USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 23
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prohibition principles. Mr. Abell is an indepen- dent thinker, and makes it a point to vote as he thinks. He holds no office at present, except that he is clerk of the Congregational church in Leb- anon, of which church he was one of the deacons for eighteen years, until he resigned in 1887.
F. W. BRUGGERHOF, NOROTON: Seedsman.
Frederick W. Bruggerhof was born in Prussia, October 15, 1830, and received a thorough public school education. His early life was spent at St. Louis, Mo., but for the past forty-two years he has been a resident of New York city and Con- necticut. He is a member of the firm of James M. Thorburn & Co., New York city, being one of the oldest establishments of the kind in the metrop- olis. It has been in busi- ness since 1802, being en- gaged in the seed trade. Mr. Bruggerhof is the ac- tive partner in the con- F. W. BRUGGERHOF. cern. But it is not in business alone that he has attained eminent success. He has also won wide attention in the state of his adoption as a public representative. Mr. Bruggerhof was elected to the house of representatives from Darien on the demo- cratic ticket in 1874, his colleagues from Fairfield county at that time including the Hon. Samuel Fessenden of Stamford, ex-Governor P. C. Louns- bury of Ridgefield, and that old and popular legis- lator, Cornelius Mead of Greenwich. In 1875 Mr. Bruggerhof was elected to the senate from the Twelfth district, and was chairman of the commit- tee on finance. His associate members in the senate included the Hon. Thomas S. Marlor of Brook- lyn, ex-State Comptroller Chauncey Howard of Coventry, the Hon. Caleb B. Bowers of New Haven, and the Hon. Washington F. Willcox, now member of congress from the Second district. In 1876 he was returned from the Twelfth district, his colleagues that year including General S. E. Mer- win of New Haven, Edwin A. Buck of Windham, Charles C. Hubbard of Middletown, collector of internal revenue under President Cleveland for the Connecticut district, Congressman Willcox, and ex-Lieutenant-Governor Ephraim H. Hyde of Stafford. Senator Bruggerhof was on the state democratic electoral ticket in 1884, being one of the electors-at-large, and had the satisfaction of casting his electoral vote for Grover Cleveland, who was elected to the presidency. Politically, as well as from a business point of view, the ex-senator from
the Twelfth has won gratifying distinction and success. He is connected with the Presbyterian church. The wife of Senator Bruggerhof, who was Miss Cordelia E. Andreas of New York city, is living. The family includes one son and four daughters. The eldest daughter is the wife of W. N. Capen, Esq., of New York city. The second is the wife of E. C. Hoyt, son of the late Senator Oliver Hoyt of Stamford. The third is the wife of A. H. Smith, son of Commodore James I. Smith of Stamford, ex-treasurer of the state under Gov- ernor Bigelow. The fourth daughter is the wife of Franklin M. Jones, a member of the banking house of J. D. Smith & Co. of New York city. The son, Edward Everett Bruggerhof, was lately married to Miss Lucy F. Otis of Yonkers, N. Y.
FRANCIS B. ALLEN, HARTFORD: Second Vice- President Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.
Francis Burke Allen was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1841, and received a thorough education, preparing him for the avocation of a mechanical engineer. In February, 1862, he was appointed in the engineer corps, United States navy, from Illinois, remaining in active ser- vice until 1868. He was with various ships and squadrons, and on special duty in New York during the entire period. His service through the war was exceptionally credit- able. In 1868 he resigned his commission in the navy to enter the service F. B. ALLEN. of the Novelty Iron works in New York. After- wards he was assistant to the superintendent of motive power on the Northern Pacific R.R. In 1872 he became the special agent of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company in the New York department. In ISS2 he was promoted to the position of supervising general agent in the home office, and in 1888 was made second vice- president of the company. His department in- volves a general supervision of the company's busi- ness in the field and the superintendency of agents. Mr. Allen is exceptionally adapted to this work by training and experience. He is connected with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers of New York, the American Society of Naval Engineers, Washington, D. C., the Marine Engineers' Society of New York, the National Association of Station- ary Engineers; and is lieutenant commander of the National Association of Naval Veterans, vice- president of the Naval Veteran Association of Con-
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necticut, member of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, and of Robert O. Tyler Post, G. A. R. He is the senior aid on the staff of Commander Wells, N. A. of N. V., and is one of the most pop- ular of the naval veterans of this state. He has resided in Portland, Me., Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York, and is widely known by reason of his business and naval associations. Mr. Allen is a member of the Congregational church, and a gentleman of the most enjoyable personality. He has a family, consisting of a wife and five children. The name of Mrs. Allen prior to marriage was Miss Margaret Louise Williams. In politics Mr. Allen is a republican.
