USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 3
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As to children, the student of economics studies this period with special interest, for in it he finds the application of the prin- ciples which the scientists were beginning to lay down and the results of which were to increase materially the longevity of man. The applications already mentioned herein were largely along the lines of sympathy and humanitarianism, but they stood also for human economics. It was eminently fitting, then, that there should be special recognition at the Hartford Hospital; hence the building in 1903 of the addition for children's wards was of more than passing significance; it marks an epoch in science. The structure was the gift of one who appreciated the full meaning- Mary Robinson Cheney, wife of Col. Louis R. Cheney, in memory of her sister, Eliza Trumbull Cheney, as elsewhere told.
Of the doctors who participated in the earlier work and who lived to see some of the rewards for it, there were several of prominence in addition to those already named. One who died in 1909 deserves special mention, for he was looked upon by medical men, by church men and by all his townsmen as one of the fathers of the community. This was Dr. Gurdon W. Russell. He was a descendant of William Wadsworth of Hartford's earliest days. In 1834 he was graduated from Yale, and in 1837 from the Yale Medical School. He was the first medical examiner of the Aetna Life Insurance Company and was medical director at the time of his death. He had been an official in the state and national med- ical societies and president of the Hartford Retreat, to which he gave the beautiful Maplewood Lodge, and of the Hartford Hos- pital, with which he was connected for fifty years. He was one of the organizers of the Hartford Medical Society. The Mary I. B. Russell Fund at the hospital provides for two beds in his memory; one in memory of Mary Stuart Beresford; one in
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memory of Francis Beresford Marsh, and one in memory of Mary I. B. Russell; nominations to be made by the Visiting Nurse Asso- ciation, the Church Home, the rector of Trinity and the Union for Home Work, respectively. Mrs. Russell, the doctor's wife, was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Beresford-a member, together with his father, James, of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edin- burgh. Father and son came here in 1834 and practiced together till the father died in 1843; Dr. Samuel died here in 1873. The latter was one of the founders of Trinity Church, as also was Doctor Russell. Doctor Russell was the church historian for many years and gave the solid silver alms basin. He had been a member of the Connecticut Historical Society since 1840 and delighted in writing historical sketches. For twenty-five years he was a member of the park board and was president in 1901.
Three greatly beloved physicians of wide reputation died dur- ing the period. Dr. Melancthon Storrs was the first of them to go-in 1900. He was born in Westford, of colonial ancestry, and was graduated at Yale in 1853. From being surgeon in the Eighth Connecticut in the Civil war, he became brigade surgeon on Gen. Edward Harland's staff. After the war he located here, where his skill as a surgeon won a name for him. He was medical director in the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company and at the Hartford Hospital. Dr. George C. Jarvis, who was born in Colebrook in 1834 and died in 1901, left Trinity (which later gave him an honorary degree) to study medicine at New York University, where he was graduated in 1861. His first experi- ence was as surgeon in the war. After service with the Con- necticut cavalry, he was made surgeon of the Seventh Connecti- cut. In his practice here he won high distinction. From 1870 till his death he was one of the surgeons at the Hartford Hos- pital. Dr. Horace S. Fuller, who continued active till his sudden death in 1910, and from 1887 was the dean of the profession, was born in Suffield in 1835. He was a graduate of the Harvard Medical School and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. In the war he was assistant surgeon, and later on the staff of Governor Andrews he was surgeon-general. The gov- ernor and the doctor were classmates at Amherst. He contributed much to medical literature till his eyesight failed. Coroner for several years, he was made medical examiner when the law was changed and, despite his almost blindness, continued as such till his death.
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BRIDGE DENOTES TRANSITION ERA
SIGNIFICANCE OF DEDICATION OF HISTORIC STRUCTURE-ART, MUSIC, PATRIOTIC VENERATION IN THIS HOUR OF GREAT ENDEAVOR-AID FOR NOBLE CAUSES.
