USA > Connecticut > Men of mark in Connecticut; ideals of American life told in biographies and autobiographies of eminent living Americans > Part 21
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JOIIN DAY JACKSON
chief magistrate of Rensselaerwych, 1645-1655; Henry Wolcott, magistrate of Connecticut, 1643; Nathaniel Turner, magistrate of New Haven Colony; Captain Miles Morgan, who fought against the Indians at the sacking of Springfield in 1675; Lieutenant Thomas Cooper, another Indian fighter; the Rev. John Whiting, chaplain of the Connecticut troops in King Philip's War, and several other divines of the Perkins and Pitkin families who were fellows of Yale and Harvard and preachers of the state election sermons.
John Day Jackson spent his youth in the city of New York. He attended the public schools in New York City, the School of Lan- guages in New York, and then entered Yale University, where he took his A.B. degree in 1890. In college he was chairman of the Yale Daily News, a junior exhibition, Townsend, and commencement speak- er, and was graduated with special honors in two groups, history and economies and modern languages. He was also a member and secretary of the General Athletic Committee appointed to confer with Harvard on the Dual League. His scholarly tastes were not yet satisfied and he went abroad to complete his education. He studied at the University of Berlin, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the Ecole Politique in Paris. In 1901 he returned to America and spent a year in further study at Harvard University. He began his journalistic career as a reporter in New York and became later the Washington correspondent for the New York Evening Post, the Newark News, the Journal of Com- merce, and other papers; also managing editor of the Washington News. He is now publisher of the New Haven Register and president of the Worcester Gazette Company, besides being a director in a number of other companies. For seven years he has been an in- fluential member of the New Haven Board of Education and in 1898 he held the office of police commissioner. He is an adherent to the Republican party in politics and in 1904 declined a nomination to the State senate.
Mr. Jackson is a member of the Graduates Club, the Lawn Club, the Union League Club, and the Young Men's Republican Club, all of New Haven, and of the University Club of New York, the Yale Club, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the college fraternities Psi Upsilon and Chi Delta Theta, the Yale Literary Magazine Society. He is an enthusiastic devotee of out- of-door life and finds the keenest delight in riding, mountaineering.
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canoeing, skating, and tennis. He has been an extensive traveler in Europe, Africa, and the East.
In estimating the results of what he has accomplished Mr. Jack- son feels that hard work, perseverance, and courage are the real essentials. He says: "Be sure you are quite right and then go ahead without fear. Every one should take some interest in politics and in public philanthropy, especially of an organized kind. If every one did this the results of reform would last longer and general conditions be much improved. The great mistake of American life is to stop after something has been accomplished, expecting that something to live without eternal vigilance. That is the only road to growth."
CHARLES ALLEN DINSMORE
D INSMORE, REV. CHARLES ALLEN, clergyman and author, at present pastor of the First Congregational Church of Water- bury, was born in New York City, August 4th, 1860. His father was Lafayette Henry Dinsmore, a physician and a great lover of poetry, nature, and books. His mother was Mary Sabin Ladd, of whom he says : "She kindled my ambition to succeed and moulded my religious life." The early ancestors of the family came from the north of Ireland and settled in New Hampshire. Robert Dinsmore, the poet, was in the same line of descent.
Until he was seven years old Charles Dinsmore lived in the city and from that time until he was of age he spent most of his time in the country. He was a vigorous boy, full of life and ambition, and he says of his boyhood: "My chief interest was in fun until I was sixteen and after that in study." He had regular employment on a farm in summer, which formed habits of self-reliance and inde- pendence, qualities which made it possible for him to earn his own education. His most stimulating and enjoyable lines of reading were philosophy, belles-letters, political science, and history. He prepared for college at Monson Academy and was graduated from Dartmouth in 1884, and from Yale Divinity School in 1888, when he received his B.D. degree. He then spent two years at Yale studying theology and sociology, but as he elected his studies this led to no degree. He worked his way through all of these institutions.
