USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 30
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
HON. HOBART B. BIGELOW, NEW HAVEN : President of The Bigelow Company.
Hobart B. Bigelow, onc of New Haven's citizens who has been entrusted with the administration of the highest public office within the gift of the state, was born in North Haven, New Haven county, on the 16th of May, 1834. Upon his father's side he came from the Massachu- setts Bigelow stock, a family that has made its record since colonial days for producing substantial, energetic, and useful citi- zens. His mother was a Pierpont, a descendant of the Rev. James Pierpont, the second minister of New Haven, and one of H. B. BIGELOW. the founders of Yale College. Mr. Bigelow's edu- cation was that common to the sons of farmers at that time. He attended the district school of North Haven, and when, at about the age of ten, his father moved to South Egremont, Mass., his educa- tion was continued there, in the same class of school, until he was old enough to enter the South Egremont Academy, where he remained until he was seventeen.
At this age he entered upon the work of life. He began to learn the trade of machinist with the Guilford Manufacturing Company, remaining with this company until its failure, after which he went into the employ of the New Haven Manufacturing Company, then under the management of his uncle, Asahel Pierpont of New Haven, where his appren- ticeship was finished. After this, and until 1861, he had charge of the machine department of Messrs. Ives & Smith as foreman, under both Ives & Smith and their successors, Wilcox & Gay. In 1861, upon the death of Mr. Gay, he bought Mr. Cyprian Wilcox's interest in the machine-shop and continued in his own name. Later he acquired of Mr. Wilcox the foundry connected with the estab- lishment, and the business was carried on under the name of The Bigelow Manufacturing Company. At this place, under close, careful, and intelligent management, Mr. Bigelow's business grew until there was no longer space for his buildings. They had extended along Whitney avenue and through the block to Temple street, and in 1870 he was compelled to remove to a wider location. He bought a tract of land on Grapevine Point, includ- ing a disused building originally built for a machine-shop, and in this place the business has since been conducted.
Two years prior to his removal Mr. Bigelow had added a department for the manufacture of boilers,
a department for which his establishment has since become famous throughout the country. In 1575 the firm style was made H. B. Bigelow & Co., Henry Elson being received as partner, and in 1877 the partnership was extended by the entrance of Mr. George S. Barnum. Its present form is that of a corporation, The Bigelow Company, organized in 1883 under a special charter granted by the legislature of that year.
Mr. Bigelow's continuous success in his business had not passed unnoticed by his fellow-citizens, and in the period between 1863 and 1881 he was called upon to fill a variety of public stations. He was a member of the common council, as councilman in the year 1863-64, and as alderman 1864-65, under the mayoralty of the late Morris Tyler. He was supervisor 1871-74, and filled most acceptably the office of fire commissioner for the years 1874-76. He also served one term as representative from New Haven in the general assembly of 1875. So long an experience had especially fitted him to fill the place of mayor, and though belonging to the party normally in the minority in New Haven, he was, in 1879, elected for a two-years term by a very handsome majority. Mr. Bigelow's adminis- tration of this office was marked by two events of peculiar and permanent interest to the citizens of New Haven. It was under his administration, and very largely due to his support and encouragement, that the East Rock Park Commission was created and the park opened, and this great addition to the beauty and comfort of the city made possible. The other was the well planned and successful effort of
the city government under his encouragement and direction for the building of the breakwaters which have been projected and are being carried on by the United States Government for the improvement of our harbor. Upon the close of his term as mayor, he was called by the majority of the citizens of the state to occupy the office of governor, a place which he filled with quiet dignity, thorough im- partiality, and great good sense.
Mr. Bigelow was married in 1857 to Miss Eleanor Lewis, daughter of the late Philo Lewis, a branch of a family that has left its mark in the administra- tion of New Haven city affairs. His family con- sists of two sons, both of whom are associated with him in business.
In 1882, upon the death of Nathan Peck, he was elected president of the Merchants' National Bank of New Haven, and retained that position until the fall of ISS9, when he resigned - but still retains the position of director.
