USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 2
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Frederie M. Williams was reared in Washington, Connecticut, and attended the public sehools, afterward preparing for college in the Upson Seminary of his native village. In 1887 he was graduated from the Yale Law School but his studies were not continuously pursned, being interrupted by a period of teaching covering two terms, when he was nineteen and twenty years of age. While thus engaged he "boarded round" among the pupils. During his last year at Yale he was a law student under the Hon. Simcon E. Baldwin, of New Haven, who has since served the state as governor and chief justice. In June, 1887, he was admitted to the bar and for a few months engaged in practice in Litchfield. He then opened an office in New Milford, where he remained from 1888 until 1914. In the latter year he was appointed by Governor Baldwin, his friend and former preceptor to his present position-that of compensation commissioner for the fifth Connecticut district. In 1915 he was reappointed to the position by Governor Holcomb for a five years' term.
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At the time of his first appointment he removed to Waterbury, as the state law requires the compensation officer of the district to reside and maintain his office in Waterbury. He is a member of the Litchfield County Bar Association, the Connecticut State and the American Bar Associations.
On the 28th of October, 1891, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Isabella Gaylord, of Gaylordsville, Connecticut, a village named in honor of the family, which was established there in colonial days. The family was represented in the Revolutionary war and Mrs. Williams holds membership with the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. Williams is a Mason and is well known in club circles, holding membership in the Waterbury Club, the Waterbury Country Club, the Yale Club of New York city and the Litchfield County University Club. In politics he is a republican but takes no active part in political work. His offices have come to him through appointment in recognition of his ability and he has been chosen the chairman of the compensation commission, in which his present term will cover an incumbency of seven years in the office.
HON. JAMES S. ELTON.
Hon. James S. Elton, capitalist, banker and manufacturer, has since 1863 been identified with the Waterbury Brass Company and the American Brass Company, which took over the interests of the former corporation. He was born November 7, 1838, in the city which is still his home. The student of history cannot carry his investigations far into the records of Connecticut without learning of the close and important connection of the Eltons with those events which figure most prominently in shaping the annals of the state. The ancestral line is traced back to John Elton, who in the period of early coloniza- tion came from Bristol, England, and settled in Middletown, Connecticut. His son, Ebenezer Elton, became a resident of Branford and was lost at sea. He was the father of Ebenezer Elton, Jr., who was born in 1712 and after living for a time at Middletown removed to Harwinton. His fifth son, Dr. John Elton, was born October 6, 1755, and became a practicing physician of Watertown, then Westbury, Connecticut. He passed away October 9, 1800. His only son was Dr. Samuel Elton, who was born September 6, 1780, and began the practice of medicine when nineteen years of age, remaining an active representative of the pro- fession at Watertown for sixty years. He married Betsey Merriman and died December 8, 1858, at the age of seventy-eight years. He had a family of seven children, of whom only three reached adult age.
Of these John Prince Elton was born in Watertown, April 24, 1809, and in 1832 became one of the pioneer manufacturers of Waterbury, his efforts contributing in large measure toward making Waterbury the prominent manufacturing center which it is today. He here entered the brass business in connection with the firm of Holmes & Hotchkiss. He had previously engaged in raising sheep on his father's farm and in that way accumulated a thousand dollars. This he invested in the brass foundry together with money furnished by his father, and the firm name was changed to Holmes, Hotchkiss, Brown & Elton. Not long afterward Mr. Holines sold out and a little later Mr. Hotchkiss disposed of his interest, at which time the firm style of Brown & Elton was assumed. For twenty years the firm of Brown & Elton were leading manufacturers of Waterbury. When the firm became Brown & Elton the business was capitalized for forty thousand dollars, of which more than two-thirds had been derived from the earnings of the concern. In February, 1838, the capital stock was increased to seventy-five thousand dollars and later was raised to one hundred thousand dollars. In the beginning of the enterprise much of the machinery and materials had to be imported from England. In 1850 Mr. Elton, on account of ill health, terminated his active connection with the firm but reentered business as the principal or- ganizer of the Waterbury Brass Company. In 1845 a large mill was built and later additions were made. Mr. Elton became one of the first directors of the Waterbury Brass Company and in 1855 was elected to the presidency. After the dissolution of the firm of Brown & Elton in 1856 he was not actively engaged in manufacturing but devoted his attention to the supervision of his various investments in manufacturing and industrial corporations and financial enterprises, in all of which he was called to office. In December, 1850, he was elected to the presidency of the Waterbury Bank and so continued until his demise in 1864. In 1860 he established a private banking house under the name of the Elton Loan & Trust Company, which afterward was changed to the Elton Banking Company, and with that undertaking he was associated until his demise.
