USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 4
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The father of our subject, the third Stiles Judson, was a man of parts, who was engaged all his life in those two strenuous occupations, sailing and farming. During his young manhood he was before the mast in the ships of the East India trade, and at one time "rounded the Horn," on the way to California with a number of others who had been seized with the gold fever of "forty-nine." He later returned to his native town and there settled down to farming, represented the district in the State Assembly, and held many of the town offices. He was married to Caroline Peck, a daughter of Samuel Peck, and Stiles Judson, Jr., was the only son among four daughters.
Stiles Judson was born February 13, 1862, in Stratford, and in that place made his home during his entire life, although his legal career is largely associated with the city of Bridgeport, where his firm had its offices. He received an excellent education, attending as a lad the fine schools of his native place, both public and private. Completing at these institutions the requisite preparation, he matriculated at Yale University in 1883, and enter-
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Stiles Judson
ing the law school, there distinguished himself highly in his studies. He was eminently fitted for the profession of the law, possessing an impressive presence and an engaging and powerful personality in addition to the mental qualifications of a mind capable of long and profound study and thought and the most rapid decision in emergency. This somewhat rare union began to make itself felt from the outset of his career, even as a student, and did not fail to draw the expectant regard of his professors and instructors to the young man. He was graduated with the class of 1885 with the degree of LL. B., the honor member of his class. He was admitted to the Connecticut bar the same year and at once entered the law office of Townsend & Watrous, in New Haven. He remained with this firm only about a year and in September of 1886, removed to Bridgeport, where he formed a partnership with Charles Stuart Canfield, the firm being known as Canfield & Judson, a connection which continued up to the time of Mr. Judson's death, with the single modification that in the year 1907 Judge John S. Pullman was admitted to the firm which thereupon became Canfield, Judson & Pullman, and has grown to be one of the best known in Connecticut. Mr. Judson quickly made a reputation for himself as one of the ablest lawyers in the region, especially in court, where his forensic ability and able grasp of his sub- ject made him a most powerful ally and dangerous opponent. His success with the jury was phenomenal and it was not long before he had developed a very large practice and was handling some of the largest and most import- ant cases in the State. Indeed, it was even before his arrival in Bridgeport, while he was yet a clerk in the office of Townsend & Watrous, in New Haven, that he first attracted attention to himself by his unusual powers. It was about the same time also that he began his political activity, in which connection, even more than in his professional work, his fame has grown. It was not long before he became one of the most popular political speakers thereabouts, and the Republican local organization began to look upon him as a coming power and a possible candidate for office. And assuredly Mr. Judson was a coming power, although, alas for hopes of those in control of the party organization, his personality was too strong and definite to fit into the ordinary partisan moulds of conventional form. Mr. Judson was a staunch Republican, a believer in the principles and many of the policies of his party, but he was essentially a reformer, and when he saw what he con- sidered abuses he did not stop to discover whether political friend or foe was responsible for them, he simply and forcibly pointed them out and demanded their removal. In the year 1891, Stratford, in which he had always made his home and which began to be proud of this rising young lawyer, elected him to the General Assembly of the State. It was during his first term in that body that the famous "deadlock" session occurred, in which he took a most notable part. His constituents were highly gratified at the position he took and the energy with which he pushed his views in the Assembly and returned him thereto in 1895, when he was appointed chairman of the judi- ciary committee. In the meantime, however, in 1892, he was the party can- didate for Secretary of State, for which he was defeated, however, together with the whole State ticket, after a most creditable campaign. In 1905 Mr. Judson was elected State Senator from the twenty-fifth senatorial district, in
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Stiles Judson
which his home town is situated, and promptly assumed a leading role as champion of reform legislature in the Senate. He was returned in 1907 and during the ensuing session he was president pro tempore of the body. During both these terms he was chairman of the senate judiciary committee. Upon the death of Samuel Fessenden, State's attorney for Fairfield county, Mr. Judson was appointed to fill the unexpired term. This was in 1908 and he was later elected to the same office on the splendid showing of his record. He continued to hold this office until March 30, 1914, when on his own request as a result of failing health, he was removed by order of Judge Joseph P. Tuttle. In 1910 Mr. Judson was renominated Senator by the Republicans, and the Democratic Convention, meeting shortly afterward, endorsed his candidacy, an honor never before received by a candidate from that district. The following election he was again the choice of his party, and was triumphantly returned after one of the most bitter campaigns ever waged in that region. His opponent was Judge Elmore S. Banks, of Fair- field, Connecticut, which, strangely enough was situated in the same sena- torial district, and the question at issue was the Public Utilities Bill, of which he was the champion. After his election he returned to the Senate to continue his effective advocacy of the bill there, while Judge Banks was sent to the House, to continue his opposition. The final victory was with the advocates of the bill, which was passed at that session, largely because of the masterly efforts of Mr. Judson in its behalf. The great amount of labor, the intensity of his efforts in its cause are by some regarded as a con- tributory cause of the loss of health which he suffered thereafter, and which finally resulted in his death. In 1913 he found the pressure of business inci- dent to his office as State's Attorney so great that he was obliged to forego any legislative activity, and in 1914, as already mentioned, he resigned that office.
