USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 45
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The founder of this worthy house, so typical of the qualities that have given New England its preeminent place in the industrial world, was John Bissell, born in Somersetshire, England, in 1591, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1632, and before 1640 had removed to Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut. From that time down to the present his descendants have made Hartford county their home so that the family may now be said to form an essential part of the life and traditions of the region. From the original John Bissell were descended in the direct line and in the following order, John, Jr., Jeremiah, Samuel, Isaac, Dr. Asaph L. and Charles Samuel Bissell, whose life forms the subject of this sketch. All have been men of high repute and prominence in the home they have so long called their own, all have been successful and taken an active and public-spirited part in the affairs of the county. For a number of generations they continued to live in Windsor, but in the life of Isaac, during Revolutionary times, removed to the beautiful neighborhood of Suffield, the development of which into a town of industrial importance has depended so greatly upon the activities of the later generations of Bissells.
Dr. Asaph L. Bissell, father of Charles Samuel Bissell, was born in Suffield, in 1791, and became the leading physician of that neighborhood, winning considerable fame for his successful work and for other abilities which aided in the accumulation of a very substantial fortune. Dr. Bissell's business foresight was excellent and he invested his money so as to reap a continual increase, and at the same time to assist the just budding industries of the neighborhood. To him and his wife, who had been before her mar- riage a Miss Lucy Norton, were born eight children, of whom Charles Samuel was the eldest. The others were as follows: William N., born in 1823; Francis L., born in 1825; Mary, died in childhood; Mary A., born September 28, 1828, and became Mrs. Horace E. Mather; Emily L., born in 1831 and became Mrs. N. Sherman Bouton, of Chicago; Harvey L., born in 1834, Eugene, born November 1, 1839. When Dr. Bissell first began to
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practice his profession in Suffield conditions were far otherwise from what they are to-day and a doctor's life, arduous enough at best, was then full of hardship. Automobiles and even good roads were things of the future and the doctor was often called upon to travel many miles on horseback on cold and wet nights. He never failed in his duties to his patients, however, and established a well and hard-earned reputation of devotion to his work and a conscientious regard for the interests of others. He was a graduate of the Yale Medical School and the old sheepskin diploma won there is still a valued family possession as are also his saddle bags and the desk and medi- cine cabinet in which he kept his old fashioned but effective remedies, con- sisting largely of roots and herbs of various sorts. He was well entitled to have that old-fashioned New England term, a "gentleman and a scholar" applied to him. The old house which is still the family mansion was built by him about 1845, some five years before his death, which occurred August 2, 1850. He was survived a few years by his widow.
Charles Samuel Bissell, the eldest child of Dr. Asaph L. and Lucy (Norton) Bissell, was born April 5, 1821, in Suffield, and there passed his entire life. He early displayed those talents that were to distinguish him in later life, and received an excellent education as a preparation for his life's work, attending, first, the local public schools and later that venerable and famous institution of learning known as the Connecticut Literary Institute. Mr. Bissell was a born financier and man of affairs. He seemed intuitively to judge correctly of the worth of investments and the probabilities of advance or recession of values. He was for many years one of the leading business men of Hartford county, his advice being received with the greatest consideration and respect by his colleagues in the various enterprises under- taken by him. He was for a considerable period a director in the old Con- tinental Insurance Company, but the largest and most important venture in which he was concerned, as well as one of the most successful, was the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford of which he was one of the principal founders, remaining a heavy holder of its stock until his death. He amassed as a result of these enterprises a large fortune which he spent with great liberality in many movements for the advancement of his native community. There were but few departments of the town's life in which he did not take part and was a well-known figure throughout the neighborhood. He was a staunch member of the Republican party and did a great deal of valuable work looking to the advancement of the principles and policies for which it stood, but in spite of this he was totally without personal ambition for political preferment and consistently refused the offers of his confreres to accept office. In religion he was affiliated with the Congregational church, and was one of those in whom his beliefs played a real part in his life and were translated into terms of conduct.
