USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 13
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With the election of Francis A. Pallotti, of Italian parentage, in 1923, the office of secretary of state and keeper of the great seal came back to Hartford County. From the first in 1639 to 1847 the office was held by men of this county, with only two exceptions. The men were Edward Hopkins, Thomas Welles, John Culick, John Allyn, William Whiting, Caleb Stanly, Rich-
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ard Lord, Hezekiah Wyllys, George Wyllys, Samuel Wyllys, Thomas Day, Noah A. Phelps and Charles W. Bradley from Hartford, and Daniel Clark of Windsor and Eleazer Kimberly of Glastonbury. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford was the last Hartford incumbent, from 1861 to 1866, prior to Judge Pal- lotti. The judge, son of Nicholas Pallotti who came here from Italy in 1867, was born in 1886, was educated in the public schools, was graduated at Holy Cross College in 1908 and at the Yale Law School in 1911, and six years later was assistant judge and then judge of the Police Court, serving till 1921. He also had been vice president of the Board of Street Commissioners when he was elected secretary of state in 1922, which office in 1928 he still holds.
In meeting the more and more complex problems the city has been fortunate in having mayors of commensurate ability. Mayor Norman C. Stevens, who had given four years of his time and energy, felt in 1927 that he had done his share for the pres- ent and must decline renomination for a third term. He was born in Jersey City in 1883 and came to Hartford with the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company twenty years ago and holds an important position in that office. For seven years he has taken an active part in public affairs. His successor is Walter E. Bat- terson, grandson of James G. Batterson, who left Trinity Col- lege in sophomore year, so strong was his desire to become active in the paths his father and grandfather had followed. In Hart- ford Public High School (class of 1906) and in college he had stood high and had won athletic honors. Winning his way in insurance, he was made assistant secretary of the Travelers Fire Insurance Company in 1924. In political affairs he always had taken great interest and was chairman of the Re- publican Town Committee. In the World war he enlisted in the "Naval Plattsburgh" and received his discharge in Decem- ber, 1918.
The territory is singularly fortunate in all its public utilities and in the energy of its Chamber of Commerce. The present ample water supply can readily be increased. It meets the re- quirements of the city and of Bloomfield, Windsor, Wethersfield, Wolcott Hill, Newington and Collinsville and is prepared to supply Farmington and Unionville. The new freight-classifica-
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tion yard of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad facilitates and expedites shipping. The Hartford Electric Light Company, as has appeared, is a national leader in economy with efficiency. The Hartford Gas Company's facilities for caring for wider territory soon are to be increased by Connecticut Light and Power pipe lines from the Koppers New Haven plant of the United Gas and Improvement Company of Philadelphia which now controls much of the service in the state. Step by step the Southern New England Telephone Company -despite that previously mentioned criticism of Mark Twain on extending the range of the voice-has developed from a drug-store station to its present large establishment on Pearl Street. The trolley service is being supplemented and often replaced by bus service. In 1927 it began using Hartford Electric Light Company power wholly. In street traffic in general there are difficulties seem- ingly as unsurmountable as any of those which this history shows to have been well overcome in the past.
The Government has granted a fifty-years' license to the Northern Connecticut Power Company, a Thompsonville corpo- ration headed by Walter P. Schwabe, to tear out the old Enfield dam and construct a new one on each side of King's Island, making a reservoir that will extend back to the Holyoke dam. In connection with its power plant, planned to be of about 42,000 kilowatt capacity, it is to replace the old locks at Windsor Locks with new ones of greater depth-toll free "until such time as it may be taken over by the United States." Massachusetts towns opposed but the War Department was convinced that navigation would be improved and not harmed as had been argued.
The Connecticut Light and Power Company and the Con- necticut Electric Service Company which have developed the Housatonic River section so amazingly almost over-night and of which J. Henry Roraback is president has its offices here. As chairman of the Republican State Central Committee and mem- ber of the national committee Mr. Roraback, who has removed his residence from Canaan to Hartford, has long been a leader in republican politics.
