USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III > Part 32
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On the 15th of September, 1904, Mr. Boardman was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Hunter, a daughter of Davis S. and Eliza (Lovett) Hunter, of Brooklyn, New York, and they now have two children: Margaret Allen, born May 25, 1907; and David Hunter, born January 23, 1910.
Mr. Boardman has membership in the City Club, while his connection with the Sequin Golf Club indicates something of the nature of his recreation in leisure hours. He gives stanch support to the republican party and has served as town clerk of South Windsor, where he makes his home. His life record should serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others, showing what may be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do. Anyone may cultivate the qualities that have
BACHRACH
ROBERT A. BOARDMAN
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HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
been outstanding features in his career-qualities of determination, perseverance, diligence and fidelity, whereby he has reached a place of executive control in con- nection with one of the strongest banking institutions of New England.
NAAMAN COHEN
The law firm of Cohen & Cohen occupies a creditable position at the Hartford bar, where Naaman Cohen has practiced continuously for more than a decade in association with his brother, George Harry Cohen. The former was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, July 11, 1893, and at the usual age he became a public school pupil there, while following the removal of the family to Hartford he continued his studies in the Hartford Public High School, from which he was graduated in 1910. His further educational training was received in Trinity College, which conferred upon him the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913 and the Master of Arts degree in 1915. He was a student at the Yale Graduate School in 1913-14 and received his LL.B. degree from the Yale Law School in 1917. The thoroughness with which he prepared for his chosen calling foreshadowed his course as an attorney of Hartford. He was admitted to the bar in 1917 and joined his brother in a partnership that has since been main- tained. For some time he and his brother were associated in the publication of the Connecticut Hebrew Record, an English weekly which they established in 1920 and which in 1923 they sold to the Jewish Advocate of Boston. They have always la- bored earnestly and effectively for the welfare of those of their race and yet their interest in public progress has not been limited to racial connections. Naaman Cohen is a broad-minded man of clear vision and of strong and creditable purpose. He has membership in the Masonic fraternity and is a loyal follower of the teach- ings of the craft. He also belongs to the B'nai B'rith and his college fraternity is the Phi Beta Kappa. He has membership in both the Hartford County Bar Asso- ciation and the Connecticut State Bar Association and many of his fellow members of the legal fraternity speak of him in terms of high regard.
KENNETH L. MESSENGER
On the list of Connecticut's officials appears the name of Kenneth L. Messenger, who is state commissioner of child welfare, in which connection he is rendering signal service to the commonwealth. Connecticut numbers him among her native sons, he having been born in Winsted, May 26, 1892. His parents were Merritt and Alice (Tallmadge) Messenger, natives of North Canton and of Burrville, Con- necticut, respectively. The father was a clock maker who in later years engaged in the life insurance business.
Kenneth L. Messenger attended the public schools and was graduated from the Gilbert school of Winsted in 1909, after which he was employed in connection with an insurance business in Hartford but later became interested in landscape garden- ing, which he followed for some time at the Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, Massachusetts. While there he was a member of the College Senate and business manager of the College Annual, also assistant manager of the College Glee Club, a member of the Inter-fraternity Council and a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. While in his third year at college, however, he had a nervous breakdown and after regaining his health he entered the employ of the J. B. Rice Seed Company of New York, the largest wholesale seed concern in the country. There he remained for about two years and it was during that period that he became more and more largely interested in social service work, to which he finally decided to turn his entire attention. In April, 1921, he became actively associated with the Boston Children's Aid Society, with which he remained for four years, his work being in connection with the placing of problem boys in foster homes. This brought him into contact with the juvenile court and the Judge Baker Foundation, headed by Dr. Healey and Dr. Bronner. In 1924 he became associated with the New York School of Social Work, receiving a scholarship based upon his past efforts in the social service field. His activities there were highly specialized in psychiatric social work
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HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
and after a year thus spent in the eastern metropolis he removed to Louisville, Ken- tucky, to become director of the social service department of the Louisville and Jefferson County Children's Home, which is a large institution caring for four hun- dred and fifty dependent children. His duties covered the investigation of all chil- dren's cases sent to the home, with investigation of the homes of relatives or of foster homes in which the children were placed, together with the supervision of the children after they had left the institution. In September, 1927, he was appointed by the state department of public welfare of Connecticut to his present position as commissioner of child welfare. The commission had heard of Mr. Messenger's good work in other places and the office was tendered him upon his merit. He has studied the child problem from every possible angle and is constantly seeking to broaden the field of his usefulness by further investigation and research work. He is a member of the American Association of Social Workers, a member of the executive committee of the same organization in Hartford and was vice chairman of the children's section of the State Conference of Social Workers for 1928.
