USA > Connecticut > Illustrated popular biography of Connecticut > Part 9
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
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President Jackson, and has voted for every demo- cratic candidate for the presidency since he became of age.
EDWARD C. LEWIS, WATERBURY : President Waterbury Farrel Foundry and Machine Com- pany.
E. C. Lewis, who is one of Waterbury's most substantial citizens, and interested in some of the largest enterprises of that prosperous city. is a na- tive of North Wales, born September 23, 1826. At the early age of four years he came to this country with his father and moth- er, locating at Bridgeport. His parents being pos- sessed of but little money, they could only give him a common- school education, and early in life he was com- pelled to go to work in cotton and woolen mills, E. C. LEWIS. where he was engaged for eight years. He then sought other occupation and entered, as an apprentice, the Bridgeport Iron Works, a concern which he, with others, in later life, owned and managed. In 1847 he re- moved to Birmingham and worked for Colburn & Bassett, who were then prominent iron founders in that vicinity. In 1849 he became foreman for the Far- rell Foundry & Machine Company of Ansonia, and it was here that Mr. Lewis demonstrated his thor- ough knowledge of the business, and also his execu- tive ability, which soon resulted in his being trans- ferred to Waterbury as foreman for the same con- cern, which had a branch foundry and machine shop at that locality. Mr. Lewis rapidly rose in the estimation of those by whom he was employed, and by the simple force of his ability and character soon secured an interest in the business, and in a short time became the active manager and head of the concern at Waterbury. The Farrel Foundry & Machine Company have long been known throughout the Naugatuck valley as successful iron founders and builders of machinery, and no one concern in that section has done more to build up its material interests than they. In this work Mr. Lewis has done much by giving it his best thought and untiring effort. Politically, he has always been a pronounced republican, and as such has held several offices under the city government, having been elected twice as a member of the common council, and also served one term as police commis- sioner. In the fall of 1883 he reluctantly accepted a nomination for representative in the legislature, from Waterbury and was handsomely elected
against an able political opponent, and that in a town which usually gives a democratic majority - a sufficient tribute to his popularity and ability.
Mr. Lewis is a member of Trinity Episcopal church of Waterbury ; a member of the order of Odd Fellows, and of the Waterbury club. Addi- tionally to his connection with the Farrel company, he is a director and one of the original projectors of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Waterbury, an owner in several manufacturing concerns, and has a large real estate interest in Waterbury. He is thus thoroughly identificd with the material prosperity and welfare of his section, and is also in hearty and active sympathy with all efforts for the public good in its higher and broadest sense.
EDWIN A. BUCK, WILLIMANTIC : Wholesale and Retail Merchant.
The subject of this sketch was born in Ashford, Conn., February II, 1832, and received in addition to a common school education one term at the Ash- ford Academy. At the age of eighteen he com- menced teaching and for six years followed the business of teaching in winter and working on a farm in summer. In 1855 he married Delia Lincoln, also a native of Ashford. In 1856 he com- menced business in sawed lumber, which soon grew into a large trade in car timber, plow beams and handles, and also chestnut E. A. BUCK. finishing lumber, large quantities of which were shipped to New York. In this business he used several water-power sawmills and employed a large number of men. In the year 1865 he pur- chased at bankrupt sale the property of the West- ford Glass Company, and associating with him the late Capt. John S. Dean and Charles L. Dean, also residents of Ashford, commenced the manufacture of glass under the firm name of E. A. Buck & Co. This firm employed in various capacities about one hundred and fifty men, and made a large addition to the business interest of the town; and so success- fully was the business carried on that it became necessary to establish houses in both New York and Boston, not only for the sale of the firm's goods but other lines of goods not manufactured by them. In 1874 he sold out his glass business. For several years he was a director in the Stafford National Bank and one of the original corporators of the Stafford Savings Bank, and also became president of that institution. In 1875 he became interested
