USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
While Mr. Platt feared the growing force of certain radical tendencies, he was very far from a reactionist in his beliefs and was a strong supporter of the more progressive element in his party as represented by Theodore Roosevelt, and during the administration of Mr. Roosevelt as President,
267
Drville Hitchcock Platt
strongly supported his policies. Charles Henry Butler, reporter of the United States Supreme Court, had arranged to give Mr. Platt a dinner on March 18, 1905, in honor of his completion of twenty-six years of continu- ous service as Senator, but this was frustrated by the death of General Haw- ley, the junior Senator from Connecticut. The invitations were withdrawn, but those who were bidden wrote letters of appreciation to the guest of honor, of which that of President Roosevelt, whose second term had just begun, is typical. President Roosevelt's letter ran as follows: "My dear Mr. Butler : May I, through you, extend my heartiest greetings to the guest of the evening, Senator O. H. Platt? It is difficult to say what I really think of Senator Platt without seeming to use extravagant expression. I do not know a man in public life who is more loved and honored, or who has done more substantial and disinterested service to the country. It makes one feel really proud as an American, to have such a man occupying such a place in the councils of the Nation. As for me personally, I have now been asso- ciated with him intimately during four sessions of Congress, and I cannot overstate my obligations to him, not only for what he has done by speech and vote, but because it gives me heart and strength to see and consult with so fearless, high-minded, practicable, and far-sighted a public servant. Wishing you a most pleasant evening, believe me, sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt." It was at the funeral of General Hawley, which Senator Platt attended shortly after, and at which he was obliged to stand hatless a long tirne in the blustering March weather, that he brought his illness to an active state from which he never recovered, and about a month later his own death occurred on Good Friday, April 21, 1905.
Senator Platt was twice married, the first time on May 15, 1850, to Annie Bull, of Towanda, Pennsylvania, the only daughter of James Perry and Ann (Wallis) Bull, of that place. To them were born two children: James Perry, who in 1902 was appointed a justice of the United States District Court, died January 26, 1913; and Daniel Gould, deceased in childhood. The first Mrs. Platt died in November, 1893, and on April 29, 1897, Mr. Platt was married to Mrs. Jeannie Penniman Hoyt, widow of George A. Hoyt, of Stamford, Connecticut, and daughter of Hon. Truman Smith, United States Senator from Connecticut. Mrs. Platt survives her husband and still resides at Washington, Connecticut, the birthplace and home of Senator Platt for so many years.
It is out of the question to deal adequately with a personality at once so large and so many-sided as that of Senator Platt. The sterling honor and integrity which formed the very basis of it has been indicated to some extent in the foregoing account, but what has not and cannot be given is the effect produced upon all who associated with him by the character as a whole. Honest and sincere he was primarily, but he was also a man of the broadest charity and tolerance, kindly and responsive and full of ready sympathy for those who stood in need. One of his most strongly marked traits was his fondness for nature and out-of-door life, and this was a great asset to him throughout his whole career. He spent a considerable portion of the sum- mer each year in the Adirondacks, living in the open air, fishing, hunting and blazing trails. He was a skillful fisherman and would often be gone for
268
Drbille Hitchcock platt
a whole day from camp following his favorite streams, yet it was said of him that it was more the delight of the woods through which he must wander and the sense of freedom and primitive life that lured him than the sport itself. There is little doubt that these wholesome, quiet summers were the cause of his being able to endure for so many years the tremendous strain of his work in Congress. An intelligent and witty conversationalist, a man of great culture and of wide reading, he was, as a matter of course, a delight- ful companion and his personal friends valued most highly the privilege of their intimate association with him. In spite of the immense amount of time and effort he was obliged to spend in the public service, he contrived to find time and occasion for intercourse with family and friends, occasions which he enjoyed more than aught else. He was an author of ability and learning on historical and archæological subjects and the study of these in connection with his home State was a favorite recreation. Of a deeply religious nature, the influence that he exercised in the community worked for good and he will long remain in the memory of his fellow citizens as a model of good citizenship and sterling manhood.
