History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 17

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 17

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JOHN HENRY RORABACK

Not until 1917 was the Connecticut Light and Power Company organized under its present name, although other companies which were merged to form the new corporation had been in existence for more than four decades. Today John Henry Roraback, as chief executive of the Connecticut Light and Power Company, is head of an eighty-one million dollar corporation that is constantly expanding in the growth of its business and of its investment until it is today one of the mammoth industrial interests of the state. His training for this responsible position was in the beginning that of the farm-bred boy. He was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, April 5, 1870, a son of John C. and Maria (Hoysradt) Roraback, who were natives of the state of New York, but in 1830 removed to Massachusetts, becoming prominent residents of Sheffield and that section of the state, where the father devoted his life to agricul- tural pursuits.

The training which the son received under the parental roof was such as made him realize that industry and integrity are qualities well worth cultivating, and he also further had practical experience in the work of the fields. Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years he walked three miles to school in the winter seasons, while in the summer months he worked on the farm. In 1888 he completed a high school course at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and he never found study a hard- ship, delighting in his mental progress and using his leisure hours in considerable measure in familiarizing himself with classical writers. Following his graduation he began teaching in a district school and here he added the study of human nature to the study of books and cultivated a habit of insight into men and motives that stood him in good stead when he entered upon the practice of law. While still teaching he began reading law under the direction of his brother, Judge A. T. Roraback, a distinguished attorney of Canaan, in the fall of 1889, and in order to provide for his own support he worked in the office of the Connecticut Western News of Canaan and filled the position of principal of the Canaan high school. All this time he devoted the hours that are usually termed leisure to his law studies, and in January, 1892, was admitted to the Litchfield county bar and opened an office in Canaan. No dreary novitiate awaited him. He inade constant progress in his work as a member of the legal profession and continued actively in law practice for fifteen years, still having membership in the Litchfield County, Connecticut State and American Bar Associations.

In the meantime he was becoming more and more closely associated with business affairs in which were involved intricate and important financial problems. Something of the scope of his connection is shown in the fact that he is a director of the National Fire Insurance Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Automobile Fire Insurance Company, Automobile Casualty & Indemnity Company, and a trustee of the Hartford- Connecticut Trust Company. He is also a director of the Bristol & Plainville Electric Company, the Eastern Connecticut Power Company, the Putnam Light & Power Com- pany, the Danielson & Plainfield Gas & Electric Company, the Lyme Electric Power

