USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > History of Bridgeport and vicinity > Part 32
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is used largely by the brass rolling mills, and for about ten years the firm has furnished the steel crucibles used by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The Buffalo company, which is the largest single user of crucibles in the country, bought out the business in August, 1916, in order to assure its supply of crucibles so necessary owing to the great increase of the business caused by the present war demand. The present officers of the company are all now in Buffalo, with the exception of J. H. Edwards, who is a resident of Bridgeport. William A. Macfarlane continues as one of the directors and general manager of the business with which he has been identified since completing his college course.
In 1906 Mr. Macfarlane was married to Miss Bessie M. Burton of Waterbury, Con- necticut, and they have one child, Margery B. In politics Mr. Macfarlane is an independent republican, but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attraction for him. In Masonic circles he has attained high rank, being now a Knight Templar and a Thirty- Second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He has long occupied a prominent position in both business and social circles in the city in which he has made his home since 1886.
HENRY JAMES SEELEY.
Henry James Seeley, of Bridgeport, is entitled to mention in this volume, both because of the notable measure of success which he has gained as a photographer and because of his activity in the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is now department commander for the Department of Connecticut. He was born in Jericho, Vermont, February 22, 1849, and is a son of Samnel Hamilton and Catherine Elizabeth (Nash) Secley, natives respectively of Keysville, New York, and Jericho, Vermont. The father, who was a machinist by trade, removed in early manhood to Winooski Falls, Vermont, where he was for a number of years in charge of the machinery of woolen mills. Subsequently he removed to Wisconsin and was employed as a machinist there until his death in 1855. Afterward his widow removed with her children to Lafayette, Indiana, and after the Civil war to Carbondale, Illinois, and later to Centralia, Missouri, where her death occurred.
Henry J. Seeley was very young when the family removed to Wisconsin and was only about six years old when he was taken by his mother to Indiana, where he received bis education. In 1864, although at that time only fifteen years old, he enlisted in the Tenth Indiana Battery, Light Artillery, for service in the Civil war. Even previous to this time he had attempted to join the army but was refused on account of his age. Not long after his enlistment he was transferred to the gunboat Stone River, which was doing patrol duty on the Tennessee river, but later he was with his battery at Fort Johnson, Huntsville, Alabama. After the close of the Rebellion the battery returned to Indiana and Mr. Seeley was mustered out in July, 1865. He then went to Carbondale, Illinois, where he taught school until the fall of 1867, when he came east and entered the Essex Classical Institute at Essex Junction, Vermont, there preparing himself for more efficient work as a teacher. He followed his profession at Rome, New York, for one year and also taught at Worcester, Fall River and Bridgewater, Massachusetts. At the latter place he also took a special normal course, as it was his desire to fit himself as well as possible for his work.
On the 10th of January, 1872, Mr. Seeley came to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and took up the study of photography, while on the 1st of May of that year he opened a studio in a building at No. 922 Main street. During the intervening period of forty-five years he has engaged in business in that same building, which he now owns. He is the oldest photographer in the city and has numbered among his patrons many of the famous men of the nation. The prestige which he has gained in his chosen line is the result of a thorough understanding of its technical points, a realization of the importance of artistic considerations in such
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work and the following of businesslike methods. As the years have passed his resources have steadily increased and he is now financially independent.
Mr. Seeley was married in 1881, at Bridgeport, to Miss Ella D. Carr, a native of New York city. To them have been born two children: Mabel Ella, the wife of Frederick A. Marsh, of Easton, Connecticut; and Henry Arthur, who is a graduate of Cornell University and is now practicing civil engineering in New York city. Mrs. Seeley passed away May 23, 1917.
