USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 11
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Dr. E. K. Leonard was married June 26, 1857, to Marietta P., daughter of Bostwick Anderson of Stafford. Three children have been born to them: Lucy Ella, who died at the age of eleven years, Perley B., now a bookkeeper of Belding Brothers & Company, Roek- · ville, and Rufus Harry, a bookkeeper at Armour & Company's, Meriden.
ORGAN, HENRY KIRKE, was born in Hartford, Conn., Dec. 15, 1819, a son of Denison Morgan and Ursula Brainerd, and a descendant of the line of James Morgan of New London, who, removing to this country from Landaff, Wales, in 1636, with his wife, Margery, was the ancestral forefather of a large family who have identified themselves from the earliest days with the history and progress of the State of Connecticut. James Morgan, on first coming to this country, settled in Massachusetts, and afterwards was supposed to be one of the party of emigrants called the "Cape Ann Company," who removed to New London, Conu., in 1650. His descendants in this state were numerous and brought honor to his name. Rev. Joseph Morgan, a graduate of Yale in 1702, Simeon Morgan, who died in 1781 in defense of Fort Griswold, Col. Christopher Morgan, William Avery Morgan, Edwin D. Morgan, governor of New York State during the Civil War, and many others.
Mr. Denison Morgan, Mr. Morgan's father, was for many years an honored eitizen and merchant of Hartford, and an active and useful officer of the church, and his three sons, the only children who survived infaney, all became prominent in their several spheres. The two eldest early moved to New York-Rev. William F. Morgan, as reetor of St. Thomas Church ; Mr. George D. Morgan, as connected for some years with the firm of E. D. Morgan & Company, while the youngest son and the subject of this sketch remained in Hartford and became more and more identified with the growth and interests of his native eity. He was edueated at the well-known academy of those days at Ellington, of which Judge Hall was the founder, and at an early age entered the office of his father and was engaged in active business
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
until the year 1860. Retiring at that time from business, he did not lose interest in public affairs. He served on the board of relief for several years and has been a trustee of the Pratt Street Savings Bank for nearly a quarter of a century, serving on its loaning com- inittee. He was elected as a director of the Hartford Hospital in 1880, and was assigned to the executive committee and is at present its chairman. The Old People's Home was completed under the present executive committee of the hospital. Mr. Morgan is a director of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, also of the Hartford City Gas Light Company.
He has been faithful to all public trusts, and his business training and experience have been of value to the institutions with which he has been connected. Mr. Morgan has been a life-long Episcopalian, and was one of the founders of Trinity Parish, Hartford, serving for many years as its warden.
He was married on April 14, 1846, to Emily Malbone Brinley, youngest daughter of Mr. George Brinley of Boston. Five children were born of this union of whom four survive: Rev. George Brinley Morgan, rector of Christ Church, New Haven, Conn. ; Dr. William D. Morgan of Hartford ; Henry K. Morgan, Jr., of Morgan & Bartlet, bankers and brokers, New York, and Miss Emily Malbone Morgan.
OWNE, HENRY R., of Stamford, president of the Yale & Towne Manufactur- ing Company, belongs to the ninth generation of descendants from William Towne who emigrated from Yarmouth, England, to Salem, Mass., about 1640, and who died at Topsfield, Mass., about 1672. The descendants of William Towne in this line continued to live in the neighborhood of Salem, Mass., until John Towne, the grandfather of Henry R., left there in his youth to seek his fortune. He was born in 1787, and was a inan of strong character with refined tastes and rare ingenuity of both mind and hand. After leaving home he found his way to Baltimore where he became connected in business with Mr. Henry Robinson of England, whose sister he afterwards married. In 1817, immediately after his marriage, he moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., and became interested in the early line of steamboats plying on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In 1832, he again moved to Boston, to accept a partnership with Mr. Robinson in the Boston Gas Works, of which the latter was then the sole proprietor. In 1840, Mr. John Towne removed with his family to Philadelphia, having amassed a considerable fortune which enabled him to indulge his love for the fine arts by the purchase of many notable paintings, and also his keen enjoyment of flowers. His rare collection of "Heaths" was one of the inost remarkable of that day. He died in 1851.
