USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 52
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In the legislature of 1886, he represented Hartford at the capital, and served on the committees on judiciary and federal relations. From the beginning of his career, Mr. Hammersley has been a hard-working, painstaking, studious and industrious man. A first rate city attorney, a thoroughly valuable state's attorney, and a successful general lawyer has been the result. City or state, and clients as well, have been ably and faithfully served. Meanwhile, Mr. Hammersley has been a close student of interests and principles of the com- monwealth, and has contributed inuch essential aid in bringing about measures for the promotion of the public good. He was one of the founders of the Connecticut State Bar Association, and, with Richard D. Hubbard and Simeon E. Baldwin, constituted the committee of that association through whose initiatory efforts the American Bar Association was formed. Through its agency much of the most important legislation enacted during twenty years or more has been achieved. Mr. Hamersley was one of the original promoters of the civil procedure reforin, and was a member of the commission which drafted the Practice Act, as well as the rules adopted by the court for giving due effect to that act. He was both early and active in promoting the improvement in the jury system in Connecticut. His life has mainly been given to the practice of his chosen profession, and to work relating to reformn in law proceedings.
Judge Hamersley was elected a member of the General Assembly of 1893, but on February 8, he was nominated by Governor Morris a judge of the Superior Court for eight years from Feb. 16, 1893. He was promptly confirmed by concurrent vote in the General Assembly 011 February 14, and resigned his seat in that body, declining later on to accept the pay due him as a representative. He was afterwards nominated by Governor Morris to the vacancy in the supreme bench to occur Jan. 14, 1894, upon the retirement of Justice Carpenter, and, on May 3I, was confirmed by concurrent vote of both houses.
He had scarcely become settled in his new position when he was elevated to a position on the supreme bench. Said the Hartford Times of May 12, 1893:
Governor Morris, to-day, sent in the nomination of Judge William Hammersley to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of this state, in the place of Justice Carpenter, whose term expires by age next January. The governor has made an excellent selection in this case-the best he could have made. Judge Hamersley is peculiarly well fitted to be a judge of the Supreme Court, by his clear knowledge of the science of law, and his close studies for over thirty years in his practice before the Superior and Supreme Courts. The tendency of his mind and his studies fit him for a place in the higher court. In the brief time he lias occupied a seat on the Superior Court bench, he has won the estecm of all who are concerned in that court. Without distinction of party the desire has been that Mr. Hamersley should go upon the Supreme Court bench next January, in the place of Judge Carpenter, who will then be 70 years of age, and cannot, under the Con- stitution, act any longer.
He was confirmed for the Supreme Court without one vote against him in either house, and that notwithstanding the fact that his confirmation renders the Supreme Court Democratic. Had the Republican House chosen so to do, and had it been up to, or rather down to, such small politics, it might have refused to confirin any Democrat and so kept the control with the Republicans, since the chief justice could have called up any Republican judge he chose to act with the four Supreme court members. The course of the Republicans deserves consideration for its fairness and its elevation above petty trickery, and it indicates also a thorough appreciation of the honesty and trustworthiness of Mr. Hamersley, whom the House knows personally by direct association with him. It was a noteworthy compliment, but one fully deserved.
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A sketch of Mr. Hammersley in the Hartford Post, a paper politically opposed to him, closes with the following just estimate of his character: "He is a man of sound, substantial and unusual literary accomplishments. His papers on various subjects show his merit for clearness, strength and fine execution. His political speeches and views are argumentative , logical, and give evidence of thorough research and knowledge. Probably his party associates hereabout would choose him sooner than any one else to present a defence of Democratic principles and tenets. No inducement could sway him one jot or tittle from the dictates of liis conscience. Among his legal associates he is known for liis extremely kcen moral scuse and scrupulous honor and courage, which know neither fear nor compromise. With the sturdiest of moral qualities, lie is wholly charitable, considerate, and brave in sympathy and action."
