USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 24
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There is, of course, no formula for success, one man accomplishing his ends by means that seem the diametrical opposite of those which some other employs. One's strength seems to lie in self-advertisement, to make progress he must call attention to himself and win the admiration and wonder of those whom he uses as his instruments, while with another silence appears as necessary as noise to the first. There are, of course, a thousand vari- ations to each of these general classes, and we distinguish easily between him who needs silence or obscurity for his deeds, and him who prefers them merely as a part of a modest, retiring nature. Perhaps it is to the latter class that the subject of the present article belonged. A man he was who did not try to proclaim his own merits, so convinced was he that good wine needs no bush, that he concerned himself solely with the performance in the very fullest sense of his engagements. The result fully justified him in his policy, his success was great and no wide system of advertisement could have resulted in a more enviable reputation or an achievement more sub- stantial. Whatever may be thought of the method from the point of view of business, there is one thing certain, however, that with the ending of such a
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John Stanley Parsons
life the knowledge of its worth must inevitably pass, save in-so-far as it depends upon the efforts of others for its preservation. Thus the more self- effacing a man is, the more incumbent is it upon others to put in some per- manent form his record, if it be a worthy one, that it may not cease to serve as an example for the guidance of others. Nay there is an added reason why such a man should have his fame spread, for modesty is an added virtue, and one which, perhaps above all others, we need to have presented to us, and which, by a strange paradox, most readily hides even itself. It would be impossible within the limits of a sketch such as this to tell fully the story of a life such as Mr. Parsons', or to formulate an adequate estimate of his character and achievement. But a few of his virtues may be touched upon, and those perhaps the most characteristic were connected, first, with his high moral sense and devotion to religious teaching, and second, to his great love of home and family. He was a member of the Congregational church and was for many years an ardent worker in its cause. Nor was he content with the mere formal profession of its tenets, but strove in all ways and at all times to make it a practical guide for his conduct in the daily relations of life. Another of Mr. Parsons' strongest instincts was the domestic one, and it was in the familiar intercourse of his home that he really found his greatest delight. His mind never wearied of devising ways and means of increasing the happiness and pleasure of those who made up his household, and in these innocent delights he joined with a gusto and enthusiasm that were infec- tious. This was a side of his character which only the more intimate of his associates were familiar with, but there were none, even the most casual acquaintances, who did not realize the fundamental trustworthiness of the nature of this high-minded citizen, good neighbor and true friend.
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Charles Belden
Charles Rockwell Belden
IN THE DEATH of Charles Rockwell Belden on March 18, 1902, the city of Hartford, Connecticut, lost one of its most successful merchants and enterprising business men, and one who has been closely identified with the growth and development of that community throughout his life. He was a member of an old Hartford family, his parents having been Seth and Abigail Sophia (Steadman) Belden, well known residents there, his father a merchant and successful dealer in stone.
Mr. Belden was one of three children born to his parents, his birth occurring on January 24, 1850, in Hartford, which place he made the scene of his busy and active life. He obtained his education in the local public schools, which have a reputation for excellence throughout the State, and after completing his studies, he went into the tailoring business, remaining for a short time, then entered his father's stone establishment where he remained about two years. Here he thoroughly mastered the details of mer- cantile life and prepared himself for his successful career. About the year 1882 he was instrumental in founding the Hartford Coal Company, in con- junction with a number of capitalists. This concern was highly successful and developed to a great size. In course of time Mr. Belden was elected to the double office of president and treasurer of the concern and held them until his death.
Throughout his successful business career Mr. Belden displayed the great talents he possessed for organization and management, and became in course of time one of the really prominent figures in the financial circles of the city. His enterprises were conducted with that unusual union of con- servative caution and progressive boldness that marks the true master of his craft, and which won for him the speedy and spontaneous recognition of his confreres. Had his death been delayed even to the age usually allotted to man, his career would doubtless have carried him to great heights.
