USA > Connecticut > Representative citizens of Connecticut, biographical memorial > Part 7
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The death of Dr. Wordin removes one of Bridgeport's foremost citizens, a man widely known for his kindly nature and his interest in the public welfare, beloved by all who knew him. Dr. Wordin was of that serene temperament which drew respect for his opinions from even those who differed with him. Like many of the old school physicians he gave much of his time and service to alleviating pain and suffering, with no hope of recompense.
As one spoke so spoke all, and the reputation which he held at once as a physician and as a man should prove an example to all young men who con- template undertaking that difficult career in which he so nobly distinguished himself.
Oliver Viedersleeve
Bliver Bildersleebe
O LIVER GILDERSLEEVE, in whose death on July 26, 1912, not only his home community, but the State of Connecticut, lost one of its worthiest sons, was a member of an old and prominent New England family, which is to-day represented in many parts of the country by distinguished men of the name, the descendants all, through divers branches, from the original immigrant ancestor, who in the early colonial times founded the family in America. This ancestor was Richard Gildersleeve, who was born in the year 1601 in Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, and came from there to the New England colonies at a time the precise date of which is unknown, but which must have been in his early manhood. The first record we have of him in the new land is contained in the Colonial Records of 1636, where he is mentioned as the owner of two hundred and fifty-odd acres in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He seemed to be possessed of the instincts of the pioneer, and was ever moving forward to unsettled regions as civilization followed him. In 1641, he formed one of the group of men who pushed themselves a little further west and founded the city of Stamford, and four years later he was once more of the party who pushed across the Long Island Sound, and settled Hempstead, Long Island. Here, in this colony in the wilderness which bore the same name as his birthplace in old England, he finally took up his abode, remaining one of the most prominent men in the little place for some forty years. From his time down- ward, the record of his family has been one of long and distinguished service, first to the colonies and later to the republic which was reared upon that base. And not only in the Gildersleeve line proper, but in those families with which through the course of years it allied itself. Two generations from the founder there branched off from the line that we are considering, the Gildersleeve family which is now represented by its distinguished son, Justice Gildersleeve of the New York Supreme Court. From the generation following came another branch from which is descended Professor Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, author of a Latin Grammar bearing his name and other text-books, founder of the "American Journal of Philology," and holder of the chair of Greek in Johns Hopkins University. From still another offshoot are descended the Gildersleeves of Kingston, Canada, who have large transportation interests and are prominent politically there.
Obediah Gildersleeve, the great-grandson of the original Richard Gildersleeve, was born in Huntington, Long Island, in the year 1728, and founded the ship-building business in which Oliver Gildersleeve is at present engaged, it being thus one of the oldest industries in the State. This Obe- diah Gildersleeve was also the one to establish the home of the family in what is now known as Gildersleeve, Portland, Connectiut, on the river of that name, where his descendants have ever since dwelt. It was in the year 1776 that he moved to this place and in that year that he started to build
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ships. It was as early as 1790 that his son Philip built the famous old war- ship "Connecticut" for the United States Navy.
It was Philip's son, Sylvester Gildersleeve, the grandfather of our sub- ject, who organized the business under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Sons, which it continues to bear to this day. It was also this member of the family who was instrumental in establishing a line of packets between New York City and Galveston, Texas, and developing a trade between the two ports in which fifteen vessels were employed, all of which were built by S. Gildersleeve & Sons. Sylvester Gildersleeve was a man of parts and occu- pied a position of great prominence among his fellow citizens of Gilder- sleeve and Portland. He lived to be ninety-one years of age and there is an interesting photograph of him seated upon the same sofa with his son Henry, his grandson Oliver and his great-grandson Alfred Gildersleeve, four generations of ship-builders. Since then Alfred has grown up and has now a son Alfred, Jr., who if he follows in the footsteps of his forebears, as there seems every reason to believe he will, will make the seventh generation of ship-builders in his family.
