USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 25
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* In the various relations which Mr. Roberts sustained in life he was faithful and exemplary ; in his business transactions he was honest and upright, as a neighbor he was kind and obliging, as a magistrate he was intelligent and just-much consulted for information and advice, as a citizen he was virtuous and patriotic-such was the confidence of his fellow citizens in his sound judgment and integrity that he was often honored with public trusts and was elected to a seat in each branch of the State Legislature. In the varied intercourse of life he was remarkable for equanimity and self-possession and of few men could be said more truthfully than of him "He walked life's thorny way with feelings calm and even." Amid storms of public excitement he was generally cool and unruffled, and while he was firm in his own opinions, he was careful to treat his oppo- nents with respectful kindness and courtesy. In his temper there was nothing like asperity, no harshness, no bitterness-on the contrary, his whole character was softened and adorned by mildness and benignity.
henry Winthrop hurlburt
H
ENRY WINTHROP HURLBURT, whose untimely death on June 7, 1884, robbed the city of one of its public-spirited citizens and those who knew him personally of a devoted friend, was a member of an old and most honorable Con- necticut family, the founder of which was one Thomas Hurl- but, who with ten companions formed the party of
Gardiner, a royal engineer, and with him crossed the Atlan- tic and settled in Connecticut, where they founded the town of Saybrook. Thomas Hurlbut did not remain a resident of Saybrook, however, but later removed to Wethersfield, where he made his permanent home, many of his descendants being found to-day in and about Hartford. Various members of the family have departed from the original manner of spelling their patronymic, "Hurlbut," as it is given here, varying it to Hurlburt and Hurl- bert.
Mr. Hurlburt's father was Joseph O. Hurlburt, who was a resident of East Hartford for many years. He was a man of great force of character and an educator of distinction. He eventually removed to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he took charge of the Wethersfield High School for a long period of years, exercising a great influence for good not only upon the young people whose education was intrusted to his care, but upon his fellow townsfolk generally, so that he became a recognized leader in the public affairs of the region, where he was much beloved and honored. His wife was Amelia Hills, of East Hartford, before marriage.
Henry Winthrop Hurlburt was born February 13, 1851, in East Hart- ford, and there passed his youth, attending the Hartford public schools for his education. Upon completing his course of studies in these institutions, he secured employment with a firm of jewelers, D. H. Buell & Company, as it was then called, but now known as the Hansel & Sloan Company. For many years the company has been the leading dealers in jewelry in the city of Hartford, and Mr. Hurlburt was well pleased with his employers and the character of the work assigned to him. That the satisfaction was recipro- cated is obvious from the fact that from that time until his death, Mr. Hurl- burt remained in the same employment, enjoying in the meantime a series of promotions. Throughout his brief career he displayed marked business ability and had not death cut short his career at the early age of thirty-three years, there is no doubt he would have highly distinguished himself in the mercantile world and become a dominant influence in the business affairs of the city.
Besides his activity in the business he had chosen, Mr. Hurlburt partici- pated in the general life of the city in which he had made his home. He was keenly interested in politics, and though he did not ally himself actively with any of the local organizations he was a strong believer in the principles of and a staunch supporter of the Republican party. He was a Congregational- ist in religion and for many years was faithful in attendance at divine service in the Pearl Street Congregational Church of Hartford, and so continued
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until his death, since which event, however, his family have become identi- fied with the handsome new church recently erected on Farmington avenue, at a point not far from their residence.