His eldest son, John Henry Towne, father of Henry R., was born in Pittsburgh in 1818, but received most of his education in Boston, to which place, when he was about fourteen years old, he inoved with his parents. After distinguishing himself at the " Chauncy Hall" school in Boston, he went to Philadelphia to study engineering, and soon entered into partnership with the late Mr. S. V. Merrick, under the firin name of Merrick & Towne, proprietors of the Southwark Foundry, one of the earliest and inost prominent engineering concerns in this country, and still in existence. In 1843, John Henry Towne was married to Maria R. Tevis, a daughter of Joshua Tevis, then a prominent merchant in Philadelphia, with business connections in the South and West, and whose first wife had been Rebecca Risteau Carnan of Baltimore. The business of Merrick & Towne prospered, and in 1848 Mr. Towne retired from the firmn with ineans which formned the basis of his
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subsequently ample fortune. He afterward engaged in various engineering enterprises, in- cluding the building of gas works. Shortly before the breaking out of the Civil War he entered the firm of I. P. Morris, Towne & Company, of the Port Richmond Iron Works, Philadelphia. During the Civil War inany of the largest engines for monitors and other war ships, as well as mueh heavy machinery, were built in this establishment, the engineering head of which was Mr. Towne. He inherited his father's refined tastes, both for nature and art, and had special delight in musie. During his later years he was an active member of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and upon his deatlı, whiel occurred in Paris, 1875, after amply providing for his family, left the residue of his fortune to the University of Pennsylvania, the technical department of which was thereupon nained " The Towne Seientific School," in his honor.
His only son, Henry R. Towne, the subject of this sketeh, was born in 1844 in Philadelphia, and was educated there at a private school and also at the University of Pennsylvania. He left the latter before graduating in order to enter the Port Richmond Iron Works, where lie was employed in the drawing office and shops, which was then the customary mode of acquiring a training in mechanical engineering. The intense activity of the war times gave him opportunity for rapid advancement, which he fully accepted. He was sent by the firm to represent their interests in the ereetion of the machinery in the monitor "Monadnock " at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Mass., and later of a sister ship, the " Agamenticus," at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. He spent over a year on this duty, and then returned to the works in Philadelphia where, soon afterwards, he was promoted to the position of aeting superintendent. Early in 1866 he made a trip to Europe devoted chiefly to visiting engineering establishments in England and Franee, and to several months of study at Paris. After his return he was for a short time employed in the works of William Sellers & Company, Philadelphia, and then returned to Port Richmond Iron Works to take ellarge of the ereetion of the machinery in the large sloop of war "Pushmataha " at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. During this time he made a series of experiments on leather belting in cooperation with his friend, the late Robert Briggs, C. E., which have long been quoted in standard works under the naine of the "Briggs and Towne experiments."
In the spring of 1868, Henry R. Towne was married to Cora E. White, daughter of John P. White, Esq., one of Philadelphia's old merchants, whose father was Dr. John White of Delaware, and whose maternal grandfather was Gov. David Hall of the same state. Mr. White's wife was Miss Eliza Canfield Tallmadge, whose father was Frederick Augustus Tall- madge, at one time reeorder of the city of New York, and whose grandfather was Col. Benjamin Tallmadge of the Revolutionary army, and aide-de-camp of General Washington. Among Mrs. White's aneestors was Gen. William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His two sons, John Henry and Frederick Tallinadge, are connected with the business at the works in Stainford.
In the summer of 1868, Mr. Towne formed a partnership with the late Linus Yale, Jr., then of Shelburne Falls, Mass., for the purpose of developing a business based on the inventions of Mr. Yale relating to bank locks and key locks. These inventions marked the highest development, at that time, of the lockmakers' art, but Mr. Yale's ineans and facilities had enabled him to commence the business only on a small scale. The purpose of the new partnership was to provide new capital for its larger development, and to bring to the manufacture the methods of production and organization with which Mr. Towne had beeoine familiar in his earlier training. The two partners, after careful investigation, selected Stall- ford, Conn., thirty-four miles from the city of New York, as the location for their future
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
establishment, thus obtaining the benefit of the skilled labor of New England together with close proximity to the commercial metropolis of the country. The wisdom of this selection has been fully established by subsequent events.
