USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 42
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George B. Foster, the second son of James Phelps Foster, who entered the business founded by his father, was born in Hartford, November 3, 1840. He made the city of his birth his lifelong home and the scene of his active career. He was educated in the splendid city schools and graduated from high school. He then entered the employ of his father and elder brother, and showed such aptness and energy that he was quickly admitted as a member of the firm. It was he who, after the retirement of his father, continued the business with Frederick Rose Foster, until it was finally closed in 1901. Mr. Foster continued to live for thirteen years after his retirement, his death occurring May 8, 1913. He is survived by a brother, Charles Grant Foster, of Morristown, New Jersey, and his two sisters, the Misses Alice and Emma Phelps Foster, of No. 791 Prospect avenue, Hart- ford.
Another son of James Phelps Foster, James Phelps Foster, Jr., was also associated with his father and brothers in business. He is also deceased.
Edwin C. Rose
T HE PLACE TAKEN in many of the communities in this democratic hemisphere by the great financiers and industrial leaders is in some respects similar to that occupied by the landed aristocracy of abroad. The great difference in the situation being, of course, that there is nothing formal about the relation, no acknowledgment of it in any of our institu- tions or customs so that it could never reach the point where it acts as a sinister influence in the hands of the unscrupulous. Nevertheless, as remarked above, there is something analogous, the analogy existing on the beneficent side of such relation, so that we often find some wealthy resident assuming the position almost of patron of a town or small city and bestowing great benefits upon it in the shape of gifts to its institutions, en- couragements to its growth, and a general shaping of its development in a thousand different directions, industrially, financially, educationally and what not, so that often the debt of gratitude from the community to its patrons is very large. Such a position was occupied in a measure towards the bustling and prosperous town of Torrington, Connecticut, during the past generation by the distinguished gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch, Edwin E. Rose, known throughout the region during life and equally mourned on the occasion of his death there on December 28, 1905.
Edwin E. Rose was a descendant of splendid old New England stock, many branches of the Rose family having highly distinguished themselves in the affairs of their respective communities, and his own father being a leading citizen of Torrington in earlier days. He was himself born in the town of Walcott, Connecticut, on March 2, 1845, but went with his parents to Torrington shortly afterwards and there lived during the remainder of his life. From the outset he was a bright lad and displayed to an advantage his talents in the local public schools which he attended for his education, so that he graduated at an early age with more knowledge of the world, to say nothing of his studies, than most of his elder fellow-graduates. Immedi- ately upon completing his schooling, the youth entered the large manufac- tory of woolen goods of which his father was the head, and was engaged in that business until his retirement from all active business a few years prior to his death. The concern was known as the Torrington Woolen Company and, at his father's death, he took the elder man's place and continued in its management until the end. The business under his masterly direction pros- pered and grew to very great proportions and became one of the important industries of that great manufacturing region, without a market, extending throughout the country. Since the death of Mr. Rose the establishment has been known as the Warrington Woolen Company of Torrington.
The business activity of Mr. Rose was, in itself, an extremely valuable thing for Torrington, employing many hands and bringing business of many kinds there. But in addition to this he set out to do all that he could in every direction for the benefit of the community. A highly public-
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spirited man, he interested himself in every movement undertaken for the public welfare, and if it promised any practical advantage, he did not hesitate to give it assistance of every kind. He was extremely charitable in his impulses, and no one of the many who came to him with real misfortunes to complain of ever went away again unhelped. Yet though he took so keen an interest in all the affairs of the town, and made diligent search after the true facts in every disputed matter, he did not court the attention of the public and remained out of local politics, for which his talents admirably fitted him, save to the extent of doing his duty at the polls and in private discussion. Nor was he fond of social life in any large meaning of the term, never joined any orders or organizations of a fraternal nature and far preferred to take his recreation in the bosom of his family and the quiet of his home. This society he did indeed enjoy, and he never lost an opportunity to spend what time he might by his own hearthstone with his family and more intimate personal friends about him.
