USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 21
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Admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1904, he has practiced law in Bridgeport since 1905, was a partner in the firm of Seymour and Day from 1907 to 1910, and then joined the firm of Marsh, Stoddard and Day, now Marsh, Day and Calhoun, in 1910. He is vice president and a director of the Bridgeport Storage and Warehouse Company, is a director and secretary of the Bead Chain Manufacturing Com- pany, and is a director of the Bridgeport Gas Company. He is also a director of the Bridgeport Brass Company, of D. M. Read, Incor- porated, and of the Nazareth Cement Company, and is a trustee of the Bridgeport Hospital and a director of the Bridgeport Public Library. His social connections include membership in the University
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Club of Bridgeport, the Algonquin Club, the Fairfield Country Club and the Brooklawn Country Club.
Mr. Day was married on April 30, 1913, at Bridgeport, to Natalie A. Cornwall.
GEORGE ROBERT HOLMES
Since his return from military service in World War I, George Robert Holmes' record of service with the McLagon Foundry in New Haven has been continuous except for a very brief period in 1919. For the past decade and a half he has held office as its president. Not only is he one of his city's outstanding industrialists, but he is also a prominent figure in manufacturers' organizations, in the general business affairs of his city, and in civic and political activities.
Born at Providence, Rhode Island, on April 27, 1892, he is a son of George Stuart Holmes. Mr. Holmes' mother died when he was three years old, and his father when he was nine, the latter being employed by Brown and Sharp at Providence at the time of his death. There- after George R. Holmes was reared by an uncle, Frederick B. Farnsworth, who was mayor of New Haven in 1898, and former owner of the McLagon Foundry.
Mr. Holmes attended Providence Technical High School in his native city for one year, but at the age of fifteen was asked to come back to New Haven to work in the present foundry. He worked there for five years, and during that time, furthered his formal education by taking night school courses. At twenty, he went to Pittsburgh and attended Carnegie Institute of Technology and later was employed by various steel companies and by Westinghouse Air Brake Company.
Following this country's entry into World War I, he enlisted in the army at Pittsburgh, serving from 1917 until July, 1919. He was with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. For a short time after his return from the war, he was once again with Westing- house Air Brake Company, but late in 1919 returned once again to New Haven, where he assumed duties as superintendent of Mc- Lagon Foundry.
He has been with this industrial firm ever since. At the end of his first year with the company, in accordance with previous agree- ment, he purchased an interest in the firm, and became a member of its board of directors. Since 1930 he has had complete control of the business. In 1931 he assumed duties as vice president, and the follow- ing year, became treasurer as well. He has been president since 1943. The foundry is one of the oldest firms of its kind in continuous exist-
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ence, having been known by the same name since 1848. Previous to that time it operated under the name of Kimball and Smith. It has occupied its present location throughout its entire existence.
Mr. Holmes has long been active in the New Haven County Manufacturers' Association, and his recent resignation from its board of directors terminated twenty years of service in that office. Suc- ceeding him is his associate Robert J. Hodge, vice president and director of McLagon Foundry. Mr. Holmes was a director of the National Foundrymen's Association, and New England District di- rector of the Gray Iron Foundries Association. He was formerly a director of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association. A life mem- ber of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, he is past chairman of its New Haven Section.
In his home city, he owns several valuable commercial rental pro- perties. He is a director of Junior Achievement; a director of the Y. M. C. A. Industrial Program; and a member of the business advisory committee of the Hamden Public Health and Visiting Nurse Associa- tion. A Republican, he has been active in political affairs most of his life, as a supporter of his party, but was never candidate for an office until he became a member of the Hamden Board of Finance in 1950, which he served until 1958. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Holmes formerly belonged to the American Legion, and his memberships include the New Haven Country Club, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Free and Accepted Masons. In Ma- sonry, he belongs to all York Rite bodies, and Pyramid Temple, An- cient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in Bridgeport. He is a member and on the Board of Governors of the Quinnipiac Club. In religious faith he is a Protestant.
