USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut, Volume II > Part 61
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Francis T. Reeves, whose name introduces this review, was prior to the age of twelve years a resident of Thomaston, of Brooklyn, New York, and of Jersey City, New Jersey, and then came with his parents to Waterbury, where he has since made his home. He continued his education in the public schools to the age of fourteen, after which he put aside his textbooks and entered the employ of the Waterbury Clock Company, with which he con- tinued from 1891 until 1901. Realizing the value of further educational training, he then became a student in the Southwestern Baptist University at Jackson, Tennessee, which he attended during the school year. On returning home he again entered the employ of the Waterbury Clock Company in order to earn money that would enable him to resume his studies. His identification with the business during that second period covered fourteen months. In September, 1902, he matriculated in the law department of the Washington University at Lexington, Virginia, where he completed two years' work in one year and was graduated with the LL. B. degree in June, 1903. His matriculation in that school, however, did not mark the beginning of his study of law, for as early as 1899 he had begun reading commentaries and textbooks and had thus utilized his leisure hours through the intervening period, which enabled him to complete his law course within a year. He mnet the expenses of his college work with money which he had earned and his determination to thus secure an education was an indication of his strength of character. In June, 1903, he was admitted to the New Haven bar while he was en route from Washington and Lee University. He at once entered upon the active work of the profession in Waterbury and has made for him- self a ereditable name and place. On the 1st of January, 1904, he was appointed assistant city clerk and held that office for two years. For several years previous he had been seere- tary of the democratic town committee and in the fall of 1905, while still assistant city clerk, he was elected tax collector of the city of Waterbury. In 1907 he was reelected and held the position for two terms. In the fall of 1909 he was the democratic candidate for mayor but was defeated by William B. Ilotchkiss, who won by ninety-two votes. In 1911 he was again the opponent of Mr. Hotchkiss for the office and defeated him by four hundred and ยท ninety-two votes. He occupied the mayoralty position for two years, making an excellent record, his administration being characterized by businesslike methods and needed reforms and improvements. During the legislative assembly of 1913 Governor Baldwin appointed him judge of the district court of Waterbury and on the 25th of March, 1914, he took his place upon the bench for a four years' term.
On the 9th of June, 1904, Judge Reeves was married to Miss Bettie Peterson, of Naugatuck, and they now have one child, Doris Bettie, born October 5, 1910. The parents are members of the Trinity Episcopal church and Judge Reeves holds membership with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Elks. He is also a member of the Waterbury Country Club and he finds recreation in outdoor sports. Sterling worth of character has brought him to his present position as a capable lawyer and judge of Waterbury and his record, conforming at all times to high standards, has gained for him the respect, confidence and goodwill of his fellowmen in marked degree.
GEORGE D. LYFORD.
George D. Lyford, conducting business under the name of the Lyford Hardware & Sporting Goods Company at Torrington, is now proprietor of a business that has been in continnous existence for half a century under different names and ranks as one of the leading commercial enterprises of the borough. Mr. Lyford was born in Cambridge. Massachusetts, April 22, 1874, and is the only child of George and Maria M. (Dennis) Lyford. The father was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, while the mother's birth occurred in Cambridgeport, and both were representatives of old Massachusetts families. For a time some of his paternal ancestors resided in Maine. The line of descent is traced back to England, where the Lyford family possessed a coat of arms of which George D. Lyford has a copy. His mother's people were of Irish descent. The father was a jeweler by trade and for more than forty years conducted a jewelry business on Washington Vol. II-21
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street, in Boston, passing away at his home in that city in May, 1912. His widow now resides with her son in Torrington.
