USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 2
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HENRY ROBERTS
hi.nself helpful in the farm work. His regular tasks, involving real manual labor, increased each year as he grew older and were of great advantage to him in strengthening his character and in teaching him regular habits. During this formative period of life the influence of his mother was particularly strong. She stimulated his youthful intellect, taught him high moral principles and left a profound im- pression upon his spiritual life. His first school training was re- ceived at the public schools of Hartford. He then attended the High School and after his graduation in 1873 he entered Yale Col- lege, from which he was graduated with the class of 1877. Having decided to adopt the legal profession he attended the Columbia Law School for one year and then the Yale Law School for the same length of time.
In 1879 Governor Roberts began his active business career by entering the service of the Hartford Woven Wire Company of which his father was the president. He had intended to practice law, but the death of his father compelled him to remain in business to care for the large interests of his family. Having inherited the executive ability and commercial acumen of his father he quickly took his place among the leading manufacturers and business men of the State. By creating industries which give useful employment to his fellow citizens, his success has brought prosperity to many others. He is president of the Hartford Woven Wire Mattress Com- pany and a director in a large number of corporations. Among others may be mentioned the Phoenix National Bank, the Hartford Trust Company, the State Savings Bank of Hartford, the Hartford Electric Light Company, the Farmington River Power Company, the Hartford Dairy Company, the States School, Winston, N. C., the Y. M. C. A. School, Springfield, Mass., and the Hartford Bed- stead Company.
The Governor's career in politics might be recited under the title " From Alderman to Governor in seven years "; for within that short period of time he has risen from a minor position in his city to the highest office in the State. Like his father he has always been a staunch Republican. In 1897 he was elected an alderman in Hartford. In this position he served his fellow citizens so well that they sent him in 1899 to represent the city in the State House of Representatives. He remained a member of the lower house until
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HENRY ROBERTS
in 1901 he was elected to the Senate from the First Distriet. While in the Senate his ability, energy, and loyalty to duty became known throughout the State, and while still a member of the upper house of the legislature he was nominated and elected Lieutenant-Governor. In this position he served from 1903 to 1905.
When, on September 14, 1904, the Republican State convention met in Hartford to nominate a candidate for Governor, it was recog- nized that the Lieutenant-Governor was the logical man for the place. A short time before, the Republican city convention of Hartford adopted a set of resolutions in which was recommended Governor Roberts' nomination in these words: "We commend him to the consideration of his party in choosing their candidate for Governor, as one who has illustrated, in public and in private life, the value to a community of an honest, capable, fearless, loyal, and lovable man." Mayor Henney of Hartford in presenting his nomination to the convention declared: "As an Alderman of Hartford, as its representative in the lower house of the General Assembly, as Sen- ator, as presiding officer of the Senate, as Lieutenant-Governor of the State, no man, be he friend or enemy, can say of Henry Roberts that he ever shirked his duty or failed to do that duty well. He stands before you an honest, capable, energetic, experienced man." On the first ballot he was nominated by a large majority. Informed of the choice of the convention he thanked his supporters in these words: " You have paid me a great compliment in this expression of your confidence and conferred a high honor upon me, and with a sincere appreciation of your action and a deep sense of the responsi- bility and sacred trust I assume, permit me to signify my acceptance of the nomination. If elected it will be my endeavor to give to the State an administration during which I shall strive to attain the same marked success as that attained by my able and worthy Republican predecessors." When the ballots were counted after the election of November, 1904, Governor Roberts was found to have a large major- ity over his Democratic rival. In voting for him the citizens of Connecticut felt confident that they were bestowing their highest public office upon a loyal, energetic, capable, and broad-minded busi- ness man ; a careful student of public questions and a practical man of affairs.
