History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 106

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1390

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III > Part 106

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Perhaps some of Mr. Manternach's popularity is due to the fact that in spite of his strenuous youth and the tremendous energy which he throws into all of his business and public enterprises, he has never forgotten how to play. He plays hard and works hard and enjoys them both. In addition to being a keen business man of the most rigid standards, he is a loyal and devoted friend, with a remarkable circle of friends and acquaintances.

Mr. Manternach is a Mason, his membership being in Wyllys Lodge, F. & A. M .; Washington Commandery, K. T .; Connecticut Consistory, S. P. R. S .; and Sphinx Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Along strictly social lines, he is associated with the Hartford Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the Country Club of Farmington, the Wam- panoag Golf Club, and the Sequin Golf Club. He is also a member of the Rotary Club and is in full sympathy with its high purposes and notable attainments.

Mr. Manternach is a loyal and devoted citizen of Hartford, to the welfare of which city he has contributed much, as well as to the town of West Hartford, in which is located his beautiful home in its extensive and comfortable grounds. Young enough to enjoy his success, Mr. Manternach enjoys and has always enjoyed his work as well, and is today a foremost figure among the far-sighted and successful men of Hartford.

Mr. Manternach was united in marriage to Miss Grace Woods, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen J. Woods of West Hartford, and they have two sons: Roger Woods, born March 19, 1911; and Bruce Wallace, born September 26, 1914.

CHARLES BRADFORD BEACH

In business circles of Hartford the name of Charles Bradford Beach is widely and favorably known, for he controls important interests as the vice president of the L & H Motor Company and as president of the L & H Aircraft Corporation. In business affairs his plans are carefully formulated and promptly executed, and the obstacles and difficulties which all men encounter in commercial activity seem but to serve as an impetus for renewed effort on his part.

Born in Hartford, November 1, 1894, Mr. Beach is a son of Charles Coffin and Mary E. (Batterson) Beach, who were early settlers of Hartford. The son obtained his preliminary education in a private school of the city and afterward attended Westminster College of Simsbury, Connecticut, and Trinity College of Hartford. His identification with insurance interests dated from 1915, when he entered the employ of the Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company, there continuing for several years. In 1916 he turned his attention to the automobile business, in which he continued until the United States entered the World war. Previously he had joined the Connecticut National Guard and was on duty on the Mexican border for a period of four months. During the World war he joined the United States Naval Reserve Force and was stationed at Nantucket until after the armistice was signed, becoming a second-class gunner's mate. When hostilities had ceased he returned to Hartford and resumed active connection with the automobile trade. On the organization of the L & H Motor Company he became secretary and on the 1st of August, 1925, was elected vice presi-

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dent. The Aircraft Corporation was organized in November, 1927, at which time Mr. Beach was elected president. The purpose of this company is to promote commercial aviation and they plan to cover New England and eastern New York. They now own a number of flying craft, employ several aviators and have taken up the passenger service, while at the same time they conduct an aviation school. Mr. Beach has given much personal attention to the promotion of the business as well as to the advancement of the automobile trade. The company handles the Hupmobile, with offices at Nos. 98 and 100 High street. He is likewise a director in the Batterson Company.

On the 6th of October, 1919, Mr. Beach was united in marriage to Lucille B. Curtin, of Cleveland, Ohio. They are the parents of three children: Beverly Batterson, Mary Elizabeth and Janet Benson. The family residence is at No. 38 Walbridge road in West Hartford, where Mr. Beach is serving as a member of the town council for the term covering 1927 and 1928. He is well known in fraternal and in club circles, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Sphinx Temple of the Mystic Shrine and of the Hartford lodge of Elks. He also belongs to the Hartford Golf Club, the Wampanoag Club, the St. Anthony Club of New York, the Bachelors Club of Hartford and is an associate member of two musical clubs. He keeps in touch with the trend of modern thought, progress and improvement and his activities are directed in keeping with the spirit of the age. He looks beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and possibilities of the future and has become a pioneer in the field of commercial aviation, which has been opening up so rapidly in America within the past year.

