USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 40
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It was not merely as president of the Hartford National Bank that Mr.
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James Boltet
Bolter was prominent in the financial world for he was connected with many of the most important concerns in the region as a director. Among these should be mentioned the Dime Savings Bank, the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company and the P. & F. Corbin Company of New Britain, Connecticut. Insurance was another of the interests of the Connecticut city with the development of which Mr. Bolter was connected. The bank was one of the first institutions to begin the practice of insuring fire and marine risks a number of years before regular insurance companies were formed and this branch of its transactions were very profitably continued under Mr. Bolter's management. It was here and in similar institutions that the germ of that great development started that has since made Hartford one of the greatest insurance centers of the world and added so greatly to its wealth and renown. Mr. Bolter's interest in the great industry did not cease at the doors of his own concern, however, as his connection with the Hartford County Mutual Fire Insurance Company shows, but was of a broad and altruistic nature, as indeed were all his interests in business. In this con- nection it is interesting to note that he was the very first policy holder in the then just organized Travelers Accident Insurance Company of Hartford, now one of the largest companies in the world with a capital of one hundred million dollars. His early policy insured Mr. Bolter against accident be- tween the post office and his home on Buckingham street.
Although Mr. Bolter's time and energies were naturally engaged by his business interests in a very large degree they were by no means so monopo- lized by them as to cause him to withdraw from the other normal relations of life as so many of our more modern financiers seem disposed to do. On the contrary there was scarcely a movement of importance in any depart- ment of the city's life in which he was not interested, and which, if he favored its aims and methods, he did not effectively support with money or labor. He was a man of large mental vision who could discern, better than most men, the working of great principles in the society of which he was a member. This very naturally led him to the study and observation of politics, in which he became keenly interested, giving his support to the principles for which the Democratic party stands. He even entered local politics and took a more or less active part in his party's aims and organiza- tion in the city. The demands of his other duties made it out of the question for him to hold public office himself to any extent, so that despite the fact that he was strongly urged to accept nominations, he pretty consistently refused, though on two or three occasions he served as councilman and alderman in the city government. Socially he was a very active man and took a prominent part in the life of several important clubs and organiza- tions. He was a member of the Hartford Club, the Zodiac Driving Club and the Colonial Club, and in his early manhood had joined St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Hartford. In his youth, also, he was con- nected with the militia of that period and served on the staff of Governor Joseph Trumbull of Connecticut. In the matter of religion Mr. Bolter was affiliated with the Episcopal church and it was in keeping with his character that he felt deeply and seriously on the subject. He gave much time indeed
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James Bolter
to the advancement of the cause of the church and of religion generally, was a member of the Church Club of the State, a trustee of donations and be- quests of the Episcopal Church of the State and a lay delegate to the diocesan conventions.
On February 11, 1846, Mr. Bolter was united in marriage with Mary Bartholomew, of Hartford, where she was born July 7, 1820, a daughter of Roswell and Sally Johnson (Stone) Bartholomew, very prominent residents of the city. The Bartholomew family is descended from William Bartholo- mew, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he settled after coming from Eng- land in 1634. To Mr. and Mrs. Bolter were born three children, as follows: James, Jr., married, in 1881, Ellen A. Brown, by whom he had a daughter, Mary E .; Alice E .; Clara M., who became Mrs. John W. Gray, of Hartford.
Such a character as that of Mr. Bolter is a possession of value to any community, not only on account of the material things accomplished by him, these were important enough, but still more in virtue of the thing he was, the note of virtue and worth struck by his personality, the standard uncon- sciously set up by which all men thenceforth must measure themselves and their fellows. It is very curious how such forces operate, how invisible to the eye they are and yet how potent for good. For example, Mr. Bolter's charities, though very large, were performed so quietly that but very few people had the remotest notion of their proportions. He delighted to aid such young men as seemed to be burdened with unusually great obstacles at the outset of their careers, yet of whose honest intentions he was assured. Many are the successful men who owe their fortune in a great measure to these kindly offices on his part, but it is quite evident that assistance of this kind would be of so delicate a nature in the majority of cases that neither giver nor recipient would refer to it and the world-at-large guess nothing. And yet his great-hearted philanthropy was instinctively felt by all men with the same certainty as if each individual act had been published abroad and, indeed, more so, since the very modesty of their suppression was an element of added strength. Thus it was that while living his example was so strong, and that now his memory is entitled to an enduring place in the records of his community.
