USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > History of Bridgeport and vicinity > Part 61
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on the side of right, progress and improvement has ever been maintained and with his growing powers and opportunities he has indeed become a factor for good in the world's work.
HAMILTON S. SHELTON.
Hamilton S. Shelton, president of the Connecticut National Bank, is one of Bridgeport's most honored and respected citizens, not alone by reason of the success which he has achieved, but also owing to the straightforward business policy which he has ever followed. He was born in Bridgeport in 1863 and is a representative of old New England families. His father, John T. Shelton, was also a native of this city, bis birth having occurred in the family home at Main street and Fairfield avenue in 1837, while the grandmother, who bore the maiden name of Ann Tweedy was also born on the same corner in 1801.
No unusual advantages, educational or otherwise, qualified Hamilton S. Shelton for his business career. He was a lad of but fourteen years when in 1877 he entered the Con- necticut National Bank in a clerical capacity. Since then he has filled every position in the bank, successive promotions bringing him at last to official position, resulting eventually in his election to the presidency. He is also a trustee of the Bridgeport Savings Bank, a director of the Bridgeport Morris Plan Company, president of the city sinking' fund com- mission and a member of the charter commission that is drafting a new charter providing for the commission form of government and a city manager. Monetary affairs have always had a deep interest for him and he stands today among the prominent financiers of the state, having largely mastered intricate and involved problems of finance.
In 1892 Mr. Shelton was united in marriage to Miss Emma Sherwood and they have one son, Philo S., now a student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. Mr. Shelton is a member of the Seaside and Brooklawn Country Clubs and fraternally has association with the Masons, while his religious faith is evidenced in his membership in St. John's Episcopal church, of which he is one of the vestrymen. He has long been greatly interested in philanthropic and humanitarian enterprises and for some years was a trustee and treasurer of the Burroughs Home and is a member of the board of trustees and treasurer of the Gould Homestead, a summer vacation home for women in the town of Fairfield. He studies closely the great political, economic and sociological problems of the country and takes an advanced stand upon many points bearing upon the welfare of the individual and the race.
LOUIS E. SAGE, D. D. S.
Dr. Louis E. Sage has a well appointed dental office in the Security building and has now for forty-five years been engaged in active practice in Bridgeport, so that he is pioneer in this field, having but one predecessor. Dr. Clinton W. Strang. Dr. Sage was born in Winsted, Connecticut, May 9, 1851, and is a son of Enos and Elizabeth A. (Culver) Sage, who were natives of Colebrook, Connecticut, and representatives of old families of this state. In the paternal line Dr. Sage is descended from a Welshman who came to the United States in 1642, while his mother's people were English. Sixteen of the ancestors of the Doctor served as soldiers in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, all being representatives of the Sage family, while the Culvers maintained allegiance to the crown. Enos Sage was a well known merchant of Winsted, Connecticut, for many years. He passed away in 1894, while his wife survived until 1906.
DR. LOCES E. SAGE
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When Dr. Sage was nine years of age his parents removed with the family to Ilait- ford, Connecticut, where he attended the public schools, and on attaining his majority he entered upon the study of dentistry, pursuing the work for a year in a dental office of Winsted. At the end of that time he came to Bridgeport and for ten years, beginning in 1872, was assistant in the dental office of Dr. Clinton W. Strang. In the meantime he had pursued a two years' course in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, which conferred upon him the D. D. S. degree in 1876. Dr. Sage has now been engaged in active practice in Bridgeport for forty-five years and only Dr. Strang has for a longer period been identified with the profession here. Like his predecessor, he has attained to a position of eminence in his chosen calling. Long experience, close study and discriminating judgment have splendidly qualified him for his work and kept him in a position of professional leadership. He belongs to the State, National and Northeastern Dental Societies, and while long a representative of the profession, he keeps in as close touch with modern scientific methods of practice as the youngest graduate.