EDGAR D. WHITE, ANDOVER: Farmer.
Edgar D. White was born at Andover in this state February 20, 1848. He was educated at the public schools of Andover and the select schools of that town and of Willi- mantic. He began teach- ing at the age of seven- teen, an occupation which he followed most of the tinie winters and part of the time throughout the year, until he arrived at the age of thirty-nine. During this time the larger part of his summers have been spent on the farm, and a portion of the E. D. WHITE. time he has been em- ployed in bookkeeping and as railroad station agent. For the past few years a large part of his time has been and is now being spent in settling estates of deceased persons and in various positions of trust. He has been elected to office by his school district, town, and church, having been almost constantly in office from the age of twenty-one to the present time. He has served his town as school visitor, assessor, grand juror, and auditor, and is at present a mem- ber of the school board. He is a member, as well as deacon, clerk, treasurer, and Sabbath-school superintendent, of the Andover Baptist church.
Mr. White married, at the age of twenty-one, Miss Lydia A., daughter of Norman Sprague of Andover. They have one daughter, an only child. Politically he has been a lifelong democrat. His home has always been in Andover, although his labors have temporarily located him in New Britain, Coventry, and Columbia. He has served as clerk of the probate court for four years, ending in Jan- uary of the present year. He is guardian of two boys, aged respectively thirteen and fifteen years - the sons of a cousin.
JAMES MONROE GILLMORE, ROCKVILLE : Photographic Artist.
The subject of this sketch was born at Gillmore's Hill, in Stafford, Tolland county, in this state, December 31, 1838, being of the second generation from Captain Nathaniel Gillmore, who settled at that place in the early his- tory of the town. His father, William Gillmore, was a man of strong char- acter and occupied promi- nent places of public trust in civil and military affairs during his lifetime as well as conducting important manufacturing enter- prises on his own account. It may be mentioned that J. M. GILLMORE. Nathaniel Gillmore, in his day, held a commission as commander of a " troop of cavalry," the original of which document is in the hands of James M. Gillmore, signed. by Gov- ernor Jonathan Trumbull - who was a son of the famed war governor of Connecticut, and a tried and trusted friend of General George Washington - and by Samuel Wyllis as secretary. Also that the first military commission of William Gillmore was signed by Governor Henry Edwards ; while his appointment " to be colonel of the Nineteenth regiment " bears the signature of Governor William W. Ellsworth, and is dated May 28, 1838, being less than a year prior to the birth of the subject of this sketch. The elder Gillmores, not unlike many of their New England contemporaries, were hardy, self-reliant, and resolute people, accustomed to the hardships of long journeys on foot, and to personal undertakings which would appall the present generation. Young Gillmore was nurtured and trained in the same sturdy line of moral, religious, and business economies that characterized his an- cestors, and thus received a thorough preparation for all the active duties of his later life. His edu- cation was such as could be obtained in the common schools of his time, and was of the practical, rather than the ornamental, type. It proved to be suffi- cient, however, with the advantages he has taken of observation and experience, to enable him to occupy and adorn the many social and civil posi- tions he has been called upon to fill. His first start in business was made at the age of eighteen years, when his father sent him to Hinsdale, Mass., to establish a branch of his foundry and iron works in that place. He executed the trust in a successful and satisfactory manner. Two years later he went to Springfield, Mass., and turned his attention to art works, and subsequently adopted photography as a profession; since which time he has had art
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rooms in various places in New York and the New England states. His studios have invariably been the resort of patrons of æsthetic taste and culture, and his productions have borne favorable compari- son with those of the best artists in this or any other country. He has for some years conducted a flourishing business in the city of Roekville, where he is now permanently located.
Mr. Gillmore married, in July, 1864, Abbie M., daughter of Silas Batchelder of Canterbury, N. H. She is a direct descendant on her father's side from a branch of the Kimball family, which was distin- guished in central and southern New England for its probity, sound sense, and general thrift. They have two daughters, Jennie and Josie, bright and interesting girls, who are the pride and light of their domestic circle.
