USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 16
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On November 23rd, of the year of his graduation in New Haven, he was married to Kate Abell Mattison of Oswego. They live now at No. 388 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, and have two children, Mar- garet and Mary.
Immediately upon his graduation, in July, 1880, he entered upon the pastorate of the First Congregational Church in Buffalo, whence he went, after two years of service and of hard study, to the First Presbyterian Church in Watertown, New York. In 1885, he went abroad for a year of study and research in the German universities, obtaining the degree of S.T.D. at Jena in 1886. At Syracuse Uni- versity, where he had pursued a post-graduate course in 1882-1883, he had earned the degree of Ph.D. The Illinois College gave him the degree of D.D. in 1902 and the University of Rochester that of LL.D. the same year.
On his return from Germany, he was called to the position of professor of New Testament criticism at Yale Divinity School, which position he held from 1886 to 1895, when he was chosen to fill the chair of systematic theology, which he still holds. His capacity for business affairs is attested to by his membership in the directorates of the Yale National Bank, New Haven, and the E. H. H. Smith Silver Company of Bridgeport.
When we come to a consideration of the professor's writings, we find that they are marked by ripe scholarship, and new books from his pen are eagerly welcomed by the theological world. His first book, doubtless prompted by his class-room work, was "An Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians," published in 1890. Since then the volumes have followed each other in rapid succession. They in- clude : "The Pauline Theology," 1892; "The Johannine Theology,"
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1894; "Doctrine and Life," 1895; "The Life of Peter Parker," 1896; "The Epistles of Paul in Modern English," 1898; "The Theology of the New Testament," 1899; "The Messages of Paul," 1900; "The Messages of the Apostles," 1900; "The Teaching of Jesus," 1901, and "The Christian Doctrine of Salvation," 1905. Other works are in contemplation.
In politics the professor is a Republican. His advice to the young is to labor diligently, have high aims, take wholesome exercise, and keep calm and cheerful. The points in his own life, governed by these principles, can be written briefly, but the good he has done, the position he has won in the esteem of his neighbors, and the influence he has had upon the trend of high religious thought cannot be measured by pages. Retaining his physical strength by riding and driving and by country life when he can, he has still many years of activity before him and it is far too early to take the measure of his works.
JOHN MARSHALL HOLCOMBE
OLCOMBE, JOHN MARSHALL, president of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company and of the Fidelity Com- pany, both of Hartford, lecturer at Yale University, bank director, and a prominent factor in the city government of Hartford, was born in that city on the eighth of June, 1848. The Holcombe ancestry is very interesting and distinguished and embraces men of note in every walk of life. John Marshall Holcombe is a descendant of Thomas Holcombe, who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1635 and was later a settler and deputy in Windsor, Connecticut. He is in the same line of descent as Amasa Holcombe, the distinguished scientist, and Rev. Frederick Holcombe, the eminent divine and founder of Trinity College. Among Mr. Holcombe's ancestors were three Revolutionary soldiers and many other men prominent in early American history, including John Webster, one of the early Colonial governors of Connecticut; William Phelps, magistrate and deputy to the General Court for many sessions; Edward Griswold, also magis- trate and deputy for thirty-five years; Captain Joseph Wadsworth, who hid the charter in the oak, and Gen. Nathan Johnson, an officer in the War of 1812, who was also State senator. These and many other ancestors came from England and were early settlers and proprietors in Colonial and later times. Mr. Holcombe's father was James Huggins Holcombe, a lawyer, who was clerk of court and of the House and Senate of Connecticut. He was characterized by the usual New England traits of rectitude, fidelity, and thrift. Mr. Holcombe's mother was Emily Merrill Holcombe.