JOHN HENRY RORABACK

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Company, the Connecticut Railway & Lighting Company, and of the Connecticut Light and Power Company and the Connecticut Electric Service Company he is both president and director. His association with the Connecticut Light and Power Company ranks him with the foremost representatives of electrical interests not only in Connecticut but in the east. The progress of the state along the line of electrical improvement has been rapid. The Connecticut Light and Power Company is an outstanding corporation among the three utilities whose stock is owned by the Connecticut Electric Service Company. The corporation, of which Mr. Roraback is the president, greatly expanded its interests and activities in 1926 by absorbing five utilities in Meriden, New Milford, Woodbury and Westport, and today the corporation represents a system of five generat- ing plants with an aggregate installed capacity of 161,500 horsepower and an ultimate horsepower capacity of more than 280,000. Three of the four plants in active opera- tion-Devon, Stevenson and Bull's Bridge-are on the Housatonic river in western Connecticut. The Housatonic Power Company, which was organized in 1893, after- ward merged with the United Electric Light and Water Company of Waterbury and in 1917 was merged with the Rocky River Company and Seymour Electric Light Company to form the Connecticut Light and Power Company, thus constituting an outstanding event in the history of power interests in this state. An initial step made after the consolidation was the formulation of plans for a hydro-electric plant on the Housatonic at Stevenson. A great dam was built and the work carried for- ward in the establishment of what is now the largest hydro-electric plant in Con- necticut. A necessary element in successful electric companies is building for the future, as it requires months and years of construction operations before a new station can be opened to meet an increased demand for power. In the building of the Stevenson plant the Connecticut Light and Power Company looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities and opportunities of the future. They saw that many of the great industries of New England are located in the company's territory and that more and more these mammoth industries were coming to supplant steam by electric power. Therefore, upon the completion of the Stevenson plant, the corporation began making plans for the building of another plant, this time steam- electric, at the mouth of the Housatonic. The Devon site, because of its accessibility to rail and water, was chosen, as here, too, coal in large quantities could be obtained and the projected Devon plant would require five hundred tons of coal per day and condensing water at the rate of twenty-eight thousand tons per second. Operations commenced and within five years a new eight-million-dollar steam-electric plant was completed and became a part of the system. The company is today engrossed with the subject of superpower, for some time since it became evident to all who have intimate knowledge of matters electrical that it was most unwise to have electrical plants in various small communities and that these interests should be combined for the transmission of power from central plants, with transmission towers and lines carrying the electric current into every community and bringing about an inter- connection that should power fail in any one plant, or in a number of plants, it can be supplied without loss of time from other units. More and more the industrial interests of the country are becoming electric power users and the business of the Connecticut Light and Power Company is growing by leaps and bounds. At the helm of this great enterprise, directing its activities, visioning its future, meeting every exigency and directing its steady development, stands J. Henry Roraback, justly accounted today one of the captains of industry of New England. His knowledge of corporation law stands him in good stead, enabling him to know the powers as well as the limitations put upon the company, and he is not only building wisely and well, but is building an industrial and financial superstructure that is of great and essential value to the commonwealth.

On the 29th of April, 1896, Mr. Roraback was married to Miss Mary Louise Parsons, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George L. Parsons, of Canaan, Connecticut. They have one son, Lewis Parsons, born June 28, 1899. Mr. Roraback is well known in the club circles not only of Connecticut but of New York. He belongs to the Hartford Club, to the Farmington Country Club, the Union League of New Haven, to several sportsmen's clubs, to the Union League Club of New York, and to the National Republican Club of New York. For many years he has been a prominent figure in republican circles in the east, and since 1912 has served continuously as chairman of the republican state central committee, and since 1920 as a member of the republican national committee from Connecticut, exercising a notably strong influence over the

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political situation in his state, his interest in the vital questions and issues of the day dating from early manhood. He has ever kept in touch with the trend of thought and progress and his labors in that connection are far-reaching. In a review of his career one is reminded of the saying of a New England statesman that "an institution is but the lengthened shadow of a man," and truly the great Connecticut Light and Power Company has become the visible expression of the mental endowment and the developed talents of J. Henry Roraback.

GENERAL GEORGE MALPAS COLE

For fifty-three years General George Malpas Cole has rendered military service to his country and his name is widely known in this connection throughout the length and breadth of the land, and Hartford honors him because of the splendid record he has made. Although an adopted son of the nation, no one born on American soil has been more loyal to the interests of the country than he. He was born in Portsmouth, England, August 20, 1853, his parents being George and Jane A. (Malpas) Cole, who crossed the Atlantic to the new world during his childhood, the family home being established in Massachusetts, where his father followed the profession of civil engineering.

Educated in public and private schools and tutored by his father, General Cole pursued his education, and afterward became an assistant to his father, but later changed the line of his work by becoming associated with a wholesale flour and grain business in New London, Connecticut.

