USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 53
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Of this race, whose virtues he represented in his own person, was sprung Alexander Allen, of Hartford, Connecticut, whose birth, lifelong residence and death there identified him wholly with the life and interests of that city. But though born in the American city himself, Mr. Allen's relations with his ancestral blood was absolute, since his parents both came from that country of which they were native and settled here some little time prior to his birth. Robert and Margaret (Stewart) Allen, the parents of the Mr. Allen of this brief sketch, became, on their arrival here, the possessors of a farm which occupied a site very near that of Trinity College, and now
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entirely occupied by the growing city of Hartford. Here, on this property which rapidly increased in value, Mr. Allen was born March 13, 1849, and here six years later his father died. During his childhood and early youth the lad continued to live with his mother on the old place, and from there attended the local schools where he acquired an excellent education. He afterwards took a course in a business college where he learned much that proved of value to him in after life. After thus completing his studies, of which his ambitious and industrious nature caused him to make the most possible use, he secured a position in the office of the Lincoln Foundry, where his alertness soon put him in line for promotion. He did not remain a great while in this employment, however, his enterprising spirit pointing out many ways of entering business on his own account. He engaged in the theatrical business for a short time and then opened a market on Asylum street, a venture in which he succeeded admirably. He continued to operate this market for several years and would probably have remained in the trade longer, had not the opportunity arisen for him to become associated with his father-in-law, William M. Charter, in the latter's large and well established ice business. The house which dealt in ice and of which Mr. Charter was at that time president, had been started by him a number of years previously, and was then transacting a very large business. Mr. Allen became a member of the firm which was known as the Spring Brook Ice Company, and with his active and vigorous nature, he soon made himself a most valuable adjunct, taking upon his own shoulders much of the burden and responsi- bility of management as Mr. Charter grew older. The business done by the Spring Brook Ice Company during the management of it by Mr. Allen was surpassed by no similar concern in the neighborhood and Mr. Allen became a wealthy man from its proceeds.
But it was not only as a business man that Mr. Allen played a con- spicuous role in the community. He was active in many movements, social, political and military, and was well known wherever he went. He did not indeed enter local politics with any idea of public office, yet he was well known in the vicinity as a staunch and ardent Republican who never missed an opportunity to work to the advantage of his party. He enlisted at an early age in the First Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, and rose to the rank of captain therein, and he was later made brigade inspector with rank of major.
Mr. Allen was married on September 13, 1874, to Emma E. Charter, a daughter of William M. and Charlotte A. (Smith) Charter, old and respected residents of Hartford. General Charter was at one time engaged in the grocery business in the city, but later established the great ice house already mentioned. He held many important positions in the city and the com- monwealth of Connecticut, having been a member of the street commission in Hartford and quartermaster-general of the State. He was also a member of Governor English's staff. He died April 5, 1897, and his wife about two years prior to that date. Mr. Charter was as strong a Democrat as his son- in-law, Mr. Allen, was Republican. To Mr. and Mrs. Allen were born four children : William Robert, John Charles, Elbert K. and Alice Lisle. The eld- est of these, William Robert, married Lillian Prentice, and they now reside
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in Hartford. The second son and the sister. John Charles and Alice Lisle, are unmarried and now reside with their mother, at the handsome family home at No. 237 Sigourney street. Elbert K. Allen married Sarah McGill, who bore him one child, Stewart Whitcomb. Their residence is at Portland, Maine. Mr. Allen is survived by his wife and four children. His death occurred on July 6, 1911, in the sixty-third year of his age, and was felt as a severe loss, not only by the many friends and associates who had grown to respect and honor him for his own sake, but in the business world of that region, wherein he had grown to be such a prominent and influential figure.
forma Gladwin
James Junius Goodmin
T HERE ARE MANY notable names identified with the finan- cial and industrial development of New England during the past half century, and they deserve the whole-hearted gratitude and praise of those who to-day are reaping the fruits of their labors. Among these names is that of Good- win, the members of this family having been closely asso- ciated in the projection of those vast plans, the consumma- tion of which has influenced the entire business world. Among them was the late James Junius Goodwin, whose death on June 23, 1915, left a gap in the life of two communities, New York and Hartford, which it will be difficult to fill. Although his active career in business brought him into more intimate intercourse with the financial operations of New York than with those of Hartford, the former city as the metropolis of the western hemisphere being a sort of clearing house for the world-wide financial trans- actions with which he had to do, yet in most of the aspects of his life it was rather with the smaller city that Mr. Goodwin may be said to have been identified. His forbears were for many generations among the prominent men of Hartford, who set and maintained high standards of probity and liberality for the business methods of the city; he was himself born there, and until his death he never gave up his Hartford home, spending, indeed, the greater part of each year in its delightful retirement.
