USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 13
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Mr. Clark's first wife was Ellen Root, whom he married in 1873. After her death, he married Matilda C. Root in 1899, and their residence is at No. 160 Garden Street. His son, Horace Bush- nell Clark, also a graduate of Yale and on the Courant staff, and his daughter, Mary Hopkins Clark, live with them.
Reference has been made to the valuable influence Mr. Clark has exerted upon others. This must include also his influence upon young men trying to get a start in life, the assistance he has rendered without his left hand knowing it, and the wise counsel he has imparted.
In social life, no one more than he enjoys mingling with the "college boys," the "business crowd," the "professional men"-all people who, like him, are keenly awake to the best the hour should furnish. He is a member of the University, Century, and Yale Clubs of New York, of the Hartford Club and of the Country Club of Farmington. A member of the Congregational Church, he attends the South Church, or, as it is familiarly called, "the Rev. Dr. E. P. Parker's Church."
WILLIAM FRANKLIN HENNEY
H ENNEY, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, lawyer and mayor of Hartford, was born in Enfield, Hartford County, Con- necticut, November 2nd, 1852. His ancestry is Scottish on both sides, being traceable to John Henney, a Presbyterian clergy- man who came from Scotland and settled near Philadelphia in 1816, and to John Barclay, who came from Scotland to America some fifteen years later. Mayor Henney's father was John Henney, a mechanical engineer, a native of Paisley, Scotland, who came to Con- necticut about sixty years ago. He was superintendent of the Hartford Light and Power Company in 1865. He was a man physically power- ful, mentally strong, and morally courageous. The mayor's mother was Mené Barclay, a woman of equally great mental and moral strength. Her recitations of the old Scottish classics are among her son's earliest and fondest recollections, and probably had a great influence upon the formation of his decidedly literary bent of mind. Since his early boyhood he has always read omnivorously-poetry, science, history, philosophy, biography, Greek, Roman, and English classics, and also the Bible. He had no regular work to do in his early youth and there was therefore ample time for the exercise of his studious inclinations.
After preparing for college at the Hartford Public High School Mr. Henney entered Princeton University with the class of 1874 and took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. He then studied law with the Hon. H. C. Robinson and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He entered upon his legal profession with the double equipment of adequate training and natural mental powers, and his practice has been dis- tinguished and successful. The year following his admission to the bar be was made a member of the Hartford Common Council. He was clerk of the Hartford police court from 1877 to 1883 when he became judge of that court. He held that office until 1889 when he was made city attorney, remaining in that office two years and being reappointed to it in 1895. During the time he served his city
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as its attorney he conducted much important corporation litigation with the singular success that has characterized his professional work as a whole. In 1904 he was made mayor of the city he had served in so many official capacities, and he fills this his highest position with his usual judgment and capability. He has always upheld the principles of the Republican party with consistent loyalty.
Judge Henney is prominent in many fraternal and social organi- zations, the chief among them being the Knights Templars, the Sphinx Temple, the Royal Arcanum, Scottish Clans, the Hartford Club, the Hartford Country Club, and the Twentieth Century Club. He is a Presbyterian in his religious views. His favorite sports are walking, riding, and boating, and he has been prepared for the utmost enjoy- ment of these by a thorough gymnasium training in physical culture.
As a lawyer Judge Henney is placed high among the men of his profession for his clear-sightedness, his sagacity and eloquence, and his masterful success in his cases. As a public man he is honored for his astute judgment, his dignity, and his conscientious devotion to the state he serves. As a man he is admired for his cultured mind and clean, industrious, public-spirited life, and for many other qualities which make his advice to others of rare weight: "Cultivate a genuine public spirit-an interest in all the affairs of the city, state, and nation, an ardent love of country, a disposition neither to seek or shirk public office and, if it comes, a disposition to use it as an oppor- tunity for service and not for the salary it offers."
