USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > History of Bridgeport and vicinity > Part 69
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Six months after his mother's death Lyndsay Van Rensselaer came to Bridgeport. He had acquired a good academic education in the schools of Staten Island and under private instruction, and in 1897 he went to Japan, where he spent eight years engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1905 he returned to the United States and became identified with commercial interests of New York city hut in 1913 removed to Bridgeport to become state representative for the Manufacturers' Liability Insurance Company of New Jersey. In the intervening period he has established offices and hospitals for the company in Bridgeport. Waterbury and New Haven. This company was the outgrowth of existing conditions in manufacturing eireles. It had become a commonly accepted opinion that manufacturers were liable for accidents that occurred to employes. The rate of insurance charged manufacturers by the old-line companies was so high as to make such a course almost prohibitory. Compensation laws had been passed in various states, whereupon insurance companies had greatly raised their rates for liability insurance. The conditions became such that manufacturers met to solve the problem. At a large expenditure of money, careful and exhaustive investigation of the whole situation was made-the best counsel proenrable was consulted-with the result that a stock company was organized by some three hundred manufacturers to carry insur- ance, at as near eost as was found to be compatible with safety and good service. This company is owned, controlled and operated by and for manufacturers, all of its directors being actively interested in manufacturing. The company has met with an almost unhoped- for measure of success, and now earries the insurance of approximately two thousand manu- facturing concerns; settles claims without dispute; has promoted a closer relation between
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employer and employe; has eliminated to a large extent the canses of accident; has written insurance from twenty to fifty per cent less than the so-called "Old Line Companies;" and withal has not impaired its original surplus, but has actually added consistently to it. It insures only the best class of risks, so that the good is not burdened with the bad. The company depends for the extending of its business upon the direct efforts of its board of directors and policy-holders telling their neighbors and friends what the company is doing in the way of lower rates, better service, etc. While the company is operated along "mutual lines," it is a stock company, and one does not ineur the liability of assessment-a most important feature in view of the compensation laws, where liability extends years into the future-and where you cannot retire from a mutual company and be absolved from respon- sibility incurred while a member. The overhead expense of this company is limited in its by-laws to twenty per cent-that of the Old Line Companies is from thirty-five to sixty-five per cent. In all large centers or wherever the number of policy holders will warrant, the company establishes its own emergency hospitals, where it has a graduate, trained surgical nurse in constant attendance from 8 A. M. to 6 P. M .- the hospitals being in charge of the best surgeons obtainable, those expert in the treatment of injuries such as usually happen in machine shops, factories, etc., which the company insures. Unlimited medical and surgical service is given. It would be useless to attempt to do justice to the wonderful work now being done by the hospitals maintained by the company. An evidence of the success in gen- eral of this "Manufacturers' Movement," and of the hospital service in particular, is at Bridgeport. Connecticut, where the company insures more manufacturing plants than all the rest of the insurance companies combined, and where the average number of dressings in the company's hospital approximates one hundred per day.
Mr. Van Rensselaer has had miltary training, having served from 1891 until 1896 as a member of Squadron A of New York city, a cavalry company of the New York National Guard, of which he is now a veteran member. He is a Mason and he belongs to the Algonquin and to the Seaside Outing Clubs of Bridgeport. His business ability and his personal qualifications render him popular and during the years of his residence in Connecticut he has won a most wide and favorable acquaintance.
A. P. NICHOLS.
In various parts of the country, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, A. P. Nichols has been identified with business interests and his broadening experience has qualified him for the important duties that devolve upon him as secretary and treasurer of the Bridgeport Electric Manufacturing Company, one of the newly organized productive industries of Bridgeport but already established upon a safe and substantial basis.