Oliver Gildersleeve was born into this business, just as he was born into the old family mansion at Gildersleeve, when he first saw the light on March 6, 1844. He passed his entire life in Gildersleeve with the exception of the short time he was away at school, and indeed received the elementary portion of his education there in the local schools. He later attended the Chase Private School of Middletown, Connecticut, and completed his course of studies at the Public High School in Hartford. Upon graduating from the latter institution, at the age of seventeen, he entered the ship-building establishment of S. Gildersleeve & Sons as an apprentice. If it is true that Mr. Gildersleeve was born into the ancestral business, it is equally true that no favor was shown him, nor, indeed, any of the Gildersleeve children, in the work required of them in their apprenticeship. The men of the line have had far too much practical sense to allow their children to hope for the direction of an industry without that experience and skilled training which alone could render them fitted to the task. It thus happened that the training of Oliver Gildersleeve in the business which he was one day to head, was long and arduous and consisted of every kind of work used in connection with the building of vessels of every kind, so that to quote a local publication, when the time came for him to assume the management of the concern he could "plan, draft, estimate, contract for a vessel of any size, can do any part of the work, and build the whole vessel with his hands, give him time enough." At the time of his entrance into the establishment, there was on the ways a vessel destined to obtain national fame, and it was upon its con- struction that the youth performed his first labor. This was the gunboat "Cayuga," which was being built for the United States government, and which later took part in the Union attack upon New Orleans in the Civil War, leading the fleet in the capture of that place. The old gunboat "Cayuga" was number eighty-three of the vessels built by S. Gildersleeve & Sons, but during the connection of Mr. Gildersleeve with the yard, in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty vessels were added to these, showing how great has been the activity since that day.
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Mr. Gildersleeve's position as head of this large and important indus- trial enterprise was sufficient to make him a prominent figure in the business life of his community, but his interests by no means stopped there. He was a man interested in all industrial growth, not merely from the selfish attitude of the investor, but from that of the public spirited citizen who desires to see all that can benefit the community proper. How energetic he was in the matter of the town's industrial interest is admirably shown in the case of the National Stamping and Enamelling Company of New York which had had for many years a plant at Portland, Connecticut, which at one time had employed six hundred hands in its extensive operations. The plant was an enormous one covering one hundred and thirty-five thousand square feet of land with its buildings and altogether occupying eighteen acres. In the latter part of the past century and for the first five years of the present one, this great factory had been practically abandoned, no work was carried on there and the valuable buildings and equipment were rapidly deteriorating. These facts coming to the notice of Mr. Gildersleeve, awakened in him a desire to remedy what he considered a most unfortunate state of affairs, and he set about with characteristic energy to reestablish the business. He interested a number of New York capitalists in the matter and in connec- tion with them bought the entire property. The Maine Product Company was then organized and with new machinery installed in a part of the old plant, a large business in mica products was established. With the taking over of the business of the National Gum and Mica Company of New York City, it became the largest concern of the kind in the United States. The remainder of the great plant they rented to the New England Enamelling Company of Middletown, Connecticut, which has developed a great indus- try of its own, and promises, indeed, to do a larger business than that carried by its predecessors. This is but one example of the many enterprises with the organization or rehabilitation of which Mr. Gildersleeve was identified. He was actively engaged in the management in one or another capacity of well-nigh every concern of importance in the neighborhood. He was especially active in introducing into Portland and other communi- ties the public utilities upon which to such a large extent the development of a modern community depends. He was the founder and president of the Portland Water Company of Portland, Connecticut, from 1889 until his death; the Portland Street Railway Company, from 1893 to 1896; the Mid- dletown Street Railway Company of Middletown, Connecticut; the Gilder- sleeve and Cromwell Ferry Company of Cromwell, Connecticut; the Middle- sex Quarry Company of Portland; the Phoenix Lead Mining Company of Silver Cliff, Colorado; the Brown Wire Gun Company of New York City: and vice-president and treasurer of the Maine Product Company from its organization in 1905 until his death. He was also a director in the First National Bank of Portland; the Alabama Barge and Coal Company of Tide- water, Alabama; the United States Graphotype Company of New York; the Texas and Pacific Coal Company of Thurber, Texas; the Ideal Manu- facturing Company of Gildersleeve, Connecticut; and trustee of the Free- stone Savings Bank of Portland, Connecticut; of property under the will of Henry Gildersleeve, and of the S. Gildersleeve School Fund of Gildersleeve,