It was not alone in the business world that Mr. Belden interested him- self or showed his ability. A man of broad sympathies, he had always been from youth interested keenly in the conduct of public affairs, and an intelli- gent observer of the political issues which agitated the country at the time. He was a firm adherent of the Republican party and of the principles for which it stood, although he was the possessor of far too independent a mind to allow himself to be swayed in his judgment by partisan reasons. It was not long, indeed, before the local organization of his party, with which he had allied himself, began to perceive his availability for public office, and to act accordingly. Well known and prominent in the life of the community, he had a personal popularity, which augured well for his candidacy, and the only difficulty to be overcome was his own retiring disposition and reluc- tance to undertake conspicuous public duties. He was, however, at length prevailed upon to accept his party's nomination to the Court of Common Council of Hartford, and being elected from the Third Ward he represented
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Charles Rockwell Belden
that district during the term of 1875 in a manner highly satisfactory to his constituents. He could not be prevailed upon to accept further distinction in this line, but he continued to exert an influence upon the local councils of his party in the capacity of a private citizen.
There were but few departments in the life of his community that Mr. Belden did not participate actively in. He was a prominent figure in the social and club life of the place and belonged to a number of the secret fra- ternities there. He was a member of the St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Hartford; of the B. H. Webb Council, Royal Arcanum; of the Hartford Council of the Improved Order of Heptasophs; and the Sicaogg Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men.
Mr. Belden married, May 28, 1868, Mary E. Sill, a daughter of Micah and Adelaide (Raphel) Sill, of Hartford. To Mr. and Mrs. Belden were born three children, as follows: 1. Frederick Seth, who succeeded his father as president and treasurer of the Hartford Coal Company; married Sidney Hansen, and by her had two children, Kathleen and Ruth. 2. Caroline Sill, now Mrs. James E. Brooks, of Orange, New Jersey, and the mother of two children, Charles and Eleanore. 3. Louise, now Mrs. William C. Hill, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Mr. Belden is survived by Mrs. Belden and their three children, the former being still a resident of the charming Belden home at No. 905 Asylum avenue, Hartford.
Charles Rockwell Belden was a man of unusual tastes and mental attain- ments, and one whose personal traits recommended him to a large circle of devoted friends. To those fundamental virtues of honesty and strength of purpose upon which all good character must be founded, he added the more unusual qualities of a cultured mind and tastes along with the truly demo- cratic outlook upon life which draws men's hearts and insures their good will. His manner was an open one which made even strangers, and those of all classes, feel at home in his presence. In spite of his active life, he pos- sessed the strongest fondness for domestic and home ties, enjoying nothing so greatly as the intercourse with his own family and household circle by his "ain fireside." His untimely death, coming as it did in his fifty-third year, cut short a most useful life and was felt as a real loss, not only by the mem- bers of his family and his host of faithful friends, but by his fellow towns- men generally, but few of whom had not benefited, at least, indirectly, through his wholesome activities.
William h. Sage, M. D.
D R. WILLIAM H. SAGE, in whose death on March 10, 1909. at the advanced age of eighty-four years, New Haven, Con- necticut, lost one of its most revered and loved citizens, and the profession of medicine in the State one of its leading members, was a member of a Massachusetts family of cul- ture and refinement, his parents being old residents of the town of Sandisfield there.
Dr. Sage was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, March 15, 1825, and there passed the years of his early childhood. When he came of an age to attend school, he was sent to the excellent academy at Westfield, Massachu- setts, where he gained his general education, and prepared himself for his later technical studies. For even as a mere youth he had decided upon the profession as his life's work, and with characteristic energy and purpose, bent every circumstance to that end. Having completed his studies at the institution in Westfield, he matriculated at the School of Medicine of Yale University, and after a brilliant college career, graduated with the class of 1849. The following year he moved to Unionville, Connecticut, being attracted to that place by the fact that a cousin of his was about to give up his practice there and proposed to the newly fledged physician to take his place. From the outset Dr. Sage was highly successful, and in a few years made himself the leading physician in the region of about twenty-five miles from Unionville, and built up a large and remunerative practice. He gained also the highest kind of reputation, not only as a physician, but as a man. For, indeed, his ministrations were by no means exclusively for bodily ail- ments, rather there was scarcely a misfortune of any kind that he was not ready to do his best to relieve, and he was as much a family friend and advisor as doctor of medicine. Not that the other side was neglected, for all through the countryside he gained a name for skill in every department of his profession. He was still in Unionville at the time of the Civil War, and did the finest kind of work in alleviating the sufferings of the families and relatives left behind during that dreadful period.
