USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume IV > Part 42
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After the war, he resumed his studies, returning to Yale and enrolling in courses at its Law School. There he took his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1922. He was admitted to the bar that year, and has been practicing at Hartford as an attorney-at-law ever since. The firm is Bill and Bill, in which his son is a partner. As a lawyer, he is a member of the Hartford County Bar Association, the Connecticut State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.
In 1929, Mr. Bill commenced duties on the bench as judge of the Town Court of West Hartford. He served as judge until 1937. Con- currently, from 1929 to 1933, he was clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives. He became clerk of the Connecticut State Senate for the year 1935. Active in the councils of the Republican party, Mr. Bill served as secretary of the Republican State Central Com- mittee of Connecticut from 1938 to 1941. He was named corporation counsel of West Hartford in 1946 and served until 1956. In February, 1949, he took office as State's Attorney for Hartford County, a post he has filled since that time.
Mr. Bill is a Rotarian and a member of the Twentieth Century Club and the Hartford Canoe Club in his home city. He is also affili- ated with the Free and Accepted Masons, a member of Lafayette Lodge in Hartford, and of the higher bodies of the order. He belongs to Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He and Mrs. Bill attend South Congregational Church in Hartford.
She is the former Miss Hazel Olive Marsh, and became the wife of Albert Seymour Bill. Sr., in a ceremony in Hartford on November 4, 1922. She is the daughter of O. Vincent and Olive (Crocker) Marsh. Mr. and Mrs. Bill have one son, Albert S., Jr., who was born on November 7, 1927.
BENJAMIN LEROY HOLLAND
Joining the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company over three decades ago, following training and brief experience in the law, Ben- jamin Leroy Holland has advanced steadily within the organization to the position of president.
He is a native of the Midwest, born at Hepler, Kansas, on May 23, 1897, and is a son of Benjamin Washington and Melissa Ann (Page) Holland. His father was active in the various occupations of merchant, dairy and general farmer, and public utility executive. After completing his public elementary and high school education in
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his native state, Benjamin L. Holland entered Kansas University, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1920 and the Bachelor of Arts degree the following year. He then came east to attend Yale University, where he took the degree of Juris Doctor in 1922. Mr. Holland's studies were interrupted by a period of service in the Signal Corps of the United States Army, in 1918.
In 1922, following the completion of his courses at Yale, Mr. Hol- land accepted appointment as research assistant to the Committee of the Commonwealth Fund on the Law of Evidence. The following year he was acting associate professor of law at Stanford University in California, where he remained for a year.
. . Returning to Connecticut in 1924, he joined the staff of Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, and was named attorney to the corporation in 1930. He became associate counsel in 1934, and in 1938 assumed duties in the dual posts of assistant secretary and associate counsel. He was promoted to secretary and counsel in 1940, and be- came vice president in 1944, continuing his responsibilities as counsel. Also in 1944, he became a member of the company's board of directors. He advanced to executive vice president and counsel in 1947, and has been president of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company since 1948.
In addition to heading this firm, Mr. Holland is a director of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company of Hartford, and a trustee of the Mechanics Savings Bank.
Mr. Holland is a member of the Connecticut and Kansas bars. He is a member of the Hartford Club. the Dauntless Club and the Twentieth Century Club. He and Mrs. Holland attend the Congrega- tional Church.
She is the former Miss Minnie A. Testerman, daughter of the Rev. Francis Marion and Eda (Huffman) Testerman. She became the wife of Benjamin Leroy Holland in a ceremony at Lawrence, Kansas, on June 8, 1921. They are the parents of the following chil- dren': 1. Mildred Ann, who was born on September 28, 1922, and is now the wife of Dr. David Halsted Riege, a pediatrician in West Hart- ford. A graduate of Connecticut College, Mrs. Riege is the mother of two children : Susan Howe Riege, born August 13, 1949, and David Halsted Riege, Jr .. born August 16, 1951. 2. Warren Leroy, born May 22, 1925, who attended Hillyer and Springfield College. He is married to Rita Dillon and they have one child, Deborah Page Holland, born' April 8. 1952. 3. James David, born on January 3, 1931, who graduated from Trinity. He is married to Jean Merriman, and they
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have two children: Stephen James, born July 28, 1956, and Janice Merriman Holland, born November 30, 1957.