In 1875 he enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard. He became a member of the Indiana National Guard in 1882 and of the Connecticut National Guard on the 10th of November, 1884, after returning to Connecticut, where he has since resided, and throughout the intervening period he has been continuously associated with the military affairs of this state and the nation. The same year which witnessed his return to the state of Connecticut also chronicled his enlistment as a private in the Machine Gun Platoon of the Third Infantry, Connecticut National Guard. He became a sergeant on the 29th of April, 1885, and commissary sergeant of the Third Infantry on the 6th of August, 1886. He was made first lieutenant, paymaster, January 7, 1887, and was promoted to the rank of captain, in comniand of Company I, Third Infantry, Con- necticut National Guard, May 8, 1888, resigning that commission January 20, 1891. Again he became identified with the Third Infantry when made Captain and Adjutant of the Third Infantry on the 15th of August, 1891, and on the 30th of May, 1892, he became Lieutenant Colonel and Brigade Adjutant. He was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Third Infantry, August 25, 1893, and placed on the retired list June 21, 1898, to enable him to continue his service in Connecticut during his absence in the Federal service, Spanish-American war. He became Adjutant General of the State of Connecticut on January 9, 1901, by appointment of Governor (now U. S. Senator from Connecticut) George P. McLean, which office he has continuously held to the present time, having done most efficient work in organizing and developing the military forces of the state. His military record in the Federal service covers his service with the Fourth United States Volunteer Infantry, of which he became Lieutenant Colonel in May, 1898, holding that rank until June 8, 1899 (muster out of regiment) during which time he served in Cuba. He again entered the Federal service for duty on the Mexican Border in 1916 and in the World war on the 24th of May, 1917, remaining until May 9, 1919, as Disbursing Officer and Agent of the United States, also doing duty in the selective service administration.

In early manhood General Cole was married to Miss Emily Judson Beckwith, a daughter of Ezra S. and Charlotte (Latimer) Beckwith of New London, Connecticut, and a representative of one of the old families of the state. The wedding was cele- brated in November, 1877, and they have had born to them four children; Clara Belle Malpas; Lieutenant Colonel George Ezra of the Connecticut National Guard; Major Donald Malpas of the U. S. Army; and Emily Beckwith Cole.

Fraternally General Cole is a member of Brainard Lodge, No. 102, A. F. & A. M., and also of The Sojourners' Club, Hartford Chapter, 356, and Hartford Chapter No. 256 of the Heroes of '76. These last two are Masonic Orders to which only those who have been army officers can belong. Naturally General Cole is identified with various

(Photograph by Bachrach)

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military organizations of a social and fraternal nature. He is a companion and a former commander of the Connecticut Commandery of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. He is a companion, and for a number of years was Commander of the Con- necticut Commandery of the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American War, and was the organizer and Commander of the first Camp of United Spanish War Veterans in Connecticut, also the first Department Commander U. S. W. V. in Con- necticut. He is a companion of the Military Order of World War; a member of Lieutenant Caldwell Colt Robinson Post No. 254; Veterans of Foreign Wars; Rau- Locke Post No. 8, American Legion, and a member of the Army and Navy Club of Washington, D. C.

His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he always keeps in touch with those questions which have to do with the welfare and progress of the com- munity, state and nation. His life work, however, has been the rendering of valuable service to his country along military lines and the splendid organization of the military forces of Connecticut reflects his ability; his discipline and the loyalty of the troops that serve under him.