In New York City, on May 1, 1926, George Robert Holmes mar- ried Edith Anderson. She was born there in 1905, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Anderson. Her father has devoted most of his career to construction work, and he and Mrs. Anderson now make their home on Long Island. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes are the parents of the following children: I. Jane, who was born March 29, 1928, in New Haven. She holds the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College. She is the wife of Alfred Klammer, Jr., a graduate of Yale University with the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering. Mr. Klammer is now secretary and assistant treasurer of McLagon Foundry. The couple have three children: i. Robert Stuart. ii. Susan Lee. iii. Elizabeth Ann. 2. Doris, born in New
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Haven on June 5. 1930. She too holds the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College. She is the wife of Joseph Dockx, a commercial artist in New York City. 3. Lesley, born June 24, 1935, also in New Haven. She married Kenneth Koester, a lieutenant in the United States Air Force, now stationed in Pittsburgh.
GEORGE THOMAS HUBBELL
George Thomas Hubbell had had extensive experience in the refractories and crucible industry when, in 1957, he became president of The Seymour Manufacturing Company at Seymour. He is cur- rently serving as president of the Crucible Manufacturers' Associa- tion, a national organization. Locally, and in his home state, he has taken a constructive part in Chamber of Commerce activities.
Born at Providence, Rhode Island, on March 22, 1904, he is a son of George Leonard and Ann Alice (Morris) Hubbell. His father, a native of Derby, Connecticut, was a roller in a brass mill, and died in 1926. Mrs. Hubbell is also deceased. Early in his life, George T. Hubbell made plans for a career in Christian service, and attended Chicago Training School for Missions, a Methodist institution where he graduated in 1927. Changing his occupational goal, he spent two years at the University of Chicago.
Mr. Hubbell first joined The Seymour Manufacturing Company in 1929, as production manager, and held that position until 1934. Thereafter until 1940 he was sales manager for Mullite Refractories Company of Shelton, Connecticut, an affiliate of The Seymour Manu- facturing Company. He became vice president and sales manager of another affiliate of the company, the American Crucible Company of Shelton, in 1940, and filled this dual post until 1946. For the next two years, Mr. Hubbell was president of The Bay State Crucible Company of Taunton, Massachusetts.
Mr. Hubbell became president of the American Refractories and Crucible Company of North Haven, Connecticut in 1948, and still holds that position. He was named president of The Seymour Manu- facturing Company in 1957, and is also a member of its board of directors.
His election to the presidency of the Crucible Manufacturers' Association took place in 1957, and his term extended until 1959. This industrialists' group has its national offices in New York City. Mr. Hubbell is a member of the Chambers of Commerce of New Haven, Wallingford, Meriden, and the State of Connecticut. His other mem- berships include the Racebrook Country Club and the lodge of Free
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and Accepted Masons. In Masonry he is a member of the higher bodies of the Scottish Rite, holding the Thirty-second Degree, and belongs to Pyramid Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Bridgeport. He is a communicant of the Methodist Church, and is a Republican in his politics.
In 1929, at Seymour, George Thomas Hubbell married Mildred Pauline Pierce. She was born at Shelton in 1906, and died in 1951. The couple were the parents of three children: I. Richard Willian, born on November 2, 1932, in Bridgeport. He graduated from Mil- ford High School in 1950, and spent two years in the army. He is now employed as a supervisor with American Crucible Company at North Haven. Richard W. Hubbell married Carol Porter, and they have two children: i. Richard William, Jr. ii. Dawn Anne. 2. George Thomas, Jr., born September 17, 1935, in New Haven. He attended Hopkins Grammar School in that city, graduating in 1953, and in 1958 received his degree of Bachelor of Science from West Virginia Wesleyan College. In the fall of that year he entered Emory Uni- versity, Atlanta, Georgia. He married Marilyn Buhler, and they have one child, Patricia Anne. 3. Joan Susan, born September 29, 1944, in New Haven. She is attending Mary Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts.
HERBERT STUART STONE
President of Wallace Silversmiths, Inc. of Wallingford, makers of silverware for more than a hundred years, Mr. Stone was formerly associated with the Lincoln Paper Manufacturing Company of Chica- go, and was also a vice president of Ditto Incorporated.
