History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 3

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 3

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most creditable position among the members of the bar of the county and his practice is one of growing importance.

Mr. Coates belongs to the national university fraternity of Gamma Eta Gamma. He is a World war veteran, a member of the American Legion, and, along profes- sional lines, he is a member of the Hartford County Bar Association, thus keeping in touch with professional purposes and standards.

MEIGS HEYWOOD WHAPLES

Meigs Heywood Whaples had passed the eighty-second milestone when "the weary wheels of life at length stood still" and he slept. His career was one of unusual dis- tinction-a record of unfaltering honor and of successful achievement. He was the dean of the banking fraternity in Hartford and his was an outstanding example of all that makes for esteem, respect and admiration in the business world. Added to this was notable power to accomplish what he purposed and thus he became one of the foremost financiers of New England, filling the office of chairman of the board of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company, with which he had been associated for more than a half century.

Mr. Whaples was born in New Britain, July 16, 1845, a son of Curtis and Elizabeth Meigs (Lusk) Whaples. In the maternal line his ancestry is traced back to one of the oldest Connecticut families of English lineage who at the time of the Revolutionary war sent its representatives into battle to fight for American liberty. A branch of the family was then living in Middletown, Connecticut, and one of the sons, Return Jonathan Meigs, as major in Connecticut's Second Regiment, under the first call for troops hastened to participate in the siege of Boston. In Major Benedict Arnold's expedition against Quebec in 1775 he was in command of the Second Division, doomed to spend the winter as a prisoner of war in the Canadian city. After being paroled he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Shelburne's Regiment of Rhode Island and Connecticut troops in 1777 and the same year was advanced to the command of the Sixth Regiment of the Connecticut Line. For his success in conducting the Sag Harbor expedition congress awarded him the sword pictured in the Peale portrait of Colonel Meigs, which is a valued heirloom in the Whaples family. He was detailed to command the picked body known as Meigs' Light Regiment when Washington selected the troops to accompany Anthony Wayne on his dash on Stony Point in 1779. In 1781 he declined the offered position of brigadier-general of state troops and after the war he became the first provisional governor of Ohio, while his son later served as postmaster- general.

John Meigs, eldest of the four brothers, was adjutant in Colonel Webb's Regiment and later in the Third Connecticut Line. He was captured in the Long Island expedi- tion of 1777. In the War of 1812 he was brigade major in the regular army. He mar- ried Elizabeth Henshaw, a great-granddaughter of John and Priscilla Alden, and Meigs H. Whaples was a great-grandson of Major and Elizabeth Meigs. His father, Curtis Whaples, became a leading merchant of New Britain, where he also held vari- ous local offices. To him and his wife, Elizabeth Meigs Lusk, there was born July 16, 1845, a son whom they called Meigs Heywood Whaples and who acquired his early education in the public schools. Following his graduation from high school he com- pleted a course in the Commercial Collegiate Institute at Poughkeepsie, New York, and then started out on his business career in connection with banking, securing a posi- tion in the New Britain National Bank. After a brief period he was made teller of that institution, with which he continued until 1863, when he assumed a similar connection with the Mercantile National Bank of Hartford and thereby became a resident of the capital city. For five years he served in that capacity and then gave more than two years of his life to national service. From 1866 to 1868 he had been adjutant of the First Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard and in 1869 he became secretary, with the rank of lieutenant, to Rear Admiral O. S. Glisson of the United States navy. He afterward served on the staff of Rear Admiral Charles H. Boggs, spending three years on the flagship Franklin, most of the time in Mediterranean waters.