Mr. Nichols was born in Sweden, May 4, 1872, and after spending the first fifteen years of his life in his native land sought the opportunities offered in the new world, where he learned the trade of machinist and electrical engineer. He spent some time in Chicago and in Minnesota and eventually made his way to the Pacific coast, conducting a factory for the building of gas engines in Seattle. The year 1915 witnessed his arrival in Bridgeport, after which he accepted the position of foreman with the Remington Arms Company. A short time later. however, he organized the Bridgeport Electric Manufacturing Company. which was formed as a stock company. Among those interested are: Robert Beers, assistant treasurer of the City National Bank; John and James Leverty, prominent druggists of Bridgeport: George C. Peck and many other well known business men of Bridgeport and other cities. The present officers are: Karl Cyrus, president ; James Leverty, vice president ; and A. P. Nichols, secretary and treasurer; with Samuel Aller, of Norwalk as a director. The plant is located at the corner of Carbon and Washburn avenues and is devoted to the
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manufacture of eleetrie water heaters. This heater was invented by Mr. Nichols and has been recently patented. It is sold to jobbers and the business is represented upon the road by two traveling salesmen. The trade is rapidly extending to all parts of the world and the output of the factory is sold for a year to come. The electrie water heater which they manu- facture is known as the Geyser and has struck a new note in the heating of water, its method being instantaneous and effective as well as economical. It is but twelve inches in height and ean be attached to any cold water pipe. It contains a resistance wire extending through a series of holes or passages in a cylindrical body of porcelain contained in a metal easing. The water eireulates through the same passage that contains the resistance wire, and is drawn off as needed by opening the faucet. The turning of the handle of the faneet by the user automatically actuates a double pole snap switch for turning the electric cireuit "on" or "off." The temperature of the water can be regulated by the quantity of flow from the faneet at any temperature up to two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit. Mechanical and electrical experts have found that this machine will withstand the most severe tests, producing a continued efficiency of ninety-nine per cent. Chemical analysis of water heated by this machine has shown a total absence of electrolysis. In the invention of this device Mr. Nichols has made a valuable contribution to the world's useful devices and added to America's reputation as the center of progressive invention of things which eon- tribute to the comfort of life and to business development.
THE BRIDGEPORT MORRIS PLAN COMPANY.
America has the reputation, and perhaps not without some reason, of being thoroughly commercialized: but investigation into the history of the business development of the country shows that there is a considerable percentage of men who are giving elose study to business conditions with most thoughtful consideration of questions that affect the business situation and the people at large. Prominent among the organizations which are looking to a better- ment of conditions by assisting the man of moderate means is the Industrial Finance Cor- poration of New York, under which has been organized the Bridgeport Morris Plan Company. of which Harris L. O'Brien is the manager. This is one of the more recently organized financial concerns of Bridgeport, but already it has done splendid work in extending eredit to the man of moderate means and thus assisting him in the development of his business interests or in other legitimate work.
Mr. O'Brien was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, August 9, 1893, and is a son of Abner and Mary O'Brien, who removed to Bridgeport about 1896. Ilis early business training came to him through two years experience at the Harvey Hubhell plant and later he was for two years employed at the First Bridgeport Bank. Later he spent a year and a half at the Bridgeport Savings Bank and afterward became eredit man for the D. M. Read Company, with which he continued for a year and a half. On the 19th of April, 1915, the Bridgeport Morris Plan Company was established. This and all others of its kind have been organized by the Industrial Finance Corporation of New York. The Bridgeport organization has a paid up capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars and is a loan and investment company, its chief purpose being to provide an institution where a man of moderate means can borrow at reasonable rates and also establish a place for the safe investment of his surplus funds. It places a helpful form of commercial credit at the service of people who have no eredit at the banks. This plan was developed by Arthur .I. Morris, at one time a lawyer of Vir- ginia, who conceived this idea of assisting the capable business man whose means were limited and formed the Fidelity Corporation of America with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars. Plans were developed whereby companies were formed at various point- to extend the business of the corporation by carrying out its ideas of small industrial loans,
