USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 9
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Less than two weeks after the disastrous fire, plans were under- way for the construction of a new church under the direction of the Reverend Thomas M. Lane, the then pastor of the church since 194S. A fund drive was organized, and was so successful that on October 17th of the same year, ground was broken for a new church. Exactly a year later, on October 17, 1954, the new Church of Saint John was dedicated. Designed in a modified Norman style of architecture, and built of selected gray brick trimmed with limestone and granite, the new church is a landmark in the community. The building contains an auditorium seating six hundred people, complete with stage, ante- rooms, storage rooms and fully equipped kitchen, and classrooms for religious instruction can be created by means of folding partitions. The Church of Saint John has truly risen from the ashes into an outstanding edifice of its type and a spiritual center for the Catholic population of Cromwell.
SAINT ROSE OF LIMA PARISH, MERIDEN
The oldest Roman Catholic parish in the City of Meriden, which began as a mission in 1839, the parish of Saint Rose was official- ly organized in 1848 with missions in Wallingford, Cheshire and Southington. The first church was a building that had been formerly occupied by an Episcopal congregation. In October, 1948, the Most Reverend Henry J. O'Brien, Bishop of Hartford, celebrated a Pon- tifical Mass of Thanksgiving in honor of the one hundredth anni- versary of the parish's founding.
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ST. ROSE'S CHURCH AND COMMUNITY CENTER, MERIDEN
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With the coming of the railroad to Meriden in 1839, a number of Irish Catholic families established themselves in the community, and they were first served by mission priests at services held in private homes, among them the Robert Clark home on Broad Street. Early missionaries were the Reverend Philip O'Reilly and the Reverend Teevens of New Haven. It was the Reverend Teevens who first or- ganized the small colony in 1845 and who said mass in the Clark home.
It was in 1848 that the Reverend Teevens received permission from the Bishop of Hartford to form a parish, and services were held in a wooden edifice at the corner of Olive and Broad streets, which had formerly been used by an Episcopal congregation. The Reverend O'Reilly assumed charge of the parish in 1851, and was succeeded by the Reverend Thomas Quinn in 1854, who started con- struction of a church on Center Street, which was begun with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Under the Very Reverend Thomas Walsh, V.G., who assumed the pastorate in 1859, the parish debt was removed and the parish grew rapidly, necessitating enlargements in 1868 at a cost of $30,000. In 1883, Rev. Martin Lawler took charge of St. Rose parish on Father Walsh's death. He was succeeded in 1885 by the Reverend Paul F. Mc- Alenny, who was to remain as pastor until 1900. He completed in 1888 the St. Rose Chapel which served the Sisters of Mercy as a Convent Chapel. The next pastor was the Rev. John Cooney. By 1906 the parish of Saint Rose consisted of the church, rectory, two schoolhouses, Saint Bridget's Convent, and the cemeteries of Saint Patrick in 1864 and of the Sacred Heart in 1893.
Truly the mother church of Meriden, Saint Rose fostered the birth of the parishes of Saint Laurent and of Saint Joseph, the former in 1880 and the latter in 1904 and of the Holy Angels Parish of South Meriden. The influx of French Canadian immigrants prior to 1880, who worshipped originally at Saint Rose, brought about the for- mation of Saint Laurent parish. In addition to this, the increased population of Saint Rose was such that already by 1895 services were being held on the west side of town and Saint Joseph's parish was founded in 1904. The corner stone of the Church of the Holy Angels, South Meriden, was laid April 3, 1887.
Saint Rose Parish had the honor of having the first parochial school in Meriden. In 1855, seven years before free public schools were established in the town, classes were started for Catholic children in the basement of the existing church. In the early years, children were taught by lay teachers under the direction of the pastor, and
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when the school building was constructed in 1872, four Sisters of Mercy came from their motherhouse in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, to Meriden. In 1879 St. Bridget (Brigid) Convent was named Supe- rior or Mother House for a portion of Connecticut. A new Convent on Center Street was constructed for the nuns in 1878, and a new brick school building was built on Center Street in 1875.