Led into the ministry by what he terms "a cold sense of duty," Reverend Dinsmore began as pastor of the Congregational Church in Whitneyville, Connecticut, in 1877, and remained there until 1891. During his pastorate there he married Annie Laurie Beattie, by whom he has had one child. His second call was to Willimantic, Connecticut, where he preached five years, at the end of which he was called to be pastor of Phillips Congregational Church in Boston, where he remained until 1905. On March 1st, 1905, he entered upon his present pastorate, the First Congregational Church of Water-
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CHARLES ALLEN DINSMORE
bury, and was given the degree of Doctor of Divinity in June of the same year by Dartmouth College.
Literature has been one of the chief interests of Doctor Dinsmore's life and he has made several valnable and scholarly contributions to modern literature. During his school days he fell under the spell of Dante's Divine Comedy, and the study of that great author has been the center of his literary work as well as the inspiration of his more general writings. In 1901 he published "The Teachings of Dante" and in 1903 "Aids to the Study of Dante." He expects soon to publish a new work of great interest, which will be called "The Atonement in Literature and Life." He is a member of the Dante Society of Cambridge, of the Twentieth Century Club, and of the Bos- ton Authors' Club. In politics he is a Republican, though he has no sympathy with high tariff. His outdoor recreation is found in golf and horseback riding.
In estimating the influences that have been brought to bear upon his life, Doctor Dinsmore says: "Home laid down the lines of character, school kindled my ambition, and private study gave me the raw material." As to the success of his work he says: "I have failed to take the satisfaction rightly due, being under too great a pressure of work. Life is too strenuous." The advice which he gives to others contains the keynote of his own character and the reason for his success, for he advises others to "have a great task and become absorbed in it."
CHARLES L. EDWARDS
E DWARDS, PROFESSOR CHARLES L., was born in Oquawka, Illinois, forty-two years ago. His father was a banker and a member of the legislature of Indiana and came of Welsh stock, and his mother traced her ancestry back to John Brown of Plymouth, 1626; Lieutenant William Pratt of Cambridge, 1633; Lieutenant Richard Stockton of New Jersey; Thomas Lord; Governor Haynes, and Governor Wyllis of Hartford. As a boy, Professor Edwards went through the usual experiences of a youth in a small western city, but very early developed a marked interest in natural history. The works of Charles Darwin, then first exciting the world, had a decided influence on him, and after receiving his B.S. degree at Lombard Col- lege in 1884, and again at the Indiana University in 1886, he deter- mined to devote himself to the study of biology. He studied three years at Johns Hopkins University and then went to the University of Leipzig, where he received the degree of Ph.D. He worked for two years as graduate fellow in Clark University, Worcester, Massachu- setts, and became assistant professor of biology at the University of Texas in Austin. He was made full professor at the University of Cincinnati in 1894 and remained there six years. In 1900 he became J. Pierpont Morgan Professor of Natural History in Trinity College, Hartford, a position which he has filled with marked ability ever since.
Having such an excellent educational equipment, and being full of enthusiasm for his profession and by nature an indefatigable worker, it is not strange that Professor Edwards, though still a young man, has done a great deal of scientific work and achieved a recognized position in the scientific world. He is the author of numerous papers in journals devoted to biology and zoology, among which are twenty articles on the embryology of the holothurians and reptiles, an ex- haustive statistical study of variation, and one on the marine zoology in the Bahama Islands. He has in hand for the Smithsonian Institu- tion a monograph of the holothurioidea, and for the United States
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CHARLES L. EDWARDS
Bureau of Fisheries a report on the albatross collections. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Society of American Zoologists, of the Associa- tion of American Naturalists, and of the three Mexican Scientific Societies. As a "side line" he has devoted much time to the subject of folk-lore, being the author of "Bahama Songs and Stories" (Vol. 3), "Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society," and was in 1889 the president of the American Folk-Lore Society. At present he has much at heart the establishment of a floating laboratory, a small sail- ing vessel, in connection with Trinity College to investigate in the summer vacations the marine biology of the West Indies. His energy and enthusiasm will no doubt lead to the installation of the enterprise in a year or two. One of Professor Edwards's most important inves- tigations had to do with the effect of temperature on the development of the chick during the process of incubation and the determination of the critical temperature or the zero below which development does not take place.
