USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume II > Part 6
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Still another influence for the good was apparent in 1918, when the Abraham Jacobi Hospital was started. This was char- tered in 1923 under the name of Mount Sinai Hospital. Morris Marks was president, and Morris Older treasurer. With funds of $160,000 subscribed, the former Brainard mansion on Capitol Avenue was bought, and when its spacious rooms had been recon- structed for hospital purposes it could lay claim to being one of the most desirable buildings of its kind. From the beginning it has been in "Class A" by the national rating, and absolutely non- sectarian. Albert M. Simons is now the president, and Miss Anna McGlone the superintendent.
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While great things were being done under the eyes of the dwellers in the town during the last of its 300 years of history, another great thing was being constructed at a distance, by and for it. Of the incidents in the growth of any town, none is more humble, none is more likely to cause worriment about cost and none requires more skill and patient demonstration of a good in which all will share than extension of water supply. That much
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MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, HARTFORD
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can be gathered from the story of Hartford's experience as already told. But when after the long early stages it was known that Hartford was getting water of exceptional quality and that the sources were carefully guarded-indeed, made into parks- those in responsible positions learned that they had the confidence of the public. Withal, their uphill struggle to get the meter sys- tem established early in the century had resulted in an equalizing and minimizing of cost to the individual for this the most essential of public utilities. Therefore, not as in times gone by, the pre- liminary steps for a tremendous extension taken in 1908 were looked upon as a matter of necessity which the increasing popula- tion and industry themselves had caused. Then when at com- pletion, in 1922, the proceeds of $4,250,000 in bonds were reported as having been applied, there was commendation of the board and praise for the engineer and manager, Caleb Mills Saville. Yet there is no great work about which the people know so little in detail as about this, their special dependence-no great work about which it could be wished that the people comprehended more. In this instance, too, it is not the city alone which benefits; the adjacent towns come in for their share, as needs must be so long as the one feasible source for all is being tapped. The presi- dents of the board through much of the period of actual activities from 1912 on and at the close were John L. Dower, Judson H. Root, Walter S. Garde, Frank E. Howard, John A. McKone, and Robert F. Gadd; Fred D. Berry was the secretary.
Mr. Saville, a native of Melrose, Mass., a graduate of Har- vard, 1889, and with special course at Lawrence Scientific School, had had experience as division engineer at the Boston water- works, had specialized in Brookline, and had carried heavy re- sponsibilities in the building of the Panama Canal before he came here. In 1914 he was awarded the Norman medal of the Amer- ican Society of Civil Engineers, and in 1917 the Brackett Memorial medal of the New England Water Works Association. He thus modestly summarizes this remarkable accomplishment at Nepaug :
(1) A 9,000,000,000-gallon storage reservoir (Nepaug Reservoir) near Collinsville, sixteen miles from the city, which it is estimated increases the storage capacity of the system suf- ficiently to take care of the needs of the city until 1950. (2) A
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42-inch pipe line from Nepaug Reservoir to the west side of Talcott Mountain. (3) A concrete-lined tunnel through Talcott Mountain connected with the 42-inch cast iron pipe line on the west and with a 48-inch concrete pipe line to the east through a concrete conduit or aqueduct. Being built at the hydraulic grade line, neither tunnel nor aqueduct is under pressure. (5) A puri- fication plant. (6) A 42-inch pipe line from the filtered water reservoir to the city, interconnected with the old supply mains at Reservoir No. 1, and with the larger mains in the northwestern part of the city. (7) A storage reservoir near New Hartford to supply water to the various mills along the Farmington River during the low water periods and thereby compensate the owners for the water diverted from Nepaug Reservoir to supply Hartford.
The area now occupied by the reservoir was a rolling farming and wooded country, thinly populated, with the highways gen- erally following the valley lines. Forty-two individual farms were purchased and sixty houses, barns and principal buildings were removed, in addition to two cemeteries. Of the land actually flooded, 343 acres were cultivated, 122 acres pasture land, 168 timber land, 205 sprout land, and the balance, some 10 acres, was swamp land. In addition to the flooded area about 1,994 acres were purchased around the margin of the reservoir, making a total of 2,842 acres owned by the board in the Nepaug tract. Of this area, 489 acres are in the town of Canton, 1,104 acres in Burlington, and 1,249 acres in New Hartford.
