Leading Business Men of Fairfield County

Henry Seymour Sanford was born in 1832, and was the only son of David C. Sanford, Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College with honors in the Class of 1 852, and practiced law in New Milford from 1854 to 1864, since which time he has resided in Bridgeport. Notwithstanding the fact that he suffered so severe an injury in 1861 as to render him totally unable to walk, and has since suffered greatly from paralysis, Mr. Sanford by heroic- efforts, has practiced his profession here successfully since 1864, and built up a prac- tice not surpassed by any other in the county. In 1863 he published a letter in the New York Times which aroused such leading philanthropists as Henry Bergh, H. B. Claflin, and others, and was the direct cause of the organization in New York of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and of similar societies all over the country. This is a work in which Mr. Sanford has been deeply interested, and through which he has accomplished untold good. He was founder of the New Mil- BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 57 E VIEW AT BLACK ROCK. ford Society, which has become the model of more than three hundred other similar Hon. Philo Clark Calhoun was horn December 4, 1810, in Danbury, Connect- icut, of an old and honored family, being related to the Hon. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. He started in business at Bridgeport about 1826, entering the saddle and harness business with Lyon, Wright & Co., and soon afterward was sent by the firm to Charleston, South Carolina, where he established a store, and returning to Bridgeport about 1834, soon established himself as one of our leading business men, which position he maintained during the wThole time of his residence here. He was president of the Connecticut Bank for seventeen years, a member of the Bridge- port Common Council, and Board of Aldermen; Avas Mayor from 1855 to 1857; a member of both houses of the Legislature, and was most influential in all public measures relating to the city from 1850 to 1864. In that year he removed to New York city where as president of the Fourth National Bank he soon established it a& one of the largest deposit banks in the country. He held many other important offices and was one of the most noted and successful business men of the metropolis. He died March 14, 1882, having accomplished a great work and been an important factor in the progress of Bridgeport. Peter Foland was born in Scoharie county, New York, and for many years was engaged in the grocery and later in the hotel business at Albany, New York. After a long experience as hotel man he came to Bridgeport in 1880, and bought the At- lantic House, which he has since conducted in a liberal and enterprising manner,, fully in keeping with the spirit of the city. 58 BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. Hon. Civilion Fones was born in Toronto, Canada, October 1, 1836, so that he is of the same age as the city of Bridgeport, of which he is the present Mayor. He is a descendant of two Huguenot families, and spent his early years in Canada and New York State, coming to Bridgeport first in 1858. He began life in the occupa- tion of his father, as architect and builder, but after coming to Bridgeport entered the dental profession, studying first with Dr. D. H. Porter, of this city, later at Maryland Medical College and Baltimore Medical College. He has practiced suc- cessfully in this city for more than twenty-five years, and has gained the esteem of his colleagues and fellow-citizens. He was elected president of the Connecticut Val- ley Dental Association. He was elected to the Common Council of the city in 1884, served as Alderman in 1885, and Mayor in 1S86-7, which offices he has administered with distinguished ability and success. David Benjamin Lockwood, son of David and Abigail (Gray) Lockwood, was T)orn January 7, 1827, in Weston, and is a direct descendant of Robert Lockwood, who settled in Fairfield in 1649. After a preparatory course at Staples' Academy, Easton, Connecticut, he entered Wesleyan University in 1844 and graduated in 1849. He studied law under Hon. Thomas B. Osborne of Fairfield and Hon. Sidney B. Beardsley of Bridgeport, where he was admitted to practice in 1851, and continued here until 1856, when he removed to New York city. He served with distinction as a sergeant in the Second Connecticut Light Battery throughout the war, and after its close for a number of years performed editorial work upon the Bridgeport Stand- ard and Waterbury American. Since 1867 he has practiced his profession here with his former ability and success. He was Judge of the City Court of Bridgeport from 1869 to 1871, Representative to the Legislature in 1875 and 1883, and City Attorney of Bridgeport in 1SS0 and 1885. He took a leading part in the establish- ment of the Bridgeport Public Library and Reading Room, the Mechanics' and Farmers' Savings Bank and the Fairfield County Law Library Association, beside exercising a wide influence which has been beneficially felt in every important meas- ure for