Mr. Messenger was united in marriage to Miss Marie Fuller, of Hyannis, Massa- chusetts, and they are the parents of two daughters, Katherine and Alice.
Fraternally Mr. Messenger is a Mason. He was the first scout master of the Boy Scouts in one troop of Louisville, Kentucky, and he takes the keenest interest in everything that tends to protect and develop the youth of the country. Whatever has to do with child welfare is of deep concern to him and he seeks ever to give the child his normal opportunity for home training and happiness. His labors have indeed been far-reaching, effective and beneficial and he is proving a most competent director of child welfare work in Connecticut.
WILLIAM KENNETH SESSIONS
A central figure on the stage of activity in Bristol, William Kenneth Sessions is well known as the executive head of a large clock corporation, with which he has been identified for eleven years, and also exerts a strong and beneficial influence in commu- nity affairs. He was born February 21, 1887, in Bristol, and represents one of its oldest and most prominent families. His parents were William Edwin and Emily (Brown) Sessions, and extended reference to his father may be found on another page of this work.
In the acquirement of an education William K. Sessions attended the local schools and for two years was a student in the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connec- ticut. At the age of twenty he entered the Sessions Foundry, becoming a clerk in the pattern department, and later joined the clerical force of the general office, with which he was connected for two years. His rapidly maturing powers led to his selec- tion for the vice presidency in 1909 and subsequently he assumed the duties of presi- dent. In 1917 he left the foundry and became treasurer of the Sessions Clock Corpo- ration, which had been taken over by family interests in 1902. This was originally known as the E. M. Welch Manufacturing Company, makers of clocks, and in 1902 the affairs of the firm were about to go into the hands of a receiver. A meeting of the stockholders was called and as his family was heavily interested in the firm the father of William K. Sessions undertook the task of reorganizing the business. At that time the style was changed to the Sessions Clock Corporation, of which William Edwin Sessions was elected president and A. L. Sessions was made treasurer, while E. A. Freeman acted as secretary. The present officers are: William Kenneth Sessions, president; R. H. Jackson, vice president; and C. B. Sanford, secretary. Large plant additions were erected in 1918 and in 1920. The plant is thoroughly modern and com- plenty equipped for the manufacture of all types of clocks, including Westminster chimes. The firm employs highly skilled craftsmen, and the products of the factory have a wide sale, comparing favorably with the best on the market. No detail of the work escapes the observation of Mr. Sessions, who maintains a high standard of effi- ciency in the operation of the industry, and is also a director of the Bristol Trust Company, the Sessions Foundry Company, the Bristol Brass Corporation and the Terryville Trust Company.
Mr. Sessions was married October 27, 1909, in Bristol, to Miss Marjorie Alice Goodenough, by whom he has two children: William K., Jr., who was born September
WILLIAM K. SESSIONS
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HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
4, 1914; and Emily G., born November 7, 1920. Both are natives of Bristol and public school pupils.
In the organization of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Sessions took a prominent part and served for many years as one of its directors. He is also con- nected with the Boys Club and is a fire commissioner, and a leading spirit in every project for civic growth and betterment. The Chippanee Country, Rotary and Bristol clubs, also the Country Club of Farmington, number him among their valued members, and in Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree. Courteous in manner and of genial, sympathetic disposition, Mr. Sessions readily wins friends and is highly esteemed in the community in which his life has been spent.