It was on Thanksgiving Day of the year 1870 that Mr. Rose was united in marriage with Madeline A. Hamilton, a daughter of Thomas and Mary Hamilton, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Torrington, Connecticut. It was in the former place that Mrs. Rose was born, but at the age of five years she was brought to the east by her parents and continued to reside in Torrington thereafter. She is of an old and highly honored Connecticut family, and the residence of her parents in the west was a temporary one. To Mr. and Mrs. Rose were born seven children, four of whom, Nellie, Clifford, Lena and Clara, are deceased. The three that survive are as follows: Edwin H., Ruth and Jesse T. The eldest of the three is now a resident of East Haddam, Connecticut. He has been twice married, the first time to Maude S. Lane, by whom he had two children, Corrinne M. and Madeline. and after her death to Charlotte Tubs, of Hartford. The two younger children, Ruth and Jesse T., now reside with their mother in the delightful home on South Main street, Torrington.
There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Rose was one of the important men of the past generation in the growth and development of Torrington, one of the large-hearted, clear-headed men, whose foresight and resolution have been responsible for the building up of the great industrial centers which dot the southern portion of New England so thickly. Typical of this class was he in many ways, possessing their sterling virtues of integrity and courage, that strange and most effective union of idealism and a sense for practical affairs so characteristic of the New England temperament. He did much for the town of his residence in a concrete way, but perhaps the greatest boon he conferred upon it was the example he set of broad-minded, tolerant virtue and judicious liberality.
Isaac Beecher Dabis
T HERE IS ALWAYS a double reason for properly recording the lives of those strong and worthy men whose careers have, by their progressive wisdom, and yet strict adherence to the principles of honor and just dealing, at once con- tributed to the moulding of events in their own times and set a model for the youth of future generations. These two reasons are, in the first place, that thus only may we dis- charge a debt of gratitude to the memory of those whom we may not reach directly, and in the second place that we may perpetuate those memories for the benefit of others, who might not have the advantage of coming within the sphere of their wholesome influence save through the medium of the writ- ten word. The profit which we may derive from such accounts are not by any means proportionate to the brilliancy or the startling character of the achievement ; the stories of great genius, indeed, rather oppress our am- bitions by producing a feeling of helpless inferiority. But of those who, possessing our own type of faculties, have by a wise and courageous use of them won success, we cannot but desire to learn, knowing that here at least the lessons are apposite to our own circumstances, and that what has been done by them we also may do. Such a lesson we may all most appropriately learn in the story of the life of Isaac Beecher Davis, one of "nature's gentle- men," who by enduring courage and persistency, coupled to an alert and open mind, forged for himself a place in the community of his adoption of the highest prominence and won a reputation for integrity and substantial business methods surpassed by none. His death at his home in Hartford on April 9, 1895, a few days prior to his seventy-eighth birthday, removed one of its leading citizens from that place.
Mr. Davis was a son of John and Laura (Riggs) Davis, of Chestnut Hill, Oxford, Connecticut, his paternal grandfather having been Colonel John Davis, of the same place. Chestnut Hill is a rather stony farm lying on the outskirts of the village and it was here, on April 15, 1817, that Mr. Davis was born. Like most boys of his worldly circumstances, he attended the local public school, which in those days offered what may scarcely be called a liberal education, but the deficiencies in the institution, the lad, with characteristic ambition and energy, made up by private reading, and the rough school of experience, in which he was early launched. From his childhood he disliked farming, considerable of which he was obliged to do in the intervals of attending school, for being of a brisk, socially-inclined nature, he sought the society of his kind more than the circumstances of an agricultural occupation would permit. He was nevertheless obliged to per- severe in it for a time after graduating from the school, employing his winters in teaching in the schools he had recently attended as a pupil. This, however, was before he had reached the age of seventeen years, when, aban- doning the parental roof, he made his way to the city of New Haven, and gave up rural life forever.
