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 3
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For his own district, Mr. Sperry has secured many important improvements. At the western entrance of New Haven harbor stands a lighthouse, appropriately named "The Sperry Light," because Mr. Sperry secured the appropriation for its erection. The break- water that protects New Haven harbor and furnishes a harbor of refuge to thousands of ves- sels along the New England coast, is now being completed with money appropriated by Con- gress at Mr. Sperry's request. New Haven harbor proper, with its tributary rivers, has been dredged by the government, until the city now has one of the best harbors on the coast. In the twelve years Mr. Sperry has been in the House he has assisted in securing for this harbor more money than has been spent on it in all the years previous. Other harbors and rivers in the district have been taken care of. The cities of Waterbury and Meriden point with pride to their government buildings, erected since Mr. Sperry came to Congress.
No voice from his district has been too faint to be heard; he has never turned a heavy ear to an old soldier or a soldier's widow; many are blessing him for the pensions which stand between them and penury.
Mr. Sperry's public utterances are characterized by clear and decisive thinking and felicity of expression, humor, pathos, argument and appeal are always so wisely mingled as to render his addresses interesting and convincing, while his evident sincerity and pro- found faith in the doctrines he preaches never fails to influence his hearers. His most nota- ble addresses, next to his many campaign speeches, are perhaps those made in New Haven on the Bible in the schools ; those made before the State Grange in 1887 ; on the Mills Bill in 1888, and on other occasions upon the subject of Protection, of which he has always been the consistent and uncompromising champion, and most recently the remarkable address deliv- ered at the memorial service for Senator Platt in the House of Representatives. That address will not be forgotten, and indicates to his constituents that his powers have not abated, but are chastened and matured by the passage of years.
Mr. Sperry's career has been onc to cause him satisfaction in the retrospect, and to waken pride and gratitude in the hearts of his friends and descendants. He is sometinics called the "Grand Old Man" by those who know him best.
The Second District, by acclaiming him again its choice, has affirmed that it knows no "dead line" for its faithful servants ; that integrity and ability shall not fail of reward, and that even Republicans are not ungrateful in the case of a man worthy of trust and honor.
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WAVE
Hon. MARCUS H. HOLCOMB
HON. MARCUS H. HOLCOMB, SOUTHINGTON
Attorney-General
Mr. Marcus H. Holcomb took up his residence in Connecticut in the town of New Hartford, Litchfield County, in 1844. November 28th was the exact day of his arrival. He and his parents celebrated the Thanksgiving season, which was then upon them with befit- ting fervor, and each succeeding final Thursday in November, found them with more to be thankful for, he for the Christian home and conscientious training, the manifold opportunities that presented themselves in all their glamour to his youthful eyes, with later the taste of triumph after hard struggle, that is sweeter in the mouth than honey and honeycomb; they for the fruit which their sacrifices were yielding in filial love and manly character. For life has not dealt badly on the whole with Marcus H. Holcomb, not badly at all. Perhaps as a youth, he fondly dreamed that he might be President some day, or Captain of a National League Ball team, when he grew up to be a man. If so, he is a disappointed man to-day, for he is neither the one nor the other. For you see, everything is relative in this world, and a man measures his achievement in the light of what he intended to do. Still, to you and me, who represent the great average, Marcus Holcomb might reasonably seem to have employed the busy moments as they flew in a way well calculated to win him a name long to remain green in the memories of his fellow-citizens. And he isn't through yet, remember. He is keeping at it all the while, and every sun that rises finds him grown in popularity over night ; finds him more genial, more complaisant in the performance of his duties than ever.
History being what it is, from which we learn that in the long run, the best man wins out, we have every reason to suppose that a young man like him with a flying start such as he now has, will go pretty high, before it is time to begin all over again in another world. For he is young. The climate of Connecticut, the vigorous farm life of his youth, and the principles of right living imbibed there, have kept him young, and to-day he is still one of the boys.
