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Gc 974.6 B51h v.3 1450880
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 4898
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
INDUSTRIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL RECORDS
FAMILY AND PERSONAL RECORDS
VOLUME III
LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY (Incorporated) NEW YORK WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
COPYRIGHT LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY (Incorporated) 1962
1450880
INDUSTRIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL RECORDS
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
ACADEMY OF THE HOLY FAMILY
The Academy of the Holy Family, a Catholic preparatory school for girls, is located at Baltic. It was founded on October 7, 1874, by Reverend Mother Syncletica Samarius and her five companions, Sis- ters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of Mercy, who came from their Motherhouse, Tilburg, Holland, at the request of the Rt. Reverend P. F. McFarland, Bishop of Hartford. Reverend J. G. Van Laar, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Baltic, had re- quested the bishop for their presence; and he met them at New York on October 4, 1874.
On October 15, of that year, an academy for resident students was opened, as well as a parochial school with an initial registration of four hundred children. This was followed a few months later by the opening of an evening school for working boys and girls.
Reverend Mother M. Carola was sent from Europe to succeed Mother Syncletica as superior of the new foundation, June 29, 1876. She was accompanied by two young Sisters who were to join the small community in its educational work. The year 1876 was a sad one in the annals of Baltic, for in that year a great freshet swept down the Shetucket River, carrying away the mill dam and part of the main mill. Great hardship and poverty, in which the Sisters shared, resulted. Many people left the village to seek a livelihood elsewhere.
For a time, the academy made little progress, for its interests were intimately bound up with the affairs of the village. There were few resident students, and the number of day pupils had decreased considerably. At this juncture, Reverend F. De Bruyker, pastor of St. Joseph's Church, Willimantic, asked the Sisters to establish a branch of their community in his parish. Accordingly on March 18, 1878, six Sisters left Baltic to found a convent and conduct a day school of about four hundred children in Willimantic. Some years later, when St. Joseph's Parish was divided into two parishes, part of this community went to the new division to found St. Mary's Con- vent and conduct the newly established parochial school. Ten years later a second group of six Sisters left the academy to found a convent in Sacred Heart Parish, Taftville, and take charge of the education of four hundred children there.
In 1887, Baltic received another blow. The mill which gave work
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to many of the villagers was destroyed by fire, and again many people, deprived of a means of support, left the village to seek employment elsewhere. This was a serious setback for the academy, which was struggling for existence at the time. However, a new and more hope- ful era was about to begin. The number of resident students increased and conditions improved. It was not possible to erect a chapel, which was much needed as the existing accommodation was cramped and unsatisfactory. With the help of cheap labor on the part of self-sac- rificing village tradesmen, and financial aid from the Motherhouse at Tilburg and from friends, the work was begun under the able direction of Rev. J. van den Noort, pastor of the parish. The chapel was blessed and dedicated to the Sacred Heart on April 30, 1888.
In 1897, Reverend Mother Aloysio came from Holland to succeed Mother Carola, who had died earlier that year. She continued the work of her predecessor, greatly improving the house and grounds. Under her direction a new wing was added to the convent in 1900. It consisted of three dormitories, a recreation room, sundry small apart- ments, and a well-equipped gymnasium. Reverend Mother M. Alphon- sa, who succeeded Mother Aloysio as superior in 1910, undertook to erect a four-story, up-to-date building, containing several large ciass- rooms, recitation rooms, and a large dormitory. The building was blessed on February 3, 1914.
An important event in the history of the academy took place in 1913 during the pastorate of Reverend U. O. Bellerose. The original convent and grounds, which up to this time had belonged to the parish, became the property of the Sisters. It came about in this way: A good half of the original convent was intended for a parochial school. With the disasters in the village, already mentioned, the number of day pupils so decreased that scarcely half the space was needed for them. Accordingly, in 1913, in recognition of the work the Sisters had done in his parish for nearly forty years, and in view of the fact that this work had been done with little or no pecuniary help from the parishioners, who were too poor to help, but who were now in better circumstances, Father Bellerose, with the approval of the Rt. Reverend Ordinary, proposed to the people that they give the convent building to the Sisters in compensation for their self-sacrificing serv- ices in the parish. By his tact and influence, he brought the issue to a successful conclusion. A building near the convent was secured for the parochial school children. Here classes were held until recent years, when the Sisters leased the Little Flower Hall Building to the parish to serve as a school for its children.
