USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 34
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These are but a few of those the story of whose lives is the his- tory of the times. Among others, and like most of those named a frequenter of the Hartford Club, was the stalwart and much re- vered Maj .- Gen. William B. Franklin of Civil war fame. On re- tirement from the army in 1866 he came here and was made vice president and general manager of the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. He was superintendent on the commis- sion that built the Capitol, was presidential elector on the demo- cratic ticket in the Tilden campaign and adjutant-general under Governor Hubbard. He discharged the duties of president of the first board of managers of the National Home for Disabled Volun- teer Soldiers and of commissary general to the Paris exposition, receiving the first decoration given to an American as grand officer of the French Legion of Honor. He was a director in sev- eral Hartford insurance and financial concerns, and was senior warden of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Prof. John B. Brocklesby, LL. D. (1811-1889) in 1820 came to Avon with his father who built near Monte Video. After grad- uating at Yale in 1835, he went into law but gave up practice to become professor of mathematics at Washington (Trinity) Col- lege in 1842, succeeding Charles Davies. He wrote much on nat- ural philosophy and astronomy. He retired in 1882. John H., William C., and Arthur K. Brocklesby were his sons. Rev. J. R. Keep (1810-1884), a native of Longmeadow, Mass., a graduate of Yale, '34, formed the Congregational church in Unionville and
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preached in other places till he came to Hartford in 1854 and for twenty-five years was a professor at the American Deaf Mute In- stitute. He married a daughter of Rev. Dr. Noah Porter of Farm- ington, a sister of President Porter of Yale. He was the father of Prof. Robert Porter Keep of Farmington.
William H. Gross (1835-1891) began business life in the book store of William J. Hamersley. Later with Flavius A. Brown he started the book store of Brown & Gross, first at the corner of Main and Asylum streets and then down Asylum Street half a block. On Mr. Brown's death Leverett Belknap was made part- ner and afterwards George F. Warfield. The firm today is G. F. Warfield & Co. Mr. Gross was secretary of the Atheneum. William H. Post (1833-1899) was partner with Caleb L. Talcott in Tal- cott & Post, drygoods, several years after the death of his brother, Amos Post, or till 1881 when he formed the William H. Post Car- pet Company, at the corner of Asylum and Haynes streets, where the company is still located. His son, William S. Post, succeeded him in the business. Mr. Post also was the president of the Cape- well Horse Nail Company, and was one of the founders of Park Church. Caleb M. Talcott (1826-1901), born in Rockville, was head of the firm of Talcott & Post, at the corner of Main and Pratt streets, his first partner being Amos Post. He continued the busi- ness for many years alone. He was instrumental in forming the Capewell Horse Nail Company and was interested in various other concerns.
George J. Capewell invented the automatic horse-nail machine. He was born in Birmingham, Eng., in 1843. Coming to this coun- try, his father was a manufacturer of firearms in Woodbury. The son began business for himself manufacturing light hardware in Cheshire. In 1880 the great Capewell Horse Nail Company was organized, Frank L. Howard president. Mr. Capewell retired from business life in 1907. The plant became the largest of its kind in the world and so continues. He gave liberally to public institutions and especially to the Hartford Hospital, where the X-ray building was given by the family in memory of him.
Dr. Cincinnatus A. Taft (1822-1884), a native of Dedham, Mass., followed his brother, Dr. G. M. Taft, in practice of homeo- pathy here, and by his interest in public affairs, filled a large place in the community.
J. Watson Beach (1823-1887) was the son of President George
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Beach of the Phoenix Bank. He was head of the firm of Beach & Co., importers, formed by three brothers, George, J. Watson and Charles M., and afterwards continued by Charles M., T. Belknap and Charles Edward, grandsons of George. J. Watson Beach was at one time president of the Mercantile National Bank and a di- rector in several concerns. He was the father of Mrs. George H. Day, Mrs. P. H. Ingalls, Dr. C. C. Beach and George W. Beach.