Mr. Judson was a very conspicuous figure in the social world, and a member of several important clubs and organizations in Stratford and Bridgeport. He was an active Mason, being a member of St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Bridgeport ; Hamilton Commandery, Knights Templar, of Bridgeport ; and of the Algonquin and Brooklawn clubs of the same city. He was also a member of Company K, Fourth Regiment Con- necticut National Guard, for ten years, at the end of which period he was captain of his company.
Mr. Judson was married, December 5, 1889, to Minnie L. Miles, of Mil- ford, Connecticut, the daughter of George Washington Miles, a well-known manufacturer of that place. Mrs. Judson, who graduated from the Yale University Art School, devotes much of her time at present to her painting. She possesses a great deal of talent in this direction, and is a woman of great general culture and unusual social charm.
In summing up the total of Stiles Judson's work, and the effect of his life and efforts upon the community, it must be borne in mind that at heart he was a reformer, and that as such, the results of his work are by no means to be measured by the formal victories that he won. It is the fate of reformers generally that they often win more in their defeats than their victories, and so it was in a measure in the case of Mr. Judson. Some of his bitterest con-
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Stiles Juoson
flicts were with the "machine" in his own party. He was a consistent oppo- nent of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company in all its political activities, and during the last year of his State's Attorneyship opposed it with great vigor and prosecuted some of its officials. With this sinister political force and with the element in the party which represented its wishes, he was in continual warfare, as well as with every other factor in the party which seemed to him to interfere with the will of the people, and as might be expected was often defeated. He was engaged in an effort to destroy the power of Allan W. Paige in Fairfield county ; he championed the cause of Bulkeley for United States Senator in his fight with Fessenden, and strove mightily, though ineffectively, to prevent the Republican nomination for Governor of the State going to Judge John P. Studley. Had he been content to travel the easy road, he would doubtless have reached greater heights politically than he did, but his services to his county and State and to his party were unquestionably much the greater in that he chose to oppose the intrenched forces of privilege, even when such opposition meant defeat. To his object of fighting well the people's battle, he brought his great powers, his capacity for long and hard work, his brilliant and active mind and his oratory, which all agreed were of the highest type. Thus equipped he accomplished against his powerful opponent much that seemed well nigh impossible, and often turned what was apparently inevitable defeat into brilliant victory. It will be appropriate to close this sketch with an excerpt from an editorial which appeared in the "Bridgeport Telegram" on the occa- sion of his death. Says the "Telegram :"
The name of Stiles Judson will be incorporated into the traditions of the Connecticut bar. It is doubtful if a more brilliant attorney ever pleaded a case before a Connecticut judicial tribune. To an enormous capacity for deep research, Attorney Judson added an ability for rapid and brilliant thinking "on his feet,"-a very unusual combination. As a result he was not only grounded in the law to an extraordinary degree, but he followed each trend and turn of a case with the most brilliant (and to his opponent's disconcert- ing) ability for taking prompt and generally crushing advantage of any opening that offered. When, in addition to these qualifications as a trial attorney, it is remembered that he was an orator of rare ability, the possessor of a keen and incisive wit, and endowed with a commanding presence, his extraordinary power becomes apparent. These qualities led the judges of the superior court to appoint him State's Attorney, and he honored the office. At his best, he was truly great ; not alone because of his ability, but because he never knowingly used his great powers to take an unfair advantage of a weaker opponent, and his first aim always as State's Attorney, was not to secure a con- viction but to obtain justice.