EDWARD MILLIGAN

Edward Milligan, president of the Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford, and of its subsidiary corporations, is the scion of an old Philadelphia family. His grand- father was president of the first railroad built between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. His father, prior to his early death, was prominent in civic affairs.

Mr. Milligan was born at the summer home of his parents, in Haddonfield, New Jersey, a suburb, in June, 1862. His early acquaintance with the insurance business was acquired in a local agency in Philadelphia. Later on he was an inspector for a leading American company, and in 1888 a special agent for the Phoenix of Hartford. In this capacity he developed an unusual and widely recognized judgment of men and measures, and was noted among his colleagues for original and convincing opinions regarding the proper conduct of the business. His abilities naturally led to his selection as secretary of the Phoenix on the occasion of a vacancy in the company's official staff by reason of the death of its former secretary. So noteworthy and effective were his talents that he soon attained complete control of the company's underwriting policy, to the immediate and radical improvement of its financial condition.

Following his election as vice president in 1907, he became, in June, 1913, presi- dent of the corporation whose affairs he had, by this time, placed upon a most sub- stantial and satisfactory footing. His connection with the company now covers a period of forty years of the unceasing, vigilant, discriminating devotion of a strong man endowed with a genius for the duties undertaken, and with a tireless purpose to bring about the success of his corporation and the welfare of its representatives and employes. It is only necessary to glance at the figures of any published state- ment of the condition of the Phoenix to appreciate the magnitude of his achievements on behalf of his own company. But it is a fact better known to the officials of other insurance companies than, perhaps, to Mr. Milligan's Hartford acquaintances, that he has devoted as much time and thought, and exerted as wide an influence, as any other man in the United States, in the establishment and maintenance of fair and honorable methods, and in the reconcilement of differences between competing cor- porations. His work has been for the general good of both companies and public, and he is honored by all his colleagues as a promoter of fair play.

Mr. Milligan's activities have not been confined to the insurance business. His influence in civic affairs has been far-reaching and beneficial. As a director of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, he has proven a wise and efficient factor in the solution of its problems and has held a high place in the counsels of his fellow

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Gov. Milligan

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directors in that and in many other corporations that he has served. His clearness of vision, and his practical judgment of ways and means, are so well known that he is sought for, whenever a doubt arises affecting the status of any of Hartford's organizations, financial, educational or charitable.

It would not be fair to refrain from referring to Mr. Milligan's intensive and successful activities in the time of stress incident to the great war. Probably no man in Hartford, by precept and example, did more toward influencing the generous contributions of the citizens. His liberality with respect to the funds referred to, as well as to all local charities, has been unusual, and what is quite as much to the purpose, he has devoted to their management, in many instances, the same astute attention and direction that he has given to the affairs of his own business.

CHARLES ROCKWELL BELDEN

A quarter of a century has come and gone since Charles Rockwell Belden passed from this life, but he is yet remembered in Hartford as a most prominent and success- ful business man and as a citizen of worth. He was here born January 24, 1850, and his entire life record reflected credit upon the history of a family that through many generations has contributed to the upbuilding of Connecticut, his ancestors possessing those qualities upon which the true stability of the commonwealth rests. History records the family as of English origin and on the Merrie Isle there appears a record of Walter Bayldon, who married a daughter of Thomas Gargrave. Their son, John Bayldon, was married a second time October 15, 1515, when Mary, daughter of Edward Copely, of Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, became his wife. He died December 22, 1526. His third son, George Baildon, born about 1520, was a resident of Methley in 1567 and of Hardwick in 1574, dying in 1588. His wife, Anne, was buried at Leeds, December 17, 1577. Their son, Francis Baildon, born in 1560 and knighted at the coronation of James I, married for his second wife Margaret, daughter of Richard Goodrick, of Ripston. She was buried September 22, 1598, and Sir Francis died in 1623.

Their son, Richard Baildon, baptized at Kippax, May 26, 1591, after his wife's death emigrated to America with his sons and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1641, when about fifty years of age. There he acquired considerable real estate and in 1646 was appointed town cow-keeper to look after the settlers' cattle pastured in the town pasture.