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In 1918, the high school department was examined by the state inspector of high schools from Yale University, with the result that the academy was approved by the State of Connecticut. By virtue of this approval, it enjoys all the privileges granted secondary high schools in the state.
In 1921, Reverend Mother Francis was transferred from St. Clare's Convent, Pantasaph, England, to the Academy of the Holy Family where she succeeded Mother Alphonsa as superior. With wis- dom and tact she guided the destinies of the academy for a period of eleven years, after which Mother Alphonsa returned to occupy her former position there.
A third addition in the form of a four-story brick building was made to the convent in 1929, to accommodate the increasing number of Sisters as well as of resident students. It consisted of thirty-six private rooms and four larger rooms for the exclusive use of the young Sisters. It was completed and blessed in the same year.
Three years later, Reverend Mother M. Lucia became superior, succeeding Mother Alphonsa who was recalled to Europe. During her administration many and great improvements have been made in both the convent and the grounds. Of these improvements, the erection of a beautiful chapel, with a seating capacity of two hundred and forty, is the most outstanding. The building was begun July 17, 1941, and was dedicated on April 14, 1942. The old chapel has been made into a music hall, with stage and equipment suitable for music recitals and dramatic performances.
Besides these improvements, there has been progress along other lines. Three new foundations were made. The first of these was in St. Vincent de Paul's Parish in East Haven, where the Reverend W. O'Brien was pastor. He invited the Sisters to give religious instruc- tion to about 1,240 children in three sections under his jurisdiction. Four Sisters undertook this work on November 21, 1939. The second call for Sisters came from Rev. John Dillon of Sacred Heart Church, East Port Chester, who was starting a kindergarten as the nucleus of a future parish school, and who wanted the Sisters to supervise it and at the same time instruct the four hundred or more children of his parish attending the public schools. Accordingly, three Sisters went to East Port Chester to undertake the new work, Ocober 29, 1942.
At present the Academy of the Holy Family averages an enroll- ment of two hundred and fifty students, of whom sixty-five are resi- dent students.
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THE ACME WIRE COMPANY
The Acme Wire Company of Hamden began its existence more than a half-century ago, being founded on June 6, 1904. It first oc- cupied the old Eli Whitney Arms Plant building, which bore the name of the inventor of the cotton gin, and the first industrialist to use standardized parts in mass production. There all its operations were carried on during the first decade of its existence. Management, throughout the important formative years, rested in the hands of several capable men, notably Victor M. Tyler, who was president from 1904 to 1928; Edgar L. Hartpence, vice president from 1904 to 1931; Leonard S. Tyler, vice president from 1910 to 1928; Leonard S. Horner, vice president from 1916 to 1926; Frank C. Richter, main- tenance superintendent from 1904 to 1944; Charles J. Schnelle, vice president and director of purchases, 1906 to 1959.
The company began existence as a producer of magnet wire, for which the demand at that time was small but growing. Power companies and trolley lines, using direct current, used coarse sizes of cotton-covered wire; but a substantial demand for the finer magnet wire came from producers of telephones, who used it for ringer coils. It was this demand which attracted Mr. Tyler, then secretary of the Southern New England Telephone Company, to the infant field of wire production. He and Mr. Hartpence, with his practical sales knowledge, were principally responsible for getting the Acme Wire Company started. They rented the Whitney Arms Plant from the New Haven Water Company and commenced operations. Early re- cords indicate sales of between eleven and twelve thousand dollars for the first year, and a net loss of about eight thousand dollars; but by its second year the company was in the black. A development impor- tant to the company was the commercial introduction of enameled copper wire. Acme was the first to produce and sell this basically important product. It also began to manufacture coil windings.
After Charles F. Kettering and Colonel E. A. Deeds developed the first self-starter, the company supplied the first wire and coils for this product. Acme magnet wire was used in many pioneer pieces of electrical equipment. Other additions to the line were coils and wire for meter production.