William Waldo hyde
B EYOND argument one of the foremost men of the Connecti- cut bar, Mr. Hyde in ability and achievement was compara- ble with the best lawyers of any period of the State's history. A keen intellect allied with the judicial temperament, force of character and poise of judgment produced the able law- yer, a charming personality won him warm friendships, while his courage, independence and public spirit won the respect and confidence that gave his leadership force. His vision rose above the needs and aspirations of his home city, Hartford, though they never ceased to concern his great heart, and in a large sense and wholly through his own impressive personality belonged to the State. In all gatherings of men, large or small, which had the good fortune to number him among them, his force, poise and quality were instinctively felt. He did not have to argue himself into the good graces of men, his mental and emotional attitude being convincing of themselves where his conclusions did not always win the sympathy of his hearers. One knew that he was striking at what he believed to be the truth, and the idea of his ever faltering in the line of conduct he had adopted for his guidance was never expressed.
Few men have ever so succeeded in winning the affection of a commun- ity, an affection that came not because he sought for popularity but because it was his due. He never sought office nor did he ever shirk a public duty, and no man was more independent in forming opinions or more ready in expressing them. He was incapable of currying favor, his warm heart, his genial, sympathetic disposition, his public spirit, combined to win that favor. Great as was his legal attainment, great as was his public service, they pale before the fact that men loved him and that :
None knew him but to love him, None named him, but to praise.
Mr. Hyde traced his paternal ancestry in America to William Hyde, born in England, one of the founders of Hartford, also of Norwich, Con- necticut, a gentleman of wealth and importance. The line of descent is through Samuel Hyde, the only son of William Hyde, born 1637, died 1677, a leading citizen of Norwich West Farms. He married Jane Lee. Thomas Hyde, son of Samuel Hyde, born July, 1672, died April 9, 1755; married Mary Backus. Their son, Captain Jacob Hyde, born January 20, 1703, mar- ried Hannah Kingsbury, who bore him Ephraim Hyde, born April 23, 1734. He married Martha Giddings. Their son, Nathaniel Hyde, was born at Stafford, Connecticut, March 7, 1757, and was an iron founder. His first wife, Sarah (Strong) Hyde, bore him a son, Alvan Hyde, who succeeded his father in business and was for many years an iron manufacturer of Stafford. He married Sarah Pinney, whose second child, Alvan Pinney Hyde, mar- ried, September 12, 1849, Frances Elizabeth Waldo, daughter of Judge Loren P. Waldo, with whom his son-in-law was associated in legal practice.
270
William Caldo Ipde
Their eldest son was William Waldo Hyde, to whose memory this tribute of respect is dedicated.
The Waldo ancestry traces in America to Cornelius Waldo, first men- tioned in Salem, Massachusetts, records, July 6, 1647. He married Hannah, daughter of John Cogswell, who came from England on the ship "Angel Gabriel." Their son, John Waldo, a soldier of King Philip's War, married Rebecca Adams. Their son, Edward Waldo, teacher, farmer, deacon, deputy and lieutenant, built a house in that part of Windham, now Scotland, about 1714, that is yet standing occupied by a descendant. He married (first) Thankful Dimmock. Their son, Edward (2) Waldo, married Abigail Elder- kin. Their son, Zachariah Waldo, an eminent citizen, was a soldier of the Revolution from Canterbury. Zachariah Waldo married (first) Elizabeth Wright. Their son, Ebenezer Waldo, born in Canterbury, died in Tolland, Connecticut, a man of prominence. He married Cynthia Parish. Their son, Loren Pinckney Waldo, born February 2, 1802, died 1881, became one of the leading lawyers of Connecticut, filled many offices in State and Nation, member of Thirty-first Congress, judge of the Superior Court of Connecti- cut, one of the leading Democrats of his day. He married Frances Elizabeth Eldridge, a granddaughter of Charles Eldridge, severely wounded in the massacre at Fort Griswold, and of Captain Elijah Avery, killed in the same massacre. Their daughter, Frances Elizabeth Waldo, married, September 12, 1849, Alvan Pinney Hyde. Their son was William Waldo Hyde.
