USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 7
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HON. DANIEL NASH MORGAN, BRIDGEPORT: Banker.
Daniel N. Morgan, one of the most widely-known citizens of Fairfield county, was born in Newtown, August 18, 1844, and educated at the Newtown Academy, Bethel Insti- tute, and in the common schools. He was thor- oughly educated to the mercantile pursuit, during the last five years of his minority in his father's store, when he succeeded to the control of the busi- ness for one year; subse- quently for three years he was of the flourishing firm of Morgan & Booth, retir- D. N. MORGAN. ing in 1869, and removing to Bridgeport, where for more than ten years he was of the firm of Birdsey & Morgan, transacting a large and profitable busi- ness in dry goods and carpets, having also during that period probably the largest dressmaking es- tablishment in the state, enjoying a choice southern trade. During the year 1877 he was connected with the firm of Morgan, Hopson & Co., wholesale grocers. He was a member of the common council of Bridgeport in 1873-4; mayor of Bridgeport in 1880 and 1884; on the board of education in the same town in 1877-78, and for many years parish clerk, and is senior warden of Trinity Church. He is vice- president and member of the board of directors of the Bridgeport Hospital; vice-president of the Con- solidated Rolling Stock Company; sinking fund commissioner of the city; vice-president of the state democratic club; president of the City National Bank since 1879,- during which time $125,000 has been added to its surplus; president of the Mechanics' and Farmers' Savings Bank,- whose deposits have in- increased half a million during the past five years, with assets now of $1,100,000. Mr. Mor -. gan was state senator from the fourteenth dis- trict in 1885 and 1886, having been previ- ously, in 1883, elected to the lower house by a majority of 940- the largest ever given a member since the organization of the town. For two years he was Worshipful Master of Corinthian Lodge, No. 104, F. and A. M. He is now a member of Hamilton Commandery, No. 5, K. T., and also of Pequonock Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F. He married, in 1868, Medora H. Judson, daughter of the late Hon. Wm. A. Judson, formerly of Huntington, a lifelong democrat, and senator from the tenth district in 1852, and a member of the house in 1844, 1848, 1850, and 1854. Mr. Morgan's maternal grandfather was Daniel Nash, late of Westport, who was well-known locally as an eminent financier, living into his 96th
year. Mr. Morgan's father, Ezra Morgan, repre- sented Newtown in the legislature in 1842, 1862, and 1868. He was of one of the oldest families of the state; was for many years a merchant, and for a long time president of the Hatter's National Bank of Bethel.
The subject of this sketch has two children, a son and a daughter.
PELEG S. BARBER, STONINGTON : President People's Savings Bank of Pawcatuck.
Mr. Barber was born in North Kingston, R. I., April 29, 1823. He received the advantages of a good common school education, and has been largely engaged in mer- cantile and manufacturing business, though at pres- ent confining his attention chiefly to transactions in real estate. He was for sixteen years in cotton manufacturing, and from 1850 to 1853 was in the gold mines of California. He married, early in life, Miss Sarah Gardner, who is still living. Mr. Bar- ber is largely interested P. S. BARBER. in the Pawcatuck Nation- al Bank, of which he is, and for sixteen years has been, a director. He is president of the People's Savings Bank of Pawcatuck; also treasurer of the Pawcatuck Fire District since its organization in 1887, for sixteen years treasurer of his school dis- trict, fifteen years a member of the town board of relief, and a notary public. He was on the board of assessors for several years, and has held various other local offices in the town in which he resides, where he has led an active and useful life for thirty- four years, and is highly respected and esteemed by all his townsmen. Mr. Barber comes from an ancestry which have been prominently identified with the whig and republican parties ever since their formation. In the fall of 1884 he became the candidate of the republicans for representative from Stonington in the general assembly, to which position he was elected by a large majority. He served in the house on the committee on appropria- tions. As an ardent supporter of republican princi- ples and a consistent advocate of temperance, he did good work for his constituency and the state during the session of 1885, and made an honorable record as a legislator. Mr. Barber is a member of the Baptist church and takes an active interest in all moral and religious enterprises in the town, which he is always ready to aid whenever called upon to do so.
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
JOHN A. CONANT, WILLIMANTIC : President New England Christian Association.
