USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 14
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The Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, which has gone forward so rapidly and so firmly under the presidency of Robert W. Huntington, reached the "billion-dollar" classifica- tion in 1927 and went over the $100,000,000 mark in assets, with surplus of over $8,000,000, including capital, $2,000,000. It has been very successful with group and salary-allotment business, and also in the accident and automobile lines.
The oldest of the life companies, the Connecticut Mutual, of which James Lee Loomis is the president, made a gain of over 10 per cent in 1927 in amount of insurance, making a total of approximately $750,000,000, with premiums of nearly $4,000,- 000, an increase of over 9 per cent. The total premium income was over $23,000,000, an increase of over 11 per cent.
The other mutual company, the Phoenix Mutual, with Archi- bald A. Welch president, has been among the foremost in devel- oping new ideas-as to selecting and training agents and em- ploying no part-time men; as to tying in with banks and trust companies to the end that moneys paid to beneficiaries shall not be squandered through inexperience in handling; as to annui- ties and selective risks and in other particulars. Its new busi- ness in 1927 was $76,000,000 and its total of insurance is $507,000,000.
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Com- pany, of which Charles S. Blake is chairman of the board and William R. C. Corson is president, spent more for prevention of economic waste in 1927 than it paid for losses incurred. Its surplus increased 21.9 per cent, to nearly $7,000,000. Its capi- tal is increased by stock dividend to $3,000,000.
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Enough has been said here, for purposes of history, to show how insurance funds are received and handled, the principles being the same for life, fire and all other forms. In the list of those whose career has been followed, of special interest must be the present status of the oldest company of all, the Hartford Fire. Charles E. Chase continues as chairman of the board and Richard M. Bissell as president. It stands among the first com- panies of the world. Its capital is $10,000,000; surplus $23,- 000,000; unearned premiums (reserves) $43,000,000; assets $88,000,000; income $51,000,000. There are the original com- pany, the Hartford Accident and Indemnity and the Hartford Live Stock Companies, and several subsidiaries. It was the first of all companies to publish for national circulation advertise- ments as much in the interests of conservation of property as of insurance and to assist in working up an educational cam- paign in schools and places of business. . Its agency magazine is overflowing with instructive articles, as, in its field, is the Locomotive of the Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Com- pany.
The latest additions to the list of campanies making head- quarters here are the Caledonian and Caledonian-American, the former the oldest Scottish insurance concern, almost a century and a quarter in the business. Charles H. Post is the oldest American representative of a foreign company in point of serv- ice, having been head of this American branch since 1892, and when removing headquarters from New York to Hartford in 1923, he was returning to his home state. His ancestors, Ste- phen Post and Deacon Thomas Judd, came to Hartford with Hooker. He himself was born in Derby. The companies took rooms in the Factory Insurance Association's buildings on Asy- lum Street, with expectation of soon erecting a building of their own. Of the prosperous Scottish Union John H. Vreeland is now manager.
The Factory Insurance Association, of which President H. A. Smith of the National is president and other local insurance men directors, was established in 1890-an association of manu- facturers in the interests of fire protection and insurance. Its building is on Asylum Street near Hurlburt.
Editor Clarence Axman of the Eastern Underwriter, New
UNITED STATES BRANCH OF THE CALEDONIAN INSURANCE COMPANY OF SCOTLAND, IN BUILDING OF THE FACTORY INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, HARTFORD
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York, writes: "I wonder how many residents in your city know the supremacy or individuality of Hartford in various channels of the great institution of insurance."
There is said to be no such aggregation of insurance figures in any similar area in the world.
Hartford is the center of naturally rich agricultural terri- tory and furnishes a market which up to recently has been sup- plied by products from other states but which now vicinity farms are supplying, having come to a realization of the situation through representations of the State Agriculture Department. The State Chamber of Commerce says: "With her farms yield- ing $66,446,000 in all products annually, Connecticut leads every state in the average per-acre value of all farm products; is second in per-acre tobacco yield and leads New England in bushels per acre of corn." The Connecticut Agricultural Col- lege reported for 1927 that depression seemed to be definitely a thing of the past for farmers in the state, outside the tobacco region. Farm-price levels were from 52 to 64 per cent above the average of from 1910 to 1914. This is a 40 per cent greater advance than that for all the farmers of the United States, they having found their foreign market decreasing while Connecti- cut's home markets have improved. The great number of high- wage people in the cities are willing to pay good prices for fresh farm produce. In dairy and poultry lines, association in mar- keting has worked well. State Commissioner Platt's last report announced that Connecticut land values were $77 an acre; the New England average was $61.26 and the average for the whole United States was $76.47. Fairs of the Connecticut State Fairs Association do much good, as do the 4-H clubs. The state fair at the association's grounds in West Hartford-Charter Oak Park -is an especially beneficial institution.