Since Governor Bigelow's retirement from official life, his attention has been devoted to his company. with lesser interests in a large variety of business enterprises. His career has been pre-eminently that of a business man, familiar with and skillful in
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modern methods of conducting large enterprises, and basing his success upon thoroughness, energy, careful and thoughtful attention to details, avoid- ance of speculation, and the severest integrity. His administration of public affairs has always been marked by the same characteristics. These qualities have won him the hearty esteem of his fellow-citizens, which has been deepened by a quiet, open-handed, and broad-minded practical benevo- lence, of which very few realize the full extent.
CHARLES ETHAN BILLINGS, HARTFORD : President of the Billings & Spencer Company.
Mr. Billings was born in Weathersfield, Vt., Dec. 6, 1835, and was educated in the common schools at Windsor in that State. He acquired the profes- sion of a mechanical en- gineer, and is at present a member of the Ameri- can Society of Mechani- cal Engineers. President Billings formerly resided in Utica, N. Y. His busi- ness life, however, has been spent for the most part in Hartford, where he has been instrumental in establishing an exten- sive and prosperous in- dustry. The company
C. E. BILLINGS.
manufactures machinists' tools and drop forgings, and is at the head of that line of business in the state. President Billings is regarded as one of the foremost business men in the city, and has been for years a successful man- ager of industrial interests. He is the author and patentee of many useful inventions manufactured by his company, which are largely sold in this country and Europe. He is a prominent repre- sentative of the masonic order, having received all of the York and Scottish degrees. He is a past grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Knight Templars of Connecticut. His local mem- bership is with Washington Commandery. He has also been associated with the Connecticut National Guard, formerly being a private in the First Regi- ment. He has been a member of both branches of the court of common council, spending four years in the board of aldermen. During the last two years was chairman of the ordinance committee on the part of the upper board, and has exerted an important influence in that capacity. He is a republican in politics, and has represented the third ward in the municipal government. Alderman Billings is connected with the Second Ecclesiastical society, the Rev. Dr. E. P. Parker's, and with the Hartford Club. He has traveled abroad, visiting
Europe during the summer of 1890, and is a gentle- man of the most enjoyable personal character. He .has been married twice, the second wife being Miss Eva C. Holt of this city, daughter of councilman Lucius H. Holt. There are four children by the two marriages.
AMBROSE PRATT, M.D., CHESTER: Physician and Surgeon.
Dr. Ambrose Pratt of Chester, Conn., according to the genealogical record of the Pratt family, is a descendant in the eighth generation from Lieuten- ant William Pratt, who came from England with the Rev. Thos. Hooker in 1632. Thos. Hooker and his companions first came to Newtown, now called Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Hooker and Lieutenant Wm. Pratt, with others, came through the forest from Cambridge to Hart- ford in 1636, and they were among the early set- tlers of the town of Hart- ford. AMBROSE PRATT.
Lieutenant Wm. Pratt married Elizabeth Clark of Saybrook, and finally settled in Essex. His old- est daughter, Elizabeth, married Wm. Backus of Norwich, from which union one hundred and fifty- one descendants are recorded in the genealogy of the Pratt family.
Dr. Ambrose Pratt, son of Ainbrose and Dolly (Southworth) Pratt, was born in Deep River, in the town of Saybrook, July 11, 1814. His father died the April previous to his birth, and his mother hav- ing married again, he lived with his step-father till about sixteen years old. He attended the district schools till about fourteen years old, when, being ambitious to improve every opportunity for higher instruction, he walked daily four miles and back, in the winter of 1829-30, to attend a select school. In the spring of 1830, without the advice of friends and without money, he determined to try to get a college education. He prepared for college in two years and entered Yale in the fall of 1833. By the aid of an excellent and energetic mother and other kind friends, and by teaching some in junior and senior years, he kept up with his class in their studies, and graduated with them in 1837. After graduation he was prin- cipal of Hills academy at Essex for one year, where he proved to be a very successful teacher. In the winter of 1839-40 he attended a partial course of medical lectures at New Haven. In the fall of 1840 he entered the Columbian Medical College at Wash-
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
