USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 5
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
of governor, and urging the nomination of General Hawley. Before the Republican party had another opportunity to recognize his ability by a nomination for that office, it liad gone into a minority in the state. In the presidential election . of 1872 the Republicans had regained control of the state, and as Marshall Jewell declined a renomination for governor, the Republicans felt that it was time Mr. Harrison should receive the office which he had so generously declined in 1865. The excitement over the proposed removal of the capital from New Haven had reached such a pitch that Mr. Harrison, as a New Haven man, was defeated in the convention of 1873. He was elected, however, a repre- sentative from New Haven to the General Assembly at Hartford, and again he so won the respect and admiration of his party that in 1874 he was nominated by acclamation as its candidate for governor. A tidal wave of Democracy, however, was then rolling over the country, and the Republican party was defeated in Connecticut, as in almost every other doubtful northern state. Mr. Harrison never wavered, however, in his support of the principles of the party, and in 1883 he was for the third time elected a representative from New Haven to the General Assembly. Upon the organization of the House, in 1884, he was nominated by acclamation for speaker. He filled this responsible office with the saine careful and conscientious regard to the duties of his position as had characterized him in all the work of his life, whether professional or public.
In the summer of 1884 a warm contest arose over the nomination for governor. The Democrats had elected their candidates by a large majority in the election of November, 1882, and the popular Thomas M. Waller, then governor, was a candidate for re-election. It was the Blaine campaign and a serious defection of several hundred Republican votes was anticipated. The state was close and the leaders of the Republican party felt that a careful and judicious nomination for governor was needed. The convention selected Mr. Harrison. He entered with zeal into the campaign and made a number of eloquent addresses in the larger cities and towns of the state. The Burchard incident prevented Mr. Blaine and Mr. Harrison from securing the desired plurality, but the majority against the Democratic ticket was two or three thousand. The General Assembly, at its January session, 1885, elected Mr. Harrison governor, and he held the highest office in the gift of his native state with eminent satisfaction and to the entire approval of all good citizens of all parties. As a lawyer, orator and statesman, Mr. Harrison has always been especially noted for the long and careful preparation of whatever work he may be obliged to performn ; and for the clear, incisive manner in which he presents his views and conclusions. No one can listen to him without being convinced that he not only believes he is right, but that he knows he is right, and the hearer will usually come to the conclusion that he is right. Mr. Harrison has been for years a prominent member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven. On several occasions he has been a delegate to the Diocesan and National Conventions of that denomination of Christians.
He married early in life Miss Mary Elizabeth Osborne of Fairfield, Conn., a daughter of Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, who was at one time a member of Congress from the Fairfield district, and subsequently a judge of the county court.
5
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REPRESENTATIVE MEN
B URR, ALFRED EDMUND, of Hartford, senior editor and proprictor of the Hartford Times, was born in Hartford, March 27, 1815.
He belongs to the old line of Burrs, so honorably and prominently asso- ciated with the colonial settlement of the present capital of the state. His parents were James and Lucretia (Olcott) Burr. His ancestor, Benjamin Burr, canic to Hartford with a company from Newtown (Boston) in 1635, and his name is recorded 011 the mommeut in the Centre Church burying ground of Hartford with the naines of the earliest settlers of tlic town. Benjamin Burr's son Thomas was born in Hartford in 1645. Thomas, Jr., was born in Hartford, 1719. His son James, father of Alfred E., was born in Hartford, in 1766. In early life he was a shipping merchant, dealing with the West India Islands. James Burr married Lucretia Olcott, daugliter of Jonathan Olcott of Hartford. Her paternal ancestor, and maternal ancestor, John Marsh, were also among the earliest settlers, arriving in Hartford in 1635. The combination of the two streams makes up the strong posi- tive personality of Alfred E. Burr. Educated in the schools of Hartford, he afterwards served a regular apprenticeship in the trade of a printer. Just before reaching the age of twenty-four he took a step which was lifelong in its effects. At that time he purchased a half interest in the Hartford Times, a paper with which he has since been identified. In tastes, abilities and habits Mr. Burr is eminently journalistic, and his professional successes have simply been cominensurate with his qualifications. By all the tests which can be applied, he is entitled to rank with such born editors as Horace Greeley, Samuel Bowles and Henry J. Raymond.
