USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 54
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At a meeting of the bar of Hartford, called to take action on his death, the following resolutions were presented by Hon. Henry C. Robinson, and unanimously adopted :
In the death of the Hon. Alvan Pinney Hyde the bar has lost an eminent lawyer. Nature equipped him for usefulness. His frame was strong and stalwart, his intellect penetrating and logical, and his moral character honest and sound. Study and culture developed his natural powers. A long career of honorable practice carried him to the front rank of the profession and its most important activities, whence he retired for a few mouths of sickuess, and died. He had an instinct for correct reasoning. His thoughts flowed out iu a clear and forcible sentiment. He was faithful to his client and his cause, and his own conscience as well, from the first hour of examination uutil the last decree of the court was registered. If he succeeded he was generous, if he lost he was brave. In consideration for his associates he had no superior, in dealing with his opponents he was always fair. His broad outfit for professional achievement inade him a favorite counselor aud advocate in large interests, but he was never deaf to the inquiry nor reluctant to serve the cause of the humble client. He won his victories by direct and open attack; he had no use for indirection nor intrigue. No problem of logic puzzled his reflection, and no crisis confused his perception. His knowledge of jurisprudence was reinforced by a large knowledge of human nature, for he was full of humanity. He had, what is of supreme importance in furnishing a good lawyer or a good judge, a fine seuse of that natural justice which underlies the written law of statutes and constitution. He was fair to a wituess, for he was full of kindness. Aggressive iu his assertions of a righteous cause, he delighted to fight fraud and tyranny, but he had ouly sympathy for the unfortunate and the weak. He loved the law and his love was returned. His name and his life are woven into the records of our courts for the last forty years.
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In business eireles he was influential and useful. He was skillful in banking, insurance and book-keeping. He was fearless and upright in public life. As a friend he was true ; as a husband, father and brother, he was tender and self-sacrificing. His genial presenee was a joy to companionship. He brought much sunlight and no darkness to social life. He was full of hope. He believed in man, individually and soeially, and for cynicism and pessimism neither his head nor his heart had any harbor. His eareer was sueeessful and honor- able. We remember him and will remember him with respeet, admiration and love. We will attend his funeral in a body, and the elerk of the bar will enter this minute upon our records and transmit a copy of it to his family.
OOMIS, FRANCIS B., of New London, ex-lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, was born at Lyme, April 9, 1812. He died July 13, 1892.
The Loomis family is one of marked distinction, as it has been known in England for more than four hundred and fifty years, and at a still earlier period in Lombardy and Spain. F. B. Loomis was a lineal descendant of Joseph Loomis, who emigrated from Braintree, Essex County, England, in 1638. Joseph Loomis and his family were among the first settlers of Windsor, the oldest town in Con- necticut. The homestead built by them more than two hundred and fifty years ago in that town is still in a perfect state of preservation, and is occupied by one of the descendants bearing the name of Loomis, who holds the original land purchased. Of the five sons of Joseph Loomis the line comes down through the second, Deacon John Loomis. He was a representative to the legislature for four different sessions, and his monument may be ยท seen in the old Windsor burying ground. Daniel Loomis, son of John, had a son Jolin, who was the father of Joel Loomis, the father of the governor.
Joel Loomis was an influential public man, a frequent representative of his town in the General Assembly, judge of probate for many years, for a brief period an associate judge of the county court, and the intimate friend of the late Chief Justice Waite of Connecticut, whose son occupied the exalted position of chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. For his second wife he married Ellis Chappell, daughter of Ezekiel Chappell, who served through the whole of the Revolutionary war, and endured all the sufferings of that terrible winter at Valley Forge. Thus the sturdy English stock of the paternal side was supplemented by the revolutionary spirit of the maternal grandsire.
