USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 30
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It was here, in the little town of Kirkpatrick, amid these picturesque and romantic surroundings, that James Joseph Morcom, whose name heads this brief sketch, and whose later life was spent in the midst of scenes so dif- ferent as the busy industry of the new world, was born October 21, 1852. He was a son of James and Elizabeth (Bawden) Morcom, who lived and died in their native land, although the father made one trip to the American con- tinent. James Joseph Morcom did not remain a great while in Man, but accompanied his father while a mere lad upon the voyage to America just spoken of, and never returned. His father was a bridge architect and it was in pursuit of his calling that he came to this country, or rather to Canada, where he did considerable important work, and among other things built the Victoria bridge over the St. Lawrence river at Montreal, Canada. The lad also found employment, and that speedily, his alert, receptive mind recommending him to whoever he approached. He secured a position as a bookkeeper with the Grand Trunk railroad at the Montreal office when but twelve years of age. He made an excellent record at his new task, and was in line for promotion, but he was fond of moving about and seeing the world, so that after a few years he gave up the Grand Trunk, moved to the West
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and went on with his railroading there. He was employed by the Wabash Railroad Company. When he left the Grand Trunk he held the position of auditor of accounts, and in the companies he transferred his services to he held similar positions in the accounting departments. While he was in the Wabash, Mr. Galt, the manager of that company, took a fancy to the clever youth and appointed him his private secretary. With Mr. Galt he went to St. Louis. While in that western city he became interested in the great possibilities that were opening up to the insurance business at that time, and a little later entered upon his long association with the Travelers' Insurance Company of Hartford. For a time he represented the company as a special agent in St. Louis, but later returned to the East, now taking up his abode in the home city of the new concern. It was in 1880 that he first became connected with the Travelers, and in 1884 that he settled in Hartford. Upon reaching that city he was installed in the home office and there given the position of assistant adjuster and later as chief adjuster of the company. The latter office he held for eight years or until the time of his death. There was no one living at the time who held a greater reputa- tion as an insurance adjuster than Mr. Morcom, who was highly prized by the Travelers as a most efficient officer.
During his residence in Hartford he took a very active part in the gen- eral life of the place and was connected with many important organizations and clubs, as well as with many independent movements undertaken for the welfare of the community. He was not, however, very active in politics, although a strong believer in the principles and policies of the Republican party and accustomed to support its candidates at the polls. In religion he was affiliated with the Episcopal church, the faith of his forefathers, but attended the Congregational church in Hartford. Socially he was a promi- nent figure and was included in the membership of several organizations of a fraternal character. Among these was the Masonic order, he being a member of St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Hartford. He was also a member of the Hartford Club of Hartford and the Maple Hill Golf Club of New Britain.
Mr. Morcom was united in marriage on September 10, 1874, with Mary Ann McKay, of Heinmersford, Province of Quebec, Canada, a daughter of William Alexander and Margaret (Brownlee) McKay, residents of that town. Mrs. Morcom survives her husband, together with the three sons born of their union, as follows: William James, now living in Boston with his wife, who was Mabel Dwyer, and their little daughter, Doris Mckay Morcom; Frederick Charles, now a resident of Houston, Texas, where he married Sparke Hastings, by whom he had two sons, James Stewart and Robert Sparke; Clifford Bawden, who married Hazel Moore and now lives in Hartford with his wife and son, Clifford B., Jr. The eldest son, William James, is now connected with the same company of which his father was for so many years an officer, and is now agency auditor for the Travelers' Insurance Company.