JOHN HARPER TRUMBULL,
John Harper Trumbull, Connecticut's oldest living ex-governor, has done much to make history in the state-as citizen, industrialist, and representative of the people in public life.
Born at Ashford on March 4, 1873, he is the fourth of his name to have been the chief executive of the state, but is not related to his predecessors in office. He is the oldest of seven sons born to Hugh H. and Mary Ann (Harper) Trumbull, both natives of Ulster, Ire- land. The family is of Scottish descent, however, the ancestral lin- eage going back to Edinburgh and to 1792. His parents came to Ameri- ca in 1870, settling first near Windsor but shortly afterwards moving to Plainville. His father engaged in agriculture, and on the home farm the governor no doubt developed the rugged physique and traits of character which have stood him in good stead. He began his indus- trial career with the Eddy Electric Company of Windsor, where he gained practical experience and did a substantial amount of ex- perimental work. For a short period he was an electrical contractor in Hartford, but in 1898 returned to Plainville, where in association with his brother Henry Trumbull and Frank T. Wheeler, he estab- lished the Trumbull Electric Company on October 1, 1899.
The original plant, known as "the chuck shop," was a small one- story wooden building with twenty-five hundred square feet of floor space, employing a handful of workers. The company specialized at first in manufacturing a quarter-turn porcelain rosette. The first ten years after the founding was a period of trials. All available funds were put back into the business, and many times after the employees had been paid there was little or no cash left for the management. The second decade of the century was one of rapid growth, and the company expanded its line to include safety switches for every pur- pose. Business now went into a boom period, and new products con- tinued to be added-feeder distribution systems, an enclosed prefabri- cated busbar system known as Flex-a-Power, unit panels, stock panel boxes, circuit breakers. During both world wars the company supplied war plants with vast quantities of improved products in its regular lines as well as highly specialized panelboards and switches for the Navy, the Maritime Commission, and our allies. The original "chuck shop" has grown to a nationwide organization, with plants in seven
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cities totalling over a half-million square feet and employing approxi- mately two thousand people. In 1919, the General Electric Com- pany, acquired a financial interest in Trumbull Electric Company, without however changing the essential nature of the enterprise or its operation as an independent business. In 1945, it became a wholly owned affiliate of General Electric. On January I of that year, the original management, John H. Trumbull, Henry Trumbull, Frank Wheeler and Stanley Gwillim, retired from active participation in company affairs.
While head of the company, John Harper Trumbull joined in organizing The Plainville Trust Company, of which he is now chair- man of the board. In 1908 he helped found the First National Bank of Plainville, predecessor to The Plainville Trust Company. The bank's first president, Mr. Trumbull held that office until 1955 when he was named chairman of the board. He is also a director and mem- ber of the executive committee of Connecticut Light and Power Com- pany, and a director of Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance Company and The Connecticut Manifold Forms Company. Active in the Na- tional Electrical Manufacturers Association, he served on its board of governors from 1927 to 1930 and from 1932 to 1934, and was the fourth president of the association, 1931-1932.
It is doubtful that John H. Trumbull ever intended to give poli- tics any large place in his career. However, on a big-game hunting trip, the seeds of his political career were sown. In November, 1924, John H. Trumbull was elected lieutenant-governor of Connecticut. Governor Hiram Bingham served only one day before becoming Uni- ted States Senator, and Mr. Trumbull then became head of the state government for the full term. He was re-elected in 1926 and 1928. Having been well schooled in farm and factory conditions, and the problems of taxation, economy and efficiency, it was natural that his administration should be characterized by a strong constructive fi- nancial policy, and improvements in handling the state's affairs. He instituted an effective pay-as-you-go program. Before occupying the governor's chair, he had served two terms, 1920-1924, as state senator from the Fifth District, and was president pro tem of the senate for one term. Mr. Trumbull was a member of the State Central Com- mittee of his party for twenty-five years.
