USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 51
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Technically described, the Gatling gun is a group of rifle-barrels arranged longitudinally around a central axis or shaft and revolving with it. These barrels are loaded at the breech with metallic cartridges while the barrels revolve, and the mechanismn is in constant action. In other words, the operations of loading and firing are carried on while the barrels and locks are kept under constant revolution. The mechanism by which this is effected is admirably contrived. Although only one barrel is fired at a time, some patterns are capable of dis- charging one thousand shots per minute. There is 110 perceptible recoil and the accuracy of the firing is something imarvelous. Various sizes of the arin are manufactured, some suitable for the defence of fortifications, others adapted to field service, use on shipboard, and in boats; and still others so light as to be easily managed by one i11an. By an ingenious device for distributing its shots through the arc of a horizontal circle, the gun can be inade to perforin the work of a front rank of infantry. The gun is operated by two mnen, one turning the crank and the other supplying the breech with cartridges. These latter are fed from feed-cases, so constructed that before one can be exhausted another may take its place, insuring a continuous fire. A writer in the Science Record, after referring to the inany thor- oughly severe tests to which this arin has been subjected, pithily adds :
Thus has the Gatling gun steadily, slowly and surely fought its way, inch by inch and step by step, against the strongest opposition of prejudice, old-fashioned notions, pecuniary interest, and rival arms, and through the stern ordeal of long, frequent, and severe tests and trials, to the front rank it now proudly and defiantly occupies. We deal in no extravagant language, says the same writer, when we say that the importance of this great invention can hardly be overestimated. The absorbing interest with which it has been regardcd by the fore- most governments of the world, the searching and thorough scrutiny and investigation with which it has been treated, the severe and exhaustive tests and trials to which it has been subjected, the complete triuniph which it has achieved upon every field, its adoption by almost every civilized nation, and the revolution which its successful operation is compelled to bring about in military affairs, warrant the statement that these guns will play a most prominent and decisive part in all future wars. No intelligent mind will gainsay and it requires no gift of prophecy to predict that upon the pages of imperishable history that will record the details of these wars the name of Gatling will be indelibly stamped.
Dr. Gatling has devoted nearly thirty years of his life to the task of perfecting this remarkable invention, and has personally supervised and conducted numerous tests of the gun's efficiency before nearly all the crowned heads of Europe. Everywhere he has been received with distinguished consideration, and in Russia the highest government officials extended to him marked attention. Through all the attentions and honors he has received, Dr. Gatling has remained the same well-bred gentleman, gentle in speech and manner, and always preserving that republican simplicity which so well befits the American citizen and is everywhere the surest passport to kindly recognition on equal terms. The Gatling guns are now inamnfactured in the United States at Colt's arinory and at Birmingham, Eng. Dr. Gatling has for many years been president of the Gatling Gun Company, the main office of which is in Hartford. Dr. Gatling is also president of the Harrison Veterans of 1840- an organization of elderly men who voted for Gen. William Henry Harrison for President. His residence is in Charter Oak Place, a short distance from the spot where the historic " Charter Oak " formerly stood. He is constantly laboring on some of his inventions, and has recently taken out patents for several valuable inventions, among them an improved method for casting guns of steel, which, it is believed, will supersede all other systems of manufacturing heavy ordnance; a torpedo and gunboat which embraces improvements of pronounced character and of great value in naval warfare ; and an improved pneumatic gun, designed to discharge higli explosive shells, which can be used either on shipboard or in land and harbor defences. The American Association of Inventors and Manufacturers, organized in 1891, at its first meeting, held at Washington, D. C., Jannary, 1891, elected Dr. Gatling its first president, an honor of which he is justly proud. Considerably above
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the medium height, somewhat portly, of pleasant countenance and engaging manners, Dr. Gatling is a general favorite among the people of Hartford. He takes a sincere interest in local affairs, contributes generously to every public movement having a patriotic or charitable object, and in almost every imaginable way acts well the part of a good citizen and a kindly neighbor. He has received many honors from scientific bodies, both at home and abroad, and from a number of foreign governments, but he wears them all with the greatest modesty and continues his labors withi as keen a zest as in his earlier days. The state of North Carolina may well be proud of her modest and industrious son. His eminent personal merit and high scientific achievements reflect honor upon his American name.