Nepaug dam is a cyclopean masonry structure, of gravity section arched upstream, about 650 feet long, with a height above the old bed of the stream of 113 feet and a total height from the lowest excavation to the surface of the roadway of 156 feet. It is 90 feet thick at the bottom of the valley and 20 feet thick at the elevation of high water in the reservoir. The spillway for the entire reservoir is located in the center of the dam and the discharge is through five arched openings down a stepped face to a dead water pool at the bottom. The spillway has a capacity of approximately 6,000 cubic feet per second with about five feet of water over the crest corresponding roughly to 200 cubic feet per second per square mile run-off. The five arches over the spillway carry the relocated highway.
THE MAIN DAM OF THE RESERVOIR SYSTEM, AT NEPAUG
HARTFORD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Dignified members in after-dinner skit "Traditions," February, 1927, at the Hartford Club. Cast, left to right: Winslow Russell; Kirby C. Pratt; Postmaster H. K. Taylor; George E. Tucker; Frank F. Foley; Judge Alexander W. Creedon; Executive Vice President William H. Corbin; G. L. Hunt; C. T. Hubbard; Mayor Norman C. Stevens; Stiles Burpee and J. W. Thurston. Skit by Samuel Ludlow, Jr.
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A definite sign of the times is seen in the reorganization of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce April 1, 1915. References have been made to the Board of Trade, whose president at that time was Col. Louis R. Cheney, and to the Business Men's Asso- ciation, whose president was Walter L. Wakefield. Charles B. Whittlesey was president of the more recently formed Chamber of Commerce (1911), merely as an association of organizations. Each of the three organizations had functioned well according to the times as they had been, but under the pressure of the times as they were, it was inevitable that they should come together as one, representing every feature of municipal activities, equipped to analyze the rapid growth in the moment of it and qualified to keep a picture of it before the public, which thus would be better prepared to ward off perils and to take advantage of reasonable possibilities. It could not usurp the prerogatives of the city's elective governing body, but it could collect and formulate data which should be helpful to that body, to individuals in whatever line of activity and invaluable to seekers of definite information from outside the city and state. The developing of similar organi- zations throughout the land, while stimulating honest rivalry, at the same time was one of the strongest influences to prevent false moves and confusion. The amalgamation was a success from the start.
Mr. Wakefield was the first president. William L. Mead, who had been city editor of the Times, was appointed secretary and offices were taken in the Hartford Life Insurance Company's building on Asylum Street. In a monthly publication for mem- bers, the Hartford, topics of interest were reviewed and data published. But there were times when not all was plane sailing. For there were those, filled with the spirit of the period, who thought in terms of the city's size, as an indication of prosperity, while others thought more of quality. Business and sentiment did not clash among citizens loyal to their community, but they could not always run in the same channel. Harmony was served by the division of office honors among the different elements. No- where is there a better reflection of the story of the passing years than in the records of the chamber. Its officers have been clear- thinking leaders. The year 1926 marked another epoch. It was desired to have in the executive department an officer of wide general knowledge who could devote all his time to the increasing
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duties, and such a man was found in the person of William H. Corbin, who was made executive vice president; at the close of his term as president, former State Senator Charles C. Cook of West Hartford retired according to custom and was succeeded by George S. Stevenson, who is eminent in banking circles and was then secretary of the Society for Savings. Mr. Corbin, Yale '89 and member of the Yale Alumni Advisory Board, had been tax commissioner and treasurer of the manufacturing corporation of Wiley, Bickford Sweet Company. The force was increased and the offices removed from Allyn Street to Main Street, opposite the old State House. There are now about 1,400 members, all of them alert. In 1928, Samuel Ludlow, Jr., succeeded to the presi- dency.
Less in the public eye but of no less value in its particular field is the Hartford County Manufacturers Association, with its offices in the Arrow-Hegeman & Hart Electric Company's build- ing on Capitol Avenue. This dates from 1904, when the manu- facturers formulated their method of preserving general statistics and conferring with each other. Colonel Pope was one of the men active in forming the association. Here again is an im- portant means of preserving records and avoiding confusion. Charles B. Cook of the Royal Typewriter Company is the presi- dent. Thomas J. Kelley, formerly city editor of the Post, has been manager since the beginning. At the same place is the office of the Employers' Association, which was formed in 1910, to keep informed as to production and to maintain the independence of manufacturers, merchants, bankers and all other business men. The Manufacturers' Association of Connecticut has its office on Lewis Street. Its function is to look after matters of legislation, taxation and the like.