In October, 1868, Mr. Towne went to Stamford, where he prepared the designs for the first building of the new works, and personally superintended its construction, Mr. Yale in the mean- time continuing his business at Shelburne Falls. On Dec. 25, 1868, Mr. Yale died suddenly, of heart disease, in New York, before the new enterprise was fairly launched, and before the partners had been able to more than merely discuss their future plans. Their enterprise liad been organized as a corporation, under the name of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company. In July, 1869, Mr. Towne was elected president of the corporation, to succeed Mr. Yale, and in the following year inade an arrangement with the family of the latter whereby he acquired control of their interests in the business, and they withdrew from the management. For a number of years after this Mr. Towne was practically alone in the management of the business, and became, ultimately, its sole owner. In 1881, the business had developed so largely as to necessitate a large increase of capital for its proper conduct. Mr. Towne therefore increased the capital stock to $500,000, retaining himself a controlling share, and disposing of the the balance to other parties, among whom were a minber of his employees and associates in the management. A few years later, the rapid growth of the business led to a further increase of capital, which was then raised to its present amount of $1,000,000. Various other products were gradually added to the company's line of manufacture, so that the original corporate name was no longer appropriate, and it was therefore changed, by action of the directors and stockholders, to the present name of "The Yale & Towne Manufacturing Com- pany," and a special charter obtained from the state of Connecticut.
Mr. Towne had been originally attracted to the business chiefly by the opportunity, which he believed was afforded by the Yale key lock, for developing an important new industry. While much younger than Mr. Yale, his previous mechanical training had made him familiar with the value of modern machinery and processes, as applied to manufacturing, and his inherited tastes led him to seek the opportunity of employing this knowledge in the building up of a new industry, based on inventions and devices which were not merely novel, but distinctly in advance of those then generally used, and which, under proper management, might be so increased as to form the basis of a large and successful business. The final outcome has justified these anticipations, although it was only reached after many years of effort, trial and intense application, and of struggle against adverse conditions.
When Mr. Yale died, the Yale key lock existed only in some half dozen forins, out of which, however, has since been developed the present line, comprising several hundred varieties and embodying numerous improvements and inventions made by Mr. Towne and his associates in the business. From the outset, the effort was persistent and continuous, not only to raise the quality of workmanship to the highest standpoint, but also to modify and extend the application of the Yale system to every form of lock to which it is adapted. The result has been the creation of what is conceded universally to be the best and mnost secure type of key lock in the world, and the largest and best series of fine locks ever made, the influence of which has been increasingly felt throughout the trade in the United States, and has contributed more than any single cause, in the past twenty-five years, to elevate and improve the art of lock making and to place American locks distinctly in advance of all others.
At the present time that line of the company's products known as. "Art Hardware," the style of which they have done much to elevate, embraces a vast variety of decorative metal work, in every important school of ornamentation and of the highest artistic character. Much of it is now done on special order, from original designs and in the most expensive
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materials, architects and their elients having realized that the metal work used within a building not only may be, but most properly should be, treated as an important element in the total selieme of decoration. In this, as in its earlier work, the company has liad numerous imitators and followers, but still easily holds its position as leader, its products of both kinds being generally regarded as distinctly the highest and best in the market, and still constituting its principal business.
I11 1875, Mr. Towne obtained cxelusive rights under the patents of Mr. T. A. Weston, relating to differential eliain pulley bloeks, and simultaneously acquired, by purchase, the business of three manufacturers, each of whom had previously been making pulley blocks in competition, thus uniting all interests and obtaining control of the market for this important product during the lifetime of the Weston patents. All of these interests were then transferred by him to the company, which thereupon added to its lines of produet the manufacture of chain pulley blocks, and later, the building of eranes and other heavy hoisting machinery. In 1877-78, Mr. Towne (then controlling all of the stock of the company) also negotiated the acquisition of the business of two competing loek manufacturers, namely: the United States Lock Company of Kingston, Mass., and the American Loek Company of Cassanobia, N. Y., thereby greatly strengthening the position of the company in its key lock business. A year later, a partnership arrangement was entered into with Sargent & Greenleaf of Rochester, N. Y., for the pooling of interests relating to time loeks, whereby the parties to the agreement ended a long and expensive patent litigation, and secured a controlling position in this field. This relationship has continued to the present time with mutual benefit and satisfaction, and now embraces bank loeks of all kinds.
