he death of the Hon. G. M. Landers will
leave a big void in New Britain and his presence will be sadly
missed. He has been so long with us that we came to regard him as
one of thte institutions of the town. His sturdy frame was a most
familiar and welcome figure on our streets, while his cheerful
manner and love of wit and humor carried sunshine with him
wherever he went. It was doubtless this attribute, together with
the good sense that led him to lay down business cares when the
duty of growing old gracefully came to him, that gave him so many
years of useful life. He improved hid opportunities, he triumphed
over obstacles, and the story of his life is another exhibition
of what can be done by one who sets out to achieve success by
deserving it. Full of years and honors is the log-book of his
voyage through this world. [New Britain Herald]
The death of the Hon. George M. Landers removes from New
Britain her foremost citizen, beloved by all, irrespective of
creed, class or political preferences. In mourning our loss the
eyes of a host in State and nation who knew and loved him are
dimmed with the sympathetic tear of sorrow. Mr. Landers was a
typical American, broad and liberal in mind, genial and intensely
charitable in his disposition; loyal to the Federal, State and
municipal constitutions; a safe citizen, always following deep
and conscientious convictions; a true friend and devoted husband
and parent. He was a man with the people, yet as far as fortune
and ability was concerned he was above them. He was a leader, and,
be it noted as unusual, he always placed himself with that
constituency which moved for progress and right. He perhaps has
done more for the upbuilding of his municipality than any other
one citizen of it during the last threescore years, yet he
accomplished all outside the treacherous sphere of politics.
Political honors were his to a most unusual extent. A
manufacturer of national prominence, he never forgot the
circumstances of his early manhood, and was as honest and
conscientious an employer as he was husband and friend. He
commanded respect from all coming within his large sphere of life,
as much for his high moral character and Christian charity as for
his ability and safe judgment. His name will ever be linked with
the history of the State and town as one of the most prominent
citizen benefactors of his time. The memory of his words and
deeds will fade from the minds of those who knew him only when
death shall numb the human faculties. [New Britain Record]
The death of George M. Landers, of New Britain, removes one
more from the rapidly diminishing ranks of those who may be
called the pioneers of Connecticut manufacturing industries.
Others who follow them may be as valuable to the communities in
which they live, but none can be valuable in just the same way,
for lack of the same unique opportunities which these men so well
improved that Connecticut leads the States in the novelty,
variety and ingenuity of its manufactured products. Mr. Landers
possessed most of the characteristics of men of his age and class
-- honesty, thrift, acuteness of mind, capacity of development to
meet enlarging requirements and opportunities, public spirit and
willingness to bear the burdens of duty to city, State and nation.
Connecticut owes much to these men, and New Britain does credit
to itself by recognizing its debt to Mr. Landers. They laid the
foundations of industrial character and prosperity, and those
upon whom their burdens fall must be men of strong and original
minds to fill the measure of these times as fully as their
predecessors did the measure of the times in which they
flourished. [Waterbury American]
The death of the Hon. George M. Landers at New Britain, Conn.,
on March 25, at the age of eighty-two years, removes yet another
of the pioneer hardware manufacturers of the United States.
He was almost the last one left of that remarkable set of men
whose courage, industry and foresight laid the foundation of the
various companies that have made that inland town, possessed of
no special natural advantages, the chief hardware manufacturing
centre of America.
He was born at Lenox, Mass., in 1813, of old New England stock,
his grandfather a captain in the Revolutionary army, his father a
soldier in the war of 1812. His father died at Hartford, Conn.,
in 1824, and the boy, then eleven years old, returned to live
with his grandfather. His education was that of the public
schools of that time. At the age of sixteen he came to New
Britain and was bound as an apprentice to the carpenters' and
joiners' trade under the old system of five years' service for
board and clothes. As he tersely puts it in a short account of
his early days: "Board, coarse; clothing, scant; hours of
work, from sunrise to sundown, and from September 1 to April 1
worked nights till 9 P. M." At the end of his apprenticeship
he worked as journeyman joiner for two years, and then carried on
business as a builder on his own account until 1840. It was
characteristic of the prudence of the man that he built his own
house, that in which he died, before he married in 1839, he being
then twenty-six years old.
In 1842 he began the manufacture of cupboard catches,
furniture casters and other small articles, under the firm name
of Dewey & Landers. At that time more than nine-tenths of all
goods on the shelves of a hardware store were of foreign make. In
1847 the firm dissolved, and he started a foundry and built a
small hardware factory, carrying on the old business, with the
addition of coat and hat hooks, wardrobe hooks, brass hooks and
eyes, &c. In 1853 his business was organized into a stock
company under the name of the Landers & Smith Manufacturing
Company with a capital of $30,000. Additions were made to the
shop and the operations considerably enlarged. The business of
Frary, Carey & Co., of Meriden, was bought in 1862, and the
capital enlarged to $50,000, and the company was reorganized
under the name of Landers, Frary & Clark. Table cutlery was
added to the line of goods already made, the Ętna Works was
built and the business grew steadily. Totally destroyed by fire
in 1874, the Ętna Works was immediately rebuilt on a larger
scale; and having seen his business grow from nothing to one with
a capital of $500,000, employing 600 operatives, he retired from
active daily participation in it, turning over the management to
his only child, Charles S. Landers. Such, in brief, is the story
of that part of his life which is especially of interest to the
hardware trade.
As a citizen he touched the life of his adopted town at many
parts and always to its advantage -- never so deeply occupied
with his own business but that he found timre to take an active
and leading part in whatever was for the interest of New Britain.
He was its first representative to the State Legislature, served
six terms in that capacity, was twice elected to Congress, and to
that end took a keen interest in national, State and municipal
affairs.
Personally he was not widely known to the hardware trade for
the reason that he occupied himself solely with the factory end
of the business, and some brief sketch of his personality and
character may be not without interest.
He was a man of singularly even temper and firm mind.
Misfortunes could not depress his spirits, nor did success unduly
elate him. His early struggles taught him economy, patience,
persistence and forbearance; singularly open to argument, hard to
convince -- yet once convinced always ready to acknowledge it --
he could be depended upon to give, from the resources of his long
experience and from his great fund of hard common sense, a sound
and safe judgment at all times. These were the qualities that
made him successful. In addition to them he was possessed of a
happy disposition and had a merry turn of mind that endeared him
to everyone.
The joke that was habitually on his lips could not hide the
serious side of his nature, and the playful anecdote with which
he frequently enlivened his advice only made it more emphatic by
reason of its unusual setting.
Physically he was taller and larger than most men. Hard work
out of doors in his early life had given him a robust frame, and
a temperate life had preserved his natural force of body as well
as of mind unabated till long past the usual term of man's life.
It seemed as if the winds that blow over his native Berkshire
hills had touched his cheek with a youthful ruddiness that years
could not fade; and there was something of the look of youth in
his face, in his keen, bright eyes and in the bearing of his
erect figure that made one forget the weight of eighty years that
he bore so lightly. To thte very end he was a notable figure in
the streets of the city, actively engaged in the affairs of the
day.
The end came suddenly from heart failure. The long day's work
was done at last, and sleep came peacefully and without pain. [The
Iron Age]
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