WILLIAM F. J. BOARDMAN
HARTFORD: A Retired Merchant and Manufacturer.
W. F. J. Boardman, a representative of one of the oldest and most honorable families of Hartford, was born in Wethersfield December 12, 1828. He is a descendant in the seventh generation from Samuel Boardman (originally spelled Boreman), who was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, and emigrated to America about 1637, settling in Ipswich, Mass., where he was a land owner in 1639, and whence he removed to Wethersfield, Conn., in 1640. He was a deputy from Wethersfield to the general court for thirty-four sessions, and during his lifetime there occupied many positions of honor and trust within the gift of his township and the colony. "Few of the first settlers of Connecticut (says Hinman) came with a better reputation, or sustained it more uniformly through life, than Mr. Boardman." From the original American ancestor, Samuel, down through six generations, in the line of the subject of this sketch, the Boardmans have without exception been natives of Wethersfield, and during their lives prominently identified with that ancient town, where each has, in one or another official capacity, served with distinction his day and generation, leaving an honorable and patriotic record. The father of the present subject, William Boardman, was born at Lenox, Mass., but removed to Wethersfield with his father the year of his birth. He was by trade a printer; was a book and newspaper publisher, and afterwards a merchant and manufacturer for forty-six years. He came to Hartford in 1858, and until his death in 1887 was a prominent and useful citizen, as many of the residents of Hartford of the present day will well remember.
William F. J. Boardman received his primary education at the public schools of his native town, and graduated from Wethersfield Academy in 1846, where he had studied under the preceptorship of Noah B. Clark and S. A. Galpin, distinguished educators of that day. On leaving school in the spring of 1846, he entered the coffee and spice manufactory of his father in Wethersfield, to learn the business in detail. Four years later, upon the removal of the business to Hartford, he purchased a one-third interest therein and it was continued under the firm name of William Boardman & Son. On the seventh of January, 1852, he was married to Jane M. Greenleaf, daughter of Dr. Charles Greenleaf of Hartford. In 1853 his brother, Thomas J. Boardman, was admitted as a partner in the business, and the firm removed to larger quarters; its name was changed to William Boardman & Sons, and its operations extended to include importing, manufacturing, and jobbing in teas, coffees, and spices, with a wholesale trade throughout New England and other states. The financial part of the business being under the care of W. F. J. Boardman, his father attended to the buying, and his brother to the manufacturing and packing department. This business connection continued with uninterrupted success until 1887, when Mr. Boardman, senior, died, and one year later W. F. J. Boardman retired, having been connected with the firm continuously for thirty-eight years.
Mr. Boardman was one of the original members of the Putnam Phalanx under its permanent organization in 1859. In 1863 he was elected a member of the Hartford common council from the third ward, in which he was a member of the highways committee and chairman of the committee on the horse railroad then being constructed. As a member of the council he did his whole duty, acting for the city’s good without fear or favor. In 1861 he was chosen a director of the State Bank of Hartford, serving several years and giving to the institution the same conscientious attention that he did to his own business. This was during the war of the rebellion, when the "old State" Bank was called upon by Governor Buckingham, perhaps more freely and extensively than any other institution in the state to furnish the "sinews of war," which it did to the extent of many times its capital. In 1868 Mr. Boardman’s health suffered serious impairment, and he was obliged temporarily to retire from active business; but, regaining it to a considerable extent, he gave renewed attention to the affairs of the firm. The establishment was again moved to larger quarters on State street, and in 1871 the fine "Boardman Building" on Asylum street was erected at a cost - including machinery, etc., - of over $100,000, the firm occupying the new building in 1872. In 1887 he went abroad, visiting parts of England, Scotland, and France, in the hope of confirming his still imperfect health, and taking with him his medical adviser. The trip was not entirely successful, and as a matter of physical necessity he concluded on his return in 1888 to abandon all business activity, which he did by selling to his brother his entire interest in the old firm July 7, 1888, as above intimated, after an experience of forty-two years, thirty-eight of which was with the firm already specified. During his business life Mr. Boardman has been actively engaged in promoting or establishing many enterprises, including the Hartford & New York Steamboat Company, the Merrick Thread Company of Holyoke, Mass., and the Hudson River Water Power and Paper Company of Mechanicsville, N.Y. He has also assisted many young men in establishing themselves in business. In 1863-64 he in company with others built a number of sailing vessels, for the coasting and foreign trade, among them the William Boardman, the M. M. Merriman, the Sarah A. Reed, and the A. J. Bentley, with a considerable proprietory interest in many others. He has often served on commissions, has settled estates, operated in real estate considerably, attended to the construction of some of the best buildings in Hartford, and has generally led an active life. He has made it a point never to incur an obligation which he could not meet at once or on maturity of his promise, and has thus acquired and maintained a reputation for integrity which none can call in question. He is and always has been a democrat, inheriting that political faith from ancestors whose patriotism has been inflexibly loyal and solid in all emergencies. He has held no public office for several years, nor does he seek any. He has until recently retained his connection with the Phalanx, and is still a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, and of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Mr. Boardman’s family consists of his wife and an only son, William Greenleaf Boardman, who was born in Hartford June 29, 1853, and still resides in this city.
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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