EDWIN STEPHEN COWLES
On the ancestral record of Edwin Stephen Cowles, who is prominent in insurance circles of Hartford, appear the names of some who served in the Revolutionary war, but long antedating the struggle for independence the family was founded in the new world. John Cowles, the American progenitor of the family, who was a native of England and one of the early settlers of Hartford, Connecticut, located in Farm- ington not longer after 1640 and was one of the organizers of the church there in 1652. He was a farmer and he represented Farmington in the general assembly in six sessions. In 1659 he signed the articles leading up to the establishment of the settlement of Hadley, Massachusetts, and was one of the six family heads to settle that portion of the town now Hatfield in 1660. He was probably born about 1598 and died in Hadley in September, 1675. To him and his wife, Hannah, was born a son, Samuel Cowles, their eldest child, in 1639. Timothy Cowles, second son of Samuel Cowles, was born November 4, 1666, in Farmington. After his marriage he settled in East Hartford, Connecticut, where he owned a lot extending three miles in length east of the Connecticut river. His home was on the east side of Main street south of Gilman's brook, where he was located as early as 1700, and died August 30, 1736. In 1701 he was collector of the Third Ecclesiastical Society of Hartford, and in 1718 was a deacon of that church. He married, in 1689, Hannah Pitkin, born 1666-67, who died before March 31, 1728, and who was a daughter of Hon. William and Hannah (Goodwin) Pitkin, of East Hartford. The latter was a daughter of Ozias Goodwin.
Joseph Cowles, second son of Timothy and Hannah (Pitkin) Cowles, was born in East Hartford, January 13, 1695, and there died February 20, 1775. He was collector of the Ecclesiastical Society in 1728. His wife, Mary Goodwin, who was baptized January 18, 1702, died August 14, 1770. Abijah Cowles, fourth son of Joseph Cowles, was born in East Hartford, August 10, 1734, and resided on the old family homestead, which he inherited, his death there occurring December 10, 1782. On the 16th of March, 1763, he had married Martha Smith, who was born October 10, 1739, and died April 4, 1814. Her eldest son, Stephen Cowles, born in East Hartford in 1765, was a resident of Marshfield, Vermont, as early as 1800, in which year he took the freeman's oath there. In the following year he purchased land but was driven out by the Indians during the War of 1812. He lived for a time at Man- chester, Connecticut, and about 1834 removed to Hilliardville, Hartford county, where he was employed in the woolen mills. He married Patty Reed and died May 30, 1847. Their eldest son, Stephen Cowles, born November 27, 1796, in East Hartford, lived in Suffield, Connecticut, where he was justice of the peace and died August 26, 1878. He was married October 1, 1820, to Thankful Hatheway, who was born Decem- ber 16, 1799, and died May 1, 1874.
Major Frank Cowles, the third son of Stephen and Thankful Cowles, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, April 27, 1835, and after attending the public schools studied in the Connecticut Literary Institute. On his eighteenth birthday he became a clerk in a country store at Windsor, his salary to be thirty-five dollars for the first year, forty dollars for the second, forty-five dollars for the third and fifty dollars for the fourth year; but so valuable was his service that the second year he was paid seven- ty-five dollars and in the third year was admitted to a partnership in the firm of Loomis & Spencer to receive one-fifth of the profits. Later he was head clerk for L. A. Brown and afterward engaged in business on his own account in partnership
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HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
with John S. Pomeroy, under the firm style of Cowles & Pomeroy. A year later he purchased his partner's interest and was joined by his cousin under the firm style of F. & A. F. Cowles. In 1863 Major Cowles removed to Hartford and was bookkeeper for J. W. Danforth & Company, being admitted to partnership in 1868, his association with that business covering fifty years. In 1908 the business was incorporated under the name of the J. G. Lane Company and Mr. Cowles continued as president from that date until his retirement in 1913. In 1878 he promoted and organized the Connecticut Travelers' Association, of which he was president for five years. He and his wife attended the Congregational church of Hartford and he belonged to St. John's Lodge, No. 4, F. & A. M., while politically he was a democrat. In 1868 he became a member of the Governor's Foot Guard, so continuing for eight years, and in 1876 become a member of the Governor's Horse Guards. He was captain thereof from 1881 until 1886 and for five years thereafter was major of that organization. He belonged to the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution. On the 29th of October, 1857, he wedded Emeline Narcissa Steb- bins, who was born September 23, 1836, and died in 1906. She was a daughter of Edwin Cooley and Angeline Hannah (Holcombe) Stebbins, of Windsor, Connecticut.
