History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 112

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 112

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Thomas Freeman Gross, son of Thomas and Huldah Gross, was born in Hartford, November 30, 1772. He married Lydia Mason, daughter of John Mason. Their son, Mason Gross, was born in Litchfield in 1809 and when seventeen years of age became a resident of Hartford, where he established a profitable business as a wool merchant. He served as captain of the Light Infantry Company of Hartford for several years and was prominent in the public life of the community. In 1832 he married Cornelia Barnard, daughter of John and Sallie (Robbins) Barnard, of Hartford, and a grand- daughter of Captain John Barnard, who served in the early French wars and also in the struggle for independence and afterward became one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Charles Edward Gross, the youngest child of Mason and Cornelia Gross, attended

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the public schools of Hartford and then became a student at Yale, from which he was graduated in 1869. During his college days he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of Alpha Delta Phi. He devoted a year to teaching in Hall's School in Ellington, Connecticut, and in 1870 became a law student under Hon. Charles J. Hoadley, state librarian, while later he studied in the office of Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde, with whom he continued as a law clerk for four years after his admission to the Hartford county bar in September, 1872. In January, 1877, he was admitted to partnership and in 1881, following the death of Judge Loren P. Waldo, the firm name of Hubbard, Hyde & Gross was adopted. This was changed to Hyde, Gross & Hyde following the demise of Governor Richard D. Hubbard in 1884, and with the death of Hon. Alvan P. Hyde the firm name became Gross, Hyde & Shipman and later Gross, Gross & Hyde and so continued while Mr. Gross remained the head of the firm, in the meantime his son, Charles Welles Gross, and Alvan Waldo Hyde being admitted to the partnership.

There was no phase of law with which Charles E. Gross was not thoroughly familiar, although he gave special attention to corporation and insurance law, con- cerning which he was long regarded as an authority. His knowledge was compre- hensive and exact and his opinions regarding any legal question were largely accepted as authority. His mental alertness, his broad vision and the readiness with which he discriminated between the essential and the non-essential made him a valuable factor in business affairs and various corporations profited by his cooperation. He acted as counsel in the reorganization of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany in 1889, which was the first case of the mutualization of a stock life insurance company, and he remained its counsel and director until his death. For over thirty years and until his death he was a director and counsel of the Aetna Insurance Com- pany. For a time he was a director of the New York & New England Railroad Com- pany and of the Connecticut River Railroad Company. For many years he was president of the Society for Savings in Hartford, the largest mutual savings bank in the state, then having assets of over forty-two million dollars. From 1898 to 1922 he was president of the Holyoke Water Power Company, furnishing the water power used at Holyoke, Massachusetts. He also was for some time a member of the board of directors of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in the capacity of attorney for Mrs. Samuel Colt, and a director of various manufacturing organiza- tions. No company with which he was associated failed to profit by the connection, for his opinions were at all times sound and his progressive spirit led to steady advancement productive of splendid results.

Extensive and important as were his professional and business connections, Mr. Gross by no means limited his efforts to these. The interests of his life were well balanced. He sought the public welfare in many ways and gave his cooperation to plans and measures of great and far-reaching good. At the meeting of the Hartford County Bar held in his memory it was said: "If one were called upon to state Mr. Gross' main purpose in life as he lived it, it was undoubtedly to serve his fellowmen."

Brought up in the Baptist church, as a young man he united with the Pearl Street Congregational church, and in 1879 he became a member of the Asylum Hill Congregational church, of which he was an earnest supporter and constant attendant until his death. He never ceased to feel an interest in artistic pursuits. He was for many years vice president and then president for five years prior to his death of the Wadsworth Athenaeum that had charge of the beautiful Morgan Memorial erected by J. Pierpont Morgan in honor of his father. In 1917 Mr. Gross became the successor of the late Dr. Samuel Hart, of Middletown, as president of the Connecticut Historical Society and his service in that connection was highly commended by his associates. He filled the office of president of the Yale Alumni Association of Hart- ford and was identified with various patriotic organizations, including the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was president at his death, the Connecticut Society of Mayflower Descendants and the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, of both of which he had been governor. His colleagues in the Hartford Bar Associa- tion honored him with the vice presidency and the presidency, his election to the latter office occurring in March, 1917. He had a large part in the reorganization of the park board of Hartford in 1895 and for eighteen years he served on that com- mission and was twice president thereof. He aided in organizing the Hartford Board of Trade and from the beginning served as a director, while for several years he was its president. Mr. Gross studied closely and deeply the questions of vital importance to the welfare of the community and the state and in 1885 was made