John Belden, youngest son of Richard Baildon, was born about 1631, came to America with his father and was made a freeman in Wethersfield in 1657. He saw military service under Captain John Mason and was very active in town affairs. He was married April 24, 1657, to Lydia Standish and died June 27, 1677. Their son, Samuel Belden, born January 3, 1665, was married January 14, 1685, to Hannah Handy, daughter of Richard Handy and granddaughter of John Elderkin, a first settler of Norwich. Samuel Belden died December 27, 1738, and his wife January 20, 1742. Their son, Samuel Belden (II), was born in 1689 and was married April 10, 1712, to Mary Spencer, of Haddam, Connecticut, who died October 28, 1751, while he survived until July 31, 1771. Their son, Samuel Belden (III), was born April 26, 1713, and died January 10, 1789, while his wife, Elizabeth, died February 23, 1775.

Seth Belden, son of Samuel Belden (III), was born August 7, 1747, and was killed at the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, when serving in Colonel Huntington's regiment. He was married April 16, 1772, in Wethersfield, to Christian Dickinson, who was born November 29, 1755, and died August 9, 1844. After her husband's death she removed with her children to what is now Cromwell. Their son, Seth Belden (II), was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and went with his family to Cromwell, where he remained until his removal to Hartford, where he conducted a profitable business as a general contractor and dealer in paving stone.

To Seth Belden and his wife, who in her maidenhood was Abigail Sophia Steadman, was born a son, Charles Rockwell Belden, who in his youthful days was a public school pupil in Hartford and afterward turned his attention to the tailoring business. A little later, however, he joined his father, who was conducting a general contracting business under the name of Seth Belden & Sons Company, his son James being also a partner. Following the death of their father the sons continued the business for

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a time, but a little later Charles R. Belden became a clerk in the office of the Newton & Hills Company, coal dealers. In 1882 he joined Mr. Hills of that firm in organizing the Hartford Coal Company, of which Mr. Belden became president, with Mr. Hills as secretary and treasurer. Later Mr. Belden became both president and treasurer and continued in both offices until his demise. He was a man of marked business capacity and power and developed one of the extensive enterprises in his line in Hart- ford. His judgment was always sound and his discrimination keen, and prosperity in large measure crowned his labors.

On the 28th of May, 1868, Mr. Belden married Mary E. Sill, a daughter of Micah and Adelaide (Rapael) Sill, of Hartford. They became parents of three children, the eldest, Frederick S., being mentioned elsewhere in this work. The daughters are: Caroline, wife of James E. Brooks, of Orange, New Jersey; and Louise M., the wife of William C. Hill, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Belden held membership in St. John's Lodge No. 4, F. & A. M., of Hartford, and also belonged to B. H. Webb Council of the Royal Arcanum, Hartford Council of the Improved Order of Heptasophs and Sicaogg Tribe of the Improved Order of Red Men. In political circles he was long a prominent figure, his opinions carrying weight in the councils of the republican party, to the success of which he contributed by his earnest labors, prompted by a firm belief in its principles. He was elected from the third ward to the court of the common council in 1875, but while he ably discharged his duties and could have had other public positions, he would never again consent to serve in public office, content to work for his party as a private citizen. He exerted a widely felt and beneficial influence for good along many lines and contributed to the material, social and civic progress of Hartford. He passed away March 18, 1902, when he was fifty-two years of age.

HORACE JOHN WICKHAM

In the passing of Horace John Wickham on May 22, 1914, Hartford chronicled the loss of a citizen whose record was one of signal usefulness and honor to his fellowmen. In the latter years of his life he lived retired, but previously for an extended period he was associated consecutively with the Plimpton Manufacturing Company and the Wickham Manufacturing Company, which were valuable assets in the industrial and commercial development of the city and state, nor was his field of usefulness limited by the confines of Connecticut, as through his inventions of intricate labor-saving machinery he came into close association with the business development of the entire country.