On October 28, 1873, Mr. Hurlburt was united in marriage with Mary L. Goodwin, of Hartford, a daughter of Henry A. and Louisa (Hubbard) Goodwin, long residents of that city. The Goodwin family has been promi- nent in the affairs of New England since early Colonial days, and Mrs. Hurl- burt is related to many of the distinguished figures in the history of that region. The founder of the line in this country was Ozias Goodwin, one of those who, with Thomas Hooker, founded Hartford. Mrs. Hurlburt's descent also leads directly back to Governor Haynes, the first to hold that title and office in Connecticut. Her father, Henry A. Goodwin, was a very able business man and was the founder of the important drug establishment now bearing the name of the Goodwin Drug Company and occupying the busiest corner in the city of Hartford. Business talent seems, indeed, to run in the family, and it is a brother of Mrs. Hurlburt, Henry H. Goodwin, that is the partner in the great firm of Tucker & Goodwin, the largest wholesale dealers in flour in that part of New England. To Mr. and Mrs. Hurlburt were born four daughters, two of whom, with their mother, survive their father. They were as follows: Anna Louise, now Mrs. W. F. Hale, of Hart- ford; Nellie May, now Mrs. Clarence Whitney, of Hartford; Mabel Goodwin and Florence Amelia, both deceased.
It was during an epidemic of diphtheria in Hartford that Mr. Hurlburt was carried off by that dread disease, and to make more tragic what was, in itself sad enough, his youngest daughter also died of the same malady in the same week. He had scarcely reached the prime of life when his career, which promised so brilliantly for the future, was thus cut off, depriving the community of one who could scarcely have failed to make himself a leader in any department of activity he might have chosen to engage in. He was a man of the most sterling virtues, respected at once by high and low, rich and poor, since there was no difference in his treatment of men because of any class distinctions. He was easy of access to all and those who were for- tunate enough to be counted among his friends found him, not merely faith- fulness itself, but the most attractive of companions. He was a favorite among men, both for these qualities of intrinsic worth and because of the community of interests that existed between him and his fellows. His tastes and pleasures were all of the wholesome manly kind that men in gen- eral understand and sympathize in, healthy out-of-doors sports, such as boating and competitive games, were his recreation, and in all of them he was able to maintain his ability. He was a skillful yachtman, and spent much of his spare time on the water. Nor was it alone the things of the body that Mr. Hurlburt cultivated. His tastes were discriminating and cultured and he was an authority on more than one branch of art work. He was espe- cially skillful in the question of rare and old china and other wares, and this fondness he was enabled to indulge on a large scale in collecting for his firm, in connection with the business. His death caused a gloom to settle upon all who associated with him, even casually, and was the cause of many testi- monials of the respect and affection in which he was held by the community at large.
P. Henry Goodrich
I N a large and high sense of the phrase the late P. Henry Good- rich was one of the most distinguished citizens of Glaston- bury, Connecticut, one of those who was most closely identi- fied with the wonderful development of that town's industrial importance, and one in whose death on September 20, 1900, it suffered a loss that it will be difficult indeed to forget. As
such his record deserves in a double sense that detailed preservation which alone the printed word can secure for it, not only as the meed of virtuous achievement, but as a benefit to posterity which cannot fail to be influenced by the accounts of worth and merit, and thus be brought into direct contact with a cheering and inspiring influence which has otherwise ceased to exist. For Mr. Goodrich was a man whose career exemplifies the old faith in the final victory of virtuous and patient effort in the race of life, and which may well stand as a type of good citizenship and staunch, honor- able manhood.