George J. Cope
T HE MEN WHO give the tone and character to any com- munity and determine what it is are not the few geniuses that arise therein and who would be exceptions anywhere, but the rank and file of its people, those who do its work, per- form its manifold functions and take vital part in its every- day, work-a-day life; those, in short, who form its essential structure. And this being true it is obvious that the men whose careers best give expression to this communal character are again not the exceptions, but those who show in themselves the average qualities of their fellows but sharpened and defined and made typical by unusually vivid personalities or strong character. Such a one might well be accounted George J. Cope, who displayed throughout his life in a high degree those strong, staunch qualities we think of as typically New England and which have made that region proverbial for a strange union of idealism and prac- ticality wellnigh invincible.
George J. Cope was a son of John and Mary (Schellenberger) Cope, of West Hartford, Connecticut, and was himself born there July 16, 1868. But shortly after his birth his parents removed to Farmington, a short distance outside of Hartford, and settled in what is known as "Scotts-Swamp Dis- trict" and there made their home for several years. During that period Mr. Cope grew into boyhood and attended the local schools for his education. The circumstances of his parents did not admit of his carrying on this task as long as he desired and he was little more than a lad when he was forced to seek some means of earning his livelihood. With this end in view he returned to Hartford and apprenticed himself to his brother-in-law, W. W. Keller, who conducted a plumbing establishment in the city, and there learned that trade. To this end he applied himself with good effect and remained for five years with Mr. Keller making himself a master of his craft in all its detail and fitting himself to manage an establishment of his own. In the year 1890 he concluded himself prepared for this responsibility and accordingly withdrew from his previous employ and engaged in business on his own account in partnership with a brother under the style of Cope Brothers, Incorporated. During his apprenticeship Mr. Cope had won the reputation as an unusually hard worker, and this he certainly did not lose subsequently. To begin a new business is never an easy matter, and these two young men, without any particular influence or prominent acquaintance, found it difficult enough for the first few years. They did not waste time in repining, however, but set themselves at once to the matter in hand and worked with such a will that the effects of their labor soon made itself manifest. Their shop was opened in the first place at No. 94 State street, and it was here that their first success was experienced. As time went on, however, neither the quarters themselves nor the location satisfied Mr. Cope and eventually they removed to a larger establishment in the more central location of No. 117 Market street. Here in due course of time the
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George 3. Cope
business became very large, and here, to this day, it is still conducted by Mr. Cope's brother and partner. The city of Hartford was at that time in a state of great expansion and the capital required by individuals to meet the expenses of legitimate enterprise was not always forthcoming. This condition of affairs was one of the contributing causes to the difficulties that beset the opening years of Mr. Cope's enterprise but produced an ample compensation in the end. For it often happened that those who did not have the actual cash wherewith to pay him for the work he did, would offer in place thereof various forms of real estate, acreage, lots, houses and what not in or near the city. These Mr. Cope never refused and his wisdom has been well justified in the conclusion, for with the increase in population the values of such properties increased enormously and netted him a large fortune. In this manner Mr. Cope became identified with the real estate interests of the city and, though he always attended to the plumbing business, he also engaged to a large extent in real estate transactions, especially towards the latter part of his life.
Although Mr. Cope was greatly interested in political questions of both local and national significance, the great demands made upon him by his business prevented him from taking an active part therein. He was a staunch member of the Catholic church and it was his pride that he trans- mitted his faith to his children, even as he had received it from his fore- fathers. He was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Hartford Lodge, but did not on the whole take a very great interest in fra- ternal matters, preferring domestic pleasures and intercourse than those of a more general society.
Mr. Cope was united in marriage, on May 14, 1890, with Margaret J. Cooney, a daughter of Edward and Anna (Gray) Cooney, old and respected residents of that city, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Cope became the parents of seven children, as follows: Edward, George, Mary, Francis, Frederick, Florence and Edna.