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secretary of the committee of twenty appointed to awaken public interest to the importance of action on liquor licenses. and other public problems. He worked dili- gently and effectively in that connection, his labors greatly benefiting the state. In 1891 he became a member of a committee of five appointed by Hartford on outdoor alms, of which Professor John J. McCook was the chairman. Again his labors were of signal usefulness and benefit. The committee's investigation showed that the United States expended more per capita in outdoor alms-giving than any other nation, that Connecticut led all the other states and that Hartford led in Connecticut. His legal knowledge, combined with his public spirit, made Mr. Gross' efforts of the greatest value in this field and the report of the McCook committee produced a sensation in Hartford that resulted in the abatement of various abuses. This report became a standard textbook on charity work in various colleges. No plan or project for the public good during all the years of his active life sought his aid or coopera- tion in vain. In 1895 he secured the passage of the first medical practice act by the general assembly of Connecticut and for this service he declined to accept any fee. For this service he was given the unique distinction of honorary membership in the Connecticut Medical Society, which also adopted the following resolution: "In recognition of the distinguished service rendered to the people of Connecticut by Charles E. Gross, Esq., in connection with the recent passage of the Medical Practice Bill by the legislature, and in view of the fact that this service has included many scores of conferences with the members of the committee which represented this society in securing such legislation; the drafting of the bill and subsequent modifica- tions of it; the presentation of the most cogent of arguments in favor of its enact- ment; which latter has covered some years and all of which has been done without compensation, and often with great personal inconvenience and sacrifice of business interests, and with such devotion to the welfare of all concerned as to render it almost if not quite unique in character; therefore, 'Resolved, That the Connecticut Medical Society hereby expresses its high appreciation of these services of Mr. Gross, and begs to extend to him in behalf of its members and its constituency its thanks and congratulations, that this resolution be spread upon the records of the society, and that a copy be suitably engrossed for presentation to him.'"

Mr. Gross was most happy in his home life. On the 5th of October, 1875, he married Miss Ellen Clarissa Spencer, of Hartford, who survives him, a daughter of Calvin and Clarissa M. (Root) Spencer. Their family numbered two sons and a daughter: Charles Welles, mentioned elsewhere in this work; William Spencer, who died in infancy; and Helen Clarissa, now Mrs. Woods Chandler of Simsbury. The interest of Mr. Gross centered in his own household and he found his greatest happi- ness in the companionship of his wife, children and grandchildren. His activities, however, reached out to all mankind in his efforts to make the world a better place in which to live, to correct its evils and to promote all ennobling and uplifhting in- fluences. Because his activity was based upon broad vision and sound common sense he achieved notable results, and long years will have passed ere his work and his influence cease to be factors for good in the world. As was said at the meeting of the bar after his death: "He lived and served the full measure of his years. He died full of wisdom. He had a happy and a rich life. He has left to us the example of a purposeful and honorable career. He died as he lived, a man without fear and without reproach."

