USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > History of Bridgeport and vicinity > Part 57
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CHARLES H. SHAPIRO.
Charles H. Shapiro, a well known member of the Bridgeport bar, was born March 5, 1881, and settled in Bridgeport in 1888, receiving his education in the grammar and high schools.
In preparation for a professional career he entered Yale Law School and was graduated LL. B. cum laude in 1903. In June of the same year he was admitted to practice before the Connecticut har and has since followed his profession in Bridgeport, where he ix asso- ciated with his brother, Joseph G. Shapiro, under the firm name of Shapiro & Shapiro.
On December 19, 1909, Mr. Shapiro was united in marriage to Miss Stella Ethel Rosen, a daughter of Dr. M. S. Rosen, and they are the parents of three children, a son and two daughters. Mr. Shapiro is a member of the Chi Tan Kappa, a legal fraternity, the American Bar Association, the State Bar Association and the Commercial Law League of America. He is also a member of the National Republican League, American Jewish Historical Society, Elks, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Moose, and the B'nai B'rith, of which he is second vice president of District Grand Lodge No. 1, being widely known throughout southern New England for his fraternal activities.
Although his firm enjoys an extensive practice, being among the leading lawyers in
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this part of the state in federal and mercantile matters, Mr. Shapiro has found time to devote himself to a study of immigration and naturalization problems and has frequently been invited to deliver addresses on these subjects in various sections of the east, being for some time on the staff of lecturers of the New York board of education and of the North American Civic League for Immigrants. On the 17th of June, 1917, he was elected representative at large from Connecticut to the American Jewish Congress to be held in Washington.
WILLIAM H. CALHOUN. D. D. S.
The Security building is largely the center of dental activity in Bridgeport and among those who are successfully practicing there is numbered Dr. William H. Calhoun, one of the younger representatives of the profession but already recognized as an able and successful dentist of the city. He was born in Terryville, Connecticut, November 2, 1885, a son of Seth H. and Eleanor (Doolittle) Calhoun, who are now residents of Bridgeport, where the father is well known as a contractor.
Dr. Calhoun was only a year old when brought by his parents to this city. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of life for him in his boyhood day>. He attended the public schools and in 1909 he won his D. D. S. degree upon graduation from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, having completed the regular three years' course. He has practiced continuously in Bridgeport since 1910 and has occupied his present suite of rooms in the Security building since the 7th of June, 1916.
On the 30th of June. 1913. Dr. Calhoun was united in marriage to Miss Whilhelmina Reid, of Bridgeport, her native city, and they have one son. Newton Reid, who was born April 4, 1914. Dr. Calhoun enjoys a game of tennis when professional duties leave him leisure for such sport. He is a member of the Seaside Club, but his practice ocenpies the greater part of his attention. He is now serving on the staff of the Bridgeport Hospital as assistant to Dr. Robert W. H. Strang and he is a member of both the Connecticut State and the American Dental Societies, and thus he has intimate knowledge of what is being accomplished hy the profession and the improved methods which are from time to time introduced.
CHARLES G. SCHWARZ.
Charles G. Schwarz, president of the Schwarz Brothers Company of Bridgeport, doing a line of cabinet work and finishing and building contract work, possesses the foresight and ability which enable him to recognize and utilize opportunities, and thus he has worked his way gradually upward until today he is the active head of a business employing two hundred and fifty people. Of German birth. his natal day was August 17, 1874, and when a youth of seventeen years he came to Bridgeport, where he has made his home since 1891. Here he followed the carpenter's trade in the employ of others for about seven years, but ambitious to engage in business on his own account, he carefully saved his earnings until he felt that his capital and experience justified an independent undertaking. Accordingly in 1898 the firm of Schwarz Brothers was organized by Charles G. and Mathias Schwarz. They had their first shop on Cedar street. where they did carpenter contract work, and in 1900 they removed to No. 166 Lindley street. Their plant was increased by the addition of a planing mill in 1903 and there business was continued until 1911, when their place was destroyed by fire. At that time they built a new factory on River street and in 1916 doubled the capacity by the erection of a building of cement block construction, which is
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sixty-one by two hundred and ten feet. They do a general line of cabinet work and finish- ing, together with building contract work, and their mill is operated by steam power. They employ upwards of two hundred and fifty men and they have erected some of the best residences in the city, together with the store of Logan brothers. the Nussenfeld building on Main street and many other public and private buildings. The officers of the company are: Charles G Schwarz, president; Mathias Schwarz. vice president ; John G. Schwarz, treasurer; and Jolin G. Schwarz, Jr., secretary. The business has constantly grown and developed from a small beginning and the trade is still rapidly growing, the firm being recognized as leaders in their line in Bridgeport.
