USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 17
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Yours Truly William ESissions
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tains a pipe organ and grand piano for his own diversion and pleasure.
Mr. Sessions has a wonderful faculty for business. In 1879, two years after entering his father's office, he started in a separate concern with his father, organizing the Sessions Foundry Company, of which he is now president. The business was small, employing about twenty men, when they purchased it of the Bristol Foundry Com- pany. Mr. Sessions conducted it for sixteen years on Laurel Street in the center of the town where it grew so rapidly that in 1895 it had outgrown the three acres of land which was all that was available, when Mr. Sessions conceived the idea of buying the large tract of thirty acres now occupied by the business on Farmington Avenue, and building a large and modern foundry plant. The site is an ideal one for such a business. Mr. Sessions also purchased most of the adjoining land in order to provide building lots for his workmen and control the character of the neighborhood. No saloon can possibly exist within five minutes' walk of the works. The men are en- couraged to own their own homes, which many of them do. The handsome office of granite, the neat, yet majestic buildings, the splendidly kept grounds, make it appear almost like an educational or philanthropic pile of buildings, rather than an iron foundry. Mr. Sessions treats his men kindly and well, so that strikes and labor troubles are unknown to them. Every summer he gives them a fête on the grounds, which is an evening of music, refreshments, and social pleasure, when the men and their families come together to the number of 3,000, and for one night in the year they are "the people of the city."
In the summer of 1902, the E. M. Welch Manufacturing Company of Forestville, a village in the town of Bristol, was about to go into the hands of a receiver, which meant the closing of the clock factories which had been running for many years, and thus leaving most of the villagers without means of support. Mr. Sessions was urged to take the presidency of the concern and save it if possible. This seemed impossible as he was already a man of many cares and respon- sibilities. Finally, however, Mr. Sessions yielded to the earnest solici- tations and became the president and principal owner of the business which is now known as the Sessions Clock Company. In two short years several large new buildings have been erected, new machinery put in, and the output more than doubled, a truly remarkable achieve- ment.
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Like his father before him, Mr. Sessions is a strongly religious man. He joined the Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church when twelve years of age. He is now president of the board of trustees and vice-presi- dent of the official board of that church. He has a marked fondness for children and is superintendent of the Sunday school, one of the largest in the State, with over 750 members. The Sunday school is truly a modern, vigorous, and prosperous institution. He is a true friend and liberal supporter of the Church he so much loves. He is also a trustee of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and serves on some of its most important committees. For many years, also, he has been in charge of the Mount Hope Sunday school, which meets in a little chapel on Chippins Hill, four miles from Bristol, in a sparsely settled district of the town, whither he drives Sunday afternoons to conduct the services which mean so much to the people of the neighborhood. His charities and bene- factions are generously and wisely bestowed. Mr. Sessions is a total abstainer, never having taken intoxicating drinks in any form. He has always been a Republican in politics. He has thus far felt compelled to refuse political offices, both local and state, that have been offered him. He is a director of the Bristol National Bank, president of the Bristol Water Company, and greatly interested in all movements looking toward the welfare of the people and the advancement of Bristol, and of the nation.
HENRY ROSEMAN LANG
L ANG, HENRY ROSEMAN, professor of Romance philology in Yale University, was born at Wartau, Canton of St. Gall, Switzerland, on September 22nd, 1853. He is the son of Dr. Heinrich Lang (leader of the liberal school of theology in Switzer- land) and Constantia (Suter) Lang. Professor Lang, who is the first of his family to make this country the scene of his life's work, is the grandson of Heinrich Wilhelm Lang, who distinguished him- self as a Lutheran minister in Wurtemberg, Germany.
His early life was passed in the country in the republic of Switzerland, and his particular pleasure was in the study of insects and in drawing. The kinds of reading which he considers have been most helpful to him in fitting him for his life's work have been history, philosophy, and classical and modern literature.