In 1881 Governor Roberts was married to Carrie E. Smith of
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HENRY ROBERTS
Bridgeport. He became the father of three children, two of whom are now living. From boyhood, home influences have been a strong factor in shaping his career and in urging him on to success. He has also received helpful inspiration from companionship with those who have been successful in active life and from the serious study of history and the lives of great men. He is a member of many clubs, among them the Hartford Club, the Country Club, the Hart- ford Golf Club, the Republican Club, and the University Club of New York. He attends the Congregational Church. From boyhood he has been an enthusiastic reader of history and of the biographies of the world's greatest men. In later life he has given careful study to the science of political economy. He could not have chosen four subjects of study more valuable to a public man than law, history, biography, and political economy. He now, in the prime of life, holds the highest office within the gift of the State of Connecticut. When his present term expires, he will take his place among the foremost of Connecticut's sons.
ROLLIN SIMMONS WOODRUFF
W OODRUFF, ROLLIN SIMMONS, a prominent merchant, ex-state senator and the present Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, was born in Rochester, Monroe County, New York, on the fourteenth of July, 1854. He traces his ancestry back to Matthew Woodruff, who came from England to America in 1636, and finds among his ancestors many representatives of that sturdy stock that made possible the beginnings of American history. His parents were Jeremiah Woodruff, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Clarisse Thompson Woodruff. He spent the early years of his life in a country village and when he was fifteen the family moved to New Haven, where he obtained his first position in life as errand boy in a hardware store. His education was limited to that of the public schools in his native town and a brief period of schooling in Lansing, Iowa, but his success in all he undertook was as complete and as rapid as that of any college man, for he had in him all the material that enables a man to "make himself." He engaged in various financial and mercantile enter- prises in New Haven and after a number of years became interested in the firm of C. S. Mersick & Company, one of the most extensive iron and steel wholesale dealers in New England. He has been for many years a leading member of the firm and a controlling power of its large plant at New Haven.
Always intensely interested in public affairs and an ardent sup- porter of the Republican platform Rollin S. Woodruff has held many public offices. He has been president of the Chamber of Commerce, state senator in 1903, and during his senatorship he was president pro tem of the Senate, and he is the present Lieutenant-Governor of Con- necticut, to which office he was elected by a large majority. Each office that he has held has added so greatly to the esteem in which Lieutenant-Governor Woodruff is generally held that a still greater appreciation of his popularity and valuable service is prophesied. A leading newspaper has said of him : "Popular, honest, honorable, spot- less in character, a plain man of the people, a devoted citizen of the
Rollin S. Woodruff
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ROLLIN S. WOODRUFF
state, unostentatious but true blue always-that is Rollin S. Wood- ruff."
Lieutenant-Governor Woodruff is a member of the Union League Club and of the Young Men's Republican Club of New Haven. Since 1896 he has been a member of the Governor's Foot Guards. In 1876 he married Kaomeo Perkins, by whom he had two children, neither of whom is now living.
Mr. Woodruff was nominated for Governor by acclamation at the Republican State Convention in New Haven, September 20th, 1906.
THEODORE BODENWEIN
T HE career of Theodore Bodenwein, proprietor of the New Lon- don Day and Morning Telegraph, is a striking example of the possibilities of American citizenship. Born in Dusseldorf, Prussia, in 1864, he came to this country at the age of five, the child of German parents in humble circumstances.
He obtained his education in a country school. At an early age he showed an aptitude for the printer's trade, and in 1881 he became an apprentice in the office of the New London Day. He passed through the different branches of the business, and, from close application and observation, obtained a practical knowledge of the newspaper busi- ness. By constant application he became a ready and forceful writer. In 1885 he became one of the founders of the Morning Telegraph, which succeeded the old Evening Telegraph, whose eloquent mouth was closed by the sheriff. He remained on the Telegraph in various capacities for five years. Then he disposed of the interest. In Sep- tember, 1891, he purchased the New London Day, that had been founded by Major John A. Tibbets, a well known writer and politi- cian. The Day had been leading a checkered career for ten years, and was heavily encumbered with debt. The new proprietor quickly brought order out of chaos, showing rare executive ability, and the paper was put almost at once on a paying basis. Its growth in circulation was not over 1,500. To-day (1906), it exceeds the 6,000 mark, that is, one paper to every six inhabitants in its field, which includes the lower part of New London County. In the first ten years Mr. Bodenwein bought four newspaper presses, discarding one after the other to accommodate the growing demands of his busi- ness. To-day, he has one of the finest equipped newspaper plants in Connecticut. The Day establishment is one of the prominent institu- tions of New London, on account of the magnitude of its operations. His experiment of issuing both morning and evening papers from the same office seems to have met with success, as both papers are better and more prosperous than ever before.