From such distinguished paternal and maternal ancestry came William Waldo Hyde, who was born in Tolland, Connecticut, March 25, 1854, died in Hartford, at the Charter Oak Hospital, Saturday, October 30, 1915. When he was ten years of age his parents removed to Hartford, where in connection with Judge Loren P. Waldo and Governor Richard D. Hubbard, Alvan P. Hyde became a member of one of the leading law firms of the State, Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde. Until 1872 William Waldo Hyde attended the public schools of Hartford, finishing with the high school, graduating class of 1872. He then entered Yale University, whence he was graduated with the Bach- elor's degree, class of 1876, a class distinguished in the quality of its mem- bers. Among his classmates was Arthur Twining Hadley, president of Yale; Otto T. Bannard and General Theodore A. Bingham, of New York; Dr. E. J. McKnight, of Hartford; and Elmer P. Howe, the widely known Boston lawyer.
Logically, William Waldo Hyde was destined to become a lawyer, heredity and environment almost compelling that profession. Fortunately his personal inclinations agreed with the logical view, and after two years study under his honored father and a year at Boston University Law School he was in 1878 admitted to the Connecticut bar at Hartford. His first ex- perience in law practice was as clerk in the office of Waldo, Hubbard & Hyde. At Judge Waldo's death in 1881 the firm reorganized as Hubbard, Hyde & Gross, the partners being Governor Hubbard, Alvan P. Hyde and Charles E. Gross, but later William Waldo Hyde and Frank E. Hyde were admitted. On Governor Hubbard's death the four remaining partners re- organized as Hyde, Gross & Hyde. When the death of Alvan P. Hyde again disrupted the firm, Charles E. Gross, William Waldo Hyde and Arthur L.
271
William Waldo Ipde
Shipman formed the firm Gross, Hyde & Shipman. Later Charles Welles Gross, a son of the senior partner, and Alvan Waldo Hyde, a son of William Waldo Hyde, were admitted to partnership.
Mr. Hyde was identified with much important litigation in the State and Federal courts, appearing before State and United States Supreme Courts in cases of unusual importance involving momentous issues. For twenty -- five years he was general counsel of the board of water commissioners and was the leader in the passage of the special act of general assembly, legal- izing the acquisition of the Nepaug property. From April, 1910, to May, 1912, he was corporation counsel, and in March, 1914, was appointed by Mayor Cheney a member of the city charter revision committee, and to present the revised charter to the General Assembly of 1915. His last ap- pearance in the Supreme Court was early in the month of October, 1915, when he argued the case of the Hartford board of water commissioners against property owners, on defendant's appeal from a decision by Judge Case, of the Superior Court. Another important work of his last two years was as trustee of the Connecticut Company, appointed with four others to take over that company. To this work he brought wide experience and ripened judgment that rendered him a most valuable addition to the board. He declined many offers of financial trust, devoting himself to his large and weighty practice, though always responding to every call to the public service.
From 1885 to 1899 he was actively identified with civic affairs other than legal. From 1885 to 1891 he was a member of the board of school visitors, and acting school visitor, or superintendent of schools during that period. In that capacity he labored earnestly to bring the schools to a higher plane of efficiency, a work in which he succeeded. From 1888 to 1891 he was a member of the board of street commissioners, also from 1897 to 1899, and president of the board in 1890, 1891 and 1899. In 1895 and 1896 he was a member of the board of health.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Hyde in 1892 as candidate for mayor carried Hartford for the Democracy for the first time in a decade in an important city election. He had as an opponent on the Republican ticket General Henry C. Dwight, who polled three thousand eight hundred and twenty- eight votes against Mr. Hyde's four thousand six hundred and seven. He is yet spoken of as "one of the best mayors Hartford ever had."
Neither legal life, to which he brought an inherited and personal love, nor public life, which he met as a duty of good citizenship, filled the measure of his activity. He was a trustee of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane and a director of the Dime Savings Bank. As a member of the South Con- gregational Church he met the responsibilities of a churchman as he met every other obligation of life. In social intercourse he met his fellow-men in club, fraternity and society and with them pursued the highest objects of each. His clubs were the Hartford, Hartford Golf, Country, University (New York), Yale (New York), Graduates (New Haven), and Nayasset, of Springfield, Massachusetts.
His patriotic and Colonial ancestry rendered him eligible to about every organization of note based on Colonial residence and Revolutionary service.
272
William cualdo Ppde
He was affiliated with the Society of Mayflower Descendants in Connecticut, the Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth Branch of the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars in Connec- ticut.