No man ever deserved more fully the success that attended his efforts than Mr. Cope, who for all that he won gave its full equivalent in labor, whether of brain or hand. He was extremely democratic in his instincts and never hesitated to turn his own hands to the work of the establishment, and it was often said of him that he worked much harder than any man in his employ. This made him popular with his men generally, a popularity which he enhanced by his just treatment of them and the fact that he entered in and understood their problems and cares in a way which no man can do who has not himself experienced them at one epoch in his life. As time went on and his wealth increased, Mr. Cope was able to indulge a little more freely the tastes and desires which his youth had found it necessary to repress. These were all of a healthy and wholesome nature, however, so that wealth and power did not lead him, as in the case of so many, to pastimes that dis- sipate the vitality and lead to old age. On the contrary Mr. Cope's pleasures were those most associated with out-of-doors, his especial favorites being hunting and fishing. A worthy successor of Nimrod he proved himself, too, and was noted for his extraordinary skill and good fortune in both sports. It was the sport, pure and simple, that attracted him, and he was quite as apt
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George 3. Cope
to give away his catch to some friend or neighbor as to keep it himself, and seemed to enjoy it quite as much. It has already been remarked that his instincts were of a strongly domestic character, and it is true that he never enjoyed himself so greatly as in the society of his family and intimate friends about his own hearthstone. His thoughts were constantly con- cerned with the happiness of those about him, and he was forever devising some scheme for the pleasure of his family. These qualities made him well beloved of all and there are few men whose death was more generally regret- ted. This event occurred September 21, 1911, when he was but forty-three years of age, and was the occasion of sincere mourning on the part of those who knew him and a sense of loss to the entire community.
Zalmon Austin Storrs
T 'HE LATE Zalmon A. Storrs, who died February 22, 1890, at his home in Hartford, was a representative of one of the oldest Connecticut families, which has been conspicuously identified with the history of the State through many gener- ations. The immigrant ancestor of the family in this coun- try, Samuel Storrs, was of the fifth generation, descended from William Storrs, who lived in Nottinghamshire, and made his will in 1557. Samuel Storrs was born in Nottingham, baptized 1640, and in 1663 came to Barnstable, Massachusetts, where he was admitted to the church in 1685. He was among the pioneer settlers of Mansfield, Connecticut, where he located in 1698, and died April 3, 1719. He was the father of Thomas Storrs, born in Barnstable, 1686, died in Mansfield, 1755, was long clerk of the town, justice of the peace, and member of the General Assembly for forty-three sessions. He held various other offices of trust and honor, and was a very capable and prominent citizen. His second son, Thomas Storrs, born in Mansfield, 1717, was a farmer all his life in that town, where he died in 1802. He was the father of Daniel Storrs, a soldier of the Revolution, one of the minutemen marching on the Lexington Alarm, later quartermaster of a Connecticut regiment, serving in the battle of White Plains. Many years a merchant and innkeeper at Mansfield, he died there in 1831. His wife Ruth was a daughter of Colonel Shubael Conant, of Mansfield, granddaughter of Rev. Eleazer Williams.
Zalmon Storrs, their second son, was born December 18, 1779, gradu- ated from Yale in the class of 1801, and studied law in the office of Thomas S. Williams, then of Mansfield, later of Hartford. He abandoned the prac- tice of law, and succeeded his father in the mercantile business, was post- master for twenty years, and often represented the town in the General Assembly ; was justice of the peace until he reached the age limit. In 1831 and again in 1834 he was candidate for Governor, nominated by the anti- Masonic party. He was one of the originators in the manufacture of silk thread by machinery, and had a factory in Mansfield Hollow. He was prominent in the First Congregational Church of Mansfield, and died Feb- ruary 17, 1867. He married, April 26, 1804, Cynthia Stowell, daughter of Josiah Stowell, of Mansfield, born December 12, 1790, died April 17, 1833. Their fourth son, Zalmon Austin, is the subject of this sketch.
