USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 14
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Their gun plant as it now exists covers about two acres of ground and gives regular employment, when in full operation, to two hundred men. The works embrace a variety of departments adapted to the manufacture of the gun from the very beginning until its arrival at a state of completion. An extensive blacksmith and forging department is in active operation in a separate building, where all parts of the gun are forged. The other departments consist of a milling-room, barrel-turning and boring-room, engraving-room, stock-making room, and one for making special machinery adapted to the manufacture of the different parts of the Parker gun. Eleven different frames for the various sizes, weights and qualities of guns are made in the factory, constituting a greater variety than that embraced in the works of any other company in this country. The principal points of excellence in the Parker gun are its simplicity of construction, its great wearing powers, and its superior shooting qualities, which points have placed it in the first rank for execution with the best guns in the world, and won for it the appropriate soubriquet of the "old reliable Parker."
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When Meriden took her place in the sisterhood of Connecticut municipalities, it was but natural that the citizens should turn to their representative business man and seat him in the mayor's chair. Mr. Parker served as thic head of the city government for the years 1867 and 1868, and, as numerous precedents were to be established and many questions settled which would never occur again, it gave him an opportunity for the display of that careful judgment and executive ability for which he is notcd. Mr. Parker's sympathics were heartily enlisted in the war for the preservation of the American Union. To this work he gave not only of his time and talents, but also of his incans.
At the age of thirty-one, Mr. Parker experienced a change of heart, and thenceforward dedicated himself to the service of his Maker. Two years later he became a member of the Methodist church, and has since rendered invaluable assistance to that religious organization in Meriden and elsewhere. To the Methodist church on Broad street he not only gave the lot, but also gave three-quarters of what the building cost. His brother John and he together contributed nearly $50,000 toward the erection of the present Methodist church.
His success has not been of an ephemeral character built on a speculative foundation. His pecuniary prosperity has been attained by strict 'economy and a close application to busi- ness. Laboring men who are striking to-day for nine or even eight hours, would not feel like putting in fifteen hours per day, as Mr. Parker has often done. In the rush of business management, time could not be found for correspondence, and that kind of work has been relegated to the hours of the evening week after week. Most inen wish to succeed, to have the emoluments of place or wealth which success brings in its train, but they are not always willing to pay the price. Mr. Parker was not one of these. He realized that good fortune was synonymous with hard work, and he never spared himself in the attainment of his objects. Starting with the possession of rare good sense, the height he has reached has been gained by great industry, careful methods in business, and punctuality in the keeping of engagements. His liberality has been of the mnost unostentatious kind, and whenever he has conferred a favor, he has endeavored to conceal the fact from public knowledge. In the three-score years which have elapsed since he commenced manufacturing in such an humble way, he has lived to see the business then started grow to its present immense proportions, and the village of Meriden gradually develop into one of the fairest cities in the state of Connecticut. Honored and loved most by those who know him best, it is to be hoped that he will be spared to see what the opening of the twentieth century will bring forth.
Charles Parker was married Oct. 6, 1831, to Abi, daughter of Thomas Eddy of Berlin. Of their ten children, three are now living : Charles E. Parker, now vice-president of the Charles Parker Company ; Dexter Wright Parker, who graduated from West Point in 1870, and now treasurer of the same company, and Annie Dryden, wife of W. H. Lyon, the efficient secretary of the corporation.
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W
AINWRIGHT, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, M. D., of Hartford, was born in New York City, Aug. 13, 1844.