In fraternity his affiliations were entirely Masonic and included all degrees of the York Rite and of the Scottish Rite up to and including the thirty-second. He was a master Mason of Saint John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; a companion of Pythagoras Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; a cryptic Mason of Wolcott Council, Royal and Select Masters; a sir knight of Washington Commandery, Knights Templar; and a noble of Sphinx Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In Scottish Rite he held the fourteen degrees of Charter Oak Lodge of Perfection; the degrees of Hart- ford Council, Princes of Jerusalem ; Cyrus Goodell Chapter of Rose Croix, and of Connecticut Consistory, Sovereign Princes of the Royal Secret, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
This necessarily brief review of the life activity of a great man would be incomplete did it not refer to that other side of his nature, not so well known to the public as his legal and civic greatness. His love of fun, his genial good nature and the charm of his social qualities were known and appreciated only in fullest measure by those privileged to call him friend. He had a quick sympathy which responded instantly to the good fortune or misfortune of his friends; and the warmth of his congratulations made suc- cess sweeter, while his word of consolation lightened the heaviness of sor- row and he was always ready to help the weak one, or aid the discouraged. His courtesy to young lawyers was unfailing and while an opponent at the bar to be dreaded, he was always willing to extend any courtesy to opposing counsel consistent with the proper conduct of his case.
There was another element of his character worthy of special note, his courage and adaptability. It was said of his father that "as a rough and tumble fighter in court he had no superior. All cases were the same to him. Cases involving bookkeeping, patents, contracts, the usual run of dis- putes of all kinds and criminal cases he could try with equal facility and his courage never failed him." The son inherited many of his lawyer-like char- acteristics from that father, and men called him a man of "indomitable courage" pursuing what he believed a proper course in the face of all obstacles and any opposition. A quiet man yet when aroused one of the most eloquent.
Mr. Hyde married, December 1, 1877, Helen Eliza Watson, his class- mate in high school, daughter of George W. Watson, of Hartford, who sur- vives him with two children: Elizabeth and Alvan Waldo Hyde, the latter his father's partner in the firm of Gross, Hyde & Shipman. He married (first) Helen Elizabeth Howard, who bore him two children: Helen Waldo and Elizabeth Howard. He married (second) Theresa MacGillivray and has two children: Jeanette MacGillivray and William Waldo Hyde (2).
Appleton Robbins Hillper
I T IS THE duty of every community to put in some permanent form the records of those good and able men who have dwelt and worked in it, in order that the memory of their acts shall be kept ever fresh in the minds of posterity and serve as a wholesome example to young men preparing themselves to take their turn at public duties, and as an object lesson in the proper use of those talents with which they have been entrusted. And even more especially is this the case when he whose life by reason of its value has become in a sense public property is possessed of that modesty and retirement of nature that rather seeks to hide than to reveal his story. Thus the virtue of modesty in a double sense adds to the obligation, since it is in itself worthy of record and because its presence renders it less probable that the other virtues will be known and appreciated. Such was conspicuously the case with the honored citizen whose name heads this brief sketch, who very literally obeyed the scriptural injunction not to let his left hand know what his right did, so that even now only a por- tion of his good deeds and his influence in the community can be made known.
