USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > History of Bridgeport and vicinity > Part 14
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Judge Kane was the eldest in a family of nine children of whom three are yet living, his sister being Mrs. Eliza Hornby and his brother George Kane, both of Bridgeport, to which city the family removed from New York in 1854.
Judge Kane was at that time a little lad of six years, and accordingly he entered the public schools of Bridgeport, wherein he pursued his studies until entering Bryant & Stratton Business College. He afterward attended the Yale Law School from which he was graduated in 1888, and since that time he has been actively engaged in the practice of law in Bridge- port, starting upon his professional career in the office which he now occupies in the Sturdevant building. Throughout the intervening years he has continued in the general practice of law with good success, a liberal and distinctively representative clientage being accorded him. He is most careful in his analysis of a case, accurate in his application of legal principles, while his deductions are sound and his reasoning logical.
On the 20th of July, 1899, Judge Kane was married to Miss Amy B. Jukes, a native of Bridgeport, and they have four living children, Patricia, Richard S., Elizabeth and Ruth, while a little daughter, Amy B., passed away in childhood. Judge Kane has acquired a comfortable competence and is now financially independent. Following his marriage in 1899 he and his wife went to Europe, visiting Dublin, the home of his ancestors, also England, Scotland and France. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church and he has membership with the Knights of Columbus, being an ex-grand knight of that order. He also belongs to the Sons of Union Veterans and for fourteen years he was a member of the Connecticut Temperance Union and for four years was editor of the newspaper of the Connecticut Total Abstinence Union. He holds membership in the Bridgeport board of trade and cooperates in all well defined plans and movements for advancing the interests of the city. For four years he served on the board of charities and for two years on the tax relief board. In politics he is a democrat and from 1893 to 1895 inclusive he was deputy judge of the city court, being on the bench at the time of the street car riots and of the green goods excitement, the cases arising therefrom being tried in his court. He belongs to the Fairfield Bar Association and while he is recognized as an able lawyer he is more than that, for he is a progressive and public-spirited citizen whose interests and activities have always been on the side of law and order and of progress and improvement combined with a close regard for those humani- tarian principles which have to do so largely with the welfare of others.
GEORGE WAKEMAN OSBORN, M. D.
The demands made upon the physician are many. Not only must he possess broad scien- tific knowledge and ability to accurately apply its principles but it is demanded of him also that he possess keen intuition and unfailing sympathy combined with courtesy and a spirit of optimism that inspires confidence and hope in others. Meeting every requirement Dr. George Wakeman Osborn has made for himself a most creditable position in professional circles in Bridgeport, and he is constantly promoting his efficiency through his broad reading and study. Connecticut numbers him among her native sons. He was born in Easton, November 6, 1860, his parents being David Hull and Melissa (Banks) Osborn, He has two brothers, Orlando Banks and David Franklin, both farmers, residing in Easton. In the paternal line he comes of a family of prominent farmers. The Osborn family has been repre- sented in Connecticut for more than two and a half centuries, Dr. Osborn being a representa- tive in the eighth generation of the lineal descent of Captain Richard Osborn, who in 1634 came from London, England. He settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, the following year and removed to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1639, there remaining until 1653, when he was granted eighty acres of land at Fairfield, Connecticut, to which tract he added until his landed possessions became very extensive. His first grant was accorded him in recognition of
Dr-George W. Osborne
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his services in the Pequot war of 1637. His grandmother, in the paternal line, was Priscilla Hull, a lineal descendant of George Hull, who came from Plymouth, England, in 1629-30, settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, resided in Windsor, Connecticut, 1636-46, when he removed to Fairfield, Connecticut. He was a surveyor, representative to the general court, which declared war against the Pequots in 1637 and jointly with Roger Ludlow was granted a monopoly of the fur trade on the Connecticut river. His son Cornelius was a surveyor, deputy to the general court, and lieutenant in King Philip's War in 1675. His son, Cor- nelius, Jr., was the founder of Hull's Farms, Connecticut.