On the 20th of September, 1876, Dr. Sage was married to Miss Annie Louise Hopkins, a native of Bridgeport and a daughter of Alfred Hopkins, formerly a prominent merchant here. They became parents of a son and a daughter. The former, Dr. Alfred H. Sage, a graduate of the dental department of the University of Pennsylvania and now a practicing dentist of New York city, married Emma Meachen in 1900 and they have a son, Louis Alfred. who was born March 23, 1903. The daughter, Elizabeth Louise, is at home. The family residence is at No. 60 Lenox avenue, theirs being a comfortable home which was erected by Dr. Sage in 1900. His chief recreation is motoring and he was one of the first residents of Bridgeport to own an automobile. He has ever been actuated by a spirit of progressiveness and stands for advancement in public affairs as he does in his profession. His aid and influence are given to many measures for the general good and Bridgeport numbers him among its most valued citizens.
HENRY O. CANFIELD.
Henry O. Canfield was one of the founders and promoters of an important industry of Bridgeport that is still conducted under the name of the H. O. Canfield Rubber Manufacturing Company. In his business career he made steady progress. Starting out in life empty handed, he worked his way steadily upward and his achievements represented the fit utiliza- tion of his innate powers and talents. He was born in Naugatuck, Connecticut, November 19, 1847, a son of Jared H. and Mary A. Canfield, whose family numbered three children, the brother and sister of Henry O. Canfield being Isaac A. and Elizabeth C.
After completing a course of study in the public schools of his native city, Henry O. Canfield studied abroad in France and in Germany from 1860 until 1865. Upon his return to the new world he was for several years engaged in the dry goods business with S. B. Chittenden & Company of New York city. He afterward turned bis attention to railroad business in the west, where railroad interests were being rapidly developed. For a time he was in Detroit, Michigan, where he was employed by the Diamond Match Company, and in 1871, at the age of twenty-four years, he became engaged in transportation work in Pekin, Illinois, for the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville Railroad Company, acting as local agent in Pekin. He rose rapidly and in 1876 was advanced to the position of general freight agent, in which capacity he served until 1880, when the railroad was sold to the Wabash system. His next position in railway circles was that of commissioner of a number of various railroad pools, which the common carriers at that time had in operation.
Mr. Canfield's identification with Bridgeport dated from 1885, in which year he became the secretary and general manager of the Canfield Rubber Company. On the 1st of Novem-
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ber, 1889, he resigned to enter the rubber business on his own account. The Canfield Rubber Company was founded by Jared H. Canfield, of Middleton, Connecticut, and was incorporated as the Canfield Rubber Company in February, 1885, at which time business was begun on Railroad avenue, at the corner of Myrtle street, with H. O. Canfield as the manager. At the time Orcutt's History was published the company employed forty operatives in the manufacture of the Canfield seamless dress shields and mould work of all kinds, together with various small articles in rubber. Soon after the business was established they pur- chased the rubber mould works of A. C. Andress, of New Haven. This was done at the suggestion of H. O. Canfield, who in all of his business relations manifested keen sagacity and notable business insight. He enjoyed the reputation of being not only a man of thorough and practical ideas but he was also skilled in the art of working in the various materials of which the products of the company are formed and obtained a finished product that was the acme of perfection. The history of the family shows that three generations have been connected with the rubber business, extending over a century of practical study of the industry, and H. O. Canfield made rapid advance along that line, adding improvement after improvement and broadening the scope of the business, his labors he ing attended with notable and successful achievement.
Mr. Canfield was united in marriage to Miss Imogene C. Freshour and to them were born three children: Joseph B .. Albert H. and Henry B. The death of the father occurred in 1910. He was prominent socially and was connected with many organizations. He was also an active thirty-third degree Mason and he was a member of the Seaside, Algonquin and the Brooklawn Country Clubs. His political allegiance was given to the republican party and his religious belief was evidenced in his membership in the South Congregational church. His life, fraught with honorable purposes, was characterized by continuous advance- ment not only along the path of success but in those lines which win high regard and the unequivocal respect of one's fellows.
WILLIAM WALLACE JONES.