John A. Conant is a descendant in the seventh generation from Roger Conant, who came from England in 1623, and finally settled in what is now Salem, Mass. He was born at Mansfield, Conn., August 16, 1829, being the oldest son of Lucius and Marietta (Eaton) Conant, who were unable to give him anything more than a common school education. At ten years of age he went to live on a farm with his mother's brother, George Eaton, and remained there until nearly fifteen, J. A. CONANT. when he returned home, and soon after went to work in a silk mill of which the Hon. Augustus Storrs was agent. In 1849, because of the depressed condition of the silk man-
. ufacturing business, he was thrown out of work, but secured employment at the American mills in Rockville, where he became acquainted with Miss Caroline A. Chapman of Ellington, to whom he was married in 1852. In 1854 he engaged with Messrs. Cheney Brothers to take charge of the winding de- partment of their mills in Hartford. There he re- mained two years, during which time he took a letter from the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Tolland, and, with his wife, united with the Fourth Congregational Church of that city, Rev. William W. Patton pastor. In 1856, being weary of mill life, he bought a small farm in West Hartford, but only a year elapsed before he yielded to the earnest solicitations of the Watertown Manufacturing Com- pany to superintend their silk mill at Watertown, in this state. Having lost the companion of his youth, who died in 1863, leaving onc son, he was married the following year to his second wife, Mrs. Marietta (French) Brown of Mansfield, by whom he had two sons, but only one is now living. In 1866 he engaged with Messrs. J. H. & G. Holland to superintend the throwing department of their silk works in Willimantic, where he still resides.
When Mr. Conant became an elector he com- menced voting with the free soil party, with which he acted until it was merged into the newly-organ- ized republican party, in which he was a zealous worker until after the war of the rebellion, when, seeing the successful influence of the liquor traffic over its leading men, he left it in 1872 to act with the prohibitionists. Meanwhile the anti-secret re- form began to engage his attention. Mr. Conant has been a member of three secret societies, two of which are now extinct, and the other he abandoned
many years since because of the clannish spirit and idolatrous tendency he discovered in such societies. He has come to look upon all secret organizations as dangerous to the state, and a hindrance to the work of the Christian church; and he now holds the position of president of the New England Christian Association, formed for the purpose of opposing and exposing the evils of the lodge system. In 1884 he was nominated on the anti-secret ticket by the American party for vice-president, but with the other candidate, Dr. J. Blanchard, withdrew in favor of St. John and Daniel; since which time he has generally acted with the prohibitionists, except when such action would conflict with his anti-secret principles.
IRVING EMERSON, HARTFORD : Professor of Music.
Professor Irving Emerson is one of the most widely-known and successful musical directors in the state and the author of leading musical publi- cations and works now used in the public schools. These works include "Song Land," "Song Tablet","Morning Hour," "Public School Hymnal," " First Steps in Song Read- ing,"and "Song Readers," Nos. I & 2, and also a large number of compositions for church choirs. He organ- ized, and directed for four years a large choral so- ciety in Hartford called " The Emerson Chorus," IRVING EMERSON. of two hundred voices, giving three or more con- certs each season, with Theodore Thomas' and the Germania orchestras and celebrated vocal soloists. and presenting at each entertainment some new work. Afterwards he formed the Hartford Opera Company, drilling and directing the performances of " Patience," " Pirates of Penzance," " lolanthe," " Maritana," " Pinafore," " Chimes of Normandy." "Betsy Baker," " The Sleeping Queen," and " Pris- cilla," not only here, but in the neighboring cities of Springfield, New Britain, Middletown.and Rockville. He also directed several public school festivals, where over a thousand children took part. He has been busy in the same kind of work all through this part of the state. Professor Emerson became a resi- dent of Hartford in 1869 and has been the director of music and organist in the leading churches in this city, including the South Congregational. the Asylum Hill and Pearl Street churches, Christ church and the First Methodist, this service cover- ing a period of twenty-two years. But his most important work has been accomplished in the pub-
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lic schools of the city, in which he has been the musical instructor for years. Prior to his removal to Hartford he resided in Boston, Belfast, Me., and Montpelier, Vt. During the war he served in the forty-third Massachusetts ; he is now a member of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut. He is a 32º Mason and occupies official positions in Wolcott Council and Pythagoras Chapter in this city. He is also a member of the Improved Order of Red Men. In politics he is a republican and in re- ligious belief a Unitarian. His wife was a Miss Mary E. Young, a prominent teacher in the public schools here prior to her marriage, and the family consists of two sons. Professor Emerson and wife were married in June, 1888.
DR. N. W. HOLCOMBE, WEST SIMSBURY : Post- master.
