Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

In this connection it is with pleasure we add the following excerpt from a newspajjer of the time: "Probably the largest financial transaction that ever took place in the world, and certainly the largest that ever took place in this country, was the transfer yesterday by D. N. Morgan, the retiring Treasurer of the United States, of $796, 925,439.17! to Ellis H. Roberts, the new treas- urer, who gives a receipt for that amount of money, bonds and other securities belonging to the Government of the United States, and of which the treasurer has custody. On July ist, 1897, the coiuit of money in the United States Treasurer's office was begun, and was completed February 5. 1898, under the direction of a com- mittee, one of whom was selected by Mr. Mor- gan, another by Mr. Roberts, the incoming treas- erur, and the third by the Secretary of the Treasury, who represents the interests of the United States. The coin, currency, and bonds representing the seven hundred and ninety-six million dollars was counted, and the job lasted more than seven months. It was necessary to count of the one hundred and fifty-two million silver dollars piece by piece, more than one hun- dred million dollars; the subsidary coins, nickels and cents were then, every one, counted. There was a shortage of $856 in the silver, which was supposedly stolen between 1886 and the time of this count by helpers who assisted in the count when changes of treasurer necessitated handling the dollars. Silver coin is put away in heavy canvas bags, 1000 in each, tied at the top with strings and sealed. When the porters were stor- ing it away in the vaults it was possible, if ad- roitly done, for them to substitute shot or lead of an equal weight of from one to ten dollars, when a bag burst or string became untied. The weight of the silver in the vaults is 5000 tons. One thief was detected two years ago. It was found that he had stolen $38. He was arrested and pleaded guilty, made a pathetic appeal for mercy, was fined $50 and given a short term in prison. but now it appears his speculations must have been more extensive than any one suspected, or others were implicated with him. Mr. Morgan, of Bridgeport, Conn., the retiring treasurer, made the amount good at once, and Congress refunded the money to him in August, 1898." Amongother positions he now holds, is that of treasurer of the Union Surety and Guaranty Company of No. 290 Broadway, Nesv York City, and president of the American Exhibitors Agency Company, for the Paris Exposition of 1900. Office, No. 20 Broad street, New York City. On June 10, 1868, Mr. Morgan was united by marriage with Miss Medora Huganen, daugh- ter of tlie late Capt. William A. judson, a native of Huntington, Conn., where he was a prominent and influential man. Captain Judson was a grandson of Col. Agur Judson, who served dur- ing the Revolutionary war, and he represented his district as senator and representative in the Legislature, and also as a trying justice of the town, which office he held for over forty years. The happy home of our subject and his wife has been brightened by the advent of two interesting children — a daughter and a son — named respect- ively, Mary Huntington Morgan and William Jud- son Morgan. Fraternally, Mr. Morgan is inter- ested in the Masonic order, and for two years was master of Corinthian Lodge, No. 104, of Bridgeport, is also a member of Hamilton Com- mandery. No. 5, Knights Templar, and an Odd Fellow. He and his wife take great pleasure in gathering their many friends about them, and they are much interested in public work that tends toward the bettering of the community. Wise in his decisions and tenacious of purpose, Mr. Morgan's success in any undertaking is well assured. HON. NATHANIEL WHEELER (de- ceased). To those who knew the subject of this memoir words fall short of expressing the full measure of his noble manhood, and must necessarily fail to do justice to his power and in- fluence as a citizen which permeated so benefi- cently and effectively the varied lines of busi- ness, social, political, educational and. religious activities of this section. As a business man Mr. Wheeler was distin- guished for his organizing and administrative abilities, his energy, enterprise, foresight, good judgment and fair-dealing — qualities, which were recognized not only locally, but throughout the civilized world. All officers, clerical employes and workmen of the great corporation of which he was for so many years the head, for the wel- l^c^r^^^ COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. fare of everyone of whom he was deeply solicit- ous, were affected toward him with a feehng stronger than mere respect or admiration. Mr. Wheeler's hfe work was most intimately con- nected with the origin and development of the art of sewing by machinery, in which he achieved a world-wide