A remarkable example of the earnestness and sincerity of Dr. Sage's nature, and a no less remarkable proof of the hold he had upon his patients' confidence and affection, occurred while he was still a practitioner in Union- ville. At this time the attention of Dr. Sage was more and more drawn to homœopathy, his interest more and more awakened. He had started in practice as an unqualified allopath, and that school of medicine he followed about two years, when he took up homeopathy, in which he built up his great practice, yet when he found that, after maturer study, his convictions pointed to the opposite school, he did not hesitate, but without regard to the effect it might have upon his practice or reputation, he began to work accord- ing to his later convictions. His triumph lay in the sequel, for his patients, almost in a body, made the change with him and continued to place them- selves in his charge.
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William D. Sage
After more than twenty years spent in Unionville, Dr. Sage, to the great sorrow of his patients, and, indeed, of the whole community, removed to New Haven, where he took over the prcatice of Dr. Charles Skiff, of that city. In New Haven the story of his success in Unionville was but repeated on a larger scale, and he soon became, without doubt, one of the leading physicians in the city and one of the most prominent members of the pro- fession in the New England States. He continued his practice in New Haven for rather more than a quarter of a century, and during that period was very active in general medical affairs as well as in his own practice. One of the valuable works achieved by him was what he did in the founding of Grace Homeopathic Hospital in New Haven, which owed its origin largely to his energy and generosity. This institution continues to this day its useful and successful career. Dr. Sage lived for a number of years in a house on Howe street, New Haven, but in 1899, his age being then seventy- four years, he retired entirely from active practice, and removed to Wood- bury, Connecticut, where he passed the remaining years of his life. Dr. Sage built a country home for himself at Woodbury, Connecticut. A stately mansion, surrounded by a noble estate bordering on the charming Pom- peraug river, was the result of his taste and judgment, and here he engaged in the congenial occupation of farming for his recreation. Even here, in his leisure and retirement, Dr. Sage showed his thought of his neighbors in a unique and beautiful manner by converting that part of his property border- ing upon the river into a park which he threw open to the public.
Dr. Sage married, October 1, 1851, Elizabeth Victoria Pinney, of Hart- ford, Connecticut, a daughter of Almon Erastus and Elizabeth Woodbridge (Patterson) Pinney, old residents of that place. To them were born three children, but one of whom survives. They were William Henry, who died at the age of twenty-two months; Frederick Hollister, who died April 25, 1895, at the age of thirty-eight years; and Dr. Henry Pinney Sage, now a successful practicing physician with his home at No. 48 Howe street, New Haven. Mrs. Sage also survives her husband.
To his career as physician Dr. Sage brought a most happy combination of traits and qualities that could scarcely be improved upon to spell success in that line of endeavor. A cool and collected mind which allowed no mat- ter of mere feeling to interfere with it in questions of diagnosis and prescrip- tion, he nevertheless had an abundant share of sympathy for trouble of all kinds, which he never withheld when it might serve to alleviate without harm. Nor was it, as has already been remarked, sympathy for bodily ail- ments only, but for mental as well, and so great was his personal magnetism that he drew even the most reserved to confide in him and speak freely of their griefs, so that in addition to his character of physician, he occupied in many households almost the position of a father-confessor of olden times. Added to these an exhaustless energy that feared not to take upon itself any task, however difficult, so it was in the line of duty, and the reason for his phenomenal success becomes apparent. The part which Dr. Sage played in the families where he visited, of doctor, counsellor, friend, was played more or less, according to the character of the man, by the old type of family phy- sician generally, and was, indeed, looked upon as belonging to the character.