On the maternal side of Dr. Osborn is descended in the eighth generation from John Banks, a lawyer who was one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. He was appointed town clerk in 1643 and was assigned the duties of sizing the weights and measures of the several towns of the colony. Soon afterward he removed to Fairfield and became one of its wealthiest residents and one of the largest landholders of Fairfield county, where he took a prominent part in all of the leading events which shaped its early history. He represented one of the distinguished families of England. Nathan Banks, the great-grandfather, a resident of Fair- field, served with the American army in the Revolutionary war. Medad Banks, the grand- father, was a prominent farmer of Easton, Connecticut, and married Polly Betts, a lineal descendant of Thomas Betts who came from England in 1639 and was one of the founders of Guilford, Connecticut.
The two families were united in the marriage of David Hull Osborn and Melissa Banks and their eldest son was Dr. George Wakeman Osborn, who, after acquiring a district school education in his native village, prepared for college in Staples' Academy in Easton. In 1878 he was engaged to teach the district school in Easton for a period of five months and later entered the academic department of Yale University for study from 1880 until June, 1884, when he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In college he was a member of Gamma Nu. In that year he matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia University of New York city, and won his professional degree in May, 1887. Through the succeeding year he was house physician of the Bridgeport Hospital, and on the 1st of June, 1888. entered upon independent practice by opening an office in Bridgeport, where he has since followed his profession, and, advancing step by step. he has long since left the ranks of the many to stand among the more successful few. He was city physician and surgeon of the Emergency Hospital from 1888 until 1892, and again from 1895 to 1899, and became medical examiner for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany of New York in 1889. He has since served in that capacity, is also examiner for the Massachusetts Accident Company. and has also been physician and examiner for many fraternal and beneficial organizations. The only public offices he has held have been in the strict path of his profession. He served as a member of the Bridgeport board of health from 1904 to 1906, and again from 1910 to 1912, of which he was president. He was surgeon of the fire department from 1910 to 1912, and in 1905 he was appointed physician and surgeon in the Department of Children of St. Vincent's Hospital of Bridgeport, and has been a member of the medical staff of that institution since 1911. He has also attended operations and clinies in the hospitals of New York city for several years, thus gaining broad and valuable knowledge and experience. Since 1914 he has been medical examiner of the Life Extension Institute of New York and in 1913 he was made a member of the board of United States Pension Examining Surgeons, of which he is the secretary.
On the 27th of December, 1888, Dr. Osborn was married to Miss Nellie Maria Boynton of Peabody, Massachusetts, who was born in South Danvers, that state, on the 16th of December, 1862, a daughter of James A. and Ellen M. (Very) Boynton of Peabody, whose ancestry can be traced back to William the Conqueror. She is also a lineal descendant in the ninth generation of John Boynton, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1614, and settled in Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1638. She is likewise a descendant in the thirtieth generation of Bartholomew de Boynton, who was seized of the Manor of Boynton in 1067. Her great-
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great-grandfather, James Boynton, was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. On the tablets on the gates of the Charlestown training field are the names of those who fell at Bunker Hill, including that of James Boynton, of Boxford, of Freye's regiment. Perley's company. Mrs. Osborn is now a member of Mary Silliman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. After attending the public schools of Peabody she studied in the state normal school at Salem, Massachusetts, and following her graduation in January, 1881, devoted several years to teaching in the public schools of Peabody. Dr. and Mrs. Osborn have become parents of four children: Lelius Boynton, born November 7, 1890, died July 3, 1891. Beatrice Melissa, born April 18, 1892, was graduated from the Bridgeport high school in 1911 and on the 21st of October of that year became the wife of Alan Edmund Aube of Bridgeport, by whom she has one child, Virginia Osborn, born July 11, 1912. Helen Eugenie, born February 20, 1897, was graduated from the Bridgeport high school in 1914, from the Bridgeport normal school in 1916 and became a teacher in the Elias Howe school. Richard Galen, born December 14, 1903, completes the family. In 1900 Doctor and Mrs. Osborn made a tour across the continent of Europe and of Great Britain, visiting many foreign countries and in 1904 he visited the Pacific Coast.
