USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III > Part 73
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Samuel Rosenthal was only about a year when brought to the United States by his parents and his early education was acquired in the West Middle school of Hart- ford, while later he attended the public high school. In preparation for his profes- sional career he entered Yale University and won his LL. B. degree in 1910, while in the following January he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the active prac- tice of his profession. He devoted his attention untiringly to the interests of his clients until September 4, 1917, when he became one of the first nine to leave Hart-
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ford as members of the National Army for service in the World war. He went to Camp Devens as a private and was promoted to regimental sergeant major, receiving his discharge March 11, 1919, after which he resumed the practice of law. At the present writing he is acting as counsel for the defense in the Guilfoyle murder case. He has tried many notable cases and the court records bear testimony to his ability in the number of favorable verdicts which he has won.
On the 29th of November, 1925, Mr. Rosenthal was united in marriage to Miss Betty Christine Gordon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Gordon, of New Britain. Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal reside at 408 Farmington avenue. Since the time age con- ferred upon him the right of franchise he has been actively engaged in politics, studying closely the vital questions, interests and situations of the day and giving his stanch support to the republican party. He belongs to the Republican Club and also to the Probus Club. Fraternally he has membership in Hartford Lodge, No. 88, A. F. & A. M .; Capitol City Lodge, No. 119, I. O. B. A .; Ararat Lodge, No. 13, I. O. B. B .; and Jonathan Lodge, No. 113, I. O. O. F. He is also identified with the Com- munity Chest and maintains a helpful attitude toward many public projects and measures which are looking to the alleviation of hard conditions of life for the unfor- tunate and are seeking to advance civic standards and promote civic progress.
JOHN WYNKOOP HALEY
John Wynkoop Haley, of Hartford, has established an enviable reputation as a photographer and represents a family distinguished by artistic ability of a high order. He was born in Meriden, Connecticut, August 24, 1897, a son of John Poole and Eliza- beth (Akers) Haley. His ancestors lived in Belfast, Ireland, and the American pro- genitors of the family were four brothers, Edward, Thomas, Robert and Patrick, who came to this country in 1820. Edward and Thomas located in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, and Robert allied his interests with those of Paterson, New Jersey, becoming connected with the Roger Locomotive Works, one of the foremost industries of the kind at that time. Patrick, of whom John W. Haley is a direct descendant, turned his attention to the iron industry, in which he won the full measure of success, and was the owner of the Sterling Furnace at Sterlington, New York. It was in this plant that the chain was forged that was stretched across the Hudson river at Newburgh to prevent the British ships from sailing up the stream.
In 1839 Patrick Haley married Julia O'Neal, of Paterson, New Jersey, and they had two sons, Robert and John, who enlisted in the Union army. Robert lost his life in the battle of Gettysburg. John served with Company M of the Fifth New York Cavalry, and after the war settled in Ringwood, New Jersey, becoming an engineer in the employ of Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt, who owned valuable mines in that district before the discovery of iron ore in the Lake Superior region. The mines at Sterling and Ringwood were abandoned many years ago and have been replaced by giant crushers for road building. John Haley, of Ringwood, was married in 1866 at Port Jervis, New York, to Elizabeth Salisbury and passed away in 1876, leaving a family of four children: Robert H., who married Mozelle Parish, of Jackson, Tennes- see, in 1888, and is living in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Franklin, who married Elizabeth Acker in New York city in 1896 and has remained in that metropolis; John Poole; and Catharine Barr, of Paterson, New Jersey.
John Poole Haley was born January 24, 1870, in Sterlington, New York, and has been identified with the profession of photography since the early '80s. In 1900 he opened a studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he is still engaged in business, and is regarded as one of the foremost portrait photographers in this country. In 1915 he was elected president of the New England Photographers Association and it was at this convention that Mr. Haley made known his discovery of the means of producing artistic pictures by projection, a development which is considered the greatest advance- ment in portrait photography in recent years.