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in real estate in Willimantic and removed to that place in the autumn of that year, resigning his offices in the Stafford banks. In the year 1877 he formed a partnership with the late Allen Lin- coln of Willimantic and Everett M. Durkee of Ash- ford for carrying on a grain business, and soon after purchased the hardware business of Crawford & Banford at Stafford Springs and located his old- est son at that place to take care of the business. This business is still in the same firm name of E. A. Buck & Co., and he has also two other firms of E. A. Buck & Co., one in oil the other in hard- ware, in Palmer, Mass. In addition to the Willi- mantic firms of E. A. Buck & Co., dealers in hard wood lumber, of which firm Col. Marvin Knowlton is a member, he is also the head of the firm of E. A. Buck & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in flour and grain, of which firm W. A. Buck, the son, is junior partner. In 1885 he was elected a director and the following year president of the Willimantic Savings Institute, holding the position two years through a very critical time in its history caused by the irregularities of its treasurer, but finally placing it on a sound financial basis. He was elected to his first political office, that of constable of the town, soon after his admission as an elector, and in 1856, at the age of twenty-four, was elected by the republican party a member of the legislature, being the youngest member in the house. In 1862 he was again elected to the legislature by a coalition of union democrats and republicans by a very large majority. He was also appointed by the town to fill its quota of soldiers, and was a firm friend of the union cause, furnishing money to pay for en- listed men which was afterwards paid by the town. He has always been a firm friend of the soldiers, assisting many of them in obtaining pensions from the government. In 1864 he joined his fortunes with the democratic party, and the town having previously been republican, was carried by the democrats, and in 1865 he was again elected a member of the legislature. He has held nearly all of the town offices, -selectman, assessor, town clerk, and judge of probate. In 1874 and again in 1875 he was re-elected to the legislature, and during both sessions served on the judiciary committee. In the spring of 1876, after his removal to Willi- mantic, he was elected to the senate, it being the last session in the old state house. In the autumn of that year he was nominated and elected treasurer of the state, which office he filled for two years. He was renominated for the same position in 1878, but shared the fate of the rest of the democratic ticket. He has always been active in politics, filling the position of town committee and state central committee of the democratic party, and also a member of the finance committee for the last two years.
THOMAS W. RUSSELL, HARTFORD: President Connecticut General Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Russell is a native of Greenfield, Mass., where he was born May 22, 1824. Educated in the district schools of his native town and the adjoining town of Coleraine, with a supplementary academic course, he engaged in teaching for a single win- ter. This calling, how- ever, he forsook for mer- cantile business, following the latter for about six years, or until 1852, when he entered upon what has proved his life work by soliciting insurance for the Charter Oak Life In- surance Company of Hart- ford. T. W. RUSSELL. After four years service as a local agent, incidental to his mercan- tile business, he was made the general traveling agent for the same company, and in 1857 was chosen its vice-president. In 1864, Mr. Russell was induced to leave the Charter Oak Life Insur- ance Company and become nominally the actuary of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1865, the legislature of Connecticut chartered the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, and Mr. Russell was induced to become its secre- tary. He subsequently became president and ac- tive manager, having held the latter relations now for nearly a score of years. Under his control and advice the original scope and plans of the company were radically changed, and it was long ago placed on an equal footing with the best life companies of the country. One of the most competent insurance critics of the present day says of President Russell that " he is perhaps as fine an example as there is in this country of the man who seeks his content- ment in the daily round of duty, satisfied if the end of the year finds the cause of his company ad- vanced, its business increasing and the death-rate normal. He is one of the old workers in life insur- ance, who has a steady faith in his business, an earnest desire to benefit all with whom he comes in contact, and who keeps about him the clean and pure atmosphere of business honor." The healthy and prosperous condition of this company is suffi- cient evidence of the ability and integrity of its management, of which the subject of this sketch is the head and front.
Outside his business relations Mr. Russell is called upon to aid in social, civil, and religious work. He has been a member of the general assembly of this state, was for a number of years connected with the Hartford city government, is a director in several of the city corporations, an officer and
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
active worker in Park Congregational Church, and a director in the city missionary society. He is in- terested in and often called to assist in the admin- istration of the educational affairs of his city.
LEVERETT M. LEACH, DURHAM: Investment Securities.