With his return to Hartford, Mr. Whaples resumed active connection with the banking business, being appointed a teller in the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company, which had been organized the previous year. After filling that position for

(Photograph by Dunne)

MEIGS H. WHAPLES

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

six years he was made treasurer and so continued for a decade, while in 1888 he was advanced to the presidency and remained as the chief executive officer and directing head of the institution for thirty-one years or until July, 1919. In that month the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company merged with the Hartford Trust Com- pany, under the name of the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company, and Mr. Whaples became chairman of the board of trustees, so continuing until his death. The Hartford Clearing House Association honored him nine times with election to the presidency and he was president and treasurer of the Connecticut River Bridge and Highway District Commission, vice president of the Society for Savings, vice president and director of the Stanley Securities Company and treasurer and director of the Collins Company of Collinsville. In January, 1925, when the Connecticut State Bank and Trust Associa- tion was formed, he was chosen its chief executive officer and he also served as presi- dent of the Connecticut Bankers Association. He was regarded as one of the foremost bankers of Connecticut because of his broad vision, his unfaltering enterprise and his progressiveness that was ever tempered by a safe conservatism. His banking inter- ests were ever kept abreast with the constantly changing conditions of the business world and his opinions were at all times sound, practical and reliable. That he stood extremely high among the financiers of the country is indicated in the fact that he was made a trustee of the Bankers Trust Company, was United States trustee of the Scot- tish Union and National Insurance Company and prominently identified with other interests. He served on the directorate of the American Hardware Company, Ameri- can Union Insurance Company, Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, First Reinsurance Company of Hartford, the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, the Pickering Governor Company of Portland and the Stanley Works of New Britain. In June, 1918, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Trinity College, on which occasion former President Theodore Roosevelt received from Trinity the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.

Extensive and important as were Mr. Whaples' connections with business and financial interests, he found time and opportunity for public service. He was for nine years a member of the board of police commissioners of Hartford and during seven years of that period served as president of the board. He was Mayor Henney's first appointee to the board of finance when it was created in 1905 and he remained a mem- ber thereof for two years. He usually voted the republican ticket yet did not consider himself bound by party ties. Never for a moment did he hesitate in his loyalty to or support of projects for the general good, and when America entered the World war he was a member of the naval recruiting committee of the governor's war council and of the mayor's war council, while later he served for several years as state treasurer of the American and Near East Relief Fund. His own military record resulted from service in young manhood as sergeant major of the First Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, under Col. Charles H. Prentice and as adjutant under Colonel Bunnel. He always felt the deepest interest in patriotic organizations and societies and he held membership in Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth branch of the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and in the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, and he took active part in organizing Leonard Wood Camp, Soldiers and Marines Association.

On the 15th of May, 1878, Mr. Whaples was married in New Haven to Miss Harriet Atwater Hotchkiss and they became parents of a daughter and a son, Mary Atwater and Heywood Hotchkiss Whaples. The son is a member of the firm of Roy T. H. Barnes & Company. He married Constance Roberts and they have two children, Anne and Constance Jean. Mr. Whaples has a sister living, Isabella E. Whaples, a resi- dent of New Britain.

Mr. Whaples always greatly enjoyed outdoor life and for a number of years main- tained a summer camp in Maine. He became one of the organizers of the Hatchettis Reef Club and he delighted in spending leisure periods with congenial friends on Long Island sound that he might enjoy absolute rest and quiet and fine fishing. From boy- hood he held membership in the South Congregational church of New Britain, although in later years he regularly attended the services of the Asylum Hill Congregational church in Hartford. In an editorial one of the local papers, referring to Mr. Whaples, wrote: "Some one has said that few persons know how to be old. Mr. Whaples was one of those few. He could not stay the passing years, but he possessed the art of keeping a youthful spirit. He was younger in his four score years than many men are in their sixties. 'His eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.' * * * Nature had given him a good constitution which he was wise enough to conserve and make the

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

most of, although seemingly never sparing himself toil and exertion nor ever consulting his own convenience. He kept up his interest in the daily concerns of life and in so doing had little time to reflect upon his years. It is always worth a word of comment, it seems to us, when a man instead of retiring keeps at his appointed tasks and in so doing lengthens his span of life. We are not so sure but that this is one of the secrets of a youthful old age.