It was in this Hartford as pictured that came the event of the dedication of the bridge over the Connecticut River, the largest stone bridge in the world. It was an historically spec- tacular event, covering three days, beginning October 4, 1908. Relatively, in the retrospect that has been presented, it had a meaning deeper than the joyous crowds could realize. It stood for a victory by vote of a well-led people over the conservative complacency of the early '90s when plans for a cheaper bridge of metal seemed about to prevail, and the triumph was celebrated when the transition to greater things than had yet been dreamed of, locally and nationally, had been effected. It is small wonder that in the days of gas-light, horse-cars, steam power and a con- tented population of 50,000 there were many minds that did not grasp the possibilities which were to mean for one thing a popula- tion of 95,000 in the city alone, and almost as much in the imme- diate towns that would use that bridge. And other events no less historic for the city-more historic in the cultural sense-were close at hand, still to usher in the wonders of the twentieth cen- tury, the last quarter of the city's third.
The story of the romantic struggles prior to 1900 have been told, including the shifting of burden from the immediate towns to the state which-this being a through thoroughfare-would benefit as much as the towns, and back again to the towns, an action which was in accord with the then traditions for bridge- building. George W. Fowler, who conducted a printing business, was chairman of the state's committee for the towns. He had been first selectman when the old town farm was cut up into lots and the new almshouse was built, had served as collector, and
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always was prominent in Hartford affairs till his death in 1897. It was during his regime, under state authority, that the contract was made with the Berlin Iron Bridge Company for a metal struc- ture, with a draw. When the burden was put back upon the towns again, there was a growing disposition to do something much better than the state would have been likely to do. In 1902 a committee of the Common Council reported that there were three plans: One for a stone bridge at $1,600,000, one for steel at $878,000, and one for steel-girder at $782,000. The Hartford approach would cost $708,402. Immediately the Board of Trade, Business Men's Association and the general public, in meetings assembled, voted for stone, and on formal ballot on election day the vote was overwhelming for $1,000,000 for a stone bridge and $709,000 for the Hartford approach. The bid that won was $1,359,000 for the bridge and $709,000 for the approach, much of the sum appropriated for the approach to go for land and prop- erty for the boulevard from State to Riverside Street, shifting of railroad tracks, putting a roadway over them and building a new station at State Street.
The bridge was to be sufficiently high-arched to admit of any possible navigation to the north. But in 1902 work was stopped by order from the War Department till the insistence of people to the north that there should be a draw could be investigated. Maj. S. H. Leach, for the Government, reported that the river itself could be made navigable for normal craft to Holyoke for $1,800,000, and annual cost of maintaining would be $8,000. Prof. David M. Greene of Troy, N. Y., estimated cost of this dredging at $2,593,939, and of maintaining at $20,000. A bill was put through Congress for a drawless bridge high enough for all probable navigation and President Roosevelt signed it in 1905, thus ending one more chapter in the still continuing history of competing with land freight up-river. The arguments which then prevailed were that great expense to the Government would result in only slight advantage in freight rate; that for a short distance there would be a very strong current and that the Connecticut River Company's canal at Windsor Locks would serve every pur. pose. The rail coal rate from New Haven to Hartford and also to Springfield was 75 cents; the river below was kept navigable up to Middletown for barges by constant dredging at a cost of from $15,000 to $20,000, or about as now. The proposal today
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(Photographed by 118 Photo. Sce. A. S. C. N. G.)
LARGEST STONE ARCH BRIDGE IN THE WORLD, OVER THE CONNECTICUT RIVER AT HARTFORD Riverside Park to the north
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in connection with the building of a power dam has to do with the rebuilding of that canal.
The original bridge in 1810 cost $96,000; to raise the old piers in 1818 cost $30,000. The demand for a free bridge came to a head in 1889, the state paying the old company 40 per cent of the $207,300, and Hartford, East Hartford, Glastonbury, South Windsor and Manchester 60 per cent. It was in 1895, as told, that the old and condemned bridge was burned.
The new bridge is 1,193 feet long, with nine spans, which with its width of 82 feet between walls, makes it the world's largest stone bridge. It is of Leete's Island and Stony Brook granite. The commissioners at the completion of it were Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, president; Hon. Lewis Sperry of South Windsor, vice president; James W. Cheney of South Manchester, secretary; Meigs H. Whaples of Hartford, treasurer; former Mayor John G. Root of Hartford, Alembert O. Crosby of Glastonbury, Charles W. Roberts of East Hartford, and Frank C. Sumner of Hartford. Edwin D. Graves of Hartford was the chief engineer.