Mr. Morcom's death, which occurred in his charming home at No. 27 Sumner street, Hartford, of heart trouble, February 15, 1907, cut short a career already remarkably successful, and which promised still greater
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things for the future. He was but in his fifty-fourth year, a man in appar- ently robust health, who was scarcely known in his whole business career to have missed a day on account of sickness. The trouble which finally killed him was that insidious one of the heart, angina pectoris, which did not even render him indisposed until a couple of days before the end, his final attack being so sudden that the physician sent for did not have time to reach him before death intervened. He was a great loss to the insurance world, where he held a high rank in the opinions of his fellows, and also to the community at large, where he was well known and greatly liked. He pos- sessed a very large circle of friends, since, indeed, all were connected with him in any manner desired to be called by that name. His sterling qualities recommended him to all and won at once the respect and affection of those who came in contact with him, even in the most casual way. Though a stranger by birth he entirely identified himself with the life and traditions of his adopted land and well lived up to its best standards and ideals.
Ludlow Barker
L UDLOW BARKER'S life presents one of those rare instances of whole-souled devotion to a single cause or subject which recognizes no difficulties nor obstacles and presses on with- out deviation to its intended end, such instances as may well serve as examples of consistency of desire and constancy of effort. Neither by birth nor parentage was Mr. Barker an American, if that title be unduly restricted to the inhabitants of the United States, but he was a native of the sister realm of Canada, and lived the major part of his life in New England, so that he was in all matters identified with the interests of this country and wholly of ourselves.
He was born in Fredericton, one of the two largest towns of New Brunswick, Canada, November 25, 1828, a son of Samuel and Eunice Ann (Harper) Barker, old residents of that place, where, too, he spent his early years. These years were employed in the acquisition of a first class educa- tion in the local schools, an advantage that was shared by the whole family of five children. From a very early age he displayed an unusual interest in music, and seemed to derive the greatest enjoyment from its performance, so that, as he grew older, it became his object to follow some line of occu- pation that should involve as much of his beloved art as possible. Mr. Barker was not the first member of his family who displayed this particular bent, an uncle on his mother's side of the house having engaged in the busi- ness of manufacturing pianos in Boston, and his parents, who with better judgment than is displayed by most seconded his determination, sending him to the United States and to Boston, where he might learn his uncle's trade. Accordingly, while still a mere lad, he made the journey to that city and was there received by the relative already mentioned, Mr. Edward Harper, who took him under his care and tutelage. He rapidly learned the business of piano making and at the same time followed a course of musical instruction in Boston under the best masters obtainable, by which he profited greatly. His attention was largely turned to the subject of choir and organ work in which he became extremely proficient, and gained the reputation, well deserved, of a thorough musician. In the year 1849, he left Boston and came to the city of Hartford, Connecticut, with which place his musical career is chiefly associated. It was with the double purpose of opening a piano establishment and becoming the organist of the South Congregational Church there that he removed to Hartford, which from that time to the end of his life remained his home. He continued in that business until his death, doing a very thriving trade and becoming one of the best known dealers in the country. He was popularly known as the "king of piano salesmen." His business was very large and there was no State from Maine to California to which he did not send his instruments. His first place of business in Hart- ford was in the old State Bank Building. These quarters, however, soon became quite inadequate to accommodate the growing trade and he removed to the Union Hall Building. Eventually these quarters also proved too lim-
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ited and he once more removed, this time to No. 151 and 153 Asylum street, where for forty years the business has been conducted successfully.
For two years after his arrival in Hartford Mr. Barker held the position of organist in the South Congregational Church and there quickly won fame as a brilliant and able performer. At the expiration of the two years, he received an offer from the First Baptist Church to become its organist, an offer he gladly accepted, since he was a member of the church himself, adher- ring to that form of worship. For twenty-one years or more he continued to hold this position, maintaining and increasing his reputation, and finally withdrew to take the same position with the Center Congregational Church, where he remained ten years. But his musical activities did not by any means end here. In the year 1878 Mr. Barker organized a male chorus of some fifty voices, chosen from among the singers who accompanied the great Moody and Sankey revival of that time. This chorus, in which he took especial pleasure, remained together under Mr. Barker's leadership for many years, and furnished a high order of music for all sorts of public occasions, including important funerals and Memorial Day exercises, etc. For twenty years he acted as the instructor and leader of the Hartford Male Chorus, as the organization was called, and it was due to his efforts that the city became early acquainted with much of the best in musical art. The city owes him another debt of gratitude only second to that due him for his introduction there of the best compositions of the great masters of all ages, and that is on account of his efforts in bringing before it many of the greatest virtuosos of the day. It was due to his efforts that such singers as Mme. Parepa Rosa, such pianists as Von Bulow, Thalberg and De Poehmann made their bows in Hartford, as well as many others of lesser note. Nor even yet is the list of his services to music and his adopted city exhausted. He was a highly suc- cessful teacher and trained many who have since become well known in the art. He gave his first lessons in harmony to Dudley Buck, and his own ardent enthusiasm in the cause of his art without doubt stimulated and inspired his pupils to their best efforts.