The city of Hartford has been Mr. Holcombe's home and the center of all his interests from his earliest days and he is now living there in the house in which he was born. He attended the Hartford Public High School and then entered Yale College, where he received his B.A. degree in 1869 and his M.A. degree three years later. In 1869 he began his career as an insurance man in the office of the actuary of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company,
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and in 1871 he became actuary of the insurance department of the State of Connecticut, which office he held for three years. In 1874 he became assistant secretary of the Phoenix Mutual Life, the fol- lowing year he was made secretary and, in 1889, vice-president of the company of which he is now the president. He is also president of the Fidelity Company, a director in the American National Bank, in the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, in the Mechanics Sav- ings Bank of Hartford, and in the National Surety Company of New York. In addition to these interests he has been a lecturer at Yale University, in the insurance course. This last named position shows, even more than his many other business positions, what a capable authority he is on the important subject of life insurance. He has also written valuable articles on life insurance for the North American Review.
In the municipal affairs of Hartford Mr. Holcombe has taken as important a part as he has in the business life. He brought about the organization of the board of health and served on it for many years. In 1883 he was a member of the common council and, in 1885, he was a member of the board of aldermen, and he was president of both of these branches of city government. He is a director of the board of trade and of the Retreat for the Insane. In politics he is a Republican and in creed a Congregationalist, being a member of the Center Church of Hartford. He has been president of the Yale Alumni Association of Hartford, is a member of the University Club of New York, of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the War of 1812, of the Hartford Club, and a fellow of the Actuarial Society of America, another evidence of his high place among the life insurance "captains" of to-day. Mrs. Holcombe was Emily Seymour Goodwin, whom he married January 29th, 1873, and by whom he has had three children, a daughter and two sons: Harold Goodwin Holcombe, Emily Marguerite Holcombe, and John Marshall Holcombe, Jr. Mrs. Holcombe is as much a leader in social, intellectual, and patriotic circles as her husband is in business and public affairs.
HENRY WALCOTT FARNAM
A MONG the descendants of John Howland, who came from England in the "Mayflower," in 1620, is Professor Henry Walcott Farnam of New Haven. His parents were Henry Far- nam and Ann Sophia Whitman. He was born in New Haven, Novem- ber 6th, 1853.
His father was a man of prominence in engineering and railroad circles, in the days when the foundations of the country's great commercial prosperity were being laid. A civil engineer by profes- sion, he was with the Erie Canal when he was called to Connecticut to engineer the Farmington Canal. He was one of those far-sighted men who subsequently planned the railroad from New Haven to New York, -the beginning of what was to be one of the most important and valuable systems in America. The West, however, seemed to offer still greater opportunities. Removing thither he put through to com- pletion into Chicago the Michigan Southern Railroad, with Joseph E. Sheffield, and built the Chicago and Rock Island, the first road to give Chicago access to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi. He was a man of indomitable energy and force of character, and at the same time kindly and liberal. He rose to the position of president of the Chicago and Rock Island, and retired from active business in 1863. Henry W. Farnam, who had been spending considerable time in Farmington, was taken abroad that year to continue his education. After two years in France and four years in Germany, where he was a pupil in the gymnasia at Heidelberg and Weimar, he returned to this country. In 1870, after having had one year at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, he entered the academic department at Yale, where he was graduated in 1874 with a high-oration rating.
On leaving college Henry W. Farnam remained in New Haven till he received the degree of Master of Arts, in 1875, and then he went back to Germany, to study economics and law. At Berlin, Göttingen, and Strassburg, he studied under Schmoller, Knapp, Sohm, Wagner,
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Ihering, and Mommsen, and, in 1878, received the degree of Doctor of Political Science (R.P.D.) at Strassburg.
It has been the rule of Professor Farnam's life to merge his own personality in whatever he undertakes. Economics and political science had won his devotion at the outset, and still more profound knowledge of these subjects has been his ambition since the year after his gradua- tion from Yale, yet he has given of his time freely to the study of art and literature and has granted to community and State the benefits of his ripe scholarship.
