SESSIONS, ALBERT LESLIE, is a scion of the distinguished and widely known family of that name. He was born in Bristol, Connecticut, the fifth day of January, 1872. His father was John Henry Sessions and his mother was Maria Francena Woodford before her marriage. Both of them are widely known for their philanthropy, and a large number of people bless them for their benefactions. John H. Sessions died April 2nd, 1902. Mr. Sessions comes of a long and enviable line of ancestors. Samuel Sessions came from England to Massachusetts in 1630. Many of his descendants have distinguished themselves in many ways. A few of them we name: the Rev. John Sessions, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and of Princeton Seminary, and a successful clergyman of the Presbyterian Church; the Hon. Darius Sessions, an alumnus of Yale, and governor of Rhode Island; also the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Hon. John Humphrey Sessions, and the father, John Henry Sessions, manufacturers of Bristol.

Albert L. Sessions received a good education. He studied at the Bristol public schools, Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, taking the Ph.B. degree in 1893, and is a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity and the University Club of New York. Immediately after leaving college he entered the employ of his grandfather and father in the business which his grandfather was instrumental, as a partner, in establishing November 15th, 1854. On October 1st, 1899, shortly after the death of his grandfather, he was admitted into partnership, the firm name being, as before, J. H. Sessions & Son, which was continued after the death of his father, April 2nd, 1902, by his mother and himself. July 1st, 1905, this business was incorporated under a special charter from the State of Connecticut, the firm name remaining as before. The incorporators and sole owners were his mother, his wife, and he himself. He is a prodigious worker, and gives promise of being one of Connecticut's most successful business men.

On February 7th, 1894, Albert L. Sessions married Miss Leila B. Beach, daughter of Hon. Henry L. Beach. They have five children: Paul B., born November 19th, 1895; Ruth J., born May 14th, 1897; John H., born July 12th, 1898; Judith H. and Janet M. (twins), born May 21st, 1901.

Mr. Sessions is an honored member of Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of its trustees. He is president and treasurer of J. H. Sessions & Son, president of the Bristol Water Company, treasurer of the Sessions Clock Company, and a director in the Bristol and Plainville Tramway Company. Like his ancestors before him, he is a good churchman, a man with high ideals, of unflinching integrity, of public spirit, and ready to help in any needed reform and desired improvement. Mr. Sessions is a Republican in politics. He has no desire for public office, but is interested in all public matters and desires the best possible government for the people. He has often stated that his ambition was to be worthy of the honorable record of so many of his ancestors and relatives.  Men of Mark Index

SESSIONS, WILLIAM EDWIN, was born in Bristol, Connecticut, February 18th, 1857. The first twelve years of his boyhood were spent in the little village of Polkville, three miles from the center. His father, John Humphrey Sessions, who married Miss Emily Bunnell, was a manufacturer. He was one of the few men who gave Bristol the start on its enviable career of enterprise and prosperity, and was a powerful factor in its growth and success. He was a man of unblemished character, public spirited, and an ardent advocate of the higher moral and educational development of his own community. He was a strong churchman and a devoted Methodist. He often refused public office, but served one term in the State Legislature, was president of the Bristol National Bank, and president of the Bristol Water Company. He died in 1899 at the age of seventy-one.

William Edwin is the younger of his two sons. He is descended on his father's side from Alexander Sessions, who settled in Plymouth Colony in 1639, and is also a descendant of Francis Cook of the "Mayflower," who was a signer of the "Mayflower" compact, and whose death occurred in 1663; he is a descendant, too, of James Chilton of the "Mayflower," who died at Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1620. In June of 1878 Mr. Sessions married Miss Emily Brown. They have two sons, Joseph B., born in 1881, and William Kenneth, born in 1887.

Bristol has always been the home of William E. Sessions; he attended the public schools there and was graduated from the Hartford Public High School in 1876. His mind was strongly set on a business life and therefore he at once entered his father's office, and so started on a career marked with sagacity, industry, and success. He is by nature urbane and courtly. Though not a college man, he is, however, a man of marked intelligence and culture. He has traveled at home and abroad, is a reader of good literature, a student of art, and a musician. The music hall in his own home on Bellevue Avenue contains a pipe organ and grand piano for his own diversion and pleasure.

Mr. Sessions has a wonderful faculty for business. In 1879, two years after entering his father's office, he started in a separate concern with his father, organizing the Sessions Foundry Company, of which he is now president. The business was small, employing about twenty men, when they purchased it of the Bristol Foundry Company. Mr. Sessions conducted it for sixteen years on Laurel Street in the center of the town where it grew so rapidly that in 1895 it had outgrown the three acres of land which was all that was available, when Mr. Sessions conceived the idea of buying the large tract of thirty acres now occupied by the business on Farmington Avenue, and building a large and modern foundry plant. The site is an ideal one for such a business. Mr. Sessions also purchased most of the adjoining land in order to provide building lots for his workmen and control the character of the neighborhood. No saloon can possibly exist within five minutes' walk of the works. The men are encouraged to own their own homes, which many of them do. The handsome office of granite, the neat, yet majestic buildings, the splendidly kept grounds, make it appear almost like an educational or philanthropic pile of buildings, rather than an iron foundry. Mr. Sessions treats his men kindly and well, so that strikes and labor troubles are unknown to them. Every summer he gives them a fete on the grounds, which is an evening of music, refreshments, and social pleasure, when the men and their families come together to the number of 3,000, and for one night in the year they are "the people of the city."

