USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 61
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Dr. Lucian S. Wilcox was born July 17, 1846, at West Granby, Con- necticut, a son of Justus Denslow and Emeline B. (Hayes) Wilcox. He passed the years of his childhood there and at Westfield, Massachusetts, where he attended school, later attended the Wilbraham Academy, where he prepared himself for college, and in 1846 matriculated at Yale Univer- sity, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1850, the degree of Master of Arts later, and the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine in 1855. He proved himself a brilliant pupil and won the deep regard of his professors and instructors, also the affection of the undergraduate body. After his graduation he accepted a position as teacher in the Chero- pee Seminary, in which capacity he served until 1857, in which year he settled in Hartford and there established himself in the practice of medicine. He soon won a wide reputation as a brilliant diagnostician and a profound student of his subject, and he rapidly built up an extensive general practice. In course of time he came to be regarded as one of the leaders of his profes- sion in the city, both by his fellow practitioners and the public generally. He continued in practice until the time of his death, and during the many years of his work gained the deep regard and affection of the community.
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In 1877 Dr. Wilcox was elected to the Chair of Theory and Practice of Medi- cine at Yale Medical School and so served until his death. He was a con- stant contributor to the Connecticut State Medical Society, and he also acted as medical director of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, being appointed to that position in 1865, and serving therein until his death.
Dr. Wilcox married, May 18, 1853, Harriet Catherine Silliman, of Easton, Connecticut, a daughter of David and Mary B. (Wheeler) Silliman, old and well known residents of that place. Four children were born to them, only one of whom survives, Alice Louise, who resides at the old Wil- cox homestead. Another daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wilcox, Katherine Silli- man, became the wife of Dr. Frederick T. Simpson, and they were the parents of one child, Frances Elizabeth Simpson, born July 31, 1893.
The place held by Dr. Wilcox in the community was one that any man might desire, but it was one that he deserved in every particular, one that he gained by no chance fortune, but by hard and industrious work and a most liberal treatment of his fellow-men. He was a man who enjoyed a great reputation and one whose clientele was so great that it would have been easy for him to discriminate in favor of the better or wealthier class of patients, but it was his principle to ask no questions as to the standing of those who sought his professional aid and he responded as readily to the call of the indigent as to that of the most prosperous. It thus happened that he did a great amount of philanthropic work in the city, and he was greatly beloved by the poorer classes there. It is the function of the physician to bring good cheer and encouragement almost as much as the more material assistance generally associated with his profession, often, indeed it forms the major part of his treatment, especially in those numerous cases where the nervous system is involved, and for this office Dr. Wilcox was particu- larly well fitted both by temperament and philosophy. There is much that is depressing about the practice of medicine, the constant contact with suffer- ing and death, yet the fundamental cheerfulness of Dr. Wilcox never suffered eclipse and was noticeable in every relation of his life. In his home, as much as his great practice would permit him to be in it, Dr. Wilcox was the most exemplary of men, a loving husband and father and a hospitable and charming host.
James Goodwin Batterson
TO ACQUIRE DISTINCTION or great prosperity in the busi- ness pursuits which give to the country its financial strength and credit requires ability of the highest order. This fact is apparent to all who tread the busy thoroughfares of the business world. Ordinarily, merit may attain a respectable position and enjoy a moderate competence, but to spring from the common walks of life to one of the first places of monetary credit and power can only be the fortune of a rarely gifted person- age. Eminent business talent is undoubtedly a combination of high mental and moral attributes. It is not simple energy and industry ; there must be sound judgment, breadth of capacity, rapidity of thought, justice and firm- ness, the foresight to perceive the course of the drifting tides of business, and the will and ability to control them, and a collection of minor but import- ant qualities to regulate the details of the pursuits which engage attention. The subject of this memoir, James Goodwin Batterson, late of Hartford, affords an exemplification of this combination of talents, and in the theater of his operations he achieved a reputation which placed him among the first of the distinguished business men of Connecticut. But it was not in the world of business alone that he attained eminence. As a leader in the field of politics, his influence was without doubt a beneficent one at many trying periods in the history of his State. By many it has been regarded as a mis- fortune that Mr. Batterson did not devote his talents exclusively to the field of literature, for his achievements in this direction are of an unusually high order of merit. In short, his mind was so well balanced and so evenly de- veloped, that any matter which engaged his attention would of necessity meet with success. He was of the fifth generation of his family in this country.