reputation, and it may safely be as- serted here that credit for the progress made in that art, during his life, was due to Nathaniel Wheeler in a greater degree than to any other man. In recognition of his services in this de- partment of industry, he was decorated at the World's Exposition, Vienna (1873), with the Ivnight's Cross of the Imperial Order of Francis Josef, and at the "Exposition Universclle," Paris (1889), he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France. In public affairs he always had deeply at heart the best interests of his city, the state and of the nation, as he understood them, and to those interests he con- tributed no little thought, labor and nione}'. He was a philanthropist of the best sort, unosten- tatious but benehcent to the last degree. A multitude of the poor know how great was his bounty in dispensing charity, but he never adver- tised his good deeds. His natural but unosten- tatious dignity veiled an underlying geniality in companionship, which was revealed to his more intimate acquaintances, while all his purely so- cial qualities were surpassed by his steadfastness and devotion as a friend. The record of his life is without a stain, and the world is surely bettec for his having lived. Mr. Wheeler belonged to a well-known pio- neer family, being a descendant, in the seventh generation, from (I.) Moses Wheeler, who was born in 1589, and came to America with a com- pany from the County of Kent, England, probably in 1638. As early as 1641 he was in New Haven, where he received an allotment of land in 1643, and was settled in Stratford before 1648, the privilege of keeping a ferry across the Housatonic at that place being granted him by the General Court in that year. He died in Stratford in 1689, aged 100 years. II. Moses Wheeler, son of Moses the pio- neer, was born July 5, 165 i, and died January 30, 1724-25. III. Samuel Wheeler, the next in line uf de- scent to our subject, was born February 27, 1681-82, and died in 1721. IV. Capt. James Wheeler, our subject's great-grandfather, was born in 17 16, and died at his home in Derb)', Conn., July 9, 1768. V. Deacon James Wheeler, the grandfather of our subject, was born April 6, 1745, and died in Watertown, Conn., May 25, 1819. VI. David Wheeler, our subject's father, who was a carriage manufacturer by occupation, was born September 6, 1789. By his first wife, Miss Phcebe De Forest, he had two children, Joseph and Mary, and by his second marriage, to Miss Sarah De Forest (a sister of his first wife), he had four children — Nathaniel, Jane, George and Belinda. VII. The late Nathaniel Wheeler was born September 7, 1820, at Watertown, and as a lad in his fathers's shop he learned the carriage maker's trade, in which, while yet a minor, he acquired a high reputation for skill, ingenuity and good taste. Upon reaching his majority Nathan- iel took his father's carriage business, and for some five years conducted it successfully on his own account. Thereafter, he engaged in the manufacture of various small metallic articles and, substituting machinery for hand labor, very greatly reduced the cost of production, thus early displaying that practical ability which marked his subsequent career. For the better prosecu- tion of his business, he formed, in 1848, a co- partnership with Messrs. Warren & Woodruff, of the same town, under tho firm name of " War- ren, Wheeler & Woodruff, " a new new factory was built, and the entire management of the bus- iness was placed in the hands of Mr. Wheeler, who made it a thorough success from the start. In December, 1850, Mr. Wheeler's attention was attracted to the earliest form of Allen B. Wilson's sewing machine, and with a keen fore- sight of possibilities he contracted, in behalf of his own firm, to manufacture a considerable num- ber of such machines. He engaged Mr. Wilson to superintend that branch of their manufacturing department, and soon after, arrangements were completed to make the manufacture of sewing machines a separate and distinct business. For this purpose a company was formed by Messrs. Warren, Wheeler, Wilson and Woodruff, under the style of "Wheeler, Wilson & Co.." Mr. Wheeler having charge of the mercantile depart- ment, and Mr. Wilson of the mechanical. Mr. Wilson soon invented material improvements in his machine, which were to a very great extent organized and put into practical shape by Mr. Wheeler. The introduction of that machine, the original "Wheeler & Wilson," to the public, the placing of it in factories, and the demonstration of its adaptibility to use in families, was almost exclusively the work of Mr. Wheeler. In Octo- ber, 1853, "The Wheeler & Wilson Manufactur- ing Company" was organized under the general law of the State of Connecticut. Mr. Wheeler was made general manager of the company, and from 1855 to the time of his death, he held the oftice 10 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.