USA > Connecticut > Representative men of Connecticut, 1861-1894 > Part 69
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For two years after his retirement from the presidency of the Atna Life Insurance Com- pany, Mr. Enders sought relief from the arduous business cares of the quarter of a century previous. But a man of his recognized financial and executive ability could not be permitted to remain idle. In 1881, he was elected president of the United States Trust Company, which later became the United States Bank, succeeding ex-Gov. Morgan G. Bulkeley in the control of its affairs. In his management of the bank he displayed the same efficiency in direction and capacity for handling large mercantile problems which characterized his methods while at the head of the life company. The bank, which had always been a remarkably successful institution, soon advanced to the front rank of Hartford's financial corporations, and has occupied an enviable prominence among the banks of the state. Feeling the need of rest and total abstinence from business cares, Mr. Enders retired from the presidency of the bank in 1892, and was succeeded by Henry L. Bunce. After that date he devoted himself to the care of his large private interests, having in the period of his nearly two score years of business activity accumulated a handsome competency.
Mr. Enders retained a directorship in the Ætna Life Insurance Company, and held similar official relations with the Ætna Insurance Company, the Hartford Steain Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, the Society for Savings, the Dime Savings Bank, the Charter Oak National Bank and the United States Bank. He was interested financially in various com- panies where the management lay in other hands. In political affairs Mr. Enders was an
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energetic Republican, and his influential work was appreciated both by members of his own party and those of the opposition. In 1889, and again in 1891, he represented the town of West Hartford in the lower branch of the state legislature, serving the first year as chairman of tlic committee on appropriations, and in the latter year as chairman of the committee on banks. For both of these positions hic was well fitted by previous training, and he made a good record as a capable legislator. Mr. Enders was a regular attendant at St. John's Church, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was a man of mnost exemplary personal character, and he was in the fullest degree a representative of the best financial and business integrity, not only of Hartford, but of thic whole state of Connecticut.
Mr. Enders married Harriet, daughter of Dennis Burnham, Esq., of Hartford. She sur- vives him with two sons, Dr. Thomas O. Enders of New York, and John O. Enders, discount clerk at the United States Bank. A son and a daughter have died. After suffering for nearly two years from spinal sclerosis, he passed away on the night of June 21, 1894. His funeral was one of the largest held for some years. The officers and clerks of the Ætna Insurance Com- pany and of the United States Bank were present in a body, and the floral tributes were numerous and handsome.
CHENEY, BENJAMIN HICKS, M. D., of New Haven, was born in Vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 10, 1838. Dr. Cheney's childhood and youth was passed in New York City, where he received his primary education in the public schools and later attended the free academy, now the College of the City of New York. Afterwards he entered Wesleyan University and completed his studies at Amherst College. Medical practice being attractive to hiis tastes, he commenced the study of its princi- ples in 1857, and attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. Having decided to make his residence in the South, he went to New Orleans and entered the University of Louisiana, from which he graduated in March, 1861. The startling scenes of the opening of the War of the Rebellion were just commencing, and though of Southern birth, Dr. Cheney was Northern in his spirit, and he at once came to the North and offered His first appointment was that of acting
his services to the United States Government.
assistant-surgeon of the United States army, being stationed at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio. He was soon after commissioned assistant-surgeon of the Forty-first Ohio Regiment, and later still was appointed assistant staff surgeon on the staff of Maj .- Gen. John Crittenden, commanding the Twenty-first Army Corps. After the battle of Chickamauga, lie was transferred to the staff of the Fourth Army Corps as medical purveyor and assistant to the medical director of the corps. He was in active service in all the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland up to the capture of Atlanta. At this point, for family reasons, he tendered his resignation. Returning again to the service in 1864, he was appointed one of the examining surgeons in the provost-marslial's bureau for the sixth district of Illinois, with headquarters at Joliet. Wherever Dr. Cheney was placed during his terin of service, in the field, in the hospital or as an examining surgeon, he rendered most valuable assistance to his superior officers and contributed his full quota to bringing about the final victory of the Union arıns.