Celebrated always for its "broad-leaf" tobacco the section around Hartford made that its chief product for generations. It was introduced by B. P. Barber of East Windsor in 1831. Such was the interest that in 1895 the Connecticut Experiment Com- pany was formed, with station at Poquonuck with which the Connecticut Experiment Station cooperated. Sumatra tobacco was the chief rival. Aided by the Government in 1900, experi- ments were made with cultivation under cheese-cloth tents, large
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companies were formed and for miles in every direction there ever since have been what look like large lakes among the hills. Thousands of workers were employed on the plantations. Storms, the cornering of the market and other things, despite the efforts of associations, and hampered by disagreements among the planters, brought about a depression from which the county territory is this year recovering. Growers have replaced the broad-leaf with Havana seed, wholesale dealers have com- bined for the purpose of financing the smaller farmers who no longer could take chances, and the prospects in the fall of 1928 are for a bumper crop and high price. Connecticut has a 29,000 tobacco acreage; Massachusetts, 6,900. The normal value of the crop in the Hartford district is $15,000. Farmers who have abandoned tobacco have found the soil especially well adapted to corn-raising.
The conclusion reached from this review of the county so far must be that there had been increasing need of larger banking facilities. There was business enough for the smaller ones but the wisest step was to consolidate some of them into one such as could meet the demands which the county's development had created. Under the exigencies and guarded by the laws that were passed, vised by an excellent bank commission, there was also room for more trust companies. . Since the agonizing days of '35 and '45 it had been a matter of pride that Hartford could do its own financing, and it would be lack of discernment if not of that loyalty to which Hartford owed much of its strength if these greater enterprises, coming so fast, must look outside for their accommodations. There had been amalgamations, as previously traced. The Phoenix National, strengthened by the banks it had taken in, felt the need of further enlargement, just as it was contemplating change to state bank and formal trust, and therefore combination with its next-door neighbor (the State Bank and Trust) as the Phoenix State Bank and Trust was a natural thing. Only a passage cut through the partition and these two recently rebuilt banking houses were one. Presi- dent George H. Burt of the State Bank for chairman of the board and President Leon P. Broadhurst of the Phoenix for president. In 1919 the old Hartford Trust and Safe Deposit Company, with
PHOENIX NATIONAL AND STATE BANKS, HARTFORD, NOW MERGED AS PHOENIX STATE BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
rett
HARTFORD NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, HARTFORD
New home of the first bank established in Hartford County. It merged with the Aetna National Bank and later with the United States Security Trust Company
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assets of nearly $11,000,000, and the Connecticut Trust with assets of some $18,000,000 had combined and President Meigs H. Whaples of the Connecticut had been made chairman of the board and President Frank C. Sumner of the Hartford the pres- ident. The home of the Hartford at the southeast corner of Main Street and Central Row was torn down and in place of it arose the 15-story $2,000,000 structure whose extra offices were engaged before it was completed.
The old original Hartford Bank, which had merged the Farm- ers and Mechanics, had united in 1910 with Aetna. The latter had organized in 1857 after its $500,000 capital had been over- subscribed up to nearly $2,500,000 and had had on its list of sub- scribers such men as J. R. Hawley, James Dixon, J. L. Strong, George G. Sill, Judges William D. and Nathaniel Shipman, A. E. Burr, Alfred Spencer of Suffield, C. T. Hillyer, John L. Bunce, Erastus Collins and others whose names recur in the earlier pages of the history. The names of both banks were preserved in the new title, the Hartford-Aetna National Bank, and the tall building at the corner of Main and Asylum streets was built, the bank's quarters being embellished with costly paintings.
In May, 1927, the news astonished readers outside the bank- ing world that this bank and the United States Security Com- pany were about to consolidate, for to the layman each seemed sufficient by itself. The capital was to be $4,000,000, surplus $4,000,000 and undivided profits $1,750,000-the largest mer- ger in the history of the state. Former President John O. En- ders of the United States Bank was to be chairman, and former President Henry T. Holt of the Aetna vice chairman of the board; President Alfred Spencer, Jr., of the Hartford-Aetna, chairman of the Executive Committee; Col. Francis Parsons of the Security Trust Company vice chairman, trust department, and Robert B. Newell of the United States Security Trust Com- pany president. The United States Security Trust Company it- self was a combination of three strong companies in 1923 when again it had been thought that banking conditions would then become sufficient. The name was taken from the United States Bank which, as previously said, had been a trust company at its outset. The other had been the Security Trust (incorporated in 1875 as successor to the Charter Oak Trust of 1868) and the Fidelity Trust (organized in 1885). Their combined capi-
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tal of $600,000 had been increased to $1,000,000; undivided profits, $800,000.