On June 5th, 1889, Professor Edwards married Jessie Safford. Four children have been born to them, three of whom are now living, John Robert, Richard Safford, and Charles Stockton.
HENRY FOWLER ENGLISH
E NGLISH, HENRY FOWLER, widely known as a prominent banker and business man of New Haven, was born in that city, June 5th, 1851. He is the son of James Edward English, one of Connecticut's foremost governors, who held the office for three terms, after having been a representative, State senator, and member of Congress. He served also as a United States senator, by appoint- ment, and is remembered as a man of strict integrity and great busi- ness ability. The English family came originally from Yorkshire, England. The earliest known American representative was Clement English who was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1646, a son of whom, Benjamin, migrated to New Haven about 1700.
Mr. English was brought up in New Haven, where he has always lived. He was delicate in early years, a boy of quiet temperament and fond of books and outdoor sports. His taste for reading was inherited from his mother, who also taught him love of nature. His carly education was obtained at General Russell's Collegiate and Com- mercial Institute at New Haven, this being followed by two years' study under the tutorage of the late Horace Day. He then took a special course of studies at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale, and finally attended the Yale Law School, being graduated with the class of 1874, and admitted to the county bar the same year.
After his graduation from the law school Mr. English started his business career in office practice and in the active management of real estate. He profited much by the good example and excellent ad- vice of his parents and has succeeded in life through earnest and per- sistent effort, through self-reliance, and through his constant deter- mination to do in all positions the best he was able. Personal con- tact with other successful men in life has been a special source of inspiration to him. He now holds many positions of trust in the banking and business world of New Haven. He is a director of the First National Bank, trustee and vice-president of the Connecti- cut Savings Bank, trustee in the New Haven Trust Company, director in the New Haven Clock Company and chairman of its executive
Very sincerely yours Henry J. English.
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HENRY FOWLER ENGLISH
committee, director in the Bristol Brass Company, in the Bristol Manufacturing Company, in the New Haven Dispensary and General Hospital Society, also the New Haven Colony Historical Society, and trustee in the Young Men's Christian Association. He is a member of the New Haven Commission of Public Parks, and has been its secretary and treasurer since 1887. In 1903 he was appointed a member of the State Police Commission. This long list of offices shows the diversified scope of his business and public interests.
In 1888 Mr. English was married to Alice Nancy Kimball of Boston, Massachusetts, their family now comprising three children ; two sons and a daughter. He attends St. Paul's Episcopal Church at New Haven. He takes considerable interest in all athletic sports, although devoting little time to practice. He is a member of the fraternity of Delta Psi at Yale, of the Graduates Club, of the New Haven Country Club, the New Haven Lawn Club, and also of the Ognossoc Angling Association, of Maine. In politics he is usually associated with the Democratic party, but is strongly inclined to be one of the great mass of independent voters whose ballots decide which party is to be victorious. He takes an unselfish interest in political affairs, but has never held political office. Although a relatively young man, the success of Mr. English in his wide and varied interests has made him a man of prominence in his community. His large experience lends value to his words of advice to young men who are about to begin the active work of life. He says: "What is termed success in life is due mainly to earnest and persistent effort by the individual. This effort must be governed by motives of integ- rity and liberality and by the recognition of the rights of others. Learn to think and act for yourself, but at the same time be ever ready to accept sound counsel." These principles guided Mr. English through life and his success demonstrates their soundness. Perhaps the most instructive part of his advice is: "Be self-reliant and yet willing to accept advice. When a man depends always upon others he must ever play a secondary rôle in life; yet if his self-reliance degen- erates into conceit, and he refuses to accept the advice of others, he learns many of life's most valuable lessons only after bitter experience and often after it is too late to use to advantage the knowledge he might have acquired easily by accepting the counsel of those who are in a position to know."