Altogether-and in particular in these times when buildings are torn down to make parking places for the automobiles of employers, clerks, shoppers and workingmen who flock to the center every morning, and when streets have to be widened or
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made over to admit of the machines' remaining in the center of the city all day or until owners are ready to go home again- space is a desideratum. Land within three or four miles of the old State House is of high value. Hence the plan to protect the historic South Meadows with a long extension of the river dike with which Colonel Pope protected his great factory site in the last mid-century, and also to protect the East Side with a dike in the Commerce Street section-both of which projects have been approved.
In reality, aviation gave the impetus to this particular proj- ect. Reclamation of that low land and waste had been studied for several years by a special commission when the airplane staged a revolution as astonishing in its way as that of the auto- mobile in the last days of the previous century. This history has taught that no one may safely prophesy; it would seem in 1928 as though flying never could come within the reach of the humbler citizen the way motoring has, but it is obvious that nothing since the advent of steam propulsion has so appealed to the popular imagination. To recall an item of this history-Hartford was the first of New England cities to "get the vision" (a very de- scriptive modern expression) of keeping close touch with the western-moving center of population and business. Curbing of reckless geniuses and dare-devils was the first consideration. The Connecticut regulations of 1911, the first in the country and peculiarly illustrative of the state's principle of "safety first," were revised into a perfect model in 1921 by Maj. William J. Malone of Bristol, and again by Maj. Talbot O. Freeman and Capt. Clarence M. Knox till in 1925 it was the most complete set of requirements in the United States and there have been no fatal- ities or ruined house-tops under state-registered flying.
Meantime, in 1920 the aldermen, in the administration of Mayor Newton C. Brainard, had set aside a portion of South Meadows for parks, soon to become Brainard Aviation Field. This was hastened by the death of two army fliers who were trying to take off from the grounds of the Hartford Golf Club. The Government was quick to aid. The first instalment of Gov- ernment planes arrived in June, 1924, for use of the National Guard squadron. Under state appropriation of $114,500, a separate armory and workshops were built in 1925. Maj. Wil- liam F. Ladd succeeded Major Freeman that year. Photograph
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and medical units were organized, and thence the advancement of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Squadron to its present po- sition in the service is the record of enthusiasts encouraged at every step by "Flying Governor" Trumbull, himself not only an expert-here again recalled-but the promoter of the Colonial Air Transport Company to carry mail and express. The field has been enlarged to 120 acres and improved and new buildings added, under the supervision of Captain Knox, commander of the squadron, as state commissioner. Among those located there are the New England Air Corporation, the "H. & H." Transpor- tation Company, the Interstate Airways and the "L. & H." Com- pany, a private corporation doing a large passenger service. It is also headquarters for the "truck" business of the Royal Type- writer Company which delivers its product to far-away points by "truck" planes. The first airmail was in 1922. Another and greater enlargement of the field has now been approved at the polls.
One argument of Governor Trumbull's was that the field would draw aircraft business. It has. Today at the field are located the hangars of the Whitney Aircraft Company-two years ago an experiment, today the largest concern of its kind in the country. Romance follows romance in the territory of the Constitution Towns. Hartford County had followed aircraft de- velopment with interest since the Wright brothers began flying. A few machines had been made by individuals here and in New Britain. Charles K. Hamilton of New Britain had been a prize- winning flyer before the war. Many parts of aircraft were made in this county. George J. Mead of Winchester, Mass, is chiefly responsible for the present sensational manufacturing interest. The Liberty engine of war fame-a combination of all that was best in the best engines-was considered the "last word" in in- vention, but Mr. Mead was keeping at it till he had invented an air-cooled engine which eliminated the water-cooler system and reduced weight 1.69 pounds per horse-power. Hartford was preeminently the place for manufacture. On July 25, 1925, it was announced that the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company had been formed with $2,000,000 capital to make this engine. This is a subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney and of Niles, Bement & Pond. Frederick B. Rentschler, formerly of the Wright Aeronautical
(Photographed by 118 Photo, Sec. A. S. C. N. G.) FIRST TRIP OF COMMERCIAL PASSENGER- CARRYING PLANE Colonial Air Transportation Co., November 24, 1926, Hartford-a three-motor cabin plane. Left to right: Major William F. Ladd, Commander 118th Observa- tion Squadron; Major Clifford D. Perkins, Putnam Phalanx; Passenger; Governor Trumbull; Hiram
Percy Maxim
USMAIL
(Photographed by 118 Photo, Sec. A. S. C. N. G. )
FIRST MAIL CAR, JULY 1, 1926, BRAINARD FIELD Colonial Air Transportation Company. Gov. John H. Trumbull, the pro- moter, left; Maj. Talbot O. Freeman, of the Governor's staff
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Corporation of New Jersey, was made president and Vice Presi- dent Clayton R. Burt of the Pratt & Whitney division, with a munition plants war record, a director. The "Wasp" engine, as it was called, weighting a quarter of a ton less than any other, requiring less frequent overhauling and of much longer life, passed the naval tests within six months. The Government placed larger orders. Buildings erected by the Pope Manufac- turing Company in the hey-day of the motor industry and taken over by Pratt & Whitney, buildings idle since the war, were utilized section by section till now still more space is needed. The year 1926 was the first year for orders. They amounted to two and a half million dollars; orders on the following January 1 amounted to $3,000,000 and January 1, 1928, showed an in- crease of 100 per cent. A larger engine, developing over 500 horse-power, the "Hornet," had been added to the busy nest. Permission has been granted to make sales abroad.