XLI OLD PRINCIPLES PREVAIL
HERTFORD CELEBRATION-MEN IN PUBLIC LIFE DURING TROUBLOUS DAYS FOR THE NATION-LUTHER, OGILBY AND ASSOCIATES AT TRINITY COLLEGE.
Absorbed as the community was in maintaining its place in the twentieth century transition, old ties continued strong. The threads set in 1639 were still beneath the woof of history even in this age of changes. Once more was this to be emphasized in July, 1914, when Hertford's celebration of the one-thousandth anniversary of its rebuilding by King Edward the Elder was participated in by the "New-Towne" Hartford then approaching its humble three-hundredth anniversary. And Hartford's anni- versary will be of its founding; Hertford's founding ran back a few hundred years beyond 1,000. However, men from the vicinity of Hertfordshire were among the founders of 300-years-old Hart- ford, and Teacher Samuel Stone was a member of St. Andrew's parish; John Haynes, the first governor, who suggested Hart- ford's name, was a descendant of the first governor of Hertford castle, appointed by William the Conqueror. One of John Haynes' descendants, Col. Louis R. Cheney, was Hartford's deputy mayor at the Hertford festivities.
The romantic story of one of England's most historic towns and Hartford's special bond with the Mother Country, having been told in an earlier chapter, need not here be repeated. Refer- ence also has been made to the greetings exchanged in 1891. The last expression of sentiment previous to this of 1914 was in 1904, and the photographs of the Common Council, sent by Mayor Henney at that time, have been hanging in the offices of the Hert- ford town clerk ever since. Among the famous pictures in the
NOTE: Col. Francis Parsons in 1928 procured a map of "Hartfordshire," England, dated 1611, preserved by John Speede and appearing in the first edition of one of his books. It is evidence that the name was spelled "Hartford" as well as "Hertford" in Samuel Stone's day. The map has been given to hang in the Hartford mayor's office.
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castle itself, for centuries a favorite resort of monarchs, now is displayed a picture of the Capitol at Hartford.
Colonel Cheney brought the greetings of the mayor and Com- mon Council of Hartford. He was accompanied by Mrs. Cheney, their daughter, now Mrs. John T. Roberts, Mrs. James B. Slim- mon, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald A. Welch. They were enter- tained by the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield House. There was a wonderful pageant each day for a week, of one of which Colonel Cheney was president. The mayor and council of the borough sent to Hartford city government acknowledgment of its greet- ings, in which they said: "They most earnestly reciprocate the hope that the cordial and friendly relations that exist between this borough and its offspring beyond the seas may long continue."
In other ways than ancestry, Colonel Cheney was a fitting representative on this occasion. Not only had he been mayor the previous year, when Hertford extended its invitation to its name- sake, but he was a director on boards of more financial, insurance, industrial, humanitarian and public-service corporations than any other citizen of the town. Twice since 1898 he had been major of the First Company Governor's Foot Guard and he had been quartermaster-general in 1895-97 and president of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Hartford Hospital. He was born in South Manchester in 1839, son of Charles Wells and Harriet K. Richmond Cheney. He is a graduate of the Hartford High School. Mrs. Cheney before her marriage was Mary A. Robinson, and her name is associated with much of Hartford's best work.
S
In national politics Hartford County was usually in the trend of the state, as previously, but, like the state again, it could not be counted upon in advance by either party since, and espe- cially in the democratic ranks through Bryan's time, there was discrimination. In the outburst of enthusiasm for Roosevelt in 1904, the county had contributed a sixth of the 48,000 majority for him over Parker; to Taft four years later, over Bryan, the contribution approached one-fourth of the state's 45,000. For Wilson in 1912, the county's majority was 200, while nearly 7,000 voted for Roosevelt instead of Taft; the state's majority for
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Wilson was 6,000, 34,000 having followed Roosevelt. In 1916 the county gave Wilson a majority of 1,000 over Hughes, but the state approved of Hughes by nearly 7,000 majority.
Both Wilson and Taft appeared here in 1912; for Taft, be- cause of his Yale affiliations, Connecticut was like "home soil," and Wilson had been a professor at Wesleyan. Wilson was enthusiastically received at the Parsons Theatre; Taft drew the State Fair's greatest crowd.