"A man of great will and rugged character, he could dominate a situation. He could lead and command. Yet his force and leadership were expressed by a personality through which shone sympathy and kindness. Affable and cordial to a marked degree, he made friends readily-friends who stood by him, friends by whom he stood. He could be a good enemy when the occasion warranted, but his antagonism was never carried to the point of personal hatred. Of the utmost probity himself, he looked for and admired that quality in others. Humbug and deceit he detested. He believed in plain speaking. It is true to say of him that he was a 'straight shooter.' He was exceedingly jealous of the integrity of his own profession. He regarded integrity as the very keystone of successful banking. He had no patience or sympathy for bank officials who did not look upon their calling as a public trust of the highest type. Sta- bility, dependability, these must come first. With these thoroughly established, wisely progressive measures could be adopted. If he clung tenaciously to that which was true and tried he never forgot that he was living in a modern age. Hence he kept himself and his institution always fully abreast of the times.

"If the banking business absorbed his first attention he nevertheless found time to play his full part in civic affairs, and to give his assistance and counsel, as well as his money, to worthy causes. He had faith in his country and in its institutions. In the best and broadest sense of the word he was a good patriot. He enriched the life of Hartford and he felt that his life was enriched by his living it here. Yet devoted as he was to this city he never forgot New Britain, the place of his birth and his early training.

"As a Connecticut product the career of Meigs H. Whaples stands out. Here he found opportunity, here he made the most of what he found. He was self-made and in carving out his own success he helped others as he went along. To have lived the life he lived is reward enough for anyone."

CHARLES HOPKINS CLARK

For more than a century-since 1820-the Clark family has figured in the sub- stantial development of Hartford, its representatives taking active and influential part in advancing the city's interests, in directing its policy and shaping its ideals. In keeping with the example of his forebears of colonial descent, Charles Hopkins Clark contributed in notable measure to the growth and improvement of the city, and as a journalist helped to shape its public policy, nor were his efforts confined to the city, for he figured in affairs of state and national importance and his influence was ever far-reaching and beneficial.

He was born in Hartford, April 1, 1848, a son of the Hon. Ezra and Mary (Hop- kins) Clark. Ezra Clark was prominent in the business life and material develop- ment of Hartford. He served as a member of the common council and of the board of aldermen and afterward as judge of the city court, and he likewise figured in national affairs through his election to the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth sessions of congress. He was president of the water board when the original system of water- works was established, and when the West Hartford reservoirs were built, and he maintained a most progressive attitude in this connection. The large Tumbledown Brook reservoir was likewise planned and built under his supervision and it was he who laid out Reservoir Park, whereby a picturesque driveway through the woods connected the city's several reservoirs. Mr. Clark also served as president of the Young Men's Institute of Hartford for many years and no project for the general good failed to receive his endorsement.

The son, Charles Hopkins Clark, attended the Free Academy of New York and the Hartford public high school, from which he was graduated in 1867. At Yale University he completed his course in 1871 and immediately thereafter joined the staff of the Hartford Courant, known as "the oldest newspaper of continuous publica-

(Photograph by The Johnstone Studio)

CHARLES HOPKINS CLARK

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

tion in the country." His capability and loyalty to the interests which he repre- sented were recognized by the owners of that journal and in 1887 he was admitted to partnership, and when the business was incorporated under the name of the Hart- ford Courant Company he was chosen secretary. Later he became editor-in-chief and continued to act in that capacity until his death. At first he was associated in the publication of this paper with Charles Dudley Warner, and United States Senator Joseph R. Hawley. He had wide influence in shaping the thought and directing the action of many of the most intelligent readers of the Courant and it was a matter of personal pride with him that he ever exercised this influence for the benefit of the community, for the advancement of civic ideals and for the achievement of those purposes which have made Hartford the progressive center that it is today. His editorials were clear, cogent and forceful. Wit, too, formed an effective part in his writings. Whether his thought was clothed with humor or with logic it went unerringly straight to the point. The Courant remained a forceful factor in the lives of hundreds of families in Connecticut where it had been regularly received generation after generation. Moreover, Mr. Clark saw to it that in equipment the Courant was equal to that of any modern daily newspaper and year by year its circulation grew and its value as an element in Connecticut's development and upbuilding increased. The paper was a monument to his genius and was ever the expression of the high ideals of citizenship which he entertained.