JOHN RANSOM BUCK
B UCK, JOHN RANSOM, a prominent lawyer of Hartford and a former member of Congress, was born in Glastonbury, Hart- ford County, Connecticut, December 6th, 1836. His father and mother were from old New England families. His father, Halsey Buck, was a Connecticut farmer, known as a man of strong will, of industrious habits, and of firm convictions in religious and political affairs. His ancestors came to this country from England in 1694.
Mr. Buck spent the early years of his life on his father's farm, where, by performing regular tasks of light manual labor, he developed a rugged constitution and habits of industry, which have aided him through life. Influenced by the careful guidance of his mother in early life, he acquired, and has always retained, a love of books. After attending the local country school, including a select school at East Glastonbury, he studied at Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Mas- sachusetts. Later he went for one year to Wesleyan University. In 1877 this university conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.A. Like many young men of New England Mr. Buck began his active affairs of life as a school teacher. For several years he taught as principal in graded schools and academies. In 1859 he came to Hart- ford to study law in the office of Wells & Strong. In 1862 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of his profession at Hartford. He was associated with the Hon. Julius L. Strong, for- mer member of Congress, under the firm name of Strong & Buck; and upon the death of Mr. Strong, in 1872, he became associated with the Hon. Arthur F. Eggleston, states attorney for Hartford County, as a member of the firm of Buck & Eggleston. During his professional career he has been counsel for towns and other municipal corporations, and for railroad companies, fire and life insurance companies, and other corporations. During the Spanish-American War he was legal adviser of the Governor of Connecticut. He is a director in the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, of the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and of the
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State Bank of Hartford ; he is also a trustee of the Wesleyan Academy of Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
In his active and successful career in public life, Mr. Buck has always been associated with the Republican party. In 1864, two years after he was admitted to the bar, he was elected assistant clerk of the Connecticut House of Representatives. The next year he became clerk of the House, and one year later he was elected clerk of the State Senate. In 1868 he was president of the Hartford Court of Common Council, and from 1871 to 1873 he was attorney for the city. He was treasurer for Hartford County for eight years ending in 1881. In 1879 he was elected to the State Senate from the First District. As chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments he reported the amendment which pro- vided for the appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court of Errors and of the Superior Court by the General Assembly upon nomination of the governor, and he was largely instrumental in procuring its adoption. He took an active part in the establishment of the Court of Common Pleas in Hartford and New Haven Counties, and conducted the hearings before the committee of the General Assembly, which reported in favor of the measure. As chairman of the committee on corporations he reported the joint stock law of 1880, and was instrumental in securing its passage. He took an active part in procuring the passage of the laws making Hartford the sole capital, and providing for the construction of the new State House. In 1880 he was elected to the Forty-seventh Con- gress of the United States, and in 1884 he was elected to the Forty- ninth. While in Washington he served on the committee on Indian affairs, on revision of laws, and on naval affairs. On this last committee he was especially active, and did much to bring about the construction of the new navy, which, years later, in the war with Spain, did such good service for the nation. After his second term in Congress Mr. Buck decided to retire from active public life and devote his time exclusively to his legal practice; but he still retains a deep interest in politics, and his advice is often sought and highly valued by the members of his party. In politics, as in law, he is regarded by his large circle of acquaintances as a safe and judi- cious counselor. He is by nature conservative, but also a man of posi- tive and courageous convictions.
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On April 12th, 1865, Mr. Buck was married to Mary A. Keeney of Manchester. Their children are Florence K., the wife of Jacob H. Greene of Hartford, and John Halsey Buck, who graduated from Yale in 1896 and is now a practicing lawyer at Hartford.
His favorite forms of amusement are fishing, walking in the woods and fields, and reading. From the time he was a boy he has enjoyed reading history and good fiction. Dickens is his favorite author, and he has a vivid recollection of reading the speeches of Charles Sumner, as they were published in the newspapers of the time.
