USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 41
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Charles A. Patterson was a public school pupil in Torrington, where he attended the high school to the age of seventeen years. He left school after completing the work of the sophomore year and secured a position in the office of the Turner & Seymour Manufacturing Company as assistant paymaster, serving in that capacity for a year. When eighteen years of age he started out to learn civil engineering, first serving an apprenticeship under competent local civil engineers, while later he promoted his efficieney by a course in the International Correspondence School of Scranton. Pennsylvania. Having become efficient in his chosen profession, he was appointed in 1909 to the position of assistant borough engineer by the warden and burgesses. In 1910 he was promoted to the position of Vol. II-14
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engineer of the borough and annually has been reappointed, so that he has continued in the office to the present time, having been appointed under three different boards, cach one of different political complexion-the republican, the democratic and the citizens boards. Personally he has always given his support to the republican party.
On the 20th of April, 1910, Mr. Patterson was married to Miss Lulu Belle Thorpe, of Torrington, who was born at Lakeville, Connecticut, where she pursued her education. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have a son, Charles Russell, who was born January 29, 1916. Mr. Patterson is widely known in fraternal and engineering societies and is an enthusiastic engineering student.
ELISHA J. STEELE.
For forty-one years Elisha J. Steele was connected with the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company of Torrington and in October, 1916, resigned from the vice presidency to enjoy in well earned retirement a rest from further business activities. There are many events in his history which deserve more than passing notice. Not only was he for many years a most active and distinguished figure in the industrial circles of the town, but was ever a loyal and progressive citizen, actuated at all times by the same spirit of patriotism which placed his name on the roll of the first twelve enlistments in Torrington in April, 1861. He proudly wears the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been equally earnest in support of movements which have had to do with the continued upbuilding of the country along the lines of temperance and morol reform and he has been a close and earnest student of many great social problems which the country today faces.
A lifelong resident of Torrington, Mr. Steele was born June 29, 1843, his parents being William S. and Caroline A. (Jones) Steele. Through three generations the family name has figured prominently in connection with manufacturing interests in the Naugatuck valley. His grandfather, Norman Steele, was for many years active as a leading manu- facturer at Derby- and his father, William Stcele, was born in Waterbury and learned the trade of soldering brass. With his removal to Torrington in 1838 he secured a position as a button solderer in the factory of Wadhams & Webster and successive promotions brought him to the superintendency of the plant.
One of a family of seven children, Mr. Steele early began to provide for his own sup- port, beginning work at the age of twelve years with his father in the button factory. He was afterward connected with the papier-mache business until 1859, when he became an employe of what is now the Union Hardware Company. His work was in connection with the manufacture of ice skates and he was so engaged at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. At the first war meeting held in Torrington in April, 1861, he was one of the first twelve to respond to the country's call and was enrolled as a member of Company I, Fourth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, which afterward became the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery. He and his comrades made a wonderful record for bravery and fidelity. His regiment enjoyed the distinction of forming the first three years' regi- ment to be ready for field service. With his comrades Mr. Steele participated in many hotly contested engagements, including the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Hanover Courthouse, Chickahominy, Golden Hill, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, and the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond. His brother, Lambert W. Steele, who was a member of the same company as our subject, was mortally wounded in the engagement at Petersburg in the summer of 1864 and in his honor the Grand Army Post in Torrington was named. From July, 1865, the regiment was stationed at Washington until all danger of trouble with the French army in Mexico was over and after four years and four months of active service Elisha J. Steele and his comrades were mustered out.
On his return home Mr. Steele secured a situation with the firm of Turner & Clark and there remained until 1875, when he was appointed superintendent of a brass department of the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company. Four years later he was made superintendent of the wire and rod department and in 1889 he was given additional responsibility in starting and directing the brazed and seamless tube department. Some years later when Coe Brass Manufacturing Company was merged into the American Brass Company Mr. Steele still remained superintendent of the wire, rod and tube mills of the Coe branch in Torrington and later became assistant secretary, secretary, treasurer and in 1913 became vice president of the Coe Torrington branch of the American Brass Company, so continuing until October, 1916, when he resigned after forty-one years' service with the business.
