Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

of the Stamford Shoe Company. They
met the needs of the retail trade with the
same comprehensive attention to all per-
tinent details which has always charac-
terized their manufacturing business.
Later Mr. Lounsbury retired and the
company was then incorporated. Late
in the year 1904 he became president of
the Stamford Savings Bank, and since
that time this interest has almost exclu-
sively held his attention, his present office
being that of president of the board. He
still owns the Stamford Shoe Company,
which became his personal property when
he retired from the firm.
Mr. Lounsbury has always held the
keenest interest in the public welfare and
civic progress. While never seeking po-
litical preferment, and caring nothing for
the game for its own sake, he never shirks
any part in the public service which ap-
peals to him as a duty. His political
convictions hold him loyal to the Repub-
lican party. He has been a member of the
Board of Burgesses and of the City
Council, also of the Board of Trade, of
which he was president for some years.
He is a director of the Stamford Trust
Company and of the Stamford Savings
Bank, and is secretary and assistant treas-
urer of the Stamford Gas and Electric
Company, and a director of the Stamford
National Bank. He is also a director of
the Stamford Hospital. He is a member
of Union Lodge, No. 5, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, of Stamford, and also
of the Suburban Club.
Mr. Lounsbury married, in Stamford,
Anna Perry Samuel, of St. Louis, and
they are the parents of three daughters
Alice ; Mary
:
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
; Louise, who was the wife
of William P. Hudson, and was the mo-
ther of two children, Florence, deceased,
and Charles H. L., who was an ensign in
the Navy during the European War.
238
STRANG, James Suydam,
Merchant
In the history of man's struggle for
freedom no chapter is more thrilling than
that which narrates the flight of the
French Protestants from their native
land, when in 1685 Louis XIV revoked
the Edict of Nantes. Since 1598 they
had been in the enjoyment of religious
freedom, but now, not only were they deprived
of the privilege to worship God
according to the dictates of their con-
science, but they were not permitted to
emigrate to countries where such priv-
ileges were accorded. Most rigid meas-
ures were adopted to prevent their leav-
ing the country, every avenue of escape
being most closely guarded. However,
thousands of these sturdy folk to whom
adherence to principle was dearer than
life itself, made their way to England,
some coming thence to America Among
the latter was Daniel L'Estrange, the
progenitor of the Strang family in this
country. No element among our Colon-
ial pioneers has contributed more than
the French Huguenots to the sturdy char-
acter of American manhood, or to the
high ideals of American institutions and
government. The meager facts now
available relating to the descendants of
Daniel L'Estrange in the line here under
consideration show that in every crisis
of the nation's history they have evinced
the sturdiest patriotism, while in the less
strenuous but not less exacting times of
peace, judged by ethical standards, they
have by precept and example, in indus-
try, frugality, and upright citizenship, in
private and public life, contributed to
the material and moral advancement of
our country.
Like all historic patronymics, the name
Strang has been spelled in various ways.