LOUIS RICHMOND CHENEY
C HENEY, COL. LOUIS RICHMOND, treasurer of the Austin Organ Company, silk manufacturer, real estate man, and a military man of high rank, was born in the village so closely identified with his family-South Manchester, Hartford County, Connecticut, April 27th, 1859. His parents were George Wells Cheney and Harriet Kingsbury Richmond Cheney. His father was con- nected with the well known firm of Cheney Brothers, extensive manu- facturers of silk goods, and was a man of activity and prominence in his town. He was justice of peace and chairman of the town committee and a most benevolent and useful citizen. Going farther back in the study of Colonel Cheney's ancestry we find such dis- tinguished names as those of Elder Brewster, John Alden, Governor Thomas Prince, Governor Haines, and Governor Wyllis, names as prominent as the Cheneys are in the industrial life of the present day.
Louis R. Cheney was brought up in the "ideal manufacturing town" of South Manchester, in an atmosphere of progress and industry that could not fail to engender ambition in a healthy, active boy like himself. He was chiefly interested in mechanics and horses and in reading the standard works of the time. Though it was not necessary for him to go to work until he had secured a good education he was taught to be useful and had certain duties to perform daily. He attended the private and public schools of his native town and then took the course at the Hartford Public High School, graduating in 1879. He then entered the family mills in South Manchester to learn the business of silk manufacturing. After three years in the home mills, he spent seven years in the Cheney factory in Hartford as superintendent and four years at the store in New York, during which period he had charge of the Philadelphia branch of the business from 1889 to 1893, when he returned to Hartford, which he has since made his home and the center of his chief business interests.
Colonel Cheney, for such has been his rank in military service,
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was assistant quarter-master general of Connecticut in 1895 and 1896 on Governor Coffin's staff and, in 1898, was unanimously elected commandant of the First Company Governor's Foot Guard, serving until 1903, when he went on the retired list on account of increasing business demands. He is a member of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, of the Society of Colonial Wars, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. He also belongs to many other societies besides these military and patriotic orders, and the enumeration of these social ties is a further proof of the breadth of his interests. He is a member and former president of the Hartford Club, a member and ex-secretary of the Republican Club of Hartford, a member of the Hartford Golf Club and the Farmington Country Club, of the Players Club of New York and the Princess Anne Club of Virginia. He is a trustee of the American School for the Deaf, a member of the executive committee of the Hartford Hospital, and a director of the Connecticut River Banking Company. He was an alderman of Hartford for two years and a member of the Board of Common Council for five years. He is also a member of the National Geo- graphic Society and of the National Civil Service Reform League.
Mary A. Robinson, whom Colonel Cheney married on April 16th, 1890, is a great-great-granddaughter of Governor Trumbull. One child, a daughter, has been born of this marriage. Their home is at 40 Woodland Street, Hartford.
The words of a man who has earned so many high places and filled them with such marked capability should have great weight with those seeking a practical precept for their own course in life. Colonel Cheney says, "Be ambitious, industrious, and persistent and don't let the word 'failure' be known."
MAX ADLER
A DLER, MAX, one of the foremost citizens and manufac- turers of New Haven, where he has lived since very early boyhood, is a native of Germany and was born in Berkund- stadt, Bavaria, on October 14th, 1840. His mother was Barbetta Adler and his father, Sigismund Adler, was the proprietor of a woolen business in Berkundstadt, who met with financial reverses in the old country and came, in 1841, to seek his fortune in the United States. After living two years in New York City he came to New Haven, where he established an umbrella business. Max was one of the most active boys in his adopted city, earning money after school hours, at the age of ten, as errand and cash boy. He attended the publie schools in the morning and in the afternoon studied German and Hebrew. Later he attended the Lancastrian School and graduated from the Webster School. At thirteen be became a cash boy in a fancy goods store and within five years was in turn, cashier, bookkeeper and manager of the store. The business was closed out and young Mr. Adler then spent two years in New York in charge of the re- tail dry goods house of William Freedman, who, in 1860, removed to New Haven, retaining Mr. Adler as manager.
