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clerical capacity in the employ of his
uncle, the Hon. Charles H. Northam, who
attained much eminence in Hartford busi-
ness and public life, was esteemed for his
philanthropy, and who was for many
years prior to his death, in 1881, president
of the Mercantile National Bank and of
the old Connecticut River Steamboat
Company, and whose deeds are commemorated
in Northam Memorial Chapel
and Northam Hall at Trinity College.
Charles H. Northam, however, only remained
in the cotton and wool business
conducted by his uncle for six months,
leaving to take service as clerk with
Jerome & Redfield, wholesale grocers,
with which firm he remained for three
years, in which time he gathered a comprehensive
knowledge of general mercan-
tile business, acquiring also some capital,
and the confidence in others that he was
a capable, enterprising and reliable young
man of much business promise. This
combination of circumstances made it
possible for him to become a junior part-
ner of a firm then established, under the
name of Bradford, Northam & Company,
to conduct a wholesale business in flour,
grain and feed, and the fact that the company
is still in existence and that in the
more than sixty years of its existence it
has progressed so that it is now one of
the leading firms in its line in the New
England States is an indication that the
supporters of the young man in its founding
did not misjudge his capability. For
more than sixty years Mr. Northam was
one of the principals of the firm, which
soon developed a substantial business.
There have, of necessity, been several
changes in the construction and consti-
tution of the company since its begin-
ning, but for the greater part of its dec-
ades of operation, Mr. Northam was the
directing head. In 1866, with the admis-
sion of a Mr. Robinson to partnership,
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the firm name became Smith, Northam &
Robinson ; in 1882, it became Smith,
Northam & Company ;
and with the death
of Mr. Smith in 1892, Mr. Emelyn V.
Mitchell was admitted, but the firm name,
Smith, Northam & Company, was con-
tinued and still is the same excepting that
it subsequently became necessary to add
"incorporated," when the business so in-
creased in volume that the owners re-
solved to secure corporate powers for
their operations. A contemporary, writing
some years ago of Mr. Northam, and
of the business of Smith, Northam &
Company, stated
The business is one of the oldest and best known
of its kind in all Connecticut, and has always been
a prosperous one. Their plant occupies more
than two acres of ground; their grain mill is the
largest in New England ; their four warehouses
can store two hundred carloads of flour, and
their two elevators 200,000 bushels of grain in
bulk. They conduct a business not exceeded in
magnitude outside of New York and Boston,
their trade extending all over the New England
states. Mr. Northam, a man of ability, keen fore-
sight and progressive ideas, has ever been the
mainspring of the business, and although many of
the heavier burdens have been transferred to the
shoulders of his capable son, Russell C. Northam,
he continues the acting directing head.
The benefit of Mr. Northam's advice
and interest was sought by many leading
business corporations, and he became
of prominence in financial circles of Hartford.
He was a director of the Phoenix
National Bank, of the Loan and Guarantee
Company, of the New Haven Steam-
boat Company, of the Phoenix Fire Insurance
Company, and of the Broad Brook
Company, and also was a trustee of the
Society of Savings. In addition, Mr.
Northam came into public notice in the
municipal affairs of Hartford ; he was in
the Common Council for two terms, but
declined election to the aldermanic body
in 1890. However, he consented to join