W ALLACE, ROBERT, of Wallingford, founder of the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company, was born in Prospect, Conn., Nov. 13, 1815. It was only a few months after the fate of Europe was settled for a generation at Waterloo, and it is safe to say that men of the same naine contributed to the success of the English arms. There were stirring scenes being enacted in this country as well when the future manufacturer inade his appearance in the world. He died Jan. 1, 1892.
The two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon stock which flourish at their best on the soil of Great Britain are united in his person. James Wallace, his father, was a fariner with small means, but he had all the heroic traditions of Scottishi history as they were handed down to him by his ancestors. There is little doubt that the hero of whoun it is sung "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," is a remote progenitor. His mother's namne was Urania Williams, a patronymnic which stands well in English history. From such an ancestry he inherited a sturdy constitution and a strong love of liberty.
Receiving only a limited education, at the age of eighteen, young Wallace secured an old grist mill in Cheshire for a shop, and began the manufacture of spoons on his own account. A year had been spent amid these primitive surroundings when an event happened which people are prone to call "good luck." It is to be doubted if there is such a thing as "good luck " in the strict meaning of the word, but one may have the good sense to seize an opportunity when it is presented. Common sense Mr. Wallace possessed in a high degree. Note how lie utilized a bit of information. Meeting a New Haven patron one day he was shown a spoon inade from a metal new to both of them, known as German silver. What were its constituent parts? How was it compounded ? No riddle of the ancients was ever more puzzling. Hearing that an analytical chemist, Dr. Louis Fechtwanger by name, had brought a small bar of the strange metal from Germany, he was applied to for the unravelling of the mystery. Mr. Wallace purchased the bar, had it rolled in Waterbury, and from it made four dozen spoons.
While in Waterbury he had the good fortune to meet a gentleman who had recently arrived from England, and who brought with him the formula for making German silver. Restraining his eagerness somewhat, Mr. Wallace proposed to buy the formula, and finally the trade was effected for $25.00. Nickel, copper and zinc were procured, and the first German silver made in this country was compounded in 1834 in the factory of Robert Wallace at Wallingford, and under his personal supervision. This event marked a new epoch in the manufacture of metal goods in the United States, and all honor should be
Ing by F & Kernan NY
Robert Wallace
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given to the pioneer in the industry. It was at this period that the simple machinery was moved from the Cheshire grist mill to a good location on the Quinnipiac, below Walling- ford, and preparations were made for the manufacture of spoons and flat ware on a more extensive scale. When Mr. Wallace started in business the man who could turn out three dozen solid silver spoons in a day was a treasure, and they were pretty rough specimens, too. The product of his factory was then about nine dozen spoons per day. In those days it was a mystery to the proprietors where all the spoons went to and they often talked of cutting down the product for fear of over production.
A score of years elapses, and a different scene is revealed to view. The crude processes of the past have been laid aside. Everything is done by new and improved machinery, the invention of Mr. Wallace, and all the work is performed in that methodical manner which is a reflex of the founder's character. In the easiest and quickest way must all goods in process of making be handled, and this style of handling must be perpetuated, for then do workinen become rapid and successful, and it is by these elements that profits accrue to any business. In 1855, the capital stock was only a paltry $1,200, a little later it was increased to $14,000, but, in 1865, this amount was raised to $100,000, and the name of the new combination was made Wallace, Simpson & Company. Great enlargements were made in the factory, and, by the introduction of improved machinery, its capacity for production was increased in a still higher proportion. Six years later, Mr. Wallace purchased the stock of his partner, Mr. Samuel Simpson, and, with two of his sons, formed the new concern of R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Company, one third of the stock being held by the Meriden Britannia Company. As the years had gone on they had added a long list of articles in great variety of design-sterling goods, nickel silver-plated ware, both flat and hollow, of high grade, not to mention an extended line of novelties.