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Arriving in this city he at once apprenticed himself to a stone mason with the purpose of learning his trade, at the same time continuing his school teaching in the city. As soon as he had mastered the mason's craft, he left New Haven, and making his way to Seymour, Connecticut, there established himself in a contracting and building business of his own. This was in the year 1841, when Mr. Davis was about twenty-four years of age, and he continued in this business with much success for upwards of thirteen years. In the autumn of 1854 he became associated with the Syracuse Coal and Salt Company of Syracuse, Ohio, in the capacity of agent, and repaired to that western town, where his first duty was the opening of the mine, to- gether with the erection of the plant and the installment of the equipment. This occupied the better part of two years, after which Mr. Davis, still as representative of the company, went to Cincinnati, in which place he man- aged the business. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Davis's keen foresight grasped the opportunity, which the government's need for vessels on the inland waters, especially the Mississippi system, would open for the building of and the trading in boats of many kinds. Accordingly the con- nection with the Syracuse company was severed and a partnership formed with his friend, William A. Healy, of Cincinnati, to engage in this business. The first venture of the kind was the purchase of the "Crescent City," a vessel which was shortly after chartered by the United States government. This was but the beginning of what developed into a very remunerative trade, the two young men building and handling many boats in this way. At the time of the threatened attack upon the city, Mr. Davis was one of those commissioned to build the pontoon bridge across the Ohio for its defence. Mr. Davis's health was not of the best at this period, and was, indeed, growing steadily worse, so that in 1868 he was obliged to give up his western residence and return to Connecticut. He now made his home in Hartford and after a few years spent in regaining his strength and health, he established himself in a manufacturing business there which he con- tinued until his retirement from active life in 1890 when he turned over the management of the industry to his only son, Mr. John O. Davis. The article manufactured by this concern was the Berryman Feed-water Heater and Purifier, a device for the utilization of the exhaust steam for heating the feed water before being fed to the boiler. This was, of course, an immense saving of energy till then lost in the escape of the exhaust steam, so that the demand for the appliance became very great and the industry grew until it was one of the leading concerns of Hartford. The founding of this business occurred in 1872, before which Mr. Davis had been temporarily engaged in a marble business, and had lived meanwhile at the old United States Hotel. In 1891 he built himself a very handsome mansion on Farmington avenue at the corner of Laurel street. As time went on other steam heating devices were added to the production of the mills, many of which were inventions of Mr. Davis's which he had patented. It stands to this day a monument to his ability and business talent and the inventive genius with which it formed so happy a union. For eighteen years he continued in active management of I. B. Davis & Son, and it was as a result of his efforts that the business
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grew from its small origin to the proportions it had assumed at the time of his death.
Nor was this by any means the only operation of importance under- taken by Mr. Davis in Hartford. He had a very strong fondness for build- ing things and "watching them grow," and he indulged this taste to the great benefit of Hartford, erecting partly for his pleasure a number of sub- stantial structures, many of them among the handsomest in the city. One of these was the Batterson structure on High street, named after Mr. James G. Batterson, with whom Mr. Davis was in partnership in the marble busi- ness for a time.
Entirely outside the realm of business was his interest in many aspects of the city's life. He had all his life been a close thinker on political matters, and prior to the great readjustment of parties and public opinion, had always been a supporter of the Democratic party. He was one of those who rallied to the support of President Lincoln and from that day until his death counted himself a Republican. As far as local affairs were concerned, although he was allied with his party's city organization, he was quite inde- pendent in his attitude towards local candidates and brought his influence to bear in favor of the men he thought individually the best. He personally held a membership on the Hartford Board of Health for a number of years, but as a rule he rather shrank from than sought honors of this kind. He was a member of Morning Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sey- mour, Connecticut. Mr. Davis was affiliated with the Episcopal church and a member of Christ Parish for many years. He was a man of strong religious feelings and gave much of his time, thought and energy to the furtherance of the church work and religious interests generally. For many years he held the office of vestryman.