Mr. Holcomb's father was a farmer of the type which but one other nation-the Swiss -boasts in such high percentage as we. I mean the man who tills the soil because he loves and honors this fundamental calling, which is, perhaps, the only one of our activities which is absolutely indispensable, and is, therefore, the solid foundation on which our civiliza- tion is built ; I mean the man, who though a farmer, does not let his occupation confine him to the narrow round of seed time and harvest, but who enters into the broader, intellectual life around him, and seeing the light, moulds his fellows to his views. Such a man was Charles Holcomb, and he brought his son up to an appreciation on the one hand, of the native dignity of agriculture, and a sense of one's duty of service to society. The father, himself, was selectman of his town, assessor, and member of the Board of Relief. He was often called upon to administer the estates of his fellow-citizens, a duty acquitted conscientiously and skilfully.
Mr. Marcus Holcomb attended public and private schools and Wesleyan Academy. Ill health resulting from a sunstroke, prevented his carrying out his intention of attending col- lege. Then, when his health permitted, he entered directly upon a law course, under the
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tutelage of Judge Jared B. Foster of New Hartford. He was admitted to the bar of Litch- field County in 1871, teaching school, meantime, to support himself. In 1872, he went to Southington to take up the practice of law, and has made that pleasant city of Hartford County, his headquarters ever since. He learned, as do all young professional men, that in a calling that depends so much on personality, and the confidence of one's fellow-men, there is no royal road to success ; that hard work, a lot of it, and then some more, joined with hon- esty and a cheerful disposition, are the talisman which unlock the door to good fortune. Like all young lawyers, he found that a case well won, opened the way to increased useful- ness, and in due course of time, he had come into his own ; a big well-paying practice ; a repu- tation as one of the leading lawyers of his county.
It is thirty years now since he donned the toga as judge of probate for the district of Southington-he is also judge of the city court at Southington. Since 1893, he has held the purse of Hartford County, managing its financial affairs with ability and integrity. In the year 1893, he was Senator from the second district. In 1902, he went as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. That is no slight honor, to be privileged to tinker with the oldest written constitution in the world. There are some who like to take the works of govern- ment apart and put them together again with no higher motive than to appear to be busy- which helps some-or than that of Johnny with the parlor clock, "just want to see where the tick comes from." Luckily men of Judge Holcomb's stamp were there in sufficient number to put the old Constitution together safely, and set her up to keep time with the march of human events for a few more centuries. Nineteen hundred-five saw him in the Speaker's chair at Hartford. He was appointed recently as a member of the State Police Commis- sion, and chairman of the Lewis High School Commission.
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Mr. Holcomb has numerous business interests. He is President of the Southington Savings Bank, and Director of the Southington National Bank. He is a Director in the Peck, Stow, and Wilcox Co., the Southington Cutlery Co., the Aetna Nut Co., and the Atwater Manufacturing Co. He also serves as receiver for the Co-operative Savings Society of Connecticut.
Judge Holcomb used to keep step to the Democratic drum beat in the olden days, but in 1888 he felt that he was more in harmony with Republican ideas on the tariff and there- upon joined their standard.
The Judge takes hold of church work with his customary vigor. He was for several years Superintendent of the Southington Baptist Church. He is now chairman of the board of trustees of the Baptist Church of Hartford.
Judge Holcomb's genial disposition has led him to form many fraternal ties, as repre- sented by the Masons, in which he has reached the 32d degree-the Mystic Shrine, Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Red Men, the O. U. A. M. and Foresters. That is a long list, but the Judge is interested in the welfare of each, and has ardent admirers in them all. In 1871-2, he was Worshipful Master of Northern Star Lodge, No. 58, F. & A. M.
He dearly loves fishing and hunting and the call to the woods of Maine usually finds him listening.
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Mr. Holcomb was married in 1872 to Miss Sarah Carpenter Bennett, who passed away in 1901. They had but one child who died some years ago.
By virtue of the 1906 election, the judge became Attorney-General, with a plurality of 21,000 votes.
Fortune's best fruit grows on the mountain top. It falls unheeding, but only those who have had the strength to climb, may gather it.