Within ten years of the time of its founding, the Acme Wire Company outgrew its historic first plant which remained standing until the 1940s, and acquired a factory site in Hamden. There, on eleven acres near the junction of Dixwell and Putnam avenues, and bounded on the eastern side by tracks of the New York, New Haven
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and Hartford Railroad, an up-to-date concrete and brick plant was erected, to which all operations were moved in 1914.
In 1921 the production of varnished electrical insulations in- cluding cable tape and other related items was begun, and these are today an important part of the manufacturing output. One of the early related products was a varnished fabric tubing known as "spaghetti" which was used by the amateur radio-set builders to slip over con- necting or hookup wires for insulation. Acme developed and marketed the first hookup wire which combined the copper wire conductor with the "spaghetti" insulation. It was called Celatsite, and was used ex- tensively in this country and abroad. For a time, the company pro- duced electrical condensers for the purpose of power-factor correc- tion, and also condensers for amateur radio set builders. Another pro- duct was Acme Airtite Cable, an ignition cable with a superior in- sulation designed for aircraft as well as automobile engines. It was used on the Wright Whirlwind motor which propelled Lindbergh across the Atlantic in the first New York-Paris flight, 1927.
For many years the Acme Wire Company has had its own plant for the production of electrical insulating varnishes, enamels and com- pounds. Originally, only materials for the company's own needs were manufactured. A long-range research program leading to better meth- ods of insulation in its lines of magnet wire, coil windings and elec- trical insulations developed a superior line of thermo-setting com- pounds which were first used in World War II. At that time the high- tension harnesses of the engines of all carrier-based planes were fillcd with this new compound. There were many other war applications. These led to the development of "Acme-Mold" coils, completely im- pregnated and encapsulated coil windings of which many millions are in use today. The company also produces a complete line of elec- trical insulating varnishes for the electrical industry.
During both World War I and II and since, Acme products have taken important parts in the operation of planes, ships, radios, and in all other types of electrically operated or controlled defense equipment. The company supplies a portion of the requirements of the great ma- jority of all of the electrical manufacturers in this country.
Victor M. Tyler retired as president on April 13, 1928, and was succeeded by Thomas G. Nee. Mr. Nee saw the company through the depression and through World War II, and laid the foundation for its subsequent success and expansion. In 1948 Mr. Nee became chairman of the board and was succeeded in the presidency by Her- bert B. Bassett. Mr. Bassett, who still holds that office, is the subject
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of a biographical sketch in the family and personal history section of this work. The company has an excellent record in employee relations, and its management attributes the firm's success in large measure to the people who have filled its payrolls. In 1942 a group life, accident and health insurance program was instituted; and this was followed on January 1, 1953, by a pension and retirement plan, the cost of both being borne by the company.
THE ALFRED B. KING COMPANY
The Alfred B. King Company, founded at North Haven in 1925 by the man who still heads the firm, has established its leadership in the specialty of materials handling and fabrication. It manufactures fabricated metal parts on special order, to meet a wide range of needs, and produces a number of products on which the company holds pat- ents, such as an annealing spider and a portable coil flipper extensively used in the wire industry. In addition, the company acts as distribu- tor for Butler Buildings, fabricated from steel for speedy erection at any location and to suit any purpose. It also installs Cleveland Tramrail, of which it has contracted for the installation of more than three hundred and fifteen thousand feet since 1925. Other company activities include the installation of woven wire slings, conveyors, power belts, and allied equipment.
It has taken a leading role in industry's fight against corrosion with the introduction of Plastisols. These were first used as an eco- nomical coating for electroplating needs, but their application has been extended to use on a wide range of metal products with equally effective results.