On both sides of the family line Dr. Wainwright comes of a sturdy Englishi stock. Peter Wainwright, an English merchant, settled in Boston not long after the Revolutionary War. Here he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Mayhew, D. D., a Congregational minister. Dr. Mayhew was a descendant of Thomas Mayhew, one of the early settlers of the country, and the first governor of Martha's Vineyard. Soon after his marriage, Peter Wainwright returned to Liverpool, and it was there that his three children were born ; but in 1803 he again took up his abode in America. Jonathan Mayliew, his oldest son, was born Feb. 24, 1792, and graduated from Harvard University in 1812. Teaching occupied his time for several years, then he decided to devote his life to the work of the sacred ministry, and after taking a course of theological studies was admitted to the order of priesthood of the Episcopal church in Christ Church, Hartford, Conn., Aug. 16, 1817. Limited space will prevent any mention of the invaluable work he did in the service of his Master, and liow he managed to compress all that he did into the hours of his busy life is a standing marvel. His literary labors were numerous and varied, an especially important piece of work being as chief working member of the committee of the general convention to prepare the standard edition of the Book of Common Prayer. After having been rector of several large city parislies, in 1852 he was chosen provisional bishop of the diocese of New York. He threw himself heartily into the responsibility laid upon him; but the burden was too great, and he broke beneath the strain and died in New York City, Sept. 21, 1854. Bishop Wainwright was married in August, 1818, to Amelia Maria, grand-daughter of Judge John Phelps of Stafford, Conn. Fourteen children were born to them, and of these the subject of this sketch is youngest.
Dr. Wainwright received his name from Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, the founder of St. Luke's Hospital, New York City. His earlier education was secured at a private school, and, entering Trinity College in 1860, was graduated from that institution in 1864. The desire to be a physician seems to have been engrafted into his being from his youth, and soon after leaving college he commenced the study of medicine in New York City under the tuition of Doctors Alexander Hosack and Henry B. Sands. He took the regular course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Successfully passing his examination in December, 1866, he at once went into the New York Hospital. From March to December, 1865, Dr. Wainwright was "interne" at the Hartford Hospital. He was awarded his diploma in the spring of 1867, and, after passing two years' service in the old New York Hospital, came to Hartford, where he has since made his home. In 1890 he was elected a inember of the board of medical visitors to the Retreat for the Insane in Hartford.
In 1872, Dr. Wainwright was elected an attending physician and surgeon of the Hartford Hospital. When the change took place and the division of the work assigned was effected, he was appointed one of the visiting surgeons, which position he still holds.
He was appointed assistant surgeon of the first company of the Governor's Foot Guards, then under the command of Major John C. Kinney, and held office for the space of ten years. He is now medical supervisor for the State Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of New Jersey, the Union Mutual Company of Maine, and the United States Life Insurance Company of New York, and is also one of the medical examiners of these companies and of the Mutual Life Company of New York. Of the Charter Oak Life Company he was medical examiner, and, after the death of Dr. Jackson, was inade medical director, and filled that position until the company went into insolvency. He is a member of the American Medical Association,
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and is also a member of the State Medieal Society. For several years he was clerk of the Hartford County Medical Society, that being the only officer whose duties continued from year to year. He was president of the society in the one hundredth year of its existence, and during all the tests of the Centennial celebration was fully equal to the requirements of tlie occasion. Dr. Wainwright is a foreeful and pleasant speaker, and a few paragraphs are quoted from his address :
Looking back into the past, it seems a blessed thing to have been born and to live in the nineteenth century. Life is a very different thing to-day from what it was a hundred - nay, fifty years ago. It almost takes one's breath away to stop and think of the immense strides that have been taken since our century began, in the advancement of all things that go to make up the civilization of to-day. Only to begin to enumerate the most important of them would take much more time than has been allotted to mne.
To the lasting honor of the medical profession, it can be said with the utmost truth, that in no branch of any art or science has the advancement been greater than in our own; and to no one class of men is the world more indebted to-day than it is to noble and honored members of our craft. To name them all would be to fill a volume; but to prove that the pride which is in us is not false in character, I have but to mention the names of Bichat, Broussais, Laennec, Louis, Trousseau, Hunter, Sydenham, Cullen, Jenner, Bright, Cooper, Skoda, Rokitansky, Virchow, Pasteur, Koch, Rush, Warren, Mitchell, Bard, Physick, Hosack, Dewees, Sims, Nathan Smith, Mott, Van Buren, Gross, McDowell, Kimball, Atlee, Knight, Wells, Simpson ; and a name which is almost unheard, if not entirely unknown to most of us, but one which ought to go down to posterity with the rest - Dr. Carl Koller of New York, who, when a medical student in Vienna, discovered the anæsthetic properties of cocaine.