Mr. Seeley endorses the policies of the republican party but at local elections votes for the men best qualified to fill the offices in question without regard to their political affili- ations. He is one of the most widely known men in the country in Grand Army circles, as for forty years he has been active in that order. He holds membership in Elias Howe, Jr., Post, No. 3, of Bridgeport, of which he has served as commander, and he has a number of times been called to office in the state and national organizations of the order. In 1912 he was assistant adjutant general of the Department of Connecticut, which office he held for two years, for one year was assistant quartermaster general, and in 1913 was honored by election as adjutant general of the national body at a reunion held in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia. He was one of the most active officers that ever served and made the unusual record of visiting on official business all of the states of the Union except two during his term of office. He is now department commander of the Department of Connecticut. He is also prominent in the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to Corinthian Lodge, No. 104, A. F. & A. M .; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 13, R. A. M .; Jerusalem Council, No. 16, Hamilton Com- mandery, No. 5, K. T .; Lafayette Consistory, S. P. R. S .; and Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. In the Senior Order of United American Mechanics he is likewise well known, having held state and national offices in the order as well as having filled all the chairs in Waldemere Council, No. 6, of Bridgeport, of which he is the only surviving charter member. He belongs to Arcanum Lodge, No. 41, I. O. O. F., the Odd Fellows Veteran Association, the Seaside Club and the 49 Club. His has been indeed a successful life, as he has gained material prosperity, has served with honor in important positions of trust and bas won the sincere respect and the warm regard of those who have been intimately associated with him.
BERNHARD SETZER.
Bernhard Setzer, while not actively engaged in any business at this writing, does however represent the William Ottmann Company of Fulton Market. New York, wholesale purveyors of meats and poultry. He has been engaged in this line of business since early manhood and is recognized as an authority on all phases of the trade. He was born on the 2d day of November, 1866, in New York city, a son of Henry and Helena (Heister) Setzer, natives of Germany, who, however, came to America when quite young. After com- pleting his education in New York city the father turned his attention to the butcher business, which he followed up to within a few years of his death. The mother also passed away in New York.
Bernhard Setzer was reared in his native city and received his early education in its public schools. While still only a hoy he became engaged in the market business and later became purveyor to hotels and steamship lines in New York city. In 1896 he removed to Bridgeport, Connecticut, going into the same line of business on State street with his brother Henry. This congenial partnership lasted for many years or until they both decided to retire. The death of his mother one April followed by the death of his brother in the following May left him trustee of both estates. His responsibilities in that connection coupled with his interest in the building of apartment houses in New York city take him
BERNHARD SETZER
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to that city several times each week. He, however, maintains an office in the Meigs building in Bridgeport, which is necessary on account of his interests here. In connection with his long business experience, he is recognized as a man of unusual initiative and enterprise and has a wide acquaintance in business and social circles. All who know him rate him as a man of unusual ability and unswerving integrity. He has important real estate interests in New York city and is financially independent. For the past eight years he has occupied a suite in the Stratfield Hotel in Bridgeport.
In 1896 Mr. Setzer married Ella Belzer Ottmann, of New York city, whose father, Jacob Ottmann, was the founder of the present United States Printing & Lithographing Company. Two children have been born of this union, a son, Louis Ottmann, born in 1897, and a daughter, Eleanor Dorothea, born in 1903.
Mr. Setzer is independent in politics and has served his city as a member of the board of apportionment and taxation, being appointed to that body in 1902 and continuing thereon by reappointment for three terms of two years each. He made a fine record as an official, bringing to bear upon the solution of the problems before the board the same readiness in grasping the essential points of a situation, and the same resourcefulness that have char- acterized him in the management of his business interests. He is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to St. John's Lodge, No. 3. A. F. & A. M .; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 13, R. A. M .; Jerusalem Council, No. 16, R. & S. M .; Hamilton Commandry, No. 5, K. T .; Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., in which he is an honorary member of the Patrol; and to the various Scottish Rite bodies, including the Consistory. He is a member of a number of important clubs, being identified with the Algonquin Club, the Brooklawn Country Club, the Brooklawn Riding Club and the New York Athletic Club. He is a great lover of horses and is considered an expert rider. His religious faith is indicated by the fact that he is a communicant of St. John's Protestant Episcopal church of Bridgeport. He has in many ways manifested a strong public spirit, working constantly and effectively for the advance- ment of the interests of his city, and he is justly regarded as one of its leading citizens. He is popular personally and numbers many of the foremost men of Bridgeport among his friends.
