Claude A. Magill, general manager and one of the officers of the Connecticut Hassam Paving Company, has in this connection been active in the upbuilding of a business that is scarcely second to that of any contracting paving company of the state. He was born in New Haven, July 11, 1871, a son of Professor William A. and Matilda (Smith) Magill. The father was born in Georgia and in young manhood came to New Haven to enter Yale University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1858. He then decided to remain in this city and take up educational work. He opened a boarding school for boys, which he conducted successfully up to the time of the Civil war,when he enlisted and saw active service for a year and a half. He then returned to New Haven, where he resumed his educational work, in which he continued until 1878, when his health began to fail and on the advice of his physician he removed to Amherst, Massachusetts, where he led a retired life until death called him in 1899, when he was sixty-seven years of age. He was an own cousin of the Hon. Arthur Hadley, the present head of Yale University. In early manhood Professor Magill wedded Matilda Smith, who was born in Maine but in her maidenhood came to New Haven. She died in Amherst in 1908, when seventy-two years of age. In the family were three sons and a daughter: Dr. William S. Magill, who prior to the present international war was director of laboratories for the state of New York and served as general with the Third Army of Russia, serving on the medical staff; Arthur Edward, who was at one time a well known patent attorney of Washington, D. C., and died in 1906; Maude Helen, still living in Amherst; and Claude A.
     The last named began his education under the instruction of his father and afterward attended high school in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the Agricultural College of Massachusetts, being graduated on the completion of the civil engineering course in 1891. He then secured a position in the engineering department of the Boston & Maine Railroad, with which he remained for a year and a half, while subsequently he was in the employ of the Boston & Albany Railroad and later of the New York Central Lines in a similar capacity. He discontinued railroad service in 1900 to accept a position as city engineer at Lynn, Massachusetts, continuing in that connection until 1905, when he resigned. In 1907 he became general manager of the Connecticut Hassam Paving Company, a large corporation of the state, which position he now fills. His broad scientific knowledge and engineering skill are of the utmost benefit in this connection and his efforts have been a valuable contributing force to the success of the company.
     On the 23d of October, 1894, Mr. Magill was married to Miss Louise Shelton, of Malden, Massachusetts, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert F. Shelton, and they now have two child-ren: Claude S., who was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1897 and attended the New York Military Academy and.is now a corporal in the Fourteenth Regiment, Railway Engineers, American expeditionary force in France; and Ruth, who was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in 1901 and is a high school pupil in New Haven.
     Mr. and Mrs. Magill are members of the Church of the Redeemer, and Mr. Magill is president of the Men's Club of that church. Politically his position is an independent one as he prefers to hold himself free to vote according to the dictates of his judgment. He has worked his way upward almost entirely unaided. While his father paid his tuition and also provided for his clothing when in college, in order to have any spending money he worked at various odd jobs. His father was always a strict disciplinarian and while he provided excellent educational opportunities and looked after the welfare of his children, he felt that all should learn the strict lesson of economy. At the time of his marriage his father gave to him the equivalent of all the money which he had earned during his college days, appreciating his efforts in that direction. He had learned his lesson, which was a valuable one, such as every boy should have, and the habits of thoroughness and systematic effort which he early developed have continued as strong forces in his later career. Step by step he has worked his way upward, winning advancement through individual effort and ability, and now he occupies a prominent and responsible position as general manager of the Connecticut Hassam Paving Company, in which he has control of extensive and important engineering projects throughout the state.