USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
The first day of August, 1854, Mr. Coit was united in marriage to Lucretia, daughter of William F. Brainard, a prominent lawyer of New London, and a brother of J. G. C. Brainard, who gained fame as a poet. Two children have been born to them. One, William B. Coit, is now living. He is following in his father's steps in the legal profession, and is assistant city attorney of New London.
23
174
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
.
ALL, JOHN HENRY, of Hartford, vice-president and treasurer of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, was born in Portland, Conn., March 24, 1849. Hc is a deseendant of the ninth generation of Jolin Hall, born in Cam- bridge, England, in 1584, who eanc to this country and settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1633. In September of the same year, hc, with Jolin Oldham and two others, explored the region bordering the Connecticut River, and their report, datcd Jan. 20, 1634, led to inigrations from Dorchester to Wethersfield, and from Cambridge to Hartford. In the ycar 1635, it is recorded he was inade "freeman " in Boston. In 1636, he joined the Hooker and Stone colony, and went to Hartford, removing his family thither in 1639. He owned and occupied as his place of residence a traet of six aeres bordering on the Little River, now circled on its southern and eastern aspeets by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, and overlooking Bushnell Park. In 1650, he moved to Middletown, then ealled Mettabesick, being one of the original purehasers of land from the Indians. Samuel Hall, of the third generation in this country, in 1719 moved to East Middletown, afterwards known as Chatham, and now as Portland, and down to the present generation the family has continued to reside there.
Alfred Hall, of the eighth generation, father of the subject of this sketch, entered Wash- ington College, now Trinity, the first day the bell rang for prayers, and his eldest son, Samuel, was the first son of a graduate to enter the same college. After his graduation Mr. Alfred Hall seleeted the law as his profession and completed the course of study at the Harvard Law Sehool ; at the request of his father, however, he then returned to Portland and engaged with him in the direction of the affairs of the brown-stone quarry, known as the Shaler & Hall Quarry Company, organized during the Revolutionary War by Nathaniel Shaler and Samuel Hall, father of Alfred, and grandfather of John H. Hall. The following copy of an advertisement taken from the Middletown Gazette or Focderal Adviser, published in Middletown, Oet. 13, 1781, save in its quaint spelling, would satisfy to-day in its ener- getic promise :
The Free Stone Quarry at Chatham, (known by the name of Johnson's Quarry), is now worked under the Direction of Shaler and Hall, who will supply the Stone at the Shortest Notice, and at the lowest prices either iu the Ruff or finished, aud in such Dimensions as may be required. They will contract to furnish any quantity, for public or private Buildings, Flags, Grave Stones or Monuments, and deliver them at any Port in North America. Orders directed (post-paid) to Shaler and Hall at the Quarry, Chatham, will have due attention.
Oct. 13th, 178I.
Mr. Alfred Hall sueeeeded his father in the presidency of the Quarry Company, and for many years took an active interest in its affairs. The position for some time past and in the present is held by Mr. John H. Hall, who, by his energies and progressive inanage- ment has revolutionized its working, introdueing machinery up to date, keeping it abreast with the times, and eausing it to enter upon a new era of prosperity.
Mr. Hall attended the public school in Portland, went thenee to Chase's sehool in Middletown, and completed his course of study at the Episcopal Academy of Conneetieut at Cheshire. He preferred business to a professional eareer and entered into the employ of Sturgis, Bennet & Co., 125 and 127 Front Street, New York, at that time the largest importers of tea and eoffee in the United States, where he remained five years, enjoy- ing rapid promotion, attaining at the age of nineteen to charge of foreign and insurance departments. In December, 1877, he returned to Portland with his family, having purchased a large interest in the " Pickering Governor," - at that time in a very depressed condition- under the firm name of T. R. Pickering & Co. Owing to his tireless cnergy and wise
Massachusetts Publishing Co Everett, Mas;
Ano stHal.