When Senator Bulkeley retired to private life at the end of his term in 1911, he was succeeded by former Governor George P. McLean, who has been retained in the position ever since. His power lies in his well-balanced judgment, which has won high committee positions; when he does speak, it is with that classic oratory, tinged with humor, that held attention when he was at the State Capitol. In a life of many and tense activities, more and more his delight is in his ancestral estate in Simsbury, where he was born in 1857, the son of Dudley B. and Mary Payne McLean. He was graduated with honors at the Hartford Public High School in 1877, and from Yale received the degree of M. A. in 1904. A practicing lawyer in 1881, he was peculiarly fitted for a legislative career and served in both houses. After that he was United States district attorney and in 1901 was elected gov- ernor. There are only nine in the Senate who were there when he became a member; his service at the end of his present term in 1929 will have been longer than that of any other Connecticut senator except General Hawley. He insists upon retirement now.
Henry Roberts was governor in 1905-07, after having served a term as lieutenant-governor. Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1853, he spent his boyhood on a farm in South Windsor, was graduated at the Hartford Public High School, at Yale in 1877, and at the Law School in 1879. He made the Hartford Woven Wire Mat- tress Company, of which he became president, one of the most successful concerns in the city. He served in both houses of the Legislature. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revo- lution and other patriotic societies and a director in financial institutions.
Everett J. Lake was lieutenant-governor in the administra- tion of Governor Woodruff of New Haven in 1907-09, but lost the nomination for governor to Congressman George L. Lilley of Waterbury, who, as has been said, removed his residence to Hart-
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ford, dying three months after his inauguration and being suc- ceeded by Governor Weeks of Middletown. Mr. Lake won the nomination and election in 1921.
Governor Lake is a native of Woodstock, where he was born in 1871. He was graduated at the Worcester Polytechnic Insti- tute in 1890 and at Harvard in 1892. He has been eminently successful as president of the Hartford Lumber Company and of the Tunnel Coal Company, and has played a prominent part in banking.
Marcus H. Holcomb, the renowned war governor, came into office against his own wishes in 1915, succeeding the eminent Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven, who had reached the age limit of seventy as chief justice before he was elected governor. Judge Holcomb, on the superior court bench, also had reached that limit and had planned to spend a time in travel after a long period of public activity. In his youth his health had been such that he had been obliged to forego a college education after preparing for it. He came of one of the oldest families in the state and was the son of Carlos and Adah Bushnell Holcomb of New Hartford, where he was born in 1844. Supporting himself by teaching school, he prepared for the bar and began practice in Southington in 1871. For many years there he was called to fill various posts of honor, in town and county. He was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention, county commissioner and speaker of the House in 1905. Also he was president of the Southington Savings Bank and director in a number of concerns and institutions, and was active in the Baptist Church and in fraternal circles. He left the democratic party in 1888 on the tariff issue. The story of his life after passing the "age limit" is to be a large part of the history which is to follow, and his services to his fellow citizens are not yet ended.
Samuel O. Prentice was a member of the Supreme Court of Errors throughout this period, from 1901, and chief justice from 1913 till his retirement in 1920, after which he continued active in his citizenship and especially in his affiliation with the Asylum Hill Congregational Church till his death in 1924. Chief Justice Prentice was graduated at Yale in 1873 and at the Law School in 1875. Stonington was his birthplace (1850), but after gradua- tion he came to Hartford and the law firm of Johnson & Prentice was formed. He held successively the positions of corporation
SAMUEL O. PRENTICE Chief Justice Supreme Court of Errors, 1913-1920
FLAVEL S. LUTHER President of Trinity College 1904-1919
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counsel and executive secretary to Governor Bulkeley. Appointed to the Superior Court in 1889, he continued there till promoted to the Supreme Court. He was professor in the Yale Law School, and president of the Public Library, the Watkinson Library, the Humane Society and the park board. He was one of the original members of Company K, First Regiment, C. N. G., and its cap- tain. His wife, Anne Combe Post, was one of the promoters of many good causes in the city.