When it is taken into consideration that whatever has been done in our ranks during the last century has been done for the good of the human race, to relieve its sufferings, to give it life and health and strength, and under God to increase the number of its days, we may, I think, be pardoned for the honest pride we have in meeting here to celebrate the end of our first hundred years' work, and to do honor to those of us who have passed on before.
It is not only "the evil that men do that lives after them:" it is the good that they have done that "makes the whole world kin," that keeps their memories ever green, and that makes us love to talk and think of their noble lives, and their unselfish deeds, which have made life a hundred times more worth living to-day than it was a hundred years ago.
As a member and one of the vestrymen of St. John's Church, Hartford, Dr. Wainwright takes a zealous interest in everything which pertains to the welfare of the Protestant Episcopal church. He has been several times a delegate to the State Diocesan Convention, and twice he has been sent to the General Convention of the church -at New York in 1889, and at Baltimore in 1890. At the first dinner and annual meeting of the Church Club of the diocese of Connecticut in January, 1893, he was chosen president of the club, and to be made the head of such an organization may be taken as a marked compliment. In 1865 he was initiated into the mysteries of masonry in Holland Lodge, No. 8, of New York City, and on coming to Hartford became a member of St. John's Lodge. He is also an active member of the Connectieut chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and a member of its board of managers.
Besides being in demand as a speaker on special occasions, Dr. Wainwright wields a facile pen. He wrote the medical history chapter for the "Memorial History " of Hartford County, one of the most carefully prepared volumes of the kind ever issued. He has reported several cases and read various papers before the State Society, which have always been listened to with interest. At the centennial anniversary of the Connecticut Medical Society, his paper was upon "Medico-Legal Aspects of Chiloroform." It was a consideration of a surgeon's accountability when his patient dies from the administration of cliloroforin for the purposes of an operation. After stating the law in regard to injury to person, the doctor said :
My own belief is that chloroform is just as safe a drug to use as opium, strychnine or hydrocyanic acid, and that we are perfectly justified in using it. I believe that in many cases it is a safer drug to use than ether. Au infinitely greater number of our patients die from the effects of our surgical operations than die from the effects of the anasthetic which is given to make the operation possible ; and one might as well say
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
that we should beat our scalpels into ploughshares and our lichotrites into pruning-hooks, because once in a while a life is lost by means of them. I would never willingly tell a patient that any surgical operation was absolutely safe, or that the administration of either cliloroforin or ether was absolutely safe; but I should no more hesitate to give chloroform in the one case than I should hesitate to perform the operation in the otlier. At the same time, as the patient or the patient's friends should share with the surgeon the responsibility of the operation, so should they share with him the danger of the anaesthetic. And in those cases where it seems best to the surgeon, if the patient is willing to take the risk of the more dangerous, but in a number of cases the more agreeable anasthetic, the surgeon is, in my judgment, perfectly justified in using it; and does thereby exercise the "ordinary diligence, care and skill" that the law calls upon him to use; and he should not be held accountable to law, either human or divine, if the dreadful calamity falls to his lot of sending a human soul to its creator.
Still on the inside of the half century mark of life, Dr. Wainwright occupies an enviable position amid the physicians of Hartford, as well as of the state at large. Without devoting himself to any special field in his profession, he has gained a reputation which many a man with a score of years more on his shoulders might be proud to possess.
He was married Jan. 14, 1869, to Helena Barker, daughter of the late Thomas Grosvenor Talcott of Hartford. Of their eleven children four are now living, two sons and two daughters.
B
ENEDICT, ELIAS CORNELIUS, of Greenwich, senior member of the banking firm of E. C. Benedict & Co., New York, was born in Somers, Westchester County, New York, Jan. 24, 1834.
