USA > Connecticut > Evening post annual, Biographical sketches [with portraits] of the state officers, representatives in Congress, governor's staff, and senators and members of the General assembly of the state of Connecticut, 1885 > Part 4
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in this, and, having dissolved his former busi- ness connections, entered actively into the new enterprise, becoming Treasurer and Manager of the Page Steam Heating Company. Through his exertions this company has constantly en- larged its business and operations, until now its reputation is co-extensive with the country itself.
Col. Mowry's business and social qualities have made for him a host of friends in his native city, to whom his appointment on the staff of Gov. Harrison will be exceedingly gratifying.
COL. C. H. R. NOTT,
Aide-de-Camp, was born in New Haven. Decem- ber 17, 1851. After a thorough education in the public schools of the city he entered mer- cantile life with the firm of Hoppen & Deming. dealers in dry goods. He was also for a time connected with the fancy goods establishment of C. F. Beckley. In 1870 he entered the employ of Foy & Harmon, now Foy, Harmon & Chad- wick, corset manufacturers, with whom he is still connected as book-keeper and general confiden- tial clerk.
Colonel Nott has taken a deep interest in poli- tics from boyhood, and has for years been one of the most faithful and reliable workers in the ranks of the New Haven Republicans, and a trusted member of the party councils. Although never an office-seeker, he has frequently been called upon to perform public service. In 1874 he was Clerk of the City Board of Councilmen. and also served as clerk of several important municipal committees. He has also been the candidate of the Republican members of the Court of Common Council for Assistant City Clerk, and last year was the candidate for Town Clerk on the Republican general ticket.
Colonel Nott took an active part in the last presidential campaign, and was largely instru- mental in the formation of the Young Men's Republican club, of which organization he was the First Vice-President. A modest and unas- suming gentleman, prompt and efficient in the performance of his duties, universally popular. he is recognized as one of the rising young men of New Haven, with a future full of promise.
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COL. TRACY B. WARREN,
Aide-de-Camp, was born at Watertown, in this State, December 20, 1847; was educated at the Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven, where he first donned a uniform and at- tained rank of Lieutenant. He enlisted in the New Haven Grays in 1872, rose to the rank of Lieuten- ant, and more recently succeeded to that of Captain and Adjutant in the Fourth Regiment Connecti- cut National Guards, which position he resigned to accept his present appointment of Aide-de- Camp on the staff of Governor Harrison. Col. Warren is well known throughout the State in military, Masonic, and social circles. During the last political campaign he was Major in com- mand of the famous "Mollie Pitcher club " of Bridgeport, which city is his place of residence, and where he is now serving his second term as an Alderman. He is thirty-seven years of age, and married. His business is banking, and his connections are with the First National Bank of Bridgeport.
COL. GEORGE M. WHITE,
Assistant Adjutant-General, was born in a moun- tain town of Windham county, Vermont, where he graduated from a little red school-house at the age of thirteen, with the expectation-on the part of his parents-that he would spend the rest of his life on a farm. He was so little fascinated by this prospect that he contrived to make himself sufficiently useless as a farm boy to secure at the age of fourteen a clerkship in a village store. Not attaining to the position of partner in the concern, at the end of six months he started out as a commercial traveler on his own account, and explored a good portion of the State, with his capital invested in a hand-bag of sewing silk. The varying fortunes of this occupation during three years netted him a dividend consisting mainly of experience, and with this he settled down to work on a farm in Litchfield in this State, where he remained until 1859, when he went to New Haven and entered Russell's Military school with the purpose of fitting for college. At the commencement of the war in 1861, when the three months regiments were encamped in New Haven, young White was one of several students of Russell's school who were
sent as drill masters to the First Regiment. Two hours before the First was to embark on the Bienville for Washington, Colonel Dan Tyler offered him a Second Lieutenant's commission on condition that he would follow . with Colonel Terry's regiment the next day and join the First in Washington. After a hasty consultation with General Russell, White accepted the offer, em- barked with the Second Regiment the following day, and joining the First, was given his com- mission and assigned to Company C, in which position he served with marked ability until the muster-out of the regiment.