Each day of the celebration was ushered in by the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon. On the first day, Rev. Dr. Rock- well Harmon Potter conducted services at the church Hooker founded; the procession of school children was three miles long, with Henry C. Dwight as marshal. Rev. Thomas Hooker (imper- sonated by President William Douglas Mackenzie of the Hartford Theological Seminary), with his men, women, sheep, pigs and chickens, came to the river's bank on the East Hartford side (with poetic license since an approach by Windsor way on the west side could not have been either so spectacular or so much in accord with popular idea ), whence they were brought over on rafts while Indians in their canoes looked on. The Hooker company, in appropriate costumes, was made up of local men, women and children. The same participated in the pageant in front of a mammoth grandstand, portraying scenes of the reception of Hooker and the start for the Pequot war. There also was a civic and municipal parade under the command of Gen. Edward Schulze, day fireworks, and addresses and music in the high school. The second day there was an industrial parade with Maj. Louis R. Cheney marshal, a river carnival, an automobile parade, concerts and tableaux by the riverside. The third day was given over to a Masonic parade and the laying of the last stone of the
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bridge. Grand Master Edward E. Fuller conducted the service, and President Bulkeley of the commission was grand architect. Adjt .- Gen. George M. Cole was marshal of the military parade. The organizations in line were: Coast Artillery, U. S. A .; the Connecticut National Guard, comprising two regiments of infantry, coast artillery, naval militia, Troop A; Governor Wood- ruff, escorted by the Horse Guard and the Foot Guard, and the Putnam Phalanx. In the evening there were fireworks on the river front. Each night there was a brilliant electrical display.
In 1926, under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, a bronze tablet was set in the north wall of the bridge in memory of President Bulkeley, who did much to carry this great work to success. Appropriately inscribed, it bears a portrait of the distinguished citizen by Sculptor George J. Lober.
A very notable historical feature of the celebration in 1908 was the fact that many among those participating in the exer- cises were lineal descendants of Hooker and his men. The mayor himself, Edward Williams Hooker, traced his ancestry back to Thomas, and the young lady who impersonated Mrs. Hooker was Isabel, daughter of Dr. Edward B. Hooker, another descendant. Mayor Hooker also was a descendant of William Williams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was born in 1865, son of Bryan E. Hooker, who for forty years was man- ager of the Broad Brook Company. The son began business with his father, but after ten years, when the concern was acquired by Ogden & Brook, he went with the Perkins Electric Switch Com- pany, of which he was secretary and treasurer till he entered into partnership in 1900 with William R. Penrose in one of the largest insurance agencies of the city. He was a member of the lower house of the Legislature and of the Senate in 1911 and 1913. He married Mary, daughter of Dr. C. Peaseley Turner of Phila - delphia. In educational and benevolent institutions he took much interest and he was especially fond of yachting. He died in 1915.
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Before taking up the other events already in course of preparation, it is well to look again at the life of the community as a whole. Especially it is well because in this period around the country there were two "flurries" in the financial world.
THE HOOKER PIONEERS CROSSING THE RIVER ON A RAFT
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THE HOOKER PIONEER PARTY. REV. DR. W. DOUGLAS MACKENZIE AS THE REV. THOMAS HOOKER, CENTER
Scenes celebrating the completion of the new Connecticut River bridge, October 6-8, 1908
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Hartford was receiving its full share of the benefit of an Amer- ican trade that doubled between 1900 and 1907, and banking and commerce experienced nothing more than normal changes.
The Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra had been founded in 1898 by a group of people, including Mrs. Charles Dudley Warner, of exceptional musical talent and education. As the Memnon Club they had enabled Hartford to hear the best of orchestras and great artists like Paderewski, and they had interested them- selves in local talent which had developed most creditably. The idea of the Philharmonics was to bring the local talent together in large numbers, under the leadership of Richmond P. Paine, to give opportunity for still further development and at the same time to furnish each season concerts that should gratify the local public's fondness for music. The orchestra at once became an institution in which a wide territory took deep interest. After Mr. Paine, the leaders were John S. Camp and Robert H. Prut- ting. More and harder rehearsals being required as standards advanced, the need of a concertmeister was met by engaging one of the foremost of the East, Henry P. Schmidtt, who had held such position with Anton Seidl and afterward in the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. The large sums to meet these increasing expenses were met by annual subscriptions from a few. Prior to the season of 1926-7, John T. Roberts, who had been serving as president, established a foundation by which, with the dissolution of the organization as such but with the earnest assistance of many of its supporters, including Archibald A. Welch for consultation, three concerts should be given each year by the best talent obtainable and at only the most nominal charge to the public.
