The Newtown bee., 1906-03-09


 iear in the General Assembly at Hart ord. In business he was selfmade man, working his way sup from small until he had at the time )f his death a fortune which is esti. mated at about $6OO, GOO. He had put ! good deal of thought and all his time into the wire business and had been one of the great factors in making the Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Co. such grand success.
 Benjamin Gilbert, the father of Ed win Gilbert, made the first ash sieve in his own house, getting out the wood work himself by hand and his wife braided the horse hair and wOve it for the sieve part. In 1918, Benjamin Gilbert started the foundation for the until 1928. His son, Edwin, worked with his father from the time when he was mere lad until when young man little over 2l years of age he was taken into the firm, which then consisted of Benjamin Gilbert, >turges Bennett, William J. Gilbert, brother of Benjamin Gilbert, the fonnder of the business, and Edwin Gilbert, his son. In 1874, the business vas changed to an Incorporated Com pany, the name being changed from Gilbert S5 Bennett to The Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Co. Edwin Gilbert was chosen director of the corporation in 1874 and continued un- til 1893. In 1875 he was chosen super. intendent and treasurer of the corpor- atiOn, serving as superintendent about one year, and as treasurer until 1904 In 1884 he was made president of the company, which position he held until h 1nofh olin0 9 ha served in that capacity. In 1874 the company's factory burned to the ground at a loss of S10O, ,OOO, with only d small insurance. Up to this time the principal things manufactured were glue and curled hair. They did only small business in woven wire After the factory was rebuilt this was made their main business and has con, tinued to grow until they now have the largest business of the kind in the country, and beside their large plant here have another .plant nearly as large at Wiretown, Ill, which is just out of Chicago. Their main offices are in Georgetown. They also have large cago and Kansas City and are capital ized at s1.OOO,O ,OOO. MT Gilbert, with his associates, has by pluck and good management been able to keep increas ing the business until they have reached such an enormous business as they are now carrying on.
 A funeral service was held at MI Gilbert's winter home at Crescent City, Fla, on Thursday, conducted by Rev Lewis T. Chafer, MT Gilbert's pastor there, assisted by Rev Dl Reeves and Rev Dr Wright of Glen Cove, Fla. Rev and Mrs Chafer sang "Jesus, Saviour, Pilot Me-" The body accompanied by Mrs Gilbert, hel niece, Miss Florence Jones, and Dl Diggitt, who attended MT Gilbert ir his last sickness, reached Georgetown March 3, on the 2 o'clock train anG vas taken at once to his late home Dr Diggitt remained with them unti after the funeral. The funeral was one of the largest ever seen in this place, there being fully 1000 present people being present from Chicago Norwalk, New York, Brooklyn, Dan bury and all the surrounding towns It was held from the Gilbert Memori al church, Sunday afternoon, at Z o'clock, Rev s. A. Fiske, pastor o1 the church, officiating, assisted b, Rev MT Hart of Wilton, Rev A. O. EgglestOn of the Methodist church and Rev MT Larson of the Swedish SOoS1C80UlOAdl SAu1SdS OH Ol WuOII spoke in highest terms of the deceased A quartet from South Norwalk sang "In the hour of trial" "Lead, kindly Light" and "Asleep in Jesus." At the close of the service the employees o1 the company viewed the remains in a body. The burial was in the church. yard, at the Gilbert Memorial church, in a vault just back of the church which MT Gilbert had built just be- fore he went South. He also had another one arranged by his side which is for his wife. The honorary bearers were David H. Miller, Samuel J. Miller, Charles Jennings, Frank Jelliffe, Burr Mills and Lewis Hurl burt of Cannon. The active bearers 2esa HSwa1S % Fs74s zalu GS Wa5 SGnsn Fred Foster, L. P. Miller and Harry Miller. The ushers were Fred SturgeS, Charles Stanley, Percy Thompson and Howard Hunter. The bearers and ushers were all from the office of the Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Co., There was a very large number of beautiful floral tributes. Among others were an ivy cross with a wreath of pink roses from his asso- ciates in business, "Gates Ajar" from the office boys, wreath of vio- lCCo HUI Uuc CulCdSU OluCe, SUanC- ing wreath of leaves and white carna- tions from the Gilbert Memorial church and from personal friends a large number of floral crescents, crosses, wreaths and bouquets. Funeral Di- rector K. B. Bouton had charge of the funeral arrangements in this place. MT Gilbert is survived by his wife, who for nearly 60 years has journeyed happily with him and who on Tues day, March 6, celebrated her 8lst birthday anniversary. One sister, Mrs Angeline Weed, of Yonkers, N. Y., who is 87 years of age, also sur wives him. MT Gilbert had ,host of friends, as we'll as those who knew him in business, among whom he will be greatly missed. In ehis will MT Gill bert was as generous as he was in his life time. Among the bequests to ben ovelent objects were to the Storrs Ag- ricultural college, Storrs, his ridge farm of $50 acres, overlooking George