Here it is a pleasure to record what was known to but few,-that in his private prac- tice Attorney Judson was a friend of the poor and needy ; that in many a case where an unfortunate person was struggling for justice, he took the case, fought it to a brilliant conclusion, and then refused to accept a fee, or at least, nothing commensurate with the extent and brilliancy of his services. Had he taken another course he would probably have been a very rich man.
Kingsbury Family
F `REDERICK JOHN KINGSBURY, whose death on Septem- ber 30, 1910, at the age of eighty-seven years, deprived the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, of one of its best known and most distinguished citizens, was a member of a very ancient English family, the name of Kingsbury or Kyngesbury, as it was originally spelled, being frequently met with in the fifteenth century and even that preceding it. As early as I300, indeed, we hear of one Gilbert de Kingsbury, a churchman of Kings- bury, in Warwickshire, with which place the name is very probably asso- ciated in its origin. There were also Kingsburys to be found in Suffolk and other counties in that part of England a little later. The relationship of the various bearers of the name at that time is not of course entirely obtainable, but a family becomes traceable in Suffolk in the early part of the sixteenth century, and from the time of John Kyngesbury of Great Cornard, Suffolk- shire, who died on August 10, 1539, the line is continuous and unbroken down to the present day. It was about one hundred years after this date that Henry Kingsbury of the sixth generation from the John mentioned above, came to this country from Assington, Suffolkshire, with John Win- throp, and in 1638 is recorded as one of the founders of Ipswich, Massachu- setts, in that year. The Kingsburys were from their advent here active members of the community, and quickly became prominent in general affairs, religious, civil and military, many of them distinguishing themselves greatly in the services they performed for their fellow colonists. The family was represented during the Revolution by Judge John Kingsbury, who at the breaking out of the struggle was a student in Yale College. He served his country on the sea, going on two privateering voyages with his brother Jacob. He was a very distinguished man in his time and region. He mar- ried Marcia Bronson, a member of another prominent family of Waterbury, and was the father of Charles Denison, of whom further.
Charles Denison Kingsbury, the eldest son of Judge John and Marcia (Bronson) Kingsbury, was born December 7, 1795, in Waterbury, in which place he passed practically his entire life. The record of his early life is most intimately associated with the good old times in Waterbury, and his memory was stocked up to the time of his death with a great mass of facts of inestimable value and interest to the historian and antiquarian. He first attended the local schools and there received the elementary portion of his education under some of the well known early teachers of Waterbury, among which may be mentioned Miss Hotchkiss, a sister of Deacon Elijah Hotchkiss, and the Rev. Virgil H. Barber. Later he went away from home to attend the Rev. Daniel Parker's school at Ellsworth, in Sharon. Among his schoolfellows were Henry G. Ludlow, the well-known New York clergy- man, and Charles A. Goodyear, the inventor.