James Batterson, his immigrant ancestor, was probably of Scotch ances- try, and of the family which now commonly spells its name Battison in Scot- land. He came to America about the time of the Scotch Presbyterian immi- gration from the north of Ireland. The surname Batterson is identical with Battison and Batson, and is derived from the diminutive Bat, from Bartholo- mew. The Battison family was in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The Batson family has a coat-of-arms: Argent, three bats' wings sable, on a chief gules a lion passant guardant or. Crest: A lion passant guardant argent. The family is undoubtedly much older than the coat-of-arms.
James Goodwin Batterson, son of Simeon Seeley and Melissa (Roberts) Batterson, was born in the town of Wintonbury, now Bloomfield, Connec- ticut, February 23, 1823, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, September 18, 1901. His boyhood was spent at New Preston, in Litchfield county, where he attended the country schools and laid the foundation of an excellent con- stitution. His feats of strength at this time became almost proverbial, and he was a leader in all enterprises. At the Western Academy he prepared for entrance to college, but his means would not permit him to pursue this idea. He was but fifteen years of age when, imbued with the idea of becoming self
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supporting, he ran away from home, and made his way to Ithaca, New York. Numerous were the disappointments and difficulties which the young lad encountered, but he was of indomitable courage and perseverance, and the long journey to Ithaca was made on foot for the main part. He applied for work in Ithaca at the printing establishment of Mack, Andrews & Wood- ruff, and his successful translation of a Latin sentence which had perplexed one of the members of the firm, gave him the opportunity to learn the print- er's trade. Every spare moment was devoted to study, for he had not aban- doned his idea of obtaining a liberal education, and, having remained in constant communication with his friends who were studying in college, he kept in touch with the college curriculum and mastered it without the aid of instructors. He then returned to his home and became an apprentice to his father in the stone-cutting trade, until he could find a more congenial opening. He had not long to wait for this, and he commenced reading law in the office of Judge Origen S. Seymour, later chief justice of Connecticut, and his progress was a rapid one, when his hopes were again dashed to the ground; family circumstances changed and again he returned to assist his father in the latter's business. Recognizing the futility of his efforts to attend college and to pursue the study of law, Mr. Batterson now determined to devote himself to business pursuits with all the energy he possessed. He made Hartford the business headquarters, and there his establishment rapidly grew to large proportions. From being exclusively engaged in cemetery work and foundations, he commenced contracting for buildings of a substantial kind. He built the Savings Bank on Pearl street, Hartford, and the marble front structure of the Phoenix National Bank. In 1857 he was awarded the contract for the Worth Monument in New York City at the junction of Fifth avenue and Broadway. In 1875 he incorporated the business under a special charter from the State of Connecticut as the New England Granite Works with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Quarries were operated at Canaan, Connecticut ; Westerly, Rhode Island; and Concord, New Hampshire; and the latest machinery installed. Mr. Batterson himself invented a turning lathe for turning and polishing stone columns, a great improvement over the old method of hand work. He took charge in person of the preparation of the great granite pillars for the State Capitol at Albany, New York. Scarcely a cemetery of any account in the country that does not boast some stone work from this company, and hardly a city in which the Batterson granite is not found in some structure. The company made the National Soldiers' Monument at Gettysburg; the statue of Alexander Hamilton in Central Park, New York City; the monu- ment of General Thayer, founder of the military academy, at West Point; the monument on the battlefield of Antietam ; the great monument at Galves- ton, Texas, dedicated to the soldiers who fell in the Texas Revolution; the monument in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, to General Henry W. Hal- leck ; and the General Wood monument at Troy, New York, the sixty-foot shaft of which weighs nearly a hundred tons. Mr. Batterson and his com- pany have erected many substantial and well known buildings, among which may be mentioned: The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, Hartford ; Equitable Building, New York City ; Mutual Life Insur- ance Company Building, Philadelphia; City Hall of Providence; the Bank-
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ers Trust and Guarantee Trust Buildings, New York City; Congressional Library at Washington, District of Columbia; the Capitol, at Hartford, which cost almost two millions for construction work. In 1860 Mr. Batter- son established marble works in New York City, conducted to the present time under the firm name of Batterson & Eisele, one of the largest and best in this line of work in the country, and employing upward of six hundred men. From the marble quarried and prepared by this firm was built the interiors of the Manhattan Bank Building, the Mutual Life Building, City National Bank, Bankers Trust, Guarantee Trust, the Waldorf-Astoria and Imperial hotels, and the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, all of New York City; the City Hall, of Providence, Rhode Island; the Congressional Library at Washington; the residence of W. K. Vanderbilt, at Newport, Rhode Island; and the residence of George Vanderbilt, at Asheville, North Carolina. This is only a partial list.