George D. Lyford was reared in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was graduated from the Manual Training School in 1893-the oldest school of that character in the United States. Upon finishing his course there he entered the employ of the Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Company, his position being that of mechanical draftsman in the Boston factory. In the fall of 1893 the concern sent him to Chicago and later to Min- neapolis, where he was representative for the house in each city for two years. In 1897 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where for nine years he was in the employ of the Simmons Hardware Company and for seven years of that period he was manager of the sporting goods department of its retail store at the corner of Broadway and St. Charles streets. In 1906 he resigned his position and came directly to Torrington to accept the office of purchasing agent with the Union Hardware Company. He remained in that capacity for four years and then became a stockholder, treasurer and sales manager of the company In the spring of 1916 he resigned for the purpose of assisting in the organization of the Employers' Association of Litchfield county, a concern which is composed of all the manu- facturers of Torrington. Of this organization he became the first secretary and so con- tinued until he resigned to take charge of his present business having purchased from Charles G. Agard the business of the Agard Hardware Company, which had been estab- lished fully half a century before, the original firm being Church & Agard, the latter the father of Charles G. Agard who is now a banker in Torrington. In this connection Mr. Lyford is controlling an extensive business, having one of the largest and best appointed stores of his town.
On the 6th of April, 1897, in Cambridge, Mr. Lyford was united in marriage to Miss Emily Lockman, an old acquaintance and schoolmate of his boyhood days. They have two sons: Robert Erdman, who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 18, 1899; and George Edmund, born June 26, 1900. The former was graduated from the Torrington high school with the class of 1917 and is now a member of the Torrington Home Guard. The younger son is now in high school and devotes all of his time outside of school to assisting his father in the store. The family are all members of Trinity Episcopal church and Mr. Lyford is a Knight Templar Mason and an Elk. He likewise belongs to the Torrington Chamber of Commerce, to the Torrington Club, to the Greenwoods Country Club and to the Waterbury Country Club. His chief recreation is golf and he is also fond of fishing. In addition to his home in Torrington he has a summer cottage at Tyler Pond . in Goshen.
MAURICE FRANCIS FITZGERALD.
Wide awake to every opportunity for business development in the line of his ehosen activity, Maurice Francis Fitzgerald has made steady advancement and is now manager of the Winsted branch of the Fitzgerald Manufacturing Company, the parent plant of which is located in Torrington. His life record of steady progress should serve to inspire and encourage others who have to start out in the business world as he did, without capital or the assistance of particularly influential friends. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, August 1, 1888, and was brought to America by his parents while yet a little lad, the family crossing the Atlantic in the year 1890. The parents established their home in Waterville, Connecticut, but after five years there spent removed to Torrington, where the father died and where the mother still makes her home.
Maurice F. Fitzgerald was educated in the schools of Waterville and of Torrington, pursuing his studies to the age of fourteen years, when he put aside his textbooks and secured a clerkship in a Torrington grocery store, in which he spent three months. He afterward worked for three years in the plant of the Progressive Manufacturing Company of Torrington in the capacity of general utility boy. He then served a three years' apprenticeship at tool making in the plant of the Excelsior Needle Company of Torrington and at the age of twenty-one years had completely mastered the trade. He later spent one year in travel and work, going as far west as California, being employed at his trade at various points en route. Returning to Torrington, he entered into partnership with his elder brother, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, in the ownership and management of the Fitzgerald Manufacturing Company of Torrington, which business had been established by the brother in 1907. The factory, which manufactures automobile accessories, including automobile horns, is splendidly equipped. The business prospered to such an extent that in 1912 a
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branch plant was established in Winsted and Maurice F. Fitzgerald took charge, while his brother remains in Torrington and superintends the parent plant. The capacity of the Winsted plant is equal to that of the Torrington plant and in both the company employs about two hundred and fifty operatives. The main product of the Winsted plant consists of antomobile horns and sheet brass. The Clero automobile horn is made in the Winsted plant and is now in wide use. Something of the volume of the business enjoyed by the company is indicated in the fact that they now have two hundred and fifty employes making theirs one of the largest and most important of the productive industries of the Naugauck valley.