The wonderful machinery for this work is produced within a short radius of the plant. If one would know well his history of Hartford industrially, he should take position near these fac- tories at closing hour and study the faces of the employees who come forth. They are the faces of men of a very high standard of ability, even those of the ordinary workmen-men who make a profession of their scientific calling and can discuss all its phases. The same is true at other factories and particularly at Colt's where a post-war impetus also is being felt. John M. Browning has recently died at his home in Ogden, Utah, but he has left at Colt's and for the world a name, like Gatling's and Lee's, not to be forgotten.
Dr. Richard L. Gatling (1818-1903) was born in North Carolina. Patentee of farm implements, in 1861 he conceived the idea of a machine gun, thus antedating the French mitrail- leuse. The first samples he made in 1862 were lost in a fire in Cincinnati. His half-dozen new ones were held up by the always conservative Government and did not win the stamp of approval till a year after the war. General Butler, however, bought two or three on his own account and they were used with startling effect just as Petersburg was falling. Colt's began making them for the Government in 1866 when Gatling came here to live and formed his company. He spent much of his time
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in foreign travel, dying at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Hugh O. Pentecost, of New York.
James P. Lee (1831-1904) was a Scotchman, educated in Canada. Some of his most important firearms inventions were developed at Colt's in his younger days. They included the Lee- Metford and the Lee-Enfield rifles, long in use in the American and British armies, and in the World war they continued the favorite piece with the English. They were made in America by the thousands at that time. When this country went into the war, the Government insisted upon a slight change. This de- barred the gun the British were using and necessitated those months of delay in equipment while factories were changing their expensive machinery. The War Department revealed the same peculiarity in the matter of bayonets. The Collins Com- pany of Collinsville stood ready to furnish thousands of the kind so acceptable abroad, but the department took weeks to decide on the variation of a fraction of an ounce in the weight and for a hand finish. The changing of machinery similarly held up supplies for the Allies who were suffering from the need of re- placement of equipment.
It was much the same with the famous Browning machine gun. John M. Browning had practically perfected his air-cooled machine gun at the beginning of America's participation in the war. There were many delays in securing approval. When it came, Colt's performed one of the most remarkable feats of the war. Of course it was a "rush order." The manufacturers had said to the department, "Do you realize that it requires two years to assemble the machinery for such work?" However, they accomplished the two years' work in about six months, so imper- ative was the need. Dispatches from Washington, doubtless un- authorized, announced from time to time, that guns were being shipped, when in reality the best that superhuman effort could do was to get a few over there shortly before the armistice. The machine-gun rifle did not come along till after the machine gun. Browning's first machine gun was succeeded by one of greater power in 1923-the aged inventor's last great work.