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Altogether it was fertile soil for helpful institutions of all kinds. In 1888, Mrs. Emily Wells Foster interested herself in a poor blind Italian child and sent him to the Perkins Institute in Boston. She and the local Heart Sunshine Society soon heard of other cases. They had no difficulty in enlisting in their cause a Hartford lawyer, F. E. Cleveland, himself blind for many years. Arrangements were made to have the state send needy cases to the institute but only to find that the accommodations there were insufficient. Thereupon the Legislature in 1893 passed a resolu- tion appointing the governor and chief justice and two others a commission to look into the subject and allowing $300 for educa- tional purposes. Mrs. Foster and Mr. Cleveland were the two others. This was the beginning of the State Board of Education for the Blind and the corporation known as the Connecticut Insti- tute and Industrial Home for the Blind. A house was secured at No. 57 Kenyon Street for a nursery to which children were brought from around the state. A larger house was taken, on Asylum Street, and a kindergarten introduced. State aid was allowed for children of school age and Hartford women continued to furnish most of the funds for the rest of the expenses. Now it has its school department, farm and gardens in a most attractive locality on Holcomb Street with a thriving department of trades on Ridge Road.
And the Children's Aid Society was started. Virginia Thrall, born in Bloomfield, her ancestors founders of Windsor, had been educated at Suffield Institute and at Mount Holyoke, had married William B. Smith and had come here to live in 1876. She organ- ized a corps of workers to assist "Father" (David) Hawley, the city missionary, giving special attention to the needs of children. A laundry and cooking school were established and legislation se-
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cured by which there should be kindergartens in public schools, of which Hartford's West Middle had one of the first in America. An annual fair was a feature for many years. Sunset Cottage was provided near the reservoirs and the Sister Dora Society drew many. Mrs. Smith was a member of the State Board of Charities for nine years. In 1887-88 came the bequests from the Lucy S. Church and Charles Wright estates, $62,000, and the City Mission Association was formed to assist in the work, with headquarters in its own building on Pearl Street. Levi Prosser gave his farm in Bloomfield. In 1892, the name was changed to the Children's Aid Society, and from this grew the Connecticut Children's Aid Society to provide homes for children and especially to care for crippled children at a splendidly equipped home in Newington, for the beginning of which the society raised the funds in 1898 to buy a fifty-six-acre farm. The acreage has been increased as need required and the buildings also. Dr. Joseph E. Root aided much in those earlier days when the women were giving of their time and their means. Mrs. Smith's son, Dr. Oliver C. Smith (before his untimely death) and Winchell Smith, the present eminent playwright and producer, helped to carry on the work, the burden of which the state now gladly assumes. For the value of such an institution in state economics has been well demonstrated. It is a pleasure to see the children at their seaside home at Woodmont, at their sports and studies and their entertainments, with their orchestra and their teams, in Newington. The Legislature of 1927 appropriated $300,000 to meet immediate building require- ments. Governor Trumbull participated in the exercises for the graduating class.
Withal, in this period, Prof. Charles H. Young, on his thirty- third birthday and after he had made a name for himself in France by the work he did on the battlefields in 1870, was enter- ing upon a forty-years' example of patience and endurance in his small second-story rooms on Asylum Street in the heart of the business district. He fell from a high cliff in 1886. From that day to the day he died, in 1927, he never left the bed by his front window, except once when a fire in the store beneath necessitated his being taken out for a short time. His knowledge of foreign languages enabled him to give lessons and for many years he was active with his pen. He was always cheerful while his readings made him an interesting conversationalist upon any topic.
SCOTTISH UNION AND NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY, HARTFORD
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In insurance in this era, the Scottish Union and National and the Lion Fire were the first of the foreign companies to locate their American headquarters here. Martin Bennett, who had been president of the Connecticut Fire since 1873, was chosen for general manager in 1880. James H. Brewster, who had been as- sociated with Mr. Bennett in the Connecticut Fire for thirty years, was made assistant manager.
There were two insurance tragedies and one happy escape from one. That of the Charter Oak Life was the greatest in Hart- ford history. In 1886, Thomas F. Plunkett, treasurer and agent of the Union Manufacturing Company of Manchester and an officer of the Hartford Silk Company of Tariffville, in both of which Hartford capital was strongly represented, fled to escape prosecution for irregularities. Charles M. Beach of West Hart- ford, as receiver, settled all claims so far as possible. The claims allowed amounted to $394,000; there were outstanding notes of $246,000; the assets were only $200,000. George M. Bartholo- mew, president of the Charter Oak and associated in many of the city's large enterprises, was a director in both of these companies and president of the Union. He had endorsed a large amount of paper.