But Mr. Batterson's career in this line, successful as it was, gained him less fame than he won as the originator of accident insurance in this country. While traveling through England, his attention was attracted to the system of insurance against accidents on railroads, and upon his return he organized an accident insurance company to which the Legislature granted a charter for railroad accident business and amended it in 1864 to include all kinds of accident business, and in 1866 to include all forms of life insurance. This was the origin of the famous "Travelers." The opposition to this company soon became very keen; several accident companies were organized within two years, none of them now surviving. The Railway Passengers' Assur- ance Company was a consolidation of many of these concerns and a few years later its business was taken over by the "Travelers" also. The first premium ever received by the "Travelers" was two cents for insuring a Hartford banker from the post office to his home, and from this small and humorous beginning the business has extended to vast amounts, the original limit for a single risk being increased from ten thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands. The capital stock is now six million dollars, and the assets over one hundred millions. Mr. Batterson lived to see the concern become one of the greatest in the world of insurance, and was at its head until his death. He became popularly known as the "Father of Accident Insurance in America," and in many respects the modern accident insurance business may be said to have been originated by Mr. Batterson, for the English business has been remodeled after the successful American ideas.
Mr. Batterson never lost his interest in books and learning, even in the midst of his great business cares and duties. He pursued the study of law and his knowledge proved of inestimable value to himself and the corpora- tion of which he was president. He learned how to avoid litigation and he knew how to maintain his rights at law. He took up the study of geology under the tuition of Professor J. C. Percival, the poet-geologist of Connec- ticut, for whom he acted as guide during a part of the first geological survey of the State. His knowledge of this subject grew from year to year and proved of great value in business. He spent the winter of 1858-59 in Egypt with Mr. Brunel, the well known engineer, and together they studied the rock formations of the Nile Valley, and visited the great ruins at Thebes, Karnak and elsewhere; the obelisks, pyramids and tombs, the construction
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of which both as to material and workmanship, were of the greatest inter- est to Mr. Batterson. His interest in Egypt continued as his knowledge increased, and he became an honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund and one of the leading authorities on Egyptology. He also studied the Mediterranean Basin. The geology of the whole world became his earnest study and he gathered specimens of the rocks and formations of earth from all parts, and also became well known as a student of astronomy.
As a patron of art Mr. Batterson displayed another side of his remark- able versatility. His first trip abroad was as the representative of some wealthy men for whom he bought the works of the sculptor, Bartholomew, after the latter's death. He erected a monument over the grave of this sculptor, who had been a personal friend, and one of his masterpieces is to be seen in the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford, a gift of Mr. Batterson. From that time he became a student of painting and sculpture, and the rare collection of paintings in his Hartford home is considered one of the finest in the country.
