History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 28

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 28

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LUCIEN FRANCIS BURPEE

Patriotically a soldier by instinct and inheritance, Lucien Francis Burpee was a jurist by education and training. He was of the seventh generation from Thomas Burpee who came to this country from England. His father was Colonel Thomas Francis Burpee of Rockville, a woolen manufacturer who had held office in the old state militia and who raised one of the first companies in response to Lincoln's call for troops in 1861. The company was turned back because the quota was full, and the then Captain Burpee raised another which went out with the Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteers. On Governor Buckingham's request he accepted appointment as lieuten- ant colonel in the Twenty-first, in which the govenor was taking a special interest, and for most of his period of service acted as colonel, his commission as such reaching him just before his death. He was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, June 9, 1864. Govenor Buckingham wrote his epitaph: "In the hour of national peril he gave his life to his country, leaving this testimony: that he was a pure patriot, a faithful soldier and a sincere Christian." Colonel Burpee's wife was Adeline M. Harwood of Rock- ville, also a descendant from an old colonial family, tracing her ancestry back to the Harewoods and Lascelles of England.

From this union there were two sons, Lucien Francis and Charles Winslow. The elder was born in Rockville, October 12, 1855. Though the burden of family main- tenance fell partly upon him and he was handicapped by near-sightedness, he went to Yale after graduating at the local high school and won honors in the class of 1879. In addition to acquiring a Phi Beta Kappa stand, he was an editor of the Yale Record and of the Yale Literary Magazine and a member of Skull and Bones. Hamil- ton College gave him the degree of LL. B. After a further course at the Yale Law School he began practice in Waterbury with former Congressman S. W. Kellogg and was his partner till his corporation practice had increased to such an extent that he established his own office. He served as prosecuting attorney, corporation counsel and for several years as judge of the City Court. In 1909 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court and was promoted to the Supreme Court bench in 1921, where he continued till his death May 9, 1924. He removed to Hartford in 1915 and occupied

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the Francis Gillette house on Forest street till shortly before his death when he made his residence on Steele road.

He enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 1874. After absence from his college courses he became a lieutenant in Company A of the Second Regiment, Water- bury, and went through the grades to colonelcy, commission for which he held till retirement in 1899. For the Spanish war he recruited his regiment to the required maximum and offered it to Governor Cooke. The regiment not being called upon for service, he accepted appointment as lieutenant colonel in the United States Volunteer Army and served as judge-advocate on the staff of General Miles through the Porto Rico campaign and later with General James H. Wilson. He received honorable men- tion "for distinguished service" and the medal awarded by Congress for foreign service.

When in March, 1917, the Legislature created the Military Emergency Board to establish and maintain an armed force for the protection of Connecticut's great muni- tion plants and other property, Governor Holcomb appointed Colonel Burpee president of the board with B. M. Holden and Major J. Moss Ives the other two members. What the Connecticut State Guard thus established became, with its six large regiments, uniformed, armed and well drilled, and how Connecticut led her sister states is a matter of general history, for which Governor Holcomb gives General Burpee the credit, and the general gave it to Governor Holcomb and the spirit of the officers and men. At the same time he was a member of the Council of Defense and was called upon by the government to act in special capacity to supervise the secret service work within the state. It was upon the war department's suggestion that he accepted the appoint- ment of major-general, as befitting the strength and government-recognized worth of the Connecticut forces. Meantime he was continuing his duties on the bench. The long hours of work, and without vacation, were largely the cause of his death, for he had been a man of exceptionally strong physique.

Governor Holcomb said of him: "The people of the state may never fully realize the extent of their obligation to General Burpee, and it is certain the state never can repay the debt it owes him."

He was a member of the Sons of Veterans (commander of the Connecticut Division 1885-87); of the Society of the Loyal Legion of the United States; of the Society of Foreign Wars; of the Military Order of the United Spanish War Veterans (junior vice-commander in 1891); Society of the Porto Rican Expedition; Naval and Military Order of the Spanish War (commander of Connecticut Commandery in 1910), and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He belonged to military clubs in New York and to social clubs in Waterbury, New Haven and Hartford.