He then returned to the school, where he remained as Adjutant until the call for troops in 1862. The temptation then was great to enter college with his classmates, but he opened a recruiting office instead, raised a company for the "Lyon Regiment," and entered the service again as Captain of Company " E," 15th C. V.
Late in 1864 he was commissioned by Gov- ernor Buckingham as Colonel of the 10th C. V., but on reporting to Gen. Butler at Bermuda Hundred was informed that he could only be mustered in that grade on condition that the regiment was recruited up to the minimum required by orders. He declined a detail on recruiting service for that purpose, and returned to the Fifteenth and to his rank of Captain. He was captured with his regiment near Kingston, N. C., when Gen. Cox was moving up from New Berne to meet Sherman at Galesboro; was rather anxiously engaged for three days and nights in trying to find his way out of the Con- federacy without a rebel guard, but was finally recaptured while trying to cross the Roanoke river on a raft, and got to Libby prison three days in advance of his regiment.
He was stricken with typhoid fever while in Libby, but was carried to the boat by his com- rades when the regiment was paroled, and knew nothing more of the war until he " came to him- self " in the Naval School Hospital at Annapolis after Lee's surrender.
Returning to New Haven, Captain White was at once made Chief of Police, which position he filled with conspicuous ability until he resigned to accept a better salary as general superinten- dent of a gold mining company in North Caro- lina. Five years were given to this service, when, during the Ku-Klux excitement, the mills and machinery of the company were burned to
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the ground, and he returned North. He was at once offered the position of Superintendent of the New Haven Water Company, which he held until made President and Superintendent of the Connecticut Water Pipe Company. After three years' employment in this capacity he served for a like period as Superintendent of the Connecti- cut General Hospital at New Haven. He next embarked in the manufacture and introduction of a patent air-bed of his own invention, and garnered another dividend of experience minus the shekels.
Five years' service with the Diamond Match Company, followed by a six months' engagement in the mining regions of Colorado and a like period in "journalism," brought him to the open- ing of the last presidential campaign, when he entered upon the duties of Secretary of the Republican Town Committee in New Haven.
Col. White is a long-time member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and held, in 1883, the position of Post Commander of Admiral Foote Post in New Haven, resigning while in Colorado. In politics he has never been other than a straight Republican.
LIEUT .- GOL. B. F. BLAKESLEE,
Assistant Quartermaster-General, was a member of Governor Jewell's staff during the three terms that the latter was at the head of the State ad- ministration, occupying the position to which he has now been recalled. For the past eleven years he has been engaged in the brokerage business in Hartford, and is an able and efficient manager. During the war Colonel Blakeslee was a soldier and officer in the Sixteenth Connecticut, serving with honor and gallantry in every battle and skir- mish in which the regiment participated. At Antietam he received a severe wound in the head, but returned to the field immediately after his
recovery. He was with the Sixteenth during the siege of Suffolk, Va., and in the engagement on the Edenton Road had the honor of capturing two prisoners. In the engagement on the Nan- semond he was again dangerously wounded and left for dead on the field. Recovering from the effects of his injuries, he returned to his com- mand, and participated in the final engagement of the Sixteenth at Plymouth, N. C. His com- mand occupied a perilous position under the ene- my's fire, and made a courageous resistance ou the morning of April 20, 1864, when the Union works were carried by the rebel forces. From the capture of the garrison on. for ten months or so, he was confined in rebel prisons with his asso- ciate officers, and was incarcerated at Macon. Savannah, Charleston, Columbia, and other pris- ons. At Charleston he was allotted by the Con- federates for the retaliation measures which were adopted for preventing the Union fire on the city. Six hundred officers were selected and placed in position to receive the fire from the Union artil- lery. Colonel Blakeslee's army career was in all respects one of honor and credit, and deserv- ing of the most genuine approval and commenda- tion. He is the historian of the Sixteenth Regi- ment, and published an interesting volume con- cerning its services in the field. He is one of the original members of the Hartford City Guard. and is the quartermaster of the veteran battal- ion. For a number of years he has been the secretary of his regimental association and treas- urer of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, and has kept up his army interests with great earnestness and enthusiasm. He is an excellent business man, possessing fine executive ability. and is in every way competent for official duties.