The political principles of the Times have been fixed and unvarying. They embody the conclusions of innich careful thought and study, and command the respect due to conscientious and deliberate conviction. Conscience and moral principles have been incorporated with its issues since the hour of Mr. Burr's connection with it, and indeed froin its very foundation on Jan. 1, 1817.
Previous to his becoming proprietor of the Times, he had been employed in the printing office of the old Whig and Federal organ, the Connecticut Courant, a prosperous daily sheet. The publishers wishing to retire, they offered the paper to Mr. Burr on easy and favorable terms, but with conditions attached with which he could not comply. His fortunes were cast with the Times, and in January, 1841, he purchased the remaining interest in the paper, and thus became sole editor and proprietor. For nearly fourscore years the paper has been distinguished by consistent continuity of doctrine in all matters pertinent to political philosophy and political economy. It has been for many years the leading exponent of Democratic ideas in the state. "Its special historic renown lies in its championship of needed reforms; in having caught and strengthened the spirit of the times, and in leading on progressive lovers of liberty to eventual victory." Its first campaign was against the old Connecticut system of church and state. All the citizens were taxed for the maintenance of the "Standing Order," the Congregational churches.
The elections held in 1817 resulted in the downfall of the dominant Federals, and in calling the convention which framed the present Constitution in 1818. Godly and learned ministers strove in vain to avert the inevitable. They really believed that everything would go to destruction in case of any material departure from the old order of civil and churchly affairs. The Hartford Times was in the van of the Tolerationists, who succeeded in incorporating with the Constitution three sections which were intended for the protection of religious freedom. The remembrance of that exciting contest has almost faded out of the inind of the Co111111011- wealth, and only the very aged recollect it. The evils apprehended have not been suffered, but on the contrary true religion and morality have made cheering advances. In 1833 tlie
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Massachusetts Publishing Co. Everett, Mass.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
Times was again most vigorous and aggressive in its demand for the repeal of an obnoxious and illiberal statute which denied to every believer in universal salvation of the human family the right to testify in a court of justice. Other enactments of essentially the same character were successively the objects of the Times' hostility, and ultimately suffered like obliteration.
In 1853 Mr. Burr himself was called upon to participate in the legislation of the state by election to the House of Representatives, in which he served for one session. The circulation of the weekly Times was in the meantime steadily increasing, and it was in the front rank of the papers of the state. The daily Times, established March 2, 1841, also rose to the leadership of its Connecticut contemporaries in point of circulation, and also of positive influence upon the politics of the state. As an active and energetic protester against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, Mr. Burr stood almost alone. He warned his party that if the plans of the ambitious Stephen A. Douglas were carried out, the overthrow of the Democratic party would follow, and that the resulting sectional organizations would probably involve the country in civil war. His predictions were discredited even by local statesmen, but subsequent events terribly justified them and vindicated his wisdom and foresight. In 1860, the Times supported the candidacy of Breckinridge and Lane.
Mr. Burr took strong grounds against the Know Nothing party. He sent reporters into the lodges in Hartford, and gave their proceedings to the public. Publicity proved fatal to their power, and the party waned and became extinct under repeated exposures. From 1830 to 1846, the Hon. Gideon Welles greatly enriched the columns of the Times by his trenchant and able pen. He and Mr. Burr were congenial yoke fellows in party management. Before the Civil War began, the patriotic dread of such a calamity led him to exhaust all means of argument and persuasion to prevent it. Like Horace Greeley, he had no liking for "The Republic whereof one half was pinned to the other by bayonets." When the end of actual hostilities arrived, he unsparingly condemned the self-stultification of the Republicans, who declared certain states to be out of the Union in order to effect the adoption of war amiend- ments to the National Constitution. Exclusion and secession were alike repugnant to his opinions, and in his estimation were equally disunionist measures.