As has been said, the life insurance company started most auspiciously in 1850, but with the vicious stock-note method of capitalizing. After years of brilliant success in the field, it was revealed that only $10 a share ever was paid on the stock, the remainder being paid in dividends, yet on this total dividends of 8 per cent were paid regularly together with commissions on the large business done in the home office. Inasmuch as the company had assisted largely in financing the Connecticut Valley Railroad and certain concerns along the route, had invested in a mine and had erected its fine granite building on Main Street at what seemed an enormous cost, the friends of President James C. Walk-
ley, who had held that office since 1855, became alarmed. Other revelations following, a receivership was narrowly avoided in 1875 when several leading men accepted positions on the board of directors and ex-Governor Marshall Jewell was made presi- dent; drastic reform was introduced, the company was mutual- ized and New York men who had had a part in bringing on the trouble were prosecuted but were acquitted after an important witness had disappeared. Mr. Bartholomew was persuaded to take the presidency in 1878.
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Mr. Bartholomew (1816-1899) began his business life with Robert Watkinson of the Eagle Manufacturing Company of Glas- tonbury and always was closely associated with the Watkinson in- terests. Beginning in 1825 he was trustee of the Hartford, Provi- dence & Fishkill Railroad for twenty years, became its president and later was receiver for its successor, the Boston, Hartford & Erie. He had been president of the American Bank, director and vice president of the Connecticut Western Railroad, director in the Chicago & Northwestern and identified with several other roads. Also he was president of the Holyoke Water Power Com- pany and of the Union Manufacturing Company. To relieve the insurance company's present embarrassment, he gave his personal endorsement on paper amounting to two millions and a quarter, and with the money raised the company saved large sums in claims by buying up policyholders. It was too late. Insurance Commissioner Ephraim Williams was forced to apply for a re- ceiver in 1885, but the case turning on questions of valuation, the action was discontinued. One year later came the Plunkett sen- sation.
President Bartholomew told his directors that he had been holding a large amount of company money to prevent its being at- tached, but in the present embarrassment he could not pay it over ; he did, however, turn in securities and his personal property in large part, which he believed would, in time, be worth the amount of the indebtedness. Then he resigned. Isaac Brooks of Torring- ton was appointed receiver, with Edmund A. Stedman of Hart- ford. A dividend of 181/4 per cent had been paid policyholders at the end of the receivership in 1897. The fine office building, heav- ily mortgaged to the Aetna Insurance Company, was taken by that company, and when the company had built its building directly north thereof, it sold the other to the Aetna Life. Mr. Bartholomew anticipated prosecution by leaving the country. In 1890 a petition signed by clergymen, judges, lawyers and other citizens to quash proceedings was handed by Governor Bulkeley to Judge Sanford in special court session. The petitioners dwelt upon the honored name, the age and the serious physical condition of the indicted man, holding that he did not embezzle but rather stood pledged for nearly $1,000,000 for the corporations he was charged with embezzling from-the insurance company, the silk company and the American Emigrant Company. Henry C. Rob-
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inson was the eminent lawyer who laid the matter before the judge. State's Attorney Eggleston said the purpose was to have the court order him to nolle the cases, but this he could not do consistently with his oath of office; he could not ask for nolle of the cases of Thomas F. Plunkett and James S. Parsons, who had fled. Judge Sanford regretfully denied the petition. Mr. Bar- tholomew returned in 1891, appeared in court and was sentenced on one count for one year. After that he returned to his home on Prospect Street and lived in retirement till his death, acquitted of criminality by his fellow citizens.
The other company was the Continental in which there had been clashing since its organization in 1864. In 1873 "outsiders" put in John C. Tracy as director and James S. Parsons was chosen president. The failure of a brokerage firm in 1877 caused revel- ation of financial discrepancies and, on action by Commissioner O. R. Fyler, Lorrin A. Cook of Winsted and Hon. John R. Buck of Hartford were appointed receivers. President Parsons put himself beyond the reach of the court.