JOHN H. ROSER

Alert, energetic and well poised, John H. Roser is a typical business man of the present age and successfully manages a large industry conducted by members of the family in Glastonbury for more than four decades. He was born here on the 15th of May, 1889, and is a son of Ilerman Roser, who has long been classed with Glas- tonbury's foremost business men. The father was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1859. He worked at the tanner's trade in different European countries until 1884, when he yielded to the lure of the new world, locating in Glastonbury. He purchased the business of Isaac Broadhead and has since engaged in the manufacture of pigskin leather. From time to time additions have been made to the plant, which is modern to the ultimate degree, and the business is now ten times greater than when it was

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started in 1886. Mr. Roser has fostered the growth of the business by tireless effort, close attention to detail and the maintenance of a high standard of production. He now has the largest industry of the kind in the country and sells the output of his tannery direct to the trade. The business was incorporated in 1918 at which time he was elected president, and still fills that office. John H. Roser was made vice president and treasurer and Martin L. Roser, another son, became assistant secretary, assistant treasurer and superintendent. The father is an influential member of the Chamber of Commerce and was superintendent of Glastonbury Park for a number of years. In politics he is a republican and his religious views are in accord with the tenets of the First Church of Christ, Congregational.

Mr. Roser's first wife, Maria Louise (Veil) Roser, died in 1899, leaving three children: John H., Lydia S. and Martin L. The daughter was born in Glastonbury, July 17, 1891, and attended its public schools. She continued her studies in Germany and Switzerland and resides at home. Martin L. Roser was born September 11, 1893, in Glastonbury and attended school in Germany from 1905 until 1911. In 1912 he completed a course in the Morse Business College of Hartford and then matriculated in the Connecticut Agricultural College, from which he was graduated in 1915. He engaged in farming until 1918, when he responded to the call to arms, and in March of that year was assigned to duty with Machine Gun Battalion No. 320, attached to the Eighty-second Division. With that outfit he went overseas in April, 1918, and was sent to the Somme front. For a time he was stationed in the Toul sector and afterward participated in the Meuse-Argonne and St. Mihiel offensives. In May, 1919, he was honorably discharged, at which time he was sergeant of his company, and has since been with his father in business. At one time he was commander of Leon Goodale Post, No. 56, of the American Legion and is now one of its directors. He is secretary of the Green Cemetery Association and secretary-treasurer of the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree, is master of Daskam Lodge, No. 86, F. & A. M., of Glastonbury, and is a noble of Sphinx Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Hartford. He also belongs to the Grange. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and his religious belief is indicated by his affiliation with the First Church of Christ. On July 17, 1927, he married Miss E. Helen Owen, a daughter of E. T. Owen, of Buffalo, New York. Mrs. Roser was graduated from one of the high schools of that city and also from the Rochester (N. Y.) School of Dental Hygiene, afterward becoming supervisor of dental hygiene for the schools of Watertown, New York.

In 1900 Herman Roser married Miss Maria Heim, by whom he has two children, Conrad H. and Helen M. The son was born in Glastonbury in 1901 and received the degree of Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Agricultural College, be- coming a member of the Students Army Training Corps while attending that insti- tution. He is now a landscape engineer at High Point, North Carolina, and follows his profession in partnership with C. G. McIntosh. The daughter was born January 6, 1903, and supplemented her public school education by attendance at Abbott Academy, afterward receiving the B. S. degree from Mount Holyoke College. She was gradu- ated from the nurses training school of the Presbyterian Hospital of New York city and has remained with that institution, which numbers her among its most capable nurses.

John H. Roser received his early instruction in Glastonbury and attended boarding and trade schools of Germany and England. His relatives own some of the largest tanneries in Germany and since the sixteenth century members of the family have been leaders in this industry, with which his father was identified for ten years in Germany, becoming an American citizen in 1890. Since 1908 John H. Roser has been associated with his father in the business, of which he is now general manager, and also fills the office of vice president. His salient traits as an executive are initia- tive, decisiveness, forcefulness and keen powers of discernment and his labors have been manifestly resultant. His identification with the business covers a period of twenty years and he is also a director of the Glastonbury Bank.

In 1926 Mr. Roser married Miss Gertrude Bogardus, a native of Hartford, Con- necticut, and they now have a daughter, Nancy, who was born in 1927. Mrs. Roser filled an important position with the Fuller, Richter, Aldrich Company, brokers of Hartford, before her marriage. Her ancestors were among the early Dutch settlers in the Hudson valley, locating near Catskill in the seventeenth century.

