USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 43
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On the 24th of November, 1892, Mr. Lounsbury was married to Miss Grace Meddrah, of Winsted, a daughter of James and Mary E. (Murphy) Meddralı, who were early settlers of Winsted, where her father engaged in the contracting business. Mr. Lounsbury belongs to Morning Star Lodge, No. 47, F. & A. M., of which he is a past master. He also belongs to the Trinity Episcopal church and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party.
WILLIAM H. LOWE.
Along well defined lines of labor William H. Lowe has steadily progressed since starting out in the business world and is now controlling a profitable plumbing business in Waterbury. He was born in England in 1865 and is a son of William and Rosanna (Davis) Lowe. The father came to the United States in 1870, settling first in Orange county, New York, and in 1884 he removed to Waterbury, where he entered the employ of the Waterbury Farrel
WILLIAM H. LOWE
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Foundry & Machine Company, with which he was thus associated until his death in the year 1902. His widow survived for three years and passed away in 1905.
William H. Lowe acquired a public school education in New York and started in the business world in an iron foundry. Later he occupied a clerical position and with his father came to Waterbury, where he entered the employ of A. P. P. Camp, a real estate dealer, with whom he continued until the death of his employer in 1890. At that time he became manager of the Camp estate and has so continued. He has also entered the real estate busi- ness on his own account and in that field has prospered. He has taken charge of the rebuild- ing of the entire Camp properties, including residential and office buildings, now having sixteen residences under his management. Important and extensive as are his interests in this connection, they represent but one phase of Mr. Lowe's activity, for associated with H. P. Camp he started a plumbing business in 1890. Following the death of Mr. Camp in November, 1912, he formed the W. H. Lowe Company to continue the plumbing, steam- fitting and heating business and he is still at the head of this enterprise, which employs a seore of people. He is accorded a liberal patronage and in addition he continues to operate largely in the field of real estate. He has had charge of various office buildings and estates in Waterbury and no man has more intimate nor accurate knowledge of realty conditions here. In 1916 he sold the Warner building on Bank street for more than three thousand dollars per front foot, establishing a new record of realty values on Bank street at that time. He has negotiated many of the important and extensive realty deals of the city and his word is accepted as authority concerning values.
In 1888 Mr. Lowe was united in marriage to Miss Mary Roberts, who was born in England, a daughter of James Roberts, who came to Waterbury in 1884. Their children arc four in number. Helen, who was married June 6, 1917 to Charles Perry, of Norwich, Connecticut, was with her father in the plumbing and heating business, acting as secretary of the company. Clara and Edna are at home, and Herbert is associated with his father in business.
Mr. Lowe is well known in Odd Fellow circles, having been financial secretary of the Nosahogan Lodge for twenty-one years, and has been continuously an officer in the organi- zation for twenty-eight years. He has also been active in the higher branches of the order, joining Ansantawae Encampment, No. 20, on April 30, 1891. He at once became active in its work and passed through the several chairs, gaining the distinction of a past chief patriarch, since which time he has acted as scribe. still holding that office. In the Grand Encampment of the state he has held important positions on committees and in 1915 the late F. K. Wool- worth, who was then grand patriarch of the state, appointed him as grand outisde sentinel, since which time he has advanced step by step in the Grand Encampment, and it is safe to assume he will before many years hold the high office of grand patriarch. He is a Veteran Odd Fellow, having joined the Veteran Odd Fellows' Association in 1917. IIe is a charter member of Tunxis Tribe, No. 10, Improved Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Waterbury. In politics, while not active, he has always favored the republican party. These associations indicate much of the nature of his interests and the rules which govern his conduct. His ideals are high, his activities consistent therewith, and the ability for managing important interests and of discriminating readily between the essential and the non-essential have brought him to a most creditable place in business eircles.
F. S. PLUMB.
F. S. Plumb, one of the partners in the firm of Plumb Brothers, belongs to that class of young men who are representatives of present-day business enterprise and who, stimu- lated by a spirit of intense commercial activity, are producing splendid results. In his present business connection he is extensively engaged in handling hardware, farm imple- ments, automobile accessories, tires and tubes and the patronage of the house is steadily growing.