Mr. Leach was born in Madison, Conn., in 1822, a lineal " son of the Revolution," his grandfather on his mother's side having been a soldier in the revolutionary army, who enlisted at the age of six- teen, served throughout the war, was in the line and witnessed the sur- render of General Corn- wallis at Yorktown. In 1835 he removed with his parents to Durham, where his father, Leverett W. Leach, established an ex- tensive country store, and where he has ever since resided. He was educa- L. M. LEACH. ted at the public and se- lect schools of his native and adopted town, until about eighteen years of age. He was then em- ployed as clerk in his father's store until he reached his majority. In 1843 he became a partner in the business, under the firm name of L. W. Leach & Son, and continued as such until the death of his father in 1866. In 1855 his only brother, Oscar Leach, was admitted a partner, and since the decease of his father and until the year 1882, has been the senior partner in the business, thereafter conducted under the name of L. M. & O. Leach; thus having been for forty-three years in active mercantile life, as clerk or principal. In 1844 he married Lydia M. Thayer, who, with one daughter, the wife of Charles E. Bacon of Middletown, is now living. He was a representative in the some- what memorable legislature of 1849, when Joseph Trumbull, the last of the famous governors of that name, was chosen governor by the general assem- bly, the "free soilers" holding the balance of power in the house of representatives. He was also a representative in the legislature of 1860 and the special session called by Governor Buckingham in December of that year. He was elected senator from the " old " 18th senatorial district in 1862. Was postmaster from 1849 to '53. He has held various town offices and was for ten or twelve years first selectman, justice of the peace, etc. He has been a director in the First National Bank of Middle- town for a number of years, and a trustee of the Middletown Savings Bank since 1864. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In
politics is connected with the republican party, with a large reserve of independence. He is not at present engaged in any active business enterprise, but generally occupied in such business of a public or private character as a large and extensive acquaintance with his townsmen and the surround- ing community brings to him, besides being the local agent of several of the largest and soundest investment companies of this and other states.
HON. ARTHUR B. CALEF, MIDDLETOWN : Judge Middletown City Court.
Arthur B. Calef was born at Sanbornton, N. H., June 30, 1825. He worked on a farm and taught school winters until twenty-one years of age; prepared for college in a year at the New Hamp- shire Conference Semi- nary at Tilton, N. H .; entered Wesleyan Uni- versity in 1847 and grad- uated therefrom in 1851. During his college course he taught district schools three winters and was principal of Woodman Sanbornton Academy at Sanbornton, N. H., one term. He studied law at Middletown with Judge A. B. CALEF. Charles Whittlesey and was admitted to the bar of Middlesex county in 1852. He was soon after ap- pointed clerk of the courts in Middlesex county and held the office for about eight years. Judge Calef has been councilman, alderman, recorder, and city attorney of the city of Middletown, school visitor, and treasurer of the state of Connecticut. Elected to the latter office at twenty-nine years of age, he has survived the distinction for a longer period than any other living state treasurer. He has been Grand Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of A. F. and A. Masons of the state; was trustee of Wes- leyan University about twenty years, and for some years its secretary, and has been lecturer on consti- tutional law in the university. He was a delegate to the national republican convention in 1860 and 1864; was postmaster at Middletown from 1861 to 1869; was for several years president of the Ni Chapter of Psi Upsilon at Wesleyan University, and also president of the Alumni Association. He is president of the Middletown Gas Light Company, director in several financial institutions, and is now and has been for seven years past, judge of the city court of Middletown. He has had an extensive practice in the state and United States courts. Judge Calef married, March 21, 1853, Miss Hannah F. Woodman, granddaughter of Col. Asa Foster of
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the revolutionary army. They have four sons, all living, among whom are Dr. J. F. Calef of Crom- well, and Arthur B. Calef of Middletown, an attorney-at-law. Judge Calef is a direct descend- ant of Robert Calef of Boston, who wrote and pub- lished a book in opposition to witchcraft in 1700 and in reply to Cotton Mather.
CHARLES H. PINE, ANSONIA : President An- sonia National Bank.