GEORGE CURTIS WALDO
W ALDO, GEORGE CURTIS, editor-in-chief and president of the Standard Association, Bridgeport, Connecticut, was born in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, March 20th, 1837. His father was the Rev. Josiah Crosby Waldo, a good speaker and debater and a leading minister of the Universalist denomination, founded by his father-in-law, the Rev. Hosea Ballou. Mr. Waldo's mother was Elmina Ruth Ballou. Through his father Mr. Waldo is descended from Deacon Cornelius Waldo who came from England to Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1634. John Waldo, the deacon's son, settled in Chelmsford, Massachusetts Bay, in 1676.
George Curtis Waldo as a child showed special taste and interest in general literature and in art. His mother being a writer and poet encouraged the literary taste in the boy and helped him in his intel- lectual work. His boyhood's recreation was found in the woods, where with rod and gun he took long walks in pursuit of fish and game and forgot for a time his books. He read everything he could find, and when fourteen years of age had read all of Scott's and Cooper's works, and could repeat "The Lady of the Lake," "Mar- mion," and other poems by Scott and many of Byron's poems. He had also mastered many of the poems of Pope, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Burns, etc. He was prepared for college at The Troy (New York) Academy, after having passed through the Public schools of West Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Tufts College, Mas- sachusetts, A.B., 1860, receiving his A.M. degree later. He served as corporal in Company E, Second Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, commanded by Col. A. H. Terry, in the first call for three months' men in 1861. He then studied both law and medicine in New London, Connecticut, and in 1867 began newspaper work on the Bridgeport Daily Standard as local reporter. He continued with the paper during his active business life as associate editor, editor-in- chief, and as president of the Standard Association. He served his adopted city as a member of the board of education for five years
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GEORGE CURTIS WALDO
and as a member of the board of directors of the Bridgeport Public Library for sixteen years. He served his adopted state as a member of the board of Shell Fish Commissioners from 1889 and as chairman of the board for ten years, and as a member of the board of directors of the State Insane Hospital at Norwich, by appointment of Governor Chamberlain.
He was married in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 11th, 1874, to Annie, daughter of Frederick and Matilda Brooks Frye, and the four children born of this marriage are now living. They are Selden Connor, Rosalie Hillman (Mrs. Roland Hawley Mallory of New York City), Maturin Ballou, and George Curtis, Jr. He is a member of Christ Church, Bridgeport, and served as a member of the vestry from 1876 and as junior warden for five years. He was president of the Eclectic, Press, and Seaside clubs of Bridgeport, secretary of the Bridgeport Scientific Society, vice-president of the Fairfield County Historical Society, a director of the Young Men's Christian Association, and declined the appointment as commissary general on the staff of Governor P. C. Lounsbury. He is a comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post Elias Howe Jr. No. 3, and of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut. He received the honorary degree of Litterarum Doctor from Tufts College in 1898.
HOMER STILLE CUMMINGS
C UMMINGS, HOMER STILLE, lawyer, business man, presi- dent of the Stamford Board of Trade, mayor of Stamford, member of the Democratic National Committee, was born in Chicago, Illinois, April 30th, 1870. His father, Uriah Cummings, is an inventor, manufacturer of cement, and author of technical works. His first ancestors in America on the paternal side came from the disputed territory between England and Scotland and settled in Ver- mont. Uriah Cummings married Audie Stille, daughter of Jacob Schuyler and Audelia Stille of Buffalo, New York, whose ancestors were of Knickerbocker New York and Holland Dutch stock, with a mixture of Huguenot blood. Her most illustrious ancestor was Gen. Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary fame.
Homer Stille Cummings was a healthy child, brought up in the city of Buffalo, New York, to which city his father had removed, and his mother guided his intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. He was prepared for college at the Heathcote School, Buffalo, and was gradu- ated at Yale University, Ph.B. 1891, LL.B. 1893. He began the practice of law in Stamford, Connecticut, in September, 1893, his choice of a profession being his uninfluenced personal preference. He is active in public affairs in Stamford and in seeking improvements in its municipal arrangements. He is a leading Democratic party man, and, in 1896, received the nomination for secretary of state on the Democratic state ticket, receiving at the polls the highest number of votes cast for a candidate of his party that year. In April, 1900, he was elected mayor of Stamford, was reëlected in 1901 by the larg- est majority ever given to a candidate for that office, and on November 8th, 1904, he was again elected mayor for a term of two years, serv- ing from 1904 to 1906. In 1900 he was a delegate at large from Connecticut to the Democratic National Convention and represented his state as a member of the committee on resolutions at the conven- tion and as a member of the Democratic National Committee and he held that position on the committee, by reappointment in 1904.