P. Henry Goodrich was born May 27, 1840, in Portland, Connecticut, and there passed the years of his childhood, attending the local public schools, where he gained the rudimentary portion of his education. He was later a student for one term in the school conducted by a Mr. Quinby, well known as a teacher in that day and place, in the old church building at Port- land. Still later he was sent away from home to the Chase School at Mid- dletown, where he completed his studies. He was a youth of a very enter- prising nature and in 1858, when but eighteen years of age, he, like so many young men of that day, went out into the great West to seek his fortune. He settled in Champaign, Illinois, where he purchased a fine farm, although undeveloped, and there engaged in farming and stock raising for about two years. During the period of terrible stress and uncertainty preceding the Civil War, the feelings of Mr. Goodrich, as well as his beliefs, were all enlisted in the cause of the threatened Union, so that thereafter he always counted it a privilege to have cast his first vote for the great President, who through the crises held so firmly the helm of the ship of state. Upon the actual outbreak of hostilities, he at once determined to give his services and if need be his life for the cause he so much loved, but desiring to serve among the men of his native region, he returned at once to Connecticut in order to enlist. The opportunity came with the formation of the Twentieth Regi- ment of Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He, with other recruits, joined Company D of this force as a private, and was ordered South at once, where he was soon in the midst of active service. Indeed, the only delay was that at Arlington, Virginia, where the regiment was drilled. The first great engagement in which the Twentieth Connecticut took part was the battle of Chancellorsville, in which Company D held an exposed position with great gallantry, three orderlies who were dispatched with orders for them to retire being shot before they could reach them. Battle, skirmish, and hard cam-
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paigning followed each other without intermission, the first winter being spent in Virginia, and fortune bringing them around at length to the terrible field of Gettysburg. The Twentieth Connecticut formed a part of the Twelfth Army Corps under command of General Slocum, which reached the field on the afternoon of the first day, and thereafter was in the thick of the conflict. In the spring of 1864 he was forced to leave his regiment for a time, being laid up as an invalid in the military hospital at Atlanta. He recovered, however, and in the autumn of the same year took part in the great march of Sherman to the sea. It was on March 19, 1865, that he was finally disabled from taking further part in the war, a bullet passing through his foot and giving him a wound that for a long period proved extremely troublesome. He was in the field hospital for a time and was from there removed to the hospital at Newbern, North Carolina, and then to the transport vessel "Northern Light." It was while on board the "Northern Light" off Newbern that the joyful news reached him and his companions of the surrender of General Lee. Upon reaching New York he was honorably discharged from the service in June, 1865, having reached the rank of orderly sergeant from that of private.
He had sold his farm in Champaign county, Illinois, before enlisting for the war, but now that peace had once more been restored, he turned his thoughts westward again, where he hoped to resume his business with his brother, so rudely interrupted four years before. He was unable to carry out his intention, however, for some time, as his foot had been so badly wounded that it was impossible for him to get about on it and he was obliged to play the part of invalid. It was not until 1867 that he found it possible to return to Illinois, and he then did not stay a great while, for in 1869 he came once more to Connecticut, this time settling in Glastonbury, where he entered the employ of an uncle, Frederick Welles, who was engaged in the tobacco business on a large scale in that town. In time Mr. Welles retired from active management, when Mr. Goodrich, in partnership with Charles F. Tag and son, of New York, continued it. The business consisted in the buying up, packing and wholesale marketing of the tobacco grown in the Glastonbury neighborhood, and was very profitable. Later the New York parties withdrew and left Mr. Goodrich to carry it on alone, which he did most successfully until 1893, when other interests of more importance induced him to lease it and withdraw from participation.
It was during this time that Mr. Goodrich became connected with those large industries which have occupied so important a place in the Glastonbury business world, and the origin and development of which were so largely due to his genius for management and indefatigable industry. The first of these was the Eagle Sterling Company, which after a period in Glastonbury, finally removed to another locality. In 1894 Mr. Goodrich with a number of associates organized the Riverside Paper Manufacturing Company of Glastonbury, which, upon the removal of the Eagle Sterling Company, occupied the latter's plant. He was chosen president and treas- urer and held these offices until the day of his death, developing the industry from its small beginnings to the proportions which it later assumed. The specialty of this concern was the manufacture of heavy paper boards for use
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in binding, trunk making and similar work, and in which it did a very large business. Mr. Goodrich was also president of the Glastonbury Steam Boat Wharf Company, which under his capable direction was exceedingly suc- cessful. Besides these enterprises at home in the East, Mr. Goodrich re- tained some interests in the West, and was one of those who established the Goodrich Brothers Banking Company of Fairbury, Nebraska, which was highly successful in its financial operations and of which he was for many years vice-president and a director.