F. S. Plumb was born in Prospect, Connecticut, October 6. 1882, a son of D. M. and Florence (Payne) Plumb, the former a native of Prospect and the latter of Waterbury. The father is a farmer by occupation, devoting his entire life to that pursuit, and he is now serving as township clerk and as treasurer of Prospect township. His political allegiance is given to the republican party.
Reared on the homestead farm amid the environment of country life, F. S. Plumb divided his time between assisting his father and attending the public schools. When he
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had mastered the elementary branches of learning he entered the Cheshire high school, from which he was graduated in 1901. He afterward attended Monroe's Business College and thus well fitted for duties in the commercial world, he entered the employ of the firm of Hotehkiss & Templeton, hardware dealers of Waterbury, with whom he remained for nine years. He afterward spent six months with the Hamilton Hardware Company and on the 12th of March, 1913, became associated with his brother, E. H. Plumb, in organizing the present business under the name of Plumb Brothers at 131 East Main street. They have the distinction of having the longest store in Waterbury if not in Connecticut. It is three hundred and fifty feet in length and has a width in front of twenty-six feet on Main street, with a width of fifty feet through two hundred and fifty feet of its length. They carry a large line of shelf and heavy hardware, farm implements, tires, tubes and automobile accessories and each year has witnessed an increase in their business since they started out independently in 1913. Politically Mr. Plumb is a republican but con- centrates his efforts and attention upon his commercial interests, his activity in politics ,being simply that of a loyal citizen.
JAMES WILLIAM CONNELL,
James William Connell, editor of The News and treasurer of the News Publishing Company, was born in Waterford, Connecticut, February 10, 1878. His father, the Rev. James Balfour Connell, was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and became a prominent minister of the Baptist church. He held several pastorates in Connecticut and was widely known throughout the state as a lecturer of ability who became very popular in that field. He died in Hartford, March 25, 1912.
James W. Connell acquired his education in the schools of Middletown, Connecticut. and entered the journalistic field as a reporter on the Middletown Herald. Since that time he has been continuously connected with newspaper publication. For a time he served on the reportorial staffs of the Middletown Tribune, the Middletown Press, the Hartford Times and the Buffalo Courier, and working his way upward in his chosen field of labor, he became city editor of the Hartford Telegram and was also eity editor of the Hartford Post. Through two sessions of the general assembly he served as legislative reporter for the Associated Press, and in October, 1913, he became city editor of the Middletown Press, occupying that position until September, 1915. He then became editor of the Torrington News and treasurer of the News Company and removed to Torrington. Mr. Connell is well known as a fluent and interesting writer. He prepared most of the copy for the volume entitled "Hartford in 1912," in which is incorporated illustrated biographies of the leading representatives in finance, insurance, educational, religious, legal and indus- trial life of that city. The work also contains two articles over his own name relating to the educational institutions and to the churches of Hartford. Mr. Connell is the author of all of the sketches which were published by Earl Chadwiek in his volume entitled "The Conservative Advocate" and which had a wide circulation. Mr. Connell also wrote a series of signed articles for the Hartford Sunday Globe dealing with personal experiences in the west, where he engaged in ranching for a time.
On the 7th of April, 1913, MI. Connell was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Tiffany Case, then of Hartford, and a daughter of Captain George R. Case, who for almost a half century was connected with the internal revenue service, retiring in 1912. Mrs. Connell is now the secretary of the News Publishing Company and has been of great assistance to her husband in his work. In politics Mr. Connell is a republican and has been prominently spoken of in connection with public offices. He closely studies the questions and issues of the day and his trenchant, terse editorials have set forth with unmistakable clearness many of the salient points that relate to the leading problems of the age.
EDWARD J. KELLEY.