Dr. . Gatling was married at Indianapolis, in 1854, to Miss Jemima T. Sanders, the youngest daughter of the late Dr. Jolin D. Sanders, a prominent practitioner of medicine in the city named. This estimable lady - a devoted wife and mother - has made his home- life exceptionally happy, and for full two score years or more she has been his loving helpmeet in the fullest and noblest significance of the term, sharing alike his cares and his triumphis, ever hopeful, ever helpful. Of the five children born to them, the two eldest, a daughter and a son, died in childhood. The surviving children are a daughter, Ida, the wife of Hugh O. Pentecost, and two sons, Richard Henry and Robert B.
OBINSON, HENRY CORNELIUS, LL.D., of Hartford, ex-mayor of that city, and ex-fish commissioner of Connecticut, was born in Hartford, Conn., Aug. 28, 1832.
He is a younger son of the late David Franklin and Anne Seymour Rob- inson, highly esteemed residents of Hartford, and through both descends from the first Puritan settlers of New England. On the paternal side, lie traces his ancestry to Thomas Robinson (possibly a kinsman of the Rev. John Robinson, the venerated pastor of the Mayflower pilgrims) who came from England among the earlier arrivals, and, in 1667, settled at Guilford, Conn., where a party of non-conformists, under the Rev. Henry Whitfield, had established themselves in 1639. Through his mother, who was a daughter of Elizabeth Denison, wife of Asa Seymour, of Hartford, he descends in a direct line from William Brew- ster (born in Nottinghamshire, England, in 1560), one of the leaders of those who came over in the Mayflower, and the ruling elder of Plymouth Colony.
The subject of this sketch received his early education at the Hartford grammar school -the oldest educational institution in the state- and at the high school after its union with the first named. In 1849, he entered Yale College, and was graduated there with high honors in 1853. The class of this year was one of more than usual distinction, says the "Biography of Connecticut," among its members being the Hon. Andrew D. White, presi- dent of Cornell University and Minister to Germany; Bishop Davies of Michigan ; Dr. Charlton T. Lewis and Dr. James M. Whiton of New York; editors Isaac H. Bromley and George W. Smalley of the New York Tribune; United States Senator R. L. Gibson ; Ho11. Benjamin K. Phelps ; the poet, E. C. Stedman, and others who have already gained especial honors in American history. Having closed his college course, Mr. Robinson began the study of law in the office of his elder brother, Lucius F. Robinson, with whom, after three years of practice by himself, he became associated as a partner in 1858, and with whom he remained until the relationship was severed by death, in 1861, subsequent to which he managed his business alone until 1888. In that year he took liis eldest son, Lucius F.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
Robinson, into the firm then organized under the style of H. C. & L. F. Robinson, which is, to-day, one of the foremost at the Connecticut bar, and widely known in the New England and Middle states.
Among the scientific subjects which engaged Mr. Robinson's attention during his earlier manhood, that of pisciculture- from its important bearing on the human food supply - was given special study. In 1866, Governor Hawley, with a view to giving Connecticut the advantages of Mr. Robinson's researches and knowledge, appointed him fish commissioner of the state. Althoughi carrying a large law practice at this period, he accepted the appoint- ment and at once interested himself in experiments and legislative measures looking to the preservation and development of the fish industry in Connecticut. "Through his instru- mentality laws were placed on the statute books providing for the condemnation of the pound fishery at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and the discontinuance of that method of fishing. Before these wholesome laws could become fairly operative, finder partisan influ- ence they were repealed, and others substituted which were of no practical use, as has been proven, in preventing or arresting the destruction of the shad fisheries in these waters, in spite of artificial propagation." From the same contemporary authority quoted, it appears that "the first artificial hatch of American shad was made inder Mr. Robinson's direction as commissioner, associated with the Hon. F. W. Russell, before the Connecticut legislature, and in the presence of the late Prof. Agassiz, who was a deeply interested spectator in the experiments and in the legislative contest upon the subject then in progress."
