USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 14
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The greater part of Mr. Welch's boyhood was spent in New Haven, where he attended the Russell Military School in preparation for his college course at Yale University. He graduated from Yale in 1862 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and then went abroad for still fur- ther study, which he carried on at Berlin and Göttingen for two years, but as he did not complete the course this work led to no other degree.
Returning to America Mr. Welch began his business life in New York City, where he was made a partner in a wholesale grocery house. In 1870 he became treasurer of the New Haven Rolling Mill Com- pany, a position which he held for twenty years. Inheriting his father's enterprise and sagacity he has won success that has been marked and rapid. He has been president of the First National Bank of New Haven since 1889, and in addition to this office he now holds the presidency of the Bristol Brass Company, is vice-president of the Bristol Manufacturing Company, and he is a director in the New Haven Clock Company. In 1892 Mr. Welch presented Yale University with a fine dormitory building, Welch Hall, erected in the memory of his father at the cost of $125,000.
A modest, unostentatious and conservative man, Mr. Welch is
Pierce N. Welch .
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nevertheless as prominent socially as he is in business. In college he was a member of the senior society of Wolf's Head and of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He is a member of the Reform Club and the Yale Club of New York, and of the Graduates' Club of New Haven. He has been a generous promoter of many important charitable and philanthropic movements, and has made large contributions to the Young Men's Christian Association of New Haven, of which he is now the president. He is a member of the Baptist Church. In politics he is a Democrat, but he voted twice for Mckinley on the gold issue.
On February 28th, 1867, Mr. Welch married Emma Cornelia Galpin, by whom he is the father of five children: Pierce N. Welch, Jr., B.A. Yale, 1898, treasurer of the Peck Brothers & Company of New Haven, Connecticut; Mrs. Cornelius W. Gains; Mrs. Ella W. Graves, B.A., 1895; Mrs. Hilda W. Gross, B.A., 1901, and Miss Cora D. Welch, B.A., 1904, all of Vassar.
The happy union of culture and business sense, of wealth and generosity, of success and modesty, has made Pierce Noble Welch one of the most admirable as well as one of the most prominent men in his community. His responsible business positions and his substantial public gifts embody the greatness of his mind and of his heart.
ALVAH NORTON BELDING
B ELDING, ALVAH NORTON, one of the most prominent and progressive silk manufacturers in the country, was born in Ashfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, March 27th, 1838. He is descended from an old and historic New England family, and bears a name well known in the industrial world.
Going back six generations from Mr. Belding we find William Belding, who was one of the earliest settlers at Wethersfield, Con- necticut. His son Daniel was a man of historic fame in the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts. On September 16th, 1696, during King William's War, the greater part of his family was either killed or captured in the encounter with the Indians in that town. Daniel Belding was made prisoner and taken captive to Canada. John Belding, grandson of Daniel, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. Hiram, his son, and the father of Alvah N. Belding, the subject of this biography, was born at Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1802, in the old Belding homestead. His occupation was first school teacher, then farmer and merchant. His wife, Mr. Belding's mother, was Mary Wilson, a woman of strong Christian character and gentle disposition, who created in her home an ideal family life, teaching her sons the great lesson of obedience.
The boy, Alvah N. Belding, spent his youth in the country town of Ashfield, acquiring his education in the public and high schools of that town. His physical condition was good, and he was not afraid to work. At sixteen he spent a season selling jewelry on the road, with great suc- cess. This created a taste for mercantile business, which was to deter- mine his career. In 1855, when Mr. Belding was seventeen years of age, his father moved his household to Otisco, Michigan, where he pur- chased a large tract of untilled land. The pioneer family set to work to cultivate and farm this land, and thus started the town of Belding, Michigan. Alvah N. Belding joined with the others in the persistent labor of cultivating their farm, until the store was erected in which his father conducted mercantile business until his death in 1866, but Mr.
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Belding was more interested in trade than in agriculture, and when his labors were no longer needed on the farm, he engaged in the business of selling silk.
