PECK, MILES LEWIS, of Bristol was born in that town July 24th, 1849. He is a descendant of Paul Peck, who came from England to Boston in 1635, In 1636 he moved to Hartford, where he owned a farm on Washington Street, near the present State Capitol, and was a deacon in the First Church of Hartford. William Lewis, another ancestor, emigrated from England in 1633. His great-grandson, Josiah Lewis, and Zebulon Peck, the great-grand-eon of Paul Peck, moved to Bristol in 1748, mainly to receive the benefit of the ministrations of Rev. Samuel Newell, first pastor of the church in Bristol. Their descendants have always been prominent citizens of Bristol. Other ancestors of Mr. Peck are Josiah Wins-low, a brother of Governor Winslow of Massachusetts; Henry Adams, of Braintree, Massachusetts, whose descendants include John Adams and John Quincy Adams, presidents of the United States; Governor William Bradford, who came over in the "Mayflower" in 1620 Governor John Webster, who was governor of Connecticut in 1656 John Marsh, who was one of the original proprietors of Hartford Deacon John Buell, one of the original proprietors of Litchfield, and Lieutenant Thomas Tracy, who was one of the original proprietors of Norwich.

Mr. Peek's parents were Josiah Tracy Peck and Ellen Lewis Barnard. His father was an insurance agent in Bristol, and a man who was much interested in public affairs. He was deputy collector of internal revenue during the Civil War, and was conspicuous in all matters connected with the prosecution of the War. He was later judge of probate for the District of Bristol. He was a man who took a warm interest in his town and country, and in everything that pertained to their welfare.

Miles was not a strong boy, and spent much of his time on his father's farm, going to the local schools about six months every year. He attended Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, for a short time, and later the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at Cheshire. He was a good scholar, being very fond of mathematics, and while in school took most of the higher mathematical courses, with a view to fitting himself for an engineer. In 1868 and 1869 he spent a year in Europe in study and travel. On returning from Europe he began his life work, assisting his father in the insurance business. He was appointed a county surveyor, and for about three years did much local surveying in Bristol.

In 1870, the Bristol Savings Bank was organized, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Peck and his father. His father was treasurer of the bank for the first year, but the son did most of the work. In 1871 Mr. Peck, then twenty-one years of age, became treasurer of the Bristol Savings Bank, a position which he has held up to the present time. Mr. Peck's main work in life has been the building up and management of the Bristol Savings Bank, and the great success of the bank has been chiefly due to his efforts.

In 1877, on the death of his father, Mr. Peck succeeded to the insurance agency which he has conducted ever since. In 1905 he was elected president of the Bristol and Plainville Tramway Company, of which he had been a director for some years. This company has a railway and electric lighting plant, and, in 1905, under Mr. Peck's direction, built a gas plant and laid gas mains in about twelve miles of streets in Bristol. The company also owns a public heating service with mains in about one mile of streets, supplying heat to stores and houses. He is also president of the Liberty Bell Company, manufacturing bells, reels, trolley harps, and other small hardware. He is a director in the Bristol National Bank.

Mr. Peck was married October 18th, 1871, to Mary Harriet Seymour. They have had five children, all of whom are now living.

Mr. Peck has always been a Republican. He has been much interested in town matters and local politics, and was chairman of the Republican Town Committee for a short time. In 1889 he was chairman of a special committee appointed by the town of Bristol to procure a site for the High School, and he has been a member of the High School Committee for many years. He has been a town assessor, and was a member of a special committee which appraised all the property in Bristol in 1897, as a basis for assessing all real estate at its full value for taxing purposes. He was warden of the borough of Bristol in 1895 and 1896, and rendered the borough valuable service. Prior to that time Bristol had had no sewer system. In view of the growth of the town, a sewer system had become a necessity, and, under Mr. Peck's lead, the present system was installed. The borough issued bonds to an amount sufficient to defray the cost, and these were floated by Mr. Peck. Sewers were built through all the principal streets of the borough, and to a large tract of sandy land about one and one-half miles from the center, where large filtration beds were constructed. These beds were among the earliest built in this State. The procuring of the land and the rights of way, the building of the beds and laying of the pipes, and the assessment of sewer benefits on most of the property of the borough were, in the main, his work, and done under his direction. The difficult task of assessment of benefits and purchasing of rights of way was accomplished by Mr. Peck without involving the borough in any lawsuits, and with results satisfactory to the borough and the property holders. It has proved an excellent system, and of great value to the borough.

