1768-1854 Joseph Otis
Joseph Otis was a successful, generous, religious man who founded the Otis Library in Norwich. He was the prototypical philantropist.
He was a native of Norwich, born in July 1768. In his youth, he lived in Yantic near what was then the Backus Iron Works, (later operated as Hale Manufacturing Co). He attended school at the Bean Hill school, and, soon began to work in the mercantile industry at Chelsea Landing. Otis worked successively as a businessman at Charleston New York, Norwich Connecticut, Richmond Virginia and again in New York. The vast majority of his time in business was spent in New York.
Joseph Otis was a deeply religious man. He served as an elder at the Duane Street Presbyterian Church in mid-town Manhattan, for nearly twenty years. He was a generous contributor of charity and Christian benevolence.
In 1838, at the age of 70, Joseph and his wife returned to Norwich. They were married for 47 years when she died in 1844. They had no children.
Soon after her death, in 1850, he founded the Otis Library on the corner of Union Street & Church Street, across the street from present-day City Hall. He expended $10,500 ($308,000 in today’s dollars) for the first purchase of books. A drawing of the original library, as seen in 1888, is shown on the left.
Joseph Otis died in April 1854. In his will left $6,500 ($191,000 in today’s dollars) for the future use of the library, and, approximately $23,500 ($690,000 in today’s dollars) for other religious and educational institutions.
Acknowledgements
“History of Norwich, Connecticut: From Its Possession From the Indians, to the Year 1866”, page 577, by Frances Manwaring Caulkins
Flickr (Otis Library)
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1804-1875 William A. Buckingham
William A. Buckingham is one of Norwich’s most prominent historical figures.
In his early twenties Buckingham moved from his native Lebanon, Connecticut home to Norwich to work in a dry goods store owned by his uncle. After working there for two years, he spent a short time working in a wholesale store in New York City. However, he returned to Norwich in 1826 to establish his own dry goods business. For awhile, he manufactured carpet.
In 1848, he left the business and helped form the Hayward Rubber Company in Colchester, serving as its manager and treasurer.
Buckingham became active in Norwich politics as a member of the Whig Political Party. He was elected four times as Norwich’s Mayor for four years and served as Norwich’s town treasurer and a member of the city council. In 1857, he was considered as a candidate for governor of Connecticut on the National Union ticket, but a storm kept some of his supporters from attending the nominating convention in New Haven, and he lost the election in a close vote.
In 1858 he was elected as the Governor of Connecticut, and took office on May 5, 1858. Buckingham served as Governor throughout the Civil War years (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865).
Acknowledgements
“William Alfred Buckingham”, New England Historical Society
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1814-1901 Charles A. Converse
Charles A. Converse was an industrious, creative and generous man who did much to advance both manufacturing and the arts in Norwich. He is best known for founding the Commonwealth Works at Yantic Falls and providing funds for the Converse Art Building at the Norwich Free Academy.
He first moved to Norwich at age 15 and began working as a bookkeeper in a file-making company. Soon after that company failed he opened his own enterprise that produced files, bits, and augers. Later, when he was about 35 years old, he established and was principal stakeholder for Bacon & Company, a gun manufacturer in Norwich.
In 1865, Converse built the first major industrial facility at Yantic Falls. After consolidating water rights at the falls, he is credited with being the first to harness the power of the falls. His facility, the Commonwealth Works, hosted several water-powered enterprises. They included the Norwich Falls Pistol Company, the Bacon Manufacturing Company (gun maker), the Hopkins & Allen Mfg. Company, (another gun maker), a gristmill, a sawmill, a woolen mill, a nail factory, dye works, a flour mill and a cork-cutting factory. It also hosted the Norwich File Company and the Chelsea File Company.
In 1868, at the age of 54, he co-founded and was principal stakeholder of Hopkins & Allen,. Hopkins & Allen grew out of Converse’s previous company, Bacon & Co. In 1874, he divested himself from Hopkins & Allen. However, Hopkins & Allen continued to flourish and in 1888 it was the third largest pistol manufacturer in the U.S., after Colt in Hartford, and, Winchester in New Haven.
