Leading Business Men of Fairfield County

Captain Salmon Hubbell was another of our early business men, who played an important part in building up the trade of the young town. He came to Bridgeport from Wilton about 1790, and for more than twenty years successfully conducted a dry goods and grocery business here. He was a captain and paymaster in the Con- tinental Army during the Revolution, and fought with the gallant company that captured Stony Point under General "Mad Anthony " Wayne. He was elected in 1820 to be the first town clerk of Bridgeport, whieh duty he fulfilled with general approbation for several years, his records being still preserved, written in an unu- sually elegant penmanship and style. Philo Hurd was born July 25, 1795, in Brookfield, Connecticut, where he ob- tained a thorough common school education and an invaluable practical knowledge upon his father's farm. At the age of fifteen, after a short period of study at a private school, he began his commercial life at the store of Oliver Warner, in New Milford, where he obtained considerable success until after the war of 1812. In company with Frank Taylor, he opened a dry goods store at Augusta, Georgia, in 1816, and after a prosperous career there spent a few years in business at Darien, Connecticut. He and his brother, Samuel Ferris Hurd, started a dry goods store in this city in 1S23, under the name of P. & S. F. Hurd. He also engaged in the coast- ing and whaling interests, and was sheriff for a term of ten years. In 1838 he first became interested in railroad affairs, with which he was afterward so intimately and and successfully connected, having taken a prominent part in the inception of the Housatonic, New York & New Haven, Naugatuck, and Madison & Indianapolis railroads, and been vice-president of the Hudson River Railroad, and president of the New York & Harlem, which latter road owes a large share of its prosperity to his self-sacrificing efforts. He was active and prominent in the civil, religious and charitable affairs of Bridgeport. He died August 14, 1885, at the age of 90, having accomplished a work which in magnitude and influence is granted to few men in this life. William S. Knowlton was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, September 27, 1810. He learned the occupation of a cutler in his youth but soon abandoned it for the field of music, graduating at a leading conservatory and producing many well- known and admired compositions between 1838 and 1842. After 1848 he was exten- sively engaged in railroad work and formed a copartnership which received many large contracts, including much work on the New York & New Haven. He was the contractor of the Congress Street Bridge, besides many other large works in the city, and ever took great interest in forwarding her prosperity. Colonel Julius M. Knowlton is the son of Wm. S. Knowlton and was born November 28, 1838, in Southbridge, Massachusetts. He received the greater part of his education in the public and private schools of Bridgeport, beiDg particularly pro- ficient in mathematics and civil-engineering. For a year or so before the war he was engaged in the coal business here, and enlisted as a private in Co. A, Fourteenth; Connecticut Volunteers, being soon promoted to the position of commissary sergeant and within a few months to be brigade commissary under General Dwight Morris. He served with distinction and praise at Antietam, by unparallelled efforts bringing his supplies to the fiont and being the first to furnish provisions to a brigade on the BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 55 field. He was promoted to the second lieutenancy of Company C of the Fourteenth, and commanded his company in the battle of Gettysburg, where he received several wounds which incapacitated him for further active service during the war. He has since been connected with the Adams Express Company in this city; was one of the three purchasers of the Standard, in 1863, and for ten years secretary, treasurer and business manager of the company; was superintendent of the Moore Car Wheel Company of Jersey City; and chief of the dead letter division of the post office department of the United States at Washington, which he administered with signal fidelity and success until 1875, when he was appointed to the postmastership of Bridgeport. This office he conducted with much more than ordinary devoted care and vigor, which were very thoroughly appreciated by the people. He was a member of Governor Jewell's staff, ranking as colonel, has served several years in the legislature and Republican State Committee, besides holding many other important positions of honor and trust in the city and Grand Army. Rowland Bradley Lacey was born in Easton, Connecticut, April 6, 1818, an only son of Jesse and Edna (Mason) Lacey. He received his education at the district school, Mr. Eli Gilbert's select school in Redding, and the Easton Academy. Before he was sixteen years of age he was teaching school, and at