USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 61
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A.
I. De Ver Warner
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
Mr. Fessenden has few equals in personal popularity. He seems to possess the art of holding the many friends whom his many fine qualities of head and heart draw to him. If there is one class of citizens in whose esteein lie stands higher than in any other it is probably the veteran soldiers, with whom, not only in Connecticut, but in many other states where he is known, he is a prime favorite. He was one of the founders of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, of which he is still a member. He is a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion, and also of numerous civil bodies, including the Bar Association of Fairfield County, of which he has been president for many years. He is also director of the Stamford National Bank, the Stamford Loan and Trust Company, and other financial institutions. In 1880, he was appointed by the judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts, state's attorney for Fairfield County for the term of two years and by suc- cessive re-appointments still holds that office. His private practice is very large, covering almost every department of law, as his learning seems to include almost every department of knowledge.
Samuel Fessenden was married June 26, 1873, to Helen M., daughter of Theodore Davenport of Stamford, Conn. They have three children, one son and two daughters.
W M ARNER, IRA DE VER, M. D., of Bridgeport, senior member of the firmn of Warner Brothers, was born in Lincklaen, Chenango County, N. Y., March 26, 1840. The first of the family of whom there is any accurate record is Abel Warner, though nothing is known of his antecedents. He was born about 1760, and lived at Hardwick, Mass., where he died March 11, 1816. His wife was a direct descendant of Francis Cook, who came over on the "Mayflower," and a relative of Capt. John Cook, the explorer. Abel Warner had eight children, among them Justus Warner, the father of Charles Dudley Warner and George Warner, now living at Hartford, Conn., and Ira Warner, the grandfather of Ira De Ver Warner. Ira Warner removed from Massachusetts, when he was a young inan, to Truxton, N. Y., where he owned a farm of several hundred acres of land, and raised a family of twelve children. His oldest son was Alonzo Franklin Warner, the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born Nov. 18, 1810, and died Dec. 31, 1846. He was a sturdy, honest fariner of central New York, and in principles a thorough Quaker. The mother of Dr. Warner was Lydia Ann Converse, a daughter of Calvin Converse, a promi- nent citizen of Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y. Her grandfather was Edward Converse, who resided at Thompson, Conn., and removed to Butternuts during the early part of the present century. Tradition in the family says that the Converse family are descended from Edward Converse, who came over with Governor Winthrop and afterwards settled at Woburn, Mass.
After receiving a common school and academic education, Mr. Warner decided upon the medical profession as the one best suited to his tastes in which to exert the future activities of life, and entered the office of Dr. C. M. Kingman, a prominent physician and surgeon of McGrawville, Courtland County, N. Y. Pursuing his studies with diligence and close attention, a little later he took the regular course at Geneva Medical College and had the honor of being the valedictorian of his class.
Commencing the practice of his profession at Nineveh, Broom County, N. Y., Dr. Warner remained there about two years, and then returned to McGrawville, and succeeded to the practice of his former preceptor, Dr. Kingman. The place of a physician put him in close touch with the needs of humanity, and he was soon convinced that the inasses of the people
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should be given instruction regarding their physicial organization. Accordingly hic instituted a series of popular lectures, which he delivered with marked success throughout New England and the Middle States. An attractive speaker and a thorough master of his profession, he naturally drew large and intelligent audiences, and for the space of ten years he continued upon the lecture platform, everywhere impressing his hearers with the cogency of his arguments and their own need of enlightenment.