So deeply interested and engaged was Mr. Barker in his art and the various occupations to which it gave rise, that it is not surprising that he did not find a great deal of time for other activities, yet there was one matter in which he always took a vital interest and showed himself ready to labor for with zeal and understanding. This was his religion, in the cause of which he was ever an ardent worker, giving much of his valuable time and energy in its behalf. It has already been noticed that he was a member of the Baptist church and it was in this connection that he became an organ- izer, and for ten years the president of the Farmington Avenue Christian Association which held religious services in the Whitting Lane schoolhouse and the Prospect Avenue Chapter House of the King's Daughters.
Mr. Barker was twice married. His first wife was Lilla A. Bolles, a daughter of Edward Bolles, of the well known firm of Bolles & Sexton, of Hartford, with whom he was united in marriage on May 3, 1853. To this union three children were born, two of whom survive their father. They are: W. L. B. Barker, of Hartford, who married Mary E. Ely, by whom he has two children, Edward Bolles and Clarence Ludlow; and Cora E., who
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is now the wife of W. D. Allen, of Evanston, Illinois, and the mother of one daughter, an only child, Ruth Barker Allen, a graduate of Vassar, class of 1914. Mr. Barker's third child was Lilla, who died in infancy. Mrs. Barker died in 1878, and in 1890 Mr. Barker was united in marriage with Paulina S. Northrop, of Hartford, a daughter of Ezra Graves and Elizabeth (Mygatt) Northrop, old and respected citizens of that place. Her father, Mr. Northrop, was one of the early merchants of Hartford and one of those who helped to set the standards of probity and integrity that have so long defined the business methods of that city. Mrs. Barker survives her hus- band and has a fine residence at No. 620 Farmington avenue, Hartford, and devotes her time almost exclusively to charitable work.
Mr. Barker's death occurred November 21, 1910, and brought to a close a long life of varied activity and great usefulness. The event cast a gloom over the whole city for there were few, indeed, who did not recall with affec- tion his genial personality and the services for which all felt indebted to him. As a mark of respect all the music stores in the city closed their doors dur- ing the funeral services, which were of a most impressive nature. It is more difficult to gauge the good wrought by a man whose time and attention is devoted to so intangible a matter as art, than though his efforts had been expended in some more concrete and material endeavor. Let us not there- fore make the mistake of underrating it, however. Who can reckon the good wrought, even upon themselves, by the subtle influence of music, that least reducible of all the arts, whose subject matter does not even appear to be derived from nature, unless, indeed, it be the fundamental rhythms not directly appreciable to sense. Who can reckon the effect, and yet there are but few who will not acknowledge its wellnigh overwhelming impulse to action and life, an impulse as potent as it is inexplicable. So that we can say with confidence that the career of one who has effectively labored for this high purpose is one which leaves the deepest kind of an impression upon all with whom his work is brought in contact, even though the recipients of his benefits are themselves unaware of its existence other than at the moment of receiving it. If it be true, as who can doubt, that the idea is the root of all action whatsoever, then we cannot value too highly either the art which so potently stimulates the imagination and all the spiritual faculties, or the earnest efforts of the men who labor therein. As a factor in the culture of Hartford Mr. Barker must and does rank high in the estimation of his fellow citizens.