Mr. Wickham was born at Glastonbury, Hartford county, April 1, 1836, and was descended from Puritan ancestry connected with the history of New England almost from the beginnings of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay and the Colony of Con- necticut. The first of this surname in the new world was Thomas Wickham, who left his native England and became a resident of Wethersfield, Connecticut, in the year 1648, and later became a first landholder in Glastonbury. The line comes down through three generations to his great-grandson, Deacon Hezekiah Wickham, who was a schoolmaster, a Revolutionary war soldier and a deacon in the parish church of Eastbury. At the Lexington Alarm he was one of the first to march to the relief of Boston and so gave aid in the struggle for Independence. His grandson, John Wickham, father of Horace J. Wickham, devoted his life to farming and passed away in 1865. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Melinda Culver, was a direct descend- ent of Edward Culver, who played a soldier's part in the Pequot war of 1637 and in King Philip's war in 1676.

When Horace J. Wickham was a youth of fourteen years the family removed from Glastonbury to Manchester, Connecticut, where he continued his education, which was confined to public school instruction. Throughout his life, however, he always found interest and inspiration in reading and study. He also carried his investigations far and wide into the realm of mechanics, and he had, too, that physical training and development which came to him through work on his father's farm. The labors of the fields, however, had no attraction for him and he was a youth of seventeen when, he became a machinist's apprentice at Bristol, Connecticut, making rapid progress in mastering the trade. When his three-year term of indenture was over he entered

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HORACE J. WICKHAM

(Photograph by Bachrach)

CLARENCE H. WICKHAM

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the employ of the Whitney Gun Works at New Haven, where his recognized ability soon caused him to be entrusted with responsible commissions by that firm. He remained with that company during the greater part of the Civil war, and his inventive genius brought about improvements in gunmaking which were of value to the country during that critical era. In 1864 he resigned a responsible position as foreman with the Whitney Company to serve as a master machinist in the United States Arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts.

However, it was through his connection with the Plimpton Manufacturing Com- pany of Hartford that Mr. Wickham rose to prominence and affluence. He became identified with that concern in 1869, at which time it was extensively engaged in manufacturing envelopes for the trade, and in 1874 this company secured the U. S. government contract for making stamped envelopes and wrappers. The company was severely taxed to hold its own against competition and manufacture at a profit until Mr. Wickham's inventive genius brought out the machinery which revolutionized the industry by enabling this company to manufacture envelopes in a much quicker, simpler, and therefore, more profitable manner. The Wickham machines reduced the cost of manufacturing envelopes from fifty cents to three and one-half cents per thousand, and Mr. Wickham then turned his attention to perfecting a'machine for making stamped wrappers, which was equally successful with his former invention. For a quarter of a century all the stamped envelopes used by the U. S. government were made by the Wickham machines and were produced at such a low cost that they yielded to the government an annual profit of five hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Wickham remained with the Plimpton Company, otherwise called the United States Envelope Works, until 1898, that corporation controlling his twenty-two patents, which were never infringed upon. Other inventions brought him twenty more patents, and thus he further contributed to business activity and development. In 1881 he became one of the organizers of the Hartford Manilla Company, of which he was elected president, while his son, Captain C. H. Wickham, became secretary and treasurer. He promoted the Hartford, Manchester & Rockville Tramway Com- pany and was its general manager, with his son as secretary and treasurer, until 1899, when both retired. In 1901 they purchased the entire plant and business of the Hartford Manilla Company, which they reorganized under the name of the Wickham Manufacturing Company and sold the same fifteen months later to Case & Marshall, Incorporated. After his retirement from active business in 1902 Mr. Wickham gave his attention to the management of his extensive invested interests until his demise.