In 1890 Mr. Haley was married in Lambertville, New Jersey, to Miss Elizabeth Akers, who was born March 29, 1872, in that town, and is a member of a family of Quakers, who emigrated from Hertford, England, to the United States early in the nineteenth century. Her grandfather, William Akers, and his sons, William and Joseph, were dealers in china and queensware and prominent business men of Phila-
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(Photograph by John Haley)
JOHN W. HALEY
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delphia. After his retirement from the firm of William Akers & Sons, Joseph Akers went to New Jersey and became a resident of Lambertville in 1871. His wife was Mary Goodfellow, whose mother was Sarah Fulton, a daughter of John Fulton, a first cousin of Robert Fulton. Joseph and Mary (Goodfellow) Akers were the parents of Eliza- beth Akers. To Mr. and Mrs. John P. Haley were born eleven children, of whom Margaret and Janet died in infancy. The others are Robert Duane, John Wynkoop, Mary Elizabeth, Theodore Gibson, Josephine Akers, Sally Fulton, William Arthur, Betty Salisbury, and Patterson Day, all of whom are a credit to the family. The eldest son was an outstanding pupil at the Art Institute League at the outbreak of the World war and afterward went to Boston, where he produced a number of notable canvases. He now has a studio in Greenwich, Connecticut, and is widely and favorably known as a portrait painter. Sally Fulton is a brilliant student at the Yale Art School.
John W. Haley attended the public schools of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and took a course in the Art Students League of New York. In 1918 he was graduated from Pratt Institute of New York and also received thorough training under his distinguished father, proving an apt pupil. He remained in Bridgeport until 1924, when he located in Hartford, and it was not long before the residents of the city were aware of the fact that a photographer of unusual ability had joined their community. His expert knowl- edge of the mechanical phases of the business is supplemented by the true artist's appreciation of beauty of form, color and grouping, and his work is unexcelled.
On July 26, 1919, Mr. Haley was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Lund, of Bridgeport, and both are prominent in social circles of Hartford. Mr. Haley is a Mason, belonging to St. John's Lodge, No. 3, F. & A. M., of Bridgeport, and shapes his conduct by the beneficent teachings of the order. His professional standing is indi- cated by the fact that he has been honored with the vice presidency of the New England Association of Photographers, appointed a member of the advisory board of the National Association, and the presidency of the local association, which offices he is now filling. Mr. Haley is a young man of winning personality, exceptionally well equipped for the vocation of his choice, and his life, much as it holds of accomplish- ment, is still rich in promise.
ALFRED LE WITT
Alfred Le Witt was a lifelong resident of New Britain, where from 1921 until his death May 15, 1928, he engaged in law practice, making a specialty of bank and title work. He was here born in 1898, a son of Michael C. and Betty (Seader) Le Witt. The father became a resident of New York when quite a young man and after- ward of New Britain, where he has been engaged in the jewelry business for a num- ber of years. Fraternally he is a Mason and politically a republican and he has long been active in the work of the Jewish synagogue. To him and his wife were born three sons: Alfred; Sidney, a chemical engineer who is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York; and Bernard, who is a student in Cornell University. There are also two daughters in the family, Nellie and Bella, both at home.
In his youthful days Alfred Le Witt attended the public schools of New Britain and was graduated from the high school with the class of 1917. It was his desire to become a member of the bar and with that end in view he matriculated in the New York Law School, of which he was a graduate of 1920. The following year he was admitted to the bar and opened an office in New Britain, where he has since re- mained, giving his attention to his professional duties, which are increasingly impor- tant and which now focus largely upon special bank and title work. He was thor- ough and painstaking, being seldom, if ever, at fault in the application of a legal principle, and his professional labors were highly satisfactory to those whom he represented.
In New Britain, in June, 1924, Mr. Le Witt was married to Miss Sophie Mesh- ken, who was here born, and in the social circles of this city they were well known. They have membership in the congregation of Sons of Israel and Mr. Le Witt was a member of Kappa college fraternity and of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. He voted with the republican party, was identified with the Chamber of Commerce and manifested a helpful spirit toward all projects which have to do with the sub-
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stantial development and progress of the city. He was a Mason, having membership in Centennial Lodge, No. 763, of New York city, and along strictly professional lines his connection was with the New Britain, Hartford County and American Bar Asso- ciations.
