PHINE AS

CHAPMAN

LOUNSBURY

HINEAS C. Lounsbury was born in the town of Ridgefield,

PH

January 10, 1841, and is descended from sturdy New England stock. The father of Governor Lounsbury was a farmer in Ridgefield with an irreproachable reputation. As a boy the future governor helped his father on the farm, laboring early and late. He found time to attend school and obtain a good education. Leaving the little farm, Lounsbury went to New York City and secured employment as a clerk in a shoe store. In a short time the young man was made confidential clerk to the proprietor of the store. He afterwards became a traveling salesman for the concern, and intimately acquainted with every department of the business. As a “drummer” he was successful, and at the early age of twenty-one years decided to engage in the manufacture of boots and shoes. He began this industry in New Haven under the firm name of Lounsbury Brothers, his brother being a partner in the business. The business prospered from the first and in a short time they had a very lucrative trade. They afterwards removed the factory to South Norwalk, where it has been operated for a long time as Lounsbury, Math

ewson & Company. His younger brother has been for a long time senior member of the firm.

Governor Lounsbury demonstrated his patriotism when the Civil War commenced by enlisting as a private in the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers. His army experience was necessarily brief, for soon after reaching the front he was taken sick with typhoid fever; and after being in the service four months he was honorably discharged. Devoting himself to his business, Lounsbury took part in the political discussions of the day and became a prominent man in the Republican party. In 1874 he was elected a representative to the General Assembly from the town of Ridgefield, and became one of the leading members of that body. In 1880 he was a presidential elector, and did a great amount of hard campaign work in support of Garfield and Arthur. Friends of Lounsbury put his name forward for gubernatorial honors as early as 1882, and his candidacy met with favor in his home county. In the Republican State Convention of 1884 there was a strong faction in favor of nominating him for governor, but he was defeated. Instead of taking the situation as many men might, he set to work to elect the ticket. It has been said that his manly course at this time was a great factor in making his name strong at the next convention. In the convention of 1886 he was nominated for governor and was elected by a good majority.

Governor Lounsbury served from 1887 to 1889, and left a

The

Governors of Connectic u t

favorable record after him. Since that time he has held no political office, but he has devoted his time to the management of the Preferred Accident Insurance Company of New York, of which he is president, and also the Merchants Exchange National Bank. He is distinctly a business man, a friend of the day laborer, a soldier, a speaker who can grace any occasion, and withal a thoroughly conscientious Christian gentleman.

A writer has called Governor Lounsbury the second Buckingham for, says he: "He has the virtues of our well-beloved war governor, and like him coming from the ranks of the manufacturer and the church and home, to make more conspicuous in public station the integrity and personal purity, that are the surest foundation of Republican institutions."