The Alfred B. King Company has a large staff of engineers to solve the problems which come up in adapting its industrial output to the specific needs of customers. These engineers are specialists in their respective fields, whether it be the design and erecting of a But- ler steel building, materials handling, protective coatings or metal fabrication. A review of the company's activities in the pages of Connecticut Industry, June, 1956, issue, points out :
The King organizational set-up, designed for versatility, permits focusing a full quota of engineering and production skill on any problem, no matter how unusual, that presents itself. That's why, for example, the Company's debut in Plastisol Coating, currently rating high priority in the minds of King executives, was able to receive such thorough preparation .. . The list of uses to which Plastisol coatings have been applied with success has already reached substantial proportions, and is still growing. A quick run-through on some of these uses highlights a remarkable versatility: Drain boards, tote trays; buttons; work racks; hand tools; dish drainer baskets; dip baskets; electrical insulation; pipe lining; safety pins;
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ventilating systems; interiors of filters and pumps; business machines; flashlight cases; gaskets; shock pads; plugs; tubular furniture; storage tanks; and permanent caulking of metal joints in automobile bodies.
Thus The Alfred B. King Company has worked its way to a key place among those industries serving other industries and the general public as well. Besides its large staff of engineers, the firm has on its staff a large number of skilled craftsmen, a number of whom have had many years' experience with the company, and whose work has given it its reputation for quality. The plant on Devine Street in North Haven has the most modern equipment available for its processes, making possible the highest standard of precision workmanship.
In addition to Alfred B. King, who is president of the company, its executive roster lists the names of J. P. King, vice president and general manager, who has been responsible for establishing the firm in the Plastisol coating field; Robert McSherry of the Butler Build- ing Division; George Mulligan of the Cleveland Tramrail Division; and Louis Carloni, responsible for the Fabrication Division's acti- vities.
THE AMERICAN THERMOS PRODUCTS COMPANY
The origin of the vacuum bottle can be traced back to 1892 and the experiments of Sir James Dewar, an English scientist, who in- vented a special flask-one glass bottle sealed within another, and air pumped out from between the two. He used it in his laboratory, but it was too fragile to be practicable for public use. The next step in the evolution of the vacuum bottle, as we know it today, was taken in Germany. There, the firm of Burger and Aschenbrenner, which pro duced flasks for Dewar, made one with a protective metal casing. On this they secured a patent in Germany (Dewar had never troubled to secure a patent) ; and the following year, 1904, began to produce the flasks on a commercial basis. A competition was conducted through- out Germany for a trade name for the company's product, and a resi- dent of Munich won the prize with the name "Thermos," suggested by the Greek word meaning heat. The firm of Thermos Gesellschaft, M. B. H., was formed in Berlin, to manufacture the vacuum flasks.
In 1906, the year in which the trade mark "Thermos" was re- gistered in Germany, an American businessman, William B. Walker, contacted Mr. Burger in Berlin and completed arrangements for im- porting the product into the United States. Mr. Walker, born in 1867, was a native of Racine, Wisconsin. With little opportunity for a formal education, he had traveled around a good deal in his early years,
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had become a cowpuncher in Wyoming, and was then attracted to the sales field, for which he had a natural gift. Shortly after meeting Burger, Walker was importing "Thermos" vacuum bottles from Ger- many, and was also busy securing the necessary patent rights and trade mark assignment from Burger and raising capital to manufac- ture vacuum bottles in this country.
As the outcome of his efforts, The American Thermos Bottle Company was incorporated in Portland, Maine, on January 31, 1907. Mr. Walker became its secretary and one of the directors. The con- pany leased a factory in Brooklyn, New York, and acquired its pro- duction machinery from Thermos Gesellschaft of Berlin. Operations began in October, 1907, and the plant reached production capacity in 1908, after overcoming initial difficulties of bringing over German glass blowers and training inexperienced workmen to operate the im- ported machines.
To handle manufacturing and sales, a new company was orga- nized in September, 1908-the American Thermos Bottle Company of New York, which was completely owned by the original Maine corporation. Its first president was Patrick F. Murphy of the Mark Cross Company, but he was succeeded two months later by Mr. Walker, who remained president of both companies until his death.
The new product caught on quickly, advertising in all leading periodicals, and acquiring thirty-five hundred distributors. As manu- facturing methods were improved, the retail price of quart bottles was reduced from $7.50 to $5.75, and the pint from $5.00 to $3.75. Soon "Thermos" bottles had gone to both Poles with explorers; to the Congo with the then famed Richard Harding Davis; into the air with the Wright brothers and Count Zeppelin. Lunch kits began to be manufactured with vacuum bottles as a part of the unit.
