USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 59
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In 1874, Mr. Lounsbury was elected to represent his town of Ridgefield in the House of Representatives of the state. His attitude upon the temperance issue, as well as his staunch Republieanism had much to do with securing for him this honor. He entered this body with no thought of beeoming one of the Republican leaders, but his special talents were quiekly pereeived by his party colleagues, and he was at once accorded the prominence he inerited. His clear views and exeellent business methods were highly servieeable in committee work, and on more than one oceasion his eloquence on the floor of the House resulted in signal advantage to the ineasures he advocated. One of the services which mark this part of his history was in connection with the restrietion of the sale of intoxicating liquors. He was one of the framers of the existing rigid loeal option laws of Connecti- cut. The reputation he aequired as a public speaker at this time also brought him into prominenee, and he was called to exercise his ability in this direction in the service of his party during the state and presidential campaign which followed. In this respeet he has rendered most effective service on many oeeasions. This was particularly the case during the Blaine eampaign of 1884. He has also been ealled upon in several instances of historic note to act as orator. Among the more recent of these may be mentioned the dedication of the monument reared by Conneetieut to her heroie dead on the battle-field of Gettysburg, and the famous Independence Day celebration at Woodstock in 1886. Of all the gifted speakers who took part in the latter celebration, "he it was," says a eontem- porary writer, "whose words were earried away by the populace as fittest to be remembered."
Naturally thus he became one of the most popular men in the Republican ranks, and in 1882, he was brought forward as a eandidate in the Republican State Convention for the office of governor. For party reasons, at his request, his name however was withdrawn, and the nomination was given to Hon. William H. Bulkeley, brother of Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley. In 1884, Mr. Lounsbury's friends again brought his name forward, and although the nomination was given to Mr. Harrison, Mr. Lounsbury exhibited no surprise or dis- appointment, but worked loyally in support of the nominee. At the convention held at Hartford, in 1886, he was unanimously nominated for the office of governor on the first ballot. His manly conduct on previous oceasions, and his untiring political services had greatly increased his following, and his nomination proved exceedingly popular and he was eleeted as the chief executive of the state of Connecticut. His term of office, which covered two years, was marked by a wise, patriotic and dignified administration of public affairs, which has placed his name high among those of the governors of that commonwealth. One of the abiding effects of his administration is the change that was wrought in the laws of Connecticut by what is known as " The Incorrigible Criminals Act." The peculiarity of this law at this point is that a person who has twiee been convieted of an offense -
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the penalty of which is imprisonment for a term not less than two years -shall upon conviction for a similar offense be sentenced for the term of twenty-five years. Governor Lounsbury believed that the life sentence should be the one imposed in such cases. His argument in the message in which he brought this subject to the attention of the legis- ture rested upon the fundamental idea that the state prison is primarily for the protection of society. His words are memorable and deserve to be quoted :
I commend to your most earnest consideration the wise and timely suggestions which the prison directors make with reference to the criminal class. These suggestious will bring to you as a body, the question which no doubt has often come to you as individuals, what is the state prison for? It was not meant to be an insti- tution of reform, though of course the Christian idea of reform runs all throngh its management. It was not meant to be even a place of punishment, except so far as the punishment of crime tends to the promotion of law and order. Least of all was it meant to be a house of refuge, to which the habitual criminal could go until the people had forgotten their wrongs and their wrath, and it was safe for him to begin again his career of plunder and violence. The prison will be answering the full purpose of its existence when it gives permanent protection to all good citizens, by shutting up forever within its walls and behind its bolts and bars, the entire criminal class of the state. Is it protection when you unchain the mad dog and let him loose on the play- grouud ? Is it protection when you open the door of the cage and let the tiger ont iuto the crowded street ? Is it protection when you open the gates of your prison, and out into the peaceful walks of society send forth the hardened criminal, whose brutal instincts have been intensified by coufinement, and who has obeyed all the rules of prison life simply that he might the sooner begin again to rob and innrder? When you have auswered these questions you will favorably cousider the recommendation of your able board of directors, and will place upon our statute books a law not less stringent than that of the state of Ohio. Some future legislature will wisely take a long step beyond this and will fix the life sentence as the penalty of every crime, the commissiou of which shall show that the man is already a confirmed criminal.