The last invention of Mr. Yale, before his death, was the application of his key lock to a metallic letter box, for use in post offices. This device, now known as the Yale Loek Box, was developed coincidentally with the other parts of the business, and is now in world-wide use, having been adopted by the post-office department of the United States government, and by those of many foreign countries. Recognizing that this part of the business would be strength- ened by ineluding with it the manufacture of all the woodwork and other fittings required for the complete equipment of post-offices, Mr. Towne organized a department for this purpose in 1871, thus being the first to undertake the manufacture of post-office equipments as a distinct specialty. This department grew steadily, and in time became important, but shared the fate of most innovations in having later a multitude of imitators, who, while accepting the original article as their model, have not always maintained its high standard of exeellenee, so that the Yale post-office box, like its allied products, still holds an undisputed position of leadership. The latest addition to the company's lines of product is the manufacture of cabinet and trunk loeks, which was inaugurated in 1891 as a separate department, and which is now fully organized and equipped with the best and most modern machinery.
The operations eondueted in the works embrace a very unusual range and variety of mechanical products. The original building was ereeted in 1868-69. The first addition was made in 1872, since which date further additions have been made almost annually. The com- pany's property covers an area of about twenty-one acres, with a water frontage and railroad connections. About 1, 100 employees are engaged under normal conditions.
Mr. Towne is director in several other corporations and a member of various scientific organizations and clubs. He is a life-member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was its viee-president in 1884-86, its president in 1888-89, and a frequent contributor to its transactions. During the latter year he served as chairman of the joint party of American engineers visiting England and France, about three hundred in number, who were the recipients of great hospitality from foreign engineering societies. During 1889-90 he was an
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
active member of the New York Commission on the World's Fair, serving on the committee on site and buildings, and also on the executive committee, until the decision was made that the fair should be held in Chicago. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, as well as of various social clubs in New York. In 1888 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from the University of Pennsylvania.
A descriptive article on the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company in Picturesque Stamford, published in 1893, closed with the following paragraph :
Nor can any statement of the benefit of The Yale & Towne industry to Stamford be complete which omits mention of what the personal influence of its president, Henry R. Towne, has contributed towards the most important improvements in the affairs of the borough and town which have been accomplished or in- augurated within the last ten years. Of these the most notable and significant - the general sewerage system and the general and marked change for the better in the streets of the borough - are achievements largely due to his exertions and influence. Indeed, in almost every phase and form in which modern progressive ideas have taken practical shape in advancing the material interests of the town and borough for the last ten or fifteen years, Mr. Towne's influence has been felt, and always in earnest support of those measures and methods which in a few years have wrought so radical a change in the appearance and prospects of the town - especially the borough-and in the spirit and temper of a majority of the people as related to public enter- prise and the march of modern improvements in America. It was a work of time and of patience, and its achievements are at once the more honorable and the more enduring in that they are results, not of the more or less questionable manœuvres of "practical politics," but of the open, frank, courteous and logical discussion upon their true merits, of the various questions at issue from time to time.
B ARNUM, WILLIAM HENRY, of Lime Rock, ex-member of Congress and ex-United States senator, was born in the village of Boston Corners, New York, Sept. 17, 1818. He was the son of Milo and Laura (Tibbetts) Barnum. No less than six governors of Massachusetts and one of Connecticut, as well as the war governors of several other states, were born in the year 1818. That year is noted in the annals of the country as the birthi-year of a goodly number of men who made a name for themselves in the business or literary world or in the wider field of national affairs.