ELISHA J. STEELE
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On the 8th of February, 1917, he was honored, as no other official of the company had ever been, by a reception and banquet at which about one hundred and fifty officers, super- intendents and foremen of the American Brass Company were present. It was made an occasion never to be forgotten by those who participated therein. With John A. Coe, Jr., vice president of the American Brass Company, as toastmaster, Charles F. Brooker, the president of the company, was called upon and presented on behalf of his associates an engrossed book of testimonials and a beautful bronze Chelsea clock to Mr. Steele.
The testimonial read: "Dear Mr. Steele :- Now that you are retiring from active business, the undersigned having enjoyed the privilege of association with you for many years in the service of the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company, and for the last sixteen years with the American Brass Company, desire to express their regard and esteem and their appreciation of the sterling qualities that have marked your life work. Both as an executive officer and as a friend, your treatment of all with whom you have come in contact has been governed by a sense of duty and justice, you have always maintained the highest standard of personal obligation, and your precepts have been clear and made efficient by your example. You have been strong for the right, always helpful and courteous, and you have our admiration, affection and esteem. We have been benefited by this daily contact and now upon your retirement we desire gratefully to acknowledge our obliga- tion to you. We earnestly hope that you will enjoy a well earned rest and that you may be spared to us in health and strength for many years. Sincerely and affectionately yours." Then followed the signatures of the officers and of the department heads of the company. Other speeches were made by several present and an elaborate banquet was served. While Mr. Steele is no longer an active factor in the control of the Coe Torrington branch of the American Brass Company, he remains a director of the Torrington Water Company and the Torrington Printing Company.
It was during his war service that Mr. Steel was married, in January, 1864, to Miss Sophia H. Skiff, a daughter of Nathan and Adelia Skiff. She passed away July 3, 1993. at the age of sixty years, and her death was preceded by the death of a daughter, who passed away in childhood, while two daughters survive, Mrs. Harry A. Hall and Mrs. Arthur F. Tuttle, both of Torrington. The only son, William S. Steele, died of typhoid fever contracted in the Spanish-American war in 1899. The local camp of the United Spanish War Veterans is named in his honor.
Colonel Steele has long been an active and prominent representative of the Grand Army of the Republic and for many years served as commander of the post in Torrington. In 1891 he served as aid on the staff of General Russel A. Alger and he has been importuned to become a candidate for the position of department state commander of the Grand Army of the Republic but has always declined. He served as judge advocate with the rank of colonel on the staff of Department Commander Apple, of the state of Connecticut, and in 1876 he was appointed together with Lyman W. Coe and O. R. Fyler, both now deceased, as a committee to erect a monument in memory of the Torrington soldiers who laid down their lives as a sacrifice on the altar of their country in the Civil war. A merited recognition of character, ability and faithful service was his appointment as quartermaster general by Governor Cooke in January, 1898, but which, on account of the demands which his regular business made upon his time, Mr. Steele felt he could not accept. In 1909 he was appointed a member of the commission to er et an equestrian statue of Major General Sedgwick on the battlefield of Gettysburg, the state legislature having appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars for this purpose. Mr. Steele is also the vice president of the John Brown Association of Torrington, organized June 8, 1901, for the purpose of caring for the farm near Torrington on which John Brown was born. He is ever interested in anything of a patriotic nature, having membership with the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and with the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut and served as president of that body in 1913. He takes a deep interest in every question affecting the welfare of the individual and of the commonwealth. In 1887 he was elected a member of the first biennial session of the Connecticut legislature and during the session held the important position of chairman of the appropriation committee of the house. As a member of the house he. with seven colleagues and four members of the senate, together with the governor, were invited to represent Connecticut at the one hundredth anniversary of the Western Reserve, held at Columbus, Ohio, in 1889. He is vice president of the Connecticut State Prison Association and a member of the state board of education of the blind. Since 1867 he has held membership in the Center Congre- gational church, in the work of which he has taken a most active and prominent part. doing very efficient service for many years as superintendent of the Sunday school. He is also an active temperance worker, is a director of the Connecticut Temperance Union,
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was an organizer and one of the first directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Torrington and for many years has been its president. He is vice president of the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital Association and director of the Torrington Relief Association. His activities have touehed in a large and helpful way those measures and projeets which have had to do with material, intellectual, social, political, civie and moral progress and his influence has ever been on the side of uplift. Moreover, his capabilities have enabled him to combine practical effort with high ideals, resulting in the successful achievement of his purpose.