If Mr. Clark had accomplished nothing outside of the field of journalism he would be entitled to rank with the foremost residents of the state, but in other ways, too, his labors were of vast benefit to it, for again and again he was called upon for public service. In 1901 he was made a delegate to the state constitutional convention and he had previously served on the tax commission when it made an exhaustive in- vestigation, and he had published a most valuable report. In 1905 he traveled with the Taft expedition to the Philippines; and he was many times a delegate to the republican national convention, and was a member of the committee of notification to President Harding.

In December, 1873, he married Ellen Root, daughter of Elisha K. and Matilda (Colt) Root, her father being the president of the Colt Fire Arms Company. Mrs. Clark was born November 6, 1850, and died February 28, 1895. In November, 1899, Mr. Clark married her sister, Matilda C. Root. There were two children of the first marriage: Horace Bushnell, born June 22, 1875, and Mary Hopkins, born May 13, 1878. The son is numbered among the Yale alumni of 1898 and following the com- pletion of his college course became associated with his father in the publication of the Courant and was chosen secretary of the company. He has served as president of the Hartford Board of Fire Commissioners and, like previous generations of his family, is taking his part in public affairs. In 1925 he married Mabel Hanlakenden Perkins. His sister, in 1909, was married to Henry K. W. Welch.

Mr. Clark was a member of the Asylum Hill Congregational church. He was identified with many interests of a public or semi-public character. He served as a director of the Associated Press, of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company and the Wadsworth Atheneum. He was also treasurer of the Watkinson Library, vice president of the Collins Company and a director of the State Reformatory. In 1910 he was elected to a fellowship in the Corporation of Yale University. In the same year Trinity College conferred on him the degree of LL. D. He was a member of many clubs, among them being the Uni- versity, Century and Yale clubs of New York, the Graduates Club of New Haven, the Hartford Club, and many smaller groups in his own town. He died September 6, 1926, and in his passing Hartford mourned the loss of one of her most valued and public-spirited men-one who in his life exemplified high qualities of manhood and citizenship and who found real joy in service for his fellowmen.

V HENRY K. W. WELCH

Active in commercial circles in Hartford is Henry K. W. Welch, the vice president and treasurer of the J. B. Williams Company, soap manufacturers. He was born in Hartford, December 4, 1865, and his parents, Henry K. W. and Susan Leavitt (Good- win) Welch, were natives of Hartford county. The father was a lawyer who devoted

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

his life to his profession, practicing in partnership with Judge Shipman. He passed away in 1870.

His son and namesake, Henry K. W. Welch of this review, obtained a public school education, pursuing his studies to the age of sixteen years, when he took up the task of mastering the more difficult lessons taught in the school of experience. He entered the employ of the Travelers Insurance Company as an office boy, thus working for a period of eighteen months, after which he went to New York city with the firm of Perkins, Goodwin & Company, engaged in the paper business on Duane street, continuing with that house through a period of fifteen years. In 1899 he returned to Hartford, where he became associated with the J. B. Williams Company, soap manu- facturers, in the capacity of secretary, and some time later he became vice president and treasurer of the company. As the years have gone by he has also extended his activities into other fields and is now a director of the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, the Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company, the Hartford Courant Company, the Hartford Retreat, the Russell Manufacturing Company of Middletown and the Glazier Manufacturing Company of Glastonbury.

On the 30th of June, 1909, Mr. Welch was united in marriage to Miss Mary Hopkins Clark, a daughter of Charles Hopkins Clark, for many years editor of the Courant. Their children are Elinor Goodwin, Sarah Pierrepont, Mary Frances, Caro- line Hopkins and Archibald Henry.

Mr. Welch belongs to the Hartford Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the Wampanoag Country Club and the Twentieth Century Club and has marked appreciation for the social amenities of life.