Edward J. Kelley, president of the E. J. Kelley Company of Torrington, was born Sep- tember 7, 1866, a son of the late Edward Kelley, who came direct to Torrington in 1850 from the town of Tipperary in County Tipperary, Ireland. He was then twenty-three years of age, his birth having occurred in 1827, and throughout his remaining days he con-
EDWARD J. KELLEY
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tinued to reside in Torrington, passing away at the age of seventy-one. In early manhood he wedded Catherine Donovan, who was also born in Ireland, a danghter of John and Margaret (Burns) Donovan. Neither the maternal nor paternal grandparents of Edward J. Kelley came to the new world. His father arrived in 1850 and his mother in 1854, and they were married in Terryville, Connecticut, in 1858, but began their domestic life in Torrington, where Mrs. Kelley is yet living, being now eighty-one years of age, her birth having occurred in 1836. She is well preserved for one of her years and is yet enjoying good health. To Mr. and Mrs. Kelley were born fourteen children, of whom four sons and four daughters are yet living, namely: Mrs. Mary Ryan, of Litchfield, Connecticut; Mrs. Agnes Moran, living at Pine Orchard, Connecticut; Edward J .; Katherine and Anna M., both of Torrington, the latter being secretary of the E. J. Kelley Company; Joseph F .; Thomas A., assistant treasurer of the E. J. Kelley Company: and Francis V., assistant secretary of the company. The father was identified with the Naugatuck Railroad during the greater part of his residence in Torrington, assisting in building the road and afterward remaining in the employ of the company for a number of years, Eventually, however, he gave up railroad work and was employed in various capacities until 1865. He then embarked in the teaming and express business and thus laid the foundation of the mammoth enterprise now con- ducted by the E. J. Kelley Company. The historian Orcutt in 1878 spoke of Mr. Kelley as follows: "He is about as well known as any other man about Wolcottville. Regular and faithful as the day comes and goes he is on his truck or express wagon delivering goods, and although he is a servant of all yet he rules the town according to the law of a certain book he carries, as thoroughly as though he was King Edward T." Mr. Kelley was a man of many sterling qualities and gained the confidence and regard of all who knew him to a remarkable degree.
Edward J. Kelley, whose name introduces this review, acquired his education in the public schools of Torrington and in 1884, when eighteen years of age, took over the teaming and trucking business founded by his father. It has since been conducted under his per- sonal supervision, for a period of thirty-three years, and through his capable management and wise business discernment he has developed this into one of the leading enterprises of Torrington, while today the company is known throughout the state and New England. The business was incorporated in 1907 with Edward J. Kelley as the president, Anna M. Kelley as secretary and treasurer, Francis V. Kelley assistant secretary and Thomas A. Kelley assistant treasurer. The company is capitalized for thirty thousand dollars. When the business was founded by the father he had a single team of horses and a dray. From that initial equipment the business has grown and developed until today the company controls a very extensive general heavy trucking business, storage, livery and transfer busi- ness. They do long distance moving and hauling. and the E. J. Kelley trucks are familiar objects on the public highways of Connecticut, also of other New England states and even of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company today owns eight mammoth Packard motor trucks, all marked "The E. JJ. Kelley Company of Torrington, Connecticut" and the largest of these has a capacity of five tons and all are large enough to transport the furnishings of an eight room residence. The equipment of the company altogether includes twelve motor trucks and automobiles and in addition there are seventy-eight horses used in carrying on the large and growing business. The company also has several extensive storage warehouses and does a large coal and wood business. Every share of stock is owned by members of the Kelley family. Mr. Kelley of this review brought the first long distance moving truck to the state of Connecticut and was the first man to operate one, being therefore the pioneer in this line.
On the 30th of January, 1907, Mr. Kelley was married to Miss Frances Elizabeth Smith, a daughter of Henry T. and Sarah (Young) Smith. Mrs. Kelley was born in New Hartford, Connecticut, and after graduating from the high school of that city attended Mount St. Joseph Academy, Hamilton Heights, Hartford, and the State Normal at New Britain. Connecticut. Previous to her marriage she engaged in teaching in the public schools of New Hartford and New York city. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have six children: Mary Agnes, Frances Elizabeth; Edward John; James Sheridan; Agnes Cecilia, and Lucille Gaynor.
