Wales Lines deBussy (1891-1942)

From the Meriden Daily Journal, October 11, 1933.

  Multifaceted Connecticut resident Wales Line Debussy made quite a name for himself in his short life of fifty years, being both a WWI Navy aviator and later a director of a successful construction firm. His public career reached its apex in 1925 when he was elected as Mayor of the city of Meriden, Connecticut for the first of three terms.

  Born in New Haven on February 3, 1891, Wales Lines deBussy was the son of Roger Baldwin (1863-1943) and Clara Lines deBussy (1867-1949). He inherited his first and middle names in honor of his grandfather, Henry Wales Lines (1838-1927) a former Meriden mayor and state representative who was the founder of the H. Wales Lines Company, a successful building construction company responsible for erecting many of Meriden's homes and public buildings.

  Wales L. deBussy attended public school in Winchester, Massachusetts, and is remarked by the Meriden Record as removing with his family to Mt. Vernon, New York, where he graduated high school. At age eighteen he joined his grandfather's business and remained in this employ until the onset of American involvement in World War I. He enlisted in April 1917 and spent the next few months in service. In February of the next year, he was detailed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he began preparations for training as an aviator in the U.S. Navy. 

   After his aviation training, deBussy remained at MIT, serving as an instructor. He was commissioned as a navy ensign in June 1918 and left MIT in January 1919 for Florida, where he completed his training and officially qualified as a naval aviator. In May 1919 he was discharged from service and shortly thereafter returned to his earlier duties with the H. Wales Lines Company. In 1920 he was elected as the director and secretary of the aforementioned company, and during his stewardship took charge of building projects involving several Meriden businesses, including the Meriden Savings Bank, the Meriden Hospital, the Center Congregational Church, the Meriden Gas Light company and the Meriden Electric Light Company. In addition to these public buildings, the H. Wales Lines Company built many personal residences in Meriden, including the home of Charles H. Cuno (1888-1978) a Meriden civic leader, industrialist, and founder of the Cuno Engineering Company, prominent in the manufacture of automobile parts.

   In 1923 deBussy made his first move into politics, running as a Republican for Mayor of Meriden. He was defeated by Democrat Henry T. King (1867-1956). deBussy again ran for mayor in 1925 and was successful in his candidacy, taking office on January 4, 1926. He was interviewed by the Meriden Record shortly before his inauguration and was reported as stating "There is only one thing certain, and that is that only thoroughly competent persons will be appointed to the various city positions." 

Mayor deBussy, from the January 12, 1942 edition of the Meriden Record.

  deBussy was re-elected as Mayor in 1927 and 1928 and in the former year took over the Presidency of the H. Wales Lines Company, succeeding his grandfather, who had died at age 89. After his mayoral term concluded in January 1930, deBussy retired from political life, due to what the Meriden Record referred to as "business pressure". In 1933 he was induced by city Republicans to once again run for Mayor, but was unsuccessful in his attempt, losing in that year's primary to Democrat Joseph Dispersio by a vote of 914 to 1157.

  Following his term as mayor deBussy continued as President of the Lines Company until 1935, when he left that office to serve as a company vice president under new executive Charles S. Phelps. In December 1937 he married Ms. Anne Sullivan (1898-1991) and is recorded as having at least one daughter, Barbara. In addition to his business activities, deBussy was one of Meriden's prominent Masonic leaders, being a past master of the Meriden Lodge #77 and was a member of the Keystone Chapter No. 27 of the Royal Arch Masons, the Meriden Knights Templar Lodge, the Meriden Elks Club, and the American Legion. 

  Wales L. deBussy died of a "short illness" on January 11, 1942, just a few weeks short of his 51st birthday. He was shortly thereafter buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery in Meriden. He was survived by both his parents, wife, daughter, and an elder sister, Beatrice. Anne Sullivan deBussy survived her husband by nearly fifty years, dying at age 93 on February 12, 1991, and following her death was interred alongside her husband in the Walnut Grove Cemetery.

From the front page of the Meriden Record, January 12, 1942.