Dr. Osborn and his family attend the Episcopal church and he was formerly a member of the Young Men's Christian Association. He greatly enjoys hunting, fishing and sea bathing and other forms of outdoor life, to which he turns for needed rest and recreation. In politics he is a democrat and ex-president of the Democratic Association, but has never sought nor filled political office. In 1912, however, he became a member of the board of education of Bridgeport of which he is vice president. His membership connections show the breadth and nature of his interests and activities. He has attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry, holding membership in St. John's Lodge, No. 3, F. & A. M., Jerusalem Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., Jerusalem Council No. 16, R. & S. M., Hamilton Commandery No. 5, K. T., Lafayette Consistory A. & A. S. R., and Pyramid Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. He likewise has membership with Court Pequonnock, No. 62, Foresters of America, Konekapotanauh Tribe No. 30, Im- proved Order of Red Men, the Loyal Order of Moose, Ida Lodge, No. 10, New England Order of Protection, Dewey Camp, 7033, Modern Woodmen of America and Bridgeport Lodge No. 36, B. P. O. E. Educational and patriotic organizations receive his indorse- ment and support. He is identified with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, with the Fairfield County Yale Alumni Association, the Bridgeport Scientific and Historical Society and with the Algonquin Club. He is also a member of The National Geographic Society. Along strictly professional lines he has connection with the Bridgeport Medical Association of which he was vice president in 1900, the Fairfield County Medical Association, the Connecticut Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Medicine, thus keeping in close touch with the trend of modern medical research and scientific investigation, his work being accordingly advanced in its efficiency.
JOSIAH B. HALLETT.
Josiah B. Hallett, who dates his residence in Bridgeport from July, 1879, was for a long period connected with the meat industry of the city but is now living retired, enjoying the rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves. He was born in Chatham, near Cape Cod, in 1832, a son of Samuel and Susan (Blossom) Hallett, the former a sea captain. During his youthful days Josiah B. Hallett, while acquiring his education, spent three years as a pupil in the schools of Boston. He was twenty-four years of age when he went to Prairie City, Iowa, where he conducted a farm and general store, remaining in the middle west until 1861. He then returned to the east and became connected with the meat business, selling to the retail trade in Clinton, Massachusetts. Subsequently he carried on a
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similar business in Leominster, Massachusetts, under the title of Hallett & Wood. In July, 1879, he removed to Bridgeport and with Leonard Wood established the first wholesale market in Bridgeport for the sale of western dressed beef. Mr. Wood having passed away, the concern was then reorganized under the name of the Bridgeport Beef Company and ultimately was sold to Swift & Company. Mr. Hallett engaged in dealing in beef as a wholesaler and made shipments as far as Lee, Massachusetts, and west to Norwalk and Stamford, Con- necticut, selling throughout the intervening territory and building up an extensive and profitable business of which he remained the head until about 1908. He retired in 1909. He was first located on Water street, where he erected a building that is still standing, and after- ward he purchased an adjoining brick building which he remodeled. This he sold to Swift & Company in 1907, after which he acted as manager of the plant until he retired. He was the first man in Bridgeport to engage in the sale of western dressed beef exclusively and he devoted his entire attention to the business, which he developed to large and profitable proportions.
On the 5th of May, 1853, Mr. Hallett was married to Miss Caroline B. Swift, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, a sister of the founder of the Swift Company, beef packers of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Hallett became the parents of five children: Francis Herbert, deceased; Willard F., living in St. Petersburg, Florida; G. DeWayne, an eminent oculist of New York making a specialty of eye surgery; Harrison H., living in New Rochelle, New York; and Carrie A., who passed away at the age of four and one-half years.