His first wife whom he married in 1882 and who was the mother of his children, was Lida Wood of Cornwall, New York, daughter of Stephen W. and Catherine C. B. Wood, of colonial descent. She died in 1889. In 1904 he married Irene A. Fitch, of Canaan, daughter of Martin P. and Exene (Tobey) Fitch, a descendant of Roger de Knapp, knighted by Henry VIII in 1540. His children are Lida of New Canaan who married John S. Ellsworth of Simsbury; Helen, wife of the late Dr. Walter M. Silleck of New York, and Thomas Francis of Newark, New Jersey, who married Edith A. Roberts of New Rochelle, New York.

EDWARD JAMES DALY

Since 1922 Edward James Daly has practiced at the Hartford bar as a member of the firm of Forward & Daly, although his association with the senior partner in law work dates from 1915, or the year in which he was admitted to the bar. He was born in Hartford, March 29, 1892, and is a son of James R. and Catharine (Deegan) Daly, of this city. At the usual age he became a public school pupil, mastered the three R's and the usual branches of learning which constitute the public and high school curriculum and then became a student in Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, which conferred upon him the LL.B. degree at his graduation with the class of 1914. In January of the following year he was admitted to the bar and his early professional experience came to him through work in the law office of John F. For- ward, whose recognition of the ability, commendable ambition, diligence and enter- prise of the young man led to his admission to a partnership relation in 1922 under

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the present firm style of Forward & Daly. More and more largely, as the years have advanced and his experience has increased, he has contributed to the success of the firm, which now enjoys a large clientele of a distinctively representative character whereby Mr. Daly has been connected with much notable work in the courts and out of them as an advocate and counselor. He filled the position of assistant United States district attorney in 1920 and 1921, which has been his only public office, as he has preferred to concentrate his energies upon his professional duties and his work as the secretary of the Lakeland Company of Hartford and as a director of Pierce, Incorporated, also of this city.

Mr. Daly enlisted in 1917 in the aviation section of the Signal Corps, became a second lieutenant in February, 1918, and was discharged in the Texas aviation field, December 22, 1918. He has always voted the democratic ticket and his interest in community affairs is such that his aid and cooperation can be counted upon to further all measures for the general good. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Columbus and with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a member of the Hartford Club, while along professional lines his association is with the Hartford County, Connecticut State and American Bar associations, whereby he keeps in touch with the trend of modern professional thought and practice, and at no time does he ever falter in his allegiance to the highest professional ethics and standards.

GEORGE SEYMOUR GODARD

For twenty-eight years George Seymour Godard has been state librarian of Con- necticut and his career illustrates the old adage that the boy is father to the man, for as a lad he loved the orderly arrangement of his school books and of the home library, and when still a youth was given charge of the Sunday school library. With the development of his powers he has risen to prominence in this field and his long retention in his present office indicates pronounced fidelity as well as ability.

There is back of Mr. Godard a long line of Connecticut ancestors who have held to the highest ideals of manhood and citizenship. He is a direct descendant of Daniel Gozzard (or Godard), who prior to 1646 left his home in England and became a resident of Hartford. Moses Godard of the same line served in the Revolutionary war. His father, Harvy Godard, married Sabra Lavinia Beach, and it is on the maternal side that George S. Godard traces his ancestry to John Case, who came to the new world from Gravesend, England, on the ship Dorset, landing September 3, 1635. He, too, became a resident of Hartford, and though he later resided for a time in the state of New York, he returned to Connecticut, becoming a resident of Windsor in 1656, and of Simsbury about 1669, his name appearing on the list of those to whom land was granted in the first division of public lands at Simsbury in 1667. Harvy Godard was an extensive owner of farm property and woodland in Granby and vicinity, and in addition to cultivating his fields, operated a sawmill, grist mill and cider mill, known locally as the Craig Mills. He likewise took active part in public affairs, representing the town of Granby in the general assembly, and his prominence is further indicated in the fact that he was the first master of the Connecticut State Grange. His home was ever open for the reception of his friends, who were almost as numerous as his acquaintances. He was extremely hospitable, generous and social, and kindliness characterized his every act.