In 1862 Mr. Adler, having developed the business with remark- able rapidity, left to become manager of a similar store for Isaac Strouse, who later purchased the corset business of J. H. Smith & Company, removing the factory to a much larger one at Oak and West Streets. The company became I. Strouse & Company, with Mr. Adler as a member of the firm ;- the creation of this firm was an important step in the development of the corset business, which grew rapidly, and is now the firm of Strouse, Alder & Company, conduct- ing one of the largest industries in New Haven, occupying the ex- tensive factories equipped with the most modern labor-saving devices and employing two thousand people. The concern has warehouses in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and its goods are marketed all over the world. Mr. Adler is regarded as one of the founders of the corset business in New England and one of the leading corset
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manufacturers in the world, being considered an authority in all the details of the business. He was at one time secretary of the Corset Makers' Association of the United States and has been active in bring- ing about legislation in the interests of the corset industry, in behalf of which he has frequently appeared before Congressional committees in Washington.
There are many other institutions and enterprises that engage Mr. Adler's interest and attention. He is a director in the First National Bank, the New Haven Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company, the New Haven Water Company, the South- ern New England Telephone Company, the Hebrew Benevolent Society and the General Hospital Society of Connecticut. He is a trustee of the National Savings Bank, and a former president of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Young People's Hebrew Association, president of the Harmonie Club, presi- dent of the Congregation Mishkan Israel, chairman of the advisory committee of the United Workers of New Haven, director in the Organ- ized Charities Association, director of the New Haven County Anti- Tuberculosis Association and a manager of the New Haven Dispen- sary. In politics he is an ardent Republican. In 1903 Governor Chamberlain appointed him on the commission to investigate means and methods of industrial and technical education; he has served on the New Haven Board of Education, was a member of the State Com- mission to the Atlanta Exposition and the Tennessee Exposition and is now president of the Paving Commission. He is a man of great social popularity and is a member of the Union League Club, the New Haven Yacht Club and of the Quinnipiack Club of New Haven.
In 1866 Mr. Alder married Esther Myers and is the father of three children : a son, Frederick M. Adler, married Sophie Green- specht ; Flora V. Ullman, wife of Col. I. M. Ullman, and Miriam A. Weil, wife of A. E. Weil, attorney-at-law, residing in Denver, Colo- rado. Frederick and Colonel Ullman are partners in the business and reside in New Haven. Their winter home is on Wooster Square, New Haven, and their summer home is at Savin Rock, on the Sound. Though born across the water Mr. Adler is an intensely loyal and useful American citizen, who never fails to use his ability, wealth and position in the most public spirited manner. His career has been that of a capable, energetic and eminently successful business man and of a generous, patriotic and dutiful citizen.
A. PARK HAMMOND
H AMMOND, A. PARK, treasurer of the New England Com- pany, woolen manufacturers, president of the Rockville National Bank and in many other ways a prominent citizen of Rockville, was born in Vernon, Tolland County, Connecticut, June 24th, 1835. He is descended from Thomas Hammond, who was one of the followers of William the Conqueror, when he invaded England, and whose name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll, and from a later Thomas Hammond, who came from Lavenham, England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1636. Mr. Hammond's father was Allen Hammond, a woolen manufacturer and a man who devoted much time and energy to promoting the growth of business and religion in his native town. Mr. Hammond's mother was Ona Park Hammond, and her share in shaping his character and life plans was an important one.
After acquiring the education afforded by the public schools of Rockville, Mr. Hammond attended a private school in Ellington and later took a course in a polytechnic school. He then began his experience in the manufacturing business in the employ of the New England Company of Rockville. After spending four years in the manufacturing department he was taken into the office to learn the financial and clerical side of the business. In 1879 he became treasurer of the company, the position which his father had held for twenty-five years.
During the Civil War Mr. Hammond was a member of Company D, 14th Connecticut Volunteers, having been captain in the state militia previous to 1861. He commanded a company at the Battle of Antietam, and this won his membership in the Burpee Post, G. A. R. He is also a member of the Army and Navy Club of Connecti- cut.