ington D.C., from which he graduated in 1843. While studying medicine in Washington, he taught a classical school and devoted much time and study to the medical flora of Washington and vicinity. In 1843 he commenced the practice of medicine and surgery in Chester, Conn. In November, 1844, he married Julia M. Spencer, daughter of Dea. George Spencer, a lady of good education, good constitu- tion, and who had a strong and steady nervous sys- tem, by whom he has now living four daughters. He remained in Chester five years, had an extensive practice, and was regarded as a skillful physician and surgeon, performing most of the minor opera- tions in surgery called for in his vicinity. In 1848 he moved to the city of Milwaukee, Wis., and there commenced the practice of medicine. While in Milwaukee, in the spring of 1850, he opened an in- firmary for the treatment of chronic diseases, intro- ducing therein the inhalation of medicinal vapors, dieting, exercise, electro-magnetism, and the mas- sage, and the appliances of hydropathy. In May, 1853, he was called to Chester to assist and advise in the treatment and care of a case of chronic spinal affection. At this visit to his former place of prac- tice he was induced by friends to return to Chester and open an institution for the treatment of chronic diseases. The house he formerly occupied was very large and available, and very pleasantly situ- ated for that use. In July, 1853, he opened a sani- tarium under the name of the "Chester Water- Cure and Medical and Surgical Institute," introduc- ing into his treatment all the improvements of the times. This institution was at once extensively patronized, requiring an enlargement of the ell part of the house. The institution continued in successful operation till 1861, when, owing to the breaking out of the war, it was closed, and Dr. Pratt, from purely patriotic motives (being too old to be subject to draft), offered his services to Gov- ernor Buckingham as surgeon of a regiment. He was accepted and commissioned as surgeon of the 22d regiment, C. V., his commission bearing date from November, 1862, and was on duty in the field every day till July 7, 1863, when the term of ser- vice of the regiment expired. Dr. Pratt also re- ceived a commission (after a competitive examina- . tion before an army medical board convened in New York) from the secretary of war as surgeon of the 83d colored regiment, dated Feb. 6, 1865, then in the service of the United States, stationed at Fort Smith, Arkansas. This commission he did not accept, owing to the prospective early termi- nation of the war. After the close of his army ser- vice in 1865, Dr. Pratt resumed the practice of med- icine in Chester, and is still one of the three physi- cians of the town. In addition to his professional duties he has a small farmi of thirty-five acres, in one square tract, the best land in the town which
he keeps in a high state of cultivation, and has it well stocked with a choice herd of Jersey cows. Dr. Pratt inherited a strong and energetic constitution from his ancestors, and has always been a healthy, hard-working, and busy man. He has not only at- tended faithfully to his professional duties, but has devoted much time to study and reading. He never took a vacation, spent no time in fishing, hunting, or card-playing. He has treated the rich and poor with the same faithful attention, and as a counselor among his patients was always regarded as their confidential friend. Dr. Pratt was always a man of nerve. In the presence of the sick and wounded he is calm, cheerful, and never loses his presence of mind. He has always maintained exceptionally good habits, never using tobacco or stimulants in any form, and sustains an unblemished moral char- acter.
Dr. Pratt has been active as one of the board of school visitors of the town for many years. He has delivered several addresses on temperance; is a member of the Grand Army, and has often ad- dressed gatherings on decoration days, under their auspices. In politics he is a republican, but not an aggressive partisan. He is a Congregationalist by profession, and member of both church and society. He is a reader of religious works and is a man of very positive religious sentiments, though very lib- eral. He is anti-sectarian, opposed to all church creeds or dogmas, yet tolerant of all who differ from him in religious opinions, feeling and holding that truth, justice, and amity are higher than relig- ious beliefs.
MORRIS B. BEARDSLEY, BRIDGEPORT: Attor- ney and Judge of Probate.
Morris B. Beardsley was born at Trumbull, Conn., August 13, 1849; prepared for college at tlie academy in Stratford, Conn .; graduated from Yale in the class of 1870. After leaving college he attend- ed lectures at Columbia College Law School for a year; then went to Bridge- port, and studied law in the office of William K. Seeley until June 25, IS72, when he was admitted to practice at tle Fairfield county bar, and was taken into partnership by Mr. Seeley, the firm name being Seeley & Beardsley. This partnership was dis- solved in January, 1874, and in thic following April M. B. BEARDSLEY. he was elected city clerk, and held that office for tliree successive terms. In 1877 lie became judge of tlie Bridgeport probate district, and has hield
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that office ever since. He has been a member of the board of education for three years, and was its secretary. June 5, 1873, he married Lucy J. Fayer- weather, a niece of, and largely remembered under the will of, the late millionaire leather merchant, Daniel B. Fayerweather, and has three children. Politically he is a democrat. Is a member of the First Congregational church. Is a thirty-second degree Mason, an Odd Fellow, a member of the Seaside Club of Bridgeport, and of the Aldine Club of New York, and last, but not least, a " Shriner."