Appleton Robbins Hillyer was born September 2, 1833, in the town of East Granby, Connecticut, a son of General Charles Tudor and Catherine (Robbins) Hillyer, of that place. The father was a man well known beyond the limits of his home-town and its neighborhood, and he held the rank of Adjutant-General on the staff of the Governor of the State. The son passed the first nineteen years of his life in his native town, gaining his education in the local schools and neighboring academies. In his twentieth year he came to the city of Hartford, and there remained for the long period of sixty-three years, his death occurring in that city on April 21, 1915, at the age of eighty-two. His first position in Hartford was that of a clerk in the post office under Ezra Hamilton, at that time postmaster. Soon, however, he received his introduction to a line of business which he was to make par- ticularly his own for all the remainder of his life. On this occupation he entered in the humble position of clerk in the State Bank, where it was agreed by his father and himself that it would be well for him to learn the details of banking. His father was at the time president of the Charter Oak Bank, and presently the young man was transferred to a clerkship in that institution. From the outset he displayed great ability in this work, and it was not long before he began to make his personality felt beyond the insti- tution in which he was employed. He was one of the most active among the group of men who organized the Aetna Bank, and did a great deal of the work which prepared for the organization. The reward came with the suc- cessful consummation of their project and the first meeting of the directors of the new institution was held September 9, 1857. At this meeting Judge Eliphalet A. Bulkeley was chosen president, and Mr. Hillyer was chosen to
CONN-Vol 1I1-18
274
Appleton Robbins Dillper
the office of cashier, a position which he held for a period of thirty years, during the presidencies of Judge Bulkeley, Oliver G. Terry and William R. Cone. Upon the retirement of Mr. Cone, Mr. Hillyer was elected, March 31, 1887, president and director of the bank, which he had served so long and disinterestedly. His presidency continued but four years, for on April 1, 1891, he resigned that office, though he remained a director, and from 1897 vice-president, until the time of his death. In 1907 the Aetna National Bank, as its title then was, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation, and the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Hillyer's connection with it, by a reception in his honor at the Hartford Club, which was attended by many of the most prominent men in the city and State, and at which he was presented by his associates with a handsome silver loving cup. It was a matter of pride for the bank that it was one of a very few banks in the United States with a surplus equalling its capital, a distinction due in no small measure to Mr. Hillyer's skill and ability. His interests were not confined to the Aetna National Bank, but they extended to many important business and indus- trial enterprises. Among these may be mentioned the Society for Savings, of which he was vice-president, and also the Aetna Life Insurance Company and the Case Lockwood and Brainard Company, in both of which he was a director.
But prominent and influential as he was in the business world, it was hardly in that connection that Mr. Hillyer was best known in Hartford. Rather it was as a man of affairs and philanthropist that the greater number of his fellow citizens came in contact with him. Politically he was a staunch Republican, but he did not seek office, his other duties being of so exacting a nature that he felt he could not devote to official service the energy and time that his strict sense of obligation to the public would demand. But there were few movements undertaken for the public good that did not enlist his support, provided only that they appealed to his sense of the practical and useful. He was particularly interested in the welfare of the young men of the city, and therefore in the Young Men's Christian Associ- ation, towards which he showed the greatest liberality. His father had also been interested in this organization, and had presented it with a site for its building; and in memory of his father, Mr. Hillyer and his sister gave an endowment fund for the establishment of an educational department in connection with the association to be known as the Hillyer Institute. Only two years before his death Mr. Hillyer greatly increased his benefactions to the association. At that time the board of trustees had determined upon the erection of a large addition at the cost of three hundred thousand dollars, which the growth of the membership and the increase of the activities rend- ered necessary. When Mr. Hillyer was approached on this matter he con- tributed at once one-half of the necessary sum. His munificent generosity was also shown in other directions. As a member of the Windsor Avenue Congregational Church, he did much to increase its usefulness. He served on its prudential committee, was a regular attendant at its services, gave largely in support of all its projects, and with his sister presented the church with its present parsonage.
On June 10, 1879, Mr. Hillyer married Dotha Bushnell, a daughter of
275
Appleton Robbins Millper
the Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell, the celebrated Hartford citizen, preacher, and writer, then pastor of the North Congregational Church, whose name is everywhere held in honor. Mrs. Hillyer survives him. To them were born three children: Mary B., now the wife of Mr. Charles F. T. Seaverns, of Hartford; Lucy Tudor, and Catherine Robbins, both deceased.
The death of Mr. Hillyer brought the sense of great loss to the city and was the occasion of general mourning. A tribute of the most impressive sort was paid to his memory in a multitude of expressions of admiration for the man and sorrow for his death which came from all classes of people and from the institutions with which he was associated. For Mr. Hillyer was a man essentially democratic in his outlook upon life and had many true friends, for all of whom, even the most humble, he had always a kindly word or a helping hand. The Aetna Life Insurance Company and the Young Men's Christian Association at once ordered the flags on their buildings to be set at half-mast and a number of institutions passed appropriate resolu- tions. The press also joined in the universal chorus of praise. A number of these testimonials follow as the most appropriate close to a sketch which the limits of space prevent from being more than a most imperfect tribute to one of whose simple virtue might well be said that
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.