Dr. Noah Webster Holcombe was born in Gran- by in 1831, and was educated in the University Medical College of New York city. He has de- voted his life to the prac- tice of medicine. He has served in both branches of the general assembly, being a member of the senate in 1869, and of the house in 1876. Prior to the war, he was connect- ed with the democratic party, but for the last thirty years he has been a republican. He was in the service as a volunteer N. W. HOLCOMBE. surgeon during the rebel- lion. He has held numer- ous offices of trust and responsibility in the town where he resides, serving on the board of selectmen and as postmaster at West Simsbury. The latter is one of the positions that he still retains. He is also post surgeon at Simsbury. Dr. Holcombe is a member of Hartford Lodge, F. and A. M., Wash- ington Commandery, Knights Templar, surgeon of the Putnam Phalanx, and is connected with Trum- bull Council of the National Providence Union, and the Order of Red Men. He is president of the Simsbury Agricultural Society, president of the Tunxis Rogue Detective Society, president of the Connecticut Detective Association, and also presi- dent of the Simsbury Creamery Company. He is a director in the National Life Association of this city, and vice-president and treasurer of the Con- necticut Association for the protection of game and fish. Dr. Holcombe is one of the busiest of men, but always has time to be the most companionable of gentlemen. He has been a resident of Connecti- cut during the whole of his active life with the ex- ception of three years spent in Wilmington, Del.
He is a member of the Baptist church. His wife, who was Elizabeth B. Moses prior to marriage, is still living, but there are no children in the family.
E. M. HUNTSINGER, HARTFORD: Principal Huntsinger's Business College.
Mr. Huntsinger is what the world calls a self- made man. Most men are self-made, and especially those who are well-made. The subject of this sketch is worthy of men- tion, not only for his natural gifts but for the quality which New Eng- landers appreciate, en- ergy, persistence, and directness. He is a posi- tive man both in his con- victions and in liis actions. Whatever he conceives to be right, that he does, even if it should require him to do differently when guided by a different light. E. M1. HUNTSINGER.
He was born at Valley View, Pa., February, 1855. His early educational advantages were good, and he improved them, finishing his school educa- tion in the English course of the State Normal School at Shippensburg, Pa. In accomplishing this he did as so many brave and self-respecting American boys have been proud to do - defrayed his own expenses through his own labor. He taught in the public schools for three years, and then, with the view of entering upon a business life, he took a course of training in bookkeeping and penmanship under Mr. A. H. Hinman at Potts- ville. He soon showed such a liking for commer- cial studies and such aptness in receiving and im- parting instruction therein, that he was induced to enter the business college field. In pursuance of this purpose he began his professional work at the Bryant & Stratton College of Providence, R. I., where he taught from 1877 to 1884; following this with four years of instruction in the Packard Busi- ness College of New York. In 1888 he opened Huntsinger's Business College in Hartford, which proved a success at the start, and which is now in the full tide of prosperity and usefulness. Mr. Huntsinger is a progressive man in all good direc- tions. He has an assured standing among the teachers in his line, and is everywhere known as a conscientious, thorough worker. He is a zealous upholder of organized religious work, a member of the Methodist church and of the Y. M. C. A. He is, besides, a thirty-second degree Mason, and an influential member of that mystic body. He is a natural " boomer," and to whatever he deems
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
worthy of his attention he gives his whole heart, soul, might, mind, and strength. In his college work he has the valuable assistance of his wife, who is a lady of rare intellectual attainments, and an excellent equipoise to his ardent outreachings. Together, they make an uncommonly strong educa- tional combination, the results of which the city of Hartford and the state of Connecticut will feel in the coming years. S. S. PACKARD.
STILES JUDSON, JR., STRATFORD: Attorney-at- Law.
The subject of this sketch was born in Stratford, Fairfield county, Conn., February 13, 1862. He received his early education in the public schools of the town and at the Strat- ford Academy. At the age of twenty-one he entered the Law School of Yale University where he was graduated in . June, 1885, with the de- gree of LL.B., and was awarded the prize for the best examination in his studies. He was admitted to the bar of 2. Connecticut the same year, and entered the office of the well-known STILES JUDSON, JR. law firm of Townsend & Watrous in New Haven, where he remained until September, 1886. He then removed to Bridgeport, where he has since continued the practice of his profession, and is a member of the law firm of Canfield & Judson. He is an active practitioner in the courts, and has been identified with some of the most important cases that have arisen in Fairfield county. He is of good presence before a jury, a fluent and earnest pleader, quick to grasp the important points in a case, and has been remarkably successful in his practice.