In early youth Mr. Loomis improved the opportunity of acquiring an education, afforded by five years' tuition in a private school where those branches of knowledge that were most likely to be of service to him in a business career were judiciously and diligently taught. Thus prepared for the active duties of life, on attaining his majority, he immediately began the manufacture of woolen goods in his native town, and that with a vigor and wisdom that were rewarded by success from the very beginning. In 1847, the year before . his removal to New London, Mr. Loomis was honored by an almost unanimous election to the lower branch of the legislature.
Removing to New London in 1848, Mr. Loomis enlarged his sphere of operation, and for many years was prominently identified with the business and financial interests of that city. Subsequent to his leaving Lyme, he erected the woolen mills at Montville, and after- ward became the owner of the Rockwell mills at Norwich, and other factories in that town, now controlled by the firin of Sturtevant Brothers. He also constructed and managed for some time the steain woolen inill at New London, which factory was the first ever built in the city for the production of textile fabrics, and of which he was the sole owner. The woolen mill at Coventry, Tolland County, was yet another, and the last of his creations in that special department in industrial art. In the marvelous development of the woolen ma1111-
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facture during the three decades between 1840 and 1870, Mr. Loomnis was one of the prin- cipal factors. In 1840, the United States Census returned the amount of capital invested in that business as in excess of $15,000,000, employing 21,000 persons, and producing goods to the value of $20,696,000. In1 1870, the census returned the number of woolen manufacturing establishments as 2,891 ; of hands employed, 93, 108 ; of capital invested, $108,- 998,000 ; and the value of the annual product at $177,963,000 - figures which reveal an amazing increase in the accumulated values and industrial resources of the nation.
Not content with these manifold enterprises, lie next acquired the exclusive title to the the large steain cotton mills at Sag Harbor, N. Y. In the administration of all these undertakings Mr. Loomis was alone, and unassisted by any partner. During the civil war, his manufacturing was conducted on a more extensive scale than that of any other individual in the state. His employees rose to the number of over one thousand, and his numer- ous establishments were running night and day, in the fulfilment of government contracts. Universal executive ability, such as that which is needed in wise and thorough manipula- lation of a regiment in the field, is requisite to the successful conducting of so large a business. Some scores of West Point graduates, on retiring to civil life, have become inanu- facturers, and in peaceful pursuits have brought all their trained and quick-witted energies into masterly exercise. Mr. Loomis himself, in early life, displayed a natural relish for military affairs, and at the age of twenty-one was honored by election to the colonelcy of the Third Regiment of Connecticut inilitia.
As a financier his abilities were no less conspicuous than as a manufacturer. Quick to perceive proffered advantages, and active in turning thein to private and public account, he availed himself of the privileges conferred by the National Banking Act, soon after it was passed, and organized the First National Bank of New London, which was one of the first of its class, either in the state or in the country. He subscribed and owned nearly the whole of the capital stock, and directed its operations in person from the date of its organi- zation until its cessation from business in 1877. Investment rarely proved to be more lucrative than did that. Dividends for many years averaged twelve per cent. in gold, and the surplus accumulations more than equalled the capital. Throughout the rebellion against the United States, that bank was the government depository for Eastern Connecticut, and for a long time held average governinent deposits of over $4,000,000. It was also entrusted with the sale of government bonds, and floated over $20,000,000 of the several issues. Possessed of an ample fortune, obtained by processes only beneficent to multitudes, Colonel Loomis retired from manufacturing business soon after the close of the war, and employed his energy and resources in stock speculations and railroad enterprises. Some of the former have been of colossal magnitude. The latter, particularly in the South and West, liave been on a large scale, have tended to develop the capabilities of those sections of the land, and thus to enrich the inhabitants, while they have yielded rich pecuniary harvests to the daring cultivator.