When he returned to New Haven as tutor, in 1878, there was no vacancy in economics. Loving Yale with that devotion which has held so many of its teachers against the allurements of sister insti- tutions, he was willing to wait for opportunity to utilize his learning while further prosecuting the study of his specialty. But he was not to be idle meantime. Members of three classes-1881, 1882, and 1883 -remember with pleasure his luminous teaching of the Latin classics. In 1880 came his appointment as university professor of political economy. The year following, General Francis A. Walker, who had held the chair of political economy in the Sheffield Scientific School of the university, accepted the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston, and Professor Farnam was im- mediately chosen to succeed him. With the growth of the university, however, and with increasing pressure of his duties in the graduate department, he resigned the chair in the Scientific School in 1903 to devote all his time to the more advanced courses.
Meantime his practical interest in public affairs had been attested in part by his presidency of the company that published the New Haven Morning News of which Clarence Deming was the editor. Professor Farnam had been financially interested a year when he was chosen head of the enterprise with the purpose of maintaining in New Haven a politically independent journal of high character. The paper did valiant service for the principles represented in the candi- dacy of Grover Cleveland in the presidential campaign of 1884.
On June 26th, 1890, Professor Farnam married Miss Elizabeth Upham Kingsley, daughter of Dr. William L. Kingsley of New Haven, and the following month he started on a journey to the far East, visiting Japan, China, India, Egypt, and Greece before returning to his classes at Yale in the fall of 1901. He had resigned his position
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with the New Haven News before going abroad. On reaching home, one of the earliest tasks he found to put his hand to, outside of his university work, was the reorganization of that standard periodical, the New Englander and Yale Review, of which Dr. Kingsley had been the editor for a long period. The name of the publication was changed to the Yale Review, known to-day throughout the world of culture as a quarterly magazine for the discussion of political science and economics. For cooperation with him he selected such eminent men as Prof. George P. Fisher, Prof. (now president) Arthur T. Hadley, George B. Adams, and John C. Schwab, and the publication is increasing in power each year.
Professor Farnam, ever striving for purity in politics and the development of worth, was among the promoters of the New Haven Civil Service Reform Association, established in 1881. He held the position of secretary until, in 1901, the association broadened out as a state institution into the Connecticut Civil Service Reform Asso- ciation, with him as president. In 1898 he was appointed chairman of the New Haven Civil Service Board by Mayor Farnsworth, and he proceeded at once to organize the department with an aptitude and proficiency which established it as a model for other municipalities. In 1899 he went abroad with his family for a year of travel in Ger- many, Italy, and England, and resigned his chairmanship. His interest in the subject did not wane, however, for he retains to-day his membership in the Council of the National Civil Service Reform League.
He has been called upon for practical application of the principles he has studied and always has responded gladly and effectively. As member of the prudential committee of the New Haven Hospital for six years from 1880, and part of the time as chairman; as a director for many years in the Organized Charities Association; as an adviser for the University Settlement in New York and as a member of the Institute of Social Service and of similar organizations, he has contributed liberally of his time and talents toward the betterment of the condition of the people. Professor Farnam has long been interested in social settlements, and when Lowell House was re- organized in 1901, he assisted in the work and was made its president. As the work grew and the necessity for better accommodations showed itself, he secured, in 1906, a piece of property on Hamilton Street and
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presented it to the association, together with money to erect a new building.
His publications include "Die Innere Französische Gewerbepoli- tik von Colbert bis Turgot," his Strassburg thesis printed in the series of "Schmoller's Forschungen," "Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem by John Koren," written under the professor's direction, and "Life of Henry Farnam."
In religion Professor Farnam is a Congregationalist, and attends the historic Center Church of New Haven. His politics cannot be given a party label; they stand first and foremost for the gold standard, tariff for revenue, and the merit system. He finds delight in outdoor life, in wheeling, in tennis, in riding, in mountain climbing, in photography, and in the hunting and fishing camp, and he is a member of the carefully chosen State Commission of Sculpture, one of whose duties is to pass upon whatever works of art are proposed for the capitol and grounds at Hartford. He was made clerk of the commission in 1887 and has been chairman since 1902. His home at No. 43 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, is evidence of the refinement of his taste.