CHARLES LANCASTER CAMPBELL

Since 1917 Charles Lancaster Campbell has been secretary and treasurer of the Connecticut Light and Power Company. Almost throughout his entire career he has been identified with public utility interests and with activities in the field of street railway service, and his labors have thus closely touched the interests and develop- ment of the state. He has shown sound judgment and keen discrimination in formu- lating plans and carrying them forward to successful conclusion, and today his labors are a most vital element in the history of business progress in Connecticut. Born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, July 11, 1877, he is a son of Charles and Eliza- beth (Partelow) Campbell, and while spending his youthful days under the parental roof he pursued his education in the public schools of his native country and on leaving high school began working as an office boy in a mercantile establishment of his native city. Laudable ambition has prompted him at every point in his career and, moreover, he early realized the fact that there is no royal road to wealth but that industry and perseverance constitute the path of progress. Accordingly in all of his employment he applied himself diligently to the tasks assigned him and thus won his promotions. His second position was in the accounting department of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company at St. John and in 1901 he crossed the border to become a resident of the United States, settling at Putnam, Connecticut, where he acted as accountant for the New York firm of Sanderson & Porter, leading con- tractors, who at that time were building a trolley system in the eastern part of the state. Mr. Campbell remained with that company until 1904, when he accepted the position of auditor of The Consolidated Railway Company, which was a subsidiary of The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, and in the discharge of his duties removed to New Haven, where he continued active in that service until 1911. In the latter year he went to Dayton, Ohio, as treasurer of the Dayton Power & Light Company and so continued until 1912, when in Waterbury, Connecticut, he became secretary and treasurer of The United Electric Light & Water Company, filling that office until 1917, when the company was consolidated with The Connecticut Light and Power Company and he was elected secretary and treasurer of the latter corporation. Those who know aught of the development of electrical interests in Connecticut are familiar with what has been accomplished by this corporation. The plant investment alone is well over forty-five million dollars, representing a system of five generating plants with an aggregate installed capacity of 161,500 horsepower and an ultimate horsepower capacity of over 280,000. Three of the four plants in active operation are situated on the Housatonic river in western Connecticut, between Litchfield county and Long Island Sound, these being the plants at Stevenson, Devon and Bull's Bridge. The Connecticut Light and Power Company is building a super- power system for Connecticut industry, building up a gigantic organization which is doing away with the little electric light and power plants formerly established at various points in the state and promoting the great central systems, whereby power is furnished through direct and connecting lines to all parts of a large territory that

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serves some of the most important industrial and manufacturing interests of the state as well as furnishing electricity for lighting purposes. Mr. Campbell is not only secretary and treasurer of The Connecticut Light and Power Company but also of The Eastern Connecticut Power Company, which represents a plant investment of ten million, eight hundred and ninety-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one dollars, and The Bristol and Plainville Electric Company with a plant investment of three million, five hundred and twenty-five thousand, eight hundred and seventy- three dollars. With the development of their gigantic system power can be trans- ferred through interconnecting lines from one to the other and, moreover, The Connecticut Light and Power Company has a working agreement with The Hartford Electric Light Company whereby either utility may call upon the other for large blocks of power at short notice. In an article which appeared in The Financial Digest of January, 1927, concerning the superpower development of The Connecticut Light and Power Company and the other corporations whose stock is handled by the Connecticut Electric Service Company it was stated: "This matter of super- power is not one of convenience, it is one of urgent necessity to successful electric utility operation. Quite obviously it permits the generation of large quantities of power where it can be manufactured most cheaply and its transmission to other points, which may lie at a considerable distance, where it can find a market. Time was when manufacturers went to the sources of power for plant sites. Today electric utilities convey power to the manufacturers wherever they may be. And by no other means than superpower can the consumer be guaranteed a continuous supply with no possibility of interruption, unless a staggering amount of capital be sunk in equipment which must be idle three hundred and sixty days out of the year. * * * Reliability of service has become something of a religion to the utility operator. Unless this were true it would be impossible to include large industrial consumers among a public service station's customers. An interruption in service might easily cost a manufacturer many thousands of dollars; his workmen could be forced to lay down their tools, expensive equipment would cease to function, production would cease. This must never occur and under such conditions as Connecticut Light and Power have brought about it cannot occur." Active in formulating the policy of this great corporation, Mr. Campbell has been a large contributing factor to the industrial development of Connecticut. Moreover he is a director of The City Bank and Trust Company of Hartford, Connecticut, of the State Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the New England Council.

