of his passions.
Mr. Henderson married, December 27, 1905, Maude Helen, daughter of Frank and Emma (Bidwell) Reeney, of Rock- ville, Connecticut.
PARKER, Charles Edward,
Fire Insurance Actuary.
There is no man of his years in the city of Hartford with so long a record of con- tinuous connection with the fire insurance business, a line of activity he entered a lad of fifteen years, and he has recently passed the fifty-second anniversary of his birth, as Charles E. Parker (of Kimball & Parker, formerly Kimball & McCray). He occupies a commanding position in the insurance world, a position he has risen to from that of office boy. He early found the royal road to success was but the old path of industry and diligence in the pursuit of an aim, and following that path he came to the broad royal road he now and for many years has traveled.
Charles E. Parker was born in Hart- ford, Connecticut, February 18, 1865, son of James E. and Mary A. (Buckley) Parker. He was deprived of a father's guidance when but a young child, and at the age of fifteen years his school life ended, his studies having been pursued at the South School and at high school. His first position was with the insurance firm, C. C. Kimball & Company, his first remuneration, one hundred dollars per annum. Although but fifteen years of age, he had well-defined ideas concerning life and its responsibilities and was am- bitious to rise in the world. From the beginning he put his entire energy into his humble duties and strove to be useful to those above him. He daily added to his mental equipment by study and close observation, advancing so rapidly that ere long the office boy was the book- keeper and in time the trusted, con- fidential office manager. Nineteen years elapsed when, upon the death of Colonel McCray, junior member of the firm of Kimball & McCray (formerly C. C. Kim- ball & Company) Mr. Parker succeeded him, the new firm operating from Janu- ary, 1899, as Kimball & Parker. The enlarged responsibilities of partnership found him fully equipped, and the old firm under its new name entered upon a long period of business prosperity, being the New England manager of the Insur- ance Company of North America, the oldest American stock insurance com- pany, incorporated in 1792, occupying the finest suite of business offices of any pri- vate insurance agency in the New Eng- land States, their volume of business transacted through over five hundred agents being conceded the largest in the territory covered. In 1907 Mr. Kimball's connection with the business was termi- nated by his death.
Mr. Parker can review his business ca- reer with satisfaction. He won his way
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through merit alone, and during his more than fifteen years as a partner has been the compelling force that has raised the agency to its present proud proportions. Hard work and a thorough knowledge of the business he pursues have won him not only competence, but the unvarying respect of the men of affairs who have watched his course from boyhood and the esteem of those with whom he has been so long associated. To business ability and high character he adds a pleas- ing personality that retains the friendship of those his merit attracts. A Republican in politics, he is not partisan but extreme- ly independent in his exercise of the ballot. He never sought nor desired pub- lic office, his appointment as fire com- missioner coming entirely unsolicited and most unexpectedly. He was nominated by Mayor Preston, November 27, 1899, to fill out the term of John D. Bonner, de- ceased, the Board of Aldermen unani- mously confirming the nomination. On the expiration of his term, April 1, 1900, a new mayor was in office and so well had Mr. Parker demonstrated his fitness to represent the fire insurance interests upon the board, that he was reappointed by Mayor Harbison for a term of three years, being the only member of the city boards to be reappointed. During his second term he was chosen president of the board. He is a trustee of the Riverside Trust Company, and one of the able, prominent and successful business men of his native city. Mr. Parker is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, active and devoted, serving on the official board as trustee and treasurer. His fra- ternal relations are Masonic, his lodge, Hartford, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma- sons. His clubs are the Hartford, Hart- ford Golf and the Republican. He is well known in insurance circles far beyond the confines of his own city, and as a manager
of men and in his knowledge of the many details of a successful agency has no su- perior.
Mr. Parker married, November 27, 1893, Ida M., daughter of L. G. Abbe, of Hartford. They are the parents of Charles Earnest, associated with his father in the business; Blanche R .; and Grenville M., Yale, class of 1918, also a member of Sheffield Scientific School.
TABER, Russell Peete,
Enterprising Business Man.
Russell Peete Taber, agent for the Reo cars and one of the most wide awake, aggressive and successful men in the automobile business, is a member of an old New England family and exhibits in his own character and personality the vir- tues and abilities inherited by him from a long line of worthy ancestors. His grandfather was William Henry Taber, born May 4, 1825, at Pawling, New York, William Henry Taber married Elizabeth Thomas, of Dover, in that State, and their son, Charles William Taber, was the father of Russell P. Taber. Mr. Taber, Sr., married, November 24, 1886, Sarah Ophelia Peete, a daughter of Samuel R. and Laura (Thomkins) Peete. They were the parents of three children, of whom Russell Peete Taber was the eldest.
Russell Peete Taber was born Decem- ber 8, 1887, at Quaker Hill, in the town- ship of Pawling, Dutchess county, New York. He received his education at the common schools of Gaylordsville, Con- necticut, at which place his parents re- sided during the greater part of his youth. At the age of fourteen, however, he left the parental roof and made his way to a small community just across the New York State line, where he found work in a local grocery store. In 1905 he came to Hartford and there secured work for a
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time with the Whitlock Coil Pipe Com- pany. The following year he went to work for Louis Elmer, of Hartford, who was engaged in the automobile business, and it was here that he received his first introduction to a line in which he was to make so great a success later. He re- mained with Mr. Elmer for about a year and a half and later worked for a Mr. Gil- man, of Hartford, who was engaged in the same business. With the latter em- ployer he remained about two years and a half, or until 1910, when he decided to embark in the same business on his own account. It was in 1910 that he secured the agency for the Reo car and since that time has developed one of the largest automobile businesses in the city of Hart- ford. He is now recognized as one of the principal figures in this line in the region. Some idea of the magnitude of his opera- tions may be had from the fact that in the year 1916 his sales totaled more than half a million dollars.