Thomas Goles
Thomas Cakes
A COUNTRY has but one ruler, whether he be king, emperor or president. Leaders in military circles, also, are compara- tively few. But the field of business is limitless and offers innumerable opportunities for men of laudable ambition, strong determination and unfaltering diligence. It is a trite but true saying that there is always room at the top, and when one has advanced far beyond others who perhaps started out ahead of him on the highway of life, it is because he has exerted in superior degree those qualities which constitute the basis of success. This was the case of the late Thomas Oakes, of Hartford, Connecticut, who through his own diligence, persistency of purpose, and capable management became one of the most successful plumbing contractors of the city. His name, however, was not alone a prominent one in business circles, but in the military records of the State, and in Masonic circles, in both of which his influence was beneficially felt.
Thomas Oakes was born in Manchester, England, November 2, 1837, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, February 24, 1913, as the result of an attack of pneumonia, from which he had been suffering a few days. Until that time he had been in excellent health. He was educated in his native city, where he was also apprenticed to learn the plumber's trade, which he mastered before leaving England. Enthusiastic in all he undertook, Mr. Oakes was closely identified with military organizations in his native coun- try, and served as sergeant in the Lancashire Royal Engineer Volunteers. Not long after attaining his majority he decided that the New World offered better opportunities for a young man of ambition and energy, and came to this country during the progress of the Civil War. He at once proceeded to Hartford, Connecticut, where he made his home and established himself in business as a plumbing contractor. The principle underlying the conduct of his business was strict integrity and reliability, and the success he achieved is ample testimony to the wisdom of his business methods. He attained great prominence in the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Hartford Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Pythagoras Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Washington Commandery, Knights Templar ; Wolcott Coun- cil, Royal and Select Masters; Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He and Mrs. Oakes were members of the Eastern Star. The family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, Connecticut.
Not long after taking up his residence in Hartford, Mr. Oakes became a member of the Connecticut National Guard, serving as color sergeant of the first company of that body. Later he was a corporal in the First Com- pany, Governor's Foot Guard. The name of Mr. Oakes is a synonym for probity, and while undoubtedly he was not without that honorable ambition which is so powerful and useful as an incentive to activity, in public affairs, he regarded the pursuits of his private and business life as being in them-
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selves abundantly worthy of his best efforts. The funeral of Mr. Oakes took place from his home, No. 124 Huntington street, the various bodies with which he had affiliated attending, and every organization, and numer- ous business firms with which he had been connected, sent beautiful floral contributions. He was interred in the family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Mr. Oakes married, in 1868, Mary Ella Davis, daughter of Thomas Davis. She is also a native of Manchester, England. She survives him with their children: Mrs. Charles Yates, Mrs. R. T. Seymour, Mrs. R. W. Pen- field, Mrs. W. S. Morris, Mrs. W. M. Corkins, T. Edward, J. Albert, and William E. Oakes, all of Hartford. Robert B. Oakes died December 25, 1906, aged twenty-four years; he was a member of the class of 1907, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; would have graduated in June, 1907, but died on Christmas Day, 1906; he was born in Hartford, Connecticut, April 15, 1882; he was the youngest of the nine children; was a member of Hartford Lodge of Masons.
Rullin David Baldwin
Rollin Dabid Baldwin
T
HIS is a success worshiping age. It is the men of deeds and accomplishment that we delight in honoring. We demand success, and, as though in response, we have a progress in all the departments of material achievement such as the world has never before witnessed. Perhaps the most char- acteristic of all the achievements of the day is that in the line of industrial and commercial development and it is the leaders of activity in this direction that are our choicest heroes. Among the important merchants of Hartford, Connecticut, of the generation just passed, the name of Rollin David Baldwin is conspicuous, as much for the high principles he observed in the conduct of his business as for the success that attended it. His death on March 2, 1905, removed from Hartford one who in the fullest sense of the term was a progressive, virile, self-made American citizen, thoroughly in harmony with the spirit of this modern age, and who, in compassing his own success, performed a corresponding service for the community of which he was a member.
