DAVIDSON, CHARLES SMITH, retired superintendent of the Hartford Division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, was born in East Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, November 9th, 1829, the son of Abijah Bradley Davidson and Harriet Smith Davidson. His father was a farmer, who also conducted a public livery and was captain and commandant of the Second Cavalry, Governor's Horse Guard, and a man greatly interested in public affairs. Mr. Davidson's mother was a woman of firm and beautiful character, which had a lasting influence on her son's moral and spiritual life. The family trace their ancestry to Andrew Davidson, who came from England and was an early settler in East Haven, and their genealogy embraces many loyal Revolutionary patriots and later defenders of their cause in the War of 1812.

Strong, vigorous, and active Charles Davidson found his greatest pleasure as a boy in outdoor sports. He was brought up in New Haven and educated at the Lancastrian School there, where he took second highest honors for excellent scholarship. He delighted in reading, inclining most strongly to historical and mechanical works. After leaving school he worked for two years at various occupations and during that time became more and more impressed with the importance of "learning a trade," which he resolved to do. In 1847 he went to work in a silver plating shop in New Haven. The following year he went to Springfield and served a three years' apprenticeship in the American Machine Works, at the end of which he came to Hartford and entered the employ of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. His early resolution to be a master workman bore good fruit rapidly and he became mechanic, engineer, conductor, supervisor of construction, assistant superintendent and finally, in 1872, superintendent of the Hartford Division of the railroad. He held this last highly responsible position with conspicuous capability and success until his retirement in December, 1903. The road is one of the largest, most important, and best managed in the country and the Hartford Division is one of its most important ones. Mr. Davidson's rare judgment, skill, faithfulness, and popularity have been great factors in promoting both public convenience and the financial standing of the road.

Mr. Davidson was identified with the Democratic party until the nomination of Bryan, when he voted with the Republicans on the "Sound Money Issue." He has held several civil offices—in 1878 he was fire commissioner, in 1890 he became street commissioner, and in 1893 he was a member of the police commission. He experienced a year's military service in the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, and is a veteran associate of that military organization now. He is a prominent thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Knights Templars, the Pyramid Temple, the Knights of Honor, the Order of Red Men, and the Order of The Mystic Shrine. He is past eminent commander of the Washington Commandery, Knights Templars, and past dictator of Pioneer Lodge, Knights of Honor. He is also a member of the Hartford Club, of the Republican Club, and of the Franklin Gun Club. Home pleasures, automobiling, and club life are his favorite relaxations from business. His religious connections are with the Park Congregational Church, Hartford.

On December 17th, 1857, Mr. Davidson married Catharine Anne Bartholomew, by whom he has had three children. One son, William Bartholomew, the only child still living, is cashier in the United States Bank, Hartford. Mr. Davidson believes that "young people will meet with success by living an honest, temperate, and upright life, with strict integrity in all business matters."  Men of Mark Index

EDWARDS, PROFESSOR CHARLES L., was born in Oquawka, Illinois, forty-two years ago. His father was a banker and a member of the legislature of Indiana and came of Welsh stock, and his mother traced her ancestry back to John Brown of Plymouth, 1626; Lieutenant William Pratt of Cambridge, 1633; Lieutenant Richard Stockton of New Jersey; Thomas Lord; Governor Haynes, and Governor Wyllis of Hartford. As a boy. Professor Edwards went through the usual experiences of a youth in a small western city, but very early developed a marked interest in natural history. The works of Charles Darwin, then first exciting the world, had a decided influence on him, and after receiving his B.S. degree at Lombard College in 1884, and again at the Indiana University in 1886, he determined to devote himself to the study of biology. He studied three years at Johns Hopkins University and then went to the University of Leipzig, where he received the degree of Ph.D. He worked for two years as graduate fellow in Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, and became assistant professor of biology at the University of Texas in Austin. He was made full professor at the University of Cincinnati in 1894 and remained there six years. In 1900 he became J. Pierpont Morgan Professor of Natural History in Trinity College, Hartford, a position which he has filled with marked ability ever since.

