Benjamin Douglas was an American manufacturer and politician. He is known for invinting the famous revolving cistern stand pump, as well as founding the Republican party in Connecticut and the First National Bank in Middletown.
Background
Benjamin Douglas was born on April 3, 1816 at Northford, Connecticut, United States. He was the eighth and youngest child of Captain William and Sarah (Kirtland) Douglas. His grandfather, William Douglas, had been a colonel in the Revolution and his father a captain of militia in the War of 1812.
Education
Douglas was reared on his father’s farm, and his education was limited to a few months’ attendance at the district school during the winter.
Career
At the age of sixteen Douglas was apprenticed to a machinist and in 1836 began work in the shop of Guild & Douglas at Middletown a firm established by his brother William in 1832. Benjamin and William in 1839 acquired the entire interest in the business and continued it under the name of W. & Douglas. For a time they ran an ordinary foundry and machine-shop, but after the brothers in 1842 invented the famous revolving cistern stand pump, the resources of the foundry were chiefly devoted to the manufacture of pumps. This pump gained recognition slowly, but eventually enjoyed a world market and brought a fortune to the inventors. William, who had been the mechanical genius of the firm, died in 1858 and Benjamin reorganized the concern into a corporation of which he remained president until his death. By the late seventies the company operated the largest foundry in Connecticut, manufacturing 1, 200 styles and sizes of pumps.
Douglas for many years was prominent in Connecticut politics. He was a member of the state Assembly in 1854, and Republican lieutenant-governor of the state in 1861. An ardent abolitionist, he had been a founder of the Republican party in Connecticut, being one of the delegates who nominated Fremont in 1856 and one of the presidential electors who cast a vote for Lincoln in 1860.
His part in the life of Middletown was likewise important. He was also president of the Farmers’ & Mechanics’ Savings Bank, and a trustee of the Middlesex Banking Company and of the Asylum Line Railroad.
He threw himself into philanthropy and reform with the same enthusiasm that he did into business. A deacon of the Congregational church for thirty years, and for a long period superintendent of the Sunday-school, he acted as president of the Middlesex Branch of the Connecticut Bible Society and president of the Connecticut State Temperance Union. He served as trustee of Wesleyan University, 1862-85, and of the Connecticut State Asylum for the Insane.
Achievements
Connections
In April 3, 1838 Douglas married Mary Adaline Parker, daughter of Elias and Grace (Totten) Parker of Middletown, by whom he had six children.