RALPH B. IVES
The Aetna Insurance Company has reached its place in the foremost ranks of the insurance corporations of the country because of the pronounced ability of the men who have controlled its affairs and the progressive policy which they have ever insti- tuted and followed. With the years the company has ever progressed, altering its policy to meet changing conditions, until today the spirit of modern achievement finds expression in the executive control of Ralph B. Ives, now president of the company. He has remained at its head since 1923, and while his rise may seem to have some- thing of the nature of the spectacular, a careful analysis of his record will show that he has employed the qualities of industry, perseverance, determination and laudable ambition which anyone may cultivate, but perhaps to a more intense degree than others do. His life story is of interest by reason of his notable achievements and reflects credit upon Hartford, the city of his nativity as well as of his present residence. He was born January 27, 1873, of the marriage of John S. and Annie (Chapin) Ives. There was nothing unusual in his youth. Like most boys, he entered the public schools and mastered the work of successive grades until he left the high school and turned his attention to the building business and to interior decorating in Hartford. He devel- oped skill and efficiency along those lines and followed the business until 1904, when, thinking to find better and broader opportunities in the field of insurance, he became a clerk with the Aetna Insurance Company, so continuing until 1907. In the latter year he was made special agent in Hartford and after five years devoted to duty of that character became assistant secretary. In 1915 he was transferred to Chicago as assistant secretary of the Aetna office in that city and in 1919 he became vice presi- dent of the western department in Chicago, where he remained until 1923, when he returned to Hartford as president of the company. Not only does he control the des- tinies of the corporation as its executive head but also of two of its subsidiaries, being president of the World Fire & Marine Insurance Company and president of the Century Indemnity Company. He is likewise a director of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, and of the Bankers Trust Company and a trustee of the Society for Savings, and where complex problems are involved few ever question the wisdom of his decisions, for long since his opinions were found to be sound, being based upon broad practical experience, keen insight and high ideals of service in the field of insurance.
On the 3d of November, 1897, was celebrated the marriage of Ralph B. Ives and Miss Edith King, a daughter of William H. and Janette (Hawley) King, of Hartford. Their children are: Louis King, born March 1, 1899; and Nettie, born December 13, 1904. The social position of the family is an enviable one and in club circles Mr. Ives is well known, having membership in the Hartford, Hartford Golf and Wampanoag Country Clubs. In politics he has always been a stanch republican but not an active party worker, for his growing business affairs have made steady demand upon his time and energies, his activities constantly increasing in scope, volume and importance. He is yet a comparatively young man who has probably not reached the zenith of his powers, but already he is in a position of leadership, so that his name stands out among the foremost insurance men of the country.
ROBERT D. OLMSTED
Robert D. Olmsted, vice president and treasurer of the East Hartford Trust Company, has been associated with the financial interests of the city since 1918, and thoroughly familiarizing himself with business conditions, he is fully measuring up to the requirements of his present office. Born in Bristol, Connecticut, November 18, 1885, he is a son of G. Howell and Helen (Washburn) Olmsted, the former a native
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(Photograph by Blank & Stoller)
RALPH B. IVES
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carried on by representatives of the name. Today the plant is operated in the manu- facture of paper for special uses, including electrical insulation, water -- proof papers and papers for mechanical use by other manufacturers. These papers are manufac- tured from cotton rags, Manila rope and similar fibers, which are obtained in a raw state and here converted into the finished product. The company conducts the most extensive manufactory of the kind in this section of the country. Mr. Case had a mill at Burnside operated under the style of Case & Marshall, Inc., of which company he was president. He also manufactured paper twine under the name of the National Patent Reed Company, and the output of this factory alone is ten thousand pounds daily. This is an entirely separate industry from the paper manufacturing and was handled by Mr. Case as president of the company which owns and controls the plant. The raw stock utilized is practically all imported and the business constitutes one of the largest and most important enterprises in this section. Into various fields Mr. Case extended his efforts and each profited by his cooperation. He was vice presi- dent of The Case Manufacturing Company, of Unionville, and president of Case & Marshall, Inc., at Burnside, and the National Patent Reed Company of Unionville. The products are sold direct to consumers, the sales being handled from the Union- ville office, and the output reaches approximately four thousand tons in Unionville, while the paper twine is produced at the rate of five tons per day. The Case & Marshall concern turns out four thousand tons per year, and thus the business inter- ests of which he was the active head have been a great source of income to the com- munity. Mr. Case became identified with paper manufacturing when a boy, starting in a little mill in Chaplin, Windham, Connecticut, in 1894, and there remaining about three years. He was active in this line and there is no phase of paper making with which he was not thoroughly acquainted, while his initiative was evidenced in many improved methods which he introduced into his own factories. In addition to his other interests he was president of the A. Willard Case Company of Manchester, assistant treasurer of Case Brothers, Inc., of Highland Park, Connecticut, a director in the Unionville Bank & Trust Company and a director in the Gardner Fibre Com- pany of Gardner, Massachusetts.