The Security Trust Company's building at the northeast cor- ner of Main and Pearl streets was chosen for the home of the new organization, the building of the Hartford-Aetna being turned over to a realty company. This significantly is another of the town's historic sites. In the original distribution of land this section was assigned to Edward Hopkins, with whose his- tory as statesman and philanthropist we are familiar. From him it passed to Thomas Olcott who built his house near the cor- ner, which, with additions, was to stand till 1825. With another house on it, the corner property in 1722, when Olcott died, was appraised at £200; in 1808 the appraisal was at $100 a foot; the United States Security Company in 1925 gave in one check $2,375,000 for the southeast portion. This was Hartford's largest real estate transaction. In 1826 the land had been leased to Nathan Allyn who erected the first Allyn Hall, the most pre- tentious brick structure in town. On the third floor was an assembly hall, the rest being devoted to stores and offices, includ- ing that of the adjutant-general and those of the police and fire departments. In 1838, Allyn having failed, the property was bought by William H. Imlay, who had the most elaborate resi- dence and grounds just west of it. He named it Union Hall. When he failed in 1854, interest was acquired by B. W. Bull in trust for A. B. Bull and Mrs. Sophia T. Beach. This was dis- posed of to the Connecticut Mutual Life in 1867, with reversion- ary interest in 1880. The insurance company built in 1870 the most notable building in this part of New England. In 1899 it bought property to the west which had been occupied by the Pearl Street Congregational Church, built a large addition and added another story to its first structure. This it sold to the United States Security Trust Company, as related, when it built its present home on Garden Street. The Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, which is the name of the consolidated institutions, is modernizing the Main and Pearl Street fronts of the massive building and adapting the lower floors for its large banking purposes.
The City Bank had added "trust" to its name-and the City Company of Hartford to its business-Fred P. Holt chairman
THE CITY BANK & TRUST CO ... THEYCIT
THE CITY BANK & TRUST COM- PANY, HARTFORD
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RIVERSIDE TRUST COM- PANY, PEARL STREET, HARTFORD
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BANKERS' TRUST COMPANY, FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD
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of the board and LeRoy W. Campbell president. There is also the Riverside Trust established in 1907 (Edwin T. Garvin now the president), and there are these of later date: Mutual Bank and Trust, Arthur H. Cooley, president; Park Street Trust, Dominick F. Burns, president; Merchants Bank and Trust, John A. Pilgard president, and the Bankers Trust, Morgan B. Brain- ard chairman of the board and Porter B. Chase president. Another national bank and trust company was added when the Capitol was chartered in 1927, a savings department attached and also the Capitol National Company, Ernest J. Eddy chair- man of the board and C. P. Tomlinson president.
A singular fact in the history of the original Phoenix is that there have been fewer changes of officers than in any similar in- stitution in the city if not in the country. Including the present incumbent, Leon P. Broadhurst, there have been but seven presi- dents since the beginning in 1814. Of these, one, Samuel Tudor, served only seven weeks, to fill out the term of Charles Sigour- ney. The bank furnished four presidents to other banks. George Beach served twenty-three years as cashier and twenty-three as president; John L. Bunce, twenty-three as cashier and eighteen as president; Henry A. Redfield, eighteen as cashier and twenty- six as president; Frederick L. Bunce, sixteen as cashier and fourteen as president. During the bank's first century it always had in its office force a member of one family, that of Bunce, three of them holding high positions at one time, and a twin of one president, Frederick L. Bunce, was President Henry L. Bunce of the United States Bank.
