USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > Noted men of Connecticut as they look in life : as published in the columns of The Evening Leader of New Haven : being a collection of portraits and biographical sketches of representative men of Connecticut who have made and are making the history of the states > Part 11
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With the weight of business on his hands, Senator Middleton felt that he could not fill town office in the manner which he deemed just, and consistently refused all offers of local positions until in November, 1907, when an almost unanimous demand forced him to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the former first selectman of the town of East Windsor.
A special election was called and as proof of the great popularity of Senator Middle- ton, there exists the fact that he received all buit seven of the votes cast. He is managing the affairs of the town in the same straightforward, prudent and telling fashion, which has marked his whole life.
While not affiliated with any religious body as a member, he has always been a regu- lar attendant at the Broad Brook Congregational Church. Senator Middleton married . Miss Jane Frances Tettey, May 27, 1896, and their home has been blessed by the advent of five children, John W., aged ten years; Ruth F., aged eight years; Howard A., Jr., six years; Janice M., two years, and Olive M., eight months.
He is interested in fraternal and social life and has served as past master of Oriental Lodge III., F. and A. M., of which he has been a member for several years. He is also connected with the Foresters of America and several German societies.
Of active temperament he takes a keen interest in sports of all kinds and enjoys the vigorous out-of-door modes of pleasure.
For him, the future seems bright, for he is in the prime of life with an honorable record behind him and countless opportunities for good at hand. He believes in deeds, not words, and his deeds are always well advised and admirably directed. Connecticut is glad to avail herself of the activities of such men and finds plenty of work for them to do.
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BENJAMIN RICE ENGLISH
BENJAMIN RICE ENGLISH, NEW HAVEN
"How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower."
Compared to our friend, Benjamin Rice English, "How doth the little busy bee," was a snail walking backward. Viewed in the light of the activities of Mr. English, his life was one long Spanish siesta. To follow Mr. English about in the pursuance of his duties for a single day would have given the "busy little bee" a bad case of nervous prostration.
There are two kinds of long life; the one which is measured by the number of times it has seen the winter's snows melt into the flowers of spring; the other, which is measured by the amount of cerebrations it experiences. Consciously or otherwise, Mr. English deter- mined that his should be a long life, in at least one of these ways, and indeed he bids fair to win out on both scores. Not that he is an old man yet, oh, you may be sure he is not. True that bothersome meddler, the statistician, tells us that sixty-five winters have turned their icy blasts on him, but to look at his trim military figure, tall and straight as an arrow, you would call him a man of fifty, with, yes, to be sure, certain lines in the patrician face, that betray the strenuous thinking that has been going on behind it, mixed, as must needs be, with the lines of sorrow.
Mr. Benjamin Rice English first beheld the light of day on the 26th day of Febru- ary, 1842, in New Haven. His parents were Henry and Grace (Fowler) English. His father was a carriage dealer, and later became a prominent lumber dealer. On his mother's side, through the Fowler family, he traces his ancestry to colonial days, their first American ancestor being associated with Governor Davenport, and at one time, the first magistrate of the colony. Benjamin obtained his early education from the schools of the Misses Bakewell and of Miss Bunnell. Afterwards he went to the Lancasterian School. This was followed by a course at the Collegiate and Commercial Institute, a large and important school in the antebellum days. Here, under the command of Gen. Russell, he underwent a salutary, military discipline.
But the work germ was ravaging the system of the young English, and at the age of fourteen he entered, modestly, but with assurance upon the great arena. I say modestly, because he was only an errand boy for Alden & Huntington's dry goods store, and he had but two dollars to jingle in his jeans when he had run his last errand Saturday nights. The second year brought him more opulence, a total of $125.00 for the year. In 1857 he left his employers on account of dull times, but we soon find him busy again with the New Haven Clock Co., of which his uncle was president, where he became shipping clerk.
Next he is branching out for himself in the lumber business, associated with John P. Tuttle on Water Street for sixteen years. Then his uncle, James E. English, entrusts him with the care of his real estate. On the death of his uncle in 1890, the interests came into the hands of his son, Henry F. English, but their administration remained in the experienced
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hands of his cousin, Benjamin, who has long had the handling of valuable property for banks and individuals.