W. K. SHERWOOD.
W. K. Sherwood, a heating and plumbing contractor doing business at No. 299 Prospect street, was born in North Castle, Westchester county, New York, in 1866, a son of George and Mary Sherwood and a representative of one of the oldest American families, founded in the new world at the earliest period of colonization on this side of the Atlantic. Two of his uncles, John and Aaron Sherwood, were soldiers of the Union army in the Civil war and John sustained a scalp wound, being shot in the head, while Aaron lost a finger.
W. K. Sherwood at the usual age entered the public schools and went as high as he could go in that way. He afterwards studied in night pay schools and he has always eagerly acquired information as opportunity offered, desiring to obtain an education that would be of real practical benefit and value to him in the world. In his youthful days he farmed upon the old home place and he early came to realize the value of industry and energy. In 1885 he removed to Bridgeport, where he was first employed in a grocery store, but he did not find that occupation to his liking and afterward learned the plumbing trade with the firm of Wheeler & Cook. There he remained for about twenty-three years and during the last five years of that period was a partner in the business. In 1907 he established his present heating and plumbing contracting business and in the intervening years has won substantial and notable success. He has received the contract for the plumbing work in the Bridgeport Hospital, the Day Nursery, the Swedish church, the Warner Brothers' building,
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the First Bridgeport Bank and many other homes and public buildings and he also does most of the plumbing work for the architect Southey. Since starting out on his own account his patronage has steadily and constantly increased and he now controls one of the largest and most important plumbing businesses of Bridgeport.
In 1890 Mr. Sherwood was married to Miss Vinnie Crolius, of Brooklyn, New York. Their religious faith is indicated by their membership in the Methodist church and Mr. Sherwood also has membership in the Odd Fellows lodge and in Stratford Encampment, No. 23. His attention and energy, however, have always been given to his business affairs and his developing powers have brought him to a prominent position in the industrial circles of Bridgeport.
W. LEE WEADON, M. D.
Dr. W. Lee Weadon, a distinguished surgeon of Bridgeport and one of the proprietors of the Galen Hospital, was born in Virginia, October 8, 1882, a son of Ashford and Mary (O'Bannon) Weadon, both of whom were natives of Virginia. The father, a farmer by occupation, served as a Confederate soldier in the Civil war and died many years ago, but the mother is still living. .
Dr. Weadon was reared at Bluemont, Virginia, and acquired his education in public and private schools of that city. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he later entered the University College of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia, from which lie was graduated in 1905, after which he entered upon practice in West Virginia, there remaining until 1911. In that year he came to Bridgeport and purchased a fifty-one per cent interest in the Galen Hospital on Myrtle avenue, an institution which is devoted chiefly to surgical work. Dr. Weadon has specialized in surgery and has performed very many notable major operations which indicate his superior skill. He possesses comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and the component parts of the human body, of the onslaughts made upon it by disease or left to it as a legacy by progenitors. Combined with his knowl- edge is a notable skill that arises from a clear head and steady hand, enabling him at all times to he cool and collected even in the stress of great emergencies.
On the 20th of May, 1908, Dr. Weadon was married to Miss Mabel Faulconer, of Virginia. He belongs to the University, Seaside and Brooklawn Country Clubs, while pro- fessionally his connection extends to the Bridgeport, the Fairfield County and the Con- necticut State Medical Societies, the West Virginia Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
HARRY F. MITCHELL.
Harry F. Mitchell, president of the Auto Service Company of Bridgeport, is one of the reliable citizens that the south has furnished to Connecticut. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, January 9, 1880, a son of Henry R. Mitchell, who removed to this city in 1900, when Harry F. was a young man of twenty years. He had previously acquired a good educa- tion in his native city, passing through consecutive grades in the public schools until he became a high school pupil. Starting out in the business world in Bridgeport. he learned the machinist's trade as an employe of the American Ordnance Company of Bridgeport, there remaining for three years. He was afterward employed for about eleven years at the Locomobile works and, winning promotion from time to time, became assistant foreman of the rough testing department. But he was ambitions to engage in business on his own
DR. W. LEE WEADON
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account and bent every energy toward carrying out that purpose. At length he felt that his savings and his experience justified the step and on the 28th of April, 1913, he established the Auto Service Company, which was incorporated with Harry F. Mitchell as president; Edward R. Green, vice president; and W. A. Smith, treasurer and Fred J. Smith, secretary. The business is located at 225 John street, where they conduct an auto repair shop, thoroughly equipped so as to turn out first class work. Their business has grown steadily and they now employ twenty skilled mechanics. Theirs is the largest repair shop in Bridgeport today and their success has been based upon the excellence of the work which they turn out.