Charles Samuel Bissell married, June 23 1863, Maria E. Pomeroy, of Suffield, her wedding day being the twenty-eighth anniversary of her birth. She was the daughter of Chauncey and Maria (Granger) Pomeroy, old and honored residents of that part of the State. Mr. Pomeroy was a gentleman of the old school, a large-hearted, public-spirited man who always kept the good of the community at heart and was beloved by all who knew him. He
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held during his life many public offices, being selectman and town treasurer of Suffield, besides serving the town in other capacities. He kept a large safe at his home wherein were stored the town valuables which were en- trusted to him for safe-keeping. His home, situated near the site of the present Baptist church, was for many years a landmark in the town, and indeed no history of the place would be complete without mention of his name. He was the father of five children, as follows: Maria E., later Mrs. Bissell; Chauncey, Jr., deceased; Cornelia, who became the wife of Dr. M. T. Newton, now deceased; Willis and Arthur, both deceased.
Maria E. (Pomeroy) Bissell was born June 23, 1835, though one would suppose it to have occurred at least ten years later, and passed her girlhood in the same manner that all young ladies of that day and place did. Being of a well-to-do family she received an excellent education, completing it in the Holyoke Seminary. Her marriage to Mr. Bissell occurred, as has already been stated on the twenty-eighth anniversary of her birth, and from that time she has made her home in the old Bissell homestead. To Mr. and Mrs. Bissell were born two sons, Leavitt Pomeroy and Charles Chauncey, of both of whom sketches appear elsewhere in this work. Six years after the death of Mr. Bissell, Mrs. Bissell was married to Charles G. Pomeroy, a very dis- tant relative, who had been very prominently connected with the city of Wallingford, Connecticut. They continued to reside at the old Bissell mansion, Mr. Pomeroy dying here in 1904, Mrs. Pomeroy still making it her home.
Charles Samuel Bissell's death occurred February 2, 1887, in the sixty- sixth year of his age, after a lifelong residence in the town of his birth. He was a man of many sterling virtues and a very attractive personality, which made him very popular and won him hosts of friends. Essentially a domestic man, he loved greatly the associations and intercourse of home and family, and never forgot to provide for the happiness and comfort of every member of the household. And if he was a devoted husband and father, he was not less a faithful friend, and possessed in an unusual degree the power to inspire devotion on the part of others for himself. Quiet and unassuming in manner, easy of approach to all, both high and low, he was nevertheless capable of the most determined adherence to his own views and opinions and the most persevering and energetic efforts in the overcoming of all obstacles that interfered with his proposed ends. At once positive and open to reason, dominant and tolerant in a breath, he was one who could not fail to leave his mark on any community of which he was a member, or to be profoundly missed when fate called him to what he earnestly believed was but a larger sphere of activity and a higher duty.
Charles Chauncey Bissell
TT IS NOT only the Old World, with its systems of caste, its classes and well protected aristocracies, that presents to us the sight of families who for generations have maintained with unwavering stability the high place gained by some talented ancestor in public esteem, for even democratic America can show us the same, and many are the great houses presenting, as it were, a kind of aristocracy of brains and ability, whose members never seem to fall below a high standard of intelligence and character, and who continue to establish and reestablish their high standing and prominence in the community. It is, of course, so much more to their credit that they should do so in a country like the United States, the republican institutions remove all those artificial assistances, which in other lands are so often for the success of the scions of the great irrespective of any notable virtues or abilities on their part. It is particu- larly noteworthy that of all parts of the country, New England, that hotbed of equality, the birthplace of American freedom, should be the one that displays the largest number of such families.
One of the best examples of these old families is that which bears the name of Bissell, the members of which, for eight generations, have been closely and prominently identified with the affairs of Hartford county, Connecticut, and for the last three have made their home in that most charming of Connecticut towns, Suffield. It is with a member of this dis- tinguished house that this article is concerned, one who is a lineal descend- ant in the eighth generation from the immigrant ancestor, John Bissell who, born in Somersetshire, England, in 1591, landed in Plymouth, Massachu- setts, as early as 1632.
