USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 20
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Of powerful build and inheriting a splendid constitution, he attained prominence as an athlete in his college days, and such was his success in supporting the Crimson's standard on the football field that his services are still in demand there each year, to help coach other men into "good shape." For a year after his graduation from the college he studied at the Harvard Law School, but did not com- plete the course. Instead, in June, 1893, he went directly from the law school into business life as a clerk in his father's company, the Hartford Lumber Company, which was enjoying a prosperous
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career and which, in its rapid development, seemed to offer a good opportunity for a young man of force and energy.
The following year he was advanced to the responsible position of secretary of the company and in 1896 the duties of treasurer were added, to be followed in 1901 with his promotion to the presidency, in addition to the treasurership. In 1903 he was chosen also president and treasurer of the Tunnel Coal Company, and all of these posi- tions in both of these eminently successful corporations he holds to- day.
Always with a deep interest in public affairs, his first public office was that of member of the Hartford Board of School Visitors, which he held from 1900 to 1903. The latter year he was sent from Hart- ford to the House of Representatives and at the following session of the Legislature he was in attendance as senator (and one of the youngest of that body) from the first district. In both sessions he had important duties to perform, during the first session as chairman of the committee on appropriations, and during the latter session as chairman of the committee on incorporations. Senator Lake is first, last, and always a Republican. He is a lieutenant on the staff of the major commanding the First Company, Governor's Foot Guard, and is a member of the Hartford Club, and of the Hart- ford Golf Club, though his time for recreation is limited.
He married Miss Eva Louise Sykes, daughter of the late George Sykes of Rockville, and they have two children, Harold S. and Marjorie S. Their residence at No. 553 Farmington Avenue is one of the most attractive on that delightful thoroughfare.
Mr. Lake was nominated for lieutenant-governor at the Republican State Convention in New Haven, September 20th, 1906. He was elected by a plurality of 19,781.
CHARLES FREDERIC CHAPIN
C HAPIN, CHARLES FREDERIC, editor of the Waterbury American, was born in South Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, on the third of August, 1852. He is descended from Samuel Chapin, who settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, about 1636, and he is the son of Enoch Cooley Chapin and Harriet Jenks Abbe Chapin. His early education was obtained in the public schools of South Hadley and the academy at Lowville, New York, where he lived for a few years. He prepared for college at Wilbraham Academy, and then entered Yale University with the class of 1877. While in college he received the highest literary honor that can be bestowed upon a Yale man, for he was made chairman of the board of editors of the Yale Literary Magazine.
In 1877, soon after his graduation, he went to Waterbury to work in the office of the Waterbury American. The following year, 1878, he was made editor of the paper, which is one of the leading newspapers in Connecticut and of which he has been editor continu- ously ever since. The paper has a wide reputation for its independ- ence and breadth of view. Mr. Chapin has been greatly responsible in shaping the character and securing the position of his paper. He is a keen observer and writer, and a diligent, conscientious worker. Modesty and honesty are equally characteristic of the man and of his writings.
Mr. Chapin vows allegiance to no political party and is an inde- pendent voter. He attends the Congregational Church and is a mem- ber of the Patriotic Society of Colonial Wars. He is a lover of out- door sports, though lameness prevents his indulging in them to any great extent. He married on October 12th, 1877, Katharine A. Mattison, who died July 10th, 1905. Three children, a son and twin daughters, Carl M. Chapin, Barbara, and Marjorie Chapin, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chapin, all of whom are now living. Mr. Chapin's home is at 35 Fairview Street, Waterbury.
HOWARD J. CURTIS
C URTIS, HOWARD J., lawyer and Judge of the Civil Court of Common Pleas for Fairfield County, Connecticut, was born in Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, June 29th, 1857, the son of Freeman L. Curtis, a farmer, and Georgiana Howard Curtis.