175
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
business management the enterprise became a rapid success. In five years from the time of his association with the firin, the manufacture and sale increased from less than five hundred a year to five thousand. "No pent-up Utica contracts his powers." Successful in his competition on this side of the water, he engaged in competition with English manufacturers, and the sale of the "Pickering Governor " to Great Britain and hier colonies now represents per annum three times the original output. When business communication is effected with the planet Mars, the "Pickering Governor " will probably regulate the first flying machine and be the first in the field.
During his ten years' residence in Portland from 1878 to 1888, he was prominent in the interests of the town. He was elected president of the Shaler & Hall Quarry Company in 1884, and refused nominations to both branches of the state legislature, tendered him by the dominant party. In 1888, his business, which had been carried on under a partnership, was organized as a corporation, Mr. Hall retaining his proprietary interest and holding the position of treasurer. About this time the continuous ill health of Mr. R. W. H. Jarvis, president of the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, and his consequent retirement from active management in the concern, together with the general depression of its business, and the resignation of Gen. William B. Franklin, determined its board of directors to offer to Mr. Hall the position of general manager of the corporation. An arrangement was made satis- factory to both parties, and he entered upon the duties of his office with the business acumen and untiring zeal and energy so characteristic of him. Although Mr. Jarvis retained the presidency, it was understood, owing to his condition of health, that he was to be relieved of all the responsibility and care attaching to the office. Mr. Caldwell H. Colt, the vice- president, was absent from Hartford the greater portion of the time, so that almost from the beginning of his connection with the corporation the entire direction of affairs, both within the manufactory and in its relations with the business world at large, devolved upon Mr. Hall. The directors, soon assured of his ample capability and worth, supported him loyally in the changes he advocated, and under his vigorous direction the company has been strengthened at home and abroad.
During his residence of six years in Hartford, his geniality and his business ability have received a flattering recognition on the part of its citizens. He has declined nomination to municipal office, but, since 1890, has served on the city board of water commissioners, having been re-appointed in 1893, upon the expiration of his first term of service. He is director in several of Hartford's most prominent corporations, namely : The Phoenix Insurance Company, the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Hartford National Bank, the Dime Savings Bank, and was one of the organizers of the Board of Trade, and a member of its first board of directors. He is also a director in the Specialty Manufacturing Company and the Neptune Meter Company of New York. He is a great social favorite, and enjoys membership in the Hartford Club, the Manhattan Club, the New York Athletic Club, and the Engineers' Club of New York City, the New York Yacht Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, and the New Haven Yacht Club. He belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, and is a Mason of the thirty-second degree, a member of St. John's Lodge, No. 4, and Washington Commandery, No. I, of Hartford, and is now serving as one of the building committee upon the proposed new Masonic Temple in Hartford.
On Feb. 9, 1870, Mr. Hall married Miss Sarah G. Loines of New York. She is descended on her father's side from Quaker stock, and from the Hopkinses of Rhode Island. Her ances- tor, Stephen Hopkins, was a very prominent citizen of that honored commonwealth during the Revolutionary period. He was chief justice of both the Court of Common Pleas and the Superior Court, governor of Rhode Island, and speaker of its House of Representatives. He
176
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
was twice elected to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Their union has been blessed with the birth of four children, two of whom survive, Mr. Clarence Loines Hall, aged twenty-two, now in thic employ of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, and Miss Grace Loines Hall, still a blooming school girl in hier "teens."
Mr. Hall has always been a member of the Episcopal church, and is now senior warden of the parish of the Good Shepherd in the city that is favored by his residence. Hc is loyally faithful to the interests he represents, whether of a public or private character, and has stead- fastly declincd calls to a wider field for the display of his energies, with promise of a inore lucrative employment.
USSELL, GURDON WADSWORTH, A. M., M. D., of Hartford, was born in that city, April 10, 1815. His parents were John and Martha (Wadsworth) Russell. John Russell was a native of Litchfield, and subsequently became a printer and publisher in Hartford.