Colonel Blakeslee was born at Southington. September 2, 1843. He learned the druggist profession with John Braddock of Hartford, and subsequently for some years followed the busi- ness. For the last ten years he has been engaged in the stock brokerage business.
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HON. ORVILLE H. PLATT.
UNITED STATES SENATOR.
HON. ORVILLE H. PLATT, one of the United States Senators from Connecticut, was born in the town of Washington, Litchfield County, in this State, on July 19, 1827, and will therefore be fifty-eight years of age in July next. He was a son of Daniel G. Platt, a farmer, and worked upon his father's farm until he was 20 years of age. His education was received in the common schools and in the academy of Frederick W. Gunn, of wide reputation in later years as the pricipal of "The Gunnery," so-called, in the town of Washington, an institution of learning which became justly celebrated. Mr. Platt stud- ied law in the office of Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, Litchfield, the well-known historian of Connecti- cut, who died in 1881, and was admitted to the bar in Litchfield in 1849. Subsequently he secured admission to the Pennsylvania bar in Towanta, Bradford County, and spent six months
in the office of Hon. Ulysses Mereur, now Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He returned to Connectient in 1851, and located in Meriden as a practitioner of law, and has since made that city his home. In 1855-6 he was Clerk of the Connecticut Senate, and was elected Secretary of State in 1857. In 1861-2 he was a member of the Senate, and in 1864 and 1869 was elected to the House,-the last year serving as its Speaker. In all these positions he dis- played exceptional qualifications and showed a special aptitude for legislative business. In 1877 he was chosen State Attorney for New Haven County, and held that place till elected, in 1879. to the United States Senate to succeed Hon. William H. Barnum. His first term in the Sen- ate expired March 3, 1885, but he is his own successor in that honorable office, having been re- elected for a second term on the 20th of January
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the present year, by the unanimous vote of the Republican members in the State Legislature.
This is a rough sketch of his career, which has been in all respects useful and honorable. Mr. Platt's name was first mentioned in connection with the high office of United States Senator in 1868, when a lively contest occurred in the Legis- lature between the supporters of Ex-Governor William A. Buckingham and General Joseph R. Hawley. He had worked up no canvass, but a minority of the Republican voters voted for him steadily through many ballots, and finally de- cided the contest between the two principals by voting for Governor Buckingham. In the con- test of 1879 the chief candidates to start with were General Hawley and Governor Jewell, Mr. Platt again coming in with a strong balance of power, but this time with the prestige of a larger acquaintance in the State, and consequently with more powerful influences. The canvass which determined the issue was well equipped with some of the best Republicans of the State, and its votes were so varying that at one time during the balloting General Hawley came within two votes of receiving a majority, while Mr. Platt on the same ballot had but three votes. For three ballots Mr. Platt had only five votes. That was his lowest-two cast by the members from his own town, and the other by the Senator from the Meriden District. From that point, how- ever, his strength developed, and a few ballots
more, which closed at three o'clock in the morn- ing, gave him the nomination.
Mr. Platt in person is tall and commanding. His manners are genial and popular. He is a pleasant speaker and a good debater-always clear and concise, wasting very few words for the sake of oratorical effect. As a lawyer he has had for many years a high standing at the bar, and has made a specialty of patent cases, though doing a general law practice. All his life he has been a promoter of Christian and philanthropic enterprises, actively working for the best good of society through the organized channels of religion and temperance, while by his own example assist- ing in every good cause.
In the Senate assignment of committees in the last Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on Patents, a member of the Committee on Pen- sions, and for some time after Senator Teller's appointment as Secretary of the Interior, acting Chairman on Revision of Laws, and on Contin- gent Expenses of the Senate. His speech on the arrears of the pensions, which has been favorably commented upon for its terse vigor and good sense by many leading papers, is a fair specimen of his methods in public debate, proving what has already been said-that he aims at the point under discussion rather than to secure rhetorical embellishment, though his language is always as finished as it is clear and forcible.
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HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY,
UNITED STATES SENATOR.
HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, U. S. Senator from Connecticut, is a native of North Carolina, born at Stewartsville, in that State, on the 31st of October, 1826. His father, who was a clergy- man, settled there, and it was during a tem- porary residence in the State that the son was born. During his boyhood the family moved to Cazenovia, N. Y. Later, Joseph came to Hart- ford and entered the High School, and in course of time entered Hamilton College, from which he was graduated in 1847. Three years later he was admitted to the bar in Hartford, and subse- quently entered into a law partnership with Hon. John Hooker, now the reporter for the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He practiced law for several years, but his tastes were political. He had, from the experiences of his youth and his natural training, become strongly opposed to the
institution of slavery, and when the question of extension into the territories of the United States was opened by the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska bill in 1854, and the whole subject was agitated by the struggles in Kansas, he was aroused to a point where his profession was of little account. It was in his law office, February 4, 1856, in response to his invitation, that John M. Niles, Gideon Welles, and other prominent Hartford gentlemen, met and took steps which led to the organization of the Republican party in Connecticut. The Hartford Evening Press was established as the organ of this party. In 185; Mr. Hawley gave up his law practice and became its chief editor, and was acting in that capacity when the war of the Rebellion broke out, in 1861. He was the first man in Connecticut to enroll his name in the volunteer service, and went to the
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field as Captain of Company A, First Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. From that time until the close of the war he saw continuous service, and rose by promotion through the several grades of military advancement until he was a Brigadier- General of volunteers and then a brevet Major- General, with which rank he was mustered out of service January 15, 1866. After the surren- der of Lee at Appomattox, General Terry, a Connecticut man, was placed in command at Richmond, and General Hawley served with him as his Chief of Staff until the volunteer army was disbanded.
Very soon after he was mustered out of service the Republicans of Connecticut met in State convention and nominated him for Gov- ernor. His opponent was James E. English of New Haven. He was elected by a popular majority of 541, after a very closely-contested campaign, and a singular coincidence was fur- nished in the result-showing the even political balance in the State, notwithstanding war issues -by the fact that General Hawley's majority in the year following the war was precisely that which Governor Buckingham, the Republican candidate, received in the year preceding the beginning of hostilities between the North and the South. In 1867 he was renominated for Governor, but was defeated. During all this period here referred to General Hawley had retained his interest in the Hartford Press. In 1867 General Hawley and his associates bought a controlling interest in the Hartford Courant, and the Evening Post took the place of the Press in the evening field. He has since been nom- inally editor-in chief of the Courant, though devoting very little personal attention to it, as his time has been devoted to more public matters.
In 1868 General Hawley was a delegate-at- large to the Republican National Convention held in Chicago, and was elected President of that body, which placed in nomination General U. S. Grant for the Presidency. It was at a time when new and dangerous financial doctrines were being advocated, and the integrity of the government was threatened regarding its mon- eyed obligations, and to General Hawley was largely due the prevailing sentiments of the con- vention on the right side of this question. His speech on taking the chair anticipated the plat-
form and contained in one expression, that the bonds of the government " must be held as sacred as soldiers' graves," all that was needed to close the argument against repudiation or dishonor. He was also a member of the convention, in 1872, which renominated Grant, and was Secretary of the Committee on Resolutions; and again, in 1876, at Cincinnati, he represented Connecticut and was Chairman of the Resolutions Commit- tee. From 1873 to the close of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia he was its President, and at the conclusion of the great exposition he was presented with a handsome testimonial in recognition of the valuable services he had given to the enterprise as the head of the national commission. In November, 1872, lie was elected to Congress from the First Connecticut District to fill the unexpired term of Julius L. Strong, deceased. He was elected for the full term suc- ceeding, defeating William W. Eaton, the Demo- cratic candidate. Subsequently he was twice defeated by George M. Landers, and again elected, and in 1880 he declined a renomination to become a candidate for United States Senator, to which position the Legislature of 1881 elected him for a term of six years. He was first a can- didate for this position in 1868, and was defeated by Governor Buckingham. In 1872 he obtained a caucus nomination, but was defeated by a com- bination of Republicans and Democrats, who supported Senator Ferry.