On June 23, 1910, Mr. Taber was united in marriage with Mary Russell, a native of Hartford, and a daughter of John Rus- sell, a highly respected resident of that place.
Mr. Taber's character is a wholly ad- mirable one, the mainspring of his life being honesty and a sense of justice to others. He is a man of indefatigable in- dustry and never leaves a task half com- pleted, yet despite an almost austere sense of duty he is always genial and com- panionable and easy of access to all men. His large experience with men of affairs gives him a broad cosmopolitanism that is the special mark of culture. His humor also, of which he possesses a great store, partakes of the same charitable character and is one of the qualities which quickly endears him to his associates. His wide experience of men and things has another effect, it makes him a delightful conver-
sationalist so that his society is spontane- ously sought by men of culture and en- lightenment, despite his extreme youth.
COSTELLO, Henry Nicholas, Physician, Surgeon.
Henry Nicholas Costello, Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine, a surgeon in practice in Hartford, Connecticut, in which city he was born, July 1, 1883, is the son of William and Ellen (Egan) Costello, the former a wine merchant long established in substantial business in Hartford, and established also in the esteem and goodwill of many residents of that city.
The Costello family for many gener- ations lived in Queens county, Ireland, where William Costello was born, as was also his wife, Ellen (Egan) Costello. The family is of good Irish descent, and the latter generations farmed the estate upon which so many of them had been reared. But William Costello came to America in 1872, and soon after landing he located in Hartford, and immediately entered business life, his success demonstrating the measure of his application and capa- bility. For thirty-nine years he assidu- ously continued in business, his retire- ment not coming until about two years ago. Mr. Costello has been loyally and truly Democratic, both in principle and in party fealty, but has refrained con- sistently and persistently from accepting political office. A man of sincere frater- nal disposition, he is an active member of the Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, giving much time and interest in former years to the move- ments of the Putnam Phalanx. To Mr. and Mrs. William Costello were born seven children, one of whom died in early life. The surviving children were: James Ed-
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ward, Henry Nicholas, of whom further ; William Francis, Robert Thomas, Mary Ellen, Agnes Elizabeth.
Dr. Henry Nicholas Costello received his primary education in the Henry Bar- nard School, thence advancing to the Hartford public high school, from which he graduated in 1902, entering Yale Col- lege, where he concluded his years of academic study by graduating therefrom with the class of 1906, gaining in his graduation the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Having determined upon a pro- fessional career, he then entered the Medi- cal Department of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, Baltimore, from which he was graduated in 1910 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. That same year Dr. Costello received, by competitive exam- ination, appointment to the house staff of the Hartford Hospital, from which he was graduated in 1912. He then opened an office for general private practice, and was appointed to the visiting surgical staff of the Hartford Hospital as assistant visit- ing surgeon. Dr. Costello is a member of the City, County and State Medical so- cieties, and also of the American Medical Association, and holds office under the city administration as health commis- sioner. Socially he belongs to the Uni- versity Club of Hartford. He also par- ticipates in the proceedings of the Pithot- omy Club of Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Costello married Rose Harriet, the daughter of Thomas Mason, of New Haven, Connecticut. They have two children : Rosemary, born May 10, 1915; Ellen Barbara, born January 13. 1917.
REARDON, William F., M. D., Specialist on Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat.
Honored and respected by all, there are few men in Hartford who occupy a more enviable position than Dr. William F. Reardon in professional and social cir-
cles, not alone on account of the success he has achieved, but also on account of his many sterling traits of character. The tendency of the age is toward specializa- tion in all lines of labor, both industrial and professional, and this is particularly true in the medical profession. With the passing of time, investigation has revealed so much concerning diseases, their treat- ment and their care, that it would be im- possible for any one man to be highly proficient in its every department. With a broad general knowledge, however, of the underlying principles of the science, the laws of nature and the rules of health, one may then give his time and attention to a special line and therein gain marked prominence, as in the case of Dr. Rear- don.
The Reardon family is an old and prominent one in County Cork, Ireland, and it was there that Dennis Reardon, father of Dr. Reardon, was born on Sep- tember 3, 1836. He spent his boyhood and early manhood in his native land, and in 1865 emigrated to this country, landing in New York City the day on which the immortal Abraham Lincoln was killed by an assassin's bullet. He made his way from New York to Collinsville, Connec- ticut, where he secured employment in an axe factory, and after a residence of six or seven years there removed to South Windsor, same State, where he worked on various farms, later purchasing a farm of his own which he devoted to the rais- ing of tobacco, in which pursuit he was highly successful. He married Mary Heddarman, who bore him nine children, four of whom attained years of maturity, as follows: Andrew C., deceased ; James H., a resident of South Windsor : John J., also a resident of South Windsor ; and William F., whose name heads this sketch. Dennis Reardon died in South Windsor, Connecticut, October 30, 1908.
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