William Wallace Jones, superintendent of the Bridgeport Hospital, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, May 14, 1859, a son of William Wallace and Marietta (Skinner) Jones. The former was a son of Alpheus Jones and the latter was a daughter of Charles Skinner and both the father and mother are now deceased. The Skinner family has long been repre- sented in Connecticut and in fact John Skinner was one of the founders of the town of Hartford, coming with Rev. Thomas Hooker's party in 1636. In the paternal line William W. Jones comes of an ancestry that has been represented for a still longer period on the American continent, the family having been established in Massachusetts in 1622. Among his ancestors were those who served in the French and Indian wars and in the Revolutionary war.
At the usual age William W. Jones became a public school pupil and mastered the branches of learning taught in the successive grades until he became a high school student. His textbooks were put aside in 1876, when he was a youth of seventeen years, and he then went to work as an employe in the Weed sewing machine shop, after which he occu- pied a position with the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company at Hartford. Connecticut. He later spent fourteen years with the William H. Bulkeley Dry Goods Company of the same city, and in 1894 he went to New Haven as assistant superintendent of the New Haven Hospital. He held that position until 1899, when he was appointed superintendent of the Bridgeport Hospital and has since acted in that capacity, doing splendid work by reason of his businesslike and systematic management of the affairs of the institution.
In October. 1888, Mr. Jones was married to Miss Ida Buckingham. a daughter of Daniel
WIJ LIAM W. JONES
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Webster and Mary ( Williams) Buckingham and a representative of old families of Middle- sex county, Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one child, Raymond Buckingham, who was born March 31, 1890, and now occupies a responsible position with the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company. He married Ruth Bryant Bristol, of Stratford, daughter of William B. Bristol. They have one son, Kenneth Buckingham, born March 23, 1916.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones hold membership in the Congregational church and he has member- ship with the Masons and with the Royal Arcanum. In the former organization he is identi- fied with St. John's Lodge, No. 3. A. F. & A. M .; Jerusalem Chapter. No. 13, R. A. M; Hamilton Commandery, No. 5, K. T .: Jerusalem Council, No. 16, R. & S. M., Washington Council of the Princes of Jerusalem: Pequonnock Chapter, Rose Croix: Lafayette Consistory, A. & A. S. R .: and Pyramid Temple of the Mystic Shrine, while both he and his wife are members of Orient Chapter of the Eastern Star. Mr. Jones also belongs to the Algonquin Club. to the Founders and Patriots of America and to the Sons of the American Revolution, while in his political views he is a republican. He has back of him an ancestry of which he has every reason to be proud. Patriotism has always been numbered among their marked characteristics and the same spirit of loyalty to country is manifest in William Wallace Jones.
HENRY P. STAGG.
Henry P. Stagg, living retired at Stratford, has here made his home since 1879, and for thirty years he was the efficient town elerk, while in other capacities he has long been con- nected with interests of vital importance to eity and state. He has now passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey, his birth having here occurred on the 23d of August, 1836. He is a son of Joseph H. Stagg and a grandson of Agur Curtis, the latter one of the early settlers of Stratford and a descendant of the old Curtis family, which was one of the first to establish a home on the present site of the city.
Henry P. Stagg obtained his education in the public schools and in Sedgwick Academy of Stratford and at the age of sixteen years went to New York city, where he entered the employ of the Booth & Edgar Sugar Refining Company. At the time of the Civil war he became a member of the famous Seventh Regiment of New York and is now connected with the Seventh Regiment Veterans' Association. After living for some time in the metropolis he returned to Stratford in 1879 and has here remained continuously for thirty-eight consecu- tive years. During this period he ocenpied the position of town clerk for three decades, his long service standing in incontrovertible proof of his abilty and fidelty. At length he resigned and is now living retired. At one time he served on the Stratford school hoard and in 1903 became a member of the constitutional convention.