In the Forty-seventh Congress, General Haw- ley was Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment, and a member of the Committee on Military Affairs and Railroads, and of the Joint Committee on Public Printing. In the last Congress he was on the same commit- tees, being Chairman of the Civil Service Com- mittee and second on the Committee on Rail- roads. He has taken a prominent part in the debates in the Senate, especially on financial questions and matters relating to the tariff.
General Hawley is a vigorous campaign speak- er, and is always in demand when important elections are pending. He rarely prepares his speeches in detail, but relies upon the inspiration of the moment, and in purely extemporaneous effort has few superiors. He has strong and earnest convictions, and possesses the courage to avow them on all proper occasions.
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HON. JOHN R. BUCK,
CONGRESSMAN, FIRST DISTRICT.
HON. JOHN R. BUCK of Hartford, was born at Glastonbury, December 6, 1836, and was educated at Wilbraham Academy and Wesleyan Univer- sity. After leaving Wesleyan Mr. Buck engaged in teaching for several years. He was Principal of Grammar or High Schools at Glastonbury, Bloomfield, South Manchester, and at Moodus, East Haddam, spending the years 1858 and 1859 at the latter place. He studied law in the office of Judge Martin Wells and the late Congressman Strong, with the latter of whom he afterwards became associated in partnership. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1862, and has since been in practice in Hartford. Mr. Buck is one of the leading lawyers at the Hartford bar, and has been engaged as counsel in a large number of important cases involving the rights and duties of municipal, railroad, and other corporations.
He has had a liberal and remunerative practice, and has established a high reputation in his profession. In 1864 Mr. Buck was elected Assistant Clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives, Clerk in 1865, and Clerk of the Senate in 1866. He was President of the Com- mon Council of the city of Hartford in 1868, and was City Attorney in 1871 and 1873. He was Treasurer of the county of Hartford 1863-1881. In 1879 he was elected a member of the State Senate from the First Senatorial District. The official returns gave him a plurality of 761 votes and a clear majority of 603. While a member of the State Senate he served as Chairman of the Committees on Incorporations and Constitutional Amendments. Both on the floor of the Senate and in the committee-room he was always found ready and equipped for the duties devolving upon
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him. He participated in the formation of the new joint-stock law, and supported its adoption in the Senate, in one of the ablest speeches of the session.
Mr. Buck was elected a member of the Forty- seventh Congress by the people of the First Congressional District, and served on the Com- mittees on " Indian Affairs " and on " Revision of Laws." Although it was Mr. Buck's first term in Congress, he became well and favorably known, and exerted an influence upon national legisla- tion beyond that of most members during a first term. He actively participated in the tariff legislation of that Congress and ardently worked for the protection of the varied manufacturing and farming interests in his district, with all which he is especially familiar. His reelection to the Forty-ninth Congress furnishes conclusive
evidence of the high esteem in which his previous services in this position are held, and of the con- fidence reposed in him by his intelligent constit- uency of the First District.
Mr. Buck is a strong and earnest advocate of protection for home industries, and believes in adequately rewarding the workingman for his labor. No interest of the First Congressional District or of the State at large will suffer in his hands. A man unassuming in his manners, of vigorous and independent thought, of sound judgment and unimpeachable integrity, of liberal scholarship and training, and of broad and gen- erous sympathies, he will represent the First District as he has done in the past, with dignity and honor in the councils of the National Con- gress.
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HON. CHARLES L. MITCHELL,
CONGRESSMAN, SECOND DISTRICT.
HON. CHARLES L. MITCHELL is the son of the late Edward A. Mitchell, who was for many years Postmaster of New Haven. Mr. Edward A. Mitchell, with other members of the family, took an active part in establishing several of the great manufacturing industries which have built up the property of the district his son has been elected to represent. Through his mother, Charles L. Mitchell is a direct descendant of Thomas Fitch, who was Governor of Connecticut from 1754 to 1766. Fernhurst, the homestead of Charles L. Mitchell, is one of the most attrac- tive of the many beautiful residences in the environs of New Haven, and has been in the possession of the family for three generations. Charles L. Mitchell was born August 4, 1844, and educated at the well-known school of Gen- eral Russell, New Haven, the Rectory School,
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