The German citizens were among the earliest to form singing societies, along with their Turnerbund and Schuetzenverein. The Maennerchor, the Liederkranz and the Saengerbund brought home many prizes from the annual state fests, which for years were among the most enjoyable musical features of the summer seasons in Connecticut. The Saengerbund recently has acquired fine quarters on Washington Street. It dates its organization from 1858, with Jacob Walz as leader, the position now held by Samuel Loewenthal. Albert Schmidt was the first president. In 1860 the ladies of the society, through Miss Wilhelmina Hemring, presented a flag at a picnic held in Gillette's Grove on Nook Farm.
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A number of the members went to the war with those colors. The club's first appearance in musical contest outside the state was in 1865, when it won first prize in New York City, since which time it has won many, many prizes not only for good sing- ing but for good marching.
Men who had sung on college glee clubs, men of church choirs and others were drawn together in 1907 and formed the Choral Club. Judge L. P. Waldo Marvin, now of the Superior Court, was the first president. His successors have been Judge Herbert S. Bullard, Charles M. Starkweather, F. Edward Bosson, James S. Stevens, Lewis M. Robotham, and Clement C. Hyde, who also is principal of the Hartford Public High School. Merritt A. Alfred, as librarian, has enabled the club to accumulate a very valuable library of compositions. The club has participated in great concerts in New Haven, at the Metropolitan Opera House, and at the Sesquicentennial in Philadelphia. Some of the num- bers at Philadelphia were composed and were conducted by Ralph L. Baldwin, the club's conductor, who is among the best known writers and conductors in the country.
Among other organizations was the remarkably efficient Treble Clef Club, later merged into the Hartford Oratorio Society, which furnishes some of the best music the city has today. The Hosmer Hall Choral Union gave most enjoyable concerts. Among composers and conductors for many years was N. H. Allen, whom Mr. Camp succeeded as organist at the First Church. He was president of the State Music Teachers Association. The Musical Club and the School of Music are among those that help maintain the standards at the present time.
Colt's Armory Band, the Foot Guard Band, the First Regi- ment Band, Hatch's and Tasillo's are the chief organizations that have furnished martial music.
Hartford is proud of having been the birthplace of Dudley Buck (1839-1909). He began his study of the piano here with W. J. Babcock. The beginning of his study with the great masters was in Leipzig Conservatory in 1858. Organist at Park Church in 1862, he began publishing, and in 1867 removed to Chicago, where his house and his collection of writings were burned in 1871. After that he went to Somerville, Mass., later to New York and Brooklyn, as organist, director and composer.
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There was renewed interest in patriotic organizations. The Daughters of the War of 1812 was organized in 1906.
The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion was organized in Hartford in 1890, less than a year after the establishment of the national body. Beginning with a small but distinguished group, it was to increase rapidly in membership as the need of such fellowship, such work and such preservation of historical landmarks, papers and traditions was to demand in these days of change and oftentimes of misrepresentation. State Librarian George S. Godard is the president of the state society, and Dr. Frederic T. Murless is the president of the Hartford branch, named after Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth. There are now over a thousand members. The Sons of the Revolution in Con- necticut was instituted in 1893. Spanish war veterans formed Charles L. Burdett Camp No. 4 in 1902.