George S. Godard was the third in a family of five sons and a daughter, and his youthful experiences were those of the farm-bred boy, for he assisted in the various duties incident to the development of his father's large landed interests, and also in the operation of the mills, whereby he gained a knowledge of life's opportunities and values. He also displayed aptitude in his studies, completing a course at Wes- leyan Academy, in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in 1886, after which he entered Wes- leyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, there winning his Bachelor of Arts' degree in 1892. He afterward studied in Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and gained the Bachelor of Divinity degree on his graduation from Yale in 1895, while the honorary Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him by his alma mater in 1916, and by Trinity College in 1919. During his college days he became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon. Long before he had completed his collegiate

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training he was having practical experience in that field of labor which he has made his life work. He was chosen a director and the first librarian of the Frederick H. Cossitt Library in 1890, near his home at North Granby, and he has never ceased to feel a deep interest in that institution, still being chairman of the board. In 1898 he was chosen by Dr. Charles J. Hoadly, state librarian, to assist him in the state library, then housed in the state capitol. Following the demise of Dr. Hoadly two years later, in 1900, Mr. Godard was chosen his successor, and has now entered upon his twenty-eighth year of service in that capacity. Under Mr. Godard, reorganization has been effected and many improvements made. The library is now splendidly housed in a substantial building which is architecturally an ornament to the city, and con- stitutes one of a group of state buildings of which the capitol is the center. This State Library and Supreme Court building, planned by Chief Justice Samuel O. Prentice and State Librarian Godard, and developed by that well known architect, Donn Baber, of New York, but a son of Connecticut, is a model of its kind. This building houses the state supreme court and State Library, which is most compre- hensive in its scope and activities, as shown by the fact that it includes the Con- necticut supreme court law library; legislative reference department; department of local history and genealogy; archives department; depository of public records; exam- iner of public records; depository of Connecticut state, town, municipal and society official publications; depository for the official publications of the United States, the several states of the Union, the Canadian government and provinces, the Australian government and colonies, and other sections of the British empire; library exchange agent for Connecticut state publications; exchange agent for the Connecticut geo- logical and natural history survey publications; custodian of portraits of governors; custodian of state library and supreme court building; and permanent depository of historical and genealogical gifts to the state. Among these gifts are the following: (a) Sherman W. Adams collection of official rolls and lists relating to the French and Indian war; (b) Dorence Atwater collection of manuscripts relating to Anderson- ville; (c) William F. J. Boardman collection of books and manuscripts relating to genealogy; (d) Brandegee collection of portraits of chief justices of the United States; (e) Stephen Dodd collection of manuscripts relating to the early history of East Haven; (f) Enfield Shaker collection; (g) Sylvester Gilbert collection of papers relating to the American Revolution; (h) Charles Hammond and H. M. Lawson collections of manuscripts relating to the early history of the town of Union; (i) Colonel Edwin D. Judd collection of Civil war military rolls and papers; (j) Dwight C. Kilbourn collection of books, pamphlets and manuscripts relating to Connecticut and New England; (k) Ellen D. Larned collection of books and manuscripts relating to New England; (1) Daniel N. Morgan historical collection including table on which Emancipation Proclamation was signed; (m) Deacon Lewis M. Norton collection of manuscripts relating to the town of Goshen; (n) Senator Orville H. Platt collection relating to finance, Indians, and insular affairs; (o) Captain John Pratt collection of military papers, 1778-1824; (p) Major E. V. Preston collection of Civil war military rolls and papers; (q) Colonel Daniel Putnam letters; (r) Governor Joseph Trumbull manuscripts; (s) Gideon and Thaddeus Welles collection of American newspapers from 1820 to 1840; (t) Charles T. Wells collection of books relating to New England; (u) Robert C. Winthrop collection of manuscripts relating to early Connecticut; (v) Samuel Wyllys collection of manuscripts relating to witchcraft and other crimes in early Connecticut; and the Trumbull papers recently returned by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Mr. Godard's close connection with library interests has naturally led to his membership in the National Association of State Libraries and the American Asso- ciation of Law Libraries, both of which have honored him with their presidency; the American Library Association and the American Historical Association, in both of which he has served on important committees, including the joint committee of law and state librarians upon a national legislative reference service, of which he has been chairman since 1909; the public affairs information service, the Law Library Journal, the index to legal periodicals, and the committees on public documents and public archives. Mr. Godard likewise holds membership in the Connecticut Historical Society; is vice president from Connecticut of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society of Boston; a fellow of the American Library Institute; has served as his- torian and governor of the Connecticut Society of Founders and Patriots of America, and deputy governor general and counsellor general of the national society. Mr.