Mr. Trumbull's interest in aviation is particularly noteworthy. Known popularly as "the flying governor," he was and is keenly in- terested in all phases of aviation. He himself learned to pilot a plane in 1926, while governor, and continued to operate the controls un-
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til he was seventy-five. When he was in office, the State Department of Aviation was formed, with its own air laws drawn to conform with federal regulations. Mr. Trumbull has long been a regular member of the Aviation Commission of the Department of Aeronautics of the state, and was appointed its vice chairman in 1953. He has served as chairman of the board of Colonial Air Transport, Inc., and on the membership committee of the National Aeronautical Association. He was a director of Colonial Canadian Air Line and of the Fairchild Corporation, and president of the New England Flying Clubs.
Affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, Mr. Trumbull is a member of Frederick Lodge No. 14 at Plainville, and holds the Thirty-second degree. He is past illustrious potentate of Sphinx Tem- ple in Hartford. His other memberships include the Improved Order of Red Men, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Putnam Phalanx, the Hartford Club, the Shuttle Meadow Country Club of New Bri- tain, the Country Club of Farmington, the Electrical Manufacturers Club, Town Club of Jamestown, New York, the East Haddam Fish- ing and Game Club, and the Amateur Trapshooting Association of America. The Hartford Gun Club made him its honorary president for life after he had served on its board of governors for forty-one years and as its treasurer for eighteen years.
On November 30, 1903, John Harper Trumbull married Maude Pierce Usher of Plainville, daughter of Robert C. and Antoinette (Pierce) Usher. They are the parents of two daughters: 1. Florence, who married John Coolidge of Farmington. He is the son of President Calvin Coolidge. To their marriage have been born two daughters, Cynthia and Lydia. 2. Jean Usher, now Mrs. Alaric R. Bailey of Jamestown, New York. The Baileys have four children: John Trum- bull, Alaric R., Jr .. Sandra, and Charles Justin, and one granddaugh- ter, the child of Alaric, Jr.
HENRY TRUMBULL
Throughout most of his life, Henry Trumbull has been pursuing dual careers in business management and agriculture. He was co- founder of the Trumbull Electric Manufacturing Company at Plain- ville; and he has a considerable reputation as a dairy cattle breeder.
A native of East Hartford, he was born on January 12, 1875, son of Hugh and Mary A. (Harper) Trumbull. He was educated in the public schools of Plainville, and began his career with the Eddy Electric Company, in Windsor, an association welcome to him because of his early interest in electricity and his native aptitude for engineering.
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Later he went to Ampere, New Jersey, and for two years was employed in the motor-building department of the Crocker-Wheeler Electric Company.
At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Trumbull became superintendent and operating manager of the Southington-Plantsville Lighting and Power Company which operated the second electric trolley line con- structed in Connecticut. He continued in this position until the company was absorbed by the Connecticut Railway & Lighting Company. This experience was followed by more than two years in the service of the New England Engineering Company of Waterbury on construction work.
In 1899 Mr. Trumbull resigned from that firm and with his brother, John H. Trumbull, later Governor of Connecticut, formed the Trumbull Electric Manufacturing Company at Plainville. Although he was still in his early twenties, Henry Trumbull was a qualified elec- trical engineer with a wide background of experience. He took full charge of manufacturing operations of the new corporation, and es- tablished its production on a sound and efficient basis. Subsequently, he became secretary of the corporation, and in 1910 assumed the office of treasurer. This he held until 1945, when the Trumbull Electric Manufacturing Company was sold to General Electric Company. The steady growth of the original firm had by that time resulted in the operation of not only the Plainville plant but also four branch plants in various parts of the country.
Mr. Trumbull's position in Connecticut's business life was re- flected in his election as president of the Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, an office which he filled for five years. He has been active in this organization over a long period, having served in other offices before becoming president. He remains a director. He was also presi- dent of the Plainville Chamber of Commerce, and was first secretary of the New England Council, in which all the New England States are represented. As director of the National Association of Manufac- turers, he had a place in the national councils of American industry. During Connecticut's Tercentenary in 1935 he was chairman of the Committee on Exhibit of Inventions and Manufactures. In 1944 he was appointed by Governor Raymond E. Baldwin as a member of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. In addition to these con- nections, Mr. Trumbull has served as a director and vice president of the Hartford County Farm Bureau, and as president of the State Agricultural Society and the Connecticut Fair Association. For many years his maor avocational interest was operating his farm in Plain-
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ville, "Pinnacle Rock," where he devoted his attention principally to the breeding of registered dairy cattle of the Jersey and Ayrshire strains, and to the production of high-grade milk. His three-hundred- acre farm became known as one of the finest in the State. He pioneered in this region in the practice of electric pasteurization; and having proved its value, proceeded to produce a complete electric pasteuriza- tion unit as a product of the Trumbull Electric Manufacturing Com- pany. He was a staunch advocate of pasteurization. In 1954, Mr. Trumbull sold his herd, and in 1956 sold the three hundred acres and buildings on them.