Mr. Kelley is a member of St. Francis Catholic church, holds membership with the Knights of Columbus and is a past grand knight. He is also fraternally connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is chief of the Torrington fire department, a position which he has filled for two years, and he was formerly a member of the board of assessors of the town of Torrington and has served on the board of burgesses. He gives his political allegiance to the demoeratie party in national affairs but is not a politician nor an office seeker. preferring to concentrate his energies upon other interests and activities. It is as a business man that he is most widely known and he was formerly president of the
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Torrington Business Men's Association, which he assisted in organizing, and was at one time vice president of the Connecticut State Business Men's Association. His word carries weight wherever he is heard and those who know him recognize the value of his opinions which have been demonstrated in his own successful business career and through his cooper- ation with public interests.
THOMAS A. KELLEY.
Thomas A. Kelley, assistant treasurer of the E. J. Kelley Company, was born in Torring- ton, January 25, 1880, and is indebted to the schools of that city for his education. On reaching manhood he was married October 19, 1915, to Miss Elizabeth J. Hanrahon, of Unionville, Connecticut, who was graduated from the Unionville high school and the New Britain Normal. For several years she taught in the schools of Torrington and by her marriage has become the mother of one son, Thomas Anthony, Jr. Since starting out in the business world Mr. Kelley has been identified with the business established by his father, now conducted under the name of the E. J. Kelley Company, and he is today one of the best known business men of the Naugatuck valley. He has made a special effort to reach the highest efficiency as a public carrier in connection with the depot privileges and has done much toward making the business one of the most prominent enterprises of this section of the country.
FRANCIS V. KELLEY.
Francis V. Kelley. assistant secretary of the E. J. Kelley Company of Torrington. was born on the 2d of October, 1882, and educated in the public schools of Torrington, which city has always been his home. He is now manager of the coal and wood business and much of the success of the firm is due to his indefatigable energy. On the 30th of June, 1910, he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret A. O'Brien, a daughter of P. J. and Annie O'Brien, of Torrington. She is a graduate of St. Francis parochial school and the Torrington high school and for a number of years prior to her marriage successfully engaged in teach- ing in Torrington. To Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have been born four children, namely, Francis, Margaret, Katherine and John.
HERBERT CHARLES OELSCHLEGEL, M. D.
Dr. Herbert Charles Oelschlegel, a capable physician and surgeon of Torrington. was born July 16, 1887, in the city which is still his home. and is the younger of the two sons of Adam Ernest and Pauline (Chevallier) Oelschlegel, both of whom are still residents of Tor- rington. The father was born in the town of Bad Steben, Bavaria. Germany, June 27, 1854, and came to the United States before attaining his majority. He first lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and since 1877 has made his home continuously in Torrington. Here he met Miss Pauline Chevallier and they were married on the 10th of April. 1883. She was born in Barmen. Germany, October 10. 1861, and her father was a Frenchman, while her mother was of German descent. To Mr. and Mrs. Oelschlegel have ben born two sons, the elder being Burdet, an electrician located at Terryville, Connecticut. The family circle still remains unbroken by the hand of death.
Dr. Oelschlegel, whose name introduces this review, has spent his entire life in Torrington, where he attended the public schools, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, while later he was graduated from Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Massa- chusetts, completing his course there when a youth of nineteen years. He was very active in his college days, winning honors as an athlete and as a student. He won the chemistry prize and he played on the football team and also belonged to the track team. At the age of twenty years, or in September, 1907, he entered the Jefferson Medical College of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and spent four years there, being graduated in June, 1911, with the M. D. degree. He afterward devoted eighteen months to active service in the German Hospital of Brooklyn, New York, and on the 1st of September, 1912, he entered upon the
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practice of medicine in his native city. Here he continues in general practice and has occupied his present offices at No. 5 Water street, in the Lilley block, since 1914.