He was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, on November 21, 1901, the son of Herbert Stuart Stone, Sr., and of Mary Grigsby ( McCormick) Stone. His father was a graduate of Harvard University, organized the Stone and Kimball Publishing Company in Chicago, and was also founder of House Beautiful magazine. He was active in Chicago civic affairs and was a prominent and successful businessman. He estab- lished himself in New York in 1908 to devote all his time and atten- tion to his magazine enterprise. Mr. Stone's mother was also promi- nent in Chicago community life. Mr. Stone's paternal grandparents were Melville E. Stone and Martha J. (McFarland) Stone. He was the founder of the Chicago Daily News and also served as the first general manager of the Associated Press. Mr. Stone's maternal grand- father was William Grigsby McCormick, and his maternal great- grandfather, William Sanderson McCormick was a brother of Cyrus
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McCormick, the founder of International Harvester. Mr. Stone's maternal grandmother was Eleanor Brooks, whose father was the first president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Mr. Stone is the eldest of three children. His sister, Eleanor, is married to Dr. James W. Toumey, Jr., whose father was Professor of Forestry at Yale University. They have two children. His brother, Melville E., was first married to Katherine Lapsley and they had two children; subsequently he married Naomi Burton.
Mr. Stone was educated at Groton School and then attended Har- vard College, Class of 1924. He served in the United States Merchant Marine from 1922 to 1924, and then entered the paper manufacturing field. He became president of the Lincoln Paper Manufacturing Com- pany of Chicago in 1936, and remained associated with the company until 1954, when he assumed the presidency of Wallace Silversmiths, Inc. of Wallingford.
During World War II, Mr. Stone was head of the Administra- tive Department of the United States Naval Midshipmen's School in Chicago, and was then commanding officer of the ports of Bari, Brin- disi and Leghorn in Italy, and of Ajaccio in Corsica. He was later named commanding officer of the United States Navy Advanced Base at Bremen, Germany.
Mr. Stone has been active in civic and community organizations ; he has been a trustee of the Chicago Historical Society and of the Sprague Foundation, and served as a director of the Rheumatic Fever Research Institute, of the Chicago Symphony Society, and of the Cax- ton Club. He is a former president of the Saddle and Cycle Club of Chicago, and of the Chicago Council of the Navy League. He is a director of the New Haven Historical Society, of the Wallingford Visiting Nurse Association, Anderson Kramer Associates (publishers) and of Gaylord Farms Sanitarium, and he also holds membership in the Harvard Club of New York. He was junior warden of St. Chry- sostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago for five years, and for a num- ber of years was a member of the Standing Committee of the Episco- pal Diocese of Chicago.
Mr. Stone is married to Elizabeth Harding Randall, the daughter of Judge Daniel Randall and of Elizabeth W. (Harding) Randall of Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs. Stone attended St. Timothy's School. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have two children: I. Elizabeth Harding, born on September 6, 1927, is married to Dr. John S. Garvin, and they have two children : Mary Grigsby and Bruce Peters. They are the thirteenth generation in America of the Stone Family, descendants of that Simon
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Stone who was an immigrant on the ship "Increase," which came to America in 1635, and who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. 2. Herbert Stuart, III, graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and is married to Anne S. Johnson. He is associated with the International Harvester Company and he is a member of the United States Naval Reserve. They have one daughter, Catherine Abbot Stone.
J. BLAINE COGGINS
President of the J. B. Coggins Manufacturing Company, Incor- porated, of Meriden, and one of the leading industrialists in the Meri- den area, Mr. Coggins founded his present business in 1933 and the company manufactures toilet seat hinges, small hardware and other brass work.
He was born in Neilsville, Wisconsin, in 1881, the son of Sanford C. Coggins and of Nellie (Harriman) Coggins. His father was a cabinet-maker and carpenter, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Coggins of Eastport, Maine, who had migrated West and settled in Wisconsin. Mr. Coggins has two sisters, Mabel and Gladys, and two brothers, Leroy and Earl. He was eight years old when his mother died and his father moved his family to Meriden, where Mr. Coggins at- tended the Meriden schools until the eighth grade, then finding em- ployment for a year in a curtain fixture factory. After a year in busi- ness college, Mr. Coggins accepted an office position with the Bradley and Hubbard Company, and remained in this employment for a period of five years. He later became office manager and assistant treasurer of the Foster Merriam Company, remaining in this post until the com- pany went out of business in 1932.