Mr. Peck is a Mason and was chairman of the committee which erected the Masonic Temple in Bristol in 1892. He is a member of the Congregational Church. He is very fond of music, and from 1873 to 1887 he played the organ and directed the music in the Congregational Church in Bristol. As a young man he played the cornet in the local band and the cello in the local orchestra. He has always been much interested in outdoor sports, playing baseball as a young man, and being fond of seeing games in later years. He has been for many years captain of the Bristol Wicket Team, an organization of much local fame. He is also an enthusiastic tennis player, and he is especially fond of a game of whist of an evening.

To young men Mr. Peck says: "Stick faithfully and constantly to your business, but do not neglect your duties to your church and country. Every citizen should do his part in caucuses, in voting and in promoting good government and righteousness in the community where he lives."  Men of Mark Index

PERKINS, PROFESSOR HENRY A.  comes from old Connecticut stock, his father, Edward Perkins, being the son of Henry Perkins, for so many years the president of the old Hartford Bank in the early part of the nineteenth century and his mother, Mary Dwight, being a representative of a family distinguished in many parts of the country for culture and scholarship. He was born in 1873 in the city of Hartford and was educated in the orthodox Congregational manner at the Hartford High School and Yale University, where he was graduated in 1896. His first graduate course he took at Columbia University, receiving the degrees of M.A. and Electrical Engineer in 1899. After two years' graduate work at Yale and a year's practical experience with the Hartford Electric Light Company, he was made professor of physics at Trinity College in 1902. Although so young a man he is recognized as a very careful experimenter, a thoroughly competent theoretical electrician, and an expert in photometry. He has contributed several articles to the American Journal of Science and is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the American Physical Society. He has traveled extensively and visited the interior of Iceland. His lectures on what he saw there, the people and the physiographical character of the country, are full of novelty and interest. He is also much interested in exploration and mountain climbing and is a member of the Alpine Club and the Arctic Club.

In 1903 he married Miss Olga Flinch. One son has been born to them.  Men of Mark Index

PRENTICE, SAMUEL OSCAR, Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, was born in North Stonington, New London County, Connecticut, August 8th, 1850. He is the son of Chester Smith Prentice and Lucy Crary Prentice. His father was a farmer who served his townsmen as representative in the State Legislature in 1857 and 1863, and later as selectman and first selectman during the Civil War period.

The first American to bear the Judge's family name was Captain Thomas Prentice of Newton, Massachusetts, known to the early English settlers as "The Trooper." Among his other distinguished ancestors, all of whom came from England or Scotland, are found Elder William Brewster, Colonel George Denison, Thomas Stanton, Captain James Avery, Captain John Gallup, Richard Treat, Rev. James Noyes, and William Cheesboro, all names conspicuously associated, with the early history of New England.

Judge Prentice spent his youth in the country until the time of his college preparation, which was carried on at the Norwich Free Academy from 1866 to 1869. He then entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1873 with the degree of A.B.

During his college course Judge Prentice won many honors both in the gift of the faculty and of his fellow students. Among these honors were three composition prizes, a Junior rhetorical, the "Lit" prize medal and oration stand at junior exhibition and at Commencement. He was also chairman of the editorial board of the "Lit." He was a member of the following college societies: Kappa Sigma Epsilon, Delta Beta Xi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Skull and Bones.

Having chosen the law as his future profession. Judge Prentice attended the Yale Law School after completing his academic course and received his LL.B. degree in 1875. He took the Townsend prize for the best oration at this graduation. During his course at the law school he was also special teacher in the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven.

In the autumn following his graduation from the law school, Judge Prentice, having been immediately admitted to the bar, began practice as a clerk in the law office of Chamberlain, Hall & White of Hartford, Connecticut. The following year, in 1876, he was admitted into the law firm of Johnson & Prentice as junior member. This partnership continued until the summer of 1889, when he became a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court, being appointed to this position by Governor Morgan C Bulkeley, to whom he had been executive secretary. He was confirmed by the General Assembly. At the expiration of his term of eight years, in 1897, he was reappointed for a second term. In 1901 Judge Prentice was appointed and confirmed justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut. He now occupies this high position, and ranks as one of the foremost jurists in the State.

