Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Mrs. Bidwell became a school teacher and
for several years was engaged in this pro-
fession in the Hartford schools.
COTTER, Daniel F.,
Automobile Dealer.
Opportunity is supposed to be a fleet-
footed goddess who designs to pass only
once. But perhaps opportunity has learned
to respect certain level-headed men who
are gifted with an infinite capacity for
painstaking, persistent hard work. For
the sake of these she may now and
then take a leisurely pace, accommodat-
ing her steps to the stately movement of
those evolutionary forces which bring
about business changes, and really spell
progress. Certain it is that the man who
keeps everlastingly at it, holding his mind
on the alert for every change in business
conditions, still never losing his compre-
hensive grasp on the work in hand, is the
man who wins.
Daniel F. Cotter, of Hartford, Connec-
ticut, is a man who has followed one line
of business, growing with its growth and
reaching out with its development, chang-
ing as time changed the conditions gov-
erning his work, and thus evolving his
success. Constancy of purpose and de-
termination make success.
The name of Cotter is very old. According
to Burke, "The Irish patronymic
of this family is O'Corteoir, signifying a
cottager, a boat builder." According to
Gibson, in his "History of Cork," the
family is of Danish origin. The head of
the Cotter family in Ireland during the
Commonwealth period was William Cot-
ter, who forfeited his estate for his activi-
ties in the Irish War in 1641. The Cotter
coat-of-arms is
:
Arms—Azure, three evetts in pale propre.
Crest—A lion passant, reguardant, propre.
Motto—Dum spiro spero, which means, While
I live I shall have hope.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
140
Mr. Cotter's grandfather, Thomas Cotter,
was born in Ireland. His father, William
J. Cotter, was born in Portland, Con-
necticut, about 1851, and died August 19,
1899, aged forty-eight years. He grew up
in Portland, attending the public schools
there. When he was about sixteen he
went to work for Fred Russell, of that
town, and was with him about ten years.
He then came to Hartford and went into
the livery business for himself on Trinity
street. Later he removed to Buckingham
street, and continued there until his death.
He numbered among his regular patrons
many of Hartford's leading families. He
was one of the first telephone subscribers
in the city of Hartford, when that con-
venience was first being installed in the
city in the face of much indifference and
opposition. His wife, Mary (Fitzgibbon)
Cotter, was a daughter of Daniel
Fitzgibbon, and was born in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. She died January 6, 1919,
aged seventy years. William J. Cotter
was the father of four children : Daniel
F., Thomas W., Mazie and Josephine.
The family were members of St. Peter's
Church.
The Fitzgibbon family is of Italian
origin, and emigrated to Ireland in 1171.
The founder of the family was Gerald, a
grandson of Otho, who was an Italian
Baron, a descendant of the Duke of Tuscany.
Gerald built the Castle of Pem-
broke, and married Nesta, daughter of
Rees Gryffidh, a Prince of the Welsh. Her
sons were the ancestors of the FitzGeralds,
FitzHenrys and FitzGibbons. De-
tails of the Griffin ancestry, the name be-
ing a form of Gryffidh, will be found elsewhere
in this work, under the name of
Griffin.
Daniel F. Cotter was born in Hartford,
December 5, 1876. He was educated in
the public schools, and later was asso-
ciated with his father in the livery busi-
ness until his father's death, then suc-