USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 53
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James Montgomery Bailey is one of the most popular writers in this state. For years his humor- ous productions have been the delight of circles far beyond the boundaries of Connecticut, and his name is household a word throughout the country. Mr. Bailey is not only an admirable humorist, but he is also a first-class business man. At the meeting of the state board of trade in Janu- ary, 1891, he was elected first vice-president, and he holds the position of J. M. BAILEY. president of the Danbury board. He was born in Albany, N. Y., Sept. 25, 1841, and received a pub- lic school education. He began business life as a carpenter's apprentice. In 1860 he removed to Danbury and in 1862 enlisted in the Seventeenth Connecticut regiment, serving in that command for three years. He is a prominent Mason, belonging to all the bodies in the order, from the blue lodge to the mystic shrine. He was the first president of the Danbury Hospital Association and is a member of the executive committee of the Danbury Relief Society. Mr. Bailey is one of the most active and influential citizens of the new city of Danbury and is thoroughly interested in its progress and pros- perity. He is connected with the Baptist church. His wife, who is still living, was Miss Kate D. Stewart prior to her marriage.
ORLANDO C. OSBORN, OXFORD: Farmer.
Orlando C. Osborn was a member of the legisla- ture in 1889, representing his town on the demo- cratic side of the house. He has been a member of the board of selectmen, justice of the peace, and school visitor, and is still the incumbent of the lat- ter position. He is a farmer by occupation, a member of the grange, and a progressive mana- ger, being one of the first in his locality to adopt farming improvements. He is a member of Morn- ing Star Lodge, No. 47, F. and A. M., of Seymour. O. C. OSBORN. The wife of Mr. Osborn was Miss Idella J. Andrew prior to marriage and is still living. The family includes two sons and two daughters. Mr. Osborn is connected with the Episcopal church. He was born in Oxford March 23, 1847, and received a common and high school education. Most of his life has been spent on the farm that has been in the family for generations. It is crossed by the New York & New England road, the station being located on a portion of the estate that has descended to him.
THOMAS NEARY, NAUGATUCK: Wholesale and Retail Merchant.
Thomas Neary is a native of Ireland, having been born in county Killkenny, April 1, 1833. At a very early age he left home and friends in search of for- tune, with scarcely a dol- lar in his pocket, and no reliance on anybody or anything except his own clear head and strong hands. He first went to England, but afterwards sailed for America, land- ing in New York. Almost immediately after his ar- rival in this country he settled in Naugatuck, Conn., and at the age of twenty-one he was mar- THOMAS NEARY. ried. In 1858 he rented a small house in Naugatuck, and started a retail trade in spirituous and malt liquors. By careful management and strict attention to business he built up a prosperous trade, and was soon able to open a wholesale department. The small house which he rented became his own property, and in due time all the surrounding ones were his also, as
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well as the land connected therewith. His trade increased, and he may be said to have had thirty- three years of uninterrupted prosperity. He has been all the time acquiring additional real estate, until now he is the largest individual taxpayer in Naugatuck. His present place of business is per- haps the finest and most elaborate of its kind in the state, occupying a handsome block in the center of the town. By its side, and a little in the rear, stands the old building in which as a poor young man he first began business. It is preserved as a memento of his humble beginnings, and visitors often note and comment upon the contrast between the two, and the change which thirty-three years have wrought under Mr. Neary's skillful manage- ment. From a pecuniary standpoint, his life has indeed been a marvelous success.
Mr. Neary is a democrat in politics, and exerts a powerful influence in his party. He has never sought public office, preferring to remain in the ranks. He is an earnest and generally a trium- phant worker for the success of the party and the candidate in whose behalf his influence and labors are enlisted.
ALBERT BARROWS, WILLIMANTIC: Farmer.
Albert Barrows was born in Mansfield, June 27, 1825, and received a common school education. With the exception of four years in Norwich and two in this city, his life has been spent in Tol- land county. He has been engaged in the meat busi- ness and farming as an avocation. Mr. Barrows was one of the original members of the Putnam Phalanx, and served four- teen years in the bat- talion. He has been mar- ried three times. The first and second wives, Mary J. and Angeline M. Slate, were daughters of ALBERT BARROWS. the late Deacon N. Slate of Mansfield. The third, Fanny M. Case, was the daughter of the late Luther Case of Norwich. She died on the 4th of April of the present year. There are three children, one son and two daughters. One daughter resides in Lowell, Mass., and the other at Mansfield. Mr. Barrows is a member of the Baptist church, and is a republican in politics, having united with that political organization after the repeal of the Missouri compromise. Prior to that act he was a democrat. In 1857 he represented the town of Mansfield in the legislature. He was a member of the school board in Windham for
nine years, and truant officer for the same period; assessor of the town and borough for fourteen years; and has occupied other minor offices. His father, the late Deacon Samuel Barrows, was one of the first settlers of Willimantic.