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Godard is president of the Connecticut Society of Sons of the American Revolution, and a member of various committees of the national society. He is also a member of the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, and an honorary member of the Con- necticut Society of the Order of the Cincinnati. He has served as a trustee of the Wilbraham Academy and in the Wesleyan University Alumni Council, and is a member of the board of trustees, having served as its secretary for five years.

Mr. Godard is editor of the Connecticut State Records, and is in charge of the Connecticut State Military Census and custodian of the Connecticut State Library and the Supreme Court building. He has also been closely identified with the Con- necticut Congregational Club, and the Hartford Get Together Club, having served as president of both.

Mr. Godard is as pleasantly situated in his home life as he is in his professional career. His marriage to Miss Kate Estelle Dewey, daughter of Watson and Ellen Bebe Dewey, on June 23, 1897, has been blessed with three children: George Dewey, born August 8, 1899; Paul Beach, born February 17, 1901; and Mary Katharine, born October 3, 1903. The same spirit of hospitality which characterized his father's home is manifest in his own. He is identified with the Center Congregational church, with the various Masonic bodies, and is a well known figure in the University, City and Twentieth Century clubs. Connecticut has reason to be proud of the record and the accomplishinents of George S. Godard, whose activities have been a stimulus to the historical and intellectual development of the state.

WILLIAM EDWIN SESSIONS

The late William Edwin Sessions was born in Bristol, Connecticut, February 18, 1857, and was therefore in the sixty-fourth year of his age when he passed away on the 27th of August, 1920. The first twelve years of his boyhood were spent in the little Village of Polkville, three miles from the center.

His father, John Humphrey Sessions, who married Miss Emily Bunnell, was a manufacturer. He was one of the few men who gave Bristol the start on its en- viable career of enterprise and prosperity, and was a powerful factor in its growth and success. He was a man of unblemished character, public-spirited, and an ardent advocate of the higher moral and educational development of his own com- munity. He was a strong churchman and a devoted Methodist. He often refused public office, but served one term in the state legislature. He was an incorporator and president of the Bristol National Bank, and president of the Bristol Water Company. He died in 1899 at the age of seventy-one.

William Edwin Sessions was the younger of his two sons. He was descended on his father's side from Alexander Sessions, who settled in Plymouth Colony in 1639, and was also a descendant of Francis Cook of the Mayflower, who was a signer of the Mayflower compact and who passed away in 1663; he was a descendant, too, of James Chilton of the Mayflower, who died at Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1620. In June, 1878, Mr. Sessions married Miss Emily Brown, They had two sons; Joseph B., born in 1881; and William Kenneth, born in 1887. Both are mentioned at length on other pages of this work.

Bristol was always the home of William E. Sessions; he attended the public schools there and was graduated from the Hartford public high school in 1876. His mind was strongly set on a business life and therefore he at once entered his father's office, and so started on a career marked with sagacity, industry and success. He was by nature urbane and courtly. Though not a college man, he was a man of marked intelligence and culture. He traveled at home and abroad, was a reader of good literature, a student of art and a musician. The music hall in his own home on Bellevue avenue contained a pipe organ and grand piano for his own diversion and pleasure, and that of his many friends.