In 1812 Mr. Kingsbury, then seventeen years of age, began his success- ful mercantile career, in the humble capacity of clerk for the firm of Benedict
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Kingsbury Family
& Burton in the old store on the corner of Exchange Place and Harrison Alley. Here he remained for upwards of two years, when he was seized with a serious malady of the lungs, which for a time threatened to end his life. He finally recovered, however, but was obliged to stop work for a time. For a time he studied medicine under the direction of Dr. Edward Field, his friends giving him the name of doctor, which clung to him during the remainder of his life. In the latter part of 1814 he once more began active work, on this occasion securing a position with the firm of Burton & Leav- enworth. His alert mind quickly won the favorable regard of his employers, and the following winter, the junior member of the firm, Mr. Leavenworth, took him with him on a trip to the South, made for the purpose of introduc- ing their clocks in the southern markets. The family still preserve a portion of the journal kept by him of his travels. Returning from the South he spent considerable time in settling up the business affairs of Burton & Leaven- worth, the partners of which were dissolving the firm. This work com- pleted, he returned once more to the South, making arrangements with the publishing house of Mitchell, Ames & White, of Philadelphia, to represent them as agent in Virginia. He spent about a year in that State, principally in Richmond and vicinity, selling law and medical books, and works of the class of Jefferson's "Notes" and Wirt's "Life of Patrick Henry." Mr. Kings- bury always referred to this year as a most delightful and profitable experi- ence, as it brought him into contact with the cultured people of the section often on the friendliest and most agreeable terms. He visited the legal and medical men of the neighborhood and often spent a number of days with them at their homes. He made one more stay in the South after this, spend- ing the winter of 1820-21 in Philadelphia as the agent of the firm of Lewis, Grilley & Lewis, manufacturers of buttons in Naugatuck.
Mr. Kingsbury had been eminently successful in his various enterprises, and by this time had saved sufficiently to enable him to embark upon an enterprise of his own. In the spring of 1821 he leased in his native city of Waterbury the store in which he had already been employed as a clerk. and there established a general mercantile business. He eventually pur- chased the property, and carried on his enterprise there for nearly twenty years. He had but one rival in the same business in Waterbury, the old establishment of Leavenworth, Hayden & Scovill, and from the first his venture prospered well. The drug store of Dr. Johnson was closed about that time, and Mr. Kingsbury added drugs to his already wide line of stock. As his business increased and his resources grew larger, Mr. Kingsbury engaged in a number of industrial operations, in all of which he was successful. He manufactured shoes and harnesses, and was the owner of a factory situated on the Mad river, where he manufactured pearl buttons. This was on the site now occupied by the large plant of the American Mills Company. In 1827 Mr. Kingsbury took into partner- ship with him Mr. William Brown, a gentleman who had been his clerk, and who later married his employer's sister. Three years later Mr. Brown left Waterbury and went to South Carolina, and Mr. Kingsbury took Dr. Fred- erick Leavenworth into the business to occupy the place left vacant by Mr. Brown. The partners now operated separate stores, Dr. Leavenworth
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Frederick Hingstury
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Kingsbury Family
taking charge of the drug and grocery departments, and Mr. Kingsbury of the general dry goods. In 1835 the two branches were consolidated beneath the same roof.
Mr. Kingsbury's health, never the most robust, began to fail in the year 1838, and he gradually withdrew entirely from his mercantile and industrial interests, and retired to the rural estate left him by his father. Both that gentleman and his grandfather had been large property holders in the neighborhood, and it now became the purpose of Mr. Kingsbury to operate witli some degree of adequacy this large tract by cultivating it and putting it to farm uses. He developed a great interest in agriculture, and for several years carried on extensive farming operations, which under his skill- ful direction were a great success. The growth of the city was tending in the direction of his property, so that after some years he began to build houses and divide his property into lots, which he disposed of to great advantage. He was an authority on the matter of old property divisions and ownerships, and his mind was indeed a repository of most of the old lore of Waterbury. He held a number of public offices in the city, always to the great satisfaction of his fellow townsmen, although he did not actively enter politics. For years he was affiliated with the First Congregational Church, and at his death was the oldest member. The first four ministers of this church were the ancestors of his children. Despite his rather delicate health, he lived to the venerable age of ninety-five years, retaining his faculties and strength to a wonderful degree. His carriage was upright and firm, and he continued to keep his own accounts to within five days of his death. This occurred on January 16, 1890, in his residence on North Main street, which had been built by his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Bronson, in 1760, and occupied by himself for nearly sixty years.