Mr. Judson has been connected with the Con- necticut National Guard for ten years, and is now captain of Company K, Fourth Regiment, located at Stratford. He makes a popular and efficient officer. He was married in IS89 to Miss Minnie L. Miles of Milford, and has since made Stratford his residence, where he has always taken an active part in town affairs, and has acceptably filled vari- ous offices in the town. He is at present chairman of the republican town committee and an active party worker. In the presidential campaign of ISSS Mr. Judson went upon the stump and won a reputation as an eloquent and convincing speaker upon public issues. He is a member of St. John's Lodge of Masons in Stratford. At the celebration
of the 250th anniversary of the settlement of the town of Stratford he was chosen as the president of the day, and was at the time the youngest male representative of the oldest family in the town. Mr. Judson was elected to the legislature from Stratford in the fall of 1890, and was at once recognized as one of the leaders on the republican side of the house in the memorable gubernatorial contest in the winter of 1891. He was also ap- pointed to the important position of chairman of the judiciary committee of the house, a position for which his talents peculiarly fitted him. The posi- tion he has attained in the professions of law and politics gives promise of a very successful future career.
FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, HARTFORD : Mechan- ical Engineer.
One of the early settlers of Hartford was Wil- liam Whiting, a merchant, whose name is men- tioned in the historics of this country as early as 1632. He was chosen treasurer of the colony of Connecticut in 1641, which office he retained until his death. His son, Joseph Whiting, was elected to the same office, holding it thirty-nine years until his death, when Joseph's son, John Whiting, succeeded to the treasuryship and continued in the office for thirty-two years. Thro' this line, in the sixthi gen- eration from William, F. 11. RICHARDS. came Maria S. Whiting, who married Henry Rich- ards and became the mother of the subject of this sketch. Francis H. Richards' paternal ancestor in America was Thomas Richards, who came to Con- necticut in 1637, and settled in Hartford, in which vicinity his immediate decendants were prominent in planting of new settlements, one of them be- ing of the party which settled at Waterbury. Those in the direct line of the present sub- ject lived in Hartford for nearly a century af- ter its first settlement. F. 11. Richards was born at New Hartford, Litchfield county, October 20, IS50, and in his early years lived a part of the time at the lionie of his grandfather, Marquis Rich- ards, on the ancestral estate which was founded by his great-grandfather, Aaron Richards, during the war of the revolution, and is in part still hekl in the family. His school life began at New Haven, whither his father, Henry Richards, removed with his family in 1856. where he attended the then celebrated " Eaton" graded school. The years from 1857 to 1865 were spent on his father's farm,
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near Bakersville, in New Hartford, working sum- mers at farming, and during the winter months attending first the village school and later the acad- emy, which ordinary advantages were supplement- ed by private instructors. In 1865, the family re- moved to New Britain, where for a few months he attended the high school. The following year, be- ing offered the alternative of attending a technical college or of learning the machinist's trade, he chose the shop and began his mechanical and in- ventive career in the factories of the Stanley Rule and Level Company, under the supervision of his father, an ingenious mechanic and inventor, in charge of the machinery department of this exten- sive establishment. Here, by persistent work and systematic study extending over a period of eight years, he acquired both a practical and theoretical knowledge of the machine-building trades, includ- ing, besides the trade of machinist, the arts of wood-working, forging, and the allied branches. During this time, he made frequent tours for the critical observation of machinery and manufac- tures, began the study of patent law, and made numerous inventions of labor-saving machines, several of which are still in successful operation.
Mr. Richards' business connections have been in Hartford since 1882 ; principally with the Pratt & Whitney Company from 1883 to 1886, at which lat- ter date he established his office in that city. In October, 1887, he was married to Mrs. Clara V. Dole (neé Blasdale) of Springfield, Mass., who is of English birth, her father having been a prominent expert and designer in the lace manufacture until his emigration to this country about 1852. Since his marriage, he has resided in Hartford. In 1889, in company with his wife he visited Paris as a member of a touring party of Amer- ican engineers, including scientific gentlemen representing all the leading industries of Amer- ica. Mr. Richards is a member of the Amer- ican Society of Mechanical Engineers, a national organization with headquarters at New York ; of the Civil Engineers' Club of Cleveland, Ohio; and of the New York Engineers' Club. In the Masonic fraternity he is identified with Wash- ington Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar ; also with the several Scottish Rite bodies, up to the 32d degree. His religious associations are with the Church of the Redeemer (Universalist), of Hartford ; his political affiliations with the re- publican party.