The Rt. Rev. John Neale succeeded the Rev. Paul McElenney as pastor of St. Rose in 1914. During his administration he remodeled the Church, increased the size of the school and supervised the building of a Community Building. The ceremony of consecration of St. Rose Church was in 1926. On his death the Rev. Denis Hurley, a native of the parish succeeded him and served until he retired in 1947. The Rt. Rev. Joseph M. Griffin, president of the St. Thomas Seminary of Bloomfield, Connecticut, of whom more is written in the biogra- phical section of this history, was appointed to the permanent rectorship of St. Rose Parish in 1957. His program of restoration for the various buildings has progressed and a new eight classroom school was started in late 1958.
The school today consists of thirteen classrooms and students are taught by the Sisters of Mercy and by lay teachers, with classes from the first to the eighth grades. A school orchestra was formed to parti- cipate in the Parochial School Music Festival; facilities of the parish community building are available for gymnasium, swimming and other activities, and the new eight classroom addition is under way for in- creased enrollment and for increased junior high school facilities. There are today some five hundred children enrolled in the school.
ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF NORWICH
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich was created by a decree of Pope Pius XII under date of August 6, 1953. Its creation separated four eastern counties of New London, Windham, Tolland, and Mid- dlesex from the Diocese of Hartford and set them up as a new diocese with the bishop's see at Norwich and St. Patrick's Church in that city as his cathedral. At the time of its creation. the diocese had fifty-three parishes and its Catholic population numbered 129,969. They were served by one hundred and four diocesan priests and four religious priests in parish work.
The first Bishop of Norwich, the Most Reverend Bernard J. Flanagan, former Chancellor of the Diocese of Burlington, is now the Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, under papal
Most New. Bernard J. Flanagan
C. FORBES SARGENT
JOSEPH BRADFORD SARGENT
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appointment dated in August 1959. Bishop Flanagan was consecrated in the Cathedral of Burlington on November 30, 1953, and installed as Bishop of Norwich by the Most Reverend Henry J. O'Brien, Arch- bishop of Hartford, on December 9, 1953. He was born in Proctor, Vermont, on March 31, 1908; graduated from Proctor High School and Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts; studied theology at the American College in Rome where he was ordained December 8, 1931, by Francesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani; and did grad- uate work at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C., which awarded him a doctorate in Canon Law in 1943.
Bishop Flanagan was assistant at St. Monica's Church in Barre, Vermont, for eight years and served also as pastor of St. Louis' Church in Highgate Center for six months. He was Chancellor of the Diocese of Burlington from 1943 to 1953, and was named a Do- mestic Prelate in 1945. During his years as Chancellor, he was also secretary to the Bishop of Burlington and Episcopal Master of Cer- emonies.
Bishop Flanagan is the son of John B. Flanagan and Alice (Mc- Garry) Flanagan, both natives of Proctor, Vermont. His mother died in 1954, but his father is still living. He has one brother, John, who is married and lives in Vermont with his wife and three children.
SARGENT AND COMPANY
An old and honored name in the manufacture of builders' hard- ware, Sargent and Company is known wherever homes are built, and traces its history back to 1810 when Henry Sargent began the manu- facture of hand cards, which were essential pieces of equipment in the manufacture of hand spun woolens. The company began as South- gate and Sargent, was located in Leicester, Massachusetts, and its original product was listed as late as 1879.
Joseph Denny Sargent, a brother of Henry, joined the firm in 1813, but it was not until Joseph Bradford Sargent, son of Joseph Denny, joined the firm, that Sargent and Company entered the hard- ware field. Joseph Bradford had started a hardware commission busi- ness and manufacturing agency in New York City in 1849. He was joined by his brothers in a partnership, George Henry joining him in 1854 and Edward, a short time later. At that time, the company was purely a selling organization and sales agent for some factories. One of these was the Peck and Walter Manufacturing Company of New Britain, Connecticut. Originally incorporated in 1853, with Joseph
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Bradford Sargent as one of the original incorporators and owning about one-tenth of the stock, its controlling interest had passed into Mr. Sargent's hands by 1856, and he then decided to take over its management.
Within a year of taking this step, he had developed a process of baking enamel which enabled his company to compete for business in enameled fixtures that had formerly gone almost entirely to England. Such rigid requirements were set up for the lacquer used that only one contending company was able to meet all the requirements. Thus Sargent and Company had a finish that would stand up to the ele- ments. By 1857, the Sargent brothers had completed purchase of the Peck and Walter Company, and a partnership was formed between Joseph Bradford and George Henry.