Though upon theoretical grounds it was not thoughit best to formally impose the life sentence in such cases, yet what in most cases would be equivalent was provided for, and the Incorrigible Criminals Act was passed unanimously by the legislature. He was also largely influential as governor in the enactinent of laws prohibiting the running of rail- road trains in the state between the hours of ten o'clock and three o'clock on Sundays. The object of this was to secure the necessary quiet for worship, and to afford a larger measure of weekly rest for the inen employed upon railroads. Commendation for those who hold public positions seldom comes from their political opponents. But when Governor Lounsbury retired from office, the Hartford Times, the leading Democratic paper of the state contained the following :
Governor Lonnsbury retires from the executive office to-morrow, with a record alike creditable to him as a inan and as an official. While onr political preference did not favor his election to the chief magistracy of the state, and while we had in the outset, some doubts as to the probable methods of his official course, we may frankly say at this time that we are satisfied that he has been one of the best governors Connecticut has ever had. We have found iu Governor Lonnsbury a gentleman of sterling integrity, of unfailing courtesy, gifted with excellent business tact, and inclined to administer the affairs of the state on business principles and with a view to economy and efficiency in every matter requiring his official consideration and action. Goveruor Louns- bury unquestionably retires from office with the respect and hearty good feeling of every one, irrespective of party, with whom he has been bronglit into official or personal relations.
As a large employer in one of the principal manufacturing states of the Union, Governor Lounsbury has made a close study of the labor question, and his views have had very gen- eral endorsement among those affected. Known to be humane and honorable in his deal- ings, he is to-day one of the most popular men in the state among the working inen. Among the veteran soldiers he is likewise remembered as one who stood in their ranks in the great struggle to suppress the Rebellion and to preserve the Union. His intensely patriotic course upon all public questions has led to his being spoken of as "a second Buckingham." He is at present largely occupied with business. In addition to the position he holds as president of the Merchants' Exchange National Bank, he is a trustee of the American Bank Note Company, chairman of the executive committee of the Washington
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Trust Company, and actively connected with many other financial enterprises. This sketeh would not be complete if it were not said that he is a man of strong religions convic- tions and feclings. Hc is a loyal adherent to thic Methodist Episcopal Church, and onc of the most influential of her laymen. In 1888, he served as a lay delegate in the General Conference of the church. He holds honored relations to the schools of this denomination, notably the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., of which institution he has for many years been a trustee. In 1887, he received the degrec of Doctor of Laws from this University. Governor Lounsbury, as will be seen from the portrait which we give, is a man of striking appearance. Well built, rugged looking and combining agreeable manners with natural dignity, he is a fine specimen of American manhood, a citizen of whom his native state may be proud.
He was married in 1867, to Miss Jennie Wright, daughter of Mr. Neziah Wright, one of the founders of the American Bank Note Company. Mrs. Lounsbury is a lady of elegant eulture and refinement, and fittingly graces a most hospitable home, and the large cirele of friends in which she, with her husband, moves.
LLEN, JOHN, of Saybrook, Conn., was born in Meriden, Feb. 6, 1815, and was the eldest of four children of Levi Allen, a farmer and prominent citizen of that town. His mother's maiden name was Electa Hall, and he is a lineal descendant of Roger Allen, who was one of the earliest English settlers of New Haven, a contemporary of Rev. John Davenport, and deacon in his church. His grandfathers, Archelais Allen and Aaron Hall, both of Wallingford, Conn., were patriots of the Revolution and soldiers in the war that achieved our national independ- ence. The former enlisted at the time of the "Lexington aların," and served under General Putnam; the latter enlisted May 20, 1777, at the age of sixteen, in Capt. Stephen Hall's company of Col. Heman Swift's Seventh Regiment "Connectieut Line," and was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service, May 15, 1780. He was in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine, Monmouth and Stony Point, and in the campaign under General Washington at Valley Forge.