With his brother, H. H. Belding, he formed a partnership known as Belding Brothers just before the opening of the Civil War. In 1863, they opened a store in Chicago, and started a silk factory in Rockville, Connecticut, of which Mr. Belding was made manager. Through his enterprise, this business has grown until it requires the employment of five hundred hands to turn out its silk threads and fabrics. He established a plant in Montreal for the manufacture of ribbons, and in 1877, planned and built another in Belding, Massa- chusetts, which was afterwards sold to a syndicate in which Mr. Belding became a prominent stockholder. Later he built still another mill in Belding, Michigan, which has been a very great factor in the growth and importance of that town. There are now six of these mills, personally supervised by Mr. Belding, and built from his planning. In these mills over three thousand people find employment, and a ton of raw silk is utilized daily, with an annual product of $5,000,000. In 1882 the entire business was reorganized and incorporated under the laws of the State of Connecticut. The corporation has sales- rooms and agencies all over the United States, and has developed with wonderful steadiness and rapidity. This prosperity and growth are largely due to the rare executive ability and energy of Mr. Belding, who fills the responsible positions of vice-president and secretary of the corporation, and has the entire management of the mills at Rock- ville, where he has made his home since 1869.
In 1870, the year after he went to Rockville to live, Mr. Belding married Lizzie Smith Merrick. Three children have been born to them, of whom two are now living, Florence M. and Frederick N. Mr. Belding is a popular and active citizen of Rockville, and bears an important part in its prosperity. His numerous business positions and duties make it impossible for him to accept many other offices, but he is a staunch Republican, and represented his town in the Connecticut Legislature in 1882, being elected by a very large majority.
Though not devoted to athletics, Mr. Belding is fond of driving a good horse, and has always been vigorous and active. As a business man he is prompt, capable and systematic. As vice-president and
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secretary of Belding Brothers & Company, president of the Belding Land and Improvement Company of Belding, Michigan, and director of the Belding Paul Co., Montreal, Canada, of the Carlson Curvier Company of San Francisco, of the Spenser Electric Light and Power Company of Belding, Michigan, of the savings bank of that town, of the American Mills Company of Rockville, Connecticut, and of the national and savings banks of Rockville, Mr. Belding proves him- self indeed a successful "captain of industry," whose youthful ambi- tion to succeed has been admirably fulfilled in the mature man.
BURTON GOULD BRYAN
B RYAN, BURTON GOULD, president of the Fourth National Bank of Waterbury, was born in Watertown, Litchfield County, Connecticut, September 27th, 1846. His father was Edward Bryan, a Connecticut farmer, noted for his integrity, industry, and Christian spirit. His first American ancestor was Alexander Bryan, who came from England in 1693 and was one of several settlers who bought the town of Milford from five Indians for six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets and hoes, two dozen knives, and a dozen small glasses.
Young Bryan lived on a farm until he was about eighteen, thus laying the foundation of good health and a strong character, which were to compensate him for the slight schooling he was able to ac- quire while engaged in farm work. While yet a country boy he deter- mined to be a banker, and at the age of eighteen, and after three months at a business school, he began the active work of life as a bookkeeper in a real estate office in Waterbury. By being strictly honest, truthful, and faithful to his duty, and by always doing his best, the real estate bookkeeper finally realized his ambition of becoming a bank president. The steps by which he rose were secretary and bookkeeper of the Naugatuck Woolen Company, cashier of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company at Wilmington, North Carolina, teller of the Manufacturers' National Bank, organizer, cashier, and, in 1889, president of the Fourth National Bank of Waterbury.
Mr. Bryan was at one time clerk of the Board of Common Council, for twenty years he has been treasurer of the Second Congregational Church, and was town treasurer for two years. He is prominent in Masonic circles, having held every position up to the Commandery and having received the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite. In politics he has always been a Republican. He is an Odd Fellow, and a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the Waterbury Golf Club. He is an enthusiastic golf player and finds in the game his
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most enjoyable form of amusement and relaxation from business cares.
In 1868 he was married to Fannie K. Peck. They have had two children, one of whom, Wilbur P. Bryan, cashier of the Fourth National Bank, is living. Mr. Bryan's advice to young men who wish to succeed in life is: "Be honest, truthful, faithful to duty, and always do your best."
CHARLES HUGH LOUNSBURY
L OUNSBURY, CHARLES HUGH, president of the Stam- ford Savings Bank, senior member of the firm of Lounsbury & Soule, manufacturers, was born in Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, August 19th, 1839. His ancestors were Eng- lish and came to America before the Revolution. In the struggle for independence, they fought on the side of the Colonists. Mr. Lounsbury's father was George Lounsbury, a farmer of marked indus- try and integrity, who served his townsmen as selectman, assessor, and representative in the General Assembly. His mother was Louisa Scofield Lounsbury, a woman who exerted a strong moral and spirit- ual influence on her family.