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giving the honest wage earner of America, the man who is dependent for his living and for his social and economic welfare upon his weekly earnings, the same avenues of commercial and financial credit that are open to men of larger means. To increase the scope of the parent organization a removal was made to New York early in 1914, where the business was reorganized and incorporated under the name of the Industrial Finance Corporation, in order to assist in organizing and financing and to exercise a cooperative supervision over the development of the institutions that the parent concern is instrumental in bringing into being. The idea is to organize in all cities of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, or more, Morris Plan companies, with the adaptation of European financial precedents to American requirements. To this end the strongest men in each city are asked to identify themselves as officers and directors with the local Morris Plan company. When this is done, the Industrial Finance Corporation purchases a considerable interest, a large proportion of the stock is subscribed for by the other organizers and the balance is offered to the public, particularly the industrial class, for which these institutions are designed. The New York corporation always endeavors to assure the success of these enterprises, though it never undertakes to control any local Morris Plan company. These companies have now been established in various sections of the country and the one at Bridgeport. under the direction of Harris L. O'Brien, has enjoyed continually growing prosperity. Its loss has been only twenty-four dollars in a year and a half and from the organization until January 1. 1917. the company made twenty-one hundred loans. aggregating three hundred and sixty thousand eight hundred dollars, with twenty-four thousand three hundred dollars in outstanding investments. The work of the Morris Plan is purely constructive, teaching people to save. It sells certificates or bonds to the people which pay five per cent per annum. It charges six per cent, discounted in advance. with a dollar fee for investigating for each fifty dollars borrowed, this fee not to exceed five dollars. The office is located at No. 869 Main street. The company opened at No. 22 .John street but removed to its present quarters on the 23d of February, 1916, with a five-year lease on the whole building. They utilize the ground floor, subletting the upper floor. There are seventy-one similar institutions in the United States, all separate but all the outcome and the embodiment of the Morris Plan. The Bridgeport was the twentieth bank opened and the character of the business is indicated by the fact that the following are the directors for 1917: W. R. Bassick. Nathaniel W. Bishop, Arthur W. Burritt, David S. Day. George H. Edwards, Dr. Thomas L. Ellis, Samuel M. Hawley, Robert S. Hineks, John G. Howland, John T. King. Frederick J. Kingsbury, William P. Kirk. Walter B. Lashar, Egbert Marsh, Horace B. Merwin, Harris L. O'Brien, John S. Pullman, Frederick Rhodes, Charles G. Sanford, Hamilton S. Shelton, DeVer C. Warner, DeVer H. Warner, D. Fairchild Wheeler and Clark Williams. Mr. O'Brien, while concentrating his efforts and attention largely upon the development of the Bridgeport Morris Plan Company, finds time for cooperation in other fields as well. He holds membership with the First Methodist church and belongs to the Masonic fraternity but politically maintains an independent course.
THOMAS P. TAYLOR.
With many phases of life in Bridgeport, Thomas P. Taylor, now deceased. was actively and prominently identified and furthered interests that contributed not only to the ma- terial development and prosperity of the city but also to its upbuilding along social and moral lines. His life was actuated by high and honorable principles and fraught with worth while deeds. He was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, in 1858 and passed away in Bridgeport. May 26. 1913. He was educated in Dr. Sanford's private school in Philadel-
THOMAS P. TAYLOR
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phia until he was twelve, when the family removed to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended the Polytechnic Institute. When he was seventeen it was his own wish to enter a business college and prepare for business, not being willing to place the strain of a col- lege course upon his father, the Rev. Alfred Taylor, a Presbyterian minister, who devoted his entire life to the work of the Presbyterian church and kindred activities looking to the moral progress of bis fellowmen. Ile published many books for use in Sunday schools and also hymn books and wrote largely for the newspapers and his influence was a bene- ficial foree for righteousness. He married Agnes G. Dechert. of Philadelphia, and their last years were spent in Bridgeport, where Thomas P. Taylor built a home for his mother on the same lot as his own house, so that she spent her last years here under his care. Each evening saw him with her for a part of the time. On his mother's side he was descended from a long line of lawyers and even as a boy he manifested the qualities that make for success in the legal field, excelling in the work of school debating societies.