Having such an excellent educational equipment, and being full of enthusiasm for his profession and by nature an indefatigable worker, it is not strange that Professor Edwards, though still a young man, has done a great deal of scientific work and achieved a recognized position in the scientific world. He is the author of numerous papers in journals devoted to biology and zoology, among which are twenty articles on the embryology of the holothurians and reptiles, an exhaustive statistical study of variation, and one on the marine zoology in the Bahama Islands. He has in hand for the Smithsonian Institution a monograph of the holothurioidea, and for the United States Bureau of Fisheries a report on the albatross collections. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Society of American Zoologists, of the Association of American Naturalists, and of the three Mexican Scientific Societies. As a "side line'' he has devoted much time to the subject of folk-lore, being the author of "Bahama Songs and Stories" (Vol. 3), "Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society," and was in 1889 the president of the American Folk-Lore Society. At present he has much at heart the establishment of a floating laboratory, a small sailing vessel, in connection with Trinity College to investigate in the summer vacations the marine biology of the West Indies. His energy and enthusiasm will no doubt lead to the installation of the enterprise in a year or two. One of Professor Edwards's most important investigations had to do with the effect of temperature on the development of the chick during the process of incubation and the determination of the critical temperature or the zero below which development does not take place.

On June 5th, 1889, Professor Edwards married Jessie Safford. Four children have been born to them, three of whom are now living, John Robert, Richard Safford, and Charles Stockton.  Men of Mark Index

PROFESSOR HENRY FERGUSON was born in Stamford, of a family long and honorably connected with business in New York City. He was graduated from Trinity College with the degree of A.B. in 1868. Soon after his graduation he went with his brother Samuel on a sailing vessel in the Pacific. The ship was burned and the crew and passengers took refuge in two boats. One of these, under the command of the mate, was never heard from. The other, in charge of the captain, laid a course for the Sandwich Islands and after a voyage of forty days reached one of the smaller islands. The sailors and the young Fergusons were so nearly exhausted that they had to be carried through the surf by the natives. An account of this remarkable experience published in Harper s Magazine was written by Samuel Clemens, who was on the island at the time, and it is one of the first, if not the very first occurrence of the signature, "Mark Twain," in an Eastern magazine. Samuel Ferguson died in California soon after and Henry studied theology in the Berkeley Divinity School. In 1872 he was made rector of Christ Church in Exeter, N. H., and in 1878 rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, in the same state. In 1883 he became professor of history and political economy in Trinity College, a position he filled with distinguished credit until commencement in 1906, when he resigned to become rector of St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. In 1873 he married Emma J, Gardiner, daughter of Professor Gardiner of the Berkeley Divinity School.

Professor Ferguson is a man of broad interests and multifarious learning. His original specialty was Hebrew, and his "Essay on the Use of Hebrew Verbs" (1880) gave evidence of careful research. His professorship compelled wide reading in history and his books "Four Periods in the Life of the Church" and his "Essays in American History" show accurate scholarship in a different field. He received from his Alma Mater the degree of M.A., in 1875, and of LL.D., in 1902. He is a member of all the associations for political and social science in our country and of the British Economic Association, and also of the Century and University Clubs of New York. He has travelled extensively in Egypt and Europe, and, indeed, has visited every quarter of the globe. His time and ample means have been devoted to two objects, scholarly culture and doing good to his fellowmen.

Besides his literary and academic activity Professor Ferguson has always been ready to devote himself unselfishly to the service of the community. He has been for several years an active and energetic member of the Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Hartford, and has held steadily in view the theory that the system of parks in a modern city should be developed not solely with the idea of beautifying the urban surroundings, but to furnish places of recreation to the children of the city. The debt of the people of Hartford to him and to several other public spirited citizens in this regard can hardly be overestimated. It is a service which is unpaid, except in the satisfaction of having done good and by the recognition of the few who know how important its future effects will be. Future generations will enjoy the parks of Hartford without giving a thought to the names of the men to whom it is due that they form a well connected whole, developed on a systematic plan and acquired at a comparatively small cost. In taking the rector ship of St. Paul's School, Professor Ferguson is actuated by the idea that he can be useful in molding the character of a large number of boys with whom he will come directly in contact. The headship of a large and well established school offers a sphere of even wider influence than the professorship in a college and involves more constant labor. It is a sacrifice in a man of Professor Ferguson's age to assume a new task, a sacrifice of comfort and ease to the desire for usefulness.  Men of Mark Index