Politically, Colonel Loomis began life as a Whig, and acted in concert with that party until it ceased to exist. When the rebellion broke out, he patriotically devoted himself to the support of the national cause, and lost neither heart nor hope in the darkest and dreariest hours of the sanguinary struggle that ensued. The grit and tenacity of the old Cromwellians were inanifest in his presidency of the war meeting held in the old court- house at New London, on the evening of the day when traitorous hands fired on the national flag at Fort Sumter. His liberality was equally apparent in his contribution to the fund for raising the first company of volunteers sent from that city. The spirit and genius of the Revolutionary fathers never shone inore resplendently than in the offer of Colonel Loomis, in 1864, just before the carnage and horror of the Wilderness, to furnish
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and equip at his own expense one thousand men for one hundred days, in order to relieve the garrison at Fort Trumbull, that the regulars stationed there might be sent to the front. The noble offer was not accepted, but the genuine and glowing patriotisin which dictated it at the supreme hour of the conflict, received appropriate acknowledgment from the President, in the following autograph letter, printed in Raymond's "Life, Public Services, and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln," and justly claiming insertion here :
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, May 12, 1864.
My Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 28th April, in which you offer to replace the present garrison at Fort Trumbull with volunteers, which you propose to raise at your own expense. While it seems inexpedient at this time to accept this proposition, on account of the special duties devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a meritorious instance of individual patriotism. Permit mie, for the government, to express my cordial thanks to you for this generous and public-spirited offer, which is worthy of note among the many called forth in these times of national trial. I am, very truly, your obedient servant,
F. B. LOOMIS, Esq.
A. LINCOLN.
Throughout the war, and until 1872, Colonel Loomis acted in harmony with the Repub- lican party, but uniformly declined all overtures to become a candidate for office. The Liberal Republican movement of that year enlisted his heartiest sympathy and cooperation, and he was nominated elector at large on the Greeley and Brown ticket. From that time he was politically identified with the Democracy. In 1872, he declined the unanimous nomination as candidate for senator for the Seventh District, and shortly after the congressional nomination of the Third Congressional District was also unanimously tendered, but he refused to accept. Of the St. Louis National Democratic Convention, which nominated Tilden and Hendricks for the chief offices in the gift of the American people, he was a delegate at large from his own state, and was elected chairman of the state delegation. He was also made a presi- dential elector at large on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket from his state. In November, 1876, he was elected to office of lieutenant-governor on the Democratic ticket, and as pre- siding officer of the Senate, in the subsequent legislative session, discharged his duties with acceptability and skill, added to an impartial dignity that commanded the respectful atten- tion and grateful applause of political friends and opponents alike. At the close of the session, the last ever held in the old State House, the Hon. Senator Browne of the Eighth District, in delivering the farewell of the Senate to its presiding officer, spoke as follows :
"Mr. President : I take great pleasure in presenting to you the resolution which has been unanimously adopted by this Senate in your absence. It is the spontaneous outburst from the heart of every member of this Senate. Further, Mr. President, it is with hesitation and doubt that I have consented, at the request of my brother senators, to express in some inefficient degree the feelings which animate us in the closing hours of the session. I may well say, it would have accorded better with my own feelings if it had fallen to some senator who could better express the sentiments of all of us upon such an occasion as this.
"By the progress of time, which in its rapid pace delays for nothing human, we are brought to the closing hours of this session - a session which will be notable in the history of this commonwealth as the last session held in the old and time-honored capitol of the state. The distinction has fallen to you, sir, to preside over our deliberations; and while you were placed in the position which you have so well graced, by the action of a party, you have forgotten that you were a partisan, and have conducted yourself as a statesinan. As a member of the opposite party, and speaking for the members of that party as well as the whole Senate, I may say that 110 act of yours lias been such that it could not be con1- inended and approved by all.