The time had come for another advance in the processes of manufacture. Could a firmer and more elastic basis for silver-plated ware be found? Something lighter and less bulky. What of steel ? Numerous unsatisfactory experiments were made, but at last Mr. Wallace's patience and persistence conquered all obstacles, and success was obtained. This invention doubled the plant of the company and also the business. The patent was infringed upon by the Oneida Community, which gave rise to a great legal battle in which the Oneida people were defeated and perpetually enjoined. He formned a new company, still working within the limits of the old one, of himself, his sons and sons-in-law, under the style of . Wallace Brothers. The factory has grown to be the largest in the world devoted to the manufacture of flat table ware. The consumption of metal in all the departments is from two and a half to three tons of steel per day, and about half that amount of nickel silver. The concern has branch houses in New York and Chicago, and is never idle for lack of orders. The present officers of the company are members of his own family, and were schooled by the founder of the great industry. They are F. A. Wallace, president; Henry L. Wallace, secretary ; and W. J. Leavenworth, treasurer, the latter being a son-in-law.
A sketch of Mr. Wallace in the "History of New Haven County," has the following kindly words to say of him :
It would be difficult to find a finer illustration of life-long, steady, persistent attention to business than Mr. Wallace. Many attempts have been made to turn him aside, many allurements have been thrown before him, such as entice most other men, but none of them have moved him in all his life from his single aim of being a first-class and foremost manufacturer in his special line of goods. He has been for many years one of the heaviest tax-payers in the town of Wallingford, and it has been the desire of many of his townsmen that he should serve them in official capacity, and receive the honors of the town, but he has as steadily witli- drawn himself from all appearance of notoriety, and preferred his daily business routine to political emolu- ments. His gathered wealth has given him the opportunity, and liis large acquaintance might have furnished
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the incentive of movement in public in a showy style, but he has eschewed it all, purposely avoiding it and pre- ferring to be, among his fellow-men, a great deal more than seeming to be. His tastes are as simple to-day as they were when he was only eighteen years of age, and hired an old grist mill in Cheshire and began the manufacture of spoons on his own account.
Mr. Wallace has given an example of sterling integrity, business enterprise, perseverence, indomitable will and keen forethought to his townsmen, and is held in high esteem by them. He has a warm, genial temperament, that may flash for a moment into vivid pyrotechnics and startle the workmen, but the next hour be, as in general, velvety as a fresh lawn. The appeals for charity are never turned aside. His family are provided with sittings in church and urged to fulfill zealously the duties of church life as becoming to man and due to his Maker. His large, well furnished home on Main street, Wallingford, is always open to his friends, and he is happy when his family and they are happy.
This is such a correct estimate and tells the story so completely, that there is little left to be said. Having nearly reached the fourscore years allotted to man, he passed 011 to his reward. Mr. Wallace was one of the old school of inen. Up to the date of his last sickness he liad his bench in the factory, where he was always to be found, apron on and hard at work, and ever ready to give information to those who' desired it. Like Mackay, the bonanza millionaire, he thought there was " too confounded much quarter-deck " in the business offices, and it was rarely he was seen there. He was always at his little work- bench, with the men in the factory.
Robert Wallace was married March 22, 1839, to Harriet Louisa Moulthrop of New Haven, Conn. She was singularly suited to him in her tastes for mutual companion- ship, and after almost exactly forty-five years of happy wedded life she passed on to her reward, Jan. 19, 1884, sincerely mourned by friends and neighbors. Ten children were born to them, of whom eight are living. One son died in infancy, and another, William J., at the age of thirty years. The living are Mrs. Adeline Morris and Mrs. Nettie A. Leav- enworth of Wallingford ; Robert B. Wallace of Brooklyn, N. Y .; Hattie E. Wallace and Henry L. Wallace of Wallingford ; Mrs. Adela C. Sisson of New York; George M. Wallace of Chicago, and Frank A. Wallace of Wallingford.
INDSLEY, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, M. D., of New Haven, was born at Orange, N. J., Aug. 19, 1826. Dr. Lindsley traces his family line to Jolin Linle or Lindsley who is known to have been in Bradford in 1650. His son, Francis, was one of the colonists who migrated to New Jersey and settled in Newark, in 1666. From him the line comes down through (3) Ebenezer, (4) Ebenezer, Jr., (5) Nathaniel, to (6) Daniel, who married Eliza, daughter of Stephen Condit, a descendant of one of the original settlers of Newark. After her death, he married Alicia M. Gaston. Charles A. Lindsley was the only child by the first marriage.