After the close of the war Dr. Cheney remained in Joliet till 1870, when seeking a wider opportunity for the practice of his chosen profession, he removed to Chicago. As far back as 1866, he had become interested in the principles of homeopathy and read numerous works on the subject. He also experimented with homeopathic remedies, and the result of his investi-
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
He was promoted to the second lieutenantcy of Company F, of the Fourteenth, and in that capacity participated in the battle of Gettysburg, where the Fourteenth bore a distin- guished part, and a full share of the glory of the day and the regiment was won by Lieuten- ant Tibbits. Subsequently he was appointed captain and commissary of subsistence, and assigned to Custer's division under Sheridan, serving in the Shenandoah Valley. He was conspicuous for attention to duty and gallantry in action in this capacity as in the line, until the close of the war, and his term of service ended only with the end of the war after the terrible campaign of the Wilderness. He was brevetted major, a promotion he had earned, and his comrades, in whatever branch of the service they liad shared, sum up his qualifica- tions and military career by saying he was a good soldier.
Mr. Tibbits's journalistic career was a long and brilliant one. Immediately after his return from the war, he purchased an interest in The Star, then published by David S. Ruddock, and continued as editor of the paper until 1872, when The Star was absorbed by a new company composed of Courtland I. Shepard, John A. Tibbits and John C. Turner. This company began the publication of The Telegram, and Mr. Tibbits assumed editorial control until 1881, when he formed a new company to issue The Day. Into The Day lie threw his whole ambition, and the paper gained a widespread reputation in a remarkably short period of time. He continued as its editor up to the time of his accepting the post of consul to Bradford, England. As a newspaper man, Mr. Tibbits had the versatility of genius. Some of his reportorial work never was excelled. His report for The Day of the famous Malley trial at New Haven, filling nearly a page daily, was a masterpiece of journalistic work. Mr. Tibbits's writing was as legible as, fine copper-plate. His copy scarcely ever showed an alteration or interlineation. The last newspaper work he did was for The Day, and consisted of letters from Bradford, describing phases of English life as it came under his observation. Although he had ceased to have a financial interest in the paper, he con- tinued to exhibit a lively concern in its growth and success.
About 1866, Major Tibbits began the study of the law with Hon. Augustus Brandegee, and almost simultaneously entered the political field, inaking speeches in the campaigns and doing yeoman service up to and including the last political campaign. His political life was eminently characteristic of the man. He was an ardent partisan, believing in the princi- ples and destiny of his party with a faith that never wavered and admitted of no compro- mise in thought, word or deed. But though he entered the lists at every political tourney, and fought with a zeal and energy unsurpassed, even his bitterest party opponents were free to say that he was an honest politician, a distinction that is all the more honorable for its rarity. He was an accomplished speaker, ready, graceful and forcible, and possessed the gift of rousing his audiences to enthusiasm. In this state he had spoken in every town and hamlet, beginning indeed with a patriotic address in the early days of the war, at the meet- ing-house at Quaker Hill, and the Republican central committee recognized his ability in the last four presidential campaigns by sending him into other states where the need of speakers of ability called for their best. In 1884, he inade the campaign of Indiana with James G. Blaine, and received many compliments from that gentleman on his ability, which were well merited.
He habitually overworked himself in every campaign, and as regularly took to his bed when the battle was over and the excitement ended, with his nervous system for the time shattered. He never learned to spare himself, and to this more than any other cause is due his untimely death. His political word was never broken: it was as good as his bond, and so accepted by political friend and foe alike. Had he spent as much time and energy on his
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own account, harvesting political rewards, as he gave to the service of his friends, he would have reached the highest places of honor and profit long ago. When he put his hand to the plough in bchalf of his friends, hic never looked baek.
There has been no movement of importance to the city of New London in the past thirty years in which Major Tibbits did not have a hand, and he was wise in counsel and active in work for the city's good. He bore his share of municipal service, having been judge of the police court, a member of the board of education, city attorney, and twice he has represented the town in the General Assembly, the last time in the session of 1885, his town and himself having been honored by his election to the speaker's chair, in which place he won the praise of the press of the state without distinction of party, for his able and impartial management of the affairs of the House.