Zalmon Austin Storrs was born July 13, 1813, in Mansfield, and attended the district schools of his native town, and the academies at Green- wich, Connecticut, and Monson, Massachusetts. He graduated from Mid- dlebury College, Vermont, class of 1835, and studied law in the school at Litchfield, Connecticut, with his cousin, Origen Storrs Seymour, afterward chief justice of the State. He was admitted to the bar and began to practice in the town of Tolland, Connecticut, where he was elected judge of probate, and judge of the Tolland county court. In December, 1852, he removed to Hartford, Connecticut, and practiced his profession with ability and credit
Zalman 11 Ators
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3almon Austin Storts
until 1868. For some time he was a law partner of W. W. Eaton, afterward United States Senator. He was elected treasurer of the Society for Savings at Hartford, January 8, 1873, filling that office to the close of his life. He died February 22, 1890. He filled various private and public trusts, and was for many years one of the prominent figures in the financial circles of Hart- ford. He was a man of slender build, medium height, having dark hair, attractive in personality, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the entire community. He was a member of the Pearl Street Congregational Church, which is known since the change of location as the Farmington Avenue Church. In politics he was an earnest Republican. He married, July 28, 1864, Mary Rowell, daughter of Lewis and Ruth (Burnham) Rowell, of Hartford, and they had one child, Lewis Austin, born August 28, 1866, in Hartford. The Hartford "Daily Times" of February 24, 1890, said : "He studied law in New York City and later with the late Chief Justice Seymour, of Litchfield, who was his cousin. He began practice in Tolland, where, among other resident lawyers at that time, were Alvan P. Hyde, now of this city, and the late Loren P. Waldo. Mr. Storrs won a good reputation at the bar, and eventually became county judge and also probate judge, the latter about 1848. He removed to Hartford in 1852, and was at various periods in law partnership with Judge Elisha Johnson, and the late James H. Holcombe, who died last year in Italy. In 1868 he accepted the vice-presi- dency of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company under President Walk- ley. He remained until the late S. H. White succeeded him in 1872 as vice- president and treasurer, and then became treasurer of the Society for Savings, succeeding Olcott Allen, deceased. He continued in this position to this time, and was one of the best managers that ancient institution has ever had. He was cautious and conservative, and every investment was made with shrewd judgment. Under his administration the deposits rose from six millions to nearly thirteen millions." He was survived by his wife and one child, Lewis A., of Hartford, who married Bessie W. Whitmore, of Brooklyn, New York; they have six children.
Dr. Jerry D. Clemans
T HE SUCCESS OF men in any vocation depends upon character as well as upon knowledge. Business demands confidence, and where that is lacking, business ends. In every community some men are known for their upright lives, strong common sense, and moral worth, rather than for their wealth or political standing. This is especially the case with professional men. Their neighbors and acquaint- ances respect them, and the younger generations heed their example. Among such men in Canaan, Connecticut, was the late Dr. Jerry D. Clemans, who was not only active in his professional life as a dentist for almost a quarter of a century, but was a man of modest, unassuming demeanor, well educated, largely through his own efforts, a fine type of the reliable, selfmade American, a friend to the poor, charitable to the faults of his neighbors, and always ready to unite with them in every good work and active in the sup- port of laudable enterprises. He was a man who in every respect merited the esteem in which he was universally held, for he was a man of public spirit and exemplary character.
Captain Jerry Clemans, father of the subject of this sketch, was drowned in 1838 by the sinking of a ship on Lake Erie, on which he was a passenger. He married Lusanna Stowe, who died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1892, at the age of ninety-two years. They had children: Dr. Salem, a dentist, of New Milford, Connecticut ; Mrs. E. N. Rawson, of Brooklyn, New York; John, of Providence, Rhode Island; Jerry D., whose name heads this sketch; John Milton, died in infancy.
