History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 51

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 51

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In 1897 Mr. Glotzer married Miss Rose Glotzer, by whom he has four children: Freda, who is attending Dr. Arnold's school in New Haven, Connecticut; Teddy and Isadore, who are associated with their father; and Harry, who is the owner of a pros- perous business. They are adherents of the Jewish faith and members of Emanual Synagogue.

Mr. Bassevitch was married in 1890 to Miss Sarah Glotzer, and they have five children: Mrs. Celia Jaffer, Mrs. Bert Cohn, and Isadore, Florence and Marcus Basse- vitch. The son is attending Cornell University and has made an excellent record as a student. The family attend one of the Jewish synagogues of Hartford.

MICHAEL PLAUT

Alert, energetic and well poised, Michael Plaut has made rapid progress in the business world and at the age of thirty-one years is successfully administering the affairs of one of the large furniture corporations of Hartford. He was born in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, in 1897, a son of Joseph and Betty (Waldheim) Plaut. His father was connected with May, Stern & Company of Cincinnati and passed away in 1915.

Michael Plaut attended the public schools of his native city and received his higher education in the University of Michigan which he left in 1920, having majored in engineering. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve Corps and was made a seaman of the second class. In 1918 he entered the employ of May, Stern & Com- pany and was rapidly promoted. He came to Hartford in 1924 and made arrange- ments for the erection of the building that now houses the business of the Plaut Company, which handles a complete line of home furnishings. Since 1924 he has been president of this firm and Aaron Bernstein, who has been affiliated with the May & Stern organization for twenty years, is treasurer and general manager. This is one of the thirty-six stores of May, Stern & Company and has eight floors devoted to the exhibition of fine furniture. Each floor is fifty by one hundred and twenty feet in dimensions and the firm has forty-eight thousand square feet of display space, which is the largest afforded by any furniture house in Hartford. A fifty-six thousand square feet warehouse with a spur line on Donald street affords the necessary storage and railroad facilities. The store itself is on Asylum street, the gateway to the western part of the city. May, Stern & Company was organized in Cincinnati forty-three years ago for the purpose of enabling the public to purchase

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furniture at the lowest possible prices through volume buying and this was one of the first institutions to inaugurate the plan of deferred payment. Patrons of this corpo- ration are offered a wide selection of high-grade furniture at a moderate cost, all interpreting the ideal of value giving, which constitutes the foundation of the firm's success.

In 1925 Mr. Plaut married Miss Janet Lederer, of Cincinnati, and they now have a son Michael, Jr., who was born May 14, 1927. Mr. Plaut belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and is one of Hartford's "boosters." Nothing escapes him in relation to the furniture trade and in the conduct of his business he brings to bear broad experience, keen sagacity and pronounced executive ability. That he has chosen a field of activity well suited to his talent is shown by his success and his close adherence to the principles of truth and honor has won for him a secure place in public confidence and esteem.

WILLIAM J. GALVIN, JR.

William J. Galvin, Jr., attorney at law and also prominent in community affairs, serving now as a member of the aviation commission of Hartford, his native city, was born on the 9th of July, 1897, his parents being William J. and Anna F. (Leban) Gal- vin, who are also natives of Hartford, their respective parents having here settled prior to the Civil war. The father is now a pharmacist, conducting business on Farm- ington avenue.

Liberal educational opportunities were accorded William J. Galvin, Jr., who attended Yale University, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921. He next entered the Yale Law School and won his LL. B. degree in 1923. The same year he was admitted to the Hartford bar and has since been engaged in practice here, being recognized as one of the rising young lawyers of the city. His knowledge of the law is comprehensive and exact and he is most thorough and care- ful in the preparation of his cases, while his devotion to his clients' interests con- stitutes one of the chief forces of his growing success.