Not only did Mr. Elton figure prominently in commercial, manufacturing and financial
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circles but also left the impress of his individuality in indelible manner upon the history of the state as one of its legislators. As a supporter of the whig party he was elected to the general assembly in 1840, 1849 and 1850 and he joined the ranks of the new republi- can party on its organization and on its ticket was reelected to the state legislature in 1863. At the general election of 1864 he was chosen a presidential elector but passed away the day following the election. He was a man of marked public spirit and broad sympathy and was continually consulted by others in regard to business or personal affairs. He held membership in St. John's Episcopal church, of which he was a most generous supporter, and his contributions to charity were equally liberal. On the 18th of March, 1835, he married Olive Margaret Hall, a daughter of Captain Moses Hall. She was born January 25, 1816, and died November 2, 1892.
Of their four children James S. Elton was the second. He pursued his education at Rev. C. W. Everest's school in Hamden and in General Russell's Military School in New Haven. His early business experience came to him in connection with the American Pin Company and he also spent a brief period in work in New York. He then returned to Waterbury and has since been connected with the Waterbury Brass Company and its successor. He became office boy on the 1st of May, 1863, but his rise was rapid, for the same year he was made secretary of the company, having demonstrated his power to suc- cessfully handle the intricate interests and problems which would come to him in that connection. Eleven years later, or in 1874, he was elected president of the company and so continued until the American Brass Company was organized. Of the latter he became vice president and filled that position until about 1910.
Mr. Elton was elected a director of the Waterbury National Bank in 1868 and on the 7th of July, 1896. was chosen president, filling that position continuously for twenty years. He is also a director of the Blake & Johnson Company. He retains his financial connection with various interests, although for some years he has not been active in management.
On the 28th of October, 1863, Mr. Elton was married to Miss Charlotte Steele, who was born in East Bloomfield, New York, and passed away May 8, 1899. They had one son, John Prince Elton, who is a graduate of Trinity College and is now treasurer of the American Brass Company. He is married and has two daughters.
Mr. Elton has long been a devoted member of St. John's Episcopal church and he belongs to the Waterbury Club, of which he was president from 1893 until 1895. In politics he is a republican and in 1883 and 1884 represented his district in the state senate. He has been identified with various public and semi-public interests. He has served on the board of directors of the Waterbury Hospital, of the Silas Bronson Library and of the Westover School Corporation. No interests having to do with the development and up- building of the city and with the maintenance of higher standards of civilization, which take cognizance of the duties of the public to the individual and of the individual to the public, seek his aid in vain. He has ever stood for progress and improvement and his work has constituted a most valuable contribution to the city's gain.
ORSAMUS ROMAN FYLER.
The world instinctively pays deferenee to the man whose honors have been worthily won as the result of his wise utilization of the opportunities which have come to him and of the talents with which nature has endowed him. It was the concensus of public opinion on the part of his fellowmen that Orsamus Roman Fyler was one of the most conspicuous and honored figures in Torrington. To him life was purposeful. He felt that home, citizenship and business opportunities should be carefully cultivated and cherished and that in all these connections there was a work to be done and he never neglected the duty that came to him. For many years he was prominently identified with public affairs and also took a very active part in business life.