In 1866, Mr. Burr was again elected to the popular branch of the state legislature, and served with efficiency to the satisfaction of his constituents. He has been often and urgently solicited to accept public honors, such as governor or election to congress, but has declined on the ground of a preference for the pursuits of journalism. He is said to be the oldest active journalist in the country. Half a century of uninterrupted professional practice has not only imparted unusual deftness and skill in the use of his vigorous pen, but has clothed him with a power akin to that which king-making Earl of Warwick won by his sword. Though refusing official positions for himself, he has inade many men what against his opposition they would not have been, namely, congressmen, governors and incumbents of other positions.
Says a sketch of him, written ten years ago: "The Hartford Times is as much Alfred E. Burr as the New York Times was Henry J. Raymond, or the New York Evening Post was William Cullen Bryant. It is Alfred E. Burr speaking his deep-seated convictions on matters of importance to locality, state and nation, and that with a candor and ability which command universal respect. For thirty years his counsels have been potent with his political party in Connecticut, and have not infrequently been the means of its victories at the polls. In local affairs he has always exhibited the keenest interest. He is the advocate of progress and the exponent of broad and wise plans of public usefulness. To him, more than to any other editor, and indeed in opposition to some, the establishment of the excellent high school in Hartford is due. He pleaded for, and pressed the construction of the City Water Works, and the introduction of pure water from the mountain six miles west of the city. The beautiful
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Bushnell Park is also largely indebted to him for existenee. His, too, was the project of buying the thirteen acres of ground, together with the buildings, owned by the corporation of Trinity College. The Rev. Dr. Buslinell deelared that purehase was finally accomplishicd through the efforts of thic Times and its senior editor, Alfred E. Burr. The price paid to Trinity College was $600,000. Tlic ground was then tendered to the state for the site of its new capitol. Mr. Burr was appointed president of the commission to whom the erection of
the new building was entrusted.
That beautiful edifice cost $2,500,000.
The money was
drawn from the treasury and disbursed by the president of the commission, under the law of the state, to the satisfaction of the citizens, and also of the legislature, which passed resolu- tions of compliment to the commissioners. In all loeal improvement, benefieent undertakings, and public-spirited measures, that tend to the promotion of civil order and welfare, he has been conspieuous, and has infused the same spirit into his associates. Personal character and eminent ability have always commanded for him the profound respeet of his fellow citizens, while sterling honesty in all private and public relations has conducted him to gratifying and assured prosperity."
Mr. Burr was one of the original members of the state board of health, established in 1878, and was president of the board from 1884 till June, 1893, when he resigned. He was one of the original members of the board of pardons, established in 1883, and he is still a member of the board. He is a member of the permanent state commission of art and seulpture ; president of the Dime Savings Bank of Hartford, and has occupied important positions on committees and commissions under the municipal government of the town.
The Times enjoys the largest circulation of any periodical in Connecticut, and will doubt- less retain the proud preeminenee, while its reputation for enterprise, promptitude and ability in collecting and diseussing current news is maintained at its present altitude.
Alfred E. Burr was married April 18, 1841, to Sarah A., daughter of Abner Booth of Meriden, Conn. His wife still survives. The fiftieth anniversary of their wedding occurred April 18, 1891. Three children have been born to them; namely, Edmund Lewis, born February, 1842, and died October, 1845. Willie Olcott, born in 1843, and is now of the firm of Burr Brothers, and the successful business manager of the Times. He married Angie, daughter of Mr. Gilbert Lincoln. They have only one child, Florence Lincoln Burr, born in 1875. The daughter of Mr. A. E. Burr is Mrs. Ella Burr McManus, wife of Dr. James MeManus of Hartford. She is a regular weekly contributor to the Times.
Mr. Franklin L. Burr has had so large a share in creating the prosperity of the Times during the last forty years, that his name should be mentioned in this connection. He is twelve years younger than his brother, A. E. Burr, and learned the printer's trade in the Times offiee. In 1853 he took a position in the office of the solicitor of the treasury in Washington, and remained there two years, when he came back to assist in the editorial department of the Times. His graceful articles along the lines of natural science and on astronomy and geology have attracted much attention; and his reviews of books have long been a feature of the Times. The late Poet Tennyson wrote to him a special letter of thanks for one of his reviews of the poet's works, and complimented him by saying it stood among the best that had been written on either side of the Atlantic.