After receiving a good public school and academic education, the subject of this sketch was placed by his parents in the store of Maj. Elisha A. Cowles, where, under several changes in the style of the firm, he served a clerkship of six years, from the age of fourteen to twenty. Incidental to his business duties were opportunities for attending an evening school in the winter months for advanced studies, ant elocution society, and a lyceumn, of which he availed himself. In March, 1836, he removed from Meriden to New York, and entered the employ of Perkins, Hopkins & White, then extensively engaged in the dry-goods jobbing trade at wholesale with the inerchants of the southern states. He remained with that firin in confidential relations through a period of unusual instability and difficulty in the mercantile affairs of. the country, during which time, by active participation in the business, he gained valuable experience in laying the foundation for his future prosperity. Upon the dissolution of that firin in 1842, and the re-organization of Perkins & Hopkins, he became interested as a partner, and upon a subsequent re-organization under the name of Hopkins, Allen & Company, he came prominently before the public in its enterprising and successful administration.
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His intercourse with the people of the South inade him acquainted with their views and policy in reference to the institution of slavery, and perceiving the growing antagonisin between free and slave labor, and the existing conflict of principles, which foreshadowed serious difficulty to the country, he resolved to withdraw from the mercantile business (then conducted largely upon credit), which he did as an active partner in 1855, and in the year following he established a residence in the town of Saybrook, Middlesex County, Conn., where his family now resides. When the secession movement ripened into rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States, he gave the national cause his earnest support. In September, 1862, he paid a private bounty of fifty dollars each to the several persons enlisting from the town of his residence in Company B, Twenty-fourth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, under the call of the President for troops.
Mr. Allen received in 1863, an unsought nomination to represent the nineteenth sena- torial district in the state Senate, and was elected. He was reelected in 1864. In both years he was made chairman of the joint standing committee of the General Assembly on finance, whose labors were of the highest importance in that critical period of public affairs, when the state was raising money for the war. The financial ineasures recommended by that committee and adopted by the legislature, not only enabled Connecticut to creditably place her full quota of men in the field, but established a policy in the revision of the tax laws most favorable to the public interest, and which has reduced to a minimum amount the state debt. The present equitable method of taxing railroad property, on the basis of what it will sell for, by which the market value of its stocks and bonds is made the measure of value for the purpose of taxation, was suggested by him. On the 17th day of June, 1864, Mr. Allen introduced into the Connecticut legislature the first resolution in favor of the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment (see journal of the Senate, pages 273 and 274).
He was one of the delegates froin Connecticut to meet a convention of loyal Southern- ers at Philadelphia on the 3d day of September, 1866, called to give expression to the sentiments of the people in support of Congress against the defection of Andrew Jolinson. He was prominent in the movement that arrested the "peace flag" heresy at Saybrook, or the raising of any flag not representing all the states of the Union. While he was a senator in the years aforesaid, he was one of the Fellows of the corporation of Yale College, the law then being that the six senior senators were inembers er-officio of that corporation. In the Hayes presidential campaign of 1876, Mr. Allen was a Republican presidential elector in this state. He was elected president, in 1867, of the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville Railroad Company of the state of Illinois, which position he held in active administration of the property for twelve years, completing in 1869 the extension of its road from Virginia to Jacksonville. In 1891, the road began to be operated as a part of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé system, and of its inain line between Chicago and St. Louis, Allen Manvel being president of the corporation.