In the year 1896 Charles G. Schwarz was mited in marriage to Miss Maria Jetter, a native of Germany, and they have one child. Frida. Mr. Schwarz has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to America. Leaving the fatherland when a youth of seventeen years, he here sought the opportunities which are untrammeled by caste or class and by resolute spirit and persistency of purpose he has steadily worked his way upward, each forward step in his career bringing him a broader outlook and wider opportunities.
CHARLES ROBERT CLARKE.
Charles Robert Clarke, attorney at law practicing at the bar of Bridgeport, his native city, was born November 17, 1864. His father, the late Hon. Robert Toucey Clarke, served as mayor of Bridgeport in the '70s and for many years was prominently identified with the financial interests of the city as a banker, serving for an extended period as cashier of the City National Bank. He was born at Newtown, Connectient. Ferbruary 11. 1830, a son of Charles and Betsey (Fairchild) Clarke, both of whom were natives of Newtown. The Hon. Robert T. Clarke was married on the 20th of February, 1858, to Harriet Eliza Peck, who was born at Brookfield, Connecticut, October 19, 1831, a daughter of Henry Lyman and Eliza (Smith) Peck. who were likewise born in Brookfield. The death of Robert T. Clarke occurred .July 21, 1899, and his wife departed this life on the 24th of May. 1906, leaving a son Henry P., now deceased, a daughter, Mrs. William C. Haight, whose home is in Brookfield and Charles Robert Clarke.
Both parents came of old Connecticut families of English lineage. In England the name was originally spelled Clerke but was pronounced as it is today. The only brother of Charles R. Clarke was Henry Peck Clarke, of South Carolina, who for his first wife married Julia Hurd, a granddaughter of the late Phineas T. Barnum. There was one child born of that marriage who is now Mrs. Henry N. (Clarke) Carrier, of Brevard, North Carolina, and who is a great-granddaughter of P. T. Barnum as well as a niece of Charles R. Clarke. The last named is a nephew of the Rev. Dr. Sylvester Clarke. once a prominent Episcopal clergyman of Bridgeport.
In the attaiment of his education Charles R. Clarke attended Harry Peck's School for Boys at Greenwich, Connecticut, and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1881. He determined upon the practice of law as a life work and with that end in view became a student in the office and under the direction of Benjamin S. Clark, of New York city, who though of the same name was not a relative. He studied there for three years, acting as general office boy and assistant, and in the fall of 1884 he matriculated in the law depart- ment of the New York University, from which he was graduated in 1886, winning the LL. B. degree. He then practiced in New York from 1886 until 1890 and in the latter year went to Columbia, South Carolina, where he followed his profession. He was admitted to the bar of New York in 1886 and to the bar of South Carolina in 1896 and in 1914 was admitted to practice in the courts of Connecticut. While in the law school he was vice president of his class. He returned to Bridgeport in 1905 and has here since remained, giving hi-
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attention to his professional duties. He belongs to both the Fairfield County Bar Associa- tion and the Connecticut State Bar Association.
On the 6th of September, 1898, Mr. Clarke was married to Miss Martha Elizabeth Griffen. of Brookfield, and they have three children: Philip Griffen, Elizabeth and Charles Robert. The family home is at No. 854 Colorado avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Clarke are active members of St. George's Episcopal church, in which he is serving as senior warden.
JAMES HENRY BLAKEMAN.