A robust farmer boy and fond of all out-of-door sports, Mr. Lounsbury spent a busy youth. He worked with his father on the farm outside of school hours until he was sixteen, and learned during these boyhood days the lessons of honesty, industry, and economy, which his father was so well fitted to teach, and which laid the foundation for his own success in life. After acquiring such educa- tion as the public schools afforded Mr. Lounsbury began his life- long mercantile career in the business of shoe manufacturing, with the satisfaction of seeing his business constantly enlarge and his influence and usefulness in the community increase. At nineteen he entered into partnership with Scofield & Cook, which became Cook & Lounșbury in 1861, and was reorganized as Lounsbury & Soule, with Mr. Lounsbury as senior partner, in 1884.
In politics Mr. Lounsbury is identified with the Republican party and he has held many public offices. He was a member of the old Borough Board, city councilman for two years, and president of the Stamford Board of Trade for five years. His prominence in public affairs is further proved by his being a hospital director, a bank director, secretary of the Gas and Electric Company, and president of the Stamford Savings Bank. Mr. Lounsbury is a Mason and a member of the Union Lodge, F. and A. M. He is a trustee of the Presbyterian Church of which he is a member.
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Mr. Lounsbury's greatest enjoyment in life is found in his business and in his home interests. In 1863 he married Anna Perry Samuel, and, of the four children born to them, there are three now living. Home influence and a strong desire for success have been the dominant forces in Mr. Lounsbury's profitable life. He attributes his success to the principles of industry, integrity, determination, and ambition inculcated when he was a boy on the farm by his father and mother.
ELMORE SHERWOOD BANKS
B ANKS, ELMORE SHERWOOD, lawyer, Judge of Probate of Fairfield, Connecticut, and for several terms a representative in the General Assembly, who was born in Fairfield, Connecti- cut, May 24th, 1866, is a descendant of John Banks, who came from England and settled in Fairfield about 1640 and was lieutenant, boundary commissioner, and in many ways a prominent public man of his day. Mr. Banks is the son of Simon Banks, a merchant and farmer, who was assessor and a member of the school board and a man whose most conspicuous traits were industry, persistence, and honesty. Hannah Dwyer Banks, his mother, died when he was but two years old, but his stepmother filled her place in his life and exerted the best of influences upon his character.
Elmore Banks was a strong, robust, country boy, who delighted in athletics and particularly inclined to baseball. He was fond of reading and found the translations of Cicero and Virgil and the study of orations and oratory his most helpful literature. He was able to secure a thorough education, though obliged to work during vacations in his father's store and on the farm. This early work inculcated habits of industry and economy that have been of lasting value. He attended the Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven and entered the academic department of Yale University with the class of 1888, but left during his sophomore year. He afterwards entered Yale Law School, where he was graduated in 1895. In 1890 he taught school in Kentucky, where he met Beulah May Galloway, whom he married in April, 1898. From 1890 to 1893 he conducted a store, in 1894 he became town clerk of Fairfield, and in 1895 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law. In 1896, the year after the opening of his legal career, Mr. Banks became Judge of Probate of Fairfield and he still holds this office. He has continued in the practice of law with success in the firm of Davenport & Banks of Bridgeport. He has been attorney for the town of Fair- field since 1896 and was attorney for the County Commissioners in 1901.
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In politics Judge Banks is a Republican of great activity and promi- nence. He represented Fairfield in the General Assembly in 1901, 1903, and 1905, and was leader of the House in 1903. During the session of 1901 he was chairman of the committee on insurance and in 1903 and 1904 was chairman of the committee on judiciary and rules. He was also a member of the committee on the revision of Statutes. His favorite relaxation from business is in out-of-door sports such as baseball, horseback riding, rowing, hunting, and fishing.
The law was Mr. Banks' own choice of a profession and he con- siders that the strongest encouragement and incentive in attaining success in that profession has been the influence of his wife. Of that success, which has been true success in every sense of the word, he says: "I have had to work hard for all I have accomplished and, while that has been but little, I am reasonably well satisfied with the results thus far achieved. Three things only are necessary to success- honesty, work, and fair ability. With these anyone in good health can succeed."