It was in 1933 that Mr. Coggins with his son Leslie, founded his own business, the J. B. Coggins Manufacturing Company, Incorpora- ted, in Meriden, and it has become today one of the country's largest producers of hinges. Beginning with brass foundry jobbing work in a leased plant, the new company had eight employees in all, including Mr. Coggins, his son and his son-in-law, Kenneth Grandy. Today the company numbers nearly a hundred, and has an annual payroll of $350.000 a year. The company has its own completely modern foundry, carries out the complete manufacturing of units, and today in its new plant, purchased in 1940, has one of the most modern brass foundries for its size in New England. An outstanding innovation has been the installation of an automatic plating machine which applies coatings of copper, nickel and chrome to the same article in a single cycle. J. B. Coggins Company was incorporated in 1944 and that same year Conn.III-18
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built an addition to its plant. During World War II, the company manufactured castings for shipfittings.
Mr. Coggins was married in 1903 to Maybelle Tryon of Middle- town. Mr. and Mrs. Coggins have two children: I. Leslie H., who graduated from Meriden High School, and then studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is vice president, assistant treasurer and plant manager of the company and is married to Eva Swanson. 2. Virginia, now Mrs. Kenneth S. Grandy. Her husband is also associated with the company as secretary and superintendent of the company, and they are the parents of four children: i. Stuart Grandy: ii. Donald, who married Ruth Gendron; iii. Gail, now Mrs. Richard Hettrick; iv. Kenneth Grandy, Jr., now a student. Mr. Cog- gins has three great-grandchildren.
CHARLES F. T. SEAVERNS
The late Charles F. T. Seaverns of Hartford devoted the later years of his career primarily to the management of the Bushnell Memorial. In the words of a writer in the Hartford Times, he was "one of the rapidly diminishing generation of Hartford gentlemen, men of independent means and cultured tastes, who patronized the arts and lived an urban life."
Born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 1, 1878, he was a son of Frederick Abijah and Rebecca Lowell (Houghton) Seaverns. He was a descendant of John Seaverns, who came to this country from Eng- land in 1637. Frederick A. Seaverns was a banker, and a native of Boston. Rebecca L. Houghton, whom he married, had come from Windsor, Vermont. The family returned to New England in Charles Seaverns' early years, and he attended Boston Latin School and Colby College, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1901. The following year he received his Master of Arts degree from Harvard University.
In 1903, he began his career in teaching, joining the faculty of the Robbins School at Norfolk. He remained there until 1912, when he secured appointment to the staff of the Hill School at Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He remained there only one year, however, then settled in Hartford, where he taught in the Public High School until 1923. A year before his retirement, his name was proposed as superintendent of schools at Hartford.
In 1920, Mr. Seaverns became president of the Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall Corporation; and from 1923 the management of the
Charles F. T. Seaverne
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Bushnell Memorial was his major interest. Mrs. Seaverns' mother, Dotha Bushnell Hillyer, had advanced the plan for a community auditorium which would perpetuate the memory of her famous father, the Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. The plan, conceived in 1918, took the form of a corporation, which Mrs. Hillyer, Mr. and Mrs. Seaverns and others organized. From the time it took shape, Charles F. T. Seaverns was active as its administrative head. An indication of the talents he brought to this role is given in a record of his career from the pages of the Bushnell Prompter :
In the period of preparation Mr. Seaverns took active leadership. Deter- mined that the projected structure should embody every tested up-to-date facility, he commissioned his young friend, William H. Mortensen, then only 25, to make a survey of virtually every auditorium in the country. When the time was ripe, all essential planning had been done.
As president of the Memorial, Mr. Seaverns recognized the need for alert and imaginative administration. He and the donors wanted the Bushnell to serve the whole community and thus be a true memorial to the greatness of the man whose name it bears. While he lived and worked within the framework of sturdy tradition, Mr. Seaverns, like Horace Bushnell himself, never hesitated to accept well-considered proposals for innovation. The cultural program de- veloped here during 27 years of operation bears the stamp of his taste and judg- ment.