Augustine Lonergan was congressman from this First Dis- trict from 1913 to 1915 and again from 1917 to 1921, yielding the intervening session to his republican rival, P. Davis Oakey. Born in Thompson, Mr. Lonergan was educated in Rockville and Bridgeport. He had to make his own way but by studying nights he fitted himself for the Yale Law School. After graduation there in 1902 he came here to practice, and his popularity and strength have continued to increase. He was democratic nominee for United States Senator in 1928. Mr. Oakey came here in business from New Jersey. His fondness for the study of local govern- ment made him useful in many ways and for years he was an assessor. Failing health caused his retirement to private life .. He had removed to New Haven shortly before his death.
The new century had brought confusion in politics, and most. naturally, as in many other things during the transition period. Sundry new forces had not been calculated upon. One was that of the workingman who wanted his full share in the better things, and another was the increasing presence of those of an ambitious and excitable temperament. A practical labor bureau, a com- pensation act and other remedies for conditions which existed in certain quarters did not come till after the first decade of the century. Socialism could gain but few adherents in the kind of a town this had been. Debs got but 900 votes for president in 1904, 1,250 in 1908, 2,000 in 1912, and the vote dropped to 1,250 for Benson in 1916. Disaffection found voice in small groups, unions and clubs, like the association of clothing-store clerks, which was headed by a man of ready speech and pleasing manner, Ignatius A. Sullivan, who became president of the Central Labor Union and was elected mayor on the democratic ticket in 1904,
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when former Lieutenant-Governor Cady had declined the nomina- tion. Mr. Sullivan, born in Canton, Mass., in 1863, had traveled around his native state considerably, as a clerk, before coming to Hartford in 1896. The election secured, he took no council with the long-time leaders and submitted lists of appointments that caused surprise and then such animosity as to split his party and greatly hamper the work of the city government. His subsequent attempts at political control were unsuccessful, and after a time he went back to Massachusetts and thence to California, where he died in 1928.
The real recognition of adaptation to new conditions came in the next following two-term administration of Mayor William F. Henney. He was the man for the hour, locally, a lawyer of fine judgment, courtesy and force, respected by citizens without re- gard to party. The improvements inaugurated by the republicans could not have been carried through without democratic influence. There was a general rally for the good of the community. Some of the systems established were along the lines of finance, civic regulation and a city plan commission. Looking back upon the times, one can see that these were more important than was realized at the hour.
By his example as well as by his political method, Mayor Henney, who has died as this is being written, accomplished much. Aside from his self-sacrificing public duties, he was giving wise counsel in private, he was making an impress upon the receptive minds of the youth who were to come on in later years and he was upholding the historic tradition of the town and state by his magazine writings. He was the son of a Scotch engineer who in 1865 was superintendent for the Hartford Light and Power Company, and of a mother who imbued him with love of literature. He was born in Enfield in 1852, went through the Hartford Public High School, and was graduated at Princeton in 1874. He served in the Common Council, as judge of the City Court, as national committeeman of his party, as president of the County Bar Association, and in various other capacities.
Service of Mayor Hooker, Mayor Smith and Mayor Cheney following Mayor Henney has been touched upon. Mayor Joseph H. Lawler, a comparatively young lawyer, won a victory for the democrats in 1914, brought a becoming dignity to the office and stood by the old and the new principles that had been established.
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The republicans came in again with Mayor Frank A. Hagarty, whose gracious bearing made friends everywhere. A master of political art and of keen discernment, Richard J. Kinsella, won the next election for the democrats and proved his ability in the soul-trying days of the war. By thrift and industry he had worked his way from a humble apprenticeship to be the head of a large wholesale and retail establishment dealing in butter and eggs, his name in business being Kingsley, and owned much real estate. He had served in both branches of the Common Council, had been a member of important city boards and was a leader in the South School District. He is said to have originated the plan by which the trolley company had to pay 2 per cent of its gross receipts into the city treasury to gain the right to make the changes in the streets essential to electrical equipment. For thirteen years he was in the National Guard and held commission as first lieutenant in Company B of the First Regiment. He was his party's candidate for mayor five times and won his second victory in 1921. He was born in 1857 and died in 1925. The latest school building in his district bears his name. Dr. James H. Naylor, for many years chairman of the district, depended much upon his judgment. The faithful and progressive service of Norman C. Stevens, in his two terms as mayor, would have won him renomination in 1928 but he insisted upon returning to his duties in the Aetna Life Insurance Company's office.
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