1173221
Perdon Brdenwein.
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TIIEODORE BODENWEIN
Mr. Bodenwein was married February 21st, 1889, to Miss Jennie Muir. He has two children: Gordon, aged twelve, and Elizabeth, aged nine. He is a member of numerous clubs and societies. In politics he is a Republican. He served as alderman in the New Lon- don Court of Common Council and as sewer commissioner of the city, 1903-6. In 1904 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican State Convention for Secretary of State, and had the pleasure of being elected by over 37,000 plurality, leading his State ticket and only 814 votes behind the vote for President Roosevelt.
Mr. Bodenwein was re-nominated for Secretary of State, September 20th, 1906.
JAMES FRANCIS WALSH
W ALSH, JAMES FRANCIS, lawyer, politician, and public official of Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, at present judge of the Criminal Court of Common Pleas of Fairfield County, was born in Lewisboro, Westchester County, New York, March 15th, 1864. He is the son of James F. Walsh, a black- smith by trade, and Annie E. Walsh. Soon after his birth the family moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut, where his boyhood was spent and where he received a common school education.
At eighteen James F. Walsh left Ridgefield and went to Green- wich to study law with his brother, the Hon. R. Jay Walsh. In January, 1888, he was admitted to the Fairfield County Bar and immediately opened an office of his own for the practice of law and he has maintained it ever since and has built up in the meantime a successful and extensive practice. In 1888 he was appointed prosecut- ing agent for the county commissioners and in 1899 prosecut- ing attorney of the borough court of Greenwich, both of which offices he held until 1905. In 1900 he was chosen by the Republican party, of which he has been an active and loyal member since his majority, as State representative, and during his term of office he was chair- man of the committee on railroads. In 1903 he was elected State senator and was leader of the Senate during his term of office. In 1905 and 1906 he was treasurer of State and in 1905 he was ap- pointed to his present office of judge of the Criminal Court of Com- mon Pleas for Fairfield County. His term of office will expire in July, 1909.
He entered upon his public life at a time when the history of Greenwich was undergoing a crisis and in the transition from old time conservatism to its present modern and progressive state he was one of the chief powers at work. Then, as now, he was intensely interested in the highest welfare of his town and untiring in his efforts to bring about every posible betterment of public conditions.
In addition to his professional and political interests Judge Walsh
Jaufrauch.
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JAMES FRANCIS WALSH
has been extensively interested in real estate. He is a director in and treasurer of the Byram Land Improvement Company, a director in and secretary of the Greenwich Gas and Electric Lighting Company, a director in and treasurer of The Riverside Water Company, and a director in and attorney for the National Investment Company.
He is a member of Christ Church (Episcopal), of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, the Riverside Yacht Club, the Hartford Club, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On April 11th, 1893, Judge Walsh was united in marriage to Emily Gene Tweedale of Portchester, New York. No children have been born to them.
ASAHEL W. MITCHELL
M ITCHELL, ASAHEL W., prominent business and public man of North Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, former representative and State senator, and the holder of various town, county, and state offices, was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, October 16th, 1865. His parents were Asahel W. and Harriet Allen Mitchell. His father was a farmer and a prominent member of the Legislature for two terms.
According to Cothren's History of Ancient Woodbury and infor- mation in the possession of Minot Mitchell, Esq., of White Plains, New York, the Mitchells were originally from Scotland, but removed to Halifax, in Yorkshire, England, where they resided for three genera- tions.
Mathew Mitchell, who is the ancestor of the family in this country, was born in 1590. He was a dissenter, and is represented to have been not only a very pious man but a man of considerable fortunc. The dissenters from the Church of England being constantly per- secuted and annoyed in their religious worship, he with many others of his persuasion determined to leave England; and on the twenty- third of May, 1635, they set sail from Bristol and arrived at Boston August 17th, the same year.