In 1904 Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage to Miss Clara L. Birks, of Bridgeport, and they have three children: Dorothy L., Harry F., Jr., and Richard Armstrong. In the seventeen years of his residence in Bridgeport, Mr. Mitchell has not only worked his way upward in business connections but has also won the warm regard of all with whom social or business relations have brought him in contact.
EDWARD R. GREEN.
Edward R. Green, vice president of the Auto Service Company of Bridgeport, with which business he has been connected sinee its organization in 1913, was born in Sodus, New York, in 1884, a son of Will Sprague and Virginia A. Green, who in 1885 removed from the Empire state to Greenwich, Connecticut, where on attaining the proper age the son became a public school pupil, passing through consecutive grades until he had acquired a high school education. Early in his business career he spent several years in New York as representative of the B. F. Sturdevant Company of Boston and in 1908 he came to Bridgeport to enter the employ of the Locomobile Company in the service department. His efficiency constituted the basis of his retention there until 1913, when, ambitious to engage in business on his own account, he became one of the organizers of the Auto Service Company, in which undertaking he was associated with Harry F. Mitchell, the latter becoming president, with Mr. Green as vice president, W. A. Smith, treasurer, and Fred J. Smith, secretary. They have established the largest business in their line in Bridgeport, having an auto repair shop which is splendidly equipped with first class machinery for doing the best possible work.
In 1910 Mr. Green was married to Miss Vera W. Knapp, of Greenwich, Connecticut, and they have one child, Doris. In his fraternal relations Mr. Green is a Mason and he exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the craft.
HENRY EDWIN WATERHOUSE, M. D.
Dr. Henry Edwin Waterhouse, physician and surgeon of Bridgeport, where he began practice early in 1903, was born in Centreville, Rhode Island, March 3, 1877, the only son of Henry A. and Caroline E. (Reed) Waterhouse. The father, a woolen manufacturer, is now living retired at Mount Vernon, New York, but the mother passed away March 16, 1916. The only daughter, Mrs. Grace Reed Coughlan, is the wife of George R. Coughlan, of Mount Vernon. The Waterhouse family is an old one of Rhode Island and its male representatives were for many generations connected with woolen manufacturing there.
Dr. Waterhouse prepared for college in the public schools of his native state and in Dean Academy of Franklin, Massachusetts. He afterward pursued a special medieal course in Brown University from 1895 until 1898 and in 1902 he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. He afterward spent a year as interne in the Bellevue Hospital of New York and early in 1903 located in Bridgeport, where he has since
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remained in active practice, having his office at No. 430 State street until May, 1917, when he removed to No. 30 Elmwood Place, where he completed a handsome residence. He specializes in obstetrics and is serving on the staff of the Bridgeport Public Hospital, being chief of the obstetrical department. In addition he has a large private practice and is most prompt and conscientious in the performance of his professional duties.
On the 12th of December, 1914, Dr. Waterhouse was married to Miss Minnie Frances Bowes, a graduate nurse of the Bridgeport Hospital, who was born and reared in Danbury, Connecticut. Dr. Waterhouse, appreciative of the social amenities of life, holds membership in the Seaside Club and in the Weatogue Club of Stratford. He is likewise a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine, while along strictly professional lines he has con- nection with the Bridgeport, the Fairfield County and the Connecticut State Medical Societies, the American Medical Association and the New York Academy of Medicine. Laudable ambi- tion has brought him to his present position as an able and successful representative of the medical fraternity of Bridgeport.
MRS. FLORA L. (CLARK) DECKAND.