Outgrowing its New Britain facilities, plans were made to move the plant to New Haven, and it was during the Civil War, on May I, 1864, that the new plant was occupied, the building consisting of a basement, four stories, and the first freight elevator seen in Connec- ticut. The Hotel Pavilion, next door to the factory, one of the top resort hotels in New Haven, was also purchased by the Sargents to provide living accommodations for the two hundred workers they had brought from New Britain while they were finding homes. With the move, the company was incorporated under the laws of Connecticut, and it then took its present name of Sargent and Company.
At that time, Sargent and Company manufactured one thousand different items, and their sales organization also handled products manufactured by other companies. It was in 1865 that Sargent became the sole representative of Davenport, Mallory and Company, makers of locks, marking Sargent's entrance into the field in which they are most famous today, but it was not until 1884 that the company began manufacture of its own locks. Mr. Sargent added the role of active citizen to that of prominent manufacturer, serving as Selectman of New Haven from 1881 to 1887, as Mayor from 1891 to 1895, and in 1896, he was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Connecticut.
Manufacturing facilities were expanded in 1874 to include the bright wire business purchased from the Smith Company of Deep River, Connecticut, and the purchase of land and the erection of new buildings went on at a steady rate until 1914. Sargent had one of the largest hardware factories in the world, and its catalogue listed sixty- thousand items. Modern efficiency has cut down the number of items listed, and today Sargent has two thousand items in its catalogue, but will manufacture on demand when special items are needed.
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It was in 1936 that Sargent began the manufacture of locks en- tirely bored into the latch, and during World War II produced bomb shackles for the Navy, as well as many other items needed for the Armed Services. The company's new "IntegraLock" is an outgrowth of its wartime experience, and for the first time Sargent has adapted precision methods to the manufacture of lock parts.
Sargent and Company purchased the William Schollhorn Com- pany in 1948, adding to its list of products the famous Bernard line of parallel action pliers, forged pliers and snips, leather and sta- tionery punches, hedge clippers and other similar special tools. Also, since the war, Sargent has had one of the most modern gray iron foundries in the world, and other aids in the company's drive for better production include modern conveyers to simplify and speed material handling, new machinery for precision parts, reorganization of the flow of work and the use of modern methods and equipment in the vast Sargent plant of eight hundred and seventy-thousand square feet.
President of the company today is Charles Forbes Sargent, grandson of Joseph Bradford Sargent. Born in New Haven in 1898, he graduated from Yale University in 1920 and served as a Lieutenant in the Army Field Artillery during World War I. President of Sar- gent and Company since 1944, he is also President of the company's Canadian partner, Liftlock Hardware Industries, Limited. A director of the First New Haven National Bank and active in the Red Cross, he is a member of the New Haven Country Club, the New Haven Lawn Club and the Yale Club of New York.
Like his grandfather, Mr. Sargent devotes his full efforts to maintain Sargent in its high position in the hardware field, and he is constantly working with his management team towards better meth- ods, better products, better working conditions, and more good jobs for more good people.
CHAS. W. SCRANTON AND COMPANY
Chas. W. Scranton and Company was organized in New Haven on June 27. 1891. "to engage in and carry on a general brokerage business, and generally to do all things incidental to said business." The original stockholders were prominent men in the community and included Charles S. Leete. James D. Dewell, Edwin S. Greeley, L. W. Beecher, H. Mason. Seth G. Johnson, Frank C. Bushnell. Ezekiel G. Stoddard, Edward E. Bradley, George T. Bradley, William R. Tyler, Wallace B. Fenn, Joseph C. Platt and Charles Scranton.
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Around the turn of the century the firm moved to 103 Orange Street, where it prospered for a little over two decades. In 1922 it was decided to broaden the scope of the business and a membership in the New York Stock Exchange was purchased. This necessitated a change from a corporation to a partnership. The original partners of Chas. W. Scranton and Company were John J. McKeon, William B. Scran- ton, William J. Hickey and Paul W. Redfield.
In 1923 the growth of the business and the need for additional space forced a move to much larger quarters at 157 Church Street. Here the business continued to expand at an even faster pace, and in August, 1929, the firm moved into its own newly constructed building at 209 Church Street, where it is currently serving its many thousands of clients.
