Trails to the Past
Connecticut
New London County
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Biographies From the Men of Mark in Connecticut
Source: Written by Colonel N. G. Osborn editor of "New Haven Register" in 1906
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He obtained his education in a country school. At an early age he showed an aptitude for the printer's trade, and in 1881 he became an apprentice in the office of the New London Day. He passed through the different branches of the business, and, from close application and observation, obtained a practical knowledge of the newspaper business. By constant application he became a ready and forceful writer. In 1885 he became one of the founders of the Morning Telegraph, which succeeded the old Evening Telegraph, whose eloquent mouth was closed by the sheriff. He remained on the Telegraph in various capacities for five years. Then he disposed of the interest. In September, 1891, he purchased the New London Day, that had been founded by Major John A. Tibbets, a well known writer and politician. The Day had been leading a checkered career for ten years, and was heavily encumbered with debt. The new proprietor quickly brought order out of chaos, showing rare executive ability, and the paper was put almost at once on a paying basis. Its growth in circulation was not over 1,500. Today (1906)., it exceeds the 6,000 mark, that is, one paper to every six inhabitants in its field, which includes the lower part of New London County. In the first ten years Mr. Bodenwein bought four newspaper presses, discarding one after the other to accommodate the growing demands of his business. Today, he has one of the finest equipped newspaper plants in Connecticut. The Day establishment is one of the prominent institutions of New London, on account of the magnitude of its operations. His experiment of issuing both morning and evening papers from the same office seems to have met with success, as both papers are better and more prosperous than ever before. Mr. Bodenwein was married February 21st, 1889, to Miss Jennie Muir. He has two children: Gordon, aged twelve, and Elizabeth, aged nine. He is a member of numerous clubs and societies. In politics he is a Republican. He served as alderman in the New London Court of Common Council and as sewer commissioner of the city, 1903-6. In 1904 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican State Convention for Secretary of State, and had the pleasure of being elected by over 37,000 plurality, leading his State ticket and only 814 votes behind the vote for President Roosevelt. Mr. Bodenwein was re-nominated for Secretary of State, September 20th, 1906 Men of Mark Index
After the usual public school experience Frank Brandegee prepared for college at the Bulkeley High School in New London, where he graduated in 1881. He then entered Yale University, where he won honors both for excellent scholarship and for prowess in athletics. After taking his degree in 1885 he went abroad, visiting Great Britain and Continental Europe, and later Alaska, Canada, and the Hawaiian Islands. Returning home, he was admitted to the New London County Bar in 1888 and, following in his father's worthy steps, he began the practice of law and became a member of the well known law firm of Brandegee, Noyes & Brandegee. Like his father, he was singled out for political honors very early in his career, and in 1888, the first year of his legal practice, he represented New London in the General Assembly, and was chairman of the committee on cities and boroughs during his term of office. In 1889 he was elected corporation counsel of the city of New London, and held this office continuously, with the exception of two years when his party was not in power, until he resigned it upon his election as representative in Congress in 1902. His consistent party loyalty, rare executive ability, and marked capacity for leadership gained him rapidly growing prominence among the Republicans of the State, and he was their delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1888, 1892, 1900, and 1904, and in the last named year he was chairman of the delegation. Since 1898 he has been a member of the Republican State Central Committee. In 1898 he was again elected State representative, and was Speaker of the Connecticut House in 1899. In 1903 he was elected to the 57th Congress at its second session to fill a vacancy left by the death of Charles A. Russell, and was reelected representative to the 57th and 58th Congresses by large majorities in both instances. He served with great success on the committee of naval affairs, and has been a most prominent and active Congressman. In 1905 he was elected to fill the senatorial vacancy caused by the death of Orville H. Platt. His term of office as United States senator will expire March 4th, 1909. As a speaker Senator Brandegee is forceful, just, persuasive, and eloquent, and he is as able a writer as he is orator. His fine mind, his ability to understand men and conditions, his public spirit and personal integrity have won him high places in politics and in his profession, and he is truly "the distinguished son of a distinguished father." Men of Mark Index CHAPMAN, WILLIAM HENRY, was born April 8th, 1819, in East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, a little town that has produced several other distinguished men. He traces his ancestry from Robert Chapman, a native of Hull, England, who emigrated to America in 1635, and was one of the first settlers of Saybrook, Connecticut, and prominent in the subsequent affairs of that colony. Another ancestor. Sir John Chapman, was at one time Lord Mayor of London. Mr. Chapman's father