In the summer of 1902, the E. M. Welch Manufacturing Company of Forestville, a village in the town of Bristol, was about to go into the hands of a receiver, which meant the closing of the clock factories which had been running for many years, and thus leaving most of the villagers without means of support. Mr. Sessions was urged to take the presidency of the concern and save it if possible. This seemed impossible as he was already a man of many cares and responsibilities. Finally, however, Mr. Sessions yielded to the earnest solicitations and became the president and principal owner of the business which is now known as the Sessions Clock Company. In two short years several large new buildings have been erected, new machinery put in, and the output more than doubled, a truly remarkable achievement.

Like his father before him, Mr. Sessions is a strongly religious man. He joined the Prospect Methodist Episcopal Church when twelve years of age. He is now president of the board of trustees and vice-president of the official board of that church. He has a marked fondness for children and is superintendent of the Sunday school, one of the largest in the State, with over 750 members. The Sunday school is truly a modern, vigorous, and prosperous institution. He is a true friend and liberal supporter of the Church he so much loves. He is also a trustee of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, and serves on some of its most important committees. For many years, also, he has been in charge of the Mount Hope Sunday school, which meets in a little chapel on Chippins Hill, four miles from Bristol, in a sparsely settled district of the town, whither he drives Sunday afternoons to conduct the services which mean so much to the people of the neighborhood. His charities and benefactions are generously and wisely bestowed. Mr. Sessions is a total abstainer, never having taken intoxicating drinks in any form. He has always been a Republican in politics. He has thus far felt compelled to refuse political offices, both local and state, that have been offered him. He is a director of the Bristol National Bank, president of the Bristol Water Company, and greatly interested in all movements looking toward the welfare of the people and the advancement of Bristol, and of the nation.  Men of Mark Index

SKILTON, DEWITT CLINTON, president of the Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, and one of the most competent insurance underwriters in the United States, was born in Thomaston, Litchfield County, Connecticut, on the 11th of January, 1839. His first American ancestor. Dr. Henry Skilton, was born in Coventry, England, in 1718, and sailed for America in a "gun ship" in 1735, in his seventeenth year. After arriving in Boston he lived first in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and then in Preston, Connecticut, where he married the daughter of Joseph Avery of Norwich. He moved several times, and, finally in his old age, to Watertown, where he died in 1802. He was the first physician to practice medicine in Southington, Connecticut. Other ancestors of Mr. Skilton were among the most prominent settlers of Hartford County. The list includes such historical names as Hon. John Steel (who came to Hartford with Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1636) ; Hon. John Wadsworth, the half brother of Captain Wadsworth, to whom is attributed the fame of concealing the Connecticut Charter in the old charter oak; Sir William Southmayd; Hon. Matthew Allyn, one of the original parties to the royal charter, and Hon. John Allyn, called "the great secretary" in the "History of Connecticut"; Captain William Judd and Timothy Judd, who represented Waterbury in the Colonial government for forty years, and many others distinguished for their part in Colonial and State history.

Mr. Skilton's education was the brief and simple one afforded by a "district school," for at the age of fourteen his father's death made it necessary for him to begin his work in life. He worked in a manufacturing establishment in Thomaston until 1855, when he moved to Hartford to become a bookkeeper in a dry goods store. Inherent business ability and ambition made him capable of earning his living when still a boy, and his purpose to succeed was of early formation and speedy fulfillment. In 1861 he became a clerk in the office of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, the business in which he was later to make his mark. In 1862, in response to a call for volunteers to preserve the Union, Mr. Skilton enlisted in the Twenty-second Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, in which he was elected second lieutenant. His service in the army was very creditable, and he was mustered out as first lieutenant. He then resumed his clerkship in the insurance company. In 1865 he married Ann Jeanette Andrews. They have had two children, neither of whom is now living.

In 1867, Mr. Skilton was elected secretary, in 1888, vice-president, and in 1891 president of the Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford ; the last position he still retains. He has identified himself with many progressive and important reforms in the insurance business. He was a member of the "Committee of Twenty" that prepared the standard form of fire insurance policy blanks, as ordered by the State of New York, and later adopted by other states. He is deservedly regarded as one of the most able insurance underwriters of our day. He is a director of the Hartford National Bank, a corporate and trustee of the State Savings Bank, and was for three years the president of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. Mr. Skilton is a member of the Army and Navy Club of New York and of Connecticut, of the Hartford Club, Golf Club, and Country Club, of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. In politics he is a Republican. His religious connections are with the Congregational Church.