In 1872, Mr. Robinson was nominated by the Republicans for mayor of Hartford. The city is usually Democratic, but Mr. Robinson's personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him by voters of all shades of political belief, led to his being generally supported, and he was elected by a large majority over his opponent. He served from 1872 to 1874, and gave the people an administration notable for its purity and efficiency. During his incumbency municipal affairs were conducted on business principles, and while every effort was made to advance the general welfare, many wise economies were practiced at a great saving to the tax-payers. During his administration and largely under his leadership, Hart- ford gained its long-sought prize of becoming the sole capital of the state. Through his recommendation the establishment of several of the departmental commissions of the city was secured. In 1879, Mr. Robinson represented the town of Hartford in the General Assembly of the state, and during the single terin that he served was instrumental in securing a number of important enactments in the interests of his constituents, including the change in legal procedure. He was chairman of the judiciary committee, and it is said that lie, as such chairman and leader of the House, had the exceptional experience of having the action of his committee substantially sustained by the House in every instance of its reports.
Mr. Robinson became a Republican at the time of the formation of the party and has since then supported its principles. Studying public questions from the point of view of the statesinan, rather than that of the politician, his influence in party affairs has always been exerted on a high plane. The distinguished esteem in which he is held within his party is amply evidenced by the fact that he was nominated three times by it for the office of governor, the first time in the spring of 1876, and again in the fall of 1876, and again in ¿ 878 - the latter nomination he declined. In each instance he was nominated by acclamation. He was a member of the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1880, which nominated Garfield and Arthur, and was the author of a large part of its platform. In 1887, he was the commissioner for Connecticut at the Constitutional Centennial celebration held in Philadelphia. Owing to his large legal practice he lias been obliged to decline a
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a number of honorable appointments which have come to him unsolicited. His connections with the various institutions of Hartford are numerous. He is counsel for many of the leading corporations of the state. In the late suit of qno warranto involving the question of the state governorship, Mr. Robinson was the senior counsel for the Republican party. He is a director in the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Company, the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Pratt & Whitney Company, the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company and the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company ; a trustce of the Con- necticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and a member of the Hartford Board of Trade.
In philanthropic, religious and charitable enterprises his counsel is constantly sought, and in all educational movements in his native city he is looked upon as one whose ripe scholarship, as well as civic pride, may be trusted implicitly. In furtherance of these various aims and objects he has done an immense amount of work, having held for many years a number of responsible positions on committees and as a member of boards of directors and trustees and of the ecclesiastical associations of the state and city. He is a member of the Hartford Tract Society, and a trustee of the Wadsworth Athenaeum of Hartford, and also of the Hartford grammar school. He is likewise the vice-president of the Bar Association of Connecticut and also of that of Hartford county; a member and ex-president of the Yale Alumni Association of Hartford, and one of the founders of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution, to which he claims affiliation through descent from Col. Timothy Robinson, his great-grandfather, who served honorably in the Revolutionary struggle. In recognition of his finished scholarship he received, in 1888, from his alma mater, Yale College, the degree of Doctor of Laws.