Mr. Fyler was born on the 17th of Jamary, 1840, in the Newfield section of the town of Torrington, and was a son of Harlow and Sibyl R. (Tolles) Fyler. On the paternal side he traced his ancestry baek to Lieutenant Walter Fyler, a native of England, who came to this country in 1630 and located at Dorchester, Massachusetts. Later he removed with the colony from Boston to Windsor in 1635 and built a house within the palisade of that town. In 1645 and again in 1647 he served as deputy to the general court and later filled the same office from 1661 to 1663. From him the aneestry of the family ean be traced through five generations to Captain Stephen Fyler, who joined the colonists in their
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struggle for independence and took part in the siege of New York. He was born in Windsor, Connectieut, in 1755, a son of Silas and Catherine (Drake) Fyler, and was married in July 1778, to Miss Polly Collier. Prior to entering the Revolutionary war he spent some time in Torrington and about 1781 located in Newfield. where the remainder of his life was passed. He not only followed farming but also built and operated a dish mill in 1790, producing dishes made of white wood. He planted an orchard and engaged in the manufacture of cider and also owned and operated a brickyard and a sawmill. He opened a dairy and commenced the manufacture of cheese, which his son Harlow afterward earried on on a much larger scale. He was one of the most successful men of his com- munity. After a useful and well spent life he passed away in 1836 at the age of eighty- two years.
Harlow Fyler was born on the 21st of December 1795, and inherited a part of his father's homestead, where he lived for seventy-eight years. After his father's death he purchased the interests of the other heirs in the home place and at length it was jointly owned by him and his brother Juba. He also bought adjoining land antil he owned eight hundred acres of very valuable property. He kept from fifty to eighty cows for dairy and cheese making purposes and was also extensively engaged in the operation of a brick kiln and charcoal burner. Upon his place was an extensive orchard and each year he made a large quantity of cider. He also engaged in the cooperage business, supplying casks for the brass mill for many years. In early life he married Miss Sibyl R. Tolles and they became the parents of eight children.
Orsamus R. Fyler was reared in much the usual manner of farm boys of his time and began his education in the district schools of Torrington. Later he attended the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, leaving school about the time the country became involved in Civil war. On the 11th of September, 1862, he enlisted in the Nine- teenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry under the command of Colonel Leverett W. Wessels, his regiment being assigned to the defense of Washington. In December of the following year it was changed from infantry to heavy artillery and was afterward known as the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. At that time one man from cach company was selected as a recruiting officer and it fell to Mr. Fyler to act as such and while filling that position he was commissioned second lieutenant on the 6th of February, 1864. He had previously served as color sergeant at Camp Dutton, Litchfield. The new command was mustered in on the 4th of March, 1864, at Arlington Heights and in the following May joined Grant's army, taking part in the battles of North Anna River, Cold Harbor, the engagements around Petersburg, Weldon Railroad and the battle of Winchester under General Sheridan in September, 1864. At the last named place he was wounded in the left leg. In recognition of his bravery on the field of battle at Winchester he was eom- missioned first lieutenant.
After returning home Mr. Fyler was engaged in the flour and grain business at Torrington for two years and in 1866 was appointed postmaster by President Johnson. Later he received two appointments to the same office from President Grant, one from President Hayes, and was one of the very few whom President Garfield appointed to office. His last term expired in 1885 upon the election of Grover Cleveland. In 1866 Mr. Fyler also became prominent in state affairs. being appointed by Governor Harrison as insurance commissioner, and so acceptably did he fill that position that he was reappointed by Governors Lounsbury and Bulkeley, serving in all for nearly seven years, He cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln aud continued a stanch supporter of the repub- lican party throughout his life. After his retirement as postmaster he was appointed a member of the republican state central committee and was made chairman in 1896, continuing to fill that important position until ill health forced his retirement. His interest in public affairs, however, never ceased and his judgment was always in demand by party leaders. He was a delegate to the national convention that nominated James G. Blaine for president and he was called upon to fill a number of important official positions. He represented Torrington in the state legislature in the latter '60s and took an active part in organizing the borough of Torrington, after which he served as burgess for several years. In July. 1897. he was appointed railroad commissioner by Governor Cooke and served in that capacity until his death.