In 1924 Mr. Galvin was appointed a member of the aviation commission and has since served in this capacity. Back of this was a previous experience in the World war which well qualified him for his present official duties. On the 20th of February, 1918, he had enlisted in the aviation section of the Signal Corps as a flying cadet and on the 11th of November, 1918, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the air ser- vice and was on duty as a pilot on the San Antonio (Texas) field. He was in the Officers Reserve Corps from February 6, 1919, until June 26, 1924, and was promoted to a first lieutenancy, serving from that date until July, 1925. He was with the One Hundred and Eighteenth Observation Squadron of the Connecticut National Guard from November, 1922, until June, 1925, with the rank of first lieutenant.

On the 28th of January, 1925, Mr. Galvin was married to Miss Helen J. Fitzsim- mons, of Hartford, and they have many friends in the younger social circles of the city. Mr. Galvin has always taken a keen interest in aviation and has devoted much time to that business, having developed quite expert ability as a flyer. He is a member of the American Legion and La Societe des 40 Hommes et 8 Chevaux and also belongs to the University Club of Hartford. He has many friends here and the sterling worth of his character is attested in the fact that many of his stanchest friends are those who have known him from his boyhood.

JAMES GOODWIN BATTERSON

A most active, useful and honorable career was that of James Goodwin Batter- son, whose activities were of wide scope and whose position among the scientists, the artists and the authors was one of distinction. Moreover, he always recognized his duties and obligations in citizenship and thus it was that he took active and prominent part in shaping the civic development of city and state. His interests touched life at many points and always with a constructive hand, directed by ability that in many instances amounted to genius.

(Photograph by The Johnstone Studio)

WILLIAM J. GALVIN, Jr.

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Connecticut therefore proudly numbers James Goodwin Batterson among her native sons, he having been born in the old town of Wintonbury (now Bloomfield), February 23, 1823. He was a descendant of James Batterson, who with the early Scotch Presbyterian immigration from the north of Ireland came to the new world. His son, George Batterson, settled in Fairfield county, Connecticut, and married Mary Oysterbanks, of Welsh lineage. They were the parents of George Batterson (II), who served in the army and navy throughout the entire Revolutionary war period. To him and his wife, Mary Seeley, was born a son, Simeon Seeley Batterson, who married Melissa Roberts and was one of the pioneers in the building stone industry.

Thus the ancestral line has been traced down to the parents of James Goodwin Batterson, who in his youthful days attended the public schools of Litchfield county and in outdoor life and sports developed a physique that enabled him to meet the onerous demands upon his strength in later years. He prepared for college in Western Academy, but financial conditions at home made it necessary that he provide for his own support without having advanced educational training. He went to Ithaca, New York, traveling much of the way on foot, and there his ability to translate a Latin sentence which had perplexed the proprietor of a printing office secured him employment. While thus engaged he devoted his hours which are usually termed leisure to further reading and study and later returned home, where he worked in his father's stone-cutting shop. His keen mentality, however, prompted him to utilize every opportunity that pointed in the direction of a professional career and he was making rapid progress in his law studies in the office of Origen S. Sey- mour, afterward chief justice of Connecticut, when family conditions again obliged him to return home and assist his father. It was characteristic of Mr. Batterson that no useless repining impeded his progress. The task at hand was the one which always claimed his attention and received his best effort, and before long he had succeeded in developing and expanding his father's business, which he soon removed to Hartford.