One of the best known real estate operators of Fairfield county is Mrs. Flora L. Deckand, who is a well known resident of Stratford, where for several years she has made her home and has contributed much toward the upbuilding and improvement of that section of the state. Mrs. Deckand is a native of Connecticut, born in the town of Torrington, and is a daughter of Herman and Ellen (Holcomb) Clark. Her girlhood days were spent in her native town, where she attended school, and in young womanhood she came to Bridgeport, where she found employment in the designing department of the Lyons Corset Company. She later accepted a position in the embroidery department of the same factory and from there went to the floss machine, which she learned to operate, while later she had management of eleven machines. It was after her marriage to Lewis Curtis, who was a well known real estate man of Bridgeport, that she laid the foundation for her future usefulness in that field. Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the real estate business under the guidance of her husband, she was able to successfully carry on the business after his death and has continued active in that field in Bridgeport and in Stratford since. In her marriage to Willis Ives, a retired police officer of New York, she found a man of sympathy and aid in her business ventures. With the help of her husband she continued her building and real estate operations and after the death of Mr. Ives she located in Stratford, purchasing the Robert Curtis homestead, where she now resides with her present husband, Joseph H. Deckand, whom she married in Egypt in 1913. Mr. Deckand represented the Standard Oil Company. He and his wife spent eight months in travel, visiting the Holy Land and other places of interest in Asia and Europe. Since her return Mrs. Deckand has continued to reside in Stratford and to give her time and attention to real estate and building operations. Besides her interests in Bridgeport she has built the cottages or bungalows at Eleanor Park and at Floral Park. She has instituted bungalow building in order that each family may have its own home, believing it to be in the interests of health and comfort. In her building operations she obtains the best materials from the National Lumber Company of Bay City, Michigan. The materials are finished and shipped to Stratford already prepared to erect the home, which is built with every up-to-date improvement. Mrs. Deckand gives much personal atten- tion to the building of these homes and her efforts have been an important element in the improvement of Stratford. She is a woman of good business judgment and of progressive ideas and her capabilities have found expression in her success. The excellence of ber plans is seen in the full realization of the attempt. She is greatly assisted by her husband,
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who is a man of broad ideas and wide knowledge, having traveled extensively, from the Pacific coast to Labrador and widely as well over Europe and Asia.
Mrs. Deckand takes a deep interest in Stratford, in its growth and progress, and does everything possible to further the welfare of the town. She is a member of the United Congregational church of Bridgeport, but attends the services of the Congregational church at Stratford. She takes little or no interest in societies or clubs of any kind, but is strongly in favor of woman's suffrage in so far as it would give the woman who has property the right to vote for the man or woman who taxes that property. She possesses, too, strong domestic tastes and much thought and attention are given to her home, which in its rest and quiet proves most attractive.
MICHAEL ROTH.
Michael Roth, treasurer of the Adams-Roth Baking Company and thus actively identified with one of the leading business enterprises of this character in Bridgeport, was born in Austria in 1866, and after spending the period of his boyhood and youth in his native land came to the United States in 1893, arriving at New York city on the 14th of May. While a financial depression overspread the country in that year it did not har his natural energy or hamper his efforts, and the persisteney which he displayed, guided by sound intelligence, made him the owner of a retail bakery in Bridgeport in 1896. He had been a resident of this city since December, 1893, and for a year and a half was employed at the Hochheiser bakery, after which he spent six months at the H. J. Orton bakery. On the expiration of that period he engaged in business on his own account and was thus engaged until 1916, when he joined Sidney R. Adams in organizing the Adams-Roth Baking Company, of which he is the treasurer and the manager of the retail department. This is one of the largest baking enterprises of the city, employing fifty-three men. The condition of the plant is perfectly sanitary, the utmost care being exercised as to cleanliness and also as to the standard of excellence of their products. They use eleven delivery trucks and sixteen head of horses. Seventy-five per cent of their business is in Bridgeport and suburbs, with twenty- five per cent of their goods being shipped to other parts of the state, and they deliver all of their own goods to the Bridgeport customers.
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