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William I. Sage
This is rather unfortunately changing, and the medical man, as he becomes more the specialist, becomes also more the cold and impersonal type of scientist, who gives his advice, collects his fee and departs without com- ment. Of course, how far this is carried depends upon the individual, and the amount of the milk of human kindness he may possess, but the ten- dency is in that direction, because there is less opportunity for friendship to ripen and mellow. Certain it is, that more and more rarely do we find men of the type of Dr. Sage playing his noble rôle and gaining the respect and affection of an entire community. As time goes on the physician becomes more and more closely identified in the public mind with his lancet and his pill, necessary, but to be avoided. The career of Dr. Sage might well serve as a model for young men generally, as to how strict integrity, an open heart and hand, indefatigable effort to one end, and unswerving adherence to one's ideal, lead at length to great and lasting success, and an envi- able place in the hearts of one's fellows. There were but few people who did not feel his death as a personal loss, in any of the three communities in which he had lived during his active career.
hiram Roberts
B EYOND doubt we all find attractive whatever has to do with the traditions of the land wherein our ancestors have dwelt and it maybe distinguished themselves, and there is prob- ably no region so gloomy but that some heart has thrilled at its recollection, yet it would certainly seem that the people of New England had a double share of the charming and stirring in the associations which center about their home and forebears. For there seems to hang over the conditions which sur- rounded the makers of our country an atmosphere made up of the most diverse elements, in which the stern reality of facts and a haunting romance were strangely mingled; the romance of the wilderness against which they so courageously took up arms to subdue it and the uncompromising harsh- ness of that same wilderness in its actual contact with the strangers, and only surpassed by the uncompromising strength of those strangers. In one of his delightful essays Chesterton gives the reasons as he conceives them, why an old-fashioned fairy tale contains more actual truth than a modern problem story. According to him in the latter case the hero is eccen- tric if not insane and moves through a sane and even prosaic world, in the former it is the hero who remains divinely sane as he journeys through a creation wild and fantastic, a true picture, he tells us of man. Certainly it must have appeared their own state to the practical, energetic Englishman placed, as they were, in that untamed land surrounded on all sides by un- solved mysteries and a strange and semi-hostile savage race. But like the hero in the fairy tale, they remained sane and courageous and in course of time subdued the wilderness and brought it to its present state. It is little wonder, therefore, that the story contains a fascination for us or that the men and women bred under such conditions should have presented unusually strong qualities in their make-up. These were to have been expected. It is not quite so obvious at first sight, however, why they should have developed those graces for which we love them, the deep courtesy, the open-hearted hospitality, the cosmopolitan culture which so greatly distinguished them. Certain it is that they did develop them and that we might look far before we should find better examples of these fine things than among our New England ancestry. Of such stock, and himself a worthy representative of it, was the distinguished gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch and whose death in Bloomfield, Connecticut, September 6, 1845, deprived that region of one of its leading citizens.
Hiram Roberts was born January 19, 1797, in Wintonbury, which is now the town of Bloomfield, which remained his home for practically his entire life. He was a scion of a well known and well connected Connecticut family, whose coat-of-arms is as follows: Arms-Azure, on a chevron argent, three mullets, sable. Crest-An eagle. displayed, argent, gorged with a chaplet vert. The founder of the family in this country was one Lemuel Roberts, who came to the colonies from England in or before the
Roberts
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Diram Roberts
year 1688 and settled in Connecticut. A descendant of this first Lemuel Roberts, and who bore the identical name, was the father of Hiram Roberts, of this sketch. The second Lemuel Roberts was a large landowner whose estate was in the neighborhood of Bloomfield, in which town he also oper- ated a hotel which stood opposite what is now known as Roberts Park, named in honor of the family. This hotel was extremely successful and was run by him until his death. Lemuel Roberts was married to Roxy Gillett and it was of this union that Hiram Roberts was born.