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HOMER STILLE CUMMINGS
and has recently been elected for the term of 1904 to 1908. In 1902 he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for representative at large from Connecticut to the 58th Congress and polled a larger vote than that cast for any other Democratic candidate that year. His business associations are director and secretary of the Cummings Cement Company and also of the Chickamauga Cement Company, president of the Varuna Spring Water Company, and president of the Stamford Board of Trade. He was also president of the Mayors' Association of Connecticut, one term, 1903-1904. He has affiliated himself with the order of Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Royal Arcanum, Knights of Pythias, and Knights of the Maccabees.
Mr. Cummings was married, June 27th, 1897, to Helen Woodruff Smith, daughter of James D. and Elizabeth Henderson Smith of Stamford, and their son, Dickinson Schuyler Cummings, was born June 17th, 1898.
GEORGE HENRY HOYT
H OYT, GEORGE HENRY, the late president of the Stamford Savings Bank, vice-president of the Stamford National Bank, treasurer of the Stamford Water Company and of the Stam- ford Electric Light and Gas Company, was born in Stamford, Fair- field County, Connecticut, December 11th, 1838, and died there November 20th, 1904. He was a direct descendant of Benjamin Hoyt, who was born in Windsor, England, in 1644 and emigrated to Stam- ford about 1711, and of Thaddeus Hoyt, born 1742, who was dis- tinguished for bravery in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Hoyt's father, James H. Hoyt, was the general superintendent of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and a man of unusual business capacity and public spirit. He was State senator and in many ways a prominent factor in the political and industrial life of the town in which the family have always been conspicuous for useful citizenship. Mr. Hoyt's mother was Sarah J. Gorham, a woman worthy in all respects to bring up her son under the best moral and spiritual influ- ences.
Stamford was Mr. Hoyt's home in his youth as it was throughout his whole life and he received his education in the Stamford public schools. He was a sturdy, active boy, who inherited his father's ambition and energy as well as his business ability and after his father's death heoccupied himself with his father's many business inter- ests and built well upon the firm foundations already laid. He began work in the employ of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail- road in New York City, and later became their Stamford agent. In 1878 he became president of the Stamford Savings Bank and he held this position until his death. He was vice-president of the Stamford National Bank and both of these institutions were organized through his father's efforts. He was for many years treasurer of the Stam- ford Water Company, of the Stamford Gas and Electric Light Company, of St. John's Church, and of Stamford Hospital, and he was a director in the New York Transfer Company, and in several other institutions.
Yours truly
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GEORGE HENRY HOYT
In spite of all these important business tics Mr. Hoyt found time to act as guardian, trustee, and adviser for many individuals and cor- porations, and always gave generously of his time, thought, and judgment to the many who consulted him. He was also called upon to fill many public offices, some of which he declined. He served as burgess for several years and as State representative for two terms. He was also a member of the Board of Appropriation and Apportion- ment and of the public building committee. He led the movement which brought about the memorable celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Stamford in 1892, and it was greatly due to his untiring efforts that the occasion was such a marked success. In politics he was a Democrat and like many other Democrats swerved from the party lines on the gold issue in 1896. He was often a delegate to party conventions. Though not a public speaker he was an interesting talker, and, after a tour in Europe a few years before his death, he gave interesting lectures which his natural literary taste rendered doubly pleasing.
A devoted churchman and junior warden of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, Mr. Hoyt gave to that church the best and most complete service a layman can render. He was a member and con- stant attendant at St. John's from his early boyhood and he served the parish as vestryman and financial manager as well as a frequent delegate to diocesan conventions. His loss is felt as keenly in religious as in business and social circles. Of him it may truly be said that he served God "with constancy on earth," " always abounding in the work of the Lord."
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