On the 22d of September, 1915, Mr. Fitzgerald was united in marriage to Miss Mary Elizabeth O'Brien, of Torrington. They are communicants of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church and he is identified with the Knights of Columbus. He also holds membership in the Winsted Club. He has attractive social qualities which render him popular and that he possesses business ability in a high degree is indicated in the success which he has achieved.
LION. HARVEY LOOMIS ROBERTS.
Hon. Harvey Loomis Roberts, financier and manufacturer, has long been prominently known in the business circles of Winsted and has contributed in marked measure to the development and progress of the city along material lines as the secretary and treasurer of the Strong Manufacturing Company and as the president of the Mechanics Savings Bank. He was born on a farm in the town of Torrington, about three miles south of Winsted, October 20, 1843, a son of the Hon Nelson Roberts, who devoted his early life to agricultural pursuits and who afterward became a merchant at Burrville, while still later he turned his attention to horticultural interests in southern New Jersey, where his remaining days were passed, his death there occurring in 1894, when he had reached the age of eighty years. Before his removal to New Jersey he served for several terms in the Connecticut legislature and took an active and helpful part in framing many of the most valuable laws of the state. His wife bore the maiden name of Charlotte Loomis and was a member of an old Connecticut family that was represented in the Revolutionary war. Her father was Ralzemon Loomis, who removed to Portage county, Ohio, where he passed away at a very venerable age. The mother of Ilon. Harvey L. Roberts died in the year 1858, when he was a youth of fifteen years. His father afterward married Chloe Anna Loomis, a younger sister of his first wife, and she is still living in the state of Ohio. She proved a most kind stepmother to Harvey L. Roberts and his brother Frank, who was six years younger and who became prominent in the affairs of the Strong Manufacturing Company before his death, which occurred in 1915. He had been connected with that company as stockholder and foreman for forty years and was therefore a most active and valued factor in the successful conduct of the business.
Harvey Loomis Roberts has been associated with the Strong Manufacturing Company of Winsted for a half century or since 1867 and has been secretary and treasurer through- out the entire period. The Strong Manufacturing Company was organized in 1866 for the manufacture of undertakers' hardware and supplies. The business has steadily grown and through all the intervening years has maintained a place in the front ranks of the leading productive industries of Winsted. Mr. Roberts was also one of the organizers of the Mechanics Savings Bank of Winsted and has served on its board of directors since its incorporation, while for several years he has been its president. The bank was founded in July, 1875, and Mr. Roberts served as its vice president for a number of years before he was elected to the presidency. He also assisted in organizing the First National Bank of Winsted and has been on its board of directors from the beginning in 1879, and is also the president of the Winsted Trust Company, which was organized a few years ago. He has thus figured most prominently in financial circles. He has been a close student of financial problems and of all phases of banking and there is no man more familiar with the subject in this city nor more capable of speaking with authority upon any question relative thereto. He has always maintained that the bank is most worthy of support which most carefully safeguards the interests of its depositors and such a policy has ever been maintained by the institutions with which he is connected. In addition to the above interests Mr. Roberts is director in the Winsted Edge Tool Works and the Winsted Gas Company. He has maintained the highest standards of honor in all his business relations and everywhere is spoken of in terms of the greatest respect.
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On the 9th of June, 1870, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Miss Emily Perkins, who still survives, and they have long occupied a most prominent position in the social circles of the city. Since their marriage, or for a period of forty-seven years, they have resided at the Park Hotel. Mr. Roberts is a member of the Winsted Club and also of the Winsted Chamber of Commerce. He is the sole survivor of the original board of trustees of the Gilbert school of Winsted and the William L. Gilbert Home. He has been a lifelong republican and in 1871 he was elected to represent the town of Winchester in the Connecticut legislature, in which he served for one term and in 1873 he was chosen to represent his district in the Connecticut state senate, serving one term. In 1877 he was appointed postmaster of Winsted and he served for seven years, covering parts of the administrations of Presidents Hayes and Arthur and all of the administration of President Garfield. He is a member of St. James Episcopal church of Winsted, in the work of which he has taken a most active and helpful part, serving at the present time as one of its vestrymen. He is a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine and exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the eraft. In fact his entire career has been actuated by the most honorable principles, manifest in every relation with his fellow- men, in the conduct of his business affairs and in the discharge of his official duties.
