A. N. BELDING
ROCKVILLE
Secretary Belding Bros. & Co., and Manager the Rockville Mills
Alvah Norton Belding, one of the best known manufacturers in the state, was born in Ashfield, Mass., March 27, 1838. His education was in the common schools and in the high school. At seventeen years of age he removed to Michigan, where he cleared wild land and founded the town of Belding. In company with his brother, Hiram H., he began the sale of sewing-silk from house to hoose, the material being supplied by another brother in the east, Milo M. The business soon became so large that it required several teams and controlled a great part of the jobbing trade of the section. Three years after they started a house in Chicago, Milo M., joining them. In 1863 the brothers formed a partnership with E. K. Rose of Rockville for the manufacture of silk, renting the first floor of what was then the Glasgow Thread Company’s mill in Rockville. This partnership came to an end in a few years, and afterwards the Belding Brothers bought the mill, and have since run it, in connection with other manufacturing concerns in Belding, Mich., Montreal, Northampton, and San Francisco. Mr. Belding has not been an active politician, but was once elected representative to the lower house in the Connecticut legislature in 1882, being elected by the largest proportionate vote of electors ever given in his town. He is a republican. He was married January 6, 1870, to Lizzie S. Merrick of Shelburne Falls, Mass., and has two children, a son and a daughter. Mr. Belding’s wide interest in manufacturing and business affairs can best be understood by a glance at the various official positions he holds. He is secretary of the Belding Bros. & Co. Silk Mill; a director in the Belding, Paul & Co. Silk Mill of Montreal; director in the Carlson & Courier Silk Manufacturing Company, San Francisco, Cal.; president of the Belding Manufacturing Company, refrigerators, Belding, Mich.; president of the Belding Land and Improvement Company, Belding, Mich.; director in the Miller Casket Company, Belding, Mich.; director in the Hall Brothers Manufacturing Company, furniture, Belding, Mich.; director in the Belding Savings Bank, Belding, Mich.; director in the St. Lawrence Fiber Pulp Company, Governeur, N.Y.; director in the Rockville National Bank, and People’s Savings Bank of Rockville; director in the American Mills Company, woolens, Rockville; and a stockholder in several other companies. Despite his various interests, he finds time to devote himself to the welfare of the city in which he resides, and is one of its most popular citizens. He is a typical, energetic New England business man, who has the rare ability to do a great many things, and do them all well. An instance showing the pluck of the Belding Brothers in their enterprises is that of the attempt to bore an artesian well in the vicinity of their mill in Northampton. After a depth of 3,700 feet had been reached through the sandstone, and $32,ooo had been expended, the firm abandoned the attempt, for the first time in its business career having been baffled. Mr. Belding is also interested with his brothers in the development of the new south, owning 75,000 acres of land in North Carolina and Tennessee, teeming with almost inexhaustible wealth in timber and minerals. The record of the Belding Brothers is certainly a remarkable one, and one of the leading spirits of the firm is Alvah N. Belding, the subject of this sketch.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
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