After the usual preparatory course, young Russell entered Trinity College, and graduated in the class of 1834. Choosing the medical profession as the one in which to gain an honorable name for himself, he commenced to prepare for the duties of its exercise the same year of his graduation from college, in the office of Dr. A. Brigham of Hartford. This gentleman at a later period took charge of the Hartford Retreat, and after that became identified with the management of the insane asylum at Utica, N. Y. Matriculating at the medical department of Yale College in 1835, he pursued a thorough course of study, and in 1837 received the diploma of M. D. from that institution. Locating himself at Wethersfield, Conn., he prosecuted a successful medical practice in that vicinity for one year, and then transferred his residence to Hartford, which, since 1838, has been his home.
Drawing his inspiration from his old tutor, Dr. Brighamn, Dr. Russell is greatly interested in the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford. Desirous of promoting the welfare and progress of the institution, in 1875 he erected a completely furnished and handsome chapel, and presented it to the corporation for the benefit of the patients under its care. Many observant and judicious physicians who have studied how to "minister medicine to minds diseased," regard this act of inunificence as one of the wisest and most scientific of the long list with which Dr. Russell must be credited. Different forms of mental aberration are doubtless induced by brooding on religious subjects, especially when aided by other causes; but it is none the less true that the calin, thoughtful inculcation of Christian truth, and the benign influence of genuine Christian worship have prevented multitudes of oppressed and wounded souls from becoming hopelessly insane. Observing the whole field of human experiences, science adapts its measures, as Dr. Russell has done, to the most judicious style of human healing and happiness.
Dr. Russell was the first and has been the only medical examiner of the Ætna Life Insurance Company. In this capacity he has contributed his full share to the grand success attained in the forty-three years of its existence. To the building up of a great life company, ability in managing the finances is necessary; energy and push are required to secure business in the face of competition, but all these would be of no avail without the closest scrutiny of the risks incurred. That Dr. Russell's services have found ready appreciation, let the follow- ing sentiments from a speech of Governor Bulkeley's before an assemblage of the agents of the company in June, 1892, bear witness :
- -
6
177
OF. CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
With a single exception, I appear here to-night, not only as the president of the Atna Life Insurance Company, but as the second oldest living employee of that institution. There is but one person living to-day who was connected with the company from its organization, and is connected with it at the present time. The most of you general agents have had many occasions to appreciate, and sometimes complain of, the manner in which he has performed his duties. When I tell you that our medical examiner, Dr. Gurdon W. Russell, was elected medical examiner of the company at its very organization, and occupies that position to-day, you will recognize a name with which you are all familiar, and one to whom the company, its agents, and its policy holders, are greatly indebted for years of generous service. (Applause.)
Recognized by his fellow practitioners as one of the leaders of his profession in the state for many years, they have naturally asked him to accept honors at their hands. Dr. Russell has served as president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and in other official capacities in connection withi county and city societies. The reputation of his professional abilities has extended far beyond the limits of his native state. For one year Dr. Russell was vice-president of the American Medical Association. Of late years, for reasons satisfactory to himself, Dr. Russell has partially withdrawn from the exclusive pursuit of his profession, and has devoted much time and energy to various philanthropic enterprises. Successful labors in his chosen field of action brought ample resources in their train, and he has wisely and inostentatiously contributed to various worthy charities connected and unconnected with the medical pro- fession1.
Gurdon W. Russell was married in 1838, to Elizabeth S. Tuttle. She departed this life in 1871.
HAFFEE, JOSEPH DWIGHT, of Willimantic, president of the Natchaug Silk Company, and ex-inember of the state Senate, was born in Mansfield, Conn., Aug. 9, 1847.
Frederick Chaffee, grandfather of Colonel Chaffee, was a farmer in prosper- ous circuinstances. He married Eliza Knowlton of Ashford, Conn., and their only son, Orwell S. Chaffee, was born in that town in 1823. O. S. Chaffee inherited no taste for agriculture, though brought up on a farm, and, after receiving a limited education, he went to Northampton and served a regular apprenticeship at the trade of silk manufacturing in that place. Transferring his residence to Mansfield, he married Lucinda A., daughter of Joseph Conant, one of the most successful silk manufacturers of the town. Engaging in busi- ness with his father-in-law, he became prominent in the realmns of business life, and was ever recognized as a public-spirited citizen. He contributed no little to the developinent of the silk industry of Connecticut, and at one time represented his town in the state legislature. He was the father of three children, of whom J. D. Chaffee was the oldest.