FRANK S. NICHOLS.
In this day of strife and stress, when almost the whole world has been drawn into warfare, one cannot but pause and think back over the American history and of the gallant efforts made by the boys in blue to preserve the Union between 1861 and 1865. For three years Frank S. Nichols of Naugatuck was with this number, doing valiant service in defense of the stars and stripes upon the battlefields of the south. He was born in Nauga- tuck, October 28, 1841, and is a representative of one of its old and most highly respected families. His grandfather, Isaac Nichols, Sr., was throughout his entire life a resident of Naugatuck. Isaac Nichols, Jr., father of Mr. Nichols of this review, was born in Naugatuck, June 14, 1820, and was there reared to manhood. In early life he learned the trade of joiner and wheelwright and built many houses and water wheels in this section of the country at an early day. In response to the country's call for troops he served for one year as a member of Company H of the Twenty-third Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. notwithstanding the fact that he had far passed the allotted military age at that time. In politics he was a stalwart republican, joining at its organization the party which was formed to prevent the further extension of slavery into the north. He wedded Mary E. Hotchkiss, a daughter of Avery Hotchkiss, of Prospect, Connecticut.
Frank S. Nichols pursued his education in the district schools and later entered Brooks preparatory school of West Haven. He served for three years in the Civil war, joining Company K of the Sixth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry when about twenty years of age. He participated in thirteen pitehed battles besides many skirmishes. The date of his enlistment was September 12, 1861, and he was honorably discharged Sep- tember 12, 1864.
The regiment, one thousand and eight strong, was mustered into the service of the state September 3, 1861, and into the United States service on the 12th of September. They left Connecticut for the front on the 17th of that month under the command of Colonel John L. Chatfield, with John M. Speidel as lieutenant colonel. For a short time the regiment was with the force guarding Washington, where it was visited and inspected by President Lincoln, but in October, 1861, it was attached to the first expedition to attack the southern coast, the army being under the command of General W. T. Sherman and the navy under Admiral Dupon. The expedition sailed October 19. 1861, from Annapolis, Maryland, encountering a terrific storm off Cape Hatteras which wrecked and disabled a number of the vessels. On the 5th of November the fleet arrived off Port Royal, South Carolina, and two days later the navy bombarded Forts Beauregard and Walker in the harbor. The engagement lasted five hours, after which the Sixth and Seventh Connecticut Regiments landed in small boats, took possession of Fort Walker and pushed forward to Hilton Head Island, pursuing the Confederates and capturing many prisoners. This was the first combined naval and army victory and cansed great enthusiasm in the north. The regiment from that time forward was constantly engaged in battles, sieges and marches. participating in the capture of Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah river, and the battles of Pocataligo. South Carolina, and Secession- ville, South Carolina. near Charleston. They also took part in the assault and capture
FRANK S. NICHOLS
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of Morris Island, South Carolina, and in the charge on Fort Wagner, Morris Island, July 18, 1863, in which the regiment led the charge on the sea force of the fort under the command of Colonel Chatfield, who resigned the command of a brigade to lead his regiment and in the charge received his death wound. The regiment gained an angle in the sea face of the fort and held it for three hours, but the supports were unable to get up through the curtain of fire, as it is now called, and the Sixth Connecticut was therefore obliged to retire. The regiment, however, took four hundred men into the charge and lost thirty-five per cent of them, a fact which indicates the unfaltering bravery with which the men proceeded. Seven of the color bearers who one after another took up the flag were killed in succession, but the stars and stripes were saved. Paul H. Hayne, a southern writer commented upon the conduct of the Sixth Connecticut on that occasion in writing for the Southern Bivouae of March, 1886. He said: "Then a grand deed, what the old Norsemen would have called a deed of derring-do.' was performed by men of the ever-dominant Caucasian race, the thought of which, as I write, a quarter of a century after its occurrence, here in the trangnil Indian summer, makes my heart beat and pulses throb tumultuously. Across the narrow and fatal stretch before the fort, every inch of which was swept by a hurricane of fire, a besom of destruction, the Sixth Connecticut, Colonel John L. Chatfield, charged with such undaunted resolution upon the southeast salient, that they succeeded in the very face of hell, one may say, in capturing it. What though their victory was a barren achieve- ment ? What though for three hours they were penned in, no support daring to follow them? Friend and foe alike, now, as then, must honor and salute them as the bravest of the brave. The history of the war, rife with desperate conflicts, can show no more terrific strife than this. It was, in more than one particular, a battle of giants."