He and his family spent the winter at Charlestown and removed to Concord in the spring. The next summer he moved to Saybrook, Connecticut, and the following spring to Wethersfield. He died at Stamford, Connecticut, in 1645, at fifty-five years of age, leaving two sons, Rev. Jonathan and David.
Asahel W. Mitchell, the subject of this article, being of the ninth generation from Mathew, was brought up in the village of Woodbury and educated at the Parker Academy in his native town. His first business connections were with the Bradstreet Commer- cial Agency at New Haven, which he left to enter the office of the American Ring Company at Waterbury. In 1887 his health failed and he gave up his position in Waterbury and returned to Woodbury,
Isabel W. Mitchell
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ASAHEL W. MITCHELL
where he has lived ever since and has been chiefly occupied in managing his father's affairs (since his death in 1888) and in the performance of public duties. He is superintendent of the Wood- bury Water Company and is town clerk, having held the latter office since 1895. He has been justice of the peace for eleven years and in 1905 he was elected State comptroller. In 1897 he became State representative on the Republican ticket and during his term served on the Railroad Committee and acted as clerk of the county rep- resentatives' meeting. In 1899 he was elected State senator and during this term he was chairman of the committees on Education and Executive Nominations and chairman of the county representa- tives' meeting. He has also been a town auditor for ten years.
Personally Mr. Mitchell is progressive and public-spirited, staunch in his political allegiance, which has always been with the Republican party, and in his religious belief, which connects him with the Congregational Church.
On the twenty-eighth day of May, 1901, he married Josephine M. Stanton, by whom he has had one child, Katharine Allen Mitchell.
MORGAN GARDNER BULKELEY
T HE ancestors of Morgan Gardner Bulkeley belonged to the educated, liberty-loving class that directed in definite lines the early development of New England. Peter Bulkeley, fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, heir to a large estate, silenced for non-conformity after a ministry for twenty-one years in England, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1635, and the following year, with a number of adherents, began the settlement of Concord, where he preached and died. He married Grace, daughter of Sir Richard Chitwood, or Chetwode, as anciently spelled. Gershom Bulkeley was graduated at Harvard College in 1655, and four years later married Sarah, eldest daughter of President Charles Chauncy. Preacher, soldier, physician, and politician, he served the people of Connecticut with marked distinction in all these capaci- ties. As a surgeon he occupied the first rank in the colony. As a controversialist he struck hard blows. Some of his writings still survive. To skip intermediate generations, Eliphalet A. Bulkeley, father of Morgan G., was graduated from Yale College in 1824, studied law, and after a brief residence in East Haddam moved to Hartford, where, during a long career, he was prominently identified with the financial institutions of the city. He also took an active interest in politics, and was one of the founders of the Republican party. Among other offices he was judge, Commissioner of the School Fund, State Senator, Speaker of the House of Representatives, etc. He married Lydia S. Morgan of Colchester-a woman of strong char- acter and uplifting influence.
Morgan Gardner Bulkeley was born at East Haddam, Connecti- cut, December 26th, 1837. Robust and adventurous, at the age of fourteen he left school to tempt fortune in the great world. Enter- ing the house of H. P. Morgan & Co., of Brooklyn, New York, as errand boy, in seven years he was admitted to the partnership. In answer to the call for volunteers he enlisted in the Thirteenth New York regiment, and served under General McClellan during the
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MORGAN GARDNER BULKELEY
Peninsular campaign. At the close of his term of military service he resumed business in Brooklyn, but on the death of his father in 1872 returned to Hartford to supervise the financial interests of the family. As organizer and first president he launched the United States Bank, at first named the United States Trust Company, which to-day has by far the largest percentage of surplus of any bank in Hartford.
In 1879 Governor Bulkeley was elected president of the Ætna Life Insurance Company, having long been intimately connected with the management of its affairs. His father, as president from the date of its birth in 1850 till his death in 1872, had safely piloted the enterprise through the weakness and perils of infancy. Thus, for over half a century, with the exception of seven years between 1872 and 1879, father and son in succession have guided the destinies of the institution. Viewed in the light of strength and symmetry of develop- ment its record has nowhere been surpassed.