Charles Chauncey Bissell was born August 18, 1867, in the town of Suffield, Hartford county, Connecticut. He was the younger of the two sons of Charles Samuel and Maria E. (Pomeroy) Bissell, lifelong residents of Suffield, his father being one of the best known business men and most influential financiers in that region during his time. The son, Charles Chauncey Bissell, was reared in the town of his birth, and there obtained his education in the well-known institution of learning, the Connecticut Literary Institute, and with which he maintained the most cordial rela- tions all through life, and was untiring in his efforts in upbuilding the school which had been allowed to run down. In the 1914 Year Book of the Con- necticut Literary Institute, the book was dedicated to Mr. Bissell with appropriate remarks concerning his efforts in upbuilding the school and re- ferring to his well known love and help for all boys in general. During the time of his schooling he had spent his leisure time on his father's farm, and there gained that health of mind and body which seems peculiarly the heri- tage of a youth spent amid rural surroundings and engaged in the simple pursuits of agriculture. He acquired also an abiding taste for these pur- suits which lasted him throughout his life and caused him always, despite
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his many important commercial interests, never wholly to abandon the farm life. Upon completing his studies, however, he made his way to the city of Hartford, the nearest large place, and there took a clerical position in the employ of the Travelers' Insurance Company of that city. He remained in this service until the year 1891, gaining in the meantime a thorough mastery of business methods and detail in the several positions to which he was promoted and fitting himself admirably for the place he was next to fill. This came in the year already mentioned with an offer from the Suffield National Bank for him to become the assistant cashier of the institution. Mr. Bissell at once accepted and returned promptly to his native town to enter upon his new duties. He remained in the service of the bank until 1898 and then left to enter into a partnership with his brother in the well known firm of L. P. Bissell & Brother, dealers in leaf tobacco. The business of this company was very large and the two brothers added very materially to their fortunes thereby, being known as among the wealthiest merchants of the district. The great business ability, so obvious in the management of the tobacco business, led many concerns and financial institutions in the neigh- borhood to desire his services in their direction, and he became connected with a number of them, one of the most important offices of this kind which he held being the presidency of the Suffield Savings Bank. As has already been mentioned Mr. Bissell never entirely gave up the farming life he had become so strongly attached to as a boy and growing youth, retaining always a valuable piece of farm property in the neighborhood of Suffield village which he most carefully cultivated. After his interest in tobacco began he turned his attention to the production of that paying crop and from that time on raised every year upwards of thirty acres of it, as well as other crops.
But it was not in connection with his success in business or agriculture that Mr. Bissell was best known in Hartford county. Rather was it in the realm of politics in which he gained for himself the largest and most enviable reputation as a capable and disinterested leader and public official. He was a strong supporter of the principles of the Republican party, though by no means partisan in his beliefs or actions. He was nominated by the Republi- can organization of his town, and later duly elected to represent Suffield in the State Legislature in the term of 1901. His services in that body and as chairman of its Committee on Incorporations was of so distinguished a nature that he was elected the following year a member of the Connecticut Constitutional Convention. Here also he distinguished himself, taking a prominent part in the discussions and displaying great knowledge of con- ditions and requirements of the people of the State. It was an amendment offered by him that was eventually adopted in the question of representation which was for a long time the subject of a hot controversy. In the year 1912, the political situation in Connecticut was peculiarly confused, the number of candidates proposed, both by the regular parties and by independent fac- tions, being quite unexampled. In Mr. Bissell's own party ranks there was a great deal of contention as to the best man to represent the district in the United States Congress and many men of prominence were mentioned. Mr. Bissell's name was one of the last, but as soon as it was mentioned the drift
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of popular sentiment was unmistakably towards him and he soon led all the other candidates. In the convention his victory over all competitors was at once assured for he won on the first ballot with sixty-three votes out of a possible ninety, his election being subsequently made unanimous. The papers throughout the entire region were full of his nomination, comment- ing upon it from every standpoint, but even those most bitterly opposed to him were at one with all the others in their estimate of him as a man of the strictest integrity and unsullied character. The whole campaign, indeed, was conducted on clean, gentlemanly lines, both Mr. Bissell and his oppo- nent, Mr. Lonergan, keeping strictly to questions of principle and policy and mutually conceding the honesty of purpose to the other that each claimed for himself. Mr. Bissell showed clearly from the start just what his politics were, his own utterances on the question of the tariff, then the principal issue between the parties, being the best possible expression of these beliefs. In this connection he said during one of his campaign speeches
"You all know what the Democratic party's platform of tariff for revenue only would mean to the vast army of skilled and unskilled workmen in our factories and on our farms; upon those men and women would the burden fall heaviest." And again, "I stand for the protective tariff measured by the difference in cost of production here and abroad."