Mr. Gillmore's connection with social and fra- ternal organizations are numerous and honorable. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for thirty-two years, and is now senior warden of the Blue Lodge, King of the Chapter and Captain of the Guard in the Council. He is a charter mem- ber and vice chancellor of Damon Lodge, K. of P., a member of the organization of American Mechan- ics, and of the Rockville republican club, with which political party he has been identified all his life. In all masonic organizations and gatherings he bears an intelligent and active part, and is held to be a master workman and authority in the ritualistic ceremonies, fundamental laws, and con- stitutional spirit of the order. The circle of his official and personal friendships is thus wide and still extending, including the best social element of his city and the state. .
JOHN HENRY GATES, NORTH BRANFORD: Farmer.
Mr. Gates was born, and has always lived, in North Branford. The date of his birth is recorded as April 29, 1831. He was married January 3, 1858, to Miss Sara Louisa Todd, who, with two sons and one daughter, is still liv- ing. He was a tax col- lector in 1870, and in 1889 represented the town of North Branford in the state legislature. º He at- tends the Congregational church of his place, and for twenty-six years has been the librarian of its Sunday-school. In poli- tics Mr. Gates is a repub- J. H. GATES. lican. He cast his first vote in 1856 for John C. Fremont, and has voted at every presidential election since, save one.
JOHN K. BUCKLYN, MYSTIC: President and Principal Mystic Valley Institute.
John Knight Bucklyn is a native of Rhode Island, in which state he was born March 15, 1834. Ile was educated at Smithville Seminary and Brown University. Most of his life has been spent as a teacher, preacher, and lecturer. A part of early manhood was passed in the machinist business. Principal Bueklyn gradu- ated from Brown Univer- sity in 1861. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa socicty while in college. Immediately after graduation, he enlisted in Battery E, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, J. K. BUCKLYN. and was mustered Sept. 1, 1861, and won an hon- orable record in the war. He was commissioned second lieutenant March 1, 1862, and first lieu- tenant in December of the same year. Oct. 19, 1864, he was made captain by brevet " for gallant, merito- rious, and often distinguished services before Rich- mond and in the Shenandoah Valley," and received a full commission as captain in 1865. He participated in forty-five battles and was wounded at Fredericks- burg. He was also shot while commanding his battery at Gettysburg. In 1864-65 he was on staff duty at the headquarters of the Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac, which was commanded by Connec- ticut's most distinguished soldier, Gen. Sedgwick. After returning from the war he became the prin- cipal of the public school in Mystic, and remained in that position until 1868. He founded the Mystic Valley Institute in 1868, and has since been the principal of the school, which has attained decided success in its field. The institute was chartered in 1880. During that year Principal Bucklyn trav- eled in Europe extensively. He has also spent considerable time in visiting the states of the Union east of the Rocky Mountains, acquiring ma- terial for his profession and work. He is the com- mander of Williams Post, G. A. R., member of the New London County Historical Society, also of the Rhode Island Historical Society of Soldiers and Sailors, and of the Loyal Legion. He is a member of the Baptist church and has been a superintendent of Sunday-school work for twenty years. He has held the office of school visitor and is a notary pub- lic. In politics he is a republican. Principal Buck- lyn was married by the Rev. Dr. Swaine in the Central Congregational church at Providence, Jan. 9, 1864, his bride being Miss Mary McKee Young. daughter of Edward R. Young. He has two sons. John K., Jr., and Frank A. Bucklyn, both of whom
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are graduates of the Mystic Valley Institute and the New York Medical College. Both are prac- ticing. Mrs. Bucklyn, wife of the principal, is liv- ing, and has been an earnest and efficient partici- pant in the work of the institute. The present faculty of the school consists of John K. Bucklyn, A.M., LL.D., John K. Bucklyn, Jr., M.D., Frank A. Bucklyn, M.D., Miss Ella M. Addis, A.B.
HON. LEVERETT BRAINARD, HARTFORD: President of The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company.