During his career as a lecturer, Dr. Warner brought one of his ideas into practical shape. He had become assured that many of the diseases of woman were the result of badly contrived corsets, and to meet this need of the suffering female sex, he invented the justly celebrated Warner health corset. Its practical construction and the endorsement of the doctor's namne soon gave the new corset great popularity. The manufacture was begun at McGrawville, where it was continued until 1876, when the largely increased sales demanded better facilities. After due consideration, Dr. Warner decided to locate in Bridgeport, the site of the present brick factory was selected, a building erected, and in October of that year the manufacture of corsets was commenced. Not content with producing a corset which worked a revolution in the style of this much needed article, he still gave the subject his study, and in 1878, he patented and began the manufacture of the famous flexible hip corset, an improvement being that the bones ran horizontally around the body instead of vertically as in all previous efforts. "Coraline," a stiffening for corsets, made from "Ixtel," a species of hemp, are among the doctor's later ideas of making the best and most comfortable and easy fitting "stays."
In an almost incredibly short period of time, an industrial enterprise of vast proportions has been built up, of which not only Bridgeport, but New England and the entire country has just cause to feel proud. It is the largest establishment of the kind in America, and the success attained is fully deserved by the energy displayed. From a small shop where six hands were employed, the business has grown till it fills a model plant supplying work for sixteen hundred people, and with facilities for turning out seven hundred dozen corsets daily. Seven hundred sewing machines are used, some of them running twelve needles simultaneously. Dr. Lucien C. Warner, a younger brother of Dr. I. De Ver Warner, has been a partner in the business from its commencement, the title of the firm being Warner Brothers. Dr. Lucien C. Warner has charge of selling the goods at the New York and Chicago offices, and has done much to introduce the goods abroad. Besides their immense sales in this country, the Warner corsets are made in England by William Pretty & Sons of Ipswich.
Warner Brothers have always felt a deep interest in the physical welfare of their employees. Though ever thoughtful of the comfort of those who worked in their shops, they still realized that something better was needed, and these ideas gradually took tangible shape in the "Seaside Institute." This is a brick building about seventy feet square and three stories high, erected on a lot adjoining their factory, and devoted wholly to the uses of their girls. The building contains a hall, reading-room and library, together with class and work rooms, bathing facilities, etc., and its general management is patterned, to some extent, after that of the Young Men's Christian Association. The total cost of the building is something over
$90,000. Its value is thoroughly appreciated, and it is a magnificent monument to the Christian thoughtfulness which made its existence possible. It was opened with appropriate ceremonies Nov. 10, 1887, by Mrs. Grover Cleveland, wife of the President, and she entered heartily into the spirit of the occasion, about three thousand working women having the privilege of shaking hands with the first lady of the land. During the panic of 1893, a small army of unemployed women were fed at the restaurant at nominal rates.
From the very founding of the Bridgeport Young Men's Christian Association, Dr. Warner has been zealous in the promotion of its success, as he has a strong faith in the
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894. 381
possibilities of work along its lines. He was chosen the first president of the organization, and by successive elections has held that office to the present time. Being a practical inanu- facturer himself, he has paid much attention to the educational and industrial phases of the work. Besides giving the land on which the handsome association building now stands, his yearly donations to the current expenses have been liberal in the extreme. His interest in young men has not been confined to the city where he makes his home, but for two years Dr. Warner served as chairman of the Connecticut state committee, and in this broader field his efforts brought about a renewed zeal in the association cause in all parts of the state.
Fully occupied in his business and actively interested in philanthropic work, with a single exception he has always declined official honors. For two years he was a member of the Bridgeport City Council, and contributed his share, giving the citizens a business administra- tion of affairs. For four years he has been vice-president of the Pequannock Bank. In religious faith he affiliates with the Presbyterian doctrine, and is an active worker in that portion of the vineyard of the Lord in which his lot is cast. He is a member of the First
Presbyterian church of Bridgeport. . Having by only a few years passed the half-century mark of human life, Dr. Warner has yet inany years of usefulness stretching out before him. With none of his faculties impaired and all his abilities merely improved by long experience, his opportunities for good in the future are even greater than they have ever been in the past. His early zeal for suffering humanity, his philanthropic treatment of his employees, and his disinterested work in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association, together with his professional learning and his executive ability as a business manager, all combine to stamp Dr. Warner as one of the representative men of Connecticut.