JAMES U. TAINTOR, HARTFORD: Secretary Orient Insurance Company.
James Ulysses Taintor, fourth son of Ralph Smith and Phœbe Higgins (Lord) Taintor, is a na- tive of the town of Pomfret, Windham county, Connecticut. He was born October 23, 1844. He traces his ancestry to Captain Josiah Burnham, who was master of the brig-of-war Oliver Crom- well of revolutionary memory; and to Thomas Lord, one of the first proprietors of Hartford, from whose family the section of the city fa- miliarly known as "Lord's Hill" received its name. The American ancestors J. U. TAINTOR. of Mr. Taintor on both sides were Pilgrims; and one of them, Rev. Ralph Smith, is mentioned in colonial history as having preached before Gov- ernor Winthrop and Governor Bradford on the occasion of an important conference between these notable representatives of Massachusetts and Ply- mouth colonies.
Mr. Taintor's stay in the town of his nativity was brief, for in his fourth year the family moved to Colchester, where he spent his early years in solv- ing the mysteries of the district school. Later he prepared for college in the reputable Bacon acad- emy of Colchester, and entered Yale in September, 1862, graduating from the university in 1866. The summer before his graduation he was elected assistant clerk of the Connecticut House of Rep- resentatives - a unique experience for a college student - was clerk of the House tlic succeeding year, and in 1868 was called to the clerkship of the Senate. In January, 1869, he became in- terested in the principal fire insurance agency in the city of Meriden. In July of the same ycar he became adjuster of losses for the Phoenix Insur- ance Company of Hartford, and continued in that position until the autumn of ISSI, when he was called to the home office of the company. He re- mained in the service of the company until June, ISSS, when he became secretary of the Orient In- surance Company, which position he now holds.
Mr. Taintor is an earnest republican, and during periods of his life has been thoroughly
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active in political affairs. At the invitation of Mayor Root in 1888 he became, and still is, a member of the Board of Street Commissioners of Hartford, but holds no other public office. He is married and has two children, both sons. Mrs. Taintor was Miss Isabel Spencer, of Hartford.
JONATHAN FLYNT MORRIS, HARTFORD : President Charter Oak National Bank.
Jonathan F. Morris, fifth son of Edward Morris of Belchertown, Mass., and of the seventh genera- tion from ancestor Edward Morris of Waltham Holy Cross Abbey, in the county of Essex, Eng- land, and Roxbury, Mass., was born at "Kent- field Place " in Belcher- town, March 20, 1822. After the death of his father, in 1824, he lived with his maternal uncle, Rufus Flynt, in Monson, until 1836. In April of that year he went to New York city, where he at- J. F. MORRIS. tended school and filled clerkships until October, 1843, when he went to sea as supercargo of a vessel engaged in the Haytian trade. He spent most of the four succeeding years in commercial establishments at Port de Paix and Gonaives ; but in the autumn of 1847, having become reduced in health by an attack of yellow fever, which was followed by a relapse, he was compelled to seek a change of climate, and re- turned to New England. He soon recovered his health, and obtained a situation in the cashier's de- partment of the Western Railroad - now Boston & Albany -at Springfield, where he remained until March, 1850, when he was offered and ac- cepted the position of teller in the Tolland County Bank of Tolland, in this state. He remained with this institution until chosen cashier of the Charter Oak Bank of Hartford, September 13, 1853. He entered upon the duties of his new position on the first opening of the bank, October 3, 1853, and re- mained in it until chosen its president, September 3, 1879, which latter position he continues to fill.