FLAGG, CHARLES NOEL, artist and art teacher, founder and director of the Connecticut League of Art Students, a member of the Connecticut State Capitol Commission of Sculpture, first president of the Municipal Art Society of Hartford organized 1904, president and, at present, chairman of the Committee on Civic Centers and Public Buildings, and one of the foremost New England portrait painters, was born in Brooklyn, New York, December 25th, 1848, and is now a resident of Hartford, Connecticut. He is the son of Jared Bradley Flagg, an artist of great skill, a clergyman and an author and a man of great gentleness of disposition, who loved everything beautiful in art and nature. His mother was Louisa Hart Flagg, a woman whose influence upon his life was strong and good in every way. The family traces its ancestry in this country to John Flagg who came from England and settled in Rhode Island early in the seventeenth century. Mr. Charles Noel Flagg's great-grandfather, Henry Collins Flagg, was surgeon general in Washington's army. From another branch of the family he is descended from Gen. Francis Marion and he is also a grandnephew of Washington Allston. Henry Collins Flagg, son of Dr. H, C. Flagg, was mayor of New Haven several terms and was a member of the Society of Cincinnati. Painting and books were the chief interests in the early life of Charles Noel Flagg, just as they have been in his mature life. The Bible, Shakespeare's plays, and Don Quixote were his favorite books and his greatest help in after life. He was a delicate youth and did not have much work to do outside of his school work. He did, however, partly learn the trade of carpenter and the experience thus gained has proved a constant source of pleasure and intellectual benefit. His youth was spent partly in New York, where he attended the public schools, and partly in New Haven, where he took the course at the Hopkins Grammar School. In 1864, when he was but sixteen years old, he began the active work of portrait painting in New Haven. In 1872 he went abroad and spent ten years in Paris studying drawing and painting under Louis Jacquesson de la Chevreuse and he also attended lectures at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

Upon his return to America Mr. Flagg settled in Hartford and worked both as an artist and as an art teacher. In 1888 he founded the Connecticut League of Art Students, a free night school for men wishing to become professional artists, and he is still director of and teacher in the League. This organization has been very influential in developing and advancing art study in Connecticut and in raising the standards of art in the state as well as an immense practical help to deserving students. In 1889 Mr. Flagg was appointed by the governor to complete the unexpired term of the late A. E. Burr as member of the Connecticut State Capitol Commission of Sculpture and in 1901 he was reappointed for six years. Mr. Flagg has painted several hundred portraits, many of which are of distinguished men and women of the day. He has also been an occasional contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and to many art magazines and papers. He is president of the Municipal Art Society of Hartford, chairman of the Committee on Civic Centers and Public Buildings, secretary of the Society of Connecticut Artists, chairman of the Art Committee of the Hartford Club, of the admission committee of the Hartford Yacht Club, and was elected vice-commodore at the last annual meeting of the Hartford Yacht Club. He is also a member of the Cerele Frangais of Hartford, of the Hartford Sangerbund, and the American Civic Club. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In politics he is and always has been a Republican. Yachting is his most enjoyable sport and for indoor exercise he follows the Saint Cyr system of physical culture which has cured him of asthma, from which he was a sufferer for twenty years. In 1874 Mr. Flagg married Ellen Fanny Earle of New York City. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Flagg and four are now living. Their home is in Hartford. Mr. Flagg considers the strongest influence upon his success in life to have been exerted at home by his father and mother and by his friend. Dr. Horace Bushnell. Next to home influence he values his private study. For a watchword for others he says: "Be prompt to do the thing to be done yourself. Let the other person do the talking. Laziness is the curse of artists and art students. Above all—for success—To thine own self be true—thou canst not then be false to any man. "  Men of Mark Index

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