the age of eighteen came to Bridgeport and for four years was assistant postmaster of the borough. In 1839, he became Bridgeport agent of the Housatonic Railroad, and continued in rail- road work with success until 1844, when he entered the establishment of Messrs- Harral & Calhoun, saddle manufacturers. He soon became a member of the firm, and at the death of Mr. Harral in 1858, the name became Calhoun, Lacey & Co., and in 1863 was changed to Lacey, Meeker & Co. He was one of the most active and successful of our self-made business men and has always been intimately connected with the best interests of the city, including the fire department, educational depart- ment, Common Council, as city auditor, in all of which and in other fields he has contributed inestimably to the advancement and well being of the city. His work in the line of local history has been particularly valuable and to no other man now living is it more due that the historical archives of Bridgeport are so unusually and richly supplied. Rev. Peter Lockwood was born in Bridgeport, February S, 1798. He was the third son of Lambert and Elizabeth Lockwood, descended from one of the oldest Puritan families. He entered Yale College in 1813, at the age of fifteen, graduating there in 1817, and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1820. He engaged in evangelistic work in New York and Richmond, Virginia, for the next three years, after which he engaged in pastoral and educational work in Western New York State, dying at Binghamton, New York, November 16, 1882, after over sixty years of happy and successful Christian service. Hon. James C. Loomis was born April 24, 1807, in Windsor, Connecticut. He prepared for college at the Hartford Grammar School, entering Yale in 1824 and graduating with honors in 1828. He studied law at Charlotteville, Virginia, and under Judge Clark Bissell of Norwalk, and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield County in 1832. After several years of successful practice at Saugatuck (Westport), he removed to Bridgeport in 1840 and immediately took a high rank in his profes- sion and judicial affairs of the city. He was city attorney for several years; mayor of the city in 1843; represented Bridgeport several times in both houses of the State BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESET T. Legislature; was a member of the Corporation of Yale College; and president of the Fairfield County Bar Association, Board of Education, Mountain Grove Cemetery Association and the Bridgeport Library Association, besides holding many other important trusts. His influence as first president of the Board of Education, com- missioner of "Seaside Park, and many other movements for the good of the city, endeared him to all the citizens and has placed his name among the greatest and most public spirited men of Bridgeport. He died September 16, 1877. Daniel Nash Morgan was born in Newtown, Connecticut, August 18, 1844, His father was Ezra Morgan, of Redding, descended from one of the oldest families in the State, and was one of the most prominent public men of his part of the State^ representing Newtown in the legislature for several years and holding many import- ant offices. Daniel Morgan commenced his mercantile career in his father's store at the age of sixteen, and soon after attaining his majority came to Bridgeport and engaged himself as clerk to Taylor & Joyce, dry goods merchants. He has since been a member of several leading business firms of Bridgeport including those of Birdsey & Morgan, and Morgan, Hopson & Co. He has served the city as member of the Common Council for two years, member of the Board of Education, Mayor in 1880 and 1884, member of the lower house of legislature in 1883 and State Senator 1 884-1 886. He has held the position of President of the City National Bank since 1879, is first vice-president of the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank, and a director of the Bridgeport Hospital, having led in these and many other important works for the good of the city for many years. Henry R. Parrott, son of Frederick W. and Lucella (Remer) Parrott, was born in Bridgeport, January 4, 1829. His education was obtained in the private schools of Bridgeport and the Danbury Academy. He started in business at the dry goods store of Beers & Oviatt, and for a number of years gained valuable experience in the employ of James W. Beach, E. Birdsey & Co., and the Adams Express Co. In 1869 he organized the Parrott Varnish Company, which he has since conducted with unwavering success. He has taken an active part in the civil affairs, having been for several years a member of the Board of Aldermen, Common Council, and Board of Police Commissioners. He has for many years advocated and aided in working for a parallel road between New York and Boston, and is at present the president of the New York and Connecticut Air Line Railway Company, which owes its prosperity and almost its existence to his energy and wise efforts.