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"In your official position, on every occasion, you have treated all questions fairly and honorably, and in a manner to command the respect and approval of all. Strange as it inay seem, yet it is true, that during the two years that you have presided over this body, no appeal has been made from the rulings of the chair. In all personal relations, coming together strangers to each other as it were, we have come to love and esteem you, and 110 member of this Senate will sever the relations which have bound us together without feelings of pain and regret at the parting, which will extend far into the future; but that pain will be softened by a pleasure in the new friendships which have been the growth and product of this session, which we seriously hope will only terminate with life. It brings feelings of sadness as we review the history of the session, to think of parting; but we must not let its sadness oppress us. We must remember that life is like a picture : it has its sunshine and its shadow. Let us not forget that we have for weeks walked together with you in sunshine; in this parting hour we stand within the shadow. But as we part, whether in sunshine or in shadow, may God be with us all."
The senator then, on behalf of the Senate, presented Lieutenant-Governor Loomis with a large photograph of the old State House, with the picture of the twenty-one senators grouped around it, as a testimonial of friendship and esteemn.
Mr. Loomis was urgently requested to become a candidate for the lieutenant-governors hip for a second term, and although positively declining the honor, he was chosen by accla ma- tion in the convention, but he refused to stand as the candidate.
In the fall of 1880, he was a prominent candidate for gubernatorial honors, and it was the belief of all the leading inen in the party that his nomination would insure success to the Democratic ticket. His peculiar fitness for the position, in connection with his popularity among the masses, were some of the reasons why Mr. Loomis should have been the candidate of his party in the earnest and critical campaign of 1880. Whatever may have been his personal wishes in the matter, he after mature consideration prepared the following letter, which speaks for itself :
ALEXANDER TROUP, Editor New Haven Union :
NEW LONDON, August 17, 1880.
My Dear Sir: Your valued paper has made such frequent mention of my name in conection with the Democratic nomination for governor that I now ask the use of its columns to announce that, after a careful consideration of all the circumstances, I have decided to withdraw as a candidate for any position before the convention to-morrow. I am deeply sensible of the kindness and partiality which has induced leading organs of Democratic opinion, and hosts of friends in all parts of the state, both openly and privately to advocate my nomination. I am not unmindful of their wishes, nor insensible to the distinguished honor at such a time as this of leading the Democratic party to victory. But I am unwilling that any action of mine should produce embarrassment to the convention, or that the introduction of my name there should contribute, even in the slightest degree, to divided counsels.
We are entering upon a campaign the importance of which, to the country and the Democratic party, can hardly be overestimated. Peace, harmony, fraternal good-will; the burial forever of the passions and resent- ments of civil war; the preservation of the rights of the states, and of the proper powers by the Federal Government; the maintenance of the Constitution in the spirit of the men who made it; the prosperity and happiness of all in all parts of the land -these depend upon the success of the Democratic party and the election of its noble candidate. To this great end all private ambition should be sacrificed and all personal self-seeking and local claims subordinated.
In this great contest Connecticut is claimed as a doubtful state. She is certainly a pivotal state; and with harmonious counsels and wise nominations she is certainly Democratic. I hold it to be the duty of every Democrat to contribute to such a result by every means in his power and by any sacrifice at his command. In view of the consequences at stake, all differences should be adjusted, all jealousies put aside, all claims and preferences surrendered, and the convention be left at liberty to select such a candidate as will not only unite the great Democratic party, but also draw to its support that great body of conservative voters who are opposed to sectionalism and misrule. I have no doubt that the convention will, by the exercise of wisdom and harmony, come to such a result, and that its proceedings will place Connecticut in the list of that great majority of the states which are certain for Hancock and English.
I am, with great respect, yours truly, FRANCIS B. LOOMIS.
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Thus we find him putting aside self that he might perhaps the better secure the sucecss of his party, and one whom in honoring, the people would have honored themselves. Though retaining his interest in the political affairs of the state and nation, Mr. Loomis never afterward took an active part in any movement.
Mr. Loomis was twice married ; first to Miss Ingham of Saybrook, by whom he had one daughter, who is now Mrs. George. D. Whittlescy of New London. After her death he married Miss Beckwith of Kentucky, who survived him, and by whom he had three children. Two of them dicd in infancy, and the other is now Mrs. Charles W. Havemeyer of Hartford.