Up to that time the business had been confined to cemetery and foundation work, but James G. Batterson began contracting on a large scale by furnishing the stone for the building of the State Savings Bank and also the marble front for the Phoenix National Bank. In 1857 he was awarded the contract for the equestrian monument of General Worth in New York city and other important tasks claimed his attention as the years passed, the business steadily increasing in volume, so that in 1875 he incorporated his interests under the name of the New England Granite Works, capi- talized at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with quarries at Canaan, Connecti- cut, in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. He not only installed the most modern equipment, but realizing a need in his particular field, he invented a lathe for cutting and polishing stone columns, such work having previously been done by hand. He personally supervised the work on the great granite pillars for the state capitol at Albany, New York, and at all times he held to the highest standards of service, so that the business rapidly grew. The company constructed the National Soldiers' Monument at Gettysburg; the Alexander Hamilton statue in Central Park, New York; the West Point monument of General Thayer, founder of the Military Academy; the Antietam battlefield monument; the monument erected at Galveston, Texas, in memory of those who fell in the Texas revolution; the General Halleck monument at San Francisco; and the General Wood monument at Troy, New York, the latter a sixty- foot shaft weighing nearly a hundred tons. Among the company's great buildings are: The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance, Hartford; the Equitable and the Masonic Temple, New York; the Mutual Life, Philadelphia; the City Hall, Providence; and the thirty-story Park Row building, New York. The finest, however, is the Con- gressional Library in Washington city, exquisitely fashioned of gray Concord granite. Another of the famous Batterson buildings is the capitol at Hartford, costing nearly two million dollars. In 1860 Mr. Batterson established marble works in New York city that furnished the interiors of many of the notable buildings there and in other large cities. To develop an enterprise of such proportions would alone be considered a creditable life work for most men, but Mr. Batterson's labors were of much broader scope and he became widely known as the founder of accident insurance in America. He had acquainted himself with that field of insurance while in England and upon his return secured a charter for railroad accident insurance, which was amended the next year to cover all classes of accidents, and in 1866 was extended to include all forms of life insurance. Thus came into existence the great Travelers Company, and

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though he met with much opposition from rivals, his persistency of purpose and intelligently directed plans won an ultimate success that led to the development of a business with a capital stock of two and one-half millions and with assets of more than seventy million dollars. Mr. Batterson's was the creative mind and executive force back of this undertaking, and yet the business capacity and initiative of Mr. Batterson had by no means reached its furthermost limit.

While developing his stone-building industry and the insurance business he also continued in the study of law in order that he might know how to protect his own interests and avoid litigation. He delved into the realms of science by studying geology under J. G. Percival, the Connecticut poet-geologist, for whom he acted as guide in the first geological survey of the state. In 1858 he went abroad, where during a period of more than a year, in company with the eminent Brunel, he studied the stone formations, pyramids and tombs of the Nile valley and the Mediterranean basin, gaining a knowledge of Egypt which was recognized in his being made an honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund. He became a recognized author- ity on Egyptology and in the fields of astronomy, art and literature his studies were almost equally comprehensive. He became the possessor of a splendid collection of paintings, sculpture and other art works and his wide reading brought him a compre- hensive familiarity with the leading literary works of all ages. He studied the various classical languages and became one of the founders of the Greek Club of New York city. His own contributions to literature were valuable and included many most interesting and important works on taxation, the relations of capital and labor and sociological questions. In 1896 he published his "Gold and Silver," which was recognized as one of the first authoritative statements by the sound-money parties. His writings included a published translation from the "Iliad" in blank verse; an elaborate work, "Creation" (the title subsequently changed to "The Beginning") ; and a number of poems of varied subject and range, including "Lauda Sion," .trans- lated from the Latin of St. Thomas Aquinas. Aside from his excursions into the fields of literature, art and science and his masterful direction of the Travelers Insurance Company and the New England Granite Works, he was a director of the Hartford National Bank and of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, was vice president of the Wadsworth Athenaeum and a trustee of Brown University.

The breadth of his interests naturally led Mr. Batterson into most important and extensive relations in club and social circles and especially in connection with those societies having to do withi science and the general dissemination of knowledge. Both Yale and Williams colleges and also Brown University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. His comprehensive study in the realm of science and his investigations into the history of the past but deepened his belief in a creative force and his religious faith found expression in his membership in the Baptist church. He belonged also to the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. His association with patriotic organizations included membership in the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the American Statistical Associ- ation. He likewise belonged to the Colonial Club and the New England Society of New York, while his intense love of learning found further expression in his connec- tion with the Hartford Scientific Society, the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was also a member of the Yale Alumni Association and of the Hartford Board of Trade.