State records bear testimony to the public spirit of James Henry Blakeman and his effective efforts toward bringing about legislation of vital worth to the commonwealth. He is now serving for the fourth term as a member of the state legislature and has intro- duced and supported many bills which have found their way to the statute books of the state. Long before he was called upon to serve as a law maker he had demonstrated his fidelity to his native land by active service on the battlefields of the south. His life record began at Stratford, Connecticut. November 20, 1841. He was born on the old Blakeman homestead, just north of his present residence, which has stood for two hundred years, while the dwelling upon the old homestead is even older. Both his father and his grand- father bore the name of James Blakeman and the ancestral line in America dates back to 1639, in which year Rev. Adam Blakeman took up his abode at Stratford, being one of the three who founded the town. His mother bore the maiden name of Cornelia Salmon and was a representative of an old family of Trumbull, Connecticut.
James H. Blakeman largely acquired his education in the district school at Strat- ford, but spent one term in Miltord, Connecticut. In early manhood he engaged in the contracting business for about two years. He was a young man of about twenty-one when, in response to the country's call for aid, he enlisted in July, 1862, as a member of Company D. Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served as a private throughout the war. The first important engagement in which he participated was at Gettysburg and on the first day of the battle he was severely wounded. He was captured there but with the final defeat of the Confederate troops he was left inside the Union lines. Ten months passed ere he had recovered from his wounds, after which he rejoined his regiment in Florida. He continued in active service nntil mustered out at Hiltons Head. South Carolina. in August, 1865, when he immediately returned home. Dur- ing the last year of his service he was a member of the regimental band, with headquarters at St. Augustine, Florida. He still has in his possession the Springfield musket which he carried through the Civil war and he also has the cavalry saber which was carried by his grandfather, James Blakeman, in the Revolutionary war-a sword of French man- ufacture. In fact he has in his possession many quaint and interesting relies of historical value, around which are clustered many interesting memories.
It was soon after the war, or in October, 1866, that Mr. Blakeman was married to Miss Amelia J. Burr, of Monroe. Connecticut, who passed away March 13, 1913. In their family were three children. Mattie C .. the eldest, became the wife of Reuben Spamer and died in 1911, leaving two children, Lawrence Blakeman and Marion Pearl. The latter is now studying chemistry and domestic science in the Simmons College of Boston, Massa- chusetts, while the former wedded Edith Virginia Beeman, of Bridgeport, and has one child, Velmore Blakeman Spamer. Grace Emily became the wife of Sherman W. Eddy, of Avon. Connecticut, who is superintendent of a large industrial plant there, and they have three sons. Bernard, Julian and Donald. The third child of the family was David, who died in infancy.
During all the years of his residence in Stratford since his return from the Civil war
JAMES HENRY BLAKEMAN
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Mr. Blakeman has been an active factor in the public life of the community. For twenty- two years he has been a member of the board of assessors and has held almost every office in Stratford save that of selectman. In 1897 he was elected to the state legislature and is now serving for the fourth term in that body. He is now seventy-five years old and is the oldest man in either branch of the general assembly. He is the father of many bills, among which is one that is especially notable-the bill requiring saloons to remain closed on Memorial Day. Mr. Blakeman is a member of the Congregational church. He belongs also to the Cupheag Club and to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while for twenty-eight years he has been a member of the Grange, in which he has held every office. He belongs also to the Sons of the American Revolution and to Elias Howe, Jr., Post, No. 3, G. A. R. of which he is senior vice commander. The records show that his present home, which he purchased in 1866 from a distant relative, was many years before a den of thieves and his patent and deed to the present land date back to King George of England. The place is beautifully situated on the Housatonic river, about five miles from its month, and is one of the historic and interesting old landmarks of this section of the country, forming a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present.
JOSEPH G. SHAPIRO.