Though Mr. Barnum received a good English education in the local public schools, he was not a university man, and did not attain to the high degree of culture now within the reach of nearly every young man. He graduated from the college of experience and observa- tion ; and honors gained here often have more value than the traditional sheepskin. Soon after attaining his majority he engaged in business with his father, Milo Barnum, in the production of iron from the ore, and as so large a portion of his life was connected with the iron industry, some explanatory words would seem fitting. As early as 1734 a forge was erected in the village of Lime Rock, the present headquarters of the Barnum-Richardson Company. The ore beds having been developed, during the Revolutionary War large quantities of cannon, cannon balls, sliells, etc., were made here for the general government. In the spring of 1830, Milo Barnum, the founder of the existing company, settled in Lime Rock, and began business as a merchant. The foundry for the re-melting of pig-iron was built about the same time, and soon after caine under his control. He associated with him Leonard Richardson, his son-in-law, and later his son William H., the firm then being Barnum, Richardson & Co. The foundry business was carried on in a limited way in connection with the store, the production being chiefly clock and sash weights, plough castings and other small work. The business gradually increased, however, and about 1840 they began the manufacture of railroad work, such as chairs, frogs, heel-blocks, etc., for the Western Railroad,
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(now part of the Boston and Albany road), thien being built from Springfield to Albany. As the great tensile strength, combined with the chilling properties of thic Salisbury iron, renders it specially valuable for the manufacture of chilled cast iron car-wheels, thicir produc- tion naturally followed other railroad work. The iron early obtained its present excellent repu- tation for making ordnance, malleable iron and machinery. In 1852, Milo Barnum retired from1 active participation in the business, and the firm name was changed to Richardson, Barnnın & Company, under whose management the business rapidly increased. The present joint stock company called the Barnum-Richardson Company was formed in 1864, and since its organization large additions to the facilities have been inade by the erection of new works and the purchase of further interests in mining companies already in existence. To this development, not only in the magnitude of the business but also of the processes of manufac- turing and the lines of goods manufactured, Mr. Barnum contributed more than his full share. His great executive ability showed itself at an early age, and his native shrewdness was made still more acute by experience. Besides his interests in the Salisbury district, he had interests in the mining sections of the West.
Manufacturing largely the articles used by railroads, it was but natural that Mr. Barnumn should become interested in the management of the companies themselves. He was president of the Housatonic road for many years. When he took hold of it the road was a piece of unprofitable property ; but his energy infused fresh life into the corporation. For some time he was president of the Connecticut Western road, and was a director in both roads at the time of his death. He also had a share in the movement which resulted in the building of the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad.
In 1851, Mr. Barnum was elected to represent his town in the state legislature, and was re-elected i11 1852. Although very active in politics, he declined to accept further renomi- nations until 1866, when he consented to ruin for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and was elected, serving as the representative of the Fourth Connecticut district. This was the famous Barnum vs. Barnum campaign- P. T. against W. H., and it was one of the hottest political contests ever waged in the annals of Connecticut. In the arena of national politics and legislation, he became at once a prominent figure. In 1866 he was sent as a delegate from Connecticut to the National Union convention, held in Philadelphia, and was a delegate to the National Democratic conventions of 1868, 1872, 1876, 1880, 1884 and 1888. Re-elected to congress in 1869, he took a distinguished part in the legislation of that term, and developed great strength as a party leader and an exponent of. Democratic ideas. His course was warmly approved by his constituents, and he was re-elected to the Forty-second, Forty-third and Forty- fourth Congresses. While a member of the National House of Representatives, Mr. Barnum served upon a number of most important committees, and was chairman of several. Upon the death of Hon. Orrin S. Ferry, a United States senator from Connecticut, Mr. Barnum's name was instantly coupled with the succession. When the business of filling the vacancy caused by Senator Ferry's death came up in the Connecticut legislature of 1876, four candidates were balloted for; namely: Henry B. Harrison, Republican ; James E. English and William H. Barnum, both Democrats ; and Charles R. Ingersoll, also a Democrat, who received votes in the lower house only. On May 17, 1876, when both houses met in joint convention, Mr. Barnum received 168 of the 267 votes cast, Mr. English six, and Mr. Ingersoll one, the remainder going to Mr. Harrison. Mr. Barnum was accordingly declared elected on the first ballot. His term in the Senate lasted from May, 1876, to March 3, 1879. At the close of the campaign in the former year he was made chairman of the National Democratic committee, succeeding the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt of New York. He was continued in this responsible position during the campaign of 1880 at the request of the nominee for the presidency in that
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