On the 24th of June, 1905, Mr. Campbell was married to Miss Ruth Miller, a daughter of Mayhew and Elizabeth (Shumway) Miller, of Baltimore, Maryland, the mother being a sister of Judge Milton A. Shumway, who was a justice of the supreme court of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have made their home in Hartford since 1927 and are here most pleasantly situated with their two children: James Gardner, born November 2, 1908; and Ruth Elizabeth, born May 13, 1910. In the social circles of the city they are accorded prominent place and Mr. Campbell is also well known as a clubman, having membership in the Hartford Club, and the Hartford Golf Club, the Waterbury Club and Waterbury Country Club. His political endorsement is given the republican party but he has neither time nor inclination for office, his hours being filled with business cares and responsibilities of great volume. He is known throughout the state by reason of his important service in rail- way and public utility circles and the worth of his work cannot be overestimated.

SAMUEL M. STONE

In the prime of life, Samuel M. Stone occupies a commanding position in manu- facturing circles. He had filled only two positions previous to the time when in 1905 he became connected with Colt's Patent Fire Arms Company, but those two con- stituted "stepping-stones to higher things," being in the same line in which his later labors were cast. The steps in his orderly progression are easily discernible and his advancement has been the logical outcome of effort intelligently directed. Back of everything that he has undertaken there has been strong and consistent reason for his action, and thus victory after victory has been achieved, and as president of his corporation Mr. Stone is known as one of the foremost manufacturing executives of

SAMUEL M. STONE

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Connecticut. He was born in Urbana, Ohio, February 19, 1869, and is the eldest son of John H. P. and Sarah (MacDonald) Stone. He traces his ancestry back through several generations to Jacob Stone, who was a native of Pennsylvania and removed to what is now Clarke county, Virginia, where he followed farming and held extensive land interests. The stone house which he erected upon his farm was still in good condition when more than a hundred years old. He was an earnest member of the Lutheran church, gave liberally to its support and donated land on which a church edifice was erected. The original structure was replaced by a frame building and later a brick church, and all three were known as "Stone's Chapel." Jacob Stone married Mrs. Barbara Slagle, a widow, and both died at the age of seventy-five years and were buried at Stone's Chapel. Their son, Ferdinand Stone, born in Clarke county, Virginia, became a miller and in 1847 removed to Champaign county, Ohio, where he engaged in the milling business throughout his remaining days. He married Mary Pidgeon, a native of Lynchburg, Virginia. She was a Presbyterian, while Ferdinand Stone held to the Lutheran faith. Their youngest child, John Hammar Pidgeon Stone, was born in Clarke county, Virginia, March 30, 1829, and was educated in Benjamin Hallowell's Friends School at Alexandria, Virginia. When quite young he began clerking at Wadesville, Virginia, and later was employed by the Armstrong- Cator Company, wholesale milliners of Baltimore. About 1858 he became an employe in the store of Flavius Pidgeon, of Vincennes, Indiana, and was afterward employed by Henry Weaver, a dry goods merchant of Urbana, Ohio, and later by Rock, Colwell & Ellis of that place. In 1882 he became assistant cashier of the Citizens National Bank of Urbana and was identified with that institution until he retired from active business in 1909. He died February 23, 1925. He was married February 10, 1864, in Urbana, to Sarah MacDonald, who was there born August 29, 1840, a daughter of Colin and Nancy (Mccullough) MacDonald, the former a descendant of Archibald MacDonald, who was born at Glencoe, Scotland, October 11, 1759, and died near Urbana, Ohio, September 11, 1840. He came to America in 1773 and soon after- ward enlisted in Captain Tibbot's company under Colonel William Irwin of the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion. On the 9th of July, 1776, he married Margaret MacDonald, and their son, Colin MacDonald, was born in Ross county, Ohio, in 1808, became a dry goods merchant and farmer and died in 1882. A half century before he had married Nancy McCullough, who was born in Zanesfield, Logan county, Ohio, January 24, 1814, and died at Urbana in May, 1890. The second of their children was Sarah, who became Mrs. John H. P. Stone, and by her marriage had the following children: Mary Louise, born December 24, 1864; Nancy MacDonald, born October 13, 1866; Samuel M., of this review; and Joseph E., born December 20, 1874.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 17

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