It was in 1877 that Thomas P. Taylor came to Bridgeport from Brooklyn and entered the employ of Warner Brothers, first in the capacity of bookkeeper. He afterward invented many articles which were used by Warner Brothers in their business. After some time he became financially interested in the company and was a very active man in the development of their trade and in the extension of the scope of their undertakings. It was Mr. Taylor who created the department for the manufacture of baseballs, which were made after his own patents, as he had entire charge of that branch of the business, which proved a growing and profitable one. He also brought out the Taylor folding bustle, which he patented. and for its manufacture he established another department, which was conducted under his own name. He brought out varions patents from time to time and his inventive genins and executive ability contributed in no small measure to the success of the Warner Brothers' interests.
On the 1st of January, 1893, Mr. Taylor severed his interests with the Warner Brothers Company and immediately began the manufacture of notions for women's wear on Union street and continued there until the 29th of June, 1894, when he purchased the building of the Teneyke & Baker Shoe Company on James street, a three-story structure, forty by one hundred and twenty feet. He added to the plant from time to time. erecting successively a three story brick building, forty by fifty feet: a one story brick building, forty by fifty feet; a three story brick, twenty-five by forty feet; a two story brick, forty- six by seventy-five feet; a one story brick. forty by fifty feet; and a two story brick, forty five by one hundred and thirty feet. Before erecting the last building it was neces- sary to buy additional land. In later years the factory was used for the manufacture of staple lines of notions, consisting of children's muslin underwear, paper boxes and embroid- ery hoops, and five hundred people were employed. Mr. Taylor devoted his entire time and attention to the upbuilding of the business. He made frequent trips upon the road to introduce and sell the produets of the house, while his brother-in-law, Mr. Hammond, acted as factory superintendent. The business was conducted under the name of Thomas P. Taylor until September, 1907, when it was incorporated as the Thomas P. Taylor Com- pany, with Mr. Taylor as the president ; Henry H. Taylor, vice president; F. M. Hammond. treasurer ; and M. B. Hammond, secretary. Since the death of Mr. Taylor, F. M. Ham- mond has been the president and treasurer, with Henry H. Taylor as vice president and M. C. MaeLnckie as secretary. The company has its own electric light plant, and its machinery. all of modern make, is operated with electric power. The business was developed along the most progressive lines, becoming one of the important productive industries of the city. Moreover, Mr. Taylor contributed to the improvement of Bridge- port through the erection of many buildings. He first erected a building on Broad street, a three story brick structure. He afterward put up the Taylor building on Cannon street, a store and office building, which was later sold to the Howland Dry Goods Company. He afterward erected the Lincoln building on Cannon street, a five story structure used for
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offices and stores, and he put up another building on Fairfield avenue and also the Hotel Atlas on Fairfield avenue.
On the 17th of January. 1878. at Marathon, New York, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Alma A. Hammond and they had one son, Henry Hammond Taylor, who was born in Bridgeport, November 12, 1878. ' He wedded Amelia Starr and to them was born a son, Thomas Starr Taylor. The mother is now deceased.
Mr. Taylor was always deeply interested in everything that pertained to the welfare and progress of his city. He served on the police board and for one term was mayor of Bridgeport. He was also a member of the city council and in these different positions exercised his official prerogatives in support of various plans and measures for the gen- eral good. He voted with the republican party and was ever a stalwart champion of its principles. He held membership in the Brooklawn Country Club and the Seaside Club, and he contributed in large measure to the success and development of the Algonquin Club, of which he was president for many years. He was at one time president of the Boys Club and did much for that organization. In fact it was his effort that placed it upon a substantial basis, and he also established the West End branch of the Boys Club. He was very active in building the People's Presbyterian church, advancing considerable money for it, and at the time of his death, through the terms of his will, he canceled its indebted- ness. He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. His maternal great- grandfather, Andrew Porter, was one of Washington's generals in the Revolutionary war. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, and throughout his entire life he manifested those qualities of honorable manhood, patriotic citizenship and loyal Christianity that made him one of the foremost residents of Bridgeport, standing as a man among men.