GEORGE LANGDON, PLYMOUTH: Merchant, Manufacturer, and Farmer.
George Langdon was born in Plymouth, Aug. 4, 1826, and graduated from Yale College in 1848, his classmates including Judge Nathaniel Shipman of the United States district court, and Judge David S. Calhoun of the Hart- ford County court of com- mon pleas. He resided in Colchester from 1849 until 1853. During the latter year he represented that town in the general assembly, his colleagues from New London County including the Hon. Jere- miah Halsey of Norwich, GEORGE LANGDON. Judge James Phelps of Essex, ex-United States Senator W. W. Eaton. The Hon. Alfred E. Burr of The Hartford Times, and Major F. M. Brown were also members of the house at that time, ex- Senator Eaton occupying the position of speaker. After leaving Colchester, Mr. Langdon resided at New Brunswick, N. J., from 1855 until 1857. The balance of the time has been spent in Plymouth. In politics he is a republican. He is a justice of the peace. For ten years he was a member of the board of selectmen, and was acting school visitor for eight. He has also held the offices of town treasurer and grand juror. For thirty years he has been connected with the Connecticut State Sunday-school association, and has been actively identified with its work. He has held the chair- manship of the executive committee of the associa- tion. Mr. Langdon was one of the founders of the Novelty Rubber Company, a successful manu- facturing corporation, and became one of its directors and its secretary. He was one of the incorporators of the Plymouth Woolen Company, one of its directors, and its secretary and treasurer. He was also one of the founders and a director of the Thomaston Knife Company. His family
consists of a wife and five children. The former, prior to her marriage, was Miss Elizabeth A. Chap- man. Mr. Langdon is a member of the Congre- gational church, and an earnest religious worker.
JARVIS KING MASON, A.M., M.D., SUFFIELD.
Dr. Mason is a member of the Hartford County and State Medical Societies, and of the American Medical Association, also a Fellow of the American Academy of Medicine. He is the medical exam- iner and health officer of the town where he re- sides and vice-president of the Library Associa- tion. He is also the med- ical examiner for a num- ber of insurance compa- nies, including the Ætna, the Phoenix, the Mutual, the Connecticut General, and the Hartford Life and Annuity, of Hartford; the Union Mutual of Boston, J. K. MASON. the New York Mutual, the New York Life, the Mutual Benefit of New Jersey, and the Penn Mutual of Philadelphia. He is a repub- lican in politics and a member of the Congre- gational church. Dr. Mason was born in the town of Enfield, November 8, 1831, and pre- pared for college at Wilbraham, Monson, and Easthampton. He graduated at Yale in 1855, his classmates including Hon. Lyman D. Brewster of Danbury, the Rev. Charles Ray Palmer, the Rev. Dr. John E. Todd, Theodore Lyman, P. H. Woodward, and Lewis E. Stanton of Hartford. After completing his college course he engaged in teaching in Ohio, Texas, and Mississippi. He be- gan the study of medicine in 1858 under the tuition of Dr. J. L. Plunkett of Carthage, Miss. In 1859 he returned north and continued his studies under Dr. Clarke of Whitinsville, Mass., and Dr. Wm. Warren Greene of Portland, Me., the latter having been professor of surgery in the Berkshire Medical College, the Michigan University, and in the med- ical department at Bowdoin. Dr. Mason com- pleted his medical course at Harvard, and received the degree of M.D. in 1861. He immediately set- tled at Suffield, where he has since continued in practice. Dr. Mason has been married three times. His first wife was Mrs. Mary R. Reynolds of Monson, Mass. She died in 1864, after a year's marriage. In 1873 he married Miss Clara K. Hal- laday of Suffield, who died in 1876, leaving two daughters, one of whom died at the age of seven years. In 1877 Dr. Mason was married for the third time, the bride being Miss Mary Louisa East-
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man, daughter of the Rev. L. R. Eastman of Am- herst. The fruit of this marriage is one son and two daughters, all of whom are living. Dr. Mason is thoroughly interested in historical and biograph- ical literature, and has spent most of his leisure during the past thirty years in these pursuits. He is a gentleman of wide culture, and a leading resi- dent of the town where all of his professional life has been passed.