He was married Sept. 24, 1862, to Lucetta H., daughter of David Greeninan of McGraw- ville, N. Y. Three children have been born to them, Annie L., now Mrs. N. W. Bishop, De Ver H. and Hugh F. The last namned died May 1, 1879, aged eight years.
AMP, HIRAM, of New Haven, president of the New Haven Clock Company, was born April 9, 1811, at Plymouth, Conn. He died July 12, 1893.
His father, Samuel Camp, and his grandfather, who bore the same namne, were substantial New England yeomen, and of the stalwart, unconquerable, Puritanic stock, to which the country and the world are so largely indebted. Samuel Camp, Sr., was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, was well acquainted with General Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and rendered efficient service to the cause of his country at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Staten Island. Four of his brothers, namely, John, Bennajah, Joab and Ephraim, also served in the patriot arinies. John Camp became a Congregationalist minister, and Samuel Camp a deacon in the same order of the Christian church. The latter settled in Plymouth, and in old age was maintained by his son, Samuel Camp, Jr., the father of Hiram Camp, who also supported his wife's parents. The pressure of onerous responsibility thus resting on the shoulders of the younger Samuel, made it very necessary that all the members of his family should aid in sustaining it. The farin was poor, and the soil rocky. The good old deacon, when past the season of effective agricultural labor, employed his declining energies most usefully, by visiting every family in the town, at least once in the course of each year, in order to converse with its members on religious topics, and to pray with and for them. His son followed in the same beneficent path, was intensely interested in religious affairs, had committed not less than half the contents of the Bible to
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memory, and was always ready to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The influence of such examples and of such teaching upon his children was benign and powerful. He literally obeyed the injunctions of the Almighty to the Israelitish people, and through them to all people, to speak of His precepts and promises to their children, when lying down, rising up and walking by the way.
Young Camp's abilities were utilized while he was yet in very tender years. At the age of four he was tied on a horse used in plowing. The child slipped from the back of the animal 011 one occasion, and narrowly escaped violent death, while the frightened horse ran about the field, with the strange burden dangling against his legs. Incidents similar in character are recorded of several eminent men, who in their childhood were providentially preserved to accomplish their destined mission in mature life. Such educational advantages as the common country schools of the time afforded were appropriated by the rapidly developing youth. The study of "Daboll's Arithmetic," and of "Walker's Spelling-Book " was not a complete preparation for business life by any means, but it was much better than none. The value of opportunity to individuals resides largely in their own disposition to improve it. Hiram Camp eagerly seized the opportunity presented, and then proceeded to make further oppor- tunities for himself. He had a natural taste for mechanical pursuits, and besought his father's permission to work with his uncle in the manufacture of clocks. It was finally determined that he might do so on attaining the age of eighteen. When that eventful epoch arrived, breakfast over, family worship ended, "Good-by" pronounced to parents and sisters, he struck a direct line across the country for about ten miles to the residence of Chauncey Jerome, his mother's brother. All his worldly goods were then tied up within the limits of a cotton handkerchief. Mr. Jerome received his nephew with kindness, and ere long put him in charge of all his works. The business association then formed continued for some- what more than twenty years.
At that period the clock manufacture was in its infancy. Little had been done toward its establisliment in this country previous to the year 1815. From that time to 1829, it grew slowly, and by the aid of machinery that was small in quantity and poor in quality. Since then vast improvements, to which Mr. Camp has largely contributed, have been effected.