In his political views Mr. Wickham was always a stalwart republican, and in 1883 and 1884 represented the first ward in the Hartford common council, but the extent and importance of his business affairs precluded extended active service in the field of politics. Fraternally he was a Mason, ever loyal to the teachings and pur- poses of that order. In his later years after great success had been achieved and leisure had come, he had opportunity to indulge his love of travel and, accompanied by his wife, spent much time in visiting various sections of the United States. He was a gentleman of liberal culture and broadminded ideas owing to his wide reading, his study, his experience and his travels. He early learned to place a correct valuation upon life, and opportunity was to him ever a call to action. He felt that he must use his talents wisely and well, and through his labors he builded a structure of worth to mankind, being ranked among the most notable inventors that America has produced. It was on June 26, 1857, that Mr. Wickham married Fylura Sanders, a native of Halifax, Vermont, who passed away on February 3, 1922, in her eighty-sixth year. Clarence Horace Wickham, their only child, was born in Whitneyville, Connecticut, January 12, 1860, attended the public schools of Manchester and Hartford and was graduated from the Hartford public high school. When sixteen years of age he began business with his father as timekeeper and was associated with him in his important manufacturing and industrial interests for twenty-three years or until 1902, when their industrial activities mutually and voluntarily ceased. Clarence was married June 26, 1900, to Edith Farwell McGraft, the daughter of Hon. Newcomb and Caroline (Dayton) McGraft, of Muskegon, Michigan. Mr. Wickham's home, "The Pines," at Manchester, Connecticut, is one of the most beautiful private country residential estates in this section. Mr. Wickham is a member of the Hartford Club, Get Together Club, Hart- ford Golf Club, Rotary Club, Automobile Club (past president), Republican Club (past president), Wampanoag Country Club, Yorktown Country Club of Virginia (life member), Midland Golf and Country Club, Midland, Ontario, Canada (life

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member), and of various patriotic organizations, including the Jeremiah Wadsworth Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution of which he was the second President, past Governor of Connecticut Society Founders and Patriots of America, past Presi- dent Connecticut Society Sons of the American Revolution, past President Connecticut Society Sons of the Revolution, serving two terms as presiding officer in each of these societies. He is a Mason belonging to Knight Templar, thirty-second degree, and the Mystic Shrine, holds membership in the South Congregational church, and is a repub- lican. He likewise belongs to the Connecticut Historical Society and the Municipal Art Society and has seen much of the finest art of the world in his wide travels abroad, his business successes of former years enabling him to spend much time in visits to places of historic and modern interest. He is cosmopolitan in his tastes and through his varied experiences at home and abroad has acquired liberal culture, broad vision, and a degree of geniality and good fellowship that is an asset, socially, among thous- ands of persons who call him friend in many parts of the world. He has visited not only every state in the American Union, but almost every civilized country in the two hemispheres, and some regions semi-civilized, and has been received therein with honor -all as an unprejudiced observer-and yet he remains undimmed in love and loyalty to his home, to his country, and to every one therein and elsewhere in whose thoughts he has been and is as a friend.

SCOTT HOWARD SIMON

The success achieved by Scott Howard Simon has been commensurate with his industry and ability, and as the executive head of a large productive industry he is a commanding figure in business circles of Manchester, which also numbers him among its most public-spirited citizens. Born November 8, 1879, in Youngstown, Ohio, he is a son of Frank Fusselman and Lena (Hauser) Simon. In his native city Scott H. Simon was reared and educated, graduating from the Rayen high school with the class of 1899, and his start in life was obtained as a junior clerk in the bank of the Dollar Savings & Trust Company of Youngstown. Diligent, adaptable and dependable, he was advanced through the various departments and eventually became assistant teller of the institution. His next position was with Wilkoff Brothers, large shippers of iron and steel in Youngstown, and in 1904 he severed his connections with that firm, becoming an accountant for the Carlyle Johnson Machine Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

The history of this corporation is inseparably associated with that of Moses Carlyle Johnson, who developed the friction clutch which bears his name at the works of the Pratt & Whitney Company in 1884, at which time it was applied to one of the horizontal turret lathes made by the latter firm, and this device is in use on many of their new model lathes made today. The first patent of the clutch, together with the lathe head, was assigned by Mr. Johnson to the Pratt & Whitney Company, the inventor reserving the right to start a plant of his own later. In due time he did so, using the patent of the Johnson clutch, and conducted a factory at Hartford under the style of the Helix Gear Company. This firm was short-lived, being absorbed by the Carlyle Johnson Machine Company about 1905, at which time the latter obtained control of the new clutch patent owned by the Helix Gear Company, and also of a new and better patent which embodied a type of clutch that was universally applicable to machinery of all kinds and could be used generally on a broad scale wherever transmission of power was required for light-powered drives.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 106

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859 Publication date: 1928 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Burpee, Charles W. (Charles Winslow), b. 1859
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1390