Though formal organization of the military was not till 1739, Hartford has had a soldiery since 1637 and most of the time has been the colony and state headquarters. Governor Trumbull is the commander-in-chief. His chief of staff and the adjutant- general is Brig .- Gen. George M. Cole, a native of Portsmouth, England. Enlisting in the machine-gun platoon of the old Third Infantry, C. N. G., he rose through all grades to be lieutenant- colonel in 1898 when he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth United States Volunteers with which he did duty with the "immunes" in Cuba at the time of the Spanish war. He was appointed adjutant-general in 1901 when this was made a life
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position. On the National Guard Executive Committee, he was active in securing the passage of the Dix bill which was the first great attempt to bring about uniformity in the citizen soldiery as a second line of defense. After the World war he was again instrumental in reestablishing the National Guard. Hartford also is the headquarters of the Forty-third Division and the divi- sion's air service (One Hundred and Eighteenth Observation Squadron, Maj. William F. Ladd commanding), of the medical detachment and of the photo section, together with the motor- cycle company. Locally, the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth In- fantry (Col. D. Gordon Hunter) includes the headquarters and service companies, the howitzer company being in Manchester, headquarters of the Second Battalion, and Companies E, F, K and M. New Britain is the headquarters of the First Battalion, with headquarters company, the other companies being from Meriden (two), Middletown and Willimantic. The headquar- ters of the Third Battalion and headquarters company are in Bristol-two companies in Hartford and one each in New Brit- ain and Bristol. Troops B and C of the First Squadron of cav- alry have their own armory in West Hartford. Of the Fifth Battalion of Naval Militia, the Nineteenth Division is located in Hartford. Of the United States Army Reserves, Hartford is the headquarters of the Seventy-sixth Division, Col. George W. England, with trains and special troops; of the Three Hundred and Fourth Infantry, Col. Emerson G. Taylor, and the Three Hundred and Sixteenth Cavalry, Col. Clifford D. Cheney of South Manchester.
XLVIII
MAINTAINING ITS IDEALS
IN RELIGION, EDUCATION AND PHILANTHROPY-REFLECTION IN THE PRESS-UNISON IN ENDEAVOR-COMMUNITY CHEST-FLOODS OF 1827-WOMEN IN POLITICS.
Thomas Hooker's church was the foundation stone of the col- ony 300 years ago. Its edifice stands, conspicuous, dignified, in the heart of the busy city, accustoming itself to the many changes, admired, respected by people of all nationalities, gracious reminder of the past with which new home-makers de- sire to familiarize themselves. Its story to the date of the acceptance by Doctor Potter of the deanship at the Hartford Seminary Foundation has been told. Its first offspring, the South Church, has recently completed a period of physical resto- ration and is no less beautiful, impressive and revered in its place not far from that of the parent society. The active pastor, succeeding Doctor Parker who had been affiliated with the church fifty-two years at his death in 1917-emeritus after 1912 -was Rev. Irving H. Berg who in 1917, after he had gone to another field, was succeeded by Rev. William S. Archibald. Born in Boston in 1880, Mr. Archibald was educated at Harvard in the arts and in divinity, was instructor at Harvard, assistant pastor at Old South Church in Boston and then pastor of the Pilgrim Memorial Church in Boston, whence in 1917 he fol- lowed Hooker's footsteps. In all its years, the church has had but twelve ministers.
Christ Church, the parent church of the Episcopalian par- ishes and now the cathedral of the diocese, since 1919, has been blessed in these recent years with more memorials and provided with more facilities for its great work. St. Thomas' has be- come an integral part of it. Rev. Samuel R. Collady, who came as rector to St. James' in West Hartford in 1916 and the next
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year, on the death of Rev. Francis Goodwin, to Christ Church, was created the first dean, and Rev. John F. Plumb is Canon. Dean Collady was born in 1868 and after attending public schools in Philadelphia, his father's former home, he was grad- uated at Princeton in 1891 and at Berkeley in 1894, to which school he returned as a professor, making a specialty of Sunday School work. From 1909 to the date of his coming to West Hart- ford he was dean of St. Mark's Cathedral in Salt Lake City. An event of this year 1928 was the dedication of the Church Home of Hartford, on Retreat Avenue, the institution that was or- ganized by Rev. Henry Nelson, Jr., rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, in 1876. In the history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut-the state in which the first bishop in America was consecrated-the year was marked by the resignation of Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster who had succeeded Bishop Wil- liams in 1899.
It has been noted how the work of the Roman Catholic Church has been extending, especially along the lines of educa- tion and charity. Among the latest evidences is that of a com- munity house on Market Street, promoted by Rev. Andrew J. Kelly of St. Anthony's, where there will be a library, an enter- tainment hall and facilities for instruction in music, language and religion every day in the week. Classes for Italian adults and youths will be featured. An honor came to the diocese in 1925 when Auxiliary Bishop John G. Murray was appointed bishop of Portland, Me. He who but a few years ago was selling papers in Waterbury to help his mother and who won high hon- ors in the University of Louvain after enjoying the advantages the Diocese of Hartford gave him was greatly beloved by all classes of citizens for the work he did in Hartford, particularly in the days of the World war. He is succeeded here by Rt. Rev. Maurice F. McAuliffe.