Besides this major interest, which occupied him from 1920 until the time of his death, Mr. Seaverns was honorary president of the Children's Museum, which he himself had donated to Hartford in 1929, He was also a director of the Wadsworth Athenaeum. Vitally interested in the cause of education, he was one of Colby College's most loyal alumni. He made many gifts to the college, and was vice chairman of its three-million-dollar fund-raising campaign in 1931. Its athletic field is named in his honor. He was formerly chairman of the board of Kingswood School in West Hartford, and gave the school a building, known as Seaverns Hall. He continued to serve on its board of trustees, and he was also a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association and the Connecticut Opera Association.
Mr. Seaverns served on Hartford's old Board of Park Com- missioners, and was its chairman for some time. He was a director of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, the National Fire Insurance Company and the Aetna Life Insurance Company. He had also served on the boards of the Security Trust Company, the United States Security Company, the North Street Social Settlement, the Connecticut Institute for the Blind, the Hartford Opera Associa- tion, and the Good Will Club. Concerning his place of leadership through such community activities, one of his fellow townsmen wrote of him :
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I know at first hand how deep and how enduring his influence has been. An integral member of the community which we call Old Hartford, Mr. Seaverns extended his capacity for good citizenship into virtually every aspect of our community life. The young men whom he has guided through college, the educational causes to which he gave constant, generous support, his particu- lar devotion to culture and his keen sense of civic responsibility all attest to his breadth of interest.
Fond of the out-of-doors and particularly the pastimes of field and stream, Mr. Seaverns was a member of several fishing clubs, in- cluding the Barkhamsted, Westchester, and Southern New Marlbor- ough Fish and Game clubs. He was interested in floriculture and orni- thology. Known throughout the Hartford area as a gracious host, he had entertained many prominent figures, particularly musical artists, at his home. He attended the South Congregational Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Seaverns were married in Hartford on June 24, 1914, and she was the former Miss Mary Bushnell Hillyer, daughter of Appleton Robbins and Dotha (Bushnell) Hillyer. Her paternal grandfather was General Charles T. Hillyer, and her maternal grand- father, Dr. Horace Bushnell. Mrs. Seaverns was born in Hartford on March 6, 1880, and attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington. She was a consistent supporter of civic and charitable causes. She was one of the early directors of the Oxford School, and she purchased and gave to Hartford the present home of the Children's Museum, later adding an auditorium to the building. She took a deep personal interest in the building and management of the Bushnell Memorial, and served on its board. She was also a director of the Hillyer In- stitute, which her father had founded early in the century, and of Children's Village, Oxford School, and the Children's Museum and Antiquarian Society. She was active in the Musical Club of Hartford, Town and Country Club, the Society of Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution. The couple became the parents of two children : 1. Dotha Bushnell, who married Daniel Rodney Lee of Pacific Palisades, California. 2. Appleton Hillyer, headmaster at Suffield Academy, Suffield.
The death of Mr. Seaverns occurred at Hartford on July II, 1956. Mrs. Seaverns had preceded him in death on February 19, 1947. A clear idea of the personality which lay behind his many achievements was conveyed in an editorial in the columns of a Hart- ford daily newspaper, a portion of which we quote in closing :
To have known Charles F. T. Seaverns was to be impressed with the con- templative, philosophical side of his personality. He was a courtly man, vivid in his loyalties and seemingly always of good cheer. Despite his status as one of the older generation of independent means, not many would fail to associate
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him with a classroom background. After a score of years as a teacher it was apparent that interests of youth were, to him, of great importance. He shared their enthusiasm for outdoor activity, and for the attraction the wonders of nature have for them. . . A combination of family history and his educational background gave him the opportunity and responsibility of implementing and guiding the policy of an unusual monument to a famous Hartford name. What made his custodianship of the Horace Bushnell Memorial a fitting task for him was its function of setting the highest cultural standards in providing enter- tainment, education, and inspiration for the whole community.
Mr. Seaverns served Hartford in many important capacities-in its civic endeavors, its business activity, and in the advancement of its educational op- portunities. But above all he endowed a great memorial, in its earliest years, with qualities befitting the respected name of the Reverend Horace Bushnell. It was here that Mr. Seaverns performed his chief service to the community.
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