Charles H. Pine was born at Riverton, in the town of Barkhamsted, September 20, 1845. He left the public schools at the age of sixteen years to
enlist in Company E, Nineteenth Regiment, af- terwards the Second Heavy Artillery, and served as musician for three years, or until the close of the war. At its termination he engaged in mercantile business with N. B. Lathrop in Wol- cottville, now Torring- ton, remaining two years. In 1867 he entered the C. H. PINE. Ansonia National Bank as clerk, and was subse- quently appointed bookkeeper, then teller, elected cashier in 1873, and president in 1886, a position he now holds. He has held various offices of trust and responsibility during his residence in Ansonia, such as treasurer of the borough of Ansonia, treasurer of the Pine Grove Cemetery Association, and treasurer of the Fourth School District of Derby. He represented the town of Derby in the general assembly of 1882, and served as house chairman of the committee on military affairs; was re-elected a member of the house of 1883, and chosen speaker. He was paymaster-general on the staff of Governor Lounsbury in 1887-8. He is an ardent republican, believing in the principles of the republican party most thoroughly, and has al- ways been an earnest, faithful worker in the cause of republicanism. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Society of the Sixth Corps, of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, and the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut. He is actively engaged in business pursuits, for, besides holding the position of president of the Ansonia National Bank, he is president of the Sperry Manu- facturing Company of Ansonia, of the Seymour Manufacturing Company of Seymour, and of the Bridgeport Forge Company of Bridgeport, treasurer of the Bridgeport Copper Company of Bridgeport, and of the Parrot Silver and Copper Company of Butte City, Montana. He is also a special partner
in a commission house in New York City doing business with the West Indies.
Mr. Pine has been, literally, the architect of his own fortune. Starting a poor boy, without influen- tial friends, he has made his own way in life, and has reached a degree of success, financially and socially, rarely attained by much older men than he. He is regarded with high esteem in political and business circles throughout the state, and par- ticularly in Ansonia, with whose interests he is closely identified.
SAMUEL R. CRAMPTON, MADISON :
Mr. Crampton was born at East Guilford, now Madison, July II, 1816. He received a common school education. Circumstances over which he had no control kept him with his father until his majority. Like many young men without means, he engaged in several kinds of business which gave him only a bare living. At the age of twenty-one he was chosen town constable. His father being the trial- justice of the town gave him most of his business in this line. During the administration of Lean- S. R. CRAMPTON. ander Parmelee, sheriff of New Haven county, he held the position of deputy for about six years. After the retirement of Sheriff Parmelee he was the candidate of the republican party for sheriff at two different elections, but was defeated each time, the county being strongly democratic. In 1854, he was elected to the legislature, of which body he was one of the youngest members. In 1856, he was at the convention which organized the republican party, and has been in every state convention of the party since,- a republican who looks back upon the achievements of the party with great satisfaction. In business he has been connected with New York houses about twenty years, first as commercial traveler for nine years, and afterwards with Messrs. E. & H. T. Anthony for a like period, holding a prominent position in their extensive establishment, then at 501 Broad- way. In all these years of New York life he held his residence in Madison. Later, under the ad- ministration of Prof. Cyrus Northrup, as collector of the port of New Haven, he held the position of weigher and gauger for twelve years. He has been a member of the Congregational church of Madison for more than fifty years, and has been active there as in all local matters pertaining to the
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BIOGRAPHY OF CONNECTICUT.
interest of the town. He is now living with his second wife, by whom he has had four children, among whom he is now enjoying his old age.
DELOS D. BROWN, CHATHAM: Hotel Proprie- tor,
Mr. Brown was born at Orleans, Barnstable County, Mass., in 1838. His education was ac- quired at Chase's Institute in Middletown, and at Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Mass. Dur- ing active life he has been engaged in manufactur- ing and mercantile busi- ness, and in the promo- tion of these interests has traveled extensively through the southern and western states. He was at one time house re- porter of the legislature for the New Haven Morn- ing News.