Mr. Brainard is one of the most prominent and successful business men in the state. He was born in Westchester Society, Colchester, Feb. 13, 1828, and was educated in the public schools and Bacon Academy in that town. From the age of thirteen years, when he was left in charge of the old home- stead in Westchester on account of the death of his father, he has been the architect of his own success in life. The standing which he has won as a business mana- LEVERETT BRAINARD. ger in Connecticut will show the character of his
work. He is at the head of the largest printing establishment in the state, a director in the Ætna Life Insurance Company, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, the Ætna National and State Savings Banks, the Orient Fire Insurance Company, the Connecticut General Life, and in the Hartford Silver Plate Company, and is the presi- dent of the Hartford Paper Company. A portion of his early life was spent in the state of Pennsyl- vania. In 1853 he became a resident of Hartford, coming here as the first secretary of the City Fire Insurance Company. He remained with this in- stitution until he became one of the active partners of the firm of Case, Lockwood & Co. When the present company was incorporated by the legisla- ture, he became the secretary and treasurer, retaining the position until 1891, when he suc- ceeded the late Newton Case in the presidency. Mr. Brainard has been a member of the court of common council of the city of Hartford, and repre- sented the town in the legislature in 1884. He was appointed house chairman of the committee on railroads, and rendered in that capacity invaluable service in the legislature. In 1890 he was appointed at the head of the world's fair commission from this state, his principal associate being ex-Governor T. M. Waller. Mr. Brainard was appointed by the
joint members of the commission at Chicago as chairman of the committee on manufactures, in all respects the most important of the working commit- tees of the commission. The selection of a citizen from Connecticut for this responsible place was a high compliment to the state, not less than to the gentleman upon whom the honor was conferred. In politics he is a republican, and has been a distin- guished representative of that party's interests from the outset of his public career. He is a member of the Pearl Street Congregational Society in Hart- ford. His wife, who was Miss Mary J. Bulk- eley prior to her marriage, was a daughter of the late Hon. E. A. Bulkeley of Hartford, the founder of the Atna Life Insurance Company. Mrs. Brainard is a sister of Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley, and of ex-Lieutenant-Governor Wil- liam H. Bulkeley. There are seven children in Mr. Brainard's family, the home being on Wash- ington street.
JOSEPH DANA BARTLEY, BRIDGEPORT: Edu- cator and Author.
Joseph Dana Bartley was born in Hampstead, N. H., September 17, 1838. His father was Rev. John M. C. Bartley, who was pastor of the Con- gregational church of that town for over twenty years. His paternal grandfather was Dr. Robert Bartley, who was educated in Edinburgh University, Scotland. His mother, Susan Dana, was the daughter of Rev. Daniel Dana, D.D., who was a pastor in Newbury- port for over fifty years, and was for one year president of Dartmouth College. His great- J. D. BARTLEY. grandfather, Joseph Dana, was pastor of the South church of Ipswich, Mass., for sixty-two years. Mr. Bartley was fitted for college at the academy in Atkinson, N. H., and took the regular course at Williams, graduating in 1859. We quote the fol- lowing from the quarter-centennial report of his class.
"After graduation, he spent one year of theologi- cal study at Princeton, and then became assistant in the academy at Blairstown, N. J., and after- wards, principal of the Susquehanna Institute at Duncannon, Pa. In 1863 he was called to the charge of Skaneateles Academy, where he remained till April, 1866, when he became principal of the Female High School at Newburyport, Mass. In 1868 he was elected to the head of the High School of Concord, N. H., and in 1875, in response to a
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
second call, accepted the principalship of the High School at Burlington, Vt., where he remained until 1882, when he took charge of the High School at Bridgeport, Conn., in one of the finest school build- ings of the state. He has compiled several school books, made his gift of song useful, and entered generously into all good citizenship. He has had active membership in the Teachers' Associations of the several states of his service, has been vice- president and director of the American Institute of Instruction, member of the New Hampshire Histor- ical Society and of the Philharmonic Society of Burlington, trustee of the Concord Public Library, and examiner of Dartmouth College, had part in the Peace Jubilee at Boston, and has contributed to various educational journals, notably The New England Journal of Education, and in all methods, old and new, has kept well at the head of his profession."
In Bridgeport, Mr. Bartley has been a director of the Y. M. C. A. from its foundation, and is vice- president of the Choral Society. He has recently resigned his position in the High School after ten years of service.
SYLVESTER W. TURNER, M.D., CHESTER: Physician.