Mr. Burr became a partner in the firm of Burr Brothers, in 1858. He was married in 1853 to Miss Lizzie Morrow of Manchester, Conn. To them three children were born; namely, Mary, Frederick Woodbridge, and Emily Winifred. Frederick died at the age of twenty- one, and Emily at twenty years.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
R OOT, ELISHA K., president of Colt's Patent Fire Arins Manufacturing Company, at the time of his death in 1865, through genius for mechanical invention, skill in administration and purity of character, bequeathed an influence for good that is still profoundly if unconsciously felt. Born at Belchertown, Mass., May 5, 1808, he enjoyed during the winter the advantages of the district school until fifteen years old, when he entered a machine shop at Ware. After completing his apprenticeship he worked in different places till 1832, when on the 18th of August he made a written contract with the Collins Company of Collinsville, Conn., to work two years from date, "building and repairing gearing and machinery, keeping polishing wheels in order, etc., etc." He was to receive for his services $546 per annum, to be paid at the end of each year, and three hundred and twelve days were to be considered a year's work. No provision was made for seeing ball games, or even for dropping off early for Christinas dinner. One holiday only-probably the Fourth of July-could be squeezed out of the arrangement. His superiority quickly attracted the attention of the owners and he was made overseer of the repair department. A little later, by cominon consent, he became the real overseer of the entire establishment, though not appointed superintendent by the directors till 1845. Ingenious, vigilant and devoted to the interests of his employers, he rapidly converted a somewhat primitive shop into a modern factory.
The following, taken from the fourth annual report of P. H. Woodward, secretary of the Hartford Board of Trade, illustrates both the quality and the results of his work :
A hint like a flash of inspiration may in an instant disclose to one the theory of a complex situation. When collecting material for the manual issued by this associatiou in 1889, I was deeply impressed by the emotion of one of our industrial chiefs, whose name is familiar to bothi hemispheres, while reverting to the imperishable lessons taught by Colonel Colt and Elisha K. Root to future leaders just coming upou the stage. They demanded the best work, at the same time sparing no effort to devise the most efficient means for the attaiument of mechanical ends. Perfection alone could satisfy their cravings. Others caught the inspiration and carried it with them as they weut out to plant the colonies near Park River, which are making that suburb of Hartford one of the most fruitful spots ou the planet. In those schools, too, hundreds are taught to-day to strive for similar excellence. The method makes character, for houesty, truthfulness, fidelity are thus inculcated in every act of productiou.
In communities as in families the laws of heredity are operative. Recognition of the principle throws a peculiar interest around those who open new paths for mankind to follow in, and must be accepted as an excuse for the introduction of the following incideut in the life of a person whose influence was so deeply impressed a generation ago upon the industrial forces of the city that it has broadened with the fleeting years.
About 1836, while at the head of the mechanical department of the Collins Company at Collinsville, Elisha K. Root was confronted by the sudden failure of a heavy and complicated machine used for several essential processes in the production of the axe. The repairer, having tried iu vain to remedy the trouble, called in Mr. Root. A number of unsuccessful experiments disclosed the seriousness of the case. After au interval of abstraction Mr. Root took a seat, motionless and in silence, before the recusant monster, whose mighty arms refused longer to slave. Returning from dinner he held the same immovable attitude till niglit. No oue presumed to interrupt the vigil. Still the mystery baffled him. The next morning the silent communion was resumed. Soon the clouds broke. Without a word Mr. Root weut to his desk and dashed off a sketch that, while preserving the massive frame, dispensed with a multitude of pieces, and produced the needed motious by a few simple contrivances. The reconstructed machine recognized the genius of its master by the unfaltering precision with which it did its appointed work, till replaced a few years later by a new invention of his owu, which is still in use.