WILLIE OLCOTT BURR
I N 1861, Willie Olcott Burr was supplementing his common school education with a course in the Harris Private School for Boys, which was situated on Main Street in Hartford, about where the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company's building now stands. His intention, promoted by his father, was to continue his education through college and round it out with a trip abroad. But education of a sterner kind and such as few young men are privileged to receive was to come to him. He would have preferred to have the academic course first, and he himself never considers his life well rounded because of lack of it, but the grim events at the outbreak of the Civil War claimed his faculties and shaped a life career for which Connecticut history is grateful. On May 13th, 1861, following the attack on Fort Sumter, Mr. Burr was at his father's side in the editorial rooms of the Hartford Times.
It was a small establishment compared with its present splendid proportions, on the very same corner of Grove and Main streets now occupied by it. The post office was on the ground floor of the corner, where the business office of the paper now is; the Times had rooms above and a small building to the rear where the mechanical depart- ment's plant stands to-day. Mr. Burr's father, Alfred Edmond Burr, -the stalwart man who had been editor of the paper for twenty years already and who long since had been recognized as a tremendous force in the affairs of the Democratic party and in what makes for civic welfare,-and Mr. Burr's uncle, Franklin L. Burr, the sole partner, had few men around them then to handle and pass on to the eager public the news which those feverish days so quickly began to make as never before. An opportunity even greater than could then be estimated, it was more than that; it was Mr. Burr's call of duty to go into the newspaper office.
As the paper grew and the work was systematized, he became head of the city department and occupied other responsible positions in turn. In 1890, when old age began to make the cares of management
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onerous for the father, the son relieved him of the most of his burden, and in 1894 the father made over the whole great property and entrusted it to the son. Mr. Burr, the elder, died on January 8th, 1900, serene in the consciousness of the success of his paper and of the maintenance of its sixty years' standard by his son.
To be the head of a large newspaper precludes the possibility of his mingling in other affairs, however strong the call from his fellow citizens. Such a career is known and felt by the people, but : rather in an impersonal way; it is the paper they see and not the "man behind" it, outside of the immediate circle of home. One ' appointment he did accept, and from a Republican governor, and that was to a position on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut State Prison. Governor Lorrin A. Cooke appointed him in 1897, when important work was to be done. 1
Mr. Burr was born September 27th, 1843. May, 1906, saw the completion of forty-five years of effective but impersonal public work on his paper. He comes of a family that has held high place since Hartford's beginning. Three of his ancestors were among the original proprietors of the town. Benjamin, the progenitor of the Hartford branch of the family, was one of the founders in 1635 and an original proprietor in 1639. From him Willie Olcott Burr is descended through Thomas, Thomas (2), James and Alfred Ed- mond Burr, whose wife was Sarah A., wife of Abner Booth of Meriden. On his grandmother's side he is descended from Thomas Olcott, also an original proprietor in Hartford in 1639, a merchant, and one of the founders of the trade and commerce of the Colony of Connecticut. The line of descent is through Samuel, Thomas (2), Joseph, Joseph (2), and Lucretia (Olcott) Burr, wife of James.
Mr. Burr was married May 21st, 1874, to Miss Angie L. Lincoln of Upton, Massachusetts. They have one daughter, Florence Lin- coln Burr.
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EDWIN OLMSTEAD KEELER
K EELER, EDWIN OLMSTEAD, president of the Fairfield County National Bank, of the Southern New England Whole- sale Grocery Association, of the Norwalk Club Company, and otherwise prominent in business and finance, was born at Ridgefield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, January 12th, 1846. He is of English descent, his first ancestor in America being Ralph Keeler, who came from the mother country to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1640. Mr. Keeler's grandmother, Anne Belden Olmstead, was the daughter of Azar Belden, born 1749, who was an officer in the Revolutionary War. His father was Jonah Charles Keeler, a prosperous farmer. His mother, Henrietta Keeler, died when he was but seven years old.
Unlike most country boys Mr. Keeler had a delicate constitution, but the judicious use of physical culture and the determination to make the most of his strength partially overcame the obstacle of ill health, and Mr. Keeler's life has been an unusually full and active one. His early home life was simple and wholesome, for the Bible was the dominant influence and the principal field of study in the Keeler homestead. Mr. Keeler was educated at William O. Sey- mour's private school in Ridgefield, and, after an eight years' course there, attended the New Haven Business College, where he was graduated in 1865. Shortly after his graduation Mr. Keeler went to New York to work as a bookkeeper. Three years later, in May, 1868, he married Sarah Velina Whiting, by whom he has had two children, Inez Rosaline and Rutherford Ballau.