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Connecticut. Mr. Gildersleeve was also interested for a number of years in the shipping commission business of his brother, Sylvester Gildersleeve, with offices at No. 84 South street, New York City, and in 1897 he estab- lished at No. I Broadway, New York, under the management of his son, Louis Gildersleeve, an agency for the sale or hiring of the vessels con- structed at the yards in Gildersleeve. This agency has succeeded admirably under the direction of the young man who seems to have inherited much of his father's business ability. In reading over this great list of prominent companies and corporations one cannot help being impressed with the mag- nitude of Mr. Gildersleeve's labors, for he was no figurehead allowing the use of his name at the head of official lists and on directorates for advertis- ing purposes, but a hard worker who really took part in the labors of man- agement. Yet even this gives no adequate idea of the real extent of his activities which invaded every department of the community's life. Mr. Gildersleeve did not, it is true, enter politics in the usual sense of that term, yet even in politics he did take a disinterested part, and in the year 1900, an active one. He had always been a staunch member of the Democratic party and a strong supporter of the principles for which that party stood and was, of course, looked upon as something of a leader by his political fellows, on account of his general influence in the community. It is probable, however, that no one was more surprised than he, probably no one as much, when he learned in 1900 that he had been chosen the Democratic candidate for Con- gress. It was an exciting campaign and Mr. Gildersleeve's known rectitude and his personal popularity counted for much, so that in the election he ran far ahead of his party, but even personal considerations were not sufficient to overcome the normal Republican majority in the district, so that he was defeated, though by a very small margin.
Mr. Gildersleeve was prominently identified with the social and club life of the community and, indeed, was a member of many associations of nation wide fame and importance. Among others he belonged to the National Geographic Society of Washington, D. C., the Civil Federation of New England, the Middlesex County Historical Society of Middletown, Connecticut, and the Association of the Descendants of Andrew Ward.
Throughout his life Mr. Gildersleeve exhibited a growing interest in, and devotion to, the cause of religion and the Episcopal church, of which he was a lifelong member. For many years he attended divine service in Trinity Church, Portland, and since 1884 was a warden thereof until his death. In the same year (1884) he was elected a delegate to the Annual Diocesan Episcopal Convention, an office which he held and performed the functions of, until the time of his death. He was also a member of the Diocesan Committee to cooperate with the General Board of Missions, the Diocesan Committee on Finance and of the Diocesan Committee appointed to raise the "Missionary Thank Offering" to be presented by the men of the church at the General Convention in Richmond, in gratitude for the three hundred years of English Christianity, from the settlement of James- town in 1607 until that year, 1907. Not only was he interested in diocesan matters, but he took an active part in the work of the parish and served as superintendent of the Sunday-school from 1872 until his death. He was
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chairman for two years of the Building Committee of the John Henry Hall Memorial Parish House, and in 1900 himself established a memorial fund in connection with the church. He was also a member of the Church Club of Connecticut for a number of years.
Mr. Gildersleeve was married, November 8, 1871, to Miss Mary Ellen Hall, a native of Portland, and a daughter of Hon. Alfred Hall, of that place. The Hall family is a very old one in that part of the country and was descended originally from John Hall, a first settler in Hartford and Middletown. To Mr. and Mrs. Gildersleeve were born eight children, two of whom died before their father, and the rest survive him with their mother. They were as follows: Alfred, born August 23, 1872, married Miss Lucy C. Ibbetson and had by her three children, Marion Hall, Lucille Darling and Alfred Henry; Walter, born August 23, 1874; Louis, born September 22, 1877, and died July 3, 1913; Emily Hall, born 1879, and died August 12, 1880; Elizabeth Jarvis, born June 6, 1882, and died January 18, 1883; Charles, born December II, 1884, and married Miss Margaret McLen- nan; Nelson Hall, born September 14, 1887, and Oliver, Jr., born March 9, 1890.
The personal character of Mr. Gildersleeve was a most admirable one, and of a kind calculated to win him true friends and admirers. To the sterling qualities of an unquestionable honor and an unusual persistency in seeking his objects, he added a simplicity and directness of outlook rare indeed. He was absolutely unpretentious both in his manner of living and in his relations with his fellowmen, and maintained for his sons the same simple conditions under which his own character had developed and with a like result in their case. He was one of the best known and best loved figures in the community and his death was felt as a loss not merely by his immediate family and his host of personal friends, but by all his fellow townsfolk, none of whom but had benefited. at least indirectly, as the result of his activities.