During all these years Mr. Fyler was also actively engaged in business affairs of importance. He was one of the original stockholders, a director and first superintendent of the Torrington Water Company, which position he held up to the time of his death. He was also responsible for the organization of the Torrington & Winchester Street Rail- way Company and devoted considerable time to its affairs until it was finally sold. In October. 1900. he was elected a director of the Brooks National Bank and four years
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later was made president of the Torrington Printing Company. In business affairs he was prompt, energetic and notably reliable and usually carried forward to successful completion whatever he undertook.
On the 14th of December, 1865, Mr. Fyler was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Vail, of Torrington, who was born in Cornwall, Connecticut, and they became the parents of one daughter, Mrs. E. H. Hotchkiss, still a resident of Torrington.
During his entire life Mr. Fyler never lost interest in his old army comrades and was one of the commission appointed to build and place a monment of General Sedgwick on the field of Gettysburg. It was largely through his influence that the legislature passed the bill providing for this and he was also largely responsible for securing an appropriation to build the Torrington Armory. He was a prominent member of the Loyal Legion and the Grand Army of the Republic, as well as the Army and Navy Club and was also connected with Seneca Lodge, No. 55. A. F. & A. M. Torrington has probably had no more influential or prominent citizen than Orsamus R. Fyler, who took such an active part in the upbuilding and development of the city and was always identified with its best interests. Ile departed this life on the 22d of November. 1909, honored and respected by all who knew him. He was a man in whom the community had the utmost confidence and at his death it was said that Torrington had lost one of its greatest citizens: Ile was a man of splendid character and those who had known him from boyhood were numbered among his warmest friends.
HON. NEWELL LOOMIS WEBSTER.
Among the public men of the state who have conferred honor and dignity upon Con- necticut's record was the Hon. Newell Loomis Webster, who displayed many elements of great- ness-enterprise and integrity in business affairs, loyalty in citizenship and consideration for others. He was a native of Litchfield, born September 21, 1856, his parents being Frederick Buell and Cornelia S. (Loomis) Webster. The father was a soldier of the Civil war and died in Alexandria, Virginia, of typhoid fever. The family removed from Litchfield to the town of Thomaston, where Newell L. Webster was reared to manhood and attended school. While still in his teens he entered the Miller & Peck store of Waterbury as a clerk and spent a number of years there, gaining a knowledge of the dry goods business, after which he embarked in business on his own account in Thomaston, entering into partnership with F. H. Baker, who had also been an employe of Miller & Peck. They established their store under the firm style of Webster & Baker and conducted a successful business, their trade methods bringing them the support and the confidence of the public.
Mr. Webster, however, devoted much of his life to public service and the people of Litchfield county benefited greatly thereby. He served the town of Thomaston as a selectman for several years and in 1895 he was chosen to fill out an unexpired term as county commissioner. He made so excellent a record during that period that he was elected to the office, which he continued to fill until his death, covering a period of seven years. While serving in that capacity he did much to further public improvements throughout the county, his labors resulting in benefit in many ways. He was not only widely known in Litchfield county, however, but had an extensive acquaintance throughout the state and all who knew him entertained for him the warmest regard. Hle served as chairman of the republican town committee and became a member of the republican state central committee from the twentieth district, acting in that capacity for five years. He was a close friend of O. R. Tyler of Torrington, a recognized party leader, and he was very prominent in party councils, his opinions carrying weight among those who did most to shape party action. He was widely known and the integrity of his character and the high purpose that prompted his conduct won him the warm esteem and high regard of all who knew him.
