Charles Hime Nettleton is president of the New Haven Gas Light Company and president and treasurer of the Derby Gas Company. He has long been identified with the development and conduct of gas interests in this section of the state and his business ability has brought him to a prominent position. He is alert, energetic and determined and well defined plans have been carefully executed, so that he has along the line of steady progression advanced toward success.

He was born in New Haven, June 29, 1850, and is descended from Samuel Nettleton, the founder of the American branch of the family, who came from England about 1640, settling first in Wethersfield. Connecticut. He was afterward one of those who bought Totoket, now Branford, in the year 1644, and to that place he removed the same year. His descendants afterward settled in Milford, Connecticut, and later became residents of Washington, Connecticut. It is from the last named branch of the family that Charles H. Nettleton conies. His father, who also bore the name of Charles Nettleton, was a lawyer by profession. He married Ellen Hine, a woman of very strong moral influence.

In his boyhood days Charles Hine Nettleton attended the public schools of New York city, where the family home was established, and after completing his studies there he spent one year at the "Gunnery" at Washington, Connecticut. Immediately afterward he entered the College of the City of New York, in which he pursued the scientific course, being graduated in 1870 with the B. S. degree. Following his graduation he went to Mount Vernon, New York, to act as manager of the gas plant. In 1873 he was made secretary and continued to fill that position until 1890, when the company sold out. In 1871 he also went to Derby, Connecticut, to take charge of the construction of the plant of the Derby Gas Company which was then being built. On the organization of the company he was elected its secretary and treasurer and filled the dual position until 1900, when he was chosen president, retaining also the office of treasurer but retiring from the position of secretary. Since 1900 he has also been president of the New Haven Gas Light Company. He has from the outset of his busi-ness career been identified with the gas industry and there is no phase of the business with which he is not thoroughly familiar, and in every department is most competent, having comprehensive knowledge of practices of manufacture while displaying equal skill in admin-istration and in the performance of executive duties.

Mr. Nettleton has served as president of the Birmingham Bank of Derby and as general manager of the Birmingham Water Company of Derby, occupying the latter position continuously since 1874 or for a period of forty-four years. His business affairs have always been of a character that have had much to do with public welfare and comfort and it has ever been his purpose to extend the best service possible—an excellent service thoroughly adequate to the demand.

On the llth of November. 1874, Mr. Nettleton was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Arnold, a daughter of the late Joseph Arnold, who for many years was cashier of the Birming-ham National Bank of Derby. Two children have been born of this marriage, Katherine Arnold and Ellen Arnold.

Mr. Nettleton is a republican in his political views. He served as warden of the bor-ough of Shelton during the first two years of its existence but he has never been a politician in the sense of the office seeker, although always interested in the vital questions and issues of the day. His religious faith is that of the Protestant Episcopal church. He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and of the Phi Beta Kappa. He also belongs to the Graduates' Club, the Quinnipiac Club and the Union League Club, all of New Haven, and the Lotos and Alpha Delta Phi Clubs of New York. In Masonry he has attained high rank, having reached the Knight Templar degree of the York Kite and the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, while in his life he exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. He turns for diversion to fishing and golf and when business cares permit greatly enjoys those sports. The steps in his orderly progression arc easily discernible. At the outset of his career he applied himself with thoroughness to the mastery of the duties assigned him and gained such an intimate and accurate knowledge of the business that promotion logically followed. Thus step by step he has advanced and in a position where lie is subject to public censure or to public endorsement he has rendered such service as to win the latter in notable degree.