The measurement of time by the mechanical contrivances known as clocks, is compara- tively of very recent date. The sundial and the clepsydra were the early machines used for that purpose, the first showing apparent time, and the latter giving a rude approximation to mean time. These inadequate instruments doubtless provoked the inventive ingenuity of the unknown person, or persons, to whom the world is indebted for its invaluable clocks. Whether he or they were French, German, or Italian is impossible now to determine. Strik- ing clocks were known in Italy in the latter part of the thirteenth, or the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the year 1288, the fine imposed on the chief justice of the king's bench was appropriated to furnishing a clock for the famous clock-house near Westminster Hall. St. Mary's, at Oxford, was not provided with a clock until 1523, when one was paid for out of fines imposed on the students of the university. Venice did not obtain a clock, according to one author, until 1497. Henry de Wyck, a German artist, who placed a clock in the tower of the palace of Charles V., about the year 1364, is held by some to have been the inventor of the machine; but it is more probable, as Berthoud suggests, that it is a compound of successive inventions, each worthy of a separate contriver. Analogy certainly sustains this opinion, for the timepieces of the present day have been brought to their present degree of perfection by consecutive improvements upon the comparatively rude mechanism of De Wyck.
In 1560, thic celebrated astronomer, Tycho Brahe, possessed four clocks which indicated hours, minutes and seconds. Prior to that year the substitution of a main-spring for a weight,
383
OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
as the moving power, and also the application of the fusee, must have taken place. Huyghen is often credited with the application of the pendulumn to the clock, and is entitled to the honor of having done so in a inasterly and scientific manner, although it is known that Richard Harris, a London artist, invented a long pendulum clock in 1614. Science is much indebted to the ingenious manufacturers of clocks, for, in 1577, Moestlin, by counting the number of beats made during the time of the sun's passage over a meridian, determined the sun's diameter to be thirty-four minutes and thirteen seconds. Huyghens discovered that the pendulum vibrated slower as it approached the equator, which led the way to the subse- quent discovery that the earth is not a globe, but an oblate spheroid.
In 1680, Clement of London invented the anchor escapement; and, in 1715, George Grahamn discovered the means of rectifying the errors of the pendulum, caused by the con- traction and expansion of metals under changes of temperature, in the celebrated mercurial pendulum. He afterward introduced the dead-beat escapement. Since his death numerous scientific improvements of great value have been made by successive inventors, which liave given to timepieces the quality of precision to a degree that closely approximates perfection. Among the men through whose genius and industry this splendid result has been attained, must be included Hiram Camp of New Haven. In 1842 or 1843, Mr. Jerome removed part of his works, that for the making of cases, to New Haven. In 1845, Mr. Camp having then been for sixteen years in his employ, Jerome's movement shop was burned to the ground, and much of the contained machinery. destroyed. Measures were at once taken to rebuild it, not in Bristol, Conn., but in New Haven.
Mr. Camp was the inventor as well as the manufacturer of mnost of the different kinds of clocks made at the present time. One of his most curious inventions is a clock which beats time to music, and whose movements can be regulated at will. It was designed for the use of schools in marking time for gymnastics, calisthenic and military exercises. In 1851, he entered into business on his own account, erected a building, and began the manufacture of clock inovements. This enterprise he prosecuted alone until 1853, when he organized a joint stock association, under the title of the New Haven Clock Company. The capital of the corporation was fixed at $20,000. The officers were as follows: Hiram Camp, president ; James E. English, late governor of Connecticut and also United States senator, treasurer; and John Woodruff, since a member of Congress, secretary. In 1856, the New Haven Clock Company increased its capital and productive capacity by purchasing the machinery and business of the Jerome Clock Manufacturing Company. Its organization was slightly changed at the same time, James E. English becoming secretary as well as treasurer. He was after- ward succeeded in the former office by Edward Stevens, the present secretary, and the capital stock was simultaneously increased to $200,000. Throughout all these changes Mr. Camp retained the presidency of the company, and the general management of the manufacturing department. More clocks have been made under his supervision than under that of any one living man. His management of an establishment, making more clocks than any other on the globe, extended backwards half a century. Until within the past twenty-five or thirty years, the principal seats of the clock manufacture have been in England, France and Switzerland. But the United States have made, and are still making, gigantic strides toward the leadership in this, as in other branches of mechanical art. The United States census of 1870 showed that in that year there were forty-six establishments in this country devoted to the fabrication of clocks, clock cases, and clock inaterials; that the machinery in these establishments was run by eighteen steam engines and twenty-nine water-wheels; that sixteen hundred and five hands were employed; that the capital invested in them amounted to $1, 133,650; and that the wholesale value of their products reached the sum of $3,022,253. Of these aggregates,
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the state of Connecticut had twenty-eight establishunents, eleven stcam engines, twenty-seven water-wliccls, fourteen hundred and seventy-one employees, $1,008,650 invested capital, and $2,747, 153 in wholesale valne of thic products. All these figures have been largely increased in the years which have elapsed since the date named.