Business and military interests, though engaged in with thoroughness and success, have not been the only ones in Mr. Ham- mond's life. He is a consistent Republican and has held public office several times. He represented the town of Vernon in the Gen-
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eral Assembly in 1869, and was in the common council of Rock- ville for three years. He was city alderman in 1895-6. Mr. Ham- mond has many strong fraternal ties. He is a Mason, a Knight Templar, Washington Commandery No. 1, and a Shriner. He is a Congregationalist in his religious affiliations.
Mr. Hammond has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1859, was Lois Cone Bissell. She died in 1872, leaving three children. Mr. Hammond's present wife was Augusta S. Bissell.
The extent to which Mr. Hammond has made his life count is shown in his responsible part in the industrial and financial life of his community. In addition to being treasurer of the New England Company and president of the Rockville National Bank he is presi- dent of the Rockville Water and Aqueduct Company, formerly treas- urer of the Rockville Railroad and president of the Rockville Building and Loan Association. He has followed his father's example in the zealous promotion of public welfare as completely as he has in the attainment of personal success.
WILLIAM MAXWELL
M AXWELL, WILLIAM, secretary and treasurer of the Spring- ville Manufacturing Company of Rockville, Tolland County, Connecticut, was born in that town, December 7th, 1862. The Maxwell family is of very old Scotch-Irish stock, and their first American ancestor was Hugh Maxwell, who came to Amer- ica in 1733. He participated conspicuously in the French and Indian War, and in the Revolution; he was in action at Lake George and at Fort William Henry when Montcalm besieged it, and was one of the prisoners taken at that time. During the Revolution he was lieutenant of a company of minute men, who took part in the "Boston Tea Party," was wounded at Bunker Hill and was of the original thirteen men of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Mr. Maxwell's father was George Maxwell, a woolen manufacturer, treas- urer and later president of the New England Company and treas- urer and president of the Hockanum Company. He was a man of strongly religious temperament and of generous public spirit. Mr. Maxwell has never married and has made his home with his mother, Harriet Kellogg Maxwell, for the greater part of his life.
The schools of Rockville furnished Mr. Maxwell's early educa- tion until 1881, when he entered Yale University. During his college course he devoted some time to athletics, and was a prominent Yale athlete of that period. He was a member of the Mott Haven Athletic Team and made a very good record as a bicycle rider. He became a member of the college fraternity Psi Upsilon. After graduating from Yale in 1885 he went West and spent several months in North Dakota, before settling down to his life work, the manufacturing business.
Upon his return to Rockville Mr. Maxwell entered the Spring- ville Manufacturing Company, and when the company was reorgan- ized he became its secretary and assistant treasurer. After his father's death he succeeded to the responsible position of treasurer of
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the company. He is also a director in the Hockanum Company, the New England Company, the Rockville Building and Loan Associa- tion, the Aqueduct Company, the Rockville National Bank, and the savings bank of Rockville.
He by no means con- fines his interest to the industrial and financial affairs of the community, for he has been city assessor, he is secretary of the Rock- ville Public Library, a member of the High School Committee and he has been clerk of the Union Ecclesiastical Society at Rockville. In creed he is a Congregationalist, and in political faith a Republican.
Though still a young man, comparatively speaking, Mr. Max- well has been highly successful in business and has made his mark creditably and permanently in the industrial history of his time. The name of Maxwell bears an enviable reputation for integrity, enterprise and public spirit, a reputation that has had ample con- firmation in Mr. William Maxwell.
PIERCE NOBLE WELCH
W ELCH, PIERCE NOBLE, president of the First National Bank, New Haven, of the Bristol Brass Company and vice- president of the Bristol Manufacturing Company, was born in Plainville, Hartford County, Connecticut, June 27th, 1841. His ancestors on his father's side were of Scotch-Irish stock and his mater- nal ancestors were English. His father was Harmanus Madison Welch, a banker and manufacturer and a man who held many public offices. He was mayor of New Haven, town and city treasurer, pres- ident of the board of education and a member of the State Assembly as both senator and representative. He was a man who gave strict and constant attention to both public and private business. His wife, Mr. Welch's mother, was Antoinette Pierce Welch, a woman of power- ful influence for good.
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