Thus prominently engaged in the industrial and financial realms, Mr. Goodrich, nevertheless, did not lose his interest in other departments of life, nor his sympathy with other aims and traditions. It is a natural temptation, alas, too often yielded to by busy men of affairs, to forget in their absorbing occupation the other aspects of life and to underrate such men as are en- gaged in their pursuit, but into this error Mr. Goodrich did not fall. He entered freely into local politics, identified himself with the Republican party and with its organization in his district, and as a young man, while living in Portland, was elected a justice of the peace. After coming to live in Glas- tonbury, he continued his political activities and was soon elected first select- man. He served his fellow citizens in this position four years faithfully and well, and a like term as auditor of the town. He became very well known and popular as time went on, and in 1884 and again in 1897 was elected to represent the town in the State Legislature. He made his presence felt in that body and was chosen a member of the military committee during both his terms. He was extremely fond of social intercourse with his fellows and naturally felt his old comrades of war times the most congenial possible companions. He gratified this taste by means of membership in Tyler Post, No. 50, Grand Army of the Republic, the headquarters being at Hartford. In religion Mr. Goodrich was affiliated with the Congregational church, he and his family being members of the church of that denomination in Glas- tonbury. Just prior to his death he had been chosen a member of the invest- ment committee of this church, after having served as president of the cor- poration for several years. He was also a member of the St. James' Ceme- tery Association of Glastonbury.
Mr. Goodrich was united in marriage, October 14, 1869, to Helen E. Wells, a daughter of Henry and Mary A. (Freeman) Wells, of Portland, Connecticut. Mrs. Goodrich survives her husband. Of this union were born eight children, as follows: Arthur B., now president, managing the great business of the Riverside Paper Manufacturing Company, left by his father; Leslie W., a graduate of Cornell and Yale universities, and now a resident of Hartford; Sarah M., a graduate of the Glastonbury Academy ; Joseph E., a graduate of Williston Seminary and Cornell University, and now doing concrete contracting in Hartford; Ralph S .; Bertha H .; Henry C., deceased ; Ethel J.
Among the many self-made men of Glastonbury and that region of Connecticut, none deserve higher esteem than P. Henry Goodrich. Few, indeed, have attained to a larger measure of material success, and none with a closer adherence to true ideals of life. With but few opportunities,
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with many obstacles, he began life courageously, without a complaint against fate or fortune, and by sheer force of will, coupled with integrity of purpose and a naturally clever head, he won an exceptional success and the respect and admiration of the entire community. Such men are not to be found every day, but when they are their lustre travels far.
George Marmell
T HERE are not many families that have sustained so high a character through so great a term of years and in so many different climes as have the Maxwells, originally of the pur- est Scotch blood, but now distributed throughout the civil- ized, and, to some extent, even in the uncivilized, quarters of the globe. But whether in their native Scotland, where they were known in Dumfriesshire, Renfrewshire, Lannark- shire and many other parts before the year 1200; whether in Ulster, where a branch of the house settled, or whether in New England, where that branch of the family with which we are especially concerned has made its home, the men of that name have acquitted themselves with distinction and won positions of prominence in the various homes they have chosen.
Of the well-known New England branch, the founder in this country was Hugh Maxwell, who came from County Tyrone, Ireland, and settled in Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1733, removing later to the little settlement of Heath in the same colony. His son Hugh, who like himself had been born in Ireland, was the youngest of six children and was brought to the new home in the wilderness when but six weeks of age. He grew up amid the wild surroundings of the colonies and ultimately took a prominent part in the affairs of the region, distinguishing himself as an Indian fighter in what are described as "five fatiguing and dangerous campaigns" under the com- mand of General Johnson. He was one of the bold spirits who would rather face death than the trespass of the foreign government on what he conceived to be his rights, and had much to do with the precipitation of hostilities leading up to the Revolution. He had a hand in the famous "Boston Tea Party," helped to plan and erect the fortifications behind which the Ameri- cans fought at Bunker Hill, and was himself slightly wounded in that en- gagement. He entered the war with the rank of captain and left it a colonel after a long term of arduous service, and was one of the thirteen officers who originally formed the Massachusetts section of the Society of the Cin- cinnati. His wife was, before her marriage, Bridget Monroe, of Lexington, Massachusetts, and the youngest of their seven children was the father of the distinguished citizen and manufacturer of Connecticut who forms the subject of this sketch. This seventh child was Sylvester Maxwell, a well- known lawyer of Heath, Massachusetts, during the early years of this coun- try's history as an independent nation. He was married to Tirzah Taylor, of Buckland, by whom he was the father of eight children.