The founder of the family in this country was Ozias Goodwin, and it seems probable that he was one of the immigrants who arrived in Boston on September 12, 1632, on the ship "Lion" from England. It must have been no great while thereafter that he removed from Boston to the little colony founded by Thomas Hooker on the banks of the Connecticut river, the germ of the modern Hartford; for as early as 1662 Nathaniel Goodwin, his son, was admitted as a freeman into that community by the General Court of Connecticut. From that time through all the stirring chapters of its history, the Goodwins have been active in the affairs of Hartford, taking part in its civic and military duties and proving themselves in every way to be public-spirited citizens.
In the earlier part of the nineteenth century the family was represented in Hartford by the dignified figure of Major James Goodwin, the father of James Junius, himself a prominent and successful man, who had passed his childhood in his father's home, long the stopping place of the stages for Albany and other western points and known as Goodwin's Tavern. It was with him that the connection with the Morgan family began, when as a youth he entered Joseph Morgan's office. This Joseph Morgan was the father of Junius Spencer Morgan, the well known London banker, and one of the founders of the great financial interests which later became so closely identified with his son's gigantic career. After a time James Goodwin mar- ried a daughter of Joseph Morgan and from his mother's brother the sub- ject of this sketch was given the name of Junius. James Goodwin became associated in a prominent way with many of the largest and most important
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business institutions in Hartford, among which should be mentioned the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which he was president, as well as institutions of another character, such as the Hartford Hospital; and in the old military organization known as the Governor's Horse Guard, of which he was major of the first company.
James Junius Goodwin, son of Major James and Lucy (Morgan) Good- win, was born in Hartford, September 16, 1835, and there passed his child- hood and youth. His education was for a time in the excellent private schools of the city, and later in the Hartford High School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1851. For a few years following he was employed in a number of clerical positions, and in 1857 he went abroad for eighteen months of study and travel. In the early part of the year 1859 he returned to the United States and accepted a position in the firm of William A. Sale & Company, of New York, engaged in the Chinese and East India trade. He remained with them about two years, and then became the part- ner of his cousin, the late J. Pierpont Morgan, who had just been given the American agency of the great London banking house of George Peabody & Company, of which his father was a member. The career of the Morgan firm is too widely known to need rehearsing here. and in fact Mr. Goodwin remained a partner for only ten years, though the interests with which he was connected were always allied to Mr. Morgan's. In 1871 the firm was reconstructed under the name of Drexel, Morgan & Company, Mr. Goodwin withdrawing from it, and indeed from all active business. He was one of those who inherited through his father a large portion of his ancestors' Hartford property which, with the growth of the city, had become a most valuable possession, and the care of which required much watchful atten- tion. But though he was not now engaged in active business, he did not sever his connection entirely with the financial world in which he had played so important a part. On the contrary, his interests were very large and varied, and without doubt it is due in large measure to his skill and wisdom that the institutions with which he was connected had great pros- perity. Among these should be mentioned the Connecticut Mutual Life In- surance Company, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, the Collins Com- pany, Connecticut Trust & Safe Deposit Company. the Holyoke Water Power Company, and the Erie & Susquehanna railroad.
Important as was his position in the financial world, and powerful as was his influence from this source, it is not for this that Mr. Goodwin was best known and is best remembered in the city of his birth; for though his business connections were numerous, he was still more active in other de- partments of the city's life. His public spirit knew no bounds and there were few movements undertaken for the general welfare in which he was not a conspicuous participant, aiding with generous pecuniary gifts and also with his time and personal effort. He was proud of the beautiful old city of which he and his forefathers had been residents for so many generations, and it was a pleasure for him to be active, and to be known as active in its affairs. He was prominent in the general social life of the community and was a member of many clubs and organizations, such as the Colonel Jere- miah Wadsworth branch of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Connecticut Historical Society, of which he was
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vice-president, the General Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connec- ticut and the Hartford Club. It is appropriate to add here that he was a member of many important New York clubs, such as the Union, the City, the Century, the Metropolitan, and the Church clubs. He was also a trustee of Trinity College, which in 1910 conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. In the matter of religion Mr. Goodwin was a communicant of the Episcopal church, as were his ancestors before him. He was a warden of Calvary Church in New York for twenty-five years and when in Hartford the venerable Christ Church was the scene of his devotions, and few of its members were more devoted or more valued than he. He held the office of warden for many years, and the parish is certainly much the stronger for his having served it. It was characteristic of him that he was at great pains to preserve its early traditions and records, and it was due to his generosity in bearing the expense of publication that the extremely valuable and hand- some volume of more than seven hundred and fifty pages in which the his- tory of the parish is traced in the form of annals down to the year 1895, by Dr. Gurdon W. Russell, was printed and distributed. Another act of Mr. Goodwin which illustrated his great generosity to the interests of his church was the gift of the handsome house at No. 98 Woodland street, Hartford, for the residence of the Bishop of Connecticut.