His life for the greater part has been that of the student. His earlier education was received in the public schools of St. Gall and at the gymnasium of Zurich. He later became a member of the University of Zurich and in 1884 continued his studies in the University of Strassburg. Three years later he went to Italy for the purpose of still further instruction, and after this was a student in both Spain and Portugal. His first work in the United States of America was in 1878, when he was appointed to the position of pro- fessor of Latin in the State Normal College, in Nashville, Tennessee. He remained at this institution until 1882, in which year he accepted a position as instructor in modern languages in the High School of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1886 he went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, as instructor at the Swain Free School, a position which he filled until 1892, when he was called to take a place on the corps of instructors at Yale University.
Professor Lang is one of the best known professors of Yale Uni- versity in the contemporary world. In 1892 he was made instructor in the Romance languages at the University, and after one year was promoted to an assistant professorship in the same subject. This
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place he filled for three years, at the end of which period he was made professor of Romance philology, the position he holds at the present time.
Professor Lang has also devoted considerable time to the work of the world of belles lettres. He has written and is writing numer- ous articles on scientific subjects for the various publications in this country, but the most prominent among his longer works are the following : "Cancioneiro del Rey D. Denis," 1892, Halle; "Liederbuch des Koenigs D. Denis," 1894, Halle; "Cancioneiro Gallego-Castel- hano," 1902, ss.
He has been honored by a number of foreign societies. Among these honors are membership in the Royal Academy of Sciences in Portugal, 1896; membership in the Historical and Geographical Institute of Brazil, 1904. He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of Santiago, by the King of Portugal, in 1903; is a member of the American Dante Society, the A. A. A. S., and is also a prominent member of the Modern Language Association. Pro- fessor Lang, in 1890, was granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Strassburg, and later was decorated with the honorary degree of Master of Arts by Yale University.
On August 2nd, 1901, Professor Lang was married to Alice Hubbard Derby of New Haven, Connecticut. They have no children. Professor Lang is a Republican and has voted the ticket of that party from the time he was made a citizen of the United States. While his father and grandfather distinguished themselves as ministers in the Lutheran Church, he is himself an attendant of the Episcopal Church.
Professor Lang states that the influence of his mother on his intellectual, moral, and spiritual life in his younger days was a very strong one, and says that, from his own observation and experi- ence as a citizen of this country, the best methods and principles for strengthening the sound ideals in American life are strict perform- ance of duty and careful and devoted attention to one's profession.
CHARLES BRINCKERHOFF RICHARDS
R ICHARDS, CHARLES BRINCKERHOFF, professor of mechanical engineering at Yale University, is a descendant on his mother's side of John Howland, who came over in the "Mayflower," and on his father's side of Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, who came from Tewksbury, England, and settled in Nor- wich, Connecticut, in 1637. Among his forbears was Ezekiel Cheever, a teacher for seventy years of his ninety-four years of life and first master of the Boston Latin School, about 1640; also, George Brinckerhoff, a prominent lawyer in New York.
His father, Thomas Fanning Richards of Brooklyn, New York, was an importer and manufacturer, of marked integrity and unself- ishness, generous, courteous, a true gentleman. His mother, who died when he was ten years old, was Harriet Howland Brinckerhoff. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 23rd, 1833.
He early displayed a fondness for scientific subjects and for general works in mathematics. Obtaining his education in private schools, where his natural bent was recognized and appreciated, at the age of nineteen he went into the extensive establishment of the Woodruff & Beach Iron Works, in Hartford, as draughtsman, to improve both his technical and practical knowledge. His ambition was to become a mechanical engineer, and for such as he desired to be the country in its development was making loud demands.
After six years of this practical study in Hartford, he opened an office in New York as a consulting engineer, remaining there from 1858 to 1861. Then he accepted the highly responsible position of engineer superintendent of the Colt's Patent Firearms Company of Hartford, where he continued through the war period, so im- portant for that concern, and till 1880. From 1881 till 1884, he was superintendent of the great plant of the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company of Philadelphia.