The name Benedict is derived from the Latin benedictus, "blessed, well- spoken of." Though unknown as a proper namne in the Latin tongue, it is common as such in those languages of modern Europe which are offshoots from the Latin, or are, from the prevalence of the Romish religion, sprinkled with Roman derivatives. Bene- dict in English and German becomes Benedek in Austrian, Benedetto in Italian, Bendito in in Spanish and Portuguese, Benoit in French, besides various other forms. It undoubtedly becaine a proper name from the ancient custom of adding to or substituting for a family name some striking individual characteristic or the name of some patron saint.
Among those Englishmen who went into voluntary exile rather than endure the cruelties and oppressions of the Stuarts in the state and lands of the church was Thomas Benedict of Nottinghamshire. There is reason to suppose that his own remote ancestor had made England his refuge from religious persecution on the Continent. He emigrated to New England in 1638, and soon afterwards married Mary Bridgum, who came over in the same ship. They resided for a time in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and then inoved to the valley of the Connecticut, from which they later transferred their home to Southhold, on Long Island, where their nine children were born. Sometime before 1670 he again made his home in Connecticut, both political and religious reasons accounting for the change, and settled in Norwalk. Mr. Benedict must have been a welcome addition to the society of Norwalk, as he was at once elevated to official station, nor was it a spasmodic appreciation of his sterling qualities, as the following list will bear abundant testimony : He was town clerk at different times for a period of nearly ten years; the records are still preserved in his own handwriting, and are legible and properly attested by his own signature. His term of service as selectinan covers seventeen years, closing with 1688. In 1670 and again in 1675 he was the representative of Norwalk to the General Assembly. Always zealously affected in religious matters, he was chosen deacon of the church soon after his arrival in Norwalk, and held that important office during the rest of his life. Besides the service of these more
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conspicuous appointments, he rendered much valuable assistance to his friends in a non- official and neighborly way. His good sense and general intelligence, some scientific knowl- edge and his skill as a penman, made him their recourse when papers were to be drafted, lands to be surveyed and apportioned or disputes to be arbitrated.
From Thomas Bentley, the emigrant, the family line comes down through the second son John. Hc was a freeman of Norwalk in 1680 and succeeded his father as selectman in 1689, and filled that office again from 1692 to 1694, and also in 1699. Hc was occupied chiefly, however, with church affairs, having become deacon probably on the death of his father. Thenceforth the records show him to have been constantly on committees having charge of the religious and educational interests of the community, now "obtaining a minister," then "hyering a schoolmaster." In 1705 the church honored him by voting him a sitting "in ye seat before ye pulpit." He served as representative in the General Assembly in the sessions of 1722 and 1725. Then follows a second John, who was also prominent as a selectman and in other town offices, and was deacon for many years. His fourth son was Nathaniel. Like those who had preceded him, he was a man of mark and filled numerous official positions in the town and state. It was said of him at the time of his death that "He has left ninety-one grandchildren and eighty-eight great-grandchildren, the whole number of his descendants now living being 191. For about thirty-two years he sustained the office of deacon of the First Congregational church in that town. Deacon Benedict was one of those venerable personages by whom what remains of the pious habits of our fore- fathers have been transmitted to the present generation. His long life has been eminently exemplary, and years to come will feel its happy influence. Every morning and evening witnessed his devotion. His Sabbaths were faithfully appropriated to public worship and religious family instructions. An amiable, cheerful disposition, a sound mind, improved by a degree of reading and much reflection, and adorned with a bright constellation of Christian graces, comprised his character."