was Daniel Shailer Chapman, a manufacturer and farmer, a man conspicuous for his integrity, sobriety, and industry, the last quality being especially admirable because he suffered great disadvantage from the amputation of a limb. He married Ann Palmer, a woman who was remarkable for her calmness and dignity, and for the firmness of her religious convictions. She ruled her household by love, and it is the influence of her splendid character that Mr. Chapman considers more lasting and important than all the other influences of his early life combined. Like many of Connecticut's ablest sons, Mr. Chapman spent his youth in the country. As a boy be was normally healthy, but not vigorous. He was passionately fond of reading and inclined to seek seclusion to gratify this taste. The favorite book of his youth was "Good's Book of Nature." From the biographies of men of business, he gained the greatest help for his own needs and problems. He keenly enjoyed all historical literature. He received his education at the public and private schools of his native town and at the Bacon Academy, Colchester, Connecticut. In 1837 Mr. Chapman began his career as a business man, as clerk in a dry goods store in New London. His own preference dictated a mercantile career, and the approval of his parents rested upon his choice. He continued in the dry goods business in New London for eighteen years. Since then he has filled many important offices. For thirty-five years, from 1858, Mr. Chapman was president of the Union Bank of New London (chartered 1792), and for thirty-eight years, from 1866, he has been president of the Savings Bank of New London, and is still in office. During the Civil War he was town treasurer of New London. For three years he was president of the school board of that city. Since 1875 he has been a deacon in the Second Congregational Church of New London. He has been treasurer of many organizations. For nine years he was a director of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. Mr. Chapman has always been identified with the Republican party in politics. He is an active member of the Congregational Church. In September, 1843, Mr. Chapman was married to Sarah W. Hutchins of East Haddam. She died in June, 1851, leaving one child, Mary S. Chapman, born April, 1846, who is now a member of his family. Mr. Chapman's second marriage was in September, 1856, to Ellen Tyler of East Haddam, who is now living; and, with the daughter above mentioned, contributes greatly to the comfort and happiness of Mr. Chapman in his advanced age. Through his ecclesiastical, educational, and financial interests, Mr. Chapman has rendered threefold service to the city; not only in service, but in substantial generosity has he benefited New London. By a gift of two hundred thousand dollars he has founded the Manual Training and Industrial School of New London, an institution greatly needed, and one that will always be a great blessing and a practical benefit to the city. At the ripe age of eighty-five, Mr. Chapman still fills capably several important positions in the business and ecclesiastical world. He is esteemed as an able banker, a good citizen, and a Christian gentleman. He has given to New London two most worthy and valuable gifts: a splendid institution and the example of a noble character. In his life, "Young America" may study the value of a clean, simple, industrious life, a life of unselfish service and loyalty to "things that are good." Men of Mark Index
Most of Mr. Higgins' youth was spent in Norwich, Connecticut, where from choice during vacation periods he often busied himself with both manual and clerical work in the shops and offices of Norwich. He was blessed with good health and found the keenest enjoyment in outdoor sports. After a course at the Norwich Free Academy he entered the law department of Yale University and graduated in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. While at Yale he served one term as secretary of the Kent Club, the leading debating society of the law department, and became a member of the Yale chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa. Since leaving college Mr. Higgins has devoted himself to the practice of law, and his profession with the performance of various public services has occupied Mr. Higgins' time since graduation. In 1899 he was elected a member of the General Assembly as representative from Norwich and served on the judiciary committee. From London County, being appointed by the Judges of the Superior Court of the State; from 1901 to 1903 he was corporation counsel for the city of Norwich; in 1904 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, representing Connecticut on the committee on resolutions; in 1905 he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Norwich and has been for six years and is now a member of the Republican State Central Committee. On October 2nd, 1905, he was given still higher political honor by his election as Representative from the Third District in the Congress of the United States. Since 1903 he has been director and secretary of the Groton and Stonington Street Railway Company and is connected with other prominent business interests in his section of the State. On October 6th, 1906, Mr. Higgins was unanimously re-nominated for Congress. On September 21st, 1904, Mr. Higgins married Alice M. Neff of Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Mr. Higgins served three years and a half in Co. 9, C. N. G., Third Regiment, is a member of the Chelsea Boat Club, the Arcanum Club of Norwich, the Sons of the American Revolution of Connecticut and the Citizens Corp of the G. A. E. He is particularly fond of outdoor life and his favorite