He traces his ancestry to Widow Elizabeth Curtis, who, with her three sons, made one of the seventeen families that settled Stratford in 1639. His boyhood was spent in Stratford under the advantages and disadvantages enjoyed by all boys who spend their impressionable years amid the activities of farm life in a thickly settled community, where companionship is abundant, and where outdoor work and out- door play are fairly combined. These circumstances tended to pro- duce health of body and an optimistic spirit. In 1874 he entered the employ of the Housatonic Railroad Company at Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts, as shipping clerk in the freight office and remained there one year, when he decided to take a college course. He returned to Stratford in the fall of 1875 and entered the preparatory school of Frederick Sedgwick. Here he enjoyed for two years the instruction of Mr. Sedgwick, a teacher of unique power and a personality of marked originality and force. In 1877 Mr. Curtis entered Yale University and took his academic degree in 1881. He spent the next year at Chatham, Virginia, teaching and incidentally studying law. In the fall of 1882 he entered the senior class of the Yale Law School and received his degree of LL.B. in June, 1883. His choice of the pro- fession of law was determined by his own preference and because "law looms large in the horizon of a country boy."
After a short experience in reading law in the office of Amos L. Treat of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mr. Curtis settled down to the practice of law in Bridgeport, in 1883, with George W. Wheeler, now Judge of the Superior Court, as Wheeler & Curtis. This partnership lasted for ten years until, in 1893, Mr. Curtis became Judge of the Civil Court of Common Pleas for Fairfield County, which position
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he still fills. In addition to his practice and his duties on the bench Judge Curtis has been a member of the Stratford Board of Education since 1884 and has been active in many town affairs. He is a member of the society's committee of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Strat- ford, which is Congregational in denomination. In politics he is a "Gold Wing Democrat." He is a member of the Seaside Club, the Contemporary Club, The University Club of Bridgeport, and The University Club of New York City. On June 5th, 1888, Judge Curtis married Ellen V. Talbot, by whom he has had three children, all of whom are now living.
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JAMES DUDLEY DEWELL
D' EWELL, JAMES DUDLEY, merchant and ex-lieutenant- governor, a resident of New Haven, Connecticut, was born in Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, September 3rd, 1837. He is descended from William Deville, who came from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1640 and removed to Newport in 1653. On his mother's side he traces his descent from Michael Humphrey, who came from England to Windsor, Connecticut, in 1645. His maternal ancestors were related to the ancestors of Gen. U. S. Grant. Mr. Dewell's father was John Dewell, a manufacturer, esteemed for the sterling integrity of his character and who served his fellow men as postmaster, judge of probate, and State senator. Mr. Dewell's mother was Mary Humphrey.
A healthy, ambitious boy living in the country, James Dewell worked hard from his earliest boyhood at farming, in a factory, a country store, and as a peddler on the road. A common school educa- tion was the only one he was able to obtain and he began work at a very early age. After clerking for some time in a country store he left home in 1858 to become a salesman for the grocery firm of Bushnell & Company in New Haven. In 1860 he was admitted to the firm which became Bushnell & Dewell, and later, in 1879, Dewell & Com- pany. The wholesale grocery business was his own choice and he has continued in it since 1858 with great success.
Outside of his own business interests most of Mr. Dewell's time has been spent in public services of various kinds. From 1865 to 1867 he was lieutenant of the New Haven Grays. In 1890 he was one of the prime movers in organizing the State Board of Trade, he was its first president and held that office twelve years. He was presi- dent of the Chamber of Commerce for many years and he did important work as chief of the movement for building first-class state roads. He has held many other offices, among which are a twenty years' directorship in the Young Men's Institute of New Haven, directorship in the Evergreen Cemetery Association, the vice-
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presidency of the Security Insurance Company, and of the National Sav- ings Bank, and he is one of the oldest directors of the City Bank and a director in the New Haven Trust Company. He owned and managed the "Sutton Fleet," which carried on trade between New England and the South. In 1897 he was made lieutenant-governor of Connecticut by the Republican party with which he has always been identified.
Ex-lieutenant-governor Dewell is a member of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Founders and Patriots Society, of Hiram Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., and of the Union League Club of New Haven. His religious affilia- tions are with the Congregational Church. July 2nd, 1860, he married Mary Elizabeth Keyes. Six children have been born of this union, five of whom are still living.