Dr. Oelschlegel demonstrated his loyalty to his country by active service on the Mexican border through the summer months of 1916, when he was attached to an ambulance corps from Hartford, Connecticut. He recently successfully passed an examination at New Haven for membership in the Medical Officers' Reserve Corps of the United States Army and on September 6, 1917, was commissioned a first lieutenant of the Medical Reserve Corps. Dr. Oelschlegel belongs to the Litchfield County Medical Society, the Connecticut State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His religious faith is evidenced in his membership in Trinity Episcopal church. Fraternally he is a Mason, having taken the degrees of lodge and chapter. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and to the Torrington Wheel Club and he is well known socially and professionally, his per- sonal worth in the former relation and his ability in the latter winning for him a most creditable name and place.
MAHLON D. MILLER.
Mahlon D. Miller, superintendent of the Highland division of the New Haven Railroad, has throughout the greater part of his life been connected with railroad service, although he started out empty handed as a boy, working around the coal mines. Whatever suc- cess he has since achieved is attributable entirely to his own efforts, making him a self-made man. He was born in Carbon county, Pennsylvania, in 1868, a son of Isaac and Maria (Rickert) Miller. The father always devoted his life to railroad service, being a pioneer in that field. He was with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in charge of its tracks and he passed away in 1888, while his widow long survived and departed this life in 1915.
Mahlon D. Miller obtained a public school education and when a boy began earning his living by working in the coal fields. Soon afterward he took up the study of telegraphy, beginning work in that connection on a branch line of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in the capacity of operator. He afterward worked as operator for the New England Railway Company at East Hartford until 1890 and was employed at various places by the same company and by the Central New England Railway Com- pany. In 1893 he became train dispatcher at Providence for the New Haven Railroad Company and subsequently was made chief train dispatcher at Prvoidence. He was afterward located at New London and in 1914 he came to Waterbury as superintendent of the Highland division of the New Haven Railroad Company, in which capacity he is now rendering active service to the corporation which he represents.
In 1901 Mr. Miller was married to Miss Alice E. Wood, of Providence, a daughter of Henry F. and Mary Wood. They had one daughter, Helen, who died at the age of three years. Mr. Miller is independent in politics but leans strongly to the republican party and usually supports its candidates. He is active in Masonic circles, holding membership in lodge, chapter, council, commandery, consistory and the Mystic Shrine. He is a firm believer in the principles of the order and does all in his power to advance its upbuilding, recognizing what the adoption of its beneficent principles would mean to the world.
CHARLES D. GOODALE.
Charles D. Goodale has spent twenty-five years of his life in the drug business and yet is a young man. He started out, however, in this line when a youth of fourteen years and is now proprietor of a large and well appointed drug store at No. 466 Main street in Torrington. He was born in Sharon, Connecticut, April 5, 1878, a son of George W. and Ella (Ford) Goodale, both of whom have passed away. The father, who was a miller by trade, died in 1884, at the age of thirty-eight years, while his wife passed away in 1889. There were four sons in the family, namely: George W., a resident of New York city; Charles D., of this review; Burton E., who died in Waltham. Massa- chusetts in April, 1912; and Willis C., living in Athol, Massachusetts.
When Charles D. Goodale was a young lad his parents removed to Falls Village, Connecticut, where both the father and mother passed away. The son was there reared,
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living with an uncle, Charles E. Ford, after the death of his parents. He attended the D. M. Hunt sehool there and at the age of fourteen he left sehool and entered a drug store as clerk and general helper. He spent two years in that position and at sixteen years of age he went to Norfolk, Conneetieut, where he clerked in a drug store for three years. He afterward removed to Bristol, Conneetieut, where he spent one year as a drug clerk and in 1898 he eame to Torrington and for one year was employed as a salesman in a drug store at the corner of Main and Water streets which was then owned by B. T. Lyons and is now the property of John M. Claxton. On the expiration of that year Mr. Goodale went to Waterbury and had some experience in the drug trade there as elek in a North Main street drug store for two years. In 1901 he returned to Torrington and entered the North End drug store on North Main street as a elerk. The store was then the property of B. T. Lyons, by whom he had formerly been employed. On the 29th of August, 1902, he purchased the business, which he has since eondueted and success has attended his efforts, for his energy and ability have enabled him to overeome all obstacles and difficulties. His business methods are sneh as will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny and his enterprise has carried him steadily forward.
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