sports are hunting and fishing. Though still a young man, Mr. Higgins has won himself a place of distinction as a lawyer and as a public man, as his professional and political offices show. Men of Mark Index MORGAN, WILLIAM DENISON, was born in Brooklyn, New York, December 19th, 1873. His father, William Gardner Morgan, is a descendant of James Morgan, of Wales, who settled in New London, Connecticut, when the city was only a hamlet,—a few families gathered together for mutual help and protection. His mother, Elizabeth Cook (Hall) Morgan, is a woman of strong though gentle character, and her example was an important influence in her son's spiritual and moral life. In childhood Mr. Morgan was strong and healthy, and at the age of thirteen began earning a partial livelihood working as a newspaper carrier on both a morning and evening route. This was in addition to his school work, and had the effect, he believes, of making him regular in his habits and giving him the desire to increase his independence. His favorite books during childhood and youth were those of Washington Irving, Dickens, and Thackeray, and later, on banking subjects. Mr. Morgan had desired and planned to attend a technical college after his course in the common schools of Hartford, but this idea had to be given up, circumstances forbidding its being carried out. In 1890, at sixteen years of age, he decided that it was necessary for him to become self-supporting, and accordingly he took the first position that offered,—that of runner for the Etna National Bank. Here he has steadily risen, being promoted to the position of general clerk in 1892, discount clerk in 1894, and in 1899 he was elected cashier of the bank, and is still serving in that capacity. On October 17th, 1900, he married Lucile Snow Couch, of Providence, and they have one child, a daughter. Mr. Morgan is an authority on banking, having given it an exhaustive study, and in 1898, in collaboration with Mr. Henry M. Sperry, published the Bankers' Maturity Guide and Holliday Calendar. Mr. Morgan attends the Episcopal Church, is a member of the Church Club of Hartford, and of the Bachelors' Club of Hartford. He finds his recreation in the companionships which these organizations afford, and in out-of-door sports,—principally hunting, canoeing and horseback riding. In politics he is a Republican. Men of Mark Index PENDLETON, MOSES AVERILL, vice-president of the First National Bank of Stonington and of the Stonington Savings Bank, was born in the borough of Stonington, February 19th, 1844. His father, Moses Pendleton, was a banker and merchant who held many minor offices in his town. From early Colonial times the Pendleton family has been associated with the history of New England. The first member of the family to come to America was Brian Pendleton, who settled in Massachusetts in 1634. Major Brian Pendleton was president of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1681. Captain James Pendleton served in King Philip's War. Col. William Pendleton was prominent in the Rhode Island militia, and several members of the family served in the Revolutionary War, After attending the public schools Mr. Pendleton, at the age of seventeen, became a clerk in a grocery store. Urged on by an ambition to succeed he determined to do his best in this position which he held for several years. In 1873 he became town and probate clerk, serving for over twenty years. Later he became interested in the banking business and he is now director and vice-president of the First National Bank of Stonington and of the Stonington Savings Bank. For twenty years he has been a justice of the peace. In politics he has always been a Republican. He is a Baptist, and since 1897 he has been clerk and treasurer of the First Baptist Church. In 1866 Mr. Pendleton was married to Amelia Barker Sheffield. Of their two children, one is now living. Their home in Stonington is at No. 45 Main Street. Advising young men how to succeed in life, Mr. Pendleton gives as the principles which he himself has followed: "Success can be best obtained by establishing early in life good habits and a fixed purpose to do always one's best in whatever field one may select." Men of Mark Index
"Governor Tom Waller," as he is still familiarly and affectionately called, was born in New York City in 1840, of Irish parentage. His father, Thomas C. Armstrong, his mother, Mary Armstrong, and his only brother, William, died before he was eight years old, leaving him entirely alone and unassisted to face the world. Sufficient courage to bring him success could not have developed so quickly without his having inherited a good-sized germ of it; inheritance and development together produced an asset which dwellers in the sumptuous houses of the metropolis might have envied at that very moment when he was an orphan in the streets. And if ever he deserved the title of "Little Giant," later bestowed upon him, it was then. With pennies given him by a stranger, the boy bought a few papers and started upon his career, soon doubling his capital and putting aside a fair percentage. But there were broader fields for him. Without realizing how broad, his boyish fancy began to picture them till, after one summer as a newsboy, restlessness aroused his spirit of adventure. It was in the days of the gold fever of '49. We cannot dismiss this newsboy period, however, without enjoying one glimpse of it which he himself gives, with a quotation which at the same time will illustrate that native wit which on many occasions has served as a sesame for him. The quotation is from a speech delivered not many years ago in Brooklyn. "The papers I was selling on the streets of New York," he said, "were so filled