More attention was being given to landmarks of old times. The site of the Charter Oak, as has been said, was marked by the Society of Colonial Wars. The home of Oliver Ellsworth in Windsor was acquired by the Daughters of the Revo- lution in 1903, as a place of meeting for themselves and as a museum of colonial relics, of which the homestead itself furnished many. The house and grounds were donated by the 111 living descendants of the great statesman and jurist. Mrs. Sara T. Kinney was at that time regent of the Connecticut Society of the D. A. R. She had been the first to promote patriotic education on a definite scale and nearly all the Revolutionary monuments around the state were placed through her endeavors. Till her death in 1922 she was president of the Ellsworth Memorial Asso- ciation, of which every "daughter" was a member, she was honorary vice president-general of the national society of the D. A. R., and on her retirement from the state regency was made honorary regent. She was a leader in Red Cross work and for over thirty years was president of the Connecticut Indian Asso- ciation, for which she was particularly qualified by long experi- ence on the reservations. A medal was awarded her for services at the Atlanta Exposition and she represented the state at the Paris Exposition. During the war with Spain she had charge of the local relief work. She was a member of the Descendants of Governors, and as former governor of the Connecticut Society
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of Mayflower Descendants, she was on the committees at the Plymouth Rock tercentenary.
Clubs for pleasure, sport and study were being formed. In 1905 the University was organized, with Rev. Dr. Melancthus W. Jacobus president. The club enjoys a large membership and recently has acquired and enlarged the property it had leased on Lewis Street. The Get-Together Club, for dinners at which important topics are discussed by special speakers, came into existence in 1902. There is also the Twentieth Century Club for similar purposes but not so general in its nature. The Grade Teachers Club was formed in 1903 for both study of current topics and social pleasure. The Hartford Woman's Club, to become a factor in civic life, was organized in 1896. The Business and Professional Women's Club and the Hearthstone Club are others of prominence and influence. The College Club first brought graduates of women's colleges together in 1905. The Poetry Club enjoys association with Professors Odell Shepard and Robert S. Hillyer of Trinity College, Dr. Warren Harper, Mrs. Eleanor C. Koenig, Miss Faith W. Collens and Miss Mary H. Gladding. The Twilight Club long has been a small group of literary, business and professional men. The Saturday Morning and the Monday Evening clubs, outgrowths of the "literary colony," met at the homes of the members. The Colonial Club, its quarters on Pros- pect Street, flourished independently for several years and then merged with the Hartford Club, one of the most popular and best housed in New England. The City Club developed rapidly and now has elaborate quarters near the County Building. The Auto- mobile Club of Hartford was organized in 1902 and has kept pace with the development of motoring till in these days it is of much benefit not only to its members but to visiting motorists. closely associated with the Chamber of Commerce. The Curling Club, 1907, represented an ancient sport new to Hartford and greatly enjoyed on the pond in Elizabeth Park and at other places. The Bird Study Club, 1909, drew young and old out into the woods. The Last Man Brotherhood began in 1902 with thirty- three plates on the table; in 1927 there were only four less. The appearance of the Hartford Chapter of the American Institute of Banking was indicative of the need of intensive study in that line, with the wealth of the nation so rapidly increasing and demanding new functions of the banks. In fraternal circles, the Masonic Temple on Ann Street was growing richer in associations
(From a portrait by Roishoven)
WILLIAM GEDNEY BUNCE (1840-1916) One of America's greatest painters
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THE UNIVERSITY CLUB, HARTFORD
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and new chapters, and Odd Fellows Hall on Main Street was the scene of constant activity. The Arab Patrol Association was formed in 1907, and the Shrine Club located on Spring Street. The following year the Shriners' Oasis built a clubhouse on a bluff overlooking the Connecticut at Hockanum. The Hartford Lodge of Elks, instituted in 1883, in 1903 dedicated its handsome "Elks' Home" on Prospect Street, one of the finest in the country. Exalted Ruler Henry M. Ahern presided at the exercises.
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The love and the study of art had been well maintained through the years and Hartford men and women were continuing to win distinction. One whose name is enrolled among the fore- most in America, William Gedney Bunce (1840-1916), dividing his time between Hartford and Venice, his paintings of which are so highly treasured, was in the zenith of his fame. And doting on each brush stroke in his studio were men of the younger generation, like Walter Griffin, Louis Orr and Robert F. Logan, who already have attained the preeminence he foresaw for them. Mr. Bunce was a son of James Bunce, one of the family so prom- inent in Hartford banking, mercantile and insurance life and in the navy. He himself saw service in the Civil war as a first lieutenant in the First Connecticut Cavalry in 1862. His earlier years in art seemed whimsical but in reality they were years of patient devotion; his only impatience was with art that did not ring true. His first exhibition in Paris was in 1876. Mr. Bunce was a member of the New York Academy of Art and of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
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