In 1884 he was called to his present position of professor of mechanical engineering at Yale University, which institution con-
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ferred upon him that year the degree of M.A. He also has the decoration of chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France.
Professor Richards has been consulting engineer for the con- struction of many large buildings, notably the Connecticut Capitol at Hartford. He was United States expert commissioner to the Paris International Exposition in 1889. His inventions are numerous, but perhaps by none is he so widely known as by his steam engine indicator, patented in 1861 and familiar the world over as the prototype of all modern steam engine indicators. He wrote the report on Class 52 of Group VI., Paris International Exposition, 1889, and was editor of Volume III. and half of Volume IV. of the General Reports of the Exposition. Also he is the editor of engineer- ing and technical words in Webster's International Dictionary and he has written a number of papers for different publications.
He has served as vice-president and manager of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and he is a member also of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and of the Con- necticut Academy of Sciences, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a corresponding member of the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, of Alsace, Germany. In politics he is affiliated with the Republican party.
He married Miss Agnes Edwards Goodwin of Hartford on Sep- tember 16th, 1858. They have had five children, all of whom are living. The professor's home is at No. 277 Edwards Street, New Haven.
ARTHUR REED KIMBALL
K IMBALL, ARTHUR REED, journalist and associate editor of the Waterbury American, was born in New York City, Feb- ruary 1st, 1855. He traces his ancestry to Governor Carver, who came from England to America in Colonial times. He is also descended from Jonathan Edwards. Mr. Kimball's father was J. Merrill Kimball, a well known merchant. His mother, Elizabeth C. Kimball, exerted on him a strong mental and moral influence.
Mr. Kimball prepared for college at Hopkins Grammar School and then took the academic course at Yale, graduating in 1877. After his graduation he took a year's course at the Yale Law School, followed by a year in the law office of F. H. Winston in Chicago. He was admitted to the Chicago bar in 1879. He then taught school for a year, at the end of which he became editor of the Iowa State Register, in Des Moines.
In 1881, after a term as a reporter in St. Louis, Mr. Kimball became associate editor of the Waterbury American. In addition to his editorial work he has lectured on journalism at Yale and has made many contributions to the leading magazines, including Scribner's, The Century, The North American Review, The Atlan- tic Monthly, Harper's, The Outlook, and The Independent.
Mr. Kimball is a director in the American Printing Company, a member of the executive committee of the Civil Service Reform Association of Connecticut, a member of the Century Club of New York and of the Society of Colonial Wars. In political faith he is an Independent and his religious connections are with the Con- gregational Church. His most enjoyable sports are golf and bil- liards.
On May 15th, 1895, Mr. Kimball married Mary E. Chase. They have two children, Elizabeth Chase Kimball and Chase Kimball, both now living.
ALBERT LESLIE SESSIONS
S ESSIONS, ALBERT LESLIE, is a scion of the distinguished and widely known family of that name. He was born in Bristol, Connecticut, the fifth day of January, 1872. His father was John Henry Sessions and his mother was Maria Francena Woodford before her marriage. Both of them are widely known for their philanthropy, and a large number of people bless them for their benefactions. John H. Sessions died April 2nd, 1902. Mr. Sessions comes of a long and enviable line of ancestors. Samuel Sessions came from England to Massachusetts in 1630. Many of his descendants have distinguished themselves in many ways. A few of them we name: the Rev. John Sessions, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and of Princeton Seminary, and a successful clergyman of the Presbyterian Church ; the Hon. Darius Sessions, an alumnus of Yale, and governor of Rhode Island; also the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Hon. John Humphrey Sessions, and the father, John Henry Sessions, manufacturers of Bristol.