By 1912, sales had so outpaced production that a new factory location was sought, and it was at this time that the company estab- lished its plant in Norwich, Connecticut. A twenty-seven-acre tract along the bank of the Thames River was acquired. In the year that the new factory was being built, the company acquired control of the Thermos Bottle Company, Ltd., of Canada. Growth continued, and in May, 1917, an addition to the Norwich plant was authorized to provide sixty thousand additional square feet of manufacturing space. In September, 1918, Mr. Walker outlined plans to expand the com- pany's business by installing factories throughout the world. Capital stock was increased from one to five million dollars, a sales office was opened in Chicago, and Mr. Walker began traveling again-to Japan
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for the establishment of a plant and to England, where he started negotiations with Thermos Limited for the purchase of their business.
The death of William B. Walker at his home in New London in December, 1922 ended a life of amazing exploits. His wife became acting president for a brief time. However, early in 1923, Mrs. Walker sold the family interest in the American Thermos Bottle Company and the Thermos Securities Company, a holding company which Mr. Walker had controlled since its organization in 1907. The Walker stock was purchased by a syndicate formed by Tobey and Kirk, an investment firm. They employed the Finance and Trading Corpora- tion, management consultants, to reorganize and operate the business. Otis A. Glazebrook, Jr., vice president of Finance and Trading, be- came president of the American Thermos Bottle Company. Aurin E. Payson, also from Finance and Trading, was sent to Norwich as as- sistant to the president.
Financing difficulties which the company faced were resolved in November, 1923, with the forming of a new corporation, the Amer- ican Thermos Bottle Company of Maryland. In 1924, Aurin Payson was named works manager and placed in charge of all manufacturing. His attention was directed immediately to improving quality and re- ducing production costs. New products were added to the line, includ- ing the "Thermos" Jumbo Jug. In the fall of 1924, arrangements com- menced for a merger of the American Thermos Bottle Company and the Icy-Hot Bottle Company of Cincinnati. According to the terms of the final agreement, a new corporation, also known as the Amer- ican Thermos Bottle Company, was organized in 1925 under the laws of the State of Ohio. Edward W. Edwards of Ohio became its presi- dent; and Aurin E. Payson, still active in the company's management, was one of the vice presidents. Two other men actively associated with the company today became officers and directors at that time: Howard W. Edwards, who is now chairman of the board, and Charles Sawyer, a director, who formerly served as U. S. Secretary of Commerce.
Aurin E. Payson became president in 1928, and served in that office for twenty-eight years. During that period, he devoted himself to strengthening the company's financial position, maintaining its dominance in the industry with a quality product, expanding its opera- tion, and bettering the working conditions and benefits of employees. More is written on Mr. Payson in the biographical section of this his- tory. In 1956, he was succeeded in the presidency by his brother, Arthur H. Payson; and the former president is now vice chairman of the board. The other officers of the company at the present time are Howard W. Edwards, chairman of the board; Trevor K. Cramer,
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first vice president ; Irving K. Fearn, vice president ; Charles O. Duevel, Jr., vice president in charge of manufacturing; Louis J. Darmstadt, vice president in charge of engineering; Donald E. Livingston, vice president in charge of sales; Joseph L. Hemp, vice president; William B. Castenholz, Jr., secretary and treasurer; and William E. Stoudt, assistant treasurer.
The year 1956 marked another change in addition to that in the presidency of the organization. To reflect the more diversified nature of the firm's products, it was renamed The American Thermos Pro- ducts Company. For a number of years it has manufactured a variety of jugs, ice cream boxes, and other containers in which the vacuum principle is essential. Its diversification has come about in large mea- sure as a result of absorbing smaller firms and continuing with the manufacture of their products. First of these was the acquisition in 1952 of the Plastene Corporation of Crawfordsville, Indiana, pro- ducers of plastic wall tile and bathroom fixtures. Three years later, it acquired control of Hemp and Company, Inc. of Macomb, Illinois, manufacturer of insulating jugs and ice chests.
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