Mr. Kingsbury married Eliza Leavenworth, of Waterbury, a member of the distinguished Leavenworth family of that city and New Haven, and a daughter of his partner, Dr. Frederick Leavenworth and Fanny (Johnson) Leavenworth, his wife. To Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury were born two chil- dren, the elder of whom was Frederick John, of whom further.
Frederick John Kingsbury, the elder of the two children of Charles Denison and Eliza (Leavenworth) Kingsbury, was born January 1, 1823, in Waterbury, and has there made his home during his entire life. The fond- ness for intellectual pursuits which marked his character during his life, made its appearance early in his childhood, and was doubtless fostered by the circumstances which surrounded him and the careful training which he received at his mother's own hand as a child. He was not a robust boy, and his mother, who took much interest in botany and chemistry, constituted herself his teacher and took his training into her own hands for a number of years, during which the influence of her charming and beauty-loving person- ality had a great effect in moulding the lad's into a similar form. She read to him fairy tales and poetry along with his other lessons, subjects which the average lad reared in a rural district had but little opportunity for in those days. He spent his time on his father's large farm and as a child will, used to play at work with the hands, until, growing older, jest was gradually changed to earnest, and by the time he had recovered his health sufficiently
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Kingsbury Family
and was of an age to leave home to complete his education, he was possessed of a good practical knowledge of farming. After studying for some years under the gentle discipline of his mother, it was thought wise to send him from home to a school where he would rub with other boys and learn a little of life, as well as prepare himself for college. At this juncture, a maternal uncle, the Rev. Abner J. Leavenworth, invited the lad to visit him in Vir- ginia, an invitation which was accepted, the excellent clergyman undertak- ing to superintend his nephew's studies personally. Here in a very congenial atmosphere of books and learning, Mr. Kingsbury spent the better part of eighteen months. On his return to the North, he was sent to the Waterbury Academy, and there prepared himself for college and the professional course which he proposed taking. The Rev. Mr. Seth Fuller was principal of the Waterbury Academy at that time, a man of strong personality and much erudition, who influenced not a little the forming mind of his talented pupil. After completing his studies here, he matriculated at Yale College and there, after distinguishing himself and drawing upon himself the favorable regard of his professors and instructors, he was graduated with the class of 1846. He had long before determined to take up the law as a profession, and with this purpose in view he studied the subject in the Yale Law School. Here he came in contact with a number of interesting legal minds, among which were Chief Justice William I .. Storrs and Isaac H. Townsend. He then entered the office of the Hon. Thomas C. Perkins, of Hartford, and later that of the Hon. Charles G. Loring, of Boston, to complete his reading of law. In 1848, two years after his graduation from Yale, he was admitted to the Connecticut bar at Boston, and the following year opened a law office in his native city. He was successful from the start, and would doubtless have made a name for himself in his profession, had it not been for a distract- ing cause which eventually led him into an entirely different career. It was in the year 1850, when he had been engaged in the practice but a twelve- month, that Mr. Kingsbury had his attention directed to the subject of bank- ing in such a manner as to induce him to engage in that business. He did not at once give up his legal practice, following both occupations for three years. He then finally closed his law office and devoted his entire attention to banking, in which connection and as a man of scholarly attainments, he was best known in Waterbury. His success as a lawyer had been such as to attract general attention, and the recognition of his ability and integrity was such that his fellow citizens elected him to represent them in the Connecticut State Legislature. This was in the year 1850, but two years after his admis- sion to the bar, and it was during the term of his service in that body that his attention became directed to the subject of banks and banking, and the plan of establishing a savings bank took shape in his mind. He procured a char- ter for the Waterbury Savings Bank, and his plan was realized. Mr. Kings- bury was himself made treasurer of the institution and managed its affairs until his death. After finally giving up the law, he devoted his entire atten- tion to banking problems and the direction of the Waterbury Savings Bank, which owed its existence so largely to his efforts. In the same year that he withdrew from legal practice, Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Abram Ives in asso- ciation founded the Citizens' Bank of Waterbury, and the former was
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