Mr. Root was always zealous in the performance of duty and for the most part left questions of compensation to adjust themselves. In a contract with the company dated Feb. 3, 1836, for a nominal consideration he transferred to it his entire interest in the patentable machines and improvements with which he had already enriched it. He also agreed to continue in its employment for the further period of three years, to make all the improve- ments he could in the processes of manufacture, and that the ownership and benefit of all
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REPRESENTATIVE MEN
his inventions should belong solely to thic company. The pay agreed upon was $780 for the first and second years, and $1,000 for the third. April 28, 1845, liis salary was made $2,000 per amium11. The increase was voted not from solicitation on his part, but because several large coneerns outside of the state, including the United States Armory at Springfield, tried to draw him away by tempting offers.
His inventions gave the Collins Company for a long time control of the American market, besides opening a large export trade. By one of liis devices the eye of the axe, whiel had before been formned by welding, was punched out of the solid metal. Another sharpened the tool by ehipping instead of grinding, and thus saved not only labor, but also the lungs of the operatives.
In 1849 Mr. Root moved to Hartford to take superintendence of the shops for the manu- facture of Colonel Colt's famous revolver. The enterprise, then in its infaney, grew with amazing rapidity and suecess. The genius of Mr. Root was ceaselessly active in improving old and eontriving new devices for facilitating and cheapening the processes of production. Even to catalogue them would overstep the limits of this sketch. In 1853, in the drop hammer, he devised a new method of forging the parts. In '1854 he patented inachines for boring the chambers of the cylinder, and also for boring four barrels at one time. By him the parts were made interehangeable, so that all the weapons of a given pattern were precisely alike. In 1854-55, when the works were built for supplying Hartford with river water through the Garden street reservoir, Mr. Root invented the pumps which were quite unlike anything then to be found. These lasted over fifteen years, and proved so efficient that when worn out they were replaced by others of similar pattern.
Mr. Root was eminently practical. Vagaries had no attraction for him. To reach the best results by the simplest and most economical methods was his constant aim. Enough has been written to indicate the extraordinary genius of Mr. Root in the field of mechanical invention. He was a profound student and thinker. It can be truly said of him that in every relation of life, as workman and employer, at home and in the community, he was faithful to every trust. This is a virtue of supreme value at all times, and its need was never more appreciated than now. At the death of Colonel Colt, in January, 1862, Mr. Root was made president of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. He survived his asso- ciate in this marvelously successful enterprise about three and a half years, having passed away Ang. 31, 1865.
Mr. Root married 2d Matilda Colt, daughter of Hon. Elisha Colt, comptroller of Con- necticut, 1806-19, and treasurer of the Society for Savings from its incorporation in 1819 till 1829. Their children are Miss Matilda Colt Root; Ellen Root, wife of Charles H. Clark, managing editor of the Courant ; and Dr. E. K. Root, a physician of Hartford.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
ALLER, THOMAS MACDONALD, of New London, ex-governor of Connecticut, was born in the city of New York in 1840, and is of Irish ancestry. The death of his mother, his younger and only brother, William, and of his father, events which quickly followed one another in the order named, left him before he was eight years of age alone and unprotected in the city of his birth. The story of his boyhood, as he frequently says, " the only really interesting part of his career," reads like a romance. Thrown upon the world at this tender agc wholly dependent upon his own resources, he began the battle of life, with a few papers which the generosity of a stranger supplied him, as a newsboy in the streets of New York. In a public after-dinner speech delivered a few months ago at a banquet in Brooklyn, incidentally referring to this time of his life, he was reported as saying :
1202851
I was a very small boy way back in '49, when gold was discovered in California ; but I remember that the papers I was then selling (the Sun, Tribune and Morning Star) on the streets of New York were so filled with accounts of the discovery of mountains of gold, that I thought gold would not be "worth a cent," and, with this apprehension, instead of going with the star of empire westward, I went to Connecticut. I went there as to a reformatory school, thinking that when I was good enough I would return to New York and become a New York politician (laughter). I have stayed there a good while. I have got over the notion that the influx of gold will destroy the financial system of the world, and I have come to the belief that this country can stand a good deal more of American silver in coin. I have returned to New York, but only to do business, not to be a politician. I have had some temptation to step into the political waters here, but I have resisted it. I am satisfied that a longer probation is necessary. I am not good enough yet (laughter).
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