Mr. Allen was again elected to the Connecticut State Senate from the twenty-first district - formerly the nineteenth -and served during the sessions of 1884 and 1885 as chairman of the joint standing committee on railroads. He was chairman of the legislative committee in charge of the public services at the inauguration of Warner's statue of William A. Buckingham in the battle-flag vestibule of the capitol, and he covered back into the treasury of the state $259.99 out of the sum of six thousand dollars appropriated by the General Assembly for the statue ceremonies. For many years he has been identified with the public library in Old Saybrook and president of the association. He was chairman of the revision committee that framed its present constitution and by-laws. He presided at the
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public exercises, held under thic auspices of the ladies of Old Saybrook, on thic 27th day of November, 1885, that celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first scttle- 11cnt of Saybrook by English colonists. In matters of church goverment lie is a Congre- gationalist, in thicology a Unitarian, in politics a Republican.
On the roth day of November, 1847, he married Mary Ann Pliclps, second daughter of the late Hon. Elisha Phelps and Lucy (Smith) Phelps of Simsbury, Conn. They have two sons, Jolin H. and William Hall, both unmarried ; and four daughters, Lucy Phelps, the eldest, who married Charles Leslie Morgan of Great Neck, L. I., and New York; Jennett, wlio married Hon. William Hammersley of Hartford ; Mary Constance, who married Benjamin Knower of Scarborough-on-the-Hudson and New York; and Grace Electa, the youngest, who is wedded to hier parents,-their pride and joy.
B RADLEY, NATHANIEL L., of Meriden, treasurer of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, was born in Cheshire, Conn., Dec. 27, 1829. The period of 1830-31, was productive of a long list of inen prominent along different lines of activity in national and business affairs, and in the realm of literature. The tide commenced to rise in the last half of 1829, and during that six months was born a class of inen of whom Roscoe Conkling, Geo. W. Childs, C. G. Halpine, perhaps better known as "Miles O'Rielly," will serve as examples. President Chester A. Arthur, James G. Blaine, three of Garfield's cabinet, a score of Union generals, as many congressinen, and an extended list of men who gained reputation for themselves in other spheres of action, came upon the scene in 1830.
Mr. Bradley's parents were Levi and Abigail Ann (Atwater) Bradley. His father was a prudent tiller of the soil, of wide-spread influence in his town, and a man whose inoral worth was felt in the upbuilding of virtue and temperance in the community. The entire family circle joined heartily in the conscientious observance of all his religious duties. The liberal support which he ever gave to the cause of religion, is the best evidence that all his sympathies were in accord with the principles of Christianity. To the study of history he devoted inuch time, and the interest was sustained until the close of his life. With such an example constantly before them, inoral excellence combined with inental and physical soundness would naturally be expected.
N. L. Bradley was the fourth child and youngest son of his parents. The education needed to fit him for the stern duties of life was obtained at the Meriden Academy. His first instructor was John D. Post, and his studies were completed under the guidance of Dexter R. Wright, afterwards prominent in the affairs of the state. At the conclusion of his academic course, he passed a year as clerk in a hardware store in New Haven. Owing to the strongly expressed wish of his father, he then returned home, mnuch to the regret of his employer, and gave himself up to the prosaic labors of the farm. On reach- ing his majority, Mr. Bradley had formed no definite plans for his course in life. Agricul- tural pursuits were far from being remunerative, nor was the drudgery satisfying to his ambition. By prudence he had accumulated what seemed in his eyes a small fortune, and this he invested in a clock factory in Southington, a few iniles from his native town. The compensation he received, $1.25 per day, could hardly be termed munificent. It was amid these humble surroundings that his genius for work had its first opportunity to display its real power. Being offered a contract for making clocks in the factory, he quickly accepted,
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and his business abilities stood the test successfully. The facilities for producing the clocks were greater than those for disposing of thein and an accumulation occurred, which necessitated the stopping of the factory. A proposition was inade to Mr. Bradley that he visit New Haven, Philadelphia and other cities for the purpose of selling off the surplus stock. This offer was also accepted, and his success was phenomenal. The president was so gratified that Mr. Bradley was elected a director, the other salesmen were dismissed, and he was made a traveling representative of the company.