MARCUS HENSEY HOLCOMB
H OLCOMB, MARCUS HENSEY, attorney at law, judge of probate, Speaker of the House, and president of the South- ington Savings Bank, was born in New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, on November 28th, 1844, the son of Carlos Holcomb and Adah Bushnell Holcomb. His father was a farmer who held many public offices including those of selectman, assessor, and member of the board of relief. He was the executor and adminis- trator of many estates, being particularly fitted for this work by his great executive ability and his highly judicial temperament. He was a man of strong individuality, devoted to public matters, and of high place in the esteem of his fellow men.
Marcus Hensey Holcomb spent his early days in a country village and worked out his education on a Litchfield County farm. He attended public and private schools and Wesleyan Academy and would have gone through college, but for a sunstroke which impaired his health at the time he would have entered college. He studied law with Judge Jared B. Foster of New Hartford and was admitted to the Bar at Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1871. In the meantime he had been supporting himself by teaching school for a number of years. In 1872 he went to Southington and commenced to practice law and he has remained there ever since. He is recognized as one of the leading lawyers of his county and he has been as prominent in public as in legal affairs. For thirty years he has been judge of probate for the district of Southington and he is also judge of the town court of Southington. Since 1893 he has been treasurer of Hartford County and in 1893 he was senator from the second district. In 1902 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention and in 1905 he was Speaker of the House. He is at present a member of the commissioners of State police and chairman of the Lewis High School committee. He is president of the Southington Savings Bank. a director in the Southington National Bank, in the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company, the Southington Cutlery Company, the ÆEtna Nut
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Company, and the Atwater Manufacturing Company, and the receiver of the Cooperative Savings Society of Connecticut.
Judge Holcomb left the Democratic party, in 1888, on the tariff issue and has since cast his vote with the Republican party. In religious views he is a Baptist and he has been superintendent of the Sunday school of the First Baptist Church of Southington for several years and chairman of the board of trustees of that church. He has many fraternal ties, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Order of the Mystic Shrine, of the Knights of Pythias, of the Order of Elks, the Order of Red Men, the O. U. A. M., and the Foresters. In 1871-2 he was worshipful master of Northern Star Lodge, No. 58, F. and A. M. He finds hunting and fishing in the Maine woods the most beneficial and pleasurable relaxation from professional and business cares.
In 1872, the year after his admission to the Bar, Judge Holcomb married Sarah Carpenter Bennett, who died in 1901. One child was born of this union, who died some years ago. Judge Holcomb states very concisely and forcibly the practical advice he gives to others when he says that the three essentials of success are "honesty, industry, and sobriety."
Mr. Holcomb was nominated for attorney-general at the Republican State Convention in New Haven, September 20th, 1906, and was elected by 21,000 plurality.
CHARLES NOEL FLAGG
F LAGG, CHARLES NOEL, artist and art teacher, founder and director of the Connecticut League of Art Students, a member of the Connecticut State Capitol Commission of Sculpture, first president of the Municipal Art Society of Hartford organized 1904, ex- president and, at present, chairman of the Committee on Civic Cen- ters and Public Buildings, and one of the foremost New England por- trait painters, was born in Brooklyn, New York, December 25th, 1848, and is now a resident of Hartford, Connecticut. He is the son of Jared Bradley Flagg, an artist of great skill, a clergyman and an author and a man of great gentleness of disposition, who loved everything beautiful in art and nature. His mother was Louisa Hart Flagg, a woman whose influence upon his life was strong and good in every way. The family traces its ancestry in this country to John Flagg who came from England and settled in Rhode Island early in the seventeenth century. Mr. Charles Noël Flagg's great-grandfather, Henry Collins Flagg, was surgeon general in Washington's army. From another branch of the family he is descended from Gen. Francis Marion and he is also a grandnephew of Washington Allston. Henry Collins Flagg, son of Dr. H. C. Flagg, was mayor of New Haven several terms and was a member of the Society of Cincinnati.