He is a member of the Graduates Club, the Country Club, and the Lawn Club of New Haven, of the Century, University, Reform, and Yale clubs of New York, and of the Golf Club and Casino of Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, where he spends considerable of his time in sum- mer. He has three children : Louise Whitman, Katherine Kingsley, and Henry W. Farnam, Jr. Speaking of what tends most to the strength- ening of sound ideals of American life and of what would be most helpful to the young in striving for true success, Professor Farnam said : "Form high ideals early. Stick to them. Cultivate industry, self-control, persistency. Think more of your work than of yourself. Bring up your children to do better service than their father."
IRVING FISHER
P ROFESSOR IRVING FISHER, among the youngest as well as most versatile professors Yale University ever had, is a native of Saugerties, Ulster County, New York. His father, George Whitefield Fisher, was a clergyman, very optimistic and very benevolent. His mother was Ella (Wescott) Fisher. Among his ancestors were George Norton, who came from England and settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629; John King, who was living in Weymouth, Massachusetts, early in the seventeenth century, and Richard Wescott, one of the earliest residents of Wethersfield, Con- necticut. In England the line is traced back to the Cranmer family which included the archbishop. George King, a descendant of John, was a captain in the Revolutionary War.
Irving Fisher was born February 27th, 1867. A strong, hearty lad, his mind was absorbed with outdoor sports in the days when foundations for physique should be laid. Much of this period was spent in the village of Peace Dale, R. I. Under the inspiration of his school teachers and with his father's books at his hand, the desire to imbibe learning developed itself and he soon had made his way through the high school of South Kingston, R. I. The ambition to go to college was upon him, but with that devotion to thoroughness which was to characterize his later life he determined to make his preparation complete. After having spent a year at the Hillhouse High School in New Haven, he removed with the family to St. Louis, Mo., where he rounded out his preliminary studies at Smith Academy.
Then only seventeen years old, he entered Yale University, aca- demic department. Studies came easy for him, and also honors, from the course and from his fellows. He was the highest stand man (valedictorian) in his class, and this, of course, gave him member- ship in Phi Beta Kappa. He was elected into Delta Kappa Epsilon and into Skull and Bones. All this time he was dependent for his living wholly upon his own exertions, and to obtain the money to pay
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his term bills and other expenses he gave up many hours to private tutoring. His favorite reading was mathematics, economics, etc., Darwin's "Descent of Man" not to be omitted. He believes that these books were most helpful in fitting him for his work in life, and as to other early influences he rates them as follows, according to their strength: home, early companionship, private study, and school. He was graduated at Yale in 1888, a man for whom his classmates predicted a brilliant future, provided his body was able to keep pace with his brain; for the long years of study and outside work had taxed his energies to the uttermost. In two years he was back "'neath the elms," as instructor in mathematics. More remu- nerative fields must have been easily within his reach, but, like so many others who have given their life to Yale there was back of his devotion to learning a love for Yale and all that it stands for. The following year he had earned the degree of Ph.D.
In 1893 he went abroad for a year's study of science in Berlin and Paris. Before leaving he was made assistant professor of mathematics at Yale, a position which he filled until 1895, when he entered the still more congenial field of political science as assistant professor. In 1898, at the age of thirty-one, he was made full professor and took the chair he now holds, succeeding some and associated with others whose researches in political science have brought honor to the university. But at the very moment when he had attained such high position, his health threatened to fail him, and from 1898 to 1901 he spent his time in the gentler climates of Colorado and Califor- nia. Again, his resolution and his principle of thoroughness pre- vailed so that when he resumed his work-and under the régime he had established for himself-his associates saw with delight the promise of a long life of usefulness.
Perhaps here we find a reason why he has become so earnest an advocate for more attention to health problems and a leader in the crusade against tuberculosis. In addition to giving much thought and aid to public health movements, he has devised a tent of great value in consumptive sanatoria. He has also invented a "mechanical diet indicator," which is in use among sanatoria, for aiding in the measurement and prescription of diet. And, speaking of his inventive genius, we might also mention among other machines for scientific use one which he devised to illustrate the mechanism of prices, and a semi-cylindrical sundial.