Ophir LeRoy Haring (1878-1943)

   Once in a while a certain city, town, or village is discovered that has an oddly named individual listed amongst its roster of past mayors. The city of Three Rivers, Michigan is a special case, as it has had the good fortune to have two men serve as mayor (twenty years apart) with truly unusual names. The first of these men was Cadalzo Dockstader (profiled yesterday) who held the job from 1897-1899. Following in his stead was Ophir LeRoy Haring, who is profiled today. This man with the intriguing first name was a lifelong Michigan resident and is presumed to have inherited the name "Ophir" from the like-named region in the Bible, an area known for gold, mineral wealth, and other precious resources.

   Ophir L. Haring was born in a log cabin on February 15, 1878, in the township of North Shade in Gratiot County, Michigan, the last of five children born to Hiram (1844-1905)  and Susan Foltz Haring (1843-1925). He spent a good majority of his adolescence engaged in farm work and attended schools local to the village of Hubbardston. After the completion of his education, he went to serve as a school teacher in the village of Beebe, Michigan, and was employed here for only a few months. He left this employ and later went on to a short career as a general merchandiser in the store of William D. Iseman. Haring married in Ithaca, Michigan in November 1904 to Else Harriett Hill (1875-1932) with whom he would have two daughters, Madelon Elaine (1914-1992) and Donna Jean (1918-1976). Ophir and Elsie are also recorded as adopting a third child, Doris Eileen Van Aken (1914-1992) in 1915.

  Two years following his marriage Haring decided upon a career as an undertaker, enrolling at the Williams School of Embalming in Chicago. After completing the curriculum he worked as an undertaker and embalmer in Cassopolis, Michigan, and Elkhart, Indiana before relocating to the Three Rivers area. Once settled, Haring formed another undertaking business with Frederick W. Balch, a prominent local furniture dealer. This partnership lasted for over a decade, and Haring himself is noted as opening the first funeral parlor in Three Rivers in 1919.

   Ophir L. Haring's activities weren't limited to just operating a funeral home. A member of several local fraternal organizations, including the Salathiel Chapter No. 23 of the Royal Arch Masons, Haring also made his name known politically, becoming a member of the Three Rivers City Commission in 1921. Two years later he was elected as Mayor of Three Rivers, and after serving a term of one year returned to his earlier career as a funeral director and embalmer. In his later years, Haring held a seat on the St. Joseph County Welfare Commission and is recorded as resigning from this board for unknown reasons. He died on December 29, 1943, at age 65 and was later interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Three Rivers. Haring's wife Elsie predeceased him eleven years previously and was interred in the same cemetery as her husband. 

  The rare portrait of Ophir LeRoy Haring shown above was featured on a 1932 poster featuring all of the past Three Rivers mayors who had served from 1908-1932. The original poster is located in the collection of the Three Rivers Library archive and can be seen on the Library's Flickr page at the following link. 

Cadalzo A. Dockstader (1861-1944)

   Possessing a truly unique first name, Cadalzo Dockstader was a locally prominent citizen in both St. Joseph County, Michigan, and later, Syracuse, New York. Born in Nevada County, California on July 2, 1861, Cadalzo was one of three children born to Giles Fonda and Mary Louise Keller Dockstader. Giles and his wife had migrated from Michigan to California sometime previously, and at some point following their son's birth removed back to the Michigan area, settling in the county of St. Joseph.

  Cadalzo Dockstader enrolled at the Michigan State Agricultural College at East Lansing, graduating from this school in August 1882. A short while later he became engaged as a druggist in the city of Three Rivers, becoming a partner of Henry Hall in the pharmacy office of Hall and Dockstader. Their business is recorded as being "one of the oldest drug stores in Three Rivers" as well as being dealers in peppermint oil. Dockstader himself is referred to as a "dealer in domestic essential oils, farmer and druggist" in a publication by his Alma mater. In the late 1880s, Dockstader married Eva Belle Jackson (1865-1917) with whom he would have one daughter, Mary Jane (1889-1922). 

  While prominent as a druggist in his community, Dockstader gained further notoriety in 1896 when he was elected Mayor of the city of Three Rivers, which had been incorporated as a municipality a short while before. Dockstader was the second man to serve as mayor of the city (succeeding Marvin H. Bumphrey) and held office from April 1897 to April 1899. Two years after his term as Mayor had concluded, Dockstader won election as a Probate Judge for St. Joseph County, serving on the bench until 1905. 