The political situation in 1912 was complicated, as we all recall, by the entrance into the campaign of the third party headed by Colonel Roose- velt, which nominated candidates in all the Congressional Districts and completely disarranged the conditions everywhere, upsetting all political precedents. It was asked and answered in a thousand different ways during the campaign whether the Progressive candidates would draw their prin- cipal strength from the ranks of the Republicans or Democrats. The event proved that it was the former, the Democratic candidate winning in a district normally Republican by the narrow majority of five hundred and ten votes. Though defeated at the polls Mr. Bissell continued his disinterested work for the principles in which he believed and his candidacy for the next Congressional term was assured had not death suddenly and untimely cut short the career which seemed but just entering upon the brilliant fulfill- ment of the promises held out by a future which never materialized.
Besides his political and business affairs, Mr. Bissell took an active interest in many departments of the community's life. He was prominent in the best social circles of that region and of other places, and was a member of prominent organizations there. Among these may be mentioned the Apollo Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Washington Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Washington Commandery, Knights Templar; and Sphinx Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, all of the Masonic order. Besides these he also belonged to Gideon Granger Lodge, Knights of Pythias. He was affiliated with the Second Baptist Church of Suffield, and devoted his unusual musical talents to its service, acting for many years as organist and accepting no salary for the work.
Mr. Bissell married, September 4, 1889, Clara J. Spencer, a daughter of I. Luther and Julia (Pease) Spencer, of Suffield, and shortly afterwards bought the Cline place, considered one of the finest properties of a residential
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nature in the neighborhood. Here Mrs. Bissell, who survived her husband's death on February 3, 1914, now resides with the one son born to them. This son, Charles Bissell, is now a young man in his senior year at Yale Univer- sity.
Perhaps the most fitting way to close this brief notice of a remarkable man is by quoting from the innumerable tributes in the shape of newspaper articles and other memorial sketches appearing at the time of his death. The press of practically all the important cities of the State published brief accounts of his life together with eulogies of his character and appreciations of his work. The article in "The Homestead" of February 4, 1914, read in as follows :
Charles Chauncey Bissell, aged forty-five years, president of the Suffield Savings Bank and one of the most prominent residents of Suffield, died in his home in that town yesterday morning at five o'clock. * *
* Mr. Bissell was probably one of the best- known citizens of Connecticut. For a number of years he represented the town of Suffield in the General Assembly, and in 1902 he represented the same town in the Constitutional Convention. He had been prominent in Suffield business and fraternal circles for a number of years and was equally well known in State banking circles. He was a wholesome, generous-hearted man and stood high in the esteem of his fellow townsmen.