Charles Loring Whitman
T HE death of the Hon. Charles Loring Whitman on March 8, 1886, deprived the town of Farmington, Connecticut, of one of its most highly valued citizens, and the State of a most distinguished Democrat, a man loved and respected by all. He was sprung of one of those splendid old houses which, settling in New England early in the Colonial period, have grown up and identified themselves with the history of that region through all the stirring years that preceded the birth of the new Nation, and the years of peaceful development subsequent thereto.
John Whitman, the founder of the family in this country, came from the region of Holt, England, to the little colony at Weymouth, Massachu- setts, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, there being a record of his admission as a freeman there in 1678-79. It was in the days of his grand- son, the Rev. Samuel Whitman, that the removal to Farmington, Connecti- cut, took place, to which place he was called as minister, and which from that day to this has been the home of the family. The great-grandson of this worthy and able clergyman was William Whitman, the father of Charles Loring Whitman, a native and lifelong resident of the beautiful old home- stead which had been occupied by the family since its arrival in Farmington, and which during his life was used as a hotel. Mr. Whitman, Sr., was a well known figure in the neighborhood, and "Whitman's Hotel," as it was universally known, gained, together with its shrewd and intelligent propri- etor, a wide reputation. He married, October 12, 1812, Elizabeth Whiting, of Beverly, Massachusetts, and a daughter of Zenas and Leah (Loring) Whiting, of that place. They were the parents of four children, as follows: Ann Sophia, born September 15, 1816, afterwards became Mrs. Henry Farnam, of New Haven, and the mother of Professor Henry Walcott Far- nam, of Yale University; William Henry, born March 18, 1823; Charles Loring, of whom further; George Bronson.
Charles Loring Whitman, the third child of William and Elizabeth (Whiting) Whitman, was born in the old Whitman home in Farmington, May 27, 1826. He passed his entire boyhood in his native town, and there attended the public schools, where he laid the foundation of his splendid education. He later attended a school at Hingham, Massachusetts, the Hingham Academy, from which he graduated. Although his course at this institution completed his schooling, it was very far from ending his educa- tion, which, as in the case of all true students, only ended with his life. He was a constant reader and a keen observer, an untired seeker after knowl- edge, so that throughout all his years he added to his store. After leaving the school at Hingham, he went to Boston and there secured a position as clerk in a dry goods store. He did not remain in this employment for a great period, however, as the advancing years of his father called him back to Farmington to take his share of the burdens of the business there. His father lived to the venerable age of ninety-four years, and during the latter
Senator Charles Loring Whitman
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Charles Loring Whitman
part of his life his son took up the management of the hotel more and more, until at his father's death there was no perceptible difference in its manage- ment. He shortly discontinued the business entirely, receiving about that time the appointment as judge of probate. He retained the old mansion as his home, however, a home filled with intimate and ancient tradition and association.
From early youth up Mr. Whitman was greatly interested in the polit- ical issues which confronted country, State and town, and upon his return from Boston to Farmington, identified himself with the local organization of the Democratic party, of whose principles he was an ardent supporter all his life. It was not a great while before he became the recognized leader of his party in that part of the State. He was urged to accept the nomination to the State Senate by his fellow Democrats in view of his great prominence in the party and his general popularity. He accepted the honor and was duly elected to the office, serving as a member of that body until his death, which was, indeed, the result of a stroke of apoplexy with which he was stricken while attending a legislative session.
Mr. Whitman was a man of strong religious feelings and beliefs, but independent in thought and action. He had been reared in the Congrega- tional church, the traditional mode of worship in the Whitman family, but became strongly interested in the Episcopal doctrine and form, and eventu- ally joined that church. He and Mrs. Whitman were conspicuous among the founders of the Episcopal church at Farmington, through their activity securing a mission there. Mr. Whitman did not live to see the actual erec- tion of the church building, an occurrence which took place some years after his death. As in every other matter which he took up, Mr. Whitman was most energetic in the work he did in connection with the church. He entered into it with heart and soul, and left no stone unturned to accomplish his cherished project.