It was in November, 1861, that Mr. Stagg was married to Miss Mary E. King, a daughter of Solomon King, who passed away in New York city. The children of this mar- riage are as follows: Joseph H., the eldest, president of the Hawley Hardware Company and well known as an alderman of Bridgeport, is mentioned elsewhere in this work. Charles K. is engaged in business in Stratford. Helen P., now living in Merchantsville, New Jersey, became the wife of William H. Rogers, who was a descendant of the old Walker family and who was killed in a railroad accident in 1913. To Mr. and Mrs. Rogers were born five children, Helen Marie, William Henry, Ray Lawrence. Charles Stagg and Robert Griswold. Harry L. Stagg, the third son of the family, is an officer of the United States army and is now on indefinite sick leave owing to disease contracted in the Spanish-American war and during his service in the Philippines. The eldest son of the family, Joseph, is married and has three children. Helen T., Joseph Henry. Jr., and Dwight Elliott. Harry L. Stagg is also married and has one child, Harry Lewis.
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Mr. Stagg has long been a member of the Congregational church and his life has been guided by its teachings. He is also an exemplary member of the Masonic fraternity and an equally loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic, thus maintaining pleasant rela- tions with his ald army comrades. He likewise belongs to the Army and Navy Club, the Sons of the American Revolution and the Cupheag Club of Statford. As he has traveled life's journey his course has been marked by high ideals and stalwart purpose, and the many sterling traits that he has displayed have gained for him the unqualified confidence and regard of those with whom he has been associated.
WILLIAM FRANKLIN TAIT.
William Franklin Tait, of the Tait & Sons Paper Company of Bridgeport, has through- out his business career been identified with the paper manufacturing industry. It is true that he entered upon a business already established. but in developing and enlarging this many a man of less resolute spirit would have failed. He has brought to his duties keen discernment and enterprise and in the conduct of the trade is meeting present-day conditions in the business world and successfully solving the problems thereby presented.
Mr. Tait is enrolled among Connecticut's native sons, his birth having occurred in Trum- bull on the 27th of October, 1852. His grandfather, Andrew Tait, was born near Edinburgh. Scotland, January 27. 1799, and came of a family that through several generations was con- nected with paper box board manufacturing. In his native land he served a seven years' apprenticeship to the business and in 1820 took passage on one of the old-time sailing vessels that was bound for America. He first became a resident of Morris county, New Jersey. but afterward removed to Hartford, Connecticut. and worked at various places until his marriage in 1822. He then took up his ahode in Trumbull and became superintendent for D. and P. N. Fairchild. paper manufacturers, building their mill and setting it in opera- tion. After spending a short time in that connection, however, be embarked in business on his own account, marbling paper for the use of book binders at Trumbull Center. In 1856 he established the business that is now conducted under the name of Tait & Sons Paper Company, building the Tait mills in Trumbull and there beginning the manufacture of box board or straw board. On the 14th of June, 1822, Andrew Tait was united in marriage to Bella Ronaldson, who crossed the ocean alone from Scotland in order to wed her sweetheart of former days. They became the parents of six children, four daughters and two sons. For many years the family were members of the Congregational church of Trumbull and Andrew Tait gave stalwart allegiance to the whig party during its existence and later became a stanch republican. Several times he filled the office of town clerk.
His eldest son. William Tait, was born in the town of Scotland, Hartford county, Con- necticut, on the 29th of May. 1824, and was a very young lad when his parents removed to Trumbull, so that his education was acquired in the schools of that city. He, too, learned the business of paper box manufacturing, after which he went to California, where he spent several years. Upon his return he entered into business with his father, the association being maintained until the withdrawal of Andrew Tait from the business in 1872. It was at that time that William Franklin Tait of this review became a member of the firm. On the 31st of May, 1848, William Tait was united in marriage to Miss Grace Camp, of Milford, Connecticut, and they became the parents of five children. Of these, two of the sons are now carrying on the business which was established by the grandfather, the younger being Andrew Tait. who was born in Trumbull, September 21. 1866. He supplemented his public school training by study in the Park Avenue Institute of Bridgeport and on the 9th of October, 1889. at Fairfield, Connecticut, he married Miss Laura Wilson, by whom he has three children. He is now associated with his brother in the ownership and conduct of the business conducted under the name of the Tait & Sons Paper Company, of which he is the
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treasurer. At the time of the Civil war the father put aside all business and personal considerations, feeling that his first duty was to his country. He enlisted as a member of Company D, Twenty-third Connectient Volunteer Infantry, of which he became a corporal, and at the front he did valiant service for the Union. Years afterward he continued pleasant relations with his old army comrades as a member of Elias Howe, Jr., Post, G. A. R., of Bridgeport.