In 1898 Mr. Case was married to Miss Ethel Leonard, of Somerset, Massachu- setts, and they have a daughter, Eleanor, born in 1907 a graduate of Wellesley Col- lege, class of 1928. Mrs. Case is well known socially and her activities extend into church and philanthropic circles. She is identified with the Episcopal faith. Mr. Case was connected with the Farmington, Avon and Wampanoag Country clubs, the City Club of Hartford, the Transportation Club of New York and the Elks lodge of Hartford. In politics he was an earnest republican and manifests a keen interest in all those forces which make for civic virtue and civic pride. He was an outstanding figure in business life, prominent and honored by reason of what he accomplished and the straightforward methods he ever followed in working out his purposes.
FRANK C. NICHOLS
As vice president of one of the oldest and best known industries in Connecticut -The Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company-Mr. F. C. Nichols, who became identified with the company some twenty-seven years ago, has become an important figure in Hartford's industrial circles.
Although Mr. Nichols' ancestors of English and French-Huguenot stock settled in Connecticut long before 1700, his parents were natives of New York State, where he was born in Oswego on February 14, 1868. He attended the public schools of Syra- cuse where his father, Francis M. Nichols, was engaged in business. At rather an early age he went to work in a jewelry store of that city for the munificent sum of six dollars a month. His next position was with a wholesale house in Syracuse for which he sold household supplies in the rural districts until he became their traveling salesman. He left them to enter the service of a hardware manufacturing company and as traveling salesman was eventually given their western territory which included the Pacific coast.
This connection he severed after several years-in 1901-to become salesman for the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, his territory extending from Canada to Mexico City. Two years later he was made sales manager and, subsequently
FRANK C. NICHOLS
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vice president, which position he now occupies. He has charge of their foreign de- partment, which is world-wide in scope and involves not only commercial sales to dealers, but also contracts for war materials with the smaller empires, republics and great powers of both hemispheres.
To his office in the old building erected by the founder, Samuel Colt, come the representatives of these governments: a prince of the blood of Siam; a dark-skinned envoy, incognito, of the ruler of Abyssinia; military and naval officers from the four corners of the earth, infusing romance into the routine of business. It has been nec- essary for Mr. Nichols to travel extensively in Europe and Latin America, with the result that he has had many interesting, novel and sometimes exciting experiences. He was in the Argentine when the German fleet fought the English at the Falkland Islands, and at the time the German warships lay off the Island of Juan Fernandez he was in Valparaiso, Chile. To reach home he was obliged to take a coaster as far as Panama, which trip consumed seventeen days.
His contact with the various peoples and the opportunity to study conditions and customs of the countries at first hand has been of immeasurable value and contributed greatly to the broad knowledge and understanding necessary in the conduct of busi- ness of this character and above all to the enjoyment of his work, which has been notably successful.
His daughter, Sophie, by his first marriage, is the wife of Mr. James L. Wright, of Rochester, New York.
Mr. Nichols is a member of the Hartford Club and the Country Club but, being an enthusiastic sportsman, an ardent disciple of Walt Whitman, spends his leisure at his camp in the Canadian woods. Gardening is one of the hobbies from which he derives the greatest pleasure. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, belongs to Washington Commandery, K. T., and to the Sphinx Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
An executive of the highest type, a man of keen business acumen, he is, withal, genial and sociable and has many warm and loyal friends.