Mr. Richards is the author of many important inventions, among which is the " Richards Envel- ope Machine," patented in the United States and foreign countries -the American patents being now owned and controlled by the White, Corbin & Co., of Rockville. This machine prints, folds, gums, counts, and bands, automatically, 80,000
letter envelopes per day, greatly exceeding any other envelope machine in its capacity and in its economy in the consumption of paper. He is also the inventor and patentee of the fundamental fea- tures of the " Norton Door Check," a device for automatically closing light or heavy doors by an air-cushion arrangement, which is now in quite general use. He has taken out, first and last, 225 United States patents, a larger number, probably, than any other person in western Connecticut. Mr. Richards has practically elevated the matter of in- venting machinery to an art. Whatever is sought to be done through the medium of mechanical ap- pliances, he simply finds a way and invents a ma- chine to do it.
WILLIAM HAMERSLEY, HARTFORD: Attorney- at-Law.
Mr. Hamersley was born in Hartford, September 9, 1838, being a son of the late Hon. William James Hamersley, who was for many years a distinguished resident of the city. He was a scholar at the old Hartford grammar school, afterwards at the High school, and entered Trinity college in 1854, but left during his senior year, beginning his legal studies in the office of Welch & Shipman. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, in 1863 was elected a member of the court of common council, later was vice-president WILLIAM HAMERSLEY. of the board, and president during 1867 and 1868. He also held the position of city attorney, resigning in the end to accept the appointment of state's attorney for Hartford county in 1868, a position which he held for twenty years. He represented Hartford in the legislature of 1886, serving on the judiciary and federal relations committees. He was one of the founders of the Connecticut State Bar Association, and, with Richard D. Hubbard and Simeon E. Baldwin, constituted the committee of that association, through whose initiatory efforts the American Bar Association was founded. He was one of the original promoters of the civil pro- cedure reform, and a member of the commission that drafted the practice act, and the rules and forms of procedure adopted by the court for giving due effect to the provisions of that act; he was also an early and active promoter of the reform in the jury system in Connecticut. His time has been mainly given to the practice of his profession and to work relating to law reform.
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
JOHN H. LEEDS, NEW HAVEN : Superintendent of the Stamford Manufacturing Company.
The Leeds aneestry is identified in history with the city of Leeds, England, in which the family, centuries sinee, was an important one. 1n 1680 three brothers, Leeds, emigrated to New Eng- land, one of whom settled in Stamford, in this state. A descendant of the last was Joseph H. Leeds, a farmer, resident at the Leeds' place in Darien, where his son, the subjeet of this sketch, John Harris Leeds, was born Mareh 4, 1836. It was not, as is said of many, an accident that deter- J. H. LEEDS. mined the course of his life, but the prevention of an accident. The New York & New Haven Railroad had been opened but a few months, and had but a sin- gle traek. Just at dusk, June 24, 1849, John H. Leeds, then thirteen years of age, chaneed to be on its line at a erossroad halfway be- tween Darien and Stamford, when he heard a train coming from the east. He knew there was also a train coming from the west, although it was hidden from sight by a deep eut and a sharp eurve. All the horrors of a collision were inevitable unless he could prevent it. He would try. In an instant he sprang on to the traek, and, facing the New York bound train, waved his hat to attraet the at- tention of the engineer, and then bounded to one side, barely escaping being erushed as it went thun- dering by. As it passed him in its lightning speed he pointed to the west, and shouted to the engi- neer, "Another train is coming this way." The engineer at onee reversed his engine, and whistled "down brakes," and then blew a long and loud alarm. The other train was still unseen, but its engineer was on the alert, and, hearing the signal, in turn reversed his engine and whistled the same signal. But sueh was the speed of both trains and the feebleness of the brakes then in use that when the trains stopped they were only an engine's length apart. When the boy gave the warning they were rushing for each other at full speed. On board the two trains were five hundred people,- men, women, and children. It is fearful to con- template the horrors that were inevitable had not the lad been at the erossroad and done exactly the right thing. He certainly had not been born in vain, and the passengers thought so as they shud- dered at their narrow escape. The railroad com- pany, aeting upon their sense of obligation, gave him a free pass over their road, good for life, and
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