the public welfare, and has placed him in the leading ranks at the Fairfield County Bar. Frederick J. Lockwood is a son of Mr. Frederick Lockwood, one of the pioneers and important promoters of Bridgeport's business prosperity. Mr. F. J. Lockwood has also achieved marked success in commercial life and has been promi- nently connected for several years with the Bridgeport Savings Bank. David M. Read was born in Hoosac Falls, New York, and was a descendant by a regular line of five generations from Colonel Thomas Read, of Hertfordshire, England, who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1630. He early removed with his parents to North Adams, Massachusetts, where he received his education, and after considerable business experience, came to Bridgeport and entered the employ of E. Birdsey, in 1857. In the same year he formed a partnership with Mr. W. B. Hail which lasted until 1877, since which time he has carried on his dry goods business as the senior partner of the firm of D. M. Read & Co., and engaged exten- sively in carpet manufacturing. Mr. Read has been president of the Bridgeport Board of Trade since its organization, a member of the Common Council, Board of Education, and State Legislature. He is vice-president of the City Savings Bank, a director in the Bridgeport National Bank, Mountain Grove Cemetery Association, and Fairfield County Agricultural Association, and has held the position of brigade- BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT. 59 commissary of the Connecticut National Guard with the rank of Major, besides other important offices. Isaac Sherman, Esq., was born in Stratfield, September 25, 1788, the son of David and Rebecca (French) Sherman, and descended from one of the earliest settlers of the colony. At the age of sixteen he tried four years of seafaring life and when twenty started in business for himself in the firm of Beach & Sherman. He soon became one of the leading merchants of the borough and accumulated a large property. He was one of the influential citizens of Bridgeport in its early days, having been town clerk from 1831 to 1847, and town treasurer for twenty-two years, beside holding the office of Judge of Probate, recorder of the city, and several others for a number of years. In his later years he wrote a historical work entitled " Esquire Sherman's Recollections," which is undoubtedly the most valuable document remaining to testify to the events in the early history of the city. No one better than old " Esquire Sherman " deserved the honorable title of " Father of the City." James Staples was bors in Swanville, Maine, January 19, 1824, and until he was seventeen years old spent most of his time upon his father's farm at that place. He then began teaching school, which continued to be his profession until 1854 when he made his home at Bridgeport and entered business, first as a lumber merchant and afterwards as a real estate and insurance broker. He has established himself as a leading business man and citizen, has taken an active and influential part in the doings of the Board of Trade and Board of Education, and in many ways has done much for the advancement of the city. Hon. Daniel H. Sterling was born in Bridgeport, July 10, 1819, and was a member of one of the oldest and most influential families in this section of the State, being a direct descendant from Jacob Sterling, who first settled in Stratford about 1708. He entered Yale in the Class of 1839, but later went to Union College, where he graduated with honors in 1S40. He then engaged in business in Bridgeport and in 1841 organized the firm of D. H. Sterling & Co. He continued during the next thirty-five years to be one of the most powerful business men in the city, and took an influential part in building up all her interests. He was the war mayor of Bridgeport, being elected in 1860, and reelected in 1861 and 1862, and performed distinguished services in that important and critical position. He was Vice-Presi- dent of the Board of Education, chairman of finance committee, and was a member of the Common Council and Board of Aldermen for many years, exercising a beneficial influence in all the public affairs of the city which has hardly been equalled by that of any other man in her history. Colonel Wm, H. Stevenson, son of Win. G. and Georgie T. Stevenson, was born in Bridgeport in 1847. Col. Stevenson prepared for college, but resolving to enter business, took a course at Eastman's National Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he graduated with the degree of Master of Accounts. He entered the Housa- tonic Railroad office at Bridgeport in 1864, and actively and permanently engaged in railroad life, being appointed Special Agent of the New York & New Haven Railroad in 1872, Paymaster of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1878, Superintendent of the Shore Line Division in the same year, and Superintendent of the New York Division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford in 1882, which is one of the most important railroad positions in the country, and was administered 60 BRIDGEPORT, PAST AND PRESENT.