“Al Pease is one of Harthaven’s most passionate sailors.  I will never forget the start of one of the Moffit races with Al at the helm.” Sam Low

Poems by Randall Pease

STILL LIFE

“Laughing Gull, plane

On winter wind.

Scavenge surf froth frost.

SHELLS

Child still plays on the beach,

sheltered by his dune,

its razor edged reeds.

Turns shell playground

To battlefield.

Bountiful boat shell scouts

bound across sand waves.

Spider crabs bristle, burrow, brittle.

Pillboxes, aim their muzzles.

Horseshoe crab prince

rallies his underlings

with copper heraldry.

His artillery skipping stones,

Child hums a hymn to war.

BEACHCOMBERS

The crustacean question:

leave the beach as is,

its stage set -

shell, sand nestled round fossil,

grave marker for the animal

who left, or simply evaporated -  by chance?

Or will the shell,

pluck that brittle flower

out of its eternal home, adopt it,

set safe but out of context on the mantle,

or bedside table?

Its hollow spirit

calls out for homeland, sound of the waves,

the chance to be dissolved, crushed back

into its sand community.

Instead, forever suspended

in the purgatory of lonely preservation.

_________

Leumas Hoyt Pease

1845 -1919

by Doug Pease

I recently came across a copy of a summary of my Great Grandfather’s life that was written upon his death in 1919.  Not knowing really anything about him, I was blown away by what an amazing life he had. Who knew that he was once mayor of New Britain? Or that his first job at The Stanley Works in 1862, at seventeen just after graduating from New Britain High School. He rose through the ranks there and was named a director and secretary in 1887. His last post was Treasurer which he held from 1906 until 1919. All in, he worked at Stanley Works for over half a century.

While working at Stanley Works, L. Hoyt Pease was also a prominent figure in local financial circles. He was one of the founders of The Burritt Savings Bank of New Britain and was elected its first President. He also served as a Director of the Mechanics National Bank and was the Vice President of The New Britain Trust Company for many years.

L. Hoyt Pease was born in Winsted, CT in 1845. His parents were Julius W. and Mary Hotchkiss Pease, descended from Robert Pease, who came from England on the “Francis” in 1634.  Robert traveled with his brother, John Pease, and his eldest son Robert. Robert and his son settled in Salem, MA.

In 1847 when L. Hoyt Pease was two, his family moved from Winsted, CT to New Britain. In 1880, he was married to Miss Julia Lillian Sawyer, the daughter of Henry E. and Julia French Sawyer. They had three children: my grandfather, Herbert Hoyt; Maurice Henry; and Dorothy Sawyer, who later married Robert T. Frisbee. My grandparents lived on Vine Street facing Walnut Hill Park and the Frisbees lived next door. My Mom, Penny Pease was great friends with her cousin Herb Frisbee. Penny and Herb remember fondly the horseplay they engaged in, tossing gravel at each other over the hedge that separated their yards. Mom and Herb remember that Herb, the younger of the two, was pinned on the ground by Penny at least once.

L. Hoyt Pease also took a deep interest in community affairs with a great deal of civic pride. A committed republican, he served as the Chairman of the New Britain Republican Town Committee for many years.  In 1884 he began his two year term as councilman and in 1886 he became an alderman. Later in 1890, he was elected mayor of New Britain and served a second term as mayor in 1892. As mayor he led a business-like and progressive administration. He was also a great supporter of education serving for 24 years on the school board. At the time of his death, he had served many years as the chairman of the school board’s finance committee. During his tenure several new school buildings were built under his supervision on the School Board’s Finance Committee. L. Hoyt was also prominently identified with the First Congregational Ecclesiastical Society as its clerk and treasurer for more than thirty eight years.

When he died in 1919 a portion of his obituary read “His life had been one of activity and usefulness, guided by the soundest principles of integrity in business, of honor and progressiveness in citizenship and loyalty to all those forces which make for upright manhood in every relation of life. He had the esteem of all who knew him and the warm friendship of those who came within the closer circle of his acquaintance.” Another portion read “Mr. Pease was numbered among those pioneers who boldly set about erecting manufacturing establishments with confidence and faith in the city. That his confidence and faith coupled with application to his work, were not misplaced is attested by the magnificent monument to industry as represented by The Stanley works and by other parts of New Britain’s commercial fabric that have waxed with the passing of those architects who drew the plans and who watched their plans bud, blossom and finally bear fruit. Nor did he consider success in the light of personal achievement. To him the factory whistles were the music to which New Britain kept step in its march onward. The whisper of machinery was the symphony of progress calling men and women to fashion and create products from raw material bequeathed by the earth to be sent to all parts of the globe.”

My great grandad’s spirit and energy live on in his extended family tree. His son Herbert Hoyt Pease and  his grandsons, Hoyt Curtiss Pease and Julian Curtiss Pease all spent many years in senior management positions at The Stanley Works and New Britain Machine. His legacy of selfless community service was also repeatedly expressed through many generations of Peases.

Maurice Pease and Dick Bronson, Hooker-Pease Golf Tournament, 1982.

Maurice Pease golfing on his 99th birthday, 9/10/1982

Al and Debbie on their wedding day....