Dr. Jerry D. Clemans was born in Charlton, near Webster, Massachu- setts, March 12, 1830, died at his home in Canaan, Litchfield county, Con- necticut, March 20, 1904, and was buried with Masonic honors. He acquired his elementary education in the common schools in the vicinity of his home, and this was supplemented by attendance at the Dudley (Massachusetts) Academy, after which he entered upon a business career by establishing himself as a wholesale jeweler in the State of Illinois. Returning to the east, he took up the study of dentistry under his brother, who was estab- lished in this profession in New Milford, and having perfected himself in it, established himself in the practice of this profession in Falls Village, in 1861, and continued there for a period of twenty-three years, during which time he had acquired and maintained a large and lucrative practice, from which he retired one year after his marriage. But it was not in professional life alone that Dr. Clemans earned distinction. The active part he displayed in the public life of the community, resulted in his being elected to represent the Democratic party in the State Legislature in 1876, from Canaan, and his conduct while in office was entirely satisfactory to his constituents. He was a member of Montgomery Lodge, No. 13, Free and Accepted Masons, of Lakeville; Hematite Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Lakeville; Masonic Council, of Litchfield; the Commandery, Knights Templar, of Bridgeport;
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Dr. Jerry D. Clemans
and Pyramid Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport.
Dr. Clemans married, October 8, 1884, Frances Fuller, a daughter of the late John R. Fuller, of Canaan, and a woman of culture and refinement, gracious and charming in her manner. He and his wife were inseparable companions, and they spent a considerable portion of their time in travel. In 1903, late in the year, Dr. Clemans paid a visit to his native place, and the surrounding localities, this being the first time he had gone there in forty years. He found the places wonderfully changed, and regarded this as one of the pleasantest trips he had ever undertaken. His religious affili- ation was with the Methodist church.
In his private life Dr. Clemans was a man of high ideals and rare attain- ments. Intellectually he was a man of unusual force and influence and all who came in contact with him felt the impress of his personality. He loved friends and delighted in their company, for there was in him nothing of the misanthrope. His personal character was above reproach; his presence pleasing, his morals pure, and he possessed temperance and self control. His domestic life was a most happy one, and his was a most delightful home.
Lyman Dudley Smith
L YMAN DUDLEY SMITH, in whose death on July 10, 1911, Hartford, Connecticut, lost one of its most respected and beloved citizens, was not a native of that city, nor indeed of Connecticut, having removed there as a young man from Maine, of which State his family had long been resident, and where he himself was born. At the time of his death he was the oldest, in point of continuous service, teacher in the United States. He came from hardy English stock, having descended from Edward Payson, who came from England in 1636 and landed at Roxbury, Massachusetts, and who married Mary Eliot, a sister of the celebrated Indian missionary. The great-grandfather of Lyman D. Smith fought in the Revolutionary War; his grandfather was a colonel in the War of 1812; his father, Lyman Smith, who followed at different times the callings of farmer and seaman, died when he was a mere lad, and his mother, Martha (Payson) Smith, was a daughter of Colonel Asa Payson, who operated a farm in the village of Hope, Maine, was a shoemaker by trade, and also served in the capacity of postmaster of the village, and was a sister of Pro- fessor Jesse W. Payson, author of the Payson, Dunton & Scribner system of penmanship.
Lyman Dudley Smith was born December 28, 1842, at Camden, Maine, but only resided in that town during the first four years of his life, when his father died and he was taken by his mother to the little village of Hope, Maine, where she was to make her home with her father. The boy per- formed the usual farm work, and secured his education against great odds. The grandfather's great force of character and ability made an impress upon young Lyman's life and influenced him greatly for education and manliness in character. At an early age he began to take an interest in fine penman- ship, caused no doubt by the assistance rendered his grandfather in post office work, and by the influence of his uncle, Professor Payson. All the money expended upon his education was earned by himself in the face of many adverse circumstances, but he was a natural scholar and applied him- self with great diligence to his studies. He possessed a remarkable memory, and had the ambition to obtain knowledge and to make the most of himself. The school life of a lad in that time and place was no sinecure, not only on account of the circumstances attending the school itself, which were of the crudest, but because, when not attending classes, he must work at the tasks of his elders instead of enjoying the opportunity for recreation which the school boy of to-day knows. The busy life did not seem to harm him, how- ever, the hard work in the open air, together with the close intimacy with nature and its elemental truths which the occupation of farming brings, developed in him, as in so many of the hardy sons of New England, a strength of body and character well fitted to bear the blows of fate. Cer- tainly, so far from disturbing his studies, it seemed rather to serve as a stimulus, for while very young he left the high school, which he had
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