Among the concerns which have greatly increased their capacity by building this past year are the Arrow Electric (now, as has been said, the Arrow-Hart-Hegeman with combined
(Courtesy Forty-third Division, Air Service, Connecticut National Guard)
BRAINARD FIELD, ON THE CONNECTICUT RIVER
City of Hartford to the north. Headquarters, One Hundred Eighteenth Section, Air Service, Connecticut National Guard
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assets of nearly $4,000,000) and the Royal Typewriter Com- pany, which already had next to the largest plant of the kind in the world and by its two new buildings will be 25 per cent larger. A development which attracted national attention the past year was the merger of the Underwood Typewriter Company, the largest of its kind, with the Elliott-Fisher of Harrisburg, Pa., leading makers of flat-surface writing machines, and its sub- sidiary, the Sustrand Corporation which produces calculating machines. The Underwood also controls the Underwood Com- puting Machine Company with factory in Hartford. The merger is for economical purposes with each concern remaining prac- tically independent. John Underwood, president of the Hart- ford concern, is chairman of the board and Philip D. Wagoner, president of the Pennsylvania company, president of the merged companies. The gross sales of the companies in 1926 was nearly $40,000,000. The Underwood portable machines are made in Bridgeport.
In the country at large economists concluded that a main cause of decrease in employment during 1926 was the invention of labor-saving machinery. Depression cannot be felt so keenly where the whole demand is for skilled mechanics, especially for making machines. The statistics in 1928 show Hartford County well in the lead of most of the state and New England generally. The average number of man hours for the county in June was 86.6 and for Hartford proper was 98. For business in general the statistics for February showed a gain in volume of 81 per cent above the average for 1920-24 and of 53 points over Febru- ary, 1927, far in excess of that reported for any other city in the land, with one exception, and putting Hartford to the front as relatively the most prosperous city. The electrical industry was making an especially good showing and two new companies were being added, the Connecticut Electric Steel and the States Company.
XLVII
DATA OF ACHIEVEMENTS
WORLD'S LARGEST AGGREGATION OF INSURANCE FIGURES IN PROPOR- TION TO AREA-AGRICULTURE'S SPLENDID TOTALS-TOBACCO IN- TERESTS-BANKS ADVANCING TO MEET NEW NEEDS.
The story of insurance from its beginning is of great his- toric value. It is difficult to conceive those early struggles which have been narrated, yet without that conception, one cannot appreciate Hartford's indebtedness to the ability and persever- ance of the pioneers. How many were encouraged by their ex- ample to form other companies and keep close to the line of fidel- ity we may not know, but Hartford assuredly has done its part to bring about a condition thus summarized by President Archi- bald A. Welch in 1927 before the Association of Life Insurance Presidents :
"The present generation is excelling all former genera- tions in making provision for its families. While our popu- lation has increased only a little more than one-half since 1900, American policy-holders now number more than 62,000,000, or more than six times the number in 1900.
ยท Life insurance companies now have $87,000,000,000 of in- surance in force-ten times the amount at the beginning of the century and double that of 1920. * *
This year's payments to beneficiaries and policyholders will total $1,500,000,000, almost eight times the return of twenty- six years ago. Since the beginning of the century life in- surance companies have paid out $16,834,000,000, nearly twice the amount of life insurance in force at the beginning of the period."
For Hartford life companies the state's figures show for the year 1927 outstanding insurance of $7,042,000,000 not includ- ing $250,000,000 of group insurance. They paid back during the year $54,000,000, not including $21,000,000 in group insur- ance. The premiums received here at home amounted to $231,-
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...
(Photographed by 118 Photo, Ser. A. S. C. N. G.)
MAIN STREET, LOOKING NORTHWESTERLY, HARTFORD
Second Congregational Church in left foreground; Insurance buildings (Orient, Phoenix, Phoenix Mutual Life, Scot- tish Union and National, and Connecticut General) and Bushnell Park, north of it; Kinsella Public School in right foreground: "Times" building, due north of it; Municipal building, Morgan Memorial and Wadsworth Atheneum, to west thereof; Travelers Insurance building and tower, right background; Aetna Life, this side of it; Aetna Fire, between; First Church of Christ, across the street; Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company building, next beyond tower; Hartford Bank and Trust Company opposite; shopping district beyond
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000,000 plus $25,155,000 for group. The combined capital of the three stock companies, the Aetna Life, the Connecticut Gen- eral and the Travelers, is $27,000,000. Two companies, the Con- necticut Mutual and the Phoenix Mutual, have no capital. The total of assets is almost $800,000,000, and of surplus $102,000,000.