The loss of the regiment was so great in that engagement that it was sent to Hilton Head to recuperate and soon afterward veteranized. In the spring of 1864 it was moved to Virginia and took part in the campaign of that year, regarded as the most desperate of any campaign of modern warfare up to that time. Its first service was under Butler on the Bermuda IIundred front, then with the Army of the Potomac under Grant and Meade in front of Petersburg, Virginia, and on the north side of the James river, partici- pating in many battles, charges and skirmishes. In November, 1864. it went to New York to preserve order during the presidential election and after the ballots had been eounted returned to the front again. A little later, with other troops, it was attached to the second expedition, participating in the capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. This was the second expedition against that fort and the navy was commanded by Admiral Porter and the army by General A. II. Terry of Connecticut. The capture was effected in January, 1865. The bombardment of the fort by the navy was and is the greatest bombardment known in the history of any war, and the infantry charge upon and capture of the fort the greatest and most successful assault upon a formidable and well defensed fort made during the war. At the end of his three years' term of service Mr. Nichols had been mustered out and with a most creditable record returned to his home.
On the 19th of September, 1877, Mr. Nichols purchased a grocery store in Millville and was thereafter connected with the business interests of Naugatuck in a most prominent manner until his retirement from active life in 1906. His commercial record was ever an unassailable one. His course measured up to the highest standards of business and his enterprise and industry were the basis of his growing success. He was thoroughly reliable and honorable in all that he did and he ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement. For many years he enjoyed a most liberal patronage and thus year by year added to his competence until he had reached a position of affluence that enabled him to retire from business.
On the 12th of September 1866, Mr. Nichols was married to Miss Caroline Camp, a daughter of Jerome Camp, of Plymouth, Connecticut. They became parents of two children, Lewis F. and Emma J., the latter the wife of Walter Brown. On the 13th of September, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, having traveled life's journey together for a half century, during which they have ever shared with each other in the joys and sorrows, the adversity and prosperity which checker the careers of all. His political endorsement has always been given to the republican party where national issues are involved. but at local elections he does not consider hin - self bound by party ties. He served as assessor for five years and as a member of the board of charities for three years. He has also been a member of the Board of Trade and he figured very prominently in connection with the business interests of the city. His religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. He belongs to P. C. Isbell Post. No. 43,
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G. A. R .; te Shepherds Lodge, No. 78, F. & A. M .; to Allerton Chapter, No. 39, R. A. M .; and Evergreen Chapter, No. 22, of the Order of the Eastern Star. He is also identified with Hancoek Lodge, No. 28, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Natatuc Tribe, No. 25, I. O. R. M. In his entire life there has been no esoterie phase. His position is never an equivocal one. He stands firmly by what he believes to be right, has ever been found straightforward and reli- able, in business affairs and at all times his genuine worth has commanded the confidence and goodwill of those with whom he has been associated.
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