In the domain of law Mr. Robinson stands among the foremost members of the Con- necticut bar, a position to which he has advanced through years of diligent study and industrious toil, and by successful practice of remarkable breadth and variety. His professional attainments are scholarly, and together with his high personal character have gained him wide esteem and many warm friendships on the bench aud at the bar, as well as in private life. He possesses rare natural gifts as an orator, which have gained added force and brilliancy from his broad culture and sincere patriotismn. Some of his public efforts in this capacity have been complimented in the warmest terms by capable critics, and have contributed largely to increase his popularity. His favorite themes are found in patriotism, loyalty, and devotion to country and to the broad interest of humanity. His oration at the unveiling of the Putnam equestrian statue at Brooklyn, Conn., in 1871, has been accorded a place with the most brilliant efforts of Connecticut's inost gifted orators. He was the memorial orator at the Hartford obsequies of President Garfield and General Grant. A number of his Memorial Day addresses evince the loftiest patriotic sentiment, and have had a wide circulation in public prints. Of these the one delivered before the Grand Army of the Republic in 1885, was, perhaps, the best. Lack of space will prevent the insertion of more than a paragraph :
Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, said, in words that are already classic, "The world will little note 1or long remember what we may say here, but it can never forget what they did here." It is a profound truth. Heroic deeds are better and greater than the best words. And yet that is not all. When Mr. Lincoln added those words to the pearls of human eloquence, did he do nothing? Was hiis utterance a mere flash of rhetoric to die in the air, like a fork of lightning? Was not his great thouglit, clothed as it was in epigram miost attractive, itself a great action? Has it not stimulated to reverence and patriotism for these twenty years, and will it not sound down the coming ages as a tone of sacred melody? The hour for the sword was a supreme hour, and it was an hour for supreme action. But to the field of Gettysburg another hour had come, -an hour to gather lessons from heroic sacrifice, and to write them in history. It was an hour to pluck the blossoms which were then just unfolding upon the mounds of the martyrs. The patriot orator plucked thienr and lifted them, as a sacrament, to the eyes of the world, in his words of undying emphasis. And so in your memorial songs and eulogy and decorations for seventeen years, as truly if not as supremely as wlien you
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marched to the mouth of death at Gettysburg and Antietam, you have been teaching the sons and daughters of the Union what is the glory and honor and worth of that patriotism which exchanged home and comfort for fevers in swamps, starvation in prison, and wounds and death in the shock of battle.
And it is here, noble veterans, survivors of this brave band of heroes, that you have strange power above the power of other men. It is the consummate power of tragedy. From these graves which you are honoring, and from your own graves which will be honored to-morrow, voices are speaking and will speak, which must find a hearing; for the struggles and sufferings of man are universal in their sway, and so, as tragedy is the ultimate of struggle and suffering, its power over human hearts is universal and measureless. The leaves which are stained with blood are the text-books of human life.
By marriage, Mr. Robinson is connected with the famous Trumbull family of Connecticut, his wife, born Eliza Niles Trumbull, being a daughter of John F. Trumbull of Stonington. His brother, the late Lucius F. Robinson, also married into this family, taking as wife, Eliza L. Trumbull, a daughter of Gov. Joseph Trumbull of Connecticut; and Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford, married Sarah A., the elder sister of Mr. Robinson. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are the parents of five children-Lucius F., Lucy T. (the wife of Mr. Sidney Trowbridge Miller of Detroit), Henry S., John T., and Mary S. The oldest son, Mr. Lucius F. Robinson, a graduate of Yale, was admitted to the bar in 1887, and is now the partner of his father.
ONVERSE, JULIUS, of Stafford, woolen manufacturer, and ex-member of both branches of the state legislature, was born in that town on March 1, 1827. He is of Huguenot origin and descends from Henry Converse, who came to America early in the last century and resided during the closing years of his life at Thompson, Conn. Asa Converse, a son of the latter, removed from Thompson to Stafford about 1750. He married and became the father of six children, Solvin, James, Darius, Asa, Alpheus and Sybil. Solvin, the eldest son, born in Stafford soon after his parents settled in that place, married, in 1780, Sarah, daughter of Josiah Holmes and granddaughter of Deacon Holmes, a highly respected resident of Woodstock, Conn. He died at Stafford, where he had resided during his entire lifetime, in March, 1813. He left eleven children, and Solva, the second son, and father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Stafford, April 1, 1790. Early in life he married Esther, daughter of Deacon Alden Blodgett, who was a native of the same town. They had eleven children, three of whoin died in infancy. Those who grew up were named Almeda, Adeline S., Alden S., Orrin, Josiah, Julius, Hannah B., and Frances E. Solva Converse was one of the pioneer woolen manufacturers in northern Connecticut. He was an enterprising and prosperous inan, a worthy and respected citizen and an earnest Christian. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-eight, dying at Stafford, Nov. 22, 1877. Julius, the subject of this sketch, was his third son, and seems to have inherited many of his sterling qualities.