Mr. Hallett has long voted with the republican party. which he has supported since its organization. He is a member of the Seaside Club and is a Knight Templar Mason, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist church. He has now reached the eighty-fifth milestone on life's journey but is yet a well preserved man and in his interests seems yet in his prime, keeping in touch with current events and the questions of the day. He figured for many years as a leading and progressive business man of Bridgeport and has long been numbered as one of its valued citizens.
G. F. DROUVE.
G. F. Drouvé, president and treasurer of the G. F. Drouve Company, of Bridgeport, and employing in the conduct of his business the most progressive and enterprising methods, was born in Germany, August 10, 1851, and remained in his native land until he had reached the age of seventeen years, when he crossed the Atlantic to New York He had previously learned the tinsmith's trade, which he followed in the employ of others for a time, and then engaged in business on his own account in New York in 1876. Subsequently he removed to Meriden, Connecticut, where he worked at his trade, and in 1885 he arrived in Bridgeport, where he opened a shop as a member of the firm of Howl & Drouve. Eventually he pur- chased the interest of his partner and on the 26th of May, 1896, the business was incorporated as the G. F. Drouve Company with G. F. Drouve as the president and treasurer and William V. Dee as the secretary. After the incorporation Herman Reetz and Henry Zimmermeyer were connected with Mr. Drouvé, but the latter sold out and Albert Bradley became connected with the business. He, in time, sold his interest to Mr. Dee, and Mr. Reetz disposed of his stock some years ago. The company does all kinds of sheet metal work, specializing in anti- fluvial skylights and window openers, which are sold all over the United States and Europe. The goods in which the company specializes are a patented line, and employment is furnished to about seventy people, mostly skilled labor. The output of the factory is sold to builders, and something of the vast volume of the business handled by the firm is indicated in the fact that the company spends about ten thousand dollars annually for advertising alone. The plant is splendidly equipped with the latest improved machinery necessary for work of that charac-
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ter, and the business is so thoroughly systematized that there is no loss of time, labor or material. The factory is located at No. 40 Drouvé street, which in 1916 changed its name from Tulip to Drouvé street.
In 1880 Mr. Drouvé was united in marriage to Miss Pauline Cache, a native of Germany. They have three daughters: Bertha, the wife of Job Shepherd, of Bridgeport; Minnie, the wife of LeRoy Dickerson; and Ethel, at home. In politics Mr. Drouvé follows an independent course, exercising his right of franchise according to the capabilities of the candidates. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masons and the Odd Fellows, and in the former has taken the Knight Templar degree of the York Rite and the Thirty-Second degree of the Scottish Rite, while with the Nobles of the Mystie Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. He is preeminently a business man, active, alert and energetic, concentrating his efforts upon the upbuilding of the great industry which he founded, yet he is not remiss in the duties of citizenship nor neglectful of the social side of life.
MRS. FANNY CURTIS PECK.
Mrs. Fanny Curtis Peck has spent practically her entire life in Stratford, where she now makes her home. She is a daughter of Lewis Curtis, who was one of the pioneer residents of Stratford and traced his ancestry back in this country to 1634, when the progenitor of the family in the new world settled at Concord, Massachusetts. He removed, however, to Stratford in 1638 and was among the early settlers at Stratford, taking up his abode on the present site of the city when it was an unoccupied wilderness. The forebears of the Curtis family have a most interesting military history, for their names figure in connection with the records of the French and Indian war, the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812, the Mexican war and the Civil war. Lewis Curtis, father of Mrs. Peck, was an expert cabinetmaker and his daughter has in her possession clocks and cabinets which he made from oak obtained in England. One of the clocks was made from an old cupboard said to have been brought to America on the Mayflower. Through all the intervening years from the first settlement down to the present the Curtis family has figured prominently in connection with the history of Bridgeport, but today Mrs. Peck is the only survivor of that family.
She was educated in the public schools of Stratford and also in the Sedgwick Academy and in 1882 she gave her hand in marriage to Job Peek, the sweetheart of her girlhood days. In the same year, however, after an illness of but three days, he passed away. In her infancy Mrs. Peck was baptized in the Methodist Episcopal church, which she afterward joined and of which she has since been a loyal and devoted member.
