Leading Business Men of Fairfield County

John Dutton Candee was born in Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, June 12, 1819. His parents removed to Connecticut about 1825, and his father having died in the year following, his mother with six children made her home in New Haven, where Mr. Candee spent a great part of his youth. Since the age of nine he has supported himself entirely, without any assistance from relative or friend. At thirteen he entered upon work in a printers' office as "roller boy," and during the next ten years gained a thorough mastery of the business. He earned his way through Yale College, graduating in the Class of 1847, and from the Law School in the Class of 1849. After a long and honorable career in the practice of his profes- sion in Iowa and New Haven, and a few months' experience in the editorial manage- ment of the New Raven Morning Journal and Courier, he came to Bridgeport and purchased a two-thirds interest in the daily and weekly Standard, September, 1863, which during the last twenty-four years he has conducted with marked ability, devoting every talent and energy to the service of the people, advocating fearlessly all movements in behalf of right and progress, and exercising a wide influence for the best welfare of the city. Major Frederick Frye was born in 1824, and was the son of Daniel M. Frye, of New York city, grandson of Capt. Frederick Frye, and great-grandson of Colonel James Frye, of Andover, Massachusetts, who fought with distinguished honor at the battle of Bunker Hill, receiving wounds which eventually caused his death. Major Frye was a graduate of Columbia College, and at the time of the war was practicing law in Bridgeport. Being the last descendant of such a honorable line of warrior ancestors, he naturally enlisted among the first as a captain in the Third Connecticut 52 BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. Regiment and afterward as a captain in the Ninth, serving with valor worthy of his name and race at Bull Run, New Orleans, Port Hudson, Cedar Creek, Five Forks, and many other great battles throughout the war, receiving the promotion to Major for his gallant services. At the close of the war he settled in New Orleans as a lawyer and took an active part in the reconstruction work, being at one time Justice of the Sixth District of New Orleans. He was obliged to leave the law on account of ill health, and occupied a clerkship in the Custom House until his death, June 22, 1881. Hon. Epaphros Burr Goodsell was born in 1817 at Brookfield, Connecticut. After receiving the best common school education in his native town, and an experi- ence as merchant, manufacturer and postmaster at Kent, Connecticut, he came to Bridgeport in 1848, where he was soon recognized as a prominent citizen, and was appointed to the postmastership of the city in 1852, by President Franklin Pierce. He administered the office with great success and popularity for eight years, until the election of Lincoln and change of parties. He held the mayorality of the city for 1871-2-3, beside other important offices and trusts. He was a prominent Christ- ian worker and philanthropist, and one of the founders of the Trinity Episcopal Church, of which he was Junior Warden at the time of his death, October 10, 1884. He was widely respected and admired for his noble Christian character, and the persist- ent spirit of progress which had rendered him a most successful " self-made " man. William B. Hall is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, and a son of Will- iam Stewart Hall, of Wallingford. He began his successful career as a business man as a clerk in the store of T. P. Chapman of New Haven, July 15, 1846. Four years later he came to this city and engaged himself to the firm of E. Birdsey & Co., dry-goods merchants, with whom he remained until 1857, when he formed a part- nership with Mr. D. M. Read, under the firm name of Hall & Read. This company was dissolved in 1877, after twenty years of great progress, and since that time Mr. Hall has conducted the immense and growing interests of the firm of W. B. Hall & Company with such remarkable success, that the building of the company has had to be enlarged several times, and the custom and reputation of the house have attained a wide recognition throughout the United States. Sherman Hartwell was one of the most influential business men of the city during the middle part of the present century. He was elected president of the Bridgeport Bank in 1849, and for twenty years continued to overlook its affairs with wisdom, the period being one of the most progressive and prosperous in the history of the bank. In 1869 he was obliged to positively decline a reelection to the presi- dency, at which time the following resolution was passed by the board of directors: " Resolved, That the thanks of the board are due and are hereby tendered to Sher- man Hartwell for efficient and valuable services as president of this bank for the last twenty years, and as evidence of the prosperity of the bank it may be stated that it has, during the said twenty years, paid its stockholders in dividends the sum of $430,700, on a capital of $212,000, and increased its surplus $40,000." After a long and distinguished business career, Mr. Hartwell departed this life January 16, 1876. Abijah Hawtley was one of the leading merchants of Bridgeport at its first advent into prominence as a commercial center, and came of one of the oldest and wealthiest families of this vicinity. He carried on an extensive shipping trade, chiefly with Boston and the West Indies, about the beginning of the present century, and was prominent and influential in the establishment of the Bridgeport Bank. BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 53 Rev. Gideon Hawley was born in Stratfield, November 5, 1727. He came of an old and honored family, his parents being Gideon and Eunice (Jackson) Hawley. He graduated at Yale College in 1749, and was licensed to preach by the Fairfield East Association in 1750. He early resolved to be a missionary to the Indians, and first at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then among the Iroquois on the Susquehanna River, and later among the Marshpee tribe, he labored unceasingly for fifty years with an unselfish devotion and powerful love which have made him one of the most honored of the early missionaries to this persecuted race. Munson Hawley, son of Abijah Hawley, the pioneer merchant, succeeded his father as one of the leading and successful business men of Bridgeport. In 1869 he was elected president of the Bridgeport National Bank, which office he has continued to hold during the last eighteen years, and has administered with marked ability, economy, and uninterrupted success. He was mayor of the city in 1866 and 1868, and has for many years taken a leading part in the advancement all along the line of the highest welfare of Bridgeport. Alfred Charles Hobbs was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 7, 1812, the son of John L. Hobbs of London, England, an expert carpenter and joiner. Left an orphan by the death of his father when he was three years old, Mr. Hobbs spent most of his youth in helping his mother in the support of the family. He tried vari- ous trades in his young manhood, including those of farmer, dry-goods merchant, wood-carving, sailor, carriage painting and making, tin plating, coach trimming and harness making, none of which succeeded in satisfying his inventive mind. Finally as an accessory of glass-making he began to work upon locks, and found the field in which he was to obtain world-wide fame. He entered the partnership of Jones & Hobbs, and for five years carried on the lock business in Boston. After this firm Avas dissolved Mr. Hobbs went to New York, where he connected himself with Edwards & Holman, lock and safe makers, and later with the celebrated bank lock makers, Day & Newell. During all this time he had been perfecting his knowledge of locks, and now entered upon a career as an expert in locks and demonstrator of their true character, which has probably never been equalled. He was so remarkably skillful in the opening of locks which had always been considered invulnerable that he received the commendation of the Treasury Department at Washington and many prominent business men all over the country. In a visit which he made to England in 1851 he was honored with the approbation and admiration of the Duke of Wellington, Queen Victoria, and many other prominent members of the royal family. His career at the Crystal Palace and as the opener of such celebrated locks as the " Brahma " and " Chubb " was one continued ovation, and dm-ing his residence of nine years in London he received distinguished honors as a talented scientist and operator. He established an extensive business, which grew to be so famous that on his return to America in 1860, a large premium was paid for the privilege of retain- ing his name in that of the firm. He was the chief superintendent of Elias Howe's great machine factories in Bridgeport for four years, and in 1865 became the man- ager of the manufacturing department of the Metallic Cartridge Company of this city, which has since grown rapidly and been greatly prospered under his successful supervision. Captain George Hoyt was a native and prominent citizen of Bridgeport during its early commercial history. In his youth he was a seaman, and later, at the organ- 54 BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. ization of the Bridgeport Bank he was elected its first cashier, which office he dis- charged with great honor and ability up to the time of his death, July, 1825.