The Baldwin family coat-of-arms is thus described: Argent: A saltire sable. Crest: On a mount vert, a cockatrice argent combed, wattled and beaded or, ducally gorged and lined of the last.
Rollin David Baldwin was a scion of fine old New England stock, his ancestors for a number of generations back having been fine examples of the hardy and intelligent farming people of the region. He was born July 19, 1848, on a farm which had been the possession of his paternal grand- mother's family for many years, situated near Sandersfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, a son of Darwin Jason and Lorinda (Mills) Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin, Sr., was born on the same farm as was his son and lived all his life there, successfully operating the farm which became his by inheritance. His wife was a native of Connecticut and bore her husband three children: Frederick, deceased; Mary, now Mrs. Dallas J. Persons, of Winsted, Con- necticut ; and Rollin David.
Among these wholesome but rural surroundings Rollin David Baldwin grew up, attending the local district school for his education, and later re- ceiving a year's instruction at the South Berkshire Institute in New Marl- borough, Massachusetts. After completing his studies he returned to his father's farm and took up his father's occupation. following it there until he was twenty-seven years of age. On November 15, 1875, however, he left the old place for good, and having saved up a considerable sum of money, went to Colebrook River, Connecticut, where he entered into partnership with George S. Ives, the owner of a general store in that place. He con- tinued in this association for a period of fifteen years, the business being in a highly flourishing state in the meantime, and there gained experience and a large amount of technical knowledge of business methods and practice. The same enterprise and ambition which had induced him to abandon farm-
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Rollin David Baldwin
ing and engaged in a mercantile pursuit, urged him still further, however, and in January, 1890, he sold out his interest in the Colebrook River busi- ness to a Mr. Leander Cotton, and removed to Hartford, where he believed a larger field of opportunity awaited him. In this he was not deceived, for he had been in that city but two weeks before he secured a position as travel- ling salesman with the E. S. Kibby Company, dealers in wholesale groceries on a large scale. In this capacity he was eminently successful, yet he con- tinued therein but ten months, when he received and accepted an offer to become the partner of Edward Persons, of Winsted, Connecticut, in the lat- ter's grocery and dry goods business there. For three years this connection continued and then the two partners separated, Mr. Baldwin taking the grocery business, and Mr. Persons the dry goods, each as his share. In the year 1897 Mr. Baldwin returned to Hartford, having received an offer from the E. S. Kibby Company of a partnership in the concern, together with the office of secretary. This offer he accepted and at once took up his new duties, retaining the position until his death. The business of the Kibby concern was very large and still further increased during his connection with it. He became widely known in commercial circles throughout the city and was regarded as one of the most substantial and influential business men of Hartford.
From early youth Mr. Baldwin took a keen interest in the conduct of public affairs. He was the possessor of a keen and original mind, and did a great deal of thinking for himself on political questions. He was an adher- ent to the principles and policies of the Democratic party. His moving from place to place, with a comparatively short residence in any one locality, militated against his achieving the high position he was undoubtedly worthy of in politics, but with even this handicap he gained a considerable distinc- tion in the ranks of the Democratic party in Connecticut. Wherever he hap- pened to be dwelling he allied himself with the local organization and quickly proved himself possessed of the qualities of a leader. While a resi- dent of Colebrook, he became very prominent in local affairs, and was elected and reelected selectman of the place until he had served in this capacity for a term of eight years. He was finally sent as a representative to the State Legislature from Colebrook, and served most efficiently on that body during the year 1885. He was also selectman in Winsted for a year. Mr. Baldwin was a conspicuous figure in social circles in the various places where he lived, and was particularly prominent as a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he had taken the thirty-second degree, and was also a Knights Templar. He was a member of many of the divisions of the order, including Pyramid Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Bridgeport.
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