Painting and books were the chief interests in the early life of Charles Noël Flagg, just as they have been in his mature life. The Bible, Shakespeare's plays, and Don Quixote were his favorite books and his greatest help in after life. He was a delicate youth and did not have much work to do outside of his school work. He did, how- ever, partly learn the trade of carpenter and the experience thus gained has proved a constant source of pleasure and intellectual bene- fit. His youth was spent partly in New York, where he attended the public schools, and partly in New Haven, where he took the course at the Hopkins Grammar School. In 1864, when he was but sixteen years old, he began the active work of portrait painting in New Haven. In 1872 he went abroad and spent ten years in Paris studying drawing and painting under Louis Jacquesson de la
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Chevreuse and he also attended lectures at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Upon his return to America Mr. Flagg settled in Hartford and worked both as an artist and as an art teacher. In 1888 he founded the Connecticut League of Art Students, a free night school for men wishing to become professional artists, and he is still director of and teacher in the League. This organization has been very influential in developing and advancing art study in Connecticut and in raising the standards of art in the state as well as an immense practical help to deserving students. In 1889 Mr. Flagg was appointed by the governor to complete the unexpired term of the late A. E. Burr as member of the Connecticut State Capitol Commission of Sculpture and in 1901 he was reappointed for six years. Mr. Flagg has painted several hundred portraits, many of which are of distinguished men and women of the day. He has also been an occasional contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and to many art magazines and papers. He is president of the Municipal Art Society of Hartford, chairman of the Committee on Civic Centers and Public Buildings, secretary of the Society of Connecticut Artists, chairman of the Art Committee of the Hartford Club, of the admission committee of the Hartford Yacht Club, and was elected vice-commodore at the last annual meeting of the Hartford Yacht Club. He is also a member of the Cercle Français of Hartford, of the Hartford Sängerbund, and the American Civic Club. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In politics he is and always has been a Republican. Yachting is his most enjoyable sport and for indoor exercise he follows the Saint Cyr system of physical culture which has cured him of asthma, from which he was a sufferer for twenty years. In 1874 Mr. Flagg married Ellen Fanny Earle of New York City. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Flagg and four are now living. Their home is in Hartford. Mr. Flagg considers the strongest influence upon his success in life to have been exerted at home by his father and mother and by his friend, Dr. Horace Bushnell. Next to home influence he values his private study. For a watchword for others he says: "Be prompt to do the thing to be done yourself. Let the other person do the talking. Laziness is the curse of artists and art students. Above all-for success-'To thine own self be true-thou canst not then be false to any man.' "
HENRY A. PERKINS
P ROFESSOR PERKINS comes from old Connecticut stock, his father, Edward Perkins, being the son of Henry Perkins, for so many years the president of the old Hartford Bank in the early part of the nineteenth century and his mother, Mary Dwight, being a representative of a family distinguished in many parts of the country for culture and scholarship. He was born in 1873 in the city of Hartford and was educated in the orthodox Congregational manner at the Hartford High School and Yale University, where he was graduated in 1896. His first graduate course he took at Columbia University, receiving the degrees of M.A. and Electrical Engineer in 1899. After two years' graduate work at Yale and a year's prac- tical experience with the Hartford Electric Light Company, he was made professor of physics at Trinity College in 1902. Although so young a man he is recognized as a very careful experimenter, a thoroughly competent theoretical electrician, and an expert in pho- tometry. He has contributed several articles to the American Journal of Science and is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the American Physical Society. He has traveled extensively and visited the interior of Iceland. His lectures on what he saw there, the people and the physiographical character of the country, are full of novelty and interest. He is also much interested in exploration and mountain climbing and is a member of the Alpine Club and the Arctic Club.
In 1903 he married Miss Olga Flinch. One son has been born to them.
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ELI WHITNEY
W HITNEY, ELI, a prominent citizen with many important business interests, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, January 22nd, 1847. He is the son of Eli Whitney and Sarah Perkins (Dalliba) Whitney. He comes from a long line of dis- tinguished ancestors, and men who have played prominent parts in the events of their time. His earliest ancestor in this country was John Whitney, who came from England in 1635 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. Among those ancestors who have distinguished them- selves first comes the great Eli Whitney, who was the inventor of the cotton gin. There are also Jonathan Edwards, theologian, who was president of Princeton College; Thomas Hooker, the founder of the city of Hartford and one of the most prominent figures in the making of the early history of the State of Connecticut; Rev. James Pierpont, who was one of the little band of men who were the founders of Yale University ; Benjamin Huntington, and Pierpont Edwards, who was one of the original members of the famous Connecticut Governor's Foot Guards (still in existence), who fought in the Revolution. His father was a graduate of Princeton, class of 1841, and his life's work was that of a manufacturer.