CHARLES D. MILLS.
One feels a sense of resignation when an aged man is called from this life-one who has completed his work and whose powers have become lessened by advancing years; but when the young are called, it seems that opportunity for further activity and accomplishment should be given them. It was a matter of the deepest regret when Charles D. Mills passed away in 1892, at the age of but thirty years. He was born in Boston in 1862 and was educated in Southboro, Massachusetts. He later entered the First Bridgeport National Bank in the capacity of bookkeeper and afterward became connected with the wholesale grocery house of David Trubee & Company, with which he remained for a few years. Ill health, however, forced his retirement from business and for some time before his demise he was unable to resume business cares.
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Mr. Mills was married in Bridgeport, in 1884, to Miss Helen C. Lyon, a daughter of Frederick H. Lyon, who is still living in the city, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and is a son of Hanford Lyon, who was one of the pioneer residents of Bridgeport, where he remained for many years. Frederick H. Lyon established and built up a large hardware business and for many years was a prominent factor in the commercial circles of the city. He is mentioned at length on another page of this work and his life history graces the annals of the city. He married Bessie A. Hawley, a daughter of Abijah Hawley, and they became the parents of seven children, of whom four are living: Mrs. F. M. Wilson, Josephine, W. K. and Mrs. Mills, all of Bridgeport. By her marriage Mrs. Mills became the mother of one son, Charles D., who was born November 17, 1884, and married Miss Carrie Weir.
Mr. Mills was a Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He took a very active and helpful part in Masonry and did everything in his power to extend the beneficent principles upon which the craft is based. He was also a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the Seaside Club and he had many substantial and admirable qualities which endeared him to all with whom he came in contact, so that at his passing he left behind him many friends to mourn his loss as well as his immediate family.
LUCIUS L. BRIDGE.
Lucius L. Bridge, a consulting engineer of Bridgeport, was born in Springfield, Massa- chusetts, December 8, 1869. He comes of Puritan ancestry, being a direct descendant of John Bridge, who was one of the passengers on the historic Mayflower. His grandfather, A. L. Bridge, was for more than forty years treasurer of Hardman county, Massachusetts, a most notable record of long continued and faithful public service. His father, M. Wells Bridge, was born in Massachusetts and married Anna Viola Wheeler, who was born in Vermont, a representative of an old New England family that has been represented in the Green Mountain state since the early part of the seventeenth century. Her brother was United States district judge and the family has figured prominently in connection with public affairs there.
Lucius L. Bridge acquired a public school education at Springfield, Massachusetts, and afterward was graduated from the Massachusetts School of Technology at Boston, where he studied architecture and civil engineering. He then took up the active practice of architecture in his native city and subsequently engaged in the same line in Philadelphia, in Baltimore and in New York city successively. In 1917 he removed to Bridgeport. In his professional capacity he built the Stratford Hotel at Bridgeport, the leading hostelry of the city and one which would be a credit to any metropolis of the country. He has also been connected with other most important engineering projects and ranks with the foremost in his line in this connection. Until about two years ago he specialized in the construction of theater build- ings and has made the plans and supervised the construction of many of the leading theaters in various parts of the United States.
Mr. Bridge makes his home at Milford. He was married October 5, 1892, to Miss Eva Turk, of Springfield, Massachusetts, a daughter of Charles W. and Ellen M. (Cook) Turk. Her father was born in Virginia and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, after the Civil war, being employed by the United States government throughout the remainder of his active life. He is now living retired at Springfield. To Mr. and Mrs. Bridge have been born three children: Richard, who was born in Springfield, Massachusetts; Marion, in Philadelphia and Roger, in Springfield.
Lucius L. Bridge has been a lifelong republican, thus following in the political footsteps of his father. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic lodges of Philadelphia and Springfield and also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Philadelphia. For years
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he was organist of Masonic lodges and is thoroughly familiar with the music used in such organizations. He possesses notable talent as an organist and his music is to him his most delightful source of recreation.
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