Charles Converse died in 1901. However, his will provided $25,000 ($756,000 in today’s dollars) for the Converse Art Building at Norwich Free Academy. On June 6, 1907 the building was opened to the public and became home of the Norwich Art School. The Norwich Art School has inspired and trained students for more than 110 years.
Later, In 1998 site of the original Commonwealth Works was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Norwich is forever grateful for the generosity of Charles A. Converse.
Acknowledgements
Artist : John Denison Crocker
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1815-1884 John Fox Slater
At seventeen he entered his father’s woolen mill in Hopeville, of which he took charge in 1836. He owned this and other mills in partnership with his brother, William S. Slater until 1873. At this point-in-time his brother took over the Slatersville Mills and he assumed sole ownership of the cotton mills at Jewett City.
In 1842 Slater moved to Norwich and settled into a 16,000 square-foot home that is now known as the old Elks Club. Two years later he married Marianna Hubbard, whose family lived next door, and she joined him there. After living there for about 17 years, they moved to a mansion originally built for Charles Rockwell, located at Broadway and Broad Street in Norwich.
In 1882 he founded of the John F. Slater Fund for the education of former slaves in the South following the Civil War. For this act of generosity, he was presented the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished appreciation and contributions. Others who have received this award include Thomas A. Edison, Dr. Jonas Salk, the Wright Brothers, and Charles A. Lindbergh. His grant of $1,000,000 in 1882 was worth $25,400,00 in today’s dollars.
John Fox Slater was one of the original corporators of the Norwich Free Academy and he donated more than $15,000 ($380,000 in today’s dollars) to outfit the school. He also endowed the Park Congregational Church in Norwich, provided a building for the United Workers (a social service agency in Norwich), and funded the construction of the Slater Library in Jewett City.
The Slater Memorial Museum was built in honor of John Fox Slater through a bequest of his son, William A. Slater.
He and his wife Marianna are buried in Yantic Cemetery.
Acknowledgements
“Industrializing Antebellum America: The Rise of Manufacturing Entrepreneurs in the Early Republic”, pp 132-133, (2016), by Barbara Tucker and Kenneth Tucker Jr.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Memorial of John F. Slater (1885)
1901-1991 Edwin H. Land
Edwin Herbert Land grew up in Norwich. He attended public school and graduated near the top of his class from Norwich Free Academy in 1927. Some of his teachers at NFA described him “as a genius”. He went on to study at Harvard. However, he left after only one semester to pursue his dreams. Over his lifetime he patented 535 inventions, more than any American except Thomas Edison.
He is distinguished for his inventions and contributions in the fields of polarized light, photography and color vision. He had an impact on the lives of many millions of people and provided large-scale employment in many countries for over five decades. He mastered the art of giving the people what they wanted at a price they could afford. He has had few peers in the advancement and application of natural science to everyday life. Land’s achievements spanned the disciplines of art, science, technology and commerce.
In the field of polarized light, he was responsible for the invention, development and efficient commercial production of the first sheet polarizers, for a sequence of subsequent polarizers, and for the theory and practice of many applications of polarized light. Such devices are widely used today in liquid crystal displays, in sunglasses and in scientific and medical research. The trade name “Polaroid” has become the accepted generic name for these sheets
Edwin Land’s ideas impressed Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. In the Time magazine of 10/10/1999, Jobs wrote, “I’ve never believed that they’re separate. Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist and a great scientist … People bring those things together a lot. Dr. Land at Polaroid said, ‘I want Polaroid to stand at the intersection of art and science.’ I have never forgotten that.”
Norwich Free Academy’s library is named in his honor. The library contains a small museum of his artifacts. Edwin H. Land died in 1991 and is buried in Cambridge Massachusetts.
Acknowledgements
“From Humble Beginnings to Corporate Giant”, (02/23/2008), by Bill Stanley
“A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid and Kodak Patent War” (2015), by Ronald K. Fierstein
Life Magazine (October 1972)
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