   A few years after the conclusion of his term as judge, the Dockstader family removed from Three Rivers to Syracuse, New York, where they would reside for the rest of their lives. Within a few years of his relocation to the Empire State Dockstader had established business roots in Onondaga County, becoming an "apple orchidist" and was Secretary of the Onondaga Orchid Co. in the town of Fabius. He served in the capacity of Secretary-Treasurer of the North Syracuse Light and Power Company during the early 1920s and in addition to the proceeding held the Presidency of the Cicero State Bank at Cicero, New York for an indeterminate length of time. Eva Dockstader died of an undisclosed illness in Syracuse in November 1917 at age 52, and Cadalzo never remarried following her death. Five years following his wife's passing Dockstader was dealt another tragedy when his only daughter Mary Jane died at age 33. 

  In 1929 Dockstader reentered the political forum, launching a campaign for Mayor of North Syracuse, New York. Dockstader ran as a "non-partisan candidate" and faced off against Republican Ernest Conway during the contest. On election day Dockstader emerged victorious, besting Conway by a close vote of 312 to 302. Two newspaper snippets concerning the election (both of which appeared in the Syracuse Journal in March 1929) are located below. Dockstader's one term as Mayor ended in 1931, and it is worth noting that he is the first oddly named politician profiled here on the site who served as a Mayor in two different states.

  Little else is known of Dockstader's life after he left office, and one can presume that he carried on with his earlier agricultural and banking interests in Onondaga County. Cadalzo Dockstader died at the Duryee Nursing Home in Syracuse on December 15, 1944, at age 83 and was shortly thereafter cremated. His remains were later interred at the North Syracuse Cemetery. The rare portrait of him shown above was found in the 1895 work Headlight Flashes Along the Michigan Central Line, which highlighted important civic and business leaders in the Three Rivers area.

From the December 16, 1944 edition of the Syracuse Journal.

Hyrcanus Blackman (1847-1921)

    A prominent businessman, political figure, and lumber merchant active in the Washington Territory, Hyrcanus Blackman was born on January 4, 1847, in Bradley, Maine, one of six children born to Adam and Mary Howard Blackman. He received his education in the public schools of Maine and later went on to study at the Westbrook Seminary for a time. The Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties notes that Blackman later graduated from the Charles Wells Business College in New Haven, Connecticut. Following his graduation, Blackman taught school for a short period but eventually joined his two older brothers Alanson and Elhanan in the manufacture of lumber. Hyrcanus married on May 17, 1870, in Maine to Ms. Ella Knapp, with whom he would have two children, Clifford (born 1884) and Eunice (born 1887).
   Born into a family long active in the Maine lumber industry, Hyrcanus and his two brothers migrated from their native Maine to the Washington Territory in 1872, eventually settling in the county of Snohomish. It was here that the three Blackman brothers soon began plotting their business future, and within a few years of their resettlement had built up a very lucrative lumber and logging business. This business eventually grew to include a large sawmill and a mercantile store, the latter being under the supervision of Hyrcanus. 
  

           From Volume II of The History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington (1889).

   While the two older Blackman brothers were the prime movers in this burgeoning logging industry, it was Hyrcanus alone who became active in politics in the territory. In 1878 the county of Snohomish elected him to the Washington Territorial Legislature. In addition to his burgeoning political career, Hyrcanus also began to develop his own business interests in the county, building his own general store in the mid-1880s and later constructing the luxurious Penobscot Hotel in 1888.
   In 1890, Blackman's political star rose again when he was chosen as the first Mayor of the city of Snohomish (which had incorporated itself as a city that same year). Research on his term notes that he served until December 1890, when the new city elected Emory Ferguson. Although some sources list Blackman as the Snohomish's "inaugural" mayor, other sources record the aforementioned Ferguson as the first true holder of the office. 
  Throughout the remaining years of his life, Blackman continued with his earlier business interests in the Snohomish area. He briefly returned to political life in 1904 when he served as a delegate from Washington to the Democratic National Convention that nominated Alton B. Parker for the presidency. Hyrcanus Blackman died at his mansion in Snohomish on June 1, 1921, at age 74 and was survived by his wife Ella, two children, and brothers Alanson and Elhanan. He was later interred at the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery in Snohomish. In addition to the above, Blackman's unusual first name stems from a long-forgotten King of Judea and a Jewish priest named Hyrcanus. As an emperor, Hyrcanus was condemned to death by Emperor Herod in 30 B.C.