Joseph Dwight Chaffee had the best advantages afforded by his native place in the way of education. Of an intensely practical turn of mind, professional life had 110 attractions for him, his choice being always for more stirring scenes of the business world. At the age of sixteen he began preparations for his future career by taking a thorough training in all the processes of silk manufacturing in his father's mill. Under his father's careful instruction he mastered every detail of manufacture, became an expert in the machinery employed, and at the same time he acquired great familiarity with the best ways of marketing the products of the mill. In 1872, he was admitted to partnership in his father's business, and the firmn name was changed to O. S. Chaffee & Son. At this time the plant was removed to Williman- tic, and additional facilities secured to ineet the demands of the growing business. Prosperity attended their efforts, and new and larger mills were required, together with more machinery. Every modern device which would tend to improve the quality of the goods was added at
178
REPRESENTATIVE MEN.
once, and the firm has gained a reputation among the first silk manufacturers of the country. With increasing years, Mr. O. S. Chaffee gradually withdrew from active participation in the business, and its management naturally devolved upon the junior partner. At the death of his father, in 1887, Mr. J. D. Chaffce became sole proprietor of the business, and has since carried it on in the most successful manner. Connecticut now ranks third in the silk industry of the United States, and it is due to the founders and present owner of the Willimantic mill to record the fact that their skill, intelligence and enterprise have been factors of no small 11101nent in bringing about this desirable result.
In political life, Mr. Chaffee is a thoroughgoing Republican, and from the day he cast his first vote lie has taken an active interest in the public affairs of his town and state. He was elected, in 1874, a representative to the legislature from Mansfield, and, though one of the youngest members of that body, he made a good record for himself. Business duties pressing upon him, he declined a second term. In 1885, he accepted the Republican nomination for the Senate from the Twenty-fourth district, and against a strong opponent was elected by a handsome majority. While in the Senate, he served as chairman of the committees on fish- eries and on labor, the latter being an entirely new one on the list. Some perplexing questions came before each committee, but Mr. Chaffee had the satisfaction of seeing all of his reports adopted.
Shortly after leaving the Senate in 1887, he was surprised at being appointed aide-de- camp on the staff of Governor Lounsbury, with the rank and commission of colonel in the National Guard of the state. Though devoid of all military training, Mr. Chaffee is exceed- ingly popular in military circles. While at the State House he was the friend and advocate of every measure brought forward to benefit or increase the efficiency of the state militia in any direction. This fact will doubtless account both for the appointment and the popularity. He is recognized among the manufacturers of the state as a inan of energy and possessed of the most advanced and progressive views. Since 1887, he has been president of the Natchaug Silk Company. He is a director in the W. G. & A. R. Morrison Machine Company, one of the leading corporations of the state, and also has served on the board of several other companies.
Says a sketch of him: "Mr. Chaffee's honorable career as a business man, his faithful service as a public official, and his unsullied private character, have placed him high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens generally, and those employed in his mills speak of him as a considerate friend of labor, who recognizes that the advancement of the moral and material welfare of all wage earners is a duty not only demanded by justice, but earnestly called for by the wisest business policy."
J. D. Chaffee was married Sept. 12, 1867, to Martha, daughter of George B. Armstrong of Mansfield. They have three children, Arthur Dwight, Charles Howard and Gertrude Armstrong.
179
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
ANDERS, GEORGE MARCELLUS, of New Britain, cx-member of Congress, and vice-president of the Landers, Frary & Clark Manufacturing Company, was born at Lenox, Mass., Feb. 22, 1813. He was the son of Marcellus and Marietta Hoyt Landers. His grandfather, Capt. Asahel Landers, served two years in the Revolutionary Armny, and was with Gen. Anthony Wayne at the exciting capture of Stony Point. His father served in the War of 1812.