Mr. Davis was twice married. His first wife was Maria Ann Tucker, a native of Seymour, Connecticut, and a daughter of Sheldon and Nancy (Keeney) Tucker, of that place. Born to them were five children, as fol- lows: Mary N., who resides with a brother at No. 183 High street, Hart- ford; Otis, deceased; Lillie A., a gifted musician, now deceased; John, de- ceased ; John O., now the head of the firm of I. B. Davis & Son. The death of Mr. Davis's first wife occurred in 1865, and in 1872 he married Mrs. Josephine H. Kenyon, of Hartford, a lady of Scotch ancestry, who survives her husband and is now living at No. 333 Laurel street.
The gracious, dignified figure of Mr. Davis, so familiar in his life on the streets of Hartford, was typical of much that was best in New England society. He was in every way a "gentleman of the old school," courtly, reserved and yet easy of access to any who sought him, full of artistic appre- ciation and familiar with the things of culture and a cosmopolitan interest in the world. He had an abiding affection for the graces of an age which was passing even in his time, yet in no way did he keep his eyes closed to the progress of events, but kept well abreast of the times in every particular. Nor was this merely in the business and industrial world, in the latter of which he may be said rather to have led the advance than to have followed, but even in his pleasures, and it is said of him that he was the owner of the first rubber-tired buggy in the city of Hartford, if not in the State of Connec-
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ticut. And this brings us to one of his chief pleasures, that which he took in outdoor life generally and all that had to do with horses in particular.
He was a genial man and mixed easily with his fellows, seemingly able to find a common ground of sympathy with everyone. Yet he was not afraid of their opinion, as so often happens with popular men, but went serenely on what he believed the best way, without too much regard for what others thought of it, as is amply shown by his bringing out, in the face of hostile criticism, not unmixed with ridicule, a number of his mechanical inventions, notably his pump, now in general use. One of the strongest feelings which actuated him was that of patriotism, and it was his entire devotion to the great though youthful nation, in the form it had been be- queathed us by the great men of the past, that influenced him to put aside his strong allegiance to the old Democratic party and range himself among the followers of Abraham Lincoln in support of the integrity of the Union. It has been remarked above that Mr. Davis was full of artistic taste and appreciation, and in no way was this so strongly shown as in his fondness for music. In this art his natural appreciation had been cultivated by ample opportunity to hear the best and he held quite a reputation as a critic. An- other taste which he indulged as much as his duties would permit, was for travel. Of this he was extremely fond, but it was not until after his retire- ment from the active management of his business that he was able to do anything very much in this line. In the five years intervening between his retirement and death, he was, however, able to see considerable of the world, and three years before the latter event, he went to Europe and spent a long period there. It is impossible within the compass of a brief article such as this to properly develop the character of so many-sided a man as Mr. Davis. All that can be done is to suggest these sides, and dwell as well as may be on the splendid virtues which bound them together into so unique and striking a personality. His was a life that benefited all who touched it, even the most casually, and may truly be said to have made the world better through its example.
William Dudley hubbard
T HE BIOGRAPHIES of representative men of a community, either of a past or present generation, bring to light many hidden treasures of mind, heart and character, well calcul- ated to arouse the pride of their descendants and of the com- munity, and it is a source of regret that the people are not more familiar with the history of such men, in the ranks of whom may be found tillers of the soil, merchants, financiers, mechanics, teachers, statesmen, lawyers, physicians, and representatives of other vocations and professions. Hartford, Connecticut, has been the home and scene of labor of many men who have not only led lives which should serve as a lesson and inspiration to those who follow them on to the stage of life's activities, but who have also been of commendable service in im- portant avenues of usefulness along various lines. The late William Dudley Hubbard, of Hartford, Connecticut, whose death left a wide gap in the business and social world of the community, was one of the world's useful workers, a man of well rounded character, sincere, devoted and loyal, so that there are many salient points which render appropriate a tribute to his memory in this compilation. By a life consistent in motive and because of his many fine qualities of head and heart he earned the sincere regard of a vast acquaintance, and his success in his chosen field of endeavor bespoke for him the possession of superior attributes.