Sylvester W. Turner, son of Rufus Turner, M.D., and Sarah (Wooster) Turner, was born at Killingworth, Conn., March 12, 1822. At the age of sixteen he entered Yale College, and graduated in 1842. Taught school at Norwalk, Conn., and Newbern, Ala., for a year; then commenced the study of medicine, and in 1846 received the degree of M.D. from Yale. In 1848 he married Gertrude, daughter of the Rev. Syl- vester and Lucy Swift Selden of Hebron, Conn. His wife was a descend- ant of Governor Griswold S. W. TURNER. of Connecticut, and also of John Eliot, "The In- dian Apostle." She died in May, 1890, leaving a son and two daughters. Since graduation Dr. Turner has been a practicing physician for forty- one years at Chester. He was for seven years clerk and treasurer of the Middlesex County Medi- cal Society, and for three years member of the state board of examiners for the Yale Medical Col- lege. He was a delegate to the meetings of the American Medical Association at New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and New- port, and since 1880 has been a permanent member
of the association; is also a member of the Ameri- can Academy of Medicine. He has been for more than thirty years active in educational matters, being during that time secretary of the board and acting school visitor. Was a member of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, at the close of the rebellion. Politically he is an earnest republican. He has been a trustee and director of the Chester Savings Bank since its incorporation in 1871. Is a member of the Congregational church, and president of the Chester Library Association.
JOHN GRAY, M.D., MYSTIC : Physician and Sur- geon.
John Gray, M.D., the second eldest of five sons and four daughters of Robert and Sarah Sherman Gray, was born in the town of Plainfield, Windham county, Connecticut, Sep- tember 7, 1824, where he received his early and preliminary education at district, select, and aca- demic schools, and where, at the age of eighteen years, he commenced the study of medicine and sur- gery under William H. Cogswell, M.D., a highly- esteemed and successful practitioner in that town. From July, 1842, to No- JOHN GRAY, M.D. vember, 1844, he was un- der the able instruction of Fordyce Barker, M.D., at Norwich, Conn., a young physician who had rap- idly acquired an enviable reputation for his profes- sional skill, and subsequently occupied the profes- sor's chair of obstetrics in Bellevue Hospital Medi- cal College, New York.
While in Norwich he learned practical pharmacy in the drug store of R. W. Mathewson, M.D. For a brief time after leaving Norwich he was with E. F. Coates, M.D., at Mystic, to assist him in prac- tice. In 1845-6 he attended lectures at the Univer- sity Medical College, New York. In March. 1846, he permanently located in practice at Mystic, by request of its citizens and the first-settled and old- est physician in the place, Benj. F. Stoddard, M. D., whose esteem, confidence, and professional favors he eminently and gratefully enjoyed up to his death in February, 1848. In connection with his practice he established the first drug store in the place, and has continued it with his son. He has two profes- sional degrees, M.B. and M.D., from Vale College. and is a member of the New London county and state medical societies. He has never published or written any medical work or papers of importance. nor occupied or desired any more prominent posi-
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tion in the profession and general public than to be held in their esteem as strictly honorable, cour- teous, and a skillful physician. He has filled some town positions of trust, and for eleven years prior to 1869 was acting and commissioned postmaster at Mystic.
He was married July 14, 1847, to Miss Emma Packer, the daughter of M. R. and P. Packer, at Mystic, and has one child only (a son), Mason P. Gray, born April 2, 1850, who is a prosperous phar- macist in the place.
JOSEPH OLCOTT GOODWIN, EAST HARTFORD: Town Clerk and Notary Public.
Mr. Goodwin is a descendant in the seventh gen- eration of Ozias Goodwin, one of the first settlers of Hartford. He was born in East Hartford, April 16, 1843, and has always resided in that town, upon land that has been in his family for over two hundred years. He at- tended the common schools, and afterwards a private school under the veteran teacher, Mr. Salmon Phelps, in East Hartford. His first knowledge of business was obtained in the gen- J. O. GOODWIN. eral store and post-office kept by his father, Ed- ward S. Goodwin, Esq., who was for many years justice of the peace and town clerk, besides holding many other positions which showed the confidence and esteem of his townsmen.
Mr. Goodwin left his father's store in 1862, and learned the printing business in all its details in the office of the Calhoun Brothers of Hartford. With the assistance of two other young men he began in 1863 the publication of a little paper, The Elm Leaf, the first newspaper issued for East Hartford readers. In this work he tasted a brief experience of the sweets, and the incidental discipline and fatigues, of the editorial career. He left the print- ing office in 1871. His evenings and vacations had been devoted to reading and study, and in 1870 a sketch from his pen appeared in Harpers' Maga- zine. He has since contributed occasional articles to Harpers' publications and other periodicals, and has been a frequent contributor to the local press. His leisure time for a number of years was given to the work of gathering material for a history of his native town, and he read a paper on that sub- ject in the lecture course of 1877-8. During the fol- lowing year he published, "East Hartford: Its History and Traditions." Later he prepared a
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