For a long term of years Mr. Trumbull has been vice president and director of the Plainville Trust Company. In politics he is a Republican, and he is a member of the Farmington Country Club. He is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, and is prominent in the order, being a member of all higher bodies of the Scottish Rite. He holds the Thirty-second degree, and is a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Twice married, Henry Trumbull chose as his first wife, Nettie P. Northrop of Bridgeport. They were married on October 21, 1903, and they became the parents of one daughter, Esther, who married Henry Stafford Kellam, now holding an important position with the General Electric Company in Plainville. Nettie (Northrop) Trumbull died in 1944, and in June 1946, Mr. Trumbull married, as his second wife, Florence H. White of Forestville, Connecticut. He maintains his long residence in Plainville, Connecticut, as well as a winter home in Belleair, Florida.
JOHN COOLIDGE
The son of the late President Calvin Coolidge, John Coolidge of Farmington, has never sought for himself a role in public life, but has advanced to a place of leadership in the industrial affairs of his state. He is chairman of the board of The Connecticut Manifold Forms Company and of Converters, Incorporated, and president of Colonial Empire, Incorporated. He has held a number of other responsible offices in business, and in industrial, civic, educational and welfare connections.
Born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on September 7, 1906, he is a son of Calvin and Grace A. (Goodhue) Coolidge. His grand- parents were John C. and Victoria (Moor) Coolidge, and Andrew Issachar and Lemira (Barrett) Goodhue.
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The story is well known concerning Calvin Coolidge's being suddenly called to the duties of the Presidency on the death of Warren G. Harding, and being administered the oath of office by his own father, in Vermont. Prior to that time, he had practiced law at Northampton; had served as councilman, city solicitor, clerk of courts and representative in the State legislature; held office as mayor of the city, 1910-19II ; went on to the State Senate, which he served as president, 1914-1915; and was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1916, 1917 and 1918. He was next elected Governor of Massa- chusetts for two one-year terms; and was elected Vice President of the United States in 1920. Succeeding Mr. Harding in the Presidency at his death in 1923, Mr. Coolidge was elected President in 1924, but "did not choose to run" in 1928. His death occurred January 5, 1933. He was survived by Mrs. Coolidge, who died on July 8, 1957. She had had experience as a teacher of the deaf at The Clarke School in Northampton, and continued her interest in this school as a member and chairman of its board until her death. The couple had a younger son, Calvin, Jr., who died in Washington, D. C., on July 7, 1924, when the family was in the White House.
John Coolidge attended Mercersburg Academy for three years, graduating there in 1924 while his father was President. During Calvin Coolidge's second term, he was attending Amherst College, of which the President was also a graduate. There John Coolidge took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1928. He immediately launched a business career, joining the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, for which he worked in positions of increasing responsi- bility until 1941. In that year he assumed management of The Manifold Forms Company at Hartford, as its president and treasurer.
At that time, the firm had about ten employees, and occupied a small plant on Capitol Avenue. It has grown steadily under Mr. Coolidge's direction, and now has a payroll of thirty-five. Since May, 1949, it has occupied its own modern plant in West Hartford. The company produces continuous and carbon-interleaved office forms used by industrial and business firms throughout the country.
In 1954, Mr. Cooldige became president and treasurer of a second firm, Converters, Incorporated, a producer of continuous envelopes. In 1956 he relinquished these offices, but retains his connection with the company as chairman. He has been president and treasurer of Colonial Empire Incorporated since its formation in 1951. He is also president and treasurer of The Plymouth Cheese Corporation of Plymouth, Vermont.