Mr. English's first public office was as fire commissioner, when he was elected pres- ident of the board. Then came another signal honor in 1883, when he was elected by an overwhelming majority to the board of selectmen, becoming also president of the board.
In 1885, President Cleveland appointed him to the New Haven postmastership, where he did faithful service until 1890.
Such was the public confidence in his integrity, that in June, 1899, he was one of a committee of three to investigate the irregularities in the town agent's office. He also served on a committee of three in the same year to attend to the municipal sinking fund. For four- teen years, Mr. English served as clerk of the New Haven school district. Next we find this man of manifold responsibilities investigating the tax collector's office; again he is serv- ing as director of the Public Library.
Just now Mr. English is putting the little busy bee to biush by the following activi- ties : He is vice-president of the First National Bank. He is vice-president of the New Haven Trust Co. He is the senior trustee of the Connecticut Savings Bank. He is trus- tee of the Bishop's fund, trustee and treasurer of the fund for aged and infirm clergy, trustee and treasurer of the clergymen's retiring fund, trustee and treasurer of the Ever- green Cemetery fund, as well as director and secretary of the Evergreen Cemetery, and again appointed director of the Public Library.
Mr. English figures as director of the New Haven County Historical Society. He devotes his odd moments-it is odd that he has any-to the Connecticut Civil Service Asso- ciation, of which he is treasurer, and his still odder moments to the Florence Crittenton Mis- sion. Here, too, he serves as treasurer ; always places of trust and responsibility you see.
Mr. English is warden of St. Paul's Church, and by way of lighter, social duties, belongs to the Quinnipiac Club, to the Red Men and to the Sons of the American Revolu- tion. Finally, he is a member of the Church Club of Connecticut, and of the Chamber of Commerce. Any one else would have to give them absent treatment; I suppose he goes regularly to prod up the delinquents.
Mr. English was actively interested in military matters in his younger days. In Feb- ruary, 1863, he joined the New Haven Grays, and was promptly elected corporal and by successive re-elections became first sergeant. He was offered still higher posts, but declined.
During the riots in New York in 1863, he did guard duty with a squad on July 16th, 20th and 31st, and August 3d at the armory. On July 30, 1863, he turned out with his company at night by orders of the major general, to guard conscripts from the camp at Grape Vine Point to the steamboat. He was given an honorable discharge from the mili- tia in 1868, having served a term of five years.
In 1876 he became a member of the "Centennial Grays," a company formed to repre- sent the state of Connecticut, as one of the original states, in a parade in Philadelphia. Mr. English's business capacity shines forth here. He was treasurer of the company during its trip, and paying all expenses brought home a margin of $300.00.
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There are very few public functions at which Mr. English does not act on the. social committee, such as the Bi-Centennial celebration, the dedication of the soldiers' monument, etc., etc. What he counts as one of his greatest honors was the invitation to act as chief marshal at the consecration of Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster in October, 1897.
From even this hurried sketch, can you not see the man? Courteous, dignified, yet affable; a keen business mind, joined with a refined disposition that fits him to worthily rep- resent his city in ceremonial functions; like Matthew of old, he has consecrated his ability to higher ends than the mere raking together of lifeless metal. .
In his wide range of interests, embracing finance, politics, education, literature, char- ity and church, he stands for a high type of versatile American citizenship, the cultured Christian business man.
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GAR !
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Captain EDWARD GRISWOLD
CAPTAIN EDWARD GRISWOLD, GUILFORD
Mr. Edward Griswold, of Guilford, is one of Connecticut's self-made men. He was born in the town he now represents in the legislature, June 30, 1839. After receiving his ed- ucation at the Guilford High School he worked upon his father's farm until the War of the Rebellion broke out, in 1861. That was the turning point in the young man's life. He enlisted in October of that year, rendering his country brave service as a private until Octo- ber, 1864. He served in the First Light Battery, Connecticut Volunteers, and assisted his cousin, the late Major William Todd Seward, in raising thirty-six men for that organization, which much of the time formed a part of the Tenth Army Corps, most of the time under the command of General Alfred H. Terry. He participated in the battles in South Caro- lina and Florida, and the great battles of the Richmond campaign in Virginia, in 1864. He was often detailed when a single section of battery was sent out for special duty, and when his discharge was made out the company records showed that he had served in more engage- ments than any one of his comrades, and there was but one other that came near to him.