Mr. Roser is affiliated with the First Church of Christ, Congregational, and gives

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his political support to the republican party. He is ably discharging the duties of justice of the peace and manifests a deep and helpful interest in civic affairs. He was a member of the Home Guard during its existence and during the World war was in the service of his country, being stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. In the activities of the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce he takes a prominent part and was formerly its president. He belongs to the Daskam Lodge of Masons and is also a member of the Manchester Country Club. A young man of fine mental and moral attributes, Mr. Roser is esteemed and respected by all who know him, and his record sustains the high reputation which has ever been borne by the family.

GEORGE HILLS GILMAN

Possessing all of the qualities requisite for a successful lawyer, George Hills Gil- inan established his position among the leading attorneys of Hartford, faithfully and efficiently fulfilling the many trusts reposed in him over a period of nearly forty years. In political and civic affairs he also figured conspicuously and at all times manifested an unselfish devotion to the general good. A native of Hartford, he was born October 13, 1866, the only son of Judge George Shepard and Ellen (Hills) Gil- man. His public school education was acquired in Hartford where he graduated from the Hartford Public High School in 1885 and in 1890 he was graduated from Yale University, with the degree of B. A.

Soon afterward he entered the law office of Major E. Henry Hyde and Colonel Charles M. Joslyn, and in 1893 was admitted to a partnership in the firm, which then became Hyde, Joslyn & Gilman. In 1897 Judge Frank L. Hungerford of New Britain entered the firm and the name was changed to Hungerford, Hyde, Joslyn & Gilman. Later the firm became Hyde, Joslyn, Gilman & Hungerford, with Major Hyde, Colonel Joslyn, Mr. Gilman and William C. Hungerford as partners. In 1920 Mr. Hungerford withdrew from the firm and Albert J. Marks was admitted as a partner, at which time the name of the firm was changed to Hyde, Joslyn, Gilman & Marks. In 1921 Mr. Gilman, Judge Joseph P. Tuttle, Albert J. Marks and Henry J. Marks formed the law firm of Tuttle, Gilman & Marks which after the death of Judge Tuttle became Gilman & Marks.

Mr. Gilman had given much of his attention to that branch of the law pertaining to land titles and property ownership. In his profession his quickness and accuracy, love of system and method, led him into research work which eventually brought his firm into prominence, winning for it the name of one of the best equipped and most reliable firms in real estate law in the state of Connecticut.

Mr. Gilman was one of the local leaders of his political party and for many years was a member of the Hartford town committee and chairman of the sixth ward republican committee. During 1894-95 he was councilman from the sixth ward and in June, 1900, was made clerk of the South School District, acting in that capacity for a period of twenty-eight years.

Mr. Gilman was always very much interested in horses and his fondness for them afforded him his happiest hours of recreation. In the days of driving he was never without a fine trotting horse, for his own use and after the passing of the driving horse he turned his attention to riding, which interest he always maintained.

He was a member of the Hartford, Farmington and Wampanoag Golf Clubs, the Dauntless Club of Essex, the Hartford Club, the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and the Hartford County and Connecticut State Bar Associations. A man of strict integrity and pronounced ability, Mr. Gilman upheld the high standards of his profession, and his life in its various phases stood the test of intimate knowledge and close association. Genial, companionable and kindhearted, he won friends readily. His death was mourned throughout the City in which his life was spent and to which he was so deeply attached.

The following tribute to his worth was paid by the directors of the Hartford Electric Light Company: "George Hills Gilman was our auditor continuously from February 12, 1895, to the day of his death. Thirty-three years of continuous service to us, not only as auditor, but by his advice and counsel in all matters pertaining to the company. His cheerful disposition and ever thoughtful kindness made him well known and beloved by all who came in contact with him. His forceful character, decided views and opinions, combined with his pleasant disposition, made him one

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of the leading men in public life in his native city, to which he gave freely and gen- erously of his time and talent. His untimely death at the age of sixty-one terminates a life full of action and service to others and deprives the company of an officer of great value. His memory will remain an inspiration for the highest standard of living with those who lived, worked or played with him."