George Maxwell, the fifth child of Sylvester and Tirzah (Taylor) Max- well, was born July 30, 1817, in the town of Charlemont, Massachusetts. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, and remained in his father's house until he had reached the age of seventeen years. He then left to attend the Fellenberg Academy at Greenfield, Massachusetts, where he made his home and later secured a clerical position in a store there. It was in 1843 that Mr. Maxwell finally moved to Rockville, Connecticut,
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where from that day until his death he made his home and where he engaged in those great industrial enterprises with which his name is inseparably asso- ciated. For a time after coming to the town he was connected with Stanley White in a mercantile business situated at the southwest corner of Main and Union streets, but in the late forties entered into those relations so bene- ficial to both, with the New England Company, manufacturers of woolen goods. From this time really dates his rise into prominence in the industrial world in which he was soon a leader and one of the dominant factors in that part of the State. As time went on not only industrial companies, but other concerns, notably those connected with the public utilities of the town, came under his influence and in the direction of all he displayed the same capacity and broad-minded consideration of the interests of other that distinguished him through life. He was president of the New England Company from the time of its reorganization, president and treasurer of the Hockanum Manufacturing Company, president and treasurer of the Springville Manu- facturing Company, president of the Rockville National Bank, the Rockville Gas Company, of the Water and Aqueduct Company, the Rockville Railway Company, and a director in many other corporations and companies among which should be noted the Society for Savings of Hartford, the Hartford Trust Company and the National Fire Insurance Company. The mere enu- meration of these great interests in which he heid a directing influence is an indication of the important position he occupied in the development of the industries and business of the region, but it can give no adequate knowl- edge of the immense work which he actually did in this direction, or the pub- lic spirit he showed in all his policies.
Nor was his activity confined to the realm of business, however great the demands made upon his time and energies thereby, for he did not hesi- tate to participate in many other departments of the community's life. For an example, he took the keenest interest in the question of politics, he was a lifelong member of the Republican party, and served his fellow citizens in a number of official capacities, among them as member of the State General Assembly in 1871 and as State Senator in 1872. Mr. Maxwell was one of those men to whom religious belief and experience is a very real matter and forms an important factor in life. For many years he was a deacon in the Second Congregational Church of Rockville and later held the same office in the Union Congregational Church of Rockville. He had the cause of religion and the church ever in mind and did a great deal of effective work for its advancement. In this connection also it should be mentioned that he was a trustee of the Hartford Theological Seminary. Unlike many men whose lives have been devoted to the founding and development of great business enterprises, he appreciated and sympathized with other aims in life and even with the failure of others less capable of fighting the battle of life than himself. It was for this reason that he was ever striving to relieve mis- fortune in all forms wherever he saw it, and was a liberal supporter of many worthy charities and benevolences. These he aided as cures for conditions already existing, but he was still more interested in preventive measures, and believing that education was the great fosterer of those qualities which make for successful effort and normal life, he was especially active in his
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George Harwell
endeavor to spread knowledge and enlightenment through the medium of the public schools and elsewhere. He was the founder of the Rockville Pub- lic Reading Room, and of the Rockville Public Library. It was therefore doubly appropriate that after his death his wife and children should have presented Rockville with a splendid library building as a memorial to him.
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