Hon. Richard Dudley Hubbard, his father, was born in Berlin, Hartford county, Connecticut, September 7, 1818. His origin was an humble one, and he was left orphaned at an early age with barely sufficient funds to complete his education. His father established the first, or nearly the first, button manufactory in the State of Connecticut, and that, going to Fayette- ville, North Carolina, a great button mart at that time, he accidentally found his wife, in the person of a Miss Dudley, a native of that State, whom he married and brought home, and hence the name of Dudley in his family. The manufacturing enterprise proved a failure, with considerable loss to the elder Mr. Hubbard, who died, leaving a diminished patrimony to his chil- dren.
The youthful days of Richard D. Hubbard were spent in East Hartford, where he prepared for college at a noted school under the preceptorship of Theodore L. Wright, a graduate of Yale College. He was then living in the family of Charles H. Olmsted, and in order to husband his small patrimony for his college expenses, he undertook some light household duties in return for his board, a customary thing in those days. Later he matriculated at Yale College, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1839. While a student there he paid special attention to belles lettres and oratory, both of which branches were of inestimable advantage to him in his later career as a jurist. He took several prizes in English composition, and was chosen one of the editors of the "Yale Literary Magazine." In the earlier part of Mr. Hubbard's professional life, he was an absorbed reader of the
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best of England's authors, and afterwards, when severer studies took control of him, he was still a lover of the great themes of Milton, Shakespeare, and the harvest of giants who made illustrious the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First, and he could easily be recalled, in leisure hours, to these, his early loves.
Upon leaving Yale College he at once engaged in the study of the legal profession, reading under the preceptorship of William Hungerford, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. In the course of time he became the first lawyer of the State and the greatest orator it possessed in his time. This was owing mainly to his thorough preparation of his cases, to his perfect comprehension of legal principles, to the method and manner of his addresses to the higher courts, the deference of his appeals to the judges upon ques- tions of law, never overstepping the quiet and impressive enforcement of his views, and never betrayed into declamation, anxious not to persuade but rather to convince the tribunal, ambitious only to merit and obtain the repu- tation of a learned and accomplished lawyer, maintaining professional integ- rity. In the trial of cases he was earnest and exacting. For opposition founded upon intrigue and maintained by chicanery he had unmeasured contempt ; and in later years, at times, seemed impatient of vigorous opposi- tion, an impatience which sometimes approached intolerance. With un- usually sound judgment he combined great quickness of apprehension and brilliancy of imagination; he possessed a rare fineness of discrimination united with an unlimited grasp of mind. He had no relish and but little respect for the mere technicalities of the law and was never led astray by a fondness for legal casuistry. Of an eminently philosophical turn of mind, the study of philosophical systems and abstract speculation was a constant source of recreation to him, and he was especially interested in the great mysteries and baffling questions of life.
Mr. Hubbard was honored by election to the office of State's Attorney during the terms 1847-54 and 1857-69. His political affiliations were with the Democratic party, but he was never dominated by partisanship, and during the period of the Civil War was conspicuous for his patriotism. He was elected to Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1867, and at the end of his term of service declined renomination. He was elected Governor of the State in 1876, being the first to serve under the two years' term, and in his first message strongly called the attention of the legislature to the injustice done to the women by the antiquated law governing their property rights in marriage, and under his supervision the act of 1877, making a radical change in the property relations of husband and wife, and based upon the principle of equality, was drafted and passed. In his annual message to the legisla- ture in January, 1877, he also spoke on suffrage, State finances, retrench- ment of State expenditures, savings banks, insurance companies, railroads, State prison, industrial school for girls, the National Guard, military inter- ference in the States, and in his annual message to the Legislature, January, 1878, he spoke on legislative procedure, administration of justice. legal pro- cedure, change of probate courts, embezzlement by trustees, statutes relat- ing to perjury, corporation laws, married women, restoration of forfeited rights, storage reservoirs and dams, railroads, act relating to railroad and
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