Thus the line of descent is traced down to Edwin Stephen Cowles, son of Major Frank and Emeline Cowles. He was born in Poquonock, November 5, 1865, attended the grade and high schools and when his textbooks were put aside secured a position with the Connecticut Trust & Safe Deposit Company, with which he con- tinued from 1881 until 1892. His identification with insurance interests dates from the latter year, when he entered into partnership with Charles E. Bayliss under the firm style of Bayliss & Cowles. Later he was a partner of Fred D. Rathbun and since 1894 has conducted business independently. In December, 1892, he was made manager of the Hartford branch of the Great-American Insurance Company of New York and was appointed general agent for Connecticut by the board of the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland in May, 1893. On December 30, 1892, he was elected to the Board of Fire Underwriters, became vice president January 14, 1908, and president January 14, 1913, continuing in that office until January 12, 1915. On the 17th of November, 1910, he was elected president of the Connecticut Asso- ciation of Local Fire Agents and he has also served as vice president of the National Association of Insurance Agents. He organized and was chairman of the New England Conference and he is very widely known in insurance circles not only in Connecticut and New England but also in other sections of the country. He has made it his purpose to thoroughly master every task that has come to him and to thor- oughly acquaint himself with every phase of the business to which he has given his attention. His achievements represent the fit utilization of his innate powers and talents and the wise use of the opportunities that have come to him.
On the 18th of January, 1893, Mr. Cowles was united in marriage to Miss Ella Crowell Harrington and they have become parents of a daughter and a son. Dorothy Harrington is the wife of Raymond B. Searle and has one daughter, Luella Dorothy; Edwin Stephen, Jr., born September 4, 1897, married Florence L. Ledger and they have one son, Edwin S. 3d. Both the son and son-in-law were connected with the United States Naval Reserve Force during the World War period.
In his political views Mr. Cowles has always been a republican and he is inter- ested in patriotic societies, having membership in the Jeremiah Wadsworth Branch of the Connecticut Society of Sons of the American Revolution. His name is also on the membership rolls of the Hartford Club. He is a splendid type of the American business man, alert, energetic, ready for any emergency, and at all times his course has been marked by the most unfaltering devotion to the highest standards of busi- ness honor and integrity.
EDWARD W. LOWREY
A lifelong resident of Southington, Edward W. Lowrey was long active in com- munity affairs and displayed rare qualities as a public servant. He had the welfare of his city deeply at heart and was ever ready to further plans for its advancement. Mr. Lowrey was born August 21, 1864, and after his education was completed he secured a position in the office of the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company. For a number
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(Photograph by The Johnstone Studio)
EDWARD W. LOWREY
353
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
of years he was in the employ of that firm and later occupied a small farm, which he cultivated during the remainder of his life, adding many improvements to the property.
At Meriden, Connecticut, Mr. Lowrey was married May 23, 1913, to Mrs. Addie Barnes Yale, and there are two children, Anna Estella and Allen Yale. Mr. Lowrey was affiliated with the First Congregational church and closely observed its teachings. In local politics he exerted considerable influence and at one time was democratic deputy registrar of voters. During the Cleveland administration he was appointed postmaster of Southington and did excellent work in that office. His outstanding achievement in public affairs, however, was as an assessor, and it was recognized that he was the most valuable member of the board, due to his long service and his familiarity with the work. Mr. Lowrey belonged to that class of men whose talents are best expressed in public service and his many admirable qualities endeared him to all with whom he was brought in contact. On November 29, 1926, when sixty-two years of age, he was removed from his sphere of usefulness and is survived by Mrs. Lowrey, who resides in the family home at No. 216 North Main street. She is devoted to her children and occupies a high place in the esteem of all who know her.