Mr. Batterson was a linguist of unusual attainments. Both the living and the dead languages had received a share of his attention. He was one of the founders of the Greek Club of New York, and was a member twenty years. He was an omnivorous reader of English, American and French works, his private library being one of the finest in the State, and containing an especially fine collection of Americana. He wrote on subjects of socio- logical importance, especially on taxation and the relation of capital and labor. He published translations from the Iliad in blank verse; in 1896 he wrote an important book on "Gold and Silver," which was widely used as a campaign document by the sound money parties. Many of his shorter writ- ings were published in "The Travelers' Record," the organ of the insurance company. Among his published poems were: "The Death of the Bison;" "The Trysting Place;" "Lauda Sion," translated from the Mediaeval Latin of Saint Thomas Aquinas; "Creation," which appeared in 1901, the title of which was later changed to "The Beginning," is of high literary merit and solid scientific value. The degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Yale and Williams colleges and Brown University. In religion he was a Baptist, and a regular attendant at the Baptist church in Hartford.
He was one of the organizers of the Republican party, and until his death a leading spirit in it. During the Civil War he zealously supported the Lincoln administration and the cause of the Union. Throughout this struggle he was chairman of the Republican State Central Committee of Connecticut and chairman of the War Committee. He undoubtedly saved the State elections to the Republican party during this period by strenuous personal efforts, and he spent much time and money in relief work for sol- diers and their families. He would accept no office, elective or appointive, and this proof of his disinterestedness assisted greatly in increasing his political influence.
He was a director of the Hartford National Bank and of the Case, Lockwood & Brainerd Company; vice-president of the Wadsworth Athe- naeum; trustee of Brown University ; member of the Colonial Club, the Con- necticut Society, Sons of the American Revolution, the American Statistical Association, Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Hartford Scientific
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Society, New England Society of New York, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Yale Alumni Association, Hartford Board of Trade. and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Batterson married, June 2, 1852, Eunice Elizabeth Goodwin, born April 6, 1827, died January 16, 1897, daughter of Jonathan and Clarinda (Newberry) Goodwin. Children: I. Clara Jeannette, born January 17, 1855, died May 16, 1868. 2. Mary Elizabeth, married Dr. Charles Coffing Beach, of Hartford. 3. James Goodwin, Jr., born August 30, 1858; is the head of the Travelers' Insurance Company in New York City, under the title of resident director ; married (first) November 11, 1879, Ida Wooster, and has one child: Walter Ellsworth, born at Westerly, Rhode Island, October 6, 1886; married (second) December 14, 1897, Emma Louise Greene, and their only child was James Goodwin Batterson, the third of the name, born June 21, 1900, died August 2, 1909.
No better estimate of the character of Mr. Batterson can be given than by printing a few extracts from an address made by the Hon. William F. Henney, mayor of Hartford, at an In Memoriam meeting held September 18, 1904. They are as follows:
Few lives come home to us with such appeal to our sympathy and admiration as the life of James G. Batterson. The life of Mr. Batterson, with its splendid record of strug- gle and triumph, its elevating story of toil and achievement, its masterful grappling with difficulty and obstacle, its courageous challenge to untoward circumstance, its stern battle with adversity, the prosperity which crowned its later years, speaks to us who are to wander yet a little longer in the shadows, with many a cheering message of comfort and of hope. It is idle to speculate on his probable career as a lawyer. With his mental equipment and characteristics it is certain, however, that he would have met with distin- guished success, and that to be shut off from that career was one of the signal disap- pointments of his life. It is apparent that the young man had early learned to make a truce with necessity. If debarred from doing what he wanted to do, he turned with all his energy and ambition to doing the next best thing. Failure to learn this lesson has wrecked many a young and promising life on the shoals of disappointment and despair. To me, one of the most attractive views of this many-sided man is that which reveals him as a literary artist and a scholar. I can understand how the voices of the masters appealed to him from every age and clime. He loved
The old melodious lays Which softly melt the ages through, The songs of Spenser's golden days, Arcadian Sidney's silvery phrase, Sprinkling our noon of time with freshest morning dew.