HON. JOHN H. TRUMBULL

Hon. John H. Trumbull, governor of Connecticut and man of affairs, has left his impress in unmistakable terms upon the history of the commonwealth as its chief executive and as one of the founders and promoters of an industrial enterprise that ranks with the foremost business concerns of the state. The breadth of his interests and activities is measured by all those forces and interests which have gone to further the stability and promote the growth and development of Connecticut, and holding always to high ideals, he employs the most practical methods in their attainments.

It was in Ashford, on the 4th of March, 1873, that John H. Trumbull first opened his eyes to the light of day as one of the seven sons in the household of Hugh H. and Mary Ann (Harper) Trumbull. His parents were natives of Ulster, Ireland, and of Scotch descent, the ancestral line tracing back in Edinburgh to 1792. It was in 1870 that Mr. and Mrs. Hugh H. Trumbull arrived in the new world, establishing their home near Windsor, Connecticut, where he engaged in farming for a number of years. He afterward removed with his family to a farm in Plainville and it was there that John H. Trumbull was reared, early becoming familiar with the work of tilling the soil and caring for the crops, for during vacation periods and before and after the daily sessions of the public school near his home he worked in the fields. Early in youth he manifested a keen interest in the subject of electricity which was to him far more enticing than the work of the farm or the usual routine of the schoolroom. It was therefore to be expected that in starting out to provide for his own support he would leave the old home and seek employment elsewhere. This he found with the Eddy Electric Company of Windsor and there he applied himself with the greatest thoroughness to mastering every phase of the business and gaining as comprehensive a knowledge as possible of electricity as a commercial asset. He began experimenting, too, and his early labors in this field proved of great benefit to him in his later busi- ness career. For a brief period he was an electrical contractor in Hartford but in 1898 returned to Plainville, where he was joined by his brother Henry and by Frank Wheeler in an effort to establish an electrical business. They utilized every possible means to acquire a capital of two thousand dollars in order to finance a business which they organized under the name of the Trumbull Electric Company, their first plant being a small one-story wooden building, in which they began the manufacture of electrical rosettes. The enterprise proved promising from the beginning and the capital was soon increased to five thousand dollars; yet there is no royal road to

HON. JOHN H. TRUMBULL

HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

wealth, as the three young men soon discovered, and in fact many obstacles and difficulties were to be encountered and overcome before the business was placed upon a paying basis. The partners agreed upon a division of labor and responsibility whereby the future governor was to take care of the outside purchasing field, with Henry Trumbull coordinating the plant's various departments, so that the business as a whole might be operated in an economical and efficient manner, while Frank Wheeler took charge of the shop. There was no task connected with the business, however, that any one of the three hesitated to do if necessity required. They kept up the fires over the week-ends and did all their own plumbing, steamfitting and electrical work, carted porcelain in a wheelbarrow and used the company's one bicycle in going on their errands. They sent out letters and circulars to the trade and a little later John Trumbull followed this up with a personal call, and soon the business began to grow, even though at times after paying their employes there was nothing left for the proprietors. They soon became involved in a patent suit, which they won, but the expense thereof was so great that they were inclined to discontinue the business altogether. However, they persevered and when the initial period of difficulty was over the business entered upon an era of steady growth that has increased with the passing years, there being several increases in capital stock, which now stands at five hundred thousand dollars, although the investment in the business is several times that amount. In February, 1918, the company became affiliated with the Gen- eral Electric Company, although remaining an independent unit. In 1912 the wooden buildings were replaced by brick ones and there are now more than six hundred employes. One of the most interesting things about the business is the fact that more than one-fourth of their employes have been with the company ten years or more- a fact which is indicative of the pleasant relations which have always existed between the employers and those in their service-a relation based upon fairness, justice and a living wage. During the war the Trumbull Electric Company furnished two thou- sand, two hundred and sixteen switchboards for the emergency fleet and other war vessels. Today sales offices are maintained in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, with representatives in many other cities as well as in various foreign countries, including Buenos Aires, England, Spain, Cuba, Honolulu and the Philippines.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 3

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