In politics Mr. Morris has been a whig and a re- publican. With the latter party he continues to act. He was one of the nine persons who met in Hartford, February 4, 1856, to take the first step toward the formation of the republican party in Connecticut. Of these nine gentlemen only three are now living, viz .: General Hawley, now United States senator; Judge Shipman of the United States district court; and the subject of this sketch. In
educational affairs Mr. Morris has always mani- fested a lively interest, and during his residence in Hartford has borne an active part. He is, and has been for years, treasurer of the Wadsworth Athe- naeum, treasurer of the Hartford Theological Seminary, and treasurer of the West Middle school district. He is a member of the Connecticut His- torical Society, and for many years has been its treasurer also. In business matters, additionally to his duties as president and director of the Charter Oak National Bank, he has filled the position of trustee for the Society of Savings on Pratt street for thirty-four years, and has been for thirty years an auditor of the same institution. He is also a director in the National Fire Insurance Company, and one of the original members of the Cedar Hill Cemetery Association. He has during the same time served as trustee or executor in the settlement of several important estates. He was one of the founders of the Connecticut Society Sons of the American Revolution. He is a member of the Asylum Hill Congregational church.
Mr. Morris married May 8, 1855, Harriet, young- est daughter of Samuel Hills of Springfield, Mass. She was for many years an invalid, and died March 3, 1879, leaving two daughters. The elder, Anna, married Rev. Alfred Tyler Perry of Ware, Mass .; and the younger, Alice, is the wife of Rev. Charles Smith Mills of Andover, Mass.
CHARLES B. SMITH, HARTFORD: Senior Part- ner Smith, Bourn & Co., Manufacturers Harness and Saddlery.
Charles B. Smith was born in Hartford July 31, I8II. His parents were Normand and Mary Boardman Smith; Normand Smith was the fifth son of William, who had eight children. The fa- ther of William was John Smith, who was born in Liverpool, England, in 1680; married to Anna. Allwood of Glastonbury, England, in 1722, and emigrated to America the same year, settling in Boston. In 1726 he moved to Hartford, but died in Liverpool, Eng- land, in 1729. He had three children - George, C. B. SMITH. Mary, and William. The subject of this sketch was the ninth child of a family of fifteen children. One brother was Deacon Thomas Smith, who died in Hartford in 1882. Rev. James Allwood Smith, who died in Unionville in this state the same year, was also his brother; and another was Doctor
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Andrew Kingsbury Smith, surgeon in the United States army for many years until he was retired with the rank of colonel in February, 1890.
Charles B. Smith was educated at Lenox, Mass., and at Hartford. As early as December 1, 1833, when, at the age of twenty-two, he embarked in business, becoming a member of the firm of Smith, Hubbard & Co., at New Orleans, which was estab- lished as a branch of the Hartford house in 1816- the oldest, or one of the oldest business houses in the southwest, then known as Smith & Bigelow. A few years after engaging in business at New Orleans, his interest commenced in the present Hartford firm of Smith, Bourn & Co., then T. Smith & Co., where he has for many years been the senior partner. This firm is one of the oldest engaged in the saddlery business in the United States,- dating from 1794. The files of Hartford papers published during the early days of the firm, contain their advertisement, in which the location of the estab- lishment is described as "six yards from the state house." In 1870 Mr. Smith withdrew from the New Orleans house of Smith & Brother, as the firm was then styled. He had previously opened a branch of the Hartford house in New York city, at No. 10 Old Slip, in 1842, under the name of T. Smith & Co .; afterward located at 101 Maiden Lane, also on Beekman street, and afterward on Broadway. Of late years its location has been at No. 40 Warren street, under the firm name of C. B. Smith & Co., succeeded later by Smith, Worthington & Co., which firm is still actively engaged in business.
Mr. Smith has twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married November 5, 1844, was Miss Frances M. Humphrey, daughter of Lemuel Hum- phrey of Hartford. After her decease he married, October 3, 1855, Miss Eliza A. Thayer of Westfield, Mass., whose father was Dea. Lucius F. Thayer. Her grandfather was Dr. Nathaniel Thayer. Mr. Smith has one daughter, Mrs. Franees Eliza (Smith) Miller, and four grandchildren.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Asylum Hill Congregational church. In politics he is a republi- can. His life has been one of continued activity, covering a business experience of nearly sixty years, through periods of wonderful vicissitude in civil and financial affairs. He has been a partici- pant in, as well as an observer of, the financial crises which have come to the commercial world from one cause or another within the last half century, but has maintained an unimpaired credit for himself and his firm, which is still strong and solid financially, as it is high in honorable reputa- tion among the commercial houses of the country. It cannot be regarded as adulatory to say that wherever Mr. Smith is known his name is a synonym for personal integrity, rectitude of motive and action, and honorable citizenship.