Speaking of Mr. Loomis's death the New London Day said : "Though an especially active and energetic man in all the affairs of life in his earlier days, he was not known to the present generation. He amassed a fortune at one time a great one, and mnade it the instrument of much good in helping those who had a claim on his interest and many who had no special claim, and in extending a generous hospitality to his friends. To the younger inen about him, whose ability he recognized, he was ever a warm friend and en- couraged them with advice and inaterial aid." The editorial comment of the New London Telegraph was, "Francis B. Loomis, who died yesterday morning, was a familiar figure in New London, where his death is greatly regretted by mnen of both parties. Mr. Loomis was a Democrat of the good old fashioned kind. He had been a prominent man here for half a century. He was a quiet and exceedingly unostentatious man, who loved to live in a simple and unassuming manner. He possessed a fund of varied information with regard to the affairs of state and country, and had an extensive acquaintance with leading men in both parties. Though not a great speaker, it was everywhere conceded he was a man of individual thought and unquestioned ability."
ITCHELL, CHARLES E., long a resident at New Britain, widely known in the United States as an authority on patent law, and late United States com- inissioner of patents at Washington, was born in Bristol, Conn., on May 11, 1837. Mr. Mitchell's great-grandfather was William Mitchell, who was born in Scotland in 1748 and came to this country, a young man, before the Revolu- tionary War. the colonies. He settled in the town of Bristol, and during the war fought on the side of William Mitchell had a large family of sons who were all men of character and prominence. Among them was S. Augustus Mitchell, the geographer, and George Mitchell who served in the Connecticut Senate and several sessions in the lower house. George Mitchell was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His parents were George Henry and Lurene Mitchell, both natives of Connecticut, the latter being a daughter of Ira Hooker of Plainville, Conn. On his mother's side, Mr. Mitchell's ancestry included Thomas Hooker of the Con- necticut colony, and Capt. Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York after it came under English control.
Mr. Mitchell was prepared for college at the well-known Williston Seminary at East- hampton, Mass., and, in 1858, entered Brown University where he was graduated in 1861. After a course of study in the Albany Law School, he received the degree of bachelor of laws in 1864, and returning to his native place entered upon the practice of his profession. A diligent student, careful in his methods and wise in his counsels, the young lawyer made rapid headway and in a few years was not only prosperous, but also prominent. In 1870,
Cohes 8. Mitchell
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 34I
when New Britain sought incorporation as a city, Mr. Mitchell and his partner, Mr. F. L. Hungerford, drew up the charter. One of the first appointments inade under the new municipal government was that of Mr. Mitchell as city attorney, and in this capacity he supervised the preparation of the code of by-laws for the city government. Mr. Mitchell was elected to repre- sent New Britain in the state legislature in 1880, and was reelected in 1881. His ability as a lawyer was of great service in the House of Representatives, where during his first terin he was chairman of the committee on incorporations, and during his second term a member of the judiciary committee. An important work performed by him during the session of 1880 was that of redrafting the corporation laws of the state, in which labor he was ably assisted by the Hon. John R. Buck, who was Senate chairman of the committee on incorporations. As a member of the legislative commission, appointed to consider and report upon the necessity for a new state normal school building, he made a thorough investigation, and through his strong affirmative efforts influenced the passage of the bill providing for its erection, together with the requisite appropriation.
Quite early in his professional career, Mr. Mitchell had his attention drawn to patent cases, and, becoming interested, has since made patent law a study and a specialty, and ranks now among the first patent lawyers in the country. His practice being principally in the United States Courts, he has won a national reputation. In 1889, President Harrison appointed him United States commissioner of patents, and, when he accepted the office, it was generally conceded in the legal profession that his long study of, and practical familiarity with, this department of law, qualified him in no ordinary degree for this highly responsible position.
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