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Mr. Coolidge's other official connections include directorship of the South End Bank and Trust Company of Hartford, and he is vice president, director, and a member of the executive committee of Connecticut Medical Service at New Haven. He is a corporator of the American School for the Deaf at West Hartford, and of the Clarke School for the Deaf at Northampton, Massachusetts (which his mother served as president of its board in her later years). He is chairman of the advisory board of Robinson School for Boys at West Hartford, a member of the Board of Regents of Mercersburg Academy and also a director of the Boys' Clubs of Hartford.
Mr. Coolidge has also been active in the Manufacturers Associa- tion of Connecticut, in which he has been treasurer, director, and member of the executive committee for the past fifteen years. He is an honorary director for life of the West Hartford Chamber of Com- merce. He is a member of The Hartford Rotary Club and the Farming- ton Country Club. Affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, he is a member of the higher bodies of the order and holds the Thirty- second degree. He is a member of the First Church of Christ, Con- gregational, 1652, of Farmington, which he formerly served as a deacon. He and his older daughter have sung in its choir for several years.
At the Plainville Congregational Church, on September 23, 1929, John Coolidge married Florence Trumbull. Born November 30, 1904, at Plainville, she is a daughter of John Harper and Maude (Usher) Trumbull. Forebears of the Usher family landed in the Boston area in the early period of colonial colonization, and were active in the book trade as early as 1638. Mr. Trumbull was Governor of Connecti- cut from 1925 to 1931. Mrs. Coolidge attended Bradford Academy for two years. She entered Mount Holyoke College in 1923, and was gradu- ated in 1927, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The couple are the parents of two daughters: I. Cynthia, who was born at New Haven on October 28, 1933. She was graduated from Bradford Junior Col- lege in 1953. 2. Lydia, born August 14, 1939, also at New Haven. She was graduated from Bradford Junior College in 1959 followed by a year of post-graduate work at The Garland School.
The family's residence is on Diamond Glen Road, in Farmington.
EDWIN H. FORKEL
One of Hartford's distinguished group of insurance executives, Edwin H. Forkel has headed two firms having their headquarters in
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the city. Until August 1959 he was president and director of the Na- tional Fire Insurance Company and of the Transcontinental Insurance Company. In that month he was elected president of the Continental Casualty Company of Chicago, and of its subsidiary, the Transporta- tion Insurance Company. He has also held office in insurance men's groups.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, he was born on October 26, 1902, son of Edwin H. and Elta ( Vogelgesang) Forkel. He attended the public schools of that city and Oak Park High School, then enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he received his degree of Bachelor of Science in 1924. His father and mother are deceased.
During his college days, the younger Edwin H. Forkel played baseball, and for a few months was with the Chicago White Sox. He started his insurance career as a clerk with the Royal Insurance Com- pany in Chicago. In December, 1925, he resigned to join H. G. B. Alexander and Company, United States manager of the Transcon- tinental Insurance Company, as examiner. He later became special agent with that firm, and traveled in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
In January, 1929, he transferred to the Western Department of the National of Hartford Group. On October 1, 1936, he was made agency superintendent, and on April 1, 1938, assistant manager. He became associate manager on July 1, 1939, and was promoted to the general managership on January 1, 1944. Mr. Forkel became vice president on February 19, 1945, and on February 20, 1956, was named president and director of the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford and the Transcontinental Insurance Company, with offices at 1000 Asylum Avenue, Hartford. He held both these posts until August, 1959, when he was elected president of the Continental Casual- ty Company of Chicago, and of its subsidiary, the Transportation Insurance Company.
Besides his role in the executive management of these firms, Mr. Forkel holds office as trustee of the Mechanics Savings Bank of Hartford; director of the Connecticut Bank and Trust Company; the General Adjustment Bureau, Inc., and the Western Adjustment and Inspection Company. He was formerly vice president and director of the Continental Casualty Company, and formerly vice president and director of Transportation Insurance Company. He is a member of the executive committee of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Interested in the causes of welfare and education, he is a corporator of the American School for the Deaf, a founder of the University of Hartford, and a corporator of Hartford Hospital.
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