Upon his return to Guilford he again resumed the management of the farm, and beside opening a general country store, engaged in the shipping of produce. He shipped in the first three years after the war 3600 tons of pressed hay, and large quantities of potatoes, onions and other produce. His ambition and courage had the vitality of youth in them, how- ever, for the present representative was only twenty-six when he shouldered these responsi- bilities. Many a year he retailed from his store over one hundred thousand dollars' worth of goods.
Almost immediately upon his return home he was honored by a special summons to New Haven by Governor Buckingham, who wished Mr. Griswold to meet him and Gen- eral Russell there. One can fancy this young man's surprise, his trepidation, perhaps, at any- thing so important as a private conference with these two notable men. At this interview he was urged to organize a section of Light Battery in Guilford, although only wearing the uniform of a private during the three years he served. It was not until many years after, that Mr. Griswold learned that it was his old war captain, General Alfred P. Rockwell, who had asked Governor Buckingham to confer this special honor upon him, feeling that he had not treated Griswold quite right in the service. Mr. Griswold remained as commander of this Guilford Light Battery for six years, and has been its powerful friend at headquarters all this long term of years, saving it many times from disbandment. He was also instru- mental in getting Governor Cook to issue orders that made it a part of Connecticut's quota in the Spanish war. He still continues his interest in this organization which has often been spoken of by The Army and Navy Journal as the best state battery in the Union.
Politically, Mr. Griswold has a wide-reaching and splendid reputation. While a Republican by faith, and always nominated by that party in caucus, he has never had the support of any political committee or party at election, which is indeed a tribute to his pop- ularity. The supposed reason has always been that no political boss owned him, and while the corporations respected him they desired his defeat and furnished means for that purpose. It is said that he has a larger personal acquaintance than any other man in the state.
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Mr. Griswold made his political debut in 1882, and he was chosen representative from Guilford with re-election in 1883. In 1902 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention. It was at this convention that the greatest effort of this public-spirited man's life was made, when he fearlessly and zealously took his stand against doing away with town representation in the House of Representatives. None of his associates will forget it. However, his cause was won after a long, spirited and close fight. He was again elected in 1903, 1905 and 1907 as representative from Guilford.
One of his chief issues has been the defending of the rights of the people by the protec- tion of the Shell Fisheries of the Connecticut shores. For more than thirty years before com- mittees and upon the floor of the House he has been the successful and zealous champion of the people in this fight, and without doubt he has done more than any other person to protect the people against individuals and companies, who have sought to wrest this right from them.
Mr. Griswold was chairman of the legislative committee on military affairs in 1883, 1903, 1905, 1907, and in his deep interest in the necessity and welfare of our National Guard has won the gratitude of the Guard of our state and all patriotic people.
With the many forceful and eloquent speeches he has made in his long and active leg- islative career, none has been more forceful, brilliant and impressive than the one made in the legislature of 1907, in a spirited contest between him and Judge Burns, of Greenwich. Judge Burns was House chairman of the railroad committee, in the granting of a charter for a trolley road from Guilford to New Haven (originally called the East Haven and Mor- ris Cove road). The report of the railroad committee was unanimously unfavorable. Mr. Griswold was emphatically for it. His speech followed that of Judge Burns, each speaker occupying an hour, and the vote following was an enthusiastic one, Judge Burns only voting against it out of the two hundred and fifty-five men. The House was crowded with visitors, and the applause and enthusiasm was great. The parties in contest shook hands, the Judge remarking, "Captain, I hope you will get your road. It was the greatest effort of my life, but I lost."
Mr. Griswold attended the High School with the late William H. H. Murray, better known as Adirondack Murray, and a year or more ago was elected president at a meeting in New York of the Adirondack Murray Association, recently organized. This association counts among its members prominent men from all over the country, chiefly literary, or wealthy sportsmen. Among its vice-presidents and the trustees are Theodore Roosevelt, Governor Woodruff and ex-Governor Chamberlain.