Mr. Skilton's advice to young Americans is worthy their careful regard. He advocates "sound reading for self-education in addition to school or college education; early fixing the mind upon a purpose to accomplish and 'everlastingly keeping at it,' determined to be firmly planted on the front line; striving to be a leader, keeping in mind the virtue of correct living and a high standard of business methods." He is himself a striking example of a self-educated man, whose purpose was "early fixed" and whose determination to be "firmly planted on the front line" has met with signal success.  Men of Mark Index

SMITH, HERBERT KNOX, lawyer, deputy commissioner of corporations, former member of legislature and many times a public officer, whose home is in Hartford, Connecticut, was born in Chester, Hampden County, Massachusetts, November 17th, 1869. His early ancestors in this country were Robert Smith, born in 1700 and a member of the Long Island family of St. George's Manor, and Judith Fountain, his wife, born in Greenwich, Connecticut, 1734. Mr. Smith's father was Edward Alfred Smith, a Congregational clergyman and fellow of the Yale University Corporation, a man of high character and of great modesty and unselfishness. Mr. Smith's mother was Melissa E. Knox Smith. He was brought up in the country and the love of nature and rural life was one of his strongest boyhood traits. History, law, and economics were his favorite fields of study and reading. He attended private school and then entered the Lawrenceville Preparatory School. He was an ardent devotee of baseball, tennis, shooting, camping, and all out-of-door sports, and while at Lawrenceville he played on the school nine. He entered Yale Academic Department with the class of 1891 and after his graduation entered the Yale Law School, where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1895.

In October, 1895, the fall following his completion of the law course, Mr. Smith began legal practice in Hartford and he continued in the general practice of law in that city until 1903, when he went to Washington to take his present government position. In addition to his practice Mr. Smith has had many business and public positions. Since 1899 he has been a director of the American School for the Deaf; from 1900 to 1903 he was chairman of the First Ecclesiastical Society (Congregational) of Hartford; from 1900 to 1903 he was chairman of the Sixth Ward Republican Committee; he served two terms, 1900-1902, on the Hartford Common Council; he represented Hartford in the State Legislature in the term 1903-1905 and was a member of the judiciary committee of that legislature; he was chairman of the Republican Town Committee in 1903, acting solicitor of the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903, a member of the United States Commission of Investigation upon the Slocum Disaster in 1904, and he has been a delegate to various city and state political conventions.

At present Mr. Smith is Deputy Commissioner of Corporations at Washington, to which position he was appointed in August, 1903; he is a trustee of the Hartford Theological Seminary and of the Wadsworth Atheneum, a member of the Park Board of Hartford, and a director in the Farmington Savings Bank. He is an active Yale alumnus and was for three years secretary and treasurer of the Yale Alumni Association of Hartford. He is a member of the scholarly college society of Phi Beta Kappa, of the Elihu Club of Yale, of the Yale Club of New York, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, and the Hartford Club of his home city.

Though Herbert Knox Smith is still a young man he has accomplished a great deal more than many a man of much riper years and his advice is as forceful and adequate as though it had the weight of a long life's experience behind it. He believes that "the best and most necessary form of patriotism is active attention to civic duties, and that the basis for the most lasting success in life is honesty, the maintenance of unselfish ideals of service, and the thorough performance of all work, no matter how unimportant."  Men of Mark Index

SPENCER, ALFRED, JR., president of the Etna National Bank of Hartford, was born in Suffield, Hartford County, Connecticut, on October 29th, 1851. He is the son of Alfred Spencer, a prosperous farmer, and Frances Caroline (Reid) Spencer. His ancestors were English. The first to come to America was Thomas Spencer, who settled in Hartford.

Mr. Spencer spent the early days of his life on his father's farm. He was a sturdy youngster and performed the usual tasks expected of a country boy of his day. Early home influences had a great effect upon his later life. The influence of his mother on his moral and spiritual nature was very marked. Among other valuable lessons he was taught that to work was honorable. His school training was received at the Connecticut Literary Institution at Suffield and later at the Edward Place School at Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

When, in 1872, he started out to earn his own livelihood, a position in the First National Bank at Suffield seemed the most promising one which presented itself. He remained in this bank for nearly twenty years, becoming first bookkeeper and then cashier. In 1891 he moved to Hartford and became cashier in the Etna National Bank. After being cashier for eight years he, in 1899, became president of the bank, a position which he still holds.
In 1879 Mr. Spencer was married to Ella Susan Nichols. They have had two children, both of whom are living.

In politics Mr. Spencer is a Republican, but, although he takes an interest in party affairs, he has never held public office. He attends the Baptist Church, he is prominent in the Masonic Order and is a noble of the Order of the Mystic Shrine. His favorite form of amusement is outdoor sports of all kinds. His entire life has been devoted to the banking business and his success in this line is the result of natural aptitude and persistent effort. He made but one change in his business career. After he became cashier of the bank, which he entered as a messenger, he moved to a larger city to accept a similar position in a larger institution. The story of his career should encourage younger men to have patience and persist in their present occupation, remembering how Mr. Spencer rose from messenger boy to bank president with but one change in his business connections.  Men of Mark Index

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