with accounts of mountains of gold that I thought gold would not be worth a cent, and with this apprehension, instead of going west with the star of empire, I went to Connecticut. I went there as to a reformatory school, thinking that when I was good enough I would return to New York and become a New York politician. I have stayed there a good while. I have returned to New York, but only to do business not to be a politician. I have had some temptation to step into the political waters here, but 1 have resisted it. I am satisfied that a larger probation is necessary. I am not good enough yet." His next step after being a "newsy" was to become a cabin boy in a fishing vessel sailing from New York. Speak of it as he will now, it was almost impossible that he should not be caught in the strong current toward California. He had gone so far as to make his plans to sail a schooner for the Golden Gate, when he came under the notice of Robert K. Waller of New London. Mr. Waller was of a benevolent disposition and his farsightedness was to be tested. Discerning the boy's capabilities, he offered him a home and education, and the boy had sense enough to prefer them to the glittering allurements of the gold fields. He adopted him into his family and gave him the name to which he was to bring honor. The little fellow, who had picked up some schooling at odd moments in New York, was put into the New London schools, where he made rapid progress and entered the Bartlett Grammar School of which E. B. Jennings was the master. There he was graduated with high honors in a class which included several who were to become prominent in life, and there he began to develop those oratorical powers which later were to enable him to hold large audiences spellbound. He took the first prize in oratory at the school, at the age of seventeen, and has taken it in the forum, at the Bar, and in the convention hall many times since. His inclination was toward the law. After a due course of study, he was admitted to the Bar and soon had established a lucrative practice. His power to move a jury was particularly wonderful. With the coming of the Civil War, his warm heart and good red blood compelled him to throw aside his law books and enlist. He was appointed sergeant in Company E of the Second Connecticut Volunteers April 22nd, 1861, but being incapacitated by a serious disease of the eyes he was discharged on June 27th. Thwarted in this direction, he forthwith proceeded to employ his talents as a speaker in aiding the recruiting of other regiments in his own and other states. It was then, in this worthy cause, that he first gained fame as a public speaker. In 1867 and again in 1868, he was chosen representative from New London to the General Assembly One of his most notable efforts of this period was his argument in behalf of a bridge across the Connecticut River at Saybrook. Senator W. W. Eaton, the "War Horse" of Hartford, was the leader of the opposition, which saw in the plan nothing but irremediable injury to commercial interests along the river, "God's highway." Today when a wooden bridge has been succeeded by an iron one and that in turn is being succeeded by one still greater, to meet the growing requirements, it is difficult to recall or conceive the amount of excitement which the bridge project aroused and consequently the reason for the tremendous rejoicing by its advocates when the resolution was adopted. The point of Mr. Waller's argument was, "You can't resist the nineteenth century." In 1870 Mr. Waller was elected Secretary of the State on the Democratic ticket, a position which did not interfere with his law practice. In 1876 he was sent to the House again and was the choice for speaker. The commendable shortness of that session was ascribed largely to his proficiency. After the close of the session he was appointed by the judges state's attorney for New London County. It fell to his lot to have to conduct some of the most remarkable cases known to Connecticut jurisprudence. Whatever the cases were, it might be said, he made them interesting. One of them was outside his county—over in New Haven County, where State's Attorney Tilton E. Doolittle was disqualified because of professional relations with the accused. It was the Hayden murder trial, where the State introduced expert testimony on a more comprehensive plan than had been known up to that time. One juror by preventing a conviction made his name celebrated. Mr. Waller, as mayor of New London for a period of six years, gave that city a sharp, strenuous administration, so much so indeed that at one time there was a mass meeting to censure him for energetic efforts to work improvements. However, at that meeting he was permitted to speak in his own defense. The meeting adjourned without action and at the next election the people continued the reformer in office. In 1882, while still state's attorney, he was nominated at the State Democratic Convention for governor. With his brilliant campaign oratory supplementing his record, he won a splendid victory. In the National Democratic Convention which chose Mr. Cleveland, the "Little Giant" from Connecticut had made a speech which was notable for its eloquence and power. On Mr. Cleveland's accession to office, he gave Mr. Waller the very responsible and lucrative appointment of consul general to London, England. In that office the late governor made still another record for himself, and for his country as well. His achievements on several occasions elicited words of high praise from the State department at Washington. At the close of his four years' service, a banquet was tendered him by Englishmen and Americans, including the United States officials in England, and a massive silver loving-cup was presented to him in appreciation of what he had done. On his return to America, he resumed the practice of law, the firm of Waller, Cook & Wagner being established at No. 15 Wall Street. "I work five days a week in New York that I may live two in Connecticut," he once remarked. His name has been mentioned since his retirement to private life as a worthy one for the vice-presidency of the United States on the Democratic ticket and again for governor, but he practically has abstained from politics. He had no sympathy whatever with the free-silver movement. Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley appointed him on the commission for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893 and he was chosen first vice-president of that body, in which capacity he frequently had to preside in place of President Palmer, and his zeal had much to do in making it the crowning exposition of the world up to that time. His last public service was as delegate from his town to the Constitutional Convention in 1903, where his voice ever was uplifted in the interests of reform and fair representation for the people. The document as indorsed by that non-partisan body bears the impress of his ideas in many places. That the reforms failed of approval by the Legislature was a disappointment to him. Mr. Waller married Miss Charlotte Bishop of New London and has a family of one daughter, the wife of Professor William E. Appleby of the University of Minnesota, and five sons, Tracey, Martin B., Robert K., Charles B., and John M., all of whom, excepting John, who is a senior in Amherst College, are members of the Bar. The ex-governor spends a good share of his time now at his beautiful home in New London, but seclusion is impossible for one with pronounced ideas on affairs of public moment or for one whose opinion party leaders and the public generally are desirous to learn. Since the above was written, the Hartford Courant, alluding to Governor Wallers appearance and speech as the president of the Democratic State Convention of September, 1906, editorially said:— "Whoever heard Governor Waller's rattling speech at yesterday's Democratic Convention will be ready to aver that he is not a day over thirty years of age, no matter when he was born. It was common talk about the convention that he was asked to speak only as be was going to bed the night before. It was essentially and necessarily an impromptu address, but it was full of fire, sparkling with quick wit, eloquent, and at times very right. Somebody said it was 'the old Tom Waller,' Utterly wrong; it was the young Tom Waller,— who, in our opinion, will be young as long as he lives.
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BODENWEIN, THEODORE THE career of Theodore Bodenwein, proprietor of the New London Day and Morning Telegraph, is a striking example of the possibilities of American citizenship. Born in Diisseldorf, Prussia, in 1864, he came to this country at the age of five, the child of German parents in humble circumstances.
BRANDEGEE, HON. FRANK BOSWORTH, United States senator, lawyer, and one of the most prominent Republicans in Connecticut, was born in New London, Connecticut, July 8th, 1864. He is a descendant of Jacob Brandegee, a native of Nine Points, New York, who settled New Britain in the middle of the eighteenth century and founded the Connecticut branch of the family. John Brandegee, his grandfather, was a prosperous cotton broker of New Orleans, who came to New London and engaged in the whaling industry, and in many public enterprises. On the maternal side, Senator Brandegee is descended from Daniel Deschamps, a Huguenot refugee at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and from Captain Daniel Deshon, who commanded an armed vessel during the War of the Revolution. The other two Huguenot ancestors, John and Richard Deshon, served with conspicuous credit as captains of companies of Connecticut militia in the Revolution. Puritan as well as Huguenot blood flows in the Brandegee veins, for their family ancestry is also traceable to the historic Elder Brewster. Senator Brandegee's father, Hon. Augustus Brandegee, one of the most distinguished lawyers and politicians Connecticut has ever produced, was four times a member of Congress, an able speaker, and a popular political leader. His wife, the present senator's mother, was Nancy Bosworth Brandegee.
HIGGINS, EDWIN WERTER, lawyer and Congressman, of Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, was born in Clinton, Middlesex County, Connecticut, July 2nd, 1874, the son of Werter C. Higgins and Grace A. Higgins, who was the daughter of Henry M. and Ann Crane Taintor. Silas Higgins, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was for years prominent in the business and public life of eastern Connecticut. Mr. Higgins' father is a manufacturer of steam heaters and a man whose most prominent characteristic is fidelity to principle. Mr. Higgins' earliest ancestors in America were Jonathan Sexton, who came from England to Plymouth in 1620, and later settled in Windsor, Connecticut; Medad Taintor, who was born in 1757 and came from England to Branford, Connecticut, and Heman Higgins of Midddletown, Connecticut. The early ancestors of Mr. Higgins were identified with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies and three of his great-grandfathers took part in the American Revolution.
WALLER, HON THOMAS M. of New London, beginning life as a New York newsboy and rising to many positions of public preferment, including those of governor of his State and of consul general to London, has had a career that fascinates by its romance and convinces by its success.