When the country was involved in the throes of civil war Mr. Batterson's position was one of intense loyalty to the Union cause and the government at Washington. Although he might have received political and military distinction at this period, he refused all such offers, but throughout the entire war period was chairman of the republican state central committee and of the war committee, putting forth every effort to meet the demand for various military quotas. Connecticut sent more Union troops to the front than was required of her. His influence in winning success for his party was pronounced and he always supported those men whose loyalty to the Union cause was above question. It was said of him: "In public gatherings his powerful voice, persuasive manner, ready wit and cogent reasoning, made him a magnetic speaker, and he was a gifted presiding officer. The fact that he resolutely declined to accept all offices, elective or appointive, tended greatly to the enlargement and maintnance of his great political influence."

Through all the intense activity which made Mr. Batterson a dominant figure in business life, in scientific research and in political and civic affairs, he turned for

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rest and comfort to the quiet of his own home, which he established on the '2d of June, 1852, in his marriage to Miss Eunice E. Goodwin, who was born April 6, 1827, a daughter of Jonathan Goodwin. They became parents of two daughters and a son: Clara Jeannette, who was born January 17, 1855, and died May 16, 1868; Mary Eliza- beth, who became the wife of Dr. Charles C. Beach, of Hartford; and James Good- win, Jr., mentioned elsewhere in this work. The wife and mother passed away January 10, 1897, while Mr. Batterson survived until September 18, 1901, having attained the seventy-eighth year of his age. The influence of his career in its varied activities is immeasurable. He contributed much to all those forces which made for higher standards of development in business and in those circles where cultural advancement is achieved. Abraham Lincoln said: "There is something better than making a living-making a life," and it was this spirit that actuated James Goodwin Batterson at every point of his long and honorable career. He knew what it was "to be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them * *

* and to spend at much time as you can with body and with spirit in God's out-of-doors."

JOHN J. GALLAGHER

John J. Gallagher is an able young representative of insurance interests in Hart- ford, where for nearly a decade he has acted as a supervisor in the tabulating depart- ment of The Travelers Insurance Company, with which he has been continuously identified since 1914, save for the period of his military service. A native son of Hartford, Connecticut, he was born July 21, 1897, his parents being John Edward and Bridget (Tully) Gallagher, both natives of Ireland. Since coming to America, John E. Gallagher has been a resident of Hartford.

John J. Gallagher is a graduate of St. Joseph's Cathedral School and also of the Huntsinger Business College. It was on the 8th of December, 1914, that he entered the employ of The Travelers Insurance Company in the mortgage loan department. When the United States had become involved in the World War he enlisted for military duty but was not called into camp by reason of the fact that influenza had broken out. The American Railway Express Company employed him in Hartford in taking charge of the receiving from army camps and posts of the bodies of deceased soldiers from all over the country. The government notified him that he was to go with the draft quota assigned to Fortress Monroe, Virginia. The Hartford draft board put him in charge of the Hartford county quota and sent him to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, with the contingent. He served until the signing of the armistice and was a member of the Forty-first Coast Artillery Band. On the 3rd of December, 1918, he was sent to Camp Upton, Long Island, where he was discharged on the 17th of December following. Upon the organization of the Connecticut_State Guard he enlisted as a private of Company C, First Infantry, of which he was later made company trumpeter. Transferred to regimental headquarters, he was there appointed sergeant trumpeter of the regiment and attached to the non-commissioned staff of the regiment .. Up to the time of his enlistment in the regular army he had served as sergeant trumpeter at the Regimental Officers' camp at Niantic, Connecticut. About thirty-eight trumpeters and about twenty-five members of the Regimental Drum Corps were under his supervision. During his last year in camp he was one of the organizers of the non-commissioned officers' association. He is also a member of the Officers' Association of the First Infantry, Connecticut State Guard, and belongs to Rau Locke Post of the American Legion. In 1919 he returned to the employ of The Travelers Insurance Company and was made a supervisor in the tabulating department, having since served in that capacity in a most satisfactory and highly efficient manner.