Mr. Griswold stands to the front with the town-born-and-bred of Guilford who have done everything to advance the interests of the town. Mr. Griswold, with the late John Beatie, about the year 1870, organized the Guilford Savings Bank, now one of the most prominent of the smaller banking institutions of the state. He was a charter member of Parmelee Post, G. A. R., No. 42, and is now a regular member of Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, of New Haven. As he is popular politically, so does Mr. Griswold count a host of warm personal friends among the men of the G. A. R. Decoration, or Memorial Day, the one of all others that brings the veterans out in large numbers, finds Mr. Griswold down
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on some program for a speech. He is a welcome guest at every patriotic gathering, and has been a speaker at dedications of soldiers' monuments.
In 1868 Mr. Griswold married Mrs. Annie E. Dudley. Two sons and a daughter were the result of this union. They are all three married, the daughter living in Collinsville, the oldest son, Edward, in New Haven, and the youngest, Nelson H. Griswold, recently suc- ceeded his father in the dry goods and grocery business, established at Guilford by Mr. Griswold more than 42 years ago. Mrs. Griswold, beloved by all, passed over to the beyond in November, 1899.
Mr. Griswold, like all other energetic and unselfish men who stand boldly for what they believe is right, has fearfully suffered by that worst of all of the errors of sins of human kind, jealousy, and also because he would not serve an unscrupulous, soulless, Boss- politician. He has been robbed of seventeen years of hard-earned means by maliciousness and misrepresentations. He has seen his family boldly robbed by the same parties-a clean- cut robbery. His hands were tied, and he was powerless to defend himself, yet he has faced his enemies and has gone right along working for the people as well as for his support. But the years that have gone by since that robbery have convinced his townsmen that he was not the sinner, but the one sinned against, and to-day the good citizens of Guilford hold him in high esteem, proud of his energetic, unselfish life and the help and honor he has won for his own town as well as his state.
The fundamental secret of Mr. Griswold's popularity and unfailing success in every- thing he gives his attention to, is undoubtedly the all-pervading kindness of his nature, coupled with his capacity for energetic work and honest dealing.
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Hon. MORRIS F. TYLER
HON. MORRIS F. TYLER, NEW HAVEN
One of the most progressive men who ever lived in New Haven was the late Morris F. Tyler. A sketch of him, prepared before his death, follows:
It is a pleasing and a just custom which prevails among most, if not all, of our insti- tutions of higher learning, of calling, each, its own sons to fill its chairs whenever this may be done without sacrificing merit. This is a just recompense to those who have profited by the teachings of their Alma Mater, and have won proficiency through hard labor. It is something of a compliment to the institution, also, for she honors herself in honoring him. Among these favored sons of a grand old institution was the subject of the pres- ent sketch, Hon. Morris Franklin Tyler.
Mr. Tyler was of the number who, in assuming positions of public trust, merely per- petuated family traditions, for the Tylers, an old and well-known Connecticut family, have often served the state. His father, Morris Tyler, is still personally remembered by the elder citizens of New Haven, where he served the city as councilman, alderman, and mayor, and his state as lieutenant-governor. He was a wholesale manufacturer of boots and shoes, and left a reputation for uprightness and directness.
Mr. Morris F. Tyler was born in New Haven in 1848, August 12th. He was edu- cated in the public schools of his native city, and in the Hillhouse High School, entering Yale at the age of eighteen, and receiving the degree of A.B. four years later with the Class of 1870. He was remarked there chiefly for his studious proclivities, bearing away among other trophies the Sophomore declamation prize, the Junior classical prize and a Senior oration. He became a member of Gamma Nu, Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. He then entered the Yale Law School, from which he was graduated in 1873. In this year he won three prizes, the degree of Master of Arts, of Bachelor of Laws and a wife. He was married in New York City on November 5, 1873, to Miss Delia Talman, the daughter of Victor Clifford Audubon, and granddaughter of John James Audubon, the famous ornithologist. Five children were born to them, of whom four are now living, Vic- tor Morris Tyler ; Ernest Franklin Tyler, an artist, living in New York; Leonard Sanford Tyler, and Audubon Tyler. His daughter Mary died in November, 1902, at the age of seventeen years and eleven months.
