Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

the abandonment of the profession he had
chosen, he resolutely met the necessities
of the ease, and accomplished a success-
ful development and expansion of his
father's business, which he soon removed
to Hartford. There he enlarged its scope
from cemetery and foundation work to
contracting building on a large scale, beginning
with the State Savings Hank and
the marble front Phenix National P.ank.
In 1857 he was awarded the contract for
the General Worth equestrian monument
in New York City. In 1875 ne incor-
porated as the New England Granite
Works, with 8250,000 capital, operating
quarries at Canaan, Connecticut; and also
in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. He
not only installed the best known me-
chanical devices, but he invented a lathe
for cutting and polishing stone columns,
such work theretofore being only done
by hand. He gave his personal attention
to the work on the great granite pillars
for the State Capitol at Albany, New
York. Scarcely an important city or
cemetery in the country is without Bat-
terson granite work. The company constructed
the National Soldiers' Monument
at Gettysburg ; the Alexander Hamilton
statue in Central Park, New York City
the West Point monument of General
Thayer, founder of the Military Academy;
the Antietam battlefield monument;
the monument at Galveston, Texas, to
the memory of those who fell in the
and
Texas revolution ; the General Halleck
monument at San Francisco ;
the
General Wood monument at Troy, New
York, the latter a sixty-foot shaft weigh-
ing nearly a hundred tons. Among the
Company's great buildings are : The Con-
necticut Mutual Life Insurance, Hartford
; the Equitable and the Masonic
Temple, New York ; the Mutual Life,
Philadelphia; the City Hall, Providence;
and the thirty-story Park Row building,
;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF IIH xiKAIMIY
245
New York. The finest, however, is the
Congressional Library in Washington
City, exquisitely fashioned of gray Con-
cord granite. Another of the famous Pat-
terson buildings is the Capitol at Hart-
ford, costing nearly two million dollars.
In [860 Mr. Batterson established marble
works in New York City, and from which
have come the interiors of many of the
notable buildings of the metropolis, as
well as of various large cities.
Mr. Batterson's business career, as outlined
above, gave him less fame, however,
than did his recognition as the founder
of accident insurance in America. While
visiting England, he became acquainted
with the accident insurance beginnings in
that country, and upon his return he se-
cured a charter for railroad accident
insurance, having it amended the next
year to cover all classes of accidents, and
again in 1866 to include all forms of life
insurance. This was the origin of the
famous "Travelers." There was keen op-
position, but the Batterson interests
acquired or outlived all rivals. The first
premium received by the "Travelers" was
two cents, for insuring a Hartford banker
from the post office to his home, and from
this small beginning has grown a business
with assets of over seventy million dol-
lars, a capital stock of two and a half mil-
lions, and writing single policies in hun-
dreds of thousands.
1 1 is principal business, however, did not
bound either the interests or the capabili-
ties of Mr. Batterson. He delved into the
law, and learned how to maintain his
rights and how to avoid litigation. He
studied geology under J. G. Percival, the
Connecticut poet-geologist, for whom he
acted as guide in the first geological survey
of the State ; and in 1858-59, in company
with the eminent Brunei, he visited
and studied the stone formations, pyramids
and tombs, along the valley of the