When he was seven years old his father moved from Lenox to Hartford and was a teacher in what was then the Center or Stone School. His father died in 1824, and young Landers, eleven years old, returned to Lenox to live with his grandfather. His education was limited to that which could be obtained in the public schools. At the age of sixteen he was appren- ticed to Aaron Hart of New Britain, for the purpose of learning the carpenter's and joiner's trade. After working as a journeyman for some years he engaged in business on his own account, erecting his own house and other buildings in the town. Perceiving that manu- facturing promised surer and at the same time more prompt returns than could be secured in the trade he had learned, he decided to enter the new field. First with Josiah Dewey about 1840, and later by himself in his own name, he had a shop near his house. The specialties made were furniture casters and window springs. In 1841-42, Mr. Landers built a shop on East Main street, and commenced the manufacture of coat and hat hooks, and other small articles of manufacture. Energy and a careful attention to details soon made themselves felt, and he built up a flourishing business. In 1853, a company was organi- ized under the joint stock corporation act, known as the Landers & Smith Manufacturing Company. Additions were made to the shop and the operations considerably enlarged. The business of Frary, Carey & Company of Meriden was purchased in 1862, and the capital increased to $50,000. At this time Mr. Smith retired and James D. Frary of the Meriden company came in, the company being reorganized by special act of the legislature, as Landers, Frary & Clark, a name it still retains. The number of articles made was increased, and the amount of business became larger than ever before. Table cutlery was added to the variety of goods already made four years later, and the Ætna works were built and new machinery introduced. The works were destroyed by fire in 1874, but they were immediately rebuilt on a larger scale and supplied with improved machinery. The small beginnings of over fifty years ago Mr. Landers has seen grow into an immense corporation, doing an extensive and successful business in all parts of the country.
When Berlin first petitioned that New Britain be set off as a new town, the division was opposed, because only one representative was allowed, and Mr. Landers, with other gentlemen, appeared before a committee of the legislature to give reasons for the opposition. New Britain had become more populous than the other two parishes taken together, and cast a majority of the votes. As a result of the protest, the town was allowed two representatives. At the election which followed, Ethan A. Andrews was chosen one representative, and Mr. Landers the other. The History of New Britain says: "These men by their wisdom, firinness and harmony secured important advantages to the town." He was again returned to the lower branch of the General Assembly in 1867 and 1874.
In 1853, and again in 1869 and 1873, he was sent to the state Senate from the first senatorial district. At this time Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, Berlin, New Britain and Southington were all included in this district. He was the Senate chair- man of the committee of the legislature that secured the change in plans for the new state Capitol, although contracts had been entered into for the construction of an inferior build- ing. He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1875, and was reelected in 1877, and rendered valuable services to his state and district during his term of office.
180
REPRESENTATIVE MEN
Mr. Landers has been identified with most of the important incasures of progress in the town and city since their incorporation. In June, 1857, thic town voted to accept "An act to supply the boronghi of New Britain with water for public and private purposes," and that Messrs. F. T. Stanley, and H. E. Russell and Mr. Landers be appointed a board of commissioners to carry out the provisions of the act. They proceeded at once with the work, which was promptly executed according to a general plan, but owing to the careful inanage- inent of the commissioners, it was completed at considerably less cost than was first estimated. Such records are of rare occurrence.
Mr. Landers was one of the first board of sewer commissioners that had general charge of issuing sewer bonds and constructing and supervising the sewers of the city. The work, though expensive, was economically and successfully prosecuted, and by constant vigilance the commissioners secured to the city, without any charge for their services, a system of sewerage at once efficient and satisfactory. In the Library Association of New Britain Mr. Landers took a deep interest, and served at one time as president, but this organization finally passed out of existence. When the New Britain Institute and Library Association was formed in1 1853, he was chosen vice-president, and he was one of the incorporators of the New Britain Institute in 1858. He was a member of the school committee for several years, and was chairman of the committee having charge of the erection of the Normal School building. He was one of the first park commissioners appointed in 1869, and in this capacity rendered valuable service to the city.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.