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Colonel CHARLES M. JARVIS
COLONEL CHARLES M. JARVIS, NEW BRITAIN Commissary-General
Through a career of indefatigable labor, leading to great power and influence, Charles Maples Jarvis, has retained a sweetness and light, a radiant good cheer in character and man- ner, which makes him loved by many, and admired and respected by all.
For he has accomplished Herculean tasks and in the great world of iron and steel, of bridge building and manufacturing, he towers high among the doers, for his ability is markedly executive and he loses little time between the idealization of a plan, and the con- summation of the deed.
He is the most powerful individual in the great American Hardware Corporation and as vice-president of the American Bridge Company has done valuable and important work.
A short time ago, he was chosen as a member of the bridge commission of Connecti- cut, and has been called on to inspect and pass on the merits of many of the bridges whose construction he supervised, several years ago, when an official of the Berlin Iron and Bridge Company.
It was after he had completed a year of supervision of the field work for the American Bridge Company, which he was serving as vice-president, that the P. & F. Corbin Company, the famous lock manufacturers of New Britain, invited him to come into their concern, to fill the place made vacant by the illness of Andrew Corbin.
Soon after the P. & F. Corbin Company and the Russell & Erwin Company, who had been keen business rivals for many years, merged under the name of the American Hard- ware Company, and Mr. Jarvis has been the able vice-president for the past six years.
On him has fallen the burden of affairs during that period and he has been a wonderful director and guiding power. His keen wonderfully trained mind and firm grasp of affairs make him an invaluable official.
During his administration, the Corbin Company has undertaken the manufacture of automobiles and has prospered wonderfully in this branch.
He is a member of the staff of Governor Woodruff, of whom he has been a close per- sonal friend for many years, and has also been chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, this year.
Mr. Jarvis was born in Deposit, Delaware County, N. Y., April 16, 1856. At that time his father operated a line of stages between New York City and Oswego, delivering the United States mails.
When he was two years of age the family moved to Binghamton, N. Y., where he attended the public schools. He attended Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, and graduated as a civil engineer with the Class of 1877.
In April, 1878, he entered the employ of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company as an engi- neer, in East Berlin. At that time the company had but 20 employees and did about $20,000 worth of business each year.
Mr. Jarvis early displayed versatility and aptness and in addition to various duties as an engineer, kept the books of the company, and did practically the entire office work.
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The company proved the pioneer in iron and steel in this section of the country, and through the marvellous executive ability of Mr. Jarvis, their operations were extended into every state in the Union and in foreign nations.
In 1886 Mr. Jarvis became the head of affairs of the company and directed their activities until May, 1900, when with 26 other companies, the Berlin Company consolidated, the corporation taking the name of the American Bridge Company.
From the vice-presidency of this corporation, he went to the Corbin Company, in whose success he has played such a conspicuous and enduring part.
Mr. Jarvis married on May 27, 1880, Mary Morgan Bean, a direct descendant of Miles Morgan of Massachusetts, and they have one daughter, Grace Morgan Jarvis, who was born in 1886.
Although so deeply absorbed in the business life, Mr. Jarvis has found time to culti- vate the social side and is heartily welcomed in club circles and in gatherings of men of brains and power.
He is a director of the Hardware City Trust Company, the Mechanics' National Bank, and the New Britain Trust Company.
He knows how to advise cautiously and prudently and his actions are always gov- erned by sound common sense, yet he has ever been famed for his courage, his dashing way of doing things and the masterly manner which plunges through difficulties and wrests vic- tory from defeat.
Among his pleasant social experiences was a recent trip to the Jamestown Exposition where he went as a guest of Governor Woodruff, whose loyal supporter and staunch friend he has ever been.
Qualities of manliness, frank manner and sterling uprightness, have won him the cor- dial liking and unquestioning admiration of hundreds of men with whom he has dealt.
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Colonel NORTON R. HOTCHKISS
COLONEL NORTON R. HOTCHKISS, NEW HAVEN
Surgeon-General
When Governor Woodruff broke all precedents and named as the members of his staff, men who had become endeared to him through ties of personal friendship, instead of men who had busied themselves in politics, he demonstrated that he was a man of original- ity and of force. Incidentally he made a very popular choice, when he selected as his Sur- geon-General Dr. Norton Royce Hotchkiss of New Haven.