At the time of her husband's death the following tribute to his worth appeared in one of the local papers:
"'Ed' Lowrey, as he was known to his immediate friends and associates, was rated as a model citizen and his friendship much valued by all whose privilege it was to have come in contact with him. News of his sudden death comes as a distinct shock to all of them. He had been complaining of not feeling in the best of health for several weeks, but due to the pressure of business at the office of the board of assessors at this time of the year felt that he must continue until the work of property assessment had progressed to a point whereby his service could be dispensed with and while he took treatment necessary to regain his health. It is feared that his devotion to duty was too much for his strength and that overwork may have been a contributory cause which hastened his death."
VICTOR FORTUNATO DE NEZZO
A strong element in the life of Hartford is furnished by the second generation of Italians-citizens whose parents were born in Italy and who found in the opportunities of the new world the chance for the establishment of homes and the upbuilding of fortunes. The sons of many of these Italian people, who readily adapted themselves to the customers of the new world, have become active factors in the business develop- ment of Hartford, making creditable names and places for themselves in its commer- cial, industrial, financial and professional circles.
Such is the record of Victor Fortunato De Nezzo, attorney at law, who was born in the old tenement building at the corner of Morgan and Charles streets in Hartford on the 15th of June, 1894. His parents, Frank and Laura (Russo) De Nezzo, were natives of Campobasso, Italy, and came to America about 1872, settling in Hartford. Frank De Nezzo was in very straitened financial circumstances at the time-in fact was so poor that he worked as a scissors grinder-but as the years passed by he lived most economically and thus saved up a little money. Later he took a job as foreman of a section gang on the Shore Line. Those who knew him and were associated with him recognized his unwavering honesty and other employes trusted him with their savings, so that he was doing a banking business yet without a passbook. Eventually he had saved from his earnings capital sufficient to enable him to establish a grocery store and in course of time he became proprietor of three grocery stores doing a thriving business and returning to their owner a well earned and well merited com- petency. He certainly deserved the success which crowned his labors and the record of no resident of Hartford indicates more clearly what can be accomplished through determination, industry and perseverance. His life record may well serve to encour- age and inspire others. His business integrity stood as an unquestioned fact in his career and his capability brought him into a position of prominence. He died Febru- ary 8, 1904, and is still survived by his widow, who yet makes her home in Hartford.
Their son, Victor F. De Nezzo, was educated in the Brown school of Hartford, in the high school and in Trinity College, which conferred upon him the Bachelor of
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HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Science degree at his graduation in 1916. In the meantime he had resolved to become a member of the bar and accordingly entered the Yale Law School, completing his course in 1920 and winning the LL. B. degree. In June of that year he was admitted to the bar and has since concentrated his efforts and attention upon the practice of law. In the meantime, however, Mr. De Nezzo had enlisted on March 23, 1917, in the United States navy, as a seaman. He served on several of the war ships and destroyers and during his service visited the shores of France, Brazil, Argentine and Spain, spending altogether twenty months in foreign ports of which fifteen months were at Brest, France. After his war service was over he resumed the study of law and, as previously stated, was graduated in 1920. Opening an office in Hartford, he has here practiced his profession in the law offices of Francis A. Pallotti and the num- ber of his clients is growing year by year. He has given proof of his capability to handle intricate and involved legal problems, for he possesses keen analytical power and readily determines the important point upon which the decision of every case finally turns.
In public affairs Mr. De Nezzo has taken a keen and helpful interest. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party and served as alderman from the second ward from 1921 until 1923, while at the present time (1928) he is chief clerk to the secretary of state. He was also clerk on the first school district committee. He belongs to the University Club and the City Club, to the Sons of Italy and the Knights of Columbus. He chose as a life work a profession in which advancement depends entirely upon individual merit and ability, and gradually he has worked his way upward until he has an enviable standing at the Hartford bar.
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