The "Rockville Leader" said:
The death of Hon. Charles C. Bissell on the sunny side of fifty, removes one of Suffield's first citizens and a gentleman widely known throughout the State as a practical man of affairs of solid and substantial qualities. He was a man of true worth and promi- nent in public life, being the Republican Congressional candidate from the First Dis- trict in the 1912 election. While quiet and unassuming, Mr. Bissell was a man of many delightful personal traits, companionable, a good fellow, whose friendship was well worth possessing. He will be missed by a wide circle of friends in various parts of the State.
In its issue of February 7, 1914, "The Times" speaking of his political career, said :
If Charles C. Bissell, of Suffield, had lived he would be the candidate of the Repub- licans of the First Congressional District this year for Congress. Two years ago he was their candidate and his defeat was attributable to the defection of Republicans who voted the Progressive ticket more than to anything else. His election this year was looked on as a certainty by many people. The only thing that would have stood in the way of his unanimous nomination at the Republican convention would be his own unwillingness to run again for Congress. He had frequently been asked since his defeat in the fall of 1912, if he would be a candidate this year, and his replies left it uncertain whether he continued to cherish the ambition of taking a position among the law-makers of the Nation. The popularity of Mr. Bissell was wide and there is no doubt he would have made a very strong candidate this year ; his friends think an invincible one.
One of the documents in existence which throws the strongest light on the generous, manly nature of Mr. Bissell is the letter written by himself after his defeat in the 1912 campaign to his successful opponent. It reads as follows.
My dear Mr. Lonergan : Please accept my hearty congratulations upon your elec- tion to represent the First Congressional District in Washington. I am sure you will represent the district not only with credit to the various interests represented in this district, but with credit to yourself. I want to express to you once more my apprecia- tion of the clean and gentlemanly contest you put up. With kindest regards and best wishes for your success, I am, Yours very sincerely ,
(Signed) CHARLES C. BISSELL.
Alfred Jennings Estlow
A LFRED JENNINGS ESTLOW, in whose death on December 16, 1911, the city of Hartford, Connecticut, lost one of its most prominent and highly-respected citizens, although a native of that State, was not a member of a New England family on his father's side of the house. The father was Martin Estlow, of the well known New Jersey family of that name, who on coming to reside in Connecticut married a Connecticut woman, Sarah Shipman Swathel, and settled in the town of Deep River. The elder Mr. Estlow served in the Civil War with the Twenty-second Connecticut Regiment, and died about 1896 in Hartford, his wife surviving him for several years.
Alfred Jennings Estlow was born at Deep River, Connecticut, Feb- ruary 20, 1854, but passed only the first few years of his life there. While yet a small child, his parents removed to Hartford, with their family, and there he grew to manhood. As a boy he attended the excellent public schools of the city, and gained there a fine, general education. He was naturally a very bright lad, and completing his schooling early, sought at once for employment. He had not far to seek, being given a position on the force of the old Clinton House, which stood at the corner of Central row and Prospect street, by Alexander Bacon, the proprietor and manager. Here he remained a number of years and learned the hotel business thoroughly in all its details. After this valuable apprenticeship, Mr. Estlow was offered the position of clerk with the United States Hotel, and there remained for many years. Eventually, when through long experience, he had become one of the most competent hotel men in the city, he was offered the post of manager of the Hotel Heublein, the best known and most fashionable hotel in Hartford, an offer which he accepted, filling that most responsible office with the greatest efficiency for a number of years. During that time, how- ever, in spite of his taste for the hotel business, Mr. Estlow came to desire more and more strongly to embark upon a business enterprise of his own. This desire was finally gratified about 1901, when in connection with a number of associates, and especially his brother-in-law, Harry R. Knox, he established the Sanitary Laundry Company with office and laundry building at the corner of Gold and Lewis streets. In course of time the Center Street Church chose this site for its proposed new building for a parish house, and it became necessary for the laundry to move its quarters. This it did to a new structure on Church street, where the most modern equipment ,was installed and a thoroughly up-to-date establishment conducted. From the outset the business of the concern prospered. The policy of Mr. Estlow, who was president of the company, was at once conservative and progres- sive, and he soon built up a very large business.
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