In 1889, John J. McFarlane of Philadelphia, highly recom- mended but who eventually paid heavy penalty for wrecking an insurance company and a bank, bargained to buy of Aaron C. Goodman his controlling interest in the Phoenix Mutual Life of which Mr. Goodman was president. As already told this was a stock company, dating from 1851, on mutual principles, and had been very successful. The directors hearing of the plan hurried to the Legislature in its closing hours and secured a charter amendment which enabled the policyholders to buy the stock, un- der direction of Insurance Commissioner Fyler, John C. Parsons to hold the block in trust until the policyholders could vote. The price agreed upon was one-half that which McFarlane had offered before the matter became public, and McFarlane dropped out of the exciting proceedings. Since then the company has been purely mutual and it soon took rank among the leaders. Vice President Jonathan B. Bunce was made president by the board approved by the commissioner, and Secretary John M. Holcombe vice president.
President Bunce (1832-1912) was a descendant of one of the original "proprietors," Thomas Bunce, who received 110 acres of land for service in the Pequot war. After working with his father, James M. Bunce, in his wholesale house, he went to New York as a partner in the firm of Dibble & Bunce, but returned to the firm of J. M. Bunce & Co. when his father died. Drayton
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Hillyer was one of the firm. At the outbreak of the war, Mr. Bunce was quartermaster-general on Governor Buckingham's staff and outfitted nine regiments of infantry, a battalion of cav- alry and three companies of artillery before he returned to his own business. It was largely because of his zeal and industry that, as has been said, the first Connecticut regiments to arrive in Washington received such hearty praise from General Scott because they were the first that had appeared well outfitted. He withdrew from the mercantile business after fifteen years to take the vice presidency of the Phoenix Mutual Life. In 1904 he re- signed to accept the presidency of the Society for Savings, a high post of honor, but continued as chairman of the board and of the finance committee of the insurance company. He was associated also with the Hartford Fire, the Phoenix National Bank and the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company and with the School for the Deaf, the Retreat and the Hartford Hospital. He was a brother of Admiral F. M. Bunce and of William Gedney Bunce, the artist.
In the Hartford Fire, Charles E. Chase, son of Pres. George L. Chase, was appointed assistant secretary in 1890. In the Aetna, William B. Clark, who had been an officer of the company since 1867 and who was to live to be the dean of insurance presidents, was made president in 1892. The Connecticut was paying all dividends out of income from assets. Mark Howard, who had been president of the National Fire since its organization in 1871, died in 1887. He was born in Loose, England, in 1817, and had been special agent for the Protection before coming to Hartford. He was the first internal revenue collector for Connecticut. James Nichols was promoted to the presidency ; he was a native of Wes- ton, born in 1830, a lawyer by profession, and from 1861 judge of probate till he became adjuster and special agent for the Mer- chants in 1867, four years before the reorganization as the Na- tional. S. C. Preston, who had succeeded to the presidency of the Orient in 1874, was succeeded in 1883 by John W. Brooks of Tor- rington and he, in 1886, by Charles B. Whiting. The Hartford Steam Boiler and Inspection Insurance Company in 1883 in- creased capital to $250,000 with a $50,000 stock dividend and doubled the capital in 1887. The Connecticut General Life and Aetna Life were taking on accident insurance. With the two ex- ceptions that have been named, all the insurance companies were entering upon a new era of prosperity.
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XXX
ATHENEUM AND LIBRARIES
RELIEVING THE INSTITUTIONS OF EMBARRASSMENT-GENEROUS GIFTS AND FREE LIBRARY BY SUBSCRIPTIONS-GREAT STONE BRIDGE BEGUN DIVERSIFYING INDUSTRY-PERIOD OF THE POPE PLANTS.
The Wadsworth Atheneum, which through the years since 1841, with its associated organizations, had been furnishing the cultural undercurrent of a wide and busy community, was ap- proaching a condition of great embarrassment through the '80s- of special historical interest in 1927-28 because of the recurrence. Like non-state colleges, such an institution may be well endowed and yet be poverty-stricken. In this instance the organizations had funds which were giving them a national name, but they lacked the wherewithal for enlargement and for maintenance. The recently formed art society had saved the art gallery from closing, and now the problem was how to save the public library, make that free and also give the historical society and the Watkinson Library the space they must have. In 1883 the city was author- ized to pay a tax of one-fifth of one mill for the support of a free library and art gallery and a special commission recommended such tax. But the combination of problems was of a nature that made action slow, even though it was a time when all the country, and the state in particular, was realizing the value of libraries. It was impossible to add harmoniously to the Atheneum building because the Glastonbury quarry which had furnished the stone had run out and Daniel Wadsworth's deed of gift made it impos- sible to remove from the site of his father's historic mansion.