Mr. Sessions had a wonderful faculty for business. In 1879, two years after entering his father's office, he started in a separate concern with his father, organ- izing the Sessions Foundry Company, of which he became president. The business was small, employing about twenty men when they purchased it of the Bristol Foundry Company. Mr. Sessions conducted it for sixteen years on Laurel street, in the center of the town, where it grew so rapidly that in 1895 it had outgrown the

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three acres of land which was all that was available. Mr. Sessions then conceived the idea of buying the large tract of thirty acres now occupied by the business on Farmington avenue and building a large and modern foundry plant. The site is an ideal one for such a business. Mr. Sessions also purchased most of the adjoin- ing land in order to provide building lots for his workmen and control the character of the neighborhood. No saloon could possibly exist within five minutes' walk of the works. The men were encouraged to own their homes, which many of them do. The handsome office of granite, the neat yet majestic buildings, the splendidly kept grounds, make it appear almost like an educational or philanthropic set of buildings rather than an iron foundry. Mr. Sessions treated his men kindly and well, so that strikes and labor troubles were unknown to them. Every summer he gave them a fete on the grounds, which was an evening of music, refreshments and social pleasure, when the men and their families came together to the number of three thousand, and for one night in the year they were "the people of the city."

In the summer of 1902, the E. W. Welch Manufacturing Company of Forest- ville, a village in the town of Bristol, was about to go into the hands of a receiver, which meant the closing of the clock factories which had been running for many years, and thus leaving most of the villagers without means of support. Mr. Sessions was urged to take the presidency of the concern and save it if possible. This seemed impossible, as he was already a man of many cares and responsibilities. Finally, however, he yielded to the earnest solicitations and became the president and principal owner of the business which is now known as the Sessions Clock Company. In two short years several large new buildings had been erected, new machinery put in and the output more than doubled-a truly remarkable achieve- ment.

Mr. Sessions organized the Bristol Trust Company and was serving as its president at the time of his death. This is probably the only bank anywhere that was built by one man at his own expense. When the bank was organized Mr. Sessions turned over the beautiful and unique building to the Company for one-third of what he had paid for it and he also subscribed for one-half of the capital stock.

Like his father before him, Mr. Sessions was a strongly religious man. He joined the Prospect Methodist Episcopal church when twelve years of age and be- came president of the board of trustees and vice president of the official board of that church. He had a marked fondness for children and was superintendent of the Sunday school, one of the largest in the state, with over seven hundred and fifty members. The Sunday school became truly a modern, vigorous and prosperous institution. He was a true friend and liberal supporter of the church he so much loved. He was also a trustee of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and served on some of its most important committees. For many years, also, he was in charge of the Mount Hope Sunday school, which met in a little chapel on Chippins Hill, four miles from Bristol, in a sparsely settled district of the town, whither he drove Sunday afternoons to conduct the services which meant so much to the people of the neighborhood. His charities and benefactions were generously and wisely bestowed. Mr. Sessions was a total abstainer, never having taken in- toxicating drinks in any form. He was always a republican in politics. He felt compelled to refuse political offices, both local and state, that were offered to him. He was at one time a director of the Bristol National Bank, and a former president of the Bristol Water Company before it was taken over by the city. He was greatly interested in all movements looking toward the welfare of the people and the advancement of Bristol and of the nation.

CAPTAIN JOHN HALE THACHER

The same spirit of loyalty which prompted Captain John Hale Thacher in young manhood to march forth with the "boys in blue" to defend the Union was manifest throughout his entire life. In every relation he was faithful-a quality that was notably manifest in his forty years' connection with the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company. He was nearing the eighty-first milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Hartford, October 29, 1846, his parents being Sheldon Parks and Gabrielle (Hale) Thacher. His youthful days were devoted to the acquirement

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 28

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