December 31st, 1879, the capital of the Ætna was $750,000; the premium income for the year $2,487,606; the income from invest- ments $1,830,695; the total assets $25,592,363, and the surplus to policyholders $3,591,665.
December 31st, 1904, the capital was $2,000,000; premiums for the year $12,868,922; income from investments $3,062,633; total assets $73,696,178, and surplus to policyholders $8,850,426.
Life insurance rests on a mathematical basis. Tables of mortality generalized from long and wide experience under the law of averages give the expectation of life at all ages, from youth onward. It has been assumed that money will yield at least four per cent.
With the basic principles of the business mathematically and hence immutably fixed, the measure of success or failure depends upon ability of management. Justice in the treatment of patrons, fore- sight in the investment of funds, skill in the choice of agents, care in the selection of risks, and personal magnetism in bringing a multi- tude of diverse and widely separated units into harmonious and effective cooperation, are the qualities that, if combined in the head of a life insurance company, guarantee in advance that it will out- strip all rivals less favorably equipped. Persons in position to form a correct opinion unite in crediting to Governor Bulkeley the above gifts in full measure.
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MORGAN GARDNER BULKELEY
The Ætna led the way in loaning to western farmers. Early contracts, although bearing ten per cent, proved even more profitable to the borrower than to the lender. Purchasers of land at $1.25 per acre through the aid of the capital thus obtained, and the inflow of population, in a few years saw it increase in value ten or twenty fold or more. As the loans were paid and the rates of interest fell toward the standards prevalent in settled communities, the company pushed westward, preëmpting fertile acres and areas of large return. Simul- taneously it invested liberally in the bonds of western towns. From both sources the income largely exceeded the legal requirement of four per cent.
Till 1861 the company made contracts of insurance only on the stock plan. It then began the issue of participating policies, estab- lishing a separate department with distinct books, accounts, and investments. Patrons can choose between the two. On the partici- pating plan the insured pays a sum somewhat in excess of the tabular cost, and the difference in due time is returned to him in the form of "dividends." On the stock plan he pays the bare cost with a slight addi- tion for contingencies. Such profits above the legal reserve as accrue from good luck or good management belong to the company. After making provision as required by law for meeting at maturity all contracts, it can dispose of the surplus as it pleases.
The extraordinary productiveness of the investments of the Ætna piled up in the treasury a large sum belonging to the stock. To place this where it could never be withdrawn, where it would broaden the basis of security, and where it would remain planted in perpetuity for the protection of policyholders, parts of it were used from time to time to increase the capital, till this now amounts to $2,000,000.
The Ætna has never done business on the tontine plan-a device which gives to some large companies a delusive show of strength. Pa- trons pay full premiums and forego dividends on the promise that the margins with accretions will be returned at the maturity of the contract. Meanwhile, the funds thus held in trust are carried as sur- plus, while the liability is ignored. Serious complications are likely to arise over the disposition of the marginal funds.
Such are the vicissitudes of life that prosperity, even where great, is shadowed by more or less of adversity. The Ætna stands
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MORGAN GARDNER BULKELEY
forth a shining exception to the rule. Its growth has been continu- ous, solid, unbroken by reverses. Luck, so-called, has played small part in the drama. The explanation is to be found in the mental grasp, sound judgment, and far-sightedness of the management.
The stately home of the company was bought in 1888 from the estate of the defunct Charter Oak at a trifle over one-fourth of the original cost. Within its walls the Ætna, with its subsidiary acci- dent, health, and liability departments, finds ample accommoda- tion.
In Governor Bulkeley an inherited taste for politics has not been suffered to wither from disuse. After serving as councilman and alderman he was elected mayor of Hartford in 1880 and held the chair till 1888. His was essentially a "business" administration, conducted as a careful man would manage his own affairs. Inciden- tally, he disbursed more than his salary in providing pleasure or com- fort for the poor of the city. Among the means of entertainment are remembered free excursions on the river, free picnics for children, etc., etc.
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