In fire insurance the capital is $35,150,000; assets $310,- 000,000; surplus over all $91,000,000; at risk $33,000,000,000; premiums received $149,000,000. Of the foreign companies the "capital" of each is the deposit with the state; surplus over all $10,187,000; at risk, $3,500,000; net premiums received $12,- 200,000. In accident, indemnity, surety and automobile, the capital is $13,800,000-a grand total of practically $74,000,000.
In accident, fidelity and casualty, including the Aetna Life, the Aetna Casualty and Surety, the Century Indemnity (of the Aetna-fire-established 1925), the Connecticut General, the Hartford Accident and Indemnity (of the Hartford Fire), the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, the Travelers and the First Reinsurance (of the Rossia group), the amount paid out was $73,000,000; excess of income over disbursements $20,583,000; capital $24,300,000; assets $896,120,000; surplus $74,000,000.
Allowing for duplication of asset items, by reason of branch organizations, the exact amount of assets for all companies, those of Hartford origin and those affiliated with them and in Hartford homes, is $1,697,510,307. Their total income is $574,288,736. (The assets of the eight leading cities of the state are $1,388,697,361, and their income from taxes $34, 459,500).
It may readily be seen, among other things, why the Hart- ford post office business is second only to that of Boston in New England and why there are about 15,000 insurance employees; also why insurance buildings are so prominent in Hartford. Within a radius of 350 yards of the honored old State House there are thirty-five insurance and banking corporations having combined assets of $1,636,000,000. Immediately outside such circle there are like assets of over $400,000,000. Insur- ance stocks listed on the Hartford Stock Exchange-estab- lished in 1876 and which now has a home of its own, in the for-
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mer fire department building near the State Savings Bank on Pearl Street-on July 1, 1928, had a market value of $715,690,- 000, including the Lincoln National Life of Fort Wayne, Ind., because Hartford is regarded as the logical "insurance market" and also because much of the stock is owned here. This group represents 60.2 per cent of the total of all stock in the local list. The market appreciation in life insurance stocks since 1912 is 1,058 per cent, standing now at $439,900,000 and is 61.4 of the market worth of the insurance stocks. The increase in the value of casualty stocks-Aetna Casualty and Hartford Steam Boiler -has been 1,860 in the same length of time. The Aetna Cas- ualty was not listed locally till 1917. The Travelers is now in- creasing its capital to $17,000,000. Its fire subsidiary was added in 1924. President Louis F. Butler is the head of the three dis- tinct organizations-life insurance, accident and fire. In life in- surance the company has over $4,000,000,000 of business in force. The company's heritage includes the first accident, the first automobile and the first aircraft insurance contracts written in this country. In 1927 it paid an average of over 3,000 bank drafts and checks each business day, making a total of $78,- 000,000. The total of policy obligations paid through the past is $650,000,000. There also are collateral services rendered by the Engineering and Inspection Division, following the "ounce- of-prevention" principle upon which, it has been seen, the Hart- ford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company was founded. Over 700 people in that division, mostly engineers, are working on the analysis and prevention of accidents. For one thing they have given industry the benefit of the discovery that capital and labor jointly lose four times as much from every accident as the amount of workmen's compensation paid to the man injured in the accident or to his family. Such rev- elations as this assure to the engineers the whole-hearted coop- eration of employers. The cost paid by the company for this service so far has amounted to $20,000,000. It is the largest multiple-line insurance company in the world. Its investments include : Real estate, $12,000,000; first mortgage loans, $122,- 000,000; stocks and bonds, $293,000,000. New life insurance paid for in 1927 was for over one billion dollars (putting the company in the small "billion-dollar" group) ; its cash income, $199,000,000.
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The Aetna Life, with $901,000,000 new business in 1927, is fast approaching the "billion-dollar" stage. Its payments to policyholders since organization is $685,000,000. It began writing accident and casualty insurance in 1900, formed a com- pany for it in 1907, a company for automobile insurance in 1913, and merged the Standard Fire Insurance Company in 1923 (Joseph K. Hooker the vice president), and from time to time has increased its capital to $15,000,000. It is under the presi- dency of Morgan Bulkeley Brainard, nephew of Morgan Gard- ner Bulkeley whom he succeeded. The assets are $340,000,000 and surplus $41,000,000.
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