Major Tibbits's first federal office was the gift of General Grant's administration, an appointment as Pacific railroad director on behalf of the United States government. This was early in the seventies, and, in 1877, President Hayes appointed him collector of the port of New London. At the expiration of his teri he was reappointed by President Arthur. His administration of the trust was business-like and acceptable to all who had any con- nection with the office.
The last office filled by Major Tibbits was United States consul at Bradford, England, a post he vacated just before his death. This appointment to such an important consulate was a source of much pride and gratification to his friends, who had felt that the party had never before adequately recognized the long and valuable services of Major Tibbits. A brilliant career was predicted for him in England, which was but partially realized owing to his ill health which continued during his entire stay abroad. In Bradford the public appear- ances of Major Tibbits stamped him in the English mind as an accomplished speaker, and his administration of the consular office was exceptionally good and satisfactory to the Bradford merchants. They took pleasure in testifying to their esteem for the American consul by paying unusual honors when the time came for his departure for home, and his family have souvenirs of their residence in Bradford that show the affection and regard of their English friends.
In the discharge of any public duty Major Tibbits was particularly conscientious, mak- ing it a point to be prompt and thorough and to leave nothing open for criticism, a quality that was well known and appreciated by his superiors and the public. It is rather a singular commentary on politics that as prominent a factor as was Major Tibbits in all the political moves in Connecticut, yet he was never a candidate on the state ticket. In 1886, however, he was brought forward as a candidate for governor on the Republican ticket, but coming late into the field, already occupied by two candidates of unusual strength, he had but one chance, in the possible division of the convention so evenly that neither of the prominent candidates could hope to win, in which case the prize would have gone to the major without dispute and he would have been elected by the people beyond a doubt, as he had the numerous assurances of support from the younger element of the Democratic party that would have materialized on election day and made him the choice of the people.
Some of his warmest friends and admirers were in the Democratic party in various portions of the state, and they would have been glad of an opportunity to show their appreciation of the man and his abilities by promoting him to the highest office in the state. It was a pleasant episode in Major Tibbits's life, though he failed in his ambition, for he received so many assurances of good will that he never had reason to doubt ever after the personal esteem of his friends. It is as a politician that his name is best known, and his family and friends have the pleasant memory that it is unconnected with any questionable political act.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
The several occupations of Major Tibbits's busy life at times divorced him from the law, a mistress that will tolerate no divided allegiance. . He had neither the time nor the inclination to pursue its study and practice with that absorbing interest and industry that are alone crowned with success. Yet he was a brilliant advocate and his counsel was valued by his brothers in the law with whom he was from time to time associated. Soon after he was admitted to practice he formned a law partnership with ex-Governor Waller, his life long friend, which was mutually satisfactory and closed only on account of other duties absorbing the major's time. When ex-Governor Waller's turn came to leave the practice of the law to serve the government abroad as consul general at London, he in- stinctively turned to Major Tibbits to fill his place in his law firm, which became Waller, Tibbits & Waller and continued in successful practice until the major left for his own post in Bradford. As a lawyer Major Tibbits took for his chief model Hon. Augustus Brandegee, with whom he began the study of the law with serious purpose after the war, and his ambition was to resemble that gentleman as an advocate before juries.
In any of the several occupations that Major Tibbits has pursued since his young man- hood, he could have won the blue ribbon had he devoted himself exclusively to a single one, but it was not in his nature to plod along in any one path, and he followed his bent achieving success as everyone knows, and fulfilling his duty to the world in his own way and with an honest purpose. To those who were favored with close relations to him the memory of his life is precious. He was a good friend and a delightful companion and incapable of jealousy or animosity. He was singularly forgiving, and no matter how bitter a controversy he might be engaged in, he emerged with no scars of the conflict nor any scores to pay. No man loved his native place with a warmer, stronger love. New London was to him the center of the universe, no other place compared with it and no advantage in life could have compensated him for a long absence from its familiar scenes and friends.
Jolin A. Tibbits was married February 19, 1873, to Lydia, daughter of John Dennis. She survives him with one son named after his maternal grandfather.
LEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE, of Hartford, author, perhaps better known by his nom de plume, "Mark Twain," was born in Florida, Monroe County, Mo., Nov. 30, 1835.
Receiving a limited education in the village school at Hannibal, Mo., he was apprenticed to a printer at the age of thirteen and worked at his trade in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New York. In 1851, Mr. Clemens became a pilot on Mississippi river steamboats, and ten years later he went to Nevada as private secretary to his brother who had been appointed secretary of the territory. Afterward he undertook mining in Nevada, and became, in 1862, city editor of the Virginia City Enterprise. In reporting legislative proceedings from Carson, he signed his letters "Mark Twain," a name suggested by the technical phraseology of Mississippi navigation where, in sounding a depth of two fathoms, the leadsman called out "mark twain." He went to San Francisco in 1865, and was for five months a reporter on the Morning Call, then tried gold mining in the placers of Calaveras County, and having no success he returned to San Francisco and resumed news- paper work. In 1866, he spent six months in the Hawaiian Islands.
After his return, says "Appleton's Cyclopedia," he delivered humorous lectures in California and Nevada, and then returned East and published " The Jumping Frog and other Sketches." The same year he went with a party of tourists to the Mediterranean, Egypt and
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Palestinc, and on his return published an amusing journal of the excursion entitled "Innocents Abroad," of which twenty-five thousand copics were sold in thirce ycars. Hc next cdited the Buffalo Express. After his marriage lic settled in Hartford, and still makes his home in that city.
Mr. Clemens delivered witty lectures in various cities, contributed sketches to the "Galaxy " and other magazines, and in 1872 he went to England on a lecturing trip. While he was there, a London publisher issued an unauthorized collection of his writings in four volumes, in which were included papers he never wrote. The same ycar appeared in Hartford " Roughing It," containing sketches of Nevada, Utah, California and the Sandwich Islands, and in 1873, in conjunction with Charles Dudley Warner, a story entitled "The Gilded Age," which was dramatized and produced in New York in 1874. This comedy, with John T. Raymond in the leading part, Col. Mulberry Sellers, had an extraordinary success. He subse- quently published " Sketches, Old and New," " Adventures of Tom Sawyer," a story of boy life in Missouri (1876), "Punch, Brothers, Punch " (1878), "A Tramp Abroad " (1880), "The Stolen White Elephant," and " The Prince and the Pauper " (1882), and "Life on the Mississippi " ( 1883).
In 1884, Mr. Clemens established in New York the publishing house of C. L. Webster & Co., which issued, in 1885, a new story, " Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," a sequel to "Tom Sawyer," and in that and the following year brought out General Grant's "Memoirs." The share in the profits accruing to Mrs. Grant from this publication, under a contract signed with Gen. Grant before his death, amounted in October, 1886, to $350,000, which was paid to her in two checks, of $200,000 and $150,000. Mr. Clemens's works have been republished in England, and translations of the principal ones in Germany. The later experiences of C. L. Webster & Co. were not as successful as their early operations. Under the title of "Puddin' Head Wilson," he is now (July, 1894), issuing a serial which is attracting mnuch attention.
In an article by George F. Ferris, in " Appleton's Journal," occurs the following estimate of "Mark Twain : "
Of humor in its highest phase, perhaps Bret Harte may be considered the most puissant master among our contemporary American writers. Of wit, we see next to none. Mark Twain, while lacking the subtility and pathos of the other, has more breadth, variety and ease. His sketches of life are arabesque in their strange combinations. Bits of bright, serions description, both of landscape and society, carry us along nntil suddenly we come upon some master stroke of grotesque irresistible form. He understands the valne of repose in art. One tires of a page where every sentence sparkles with points, and the anthor is constantly attitudinizing for our amusement. We like to be betrayed into langhter, as much in books as in real life. It is the unconscions, easy, careless gait of Mark Twain that gives his humor the most potent charm. He seems always to be catering as much to his own enjoyment as that of the public. He strolls along like a great, rollicking schoolboy, bent on having a good time, and determined that his readers shall enjoy it with him.