Judge Prentice has rendered many important public services to his town and State. From October, 1881, to October, 1886, he was chairman of the Hartford city and town Republican committees, and he was a delegate to the Republican State Presidential Convention in 1884, and to the State Convention in 1886. For several years he was town and city attorney of Hartford. For twelve years he was clerk of the Hartford County Bar. He has been a member of the State Bar Examining Committee since its organization in 1890, and its chairman since June, 1898. In 1896 he was made instructor in pleading at the Yale Law School. In 1901, he was appointed professor of pleading in the same school, and he still retains his classes at Yale.

The Judge was an officer of Company K, First Regiment, Connecticut National Guard, from 1879 to 1889. He was president of the Hartford Library Association 1885-6, and has been president of the Hartford Public Library Association since 1895. In 1899 he was made president of the Yale Alumni Association of Hartford County. He was president of the Hartford Golf Club for three years, and vice-president of the Waumbeck Golf Club of New Hampshire for three years. He is a member of the Congregational Church. His favorite relaxation from his legal and public duties is found in walking and playing golf.

On the 24th of April, 1901, Judge Prentice married Anne Combe Post of Jersey City, N. J. They have no children. Their home is at number 70 Gillett Street, Hartford.  Men of Mark Index

ROBERTS, HENRY, the popular Governor of Connecticut, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., in January, 1853. His father, George Roberts, was a prominent Connecticut manufacturer, who at the time his son was born was in business in Brooklyn. The same year he returned to his native State to retire to a farm in South Windsor. In 1864 he was chosen treasurer of the Hartford Carpet Company and two years later he became its president, a position which he held for twenty years. He was likewise president of the Hartford Woven Wire Mattress Company and director in various benevolent and financial institutions. He was esteemed as a man of sound judgment, high integrity, and great executive and business ability. He was a staunch Republican and a man of deep religious convictions. The Governor's mother was Elvira (Evans) Roberts. His ancestors came from England in colonial days and rendered service to the country in the French and Indian Wars, at Bunker Hill and at Valley Forge. The first of the name to reach America was William Roberts, who came from England in 1754. George Roberts held a captain's commission during the Revolutionary War, where he contributed his full share toward the eventual success of the patriot's cause. On his mother's side the Governor is a descendant of John Taylor and of Thomas Taylor, to whom the people of Deerfield, Mass., have erected a monument in grateful commemoration of his bravery in the French and Indian Wars.

Young Henry Roberts spent the early years of his life on his father's farm in South Windsor. He was a sturdy youngster whose special tastes were for outdoor athletic sports and for reading history. Like most country boys he began at an early age to make himself helpful in the farm work. His regular tasks, involving real manual labor, increased each year as he grew older and were of great advantage to him in strengthening his character and in teaching him regular habits. During this formative period of life the influence of his mother was particularly strong. She stimulated his youthful intellect, taught him high moral principles and left a profound impression upon his spiritual life. His first school training was received at the public schools of Hartford. He then attended the High School and after his graduation in 1873 he entered Yale College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1877. Having decided to adopt the legal profession he attended the Columbia Law School for one year and then the Yale Law School for the same length of time.

In 1879 Governor Roberts began his active business career by entering the service of the Hartford Woven Wire Company of which his father was the president. He had intended to practice law, but the death of his father compelled him to remain in business to care for the large interests of his family. Having inherited the executive ability and commercial acumen of his father he quickly took his place among the leading manufacturers and business men of the State. By creating industries which give useful employment to his fellow citizens, his success has brought prosperity to many others. He is president of the Hartford Woven Wire Mattress Company and a director in a large number of corporations. Among others may be mentioned the Phoenix National Bank, the Hartford Trust Company, the State Savings Bank of Hartford, the Hartford Electric Light Company, the Farmington River Power Company, the Hartford Dairy Company, the States School, Winston, N. C, the Y. M. C. A. School, Springfield, Mass., and the Hartford Bedstead Company.

The Governor's career in politics might be recited under the title " From Alderman to Governor in seven years "; for within that short period of time he has risen from a minor position in his city to the highest office in the State. Like his father he has always been a staunch Republican. In 1897 he was elected an alderman in Hartford. In this position he served his fellow citizens so well that they sent him in 1899 to represent the city in the State House of Representatives. He remained a member of the lower house until in 1901 he was elected to the Senate from the First District. While in the Senate his ability, energy, and loyalty to duty became known throughout the State, and while still a member of the upper house of the legislature he was nominated and elected Lieutenant-Governor. In this position he served from 1903 to 1905.