In him flows the blood of one of the pioneer settlers of Connecticut although himself of Southern birth and Southern training, for he traces his ancestry back to that Samuel Hotchkiss who came from Essex, England, to settle in the New Haven colony in 1641. The Hotchkiss family remained many years in New Haven and vicinity, and its members took an active part in the fight for liberty.
Seth Hotchkiss, the father of the doctor, was the first of the line to make his home away from Connecticut and when a young man settled in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where he became successful in business and was postmaster for many years.
Here Dr. Hotchkiss was born August 23, 1870, and in the public schools of Fort Mill, he received his early education, later studying at the Fort Mill Academy.
He determined to follow the study and practice of medicine and became a student in the University of Maryland where he distinguished himself in his studies, and became the leader in every enterprise of his class.
Previous to his graduation, he served for one year as interne in the University Hos- pital, and was graduated from the Medical College in 1891, being president of his class. During his college course he was prominent in the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
When the time arrived to choose a field for labor, the young physician inclined tow- ard the home of his ancestors and left his Southern home to begin his practice in New Haven. Success came in gratifying measure, and each year his standing has become higher, his place among the skillful and much sought physicians more firmly established.
For the past seven or eight years, he has devoted considerable time to surgery and has developed remarkable skill and a high reputation in this branch.
His office is always filled with patients and his practice is very wide. With such a busy round of daily duties, he has but little time to give to outside pleasures, and early enthusi- asms such as baseball, have had to give way to the fascination and absorption of medical activities.
Dr. Hotchkiss is president of the New Haven County Medical Association and is also a member of the American, the state and city medical associations.
Fraternal life contains many charms for him and he is affiliated with about fifteen societies. Among these may be mentioned the Masons in which he has attained the thirty- second degree, the Mystic Shrine, the N. E. O. P., the Red Men, the A. O. U. W. In ser- eral fraternities, he is the examining physician. Of a genial, social nature, he is cordially welcomed in clubdom and is an active member of the Knights Templars Club, the Gradu-
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ates Club, the Union League. He is a Son of the American Revolution and his strong interest in historical matters has led him to join the New Haven Colony Historical Society. To no organization is he more devoted than the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guards, of which he is still a member and whom he served for a decade as surgeon.
Dr. Hotchkiss has more than the usual apportionment of popularity, accorded men dis- tinguished in their profession and fond of the society of their fellow-men, for by his per- sonality, his broad sympathies and his consideration of the rights of others, he has won friends innumerable from every rank in life, loyal friends who combine their cordial liking with respect for his character.
Dr. Hotchkiss married Miss Lucy E. Belk of Fort Mill, South Carolina, in October, 1893. Mrs. Hotchkiss is a member of the Heath family, widely known as big cotton manu- facturers and bankers, their reputation extending through the entire South. Three children have been born to them, Elizabeth Morrow, Norton Royce, Jr., and Mattie Eugenia.
He is a member of the First M. E. Church and is active in the affairs of that church. Since his practice has crowded out many other things in life, Dr. Hotchkiss has been forced to lessen his activities in some directions, but he is still a member of the New Haven Gun Club. Politics has never claimed him, and this is a unique fact, in connection with a member of a Governor's staff.
His home is at 219 York Street, New Haven, and he is fond of being surrounded by his friends.