Fraternally Mr. Webster was connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in Franklin Lodge, and he was ever loyal to the beneficent purposes upon which that organization has been built. He built a fine home on Walnut street in Thomaston, which is now occupied by his widow, and his devotion to his wife was one of his most marked characteristics. Ile passed away on Thanksgiving morning. November 27. 1902. and was laid to rest in Hillside cemetery, his demise being the occasion of most deep and widespread regret. His work had indeed been of worth to his fellowmen and constituted a valuable contribution to npbuilding and progress in the city of his residence and the state of his nativity.
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It was on the 1st of September, 1881, that Mr. Webster was united in marriage to Miss Laura Andrews Thomas, a native of Thomaston and a daughter of Edward and Clarissa (Marsh) Thomas and a granddaughter of Seth Thomas, the founder of the Seth . Thomas Clock Company. Her family is one of the best known and most prominent of the Naugatuck valley. The ancestry is traced back to James Thomas, a native of Scotland, who came to New England and settled in Plymouth, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on what is known as Spindle Hill. He was a cooper by trade. His wife, Martha, with their children lived in the town of Plymouth. The family included: John; Josiah; Martha, who became the wife of Luther Andrews; Phebe, who married Truman Prince; Seth; Sybil, who became the wife of John Newton; and James, who died in early life.
Of that family Seth Thomas was born in Wolcott, near the town of Plymouth, August 19, 1785. His educational opportunities were somewhat limited. He attended the district schools but when still quite young entered upon an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade and worked on the construction of the Long wharf in New Haven. On attaining his majority he turned his attention to clock making and entered into partnership with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley under the firm name of Terry, Thomas & Hoadley. They estab- lished their plant at what is known as Hancock Station in the town of Plymouth and this constituted the initial step toward the development of the great business of the Seth Thomas Clock Company. At length Mr. Thomas sold his interest to Mr. Hoadley and went to the western part of the town of Plymouth, known as Plymouth Hollow, where he purchased land and erected a building in which to manufacture clocks. Later he added a cotton mill and afterward a brass, rolling and wire mill, conducting the three industries until 1853, when he organized the Seth Thomas Clock Company under the laws of Connecticut and continued actively in that business to the time of his death, which occurred January 29, 1859. After his demise the state legislature by act divided the town of Plymouth and named the western portion of it Thomaston in his honor, for its development was largely attributable to his efforts and the establishment of the industry which he there founded.
Seth Thomas was twice married. He first wedded Philena Tuttle on the 20th of April, 1808, her parents being Lemuel and Lydia Tuttle. She passed away March 12, 1810, and on the 14th of April, 1811, Mr. Thomas wedded Laura Andrews, who died July 12, 1871. Their children were: Seth; Martha, the wife of Dr. William Woodruff; Amanda, the wife of Thomas Bradstreet, of Thomaston; Edward; Elizabeth, who became the wife of George W. Gilbert; and Aaron.
Edward Thomas, son of Seth Thomas, was born in the town of Plymouth, now Thom- aston, May 28, 1824, and after attending the public schools continued his education in the Farmington Academy. IIe then learned the clock making business with his father and continued to work along that line until 1853, when the Seth Thomas Clock Company was formed and Edward Thomas was elected secretary of the corporation. He filled that position continuously until his death, which occurred February; 10, 1862, when he was yet a com- paratively young man, his remains being interred in Hillside cemetery in Thomaston. His political allegiance was given to the whig party until its dissolution, when he joined the ranks of the new republican party and was thereafter one of its stalwart supporters until his demise. He was widely known and was respected as a good eitizen and as a man of sterling worth. It was on the 3d of December, 1846, in Thomaston, that he wedded Clarissa Marsh, a daughter of Levi Marsh. She passed away in December, 1907, and her grave was also made in Hillside cemetery. She had been a devoted member of the Congregational church and was a most earnest Christian woman. By her marriage she had become the mother of three children: Walter A., who died at Thomaston; Martha B .; and Laura Andrews, who married Newell L. Webster. Mrs. Webster is one of the highly esteemed residents of Thomaston, much interested in charitable and benevolent work, and is now chairman of the auxiliary of the Red Cross at Thomaston, doing active work for the war.
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