LOUIS ANGELO WALSH.
Louis A. Walsh, architect, practicing his profession in Waterbury. was born in Water- bury, June 19, 1877. a son of Patrick H. and Mary (Kelly) Walsh.
Mr. Walsh graduated from the Waterbury high school in the class of 1895 and from Columbia University School of Architecture in 1900. He afterward spent three years in the west, working in different architectural offiees and thus qualified himself for an active professional eareer. In the fall of 1903 he entered as a partner the office of E. E. Benedict. The following year the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Walsh has sinee followed his profession independently. He specializes in schoolhouse and church work. He is the archi- tect of the New Wilby high school, to be built on the Grove and Pine street site, the Clark sehool, the additions to Merriman, Washington and Webster schools, the St. Agnes Home in Hartford and many churches, paroebial schools and rectories in different parts of the state.
Mr. Walsh is a member of St. Margaret's Catholic church parish, the Knights of Columbus, Order of Elks, National Fire Prevention Society, the American Institute of Architects, and the Society of Columbia University of Architects,
FRED U. WADHAMS.
Fred U. Wadhams is the proprietor of a flour and feed store at No. 128 East Main street. Torrington, and has made for himself a most ereditable position in the commercial circles of his city. He was born in Torrington, December 6, 1871, the eldest of the four sons of Frederick L. Wadhams, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. He attended the public schools of his native town and was graduated from the high school in the class of 1891. Hle then entered Yale College and gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895.
In November of the same year Mr. Wadhams went to New York city, where he resided until the summer of 1897, being employed as financial secretary of the Twenty-third Street Young Mens Christian Association. He then returned to Torrington and was associated with his father in the hunber and feed business until 1899, when he assisted in organizing the Torrington National Bank and was its teller for three years. The duites of the position proved too confining and on January 1, 1903, he entered upon his present business. leasing a flour and feed establishment, which he purchased inside of a year. He has since concentrated his efforts and attention upon the upbuilding of his trade. He has made many substantial improvements on the property, having built a gristmill and elevator, thoroughly equipping them with modern machinery. His business has so expanded that it now occupies four large buildings and he now carries an extensive stock of hay, grain, flour, feed and seeds.
His politieal endorsement was given to the republicans until the campaign of 1912, when he became deeply interested in the progressive party, being their candidate for state senator from the thirtieth district. He was also a member of the state central committee of the progressive party and was one of the state delegates to the national convention at Chieago in June. 1916. He has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his home town. being president for two terms of the Torrington Chamber of Commerce. In 1915 he headed the ticket of the citizens party for warden of Torrington and missed election by a small majority.
Mr. Wadhams is a member of Company M. of the Fifth Regiment of the Connectieut Home Guard. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks and is a member of the L. W. Steele Camp, Sons of Veterans, of which he is a past commander. He is a charter member of both the Litehfield County University Club and the Naugatuck Valley Yale Club. His interest in the moral progress of the community is indicated by his active and helpful
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membership in the Center Congregational church, where he has been clerk of their society for the last seventeen years. He was married in 1905 to Margaret M. Travis, a daughter of Joseph M. and Eliza (Brooker) Travis.