Mr. Gallagher has also manifested a deep and helpful interest in public affairs and in April, 1926, was elected to the board of aldermen from the eleventh ward for a two years' term, serving as a member of the amusement committee, the claims committee and the auditing committee. In April, 1928, he was reelected alderman from the same ward for a second term and is now serving as chairman of the amuse- ment committee and as vice chairman of the police committee. Fishing is his favo-

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rite form of recreation. Mr. Gallagher is a young man of attractive personality and genial in his social intercourse, is public-spirited in his attitude toward all measures for the betterment of his community and stands high in the confidence and esteem of all who know him.

V. RUSSELL LEAVITT

V. Russell Leavitt, Hartford manager since 1919 of the New York firm of Paine, Webber & Company and thus well known in financial circles, was born in Wilton, Maine, August 24, 1891, his parents being William N. and Ada I. (Russell) Leavitt, residents of that place. After leaving the public schools on the completion of the regular course of study he entered Wilton Academy and there pursued his preparatory course. Later he enrolled as a student in Bowdoin College of Brunswick, Maine, and was graduated in 1913 with the Bachelor of Arts degree. Having thus well qualified for life's activities and responsibilities, he started out in the business world in the same year, becoming connected with a subsidiary of the J. G. White Corporation of New York city. He remained with that house for about six months and then came to Hartford, where he secured a position with Bertron, Griscom & Company, also a New York house, which he represented for a time as a salesman, while later he became their Hartford manager, continuing in that position until August, 1918. He then resigned to become a representative of Paine, Webber & Company, members of the New York Stock Exchange and the Hartford Stock Exchange. After serving for a time as salesman he was advanced to the position of Hartford manager in 1919 and has so continued to the present time, in which connection he has built up an extensive business for the corporation at this point. The Hartford office, as the result of his close application and sound business judgment, now has many clients and represents important interests. Mr. Leavitt also has other business connections, being a director of the American Reserve Insurance Company of New York, a director of the Lincoln Fire Insurance Company of New York, of the Plantsville National Bank of Plantsville, Connecticut, of the Root Corporation of Bristol, Connecticut, of the Underwriters Finance Company of Hartford and also of the Trumbull-Vanderpoel Lumber Manu- facturing Company of Bantam, Connecticut, and a member of board of governors of the Connecticut Investment Bankers Association. He displays sound judgment and broad vision in business affairs and has so wisely used his time, talents and oppor- tunities that he today ranks with the foremost representatives of financial interests in Hartford.

On the 27th of September, 1916, Mr. Leavitt was married to Miss H. Edna Rice, a daughter of Charles D. and Anna (Hoagland) Rice, of Hartford, her father being general manager of the Underwood Typewriter Company of this city, mentioned else- where in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt have three children: Marion Rice; Brooks Russell and Jane Elizabeth.

Mr. Leavitt has ever been appreciative of the social amenities of life and is well known in the club circles of the capital city, having membership in the Hartford and University clubs, also in the Country Club of Farmington and the Wampanoag Coun- try Club. His genial nature and social qualities render him a delightful companion and he has here gained a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance.

CHARLES L. GIBSON

Charles L. Gibson, who is in charge of the department of re-insurance with the Travelers Indemnity Company and whose well formulated plans and executive ability are manifest in the continued growth of the business of this department, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, March 24, 1888, and is a son of the late James H. and Nellie T. (Turmey) Gibson, also natives of this city, where the father was a repre- sentative of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company until his death. The Gibson family settled in Hartford in pioneer times.

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History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III, Part 51

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