Mr. Whitman married, in August, 1863, Caroline E. Thompson, a native of Rochester, New York, and the daughter of Lemuel and Eliza Allen (Hall) Thompson, who were natives of Rochester, New York, and of Cornish, New Hampshire, respectively.
There is no doubt that the career of Mr. Whitman, successful as it had already been, would have known a still more brilliant future, had not death so abruptly cut it short. One of the chief factors in his success was undoubt- edly his remarkable power of making friends, but this power in turn depended upon some of the most fundamental virtues for its existence. That he should first attract those who came in casual association was doubtless due to the attractive exterior, the ready wit and simple candor, but the transformation of these into faithful friends was possible only to the pro- found trust which all men felt in the perfect sincerity of his nature and the honest disinterestedness of his intentions. The certainty of their confi- dence in him is nowhere better illustrated than in the common appeal that was made to him to settle disputes and quarrels. Mr. Whitman had never taken up the practice of the law, yet people flocked to him in large numbers with their complaints, and although his reward was rarely more than a
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"thank you," yet he never failed to win the lifelong friendship of those he counselled. His popularity was very widespread, and the news of his death was felt as a loss in all parts of the State, but the strongest affection was felt for him in his own home district and it was there that he gave most gener- ously of his friendship and service. It has already been remarked that he was an enthusiastic Democrat and an ardent Episcopalian, but he never allowed his generosity to be limited by considerations of creed or political belief, but gave freely to all who stood in need. His generosity was pro- verbial, and yet his benefactions were so unostentatious that but few were aware of their extent. It was truly said of him that "the world is better for such men as Charles Loring Whitman having lived in it." His death has left a gap in the life of his community, which despite the twenty-nine years that have elapsed is still unfilled.
John Gilbert Root
JOHN GILBERT ROOT, in whose death on February 14, 1910, the city of Hartford lost one of its most distinguished citizens, though not himself a native of Connecticut, was a scion of good old Connecticut stock, tracing his descent in the direct male line from another John Root, one of the early settlers of Farmington in that State. He was the son of Silas and Merilla (Chapman) Root, old residents of West- field, Massachusetts, where he was born April 20, 1835.
Mr. Root passed his childhood and early youth in his native town and gained his education in the local schools. He left these institutions early, however, speedily mastered his studies there, and at the age of sixteen he secured a position in the Westfield Bank, making thus a start in the line of activity in which he was to continue his business career through life. He was already, at this early age, possessed of more than the usual share of intelligence and ambition, and his alertness and readiness for hard work compelled the respect and admiration of his employers. As was natural under the circumstances, the young man soon met with advancement, and as it was his purpose in all of the positions filled by him during the course of his promotion to gain as complete a mastery of the details of banking as was possible, he soon became unusually well versed in his business, and a val- uable adjunct of the bank. At the age of twenty years, after four years of this training, which was the more valuable because it was received in a rural bank, where duties are not so highly subdivided as in the larger city institu- tions, and each man has an opportunity to take part in a larger number of departments, Mr. Root received an offer to take the position of teller in the Hartford County Bank of Hartford, Connecticut. He at once accepted this offer, and in 1855 removed there, to the city which was ever after to remain his home and the scene of the many busy activities of his life. After a short period of employment with this bank, he left to associate himself with the Hartford Trust Company, in the capacity of treasurer. Here he remained for about a year and a half, but in the meantime the bank, unwilling to part with his services, offered him the position of cashier as an inducement for him to return. This he finally determined to do, and in 1871 assumed the duties of this responsible office, filling them in an eminently satisfactory manner for a period of twenty years. In the meantime the name of the institution had been changed and it had become the American National Bank, with the late Rowland Swift, who had preceded Mr. Root as cashier, the president. On December 19, 1883, Mr. Root was elected president of the Farmers' and Mechanics' National Bank of Hartford, an office which he held until his death, over a period of above twenty-six years. The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank has since that time become consolidated with the Hartford National Bank. Mr. Root's great knowledge of banking and his general business acumen were invaluable to the institutions he was asso- ciated with, and gave him, as president of the Farmers' and Mechanics'
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