The early days of Hiram Roberts were spent in his native town in attendance upon the local schools. It was a period but little following the Revolution, and the country and its institutions were still in a formative state, conditions of life more or less unsettled and school opportunities naturally poor. Yet of such opportunities as existed Mr. Roberts took the utmost advantage, and this supplemented by large reading on his own account, gave him a most liberal education, especially for that day and gen- eration. Upon completing his schooling, like all wise men he never com- pleted his education, but was always a student, but upon completing his schooling Mr. Roberts engaged in business for himself, a sort of commercial trading in which he bought and sold goods of various descriptions in various parts of the country, travelling about by stage coach from place to place, his objective being those places where the particular commodity he was carrying would bring the largest price, just as a trading ship would cruise from place to place with varying cargoes. After some time spent in this manner, he established himself in commercial business at Bloomfield, Con- necticut, and was very successful. He became, indeed, one of the leading men of business in the town, and as his fortune grew so did his reputation likewise as one whose integrity was beyond question.
But it was not merely in his business activities that Mr. Roberts was successful or in which he gained an enviable reputation among his fellow townsmen. He early entered the politics of his town and State and it was not long before his confreres induced him to accept nominations for the various town offices. Despite a naturally retiring disposition, Mr. Roberts was not one to draw back from what he regarded as his public duties, and, as his nominations were quite regularly followed by his election, he spent much of his time in the public service, to that service's great advantage. He was at length elected to the State Legislature and for a number of years served in that body, first as Assemblyman and later as State Senator. The side of reform and improvement could always count on his friendship and active aid, and his consistent regard for the best interests of the community without reference to party lines and distinctions won the praise and respect of all men. Among the causes to which he was pledged, being, indeed, among the earliest of their friends, were those of temperance and the anti- slavery movement that later developed such force in his home region.
Mr. Roberts married, November 24, 1825, Polly Bidwell, a daughter of Jonathan and Ann (Brown) Bidwell, old residents of Bloomfield. Mrs. Roberts died February 5, 1852. To them were born six children, as follows: Hiram, died January 15, 1831 ; Sarah Ann, died July 29, 1845; Mary Jane, died November 27, 1855; George Bidwell, died September 22, 1834; Emily
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Diram Roberts
and Caroline L., both residents of Hartford. The second daughter, Mary Jane, was married to George Mills, of Bloomfield, and to them was born one son, Hiram Roberts Mills, who died May 9, 1906. The third daughter, Emily, was married to Lewis T. Fenn, of Hartford, and they are the parents of two children, John, who married Edna Howell, of Port Jervis, New York, who bore him two children, Phillip Curtis and Edward Howell, and Mary Roberts, who married Willard D. Brown, of Lexington, Massachusetts, and bore him one child, Sarah Emily.
The affection with which his fellow citizens regarded Mr. Roberts was of that permanent and substantial kind that is based on admiration and respect. His virtues were a sterling type, the outcome of an essential sim- plicity of character which made impossible alike means and end other than the obvious, straightforward one. His charity for his fellows was at once broad and deep and of that most effective kind that understands the spiritual as well as the bodily needs, and ministers to them though they may never be expressed. He was especially interested in the ambitions of the young men that he came in contact with and there were many such that he aided to realization. The following brief picture was drawn of him by the pen of his friend and associate, the Hon. Francis Gillett, of Hartford, who prepared an obituary of him shortly after his death. We quote in part :
He was, says Mr. Gillett, one of the most prominent men of Bloomfield and in con- sequence of his sound judgments and impartial decisions, he was universally consulted by his townsmen on matters both public and private, being by all highly esteemed and respected. He represented his district in the State Senate, filled many important town offices, and, but for his modesty and retiring disposition, would doubtless have taken high position in the political world, for which he was well qualified. * *
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