His own work in literature would have made the reputation of a smaller man. Its results were dimly seen amid the shadows cast by his administrative achievements. Mr. Batterson was a fighter ; but he fought with the courage and skill of a trained warrior, with the courtesy of a true knight, with the magnanimity of a gentleman. In examining a life like that of Mr. Batterson, so large and useful, so intense and various, so active in many of the most rugged pathways of human endeavor, in some of its aspects storm- wrapped and tumultuous, in others bathed in the sunlight glory of a summer landscape, the key to its mysteries is not far to seek. He never took a position without having been forced into it by the strength of his convictions. If ever a man had convictions and the courage of them, that man was James G. Batterson. Seeking for the right with a con- scientious earnestness that was sometimes painful, when he arrived at a conclusion his mind was as steadfast as the everlasting hills. No consideration of expediency, no sug- gestion of personal advantage could induce him to swerve by a hair's breadth from a determination once arrived at. And this was the source of his power. Neither the shafts of ridicule nor the appeals of self-interest could drive him from an enterprise once entered upon.
Edson Francis THood
T HERE IS NOTHING more interesting to the observer of human nature than the continual struggle between the per- sonalities of men and their diverse environments, nothing more enthralling to the attention and stimulating to the imagination than to watch the various means that strong natures will resort to to accomplish their aims and the per- severance with which they press onward to success, and the influences which the surrounding circumstances bring to bear to alter the direction or change the form of that success even when they are powerless to prevent it. Nowhere is it possible to find a greater number of striking examples of such successful encounters of men with their surroundings than among the records of the brilliant men whose efforts have built up the great financial, commercial and industrial system in this country, the typical busi- ness men of the United States. Such was the man, and such the career of, Edson Francis Wood, whose versatile mind and varied talents brought him success in spite of many difficulties and amid the most various circumstances. It was through a most complex set of affairs that he gradually worked him- self into business independence and success and made himself a place so prominent in the regard of his fellow citizens that his death in Plantsville, Connecticut, on April 17, 1909, was felt as a loss by the entire community.
Edson Francis Wood was born November 29, 1845, in the town of Wol- cott, Connecticut, a son of Francis and Phylettia (Nichols) Wood, old and highly respected residents of that place. The years of his childhood were passed for the better part in the town of his birth and it was here that he received the rudimentary portion of his education, attending the local public schools for that purpose. While he was still a school boy, however, his father removed to Waterbury and it was in that city that he completed his schooling. The cause of the change of residence on his father's part was the fact that he was a clock maker and he sought employment in that line in the immense watch and clock works of Waterbury. The younger man remained in Waterbury for a number of years and then went to Plantsville and there and in the neighboring town of Milldale learned the trade of machinist in the works of Clark Brothers, manufacturers of bolts. Among the great ma- chine shops in Plantsville and Milldale, both of which towns are really parts of Southington, there was one owned by the firm of Peck, Stowe & Wilcox, a concern with its central works in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Wood became connected with these people and later went to Cleveland, Ohio, and was employed in the great works there on labor requiring unusual skill. He remained for upwards of six years in the western city and was then trans- ferred to the branch works in Plantsville in a still more responsible position. From that time onward Plantsville was his permanent home and the scene of his active business operations until the close of his life. In spite of the fine position that he held with Peck, Stowe & Wilcox and the great interest that he really felt in the work, Mr. Wood was not satisfied with his position.
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This was due to the fact that he had long held a strong ambition to engage in business on his own account. His exceedingly strong individuality made this almost a necessity, since for its normal growth and expansion it needed a field where it could express itself freely and spontaneously. In August, 1889, feeling that he was in a position to gratify his desire in this matter, he purchased a hotel in Plantsville, which he called the Edson House, and entered that business. The Edson House was successful from the outset. Mr. Wood was a man with a very large acquaintance in many parts of the country and these patronized the hotel and spread its fame abroad through- out the region. It was a place where one might feel at home without the formality that is disagreeable about hotels generally, and yet lack nothing in the way of perfect service. It was particularly popular among traveling salesmen and others whose business took them about the country regularly, and this popularity has continued until the present time. Mr. Wood re- mained in this business for some eleven years and was most successful dur- ing the whole period, retiring therefrom about 1900.
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