William Franklin Tait. spending his youthful days under the parental roof, acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of Trumbull and afterward attended a private school of Stratford. He was twenty years of age when his grandfather retired from business and he entered the firm as a partner of his father. They continued in the manufacture of box board at Trumbull nntil 1895. when they removed the factory to North Bridgeport and adopted the present firm style of the Tait & Sons Paper Company, of which he is the president. Theirs is a well appointed mill, equipped with the latest improved machinery for carrying on the work, and the excellence of their product insures a ready sale on the market. The business is thoroughly systematized and most carefully managed with due regard to that conservation of force, time, labor and material which constitutes the underlying element of all success.
On the 6th of June, 1876, in Huntington, Connecticut, Mr. Tait was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Lattin, a daughter of Lyman Lattin, and they had one child, Mary Frances, who was born January 16, 1878. The mother passed away on the 3d of February of the same year, and five and one-half years later, in St. Paul's church in Bridgeport, on the 26th of September, 1883, Mr. Tait was united in marriage to Miss Lanra Frances Morris, of Bridgeport, a daughter of William and Mary Louise Morris. In the social circles of the city they occupy an enviable position, while as a business man Mr. Tait enjoys the con- fidence, respect and goodwill of colleagues and contemporaries. There have been no unusual or spectacular chapters in his life history, his efforts, however, constituting a steady moving force toward success, for long experience and sound judgment have wisely guided his activities.
GUY L. HAMMOND.
A force of seventy highly skilled workmen is employed by the Black Rock Manufactur- ing Company, of which Guy L. Hammond is the president and treasurer, and this enterprise in its inception and continued successful conduet is the visible evidence of his life of well directed thrift and energy. He was born in lowa in 1871 and after obtaining a publie school education, taking him through the grades and the high school, he had the advantage of a commercial course. He made his start in the business world as a shipping clerk at Weeping Water. Nebraska, in a sewing machine factory and afterward learned the tool maker's trade. In this connection he traveled all over the world, working for various concerns but specializing on typesetting machinery.
Mr. Hammond came to Bridgeport with the Electric Compositor Company, which he represented in the capacity of manager, and be bas done expert work with all of the most important typesetting companies. At length he organized the Black Rock Manufacturing Company in October, 1915. This sneceeded to the Black Rock Machine Company, taking over its business, which was organized about 1908, and the owners of the former con- cern are still interested in the present corporation. The officers are: Guy L. Ilam- mand. president and treasurer; William Nicholas, vice-president; and Albert Ketchem, of New York, secretary. The plant of the company is located at No. 185 Osborne street and the building, a one story structure, is two hundred by fifty feet, with two Ls. The company manufactures a marine motor. the output being used very largely by the United States government, although the product is shipped in part to Canada and to Denmark. The motor
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is utilized in life-saving boats-a flat built engine that lies very low so as to keep the center of gravity low in the lifeboat. It is built according to government specifications and is very dependable and is a patented motor. There are now seventy people employed, all of whom are highly skilled workmen. The plant has been entirely remodeled and supplied with the most modern equipment. It is supplied with electric power and the machines are grouped, using the eity current. They do the highest class of contract job work of all kinds and have a complete tool making department. It is the aim of the Company to have the best equipped shop of this kind in this part of the state. Mr. Hammond is a student of men and is seldom, if ever, at fault in an estimate of a man's character or of his ability. He is, moreover, an organizer with marked executive ability. He had charge of a plant at the age of twenty-one years and has since been in administrative positions.
In 1900 Mr. Hammond was married to Miss Louise Sedberry, of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and Mystic Shriner and he belongs also to the Algonquin and to the Seaside Clubs. His religious faith is that of the Congre- gational church and in polities he maintains an independent policy. His life work has been of substantial worth as a contribution to industrial activity, and the value of the out- put of his factory is also widely recognized.
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