Mr. Gilman was married April 20, 1898, to Miss Mabel Edith Goodrich, the only daughter of Senator Elizur Stillman and Mary (Hamner) Goodrich, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, who survives him. Their son, George Hills, Jr., who graduated from the Taft School in 1925, is a member of the class of 1929 of Yale University. Mr. Gilman died on May 17, 1928, aged sixty-one years.

WILLIAM ELIPHALET ADAMS BULKELEY

Connecticut has long been a national center of insurance activity and into this field of labor have come some of the strongest and most capable business men of the state. An outstanding figure in the fields of both insurance and finance is William Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, who since 1890 has been continuously associated with the Aetna Life Insurance Company, of which he is now vice president. The story of his rise is not spectacular but indicates the force of determined purpose and indom- itable energy intelligently directed. A native son of Hartford, he was born February 19, 1868, his parents being William H. and Emily (Gurney) Bulkeley, who are men- tioned elsewhere in this work. At the usual age he became a public school pupil in Hartford and following the completion of his high school course entered Trinity College, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1890. Only a brief vacation period was accorded him, for in the following October he en- tered the employ of the Aetna Life Insurance Company and was assigned to duty in the bond and mortgage department, with which he continued for five years, handling western farm loans. The thoroughness with which he mastered every task and performed every duty led to his steady advancement. He was made assistant cashier and afterward cashier of the corporation and in 1902, following the death of his father, was elected as his successor to the directorate and also made auditor of the company. When the Aetna Casualty and Surety Company and the Aetna Automobile Insurance Company, subsidiary concerns, were organized, Mr. Bulkeley also became a director and auditor of each. About 1894 he was elected a trustee of the Hartford Trust Company, and subsequently became a director of the United States Bank and also of the American National Bank and for a short time was a director of the Phoenix National Bank, when the American merged with it, subsequently resigning. Later Mr. Bulkeley was elected a director of the old Hartford National Bank and of the Hartford-Aetna National Bank, when the Hartford and the Aetna consolidated. He continued as a director of these several banking institutions until a new banking regulation of the treasury department became effective, barring service as a director or trustee, at the same time, on the boards of competing banking institutions, where- upon Mr. Bulkeley resigned as trustee of the Hartford Trust Company. Some years later, when the United States Bank, the Security Trust Company and the Fidelity Trust Companies merged, forming the United States Security Trust Company, an in- stitution of such financial strength that it became a competing bank with the Hart- ford-Aetna, Mr. Bulkeley was again obliged to select the banking association he would remain with and continued on the United States Security Trust Company's board. In 1927 a consolidation was effected of these two strong institutions, the Hartford- Aetna National Bank and United States Security Trust Company under the name of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, and Mr. Bulkeley continued as a director on this board. So, through all his life time he has been closely associated with banking, having served in all on the boards of eight commercial banking institu- tions and on that of the Mechanics Savings Bank. He is likewise a director of the Kellogg & Bulkeley Company, owners of a large lithographing plant in this city. He is a director of the Rourke-Eno Paper Company and a trustee of the Cedar Hill Cemetery Association. Throughout his business career he has shown marked execu- tive ability, his plans being carefully formulated, while he never stops short of the successful accomplishment of his purposes, and at all times his activities have meas- ured up to the highest business ethics.

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On the 14th of January, 1911, Mr. Bulkeley married Miss Alys M. Harper, a native of Chicago, in which city her father, Robert C. Harper, conducted an extensive business as a quarryman and dealer in stone. It was from his quarries at Montello, Wisconsin, that the stone was taken for the massive mausoleums of General and Mrs. U. S. Grant on Riverside drive in New York city.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 112

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