The Hartford County Council of Religious Education, with headquarters on Asylum Street, expresses a realization on the part of Protestants when it says: "When a young man or woman is graduated from high school without having received from some other source a proportionate amount of religious in- struction, the task of making a citizen on whom the common- wealth can depend is unfinished." It promotes activities for Sunday, vacation and week-day schools for the 224,000 children
THE EMANUEL SYNAGOGUE, HARTFORD
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SECOND CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, HARTFORD
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out of a total of 371,000 who are not even in Sunday School. Rev. Raymond N. Gilman of New Britain is president of the council.
The years 1927 and 1928 see two particularly beautiful addi- tions to the Jewish places of worship. The Emanuel Synagogue at Greenfield and Woodland streets, of which Morris Silverman is the rabbi, was opened in the former year-of Byzantine de- sign and with a capacity for a congregation of over a thousand. The previous synagogue was once the North Methodist Church on Windsor Avenue. The other structure, which is being com- pleted, is Agudas Achim Synagogue at Greenfield Street and Oakland Terrace, for the congregation which has been worship- ing for thirty-two years on Market Street near Pleasant. Isaac Hurwitz is the rabbi. David Traub is chairman of the Board of Directors and Barney Wachtel is president of the congregation. This also will be of the Byzantine school of architecture.
As an outgrowth of B'nai Zion, which began in a small build- ing on Market Street and in 1902 established a Hebrew school, destined to continue till Talmud Torah was built on Pleasant Street-so complete in all its appointments-is the Hartford Zionist District (1920) with senior and junior groups. The lat- ter group originally was the Maccabeans, under the presidency of Dr. George H. Cohen. One of the officers of the well-drilled Zionist Guard of former days was Capt. A. M. Simonds who was a captain in the State Guard in the World war and went over- seas as a captain in the One Hundred and Fourth Infantry. The auxiliary Daughters of Zion are now the Senior and Junior Ha- dassah. The president of the district, which is the most active organized group of Jews in the city, is Jacob Schwolsky.
In 1927 a union of the Hebrew schools of the city was effected, under a board of education of which Saul Berman is chairman, with a corps of teachers headed by Principal Jechiel Lieberman. The funds are provided by the United Talmud To- rahs of Hartford.
The First Church of Christ Scientist has a handsome edifice on Farmington Avenue. The Second Church, which was organ- ized in 1907 and has held its meetings on Asylum Street at the corner of High, selected one of the finest sites in the city, on
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Lafayette Street, for the large edifice which is nearing com- pletion.
Friendship and fellowship among the churches and closer union of the clergy is more than ever promoted by the Council of Churches, of which Rev. Dr. Edwin Knox Mitchell is presi- dent. The system now includes inter-racial meetings. The Sal- vation Army, which lived down the contempt of the nineteenth century, is today a greatly appreciated charitable and religious organization in a field that had been neglected. Its building on Trumbull Street is a means of grace for it. The Social Settle- ment on North Street, where Miss Emma D. Wilson is head worker, is full of activity. The Near East Relief, of the Hart- ford Committee of which Dr. George C. F. Williams is chair- man, is being better understood and supported. The Visiting Nurse Association, whose headquarters are on Charter Oak Avenue, has progressed rapidly since its organization in 1901. The Travelers Aid Society, at the Union Station, enjoys the impetus its gained during the war period. The Helen Hartley Jenkins Juvenile Clinic, which was organized in 1923 and re- ceives $10,000 a year from Mrs. Jenkins, and to the title of which has been added the name of Salmon in memory of Dr. Thomas Salmon who with Dr. Paul Waterman manifested such interest in the work, is having to expand at its quarters on Main Street to meet the full-time demand for its services. The Hart- ford Association, led by Doctor Mackenzie of the Seminary Foundation, is aiding the Near East College Association. The Union for Home Work on Market Street is true to those prin- ciples established by its founders in 1872, when Mrs. Sidney J. Cowen was the first president, and by its superintendent for forty years, Mrs. Elizabeth L. Sluyter, whose daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth (William A.) Ayres succeeded her in 1911. The Union cared for 12,500 children in 1927, to say nothing of par- ents. The Connecticut Humane Society, largely supported by Hartford benevolences, finds more and more to do even in this "horseless age." The New Haven society was merged with it in 1927. A great loss was suffered that year in the death of General Manager H. Clay Preston. In the family department in 1927 the welfare of over 4,000 children was looked after.
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