Mark Twain's early literary training was that of a writer for newspapers, where news was scarce and hard to get, and the public demanded their intellectual fare dressed in the hottest, strongest condiments. Is it not natural that we should see distinct and powerful traces of this method in all his later work? In spite of this fault, our writer is so thoroughly genial, so charged with rich and unctious hnmor, that we forget the lack of finesse and delicacy in its breadth and strength. Its tap root takes no deep hold in the sub-soil, and we may not always find a subtile and penetrating fragrance in its blooms. But these are so lavish, bright and variegated, that we should be ungrateful indeed not to appreciate our author's striking gifts at their full worth. "Innocents Abroad " and "Ronghing It " are the most thoroughly enjoyable examples of Mark Twain's humor. While they are not to be altogether admired as intellectual workmanship, the current of the humor is so fresh, so full of rollicking, grotesque fun, that it is more than easy to overlook faults, both in style and method.
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OF CONNECTICUT, 1861-1894.
INES, H. WALES, of Meriden, president and treasurer of the H. Wales Lines Company and of the Meriden Lumber Company, was born in Naugatuck, Conn., June 3, 1838.
Mr. Lines possesses an extra share of Revolutionary blood in his veins, as he is a "Son of the Revolution " by three direct branches of the family tree. He is a great-grandson of Enos Bunnell, who was a private soldier in the Ninth Company of the First Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Colonel David Wooster, in 1775. He occupies a similar relationship to Elisha Stevens, a private soldier in Captain Clarke's company of artificers, who were in the service of their country for five years. The third great-grandfather was Walter Booth, a private soldier in the Third Company of the Fifth Battalion, commanded by Colonel William Douglas. Calvin Lines and his wife, née Sallie Booth, were old residents of Bethany, Conn. His son, Henry W. Lines, married Harriet Bunnell, and settled in Naugatuck. H. Wales was one of the children by this union.
After graduating at Naugatuck High School, young Lines decided to learn the trade of a inason, and carried out this idea by going to work for a new concern. The practical lessons gained in these early days have been invaluable to him in his subsequent career. In 1862, he removed to Middletown and still continued to work at his trade. Two years later, Mr. Lines formed a copartnership, under the firmn name of Perkins & Lines, for the purpose of dealing in building materials, and also to act as general contractors for all kinds of mason work. Mr. Perkins retired in 1878, and the firm of H. Wales Lines & Co. was formed, the partners being Mr. Lines and Mr. H. E. Fairchild. Ten years later another change occurred, the business being converted into a joint stock company under the title of the H. Wales Lines Company. The present officials are H. Wales Lines, president and treasurer; Henry E. Fairchild, vice- president ; L. A. Miller, secretary. These gentlemen, with F. L. Hammond, form the board of directors. The company commenced with ample capital to carry on an extensive business, and their success has been phenomenal, taking in several of the New England states. Nine- tenths of the factories of Meriden were erected by them, the list including the plants of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company, the Meriden Britannia Company, and Edward Miller & Company. Their handiwork may be found among the churches, school-houses, business blocks and fine residences of the city in great profusion.
Another vigorous organization of which Mr. Lines is the president is the Meriden Machine Tool Company, which commenced operations in 1890. They make a specialty of tools for the manufacture of silverware, and after building up a successful business in Meriden, they have extended their operations to distant states. He has been president of the New England Brown Stone Company since 1891, and is a director in the Middletown Bronze Company and the C. F. Munroe Company. The Meriden Lumber Company is one of the oldest and most prominent of the establishments in that branch of trade. The business was started by Con- verse & Clark, in 1867, and an evidence of their enterprise is shown in the fact that they were the first concern to ship lumber by car direct from the West. In March, 1890, the present company was organized, and they have added greatly to the volume of business transacted by their predecessors. Its official board consists of H. Wales Lines, president ; F. G. Platt, treasurer, and F. Boardinan, secretary. Financial institutions have sought the advantage to be gained from his long experience and superior judgment. He is a trustee of the Meriden Savings Bank, and a member of DeBussy, Manwaring & Company of New Haven and Springfield.
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