The Legislature in 1886 authorized the Atheneum to become a closed corporation, to solidify and perpetuate the institution, and the trustees of the two libraries and the historical society, each to be represented on the board, adopted a plan by which the Athen- eum should be enabled to appeal for public aid. Rev. Dr. Goodwin was made president of the board. But just previously,. in 1888, he had been able to announce that his cousin, Junius Spencer Morgan, native of Hartford but then conducting his world-wide
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banking business at his London office, would give one-quarter of the $400,000 required; J. Pierpont Morgan of New York, $50,- 000; Lucy Morgan Goodwin and her sons, James J. and Francis, of Hartford, $50,000; and Henry and Walter Keney of Hartford, $50,000, and Roland Mather would add $25,000 to his earlier gift of $10,000, leaving only $125,000 to be obtained by public sub- scription. At least 2,000, of every walk in life, responded instant- ly to the call. When the large brick addition to the rear of the main building and the reconstructed building itself were opened on New Year's, 1893, Charles Hopkins Clark of the subscription committee said: "There was no soliciting; we just held the hat and you filled it." The free library was established in the addi- tion, the Watkinson Library above it, and the historical society succeeded to the second-floor space which the Watkinson had va- cated. The trustees of the Watkinson had voted for the addition $25,000 in land which was part of their property.
This was running true to old Hartford tradition once more. But on leaving the building that day Doctor Goodwin said to J. Pierpont Morgan that the only drawback was that the south side of the building was on the property line. Soon after, he received from Mr. Morgan a deed to a part of the adjoining property and eventually deeds to all the remaining property in the block as far as Arch Street, costing $200,000 and occupied by St. John's Church, dwellings and stores. It will be seen later that the Mor- gan Memorial was erected near the Atheneum and that the prop- erty south of it was given for the site of the Municipal Building and for Atheneum (Street) South.
Dr. James Hammond Trumbull in 1890 resigned the office of librarian of the Watkinson which he had held for twenty-seven years, and was made librarian emeritus. His purchases for the library had been so well chosen that in 1890 they could have been sold for more than twice what had been paid for them. He was succeeded by Frank B. Gay, who had joined the Young Men's In- stitute in 1873. He became assistant librarian of the public library and in 1883 assistant to Librarian Trumbull of the Wat- kinson.
Of very substantial worth and credit to the city was the hous- ing of the Newton Case Library of the Hartford Theological Semi- nary on Broad Street in 1892. In the attractively designed struc- ture, adding much to the effect of the seminary's other buildings
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in the block, there was space for 500,000 volumes and ample con- ference rooms. What with the state library, the bar library and the Trinity College library also, the town was well equipped.
Of quite a different nature and somewhat pyrotechnical was a simultaneous enterprise which was to prove to be the greatest in the history of Hartford and the whole county up to the time of this writing. From earliest times the great thoroughfares through the state toward Boston had been through Hartford and across the river here. It was the King's Highway. As has been chronicled, there has been a bridge here since 1810. The only other King's Highway was along the Sound shore to Providence but, until the toll bridge was built in recent years, with ferry near the mouth of the river. For years the public had demanded a free bridge here. As has been seen, the bridge company's charter was called "perpetual" and adjoining towns could not see that they should buy it out and assume maintenance when benefit was for a great general public, recognizable by the state. The state's principle always had been that adjoining towns construct and care for the bridges between them.
Complaint was so general that the Legislature of 1887 decreed that the bridge should be bought and freed and that Hartford on the west side and East Hartford, Glastonbury, Manchester and South Windsor on the east side should pay $210,000. The storm which followed was only the first of a series on into the next cen- tury. The Legislature of 1889 met it by granting an appropria- tion for 40 per cent of the amount; the towns paid the balance, the bridge was free and the selectmen of the towns were given the management. One of their first acts was to grant the street rail- way the right to cross the bridge, a right which had been refused by the bridge company because it placed a burden upon the struc- ture never contemplated. And the covered wood affair, standing since 1818, obviously was too decrepit to continue much longer. Charles W. Roberts of East Hartford was the superintendent. George W. Fowler of Hartford was chairman of the joint board in charge.
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