Large enterprises often have extremely small beginnings. It was so with the great industry with which Mr. Bradley's name is associated. More than two score years ago, in 1852, a joint stock company was formed under the title of Bradley, Hatchi & Co., with a capital of $5,000. The members were W. L. Bradley, Walter Hubbard and C. P. Hatch. Being vigorously puslied, the business grew so rapidly that in the short space of two years, more capital was imperatively needed. Not having the requisite cash for further investment, the Hatch Brothers decided to retire from the company. Selling out his dry goods business, Walter Hubbard, with William L. and Nathaniel L. Bradley reorganized the company, with the title of Bradley & Hubbard. The business and good will of the previous joint stock company were purchased, and the plant permanently located on the same spot where the present immense factory stands. Until 1875, the business was transacted on an ordinary co-partnership basis, but in the year namned, a joint stock company was again forined under the name of Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, and such the title of the firm still remains. Walter Hubbard was chosen president, C. F. Lindsey secretary, and N. L. Bradley treasurer, and no change has been inade in these officers. From an article in the Meriden Journal, a descriptive paragraph is quoted :
The history of the company has been one of rapid development, due to the great energy and business ability of Messrs. Bradley and Hubbard, the founders of the original firin. The firm started business in an old two story wooden building, now used as a repair shop, and a small brick foundry. A glimpse at the immense buildings of to-day tells the story of the growth since then better than words can do. In 1870, the first large brick structure was erected, and since then the constant demand for additional room has necessitated the erection of other factories in which there are employed over 1,000 hands. Without doubt the company is the largest and best known as imanufacturers of chandeliers, gas fixtures, lamps and bronzes in existence. There are inany of the greatest buildings all over the country that have been fitted out by this company, and their goods are always eagerly sought for since they possess the inerit of artistic beauty far aliead of all competitors, as well as stability and honest quality.
The company's factories are equipped with the finest machinery and mechanical appliances in the world. Every part of their immense establishment having been built by them for the express purpose for which it is used, their facilities for producing work in every branch are unequaled. Among the army of workmen which they employ are artists, designers, modelers, and skilled artisans. With a rapid but sure progress the company have grown from a modest beginning to occupy a unique and prominent position in the manufacturing indus- tries of this country.
In the humble beginnings of the business Mr. Bradley officiated both as manufacturer and salesman. Later salesrooms were opened in New York, to the management of which Mr. Hubbard gave his almost undivided attention. Offices and salesrooms have been established in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, and their products find a ready and extended sale, not only in the United States, but are largely exported to foreign countries.
The most important period in the growth of the city of Meriden is covered by the time which Mr. Bradley has resided within its limits. The population of 3,000 lias grown to 23,000, while the size and value of its manufacturing industries has increased in even greater proportions. With the development of its municipal interests he has been closely identified, and all that tends to promote the truest welfare of a community has found in him a ready helper. Though often solicited so to do, the constant and pressing demands of his growing business have not allowed him to burden himself with many official duties.
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For one year lic served as alderman, and part of the time acted as mayor. He holds a directorship in the First National Bank, the City Savings Bank, Meriden Fire Insurance Company, Meriden Trust and Safe Deposit Company, Meriden Horse Railroad Company, and the Meriden Publishing Company, and to cach he gives a share of his time and counsel. Althoughi his name does not appear in connection with them, Mr. Bradley is interested in several other financial corporations in Meriden.
Every worthy public enterprise finds in him a liberal supporter. His influence is strongly felt in the political and religious life of the community. To the improvement of the physical features of the city he has given much time, thic streets, parks and cemeteries being objects of his especial regard. As president of the Meriden Park Company, he has rendered most valuable service.
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