Mr. Camp's energies were not wholly confined within the limits of manufacture and trade. He filled several public offices in defcrence to the wishes of the people, such as member of the city council, selectman of the town, chief engineer of the civic fire department, and member of the state legislature. The Emperor Charles V., after his stormy and eventful reign, sought peace in the seclusion of the monastery at Yuste, in Spain. There he amused himself by the collection and study of timepieces. Not one of them could he compel to keep precisely the same time with another; nor could he hold any one in exact correspondence with the movements of the heavenly bodies. From this deficiency of power over mechanical arrangements in carrying out his purposes he inferred, when too late, his supreme folly in having imperiously striven to make his multitudinous subjects think and worship just as he had done. Mind is more variable than matter, and is governed by other forces. Not less pious, but vastly more wise, than he, Mr. Camp sought to bring about the harmony of human heart and life with the mind and will of the Almighty Mechanic of the universe, by support- ing two Sabbath school missionaries in Nebraska, and also a city missionary in another state. He knew that each human being has his place in the world's mechanismn, whether it correspond to that of wheel, fusee, escapement, or merely tooth or peg, and aimed through the instril- mentality of his missionary agents, and the help of the Divine Spirit, to fit each for his place in the great whole; so that humanity in its entireness may inove in perfect accord and concord with the Great Author of nature and the Giver of all grace.
Later in life Mr. Camp became greatly interested in the work of the famous evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, and was president of the school at Mt. Hermon at the time of his death. At different times he gave about $100,000 to the development of the school and other branches of the work at Mt. Hermon, and he made liberal provision for its continuance at his death. His funeral was one of the largest which ever took place in New Haven, and all who had known or been associated with him seemed to take pleasure in showing their respect for their deceased townsman and fellow citizen, and in paying their last tribute of love and affection for their deceased friend. In the course of his remarks the Rev. Watson L. Phillips of the Church of the Redeemer said :
The principal thing to be looked at in a inan is his attitude toward spiritnal things and truths -truths which are nniversally regarded as truths even by those who don't accept them as the fundamental principles of their own living. That which lives longest when bodily relations have faded from sight is what comes from one's personal relation to these spiritnal truths.
Mr. Camp was wont to remark that abont fifteen years ago a great change came to him both as a Christian, a business mau and a representative of the Christian church. The truth of Christ was held by him in his earliest manhood in most steadfast belief. Bnt he was simply a Christian business man, loving the church of his choice, giving to it of his substance and attending it regularly. But after the time of which I speak there was a marked change in him - a change in his line of thinking. Religion from that time became the business of his life. All that he had become np to that time thronghont a diligent life and all that he had acquired was from that honr devoted to Christ. He regarded himself simply as a steward. He lived in His name and by His grace. And he went forth day by day to strive as he had never striven before to make his life couform to the principles of the New Testament. And he went forth with his goods in his hand, doing good to all with whom he came iu contact. And in this I think we can find the key to the wonderful impression which he has made npon this community and npon all men with whom he associated. The greatest questiou of his life was when and how he conld be of the most use to the most men. In a word religion in its sweetest, pnrest and inost ennobling seuse became the business of his life.
I think his two principal characteristics were simplicity and strength. Aud he was strong through his very simplicity. He was a strong man both mentally and physically - one of the sturdy, rugged mnen who moved among ns and who blessed the church of which he was a member and the commnuity of which he was a citizen.
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