Joseph G. Shapiro, an active member of the Bridgeport bar. practicing as a member of the firm of Shapiro & Sbapiro, was born in New York city, Jannary 18, 1886, but prac- tically his entire life has been passed in Bridgeport. He studied law at Yale, completing his course in 1907, and received the degree of LL. B. cum lande and in the same year was admitted to the Connecticut bar, after which he joined his brother, Charles H. Shapiro, in organizing the present firm of Shapiro & Shapiro. They occupy an enviable position at the Bridgeport bar, and have acted as counsel in many important cases tried in the state and federal courts in recent years in this district. He is city attorney of the city court and corporation counsel of Shelton, a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar Association and the Commercial Law League of America. A stalwart republican, he is a member of the National Republican League, and also belongs to the Yale Club of New York and the Chi Tan Kappa. Among fraternities his association is with the Masons, the Elks and the B'nai B'rith. He resides in Shelton but maintains his offices in Bridgeport. He was married on June 19, 1917, to Helen Rosenstein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Rosenstein.
BERNARD FAUST, D. D. S.
Among the younger representatives of the dental profession practicing in Bridgeport is Dr. Bernard Faust, a University of Pennsylvania graduate of the class of 1915. It was not until the 18th of January, 1917, that he opened an office in this city, where he now has splendidly appointed dental quarters at No. 1241 State street. He was here born on the 13th of April, 1891, and is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. George Fanst, who are now well known citizens of Bridgeport. The latter bore the maiden name of Sarah Bleiweiss and both were born in Russian Poland bnt were married in Germany. Soon afterward they crossed the Atlantic to the United States and after living for about a year in New York they came to Bridgeport, where they still reside, having now made their bome here since the '80s. For twenty years the father conducted a barber shop under the old Pequonnock Bank, which stood on the site of the First Bridgeport National Bank. Dr. Faust is the only Vol. II-24
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son of the family but has two sisters, one of whom is older and the other younger, while both are married and still live in Bridgeport.
Dr. Faust was graduated from the Bridgeport high school with the class of 1910 and he completed a course in the dental department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1915. He then located for practice in Cleveland, Ohio, and was afterward at Hartford and at Stam- ford, Connecticut, for a brief period but on the 18th of January, 1917, he returned to Bridgeport and opened an office at 1241 State street, where already he has built up a good practice that is steadily growing as he demonstrates his ability to cope with intricate professional problems and execute difficult surgical work. He belongs to the Bridgeport Dental Society and is now assistant on the oral surgical staff at St. Vincent's Hospital, Bridgeport.
During the three years which he spent as a student in the dental department of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Faust served as a member of the freshman track team. He won a quarter-mile run in Celtic Park of New York city in 1910, for which he was awarded a gold medal. He obtains his recreation chiefly through the athletic avenues opened by the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he is a member. He still adheres to the Hebrew faith and he is a member of the Alpha Omega, a dental fraternity. Those who know him, and he has a wide acquaintance, find him an alert, enterprising and progressive young man whose course is characterized by steady advancement.
WARD M. COWLES.
An Ohioan by birth, a resident of Connecticut by choice, Ward M. Cowles has become an active business man of Bridgeport as manager for the Sterling Tire Corporation. He was born in Warren, Ohio. April 11. 1872, his parents being Warren W. and Mary (Hiltibiddle) Cowles, the former a native of Southington, Connecticut, and the latter born in Niles, Ohio. The Cowles family is of English lineage and was founded in America at an early period in the development of the new world. The mother was a second cousin of President Mckinley. The father was a mason contractor and followed that business for many years but is now living retired in Florida. His wife has passed away.