Since the mid-1920s, branch offices have been established in Waterbury, New London. Danbury and Bridgeport, making the com- pany one of the largest of Connecticut investment bankers. On July II, 1956, the firm brought into New Haven the first automatic elec- tric stock quotation board, known as the Teleregister Board, opera- ting by direct wire from New York. Besides being a member of the New York Stock Exchange, it holds an associate membership in the American Stock Exchange. In addition to a complete stock brokerage business, it participates in underwriting both municipal and corporate securities, and specializes in Connecticut securities.
On January 2, 1958, Paul W. Redfield retired as senior partner of the firm and was succeeded by William J. Falsey, who has been with the firm for more than forty years. Mr. Falsey is also the com- pany's representative on the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. He is a director of the Connecticut State Chamber of Commerce; trustee of the Connecticut Public Expendi- ture Council; past president of the Connecticut Investment Bankers Association ; director of the First Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tion of New Haven; treasurer and a director of the Connecticut Radio Foundation, Station WELI; director of the Greist Manu- facturing Company and The Henry G. Thompson and Sons Com- pany; and chairman of the Distributions Committee of The New Haven Foundation. For the past twenty years, Mr. Falsey has been a member of the New Haven Board of Finance.
Other partners are Edward A. Burgess, Frank M. Johnson, Leslie B. Swan, Stephen G. Mckeon, John M. Flanagan, and Gordon E. Johnson, all of New Haven, and Bertram B. Bailey of Waterbury. All of the above are general partners.
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Paul W. Redfield, former senior partner, and Paul L. Sampsell of New London now have Limited Partnership status in the firm, as does also Wilbur G. Hoye.
SECURITY-CONNECTICUT INSURANCE GROUP
With the discontinuance of the New Haven Insurance Company in 1831, the shipping merchants of New Haven were left without a local organization through which to insure their property, and were forced to deal with insurance companies located elsewhere-in Ilart- ford, Boston, New York, or even London. This caused considerable annoyance as well as delay in conducting their normal trade.
Among these captains of commerce were six men whose names are prominent in the old records: Jehiel Forbes, Russell Hotchkiss, Joseph N. Clarke, Richard M. Clarks, Ezra Hotchkiss and Justice Harrison. Owing to their determination, a movement was started which resulted in a petition being presented to the General Assembly in 1841. It can well be imagined that the sponsors of this project met with no encouragement in Hartford, then well started toward be- coming the insurance center of the United States. Nevertheless, on May 5 of that year, a charter was granted to the Mutual Security Insurance Company, in an action recorded in these words:
Resolved By This Assembly, That Jehiel Forbes, Theron Towner, Richard M. Clarke, Smith Tuttle, Nathan Peck, Jr., and their associates and all others who may associate with them hereafter, in the manner herein provided and their suc- cessors and assigns be . .. and they are hereby created and made a body politic and corporate, by the name of "The Mutual Security Insurance Company." . . . Sect. II. Theron Towner, Richard M. Clarke, Smith Tuttle, Ezra Hotchkiss, Nathan Peck, Jr., are hereby appointed Commissioners to receive subscriptions.
The original charter granted the corporation power
to insure all kinds of vessels, goods, wares, and merchandise, freight, bottomry and respondentia interest, and to make all and any insurance appertaining to, or connected with marine risks, inland transportation and navigation; and also to insure all kinds of property of whatever kind or nature soever against loss or dam- age by fire, also to lend money on bottomry and respondentia.