In the fifth generation came another John, and his son Henry was the father of the subject of this sketch. Henry Benedict is deserving of special mention. After graduating at Yale College, although for some years in feeble health, he determined to devote himself to the ministry of the gospel, and pursued a theological course under private instruction. Commencing his work at Waterbury, Conn., after preaching one year at Galway, he was installed pastor of the Congregational church at Norwalk, in August, 1828, and continued there for four years amid scenes of great religious interest and fruitfulness. Impaired health compelled him to resign his church and visit the South. In October, 1833, Rev. Mr. Benedict accepted a call to Lansingburg, New York, and remained there two years. After which, declining permanent engagements, he preached in Covington, Ky., in Stillwater, and in New York City. Leaving New York he was settled over the Congregational church at Westport, Conn., for twelve years. Resigning this church, he spent the year 1852 in Europe, and on his return accepted a call to Portchester, where he continued until 1863, when advancing years induced him to lay aside his duties as pastor. He married Mary Betts, daughter of Captain Steplien Lockwood of Norwalk, Conn., Sept. 1, 1823. Seven children were born to them, of whom Elias C. was the fourth. Mr. Benedict died at Saratoga Springs, July 18, 1868.
A private institution at Westport, Conn., and a public school of Buffalo, N. Y., gave young Benedict all the scholastic education he received, but in the wider school of experience he has gained a fund of knowledge not to be secured in the great universities. Just after entering his sixteenth year he went into the banking office of Corning & Company, New York, as clerk. Wisely improving all his opportunities for learning the intricacies of financial
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affairs, in October, 1857, he entered the mercantile world on his own account as Benedict & Company, his office being at 63 Wall street. Fourteen years later, October 9th, the very day of the disastrous fire in Chicago, he formed a partnership with Roswell P. Flower, now governor of New York. This connection lasted until 1875, when the present firin of E. C. Benedict & Company was organized, and the name has remained unchanged.
During the latter part of the war and the years which followed, when gold was a inarketable commodity, the daily sales at times were simply enormous. The necessity of a clearing house for these increasing amounts was readily apparent. To meet this pressing need, Mr. Benedict with others organized the Gold Exchange Bank, and his brother, Henry M. Benedict, was chosen president. At the time of the famous "Black Friday," when Jay Gould and those associated with him tried to corner all the gold in the country, the bank demonstrated its great efficiency, and it lived till the year before the resumption of specie payments, when the need for its existence had passed away. Mr. Benedict was president of the bank for the last few years of its life, and during the whole of its career was an active spirit in its management.
The trend of Mr. Benedict's mind runs largely to the promotion and development of extensive enterprises. He has inade successful the placing of the securities of the gas com- panies of New York, Baltimore, Troy, Indianapolis, Chicago, Albany, and Brooklyn. In all the companies lie is a managing director, and his influence is felt everywhere along the lines which lead to financial success.
Since 1863 Mr. Benedict has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and, out of the 1100 members at the present time, only thirty can date their connection to an earlier period. Though always honored by his associates for probity of character, not hav- ing the slightest desire for official station, he has never been prominent in the management of the Exchange.
For over two score years Mr. Benedict has been a resident of the pleasant town of Greenwich, Conn., although he has made his home in Connecticut alinost continuously since 1840. On one occasion, while he was on a trip to California, and entirely without his knowledge, he was unanimously elected warden of the town. On his return, he found the financial affairs of the town in a decidedly tangled condition, and bringing his experience to bear he brought order out of the seeming chaos, and having performed this valuable service for his fellow townsinen, he declined emphatically a subsequent election. This one year covers Mr. Benedict's whole experience as an office holder. His name was prominently brought forward as the Democratic candidate for governor of Connecticut in 1882, but while acknowledging the high compliment implied, he declined to allow his name to be used in that connection.
Mr. Benedict has been extremely fortunate in the friendships he has formed. He was the close friend of Edwin Booth, and it was on board of his yacht during a cruise in 1887 with Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Lawrence Barrett and others, that Mr. Booth brought out the philanthropic plan for assisting his fellow actors which resulted in the formation of the club called " The Players." Joseph Jefferson can also be classed among his intimate acquaint- ances, and with President Grover Cleveland his relations have been of even a closer nature than with either of the gentlemen named. One must live his life on a high plane to be on friendly terins with such choice spirits as these, but they are only examples of his associates, and the connection simply reveals a higher phase of his character.
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