The family removed from Ohio to Thomaston, Connecticut, in 1876 and there Ward M. Cowles acquired a public school education, passing through consecutive grades to the high school. When his textbooks were put aside he began working with his father in the contracting business and learned the mason's trade. In young manhood he became connected with the circus business, in which he engaged in a small way for a few years. Afterward he engaged in the contracting business with his father and ultimately was made assistant building inspector of Bridgeport under Dan Rowlands, serving in that capacity for two and a half years. In February, 1917, the Sterling Tire Corporation was organized and succeeded to the business of the Rutherford Rubber Company, which was established in Bridgeport in July. 1912. Their first location was in room 16 in the Howland building, a room sixteen feet square, and during the first year the company sold tires to the value of forty thousand dollars, Ward M. Cowles being manager of the business at that time. Ile built up a trade through mail service and personal solicitation and he now has a very large business, selling in considerable measure to out of town trade. In 1916 the business amounted to one hundred thousand dollars. The company handles auto tires, tubes, patches, etc. In December, 1914, a removal was made to the present location at No. 340 Fairfield street. where they have a fine place of business, the store being beautifully finished and splendidly equipped. With the reorganization of their interests under the name of the Sterling Tire Corporation, Mr. Cowles continued as a manager and is now the directing head of the Bridgeport branch of the enterprise. From the beginning the trade has constantly increased and something of the
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spirit of industry and progressiveness which characterizes the undertaking is indicated in the fact that today the corporation owns and controls twenty-seven stores and expects to open ten more in 1917. Mr. Cowles is a stockholder in the parent concern, the Rutherford Rubber Company, which is located in Rutherford, New Jersey. The Sterling Tire Corpora- tion expects to reach three and a half million dollars in its business sales in 1917. Mr. Cowles is the company's expert in establishing the stores, having promoted fourteen of the twenty-seven. The Bridgeport branch employs about eight people and the business at this point, as in other locations, is steadily growing and developing. Mr. Cowles closely studies the trade in every particular, is watchful of the market and of the local demand and dis- plays almost intuitive wisdom in selecting locations for branch stores.
In June, 1898, occurred the marriage of Mr. Cowles and Miss Nellie I. Meyers, of Bridge- port, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Moore) Meyers. They have three children, Warren W., Annabelle and Mary. The family attend the Episcopal church and Mr. Cowles is well known in fraternal circles, holding membership in St. John's Lodge. F. & A. M. He has also attained the Knight Templar degree in the York Rite and the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise connected with the Knights of Pythias, having become a charter member of Park City Lodge. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but while he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day and is never neglectful of the duties of citizenship, he does not care to hold office, but prefers to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, which are rapidly developing, making his one of the important commercial undertakings of Bridgeport,
EDWARD MACKIE MACCUTCHEON.
Edward Mackie MacCutcheon is well known in insurance circles in Bridgeport as the district agent of the Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York He was born in Brooklyn on the 15th of April, 1881, a son of Edward Mackie MacCutcheon. for whom he was named. The father, a native of Scotland, died about twenty years ago. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Frances Mackie, is of Irish descent and is now living in Philadelphia. Edward M. MacCutcheon is their only son but has two sisters: Mrs. Edward Randall, living in Philadelphia ; and Mrs. Henry Newton Meeker, of Brooklyn, New York.
In his native city of Brooklyn, Edward M. MacCutcheon spent his youthful days and there attended school to the age of ten years, when it seemed necessary that he provide for his own support and he was obliged to put aside his textbooks. Since then he has had no publie school training, but he has been an apt pupil in the school of experience and, realizing the worth and value of intellectual development, he has devoted many evenings to study in the classes of the Young Men's Christian Association, mainly the Central Association of Brooklyn. His first position was that of cash boy in a large retail dry goods store, where be received the munificent salary of two dollars a week. He remained in the employ of that firm for about five years, a fact indicative of his faithfulness, while his ability was further attested in various promotions that came to him with a consequent increase in salary. His last work in the store was in the clock department and there he acquired a knowledge of clock making and repairing. When fifteen years of age he entered a large jewelry establishment of Brooklyn, with which he was connected for seven years in the clock and watch repairing department. For two or three years thereafter he occupied a position with a jewelry house of New York city but about 1908 made his initial step in the field of insurance in connection with the casualty branch of the business. His first employment along that line was as clerk in the liability department of the Empire State Surety Company of New York city and he has since been closely identified with casualty insurance. He was with the Empire State Surety Company for some time and then became
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an outside solicitor for the Union Casualty Company of Philadelphia. A year later he entered the employ of the Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York city at its Philadelphia office and has since been with that company. He came to Bridgeport in November, 1911, as district agent and has now held the position for six years, during which period the com- pany's business at this point has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth. His district embraces all of Fairfield county, Connecticut, and a large portion of upper New York.
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