Organized as a stock company, the firm was to be capitalized at not less than one hundred thousand dollars nor more than three hundred thousand dollars. The books of the company were opened to receive subscriptions in 1842; but the effects of the panic which had struck in 1837 were still being felt, and on January II, 1843, the commissioners voted to grant a further extension of time for receiving; subscriptions until April 12, 1843. Actually, it was not
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until March 18, 1844, that enough had been subscribed to meet the minimum amount of capitalization called for in the company's charter. Early in 1844, the directors voted "that the President and Secretary be authorized to contract for a room on State Street, in the second story of Timothy Dwight's Building, on a lease of five years, the rent not to exceed $135 per annum." The following stockholders were elected to the first board of directors: Elihu Atwater, Nathaniel A. Bacon, John Bradley, Willis Bristol, Joseph N. Clarke, William H. Ellis, John Benedict, Harvey Barnes, Sheldon Bassett and Enos Sperry. The following day, these officers were elected as the first to guide the affairs of the Mutual Security Insurance Company of New Haven: Joseph N. Clark, president; Dennis Kimberly vice presi- dent; Philip S. Galpin, secretary ; and Nathaniel A. Bacon, treasurer. This action brought together men who were probably the most capable and respected among New Haven business and professional leaders. General Kimberly, for example, had won his rank with appointment as Major-General of the State. In 1827 he was a member of the com- mittee selected to erect the marble State House that stood for many years on the upper part of New Haven Green. He was chosen by the General Assembly to serve in the United States Senate in 1838, but refused. However, he served as mayor of New Haven for three consecutive years.
On May 1, 1845, having outgrown its original quarters, the company leased more room, also in the Timothy Dwight Building. At this time the salary of the president stood at two hundred dollars per annum, and that of the efficient and zealous Secretary Gaipin, who may be assumed to have devoted the major portion of his time to his duties, was increased from six hundred to one thousand dollars per annum.
As the company continued its growth, it continued to attract men of the highest calibre. Among these was Minott A. Osborn, chosen director on July 12, 1848. A publisher, he became owner of the Columbian Weekly Register, predecessor of the New Haven Register. He also had other business interests, served as collector of the Port of New Haven under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, and was a member of the common council.
In the recorded history of the company is the following interest- ing paragraph on affairs of the day :
On March 30, 1856, a ferwell meeting was held in North Church on New Haven Green to encourage the New Haven group then leaving to settle in the territory ... of Kansas.
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Funds were raised to provide the group with Bibles, and with Sharpe's rifles.
By 1880, The Security Insurance Company (the word "Mutual" had been officially dropped in 1873) was doing business in the states of Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Utah. Minnesota was added to the list in 1883, and Montana and Tennessee in 1888.
In the course of this growth, the company found it necessary to move from its traditional State Street location to larger quarters, and in 1887, purchased land at 37 Center Street and contracted for the erection of a new home office at that location. The cost of this build- ing was between $17,500 and $20,000. As a result of further expan- sion, a second home office was erected in 1910 at the corner of Church and Elm streets, where the Union and New Haven Trust Company Building now stands. On December 4, 1925, the company moved to its present location at 175 Whitney Avenue, a site which allowed ample room for expansion. Thus, in December, 1951, a second build- ing at the Whitney Avenue site was occupied. This newest addition to the home office buildings provides more space alone than the original structure.
From the time when the sailing ship passed its peak of importance in commerce, the company had turned more and more of its attention to fire insurance. In doing so, it expanded and developed its business in all parts of the country, and at the present time is represented in forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and many foreign coun- tries. The San Francisco fire of 1906 put the company to its supreme test. Losses greater than its capital and surplus at the time were absorbed, and claims paid in full. Many companies settled their losses on various compromises. In fact, the company has paid claims in full in every fire and disaster encountered. Its excellent record won an increasing volume of business. This fact is indicated in the minutes of the directors' meeting of July 3, 1901, which approved a change in the company's charter, increasing capital stock from three hundred thousand to one million dollars. In 1923, when plans were being made to acquire the Whitney Avenue location, the company launched a sub- sidiary firm, the East and West Insurance Company. This company started operation during June, 1923, with five hundred thousand dollars of its million-dollar-capitalization subscribed and paid in full. In addition to its fire and ocean marine coverages, the Security In- surance Company of New Haven and its other subsidiary, The Con-
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necticut Indemnity Company, now write all lines of fire and casualty coverages.
In August, 1955, the Security-Connecticut Life Insurance Com- pany, the first ordinary life insurance company to be started in Con- necticut in sixty-five years, was organized, making the Security- Connecticut Insurance Group one of three fully multiple line insurance groups in the state of Connecticut. Since its founding, the life com- pany has grown to the point where it had, as of December 31, 1957, twenty-seven million dollars' worth of insurance in force. Assets of the Security-Connecticut Insurance Group as of December 31, 1957, totalled nearly forty-six million dollars-a decided change from the original capital investment of one hundred thousand dollars, of which only ten thousand was in actual cash.
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