The early education of young Lindsley was obtained at the common schools of his native place and as a private pupil of his rector, Rev. J. A. Williams, and his preparation for college was received at the school of Rev. Mr. Ten Broek of Orange. Entering Trinity College, he received the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in 1849. After graduation he was ein1- ployed as first assistant at that standard institution, the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Conn., for one year. The intricacies of the practice of medicine being attractive to his tastes, he commenced its study in the office of Dr. Asa J. Driggs of Cheshire, Conn. He also attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and the inedical department of Yale College, taking two courses of lectures and receiving the degree of M. D. in 1852. The same year he began the practice of his chosen profession in New Haven, where he has remained to the present time, gaining an honorable name as a medical practitioner, and securing a lucrative circle of clients.
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I11 1860, when in his thirty-fourth year, Dr. Lindsley was appointed professor of materia medica and therapeutics at Yale College, and filled that responsible position until 1883, and since that time has been professor of theory and practice of medicine, and for inore than a score of years was dean of the medical faculty.
From1 1864 to 1876, Dr. Lindsley was attending physician of the Connecticut State Hospital, being secretary of the Hospital Society from 1865 to 1877, and was health officer of New Haven from 1874 to 1888. Everything that tends to the development of medical science or the broadening of its scope, finds in Dr. Lindsley an active supporter. He has been a member of the New Haven Medical Society for many years, and, in 1877, served as its presi- dent. He also holds a membership in the General Hospital Society of Connecticut, and is an honorary member of the New Jersey Medical Society. In 1875-76, he was president of the County Medical Association; was president of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1892, which was the centennial year of its organization, and was vice-president of the American Medical Association in 1891-92.
Outside of the immediate lines of his profession, Dr. Lindsley takes a deep interest in all that makes for the highest physical welfare of the community. He was one of its mnost active promoters and has been a member of the Connecticut State Board of Health since its organization in 1878, and since the death of Dr. C. W. Chamberlin, in 1884, he has been secretary of the board and its executive officer. He is president of the International Con- ference of State and Provincial Boards of Health, and, in 1877, was vice-president of the American Public Health Association. One of the originators of the New Haven Dispensary in 1863, he served as vice-president till the death of Governor English, and since that time he has been president of that beneficent institution.
Dr. Lindsley's contributions to the literature of his profession cover a long series of years, and in the special field to which he has largely devoted his efforts they are considered the standard. Commencing in 1858, his first paper was "A Dissertation on Puerperal Convul- sions," which was published in the proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society. From 1874 to 1887, he edited the annual reports of the New Haven Board of Health, with tabulated statements of the vital statistics of the town of New Haven. In 1878, he wrote an extended paper on "Registration of Vital Statistics in Connecticut; " in 1879, one on "Sanitary and Unsanitary Conditions of the Soil ; " in 1880, his subject was " Prevailing Methods of Sewage Disposal; " and in 1881, "Vaccination." All these papers were published in the annual reports of the Connecticut State Board of Health, and each was worthy of special mention. Taking as his subject "Proprietary Medicines - their use demoralizing to the medical pro- fession and detrimental to the public welfare," in 1882, Dr. Lindsley prepared a inost valuable article, deserving of wide-spread circulation. From 1884 to 1891, he edited the annual reports of the State Board of Health, and for the same years he edited the annual registration reports of the vital statistics of Connecticut, and neither the amount of work required, nor its value to the state at large, can easily be overestimated. "Facts in Sanitation of Practical Valle " was published in the report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1889. His address as president of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1892, was principally devoted to the "Beginning and growth of Sanitary Legislation in Connecticut," and here again his long and extended experience gave his opinion great weight.