Albert L. Sessions received a good education. He studied at the Bristol public schools, Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, taking the Ph.B. degree in 1892, and is a member of the Chi Phi Fra- ternity and the University Club of New York. Immediately after leaving college he entered the employ of his grandfather and father in the business which his grandfather was instrumental, as a partner, in establishing November 15th, 1854. On October 1st, 1899, shortly after the death of his grandfather, he was admitted into partnership, the firm name being, as before, J. H. Sessions & Son, which was continued after the death of his father, April 2nd, 1902, by his mother and himself. July 1st, 1905, this business was incorporated under a special charter from the State of Connecticut, the firm name remain- ing as before. The incorporators and sole owners were his mother, his wife, and he himself. He is a prodigious worker, and gives promise of being one of Connecticut's most successful business men.
Allen Sussions
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On February 7th, 1894, Albert L. Sessions married Miss Leila B. Beach, daughter of Hon. Henry L. Beach. They have five children : Paul B., born November 19th, 1895; Ruth J., born May 14th, 1897; John H., born July 12th, 1898; Judith H. and Janet M. (twins), born May 21st, 1901.
Mr. Sessions is an honored member of Prospect Methodist Episco- pal Church, and one of its trustees. He is president and treasurer of J. H. Sessions & Son, president of the Bristol Water Company, treasurer of the Sessions Clock Company, and a director in the Bristol and Plainville Tramway Company. Like his ancestors before him, he is a good churchman, a man with high ideals, of unflinching integrity, of public spirit, and ready to help in any needed reform and desired improvement. Mr. Sessions is a Republican in politics. He has no desire for public office, but is interested in all public matters and desires the best possible government for the people. He has often stated that his ambition was to be worthy of the honorable record of so many of his ancestors and relatives.
WILBUR OLIN ATWATER
A TWATER, WILBUR OLIN, Ph.D., LL.D., one of the ablest and best known scientists of this century, educator, author, and the pioneer of some of the most important scientific investi- gations of the day, professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, the chief of the Nutrition Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture, whose earnest, thorough, and fruitful experiments in agricultural and physiological chemistry have made him a public benefactor and whose successful rescarches into abstract science pro- claim him one of the greatest scholars of his day, was born in Johns- burgh, New York, May 3rd, 1844. He is descended from David Atwater, a native of Kent, England, who emigrated thence to America and became one of the original settlers in the New Haven Colony in 1635. He is the son of William Warren Atwater and Eliza Barnes Atwater. His father was a Methodist minister and a strong and active temperance worker in Burlington, Vermont, where he edited a temperance paper. William Atwater was a man of indomitable will and perseverance.
It was natural that the son of a Methodist minister should not spend all of his early years in one place and Wilbur Atwater lived in various small New England and New York towns in his boyhood. He had the priceless endowment of excellent health which found logi- cal expression in a love of outdoor sports, especially the aquatic ones, swimming and fishing. He was eager to have a thorough education and worked to get it, both at farming and as clerk in a country store, and he considers the experience gained by this early labor a most useful part of his education. After gleaning sufficient preparatory knowledge from the public schools in the various towns where the family made their home he spent two years at the University of Vermont and two at Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1865. Two years' teaching followed this academic course and he then took a course in post-graduate study at Yale, which led to his taking his Ph.D. degree at that university in 1868. In 1870 he
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went abroad and spent two years in scientific study at Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich. Upon his return to the United States he took the position of professor of chemistry in the University of Ten- nessee, from which he resigned in 1873 to take the same chair at the Maine State College, where he stayed but a year as he was called to Wesleyan University, where he has been in charge of the chemistry department continuously since that time.