Mr. Tyler's tirelessness as a brain-worker is shown by the fact that at the same time he was studying for his two degrees of 1873, he had devoted considerable time to journal- ism. He was engaged at first with the Hartford Evening Post, then became associate editor of the New Haven Palladium.
On receiving his degree, he immediately commenced the practice of his profession, in partnership with Mr. Hubbard, but later became the leading member of the firm of Tyler, Ingersoll & Moran. He developed an extensive practice, but of a sort that rarely brought him before the courts, being rather the administration of estates and the manage- ment of business enterprises.
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In 1878 he became interested in the telephone business. The first telephone exchange in the world was put into operation in New Haven at that time, and Mr. Tyler became pres- ident of the company, now known as The Southern New England Telephone Co. From a modest beginning, he developed it into the wealthy and widely operating concern of to-day.
Those who are qualified to judge, consider his company one of the most successful of its kind in America. Before many years it, with still other business interests, had entirely . weaned him from the practice of law. But, as we shall see, other important, as well as honorific duties were to occupy his attention.
From 1875 to 1878 Mr. Tyler served on the board of education, while in 1876-7 he was also a member of the board of common council. This service to the city was followed by one to the state, for in 1881-2, we find that he served for one year as executive secretary of the state of Connecticut under Gov. Bigelow, during which term, he declared he had all the politics he wanted for a life-time. In 1893, he was appointed instructor in Law at Yale University ; in the following year, he became a regular professor of general jurisprudence, in place of the late Professor Johnson T. Platt. This is one of the most important chairs in the Law School. He held this position until 1899, when he was appointed to the very honorable position of treasurer of Yale University, a position which he filled with marked ability until 1904.
Indeed, Mr. Tyler's tastes were remarkably literary, for one endowed with so keen an executive mind. His chief hobby was books, and when fairly launched upon that all engrossing subject, would go on and on indefinitely like grandfather's clock. He recited editions and authors and reprints so glibly that you were lost in wonder and you thought of the schoolmaster of whom Goldsmith said,
"And still the wonder grew, That one small head contained all he knew."
His specialty in books was catalogs and biography. Entre nous, only a severely legal mind could go into paroxysms of ecstacy over catalogs, but never mind. He has some writing also to his credit. It will be recalled that he edited the "Memoirs of Mad- ame Vigée Le Brun."
Connected as he had been with so many interests, Mr. Tyler had a wide acquaint- ance with men of affairs. These acquaintances he conserved in a large measure through numerous clubs, such as the Union League Club, the Grolier Club and the Yale Club, all of New York City, while he held membership in the Quinnipiac and the Graduates' Clubs of New Haven.
He was long a faithful and earnest member of the Church of the Redeemer in New Haven. His early political affiliation was with the Republican party, but the incidents attending the campaign between James G. Blaine and Grover Cleveland caused him to cast in his lot with the Democrats, and since then he had remained an independent in politics.
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In conclusion, Mr. Tyler was a man of strong personality and keen judgment, a man endowed with an acute sense of his responsibility as the head of a large public utility cor- poration toward the people whose well-being it subserves. A lover of literature and nature, a professional man by education and a corporation manager by position, yea "all the ele- ments were so mixed in him that Nature might stand forth and say to all the world, this is a man."
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for
Judge WILLIAM F. HENNEY
JUDGE WILLIAM F. HENNEY, HARTFORD
"The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defence." -Langford, "The Praise of Books."
The descendant of undaunted Scotch dissenters of the most unbending type, Judge William F. Henney, the present Mayor of Hartford, joins to his uncompromising inde- pendence of thought and action, a love for literature that dominates all other passions. No matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and the happiest of the children of men, for he can associate with the choicest spirits of all lands and all ages, and wrapping his soul as in a mantle, can forget the "quips and gibes of envious fortune," living in a sphere apart. Still, Mayor Henney has not yielded to the inclination to with- draw to the inner circle of thinkers, whose esoteric clan would have none of this vile world. On the contrary, he has always lived in close harmony with the common people in whose midst he has found himself, thinking it truer wisdom to use his scholarly attainments in their behalf, rather than let them set a gap betwixt him and his fellows.
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