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Senator FLAVEL S. LUTHER
SENATOR FLAVEL S. LUTHER, HARTFORD President of Trinity College
The following sketch of President Luther of Trinity college is from the gifted pen of Mr. Charles Hopkins Clark, editor of the Hartford Courant, and is a fitting tribute to one of Connecticut's most talented and representative men :
President Luther, as everybody in Hartfords calls him, is one of the city's unique personalities as he is one of the most distinguished and most useful citizens. I say, every- body calls him "President" Luther, but there are two exceptions. Sometimes when I get a call to the telephone, and it proves not to be a mistake, there comes over the wire a rich, manly voice which says this is "Mr. Luther," and there is one woman in Hartford who always speaks of him as "Mr." Luther. He speaks of her as "Mrs. Luther," and they two, President and Mrs. Luther, are alone in their modest custom of omitting a title which has been his only two or three years, and yet which he was so evidently intended to bear, that it was taken up at once by all his friends-they didn't have to learn it. Easy social "mixer" as he is among his fellow-men, President Luther nevertheless has about him the bearing of one who directs rather than one who is directed. The Japanese boy said, "O, General Grant, you were made to order." There is something of the same quality of command in President Luther. His combination of simple dignity with simple manner is one of the attractive things about the man, and this dignity, the dignity of a college president, an Episcopal clergy- man and a doctor of laws, does not at all interfere with the play of a most delightful humor which crops out spontaneously in his public addresses, and in his private conversation. I question if any one ever heard him speak, at other than solemn services, when he did not provoke his hearers to laughter and at the same time leave them in a thoughtful frame of mind over the serious phases of whatever subject he was discussing. He wakes them up, and then he gives them something substantial and valuable to think about.
President Luther is a native of Connecticut, born over in Brooklyn, Windham County, in 1855. He was graduated at Trinity College in Hartford, in 1870, and became professor of mathematics there in 1883. In 1904, he was promoted to his present office. He has proved very popular with the students, and the attendance at college has increased from about 120 when he was elected to something like 220 this fall. Around him is gathered a faculty made up of admirable men, all affected apparently by the contagious enthusiasm that characterizes their president. .
President Luther is not content to shut himself up with his students and his books. He is a college president, and he realizes the duties and responsibilities of the position, but he is an American citizen, too, and he recognizes the duties and responsibilities of that position also. His interest in affairs is genuine. If there is a caucus in his ward, he attends. On election day he votes. If his fellow-citizens want him as a candidate he consents to run. He never pushes, but he never shirks. In the fall of 1906, when the Republican party in the city was split wide open, there was one of the most stubborn fights for the senatorial nomination in his district that Hartford ever knew. To the surprise of his opponents, he swept every
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ward in the district, and he did it in a canvass where personal enthusiasm for the candidate and not money was the moving force. The young men were just bound to have him-and they got him.
In the Senate, President Luther was not one of the most influential members in the sense of having a large following that he could deliver. Practical politicians questioned his judgment, and said he sometimes lacked "balance." Impartial observers concluded that if the scales of his judgment did not always balance exactly, it was when they tipped in favor of the everyday man. It is a sign of political strength to be in with the majority and have colleagues who follow because you lead them. But, after all, it is a sign of personal strength and of real character to be one of those "doubtful" members who only vote as they are con- vinced, who do not trade their vote for Smith's scheme in exchange for Smith's vote for their scheme, and are liable to "vote wrong" if their consciences tell them to. President Luther unquestionably belonged in that class, and he came out of the legislative session under verdict of the politicians that he himself was not a politician. That, of course, opens a question of definition. He is not an office-seeker and not a trimmer, but he is possessed of a very lively interest in affairs, as every citizen should be-and as so many are not.
He is a member of the city's board of charity commissioners and is always ready to carry his share of the burden of citizenship. He is a positive man, unconcerned as to what is politic and unacquainted with timidity. As a consequence, he is not always on the popular side; in the opinion of some of his friends, not always on the right side. But nobody ever questions his sincerity and unselfishness, and differences of opinion do not affect his popularity.
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Judge JOHN P. STUDLEY
JUDGE JOHN P. STUDLEY, NEW HAVEN
Three times honored by his fellow-men by successive elections to the mayoralty of New Haven, the only mayor who has succeeded himself under the city's new charter, Judge John P. Studley is second to no citizen in the state in the universal love in which he is held.
As students of civic conditions know, until the new charter was adopted, the mayor had little or no power, but since that time in him are invested powers of considerable magnitude, and it was his remarkable wisdom in the use of these powers that made his re-election an imperative necessity in the minds of so many citizens.
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