In December, 1873, Professor Atwater addressed the Connecti- cut State Board of Agriculture on the subject of agricultural investi- gations, especially in regard to scientific fertilizers and cattle rations, and put before that board the importance of having a government experiment station for that purpose. He finally secured state appro- priations for the work, and an experiment station, the first in this country, was eventually established through his efforts. From 1875 to 1877 he was director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, and he is still a member of the board of control of that im- portant organization. He was also the pioneer promoter of another important and fruitful enterprise, known as Investigations into the Laws of Nutrition and Food Economy, which resulted in the establish- ment of dietary standards which have since been regarded as authorita- tive by American students of domestic science. Actuated by the belief that the field of agricultural and physiological chemistry was a great opening for the student and experimenter, Professor Atwater continued his researches along those particular branches of science with the utmost success. He worked up statistics of food consumption and in collaboration with Professor Hempel of Dresden he elaborated a bomb calorimeter for determining the amount of potential energy in foods. He was one of the inventors of the Atwater-Rosa calorim- eter which demonstrates the theory that the law of conservation of energy obtains in the living organism and aids in the study of many physiological problems, and for which he was awarded the Elliott- Cresson Medal in 1900. His work along this line was of fourfold importance, indicating the true economy in the use of food, the establishment of due proportions in diet, rules for quantity, and the revelation of many popular errors in diet. From 1888 to 1902 he was director of Storrs' Experiment Station and from 1888 to 1891 he was director of the Office of Experiment Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, which the Government had called him
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to organize as a central office or clearing house for the institutions of like nature all over the country and the medium by which they might keep in touch with similar institutions in Europe. In 1891 and 1893 he went to Europe to secure European contributors for the "Experiment Station Record" which he founded. From 1894 to 1903 he was special agent in charge of the Nutrition Investiga- tions authorized by Congress and carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture. Since 1903 he has been chief of the Nutrition Investigations conducted by the United States De- partment of Agriculture. At the time of the World's Fair he collected and analyzed five hundred specimens of food materials on exhibition there. With F. G. Benedict, a fellow professor at Wesleyan, he conducted "An Experimental Inquiry Regarding the Nutritive Value of Alcohol" and served on the physiological sub-committee of the "Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Liquor Problem."
In addition to organizing and developing the National Food Investigations, directing the office of Government Experiment Stations and conducting his classes at Wesleyan, Professor Atwater has written over one hundred and fifty papers on scientific subjects. He has been a frequent contributor to the standard scientific journals and these writings and his lectures comprise much valuable and original scientific literature. In 1895 he published for the Government "Methods and Results of Investigations in the Chemistry and Economy of Food," a most important work.
As a teacher Professor Atwater is thorough, earnest, enthusiastic, and approachable. He has a remarkable gift of planning his work and of imparting his own scholarly knowledge. As an experimenter and investigator in the realm of science he stands in the foremost ranks and his deep interest in scientific research is embodied in his scientific library in Middletown, which is perhaps the most complete private library of its kind in this country. His intellectuality is that of a true student and scholar and his energy and perseverance in car- rying out his mental ambition are equally great.
Professor Atwater has never narrowed his life to one of solely intellectual activity. He has taken a steady interest in politics and though formerly a Republican he styles himself at present a Mugwump, for he took exception to the Republican support of Blaine and is always "Independent" on local issues. He is an
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actively interested member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of late years he has also been actively interested in national temperance reform, both in this country and in Europe. He is exceedingly fond of outdoor life and enjoys hunting and fishing and life in the woods. As an alumnus and member of the faculty of Wesleyan he is greatly interested in the college life and growth. In August, 1874, he was married to Marcia Woodard, by whom he has had two children. He is a member of the Wesleyan fraternity, Phi Nu Theta, the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C., the American Chemical Society, the American Physiological Society, the Washington Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Société Chemique de Paris, the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, associate member Société d'Hygiene Alimentaire et de l'Alimentation Rationelle de l'Homme, corresponding member Société Royal des Sciences Medicales et Naturelles de Bruxelles, foreign member of the Swedish Royal Academy, corresponding member of the Russian Imperial Military Academy of Medicine, associate mem- ber of the French National Society of Agriculture, and a member of many philanthropic organizations. This long list shows better than anything else Professor Atwater's broad interests, his international prominence in the world of science, and his active part in the intellectual life of his generation. In mind and achievement he is beyond doubt a great, practical, public benefactor, and one of the most advanced and able scientists of the age.
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