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His publications alone are enough to indicate his indefatigable energy. His "Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices," which attracted wide attention in 1892, was followed in 1893 by "Bibliographies of Present Officers of Yale University." In 1896, in conjunction with Professor A. W. Phillips of Yale, he wrote "Elements of Geometry," which has been translated into Japanese. In the same year appeared "Appreciation and Interest" among the publications of the American Economic Association. The following year appeared "Bibliography of Mathematical Economics"in Cournot's "Bibliography of Mathematical Theory of Wealth," which latter work he also assisted in translating. In the year 1897 he produced "A Brief Introduction to the Infinitesimal Calculus," which was translated into German and into Japenese. A revised edition has been issued in 1906. A book entitled "The Nature of Capital and Income" appeared in 1906, as well as articles in the Economic Journal, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the publications of the American Economic Association, the Bond Record, Moody's Magazine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the American Journal of Physiology, the Outlook, and the Yale Review, of which he is an editor.
Professor Fisher is an independent Republican. He voted for Cleveland on the tariff issue and for Mckinley on the gold standard. His religious creed is the Congregational. For exercise he indulges in gymnastics, bicycling, and rowing, and is an ardent believer in physical culture.
His advice to young men desirous of attaining success is: "In- vest in good health, adopt hygiene and simple living, with love of outdoor sports and fresh air indoors as well as outdoors. Eat nothing but simple and pure food, and eat it slowly and not in excess. Let hard work always be limited by fatigue. Avoid all poisons, including alcohol and tobacco. Preserve mental serenity. Have a definite and altruistic purpose in life, with an ideal to be and not to seem."
A number of scientific associations have his name on their rolls. They include the American Economic Association, British Economic Association, the American Mathematical Society, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political
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and Social Science, the American Statistical Association, the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science, the Washington Academy of Science, the Royal Statistical Society, the New England Free Trade League, the New York Reform Club, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, and the New Haven County Anti-Tuberculosis Association, of which he is secretary; also he is a member of the Graduates Club of New Haven.
Professor Fisher married Miss Margaret Hazard, daughter of Rowland Hazard, on June 24th, 1893. They have had three children : Margaret, Caroline, and Irving Norton, all of whom are living. They have a delightful home at No. 460 Prospect Street, New Haven.
WILLIAM EDWIN SESSIONS
S (ESSIONS, WILLIAM EDWIN, was born in Bristol, Connecti- cut, February 18th, 1857. The first twelve years of his boy- hood were spent in the little village of Polkville, three miles from the center. His father, John Humphrey Sessions, who mar- ried Miss Emily Bunnell, was a manufacturer. He was one of the few men who gave Bristol the start on its enviable career of enterprise and prosperity, and was a powerful factor in its growth and success. He was a man of unblemished character, public spirited, and an ardent advocate of the higher moral and educational development of his own community. He was a strong churchman and a devoted Methodist. He often refused public office, but served one term in the State Legislature, was president of the Bristol National Bank, and president of the Bristol Water Company. He died in 1899 at the age of seventy-one.
William Edwin is the younger of his two sons. He is de- scended on his father's side from Alexander Sessions, who settled in Plymouth Colony in 1639, and is also a descendant of Francis Cook of the "Mayflower," who was a signer of the "May- flower" compact, and whose death occurred in 1663; he is a descend- ant, too, of James Chilton of the "Mayflower," who died at Province- town, Massachusetts, 1620. In June of 1878 Mr. Sessions married Miss Emily Brown. They have two sons, Joseph B., born in 1881, and William Kenneth, born in 1887.
Bristol has always been the home of William E. Sessions ; he at- tended the public schools there and was graduated from the Hartford Public High School in 1876. His mind was strongly set on a business life and therefore he at once entered his father's office, and so started on a career marked with sagacity, industry, and success. He is by na- ture urbane and courtly. Though not a college man, he is, however, a man of marked intelligence and culture. He has traveled at home and abroad, is a reader of good literature, a student of art, and a musician. The music hall in his own home on Bellevue Avenue con-
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