Throughout the entire state, Dr. Lindsley is everywhere counted in the very front rank of his profession, and he richly deserves the reputation he has gained by more than two score years of faithful service to suffering humanity. His literary labors have been vastly beneficial, and, as will be noted, are very practical in their nature, and along the line of improvement in public health and morals. His influence in this direction is wide-spread, and its value to the world at large can scarcely be estimated too highly.
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Dr. Lindsley was married April 13, 1852, to Lydia L., daughter of Major Aaron B. Harrison of Orange, N. J. Three children have been born to them : Harrison W., who was a promising architect and died Dec. 27, 1893; C. Purdy, who has followed in his father's footsteps, and has an M. D. attached to his name, and Caroline.
ICKS, RATCLIFFE, of Tolland, president of the Canfield Rubber Company of Bridgeport, was born at Tolland, Conn., Oct. 3, 1843.
Thomas Hicks, the American ancestor of this branch of the Hicks family, came from London, England, to Scituate, Mass., and took the oath of fidelity there in 1644, his brother Robert having arrived earlier in 1621, in the ship "Fortune." From Thomas the line comes down through (2) Daniel, (3) Daniel, Jr., (4) Benjamin, (5) David, to (6) Ratcliffe. He was a resident of Providence, R. I., and was a scafaring man, being captain of a vessel, and in the pursuit of his calling made numerous voyages along the American coast and to foreign shores. His son, Charles R., married Maria A. Stearns, and the present Ratcliffe Hicks was their oldest child.
Pursuing his preparatory studies at Monson Academy, young Hicks entered Brown University in 1860, and was graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1864. While in college lie was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, and took high rank in his class, being one of the commencement orators. His first occupation in life was as a teacher of the school in his native village, and at the same time he began the study of law in the office of Judge Loren P. Waldo, the teaching experience and legal research extending over the years from 1864 to 1866. In the last named year he was admitted to the bar of Connecticut, and during the same year he formed a partnership with United States Senator Platt of Meriden, and continued this business relation for three years, adding largely to his stock of knowledge of Connecticut law by his association with the senior member of the firm. The next ten successive years were spent in practice alone, and the last three were passed in the city of Hartford. The success he attained at the bar has rarely been surpassed by a man of his years. Mr. Hicks's widely extended practice caused him to be identified with many of the important cases of the New England courts. Possibly the most notable was the celebrated Sprague suit in Rhode Island, where a fee of $10,000 was received, probably the largest on record in that state. His subsequent prominence as a manufacturer has somewhat obscured his reputation as a lawyer, but those whose memories include the docket from 1871 to 1881, will think of him first as a brilliant lawyer, and it seemed almost a pity to spoil so promising a legal light even to make the excellent man of business he proved to be.
Becoming connected with the Canfield Rubber Company of Bridgeport, in 1882, Mr. Hicks was elected president, and has since devoted his great executive ability to the inanage- ment of its interests. Under his fostering direction this concern has increased its capital stock from $10,000 to $250,000, and besides it has a surplus of as much more, with sales aggregating $1,000,000 yearly. A couple of paragraphs are quoted from the New York Independent of December, 1893: " The history of the Canfield Rubber Company is remarkable from the fact that it was only in 1882 that it was organized with a capital of $10,000. They had at that time a little manufacturing establishment, and virtually felt their way year by year, seeing the demand for their goods increase, and year by year they saw the necessity for, and did increase their plant and add to their capital, until now their capital stock is represented by $250,000, with a surplus of the same amount, and their sales amount to about $1,000,000
Patitiffi Link
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
a year. Of course they long since stopped enlarging their original factory, and have erected one of mammoth proportions, suitable in every respect for their particular line of mantt- facture. Their capacity now exceeds 5,000,000 pairs of dress shields per year.
The display inade at the World's Fair by the Canfield Rubber Company was a very creditable one indeed. The company had on exhibition two wax figures, one representing Jared H. Canfield, the inventor of the Canfield seamless dress shield, and the other representing a working girl to whom lie was explaining the method of manufacturing the dress shield. The figures were so strikingly realistic that large numbers of people upon first viewing them supposed them to be living persons.
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