Mr. Whitney spent the early days of his youth on the estate of his father in New Haven, and prepared for college at the famous boys' military school of Gen. Wm. H. Russell in New Haven, Con- necticut, and also at Josiah Clark's School at Northampton, Massa- chusetts, and entered Yale University in 1865, graduating with the degree of B.A. in the class of 1869. Later the degree of M.A. was conferred upon him. Upon leaving Yale he took a post-graduate course at the Boston Institute of Technology and in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale.
Acting upon the wish of his father he entered the employ of the Whitney Arms Company in 1871, and gradually rose to the position of vice-president. The business was sold in 1888. Two years after going into business he was married to Sarah Sheffield Farnam of
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New Haven, on October 22nd, 1873. Seven daughters are the result of this union and all but one are now living.
For a number of years Mr. Whitney has been prominent in public life, and is intimately associated with the business interests of his city. He has been president of the New Haven Water Company since 1894, president of the West Haven Water Company since 1900, director of the New Haven Gas Light Company, the City Bank of New Haven, and trustee in the Connecticut Savings Bank and the New Haven Trust Company. He has also held a number of political positions, among them alderman, member of the Park Commission, Board of Public Works, and for twelve years a member of the Board of Education in New Haven and for nearly eight years its president, and president of the General Hospital of Connecticut. November, 1904, he was elected State senator, and during the session was promi- nent as the introducer of a number of important bills. He is a fellow on the Corporation of Yale University, to which position he was elected by the alumni in 1902, vice-president of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, member of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and a member of several clubs in the city of New Haven. He is also a member of the Century, University, Yale, and Engineers clubs in New York City and of the societies of the Colonial Wars and of the War of 1812.
In politics Mr. Whitney is a consistent Republican, though inclined to be independent in local affairs when circumstances seem to demand it. He is one of the most prominent men socially in New Haven, and has won for himself the respect of all with whom he has come in contact in the business world. He owns one of the most beautiful residences in the city of New Haven, situated on the avenue named after his family. Mr. Whitney takes a keen enjoyment in fishing and hunting, having a love for the woods, but takes no active part in athletics. He is a member of the Congregational Church and his name is associated with a great many of the beneficial gifts that have been made both in religious and other fields in New Haven. As a man he is very unostentatious, being noted for his quiet and unassum- ing manners.
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JOHN DAY JACKSON
J ACKSON, JOHN DAY, publisher of the New Haven Register, president of the Worcester Gazette Company and a well known newspaper man of Connecticut, was born in Hartford, Con- necticut, September 23rd, 1868, the son of General Joseph Cooke Jackson and Katharine Perkins Day Jackson. His father was a lawyer and Assistant United States District Attorney of New York, but best known for his military service in the Civil War, when he was brigadier general of volunteers and Commissioner of the Naval Credits for the State of New Jersey, in which the Jackson family have long been prominent. The study of Mr. Jackson's ancestry opens up an unusually large and interesting list of names, names of public men who have been real history makers in America and have been promi- nent and important in the civil, military, and political history of the United States since earliest times. Three early ancestors of especial distinction are the "Pilgrim Fathers," Gov. William Brad- ford, John Howland, and John Tilley, all of whom came to Plymouth in the "Mayflower" in 1620 and from all of whom Mr. Jackson is a direct lineal descendant. He is also a direct descendant of Gov. John Haynes, the first governor of Connecticut; Gov. Thomas Dudley, of Massachusetts; Gov. Thomas Welles, of Connecticut; Gov. John Webster, of Connecticut; Gov. George Wyllys; Gov. Roger Wolcott; Gov. William Pitkin; Gov. Oliver Wolcott, all governors of Con- necticut, and the last named, Mr. Jackson's great-great-great-grand- father, was also major general in the Continental Army and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another great-great-great- grandfather, General Huntington, of Norwich, was a major general in the British Army and aided in the capture of Louisburg in the French and Indian War. Nor is this distinguished catalogue com- plete by half, for Mr. Jackson also traces his ancestry to Gov. William Pynchon, governing magistrate of Connecticut and one of the his- toric founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ; to Philip Schuyler, vice-governor at Fort Orange in 1655; Brandt Van Slichtenhorst,
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