HON. ELISHA CARPENTER, HARTFORD: Judge of the Supreme and Superior Courts.
Judge Elisha Carpenter was born in that part of the old town of Ashford which is now known by the name of Eastford, Jan. 14, 1824, and received a common school and aca- demic education. He was appointed judge of the su- perior court July 4, 1861, and was made a judge of the supreme court in 1865. For thirty years he has been a prominent repre- sentative of the legal pro- fession of this state, and a jurist of undoubted at- tainments. Prior to the appointment to the bench he had held the offices of HON. E. CARPENTER. judge of probate and state's attorney, and had served for two sessions in the state senate. He first became a member of that body in 1857, his colleagues including the Hon. Dwight Loomis of Rockville, who is now a judge of the supreme court, the late Governor James E. English of New Haven, and Ralph S. Taintor of Colchester. In 1858 Judge Carpenter was returned from the old 14th district. It is one of the most in- teresting facts in connection with the history of the Connecticut senate, that the roll of 1858 has fur- nished four members of the superior and supreme courts. Three of the members, ex-Judge Dwight W. Pardee of this city, the late Judge Sidney B. Beardsley of Bridgeport, and the subject of this sketch, have attained eminence and honor in the highest court in this state, while the fourth has served for years as one of the ablest jurists on the superior court bench in Connecticut. Judge James Phelps of Essex, who was the colleague of Judge Carpenter in the senate in 1858, has also served in the national congress. The incident that these four interpreters of the law were associate law-makers in the senate in 1858 is one of great value in estimat- ing the genius and spirit of the Connecticut judi- cial system. Tenure of office in the higher court judgeships is practically identical with the consti- tutional limit. Judge Carpenter was the president pro tempore of the senate in IS58. In 1861 he
represented the town of Killingly in the house of representatives, serving as chairman of the military committee. During the first week of this session the legislature passed a bill confirming the act of Governor Buckingham in sending troops into the United States service without authority of law, and providing for further furnishing of state troops for such service. After his appointment to the superior court bench, Judge Carpenter removed to Wethersfield. He remained in that town sev- eral years, but eventually settled in Hartford, where he now resides. His career on the supreme court bench has been identified in an exceptional manner with publie interests. Of recent years he has been called upon to prepare the most important opinions of the court relative to labor issues. The noted boycott opinion, which defined the rights of workingmen so clearly that there has been no con- test in that direction since, was from his pen. The opinion relative to the forfeiture of wages in case of a violation of contract, which the supreme court enunciated two years ago, was also prepared by Judge Carpenter. This opinion presented with the utmost clearness the fundamental principles of law relative to the rights of labor. It was also Judge Carpenter's perception of the spirit and object of the secret ballot law that led the supreme court last year to a strict construction of the text, the idea of secrecy in the statute being regarded as the funda- mental one. Anything outside of the strictest con- formity to one course immediately destroyed the se- crecy of the vote. It is in cases and issues of this nature that Judge Carpenter has rendered the pub- lic inestimable service. He is a man of absolute personal integrity, and his career has been a price- less inspiration for bench and bar during the thirty years in which he has discharged the duties of a judge in the highest courts of the state. In politics Judge Carpenter is a republican. He is a niember of the Asylum Hill Congregational church, and is a typical representative of the great denomination with which his entire religious life has been identi- fied. During the war Judge Carpenter was the firmest of supporters of the Union. Unable to share personally in the military activities of the struggle, he provided and sent a substitute into the field, though himself never the subject of any military conscription. His heart and hand were governed by an exalted patriotism, the very thought of which was an inspiration to many a man in the field. The oration which he pronounced at the funeral of Gen. Lyon in Eastford during the initial year of the war was a matchless tribute, showing that the Judge's heart was in loyal kinship with that of the fallen hero, by the side of whose grave the state was bowed in the most affectionate sorrow and reverence. Judge Carpenter has been married twice. His first wife was Miss Harriet G.
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