Returning from New York Mr. Keeler settled in Norwalk and engaged in the wholesale grocery business, and was gradually pro- moted from bookkeeper to president of the company. Besides his responsible positions as president of the Norwalk Club Company, the Southern New England Wholesale Grocery. Association, and the Fairfield National Bank, Mr. Keeler is also president of the Norwalk Steamboat Company, vice-president of the South Norwalk Trust Company, and director in several other corporations.
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Mr. Keeler, who is a devoted Republican, has been as active and as prominent in politics as he has in business. He was the first mayor of the city of Norwalk, serving from 1894 to 1895. He represented the town of Norwalk in the State Legislature during 1893 and 1895, and was senator from the thirteenth district in 1897 and 1899 and lieutenant governor from 1901 to 1903.
Business and politics have by no means been the only interests in Mr. Keeler's life. He is an active worker in the Congregational Church and has been chairman of the committee of the First Con- gregational Church of Norwalk for twenty-five years. He is both a Mason and an Odd Fellow and in the latter order he has held the chair of Noble Grand. Mr. Keeler is also a member of the Norwalk Club.
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CHARLES SANGER MELLEN
M ELLEN. CHARLES SANGER, president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, August 16th, 1851, the son of George K. and Hannah M. (Sanger) Mellen. His father was a country mer- chant. His ancestors emigrated from England in 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.
President Mellen passed the early years of his life in the city of Concord, New Hampshire, where he attended the grammar and high schools, and was graduated from the latter in 1869. After leav- ing the high school, he was forced to earn a living for himself and those dependent upon him, and at the age of eighteen he entered railway service as a clerk in the cashier's office of the Northern New Hampshire Railroad, at Concord. Thus by mere chance, or from circumstances over which he had no control, he entered a field of work in which he was destined to win for himself wealth, influence, and a national reputation. It might also he said that be gained his health in the railway service, for until after he had been in this occupation for several years he had always had a frail constitution. To-day he declares that railroad affairs are his sport, his amusement, his chief form of exercise, and his best method of relaxation from the cares of life. His marked success in the railroad world is no doubt due in a large measure to the fact that he has always thrown his entire heart and soul into his work.
After remaining in the Concord office for nearly three years, he went to St. Albans, Vermont, to become clerk to the chief engineer of the Central Vermont Railroad. After several months in this posi- tion he returned to the employ of the Northern New Hampshire Railroad, serving for seven years respectively as clerk, cashier, chief clerk, and assistant treasurer. By this time he commenced to have an intelligent grasp of many phases of railroad management. In 1880 he became assistant to the manager of the Boston and Lowell Railroad. Although he retained this position but one year, even in
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that short time he worked out a plan for abolishing the grade crossings north of Boston and for consolidating the terminals of all the northern railroads. His next position was that of auditor for the Boston and Lowell and the Concord railroads. In 1888 he resigned this position to enter the service of the Union Pacific System as pur- chasing agent. Several months later he was promoted to assistant general manager; and in several months more he was appointed general traffic manager. The four years during which he managed the traffic of the Union Pacific earned for him a national reputation as an able "traffic man." In 1892 he was offered and accepted the position of general manager of the New York and New England Rail- road. He served here only a few months when he was induced to accept the second vice-presidency of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. For five years he remained in this position, gaining in experience and adding to his reputation. When in 1897 he became president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the people of New England were as sorry to lose his valuable services as the Northern Pacific was anxious to gain them. Commenting on his election as president of the Northern Pacific, the New Haven Register of August 22nd, said: "It is due reward to a man who has worked his way up from the bottom of the ladder and has met with success by hard and conscientious work." Said the Boston Herald of about the same date: "The selection of Mr. Mellen is pleasing to the people of New England, where he had been long and favorably known. Mr. Mellen has not the easiest task to manage a property with a history like that of the Northen Pacific road, but his dis- interestedness may harmonize all factions." According to the New York Times: "Mr. Mellen is one of the best equipped and most ex- perienced railroad men in the United States." The New York World declared that his retirement from the New York, New Haven and Hartford Road was almost "an official calamity." "C. S. Mellen," de- clared the Hartford Post, "will fill the office of president of the Northern Pacific Railroad acceptably, being a railroad man of great ability and wide experience. The "Consolidated" will miss his ser- vices, which have contributed materially to the improvements made in the Connecticut railroad during the past few years." President E. B. Thomas of the Erie Railroad, and director in the Northern Pacific, declared : "I can heartily indorse the selection of Mr. Mellen.
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