OVIDE W. BREUX.
Ovide W. Breux. who since 1910 has been one of the owners of the Curran dry goods store of Waterbury, being officially connected with the business as vice president, secretary and manager, has along well defined lines worked his way steadily upward and now oceupies an enviable position in commercial circles, although he made his initial start in the busi- ness world as a elerk. Point by point he has advanced and his increasing experience and efficiency have brought him to the front in connection with the active management of one of Waterbury's most important mereantile interests. ITe was born in Montreal, Canada, July 25, 1880, and is a son of August and Eliza Breux, both of whom are of French descent. The father was a merchant in the Chambly Canton, province of Quebec. In the spring of 1897 he established the family home at Waterbury and is now residing at. Yonkers, New York.
Ovide W. Breux made his entrance into business life when a youth of sixteen by securing a position with the Curran Dry Goods Company, which was established by Philip Curran on Bank street prior to 1892. The business was incorporated April 3, 1907, with Philip A. Curran as the president and treasurer and Peter P. Curran secretary. The latter retired in 1910 and purchased a store in New Britain. The sisters who were stockholders also sold out and removed to New York. In 1910 Ovide W. Breux purchased an interest in the business and beeame its vice president, secretary and manager. This is one of the large commercial enterprises not only of Waterbury but of the state, furnishing employment to one hundred people. The building occupied is at 37 South Main street and is forty-five by ninety feet and four stories in height. In addition the company has large store rooms and work rooms in an annex. A very extensive line of goods is carried, representing all the latest that the markets afford, and a mammoth trade has been secured. The company has always been most careful regarding the personnel of the house, the line of goods earried and the character of service rendered to the public and each year sees an inerease in the sales. Since starting out with the business when a youth Mr. Breux has steadily worked his way upward through the various departments, giving evidence of his resourcefulness and adapt- ability and proving his worth in business circles. The basement of the store is devoted to the sale of cotton goods, wash goods and house furnishings. The first floor is devoted to silks, dress goods, men's furnishings, gloves, hosiery, underwear, notions and fancy goods, the second floor to women's wearing apparel, underwear and corsets and the third story to floor coverings, draperies and luggage. The store employs nine buyers and has one hundred salespeople and clerks. Goods are delivered to all the surrounding towns and the present sucess of the enterprise is the visible expression of the careful management, keen discrimination and sagacity of Mr. Breux.
On the 15th of June, 1915, Mr. Breux was married to Miss Martha Schawaker, of Waterbury, and they have one child, Philip, named in honor of Mr. Curran. Mr. Breux is a member of the French Catholic church. He is very energetic and prompt, actuated in all that he does by a spirit of progress and enterprise, and his life record should serve as a source of encouragement to others, showing what may be accomplished by determined effort and persisteney.
ALBERT H. PULVER.
Since 1888 Albert H. Pulver has occupied his present attractive home on Migeon avenue in Torrington and for many years he has been actively and prominently connected with the industrial interests of the city, being now proprietor of the extensive business conducted under the name of the H. Pulver & Son's Carriage Works at No. 31 Pulver street, which thoroughfare was named in honor of his father, the late ITiram Pulver, who founded the present carriage works at West Torrington, then known as Wrightville establishing the business in 1853, sixty-four years ago.
Albert H. Pulver was born on Litchfield street in Torrington. December 22, 1852, while his father was a native of Copake, New York. The latter reached the age of seventy-six
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was an organizer and one of the first directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Torrington and for many years has been its president. He is vice president of the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital Association and director of the Torrington Relief Association. His activities have touched in a large and helpful way those measures and projects which have had to do with material, intellectual, social, political, civie and moral progress and his influence has ever been on the side of uplift. Moreover, his capabilities have enabled him to combine practical effort with high ideals, resulting in the successful achievement of his purpose.