JAY H. HART, WATERBURY: Manufacturer.
Mr. Hart was born in Berkshire county, Mass., Dec. 11, 1847, and educated in the common schools and at the South Berkshire Institute. Hc lays
claim to the fact that the town of Hartford was named from one of his ancestors who first had a ferry or fording place on the Connecticut River, near the present site of the bridge, which was called " Hart's ford," and finally became the name of the town and city. Mr. Hart is a manufae- turer and has lived in Great Barrington, Mass., New Haven, Bridgeport, J. H. HART. and Waterbury, Conn., and is now connected with the Platt Brothers & Company, and secretary of the Patent Button Company. He is a republican, and has been tax collector of the city of Waterbury for four years, and a member of the board of fire com- missioners and common council. He is connected with the Congregational church, the Waterbury Club, and the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities. His wife was Bertha L. Platt, and he has six chil- dren. He is recognized as one of the pushing, go-ahead men of the " Brass City."
M. B. DUNBAR, TORRINGTON: Treasurer Union Hardware Company.
Marcene B. Dunbar has made his way from the bench to the position which he now occupies. He learned the trade of wood turning and was advanced step by step in the com- pany, the past eighteen years having been spent in its employ. Mr. Dun- bar was born in Torring- ton, April 17, 1850, and received a common school education, completing a thorough training at the Eastman Business Col- lege in 1867. In 1872 he spent the year in Chicago. Mr. Dunbar is a democrat in politics and holds the M. B. DUNBAR. position of town auditor. He is a member of Trinity Church, Seneca Lodge, No. 55, F. and A. M., and of the Grand Lodge I. O. O. F. of Connecticut ; has recently been elected one of the Grand Officers of the Royal Arcanum for Connecticut. He is also treasurer of the Torrington Club. The Union Hardware Com-
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pany of which he is the treasurer, employs a force of 250 hands, being one of the leading manufacturing industries at Torrington. Mr. Dunbar has a wife and three children, one son and two daughters. Mrs. Dunbar prior to her marriage was Miss Helen D. Smith. Treasurer Dunbar is an able business man, and is regarded with genuine favor in the community where he resides.
A. N. BELDING, ROCKVILLE: Secretary Belding Bros. & Co., and Manager the Rockville Mills.
Alvah Norton Belding, one of the best known manufacturers in the state, was born in Ashfield, Mass., March 27, 1838.
His education was in the common schools and in the high school. At seventeen years of age he removed to Michigan, where he cleared wild land and founded the town of Belding. In com- pany with his brother, Hiram H., he began the sale of sewing-silk from house to house, the ma- terial being supplied by another brother in the east, Milo M. The bus- A. N. BELDING. iness soon became so large that it required several teams and controlled a great part of the jobbing trade of the section. Three years after they started a house in Chicago, Milo M., joining them. In 1863 the brothers formed a partnership with E. K. Rose of Rockville for the manufacture of silk, renting the first floor of what was then the Glasgow Thread Company's mill in Rockville. This partnership came to an end in a few years, and afterwards the Belding Brothers bought the mill, and have since run it, in connec- tion with other manufacturing concerns in Belding, Mich., Montreal, Northampton, and San Francisco. Mr. Belding has not been an active politician, but was once elected representative to the lower house in the Connecticut legislature in 1882, being elected by the largest proportionate vote of electors ever given in his town. He is a republican. He was married January 6, 1870, to Lizzie S. Merrick of Shelburne Falls, Mass., and has two children, a son and a daughter. Mr. Belding's wide interest in manufacturing and business affairs can best be understood by a glance at the various official posi- tions he holds. He is secretary of the Belding Bros. & Co. Silk Mill; a director in the Belding, Paul & Co. Silk Mill of Montreal; director in the Carlson & Courier Silk Manufacturing Company, San Fran- cisco, Cal .; president of the Belding Manufacturing Company, refrigerators, Belding, Mich .; president
of the Belding Land and Improvement Company, Belding, Mich .; director in the Miller Casket Com- pany, Belding, Mich .; director in the Hall Brothers Manufacturing Company, furniture, Belding, Mich .; director in the Belding Savings Bank, Beld- ing, Mich .; director in the St. Lawrence Fiber Pulp Company, Governeur, N. Y .; director in the Rockville National Bank, and People's Savings Bank of Rockville; director in the American Mills Company, woolens, Rockville; and a stockholder in several other companies. Despite his various interests, he finds time to devote himself to the welfare of the city in which he resides, and is one of its most popular citizens. He is a typical, ener- getic New England business man, who has the rare ability to do a great many things, and do them all well. An instance showing the pluck of the Belding Brothers in their enterprises is that of the attempt to bore an artesian well in the vicinity of their mill in Northampton. After a depth of 3,700 feet had been reached through the sandstone, and $32,000 had been expended, the firm aban- doned the attempt, for the first time in its business career having been baffled. Mr. Belding is also interested with his brothers in the development of the new south, owning 75,000 acres of land in North Carolina and Tennessee, teeming with almost inexhaustible wealth in timber and minerals. The record of the Belding Brothers is certainly a re- markable one, and one of the leading spirits of the firm is Alvah N. Belding, the subject of this sketch.