D. D. BROWN.
At the outbreak of the war Mr. Brown, enlisted in the federal service, raised a company for the Twenty-first regiment, C. V., going out as first lieutenant. He was promoted to the rank of captain, and commended in special orders for gallant conduct at the battle of Drewry's Bluff. He participated in nearly all the battles in which the Twenty-first was engaged, including among others, Fredericksburg, the siege of Suffolk, the siege of Petersburg, Va., Cold Harbor, and Drewry's Bluff. When the rebel general, Fitz-Hugh Lee, was captured at White House Landing, Va., Captain Brown was detailed with his company to conduct him to Fortress Monroe, and deliver him up as a prisoner of war. His regiment belonged to Burnside's famous Ninth Army corps, and was commanded by Colonel Arthur H. Dutton of the regular army, and later by Colonel Thomas F. Burpee of Rockville, Conn., both of whom were killed in the service.
The father of Captain Brown enlisted in the war of 1812, but saw no active service. His grandfather served in the war of the revolution. All the male members of his father's family were in the army or navy during the war of the rebellion, his older brother as paymaster and his younger brother as paymaster's assistant in the navy, and his brother in-law, Lieutenant F. W. H. Buell, was with him in the Twenty-first regiment and died in the ser- vice. His father, the Rev. Thomas G. Brown, when sixty-three years of age, anxious to take part in the conflict, was appointed chaplain of the Twenty-first regiment, and by gallant conduct under fire, at the battle of Drewry's Bluff, where he
was wounded in the arm, became known as the " Fighting Chaplain." Captain Brown was a mem- ber of the house of representatives in 1882; was county commissioner for Middlesex county for two terms; is chairman of the republican town com- mittee; a member of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut: also of Mansfield Post, No. 53, G. A. R .; a prominent member of the masonic fraternity, and of the order of American Mechanics. At the present time he is proprietor of the Lake View House, a beautiful summer resort on Lake Pocoto- paug at East Hampton, in this state.
REV. WILLIAM W. McLANE, NEW HAVEN : Pastor College Street Congregational Church.
Rev. William W. McLane was born in Indiana Co., Pa., Nov. 13, 1846. His father was of Scotch ancestry and his mother of English descent, the original members of her family having come to Philadelphia with Wm. Penn or his immediate followers. Mr. McLane grew up in the country and was trained in the Presbyterian faith. He was graduated Bachelor and Master of Arts from Blackburn University, graduated in theology from the Western Theo- logical Seminary in Alle- W. W. MCLANE. gheny, and subsequently took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Yale University for special studies in biology and phi- losophy. He received the degrec of D.D. from his alma mater in 1882. He taught one year in an academy and two years in college before entering the seminary, and stood at the head of a large class numbering almost fifty when he graduated in theology. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in May, 1874, and continued in that denomination nine years, spending the last five as pastor of the Second Presbyterian church. Steubenville, O., then the largest Presbyterian church in that part of the state. He then left the Presbyterian denomination and has been pastor of College Street Congregational church, New Haven, since January, 1884. Dr. McLane has been twice married, his last wife, ned Miss Fanny Robinson, being a descendant of the family of John Robinson the Pilgrim pastor. She is also descended on her mother's side from Governor Bradford and on the father's from Governor Carver. Her ancestors have formed almost an unbroken line of ministers. There are in the family five children, all boys, two being sons of the first wife
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and three sons of the second. Dr. McLane is the author of a book on theology, and has contributed articles to the leading religious newspapers and to different magazines. Several sermons and ad- dresses of his have also been published.
JOSHUA PERKINS, D.D.S., DANIELSONVILLE.
Dr. Joshua Perkins is a descendant of the sixth generation of John Perkins, who came from New- ent, Gloucester County, England, in 1631, and settled in Ipswich, Mass., and some of whose de- scendants settled in Lis- bon, Conn., then included in the town of Norwich, Conn. He was born in Lisbon, Conn., April 16, 1818, attended the com- mon district school until twelve years of age, and at fifteen taught a dis- trict school, and, as most all teachers did at that time, " boarded around in JOSHUA PERKINS. the district."
At seventeen years of age he was fitted for col- lege at Plainfield Academy, under the instruction of that excellent and respected teacher, John Wit- ter, and in the same class that included Dr. Lowell Holbrook of Thompson, Dr. Elijah Baldwin of Canterbury, and Hon. Albert H. Almy of Norwich, now of New York, and other classmates from this and other states. He did not enter college, as did many of his classmates.
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