MAJOR RICHARD WOOLSEY DE LAMATER
Major Richard Woolsey De Lamater, who has been in the service of the Aetna Life Insurance Company for the past twenty-eight years, has worked his way upward from a minor position to that of chief underwriter in the accident department. A native son of Hartford, Connecticut, he was born July 5, 1872, his parents being Richard Storm and Sarah Jane (Woolsey) De Lamater, the former born in Hudson, New York, and the latter in Jordan, that state. The De Lamaters, of French Huguenot stock, were established in America as early as 1600, settlement being made in Harlem, New York, where the family received a land grant of ten miles along the Hudson river. Richard S. De Lamater, the father of Major R. W. De Lamater, came to Hartford in 1859. He was a pioneer photographer and the first man in Hartford to make portraits other than by the old daguerreotype process. He photographed many of the early buildings and scenes in the vicinity of Hartford. Both he and his wife passed away in Wethers- field.
Richard W. De Lamater received his education in the public schools of his native city and after putting aside his textbooks was associated with his father in the photo- graphing business until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, in which he saw service. Following his recovery from typhoid fever in 1900 he entered the employ of the Aetna Life Insurance Company in a minor capacity and with the passing years worked his way steadily upward until in 1927 he was appointed chief underwriter in the accident department.
There is an interesting military chapter in the life history of Major R. W. De Lamater, whose record of service in the organized militia is as follows: private Com- pany K, First Infantry, Connecticut National Guard, March 29, 1890; corporal, July 31, 1893; sergeant, September 1, 1896; first lieutenant, March 9, 1899; captain, March 7, 1907; retired, January 14, 1913; transferred to reserve, March 11, 1913; assigned to active duty with First Connecticut Infantry, June 13, 1916; relieved from duty, ordered in S. O. 78 and returned to reserve, June 19, 1916; second lieutenant Company K, First Connecticut Infantry, S. O. 111, A. G. O., August 13, 1916; placed on retired
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list, captain of infantry, S. O. 68, A. G. O., June 6, 1923; detailed recruiting officer, One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Infantry, Connecticut National Guard, S. O. 68, A. G. O., June 6, 1923; major of infantry, Connecticut National Guard, S. O. 89, A. G. O., July 10, 1923; retired, S. O. 89, A. G. O., July 10, 1923; major Infantry Reserve. In the United States Army he served as sergeant of Company K, First Regiment, Con- necticut Volunteer Infantry, from May 17, 1898, until mustered out October 31, 1898. He was ordered to Fort H. G. Wright for muster into the federal service as second lieutenant of Company K, First Connecticut Infantry, Nogales, Arizona, S. O. 118, A. G. O., 16; ordered to report to Hartford to regular commander for muster out, S. O. 243, Headquarters Eastern Department, October 16, 1916, amended by S. O. 259, Par. 17, 1916; mustered out of federal service at Hartford, Connecticut, October 23, 1916; first lieutenant, S. O. 62, A. G. O., subject to examination, March 26, 1917; called into federal service March 26, 1917; ordered home July 31, 1917, on report of Medical Board for physical disability; ordered to Army Medical School, Washington, D. C., for re-examination July 30, 1918, reported August 2, 1918, and passed for captain in Quartermaster Corps. His record in the Connecticut State Guard is as follows: captain and intelligence officer, First Military District, S. O. 47, A. G. O., March 14, 1919; district inspector, First Military District, G. O. 6, First Military District, September 15, 1919; major, First Infantry, March 30, 1920; to State Guard Reserve, January, 1921. Major De Lamater has been military instructor in the Hart- ford police department since 1911 and was instructor in military tactics in the Suf- field School at Suffield, Connecticut, during the years 1915 and 1916. He is now first lieutenant and adjutant in the First Company of the Governor's Foot Guard.
On the 30th of April, 1898, Major De Lamater was united in marriage to Miss Rose B. Kellogg, of Wethersfield, Connecticut. They are the parents of two daughters, namely: Laura Woolsey, who is attending the Hartford Hospital Training School; and Caroline Kellogg, a student in the Boston School of Physical Education.
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