Mr. Goodwin's pride in his city has already been remarked, and we may add that its present prosperity, to say nothing of its beauty, owes not a little to his efforts and activities. His efforts, too, on behalf of the preservation of old records have been of great service for the more exact study and writ- ing of the city's history, and the Historical Society is richer in the possession of some very rare and valuable works through his generosity, especially noticeable being the gift of that great work, "The Victoria History of the Counties of England," not yet completed, but already a library in itself. He bore the expense of editing and publishing, as two volumes of the society's collections, the most important of Hartford's early records.
Mr. Goodwin married Josephine Sarah Lippincott, of Philadelphia, June 19, 1873. Mrs. Goodwin is a descendant of Richard Lippincott, who was a settler in Massachusetts some time prior to 1640, at which date he was living there, and who twenty-five years later was a planter of the first English settlement in New Jersey. To Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin there were born three sons who, with their mother, survive him. They are Walter Lippincott Goodwin, James Lippincott Goodwin, and Philip Lippincott Goodwin.
A man at once of native power and a high degree of culture, Mr. Good- win's was a character which instantly made an impression upon those with whom he came in contact, an impression which was never weakened, of essential strength, virtue, and kindly charity. He had the power of inspir- ing devotion on the part of friend or employee, and he repaid it with a faith- fulness on his part very noteworthy. Nor were his relations with the com- munity less commendable than with its individual members. Many specific examples of this might be adduced, but it must suffice to reassert and empha- size in a general way that Hartford has known few such devoted friends, few that have been at once so willing and able to further her interests, or so intimately connected with all that was best in her progress.
James D. Gorman
W TE are not slow in this country to acknowledge a debt of grati- tude to most of the European peoples who have contributed so largely of their best blood, sinew and brain to the making up of our great and complex citizenship. But we are less quick to acknowledge, though our tardiness springs wholly from ignorance in the matter, how greatly we are in the debt of that staunch and loyal sister to the north of us, Can- ada, for the strong and capable men, her sons, whom she has sent to take part in our national duties and destinies. Ignorance, as it is remarked above, is the sole cause of this lack of gratitude for assuredly we should be doubly willing to do justice to the near neighbor, so much of one piece with ourselves, but the fact is that but few realize the number of Canadians that have come here to live and that have won distinction in this or that realm of activity and achievement. Yet many there are, as a careful perusal of this volume will disclose to those interested, who, having been born among the higher latitudes of our sister dominion, have found their way southward and lived their lives thereafter amongst ourselves. Strongly representative of the best of these men was James O. Gorman, of Hartford, Connecticut, whose death in that city on January 12, 1911, at the age of fifty-nine years, removed one of its prominent citizens and one of the best known and most successful of its hotel men.
James O. Gorman was born in 1852, in Quebec, Canada, and he there passed his boyhood, attending the local schools. He was left an orphan at an early age, his mother dying when he was but five years old and his father when he was seven. He was taken charge of by a family of relatives with whom he lived until he had reached the age of fifteen when, being an excel- lent linguist and speaking both English and French fluently, he secured a position to go on the road as an interpreter. He followed this occupation for some time, during which, by dint of hard work and close economy, he saved up a little capital, it being his ambition to embark upon a business enterprise of his own. This he was eventually able to do, his first venture being in the manufacture of shoes in Lynn, Massachusetts. In this he was successful, but an opportunity occurring soon after for him to enter the hotel business he took advantage of it and became the owner of the Saga- more Hotel, recognized as the best house in Lynn. This he ran in a most admirable manner for a period of three years, making an enviable reputation as a capable and honest hotel man throughout that part of the country. His next move was to Hartford, Connecticut, which thereafter was his home and the scene of his successful operations. In this city he bought the hotel belonging to Peter Chute on the corner of Main and Arch streets, meeting there with a marked success. Shortly after, however, he opened a house on Main street opposite the South Green and there remained eight years, doing a large business and becoming widely known throughout the city, both on account of the excellent service of his hotel and because of his personal
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qualities, which rendered him a popular and conspicuous figure. His next purchase was the Rothschild House, which he also ran about eight years, and then made his final move to the large and important hostelry in Allen street. This he continued to run until the time of his death with a very high degree of success. The hotel being one of the best known and most popular in the city, Mr. Gorman made a very large income from it and became one of the important factors in the hotel business and, indeed, in the business world generally thereabouts. From the several ventures of the sort that he had undertaken in Hartford he had come into the possession of a very consider- able fortune and was regarded as one of the wealthy men of the place.