When, on September 14, 1904, the Republican State convention met in Hartford to nominate a candidate for Governor, it was recognized that the Lieutenant-Governor was the logical man for the place. A short time before, the Republican city convention of Hartford adopted a set of resolutions in which was recommended Governor Roberts' nomination in these words: " We commend him to the consideration of his party in choosing their candidate for Governor, as one who has illustrated, in public and in private life, the value to a community of an honest, capable, fearless, loyal, and lovable man." Mayor Henney of Hartford in presenting his nomination to the convention declared: "As an Alderman of Hartford, as its representative in the lower house of the General Assembly, as Senator, as presiding officer of the Senate, as Lieutenant-Governor of the State, no man, be he friend or enemy, can say of Henry Roberts that he ever shirked his duty or failed to do that duty well. He stands before you an honest, capable, energetic, experienced man." On the first ballot he was nominated by a large majority. Informed of the choice of the convention he thanked his supporters in these words: " You have paid him a great compliment in this expression of your confidence and conferred a high honor upon me, and with a sincere appreciation of your action and a deep sense of the responsibility and sacred trust I assume, permit me to signify my acceptance of the nomination. If elected it will be my endeavor to give to the State an administration during which I shall strive to attain the same marked success as that attained by my able and worthy Republican predecessors." When the ballots were counted after the election of November, 1904, Governor Roberts was found to have a large majority over his Democratic rival. In voting for him the citizens of Connecticut felt confident that they were bestowing their highest public office upon a loyal, energetic, capable, and broad-minded business man; a careful student of public questions and a practical man of affairs.

In 1881 Governor Roberts was married to Carrie E. Smith of Bridgeport. He became the father of three children, two of whom are now living. From boyhood, home influences have been a strong factor in shaping his career and in urging him on to success. He has also received helpful inspiration from companionship with those who have been successful in active life and from the serious study of history and the lives of great men. He is a member of many clubs, among them the Hartford Club, the Country Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the Republican Club, and the University Club of New York. He attends the Congregational Church. From boyhood he has been an enthusiastic reader of history and of the biographies of the world's greatest men. In later life he has given careful study to the science of political economy. He could not have chosen four subjects of study more valuable to a public man than law, history, biography, and political economy. He now, in the prime of life, holds the highest office within the gift of the State of Connecticut. When his present term expires, he will take his place among the foremost of Connecticut's sons.  Men of Mark Index

ROOT, JUDSON HALL, merchant, was born in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, May 29th, 1840, the son of Elizabeth Taylor Root and Samuel Root, a graduate of Yale, a lawyer in training, but who never practiced. Mr. Root is a descendant from Thomas Root who came from England and settled in Hartford in 1637. Jesse Root, one of Thomas Root's descendants, and the great-grandfather of Mr. Judson H. Root, was born in Coventry in 1736, and was one of the early settlers of Hartford. He was a Princeton graduate and a successful lawyer. In 1763 he was made a lieutenant of a company of militia in his native town and soon rose to the rank of colonel. He served as a captain of volunteers in 1777 and in many important civil capacities during the Revolution. He was state's attorney and was a member of the General Assembly and of Congress several times. He was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court in 1789 and chief judge in 1798. He was presidential elector in 1808, and on Washington's visit to Hartford he made the address of welcome. In 1800 he received the degree of LL.D. from Yale College. The father of General Grant was named after him, and Tapping Reeve and Oliver Ellsworth were among his pupils in legal science.

Judson H. Root spent his youth in Hartford and was educated at the Hartford Public High School. At sixteen he began work in a dry goods store and was thrown upon his own resources from that time on. He chose for himself the career of a merchant and has persisted in it ever since. His mother's encouragement and the success of others have been his greatest incentives in his work. From the humble position of clerk he has risen to that of partner in the firm of H. C. Judd & Root, which stands in the front rank of wool dealers in the country.

In addition to his mercantile interests Mr. Root has seen five years of service in the State militia. In politics he has always been a Republican, and in creed a Congregationalist. He has always been devoted to out-of-door sports and to physical culture. Golf, fishing, automobiling, and driving are his favorite amusements. On May 10th, 1865, Mr. Root married Catherine S. Waterman. One child, a daughter, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Root.

The advice of one of the most conservative and successful merchants of Hartford should have great weight for those seeking the secret of his success. He gives the following simple but adequate list of the qualifications for a truly successful business life: "Honesty, sobriety, stability, and perseverance."  Men of Mark Index

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