HON. JOHN G. ROOT, HARTFORD : President Farmers and Mechanics National Bank.
John G. Root is a native of Westfield, Mass., where he was born April 20, 1835. He came to Hartford in 1855, and has resided in the city con- tinuously since that time. His first financial experi- ence was with the old Bank of Hartford County, now the American Na- tional Bank, with which he was first officially con- nected as cashier, being elected to that position in 1871, and retaining it until 1883, when he was chosen president of the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank, which re- J. G. ROOT. lation still continues. He was for a time treasurer of the Hartford Trust Company. He is one of the trustees of the Me- chanics Savings Bank, a director in the Orient In- surance Company and several other corporations, and prominently connected with civic and military
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organizations in Hartford. During the war he held the rank of captain in the Twenty-second Con- necticut regiment, and is now one of the leading members of Robert O. Tyler Post of the Grand Army and a trustee of the Post fund. He is con- nected with the highest orders of the Masonic fra- ternity in the state, and has held the office of grand treasurer of the grand lodge for a number of years. He delivered the oration in Cedar Hill cemetery when the handsome monument in honor of Thomas H. Seymour was dedicated a few years ago, which effort reflected permanent credit upon him as an author and orator. For years he has held an honorable place in the First Company Governor's Foot Guard, and is an influential member of the Veteran Association. In all these positions of civil and military comradeship he has been the ideal representative of good feeling and manliness. He was elected to the mayoralty of Hartford in 1888, and proved himself an able and conscientious chief magistrate of the municipality. His adminis- tration was one of marked success, and the review of his career as mayor increases the great public respect which has been felt for him since his resi- dence in the city. His uprightness of character and frankness of intercourse with men secure for him the confidence and esteem of his townsmen in a very eminent degree.
SAMUEL ALLEN, NEW HARTFORD: Justice of the Peace.
Mr. Allen is a native of Barkhamsted, where he was born March 15, 1823. He was the third son of Joel and Rosanna Case Allen, whose children were eight in number. He re- ceived his education in the district schools of his native town, finishing with a few terms at the North Canton academy. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Pine Mead- ow-which has since been his home-and worked for six years in the rule shop of H. Cha- pin. In 1850 he formed partnership with his brother, Philemon Allen, SAMUEL ALLEN. in a brass foundry, and two years later he bought out his brother's interest. In 1867 he sold his foun- dry business, and associated himself with another brother, Anson J. Allen, in mercantile business in Pine Meadow. For twenty-one years Mr. Allen re- tained an interest in this store as senior partner. In 1887 he retired from business on a handsome competency, gained partly from his successful and
upright mercantile course, and partly from a large interest in Iowa lands, of which, in 1855, he pur- chased some nine hundred acres. Mr. Allen is a republican, having joined that party in 1856. He was in earlier ycars a democrat, but joined the American party in 1855, and was by them sent to the general assembly of that year. He was again elected to the legislature in 1889, by the republi- cans, and served on the appropriations committee. He has held various offices of trust in New Hart- ford, has been grand juror, is now and has been for twelve years a justice of the peace, and is a member of the board of relief. He was the last captain in his native town in the old state militia, holding his commission until the disbanding of the organization, about 1844. He has the esteem and respect of all parties in the town, with whose inter- ests he has been identified for nearly fifty years. In May, 1846, Mr Allen married Miss Eveline U. Case of North Canton. They have no children.
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