Before coming to Hartford Mr. Gorman was married to Frances H. Goodridge, of that town, a daughter of Jeremiah and Caroline (Bowman) Goodridge, who had made their residence there some time preceding her birth. They were originally from Maine, Mr. Goodridge having come from Canaan and his wife from Sidney in that State. To Mr. and Mrs. Gorman were born five children, as follows: Georgia, Nellie, Clara, Angelo and Jessica B., who with their mother survive Mr. Gorman. The eldest of these, Georgia, is now Mrs. George R. Finley ; the second daughter, Nellie, mar- ried Mr. J. Denby ; and Clara, the third daughter, became the wife of Wil- liam L. Dill, of New Jersey, an assistant secretary of the State. Mr. and Mrs. Dill are the parents of four children : William L., Jr., Francis G., James O. and John H. The two younger children of Mr. Gorman, Angelo and Jes- sica B., are unmarried, and reside in Hartford with their mother in the hand- some house purchased some years ago by Mr. Gorman, at No. 131 Asylum avenue.
Mr. Gorman's popularity has already been hinted at in the course of this sketch and, in truth, he enjoyed this distinction in no common measure. His personality was an unusual one, and as the host of a popular hotel he was thrown in contact with the greatest number and variety of persons, from all of whom, with his quick wit and comprehension, he gained some new outlook on life or interesting information. These he assimilated to his originally witty and wise viewpoint and philosophy, so that there were few men in the community better fitted to entertain a company or offer good advice to those who needed that commodity. Added to this that his nature was a most open and kindly one, and that he was ready to hold out the hand of friendship and assistance on all occasions and the basis of his popularity may readily be conceived. He was liberal to a degree in both senses of the word, his hand being no more willing to dispense material aid than his heart to give sympathy and a broad human understanding to the difficulties of others. He was eminently the tolerant man, the philanthropist, not in its formal sense merely, but in contradistinction to the misanthrope, the man who knew human nature and was in love with it. To a man of such charac- ter, especially where it is accompanied by clear-headed practical sense and no lofty scorn of the humble requirements of daily existence, success was natural, and rarely has success been better merited than by this kindly gentleman who, always intent on his own legitimate business, never injured another knowingly, and won and gained the respect and affection of the entire neighborhood.
Mrs. hannah Worcester Bage
T HE prosperity of any community, town or city depends upon its commercial activity, its industrial interests and its trade relations, and therefore among the builders of a town are those who stand at the head of its business enterprises. Mrs. Hannah (Worcester) Gage, of Hartford, Connecticut, is a woman who has done her full share in increasing the busi- ness activity of the section of the country in which she resides, in which she is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, woman, in point of years of residence. Her paternal ancestors, the Worcestors, were early settlers in New Hampshire. They were civilizers and patriots, and their name appears in the muster rolls of both the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars. The various town records show conclusively that citi- zenship and duty have always been synonymous terms with this family; that they have borne their part "each in their generation" in the public affairs of the community in which they have lived. The long list of clergy- men, the graduates of Harvard College and other institutions of learning, are evidences of their scholarly attainments; and the muster rolls of the army and navy from the earliest settlement of our country to the present time prove their patriotism to have been of the order that counted not the cost when their country's flag was assailed.
Mrs. Gage was born in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, August 10, 1826, daughter of Joshua Worcester and his second wife, Lydia (Whipple) Worcester. The Worcesters were formerly of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Worcester was a farmer, and his death occurred when Mrs. Gage was but seven years of age. Her mother took a little house on the river road, and it may be said that from that time Mrs. Gage, as she humorously expresses it, "commenced to scratch for myself." This "scratching" has never ceased, and she now pays taxes on no less than fourteen thousand dollars worth of property. She has, and looks after, sixteen tenements and three stores. In her childhood she had but little time for school attendance, but her education has not suffered to a noticeable extent. She has always kept abreast of the times by reading current literature, and many of the old standard authors- Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer, etc .- are still her favorites. All her life she has kept herself well posted in business affairs, and has not neglected to keep herself well informed on the political questions of the day, so that, were she to vote, she would be an intelligent supporter of the principles of the "Grand Old Party." She was married at the age of nineteen years, in the Universalist Church, to Joseph Gage, a native of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and a son of Jonathan and Hannah Gage.
The family of Gage, which is of Norman extraction, derived its descent from De Gaga, Gauga or Gage, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066, and after the Conquest was rewarded with large grants of land in the forest of Dean, and the county of Gloucester, adjacent to which forest he fixed his abode and erected a seat at Clerenwell, otherwise Clare- well. He also built a large mansion in the town of Chichester, where he died,
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and was buried in the abbey there; his posterity remained in that country for many generations, in credit and esteem, of whom there were barons in Parliament in the reign of Henry II. The first to come to this country was John Gage, of the ninth generation, and he arrived here in 1630.
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