LOUIS ANGELO WALSH.
Louis A. Walsh, architect, practicing his profession in Waterbury. was born in Water- bury, June 19, 1877, a son of Patrick H. and Mary (Kelly) Walsh.
Mr. Walsh graduated from the Waterbury high school in the class of 1895 and from Columbia University School of Architecture in 1900. He afterward spent three years in the west, working in different architectural offices and thus qualified himself for an active professional career. In the fall of 1903 he entered as a partner the office of E. E. Benedict. The following year the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Walsh has since followed his profession independently. He specializes in schoolhouse and church work. He is the archi- tect of the New Wilby high school, to be built on the Grove and Pine street site, the Clark sehool, the additions to Merriman, Washington and Webster schools, the St. Agnes Home in Hartford and many churches, parochial schools and rectories in different parts of the state.
Mr. Walsh is a member of St. Margaret's Catholic church parish, the Knights of Columbus. Order of Elks, National Fire Prevention Society, the American Institute of Architects, and the Society of Columbia University of Architects.
FRED U. WADHAMS.
Fred U. Wadhams is the proprietor of a flour and feed store at No. 128 East Main street, Torrington, and has made for himself a most creditable position in the commercial circles of his eity. He was born in Torrington, December 6, 1871, the eldest of the four sons of Frederick L. Wadhams, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. He attended the public schools of his native town and was graduated from the high school in the class of 1891. He then entered Yale College and gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895.
In November of the same year Mr. Wadhams went to New York city, where he resided until the summer of 1897. being employed as financial secretary of the Twenty-third Street Young Mens Christian Association. He then returned to Torrington and was associated with his father in the lumber and feed business until 1899, when he assisted in organizing the Torrington National Bank and was its teller for three years. The duites of the position proved too confining and on January 1, 1903, he entered upon his present business, leasing a flour and feed establishment, which he purchased inside of a year. He has since concentrated his efforts and attention upon the upbuilding of his trade. He has made many substantial improvements on the property, having built a gristmill and elevator, thoroughly equipping them with modern machinery. His business has so expanded that it now occupies four large buildings and he now carries an extensive stock of hay, grain, flour, feed and seeds.
His political endorsement was given to the republicans until the campaign of 1912, when he became deeply interested in the progressive party, being their candidate for state senator from the thirtieth district. He was also a member of the state central committee of the progressive party and was one of the state delegates to the national convention at Chicago in June, 1916. He has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his home town, being president for two terms of the Torrington Chamber of Commerce. In 1915 he headed the ticket of the citizens party for warden of Torrington and missed election by a small majority.
Mr. Wadhams is a member of Company M. of the Fifth Regiment of the Connecticut Home Guard. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks and is a member of the L. W. Steele Camp. Sons of Veterans, of which he is a past commander. He is a charter member of both the Litchfield County University Club and the Naugatuck Valley Yale Club. His interest in the moral progress of the community is indicated by his active and helpful
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membership in the Center Congregational church, where he has been clerk of their society for the last seventeen years. He was married in 1905 to Margaret M. Travis, a daughter of Joseph M. and Eliza (Brooker) Travis.
OVIDE W. BREUX.
Ovide W. Breux. who since 1910 has been one of the owners of the Curran dry goods store of Waterbury, being officially connected with the business as viee president, secretary and manager, has along well defined lines worked his way steadily upward and now occupies an enviable position in commercial eireles, although he made his initial start in the busi- ness world as a elerk. Point by point he has advanced and his inereasing experience and efficiency have brought him to the front in connection with the active management of one of Waterbury's most important mercantile interests. He was born in Montreal, Canada, July 25, 1880, and is a son of August and Eliza Breux, both of whom are of French descent. The father was a merchant in the Chambly Canton, province of Quebec. In the spring of 1897 he established the family home at Waterbury and is now residing at Yonkers, New York.
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