HENRY FREDERICK VEIT.
Henry Frederick Veit, deceased, was one of the well known citizens and business men of Bridgeport and one of the founders of the Hub Clothing Company. Born in Bridgeport on the 16th of March, 1854, he was a son of Godfrey and Christina Veit. The former, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, came to America with two of his brothers, one of whom, Christian, located in Brooklyn.
Henry F. Veit was educated in the schools of his native city and when but a boy in years worked in the store of Jordan, Marsh & Company, well known Boston merchants, who had established a branch honse in Bridgeport. He entered their service as shop boy and worked steadily upward to a good position, concentrating his entire attention and energy upon the interests of his employers and thus meriting the advancement that came to him. Ambitious to engage in business on his own account, he at length formed a partnership with A. A. Libby and organized the Hub Clothing Company, of which he became the senior member. Under his guidance the business grew and prospered and he continued at the head of the undertaking until his death, which occurred in 1914. Mr. Libby still conducts the business.
In Bridgeport, Mr. Veit was united in marriage to Miss Alice M. Fullen, who was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a daughter of James and Mary (Robinson) Fullen, of Stockbridge. Since her husband's death Mrs. Veit has taken up her abode in the town of Stratford, where she has purchased a fine home on Main street which she now occu- pies. She is a devoted mother. a faithful member of the Episcopal church, a member of the Red Cross Society and in fact takes a deep interest in all good work. Her children are: Harry G., at home: and Alice Pauline, who was born October 18. 1898, and is now attending the Stratford high school, a member of the class of 1918. Mrs. Veit has also reared Robert Theodore Veit. her husband's nephew and a son of Robert Veit. He was
HENRY F. VEIT
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born in Bridgeport, October 19, 1891, and his mother died during his infancy, after which Mrs. Alice Veit took him into her own home and reared him as one of her own children. He attended the public and high schools of Bridgeport and then entered Yale University, from which he was graduated with high honors with the class of 1912, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree. He is now with the banking firm of Kountz Brothers of New York. lle served as a member of the New York state militia on the Mexican border in 1916 and is now connected with the army for service in the European war.
Mr. Veit departed this life on the 11th of June, 1914, and was laid to rest in Mountain Grove cemetery of Bridgeport. He was a man well known and highly respected, noted for his upright character, >triet attention to his business and devotion to his family. He was a man of domestic habits, temperate in all things, and in faet his life was the expres- sion of that which is noblest and best.
HERMAN A. W. BERG.
Herman A. W. Berg, of the Bridgeport Die Sinking Company, was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 20th of September, 1885, his parents being llerman and Charlotte Berg, who in the year 1892 bade adieu to their native land and sailed for the United States, estab- ilshing their home in New Haven, Connecticut. The father, who was a harness maker by trade. there opened a barness shop which he conducted to the time of his death in 1896. The mother still survives and yet makes her home in New Haven.
After completing a public school education Herman A. W. Berg learned the die sinking trade in the shop of Kilborn & Bishop, with whom he remained for about a year, and sub- sequently he was with the Prentice Machine Tool Company. He afterward entered the employ of the O. K. Tool Company at Shelton, Connecticut, and still later secured a position with the Blakesley Forging Company at Plantsville, Connecticut. He dates his residence in Bridgeport from the 2d of May, 1910, and here he became an employe of the Locomo- hile ( ompany, with which he continued until August, 1915, when he went with the Remington Arms Company, acting as foreman until the 10th of December of that year. He then resigned his position to organize the Bridgeport Die Sinking Company in connection with Thomas J. Mapleton, and business was opened at Yarrington Court. where they make a specialty of drop forging dies and a general line of tool and machine work, employing from two to five workmen, who are skilled in that line.
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