Educated principally in the local public schools, young Converse passed from themn to the Ellington high school and finished his studies at an excellent private school in Brimfield, Mass. Desirous of obtaining a mastery of the business in which his father was successfully engaged, he connected himself with the Mineral Springs Manufacturing Company, which had its mills at Stafford, and having acquired the practical part of the work by actual labor, entered the counting-room of the company in order to learn the administrative part. Intelligent and devoted to the duties assigned him, he rose to be treasurer of the company, and in 1866 he became agent also. Managing the affairs of this dual position with con- summate skill and ability he built up a most profitable business, in which, by degrees, he
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became a large shareholder, and, in 1885, the sole proprietor. Mr. Converse is joint owner also in the large woolen mill of Ellis & Converse, at Orcuttville, Conn., and is interested in a munber of other enterprises of importance, in several of which he is the controlling spirit.
He assisted in organizing the Stafford National Bank and was also an incorporator of the Savings Bank of Stafford Springs, and has since served in its directory. Another corporation, in the affairs of which he takes a great interest, is the Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company. For many years Mr. Converse has been distinguished for his efforts to promote the interests of Stafford. As a means to this end he has used his influence and wealth to improve and beautify the town, with the happiest results. The impetus given to the work through his generous aid has stimulated other citizens to take an interest in the task, and to-day the effect is witnessed in a variety of ways, all having an elevating and refining influence upon the inhabitants and tending to enhance the value of property in the locality.
While attending faithfully to his varied business interests as well as to this labor of love, Mr. Converse is a very busy man, but this fact does not interfere with his discharging the duties of citizenship in a political way. An ardent Republican ever since the formation of the party, lie was a loyal supporter of the national authorities during the late Civil War. In 1865 and 1866, he served in the state House of Representatives, having been elected on the Republican ticket. In 1872, he was a presidential elector on the Republican national ticket and cast his vote for Grant and Wilson. In 1877, he was elected to the state Senate defeating his opponent, one of the most popular Democrats in the state, by a heavy majority. In the Senate he served on the committee on finance and gave a most satisfactory account of liis stewardship. Still occupying the front rank as a party man he was sent as a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, in 1888, and cast his ballot for Harrison. It is doubtful if there is a more patriotic or public-spirited person resident in Stafford than ex-Senator Converse. His large interests there serve to keep alive his regard for the place, but down deeper and nearer to his heart than any purely monetary interest is his love for the place of his birth, the scene of his life-long labors and the center of his family ties.
Mr. Converse married, June 11, 1854, Miss Mira C. Lord of Stafford, and to this union there have been born eight children, four of whom, Lillia A., Eugenie H., Julius Carl and Louie S. are still living.
AMERSLEY, WILLIAM, of Hartford, judge of the Supreme Court, was born in that city Sept. 9, 1838. He was the son of Hon. William James Hamersley, for many years a distinguished resident of Hartford, and at one timie postmaster of the city.
After passing through the grammar and high schools of Hartford, young Hamersley entered Trinity College in 1854, but never graduated. Deciding to use the legal profession as a means for attaining future honors and successes, in the middle of the senior year he left college to commence the study of law in the office of Welch & Shipinan. While a student he spent a season in Europe, preparing himself by observation and study of European customs, laws and manners for the work which has commanded his chief considera- tion and interest through life. Admitted to the bar in 1859, he still clung to his old home, and at once began the practice of his profession.
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Mr. Hamersley made his entrance into official life as a member of the Court of Com111011 Council in 1863. Three years later he was chosen vice-president of that body, and for the years 1867 and 1868 he served as president. From1 1866 to 1868, he held the position of city attorney, and then resigned to accept an appointment as state's attorney for Hartford County, a position which he filled for twenty years with great acceptability.
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